USA > Iowa > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 3
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
states took away their power as a majority. The law for the organization of Carroll county was passed by the Third General Assembly. What is more reasonable than that some Marylander transplanted to lowa with this first movement from the south suggested that which gave Carroll county a name in the name of the most distinguished citizen of his native state?
The Third General Assembly of Iowa met at Iowa City, the then capital, on the 2d day of December, 1850. The state so far as it was then known to geography was indefinite save for the territory bordering upon the Mississippi on the east and stretching along the Missouri line on the south. County organization had extended along the Missouri border as far as the west line of Ringgold county. From this point the lines of or- ganized counties extended in a somewhat broken but tolerably regular course as far north as Boone county, beyond which, to the northwest, west and southwest stretched an unknown country. This unknown country also extended east from Boone county to the west line of Tama county. North of Tama, Blackhawk county was organized, but north of that to the Min- nesota line ran a line east of which lay all that was known of northern Iowa. Within these lines existed one half of the territory of the state, as yet unexplored as to even its water-courses and more salient natural char- acteristics. The legislative district of which Polk county was the center was composed of nine counties, entitled to two senators and two represen- tatives, and had a population of 4.856; while the First district ( Lee county ). with a population of 13,231, was represented in the legislature by two sena- tors and five representatives. To Des Moines county was assigned two senators and three representatives. In the known portion of Iowa there then lived 104,488 people, or approximately four times the number of people now living in Carroll county, or a few thousand more than are at present attached to the city of Des Moines, which appears on the early map as De Moin and to which no population is accredited. The Third General Assembly consisted of nineteen senators and thirty-nine represen- tatives. One of the acts of this legislature is described in the session laws as Chapter IX., being an act providing for the organization of forty-nine counties out of the heretofore unorganized section of the state.
Section 18 of Chapter IX. is as follows :
That the following shall be the boundaries of a new county called Car- roll, to-wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of Township eighty-five north, range thirty-two west; thence west on a line between eighty-five and eighty-six to the northwest corner of Township eighty-five, range thirty- six west; thence south on the line dividing Ranges thirty-six and thirty- seven to the southwest corner of Township eighty-two, range thirty-six ; thence east on the line between Townships eighty-one and eighty-two to the southwest corner of Township eighty-two, Range thirty-two west ; thence north on the line between Ranges thirty-two and thirty-three to the place of beginning.
Under this description did Carroll county come into the sight and knowledge of civilization for the first time since its emergence from the antediluvian muck with the passing of the waters from the melted glaciers
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
by which we are assured its surface was veneered, plowed, kneeded and enriched some several million years ago. These boundaries endure to the present time. Many of the counties formed by the same act were incor- rectly described, a defect which was later cured, and some were subjected to later irregularities of outline due to the correction of the early surveys by the surveys of more recent years. And others were given names which have since been changed. Calhoun county was originally named Fox from its vicinity to Sac-in deference to the Sacs and Foxes, at the time the most numerous remaining tribe of the Indian occupants. Hamilton county was first called Yell. The original cognomen of Woodbury county was Waukah, while Lyon county, in the extreme northwest, had to petition the legislature at a later time to change its name from Buncombe.
The legislature of 1850 made provision for an enumeration of the cen- sus in the forty-nine counties proposed to be organized, but in those days the civil machinery moved with greater deliberation than it does at pres- ent. Five years had been allowed to elapse in Carroll county before the injunction and condition precedent to admission had been fully complied with. Meanwhile Carroll county had been attached first to Polk, again to Shelby and later to Guthrie for purposes of civil government. Carroll was probably recognized as an independent county on the basis of the census of 1856, and for this purpose the county was divided into two town- ships, Jasper and Newton, the latter comprising the south eight congres- sional townships and the former the same area on the north.
It is asserted by some of the pioneers that an earlier census had been taken in the year 1852 or possibly 1853, at which time the number of souls was found to be 151. There are vague references to this census in some of the earlier documents. No such report is found, however, among county records or archives of the state. We are inclined to believe that such a census was indeed taken, though all evidence of it is lost, and that upon this compliance with the law the county was initiated and its first election held in 1855. With the first day of January, 1856, Carroll county became a legal entity, with a full corps of officers, and entitled to proceed with the transaction of busi- ness.
The census of 1856 was taken by the township assessors, and while primitive in its arrangement the document is quite as creditable as similar documents of the present time. It is as follows :
CENSUS OF 1856, CARROLL COUNTY
JASPER TOWNSHIP
Heads of Families
Members
I. James Anderson 8
2. John Walton 3
3. David Frasier 9
4. Leiv Thompson 3
5. Wm. T. Tietsort
3
6. Robert Dixon
7. Thomas W. Tatlow II
3
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
8. Zebulan Heatlı 4
9. William Ochampaugh 7
10. David K. Butrick 3
II. Crockett Ribble 3
12. George Ribble 3
13. Thomas Cooper 14
14. H. L. Thompson 5
15. Elijah Puckett 8
16. Nehamialı Powers 3
17. Uriah Gibson 6
18. Enos Butrick 9
19. Willis Butrick 7
20. Abel J. Lain 8
21. William Short 7
22. Benjamin Rittenhouse 5
Total population of Jasper township-132. Males, 66; females, 66. Number of heads of families, 22, of whom 20 are farmers and two shoe- makers.
Nativity of population-Michigan, 5; Indiana, 27; Iowa, 13; Illinois, 12; Virgina, 10; New York, 12; England, I; Pennsylvania, 10; Kentucky, 2; Tennessee, I ; Connecticut, 2; Missouri, 3; unknown, 34.
Voters, 27.
Subject to military service, 19.
Acres of corn planted, 187; yield, 3400 bu.
Value of hogs sold, $951.
Value of cattle sold, $270.
Wool for market, 60 lbs.
Acres improved land, 151.
Acres unimproved land, 17511/2.
Note .- Among his summaries the assessor returns the number of heads of families as 32, meaning no doubt possible heads of families and accord- ingly thus listing the young unmarried pioneers living with the settlers, who are not, however, except in a few instances, taken by name in the return.
NEWTON TOWNSHIP
HEADS OF FAMILIES
MEMBERS
I. B. F. Teller 6
2. W. Hessler 5
3. Wm. Gilley .3
4. C. Geiselhart 8
5. F. McCurdy
2
6. G. W. Teller
5
~7. L. McCurdy 4
8. A. Basom 5
9. D. Vance 4
IO. J. Freeman 5
TI. S. Loomis 4
12. C. Rhodes .4
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
13. R. Morris .9
14. T. T. Morris .6
15. R. Floyd .6
16. E. B. Smith. .5
17. J. Davis
.
5
18. J. Ferguson
.
6
19. H. Copelan- .6
20. O. J. Mills. .5
21. W. H. Blizard. .7
22. J. F. Flack I
23. T. McKnight 8
Total population of Newton township, 119. Males, 73; females, 22. Number of heads of families, 23. (The number returned by the enume- rator, 46. See note under Jasper township.)
Nativity of population-New York, 4; Ohio, 26; Vermont, 10; In- diana, 14; Iowa, I; Pennsylvania, 25; Germany, 4; Ireland, 5; Delaware, I; Illinois, I; Michigan, 2; England, I ; unknown, 21.
Occupation-Farmer, 28; manteau maker, 4; millwright, I ; engineer, I; brick layer, I; miller, I ; carpenter, I ; tailor, I; blacksmith, I ; machin- ist, I.
Voters, 30.
Subject to military service, 34.
Acres of wheat grown, 19; yield, 190 bu.
Acres of corn grown, 215; yield, 3,207 bu.
Acre potatoes, 21/2; yield, 310 bu.
Hogs, 48; value, $410.50.
Cattle, 9; value, $221.
Butter manufactured, 1bs. 2,464.
Acres improved land, 361.
Acres unimproved land, 3,216.
At the time of the passage of the act describing the boundaries of Car- roll county and laying the foundation for its organization (1850) the ter- ritory of which it is comprised was as little known to the civilization of the day as is Thibet or the heart of Borneo at the present time. If it was peopled at all it was by Indians, and there are small evidences of their presence save as they traveled from point to point in their excursions after game or to and fro from their permanent camps to the traders' stores at Panora or Lewis. No white man had yet taken up his abode at a distance so remote from the mouth of the Racoon river, though along the river between Coon Rapids and Des Moines these were scattered and desultory settlements, stragglers from the only routes of travel that had yet been established and all of which were either further south or further north. The woods which fringed the streams were full of small game and fur animals. Out on the prairies the elk roamed at will and without fear, cropping the wild grasses and exposed only to the molestation of Indian hunters on the occasional raids by which they provided against their hunger. Many wild deer of the smaller varieties roamed the wilderness and it is
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
also probable that there were occasional visits from Buffalo even at as late a date as this.
In all of the state there was not at this time a railroad. The rivers as they appear on the maps of the day disappear before they reach Car- roil county and the country west and northwest reaches to the Missouri river in a blank space indicating its unexplored condition. In fact, no streams whatever are seen leading to the Missouri from this great inte- rior body of land.
It was to this featureless though not inhospitable wilderness that the first adventurer of his race, seeking a home with room for his elbows so that he "could spit without hitting somebody," found his way in 1852. Further down the river he was known as "Jumping" Dave Scott. Scott claimed to be a Missourian and to hail from the vicinity of Alton. The fact was, he was a native of Indiana, for which state, however, he had acquired a peculiar or rather a grotesque abhorrence. Possibly some inci- dent of his youth had made him the victim of a shock from the effect of which he was never able to recover.
There is at the present time found frequently among French Canadians employed in lumber camps or at hard work in the woods a nervous dis- ease known as the "jumps." But it is not confined to this race of people or to the employment of lumbering, though here perhaps it is most fre- quently found. Though the malady is rare most physicians encounter it in the course of their practice nowadays and in all parts of the country. It is in some measure, however, peculiar to woodmen and in new countries it is more common than it is in settled districts. A feature of the disease is that its victim when startled by some peculiar cause-a whistle, or a sharp sound of the voice as in a shout or a word, or at the sudden blow of a hammer ; the excitement may be produced in a great variety of ways -its victim for the moment loses control of himself and at least runs the risk of committing some act of violence upon any one who happens to be near him-he "jumps" at the impulse, and may, to avenge himself upon his tormentor, take up a bludgeon or a weapon and use it without regard of consequences. Murder has been committed by these unfortunates while under the momentary spell of the frenzy. Or they may commit grotesque acts when seized with a sudden spasm provoked by tormentors with so little common sense as to make a mockery of a weakness which is most humiliating to all who suffer from it. Mr. Scott was a "jumper." and his bete noir was the name of the state in which he was born, "Indiana." The peculiarity was so marked that it followed him from place to place, indeed flew in advance of the ox team which carried his household from one settlement to another, first along the Mississippi to the junction of the Des Moines and thence to the Raccoon forks. He followed that stream through Dallas and Guthrie counties, where little settlement had as yet been made. Even here in this sparse region the knowledge of his weakness had outrun him, together with the word which some of the antic pioneers were not averse to using to his annoyance and to their own great danger as well as amusement. His passage is a settled tradition. It is said that the poor man was so heckled by the thoughtless settlers of Guthrie county
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
that he yoked his oxen and pulled out into the unknown where there were no neighbors, hoping thus to escape their annoyances. At a sheltered spot on the Middle Coon, in Union township, he reined in his steers and started to clear a farm. Here he and his family put up the first log cabin or per- manent abode of any sort known to the soil of Carroll county, and here they subsisted upon hunting and trapping for a time. But they did not remain long. In another year or two other families forced their way upon the settlement which he had founded. Still undaunted in his hope for solitude and to be free from tongues that could articulate the word which he abhorred and was so painful, he again put his beasts to the yoke and assembling his domestic gods, knowing no rest, like the Wandering Jew, pressed on. His further migrations are unknown. Beyond this tradition of their fleeting passage "Jumping" Dave Scott and his family left no impress upon the county which they were the first white persons to pene- trate for the purpose of making it their home.
The second settler was Enoch Butrick, who located with his family on the banks of the North Coon in what is now known as Jasper township, in the same year. Some of his descendants are still living in the vicinity of the old pioneer home. Mr. Butrick was a man of energy and enterprise and was one of the leading spirits in the organization of the county and in the affairs of the new organization for several years.
Toward the nuclei established by these two first settlers there was a slow trend of immigration. Neighbors came and other neighbors were added to them from time to time until in 1855 the population had grown to the vicin- ity of two hundred. Carroll county was now a dependency of Guthrie county. But it had no opportunity to vote for the officials of the latter, or to possess any government of its own.
It was in this predicament when, on July 16, 1855, James Henderson, county judge of Guthrie county, issued the following order :
"To Solomon Loomis, of Carroll township (there was no Carroll town- ship at that time), Carroll county, attached to Guthrie county :
"Greeting: It is hereby ordered that an election be held at the house of Henry Copeland, in Carroll township in said county and state, on the first Monday in August, 1855, for the organization of Carroll county and the election of county officers of said Carroll county ; and that this warrant be directed to Soloman Loomis, of said township, to advertise the legal notice of county officers for said Carroll county, viz : County judge, treasurer and recorder, clerk of district court, prosecuting attorney, county surveyor, drainage commissioner, sheriff and coroner to be elected at said election, and that he proceed according to law."
Under this authority the first election was duly held at the time and place appointed. It will be remembered that there are now two settlements in the county, one in the northeast section, on the skirt of the North Coon, and the other on the Middle Coon near the southeast corner of the county. They were separated at that time by a long stretch of low lands in which there were bogs and swamps and many unbridged streams intersected what would
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VIEW OF CARROLL
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
be the natural course of travel. There was little communication between the settlements on account of the difficulties of the road, and their people were practically unacquainted. Being strangers they were inclined to be suspicious of each other, for the simple reason that one fraction lived up the river and the other down the river, and a North Cooner looked consid- erably better to a North Cooner than a Middle Cooner. Every voter in the county, however, was present at the time and place as announced in the proclamation. The election was held at the Copeland home on the Middle Coon river, about a mile south of Carrollton, on what is now known as the the Cyrus Rhodes farm. The house was situated in the middle of a small clearing in the midst of what was then a heavy timber. There could have been no preconcerted plan by either party as to a program by which to conduct operations, nor was there any question of general politics upon which the voters could divide along party lines. The innate love of the American voter for division, if not upon an issue, then upon some question -any question-was present at even these early days, hence the battle, in the absence of something better, joined for the supremacy of one settle- ment over the other, and loyalty to sweet, sweet home became the slogan which moved the tide of combat upon that day. The factions did not mix. The North Cooners drew aloof from the Middle Cooners. The latter de- liberated under the shade of the house, where they drew up a ticket com- posed entirely of Middle Cooners. They did not give the other fellows a smell-not a look-in. The other party was equally liberal in the distribu- tion of its patronage.
After preparation had been made in this manner Mr. Loomis opened the polls; that is to say, he deposited his hat on a log and announced the rules under which the bickering was to take place-one vote to each male citizen over twenty-one years of age, the ballot to be deposited in the hat. As every voter had a ticket prepared according to agreement the ceremony was soon over. The Middle Cooners were licked to a frazzle ; of the twenty- eight votes cast the North Cooners had a majority of two. In this manner were the first county officers chosen, the following being the successful candidates :
County Judge-A. J. Cain ; Clerk of Courts -- Levi Thompson ; Treasurer and Recorder-James White; Surveyor-Robert Floyd; Prosecuting At- torney-L. McCurdy ; Sheriff-J. Y. Anderson.
There was no bad blood between the camps of pioneers over the result of the day's work. Every man had voted his sentiments according to the dictates of his own conscience. The electors shook hands all around and returned to their homes with a good impression of all concerned.
Of this election no record has survived. So far as known, there were no poll-register or other writing to attest the proceedings. Many years later Henry E. Russell of Carroll gathered from the surviving pioneers an interest- ing account of the event and was fortunately able to obtain, after much in- quiry, a list of the voters who participated, as follows : Geo. W. Teller, Rob- ert Dixon, Robt. Floyd, J. Y. Anderson, Thornton Ford, Enos Butrick, O. J. Niles, Cyrus Rhodes, Henry Blizard, S. L. Loomis, Thomas McCurdy, Ed- Vol. 1-2
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
ward Smith, Isaac Ford, Simeon Ochampaugh, Henry Copelin, Levi Thomp- son, C. R. Babbitt, John Gibson, A. J. Cain, David Butrick, Conrad Geisel- hart, Wm. Ochampaugh, James Ford, Benjamin Teller, David Vancer, James White, Elisha Ford, Thos. Ford.
Note .- But one man is now living whose name appears among the voters at this first election, Robert Dixon. Some years since he left his farm on the North Coon and went to live with a son in Oklahoma. He has, how- ever, recently returned to Carroll county and will probably here spend the remaining years of his life. Mr. Dixon is over ninety years of age and physically feeble, but his mind is clear, especially as to events which hap- pened at the time of which we are now writing.
CHAPTER III.
THE PARTICULAR IN WHICH CARROLL COUNTY EXCELS IS IN TIIE ABSENCE OF UNARABLE LANDS-TOPOGRAPHY AND NATURAL FEATURES-LOCATION ON MISSISSIPPI-MISSOURI DIVIDE, WHICH TRAVERSES COUNTY-THE VARIOUS ALTITUDES-RIVERS AND STREAMS AND THEIR PECULIARITIES-NATURAL DRAINAGE AND PRESENT RECLAMATION PLANS-SPRING MOUNDS OF TIIE MIDDLE RACCOON-THEIR GEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE-NATURE OF THE GEN- ERAL SOIL AND ITS GREAT FERTILITY- CARROLL COUNTY DRIFT-POSSIBLE COAL FIELD BUT NO DEVELOPMENT-MANNER IN WHICHI LAND TITLES WERE FIRST ACQUIRED-BIG RAILROAD GRANT-PAID FOR WITH CASH OR SOLDIERS WARRANTS-WHEAT THE IMPORTANT CROP AT FIRST-PRESENT CROPS- FIGURES INDICATING THE PRESENT WEALTH OF THE COUNTY-THE MODIFI- CATION OF THE CLIMATE.
Of the ninety-nine counties of lowa, Carroll county is more than typi- cal in its richness in the several attributes which inspired the descriptive mind of Hon. Sidney A. Foster when he first gave utterance to the now well- worn aphorism, "In all that is good, Iowa affords the best." A given area of prime agricultural and in any portion of the state will be found to dif- fer but little from the same amount of land of the same description in any other part of Iowa ; there is no profound difference in soil, climate, rainfall or adaptability to cultivable uses. The same crops are grown in all sec- tions practically, and the same labor and intelligence which produces good returns in one locality will, accidental considerations aside, produce as good returns in another or in all. But Carroll county considerably differs from the average Iowa county whose industries are agricultural in the high amount of its arability compared to the whole number of its acres. Its contour is generally that of a rolling prairie. There are no large streams and consequently none of the rough or hilly land which is generally found adjacent to them. Where large streams cut up the country there is waste from the timber tracts abounding and from swamps and the low or broken character of the contiguous territory. These must be subtracted from the total inventory, and what is left after due allowance has been made forms the basis of comparison between the counties, rather than any claimed ad- vantages of soil or climate or other consideration due to natural causes.
Reckoned upon this scale Carroll is equalled by not more than two or three other counties, for here there may be said to be no waste land at all; meaning, of course, and speaking comparatively, no land that may not year after year be regarded as a potent agricultural asset. The reason for this is that Carroll county lies along the spine of the Mississippi-Mis-
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
souri divide, so that its lands are among the highest in the state and with as perfect an opportunity for drainage as natural advantages can provide. The summit of this divide is distinctly marked along its entire course through the county, which it enters about the center of Wheatland town- ship and follows a line running through Arcadia and thence southeast to Templeton and beyond. The average altitude of this summit is about 1,425 feet above sea level. The exact elevation of Arcadia is 1,429 feet, of Temple- ton, 1,452 feet, and it will be noticed that the elevation of the latter is but six feet below that of Spirit Lake (1,458), which is the highest point in Iowa. East of the divide the drainage of the county has its outlet mainly by way of the Middle Coon near Coon Rapids, where the elevation is 1, 174 feet, with 278 feet of a fall between the highest point and lowest point of the county, or nearly one-third of the fall in the distance between Temple- ton and Coon Rapids that these same waters find on their way to Keokuk, where the waters of the Raccoon are poured into the Mississippi through the Des Moines. Here the altitude is 494 feet. Along this ridge or spine is the origin of many small streams running both east and west. So nearly do the heads of these contrary water courses meet that one may stand at the source of one running east and throw a stone into a little channel whose waters have started for the Missouri. The ascent of the decline on the Missouri side is even more marked than it is east of the divide. The nat- ural drainage of Carroll county is, therefore, very exceptional; and as no stream can travel very far from its source and remain in the county there are no large streams and no depredations from water beyond a very small minimum. Neither is there any waste land such as borders large rivers, and which in some counties absorb large areas of their surface. At the same time the county is well watered and is the source of several considerable streams. The headwaters of the Nishnabotna, the principal river in southwestern Iowa, are found in Carroll county, near Manning. The Boyer has its source not far from Arcadia.
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