Boone-Benton County IA Archives Biographies.....Irving, Erastus R 1830 - 1915
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Alice Warner Brosey http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003503 December 3, 2010, 9:47 am

Source: History of Boone County, Iowa, 1914
Author: ed. Nathan Edward Goldthwait

ERASTUS R. IRVING.

Forty-seven years have come and gone since Erastus R. Irving took up his abode
in Boone county and since 1857 he has been a resident of Iowa. Through the past
seven years he has lived in the city of Boone, having retired from active
business life. For many years, however, he was extensively and successfully
engaged in general agricultural pursuits and is still the owner of valuable farm
property in Colfax and Jackson townships. His birth occurred in Washington
county, New York, November 1, 1830, his parents being Adam and Roby (English)
Irving, the latter a lineal descendant of Stephen English, a Mayflower
passenger.[[transcriber's note: there was no Stephen English on the Mayflower,
there was a Thomas English but he died the first winter leaving no children]]
The father of Mrs. Irving was Luke English, a soldier of the Revolutionary war,
who participated in a number of the hotly contested engagements which brought
independence to the colonies and was present at the surrender of General
Burgoyne. His daughter Roby was born in Connecticut and in early womanhood gave
her hand in marriage to Adam Irving, who became the founder of the Irving family
of which Erastus R. Irving is a representative. Adam Irving was born in northern
England, at Carlisle, and he had a brother who fought under the Duke of
Wellington in the battle of Waterloo, in which he was slightly wounded. Adam
Irving was a tailor by trade and came to America as an English soldier at the
time of the War of 1812. Liking the country, he decided to remain and settled in
New York state, where he was married and resided for some time. In later life he
removed to the west and spent his last days in Boone county, Iowa, where he
passed away about thirty years ago at the age of eighty-three. He had long
survived his wife, who passed away at the comparatively early age of thirty-nine
years. They were the parents of six children.

Erastus R. Irving is the only one now living, the last of the others having died
in 1913, at the age of eighty-seven. All reached a good old age. One was a twin
brother of Erastus R. Irving and died in 1901. The youngest brother, George,
came to Boone county in 1866 in company with Erastus and here followed farming
for many years. At his death he left a family of five children, four daughters
and one son.

In taking up the personal history of Erastus R. Irving we present to our readers
the life record of one who has long been widely and favorably known in Boone
county. He spent the period of his boyhood and youth in the east, pursuing his
education in the public schools of New York and in 1854 he removed westward to
Illinois, settling in Boone county, where he conducted a store. In 1857 he went
to Mankato, Minnesota, where he entered a quarter section of land and proved up
his claim. This he sold some years later and invested the proceeds in Boone
county property. He now owns three hundred and twenty acres of land lying
largely in Colfax township, with eighty acres in Jackson township. The farm is
worth at least two hundred dollars per acre. Upon it are fine improvements and
all modern accessories and conveniences of the model farm of the twentieth
century. Farming, however, has not always occupied the time and attention of Mr.
Irving. In early manhood he engaged in teaching school in Benton county, Iowa.
Following his marriage, which was celebrated in November, 1858, he and his wife
located upon a rented farm in Boone county, Illinois, where they remained for
two years. Upon coming to Iowa they settled in Benton county, and through the
succeeding winter Mr. Irving engaged in teaching school. Later he again went to
Minnesota, where he carried on farming through the summer months, but in the
autumn again went to Boone county. Illinois. There he carried on farming until
1865, when he again sought a home in Iowa. In the spring of 1866 he purchased
ninety acres of land on section 1, Worth township, Boone county, and began the
development of a farm. The land was in its primitive condition and destitute of
all improvements, but with characteristic energy he began its development. After
two years he sold that property and invested in one hundred and sixty acres on
section 7, Colfax township. This, too, was unbroken prairie when it came into
his possession, but his labors soon wrought a marked transformation in the
appearance of the place. In addition to tilling his fields he set out a large
orchard and planted a walnut grove. Later he purchased another farm and again
began its development with the same characteristic energy that has always marked
his life work. He built good barns and outbuildings upon the place and continued
to till the soil until he retired from active business life. His labors were
crowned with a substantial measure of success, for his work was intelligently
directed and he acquired, therefore, a handsome income.

It was in November, 1858, in Boone county, Illinois, that Mr. Irving wedded Miss
Nancy M. Burton, who was born in Dutchess county, New York, March 27, 1835, a
daughter, of John and Elizabeth (Stuart) Burton, who in the fall of 1838 went
west to Boone county, Illinois, where they spent their remaining days. 'Mr.
Burton passed away when more than eighty years of age, and his wife died when
about seventy-one years of age. Mrs. Irving had three sisters and four brothers,
of whom three brothers and one sister are living. Two of the brothers are now in
Iowa and one in New York, while the sister is a resident of Wisconsin. Mrs.
Irving spent her girlhood days in Illinois, remaining there until her marriage,
which occurred when she was about twenty-four years of age. To Mr. and Mrs.
Irving were born two daughters, who have passed away, the daughter Myra dying in
early childhood, while Edna E. became the wife of Dr. O. F. Beckett, of Boone,
and died in May, 1913, at the age of forty-three years. They were at that time
residents of Hiawatha, Kansas, and at her death Mrs. Beckett left a son and
daughter. George B. Irving, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Erastus Irving, resides
at home and is the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres in
Colfax township. He wedded Mary Brown, and they have one daughter.

In public affairs Mr. Irving has taken a deep and active interest. He served his
'township as justice of the peace and as town clerk, and his duties have ever
been promptly and faithfully discharged. He cast his first presidential ballot
for Franklin Pierce and in 1856 supported John C. Fremont, since which time he
has always voted for the presidential candidates of the republican party save on
one occasion when he supported Cleveland. He has frequently been a delegate to
party conventions. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal
church and have contributed,generously to its support and taken an active
interest in its work. A contemporary biographer has said of him: "Mr. Irving is
a citizen of worth, who has cooperated in many movements for the general good.
His life record is a creditable and honorable one, and the success he has
achieved has come to him as the direct result of his energy and capable
management. When he started out in life he had no influential friends to assist
him and no inheritance upon which to depend, but with strong purpose and
laudable ambition he has worked his way steadily upward to the plane of
affluence." He is now living retired at the age of eighty-three years, and the
rest which has come to him is well earned.


Additional Comments:
I am descended of Erastus' brother James. Erastus died in 1915.

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