John Copeland Weston was born on October 26, 1834, in Antrim, New Hampshire, to William Weston and Mary Copeland. His father died on June 24, 1848, and his mother passed away on August 28, 1853. According to an early biographer, he “attended the common schools of Hancock [New Hampshire] for a short time, and remained on the farm until sixteen.”

 

Around 1851, he joined the clipper ship John Wade and spent eleven months sailing around the world. Soon after returning home, he moved to California in search of gold. He spent the next fifteen years as a prospector, miner, and mine operator in California and Oregon.

 

He married Jennie Sibley in 1855, and they had three children, two of whom died in childhood. His wife died on February 14, 1865, and Weston returned to New England soon afterward. He moved reportedly found “nothing there to hold him,” and he moved instead to Clinton, Iowa, in 1868. He married Caroline F. White on January 14, 1870, and they had four children: Lucian, born around 1871; Clarence, born around 1873; Mary, born around 1877; and Leonard.

 

He worked as a cashier at the Clinton National Bank and eventually became the bank’s president. He also served as treasurer of the Clinton Water Company, the Clinton Gas Company, and the local school district. He retired in 1895, and he remained in Clinton for the rest of his life. He died there of “epithelioma” on July 23, 1921.

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