John R. JAMISON, b. 1832

John K. Jamison, one of the active and progressive farmers and sheep-raisers of Mahaska county, owns and operates a neat and valuable farm of two hundred acres within three miles of Oskaloosa. It is situated on sections 28 and 29, Spring Creek township, and here he conducts his business along progressive lines of farming, so that his success is well merited. He has been a resident of Mahaska county since 1858 and was born in Canada near the city of Toronto, February 13, 1832. His parents were Andrew and Mary Jane Jamison, natives of Ireland, who in 1824 removed to Canada. After remaining there for a short time they went to Harrison county, Ohio, about 1835, and in that locality John R. Jamison was reared, assisting his father in farm work. He also attended the common schools, but the advantages of education were very meagre as compared with the methods of instruction at the present time. John R. Jamison remained at home until his twenty-fifth year, when he rented land and began farming on his own account. As a companion and helpmate for life's journey, he chose Miss Sarah Welling, to whom he was married on the 14th of August, 1856, a daughter of John Welling, a native of Ohio. Mr. Jamison farmed in that state for two years after is marriage. He then invested his savings in sheep and in connection with Mr. John Milliken purchased six hundred ewe sheep, which he drove across the country to Iowa, making his way to Prairie township, this county. There they camped and corralled their sheep and later Mrs. Jamison joined her husband there, making the journey by rail to Iowa. He engaged exclusively in the sheep business for eight years meeting with success, and when the government compelled him to give up his prairie grazing, he purchased one hundred and fifteen acres of land, which is now a part of the home place in Spring Creek township, Mahaska county. Here he has continued in sheep-raising in connection with general farming, and has enlarged the boundaries of his place by an additional purchase of eighty acres. He has improved his land, bringing it under a state of rich fertility and he has added to the house and built good barns and outbuildings until he now has a neat and attractive home as well as a valuable farm. He still continues in the sheep industry and has done much for improvement in breeding. He now raises only registered grades of the improved American Merino sheep, and his efforts in this direction have been of material benefit to the county, doing much to improve the grade of sheep raised and thus advance the price. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Jamison have been born ten children, of whom six are now living. They lost three in infancy, while James C. passed away at the age of seventeen years. Those who still survive are: Jessie, at home; Fred, who is married and lives in Nodaway county, Missouri; John, who is married and makes his home in Beliville, Republic county, Kansas; Dane, who operates the farm for his father, although living in a separate house, and who married Laura Cruzen, a daughter of Harvey Cruzen, of the township, by whom he has seven children; Hazel, Bert, Frank, James, Marie, Majorie and Clarence; Bert, the next member of the father's family, is married and lives in Oskaloosa; Sadie, young lady at home. Mrs. Jamison and her family attend and are members of the First Presbyterian church of Oskaloosa. Politically Mr. Jamison is a lifelong republican and cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, since which time he has supported each nominee of the republican party. He has been a school director and treasurer for some years, but has never sought for office nor cared for notoriety, preferring to give his time to his home and business. He has witnessed much of the upbuilding of Mahaska county and its development along along lines of modern improvement until there is no trace left of pioneer conditions, but on the contrary every evidence of an advanced civilization is here seen.

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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906

Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa

Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy

Iowa Genealogy

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