Born October 24, 1827 in Delaware County, Ohio, my fifth great-grandfather, Moses Eversoll (Eversole) settled among the earliest settlers in Cass, Boone County, Iowa ca. 1850 with his wife Letitia (Pike) and his parents, Abraham and Nancy (Butts). As the first Justice of the Peace in the county, he served nearly two decades and in that time it is claimed that only one verdict rendered by Moses Eversoll was ever overturned by the district court.
Besides his work as a judge and involvement in town affairs, serving as one of the oldest members of the school board, as assessor a number of times, and an enrolling officer during the Civil War, Moses also maintained a farm of 380 acres where he mostly grew corn and raised livestock. Moses and Letitia had five kids together (Sarah, Moses Jr., William, Martin and Drusella.) when Letitia died February 15, 1860. Moses remarried in 1866, to Melissa (Needham Pike) who was his sister-in-law, widowed by Letitia’s brother Andrew Pike in October 1861. Moses and Melissa had two kids (Minnie and Samuel).
Evidently Moses also proved quite the sportsman. On one occasion, he apparently thought he had killed a deer when he merely wounded it. A fight to the death ensued and Moses cut the deer’s’ throat. He claimed that he would have run away if he thought he could escape the deer with his life. In 1855, a bison strayed from the herd and tore through the small town of Cass, Iowa. Moses was among five men on horses, with six dogs who pursued the bison to the outskirts of town and killed the animal. The meat was divided among the town.
Further Reading
Union Historical Company, The History of Boone County Iowa, A History of the County, its Cities, Towns & C. Birdsall, Williams and Co, 1880. Click here to read on Google Books
*This source incorrectly states that Hiram Rhoads (Rhodes, Roads) was born in Arkansas when he was actually born in Ohio, as were his parents.
Nathan Edward Goldthwait, History of Boone County, Iowa, Vol. 1. Chicago Pioneer Publishing Company, 1914. Click here to read on Google Books.
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