USA > Iowa > Story County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa > Part 14
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The matter of securing supplies was one of grave consideration. William Parker states that he went sixty miles to mill. It took him a week to make the trip. Subsequently the neighborhood procured a cast iron mill on which corn could be partially broken up, and it was quite a favor to get a peck of corn cracked on it. Farms were soon opened in both settlements, of which those of the Ballards were the first to afford anything more thau was needed by the family. George N. Kirkman was probably the first citizen of the county who raised a crop on his own land, having taken the title from the government April 8, 1851. For several years it was necessary to supply much of the rapidly increasing population with grain
and flour from the older settlements. Even as late as 1857 corn was hauled from Marion and Mahaska Counties. The trip would require not less than four days, and in mid-winter the time was often protracted indefinitely by storms and accidents, or casualties to the teams. In illustration of the difficulties to be met with it may be stated that even so light a package as the weekly and semi-weekly mail from Des Moines was at times delayed for fifteen or twenty days. This was not so much from a want of bridges and highways as from the se- verity of the wintry weather, and from the drifting of the heavy snows in the unchecked blasts on the great prairies. The cold bridged the streams in those times, and the winds and snows obliterated every sign of travel in a few hours. The higher lands might be bare of snow, while the depressions were drifted many feet in depth. If there had been warmth enough to soften the top, and followed by cold enough to make everything solid, loaded teams would travel on the prairie in every direction, without hindrance; but this would rarely hap- pen. At other times it was necessary for the lone traveler to provide himself with a coil of rope and a large shovel, and he might consider himself fortunate if not called on to use them many times during the drive. But the usual precaution was to go in companies of from two to ten teams. In that way obstruction would be rapidly overcome by the larger force, and teams could be doubled or tripled, as became necessary.
In this way trains of corn, flour and bacon were brought from Pella or Oskaloosa, or farther east, and groceries, iron, nails, hard- ware, stoves, salt, and many of the necessaries and a few of the luxuries of life, were brought from Keokuk, or other places on the Missis- sippi River. The customary freight charges from Keokuk were $2 per hundred pounds.
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Thus it would cost for hauling a barrel of salt from Keokuk the sum of $6, whereas a barrel of salt is sold at the present time in our mar- kets at less than one-fifth of that amount.
It may be worth while to note that the mer- chants never brought salt in barrels in those days. The charges for hauling a salt barrel would be nearly half a dollar, while the freight on a sack of equal capacity would be but a few cents. The sack therefore had the preference.
On October 24, 1849, John Hart entered from the Government of the United States the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 33 and the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 34 in Town 82 north, of Range 21 west. These lands constitute the 160-acre farm of William Parker, in Collins Township. This was the earliest entry in the county, and was the first land in the county owned by its occupant. This entry does not appear in the name of Mr. Parker, but is said to have been made in his interest, and for his use. If so, it was what was known as a time entry. This was a very common method among the early settlers. Such an entry was always in the interest of two per- sons, a capitalist and a settler. It was a mat- ter of speculation on the part of both of them. The capitalist bought up land warrants, and placed them in the hands of an agent near the land office. The settler wishing to obtain title to a specified tract would negotiate with the agent, who would locate a warrant on the land, and give the settler a bond for a deed. The usual terms were on a basis which paid the capitalist forty per cent, or more, for his money, paid the agent handsomely, and paid the settler more than both of them. It often gave the latter a home which he could secure in no other way. Some men were shrewd enough to engage in the business of locating lands in this way, that is, by securing bonds for deeds from the capitalist on which they managed to make
sales at an advance, thus acquiring nice profits on what had really cost them nothing.
If the party who held the bond could not sell at a profit before the bond matured, or pay up his note and get his deed, the capitalist, or his agent, would declare the contract forfeited, "time being of the essence of the contract," and would then sell it to any one else who would buy. If there had been no advance in value the settler simply permitted his rights to lapse, and the capitalist had the title to lands which he may not have wished to own, and found himself burdened with taxes which might cause him great inconvenience. This condition was described as being land poor.
Because of the large number of such trans- actions, the public records do not always show the actual parties in interest. An examination of the abstract of original entries will, in many cases, show that the title from the Government was in the hands of the person who furnished the capital, who was distant 1,000 miles, while there was a resident on the land who, during several years, was paying him his interest, and finally paid off the principal, and obtained his deed. In many such cases these unrecorded bonds were the silent histories of years of bat- tle with untoward circumstances for a footing among the owners of the soil. These condi- tions existed for several years, or as long as the United States held any of these lands. It was not until the latter part of 1855 that a rush was made to absorb all these lands for specu- lation, and not till about February, 1856, that the last of them were taken. Those which re- mained unsought until 1856 were such as were farthest from timber. The latest entries of large bodies were made in Warren Township.
Among those residents, or those who after- ward became residents, who entered lands at an early period, some dates and names of interest may be mentioned. George Flick entered
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parts of Section 34 in Nevada Township, June 12, 1850; Isaac M. Hague made entry of eighty acres in Section 30, Nevada Township, August 26, 1850; Curtis J. Brown entered the southeast quarter of Section 4, Indian Creek Township, November 13, 1850; George N. Kirkman entered his farm April 8, 1851; Jere- miah Cory entered in Section 9, Indian Creek Township, August 20, 1851; Nathan Webb, Milton Arnold, Isaac S. French, John Brough- ard, Robert John Harmon, Nelson S. Harmon, George Dye and James Sellers entered lands in Indian Creek Township in 1852; Levi Hop- per, Nicholas Kortright, W. S. Rodman, Lewis Burge, John Lockridge, C. P. Hempstead, F. D. Johnson entered lands in Nevada Township in 1852; John Neal, Amy Heald, Sam Mc- Daniel, W. W. Utterback, Adolphus Prouty, Elisha Alderman and Judiah Ray entered their lands in 1853.
Meantime pre-emptions or claims were made upon many desirable selections, and direct en- tries as well as those on time, through agents of capitalists, continued to be made, and the country was overrun by home-seekers and speculators. The capacity to find section cor- ners on the prairie, or to follow a blazed line through the timber, constituted the early settler a guide and land agent, and put many quickly earned dollars in his pocket. Some of these men became the agents of those who en- tered the lands, paid their taxes, watched against depredations on their timber, and thus turned an honest penny by which they got cash with which to pay their own taxes. In some cases these entries and purchases proved more profitable to the agent who was fortunate enough to negotiate them than they did to those who furnished the money that lay at the base of the transaction. Non-residents who made such entries were called speculators, and were regarded by the settlers with such
disfavor that they sometimes had scarcely fair treatmeut. Their possessions were occasion- ally rated high on the assessment rolls for taxation, and low on the rolls for confiscation for public purposes where that was practicable. But their entries of timber lands fared the worst. These were not only the prey of those who needed fire-wood in winter, and who might be excused for appropriating that which was most convenient, but even the well-to-do farmer, with a timber lot of his own more con- venient, has been known to chop viciously upon the trees of the outlawed "speculator," and to seem to have immense enjoyment in his toil. If they had only known what would be proven by the lapse of a score of years, the " speculator " would not have been so much envied. The many years of depressed prices which followed the booming years of the early fifties more than made things even against the non-resident land-owner. Taxes and interest in conrse of time took his margins, and then his principal, and may finally have impover- ished him and his heirs; and if, to crown all, his estate consisted of stumps and brush lands from which the valuable timber had been robbed, the owners were left poor indeed. Snch, however, is the short-sighted policy as well as indifferent honesty by which, at times, the plainest problems are observed, that one is content to injure the public, and by that means himself, to gratify an unworthy selfishness.
Meantime the settlers drifted in. Some came with capital sufficient to make themselves comfortable as rapidly as the necessary labor could be performed. Others there were who had merely enough to secure a footing that would keep their heads above water for a time. Some of these managed to find solid ground, while others had the sand swept from under them, and drifted with the tide. Others still sought the new country with only hand and
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brain, and brave hearts. They were deter- mined to better their condition, asked for no favors and wrought without fear. The Old Settlers' Association in this county numbers all these classes in its membership, and does no more honor to the first than to the last.
In all frontier countries there is another class that may not be ignored. Its members are those who belong to the frontier, and are never satisfied elsewhere. They follow the advice of the philosopher of the white hat and drab over- coat to the extent of going west, but they never remain to grow up with the country. Story County had its share of these. Many of the restless fellows are remembered kindly. There was no harm in them, but they could not stand crowding. When others settled near them it was taken as an order to move on. It is a pleasure to know that some of them have been good to themselves in other places, and are under the tongue of good report in homes found elsewhere. Others, however, can only be thought of with sorrow, as it is re- membered that even the west has a boundary, and that the shores of the great Pacific must end their journey.
The events already recorded bring this vera- cious history to the summer of 1853. A birds- eye view of Story County at that time would show the physical features still in the condi- tion in which the Indian had seen them through all the ages in which it had been his hunting- ground. The smoke curled above a cabin here and there, but these were mostly sheltered and partly concealed by the forests which still stood with hardly a noticeable mark of the woodman's ax. The luxuriant grass hid the few cattle of the settler from view, even when the anxious owner might be within a few yards of them, and the searcher would stop and listen for the tinkle of the bell, which the wily old ox was careful not to sound, for thus by his cunning
he for a time escaped the wearisome yoke. The head of the solitary horseman would barely peer above the tall grass as he skirted ponds or crossed the wide sloughs and low ground, and his centaur form was only made plain as he crossed the divides or climbed the prairie knolls to take note of his bearings. If he were miles distant from the grove, without a trail, and the day were dull, or the morning in fog, he might as well have been in mid-ocean with- out a compass, so far as the points of direction could be told. If a man under such conditions, were on foot and alone, he might wander in- definitely, and if night were coming on his sit uation was one for grave solicitude, and not without danger.
Wild game was never as abundant here as on the great plains of the far west, or among the mountains and great forests. There were some deer, elk, wild turkeys and grouse. Geese, ducks and cranes were abundant. Squirrels frisked in the tree-tops and the song birds filled the groves. The great timber wolf skulked along the streams, and made raids upon the barnyards and poultry, while the mel- ancholy howl of the coyote or smaller wolf, made mournfnl music far into the night. Amid such surroundings the wife and children looked anxiously at nightfall for the coming of the absent husband and father, their anxiety being about equally divided between his welfare and their own. Many prairie wolves were destroyed in the early years of settlement, principally by poison. It is related that a timber wolf at- tacked Caleb Walters, on the creek near Ne- vada, and that Isaac Smith killed a black bear near his place in Howard Township, in mem- ory of which act of prowess the creek and grove were named for the bear.
From these digressions we turn with pleasure to the interesting details of individual experiences in the newly selected homes. In
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the month of November, 1852, by way of the Jasper County trail, might have been seen a solitary and weary team crossing the county line about the head waters of the Wolf Creek branch of the Clear Creek fork of Indian Creek. This trail was not very far west of the residence of Mr. Parker, already referred to as the first settler in that part of the county. It was driven by Judiah Ray, and the wagon contained also his wife. He pursued a north- westerly course, in search of the cabin of Sam McDaniel, which was located near the center of Section 23, Town 83, Range 22. As he approached the Indian Creek timber, and could already see the smoke of the cabin sought for, he descried a man on the prairie whose course would presently intersect his own. In a short time he came face to face with a man of uncouth and forbidding aspect, who seemed disposed to make his acquaint- ance. On being told that he was looking for McDaniel's place, he was informed by his newly found acquaintance that his family oc- cupied one of the apartments of the McDaniel cabins and his informant would be his guide. Mr. Ray found his companion so disagreeable to him that he gave him very scant courtesy and no confidence. For this he was chided by his wife, his conduct seeming to her to be an improper return for hospitable effort.
They reached the cabins, and found, in ad- dition to the occupants, a number of very rough characters from a distance, some of them being from the Des Moines River settle- ments. They had a fire of logs near the cabins, around which they played cards and drank whisky far into the night. Mr. Ray declined the hospitalities of the cabins for his wife as well as himself, preferring to once more rely on the shelter of the wagon which had brought him in safety for several hundred miles. Mr. McDaniel was absent, having
gone on a visit to Ohio, and the ostensible guardian and host whom Mr. Ray found in his place was no other than the notorious and villainous Barnabas Lowell, who had no doubt previously and in the most brutal manner murdered a former wife in Ohio, and who in less than half a year perpetrated the same crime on her who slept in his bosom at the time now mentioned. As early as possible the following morning Mr. Ray skirted the tim- ber to the southwest, carefully avoiding his uncongenial companions of the previous night, and reached the home of Hiram Vincent, in Section 3, of what is now Indian Creek Town- ship. He selected, for his western home, lands in the same section.
At that time (November, 1852) Joseph P. Robinson's was the only family on the east side of West Indian Creek. His place was near the timber, not far from the center of Section 29, in Nevada Township. Robinson was a hale old man, with several sons and daughters, mostly grown. The Robinson farm now be- longs to the estate of W. R. Finley. Mr. Ray also remembers that when he came, in 1852, he found already located on East Indian, George Dye, Peter Gordy, Elisha Alderman, W. K. Wood, Adolphus Prouty, Hiram Vin- cent, Daniel and John Neal, Sam McDaniel and Barnabas Lowell. George Dye and Peter Gordy lived near the present site of the town of Maxwell. Dye afterward removed to a farm that is now owned by Samuel White, east of the Sam McDaniel farm.
Hon. William K. Wood then lived in Section 16, Indian Creek Township, near the site of his present residence, but nearer to the old ford across Indian Creek. He reached his place June 27, 1851, and was accompanied by his brother, Jesse R. Wood. Adolphus Prouty lived at that time southeast of Iowa Center, but afterward removed to a farm near the Elisha
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Alderman place, well known to all the old set- tlers as being on the west side of Indian Creek, nearly opposite to the farms of Hiram Vincent and Judiah Ray. George N. Kirkman came to the county in 1851; he opened the farm on which he lived till the date of his tragic death. Milton Arnold and William V. Alderman came in with the family of Elisha Alderman, and lived in Section 4, Township 82, Range 22.
The name and fame of S. H. Dye are per- petuated in the name of the stream known as the Harvey Dye Branch of Indian Creek. He built a cabin on the bluff east of that stream, in the edge of the grove, not far from the southeast corner of Section 12 in Nevada Township. He had secured rights on several hundred acres of land, but permitted what would now be a fortune to slip through his fingers. Mrs. Dye was a daughter of the Widow Hague, who came into the township in the spring of 1853, and settled with her sons and daughters in Section 36, Richland Township. Those who had already located or squatted (as the taking of a claim was called) along East Indian Creek were James Hall, E. H. Billings, Horace Heald, Jennings Wilkinson and his son David, Charles Lucas, M. E. Miller, Sam McDaniel, Barnabas Lowell, Thomas Kirkman, Joe Cox, John Cox, Adolphus Prouty, I. S. French, Nelson Harmon and Hiram Vincent.
The body of timber on East Indian, mostly in Sections 12, 13, 14, 23 and 24, was known as the Big Grove on Indian Creek. In and around this was the nucleus of the most north- erly settlement on the creek. Hall and Lucas, brothers-in-law, lived north of the line of the Chicago & North-Western Railway. Hall's claim was bought by and was long the home of the Widow Hague. In her possession it often afforded shelter and food to the emigrant, the land-seeker and the traveler. Mrs. Hague
bought Hall's claim in Section 36 in the spring of 1853; Hall was the first settler in Richland Township. The Wilkinsons lived south of the railway, their claims embracing, probably, most of the farms now owned by James Cook, and the brothers, Thomas and Oliver Ashford. One of the cabins in which they lived was between the Ashford places, about thirty rods northeast of Oliver Ashford's house. Thomas Kirkman's place is that known as the old John Ford farm, recently sold by Fred Norris to Dr. Hostetter. This was probably the first place settled in New Albany Township.
Three brothers named Cox-John, Joe and another-came into the Big Grove on Indian Creek. John Cox built a cabin near where W. W. Utterback now lives. He sold his claim to Utterback, and the latter moved into the cabin late in the fall of 1852. Utterback lived in the cabin for two years, and has continuously owned and lived on that farm. Joe Cox set- tled on the Wiggins place, north of John's cabin, and built a very small house, or pen of logs. He also cleared the timber off a small patch of ground, and planted some vegetables. Utterback first bargained for Joe Cox's place, but learning that it was a part of the selected school lands he was fearful of not obtaining title, and secured John Cox's claim and cabin. The other brother made a claim on Section 23, which, with his cabin, he sold to Samuel Mc- Daniel. Horace Heald lived in the southeast quarter of Section 26, and his place appears to have been a resort of the moral people of the community. Jerry Cory, of Iowa Center, a Baptist, and Dr. Jessup, of Cory Grove, some- times preached there. It was in Heald's cabin that the coroner's jury investigated the death of Mrs. Lowell. M. E. Miller lived a short dis- tance south of McDaniel's place.
The center of interest, however, in the early days of the Indian Creek settlement was in
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Section 23, where Sam McDaniel, his brother- in-law, Doc Billings and the notorious Barna- bas Lowell held forth. Their cabins were under the shelter of timber lying north and west. This locality seemed to offer shelter not only to the emigrant seeking a home, as in the case of Mr. Ray, previously mentioned, but also to be a resort of those with less worthy pursuits. McDaniel was addicted to the use of intoxicants. The younger man, Billings, had similar tastes. McDaniel is said to have fallen in with Billings in Jasper County, and their social tastes harmonizing, Billings came home with McDaniel and married his sister. When Lowell joined them, and made his tem- porary home in one of the cabins, the place became the unsavory attraction already men- tioned.
Farther south, and in Nevada Township, at the point of timber near the southeast corner of Section 26, lived Daniel and John Neal. This locality was known as "Hog-skin Point," and the first election, for county organization, was held at Neal's cabins. This place was afterward owned by Barnet Broughard. It is rather a singular circumstance that among the settlers in and about the Big Grove, the pio- Deers in Richland and New Albany Townships are definitely known, while there seems to be no settled opinion as to who was the lone first settler in Nevada Township. Lucas, the Cox brothers, the Wilkinsons, father and son, and a son-in-law named Pierce, Heald and the Neals, must divide that honor among them. All of these, and McDaniel and Miller, were as early as the spring of 1852.
At the same time, or a year earlier, George N. Kirkman, James Sellers, John Broughard, I. S. French, Nelson Harmon, Austin Prouty, and W. K. and J. R. Wood were living in In- dian Creek Township. There is little doubt that of all these the unfortunate Kirkman was
the pioneer. Adolphus Prouty was the first justice of the peace. He lived at Prouty's Grove, northeast of Maxwell. Isaac S. French and Nelson Harmon kept bachelor's hall near what was long known as the W. B. Hand place. It is said that the exact site of George Dye's cabin is now included in the street of Maxwell, and immediately in front of the business house of Baldwin & Maxwell. James Sellers was in Section 34, Indian Creek Town- ship, where he remained until he removed to California.
It is practicable at this point to procure but a few exact dates of the arrival of settlers in the western part of the county. Stephen P. O'Brien, who was one of the early county offi- cials, arrived on the 27th of October, 1852. He made a "squatter's claim" within a few days on the south half of Section 35, of Frank- lin Township. During the winter he built a cabin, into which he removed his family on the 1st of February, 1853. The land was not open to entry until April, 1853. On his arrival O'Brien found that others were in advance of him. Samuel Heistand and family were on Section 33, his sons being Harvey, William and Abraham. The eldest daughter, Sarah, was the wife of O'Brien, and Anna married William Taylor. Shadrack Worrall, with his sons James and William, lived at the grove that bears the family name. The Widow Bri- ley (Hannah) with her sons, James, Elisha, Ira and Albert, lived north of Ontario. Dr. Alexander Favre, an old and excellent physi- cian, a Frenchman, with his son Eugene, was on Section 32. John Hussong and his son, John Jackson, lived near Mrs. Briley. George B. Zenor, with his sons, John and James, also John J. Zenor, afterward sheriff, and known as "Major," lived in the same neighborhood. James Gildea and sons, John, Thomas and George, lived just north of Ontario, on what
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was long known as the farm of Calvary Ross. Thomas Vest and sons, Merriman and Joe, lived south of Ontario. Eli and Michael Deal and John Wheeler were also on their claims. Fred Echard and Squire M. Cory were occu- pying their respective claims. Evan C. Evans and his brother, William D., arrived only a few days in advance of O'Brien, while Henry C. Cameron, John Vest, James Jenkins, Frank Thompson and William Thompson arrived soon after. Echard, O'Brien and Cameron were soldiers of the Mexican war. John J. Keigley was about a year in advance of all those previously named, except Cory. His place was near the mouth of the creek that bears his name. The Arrasmiths were in the north part of this settlement at an early day. Presley R. Craig, with his sons, Isaac H., Elisha B. and B. F., settled near O'Brien in March, 1853. In that year there were many accessions, the names being given elsewhere.
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