USA > Iowa > Adair County > History of Adair County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 11
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Company B, Third Regiment, Iowa National Guard, was organ- ized in 1879 through the exertions of C. B. Hunt, the state senator from this district. The first officers were as follows: C. B. Hunt, captain; Thomas H. Ruth, first lieutenant; P. Hillvard, second lieu- tenant; and W. H. Romesha, orderly sergeant.
The G. A. R. Circle was organized in Greenfield in January, 1914. It is composed of women relatives and wives of Civil war veterans. The first offices were held by the following: Mesdames C. A. Gibbs, R. M. Quinn, Robert Wilson, W. C. Smith, John Luers, Marion Young, B. H. Kenworthy, Lester Smith, and Misses Edna Gibbs. Mary Woods and Louise Gibbs.
Martha Rebekah Lodge No. 37 was organized on March 5, 1890, with twenty-one men and twenty-two women. Dr. T. W. Mulhern was the first noble grand and Mrs. George Condon the first vice grand ; Mrs. O. A. Tuttle was the first secretary. The order at present is the largest in the City of Greenfield, having 150 members. This lodge has also instituted lodges at Orient and Bridgewater. Several mem- bers of the order have held state offices in the same.
Myers Woman's Relief Corps was organized March 3, 1888, with about twenty members. Ella C. Knapp was the first president and served six years. The corps now has a membership of eighty- four.
THE CREAMERY INDUSTRY
The first creamery for co-operative butter manufacture was estab- lished by Henry Wallace and Ross on land in Orient Township owned by the former, which creamery was managed by the latter. Mr. Wallace is now the veteran editor of Wallace's Farmer of Des Moines and was a member of the commission appointed by President
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Roosevelt to inquire into the conditions of the country life. He owned at the time of the creamery building in 1881 several farms in Adair County and published a farm paper at Winterset. The cream- ery was not a success and was discontinued in two or three years.
George Hoisington built the second creamery at Fontanelle in 1882. He was an expert butter maker from Wisconsin, but the con- ditions under which the business was conducted at that time were unfavorable and after some years of strenuous endeavor the plant failed.
The Stewart brothers and Shannon undertook to re-establish the business and built fine brick buildings at Fontanelle and Bridgewater, with several stations in the country. They did a big business for several years, but finally went to the wall as a result of fierce com- petition developed by the increased business.
On May 14, 1900, the Greenfield Creamery Company was started, with James F. Laude as manager. At this time there were several other creameries in the county and at nearby points, but owing to the large growth of the Greenfield plant all of these have ceased business. The business for the first year amounted to $60,000 and in 1914 totaled the sum of $112,000. Four years ago the egg business was added. The creamery is supplied with cream by the farmers of the county. With the exception of small shipments to the towns in Adair County all the products of this creamery are freighted to New York, to the George M. Rittenhouse Company, commission mer- chants. Four men are employed in the plant, including the efficient manager, Mr. Laude. The brick building was constructed in the year 1900.
CHAPTER X
SUMMERSET TOWNSHIP AND FONTANELLE
Summerset Township comprises all of Congressional Township 75 north, range 32 west of the fifth principal meridian. The sur- face is generally rolling, with a few ravines in the vicinity of the streams. The soil is rich and loamy and well watered. The east branch of the Nodaway River enters it on the northwest quarter of section 1, and intersecting sections 2, 11 and 14 in a southerly course, it changes to a southwesterly direction and crossing sections 15, 22, 21. 28. 33 passes into Richland Township on the south line of sec- tion 32.
SETTLEMENT
The first person to settle in this township was one Collins, who located on section 2 in the spring or early summer of 1854. He did not remain in this territory for very long, but a grove of trees in that vicinity was named after him. He had signed a note with some men in Madison before he came to Adair County, and the others having fallen out with him, maliciously entered a suit for forgery against him. They sent Otto Davis, the sheriff of Madison County, to . arrest Collins. He was incarcerated in the Madison County jail for six months and then went to trial before the District Court, where he was immediately found not guilty and discharged. On coming home he found that his wife had left him and was living with another man. He then left the country and nothing more was heard of him.
James C. Gibbs was the first man to make a permanent settle- ment in the township. On June 18, 1855, the sale of lots in the Town of Fontanelle was begun and Gibbs purchased the lots on the north- east of the square, where he at once constructed a large log cabin. In August of the same year he brought his family here to live. For a few years Gibbs ran a hotel in this log structure. This was the first hotel in Fontanelle.
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D. M. Valentine bought the lots immediately west of those pur- chased by Gibbs, built a residence, and thus became the second per- manent settler. He was a prominent attorney of the county and afterwards was upon the Supreme bench in the State of Kansas.
Gorton N. Bennett came to Adair County August 17, 1855, and was employed until 1857 by J. C. Gibbs as a farm hand. He mar- ried Hulda Lee, the first school teacher in Fontanelle.
John Lockhart was the next to settle here, coming in the fall of 1855. He located on section 6, where he lived a year or so, and then removed to Kansas. He was a native of Ohio.
Azariah Root located in Fontanelle in 1855, where he lived for some time. J. K. Valentine came from Vigo County, Ind., in 1855 and settled in Fontanelle.
In 1856 Cal Ballard came and rented the building later used as a postoffice, and placed therein a general stock of merchandise which he had brought from Winterset. This building was constructed and owned by J. K. Valentine. The next year Ballard built a store of his own. In 1859 he sold this to J. C. Gibbs and moved back to Win- terset, remaining two or three years, then going to his former home in Indiana for two years stay, when he returned to Winterset and engaged in the dry goods business. When George B. Wilson was elected clerk of the court in 1857 and refused to serve, the judge appointed Cal Ballard in his place.
The next man to come was J. D. Nichols, who located at Fonta- nelle in August, 1856. He was a native of Massachusetts and a car- penter by trade. He lived here for about three years and then went to St. Joseph, Mo. He enlisted in the army at the beginning of the Civil war and won high honors, being placed in the service of the regular United States Army at the close of hostilities.
About the same time Theodore Smith and his brother-in-law, Rev. James Walker, came from Connecticut and took up their resi- dence in the Village of Fontanelle. Walker was the first minister of the gospel to make his home in this county. After living here for about four years they left, Walker going to Michigan and Smith to New York.
W. B. Hall settled in Fontanelle in the autumn of 1856. He was afterwards elected clerk of the courts and served for ten years. He later went to Seattle, Wash.
A. B. Smith, a carpenter, came to Fontanelle in the winter of 1856-7 and lived here until 1860. In the spring of 1858 he was elected clerk of the courts and held that position until the fall of
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF FONTANELLE
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the same year. He left here and went to Winterset, where he sub- sequently died.
Samuel Marquart came from Wayne County, Indiana, in 1857, and made settlement in Fontanelle.
William Lytle made a settlement on section 17 in 1857. He was a native of Ohio. In 1861 he removed to Madison County, from which place he enlisted in the army and during his term of service was fatally stricken with disease.
About the year 1857 Samuel W. Armstrong settled in the new Village of Fontanelle. He was a native of Pottsville, Schuylkill County, Pa., and in the year 1856 had come to Adair County from Des Moines and had stayed for two years at Greenfield. He was an attorney by profession. He served for four years as county treasurer. Mr. Armstrong committed suicide in 1866 or 1867. His wife was a daughter of W. H. Brainard, another old settler.
J. J. Crittenden came to the township and settled in the Town of Fontanelle in 1857 and was made postmaster. In 1858 he was arrested for robbing the mail, was tried and convicted and sent to the peni- tentiary for a term of five years. He was pardoned by President Lincoln after he had served two years, whereupon he returned to Fontanelle, lived three years, and then moved to Missouri.
Abram Miller located in Fontanelle in the winter of 1857-8 and lived here for several years. He finally returned to Indiana, his native state.
Alden Smith came to the town in 1857, but after several years' residence, removed to Winterset, where he died.
Abram Platt located in Fontanelle in 1857 and constructed a house which he afterwards sold, and he removed to Missouri.
Rev. Joseph Mather, from West Virginia, came to Fontanelle in the spring of 1878 directly from Marion County, Ia. He was the first Congregational minister in Adair County. He died in 1862 at Fontanelle.
The next settler was Dr. T. M. Moore, who came in 1858, and settled in the village, there practicing his profession.
John Lentz, a native of South Carolina, came from Indiana in 1860 and made a settlement near the Village of Fontanelle.
Titus Sullivan settled on a farm near Fontanelle in the early '60s and raised quite a family. He was a soldier in the Mexican war.
Briggs Alden, a soldier of the War of 1812, and a Mormon preacher, was an early resident of Fontanelle, where he preached occasionally. He died when nearly one hundred years of age.
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James Baker, another Mormon elder and a lieutenant in a com- pany of the Second New Hampshire Infantry in the Civil war, was an early resident. He now lives in Lamoni, Ia. The Mormons at Fontanelle belonged to the Joseph Smith branch of the church, although for a time some of them were in Utah Territory.
Dr. Nelson Bates emigrated from New York among the followers of Joseph Smith and located at Nauvoo, Ill., and was there at the time Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyrum, were mobbed and murdered at the Carthage jail. He, with his family, were among the crowds which followed the fortunes of Brigham Young. They took the long, toilsome journey across the plains to Salt Lake and there lived for several years. Afterwards, repudiating Young, he was obliged to fly for his life and with his family succeeded in getting away from the Mormon rule and recrossed the plains by team some years before the railroad was built west of Omaha. On reaching Fontanelle he settled there. This was about 1866. He then practiced medicine until his death. He had two sons in the Civil war, one of whom died soon after his return from the army at Fontanelle; the other, Francis M. Bates, became a teacher after the war in a high school in Shamo- kin, Pa. He came to Fontanelle about 1880 and for a time taught the high school here, also served as county surveyor for some years. He now lives in Iowa City. His oldest daughter, born in the county, married a Methodist minister and the family for some years prior to 1914, were missionaries at Paraguay, South America.
Samuel Marquart was long identified with the fortunes of Fon- tanelle. He was a gold seeker in the Pike's Peak excitement, crossed the plains with ox wagons like most of the gold seekers of that time, and returned "busted." He stopped at Fontanelle, where for many years he farmed, raised stock quite extensively, had a general store and was one of the leading persons in business. In the early days of the Klondike rush he, with D. W. Marquart, his nephew, ex-auditor of the county, undertook to get through to Dawson by way of White Horse Pass, but the snows of the mountains proved too great an obstacle. Some of the party gave out and the rest finally got back, but D. W. Marquart did not long survive. Samuel Marquart went to Lake Arthur, La., where he bought a large tract of rice land and engaged extensively in raising rice, irrigating with large steam pumps. He also extensively developed his town prop- erty, of which he is a large owner. He is represented to be hale and hearty today at the age of about eighty years.
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Abram Rutt helped to survey the Town of Fontanelle and was one of the first carpenters to build houses from the native lumber. He freighted supplies with several ox teams to Denver during the Pike's Peak rush. He was a leading merchant in Fontanelle for many years and was part proprietor of the Fontanelle Register, the only paper published in Adair County for ten years, was owner of a section of land in Walnut Township which he afterwards developed into one of the best farms in the county. He bought a large interest in a big distillery at Atlantic, Ia., but the law and sentiment of prohibition put this out of business. He started and conducted dur- ing his life a bank at Casey, first as a private bank, afterwards the Abram Rutt National Bank, which was very successful. He died in 1914, leaving a large estate and large bequest to educational and charitable institutions.
G. F. Kilburn came to Fontanelle in 1858 from Des Moines, where he had studied law with C. C. Cole, afterwards a judge in the Supreme Court. Kilburn practiced law, edited the Fontanelle Regis- ter, the latted for ten years or more, or until the Greeley campaign of 1872, when the paper was sold to a syndicate and run in the inter- est of the democratic party for some years by James Rany. G. F. Kilburn served in the Twelfth General Assembly, representing the counties of Adair, Cass and Montgomery in the House of Repre- sentatives. Upon the removal of the county seat he moved to Cres- ton and there practiced law until his death in 1883.
Col. James Rany, another early settler in Fontanelle, served in the War of the Rebellion and rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel in an Illinois regiment. After the war he removed to Adair County and was elected county clerk in 1868, beating W. B. Hall by one or two votes and getting the office only after a contest and recount. He remained in Fontanelle as a farmer, stock raiser and shipper, editor and other positions until he moved to Marengo, Ia., where he died several years ago. He was at one time democratic candidate for representative.
G. F. Kilburn was born in Boscawen, N. H., in 1834. He came to Des Moines, Ia., in the hard times of 1857, where he taught school and studied law with C. C. Cole who was afterward Supreme Court justice. G. F. Kilburn moved to Fontanelle in the fall of 1858, forming a law and land office partnership with S. W. Armstrong. Later the partnership was dissolved and Mr. Kilburn developed a good business in land and tax paying in addition to the law business to which he still clung. He was a partner in the general store of
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Kilburn, Rutt & Company for a year or more and for ten or a dozen years was editor and proprietor with Abram Rutt of the Fontanelle Register, the first paper published in the county. He was county treasurer in 1864-65. He was elected representative to the General Assembly in 1867 and served in the Twelfth General Assembly. He was also for several years a trustee of the state agricultural college. In 1875 his wife, Jennie A. Mather, was the victim of a fearful acci- dent. being burned to death by a kerosene explosion. The same fall he removed to Creston, where he opened a law office. He was largely interested in the Creston and Northern Railroad, was secretary of the company formed to build it, and was principal agent for securing the right of way. This road was afterward taken over by the Bur- lington people. He died at Creston in 1883, from tuberculosis con- tracted while working for the railroad people.
James Rany came to Fontanelle soon after the War of the Rebel- lion. He had served in an Illinois regiment and rose to the rank of colonel, but was obliged to resign before the close of the war on account of ill health. He served two terms as clerk of the court for Adair County. In the campaign of 1872 he joined the democratic party in support of Horace Greeley for president and in company with several others purchased the Fontanelle Register and changed the politics of the paper. He was also democratic candidate for rep- resentative in 1873. He later bought the interests of the other part- ners in the paper and conducted it alone, finally moving it to Stuart and published the sheet there for part of a year. After he had sold the plant he returned to Fontanelle and engaged in shipping stock for some years later going to Marengo where he died.
N. S. Taylor was one of the very early settlers, for some years keeping a stage station on the Des Moines and Council Bluffs route, two miles west of what is now Fontanelle. He moved to Fontanelle after its location and lived there many years. He and his wife cele- brated their golden anniversary in 1889 and a few years afterward he moved to Casey to live with his daughter, where he died. J. M. Joseph came to Fontanelle from Ohio about 1866 and was deputy treasurer under T. M. Moore, and afterwards engaged in the land business and as county surveyor. He moved to Creston and pur- chased a large farm near there which he conducted for some years. He was the populist candidate for governor in 1893. He served one or more terms as clerk of the courts in Union County and later moved to Colorado.
STREET SCENE, FONTANELLE
SOUTH SIDE SQUARE, FONTANELLE
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John H. Bailey was an early settler in Fontanelle, in law part- nership with W. B. Hall who was clerk of the court in 1867. Mr. Bai- ley was a strong democratic politician and was elected county auditor in 1871. He was the principal in a famous lawsuit in which the county sought to recover moneys which it is claimed he had failed to account for. The trial lasted nearly three weeks and resulted in only a small judgment against Bailey. After the removal of the county seat from Fontanelle he emigrated to Kansas, where he became a judge before he died.
One of the most prominent early settlers of Fontanelle was Henry Grass, an attorney, who came there in 1867 from Illinois. He was a fluent speaker and strong political worker for the republican party. He was very much interested in horticulture and town improvement and served several terms as mayor. He moved to Texas where he is still living at a ripe old age, and still active in public duties.
Wesley Taylor served in a Pennsylvania regiment during the Rebellion and came to Adair County at the expiration of his term of service. He was county superintendent one term and recorder three terms, was engaged in business several times at Fontanelle and had a farm at the edge of town on which he lived. He was part owner of the Farmers Bank, a private institution which unfortunately failed in 1890, a serious blow to the interests of Fontanelle. Mr. Taylor emigrated to Oklahoma and was in the first run for locations when that territory was opened for settlement. He secured lots in the new plat of Perry, where he built a home and became quite prominent. He met sudden death while on public duty in that state.
William B. Martin was a native of Vermont, was there reared and educated, and followed teaching and farming until the spring of 1867. when he went to Henry County, Ill. In April, 1869, he came to Adair County, and located on section 5, Jefferson Town- ship. and there farmed and taught school until his election to the office of county auditor in 1874, wherein he served two terms. He was clerk of Jefferson Township for several years and was for a number of years a member of the city council of Greenfield. Mr. Mar- tin was elected to represent Adair County in the Twenty-fifth and Twenty-sixth General Assemblies, and subsequently was secretary of the state of Iowa for three terms. He is president of the Iowa Trust and Savings Bank at Des Moines at the present time.
John A. Storey, attorney, is a native of Pennsylvania, farmed and taught school in his home state, and in 1874 graduated from Washington and Jefferson College, Pa. After leaving school he Vol. I-8
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taught until the summer of 1875, then came to Iowa and located in Greenfield, Adair County, and the next year was admitted to the bar. He was sent to the Legislature in 1883, representing Adair County two terms there. He was also appointed judge to fill a vacancy by Goad Jackson in 1898, serving the balance of the term. He afterward removed to Omaha, Neb., where he continued in the practice of law for some years. He then went to Indianola, Ia., and engaged in the banking business.
Captain Charles Stuart was born in Vermont and in 1867-68 he purchased several large tracts of land in Adair County. He laid out the town which bears his name on the Rock Island Railroad in December, 1867, and contributed much to the early growth of that place. In 1873 he founded the Town of Adair, where for more than ten years he carried on an extensive business. The development of Lincoln Township in Adair County was largely responsible to Cap- tain Stuart.
FIRST THINGS
The first marriage in Summerset Township occurred on June 15, 1857, and was that of Homer Penfield and Martha Campbell.
The first death was that of Justice A., the son of James C. and Phoebe L. Gibbs, who died on September 29, 1860. This was the first person buried in the Fontanelle cemetery.
The first school was taught by Miss Hulda Lee in 1857 in the Town of Fontanelle.
The first sermon was preached in the fall of 1856 by Rev. James Walker at his own house.
The first child born was a son of Daniel M. Valentine and wife, in April, 1856, at Fontanelle.
ORGANIZATION
Summerset Township was organized in the spring of 1856 and the first election was held on the first Monday in April of the same year. This election was held at the house of D. M. Valentine, on the north side of the square, in the Village of Fontanelle. The first officers were as follows: Jacob Eby, Alfred Jones and Joshua E. Chapman, trustees; D. M. Valentine, clerk; J. C. Gibbs and Azariah Root, justices; Abraham Rutt, assessor; Gorton H. Bennett, road supervisor; James S. Ewing and G. N. Bennett, constables. The
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first meeting of the board of trustees was held on March 15, 1857; by many people this record is doubted.
BEGINNING AT FONTANELLE
The story of the birth of the Town of Fontanelle has been related in another part of this history. However, the fundamental facts will bear repeating. The General Assembly of Iowa appointed special commissioners to designate a seat of justice for Adair County and in the spring of 1855 these commissioners met and selected the spot now known as Fontanelle. The county judge, G. M. Holaday, thereupon journeyed to Council Bluffs, to the land office, and entered in the name of the county the southwest quarter of section 17, town- ship 75, range 32. On this the original town, consisting of thirty-one blocks, was laid out and under the name of Summerset was platted and placed upon the records of the county on May 30, 1855, in the name of Adair County. On June 18th of the same year the lots were placed in the market and the sale of them started. The name of Summerset was shortly afterward discarded in favor of Fontanelle, although the first time the town is mentioned by that name on the records is under the date of June, 1857.
The first house was constructed by James C. Gibbs in the summer of 1855. It was built of logs and was for a time used as a hotel. The second house to be built in the village was that of D. M. Valentine, during the same year.
EARLY BUSINESS INTERESTS
The first goods to be sold in Fontanelle were owned by Cal Bal- lard. He opened a general merchandise store in 1856 in a small building built by James K. Valentine, and which was later used as a postoffice. He conducted his business for about a year and then sold out to Abram Rutt, of Casey, who moved the goods from the town.
The second merchant was James C. Gibbs, who purchased the Ballard store and stock and conducted the business during the years 1859 and 1860.
The first hardware store in the town was started in 1871 by F. A. Błystone.
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John S. Sherdeman began the implement business here in 1879.
The pioneer blacksmith in Fontanelle was Charles White, who opened a shop in the east part of the town. The second was Alfred Jones.
BANKS
The Farmers' Bank of Fontanelle was instituted in the spring of 1879 by James L. and B. Lombard, both gentlemen from Gales- burg, Ill. J. M. Osterlind was their cashier. In 1880 they sold the building to Wesley Taylor, R. E. Ewing and J. C. Gibbs and then removed from this county. The three new proprietors at once started upon the banking business and chose the following officers for the first : James C. Gibbs, president; R. E. Ewing, vice president; Wes- ley Taylor, cashier. In the autumn of 1882 J. C. Gibbs sold his interests in the bank to his partners, who continued it until Septem- ber, 1883, when a new organization was effected by J. H. Hulbert, of Fontanelle, and James Jackson, of Chicago, each purchasing a fourth interest. In 1882 a fine building was erected on lot 1, block 26. This bank failed in March, 1893, with almost a total loss to depositors.
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