JOHN N. YOUNG, one of the old soldier citizens of Pottawattamie County was born in Fleming County, Kentucky, February 5, 1844, the son of John Young, formerly a farmer of that county, who moved to Iowa in 1846 when our subject was but two years old and engaged in the mercantile business in Washington. After one year he bought a farm in that county, where he spent the remainder of his life. He was married in Kentucky to Mary Adams and they had eight children: James A., Robert S., John N., Nancy, Sarah A., Mary, Charles and Addie. Mr. Young was a Scotch-Irish man of German descent, and lived to the age of seventy-two years. He was an industrious man, and was respected by all who knew him.

John N. Young, the subject of this sketch, received a good education attending a college at Washington, Iowa, a Presbyterian Institution. At the age of eighteen in 1862, when Lincoln made his first call for 300,000 men, young John bravely enlisted as a private in Company C, Nineteenth Regiment Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and served three years. He was in the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas, was on the Arkansas and Missouri frontier ten months, and was then at the siege and capture of Vicksburg. He was at the surrender of Port Hudson, battle of Sterling Farm, September 29, 1863, where he was taken prisoner, and confined at Tyler, Texas and Shreveport, Louisana, for nine months and thirteen days. He was then exchanged, July 22, 1864 and went to New Orleans, thence to Barancas, Florida, where he was at the siege of Spanish Fort and capture of Mobile; and here the war closed. He was honorably discharged July 10, 1865, and mustered out at Davenport, Iowa, August 1, 1865. He had two brothers in the war, James A., and Robert S., the former in the Seventh Iowa Infantry and was present at the battle of Belmont, where he was taken prisoner and confined eleven months and ten days in Memphis, Tennessee; Corinth, Mississippi; Mason, Georgia; Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Belle Island.

After the war Mr. Young returned to Washington County, Iowa, and like many of the men who had risked life and health for their country, followed the peaceful pursuits of agriculture. In the fall of 1867 he went to Cass County, Missouri, where he bought land and lived seven and a half years. He then returned to Washington County, remaining two years, and in 1878 settled his present farm of eighty acres in Pottawattamie County, which he has since converted into a well tilled farm. He has held the office of assessor two years, township trustee three years, and a member of the school board two years. He is a member of the G.A.R., William Layton Post, No.358, and in his political views is a stanch Republican. In the days when his country needed his services he bravely went to the front and did gallant service in the cause of his country, believing that a country worth living for was worth fighting for, and to such men we owe the preservation of the Union and our free institutions. As a citizen Mr. Young has been above reproach and his name and record should be handed down to the most remote generations.

March 29, 1866, he was married to Sarah A. Farley, daughter of Sylvester and Candace (Barnett) Farley. The father was a pioneer settler in Washington County, Iowa having come from Ohio in 1839 and is of Scotch Irish descent. He was born in Ohio in 1811, and is still living at the age of seventy-nine years. He was the father of thirteen children, seven of whom are now living, namely: Nancy, John, Harvey, Noah, Sarah M., William and Andrew. Mr. and Mrs. Young are the parents of four children: Jeanette, Minnie A., Edward B. and Orrin R.