USA > Iowa > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
The only stream in Carroll county that is sometimes troublesome and destructive is Storm Creek, which has its source in Kniest township, a short distance north of Mt. Carmel, and follows a course slightly east of south to a junction with the Middle Coon, which originates in Carroll county a short distance south of Breda. At various times plans have been discussed to bring Storm Creek under better control. The county authorities have recently shown a marked interest in the project and such steps have been taken by the Board of Supervisors as will within another year or two force Storm Creek to cease its eccentricities and change its nature from a menace to a blessing. It is the largest drainage project ever undertaken by the county and the cost of the improvement will be approximately $215,000. The drainage district comprises 30,000 acres.
Pursuant to a policy inaugurated several years ago the Board of Super- visors has prosecuted the subject of drainage and reclamation with com- mendable intelligence and industry. With the completion of the Storm creek enterprise at some early day there will remain practically no waste land the redemption of which can be brought about by public agency. While the area to which it applies is nominally 30,000 acres only a very
21
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
small proportion of it may be properly classed as useless. In the estimates 2,500 acres are given as waste land, (wholly useless at the present time), while in addition only 8,000 acres come under the description of wet land, or land that can be used only a part of the time either on account of its swampy nature or its peculiar liability to overflow. The Storm Creek drain- age canal will, it is proposed, carry off the waters of Goose lake and lay bare a tract of two square miles which is now either inundated or covered with a morass which makes it of little value. The rest of the area is distributed into low lands and high lands, which the enterprise will benefit only in de- gree, and which will contribute to the cost under a graduated scale by which the tax will fall heaviest on the tracts most benefitted and eased as the de- gree of benefit is removed. This will be the only open ditch in the Carroll county drainage system save one near Coon Rapids, in the building and maintenance of which there is a joint partnership between Carroll and Greene counties. Storm Creek has taken its troublesome qualities from the fact that it threads its way in a most irregular and tortuous channel be- tween low banks through a wide and level bottom, the gradient of the stream at certain intervals being almost imperceptible. The proposed channel will simply straighten the stream, which, relieved of its circuitous detours and thus given a greater fall will discharge itself through this rich and beauti- ful section without harm. The completion of the Storm Creek system will close the reclamation projects in the county. It is not possible to ascertain the number of acres "brought in" by the various drainage enterprises ; but it will be possible to say very shortly that there is in Carroll county no waste land, and that the reclaimed lands are the best that the county affords.
The North Racoon is the largest river in the county, cutting through Jasper and a corner of Glidden townships, while the next two in import- ance are the Middle Raccoon and the Bushy Fork, which also take their rise in the county on the east slope of the divide and flow nearly parallel from four to six miles apart in a southeasterly direction to their exits in the southeast part of the county. The North Raccoon has cut a deep chan- nel in the drift deposits, and its valley is bordered by steep declivities from seventy to one hundred feet in extent. The Middle Raccoon is bordered on the west by high, bluff-capped slopes and on the east by drift hills which gain the exterior heights by gradual ascents. Bushy Fork possesses a beautiful valley, with gentle slopes on either side, which is also the char- acter of the Nishnabotna and Boyer valleys. The upper courses of all these streams are little more than diminutive prairie brooks, running with clear, rapid currents through shallow channels in the black soil. Springs issue along these courses, furnishing them with an abundant supply of pure, limpid water at all seasons of the year. East of the Middle Coon wells are easily obtained, but on the uplands west of that stream wells to furnish a never failing supply must be sunk from 120 to 200 feet. There are many surface wells in this region which supply water abundantly much of the time, but in seasons of extreme drouth they are not to be depended on. In Greene county, adjoining Carroll on the east, there is a number of flow- ing wells, but here an artesian water supply has never been known.
22
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
In a shallow depression below Carrollton, on the east side of the Middle Raccoon, several interesting spring mounds occur. They have excited at- tention among geologists, one of whom, Dr. White, describes them as fol- lows: "The plain is thirty or forty feet above the present level of the river, from which it is separated by a well defined drift ridge which, in places, rises into considerable knob-like eminences from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet above the stream. The plain, however, com- municates with the valley both above and below and was probably once the channel of the river. The spring mounds are found along an irregular line more or less in the middle of the depression; they are from four to six feet in height and as many yards in diameter, and are apparently entirely com- posed of vegetable matter, forming a peaty deposit which is largely mixed with the exuviae of shells and other animal remains. The crests of the mounds are covered with a tall, rank flag or marsh grass, but upon the sides there are usually two well marked bands of short herbage and moss separated by a narrow belt of tall grass. The deposit of the vegetation upon these places is exceedingly interesting, though the mounds themselves, doubtless, owe their origin to the existence of pools of water indicating more or less accurately the course of a former water channel, and which, being fed from higher sources, the tendency is what we observe-the grad- ual building up of a peaty formation. The surface of the plain beyond the limits of the mounds is perfectly level, and the deposit consists of de- cayed vegetable matter mixed with sand, forming a sandy muck."
The soil of Carroll county presents two well marked varieties. That on the east of the Middle Raccoon is of the Wisconsin drift formation, and is a gravelly loam. To the west the uplands are deeply enveloped in the bluff deposit found in its purity in the bluffs of the Missouri river. Both soils are deep and rich and will produce a great diversity of crops. Soil analysis gives to Carroll county, beyond the general distinction above men- tioned, a singular variety of composition. In fact the county has given its name to a peculiar drift indicating the presence there at one time of a glacial formation the deposit of which is different from the other native drifts, and which is not found elsewhere in western Iowa or in fact in the state. The science of the adaptation of crops to soils is understood by many of the farmers of Carroll county, and the vicinity of the state college at Ames gives them a convenience along the lines of scientific soil study that they are not neglecting.
No beds of coal have yet been discovered in the county though the southern part is on a line with the territory in Greene county in which valuable mines are now in operation. Geologists surmise that this coal measure underlies a portion of the county, but no systematic prospecting has been done and the only specimens yet discovered have been found in digging wells and making other excavations. Some of the specimens thus secured have been analyzed, and while considerable traces of bituminous matter have been found the preponderance of ash and waste is such that they are pronounced no more valuable than bituminous shale, which is of no value at all. However, the time may come when serious efforts will be made to investigate the question of whether coal is or is not to be found
23
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
in practicable quantities in the fields near Coon Rapids, where the experts declare the surface and other signs point to its presence. This is the only way in which the riddle can be solved. Persons in digging wells have also struck gas as well as coal and this when ignited has burned freely for a time, indicating the presence of natural gas. The informed call this com- bustible stuff a marsh gas, similar to fire damp, and give its occasional discovery no importance save as it may indicate the vicinity of coal. Peat is also found in several places, but no examination has ever been made of the beds with any practical object in view. Good building stone does not exist in the county, the native sandstone, found at some outcroppings along the Middle Coon, being too friable to serve for building purposes. Brick clay, however, is found in abundance all over the county and local manu- facture has been to some extent developed for the making of both brick and drain tile.
The original title to the lands of Carroll county was either acquired through direct purchase from the Iowa Land company, a subsidiary organiza- tion of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad company (now the Chicago and Northwestern), or patented from the government by means of what were known as soldiers' warrants. On the 15th of May, 1856, congress granted to the state of Iowa certain lands for the purpose of aid- ing in the construction of railroads from Burlington, on the Mississippi river, to a point on the Missouri river near the mouth of the Platte river ; from the city of Davenport, Iowa, by way of Iowa City and Fort Des Moines, to Council Bluffs ; from the city of Lyons northwesterly to a point of intersection with the main line of the Iowa Central Air Line railroad near Maquoketa, thence on said line running as near as practicable to the forty-second parallel across the state, and from the city of Dubuque to the Missouri river near Sioux City." The grant comprised the alternate sec- tions designated by odd numbers and lying within six miles from each of the proposed roads. Provision was also made for indemnity for all lands covered by the grant which were already sold or otherwise disposed of.
At this time the Chicago and Northwestern had not yet completed its line to the Mississippi river at Clinton, and the "Iowa Central Air Line Railroad" was a mere figment of the imagination, from which condition it never emerged. The story of the acquirement of the land grant of the "Iowa Air Line" by the Cedar Rapids and Missouri river railroad covers several years both of congress and the legislature, but in 1859 the title was perfected, the first grant having been revoked and a new grant made to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River company. This company (later the Chi- cago and Northwestern) thus acquired the land found in alternate sections for six miles on each side of its right of way, and as it was several years before its tracks were completed to the Missouri river, upon its arrival it found some of these lands already sold or otherwise disposed of by the set- tlement that came in advance of the iron. To compensate the company for this loss congress at a later time extended the limits of the grant to in- clude alternate sections in a territory of twenty miles on each side of the line. Thus a half of the entire area of Carroll county was included in the grant, as the twenty mile limit extended both north and south of the lines
24
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
of the county, the other half so far as not already occupied of course being open to purchase at the rate of $1.25 per acre outside of the six-mile zone and $2.50 per acre for the lands inside of that limit. Congress took ad- vantage of the grant to the extent of doubling the price of the reserved lands which it was considered the railroad would benefit and thus in a sense was not a financial loser to this extent in the transaction which alienated so lib- eral an empire. The reserved lands were generally disposed of by sale and were paid for in soldiers' warrants, a species of script issued to the soldiers after the Civil war to be received in exchange for land. Many used their warrants and by this means came into possession of a valuable property, but much of the script was picked up by speculators who bought it at such discounts that the land for which they exchanged it cost them little or noth- ing. A few pieces of land on the North Coon river were entered under the homestead laws. The greater part of the lands of Carroll county were taken at the time they were enacted, however, and the homesteader passed by, moving to regions further west.
The soil of Carroll county is hospitable to all of the crops which grow out of the ground in the temperate zone, but it is especially adapted to cereal pro lucts of all kinds and to grasses, root vegetables and fruits. Corn and grasses are, however, the crops which stand above and beyond all others, having grown to this commanding position because of the facility with which they are converted into beef and pork and from this form into the coin of the realm. This has been the result of a development. The early Carroll county farmers were disposed to diversify their crops if not their methods. In the early seventies wheat was an important crop, as were also barley and rye. A considerable quantity of flax was produced at this time. In the year 1874 413 cars of grain were shipped from Carroll, 278 from Glidden and 210 from Arcadia, making a total of 901 cars, the same towns shipping during the same period 70, 54 and 8 cars respectively of live stock, or a total of 142. Grain was at this time the preponderant source of wealth to the county, and although the exact proportions can not be ascertained wheat was a more important element in this traffic than corn, if not in bushels or car loads at least in value. This movement of grain has almost entirely ceased, while the shipping of live stock has multiplied beyond meas- ure. At so early a period as this satisfactory farm statistics are not avail- able, but in 1885 wheat was still an important crop and 55,454 acres of Car- roll county land were devoted to its cultivation, yielding a harvest of 117,254 bushels. In the year 1909 this acreage of wheat had diminished to 6,253, returning 74,488 bushels. At the same time the corn area increased from 92,000 acres to 103,000 acres, a large part of the wheat and other grain lands having been converted into pasture to accommodate an increase of nearly a hundred per cent (25.900 against 47,590) in cattle, a large increase in hogs, milk cows, poultry and poultry and dairy products-all the result of an evolution along the lines of least resistance ; or, in other words, the con- centration of production to the forms commensurate with the largest and most satisfactory returns both to the soil and the pocket. To what extent habit may have followed in the course of the natural tendency is another question. The grain crops of the past year, limited as has been their
MAIN STREET, LOOKING NORTH, IN 1978
SEYLLER
& SHOEMAKER
CADN
01
GEM
-
E
MAIN STREET, CARROLL
25
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
acreage, have been a source of surprise to many who have taken it for granted that the elements which are necessary for small grains, and espe- cially for wheat, were exhausted from the soil by the efforts of the pioneer farmers to grow bread instead of beef.
However, the policy which has been followed has witnessed the increase in farm lands in price from $25 to $40 per acre to the stage where $100 land is a rare bargain for that which is poorest in quality, least improved or most remote from trading points, while far the larger part of the farms offered for sale command prices ranging from $150 to $200 per acre. The farms have grown in size since 1885, when the average was 141 acres. In 1909 the average farm consisted of 171 acres, and this with a loss of rural population of 225 in addition to a further loss in proportion to the growth of the towns. Carroll county is not alone in this loss of population, which is a state wide condition ; in fact the loss here is not so great by considerable as that found in adjoining counties ; but the increase of holdings and the decrease of population do not stand for a situation wholly desirable. The advance of land would seem to call for more diversified and more intensive methods of farming, demanding an increase of labor and therefore of hands to perform the labor. Rents have not increased in keeping with the ad- vance of land, the prevailing price at this time being from four to five dol- lars an acre or a crop rent of three-fifths and two-fifths. These matters are stated as rather curious facts of the present time and are passed on to the future for such explanation as it may resolve upon.
The national census of 1910 is still in course of preparation and infor- mation from that source is not to be obtained at this time. However, a very close and intelligent compilation was made of the farm statistics of the county from the returns of the assessors of 1909. There were under cul- tivation in that year 323,482 acres, divided among 1,892 occupants-not distinguished in the return as between owners and tenants-who farmed an average of 171 acres. Of this acreage 102,201 acres were planted to corn and produced a yield of 3,696,820 bushels. Eden township had the largest corn fields, consisting of 8,167 acres and a production of 300,773 bushels, an average of thirty-eight bushels per acre. Glidden followed with nearly as large an acreage but a smaller average yield. Wheatland, with a much smaller acreage, pro luced an average of forty-one bushels to the acre.
There were 6,253 acres of spring wheat, producing 11.9 bushels per acre or a total of 74,488 bushels. There were seeded to barley, 7,208 acres, with an average yield of 14.7 bushels. To hay raising were devoted 39.729 acres, with a general yield of one and one-half tons per acre. In this crop Union township stood at first place, with an acreage of 22,753, making an average of two tons. The number of acres planted to potatoes was 21,245, and the yield, 228,266, an average of 107 bushels.
During the year Carroll county laid 194,982 rods of drain tiling, Richland township leading with 44,534 rods, followed closely by Glidden, Jasper, Pleasant Valley, Union and Grant. Practically no tiling was done in the west side of the county.
A count of the domestic animals gives the following result: Horses, 13,531 ; mules, 425 ; hogs, 70,108; cattle, 47,590. Of cattle sold for slaugh-
26
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
ter there were 7,404 head. The above figure includes 11,585 milk cows which produced 544,566 pounds of butter, 363,565 of which was sold for profit. Roselle was the banner butter township, with 910 cows, from which were sold 22,189 pounds of butter. In dairy importance Pleasant Valley ranked second and Glidden last, with 482 cows and 12,153 pounds of butter for market.
In this census 284,919 chickens were counted, of which 80,470 went to market and the remainder furnished to the world 721,000 dozens of eggs. Sheridan township takes first place in egg production, with 72,650 dozen, followed by Warren and Wheatland, with 63,000 dozen each.
A considerable change has taken place in the climate of Carroll county since its early settlement, when storms of so severe a character as to be traditional were occasional incidents of both the summer and winter sea- sons. The pioneers relate accounts of snows so deep that a sleigh could be driven on its frozen surface above the tops of the stakes of the stake-and- rider fences, with 30 to 40 degrees of cold over long periods of the winter. In these old times violent storms were frequent during the summer, and one or two destructive tornadoes were among the expected annual visitors. One of the first records made by the Iowa so-called cyclone was found in the destruction of the town of Camanche, north of Clinton, on the Mississippi river, in the year 1860. This storm was so notable in character and disas- trous in results that an attempt was made to follow it back to its origin, and its traces were found as far west as Calhoun county, where the search was abandoned. A report of the incident says that the course of the tornado in Calhoun county shows that it invaded that section from the southwest and that it must have "originated in Carroll county or the Missouri bottoms across the divide." In the '7os storms of this character, though of course not so severe, were not infrequent. For the past twenty years, however, they have been little known, and while the summers have been free from any alarming disturbances of this kind, the winters also have moderated distinctly both in snowfall and in point of temperature. Indeed, as the face of the prairie has gradually grown from a naked plain to a surface of farms upon each of which groves have been grown and buildings erected to inter- rupt the free play of the elements, the excesses of the climate have been brought under control, and the seasons come and go without exciting more apprehension than is found in the tolerable certainty that December and January will bring a moderate amount of inclemency, and that in August a term may be expected for which no word is found in the new version to furnish a suitable description.
CHAPTER IV.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY-TIIE PIONEERS AND THEIR DIFFICULTIES -JUDGE CAIN CONVENED COUNTY COURT IN 1855-NATURE OF THE COURT AND THE SORT OF BUSINESS DISPOSED OF-THE LOCATION OF THE COUNTY SEAT AT CARROLLTON ORDERED BY HON. H. E. SEARS-MISCELLANEOUS MAT- TERS OF EARLY HISTORY-THE FIRST TAX LEVY-SLOW INCREASE OF POPU- LATION-FIRST TERM OF STATE COURT IN 1858, MARSHAL F. MOORE, PRE- SIDING JUDGE-THE FIRST GRAND AND PETIT JURORS EMBODIED ENTIRE ADULT MALE POPULATION-CARROLL COUNTY'S SWAMP LAND GRANT- GIFT TO AID COUNTY IN ESTABLISHING PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS.
At this point in the narrative of its social and civil evolution Carroll county has assumed a form in readiness for law and order to take up a permanent abode, with the machinery at hand with which to compel obedience. The life of the community, however, underwent but little change. So far as known there was no crime and neighbors lived together in peace and amity. There was little or no money in the country to tempt the cupidity of those inclined to avarice. Some time later in the pioneer period there were horse thieves whose raids among the settlers were a sore plague to them, but at this time there could be no such depredations be- cause there were no horses. The work of the settlements not done by human hands was done by ox teams, and these were so scarce that it may be said that all of the labor not beyond man's power was done by the wear and tear of human muscles. In making their clearings and building their cabins an amount of toil was involved that would appall the modern pio- neer. Only the axe and a few other primitive tools, among which the maul and wedge were next in importance to the axe, were known so far out upon the frontier. The raw material for home building stood upright in the forest, but the business of converting a tree into a house was a far cry when there was no division of labor and the settler was his own woodman, sawyer, carpenter, plasterer, etc., as well as his own carrier and architect. To be sure, the neighbors helped each other, and a house raising was an event to which society from far and near flocked for a celebration and a good time, but the toil and drudgery by which these earliest of the Carroll county pioneers came into possession of a dwelling place, to say nothing of their remoteness from civilization and isolation from the conveniences and social life of the eastern states from which they came, many times sick- ened them to the heart with discouragement and dread. Their nearest doctor was at Panora, thirty miles away, and it was sixty miles to the near- est grist mill, south of Boonesboro, in Boone county, on the Des Moines
27
28
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
River. Panora was also the nearest postoffice and source of store supplies. The trail led across many fords, some of them dangerous at all seasons, and during seasons of flood and in the winter the way was impassible ex- cept to travel on foot, a method very dangerous in winter because of the storms which swept over the country with much greater vehemence than at present. There was no railroad nearer than Iowa City, one hundred and twenty miles away.
These are, however, the common experiences of the original Iowa set- tlement. If the settlers had taken to the prairie lands many of their hard- ships would have been saved to them and few would have been added, but it was not for years afterward that they realized that life away from the timber was possible and that the lands which they had cleared with such toil were the poorest and least responsive to their labor.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.