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from Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa by Manoah Hedge The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. 1906
PastAndPresentOfMahaskaCo.,IA by Manoah Hedge(M. F. TRIPLETT) - M. F. TRIPLETT, b. 16Feb1852 On a farm on section 23, Cedar township, lives M. F. Triplett, who is one of the diligent and prosperous agriculturists of this section. He owns and operates a farm of three hundred and twenty-six acres of well improved and valuable land, adjoining the corporation limits of Fremont, and he is classed with the pioneer farmers of Mahaska county, having been brought to Iowa by his father in his childhood days in 1857. He is a native of Ohio, his birth having occurred in Noble county, that state, February 16, 1852. His father, Mortimer T. Triplett, is now a hale and hearty old man of ninety-four years. He was born in Virginia, in 1813, and was a son of James Triplett, also a native of the Old Dominion. The grandfather was a teacher, following that profession, both in Virginia and Ohio for a period of forty-eight years. He was not out of the schoolroom for six months at any one time. He removed from the Old Dominion to Ohio in 1815, locating in what is now Noble county, where he reared his family and spent the last years of his life. Mortimer Triplett there resided during, the period of his boyhood and youth and was married in that state to Miss Nancy Montgomery, a native of Pennsylvania but was reared, however, in Ohio. Mortimer Triplett was a farmer of Noble county for a number of years and afterward removed to Illinois, where he spent two years, coming to Iowa in 1859. Here he cast in his lot with the early settlers and purchased thirteen hundred acres of land. In 1861 he took up his abode in Mahaska county, and bought a farm upon which be engaged in general agricultural pursuits, rearing his family here. His wife passed away December 25, 1899, and Mr. Triplett has since resided with his son, M. F. Triplett of this review. Although he is now ninety-four years of age, he is still an active man and can mount and ride any horse on the farm. He has carried on farming operations on an extensive scale and as a pioneer settler has contributed in substantial degree to the improvement and development of this part of the state. M. F. Triplett was reared to manhood in Mahaska county and remained with his father, assisting him in carrying on the home farm until twenty-three years of age when he started out in life on his own account, purchasing eighty acres of land in 1875. This tract is still a part of his home place, which he at once began to cultivate and improve. His two sisters kept house for him for a number of years. He worked persistently and earnestly in his efforts to improve his farm and bought more land from time to time until he is now the owner of a valuable property of three hundred and twenty-six acres. Upon this place he has erected a good substantial residence, also barns and outbuildings and has contributed to the productiveness of the land through tiling the fields. He has likewise fenced the place and has planted fruit and ornamental trees. He has a good tenant house near his residence and in his barns and sheds are the latest improved agricultural implements for carrying on the farm work. In connection with the tilling of the soil he makes a business of raising high grade stock, including horses, cattle and swine, and he also feeds and fattens a large number of hogs for the market each year. He is also a stockholder in the Fremont State Bank. Mr. Triplett was married in Fremont, Octoher 19, 1884, to Miss Ruth Doolittle, who was born and reared in Mahaska county and was a teacher in Fremont and Wapello. For several years prior to her marriage she success- fully engaged in teaching. Her father was "Squire" B. M. Doolittle, who was one of the pioneers of Mahaska county and owned and operated a farm adjoining that upon which Mr. Triplett resides. There are two sons by this marriage: C. C. Triplett, who is now a junior in Wapello College, Marion county; and Harold A. In his political views Mr. Triplett has been a lifelong republican. His father was originally an old-line whig and later became identified with the republican party upon its organization. Mr. Triplett of this review was elected and served for two years as township assessor and has been interested in many movements, political and otherwise for the good of the community. He believes in good schools and during a service on the school board covering a number of years he put forth effective effort for the improvement of the educational facilities of his district. He has also served as a delegate to numerous county conventions of his party and is well known in local republican ranks. Both he and his wife are members of the Fremont Baptist church. Mr. Triplett holds office in the church, being one of the trustees and also a deacon. He has been a resident of this part of Mahpka county throughout almost his entire life and the story of its growth and development is not a matter of history to him but of actual experience. In the early days he drove five and seven yoke of oxen to a breaking plow in order to turn the virgin sod. He has helped to make and improve, the county and has rejoiced in its advancement as the district has been reclaimed for the uses of the white race and has been made to bloom and blossom as the rose. He started out in life on his own account a poor man with very limited capital, but through his own labor and diligence combined with good business ability and the assistance of his estimable wife who has indeed been a helpmate to him he has accumulated a large and valuable property. He is well known in Oskaloosa and Mahaska county as a man of broad integrity and has the confidence and good will of the community.
Past and Present of Mahaska County, Iowa
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy