Isaiah Dawson
Mr. and Mrs. Isaiah Dawson
The Dawson name ahs been prominently identified with the townships of Pleasant and Jefferson since pioneer days, and Isaiah Dawson has spent all his life since his marriage in Jefferson Township, and is a progressive farmer on Section Thirty-six, where he cultivates a fine homestead surrounded with all the comforts and facilities of modern farm life.
The Dawson's came from North Carolina, were first settled in Wayne County, Indiana. The grandfather of Isaiah was William Dawson, who was born either in North Carolina or Virginia, and was one of the early settlers of Wayne County, Indiana. He had married back east Miss Tabitha Simons. His death occurred in Wayne County when about middle life. He was a farmer, and a a member of the Christian Church, but very little is know of him or his ancestors. His wife survived him a good many years, came to Grant County, and died at the home of her son Nathan Dawson in Pleasant Township in 1873, when eighty-four years of age. She was an old-time Methodist, and much loved and respected for her fine qualities of heart and mind. The following are the children in her home circle: Thomas, William, Garrison, Henry, Nathan, John, Sarah Jane and Margaret, all of whom married and all lived to be good old people and had families. William Garrison and Thomas each served three years in Indiana regiments during the war, and came home without serious injury.
Nathan Dawson, father of Isaiah, was born in Wayne County, Indiana, and died at his home in Old Town or New Cumberland, near the little city of Matthews July 17, 1896. He was a farmer, and fairly successful, a man of good influence and high in the esteem of his neighborhood. A short time after his marriage he located in Grant county, entering eighty acres of land from the government in Pleasant Township near Jalapa, and the first home was a log cabin, with a puncheon floor, and much of the furniture was made with his own hands. He remained there until 1872, when he went west to Iowa, spending two and a half years there and a similar time in Kansas, then returning to Grant County and buying one hundred acres not far from the original home which he had secured from the Government. In that homestead he died in the fall of 1882, at the age of about 72 years. His wife was Actious Owings, and she was born in Muskingum County, Ohio, and was brought when a child to Delaware County, Indiana, where she grew up. Her father, Richard Owings, die din Delaware County. Of his children, Richard Lemon Owings was a pioneer in the great west and was associated with the historic character Kit Carson for about fifteen years in all the wild ventures and undertakings of that historic figure. Nathan Dawson after the death of his wife retired to New Cumberland and lived with his son Dr. C. G. Dawson, a practicing physician there, until his death, which occurred very suddenly when he was seventy-two years of age. He was a strong Republican, and though a man of little education had an excellent influence and stood high in his community. For two years, during the war, he served as a Union soldier in two different Indiana regiments. His church membership was with the Christina denomination. Isaiah was the first son, and the third child in a family of seven children, others being mentioned as follows: Elizabeth, who died in Ohio, after her marriage, and her three children are all married; Emaline died in Grant county after her marriage, leaving three children, all of whom are now established in homes of their own; Isaiah, who was next in order of birth; Dr. C. F. Dawson, who is a graduate of the Eclectic School of Medicine, and for many years has been a practicing physician at Matthews, and is now living with his second wife, having had three children by his first marriage; Henry now lives on a farm near Marion, is a widower, and has two sons and one daughter; Mollie is the wife of Joel Veach, lives on a farm in Pulaski County, and has three living children.
Isaiah Dawson was born on his father's old homestead in Pleasant Township, of Grant County, October 13, 1853. Since his marriage he has been identified with Jefferson Township, where his hard working industry and good citizenship have placed him in the ranks of the most progressive people in that vicinity. He is the owner of a farm of one hundred and twenty acres and all but fifteen acres of timberland is under the plow. A big red barn is a conspicuous feature of the place, and in 1900 Mr. Dawson built the large dwelling which shelters himself and family.
In Jefferson Township, thirty-seven years ago, Mr. Dawson married Miss Rebecca Needler, who was born on the farm where she and her husband now live, in 1849. She is the daughter of James Needler and the Needler family are long residents of Grant County, and are mentioned on other pages of this publication. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson have lost two children in early childhood, and those living are: Pearl A., who was born, reared and educated in Jefferson Township, and now is active manager of his father's farm. He married Ella Huntzinger and they have a daughter, Mary Rebecca. Henry Ovid now lives at home with his parents, and is unmarried. Mr. and Mrs. Dawson are active embers of the Methodist Episcopal church and his politics is Republican.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.