USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 35
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er, Catherine McArdle, appearing as a witness for him and testifying that she killed the old man and that Patrick did not know of it until after the murder, and Patrick was acquitted. Catherine was tried at the October term of the District Court of Jackson county, convicted and sentenced to be hanged on the 9th of December, 1864, but before that date Governor Stone commuted the sentence to imprisonment for life, and a few years later, Gov- ernor Samuel Merrill pardoned her out. Of course this was not a Jackson county crime, but I mention it because it was tried in Jackson county.
Rio Dell. Cal., Sept. 28th, 1906.
Mr. J. W. Ellis,
Maquoketa, lowa.
Dear Sir: I visited my old home-Maquoketa-in 1898. My sister, Mrs. Emily Ellis, and I visited your museum. and I promised to send you some- thing. Perhaps you have forgotten as you never saw me but once. I will send you a piece of Red wood bark 16 inches thick-I have seen it 20 inches thick. You can easily see which was the outside. The white end was next to the sap. I also send you a little Indian basket that I know to be genu- ine, it was made by an Indian woman out at the Hoopo Reservation in this county. There is much of this kind of work that is not made by Indians at all. some of it being made at the Normal schools here. There is so much demand for it. The black part that is woven into this basket is made from the stems of maiden hair ferns, so there is no coloring in it, the material having the natural color. I will try to look up something else for you. My son and I are out here taking care of my half brother, George W. Pate, whose health is very poor. He is the man that William Ellis and wife came out to look after, but Mr. Ellis got homesick and went back. Mr. Ellis, in the near future, I will write what I know about the early history of Jack- son county. as both of my parents were pioneers. My mother was the old- est daughter of O. J. Edwards and came there in 1836. My father came in 1840. His name was Harrison Huling and settled three miles south of An- drew I have read with much pleasure all that has been published in the Sentinel.
Yours with respect,
MRS. REBECCA HULING-TYLER.
that he
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hospitality and
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The Phillips Family Among the Oldest Pioneers.
(Written by J. W. Ellis for the Jackson County Historical Society.)
A. J. Phillips, one of the oldest pioneers of the Maquoketa Valley, came here with his father, William Phillips, in the month of May, 1837, and is still living hale and hearty. William Phillips, John Clark and Isaac Mitchell were undoubtedly the first men to settle where the city of Maquo- keta is now located. In the fall of 1837, four other men came to this locali- ty and settled. A man by the name of Parmeter, or Parmenter, took up a claim in what is now the heart of Maquoketa and built a cabin near what is now the junction of Main and Platt street and the next spring, 1838, sold the claim including cabin to John E. Goodenow. Isaac Mitchell took up a claim which he afterwards sold to William Current, which is also in" the city limits; in the southwest quarter of the city. William Phillips claim was in the northeast quarter of the city and is owned in part at least by Gene Hatfield. Phillips and his family lived in a tent until he could build a cabin. John Clark claimed the land where the fair grounds now are, and built a cabin near Mill Creek. and as early as the spring of 1838 there were six cabins within the present limits of Maquoketa.
William Phillips had the forethought to bring a small hand mill with him, and when he had raised some corn the little mill was fastened to a post set in the ground near the corner of the house and for two or three years Mr. Phillips and his neighbors managed to grind enough corn in this little mill to make their bread. The mill had two cranks and two men could get up considerable motion. Mr. A. J. Phillips says that when his father took his claim and pitched his tent near the river about half a mile above the forks there was a cabin on the north side of the river below the forks in which three men lived who were regarded with a great deal of suspicion by the elder Phillips and his neighbors. They were known as Banner, Jim Burnett and Orsemus, but assumed other names at different times and places. Banner, who seemed to be the leader, tried on several oc- casions to get Mr. Phillips to go hunting or fishing with him, but Phillips was suspicious and would not have anything to do with him.
On one occasion a man came to Phillips' place and wanted to stay over night with him. Said that he had stopped at the cabin occupied by the three men at the forks of the river and asked them to set him across the river in a boat they kept for that purpose, but the men insisted that he should stay over night with them and urged him to stay so strenuously that he became suspicious of them. He noticed that they talked to each other aside in a low voice and his suspicions being aroused, he became very dis-
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creet. He finally told them that he thought that he had better accept their hospitality and remain with them until morning, and after conversing with the men for a time he strolled out to the river, and along its banks and when out of sight of the cabin stepped into the water and waded across and made his way to Phillips' tent. Phillips told him that he thought if he had staid over night at the cabin he never would have got any farther. The three men finding themselves objects of distrust among the settlers sud- denly disappeared. Some time afterwards the Phillips boys were fishing near the forks. and discovered bones sticking out of the river bank, where the high water had caused the bank to cave in and on investigation the bones proved to be human bones, and the settlers believed that they were the bones of some unfortunate wayfarer whom the occupants of the cabin had made way with. Some time after the disappearance of the three men from this locality, they were heard from as living on the Fever river near Galena under different names, and they were objects of distrust there also. A citizen of Galena disappeared and could not be found and his friends for some reason believed that the three men had something to do with his dis- appearance. and thought of having them arrested. The men in some way learned of the suspicion, and of their contemplated arrest and again de- camped, and later the body of the missing man was found buried near their cabin.
Mr. Phillips savs at the time of their arrival in the valley there was a large Indian village just below the present site of the sawmill at Hurstville, and he remembers that the Indians buried their dead on the sand ridge where the village of Hurstville is now located. He says he recalls that there was some large elm trees stood there with large roots above the ground, and that in some cases two or more Indians were placed between the roots with body reclining against the tree and pens built about them to protect the bod- ies from wild animals. He said that the Indians explained that during the smallpox epidemic, the people died so fast that they could not be properly buried. He mentions one Indian that his father sometimes employed to spear fish for him, who said that after their terrible experience with small- pox. he had made up his mind never to live with the Indians any more.
William Phillips built the first saw mill in this locality on Mill creek, nearly 2 miles east of the village. He selected a place on the creek where there was a rock bottom, and a rocky bluff on the east side and heavy body of timber on west side, thinking the roots of the trees would protect the dam on that side. The mill when completed done a lively business for a time, as there was a big demand for lumber, but after a time rainy weather set in, and one day a neighbor who was tishing below the dam, noticed mud- dy water coming out of a small hole that he thought must be a craw-tish hole. Later in the evening he again noticed the muddy water coming out of the same place, and then thought it must be a muskrat hole. The rain continued to fall and next morning it was discovered that the water had undermined the trees on the west side and upset them and made a new channel, and the dam that had cost so much hard labor had to be replaced.
Mr. Phillips had a very unpleasant experience with the outlaws that in- fested the country in its first settlement. On one occasion three men came
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to his cabin and requested dinners and horse feed, and as Mr. Phillips was noted for his hospitality, no one was ever turned away from his door cold or hungry. When the wants of these men had been supplied they insisted on paying for their entertainment, and tendered a $50 bill which Phillips ex- amined, and knowing that the bank was good he changed the bill. When the men had left, one of Phillips girls spoke about one of the men having but one thumb, and this fact excited the suspicion of Mr. Phillips as at that time a man known as "One Thumbed Thompson" bore a bad reputation in the county. Phillips took the bill up to Mr. Goodenow's, and showed it to Goodenow and others, and all of those who saw it pronounced it a spuri- ous bill. Phillips then went to Dubuque with it and had his suspicions con- firmed. He never got a cent out of the transaction.
At another time he was told by a friend that he had heard W. W. Brown of Bellevue tell a couple of men that a man by name of Phillips living near the forks of the Maquoketa, had a good team of horses that were worth looking after Phillips had a pasture fenced off for his horses with a very strong rail fence, into which he turned his horses at night. The horses were high mettled and were pretty hard to catch when running in the pasture. Phillips usually had to coax them into the log stable in order to catch them. Some time after he received this warning that his horses were coveted by others. He awoke one night and heard the horses running in the pasture which was near the cabin. He went out and hallowed, thinking if anyone was trying to steal his horses he would frighten them away. The next morning he found that one of the horses was outside of the pasture and one inside. He went entirely around the enclosure and found the fence up all right and the gate shut and fastened with a pin. When he wanted to use the team he missed one of the bridles which could not be found and the mystery deepened.
That fall while picking plums in a thicket near the forks, the boys found the bridle in the plum thicket, the reins tied to a plum tree. Phillips when told of the finding of the bridle, remarked that the mystery was clear- ed up. He thought that parties had come to steal the horses, and had suc- ceeded in catching one, and tied him up with the bridle and went after the other, and while trying to catch the other horse, the one tied up slipped the bridle over his head, a trick that he was an adept at, and made his es- cape.
William Phillips' family consisted of himself and wife, four girls and three boys. In 1846 he sold his claim near the forks of the river to David Sears, and removed to a quarter section of land that he owned or claimed west of the village and now known as the Lenker farm.
In 1854 he sold this farm and removed to Des Moines where he resided until 1857, when he died from a dose of strichnine taken by mistake for quinine. One of the girls married Alfred Clark in 1842, and in 1850 they went to California. Another, Nancy, married Joel Higgins, the well known fine horse breeder of Higginsport, Dubuque county. A. J., as above stated, days in Jas in Maquoketa and is full of interesting reminiscences of early still resideckson county.
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A. H. Wilson, who is now past ninety, tells an amusing experience that he and Vobsurg had with two of the Phillips girls in 1839 or 1840. There was to be a dance at Shade Burlesons, and while there was quite a number of young men in the valley, young ladies were almost as scarce as hens teeth. It was known that there were two girls at Phillips' place, but they were young and shy, and had never appeared at any of the gatherings in the neighborhood. Wilson and Vosburg concieved the idea of bringing the girls out. They procured a buckboard the evening of the dance and drove out to Phillips' place which was about six or seven miles from Burleson's cabin. When the young men arrived at Phillips' cabin, Wilson acted as spokesman and informed Mrs. Phillips that there was to be a dance at Bur- leson's. and asked her permission to take the girls to the dance. Mrs. Phil- lips told him that the girls could go and that she would help them to get ready. The girls, however, had a different view of the matter. When they heard their mother tell Wilsou they could go with him to the dance, they sprang out through the open door and ran like frightened rabbits. Wilson leaped out in pursuit and chased them around the house, but without mak- ing headway. He said when he turned a corner of the cabin he would catch a glimpse of the girls going around the next corner. He finally or- dered Vosburg to stand at one corner and head them off, and by that means run them back into the house, where the mother took a hand in, and gave the girls to understand that she had promised that they would go with the boys to the dance, and they had to go. She helped them to array them- Selves in their best clothes, and the four young people boarded the buck- board and set out for Burleson's. Mr. Wilson says he could not by any manner of means induce his partner to utter one word on the journey, and she would neither dance nor talk after their arrival at the dance. Burleson had no little sport at Wilson's expense, twitting him with having a partner who would neither dance nor converse with him, until in sheer desperation, Wilson dragged the girl out on the floor and led her by main strength through the figure. After the ice was thus broken, Mr. Wilson found that he had a very agreeable, pleasant partner. She explained her behavior by saying that she was so frightened at the thoughts of trying to dance the figures as the others were doing that it really made her sick and miserable. The cabins in those days were far apart, indeed, and the young people had few opportunities for social gatherings, and for making acquain- tances.
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She died on ;He married Frances J
Sketch of the Life of B. B. Breeden.
(Handed to Ourator J. W. Ellis.)
At about the beginning of the year 1700, three brothers, Henry, Job and Richard Breeden came from England and settled in Virginia and married. Job remained there all his life, living on the old homestead. Henry and Richard, with their families, went west after a time and settled in Law- rence county, Kentucky. They each took up homesteads. During an en- counter with the Indians, Henry and his two sons were killed, but not un- til Henry had killed six Indians before he fell.
Richard married Fannie Fairchild, a Virginian woman. To them were born eleven children, seven boys and four girls, the seventh child be- ing Richard, Jr., who was born in 1778 in what is now known as Louis- ville, Ky., then called Bear Grass, consisting of only three little log cabins. He was the first white child born there, and was the father of B. B. Breed- en, the subject of this sketch. Richard Sr. lived and died on the old home- stead in Lawrence county, Ky. The children scattered to various parts of the country. Paul went to Louisiana, James, Williams and Richard, Jr. to Indiana. Richard settled in Monroe Co., Ind., in about the year 1818. He was married to Miss Lucretia Curl before he left Kentucky. To them were born 14 children, 13 of whom lived to be grown. I give their names in ord- er of their ages: Fielding born 1810, Millie, Richard O., William, Polly, Dudley, Blan Ballard, Susan, Lucretia, Jane, Berryman, Calvin, James and Amanda. The first six were born in Lawrence county, Kentucky, while Ballard and Susan were born in Monroe county, Ind. The whole family af- terwards moved to Putman county, Ind., where Jane and Berryman were born, the family afterwards moving to Edgar county, Ill., where the rest of the children were born.
In the year 1838 the family moved to Iowa. Millie married in Illinois and moved back to Kentucky, but afterwards returned to Illinois. The family settled in Jackson county, Iowa, and each of the sons took up claims for themselves. Fielding and William were also married in Illinois. The remainder married in Jackson county.
In about the year 1850, Fielding, Calvin, Ballard and Williams went to California to make their fortunes in digging gold. Berryman joined them in 1852. They were there three years, returning via the Pacific Ocean, Isth- mus of Panama, Atlantic Ocean and New York City, thence overland to Iowa. They failed to realize their expectations of making their fortunes.
Nearly two years after their return. Ballard married Miss Mary Jane Furnish. To them were born three children-Sophronia, DeSoto and Otto.
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She died on the 12th day of February, 1861. On the 5th day of September, he married Miss Mary Ann Campbell To them were born seven children: Frances J., Dora L., Williams S., Lillie V., Arizona M., Millie L. and Clara ence Bird. Williams S. and Millie L. died in infancy.
Richard Breeden, father of B. B. Breeden, died in September, 1872; Lu- cretia, his mother, died in February, 1874, at the ages of 84 and 83 years, respectively. Fielding moved to Keokuk, county, Iowa, where he died in 1887. Williams returned to Illinois and lived in Hancock county, where he died in 1896. Berryman never returned from California. He died in the year 1875 or 1876. Owen was killed by a falling tree while hunting on the 12th day of February, 1868. Millie died in Illinois in 1865. Polly died in Kansas in 1878. Dudley died in Jackson Co., Iowa, in 1842. Susan died in Jackson Co. in 1845. Lucretia died in infancy in Putman Co., Ind. Jane now lives in Mariposa Co .. Cal. Calvin died very suddenly on Oct. 31, 1899. James lives in Clear Lake, Wis., and Amanda in Jackson county.
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Mr. Breeden died on June 7, 1906, being 86 years, 5 months and 19 days old. His life was long and useful, and he was loved and honored by all his family, and highly respected by all who knew him.
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TERRITORIAL PIONEERS.
A Half Hour With "Uncle Ance". Wilson While Looking Backward-An Eighty Mile Journey for Fire.
(Written for the Jackson County Historical Society by "Farmer Buckhorn.")
Today if our fires go out a lighted friction match applied to a few shavings, or a little lamp oil is all that is necessary to bring desired re- sults. But in pioneer days in Jackson county it was di erent. There were no friction matches in this country in those days and fire was attained by the flint and steel, and a little punk or gunpowder, and some inflamable substance, and then retained by banking the fire in the fireplace with ashes over night, or when leaving home for a day or such a matter.
In a conversation recently with "Uncle Ance" Wilson ( who came here a man in 1839 and is nearly 91 years old, active and clear in mind), he told about making a trip soon after he came here up into the Canton region. Above the Cheneworth he crossed the South Fork of the Maquoketa at Lodges Ford -so-called after a settler named Lodge, who was there when the earliest settlers began to come in. Mr. Wilson stopped to talk with this old squatter, who during the conversation told about his fires going out while he was away from his cabin. At that time there were no settlers in the country with "fire to lend", you may of heard your grandfathers folks tell about "borrowing fire" if their fire chanced to go out during the night or their absence. Well Lodge couldn't do that because he was out of neighbors as well as tire-and he also chanced to be out of punk and powder though he had flint and steel to strike the spark with. But a spark needed a piece of punk to catch and hold it while the breath causes the small beginning to spread into a result In order to obtain this vital substance (called punk in our grandmothers days) Lodge had to go to Dubuque, forty miles through an unbroken forest and back again to his flint and steel and hearthstone. A stirring song is "Auld Ang Zyne", but there were some things in other days-not as handy as a match.
CAL. TEEPLE'S TRIP TO SEE A GIRL AND SOME THINGS THEY TALKED ABOUT.
As Uncle Ance Wilson and the writer sat in McCaffrey's cigar store on election day having their old time chat, some word spoken about some pi- oneer would stir the waters of the old man's past, release the hidden springs
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of mind that set the wheels of memory going and opens old forgotten graves And the old pioneer of four score and ten, kindled with thoughts of the past would pass from one event to another either ludicrous, social, or tragic as some mention, or querry brought him out. In speaking of early social events, he remarked that when Joseph S. Mallard was paying court to Ca- delia Cox (daughter of Col. Thomas Cox), whom he afterwards married, Calvin Teeple who lived in the same neighborhood with Mallard (the Buck- horn region) conceived the idea of going down with Mallard and try and fan a flame in the soul of another daughter of Col. Cox. It was Teeple's first acquaintance with Miss Cox and shortly after the arrival of the young pioneers. Teeple asked Miss Cox if she was averse to having a little private conversation with him. ( Didn't want Dan Cupid to be molested by any of the old Cox, I suppose). The young frontier damsel said, "Mr. Teeple what private affiir do you wish to discuss with me?" Calvin Teeple never was very easily non-plused but for a second or so this business method reply of Miss Cox put Cal at his wits end for an answer. But he soon pulled himself together and laconically answered, "I would like your private opinion on rats." Cal had his innings and all Miss Cox could say was she didn't know anything about rats. "Uncle Ance" said the Cox Misses were handsome girls.
MR. WILSON SPEAKS OF COL COX IN HIS NARRATIVE.
In speaking of the Cox family, "Uncle Ance" said his first acquaintance with Cox was made at Iowa City in 1839. He had gone to Iowa City to en- ter his land and Thomas Cox and John G. McDonald were there at the time surveying the town plat of the newly located capital. The opinion he form- ed of Col. Cox while at Iowa City was good. Cox conducted himself well there so far as he saw and was a splendid specimen of physical manhood with a personal magnetism that drew men to him who liked physical cour- age and will force, but that he afterward killed himself with hard drinking and died on his claim northeast of Maquoketa some five or six years after coming to Jackson county. I knew that at the time of the Bellevue war. Captain Wm. A. Warren, sheriff, claimed to have deputized Col. Cox to help raise a posse to arrest Wm. W. Brown and twenty-three others and that the so-called posse as a mob scourged the prisoners by lash on the naked flesh and that Cox was the big mogul on that occasion and mention of the Col. Cox family fathered the thought and I asked "Unce Ance" (who Cox tried to induce to go and take part against Brown) if Cox, in any way, brought the impression to him that he was wanted to help enforce a legal arrest of Brown by warrant in the hands of the sheriff. He said, "No, his claim was he (Cox) was going to drive Brown out of the country as he was a bad man, "
In speaking of Brown. Mr. Wilson said he come to know him well as he often put up at Brown's hotel while teaming from Maquoketa to Ga- jena and did not think there was anything wrong with Brown and so told Cox and refused to go, stating Brown would be a fool to surrender to a mob. Mrs. Brown, he said, was apparently a refined womanly woman and at the time of the attack on the Brown party she was cool and self-possess-
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ed and during the fight handed loaded rifles to the defenders. Mr. Wilson said after the capture Mrs. Brown was taken to the river and threatened with being lashed to a plank and set adrift if she did not tell where Brown's money was. She coolly told them a hundred strong men could set a poor weak woman adrift, or kill her, as they had killed her husband but they couldn't make her tell anything she did not want to, and they were compelled to let her go without the desired information. If that statement is true-and there is no question of it-it was a damnable trans- action, as reeking with the orders of hell as the grave clothes of sin.
"Uncle Ance's" narrative seemed imbued with the idea that if Cox and Brown never had been political rivals there never would have been any at- tempt to humiliate Brown-consequently no Bellevue war. And if it had not have been for Col. Cox's will with the force of a glacier Captain War- ren and some others would probably not have been so sagely confident of Brown's guilt. "Uncle Ance" got well acquainted with Captain Warren while teaming to Galena and says of him :
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