USA > Iowa > Hamilton County > History of Hamilton County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 24
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Very naturally my father worried not a little over his inability to pay his tax and I, very naturally, became greatly interested in the matter too.
Being in Vinton one day I picked up a paper and read that flour was worth ten dollars a hundred in gold at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and the market was not sup- plied even at that price. I mention "in gold" for that was a very important proviso in all matters where "dollars" were spoken of.
The discovery of a place where flour was sold at such a fabulous price seemed to me to be almost an interposition of Divine Providence ; for by taking advantage of it, the taxes could be paid and perhaps a little ready money be left to boot.
I had often heard of Fort Dodge, and had a great desire to go there, and here was an opportunity. Filled with the project of taking a load of flour out there, I hurried home as fast as I could and told my father the news, and wanted to make the trip. He discouraged the project and said it would be impossible to get through, the roads being so bad and even if I did get through, the market would in all probability be supplied and I could find no sale after all my labor. But I was so bent on going and urged the matter with such persistence, keeping the matter of taxes always to the front that finally my father told me I could take an ox team and have all the wheat I wanted, and I might make a trial ; that if I had any money when I got back he would borrow enough to pay the taxes, but that I might have all I could make out of all the flour I could get to Fort Dodge, remarking that I would probably earn every dollar I got twice over before I got it.
Having got my father's consent to the trip, I hurried off to see the miller about grinding the wheat. This he refused to do for toll, for he had his mill full of
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worthless wheat then and as I did not have a cent of money it looked as though the scheme was about to fail, but the miller becoming interested in my project finally agreed to grind the wheat and trust me, until I got back, for the pay. The miller's brother, West Young, was present and he proposed to take his team and go with me and charge me a cent a hundred per mile. I immediately closed a bar- gain with him, and went to the store to secure material to make sacks to put the flour in. I told the storekeeper my project and he became so interested that he offered to let me have all the muslin I wanted to make sacks of and take his pay when I got back. My uncle and one John Davis were present while I talked to. the storekeeper and both of them agreed to go with me and take a load each on the same terms I had made with Young. I took a couple of bolts of muslin home with me, and when I reported all that had been done and said about the proposed trip. one Sam Titus, a young school teacher boarding at father's concluded he would like to go too. Father said he would furnish a team, and Mr. Titus agreeing to drive it out and back, I engaged him too. 1 now secured five teams, and at once began to get to mill, anxious to get started as soon as possible, for fear the mar- ket might drop before we could get there. It required but a few days to get everything ready, and having loaded each wagon with a ton of flour, we started off.
All men had horses except me, and I had two yoke of excellent oxen. The others objected very strongly to my taking oxen as they wanted all horse teams so as to push right along, and they declared they would not wait for me but would go on and I could come along at an ox pace if I wanted to. Accordingly at noon we all started off in good spirits, having come to think the trip would be a jolly holi- day. The horse teams struck out and soon left me out of sight, and after going about ten miles camped for the night. 1 came up to them about dark and turned my oxen out to grass. The next morning, not having to stop to feed, I got start of the others and only had gone a short distance when I crossed a slough about ten rods wide. It was one of those sloughs that shake all around and the wagon went in to the "ex" but I crossed all right and went ahead. Ilaving gone a couple of miles I heard some one calling and looking back saw one of the men on horse back coming as fast as he could ride. When he came up he said they were all stuck in that shaky slough and the horses were all down and one team couldn't get out and that I must go back and help them through. I went back and helped draw all the loads across and we struek pretty fair roads that day and soon the men all left me in the rear. We covered about 15 miles that day. The third day the horse teams again left me, but about two o'clock in the afternoon I overtook them all stuck in a slough. I was mad because they wouldn't help me and drove right through the slough and was going on when they asked me if I wasn't going to help them out, but I couldn't afford to stop and pull every team through the sloughs. They promised if I would help them out, they would stay by me and I helped them out. They didn't try to run away from me again. We made our way at the rate of about fifteen miles a day without getting stuck more than once or twice a day until we got to Eldora and without incident worth recounting except that one morning a woman came driving up my oxen in a terrible state of mind, saying the oxen had eaten up all her cabbage. I was greatly surprised, for we had not seen a house all the day before and there was not a sign of a settlement in sight. Soon her husband came, and as I hadn't a cent of money, I finally settled with them by
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giving them a sack ( 100 lbs.) of flour. After leaving Eldora, our misery began in earnest. We seemed to be stuck in sloughs all the time and such sloughs ! Often we hitched to a wagon box and loaded three or four hundred Ibs. into it, drew it across a long stretch of slough and finally brought the wagons over in sec- tions. It was all the horses could do to get through without being incumbered in . any way. Every night the men threatened to pile out their loads on the prairie and go back and leave me. 1 forgot to mention that, early in the trip } had been compelled to take two hundred pounds off of each of the other wagons. We finally reached Skunk Grove ( Rose Grove) where we put up with Uncle John Bonner, living there. Here the men declared they would go no further but Mr. Bonner assisted me in persuading them to go on to Webster City. Mr. Bonner said it was only about fifteen miles over and that there was only one slough to cross and they finally consented to go ahead. But that "one slough" seemed to be all the way and we were three days coming across. In the afternoon of the second day from Skunk Grove, my uncle John's horses got away from him. It was a very foggy day and he followed them some distance northwest and did no: capture them until night. Then he was lost and couldn't find his way back to camp. He hallooed but was too far away for us to hear him ; he was finally answered by a man who came from the north, swimming Buck Creek, and who came with him to camp. This man proved to be Robert Willis. He stayed all night with us and we gave him a sack of flour. He said he hadn't had any flour in the house for three months. We were only about three miles from Webster City, and, though we took an early start and worked hard all day, it was almost dark when we crossed the East bridge and stopped to talk with Walter Willson who was run- ning a saw mill near there. The news of our coming with the flour had preceded us and in a few minutes our teams were surrounded. with men and pans, pillow cases, etc., to get some flour. We could not accommodate them for we had no means of weighing out the flour but Walter Willson solved the difficulty by empty- ing out a sack of flour and dividing it up among those who were waiting and handed me a ten dollar gold piece for the 100 pounds he had so distributed.
Making inquiry about the road to Fort Dodge we were told that we couldn't make the trip, that the first bad slough we would strike was called "Little Hell." We might get through that and we might drown a horse or two in it, but if we got through it we would come to another, called "Big Hell," and we'd all drown in that. My men all declared they would go no further and I struck a bargain with W. C. Willson for $8.75 a hundred in gold, except I was to take two yoke of cattle. One pair of these cattle were Texan steers and were in pasture some miles down the river.
Mr. Titus agreed to stay and help me take back the oxen, and the other men taking all the horses and leaving us two wagons, started on the return trip. When those Texan steers were brought in they were a sight to behold! They had horns a yard long, were wild as deers and could outrun a race horse. We voked them up with some difficulty but could not drive them. We tied the two wagons to- gether, and strung out the four yoke of cattle, but the Texan steers were no go that way, so we finally tied them behind the wagon and one of us walked behind them and kept them going. In this way we got on pretty well 'till we came to a creek within five or six miles of Eldora. Here we camped for the night and the next morning one of the Texans broke his "bow key" and got away. I ran after
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him for an hour or two and then finding a man with a team. I hired him to help me catch him. That steer could outrun the horses and we chased him until he finally got into Skunk Grove where the stage coming in with a half dozen men in it, the men got out and helped me to get him into a pen. I paid Uncle Bonner $1.50 for a well rope and we lassoed the steer, and I hired a man to help me lead him back. It was night when I got back to camp, and there I found Titus sitting on the wagon crying and declaring that if he ever got back to Boston you'd never catch him in this wild country again. We had hitched up that morning before the steer got away and that fellow had sat there on the wagon all day and never unhitched the cattle.
We went into camp near the creek that night and tied the Texan steers behind the covered wagon. In the night a storm came up blowing a gale right in at the front end of the wagon. It loosened the cover and blew it over onto the steers scaring them almost to death. They ran away with us, and running near the bank of the creek, the wagon tipped over into the creek where we found ourselves in water up to our necks, and the hind "ex" coming loose, the steers ran away with it. We got out of the water and when daylight came, found the wagon box a few rods down the creek lodged in the willows ; the oxen and hind wheels of the wagon we found further down the creek. We had lost all our provisions and without breakfast, we got our traps together and started on. It was noon before we reached Eldora, where I laid in a new supply of "grub."
Leaving Eldora we next came to the Iowa river. It was up too high to ford safely but not high enough to ferry. Mr. Bunker who lived there thought we could ford it by putting the oxen all in a string while one of us would ride the lead ox, the others could sit in the wagon and whip up the others ; but Titus declared he would not go over that way, and tried to hire Bunker to take him over in a skiff deelaring he wouldn't stay with those oxen any longer. But Bunker refused to take him over at any price and he was finally persuaded to ride in the wagon and do the whipping. I mounted the lead ox but as the entrance to the river was rather steep, the lead oxen were slow to enter the water, and Titus began whip- ping the other oxen and all were forced into the river and began doubling up. Still Titus kept whipping away and knocked my hat off and I lost it forever, and the teams doubled up so tight as to upset the wagon, the box floating down the stream with Titus in it, scared almost to death. I succeeded in straightening out the teams and getting across. Bunker, with his canoe, caught the floating box and towed it over, and we rigged up again. We went the rest of the way home without special incident. I making the trip bare-headed. The ox we had run so. lay on the barn floor all winter and died the next spring.
After paying all expenses, I had left about $300. and a yoke and a half of oxen. I have only to remark by way of closing that few people who have not had personal experience of traveling in this country that year can form any just idea of the difficulties attending and most of the present generation will feel inclined to doubt what we tell about it. though the telling does but half justice to the reality. J. V. KEARNS.
FISH TRAP FORD
I apprehend that there are special days in every life that stand as foreground scenes on the leaves of memory so indelibly imprinted as to preserve all the minor
ISAIAH DOANE
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incidents that go to make up and complete their delicate blendings of light and shade without which the picture would be incomplete. Such to the writer was the 29th day of March, 1856. That was the day on which he, with his family. crossed Boone river on entering what is now the territory of Hamilton county. The crossing was at Fish trap ford, three miles south of Homer, on the Boons- borough and Fort Dodge stage route. It was the last of a journey of eleven days made with ox teams between Richland in Keokuk county and Homer in this county. At the first named town we had engaged Benjamin Biettorf and William Ward with their teams to move our effects to the latter city. The Boone was considered too high to be forded with teams. A council of war was held, and after due deliberation, it was decided to unload the wagons and allow the team- sters to return while we would cross by canoe and hire a team on the other side to take us to our destination. The crossing was a somewhat hazardous under- taking, owing to the swiftness of the current and the fact that our goods were packed in boxes and could only be crossed by balancing on the canoe. U'por the writer devolved the interesting and responsible duty of accompanying the boat on each trip to balance the boxes. That good old man, the late "Uncle Ike Crouse," personated the grim Charon, and the fact that he was sufficiently stimulated to make him indifferent to danger was not in itself a reassuring cir- cumstance. But it was not until called upon some six years later to assist in re- covering the bodies of the Sherman family who were drowned at the same place while attempting to cross with their trunks in exactly the same manner, that J realized the actual peril to which we had been subjected.
When all were safely landed on the hither side, there occurred one of those ludicrous incidents that seldom fail to thrust themselves into juxtaposition with our most thrilling experiences. Surveyor Gilchrist who will be remembered by many readers of this sketch, drove up to the opposite side of the river with about half a dozen young men who had evidently been assisting him on some surveying expedition. Their vehicle was a light "democrat" wagon with spring seats. On testing the stage of water they decided to attempt the crossing. This conclusion was perhaps largely due to the fact that the courage of the majority was strength- ened by the same spirit that inspired our ferryman. Accordingly adjusting them- selves in their seats and placing their feet as high as possible to avoid wetting. they plunged in and made the crossing without mishap until the team struck bot- tom and began to ascend the shore, when one of the more hilarious of the crew threw up his arms with a shout of exultation, and losing his balance rolled off. and was completely submerged in the ice cold water. On rising to the surface he was seized and dragged to the shore. Mr. Gilchrist who seemed to be the only sober man in the crowd, took off his overcoat and wrapped the recent recipient of accidental baptism as snugly as possible, ordered the driver to pull out for Homer and to "stand not on the order of his going." A moment later the team went scrambling up the long and steep ascent to the prairie and were soon lost to sight.
May 25, 1889. ISAIAH DOANE.
THE LAST ELK-AA REMINISCENCE
The stories of hunters have become so inextricably mixed up with the mar- velous, the chimerical and the improbable, that were the writer a Nimrod in any
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sense of the term or in any degree of fact, he would at all times religiously refrain from subjecting his reputation for truth and veracity to the strain of such a nar- ration. But he is one of those unaggressive characters who never hunt except accidentally, or involuntarily when on those trying occasions when the tiger hunts him or something of that sort so he adventures to challenge the credulity of his readers by telling of the capture of the lask elk ever taken in Hamilton county as he shall confidently claim until contestants for a later capture shall materialize.
The incident I am about to relate happened about the last of December, 1856, or the first of January, 1857. During the winter I went across the lines into the territory of what is now Webster county to accept a position as teacher in the new' frame schoolhouse just completed on the northeast corner of northwest quarter of section 24, township 87, range 27, then the farm of Theodorus Eslick. I was living in a small cabin on the same section owned by the late Judge William Pierce, and one of the inducements to move over and take the school was that I was to have the privilege of fallen timber for fall. This was in good supply within a short distance of the cabin, until the first of December when the memorable storms of that year left all fallen timber hopelessly buried for the winter. With his characteristic generosity, Judge Pierce voluntarily modified my contract so as to include dead standing trees, and when these were exhausted for some dis- tance around the house, the permit was again enlarged to permit green trees. I utilized the spare hours of the morning and evening felling trees and prepar- ing wood, which with the aid of my stepson, John Kimberlain, was carried to the house. This brings me back to my story. On one clear and cold Saturday morning he and 1 went over to E. H. West's about a mile distant to grind an ax. When on the prairie on section 19, township 87, range 26, or near the county line, we saw an animal lying on the snow, which proved to be an elk with large antlers. As the snow was deep and crusted, his legs became so sore that he was loathe to move, and when forced to do so would go a little way and stop in such provoking proximity as to induce us to follow. After repeating this operation for a few times, the chase became so fascinating that we kept it up for several hours. As the animal made off to the timber, we were compelled to cross some very deep ravines. To accomplish this we would start the ax ahead and let it slide to the bottom on the snow, then adjusting our old overcoats about our per- sons like "one who draws the drapery of his couch" we would assume a recumbent attitude and glide gracefully after the ax. so that the descent was made with the most gratifying celerity, but then would come the tug of war. The ascent must be made. In order to do this we must break the snow to secure a foothold which made our progress slow and laborious in the extreme. After keeping up the chase in this manner till late in the afternoon we called to our aid Harrison Bruce and young Thomas West with their dogs and guns. When these rein. forcements reached us, the elk was at bay in a ravine, from the bluff of which Bruce leveled his rifle and shot the animal. After breaking a road through the crusted snow, the carcass was drawn up by a pair of oxen furnished by Sheriff West near whose place the capture was made. The elk was dressed and the meat parceled out between West, Bruce and the writer. After warming and taking supper at West's, Tommy took his oxen and sled and conveyed Kimberlain and me with our share of the elk to our home, where we arrived toward the "wee sma" hours of the night to find Mrs. Doane in an agony of suspense over the
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unaccountable delay of our return from an errand which was not expected to require over two hours.
I. DOANE.
WEBSTER CITY'S FIRST QUARTER OF A CENTURY
Written for the Freeman, by S. B. Rosencrans-March, 1881
Twenty-five years ago today ( March 29, 1881,) C. T. Fenton, my wife and I landed in what is now Webster City. We came with teams by way of Dubuque, being eight days on the road. There were then but one or two small bridges be- tween that city and this place. We were the last parties that crossed the Mis- sissippi on the ice at Dubuque that spring with a team. From the Iowa river to Webster City we passed but one house. We crossed the lowa at Hardin City, at that time about the most important town in Hardin county. We forded the Boone below the water mill. The spring was about as advanced as this year- the winter having been a hard one. S. Willson and J. M. Funk acted as pilots for us on our way out-we being on our way to Fort Dodge (the Mecca of those days for this part of the world). Webster City at that time consisted of five or six frame and as many log houses. We stopped at the "Moon House" kept by W. C. Willson and to us benighted travelers Mrs. Willson proved a model hostess. There was a log hotel kept on the east bank of Lake Daugherty, and Cyrus Smith kept a store in a log building on the southeast shore of said classic lake. (Lake Daugherty is just east of the Ja's Key and N. H. Hellen residences, and is now dry ground except in times of high water.) The Laughlin Brothers had a 12X16 store just west of where the old Potter House used to stand, on Bank street. B. S. Mason had a "house on the hill," a great way off as it seemed at that time-where Mr. Goit now lives.
Among those who were here when I came I might mention the Willson Brothers, the Funks, the Masons, the Laughlins, Tolman Wiltsey, Ja's Key. Morgan Everts, Cyrus Smith, M. Sweeney, A. Thompson, P. C. Babcock, W. W. Wells, the Sacketts, N. W. Browning, W. I. Worthington, H. B. Martin, A. C. Lockwood, H. C. Hillock, and some few others. The Beeches, W. Brewer. John Funk and Peter Lyon lived just out of town. Mr. Moon came the same day we did, and J. M. Jones a few days later. Within a few weeks W. S. Pray, Chas. Stoddard and John Rhodes came. Judge Maxwell moved into town that fall. J. J. Wadsworth, Dr. Baum and a few others came in that fall, while later Geo. Shipp, Dr. Burgess, Wm. Howell, Chas. Aldrich, David Eyer, Judge Chase, Wm. Johnson, the Leonards, L. L. Estes, K. Young, L. L. Treat and others dropped in.
The old frame schoolhouse, standing where Geo. Shipp now lives, was built that summer, and was used for church, school, lyceum, town meetings and all kindred purposes. The old Willson House (now Hamilton House ) was opened on the 4th of July, with a grand dance, speeches, etc. The dinner was served in a bower in front of the hotel, where roast pig, etc. was served to everybody. John Hancock taught the school, Father Day, Methodist, Elder Skinner, Congre- gationalist, and a little later Elder Dodder. Presbyterian, did the preaching. H. B. Martin was postmaster.
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Today Webster City is about to take rank as an important railroad town. having two of the great roads of the West-the Illinois Central and the North- Western-and expecting to have the Milwaukee. With the best of a splendid courthouse (one of the best in the state), with hotels, banks, elevators and lum- ber yards of the first class, and one hundred business establishments of different kinds, with extensive coal deposits within easy access, with lime, stone and tim- ber near at hand, with many handsome and pleasant homes, with an energetic and active population, there is no reason why Webster City should not progres: in the future with an increased rapidity that shall exceed the most sanguine expectations of its friends.
S. B. ROSENCRANS.
There are those of the early settlers who came somewhat later that I should like to speak of, but it does not come within the scope of this article.
R.
A ROMANTIC WEDDING TRIP By Mrs. H. H. Kitts
(The following account of a romantic wedding trip describes the experience of Mr. and Mrs. A. D. Arthur. The article was written by Mrs. H. H. Kitts. a sister of Mrs. Arthur, and was published some years ago in the Lake Park News and later appeared in A. R. Smith's History of Dickinson County. The events described took place in northern Iowa in the early sixties, but the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Arthur were life long residents of Webster City gives local interest to the story .- Ed.)
"A single horse and cutter took them well on their way the first day. They stopped that night at the home of an acquaintance, starting out bright and early the next morning, anxious to reach the river at La Crosse before it broke up. if possible. Early in the forenoon, the sun clouded over and soon the snow began to fall again very thickly, and the track, which was not plain, owing to the frequent storms and little travel, was entirely obliterated, and they could only judge by the direction which way to go. The snow continued falling through the day, but towards sunset cleared away, and at dusk they found they were not on their road, but near a small grove, with no sight of any habitation. They knew of no other way of doing but to get into the shelter of the grove and pass the night there, which they did, as they had plenty of robes and blankets and a bountiful lunch provided for them by their kind hostess of the previous night. The weather grew quite warm during the night and when the morning dawned bright and clear. they could see a large grove which should have been their stopping place for the night, had they not lost their way.
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