James Starrett

STARRETT, JAMES — Merchant. Is one of the old settlers of this county, having settled in what is now Sumner township, before the organization of the same in the year 1856. He has been successful in whatever business he has engaged in. Was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, on the 14th day of October, 1822, where he resided with his parents until he was about nine years of age when they removed to Trumbull county, where he was brought up on a farm and educated in the common schools. He early learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, which business he followed for a considerable part of the time. While he lived in Ohio. In fact he has followed his trade more or less until the last four or five years. In the year 1864 he enlisted in company D, Fifteenth Iowa infantry as a recruit, and joined himself to his regiment at Atlanta, just in time to be with Sherman, on his march and ovation through Georgia, and was present at the capture of Fort McAllister and Savannah, and endured suffering untold on account of hunger and exposure. The army was compelled to wade swamps and rivers often up to their necks, and owing to the facts that the rebels held all lines of public communications, they were frequently out of food and many other times the only supply was threshed rice, which no man could eat unless starvation stared him in the face. He was with Sherman at the capture of Columbia, South Carolina, and witnessed the conflagration of that city. They then proceeded north against Johnston with whom they skirmished nearly every day until his final surrender, at which Mr. Starrett was present. They had a severe engagement near Bentonville, the last place where Johnston made a stand. Mr. S. was one of the early settlers of this county, and endured many privations and hardships incident to the settlement of a new country. He was married in October, 1844, to Miss Lovina Gross, with whom he lived until 1860, by which union they had seven children, two sons and five daughters: Freeman P. (now a hardware merchant at Western, Iowa), Harris H. (now a dry-goods merchant at Ladora), Malinda J., Ellen, Laura C, Francis A. and Harriet. He was married, second time, in 1869, to Mrs. Nancy Bowermaster, who is still living.

SOURCE: The History of Iowa County, Iowa, Union Historical Company, Des Moines, Iowa, 1881, p. 599-600