USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 57
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1020 Twentieth Street, DES MOINES, IOWA, February 12, 1910. Mr. J. W. Ellis, Maquoketa, Iowa.
Dear Sir :- In the Sabula Gazette of this date, I notice you appeal to pioneers of Jackson county. I am much interested in the history of Jackson county, having lived there forty-four years, and when your book is completed will be anxious to read it. In 1876 Fairfield township held a Fourth of July celebration in a grove a little southwest of the B. F. Hull home, and one of the items of that day's pro- gram was a little history of the township, written by three of the old settlers, two of whom were presidents before it was organized, viz., Wm. E. Reed and my father, John Holroyd. This bit of history was printed in the Sabula Gazette of July 22, 1876, and reprinted in the same paper three or four years ago. I have the clipping before me, but there is nothing to indicate the date of this last printing, but if you care to look it up you will find quite a few historical facts.
My father came from England and settled in Fairfield township in 1840, and neighbors were so few and, far between that my mother was at one time three months without seeing a white woman. A few squaws were among the Indians who roamed over the country and sometimes stopped at the house. An incident of the early days which impressed my child mind very much was the coming on horseback one Sunday of two women who were in great distress, because they feared their homestead claims were going to be taken from them by "claim jump- ers," as they were called-unscrupulous people coming from the east, who entered land regardless of the rights of settlers. Both of these ladies were widows with families, and, of course, poor in a financial sense, as nearly all the settlers were, and they had come to see if father could help them to secure at least the forty or eighty on which their log cabins stood. I don't know how much money they lacked, but I do know that father went to the neighbors and borrowed all he could and started for Dubuque that same evening so as to be at the land office when the doors were opened on Monday morning. He was on time and the widow's homes were saved to them. I think the reason of the strong impression to them was that father, who would never do work or business on Sunday, should go borrow money and go off to Dubuque on Sunday. Respectfully,
HARRIET HOLROYD SWEET.
A WORTHY TRIBUTE TO THE EARLY PIONEERS.
READ BY MRS. A. J. HOUSE AT AN OLD SETTLERS MEETING.
Those who have shared the hardships and privations of a frontier life will never forget what they endured together, nor the old associations. Our nation justly honors the heroes of the wars, who fought in defense of the flag, but by the side of the soldier we must place the early pioneer who left the old home, endured the weary march as perilous as was ever "Sherman's march to the sea," faced death itself in many forms, and thus has given us America, a land worth fighting for. And it is of no special interest that over three score years ago, when there were but few miles of railway in the United States, when horses were not in general use, that traveling over unknown prairies, through trackless forests, fording or swimming streams, stopping to rest where night overtook them, our first settlers should have made their way to this Eldorado.
And it is a matter of interest to us who followed later on that we have had a part, small though it may have been, in making Jackson county where it is, the garden of our state.
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As we look back over our history we find that the first cabin in the county was built at Bellevue by Mr. James Armstrong, in 1833, and the first settle- ment made there in 1834 by Mr. Wm. Jonas, Alexander Reed and Wm. Dyas, these being followed in 1835 by Mr. John D. Bell, for whom the town was named.
The first sermon in the county was preached in Bellevue in a saloon by Rev. Simeon Clark. History records that on a Sunday morning, while the loafers were drinking and playing cards, this minister asked the privilege of preaching to them, whereupon the game was stopped, the bottles pushed aside, and the sermon preached. Said history fails to inform us as to the effect of the sermon, but it is probable it remained unheeded, as many other sermons furnished by the saloons have been.
The first cabin in Sabula was built in 1836 by Dr. E. A. Wood. In 1837 Mr. S. Burleson, Wm. Vosburg, Wm. Phillips and Calvin Teeple came to this county and settled near Buckhorn. Mr. Anson Wilson is reported to have started on foot from Niagara Falls and to have arrived here in 1839. He, it is said, manufactured and unfurled the first American flag in the county. Doubt- less we have all heard of the meeting of the country debating society at which each disputant asked to be followed back to the days of Julius Cæsar. So, I suppose, each one on our program will expect to take us to that first cabin in Maquoketa, built in 1838, by Mr. John E. Goodenow, and his comrade, Mr. Bates.
If we picture to our minds the settlement as it existed in 1839 we have Mr. Thomas Wright's cabin on what is known as the Hubbell farm, three miles west, Mr. John Clark on Mill Creek on the east, Mr. Pangborn on the prop- erty that still bears his name, a bachelor living near the present site of D. H. Anderson's store, with Mr. Goodenow's cabin, at the front door of which hung out the sign "hotel."
These cabins were constructed of logs in such a style that it would puzzle an architect of our time to imitate them, with a sod roof and a half window on each of two sides, and with low doors, which were possibly intended to teach people the maxim of Benjamin Franklin, "Stoop as you go through the world and you will miss many a hard thump."
From the small beginning we may trace the history of our town and county, when there was but one family in Sabula, and Bellevue was the nearest point for trade; from the time when in Maquoketa there were no railroads, no tele- graphs, no sewing machines, when the blacksmith's shop served for school- house and meeting house as well. When there was no postoffice, no news- paper and no need of one. Few books and fewer magazines. No women's clubs but the "quilting bee" instead, where over the patchwork the current events were thoroughly discussed. When there was no telephone, no barber shop, when a man wanted his hair cut his wife did it for him, placing a bowl over his head to keep the ends even. If he wanted to speak to a person in another county he had to go there. If he wrote a letter he wrote it with a goose quill. If a family wanted to take a drive, they went with an ox team. When men wore flannel wamuses and jeans stuffed into their boots, and a new gingham sunbonnet was a particular source of envy among the ladies. When there were then as now, horseless carriages, hatless women, and coatless men.
From the time when the grown up daughter of the household found occu- pation at home at the old spinning wheel, little dreaming as she paced back and forth that there would ever be machinery constructed by which thousands of threads could be formed in less than it took her to draw out one. We recall the organization of the first church (the Methodist) in 1839. We remember the little red schoolhouse and the birch tree that grew so ominously near ; not forgetting the teacher, who spoiled the rod without sparing the child, and the laying out of the cemetery, and are reminded of the custom that required
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the attending physician to march in the funeral procession just ahead of the casket, thus verifying the portion of scripture which reads, "And their work do follow them."
So on and on to the conditions and customs of the time when the last old settler arrived thirty years ago, coming overland in the lumbering old stage coach. Then Andrew was the capital of the county, and justice was still being dispersed in the old stone courthouse.
Maquoketa had few substantial store buildings, no first class hotels, no system of waterworks, no organized fire company, no drinking fountains, no street lamps, no town clock, few handsome residences, or well kept lawns, no macadamized streets, no electric light plant, no painless dentist, no brass band. Then "lover's lane" was still the same as when mapped out by the youthful red man, as he wooed his dusky maid.
"Bouquet avenue" was still decked with blossoms of nature's own, and "Amity square" was a frog pond, where the peaceful dwellers sang their even- ing song together, "Just as the sun went down."
LETTER FROM AN OLD PIONEER.
CEDAR FALLS, June 21, 1904.
Mr. W. C. Gregory, Maquokcta, Iowa.
Dear Sir and Brother-A Miss McDonald, of your city, who is attending the Iowa State Normal summer term and rooming with us handed me a copy of the Sentinel in which I happened to notice your call for the pioneer and old set- tlers' picnic for the 4th with invitation to all of thirty years or more residence, to pay in their twenty-five cents and join the society. As I came to Jackson county, Iowa, sixty-one years ago this last month (June, 1843), and have made Iowa my home ever since, perhaps I am entitled to membership. I enclose twenty-five cents for same, and I should like very much to celebrate with you and the many old friends there the 4th; but time, distance and environments forbid. Hope I may be able to at some future meeting ; but since getting crip- pled up in a runaway in February, 1901, have not been so far away from home and two years ago moved here, and we are keeping roomers from the state normal.
In the fall of 1838 my father, David Owen Montague, and Joseph Palmer drove from old Chautauqua county, New York, to Jackson county, Iowa, and walked back in December, the last day walking over fifty miles, and broke the track through the snow over a prairie for twelve miles. Judge Palmer moved out to Jackson county, Iowa, in the spring of '39, but father said it took him four years to sell his little pile of rock, called in that country a farm, and in the spring of 1843 he moved out, driving with three horses, and located at what he afterwards called Lamotte, and bought out a homesteader who had up a pile of logs and twelve acres of the best sod ground in fourteen states and set- tled down for a home amongst the wolves, and frequent visits from Merill's gang of robbers.
Our log cabin was very fortunate, having been located first in the territory of Michigan, then Wisconsin, then Iowa, and in '46 was welcomed to the State of Iowa, and yet had not been moved during that time. In '46 John E. Goode- now and my father got the stage line and mail route established from Du- buque, through Lamotte, Andrew and Maquoketa to Davenport, being the second mail route in the state, the line on the old military road from Dubuque to Iowa city being the first. If father were living now there is no place he would rather spend the 4th of July than with the old settlers of Maquoketa. It is time for the mail man. Best regards to all.
Respectfully, your friend,
Z. W. MONTAGUE.
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WALKER, IOWA, August 20, 1906.
My Dear Friend, J. W. Ellis .- I have yours of a late date before me, invit- ing me to meet with the pioneers and old settlers of Jackson county on the 22d inst. Though absent from your county for the past twenty-three years, I take it kindly to be remembered as one among you. Though not ranking among the very first settlers of the county, I had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with many of them, and enjoy reading the record of many of them as detailed in your annals of Jackson county. Other engagements here on the same day of your meeting prevent me from taking advantage of your invitation, yet permit me briefly and hurriedly to give you a few imperfect reminiscences of our earlier days in Iowa. I first touched Iowa soil at Bellevue, on May 16, 1849, and with the exception of two years spent in Illinois in 1850 and '51 I have had my home and choicest memories in beautiful and prosper- ous Iowa, thirty-two of which was spent in Jackson county. You ask me to tell the people something of the pioneers of Lamotte. I have to inform you that my memory is not as keen as it used to be in remembering the incidents and peculiarities of early settlers who patiently breasted the difficulties of pioneer life and the hardships they had to endure. Let me modify the word hardships for many of the brightest and best days of my life and now thought of with greatest pleasure, were those of the pioneer times. I have just been as full of gladness and thankfulness in driving to town or church behind an oxteam, as in more recent days behind a spanking span of roadsters in a covered carriage. My song along the road, going to and returning from the grist mill with a few sacks of corn meal or flour, was just as vocal and hearty, if not more so, than now when these food products are shipped to us by rail. I was blessed by being a close neighbor to my brother William, but counted it no hardship to go one or two miles to spend an hour or two in the company of friends and neighbors. I recall with pleasure the many visits we had with Mr. John Hawkins, one of Richland township's early settlers; of Campbell Smith, Jas. Dulley, Deacon Cotton, the Wassons, Joseph Hunter (Edward's father), Par- melee, of Cottonville; the pleasant meetings we used to have with the Camp- bell families, the grandfather and father of your popular postmaster at Belle- vue. I recall too with pleasure the names of some of my old friends at Bellevue, Andy Reiling, Andy Wood, W. A. Warren, Wm. Tell Wynkoop, Eli Cole, Dr. J. J. Watkins, and others. Let me here remark that I suppose one of the first historical societies organized in Iowa was here in Bellevue. At one of these meetings, I think in the fall of 1854, a fine display of fruit was shown, con- sisting principally of apples and grapes. W. T. Wynkoop, I think, furnished the largest exhibit. In regard to Lamotte, I mention D. O. Montague, George Balknap, Merrick and John Chamberlain as being among the first settlers: D. O. Montague was appointed first postmaster. In order to fix upon a name for the postoffice, he consulted with W. A. Warren, who had at that time a friend of his visiting him, by the name of Lamotte, who had been in former years a lieutenant in the French army. Among others who came to that neighborhood were Alec, George and Jonathan McDowell. Jonathan started the first hotel; Caleb McDowell, son of George, started a good wagon and blacksmith shop. William Wright, G. W. Wilson, David Stover (blacksmith), R. F. Morse, John Van Horn, John McQueen, Andrew Noble and family, Ashley Griffin, Benjamin Hutchins, several Potter families. You will observe that I mention names principally without any remarks to character or pecu- liarities. My memory does not justify in entering into particulars and I must not record any false impressions, yet I think it is well enough to have even the names, if nothing else, of some of our first settlers. Before closing these few and hurriedly written lines, let me here express my high and hearty appre- ciation of the work that some of your officers are doing in founding and build- ing up the historical structure of Jackson County Historical Association. From letters I have seen from Mr. Harvey Reid inquiring after early settlers, some of
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whom are dead, and some have moved to distant portions of our country, shows with what industry he is laboring for the best and most exact informa- tion in regard to the historical incidents of such families. This to my mind shows that the annals of your historical association may be considered exact and reliable.
Judging from the exhaustive character of the articles published in the Annals from the pen of your Curator J. W. Ellis and knowing a little of his worth as an indefatigable collector of rare and valuable articles, as witness his wealth and worth of the material he has gathered together in his museum, I have often won- dered if such a grand display is still confined to the improper and inadequate quarters.
ADDRESS OF CHARLES WYCKOFF AT OLD SETTLERS' MEETING.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen :
Permit me to thank the officers of this association for the honor conferred upon me in extending to me this invitation to add my little mite.
It is something very difficult to know what to say, and sometimes some little thing will happen that will take all the good things out of his speech and turn them against him that spoke. I well remember that on one occasion I had the wind, so to speak, all taken out of me, and for a short time regretted that I had spoken. Some will remember that at one time I made the attempt to preach, and for one year went to Lamotte and tried to preach in the Baptist church. Another fact that is well known in my neighborhood that I am very popular among the children. Among them it is never Mr. Wyckoff, but, "How are you Charley ?" or "Here comes the old strawberry man," from the time I leave my home until I re- turn, and many of the old man's hard earned pennies went to keep their minds refreshed.
At the time I speak of, some thirty-five years ago, I was younger than now and had a better opinion of myself than I have now. I had invited another preacher to go with me and fill my appointments, one at Lamotte and one at Cot- tonville. As we approached Lamotte I took occasion to impress upon the mind of my brother that he was about to visit a second Garden of Eden, telling him the little town supported two churches, the Methodist Episcopal and the Baptist, that there were two Sunday schools, that the men were all God loving and church going, that the women were not only religious but good looking, that the children all at- tended Sunday school and were well behaved, no vulgar or profane language was heard, and the children all loved me and respected my high calling, and I took particular pains to impress upon his mind that this happy state of affairs was partly brought about by my personal efforts, and especially that my kindness to the children and the example I had set with my familiarity with them had added largely in bringing about the happy state of affairs in the little town he was about to visit. As we were entering the town and I was pointing out the two churches, two boys were playing by the roadside. One of them jumped up and said, "J- C- Joe, here comes Charley Wyckoff." That old preacher turned around and gave me a look I shall not try to describe, for at least at the time my feelings can more easily be imagined than described.
As we were returning home the preacher took occasion to give me a curtain lecture. He said I was committing a sin by my kindness to children; was by my familiarity teaching them to disrespect the ministry. He said it was my duty to be reserved and dignified, and set them a Godly example, etc., and so on. Well, I am willing to admit that for a moment the expression of the boy did not exactly suit, or in other words did not add force to what I was saying, but when I had time to think, I was pleased to know that boy did not manifest disrespect, but both joy and surprise, and that my preacher brother was mistaken, and while perhaps the language the boy used to express his feelings might not have been proper, it was at least forcible; and right here, let me say, that preacher deserted his wife
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and children and skipped with another woman, and I have continued to mingle with children, whether right or wrong.
But my friends, I had forgotten that I was requested to say something about the early settling of Van Buren township, and have been taking up your time talk- ing about myself. Now if the request had been made to make a little political speech, I would have known how to commence ; would have commenced to abuse the republican party and all of the candidates on their ticket, because it makes no difference what is said, as only the people who belong to the party to which the speaker does will pay any attention to what is said. But when he is requested to give some historical facts, one should be sure of what he is talking about.
As far as I have been able to learn, John Jones, W. H. Vandeventer and Andrew Farley, Dennis Cotton, William Latta, M. W. Tisdale, a Mr. Walker and Azariah Prusia, all settled in or near Van Buren township in 1837. In the spring of 1838, Samuel Durant, Ephraim Elsworth and Bartholomew Corwin, who were driven out of Canada during the Patriot war because they would not hurrah for the queen.
On the first day of September, my father, R. B. Wyckoff, crossed the river into Iowa and settled where I now live. In the spring of 1839, T. J. Pearce, D. F. Fletcher, and David Swaney came from Michigan and made settlement in the township, on land owned by some of their families. During the years from '37 to and including '40, there were at least fifteen families made settlement.
Now if I should attempt to write anything like a historical fact of these early settlers, it would be too long to read on this occasion, besides, I should get my name in the papers and become a great historian. I will only on this occasion speak of two-Dennis Collins and Bart Corwin. Dennis Collins was beaten al- most to death and made to give up the little money he had, by two men. The men were tracked to Bellevue, and Mr. Collins was put in a bed, he being unable to sit up in consequence of the beating he had received, and taken to Bellevue with an oxteam, and positively identified the two men, who were arrested and tried. Some three of that good man Brown's friends swore positively that they had played cards with the prisoners all night the night of the robbery. Mr. Collins had to return home without his money, and the robbers went unpunished.
Mr. Corwin had a family of little children and a sick wife, who died a few months after his arrival. He had no money, but had a good team of horses. A couple of men came along and he sold them his horses so he could buy some of the necessaries of life, and they paid him every penny in counterfeit money. He followed them to Bellevue and found his horses in Brown's stable, and Brown refused to give them up, and told him to hike out or he would get into trouble claiming other people's horses-that they were not and never had been his. So he had to go home to his motherless children without horses or one penny in money, and right here permit me to say as a citizen of Jackson, who has lived a long time among you and know of these things, that it grieves me to think that any writer will write anything that reflects upon the good name of Captain Warren for the part he played in ridding Jackson county of that good man Brown and his gang.
One other of the early settlers created quite a sensation, which it will per- haps be well for me to mention, and that is John Jonas. He took up a claim where the stone comes to the top of the ground in places and there is iron ore among the stone. Jonas made it known to the world that he had great copper diggings. He went to St. Louis and induced a number of families to come to his copper mines, built quite a house and rigged some kind of smelting works, got some expert smel- ters, and when he found he could not get any copper he salted it with copper. The place was known for miles as the Copper Diggings. Copper Creek was named for it. The result was when the people came to know how they had been hum- bugged, Jonas was gone, and some of the families were so poor they could not get away, and settled and made good homes, and in after years their curses of Jonas were turned to praises.
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But if I don't stop right here I shall get my name in the papers as a writer of ancient history. At another time I told my political history about Bill Dunlap naming his famous bull Sir Charles, and what a fellow he was to bellow. And now in conclusion, permit me to say something about the present. I am like the young man who went the first time to see his girl. He was invited into the parlor and took a seat in the opposite corner from where the girl sat, and after some twenty minutes said, "I am glad I am here." After some time the girl said, "I am glad you are here." My friends I am glad I am here today, and I believe there are some here who are glad I am here, for as the years pass the old settlers keep dropping out and the ties of friendship grow stronger with us who are left, and these gatherings are oases in the desert of life.
We come here and we leave at home our nationality, our politics, the sectarian part of our religion, forget for a time our business perplexities. We meet as a band of brothers. The object is to have a good time, to renew acquaintances, to talk over old times, and there is something in these meetings that will teach the young to remember us after we have passed over the river; and when I look over an assembly of people made up of old and young, meeting in this beautiful city, surrounded by so many beautiful homes, and remember that God has saved my life and permitted me to see it all brought about by the energy of the early settlers who by their untiring efforts have transformed this once wilderness, one through which the wild man roamed, to one of the best cultivated and productive parts of earth, peopled by loving and happy people, it is a happy thought for me to know that although it is little that I have done, I have been present while these things have been brought about, and that I am in good health and permitted to be present at this meeting, and I hope that these gatherings will continue. They are of lasting benefit to the country. They help such men as Harvey Reid, J. W. El- lis, and Farmer Buckhorn write and prepare history to be handed down to future generations. They help us to forget our trials and troubles. They make us forget that we are old, and make us feel young and for a time help us to live over our lives. They help us to break down caste. They help us to drive away malice, hatred and ill will toward one another. They help us to use charity, love, virtue, patience, temperance, Godliness and brotherly kindness for the possession of which an abundant entrance is promised us into the everlasting kingdom.
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