Page 413

 

D. C. HUGHES

 

D. C. Hughes, living on section 4, Platte township, is one of the active and prosperous farmers of Taylor county, and is numbered among the veterans of the Civil war, having espoused the cause of the Union during the dark days of the strife between the north and the south.   In the years of his residence here he has come to be widely respected for his sterling worth and his business enterprise.  He now owns and occupies a neat and well-improve place on the north line of Taylor county adjoining Adams county, having here lived since the 24th of February, 1874.

 

Mr. Hughes was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1835.  His father, John Hughes, was also a native of that county and there wedded Nancy Crago, who was likewise born in the Keystone State.  The father was a cooper by trade, following that pursuit throughout his active life.  He reared his family in Pennsylvania and died there about 1847.  His wife survived him and joined her son in Iowa, spending her last days in this state.  Only two of their seven children yet survive, the brother of our subject being Thomas Hughes, also a resident farmer of Taylor county.

 

D. C. Hughes spent his youthful days in his native state and was but a young lad at the time of his father's death in 1847.  Starting out in life for himself, he was employed in a woolen factory for about eleven years and early developed the spirit of self-reliance and energy, which have constituted the safe and strong foundation upon which he has built his later success.  At the time of the Civil war he put aside business and personal considerations, enlisting on the 1st of May, 1861, as a member of the Thirty-seventh Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry.  He was assigned to Company D and joined the forces under General McClellan and was afterward under commands of Generals Meade and Grant in the army of the Potomac.  Later he was under fire in the Peninsular campaign, continuing for seven days, and was also in the battles of Mechanicsburg, Gaines Mill, Peach Orchard, Malvern Hill, the second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, the Wilderness campaign and was with Grant in the military movements that led up to the battles of Spottsylvania Courthouse.  Becoming ill he was in the hospital for three months and on the 27th of May, 1864, was honorably discharged at Pittsburgh, one month after the expiration of his term of (page 414) enlistment.  His military service was varied and he saw arduous duty on many of the hotly contested battlefields.  After being mustered out he returned home and worked in the woolen mills until the time of his marriage.

 

It was on the 24th of February, 1869, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, that Mr. Hughes was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary J. Sharpnack, who was born in Greene county, Pennsylvania, but was reared in Fayette county.  After their marriage they removed westward to Knox county, Illinois, where Mr. Hughes rented a farm, which he cultivated for four years.  He then came to Iowa, settling in Taylor county, where he cultivated rented land for several years and then purchased the place where he now resides.  This he broke and improved, placing the fields under a high state of cultivation.  He has erected a good, neat residence here, together with substantial barns and cribs with wagon and buggy shed and granary.  He has also set out a good orchard and now has a valuable property, although there was not a stick nor an improvement on the place when the land came into his possession.  In connection with his farming he raises and feeds stock, and both branches of his business are proving profitable.

 

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Hughes has been born one son, John N., who occupies the position of assistant cashier in the Citizens Bank of Lenox.  He wedded Ada Telly of Adams county, Iowa, and they have two children, David T. and Burston Evelyn.  Their father is a well-educated man, formerly a teacher, and is recognized as one of the prominent representatives of business life in Lenox.

 

In his political views, Mr. Hughes is a republican and has supported the party since casting his first presidential ballot for John C. Fremont in 1856, giving his allegiance to every presidential candidate in the intervening years.  He has never sought nor desired office but has been honored with official preferment in the Grand Army post at Lenox, in which he has served as senior vice commander.  He has been a resident of the county for thirty-five years and has witnessed its transformation as the land has been claimed and cultivated and towns built.  As a soldier of the Civil war the country owes to him a debt of gratitude which can never be repaid and in times of peace he has been equally loyal in citizenship, putting forth earnest and effective effort in behalf of public progress as well as for the advancement of his private business interests.