Samuel Irwin
Farmer | |
Warren | |
16 | |
01/10/1876 - 01/13/1878 | |
23 |
Born in June, 1834, in the north of the Emerald Isle. In the year 1842 his father and family came to the United States and settled in Harrison county, State of Ohio. Here the boy was developed into manhood and true to the instinct of an aspiring disposition, Samuel conceived the idea that the gold fields of the golden State of California offered better inducements to young and true men than did the clay banks of old Ohio, and his mind was soon made up to peril the hardships of crossing the great desert of the West. In the spring of 1853 the start was made, and after leaving the Missouri River they were brought to the place for which they started, the mines of California. Two years of incessant toil and economy was sufficient to fill his desire for gold, and in 1855 he returned to this township, where he bought and began the improvement of his home. Here he toiled on till the breaking out of the late war. In May, 1861, he enlisted in Co. G, Third Iowa Infantry, as a private and was promoted to Second Sergeant and to First Sergeant on May 26, 1862, at Cold Water Creek, Mississippi, and again promoted, to First Lieutenant, April 3, 1863, by Gov. Kirkwood. He was mustered out on March 3, 1865, and returned to friends and his home. He began to realize that it was not well for man to be alone and to look about him for one who should share his fortunes through life. In this he was successful, as in his former undertaking, and on the 28th of September, 1865, he married Miss Isabella Steel, of Winterset, Iowa. He often held offices of trust, conferred by the people of the town and county of his adoption; was Assessor of the town in 1860. Since the war he was seven years of the Board of Supervisors of the county, and elected to the Legislature in 1874 and 1876, but declined a re-election, as the duties of his farm and private affairs were of more importance to him than the empty honors of the Legislature.