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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
ROBERT W. WARTON, residing upon section 7, Jefferson Township, is numbered among the pioners of 1854, locating upon that section on the 19th day of September of that year, and on this homestead he has since continued to reside. He was born in Morgan County, Ohio, in 1818, and is a son of John and Mary Ann (Smith) Wharton, both natives of Pennsylvania. His father was an early settler of Ohio, having moved there about 1814. Robert Wharton was reared on a farm and received his education in the common schools of his native State. When eighteen years of age he accompanied his parents to Delaware County, Ind., where he lived eight years, and was there married, Jan. 4, 1844, to Nancy Starbuck, a native of Indiana. Immediately after this event he removed to La Porte County, Ind., where he bought a farm of eighty acres of land, and there resided until 1854, when he moved to this county and entered 200 acres of river land, which he improved, and has now one of the finest farms in Mahaska County. Six children were born to his union with Miss Starbuck: John W., now in Osborne County, Kan.; Tristam S., who died in 1881 at Creston, Iowa, of small-pox; Mary C. is the wife of Jeremiah Rose, now residing in California; Nancy Jane is now the wife of Simon McIntosh, and resides in Washington County, Kan.; William A. is in Washington County Kan., engaged in farming; Thomas Jefferson is also a farmer in Washington County, Kan. Mrs. Wharton died Aug. 26, 1856, at the age of twenty-nine years. Mr. Wharton was again marned, the ceremony taking place March 1, 1857, and the bride being Mary Jane Ashing, of Ohio. By this union there were five children, four of whom are now living: Isaac Wilsey married Miss Addie Stoker, Nov. 25, 1886, in Jefferson Township; Leroy is now in Dakota; Tabitha is the widow of Martin Curtis, and lives at home; E. Alice is the wife of Ebenezer Anspach, of Marion County, Iowa; Leah died at the age of one year. In addition to the home farm of 240 acres, Mr. Wharton is the possessor of forty acres in Marion County, Iowa, and 160 acres in Kansas. He is a member of the A. F. & A. M., and has in times past been connected with the I. O. O. F. He has been honored with many of the local offices in his township. Re held the office of Justice of the Peace for eight years, and was a member of the Board of Supervisors of the county for two years, representing his township at the time when each township was represented on the board by one member. For twenty-three years he was Treasurer of the School Board of the District of Jefferson Township, and was also Assessor two terms. In politics Mr. Wharton is a Democrat. Few men are better known in the western part of the county than Robert Wharton, and he is recognized by all as one of Nature's noblemen, honest as the day is long.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy