Ruben Barton

Ruben Barton http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5660/bartor91.htm. Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. THE 1891 BIOGRAPHY OF Reuben BARTON. Reuben BARTON, of Weston, Pottawattamie County, is a native of Plainfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, the son of Nathan and Sarah (BURROUGHS) BARTON, and was born January 9, 1812. His parents were natives of the same State, where they were married, and reared a family of thirteen children. In 1823 they removed to Phelps, Ontario County, New York. The same year the father died, and the mother with the unmarried portion of the family, nine in number, returned to Massachusetts, where they remained until 1832, when the subject of this narrative, at the age of twenty years, decided to again go West, and this time to Ohio, where the family, consisting of the mother and four children, arrived November 21, 1832, and settled in the town of Huntsburg, Geauga County. There, in the spring of 1833, Reuben purchased fifty acres of wild land, heavy timber, at $2.50 per acre, paying $30 down. Our subject went to work with a will to prepare a home for himself and mother and a young sister, which he did by hard and incessant toil, chopping and piling the immense growth of timber in heaps, and burning it up! (What a treasure would our Iowa farmers esteem a few acres of such timber!) Here he remained, improving and cultivating the soil for about three years, when his mother accepted an offer of marriage from Mr. Jacob WARRENER, with whom she lived until her death, which occurred in 1853.. After the marriage of his mother Mr. BARTON made his home with a brother-in-law, N. M. FAUN, for about two years, when, in September, 1837, in company with the brother-in-law, he removed to Coles County, Illinois, then mostly in a state of nature. Here he entered 120 acres of Government land, consisting mostly of prairie, with a good supply of timber, and again erected a log cabin and commenced his favorite occupation of farming, while yet in single blessedness, until February 11, 1838, when he was joined in wedlock to Marcia E. WILSON, who was born in St. Alban's, Vermont, December 25, 1811, and by whom he had three children, two boys and one daughter: Nathan Henry, the eldest, born April 13, 1840, now resides at San Bernardino, California; Reuben Almon, born November 10, 1842, and resides at Meadville, Keya Paha County, Nebraska, (both have families and both served through the war of the Rebellion), and Marcia E., born in Hancock County, Illinois, July 26, 1845, to which county he had removed in the spring of 1844, and where his wife died September 8, 1846, and the infant died September 25, 1846.. He had purchased a forty-acre farm, and had begun to accumulate around him the comforts of life, when the destroying angel entered and desolation reigned supreme. This was indeed a day of adversity, and, to add to his afflictions, the horrors of a "Mormon War" seemed impending, mobs of infuriated men traversing the country threatening devastation and ruin! and to avoid the impending conflict he again removed to the adjoining county of Henderson, to remain until peace and order were restored, which was soon accomplished.. He then returned to his home in Hancock County, where he remained until he removed to Pottawattamie County, Iowa, in June, 1852. In the meantime he took a second wife, by the name of Almera W. JOHNSON, by whom he had three daughters. Her family were quite numerous and conspicuous in the Mormon church. In the spring of 1853 he bought a claim on section 30, township 76, range 43, and subsequently entered the southwest one-fourth thereof, and afterward added eighty acres of the same section. The only improvement on the land was a small log cabin, in which he made his home until 1857, when by dint of hard work and strict economy he succeeded in erecting a comfortable frame house and other necessary out-buildings; large and spacious barns were added from time to time.. About this time and three years subsequently a warning proclamation for the scattered remnants of saints to flee to the mountains, to the only place of safety on this continent from the devastations of impending war, was issued by Brigham Young, and there was a general departure of the faithful from this part of the country, and especially of the JOHNSON family; and to go and leave one behind was not to be thought of. Hence an influence was brought to bear upon Mrs. BARTON, which culminated in her going with the rest in the summer of 1861. Thus in the forty-ninth year of his age, and twenty-third of his married life, he was the second time bereft of wife; and this time, what was dearer than wife; three girls died, the eldest eleven years, and the youngest five years and six months; the youngest died December 20, 1861, and the eldest died March 23, 1870.. The Mother and only one daughter (feeble-minded) still live at Parowan, Utah.. At this time (1861) the war of the Rebellion had become notorious, and Mr. BARTON's eldest son, being of age, enlisted in Company B, Fourth Iowa Infantry. His other son, not yet twenty, received his permission, and enlisted in Company A, Twenty-ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry; thus leaving Mr. BARTON alone on the farm, a sort of recluse, to "hold the fort," and "ponder upon the vicisitudes of human life." At the close of the war the sons returned without the mark of a Rebel bullet, but impaired in health.. In the fall of 1867 our subject made a visit to Ohio, and October 20, 1867, was married the third time, this time to Maria J. CAROTHERS, the youngest of a large family, her birthplace being Phelps, Ontario County, New York, and born October 19, 1818. Her parents, John and Betsey (SICKLER) CAROTHERS, were born in 1774 and 1778 respectively. The father's death occurred February 17, 1842, and the mother's September 8, 1853, in Burton Ohio.. Mr. BURTON is a firm believer in the Spiritual philosophy, and his wife of the Christian Church. He is a life-long Republican, and was at one time the only one who cast a Republican vote in his precinct. Although his party was generally in the minority, he was often elected Justice of the Peace, and served as such for many years, and until he positively refused to accept any longer. Schools received his early attention, and he was mainly instrumental in getting the first school district organized in his precinct, and drew the first public funds, and as member of the board did all he could to promote the best interests of the community by establishing schools. He was commissioned a Notary Public in 1886, and is serving his second term, which expires in 1892.. In June, 1884, having arrived at an age when he could not attend properly to the care and labors of a farm, and on account of the feeble state of his wife's health, he was induced to sell the farm, which was well supplied with choice fruits, containing over 300 bearing trees. This arrangement was carried out, and he removed to Weston, his present residence, where he owns one acre of land and a comfortable dwelling, with the purpose of spending the remnant of his days in retirement. Having commenced life with nothing but good health and a determination to achieve a competence for himself and family, he feels that his efforts have not been in vain. He has been a pioneer in three different States, Iowa being the last, where he has lived thirty-eight years and witnessed magnificent improvements.. But this brief narrative of a long and eventful life would be incomplete and unsatisfactory without the following biographical sketch, written by himself; although it necessitates a little repetition, the cause of which occurred subsequent to the writing of the foregoing, and published in the Council Bluffs Nonpareil, September 24, 1890;. Mrs. Maria Jane BARTON, consort of Reuben BARTON, departed this life, September 10, 1890. She was born in Phelps Town, Ontario County, New York, October 19, 1818 and was the youngest of the numerous family of John and Betsy CAROTHERS. Her father removed to Burton, Geauga County, Ohio, in 1832, where he died February 17-18, 1842. She being the only unmarried one of the family, the care of her father during a lingering sickness fell upon her. After his death the care of an invalid mother, who had become blind and helpless, devolved upon her until her death, September 18, 1853, leaving our subject at the age of thirty-five, with feeble health and quite limited means. By overwork in lifting her mother through a series of years, she had contracted a disease of the spine, from which she was a great sufferer. She was under medical treatment by eminent physicians for eleven years, when she was so much improved as to enter the marriage relation with Reuben BARTON in the fall of 1867, and came with him to this county, where she resided until her death. She was a great sufferer from sickness. The change of climate improved her, but did not restore her to sound health. In 1884 the removal to Weston for a time seemed to be beneficial; but in September, 1887, she had a stroke of paralysis of the left side, from which she never recovered, although able to be about the house until the last fatal attack, which occurred August 9, 1890; she was then forced to bed, from which she never arose again. She survived, in great agony, a month, ceasing to breathe September 10, when she passed peacefully away, and there passed from earth life one of nature's noble women. Her sympathetic impulses knew no bounds; where duty seemed to call she was always ready, and to a sense of duty she sacrificed her health and life. They laid her tenderly to rest September 11, 1890.. Contributed by: Mona Sarratt Knight. misraelsen1 misraelsen1 originally shared this to Barton/Riding Ancestors 20 Sep 2008 ☒story