USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 14
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" The winter of 1842-3 proved a very severe one and the settlers endured many privations. On the 17th of November a terrible snow storm commeneed, accom- panied with wind which caused immense drifts. Most of the houses having been hastily erected that spring, of logs, were imperfectly chinked and plastered, and it was impossible to keep out the drifting snow. Kessler's was in this condition and his family took refuge at Clark's, which was better protected. On returning alter the storm they found their house drifted completely full and buried, even to the chimney, and had to dig out their furniture piece by piece. They dug a regular stairway from the door to the top of the snow: and the same to reach the water in the spring close by, through snow fourteen feet in depth. The storm ended in sleet, which left a hard erust on the surface, which would bear the weight of a man on the surface if not too heavy. It was almost impossible to get abont except on foot, and in that way the mail was carried to and from the colony near Ede's Grove in Delaware County by Kessler, he being selected for that service on account of being small and light. Deer were abundant and easily overtaken. as their sharp feet broke through the crust; so venison was plenty. Bee trees had also been found in large numbers in the fall, and there was a plentiful supply of honey. Some families had three or four barrels of that commodity, but honey and venison, though each delicious, were found hardly adequate food for sole and constant nse; and grain there was none, nor other food of any kind to be had short of a journey to the colony.
"Il. B. Hatch was the first to venture out after corn. He went with two yoke of oxen and on his return was overtaken by a storm of sleet so severe that the freezing rain blinded not only himself. but his oxen. But by walking on the off side of his eattle he managed to shelter himself somewhat, and after stopping many times to remove the ice from his eyes and those of his oxen. he succeeded in reaching home with his load of corn, much to the joy of the settlers, who had been greatly alarmed for his safety. The corn was immediately distributed and when exhausted Mr. Sanford went to the same place and brought another load, which he carefully dealt out, sternly refusing any applicant more than one peck at a time: not from any want of kindness or generosity. but to enforce that
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severe economy in its use which was absolutely necessary. For several months during that winter, venison, honey and boiled corn constituted the only food of the settlers. Wolves were numerous and bold and often came to the springs within a few steps from the doors of the settlers, to drink. On the first of April, 1853, the river was still frozen and teams erossed on the ice.
"In the spring of 1843 the land in the south part of the county was put in market, and on the 13th of March of that year the first entry was made by Edwin R. Fulton, the entry being the west half northeast thirty-four, eighty-eight, eight, and eighty, which Bennett had claimed and settled upon. Fulton was never a citizen of this county and was probably some friend of Bennett, whom he pro- eured to make the entry for him. In May, 1843, Maleolm McBane and John Cordell-both with their families-settled in the immediate vicinity of Quas- queton, on the east side of the river. They entered their first land May 2, 1843. Sometime in the summer or fall of 1843 eame James Biddinger, S. V. Thomp- son, and W. W. Hadden ; the former settled near, and the two latter at Quasqueton. During the summer of 1843 a flouring mill was erected at Quasqueton by Mr. Stiles, but was probably not completed until 1844, about which time a Mr. Rich- ards settled there and opened the first store. Up to this time the place had been known only as ' The Rapids of the Wapsipinicon' and now it had a saw mill and a grist mill, a store, tavern and saloon, and had beeome quite a village, and was named Trenton, which name it retained until about 1847, when it was regularly laid out into lots and reehristened Quasqueton, which name was euphonized from Quasquetuck, signifying in the tongue of the Indian 'swift waters.'
"The first settlers had now begun to raise wheat as well as corn, and with a mill in their immediate vicinity where it could be ground, were in little danger of again being compelled to subsist on boiled corn. Fish were abundant in the river, and it is told, and is undoubtedly true, that they were caught of such size that, tied together by the gills and thrown across a horse, the caudal fins touched the ground on each side. It is surmised, however, that the horse was an Indian pony and of not unusual height. The species of fish which attained to such size was the 'muskalonge' and some of the same species weighing twenty-four pounds were caught at Independence as late as 1854. During the year 1844 there seems to have been but little additional emigration to the county ; but in 1845 quite a number of families arrived, among them one Abbott, James Rundle, and Benoni and Harvey B. Haskins, and I think, David Merrill; these families all settled near Quasqueton. During that year also was made the first entry of land north of the correction line. It was on section 25, 89, 9, a part of what is now known as the county poor farm, and was entered by JJohn Kimmis, December 4, 1845.
"Rufus B. Clark, in his hunting excursions, had early visited, observed and admired the site of Independence. He had no means with which to purchase the land, but he laid claim to the place, and in the spring of 1847 built a log house on the east side of the river at a spot near the present junction of Chatham and Mott streets, and removed his family thereto. After making the claim he visited Janesville, Wisconsin, and induced S. P. Stoughton and Nicholas A. MeClure to purchase the land. Stoughton came to Independence the same spring-April, 1847, entered the land, and during that summer built a dam and saw mill and brought also a small stock of goods. With him came Samuel Sherwood, Mervin Dunton and a Doctor Lovejoy. In July. 1847, S. S. MeClure, Eli D. Phelps, A. H.
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY
Trask and Thomas W. Close arrived and all settled at Independence. In June of that year three commissioners, appointed by the state legislature for that pur- pose, visited the county, and on the 15th. of June, located the county seat on sec- tion 34, 89, 9, and called it Independence. In 1846 John Boon and Frank Hathaway had settled on the edge of the prairie two miles northeast of Inde- pendence, so that the Fourth of July, 1847, saw at Independence quite a little community of settlers and if the celebration here on that day was not as largely attended as this, it was fully as enthusiastic as this can be. The location being made at a date so near to the Fourth of July had probably a great influence for the selection of the name of Independence for the future city. The overflow caused by the erection of the dam produced malaria, and most of the settlers suf- fered from fever and ague. Mrs. R. B. Clark and Doctor Lovejoy died in the fall of 1847. In June, 1848, the colony was increased by the arrival of Asa Blood, senior and junior, Elijah and Anthony Beardsley, and a Mr. Babbitt. Doetor Brewer removed to Independence also that year, having been elected elerk of the county commissioners the year before, and consequently being required to be at the county seat. John Obenchain had settled in the spring of 1848 two miles north of Independence, on the farm now occupied by C. Diekson. Isaae Hath- away also settled on section 36, 89, 9, about two miles east of Independence ; Thomas Barr, six miles north of Independence; Samuel and Orlando Sufficool, William Bunce, Daniel Greeley, and William Greeley, at Greeley's Grove ; John Scott, on what is now known as the Smyser farm ; Jacob Minton, William Minton, and Gamaliel Walker, on Pine Creek; a Mr. Trogden, on the west side of the river, about five miles above Quasqueton; and some fifteen or twenty others, mostly at or in the vicinity of Quasqueton, among them D. S. Davis, George 1. Cummins, James Cummins, Charles Robbins, Benjamin Congdon and others, not forgetting to mention Hamilton Megonigle, who came from the banks of the Juniata, in Pennsylvania, a regular, careless, jovial, free-hearted, open-handed backwoodsman, who was known to everybody and loved to be called 'Old Juny.'
"The tax list for 1847 shows eighty-one names as resident tax payers. Among them are Thomas Barr, Samuel and Orlando Sufficool, William Bunce, I. F. Hathaway, John Boon, Gamaliel Walker, William Biddinger, N. G. Parker, Samuel Caskey, Ami Il. Trask, Thomas W. Close, Samuel Sherwood and Edward Brewer. The same tax list shows that there were sixty forty acre tracts of land entered in the county, being a little less than four sections. The valuation of all property, real and personal, was $21.709, and total tax $167.40. Of the eighty- olle residents seventy-four were voters. The total moneys and credits assessed were $3,775. There were 249 head of cattle, 417 hogs, sixty-eight horses, forty- two wagons, 642 sheep, and not one mule. Few of the settlers indulged in the luxury of watches, for there seem to have been but six in the whole county. The mills and machinery at Quasqueton had at this time become the property of D. S. Davis, and were valned at $2000. The saw mill at Independence is put down at $900. W. W. Hadden paid the highest tax, the enormous sum of $22.39.
"The first election of which I find any record was in August, 1847. The county was then divided into two election precinets, one called Quasqueton and the other Centre precinct. John Scott, Frederick Kessler and B. D. Springer were elected county commissioners and Edward Brewer, clerk; and it is a con- clusive proof of his worth and ability that he continued to hold that office twenty-
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three years. On the 4th of October, 1847, the county commissioners held their first meeting at the house of Edward Brewer, in Independence. Their first offi- cial act was to divide the county into three commissioners' districts. The first distriet comprised all the north half of the county. The south half was divided by a line running north and south about 11/2 miles west of Quasqueton.
"Three road petitions were presented, and viewers appointed at that session. One from Independenee east to county line. One from Independence east to intersect the territorial road from Marion to Fort Atkinson and one from Quas- queton to Independence on the west side of the river. It was ordered also that a surveyor be employed to lay off a town at the county seat. On November 3, 1847 the commissioners met and caused eight blocks of lots on the southeast quarter of southeast quarter section 34, to be laid off as the Village of Independ- enee and the county seat. The land was still Government land and not entered by the county until January, 1849, though it was legally preempted and thus secured to the county in January, 1848. The lots were 10 rods in length by 5 in width, and the priee fixed for them was $5.00 each. In January, 1848, also the three roads first petitioned for were declared publie highways.
"Up to that time there had been no regularly laid ont roads in the county, exeept a territorial road from Marion to Fort Atkinson, erossing the river at Quasqueton, and running thence nearly north through the county, passing near where is now the Village of Winthrop. This was known as the Mission road. And another from Marion to the north line of the state laid out in 1846, eross- ing the river at the same place and passing about two miles east of Independence, at the edge of the timber. The settlers followed such rontes as suited their con- venience, from house to house and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Indian trails crossed the prairie from stream to stream, leading to fording places, and well worn paths led up and down the river, tonehing, surely, every bubbling spring. Such trails, which recent settlers supposed to be merely cattle paths, can be pointed ont in many places even to this day by the pioneers.
"Though in the spring of 1848 several families came to Independenee, the prevalence of fever and ague was so great that it discouraged not only them, but most of those who came earlier. Most of the latter left the place, either in the fall of 1848 or the spring of 1849, so that in the summer of 1849 only four families remained. In July, of 1849, the first entry of land was made in Newton Township by Joseph B. Potter. The first settlement in that township was by Joseph Anstin, in the spring of 1847, on section 33. Reuben C. Walton was the next, and built his cabin on the same forty as Austin in 1848. In 1850 William P. Harris, Aaron M. Long, Henry llolman and a Mr. Ogden settled in the same vicinity on Spring Creek, and James MeCanna on seetion 12 on Buffalo Creek. John Cordell entered the first land in Cono Township in 1843, and Le- ander Keyes and T. K. Burgess settled in that township just below Quasqueton in 1848. No land was entered in Homer Township till 1851, when John S. Wil- liams entered forty aeres on section 19. The first actual settler in Jefferson Township was J. B. Stainbrook, in June, 1850, and his daughter, Martha, now Mrs. Masters, and residing in Brandon, was the first white child born in the township. John Rouse and Abel Cox were the next settlers, and arrived in July, 1850, and in September Nicholas Albert, Phillip Zinn and Joseph Rouse. The next year came John Rice, Thomas Frink, Mathew Davis and Hamilton Wood.
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'In the fall of 1851 a state road was surveyed from Quasqueton to the county seat of Marshall County. Two of the commissioners were D. S. Davis and John Cordell. The party started from Quasqueton to look out the route, and passed near Brandon, or where Brandon now is. No one, even at Quasqueton, had ever visited Jefferson Township, nor did any one of the party know whether there was a settler there or not. It was known that some persons from that direction had crossed the prairie to the Quasqueton mill, but there was no road, not even a discernible track of any kind. Aided by the compass, the party made its way to Lime ('reek, and found nestled in the brush near that stream, the cabins of Joseph and John Rouse, and close by them went into camp the first night out. From Rouse it was learned that there were two or three families a little south, and by striet search and Rouse for a guide, they found their houses the next forenoon.
"No settlement was made in Westburg Township till 1853; nor do I know who was the first settler; but William B. Wilkinson must have been among the first. In 1849 Michael Ginther settled in Sumner Township and, being at a loss to describe the land he wished to enter, he carried the corner stake to the land office at Dubuque, going there on foot for that purpose. The entry was afterward found to be on the wrong section entirely. He had intended to buy the land on which he had settled, and on which is the famous spring yet known as the Ginther Spring, about half way between Independence and Quasqueton, on the west side of the river, and when he found the entry he had made was really one mile west, and out on the prairie, he was completely discouraged, being a poor man, and believing that land so far out would never be of any value. The first settler in Middlefield was P. M. Dunn, who entered his land on section 34, April 24, 1850, followed soon after by Daniel Leatherman and Stillman Berry. Fremont Township remained unsettled until 1853, when Z. P. and S. W. Rich located on Buffalo Creek, near the southeast corner of the township. They were induced to venture so far out from the timber from the fact that at that time the road direct from Independence to Coffin's Grove, Delhi and Dubuque had begun to be considerably traveled, though almost up to that year the only traveled route had been via Quasqueton ; but in 1852 the few citizens of Independ- ence and vicinity had turned out voluntarily and built a bridge of split logs across Buffalo Creek, near the correction line, making the route practicable. Robert Sutton settled in Byron, on section 32, as early as 1850, if not in 1849; and Thomas Ozias in 1851. The first settlers in Perry Township were James Min- ton, Charles Melrose and Gamaliel Walker, in 1849. Martin Depoy and Jacob Slaughter entered land in that township the same year, but did not become set- tlers until 1850; and in the same year Alexander Stevenson and John and Thomas Cameron settled in the same township, all in the northeast corner, near Littleton. Melrose had made an error in his entry, entering in the north part of township 88, 10, instead of 89, 10, being near the present Village of Jesup, and not sup- posing land in that locality would ever be valuable, by much effort and by the aid of the then United States Senator G. W. Jones, a special act of Congress was passed vacating his entry and placing it on the section intended, where Mr. Mel- rose now lives. Of the first settlement in Hazleton Township I have already spoken. William Jewell settled and made the first entry of land in Buffalo Township in 1849 where now lives C. H. Jakway. Abiathar Richardson and
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Silas K. Messenger came next in 1850; and Thomas and Rockwell Jewell and A. J. Eddy in 1851. In Madison Township Silas Ross, L. R. Ward and Seymour Whitney settled at nearly the same time in 1853, and were the first comers. They located in the east part of the township near the place now known as Ward's Corners. In Fairbank Township William S. Clark was the first to locate, set- tling in the south part, just above Littleton, in 1848 or 1849, and was the first settler in that region. He went to California about 1856, but the house he built is yet standing (1876)-Thomas Wilson must have found his way into the timber west of the Little Wapsie very soon after, for 1 remember finding him and one, MeKinstry, settled there in 1850.
"In 1849 S. P. Stoughton and S. S. MeClure returned to Independence and with them came the writer of this sketch. There were then in Independence only Doctor Brewer, Thomas W. Close and F. Beardsley and a Mr. Horton, each with their families. Samuel Sherwood, though still reekoned a eitizen of Inde- pendence, was absent that winter building a mill at Cedar Rapids. There was an unenelosed and no other building on the west bank of the river and on the east side, besides the building occupied by the families named, a vacant black- smith shop and three vacant dwellings, among them the house built by Rufus B. Clark, who, after the death of his wife, had sold his interest in the place to Stoughton & MeClure and removed to the Cedar River in Chickasaw County.
"The families in the north half of the county could almost be counted on one's fingers. W. S. Clark, James Newton, Charles Melrose and Gamaliel Walker were up the river near where Littleton now is. Jacob Minton, Thomas Barr, Jo- seph Ross and Isaae Hathaway were also among the early settlers."
CHAPTER IX BUCHANAN COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION
THE CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-THE MEN AT THE FRONT-THE WOMEN AT HOME
The record of Buchanan County's soldiers in the Civil war, is one of which to be justly proud and will ever shed glory and honor on the sons and daughters of all of her future generations. With a mingled emotion of pride and sorrow, a deep sense of gratitude and equally as much reverence do we read the splendid records of those brave heroes. And with such a feeling of utter ineapability and inexpressible depression, do we attempt to chronicle that tragic tale. How can any historian with cold pen and ink hope to describe the incidents of that awful time? How ean he hope to justly honor the courage, patriotism, self-sacrifice, and loyalty that prompted these noble heroes ? It is beyond the power of human com- position, and utterly beggars his most aspiring eulogy. How can an artist e'en though with a master-hand, paint the horrors of those harrowing seenes. No crimson pigment ever splashed upon a canvas could portray the deep and vivid color of that gushing, ebbing life blood, no color so ashen to faithfully depict the pallor and lifelessness of those fallen heroes, no lines or shadows which can justly portray the intense agony, suffering and horror of that awful tragedy. No color so true that can follow with aceurate portrayal the steadfast, loyal, courageous, and vietorions line of blue, no pigment adequate to interpret the courage, devo- tion, despair, and hopelessness of that wavering line of gray. No color imaginable to exactly represent that rolling, blinding, choking smoke of gunpowder, no color so flaming to represent the fires of battle, the flash of powder, the blaze of cannon. Nothing to express the horrible rumble, rattle. roar, crash, and thunder of burst- ing bomb, rattling hail of shot and shell, and rain of bullets.
Intense patriotism and vivid imagination have inspired the brush of painters to most glorious work, but even that falls far short of depicting the realities of such a scene. And great writers of history, novels and the drama have tried for over fifty years to do justice to that unapproachable subject. Man is utterly incapable of expressing either through the medium of the pen or with the aid of brush or ehisel, anything more than a semblance of the realities and actualities of life. Man is a fine imitator and does marvelous things with these finite mate- rials, but the infinite spiritualities, intelligences and incorporal senses are beyond his limitations. So to know. these extreme phases of our national history, one must have lived them.
And what words, e'en though a dictionary were ransacked from cover to cover, what phrases though crowded with expressive meanings, what sentences, though teeming with voluble phraseology can but faintly describe those inexpressible
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thoughts and emotions of war. The heart pangs, the sorrow, despair, bitterness, hatred, and brutish instinets to kill and destroy, and, contrasted with those the patriotic fervor, bravery, duty, loyalty, love, pity, honor, and devotion, all embodied in that single, awful word war.
It is not even a hope with us to add any glory or luster to the patriots of '61, but we will try and give them their merited place in history and a just allotment of the prominence which they deserve as the preservers of the Union. Now, after fifty-three years of calm and deliberate retrospection, with all hatred, bitterness and enmity wiped ont, and with a feeling of love, charity, and perfect fairness, we can view that terrible struggle with an impartial judgment which was utterly impossible to those writers of that day or even for many generations after. We cannot in this brief history enter into any detailed aecount of the eauses which led up to this horrible elimax. They are too many to be recounted and historians differ too greatly to have even yet arrived at any definite conclusions, and our opinions on this subject are not even worthy of consideration or space in this narrative. Suffice it to say that when the first call came for volunteer troops, Buchanan County was not wanting in fervid patriotism and courage and sent her quota to the front.
The echoes and reverberations of that first fatal shot fired upon Fort Sumter by the rebellions South, had seareely died away until the whole North and West were swept, as with a tidal wave of patriotic enthusiasm and fervor, which quenched all other baser fires of partisan and sectional strife which had been raging for many years and which time and again had threatened to disrupt the Union, and united them in one grand cause. With the admission of each of the several intermediate states, there had been controversy and dissension, the two factions, free and slave states, claiming them. and fends.
In the early history of lowa we undoubtedly were a pro-slavery state, probably due to the fact that a very large per cent of the population of the state were southerners and on account of their great supremacy in holding office at that time. Striking evidence of this supremacy and domination of men of southern affiliations and antecedents in Iowa's political affairs prior to 1850 and even up to the outbreak of the Civil war, is afforded in the membership rolls of the early legislatures and constitutional conventions.
In her territorial days all the highest offices were occupied by southerners appointed under a democratic administration ; in the first Territorial Legislature in 1838, there were twenty southerners, five New Englanders, eight from the middle states and five from Ohio and Indiana, and too those from the middle states and from Ohio and Indiana were of southern extraction. In all the sub- seqnent sessions this predominance continued. In the Senate of the third general assembly, in 1851, the southerners numbered seven, while those from New England were only two. But in 1854 the proportion was rapidly changing and the middle and eastern states were greatly increasing in representation in Iowa, but nevertheless there were in the Senate ten southerners and only four New Englanders, and in the lower house, sixteen from the South and but nine from the Northeast. Likewise in the constitutional conventions that convened in 1844, 1846, and 1857, men hailing from south of Mason and Dixon's line greatly outnumbered the New Englanders. In the first convention, there were twenty- six southerners, eleven Virginians, six North Carolinians, eight Kentuckians, and
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