USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 52
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I remember that for a time there was a toll bridge kept by a Mr. Parker, and I probably remember it because Mr. Parker had a parrot that helped him to watch the bridge. The bird would call Parker, Parker, every time it saw any one approaching the bridge.
The schools of the early days were kept up by subscription ; that is, the head of a family would pay an agreed amount to the teacher and furnish a share of the fuel and board the teacher a share of the term, although some of the teach- ers I went to school to had families and lived in the neighborhood. The first teacher I went to school to regularly was Jacob Whistler. I think he taught about three years. The next was John Orr, and after him A. U. Parmer. I went for a time to Rhoda Jones, but my mind was on the teacher much more than on the studies.
The great forests between the forks of the Maquoketa were full of game in the early '50s and there were deer and wild turkeys here until 1870, and the river was full of fine fish. I will describe one fishing excursion which I was per- mitted to attend when I was a small boy. My father and big brother, Thomas and Benton Frazier, Theo. Eaton and I think Henry Hammell, went fishing to
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what is now the mouth of the Hurstville branch. They took axes with them and when arriving at the river began cutting down willows and trimming off the fine brush. This brush they made into a long roll fifty or sixty feet and about three feet thick and bound together with bark, with long bark ropes tied to each end. When completed, this crude sein was rolled into the water and while some of the men pulled it through the water with the ropes of bark, others walked behind and held the sein down. This was hard to handle but was a complete success. Every haul made brought a nice lot of fish, and in one haul they had two large pickerel in the catch, fully three feet long. One of them went out over the top of the sein like a bird, but one of the men secured the other with a spear. When they had caught all the fish they wanted, they divided them up in as many piles as there were sharers in the party. My father was then blindfolded and with his back turned to the fish was asked who should have the pile designated by one of the men by putting his hand on the fish; father would call out the name and the last pile went to father.
RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY DAYS.
Green Island, February 10, 1910.
Friend Ellis: You requested that the people of each township help you to gather facts for the history. In regard to the early settlers of Van Buren township, in my paper written and published in the annals of Jackson county of the early settling of Van Buren township, which you have, will say that that article was as good as I could write it.
You will notice that in August, 1838, Mrs. Corwin died and was buried in an old cemetery in Van Buren township, on section 23. I think that was the first grave of a white person in the county. The first schoolhouse was built on section 22, and was known as the David Swaney schoolhouse. Was a little log house with stick chimney and puncheon floors. I well remember when Charlie Wyckoff, who was a good little boy (?), helped to run one of those little striped animals (native to the country) under the puncheon floor during a meeting conducted by a Methodist minister, that kind, you know, that are told by the sense of smell. Charlie and his pals concluded they would stir things up a little, took a pole and punched up the little animal and then took to their heels.
The first school taught there was by Juliet Sprague. The next schoolhouse was built on section II, was of the same kind; the first teacher was Sophia Hunter. In this schoolhouse one of the permanent early settlers, who was a college graduate, taught for twelve dollars per month and boarded himself. It was ten miles from the Osborne home to Charleston, now Sabula, which was the nearest trading post. His wife, who was also well educated, cut straws from winter wheat and braided and made hats and went on foot to Charleston and traded the hats to Dr. Wood for goods, among which was some tobacco for Mr. Osborne, going and coming both ways the same day, walking twenty miles and carrying the hats down, and the goods traded for back. The first mill built in Van Buren township was built by Lon Sprague, on section 19. Mr. Sprague came to the township in the spring of 1838, and located the claim and then moved his family the next year. He got his little mill in operation in 1844; it had one little run of burrs. He had a hand bolt, ground corn, buckwheat, and some wheat, but it did not work very good with wheat. He did quite a business, with his little mill a few years, but as other and better mills were built he had less to do and he took the California fever, going to California in 1849, dying there. In 1844 there settled in Van Buren township Nathan N. Tompkins, coming from Ohio and settling on section II, but was not contented as a farmer and built a little sawmill just over the line of Van Buren, in Washington township, which he soon sold to Nathan Hixon, which mill became known as Hixon's mill. In 1854 Tompkins bought the
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Spragueville mill site, and commenced the erection of the famous Spragueville mill, one of the best and most valuable mills in the State of Iowa. It had three run of burrs and was equipped with all the necessary machinery known to mill science in that time. Tompkins completed the mill and had it running, but in consequence of failing health and financial embarrassment, he sold the mill to Riley & Alexander, who in themselves or by members of their families, owned and operated it as long as it was used as a mill. In addition to grinding all the flour consumed in the eastern part of Jackson county, Riley and Alex- ander bought thousands of bushels of wheat and made flour and shipped it to St. Louis. The writer remembers that one time Alexander took a load of flour to Sabula and he needed a pair of boots; we all wore boots at that time. He could neither sell the wheat for cash nor trade it for boots, could get trusted for the boots, but could not trade flour, could get some kind of goods for flour but no boots.
After the railroad was built and the little city of Preston was started and the mill built there, the patrons of the famous Spragueville mill gradually began to decrease. New milling processes were invented and the Deep Creek mills, like the early settlers, are gone.
To note the difference of the then and now, that Spragueville Mill at one time changed hands for a consideration of $14,000, and the executor of the last will and testament of the late Alpheus Alexander sold the entire mill building containing all the machinery for two hundred dollars.
The first religious meeting I ever attended was in the David Swaney schoolhouse, at the time I helped stir up the little perfumed animal. After the second schoolhouse was built, that good God loving man, Emmerson, used to come and preach, and I remember that one of the puncheons in front of the fireplace was a little short, and if moved too far, end ways, would tip up. Now it somehow happened that Charlie Wyckoff and his neighbor's boys al- ways attended church and went early to avoid the rush, and it almost always happened that that puncheon would be moved endways far enough so that when Father Emmerson got warmed up in his discourse, he would step on the other end and it would tip up and make a laugh. We boys were often questioned about how it got moved, but could not tell. In after years Father Emmerson often enjoyed the hospitality of my home, and would often say, "Well, Charlie, you was one of those miserable scamps of boys that moved that plank." Father Emmerson did his duty to his fellowmen as he under- stood it and did it well. Colonel Wyckoff was not satisfied with the doctrines taught by Father Emmerson and the Methodists.
He believed in the universal salvation of all, and not only tried to do all he could to convince his neighbors to his way of thinking, but when he heard of a preacher of his faith, he invited him to his home. I remember a young Universalist preacher coming to our house when it was bitter cold weather, and the wood was green. The man was cold. Father was down in Johnny Cake Holler, splitting rails. Mother said, "When Wyckoff comes home, I will have him fall a rail and trim it up." In those days dry rails was the last resort when we wanted a good fire. I remember our old neighbor Baldwin, "Rails was cheaper than wood, because a man could split one hundred rails in a day, and one rail made a good fire, and no man could cut enough wood in one day to make one hundred fires." The preacher said, "He would attend to getting the dry rail." So he went out and soon had quite a quantity of dry rail wood. Mother had occasion to go out of doors, and, lo and behold, the preacher had cut down the two rails that had been set in the ground to support the clothes line; the ground was frozen three feet deep. The incident did not increase mother's estimation of the preacher when she again had occasion to dry her washing. I remember that a neighbor girl, Sarah Baldwin, gathered hazel- nuts and father took them to Charleston, now Sabula, and traded them to Dr. Wood for enough calico to make her a dress. I do not remember the price
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of the nuts, but the calico cost fifty cents per yard and eight yards made a dress then. That was before hoops came into fashion. Father claimed that was the first calico dress bought and made in Van Buren township. Women's dresses were usually made of home made linsey, or cotton cloth colored with bark or leaves. Permit me to add that I think that nature should have so ar- ranged that the early pioneers could come back as often as the government takes the census, say every ten years, and look the ground over and note the changes that have taken place. Kindly yours, Chas. Wyckoff.
SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF B. B. BREEDEN.
At about the beginning of the year 1700, three brothers, Henry, Job, and Richard Breeden, came from England and settled in Virginia and married. Job remained there all his life, living on the old homestead. Henry and Rich- ard, with their families, went west after a time, and settled in Lawrence county, Kentucky. They each took up homesteads. During an encounter with the Indians, Henry and his two sons were killed, but not until Henry had killed six Indians before he fell.
Richard married Fannie Fairchild, a Virginian woman. To them were born eleven children, seven boys and four girls, the seventh child being Richard, Jr., who was born in 1778 in what is now known as Louisville, Kentucky. The children scattered to various parts of the country. Paul went to Louisiana; James, William and Richard, Jr., to Indiana. Richard settled in Monroe county, Indiana, in about the year 1818. He was married to Miss Lucretia Curl before he left Kentucky. To them were born fourteen children, thirteen of whom lived to be grown. We give the names in order of their ages: Fielding, born 1810; Millie, Richard O., William, Polly, Dudley, Blan Ballard, Susan, Lucre- tia, Jane, Berryman, Calvin, James and Amanda. The first six were born in Lawrence county, Kentucky, while Ballard and Susan were born in Monroe county, Indiana. The whole family afterward moved to Putnam county, In- diana, where Jane and Berryman were born, the family afterward going to Edgar county, Illinois, where the rest of the children were born.
In the year 1838 the family moved to Iowa. Millie married in Illinois, and moved back to Kentucky, but afterwards returned to Illinois. The family settled in Jackson county, Iowa, and each of the sons took up claims for them- selves. Fielding and William were also married in Illinois. The remainder married in Jackson county.
In about the year 1850, Fielding, Calvin, Ballard and William went to Cali- fornia to make their fortunes in digging gold. Berryman joined them in 1852. They were three years returning via Pacific Ocean, Isthmus of Panama, At- lantic Ocean, and New York city, thence overland to Iowa. They failed to realize their expectations of making their fortunes.
Nearly two years after their return, Ballard married Miss Mary Jane Fur- nish. To them were born three children-Sophronia, DeSoto and Otto. She died on the 12th day of February, 1861. On the 5th day of September, he mar- ried Miss Mary Ann Campbell. To them were born seven children : Frances J., Dora L., Williams S., Lillie V., Arizona M., Millie L. and Clarence Bird. Williams S. and Millie L. died in infancy.
Richard Breeden, father of B. B. Breeden, died in September, 1872; Lucre- tia, his mother, died in February, 1874, at the ages of eighty-four and eighty- three years, respectively. Fielding moved to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he died in 1887. Williams returned to Illinois and lived in Hancock county, where he died in 1896. Berryman never returned from California. He died in the year 1875 or 1876. Owen was killed by a falling tree while hunting, on the 12th day of February, 1868. Millie died in Illinois in 1865. Polly died in Kansas in 1878. Dudley died in Jackson county, Iowa, in 1842 Susan died in Jackson county in 1845. Lucretia died in infancy in Putnam county, In-
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diana. Jane now lives in Mariposa county, California. Calvin died very sud- denly on October 31, 1899. James lives near Clear Lake, Wisconsin, and Amanda in Jackson county.
Mr. Breeden died on June 7, 1906, being eighty-six years, five months and nineteen days old. His life was long and useful, and he was loved and hon- ored by all his family, and highly respected by all who knew him.
DEATH OF JOSEPH HENRIE.
Died, November 18, 1899, Joseph Henrie, aged ninety years. Mr. Henrie was one of a family of eleven children, of whom all had preceded him to the grave. He was born in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1809. When a boy he was "bound out" to learn the trade of millwright and miller and worked at his trade until the year 1833, when he went west, through Chicago to Iowa. In 1842 he returned to Pennsylvania. In 1843 he was married to Mary Van Dine and in March, 1845, he left Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, on a flat boat that he himself built, with his wife and son, J. C. Henrie, and two brothers, William and family, and Robert, his younger brother, and floated down the Susquehanna River to the Juniata. There the boats were loaded on a car and taken over the Allegheny Mountains to the River at Beaverstown. He sold the boat and on a steam boat reached St. Louis, taking the company five weeks to make the trip. He settled on a farm near Alton, Illinois, and the following fall moved to Kane county, Illinois, and secured eighty acres of land from the government. The next move was to St. Charles, Illinois, and there he rented the Dr. Millington mill, on the west side of Fox River. He remod- eled the mill, making new water wheels and, in fact, placed nearly all new machinery. He was considered an expert with mill machinery for many years. He has built all kinds of farm machinery that was used in his day. The first threshing machine that separated the grain and did very good work, was his invention and was only a four horsepower and the cylinder was cast iron. The two wheeled mower with a joint in the arm, the first bob sled with inde- pendent runners, which were his improvements, were cast iron. His first house was eighteen by twenty-four, and without a floor; in one end was his workshop where he made ox yokes and other articles and did much repairing for his neighbors.
Five children were born to them and all, save two, are living and honor his name. He was a thoroughly sincere and honest man, a loyal friend and kind and helpful neighbor. He was buried beside his two daughters at Maple Park, Illinois.
AN OLD CAMPAIGN FLAG. (BY J. W. ELLIS.)
I. P. Hinman, an old and well known resident of Maquoketa, recently de- posited with J. W. Ellis an old flag which has quite an interesting history. In 1840 Mr. Hinman was living in New York state, and it is a matter of history that political excitement ran about as high that year as at any presidential contest in the history of the republic. The excitement reached the town where Mr. Hinman lived, and it occurred to him and his partisan neighbors that they ought to, and must, have a flag for use in the campaign. A meeting was called to take steps to secure a flag. Mr. Hinman and his father-in-law, Judge Wheeler, were made a committee on flag, the money to pay for which was to be raised by subscription. The committee sent a man twelve miles to the near- est town, where the proper material for a flag could be had, Mr. Hinman fur- nishing a horse for the man to ride and five dollars to buy material with. Judge Wheeler employed an artist to paint an eagle on the flag, and some of the ladies sewed the red and white stripes together, and the little village had as fine a campaign flag as any community in the state.
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Old Tippecanoe won out in the fight and there was no effort made to col- lect the money that was promised to pay for the flag, and Mr. Hinman and Judge Wheeler had a flag on their hands. Judge Wheeler kept the flag as long as he lived, and at his death it was turned over to Mr. Hinman. The old flag has figured in many political campaigns and Fourth of July celebrations, and is in fairly good condition now. Mr. Hinman thought that it had seen suffi- cient active service, and wanted it put in a glass case where the people could see without handling what he prized as a historic relic and souvenir. Mr. Hinman also placed in the museum an old butter paddle which he said was more than one hundred years old, and said he had known it himself for more than eighty years.
PRAIRIE SPRINGS TOWNSHIP FIFTY YEARS AGO. (BY WM. MORAN.)
At the request of my old friend, James W. Ellis, I am going to write a chapter on Prairie Springs township fifty years ago.
In the fall of 1858 my parents, Michael and Catherine Moran, with their family of seven children, left their happy home in the "Blue Grass State" and came by boat down the Ohio River and up the Mississippi. After being on the water ten days, we landed at Dubuque, September 30, 1858.
After a short stay in that city, we journeyed about eight miles by team, to what was then known as the "Sullivan Postoffice," in Prairie Springs, Jackson county, Iowa, which my father purchased of Jesse Black and conducted the same for two years; he then moved onto one hundred and sixty acres of land which he had previously purchased near Centerville on section 16, which he owned and controlled for several years. Later he bought other property in Prairie Springs, which he owned till his death, which occurred at LaMotte, Iowa, October 16, 1894, at the age of seventy-nine.
My mother, Catherine Fitzpatrick, was a native of Wexford, Ireland, and lived to the age of eighty-eight. She ended this life at her home in LaMotte, April 19, 1903. They both rest in the beautiful cemetery at St. Theresas. I was a boy of about eight years of age when my parents settled in Iowa, but I can remember the deer, wolf, and wildcats, and other wild animals that were roaming the country then. The old cradle was the only reaper in Jackson county ; many a night have I sat and read by the old tallow candle, while my mother near by spinned the wool with her old spinning wheel. Some of our first neighbors were Jordans, Ryans, Currans, Scullons, McDole, Trews, Mur- rays, Regans, and Daleys.
I attended school at district number four, Prairie Springs, during the win- ter, and in the summer I have drove as many as six and eight yoke of oxen on a breaking plow, very few people having horses in their possession then. Three years after our arrival in Iowa the Civil war broke out. My brother, James, enlisted at Dubuque, Iowa, in 1861; while present at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia, he was shot in the right hand and spent some time in the hospital ; he was finally honorably discharged.
He wished to reenlist, but would not be accepted on account of his wound ; he then went to the front as a teamster; after three days he was captured by the rebels near Little Rock, Arkansas, and taken to the stockade at Tyler, Texas, where he died ten months later.
The first polling place was at Centerville ; after about forty years, by a de- cision of the board of supervisors, it was moved to LaMotte last fall. Cen- terville could also boast of the first grist mill in Prairie Springs, owned and operated by U. D. Slaupp.
The old Catholic church at St. Theresas is one of the landmarks, being there when my people came to Iowa.
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The Methodist and Baptist churches were located at LaMotte.
I have seen the county grow, from the time my father served his patrons at his small postoffice, to the present day, when the rural route system is fol- lowed in most every county in Iowa. Prairie Springs has its rural route, with at least one hundred patrons, whose mail is delivered to his door every day by the carrier, Mr. Mark Reddin.
LaMotte of fifty years ago, was comprised of four or five dwelling houses, a small schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, general store, under the supervision of McDonnell and Hannah. The postoffice was conducted first by Z. W. Montague ; second, James McDonnell ; third, John Wilson, fourth, N. A. Hoffman, fifth, N. B. Nemmers, and N. A. Hoffman, the present postmaster. At the present day we can boast of LaMotte with her population of three hundred and fifty as one of the finest little towns in the State of Iowa, with her beautiful churches and schools. The parochial school was built a year ago, at a cost of eight thousand dollars; the public school, which is second to none in the county, was built in 1903 for seven thousand dollars. It has general stores, three in number; three hardware stores, three blacksmith shops, three hotels, four "thirst parlors," livery barn. creamery, grist mill, lumber yards and stockyards.
As LaMotte is known as a good shipping point the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad runs through the town. LaMotte also has its bank with a capital of ten thousand dollars. The town has its home paper, "LaMotte News," edited weekly by C. L. Olmsteadt. It has two resident physicians, one dentist, two veterinarians.
Members of the city council are: J. H. Ahlers, mayor ; N. A. Hoffman, re- corder ; N. B. Nemmers, treasurer ; J. F. Reddin, assessor.
Councilmen : J. C. Mueller, T. E. Daugherty, J. R. Dunne, T. R. Ahlers, M. A. Hingtgen, T. R. Harris.
The writer, with his family of seven loving children who were deprived of their mother's care several years ago by death, now reside on section 28, Prairie Springs township. Very respectfully, Wm. Moran.
BURNS SETTLEMENT.
ZWINGLE, IOWA, March 24, 1906.
Mr. J. W. Ellis, Maquoketa, Iowa.
Dear Sir : I have been reading your account of early settlers in the Sentinel all winter, and I think it is quite interesting, so I thought I would send you these few items concerning Zachariah Burns, the founder of Burns' Settlement, in Otter Creek township, if you would have it printed, but you may have read his history in the Jackson county history. I do not remember if it is in it or not; however, these items are correct as he gave them himself. He is living at present with his son-in-law, James Degan, in Benson, Nebraska, and is very well and has a very clear memory for a man eighty-eight years old. Yours and oblige, Miss Mayme Slattery.
Zachariah Burns, the subject of this sketch, was born March 15, 1818, in St. Charles, St. Charles county, Missouri, living there until the fall of 1845 when he and his brother, Uriah, came to Jackson county, Iowa (an overland trip), to see the country. They camped one night in Maquoketa, in front of Goodenow's house. There were only two dwellings and a blacksmith shop there at that time.
There was no wagon road from Maquoketa to Otter Creek, and had to follow a path through the timber, of which there was a great deal and of good quality. He and his brother intended putting up a sawmill on Otter Creek, so Zachariah left his brother there to get out the timber to build the mill and he went back to Missouri to bring his mother and the rest of the family out, but the mill proved a failure, as they could not get a dam that would hold, so in the spring of 1846 they moved to Otter Creek township and bought the
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farm now owned by Thos. Ryan, a short distance west of Otter Creek church, from the government, paying the regular price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. He lived on this farm until 1883, when he sold it and moved to Adair county, Iowa, and bought another farm near Anita, his wife dying while they lived there in 1887. His mother died while they lived in Otter Creek; do not know what year. In 1893, he moved to Oklahoma and lived there one year, returning to Adair county, where he remained two years. His daughter, Mary, died there in April, 1898, after which he broke up housekeeping, sold his farm and has made his home with his daughters ever since, dividing his time among them. They are : Edna ; Mrs. Chas. Martin, of Shenandoah, Iowa ; Ellen, Mrs. James Degan, of Benson, Nebraska, with whom Mr. Burns re- sides at the present time, and Angelina, Mrs. Jas. Brock, of Council Bluffs. Mr. Burns has four sons also: Arthur, of San Francisco, California; John and Eustus, of Missouri, and Wm., of Oklahoma. Uriah farmed for a while in Otter Creek, sold out and removed to San Francisco, California, where he died some years ago. There was another brother, Timothy, who kept store on a corner of Zachariah's farm. He removed to Texas, where he died a few years ago. Zach, as he was familiarly called, is only survivor of the founders of Burns' Settlement, and is hale and hearty, and has a very clear memory de- spite his eighty-eight years and can relate quite a few interesting incidents of the early history and settlement of Jackson county.
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