USA > Iowa > Hardin County > History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 43
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
- years of age he commenced reading med- icine, his preceptor being Dr. T. J. Cros- grove, of the Regulars, where he spent two and one-half years. In the meantime he taught school.
After debating in his mind he concluded to drop the Alopathy and take up the Homeopathy. In 1880 and 1881 he at- tended lectures at Hahnemann Medical College, where he expects to graduate the coming year, the faculty persuading him to practice one year before finishing his course. The Doctor is a member of the Iowa Valley Medical Association. In March, 1877, he married Miss Etta J. Strother, a daughter of Charles W. and Caroline Strother. She was born in Clay- ton county, Iowa, Oct. 16, 1853. By this union there are two children, Laura Maud and Carrie Theo. The Doctor was the owner of the grounds where the thriving village of Hubbard now stands.
At the time they came to Hardin county there was but one house west of them, that being Jake Rose's, at South Grove. Their trading post was at Iowa Falls. Mr. Hunt introduced the first steam engine into the county .
POINT PLEASANT.
In this village are Drs. Bronson, Cros- grove and Atwater.
Dr. Bronson came from Wisconsin to Hardin county about 1868, and located at Point Pleasant. He remained here [till his death in 1877.
Dr. Atwater, Regular, located here in 1853, and remained about ten years. He was a man of fine education and a fair practitioner. He removed to Kansas about 1869, where he subsequently died.
Dr. Thomas. Crosgrove, one of the suc- cessful physicians of Hardin county, was born in Ireland August 18, 1840. His par- ents, James Crosgrove and Mary A, Neal Crosgrove, were natives of Ireland, and both died while crossing the ocean to America in September, 1848, with the subject of this sketch, then a lad of eight years. He landed in Boston and remained there two years; from there he went to New York State, where he stopped two years; from there he went to Rock county, Wis, when he removed to Hardin county, aettling at Point Pleasant, a village of seven or eight honses at the time. On the 4th of May, 1870, he was married, at Wa- verly, Iowa, to Miss Caroline Crandall, of that place. There have been born to them four children, two of whom are liv- ing: Anna Belle, born Aug. 22, 1879; Thomas E., born Feb. 5, 1881. He re- ceived his general education in Evansville, Wisconsin, at the Evansville Seminary, and attended his first course of medical lectures in 1867 at the Rush Medical Col- lege, of Chicago, Ill., and received his diploma and graduated from that institu- tion Feb. 3, 1869.
On the 15th of May, 1863, he enlisted in Co. D, 13th Wisconsin Infantry, serv- ing in Tennessee and Georgia, going as far as Atlanta on that campaign, and was then placed on detached service as teamster coming back to Chattanooga, and was dis- charged at Indianapolis in September, 1865. In politics he has acted with the Democratic party, and has held the office of Town Clerk for the past five years; he is the present Postmaster of Point Pleas- ant, having held that position one year. During the thirteen years in which he has
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
resided here, the Doctor has built up a good practice in his profession; which he is still enjoying.
HUBBARD.
The medical profession of Hubbard is represented by Drs. Kallmerten and Painter.
Dr. F. J. Kallmerten, born in Westphalia, Prussia, March 24, 1852, remaining until seventeen years of age, attending the com- mon schools first and afterward took a collegiate course at Gymnasium Arnol- derium, in Burgsteinfurt. In 1869 he 'came to America; remaining in New York one year, he came to Ashland county, Ohio, and for two years was engaged in teaching, and at the same time began the study of medicine, Afterwards took his first course of lectures at the Ohio Medi- cal College, at Cincinnati, in 1873-4, and graduated at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, in class of 1876. During the intervening time he was prac- ticing medicine in Hamilton county, Ohio. After graduating he practiced medicine in Mercer county, Ohio, and in 1878 came to Eldora, remaining until the spring of 1880, when he located at Cottage, and soon after at Hubbard, where he now enjoys an extensive practice. Elected coroner in 1879, which office he held two years. Married in 1873, at Wooster, O., to Miss Maria Scott. They have one child. Mrs. Kallmerten died in 1879. He was married again October 20, 1881, to Miss Alice Neumann, of Hubbard.
Dr. Wm. Painter, born in Madison county, Iowa, May 18, 1856, remaining until thirteen years of age. He then spent four years in Clay county, attending
school; then engaged in teaching until 1878 in the schools of Madison county. In 1878 he began the study of medicine with his brother, Dr. Dayton Painter, of Chicago, and afterward attended Rush Medical College, graduating February 22, 1881. He then located at Hubbard and began the practice of medicine. Married June 19, 1880, to Miss Mary A. Deardorff, of Wintersel.
Dr. Philip Slack, physician, born in Lee county, Iowa, December, 1851. At four years of age he moved with his parents to Hardin county. Receiving a good education, he began teaching at the age of eighteen, which he followed during the winter terms until twenty-one. He then began the study of medicine with Dr. Jessup, of this county. In 1874-5 he attended the medical department of the State University at Iowa City, and in 1875 began practice at Illinois Grove, Iowa, and in 1877 moved to Idaho, this county. Jan., 1882, he graduated at St. Louis, Mo., and in 1880 located at Hubbard, being the first physician at this place. He was married in 1874 to Mary E. Page, born in Illinois, when her parents moved to Webster City, Iowa, where she was married. They have three children .
LAWN HILL.
Dr. C. J. Cook, the first physician to locate in this place, is a native of Indiana. He was born in Wayne county October 7, 1849. When but three years of age his parents removed to Iowa. After receiving a common school education, he entered the State University at Iowa City, with the intention of completing the course, but, on account of failing health, he was
.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
compelled to abandon the idea after at- tending one term. In 1867 he commenced his medical studies with Dr. E. H. Green, of Bangor, Marshall county, Iowa, and subsequently continued them with Dr. Sherwood, of Marshalltown, and also at home. In 1874 and 1875 he attended lec- tures at Bennett Medical College, at Chi- cago, from which institution he graduated January 22, 1875, standing first in his class. He then commenced the practice of his profession in company with Dr. Jessup, of New Providence, the co-partner- ship continuing until 1877. For four years more he practiced alone in New Providence, and then removed to Lawn Hill, where he now resides, enjoying an extensive practice. Dr. Cook was united in marriage November 27, 1875, in New Providence, with Eva J. Jessup, daughter of Dr. Jessup, of that place. They have three children-Rina J., Ora A. and Loretta May. Dr. Cook has taken an active in- terest in politics, and is an ardent Repub- lican. In the fall of 1881 he was elected on that ticket a member of the House of Representatives of the General Assembly for the term of two years. He is a charter member of New Providence Lodge, No. 169, A. O. U. W., and has been its presid- ing officer two terms, and Medical Exam- iner since its organization.
HARDIN COUNTY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION.
Pursuant to a call issued by several of the regular physicians of Hardin county, a meeting was held at the court house, Eldora, June 12, 1873, for the purpose of organizing a county association. There were present at the meeting Drs. J. H. Cusack, B. E. Dodson, M. Underwood,
Eldora; C. H. Guibor, J. F. Simonds, Iowa Falls; E. Jessup, New Providence; E. H. King, Steamboat Rock; Thomas Crosgrove, Point Pleasant.
Dr. Cusack was elected Chairman, and E. H. King, Secretary pro tem. The object of the meeting was briefly stated by the Chairman. A committee, consisting of Drs. Underwood, Guibor and Simonds, were appointed to report a constitution and by-laws for the government of the society. They reported the society to be known as "The Hardin County Medical Association," and the objects to be "the advancement of medical knowledge, the uniformity of medical ethics, the promo- tion of harmony and fraternity in the medical profession, the protection of the interest of its members, the promotion of all measures adapted to the relief of suf- fering, and to improve the health and pro- tect the lives of the community."
The association, after adopting the con- stitution, proceeded to elect a Board of Censors. The following were elected: Drs. Underwood, Jessup and Guibor.
A .permanent organization was then effected, by electing the following named officers:
President-J. H. Cusack.
Vice-President-J. F. Simonds.
Secretary-E. H. King.
Assistant Secretary -- Thomas Crosgrove.
The President appointed as committees, to report at the next meeting, the follow- ing named:
On Medical Ethics-B. E. Dodson.
On Uniform Fee Bill-Drs. Underwood, Jessup and King.
The organization was continued until about 1878.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
1
CHAPTER IX.
TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
TOPOGRAPHY.
The surface of the county is generally rolling and gently undulating prairie, the largest extent being in the southwest, which is well adapted to farming and graz- ing purposes, but, in consequence of its remoteness from timber, was the last to be settled.
The more broken part along the Iowa river and its tributaries, which was well supplied with native timber, was the first to be taken up, but since the completion of the railroads, which readily furnish lumber from the pine forests of Minnesota and Wisconsin, these vast prairies have been rapidly improved, and in consequence of the superior quality of their soil, are fast becoming the most productive and valuable portion of the county. The northeast part has an excellent soil, and is well improved. Most of the streams have deep channels, thoroughly draining the surface without any artificial means, except in that portion west of Alden, along the line of the railroad, where there are a few ponds and marshes, which are not so ex- tensive or deep but that they can be readily drained where the growth of the county shall render it necessary. The soilis gen- erally a black vegetable loam of great
. depth and almost inexhaustible fertility, and fully equal to that of any other county in the State for agricultural purposes. No failure of crops, from either wet or drouth, are reported since the settlement of the county, which is certainly a record of which her citizens may well be proud. Along some of the streams, gravel of the Drift appears on the points of some of the ridges, but a short distance back they are covered with a deep rich soil.
The county is well watered by the Iowa river and its tributaries, which stream en- ters on the north side about five miles east of its northwest corner, and flowing trans- versely through it, passes out within a mile and a half of its southeast corner. The Iowa, in this part of its course, flows quite rapidly, and at an ordinary stage of water has, perhaps, an average of one hundred feet in width, while the shores are usually high, rocky bluffs, in many places rising in bold, perpendicular palisades some fifty or sixty feet above the level of the stream, and alternately changing from one side to the other, with but a limited area of what are usually called bottom lands. These bluffs are usually flanked by a series of elevations, rising and extending back for
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
some distance, and embracing the valuable timber belt of the county. Some very fine water-powers are afforded by the Iowa river in this county, particularly at Iowa Falls.
In a distance of six miles above that town, the river has a descent of forty-six feet, with a constant supply of water, which might be used in propelling a large amount of machinery. The value of this magnificent power is greatly enhanced by the fact that, in close proximity to it is an inexhaustible supply of good building stone, ready for the hands of the artisan, to construct substantial dams and perma- nent buildings for manufactories. Time is the only question in regard to the more full development of these resources, which at no very distant day, will be a source of great wealth to the county. The finest quality of this building stone is found at Iowa Falls, where a limestone is easily quarried in unlimited quantities which ad- mits of a finish almost equal to marble. By some one of her wonderful and myste- rious processes, Nature has lifted up for the use of man, eighty feet in thickness of her sub-carboniferous limestone strata. It is quarried in blocks of any size and with the greatest ease. Many substantial and neat stone buildings have been erected here from this material. It is well adapted for door and window caps and sills, as well as for ornamental stone work generally. Some three or four miles above Iowa Falls this stone sinks below the bed of the river, but re-appears at Alden, six miles above Iowa Falls, where it is extensively quarried and used for building purposes. Where the limestone dips below, so as to become in- accessible, the sandstone of the Coal Meas-
ures rises, affording to other portions of the county a very good quality of stone for ordinary purposes. This limestone is of the best quality for the manufacture of quicklime, large quantities of which are supplied at Iowa Falls, Alden and other points.
The principal tributary of the Iowa river in this county is the South Fork, which .enters the county very near the northwest corner, and passes in a southeasterly direc- tion to its junction with the main stream in Union township, thus watering and draining a large portion of the county. It has a number of tributaries, the most im- portant being Tipton and Beaver creeks. The streams are all bright and clear, and being well distributed in all parts of the county, afford good drainage, and being largely supplied by springs, afford a con- stant, never-failing supply of stock water. Springs of clear, cold water are quite nu- merous, while good wells are readily ob- tained on the prairies by digging from fifteen to twenty-five feet deep.
It is estimated that about one-tenth of the county is covered with timber, the area of woodland gradually increasing where the fires are kept from destroying it, as in the thickly-settled portions. Heavy bodies of timber extend along the Iowa river on both sides nearly its entire distance across the county, so that the north and east por- tions of the county have a plentiful sup- ply. There are also fine groves on the South Fork of the Iowa, and on Tipton and Henry creeks. The timber consists of the different kinds of oak, walnut, but- ternut, hard and soft maple, hickory, elm, hackberry, linn, ash, cottonwood, birch, cedar and cherry. On Iowa river, below
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
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the town of Steamboat Rock, are found some white pine, a few trees having ob- tained a growth of sixty feet or more in height. Some years ago there were many larger trees, but they have been sawed into lumber, and several houses in the county have been partially built from native pine lumber.
Most kinds of wild fruit found in other parts of the State are common here, in- cluding grapes, plums, crab-apples, red and black raspberries, strawberries and goose- berries.
Among the different kinds of native shrubs may be mentioned the hazel, sum- ach, elder and prickly ash. The beautiful and highly ornamental tree known as the white birch is also found along the Iowa river. This, together with the white pine and cedar, are annually sought for and carried away to other counties as ornamen- tal trees. Some two or three different species of willow grow along the borders of the streams.
GEOLOGY.
In the year 1848 the Treasury Depart- ment of the Government employed David Dale Owen, of New Harmony, Indiana, to make a geological survey of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. He soon after took the field in person, and in 1852 the Gov- ernment published his report in a large volume, accompanied with maps, all of which contains a mass of highly valuable and interesting matter.
He was the pioneer geologist of the Upper Mississippi Valley, and his great labor and work has formed the foundation for all who have, or who may, succeed him.
He was a native of Scotland, educated in Switzerland, and with his father came to America and settled in Indiana. He also made a geological survey of his adopted State, Kentucky and Arkansas, and he died in 1860 greatly lamented by all who knew his value and worth as a man and a scientist.
By an act of the Legislature of Iowa, approved January 23, 1855, the Governor of Iowa, by the advice and consent of the Senate, was authorized to nominrte a per- son competent to make a geological sur- vey of the State, and in accord with the provisions of this act, James Hall, of New York, was appointed, and during the years 1855-'56 and '57 completed the survey, and in 1858 the State published his report in two volumes.
This report contains many new and val- uable additions to that of Mr. Owen; par- ticularly in regard to the Coal Measures and palæontology of the State, and is full of highly interesting matter.
By another act of the Legislature of Iowa, approved March 30, 1866, Charles A. White, of Iowa, was appointed State Geologist for two years, and he also pro- ceeded to make another geological survey of the State, and his report was also pub- lished by the State in 1870, in two vol- umes.
This report also contains much valuable and interesting matter, and is a valuable addition to that of its predecessors.
Since then nothing has been done by the State to acquire any more knowledge either of her mineral wealth, her palæon- tology, or of the remains of the silent pre- historic races that lie entombed in her soil.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
The end and aim of all these surveys were to give a general outline of the geol- ogy of the State, and from the means and time to which they were confined, it was impossible for them to give an extended local survey to each county, therefore we must be content with what we have from them, together with what observations have been inade by private parties.
COAL FIELDS OF HARDIN COUNTY.
Many theories have been advanced by geologists regarding the formation of coal. The latest, and most plausible, is, that dur- ing an early period of the earth's forma- tion, the country between the Blue Ridge and Rocky Mountains was a vast sea or basin, into which the Coal Measure was precipitated by volcanic action. These Coal Measures are sandstone, slate, shale, and the different varieties of carboniferous lime stones, coal being found in no other. As these Measures were slowly deposited, coal was forming by the condensation of carbonic vapors, and bitumen with the "coal flora," the rich, fatty vegetation of that period Covered again and again by succeeding strata of molten lava, it has for a vast period of time been safely stored in Nature's vaults, to supply the future neces- sities of her masterpiece, Man.
The carboniferous coals are grouped under several heads. Stone coal, or an- thracite, exists almost exclusively east of the Kanawha region, and is nearly pure carbon. It is heavier than the bituminous coal, ignites with difficulty, but burns with intense heat under a strong draft. Its ex- istence in immense quantities in the Lehigh Valley was known as early as 1791, but a period of twenty years elapsed
before it was discovered how it could be burned.
Bituminous, or soft coals, of the Middle or Western States, contain only about 50 per cent. of carbon, the balance being bitu- men or gaseous matter. "Cannel" is also a bituminous coal, and is considered the best for gas. It approximates closely to asphaltum and jet, receives a polish, and can be worked into ornaments. With some exceptions it exists only in very thin seams.
The Coal Measures of the East are 3,000 feet in thickness, but gradually thin as they approach the West to as many hun- dreds. In the coal seams which they con- tain is also observed the same phenomena. The average vertical thickness of the Pennsylvania anthracites being 60 feet, while of the Western coal fields it is only ten.
The extent of the American coal field is estimated to cover an area of over 200,000 square miles, while that of Europe is only 10,000. The value of these immense de- posits, in the future of our country, is in- calculable. Prosperity and wealth invari- ably visit those communities possessing and utilizing it.
Rogers, in his "Geology of Pennsylva- nia," makes a statement of the power derived from the combustion of coal, which will convey to the mind of the reader an approximate idea of its value. In lifting power, as applied to the im- proved Cornish pumping engine, he makes one pound of coal raise 1,500,000 pounds one foot high, equivalent to ten hours' labor of an able-bodied man on the tread- mill; thus estimating four tons of coal equal to twenty years of manual labor.
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
Coal was discovered on the Iowa river, in the vicinity of the present towns of Eldora and Steamboat Rock, by the first pioneers in the county. Abram Grimsley, the first blacksmith to do business in this county, and who set up a shop under an old oak tree, in 1851, secured his coal from this neighborhood. What he used he ob- tained from the bed of the river.
While the existence of coal in this county was known to the early settlers, no effort was made to do general mining, nor did the first settlers consider the coal lands as especially valuable.
S. B. Moran arrived at Eldora on the 26th day of October, and stopped for the night with Mr. Hulbert, who had erected a cabin and opened a tin shop in the place. During the evening the question of a fuel supply for the country was discussed, and Mr. Moran was informed that coal had been discovered along the Iowa river, and had been used to a limited extent by the settlers. The next morning he started out to prospect, and soon satisfied himself that coal existed in large quantities along the river, and doubtless extended back some distance. In the winter following, in com- pany with his brother Wesley, he went out and secured a quantity for use in the lat- ter's blacksmith shop. In the summer of 1854, he bought 47 acres of land about a mile and a half north of Eldora, and in the winter following commenced getting out coal for the market.
Shortly after Mr. Moran commenced mining, James Buckner also began opera- tions, and was followed by Edwin Fuller. As soon as it became known these banks were in operation, people came from Cedar Rapids, Independence, Delhi, Waverly and
other points, a distance of 125 miles, for coal. Railroads had no tyet penetrated this portion of Iowa, and the coal was taken away by teams. Moran's, Buckner's and Fuller's banks were well known all over Northern and Western Iowa.
From the prospectus of the Eldora Rail- road and Coal Company, issued in 1866, the following extract is taken:
"The second, or working, vein is about 12 feet above the river level, and is worked by horizontal drifting. It varies in thick- ness from four to four and a half feet, dip- ping sufficiently from the river to afford good drainage. Covered by a heavy sand- stone and shale roof, the shafts are easily timbered, and rendered safe at compara- tively small expense. Expensive vertical shafts and lifting power are thus rendered unnecessary to bring the coal to the sur- face, the advantages of which to practical miners are obvious, and at present, although operations are conducted in a very superfi- cial and unhandy manner, the expense of delivering coal upon the bank is far less than that required in deep mines, skillfully and systematically managed for the saving of labor. In quality, this coal does not vary materially from that of Illinois or other parts of Iowa, possessing this char- · acteristic, however, which makes it valu- able for fuel purposes in burning to ashes without fusing or 'clinkering.'"
Dr. C. A. White, State Geologist, in speaking of this coal, says:
"I observed exposure of Coal Measure in the region surrounding Buckner's mine, two miles north of Eldora, which indicate that they underlie a surface of some two square miles, and doubtless more. The bed of coal at Buckner's mine is four feet
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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.
in thickness, the quality fair, and, if prop- erly separated from the seams of sulphuret of iron which prevail in it, is as good as Western coal will average. About a foot of the lower. portion of the bed is very good, and, carefully selected, will be suit- able for working iron and the preparation of illuminating gas. The quality of coal will doubtless improve as the mining pro- gresses further beneath the hills. The great advantage which these mines possess over others of even a better quality is, that their location is much further to the north- ward than any yet discovered."
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