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 12
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The Calhoun locality was championed by Mr. Daniel Brown, who was among the first settlers of the county, and who at that time claimed that the place of his choice was on the main thor- oughfare from Council Bluffs to Sioux City and north ward, that the location was pleasant and sufficiently near the geographical
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center and center of population as to merit and secure the favor- able action of the commission.
Messrs. John A. Mckinney, Michael Mckinney, S. E. Dow, J. B. McCurley, Wm. Dakan, Peter Bradley, Henry Reel and others, claimed for the location near Reel's mill, that nature had carved out their selection as the natural place for a town, and though the place they suggested was only one and one-fourth miles further from the geographical center of the county than Magnolia, and though the place then designated by them was not traversed then by highways to Sioux City, and while no public thoroughfares had yet been located, that within the next score of years there were probabilities for their selection that the other two rivals would never experience, viz .: a great thoroughfare for the world, and while Reel's mill was not the geographical center, yet the center of the then population would be on the east bank of the Boyer river and at and near the location suggested by them.
The pros and cons being heard by the commissioners, whether justly or unjustly, the " seat of justice " was by them located at the town of Magnolia, as aforesaid, and at the present day, few only are left as competent judges, as to the wisdom and fidelity of their united judgment.
The first election following the organization act, as before re- ferred to, was held on the 7th of April, 1853, at which time there were only two voting precincts in the entire county: one west of the Boyer river, at Magnolia, and the other east of the said river, at Owen Thorpe's, who then resided at Jeddo, at present owned by the Hon. L. R. Bolter. At the former place Organizing Sheriff Michael McKenney was not present to ad- minister the oath to the election board, and to supply the de- mands of the law, Mr. Thomas B. Neely (afterward Hon. Thos. B. Neely) administered to the judges and clerks an oath, that "they should, by virtue of the rules of the Continental Congress and their best knowledge of the Bible, fully and fairly perform
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their duties as such officers." Neither the records, nor does tra- dition, reveal the oath administered to the loyal voters on the east of the classic Boyer, still the presumption exists, though thirty-five years have elapsed, that an equally binding oath was taken by them, and as sacredly observed.
This maiden vote was canvassed at the residence of Stephen King, at which place the poll-books for the east side of the Boyer was then held, and Thomas B. Neely was selected by the people of the west side as the bearer of returns. At that date there was no bridge on the Willow or Boyer rivers, uniting these two separate divisions of the county, and the party above se- lected had some hesitancy in bearing alone the aforesaid pre- cious freight; but the matter was disposed of by Mr. Jas. Hardy volunteering his services in accompanying Mr. Neely. These hardy pioneers arriving at the Boyer, and there being no bridge, as aforesaid, they staked out their horses, undressed and swam the river, carrying their wardrobe and poll-book above high water mark; and having dressed, proceeded on foot to the place of destination.
In the canvass of this vote the following persons were elected, viz .: Stephen King, County Judge; P. G. Cooper, County Treas- urer and Recorder; Wm. Dakan, County Prosecuting Attorney; Chester M. Hamilton, Sheriff, and Wm. Cooper, Clerk of the Courts.
These, then, are the frontage of the county at its birth, irre- spective of any embellishments which may have graced the ex- terior or interior of the county from that day to the present; yet in these there existed an honesty and fitness for the time, which the intervening period has not excelled.
DIVISION OF THE COUNTY INTO TOWNSHIPS.
At the time of the organization of the county, as aforesaid, there were only two voting places, and these were named Mag- nolia and Jefferson. It is not the wish of the author to have the
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
reader understand that prior to the organization of the county, viz .: March 14, 1853, none of the settlers who resided here prior to that date exercised the right of franchise, because such was not the case, for William Dakan, who now resides in the State of Kansas, and Wickliffe B. Copeland, now residing quite a mile south of Logan, the present county seat, where he has resided from the time of his settlement there in 1850, and S. W. Con- dit of Little Sioux, travelled all the distance to Council Bluffs to vote at the Presidential election of 1852-a distance much shorter than that traversed by Mr. Copeland, and thousands of Iowa boys, in 1864, when they migrated to Little Rock, Arkan- sas, and even into the very heart of the would-be Confederacy, and exercised the right of casting a ballot, as well as the right of casting a bullet, having in view the perpetuation of good gov- ernment, the real object and aim of all true balloting and shooting.
On the 4th of February, 1854, P. G. Cooper, then acting. County Judge of this county, attempted to organize, or so dis- trict the county, that the same would take the form of five town- ships, viz .: Magnolia, Sioux, Washington, Wayne and .Jefferson, but there was some sort of judicial miscarriage, and the three new townships failed to be born alive.
Again, in March of the same year, Sioux and La Grange town- ships were created, the former having for her territory all of congressional townships 81-44 and 81-45, and La Grange to be taken from that part of Jefferson, on the south end, as might be designated by the organizing Sheriff, one Michael McKenney.
Where this dividing line was established between these two townships by this organizing Sheriff, is not now known, and the records of the county are as silent upon the subject as though no action had ever been taken thereupon by any official, and not until more recent times has this line been established, as shall be noted herein at the proper time. Where and in what manner the prefix " Little " was given to Sioux township is not known,
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
because at the time of its creation and baptism the entire name consisted of "Sioux "-no more, no less-and whatever has been added since, either to enlarge or belittle, or added in the way of embellishments, has been the work of unofficial hands, and without the sanction of official authority.
At the March term of the county court for the year of 1855, Calhoun township was hewn off Magnolia township, and with such boundaries that I need not now take the time to describe, because of the radical changes in the boundaries thereof since that time, and when the township shall be called up in the after part hereof the true boundaries will be given. The county remained in statu quo, as far as townships were concerned, until the judgeship of D. E. Brainard, in 1857, when on the 19th day of September, of that year, the entire county was attempted to be re-townshiped, and formed into civil townships, by creating one to each congressional township, as per the following table, viz .: beginning at the northeast corner of the county, and nam- ing the townships from there to west, and then by township tiers, until the south line of the county was taken:
Harrison Township, 81 Range 41
Madison Township, 81 Range 42
Adams Township, 81 Range 43
Jackson Township, 81 Range 44
Sioux Township, 81 Range 45
Marcy Township, 80 Range 41
Boyer Township, 80 Range 42
Magnolia Township, 80 Range 43
Raglan Township, 80 Range 44
Washington Township, 80 Range 45
Cass Township, 79 Range 41
Jefferson Township,
79 Range 42
Calhoun Township, 79 Range 43
Taylor Township, 10
79 Range 44
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Clay Township, 79 Range 45
Webster Township, 78 Range 41
Union Township, 78 Range 42
La Grange Township, 78 Range 43
Hoosier Township, 78 Range 44
Cincinnati Township, 78 Range 45
And that for election purposes, Harrison, Madison and Marcy were attached to Boyer. Madison and Marcy never had any but a paper existence, because the territory which was designated as Madison, remained as part of Boyer until the year of 1868, when from the same, or rather out of the same, the Board of Supervisors of the county made a township and gave to it the name of the martyr President, Lincoln. That which under the above abortive order was called Adams, remained under the paternal wing of Magnolia until the year 1872, just eighteen years from the time of the organization of the county, the length of time under our laws for females to arrive at their ma- jority, when the Board of Supervisors shaped it into a civil township and called it Allen, because the stream called Allen Creek (named for Andrew Allen, one of the first settlers in the county, and who resided on the same) had its origin in this boundary.
The attempted " Marcy " township righteously met the same fate as the two last named, and in 1868, by order of the Board of Supervisors the same was organized in fact, and given the name of Douglas, in memory of Stephen A. Douglas, the Little Giant of Illinois. All that territory which was under the Brain- ard order last referred to, as being Washington township, was attached to Raglan for election purposes, and which never had had any living existence under that name, was in 1867 born again, and at this birth the whole township 80 of range 45 (except the north tier) and the west tier of sections off the west end of Raglan, viz .: the west row of sections of township 80, range 44, was made to constitute the township of "Morgan,"
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
and so named at the suggestion of Capt. John Noyes, a grand, good old man, who resided in this territory from 1855, he hail- ing from Morgan county, Ohio, and suggested this name in memory of the county of his birth.
By this same Brainard order, Clay was attached to Cincinnati for election purposes, until in 1860, when she broke away from the restraint of the "Buckeye " township and started to keep- ing house on her own hook, having for its bounds township 79, range 45. This was named for Henry Clay, Kentucky's favorite son.
Taylor township being by the same authority placed under the protecting wing of Calhoun, remained the ward of the latter until the year 1861, when demanding her constitutional rights, she became a distinct and separate township; being township 79, range 44, except sections 24, 25 and 36, and so called in honor of Gen. Zachary Taylor, who had been at the head of both the civil and military of the nation.
Cass township being by the same authority fastened to the apron strings of old Jefferson, remained in that status until 1859, when she cut loose from her guardian, and under the banner of Uncle " Bubby " Servis, for a decade of years held the proud position of being the " banner Republican township in all the county," aye, as long as Uncle "Bubby " (Asher Servis, Esq.,) retained the place of pilot of the Republican political craft.
By this same order, Union and Webster were fastened to La Grange for political purposes, which by the way, was for all purposes, not being in any form a separate factor, but part and parcel of La Grange, yet for reasons unknown, the territory which upon paper designated the boundaries of Webster, was re- organized by the Board of Supervisors in 1872 and given the name of Washington, so that the name of Washington, so far as the name of the township was concerned, was erased from the county records for the space of five years, and when reinstated, the location was transferred from the extreme west to the ex- treme east side of the county.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Some philosophical minds pretend to explain this in this manner: "that the constant encroachments of the Missouri river on Iowa soil, might, in the future, cause the imperishable name of the Father of his Country to perish from the county, while, if the change could be effected so that this name should be given to a township in the very southeast corner of the county, in the heart of the hills, the Big Muddy might rear and tear, exert all her strength, show all possible powers of madness, yet the name of Washington would remain unharmed until the time when the Angel Gabriel should blow his trumpet." As to the truthfulness of this tradition, I neither answer " yea " or "nay." If this be as above represented, the county power has used more forethought in this particular than they did when the county was plundered by tramp geologists in 1876-when they bored the banks of the Boyer for coal and the County Supervisors for county warrants to the tune of $800; or sharing out the swamp land fund. Yet, in the former, there are exten- uating circumstances, from the fact that they were unprincipled persons attempting to seek the best interests of the county, and thereby recommended this ten day bore, and before the Supervis- ors had time to examine the report, the boring bill was hurriedly passed through the auditing furnace, the orders issued and the same (said to be) in the hands of innocent purchasers, by the time the County Board had met, which was in at least ten days from the time the report was filed, the warrants issued, and within half of that time after the warrants were sold and the geologist non est.
Union township held her own domain, and in the summer of 1859 took separate individuality and held her first election in the fall of 1859. The name of this township was given by the two oldest settlers in the same, viz .: Samuel Wood, Esq., and Mr. William B. Cox, who had the same named after the large grove of timber therein, known far and near as " Union Grove."
These boundaries of the above named townships remain
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
nearly the same as above mentioned; the only changes being as to Jackson, Sioux, Morgan, Raglan, Hosier (now St. John) and La Grange. To equalize the loss to Sioux, occasioned by the shortage on the west and what was being washed away by the current of the Missouri, the row of sections, and sections 5, 8, and 17 were taken from Jackson's northwest corner and added to Sioux, and sections 1, 2, 3, and 4 in township 80, range 45, and to Morgan, for like reasons, six sections were lopped off Raglan on the west and attached to Morgan; and Hosier, because she was older and stronger, kept the one-sixth of La Gange, viz .: the six sections on the west side of the latter.
The naming of these twenty townships was done by the legal authorities of the county, and why so named, is only at this day (in part) a matter of conjecture. Magnolia took its name from the seat of justice, or more familiarly known to us of the present day, as the county seat; and this was provided by the legislature of the State at the time the act was passed by which the limits and bounds of the county were designated, being the name of a very beautiful flower which grows in such luxuriousness in the Gulf States, the aroma of which is so great, that it is said by sailors, that at the distance of ten miles or more from shore the sweet fragrance of this flower can be readily scented. Whether the assembled wisdom of the State of Iowa intended that the uprightness of character of those who should inhabit this em- bryotic flower garden, should so weave into the warp and woof of their lives such characteristics that the same could be known at the distance above designated, history fails to enlighten us. Jefferson was named for the second President, and Jackson to commemorate the name and greatness of the hero of New Orleans. Lincoln, as before stated, for the murdered President, and Cass for the Michigan statesman, Lewis Cass; Sioux for the magnificent river which so proudly passes through her center; Boyer for the Boyer river, which so mildly winds her tortuous course through her entire domain; Raglan, as has been
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
stated by some wicked one, was named " Rag-land," on account of the manner of dress of the early settlers therein. This is a will- ful, malicious, false and wicked slander on the early settlers and their families; yet I assert that Raglan, thirty years ago, was not a land flowing with spike-tailed and Prince Albert coats, nail-keg hats, paper collars, celluloid cuffs and ladies' bustles, tilters, bangs, high heeled shoes and silk dresses and numerous unpaid store accounts, but they were a people genteelly and com- fortably clad, wholly out of debt, no Sheriff dogging their steps daily, nor " buzzardly, tenth rate lawyer " camping in their door- yards, patiently waiting for the time to arrive that his presence would become so obnoxious that the head of the family would pay the debt in order to become rid of this nuisance, more to be dreaded than the yellow fever or a funeral. The name was given by reason of the suggestion of Capt. John A. Danielson, of Calhoun, for Lord Raglan of Crimean War notoriety, who, at that time, was in the zenith of his military greatness, and being so suggested, as aforesaid, the same was adopted by his honor, D. E. Brainard, then County Judge, and hence the true origin of the name.
Calhoun was named for the village of that name, which was laid out prior to the time of the organization of the township, in 1854. By some the impression is had that both the name of . the village and the township were named for John C. Calhoun, the father of "nullification," the man whom Gen. Jackson re- gretted he had not hung, but permit me to say that this impres- sion is without foundation, either in fact or truth. Old Uncle Dan Brown, who caused this village to be platted and laid out, held the name and conduct of this arch traitor in the utmost contempt and abhorrence.
In 1854, when the village of Calhoun was laid out, there was a military post on the right bank of the Missouri river, south- west from the place last named, known as Fort Calhoun, and this place in Iowa being the first inhabited place from Fort Cal-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
houn toward the east, the same was called Calhoun, simply dropping the prefix Fort.
Hoosier (as it is incorrectly spelled in the records) was named Hosier township, from the fact that more than two-thirds of all the inhabitants within the township at this time were named either Cox. Jones or Smith, and these all hailing from good old Hosierdom, the land famous for honest men, hoop-poles and good farmers, the very material with which to open up and reduce the wilds of the far west so far overshadowed all others that the name Hosier was given to this excellent community long before the township was organized.
Cincinnati took its name from the nativity of the majority of its citizens at the time of its organization, because in the spring of 1857 Mr. Jacob S. Fountain led a large number of persons from the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, to this land of prom- ise, and so submerged this locality with Buckeyes that he laid out a town near the present junction of the S. C. & P. R. R. with the F. & M. V. & Elkhorn road, and named the same Cincinnati, in memory of his old home, from which the township took the name she now so handsomely answers to.
Harrison township was named for the mother county, and right here let it be truthfully said, that of all the daughters of this county none have excelled the one last named in the way of improvements, schools, morals, good government and bona fide patriotism.
THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF LAND GRANTS.
Those unacquainted with the history of this State might think that there were only government lands in this county at the time of the county organization, but by reference to the land grants by the Government at and prior to the time of the ad- mission of this State into the Union of States, and those made by the parent government since that time, we find that the fol- lowing classes of land were in the county at the time of the or-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
ganization thereof, viz .: Government, swamp-land, 500,000 acre grant, the 16th section or school lands, and railroad lands. The first mentioned are those which belonged to the Government, not included in any of the grants above named. The 500,000 acre grant seems to have preceded all others as to the date of the do- nation of the same to this State; for by reference to the acts of Congress, I find that on the 4th of September, 1841, this State, upon her admission into the Union of States, was granted, for the purposes of internal improvements, 500,000 acres of land; but the State was admitted by act of Congress of date of De- cember 28, 1846, with a provision in her Constitution diverting these lands from the purposes of internal improvements to the support of common schools throughout the State. These lands were selected by Commissioners appointed by act of the General Assembly of February 25, 1854, and on September 12, 1854, were approved and certified to the State by the Department of the Interior.
In Harrison county there was selected, reported and accepted, 7,524.86 acres as belonging to this grant. Many of the most val- uable farms of this county at the present date are of this 500,000 acre grant; as witnessed by the Peter Brady farm, the old Vincent farm, the property which formerly belonged to Isaac Bedsaul, the present farm of Isaac F. Bedsaul, the McBride farm, now touching the county seat, and last, but not least, the land con- stituting the estate of William McDonald, who (while in the flesh) resided tangent to the town of Calhoun.
By act of January 25, 1855, these lands were taken from the control of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and placed under the management and custody of the School Fund Com- missioners of the different counties in which the same were sit- uated. With this condition of supervision the same remained until the Legislature of the State, by act of March 23, 1858, abolished the office of School Fund Commissioner, and empowered the County Judge and Township Trustees to sell the 16th sec-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
tion, but made no provision whatever as to the lands denom- inated the 500,000 acre grant; and as a sequence, this land re- mained in statu quo, without the care and superintendence of any one. But by act of the law-making power of the State, of April 3, 1860, the control of the 500,000 acre grant and the 16th section is given to the Board of Supervisors, and provides for their sale by the Clerks of the District Court of the counties in which the same may be situate, but this under the direction of the County Board, as aforesaid.
The act of March 29, 1864, fixed the minimum price of school lands at $1.25 per acre; and, peculiar as it may be, this is the first price put upon these lands by the Legislature of the State.
By the act of the Twelfth General Assembly, of date of April 7, 1868, the office of County Judge is abolished, and the duties pertaining to that office, as well as the duties pertaining to the school lands (including the 500,000 grant), transferred the same to the County Auditor, which office was created by the Legisla- ture at that session. This matter, however, did not take effect until the elections of the year 1868, and the qualification of the officers elected at that election.
Then again, by act of March 21, 1870, the prices of school lands in the State were fixed at no less than $6 per acre, and prohibits the sale of any of the 16th section in any township, unless there are in that township at least twenty-five voters.
SIXTEENTH SECTION GRANT.
By act of Congress of date of March 3, 1845, the State of Iowa acquired upon her admission into the Union, the six- teenth section in every township in the state.
These lands were under the control of the School Fund Com- missioner and Township Trustees, until the time of the legisla- tion of the office of School Fund Commissioner out of existence in 1858, at which time the same were placed under the superin- tendence of the Clerk of the District Court and Township Trus-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
tees, the same as the lands denominated as the 500,000 grant, and from that time to the present the said sixteenth sections have been under the same management and rule as the last named grant, to which reference is had to the few remarks thereto under the head of 500,000 grant.
This county being twenty-four miles north and south by nearly thirty east and west, gives to the school fund of the sixteenth section grant 12,160 acres, which, added to the selection in the county under the 500,000 acre grant of 7,524.86, makes the sum total of school lands in this county 19,684.86 acres.
I will not attempt to give the number of acres of land within the county which passed to the different railroad companies under the varied legislation in respect thereto, but simply remark that but very little of the lands in this county passed into the control of said corporations.
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