From
The Humeston New Era
Humeston, Iowa
(Lucas County)
Wednesday, May 15, 1907

John Throckmorton was born near Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, November 9, 1826 and passed to his reward from his residence near Derby, Iowa, Thursday morning May 2, 1907.

His parents were Morford and Nancy Simpson Throckmorton. His mother was the daughter of Rev. John Simpson, an early itinerant Methodist preacher, who came from Ireland to Pennsylvania in an early day. He was married to Nancy Elizabeth Lazear, in Waynesburg, September 18, 1849, with whom he lived for over fifty years, until her death, April 28, 1906. They came to Iowa in the spring of 1856, and settled on the old homestead. School and church privileges were meagre and of the most primitive character. He built the first log school house in the neighborhood on his own farm early in the sixties, and here his children as well as those of his neighbors, obtained their education. In the fall of 1861, he removed to Chariton for educational privileges, and here in September 1862, he enlisted as a soldier in the 34th Iowa Volunteers Infantry, Company E., N. B. Gardner, Captain. He was in the service over a year, returning home in broken health in 1863. In 1864 he moved back to the farm and remained until the railway was built and the town-site of Derby was laid out in 1873.

Here he built a store located on the site of the Derby State Bank, where he did a general merchandising business until his retirement to the farm where he spent the closing years of his long and eventful life.

He came to the end without any regrets. His closing days were filled with suffering but he bore all with sustained christian faith and courage. He will be rememebered for his faithful christian character, his cordiality and courtly dignified bearing, his genial sallies of graceful humer, his influence as a man.

He leaves a family consisting of seven sons, six of whom served to bear his body to the grave, and two daughters, with the Misses Crist and Hendricks, who will all cherish tenderly his memory.

The funeral service was held from the church on Sabbath at eleven o'clock and was conducted by the family pastor. Thus has passed to his heavenly reward one of the oldest and most substantial men of this community, a man of unimpeachable worth and christian integrity.