USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 16
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Hopkins, Harvey W., died at Memphis, Tennessee, September 19, 1864.
Halstead. William R., died July 8, 1864, at Memphis, Ten- nessee.
Henderson, David M., died March 12, 1865, at Davenport.
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Hites, Elijah, killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
Hough, Nehemiah R., died June 4, 1864, at Vicksburg, Missis- sippi.
Hesse, Stephen, died February 9, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Ten- nessee.
Hubbard, George, died at Butler Center, May 12, 1862.
Inman, Cassius, died September 13, 1863, at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Inman, Frank E., died at Memphis, Tennessee, June 24, 1864.
Johnson, Charles, died of wounds received in battle of Shiloh, April 21, 1862.
Kelley, Marshall, died at New Madrid, December 21, 1862.
Kinmmel, George W., died March 8, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Ten- nessee.
Kimmel, Zacheus F., died April 5, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Ten- nessee.
Leverich, Willard, killed March 7, 1862, at Pea Ridge.
Long, Wesley H., died April 27, 1864, at New Orleans, Louisiana.
Lewis, Charles, died September 16, 1864, at Tyler, Texas, while prisoner of war.
Lewis, Wilbert L., killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, in battle.
Mason, George, died at St. Louis, January 25, 1862.
Martin, Henry, killed June 23, 1863, at Vicksburg, Mississippi.
Mix, Thomas M., killed September 17, 1861, at Blue Mills, Mis- souri.
Myers, Jolın M., killed March 7, 1862, at Pea Ridge, Arkansas, in action.
Myers, Joseph R., killed in battle of Corinth, Mississippi, October, 1862.
Myers, Philip B., died of wounds received at Atlanta, Georgia, August 1, 1864.
McCain, John, died September 12, 1863, at Brownsville, Ar- kansas.
Miller, Elias G., died December 12, 1863, at Benton, Arkansas.
Miller, Francis M., died January 20, 1863, at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
Nutting, Edmond, died at Memphis, June 29, 1864.
Olmstead, Robert L., died April 20, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana, of wounds.
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Parks, George, died of wounds received at Matamora, Ten- nessee, October 18, 1862.
Parriott, Jasper, killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
Phillipi, Jehu, killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
Pauly, Charles, died of typhoid fever, Huntsville, Missouri, February 16, 1862.
Pieree Moses, died July 14, 1864, at Cairo, Illinois.
Spears, William, died of chronic diarrhoea, November 10, 1864, at Sedalia, Missouri.
Surfus, Emanuel, died at Camp Franklin, November 6, 1862. Sheffer, James M., died July 8, 1864, at Memphis, Tennessee. Smith, Isaae A., died Mareh 10, 1865, at Spirit Lake.
Stoekdale William, died Mareh 4, 1864, at Mound City, Illinois. Smith, James, died July 24, 1863, at Columbus, Kentucky.
Sperry, James U., died February 8, 1864, at Vicksburg, Mis- sissippi.
Swim, John B., killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. Sturtz, Solomon, died June 6, 1864, at Vieksburg, Mississippi.
Sturtz, Michael, died November 3, 1864, at Little Rock, Ar- kansas.
Sturtz, Adam, died May 22, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana. Sturdevant, Harvey B., died August 30, 1864, at Keokuk.
Thomas, Henry, died Mareh 4, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
Winchell, Lyford, died at Shell Roek, Butler county, Iowa, November 12, 1863.
Wilson Ezra S., died May 19, 1863, at Fort Pillow, Tennessee.
Waters, Julius A., killed April 9, 1864, at Pleasant Hill, Louisiana.
Wamsley, Martin V., died June 26, 1864, at Tyler, Texas, while prisoner of war.
CHAPTER XVI
REMINISCENT
A very few settlers of the fifties are now living in Butler county; most of them have gone to their final rest. To meet the men and women who came here when the land was given over to wild beasts and scarcely less wild red men, and hear them by word of mouth describe the new country and detail their varied and remarkable experiences, is an event out of the usual course and one that never fails of interest to the historian. Of the small rem- nant of this band of hardy pioneers still remaining are Thomas Hunt and wife, of Clarksville, H. C. Brown, of Dumont, who came in 1867, and Mrs. Charlotte E. Levis and her sister, Miss Caroline Monroe, now living in Allison. These men and women were here when Butler county was in its infancy and have lived to witness the metamorphosis of the wild prairies into highly cultivated fields of grain, dotted hither and you with beautiful residences and spacious outbuildings. They have lived to see busy little villages and towns grow up as if by magic, and the building of the first railroad in the county comes within the period of their residence here. They have told a part of the great story of the birth and growth of Butler county and the details are submitted to the reader of this volume.
THOMAS HUNT'S REMEMBRANCES
I came to Butler county from my old home in Trumbull county. Ohio, in 1854. locating on a quarter section of land in section 32. Butler township, which I had entered. I boarded with the Far- low family, which had located on section 17, and two years after my arrival I led to the altar Nancy, the daughter of Abner and Nancy Farlow, with whom I had made my home. I at once built a one-story frame house on my quarter section and began house- keeping with my bride, who is still at my side.
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The Farlows arrived in Butler township soon after I came and began their prairie life in a cabin already built on the land, which they purchased of John Ray. In this log house we were married.
When I located in the township already established in their humble and primitive homes were Alfred Elam and family, who came from Indiana in 1853. Also Harlan Beard an old time friend from Kentucky and unmarried; he rose to the rank of colonel in the Civil war. There were also Malon and William Wamsley, of Ohio, Samuel McCreery, Walker Bishop and John Modlin from Indiana. About this time also located in the township Thomas Clark, Jeremiah Clark, Seth Hilton, Peter Spoor, John Arm- strong, John Hicks and G. W. Poisal, all of whom had families. My brother, H. D. Hunt, also came in 1853 and I very much desired to come with him, but I didn't have enough money. When my brother returned to Ohio and then back to Iowa in 1854, I came with him. I should say here, however, that Morrison, Wil- liam and Roby Taylor and Clement Burton were in the township and located as early as 1852.
There were only a few settlers who located in Butler township in 1855 and many of those who were here left through fear of the Indians.
John Heery, whom I knew well, entered the first land in But- ler township. This was a quarter section on the edge of Clarks- ville and was taken up by Heery in 1852. John Heery was a native of Ireland and on coming to the United States first located in Wis- consin. He subsequently found himself in Dubuque, from which place he walked to this locality, carrying provisions on his back. He first stopped at Newells, who gave him so glowing a deserip- tion of the country that he staked out a claim and a year there- after, upon going to the land office at Dubuque, he found his pat- ent already made out for him. On this land he built a log cabin and lived there four or five years. He then put up a more preten- tious residence, which was his home until he passed away twenty or twenty-five years ago. Two sons still live on the old home- stead; John, the eldest son, is a resident of Clarksville.
The Indian scare is treated in a rather facetious manner by Mr. Hunt. Of that widespread alarm, which culminated as a frontier will o' the wisp, he says:
I was working in Shell Rock at the time of the Indian scare in 1854. One evening my friend, Henry Sweitzer, and myself were spending the time with a couple of village belles, when a
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man came to the door of the room in which we were sitting and caused a fearful commotion among the women, by exclaiming that the Indians had broken out at Clear Lake, were torturing and butchering every pale face they could find and were coming our way thirsting for more scalps. At the time there were three trap- pers at Clear Lake with families and they sent in a ery for help. Sweitzer and I volunteered our services with some eighteen or twenty others. Bullets were moulded and with our squirrel rifles we marched as far as Nora Junetion, where we found an old trap- per, Dan Whetsel, in his cabin. Here we stayed all night, most of which was passed in dancing. The next day the band of Indian slayers reached Clear Lake. Here the motley band was aug- mented by the arrival of men from Clarksville, Shell Rock and along the road. Superintendent of Schools Eads was made colonel of the Indian fighters, M. M. Trumbull, captain, and I was given the responsible duties of sergeant. The day was July 4th. Eads made a speech and the men fired the national salute. There being plenty of whisky in the crowd, some of the men got drunk and fired indiscriminately into the crowd. They had to be squelched.
The night of July 4th, guards were placed where most needed. Along toward morning a terrible thunder storm eame on and the lightning was extremely vivid. This wakened everybody, and when the lightning flashed particularly brilliant, many imagined they conid distinguish the "red devils" skulking behind trees and bushes. This made us all vigilant and kept us on the alert until morning. But daylight showed no sign of the expected savages and after we had taken a swim in the lake the troops were marched to Clarksville, and upon our arrival, we found the men of the vil- lage busily and frantically engaged in building a fort. They wanted myself and others to assist but I told them I was a warrior, and that warriors did not work.
The fort was never finished. It stood on the second bloek east of Main street and was made of logs. At this time there were only two or three families in Clarksville. One of them belonged to G. W. Poisal, who lived in a log cabin covered with sod. How- ever. the great Indian scare, while it resulted from a canard, has lived all these years in the history of Butler and other counties, and no detailed story of the county is considered complete without some mention of the incident. Knowing the present historian will not neglect his duty in this regard, it is superfluous for me to continne any farther.
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CHARLOTTE E. LEVIS AND SISTER, CAROLINE MONROE
The Monroe sisters were both little girls when their parents came to Butler county. Since the year 1883, they have been resi- dents of the county seat and the pioneer milliners of that place. Both are now advanced in years, but their memories of the early days of this western country are clear and vivid, fortunately for the present and coming generations who will have been edified and benefited by the preservation of their story in this volume. At times in the interview graciously accorded the writer by them, first one and then the other of these intelligent and charming ladies, was the relator. Hence, as a convenient mode of transpos- ing their recital of events to these pages, the personal pronoun in the first person will be observed in these remembrances.
My father, George W. Monroe, was a native of the State of New York. He was a manufacturer of woolen cloth and having confined himself too closely to his business affairs, his health gave way. An outdoor life was prescribed for him. He at once got the Western fever. Getting together household goods and other necessaries, which were packed in a big wagon and with a load of woolen cloth in another wagon, father with his family and chattels headed for Rock Island, Illinois. But one night while on our way to what was to us an unknown country, inhabited by murderous Indians and wild beasts, we fell in with a traveler, who in the midst of his conversation told father he had relatives in Butler county, lowa, who had entered land there. His description of the country was a glowing one and this decided my father to go to this fertile spot and build him a prairie home. He knew nothing about farming, but he was willing and eager to try his hand at that noble industry. So we reached Willoughby. The night was dark and the prairie grass having been burned intensified the impenetrable blackness of the sky. There was no road, no timber, nothing but the open prairie like a vast inland sea, and on its unknown surfare we began to realize that we were lost. There in the darkness of the night we wandered around on the prairie and at last, when almost ready to despair of relief from our quan- dery, we noticed sparks of fire flying ahead of us. These became our beacon light, and following them, we were led to a cabin. Hearing our "halloo" the door of the cabin was opened and the hospitable host, who proved to be Dan Peterson, took us in and gave us every comfort his humble home afforded. This pioneer
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family we soon learned was composed of seven persons: the hus- band and wife and five children. The structure in which they lived was built of logs. It was 11x14 feet in dimensions. The absence of a floor was at once noticeable. The door and roof were made of "shakes." In this diminutive habitation, the Peterson family of seven, and the Monroe family of five, twelve Imman beings in all, dwelt together in mutual helpfulness and harmony five long weeks. In the meanwhile, father went to Dubuque to file his elaim and under his instructions Peterson and Nathan Linn cut out logs for our cabin and laid them. While they were doing this, upon his return from Dubuque, father went to Cedar Falls and brought back a stove which he set up in the unfinished cabin, on which he melted frozen earth to make plaster with which to close up the interstices between the logs. Before the cabin was finished, we moved into it, late in November. This was quite a change from our eastern home-a three-story brick house.
The nearest strip of timber was three miles from our home in Monroe township, and on this we depended for firewood. From the sawmill twelve miles distant, father hauled lumber, made from logs he had cut, with which he laid a floor in our home. In this respect we were ahead of our neighbors, for ours was the only family in the township having a floor in the house.
I well remember that there was an abundance of wild fruit near the present village of Kesley, particularly plums, grapes, crabapples and berries. The locality was known in early days as Bear Grove, or Island Grove, and abounded with these primitive luxuries of the table. Soon after we had become established in our cabin home, father plowed a furrow around his claim, and in the following spring traded his horses for five yoke of oxen, with which he broke forty acres of the prairie, which vielded a good erop of sod corn, potatoes, and the finest watermelons I think I ever ate. About this time two Hopley families located in the settlement. The Petersons and Linns sold their claims to one Criswell and "Doc" Loveland, and moved away. Loveland remained a short time and then removed to Janesville, in Bremer county.
The first school we girls attended in Monroe township was taught by Thomas Conn in the bedroom of his home, which stood on the southeast quarter of section 1. As pupils he had four of the Criswell children-Robert, James, Nettie and John: Louise Perry and brother, Caroline Monroe, Stanley Conn, a grandson
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of the teacher. The next summer a schoolhouse was built on the section west of us and the building was boarded up and down. Loose boards were laid on the roof and on the floor at the rear of the room, for the teacher's table and chair. Rough hewn boards were used for benches and there was a standing desk made by fastening a board on posts. There were no doors or windows and when it rained I tell you we caught it! Any old book was used and we were taught readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic.
The winter of 1857 was a very severe one and there was more or less suffering, both by man and beast. The snow drifted as high as a horse's back and on the level the snow froze over and formed a crust, thick and strong enough to bear the stock. How- ever, deer would break through in places and become helpless. While in this condition they were easy prey to the severe cold and the settler who came upon them, so that they were almost exterminated before the weather moderated.
The first sermon preached to the settlers in this neighborhood was delivered at the home of Joe Embody by Preacher Brown, an exhorter, who lived at the time at Horse Neck, later known as New Albion.
It was in the month of October, 1855, that we arrived in Butler county, and located on a claim in the southwest quarter of section 1. In this humble home the family lived for five years and then we moved to Ripley township and made our home there for another five years, having traded the quarter section in Monroe township for a tract of two hundred and forty acres in Ripley. Father built a log house on this latter place, which borders on the West Fork and later he erected a comfortable frame house. In 1865 we again packed up our chattels and set out for Illinois, retaining the Ripley township farm, however. After a short stay in the "Sucker" state, father decided to return to Butler county. This time he located on a farm in Jackson township, one and one-half miles southeast of Allison, where Thomas Curtis now lives. We remained there until 1883, when we became resi- dents of Allison.
The Monroe family besides my parents consisted of two girls, Caroline and Charlotte, both little lassies in short dresses at the time of our arrival here, and a boy, George W., Jr., who died when quite young. While we lived in Monroe township our nearest postoffice was Cedar Falls, twenty-five miles away; and it was here we got our groceries, for part of which we bartered butter
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and eggs. For the butter we were paid 3 cents a pound, and in return got salt that cost us 5 cents a pound. At the time of our settlement here there were only three other families in the township-Joe Embody's, Nathan Linn's and Dan Peterson's.
The only family we found in Ripley township at the time of our location there were the James Hunters, Joe Embodys, who had moved from Monroe, and George McConnell, an old bach- elor. Two miles up the river was Daniel Considine; John Moore- head lived one and one-half miles northwest. The place where we built our eabin in Ripley had been an Indian camping ground for fifty years and at the time wigwams were still standing on the farm. Here my brother gathered many stone utensils and weapons of the aborigines. Of a morning we often saw deer running aeross the prairies and many a time they would come close to our cabin door.
As I have before said, we moved to Allison in 1883, at which time there were about one hundred and fifty inhabitants. George Martin's livery stable, the first in Allison, had been built; he retired from the business several years ago in favor of his son, Bert, who is running the business at the original barn, the first building erected in Allison. The first Allison House stood on the site of the present Arnold store building and was destroyed by fire a few years ago. The first landlord of the hostelry was Charles Corwin. The structure was a three-story frame. James Winsett's hardware store was in the building now occupied by Hill's clothing establishment. The first grocer was Fletcher Moore. His place of business was in a building that stood on the site of the sash factory. Mike Weire's blacksmith shop was in operation at the time and is still under the management of that pioneer artisan at the old stand. A man by the name of Bishop had a furniture store, and our millinery shop was in the building now occupied by Walt Diekman. The building stood on the site of Missman's law and abstraet offices. C. W. Williams catered to the general trade; Dr. Riggs was the druggist and was estab- lished in a building he had erected, now the home of the Racket store. Next door was Turner Birkbeck's building in which he had a store. Levi Baker had a restaurant in Mawby's store room. In a building erected by Dr. Burbank was a drug store and Har- bert & Anderson's dry-goods emporium. The present postoffice building was first occupied by the Ray Bank and then by the Citi- zens Bank. North of this was Anna Myer's millinery store and Vol. T -- 13
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adjoining was Combellick's meat market. Aside the track the town site company put up an elevator and not far away was Bar- low's lumberyard. The barber shop building was occupied by a saloon. In 1883 Frank Dodge was editor of the Tribune. The plant was in the second story of a building, the first floor of which was occupied by George Stockwell's general store. This house stood on the corner south of the telephone exchange. Next to this was W. A. Lathrop's law office, which was on the ground floor. His family was installed in the second story.
HENRY C. BROWN
Henry C. Brown has lived at Dumont since the year 1867 and has seen Pittsford township grow from a sparsely settled com- munity to one now generously peopled and containing many farms not to be surpassed by any other section of northern Iowa. Mr. Brown is a man of education and discernment. Well informed in local affairs he takes a great interest in the history of Butler county and while this work was in preparation very kindly con- sented to contribute his recollections of the salient events which have come under his notice since residing here. He says:
I came to Iowa from New Hampshire in the year 1856, shortly after my discharge from the army, and first stopped at Waterloo, where I remained about three weeks and while there I ran across a man by the name of Burr, who had a farm in Pittsford town- ship, on the southwest quarter of section 27, and about three- fourths of a mile east of Dumont. From his descriptions of this part of the country I was indneed to come here and on the 13th day of March, 1867, I arrived with my family.
I found living in Pittsford township in 1867 William P. Jami- son, on section 29; just west of him, on section 30, was James J. Harlan, and Nathan Harlan, with their widowed mother and her daughter, now Mrs. Samuel De Armoun, who has been a widow many years and is now in the eighty-fifth year of her age. James Woods lived a little west. Jolm Jamison, a son of William R. Jamison, lived on section 29; east of Dumont were W. R. Nichols and J. M. Nichols, on section 26; and just south of them, on ser- tion 35, were Elias Frick and family ; all settled near the timber.
From Frick's, as we came a little east of north, we reached S. W. Ferris' place, but he had not built at that time: near him was O. C. Smith's. Arriving at what was one time known as " Pill-
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town", there was one Linebach, who had located there; just west of him was James Boylan ; west of Boylan lived a man whose place I purchased, but his name has escaped me. North of this land lived Silas Needham and a little northwest of him lived his brother, C. B. Needham. On the township line, but in Pittsford, there was a Titus family, who lived in a little log house.
About Boylan's grove was quite a settlement. Just at the outskirts of the grove on the northwest, was a Civil war veteran, Bennie Anderson. From thence north was Alexander Cline, on section 1; between this section and Bristow, lived Joseph Merrill, on section 13; and west of him was James McKinney, also on sec- tion 13; his daughter became Mrs. Joseph Merrill.
A little south of Mckinney's on section 13, James Logan located with his family. Where Bristow now stands and south of Merrill's, on section 13, lived George Trindle. Ephraim McKin- ney settled on section 14; also one Parmenter.
When I came into Pittsford township the Boylans lived around the grove of their name; the Jamisons had been residents sixteen years; Dr. Tiehenor lived at "Pilltown" and probably was responsible for the name; James Boylan lived on section 23; on the west side of the road, going farther west to Boylan's grove, Levi Hewitt was to be found. H. A. Early, father of "Mace" Early, of Allison, lived close to Hewitt in the grove; on section 12 resided a widow named Mrs. Rush, the mother of J. M. Nichols. The old lady practiced medicine and was quite noted for her cures among the settlers of her day.
South of Early's and Hewitt's was the home of W. R. Nichols, a brother of J. M. Nichols; on section 35 T. M. Early, a son of H. A. Early, made his residence.
In the days soon after the war, or rather, when I came, the. county was still young and the settlers were all "hard up." Pub -. lic improvements had been abated during the years of rebellion and traveling was not only tedions, but at times dangerous. There. were no bridges and when the streams were swollen by rains or quick thaws I often had to get out of my wagon and get things across the West Fork as best I could. Frick had a little boat. which often was brought into play when transporting our things over the stream to our team and wagon on the other side. At one. time the Methodists were holding quarterly meeting. The pastor- supplying the pulpit at Dumont lived at Aplington and stayed at my house. That night came a big thaw, which caused the
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