| Notes |
- The following abstract is from a newspaper obituary. He died at the residence of Jon Frody. "He had made his home with John Frody and the elder Frody during the greater part of the time for several years. The remainder of his time had been spent mostly on his farm in Wyacondah township, six miles southwest of Bloomfield. His disease was cancer. He had been afflicted with it a great many years, but concealed the fact from his friends until it has so completely mastered him that he was compelled to call on the aid of physicians, when it was too late. *** His strength and balance of mind enabled him to bear his suffering with remarkable fortitude and equanimity, never murmuring and never finding fault with those who attended him. *** He received an academic education in his native state. About 1834 he came as far west as Indiana, and shortly afterward returned to NH. A few years later he determined to settle in the West and, talking of this period in his like, in his last days, he remarked that NH was a good place to be born in , but should be left early.
"He started on his long journey, as he said, on foot with eight dollars in his pocket and with no companion but the ague. About 1839 he settled in the American bottom in IL near St. Louis. In 1840 he visited Missouri and returned. He removed to Missouri in 1842, remaining several years in Boone and Howard counties. In 1849 he came to Davis County, Iowa, where he spent the remainder of his life. From the time he left New Hampshire until several years after he came to Iowa his occupation was teaching school. He taught his first school in Bartholomew County, Indiana; his last in Darnell schoolhouse, Union Township, Davis County, s omewhere from 1850 to 1855. Mr Puffer accumulated considerable money b teaching and loaning money. He bought his Wyacondah farm in 1860 and at the time of this death had several thousand dollars in money and notes. *** He was a very liberal man in his dealings. He loaned only where he thought the loan would of real benefit to the recipient. *** Mr. Puffer was a man of fine mind, delicate tastes and studious habits. He possessed a considerable store of classical and scientific knowledge and a large fund of general information. During the middle and latter part of his life, he devoted a large share of his attention to scientific studies. Mathematics, astronomy, botany and geology were his favorite studies, particularly the last. In his journeys he was in the habit of studying the geological formations. Of late years his farm occupied the larger share of his attention in the growing season. He planted and reared an orchard in which he took great delight. He applied his scientific knowledge to its culture. It is now one of the finest orchards in southern Iowa. It contains 150 varieties carefully selected and adapted to the climate and the soil. He delighted also in shrubs and flowers, with which his premises were planted in great profusion and variety. Friends who visited him were always welcome to everything that his grounds and orchard afforded." Interment in Odd Fellows cemetery.
Mr. Puffer never married. He bequeathed his property to his brother Jabez and the children of his brothers, Charles, Jabez and Moses Puffer.
|
Puffer Genealogy
1809 - 1878 (68 years)
[3] 