CHASE -
Amos S. CHASE (deceased), came to Harrison County in the fall of
1848 and located at the mouth of the Soldier river. He remained there one
winter and then move to Little Sioux on what is known as the Murray farm.
He took a claim and remained three years then sold out and moved to Bigler's
Grove where he bought an interest in a saw-mill and operated it for some
time. This mill was run by horse-power. He next went to Preparation,
Monona County, and invested all he had but finally came away and left it
all. He moved to Nebraska, bought an interest in a mill which he moved to
Yankton, Dak., remained five years and on account of Indian troubles,
abandoned his mill which became a dead loss for him. He loaded his household
goods into a wagon and came away, counting life dearer than property. He
moved into Calhoun Township near Magnolia, and kept hotel at the last named
place one year and also conducted a hotel at Little Sioux, and ran a mill
until 1870, in which he lost an arm. He then bought a farm on the Soldier,
Jackson Township; he remained there until the date of his death in 1888.
He was born in Bristol, Vermont, in 1820, the son of Abner and Amy CHASE,
who had ten children, three of whom still survive. He remained in the Green
Mountain State until he became of age and then went to Illinois, where he
worked out by the month.
He was married in January 1848 to Sarah SILSBY, the daughter of A. and Betsy
SILSBY, natives of New Hampshire and Vermont respectively.
Our subject and his wife were the parents of the following children --
Anna, Asaph, May, and Milton A.
Mr. CHASE served as a member of the Board of Supervisors, a number of terms
and was also a Justice of the Peace and was the second prosecuting attorney
of Monona County, elected in the fall of 1854. Both he and his wife were members
of the Latter Day Saints Church.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Chase Family Researcher: N/A.
HARDY -
James HARDY (deceased) was born in Somerset County, PA., in April,
1813, and in the Keystone State received a good business education. He spent
his early life in Somerset County, PA, and in 1833 married Minerva TOMLINSON,
and loved to Logan County, Ohio, and for three years was engaged in farming;
from which place they went from Steuben County, Indiana, and in 1850 crossed
the borders of the Hawkeye State andsettled in Mills County, where he was
elected the first Sheriff that county had. But not being fully satisfied with
his location, in 1852 he removed to the present site of Magnolia, where he
purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land; also another quarter section
on section 15, of Calhoun Township, upon which was a good water power, upon
the site of which he erected one of the first flouring mills in Harrison
County.
He was among the first settlers at the town of Magnolia, and assisted
the County Seat Commissioners in locating the county seat at this point, and
was County Judge in that county in 1854-57, and under his administration the
first court house in the county was built. He always took an active part in
any enterprise that in his judgment would build up the interests of Harrison
County, and was ever ready with donations of land and money to help such
matters along, and no man was more popular in the county than was "Judge HARDY,"
as he was almost universally called. He lived in Magnolia until 1864, and
then moved to his place on the Willow River, in Calhoun Township, where he
resided to the day of his death, May 10, 1885. About four years before his death
he lost the use of his eyesight, as a result of a sickness, and from that
time on gradually grew weaker, until finally he fell into a dreamless sleep,
and thus passed from this earth.
He was a member of the Congregational
Church, having been a member of that body for some thirty years.
He reared a family of nine children -- eight sons and one daughter. Of all the
pioneer band none were more highly respected than Judge HARDY, who was a
kind father, a considerate husband, a good citizen and a trustworthy friend
to all who lived within the radius of his acquaintance.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Hardy Family Researcher: Marcia.
HAWKINS -
Uriah HAWKINS, next to the first actual settler of Harrison County,
is deserving of a bigraphical notice in this connection, so we will invite
the attention of the reader to a little hamlet in New York State, where he
was born September 27, 1800. He was the son of Edward and Charity (SHIPMAN)
HAWKINS. Edward was a farmer; and came from New York to Missouri, and after
roughing it for some time in that State, went to Illinois, and when eighty-nine
years of age in 1846, his son Uriah took him to Jackson County, Iowa, where
he died September 16 of that year.
Uriah had come to Jackson County in 1835, and July 10, 1847, he landed in
Harrison County, and settled in what is now Cass Township, where he "squatted"
on one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he subsequently paid the
Government price of $1.25 per acre for. When he came to the county, he had a
wife and five children: Jane, who married William J. ELSEY, who died in
1863; Edward is now on the old homestead; Emma died on October, 1863, and was
buried on the farm in a private cemetery; Mary died in August, 1888, and is
buried in the home cemetery; Esther married Adam CONRAD in Harrison County
and died February, 1874.
Uriah HAWKINS was a poor man when he came to Harrison County, having two
yoke of oxen, two yoke of cows, a yearling heifer, a wagon and a little
household furniture, but at the time of his death, September 29, 1869,
he was in fair circumstances. He had been a member of the Latter Day Saints
Church for thirty-eight years.
Edward HAWKINS, the only son of pioneer Uriah HAWKINS, was born in Jackson
County, Iowa in 1841, and came to Harrison County with his parents in 1847.
When twenty-seven years of age, he left home and conducted a farm on his
own seventeen acres. He was married in March, 1884, to Miss Lydia Ann Thorn
THOMAS, a native of England, who came to America in 1883.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Hawkins Family Researcher: N/A.
VITTITOE -
Samueal VITTITOE, a farmer living on section 28, Clay Township, came
to Harrison County the last year of the Civil War, 1865, and rented land
for two years in Clay Township, at the end of which time he purchased eighty
acres of wild land in Taylor Township, which he improved and lived upon until
the spring of 1881, when he sold and bought one hundred acres where he now
lives. He has thirty-five acres under cultivation while the balance is in
timber and pasture land. At the time he came to Harrison County, but few
persons had effected a settlement on the bottom lands of the Missouri, and
grass was actually as high as the top of a man's head while riding on horseback.
One could travel in almost any direction, regardless of lines, as there were
but few roads worked at that time. Farming on the Missouri bottoms was not
carried on much at that time, but the few inhabitants were chiefly engaged
in getting out logs for wood and lumber.
Our subject was born in LaRue County, Kentucky, March 6, 1826. He remained
at home with his parents until May 17, 1844, when he enlisted in the
Mexican War. He was in Company C, of the First Regiment of Kentucky Infantry,
and participated in the battles of Monterey, and in a battle near Robber's Ranch.
His company was surrounded in a small town for five days; here they had quite a
hard struggle. There were about three hundred and sixty teamsters, all killed,
and nearly everything in their train consumed by fire. Our subject was
discharged May 17, 1847, at New Orleans, after which he returned to Kentucky
and remained until the spring of 1848, then came to Ft. Des Moines, Iowa,
when there was nothing there save two little stores and the old fort. Here
our subject operated a ferry across the Coon and Des Moines rivers, until the
spring of 1852, when he fitted out an overland ox-team conveyance, and
started for the gold regions of California, and was there until the autumn of
1857, when he returned to Des Moines, and kept the toll-bridge across the
Des Moines River, the same being the Vine Street Bridge, on which site now
rolls the electric street car -- the emblem of modern civilization. He
remained in that position until the spring of 1859, when he pre-empted a
quarter section of land near St. James, Cedar County, Nebraska. He was there
until the fall of 1864, at which time he sold and came to Crawford County,
Iowa, and the following spring removed to Harrison County.
He was united in marriage at Des Moines in 1857, to Miss Susan WHEELER, by whom
four children were born: Ellen, Thomas F., Mary (deceased), and Jacob.
While living in Cedar County, Neb., there occurred a terrible Inidan crime.
One of our subject's neighbors was a soldier in the Union army, and the mother
had gone to Yankton, SD, and upon her return she found three of her five
children had been slaughtered by the Indians. Two were able to speak upon
her return, but died within a few hours; this was known as the Wiseman Indian
massacre.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Vittitoe Family Researcher: Cindy Bou.
NOBLE -
Josiah A. NOBLE was born November 19, 1823, in Missouri, and when a mere
lad removed with his parents to Bellevue, Iowa, on the Mississippi River.
In the spring of 1857 he came to Harrison County and purchased a claim in
Cincinnati Township. This was on section 36, and was where he made his home
until his death, September 10, 1889. He was married in Bellevue, Iowa, September
17, 1848, to Miss Laura NEFF, the daughter of John and Rachel (STARR) NEFF.
By this marriage nine children have been born, three sons and six daughters.
Of these children seven still survive (as of 1891), four living in Harrison
County, two in Omaha, and one in Washington (State).
When they came to the county, Council Bluffs was their nearest trading point,
and all was new and wild. Mr. NOBLE secured two hundred and eight acres of land,
and held the same at the time of his death. The names and births of our subject's
children are as follows: Martia, born August 9, 1849; Mary L., April 26, 1853;
John A., February 29, 1856; Clara L., October 21, 1858; Lewis C., October 28,
1862; Josiah S., May 17, 1864; Emma L., August 26, 1867; Anna L., October 17,
1870; Eva L., March 14, 1874. Martia L. died in May, 1856, and Lewis C., January
26, 1863; Mary L. married Nathan STOKES, August 1, 1878, and they are now
living in Harrison County; John A. married Miss Sylvia PRESTON, and lives in
Omaha, NE; Clara L. married Mathew BALFOUR, February 6, 1879, and lives in the
state of Washington; Josiah S. married Ida JONES, and lives in Omaha; Emma L.
was married January 15, 1888 to Albert STEWART, who is a resident of Harrison
County.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Noble Family Researcher: Kenneth L. Kippel.
BEEBE - Alonzo BEEBE,
a farmer of sections 30, 31 and 32, of Taylor Township, came to Harrison
County, in the spring of 1868, and settled where the village of Modale now
stands. He had bought eighty acres there some time previous to this. He
improved the place and sold off twelve acres for town lot purposes. The
remainder of that forty he sold to Job ROSS. In 1883 he bought the farm he
now (1891) lives upon, which is a one hundred and twenty acre improved
tract, having a good farm house, and a substantial barn 30x50 feet. He also
has forty acres of timber land in Clay Township.
Mr. BEEBE was born in Ludlow, Hampden County, Mass., June 2, 1818; the son
of Abner L. and Dolly (MILLER) BEEBE. He remained at home until eighteen
years of age. At the age of twelve he went to work in a cotton factory in
Jinksville, remaining at that employment for six years, and then went to the
village of Ware, where he became a boss weaver. He followed this for two
years at that point, and then went to Barre, Mass., and took charge of the
weaving department of a large factory, and remained at that business for
twenty-four years, becoming adept at that business. In 1857 he went to Blue
Earth City, Minnesota, entered land, inproved it, remained three years and
then went back to Massachusetts, and resumed his work in the factory,
remaining ten years, at the end of which time he came to this county.
In 1838 he was united in marriage with Miss Mucretia KIMBALL, whose home
was in Massachusetts. By this union, eight children were born, three of whom
are living -- Adelaide, Mary, and Edward E. Our subject was again married
at Stratford, Conn., July 29, 1864, to Miss Hannah J. WORTHINGTON, and by
this marriage union five children were born: Jenette (deceased), Albert,
Chester, Arthur and Dolly. The mother of these children was born on Stratford,
Conn., where she remained until the date of her marriage.
Politically, our subject is a Republican. In religious matters both he and
his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Source: 1891 History of Harrison County.
Beebe Family Researcher: Jan Verhaal.
Harrison County Iowa Biographies
