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Seth Lockwood, one of the oldest citizens in the county, was born in
Goshen, Litchfield County, Ct., May 7, 1793. At two years of age his
father moved to Windham, N. Y., now Lexington, Greene County. Lived
there until 1820. Was married there to Diantha Thompson, the 6th day of
May, 1813, who died in Madison County, July 17, 1824, leaving four
children. In November, 1814, he cast his first vote for Governor; in
1817 his first vote for President, James Monroe being the candidate. Mr.
Lockwood has never missed a vote since his first of 1814. Married Hepsy
Boyden, of Smithfield, Madison County, in 1825, who bore him three
children; she died in 1871. From Greene County he removed to Madison,
Feb. 28, 1820, living there till 1837; then moved to Hinsdale,
Cattaraugus County, May 21, 1837, and lived there thirty years, removing
to Floyd County in November, 1868. The children by his first wife
were—Eli T., James P., George M., Sarah Ann; by his second wife—Mary F.,
J. C., and F. E. Of the four children of first wife but one is
living—James P., of Pleasant Grove Township (see below). In 1825 Mr. L. read law
with Huntington & Palmer, of Peterborough, N. Y., for three years, and
practiced until the new code of New York went into effect in 1842. He
was justice of the sessions for two terms in Cattaraugus County. For
reminiscences, Mr. Lockwood distinctly remembers the extraordinary
eclipse of June 6, 1809, when for about two hours fowls went to roost.
He has seen the ground and fences white with snow the 4th of July. Mr.
Lockwood has always taken an active interest in the political issues of
the country; voted the Democratic ticket until 1856—or the Kansas
question—when, according to his views, the Democrat party receding from
true Democracy, he voted the Republican ticket, when John C. Fremont was
candidate. Any one being acquainted with that question will remember the
cause for change.
(pp. 860-861)
James P. Lockwood, one of the honored veterans of the late war, was born
of good New England blood. His father, Seth Lockwood, whose interesting
sketch appears here, and as will be seen was a native of staid old
Connecticut. James P. was born in Greene County, Nov. 19, 1816, being
second son of Seth and Diantha Lockwood. He lived with his parents until
in his fourteenth year, when he turned to the state of manhood—" looking
out for himself." Between this period and that of his coming West he
followed various avocations that would bring him an honest penny. At
first he worked on the Croton Water-works about New York City; then in
the lumber business, and also learned the joiner's trade, working at it
at different times, until his moving to Floyd County, in Syracuse and
Rochester for several years. He helped to build the propeller "Indian
Chief," after the completion of which he went up through the Welland
Canal, just completed, and so on to Milwaukee, Wis., in which State he
remained for several years, and from which he enlisted. While on the
lake the propeller struck a ledge of rocks, giving him a touch of old
ocean experience—his first and last. He lived in Detroit a few weeks
only; and a year or longer in Milwaukee. He helped to build the depots
along the route of the Prairie du Chien Railroad—that road, the civil
engineers of which made but one important mistake, as the story went
those days. When asked by the President their opinion of the road
replied "that it was all right only they might have got one more curve
in it as well as not." From railroad work he went to Menasha (Sweet
Water), Northern Wisconsin, at the outlet of Lake Winnebago, where he
was in season to help build the first frame house in that town. He also
helped to build two sawmills, dam and flumes, and ran each a year or so.
His experiences in this town were not of a profitable nature, working
there at the hardest kind of pioneer labor for five years, and not
having scarcely money enough to get fairly out of the town with. His
next residence was at Union, Wis.; from there to McGregor's Landing,
where he built the dry docks; from McGregor's he moved to Racine,
working in the works of the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company. It was
while at Racine, he enlisted in the Twenty-second Wisconsin Infantry,
being in service two years, or until his health failed him. He was
detailed as hospital nurse, and afterward given full charge of a
hospital from that time out. These duties are always very arduous. Some
incidents connected with the duties made them extremely so. For one
instance among many, we relate that while at Danville, Ky., at a rumor
that Gen. John Morgan's fiends were on a raid in that locality, the
whole force, 15,000 strong, broke camp in search for them, leaving Mr.
Lockwood for four days in sole charge of 150 sick men. This is what
ruined his health; and awhile afterward he returned to Wisconsin,
bringing with him all the sick he could, landing them at Chicago. After
regaining his health he threw up a pension and re-enlisted in the 100
days' enlistment, going into Company F., Thirty-ninth Wisconsin
Regiment, and for which he holds a certificate of the President's thanks
for honorable service. After his discharge he was foreman of Racine &
Mississippi Railroad; from this work he moved to Pleasant Grove in 1866,
where he has since resided. Mr. Lockwood is a man of good judgment,
out-spoken, but of honorable intentions and purposes. He was married in
Menasha, Wis., in 1847, to Eliza Atwood. She died in 1857, in Chickasaw
County, Iowa, leaving four children. In 1860 Mr. Lockwood was married in
Racine, Wis., to Candace M. Salisbury, a native of Delaware County, N.
Y., as were also her parents, April 29, 1870. Mrs. Lockwood died in
Pleasant Grove, leaving a son, two years of age—Charles Erskine, who is
residing with his father.
(pp. 859-860)
Source: History of Floyd County, Iowa. Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co., 1882,
p. 859-861.
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