USA > Iowa > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 7
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would take a horse and go over and see the country of which he had spoken. This we did, and we looked up and down the valley and found it to be a fine country. We then returned to our families, but we did not decide definitely as to our course. The next morning we hitched up, all ready to start. I was in the lead, so I hallooed back to Winans, "Which way?" He shouted back and told me to take a stick and go to the forks of the road and to stand the stick
I up straight and to let it fall as it would and we would go the way it fell. took the stick and stood it up as straight as I could and let it fall. It fell toward the Boyer valley. I then went back to my team, took my whip, and said "Gee !" for the road turned to the right. It took two days to reach Dunham's Grove, and the next day we drove into Mason's Grove, September I, 1854. We drove down through the grove to where Benjamin Dobson lived, and there we camped. Dobson, with the help of his neighbors, had built a dam across the Boyer river near Deloit, and was putting in a saw mill and also a small pair of burrs to grind corn meal. The next morning some of the settlers came to our camp to get acquainted and to assist us in getting located.
We found ten families in and around Mason's Grove, the families of Ben- * jamin Dobson, Thomas Dobson, Jesse Mason, Levi Skinner, Alonzo R. Hunt, Noah V. Johnson, George J. Johnson, Calvin Horr, Franklin Prentice and Am- brose Richardson. There were no other settlers nearer than Buck Grove, about twelve or fourteen miles distant, although down the Boyer valley at the west end of the county there were quite a goodly number who had located up and down the valley.
In looking about for a location Mr. Mason showed us a claim of eighty acres that he had taken up. He had built a log house and had about ten acres broken. This claim just suited Clark Winans, for he had a large family and it was getting late to make hay. He, therefore, bought the claim and improve- ments and moved in. At the same time I was looking for a location. Mr. Cal- vin Horr told me he had two claims and that he would let me have one, so I looked them over and found that they were good claims and he allowed me to take my choice, which I did.
I next looked for a place where I could live until I could cut my hay and build a house for myself. Levi Skinner said that he had a good large house and that I would be welcome to move in with him until I got my house up. His claim and mine joined and I gladly accepted the offer and moved in. I then commenced cutting my hay. Grass was green and fresh, as there had been no frost. It was a remarkable fall and winter, as warm as October most of the time and the ground hardly froze all winter, although we had a few light snows and a few cold days. By this time our provisions had given out and our money was about gone, so we had to depend upon my labor for bread and meat. I went to Jesse Mason, who had made quite a good start and raised quite a crop of corn that year. He told me that he had sold much of his corn but that he had saved enough so that he thought he could let me have what I wanted, or at least that he would divide with me and take work in payment. Corn was two dollars and a half a bushel, but Mason sold it much cheaper to settlers. I was not much afraid of starving, however, for the streams were full of fish, there were plenty of prairie chickens, deer could be found almost any-
MR. AND MRS. B. F. WICKS
HOME OF MR. AND MRS. B. F. WICKS, DELOIT
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where and in the timber there were quail, occasionally a wild turkey and a few wild hogs in the groves down the river. November Ist, I commenced to cut logs for my house. After I worked a few days Skinner proposed that we go hunting the next day, as he wished to look at the country up the Otter creek. I had no gun, but he said he would let me have one and would find the ammunition and help me on my house when we got back enough to make up for lost time. The next morning we went up Otter creek, about three miles and found some very nice country. We saw some deer, but they were too far off to shoot. We also found a dead buffalo. Undoubtedly some hunter had given him his death wound but he had managed to get away from his pursuer and afterward was forced to lie down and die. The animal had probably been dead a week or more. We knocked off one of his horns and brought it home with us and I fastened it in my barn as a harness peg, and on that peg I hung my harness for fifty years.
Jesse Mason was the first person with whom I became acquainted. He was a father to the new settlers, not only to them, but to all the emigrants who, with their families, came through looking for homes. Many times he took them into his home, fed them and their teams, and sent them on their way rejoicing. He lived on the most traveled road and he had more opportunity for doing good, but I found all of the settlers kindly and ready to help in times of need.
One day, toward the last of January, 1855, there came a light snow, two or three inches deep, a good tracking snow. Jesse Mason was out that day and killed, I think, four or five deer. He came to me, asking me to take my oxen and sled and follow his track, load the deer on my sled, and bring them in in the morning. I hitched up and started and met him all ready for the trip. We followed his track and, while he branched off to kill more deer, I kept on the trail and loaded those animals which he had killed the day before. While I was doing this he came to me and told me that he had killed two or three more. We loaded them all, seven in number, I think, and started for home.
I got my house finished about the 15th of January, and moved into it at once. We enjoyed life in those days. The settlers would usually get together on Sundays, for we would not work on that day. The men would pitch horse shoes and shoot at a mark, and the women would get up a dinner that could not be beaten, I doubt, even in this enlightened age of the world. There was plenty of meat, both wild and tame, eggs, milk, butter, honey, and wild fruit. The women often met and had a quilting bee and sometimes we met at a neigh- bor's house in the evening and had a dance, with Ben F. Dobson as fiddler, if I remember rightly. Once in a great while a Methodist preacher would come, probably from Council Bluffs, and preach for us a few times. Later Uncle John McIntosh, of Galland's Grove, an elder of the Latter Day Saints church, came to Mason's Grove and held meetings near Mason's home. After the meet- ing Mason would ask all the congregation to go to his house and take dinner, and all who went were well fed on hot biscuit, honey, good coffee, etc.
The winter of 1856-57 was a very hard one. Snow fell three feet deep and stayed all winter. Several were badly frozen, being caught in what was known as the Big Storm. Our oldest daughter was born that winter.
Vol. I-5
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At first we got our mail and provisions from Council Bluffs. Usually some one would go and bring the mail and things for the rest of the neighbors. I think it was in the spring of 1855 that our first election was held at Mason's Grove. This was a township election, there being but one township for the entire county, and that was Milford. At this election Alonzo R. Hunt was elected justice of the peace, Calvin Horr, constable, Thomas Dobson school director, and I was elected assessor. I had to assess the whole county, where there was anybody to assess. Further, I had to travel on foot as I had no horse of my own, and the neighbors horses were all busy. It took me about a week to take the first assessment in Crawford county. In the fall of 1855 I was elected treasurer and recorder for the county. When I entered upon my duties there were no conveniences for doing the work and no office provided. I had to do the work at home and I kept the county funds in a tin box under a loose board of the floor for safe keeping, for I had no lock on my house. At this time, I was very busy splitting rails to fence a piece of land that I broke, so I got my wife to do some recording and I managed to receive the taxes and keep on splitting rails. Morris McHenry was at this time teaching school in Mason's Grove, and I got him to come and write for me on Saturdays and at odd spells, thus we got along first rate. I think Ed Howorth was the first one who paid taxes in the county. He also had the first deed recorded. I is- sued the first receipt for taxes in the county and also recorded the first deed. In the spring of 1856, I had fenced my ten acres for breaking and was ready for plowing, but I had no team. One day H. C. Laub came to my house to buy the corn I had raised the year before. It was what was called sod corn, and was very good. Laub said he would do my plowing and take corn in payment, so we struck a bargain and he went to work. I think he was to have two bushels per day; corn was worth two dollars a bushel. From this time on, nothing unusual happened, excepting that the country filled up rapidly with set- tlers, until about the commencement of the rebellion.
About this time the Indians became quite troublesome. One night they stole, I think, either four or five horses. The neighbors turned out the next morning and overtook them somewhere about Maple Grove and had a running fight with them, but the Indians got away with the horses. In 1862 I bought' a span of horses, built an addition to my house, built a stable snug against the house, and had a door between the house and the stable, so that if I heard a strange noise at night I could be ready for a fight. In 1863-64 the Indians became still more troublesome. It was at the time of the Indian massacre in Minnesota and my wife became somewhat alarmed for her own and the children's safety. For this reason we returned to Illinois for a visit until the scare was over. We stayed about two years, returning in the spring of 1865. This year I was elected justice of the peace, an office which I held for six years. In this same year I was elected as one of the county supervisors.
When we came there were no doctors in Crawford county, but some of the women were quite skillful in the use of such roots and herbs as grew in the groves and were excellent at nursing, having learned by experience and being obliged to depend upon their own resources in times of sickness, but the com- munity in general was quite healthy. There was some ague and a few cases
MAJOR HOLMES, CHARTER OAK
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
of typhoid fever. I believe that John Dunham, of Dunham's Grove, died of fever the first year of my residence in Crawford county. The first doctor who came to Mason's Grove was a Dr. Huston. He did not stay long but moved to some other locality. While he was there, however, he was at one time very useful to my own family, being the means of saving the life of our infant child, who was very sick. After home remedies failed, I started in the night after this doctor and had to go through a considerable woods. I had gotten but a little way when I saw a large panther feeding on the carcass of some ani- mal. . I went back and got the pitch fork for protection, as I had no gun, but when I returned the panther had gone and I saw no more of him. We had several kinds of wild animals which might be considered dangerous, such as the large, gray timber wolves, prairie wolves, panthers, lynx, wild cats, wild hogs, and, worst of all, the rattle snakes, of which there were many. My wife being watchful for the safety of her children kept a sharp lookout for snakes, which would often creep into the door yard, and once she found an ugly rattler coiled up in the playhouse she had fixed under the trees for the little girl. There were several cases of snake bite, but none died from the effects. The next year after coming to Crawford, I started one morning early to help Mr. A. R. Hunt on his farm, about three quarters of a mile from my place; it is the place long since known as the "Michael Ainsworth place." When about half way there, I looked up to the hill on my right and saw a herd of five elk. They soon ran out of sight but I noticed how the male elk, with horns fully seven feet across, would tip his head sidewise when passing between the trees. That was the only time I saw elk in Crawford.
One day I was going down through some heavy timber toward Dobson's mill, near Deloit, and met a young man dragging along an animal he had just shot. He did not know what it was, but I did as soon as I examined it. It was a lynx. I had seen them in the woods of York state. This one was as large as a good sized dog. A peculiar mark to tell them by is a tassle on each ear. They are nearly as dangerous as a panther.
The neighbors had a great laugh on me at one time when I went out hunt- ing for deer with a neighbor and a borrowed gun. He was a hunter and knew the habits of deer. He said if they were shot at or scared in the valley, they would take for the hills, or, if in the hill lands, would run for the lowlands. I went on the ridge while my neighbor went along the valley. I soon heard him shoot and pretty soon saw a drove of deer coming up the hill. I dropped down in the tall grass so they could not see me until they were near enough for me to shoot, but when I looked again they were almost on to me and I jumped up, left my gun on the ground, and instinctively threw up my hands. I was not afraid of them, but I did not want to be run over. We got no deer at that time. At another time I was out with Levi Skinner, and about half a mile from my house we passed a brush patch and his dog became very excited at something in the brush, but did not dare to go in. Skinner thought it must be a bear, or something very bad, if his dog did not dare to attack it. It turned out to be a very large and vicious looking wild boar, with long, wicked looking tusks. I heard that the way there came to be wild hogs in the grove
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
was from Dunham's herd of hogs, which he turned out in his grove and some of them had wandered away several years before and become wild.
I made the statement that when I moved to Mason's Grove there were no settlers nearer than Buck Grove. I forgot Mr. Dunham, who lived in the grove named after him, which was about six miles from Mason's Grove. He had lived there several years and most of his children were married and lived near him. He owned considerable land and kept a great deal of stock. He broke his land with a plow that would look queer nowadays. It was very large and heavy and was lifted about by a lever. It had wheels attached in front and was drawn by from eight to ten yoke of cattle. He could turn over a lot of ground in a day.
At first there was an abundance of wild fruit, such as grapes, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries and several kinds of plums, some of which were choice. The wild fruit lasted pretty well until orchards were planted and there were apples and other tame fruits growing. The best of the wild fruit, along with the native grass, disappeared as the county became set- tled. In the spring of 1865 or '66 I planted the first orchard and vineyard in my locality. The winter before, a young man by the name of Joseph Wood- ruff boarded with me and taught the district school. We talked over the pos- sibilities of fruit raising and concluded, in the spring, to go to Des Moines and get fruit trees to plant. I took my team and wagon, as that was before the railroad went through our county, and brought home apple trees, grape vines and a few strawberry plants. I had good luck with my fruit and, in time, raised an abundance for many years. Some of the trees and vines I planted that spring can still be seen on the old farm.
The prairie fires were a source of great danger to the early settlers. The grass and other vegetation grew rank and in the fall of the year fires would sweep across the country and destroy fences, crops, hay stacks, etc., unless the farmer was prepared for it by having burnt around his field, which was quite à task. Many times I have, in company with neighbors, fought these prairie fires to keep them from destroying our homes and property. Even our lives were in danger at times. Levi Skinner was badly burned. Sometimes in the night, my wife or I would see a fire coming in the distance and we knew that our wheat stack, or our hay would be destroyed unless something was done at once. We would go out and begin to "back fire," as we called it. This was done by starting a fire in the dry grass along the fence and whipping it out on the side next the fence, letting it burn from the fence out. If the prairie fire, which was usually driven by a strong wind, was not too near the back fire would have burnt a wide enough space to prevent the oncoming flames from jumping over. Once my wife and I were down by the river fishing and saw a fire coming from the other side, but we thought it would go no further than the river. We started for home, but the fire jumped the river and came near catching us before we could get out of the grass and to a place of safety. In our early experiences my wife stood by me, shoulder to shoulder. She was determined to succeed and to make good. She left many relatives and friends, together with the comforts of a good home in the east, to take up life on the frontier, and she did her share in making us a home of our own, which in time
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we made very comfortable. She was, however, very much afraid of Indians. I sometimes had to be away from home the entire day at my work, and often she would then take her sewing and the baby, with a pillow and a blanket, and spend the day out in the grove. Indians frequently passed through but they were for the most part friendly, asking for something to eat or, as was often the case, stopping to inquire the way to the Indian trail, which was not far from our house and which led to Council Bluffs, or Kaneville, where there was an In- dian settlement. One day while my wife was alone in the house, busy with her work, she looked up and saw an Indian standing in the door. She was too frightened to speak, but he held out his hand and said "How!" She then knew that he meant no harm and gave him the directions which he asked. After he left the house she went out to see if he had gone, as directed. She could see several Indians with ponies and they all rode off together. Probably one cause of her great fear was the experience of her grandparents and parents, who were settlers of the Mohawk valley in New York when the Indians were making war on the whites and she had often heard the thrilling stories of those times.
There was some cause for alarm, for as early as 1857 or '58 I remember being at a house in what was then called the "Burnt Woods," afterward "Purdy's Grove," where a number of the settlers had gathered for protection if the Indians should come with hostile intent. Among those who were there I recall a Mrs. Todd, afterward Mrs. Marshall. She, like the rest of the women, was quite excited and had a large knife in her hand and told what she would do if the Indians came. But she had no chance to show what she would do, for the Indians did not come, though we heard of their depredations in other places and it caused some fear in our neighborhood.
My first home in Crawford county was a log house, sixteen feet square. I hewed the logs and put them together, as log houses are usually built. I also spit up logs and made a pretty good floor and made a fire place of sod in one end. We also had two small windows and a door, which we fastened with a wooden latch. The string was always outside and many times we had a cheer- ful company of friends gather around that old fire place on winter evenings ; people who, like ourselves, had known better surroundings but were struggling to gain a foothold in the new country. Those are good days to remember. It was not long before Benjamin Dobson had his mill running and a little later Esau McKim built a saw mill, so we could bring logs to their mills and have them sawed into boards. Soon I had an addition put on my log house, which made it much more convenient. In 1866 I built the large and comfortable house and barn which still remain. I got nearly all the material for my buildings from my own timber and had it sawed at my home mills, but for the pine finishing's, doors, windows and such things, I had to go to Boone, as there were no lumber yards in Denison. In the year 1882 I moved from my farm to the village of Deloit, which is one mile north. I resided there twenty-six years. On my re- turn from Illinois, in 1865, I brought back a buggy, which, I believe, was the first one owned in or around Mason's Grove.
Although we were in the wilds of a new country where news of what the world was doing was very scarce, we still took an interest in the affairs of the nation. Some one or two in the community took newspapers, which I think
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were published at Council Bluffs, and so we kept in touch with the political events of the times. We celebrated the Fourth of July, for the first time, in the year 1857, at Deloit, which was the first town of the county to be laid out, and we celebrated almost every year from that time on. We held several such gatherings in the grove east of Deloit. At our celebrations we had a few pa- triotic speeches and three cheers for the flag, and sometimes we had a little fife and drum music. E. S. Plimpton played the fife; I played the snare drum, but I have forgotten who beat the bass drum-perhaps we had none at that time. Our dinners on those occasions were what was called a "free dinner." We had a long table set, and on this all our eatables were placed and every one was invited to come and dine. This custom of a free dinner we kept up for several years.
When the Civil war broke out three of the very first settlers were among those who went from Crawford county to fight for the Union. Their names were Franklin Prentice, Alonzo R. Hunt, and Joseph Skinner. The last two named died in the service of their country. I have lived to see great changes in Crawford county, where once I could tell the names of all the people. At first they settled in and around the groves; later the prairie land was taken. Land, that once was homesteaded and preempted for one dollar and a quarter per acre, is now worth one hundred dollars an acre, or more. The few roads in those days usually followed the ridges to avoid the sloughs and low places. There were no bridges and the streams had to be forded. Our means of travel were usually by ox team, or on foot, for but few owned horses. Now we have horses and, instead of the slow pace of the ox team, the automobile is seen speeding swiftly along all over the country. Once we got our mail at Council Bluffs-now it is delivered daily at our doors, besides which we have the telephone, which is in most of the homes throughout the county. Log schoolhouses were built first and were used also for religious services, or other kinds of public meetings. Now the county is wealthy, covered with beautiful and well improved farms, has many prosperous towns and the best of schools and churches everywhere. Crawford is indeed one of the best counties in the state, and Iowa the best state in the Union.
REMINISCENCES OF MORRIS M'HENRY.
"The territory of which Crawford county was formed was at a very early date included in Benton county; but in 1851 it was named Crawford and at- tached to Pottawattamie county. When Shelby county was organized, Craw- ford was attached to it for judicial purposes, but until Crawford county had some settlers the attachment was not very strong. The county did not begin to be settled until 1849 and the government surveys were not made until 1852 and 1853. This county was often visited by hunters for meat and honey, years before settlers came to live, and was a border land between the Sioux Indians on the north and the Sac and Fox Indians, around Fort Des Moines, and the Paw- nees along the mouth of the Platte in Nebraska. These last two tribes were friends, and enemies of the Sioux. About the year 1846 the Sioux fell upon a small party of Pawnees near where the town of Adel, (Dallas county) stands
MORRIS MCHENRY
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and killed most of them-one or two escaped and reached Fort Des Moines. One of the sons of the renowned Chief Black Hawk raised a party and followed the Sioux and overtook them on the Coon river just below Sac City and killed quite a number of the Sioux and took their scalps, and, on their return to Fort Des Moines, raised quite a 'fugo' in getting enough skunks' tails to ornament their leggings. One tail for each scalp was the/requirement among this tribe. The Sioux have made three thieving raids into Crawford county since its first settlement.
"The first settlement was made in the year of 1849. Cornelius Dunham, a Vermonter, had settled in Jackson county, Iowa, and having quite a large herd of cattle and hogs concluded to take Horace Greeley's advice and 'go west.' He hired Franklin Prentice and wife to come and take care of his stock and build him a house. He engaged Reuben Blake to help drive the stock and took his oldest daughter, Sophronia Dunham, to help with the cooking. They reached this county in the early summer of 1849, thus becoming the 'Forty Nin- ers' of Crawford county. Leaving Mr. Prentice and family to care for the stock and build him a cabin, Mr. Dunham and daughter, with Mr. Blake, re- turned to Jackson county, to raise a crop and bring the family on in the fall. The Dunham cabin was notable in one thing; the door was made by cutting a large walnut tree and hewing it down until about four inches thick and then hung with large wooden hinges. Mr. Prentice lived here alone, seeing no one, supplying his family with meat from the droves of elk and deer around him. But before the Dunham family reached him he was in great need of powder and was getting ready to start in the direction of Council Bluffs to find a settlement and some powder, but the opportune arrival of Mr. Dunham and family saved him the trouble. Some of the Dunham hogs were lost and their progeny be- came wild hogs and were seen by the settlers some ten or twelve years after- ward. Mr. Dunham's family consisted of the following: Margaret, his wife; Cornelius, Jr .; Sophronia; Margaret; Samuel S .; Martha L .; and Z. Taylor Dunham, the youngest. His oldest son, John A. Dunham, was married in Jack- son county and did not come to this county until 1854. Cornelius Dunham first settled on what is now the Tracy Chapman farm, in section 2, East Boyer town- ship. The next settlement was made in the spring of 1851, by Jesse Mason, at Mason's Grove, just east of Deloit. Mr. Mason came to the county from near Kanesville, now Council Bluffs. His wife's brothers, George J. and Noah V. Johnson, came with him; also a neighbor, Levi L. Skinner, came at the same time. They traveled with ox teams, coming up the divide between the Mosquito and Pigeon creeks. They came in by way of Buck Grove and Coon Grove and finally reached the south bank of the East Boyer river, in what is now the city of Denison. The river being too deep to ford they camped on the bottom and set to work to build a bridge. After a few days of hard work they finished their bridge just at night, ready to go over the next morning. They slept on the ground and in the wagons. During the night, a tremendous downpour of rain came; the river overflowed the bottom, and, before they were aware of it, the water was in and around their beds and wagons, and they were compelled to flee, in the dark, to the hill south of their camp. Although they lost their bridge they soon had another, and successfully completed their journey to Mason's
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