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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
JAMES SAMUELS, who has a comfortable home in Richland Township, came to Iowa in 1844, locating at once in this township, and ranks as one of the earliest settlers and pioneers of this portion of the county. He was born in Harrison County, Ind., Oct. 26, 1824, received a common-school education, and arriving at years of manhood was united in marriage with Miss Clementine Petty, Oct 15, 1850. They became the parents of five children, as follows: Emily J., the wife of J. C. Boyd; Gilbert D., and Eldora, the wife of William Lawrence, are residents of Richland Township; Lucy J. is at home with her parents; Tabitha is deceased. Mrs. Samuels is a member of the Christian Church, and Mr. S. belongs to the Republican party. The homestead of our subject consists of forty acres, in good cultivation and well improved, with a comfortable house and necessary out-buildings. Like other early settlers of this county, Mr. Samuels and his wife endured the privations and hardships of pioneer life and now, in their declining years, surrounded by the comforts of life, can look back with pleasure, unmixed with regret, and contemplate the struggles of their early days as a school of experience, valuable in the lessons of self- denial it taught to every pioneer. It is a pleasant reflection that one can scan their list of acquaintances, made after a third of a century of residence in one locality, and find them all friends, whose confidence and esteem they enjoy.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy