Trease, Joseph Smith

TREASE, MAISE, RICE, CLARK

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 10/23/2009 at 06:46:29

Trease, Joseph Smith

The commercial world has long since come to recognize the importance of the farmer who furnishes the food for the world, and has surrounded him with almost innumerable contrivances not thought of a century ago. The inventor has given him the self-binder, the riding plow, the steam thresher, and many other labor saving devices; and the farmer has not been slow to take advantage of the improvements thus invented and offered. Among the hardworking farmers of Rock Creek Township, Jasper County, is the subject of this brief sketch, Joseph Smith Trease, who was born July 13, 1855, in this county. Thus he has lived to see the great transformation of the same from wild and sparsely settled stretches of prairie to one of the garden spots of the great Hawkeye Commonwealth, and has not only been an interested spectator of the same, but a lively participant. He is the son of Joshua Madison Trease, who was born in North Carolina, April 2, 1810, and who married Nancy Maise, who was born in Claiborne County, Tennessee, January 7, 1813. They spent their early life in their native country, emigrating overland to Jasper County, Iowa, in 1848, locating among the pioneers and starting a new home in an undeveloped region where yet roamed Indians and wild beasts, and: here, by dint of hard labor and economy, they built a good home, Mr. Trease entering eighty acres of land where the city of Newton now stands. The death of the elder Trease occurred in 1874. In his family were six sons and four daughters, named as follows: Willey M. is deceased; Louis Jefferson; Emily Jane; William M. died in infancy; Lucy A.; George L.; Marinda M.; Mary E. died September 25, 1850; Wesley S. is deceased; Joseph S., of this review.

The gentleman whose name forms the introduction to this sketch grew to maturity on the home farm, where he worked during the summer months and attended the neighboring schools in the wintertime, later working for several years by the month as a farm hand, in order to get a start, and in 1882 he went to farming for himself in the northwest corner of Rock Creek Township, where he remained for seventeen years, and where he owned a place of forty acres, remaining on this place seven years, then purchased his present place of thirty acres in that township, where he has a neat little home, and is making a comfortable living.

Mr. Trease was married on September 28, 1882, to Carrie Edna Rice, who was born in Illinois, April 21, 1866, the daughter of James Austin Rice, who was born in Wooster, Massachusetts. He married Clarissa Clark, who was born in the same city. They were the parents of nine children, five sons and four daughters, namely: Ellen, John, Edward, Emma, Frank Comfort, George Washington, Charles Elsworth, Lucy Ann, and Carrie Edna, wife of Mr. Trease. They are all living.

Twelve children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Trease, named as follows: Henry C., born January 3, 1884; Nancy Clarissa, born March 9, 1886, is deceased; James Beck, born August 31, 1888, died June l9, 1895; Charles David, born December 7, 1890; Jacob Jefferson, born December 10, 1892; Phoebe H., born November 28, 1894, died September 24, 1895; Estella Verbenia, born September 1, 1896; Lucy Emeline, born March 15, 1894; Harold Christopher, born January 29, 1896; Joshua Austin, born December 16, 1902; Elbert Theodore, born July 29, 1905; Carl Nelson, born August 25, 1907; Clyde Laurena, born August 29, 1909.

Mr. Trease is a member of the Baptist Church, and politically he is a Republican. Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa B. F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912 Page 1066.