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 55
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gauntlet and reached the mouth of the Turkey in safety. The captain made one or two trips to Dubuque with his boat, and then ran her up to Clayton City, where he sold her to Frank Smith & Co., of that place. They remodeled the boat and made a ferry boat of it for crossing the Mississippi at that point. Thus closed the steam navigation of the Turkey."
HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF CASS TOWNSHIP
By Hon. B. W. Newberry
Cass township was organized as a separate township in 1850. The following is the official order of the county commissioners :
"January 8, 1850. Ordered that the petition of William Alloway and others praying to be set off into a township of the following dimen- sions, to-wit : including township 91 north, range 6 west, 5th P. M., be and is hereby allowed, and that the first election be held at the house of James Alloway in said township, and further that James Alloway, Joshua Betts and Wm. Alloway are appointed judges of the first election and that the township shall be called Cass, and the clerk is hereby instructed to notify the citizens of said township of the pro- ceedings of the Board.
"A. S. COOLEY, "J. W. POTTS,
"ROBT. R. REED, Clerk."
According to the code of 1843 the annual election was held the first Tuesday in October. We have no record at our command of the first election but it is said that the ballot box was the hat of one of the judges, and that the election was held as ordered at the house of James Alloway, which was on the farm now occupied by Miles Alderson, about half a mile northeast of Strawberry Point. This house is also notable as being where the first marriage in Cass township occurred: James Dickenson, a widower who lived on the place now owned by Alex Henry in Sperry township was married to Malissa, daughter of James Alloway, the Reverend N. W. Bixby officiating. The date of this marriage was May 12, 1850. The bride was the only marriageable woman in the township. A goodly number of relatives and friends were present. The table was a split log with legs inserted and the rest of the household furniture corresponded with the table. The repast consisted of vegetables, chicken and pastries, the best the town- ship afforded. The very best was none too good for the first marriage in the township. Mr. Dickenson and his wife moved from the county in May, 1851.
It is said that at this first election in the township for the office of justice of the peace there was a tie, and lots were cast which decided in favor of William Alloway. Just who Mr. Alloway's opponent was, I have been unable to ascertain, but presume that it was Joseph C. Tremain as being the best man fitted for the position in the township. Wm. Alloway was a man of considerable ability, had acquired some- thing of an education, and moved in the 50's to Council Bluffs, where he held the position of police justice for many years. He died in Council Bluffs in 1865.
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Joseph Hewitt, an Indian trader, settled on the township line between Cass and Sperry in 1840. His home was just across the line in Sperry. His son, Moses Hewitt, lived about a mile and a half west of his father's on the line between Cass and Sperry near the residence of David Mitchell. He died about 1852 and his widow some years afterwards married Stephen Young. They moved to McGregor, where Mr. Young died not long after.
The first actual resident of the township was James Tracy, who located in section 6 in 1846, on the farm now owned and occupied by his son, James W. Tracy. Mr. Tracy lived on this farm from the time he settled in the township till his death, which occurred in 1875. Mr. Tracy was born in Ireland, came to this country and located in Illinois. He was a typical son of Erin, honest, open hearted, generous and quick-witted. He had his failings and was his own worst enemy. He always took pride in being the first actual settler in the township and called himself the father of Cass township. His son, Joseph H. Tracy, now living at Fayette, was born in 1848 and was the first white child born in the township. Mrs. Clarissa Tracy, his widow, died a few years ago. Mrs. Tracy was an active intelligent woman, greatly respected by all who knew her and bore with bravery and fortitude the trials and privations of frontier life.
The next actual residents in the township came in 1847. They were Samuel Hines and family. His mother, Mrs. Jane Hines, William Alloway, Sr., and sons, James, William and Azariah, and Moses German, son-in-law of William Alloway, Sr., old Mr. Betts, known as Pap Betts, and his son, Joshua Betts, and Ebenezer Betts, Joel Harrow and his four sons, Elmore Harrow, Asa Harrow, Anson Harrow and Joel Harrow, and his son-in-law, a preacher by the name of Brown. These, with the Tracys, were the only residents of the township in 1847, as far as we are able to ascertain.
Traditions say that an Indian in an early day, took, stole, appro- priated and rode away a horse without the owner's knowledge or con- sent, near Guttenberg. The Indian was pursued and overtaken near Mr. A. R. Carrier's place and taken to the South Ford timber near the Harrow spring and then and there by sentence of Judge Lynch hung. Horse stealing in a new country is oft times considered a capital offense.
Wm. Alloway, Sr., located in section 1, just south of J. R. Alder- sons's residence on the east side of the public road, afterwards occu- pied by Dr. Tyson. Wm. Alloway, Jr., the first justice, located about 40 rods from his father's on the west side of the present road. Moses German, brother-in-law to William Alloway, Jr., and the first con- stable in the township, located about 20 rods north of his place. Mr. German moved about 1855 to Harrison county, Iowa, where he died in 1899.
Samuel Hines, who preceded the Alloways a short time, located near a spring about 80 rods west of the present residence of J. R. Alder- son in section 1. His mother accompanied him and he built her a house near this place. Mr. Hines cultivated several acres and raised the first corn in this vicinity. The corn field is now grown up to tim- ber and now has thrifty trees on that cleared corn field sixty feet tall.
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Timber will grow in this country if you will protect it from stock and fire.
The Alloway and Hines families were Virginia people. The Betts families were Ohio people. Joshua Betts located on the A. R. Carrier farm, and his father, generally called Pap Betts, settled on the A. E. Axtell farm, his house being about 20 rods north of A. E. Axtell's present residence. Here in 1847 he built and operated a blacksmith shop, the first blacksmith shop in the township. He sold out in 1852 to Charles Blanchard and with his son, Joshua, moved to California that year.
Azariah Alloway, son of William Alloway, located on the 80 acres in section 13, known as Hestwood farm. He afterward disposed of this claim and moved to Lodomillo township, locating on a place in Chipman hollow now occupied by C. H. Donahue, where Mr. Alloway died a few years since.
On Mr. Alloway's removal to Delaware county about 1850, Dr. Tyson moved into his house near Mr. Alderson. Dr. Tyson, prior to this, had lived in what was known as Wild Cat hollow in Sperry town- ship near Blanchard's mill. The doctor had no team and Thomas Hines, a son of Hiram Hines, although only a lad of 13, took his fath- er's team and moved the doctor and his family and effects to the Alloway house. Dr. Tyson had a step-son, Levi Perkins, who soon afterward married a daughter of Mr. Alloway and resided with his step-father. His wife died soon after and is buried in the Cox Creek cemetery.
Dr. Tyson, as near as can be ascertained, was not a graduate physician but was a sort of botanical doctor, preparing his own medi- cine from roots and herbs. He planted certain kinds of herbs and one kind to this day cannot be found in any other locality. Dr. Tyson moved away in about 1853.
About 1849 a family named Watkins lived above David Mann's mill near where Ball creamery was located. Mr. Watkins had quite a family and was a great hunter and had an excellent rifle. One of his sons accidently shot his sister, a girl eleven or twelve years of age, killing her. Mr. Watkins disposed of his gun to the Hines family, in whose possession it still is, and Mr. Watkins soon after the accident moved from the country.
In 1848, John Mitchell and Washington Maxwell and their fami- lies moved from Bowens prairie in Jones county and erected cabins for their families on the Brell place in section 2 now owned by Patsey Lane. The Mitchell cabin was near a spring a little southeast of the present Lane house and the Maxwell cabin a little to the northwest near another spring. Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Maxwell were brother-in- laws and had selected claims on Cox creek near Maxham creamery, but on account of fear of Indians they built their first cabins on the Brell place so as to be in the neighborhood of Samuel Hines and the Alloways, who lived from one half to a mile on the east. The claim selected by Mr. Maxwell is the Barney Olinger farm on Cox creek and Mr. Mitchell selected the adjoining claim now constituting the O'Brien farm, both in Sperry township. Here both families lived for many years.
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MEMOIRS OF CLAYTON COUNTY
About 1848 or 1849 Hiram Hines, Sr., moved to this vicinity from Jones county, near Cascade, and located a claim on what constitutes the Byrnes farm in the southeast corner of Sperry township.
Mrs. Jane (Halloway) Hines was the mother of Hiram, Samuel and Reason Hines. She was fairly well educated and was a remarkable woman. She was born in Virginia in 1761 and died on the farm now owned by McCrae in Cass township in 1860 at the advanced age of 99 years, 5 months. She was about 15 years of age when the Declara- tion of Independence was written.
MISSION ROAD
By act of the Territorial legislature in 1841 a commission was named to survey and locate a road from Dubuque to Fort Atkinson by the most direct and feasible route and named as commissioners Joseph Hewitt, T. G. Roberts, and Samuel Chilton. At that time Joseph Hewitt resided in Clayton county, T. C. Roberts in Rockdale and Samuel Chilton in Dubuque, both in Dubuque county. The commis- sioners selected Alfred Brown as surveyor and in 1841 did locate said road known as Mission road. The road ran diagnoally from Dubuque through Dubuque, Delaware, Clayton and Fayette counties to Fort Atkinson in the southwest part of Winneshiek county. The commis- sioners selected the highest and best natural location for the road regardless of sectional or division lines. The road runs through Greeley, York, Strawberry Point, Arlington and Fayette. There was considerable opposition by the residents of Dubuque to the road as located, and by act of territorial legislature in 1843 the road in Dubuque county was vacated, but was left as located in other counties. The road through Delaware and Clayton and a portion of Fayette county remains today substantially as located by the commissioners. The road intersects the township line of Cass township, in section 24 at the railroad crossing near Mr. Knight's place, and the road at first located ran diagonally to Mr. Ward's place and from there diagonally across the township as now traveled along the divide between Maquoketa and Volga rivers intersecting the township line on the west near B. S. Cole's premises in Section 7, and the road constitutes the main street of the town of Strawberry Point and that of Arlington. The road on the east part of Cass township was changed so as to run where the road intersects the township line north about 60 rods to where Mallory road intersects near A. R. Carrier's residence. At such intersections at an early day a guide board was fastened to a large oak tree which read, "York 4 miles," "Dubuque 54 miles."
York, then a little village of immense possibilities, in the minds of its founders, is now a corn field, and a guide board would be necessary to be placed on its side to locate it at the present time. "A monument of things hoped for" while the other name on the other guide board, "Dubuque," is a wealthy, prosperous city of more than 40,000 people. The old Mission road has been a highway of vast traffic in its day and is one of the most noted roads in the state.
In 1840, Mr. Hewitt removed to Clayton county and located on the line between Cass and Sperry. Hewitt's reason for leaving
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Dubuque county was that he must push out further on the frontier so as not to be crowded, and his desire to trade with the Indians. He is said to have had a number of wives. Mr. Hewitt maintained his resi- dence at the head of Hewitt creek in Clayton county till May 20, 1851, when with James Dickenson he removed for the west.
The first house built in Lodomillo township was erected by Mr. Lyon on part of the premises northeast of Edgewood now occupied by J. M. Robinson, and known as the Conrad place in 1839. Lyon sold his claim to Mr. Bemis who resided there and who disposed of his claim to F. C. Madison, in 1843, and who afterwards sold out to S. R. Peet who came to this country in 1845 with his brother-in-law, G. L. Wheeler, who was afterwards postmaster at the Yankee Settlement. Daniel Noble and Mr. Mulliken came to the vicinity of Edgewood in 1842 and the Steele families about the same time. F. C. and Wm. Madison came in 1843, C. T. Peet came in 1844, Jonathan Noble and family in 1846 and settled in Lodomillo. Rev. N. W. Bixby came to Yankee Settlement from Vermont in 1847, took up a claim in Lodomillo and has lived there ever since, a period of 54 years, longer than that of any other person in the community on the same farm. L. R. Noble and L. L. Noble, sons of Jonathan Noble, reside in Strawberry Point and the other son, F. G. Noble, resides on the old homestead. The Noble Brothers, L. L. and L. R., operated a threshing machine in 1848 and continued to do so for many years.
We have heretofore named nearly all the pioneer settlers residing in Cass township, prior to 1850. Giles Ward made the first entry of land in sections 24 and 26 in 1848, but he did not improve the land or come to the township to live till 1853. The first tax receipt issued in Cass township was issued to Mr. Ward, bearing the date of 1850 and signed by Robert R. Reed, the treasurer, and none of the receipt is printed, but all written out.
In 1850, J. C. Tremain and family located in the township, their first claim being the Quick farm on the Delaware county line in section 35 and owned by Dr. F. J. Newberry. The Tremain family con- sisted of himself, wife and son, George L. Tremain, now a banker at Humboldt, and his son, Clyde Tremain. J. C. Tremain had poor eye- sight but was a well read man and frequently appeared as an attorney in justice court and for a number of years was a justice of the peace. In 1855 he located in Sperry township on the farm known as the Barney Morris farm, where he resided till 1860, when he sold the farm to Hiram Hines, Sr.
In August, 1850, Stephen Gaylord came from Galena, Illinois, and settled on what is known as the Japeth Ball place in section 14 now owned by Lawrence Glass. Norman Hawley had a squatter's claim of 240 acres on which he built a small house. Mr. Gaylord purchased Mr. Hawley's squatter's right, built a more commodious house and en- tered the land. He sold his land in 1854, leaving a widow, five sons and three daughters.
Stephen Gaylord was the first assessor in the township, serving in 1853. The work previous to that time had been done by a county assessor. He received the munificent sum of $14.00 salary as assessor. Mr. Gaylord was a staunch church member. The first Sunday school
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in the township was held in his house in 1850 and continued to be held there and occasionally preaching by a United Brethren circuit rider by name of Brown, was held at his house. His widow died at the home of her son in Strawberry Point, in 1866, aged 84 years. Caleb Lane came to this township in 1850 and located on the Hanson farm in section 2. He was a good violinist and quite a hunter. Mr. Lane and Hiram Hines, Sr., another nimrod, in 1850, tracked a bear to Chipman hollow in Lodomillo township. The bear ran into a den and they endeavored to smoke and drive it out but did not succeed. Finally they purchased torches and entered the den and in the language of old "did slew the bear."
Every community has one or more unique characters entirely dif- ferent from the rest of the people and the early settlers had such a character in the person of one David Mann, a Virginian, who settled in the township about 1850, and erected a mill in what is still known as David Mann's hollow in section 12, on the premises now owned by Mr. Childers. There are a number of excellent springs near here which supplied the water for motive power. It was a sort of corn cracker. As some one has said, you took a kernel of corn there and had it made into three pieces instead of one. The burrs were fashioned by Mr. Mann himself, who was an inventive genius, from two small boulders or hard heads about a foot in diameter. The mill was built in 1850 and while a small affair, was quite a convenience to the nearby settlers, who otherwise were compelled to go many miles to have their corn ground. When asked to the capacity of the mill, he replied, "Wall, by keeping her lamin' through all day long, I reckon I can grind nigh onto two bushels." He ran a turning lathe in connection with his mill and made splint bottom chairs in a substantial manner as were made in an early day.
After running his mill for a time he rebuilt the same and purchased a new set of burrs, thereby greatly increasing its capacity. He built a rather commodious log house with an upstairs to it, the size of his family demanding additional rooms. About 1854 or 1855, a severe flood came one evening and Mann and his whole family crowded into the upper room for safety. When morning came, he found that his dam, mill and machinery had been entirely destroyed.
POST OFFICE
There have been three post offices located in Cass township. The first settlers procured their mail at Elkader, Yankee Settlement and Forestville. The post office was established at Strawberry Point in 1851. Efforts were made to have the post office called Franklin, but there was a rural post office established before this time in Lee county and the government does not allow two post offices of the same name in the same state so the name Franklin was abandoned and the one of Strawberry Point agreed upon. There was a tract of timber about a mile west of the town of Strawberry Point that ran to a point along where the road from Dubuque to Fort Atkinson ran and tradition says that a party of soldiers were going from Dubuque to the fort and camped at this point of timber in the month of June and there found
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an abundance of wild strawberries. The wife of a lieutenant accom- panying the party gave the place the name of Strawberry Point and it was ever after known to the travelers to and from Fort Atkinson to Dubuque by that name. Very naturally the post office established a mile east was given the name of Strawberry Point. When the railroad was built to the place, in 1872, the station was named Enfield, but the old settlers did not take kindly to the name of the station and by order of the state railroad commissioners the name of the station was changed to Strawberry Point-a name that is really too long and meaningless for a town, but a name dear to all old settlers.
The town of Strawberry Point was platted by W. H. Sterns and E. B. Gardner, in 1854, as Franklin and is still known on the record as Franklin. The place was incorporated in 1888 under the name of Strawberry Point.
In 1854, a post office was established in the east part of the town- ship, under the name of "Sylvan". with Alvah Bush as post master on premises now owned by C. Weig. The post office was discontinued about six months after it was established. The post office was estab- lished in 1848, at Yankee Settlement, the post office at Forestville in 1851, and the post office at Elkader in 1848.
MILLS
The early settlers were greatly interested in having saw and grist mills in their neighborhood. It was saving of much travel to Elkader, Hartwick or other distant points to mill. The first mill in this town- ship was the one built by David Mann in section 12, in David Mann's hollow. In 1852, a man by the name of Woods commenced the erec- tion of a small feed mill in section 10, about half a mile above the pres- ent Kleinlein mill. Mr. Wood was unable to finish the mill on account of poor health and Alex. Blake, Sr., purchased his claim and finished the mill in 1852. Mr. Wood and one of his children died soon after and were buried in the first cemetery in the township located just west of Strawberry Point on P. J. Clough's premises near Mr. Pebler's house. The present Strawberry Point cemetery was established in 1853 and some of the bodies in the Clough cemetery were moved to the new ceme- tery but those of Mr. Wood and his child were not moved. John A. Cooley and W. W. Putney moved the bodies to the new cemetery, in 1853.
About 1856, the mill was enlarged and converted by Mr. Blake into a flour mill and soon after sold to Mr. Templeton of Fayette, and transferred a number of times thereafter. The mill was burned, in 1858, and the property passed to the control of John Kleinlein, who erected a substantial stone flour mill about half a mile north of the site of the first mill which is now owned and operated by his son, Gottlieb Kleinlein, who is an active, reliable miller. Mr. Kleinlein about 1865 erected a brewery near the mill which was operated many years.
About 1852, Mr. Gilbriath, then occupying the Barney Morris farm in Sperry township, erected a small feed mill about a mile and a half below David Mann's mill near C. H. Suerbry's place about twenty rods north of the township line. It was a small affair but compe- tition was active between Mann and Gilbriath in the milling business.
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MEMOIRS OF CLAYTON COUNTY
In 1853, David Brown laid out a town on the Maquoketa on section 30 and named it Mississega. Either the name or the location killed it for it never grew beyond a small mill and a blacksmith's shop. The place was afterwards known as Ward's or Gogue's mill. G. Cooley bought the property and not only did he buy a dam site as well as the mill, but the dam would persist on going out on every oppor- tunity so that he was unable to make a sight of money from this invest- ment. He owned the property when he went in the army and while he was gone his wife effected a sale on the entire property, town site, mill, all for 400 pounds of flour to Isaac Martin, to the great satisfac- tion of Mr. Cooley who commended his wife in effecting such a good sale of the property. In 1855, W. H. Sterns built a steam mill in Strawberry Point, just east of the depot which was run for a number of years. E. B. Gardner, John A. and G. Cooley were among the sawyers.
In 1858, a man by the name of Warner erected a substantial saw- mill at Rankin's corners just over the line in Lodomillo township. The property afterwards passed to the ownership of Horace Knight, who had a town site surveyed and platted under the name of Empire City ; we believe the plat was filed for record. The town looked well on paper. The mill was operated a number of years and finally passed to the ownership of J. W. Windsor, who about 1864 moved the machinery east of Edgewood to what is known as Walters' mill and the frame work was sold to B. Bushee and part of the timbers constituted the frame of the S. Joy barn in Strawberry Point. There were quite a number of buildings about this mill at one time and for several years it was a busy place, but like York, corn grows well on this town site.
SCHOOLS
The first school in the township was taught by Alex. Blake in the small log house built by Azariah Alloway on what is now called the Hestwood place in section 13 in the winter of 1851 and 1852. Mr. Blake received the sum of $10.00 per month, and boarded himself for teaching and he actually claims he fully earned such a salary. The next winter, in 1852 and 1853, Mr. Blake taught school in a log dwell- ing house at Brown Mill on the Maquoketa. The first school house in the township was erected opposite the Strawberry Point cemetery where Mr. Bower's barn now stands. It was a one-story log building and served the purpose of school room and church building for a number of years. The first teacher was Battie Bush who taught the school in the winter of 1853 and 1854. The frame school house in Strawberry Point was built in 1853 and is part of L. C. Gardner's shop on Commercial street, located on the same site, and this building was used some time for church purposes also.
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