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Subject: [IAHENRY] Henry Co. Bio-Rev. Joseph Vernon
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2003 14:35:58 EST

>From "Portrait and Biographical Album of Henry County, Iowa" Chicago: Acme
Publishing Company, 1888.

Page 420-421:

REV. JOSEPH BOWERS VERNON, deceased, was born in Muskingum County, Ohio,
Jan.1, 1812, and was a son of John and Elizabeth Vernon. His parents were natives
of Bucks County, Pa. Joseph B. was reared on a farm, and followed that
occupation in the East until the fall of 1851, when he came to Mt. Pleasant, and in
the following spring removed to a farm four miles northeast of the city, on
which he lived until 1863, when he sold his farm and removed to the city.
Always industrious and careful, he was a successful farmer. After his removal to
Mt. Pleasant he was twice elected to the office of Justice of the Peace. Mr.
Vernon early in youth turned his thoughts to religious matters, and at the age
of thirteen united with the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was until
his death a pious and consistent member, and in which he became a local
preacher, and did much good through his ministrations. He died June 16, 1882, in
Mt. Pleasant, leaving a widow and children to mourn the loss of an affectionate
husband and faithful parent.

Mr. Vernon was married March 22, 1837, while living in Ohio, to Miss Maria
Monroe, the daughter of Daniel and Mary Monroe. Mrs. Vernon was born in
Muskingum County, Ohio; her father in Virginia, and her mother in Erie County, Pa.
Mr. and Mrs. Vernon's union was blessed by seven children, of whom five are now
living. The eldest son, Leroy M. Vernon, D.D., is a distinguished minister
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, who has for seventeen years past been in
charge of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Rome, Italy, where he is now living.
Under his superintendence the first American Methodist Episcopal Church was
built in the Eternal City, in the face of much opposition. He has been twice
married, first to Miss Fannie Elliott, daughter of Rev. Charles Elliott, D.D.,
LL.D., who was President of Iowa Wesleyan University in 1857-61, and in
1864-66, and also filled several of the chairs in that institute. After her death
Mr. Vernon was united in marriage with Emily Barker, of New York City. The
next of Mr. and Mrs. Vernon's family is John Wesley, who is married to Mary
Palm, of this county, and is a practicing attorney in Memphis, Tenn., and has been
a member of the Tennessee Legislature, and served throughout the Civil War,
in Company K, 4th Iowa Cavalry, in which he was Sergeant under Capt. James T.
Drummond. The next of the famly was Samuel M. Vernon, D.D., who was married to
Hattie Kelley in Muskingum County, Ohio, and is now a minister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, Pa.; the daughter is Mary Elizabeth, who
is the wife of Joseph T. Patch, Esq., of Mt. Pleasant (see sketch); William
Spry, the youngest son, is married to Sarah M. Hatch, of Mt. Pleasant, and is a
merchant of Des Moines, Iowa. The deceased are: Harriet Lucinda, who died at
the age of fourteen months, and Joseph Albert, who died in infancy. Mrs.
Vernon, like her husband, is a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
with which she united on Christmas Day, 1828, and is a lady respected and
esteemed by all who know her. She is now calmly awaiting the summons which will
reunite her to the husband with whom she lived in faithful companionship for so
many years. Three of her uncles, whose names were Monroe, were prominent in
the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

END
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pat Ryan White
Camarillo, CA

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