Lee County >> 1887 Index

Portrait and Biographical Album of Lee County, Iowa
Chicago:  Chapman Brothers, 1887

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Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Linda Brandt.

N. D. HARTLEY, deceased, was a prominent and highly esteemed resident of Cedar Township , and by his excellent traits of character and genial disposition had gathered around him a large circle of friends who hold his name in kindly remembrance. Our subject was born in Washington County , Pa. , Dec. 1, 1815 , and was the son of Thomas and Barbara (Larr) Hartley, both natives of Bucks County , Pa. Thomas Hartley was a shoemaker by trade, and followed the occupation in Pennsylvania until his removal to Randolph County , Ind. , where he was employed in a similar manner until the last years of his life.

Norton D. Hartley was but two years old when his parents removed from Pennsylvania to Indiana . They were among the pioneer settlers of that region, and located near Lawrenceburg upon a farm, which they occupied for some years and then removed to Randolph County . The boy was reared to farm pursuits, and after the lapse of several years left his home for Preble County , Ohio , where he purchased and settled upon an improved farm, which he occupied until 1848. He then returned to Indiana, and purchasing a farm in Morgan County, carried on farming pursuits there for the following six years, and then selling out, crossed the Father of Waters, and coming into Iowa by way of Keokuk, proceeded from there by wagon to Cedar Township. There he rented land for two years of the White Labor Institute, and subsequently purchased eighty acres on section 2. He occupied this also about six years, then sold it, and purchased another tract of land on section 1 of the same township. This consisted of eighty acres, and upon it he remained until his death, which occurred Nov. 11, 1870 .

Mr. Hartley was married, April 20, 1837 , to Miss Deborah A. Jones, a native of Preble County , Ohio , who was born Jan. 26, 1820 . Her father, William Jones, was a native of Georgia , born in 1798, and the son of George and Lydia (Hobson) Jones. William Jones was six years old when his parents removed from Georgia to Preble County , Ohio , and were among the early settlers of that region. There he grew to manhood, married, and settled on a farm, where he passed the remainder of his days. The maiden name of his wife was Deborah A. Conaroe, a native of New Jersey , born in 1802. Her parents removed to Butler County , and she remained with them until her marriage, and died in Preble County , Ohio .

Mr. And Mrs. Hartley became the parents of twelve children, ten of whom are yet living: William J. and Thomas C. live in Cherokee County, Kan.; John is in Des Moines, Iowa; George N., in Fountain City, Ind.; Lydia Caroline became the wife of Evan Mendenhall, and resides in Wichita, Kan.; Lindley M. lives in Cedar Township; Susan D. H. is married and resides in Kenosha County, Wis.; David Alvin is in Cedar Township; Charles E., in Osceola County, Iowa; and Daniel N. is a student at Union Park Seminary, Chicago; one son died in infancy; Elizabeth was born June 28, 1839, married a Mr. Smith, and died in Cherokee County, Kan., July 18, 1881.

Mrs. Hartley is a member of the Society of Friends, and a lady held in the highest esteem in the community. Her husband was reared in the same faith, and was Republican in politics. The homestead is one of the most pleasantly located in this vicinity, and since the death of her husband Mrs. Hartley has conducted its affairs in a highly creditable manner. Her children have been carefully trained and well educated, and in all respects she is fulfilling faithfully the duties of a careful and judicious manager of her household, and as a member of society is surrounded by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.

THOMAS HARTLEY, of Montrose Township , is head engineer of the Government Guard, or Upper Lock, on the Des Moines Rapids Government Canal , a position requiring the exercise of large experience and a cool head. Mr. Hartley is considered peculiarly well qualified for this responsible position. The subject of this biography is the son of George and Elizabeth (Moat) Hartley, natives of Yorkshire , England , where they were married. They came to America in 1833, proceeding at once to Wheeling , W. Va. , where the mother died three years later, in 1836. George Hartley was a brewer by occupation, and survived his wife thirty-two years, dying in 1868. They were the parents of eight children�Charles, William, Ann, Moses, Thomas, John, George and Henry.

Thomas Hartley is the fifth child of his parents' family, and was born April 12, 1828 . He remained under the parental roof until he arrived at years of manhood, and was united in marriage with Miss Ann Goss. Mrs. Hartley was born in 1836. Of their union has been born one child, Charles, who married Miss Mary Mathena, , and is now engaged as a machinist in Burlington , Iowa .

Thomas Hartley came to the Hawkeye State in 1854 and located in Keokuk. He had learned the trade of machinist and also that of engineering, in Wheeling , W. Va. , in 1847. He took charge of the Upper Lock as head engineer in 1879, and since that time has thus been continuously engaged. He occupies a comfortable homestead and enjoys the esteem of his fellow townsmen. In Politics he affiliates with the Republican party.

STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD, second Governor of Iowa, is a native of Connecticut, where, at New London, he was born Oct. 1, 1812. He resided in that State with his parents until 1828, when the family came West, locating upon a farm near Saint Louis. This was the home of young Stephen until 1830, when he went to Galena, Ill., where he served in the capacity of a clerk in a commission house for a time. He was there during the exciting period of the Black Hawk troubles, and was an officer in an artillery company which had been organized for the protection of Galena. After the defeat of Black Hawk and the consequent termination of Indian troubles, he entered the Illinois College at Jacksonville, where he remained for about two years. On account of difficulties which he got into about sectarianism and abolitionism, he left the college and returned to Missouri. He shortly afterward entered the office of Charles S. Hempstead, a prominent lawyer of Galena, and began the study of the profession in which he afterward became quite proficient. In 1836 he was admitted to practice in all the courts of the Territory of Wisconsin, which at the time embraced the Territory of Iowa, and the same year located at Dubuque, being the first lawyer who began the practice of his profession at that place.

As might be expected in a territory but thinly populated, but one which was rapidly settling up, the services of an able attorney would be in demand in order to draft the laws. Upon the organization of the Territorial Government of Iowa in 1838, he was, with Gen. Warner Lewis, elected to represent the northern portion of the Territory in the Legislative Council, which assembled in Burlington that year. He was Chairman of the Committee Judiciary, and at the second session of that body was elected its President. He was again elected a member of the Council, in 1845, over which he also presided. In 1844 he was elected one of the delegates of Dubuque County, for the first convention to frame a constitution for the State. In 1848, in company with Judge Charles Mason and W. G. Woodward, he was appointed by the Legislature Commissioner to revise the laws of the State, which revision, with a few amendments, was adopted as the code of Iowa in 1851.

In 1850 Mr. Hempstead was elected Governor of the State and served with ability for four years, that being the full term under the Constitution at the time. He received 13,486 votes against 11,403 cast for his opponent, James L. Thompson. After the vote had been canvassed a committee was appointed to inform the Governor-elect that the two Houses of the Legislature were ready to receive him in joint convention, in order that he might receive the oath prescribed by the Constitution. Gov. Hempstead, accompanied by the retiring Executive, Gov. Briggs, the Judges of the Supreme Court and the officers of State, entered the hall of the House where the Governor-elect delivered his inaugural message, after which the oath was administered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. This was an important period in the history of the State, being at a time when the public affairs were assuming definite shape, and indeed it was what might be termed the formative period. The session of the Legislature passed many important acts which were approved by the Governor, and during his term there were fifty-two new counties formed. Gov. Hempstead in his message to the Fourth General Assembly in December, 1852, stated that among other things, the population of the State according to the Federal census was 192,214, and that the State census showed an increase for one year of 37,789. He also stated that the resources of the State for the coming two years would be sufficient to cancel all that part of funded debt which was payable at its option.

Among the numerous counties organized was one named Buncombe, which received its name in the following way: The Legislature was composed of a large majority favoring stringent corporation laws and the liability of individual stockholders for corparate debts. This sentiment, on account of the agitation of railroad enterprises then being inaugurated, brought a large number of prominent men to the capital. To have an effect upon the Legislature, they organized a “lobby Legislature” and elected as Governor, Verplank Van Antwerp, who delivered to the self-constituted body a lengthy message in which he sharply criticized the regular General Assembly. Some of the members of the latter were in the habit of making long and useful speeches much to the hindrance of business. To these he especially referred, charging them with speaking for “Buncombe,” and recommended that as a lasting memorial a county should be called by that name. This suggestion was readily seized on by the Legislature, and the county of Buncombe was created with few dissenting votes. However, the General Assembly, in 1862, changed the name to Lyon, in honor of Gen. Nathaniel Lyon who was killed in the early part of the Civil War.

The season of 1851 was on of great disappointment to the pioneers of Iowa, and much suffering was the result of the bad season of that year. By the year 1854, the State had fully recovered from the depression thus produced, and that year as well as the following, the emigration from the East was unprecedented. The prairies of Illinois were lined day after day with a continuous caravan of emigrants pushing on toward Iowa. During a single month 1743 wagons bound for Iowa passed through Peoria. So remarkable had been the influx of people into the State, that in a issue of the Burlington Telegraph appeared the following statement: “Twenty thousand emigrants have passed through the city within the last thirty days, and they are still crossing the Mississippi at the rate of 600 a day.”

At the expiration of his term of service, which occurred in the latter part of the year 1854. Gov. Hempstead returned to his old home at Dubuque. In 1855 he was elected County Judge of Dubuque County, and so acceptably did he serve the people that for twelve years he was chosen to fill that position. Under his administration the principal county building, including the jail, poorhouse, as well as some valuable bridges, were erected. Owing to ill-health he was compelled to retire from public life, passing the remainder of his days in quietude and repose at Dubuque. There he lived until Feb. 16, 1883, when, at his home, the light of his long and eventful life went out. The record he has made, which was an honorable and distinguished one, was closed, and Iowa was called upon to mourn the loss of one of her most distinguished pioneer citizens. He had been an unusually useful man of the Sate and his services, which were able and wise, were rendered in that unselfish spirit which distinguished so many of the early residents. Of this now prosperous State.

ROBERT E. HILL, a prosperous farmer and stock-grower, occupies a fine tract of land on section 12, in Harrison Township , and is carrying on the different branches of his business intelligently and profitably. Mr. Hill is a native of Wayne County, Ind., born June 26, 1840 , and is the son of William and Zilphia (Hollowell) Hill, natives respectively, of Ohio and North Carolina . William Hill was born Oct. 5, 1804 , and was reared on a farm, receiving his early education in the common schools. After attaining his majority he emigrated to Indiana and engaged in mercantile pursuits at Richmond , being thus occupied for the following four years. He then abandoned that business and resolved to become a farmer. He crossed the Father of Waters in 1843, and purchased forty acres of land in Lee County, Iowa. To this he added another forty acres, upon which he established a homestead and remained until his death, which occurred Feb. 1, 1869 . He had been reared in the Quaker faith, and clung to his early religion throughout his lifetime. He was Republican in politics, was a good man, and highly esteemed in his community.

William Hill was married to Miss Zilphia Hollowell on the 20 th of December, 1831 , the wedding occurring in Richmond , Ind. The parents of Mrs. Hill, Exum and Clarkey (Fort) Hollowell, were natives of North Carolina , and their daughter was born March 20, 1807 . The family of William Hill consisted of six children, as follows: Susanna became the wife of Benjamin Cook; Julia A. married John McGreer; Patience died at the age of two years; Edmund was a soldier in the late war, and died in the hospital at Chattanooga, Tenn.; the fifth child was Robert E., the subject of our sketch; Elizabeth became the wife of Jesse McMillan.

Robert E. Hill was united in marriage with Miss Mary McMillan, Feb. 9, 1868 . Mrs. Hill is a native of Lee County , and her birth took place Oct. 31, 1841 . Her parents were Amos and Hannah (Armitage) McMillan, natives of Pennsylvania . The mother is now deceased, but the father is still living. They were the parents of seven children, three of whom are married and established in homes of their own. Robert E. Hill and his wife have become the parents of four children�Charles E., Samuel H., Lanora and Petie Roy.

The homestead of Mr. Hill comprises a beautiful farm dwelling and 700 acres of land. He has been successful in his agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, and has a herd of some of the finest cattle to be found in the Mississippi Valley . He is a gentleman of energy and enterprise, and his farm estate will bear comparison with anything of the kind in Lee County . Mr. Hill is held in high respect by the community of which he is a member, and in politics is a conscientious Republican.

GEORGE HOTT, the subject of this biography, an honored pioneer of the Hawkeye State, crossed the Mississippi from his native State of Ohio at an early day, 1810, and came into Iowa while it was yet a Territory. The changes which he has witnessed since that time would make a most interesting volume could they be related by our subject, as he is a man possessed of more than ordinary intelligence, and has been keenly observant all his life of what was going on around him.

Mr. Hott was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, Feb. 23, 1812. His father, Peter Hott, was a native of Virginia, and removed from his native State to Ohio at an early period in the history of that section. He was possessed of limited means, but a large fund of industry and ambition, and after going into Ohio, he cleared quite an extent of land by leasing, and in the course of his life built twenty-two log houses, in which he lived while performing the leases. He departed from the scenes of his earthly labors at the age of about sixty years.

The parental family of our subject consisted of eleven children, and as soon as George Hott was large enough to be of assistance, he was put to work, and aided in burning brush, rolling logs, clearing land and building fences. At the age of seventeen years, desiring to change his occupation and see something of the world, he engaged as a laborer on the Ohio & Erie Canal, which was then in process of construction. He was paid $10 per month, and was thus occupied for the greater part of three years. He then returned to his old home, and engaged in farming for the same wages, and continued a resident of that section until 1840. In the meantime he had formed domestic ties, and had a family consisting of a wife and four children. He also made a lease for seven years, and carried on coopering, by which means he was afterward able to go to Iowa. He now resolved to change his location, and accordingly, with his family, started for the Territory of Iowa. They were equipped with two horses, and a wagon loaded with their household goods. They cooked and camped by the wayside, and after four weeks of travel landed in Lee County. They located in Harrison Township, and set up housekeeping in a humble log cabin, which was also occupied by another family of the name of Reesman. There they spent the following winter, and in the spring Mr. Hott purchased eighty acres of land in Harrison Township, upon which he erected a hewed-log house.

Upon leaving Ohio Mr. Hott had less than $300 in cash. After building his house in Iowa, the family met with a great affliction in the death of the wife and mother, which compelled them to abandon their idea of establishing a home at that time. Mr. Hott engaged at coopering in Van Buren County during one winter, and then purchased the place which he now owns and occupies. Upon it there was a small log cabin, and twenty-six acres were fenced. In January, 1842, he moved into the log cabin with his little family, and commenced the improvement of his land. They occupied this a few years, when Mr. Hott secured a desirable tract of forty acres adjoining, upon which he built a more substantial house, into which they removed from the old one and remained there until 1868. They were prospered in their labors, and Mr. Hott subsequently erected a good set of frame buildings. He has since purchased additional land, until he is now the possessor of 414 acres. His farming operations have been conducted in a systematic manner, and for a long period of years he has been accounted one of the most intelligent and successful agriculturists of this section.

The first wife of the subject of our sketch was Miss Jane Dean, of Pickaway County, Ohio, to whom he was married in 1832. She became the mother of seven children—Isaac, Peter, Aaron, Henry, and three unnamed. All except Peter are deceased. Mrs. Hott died in 1841. Peter was born in Pickaway County, Ohio, Sept. 29, 1834. He was a little lad of six yeas when he came to Iowa with his parents, and lived with his father until his marriage with Miss Mary Harlan, of Darke County, Ohio, which occurred Jan. 18, 1855, and by this marriage there were three children. His wife only lived ten years after her marriage, dying March 6, 1865. He was married the second time, Dec. 7, 1865, to Miss Anna Lane, a native of Highland County, Ohio, born Sept. 26, 1845, and the daughter of Jacob and Charlotte (Cole) Lane. Of the second marriage one child was born, Isaac Henry. Peter Hott is a successful farmer and the only child of our subject now living. He is eminently a “chip of the old block,” and possesses in a marked degree many of the worthy characteristics of his sire. He is a thorough-going business man, energetic and wide-awake, and whatever he undertakes is sure to be done well. He is a highly esteemed resident of the Hawkeye State, and possesses one of the finest farm estates in this section.

The second marriage of Mr. George Hott was with Mrs. Jane Warren, daughter of John Huddleson and widow of William Warren, and took place in January, 1842. Of this marriage there were no children. Mrs. Hott died Feb. 27, 1884. She came to Lee County with her first husband in 1834, while this section was a part of the Territory of Wisconsin, and they made their location before the land was surveyed, on what was afterward sections 6, 7 and 8 of Cedar Township. Mrs. Hott was a member of the Congregational Church, with which our subject has been connected for many years.

The history of Mr. Hott is a striking illustration of what an abundance of energy and perseverance may accomplish. The advantages of his childhood were exceedingly meager, but this fact would not be suspected in conversing with the present intelligent proprietor of one of the finest homesteads in Lee County.

REV. FATHER MORRIS HOWARD, late Priest of St. Francis' Church, Keokuk, came to this city in 1878. He was born in Ireland on the 4 th of January, 1813 , and emigrated to America in 1836, landing at New York City . There he entered a theological college, and prosecuted his studies for six months, when he left school and went to work in the mines at Pottsville, Pa., at $8 per week, being thus occupied until the winter of 1837. He then left and was employed elsewhere, and in due time re-entered college but was not admitted to the priesthood. After this we find him at Mobile , Ala. , where he was made the overseer of negroes. After six months he went into Perry County, Mo., and entered St. Vincent 's College at Cape Girardeau on the Mississippi , where he remained from July, 1838, until October, 1841. Then, on account of failing health, he went South and remained until July, 1842, his health in the meantime becoming very much better. He them went to Cincinnati Ohio , and on the 23d of October, 1842 , was ordained priest by Bishop Purcell. His first station was at Doylestown in Wayne County, Ohio, where he remained until 1846. Thence he went to Tiffin , Ohio , and in May, 1850, removed to Springfield , whence he went to Galesburg , Ill. , in 1864. He remained there until August, 1877, removed thence to St. Augustine , and in May, 1878, came to Keokuk and took charge of St. Francis' Church, where he remained until his death. He was well fitted for the responsibilities connected with this charge and highly esteemed both in his own parish and outside.

WILLIAM T. HUMES was born in Washington County, Pa., June 18, 1834. He enjoyed the advantages of a good common-school education and remained in his native State until twenty years of age, when he drifted westward, first coming to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he was employed as a salesman in the store of Rabbitt & Ross, and subsequently in the registry department of the Government Land-Office. He then took a trip through the territories of Nevada, Oregon, New Mexico and Central America, and finally returned to Iowa.