History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, Part 17

Author: Union Publishing Company (Springfield, Ill.) pbl
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 990

USA > Iowa > Cerro Gordo County > History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races > Part 17
USA > Iowa > Franklin County > History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races > Part 17

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

* Mr. Raymond commenced a few years ago the publication, in his newspaper, of the History of Franklin county, from which are gleaned many of the faets contained herein.

here, are yet at their heels in the west and southwest, and such a thing as com- munication with them is out of the ques- tion.

"Death, too, has been busy, and while some of our first pioneers are sleeping in our cemeteries, the silvered heads and tottering steps of many of those who remain give warning that they too must soon pass away. So this work is under- taken as much to collect and preserve what it contains as for any other reason. And we have endeavored to perpetuate nothing but what is true, and while of course errors must creep in, we believe it will be found in the main to be correct as . far as it goes.

"It is not yet a hundred years since in the broad 50,000,000 acres between the Mississippi and the Missouri, there was not a white man, and ninety years ago the Castilian monarch granted to Julian Du- buque the "Mines of Spain," and only seventy-five years have elapsed since the soil we tread became by the Louisiana purchase a part of the United States. From belonging to Louisiana this fair domain passed, to become a part of Mich- igan Territory, known and described as the Black Hawk purchase. When still later it became a part of Wisconsin Terri- tory it had two counties, then, in 1838, it was made a Territory and thirty-two years ago, in 1846, it became a State. It is safe to say that there are no native born citi- zens of Iowa over forty-five years of age, while to find an adult native born Hawkeye is rare, at least in this portion of the State. So, as we have said, what we write is within the memory of a great majority of our readers."

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

CHAPTER II.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.

Franklin is the fifth county west of the Mississippi river in the third tier from the north line of the State. It lies between the forty-second and forty-third parallels, the forty-third passing six miles north of the north line of the county, and between the ninety-third and ninety-fourth merid- ians, the ninety-third (16 west of Washing- ton) passing about two miles east of its eastern boundary. It contains sixteen congressional townships or 576 square miles, being twenty-four miles each way.

The principal streams are the Iowa river, passing through thirteen sections in the southwestern portion of the county and running in a general southeasterly direc- tion; Beaver creek, rising about the center of the county east and west, and about two miles from its south line, and flowing in an easterly direction; Mayne's creek, con- sisting of two branches, one rising about five miles from the western line of the county and about six miles from its southern line, and flowing easterly for about nine miles, when it is joined by another branch that rises about seven miles northwest of the confluence, and although a very crooked stream, keeps its generally eastward course, leaving the county on its east line about ten miles north of the southeastern corner.

Hartgraves creek is formed of Squaw, Spring, Otter and 'Buffalo creeks. The

three first come together about five miles west of the east line of the county, and about equally distant from its north and south lines, and the stream runs in a south- easterly direction into Butler county. Spring creek rises near the west line of the county, eight or nine miles from its northwest corner, while Squaw creek has its origin northwest of the center of the county, and both flow in an easterly direc- tion to their junction. Buffalo creek has two branches, one .rising near the north line of the county, about seven miles from the northwest corner and flowing rather more south than southeast; the other branch rising about five miles east of the west line of the county, and six miles from the north line. The two branches come together about four miles from the north line of the county. Tharp's creek, as it is generally called, coming also from the west, joins with the Buffalo, and below this juncture and down to Spring creek it is known as the Otter. Both the South Fork and Mayne's creek empty into the West Fork of the Cedar, and Beaver creek into the Cedar itself.

The West Fork of the Cedar enters Franklin county about six miles west of its northeast corner and runs in a southeast- erly direction, leaving the county about seven miles south of its northeast corner.

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

About three miles south of where it en- ters the county, it is joined by Bailey's creek, sometimes, but erroneously, called the West Fork itself, which rises not far from the northwestern corner of the county and runs easterly along its north line, sometimes in Cerro Gordo county and sometimes in Franklin until about the cen- ter, east and west, when it bears south enough to take it entirely within the lat- ter county to its junction with the West Fork, as above stated. These are all the streams in the county that are of sufficient size to be named, and all that rise in the county have their origin in the flat marshy lands adjoining their sources, although they are all fed by numerous springs af- ter they get under way and have a distinct channel formed. Above these springs they are sometimes, but not often dry. They are all clear, limpid streams with gravel bottoms, and in some cases with rocky banks, and most of them with a free rapid current. There are no lakes in the county.

There are no ranges of high hills in Franklin county, nor are there any very large tracts of entirely level land, either wet or dry. The townships with the most uneven surface have more small marshes and the best grass land. The prairie land throughout the east half of the county is mostly table plains of nearly level or gen- tly rolling surface, whole sections of which have not a spot on them too wet for the plow. Along most of the streams there are fine bottom lands of the best quality, and in the four northeast townships these bottoms are from one to three miles in width-in fact, the slope from the West Fork of the Cedar river is so gradual for

two miles, that it is difficult for the observ- er to tell where the bottom ends and the higher prairie begins. Except in the vicinity of the large groves the banks of the streams are low, yet the surface rises so much within a short distance that very little land is subject to overflow. So nearly level is the general surface of the county that from the slight elevations which oc- casionally occur, isolated, or in irregular ridges, the eye can take in review a circle of from thirty to seventy-five sections, all or some portion of nearly every section being visible. In most of the best town ships there are many points from which the whole of several sections of the best class of prairie can be seen at the same time. But few parts of sections anywhere in the county would be denominated very rolling, and in these on some of the ridges there are some gravel knolls; in the cen- tral and northern parts of the county but few of these appear, while some of the highest knolls and ridges are fine loam and good soil. The county may be said to be a gently undulating plain with the higher portions in the central and northern part and with the valleys depressed to a depth and width corresponding with the size of the streams.

The soil is a black loam, containing more sand than clay and is of an exceed- ingly fertile character. In some portions of the county a few gravel knolls are found but in most cases the gravel all lies near the surface and generally disappears with cultivation.

The county is not very well supplied with timber of a natural growth, although eleven out of the sixteen Congressional townships have more or less timber within

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

their borders. All the streams have tim- ber skirting their banks, in many places - widening into groves. Mayne's grove is the largest body of timber in the county and embraces over 3,000 acres. Otis Grove, on the Iowa river, Van Horn's Grove, in the central portion of the county, Tharp's Grove, Shobe's Grove and Bailey's Grove in the northern portion of the county, are bodies of timber each contain- ing from 800 to 1,200 acres. Tow- head and Blake's Groves, in the south- eastern part, Four Mile, Highland, Hart- graves, and Allen's Groves near the east-

ern side of the county and Beed's near the center are smaller, none of them contain- ing over a section each. The timber is mostly oak, interspersed along the streams with basswood, water elm, soft maple, honey locust and cottonwood. Aside from the granite boulders that are some- times found on the prairies, the only stone is a buff colored sandstone and limestone that is found in abundance in the central and eastern parts appearing for the most part in low ledges along the streams or ravines. No coal has ever been discovered in the county.

CHAPTER III.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

BY L. B. RAYMOND.

The first permanent settlement of Frank- lin county was indirectly due to the fact that in 1852 a man named Addison Phelps, residing in Ashtabula Co., Ohio, started with his family, to find a new home in Iowa, and as one of his neighbors, named James B. Reeve, had for some time had a desire to examine this unknown region for himself, Phelps employed him to take a team and bring a portion of his goods. Phelps had relatives residing on the Cedar river above Cedar Falls, and thither they went, and upon arriving there they left the family and Phelps, and Reeve struck out still further west. They went to Rice's mill on the Iowa river (now Hardin City) and there were joined by a man named

Moore, of whom nothing is known except- ing that they found him at Hardin City. These three men struck out on the track- less prairie and headed north ward toward the body of timber now widely known as Mayne's Grove. Late in the afternoon they reached it and having found a suit- able place to camp, near the Butterfield place in the west end of the grove, one of the party went out and shot a prairie chicken for supper. The noise of the gun brought to them, in a few moments, to their great astonishment, a white man, who, when he heard the gun, knew that it was, as he afterwards expressed it, "no Injan's gun," and started to look up his new neighbors.

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

This man was John Mayne, who had that day come to the grove, following up the stream from its junction with the West Fork of the Cedar. He had an old style hoosier wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, his wife and child, a bundle of beaver and mink traps, his trusty rifle and a very scanty supply of domestic utensils. He had in his wagon a tent which he had not yet pitched, but upon meeting with Phelps, Reeve and Moore, he forthwith proposed that all should camp together, and the tent was pitched. Mrs. Mayne got supper for the party, and while history is silent as to what the major part of the meal consisted of, yet it is handed down that the hostess made biscuit for supper that were shortened with coon's grease.

Messrs. Phelps and Reeve were so well satisfied with the appearance of the grove and its surroundings that they decided to locate there. Mayne said that if they would make claims, he would do so also. So the next day all hands packed up and turned down the creek and made their claims. Mayne took the farm now occu- pied by John C. Jones, Phelps the present Carter farm where S. H. Carter lives, and Reeve the place now occupied by his widow. With Mayne's oxen they broke furrows to mark the boundaries of their claims, and Phelps and Reeve returned to the Cedar river by way of Rice's mills for provisions and for Phelps' family. Mayne immediately set about building a shanty, which stood near the ford just east of John C. Jones' house and was the first building erected in Franklin county. It was of logs of course, with no floor but the dirt, and covered with basswood bark, the chinks being daubed with mud. In a

few days Reeve, Phelps and family re- turned and all took up quarters with Mayne. Phelps began a cabin on his claim just north of the house on the farm owned for many years by Col. A. T. Reeve, but after getting it three or four logs high, cold weather set in and he abandoned the idea of finishing it until spring. As there was no hay to feed the horse teams of Phelps and Reeve, the latter returned with them to the Cedar, near Janesville, where they engaged keeping for them for the winter, and came to Mayne's grove on foot. Reeve and Mayne went to trapping and hunting for employment, being quite suc- cessful, and as the country abounded in elk, buffalo and smaller game, they did not lack for fresh meat. In fact, their lar- der was so scantily supplied with every- thing else, and so plentifully supplied in this respect, that it began to tell upon the health of the party. The supply of flour and meal becoming exhausted, Reeve started on foot for the Cedar river to bring back the much needed supplies with his team. The nearest settlement at this time was at Bealer's Grove, now Marble Rock, so he struck across the trackless prairie in that direction. Soon after he set out it began to storm and came on bit- ter cold. He found along towards night that he was freezing, and it required all his powers of endurance to keep up. Sev- eral times he was upon the point of giving up and lying down to his fate, but by superhuman efforts kept under way. At last, just at night fall, he reached the body of timber now known as Allen's Grove on the West Fork of the Cedar. Having a few matches he broke up some twigs, built a fire and upon taking off his boots found

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

that his feet were terribly frozen. Sur- rounded by howling wolves and suffering the most excruciating tortures with his feet and hands, he wore away the long night and in the morning upon attempting to put on his boots, found his feet so swol- len that it seemed an utter impossibility to get them into the boots, but finally, after cutting the boots nearly to pieces, he managed to get them on and set out for Bealer's Grove, where he arrived late that night more dead than alive. After two or three days rest there, he got a team to take him to Janesville, where he remained for some weeks, unable to stand upon his feet, and only returned to Mayne's Grove in March, just in time to find Phelps and family discouraged and about to leave, which they shortly did. From the effects of this adventure Reeve never fully recov- ered. The flesh nearly all came off from the soles of his feet and his toes, and it was several years before he could expose himself with impunity during the coldest winter weather.

After Phelps' departure and about the time that the winter was breaking up, Reeve and Mayne divided their furs, Mayne giving Reeve a little dun mare and a certain number of weeks board for his share. In a few days after the trade was made Mayne got up a quarrel, and it imme- diately occurred to Reeve that this was done to save the board. Mayne was ugly and vicious but Reeve was not to be dis- couraged nor scared off, and so he staid by, and when Mrs. Mayne prepared a meal, Mayne would seat himself on one side of the table and Reeve would seat himself on the other, although they were not on speak- ing terms. This state of affairs continued

for several weeks until Mayne became con- vinced that Reeve would not scare nor leave, and a sort of a peace was patched up, which, however, was a sort of an armed neutrality.

In May, 1853, Leander C. Reeve, a brother of J. B., came from Ashtabula county, Ohio, and took the Phelps' claim. Reeve broke ten aeres on his claim and Mayne who had also claimed J. M. Soper's present farm, broke ten acres on that. Late in June of that year George Sturms, Henry Garner and a man named Fairchild, with their families came to Mayne's Grove. Mayne claimed all the best locations, and sold his original claim, with the shanty wherein he had wintered (the Jones place) to Mr. Sturms, the Soper place to Henry Garner, and the place where Mr. Amos Sheppard now lives, to Fairchild. Like a true pioneer he went farther west, going up into the grove above Maysville and making a location on what in later years was known as the Lacy farm A man named Stevens also came with this last party, but did not stay. In September Garner sold his claim to Dr. Arledge, who had previously made a claim where Ack- ley now stands, and had sold ont to Thomas Downs. A little later came Samnel Garner and Job Garner.

In July the Reeve's returned to Ohio, and in August of that year, J. B., with a team, his wife and eight children, started · for their new home in Iowa, reaching there the 15th of September, 1853. Upon their arrival he finished up the shanty that Phelps had begun on the claim now owned by S. H. Carter, and in it they wintered.

In October, 1853, there was quite an addition to the colony at Mayne's Grove.

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

Silas Moon came and made a claim where J. D. Parks now resides. Peter Rhine- hart came and made his claim to the place in Geneva township now owned by W. C. Haines. Rhinehart came too late to get his cabin up before winter set in, so he wintered with Sturms. Still later, in the fall of 1853, the little settlement was re-inforced by the addition of two men named Crouch and Webb. They made their claims at the head of Mayne's Grove, Webb taking the claim known to all old settlers as the May place, now occupied and owned by J. H. Bond, and Crouch, who was a brother-in-law of Mayne, mov- ing in with him on the Lacy farm. Late in the winter a babe of Mr. Crouch's, a few months old, died. This was the first death in the county. Mrs. J. B. Reeve tells how upon a Sunday Mrs. Mayne came to her house on horseback to borrow a little sugar, and to invite her to the fu- neral at the same time, although the child was not dead. "Come day after to-mor- row," she said, "for it will surely be gone before that time." On Tuesday the fu- neral came off according to appointment. In April 1854, Mr. Webb, who had gone to Rice's Mills' on the Iowa river, to work, died, and was brought home and buried. Dr. Arledge officiated, making a prayer and returning the thanks of the bereaved ones to the few and scattering neighbors for their sympathy. These two graves, yet visible in a lonely and secluded spot near the west end of Mayne's Grove, have been pronounced Indian graves by many persons who were not informed as to the circumstances of the case.

As early as the spring of 1853, Dr. Arledge located at the little grove known

in later years as Downs' Grove and where that portion of Ackley that lies in Franklin county is located. Arledge built a cabin on the north side of the county line about forty rods west of where A. Severance now resides. With him, or about the same time, came a man named McCormick, who made his claim in the grove generally known since by his name, his cabin standing south of where John Fahey now lives and near the north bank of the Beaver creek, being land now owned by R. T. Blake. Both Arledge and McCormick came from the Iowa river, somewhere about Hardin City, and it is possible that they made their claims in the fall of 1852, although neither of them wintered there. In fact the exact time that they located on their claims is some- what obscure, but Mr. Blake, who bought out McCormick's claim in 1854, says that there were eight or ten acres of breaking upon it done in 1853. Arledge sold out to Thomas Downs in 1853 and moved to Mayne's Grove not long after J. B. Reeve brought his family from Ohio. Arledge bought out Henry Garner, who had claimed the present Soper farm, and the cabin on the place was in the timber south of the old saw mill on Mayne's creek and north of Soper's present residence. All the families that wintered in the county the winter of 1853-54 have been mentioned, and their names are here repeated: Judge Reeve, Job, Samuel and Henry Garner, John Mayne, Fairchild, George Sturms, Peter Rhinehart, Silas Moon, Dr. ' rledge, Crouch and Webb, who came about mid- winter ._ The settlement was also re-in- forced during the winter by two additions in the "good old way," the families of Mr.

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

Sturms and Samuel Garner each having a son born to them. Abner Sturms, born in January, 1854, was the first white child born in Franklin county.

It was quite a common custom for the settlers to pick out some eligibly located quarter section or eighty near them and claim it for some friend who had not yet arrived, so as to have him in their neighborhood when he did come. If he failed to come entirely, why, then the claim was for sale. James B. and Lean- der Reeve had a friend back in Ohio, named Andrew Coffin, so they had claimed for him the Stark's farm, known better as the Reed place. Job Garner, when he came in the summer, wanted it, and came to the Reeve's to see about the prospect of getting it. They told him that Coffin had authorized them to sell it, and they thought it was worth $200. Garner said that he was a preacher and therefore entered into an argument to con- vince them what an advantage it would be to their settlement to have a minister of the gospel in their midst. Although not really church-going people the Reeve's finally told him that he might take the place and pay for it in preaching, but it must be recorded that although he took the claim, he never preached but once and that was some time during the winter of 1853 or 1854, at the house of Mr. Fair- child, on the Sheppard place.

The land office for this portion of the State, at that time, was at Des Moines, and the abstract of original entries shows the following entries as made in the county during the year 1853 :

Sometime during the early part of the summer of 1854, James Van Horn came

from near Janesville in Bremer county, and located where C. J. Mott now lives, about a mile north of Hampton. He did not move on to his claim, however, until fall. A man named Endsley about the same time settled on the place about a mile further north, now owned by Walter Beed, but occupied for many years by Henry Hacker. Amon Rice thinks that two brothers named Ellis were trapping about Shobe's grove the spring before he came to the county, and that they had made claims there, and also that a man named Collyer must have come in there that same summer and located on the place now owned by John T. Richards. Collyer had run away from some place further east with a daughter of his second wife, and after a time one of the Ellis brothers got the girl away from the old man, and, his wife coming on, he sold out his claim to a man named Berdell and went up near Forest City, in. Winnebago county, and died there. He had always been on the frontier, and never saw a threshing machine nor a train of cars. He did not leave his claim at Shobe's Grove, however, until 1855.

John I. Popejoy is the oldest settler on the Iowa river that is there at this writ- ing. He left Ohio in the spring of 1854 on a tour of observation in the west. He came first to MeLean coun- ty, Illinois, and there, in company with a brother-in-law, M. II. Pearsons, took a team and coming westward across the State of Illinois, crossed the Missis- sippi at Burlington going to Palmyra, in Warren county, where Popejoy's father had in 1853, located and entered an eighty acre tract. Not finding anything

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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY.

there to suit him, he went to the land office at Des Moines and upon looking over the plats of the different counties, noticed that there were timber lots not entered in Franklin county, both on the Iowa river, in Oakland township, and at Highland Grove, in Geneva township. He entered the forty in Highland Grove, then and there, "unsight and unseen," and he and Pearsons started for Franklin county. They went to Iowa Falls, stayed there all night and the next day went up to the grove, where Popejoy now resides. They drove into the grove on the east side of the river, stopped at a spring a few rods south of his present residence, and after drinking from the spring, sat down to rest. In a few moments, two men with guns came over the brow of the hill and rapidly approaching them, sung out: "What the h-l are you doing here?" Popejoy replied: "We came to look at this grove." One of them replied: "Well, there were three men here a day or two ago to look at this grove, and they left rather sudden." Popejoy rose to his feet, put his fingers in his mouth and blew a shrill whistle. The two fellows evidently thought that re-enforcements were near at hand, and changed their tactics immedi- ately. Popejoy says: "Let me see your gun," and taking it without resistance, raised it and fired at a tree a few rods off, and said, "Now, I want this grove. If you have a claim on it, I will buy you out. If you haven't,'I will make one in a few mo- ments." The fellow then said he had a claim and if they would go up onto the hill, he would show them where he had begun a cabin, which they did, and there it was, not far from Mr. Popejoy's present

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History of Franklin and Cerro Gordo counties, Iowa and biographies of representative citizens. History of Iowa, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, Part 17

Author: Union Publishing Company (Springfield, Ill.) pbl Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union publishing company Number of Pages: 990

Author: Union Publishing Company (Springfield, Ill.) pbl
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Springfield, Ill. : Union publishing company
Number of Pages: 990