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Jasper County, Iowa
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Captain Felix Woodard Cozad A
romantic glamour clings about the life history of Capt. Felix Woodard Cozad,
gold digger of the days of the "forty-niners," loyal soldier and
officer in the great Civil War and now retired business man of Newton, Jasper
County, who, although well past his eightieth milestone, is hale and hearty, as
straight as a pine, and as alert as most men of fifty.
He comes of a hardy New England ancestry. His grandfather was born just
at .the close of the Revolutionary War, and when he was nine years old he was
playing with three younger brothers when a band of Indians surprised and
captured them, carrying them away into captivity.
The youngest, unable .to keep up, cried bitterly and was promptly brained
with a tomahawk. The others
were held captive four years before they were rescued by their father. They had by that time become so attached to the Indians and
the Indians to them, that it was with great difficulty that the father persuaded
them to go home with him. Captain
Cozad was born in Lewis County. West Virginia, February 17, 1827, being the son
of Jacob W. and Beedy (Beaman) Cozad, the father born in the same County as the
subject and the mother in Vermont. She
died when the son Felix W. was four years old, and the father being left alone
with three small children, remarried, his second wife being Phoebe Beeman, who
was a sister of the first wife. By the first marriage there were born these
children: Jacob C., now deceased;
Cecelia, the widow of Jacob Pifer, lives in Buckhannon, Upshire County, West
Virginia, the home of her birth; and Felix W., of this sketch.
The second marriage resulted in the birth of Clara, who married Luther
Black, and died in Colorado, whither she had gone for her health; David is now
living in Butler County, Ohio; Francis Marion, who has not been heard from for
twenty-five years; George W. died in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1882. The death
of the father of these children occurred in 1845, while yet a young man, only
thirty-eight years old. Soon
after attaining his majority, early in 1849, Captain Cozad, of this review,
engaged in the manufacture of carriages in Cincinnati. Later in that year,
attracted by the stories of treasure and adventure coming from the far West, he
set out by way of the isthmus of Panama for the new Eldorado. The holidays of
1849-50 were spent on the isthmus at a point not far from where the present
great canal is being built. In
January 1830, he embarked on a sailing vessel up the Pacific coast, arriving at
San Francisco on April 8th following, the landing there being made upon the bare
shore, there being no wharf of any kind there at that time. Securing his mining
outfit, he plunged into the interior wilds of that region, finally locating in
Trinity County, where he remained two years, spending three years in all in the
gold diggings, during which time he met with far greater success than many
others of the great army of prospectors. In June, 1853, he returned to
Cincinnati and in 1854 came to Newton, Iowa, being among the pioneers of this
region, and here engaged in the mercantile business, which he continued until
1862, when Lincoln issued his call for three hundred thousand volunteers,
whereupon Mr. Cozad closed out his business and in four days' time raised a
company of one hundred men, of which he was elected captain, this being Company
D, Fortieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He
was soon at the front, proving to be an efficient and gallant officer, remaining
until the close of hostilities, being honorably discharged on March 27, 1865,
ten days prior to the actual close of the war. While he did not participate in
any of the great battles of the war, he took part in many lively skirmishes and
was in the famous siege of Vicksburg. During
the last year of his service he was taken sick with chills and fever and forced
to enter the regimental hospital, and from there he was sent home, this illness
causing him to tender his resignation a few days before the close of the war.
According to his comrades, he made a very efficient officer. In
1856 Captain Cozad was united in marriage with Sarah A. Scott, a native of
Richmond, Virginia, and this union resulted in the birth of three children, as
follows: Ida V., born February 14,
1857, who married George B. McCullough, now residing in Jefferson, Iowa; Charles
B., born in April 1859, engaged in the drug and jewelry business in Adel, Iowa,
married Laura Cowman, and he has been postmaster at Prairie City for years;
Cecelia C., born February 14, 1862, died when four years old.
The wife and mother passed to her rest on October 25, 1899, and eight
years later, October 14, 1907, Captain Cozad was united in marriage with Mrs.
Celia Therese Wormley, widow of Frederick P. Wormley. She was the daughter of
Benjamin Hale and Mary A. (Connable) Cariton, and her birth occurred on January
16, 1834, at Keene, New Hampshire, her parents being natives of Massachusetts. Mrs.
Cozad is one of three children, a sister, Ellen, was the wife of George R.
Parsons and she and a brother, Edgar L., are both deceased. Mrs. Cozad was
formerly prominent in social life, devoting much time to different social clubs
and also organized for benevolent and literary purposes; but of late years she
has practically withdrawn from society and now devotes most of her time to her
home. She is a woman of education,
culture and affable disposition which has made her a favorite with a wide circle
of friends. She and the Captain are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Newton, and she is a member of the
Order of the Eastern Star, and is a charter member of the chapter in Pueblo,
Colorado. The Captain belongs to
Newton Lodge No. 39, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, having been a Mason since
1862; he is also a member of Garrett Post No. 16, Grand Army of the Republic,
which post was named for his colonel. Captain
Cozad has an attractive and substantial home, surrounding which are some
beautiful and stately maple trees, which he planted from the seed fifty-two
years ago. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 629. |
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