Zachary, Hartwell

ZACHARY, FENTON, BLEE, SHAW, STONER, GEORGE, TURNER

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/24/2009 at 11:29:37

Zachary, Hartwell

In placing the subject of this review before the reader as one standing in the front rank of Washington Township's young farmers, obstacles and win success and his example might be imitated with profit by those dissatisfied with present attainments who would aspire to wider fields of usefulness.

Hartwell Zachary was born on his father's farm in Washington Township, this County, on March 31, 1871, and here he has spent his life. He is the son of James and Sarah Ann (Fenton) Zachary, the father born in Ohio in 1846 and the mother a native of Iowa. The paternal grandfather, Larkin E. Zachary, was born in Virginia, November 20, 1818, and there grew up, moving with his family to Ohio in 1839. He learned the painter's trade in his native state, which he followed during the summer months after he came to Ohio, but worked in a furniture factory in the wintertime. In 1851 he drove overland to Jasper County, Iowa, from Ohio, bringing his family and all his worldly effects in a one-horse wagon. He arrived here with a cash capital of eighty dollars, fifty of which he paid for forty acres of land in Des Moines Township. He began life on the wild prairie in typical pioneer fashion and soon had a good farm and a comfortable home. He became an extensive cattle feeder on the open prairies and by hard work and good management prospered far beyond the average man in a new country, finally becoming the owner of twenty-four hundred acres of land in Jasper County, mostly in Washington Township. For many years he was one of the best known, most influential and substantial men in the county. In 1876 he became interested in a bank in Prairie City, later buying full control of the same, and it was known as the Zachary Bank and was one of the popular banks of this section of Iowa. Larkin E. Zachary was married on January 29, 1840, to Elizabeth Blee, a native of Ohio, and to their union eight children were born, six of whom are living. His wife lived to an advanced age, dying on May 27, 1890, but he survived her twelve years, dying in 1902. He was a grand old man, whom everybody admired and respected. Politically, he was a strong Democrat and pronounced in his convictions on any subject.

The maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was John Felton, who came to Jasper County from Ohio and settled on a farm in an early day, where he became well established and well liked.

James Zachary, father of Hartwell, of this sketch, worked on his father's farms until his death, in 1899. What little education he received was in the old log schoolhouses, but he was a man of energy and a good observer and succeeded.

Hartwell Zachary grew up on the farm and hid little chance to secure an education. When a small boy he herded cattle on his grandfather's farm. When he was only fifteen years of age he began the management of one of the farms and after both his grandfather and father had passed away, he bought eighty acres around the old home place in Washington Township. He remodeled the house and improved the place and has been very successful as both a general farmer and stock raiser. He keeps full-blooded short horn cattle, shipping several loads each year as well as many hogs to market.

Politically, he is a Democrat and he belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and the Knights of Pythias. The subject's mother died when he was small and the father remarried, his last wife being Mary A. Shaw, a native of Indiana, and she still lives in Des Moines. The subject has the following brothers and sisters: Robert, deceased; Mrs. Lida C. Stoner, Mrs. Cormia Belle George; and a half-sister, Imo Zachary

Hartwell Zachary was married on March 14, 1897, to Nettie May Turner, born in Prairie City, Iowa, the daughter of J. P. and Elizabeth Turner. The following children have been born to the subject and wife: Harry Leland, Loren Gerald, Raymond Fenton and Helen Grace. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 718.