-------------------------------
biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
AMOS L. SHANGLE, of Prairie Township, is numbered among the pioneers of 1854, and was born in Morris County, Oct. 30, 1831. His paternal ancestor, Frederic Shangle, was from Strasburg, Germany, emigrating to this country in 1745, and settling on an estate of about 1,000 acres in the western part of Morris County, N. J. The eldest son of Frederick was Henry, who was about two years old when his parents came to America. Henry grew to manhood, married, had a son named Frederick, born in 1770, and died in 1832. The eldest son of the last named Frederick was named William, born Dec. 25, 1798. William Shangle, the father of the subject of this sketch, in 1820 married Experience Leek, a native of Morris County, N. J., born in 1801. To them eleven children were horn, two of whom died in childhood: Mary M., now deceased, was married to Daniel Mooney; Morris died in the State of Mississippi, in 1847; Harriet is the wife of J. H. Douglass; Jane married Truman Thomas, and died in 1868; Eliza married Capt. C. P. Searle, and died in May, 1857; Amos L.; Sarah, wife of B. B. Jack; William and John C. The great-grandfather of Experience Leek was Thomas Leek, who emigrated from Wales in 1725, and settled in Long Island. His son, Amos Leek, subsequently settled in Morris County, N. J., to whom was born a son, also named Amos, in 1771, and died in 1856. He was the father of Experience, the mother of our subject. In 1845 William Shangle and family moved from New Jersey to Ohio, and ten years later to Iowa, locating in Mahaska County, where Mrs. Shangle died, Sept. 5, 1858, and William Shangle, April 14, 1874. Amos Shangle. the subject of this sketch, removed with his parents to Delaware County, Ohio, in 1845, and afterward accompanied them to Knox County. All his early life was spent on the farm, receiving in the meantime an ordinary commonschool education, together with instruction in a private school kept by Prof. Corning, and sufficient to qualify him later on as a teacher. In the year 1854, accompanied by his brother-in-law, Mr. Daniel S. Mooney, and two sisters, he came to Iowa, and the following winter taught school in Madison Township. Returning again to his native State in 1853, he was there, in January, 1859, united in marriage with Mary W. Tuttle, who was born in Morris County, N. J., Dec. 26, 1832. To them have been given three children: Mark Henry, born in 1861, now resides in Idaho; Louis Tuttle, born in 1863, and Frederick Morris, in 1865. Shortly after Mr. Shangle's marriage he returned to Iowa, and in the fall of 1860 purchased eighty acres of his present farm, upon which he moved in 1861, and has since lived. In his political faith he is a Democrat, and cast his first vote for Franklin Pierce for President in 1852. He has served as Justice of the Peace, and for about fifteen years as Secretary of the School Board of his township. In speaking of his political faith, Mr. Shangle says the first article in his creed is "Free trade to all; especial privileges to none," consequently the Oskaloosa Herald bestowed upon him the euphonious appellation of "Free trade crank," but he laughingly says "the Herald has never been able to turn that crank." When engaged in farming for a livelihood, Mr. Shangle does not neglect the pleasures of mental culture. A library of over 200 volumes of poetry, philosophy, history and fiction, with the leading periodicals of the day, affords interesting entertainment for his leisure hours. He has always taken much interest in the success of the schools of his township, and to his labors they owe much of their efficisucy. Mr. Shangle's present farm consists of 160 acres, which he has brought to a very high state of cultivation, and upon which the improvements are of the best class. His business is that of stock farming, devoting his particular attention to the raising of horses. A residence of over one-third of a century in this county has so fully established the character of our subject that words of praise or demerit would not change public opinion. As a citizen, neighbor and friend, few men are better known or more greatly esteemed among a large circle of acquaintances than is Mr. Shangle. He is a man of more than ordinary attainments, a reader and thinker, and able at all times to express himself most intelligently on current topics. Life with him has been a success, and he enjoys a reasonable share of prosperity.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy