History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States, Part 81

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1150

USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States > Part 81

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HARRISON COUNTY.

ship by those who remained as permanent settlers. There was a man named Cleve- land, who sold to Mr. Lockling, who was here in advance of Mr. Merchant. He had a log house and twenty acres under cultivation, which Mr. Merchant believes was made in 1849-Mr. Cleveland sold out and went to Utah. It will be remembered that our subject came to this county two years before it was organized, and when Pottawattamie and Harrison Counties were as one for judicial purposes. At that time the temporary county seat was being located, and the three commissioners ap- pointed by the Governor, stopped at Mr. Merchant's cabin and spoke of locating the county seat there, where upon Merchant told them that he intended to make a farm there, and did not carefor the county seat. The first land our subject entered was the forty acres that his house is now on. This was at the time of the great Cal- ifornia gold excitement, and a neighbor, (Todd) and our subject, each had a steer, and they put these steers together and Todd drove them to Council Bluffs and sold them, and Mr. Merchant took what his steer brought, and entered forty acres of land; he entered one hundred and twenty acres in all, but now has two hun- dred and thirty acres, all improved. He lived in the log house he first built, until 1861, and then erected a frame addition sixteen feet square, which served the fam- ily until 1872, when his present commo- dious frame farm-house was built. It is a story and one-half, 26x32-foot structure. In 1883 he built a barn 30x40 feet, with sixteen foot posts.

When Mr. Merchant first came to this county, his nearest post-office and trading point was Council Bluffs, and the nearest mill was six miles this side on the Pigeon River, and during the summer of 1851 the

season known to old settlers as the "high water season," and during June or July four or five teams started to mill down by the Bluffs; the streams were very high, and what few bridges had been constructed had been washed away, and when the party got to the Boyer, which they found was overflowing its banks, a daring feat had to be executed. Mr. Merchant wasin the lead, all having ox-teams, and they halted at a man's house near the river, the same being owned by Mr. Kirby, who had a canoe. They decided to take off the wheels of their wagon, and carry them across in the canoe; when Mr. Kirby had reached the center of thestream, the boat upset, and the boatman swam ashore, the wheels went to the bottom of the Boyer, where they remained for about a month, (it is said the tires dil not have to be set during that season), while the canoe was captured by one of the party, and another plan was resorted to, as flour they must have, at least corn-meal! They swam their oxen across the river, tied down their wagon-beds, hitched rope to the tongues, and Commodore Perry never saw a better flotilla of barges than was landed on the opposite shore without the loss of a man.

The Indian scare of 1855 came about in this wise: the Indians had not been war- like, but were in the habit of crossing over the river, and appropriating the property of the settlers to their own use, which aggravated the pioneers, who concluded they would stop their coming across the river, a detailed account of which appears elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Merchant was married in Hancock County, Ill., April 15, 1844, to Miss Hor- tensia Patrick, who was born in Franklin County, Mass., March 30, 1824, and in 1843 she came to Kirtland, Ohio, and re- mained there one year, and then went to

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Illinois and remained with the.brother un- til she was married.

Mr. and Mrs. Merchant are the parents of nine children, born as follows -- Amasa L., March 11, 1845; Sarah, July 26, 1847 ; Clement E., and Cornelia I. (twins) April 16, 1850; Mary H., August 27, 1852; Jo- seph W., January 28, 1855; Milton, March 1, 1857; Charles D., July 9, 1861; Cora E., August 4, 1867. Sarah, the second, born of this family, died October 1, 1847, and Cora E., the youngest, died May 8, 1868.

Mr. and Mrs. Merchant are both con- sistent members of the Latter Day Saints Church, at Magnolia, he having been a member since 1842, and his wife since 1813, both uniting in Massachusetts, and afterward becoming identified with the Re- organized Church. In the early settle- ment of this county game was plentiful, such as deer, elk, turkeys, prairie chick- ens and wolves. One morning Mr. Lewis, a neighbor of our subject's, came to Mer- chant's cabin and wanted his rifle, saying he had seen prairie chickens. He got the gun and repaired to the thicket, and to his surprise he found a deer, but for some reason his rifle refused to shoot, so he ex- citedly came back and told Mr. Merchant, who went back and wounded the deer, but not having his knife, he came home, a half mile, and with his son Amasa, took the ax and went back and cut the animal's head off.

E H. WILLS, editor and proprietor of the Dunlap Herald, (a history of which journal appears at another place, in this work) is a native of Harrison . County, and was born one mile west of the village of Calhoun, July 29, 1854, and has

passed the greater portion of his life in his native county. Until fifteen years of age he remained at home on the farm, and re- ceived his education in the public schools. He then went into the Harrisonian office, at Missouri Valley, with D. M. Harris, and remained in his employ for nine years, during which time he mastered the art preservative. He spent the next two years at various points and in 1888 took the management of the Harrison County Dem- ocrat at Logan, which was subsequently named the Courier, and was removed to Woodbine and consolidated with the Woodbine Twiner. Mr. Wills remained there until he went to Dunlap one year later.

Among the important events of this man's life, may be mentioned his marriage to Miss Mary Malum, the daughter of C. O. and Emma Malum; she was born in Norway, in 1863. The date of their mar- riage was March 27, 1882. They are the parents of two children-Emma and Earl.

Politically, our subject is a stanch Re- publican, and his editorial writings show him to be a man of ability. He is a mem- ber of the Odd Fellows Lodge at Wood- bine, as well as Harrison Lodge No. 284, K. of P., of Dunlap.

Jesse C. and Charity (McCool) Will, his parents, were natives of Ohio and Michigan, respectively, and of Scotch- Irish extraction. They located in Harri- son County in 1852. The father farmed until our subject was about fifteen years of age, when he removed to Missouri Valley and opened up a general store, and also bought grain, and was in the drug business, continuing until a few years before his death, which occurred in April, 1885. His good wife, the mother of our subject, survived her companion until July 22, 1891, They were the pa-

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HARRISON COUNTY.

rents of ten children, eight of whom are still living: Charles E., a resident of Nebraska; Mary, wife of S. A. Daniels, of Butler County, Iowa; Cyrus, deceased ; William F., a resident of Mondamin; Erastus R., a resident of North Dakota; John M., a resident of Sioux City; Royal W., a resident of Wyoming; and E. H., our subject.

Five of the Wills boys were in the Civil War. Cyrus died from the effects of a saber wound; he was a member of Com- pany H, of the First Iowa Cavalry, over whom he was Captain, and served two years and eight months. William was in Company H, Fifteenth Iowa Infantry, served three years and re-enlisted. Charles, Erastus and John were all in Company C, Twenty-ninth Iowa Infan- try, and served three years.

HOMAS N. BERRY, present Re- corder of Harrison County, is a na- tive of the Hawkeye State, and was born in Pottawattamie County, February 8, 1855, and came to Harrison County when one year of age. He is the son of Milton and Margaret (Davis) Berry, na- tives of North Carolina and now resi- dents of Missouri Valley. Our subject is the youngest of eight children in his fa- ther's family, seven of whom are living. His early life was spent on a farm, receiv- ing his education in the common schools, and when twenty years of age began teach- ing; he spent one year in the Western States, and in 1880 engaged in the livery business at Missouri Valley, but after a few months dropped that and took up the grocery business, which he followed six years, and in the spring of 1887, was ap-

pointed Deputy County Recorder, under O. L. French, with whom he remained three and a half years, and at the general election of 1890, was elected to the office of Recorder, by a majority of sixty-six, he being the Republican nominee, and running two hundred and thirty votes ahead of his ticket. He was elected Re- corder of the corporation of Logan 1890, serving one year.

Politically, Mr. Berry is a stanch sup- porter of the Republican party. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and belongs to Odd Fellows' Lodge, No. 170, at Missouri Valley.

January 1,1883,he was'united in marriage with Miss Jennie Gump, the daughter of J. B. and Rachel (Ernest) Gump, now living in Calhoun Township, this county. Mr. and Mrs. Berry are the parents of two sons, now living : George P. born May 2, 1886, and Fred T., November 23, 1887.

In his official duties, Mr. Berry acquits himself in a very satisfactory manner to the people of Harrison County ; he is ever obliging, well posted in that which per- tains to his office, and executes a fine set of records, which will be more highly prized as the years shall, one by one, roll away.

B YRON C. ADAMS came to Harri- son County July 15, 1854, in com- pany with his father, James M. Ad- ams, Willard and William Kinyon, Elisha Palmer, and a man named Bassett. He is at the present time engaged in the meat market business at Logan. Upon coming to the country his father located land on section 31, township 79, range 42, consisting of one hundred and sixty acres,

George Richardson

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HARRISON COUNTY.

to which was afterwards added forty acres. In 1858 our subject took land on section 5, in what is now known as Jefferson Township. This was a quarter section, to which he also added.

Mr. Adams was born August 6, 1835, in Ashtabula County, Ohio. His father was James M. and his mother Hannah E. Ad .. ms.

The father was born in Berkshire County, Mass., in 1806, and the mother July 12, 1808, in the State of New York. The father of James M. Adams was James Adams, born in Berkshire County, Mass., and died in Ohio, March, 1822. His wife Mary was a native of Massachusetts, and died in Wisconsin, in April, 1853. The father of our subject was a farmer all his days.

Our subject attended the schools com- mon to the Buckeye State, to which country his parents had removed before our subject was born.

The father left Ohio for Knox County, Ill., in 1844, and there remained until the following year, and then moved to Han- cock County, that State, and there bought a farm, remained one year, and then re- moved to Walworth County, Wis., and purchased a farm two miles west of Bur- lington, where they remained until com- ing to Harrison County in 1854.

Bryon C. was married in Crawford County, Iowa, October 13, 1859, to Almira P. Carrico, a native of Adams County, Ill. By this union five children have been born-Effie, .born February 20, 1861; Winslow M., January 2, 1863; Frank C., January 24, 1866; Mary, December 20, 1867, and Arthur, May 14, 1870.

At the time our subject came to Harri- son County there were only one hundred and five votes polled; and he relates how they erected a double log house 16x30

feet, and that the family of fve boys had great sport at hunting the wild game then so plentiful in this county, at which timne the Indians were still lingering in little squads here and there.

During the war our subject was made Deputy Provost Marshal and enrolling officer for Harrison and Shelby Counties, and made an excellent official.

Politically, Mr. Adams is identified with the Republican party.

Great has been the transformation since the Adams family first gazed out upon the undeveloped, but even then magnifi- cent valleys for which Harrison County has ever been noted.

ON. GEORGE RICHARDSON, one of the pioneers of the county, came in July 1857, and settled on the farm he now occupies. When he came all was wild prairie, and game was plentiful for many years. At first he erected a log house 16x24 feet, in which he lived until the autumn of 1868, and then built his present commodious resi- dence, having to haul all the material from Council Bluffs. The house is 30 x 40 feet, with an addition 16x30 feet. Some of the lumber in this building cost our subject $100 per thousand. In 1873 he built a barn 18x20 feet, and has since built another barn 46x80 feet, with eighteen- foot posts. His present home farm con- sists of five hundred acres, and he also has another five hundred acre tract, partly in Cincinnati and partly in St. John's Townships, and still this is not the extent of his landed estate, for he has a farm of one hundred acres on section 1, of Cin- cinnati Township, and one of the same

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size on section 3, a quarter section in one tract in Taylor Township, besides forty acres of timber land. All of these farms are under cultivation and well stocked. Great must be the contrast in our sub- ject's mind, when he reflects back to the time when he came the county, when all was a prairie wilderness, and his neigh- borhood only had four families. When they were in search of their cattle, unless near by, they could not observe them on account of the rank growth of prairie grass, which rose and fell like the waves of the ocean. For three years they had no schools, but at that time the neigh- bors combined and built a log school house which served the district for eight years. Mrs. Bowman was the first teacher who taught in this building, which was also used for religious services.

Ox-teams were all the go in those days, and if a man possessed a horse-team lie was looked upon as "puttin on style" and could hardly be tolerated. But to-day Harrison County produces as fine horses as can be found in the United States, and a yoke of oxen is indeed a strange sight, and they are looked upon with as much curiosity now-a days, as the Italian with his cinnamon bear.

Politically, Mr. Richardson is a Repub- lican, and has held most of the local offices in his township, including Trustee and member of the School Board. At the general election in 1881, he was elected on the Republican ticket a member of the Legislature, which position he filled with credit to himself and constitu- ents. To represent a district like this, was one of much more responsibility, than it would have been at the time our subject came to the county.

Mr. Richardson was born in Dumfrie- shire, Scotland, June 14, 1833, and re-

mained at home until 1852, when he went to Middlesex County, Canada, where he spent five years laboring on a farm, at the end of which time he came to Harrison County, Iowa.

Miss Ann Coulthard, became his wife in February, 1855. They were married in Canada, and reared a family of thirteen children-Margaret J., born July 19, 1856; Mary A., October 4, 1858; Janet D., No- bember 1, 1861; Agnes, June 10, 1864; Harriet L., September 9, 1866; Robert F., December 11, 1868; William L., Febru- ary 1, 1871; Carrie D., April 4, 1873; George Wallace, February 2, 1875; Zellie M., February 22, 1877; Nellie V., February 29, 1879; David A., March 24, 1882; Nina M., February 12, 1885. These children are all living.

Mrs. Ann (Coulthard) Richardson, was born in Middlesex County, Canada, January 29, 1841, and remained at home until the date of her marriage.

Francis Richardson, the father of our subject, was born in Scotland, and there spent his life. He died at the age of seventy-six years in 1868. His wife, Margaret (Coulthard) Richardson was also a native of Scotland, dying in that country in 1859, when she was about fifty years of age. They were the parents of ten children. of whom our subject was the seventh. The Richardson family have always been identified with the Presby- terian Church.

When our subject came to the county it was little else than a wilderness. He came by rail to St. Louis, and from there up the Missouri by steamboat. He has seen all kinds of prices for farm produce in the last third of a century. He has seen the panic prices of 1857, and the war prices of 1865. He has hauled corn to

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Council Bluffs and sold it at fifteen cents per bushel. When the Union Pacific Railroad was being built from Omaha West, he furnished large quantities of ties, which were rafted down the river to Omaha. By the possession of such a large quantity of land, the question very naturally would arise, as to whether our subject came here with plenty of means or not. The answer may be found in the statement that he brought $500 in money with him, and through his business ability, has caused it to increase to his present handsome competency.

W ILLIAM BRAYTON, of Logan, one of the early settlers of Harri- son County, was born in Rock Island County, Ill., September 15, 1838. He is the son of Stephen and Cathe- rine (Coleman) Brayton. The father was born in Lower Canada, and the mother in Pennsylvania. The father died in Rock Island County, Ill., in 1882, at the age of seventy-five years. He settled in the above county in 1834. The niother still survives and is seventy-eight years of age. They were farmers throughout their days, and reared a family of eleven children, as follows: Mary J., widow of B. F. Brown, a resident of Dallas County, Iowa; Joseph, deceased, was in Company H, Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and died while in the service of his country; Ste- phen, a resident of Illinois, was in Com- pany H, Forty-fifth Illinois Infantry, and lo-t his right arm at the siege of Vicks- burg; William, our subject; Coleman, a resident of Illinois, was in the three months' service of the Civil War; Gideon

F., a resident of Persia, Harrison County, Iowa, served in Company B, One Hun- dred and Twenty-sixth Illinois Infantry for three years; Lucy A., deceased, wife of B. F. Brown; Elizabeth, wife of James Sedam, of. Rock Island, Ill .; John, a resi- dent of Nebraska, and two died in early childhood.

William, our subject, was reared in Rock Island County, Ill., amid the scenes of farm-life, and educated in the public schools. At the age of twenty-one he commenced to do for himself. For ten summers in succession he broke prairie, before and after he was of age. August 11, 1862, when the mutterings of the great conflict-the Civil War-were heard and men were being offered on the altar of their country by the hundreds of thousands, our subject enlisted in Company B, One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Illinois In- fantry, and served until August 12, 1865. After his discharge he returned to his old home in Illinois, and in September of the same year, lie engaged in the Government employ, in the telegraph service, and was sent to Arkansas, and remained at this until April 1866, and then went to Kansas and spent a year at various pursuits, spent the following winter in Illinois, and in March, 1868, came to Harrison County, Iowa, crossing the Mississippi River on the fourth day of that month, on the ice, with wagon and team, making the entire trip by wagon. For two years he rented a farm, and engaged at breaking prairie. His first crop of wheat was taken by the grasshoppers, which was rather discour- aging to a new beginner in a new country, but he kept pressing onward toward suc- cess. After having been in the country a little over one year, in July, 1869, his father-in-law gave him a deed to sixty acres of prairie and timber land, and he

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purchased a tract of forty acres of slightly improved land, located on section 7, of Jefferson Township, and October 15, of that year he moved his family, consisting of himself and wife, to his new home, where they lived and labored until 1891, with the exception of two years, 1882-83, when they lived with the father of our subject's wife. Mr. Brayton kept adding to his landed estate from time to time, until he owned two hundred and sixteen acres. They first commenced house keep- ing in a shanty fourteen feet square and one story high, which served them four years, at which time they erected a more commodious abode. And again in 1881, they erected a fine two-story brick farm house, which now graces the farm. Our subject made valuable improvement upon this land, and put in a fine system of water-works for stock purposes. He has always devoted himself to farming and stock-raising, and March 2, 1891, having sold h's farm, moved to the old home- stead farm belonging to the late Henry Reel, who was his wife's father. This place adjoins the northwest corner of the corporation of Logan. The same con- sists of fifty-one acres, which he pur- chased and is now improving, having made an addition to the residence, and has constructed a system of water-works for domestic and stock purposes. August 22. 1891, he purchased the livery barn and stock of G. O. Curtis, of Logan.

Politically, Mr. Brayton is a radical Republican.

Our subject was united in marriage December 27, 1868, to Lydia Reel, the only surviving child of pioneers Henry and Catherine Reel, whose sketch ap- pears in this work. Mrs. Brayton was born May 31, 1841, in Putnam County, Ind., and came to Iowa with her parents

early in the '50s. Mr. and Mrs. Bray- ton are the parents of eight children -- a daughter who died in infancy; and Effie C., born August 31, 1870; Henrietta E., June 14, 1872; John B., December 4, 1873, died April 25, 1874 ; Martha J., January 14, 1875; Cynthia I .. January 8, 1877; William P., March 31, 1878; and Mary A., August 8, 1880.

Our subject and his wife are members of the Regular Predestinarian Baptist Church.

AMUEL PURCELL, a farmer liv . ing on the east side of Willow River on section 14, in Magnolia Town- ship, came to Harrison County, in the autumn of 1855, stopping about one month near Elk Grove, in Jefferson Township, then moved over into Pottawattamie County, where he remained until the lat- ter part of 1864, at which time he came back to this county and bought eighty acres of wild land, constituting a part of his present farm. He improved this farm, his first house being of logs. He remained on that place until the fall of 1869, sold and bought two hundred and twenty-five acres on the same section, which is now all under a high state of cultivation. When he came to the county in 1855 his father was caught out of wood and it took him and another man five days to dig a road through to the grove, about one mile from their house. During the same win- ter his father lost ten head of cattle. Deer were very plentiful but in the springtime it was found that a great portion of them had starved to death on account of the severity of the weather, their carcasses being found here and there throughout

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the country when the snow had disap- peared; elk and wild turkeys were also found in great abundance. Mr. Purcell stood in his door, in Pottawattamie County, and shot seven deer. There was no necessity for going to hunt deer, as they came around the cabin doors of the settlers in search of something to eat. All the farm produce they raised in those early days had to be hauled to Council Bluffs. Our subject had been invited to take dinner with a neighbor where the meal consisted of boiled corn, but the friendly disposition and hosptality of those days, made up for the luxuries their tables lacked.

Mr. Purcell was born September 8,1827, in Putnam County, Ind., and remained at home with his parents until June 6, 1846, when he enlisted in the First Indiana In- fantry as a Mexican soldier and was mus- tered in at New Albany, June 16, 1846, and took boat for New Orleans and from there took ship ("Big Adaline") for Point Isabel, reaching there some time in July, and from there they marched to Monterey, where he remained until his time expired and was discharged at New Orleans, July 10, 1847. There are twelve Mexican sol- diers now living in Harrison County, five of whom enlisted in the same company with Mr. Purcell. At the National Re- union of Mexican soldiers held at Des Moines, in September, 1866, the ladies of that city presented the Mexican veterans with a flag, and the Commander said that the company that represented the most members there should have the honor of carrying the flag, and it fell to Mr. Pur- cell's old company. After leaving the . United States service Mr. Purcell returned to Iudiana and went to farmning, remain- ing there until the fall of 1855, when he started West.

He was united in marriage January 22, 1848, to Miss Artamissa Boone, in Putnam County, Ind. By this marriage nine chil- dren were born-Alonzo, Charles; Mary J. and Elizabeth, deceased; Ida; William deceased,.Eva, and two boys who died in infancy.

Artamissa (Boone) Purcell died in Pot- tawattamie County, Iowa, April 16, 1864, and September 3, 1864, our subject was married to Miss Susan Hunt, and they are the parents of eight children-Bruce, Ella (deceased) ; Edward; Annis and Eliza (de- ceased), Minnie, Jesse E. and Andrew J.

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History of Harrison County, Iowa. Containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county. Together with portraits and biographies of all the governors of Iowa, and of the presidents of the United States, Part 81

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1150

Author: National Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Chicago, National Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1150