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HARTLEY BRACEWELL One of the early settlers and best business men of Wayne County, Iowa, is Hartley Bracewell, banker of Corydon, Iowa. He made the first entry of land in Warren township, eleven miles from the county seat, when there was not a house between his lands and Corydon. There were few voters in the county and he has lived to watch its settlement and growth for 24 years. Mr. Bracewell is a native of Yorkshire, England and dates his birth on the third of march, 1822. He was the son of John and Mary Starkie Bracewell. The Bracewells were originally from Scotland; moved to West Riding, Yorkshire two or three centuries ago, and became a numerous family, the town of Bracewell being named for them.
The youth of Hartley was spent on his fathers farm. His opportunities for study were limited, yet he succeeded in obtaining a fair buisiness education by attending night school. On coming to this country in 1849 he taught district school in Greene County, Illinois. He than worked on a farm one season in the same county and thus procured the funds for purchasing 40 acres of land, to which he added a little later 40 more acres; farmed in Illinois for four years, and in June, 1854, came to Wayne county, entering lands and locating as before indicated. The land office was than at Chariton, Lucas county, and when asked the proper officer to open his map of Wayne county, Warren township slowed a clean white page, not an entry having been made. Mr. Bracewell, who had previously entered 80 acres of woodland in Jefferson township, now entered one hundred and eighty acres of prairie, improved it, and remained on it till 1869, when he moved inyo Corydon. Here he was a merchant for four years. a miller three, and for last two has been a cashier of the Wayne County Bank., in which he is a stockholder. He owns other property in Corydon, and three well improved farms in the county. He has been an eminently successful business man and has a splendid reputation.
Mr. Bracewell was elected to the general assembly in 1859, and reelected in 1861 and 1862. He held various township offices before be coming a member of the legislature, and also has been president of the school board of Corydon, being active and very useful citizen. He has been a life-long democrat. A member of the Methodist Episcopal church since child hood, and a local preacher more than 30 years, his life has always been above reproach. He is kind-hearted and obliging, and a good freind to the suffering and needy.
In July, 1844, Miss Margaret Broughton, of Yorkshire, England, became the wife of Mr. Bracewell. They have one son, Broughton Bracewell, a farmer in Wayne County. Mrs. Bracewell has been a true helpmate of her husband, and is a worthy Christian mother.
The above info was taken from a historical book Leo and Wilma Bracewell had. The book was given to me (Ruth White) in April 1980 and has since been turned over to Mr. Gary Bracewell.
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