USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 11
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
129
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
ing animals in the Boyer since January, and I am informed that there are a goodly number still along this river and its tributa- ries.
" A quarter of a century ago the beavers were very numerous along Harris Grove creek, and gave the supervisors great annoy- ance to the public road from being flooded by their dams, on the farm now owned by John Reed. If the dams were cut away in the daytime, the beavers would build them up at night. Arnold Divilbess and Tom Reed were two ambitious boys at that time. They volunteered to help the supervisors out of their beaver dam trouble. They constructed a hiding place on the creek and proposed to sit up with the beavers one night. With rifles in hand they kept a quiet watch, but no beavers were seen that night. Then the supervisor hired some old trappers to come and give them attention, and they made it pay well, and soon cleaned out the beavers. The beavers had cut down over one hundred willow trees at that time near the creek, some of the trees ten inches in diameter. I picked up a willow stick four feet long, something larger than a walking stick, to show the children the clear cut marks of the beaver's teeth. It was thrown aside and after a month or two it was seen to be sprout- ing, and was stuck in the ground near the old well. In a few years it grew to be a tree of large proportions, measuring five feet in circumference around the butt. It may yet be seen on the old farm at Linnwood. The beaver is not apt to cut down very large trees or try to dam very large streams. But a mar- velous story is told of their cutting a cottonwood tree on the banks of the Boyer, west of Longman's farm, about twenty inches in diameter, and it fell right across the deep river, and was used by neighbors as a foot-log for some time, it being three or four miles up or down the stream to a bridge. It was sup- posed the beavers intended to try and dam the river, but found the water too deep for them.
" The beaver is the best fur-bearing animal in the world. The
9
130
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Dutch West India company began the trade in America in 1824. They exported that year 400 skins; in 1743 the Hudson Bay company exported 150,000 skins. During the years 1854, 1855 and 1856, this company sold in London 627,655 skins. In order to protect this profitable business, a law was made that after a season's hunting and trapping on a given territory, no more hunting and trapping should be done there for five years. But it is not possible for the beaver to recover its former number in any region. The value of the beaver fur and skin may be esti- mated from the durability of the beaver cap. I wore one nine- teen winters, and it was still good for further service, and Alfred Longman must have worn his nearly as long. No wonder the Dutch used beaver skins as part of the currency in New Amster- dam. Nearly equal to gold and silver."
The above is from the pen of J. T. Stern, Esq., on whom I have largely drawn in many matters pertaining to subjects herein mentioned.
FISH CATCHING
Has been a great source of sport to all who have a taste for this kind of amusement as well as a love for the flesh of the finny tribe. The county being so largely supplied with lakes and lake- lets, as well as being bounded on the west by the Missouri river, together with such streams as the Little Sioux, Boyer, Soldier and the Willow, the same have furnished all piscatorially inclined full sweep for entertainment in this rarest of good sport. The reader must now understand that I am not going to tell a "fish" story, but a true one, and it is this:
The first large fish caught in Harrison county waters was in the summer of 1857, just below the mouth of the Little Sioux, by Mr. Henry Herring. Mr. Herring had set a "trot" line, using a number of bed cords for that purpose; to this he firmly attached a considerable number of large hooks, baiting the same with what in fishing parlance is called " dope," a preparation of
131
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
flour, water and cotton. This is rolled into a ball of proper size and fastened to the large hooks, when the same is placed at the locality where the fisher thinks is the best place for fishing.
At the time above referred to, Mr. Herring, having put out his lines the evening before, when morning came went to see the luck of the night's effort, and lo! he thought he had captured a whale or a big cottonwood log, for the fish seemed so large that his eyes bugged out at the sight of the catch. Having got his fish safely on shore and having weighed it, it kicked the beam at 130 pounds It was one of the catfish which accompanied Lewis and Clarke on their exploration trip up the Missouri river in 1804.
The same summer, in the Little Sioux river, just opposite the village of Little Sioux, Mr. David Gamett drew the lucky line which brought to the banks so large a catfish that he could not carry it up the banks of this beautiful stream. At this time Moses German and Mr. Perkins were operating a ferry boat at Little Sioux, made necessary in order to detract the travel from along the bluffs, so as to take the wind out of Fontainebleau. Mr. Gamett was setting on his ferry boat manifesting a patience such as only fishermen possess, the remainder of the party, Sol. Gamett, David Gamett, Isaac Gamett and Josiah Crom, having gone out on a foraging expedition to obtain something for them- selves, when they soon heard a terrible cry from the old gentle- man on the boat, and they thinking that some harm had befallen Mr. Gamett, rushed frantically to his assistance, and what was their surprise at seeing the father tugging with might and main to hold this " whale of a catfish," which was still in the water, affording the old gentleman all the amusement he could spare, in holding the fish. The united effort of the boys and Mr. Crom soon brought the fish to shore, landed safely on terra firma. When weighed it marked the figures of 143 pounds by the steel- yards.
Mr. Jas. Henderson, of Jefferson township, residing near Reed- er's mills, is a great lover of the sport of fishing, and though at
132
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
present he is in his seventies, his early love for sport of this kind has not abated a whit in his present make up. This good old Democrat during the fall of each year takes a fishing tour to either the Missouri river, the Little Sioux, or to some of the old river beds tangent to the old " muddy." Though still loving the sport of catching catfish, he has lost all the taste for their flesh, which loss of taste therefor was brought about as follows:
During the early autumn of 1867, the gentleman last named, Thomas Henderson, and old Uncle Wm. Tucker (all neighbor farmers), were on a fishing excursion to Little Sioux, and when selecting a place where they thought the biggest fish had set- tled, took up their quarters just below the Scofield dam, then in the Sioux river at the mill. Those having supplied themselves with minnows and frogs when crossing the Boyer, found plenty of fun and success as long as the minnows and frogs lasted, but as soon as these were exhausted the fish went on a strike, and would not pay the least attention to the bait on their hooks. They all being somewhat tinctured with Methodism, and recol- lecting how their good wives had prepared dinners for the min- isters, who called frequently at their homes, came to the conclu- sion that probably the catfish were like the ministers, somewhat of specialists in regard to diet, and that yellow-limbed spring chicken would tempt their tastes. As soon as this was deter- mined on in their council of war, one of their number soon had at the tent the requisition more than filled, and the sprightly forms of these young Little Sioux cockerels and pullets were soon transfixed to the hooks and thrown to the supposed hungry, scaleless finny epicureans. Here a half day was wasted, there not being the slightest "nibble" given, and this bevy of gran- gers began to be disgusted with the perversity manifested by the fish, as well as being smoked out by the smell of a putrid dog, which had been shored at a distance of two or three rods from the place where the lines were set. Mr. James Henderson, in order to free the atmosphere from the taint occasioned by this
133
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
eighty pound decaying dog, took a stick of wood and rolled the carcass into the river. Scarcely had this mass of putridity floated one rod from shore, when there came to the surface of the water such an enormous fish that at one gulp the carcass of the dog was swallowed down. "What was it? Did you see it ?" was the quick query of all. That evening the party changed bait, and put on their hooks "dope" bait, and in the morning on taking up their lines found on one of the hooks the same identical fish which on the previous afternoon had swallowed the putrid carcass of the dog. This fishy fellow, after taking his dinner of dog, wanted to top off the evening meal with toast, not being sufficiently educated in the sciences as to have formed a reliable taste for spring chicken. When the party had shored this fish they thought it possible that he was the same personage which had appropriated the dog, and immediately set about holding an inquest, and to their astonishment, in the in- testines or stomach of the fish they found the dog which had given them such offense. This fish, when its insides were ex- tracted, weighed 125 pounds; but for all that, Mr. James Hen- derson says he has lost all appetite for catfish, so occasioned by reason of the detestable taste they have for dead dog.
While the Schofield dam was in the river at Little Sioux, the fish from the Missouri river would ascend this stream at the time of the spring and June rises of the Missouri, and in the early autumn they would try to make their way back to the deep waters of the "Big Muddy," and these returning, if the water in the Missouri and Little Sioux were low, they would be taken at and above the said dam by the wagon load. I have seen men stand on a tramway on this dam, at a place where there would be a seeming current through the brush of the dam, and having a spear or hayfork, catch a two-horse load of large, handsome pickerel, catfish and buffalo fish in a half hour. Cruelty and depravity !
In the month of February, 1857, which was during this same
134
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
hard winter, thirteen large elk made their appearance near But- ler's mills, which had been driven into the settlement by hunger, and when once in the beaten path, made by persons going and returning from the mill, followed this same path directly into the millyard, when the hands at work there fell upon them with handspikes, crowbars and axes and slaughtered nine of them before the others could make their escape. They that fell vic- tims to this butchery, were those which in attempting to flee, ran upon the ice near to the mill and being incapacitated easily yielded their lives to satiate the cruelty of those who knew no mercy. These animals at this time were so reduced in flesh by the cold and want of food, that they were scarcely able to walk. The saddles or hind quarters were taken for food, the skins used for some domestic purposes or sold, and the remainder of the carcasses were thrown to the dogs or wolves. These are said to be the last elks killed in the county, the entire herds which form- erly were in such great numbers, either freezing or starving to death, or like those that wandered to Butler's mills, yielding their lives for the purpose of gratifying the cruel fancy of heart- less man.
The wild prairie hens, up to the year of 1870, were very numerous; so much so that the crops of corn left in the field during the winter, either on the stalk or being cut up and stand- ing in the shock, were eaten up by these pretty little birds. In 1857, 1858, 1859, and during the former part of the sixties, they would, in the fall and winter seasons of the year, congregate in such huge flocks, that they would appear to cover over an entire corn field, and especially if the day was dark and somewhat drizzly, they would take positions on the fences and " paint " these fences by reason of their numbers, for a mile or more. These were caught in traps by the thousand and frequently the bosom part cured and stored away for summer use. Recent set- tlement, by which all the land in the county is farmed or at
135
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
least enclosed, has driven out these birds and the place which knew them so plentifully, now knows them no more.
Many hunting stories, which draw on the imagination, are told by many of the old settlers, and somewhat rival those of Arab- ian Nights' Entertainments, but the latter are told to be believed while the former are left discretionary with the reader. Mr. Charles Gilmore, who resides at the mouth of Steer creek, up to the present seems to hold the belt as the champion hunter, gaug- ing powers by his own statement, a few of which will be repro- duced here, only as a sample of what has been done. Mr G., in spinning the occurrences of early times, tells of a peculiar circum- stance which happened the first season he resided at his present place of residence, and is in these words: " One day I was out in my field cutting wheat with one of the old fashioned grain cradles, being the only reaper then in use. The wheat was so very thick on the ground and the heads and straw so large that I would be compelled to set the implement down and rest. The grain was in fact so tall and thick on the ground that old "Boze" and " Yaller" could run across the field on the heads of wheat, just as they stood before cutting, without sinking through to the ground, and while I was taking one of these rests I hap- pened to cast my eye towards the opposite bluff, and there within forty yards of me was the largest living buck I ever saw. I cau- tiously slipped along the fence corners to the place where I had set my rifle, and grasping it I raised it to my face, but being a little nervous by trying to cut the large crop of wheat, I scarcely sighted at all when the gun went off and the deer turned summersault after summersault in the grass and I supposed I had killed him certain; but what was my surprise when approaching him, he jumped up and ran towards the Missouri river. I waited until I put a load in my gun, when I followed, and Sirs, that buck ran all the way to the Missouri river with his back broken to get water that hot day, and I would'nt have got
136
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
him at all had it not been for the fact that he ran out on the ice, and being unable to run thereon, I ran up to him with my big butcher knife and cut his hamstrings."
This story in some respects resembles a statement made by a Kentuckian, who some years ago brought in a herd of Jerseys to sell in this neighborhood, and while representing the good qual- ities of a certain heifer, sixteen months old, stated that "this heifer when only three months old began giving milk; that she would give milk constantly and never have a calf ; that the peculiarities of the breed were that they never had calves, and this one was just like her mother, had never had a calf, and never would have one." The story may be true, but there seems to be a lack of tying qualities, or in other words, they don't meet at both ends.
Friend Gilmore tells another, though a grade lighter, still it is worth relating, and is as follows: "On a certain day when I had quit work and come into the house for dinner, I looked out toward the south, and what was my surprise at seeing a big doe standing not two rods from my door, looking directly into the house. I caught down my gun and found that the same was unloaded. I went to work as rapidly as I could to put a load in the gun, and in my hurry had put the cap on before I had put in the powder and ball, and while I was ramming down the ball I heard my wife who was just over my head in the chamber above call- ing me, which caused me to look upwards, and in the hurry to get the gun loaded I struck the cock against a bench, when the cap busted immediately, and the gun would have been pre- maturely discharged, had I not had the presence of mind to throw all my strength on the ramrod and keep the bullet from coming out of the gun, for had the bullet been permitted to have escaped from the gun I would have killed my wife, who was, as aforesaid, directly over me."
These are reproduced here, not that I vouch for the correct- ness and pure unadulterated truth thereof, but to show that this
137
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
part of the country has been represented in many other respects than farming and stock raising.
PIONEER CUSTOMS
Differed largely as compared with those which have been intro- duced into society within the last decade. In the early days there was no such a species of the man as a tramp. This pecu- liar make-up has been a production of a foreign country, trans- planted into this nation since the first settlement of this county, and therefore was not known until the production had spread all over these United States.
The weary, way-worn traveler was never refused food or lodg- ing by any one. The usual size of the farm houses until the latter part of the sixties, scarcely ever exceeded twelve feet by twenty feet, and one story high, yet many were not over twelve by sixteen feet. There was something peculiar in the architec- ture of these houses, by which they could hold many more per- sons during a stormy night than the largest farm houses now in all the county, or the difference was in the size of the heart of the lord or lady of the manor.
In the winter of 1856 and 1857 L. D. Butler lived at his mills in a little house fourteen feet by sixteen feet, and only one story in height; yet in this the Butler family, numbering ten or twelve, together with quite ten or fifteen more of those who had made their way through the snow-drifts for a little grist, were by Mrs. Butler safely stowed away in some comfortable manner or other in this small space. The same may very truthfully be said of the homes of Mr. Patrick Morrow, on the Soldier river, and that of old Uncle Dan Brown, of Calhoun. These places were constantly, night by night, filled to overflowing during all the winter last named. All the other homes in the county were ever open to the stranger and unfortunate; not the poor, unpal- atable crust was set before the belated or weary stranger, but always the very best that the larder afforded. The charities of
138
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
the old settlers were as large as the demands of humanity, and their generosity measured out of their substance with an un- sparing hand, the larger share to the needy and unfortunate.
Perhaps the difference in the circumstances of persons at that time, as compared with those of the present, accounts for the warm, free-heartedness then so proverbial. Neighbors then at the distance of five, eight or ten miles were considered living in close proximity, and settling within a mile was somewhat crowd- ing on that of one who had settled first. There may be just as much benevolence, good will, charity and friendship to-day as there ever was, because there are so many more persons upon whom to bestow the same, that when once distributed it becomes a little "thin; " yet without hesitation I am free to assert that there is a thousand times more deception practiced at this time than ever was dreamed of by the old settlers, and such hypocrisy as would produce the blush on the cheek of his honor, the Devil.
THE COUNTRY DANCE
Was the event of the neighborhood-talked over for days and days prior to the happening of the same, and when the time had arrived there would be such a jovial good time that
" Care, mad to see a man so happy, E'en drowned himself among the nappy ; Kings may be blessed, but these were glorious, O'er all the ills of life victorious."
True, there might have been a little more energy than polish in the manner of dancing. This was at that time pardonable, because heavy cowskin boots were used in the ball room in lieu of the present fancy slipper, made so by reason of the puncheon floors and lack of slippers. Calling the attention of the reader to the music, on these occasions, none who were here in the fif- ties but well remembers the selection known as "Caywood Cross- ing the Bottom." The homespun dress, puncheon floors, Cay- wood's fiddle and all else fit in with dove tail exactness, and all "went merry as a marriage bell."
139
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
The shooting matches were then quite numerous, and were better patronized than the Sabbath-schools or churches. The men of the country were then all hunters and truly crack shots; no fooling around with dollars to put up unless you could once out of three times drive a center, otherwise the person was wast- ing his substance in riotous living. Old Uncle Horatio Cay- wood, Levi Motz, John Birchim, David and Isaac Gamett, Harvey Rood, Bill Cooper, Tom Barnett, N. B. Hardy, Robert Hall, John and Tom Durman, Nat McKinimey et al., were the best shots of that day, and any man that got beef or turkeys on such occasions as these without knocking the center was playing with the uninitiated and not with the experienced shots of the land. On the east of Magnolia, in the neighborhood of Harris Grove, there was another team, made up of the Smith boys, Wash and West, Jeff. Norman, the Cases, along the Boyer, and many of the old settlers at and around old St. John, who were crack marksmen and could take the deer on the wing, or knock the center and take first choice in a shooting match without much effort.
CHAPTER IV.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY.
FROM the passage of the boundary act giving the limits of the county of date of January 15, 1851, up to and until January 12, 1853, the county remained embryotic; at which date last named, the Fourth General Assembly, by chapter 8, section 3, appointed three commissioners to "locate the seat of justice of the county of Harrison," viz .: Abram Fletcher, of Fremont county; Charles Wolcott, of Mills county, and A. D. Jones, of Pottawattamie county. These, by the direction of said act, were ordered to meet at the house of Mr. A. D. Jones, in the county of his resi- dence, on the first Monday of March, of 1853, and proceed to locate and establish a " seat of justice," as near the geograph- ical center of the above boundaries as might be found, hav- ing due regard to the present as well as the future popula- tion of the county, and when so selected, located and established, to call the name thereof Magnolia. The present boundaries of the county as well as the name of the " seat of justice " were not hewn out by pioneer minds nor unskillful hands, but wisely pro- vided for by the assembled wisdom of a now ninety-nine countied State. By the same act last named, an organizing Sheriff was appointed in the person of Robert McKenney, (this is a misno- mer, as the name was intended for Michael McKenney, father of Dr. E. T. McKenny) who acted as per the provision of this act, whose duties were to give ten days notice of elections, issue cer- tificates of election and receive the return of the Commissioners last named, when place was selected and established as the locus of the county seat. The commissioners above named proceeded
(140)
141
HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
to the discharge of the duties thus imposed by virtue of the authority to them given, and within the time therein specified; and as a result of their labors selected the southeast quarter of section 32, township 80, range 43, and then and there gave.to the 160 acres thus selected the name of Magnolia, and reported their doing to the above named McKenney, the organizing Sheriff, who proceeded to and did call an election on the first Monday of April of that year, at which time a full corps of county officers were elected and subsequently qualified, notwithstanding by vir- tue of section 8, of the act last named, the county was declared organized from and after the first Monday of March, 1853.
At the time of the selection of the county seat there were places to which the attention of the above named Commissioners were directed, viz .: Magnolia (the place selected), the present site of the village of Calhoun, and either the present locus of Logan, or on the opposite side of the Boyer river north or north- east of the farm now owned by James Read, then owned by James B. McCurley. These three places had their respective champions, James Hardy, who was intimately acquainted with two of the commissioners, Mr. Walcott and Mr. Jones, and under the direction of the organizing act, which provided and directed that the location of the county seat should be as near the geo- graphical center as would warrant, by taking into consideration a due regard for the then and future population of the county, held that Magnolia was the proper place, and by designating that as the place, the commission would be more nearly com- plying with the intent and spirit of their duty than by locating the same at either of the other places.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.