Lucas County IA Archives Biographies.....Relph, John 1835 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 14, 2007, 9:53 pm

Author: Cyrus C. Carpenter (1896)

JOHN RELPH, whose fine farm lies in section 13, Benton township, Lucas county,
Iowa, is one of the popular and prosperous farmers of his vicinity and is also
entitled to distinction as an old settler and a veteran of the Civil war, being
now a member of the Frank Nolan Post, No. 208, G. A. R. Mr. Relph was born in
Morgan county, Ohio, August 15, 1835. His father, John Relph, Sr., was a native
of the Old Dominion; born in Loudoun county, July 23, 1791, son of William
Relph, a Virginian by birth and a descendant of German ancestry. William Relph
married a Miss Rigle, she, too, being a native of Virginia, and as the years
passed by sons and daughters to the number of seven were born to them, namely:
William, Catherine, Rosamond, John, Mary, Joseph and Sarah. The father spent his
life and died in his native State; and the mother died in Ohio. Of their son
John, we further record that he was a butcher by trade, at which he was occupied
for a number of years. He was married in Morgan county, Ohio, to Salone Russell,
a native of Pennsylvania and of Irish and German stock; and their family, like
his father's, numbered seven sons and daughters, as follows: Eve Gookin,
deceased; Elizabeth, who died in infancy; Sarah Hellyer, who died in Lucas
county, Iowa; Thomas, deceased in Ohio; Mary, who died in this county; John, the
subject of our sketch; and Wilmina, who died in Ohio. The mother died in Ohio
when her son John was about twelve years of age. The father came to Lucas
county, Iowa, in 1854, and died here two years later, at the age of sixty-six
years. He was for many years a Democrat, but at the close of his life belonged
to what was known as the Know-Nothing party. Both he and his wife were
Calvinistic in their creed.

   From a brief review of his ancestry, we now turn to the immediate subject of
our sketch, John Relph. He grew up in his native State, received his education
there, and was nineteen years of age when he came with his father and family to
Iowa. Here he was quietly at work on the farm when the war between the North and
the South broke out, and he was among the first to drop the plow handles and
join the Union ranks. July 17, 1861, he enlisted in Company B, Sixth Iowa
Infantry, and went into camp at Burlington, Iowa. Afterward he was at Keokuk,
this State, then at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, and subsequently at
various other points in Missouri. At Shiloh he was taken sick and was sent to
Benton Barracks, where he was honorably discharged from the service.

   Since 1873 Mr. Relph has resided on his present farm, 120 acres of fine land,
nicely improved and under excellent cultivation. His pleasant cottage home is
beautifully situated and surrounded with grove and orchard. On the 25th of
February in the same year in which he settled on this farm, Mr. Relph was united
in marriage, in this township, to Miss Marie Franklin, a woman of intelligence
and good family, born in Huron county, Ohio, January 1, 1838, daughter of Reuben
and Rhoda (Noble) Franklin, the former a native of Rhode Island and the latter
of Connecticut. Her mother, who was a Baptist, died in 1838. Her father died in
1841, in Huron county, where he had been a respected farmer for many years. Mr.
and Mrs. Franklin had nine children, viz.: Rebecca, George, Edmund, De-velia,
Emily, Jerome, Catherine, Adelia and Maria. Mrs. Relph, thus early in life
deprived of both a mother and father's love and care, was reared by her elder
brothers and sisters and was educated in Ohio. She came to Cedar county, Iowa,
in 1866, and in this State met and married Mr. Relph, as already stated. They
have two children living: William R., born June 9, 1875; and Edmund, June 8,
1877. They also have two children deceased, Ruth having died in infancy, and
John, a twin of Edmund, at the age of two years.

   Mr. Relph is a Republican, has always taken an active interest in educational
matters, and (at the present time ) is a member of the School Board.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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