USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > Historical and biographical record of Black Hawk County, Iowa > Part 54
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Sturgis built a double log cabin on the bank of the river, and broke five acres of prairie. Adams built a cabin on his claim, about two miles from Mr. Hanna's, and also broke about five acres. This breaking by Sturgis and Adams was the first breaking done in Black Hawk County. Adams soon returned to Iowa City. Sturgis had some hands, and commenced getting out timber for a mill, but his family got sick, and he and his family went back to Iowa City again, leaving a German to work his claim, and not intending to return until other settlers came in. The man he left had a claim on Miller's Creek, and the creek took its name from him. To Mrs. Sturgis must be accorded the credit of being the pioneer white woman of Black Hawk County. In the fall Stur- gis and his wife, and Adams and his wife and his little boy John, came back and oc- cupied the cabins they had built in the spring previous. The Chambers cabin was
yet standing as he had left it, but soon after Sturgis and Adams moved to their claims in the autumn, it singularly enough tumbled into the river: By what mysterious agency this result was produced is not known, but it is said that Sturgis had a theory upon which the phenomenon was to be explained.
When the mill was built and the town of Cedar Falls was laid out, Sturgis's cabin proved to be near the upper end of the race, at the foot of Washington street. where it remained until a few years ago it was removed to give place to a more per- manent and graceful building.
In May or June, 1845, John Hamilton and his sons, also from Johnson County, arrived and made claims near Sturgis and Adams. They brought a team and breaking-plow with them, and broke some prairie. The Hamiltons did not remain long. Becoming dissatisfied, they abandoned their claims, returned to Johnson County, and left Stur- gis and Adams the only white men in the county, whose nearest white neighbors were at Quasqueton, Buchanan County, and Fremont (Vinton), Benton County.
They, too, had gone when, on the 18th day of July, 1845, George W. Hanna, with his wife and two children and his wife's brother, John Melrose, arrived and located on section 20, town 89, range 13, about half way between Sturgis' Falls and Prairie Rap- ids. If Mrs. Sturgis is fairly entitled to the honor of being the first white woman in the county Mrs. Hanna has the honor of being the first to permanently settle here.
In the fall, about the time Sturgis and Adams moved in, William Virden and his family, consisting of his wife and little daughter, settled about half a mile south- east of Hanna's cabin. The four families of Hanna, Sturgis, Adams and Virden, numbering thirteen souls, comprised the entire permanent population of Black Hawk County in the winter of 1845-'6. Mr.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY.
Sturgis made some progress with his dam across the Cedar at the head of the falls during the fall, but owing to the difficulty in obtaining hands, the work progressed very slowly.
Captain Boone of Missouri, visited Iowa in the summer of 1836, and in the fall of that year gave James Newell, then living in the vicinity of Muscatine, a glowing descrip- tion of the region about the three forks of the Cedar, through which he had passed some years before in command of a squad of eleven soldiers, marching from Council Bluffs to Prairie du Chien. So much pleased had Boone been with the beauty of the sur- roundings, that he halted his party there for four days, and spent the time in hunting and fishing.
In the spring of 1845 James Newell and Harris Wilson started out from the vi- cinity of Muscatine to visit the country along the upper part of Cedar River. At Marion they were informed that the last settler northward lived seventeen miles out, and that after they passed that lonely cabin they must keep a sharp look-out, for the fall before the Indians had robbed two brothers named Ward who had been trap- ping along the Cedar. The two explorers met James Chambers as they proceeded northwestward, who told them it was a fine country along the Cedar; but that no white man could live there in safety, because it was neutral ground for the Sacs, Foxes, Winnebagoes and Sioux. The first night in Black Hawk County, the two men camped near where Gilbertville was afterward laid out. Near where Waterloo now stands, they crossed ar. Indian trail leading from Fort Atkinson to Indiantown, on the lowa River, which crossed the Cedar at the Rap- ids above. The men left the ford to the left, and came to the Cedar again near where Janesville now stands, where they crossed and explored the country between the Cedar and the Shellrock. While camp-
ing in the vicinity, a heavy rain occurred. They forded the Shellrock with great dif- ficulty, and in crossing the Cedar the water filled their wagon-box. Wilson was hardly satisfied with the forks of the Cedar, but Newell had made up his mind to settle there. Returning, Wilson was better pleased with the land north of the Rapids, where Stur- gis had just made his claim, but objected to the whole country as being too far from Muscatine.
The two travelers decided they must visit Sturgis, and on the way Newell picked up a piece of coal, which Wilson suggested had been carried thither by icc. Arriving opposite Sturgis' Rapids, they found a small canoc at the cddy below, into which they got, Newell rowing. When they reached the main current, Wilson became frightened and stretched himself in the bottom of the boat, whimpering, praying and begging Newell to set him on shore. When they reached the south bank, Wilson sprang out and remarked that he'd " be d-d if Newell would get him in that boat again." They did not find Sturgis, and had nothing to do but to return to camp. That evening Wilson visited the bank of the sec- ond bottom, and found flood-wood about seven feet higher than their camping ground, which convinced him that he did not want to settle there.
The following fall Newell returned to the forks of the Cedar, called " Turkey Foot Forks" by the Indians, accompanied by his brother Robert, Walter Fillman and Joseph Brown, but was much incommoded on the way by an attack of ague. His compan- ions built him a cabin, and, not fancying the region, they soon returned down the river, Newell going back with them, fully de- termined to return to his claim as soon as possible.
In January, 1846, James Newell and Hugh Rawdon started up the Cedar, with the in- tention of cutting cedar logs and rafting
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them down. They engaged Charles Hink- ley, of Benton County, to go with them as guide. They found the Dickersons cutting ogs near the mouth of Big Creek. The Dickersons informed them that "Cedar" Johnson had begun cutting eight miles above Big Creek in 1844.
They found Johnson's cabin and moved in without ceremony, sending Rawdon back for grain for the teams. Johnson heard that his cabin was occupied, and sent word up the river for the party to vacate, or to " prepare their wooden jackets," for he in- tended to shoot them at sight. But the lit- tle party kept at work till they had cut and hauled logs enough for a raft eighty-four yards long. About this time they were visited by John Sturgis, who stayed one night with them. When Newell was about ready to start, Johnson came up in a wagon, with two hands. His desire for human blood was not so great as when he was at Cedar Rapids. Johnson went into the grove, saw that it was badly slashed, and returned to the cabin, where, after being invited in by Newell, he expostulated mildly about Newell's occupying his cabin, and gave Newell to understand that he intend- ed to sue him for the value of the logs. Newell remarks concerning this, "that it would be a d-d pretty case-two thieves going to law about property they were stealing from the Government."
The latter part of March came, and the water being too low for rafting, Newell started for home in a canoe down the Cedar, sold his place and made his preparations to move to Black Hawk County. He reached his cabin May 19, 1846. He men- tions that his wagon broke down at Poyner Creek, and that Clark and Giles, of Quas- queton, passed by without offering to help him. He had sold his share of the raft, and was enabled to go to farming in earnest as soon as he reached his claim. In spite of the crows, he raised 500 bushels of corn,
one hundred of which he sold to the In- dians at a dollar a bushel.
Wolves were very numerous around Newell's cabin in the fall of 1846, killing off all his chickens but one rooster, whose gills turned white with fear. To save his life, they had to take him in the cabin at night.
June 1, 1846, James Virden came to visit his brother William and see the country, and was so well pleased that he made a claim and broke some prairie on the east side of the Cedar, at Prairie Rapids, on section 23, township 89, range 13, just above the original town plat of Waterloo, but he did not build a cabin until the fall of the next year. June 24 Charles Mullan and family, wife and two children (Mrs. Mullan was a sister of James and William Virden), located on the west side of the river, op- posite Prairie Rapids, and built a log cabin on the northwest quarter of section 26, township 89, range 13. The first actual set- tler near the future city, Andrew Jackson Taylor, and his family, settled at Sturgis' Falls about the same time. E. G. Young settled at Turkey Foot Forks, near New- ell's, in the fall of 1846, and two Williams families settled in the vicinity. Mr. Sturgis continued work on his dam during this year, but did not succeed in completing it.
The first school on the territory of the future county of Black Hawk was taught at Sturgis' Falls, during the summer of 1846, by Mrs. A. J. Taylor, with six schol- ars, who doubtless acquired the rudiments of knowledge under Mrs. Taylor's tuition just as readily and thoroughly as the pupils of a generation later with the in- finitely better advantages have done.
It is said that when the winter of 1846-'7 set in, there were ten white families in the entire area of Black Hawk County.
There was an election held at Cedar Falls in August, 1847, at which time town- ship officers were elected, and votes cast
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY.
for officers of Buchanan County, to which Black Hawk was then attached for reve- nue and judicial purposes. The judges of that election were George W. Hanna, E. D. Adams and John Melrose, while Wm. Sturgis and a man from Butler County whose name has been forgotten acted as clerks.
In February, 1847, the Overmans and John T. Barrick came to Sturgis Falls. Sturgis was trying to build a dam and mill, but his resources were very limited, and he finally concluded to sell, and during the next fall did sell to John W. Overman, D. C. Overman and Barrick, his claim of 280 acres of land, including the mill site and improvements, for $2,200, Barrick borrow- ing $500 of James Newell to make part payment for his share of the purchase. The new firm pushed the work with such ener- gy that early in 1848 they had the saw-mill- the first in the county-in operation, and in 1850, in a shed addition to the saw-mill, the company put in one run of stones cut from a granite bowlder in the vicinity. This was the first grist-mill in the county, and was of great service to the settlers who pat- ronized it for a hundred miles north and west.
About 1847, Moses Bates, from Western Indiana, located on the bank of Spring Creek. Bates appears to have been con- nected with the gang of prairie bandits, and was a " hard case." On one occasion he went to the cabin of Henry Gray, who had settled near him. Abruptly entering his neighbor's house, he roughly inquired of Gray if he knew who his visitor was. Gray said he had that honor, whereupon Bates, who was armed with a rifle, tomahawk, three revolvers and a bowie-knife, informed his quiet neighbor that he might have just three days to pack up his " traps " and leave the county. Gray, however, did not belong to a timid family ; he didn't "scare " worth a cent. His trusty rifle was hanging just over
his head. He coolly took it down, "drew a bead " on his surly neighbor and exclaimed, "D-n you, Bates, I'll give you just three minutes to get out from here. Git!" It is needless to add that before the three min- utes had expired Bates had placed himself at a safe distance from Gray's rifle.
On another occasion a German from Al- lamakec County, in search of some horses that had been stolen, found them in Bates' possession. There were other evidences of Bates' propensity to appropriate to his own use the property of others, without render- ing compensation, and about a dozen stal- wart settlers gathered, took the offender into the woods, stripped him and tied him securely to a tree. The men then prudently formed a ring with their backs to the center while the irate owner of the stolen horses applied a liberal dose of hickory to his bare back. Bates afterward had his castigator arrested, but as there were no witnesses who had seen him chastised, he was unable to maintain his accusation. Bates sold out to John Clark in 1852, and removed to Boone County, where he died.
Soon after Bates, Peyton Culver and John Robinson settled near him on the southwest quarter on section 14, and commenced building a saw-mill on Spring Creek, but abandoned the project, and after remaining a year or two removed to Marysville.
The years 1848 and 1849 were uneventful, and the population of the county did not increase very rapidly. Among those who sought homes in Black Hawk during these two years were: William Pennell, H. H. Meredith, J. L. Kirkpatrick, Geo. Philpot, Jonathan R. Pratt, Edwin Brown and Sam- uel Newell.
During the summer of 1850 Andrew Mullarky, removed from Independence to Sturgis' Falls, brought a small stock of goods and opened a store. He occupied a small building on the north side of First street, which served for both store and
EARLY AND CIVIL HISTORY.
5:5
residence. This was soon named the " Black Hawk Store," the first in the county, and, like the mill, drew custom for a hundred miles north and west.
In 1850, according to the United States census of that year, there were 26 families in the county, with a total population of I35 persons-75 males and 60 females. The whole number of children attending school was four, and there were two births and two deaths during that year. There were 389 acres of improved land; farming im- plements valued at $655 ; 15 horses, 39 Cows, 28 oxen, 41 head of other cattle, 40 sheep and 183 hogs. The entire productions of the county in that year were 160 bushels of wheat, 2,150 bushels of corn, 100 bushels of oats, 75 bushels of buckwheat, 120 pounds of wool, 3,364 pounds of maple sugar, and 615 pounds of honey. In 1852 the popula- tion had increased to 315.
The first white child born in the county was Jeannette, daughter of William Sturgis, born October 1, 1846. The first white male child was Henry F. Adams, a son of E. D. Adams, who was born three days after Jeannette Sturgis. The third birth was Emily Hanna, March 7, 1847.
The first wedding, so far as can now be ascertained, was that of James Virden and Charlotte Pratt, at the house of Jonathan R. Pratt, at Cedar City. The license was obtained from the county judge of Bu- chanan County, February 25, 1851, and the wedding took place on the 27th, George W. Hanna, Justice of the Peace, officiating. The records of Buchanan County show the following marriages under that jurisdiction, viz .: David S. Pratt and Miss Jane Sturgis, license issued September 16, married by Edwin Brown, Justice of the Peace, Sep- tember 21, 1851; James S. Hampton and Mary Ann Payne, license dated June 22, married June 27, 1852, by George W. Han- na, Justice of the Peace; Marquis L. Knapp and Mary Streeter, licensed Septem- 52
ber 3, married September 5, 1852, by G. W. Hanna, Justice of the Peace; James Keeler, Jr., and Cornelia Streeter, married September 21, 1852, by James Keeler, Jus- tice of the Peace; Adam Shigley and Aure- lia S. Harwood, license issued June 13, 1853, married June 14, by Benoni Harris, local preacher.
The first marriage of any resident of Black Hawk, however, was that of James Newell. His wife died June 2, 1847, and his family, one an infant born May 21, 1847, needed the care of a mother; accordingly he found Mrs. Howard in Cedar County, and married her there, November 7, 1847.
The first death was James Monroe Hanna, infant son of George W. and Mary Hanna, who died October 18, 1845. The second was Mrs. James Newell, June 2, 1847. The third death, so far as is known, was that of Mary Virden, two years old, daugh ter of William Virden, whose clothes took fire accidentally, and she was so badly burned that she died soon after, in 1848.
In 1847 Rev. Mr. Collins, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal church, visited the region and held religious services in Mr. Mullan's cabin at " Prairie Rapids" and at other places in the county where there were any settlers to listen to him. Rev. Mr. Johnson, also a Methodist, preached to the pioneers of Black Hawk a little later in the same year.
It is perhaps a little singular that no post- office was established in Black Hawk Coun- ty until January 3, 1850, when Dempsey C. Overman was appointed postmaster at Cedar Falls. The arrival of the first mail was quite an event, but for some time the mails were so small that the postmaster used to carry the let- ters in his hat, delivering them as he hap- pened to meet the persons addressed. It is not known that there were any other car- rier deliveries in the State at that time, and Mr. Overman may be called the pioneer
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY.
letter-carrier of lowa. The mails were carried on horseback by Thomas W. Case, and the receipts of the first quarter were $2.50. It was nearly two years after the establishment of the first postoffice at Ce- dar Falls before the second one was estab- lished at Waterloo.
In 1851 Mr. John T. Barrick had dis- posed of his interest in the mill property to the Overmans, Edwin Brown and Dr. H. H. Meredith. This change brought into the combination considerable capital, which was at once applied to developing the wa- ter-power. The race was increased in width and depth, and the brush dam was replaced with one of logs and plank, and soon after a three-story flouring mill was erected. A town plat was surveyed, and the little settlement for the first time re- ceived the name of Cedar Falls. The plat was not recorded, however, and two years later the town was again surveyed, and re- corded as Independence. John R. Cam- eron purchased the first lot, on the south- east corner of Main and Second streets, on which he erected a frame building for a store. The first frame dwelling was that of Samuel Wick, on First street, near Main. At the time the plat was made there were nine log cabins and forty inhabitants in the new town of Cedar Falls.
INDIAN SCARES.
The hardy pioneers of Black Hawk County, like most others who endured the toils, privations and hardships of frontier life when they were brought into frequent and disagreeable contact with the Indians, who were being slowly but surely crowded toward the setting sun by the active en- croachments of the Anglo-Saxon race, have many thrilling stories to tell of their ex- periences.
During the years 1853-'4 the settlers in this and neighboring counties were fre- quently alarmed by reports of Indian dep-
redations and massacres north and west of here. Every few weeks settlers would come in from a distance and tell the most wonderful stories of hair-breadth escapes from cruel deaths by blood-thirsty savages, of houses burned and stock driven off. But investigation invariably demonstrated that all these alleged frightful occurrences were utterly without foundation.
For some time the relations existing be- tween the Sioux and Winnebagoes living in the neighborhood had not been friendly, which finally culminated in an outbreak in which a Winnebago boy was killed. The news of this affair rapidly spread, gaining strength as it was told by one excited and thoroughly scared settler to another, until by the time it had reached Black Hawk County it was reported that hundreds of painted warriors were marching down the valley murdering and burning everything before them. The people became fear- fully excited, and many fled with their fami- lies and what little household stuff they could carry, finding safety in the more thickly settled counties or in the adjoining States. A company was raised at Cedar Falls, and under command of Captain E. Brown and Lieutenants A. F. Brown and W. H. McClure, went out to reconnoiter the enemy, going as far as Floyd County, where they learned, to their great joy and greater chagrin, that it was all a hoax and no hostile Indians were within hundreds of miles. Others went from Waterloo and Independence; while at Janesville and some other places they hastily constructed rude forts or stockades, and put themselves in the best possible shape to make a strong defense against the blood-thirsty savages.
James Virden, who lived in the grove at the upper end of Waterloo, was awakened one night by a man from near Waverly, who informed him that the Indians were coming, killing and burning everything in their path, and warning him to pack up and flee
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EARLY AND CIVIL HISTORY.
to a place of safety. £ Mr. Virden had passed through two or three " scares," and took but little stock in the story. He asked the man in, and finally prevailed upon him to go to bed. In the morning settlers be- gan arriving on foot, horseback and in wagons, and the yard and surrounding grove were soon filled with the fleeing settlers. Mr. Virden, Charles Mullan and one or two others mounted their horses and started up the river on a reconnois- sance. After a day's ride, failing to dis- cover any signs of Indians, they returned, and their reports reassured the runaways, who started at once for their homes.
These sensational reports had a bad effect upon the timid, and several families left here and went to Linn County, then sup- posed to be thickly settled and safe.
At the supreme agony of the scare, says Mr. Streeter, who had just got the main part of his house up and inclosed, fifty per- sons stayed all night with him ; and he says his house was so full he could not step be- tween the sleeping fugitives that night. Many of them had buried their valuables before starting, and some of them, when they got over their fright and returned, could not remember where they had dug and hid their property. The danger be- came more imminent as the news was car- ried eastward, and by the time it had got to Dubuque 6,000 Sioux warriors were rampaging down the Cedar with the besom of death and desolation.
Some very ludicrous incidents are told in connection with the bloodless war. On the return of the company to Cedar Falls, one of their number, to signalize the vic- tory, rode his horse into the office of the Carter House, around the stove and out again, whereupon his comrades fired a salute in honor of his bravery, rousing the whole town. A settler of the name of Rucker and his wife were so badly fright- ened by the firing of this salute, supposing
it to be the realization of what they had so long intensely feared, that they left every- thing and rushing out ran sixteen miles that night. At Waterloo, several of the timid left, and after spending a few weeks in Illinois, or some other supposed safe lo- cality, returned.
Among others thus leaving was Green- leaf Glidden and family, living on the west side. After spending a short time in Linn County, Mr. Glidden returned and re- sumed his home here. The night of his return there was a wedding in town (Isaac Virden and Eliza May being the parties interested), and the boys had made arrange- ments to give the newly married couple a charivari. Soon after Glidden went to bed the clan assembled with cow-bells, pans and various instruments more noted for noise than melody, and the first general break. out of the din aroused Mr. Glidden, who was probably dreaming of Indians; and when he sprang from his bed the general hub-bub and clatter only confirmed him in the belief that the Indians had surely come, and were killing all the inhabitants. Hastily burying his grindstone, which was evi- dently a highly cherished possession, and throwing his feather-bed and household traps into his wagon, he hitched up his horses and started at full speed for the land of safety, alarming the settlers as he went. He made a halt at Abraham Turner's, be- low town, told his blood-curdling tale, and warned them to flee. While he was talk- ing he glanced backward toward town, ex- pecting probably to see the flames of the burning houses, but instead saw several dark objects approaching at a rapid gait, and with a cry, almost of despair, he shouted, "They are coming! Here they are !" and putting the whip to his team he once more started on his journey at a break-neck speed. A lady at Turner's was so alarmed at Glidden's story that she started at once for some place where she
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