USA > Iowa > Clayton County > History of Clayton County, Iowa : from the earliest historical times down to the present : including a genealogical and biographical record of many representative families, prepared from data obtained from original sources of information, Volume I > Part 49
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He died Sunday, April 27, 1872. He was sitting on the porch of his residence, engaged in a lively conversation with John Thompson, his surviving partner, joking and laughing with him over old remi- niscences, when he suddenly fell back in his chair, threw up his hands with an exclamation of "Oh !" and immediately expired. Mr. Thomp- son held him in the chair until the family came to his assistance, and with their aid carried him into the house. The funeral ceremonies took place the following Tuesday, and a large concourse of people followed his remains to the grave. The business houses were all closed and sorrow pervaded the whole community. He lived a life of usefulness to himself and fellow men, and was an active worker for the develop- ment and prosperity of his country. The State lost in him one of her
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choicest intellects, the community an exemplary citizen, and his be- reaved wife and children an affectionate husband and kind father. Horace D. Bronson .- Horace D. Bronson was born at Chatham, Conn., December 25, 1797. When he was quite young his parents moved to Vermont. He was married at an early age to an estimable lady of New York. Shortly after his marriage he removed with his family and effects to Canada, and there kept a hotel for a number of years. At the age of thirty-nine he and his old friend, Elisha Board- man, came to the State of Iowa, then the Territory of Wisconsin. Here in the valley of Turkey River, "Uncle" Bronson and Elisha Boardman made claim to a large tract of government land and laid out the site for the town of Elkader.
The old house that formerly stood where the depot building now stands and an old house torn down in 1870 that stood near the house of P. Garaghty were built by these two pioneers, and for many years served as dwelling places for them, and as places of refuge from troubles by Indians for many a pale-faced adventurer. Uncle Bronson was known for miles around, and noted for his kindness and hospitality, even among the Indians. In 1838 he prevailed on his parents to move hither, but shortly after their arrival his father was delivered from all troubles and dangers by the hand of death, and was buried in the neighborhood of Garnavillo. His mother survived the death of her husband some eight years, and then she, too, followed him to the grave. At death they were both very old people. When Uncle Bron- son had arrived at the age of fifty-eight years his wife died.
For fifteen or twenty years Mr. Bronson was coroner of the county, and, strange to say, he was sometimes elected to office by one party and sometimes by the other, party politics never affecting him in the least. He died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Tupper, Wednesday, April 19, 1876, at the age of seventy-nine years. For many months previous to his death he had suffered with lung trouble, at- tended with a distressing cough; this, together with the infirmities incident to old age, released him from the troubles and cares of life, and his spirit has gone to that bourne beyond the waters. A large concourse of citizens paid the last token of respect to his memory by following his remains to their final resting place the day of the funeral. The services were held in the Universalist church, Rev. Henry Gifford, an old pioneer friend of the deceased, officiating. And thus passed away another landmark of the early history of Clayton County, a pioneer who was here at the beginning, when it "tried men's souls" to battle with the hardships they had to encounter in effecting the early settlements that were the foundation of the glorious State of Iowa.
Elisha Boardman .- This early pioneer of Clayton County and Boardman Township was born at Princeton, Conn., October 25, 1781, six days after the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, amidst the rejoicing of the American colonies. When quite young his parents died, and he went to live with his grandparents, where he remained until sixteen years old. Then, with an older brother, he went to Grand Isle, Vt., where, by his untiring energy and industry, he accumu- lated considerable property, married an estimable woman, and had a daughter born to him. At the age of about fifty his wife died. He
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never married again. The daughter married a man of the same name, had two children, and then died. Now, left alone, Mr. Boardman in- vested a large share of his property in the lumber business in Canada with H. D. Bronson. He got together over a million feet of lumber in the St. Lawrence river, and started for market. In a violent storm all was wrecked. He lost every foot of his lumber. Returning to his old Grand Isle home, with his property nearly all gone, he concluded that the star empire was westward. With his friend Bronson he came to Green Bay, Wis., whence he went to Chicago. Here, in specu- lation with sharpers, he lost $300 of his hard earnings. Returning to Green Bay, to his friend Bronson, they held counsel and concluded to follow the star still further westward. Falling in company with a Mr. Hastings, they procured two yokes of oxen and a wagon, with which Mr. Bronson and family started across the country for Prairie du Chien. Mr. Boardman and Mr. Hastings went to the head waters of Wisconsin River, there dug out a canoe, and sailed down the Mis- sissippi and over to Iowa. This was in 1836, soon after the Black Hawk war. Each intent on securing a mill site, came to Turkey river. Hastings found a good site at the mouth of Otter creek, where the town of Elgin now stands and commenced the erection of a sawmill. He soon was driven off, finding himself on the Indian reser- vation. Mr. Boardman came down to where Elkader now stands, made his claim and built his cabin where the depot now stands. Here he and his old friend Bronson lived together many years. Uncle Bronson was a good millwright. They found a small creek in Board- man Grove, running down through Clayton Center, and emptying into Pony creek just above its mouth. On this stream they put up a sawmill. It was on section 16, the geographical center of Clayton County, near John Barrett's. The mill was finished, the machinery all put in, and everything ready to start. In the evening a log was put upon a carriage with a view of starting next morning with ceremonies befitting the introduction of a grand enterprise in a new world. Morn- ing came. The dam and mill machinery and logs were all there, but the water was gone! It had escaped through the crevices of the rock and could never be brought back again so as to be made to turn a wheel. The stream or hollow now goes by the name of Dry Mill Creek.
One might naturally suppose, with all these reverses he would have been discouraged. But his energy of mind caused him to rise above the tide of reverses. He now returned to his cabin on Turkey River and prepared to break the soil, but another calamity lay in wait for him. The Indians stole one yoke of his oxen. Unable to break his claim with the team left, he went down by the river where it was sandy, plowed thirty acres, planted corn, raised it, ground it with a steel hand mill, and ate the bread earned by the sweat of his brow. He continued to labor until more than eighty years old. In 1843 the Turkey rose twenty-five feet above low water mark and swept away all his fences. Not yet discouraged he gathered what rails he could find and fenced in a part of his field. Again the water came and swept away his work, and at this he abandoned the field. Messrs. Thompson, Sage and Davis bought his millsite, which enabled him to improve his claim on which
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his house stood. In 1853 his grandchildren came to Iowa, Captain Boardman and Mrs. Betsy Grannis, with whom he resided the re- mainder of his days well provided for. He died at Elkader, July 5, 1876, at the age of ninety-five years, nine months and nineteen days. He thus lived to a ripe old age, lacking a little over four years of being a centenarian, beloved and respected by all who knew him.
Alexander McGregor-Alexander McGregor was a descendant of the old Scotch family of McGregors, his immediate ancestors having emigrated to the United States and settled at Wilton, Saratoga county, N. Y., where he was born May 23, 1804. Of his early life we have been able to gather little information, except that his education was of that meager sort furnished by the common schools, such as they were at an early day in the country where his parents settled. But his native energies were such that he overcame in a great measure these disadvantages in the school of experience and self-education. He emigrated to Chicago in 1832, where he could have purchased at that time a future fortune for a mere trifle, had he foreseen what Chicago was destined to become. But that was hidden from the most saga- cious observer in the sunken, miry and unpromising aspect which the future great city then presented. Prairie du Chien was then attract- ing considerable attention, and to this point he removed in 1835. Dur- ing the following year he established a ferry from Prairie du Chien to the mouth of Coolie de Sioux, now the foot of Main street, McGregor, which, in consequence, soon became known as McGregor's Landing. The boat which Mr. McGregor first used was an old-fashioned river craft known as a flatboat, and was propelled by poles. In the spring of 1840 the United States Government commenced the building of Fort Atkinson, about fifty-five miles northwest on Turkey river, and established a military road from a point opposite Fort Crawford to Fort Atkinson. As that road had to pass through the Coolie de Sioux, the present site of McGregor, it being the only accessible point for crossing the river and reaching the high table-land to the west of it, the landing became a place of considerable importance. Ground was leased by the Government, and a warehouse erected on the river bank at the foot of what is now Main street, Mr. McGregor having located his claim at this point. The flatboat ferry established in 1836 did not prove exceedingly remunerative, but when the Government commenced work on Fort Atkinson, business increased to such an extent that a horse ferry was established in 1841. In 1847 Mr. McGregor moved across the river with his family, and occupied a log cabin at the foot of Main street.
During the year 1856 (twenty years from the establishment of the first ferry), business had increased so considerably that Mr. McGregor found it necessary to exchange his horse ferryboat for one more powerful and rapid. Consequently a new steamboat of 300 tons' burden was purchased at Cincinnati for $12,000. This boat was chris- tened the "Alexander McGregor," and arrived here Nov. 13, 1856. It was dedicated the following day by the citizens of McGregor and Prairie du Chien in an excursion to Clayton, twelve miles below on the Iowa side. In 1853 and 1854, the demand of immigration increas- ing, he established also a ferry at the mouth of the Wisconsin river,
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crossing at 2 point about two miles below McGregor, where he built a road at his own expense. It would be interesting, as well as just to the memory of one so intimately identified with the history of this section of Iowa, to treat the eventful life of Mr. McGregor in greater detail, had we the data at our command; but little has been furnished us beyond what we have thus briefly recorded. Mr. McGregor was married April 23, 1843, to Miss Ann C. Gardner, of Saratoga county, N. Y. By this marriage he had four children, namely, the following, in order of their birth : Chester, Gregor, Gardner and George, of whom Gregor and Gardner are living. Gregor McGregor is engaged in busi- ness in the City of McGregor and has several times been elected to the mayoralty. He was elected in 1870 and 1871, and reelected in 1874, holding the office at the present time.
Mr. McGregor died at the age of fifty-four years and seven months, on the 12th of December, 1858. His illness was long and painful, but he bore it with patient and heroic fortitude, and "died calmly as if going to sleep." We cannot do better, in closing this sketch, than to copy the following friendly tribute to his memory, written at the time of decease by the late editor of The North Iowa Times, Colonel A. P. Richardson, who knew him intimately: Alexander McGregor was our friend, and it would afford us a melan- choly gratification to detail the difficulties and privations he encoun- tered in the early settlement of this country, and the energies and manliness with which he met the responsibilities of pioneer life ; but we are not furnished with the data, and hence this notice can not be his- torical, though the subject of it eminently merits and invites a minute biographical article. Knowing our deceased friend to have been a man of unquestioned integrity, averse to the application of the recep- tion of flattery, we dare not insult his memory by the use of smooth terms of exclusive praise. In the estimation of the world, and doubt- less of himself, he was not faultless, but whatever errors of life may be remembered against him are properly attributed to a moral consti- tution that asked nothing but the right and submitted to nothing that he regarded as wrong. The compromise of interest with principle was unknown to a nature that deliberately took a position believed to be correct, and inflexibly maintained it.
Many men are said to have died unregretted; their conduct has been such that no eye, moistened with the tear of sorrow, looked upon the last sad office that frail humanity could render ; no interest except that caused by the remembrance of their wrongs awakened in the heart of the multitude. Not so here-the inhabitants of the town will long regret his early decease; the friends and neighbors of many years will mourn the loss of a tried friend, while anguish unutterable will possess the hearts of his revered partner and her orphan boys, when the gentle voice and the eloquent eye of the departed one present them- selves to the keenly searching eye and ear of memory. Alexander McGregor was a warm friend, an open foe, a kind husband, an indul- gent father, a law-abiding citizen, and an honest man. His sickness was borne and death met with a fortitude unexcelled in the records of earth's greatest heroes. His funeral was the most imposing tribute of regard on the part of the citizens ever paid to a deceased fellow-
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citizen in this part of the State. The cortege was half a mile in length, numbering from fifty to seventy-five teams, and carrying nearly a thousand people. The hotels and business houses were closed and draped in mourning, and a general sadness was exhibited by all.
Governor Samuel Merrill .- Samuel Merrill was born in the town of Turner, Oxford County, Maine, August 7, 1822. He was the son of Abel and Abigail (Hill) Merrill. He was one of a large family and was descended from Nathan Merrill, who came to America from England in 1636. When sixteen years of age he removed, with his parents, to Buxton, Maine, where he attended and taught school in turn until he reached his majority. He tried teaching in Maryland, but soon returned to his native state where he engaged in business with his brother Jeremiah. A few years later he joined the great rush of settlers to Iowa and came to McGregor, establishing himself in the mercantile business. He prospered during the rushing days of Mc- Gregor's great prosperity and soon became one of the leading mer- chants. Accumulating wealth rapidly, he soon became engaged in the banking business and was one of the founders, and the first president of the McGregor State Bank.
In 1859 he was elected to the Legislature from Clayton County and he took such forceful part in the deliberations of that body that he soon became recognized as one of the leaders of the Republican party. Before coming to Iowa Mr. Merrill had been a member of the Legis- lature of the State of New Hampshire, and this legislative experience aided greatly in fitting him for a public career in Iowa. The Iowa Legislature, of which Mr. Merrill was a member, was called in extra session by Governor Kirkwood to devise measures to assist the general government in the prosecution of the war, and in this work Mr. Merrill took a prominent and patriotic part. When the first Iowa regiments were organized it was found that there was no available money to uniform them. It was this emergency that Mr. Merrill joined with other men of wealth and advanced some $10,000 each for the equip- ment of the volunteers. It was this patriotic action which enabled Iowa to respond, promptly and efficiently, to the call for troops.
In 1862 Governor Kirkwood tendered Mr. Merrill the colonelcy of the 21st Iowa regiment. Colonel Merrill accepted the commission and at once became active in recruiting, and later, in leading his men to battle. The history of the regiment has been told in another chapter. Suffice it here to say that Colonel Merrill lead his men bravely and to victory. At the battle of Black River Bridge he was so severely wounded that he was forced to leave his regiment and return to McGregor.
His wound was so serious that he was granted an honorable dis- charge, but there was an insistent demand on the part of the regiment that he be reinstated, and thinking his health would permit, he rejoined his regiment. It proved, however that the effects of his wound were too serious to permit of active service and he was forced to leave the service in May, 1864. Returning to McGregor he became again inter- ested in banking and when the State bank was reorganized as a National bank, he was the first president.
On account of his activities, both in peace and war, he was a
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favorite candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1867. At the state convention of the Republican party he lead all in the balloting, and was nominated on the fourth ballot. He was elected by a large majority and during the stormy days of re-construction, he was a strong influence for the granting of equal rights to the negro race. Some of his state papers are among the strongest and most able ever issued by an Iowa Governor. He was the first Governor of Iowa to recommend the regulation of railroad rates, and he was also a pio- neer in insurance and educational legislation. He did a great work for Iowa, in 1868, when upon the invitation of Peter Cooper, he wrote a lengthy review of the resources and possibilities of the state. This document was circulated widely in the east, was translated into other languages and had great influence in attracting desirable immigration to Iowa.
Governor Merrill was reelected, in 1869, by the largest majority ever given an Iowa Governor up to that time. He was a man of great force of character, and unafraid to act according to his convictions, and he vetoed a number of bills during his second term as Governor. Some of these vetoes drew sharp criticism, but in every instance they were justified by time. It was during his term that the capitol of Iowa was built and it was Governor Merrill, who, in October, 1870, held the plow to break the first ground for the building of that great structure. It was he, also, who laid the cornerstone of the building in November, 1871. He was also the moving spirit in the great soldiers' reunion held at Des Moines, in 1870, securing an appropriation of $15,000 from the state and $5,000 from the city of Des Moines for the purpose of the entertainment of the soldiers and also securing for them free transportation over the railroads of the state.
His administration was marked by many other accomplishments for the good of the people. He was also the first Governor of Iowa to give his entire time to the conduct of his office, removing to Des Moines for that purpose. Upon retiring from the office of Gov- ernor, he accepted the presidency of the Citizens' National Bank of Des Moines, which position he held until his removal to California, where he spent his last years in well earned leisure. He died at Los Angeles, California, August 31, 1899, and he was buried at Des Moines. Gov. Merrill was married three times. His first wife, to whom he was married in 1847, died fourteen months after their marriage. He was married in 1851 to Miss Elizabeth D. Hill, and she was the wife who was known and loved by the people of McGregor and of Iowa as the first lady of the state. Governor Merrill was one who made his way by sheer force of intellect and deeds, rather than by words and protestations. He was reserved and dignified and not at all of the type of the so-called "popular politician," and there were many in Clayton county who stood closer to the hearts of the people, but none who commanded higher respect.
Major E. V. Carter-Major Carter was a native of the State of New York, and was educated in Ohio. In 1847 he moved to Iowa, and located in Clayton county, first in Grand Meadow township and subsequently in Elkader. He taught the first school in Elkader, after which he embarked in mercantile pursuits. In this he continued until
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1859, when at the request of prominent business men of the county he came to McGregor as president of the McGregor branch of the State Bank of Iowa, which position he filled until the branch bank gave place to the national bank. Soon after this he accepted a paymaster's commission in the United States service. In the arduous duties of that office he impaired his health and brought on his death sickness. In November, 1865, he returned to his family, only to decline and die among his friends. He died at Elkader, April 21, 1866, in his fifty- seventh year. During his active public and private career, he estab- lished and maintained a reputation for integrity and promptness in all his dealings which made him esteemed, respected and honored by all who knew him. It can be said of him that he had no enemies. Old and young alike loved him. The announcement of his death caused general sorrow, and a large company of mourning friends accom- panied his remains to their last resting place. He was buried Monday, April 23. Rev. S. P. Sloan, of McGregor, of whose society Mr. Carter was a member, delivered an impressive sermon and paid a just tribute to the deceased. The services were held in his church, the erection of which was due more to his efforts and benevolence than to those of any other person.
There was scarcely a man in the county more widely known and more universally respected. He possessed traits of character which could not fail to bring him into notice and command general respect. In his youth he enjoyed more than ordinary advantages for mental culture, and during his whole life he was a close observer of men and things, keeping well advised of passing events, and well informed on all the great questions which engaged the public attention. He was possessed of a very happy disposition, having in his nature a humorous, playful element which made him an agreeable companion of youth, and at the same time a grave and serious element which fitted him to be the companion and counselor of the mature and the aged. But his crown- ing excellence was the immovable integrity of his character. He was honest, truthful, frank, straightforward, unflinching, always and every- where. His religion was eminently practical; it was to do good; as well as to be good; it was the love of man as well as the love of God. There were two directions in which his benevolence especially took direction : first, in the cause of temperance, he was one of the earliest and latest and most constant advocates ; second, he was an abolitionist, one, too, when it cost a man something to be a friend of a slave. He believed in the inalienable right of men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and believing this, he made it his political platform, and on it he stood and battled for freedom, until he saw his principles tri- umph in the nation. Having lived an earnest life, full of good works, the peaceful death which he died was the fitting close of his upright career.
Dr. Samuel Little was born in Enfield, Grafton county, N. H., May 22, 1801, and studied medicine at Dartmouth College. After completing his studies, he practiced in his native state until 1855, when he gave up medicine and moved to his present home in Clayton county. At the time he located here, that portion of the county which he chose for his home was in its wild and natural state. The rolling prairies
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covered with gay wild flowers charmed his imagination and he selected for his home a most charming spot, overlooking one of the most beau- tiful and delightful valleys in the wide West, now dotted with beautiful and enterprising villages, and neat and well-cultivated farms.
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