USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > History of Black Hawk County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 6
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Newell waited until the latter part of March before starting for his home. He went in a canoe as the water in the river was too low for rafting. He sold his original home and completed all plans to move into Black Hawk County for good. He reached his cabin on the Cedar May 19, 1846. During his journey he had several annoying accidents : one of them was where his wagon broke down in Poyner Creek and Clark and Giles, two settlers of Quasqueton, passed by without offering aid to him. Having sold his raft for a good profit, he had enough to begin active farming, which he did, with the result that he raised 500 bushels of corn, 100 of which he sold to the Indians for $1 per bushel.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Newell became fairly successful in his life as a farmer. There were many things which he had to combat, however, not in the least of these being the presence of animals, particularly at nights, when they would prowl around and steal his chickens. Wolves took every chicken in the yard one night, with the exception of one rooster, whom Newell kept inside the cabin thereafter during the sleeping hours. Settlers nearby often visited Newell in his cabin, among them being James Chambers, who came in January. 1847. He was bound north- ward on the river by sled, carrying a load of pork.
In June of 1846 James Virden came to visit his brother, William, and to get an idea of the country. He was so well pleased with the land that he made a claim and broke some prairie on the east side of the Cedar, at Prairie Rapids, on section 23. township So. range 13, just above the original town plat of Waterloo. He did not build a cabin until the fall of that year.
In the same month Charles Mullan and family of wife and two children located on the west side of the river opposite Prairie Rapids and constructed a log cabin on the northwest quarter of section 26. township &. range 13.
Andrew Jackson Taylor and his family settled at Sturgis Falls about the same time. This was perhaps about the first actual settler near the future city. E. G. Young settled at Turkey Foot Forks, near Newell's, in the fall of 1846 and also two families named Williams settled in the locality. During this year Sturgis was still working on his dam, but had not as yet completed it.
Mrs. A. J. Taylor taught the first school in the territory later Black Hawk County. This was at Sturgis Falls in the summer of 1846. The school was com- posed of six scholars. This small number of pupils is understood when we know that in the winter of 1846-7 there were but ten families in Black Hawk County.
No community, however small, is without its thieves. In the case of early settlement in Black Hawk they were in the persons of Berry Way and another young man, from the Lower Cedar. They made a trip through Black Hawk County in 1846 and stopped at Newell's logging camp over night. The next day they went on up the Cedar and spent the night with Big Wave, a Winnebago chief. When they left him and his hospitable camp they took with them two of the chief's horses. A score of the Indian braves pursued the robbers and found them near Cedar Point, at a singing school. The red men were going to administer summary punishment to the two men, but the white settlers interfered and per- suaded them that it would be best to let the law deal with them. The thieves were put in the jail at Marion, but soon after escaped.
Winneshiek, the head chief of the Winnebagoes, accompanied by Big Wave and 250 warriors, paid Newell a visit in December. 1846. They camped during the winter in a timber grove near to Newell's cabin and logging camp. In February, 1847. a band of Pottawatomies, 250 strong, came and also camped on the Cedar. Soon after both bands got together and celebrated with dance and feast. In the spring the Indians broke camp to make sugar, the Winnebagoes going up the Shell Rock and the Pottawatomies coming down Cedar toward Sturgis Rapids. It is recorded, that during the first year of the settlement in 1846, the Sioux tribe made a raid down the Cedar and killed nine Winnebagoes near Newell's Ford, on Turkey Foot Forks. The next year the Winnebagoes retaliated. They surprised a Sioux camp twenty-five miles above, while the war- riors were absent, and ruthlessly murdered twenty-seven squaws and papooses.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
From the lips of some of the old settlers, however, this story is largely dis- credited. The true casualties, according to them, were a Sioux warrior and one boy.
In February, 1847, the Overmans and John T. Barrick came to Sturgis Falls. Sturgis was still trying to build a dam and mill, but his resources were very limited and he finally concluded to sell, and during the next fall did sell, to John M. Overman, D. C. Overman and Barrick, his claim of 280 acres of land, includ- ing the mill site and improvements, for $2,200, Barrick borrowing $500 of James Newell to make part payment for his share of the purchase. The new firm pushed the work with such energy that early in 1848 they had the sawmill, the first in the county, in operation, and in 1850, in a shed addition to the sawmill the company put in one run of stones cut from a granite bowlder in the vicinity. This was the first grist mill in the county and was of great service to the settlers who patronized it for a hundred miles north and west.
In 1847 Moses Bates, from Indiana, located on section 14, township 87, range II, Spring Creek Township, on the banks of Spring Creek. He bore a bad repu- tation back in Indiana and it was thought that he came here for personal safety. He did not improve in the new territory, but associated with bad characters throughout this section. He was connected with several bad transactions and as more settlers came in, men of good character and habits, the country grew too hot for him, so he sold out in 1852 to John Clark.
In 1848 Peyton Culver and John Robinson settled near Bates on the south- west quarter of section 14, and began the construction of a new sawmill on Spring Creek. They never completed it. Power was an uncertain quantity and many other things led to its abandonment, and in a year or two the men moved to Marysville, Benton County.
William Pennell, H. H. Meredith, J. D. Kirkpatrick, George Philpot, Jonathan R. Pratt, Edwin Brown and Samuel Newell were among the few settlers who came in during the years 1848 and 1849. Jonathan R. Pratt was the first county judge of Black Hawk and one of the founders of the Town of Waterloo.
During the summer of 1850 Andrew Mullarky removed from Independence to Sturgis Falls, brought a small stock of merchandise and opened a store. He occupied a small building on the north side of First Street, which served for both store and residence. This was named by the settlers "Black Hawk Store," the first in the county, and like the mill, drew trade from a hundred miles north and west.
FIRST VITAL STATISTICS
The first white child said to have been born in Black Hawk County was Jen- nette, the daughter of William Sturgis. She was born on October 1, 1846. The ยท first white male child was Henry F. Adams, son of E. D. Adams, who was born three days after Jennette Sturgis. The third birth was that of Emily Hanna, on March 7, 1847.
The first wedding was probably that of James Virden and Charlotte Pratt, at the house of Jonathan R. Pratt at Cedar City. The license was obtained from the county judge of Buchanan County on February 25, 1851, and the wedding occurred two days later, George W. Hanna, justice of the peace, officiating. The records of Buchanan County show the following marriages under that jurisdic-
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
tion: David S. Pratt and Jane Sturgis, license issued September 16th, married by Edwin Brown, justice of the peace, September 21, 1851 ; James S. Hampton and Mary Ann Payne, license dated June 22d. married June 27, 1852, by George W. Ilana : Marquis 1 .. Knapp and Mary Streeter, licensed September 3d, mar- ried September 5. 1852, by George W. Hanna ; James Keeler, Jr., and Cornelia Streeter, married September 21, 1852, by James Keeler, justice of the peace; Adam Shigley and Aurelia S. Harwood, license issued June 13, 1853, married June 14th, by Benoni Harris, local preacher.
The first marriage of any resident of Black Hawk County, however, was that of James Newell. His wife died June 2. 1847, and his family, one an infant born May 21. 1847. needed the care of a mother ; accordingly he found Mrs. Howard in Cedar County and married her there on November 7. 1847.
The first death was that of James Monroe Hanna, infant son of George W. and Mary Hanna, on October 18. 1845. The second was that of Mrs. James Newell on June 2. 1847. The third death, so far as the records show, was that of Mary Virden, whose clothes caught fire by accident and she was so badly burned that she died soon after, in 1848.
In connection with these first events it might be mentioned that in 1847 Reverend Collins, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, visited the Black Hawk region and held religious services at the cabin of Mr. Mullan at Prairie Rapids and at other places in the county where there were settlers enough to form a congregation. Reverend Johnson, also a Methodist, preached to the pioneers of the county a little later in the same year.
FIRST BUSINESS ENTERPRISES
As stated in an earlier paragraph, Andrew Mullarky conducted the first store in Black Hawk County. This was in the summer of 1850. Mullarky came from Freeport, Illinois, to Cedar Falls, bringing a small stock of goods with him. He was a native of County Mayo, Ireland, but left there in 1830 when he was but ten years of age. He was known in this county as a splendid business man and was very popular with his customers, of whom he had many. His career was ended by drowning in the mill race December 12, 1863. There is something remarkable in the fact that this was the first retail store opened in the county. when several years before there had been settlements made. The Overmans, Edwin Brown and others, who came in 1847, had dug a mill race and constructed a sawmill in 1848 and which grew to be a popular meeting place for the settlers who came to get their lumber. In 1850 these men added a grist mill, described previously, which was the first in this part of lowa. This made their settlement an even greater drawing card for the pioneers. Yet these men did not perceive the possibilities of a store and it remained for the business man, Mullarky, to take advantage of the opportunity.
HOW SOCIETY HAS CHANGED
Fifty years and more have brought wonderful changes in the social and in- dustrial conditions of Black Hawk County. In the early days when the country was new and settlers were sparse everybody was neighbor within twenty miles
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
of each other and hospitality in those days was of the generous, sincere sort, and acted like a "rock of refuge in a weary land." Given in contrast with today there is a wide gulf between the social amenities of the early '50s and even as late as the '70s. Familiarity is said to breed contempt. People who live close, separated only by a short distance and seeing each other every day or at least two or three times a week do not "go visiting" in the sense that our grandfathers did in the long ago.
Fifty years ago oxen were hitched to the crude sleigh, the box filled with straw, comforters laid on top of the straw, and the whole family would cuddle to escape the cold and by traveling in the slow, plodding way which oxen only could be made to go, neighbors many miles distant would receive a visit from the whole household. It mattered not in those days whether the home was a little hut or whether it was of larger dimensions ; everybody was on equal footing ; class dis- tinctions were not known : but everybody turned in to have a good social time, eating heartily of the frugal meal, which was as free to the visitor or wayfarer as it was to the householder. Sometimes the log cabins contained one, two or three rooms, oftentimes a fewer number, and yet the whole family would be invited to stay all night and would be made as comfortable as possible in beds made on the floor. There were no spare rooms then with their damp and mildewed air or damp bed clothes in whose depths lurked the germs of pneumonia or other kindred diseases. There was no wide gap then between cabin and castle. Today people may live for months in a city and not know who lives in the house on the next lot. Old-fashioned visiting has degenerated into formal calls, where the person must sit prim and utter his English with pursed lips. The old New England type of hospitality which was transplanted by the pioneers to the western prairies grad- ually gave way as the country became more densely settled, to either short after- noon calls or less extended visits among relatives alone.
The ideal condition in More's "Utopia" and Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backward" strangely enough receive their highest exemplification during the pioneer days when all the men were really brothers in the sense of helpfulness and hopefulness. How much the besetment of common dangers had to do to bring about this social cooperation is hard to say. Some people might explain in the ideal social condition on the Black Hawk prairies in the '50s and '6os on the ground that Benjamin Franklin gave when the British lion was lashing his tail and his eyes were emitting fire. The philosopher said, while addressing the patriots who had signed the Declaration of Independence, "Gentlemen, we shall have to hang together or hang separately." However, it is more to the credit of humanity to eliminate these hypotheses in accounting for the social amenities which obtained in the early days. It is more reasonable to explain them on the ground that there had not arisen a diversification of occupations or the innovation of complications and all were prompted by the same motives, were interested by the same things and were striving for the same goal, to-wit: to establish a home for themselves and families in the land which afforded cheap, but fertile acres.
The spirit of cooperation among farmers then was much more marked than it is now. That was partly due to the fact that labor saving machinery and its use were not extensively taken advantage of. Neighbors used to exchange work in harvesting, haying and threshing, and at other times where there were any extensive duties on hand. If one of the settlers happened to become sick so that
HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
he could not care for his crop, his neighbors would get together, appoint a day and arrange a bee whereby they might put in the grain. plow the corn, garner the hay or gather the ripened harvest.
The difference in topographical features of the land then and now is too great almost for the mind to grasp. The prairie then was rank with tall grass untracked and unbroken, and the woods were full of underbrush, the streams teemed with an abundance of fish and all sorts of wild animals disported themselves over the bleak prairies or in the forests along the streams. In those days the haw, black, sweet and altogether delicious, was magnet enough to call boys and girls for miles around. In the autumn when Nature mixed her brightest colors and painted her trees as no earthly artist has been able to do, the luscious and juicy haws beamed down upon the boys from the red and yellow tinted foliage. There were wild cherries, grapes in endless abundance, and the choke cherry which through some strange fascination would lure the children more than the most delicious wild grape and crab apple.
There were no fences then anywhere in the country. The cows had carte blanche to go wherever their natures dictated. In order to locate their presence to the boys who were generally supposed to find them at even tide, a huge bell was usually attached to the leader of the herd, but in spite of this sort of alarm clock, it frequently required several hours to locate the missing kine. There were usually bad boys enough in the neighborhood to tell their younger companions that when the night hawks would swoop down near the earth and utter their mysterious "boom," that they would catch their claws in your hat or cap if you didn't watch out and so the little fellows would go after the cows with their hands clasped over their heads to protect their headgear from the marauders of the sky.
In those good old days before the stirring plow scarred the undulating prairies, gum weeds grew in profusion-great big weeds with yellow heads that nodded in the breeze. From the stalks of this weed would ooze a pitch-like liquid, which, on exposure to the sun and wind, would harden and become white. The boys used to gather this pitch from the weeds, pack it away in tin cans and preserve it for winter, much like their fathers used to lay down pork.
All of the hardships, trials, disappointments and strenuous hours of the pioneer had their prototypes of pleasure, of unalloyed bliss, brought by the picture of the , virgin prairies, of the matchless Indian summer and the rosy sunsets. There was less worry if there was more work, and so we find among the pioneers people who are living into the 'Sos and 'gos who have carried with them all along the way an ample portion of generosity, unselfishness and charity and have kept their minds cheery with happy thoughts of the old times.
COURIER CLIPPINGS
The following are short items from the Courier of January 13, 1864:
Prairie Chickens-Sixty hundred pounds of prairie chickens left the Waterloo express office yesterday for the eastern market.
Extra Bounty-Union Township has given an additional bounty of $1oo to every man who enlisted under the last call. This makes a bounty of $602 to new recruits and $702 to veterans. Bully for Union.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
Completed-The new schoolhouse is so far completed that school opened on Monday last. It is a large and conveniently arranged building and is just the place to teach the "young ideas how to shoot." We are informed that about one hundred and fifty students were present on the first day.
Apologetic-No paper was printed at this office last week, for the very reason that our "institution" was "froze up" completely. We done our "prettiest" to get up a paper, but all our efforts proved fruitless. This office was as cold as a barn all last week, and with eight windows on the north side, a chimney with no draft, and having nothing but green, water-soaked elm wood with which to get up steam, we would like to know how anybody can set type or do anything else in a printing office under such circumstances. We will issue the Courier regularly hereafter-if it "takes a leg."
The Late Cold Weather-By our exchanges we learn that the recent cold snap extended throughout the northern states. In some places many people were frozen to death, some were even found dead in their beds. It was undoubtedly the coldest weather which has ever visited the North as well as some of the southern states. The following table will show the number of degrees below zero on New Year's: Rochester, N. Y., 6; Buffalo, 9; Louisville, Ky., 20; St. Louis, 24; Memphis, 20; Chicago, 30; Cleveland, 10; Cincinnati, 20; Omaha, 25; Milwaukee, 38; Oshkosh, Wis., 38; Madison, Wis., 39; St. Paul, 40; Fort Snell- ing, Minn., 50; Clinton, Iowa, 30; Des Moines, 15; Charles City, Iowa, 30; Tiffin, Ohio, 16; and Waterloo, Iowa, 30 degrees below.
SOME FIRST THINGS IN BLACK HAWK
The first permanent settlement in Black Hawk County was made in March, 1845, by William Sturgis, a farmer from Michigan, and his wife, and a cabinet- maker, Erasmus D. Adams. They settled at the present site of Cedar Falls, Sturgis claiming the north part of the present town and Adams the south part.
The first school was kept at Sturgis Falls, now Cedar Falls, during the summer of 1846. Mrs. A. J. Taylor was the teacher and she had six scholars.
The first election took place in August, 1846, at Sturgis Falls.
The first white child born in the county was Jenette, daughter of William Sturgis, born October 1, 1846. The first male white child was Henry Adams, son of Erasmus Adams, who came into the world three days after the first birth. The third birth was Emily Hanna, daughter of George W. Hanna, born March 7, 1847.
The first wedding, so far as the annals of the county give, was participated in by James Virden as groom and Charlotte Pratt as the bride. The ceremony was performed by George W. Hanna, a justice of the peace, on February 27, 1851, at the home of the bride's father, J. R. Pratt, at Cedar City. The license was ob- tained from the county judge of Buchanan County on February 25th.
The first marriage of a resident of Black Hawk County was that of James Newell, whose wife died June 2, 1847, leaving an infant born May 21st of that year. The baby needed a mother's care and Mr. Newell set about to supply one. It did not take long because he found Mrs. Howard in Cedar County and married her November 7, 1847.
The first death was that of James Monroe Hanna, infant son of George W Hanna, on October 18, 1845. The second death was that of Mrs. James Newell.
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The third was that of Mary, the two-year-old daughter of William Virden, whose clothes took fire accidentally and she was so badly burned that she died soon after, in 1848.
The first services were held at the home of Charles Mullan in 1847, by Reverend Mr. Collins, a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
The first postoffice was established at Cedar Falls on January 3, 1850, with Dempsey C. Overman as postmaster. The arrival of the first mail was fraught with considerable interest, but for some time the mail was so small that the postmaster carried the letters around in his hat, giving them to whoever they belonged when he met them and thus the first letter carrier in Black Hawk County was this same Postmaster Overman.
The first lawyer to settle in the county was Samuel Wick, who located at Cedar Falls in 1850. The first lawyer in Waterloo was John Randall.
The first election in Black Hawk County was at the home of E. D. Adams on the present site of Cedar Falls in 1846. The officers chosen then were three justices of the peace who held office for five years, the next election being in 1851.
The first assessment rolls of Buchanan County were made in 1851 and on them the following Black Hawk citizens appear as being assessed: E. D. Adams, F. Davenport, D. S. Pratt, William Virden, Overman & Co., D. C. Overman, E. Brown, J. Morgan, Mahlon Lupton, F. Hohiner, A. Mullarky, George Philpot. David Davis, G. W. Hanna, J. Melrose, John Virden, R. Jones, L. Downing, William Sturgis, Henry Crumrine, James Waddell, C. Mullan, George Ellis, Hiram Hampton, James Virden, G. B. White, John Crumrine, J. S. Kirkpatrick, J. H. Pennell, Charles McCaffrey, Thomas Pinner, A. Nims, Moses Bates, O. H. Hayden, John Clarke, Isaac Virden, C. H. Wilson, S. Wick, Perrin Lathrop, J. R. Pratt, Thomas Newell, S. S. Knapp, C. F. Jaquith, Benjamin Knapp, E. J. Young, A. C. Finney, John Fairbrother, W. W. Payne, J. T. Barrick, S. T. Vail.
MEN AND SCENES OF HALF CENTURY AGO
To the generation which has come into activity within the past quarter of a century only a composite picture of the scenes and things of half century ago is possible. That composite picture, however, even if it is painstakingly made, will be indistinct and perhaps blurred at the most interesting points.
Half a century ago was distinctively the day and age of the pioneer so far as lowa was concerned. Waterloo was then a scattered village composed largely of log cabins, arranged without plan and each cabin or home, even in the business section of the town, was surrounded by a comparatively small farm. The deeds and actions of men and women of that day were not less strenuous than life is at present. From all accounts the people participating in the early dramas took as much interest and keen enjoyment from passing events as do the present generations.
Talking with the people who trekked into the then wilderness to establish such communities as Waterloo it strikes the listener that there is never a note of regret for the sacrifices which were made. Each in his or her passing years takes pride in the evidence of the good work they commenced. Indeed, they builded better than they knew and the foundations of their homes were, in truth, builded upon rock. Life was real and life was earnest to those pioneers of half a century
JAMES VIRDEN An early settler.
JOHN MELROSE One of the first settlers of the county.
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HISTORY OF BLACK HAWK COUNTY
or more ago, but they enjoyed every minute of it. Even their times of sorrow, which in the course of human events, visited their homes, were alleviated by the sympathy of neighbors, all the world in that day being literally akin.
The latter day investigator is told that Waterloo and Black Hawk County was settled largely by Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania people and for the most part these people were well educated for the day in which they lived. No sooner had the stopping place been discovered than schools, though primitive, were established. Literary and debating societies were formed and the meetings in great part formed the principal diversion of the people. In the early days, too, it was considered necessary to attend worship in the crude churches, where services began at 9 o'clock in the morning and continued until late at night with scarcely an inter- mission. In that day the minister of the gospel discoursed to the "seventeenth and lastly, my brethren."
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