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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
Matthew W. Crozier is the owner of an attractive home and fine farm, located on sections 34 and 35, Spring Creek township, and is classed with the active and progressive agriculturists of this locality. He is also a veteran of the Civil war. Throughout the greater part of his life his time and energies have been devoted to farming interests and he now owns and operates valuable property of four hundred acres, of which one hundred and sixty acres is in the homestead. More than a half century has passed since he came to Mahaska county and during the period which has elapsed he has borne his full share in the work of public improvement and progress. He was born in Shelby county, Ohio, November 7, 1836, and is a son of Robert S. Crozier, a native of Pennsylvania, who was reared, however, in the Buckeye state. There he married Margaret Williams, a native of Ireland and a daughter of Matthew Williams, also of that country. The maternal grandfather on coming to America settled in Ohio. The ancestry of the family, however, can be traced back for ten generations to John Williams (1620) and the record is preserved in book form. Robert S. Crozier, father of our subject, came to Iowa in 1855 settling in Mahaska county. He first purchased one hundred and eighty acres of land which he began to improve and as the years passed he transformed it into a productive tract. Upon that place he reared his family of six children four of whom are yet living, namely: Matthew W., of this review; Thomas S., who is living in Lucas county, Iowa; Charles E., of Oskaloosa; and Anna, the wife of William Harrison, a retired farmer and stock-shipper. Matthew W. Crozier, reared upon the old some farm, assisted in carrying on the work of the fields. His father died on Christmas day of 1862, and the mother survived for a number of years, passing away in 1896, at the age of eighty-five years. When twenty-six years of age Mr. Crozier enlisted in 1862 as a member of Company K, Thirty-third Regiment of Iowa Infantry, formed in Oskaloosa. The troop enlisted in the county seat and went to St. Louis, Missouri, where they were engaged in guarding prisoners in Myrtle and Gratiot street prisons for a month, this being their introduction into active service. They then went to Columbus, Kentucky, and on to Union City, Tennessee, proceeding afterward to Helena, Arkanas. The regiment participated in the engagement at Yazoo Pass. Later this command aided in the battle of Helena on the 4th of July, and it was on the same day that Vicksburg fell, and that the battle of Gettysburg was won. The Thirty- third Iowa proceeded to Little Rock, Arkansas, about September 1, 1863, remaining there for some time and participated in Banks' campaign under General Steele. Returning to Little Rock, they remained at that point until 1864, the city being headquarters for the regiment for a year and a half. On the expiration of that period they went to New Orleans and to Mobile Point, Alabama, being engaged in the siege of Mobile. On one occasion Mr. Crozier was slightly wounded by a bullet grazing his hip. From Mobile the regiment went to Texas, doing duty at the mouth of the Rio Grande river, but was afterward sent to New Orleans, thence returned northward. The troops were mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, where Mr. Crozier was honorably discharged in August, 1865, having served exactly three years. Following his return home he immediately resumed farming upon the old home property. As a companion and helpmate for life's journey he chose Miss Mary E. Martin, to whom he was married October 26, 1865. She was born in Iowa and was brought to Mahaska county when only four months old, her parents being H. P. and Amanda L. (Jack) Martin, the former a native of Fulton county, Illinois, and the latter of Greene county, Tennessee. Her father came to Iowa with his family and settled in Mahaska county when it was still a frontier district. He died in the year 1890, at the age of seventy years, and is still survived by his widow, who is in her eighty-fourth year. She came to Mahaska county in 1842 and she now resides with her son Byron upon the old homestead farm in Spring Creek township. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Crozier have been born eight children, of whom one died in infancy, while Mrs. Nellie McIntyre passed away at the age of thirty-three years, leaving three children, Lucile, Edith and John McIntyre. The oldest living member of the family of Mr. and Mrs. Crozier is William H., who is married and resides upon a farm adjoining the old home place. He married Lillie B. Zaring and they have one child, Ralph W. Catherine is now in Des Moines, Iowa. Lester S. was in the SpanishAmerican war, enlisting at Blue Earth, Minnesota, July 1, 1898, under Captain I. C. Chase and Colonel Joseph Bobleter in Company M, Twelfth Minnesota Infantry. He was mustered out September 3, 1898, by order of the secretary of war, and discharged at Chickamauga, November 5. For twenty-eight days he was ill in the hospital at Lexington. For fifteen years he has spent much time in travel, visiting twenty-three states of the Union. Harry P. assists in managing the farm. Elsie Iowa is attending school in Des Moines. Mr. and Mrs. Crozier attend the Union church at Wright, but are members of the Un- ion Presbyterian church at White Oak. The nearness of the former, however, causes them to join the Sunday worship there. Politically Mr. Crazier is a stalwart republican, having given his support to the party continuously since casting his first presidential ballot for Abraham Lincoln. He has been a school treasurer for thirty-three years, but has never sought nor cared for political office, finding incentive for his best effort in his business interests. His son Harry P., has attended the State Agricultural College at Ames and is a believer in scientific farming. They devote considerable attention to stock and their land is all valuable and productive. Mr. Crozier has a beautiful home, supplied with all modern equipments and conveniences, and surrounded by a well kept lawn and ornamental shade trees. Few of the Civil war veterans are so well preserved as he. He and his wife are both in excellent health and happy in the environments of a comfortable home and the companionship of their children. His business interests have been carefully conducted and he is now one of the prosperous agriculturists of the community.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy