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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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James
Lee The life history of James Lee, an honored
citizen of Newton, Jasper County, is that of a man who has lived for a high
purpose and has succeeded because his efforts have been rightly directed, and
now in the golden evening of his life he can look over the vista of the past and
realize that, after all, the lines have been cast for him in pleasant places,
and he faces the future with the calm assurance that all is well.
Mr. Lee is of sterling old New England stock, having been born in
Bristol County, Massachusetts, June 30, 1831.
He is the son of Stephen and Sarah (West) Lee, both natives of
Massachusetts, in which state they were reared, educated, married and spent
their lives on a farm, both being now deceased. They were the parents of eight children, James of this review
being the only one living, although they all lived to be over fifty years of
age. James Lee grew to maturity in his native state and
received a good public school education.
Believing that the then new Middle West held peculiar advantages for the
willing worker, he came to Dubuque, Iowa, in 1854, thence to Bremer County,
Iowa, where he remained until 1856, when he moved to Bellevue, Nebraska, where
he worked at the carpenter's trade. In 1858 he went to Colorado, where he
remained three years, driving from Omaha to Denver, in 1858, the year in which
the present great city of Denver was started.
In 1861 he came to Jasper County, Iowa, and engaged in farming, which he
followed successfully up to about twenty years ago when he retired from active
work. He has also large interests
in Nebraska and town property in Newton. He
has been very successful in whatever he has been engaged, having always worked
hard and managed well. His fortune
will aggregate easily one hundred thousand dollars. Mr. Lee was married first in 1862 to Sarah Whitcomb, who
was born in Indiana and whose death occurred in 1884.
To this union six children were born, one dying in infancy, namely:
Marietta, wife of Rev. M. L. Rose, of Yakima, Washington; Cady died in
infancy; Hon. C. G. is at present circuit judge of the district embracing Ames,
Iowa, in which city he lives; Orpha is the wife of Dick Daley, of Newton, Iowa;
James E. and Stephen A. also live in Newton.
In 1885 Mr. Lee married Penelope Thralkild, a native of Missouri, who
died in 1887. In 1893 Mr. Lee was married to Eliza E. Davis, who was
born in Indiana, but was reared in Iowa, to which state she was brought by her
parents when a baby. To this union
there was no issue. She was the
daughter of C. M. Davis, an old settler and highly respected citizen of Jasper
County. Mr. Lee is a member of the Christian Church, of which he
is an elder and a liberal supporter, in fact, a pillar.
Mrs. Lee is also a faithful member of this church.
He has held several minor Township offices, such as township treasurer
and he has been school treasurer for many years in Kellogg Township where he
lived on his farm before he moved to Jasper.
He was also Township clerk and a member of the school board quite a
while. Politically, he has
supported both parties as his conscience dictated. He has a beautiful, modern and commodious home on East Main Street, Newton, which was built in 1905. Here the many friends of the family frequently gather, always finding an old-time hospitality and good cheer prevailing. Mr.
Lee is a man whom to know is to honor, for he is a whole-souled, genial and
genteel gentleman, widely read, an excellent conversationalist, a man who has
kept abreast of the times and who has always stood ready to support those
measures looking toward the general good of his community, and no man in the
County is more popular or held in higher esteem; however, he is a plain,
unassuming man, contented merely to be a good citizen of a good country. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 1009. |
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