USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 51
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In those days of much to do and little to do it with, Mr. Goodenow never lacked resources. His energy was limitless, his activity untiring. Two pairs of hands and feet fell short of doing all that his busy brain asked of them. Only men of fine constitutional and physical development, supplemented by noble am- bitions and temperate habits, could survive such years of unusual action. All these he possessed in a remarkable degree, and up to the time of his death in 1903 he felt the old spirit strong within him and was quite as anxious to do unreason- able feats of labor as ever he was in his prime. His moral life had been pure and past questioning ; and himself living above suspicion, he could never believe in the guile of others, and exercised charity as great as his own goodness. He never tasted liquor except in medicine, nor used tobacco, nor uttered an oath. I, his child, speak these things with a great and loving pride, and feel that in the
"building of the temple" the column of my father's and mother's strength (they always builded together) is strong and almost flawless. Mr. Goodenow has always felt for the city he founded the same active interest he felt in his private affairs, and has had his shoulders under the heaviest part of every public burden. He was the town's first postmaster and mayor, has served as county assessor, was a member of the general assembly of 1845-1850, and had the honor of nam- ing two counties-Kossuth and Osceola-the latter in honor of his first born, who by the way, with but one exception, was the first white child born in Jackson county.
Especially has he been active in promoting educational interests. Every pupil of our high school today should know and respect the work of those few men, who, in the early days of Maquoketa, put this need before all others and gave an impetus to learning that has made itself felt until this day. I firmly believe that the forceful energy and high minded ideals of those early settlers have tempered the character of our community ever since its hearthstone was laid. Mr. Goodenow gets these sterling qualities from his Puritan ancestors, and a re- markable fact may be mentioned here. He could distinctly remember his great-
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grandfather Phineas White. If this ancestor's memory served him as well, he could remember his great-grandfather, Peregrine White, and the first white child born after the landing of the Mayflower. Does it seem creditable that the lives of three men span the history of this country, from the landing of the Mayflower to the present time? The germs of a glorious existence were being nurtured in those sturdy pilgrim breasts, and more than a century later in the throes of rev- olution, there was born a peerless child among the nations. Divinely symmet- rical, its veins filled with the blood of liberty, its heart throbbing with the. impulse of equality, while yet the world looked and wondered-lo, in strength and fairness Columbia stood-her feet rock rooted, her head star crowned, the emblem of all that is best in men or women. Just such men as Mr. Goodenow, supplemented by helpmeets as patient in toil, as strong in love and hope, as sweet in all womanly qualities, have made Columbia what she is-the light of the nations. Amen and Amen.
RECOLLECTIONS OF DAN COAKLEY OF OTTER CREEK TOWNSHIP.
My father. Florence Coakley, came to Otter Creek township in April, 1852, and entered eighty acres of land, which is now a part of Mrs. F. F. Coakley's farm, in section 25.
The locality at that time was known as the Burns' Settlement. Zacariah Burns lived on the farm now owned by Thomas Ryan near the church, and James McCarthy lives on the land once owned by Jerome and Uriah Burns. Some member of the Burns family had a store during the war, which is best re- membered by old settlers of today as the Tim Lambe store. There was in the sixties a village on land now owned by Michael Wall, which had a gristmill, sawmill, woolen mill and a distillery, a store, postoffice, and blacksmith shops, and was the polling place for Otter Creek township.
The southeast corner was known as the Burns Settlement, and the northwest corner as the Hurley Settlement in early days. There was in the fifties a grist- mill and sawmill on the land now owned by Joe Wild, on Little's Creek. I think those were the first mills in the township. Michael Crane now lives on the place Tillman Millsap settled and the old log house built and once occupied by Mill- sap still stands. Thomas Millsap lived on what is now known as the Dan Martin place. The mother of the Millsaps above named owned land that is now owned by John Hazer and Levi Hutchins. Another son of Mrs. Millsap, Lafayette. went into the army and died during the war.
There was but little timber in the eastern part of Otter Creek township in the fifties, but Mr. Coakley remembers seeing his father mow grass on land that afterward grew a heavy body of undergrowth that would cut thirty cords of wood to the acre. A man by the name of Alexander lived in an early day on lands now owned by John McCarthy, and another old settler, Samuel Brown, lived on a part of same lands near the creek. The Wagoners were also early settlers in Otter Creek township. Hixons came in 1851 and bought lands of Allshouse and Wintersteen. The place known as the McDermott place was owned in an early day by a man named Jackson, who had a store on his place in 1854-5. Another old settler, Dixon, owned a part of the William Taylor farm. One of the early settlers and the first squire I ever knew, settled on land now owned by Nick Norcott. The place where I reside was formerly owned by Wil- liam Montgomery and a Mr. Emery. The place now owned by James McCabe was formerly owned by a Mr. Wright, who hanged himself in the barn. Mr. Coakley said the first schoolhouse I knew of was known as the Lee schoolhouse and stood near where Courtneys now live. It was a frame building, and the seats were made of slabs, with the sawed side up and the bark was on the under side. They were supported by legs driven into auger holes; had no backs. And the desks were made of rough oak plank. There was a log schoolhouse west of where the church stands, but it was built later. I think the frame schoolhouse was the first schoolhouse in Otter Creek township. Reuben Wagoner had a
AN OLD LANDMARK. TUBBS' MILL. BUILT IN 1863
McCLOY'S MILL, MAQUOKETA
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blacksmith shop and wagon shop, and the room over the wagon shop was used for a schoolroom.
SOME OF THE OLD MILLS. (J. O. SEELEY.)
Editor of the Record: I read with pleasure James Ellis' article on early his- tory in the last week's Record. 'I think a great deal more should be published while yet possible to collect, as I find it already hard to do with a positive cer- tainty as to facts. We will contribute this "mite," which we have been at some pains to gather and hope it may be found true.
In 1844, David Sears, a pioneer of Maquoketa, built a water sawmill on the South Fork of the Maquoketa River on land in section 13, South Fork township. This mill cut lumber from the Maquoketa timber for use by the early settlers. Lumber yards and pine stock were nearly, if not quite, unknown in eastern Iowa during the first few years of settlement, and the native lumber was a great factor in the development of the country. Oak generally being used for framing and shingles, while black walnut was used for siding and finishing lumber. I can sight old houses yet standing, built fifty years ago or more, with enough black walnut lumber in them to bring a good sum today, 1905, if it was in proper form for market. This old David Sears' mill, after running several years, burned and was rebuilt by Wm. Sears, son of David, in 1856. The Searses seemed to have been natural mill men, for I find in 1864 Benjamin Sears built a sawmill on the South Fork of the Maquoketa, also on section 13, and about one half mile from where his father, David Sears, built one in 1844. This latter Sears mill was in operation about eleven years.
In a much earlier day, 1837, according to record, Joseph Henry built a saw mill on Mill or Prairie Creek, in section 36, South Fork township, perhaps a half mile (according to tradition) up stream from where Joseph McCloy built in 1841 the first gristmill that bolted flour in Jackson county. This early saw- mill built by Henry was completed in the fall and on the first day of January, in 1838, it began to rain and a great flood came and swept away all the products of his labor and savings and left him without a dollar. Prior to this he had traded a claim at Higgins Port for a claim now known as the John Davis place, in South Fork township, and now owned by Hon. A. Hurst, and started to build a mill on the Hurstville branch, a few rods from where the John Davis house stands. Got the frame up, and then learned that his title was not good and lost all his work done there. The frame still stood and apparently in good condition in 1853. I know of no other sawmill in the county at that date except the one claimed to have been built in Bellevue in 1836 by Bell Sublette. Other accounts say the mill was built in 1838. Dr. Little acquired title to this early mill, or else built on or near this mill site and after several years' time moved it east of Maquoketa on Mill Creek, and perhaps a quarter of a mile or thereabout down stream from where Joseph Willey built a stone mill, which was afterward purchased and operated for a number of years by Seneca Williams, situated on the southwest quarter of section 20, Maquoketa township, his stone gristmill in 1867.
In the early forties the influx of emigrants into Jackson county was quite large and it seems those early days sawmills were extremely necessary to the country, for they appear to have followed in rapid succession. The next saw- mill built on the South Fork of the Maquoketa above where Ben Sears' mill was built in 1864, was built in about 1845 by Jesse Wilson. Two men by name Stimp- son and Fairbrother, or at least Fairbrother had an interest in it. This mill did a great business for some time, running day and night. Later, I understand, it passed into the hands of Poff and Nickerson, who added a flouring mill and
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woolen factory. Those mills were the Pin Hook mills. Some years ago they burned down and were never rebuilt.
Three miles west of Pin Hook on the river, and on or near the quarter of section 17, South Fork township, John Ball built a sawmill in about 1855. This mill was in operation for nearly a score of years. It was at this old mill dam where the writer and a number of other young settlers of his age, on the pleasant summer boyhood days, when the outer world and all the opposite sex were shut out from view by the bluffs and woods, used to be clothed in garments cut so low in the neck that they made tracks in the sand. About one mile and a quarter up the stream on the northwest quarter of section 18, South Fork township, Crowell Wilson, previous to this, built another water saw- mill in or about 1852. This mill was short lived, for soon after it was built a flood on the river took out the dam and undermined the mill so it toppled in the stream. The logs in the yard were rafted down to the Pin Hook mill. We trace on the Maquoketa River, west of the line of Main street, Maquoketa, within a distance of five and three-fourth miles west as the chain goes, five sawmills, two flouring mills, and two woolen mills, including the Lowell mills erected in the early forties by Sears, Doolittle and Wright. All these mills and the others men- tioned in this account were water mills and have gone the way of the pioneers. Their wheels have been stilled by the changed conditions; most of them are to- tally obliterated and all the dams are only a trace, except the Pin Hook dam, kept in place to afford a good field for Maquoketa's ice supply. If this history isn't correct, it is as near to it as it has been possible for me to learn, owing to the silence of record and the uncertain memory of old men.
IOWA'S FIRST GRISTMILL. (SEELEY.)
When the very first settlers came into the Black Hawk purchase, there was nothing here but the wild sod and wild game. Their rifles and fishing tackle were their main means of subsistence until the wild sod could be turned, and a sod crop raised of corn and potatoes.
Potatoes were dropped in the furrow and the next furrow the plow made covered them. Corn was planted by chopping into the edge of the furrows, the corn dropped into the opening and covered by closing the opening by stepping the foot upon it. In that way a little crop without cultivation was gathered the first season. As wheat flour was an unknown quantity, corn bread had to be depended upon. As there was no kind of a mill in the whole territory, some de- vice had to be resorted to in order to reduce the whole corn to meal. In many instances only the primitive mortar and pestle of the Indians was used. The first improvement over the Indian method of which there seems to be any account was constructed by Benjamin W. Clark in the fall of 1833. According to Captain W. L. Clark, of Buffalo, his father cut a butt off a log about three feet across, hollowed out a mortar by chipping and burning that would hold half a bushel or less of corn. A small pole several feet long was bound at one end with a ring and that end driven full of iron wedges of some kind. A hole was bored through near that end and a wooden pin some two or three feet long inserted, the other end of the pole pestle was fastened aloft to the end of a sweep, making a contrivance very much like the old fashioned well sweep that carried the "old oaken bucket." Corn was placed in the hollowed out end of the log butt, and then two men would take hold of the ends of the wooden pin and work the heavy pestle, by the aid of the sweep, up and down on the grain, soon reducing a quantity to meal. (This was about the same mill that the Bible speaks of, where two women were "grinding at the mill, and the one was taken and the other left.")
AN OLD LANDMARK. WILLIAMS' MILL. BUILT IN 1867
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This mill was undoubtedly the nearest approach to a gristmill within the present bounds of Iowa in 1833, and was in use over a year until a small water mill was built on Crow Creek by two men, Davis and Haskell. It shows to what straits the earliest settlers were put, in order to subsist.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS.
By J. W. Ellis, Written for the Jackson County Historical Society.
My father, Jesse Ellis, though not one of the early pioneers, came to this county in time to carve out a home from an almost unbroken forest. He was born in Kentucky, near Frankfort, February 2, 1810. His father, Joseph Ellis, came to Kentucky about the year 1800 from Pulaski county, Virginia, where he was born on January 12, 1768. He was married to Frankie Wood, who was born in the same place December 12, 1774. My father's grandfather, whose name was also Joseph, was born in 1730. My father grew up on the Ken- tucky farm, and when about sixteen years old was employed as an overseer by his brother-in-law, Eli Rogers, who owned several slaves. After he reached the age of twenty years he made several trips to New Orleans, and later he became possessed of the secret chart of the famous Swift silver mine in the Kentucky mountains.
He spent nearly two years in the mountains trying to find the mine. Swift and two other men, while hunting in the wildest, roughest part of the mountains, discovered a rich vein of silver ore and kept the discovery a secret; and procur- ing tools, took out a considerable quantity of the ore and smelted it. As the mine was far from any settlement, they could not carry away very much of their bul- lion, but buried it in the ground, making a chart describing the location and land- marks and blazing trees. One of the men sickened and died, and it was believed that Swift and the other man fell out over the buried treasure and in a finish fight Swift was victor. At least, he alone came to a settlement with a portion of the silver bullion, which he converted into cash, with which he bought supplies and made other trips; but finally, after a severe illness, he went entirely blind. It was said to be a pathetic sight to see the blind man trying to direct men to the treasure, of which he alone knew the secret, by the aid of the chart. His search was a failure, and, broken in health and spirits, he did not survive long. After his death, my father became the owner of the chart and searched nearly two years in the mountains for the hidden treasure. He found the blazed trees de- scribed in the chart and found the gulch in which the mine was located, but could not find the opening to the cavern and he always believed that a landslide had covered the entrance to the cavern and obliterated the most important signs on the chart. After enduring innumerable hardships, sleeping on the ground in the open air and living entirely on such game as they could secure with their rifles, bear, deer, wild turkeys being quite plentiful in the mountains at that time, the search was abandoned. Father often entertained visitors with stories of ad- ventures while searching for the Swift silver mine in the Kentucky mountains. James Anderson, who formerly lived in Maquoketa and was a frequent visitor at our home, became very much interested in the silver mine and the hidden treasure, and, after several interviews on that subject, father gave him the chart and all the information he could, and that was the last I ever heard of Swift silver mine until in 1895, when I saw an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer claim- ing that the old mine had been found.
Grandfather Ellis and members of his family that were still at home, includ- ing my father, removed to Putnam county, Indiana, about the year 1833. Grand- father secured a tract of land with a land warrant received for Revolutionary services.
Jesse Ellis married Ailsea Jerrers in Hendricks county, Indiana, in 1837. She was a native of Kentucky. I still have a government patent to a piece of land which father purchased in 1837 and on which he lived until the 26th of Septem-
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ber, 1852, when he started overland for Iowa. I was but four years old at that time but remember many incidents of the journey. One that made a lasting im- pression on my mind was that of meeting a circus at the crossing of some river in Illinois. There were two or more elephants, some camels and the large ani- mals were fording the stream. The elephants seemed to enjoy very much suck- ing up the water in their trunks and deluging the other animals as well as their own bodies with it. After leaving the State of Indiana, my father had a great deal of trouble with his wagon, which was built on the wide track and would not fit in the ruts of the western wagons.
Our first stop in Iowa was at the home of Thomas Flathers, a relative of ours, who lived four and one half miles south of Maquoketa. Mr. Flathers knew father had a large sum of money and tried to get him to enter some of the rich land in that locality, which was still held by the government and could have been had at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. But father had always lived in a timbered country and would not believe that a man could live in a prairie country five or six miles from timber and be able to get up enough fuel to keep him from freezing to death.
He next visited his brother William, who had secured a piece of land about one mile west of Fulton with his land warrant received for service in the war of 1812. He had fought with Jackson at New Orleans. He came to Iowa sev- eral years prior to our coming and had the pick of the country, but had settled on about as poor a tract as could well be found. Needless to say, my father did not like the land in that neighborhood. He visited with Willis, William and Edward Flathers, and Jos. Anderson, all relatives, and all living within a few miles of each other, within the forks of the Maquoketa River, and finally pur- chased one hundred and sixty acres of land in section II, South Fork township, on which he remained until his death in 1889. In 1852 there was a double log cabin and a large frame barn on the land which was well watered, having two spring branches with numerous springs, and with the exception of ten or twelve acres of cleared land was covered with the finest body of timber I ever saw. I will make an assertion here that will seem incredible to my readers, but it is actually true. There were as many families in this part of South Fork township in 1852 as there are today, excluding Hurstville. But there are very few representatives of original families left. Levi Rolfe, a veteran of the war of 1812, lived in a cabin on the north side of the creek on our land, but soon bought a piece of land in the neighborhood and moved onto it. Daniel Frazier, coming from Ohio about the time, moved into the cabin vacated by Rolfe, but soon afterward bought the Willis Flathers place, in section 10, and moved onto it; and Walter Watrus, fresh from the Scioto bottom, moved into the cabin. Thomas Frazier was our nearest neighbor, owning the quarter section west of our land, but at that time had not returned from the California gold fields, where he went in company with D. C. Clary in 1850; but returned soon after our arrival and had a goodly share of the yellow metal, some of it, as I remember, was octagonal fifty dollar pieces.
There was at that time three cabins, all occupied, on the Frazier land, one by the Frazier family, one by Frazier's brother-in-law, Henry Hammel, and the other by the Sherwood family. Two of these cabins were old buildings.
In 1852 a daughter of Sherwoods married a Dr. Martin, who for some years lived in Maquoketa, and I think that Charlie Martin, the carpenter, is their son. They had buried two small children on our land. The stones marking their graves stood for many years, but have long since disappeared. There was quite a French settlement on land adjoining ours in 1852. A man by name of Bywaters lived in a log cabin, which I believe is standing yet on A. Hurst's land near his farmhouse. Peter Jerman, another Frenchman, whose wife was a Flathers and a relative of ours, had been killed in a well that caved in on him on the land now owned by A. J. York. Another Frenchman, by the name of Daniels, lived in a cabin on land adjoining the Jerman land, and still another Frenchman, named
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Frederick, lived about eighty rods north of Daniels, taught school in what is now known as the Hurstville district, in 1853. Josiah Eaton lived then near where the John Davis house now stands, being the nearest to the schoolhouse. The school was known as the Eaton school. Nathanial Woods lived on the place that Groff lived on when he licked his neighbor, Davis, in 1839, now known as the Fitch farm. A brother of Jason Pangborn lived on land now owned by A. Hurst, north of Hurstville near the river. Isaac Hight lived on the farm now owned by Asa Struble. Joseph Jackson Woods lived for several years on the farm he sold to Asa Davis at about the beginning of the war. A family by the name of Beck lived on land now owned by Baumgartner, adjoining the Davis land ; and John Woods lived, in 1852, in the same house that his son, C. L. Woods, lives in now. The old place on the Iron Hills road, four miles west of Maquo- keta, now owned by Williams, was owned in 1852 by a Dr. McKinzie, and I think he sold to William Sears. A half mile south of us stood a cabin, which was old when we came here. It was called the Woods' place, and after it rotted down, garden vegetables would grow up in the cleared space and for years the place was known as the Woods' garden. James Armstrong, whose wife was a cousin of mine, lived near where George Coleman now lives.
Lowell was quite a thriving village in those early days. Among the families living there, was a Mr. Wolfe, a native Kentuckian, and I think my father ad- mired him on that account as much as anything else. The land in Lowell was considered so valuable that the lots were made very small, only twenty-five feet front. In addition to the grist mill, saw mill and woolen mills, there was an im- posing mansion on the highest point of land, with three cottages on the north and three on the south, and east of the brick house was a shop in which it was said Ben Sears was building a wonderful wagon, that, when completed, would run by steam on any kind of roads and would revolutionize the mode of travel and do away largely with the demand for horses. I often tried to get a view of this wonderful wagon, but never succeeded.
The early promise of greatness for Lowell was a delusion, and her glory long since departed. One of the greatest drawbacks in the early days was the often impassable roads. The roads were generally a single track through the great forest, and it was many years before the trees were cut to let the sun in to dry them. Another difficulty was the bridges. The rainfall was heavier than of late years and it seemed, no matter how high we made the bridges, the water would get high enough to take them out. There was a wooden bridge over the river in Maquoketa part of the time, and it was out a good part of the time. When the bridge was out and the river low enough, we would ford it. But in the spring there was much of the time the road through the river bottoms would be under water so we could not reach the bridge.
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