USA > Iowa > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 20
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the one from the other, and as many of these names were given in the early pioneer days and were generally taken from those of the early settlers who were attracted to their bottoms because of the natural necessity of all pioneers-wood and water-and as these early settlers by common instinct, almost invariably soon pushed on to the unexplored, and because of the age of the county, their memory now forgotten, the meagre date to be obtained, must be taken with at least certain doubts, and it is more than likely that the true facts may be in a large measure forgotten.
As to Grand River, this stream traverses the west prat of the county. In an early day it was not thus called, but went by the nam eof, Thompson's Fork, which was later on contracted to Grand, unquestionably because of its being a prominent branch of the river so named. There are those today of the early settlers who in refer- ring to it, always call it Thompson's Fork.
Thompson settled at Edinburg, Mo., about the year 1840 and gave his name to the stream. He was a contemporary of Peter Cain and probably the two made settlement at about the same period. He appears, by the way, to have been one of the class of hardy hunters. trappers and traders who have ever been immediately in the rear of the vanishing Indian. By reports, he led a strenuous life, making various excursions of discovery, mingling with the distant settlements, hunting, trapping and trading and at times acting as guide, well known over a wide area of country and especially well acquainted with the river as he is reported to have often been met with in the vicinity of Afton, Ia.
Likewise, Weldon Creek, or River as it is sometimes called, was named after one Weldon who came into the county in the early '40s and is reported to have first settled in or near Burrell Township. He, too, was constantly mingling with the settlements and probably made various excursions into the country tributary to the stream and traded with and had much association with the Mormons who passed through Iowa about 1846, and most likely from these associations, and knowing the country and the different trails and fords thor- oughly, the creek was called after him.
Steel Creek, which has its rise in the northwest part of Richman Township, Wayne County, and which enters Decatur County. at Section 13, High Point Township, and joins with Weldon at Sandy Point on the land commonly known as the Beaumont farm. was named after one Steel.
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The site of his cabin is placed as being located in the bend of the creek about a quarter mile north of the bridge on the state road and on the farm now known as the Captain Alexander estate. Little if anything is remembered of him and he probably left the county at a very early period. It might be added in connection with this stream that many years ago there was no small excitement of the finding of gold on some of the deep slough branches and that colors were quite readily shown in the pans, and indeed it is reported that one particular day there were more than one hundred men congregated and engaged in the quest, and that a rough sluice box was constructed and all preparations of an extent indicating permanency, but the excitement was short lived.
Likewise, Artillery Grove, a high wooded point of ground near this creek, was for many years a landmark and there are many legends of buried cannon, of a battle between emigrants and Indians and of a skirmish between Missouri Militia and Mormons, and last and most reasonable, that the point was on or near the old trail leading to Fort Des Moines and that passing troops being encumbered, buried two pieces of small cannon here. It is certain that these have never been found, though on several occasions treasure hunters have vainly sought them. On the whole, the various stories lack corroboration.
Jonathan Creek, which rises just southeast of Van Wert, and joins with Weldon about the Gardner farm in High Point Township, was named after one Jonathan who settled at a point just east of the Capt. J. D. Brown homestead. T. J. Knapp, who came to Iowa about 1851, states that he distinctly remembers the site of the log cabin, which was a few rods north of the Leon-Garden Grove road where the same winds up the hill after crossing the creek. Here he lived and made a small clearing and was engaged in raising and feeding hogs. ITis last drive to Brunswick, Mo., was made in the fall of the year 1851.
Just north of his ranch and near the present Scott farm lived one Cherry, likewise an early settler and neighbor, and from him was named Cherry Creek, which branch traverses along the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.
Kilgore Branch, named from the Kilgores, early settlers and who are referred to by early settlers as being "hoss-traders" and of whose various exploits alone a volume might be written, but is passed for want of space. Mormon-Pool or Brush Creek, north of Garden Grove, probably took its name after having been used for baptismal purposes. The old trail to Chariton passed at a rocky ford just
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above which was a deep pool of water, probably seven or eight feet deep in places in an early day, the west bank of same being a long, gradual and gravelly slope naturally made it a favorite point for these ceremonies.
While there are many other branches in the county, at this late day it is difficult to get the information and to select the true from the legendary stories. In obtaining data as to names of our county streams, one is surprised even in our comparatively recent settlement, in the meagerness of the actual or authentic facts to be obtained. Very frequently, after interviewing a half dozen old settlers, one only learns that "Old Jim So-and-So lived down there on the bot- toms when he came to the county and as he was the only fellow near, we just called the creek Jim Creek after him-he left just about the time we landed here. He was a sort of retieent cuss, anyway, and they say he had mighty good reasons for living away from white folks"-and so it goes.
Aside from Grand River, which is merely an overgrown creek, the remainder of the drainage streams of the county, while numerous. comprise small branches and sloughs, many of them unnamed, and of the named not a few are self-descriptive of local conditions through their course, such as Sand Creek, of which there are several so-called, all of which that I have crossed being with sandy bottoms; Brush Creek, very suggestive from the name; Big Creek; Long Creek : Short Creek; Spring Branch and Turkey Run and a host of similarly des- ignated branches, some of which would hardly bear witness to being other than a dry arroyo unless caught in the very act of caring for a three or four-inch rainfall. I have committed from the more com- monly called, a little stream in Center and High Point townships called Granny Branch. An inquiry as to the reason for the name brought forth the following: "Well, all I know about it is that when we came here there was about the biggest lot of old women living in that settlement of anywhere else in these parts; there was Granny Smith and some five or six other women whose names I don't now exactly recollect who used to go out nursing and doctoring-mighty handy those days to have them-and just as far back as I can remem- ber we called the creek Granny after the whole bunch of them."
As to Elk Creek, the very name is suggestive. This stream was unquestionably named after the animal long extinct in our county. I have never been able to meet with anyone who remembered seeing a herd of elk in our section. There are, however, various reports passed around of straggling elk having been killed along Grand
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River. The early settlers of the western townships very vividly describe of the early '50s "that the country was a great expanse of prairie with luxurious growth of grass, and timbered along the rivers and most of the branches-no underbrush-thanks to the yearly fires which swept the plains, and possible to drive almost any place with team and wagon; the creeks and prairie sloughs abounded in small fish, with comparatively clear water and deep holes, many good hard bottom fords, and last of all, the western prairies marked with horns and teeth of elk, these remaining vestiges of this noble creature being plentifully found near the timber line along the creeks and frequently quite far out on the prairies, thus showing that there was a period when they were here in numbers, as the life of the horns and teeth, exposed to existing conditions, is variously estimated from twenty to thirty years, we may assume that the elk quit this range some time in the '30s or early '40s, as our early settlements hardly date further back than 1847." The stream probably took its name, not from some stray specimen, but from the remains of a herd.
Dickinson Branch in Burrell Township took its name from a hermit settler, Wylis Dickinson. I am not informed as to when he came to the county, but probably during the '50s. He was a peculiar character, a New Englander by birth I believe, reported to have been disappointed in a love affair. He settled in the then glades, later to be quite heavily timbered land not far from Davis City and on the upland east of Grand River. He was a quiet, mild-mannered man. He lived in a small cabin surrounded, when I first became acquainted with the man and the place, by native trees and quite hidden from view from the road. There were only two small fields of four or five acres each in culture at the time, one of which he allowed to lie fallow each alternate year, the other cultivated. There were many squirrels and birds in the trees, for he killed nothing himself and permitted no hunting on his premises, nor did he clear any more of his land than the two little fields before mentioned. The decaved and fallen trees supplied him with wood and the water supply was from the branch which bears his name. He was very affable with his neighbors and might never have been called hermit except for the fact that he shunned the villages and society, and so he lived-almost unknown personally except to a very few, surrounded by his trees and with his stock and the squirrels and the birds as company.
CHAPTER XIX MISCELLANEOUS
EARLY FARM METHODS
The following description of agriculture in the early days of the county was prepared by J. N. Machlan.
My parents erected a little cabin in the brush near the present site of the county bridge, on Little River, west from the Fairview schoolhouse, and called it home; before long my father with a good team of horses and an old-fashioned sod plow began to cut and turn the virgin soil preparatory to raising a crop. The plowman's nec- essary equipment for success were as follows: Plenty of patience, a whip. a plow file, a heavy hammer and a hunk of iron, to use as an anvil to cold hammer the plowshare occasionally; the file with which to put the finishing touch on; and the patience came into good play when he encountered a stone, a root, or some other obstacle that jerked the plow, plowman and all clear out of the furrow. There were also numerous snakes to contend with, the rattlesnakes, the bull snake, the hissing viper, the blue racer, the house snake, the garter snake, the horn snake, the yellow joint snake, the green joint snake, the blue- black joint snake and a few other species, besides the nasty lizzards which could be seen by the hundreds.
Now, as the virgin soil had been turned bottom side up and time had arrived for corn planting, we proceeded to plant corn by one of the following methods: By axing it in, hoeing it in, healing it in or dropping by hand following the plow every third round and dropping the grain on top of the furrow, at such a place that the next furrow would barely cover it with its upper edge. This would produce what we called a crop of sod corn, either good or bad, according to the season and condition of the sod. Plenty of rain was essential to a good crop. It was also essential for the sod to be well rotted. Scores of snakes would be cut in twain by the plow every season, among them a great many rattlesnakes. The early settlers did not have implement
Vol. I-14
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stores to which they could go and purchase farming tools, but were compelled of necessity to make them. When the ground was in con- dition for harrowing we set to work with three sticks of timber some four or five inches square and perhaps six feet in length and frame or bolt them together, which when joined would be a good representa- tion of the letter A. Next with an inch and a half or two-inch auger we bored holes in the side pieces and cross section, into which we inserted huge pegs made from oak or hickory, then sharpened the lower ends of the pegs and our harrow was completed. Our wooden harrow rotted down in the fence corner after many years of good service. A few years later the sod tearer was invented. It was such a peculiarly constructed instrument that to the writer it baffles description.
Much of the virgin soil contained so many tough roots that it was not uncommon to see a furrow of sod one-half mile long without a break in it. Some of the toughest roots were the wild indigo, shoe- string, blue stem, rosin weed and sometimes a patch of hazel or buck brush. The rosin weed produced a white gum which was used as chewing gum by the lads of the early day.
After a few months spent in the little cabin in the brush we decided to venture out on the broad, bleak prairie and erect another log cabin. A well was dug, which supplied water for the house, but for years our stock had to be taken across the prairie to some creek or spring to quench their thirst and as for ourselves when working in the fields or on the prairie making hay we have many times drunk from a puddle containing many angle worms, crawfish and bugs, and the water would often be warm enough for dish water. Time rolled on and it became necessary to fence our farm; father proceeded to the timber some eleven miles distant and split rails and hauled them, and a worm fence built, which when completed was from seven to ten rails in height, but soon a new difficulty arose. More settlers were coming in, fires were started in the prairie grass, some were started by accident, some purposely, and on quite a few occasions campers have left fire where they had stopped for the night; the wind would rise and the fire would be scattered. Soon a conflagration would be raging across the prairies and perhaps hundreds or even thousands of acres would be burned over before the fire went out. In many cases the fires would burn all night. It was at such times that our rail fences would suffer destruction. Then an idea came to us how to prevent this loss.
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The fires, of course, would do most of the mischief in the spring, and at some convenient time we would plow a few furrows around the farm near the fence, then perhaps two or three rods farther from the fence we would plow a few more, the strip between called the fire land. At a favorable time, when the wind was not blowing, gen- erally of an evening, father would say, "Well, boys, this is a good time to burn out those fire lands." This pleased the boys and after the day's work was done we equipped ourselves with small boards and brush to fight fire and on some occasions we would take along from one to three barrels of water, in case fire should get into the fence, we were fixed for it. All things ready, we commenced firing along the side, so the fire would have to burn against the wind, but it matters not how calm it was when the fire was started, the hot air rising creates a vacuum and the cool air rushing in to take its place would cause a breeze and sometimes the fire would get beyond control despite our best efforts and sometimes we would not reach home until a very late hour in the night. A weed well known to early settlers called the tumbleweed or careless weed which grew in great numbers on these new cultivated lands, the tops of which were almost spherical in shape and ranging in diameter from twelve to thirty-six inches, when assisted by the breeze, would carry fire for some distance. They were so near round they would roll for miles without stopping when a stiff wind was blowing.
When the soil had become well rotted and the eorn big enough to need attention we plowed it with a cultivator having but one shovel, which was made from a triangular-shaped piece of iron, with which it was necessary to plow two rounds to each row of corn. The eulti- vator was used in the field more or less until the silk made its appear- ance on the young ears of eorn. The worst weed we had to contend with in the cornfield in those days was a species of smart weed, rarely seen except on new land. It grew down close to the ground and had a firm grip upon it. Hoes were extensively used in those days in the cornfield. Another advanced step was taken in the method of plant- ing corn. The cultivator referred to was used to draw a shallow furrow for each row of corn, the corn is then dropped into the fur- row, about every three feet, then covered either with a hoe or by cross harrowing, three of us dropping and one furrowing off, planting as much as seven aeres in one day.
The time came when we were raising a little spring wheat, oats and flax. The method of threshing grain, after it had been harvested with the cradling scythe and was well cured, was to prepare a circular
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piece of ground, usually from sixteen to twenty feet in diameter, by taking a sharp spade and shaving off the surface until it was quite smooth and level; after this was done a pole some eight or ten feet high was set upright in a hole dug in the center of the circular patch of ground. To this pole usually two horses were tied with long ropes and a lad mounted on one of the horses with a small gad. The grain had been evenly spread upon the prepared ground and the horses were started on a long tramp, tramping out the grain on the ground, a process which was very monotonous to the horses and, speaking from experience, the writer was very glad when the noon hour or nightfall had arrived. The grain, during the tramping process, was turned over with a forked stick, and as soon as the grain was tramped out the straw was removed and the grain gathered up and winnowed out. A fresh supply was spread upon the floor and the tramping process was continued.
The snowfall during some of the winters was very heavy. I believe that it was in the winter of 1866 that we arose and discovered that the snow had drifted to the eaves of the little cabin. Our fences were all snowed under and our stock scattered hither and thither and our enclosures for stock were all under snow. After the snow fell the weather turned colder and the snow froze hard. We could drive in any direction across the prairie over high fences. We had just put out a washing before the snow and it was six weeks before we were enabled to find all of it. Heavy snows were common, but this one was the heaviest that I ever saw. Our cabin was covered with clap- boards, as was the custom in those days, and the snow would blow between them and sift down through the loft into our faces as we lay in bed during the snowstorm. The last thing the good mother would do before retiring was to see if the five children were in bed, covered up head and all so that the snow would not lodge in their faces. It was a common occurrence after a snowstorm had subsided for some one of the family to ascend to the loft and scoop the snow out before it melted.
As we pass along it might be well to describe the bedsteads installed in some of the cabins. One method of constructing a bed- stead was to place a log in the walls angling across a corner of the cabin at a convenient height, into which pegs were set about six inches apart. A small rope was then procured and strung back and forth from the pegs in the logs to corresponding pegs in the cabin. A later method of construction was to procure two round poles to serve as side rails, set the pegs into them, fasten them to corner posts, nail on
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end rails, then string the pegs with the rope, and the bedstead was completed.
No cabin was complete without the fireplace. The hearth was laid with brick or stone and the chimney usually built of the same materials, or wooden slats built up in mud or lime mortar. In our cabin the hearth was made of flat limestone under which the rats burrowed and made nests and reared their young, and as their dis- gusting habits are nocturnal, the sauey little rodents would emerge from underneath the hearth during the night, especially in the winter, and skip about the fire, evidently warming themselves and eating such things as suited their taste. They would sometimes bite some of the family or anyone who chanced to be there during the night. My brother, who resides in Des Moines, was bitten on the great toe while asleep. A servant girl who was employed to assist in the house- hold duties was also bitten, whereupon she cried "Murder!" But as that was a common expression with some people in those days when they were frightened, hurt or alarmed, the family thought nothing, but someone proceeded to make a light to ascertain how badly she was bitten.
The various kinds of lights used in those days were first the grease light, then the grease lamp and then the tallow candle.
When the sod had become well rotted, watermelons, pumpkins and potatoes did quite well. Among the various kinds of potatoes grown were the calico, white meshanic, California peachblow, long red, and ladyfinger, the long red being the most prolific.
For several years after Iowa became a state apples were hauled in from Missouri, many of them coming from what was known as the famous crab orchard, so called because the apple seion were grafted into the root of the wild crab. The first apples the writer ever saw grown were in a small orchard of young trees planted on the old homestead. I think there were less than a dozen of them, which were guarded very closely, lest something befall them before they were matured.
After the chaff-piling threshing machine was introduced the threshing of grain was not so great a task as it was formerly, but as the straw carrier had not yet been invented it became necessary to remove the straw and chaff from the rear end of the machine, either with horses or by some other method, any of which were very dis- agreeable, as the chaff and dust would fill the eyes, nose, ears and mouth; but being as it was, it was quite an improvement.
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Thinking there might be profit in sheep raising, we purchased a Hock of two or three hundred, with a guarantee from the owner that none of them were more than four years old, but soon they began to die of old age and we discovered that we were beaten in the deal; however, we kept on trying. We had plenty of range, but they must have a shepherd, which lot usually fell upon the writer, and per- mit me to say that it was a very monotonous, lonesome occupation, watching sheep on the broad prairie and not a human being in sight for hours at a time. For years we were compelled to lot the sheep at night near the cabin, to prevent the wolves from killing them, but even then they would get among them and kill the lambs. One day while the writer was tending his sheep a short distance from the cabin a wolf came into the flock and seizing a lamb by the back of the neck, trotted off with it. I waved my stick, which I usually carried, vigorously in the air and yelled with all the force I could summons. The wolf dropped the lamb and I took it to the cabin, but it was so badly injured that it only lived a few days. Our flock increased and the extremely old ones died off and we had better success for a time. In our flock was a large fellow with curled horns; he had been teased quite a little and had become quite mischievous. On a certain occasion by accident the sheep became imprisoned in the smokehouse; some member of the family had closed the door, not knowing that he was in there. The servant of the kitchen, who was commonly called an old maid, went to the smokehouse for something to serve for the dinner meal and on opening the door the sheep made a dive for her, running between her feet, carrying her for a short distance and bleating as if in great agony, while the maid was scream- ing and trying to alight from his back. The situation seemed to be a critical one, as the sheep did not know how to unload his burden and the maid feared trying to let loose for fear of getting hurt in the attempt, but finally by some kind of maneuvers they came out of the fracas none the worse for wear.
Another advance had been made in the corn cultivator, which then had two shovels instead of one, and a row of corn was plowed every round of the horse and plowman, which was quite gratifying to the farmers, but while this was true new and additional weeds were added to the farmer's list of pests, among which were the milkweed and the black-eyed swan, both of which are with us unto the present day. The latter was introduced into this country as a garden flower by some English people.
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