Roy Clinton SLOSSON

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1880, living with parents in Kensett Twp., Worth Co., Iowa

Notes:

"George Slawson: An American Pioneer" by Harold D. Slosson - Roy, the student, had great promise as a leader in the intellectual field. Unfortunately, just before his school graduation, there came a tragedy....
A school record still remaining shows that Roy was in the academic department. But he had varied interests, being enrolled in a scientific course. Also, he served on the editorial staff of the school's paper, the "Nora Springs Seminarian". In a totally different area, he gave an impersonation in the annuel elocution contest.
Finally, in June 11, 1896, was to come the graduation exercises for the Class of 1896, Academic Department of the Nora Springs Seminary and Business College. It was to be Roy's big day, for although he was just seventeen, he was a senior in the class and was to give one of the orations. Just before those exercises, there is what happened, according to some news accounts still preserved.
The preceptor, as the elocution coach was called, together with five boys in the class, had gone to the banks of the Shell Rock River, not far away. there, as practice for the final night, each boy in turn recited his oration to the professor.
Their orations having been given, one of the boys proposed that they bathe in the stream, as was common custom of boys in rural areas at that thime. Two of the boys, who could not swim, went upstream, then aroung a bend where they believed the water was shallow for easy wading across. Perhaps as a gesture of friendship, Roy - believed to hae been only a fair swimmer - had accompanied them.
Soon, one of the boys who had initially remained behind went upstream, arriving around the bend only in time to see Roy apparently in a vain attempt to rescue his companions. What must have looked to them like a shallow place in the river had turned out to be a deep hole. All three boys were drowned.
"There is no doubt in the minds of the professor or Roy's classmates," states the previously mentioned news account, "that Roy in a brave and noble effort to rescue his friends and classmates, gave up his own life."
In a matter of minutes had ended the promising career of Roy C. Slosson. memorial services were held in Northwood, Iowa, on June 8, 1896....
Near a pine tree in the old Prairie cemetery north of town rest the mortal remains of Roy Clinton Slosson.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Census: 1850, Living with parents in Maine, Broome Co., New York
• Census: 1880, living in Kensett Twp., Worth Co., Iowa
• Occupation: 1880; Farmer

Notes:

"George Slawson: An American Pioneer", by Harold D Slosson: John was the New York school teacher who in 1859 took his bride Roxy Jane, across the country - partway in a covered wagon - to Northwood, Iowa. There, while raising their family, the Slossons struggled to subdue a large farm on the prairie....
At this particular time, 1856, there was offered by the United States government to its citizens an opportunity to preempt land in southeas Minnesota. Preemption was a federal enactment (1841) to encourage development, whereby after a time settlers onpublic lands might purchase that porperty at a reasonable price.
It was just the opportunity that John, now age twenty-one and a citizen, had been waiting for. "He got the western fever,: explained one of his sons many years later. So, after making arrangements with the school and getting things in order, he started out on his great adventure - a trip to the west.
A prerequisite for traveling at that time was a stout purse well-filled with cash. Travel cards, credit cards, and branch banks were unheard of; nor could the traveler telegraph home for more funds. At each transfer point, John would have to put cash on the counter to get his ticket for the next leg of the journey.
Additionaly, John had to have physical strength to hold his own against bandits and gunmen in the frontier towns. Strength of character was likewise needed to avoid losing money to a trickster, bunko artist, or even some woman at that time preying on green lads from the country.
Also, when John reached his destination, he would need money to live on and to develop the new land for which, finally, he had to pay the government. Emergency funds were advisable, too. All of which made a western migration a major project for a young man like John, who had just reached his majority.
Once at Spring Valley, Minnesota, John worked on his new land. Details of his efforts have been los, but it is recorded that after completing his preemption requirements, John sold out to someone else - not an unusual circumstance at that time.
Meanwhile, John had heard of rich farmland to be had at a nominal price pleasantly located in north-central Iowa. It was in Worth County, where susequently the small town of Northwood was started. This was an opportunity that appealed to John, who had money in his pocket from the sale of the Spring Valley land.....
John Slosson arrived in Northwood in 1857, the year the town was plotted. Recognized as one of the first permanent settlers in Worth County, he purchased his farmland in section twenty-nine, now inside the present town of Northwood....
Meanwhile, John was carrying on with his farming. He was handicapped at times for supplies, since in all Worth county there was only one store. Started late in 1857, this store was operated by B.H. Beckett in a small fame building - the first business structure in that section. Supplies had to be hauled in by ox teams some 130 miles from McGregor on the Mississippi River....By the same token, farm products had to be shipped out by this same route at an understandably high charge, thus reducing the farmer's net income. Nevertheless, John seemed to have managed well, and to have a promising future. In 1859, therefore, when he was twenty-four years old, he made another important decision. it was to return to his home state of New York and there in De Ruyter to marry his sweetheart of schoolteaching days, Roxy Jane Finch....
When John reached De ruyter, he was greeted by the Finches, who were a large and important family in that new York area. So we can be certain that John and Roxy jane said their vows in a pleasant, old-fashioned church wedding...
...John Slosson had first lived on a small farm in section twenty-nine - John's early purchase - in what is now a part of the town of Northwood. This farm was subscquently sold, and in the spring of 1869 John acquired another farm three and a half miles southward from Northwood. It is in section sixteen, Kensett Township; but Northwood, which is in Worth County, still remained the center of the family's interests.
This new farm was nearly a section of land, or one square mile in size. More precisely, it was a little less than 600 acres. Flowing through th property, adding to its scenic attractiveness, was the Shell Rock River, which passes along the south side of the town of Northwood. The family home - anangular, Eastern-type, two-story frame building - was located on a knoll on the river bank, just out of reach of the seasonal floods...
John Slosson, Senior, was thirty-four years old when the family moved to the large farm. He is understood to have been reasonably tall and rather spare....He took an active interest in commnitym county, and state affairs. A summary of the father's life as written by his son, Frank.
Mr. Slosson (John arean, Sr.) helped to organize Kensett township and was chairman of the first board of trustees. He took an active interest in the organization of the same county. He, together with his eldest son, Charles E., established the first creamery in Worth County, it being one of the first in the state. In 1887 he was elected by a large majority to represent Worth County in the State Legislature, but owing to failing health he was not a candidate for reelection.
He was a successful farmer, taking a special interest in stock raising and horticultural matters. His death occured on March 29, 1900, one day previous to his 65th birthday.
The foregoing account is in accord with an obituary writted in the local newspaper at that time. Under the heading of "Hon. J.M. Slosson Dead," there is mentioned the community's high esteem "...for one of Worth County's earliest citizens as well as one of its best." It further states that "....with all of his old ambitions and his honors, he was a modet unobtrusive man...of spotless integrity, one who dealt justly with every one and wisted all men well." Continuing on, "he was a public spirited citizen who won the full confidence and liking of all who really knew him."
....It was provided in his will that his widow, Roxy Jane, should have a life lease on the property. But subject to this lease, about half of the land - some 300 acres, which included the farmhouse and barns - was willed to his then youngest son, John, Jr., who was at that time helping his father on the farm. Thus he might be expected to remain there. The other half of the property was willed in euql shares to the remaining children - Charles, Mary, and Frank.
Relieved of the farm's management, as would have been her task had the farm come to her outright shortly after the turn of the century, John's widow, Roxy Jane, moved to Monrovia, California. This was with her daughter Mary, and granddaughter, Jean. John did keep his half of the farm throughout his life. The land portions willed to Charles, Mary, and Frank were sold for their respective accounts.
Roxy Jane Slosson was living in retirement in Monrovia, California. there she had a small home - a California bungalow, which was occupied jointly with her daughter, Mary, and granddaughter, Jean. Roxy Jane kept busy with fruit trees around the place, as well as being active in local church work.
Grandmother Roxy Jane (Finch) Slosson in her youth was undoubtedly a good-looking woman of the fair type. Even in later years, her eyes were bright her features regular, and her skin perfectly clear and white. This smooth, clear skin seemed to be a Fionch family characteristic, evidenced in her sisters Hattie and Julia.
She was an early-day conservationist. Each sack or piece of paper that came into the house was saved on the shelf for future use. Pieces of string, no matter how small, were tied to the end of the string ball, which ever increased in size. Furthermore, grass clippings were placed under the home fruit trees where chickens grazed and lived on table scraps. Thus, the soil was enriched so that more fruit was produced, with the excess being canned in Mason jars to be used as the wintertime dessert.....
Of rather slight build, Roxy Jane Slosson nevertheless kept alert and active until her passing at the age of seventy-nine. Her buial place is in the Live Oak Cemetery at Monrovia. She can be remembered as a devout, faithful, hard-working pioneer woman, who raised her family under the rugged conditions existent on the early American plains.....

John married Jennie Roxy FINCH. Jennie was born on 19 May 1840 in Broome Co., New York; died in 1919 in Monrovia, Los Angeles County, California; was buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Name: Roxy Jane Finch
• Census: 1880, living with husband in Kensett Twp., Worth Co., Iowa
• Census: 1900, Living with son John H. in Kensett, Worth Co., Iowa
• Census: 1910, Living in Monrovia, Los Angeles Co., California