Horace Anthony, Camanche

THE subject of this biographical sketch, a son of Joseph Anthony, was born in Lima, Livingston county, New York, on the 25th of July, 1816. His mother was a Gilbert, and died when he was seven years old. His paternal grandfather was in the first war with England, and his father, who was born in Connecticut, on the 19th of April, 1779, and died on the 26th of December, 1876, was in the second. The latter belonged to what were called the "Troopers," an independent company which reached Buffalo just in season to see it in ashes.

Horace spent his boyhood in various kinds of employment and in getting an education; was four years a clerk in a store in New Haven, Connecticut; immigrated to the west in 1838, and worked one season in a saw-mill in Quincy, Illinois; clerked a short time for John Buford, of Rock Island, and in June, 1839, was in the employ of the United States Government, having charge of a squad of men on the lower rapids. From 1840 to 1850 he was engaged most of the time as a clerk in Rock Island, and in the latter year settled in Camanche, at first managing a store for other parties nearly five years. In company with others he built a saw-mill in 1855, and for twenty-two years has been engaged in the manufacture of lumber, with moderate success.

Mr. Anthony was in the general assembly in 1859, the first session held at Des Moines, serving as chairman of the committee on public library, and was on other committees, and he was treasurer and recorder of Clinton county from 1862 to 1866. He aided in organizing the republican party in Iowa, and has since acted with it—a prominent politician in the county. In earlier life he was a democrat.

Mr. Anthony has been a professor of religion since 1843, and a deacon of the Baptist church nearly twenty years. He is a liberal supporter of religious and benevolent institutions; his heart is in every good cause, his hand in many a good work.

His wife was Miss Elizabeth McCloskey, of Davenport, their marriage occurring in 1840. Of nine children, the fruit of this union, eight are living. Mary C. is the widow of John D. Toy, and Martha O. is the widow of William H. Cady, both dying of diseases contracted in the late civil war; John J., a volunteer and veteran soldier, is married and lives in Camanche; Napoleon Buford, who was in the hundred-days service, is also married and lives at Stanwood, Cedar county, Iowa; Lucy Jane is the wife of Farris Tong, of Camanche; W. R. Anthony is also married and lives in Camanche; Edward Francis and Frederic Horace are single.

Source:

The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men. Iowa Volume.

Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, 1878