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 35
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ERECTED MANY OF THE FIRST BUILDINGS.
William Fry. of Canton township. has been a resident of Benton county since the spring of 1850. when. as a youth of seven- teen, he formed one of a large party which migrated from Penn- sylvania to this part of Iowa. Mr. Fry and his uncle, Joseph Onstott, first settled on a farm just west of Shellsburg, and in 1854 located on section 6. Canton township. He has lived in that locality most of the time since. the exception being the several years of his residence at Vinton. Several years ago Mr. Fry divid -. ed his fann among his sons and retired to pass the remaining years allotted to him on the old homestead.
In years gone by Mr. Fry has been engaged both in farming and carpenter work. in the latter being associated with John A. Dilling. When he first settled near Shellsburg there was but one house on the town site, and only two cabins between there and Vinton : so that he has had the honor of erecting not a few of the first residences and stores in the eastern part of the county.
NOTED HORTICIUTURIST.
Professor Joseph L. Budd. who came to Canton township from New York in 1856. was a skilled and scientific nurseryman and horticulturist, who attracted such widespread attention that in the carly seventies he was appointed to the chair of horticulture of the lowa Agricultural College. He served thus for twenty-two years, dying at Phoenix, Arizona. December 22. 1905, at the age of seventy. The last years of his life were spent mostly in travel. on account of ill health.
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
MR. AND MRS. WALKER, 1856.
Mr. and Mrs. C. N. Walker migrated from Chautauqua county. New York. to Canton township, section 36, in 1856. The homestead was afterward removed to another portion of the town- ship, where the widow resides. The grandsons operate altogether more than 1,200 acres of the estate left by C. N. Walker to his only child, Fred.
LIVED ON FARM FIFTY-SIX YEARS.
Nelson B. Case, retired farmer. still resides on his quarter- section farm in Canton township. having lived thereon continuously since 1854. He secured his homestead by purchasing a land war- rant of a Mexican war soldier for $125. Soon after his marriage he located in Canton township and commenced housekeeping in a one-room log house which he built after his arrival in the wilder- Dess. There their children were born. with the exception of one. A son and a grandson now operate portions of the original home- stead. Mr. Case's wife died in 1872.
JOHN RICHART, 1855.
John Richart. an aged. retired farmer of Benton township, came to that section of the county with his parents in 1855. being then twenty-two years of age. He returned to Ohio in 1858 and remained there ten years but has been a permanent resident of Benton township since 1868. He has two sons who live on the homestead and one who is a resident of Shellsburg.
CEDAR TOWNSHIP PIONEERS.
Hugh St. Clair was a Pennsylvania farmer who came to Cedar township in 1857 and his son Archibald, who was then nine years of age, operates the elevator at Mt. Auburn. With his brother. Hugh, the latter has been successfully dealing in lumber and grain since the carly eighties. John M. and William M. St. Clair. other brothers. have also been similarly engaged. In fact, no family has been more prominent in the business interests of Mt. Anburn than the St. Clair Brothers.
Since. the late fifties the Lormors have been large land owners
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and prosperons citizens of Cedar township, the family being established in that section of Benton county by John W., the father of Frank. The older man a New Yorker, purchased a quarter section of his brother in 1859, brought his family from Illinois, and later occupied his land as a homestead. At his death in 1907 he owned 1,750 acres of land, and his son Frank, who was an infant less than two years of age when the family settled in Benton county, has prospered like his father.
FIRST SETTLER OF EDEN TOWNSHIP.
V. Bogle, the first settler of Eden township, also helped to organize the town, and, in view of his position as first pioneer, had the honor of christening it. He was a Virginian who came, with other members of the family, to Washington county, Indiana, when he was eight years of age. Ai eighteen he moved to Cedar county. Iowa, and in the spring of 1852, when in his twenty-sixth year, located in section 1, of Eden township. For about a year he was the only resident in that section of the county, there being at that time not a single house between his hut and the village of Blairstown.
MILLER, MONEY AND FLOUR-ALL GONE.
As an illustration of the business and family trials of the pioneer days, Mr. Bogle relates that when he first settled in Eden township he was obliged to haul his wheat to Jowa City, where he received the market price for it. from thirty to forty cents a bushel. Upon one occasion. having hauled his load to this place. he found that he could not dispose of it at any price, and left. it with a miller to be ground into floor. He then returned home, telling the miller that he would call again for his money; but the next time he went to Iowa City he could find neither miller, money nor flour.
FIRST POSTMASTER.
J. B. Sanders, a farmer and stock-raiser who located on see- tion 11. Eden township during 1852, was the first postmaster to be appointed in the township. At that time there were only three houses in Vinton. Mr. Sanders eventually moved from his farm
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
to the village of Vinton. in order to give his children a better education than could be obtained in the district schools. His widow is now a resident of Vinton and his son, John B., who was born in the township. is a prosperous stock-farmer in that section of the county.
SETTLERS OF 1853.
Peter Kuhn accompanied the Boggs family to Eden township from the state of Ohio, in 1853. Ile afterward married and his son, Henry Kuhn, who is a substantial farmer, stock-raiser and citizen of Eden township, was born in Benton township. It is claimed that Peter Kuhn built the third honse in Eden township.
PIONEER FRUIT RAISER.
1. N. Chenoweth came to Benton county from Indiana in the fall of 1853 and located on section 2. He was one of the first and most successful fruit raisers of the county and eventually had a beautiful orchard of twenty-five hundred trees. He attended the first election held in Eden township. at the log honse of J. M. Iuman, and during the many years of his residence in this part of the county held such responsible offices as supervisor and county treasurer.
THEY CAME IN 1854.
One of the first dozen settlers to come to Eden township was W. O. Ellsworth. a New York farmer and stock-raiser, who migrated thither from Stevens county. Illinois. The year of his location in section 13 was 1854.
Robert N. Downs and Nathan Downs. brothers, came from Delaware in the fall of 1854. Nathan was drowned in the Cedar river. near Vinton. in the early sixties. Robert N. became a large land owner and a prosperous farmer in Eden township. HIc be- rame the father of eight children, two sons and one daughter. all married. being well-to-do residents of the township.
JOHN A. DILLING. 1855.
John A. Dilling. a retired farmer of Eden township, who
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came to Benton county with his brother Henry, has lived on the farm which he now occupies since shortly after his marriage in 1855. Both he and his wife are among the oldest members of the United Brethern church in the county.
OTHER SETTLERS OF THE FIFTIES.
James F. Crawford, a settler of March, 1856, was one of the first half a dozen to make their homes in Eden township. Ile came direct from his native place, Elkhart, Indiana, when he was twenty- two years of age, and in 1851 his father entered the land in sec- tion 12, where he and his brother long resided. Mr. Crawford was at the first election in the township, cast his first vote for John C. Fremont, and afterward held all the offices of the township, besides serving for many years as a director of the Eden Fire Insurance Company of Benton county.
Frederick Lowe located in Eden township in 1857, and farmed there until his death in 1905. His widow is still living and his son, Frank Lowe, carries ou the old farm.
David Beller was another old settler of the county who lived on a farm in Eden township from 1857 to 1899, spending the suc- ceeding seven years of his life as a resident of Vinton. ITis six sons were all born in Benton county and four survive as substantial citizens of the west, M. B. Beller owning and operating a part of the old homestead.
ELDORADO'S FIRST SETTLER.
The first settler in Eldorado township is said to have been David Calkins, who, in 1854, located on section 2. Mr. Calkins was also a blacksmith and a skillful mechanic in general, who had passed the years of his boyhood and early manhood in Michigan. In 1852 he left that state to cross the plains to California, and for about fifteen months before returning east and settling in Iowa engaged in blacksmithing, sawmilling and mining. After locating in Eldorado township, he farmed, followed his trade and held various township offices.
EMANUEL BAKER, 1855.
Emanuel Baker was also among the first settlers of Eldorado
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
township, locating on section 32 in 1855. He was a Pennsylvanian who had lived one year in Illinois before moving to Iowa, and al- though he was by trade a carpenter and builder abandoned that avocation when he came west. in favor of the more profitable call- ing of agriculture.
THESE CAME IN 1856.
In 1856 A. Gibbins, a harnessmaker by trade, moved from Ohio to seetion 1, Eldorado township, where he was a successful farmer for many years. In 1856 also came Samuel and John H. MeGranahan, father and son, and both natives of county Derry. Ireland. They settled on section 14, serving both township and county in various political capacities. The MeGranahan family supported the Presbyterian church with all the ardor of the typi- cal Scotch-Irish, and the first sermon that was preached in Eldorado township was delivered in the barn of the elder Mr. MeGranahan. by the Rev. John Beatty.
Eldorado township also numbered among her settlers of 1856. Mr. and Mrs. William Thompson, who drove through from Rich- land county. Ohio. to Benton county, Iowa. and located an eighty- acre farm of raw prairie land in section 30. He was industrious. but generous. and died in prosperity and honor, passing away in 1902 and surviving his wife more than thirty-six years. His two sons. John and E. S .. are well known farmers of the township.
FIRST HOUSE IN FREMONT TOWNSHIP.
William A. Stewart is credited with building the first house in Fremont township. His location in that section of the county dated from the early part of 1854. He helped to organize both the townships of Florence and Fremont. Mr. Stewart's homestead comprised, about four hundred acres of land in section 28.
ADDITIONS IN 1854 AND 1855.
The years 1854 and 1855 brought to Fremont township quite an influx of new settlers. In 1854 George Fawcett located seven hundred and sixty aeres of land in section 5. At that time only three families resided in the township. In 1854 David Johnson established his homestead of four hundred acres in section 14,
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
and James M. Jones came in the fall of 1855 to the same section. Mr. Johnson's farm was noted throughout the county as being a bountifully watered piece of land, and suggestions were often made that it could be made into a fine tront farm.
Charles Conley, an English iron worker. came to Oneida county, New York. in 1852. and two years thereafter located with his family on a small farm in Florence township. His son, Andrew Conley, now seventy-two years of age, is a leading farmer of the same township.
John A. Houghton, who died on his homestead in Florence township. January 31. 1904, in his seventy-second year, had lived in that locality since 1854. He was an intelligent and a good man. His widow survives him, and three of his children are living in Benton county and honoring their parents.
In the spring of 1855 Joseph Humphrey sold his property in Pennsylvania and invested some of the proceeds in 246 acres of land in Florence township. He fought his way to comfort and an honorable standing. and died in 189]. The widow, to whom equal honor is also due, survived him until 1900. Their son. Hugh Humphrey, has farmed continuously in Florerer township since his honorable discharge from the Union Army, in the fall of 1864. Ilis record as a leading Republican dates from the year after the war, and he has enjoyed long service as county supervisor. justice of the peace and member of the school board.
ALEXANDER JOHNSON. 1855.
Alexander Johnson was a prosperous Irish farmer who passed the first few years of his American life in Ohio, but was still a young man when he located in Fremont township in 1855. From 1866 until his death in 1897 he fermed in Canton township. where he died prosperous and respected. His son, David K., operates a part of the family estate. the widow residing in Shellsburg. Mrs Johnson was a Kirkpatrick. her father David, who died in 1874. being a middle-aged man when he moved from Ohio to Canton township in 1852. Hle had been a business man and a schoo! teacher, and continued to teach after he became a resident of Ben- ton county with twelve hundred acres of land. He also loaned out money ; was an ardent Whig and Republican, and altogether a man who had the faculty of acquiring a fortune. friends and a good name, at the same time. Mrs. Johnson's mother died in 1870.
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
PIONEERS OF HARRISON TOWNSHIP.
In 1831 Alexander Harper moved with his parents from Philadelphia to the state of Indiana. and in 1856, when twenty- eight years of age, moved with his wife to Harrison township. While he was away at the front. in the Civil War, his wife no less bravely cared for the five children. In 1867, after living for a time at Vinton, the fanily occupied the farm, and both parents died upon it-the father in 1893, the mother two years before. Of their children. Alexander P. resides at Vinton; R. S. lives on the old homestead; J. Edward is also a farmer of Harrison town- ship; Charles S .. one of the solid agriculturists of this section, is a director of the Benton County Agricultural Society.
Nehemiah Vanskike attained prominence both as a pioneer farmer and public man of Benton county. He came from Indiana in 1858 and started life in this part of Iowa as the owner of a quarter section in Harrison township. He cultivated and improved his farm until 1884, when he moved to Vinton where he died in 1893. Mr. Vanskike served two terms as county supervisor. held numerous township offices and was one of the best known of the early-time Republicans. His son, Wm. N., who was born on the old farm in Harrison township, has repeated his father's fine record.
EARLY SETTLERS OF HOMER TOWNSHIP.
Homer township, in the western part of the county, was among the sections which were settled at a comparatively late date. In this township the early fifties was considered a pioneer period. H. S. Ilarmon and John II. Kirchner, farmers who settled respec- tively on sections 1 and 23 of that township, were therefore pioneers. The former was among the early Methodists of this section of the county and the latter, a German Lutheran. They both were honored with local office, and stood high in their communities.
FOUNDER OF REPUBLICANISM.
Charles Twogood, a New York farmer who came from Michi- gan to Homer township in 1856, is chiefly remembered for his earnestness as a Republican. He came to this locality in 1856. the
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
year when that party was founded, and worked for its success early and late. representing it in numerous township offices. Al- though he made quite a success of politics, he does not appear to have made great advancement as a farmer. although he was fairly well-to-do. and was the father of a large and respectable family, various members of which have made most creditable records for themselves in the county.
THOMAS COLLINS, 1857.
In the spring of 1857 Thomas Collins, a native of Ireland, twenty-two years of age, who had been employed in various lines of work in the south and west, settled on a forty-acre farm in Homer township. Before his death in 1892 he owned 560 acres and was looked up to as a successful and honest man. Martin J. Collins, his youngest son. is the well known business man and banker of Garrison.
FIRST CLAIM IN IOWA TOWNSHIP.
H. Guinn. long one of the largest land owners in Benton county, whose homestead was on section 34. Iowa township, moved to that locality in 1846, from Greene county, Tennessee. He entered the first claim recorded in Jowa township, and was one of the board of trustees appointed for the purpose of organizing it. At its organization he was elected one of the first board of trustees, which office he held many years; was also county supervisor seven years, and held other township and school offices.
JOHN SCHILD. 1852.
Andrew W. Schild, a well known farmer living in section 16. Iowa township, is the son of John Schild, who. in 1852, when a youth of seventeen. came with his parents to that part of Benton county. Andrew W. is a native of the township.
EARLY SETTLERS IN JACKSON TOWNSHIP.
John Robertson, a Scotchman, came from Kane county. Illi- nois, in the spring of 1854, and located on 240 aeres in section 20, Jackson township. where he died June 1. 1884. Andrew Robertson,
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
the son, who has since owned the old homestead, was a lad of fifteen when he and his father drove overland with ox teams from Illinois to Jowa.
David Tilson located in section 12, Jackson township, in 1855 and died at Vinton, where he had lived retired for many years, in 1900. Ilis son, Everett, owns the old farm upon which he was born in 1858.
JAMES W. ATHEY, 1850.
James W. Athey attained his majority four years after coming to lowa county, state of Iowa, and at that time (1850) purchased a small claim on Walnut creek, near Belle Plaine, but just over the line of Benton county. In November, 1852, he took possession of the 200 acres of land which his father had entered for him in LeRoy township. Hlis nearest neighbors were then at Big Grove. seven miles north. Mr. Athey prospered and in 1904 turned over his large live-stock business to his two sons, John M. and Roy. The father still lives on the old farm which has been his home for nearly sixty years.
A KANE TOWNSHIP VETERAN.
Eleazer W. Stocker was a New Hampshire man of twenty-four when he found himself stranded in the lead mines of western Wisconsin. In the spring of 1849 he started overland for Cali- fornia, and five years afterward packed back to West Point (now Kansas City) and thence to Kane township, Benton county. where in September. 1854, he entered 480 acres of land. He was then thirty, and the dire experiences which he shared with W. S. Suow before he secured a foothold in the new country are narrated in detail elsewhere; and the true story is worth reading and consideer- ing as an illustration of the real heroism demanded of the pioneer who makes. a success of himself and an asset of true value to the community in which he settles. In 1857 (as stated in Mr. Stocker's biography) he was commissioned by Judge Douglas to organize and name the township, and the fact that he was an enthusiast over the achievements of the Arctic explorer accounts for "Kane." Mr. Stocker served four terms on the county board of supervisors and filled many minor offices: is one of the pioneer Masons of the county and, although in his eighty-seventh year. "has it in him"
.
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
to still further extend his long record of activity and usefulness. Ile still owns an estate of 560 acres in Kane and Union townships. and, although he has attempted to retire to Blairstown. finds conn- try life more congenial and intends to pass his last years on the old homestead in Kane township. Mr. Stocker was one of the first to organize Masonic lodges in Belle Plaine, and elsewhere in the township, and was also among those wise pioneers who com- meneed to plant trees at an early date. thus forestalling. by several generations. the founding of "Arbor Day" in Nebraska and other so-called prairie states.
'LONE TREE" FARM.
It is said that when Il. W. Van Dike settled on his farm in section 19. Kane township. that outside of his land there was not a sizable tree in this section of the county. As he himself boasted of this treasure of the early days, his homestead became widely known as the "Lone Tree Farm." This tree, which was quite a curiosity, stood for many years near Mr. Van Dike's residence. As the years passed. however, orchards and groves were planted and flourished. so that he lost standing as the tree monopolist. Mr. Van Dike settled on his "Lone Tree Farm" in 1855. and event- ually became the owner of nearly three hundred and fifty acres of land in that vicinity. He also held many local offices and was one of the first to assist in the organization of the township schools.
CONRAD TATGE, 1852.
Conrad Tatge. German-born. came to America with his young bride in 1852. and three years afterward settled on an eighty-acre farm in LeRoy township. Three decades afterward he retired to Luzerne, comparatively a wealthy man, and died there in 1854. One of his sons. Henry W .. is now a resident of Keystone. while the second. August F. after managing the home farm for fifteen years after his father's death, established himself at Luzerne as an all- round business man and enterprising citizen.
RUESA CONLEY. 1850.
One of the first settlers of Monroe township who located on section 12. in 1850, was Rhesa Conley, a farmer. Pioneers of 1854
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
were Kimble Bates, who located his land in section 14 and was one of those who signed a petition for the organization of the town- ship; and Samuel Miskimin, a farmer of section 15 who came during the same year, serving his county as supervisor for three years and conducting himself as a generally useful citizen of the township.
POLK TOWNSHIP PIONEERS.
Readers of the early history of Benton county remember that the first settlements were made in the northeastern section. many of them in the vicinity of the present village of Urbana, Polk township. Among the settlers of 1840. not already mentioned were Hugh Brody, who located on section 3. coming from Richland county. Ohio. and eventually becoming the owner of some six hundred acres of fine land ; and A. J. Wyckoff, an Illinois farmer and stock-raiser. who established a valuable homestead on section 33. and was one of the early supervisors of the county.
THE BRYSONS AND REMINGTONS.
Both the Bryson and the Remington families were among the first pioneers to come to Benton county. Fielding Bryson entered land in Polk township as early as 184] and later his son. Joseph, came and did likewise. The latter seems to have been rather a land speculator than a patient farmer, and finally died in Kansas in 1905. He had married a daughter of Joseph and Mary Remington, farmers from Indiana who settled near Urbana in 1842. W. G. Bryson. their third son and child. moved to Kansas with his parents in 1873. hnt returned to Harrison township in 1897. and has since lived there.
THE JOHNSON FAMILY.
The Hoosier family of Johnsons was founded in Polk town- ship in the late forties. Alexander taking up land in 1847 and Albert in 1848. They are the grandfather and father of James Johnson, who retired to Vinton in 1904. after he had been engaged in farmims in that part of the county for nearly forty years. The latter is an old soldier, an ex-supervisor and a good citizen.
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IIISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
SETTLERS OF THE EARLY FIFTIES.
In 1850 Elijah Wyckoff, a younger brother of A. J., already mentioned, located his homestead on sertion 4, Polk township. Mr. Wyckoff took a deep interest in school matters and was for some years district treasurer. He also did much to further the cause of the Methodist church in this part of the county.
In 1852 Polk township received among its new comers Abra- ham Brown; who located on section 4. and James Ketterman. who took up land and founded his home in section ?8.
Among the first German Catholic pioneers to settle in Benton county was Ferdinand Smith, a Prussian. horn in 1828. who emigrated to America in 1852. and three years thereafter located on section 14. where he became a well-to-do farmer and to some extent a local office holder.
William J. Long, the well known agriculturist of Harrison township. is the son of Woodson P., a Kentnekian, who brought his family ( William J. was then four years old) to the farm which he located in Polk township in 1855. He finally sold his land and moved to Urbana, where both parents died-Mr. Long in 1907.
Abraham Brown migrated from Indiana to his forty acre farm in Polk township during 1852. his son James, who now operates a farm of 112 acres, being at that time five years of age.
Victor G. Spencer, the well known stock farmer of Polk township. is occupying land which his father. Charles H .. entered in the early fifties. The latter was one of the many who tried California in 1852 and decided it was best to return to the fertile fields of Benton county. He died in 1904 and his wife survived him three years. Victor G. is not only one of the most advanced farmers in Benton county. but one of its most intelligent men -- a good writer, a great reader and an extensive traveler.
EARLY COMERS TO TAYLOR TOWNSHIP'.
Isband Noble entered a quarter section of land in section 4. Taylor township, in 1850, coming for that purpose from Ontario. Canada. He did not settle permanently thereon until 1852, having in the meantime farmed in Minnesota and returned to Canada for a wife. But one settled. he lived in that section until his death in 1900, when he left a large estate, an honored name, and a family whose members have also earned high standing.
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HISTORY OF BENTON COUNTY
The Kearns family located in Taylor township. through Archibald Kearns, the father, in the year 1855. Hiram W. and Perry N., two of his sons by a second marriage, are well known farmers in Benton county -- the former of Taylor township and the latter of Jackson township.
A UNION TOWNSIRP PIONEER.
Michael Kelly was one of those sturdy, industrious Irishmen who contributed so much to the advancement of Benton county in the early years. In 1854, the year after his emigration with his wife and family. he drove his ox teams from Kane county. Illinois. to Union township. Benton county. There Mr. Kelly entered one hundred acres of land. put up a tent in which his wife cooked, sowed sod corn and potatoes. made his wagon into a bedroom, built a log cabin soon, but did not ocenpy a frame house until 1865. In 1894 this hardy couple were able to retire to Van Horne in more than comfortable circumstances. Michael Kelly, their first born. bas proved a worthy son and citizen. his interest and long service in school matters having been especially conspicions.
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