JOHN CRUISE, Jr. There is no class of biographies
which is more interesting to read than that of the industrious and
enterprising farmer's boy who has risen from a state of comparative poverty to
a position of affluence and comfort. Prominent among the men of Delaware county who
have thus laboriously toiled onward and upward is the individual of whom this
sketch is written. He has been prominently identified with the growth and
development of Delaware county for
more than thirty-six years and he is deemed well worthy of a place in a work of
this kind. It is fitting and proper that he should be classed among the active
and energetic men who came to this locality in an early day and made this the
most prominent field of their lifework.
The subject
of this notice was born in Devonshire, England, April 23,1838. His father, John Cruise, is a native of the same place and
spent the early part of his life there as a common laborer. In the spring of
1845, like so many other young men of his country, he had a longing to seek his
fortunes in the new world. Taking passage on a sailing vessel at the port of Liverpool, he landed safely with his family in
the New York harbor, after a long and wearisome voyage.
He at once made his way to Du Page county,
Ill., where he remained for about nine
years. In 1853 he decided to seek a new location, where the country was newer
and land cheaper. He had already had a large family and he desired more land in
order that he might farm on a larger scale and be able in due time to give his
children a good start in life. He accordingly set out for Galena, Ill., and thence by stage to Delaware county, Iowa. He was pleased with the country
and purchased considerable government land, which could then be readily had
for a small sum per acre. The following year he moved with his family to the new
country and began life in true pioneer style. At this time there were only, a
few settlers in Oneida township
and wild game was quite plentiful. Bands of Indians frequently passed through
the neighborhood and camped in the adjacent groves. The senior Cruise is still
living on a farm in Oneida township
at the ripe old age of eighty-four. The mother of our subject bore the maiden
name of Harriet Colwell. She is the mother of eleven children and is still living,
being now eighty years of age. She is a kind mother and a consistent member of
the Methodist faith.
John
Cruise, Jr., the subject of this biographical memoir, resided at his home in Du Page county, Ill., till he was sixteen
years of age. His early boyhood days were spent in attending the district
school and working on his father's farm. He was the eldest of the boys living
and of course was his father's standby. When twenty-one years
of age Mr. Cruise concluded to strike out for himself. He engaged in
agricultural pursuits upon rented land for three years, and during that time by
economy and industry he accumulated enough of this world's goods to enable him
to purchase one hundred and sixty acres. Mr. Cruise has made his own way in the
world and a great deal of it has been made by hard knocks. He is a man, however,
of plenty of grit. He started out with a strong desire to succeed, and having
been fortunate by circumstances he was judicious in management, and his success
has followed as a matter of course.
Mr. Cruise
married, October, 1858, Miss Eliza Rogers, a native of England, who came to
America with her parents in 1848. The offspring of this union has been nine
children, as follows—Clara V., wife of Samuel M. Cook, of Clinton, Iowa; Elmer
F., married to Mattie Skudder and now residing in
Manchester; he served as deputy sheriff under his father for eight years;
Harriet Ann, wife of Alien Mclntosh, banker at Coggin, Iowa; Lucy, Jane, a successful school teacher; Cora
May, Lillie B., Louisa G. and Martha E., all at home attending school.
The death
of Mrs. Cruise occurred April 11, 1884, and Mr. Cruise contracted a second
marriage with Mrs. Fannie Pooley, which was
celebrated August 6, 1885. She is a native of Devonshire, England, where she
became the wife of Samuel Pooley, December 23, 1861,
by whom she had three children, namely— Fannie Jane, Samuel J. and Mary W. Her
husband died in 1868 and she came to the United States in 1873. Her aim has been to give
her children a good education and in this she has certainly succeeded.
Fannie, the eldest, is teaching in the primary department of the Earlville school; Mary is the wife of George T. Allen and is living in
Chicago, and Samuel is pursuing a
scientific course in Grinnell College.
Mr. Cruise
has always been identified with the republican party
and is a firm believer in the principles enunciated in the platform of that
organization. He has filled various local offices in his township and in the
fall of 1861 was elected sheriff of Delaware county and re-elected for three
consecutive terms thereafter. He made no effort to secure the re-nomination
prior to his election for the third and fourth times. He earned his popularity
by the faithful and earnest way in which he discharged his duties. If there is one
thing more than another for which he distinguished himself, that thing was the
impartiality he showed in the discharge of his official duties. Although the
office is a difficult one to fill, yet he filled it with credit to himself and
to his constituents, and today he counts his friends by the score all over the
county.
Mr. Cruise
is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity and has been master of the Blue
lodge for five years. He is an ardent temperance man and a firm believer in the
total prohibition of the liquor traffic.
He owns an
estate of five hundred and fifty acres, all well improved and under a high
state of cultivation. In 1880 he erected a palatial residence which is furnished
throughout in an elaborate and tasteful manner. He is extensively engaged in
stock-raising and has carried on dairying quite extensively for some
years. All in all, there are but few men
in Delaware county who
have met with better success, who have discharged their duties as a citizen
with greater faithfulness and who are more highly esteemed than John Cruise.
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