Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: I i'..t on: .'!! .: 'f . !., .: ( I - '. .', -i -' j'.: it u: V. . r i: . 1 ni! [' ..: . '.'-: : r li i-vlr,; t'i the county about eight months before. In the spring of 1856, he began to develop his farm, plowing the fields and fencing the land. It was some time before the farm proved a profitable property and during the summers of 1858 and 1859, he attended school in Bloomington, Illinois, while in the successive winters he engaged in teaching at Langworthy, Iowa. In 1860, he was elected county supervisor from Wayne county, this being the first county board of supervisors. As the years came and went he continued an active factor in public affairs, whether in office or out of it, for his opinions were always regarded as sound and proved influencing factors in molding public thought and action. Like the great majority of American citizens, Lawrence Schoonover was deeply aroused to the political situation of the country and its significance in the months which preceded the outbreak of hostilities between the north and the south. Just two months after Fort Sumter had been fired upon he offered his aid to the government, enlisting on the I3th of June, 1861, as a member of Company G, First Iowa Cavalry, with which he served with distinction until September 9, 1864. After more than three years spent at the front he was honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa. He was the first man from Jones county to enlist for three years. He had enlisted under the call for seventy-five thousand troops to serve for three months but for some reason was not mustered into the United States service under that enlistment. He continued with the army for three and a half years and during that time participated in a number of hotly contested engagements which were factors in t...