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Pocahontas County >> 1904 Index The Pioneer History of Pocahontas County,
Iowa M Unless otherwise noted, biographies submitted by Dick Barton. Matson, William, in 1867, coming from Chicago with wife and two children, located at Old Rolfe and was the first to establish a blacksmith shop in Pocahontas county. After a few years he moved to the SW 1/4 Sec. 16, Clinton township, where his wife died May 10, 1884. "Ben Lomond," the first postoffice in Clinton township, was located at his home from 1876 to 1878. His son William died May 27, 1885, at the age of 24 years, and Jennie, his daughter, became the wife of William D. McEwen. (See McEwen.) He died at Pocahontas May 6, 1888. McCAFFERTY, JOHN, a native of Cedar county, Iowa, in 1886, bought a farm of 160 acres in Dover township and the next year married Johanna, sister of Garrett Mackey. He now occupies a farm of 240 acres on sections 9 and 10, Cedar township. His family consists of six children; William, Mary, Thomas, James, Maggie and the baby. McEwen, Alexander,
Alexander,
the oldest member of the family, having acquired a good education in Scotland
came to Canada, and in December, 1869, became a resident of Des Moines township,
this county, where he found a home with Henry Jarvis and taught school during
the next seven months in the Jarvis school house, located near the county line,
south of McNight's Point. He then prepared a set of abstract books for W. D.
McEwen at Old Rolfe, and took charge of the store of McEwen & Bruce, when it
was established in the fall of 1870, while they performed the duties of county
auditor and treasurer. He remained in the store until the spring of 1875, when,
having bought 204 acres on section 16, Swan Lake township, he gave his attention
to their improvement and built thereon a house and barn. That fall he sold this
farm to Alfred Strouse and bought the homestead of Henry Thomas, on the SE 1/4
Sec. 24, Powhatan. October
6, 1875, he married Delilah, daughter of Philip Hamble, one of the pioneers of
Washington township, and during the ensuing winter taught his last term of
school in that township. In the spring of 1876 he located on his farm in
Powhatan and occupied it until the spring of 1882, when he bought and moved upon
400 acres of section 26. He improved and occupied this farm until 1892, when he
moved to his present farm on section 15, near Plover. He devoted considerable
attention to raising fine horses and, at the time of his sale in 18981, had 30
head of high-grade Normans and English Shires. He
is a man of excellent judgment, has always commanded the confidence and esteem
of all who know him, and has rendered considerable public service. He was chosen
clerk of Powhatan as soon as he became a resident of the township and has served
twelve years in that capacity, ten as president of the school board and nine as
a member of the board of county supervisors. He has been a trustee of the Plover
Presbyterian church since its organization. He has manifested considerable
interest in the education of his children and had the pleasure of seeing two of
them, Margaret and Susan, members of the first graduating class from the Plover
high school in 1899. His
family consisted of eight children. John P. and Mary A. are at home. Marjory, a
teacher, in 1902 married E. L. Wallace, formerly principal of the Plover schools
and now manager of a lumber yard at Schaller. Susan, a teacher, on the same day,
April 16, 1901, married Fred C. Chinn, a grain buyer at Wiola. Philip Hamble,
Henry, Elizabeth and Robert Burns are at home. W.
D. McEwen in July 1857 engaged in carpenter work at Fort Dodge and in the spring
of 1858 walked from that place to the home of Robert Struthers, his
brother-in-law in Des Moines township for the purpose of locating a pre- emption
claim. But finding that another man had taken the claim he had in view he
returned to Fort Dodge, and remaining there during that winter and the year
following, was a frequent visitor to his friends in the pioneer settlement in in
the northeast part of the county. In 1859 he returned to the east and spent
several years in school. In 1865 he located permanently at Old Rolfe the first
county seat and commencing an official career as Superintendent of the Public
Schools of this county in 1866, he continued in the public service until Dec.
31, 1887, a period of 22 years. The offices filled were Co. Superintendent, 2
years, 1866 and '67, Clerk of the District Court six years, 1867 to 1872; County
judge in 1869, the last incumbent of that office; Clerk of the Board of
Supervisors three years, 1867 to 1869; County Auditor four years, 1870 to 1873,
the first incumbent of that office; and County Treasurer twelve years, 1874 to
1883 and 1886-87. In 1876 he was the Commissioner from this county to the
Centennial at Philadelphia. "Pay
as you go" has ever been a cardinal business principle with him and finding
the county $20,000 in debt when he became Auditor, he began to use his influence
to protect the credit of the county and maintain its warrants at par value.
Before the close of his public career he had the pleasure to see every vestige
of indebtedness removed. Few men enjoy the privilege of rendering so long a
period of public service or of receiving so many proofs of appreciation form the
people whom he served as W. D. McEwen. On Jan. 12, 1884, when his final accounts
for the first ten years of service as treasurer were audited and approved by the
Board of Supervisors, they passed a resolution expressing their sincere thanks
to him for the kind, gentle and manly manner in which he had filled the office
of County Treasurer so long, and presented him with the gold pen he had used, as
a memento of the office. As a public officer he was uniformly courteous and
considerate, and kept the records in a plain, neat and methodical manner. He
has been a loyal and ardent republican, was personally and very favorably known
to every voter in the county, and no one could say aught against his
qualifications or honesty. On one occasion near the close of his public career,
having received the nomination for County Treasurer about the fourth time, one
of his friends very wittily remarked that the only exception his opponents could
take to him as a candidate, was that expressed by the young man who, being
present at a wedding in a New England town, when the minister asked if any one
objected to this man marrying this woman, interrupted the ceremony by stammering
out, "I want her myself." So with his political opponents, they have
been chiefly those who wanted the office for themselves. He
has been a persistent friend of progress and aided greatly in the development
and upbuilding of the interests of this county. In 1867 he assisted in the
publication of a pamphlet giving a description of Pocahontas county and inviting
immigration, of which hundreds of copies were distributed in the East. In 1869
he commenced the publication of the Pocahontas Journal, the first paper
published in the county, but as it could not be made a financial success it was
discontinued in 1872. In 1875 he published a map of the county, and in 1876 he
resumed the publication of a county paper, the Pocahontas Times, that has been
continued until the present time, though for two years under a new name - The
Fonda Times. In 1878 he issued a second advertising pamphlet of the county and
in 1881, 15,000 copies of another one entitled, The New Home, all for free
distribution. W.
D. McEwen was born in Chateaugay county, Canada, July 9, 1838, and was the son
of William and Margaret McEwen both of whom were natives of Scotland and came to
the Province of Quebec in 1820. He attended public school until he was fourteen
years of age and then learned the carpenter trade during the next three years,
working chiefly at bridge building. This was his employment while he remained in
Fort Dodge from July 1857 to the fall of 1859 and again in 1864 when he returned
and completed his citizenship at that place. When he visited the Des Moines
settlement in 1858 he found it a boundless wilderness and as the times were dull
and his expected claim taken he decided in the fall of 1859 to enter Huntingdon
Academy in the Province of Quebec and complete his education. He remained at
this institution until the death of his father, who appointed him executor of
his estate. As soon as the affairs of his father's estate had been settled, he
arranged to return to the land of his adoption with the $5,000 that fell to his
share. In
the spring of 1865 when he located permanently in Pocahontas county, Robert
Struthers, his brother-in-law, was County Recorder. Having a farm and family to
look after, W. D. McEwen at once became his deputy and the work of the
Recorder's office was turned over to him. As the work of this office was not
very exacting nor very lucrative, he worked at his trade during the day and on
the public records in the evening. Frequently the records of the entire week
were written on Saturday night. During the first three years of his residence in
the county he taught school at Old Rolfe in the winter and worked at his trade
in the summer. In his youth he recognized the importance of getting a good start
in life; he was never idle and on several occasions, carrying his tools on his
shoulder, he walked eight miles (once barefooted) in order to assist where he
was needed. On
November 18, 1885, he married Jennie Matson, a lady who, like himself, was also
of Puritan descent, a resident of Des Moines township and one of his own pupils
when he taught at Old Rolfe. She was the daughter of William and Mary (Baxter)
Matson, who located at Old Rolfe in 1867. They have one son, Donald, who is in
his thirteenth year. They are still residents of the county and live at Rolfe,
where he is engaged in banking and occupies one of the finest residences in the
county. McEwen,
W. S., a cousin of Will D. McEwen, succeeded him as cashier of the Pocahontas
Savings Bank, which, in July 1902, was reorganized as the First National Bank of
Pocahontas. He continued to fill this position in the reorganized bank until
September 1903, when all the stock of this bank was purchased by the proprietors
of the Allen Bros. Bank, and the latter was merged into it, under the new
officers, J. H. Allen, president; C. S. Allen, vice-president; and F. W.
Lindeman, cashier. The office was then transferred to the new Allen bank
building. McEwen,
William D. (b.
1865), banker, Pocahontas, is a native of Ormstown, province of Quebec, Canada,
the son of Duncan and Mary McEwen, and nephew of W. D. McEwen, Esq., Rolfe. He
became a resident of Pocahontas county in September 1888, first on his own farm
and in 1893, at Pocahontas, where he became cashier of the Pocahontas Savings
Bank. He continued to fill this position in a very efficient and satisfactory
manner until January 1900, when he resigned, and, in partnership with Joseph
Simpson, established the City Exchange Bank of Pocahontas. He is still president
of this bank and has been the sole proprietor of it since 1901. He built and
occupies one of the fine residences at Pocahontas. In 1903, he was a member both
of the council and school board of that city. In
1893, he married Emma Tutt, of South Bend, Indiana, and has two children,
Lawrence R., and Leon Duncan. |