Amasa Nims
Amasa Nims was born on July 31, 1810, in Bolton, New York, to Daniel Nims and Lydia Winter. His father was a veteran of the American Revolution. Nims grew up in Bolton and began working in a woolen mill when he was thirteen years old. He married Adeline Goodenow on March 23, 1839, and they had at least seven children: Wesley, born around 1840; Owen, born on January 26, 1842; Creon, born around 1844; Nott, born around 1846; Adelaide, born around 1846; Mary, born around 1850; and Luella, born around 1856.
In 1839, an early biographer noted, he “resolved to lead a more independent life in the West, purposing to buy Government land in the Territory of Iowa, and turn his attention to farming.” He purchased a farm in Maquoketa in 1839, but he moved to Bloomfield, Iowa, three years later. By 1850, he owned $200 of real estate. He served as a postmaster in the early 1850s, and he returned to Maquoketa sometime that decade. Then, in 1859, the Colorado Gold Rush drew him to Pike’s Peak. He reportedly “spent a year in the search of gold” before returning home to Maquoketa.
By 1880, he and his wife were living in their daughter Luella’s household in Graham, Kansas. They returned to Maquoketa by the early 1890s, and he died there on January 13, 1894.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3992) | Nims, Amasa | 1810-07-31 | 1894-01-13 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Civilian
- Rank in:
- Rank out:
- Rank highest:
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 3
People - Records: 6
Places - Records: 2
SOURCES
1850, 1870, and 1880 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Appointments of U.S. Postmasters, 1832-1971, available from Ancestry.com; Iowa Deaths and Burials, 1850-1990, available from Ancestry.com; Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa (Chicago, IL: Chapman Brothers, 1889).
