USA > Iowa > Audubon County > History of Audubon county, Iowa; its people, industries, and institutions > Part 10
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Old settlers will recall the heroic figure of the old Doctor, with his black plug hat, mounted on his favorite saddle horse, "Old Tige," as he, in former times, rode about the county. He died at Council Bluffs in 1883.
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Mrs. Ballard survived him, but has been dead many years. Their children were: Byron, unmarried; Virginia, who married George Robinson and is dead; Osceola is dead; Oletippe and another daughter are both dead.
DAVID EDGERTON.
David Edgerton visited Audubon county with Nathaniel Hamlin and others in March, 1851, and settled here in 1852. His first residence was a log cabin on lot 5, in section 3, Exira township. He had the title to the land upon which the town of Exira was laid and was nominal proprietor of the town; but Judge Daniel M. Harris was real owner of the undivided one-half thereof, and conducted the business of laying out and platting the town. Mr. Edgerton owned considerable other lands contiguous to Exira. He reserved all of block 4, Exira, for his home, upon which he erected his dwelling house and the present old barn on the same block. Part of his old dwelling is now embraced in the present residence of Mrs. Sturgeon, which, with the old barn, all on the same block, are owned by Mrs. Stur- geon. Mr. Edgerton sold out in 1867, and he and his family went to Kansas.
REUBEN CARPENTER.
Reuben Carpenter came to Audubon county in 1852 and settled in sec- tion 35, Exira township. He sold out there in 1853 to William H. H. Bowen and moved to section 18, Audubon township. His children were, Elijah, William (who married Martha Johnston), George, John, David, Henry, and several daughters.
THE HEATHS.
Milton Heath, a carpenter and farmer, married Elizabeth Parent. He came from Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1852, and lived first on Doctor Bal- lard's place; then moved a mile west of Ballard bridge, where he built a dwelling, made of poles covered with hay. He went to Shelby county in 1855, and there laid out the now obsolete town of Simoda. He went back to Indiana in 1860, returned to Audubon county in 1869. and lived about Oakfield and other places. He was a Republican. He died in 1897, and his wife died in 1873. Their children were: Hiram, referred to in the following paragraph; Josiah, who married Mary Huntsinger; Wilfred, who married Sarah Eastis; Albert, who married Caroline Goodale, and Arthur, who married Mary
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Hiramı Heath came to Audubon county with his parents. He mar- ried in 1871, Evaline, daughter of Henry and Julia A. (Bolton) Grans- berry. He was a farmer at Exira, and a Republican in politics. His chil- dren were, Henry M., who married Mary B. Kline; Elizabeth J., who mar- ried George B. Martin; Rosall, who married Monroe Higgins; Olga G., who married William Powers, and Winnie I., unmarried.
Mark Heath, a farmer, who married Lucy Driver, came from Fort Wayne, Indiana, in 1852, and settled on the hill south of Oakfield, in section 29. He lived there the remainder of his life and died there. He was a Republican in politics and served as justice of the peace. His children were, Marcellus, who married Emma Brinckley; Lovice, married Chauncey Aldrich; C. Adelbert, married Francina Pottle; Kittie, married Frank Lam- bert.
Amhert Heath, brother of Mark and Milton, came from Indiana in 1857. He was a farmer and well digger. He was a Democrat and served as county judge. He lost his life in a well at the Huyck place in 1868. He married Loly A. Monts and after his death, his widow married David B. Beers. He was the father of the following children: Catherine Lovetta, who married William Gearheart; Rose Ella, married Henry Carpenter ; Lewis Comb, married Ina Smith; Frank Byron, married Ida Merrick; Owen Elmer, married Grace Hawk; Martha Almeda, married Lewis M. Parrott.
William Henry Harrison Bowen married Eliza Watson. In 1853 he, with Walter J. Jardine and John Seifford and families, came here from Jones county, Iowa. Mr. Bowen bought out the claim of Reuben Carpenter and was a farmer. He went to Pikes Peak in 1860 and moved to Colorado in 1862. He returned to Audubon county in 1865, but later, went to Nebraska, where he lived several years and then returned to Cass county, near his old home. He was a Republican, a member of the board of supervisors in 1871-2, and the first assessor of Audubon county. He married for his second wife, Josephine Smith. His son, the late Hugh Bowen, succeeded to the home place many years ago. To William and Eliza Bowen the following children were born: Nancy Jane, who married Hon. William Walker; Rachel Elizabeth, married William B. Stone; John Wesley, married Nancy Cannon; Anna L., died unmarried; Sarah E., mar- ried William Bales; Hugh, married Maggie Selladay; Juliette, married Joseph W. Walker; Emma Caroline, married John Lorah ; James W., died unmarried; Charles E., married Mary Allen. By his second wife, Mr.
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Bowen had four children, Kittie, who married Leonard J. Whitney, Burns, Harry and Edward.
Peoria Irwin Whitted, son of William and Armena (Howard) Whitted, was born in Williamsport, Tennessee, February 29, 1832. He married in Audubon county on February 28, 1860, Louise C., daugh- ter of Levi B. and Fannie (Boyls) Montgomery, and who was born in Hancock county, Illinois. Mr. Whitted accompanied his parents to Vigo county, Indiana; thence to Parke county, Indiana, in 1833; to Vermilion county, Indiana, in 1838; to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1845; to Muscatine and Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1850; to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1851, whence he returned to Iowa City. In 1853 he came to Hamlin's Grove, Iowa. In the spring of 1857 he came to Exira, where he lived the remainder of his life. He was a Democrat, a member of the Christian church and an Odd Fellow. He was elected county surveyor in 1855, and held the office many years; was deputy sheriff in 1869 and assessor for several years. He was a prominent man and is frequently mentioned in this work. He died at Exira on December 29, 1907. His children were as follow: John Clinton, married Hester Coglin; Florence May, married Albert L. Sewell; Minnie Arena, married James D. Barber; Forest Bates, married Mabel Dickay; Elbridge Irving, married Blanche Myers; Carlton Calm, married Mildred Bechfold; Clara Bell, married Nels Johnson.
A NOTED CHARACTER.
J. Lyman Frost, with his son, Carlos, and Peoria I. Whitted, came from Iowa City to Audubon county in 1853. He was an old man, a widower, and lived alone in a shanty made of poles, near his son, Carlos, in the northwest part of section 35, Exira township. He was a contentious man and had a special faculty for stirring up the animals. He was an ardent Republican, a strong Union man, had no use for anyone not strictly up to the highest pitch of party requirements, and he practically demonstrated his opinions on all possible occasions. (See account of him in sketch of Nathaniel Hamlin.) He became postmaster at Hamlin's Grove during war times. He was heartily despised by the Democrats and was not in unison with many of his own party. He was a discordant element at best. One of the patrons of his postoffice was one Martin Shults, whom Frost took occasion publicly to call a "copperhead." Shults was a mild, inoffensive man, religiously inclined, and, although the imputation was not wholly mis- (8)
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applied, from the standpoint of the times, the insult rankled in his bosom. Later, at a public gathering in Oakfield, Shults spied his quarry, removed his coat and handed it to his good old wife, "Aunt Julie," remarking that he had a duty to perform, and then'waded in and proceeded to "tan Frost's dog skin." That exercise performed, he proceeded to ride in haste to Exira in search of a justice to whom he might "plead guilty." But he was pur- sued by the constable, John Crane, and arrested for assault and battery. It was said that Crane was so desirous of gaining popularity that he over- rode and injured a fine horse in making the arrest. And it was also said that his promptness in the matter afterwards cost him an election to office.
Mr. Frost was easily a party leader locally. He held the ear of Gov- ernor Kirkwood, with whom he was personally acquainted at Iowa City, and stood in with the administration at Washington. He made the weather and crop reports, etc .; received his contingent of government documents, seeds, etc., which he conscientiously distributed among the faithful. He was one of the first to raise an apple orchard and other tame fruit in the county. He was prompt and zealous in attending to party affairs and in managing the Republican political machinery in the county, being sometime chairman of the county central committee. But, after a disagreeable fac- tional contest with the Ballards and others in a county convention at Green's school house, in 1868, he soured on party work and never after- wards took an active part in politics. He went to Nebraska with his son, Carlos, about 1884, when very aged.
Carlos E. Frost came here with his father from Iowa City in 1853, and was a farmer. He lived in the northwest quarter of section 35. Exira town- ship. He was a Republican and a popular gentleman. He was clerk at the first county election, April 2, 1855; county treasurer, 1864-5, and during that period lived in Exira, in the Charles Chapin house, which was on the site of the present John Mertis residence, block 16, Exira.
In 1883 he was a merchant in Brayton, where his store was burglarized by the "Crooked Creek Gang." His son, Lew C. Frost, and son-in-law, Dan P. McGill, held the office of county surveyor. He moved to Stuart, Nebraska, about 1884. His children were, Lew C., who married Alice Hartman; Salina; Eva, who married Dan P. McGill; Edward, Eliza and another daughter.
Richard Gault, son of Francis and Deborah (Stewart) Gault, was born in Belfast, Ireland, August 21, 1830, and was married in Audubon county, May 1, 1860, to Mary Leffingwell, daughter of Alvin and Paulina (Leffingwell) Herrick, and who was born in Massachusetts about 1832.
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Mr. Gault came to Philadelphia with his parents, about 1837; thence to Wisconsin in 1851; to Appanoose county, Iowa, in 1853, and to Hamlin's Grove in 1854. He served as clerk for Nathaniel Hamlin, and was clerk of the district court in 1861-2. About 1863 he settled on a farm in section 9, Exira township, where he lived many years and where his wife died. During the last years of his life he resided in Exira. He was a Democrat and Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias. He died in Exira, April 13, 1904. His children, who were born in Audubon county, were: Henry Franklin, who married first, Dora Smith, and second, Melissa Cook; Augusta Collins, married Naomi Campbell; Mildred Ann, married John B. Hash; Charles Richard, who first married Maud Wilcutt, and second, Anna Glasscock: Caroline, married Ernest D. Powell; Anna Belle, married Charles W. Houston ; Mary Leffingwell, married Albert Britner.
THE HERRICKS.
The Herrick lineage is a proud one. It is an old one, extending back to the period when English people bore but a single name, and it was then Eric. But, through various transformations and the prefix of the Cockney "h," it became (H)eyricke, which, in later times, became Herrick. It is traditional that the very ancient family of the Ericks descended from Eric, the Forrester, a great commander, who raised an army to oppose the in- vasion of William the Conqueror into England, 1066, by whom he was vanquished ; but he was afterwards chosen to command some of the forces of that king. In old age he returned to his estate in Leicestershire, where the descendants became free tenants, holding two virgates, the fourth of a hide, or about fifty acres of land, which they held on payment of an annual quit-rent to the king of a pound of pepper. Eyrick, of Great Stretton and of Houghton in Leicester, England, in time of King Henry III, 1216-72, was a lineal descendant of Eric, the Forrester.
Henry Heyricke, or Herrick, was tenth in lineal descent from Eyrick last named. He was born at Beaumont, England, August 6, 1604, and was named by command of Prince Henry, eldest son of King James I. His sponsors were Sir David Murray, Sir John Spellman and Lady Aston. He emigrated to Virginia; thence to Salem, Massachusetts, where he married Editha, daughter of Hugh and Alice Laskin. They were members of the First church in Salem, 1629. He was made a freeman, May 18, 1631. They moved to Bass River, now Beverly, Massachusetts, July 4, 1667, where they joined the church the same year. They were founders of the
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Herrick family in New England. Their descendants are numerous and are well settled over the Northern and Western states.
Alvin Herrick was supposed to have descended from Henry Herrick, of Salem, Massachusetts, 1629, but his ancestry has not been traced. He was the son of Elisha Herrick and was born in Westfield, Massachusetts. He married Pauline Leffingwell. He was a dairyman at Westfield. He moved to Chautauqua, New York, as early as 1844; thence to Buffalo, New York; thence to Beloit, Wisconsin, about 1850. In the spring of 1853 he migrated again, and arrived in Audubon county in June, of that
ALVIN HERRICK
year, accompanied by his son, Urbane, and family. He at once bought out the claim of Ralph Arthur Decker, which had a cabin on it, and in the same year entered the land from the government, it being the east half of the northeast quarter of section 17. now Exira township, and also the south- east quarter of the same section, embracing some first-class farm land and the best timber in the county, which shows that he did not come here empty handed. Part of the present farm of his grandson, Julius E. Herrick, is situated in his original purchase. The remainder of his family came in 1854 and brought with them several hundred sheep, the first brought to Audubon county. "Folly" Herrick, his son, says that it was his job to tend the sheep, and that they were herded along the ridge north of the road, which runs on the north line of section 16. Mr. Herrick sold his farm land
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to his son, Elisha, and about 1856 moved to a place half a mile north, in section 9, where he erected a dwelling, built for him by Howard J. Green and Alfred Eddy, which is still in existence. About 1863 Mr. and Mrs. Herrick separated, and she, with several of the children, Coit, Curtis, Elisha, Judson D., Orra and Lawrence, emigrated to Stockton, California. Herrick sold his home place to another son, Augustus C. Herrick, and son-in-law, Richard Gault, and it was known for many years as the Gault place. About 1865 his son, Judson D., called "Folly," returned from California, and the father and son moved to Bear Grove, Iowa, but soon returned to Audubon county, where he died in December, 1875. He was about five feet and six inches in stature; dark complexion, hair and eyes. His descendants are numerous, being mostly farmers and Democrats, and have been substantial, prosperous citizens; people who attend to their own affairs and let others alone; honest, honorable, kind, social neighbors-good types of old Yankee stock.
Alvin Herrick's children were as follow: Caroline, married Lucius Collins; Edson, married Mrs. Mary A. West, nee Bigelow; Sarah Ann, married John Benedict; Urbane, married Charlotte Spurling and Keziah Smith; Coit, married Helen Bartlett; Emerson, married Mary Seiford; Curtis, married Hannah Holdcroft; Mary, married Richard Gault; Elisha, never married; Augustus C., married Teters; Judson deForest, married Mrs. Louisa Strickland, nee Roeser; Orra, married William Arnett; Lawrence, married Helen Teters.
Edson Herrick married Mrs. Mary A. West, nee Bigelow, who had a son, named C. Dwight West, by her former husband. They came here from Beloit, Wisconsin, bringing with them her son, who still lives here. But, fearing Indian troubles, they returned to Wisconsin, and came back to Audubon county in June, 1856. He was a farmer and a Democrat. He entered the northwest quarter of section 15, Exira township, but settled on an adjoining tract in the northeast corner of section 16, where William Carpenter and other afterwards lived. He next built a residence farther west in the same section, which he sold to G. T. Poage. It contained one of the first plastered rooms in the county. About 1864 he bought the farm first improved by his brother, Urbane Herrick, in sections 8 and 9, Exira township, where his son-in-law, Walter B. Temple, now lives, and where he lived until near the time of his death. He was a medium-sized man, with dark complexion, hair and eyes. His name may justly go down to posterity as a model citizen. He was one who had no enemies. Neither should his particular by-word, "By Jocks," be forgotten. He survived his
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wife, but both have been dead many years. Their children were: Ella Mary, who married Walter B. Temple; Ida F., married Henry B. Houston, and is dead; Lilly Ann, married Elihu Myers; Emma P., married J. Mack Love; Julius Earl, married Jessie Wilcutt; Cora, married, first, Grant Brown and, second, Lloyd Hinkle, and Laura B. died unmarried.
Urbane Herrick married, first, Charlotte Spurling, who died, and he then married Keziah Smith. He was a farmer and a Democrat. He came from Beloit, Wisconsin, with his father in 1853. He entered and settled on the place where Walter B. Temple, Esq., now lives, which he sold to a Doctor Hager, in Illinois, who sold it to Edson Herrick about 1864. He then settled on and improved the farm in section 36 in Hamlin township, where Willie Jenson now lives. Then he moved to lot 12, in section 3, Exira township, and built the present residence in the northeast corner thereof. It embraced the townsite of Exira Heights and the site of the school house at Exira. He was justice of the peace and sheriff. He was a small man, with dark complexion, hair and eyes. He died at Exira many years ago, and his widow is now the wife of Frank Persing, of Exira. The children by his first wife were, Urbane Scott, deceased, who married Clara M. Blackmar; Orra D., married Samuel Beers; Lorinda D., married Hiram Young; Rosa M., married Clark Gray. By his second wife, Mr. Herrick became the father of three children: Robie K., who married first, John Peterman and, second, Michael Flynn; Mary E., married Hans P. Hansen, and Maggie E., married Grant Smith and J. O. Howard.
Judson DeForest Herrick, who was born in Chautauqua, New York, in 1844, came to Audubon county from Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1854. He went to California in 1863; returned to Audubon county in 1865, and moved to Bear Grove, Iowa, and there married Mrs. Louisa Strickland, nee Roeser. He later returned to Audubon county and settled on a farm in section 31, in Greeley township, where he lived many years. He is now retired and lives in the town of Exira. He is a Democrat. Physically, he is a small man, with dark complexion, hair and eyes. His children are : Alvin, who married Sarah Winchell; Lenora, married John Crees; Curtis, married Edna White; Herbert, married Harriet Jenkins, and Essie M., married George Scott.
HON. DANIEL M. HARRIS.
Judge Daniel M. Harris was a gentleman with whom it was a pleasure to have been acquainted. No man in Audubon county, during the period
HON. D. M. HARRIS
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of his residence here, from 1854 to 1862, did more than he, as a citizen and public officer, for the advancement of the community. He was worthy, genial, friendly and a highly-intelligent gentleman. He was born in Day- ton, Ohio, July 21, 182.1. In 1837 he went to Villiamsport, Tennessee, where, in 1841, he married Martha Minerva White. He was a carpenter and merchant in Williamsport, whence he migrated and arrived at Hamlin's Grove on November 8, 1854. He settled in section 36, now Exira town- ship, improved land there and worked at his trade. In 1857 he moved to section 14, now Audubon township, and improved land there.
He was elected county judge in 1855 and held the office until 1862. It was the most important office in the county, its duties embracing many now exercised by the board of supervisors, relative to elections, taxation, roads, and the general county business, besides jurisdiction in probate mat- ters, and concurrent jurisdiction with justices of the peace. Most of the public county records were installed under his direction, and many of the first records were written with his own hand, showing very neat penman- ship, and intelligent, painstaking work, a monument to his memory. He was the first lawyer in the county, and the factotum for all kinds of legal and official business for the people of the county during the period from 1854 to 1861, inclusive, which compares favorably with that conducted at the present time. This is remarkable when it is considered that Iowa was then in its infancy and that the forms and methods of transacting such affairs were not then well settled. Lawyers and officers were then required to make their own forms of documents and legal records, without the aid of the codes, hand books of forms, practice and procedure which are now possessed.
Judge Harris was highly esteemed as a citizen and his friends were co- extensive with his acquaintance. If he had enemies, they were few and were confined to his rivals. His integrity was unquestioned. He was an eminently public-spirited man. In 1855-6 he originated the idea and as- sisted to build the first school house in the county, a log building at Hamlin's Grove, a private enterprise, erected by the donations and labor of the set- tlers. In 1856-7 he and Peoria I. Whitted erected the first public school house in the county, at the cost of two hundred and sixty-five dollars, built by subscription, at Audubon City (Hamlin's Grove).
In 1857 Judge Harris bought from David Edgerton for four hundred dollars, an unrecorded one-half interest in the land upon which the town of Exira was laid out and platted. And while the business was conducted in the name of Mr. Edgerton, Harris was the real promoter and did the busi-
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ness. The first sale of lots was on May 7, 1857, Mr. Harris being the auc- tioneer, and the sale aggregated one thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars. He reserved all of block 8 in the town for his own home lot, and in the same year built for himself the first dwelling in town. This he sold, about 1860, to William P. Hamlin, and then built for himself another dwelling, which stood where the Park hotel is located. Soon afterwards he built another building, about sixteen feet square, on block 8, for a carpenter shop, where Ernest Voss's residence is situated, and which was afterwards used for a postoffice. It was sold to the county, moved upon the public square and used for the county offices until 1874, when it degenerated into a beer saloon. The same year he originated a plan for building the first school house at Exira, and which was erected with less than one hundred dollars in actual cash. The contract price of the building was one thou- sand three hundred dollars. The taxpayers brought to the contractor grain, labor, lumber, etc., for which the county treasurer gave a receipt as for cash, and the contractor receipted to the treasurer for it. And so the house was erected and paid for.
Judge Harris served as postmaster at Exira from 1857 to 1861. He
. was elected representative to the Legislature in 1859 from the twenty- sixth district, composed of the counties of Audubon, Guthrie, Harrison and Shelby, and served in the sessions of the ninth General Assembly. He said : "I supported, as representative, all the war measures of Iowa, and was as good a real Union man as any in Iowa. I was opposed to much of the legislation of the Republican party of that day, believing then, as I do now, that much of it was for the purpose of robbing the people of the South, whom I consider as much entitled to the protection of the United States government as the people of the North." He supported Douglas for President in 1860. It is said that at the beginning of the war, in 1861, he made a strong Union speech at Exira, at which the Democrats, and especially Uncle Natty Hamlin, were offended. John T. Jenkins, of Bray- ton, says, that when he enlisted in 1861, Judge Harris praised his conduct in going to war and said that it was the duty of young men to serve their country in time of its peril. His son, William J. Harris, enlisted in 1862, in Company B, Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and was captured at Altoona in 1864.
The Harris home at Exira was noted for hospitality and was the favorite resort of the elite of Audubon county in early times, being the scene of gayety, festivity and pleasure. The normal condition was that the
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house was full to overflowing, and all comers were always made welcome and happy. The family rarely set down to the table alone at meal time.
Judge Harris moved to Panora, Iowa, in the spring of 1862, and be- came a member of the firm of Harris & Fogg, prominent lawyers there. At the same time he was proprietor and editor of the Guthrie County Ledger, notorious in its opposition to the Republican party and administra- tion. In 1867 he was the Democratic candidate for lieutenant-governor of Iowa. He moved to Missouri Valley in 1868 and there conducted the Missouri Valley Times. Returning to Exira in 1873, he conducted the Audubon County Defender, and later, moved to Atlantic, Iowa, and there established the Cap Sheaf. He again removed to Missouri Valley, about 1876, and continued the publication of the Missouri Valley Times the re- mainder of his life.
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