USA > Iowa > Decatur County > History of Decatur County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 5
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In the eastern part of the township Robert Booth settled on a farm of several hundred acres in 1854. He had a mill and also a store, and was the first postmaster of the Spring Valley office. The little hamlet which sprang up about his place of business was vari- ously known as Boothtown or El Dorado. This was on the east side of Little River. Almost opposite on the west side of the little stream settled Austin Cowles, with his two sons, D. C. and H. A. On a little hill not far from the river they built one of the first farm frame houses in the township, and on the river itself they put up a water power sawmill, to which was afterwards added grinding facili- ties. Before a regular school was established in the neighborhood the children used to go to their home of an evening to be instructed in the rudiments of reading and writing. Wesley Cowles, another son, had a blacksmith shop in Boothtown.
James M. Dale was another of the early Little River pioneers. He bought out Jefferson Dimick, who was named one of the town- ship election judges at its organization in 1850. Mr. Dale had four brothers, Fleming, Ambrose, Dudley and Meredith, who all settled in the same neighborhood and raised considerable families that exer- cised important influence in the development of the community.
James Gammill arrived in the same neighborhood in 1854, and also raised a large family of worth and intelligence. Besides these there were the Laney, Dunleavy, Sharp, Williams, Rutherford, Rob-
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ertson, Newcomer, McDowell, Bayles and Budd families. T. J. Graves came in 1859 and kept a blacksmith shop in El Dorado.
Some distance farther down the river John Clark established himself in 1856. His biography, as published in the Decatur County Historical Record, gives the following account of him: "Mr. Clark entered and purchased in Morgan and Hamilton townships about one thousand acres of land, one-half of which was heavily timbered, much of the timber being of large size and of excellent quality. Here he immediately erected a sawmill for the purpose of manufacturing the timber into lumber. A small log cabin was already on the place, which his family occupied until he could manufacture lumber with which to build a more commodious residence. He purchased his machinery at Keokuk and hauled it from that place with ox teams. In 1857 Mr. Clark added two sets of burrs to his mill property, and also carding machinery-combining in the same building sawing, milling and wool dressing. In 1859 he added spinning machinery and looms, manufacturing all kinds of woolen clothes. During the War of the Rebellion the demand for his goods increased to such an extent that ten or twelve looms were kept busy. During this period his firm handled no less than 75,000 pounds of wool annually. It proved a successful enterprise and the greater part of the abundant wealth of J. Clark and sons was acquired in the above mentioned manner. Their goods were a source of large revenue to the Govern- ment. The surplus funds were turned over to the Government in return for bonds, and thus in two ways did they contribute in a sub- stantial way to the support of the Union in its struggle for existence. The milling business was discontinued soon after they started the woolen factory. In 1869 the First National Bank of Leon was organized with a capital of $50,000, of which Mr. Clark supplied $20,000, and he was president of the bank during the whole term of its existence, or until it became the Farmers and Traders Bank. In 1876 Mr. Clark and his son, William H., purchased the Davis Mill property at Davis City, and in 1875 father and two sons built the present brick flouring mill at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars. The mill had a superior water power, and an important use to which this power is applied is pumping water to supply the tank of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. This work is done by contract. Clark & Sons have contributed largely toward the building up of Davis City: each has a fine brick residence and they have erected and own all the brick business houses in town with one exception. Another enterprise of public interest and one highly
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creditable to its builder was the erection in 1878 of a fine brick church at Davis City. Mr. Clark built this church at his own expense and furnished it with a fine town clock. All of its appointments are of the best. The cost of the church and furnishings was about five thousand dollars. Mr. Clark has never identified himself with any religious denomination, but recognizing the importance of moral and religious training, he resolved to construct an edifice that should be free to all denominations. It is called the First Union Church of Davis City, and is the only church building in town."
Among the most noted characters of early Hamilton history was Wyllis Dickinson. He was born in Kensington, Conn., about 1799; came to Hamilton in 1840. He first lived on the bottom land by Grand River, but having had an undesirable experience with the over- flow of the river he moved farther back to higher ground on the ridge. He put up the walls of a log cabin, and needing the shelter before he could get the roof on, within these walls he made a tent of muslin bought at Cincinnati on his way hither, and in this he lived two or three years before the cabin roof was put on. In this rude and primi- tive dwelling, without a window, he lived until his death in 1892, a period of fifty-two years from his coming to the township. For the sake of exactness it should be said that toward the very last a single pane of glass was inserted in the wall near the chimney corner. Before indulging in this piece of luxury his reading during daylight hours was done by sitting with his back toward an opening in the wall made by removing a block of the chinking which was replaced in cold weather, when his reading was over for the time being. At night he read by the light of the lamp suspended by one of the beams which supported the ceiling. It consisted of a saucerlike vessel of metal, with a lip to it, in which lay a strip of cotton immersed in oil or melted grease, with which it was partially filled. The part of the cotton strip coming up through the lip was lighted, and as it burned down was drawn up from time to time with a large pin or other sharp- pointed article.
In this simple way he was accustomed to gratify his love of read- ing, which was intense, as he was a man of more than usual education for the time and place. He resorted to these simple expedients not because he lacked the means to supply himself with better things. but because of the simplicity of his tastes and character. There were plenty of funds at his command to have provided not only the sub- stantial necessaries of life, but to have given him the enjoyment of refinements, its luxuries and elegancies as well, if he had craved them.
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It is said that when he was leaving the New England home his father wished to invest many thousands in his interests, but he would have none of it, preferring to push his way by natural means in the wilder- ness like another Thoreau far from the rush of modern life as it developed in the older communities. His relatives were liberal in sending him supplies of money so that he never was without the power to pay amply for even the simplest service rendered him, and in this manner he was very independent. He was the owner of 570 acres of land in the county, indicating that the simplicity of his life was not owing to poverty, but to inherent characteristics which induced sympathy with the natural rather than the artificial. That he was fond of literature is not to be wondered at, seeing that he was the cousin of the poet Percival, born in the same town four years before himself, who was a geologist as well, but was known chiefly as a writer of dainty and picturesque verse. Mr. Dickinson was a nephew of a Mrs. Willard, who maintained a female seminary in the State of New York, where she at one time entertained Lafayette, whose visit she afterward returned in his home in France.
He was much interested in young people making a struggle for an education, and was ever anxious for an opportunity to furnish such with books and magazines. A neighbor's son, John Holden, though now well advanced in years, has still in his possession a val- uable work which was the gift of the old hermit.
That he was a loyal citizen and patriot is proved by the fact that during the War of the Rebellion he offered forty acres of his land to a neighbor's son on condition that he would enlist in the army for the preservation of the Union. It is a matter of regret that the offer was not accepted. Under his influence a nephew, Sherman Hart, who lived with him and whom he intended to make his heir, joined the Union army. He was taken sick at Island No. 10, and being taken to Cape Girardeau for hospital treatment, died there. This was more to be lamented inasmuch as he was engaged to an estimable young woman whom he expected to marry at the close of hostilities, the dwelling for their occupancy having already been erected.
He was never married, and though a great recluse was never melancholy or downhearted. On the contrary, he was a singularly happy disposition. His unusual physical strength was under the complete control of dominant will and the serenity of his tempera- ment was the leading trait of his character. His coolness of temper was strikingly displayed by an incident which occurred in 1855. He had just sold some land and was supposed to have had considerable
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money stowed away somewhere in the cabin, as proceeds of the sale. In the course of an evening, as he sat reading, and after young John Holden, who was assisting him with his corn gathering, had gone to bed behind a curtain stretched across the room, on which account his presence was unsuspected, there came a knock at the door, and not being suspicious of evil intent, Dickinson proceeded to unfasten the door by removing a large pin. Upon opening the door a very large man appeared, followed by a smaller one. The large man claimed to be an agent of the Government, deputized to gather up all of the arms found in the hands of the citizens. Mr. Dick- inson expressed his surprise at this alleged action on the part of the Government, especially in his case, as he was well known to be a perfectly loyal citizen from whom the Government had noth- ing to fear. During the colloquy the old man seemed to be thor- oughly unsuspicious, but to the young man behind the curtain the move seemed to be a mere ruse on the part of the intruders to get into their own hands a shotgun, rifle and a musket which were kept upon the wall in the customary manner, in order that the obvious pur- pose of robbery might be more easily carried out. Finding that the revolver that he usually carried was not within his reach, he sprang from the bed and seized the leader by the throat, who, on account of his superior strength was enabled to shake him off, but finding that Dickinson was not alone, rushed through the open door and made his escape with his fellow burglar. One of the pieces from the wall was fired after them, Dickinson the while remaining perfectly cool and collected, and after the flight of the parties making the remark that he could easily have brained the fellow with the powerful door pin which he still held in his hand.
The hermit was very successful in handling bees and he had per- haps as many as a hundred swarms at one time, and also rendered the honey and wax from forty hives, most of which was shipped to St. Joseph, Mo., but some went as far as California. Of the honey he was accustomed to make considerable quantity of methelgin, a strong spirituous liquor which he drank freely as a stimulant, also sharing it liberally with his callers, for he was fond of company. Doing his own cooking, he became quite an expert in that line, and many of the young people of the place liked nothing better than to have an opportunity of partaking of the savory viands prepared by his hands, and he took great delight in thus catering to their tastes.
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The old gentleman was originally an Episcopalian, but in mature life leaned to the Methodist persuasion, and gave freely of his means to its support, though he never became an actual member of the church. He was a great Bible reader.
Allen Scott, who lived on section 19, one of the very first of the pioneers, was a remarkable character and included in his make-up both the virtues and the vices of the class and time of which he belonged. He was somewhat of enterprising spirit, having the first store, the first postoffice and the first mill in the township. Some of the timbers of the framework of the old mill were still to be seen standing in a field by Sand Creek bridge as late as in the '80s.
After Mr. Scott had lived in the township some years he was visited one winter day by a wife and daughter whom he had aban- doned in the old Indiana home. After making the call and receiving the blessing in the shape of some silk dress patterns from his store, they left his place on foot for the purpose of returning to the home of a relative living beyond Davis City. While crossing the prairie, bottom land intervening, they were overtaken by a fierce snowstorm and blizzard, and being blinded by its force, they became bewildered and lost their way. They wandered aimlessly about until benumbed by the freezing rain, and overcome by the stupor which affects per- sons in such cases, they dropped in the snow, and after the storm was over, were found frozen to death. Their bodies were buried in what is now the orchard of this writer.
In those early times horse racing was one of the chief forms of recreation and dissipation. Between Scott's house and the river a track was laid out and his place became the rendezvous of sporting men from all parts of the country, in order to test the speed of their horses, gaining and losing money.
Horse thieves abounded in those days and many times the best animals of the honest farmers came up missing. The matter finally became so grievous that it was found necessary to adopt heroic meas- ures in order to put a stop to the serious losses incurred in this way. The farmers quietly banded together, and at night visited those known to be engaged in this nefarious business, took them out to the timber and treated them to a liberal application of hickory switches. This method of procedure effectually cured the evil, the parties receiving treatment speedily betaking themselves from the country, one dose being found quite enough.
One one occasion it was strongly suspected that Scott knew more about such things than he was willing to tell, and it was proposed to
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use radical measures to make him willing. One night he was rather forcibly invited to an interview under an oak in the road leading to Pleasanton. A noose on the end of a rope was placed about his neck, the other end was thrown over a limb, and he was shot rapidly sky- ward. After dangling in the air for some time he was lowered to the ground and given an opportunity to share the desired information with his friends, but he was still unwilling; and a second application also failing to elicit any knowledge from him, he was set free, his captors thinking that after all he might be wrongly suspected. The tree on which the operation took place was afterwards known as the Al Scott tree and remained a prominent landmark in the highway until it was cut down a few years ago for firewood, much to the regret of the old settlers.
At one time there was quite an excitement over the alleged dis- covery of gold on the Scott place in the bed of Sand Creek. There was a considerable amount of gold found, but there is reason to believe that the particular spot where the supposed discovery was made had been salted for commercial purposes, that the value of the land being raised Scott would be able to sell his farm at high price. However, the plan did not work, for the gold was sought with such avidity that the supply gave out before any trade for the farm was consummated, and the excitement soon died out. The salting of the creek bed was easily accomplished by collusion with one or more of the many gold seekers who were constantly passing to and fro on the California trail during the days of the gold fever in 1849 and the '50s. The Scott place was a noted resort for such parties. The farm remained in his possession until 1876, when it was sold to Stephen Beach.
But Scott was not all bad. He had his good points. Like most of us, he was a mixture of the worst and the better elements in the human aggregation. He was generous and hospitable. Everybody was welcome to his board and no one was refused a bed when occa- sion required. The needy were never turned away empty handed, and those in want of accommodation cheerfully received such help as he could give. But like many another free-hearted soul who failed in recognition of the higher aspects of life, he lived long enough to become a pensioner on the bounty of his friends. He was unsuited to the conditions which followed the war; his property gradually frit- tered away, until he found himself without a home, but not altogether without friends.
CHAPTER V ABOUT NEW BUDA AND THE HUNGARIANS
By G. P. Arnold
The Hungarian Revolution of 1848 was one of many ferments of the kind that affected all of Europe at that time. Before this there were ties binding Austria and Hungary into one political family, and the revolution was Hungary's hunger for freedom. The two figures which stand out in the limelight of that time were Louis Kossuth, the provisional president of the Hungarian Republic, and Gorgy, the man of genius in the field of war. Kossuth was the orator, in some respects, without rival in all history. In a Turkish prison, with but meager material, he familiarized himself in the use of our English speech, to that extent that he held English and American audiences spellbound. So great a judge-no greater judge then lived-as Ralph Waldo Emerson declared that a part of his Birmingham speech reached the highest rung of oratory. His American tour was an ovation, and, brilliant as it was, failed to satisfy the fiery Magyar; he wanted armed intervention in the affairs of Hungary and felt piqued that there was no prospect of armies forthcoming. He was irreconcilable to the last; found an asylum at Milan and never returned to the home of his youth.
The struggle over, the flight began. England and especially America were the objective points. Turkey was a hospitable station on that underground railway. An American war vessel conveyed Kossuth to England. His American tour began with a reception in New York, a journey to Washington where the orator and his suite were entertained, wined and dined at Brown's Hotel at Government expense. He addressed the Congress and was given a reception at which Secretary of State Webster presided. Besides this Congress passed a law allowing each Hungarian to select a quarter section from any unappropriated land anywhere, and the same should be held from sale for ten years without tax or cost.
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HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY
At the head of the Decatur County colony was Ujhazy, former civil governor of Komorn, a fortified island in the Danube which sur- rendered to Austria. The governor and party came here about the year 1851, and at that time the Grand River Valley was unsurveyed. The governor gave the name to the township and settlement; was, in fact, the first postmaster in the county, at Nine Eagles, on the farm of Allen Scott.
Now Scott was of another era, a contemporary of Thompson, of Edinburg, Mo., and Peter Cain of Cainesville. It is presumed that the Cain-Scott wave of immigration came from the South, for as late as 1851 and later, the mail accommodations were by way of Princeton, Mo., and Decatur County had no east lines of communi- cation at that time.
The governor had a house built, a rambling structure, that was the most expensive dwelling of the day. It is related of the governor that he was accustomed to ride over the prairies and select the land- marks, and fix the confines of the Hungarian reservation, claiming a vast tract including the present Davis City and southwest to the present site of the original manorial castle, and saw in his mind's eye a vast colony of his countrymen living in peace under the folds of the stars and stripes. This roseate view of the future must have been shared with Col. George Pomutz, for later the genial colonel actually promoted a scheme for a greater New Buda, but that is another story and will be deferred for the present. Governor Ujhazy and family and George Pomutz in the year 1853 moved to San Antonio, Tex., and the governor remained there until his death, at a ripe old age, never returning to his native land.
Pomutz came back and thereafter was the central figure of New Buda, and in connection with a civil engineer by the name of Drahos, put on paper his ideas of a greater New Buda. The fine map showed a city having a University Square, Boehm St. Kossuth Platz, with the accessories of a full fledged city. The colonel sold lots and invited immigration upon the merits of his paper town, and not without suc- cess, for a few German families fell in with his offer. The colonel covered St. Louis and Hoboken in his operations, and had he lived in these days would have merited the name of frenzied financier. Detractors he had, but his presence and speech appealed to the popular taste. The white mare he rode he called Highland Mary. He used the English speech almost as well as Kossuth and freely quoted from Byron, the popular poet of the time. His linguistic accomplishments were considerable. He spoke besides Hungarian the language of Vol. I-4
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English, German, French and was familiar with one or two Slavonic tongues. In person he was tall, blonde, with a full beard and mus- tachios, wavy hair, that suggested a hairdresser when none was at hand, a military bearing and a suave and ingratiating presence. This was the Col. George Pomutz of the later '50s.
Now comes his Civil war record-and it was a good one. He wrote the history of an army brigade and when the battle ended got the appointment of consul to the Czar's dominion. He became consul- general and died about 1894 at the post of duty in Petrograd. He died in the Greek faith, and according to an American newspaper account, sometimes appeared at court in the full regimentals of an American brigadier-general.
The Ujhazy-Pomutz dream of a Greater New Buda was not so flimsy and airy as one might think. In other hands and other manage- ment a prosperous community might now occupy the colony's choice of a site.
After the colonel's death the consulate made inquiries at Washing- ton as to the deceased consul's relatives, for it was thought that he left an immense estate judging from the highly colored maps of the metro- politan New Buda with accompanying title deeds conveying great values in the nascent city. At this time University Place and Kossuth Pltaz were waving in corn.
One has said that Ujhazy went from Texas to Hungary and col- laborated with the great Deak in the work for Hungary's betterment, a work that is still unfinished, but mightily advanced by Deak's statesmanship. Cavour and Deak were contemporaries, but Cavour's dream of a united Italy under constitutional rule was realized during his life, while the struggle in Hungary is still on. Deak died without his heart's wish. The usual theory of Ujhazy's life after leaving New Buda is that in Texas he found a home and died by his own hand at an advanced age. It is very probable that he was in communication with Deak and the Liberals, but that, like Kossuth, never returned to the home of his youth, although all obstacles were removed in 1866.
The New Buda colony is not to be confounded with the Slavonic Hungarians which now flock to our shores to work in the coal and iron industries. The elder colony was composed as a rule of men who were educated in the schools, had held office, military and civic, under the provisional government and now were in a new country and under strange conditions. The colony was a failure, measured by our standards. Thirty or forty, at high water mark, would complete
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the census at the breaking out of our Civil war; soon thereafter few remained.
Another, Francis Varga, was long connected with the affairs of the county and is remembered by hundreds of citizens; he was inti- mately connected with the Kossuth government and after its fall his flight was imperative. Disguise and the greatest secrecy were neces- sary to elude the minions of Austria ; at last the free City of Hamburg was reached and thence to England and America, following the foot- steps of Ujhazy to Decatur County. Here he lived and died.
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