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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
JAMES WINDER, deceased, the second man to settle at New Sharon, was a native of Ross County, Ohio, and was born on the 19th day of March, 1812. He was raised a farmer boy until he arrived at the age of eighteen years, when he left the farm and learned the trade of carriage-making, Five years later, Oct. 22, 1835, he was united in marriage with Eliza Allbright, who was born in Wyoming County, N. Y., May 26, 1813. They became the parents of eight children, one of whom died in childhood and seven attained their majority, as follows: William W. is a barber at New Sharon; Francis resides at Oskaloosa; Nancy is the wife of Jared Rockwell, at New Sharon; Hope became the wife of Benton Rakestraw, and died July 25, 1868; Charlotte is the wife of Goodman Strom, and lives in Prairie Township; Joseph A. resides in Dickinson County, Kan.; Abner J. is railroading in Kansas. In 1838 Mr. Winder removed to Champaign County, Ohio, and worked at carriage-making until 1852, when he loaded his family and household goods into a covered wagon and started for the further West. After a journey of twenty-one days they arrived in Mahaska County, and settled on a farm at Center Grove, near the present city of Oskaloosa. Here he purchased about seventy acres of land, on which the family resided while Mr. Winder worked at carpentering. In 1857 he sold his little farm, and removed to what is now New Sharon, where he had erected the second dwelling in the place. He continued to work at the carpenter trade as long as his health permitted, and departed this life Aug. 21, 1881. His wife still survives, and resides at New Sharon. In his political affiliations Mr. Winder was in early life a Whig, and afterward a Republican, and was frequently honored by the people with important local offices. Religiously he was a member of the Society of Friends. Mr. Winder was the first Postmaster at New Sharon and the first merchant of that little city. He will be remembered by many of our earlier settlers as a man of excellent Christian character, industrious, hard-working, strictly conscientious, and in all respects a man of estimable character.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy