William H. Bartlett. For twenty-five years or more this properous agriculturist of Clayton County has owned and occupied a highly cultivated farm in Cass Township. Through his energetic determined efforts the property has been converted into one of the most valuable estates in the neighborhood. The buildings are neat and in a good state of repair, the fences strong and substantial, the garden well improved and the farm machinery of the most modern manufacture. All in all, it is a home of which one might well be proud.

The Bartlett family was one of the earliest to settle in New England, and but little definite information can be obtained regardint the genealogy. Our subject's grandfather, Zadock, and father, Loton, were both natives of New Hampshire, and the latter served as a soldier in the War of 1812. The family came west in 1832, as far as Ohio, and settled in Lorain, near the site of the present city of Oberlin. There occurred the death of both the father and mother. The latter, whose maiden name was Catherine Childs, was first married to a Mr. Heminway.

Born in New Hampshire November 30, 1825, our subject was a lad of seven year when he accompanied his parents to Ohio, and there he grew to a sturdy manhood, early gaining a thorough knowledge of farming, and in the short intervals between the gathering of the grain and the sowing of the next crop he attended the adjoining school. His knowledge, however, has been gained principally through observation and reading. In 1855 he came to Iowa and settled on a tract of land in Cass Township, two and one-half miles southwest of his present farm. There he continued to till the soil until about 1869, when he settled upon the farm he now occupies.

In 1847 occurred the first marriage of Mr. Bartlett, who died February 25, 1870, after having become the mother of five children. Those now living are, Emery, a contracting painter of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Elmer, a farmer living in Delaware County, Iowa; and Julia, wife of Charles Bemis, an insurance agent of Britt, Hancock County, Iowa. On Christmas Day of 1871 Mr. Bartlett married Sarah F. Connor, a native of Pennsylvania, and a daughter of David Connor, who came to Delaware County, Iowa, in 1841 and there died in 1894, aged eighty-one years. Her mother still survives, and is now (1894) seventy-eight years old. She has one brother, James, who occupies the old homestead in Delaware County. Mr. Bartlett also has one brother, Nelson, now a retired farmer living near Oberlin, Ohio. Two children have blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett, Willie M., who was educated at Upper Iowa University, at Fayette, Iowa; and Harriet, who is a student in the district schools.

No one in Cass Township takes a more active interest in the welfare of the community than does Mr. Bartlett. Since the organization of the Republican party he has been a stanch adherent of its measures and a friend of its principles. He has served his township as Trustee, and as School Director has been instrumental in promoting the welfare of the district schools. As a farmer, he is energetic, efficient and industrious, and his prosperity is well deserved.

~source: Portrait and Biographical Record of Dubuque, Jones and Clayton Counties; Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1894; pg 422
-transcribed by Sandi Coobs