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the Barber & Lacey families of Kirkman, Iowa...
Jonathan Wyland and descendants

Mini-bio by Denny Williams and Sue Hallock

The Wyland descendants

Father, brothers, and nephews of Mary Wyland Harris

 

Thomas Jefferson Wyland was born 1 February, 1849, the son of Jonathan and Elizabeth Van Arsdale Wyland and  “little brother” of our Great-great-great grandmother, Mary Wyland Harris.  We decided to include his biography in our collection for this reason, and also because he was a pioneering resident in Shelby County, Iowa and his bio provides a snapshot of life there.

 

However, as often seems to have been the case, when Thomas J. Wyland listed himself in the “1915 Past and Present of Shelby County,”1  he also embeddded his father’s biography and additional information about his family.  Jonathan Wyland was our Great-great-great-great grandfather, making the publication doubly interesting.  Moreover, embedded within Jonathan’s bio are mention of three more Wyland sons who settled in Shelby County, Iowa – Washington, born 1826; William, born 1830; and Isaac, born 1832.  There is also documentation on all of Jonathan’s other children as well as their spouses.  This information dovetails nicely with family records, created about 1910, by our ancestor.3  

 

Except as noted, the following quotes are from “Past and Present.”   We have rearranged the paragraphs more logically to list Jonathan Wyland and his family first, and then information about Thomas J.

 

The Wyland family is well documented in Internet genealogical records.  The interested researcher will find extensive entries on www.rootsweb.com for the United States and also for Europe, and at www.weinland.nom.fr (“Weinland” apparently being the original spelling of the family name).  A Google search on “Jonathan Wyland” is a good place to start, and among many other entries, it yielded the 1891 autobiographies of Doctors Jonathan M. Wyland and Asa O. Wyland of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, grandsons of Jonathan.  Their father was Jonathan’s son Isaac P. Wyland, and as in other cases, J.M. embedded his father Isaac’s bio within his own.  It has been quoted herein.

 

 

 

Jonathan Wyland... 1797 - 1864

 

“Jonathan WYLAND was a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred there January 1, 1797, and when a young man came to Indiana and located five miles from Goshen, where he built and operated the first saw mill in that part of the state. He came to Indiana about 1825, and for many years he was one of the most prominent men of the northern part of Indiana. In addition to his saw mill, he built and personally supervised a woolen and flour mill and built up a large business. “

 

The Elkhart County (Indiana) Parks Website5 includes the following paragraph:

 

“In 1830, Jonathan Wyland and five of his brothers came to Elkhart County from Ohio. The brothers entered 640 acres of land and built a mill race and a saw mill. The area soon became known as Wyland Mills as they expanded their milling operations to include a four story grist mill in 1835 and a woolens mill in 1840. After the death of his wife, Johnathan Wyland sold his holdings to Fredrick Bainter in 1860. The area was re-christened Baintertown but was never plotted or recorded. In 1898 William Redden purchased the original Wyland Mill, homestead and land. The mill continued to operate until 1923 when it could no longer compete against national brands. “

 

 

“In 1855, Jonathan WYLAND and his son, William, came to Shelby County on a prospecting trip and entered a tract of government land.

 

”William and his brother, Isaac, came (back) to Shelby County in the spring of 1856 and

settled north and south, respectively, of Bowman's Grove. William settled on what he called Windy Knoll. In 1857, Washington WYLAND, Jonathan's son by his first marriage, came to Shelby County to make his home. In that same year, Jonathan and his sons erected a saw mill in the county, hauling the outfit from Iowa City, the nearest railway station.

 

Note:  Elizabeth Van Arsdale Wyland died 8 June 1858, apparently in Indiana.  At that point, the 3 youngest children, aged 14, 12, and 5 would still have been at home.  It’s not known who cared for them after Elizabeth’s death, but it’s possible it was their older sister, Barbara, she having been married in 1856 at the age of 16.  The next year, 1859, her first child died in infancy, after which she bore 3 more children.3

 

“In 1861, Jonathan WYLAND sold out in Indiana, came to Iowa and spent the following winter with his children in Shelby County. He then went to Kansas, entered government land, and some of his children moved there in 1863.

 

“Jonathan WYLAND was one of the first farmers to bring Shorthorn cattle to Shelby County, securing some registered cattle of this breed from a Kentucky herd in 1861. He brought the first Chester White hogs into this county. In 1864, Jonathan WYLAND returned to Indiana and died while in that state, May 29, 1864.

 

”Jonathan WYLAND was twice married, his first marriage occurring on December 8, 1823, to Catherine PLUMB, and to this union one son, Washington, was born December 22, 1826. He second wife was Elizabeth VANARSDALE, born April 20, 1809, to whom he was married December 20, 1827, and to the second union twelve children were born: Catherine, Rachel, William, Isaac C., Mary, Christian J., Lovina, Barbara, Jasper N., David M., Thomas Jefferson, and Elizabeth. (1) Catherine first married William J. LATTA and after his death, in 1847, she was married to James E. WINEGAR on November 10, 1850. To her first marriage, one son, Wesley J., was born, while to her second marriage, four children were born, Ira J., Ella, Mary J., and Catherine. (2) Rachel, died in infancy. (3) William, born September 14, 1830, married Helen M. THOMPSON, and died December 31, 1911. (4) Isaac P., born August 26, 1832, married Julia A. MITTENBARGER, on March 9, 1855 (18513), and was the father of seven children, William W., Jeannetta E., Omer P., Jonathan, Seth L., Mary H., and Osa O. (5) May (Mary3), born April 4, 1834, married John C. HARRIS, February 20, 1850, and was the mother of eight children, Alice E., James H., David J., Emma C., Ira J., Calvin J., Clara E. and Helen S. (6) Christian J., born June 22, 1836, married Amanda H. DUNNINGTON, April 11, 1864, and had six children, Arthur P., Stella, Jay, Jessie, Grace, and Roy. (7) Lovina, born February 20, 1838, married E. JARVIS, August 14, 1859, and she had eight children, James L., Jonathan M., Anna, Laura, Francis, Arthur P., Helen M., and William T. (8) Barbara, born March 31, 1840, married Christian GOODYEAR, July 20, 1856, and she had four children, Andrew, Catherine, Mary, and Lillian E. (9) Jasper N., born March 12, 1844, enlisted in Company M, 9th Iowa Cavalry, October 1863, and died July 9, 1864, at Balls (Duvalls2) Bluffs, Arkansas. (10) David M., born August 21, 1846, married Rose B. KEASEY, September 8, 1867, and died in 1912. (11) Thomas Jefferson was the eleventh child, and the one with whom this narrative subsequently deals. (12) Elizabeth, the youngest child of Jonathan WYLAND and wife, was born May 30, 1853, and married Austin D. HILL, December 17, 1871. She has one daughter, Bonnie, and an adopted daughter, Dora L.”

The family history records created in the early 1900’s contain essentially the same vital statistics as listed above.3  Curiously, the death of Elizabeth Van Arsdale Wyland, which we have documented as 8 June, 1858, is not reported in T.J. Wyland’s “Past and Present” text.

 

The history of early Shelby County settlements documents that Jonathan Wyland operated a sawmill at Bowman’s Grove.4

 

Another “mini-bio” on Jonathan appears within grandson Jonathan M.’s autobiography, below.

 

 

Thomas Jefferson Wyland... 1849 - unk


”Thomas J. WYLAND, son of Jonathan and Elizabeth (VANARSDALE) WYLAND, was born February 1, 1849, in Elkhart County, Indiana.


”Thomas J. WYLAND was twelve years of age when his parents finally settled in Shelby County, Iowa, and attended school until he was eighteen years of age after going west. He also spent one year at Tabor, Iowa, in school. He has lived a simple and unostentatious life for a half century in this county, raising all the crops peculiar to this section of the state, and at the same time paying due attention to the raising of livestock for the markets. He has been especially interested in raising thoroughbred horses and has found a ready market for all such stock as he had to sell. He has a fine farm of two hundred acres, which is well improved and has a beautiful home, where he is spending his declining years.

”Mr. WYLAND was married April 11, 1870, to Clara OSBORN, daughter of John F. OSBORN of Mills County, Iowa, and to this union have been born five children: Hugh O., Elizabeth A., Ralph W., Mary J., and Fred E. Hugh O. was born December 16, 1873, married Grace FLORENCE and has four children, Florence, Ruth, Lloyd and Dorothy. Elizabeth A. was born September 16, 1875; Ralph W., born January 10, 1880, married Estella G. BABCOCK on February 26, 1902, and to this union have been born two children, Evelyn C. and Hal B.; Mary J. was born December 19, 1883; and Fred B., the youngest child, was born January 9, 1891.

”He has never aspired to office and has voted the Democratic ticket all his life. He was township clerk in the early history of the county. Mrs. WYLAND, who was a member of the Congregational Church, died August 2, 1902. Mr. WYLAND has been a close observer of modern methods of agriculture and has met with encouraging success in his chosen life work. He has not attained to his position of present prosperity without long years of toil and good management. He has been a man who never permitted any stone to remain unturned whereby he might advance himself, and yet at the same time, he has so lived that he has kept the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.”

 

 

 

“Past and Present” entries often include a dose of philosophy about the life and times.  Since Thomas Jefferson Wyland was a farmer, the “Past and Present” author noted,

 

“Agriculture has been the true source of man's dominion on earth ever since the primal existence of labor and has been the pivotal industry that has controlled, for the most part, all of the fields of action to which his intelligence and energy have been devoted. In a civilized community, no calling is so certain of yielding a satisfactory compensation as that which is culled from the kindly soil. Although the husbandman at times is sorely taxed in coaxing from Mother Earth all he desires, yet Mother Earth is kind to us and seldom treats with disappointment her child whose diligence and frugality she deems it but just should be rewarded. The early pioneers of Shelby County, Iowa, suffered disappointments which the sons of today will never know.

 

“THOMAS JEFFERSON WYLAND has lived for more than half a century in this county and has seen it emerge from a wide and trackless prairie to its present prosperous condition of highly cultivated fields and flourishing towns and cities.”

 

 

Jonathan M. Wyland... 1858 - unk

 

(The bio reproduced below has been edited and re-paragraphed for clarity.  It was originally published in the “1891 Biogaraphical History of Pottawattamie County.”)6

“DR. J.M. WYLAND, the only physician and druggist of Minden, was born in Harlan, Iowa, February 24, 1858, son of Isaac P. WYLAND,

“(Isaac P.) …was a pioneer of this state, having settled at Newtown, near Avoca, in 1860. He was born in Elkhart Co., Indiana, August 26, 1832, in the town of Wyland, which was named in honor of his father,

“Jonathan WYLAND, who was born in 1797 in Bedford Co., Pennsylvania, moved first to Greene Co., Ohio, and then to Indiana. He (Jonathan) came to America when a young man, settling in Elkhart County, where he built a grist-mill and woolen factory, and also a dam across the Elkhart River, and was in short the founder of Wyland. He was married to Miss Catherine PLUM, by whom he had two sons: Jonathan and Washington. This wife died and he was again married in Ohio to a Miss Elizabeth VANARSDOLL, and by this marriage there were 11 children: Catherine, Rachel, William, Isaac, Jasper, David, Jefferson, Elizabeth, Mary Barbara, Christian, and Lawrence, all of whom lived to maturity.  

(Note:  the biographer’s failure to include a comma after “Mary” must have made it look to the editor as though there were only eleven children;  in reality, there were 12, and they are all named above.)

“Jasper died in the service to his country in the late war, in an Iowa regiment; Jonathan died at his home at the age of 58 years of pneumonia, contracted by exposure. The father was a stanch Democrat politically, and religiously was a German Baptist or Dunkard. The Dunkards were among the most thrifty and peaceable people who sought a home in America from the oppression of older countries.

Isaac P. Wyland... 1832 - unk


”ISAAC P. WYLAND, a son of the above and the father of our subject, was born in Wyland, Indiana, received a common-school education and was brought up a Dunkard, but afterward changed his religion to the "Christian" belief. He was a miller by trade, and was married in Elkhart, Indiana, to Julia A. MILTENBERGER, of German descent, daughter of Henry MILTENBERGER, who came from Pennsylvania to Elkhart County.

Mr. and Mrs. WYLAND have six children: William W., Omar P., Jonathan M., Seth L., Mary H. and Asa A.

The father moved to Iowa in the spring of 1856, settling in Shelby Co., near Harlan, which was then a wilderness. In 1860 he settled in Newton, Pottawattamie Co., where he built a grist mill and one and a half years later, settled near his old farm east of Harlan, where he lived until 1884.

In that year, he went to Dakota, settling on a farm in Hand County, where he still resides. He is a Democrat in his political opinions and has served as Sheriff of Shelby County, in 1862, and Postmaster of Jackson Township, Shelby Co. He has always been a hard working, industrious, honorable and substantial citizen and will be remembered by the old settlers of Shelby Co.

“DR. J.M. WYLAND, his (Isaac’s) son and the subject of this sketch, received a good education at the high school of Harlan, and also studied medicine at Iowa City, where he graduated in 1884. His preceptor was Dr. E.A. COBB, of Harlan, with whom he remained three years. Leaving this able instructor in the spring of 1884, the Doctor came to Minden, where he immediately bought the drug store of Kervill & Schaff, and has since had a large trade as well as a good practice. Socially he is a Mason, and also a member of the Knights of Pythias. In his political opinions he is a Democrat, and has also taken an active interest in the schools of his county, being a member of the School Board. He has the confidence of all the people, and was recently elected a member of the Town Council.

”In the spring of 1886 Mr. WYLAND was married to Amelia SCHUMAKER, daughter of Henry SCHUMAKER, a native of Germany, but now of Moline, Illinois. He is the father of two children, Henry and Amelia.

“The Doctor's brother, Asa O. WYLAND, is also a physician and is now engaged in practice at Underwood, this county. Dr. WYLAND is a man of high character and his success as a physician attests his skill and knowledge of medicine. He is yet a young man and the succeeding years should add honor and dignity to a life well begun.”

Notwithstanding variants of spelling, this bio dovetails precisely with Metzgar/Wyland/Harris family tree information originally compiled by our ancestor circa 1910.  For more information, please visit our Web site:  www.mindspring.com/~barber-laceyfamily/

 

-- Denny Williams

 

 

 

 

 

Sources used in the preparation of this mini-biography:: 

 

1.  1915 Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, pp. 1000-1003
Family Researcher: NA

 

2.  – From http://www.rootsweb.com/~iashelby/1915bio/1915bio04.htm#wyland

 

3.  The Metzgar/Wyland/Harris/Lacey Family Tree from 1760 to early 1900’s,
      by Denny and Colleen Williams, June 2003 and an ancestor and family historian,
      about 1910.

 

4.  – From http://www.rootsweb.com/~iashelby/oldtown.htm containing a description of early Shelby County settlements, which notes, “Bowman's Grove* -Leonard Bowman and son Daniel probably came here in 1853. Jonathan Wyland had -an early saw mill here.”

 

5.  -- From http://www.elkhartcountyparks.org/properties_locations/river_preserve.htm

 

6.  -- From http://iagenweb.org/pottawattamie/Bios1891-W.htm “1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County”

 

(c) Copyright 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 the Barber and Lacey families.  Family members are welcome to download copies of the materials for their own personal use. No commercial uses are authorized.