Early Life & Career
Isaac the Elder’s first wife, Sarah (Atkinson) Struble, gave birth to John T. in Sussex County, New Jersey, on November 5, 1828. She died when John T. was about the age of four, but after a period of a year or two Isaac remarried, and Emma Teasdale raised Sarah's four children and gave birth to eight more of her own. By March, 1852, John T. had left the family fold for Iowa City, to be joined there five years later by his parents and several of the children.
The Iowa City area - mostly the western part of Scott Township in Johnson County - remained John T.'s home from about the age of 24 until his death in his 89th year. Soon after arriving in Iowa City, John met Virginia Snyder, daughter of William B. Snyder, a prominent settler and architect who oversaw construction of the original state house when Iowa City was still the capitol. John and Jenny married on September 28, 1854.
John T. pursued two careers. At first he was a builder but after more than a decade in that profession he began the transition to full-time farmer. During his 20’s and early 30’s, his main line of work was as a building and bricklaying contractor. Among the various projects where he left his mark were St. Mary's Catholic and the Congregational Churches, both located in central Iowa City near the U of I campus and still in use as of Summer, 2007. Published obituaries and earlier sources report that Struble won the contract to build the 19th century court house of Johnson County (see photo); also that he built or helped build St. Agatha's Catholic seminary (1861), now refurbished as the Berkley apartment building, 130 Jefferson. “He also designed Iowa City's first hostelry, the old Truesdell hotel, long afterwards metamorphosed into the Thomas Brennan home.”
Read more about this topic: John T. Struble
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early, life and/or career:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“We have been told over and over about the importance of bonding to our children. Rarely do we hear about the skill of letting go, or, as one parent said, “that we raise our children to leave us.” Early childhood, as our kids gain skills and eagerly want some distance from us, is a time to build a kind of adult-child balance which permits both of us room.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion (20th century)
“Modern equalitarian societies ... whether democratic or authoritarian in their political forms, always base themselves on the claim that they are making life happier.... Happiness thus becomes the chief political issue—in a sense, the only political issue—and for that reason it can never be treated as an issue at all.”
—Robert Warshow (1917–1955)
“Work-family conflicts—the trade-offs of your money or your life, your job or your child—would not be forced upon women with such sanguine disregard if men experienced the same career stalls caused by the-buck-stops-here responsibility for children.”
—Letty Cottin Pogrebin (20th century)