Newspaper obituary from The Twice -A-Week News, Ringgold County, Iowa. Published Tuesdays and Fridays by Walter H. Beall., 2 cents. ____ 14, 1901 (May ?) CAPT. MARKHAM DEAD -- Passed Away Sunday Evening at Home in Mt. Ayr, Aged 89. ---WAS A PIONEER OF IOWA ---Came to Lee County in 1836 -- Had lived in Ringgold County since 1869 ---Funeral This Afternoon Capt. Henry C. Markham died at 9:20 Sunday evening at his home in Mt. Ayr, aged 88 years, nine months, and 18 days. He had been critically ill for several months. Mrs. Markham survives him. Capt. Markham had lived in Iowa for 65 years. He was born in New York July 24, 1812. He lived in Ohio for a time, and came in 1836 to what is now the town of Montrose in Lee county, but which was then Ft. Montrose, Gen Brown commanding. The residents were soldiers and a few Indian traders, there being about half a dozen houses. This was only three years after the organization of Iowa as a territory, and 12 years before its admission as a state. Young Markham was employed as a clerk by an Indian trader. He assisted in the organization of Lee county, which he has stated to the writer he thought took place in 1838. He was deputy sheriff of that county at a time which gave him a chance to participate in two famous man hunts, one for the Hodge brothers, who murdered two Germans near West Point, Judge R. C. Henry's boyhood home, and the other for the men who murdered Col. Davenport, founder of the city which bears that name. This was in 1844. The following year Mr. Markham became sheriff of Lee county. (faded picture within this paragraph) Capt. Markham found his wife in the new territory, two miles from Montrose. Her maiden name was Hannah Remington. She was born in Meadville, Penn., and came to Iowa in 1839. Their marriage took place June 14, 1844, and in the spring of 1845 they started for Oregon, having decided to settle in that faraway land. They hitched a yoke of cows and two yoke of oxen to a prairie schooner, loaded in a supply of eatables, and started for the northwest. By winter they had reached Council Bluffs, having seen no house or white person after they left Bloomfield. At Council Bluffs, they erected a log house with sod roof, using the wagon box for a floor and the endgate for a table. In the spring they turned around and returned to Lee county. After merchandising at Montrose for some years, in 1851 Mr. and Mrs. Markham changed their residence to Albia. They remained there for 18 years. Mr. Markham conducting at various times a store, livery stable, and hotel. Mr. Markham was postmaster at Albia under President Pierce. In 1859-60 he was sheriff of Monroe county. There he enlisted for service in the Union army in 1861, being made captain of Co. I, Eighth Iowa infantry. In the spring of 1864, being disabled by bronchitis, he was released from service, but promptly reenlisted in the "gray-beard" regiment, the 37th Iowa, and was made lieutenant of Co., G, serving to the end of the war. After the war he farmed at LaGrange fro two years and in 1869 came to Mt. Ayr. He ran a store here until about 15 years ago, since which time he has led a retired life. He was postmaster of Mt. Ayr during President Grant's second term. Capt. Markham never had a church connection, tho in belief he adhered to the Wesleyan Methodists. He was known as a kindly, reputable, and honorable citizen, and many are those who will feel keenly the loss in this death. Capt. and Mrs. Markham had no children. A foster-son, Frank, lives in Greene county, Ind. Two brothers survive ---David Markham of Eden, Ariz., aged 91 , and Orson Markham of Graham, MO aged 75. The latter has been at the Markham home in Mt. Ayr for over a week. The funeral services are to be held at 2 o'clock this afternoon from the residence, conducted by Rev. A. S. Wright, assisted by Revs. P.V.D. Vedder and Julius Nelson. Interment will be made in Rose Hill cemetery in charge of the I.O.O.F. and G.A.R. orders. (David, Henry C., and Orson M. Markham are all sons of Nathaniel Markham b. 1798 NY - my note)