USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-2 > Part 1
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Ic 977.701 J13a 10.1-2 1905-06 1613413
REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01081 2672
JC
Gc 977. J13a no.1 1905 1613
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013
http://archive.org/details/annalsofjacksonc12jack
Gc 977 J13 no. 190 161
NUMBER ONE
ANNALS
Jackson
County -
Iowa
Reprinted From the Maquaketa Record.
Maquoketa, Iowa.
Published by .
JACKSON COUNTY HISTORICAL. SOCIETY
Vol. /m 2
Y
1005-06
A ** RASL
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Gc 977 J13 no. 190 161
1613413
GRAVE OF COL: THOMAS COX Section 15. Maquoketo Township
COMMITTEE OF OLD SETTLERS' SOCIETY. Jas. W Ellis, W C Gregory and Harry Reid Standing on site of grave.
Gc 977 J13
no. 190 161
J, W. ELLIS,
Secretary and Curator of the Jackson County Historical Society.
1
Recollections of Early Days.
Personal recollections of early days by J. W. Ellis, witten for the Jackson Conuty Historical Society.
My. father, Jesse Ellis, though not olle of the early pioneers, cathe to this county in time to carve out a home from an almost unbroken forest. He was born in Kentucky, near Frankfort, Feb. 2, 1810. His father, Joseph Ellis, came t) Kentuckyabout the year 1800 from Pulaski county, Va, where he was born Jan. 12, 1763. Ile was married to Frankie Wood, who was born in the same place Dec. 23, 1774. My father's grandfather, whose name was also Jos- epb, was born in 1730. My father grow up on the Kentucky farm and when abont 16 years old was employed as au over seer by his brother-in-law, Eli Rogers, who owned segnal slaves. Af-
ter he reached the age of 20 years he made several trips to New Orleans, and later he became possessed of the secret chart of the famous Swift silver mine in the Kentucky mountains.
He spent nearly two years in the moontaius trying to find the mine Swift and two other inc , whde haathis in the wildest, roughest part of the mountains, discovered a rich veiu of silver ore, they kep: the discovery. a secret, and procurias tools took ont a considerable quantity of the ore and stilted it, as the mine was far from any settlement they could not carry away- very much of their balling, bet burried it in the ground, making a chidit die- scribing the location and laud. muris and blazing trees, one of the mon siel - ened and died and it was believed that Swift and the other maa fell out oyer the secret treasure and in a finish fight Swift was victor, at least he alone came ton settlement with a portion of the -ilver bulliou, which he converted into cash with which he bought supphes and made other trips, but don 1; after a s .- vere iliness he went entirely blind. It was said to be a pathetic sight to see the blind man trying to direct men to the treasure of which he alone kaew the secret by the aid of the chart. His search was a failure, and broken iu health and spirits he did not survive long. After his death, my father bo. came the owner of the chart and searched nearly two re ars in the moon. tains for the hidden treasure. Hu found the blazed trees described in the chart and found the gulch in which the mire was located, but could not find the open- ing to the cavern and he always believed that a landslide had covered the un. trance to the cavern and obliterated the most important signs on the chart. Af- ter endering innumeralle berichin. sleeping on the groand in the open air and having entirely on such give it. they could siento with their riffe., but drer and wild turkey ; bieg quite plou.
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tiful in the mountains at that time, the Search was abandoned. Father often entertained visitors with stories of his adventures while searching for the Swift silver mine in the Kentucky mountains.
James Anderson, who formerly lived in Maquoketa and was a frequent visi- tor at our home, became very much in- terested in the silver mine and hidden treasure, and after several interviews on that subject father gave him the chart and all the information that he could, and that was the last I ever heard of Swifts treasure until about 1895, when I saw an article in the Cincinatti En- quirer claiming that the old mine had been found.
Grandfather Ellis and members of his family that were still at home, includ- ing my father, removed to Putman county , Indiana, about the year 1833. Grandfather secured a tract of land with a land warrant received for revo- lutionary services.
Jesse Ellis married Ailsea Jeffers in Hendricks county, Indiana, in 1837, she was also a native of Kentucky. I still have a government patent to a piece of land which father purchased. in 1837 and on which he lived until the 26th of Sept. 1852, when be started overland for Iowa.
I was but four years old at that time but remember many instances of the journey, one that made a lasting im- pression on my mind was that of meet- a circus at the crossing of some river in Illinois. There were two or more ele- phants and some camels and the large animals were fording the stream. the elephants seemed to enjoy very much sucking up the water in their trunks and deluging the other animals as well as their own bodies with it.
After leaving the state of Indiana my father had a great deal of trouble with his wagon which was built on the wide tack and would not fit in the ruts of the western wagons.
Our first stop in Iowa was at the home of Thomas Flathers, a relative of ours who lived four and one-half miles south of Maquokera. Mr. Flathers knew that father had considerable mon- ey and tried to get him to enter some of the rich land in that locality, which was still held by the government and could have been had at $1.25 per acre. But father had always lived in a tim- bered country and would not believe that a man cond live in a praire country 5 or 6 miles from timber aud be able to get up enough fuel to keep from freez- ing to death.
He next visited his brother William, who had secured a piece of land about one mile west of Fulton, with his land warrant received for service in the war of 1812. He had fought with Jackson at New Orleans. He came to Iowa sov- eral years prior to our coming and had the pick of the country, but had settled on about as poor a tract as could well be found. Needless to say my father did not like the land in that neighborhood. He visited with Willis, William and Edward Flathers and Jos Anderson, all relatives, and all living within a few miles af each other, within the forks of the Maquoketa rivers and finally pur- chased 160 acres of land in section 11. South Fork township, on which he re- mained until his death, in 1850. In 1859 there was a double log cabin and & large frame barn on the land which was well watered, having two spring branches with numerous springs, and with the exception of 10 or 12 acres of cleared land it was covered with the fines body of timber I ever saw.
I will make an assertion here that will seera incredible to my readers, but it is actually true, there were as many families in this part of South Fork township in 1852 as there are today, ex- cluding Hurstville. Bat there are vers few representatives of the original fom- ilies Poft. Levi Roho, a veteran of the war of 1819, lived in a cabin on the
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a/Te
north side of the creek on our land, but soon bought a piece of land in the neigh- borhood and moved onto it. Daniel Frazier, coming from Ohio about that time, moved into the cabin vacated by Rolfe, but soon afterwards bought the Willis Flathers place, in section 10, and moved to it, and Walter Watrous, fresh froni the Scioto bottoms, moved into the cabiu. Thomas Frazier was our nearest neighbor, owning the quarter section west of our land, but at that time had not returned from the California gold- fields, where he went in company with D. C Clary in 1850, but returned soon alter our arrival and had a goodly share of the yellow metal, some of it as I re- member was octagonal $50 pieces.
There was at that time three cabins, all occupied, on the Frazier land, one by the Frazier family, one by Frazier's brother-in-law, Henry Haunnel, and the other by the Sherwood family. Two of these cabins were old buildings.
In 1852, a daughter of Sherwoods mar- ried a Dr. Martin, who for some years lived in Maquoketa, and I think that Charlie Martin, the carpenter, is their son. They had buried two small chil- dren on our land, the stones marking their graves, stood for many years, but have long since disappeared.
There was quite a French settlement on land adjoining ours in 1852. A man by the name of Bywaters lived in a log cabin which I believe is standing yet on A. Hurst's land near his farm house. Peter Jerman, another Frenchman, whose wife was a Flathers, and a rela- tive of ours, had been killed in a well that had caved in on him on the land now owned by A. J. York Another Frenchman by the name of Daviels, lived in a cabin on land adjoining the Jerman land, and still another French- man named Fredrick, lived about 80 rods north of Daniels and taugh school in what is now known as the Hurstville district, in 1833. Josiah Eaton lived theo near where the John Davis house
now stands, being the nearest to the schoolhouse. The school was known as the Eaton school. Nathanial Woods lived ou the place that Groff lived on when he killed his neighbor. Davis, in 1839, now known as the Fitch farm. A brother of Jason Pangborn lived on land now owned by A. Hurst, north of Hurstville, near the river. Isaac Hight lived on the farm now owned by Asa Struble. Joseph Jackson Woods lived for several years on the farm he sold to Asa Davis at about the beginning of the war. A family by the name of Beck. lived on the land now owned by Baum- gartner, adjoining the Davis land and John. Woods lived in 1852 in the same house that his son, C. L. Woods, lives in now. The old place on the Iron Hill road four miles west of Maquoketa, now owned by Williams, was. owned in 1852 by a Dr. Mckenzie, and I think he sold to William Sears. A half mile south of us stood a cabin, which was old when we came here. It was called the Woods place and after it rotted down, garden vegetables would grow up in the cleared space and the spot was known for many years as the Woods garden, James Armstrong, whose wife was a cousin of mine, lived. ucar where George Coleman now lives.
Lowell was quite a thriving village in those early days, among the families living there was a Mr. Wolfe, a native Kentuckikn, and I think my father ad- mired hirn ou that account as much as anything else. The land in Lowell was considered so valuable that the lots were made very small, only 25 feet front. In addition to the grist. mill, saw mill and woolen mills, there was an im- posing mansion on the highest point of land, with three cottages on the north and three og the south, and cast of the brick house there stood a shop in which it was said Ben Sears was building a wonderful wagon, that, whon complet ed, would run by stran on any kind of roads and would revolutioning the monde
of travel and do away largely with the demand for horses. I often tried to get a view of this woudeful wagon, but never succeeded.
The early promise of greatness for Lowell was a delusion and her glory long since departed. One of the great est draw backs in the early days was the often impassible roads. The roads were generally a single track through the great forest, and it was many years before the trees were cut to let the sun in to dry them. Another difficulty was the bridges. The rain fall was heavier than of late years and it seemed that no matter how high we made the bridges the water would get high enough to take them out. There was a wooden bridge over the river in Maquoketa part of the time, and it was out a good part of the time. When the bridge was out and the river low enough we would ford it. But in the spring there was much of the time the road through the river bottoms would be under water so we could not reach the bridge.
I remember that for a time there was a toll bridge kept by a Mr. Parker, and I probably remember it because Mr. Parker had a parrot that helped him to watch the bridge. The bird would call Parker, Parker, every time it saw any- one approaching the bridge.
The schools in the early days were kept up by subscription, that is, the head of a family would pay an agreed amount to the teacher and furnish a share of the fuel and board the teacher a share of the term, although some of the teachers I went to schoot to had families and lived in the neighborhood. The first teacher I went to school to regular- ly was Jacob Whistler. I think that he tanght abont three years, the next was John Orr, and after him A. U. Parmer. I went for a time to Rhoda Jones, bat my mind was on the teacher much more than on the studies.
The great forests between the forks of the Maquoketa was full of game in the
early fifties and there was deer and wild turkeys here until about 1570 fand the river was full of fine fish. I will de- scribe one fishing excursion which . was permitted to attend when a small boy. My father and big brother, Thomas and Benton Frazier. Theo. Eaton and I think Henry Hammel went fishing to the mouth of what is now called the Hurstville branch. They to h axes with them and arriving at the river by. gan cutting down willows aud trimming off the fine brash, this brush they made into a long role of about 50 or 60 feet and about 3 feet thick and bound to- gether with bark, with loug bark ropes tied to each end. When completed this crude seis was rolled into the water and while some of the men pulled it through the water with the ropes of bark, others walked behind and held the ssia down This was hard to handle but was a com- plete success. Every haul made brot a lot of nice fish, and in one heut they had two large pickerel in the catch, fully three feet long. One of them went out over the top of the scin like a bird, bat one of the men secured the other with a spear. When they had caught all the fish they wanted, they divided them in as many piles as there were sharers in the party. My father was theu blindfolded and with his back turned to the piles of fish he was asked who should have the pile designated by one of the men by putting his hand ou the fish, father would call out the name, and the last pile went to father.
J. W. ELLIS.
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In the parly fifties the farms in the forks of the Maquoke ta were very small and but few of the settlers raised grain sufficient for their needs Many of them would exchange fence posts and rails with the prairie farmers for grain and hay. Flour was more of a luxury than a necessity those days. Corn bread was the staple article. At least once each week my father would bring in a sack of corn in the ear, in the evening the wash tub would be placed on the floor in front of the fire place and we would all gather around and help shell a grist of corn. The next morning father would throw the sack of corn on one of the horses and put one of the boys on top of the sack and start him to mill. Some- times we would go to Lowell and some- times to Pinhook or McCloys. Arriving at the mill, the miller would help the boy down and take charge of the corn, and the boy would try to catch a mess of fish while waiting for the grist, when the corn was ground the miller loaded it on to the horse, toss the boy on top and started him home.
Pork was raised very cheaply in those days, the woods were full of mast on which hogs would thrive. Each settler had his private mark for his hogs, they would put that mark on the hogs in the spring and turned them out into the woods and they thrived very well, un- til fall unless as sometimes happened they strayed across the river, when they would be gobbled up and sold as estrays, then it would cost all they were worth to redeem them. We had considerable trouble on account of a family living in Lowell, who we believed took pains to drive our stock across the bridge where they would be pounced upon and put in in the pound aud sold for expenses.
One of our neighbors had a flock of sheep running out and they strayed too far away and were shut up in Lowell. The owner heard that the sheep had been shut up and a ransom demanded for them, but instead of trying to raise
the ransom he shouldered his shot gun and went for his sheep, and he got them by simply opening the fence and tura- ing them out, and gave the man to un- derstand that if he interferred with his stock again he would have to be picked up in pieces and carried home in a bas- ket and that old fellow's stock was nev- er molested in that way again.
Every body kept sheep then and most of the settlers made their own clothing. The first suit the writer had, other than home spun, was a soldier uniform. My mother and sisters spun the yarn and wove the cloth for the clothing of all members of the family.
In our immediate locality the settlers depended upon what they could grow in their little cleared patches, aud upon their timber. But farther west almost every settler was either a cooper or run a cooper snop. Flour at that time was put into barrels, of which there were many thousands made in the forks cach year for many years. Whiskey barrels. pork barrels and lard tierces were also manufactured very largely and sold for the most part in Galena. This industry furnished employment to hundreds of men for many years. The coopers and wagon makers had the first choice of the fine timber that once grew in the forks; the roilroads had the next whack at it, and the lime manufacturers bave about consumed what was left There is but little remaining of the great forest that was such an attraction to emigrants in the early forties and fifties.
Those who settled in the forks bad one advantage over their neighbors on the prairie side, they could manrfec- ture all the sweets they cared for with. out any expense aside from their labor. Nearly every settler had his sugar bush and made enough maple sugar in the spring time to last until the next season. The woods were full of bees and the sur- tlers could have all the honey they wanted by catting u bee tree and takie out the honey.
OK. 5
GC 977 J13 no. 190 16]
From the time that I arrived in the country in 1852, there was not much de- privation and hardships to encounter. We always had plenty of corn for bread an abundance of pork, potatoes, maple sugar and syrup, and honey, and when we wanted them wild plumbs. black- berries, raspberries and gooseberries were a never failing crop and the woods were full of them.
Our immediate neighborhood was'al- ways peaceable and quiet. We had spelling school, singing school and de bating societies, but no great tragedy ever occurred in our midst, although Montgomery killed Brown witbin less than two miles of our place, and it was but 6 or 7 miles to the scene of the bill- ing of Ingles by Alex Grifford, which was the immediate canse of the forming of a Vigilance committee at Iron Hills, of which I am collecting material from survivors for a more complete write up than has ever been given to the public.
In looking backward and trying to re- call the names of friends and associates of other days we almost feel that we are out of place, that we have out lived all of our acquaintances of early days. Of my father's. family of eleven, there is only sister Mary and myself remaining in the state. Of the Eaton family, con- sisting of eleven members, there is not one left in this part of the country. Of the Joseph Anderson family, which I think had also eleven members before the war, there are three of the children still living in the county. The Fraziers all left the neighborhood many years. ago. Of Nathaniel Woods and his large family wholived in our school district in 1852, Mrs John Johnson of Andrew, now only remains Thomas Thompson, another neighbor with a large family, fonud an early grave in the south land. The wife and oldest daughter were car- riedl off with a malignant fever and the youngest children were scattered and lost track of. C. L. Woods still owners the farm his father acquired in Bio and
my sister and myself still own a part of the land our father purchased in lesy. All other lands in the locality bare changed hands, some of it many tiums since the early fifties. If there is any oce living that can tell us. we would like to know who removed and what became of the old mill frame that stood on the branch near the Eat school house when the writer was a very small boy. It had been built by Joe Heori iu a very early day. bur was her- er completed Mr Henri that he owned the land when he undertook to build the mill. but learning before it was comple- ted that his title was not good. he ahan- doned the work and the old franje st.4 without roof or siding for many years. My recollection is, that it was palled down aboat the beginning of the War, and couverted into another building.
J. W. ELLIS. .
Some of the Old Mills
EDITOR OF THE RECORD: [ read with pleasure Jimnes Eilis' article on early history, in last week's Record I think a great deal more should be pub- lished while yet possible to cooll-c as I find it already hard to do with a posi- tive certainty as to facts, we will con- tribute this "mite" which we have bret at some pains to gather and hope it will be found true.
In 1844, David Stars, A poneer of Magunkets, built a water sax mit on the South Forkofthe Maquiketa river on land in section 13. South Fork Top This mill cu' lomber from the M qa). keta timber. for use by the early att. ters. Lumberyard. and pine stuck was nearly, if not quite unknown in eastern lowa during the fifa SoAls of settlement, and the native himher was a great factor in the develiman -os of the country Oak generally With Bord for training and shingles, whil black walnut wa- mnich need for vide ing and flu :- bing lun. ber. I con : 41
UC 977 J13 no. 190 16]
old houses yet standing, built fifty years ago or more with enough black walnutlumber in them to bring a good- ly sum today, 1905, if it was in proper form for market. Th , old David Sears' mill,after running several years. burned aud was rebuilt b W'm. Sears, son of David, in 1856. The Searses seemed to have been natural mill men for I fud in 1864 Benjamin Sears built a saw mill on the south fork of the MaQuoketa also on section 13 and about oue-half mle above where his father David built one in 1841 This later Stars' mill was in operation about eleven years.
In t mu h carlier day, 1837, accord ing to record, Jost ph Henry built a saw mill on Millor P arie creek, in sec- tion 30, South Fork Twp., perhaps & half mile (according to tradition) up stream f. m : cre Joseph McCloy built in 1841, the first, er's mill that bolted fl wrin Jackson conrty. This early saw mill built by Henry, for some reason or other prov d a failure, ac- cording to recorded Jackson county history, doing but little. if any sawing, which was a serious drawback for the few earliest settlersin the Maquoketa country, for I do not fi da- there was any other saw mill in Jackson county except the one built by B.Il and Sub- lette at Bellevue in 'he year 1836. I find records differ as to the Bell-Sub le'te mill, giving two dates, 1836 and 1838. Dr Little acquired title to this early m ", or else built on or n ar this mill site and after several years t me moved it east of Magniketa on Mul creek and perhaps a quarter of a mile or h re-about- down stream from where Joseph Willey built a stone mill, whech was afterwards purchased, and operated for a number of years by Sen- eca Willams, situated on The S. W. quarter of section 20, Maqu kota Tup his stone grist mit id 1867
In the early fates the influx of un. ig aus into Jackson County was quite
large and it seems those early day saw mills were extremely necessary to the country for they app ar to bare followed in rapid succession. The next saw mill built on the -outh fork of the M.quoketa above where Ben Sear-' mill was built in 1534. was built in about 1345 by Jesse Wilson. Two nen by name of Simpson and Fairbrother. or at least Fairbrother, had an interest in it. This mill doce a great bu-ine:s for some time, running day and night. Later, I understand,It passed into the hands of Poff and Nickerson, who-ad- ded a fouring mill aud woolen factory. Those wi Ils were the Pin Ho's mills. Some years ago they purged down and never was rebuil ;. Three miles west of Pin Hook, on the river and on, or near the S E. quarter of section 17, South Fork Twp., John Ball built x saw mill in or about 1555. This mill was ic operation for nearly a scre of years. It was at this old mill dam where the writer and other young sei- tlers of his age, on the pleasant snur. mer boyhood days, when the outer world and all the opposite sex was shut out from view by the bluffs and woods. used to be clothed in garments cat so low in the neck they made tracks in the sand. About one mile and a quarter up the stream on the X W. quarter of sec 18,South Fork T&p .. Crowell Wilson previous to this, built another water saw mill in or ahou: 182. This mill wasshort lived for soon after it was built a f . d on the river took cut its dam and undermined the int'l so it toppled into the stream The logs it the ward was rafted down to the Pla Hbok motil. We trace on the Mag .com river, west of the line of Main street M .quiketa within ad stance of 5| onier west as the changes, for saw mille. two faring mills and two woolen maille including the Lov 1 mille oreocol in the carly forties by Ses .. Dookuteam Wright. Ad them mila and des mili- Ora tuentioned ig thi, ace dni wer
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