-------------------------------
from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
John L. Sanders, who is engaged in selling monuments for an Oskaloosa firm and makes his home in New Sharon, was born in Orange county, Indiana, on the 6th of December, 1845, his parents being Aaron and Nancy (Hollowell) Sanders, both of whom were natives of North Carolina, the former born October 4, 1811, and the latter July 7, 1818. They were reared in the Old North state, where they married, after which they removed to Indiana, taking up their abode upon a farm in Orange county, where the death of Mrs. Sanders occurred June 26, 1855. In 1857 Mr. Sanders removed from Indiana to Marion county, Illinois, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits until his life's labors were ended in death in November, 1881, when he was seventy years of age. He was born and reared in the south and was a stanch democrat, his sympathies being with the Confederacy during the Civil war but after the war he came to see plainly that the result was all for the best. In the family were nine children: Jonathan, who died on a farm in Marion county, Illinois, when forty-four years of age; Elwood, who was married and had a family and who died during the Civil war while serving as a member of Company H, Eightieth Illinois Infantry; Henry, who was also a member of the same company and died in February, 1905, at his home in Marion county, Illinois; Nancy and Myram, who died in childhood; Robert, who was a member of the Forty-ninth Illinois Infantry in tbe Civil war and died at the age of forty-nine years; John L., the seventh in order of birth; William, who is living on the old homestead; and Aaron, who died at the age of eighteen months. John L. Sanders remained at home until after the outbreak of the Civil war. He was not old enough to enlist without his father's consent, being only fifteen years of age when the strife was begun. At two different times he tried to join the Union army but his father forced him to return home. On the 15th of December, 1863, however, just after he reached the age of eighteen yeats, he succeeded in joining Company E, Sixty-second Regiment of Illinois Infantry, under Captain L. L. Humphrey and continued with that command until honorably discharged for disability at Fort Gibson in the Indian Territory on the 30th of January, 1866. He was with the company in all of its service until he became ill in the winter of 1865-66 and for four weeks he was in the hospital before being sent home. He still suffers from the effects of his army service and the government now grants him a pension of fourteen dollars per month. He made a creditable military record and his undaunted patriotism was shown by the several attempts which he made to join the army, as well as by his service upon the field of battle. He now has his discharge papers framed together with pictures of himself and his officers. When the war was over Mr. Sanders returned to his father's home in Marion county, Illinois, where he worked for three years on the farm. He was then married on the 23d of May, 1869, to Miss Ellen Quaintance, who was born in Ohio, April 26, 1848, a daughter of Joseph K. and Phoebe (Brewer) Quaintance, also natives of the Buckeye state, the father's birth having occurred April 25, 1812, and the mother's on the 24th of August, 1815. They came to Mahaska county in 1853, settling on a farm south of New Sharon. Later Mr. Quaintance sold that property and removed to Illinois and it was while living there that his daughter Ellen formed the acquaintance of Mr. Sanders, to whom she gave her hand in marriage. On the 6th of September, 1869, Mr. and Mrs. Sanders, accompanied by her parents, started for New Sharon, driving across the country with teams and arriving at their destination on the 1st of October. There was but one railroad in the county at that time and the nearest station was Beacon south of Oskaloosa on the Des Moines Valley Railroad. Mr. and Mrs. Quaintance continued to reside in New Sharon until death, the former passing away January 28, 1871, and the latter dying at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sanders in New Sharon in 1896. After coming to this county Mr. Sanders devoted his time and energies to farming for a number of years or until 1881, when he removed to the village of New Sharon and bought two lots, upon which he erected a residence. He then engaged in carpenter work, which he followed until a few years ago and since he has abandoned building operations he has been engaged in selling monuments for an Oskaloosa firm. About a year ago he sold his original home in New Sharon and purchased a residence nearer the center of the town. Unto him and his wife have been born seven children: Laura, now the wife of William Briggs, living on a farm near New Sharon and by whom she has four children, Eva, Harry, Clara and Paul; Marion L., a graduate of the New Sharon schools and for one year a student in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, who is a Methodist minister at the south end of Puget Sound in Washington: Emma, who is teaching her eighth term in the primary department of the public schools of New Sharon; and Myrtle and Edna, who are telephone operators in New Sharon. The second and third members of the family died in infancy. In politics Mr. Sanders has always been an earnest republican. He served for one term on the school board, for four years as street commissioner and has been village assessor, and he was urged to accept the nomination for the city council but declined. He is a commissioner appointed to handle the soldiers' relief fund and he belongs to H. C. Leighton post, No. 199. G. A. R., in which he has held every office, now serving as chaplain. He also belongs to the Masome fraternity, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, their connection therewith antedating that of any other of its members, for all have been called to their reward or removed else where, who were affiliated with the church at the time they came to New Sharon. Mr. Sanders is a well informed man, who has been a great reader, and he has kept in touch with the trend of modern thought. He has not an enemy in the world to his knowledge and it would be difficult, to understand how any one could feel enmity toward him, because of his genial nature, his kind disposition and his consideration for others. He has always been a robust man until of late years and when he entered the army at the age of eighteen years he weighed two hundred and two pounds. He has watched much of the county's growth and development, for there were only nine or ten houses in New Sharon when he arrived here and there was no railroad in the village although the Iowa Central was built soon after. His wife remembers the wolves and deer which were in the county when her parents first came here in. Both are held in the highest esteem, their friends being almost co-extensive with the circle of their acquaintances.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy