Marion County >> 1915 Index

The History of Marion County, Iowa
John W. Wright and W. A. Young, supervising eds. 2 vols. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1915.

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Joseph H. Young - page 68

Joseph H. Young, a retired farmer living in Knoxville, is a veteran of the Civil war and represents a generation of men who unhesitatingly offered themselves in defense of the Union during its hour of danger. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on the 9th of December, 1839, a son of John and Frances (Hargrave) Young. The father was born in Yorkshire, England, on the 23d of November, 1812, and the mother in the same shire in June of that year. As a young man and young woman they came to this country and both settled in Cincinnati, where their marriage occurred. They continued to reside in that city for three or four years but removed to Shelby county, Indiana, in 1843. The father engaged in farming in that locality during the rest of his active life and when he retired removed to Shelbyville, where his death occurred in 1890. He had for many years survived the mother, who died upon the farm in 1858. He received but limited schooling in his youth but his energy and native intelligence made him a successful farmer and he became the owner of two hundred and forty acres of fine land. Both he and his wife were Methodists in religious faith. The subject of this review is the fifth in order of birth of their family of twelve children, the others who survive being: John, a resident of Sheridan, Hamilton county, Indiana; Anderson A., of Shelbyville, that state; and Charles, of Lovilia, Monroe county, Iowa. There is also a half-brother, Marquis J., who lives in Shelby county, Indiana. After the death of the mother of our subject the father married again, Mrs. Martha Ogden becoming his wife in 1861. She survived him for two years and also passed away at Shelbyville.

Joseph H. Young was reared in Indiana, his time being occupied by attendance at the country schools and the work of the farm, in which he aided as soon as old enough to be of use. In September 1861, he enlisted in the Union army, being one of the first three hundred thousand enrolled for service. He was with the army for three years and ten months as a member of Company D, Thirty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, under Captain E. T. McCray and Colonel John Coburn, of Indianapolis. The command was for a part of the time attached to the Army of the Cumberland and during the remainder of that period to the Army of the Ohio. Mr. Young participated in many engagements but was never wounded although he had a number of narrow escapes. He was, however, incapacitated by diseased for about a year. Three of his brothers were also Union soldiers, one being in the same company and another in the Ninety-third Indiana Infantry, while Charles responded to the hundred-day call in 1864 at the age of sixteen years.

At the close of the struggle Joseph H. Young returned to Indiana, where he farmed for a year, but in September, 1866, he came to Marion county, Iowa, locating in Liberty township, near Tracy, where he purchased a farm which he operated for twenty years and then removed to Pella in order to educate his children. He resided there for a score of years but in March, 1912, came to Knoxville, buying his present comfortable home. He is nearly seventy-five years of age and can look back upon a long life of useful endeavor and worthy accomplishment. He has said: "I wish to live, no preventing Providence, until 'Uncle Sam' pays me thirty dollars per month, which will come to pass if I survive to December 9, 1914."

Mr. Young was married in 1870, in this county, to Miss Lavina Jolliffe, a native of Illinois and a daughter of the late Collins Jolliffe. She passed away in March, 1874, when but twenty-seven years of age, leaving a son, W. A., who resides in Pella. A year later Mr. Young married Mrs. Eliza M. Garrison, a native of Decatur, Indiana, who removed as a young girl to Davis county, Iowa, subsequently to Wapello county and finally to this county. She was the widow of Alonzo Garrison, a veteran of the Civil war and a resident of Wapello county, Iowa, up to the time of his death in 1872. By her first marriage she had three children: Mary Gertrude, the wife of Wallace Read of Ames, Iowa; Jane, the wife of Dr. David Ghrist of Ames, Iowa, where they both are practising physicians; and Lemuel Addison, a Baptist minister of Caldwell, Idaho, and a well known educator. Mrs. Young was sixty-five years of age in January, 1914, and her well spent life entitles her to the respect of all. By the second union five children were born. Mrs. Anna Kendall is residing near Bussey, Iowa; Henry, editor and publisher of a paper at Boulder, Jefferson county, Montana, is married and has two children; J. Le Roy, a dentist of Rolfe, Pocahontas county, Iowa, is also married and has three children; Fern is the wife of Dr. Howard Garberson, of Miles City, Montana, and they have daughter who is now five years of age; and Eliza is a bookkeeper in the employ of the Taber Lumber Company and resides at home.

Mr. Young is a republican and is zealous in his work to further the interests of that organization. For forty years he has been a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and is active in all movements that have as their aim the moral betterment of the community. He keeps alive the memories of his service in the army through his connection with the Grand Army of the Republic and derives much enjoyment from his association with his one-time comrades. He has performed well the duties incumbent upon him in all relations of life and has contributed to the welfare of the county in more ways than one. His children have emulated his example and have proved efficient in their various lines of work and public-spirited in their citizenship. His son, W. A. Young, is one of the editors of this history. The family name is highly honored in Marion county and stands for integrity and honor.

Since 1912 William A. Young has been the editor of the Pella Chronicle and has maintained its prestige as a paper that gives the latest news in an accurate and interesting form. He was for a number of years previous to his connection with the Chronicle a teacher, having taught at the Central University of Iowa here and also at Grand Island, Nebraska. He was born in Liberty township, this county, on the 7th of August, 1871, a son of Joseph H. and Lavinia (Jolliffe) Young. The father was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1839, and the mother in Edgar county, Illinois. The paternal grandparents, John and Mary (Hargrave) Young, both of whom were born in England, emigrated to this country and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, when in 1842 they removed to Shelby county, Indiana, where they resided until their deaths.

Joseph H. Young served in Company D, Thirty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry, in the Civil war and in 1867 located on a farm in this county, remaining thereon until 1893, when he came to Pella. He made this city his home until 1912, in which year he removed to Knoxville, where he is now living retired. The mother of Mr. Young of this review was a daughter of Collins and Jemima Jolliffe, of Virginia, who went to Illinois in 1832 and in 1853 came to this county, locating in Liberty township, where both passed away, Mr. Jolliffe dying in January, 1894, when about ninety-two years of age, as he was born in 1802. The demise of Mrs. Joseph H. Young occurred in 1874 and Mr. Young remarried, Mrs. Eliza Garrison becoming his wife. To the first marriage were born three children, the subject of this review being the eldest. Five children were born to the second union.

William A. Young received broad educational training. He was graduated from the Central University of Iowa at Pella in 1898 with the Bachelor of Arts degree, in 1904 received the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Chicago and then attended the Iowa State University for some time. For thirteen years he taught mathematics at the Central University of Iowa and was for one year a teacher in Grand Island College at Grand Island, Nebraska. A good mathematician himself, he also possessed the ability to develop the power of mathematical reasoning in those whom he taught and to train his students in accuracy. In 1912 he became editor of the Pella Chronicle and has since given his time and energies to that work. His leading articles are timely, vigorous and lucidly expressed, and under his management the news columns of the paper give the readers of the Chronicle an excellent account of local happenings and also of the more important events in the outside world.

Mr. Young is a member of the Baptist church of Pella and gives his moral and material support to movements that seek the betterment of the community life. In politics he is a democrat and a single taxer. He holds membership in Pella Lodge, No. 55, A. F. & A. M., and in Des Moines Consistory, No. 3, A. & A. S. R. Practically his entire life has been spent in this county, and he has risen to a place of honor among those who have known and respected him from youth.