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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
J. W. COLVILLE is a farmer and stock-raiser on section 32. Adams Township. He was born in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia, Dec 28, 1819, and is a son of Robert and Hannah (Weston) Colville, who were natives of Virginia. He was a miller by profession, following that business in Virginia, and in Ohio, where he removed in 1826. He died in 1828 or 1829, and his wife in 1873. The subject of this sketch came to Mabaska County in 1853, and remained until the spring of 1857, when he emigrated to the State of Kansas, remaining there until the year 1865, engaged most of the time in the improvement of a farm. While in Kansas, he was in the employ of the Government in the Quartermaster's Department, under Capt. Ensly, Chief Quartermaster of that Department, continuing in that service one year. He then engaged in the Overland Mail Service, under Ben Holliday, who carried the mails from Atchison, Kan., to Salt Lake, Utah, and remained in his service until after the close of the war, returning thence to his old home in the State of Ohio. where he engaged in merchandising until the year 1869, when he came back to Iowa, bought a farm, and has remained here ever since. His farm is in a high state of cultivation, and its improvements, house, barn and other things are of excellent quality. Politically Mr. Colville is a Greenbacker.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy