USA > Iowa > Benton County > History of Benton County, Iowa. From materials in the public archives, the Iowa Historical society's collection, the newspapers, and data of personal interviews > Part 34
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and has a savings bank (The Farmers) which accommodates both local merchants and the farmers in quite a large adjacent territory. The two clevators at Walford are controlled by the Neola Elevator Company and the Jackson Grain Company .. There are also two hardware and implement houses and a general store.
WATKINS.
Watkins, which is now hardly more than a name, is a station on the Chicago and Northwestern railway midway between Blairs- town and Norway. It was laid out in the fall of 1873, on the northwest quarter of section 26. St. Clair township, and was named in honor of Superintendent Watkins, of that road, who was killed in a railway collision in October of that year. The site of Watkins was formerly the farm of Charles G. Turner and the town plat was filed for record August 16, 1874. For a number of years after its founding. Watkins was quite a grow- ing shipping point for grain. 116,000 bushels being shipped in 1878. Of this amount 41,000 bushels consisted of wheat, and 53,000 bushels of grain were credited to George Danskin alone.
FOUNDERS OF WATKINS.
C. G. Turner and George M. Danskin were among the best known pioneers and founders of the village of Watkins, St. Clair township. Mr. Turner was a Virginian, who moved to Pennsyl- vania when a young man of twenty-two and came to Benton county in 1860. being then in his fifty-second year. During thirty years of his early life he followed the trade of a carpenter, but in 1854 entered a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, and thus familiarized himself with the pursuit in which he made pro- nounced success as a citizen of St. Clair township. When the village of Watkins was laid out, in the fall of 1873. a part of Mr. Turner's farm became its site. Several years before the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad muade Watkins a station, Mr. Turner raised five thousand dollars by subscription to establish the depot there. Ile finally gave the railroad company seven acres of land for the depot and the right-of-way through his property. He also spent a large sun of money to establish the postoffice at Watkins. and was appointed its first postmaster. He founded the first Masonic lodge in this section of the county. held the offices of
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justice of the peace, school director and others, and for many years was esteemed one of the leading citizens of the Southern Slope.
Mr. Danskin built the first dwelling house and the first store in Watkins. He was the first man to establish himself in business there, erected a large warehouse, established a lumber-yard, dealt in grain, and was in every way its leading pioneer business man. In addition to these varied business interests, he was also station agent of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company.
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CHAPTER XXIII.
TOWNSHIP RECORDS.
TWENTY TOWNSHIPS IN 1860 -- A SETTLER OF 1845-BENTON TOWNSHIP, '49-JAMES RICE AND EBENEZER BERRY-SETTLERS OF 1852-GARRIHER INTRODUCES HORSES-BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP PIONEERS-JOHN P. CHINN AND ELIAS DOAN-THE HANNAS OF BIG GROVE-HELPED ORGANIZE THE TOWNSHIP-FOUNDER OF TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS-THE AULD FAMILY, '54-TYPICAL "SEMI- DUGOUT"-SHUTTS, FATHER AND SON --- BRUCE TOWNSHIP PIO- NEERS- SETTLERS OF 1858 -- CANTON TOWNSHIP PIONEER WOMAN -FIRST ELECTION IN TOWNSIHIP-MR. AND MRS. DAVID HITE, 1850 -HOUSELESS FOR FIFTEEN MILES-SHELLSBURG, ONE LOG CABIN -- ERECTED MANY OF THE FIRST BUILDINGS-NOTED HORTICUL- TURIST-MR. AND MRS. WALKER, 1856-LIVED ON FARM FIFTY-SIX YEARS-JOHN RICKART, 1855-CEDAR TOWNSHIP PIONEERS -- FIRST SETTLERS OF EDEN TOWNSHIP-FIRST POSTMASTER-SETTLERS OF 1853-PIONEER FRUIT RAISER-THEY CAME IN 1854-JOHN A. DILLING, 1855 --- OTHER SETTLERS OF THE FIFTIES-ELDORADO'S FIRST SETTLER-EMANUEL BAKER, 1855-THESE CAME IN 1856 -FIRST HOUSE IN FREMONT TOWNSHIP-ADDITIONS IN 185-4 AND 1855 -- ALEXANDER JOHNSON. 1855-PIONEERS OF HARRISON TOWN- SHIP-EARLY SETTLERS OF HOMER TOWNSHIP-FOUNDER OF RE- PUBLICANISM-THOMAS COLLINS, 1857-FIRST CLAIMMI IN IOWA TOWNSHIP-JOHN SCHILD, 1852-EARLY SETTLERS IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP -- JAMES W. ATHEY. 1550-A KANE TOWNSIUP VETERAN -"LONE TREE" FARM -- CONRAD TATGE, 1852-RIESA CONLEY, 1850-POLK TOWNSHIP PIONEERS -- THE BRYSONS AND REMINGTONS -SETTLERS OF THE EARLY FIFTIES-EARLY COMERS TO TAYLOR TOWNSHIP -- A UNION TOWNSHIP PIONEER.
As near as can be ascertained from the imperfect county records, the first townships created in Benton county were Polk, Benton and Canton. At a meeting of the commissioners' court held in April, 1847. Anderson Amos was appointed supervisor of Polk township, which contained Marysville, and David Jewell. of Benton; John Royal and George Cantonwine, supervisors of Can.
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ton township, and Thomas Way, supervisor on a certain road "commencing at the corner of Harrison's field and running to Edward's Ford across the Cedar river."
Prior to 1851 it is evident that Taylor and Harrison town- ships were also created by the board of county commissioners, as their names are used in various official documents although there is no formal record by which it may be known exactly when they came into civil being.
The order for the organization of Cue township is dated January 1, 1855, and signed by Judge John S. Forsyth, the county judge having assumed, according to the state law of 1851, all the functions formerly enjoyed by the commissioners' court.
TWENTY TOWNSHIPS IN 1860.
The creation of Cue township, in 1855, divided the county into ten townships, and by 1860 the number had been increased (as now) to twenty. Cue township was changed to Florence in 1862.
Jackson, Eden, Bruce. Big Grove and LeRoy townships were all organized in 1856.
Other details connected with the townships of the county will be found both in the pioneer and political chapters of this work. The special purpose of this article is to present numerous strong characters who have been chiefly identified with the early settlement, development and civil government of the county, out- side of its larger centers of population. Some are deceased; some are still living on the old homesteads which they founded years ago and which are so dear to them and their children's children ; and still others have retired to villages and cities in the neighbor- hood of their old-time labors and successes. The sketches of these worthy and interesting builders of the county are arranged accord- ing to townships, and generally in alphabetical order.
A SETTLER OF 1815.
It will be remembered that Benton City was one of the very first towns in the county to be platted (1856), and also that it now exists but in name. Some of the earliest settlers in the county located in Benton township, at or near the city by that name. Among these was Beal Dorsey. a Kentucky farmer and stock-
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raiser, who took land in section 31 during the fall of 1845. He proved his worth both as a farmer and a politician. In the late seventies he was the owner of a three hundred-and-fifty acre farm valued at ten thousand dollars which, in those days, would have fixed a man's standing among the prosperous. not to say wealthy farmers.
When Mr. Dorsey came to Bentown township in 1845, there was not a house at Vinton; in fact, the site of that city was not surveyed until the following year. At that time there were also but four families in the neighborhood where he settled-a young man of twenty-two, possessed of about one hundred dollars in cash, a team of horses, an old dray, one plow, two cows and five hogs. Mr. Dorsey was, of course, at the first election in Benton township, held at John Pougue's cabin, as in order to hold an election of any kind it seemed absolutely necessary for every ambitious voter to be present; otherwise the offices to be filled might exceed the voting strength of the county.
JOHN PARKER, BENTON TOWNSHIP, '49.
John Parker, an Irish farmer who settled on section 36, · Benton township, in the fall of 1849, became a large land owner in this part of Benton county, and was for many years president of the Farmer's Exchange Bank of Shellsburg. When he first came thither Mr. Parker worked for a man by the name of Thomas P. Johnson, for twelve dollars a month. He returned to his home in Ohio in the spring of 1851, but after a year located permanently in Benton township, took up land and became the owner of various tracts which aggregated over six hundred acres.
It is said that when Mr. Parker first came to Bonton township he could have purchased Parker's Grove, six hundred acres, for seven hundred dollars. In the late seventies, some of the timber- land in that locality, which was then considered the least valu- able, sold for fifty dollars an acre. Mr. Parker was not only very successful as a man of the world, but did much for the cause of religion, especially for the advancement of his church, the Presby- terian. It was largely through him that Rev. Dr. Wood from Iowa City was induced to come to Vinton to preach, in the old court house, the first sermon ever delivered at the county seat.
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JAMES RICE AND EBENEZER BERRY.
Other 1849 pioneers of Benton township, worthy of mention, are James Rice and Ebenezer Berry, who both located their home- steads on section 12. Mr. Riee, although a Virginian, hailed from Tennessee, having lived in that state fourteen years previous to his location in the township, April 18, 1849. He bought a claim from Jesse Brody. One of his great hardships, in common with those endured by all of the early farmers, was the fact that the markets for his farming produce were so distant. Mr. Rice carted his first crop of wheat to Muscatine, Iowa, where he sold it for fifty-seven cents a bushel. These journeys were so long and tedious that those who lived anywhere near each other would often arrange to take them in company. At one time Mr. Rice and his com- panions, F. Bryson and A. Johnson, were absent from home for two weeks. That Mr. Rice was highly thought of is evident by the fact that he was honored with not a few political offices. In 1851 he was elected county commissioner; represented his town in the board of supervisors for eight years; held the office of justice of the peace for twenty years, and served in other local offiees. He was married three times and two of his sons were killed in the Civil war, namely, Nathan Rice, captain of Company C, Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, who was fatally shot at the battle of Pea Ridge. and Fielding Rice, of Company A, Twenty- eighth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, who was killed at the battle of Cedar Creek.
Ebenezer Berry, who became a resident of Benton township in October, 1849, lived in the state of Vermont thirty-nine years before he came to Iowa to locate on section 12, even a poorer man than his neighbor, Jame Rice. That he must have been very poor is plain, for the first wagon he ever possessed he made himself. it being a rude ox cart in which iron was not used in any form. After he had made this rnde conveyance, he was obliged to sell his wheat at fifty cents a bushel and his dressed pork at two cents a pound, and spent two or three days in going to the mill to have his grain ground. But in spite of this, and numerous other draw- backs. he prospered.
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SETTLERS OF 1852.
The settlers of Benton township who came in 1852 included Daniel Elson, who located on seetion 36; John C. Dine. whose
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farmi was in section 12, and J. H. Stephens, who took up land for a homestead in section 31. All of these prospered and became local office holders and highly respected citizens. Mr. Dine served for eighteen months as a private in Company A, Twenty-eighth lowa Volunteer Infantry, and was severely wounded at the battle of Port Gibson. One of Mr. Stephen's brothers, who saw service. in this regiment in the southwest and during the Wilderness campaign in Virginia, received a shot through the hip which caused his death.
GARRIHER INTRODUCES HORSES.
Joseph Garriher, a young Pennsylvania farmer who located on section 31. Benton township, in 1853, when twenty years of age, brought into Benton county twenty-seven head of horses, the first ever introduced here for the purpose of being fed and raised. During his many years of residence in that part of the county. Mr. Garriher made a specialty of raising horses and dealing in them, being considered the pioneer stock man in that line. The second year of his residence in Benton township he also went to Missouri and brought with him the first steers which were ever fed here.
BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP PIONEERS.
Big Grove township, known by the surveyors as town 84. range 11 west, was organized in 1856 by order of the county court. Its first trustees were Elias Doan. John Ruffcorn and George Bergen ; and James Shultz and H. S. Bailey were the first justiees of the peace. James F. and Robert Young were the first settlers of the township, locating in 1849. They afterward moved to Vinton, and their sketches appear in connection with the history of the county seat.
INDIANS AS SCAPEGOATS.
Previous to 1849 various squatters had temporarily stationed themselves in the township, and one Adams had built a log cabin on section 10, which horse-thieves and their co-workers who were foraging westward, found a convenient station.
Mr. Doan. one of the first trustees, settled in 1850, as did
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Dennis Kennedy and John P. Chinn. Mr. Kennedy settled on the east part of section 4, and when he located there were about forty Indians in the vicinity. His dusky neighbors were accused of committing some depredations on the scattered settlers, but Mr. Kennedy always insisted that the thieving was generally done by "white scalawagy, who wanted to shield themselves by laying it off on to the Indians."
In 1854 the settlers moved the old log cabin of Adams, which had harbored so many "scalawags." to another part of section 10, and fitted it up for a school house. in which Miss Margaret Connolly (afterwards Mrs. Jonas Wood, of Traer) taught the first class in the township during the summer of that year (1854).
The first sermon was preached in the house of J. F. Young by Rev. William Jones, a Presbyterian clergyman. in 1850.
JOHN P. CHINN AND ELIAS DOAN.
As stated, among the settlers in Big Grove township of 1850 were John P. Chinn, who located on section 11, on June 19th, and Elias Doan, also a farmer and stock-raiser. who established his homestead on section 12. These two were long the oldest living settlers in the township. When Mr. Doan arrived on the 24th of June, he came direct from his native county of Washington. Indiana. He made the journey by team and was three weeks on the trip. At that time Taylor township extended to the Iowa river, and he was instrumental in dividing it and helping to organize the town of Big Grove. One of the stories which Mr. Doan told illustrating the thin settlement of the country in 1850 was that in making his trip to Cedar Rapids for family provisions he was able to make the journey without striking a fence. Both Mr. Chinn and Mr. Doan, although poor men when they came to Big Grove township, became large landowners and prosperous in every way.
THE HANNAS OF BIG GROVE.
Alexander HI. Hanna, an Ohio farmer. entered land in Big Grove township during September. 1850, at one dollar and a quarter per acre. but did not bring his family to occupy it until March, 1857. For about twenty years previous to his death in 1903. he had passed a retired life at. Vinton, but died at the home
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of his son, John W., on the old homestead in Big Grove township. Another son, William HI. Hanna, also a farmer, has served in the State legislature.
HELPED ORGANIZE THE TOWNSHIP.
1. W. Bowen may be mentioned as one of the earliest pioneers of Big Grove township, as be settled in section 14 during the fall of 1852. Although a Virginian, he was brought by his parents to Columbus, Ohio, when he was but four years of age, and lived in that city until 1828, moving then to a farm near Indianapolis, Indiana, upon which he resided until he came to Benton county. lle was one of the voters at the first election held in Big Grove township, and took part in its organization. At that time there were not to exceed five buildings on the present site of Vinton.
FOUNDER OF TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.
None of the pioneers of Big Grove township devoted them- selves more faithfully or effectively to the building up of its schools and churches than A. V. Vannice, who came to this section of the county in 1853, and commenced life as a farmer and stock- raiser. He was a Kentuckian who migrated to Jowa from Indiana. Hle was a voter at the first township election and helped to organize the first school district, being secretary of the board which levied and collected the first township taxes. Mr. Vannice donated the land for the first school house which was built in district number 1. and also gave several traets of land for the Presbyterian cemetery, church and parsonage.
THE AULD FAMILY, '54.
In 1854 Mr. and Mrs. John Auld, with their son. George W .. and other members of the family, traveled from Pennsylvania to Washington county, lowa, and in 1856 settled on the west quarter of the land which is still the property of the heirs of George W. Auld. Arthur J. Auld, who was born on the farm in Big Grove township, is part owner of the old homestead, and prominent among the younger generation of citizens.
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TYPICAL "SEMI-DUGOUT."
George L. Palmer, a son of York state, where he was well educated and taught school. has been a farmer in Big Grove town- ship since 1855. In the fall of that year he brought his wife to their new cabin home. which he deveribes as a "semi-dugout ; four feet of which was underground; three logs high on the ends
GEORGE L. PALMER'S "SEMI-DUGOUT."
and back side and boarded in front; with a shed roof, ten by fourteen feet. It was one of the first homes on the prairie, boarded up inside, and floored." Mr. Palmer's house is so typical of pioneer life that it is substantially reproduced as an illustration.
SHOTTS, FATHER AND SON.
Peter Shutts, who died in 1905, at the home of his daughter. Mrs. LaRne, in Big Grove township, at the age of ninety-three, came to that section of Benton county from his home in New York during the year 1858. His son. Lonis E., has lived in the town- ship since he was a boy of ten. being an old soldier and a successful farmer. as was his father before him.
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BRUCE TOWNSHIP PIONEERS.
A number of well known and prominent citizens settled in Bruce township in the early fifties. George Buchan came in 1854 and settled on section 10, where he engaged in farming for many years. He was a typical Scotchman.
In 1855 came William Boyd, who settled on section 32, and C. B. Hayward, whose quarter-section farm was located on ser- tion 19. Mr. Boyd was long admitted to be the oldest settler in his neighborhood. Mr. Hayward not only conducted his farm with profit. but became quite prominent in the public affairs of Bruce township. He was highly respected by all his neighbors and associates, especially as he had become quite broken in health on account of his faithful service in the Civil war.
Another old soldier and farmer was A. C. Somers, who in 1856. came to Bruce township and settled on section 11.
FIRST SUPERVISOR OF TOWNSHIP.
George Treanor was a large land owner in section 20, who came from New York state to Bruce township in June. 1857. He was the first county supervisor to be elected from the township and held mmmmerous other public offices.
SETTLERS OF 185S.
When M. B. Van Deusen located in Bruce township. moving hence from Medina county. Ohio, in 1858, he was twenty-two years of age. Tle was a young man entirely dependent upon his own. resources for advancement, and the first year of his residence in Benton county worked for other farmers at twelve dollars a month. Within the succeeding fifteen years he applied himself with such success in all matters which came to him that he became owner of between four and five hundred acres of valuable land. and also attained standing as a publie official, holding such offfees as justice of the peace, sheriff and school director for many years.
Another settler of 1858. who located on section 11, and who had much the same record as Mr. Van Deusen, was James W. Van Dnyn.
Moses W. Rice also located in Bruce township. on section 15. in the same year (1858). He served for three years in the Thir-
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
teenth Iowa Volunteer Infantry. and afterward held many town- ship offices, becoming. like Messrs. Van Deusen and Van Duyn, a large and prosperous farmer and land-owner.
CANTON TOWNSHIP PIONEER WOMAN.
Mrs. Mary Kenyon, who, with her husband, came to Benton county in 1840. was one of the very first women to brave the hardships and dangers of this section of lowa. She was born in Bucks county. Pennsylvania, May 3, 1808, and when she reached the vicinity of Shellsburg was engaged by Joseph Strawn to keep house for him in the log cabin which he had just erected. For months after her arrival Mrs. Kenyon lived in this wilderness without seeing a face of a white woman ; but the "red faces" often came to her shanty and sat down at the table with the family. consisting of Mr. Strawn. herself and husband. Mr. Penrose. (Mrs. Kenyon's first husband) went to California in 1848. and died on the roast in 1850. Afterward the widow married a Mr. Kenyon. William Penrose, a son by the first marriage, was the first male child born this side of Cedar Rapids. He enlisted in the Eighth Iowa Infantry and was killed at the battle of Shiloh.
Mrs. Kenyon's fund of anvedotes was large, and the old set- tlers thoroughly enjoyed her stories of the first days she spent in the wilderness of Canton township. When Mr. and Mrs. Penrose first came to the country they were very poor, their chief wealth consisting of one cow. Otherwise their source of sustenance for the winter consisted of a small quantity of buckwheat. which was ground in a coffee mill. At one time the family were in such straits that Mr. Penrose was obliged to pawn nearly all of his clothing to get provisions, and even after making this sacrifice was obliged to go to the Mississippi river for his supplies.
SUSPICIOUS INDIAAN ACTIONS.
It is related that one night a party of eight Indians entered the log hut and were allowed to sleep on the floor. As the night progressed one after the other would leave the room for out-of- doors, which caused Mr. and Mrs. Penrose much anxiety, as they feared some trouble and possibly a massacre. Investigation proved that nothing more serious was comtemplated by the Vol. 1 .- 26
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savages than recourse to a jug of whisky which stood outside of the door, and which they wished to have all to themselves.
FIRST ELECTION IN TOWNSHIP.
Of the real pioneers connected with the history of Benton county mention must here be made of William K. White, who migrated from Carroll county. Ohio, in the fall of 1849, and settled on section 10, not far from Shellsburg. There he entered two hundred arres of land, which he transformed into a good homestead. When Mr. White attended his first election there were only three voting precinets in Benton county, that in which Canton township was located polling only nine votes.
MIR. AND MRS. DAVID HITE, 1850.
In 1850 Mr. and Mrs. David Hite, the parents of John W. Ilite. the Benton county auctioneer, traveled overland from Pennsyl- vania to the frontier state of Iowa, and when they reached their destination found only three houses on the present site of Vinton. Settling on a farm seven miles southeast of the county seat (on what is now known as the Fry place) they prospered and also became acknowledged as among the stanchest friends of the United Brethern church in the pioneer period of its struggles for re- cognition in the county. David Hite died in 1868 and his widow in 1894.
HOUSELESS FOR FIFTEEN MILES.
In November. 1852. James L. Selleck located on section 36. and was the first settler in the southeast corner of Canton township. He came from New York city as a young man of twenty-four years. and during the succeeding quarter of a century increased his possessions from nothing to property valued at twenty thousand dollars. He often said that when he first came to this part of the county he could ride fifteen miles, west and south. without seeing even a log house.
SIIELLSBURG, ONE LOG CABIN.
When Nelson B. Case took up land in section 9, Canton town- ship, not far from Shellsburg, there were only two log cabins within
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sight of his homestead. one of which represented the future village. Within four years of the time he located bere, however, many settlers arrived and nearly all the government land was taken up. Mr. Case was a Pennsylvanian, born in Washington county. and although he came to Benton county in 1850. he remained but a short time during that year, and did not consider himself a per- manent resident until his return in 1854. Like all early settlers of character and ability. he was given his full share of local offices.
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