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History of Adair
County, Iowa, 1915.

Biographical.  Volume 2.

  
 

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Jahu B. Sullivan.

Mr. and Mrs. Jahu B. Sullivan

Jahu B. Sullivan, one of the leading and best known citizens of Bridgewater, where he has lived retired for the past ten years, has been a resident of Adair county for more than six decades and still holds title to eleven hundred acres of valuable land in Jackson and Washington townships.  His birth occurred in Monroe county, Indiana on the 11th of November, 1836.  His parents, Henry S. and Sarah (Hunter) Sullivan, removed from Kentucky to Indiana at an early day and were among the first settlers in Monroe county, locating there when bears and panthers were still plentiful in the timber.  There they spent the remainder of their lives  and are buried on the old home farm.  The father died when our subject was a child of less than three years and his mother's death occurred when he was but eleven.  He was then placed in the home of Jehu Buckner, a neighboring farmer, with whom he remained about two and one-half years or until an older brother, John P. Sullivan, who was the guardian of the family, was married.  In the latter's home he was taken, together with his brother M. S., and there he grew to manhood.  His education was acquired in the pioneer subscription schools and in the later public schools of his district.  Only two of a family of twelve children still survive, namely:  John P., who now resides in Logan, Kansan; and Jahu B., of this review.  The former is a veteran of the Mexican war, serving throughout the entire period of hostilities.  Two other brothers also enlisted, but peace was declared ere their commands reached the front.

In the summer of 1852, when not yet sixteen years of age, Jahu B. Sullivan became a wage earner, working in a brickyard at Bloomington, Indiana, while during the following summer he was employed by the month as a farm hand.  In the fall of 1853, accompanied by two brothers, John P. and M. S., and a sister-in-law who was the widow of another brother, William H., he came by wagon to Iowa.  The parents of his sister-in-law lived in Clarke county and there the party of immigrants stopped, Jahu B. Sullivan there spending the winter and the following summer.  In the fall of 1854 he came to Adair county and soon after his arrival purchased one hundred acres of government land on section 33, Jackson township, and forty acres in Washington township, at a dollar and a quarter per acre.  He did not locate on the land, however, until the fall of 1856, working during the summer of 1855 for his brothers, T. H. and E. B.  The former came to Iowa in the fall of 1854 and was joined by Jahu B. in Clarke county, while E. B. arrived in this state in the spring of 1855.

During the summer of 1856 Jahu B. Sullivan worked for Joe Dunlap in Washington township and on the 16th of October following wedded Miss Margaret Jane Roberts, who had removed from Indiana to Clarke county, Iowa, in the spring of 1851.  Following their marriage the young couple began their domestic life in Adair county, Mr. Sullivan building a log cabin on his government tract, and here it was that he spent many of the happiest years of his life.  From time to time he acquired more land and with the obligation to pay came the ambition and effort to meet that obligation, the result being that he now holds title to eleven hundred acres of Adair county's most valuable land, located in Jackson and Washington townships.  In 1905, however, he put aside the active work of the fields and took up his abode in Bridgewater, where he has lived in honorable retirement during the past decade.  While Mr. Sullivan still holds title to his land, his sons and daughters have been placed on various farms with the understanding that they are to inherit the property.  They retain all that they raise and in fact possess all except the deed to the land.

On the 22d of September, 1913, Mr. Sullivan was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife.  His children are:  E. H., O. J., P. P., all of this county;  Ida Bell, the wife of Frank Stoner of Adair county;  and Mary Ann, the wife of George Stoner of Garnett, Kansas.

Mr. Sullivan's political views are in accord with the principles of the democratic party and for many years he held various township offices, ever discharging the duties devolving upon him in a most prompt and capable manner.  He has been a member of the Christian church for many years and has long held office therein, being now one of the elders.  He is in the seventy-ninth year of his age and his career has ever been such that he can look back over the past without regret and forward to the future without fear.

 

 

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