Biographical History of Pottawattmie Co., IA

OVRIDGE SAMUEL AXTELL, now a prominent farmer of Boomer Township, was born November 24, 1832, at Sheakleyville, Mercer County, Pennsylvania. His grandfather was Thomas Axtell, born in New Jersey in 1750, was a Revolutionary soldier, and settled soon after the war in Washington County, Pennsylvania. He first married Mary Tuttle, and they had eight children: Nathan, Hannah, Sally, Cecilia, Polly, Phoebe, Ruth and Samuel. After his wife's death he was again married, to Nelly McLain, and they had two sons: Charles and Thomas. Samuel Axtell, above mentioned, the father of the subject of our biography, was born about 1794, was reared on a farm, graduated at Washington College, and then took a thorough course in the profession of medicine. He married Mary Lovridge, the youngest of three daughters (the only children) of John Lovridge, a German farmer of Washington County, Pennsylvania. Soon after their marriage they moved to Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania, where the Doctor had a large and successful practice for nearly fifty years. The raised ten children, namely: Bethsheba (a mute), who married Peter Burnett (also a mute); William Harvey, a physician of Sheakleyville, Pennsylvania; Permelia, wife of G. W. Lord, of Meadville, Pennsylvania; Jane, wife of Louis Burson, of Sparland, Illinois; Hannah, wife of Dr. J. M. Dillie, of Cooperstown, Pennsylvania; Milton Blochley, M. D., of Pepin, Wisconsin; Abijah Clinton, M. D., of Youngsville, Pennsylvania; Lovridge Samuel, the subject of this sketch; Nathan Hutton, minister of a Methodist Episcopal Church at Chicago, Illinois; Joseph Monroe, whose biography will be found elsewhere in this volume. Of this large family all but one, Permelia, have raised large families, and are at this date still living.

L. S. Axtell had the advantage of a good common-school education, and also attended Allegheny College during the seasons of 1850--'51--'52, teaching during the winters. In 1854 he was chosen, in connection with Dr. Owens, of Conneautville, Pennsylvania, as agent for a colony of about 200 families in Western Pennsylvania, who proposed removing to Kansas, and as such agent he made an extensive tour through Kansas in the fall of that year. He was one of the judges of election appointed by Governor Reader at the first general election ever held in Kansas, March 30, 1855, when the polls of his precinct, now Burlingame, were forcibly taken possession of by a horde of Missourians, and Colonel Younger, of Jackson County, Missouri, a relative of the notorious Younger brothers, was elected to the Kansas Legislature. During 1855 Mr. Axtell taught school at Lee's (postoffice), now Lee's Summit, in Jackson County, Missouri. September 14 of that year he married Sarah, daughter of Ira Halloway, a farmer of New Vernon, Pennsylvania, and both were employed at the school above referred to until July, 1856, when they removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Here Mr. Axtell was employed about a year by J. P. Williams at carpenter work, a trade he had partially acquired during his minority.

At Council Bluffs a daughter, Flora, was born, and a few months later, April 24, 1857, the mother died, to be followed the succeeding fall by her babe. After the death of his wife and child, Mr. Axtell commenced teaching the public school, then only one, in Council Bluffs. It was taught in a large log building on Madison, now First street, that had been erected by the Mormons as a church, and afterward appropriated by the gentiles as a court-house. There Mr. Axtell labored hard, and under the circumstances successfully, with an average daily attendance of eighty-five pupils and a highest daily attendance of 105. April 17, 1862, Mr. Axtell married Frances Sarah Wade, daughter of Henry and Mary (Carter) Wade. Her parents were natives of England, emigrating in 1850 to St. Louis, Missouri, and removing in 1854 to Council Bluffs. Mr. Wade raised five children, all daughters, namely: Mary Ann, Frances, Roseanna, Isabella and Elizabeth. Frances, with who we are especially interested, was born January 16, 1841.

With the exception of about a year spent in the Colorado gold mines, near Black Hawk, Mr. Axtell taught almost continuously in Council Bluffs until the spring of 1865. During the latter portion of this time he taught the high school, and was also Superintendent of schools for the county. His health being seriously impaired by his long confinement in the school-room, he removed in April, 1865, to his present place of residence in Boomer Township, and commenced his farm life. Mr. Axtell has been more than ordinarily successful. His original farm of 120 acres has grown to about 400, and supports a large stock of hogs, cattle and horses. His buildings, reared by his own hands are large, neat and commodious. Mr. Axtell has been very successful, too, as a fruit-grower. His orchard, commenced over twenty years ago, has by later additions grown to be over ten acres and has never failed for a single season, since large enough to bear, to yield a plentiful supply of fruit.

Politically Mr. Axtell has from early manhood, especially since his Kansas experience, acted with the Republican party. He represented this county in the Legislature of 1873-'74, and was very appropriately made Chairman of the Committee on Schools. July 30, 1874, he was stricken with paralysis of the right side, subsiding gradually into the right leg. From this attack he has but partially recovered, going about with difficulty by the help of a cane.

In religious matters Mr. Axtell, though formerly a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is now considered liberal, or skeptical. While retaining a reverent belief in the existence and beneficence of God and a strong hope of future life, he has lost all confidence in so-called revelation or prophecy and the conflicting dogmas of human creeds.

Mr. Axtell and his estimable wife are enjoying in comfort the quiet evening of their active lives, surrounded by a pleasant family to whom their highest ambition is to leave a character unsullied and an example worthy of their imitation. The have eight children, born and named as follows: Lovridge Hutton, born April 9, 1864; Charles Monroe, May 7, 1866; Ida Permelia, October 4, 1868; Aggie Jane, January 4, 1871; Henry Wade, September 25, 1874; Frank, February 13, 1876, died one year later; Walter Garfield, born May 7, 1879; and Spencer Burson, August 27, 1882.

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