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Jasper County, Iowa
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Cyrus
Nolin The career of
the well-known and highly respected gentleman whose name forms the introduction
to this sketch illustrates forcibly the possibilities that are open to men of
earnest purpose, integrity and sterling business qualifications.
A well-spent life and an honorable career constitute the record of Cyrus
Nolin, who was born in Fairview Township, Jasper County, Iowa, on January 7,
1858, and here he has been content to spend his life, being still a resident of
this locality. He is the son of George W. and Susanna (Harcourt) Nolin, the
father born on the banks of White river. Indiana, May 16, 1829, and the mother
was a native of Green County, Wisconsin, having been born near Monroe in 1837.
Grandfather Nolin lost his parents when quite young. His father was
married before and his mother married after the death of George W.’s father.
The latter was the only child of that union, and he was brought up
by his uncle, John Crist, but he left his uncle's home at the age of sixteen
years and started in life for himself. He
had thus spent thirteen years with his uncle, since he was three years old when
taken to his home in Wisconsin. At
the age of twenty-one George W. Nolin came with a party of friends and relatives
to Jasper County, Iowa, in 1850, and located at Monroe. He first worked in the
blacksmith shop of Jacob Kipp and Louis Hummel, and he became an expert
blacksmith and gunsmith. He soon
bought eighty acres five miles east of Monroe and paid twenty-five per cent
interest on the money he borrowed to enter the land from the government.
In those days game was plentiful here, the country being wild and
unsettled, and George W. Nolin became a famous hunter.
He is said to have killed more deer than any man in this locality, being
an expert shot. He located a shop on his farm and divided his attention between
the two. At the time of his death,
July 28, 1886, he owned one hundred and seventy acres.
He was a natural mechanical genius and his services as a blacksmith and
gunsmith were in great demand. He was a strong advocate of anti-slavery, and the
fugitive slave law was the only law of his country he refused to obey, he and
his neighbors materially assisting slaves.
After the Civil was he was a J. B. Weaver man and followed him in
politics. Cyrus Nolin was
the oldest child by the first marriage of George W. Nolin, his first wife dying
at the age of nineteen years. He
subsequently married Mary Jane Thorne and to the second union ten children were
born. The maternal
grandparents of the subject, Daniel and Jane (McCall) Harcourt, came to Jasper
County in 1850. This family was of
English descent, as the name implies, and Daniel Harcourt was a cousin of Gen.
Robert E. Lee. Cyrus Nolin attended the Oak Grove district
school. Being the oldest son, he
managed the farm and much responsibility and hard work fell to his lot when a
boy, but he was thrifty and learned to be a mechanic from his father, and he has
done some very skillful work. When
a young man he took up land in Kansas, but he later returned to Iowa, not liking
the Sunflower State so well as his own. He
then worked at the carpenter's trade for three years at Newton.
Then leasing a coalmine four miles south of Monroe, he operated that for
three years. His next venture was
to buy one hundred and sixty acres, five miles east of Monroe. He rented his land in 1900 and opened a blacksmith shop in
Reasnor, this County. Mr. Nolin became an active silver Democrat
in the campaign of 1900. He got up the largest political gathering ever seen in
Reasnor. He was a leader in local Democratic affairs and was Township
committeeman for some time. After
managing his shop three years he returned to the farm.
He has been very successful in a business way, being a man of progressive
ideas, a hard worker and a good manager, and he is now the owner of five hundred
and seventy-one acres of valuable land in Jasper County, which he keeps under
modern improvements. In the spring of 1910 he moved to Monroe, where he has since
lived retired in his beautiful home, having come here for the benefit of the
schooling for his children. Mr. Nolin was married on June 7, 1882, to Robena Marshall, who was born near Glasgow, Scotland, July 10, 1862, the daughter of Robert Marshall, who came to Jasper County in 1865. To this union have been born the following children: Robert G., who married Elsa Butin, died on the 24th of November, 1909, at the age of twenty-four years; William H., who is a farmer in this County, married Grace L. Jarnagin; Elvin M. married Cattalina Fennema; Mary is at home with her parents. The Past and Present
of Jasper County, Iowa, Gen. James B. Weaver, Editor-in-Chief, 1912, B. F.
Bowden & Co., Indianapolis, IN, p. |
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