USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 27
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Two little boys in dresses, named Simeon and Watson, and a little girl baby in the mothers arms together with the father and mother made up
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the family. The following year a third boy was born, called Phillip D. the home was a very happy though an humble one.
The parents of Danford Armour came at an early date from New Eng- land to New York, which at that time was "out west". Many years later Danford returned to Connecticut to find a helpmate who was Miss Julia A. Brooks, a daughter of a thrifty well-to-do Yankee farmer. I feel the inci- dents are especially worth notice when I realize the influence for good throughout the west which the three little boys above mentioned bave exalt- ed during the last twenty-five years. Phillip D., Simeon B. and A. W. Ar- mour have honored the name they bear and the place that gave them birth and are an honor to the sturdy New England stock from which they sprang. When I left the employ of Mr. Armour there was due me for four months work $32.00, which was paid me in cash.
Within a week from the time I received this money, I met an acqain- tance, who knew of the amount I had received, and who wanted to borrow just that amount . He plead so earnestly and made such fair promises to pay in a short time I let him have the money. It has been on interest ever since. I went to Augusta late in the fall to learn the tanning, currying and shoe making business with Hazzard Wilber, a deacon of my father's church. In the month of September, 1832, in a three days' revival meeting, became a christian with many others and was baptized by my father, and was soon impressed with the conviction it was my duty to preach the gospel and in a few weeks entered Hamilton literary and theological seminary, now Colgate University. In the spring of 1833 Prof. Daniel Haskell, started a manual labor school at Florence Oneida county, for the benefit of poor young men. I entered that school. During term time out of school hours my roommate joined me in choppng down the big trees and preparing them for logging. During vacation, with a hired yoke of oxen, we logged and cleared the land. and thus paid a part of the expense of our educaton. Three winters I taught school, in the winter of 1834-35, I taught in Pittston at the head of the Wyoming Valley in Luzern county, Pa., in sight of Pittston across the Susquehanna river the Wyoming Massacre of the settlers by the British tories and indians occured July, 1778.
Among the little girls carried away by the indians was Francois Slocum, One of my pupils, a young lady, was a niece of this Francis Slacum. Fifty seven years had passed and no inteligence had ever been received of Francis Slocum. Some eight or ten years after this she was found among the rem- nents of a tribe of indians in Indiana. the wife of an Indian, and the moth- er of grown up children. A brother and sister from Pennsylvania visited her at her Indian home and tried to induce her to go and spend the small balance of her life with them, but she declined preferring to remain with her children.
In 1838 I held revival meetings in the township of Frankfort, Herkimer county four or five miles west of Frankfort village. A good helper in these meetings was old Father Harvey, a licensed preacher 104 years old. His wife (second marriage) was so much younger than himself, her family op- posed the marriage for the reasons she would soon have a helpless old man on her hands to care for. She had become old and feeble and Father Harvey
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being much the smarter and more active had a feeble old lady on his hands to care for which he did with the utmost tenderness and love. After this Father Harvey preached in Utica and other places.
In rising in the pulpit, as in his younger days, the first thing was to take off his coat. I love to think of these school house revivals, with the minds eye, I can see Father Harvey in his chair in front of the school house desk. With the minds ear, I can hear Father Harvey's tender and heart moving voice in prayer and exhortation During the months of April and May of 1838, preached for the Baptist church in Frankfort At this time my father, then pastor in Litchfield eight miles south of Utica, was engag- ed in revival meetings at Little Falls twelve miles below Frankfort on the Mohawk river. The meetings were interesting and powerful. I went down to witness the display of God's saving mercy and help in the good work. From Frankfort (bridge over the Mohawk) to Little Falls, was my first ride on a railroad. The rails were made of wood with a strap of iron about the width and thickness of a cart tire on top. The passenger coaches con- sisted of two apartments, each having cross seats facing each other. The passenger on one seat riding backwards. The conductor, while collecting tickets, walked on a plank outside and held onto an iron rail under the eaves of the coach. Arriving at Little Falls, I went directly to the church where the meetings were held. After the services I was taken to the home of Mr. Stephen M. Brown, sheriff of Herkimer county for entertainment and with the understanding it would be my home while I remained in the place. Though of the same name we were entire strangers and that was my first visit at Little Falls. Meeting with a cordial reception, I very soon felt at home. Mr. Brown's family, consisted of himself and wife, Francis Lyon and George D. Lyon brother and sister of Mrs. Brown. ("It was this chance meeting of Francis Lyon that eventually done so much for Iowa.") George had been a member of the Baptist church for some time. Francis, then twenty-five years of age, was a bright, decided and interest- ing convert of the revival then in progress. Rev. J. W. Omestead so long the editor of the Watchman was pastor of the church at this time.
With a class of about twenty-five, I finished the course at Hamilton July 15th, 1838. Through the agency of my brother William then pastor of the Baptist church at Newport, Herkimer county. I was invited to visit the church at Norway, four miles from Newport, with the view of a settle- ment as pastor. The visit resulted in a call to the pastorate of that church to commence the following November. The 20th of September at Litchfield, where my father was pastor, I was ordained to the work of preaching the gospel. The 26th of the same month, in the Baptist church at Little Falls, I was married to Francis Lyon, Rev. Augustus Beech offic- iating. The good providence of God, so distinctly marked, made no mis- take in the selection of a most worthy and suitable helpmate for the young pastor.
Early the following November, we commenced housekeeping in the par- sonage at Norway and also the untried and inexperienced work and responsi- bility of pastorial work, on a salary of $275 per annum and the use of the parsonage. We were both poor but through the kind generosity of Mr. and
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Mrs. Brown we had a very plain but sufficient outfit for keeping house. From this date I will associate my wife in my labors and as a general thing use the pronoun we.
For reasons that for the time seemed sufficient we remained in Norway but eighteen months. We found two of the deacons were working against us because the pastor quite often used the same text in the morning and in the afternoon presenting different branches of the same subject, this was done to avoid preaching long sermons. Not knowing what might be the outcome we quietly resigned leaving the church in peace and harmony, so that when we returned in 1851 from the missionary work in Iowa, to repair lost health we received a very cordial call to a second pastorate of the Norway church, one of the best we have ever labored with. During our residence in Nor- way our first child-a little boy-was born in July, 1839, whom we named Benjamin Perry.
I was appointed by the assoiciation to visit the Morehouseville church twenty miles north of Norway, far away in the dense wilderness. During our first pastorate at Norway we made a Missionary tour into the wilder- ness twenty miles beyond Morehouseville to a new settlement at the head of Peseca lake.
On leaving Norway our next tield of labor was Warren, one of the south- ern towns in Herkimer Co., entering the work April, 1840. During the first year but little could be accomplished on account of the all absorbing political campaign of "log cabin hard cider, Tippecanoe and Tyler too," which resulted in the election of William Henry Harrison as president and John Tyler as vice-president. The second year manifested a good deal of religious interest. Our increasing interest in and love for missionary work directed our thoughts to some field in the distant west. In October, 1840 in Warren, our second son. Chas. P. Brown, was born.
In October of that year, 1841, our wish was laid before the Board of the New York State Missionary Convention at the annual meeting held at Whitesborough. In the application nothing was said about salary or any local field, only send us to Iowa Territory. The convention endorsed the application and recommended an appointment by the Board of the A. M. Baptist Home Mission Society. In due time the appointment came, desig- nating the Forks of the Maquoketa, Jackson county, Territory of Iowa, as the field, on a salary of one hundred dollars per annum and seventy-tive dol- lars for traveling expenses to the field.
As household goods could not be transported so far, we sold all except clothing, bedding, a common table and stand, which could be conveniently packed in boxes, and a kitchen rocking chair, for the comfort and conven- ience of the mother in caring for the children on the journey. We also bought a cook stove of small size, which we took to pieces and packed in straw. Our goods, well packed in boxes, weighed about 1,600 pounds. Monday, May 2, 1842 we left Utica on a canal line boat for Iowa. These boats had a comfortable cabin with berths in the bow for passengers and a good cook and dining cabin in stern and the space mid-ship for freight and baggage. The fare, with board and lodging, was two cents a mile, and no charge for young children. We had good traveling company, the board,
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clean and nice, the captain and hands pleasant, sober and accommodating, so that the trip from Utica to Buffalo,-200 miles-was comfortable and pleasant. We arrived at Tonawanda, twelve miles from Buffalo at twelve o'clock Saturday night, and as the boat did not run on Sunday we lay by until 12 o'clock Sunday night arriving at Buffalo just at daylight -Monday morning.
Our goods were transferred from the canal boat to the steamboat Great Western Captain Walker, which was to leave for Chicago that evening. We felt that we were fortunate. The fare from Buffalo to Chicago had just been reduced by reason of competition, from $20 to $18. The freight on our goods from Buffalo to Chicago was $18. When the time arri ed for leaving the harbor there were some 800 passengers on board probably not fifty of them had ever been on the water before and nearly all going to Illinois, Wis- consin and regions beyond. It was nearly dark when the great steamer was fairly out upon the dark but quiet waters of Lake Erie with omnious clouds gathering in the west. The cabin passengers were very generally gathered on the promenade deck some looking back upon the lights of the city and towards the homes and loved ones there, some looking out sadly upon the dark waters, others looking anxiously upon the gathering and threatening clouds in the west, and very many with tearful eyes. It was one of the most intensely interesting, solemn scenes we ever witnessed and took part in. We retired to our state room, but I guess not to sleep much. The storm came down upon us in the night, but our noble steamer met and faced it bravely, and brought us safely into the harbor at Cleveland. The effects of the storm upon the stomachs of the passengers were readily infererd by the slim attendance at the breakfast table. We lay at Cleveland a few hours for the wind to subside. Except having the same thing repeated on Lake Huron, which compelled us to lay by at Preqsue Isle four hours, we had pleasant sailing to Chicago, where we arrived Sunday at 1 p. m., and put up at a small two-story tavern called the New York house. In the evening we attended meeting at the Baptist church, and heard Elder Thomas Powell preach. The house stood on the lot now occupied by the Chamber of Commerce building.
This church building was built by boards and battens up and down. with no ceiling except naked collar beams, rafters and roof boards. The court house close by enclosed by a common fence and ornamented with forest shade trees, looked like a five acre lot with a brick court house way to the north side of it.
Monday we hired a man from Rockford, who had been in with a load to take us and our goods to Savanna on the Mississippi river. It was a lumber wagon. After loading the boxes, the rocking chair we had brought from our New York home was fastened on top of one of the boxes, a little chair purchased at one of the furniture store was fastened beside the rocker. My good wife cheerfully mounted and took her seat in the rocking chair with the youngest child in her lap and the other one by her side remarking : "Now this is tirst rate." I took a seat beside the driver with our feet resting on the whippletrees ready for a trip of 200 miles to our future home in Iowa Territory.
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We were fortunate in having a dry spring and did not have to use the poles in the streets of Chicago to pry us out of the mud. We stopped the first night twelve miles out on the Elgin road. Second night stopped at a log tavern sixteen or eighteen miles west of Elgin at Pigeon Woods. Here a ravenous appetite was destroyed by badly tainted ham and in consequence of two stage loads of passengers to provide for our bed was on the floor. Early next morning we proceeded on our journey and got breakfast at a small cabin tavern at or near where Marengo now stands. At noon were at Belvidere where we enjoyed a short visit with Prof. S. S. Whitman, one of our former teachers at Hamilton. Here too, we visited the public square and looked upon the stakes then standing of the burying place of an Indian chief. The Indian was gone but the upright poles and a few remnants of his burial dress yet remained-a sad memorial of the past. That evening at 9 o'clock we arrived at the west side tavern at Rockford. Our driver went to his home in the little village, and we to supper and rest expecting to resume our journe in the morning. To our disappointment our driver had been subpoenaed n a suit to come off that week and could not resume the journey until the next Monday. While tarrying we found a good home and kind friends in the family of Rev. Solomon Knapp, pastor of the Bap- tist church. We preached for Elder K., the following Sunday -our first ser- mon in the west.
Monday morning we started in good health and good spirits on the Ga- lena stage road to twelve mile grove, then directly west toward the Missis- sippi river-good day, smooth roads and brought up at Mr. Crane's cabin in Crane's Grove about sundown and there we stopped for the night as it was eighteen miles to the next grove. Mrs. Crane, a woman in middle life, had just come in from the stable yard with a pail of milk. She was a Kentuck- ian. In reply to the inquiry, if she could keep us over night, she replied, "O I reckon though I'm mighty tired. The old cow gives a right smart of milk, nigh onto a half a bushel." Next morning the teamster found one of his horses dead-had over fed with grain. We hired Mr. Crane to take us eighteen miles to Cherry Grove. We stopped over night with a farmer, Mr. Gardner, a brother-in-law of Mr. Crane, who took us next morning to Savanna. We crossed over with our goods that night to Charleston-now Sabula-and put up at the tavern. Next morning we hired a man to take us twenty-five or thirty limes to our journey's end. In consequence of rain we did not get a very early start. At noon we stopped at a log cabin on the west side of Deep creek for dinner. The woman had nothing but eleven eggs. These we boiled, but the children would not eat them and we passed no other human habitation until long after dark and the children had cried themselves to sleep. At midnight we dove up to the cabin of Mr. C. M. Dolittle, the end of our long journey. The good folks got up, gave us our supper, then gave us their bed and the teamster a settee in the room for his bed and Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle and the children, who had been in bed with them retired to the loft.
Tired and worn by the long journey, especially the last 200 miles in a lumber wagon, we retired to rest four in a bed and rested sweetly with no unpleasant dreams. Our stopping place was about one mile south of where
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Maquoketa now stands, close by the old ford at the head of McCloy's mill pond. The country around which we could not see by reason of darkness, we could not see the next morning by reason of a fog. As we were poor and our support, except the $100 pledged by the missionary board, was to come from the field, we made some inquiry about the church with which we were to labor. But to our surprise there was no church and the settlement was new with only a few Baptist members scattered over a large territory. The prospects that morning were not only foggy but somewhat blue, a feel- ing however, we deemed best to conceal. Our good wife did the same thing, made no complaint, nor expressed a word of regret. In the morning in com- pany with the brother of the log cabin, we called on some families two or three miles west or northwest. In our walk the wind breezed up took all the fog away, and with it went all our blue feelings for a most charming prairie landscape was spread out to the south and southwest with the Ma- - quoketa timber for a background on the north. The only drawback to my good feelings was the thought, But how does my dear wife feel about the propsects? This troublesome doubt was very soon relieved, for on my return the good woman met me several rods from the door with her bright cheerful face, and her words of greeting were, "Charles we have come to Iowa to do good and will stay and trust in the Lord. "
We met a cordial reception not only by the Baptist families, but by the settlers generally. We arrived on our tield May 26. 1842, having been twen- ty-four days on our journey. An appointment had been arranged by the Des Moines association for a meeting at Iowa City commencing June 3rd, for the purpose of organizing a territorial missionary convention. As Brother Doolittle had a large family our temporary home was moved to Brother Levi Decker's, a mile east of Wright's corners. Sister Decker very kindly offered to take care of the children and thus enable Mrs. Brown to go with me to the Iowa City meeting. We were furnished by Brother Doo- little with horse and wagon, a kind of half and half vehicle between a buggy and a lumber wagon.
We started June Ist, and was directed to take a trail at the west side of Reuben Riggs field which would take us to Bergoonsford on the Wapsipini- con river-no inhabitants on the route. We missed the trail but having a pretty correct idea of the direction did not get lost.
When in sight of the Wapsie settlement we came up to one of those pe- culiar brooks from three to five feet wide and from three to four feet deep with perpendicular banks. We tried to persuade the horse to jump but there was no go. He was willing to go back or in any direction rather than jump the chasm. But we were not to be balked in that-twenty miles on our road and an uninhabited prairie. So I got Mrs. Brown across and the baggage, then starting far enough away to get the horse on a fast trot gave him a smart blow with the whip on nearing the chasm and over we went. While the seat and some other things left in the wagon took various direc- tions. But mind you, the parson took the precaution to be on his feet when that run was made.
We got over and stopped at the first house for dinner. We left. an ap- pointment for preaching Tuesday of the next week on our return, and pro-
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ceeded on our journey and stopped for the night at Tipton, the county seat of Cedar county, where we left an appointment to preach on the following Monday evening. There was a log court house and a log tavern.
The next day Tuesday we arrived at Iowa City. There were no rail- roads then west of the state of New York. The western boundary of lands opened for settlement then was about 18 miles west of Iowa City, and the western border counties beginning at the south were Van Buren. Jefferson, Washington, Johnson. Linn, Buchanan, Fayette with Clayton on the north. On returning we were on time to meet our appointment at Tipton on Monday evening and the Wapsie appointment on Tuesday, arriving home late at night and found all well.
The next importint temporial matter was to select a location and build a log house. Log houses were all the go in that region then as there were plenty of logs but no saw mills. Having become acquainted with the neigh- bors about Wright's corners, two and one half miles south of where some years later was located the village of Maquoketa, we concluded to locate there. Nobody need ask for better neighbors than we found in the families of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Levi Decker, Mr. and Mrs. John Riggs, Mr. and Mrs. David Bentley and others.
The settlers very generally and generously turned out, with teams and axes, and went five or six miles west to a samll grove and cut and hauled logs for a house about twelve by sixteen or eighteen feet. In a week or two the body of the house was up, logs hewed on two sides. My neighbor, Mr. John Riggs. wishing some lumber, joined me in going up the Maquoketa river eighteen miles, for some sawed lumber must be had even for a log house. As we must raft the lumber down the river, we went on foot, made our purchase. and started down the river the next day, in the afternoon. with a steering oar in front and one at the stern. The river, at that time, ran through a dense wilderness with a thick underbrush, with two or three cleared patches in the whole distance. The river was low, and we had much trouble and hard work by reason of snag sand bars, frequently having to jump into the water to pry the raft off these obstructions. About sun- down we came to a small cleared patch where an old hermit by the name of Lodge lived. We called at his cabin to see what the chances were for stop- ping over night, as the next clearing was several miles below. The cabin was eight by ten or twelve feet with a crib made of poles for a bed, and a chicken pen in one corner of the room. We discovered at once there was no show for us there, and we must try to get down to the next clearing or camp out. The night was cold, for the season and we tired and hungry. Darkness in that dense forest, was coming on rapidly and we finally conclud- ed to risk a run on the river. and if we suffered shipwreck we could not be any worse off. So we cut loose and let her drive, for it was not long before the darkness was so dense the stern man could not see the oar one at the front. The raft kept going while every moment we expected to run foul of snags, or on to a sand bar. But, to our surprise, it reached the clearing about 10 or 11 o'clock without any mishap whatever. We concluded our good fortune was because it was so dark we couldn't see to steer it on to
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logs and sand bars. We could see neither house nor house light, and calling obtained a response from a cabin some distance towards the north side bluff. We found a comfortable cabin with an old fashioned fireplace, with a good, cheerful fire; but the inmates were in bed, except the man who got up to answer our call. He gave us some bread and milk for supper, and then we began to cast about for a place to sleep. There were two beds in the small room on bedsteads with three persons in one and three in the other, when the man should return to bed; and there was a bed on the floor in the corner by the fireplace, and two men in that. The men very kindly proposed to wheel and lie across the bed, and thus make room for two more. Tired as we were, we had a good sleep and a pretty good rest. The next day we very easily completed the river part of our homeward jour- ney. From the river landing we had to haul the lumber three miles to Wright's corner. Wright's corners were on the line between Jackson and Clinton counties, and our house was fifteen or twenty rods in Clinton coun- ty on the east side of the road running north and south, and the east fork of Prairie creek in front on the west-the road between the house and the creek. With rough, loose boards for lower and chamber floors, we moved in without doors or windows. I had to go to Dubuque, forty miles, for stove pipe. But we were happy when we were settled in our own home, although without furniture except table, stand, stove, rocking and a little chair, and a few dishes, all of which we brought with us.
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