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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
WILLIAM BARTLOW, of Scott Township, was born in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, Nov. 12, 1817, and is the son of Absalom and Susannah (Springer) Bartlow, the former a native of Pennsylvania, and born in 1794. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. The mother was a native of Ohio, and was born in the same year as her husband. They were among the pioneer settlers of Ohio, first locating in Tuscarawas County, residing there twelve years, when they removed to Belmont County, and after a stay of four years moved to Guernsey County, where they lived until William was twenty-seven years old. The subject of this sketch, when a boy, followed the digging of ginseng root, and by this means largely assisted in the support of his father's family, while they were clearing and opening a farm in the heavy timber of that State. The digging of ginseng was kept up every August and September, and in this way his father made the money that enabled him to enter and pay for the first land owned by him in Ohio. Indians were plenty in those days, and it was no uncommon thing to have the house filled at night with these children of the forest. William Bartlow was married, in 1846, to Ursula Summers, a native of Maryland, and a daughter of Denton and Mary (Thompson) Summers, also natives of that State. Of this union there were five children: Susannah Jane, born Feb. 23, 1852, wife of Alonzo Church, of this county; Emeline, born Oct. 8, 1854, died Oct. 8, 1856; Israel, born Feb. 22, 1857, died in infancy; William Albert, born April 8, 1858, is living in this county; Franklin, born March 23, 1861, is at home. Mr. Hartlow came to Iowa in 1856, stopping a few months in Washington County, but locating the same year at the old town of Rochester, on the Des Moines River, in Scott Township, where he has since resided, owning a farm of 176 acres, all of which is well improved, save twenty acres. When Mr. Bartlow started in life he was entirely destitute of means, and the first money of any account that he ever earned, about $37, was made by mauling rails at $1 per hundred in Ohio. Receiving his pay he deposited it in the Gallipolis Bank, a sample wild-cat bank of that day. The bank, as was usual with institutions of that kind, collapsed, and he lost his little fortune. He then turned his attention to raising tobacco, and traded his share of the first crop for a horse, which died shortly after coming into his possession. Notwithstanding his discouragements and losses, he stuck to tobacco until he made $1,000, with which sum he bought a farm of 100 acres, kept it for six years, then sold it, coming to this county, and bought lands of the Des Moines River Improvement Company, at $3 per acre, which are now worth $30 per acre. Mr. Bartlow pursues general farming, and is particularly engaged in stock-raising for the general market. Mr. and Mrs. Bartlow are members of the Christian Church, and steadfast believers in its doctrines. Politically he is a Republican, and has affiliated with that party since its formation in the State of Iowa, in the year 1856. As a result of his industry and perseverance Mr. Bartlow is in very cornfortable circumstances, and certainly desetves all the prosperity that has attended him, and is a representative man among the many good citizens who reside in the township.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy