USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa: a record of settlement., Volume 1 > Part 26
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The year following this, Nelson Bement, a brother of McCarty Bement, the first settler mentioned above, James G. Temple and Robert Renfrew came. William Gilmore, William R. Phillips and John Saddler are also mentioned as among the early settlers.
J. J. Cross came to Butler county from Kane county, Illinois, in 1855, and in August of the same year settled upon one hundred and sixty acres in section 1. Frederick W. Cross, a sketch of whom is given in the biographical volume of this work, is a son of J. J. Cross.
On the 27th of September, 1855, S. Bonwell and family took up their sojourn on a farm on section 19. In an early history of Butler county Mr. Bonwell relates a typical incident of pioneer life to illustrate some of the hardships which some of the early settlers of this county had to undergo. On the 6th day of Janu- ary, 1856, he, with his family, attended the funeral of Eliza J. Newhard, at Clarksville. The weather was cold and the ground frozen so hard that the grave could hardly be dug. It was there- fore almost dark before the services were over, and Mr. Bonwell prepared to start homeward. When he arrived at Mr. Lenhart's, a storm was raging furiously and the folks tried to persuade him to remain all night; but Mr. Bonwell thought it his duty to return and attend to his stock. It was only a half mile to his home but there being no road, he missed his house, and soon found that he was lost on the prairie. To remain all night would be death. He therefore turned his team about so as to drift with the wind, which was blowing from the northwest, and concluded that in this way he would reach the timber east of Clarksville, which he
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succeeded in doing just as the storm passed over. After driving a short distance farther he found himself at the cabin of Daniel Kinsley, where he remained all night with his family, and in the morning again set out for home. After leaving Mr. Lenhart's the previous evening and finding that he had lost his course, he called for aid, which was heard by the neighbors and they replied by firing guns, etc .; but the wind was blowing such a gale that their answers could not be heard. The next morning the neigh- bors assembled, and not finding him at home, started in search, following his track over the entire circuit, and were glad to find upon arriving at Mr. Kinsley's that all were still alive, as they thought they certainly had perished, or, as one old fellow of the party remarked, "They have evidently struck one of the sink- holes on the prairie and all went to h- together."
Among other comparatively early settlers of Fremont town- ship were John M. Wamsley, who, as already stated, came first to Iowa with his brother W. S. Wamsley and lived with Aaron Moore until 1853. Mr. Wamsley settled in Fremont township in 1865. The best evidence that the settlements of Fremont town- ship were the outgrowths of previous settlements in the county is found in the fact that in a number of instances among the Fremont pioneers are numbered members of the second genera- tion of Butler county families. Of these Charles N. Thomas, Alexander Forney and Frank L. Wamsley may be mentioned. Charles N. Thomas was a son of Hugh Thomas, a pioneer settler of Dayton township. Charles Thomas settled in Fremont in 1869. Alexander Forney, a son of Christian H. Forney, is another pio- neer settler of Dayton township. After serving through the Civil war Mr. Forney married a daughter of James Blake and settled on a farm on section 16, Fremont township.
The southern and central parts of the township have in more recent years been largely settled by people of German parentage. A Lutheran church, situated on the southeastern corner of sec- tion 28, is the center of the religious life of this community. Among the prominent German families of this district may be mentioned the Wedekings, the Buschings and the Buchholtzs.
The choice of the name of the township was suggested by Wil- liam R. Phillips, in honor of Gen. John C. Fremont, who was in 1856 the first candidate of the republican party for the presi- dency. A local writer in the Clarksville Star of 1875 said: "Fre- mont, free speech and free press, was what one would hear in the
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days of 1856, when Horace Greeley, Charles Sumner and others were rolling the great stone that was eventually to crush out African slavery in the American states. So it was given to this territory of thirty-six square miles."
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION
Originally Fremont township was a part of Butler. In 1858 it was given a separate organization. The first election was held October 11, 1859, at the house of William R. Phillips, which was then in process of erection. On the day of the election when the voters came to cast their ballots they found that Phillips had no part of his house completed except the cellar. The ballot box was accordingly lowered into the cellar and the voters dropped their ballots into it from above. This first election was held with no roof over their heads except the blue canopy of Heaven. The day, however, was a pleasant one and everything passed off quietly. The record of the officers chosen at this election has been lost even to memory, except for the fact that J. J. Cross was chosen township clerk. Sixteen votes were cast, the names of the voters being as follows: James G. Temple, John Boorom, James Trobaugh, William Pringle, M. Bennett, Robert Slaight, John H. Vosler, D. W. Tunsley, S. Bonwell, S. Lenhart, Henry Lenhart, John Lenhart, G. W. Ellis, Nelson Bement, S. J. Boorom and J. J. Cross.
EDUCATIONAL
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The first school in Fremont township was taught by Miss Lucy Ballard at the home of James G. Temple.
The first schoolhouse was built at the northeast corner of sec- tion 11, where the Cedar schoolhouse now stands.
The township at present is divided into nine independent dis- tricts, each containing exactly four sections.
District No. 1, known as the Cedar district, is at the northeast corner of the township.
District No. 2, Excelsior district, lies just to the south of this. A portion of the Plainfield independent district in Bremer county extends over into the eastern part of section 24, thus somewhat reducing the size of Excelsior district.
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The Pleasant Prairie district, No. 4, comprises sections 29, 30, 31 and 32 in the extreme southwestern portion of the township.
No. 5, Pleasant Valley Center is the central district of the township.
No. 6, Beaver creek, occupies a position on the north central portion of the township.
The Pleasant Valley district, No. 7, includes sections 27, 28, 33 and 34, in the south central portion of the township. The schoolhouse stands just adjoining the site of the German Lutheran church and cemetery.
No. 8, the Pleasant Grove district, is in the northwestern part of the township.
No. 9, Harmony school, is in the central western portion. The schoolhouse in each of these districts stands at the exact geograph- ical center of the district.
POPULATION
1860, 90; 1863, 108; 1865, 164; 1867, 250; 1869, 379; 1870, 655; 1873, 650; 1875, 723; 1880, 791; 1890, 778; 1900, 757; 1910, 757.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP
Jackson township is surrounded by the townships of Dayton, Butler, Jefferson and West Point on the north, east, south and west respectively. Its surface is for the most part a gently undu- lating prairie, varied in the extreme northeastern part by the presence of the valley of the Shell Rock river, which crosses the township from northwest to southeast. Originally there was practically no natural timber in the township except that along this stream. Although the rest of the township has no running streams its natural drainage was sufficient to prevent the pres- ence of any waste land. Dry Run which crosses the township from east to west about midway, serves to drain off the surplus storm water and empties into Shell Rock river a little southwest of Clarksville. At certain seasons of the year this stream has a constant flow but in mid-summer it is almost always dry.
The township is traversed from east to west by the main line of the Chicago Great Western railroad and in the extreme north- eastern portion, by the Rock Island. It has no town within its limits. although both Clarksville and Allison include a portion
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of the township within their boundaries. These two towns fur- nish the trading points for the entire township. The soil is of a quality second to none in fertility and productiveness and the farms are at the present time in the hands of a progressive class of agriculturists who utilize the natural fertility of the soil to its fullest extent.
EARLY SETTLEMENT
As has been indicated in connection with the history of Butler township, the first permanent settlements within the limits of Butler county were made near the east bank of the Shell Rock river, within the borders of what was later set off as Jackson township. These settlements and the early settlers were so closely identified with the early history of Butler township as to have been named in the separate history of that township, many of them at a comparatively early day having actually moved either to the village of Clarksville or to farms in Butler township. However, as they belong properly to the history of Jackson town- ship, a repetition of some names may be pardoned.
The first actual settler in the township was Joseph B. Hicks, who located a claim on section 12, in the spring of 1850. He was followed soon after by his father, Henry J. Hicks, and his brother John. Joseph Hicks remained a resident of the township until 1867, when he went to Kansas, remaining there a few years and then returned to his former home in Butler county. Later still he moved to Kansas and took up his permanent abode there.
His father, Henry J. Hicks, made the second entry of land in this township as shown by the records of the Dubuque land office. The date of this entry is June 24, 1851, and the land thus entered was located in sections 12 and 13.
This entry is preceded in date by one made by John Heery, who at the same time that he entered land, which has been pre- viously mentioned in Butler township, also made an entry of claims in sections 13 and 24 of Jackson. This is dated November 22, 1850, the earliest date of land entry in Butler county. John Heery, however, was never a resident of Jackson township so far as is known.
The next settlers after the Hicks family were the Wamsleys- Malon B. and W. S .- a full account of whose settlement is found in the history of Butler township.
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The third entry of land in Jackson township was made in the name of Melissa J. Wamsley on September 6, 1851, on section 1, and on the same date a claim in section 12 was entered by W. S. Wamsley.
Martin Van Buren Wamsley was also an early settler of Jack- son township, and made a claim on section 12 in 1851, which was not entered at the land office, however, until several years later. "Van" Wamsley, as he was generally known, first came to the county with his brother, W. S., but remained here only a short time. Several years afterward he returned, and in 1857 married Miss Frances Griffith, daughter of James Griffith, a pioneer settler of Coldwater township. In 1861 he enlisted in the Thirty-second Iowa, was wounded at Pleasant Hill, captured and imprisoned at Tyler, Texas, where he died.
In the year 1852 Seth Hilton and John Baughman came from Illinois and located on section 13, just west of the town of Clarks- ville. Hilton has been mentioned in connection with the history of Clarksville as having built the first log house on the present site of the town.
John Stephenson, John Boyd and Ed Marquand arrived in the year 1853, all of them coming from the state of Ohio. Stephenson and Boyd, his son-in-law, settled on section 36, and Marquand on section 25.
Other settlers of this early period in the township were Elisha Doty, John Klinetob, Eli Bebee, John H. Van Dyke, Henry New- man, George Allen, A. E. Ensley, Richard Keller, George Hark- ness and John Bonwell.
Among other early settlers without regard to the date of settlement were Benjamin Priest, S. W. Cheever, Clark Carr, E. E. Mott, C. P. Klinetob, William Tennyson, Cyrus Doty, J. B. Hickman and A. C. Wilcox.
Benjamin Priest was one of the first to build a home in the western part of the township, where he at one time owned about six hundred acres of land.
S. W. Cheever was the father of Frank M. Cheever, at the present time president of the district township of Jackson. Frank Cheever still lives on the home place on the southwest quarter of section 8.
John Mott, for a number of years a member of the county board of supervisors, is a son of E. E. Mott, mentioned above.
C. W. Klinetob, for more than twenty years secretary of school
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township of Jackson, is a son of C. P. Klinetob, and has resided in the township since 1866. Cyrus Doty, a son of Elisha Doty, settled on the southwest quarter of section 11 in Jackson town- ship in 1860. His natural qualities of leadership and his long life in the county have given him a prominence that is recognized by all his associates. A full account of his life is given in the biographical volume of this work.
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION
Jackson township was at first organized as a part of the town- ship of Butler and so continued until given separate organization on the 4th of March, 1858. E. D. Marguand was commissioned to call the first election for the organization of the township, which election was held at the house of John H. Van Dyke, on the 5th of April, 1858. The first officers elected were: John Klinetob, John H. Van Dyke and John Stephenson, trustees; John Boyd, clerk; Josiah Stephenson and Henry Newman, con- stables; Samuel Lister, supervisor of roads; John Klinetob, asses- sor; E. D. Marquand and John Klinetob, justices of the peace.
On the 22d day of March, 1858, the county court made an alteration in the boundaries of Jackson township by attaching that part of congressional township northeast of the Shell Rock river to Butler township. This is the portion of the township to which reference was made above as having been the site of the earliest settlement and belonged by nature to Butler township. At a later date, June 4, 1861, the boundaries of Jackson town- ship were again rectified to include the full limits of the con- gressional township.
EDUCATIONAL
The records of the district township of Jackson are very incomplete. Detailed information regarding the educational his- tory of the township therefore cannot be given. It is known that the first schoolhouse in the township was a log house, located on section 1, with U. G. Lawrence as the first teacher. After serv- ing its purpose for a number of years this structure was torn down and the materials from which it had been built were cut up in fire wood.
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The first frame schoolhouse in the township was built in 1855 on section 14. George Mcclellan was the first teacher. This stood on the site of the present Doty schoolhouse.
The second frame schoolhouse in the township was built in 1855 on section 25, near where the Wilcox school now stands. It was afterwards sold and the present building erected in its place.
As the township became more and more thickly settled, new school districts were created and new schoolhouses built. There are at present eleven school buildings within the limits of the township: No. 1, known as the Woodward school, situated in the southeast quarter of section 23; No. 2, the Wilcox school, on the southwest quarter of section 25.
No. 3 has been for the last few years unoccupied. It stands just east of the Rock Island railroad tracks near the township line between Jackson and Butler, on section 12. All of section 6 and the north half of section 7, Butler township, were for school purposes set over into Jackson and form a part of this sub-dis- trict. However, the proximity of the town of Clarksville, with its superior school facilities, has in recent years led to the send- ing of the children of this district to school in Clarksville and the payment of their tuition by the township of Jackson.
School No. 4 is situated in section 22; No. 5, known as the Dry Run school, is located on the east side of section 18; No. 6 is in section 3; No. 7, formerly called the Priest school, is at the northeast corner of section 7; No. 8, the Doty school, is on the main road from Clarksville to Allison, in the north part of sec- tion 14; No. 9, the Poor Farm school, is located about a quarter of a mile south of the county farm, on section 34; No. 10, the Curtis school, is located on the southwest corner of section 29.
At a comparatively recent date a new sub-district, No. 11, was set off near the center of the township and a schoolhouse built across the road from the Cheever farm. This school is known as the Cheever school and its building is the most modern and commodious of the rural schools of Jackson township.
Most of the schoolhouses of the township have at present been standing on their sites for a number of years. It is recognized that within a comparatively short time some further provision for the housing of the school children of the township must be made. Whatever provision is made for this purpose will doubt-
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less be made after due consideration and in accordance with the needs and rights of the children.
GENERAL ITEMS
The first marriage in the township is said to have been that of John Rains and Elizabeth Allen.
The first birth was a son born to Mr. and Mrs. Malon B. Wamsley, July 30, 1852.
The first death was that of a man named Joseph Kirker, who died at the house of W. S. Wamsley, in the fall of 1851. He was buried on section 12, without services of any character.
The first religious service was held in the cabin of Malon B. Wamsley, in the fall of 1851, by Rev. S. W. Ingham, of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church. In 1852 a Baptist clergyman held serv- ices in the cabin of Seth Hilton. No religious organizations are known to have existed in the early history of the township.
POPULATION
1860, 78; 1863, 184; 1865, 240; 1867, 330; 1869, 435; 1870, 569; 1873, 566; 1875, 594; 1880, 746; 1890, 704; 1900, 811; 1910, 781.
COUNTY FARM
The minute book of the board of supervisors during the period of the Civil war contains frequent reference to provision for the care of such persons as had by reason of poverty or other cause become county charges. Bids were regularly received for the. board and keep of these persons. In other words, the system of farming out the poor was followed.
This system of care for the indigent and unfortunate citizens: of the county continued until 1876, when provision was made for the establishment of a county home for these dependents. The northeast quarter of section 34, in Jackson township, was purchased by the county and plans laid for the erection of suit- able buildings.
Sealed proposals for the erection of a county poor house were received until June 29, 1876, in the office of county auditor. The contract was let to Wilkinson & Harvey for the sum of $4,000, and the building was completed the 1st of June, 1877. The main
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building was 28x44 feet and the wing 28x32, two stories high. This house was opened to the poor on February 15, 1877, at which time one person appeared to make this his home. There were some forty county charges at this time but the remainder pre- ferred evidently to care for themselves.
The number of occupants of the county home has varied at different periods. At present there is an average of about twenty- one.
This county building was burned in the winter of 1891-2. A contract for rebuilding was let to Vincent Franke, on April 18, 1892, for the sum of $3,900. A number of improvements in the farm buildings and equipment have been made in recent years and it may today well be considered a model farm. The farm has been so managed under the care of capable, efficient stewards as to be self-supporting and yield a margin of income over the cost of maintenance.
The first superintendent of the county farm was Joseph Sco- field. In January, 1914, Mr. Lafe Belden, who for a number of years had been managing the county farm offered his resigna- tion and the present incumbent, Mr. J. C. Hammond was chosen to the position.
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CHAPTER XXIV JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP, BUTLER CENTER AND COSTER
Township 91 north, range 16 west, in Butler county is known as the township of Jefferson. It is purely a rural township, having no town either wholly or in part within its borders. It is traversed by no lines of railroad and in this respect occupies a position similar to those of Fremont and Ripley townships in the county. Its territory is tributary commercially to four of the towns of the county, Shell Rock on the east, Clarksville on the northeast, Allison on the northwest, and Parkersburg on the south.
Of its topography no better account may be given than the one below from the pen of Van E. Butler, a former newspaper man of the county :
"This township corners with the center of the county. The land is rolling, sloping as a whole to the south and east. Only one stream of importance passes through it-the West Fork- entering on section 36. All the timber in this township lies along the stream, and this is not of much importance, except the many artificial groves that have sprung up about the pleasant farm houses that dot the uplands and valleys. Twenty years ago the major portion of Jefferson township was a splendid specimen of Iowa sloughs. Then a man would hardly have dared to cross it without first making his last will and testament and bidding a kind adieu to his family. How the first settlers ever conceived the idea of founding a city, and the manner of construction of the primitive abodes, will come to light when, like Herculaneum and Pompeii, future generations will exhume from their deep sepulchre all the evidence necessary to a correct conclusion. But what we looked upon as an almost irredeemable portion of the county has become one of the most productive. It takes a longer time to subdue the rich, dark, loam soil, but it makes returns for
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the extra labor. Much of the land is now under subjection, and the Iowa slough sends its thousands of bushels of cereals to the market towns. No trouble is now experienced in traversing any portion of it. The township is well adapted to stock-raising, yet the rich, dark loam, when once subdued, is equal to any locality in the county in the production of cereals."
OFFICIAL ORGANIZATION
When Butler county was first divided into townships, the four congressional townships in the southeastern part of the county- Shell Rock, Jefferson, Albion and Beaver-were organized as one civil township under the name of Beaver. In March, 1856, this civil township was divided in half by the organization of Shell Rock township, which then included the present limits of Shell Rock and Jefferson. On the 2d of March, 1857, Shell Rock township as it then existed, was divided and the two town- ships of Shell Rock and Jefferson were given their present limits. 1
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EARLY SETTLEMENT
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Jefferson township had been settled from the east following the settlement of Shell Rock township. No land in the township was entered before 1853. In that year Hugh Mullarky, of Cedar Falls, made a claim on section 19, on the 5th of October. The Mullarkys were among the pioneer settlers in Blackhawk county. Andrew Mullarky having opened a store in his log cabin, known as the Black Hawk store, in 1851. This was the first store in Blackhawk county and was the beginning of the settlement of the town of Cedar Falls. Hugh Mullarky was a brother of this Andrew Mullarky. As will be noted in the course of the history of this township, the members of this family occupied a prom- inent place in its early history and down through its formative period.
On the 30th of November, 1853, five entries of land in Jeffer- son township were made. These were made by the following persons: Frederic Feddeke, sections 32 and 35; Frederick and Louis Kothe, section 33; August Meyer, section 34; and William Pewestorf. Several of these men later became prominent set- tlers and farmers in the township. Of others nothing is known
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but the fact of the entry of land referred to and its subsequent transfer by sale to other parties.
John H. Nagle and Frederic Berlin entered land in sections 35 and 36 on December 9, 1853. It will be noted by reference to the map that all of these claims above were situated in reasonably close proximity to the West Fork river. The land to the north of the river in the township was at that time considered too wet to be available for agricultural purposes.
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