Jasper County >> 1894 Index
Grundy County
Marshall County

Portrait and Biographical Records of Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, Iowa
Chicago: Biographical Pub. Co., 1894.

C

Unless noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton.

Grandfather Cozad was born about the close of the Revolutionary War, and at the age of about nine years he and three younger brothers were one day playing not far from home when a band of Indians swooped down on them, taking them captive, and plunged into the woods with them. The youngest was so small that he was not able to keep up with the others, whom he followed, crying bitterly. To rid themselves of this encumbrance the Indians tomahawked him in the presence of the others. The names of the three who were spared were Jacob (our subject's grandfather), Samuel and Benjamin.

The boys were compelled to travel away into the Indian country, and although a party of settlers gave pursuit they were unable to rescue them. For four long years they were held in captivity and had been given up long before as dead, their family and friends thinking they had met with the same fate as the little one whose lifeless body had been found where he was murdered but a short distance from the house. After four years they learned, doubtless through a friendly Indian, that the other three children were alive and with the Indians in their country. Meantime the red men had become more friendly and the father penetrated their country and there found the long-lost boys. But four years had made a great change in the little ones. The Indians had become greatly attached to them and very reluctantly agreed to surrender them to their parents. The boys also had become attached to the tribe, and being but children when taken into captivity, had forgotten their father and mother. It was their choice to remain with the tribe, who had been kind to them, and continue the life they had learned to like, but they finally consented to return to their former home.

Triumphantly the father returned home with his sons. Imagine for a moment the joy of the mother upon once more seeing the faces of her long-lost dear ones! The eldest of these, Jacob, afterward became a wealthy farmer, owing some fifteen hundred acres of land. He was also a local preacher and a large slave owner, but at his death he gave his slaves their freedom and bequeathed them $500 each. He was twice married, his second wife being a member of the Beeman family, one of the most prominent in the Old Dominion. It is a strange coincidence that two of his sons (John W. being one of them) married sisters of his second wife, and thus father and sons became brothers-in-law.

The mother of the Captain was born in Virginia and was a member of an old Puritan family, who early removed from Vermont to Virginia. About 1831 the Cozad family settled near Labanon, Ohio. The Captain was the eldest of three children. His brother Jacob was born in 1832, the mother dying at his birth. He afterward became a soldier in Company D, Fortieth Iowa Infantry, and died in 1863, while in active service. The sister Cecelia married Jacob B Pifer, who died several years ago. She is now living in Virginia, not far from the place of her birth. Our subject was a child of some four years when his father removed to Ohio, and he traveled the entire distance on horseback with his mother. Upon his father's farm he grew to a robust manhood, receiving limited educational advantages. At the age of thirteen be commenced to learn the trade of a blacksmith, and four years later went to St. Louis, Mo., where he secured employment in a carriage shop.

Until twenty-one years old, our subject worked in carriage shops in St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati, and afterward, in company with others, he established a carriage manufactory in Cincinnati. A year later, in 1849, the gold fever from California swept over the plains. He took the fever, dropped his tools, abandoned his business and sailed for San Francisco. Embarking in mining, he made some money, though he failed to secure the coveted fortune. Discerning an opportunity to make more money in other ways than mining, he opened a shop to sharpen picks for the miners. In this enterprise he prospered. Later he started a carriage shop, and he built the first buggy ever run in the streets of San Francisco.

After spending three years in California, Captain Cozad returned to Ohio with a snug fortune, which about a year later he invested in a section of land near Dwight, Ill. He also traveled through Iowa, and bought some property in Newton. He had left a large sum of money with parties in Cincinnati, through whose failure he met with heavy reverses. In 1855 he came to Newton, where he embarked in the mercantile business in company with A. K. Emerson, under the firm name of Emerson & Cozad. After two years he sold his interest in the concern, but after another two years he bought the business again, and continued to superintend the establishment until August, 1862.

The excitement of the Civil War was then at its height, and our subject, closing the doors of his store, within four days organized a company of which he was commissioned Captain. This was Company D of the Fortieth Iowa Infantry. In December, 1862, they penetrated the enemy's country in Kentucky and were stationed at Columbus, that state, until March, 1863. They then proceeded to Paducah, Ky., and from there to Vicksburg, remaining in the rear of that place until after its surrender. After that the Captain was stationed on duty much of the time in Arkansas, until March 27, 1865, when he was honorably discharged. His health was greatly impaired from his long service, and for some time after his discharge he was not able to attend to business. Finally he embarked in the insurance business, in which he continued until 1874. He then returned to merchandising, in which he remained until December, 1882, since which time he has been an insurance agent.

In April, 1856, the Captain married Miss Sarah A. Scott, a native of Richmond, Va. Her father, Bennett Scott, was born in Maryland and died when she was sixteen years old, her mother having died some eight years previous. After the demise of her mother she made her home with a cousin in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she was educated. Mr. and Mrs. Cozad have had three children. Harriet C. died at the age of four years. Ida v. had the advantage of a fine musical education and is an accomplished young lady; she married George B. McCulley, a merchant of Jefferson, Greene County, Iowa, and they have two children. Benjamin Bennett, our subject's only surviving son, is a druggist in Prairie City, Iowa, and is also extensively engaged in raising fine blooded stock.

Socially, the Captain is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the third degree. In religious belief he is identified with the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which his wife also belongs. Born and reared a Democrat, he joined the Republican party in 1856 and has ever since been true to the principles of that political organization. Though never an aspirant for office, he has served in various positions of trust and has been a member of the Common Council and the Board of Education.