James Thomas Comstock settled in Butler County, Ohio when Cincinnati was but a small town of log cabins and became a well-known trader in his section. He also conducted a distillery near Cincinnati. On one occasion he loaded a flatboat with pork and whiskey and floated it down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, where he reloaded it with merchandise and thus with a keelboat returned to Cincinnati, it required nine months to make the trip.
He was a strong Jacksonian Democrat and on that party was elected to the Ohio Congress in 1827 (served 2 terms). It was in honor of Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans, that his fourth son was named.
In about 1836 he moved from Venice, Ohio and took residence in Warsaw, Indiana. He was later elected as one of the three state justices of the Indiana Supreme Court. He helped build the first courthouse, jail, and mill in Kosciusko County, Indiana. James was one of the earliest settlers of Mahaska County, claiming land along the Indian Trail (known later as the Glendale Road) on May 1, 1843--the opening day for white settlers into the NEW PURCHASE. He joined with William Pilgrim and Alexander McCrary to build a mill on the South Skunk River which was operating by the spring to 1844.
- Courtesy of Bernie Allgood

Residences

1795 - Pennsylvania 1850 - Mahaska, Iowa 1860 - Oskaloosa, Mahaska, Iowa 1870 - Oskaloosa, Mahaska, Iowa 1878 - Oskaloosa, Mahaska, Iowa