John Fletcher Ankeny (1824-1886) is best known as the founder of Ankeny, Iowa. He was the oldest child of Joseph and Harriet Giese Ankeny. He was born in Somerset County, Pennsylvania on May 6, 1824 on the farm owned by his father and his grandfather, Peter Ankeny. Peter was one of the founders of Somerset, Pennsylvania. When Ankeny was seven years old, his father moved the family from Somerset, Pennsylvania to Millersburg, Ohio.

Biography

Ankeny studied medicine with Dr. Jacob Voorhees and attended medical college in Cincinnati. He started his medical practice with Dr. McNeal at

Canal Dover, Ohio Dover is a city in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, United States, along the Tuscarawas River. The population was 13,112 at the 2020 census. It is located approximately south of Cleveland, west of Pittsburgh, and northeast of the state capital of Col ...

. He later practiced his profession in

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and also served as postmaster there. In 1849, he went to California, together with his brother, Henry Giese Ankeny. They participated in mining for gold. Ankeny also performed physician duties and he became Clerk of the first legislature of the state of California. He visited the Hawaiian Islands. He returned to Ohio and he married Miss Sarah (Sally) Wolgamot in Millersburg, Ohio in 1856. They established residence and farmed in Stephenson County, Illinois. Four daughters were born to them in Illinois. Ankeny was associated with the Lincoln campaign in 1860 and was elected to the

Illinois legislature The Illinois General Assembly is the legislature of the U.S. state of Illinois. It has two chambers, the Illinois House of Representatives and the Illinois Senate. The General Assembly was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818 ...

. Ankeny’s family, his parents, brothers and wives, sisters and husbands all moved to Iowa during the 1860s. Ankeny moved from Illinois to Des Moines, Iowa in 1869. He became a Des Moines city council member in 1872. Ankeny was a promoter and stockholder of the Minnesota Narrow Gauge Railroad. He and his wife Sarah purchased 80-acres of land north of Des Moines where the railroad was to traverse. The land was platted and officially became the town of Ankeny on April 19, 1875. On that land he built a rooming house and hotel and the town’s first store. He also built a house. The Ankeny family never lived in the town named after him. They continued to live in the city of Des Moines. When the narrow gauge railroad became extinct, Ankeny looked to Florida for land development. In 1883, Ankeny purchased a large tract of land along the Indian River and founded the town of Ankona, Florida in Brevard County (now

St. Lucie County St. Lucie County ( es, Condado de Santa Lucía, link=) is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 329,226. The county's seat is Fort Pierce. St. Lucie County is included in the Port St. Lucie, FL Metro ...

) Florida, where he started a pineapple plantation. He maintained a residence in Des Moines, Iowa. His nephew, Rollin V. Ankeny and his wife, Edythe, moved to Ankona. His grandson, Fletcher Ankeny Russell lived in Ankona. The Indian River Drive homes built and lived in by Rollin Ankeny and Fletcher Russell are on the list of historical homes. In 1886, Ankeny died while in Florida.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ankeny, John Fletcher 1824 births 1886 deaths American founders People from Somerset County, Pennsylvania