IowaJones/Biographies/E. H. Stacy

E. H. Stacy–D. Stanton

E. H. Stacy
Born 1840

E. H. STACY, Farmer, See. 5; P.O. Langworthy; was born in the town of De Kalb, St. Lawrence Co., N.Y., in 1840; came to Jones Co. in February, 1868. His wife's maiden name was Annie S. Benton, also a native of New York, same county, town of Canton; they were married in 1864; have had four children, two of whom are living—Johnnie and Hattie; those dead were named Frankie and Clinton. Mrs. Stacy is a Methodist; Mr. Stacy, in politics, is a Republican. Owns 200 acres of land, all improved. Deals largely in stock; has a number of cows, and supplies milk to the creamery at Langworthy; milks twenty-three cows.

From History of Jones County, Iowa, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879, page 635.

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John Sealey Stacy
Born May 13, 1833

JOHN S. STACY, attorney and couuselor at law, Anamosa. Judge Stacy was born on the 13th of May, 1833, at De Kalb, St. Lawrence Co., N.Y.; his parents were Pelatiah and Jerusha Tanner Stacy. The paternal ancestors were from Massachusetts, thence to Oswego, N.Y., and his grandfather was one of the first settlers in De Kalb. His father served a short time in the war of 1812, at Ogdensburg. His maternal ancestors were settlers in the vicinity of Cooperstown, N.Y., and the remains of many of them rest in the cemetery in that town. In boyhood, John S. Stacy had a great taste for reading, but was accustomed to the hard work of a farm, with only a few months at school each year until he was 16, when he attended an academy at Gouvernenr, N.Y., there preparing for college; he attended one term at Oberlin, Ohio; then entered the Sophomore Class of Union College, and graduated in 1857; it was during President Nott's administration that Mr. Stacy was at Union College. He taught school several terms, studying law at the same time and during vacations. Immigrating westward, he spent a short time in teaching at Dover, Bureau Co., Ill., and, in the spring of 1858, located at Anamosa, Iowa; he entered the law office of Hon. E. Cutler, and was admitted to the bar in the autumn of the same year; he accepted an invitation to becomc a partncr of Mr. Cutler, and the law firm of Cutler & Stacy commenced business on thc 1st of Jannary, 1859, which terminated in the autumn of 1862, by Mr. Cutler entering the military service. In 1864, Mr. Stacy engaged in banking, in connection with the practice of law, continuing until the autumn of 1873, when the panic compelled him to surrender. He was actively engaged in the building of the Iowa Midland Railroad, as attorney and Director. He was also President of the Iowa & Minnesota Railway Company, which had so far succeeded as to secure the preliminary negotiations, in London, for a loan that would doubtless have resulted in the success of the enterprise, but for the panic just alluded to, which put a stop to a great many important enterprises. In 1874, Mr. Stacy went to California, and spent two months there; he returned to that State again in 1875, and remained nearly two years, practicing law with success in San Francisco. Mr. Stacy was elected Judge of Jones Co., in 1861, and served one term. Judge Stacy has always been an ardent and active Republican. He was a Delegate to the National Convention which renominated Mr. Lincoln in 1864, and was one of his most hearty supporters. In 1858, while in Dover, Ill., Judge Stacy united with the Congregational Church, and, on settling in Iowa, transferred his membership to the Anamosa Church; he is an active Christian worker, and foremost in all philanthropic measures. On the 16th of November, 1862, he married Miss Charlotte A. Kellogg, a daughter of Rev. E. W. Kellogg, who, for forty years, was a Congregational minister in Vermont; she is a lineal descendant of William Bradford, second Governor of the Plymouth Colony; is a woman of fine mental culture and exalted Christian character, a worthy representative of the best Puritan stock; she has three children, who feel daily the molding hand of a Christian mother.

From History of Jones County, Iowa, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879, page 580.

John Sealey Stacy has for a half century been a prominent and successful representative of the legal fraternity in Jones county, though he has now practically retired from active connection therewith because of his advanced age. He was born at De Kalb, New York, on the 13th of May, 1833, a son of Pelatiah and Jerusha (Tanner) Stacy. The father, a farmer by occupation, was a man of great energy, benevolent, public-spirited and successful. Both the paternal and maternal ancestors of our subject fought in the Revolutionary war. One of them was taken prisoner on Long Island and for an entire winter was compelled to earn his own subsistence.

John S. Stacy supplemented his preliminary education by a course in the Gouverneur Wesleyan Seminary of Gouverneur, New York, and also as a student in Union College at Schenectady, that state. He attended the latter institution during the presidency of the celebrated Dr. Nott and was graduated therefrom in 1857. Early in life he manifested a fondness for reading and during his college days he followed the profession of teaching. After completing his collegiate education he took Horace Greeley's advice and went west, locating in Iowa, where he has since made his home. Having determined upon the practice of law as a life work, he immediately began studying with that end in view and was admitted to the bar in 1859. From that time until recent years, when the infirmities of age have necessitated his retirement, he practiced his profession with signal success, winning an excellent reputation as a lawyer of force and ability. He was likewise connected with banking interests for a period of ten years and he and his partner established the first bank in Jones county.

At Buda, Illinois, Mr. Stacy was united in marriage to Miss Charlotte A. Kellogg, a daughter of Rev. E. W. Kellogg, who for forty years preached in the Congregational churches of Vermont and Illinois. She is eight generations removed from Governor William Bradford and John Alden, of the Plymouth colony, and her grandfather and great-grandfather served in the Revolutionary war at the same time. Mr. and Mrs. Stacy are the parents of four children, as follows: Marian Luella, now the wife of Dr. W. B. Skinner, of Anamosa; Edson Eugene, who wedded Miss Martha Fisher, of Grinnell, Iowa; Bertha Sybil, who gave her hand in marriage to Dr. A. G. Hejinian of Anamosa; and William Kellogg.

In politics Mr. Stacy has ever been a stanch advocate of the republican party, doing all in his power to forward its interest. He served as county judge for one term, held the office of mayor at Anamosa, acted as a member of the council and was also on the school board for many years. During the Civil war he was president of the Union League of both town and county, which served a patriotic purpose during the period of hostilities between the north and the south. It kept in check a rebellious element equal to the disorderly element in Indiana. He was offered the nomination for circuit judge of the eighth district but declined, and subsequently was nominated for judge of the district court, but was defeated on account of the rupture in the republican party over the prohibition question. In 1888 be was nominated for state senator and was defeated for the same reason, but carried his own county. He has been a member of the Congregational church for fifty-two years, serving much of the time as Sunday school superintendent, trustee and deacon. While there is not about Judge Stacy the least shadow of mock modesty, he disclaims any great credit for what he has done and yet his fellow citizens recognize the fact that he has left the impress of his individuality for good upon the county of his residence in its political and legal interests, in its social life-for he is a man of many friends-and in molding public thought and action as well.

One who knows Judge Stacy well has said: "John S. Stacy has been a man of more than ordinary ability. He has been preeminently a man of integrity and of unimpeachable character. Those who have been most intimate with his personal history can best testify as to the sacrifices he Has made, the trying ordeals he has experienced. and the mastery he has accomplished in the maintenance of manhood, humanity and personal character. Fate has raised her arm mightily against his efforts to accomplish several gigantic tasks he has undertaken. In the promotion of several railroad lines, he has found himself on the hill-top ready to claim the promised land when the financial panic of 1873 and other panics have crushed to earth his months of heroic effort. In these calamities, he may have had the power to save himself at the expense of others, but this his manhood would not allow him to do. He has been a clear and logical thinker, had a well trained mind well stored with useful information, was of a judicial temperament, and well qualified for a business career. He has been abundantly fitted to occupy a high station in life."

From History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 57.

John Stafford
Born 1827

JOHN STAFFORD, farmer, Castle Grove Twp., Sec. 6; P.O. Castle Grove, was born in Ireland in 1827; he came to the United States in 1849; he lived in Ohio five years; he entered his present farm in 1854, where he settled in 1861. He was married to Ellen Atkins. who was born in Liverpool, Eng. His farm contains 260 acres of land.

From History of Jones County, Iowa, Western Historical Company, Chicago, 1879, page 700.

David Stanton
Born 1857

David Stanton, a prosperous member of the agricultural community of Washington township, was born upon the place where he now lives in the year 1857. His father, William Stanton, was born in Ireland in 1815 and came to Washington township, Jones county, Iowa, in 1838, settling upon part of what is now known as the Stanton homestead. It was raw land when he first obtained it, but through the diligent cultivation to which he subjected it the farm soon became one of the most fertile in the locality, returning such large rewards for his expenditure of time and labor that in the course of years he was able to increase its area to two hundred and forty acres. Although he enjoyed a gratifying income himself he was not permitted to see his sons win a success of equal proportion, for he died in 1864, leaving a widow and nine children. Only five of these are now alive, but Mrs. Stanton was allowed to witness the advancement of her sons, and had the cheerful knowledge that they were well established in life. She had been Miss Mary Gunand in her maidenhood, was born in Paris, France, in 1888, and died in 1894, about half a century after she had linked her fortune with those of her husband.

Associated as his home has been with the dearest memories of childhood and youth and with the first endeavors of young manhood, David Stanton could not find it possible to part with the homestead. And yet there are other reasons beside these of sentiment to make him satisfied with his father's investment. The religious, educational, moral and social advantages of Washington township are unexcelled in rural life. As the eldest of the sons at home considerable of the responsibility for its operation devolved upon his shoulders even during the period when he was a pupil in the district school, for he was only seven years of age when his father died. He now owns one hundred and twenty acres devoted to general farming, and at one time he was also dealing in horses, but recently he has given up that part of his business. He has, however, achieved a pronounced and gratifying success in his work, so that he well deserves the name of being one of the more prosperous men of a community in which the energetic and industrious have won rich rewards for their labor.

It was in 1892 that Mr. Stanton was joined in wedlock to Miss Mary Curran, a daughter of Timothy Curran. They are the parents of seven, children, namely: Annetta, born in 1892; Viola, in 1895; Harriet, in 1897; Johanna, in 1899; William, in 1901; Ellena, in 1903; and David, in 1908. For almost fifty years, the citizens of Washington township have witnessed the steady advancement of Mr. Stanton along the treacherous road of life. While they have seen his many Endeavors meet with unequivocal success, they have also noted that it was by his own efforts that he has prospered, and that in his work, or his achievements there has been nothing that need be withheld from their gaze. In consequence they are unanimous in according him praise as a farmer and fellow citizen.

From History of Jones County, Iowa, Past and Present, R. M. Corbitt, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910, p. 521.