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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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George
W. Loar Among
the strong and influential citizens of Jasper County the record of whose lives
have become an essential part of the history of this section, the gentleman
whose name appears above occupies a prominent place and for years has exerted a
beneficial influence in the community where he resides.
For many years Doctor Loar was a leading physician, later a successful
druggist, and now in his declining years he is living practically retired from
the active duties of life, merely looking after his fine farming interests.
His career has been fraught with good to those who have come into contact
with him, for his example has ever been salutary and his bearing in society that
of a man of proper ideals and a wholesome nature. Dr.
George W. Loar, living near Baxter, Jasper County, like many of the worthy
pioneer citizens of the section of which this history treats, is a native of the
old Keystone state, his birth having occurred in Greene County, Pennsylvania,
December 27, 1845, and he is the son of Jacob and Maria (Nelson) Loar, both
natives of Maryland where they spent their early lives.
The elder Loar devoted his life to agricultural pursuits and when a young
man he came to Pennsylvania and settled on a farm, which was heavily timbered. He was not a man to shrink from hard work or obstacles,
so in due course of time he had a good home and a well improved, productive farm
there on which he spent the rest of his life, dying at the age of seventy-one
years. He became well known in his
vicinity and took an active part in the upbuilding of the same. An evidence of
the confidence his neighbors reposed in his ability and integrity is shown by
the fact that he held the position of justice of the peace for a period of
twenty years. His wife died when
forty-five years of age. Subsequently
Jacob Loar was united in marriage with Sarah Applegate, a widow. John Loar, the
paternal grandfather of the subject, was also a man of influence in his
community and his wife had a local reputation as a midwife. There
were ten children in the family of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Loar, George W., of this
review, being the fifth in order of birth. The others are: John, a farmer in
Ohio; Nelson, a physician of Bloomington, Illinois, where he has practiced forty
years; Mrs. Margaret Alien, deceased; James, who spent his life on a farm, is
deceased; Mrs. Henter Cribben was killed by a gas explosion; her son, Harvey
Cribben, is deputy clerk of Jasper County, and formerly he was deputy auditor;
Mrs. Ann Burns, who lived in Pennsylvania, is deceased; Mrs. Katharine
Templeton, who also spent her life in that state, is deceased.
By the second marriage there were two children in Jacob Loar's family:
William C., a physician at Beloit, Wisconsin; he was formerly a lecturer in a
Chicago medical school; Ora died when fifteen years old. George
W. Loar, of this review, grew up on the home farm in Greene County,
Pennsylvania, and there became acquainted with hard work in the field when but a
boy, and this training was not without its beneficial consequences.
During the winter months he attended the common schools there. Being
ambitious to secure a higher education and actuated by a laudable ambition to
enter the medical profession, he took a course in Westmoreland College, at Mt.
Pleasant, Pennsylvania, then entered the Physio-Medical Institute at Cincinnati,
Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1869, after, a satisfactory three years'
course. Soon afterwards he began
the practice of his profession at Fairbury, Illinois, with his brother, Nelson,
this partnership lasting a year and a half. In November 1869, he came to Hixon
Grove, southeast of Newton, Jasper County, Iowa.
He had but fifty cents when he reached there, but he soon had a good
start. Seeking a wider field for
his operations, he moved to Newton in 1871, where he continued successfully in
the practice until 1873, when he moved to the town of Monroe, where there
existed a good opening. Just as he was becoming one of the leading medical men
of this locality misfortune overtook him, he having been thrown from a horse and
his hip injured, which continued to trouble him, so he was forced to give up the
active practice of medicine in 1875; and he then launched out in the drug
business in Monroe, which he continued for a period of twenty-five years,
enjoying a liberal patronage, retiring in 1903, when he traded his business for
a farm of one hundred and ten acres of valuable land in Henry County. Missouri,
which he still owns. He also owns a
well-improved and very productive farm near Monroe in this County. He helped to organize the State Savings Bank of Monroe, and
is a director in the same. He has
been very successful in a business way, and is one of the substantial men of
this part of the County. Doctor
Loar was married in 1870 to Sarah Fenner, who was born March 3, 1846, in
Highland County, Ohio, the daughter of Adam and Susanna Fenner.
Her family came to Iowa in the sixties and settled at Murphy. Their seven children are all deceased, including the Doctor's
wife, who passed away many years ago. Seven children
were born to Doctor Loar and wife, namely: Martin D. died in infancy; Effie died
in infancy; Myrtle was born December 25, 1873, married John Vandermast, son of
the editor of the Monroe Mirror, and they live on a farm in Fairview Township;
Gertrude, born August 30, 1875, married Fred W. Shaw, of Monroe, formerly in the
drug business there; Harry, born in l877, conducts a grocery store at DeSoto;
Robert N., born October 13, 1881, died on April 6, 1911; Maybel married Virgil
Hummel. Doctor
Loar married, on September 2, 1903, Emma Ruth, daughter of Hugh and Elizabeth
(Funk) Ruth, the father born in Maryland about the year 1808, and the mother in
Pennsylvania, on July 25, 1824. The
father, who was a farmer, came to Iowa in May 1855, and retired many years ago,
dying in January 1896. The mother's
death occurred in March 1911. Mrs.
Loar is a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Ladies' Aid
Society of the Baptist Church, and both the Doctor and Mrs. Loar are prominent
socially in Monroe. Fraternally, the Doctor is a member of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Fairview Lodge No. 194, also of the chapter. He is a member of the Baptist Church at Monroe. Politically, he is a Democrat, and while he takes the interest of a good citizen in political and public affairs, he is not ambitious to be a leader in these matters. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 1360. |
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