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Jasper County, Iowa
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Nathan
W. Lee Jasper
County is the home of a large number of enterprising and
progressive farmers whose estates add attractiveness
to the landscape, being marked by first class improvements, and the air of
thrift that gives one unacquainted with rural life a good idea of the value of
farm property. Washington Township
has her share of these well-regulated farms and one of them is located on
section 17, where Mr. Lee owns two hundred and twenty-seven acres of land.
In addition to this property he also owns a section of land in Texas. In
this sketch it is but a fitting tribute to a noble man that prominent mention
should be made of the father of our subject, the late Ishmael Lee. He was born
on a farm in Blount County, TN, May 22, 1815, and in his youth learned the trade
of a shoemaker. In 1833 he removed to the vicinity of Richmond, Wayne County,
IN, where he engaged in general farming. In 1834 he went to Michigan, and for eighteen years made his
home in Cass County, removing to Iowa in 1852.
In the winter of 1852-53 he lived on the Des Moines River, near the then
existing town of Dudley, Warren County. In
the spring of 1853 be removed to section 23, Franklin Township, Polk County, and
cleared and improved a farm, where be resided until 1869.
In the latter year he removed to Beaver Township, one-quarter of a mile
south of Mitchellville, Iowa, where he died April 22, 1879, aged sixty-three
years and eleven months. While
living in Michigan Ishmael Lee was married, January 14, 1836, to Miss Sallie
East, who died April 22, 1840. Two
children survive of that marriage, Mrs. Eliza Lee, who lives near Mitchellville,
and Mrs. Hannah Chandler, of Lake City, IA. June 22, 1841, at Richmond, IN, Mr.
Lee married Miss Miriam Marmon, s native of Ohio, who removed to Michigan at the
age of twelve years. She is still
living and makes her home with our subject.
Her father, Peter Marmon, was of French descent.
The second marriage of Mr. Lee resulted in the birth of the following
children; Mary, wife of Peter Marmon, Elizabeth, who is the wife of William H.
Woodrow, Lydia, who married John W, Wilson, Samuel and Nathan, who live on the
farm where their father died, Peter, who enlisted in the Second Iowa Battery and
died at Memphis, TN., March 32, 1865, Hiram, who died May 7, 1866, Ruth, who
married Frank F. Blyler, and died November 19, 1871. In
the biography of Ishmael Lee, published a few days after his demise in the
Mitchellville News, the following appears: "Mr. Lee was one of those
peculiar men born into the world to fi1l a place that few men can fill.
Not a public man in one sense, yet in another, few men have a wider
reputation than he had and has. Never aspiring to office, and never filling any,
yet ho was never indifferent to anything. His
views were always positive. He was
never one of those men who get on the fence and wait for public opinion to tell
them on which side they must full; but formed and advocated his views with
freedom and independence from the start. Those
views wore never antagonistic to the fullest freedom and liberty of the human
race. They were always formed upon
the broadest platform of justice and liberty.
In the stirring times of thirty years ago, he had no hesitation in
allying himself with that sterling band of Garrisonian Abolitionists who fought
the slave aristocracy against odds. He
never faltered nor counted the cost, but all his energies were bent, in
freedom's channel, until the starry banner covered no slave. The wily Kentuckian found him a foe whom their lash
could not cower. An East
Tennesseean by birth, the mountain air he inhaled in his youth was freighted
with that magic liberty and Justice. Belonging
to that society which always held the doctrine, 'Do as you would be done by,' it
is doubtful whether he ever knowingly violated
this rule. "In his
dealings with his fellow-men he was honest in all that the word implies.
As a neighbor he had no
enemies; the latchstring to his door was always out. As a husband he was a model. There was never any jarring nor
discord in that family. As a
father, few children were ever more blest. As a friend, hr was warm and
generous. As a counselor, he was
safe and reliable. In politics he was an original Abolitionist.
When the Republican Party came into existence he allied himself with it,
and was always one of its most positive members.
When a national or state election came, no man ever asked how Mr. Lee was going
vote. Even in anti-monopoly times, when some of his best friends wandered from
the Republican fold, no man had the hardihood to ask how Mr. Lee would vote. "
If Ishmael Lee had an enemy upon God's footstool, it was caused by a political
discussion. He gave and
received knocks in political strife, yet held animosity against no man.
The controversies held between him and some of his old neighbors were
legion, yet we doubt not there is a warm place in their hearts for the brave old
man today. Mr. Lee kept even with the times. He was a friend and advocate of improvements and everything
that would build up and enhance the good of the state and the nation.
Honest himself, he gave humanity credit for the same virtue, and was
often imposed upon by designing men, much to his own cost. "The
good, brave, conscientious old man has gone, leaving a record of good deeds as a
legacy to his children, and a well spent life as an example to the world.
He died happily, willingly and expressing the belief that 'it is all well
for me for the hereafter.' " The
Cassopolis Democrat of June 19, 1879, in publishing his biography, stated that
"He was a brave, noble, conscientious man, not learned nor erudite, but by
his well spent life of good deeds he has loft a worthy example to those who come
after." The
subject of this sketch, the seventh child and third son of the parental family,
was born in Polk County, Iowa, November 10, 1854. He was reared upon a farm, and
in childhood received the advantages of a common-school education.
When only eight years old, he commenced to plow, and from that time
forward, was interested in farming. In
March 1877, lie was united in marriage with Miss Mattie Pearson, a native of
Polk County, Iowa, who was born June 2, 1858, being the daughter of Jesse and
Hannah (Hibbs) Pearson. Our subject
purchased from his father the old homestead, and there resided until 1881, when
he removed to his present farm. He
and his wife are the parents of three sons, Athel, who died at the age of two
months, W. Garfield and A. Blaine. Although
Mr. Lee can scarcely he called a politician, he is an ardent supporter of the
Republican Party, and is a law-abiding citizen.
In the Methodist Church at Mitchellville, he is a prominent member and
one of the Trustee's. Personally,
he possesses the qualities, which have surrounded him with warm friends, whose
loyalty he warmly reciprocates. He
is charitable and benevolent, and his honorable life is well worthy of
emulation. The success which has
come to him is well merited, and he ranks among the leading farmers of
Washington Township. Portrait and Biographical Record, Jasper, Marshall and Grundy Counties, IA, Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, IL, 1894, p. 225. |
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