Ira L. Townsend 1
- Born: 10 Nov 1852, , Blackford, IN 1 2
- Died: 5 Jun 1897, Hartford City, Blackford, IN at age 44 2
- Buried: Hartford City: Hartford City Cemetery, Blackford, IN 2
Noted events in his life were:
1. Book: Biographical Memoirs of Blackford County, Indiana, 1900. 1
Among the prominent business men of Hartford City may be mentioned Ira L. Townsend. For many years he was engaged in contracting and building, and erected many of the private residences of Hartford City and adjacent country.
Mr. Townsend was born in Blackford County, November 10, 1852, and was a son of John and Temperance (Bailey) Townsend. John Townsend, the father of our subject, was a son of Gilbert and Mary (Saxon) Townend. He was born in Steuben County, New York where he married Temperance Householder, daughter of William and Elizabeth Householder, by whom he had ten children; Mary E. (Mrs. John Hedge); Emily T. (Mrs. Phillip Covault); Lydia (Mrs. Aaron Casterline); John W.; Henry H.; Louis B.; Ira L., the subject; Charles M. (deceased), Halstead, and George O., (deceased). The Townsend family are of English descent and located in New York State. At an early day John Townsend removed to Pennsylvania and in 1840 located in Blackford County and engaged in farming, which occupation he followed until his death in Illinois, where he removed when our subject was but a child.
The subject of this review was united in marriage on March 2, 1879, to Laura O. Cantwell, by whom he had six children: Maud, born April 9, 1879, died September 3, 1879; an infant, deceased, unnamed; Harry, born in August, 1881, died in January, 1886; Winnie M., born August 29, 1883; Blanche, born December 1, 1885; Gertrude, born January 6, 1888. Mr. Townsend died June 5, 1897 and in his death his family lost a kind and generous father and the community in which he lived a life time a good citizen. On the maternal side, Mr. Townsend's great-grandfather, John Saxon, was a soldier of the Revolution and died at the age of one hundred and one years. Mr. Townsend's eldest brother, John, was a soldier of the Civil War. Mrs. Townsend and family in their religious convictions are Methodists, of which church they are consistent members. Politically he was a staunch Democrat, and while not a seeker of public office took a deep and decided interest in the success of his party. He left an estate of two residence properties and what was of more worth, an untarnished name, and was universally respected for his upright, manly character. Mrs. Townsend is the daughter of John Cantwell, who is properly mentioned in this work, and the sister of S. W. Cantwell, the attorney of Hartford City.
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