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Jasper County, Iowa
Historical and Genealogical Data Exchange
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Milton
A. McCord Milton
A. McCord has long been recognized as one of Jasper County's foremost citizens,
having long had the interests of the County at heart and which he has ever
striven to promote in whatever laudable manner that presented itself.
His life has been led along high planes of endeavor and has been true to
every trust that has been reposed in him. Thus for many reasons, not the least
of which is the fact that he is an honored veteran of the greatest of the
world's wars, in which he valiantly upheld the Stars and Stripes, he is
eminently entitled to specific mention in a history of this character. Mr.
McCord is the son of David and Eleanor (Temple) McCord, the father born in
Virginia and the mother in Tennessee. Milton
A. was the eighth in a family of eleven children, and he was born in Paris,
Illinois, February 5, 1845. He
lived in his native state until he was ten years of age, the family emigrating
from Illinois in 1855 to Jasper County, Iowa, making the trip overland, locating
in Newton Township where, as pioneers, they settled on an unimproved farm which
they developed and on which a good home was established, the elder McCord
becoming one of the County's well-to-do men, owning at one time over two hundred
and forty acres of land. Here Mrs. McCord died in 1873, at the age of sixty-five
years, the father's death occurring in 1884 at the age of seventy-eight years.
The family has been identified with the business interests of Jasper
County from its infancy and has borne an unsullied reputation. Milton
A. McCord grew to maturity on the home farm, and when but a boy he assisted in
the general work about the place, attending the common schools in the winter
time. He remained on the parental
homestead until August 1, 1862, when, heeding his country's call, although yet a
mere boy, he enlisted in Company K, Twenty-eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, in
which he served very faithfully for three years and nineteen days, during which
time he participated in the battles of Champion's Hill, siege of Vicksburg, Port
Gibson, Fisher's Hill, Black River, Cedar Creek and many others.
His brothers, William B., Thomas T., James H. and David N., were
also in the service. After
receiving an honorable discharge, Mr. McCord returned home and began freighting
across the plains with ox teams, making two trips to Denver, later engaging in
farming and stock raising, being thus successfully engaged up to 1890. He has
always been more or less interested in public affairs and always stood ready to
support such measures as made for the progress of his County, and his loyalty
has been rewarded by his friends electing him to several positions of trust and
responsibility, having been elected sheriff of Jasper County in 1891, in which
capacity he served for two terms in a manner that reflected much credit upon
himself and to the entire satisfaction of his constituents.
On March 1, 1898, he was appointed postmaster at Newton, which position
he held to October 1, 1910, and in which he further demonstrated his eminent
fitness as a public servant, pleasing both the department and the people of the
town and vicinity. Mr. McCord was a
delegate to the Republican national convention in 1908. On November 26, 1868, Mr. McCord married Gertie M. Reed, who was born in Indiana, and this union resulted in the birth of three children, Percy R., Hettie and Stella M. The Past and Present of Jasper County, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-In-Chief, 1912 B.F. Bowen Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. 471. |
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