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Formatted by U.S. Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott
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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 611-612]

    J. A. SANBORN, farmer and stock-raiser of Afton Township, has been
    prominently identified with the interests of Cherokee County since
    the fall of 1869.  He was born in Dorchester, Grafton County, New
    Hampshire, November 21, 1832, and is the third son of JOSIAH and
    LUCINDA (HOLT) SANBORN, natives of New Hampshire, of Puritan stock.
    J. A. was reared on a farm and received a common-school education.
    His father died when he was six years old, leaving three sons to
    the care of his bereaved mother.  As she had but limited means,
    J. A. found a home with his grandfather and an uncle until he was
    twenty-one years old; he then went to Boston and worked in a grocery
    store for three years.  The following three years he he spent on the
    old homestead in New Hampshire.  He was married November 4, 1856, to
    Miss SUSAN BLAKE, a native of New Hampshire, and the oldest daughter
    of CHARLES D. and JERUSHA (FLANDERS) BLAKE.  After their marriage
    they removed to Laconia, New Hampshire, and there Mr. SANBORN found
    work in the woolen mills until the breaking out of the late Civil
    War.  Leaving his wife and child he enlisted in Company H, Twelfth
    New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry, going into camp the following day.
    He soon went to Washington, District of Columbia, and thence to
    Arlington Heights, where he was detailed to load freight and army
    supplies. While engaged in this work an accident occurred which came
    near costing Mr. SANBORN his life.  A heavy box slipped from the top
    of a load and struck him in the side, breaking three ribs.  This was
    just before the battle of Harper's Ferry, and for more than a quarter
    of a century he has suffered from the effects of this accident.  He
    was removed to Corwin Hospital, and after a time was honorably dis-
    charged, after which he returned to his home.  He obtained employment
    in the Belknap Carpet Woolen Mills in Laconia, New Hampshire, and re-
    mained there for six years.  At the end of that time his wound became
    so troublesome that he was compelled to give up work for six months.
    He returned to his old employers at Ashland, New Hampshire, and took
    charge of two rooms in the mills.  He afterward purchased an interest
    in a stock of general merchandise, the firm name being WEEKS & SANBORN;
    this partnership continued one year, when he sold his stock and came
    West to settle.  Some time previous he had made a visit to Wisconsin,
    but decided to locate in Iowa.  For a short time he lived in Tama
    County, and then came to Cherokee County, and entered eighty acres of
    Government land.  By means of a prairie schooner he brought his family
    from Tama County to Cherokee County.  On the journey the met with a
    serious accident; in making a descent near the present town of Cherokee
    the pole strap broke, causing the team to run away.  One valuable horse
    was killed and the wagon and provision were destroyed.  They first
    moved into a small log cabin belonging to ALBERT PHIPPS.  Mr. SANBORN
    built a house, and began the task of improving his farm; he broke out
    a large area with ox-teams.  Their farm contains 200 acres in a high
    state of cultivation, and is considered one of the best in the town-
    ship.  Mr. SANBORN in a member of the Masonic order, and of the General
    Custer Post, No. 25, G.A.R.  He and his wife have two children: JENNIE
    H., wife of MURRAY F. MOLYNEUX, and FRANK D.  Mr. SANBORN affiliates
    with the Republican party.

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