USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa : its people, industries and institutions, with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 39
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Theodore Mahoney, son of pioneer Stephen Mahoney, came to the county with his parents in 1852. He bought his farm in January, 1871, and, in 1890, it was said he had one of the finest farm properties, for its size, in Harrison county.
Solomon Hester came in about 1869, locating in section 9.
Samuel Moore came to this county in 1856. He first located at Magnolia, but in the years just after the Civil War, located in Taylor town- ship, his land being in section 9.
F. M. Caywood settled on a part of section 9 in 1864.
John Karnes and family located in 1866.
From this date settlers came in too numerous to undertake to trace the date of their coming or the locations selected by them.
There have been two towns platted in Taylor township, Melrose, an account of which "paper town" is given in the miscellaneous items chapter with the balance of the village plattings of Harrison county, and Modale, the history of which here follows :
MODALE.
Modale is an incorporated town situated in section 30, township 79, range 44, in the southern part of Taylor township, and is a station of con- siderable commercial importance on the line of the Sioux City & Pacific (Northwestern ) railroad.
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TURNING THE CORNER OF THE MISSOURI RIVER, NEAR MODALE.
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In ISto. Benjamin Martin platted a village site at this point and named it "Martinsville" In March. 1874. Alonzo Beebee platted land adjoining this plat and named it for the post office he had secured ten years, or there- abate, prior to the last platting named. The office was kept at the house of Stephen lester. Its name came through an accident which turned out all right in the end. In sending to the department, at Washington, the petition- ers desired it to be named Missouri Dale, but as they abbreviated it thus. "Mo. Dale." the clerks at the national capital took it to mean "Modale." Hence the name of present Modale.
COMMERCIAL HISTORY.
The first to engage in business was F. H. Ludwig, who, in 1874. opened a warehouse on the cast side of the railroad tracks. The same autumn Mlc- Allister & Martin put in a general stock of goods on the west side of the track. The business of handling grain, lumber and farm implements was first attempted by F. H. Ludwig, who was very successful and enterprising.
J. J. Anderson kept the pioneer boarding house, and the "Ogden" was the first hotel.
Morton & West kept the first drug store.
Samuel Brownrigg opened the first livery barn in Modale. George Stebbins was first in the town as a harness maker. H. B. Broughton was the first blacksmith. 1
Two grain elevators were erected about 1884. one by W. A. Sharpnack & Co., and one by Ludwig & Sharpnack. The first was burned in a few years. Before 1891 the latter elevator had a feed-mill attachment and was finally converted into a full "roller process" flouring-mill, owner by F. H. Ludwig. Its capacity was fifty barrels per day.
Coming down to the present year, 1914, the business interests in Modale are about as follows :
Agricultural Implements-Noble, Drake & Co.
Bank --- State Savings Bank.
Barber Shops -- F. Moore, R. Hudson.
Blacksmith Shops-T. Hudson, S. R. Harvey.
Drugs-Modale Drug Company.
Dray Lines-F. L. Myers, A. E. Howes.
Elevators-Nye, Schneider, Fowler Company, Updike Grain Company, Sharpnack Grain Company.
Furniture-C. A. Fountain.
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Grocers-C. J. Cutler & Son, H. D. Clark.
General Dealers-S. Fitzpatrick.
Garages -- Hammer & Boyd. Modale Garage Company.
Hardware-Drake & Co.
Harness-Drake & Co.
Hotels-"City" and the "Modale."
Lumber-Nye. Schneider Company.
Livery -M. Hammer, Robert Hall.
Meat Market-W. A. Smoot.
Physicians -- Drs. A. V. Cooper, E. W. Wiltse.
Stock Dealer-J. L. McQueen.
Veterinary-O. D. Wilson.
POSTOFFICE HISTORY AT MODALE.
In 1858 a postoffice was established through the efforts of Thomas _!. Dennis and a few more citizens, the same being styled Modale. Stephen lester was appointed the first postmaster. Through the efficiency of the postal department at Washington we are able to give the complete list of postoffice changes and postmasters to the present date. They are as fol- lows: Stephen Hester, appointed July 15, 1858; Samuel Sharpnack, July 23. 1860: Job Ross. April 13, 1863: B. F. Martin, May 31. 1866; Jolm J. . Anderson, August 31, 1869: C. J. Cutler, December 3. 1875: William M. Sharpnack, December 4, 1885: William W. Morton, March 22, 1889; Ella Sharpnack, June 10, 1893: William MI. Sharpnack, February 14, 1894; Thomas Carey, June 13, 1895: William M. Morton, April 24, 1897 : George H. McIntosh, Jr., December 28. 1908; Frank L. Hammer, July 18, 1913, and still serving.
The office transacted a business of seven hundred and seventy-five dollars during the last fiscal year, not including the money order business.
Of the rural free delivery routes it may be said that there are two at this time.
At first this office was kept in Modale proper, by J. J. Anderson, and was made a money order office. August 1, 1882. The first order was issued to F. H. Ludwig for seventy-five cents, payable to E. L. Marrihew, Los Angeles, California. The first order paid was to Elizabeth Cutler, for the amount of three dollars. F. H. Ludwig purchased the first "postal note" in the town. These notes have long since been abandoned by the postal de-
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partment. In 1902 the safe was broken into, but only a small sum taken. It was supposed to be home robbers, but no positive proof was to be secured.
INCORPORATION HISTORY.
Modale became an incorporated town in April, 1881, by a vote of twenty-six to sixteen. The following have served as mayors from that date to this: 1881, Job Ross; 1882, W. A. Sharpnack; 1883, W. M. Sharpnack; 1884. C. J. Cutler; 1885. Benjamin Morrow; 1886, C. J. Cutler; 1887, W. H. MeQueen; ISSS. A. W. Brown; ISSO, D. W. Wolf; 1890. D. W. Wolf; IS91, M. C. Schroder: 1892, Allen Knecht; 1895-96, E. E. Wagner; 1896. M. L. Dakin; 1897. J. M. Warnold; 1898, E. E. Wagner; 1899, M. L. Dakin; 1899, C. C. Morrow; 1900, J. A. McCrillis; 1901, Dr. R. H. Rhoden; 1902, C. J. Cutler; 1904-05, Ed. Gill; 1906, John D. Kerr; 1907. J. N. McManamie; 190S, W. W. Morton, 1910 till spring of 1914, when the present mayor was elected-L. G. Kelley.
The present municipal officers of Modale are: Mayor, L. D. Kelley; clerk, E. E. Ritchison; treasurer, R. S. Sassman; Marshal, J. N. McMan- amie; health officer. A. V. Cooper; councilmen, John Penrod, W. M. Sharpnack. E. E. McFerrin, John Young, E. A. Drake.
The history of churches, lodges, schools and banks are all included in general chapters on these topics. (See index.)
While Modale has no real fire protection in the way of deep wells or waterworks, it has been fortunate in having a good volunteer fire company, which uses a hand engine. Water is obtained from ordinary wells. With this apparatus and a thousand feet of good hose, so far the business and resi- dence portions of the town have been saved from any great conflagration. The fire company is made up of fifteen stalwart, active, young and middle- aged citizens.
EARLY FLOURING-MILLS IN TAYLOR TOWNSHIP.
William Wakefield built a flouring-mill in 1867 on the Soldier river, on what was later known as the Theodore Mahoney farm. It was run by the waters of the Soldier river and was thirty by forty feet, two stories high. It was provided with three run of "stones" or burrs, which made flour after the old style of milling. This mill had a large patronage over a very wide scope of country. Some of the settlers living in Woodbury county came here to mill. In 1872 Theodore Mahoney purchased the prop-
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erty, operating it until 1887, when it was sold and closed up. The water- power mill site was bought hy farmers near by it, as the mill pond had been in the habit of overflowing their lands. Finally, the mill was dismantled and removed, about 1900.
الذلأساقي مساجد
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RIPRAP WORK NEAR BLAIR BRIDGE, MODALE.
RIPRAP WORK ON MISSOURI RIVER, NEAR MODALE.
CHAPTER XXXVI.
CASS TOWNSHIP.
The six-mile-square track of Harrison county land known as Cass civil township, or congressional township 79, range 41, is on the east line of the county, bounded by Washington and Union townships on the south. Jeffer- son township on the west and Douglas township at the north. It contains twenty-three thousand and forty acres. It is a fine prairie township of fer- tile farm land. It was named for that ideal Michigan statesman, Lewis Cass, and was organized in 1857.
Pigcon creck and Spring creek, with a dozen or more lesser streams, constitute the streams of the township. It is distinctively an agricultural district, without towns, villages or railroads within its borders. The only native timber here is in the western portion, and chiefly in Six Mile grove. The population of the township in 1885 was four hundred and forty-four; in 1890 it was increased to eight hundred and forty, and in 1910 it is listed in the United States census reports as having a population of nine hundred and thirty-five. This shows a well-settled township, wherein is prosperity and general contentment among a thrifty population, mostly of American birth, whose sole industry is farming, fruit-growing and stock-raising. The second settlement in the county was effected in what is now known as Cass township, only Daniel Brown of old Calhoun, being ahead of the first pioneer in this township.
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF CASS TOWNSINP.
Uriah Hawkins, beyond doubt, was the first white man to invade the "green glade solitude" of Cass township, with the view of making a perman- ent settlement. He came to this section of Iowa with his family, a wife and five children, July 10, 18.47, and "claimed" land in section 20, where he continued to reside the remainder of his days, dying in the mouth of Sep- tember, 1869. Mr. Hawkins was born in New York state, September 27, 1800, a son of Edward and Charity (Shipman) Hawkins. The father wandered with the family to Missouri, and, after seeing many hardships, went to Illinois, and, when eighty-nine years of age, in 1846, his son, Uriah,
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took him to Jackson county, lowa, where he died September 16, of that vear. Uriah had come to Jackson county in 1835, and in July, 18.17, landed in Ilarrison county, Iowa, settling at what is termed Cass township, as a "squatter" on a quarter section of land, for which he later paid the govern- ment one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. When he arrived here he was a poor man, having two yoke of oxen, two yoke of cows, a yearling heifer, å wagon and a small amount of household goods, but at the date of his death he possessed a fair competency. He had been a member of the Latter Day Saints church for thirty-eight years. This, in brief, is the biography of the first settler in Cass township.
During the period from 1850 to 1853 there were quite a number of immigrants who found their way into this township, through the efforts of Rev. Kirtland Card, Samuel Dungan, Edward Houghton and the Brooner family. These all made claims and at once set about making home im- provements for themselves.
For one who relished the free and wild country, beyond the busy turmoil of a thickly settled city or older settled rural district, this township certainly presented a scene of an ideal character. In the very midst of all sorts of wild game, wild fruit, with an abundance of grass, timber and water, one might let loose his fancy and live without great labor. But the men who stopped here were not, as a general rule, men of this stripe, for they were home builders in that better and higher sense of the term. They came to open up farms and lay well the foundations for a fine civilization; to trans- form the wild into the domesticated and cultured state of society.
In the beautiful spring month of May, 1854. came Martin Kibler and family from Virginia. This marked an event the results of which have, for a half century and more, been felt in all parts of the county, for in his family were sons whose very life and thought and deeds have touched shoulder to shoulder with hundreds and thousands of later settlers, and are still going on today. The name Kibler will ever stand as another term for intelligence and uprightness seldom recorded of a whole family in its various generations. Martin Kibler, the father, located at Six Mile grove, where he entered two hundred acres of land in sections 17 and 21. The family lived in a humble log cabin until 1861, when a comfortable frame house was erected. In 1878 Mr. Kibler rented his farm and moved to retirement at Woodbine, where his sons, George and Sylvester, as "Kibler Brothers," general dealers, had established themselves in merchandising. Mr. Kibler now rests in the Woodbine cemetery.
It was about 1854 when Samuel Dunghan settled. When he arrived all
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was yet wild and unimproved. Indians roamed about, and game was plenti- ful. For a number of summers he and his father followed breaking prairie for a livelihood. After about seven summers at such work they turned their attention to farming for themselves. In ISoo the father gave Samuel, the son, land in section 7, which. in 1868, he traded for land in section 16, where in the nineties he owned two hundred and twenty-four acres.
Coming now to another prominent carly settler in Cass township, the reader is introduced to Isaac Ellison, who came with his wife and five sons and five daughters from Council Bluffs, in the month of December, 1853. They were numbered among the Mormon band who went to Kanesville (Council Bluffs) in 1850, and who left that sect on account of polygamy and became supporters of the Reorganized Latter-Day Saints church. Mr. Ellison settled in section 17, where he effected good improvements, and lived many years, an honored member of his community. He split many thou- sands of rails, with which to fence in his farm. In 1867 he traded this place for another near by, where he spent the remainder of his days.
A settler of 1834 was .Asher Servis, in section 18, in Six Mile grove. He became one of the representative citizens of liis county, and was foremost as a farmer and politician. It was he who brought to the county the famous "John Richard" stock of horses. He also took first premium for many head of stock and vegetables at the annual fairs held in Harrison county. He was probably the first man to successfully raise apples on Harrison county soil. For a number of terms he was a member of the board of county supervisors.
In June, 1851, came Edward Houghton, who was then a young man. In company with Samuel Fuller he went to Minnesota, where Fuller died, and after about two months, Houghton returned to Harrison county and settled in section 16, of Cass township, where he lived and labored until old age compelled retirement, when, in about 1900, he went to Woodbine, pur- chased a home, and there died in 1912. His wife was a daughter of Isaac Ellison and wife, above mentioned, the farms of the two adjoining.
The Houghton family were of the Latter-Day Saints religious faith and were accounted as strong factors in the local branch of that church.
Jonathan H. Green, of section 7, came to the county in 1855. He lived in Shelby county for a time, but in the spring of 1856 returned to this county and engaged at work by the month, until the spring of 1857, when he purchased his land in section 7. Two years later he sold and removed to Ohio, lived there five years and served as a carpenter in the Union army during the Civil War. In July, 1864, he bought thirty-five acres of land in
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Cass township, to which he added later, and there remained fourteen years. He then sold and bought again in section 7.'
Lindley M. Evans came to Harrison county in 1854. lived at Elk grove, Jefferson township, a year and a half and. in 1856, located in section 33, of Cass township.
There were a few more who came to the township at an early date, but who were "squatters" and did not remain long enough to establish per- manent homes. With the passage of years their names have been lost to the annals of this county. One, however, whose name should not be soon forgotten, is Alonzo R. Hunt, who came to Cass township from New York state in the spring of 1849. He settled in section 18, in Six Mile grove, and remained until 1857, then moved to Nebraska and died in Omaha in 1864.
Then there was Hon. Stephen King (Judge King), who located in sec- tion 18. in May. 1852, entering a quarter section which he paid for the next year. He bought out a claim belonging to an old pioneer, who came in 1849. It had three long cabins, two of which Judge King used for residence pur- poses, and the other for his barn. Here the family lived two years and then located in section 9, Jefferson township. Mr. King was the judge of Harrison county, the first person to hold such office. He was elected in 1853. He lived in Woodbine and was mayor of the town several years. He later moved to Logan, where he died many years since. He was a man possessing many manly traits. He was an old Harrison county school teacher and a man far above the average citizen in all public affairs.
In March. 1856, came that vigorous type of humanity, the German, Xavier Aleck, who was then a single man. He came from Philadelphia and purchased a part of what came to be his beautiful and valuable farm in Cass township. He was a tailor by trade. Here he engaged to work for Lindley Evans one year, then entered an "eighty" in section 33. In 1858 he went back to Philadelphia, remained two years and came out to remain perman- ently.
Among others, whose names appear among the pioneers of Cass town- ship, may be recalled to the minds of many of today. Isaiah Dungan and family, William Esley, single, who was a soldier later and died in California; Adam Conrad, 1867, in section 18, who later became blind and died in 1871; the Gavitt family, who came from Utah; John R. Case, who came to the county in October, 1865, and rented of Luke Jefferson in Boyer township. He also worked in the shingle and saw-mill about three years and, in 1870, bought forty acres, which he kept until 1878, then sold and bought in Cass township.
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Nathan D. Barnes came in July. 1866, and went to work as a railroad giader on the Northwestern line. The same year he bought land in sections 7 and 18. Another was John Strauss, who came to the county in March, 1860, but did not permanently locate until 1866. Ephraim Strauss came in July, 1861, and, in the fall of 1864, homesteaded a place in this township. IIis was the only piece of land ever taken under the homestead act, in Harri- son county. Thomas Chapman, an Englishman, took land in section 33 in 1865, having arrived in the county the year before.
George a Case came as a settler in 1865.
Judah Chapman came in 1865 to section 33." He was an Englishman and caine to America when eighteen years of age with his parents, who went 10 Utah territory, but only remained until the spring of 1864. He married Deborah Blair, whose mother used to relate the awful hardships in crossing the western plains with the famous hand-cart journey made by the Mormons.
Frank Gilson dated his settlement in the county to section 19, Cass town- ship, as being August 29, 1869. He first located in Union township.
Charles S. Greenfield came to Harrison county and bought land in the autumn of 1873, returned east, remained one year and returned to effect per- manent settlement.
From 1876 the township settled up so rapidly it is impossible to trace out the comings and goings of its immigrants, save as such account may be seen in their biographical sketches, should such appear in that department of this work. But suffice to state that those who have been named were the principal "early pioneers" in Cass township.
Of the churches and public schools of Cass township, the same rule ap- plies as to other townships in the county; they are detailed in other, special, general chapters. (See index for topic heads.)
NEEDMORE POSTOFFICE.
What was known as Needmore postoffice was established early in the eighties, in Cass township. It was located at the east side of Six Mile grove. It was so named on account of a circumstance which it would not be of spe- cial interest or profit to relate in this work. When the railroads were built through, the county, especially the Milwaukee line, this office was discontin- ued. A general store was put in here and John D. Dow removed a steam mill for sawing lumber, the same coming from Reeder's Mill section. Ed Cowan was operating a store there in 1891 and a blacksmith, named David Christian, was doing the work in that line for the community.
HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA.
SOME FIRST EVENTS IN CASS TOWNSHIP.
The first house erected in the township was that built by the Barney boys in the summer of 1847, or possibly 1848. They lived in their tents while putting in their crops. The second to build was Uriah Hawkins. It is believed this was erected in the autumn of 1847.
The first piece of prairie sod turned by a plow-share here was so turned for N. D. Barnes, by the Barney brothers, who, in 1849, went on to Salt Lake, Utah, selling their land to Judge Stephen King. The first actual set- tler, Uriah Hawkins, broke out the next prairie patch in 1848.
Judge King taught the first school in the township, in the winter of 1852-53. It was in an old cabin built in 1848-49, and which was then being used by William Jolly as his residence.
The first birth was probably Uriah Hawkins, Jr., born August 25, 1849.
The first death was an infant of Rev. Kirkland Card. It was a daugh- ter and she was first buried on the Barnes land, but was subsequently re- moved to the old Whitesboro burying ground.
The first resident of Cass township to marry was Alonzo Hunt, who came to the county in 1849, settling in section IS. He was married at Union Grove, in Union township.
Edward Houghton married Mary Ellison April 6, 1856.
William Cooper made the first township assessment, and, at the same time, collected the back taxes, if the people had the money.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.
In the second tier from the north, and first tier in the east part of Har- rison county, is Douglas township. It was formed as a separate civil town- ship in 1868, and was named in honor of Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, United States senator from Illinois and an aspirant to the President's chair when Abraham Lincoln was elected the first term to that high office. It is bounded on the east by Shelby county, on the south by Cass township, on the west by Boyer township and on the north by Harrison township. It comprises all of congressional township So, range 41, and has an area of twenty-three thousand and forty acres. Picayune creek and its numerous small tribu- taries make up the water courses, giving the township excellent drainage for the surplus water that may fall, either as rain or snow. It is distinctly a prairie township, save a small portion of Twelve Mile grove, which means that it is situated twelve miles from Harris grove, where the first Mormon families settled in the forties. In all there were about nine hundred acres of timber reported as late as 1890. Picayune creek was thus named, said an old-timer, from the fact that one Sunday a band of landlookers stopped on its meandering banks and one of the party was heard to remark: "I would not give a picayune for this country!" Were he living and looking for land as an investment today he would give a good price if he bought it!
This township has no postoffice, village or store within its borders. Most of the residents trade at Woodbine and Logan.
FIRST AND IMPORTANT EVENTS.
The first settler in Douglas township was a Mormon named Pierce, after which came the Meffords and Mathew Hall.
The first school was taught on the subscription plan at George Mef- ford's cabin home in the winter of 1855-56, with Nathaniel Mefford as teacher.
The first school house was built of brick in section 30, in the autumn of 1866.
The first religious services of the township were held at George Mef-
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ford's, several years after his family arrived in the county. Rev. J. A. Mc- Intosh, of Galland's grove was the Mormon teacher who spoke on that oc- casion.
Mathew Hall and the Meffords did the first prairie breaking in the township.
The history of schools and churches will appear in the general chapters.
PIONEER SETTLEMENT.
Here we find the first pioneer to have been a Mormon named Pierce, who came in 1851 or 1852. He sold his claim to Thomas Binnell, and he 10 Mathew Hall in 1853. This was in section 30, at Twelve Mile grove. Mr. Hall remained there until ISS1, when he retired at Woodbine, and finally died while touring in California.
In 1851 Thomas Wild entered forty acres of timber land, in the south- cast quarter of section 22, which he sold to D. M. Hall. He then bought other land, but later removed. The above date of settlement is fixed by letters cut in a tree by Mr. Wild. It was an elm tree and was cut down in 1888.
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