1890
Buchanan and Delaware Counties History pgs. 625-626
HASSELL MUNSON was born in the town of Westfield, Chautauqua county, N.Y., September
25, 1830.
His parents, Harris and Minerva (Styles) Munson, were natives of Connecticut. His father went to New York when a young man, stopping first in
Oneida county, where he married and
afterwards moved to Chautauqua county in the western part of the state when
that was a comparatively new country. He always lived afterwards in that
county, engaged in agricultural pursuits and there also died. He died in 1873,
aged seventy-one years. The mother died in that county also about 1865, at the age
of fifty-five. Harris and Minerva Munson were the parents of six children, of
whom the subject of this notice is the fourth in point of age, the others
being-Henry S., a farmer now residing on the old home place in Chautauqua
county, N. Y.; Perry, a third, of Independence, Iowa; Harriet, widow of John
Wilson, of Buchanan county, Iowa; John J., a farmer of Chatauqua county, N. Y.,
and Sarah, unmarried and residing in Oakland, Cal.
The subject
of this notice was reared in his native county and resided there till he
reached his twentieth year when, having heard much of the great West he decided
to see it for himself and in 1850 made his way into Wisconsin, partly by boat
and partly on foot, spending the summer of that year prospecting through the
state, much of which time he passed on the
Winnebago Indian Reservation on Marquette lake. He was also
up in the pineries and during the time got a considerable insight into Western ways
and acquired quite a taste for Western life. Returning to
New
York, however, he remained there three years, but could never quite
give up the hope of making his home in the West. In the spring of 1854
he came West again, coming this time to Iowa. He was then also on a
prospecting trip and remained only a few months. But he moved
out in April of the next year, 1855, and located, buying in
connection with W. H. Hollister a tract of one hundred and sixty
acres of land lying on Honey creek, in Delaware township, three and
one-half miles northeast of the present site of
Manchester. He there settled and began the arduous duties
incident to the opening of a farm and making a home in a new country.
After a residence there of some time he and Mr. Hollister divided their land,
Mr. Munson subsequently selling his part and buying eighty acres in the same section,
but across the creek, on to which he moved and where he has since
resided. He now owns two eighty-acre tracts
adjoining each other, making a
good farm, of one
hundred and sixty acres, all of which he has brought under
cultivation, fenced and improved, having a neat, comfortable residence and all
needful outbuildings, groves and other conveniences. Mr. Munson has
been engaged in farming ever since he came to the county, and beginning as most
of the young bachelor farmers did thirty-five years
ago with nothing but two willing hands and a stout heart, what he now has
represents his labor during the intervening years since that date and
now. Mr. Munson has not met
with any marvelous amount of success, and it is not the
purpose of this article to distort the facts to make more out of his career
than the facts will warrant. He is simply one of Delaware county's
many industrious and worthy citizens who came
into the county at an early date with comparatively little or nothing and
who by the practice of reasonable economy and foresight
have succeeded in getting a comfortable home and is now fairly well
situated to enjoy whatever of good the future may have in store.
In the
labors here mentioned Mr. Munson has not been alone. He has for
many years had the counsel and assistance of an excellent wife-one
who has willingly seconded all his plans and ably assisted
in carrying them out, bearing also her full share of such privations and
hardships as have fallen to their common
lot. Mr. Munson married November 21, 1859, the lady whom
he took to wife being Miss Carrie A. Eaton, then of this county but
a native of the town of Cuba, Allegany county, N. Y.
Her parents, Edmund and Ruth Eaton, were also natives of New York, and moved from Allegany county, that
state, to this county when Mrs. Munson was thirteen years
old. They afterwards lived and died here, the father dying in
1869, at the age of fifty-five, and the mother in September, 1881,
aged sixty-eight. Mrs. Munson is the second of a family
of fivechildren, all of whom reached maturity and are now
living. The eldest, Helen, is the widow of Frank Wilcox, a
former patriotic citizen
of Delaware county, who gave up his life upon
the battle field for the preservation of the Union. His widow still resides in this
county. The next (following Mrs. Munson), Ruth, is the wife of Chauncy W. Mead,
of this county; Mary F. is the wife of J. F. Gates, and resides at Hebron,
Nebr., and the youngest, Charles E., is in Montana.
Mr. and
Mrs. Munson have had born to them four children, three of whom are now living.
The eldest, Hattie, died in 1861 at the age of two years and six months.
The others-Fred H., Cora Allie, and Harry, are still with their parents.
In politics
Mr. Munson has always voted the republican ticket, and he has given to the
support of his party's ticket an amount of energy and practical aid which he
has deemed the situation in any given case demanded. For the encouragement of
all local interests in his neighbor hood, schools, churches, social
organizations, and all industrial and benevolent purposes, he has always stood
ready to do the part of a good citizen, giving liberally of his means in
proportion to his ability and helping with his own personal efforts wherever he
has deemed his personal efforts of any avail.
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