Durham -- Samuel Warren
Source: Waveland Independent 14 May 1909
Col. Samuel Warren (Wallace) Durham
7 March 1817 Vallonia, Jackson County, Indiana
2 May 1909 (age 92) Marion, Linn County, Iowa
Buried: Oak Shade Cemetery Lot 68, Space 9 (Pioneer Section)
Obituary on findagrave: - Source: Marion Sentinel Thursday May 13, 1909
Col. Samuel Wallace Durham, the subject of this sketch was born in Vallonia, Indiana, March 7, 1817. He was the son of jesse B. and Elizabeth Ewing Durham. He died May 2, 1909 at the age of 92 years. He was married Dec 12, 1843 to Miss Ellen Wolcott. Their married life of 58 years was terminated by her death, Octt 19, 1901. Five of their children survive: Canfield Durham of Marion, Iowa; Mrs. FL Tilloton of Moorhead, Minn; Mary Durham of Washington DC; Ben H. Durham of Minneapolis, Minn and Louise Durham of Marion, Iowa. The eldest son, Jefferson served in the War of the Rebellion and died in this city in 1869. Col. Durham came of a family of Kentucky pioneers. His grandfather, John Durham, after serving in the Revolutionary war, crossed the wilderness between Virginia and Kentucky in 1783, 9 years after the first settler Daniel boone penetrated its wilds. He traveled with the Rev. Francis Clark, who established the first Methodist Church in Kentucky, near the present site of Danville and made John Durham its first class leader. In 1815 John Durham’s son Jesse B. Durham emigrated to Indiana then a wilderness inhabited by Indians who harassed the hardy settlers and often massacred them. Jesse B. Durham took an active part in the settlement of Indiana. He was a member of the state legislature he was one of the three commissioners appointed by the governor to locate the state capital and upon the site they selected is located the present city of Indianapolis. On March 7, 1817 Samuel W. Durham was born on his father’s farm near Vallonia, Indiana. He thus in his earlier years participated in some measure in the stirring events which always make the history of the early settlers. The Revolutionary war was still a vivid recollection and while reading of Washington he decided as a boy to study surveying. Later, as a young man, his active mind and imagination led him to make his way as his father and forefathers had done, into new and unbroken territory. In 1839 he journeyed on horseback, through western Indiana and Illinois across the great Mississippi River, into the wilds of Iowa. He loved to speak of those times, when the first settlers were thrilled and impressed by the grandeur and sublimity of the scenes on the unbroken prairies, when viewed in their native solitude. He loved to dwell in thought upon those pioneer days when every man was every other man’s brother and quick to respond to every need. To the last day of his life he held that spirit and was unable to adjust himself to the more modern ideas. In those early days, Col. Durham was active in all that goes to make the duties of the good citizen. He was a member of the first constitution convention and its secretary. He surveyed large portions of norther and northwestern Iowa and Minnesota under government contract, and became a large landowner. For 70 years, he was a citizen and taxpayer of this state. He believed that a man should be proud to own land and live upon it, proud to make himself part of a community, to take root there. He thought that the homes men make should be kept in the family from one generation to another. A few mments before his death he was reading the daily papers. His fine mind and almost perfect memory his wide reading and interest in history and politics and the events of the day as well as his love of poetry and music made him a most entertaing conversationalist and writer. He was almost as well posted even in his very intest ? years in Europen politics as in the politics of his own country and in Grecian history as in American history. A few months since, speaking of one of Scott’s novels, he sketched the plot and named the characters with no failure of memory or pause for adequate expression. Poems of the older poets he could quote entire. He loved (James) Whitcomb Riley’s work. At the last meeting of the Old Settlers Association of Linn County he closed his brief remarks by reading Rileys “Tale of the Airley Days.”
Col. Samuel Wallace Durham, the subject of this sketch was born in Vallonia, Indiana, March 7, 1817. He was the son of jesse B. and Elizabeth Ewing Durham. He died May 2, 1909 at the age of 92 years. He was married Dec 12, 1843 to Miss Ellen Wolcott. Their married life of 58 years was terminated by her death, Octt 19, 1901. Five of their children survive: Canfield Durham of Marion, Iowa; Mrs. FL Tilloton of Moorhead, Minn; Mary Durham of Washington DC; Ben H. Durham of Minneapolis, Minn and Louise Durham of Marion, Iowa. The eldest son, Jefferson served in the War of the Rebellion and died in this city in 1869. Col. Durham came of a family of Kentucky pioneers. His grandfather, John Durham, after serving in the Revolutionary war, crossed the wilderness between Virginia and Kentucky in 1783, 9 years after the first settler Daniel boone penetrated its wilds. He traveled with the Rev. Francis Clark, who established the first Methodist Church in Kentucky, near the present site of Danville and made John Durham its first class leader. In 1815 John Durham’s son Jesse B. Durham emigrated to Indiana then a wilderness inhabited by Indians who harassed the hardy settlers and often massacred them. Jesse B. Durham took an active part in the settlement of Indiana. He was a member of the state legislature he was one of the three commissioners appointed by the governor to locate the state capital and upon the site they selected is located the present city of Indianapolis. On March 7, 1817 Samuel W. Durham was born on his father’s farm near Vallonia, Indiana. He thus in his earlier years participated in some measure in the stirring events which always make the history of the early settlers. The Revolutionary war was still a vivid recollection and while reading of Washington he decided as a boy to study surveying. Later, as a young man, his active mind and imagination led him to make his way as his father and forefathers had done, into new and unbroken territory. In 1839 he journeyed on horseback, through western Indiana and Illinois across the great Mississippi River, into the wilds of Iowa. He loved to speak of those times, when the first settlers were thrilled and impressed by the grandeur and sublimity of the scenes on the unbroken prairies, when viewed in their native solitude. He loved to dwell in thought upon those pioneer days when every man was every other man’s brother and quick to respond to every need. To the last day of his life he held that spirit and was unable to adjust himself to the more modern ideas. In those early days, Col. Durham was active in all that goes to make the duties of the good citizen. He was a member of the first constitution convention and its secretary. He surveyed large portions of norther and northwestern Iowa and Minnesota under government contract, and became a large landowner. For 70 years, he was a citizen and taxpayer of this state. He believed that a man should be proud to own land and live upon it, proud to make himself part of a community, to take root there. He thought that the homes men make should be kept in the family from one generation to another. A few mments before his death he was reading the daily papers. His fine mind and almost perfect memory his wide reading and interest in history and politics and the events of the day as well as his love of poetry and music made him a most entertaing conversationalist and writer. He was almost as well posted even in his very intest ? years in Europen politics as in the politics of his own country and in Grecian history as in American history. A few months since, speaking of one of Scott’s novels, he sketched the plot and named the characters with no failure of memory or pause for adequate expression. Poems of the older poets he could quote entire. He loved (James) Whitcomb Riley’s work. At the last meeting of the Old Settlers Association of Linn County he closed his brief remarks by reading Rileys “Tale of the Airley Days.”
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Linn County, Iowa by 1850
Samuel W 33
Ellen 31
Jefferson 6
Infant 0
Family #104
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Source: Marion Linn Iowa 1870 census
Household #61 Samuel Durham 53 Surveyor
$10,000/500 Ind
Ellen 50 NY
Canfield 20 Iowa
Allice 17 Iowa
Mary 12 Iowa
Benjamin 9 IOwa
Louisa 6 Iowa
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Source: Daily Nonpareil, Council Bluffs,
Iowa Jan 2, 1929 (Wed) p 12
Iowa City - Documents, letters and
relics of the late Col. Samuel Wallace Durham, Iowa pioneer have been presented
to the State Historical Society of Iowa by Mary W, Benjamin H and Louise Durham
of Mrion, Colonel Durham was a delegate to the state constitutional convention
in 1844 and was proinent in Iowa politics from 1841 to 1855. He made a
horseback trip from Indiana to Iowa and return in 1840.
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Source: Linn County Iowa History -
County Sheriffs - Samuel W. Durham 1846
County Surveyors 1841
County Survey again in 1851 and 1871
Chapter X p 64
Some of them already ... Samuel W.
Durham, our popular and highly esteemed county surveyor of early times, aman of
marked intelligence and of unsullied character and one for whom the writer has
always entertained feelings of high regard.