Circa 1850 daguerreotype.

Dated 1858 ambrotype - David & Janet Aitken - Aunt Libbie (Elizabeth) Aunt Helen Aunt Bella (Isabella) Uncle Thomas

b. 20 Dec 1823 Scotland
d. 25 Apr 1909 age 84
md Jeannette/Jannette Gillespie 1849 PA

Enlisted 15 Nov 1862 at Brownville NE Territory in Co E 2nd Nebraska Cavalry. Age 38. Wagoneer. Mustered out Dec 1863 and enlisted as a Corporal in Co G 12th Missouri Cavalry for a period of 3 years. Hospitalized Fort Leavenworth and discharged 15 Jul 1865.

A very prominent farmer and veteran of the Civil war who lives upon a cultivated farm in Mills county, Iowa, is David Aitken, the subject of this sketch. He was born near Glasgow, Scotland, December 20, 1828. His father, John Aitken, came to America in 1852, spending six weeks on the ocean voyage, and landed in New York, going from there to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, at which place he died in 1877, at the age of eighty four. He had married Ellen Pollock, who passed away but a short time before at the age of eighty. They had reared the following children: John, who was killed near Scranton, Pennsylvania, when about thirty years old; Mrs. Ellen Law, a widow living at Pittston, Pennsylvania; David, our subject; Valentine, who died in Oakland, California; Janet, who married George Stephens, of Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania; and James, who resides in Wilksbarre, Pennsylvania.
     Our subject received only such educational advantages as were offered by the district schools of his locality. His father had a farm of one hundred and twenty acres and it was the duty of David to assist in clearing up the land as quickly as possible. He was made useful in picking up brush and preparing firewood and doing the chores of a farm boy until he was able to take his place at the plow. Until he was twenty-two years old he remained at home, at that time engaging with the Delaware and Hudson railroad to draw coal to the canal, for this work receiving eighty cents a day, providing his own food. For three years he worked for the Pennsylvania railroad as the manager of the force that attended to the unhooking of cars in the yards, leaving this situation, in 1852, to make a trip to California, by way of the isthmus. From June to August he was on the way, but at length reached the land of gold and engaged at work in the Feather river placer mines. All his life Mr. Aitken has had the happy faculty of being able to adapt himself to circumstances, and when he found he was not earning enough in the mines, he left there and accepted a position as a steward in a hotel at Johnson ranch, where he remained two years, receiving in wages his board and fifty dollars per month. At that date he returned to Carbondale, Pennsylvania, again taking the isthmus route. In his active life Mr. Aitken has made three trips to California "without getting rich," as he expresses it.
     In 1861 our subject enlisted in Missouri, in the state service for six months. At the expiration of that time he enlisted for nine months, in the Second Nebraska Cavalry; and the third time, in the Twelfth Missouri Cavalry, for the rest of the war. His discharge was received at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in the fall of 1865 when he returned here. He receives twelve dollars a month in pension money.
      Mr. Aitken is a staunch Republican and claims the right to express and advance his views. He takes an intelligent interest in all public affairs, although he does not desire office. He owns eighty acres of fine land, and his sons own one hundred and twenty more, but Mr. Aitken has retired from active work on the farm.
Our subject was married in 1851 to Miss Janette Gillespie, and four sons and four daughters grew up to maturity, respected by the community where they are known. These are: Ellen and Elizabeth, twins, the former of whom married Henry Chaney, in Pottawattamie county, Iowa; the latter also married; Thomas, who lives near the old home, is a widower and has his devoted mother with him at present; Mrs. Isabel Lathrop, who is a widow living at Carbondale; William; Walter; Margret, who married Daniel Martin and resides in Missouri; and Charles, who is the farmer on the home place. He married Miss Jane Patten, a daughter of J. K. Patten, of this neighborhood. Mrs. Aitken is a well preserved woman and looks after the affairs of her sons on their farm, at the present, her pleasant and thrifty ways making everything tidy and comfortable around them. Both she and Mr. Aitken are good and worthy members of the Church of Christ, and all of the sons, except one, have adopted the religious views of their excellent parents. The family is a representative one, well known and esteemed by all with whom they come into contact.