Thomas J. Myers

As printed in 1906

REV. THOMAS J. MYERS, D. D.

Rev. Thomas J. Myers, one of the leading Methodist Episcopal divines of southeastern Iowa, now serving for his second term as presiding elder of the Burlington district, was born near Lafayette, Indiana, June 7, 1840, his parents being Reuben and Sally (Moore) Myers. His paternal grandfather, Abraham Myers, was born August 14, 1777, and died May 23, 1849, while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Bare, was born February 13, 1778. and died October 28, 1854. Reuben Myers was a native of York county, Pennsylvania, born March 29, 181 5, the family having been established in the new world in colonial days by German ancestors. When a young man he removed to Indiana, and was married in Warren county that state, to Miss Sally Moore, whose birth occurred in Chillicothe, Ross county, Ohio, May 7, 1819. Her father, Edward Moore, was a soldier of the war of 181 2. Reuben Myers followed the occupation of farming in Warren county, near the city of Lafayette, until 1843, when he came to Iowa, settling at Agency, Washington township, Wapello county, near where the new purchase was made. He both pre-empted and entered land, receiving government warrants signed by James K. Polk, then president of the United States. Giving his attention to the cultivation and improvement of his farm, he spent his remaining days in that locality, although his death occurred at the home of his son, Dr. Myers, February 5, 1901. Two years before, on the 19th of January, 1899, his wife had died upon the old homestead. They were members of the JMethodist Episcopal church and belonged to the first class organized in Wapello county. Mr. Myers also assisted in building the first school near his home in Iowa, and it was afterward used for a meeting place. Especially interested in religious work, he acted as a local minister for the Methodist denomination, and his home was always open for the entertainment of the Methodist circuit rider and for preachers of other denominations as well. His business interests were carefully conducted and he became an extensive and prosperous farmer, owning five hundred acres of valuable and productive land.

Rev. Myers, educated in the district schools in early youth, afterward attended an academy, the building of which was erected by his father and a few other progressive men in the neighborhood in the town of Ashland. In 1858 he entered the Iowa \\wesleyan Lniversity, in which he remained until 1861, when he put aside his text-books in order that he might aid his country in the struggle for the preservation of the Union. He joined the First Iowa Cavalry, June 13, only two months after Fort Sumter was fired upon and went into camp at Burlington, after which the regiment was ordered to St. Louis and thence proceeded southward to Pea Ridge, iVrkansas, arriving there just two days

As printed in Biographical review of Henry County, Iowa, containing biographical and genealogical sketches of many of the prominent citizens of to-day and also of the past .. (1906). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.