USA > Iowa > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 16
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DENISON PUBLIC LIBRARY
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F
FIRST NA'
AL BANK
VIEW OF MAIN STREET, DENISON
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They then came with the lantern and pulled me out and we went up to the Goodrich house, through the tall grass, as two lumps of mud. The next morn- ing (Sunday) was beautiful. The sun was shining clear, but I did not get up until the men brought over my trunk. Monday I went over to Denison, where Ezra Smith, a man that I had worked with in Moline, Illinois, and who had sent the team for me at Omaha, had a contract with the Providence Western Land Company to build some sixty buildings. He proposed that I go in company with him but I did not like the outlook, and he sublet a portion of several buildings to me, but the 1857 panic came very soon and the land company suspended work and that put us all out of business. Mr. Smith had brought with him several carpenters from Moline, and as they were all married men and I the only single one, I let the men have all the money I had to help them back to Illinois. This left me strapped excepting the claim on the land company. It was a lonesome time for me. I sold my draughting instruments for a small heating stove, rented the ten by sixteen store room for ten dollars per month, got me some tobacco and pipes and settled down. As I had never smoked before, it made me very sick but that was nothing to what I was suffering from, that worst of all sick- nesses-homesickness. When the snow began to fall it seemed as though I was being literally buried alive. I simply could not live in such lonesome idleness ; nothing to read, no mails, no money. I then formed a partnership with a Ger- man named Fred Bischer who was a cabinet maker and had a shop in his house and some black walnut and cherry lumber. My father, grandfather and great- grandfather were owners of little shops in New England and made chairs, fur- niture of all cheap kinds, and were also painters, for all of these different trades were then usually followed by the same party. During my early life at home I had had experience in all of these trades. Bischer was a good workman and, like myself, blue, and he eagerly accepted my partnership proposition. But he had to have a lathe to turn our bed-posts, table legs and chair stuff. The land company had a blacksmith shop and tools. Bischer could work iron some and he made the head and tail stocks while I made the wood pulleys-in fact we made a lathe and then belted it to a grindstone, and one of us would turn the grindstone while the other turned the wood. When spring came we had made six tables, six bedsteads, two bookcases and eighty chairs; but we had no var- nish; neither had we any money with which to buy it. Finally, John Purdy bought some chairs and gave us five dollars, with which we bought one gallon of varnish.
I have always looked back upon that first winter, after my attack of home- sickness, more with a kind of pleasure, for we had some fun. There were some ten or fifteen young men there with me, for there were no old men, excepting a few thirty-five-year-old men, and thirty-five years is very old in a new country. We used to have dances (stag dances) as there were but few women. There was one, a Miss Seagrave, who would not dance, and another, Ellen Bassett, fourteen years old, and she, poor girl, had never seen a dance. But dancing with our music, which was often very crude, became monotonous at times and then, although we had fair board, we would get credit at the company store of the agent, Mr. Persons, and have what in this dav they call a "smoker." We had canned oysters, eggs, crackers, etc. Perkins was the cook, Aldrich the Vol. I-9
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toastmaster and "Dr." Baer chairman. Perkins was a bountiful cook but his cooking usually made us all sick before morning, and then we had to call on "Dr." Baer. I recollect at one time that I went to call on the "doctor" in a hurry for Tom Aldrich who, after the smoker, was taken with a violent attack of appendicitis, or something of that kind, and I found the doctor almost in a death struggle with the same disease. The doctor told me between gasps that it was "Perkins' blasted griddle cakes," for the evening before Perkins had tried to give us something extra. Usually, if I recollect his formula correctly, he made a batter of buckwheat, crackers and eggs, with oysters sprinkled on top, but this time he added some sausage meat that he got from Mrs. Persons and, as he was playing cards at the same time that the cakes were frying, he cooked them too long, hence the trouble with the digestion.
Our friend "Mack" seldom, if ever, joined us as he was teaching at Mason's Grove, and our other friend, H. C. Laub, was too old, as he was about thirty years old and married, and this made him a very old, old man. He often helped us to supplies from his store, however."
Among the early arrivals attracted from the east were J. D. Seagrave and A. F. Bond. A log schoolhouse was erected on the present site of the W. A. McHenry home and Thomas Aldrich was the first teacher in the winter of 1857-58. The county seat having been located, it next became necessary to give to the county institutions a permanent home. Clay was discovered in the northeast part of town and George Calkens and A. F. Bond set to work erecting the first kiln and burning the first brick manufactured in the county. Having helped to manufacture the brick, Mr. Bond, who was a mason by trade, set to work to erect the first brick buildings in the county. The first was the resi- dence of Mr. J. W. Denison, which for many years occupied the corner where now is located the home of Mr. C. Gronau. The courthouse building was next erected. It was thirty by forty feet in dimensions and the woodwork was largely of native timber. It more than sufficed for the needs of the county, as is shown by the fact that only a part of the first story was finished. The second story remained in the rough for many years and was the scene of all the political, religious and social gatherings of the community.
There was no postoffice nearer than Manteno, near Galland's Grove and the mail was brought by such of the neighbors as made infrequent trips to that settlement. Later a postoffice was established at Mason's Grove and finally an office was located at the home of Mr. Swain, near the mill site.
All of our old settlers tell of the severe winter which followed the first year of Denison's history. Prior to that time game, especially deer, had been plenti- ful, but in the early winter there was a fall of about six feet of snow and many wild animals perished from hunger. In January, 1857, there came a thaw fol- lowed by a freeze, glazing the snow with a coat of ice, during which period many deer were slain as the deer would break through the crust and flounder in the snow, rendering them easy prey to the light-footed, ravenous wolves. It was a number of years before deer in any number were seen in the vicinity again. No wells had been sunk and two of the daily occupations of the pioneer seem to have been hauling water from the river and from springs, and hauling logs and timber from the woods.
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The spring of 1858 was a season of great activity. The change was great. The little town, the store and the courthouse were wonders to the few settlers who had thought themselves located where the hunting of deer and the trapping of furs would never be interfered with. A church was organized in 1857, the present First Baptist church, the schoolhouse was built, mail route and post- office established, farms were opened and homes began to rise not only in the flourishing little town but further and further out on the prairie. The belief that none could live away from the protection of the few groves of timber was disproved. The lands were sold freely, five dollars per acre being the price, almost uniformly. Numerous eastern investors aided in the upbuilding of the community and at one time a force of seventeen carpenters were at work, and fifteen residences were built upon farm lands for eastern owners. In this way what was known as Bakerville, in the southern part of Otter Creek township, was built, Bakerville consisting of three houses built on adjacent corners of four quarter sections owned by a Mr. Baker, of Illinois. And thus the little settle- ment grew and prospered with every evidence that the promoters would reap a rich harvest.
The early settler had to be almost sufficient unto himself. The nearest trad- ing point was Council Bluffs, and when the settler raised his hogs, butchered and dressed them and hauled them the three days trip to market he seldom re- ceived more than a dollar and a half per hundred. This he expended in "boughten" articles, which were of uniformly high price. Coal oil was one dollar and forty cents per gallon; matches were ten cents a box; cloth of all kinds; clothing, boots and shoes, were at high valuations; wheat flour was a luxury and families were often without it. Flour sold here as high as nine cents per pound and in the diaries of old settlers it is interesting to note how they borrowed a few pounds from each other and kept accurate record of its return, as of some valuable commodity. Money was scarce; nearly all trans- actions were in the nature of barter and trade. Mr. H. C. Laub has told us that in the spring after the first opening of his store he found that he had neither goods nor money. Everything had been sold to the settlers, but sold on time, and he had no money with which to buy more goods. The settlers were almost universally honest, however, and in time the bills were paid and the little store was enabled to resume operations. While the struggle for ex- istence was a hard one it must not be supposed that the settlers went hungry or cold. The clothes were purchased for warmth and wear. The shoes were heavy and durable and there were not a few of the old timers who spent their evenings over the cobbler's bench. The soil was rich and fertile. During the season there was a plenteous supply of fresh vegetables; and potatoes, onions, squash and pumpkins were stored away for winter use. There were many wild fruits, of which mention has been made. The maple trees furnished a "sweet- ening" that was an excellent substitute for the sugar of today. In the woods large quantities of wild honey were found. Prairie chicken and quail furnished dainty morsels for the table. Venison was a common article of diet and skins of coon and otter helped to keep the family warm during the long cold season. There were churches and social gatherings, lyceums, spelling schools, even the
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iniquitous dance, husking bees and raisings for the men and quilting bees for the women.
Some excellent pictures of pioneer life are given by Mr. A. F. Bond in his diary, which he kept almost uninterruptedly from 1857 to 1871. While these books are naturally devoted to the intimate details of his daily life, they throw many side lights upon the daily life of the community. Mr. Bond came here in 1857, together with Mr. E. S. Plimpton and Mr. J. D. Seagraves, the latter of whom had purchased land from the Providence Western Land Company while still in the east. Mr. Seagraves settled upon his land and Mr. Bond and Mr. Plimpton rented a piece of ground and "batched" together, their location being known as Bondville, on Big Creek. Speaking of the wild game during that first season, Mr. Bond says that the prairie chickens used to be so thick that they would only use the choicest portions of them to cook, throwing the remainder away. "Then, too," he continues, "we used to dry the legs and breast, reserving them for periods of scarcity of food. On one occasion, with the assistance of my two dogs, I killed a large coon, the biggest one I ever saw. This, myself and Patrick Slattery (who, by the way, is the first Irishman of whom we have record in the county) dressed, reserving the oil for making light during the winter evenings, and curing the rest for meat. At first I' did not like the taste of it very well, but after becoming accustomed to it, it seemed to be delicious. Among the wild animals there were more wolves than anything else, although there were deer and elk, and on one occasion a buffalo was killed here. It was first seen where the residence of Sears McHenry now stands. Mr. Seagraves was living there at the time and a young man by the name of John Appleman was living with him. There was considerable excitement in the little settlement and a rapid rush for guns and ammunition, but to Mr. Appleman belongs the credit of having brought down the buffalo in the vicinity of Grace park. It weighed about eighteen hundred pounds and every one had a taste of buffalo meat. We had plenty of 'hog and hominy' those days and for fresh meat we had chickens and occasionally would kill a sheep.
"Mr. Dobson had a little mill at Deloit where we could get corn meal ground but he could not grind flour in it. For that we had to go down to Butler's mill, near Woobine, or to Logan. Dobson's mill would also turn out lumber and that first winter I worked a good deal of the time getting out posts and hauling logs to the mill. Later Swain and Reynolds had a mill for grinding flour at Denison.
"Isaac Goodrich was one of the earliest settlers. He came here in 1854 and was the first to enter land in this county. Goodrich township was named in his honor. He was prominent among the pioneers and his home was one of the centers of hospitality, and also during times of stress it became a fortress of protection against the feared Indian invasions. The voting place was at the log schoolhouse at Mason's Grove."
Mr. Bond relates that he was elected constable and that the candidates were . given a speed trial to demonstrate their fitness for the office. He tells that he was obliged to run a certain number of rods with a rail on his back, being, given the start of a runner who was unincumbered. Being the victor in the
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race he was triumphantly elected, while Ed Cadwell, of Coon Grove, being also noted as fleet of foot, was elected with him.
The first sessions of the district court were held in the log schoolhouse in Denison, and Judge Ford, of Harrison county, was one of the earliest presiding judges.
Among those coming to Denison in 1857-58 may be noticed Mr. Ed Per- sons, J. W. Ellis, who built the Highland House on the present site of the German M. E. church, and whose hostelry was a landmark for many years, Joseph Brogden came in 1857, living north of Denison. He remained until the Indian scare, when the family went back to Illinois, returning to Crawford county in 1861. George and Warren Calkens were also prominent citizens, be- ing the first brick makers, among the first tavern keepers, and Warren Calkens being interested in the store which Mr. Denison had built; Jacob Acker was the proprietor of the Denison House; S. P. Gardner located near the Fink place between Deloit and Denison; other early settlers were Mr. Bischer and Mr. Didra, the first of the Germans. Mr. Bischer came here as a carpenter, built one of the first houses in the south part of town and for some time manufactured furniture for the settlers. Later he removed further west. J. D. Jones, after- ward sheriff, came with a breaking outfit. He had several yoke of oxen and did good work for the many farmers who were just making their start. He left the county for a time and returned, together with Mr. C. Green, both of them living for several years at Bakerville. Mr. Todd, Mr. George King, and J. B. Huckstep were among the prominent people at the time. Mr. Todd re- turned with his family to Illinois at the time of the Indian scare, and died at his old home. Tracy Chapman, one of the strong men of the county, came at a very early date, married a daughter of Cornelius Dunham and lived the re- mainder of his life among his broad acres along the East Boyer valley.
Dr. McWilliams and Hugh McWilliams came in 1857. Dr. McWilliams was a physician of ability, but he had decided to abandon his profession and wrest his living from the soil. Learning, by chance, perhaps, of his medical skill, the settlers, who had no other medical aid, practically forced him to continue the practice of his profession. The practice of medicine was not such an easy mat- ter as it is at this time of telephones and automobiles. The settlements were widely scattered and each night call meant perhaps a drive of fifteen or twenty miles across the well nigh trackless prairie. Dr. McWilliams did his work faithfully and well and he contributed in a large measure to the health and wel- fare of the community, remaining patiently at the bedside of the sick, ushering the little lives into the world, fighting against tremendous odds with the black diphtheria, which was one of the most fatal scourges of the early day; combin- ing the offices of nurse and physician, of counsellor and friend, snatching a life from the grave where he could and comforting the dying with all the consola- tions of his rock-ribbed Presbyterian faith. Dr. McWilliams was near to the heart of every old settler in the county. Dr. Stanton was the first physician resident in Denison proper, and he was followed, upon the coming of the rail- road, by that splendid friend and physician, Dr. William Iseminger. S. J. Com- fort was the first lawyer and he built what afterward became the residence of A. D. Molony.
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The farmers were greatly handicapped by want of farm machinery, as we know it today. The plows were heavy and unwieldy. The oxen were slow and ponderous. There were no self-binders, no cultivators, no disc harrows and no threshing machines. The farmer prepared what he called a threshing floor. This was a small space cleared of vegetation, with the earth packed and pounded down hard, forming a smooth surface. Into this the grain and straw were thrown and the oxen were turned in upon it and driven around and around until the grain had been stamped out and separated from the straw. The straw was then removed and the grain carefully gathered for the preparation of the precious flour.
Among the other men whom we should mention are William Thompson, who helped to build the courthouse ; Mr. James Conner, who moulded the brick from which the courthouse was built; Wilson Manners, who lived just east of Deni- son beside the creek which for many years has borne his name, and Ed Person, who ran the company store.
Jacob Acker was also one of the best known people. He followed Mr. Sea- graves as proprietor of the Denison House, and "Acker's Tavern" and his hos- pitable family were known throughout all the countryside. George King, com- ing from Jacksonville, Illinois, was also a prominent citizen. By 1859 Denison had advanced to the dignity of being an independent voting precinct and the town had about one hundred inhabitants. It was in this year that a vote was taken on granting a land bonus to the Boyer Valley Railroad Company, the forerunner of the Northwestern. The little town had survived the hard times of 1857, the Providence Western Land Company had resumed its activities, the courthouse and the residence of Mr. Denison had been built, thus giving to Denison the superlative substantiality of brick, the log schoolhouse had a scant attendance of sturdy youngsters during week days, and church and revival services held sway on Sundays and many evenings of the year. There were no buildings south of Broadway and the slopes, on which now stand the major part of our homes and churches, were wind-swept, unbroken prairie. With this we believe we may safely conclude the first or foundation period of Denison's history and proceed to the decade from 1860 to 1870, the ten years which witnessed the Indian troubles, the great war, the incoming of the railroad and the steady progress of the little town.
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE SECOND DECADE.
1860-1870.
The census of 1860 showed that there were but 2,382 acres of improved farms in the entire county ; the total value of farm machinery was $3,188.00; there were 102 horses; I mule; 163 milk cows; 38 oxen; 203 other cattle; 54 sheep and 654 swine. The total production of the county was 4,298 bushels of wheat ; 23,955 bushels corn; 2,506 bushels of oats; 140 pounds tobacco; 145 pounds wool, and 2,102 bushels of potatoes. There were in the county 19 chil- dren under one year of age and the total population was 383, of whom 201 were males and 182 females.
In 1861 the community was so well established that Mr. Denison, who was always anxious to boom the town, bought a printing outfit and had the hand press and a limited supply of type freighted across the prairie. H. H. Crowell was the editor of this first newspaper venture, the Boyer Valley Record, and it continued a precarious existence under his management until his altercation with Mr. Allen, the fatal termination of which drove Crowell from the newspaper field. Mr. Denison endeavored to prolong the life of the paper, but it soon suspended publication, not to be revived until the coming of the railroad.
During the first year of the '6os the Indians became active throughout the north and west. There was little, if any, actual damage done to settlers in this county, although some horses were stolen and other depredations committed. But the settlers were comparatively isolated and rumor magnified the dangers a thousand fold. Mr. Wicks has given us the picture of the frightened settlers gathering at what they styled Fort Purdy, the children crying, the women on the verge of hysteria, and the men boasting of a valor which perhaps they did not feel. A little story told by A. F. Bond well illustrates the temper of the settlers and their great fear of Indian marauders. He was at work near Mason's Grove when a settler came to him with a story that he had passed Bakersville and there, in an open doorway, had seen an Indian skulking on his hands and knees and peering out of the door of one of the unoccupied houses. Mr. Bond was urged to go at once to Denison to organize a posse. This he did in great haste and the brave men of the little community shouldered their guns and
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hastened with all speed possible to protect their homes-only to find at Baker- ville the open door of an empty house with a saw-horse standing a few feet within.
Under the head of county government we have seen how the county or- ganized, how Indian scouts were enlisted and state aid was received in the shape of forty Enfield rifles. This Indian scare, which fortunately proved to be nothing more than a scare, drove many settlers back to the eastern states. Probably one-fourth of the little community returned to the old homes where they felt that there was security for the lives of themselves and their loved ones. We do not blame them-the only wonder is that so many stayed. A portion of those returning to their homes finally drifted back to their claims in Crawford county, but many did not return and the county suffered the loss of a number of valuable citizens.
Close on the heels of these Indian scares, and indeed contemporaneously with them, came the great war of the rebellion. The number of enlisted men from this county was not large, but it was proportionately great, especially when one considers that this was. a mere outpost of northern civilization, that news of the outside world was scant and that the community had largely lost touch with the great events of the nation. The Indian scare and the war, greatly re- tarded the growth and progress of Crawford county and of Denison, and it was not until the close of the rebellion and the reestablishment of a feeling of security among the settlers that western Iowa began to pulsate with life and energy in response to the oncoming tide of national progress. Prices were bet- ter. Every week brought news of the nearer approach of the railroad line. The telegraph brought the people in close contact with the outer world. Men found employment hauling poles and setting them up for the telegraph company. Small business houses were installed to be ready for the great rush when the railroad should come through.
The coming of the railroad metamorphosed the entire town. For some time this was the end of the line. There were a large number of laborers here, con- struction crews, engineers, overseers, and hangers-on of all sorts. The town was transformed from a quiet frontier settlement of neighbors and friends to a busy, rushing, wicked little place, where had gathered not only the real pioneer and settler, but the adventurous soldier of fortune and the army of railroad laborers and camp followers. The little settlement did not have the machinery of law and order to adequately meet this situation, and although the deeds of sale first given by the Providence Western Land Company provided that no real estate in Denison should be used for saloon purposes, a half dozen sprang up in different parts of the town, where they ran with little or no restraint. There were gambling houses and all the evils that usually follow a large body of homeless men. This condition of affairs persisted for several years and it was not until the early '70s that Denison once more resumed its old character. When the railroad first reached here, in 1866, Denison could not have contained more than from one hundred to one hundred and fifty inhabitants. During the railroad building period this population was swollen to several times its normal size. By 1869 it had gone back and was a village of approximately two hundred and fifty to three hundred people.
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