USA > Iowa > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 16
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In February, 1884, fire destroyed a solid block in Garden Grove, from the corner of Main and Jefferson east, including Jenning's general store, Woodbury's drug store, Craig's barber shop, Knapp's
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meat market, Brown's grocery, F. E. Stearns & Co's. general store, McCaull's boot and shoe shop, Rideway's harness shop and the post- office.
NEWSPAPERS
The Garden Grove Bulletin was an advertising sheet issued from 1854 until 1869 at irregular dates by D. and A. B. Stearns.
The Garden Grove Enterprise was established in 1869 by H. M. Belvel. He sold to W. J. Whiteman, who discontinued the paper in 1873. It was a republican paper.
The Garden Grove Express first came into existence on May 5, 1875, but was called The Iowa Express until December, 1882. J. O. Parrish was editor and proprietor until March 1, 1881, when he disposed of the property to Bryson Bruce.
EARLY DAYS
The following is from the pen of G. P. Arnold:
The words that follow do not purport to reveal new subject mat- ter, or to contain anything heretofore unknown, but rather to attempt to fix the location of certain landmarks in the early history of the Township of Garden Grove, to correct a somewhat hazy conception of the whereabouts of the temple and other matters allied to the early times of this locality. Whenever numbers are used for land sub-divi- sion it is understood to apply to the township mentioned above.
The writer first saw Decatur County in June, 1853, and cannot, therefore, claim that he came here with the first installment of the Gentile invasion. The temple I saw, of course, but when it had fallen into a prosaic and practical state. "To what base uses we may de- scend, Horatio." It was used to stable horses and at this time, to make it respectable, would have required the services of a pocket edi- tion of Hercules in the original Augean stable act.
Later on this narrative will give location and uses to which this temple was dedicated. It is the regret of good men, peace men, like Tolstoi, Quakers, Dunkhobers and the like, that to install great re- forms or to set up a new religion, streams of innocent blood must be shed. The list is long, but the mind readily recalls Calvary, the Roman Martyrs, Smithfield and the Tower, Reign of Terror, and but ves- terday in Moscow and Petrograd, the snow was reddened with the blood of working men. The followers of Joseph Smith, known as the Latter Day Saints or Mormons, had their tragedy, too. When Vol. I -11
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Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed by a mob at the window of Carthage Jail, then the doom of Nauvoo as chief city of the faithful, a manufacturing center, utilizing the waters of the great river near at hand, was sealed.
The exodus began in the early months of the year 1847. Small parties crossed the river on the ice, driving westward. The presi- dency now developed on Brigham Young and about this time the idea must have been conceived of pushing on to Salt Lake, as it was called upon the maps, for Young and party arrived there in the lat- ter part of the same year 1847. One party of refugees came to Decatur County, arrived in this township in 1847, named the place Garden Grove and established a "Stake in Zion" or perhaps it was a "Stake of Zion." The establishment of the stake was to utilize the forces of the people and found a kind of theocratic-communal life.
When called together under a tree in that April day, in the year 1847, some were tolled off as bridge builders, others were to cut the logs for cabins, others were set to prepare the ground for planting. For the most part they were poor folk and the work animals were thin and unequal to the task of breaking prairie. This is usually given as the reason why the settlement was made in or near the timber skirting the streams. Although substantial cabins and a few minor industries were built it never was the intention to make the stay permanent. After Nauvoo, all other than Salt Lake were resting places only.
Practically all left here during 1853. I have alluded to the the- ocratic-communal character of the settlement. At one time a little less than three sections were fenced in one field. This was subdivided into plots of arable land eighteen acres in extent. The farmer paid in kind tithings to the church. Those otherwise employed tithed themselves in like manner. It is believed that no white man lived in the township when the Mormons came; no courts, no law, and the land had not been sectionized. It is a matter of fact that they grew hemp and being a peaceful people, one is in doubt for what purpose, until he remembers the great cable for the great trek in May, 1851. No murders are of record or within the memory of any remaining Gentile, although rumor is to the effect that a body was found hang- ing to a tree in a secluded spot. It may have been a case of suicide; at least there was no investigation or attempt thereto made.
As a rule the Mormons and Gentile neighbors lived in peace to- gether, and the exceptional case was that of a man who sought his plow shortly after the departure of a delegation for Salt Lake and found
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only the woodwork in the brush while the share, mouldboard and all other iron parts presumably were journeying to the Promised Land. He, the possessor, argued, perhaps, that it was a sight easier for his neighbor to get another from John Deere than he far away in the wilds to find one there. The mill, too, where the community ground their corn, merits description. The motive power was oxen or cows and the burrs turned by reason of the specific gravity of the animals. It was a treadmill of a peculiar type. Imagine a wheel with an axle ten feet in length, having spokes mortised into the axle in an irregular manner. When the axle already spoked, and a gudgeon in each end was raised perpendicularly, the spokes covered with plank, the result was an in- clined plane upon which the animals walked, thereby driving the burrs. Belts and eogwheels were of wood and rawhide and except a few bolts and bits of iron around the stand of burrs, there was little besides. Evidently the iron age had not yet arrived.
Before this mill was made and set up near the south line of sec- tion 28, they tried to make out of a hard granite glacial boulder a millstone. The work progressed so far as to face the boulder for the nether stone and there the work ceased. It is said that the local blaeksmiths could not temper the steel hard enough to cut the granite. The "Big Field," so called, comprised major parts of seetions 32, 33 and 34. There were cabins and improvements scattered along the smaller streams, called branches. The temple was located near the west line of the northeast of the northeast of seetion 33, about thirty rods south of the town residence of the late Sam Metier. This structure was built of logs and had a puncheon floor. The logs form- ing the sides of the building were pinned together, forming a solid side without side brace, and the roof was of clapboards. It was three or four stories, all on the ground. as was the current wittieism, used in describing the Paris mercantile establishment at High Point. The temple was used for secular as well as saered purposes. With these people dancing was held to be very near a means of grace.
I am not apprised whether authority for the practice or the art terpsichorean was found in the new revelation delivered by Joseph Smith, or rested on the Old Testament text. Evidently the New of the authorized version did not sanction it. It mattered little to the young saints, I imagine, where lay the authority if the local fiddler was proficient in scraping the Arkansas Traveller, Fisher's horn pipe or Money Musk. Conservative Gentile opinion is, that the popula- tion at its height was about two thousand souls. The industries were a rope walk, wagon and blacksmith shops and the mill. Critehlow,
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Doctor Roberts and Blanchard were leading lights. Orson Pratt, also, as the records in Salt Lake show, tarried here for a season. It is mooted whether President Brigham Young was ever here; if he was it was while passing through on the first trip to the Salt Lake Basin. It is said that Lee, of the Mountain Meadows episode, abode here, too. No credit for that. Brigham Young is usually credited with having received the revelation concerning polygamy. This new light must have come to Young about the time of the dispersion from Nau- voo, because two or three of the leaders practiced it while living here. This is Gentile testimony. With a short account of what I am pleased to call the great trek I will close this part of the early township his- tory. On May 20, 1851, the start was made from Garden Grove with a train of 120 wagons, all made in shops here out of white oak, whip sawed, near at hand. One outfit of two wagons, one of which was a trailer, drawn by eight yoke of oxen, carried 1,000 feet of hemp rope, 21/2 inches in diameter. The hemp was grown here and worked in a local rope walk. The cable was intended for ferrying unbridged streams. Pontoons were also a part of the luggage. Accompanying the wagon train was a battalion of 500 uniformed, armed men, mounted and commanded by a colonel and other officers. It is notice- able that whenever these people tarried for a short or longer period they began the building of temples. Witness the Ohio Station, Nau- voo, Garden Grove, perhaps Pisgah and Council Bluffs, and at last Salt Lake where very early, maybe the first year, it is recorded that Young drove his walking stick in the ground and declared "that here shall a temple be built;" and after many years the pretentious, many-pinnacled structure fulfilled the prophecy.
This closes the short account of the Mormon phase of the early settlement. The Gentiles came here as early as 1848 and later. The well known names Kellogg, Davis, Chase, Knapp, Baker, Piper, Bowen and others are recalled. O. N. Kellogg built a hotel out of Mormon cabins and added another story atop. It is this ancient hos- telry that departed this life twenty-five years ago which by many was supposed to have been the ancient temple. At this time good feeling existed between the Hungarian colonists of New Buda and the people here. I remember that July 4, 1854, witnessed a great out-pouring of colonists joining with the people here in honor of the day. Seats were used in the peach orchard adjoining the Kellogg Hotel. It seems as if New Buda had appeared in force. I recall the presence of Pomutz, Varga, Mitani, Madarasz and many others whose names
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have slipped through the meshes of the years. The peach orchard bore fruit that year to the extent of fifty bushels, it is said.
Jonathan Creek was named after a pioneer swine-herd who drove his half wild, mast fed hogs to the Missouri River to find a market. His cabin was in Center Township near the stream which bears his name. Weldon, although the ancestral acres of this family were in Burrell Township, was probably named in like manner. Maybe it was Cherry Creek, too, after a person, as one of the name lived here. It was almost the universal rule to hear, in those days, Grand River spoken of as plain Thompson, Thompson's Fork of Grand River, never Grand River. Personality counted for much in those days. One who has lived in a gold mining camp has been impressed with the imaginative, optimistic nature of many of the gold hunters. A story spreads quietly that Crazy Dick, or a drunken sailor, was seen with a big sack of dust and the dust never came from this camp; then Dick or the sailor is followed and in a short time a stampede is under head- way. Almost every camp has its old-time story of stampedes and stampeders. Stories are floated about, oftentimes with a basic deal of truth, how Lucky Bill took a chance in his claim at Last Chance. Struek it rich. It was the merest chance that Bill went mining there at first. This desire to "strike it" is ingrained in human nature and no nationality or race is exempt. The manifestations are the same whether at Moosehead in the far North, Gold Lake of the California Sierras, Cool-gardie or the Rand of South America. One would not expect to find mystery and even a bit of stampede here in Decatur County. First as to the mystery. Artillery Grove, in the early days, was a prominent landmark situated in Clay Township, Wayne County; a high bluff covered with oak trees near Steele Creek could be seen from afar. The legend is that troops on their way from the fort at Raccoon Forks to Fort Leavenworth buried here two pieces of artillery to save them from falling into the hands of the Indians. This story is at least sixty years old and moss-backed. Another is that a paymaster buried his trunk somewhere in Long Creek Town- ship to save his wealth from the savages. This, too, is as old as the former and hoary with years. The real stampede occurred before the war during the late '50s when men flocked to the gold mines on Steele Creek in High Point Township. Less than twenty years ago there remained at the said mines the rotting side of a long tom as evidence of the rush.
It is a fair presumption that the artillery were not 16-inch pieces and the mines of the Steele Creek basin were not Cripple Creek
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claims of the first water. Here ends the chapter. This is, the writer believes, a fair account of the early days, not complete and perhaps not entirely free from error, but undertaken with the hope that the great field, temple and cognate matters of interest, as to location, at least might be fixed in the minds of the rising generation ere the last living witness had passed in his checks. Sometimes it is necessary to jog the memories of the old-timer, "Lest we forget, lest we forget."
MISCELLANEOUS
During the winter of 1848 William Davis bought the church prop- erty at a very small price per acre and resold the land in eighty-acre lots at $50 for first choice and down to $30 for the last choice. He also formed a partnership with Don C. Roberts and furnished a few hundred dollars, which his partner invested in staple commodities, mostly groceries, which was quite a convenience, but proved a loss to the senior member of the firm as the groceries were partly stolen from the cabin fitted up for their occupancy.
Mrs. Enos Davis kept a school in their cabin at $1.25 per scholar, for a term of three months, the pay mostly in provisions.
O. N. Kellogg bought the first choice of lots and in the spring of 1849, in company with Enos Davis, bought the gardens and the use of two cabins of a couple of families living on the tract, and moved into them. In September of that year Hiram Chase and his family came to join the little colony. They were the first to come direct from Dodge's Point over the new road just staked out. About that time Daniel Winters and Mordecai Smith, with their families, came from Lee County and went about four miles northwest. Winters moved to land that he had entered and as he was the first settler there and a minister of the Missionary Baptist Church the settlers named it Gos- pel Ridge. In the spring before O. N. Kellogg had entered a quarter section there, the first entered in the county. The citizens were formed into a society for mutual protection, as many of the claims had val- uable improvements. Josiah Morgan and a few others, with their families, reached the grove in the fall. The latter settled on Jonathan Creek, a few miles southwest, where Jonathan Stanley, from Ten- nessee, had lived a hermit life for several years, dressing in buckskin and living by hunting and trapping. Morgan bought a claim just west of the town and the Mormon Mill which had failed. He fixed the mill and it became a great convenience to the people of the com- munity. He built a good, hewed log house adjoining his cabin in
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in 1853 and soon after sold and settled on Gospel Ridge. The place was afterwards owned and occupied by Sylvanus Arnold and called White Oak.
During the winter of 1849 and 1850 a gentleman named Gwinn, from Virginia, visited the place, looking for locations for his chil- dren, three of whom, two sons and a daughter, made homes here the following year.
Henry B. Notson came and brought a stock of goods, opened a store in an extra cabin moved up for the purpose by Enos Davis, with whom he boarded. Jehu Blades also sold goods in the lower part of town, near the creek.
There were many Indians, chiefly Pottawattomies, in the vicinity during the early days, under the control of Chief John Kish Kosh.
At the time the Mormons left the grove the weather was very inclement, roads almost impassable; and groceries, flour, meat and clothing were sold for small prices in order to lighten the weight of the wagons. Along at this time, also, came the need of accommoda- tions for travelers. Accordingly O. N. Kellogg added another log house to the one he occupied with space between, and an additional story over all, the upper part in one room when used for a hall and divided by curtains when used for sleeping rooms. A sign told the seekers for shelter that this was the California House and a little board nailed to the fence marked Entertainment, showed that E. Davis' cabin, a little east, might hold a limited number. The first hotel stood where Doolittle's home later was erected. The Mormon young people assembled in the hall sometimes, as their church had been taken for a stable. The lumber was whipsawed for doors and floors.
In the summer of 1849 John M. Whitekar of Van Buren County made this place his headquarters, being one of the three appointed to select the 500,000 acres of school land. He also located the ninety- six sections of university land. There was some saline land here, but it finally went back to the Government.
R. M. McBroom settled here in 1850.
The first election was held in 1850. William Davis. Victor Doze and Hiram Chase were the judges. Hiram Chase was elected justice of the peace and served twenty years.
Daniel Hankins came and was the first settler at High Point. also brought a hand mill to grind corn. For a number of years it was at least forty miles to a good flouring mill. Most of the goods. flour included, came from Keokuk-Cleghorn & Harrison, Bridgeman & Reed, Cox & Shelley were among the principal houses dealt with.
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The Des Moines Valley Whig was the first paper taken after a post- office was secured.
S. F. Baker and wife came in 1851 on their bridal tour. Z. W. Knapp and family joined their friends, Chase and Kellogg, and many others also came in 1852. The next year brought an even greater number, many of them locating around Gospel Ridge, most of them from Illinois. A school district had been organized and Mrs. Enos Davis taught in the east room of the California House. Hiram Chase had a school in their kitchen the preceding winter.
The year 1854 brought a great influx of valuable settlers. Wil- liam Davis and Hiram Chase built a two-story frame schoolhouse and Rev. J. R. Cary began school there. While soldering some tin on the cupola a workman dropped a coal which ignited the shavings and the building was consumed. Sylvanus Arnold replaced it with an octagonal brick, which in turn was supplanted by another frame structure.
E. W. Dawes purchased the first hotel property and it was then called the Dawes House. The Ohio House and the Amos House were later hotels.
Garden Grove was incorporated in 1879.
D. L. Bowen and George Douglass built the first flouring mill. John Avis, an Englishman, and his wife walked from Keokuk, carry- ing their small child and luggage and built the first frame house in Garden Grove. This home was later improved and became the resi- dence of A. C. Shaw. The first sawmill was built by a company and operated by John Marshall, west of town, on Weldon, in 1855-56.
PLEASANTON
The Town of Pleasanton is situated on the divide between Grand River and Little River on the south line of Decatur County. The surrounding country is a rolling prairie, fertile and in a good state of preservation.
One account states that the town was laid out in the spring of 1854 by Daniel Bartholow and called Pleasant Plain. Another authority states that the town was founded in 1854 by William Snook and William Loving. The town was first known as Pleasant Plain. There was a postoffice 21/2 miles northwest of the place called Nine Eagles, which was subsequently moved here and the name changed to Pleasanton.
The first business house erected for use as a general store was owned by a Mr. Hinkle. It was located on the lot where the Painter
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store later stood. The next building was constructed on the present site of the 'T'ye Building, by Green Watson. The village had a very slow growth until 1883 when the Des Moines & Kansas City Rail- road was built through the place. This is now a part of the Burling- ton. When the railroad first reached Pleasanton the town was christened Harding, but this name did not remain very long.
The first hotel or public house was conducted by Joel Painter and in 1860 the second hotel was erected by Royal Richardson, which he managed for twenty-two years. The first postmaster was Captain Warnock. The first schoolhouse, which also served as a meeting house, was a log building erected in the early days of the town. The logs are still in use in the framework of a barn erected by H. A. Cowles.
The college, a building 30x60 feet, two stories high, was next erected, but was destroyed by a tornado in 1865. After this a brick schoolhouse was built and in 1898 after being pronounced dangerous gave way to a frame school of two stories, costing $1,500.
The first paper was the Index, established in 1900 by J. B. Ben- nett.
The Bank of Pleasanton was opened for business on March 6, 1905. It is now known as the Farmers and Merchants Bank. Wil- liam Woodard is president and J. W. Chew cashier. The capital is $20,000 and the deposits $112,000.
Several times in the history of the town there have been destructive fires. The south side was burned at one time and the north side has suffered twiee.
In an issue published in 1868 the Decatur County Journal has this to say of Pleasant Plains, now Pleasanton:
"This village is situated on the divide between Grand River and Little River, on the south line of the county in Hamilton Township. An addition to the village is situated in Missouri. The surrounding country is a rolling prairie, fertile and in a good state of cultivation, with timber about a mile distant, both east and west. Some years ago a building was erected here for a college. An institution of learning was duly organized with flattering prospects, but in June, 1855, the building was blown down and has not yet been rebuilt.
"The town was laid out in the spring of 1854 by Daniel Bartholow. It now contains four general stories, one drug store, two blacksmith shops, one wagon shop, two hotels, one shoemaker, three physicians. and one attorney. Its population is about two hundred and fifty. One of its substantial and enterprising citizens is Royal Richardson,
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proprietor of the Richardson House, and also the owner of a fine farm, on which he this year cut sixty-five tons of timothy hay and harvested 1,000 bushels of oats. There is a good brick schoolhouse and a Masonie lodge known as Emblem Lodge No. 189. There is an organization of the Methodist Episcopal Church with a Sabbath school in connection. The place is twelve miles south of Leon and twenty miles northwest of Princeton, the county seat of Mercer County, Mo. It has a daily mail north and south and semi-weekly east and west. The postoffice here is called Nine Eagles, for the reason that mail matter directed to Pleasant Plains often miscarried, there being a place of that same name in Jefferson County, Ia."
PLEASANTON AND ITS PAST
By Royal Richardson
I was born in Phillipston, Worcester County, Mass., February 12, 1827, and my parents were natives of the same state. I was reared on a farm, and received my education in my native town. I was married to Martha Johnson and in 1854 I came to Batavia, Ill., where I worked at the carpenter's trade for two years. We located at Pleasanton, Decatur, County, Ia., in May, 1856.
The town was then called Pleasant Plains, had been laid out in the spring of 1854 by Daniel Bartholow and contained about fifty inhabitants. At that time the towns in Decatur County were Decatur, Garden Grove, Leon and Westerville. Allen Scott was postmaster at Nine Eagles, 21/2 miles northwest of Pleasanton. In 1859 the postoffice was moved to Pleasanton and W. S. Warnock became the first postmaster. The writer held the same office for eighteen years. Among the early settlers of Pleasanton and vicinity I reeall the names of Patrick Willis, Joseph Tong, A. W. Moffett, William Hamilton, William Acton, William Loving, George Morey, Ebenezer Robinson, William Alden, John Clark, Elijah Crawford, Wyllis Dickinson, G. P. Walker and Abner Marks.
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