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IOWA HISTORICAL RECORD

VOL. IX.

JULY, 1893.

No. 3.

HON. JOHN ABBOT PARVIN.

IN THE lives of her public men, the student will find much of the history of the State. Iowa was truly blest in the character of her pioneer citizens, who coming at an early period in the history of the Territory, thoroughly identified themselves with its interest and continued through their lives to labor in her behalf. Many of those of an early day worked with a will to lay broadly and deeply the foundations of the State. Others were spared through a length of years and still labored to build upon the foundation they had laid in earlier years.

It has been the policy of the officers of the Historical Society, to publish from time to time in its official record, sketches of those who have been instrumental in a large degree in the work of "State-making," and in this the Society has rendered a good and public service to the student of to-day, who may find in the lives of those whose characters have been thus portrayed much by way of example to stimulate and encourage the youth of the present to engage in good works and noble deeds, which shall tell for future years and coming generations, who may find in these examples much by way of encouragement to lead them to walk in the ways of their fathers.

Among those whose names and history have through a long period been connected and identified with the history of our State, few have been more conspicuous or more deserving of "honorable mention," than the subject of this sketch. Coming to Iowa at an early period in his life and also in the life of the Territory, now the State of Iowa, the Honorable John A. Parvin at once identified himself with the best interest of the community in which he located and through a long life labored with the best class of her citizens to give name and character both to the Territory and State of later years.

John A. as he wrote his name, christened John Abbot Parvin, was born in Fairfield, Cumberland County, New Jersey, the 10th day of November, 1807, and died at Muscatine, where he had spent almost a full half century, on the 17th of March, 1887, greatly beloved and honored by those among whom he had lived so long and who knew him so well. He was the fourth son of Honorable Daniel Parvin and Elizabeth his wife. His mother's maiden name was Sutton. His father, who was a mechanic had exchanged the shop for the farm on which the boys, as they grew older labored.

There were no free or public schools in that section of the State at that period, and private schools were only taught during the winter months, except for small children. Laboring upon the farm through the day, this future pioneer of Iowa went to school during the winter and by dint of hard application he acquired a fair mastering of arithmetic, grammar, surveying and navigation, and on coming of age followed the sea for a few years in order to acquaint himself with the practical side of the navigation he had studied either at school or by the fireside, being his own teacher, rather than from any romantic taste in that direction. In 1829, he visited the "New Countries" as Ohio and the West were then called, spending the winter in Cincinnati and Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The next year he returned to his native State, engaged in