Dallas County IA Archives Biographies.....Collins, Lorenzo Loron 1816 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 28, 2011, 11:29 pm

Source: See below
Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

LORENZO LORON COLLINS.— There are perhaps few men among those who are prominent
and respected citizens of Dallas county, who are more widely known or highly
esteemed than Mr. Collins, who is now living retired at his pleasant home in
Dallas Center, resting in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil. He was
born in Easton, Washington county, New York, October 7, 1816, and is a son of
William and Loe (Hamilton) Collins, the former a native of New York and the
latter of Massachusetts. Both died in Montgomery county, New York, the father at
the age of fifty-six, and the mother when our subject was but twelve years of
age. He is now the only survivor of the family, his only brother having been
killed at the age of twenty-one, while attending an old-fashioned barn-raising.
The paternal grandfather served his country in both the Revolutionary war and
that of 1812. The maternal grandparents were among the earliest settlers of
Illinois, and on both sides of the family our subject's people followed
agricultural pursuits as a means of livelihood.

   After his mother's death, although so young, Lorenzo L. Collins started out
in life for himself, learning the tanner's trade near Gloversville and
Johnstown, New York, at which he worked for about a year. He then went to
Ontario county of the same State, where for three years he worked on a farm by
the month. At the end of that period he went to Michigan and there bought a farm
in Calhoun county. In 1843 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Collins and Miss
L. Blanchard, a daughter of Hiram Blanchard. To them were born three children,
as follows: Gilbert W., who is married and has ten children; Edgar L., who is
married and has six children; and James B., who is married and has had eight
children, six of whom are living. For his second wife, Mr. Collins wedded Sophia
L. Rideout, the marriage ceremony being performed in the spring of 1859. The
lady is a native of Vermont, and is a daughter of Amos and Susan (Fuller)
Rideout, both born in New Hampshire, whose deaths occurred in the Green Mountain
State, at the age of sixty-four and sixty-five years respectively. By her
marriage Mrs. Collins has become the mother of four children, namely: Fred E.,
who is married and has had four children, three living; Celia F., at home;
Jessie J., who married Anson Barrett and has three children; and Silas C., who
is married and has two children living, and two deceased.

   In 1850 Mr. Collins left Michigan, and until 1855 was railroad and express
agent at Porter, in Indiana, but that year witnessed his arrival in Dallas
county, Iowa, where he took up 240 acres of Government land for himself and a
quarter of a section for another party, but afterward bought the latter. His
first house in this State was a little log cabin 16x22 feet, in which the family
continued to live until 1860, when a new house was erected. Mr. Collins has
never gone in debt and has never had a mortgage on any of his property, and by
his own frugality and honest toil has become the possessor of many hundred acres
of fine land, which he and his sons now own. For several years he has now laid
aside all business cares, removing to Dallas Center, where he and his estimable
wife expect to spend the evening of their lives.

   Until 1873 Mr. Collins cast his ballot with the Republican party, but now
gives his stanch support to the People's party, which embodies his views on
political questions. He has filled many offices in the township and county, to
the credit of himself and satisfaction of his constituents, and has the
confidence of all with whom he has business or social dealings. In 1892 he was
foreman of the jury at Des Moines, which tried one of the most celebrated cases
in the history of Iowa jurisprudence,— that of the United States Government
versus J. C. Newton. The family to which Mr. Collins belongs has ever been
popular in the communities where its members have made their homes, and the town
of Hamilton, Hancock county, Illinois, was named in honor of an uncle, Artois
Hamilton.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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