USA > Iowa > Butler County > History of Butler County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 26
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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- vionsly 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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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
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, Jolm 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 mumber 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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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
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 biographieal 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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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
The first frame schoolhouse in the township was built in 1855 on section 14. George MeClellan 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- triet. 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 abont 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 commodions 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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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
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.
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 adien 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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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
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, vet 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.
EARLY SETTLEMENT
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 Mallarky, 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 Lonis Kothe, section 33; Angust Mever, section 34: and William Powestorf. Several of these men later became prominent set- tlers and farmers in the township. Of others nothing is known
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
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.
Dr. John Scoby, the pioneer physician of Shell Rock, in a reminiscent article covering the early days of his practice in But- ler county, gives several vivid descriptions of prairie scenery, which are directly applicable and which probably referred in part at least to Jefferson township. He says in part: "The undulat- ing plains were dressed in Nature's gay attire of living green. There were but few, if any, laid out or worked roads or bridges in this county. I traveled as best I could, avoiding the sloughs which were very miry. Log cabins were occasionally to be seen, generally near to the groves or timber land, where a few acres were plowed and a few domestic animals to be seen. But the most of those rich alluvial prairies were then performing their diurnal and revolutionary movements without a human inhab- itant.
"For seven years my profession called me over these wild prairies, frequently in midnight darkness. Often the dwellings were miles apart. with naught but a dim trail to follow. Some- times I was sloughed down and the wolves howling not far distant and the rattlesnakes hissing. During these seven years the march of improvement in this county was slow. The wild prairie every season produced a vast amount of grass which was interspersed with several species of gay roses, pinks and violets which crowded their footholds among the roots of the high grass and waved their shining flowered phimes on the zephyr's breeze to the passer-by, filling the air with sweet perfume and arresting the monotony of loneliness."
It was some years after the beginning of the settlement of the township before the value of the open prairie lands was realized and before settlement began to be made in the northern and cen- tral sections of the township. The first settler in the township was H. C. Dawson, who in the fall of 1854 located on section 33. About the same time .James D. Taylor settled on section 31. Daw- son later moved to Marshalltown : Taylor lived on his farm until
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
the outbreak of the war, when, being strongly opposed to the war and suspicious of the ultimate redemption of the paper currency of the period, he sold his property, converted his possessions so far as possible into gold, and moved to Illinois. Nothing further is known of him.
In October, 1854, William Hays settled on section 36. He was accompanied by his wife and four children, Nathan Olmstead and family, Marshall Kelley and family, James Hair and family, Myron Hair and Gilbert Knights. This party, with the excep- tion of Knights, who joined them at Cedar Falls, all came from Illinois, principally from La Salle county. All of them located in Butler county.
In 1855 William Mason, A. J. Case, Robert Armstrong, Samuel Williams and a Mr. Whitehead all settled in the township. Wil- liam Mason located on section 28, where he remained six years, finally removing to Charles City. A. J. Case settled on section 30 near the river and Whitehead near the location of the pro- jected town of New Albion, on the township line between Albion and Jefferson. New Albion was located on sections 33 and 34 of Jefferson, and 3 and 4 of Albion. The town plat was located chiefly in the latter township and will be mentioned at length in connection with the history of Albion.
The year 1856 saw a large increase in the number of settlers. It is probable that the list of these is incomplete. However, all names are given of whom mention has been found in connection with the settlement at this time. Joe Santee, afterward a resi- dent of Ripley township, settled in Jefferson in 1856. He assisted in building the first schoolhouse in Butler Center. O. S. Levis, H. H. Marsh, Hugh Mallarky, H. H. Margretz and a Mr. Pen- nock were included in the settlers of this year, but as they were later residents of the village of Butler Center, they will be noted in connection with the sketch of that community.
John Braden located in the spring of 1856 on a farm near Butler Center. He was one of the soldier martyrs of Butler county in the Civil war. His body was brought back and buried in the grove west of the house on the farm where he had lived.
P. E. Dunson, one of the best known of the early settlers, came to the county February 7, 1856, and took up one hundred and sixty acres of land in section 29.
Among the settlers of a later date other than those in Butler Center were James Hall. D. A. McGregor, Frederick Toll. John
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
Coster, Thomas Thompson, N. C. Thompson and Noble C. Thomp- son; the last thirce named natives of Ireland, all settled in the township at various dates from 1855 to 1863. Others were Albert Cook, Henry Trotter and James Trotter, his son; S. M. Baldwin, M. B. Speedy and William Van Vlack.
GENERAL ITEMS
The first house on the road between Butler Center and Shell Rock was erected in 1856 on section 14 by Henry Trotter. In 1857 the only settlers between Butler Center and Shell Rock were N. A. Thompson and Henry Trotter.
The first marriage celebrated in the township was that of Noble A. Thompson to Christina McGregor. The ceremony was performed by Justice M. Bailey, and the couple settled on sec- tion 13.
The first township officers in Jefferson were: Hugh Mullarky and Albert Cook, trustees; H. A. Shaw, clerk; H. H. Margretz, justice of the peace.
In the biographical volume of this work will be found the sketches of a number of these men and others who were identified with the history of Jefferson township in later days.
EDUCATIONAL
For school purposes Jefferson township was at an early date organized on the district township basis, divided into seven sub- districts. No. 1, known as the South Butler Center school, is sit- uated in the southeastern corner of section 18. No. 2, the Wilson school. is in the southwest quarter of section 22. The Hall school. No. 3, is on land belonging to Charles Hall on the east side of section 26.
School No. 4 stands on the township line near the southeast quarter of section 31. The school population has in recent years been so small that this school has been closed and the few pupils in the district have been accommodated in the schools of Albion and Monroe townships. It is the only school in the township south of the river.
School No. 5. the McGregor school. is located in section 11: No. 6. in section 9: and No. 7, the North Butler Center school, in section 6. The school affairs of the township are in the hands of
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
a board consisting of a body of progressive citizens, and the schools rank with the best in the county.
POPULATION
1860, 241; 1863, 262; 1865, 339; 1867, 454; 1869, 516; 1870, 613; 1873, 629; 1875, 677; 1880, 774; 1890, 642; 1900, 657; 1910, 642.
BUTLER CENTER
A person driving across country at the present time from Alli- son to Parkersburg will note some five or six miles south of Allison a number of rather abrupt turns in the road, and the fact that there are an unusually large number of farm homes rather close together along the road. A little closer observation would reveal the presence of several squares grown up to weeds and rank grass, in the midst of which perhaps might be seen a few rotting tim- bers and a stone or two that might once have formed part of a foundation of a house. Not far away you might discern a little cemetery. These facts would probably suggest to even the casual passer-by that this was once the site of a village. This is all that remains today to mark the site of Butler Center, at one time the county seat of Butler county and one of its most progressive and promising communities.
Reference has been made elsewhere to the fact that there was considerable dissatisfaction, after the county began to be settled in the central and western portions, with the location of the county seat so far to the east of the topographical center of the county. In another chapter the various phases of the county seat struggle are traced in detail. Mention is made there of the attempt to secure the location of the county seat at Georgetown, a town platted in the exact topographical center of the county at the junction of Jefferson, Ripley, West Point and Jackson town- ships. Although the attempt reached the point of being submitted to the voters of the county, the result struck a death blow to the hopes of the Georgetown supporters. Clarksville was reindorsed as the location of the county seat by a substantial majority.
Previous to the initiative of the Georgetown project, Andrew Mullarky and Colonel Thomas platted a town located in the north half of section 18, of Jefferson township, just two miles south of the proposed location of Georgetown. This plat was made in
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY
the year 1855. It was recorded on the minute book of the county court, June 20, 1856.
In an election called for the purpose, on April 4, 1859, to determine the question of the relocation of the county seat at Butler Center instead of Clarksville, the former village secured a majority of twenty one. Before the actual transfer of the county seat could be effected, however, the people of Clarksville secured an injunction preventing the removal of the county seat until certain irregularities in the election might be passed upon by the district court. In July following this court adjudged the election void and on April 4. 1860, another election on the same question resulted in a victory for Butler Center by a majority of eighty votes. Butler Center was thereupon declared to be the official county seat of Butler county, and all the county offices and officers as soon as practicable were moved to the new town and took up quarters in a frame building, which, with the two acres of land surrounding it, was donated to the county for this purpose by Mr. Mullarky.
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