USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 2
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water mills and have gone the war of the pioneers. Their wheels have been stilled ty the changed conditions. m .st of them are totally obliberated and all the dams are only a trace, except the Pin Hook dam, kept in place to afford a good field for Maquoket: 's ice supply. If this history isn' correct it is as near to it as it has been possible for me to learn, owing to the silence of record and the uncertain memory of old man.
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A Few Settlers of Other Days.
Although I fail to have much of the personal history of all the following par- ties, I wish to record them as among the early settlers of my part of Jackson county, that time may not soon obliter- ate the memory of them as among those who helped to lay the foundation of Jackson county's present and future weal.
In 1854, Thomas Harvey, with his family, came by ox team to Jackson county, Iowa, from Waukeegau, Ill.,and settled in South Grove, Monmouth Twp , where the balance of his life was spent persuing the avocation of a farmer. His family of children were eight: Eliza- beth, Charles, Mabelle, Mary Ann, Julia, James, Richard and Ida. James of this family was accidentally killed over thir- ty years ago while hunting, by having his gun discharged while getting through a fence.
Robert Swan, who I believe married Elizabeth Harvey, imigrated from near Wankeegan, III., to Jackson county, in 1856. He and his young wite came by wagon, driving a yoke of cattle aud leading three cows behind. They set- tled about two miles southeast of Mill Rock, in South Grove, Monmouth Twp., where they followed farming for a live. lihood. Their children were: Hattie, now the wife of Will Dorau of Maquo. kota ; Emmnie, wife of Wilson Teeple of Nashville; Ida, wife of Win. Nodk of South Grove; William T., who I b fievo died young, and Wheeler, a farnaz liv
ing two miles south of Nashville
Another early settler in South Grove, who I believe settled just over the line in Clinton county but afterward became a resident of Jackson county. was James Illingsworth. In abont 1848 he came from England to Illinois and ia 1853 inoved to this part of Iowa. He was a fiue old man, positive and original, but never could get out of the habit of call- ing England, Hengland. If he was to tell yon to go to h -- you would have thought it was some newly discovered country called 'ell. He raised a fine family consisting of Mary Jane, who was Hiram Burap's first wife while she lived : George, now of Nebraska; Auna and Louisa, who did single; James; Thresa, who married Clarence Buruap of Kansas, and Caroline.
Perh ids I will be excused if I refer to our own family of which we know more. We were not pioneers, not coming here until the spring of 1856, still one who came here 49 years ago is not a tender- foot. My father, Hiram Seeley, was born in Warren county, N. Y., and with his father, Wm Seeley, and family, emigrated to Crawford county, western Pennsylvania, when it was a comparative forest wilderness. There father married Julia A. Bagley, daughter of John Bag. ley, who when sixteen years of age came to that yet wild country with a yoke of cattle, and with only another young man about his age as a companion. There grandfather Bagley began clear- ing a farm and went sixty miles to Pittsburgh for his few indispeusible ne- cessaries. Two years before father was married he came west to Illinois in 1813, I suppose he left a greater attraction be- hind him than he found in the swamps of central Illinois, for he soon returned. married and bogaa to hew a farm out of the beeches and maples of Pennsylvania of which he soon tired, and in 1556, he with his family came to Jackson county. His first atay was with Lyman Bates, who was a relative and had come to
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Jackson county, from Warren county, N. Y., iu 1888, with J. E. Goodenow. Father bought a piece of land near a Mr. DeGrush, father of Fred. His land was uubroken, with no buildings on it. The summer o, '56 he worked land owned by Mr DeGrush, and moved a shack about 14 feet square onto his own land and put up some western outbuildings, a straw stable and a slab granary, in which he stored the grain he raised that year. We moved into our 14x14 palace that fall aud one night we took in, fed and slept twelve men, women and children, who were traveling. It made the old shack look like a box of sardines. The coming winter was the winter of 56 57, said to have been the coldest in the history of Iowa. That winter father hauled his firewood some 12 miles, from near Burts caves, with a yoke of oxen, it took him from before daylight until after night- full to make a trip aud cut his load. In February a spark from the stove pipe- chimneys were mostly stove pipes those days-fired our stable and granary and all father's grain and feed went up in smoke. I was too young to know just how father felt about it, but we suppose something like I did in 1882 when in our first year in Sac county, 400 teres of my crops went off in a hail storm. Father sold his land there in section, 28 Maquo- keta township, and bought again near Andrew, and the next year, 1557, while living at the latter, place, father saw Birger, who shot his wife at Bellevue in 1854, hung by a mob May 28, 1857, and on the same old oak tree where Alee Grifford was liuched April 11 of the same year for killing John Ingles of Farmers Creek township, March 27, 1857.
In either of these two affairs father .had no part, but as the law at that time moved about as swift and not quite as certain as the glazer, it would have been nothing against him if he had, some of the best then in this county played qnite a part in the removal of those two men.
What is called "the ramble lust" was alwas to some extent in the blood of a Seeley, and after about a year at An- drew the old clearings in Pennsylvania began to look to father like the garden of Eden, so we "pulled stakes" and went back, but after a few months among the stumps and nigger-heads it distroyed the limelight that he thought the Pittsburgh and Erie canal was the center of, and the fall of 1550 found us in Maqnoketa, where we wintered, and in the spring of '60 bought and moved onto land at Buckhorn. The most of our lives since has been spent in this section.
FARMER BUCKHORN.
Pioneer Life in Jowa.
Having been solicited by the editor . of the Record and also by my old friend, Jim Ellis, I will try to contrib. bute somewhat to the history of Jowa and especially as to what I know of the early events of Jackson county. To do this intelligently, I must go back to my starting point.
On the 15th of October. 1850 I start- ed from Pittsburgh Pa. for what was called the far west at that time.
There were but few railroads east of Pittsburgh and nono west of it.
My route of travel lay down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi. I engaged passage on the noble steam- or S.B. Nuugerian which plied regular, between the starting point and St. Louis and after a tedious voyage of 16 daye I renched St. Louis where I stopped over two days waiting for an up river steam- er destined for Dubuque Iowa, and after another ron of 4 days I was landed at the latter place, somewhat fatigued on Account of the long and tedious trip. ut G oclock A M. November Cth, and after looking the small but thriving town of Dubuque over a little while there arrived another steamer with somno emigrants that also started from
Pittsburg and among them was a fam- ly, with which J was somewhat ac- quainted, whose destination was to the same point I aimed for.15 miles south of Dubuque where lived an old neighbor by the name of Daniel Court, who had braved the wilds of Iowa cev eral years before The family ahove refered to, consisted of Jobu Kemere and wife and about 6 children, ag. d from about 12 years aud down, and two young men somdwbat related, Onver and Danial B> sard by nam. ,a.'d my self. Mr.K- merer bired a team to baul his family and a partof bis house hold goods to the place of destina'.o.
"Our party Jeft Dubuque at I've vek P.M. we bad 15 miles before us and the roads were somewhat heavy on ac- count of recent rains, our progress was necessarily slow. The first too miles was not very difficult, but now it began to be dark and the country be- gan to be very sparsely settled and it was raining, our road lay through an open prairie with no fenses or house in sight. But we innpaged to keep the road through th dark on ace unt of the grass on either side ,after perusing our way of 2 or 3 miles by the aid of our grass fence at the sides, we came to a large piece of breaking, through which the road passed. And here is where our difficulties began It was raining hard and we lost the track on the breaking, which brought our party to a stand still and after h dding a council, it was decided to leave the wagon together with the family and driver to stand still till we, that were Joose fonted, could make a reconsoi- sance and find an outlet. According y two of us started to travel Around through the dark for at least an hur without any success, unless it was that we found ourselves lost on an open prairie By this time we bad no idea bow far we were from the wagon, or in what direction the breaking was from Ds, here our predicament was worse
than ever. We helloed at the top fo our voices, to see if we could get a re- ponse from the wagon, but it would not go. We traveled a while in what we thought might be in the direction of the wagon party, but it proved to be in the opposite direction. We stopped again to bello a number of times, - one time we got an answer just in hearing distance, it was from a belated boy re- turoing from bis work to his home.
The boy was coming toward us and as soon as he w 's in easy speaking dis- tance he inquired what the trouble was, so we told him we were lost and Wanted to find a road that would lead to Daniel Courts plave and the boy an- sw.red, come .wer to the road nd go 4miles south and you will get there.
We told the boy to stay till we gut there, aid then he began to explain the route more definite But we inter. rupted bim by telling bim that we had also lost a wagon somewhere with afamily of children and others which we fir-t wanted to find before we were ready to proceed, telling the boy it was on a large peice of b. caking where we lost the road. The boy told us there was only one peice of breaking in the neighborhood and that was 2 miles north and we must follow this road to a certain crossing and then turn to the right. But we were in co mood to make further experiments. So we offered the boy a dollar to pilot us to our wagon and act as guide for the re- mainder of our journey, this the boy eagerly accepted and in due time we made our landing at 10 o'clock P.M.
Here we met with u must cordial ro. ception Mr. Court appeared at his best, and his noble wife, was soooo engaged in preparing a hearty supper for which our whole party was more than ready.
It was now ll o'clock and it began to meto be a wonder how this now large family could be lodged for the remainder of the night. But this proh. Ini was soon solved. Presently Juna
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than Alshouse stopped in, whose resi- dence was t mile distance, and Lebues Alshouse, a brother who bived nearby also came, for the sole purpose of tak- ing in a part of the newly arrived emi- grants. Tre Alshouse boys, as we then called them, were formerly from Wil- kinburg, a suburb of Pittsburg Pa.
So after we were distributed to our several lodgings we felt perfectly at home, and it was now lo,clock A.M. and so ended my first days experience in Iowa.
All the above named partiee, of whom I will have more to say in the future, lived in the immediate vicinity of the present Zwingle on the line that sepa. rates Dubuquie from Jackson County.
FIFTY FIVE YEARS IN IOWA.
Res leetions of Early Days.
Recollections of early days, written by J. W Ellis for the Jackson County Historical Society.
I thin' it was in the summer of 1857 that my father met with a great loss. I had previously ment oned that there was a large frame barn on our land, part of it was us d for a horse stable, part for a granary and coru crib, and in the larg. est part was what we called a tramping floor, a large. room with a double floor Where we threshed out the wheat and oats with horses My father would lay two courses of sheaves in a circle around the room with the heads over-lapping, then a couple of us boys would mount a horse ind tror around and around this circle leading ano her horse, my father continually turning the sheaves until the grain was all tramped out, after which the straw would be thrown off and the grain run through a fanning mill. Ou one occasion after we had been cleaning up the wheat and bad le't con- siderable chaff on the floor, my little 4-year-old brother saw some mice hiding in the chaff and it occurred to bim that it would be a good idea to burn them out. My father and all the big boys
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were away from home at the time an mother was very busy and not paying much attention to the little tots, so that Johnny managed to get some coals from the fireplace and proceeded to burn out the mice, with the result that the barn and contents, consisting of 400 bushels of corn, 12 tons of hay, some oats and two sets of harness went with the mice.
That fall there was an early frost which caught all the corp, and that win- ter and the next spring and summer, corn suitable for bread sold for $1.00 per bushel.
The Jerman barn, as it was called, was a land mark that will be remembered by many who are yet living, it stood in 1852, only partially built, near where Andy York's house now stands Peter Jermain had started to build the barn, which he laid out with generous plans, but before it was completed he nuder- took to dig a well, the ground at the spot chosen for the well was saudy and caved iu and killed him, so that neither well nor baru were ever completed. I well remember a hole in the side of the baro next to where the road ran through his place, that it was said old Peter cut out to shoot through when partic's came to steal his grain, as he anticipeted they would do. There was a tradition that he had money burried somewhere on the land, I have never heard that Andy York fennd the burried treasure, but he certainly has managed to extract cou- siflerablo wealth frout the old farm.
The modes of conveyance in the early days here were heavy linchpin wagons drawn by horses or oxen, or riding horse- back. I am quite confident there was not a carriage or buzzy in the forks of the Maquoketa in 1852 and am not sure that there was a frame house. The first vehicle that I can remember that could be called a carriage was a two seated wagon purchased by John Woods, Est .. I think about 1556, and it was in great demand at all funerals in our neighb.t. hood for years. Nelson Lano also got a carriage in the fifties, and the,> two
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were all that I had any knowledge of prior to the war. It was a great thing in those days to own a carriage.
The fiddle was the principal and al- most the only musical instrument in the country in the early days. I remember very well the first piano I ever saw. In the winter of 1856 or '57 Uncle Joe An- derson was hauling wood to Dr. Allen, and was invited to bring his family down to hear Miss Kate Allen play the piano. I was invited by some of the children to go along aud Uncle Joe took a sled load of us down to the Doctor's house, which stood north of where the Stephens bauk now stands, and Miss Alleu entertained us nicely, it was the first time that any of the party had ever seen or heard a piano and it was a great event with us, I know I felt somewhat stuckup over my brothers and sisters as I had heard and seen a piano and they had not.
For some years after coming to Iowa my mother cooked over a fire-place, but finally father took a couple of loads of dressed hogs to Lyons and brought home a new box stoye with a whole lot of bright tinware, and we had something to brag about at school.
There was one character in onr com- munity in the early days, around whom my memory clings with feelings of deep veneration and foud affection, I refer to Dr. Charles L. Usher, a pioneer of the early forties and a good samaritan to the early settlers in every sense of the word. The coctor wasa welcome guest in every cabin and never failed to respond to a call for help in sickness, day or night. He was a graduate of an Ohio medical college, and his greatest ambition in life, as ho often told the writer, was to do all the good he coald to his fellow men. His services were in great demand, but poor. ly paid for, and he was compelled to dig, . dry and graind up and prepare the herbs that he used in his reunidies. Many times the writer has helped him to dig and collect burdock, Indian cnp, squaw
cabbage, golden seal and many other herbs used by him. The doctor hated dogs and often remarked, that no fam- ily was too poor to afford several dogs. He was also bitterly opposed to the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors He lived to attain a great age, honored and respected, but died poor for the reason that he was a poor collector, had he kept au account of his services and looked after the collection of his fees as some modern doctors do, he might have been a wealthy man.
One of the early day preachers that I remember quite well was Rev. Mullholl, who occasionally held service in our school house and prayer meetings in the houses of the settlers. On one of his visits to our neighborhood he accosted Joel Woods and said, "My boy do you know Jesus Christ?". Joel said, "No sir, don't think he lives in the timber, I think be must live on the prairie." Joel has never heard the last of his answer to the preacher.
One little adventure that befell me in the early days will help to illustrate some of the difficulties we met with. Father sent me to town on horse back for the mail and some groceries, it had been raining hard but cleared up before I left honte, it commenced raining again just as I got into town and never let up for one moment until after dark, and it was awful dark. As soon as it stopped raining I mounted the horse, one that we had owned ouly a short time and was blind in one eye, and started for home. I got along nicely.until I crossed the old wooden bridge and struck the timber, which at that time grew right dowo to the end of the bridge, when I entered the forest it was like entering a dark room and I could not see my hand when held before my eyes, and the only way I could tell when the horse was in the road was by the sound of his feet splashing in the water, the instant ho steppel out of the road the sound of his feet was muffled by the leaves and grass
so I managed to keep in the road until I got within a half mile of home when the rain began pouring down again and my old horse got out of the road and in my efforts to get him back he stumbled over a the trunk of a fallen tree and be- came hopelessly anchored with his front legs on one side of the tree and his hind legs on the other, I could feel the log un- der my feet but could not go backwards or forwards. As a last resort I conclud- ed to try my lung power, I could rival a Commanch Indian in yelling those days. I gave a couple of whoops and was over- joyed to hear att answering shout and soon saw a couple of faint lights gleam- ing through the trees, which came near- er, guided by the responsive shouting, aud iu a short time wy father and older brother arrived on the scene, with torches made from dry maple slivers, and immediately relieved me from my embarrassing position.
I roamed through the forest a grea deal when I was a boy, but was never lost or turned around as the saying is. Father taught his boys to handle and shoot a gun and allowed us to go hunt- ing as soon as we were able to carry one. One of my favorite places to hunt was the sand ridge where the village of Hurstville now stands. When I was a boy it was covered with second growth white oak, a specie of tree that retains the folliage all winter, hence was an ideal place for hunting pheasants on a moonlight night. I was a little timor- ous about approaching the east end of the ridge, where the Indian burying groand was located, when on a night excursion alone. In the days before the war there was a lake and a pond north of the saw mill and east of where Sena- tor Hurst's house now stands, that act- ually tecmed with fish of the best and gaumiest varieties, bass, pike, pickerel and sun-fish, and I can close my eyes and see the old willow and eln trees, on whose roots I could stand and yank out the fish to my hearts content. There
- were two other ponds, in what is now Nisson's corn field, where fishing was good and where I have enjoyed sport shooting wild ducks.
Deer and wild turkeys were quite plentiful in the forks prior to the war. but I never had the satisfaction of kill- ing one in my boyhood days, but some of our neighbors killed a good many.and a cousin of the writer, William Ellis, would quite frequently bring in the carcass of a deer to our place and leave it until he could come for it with a horse. The nearest I ever came to kill- ing a deer when a boy at home, was when I was about 10 years old. I went into the woods with a small ritte one moru after a light snow fall, and soon struck a fresh deer track and followedfit through the thickets where it had been browsing finally coming to a maple tree that had been blown down when full of leaves, I was thinking what a nice place for a deer that would be and while walking around the top, up jumped a big buck and looked me square in the face, I yelled like an Indian and : the deer started off with 10 and 20 foot jamps, and I never thought of my gun until the deer was pretty well out of range. My folks had a great deal of fun at my expense when I told them of my adventure.
Recollections of Early Days.
Theodore Fischer, Sr., was a pioneer of Tete-des-Morts township, Jackson county, Iowa, and was a veteran of two wars. He was born in Westphalia, Jan. 21, 1821, and came to America in 1841, lauding at New Orleans then came to St. Louis and for a time worked on steamboats on the Mississippi river. Ju 1843 he went to Galena and worked there and at Mineral Point. He made several trips to New Orleans. When the Mexican war broke out he enlisted in Waldemar Fischer's Company B. Missouri Light Artillery and was mus.
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tered into the U. S. Service the 21st day - found nothing in Dubuque county that of June 1816, and participated in the - was suitable or that suited this purpose. following battles: Palo- Alto, Resaca I therefore decided to strike out for oth - er regions. De-Ja-Palma. Buena- Nista, Vera Cruz, Chepulteper, Siera-Gordo, Tobasen, Li -- Pascual and Monterey. . When the war was over he went bick to Sr. Lonis and was marcied. His wife dying with cholera after giving birth to a girl baby. He afterwards married Caroline Meuke, and came to Jackson county, and set- tied in Tere-de -- Morts township, where he remained until his death June . 15, 1891. Io 1864, his township being short on its quota of soldiers; he was drafted iuto U. S. Service and served under Sherman until the end of the war. He held two honorable discharges from the U. S. army for service rendered in two different wars. While living in St. Louis after his return from the Mexican war, he made an over-land trip, with oxen, across the plains and mountains to Santa Fee, New Mexico Ter. Mr. Fischer was an honorable, upright man respected by all? who knew him. His children are : Anna, wife of Peter Kal- mes, St. Donatus; Autoine, in Dubuque ; August, Bennetsville; Theodore, Jr., Maquoketa; Johu, St. Donatus; Caro- line, wife of Math Evens, Springbrook ; Henry on the old homestead iu Tete des Morts township, which his father ne- quired with a land warrant received for services in the Mexican war Theodore, Jr., has a medal formerly owned by his father, commemorating the battles that he was in, in the Mexican war.
Pioneer Life in Iowa. By Levi Wagoner.
After having renewed my acquaint- ance with my former neighbors, most of · whom had preceeded me and were set- tled in and around Zwingle, some in Dubuque county and some in Jackson county, I began to look around for a lo- cation for myself. But being born and raised in a country of tall timber, I
It was now about the first of January 1851, and I was in Dubuque for several days acquainting myself with the ways and means for obtaining government lands I found that public lands might- be preempied and settled upon ou 5 years time, thus giving the settler the use of the land and paying for it at the end of 5 years at $1.25 per acre. And I also found that fully oue half the land had been settled in that way, and that quite a large share of it was entered through land warrants obtained by sol- diers of the late Mexican war. I also found that many of the preempted claims bad laused, the time of final pay - ment having expired, and were there- fore open to entry to whoever might come along and disposess the would be Owners, and thus deprive him not only o'his land but his improvementsas well. Such practices were not common, but they did occur far oftener thau one might think could be possible in a coun - try where civilization claims a foothold. The disposition of some men, (if I may so call them) to take advantage of the circumstances of their fellowmen and deprive them of the results of labor and hopes, was found to be a loathsome dis- ease that must be treated with severe remedies. And these remedies, which were iron clad, could be found in every house, especially where men beld lapsed claims, (the rifle and the shot gun).
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