USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 78
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A short distance from the last building named stood a respectable frame dwell- ing, since destroyed by fire, but then owned and occupied by Ulyses Steen as a dwelling and hotel ; on the river bank opposite were two frame buildings, one being the old storehouse at the public landing, across the street southeast of Geo. Laing's residence, built by Wm. Hubbel, and a short distance south was a two story frame residence. And lastly on the southeast corner of Quarry street, stood a large rambling frame building, frequently called "Wood's Castle," then owned and oc- cupied by James Wood and family, ancestors of the late E. A. and Jerry Wood. Not one of the above named remains today ( 1906) to mark the passing of pioneer days.
Returning to the north end of the then village, there were on Pearl street, first, the brick dwelling house built by William Cameron (who was afterward drowned in the river by the sinking of a flatboat loaded with wood) standing on the corner now occupied by Henry Cohrt's dwelling. South of this was all open ground until we came to Dominy's blacksmith shop, a rough board shanty stand-
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ing on the ground now covered by Busch's meat market, Goos' barber shop and Dallagher's cigar factory. At the rear of this shop this worthy son of Vulcan made his charcoal for the forge fire, burning cords of wood at a time for that purpose, the escaping gases floating through town filling the houses and the nos- trils of their inmates with odors very different from those of "Araby the blest."
Adjoining this shop, was a wagon shop presided over by our pioneer towns- man, Fred Schramling, who took in payment for his work what he could get, "just to accommodate," sometimes cash, sometimes produce, and at least once, stocking yarn. He used for his work native timber, seasoned as well as circum- stances would permit. A little further south in the same block was a goodly ap- pearing dwelling, not altogether finished, the enterprising individual who started it leaving for parts unknown and forgetting to pay his debts. One of his victims levied upon the house and sold it to our pioneer preacher, Rev. Oliver Emerson, the purchase money being raised by subscription. The building was moved south on to the lot now occupied by M. Gohlmann's handsome home, and fitted up for a residence on the first floor, the second story used for church services, being reached by an outside stairway. On the lot next to where the building first stood, was a small one story house, owned and occupied by one Miller. South of this and on the east side of the street stood a one story frame building owned and occupied by J. S. Dominy, who some years later moved it to the rear, and erected a stone residence in front of it, being the building now occupied by Miss Eliza Moss, a daughter of Mrs. Dominy by a former husband.
Across the street stood a small one and a half story frame residence, which later was greatly enlarged and became the "Western Hotel" and is now the resi- dence of the late Geo. Bryant and Mr. Freede. The next south was a frame resi- dence owned by James Hudson, on the lot now occupied by Mrs. Thos. Scarbor- ough's home. Then came the frame residence on lot 3 in the same block, which has just recently been overhauled and rebuilt by E. S. Day for a tenement house.
The residence on the corner of Pearl and Washington streets, now occupied by Walter Willett, came next, while in the middle of the same block was another small frame residence. Just north of Busch's meat market was a large frame residence, then owned and occupied by E. A. Wood, while on the opposite corner south was the same building that occupies the site at the present time, then owned by Wm. Hubbel, but for many years past the property of Mrs. M. E. Tucker, of Milwaukee.
This house, although not very pretentious at the present time, was in 1843 the ultima thule, the ne plus ultra of Pearl street. From that point south all was va- cant. West on Broad street, on the lot south of S. E. Day's residence, was a frame building occupied by old Mr. Hudson. The next residence was three blocks north; Thos. Marshall had just erected a large frame residence, which was, many years later, transformed into a modern home by A. J. Copp, and is now oc- cupied by O. A. Manning. One house three blocks further north completed and ended Broad street.
There was also a small shanty looking building just northwest of the present location of the Milwaukee depot, but all the rest of the town site was a "vast howling wilderness," with not a vestige of street, highway or improvement being visible. There was no church nor schoolhouse, nor even a graveyard. There was no butcher shop, no barber nor bakery shop, nor grocery store, but whiskey was abundant. The only available gristmill was Hubbel's, later owned by the Dickinsons, and that of Luther Bowen, two miles east of Savanna.
(In the list of "living actors in the busy scenes of those days" in Charleston, as written by Dr. Sugg, L. H. Steen is the only one living today and he was a small boy at the time.)
At the period of which this paper speaks, a growth of tall, luxuriant grasses covered every spot of untimbered low lying lands adjacent to the village. Im- mediately west of town the grass grew so tall that a man on horseback passing from Sabula westward on the traveled road, couldn't see men making hay,
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though only a few rods distant, the grass being from five to eight feet high, and indeed it has been known, by actual measurement, to reach ten feet high in some places.
A triweekly mail between Dubuque and Davenport was our best mail service in those days, and it took a full week to correspond with Andrew, the then place of county business. The postoffice was kept at the private house of William Hubbel, and the arrangements of the office consisted of twenty small pigeon holes.
When death visited the little community and had chosen its victim, the cost of funeral (including a black walnut coffin with a raised lid) seldom exceeded six dollars-five dollars being the price of the coffin-a wagon was used for a hearse and, with all the attending vehicles, was furnished gratis by the owner.
1843-4-5, a quarter of beef would glut the market, and a single hog of mod- erate size could not find a purchaser. Two cents a pound for forequarter of beef and three cents for hind ones, was the ruling price, and pork, when it could be sold or traded at all, brought two or three cents a pound. Town lots were freely traded (there was no disposition to pay cash) at from five to ten dollars each, and merchantable produce had to find a cash purchaser at Galena, there being no other market. In 1844 the writer (Dr. J. G. Sugg) sold in Galena a five year old steer, a five year old Durham cow, and a good four year old scrub cow for thirty dollars for the lot, and spent four days in going and returning. At this time a fairly good cow with a young calf sold for from nine dollars to ten dol- lars. Money was at that time and for some years later, loaned at from twenty to twenty-five per cent. and yet the law was quite as severe against usury then as it is now.
Leaving town and going northward, there were but nine farms between this place and Clark's Ferry, namely : Carroll's, McCabe's, Cavanaugh's, Thos. Scar- borough's, Plunket's, McMahon's, Newberry's, Campbell Caldwell's, Park's, on the Maquoketa bottom. Returning to the road going west there was the farm for many years owned by J. G. Sugg, now owned by the estate of the late George W. Bryant. On this farm Dr. Sugg had a story and a half hewn log house, a log barn covered with hay, and about six acres under cultivation. To the west, on what is now the N. C. White farm, was a rough log cabin and a few acres of cul- tivated land that was held as a claim by Arthur Mullen. Next on the road was Andrew Smith's, now occupied by Peter Schroeder. Next, the claim of W. B. Beebe, now owned by John Kunau. The next was James Westbrook's farm now owned and occupied by Martin Harmsen.
Adjoining this on the west was a place then claimed by one Shay, now the Jerry Bruce farm. The next one was the farm now owned by Theodore Rod- den, of which but a few acres was under cultivation. From this farm to the little patch claimed by Bart Gorwin on the waters of Copper Creek-a distance of more than three miles, was, as far as eye could reach, an unbroken wilderness, no trace of improvement visible on either side, and wolves fearlessly traveled on the road at noonday. When Thomas Pope halted near the township line, since called Mount Algor, and began to prepare for a residence, people wondered at his temer- ity in settling at such a place and essaying to make a farm so far from timber, springs, or running stream. From Corwin's to Deep Creek there were six small farms, one of them a mere "bachelor's nest." What is now known as Van Buren, then called "Buckeye," contained but nine farms from the Maquoketa Road north to the valley of the river of that name, while the country lying to the south of the road and east of Copper Creek was destitute of settlement, and what is now Miles and the adjacent country was known as "the prairie near the big spring west of Green's."
Returning to the west road and taking the one leading south through Canada Hollow, the first improvement encountered was a little shanty with a few acres broken, owned by B. Hudson on Section 24, 84-6. The next was a small frame house where Joseph Doty, then a single man, lived and farmed the adjoining land.
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This place is now owned by J. J. Summerville. Next was a hewn log house be- longing to James Canfield. A little further south and east lived Peter Schram- ling and family, and a short distance to the west, on the same creek, known as Schramling Creek, lived or stayed that jovial and hearty pioneer, Joseph McElroy. Here in his chosen locality at the foot of a bold bluff, lived our friend in single blessedness and where, like Alexander Selkirk, he was monarch of all he surveyed.
His abode was well known to the settlers south of him, and although a tem- perate man himself, he has "many times and oft" saved from almost certain death by freezing, his inebriated acquaintances of Clinton county, who, unconscious of their condition and consequent danger, perhaps gave him a call or a shout as they wended their way home. (Joseph McElroy passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. J. F. Schramling, in this city, on February 19, 1906, and was the last of those sturdy pioneers who are mentioned in this article, and he still owned the farm referred to above at the time of his death.
From this pioneer dwelling to Hauntown (except a few acres lower down the creek, on what was called the Hudson claim, and an unfinished building on land now owned by Louis Hundevard) the all conquering ax or civilized plow had left no trace. Hauntown was unborn. The place had two small houses and there was an unfinished structure intended by a man named Barber for a hemp mill.
Again returning to the west, or Maquoketa road, and leaving it at the crossing of Elk Creek and following that stream southward, the first building encountered was a frame on what is now the farm of Nelson Kimball, but where at that time lived George F. Green and family, including the Kimballs, then men but unmar- ried. The next along the creek was H. G. Crary's farm, and still further south but adjoining, was that of George Hollis, both farms in later years being owned by Bodie.
With the exception of a small field on the land now owned by Hans Jess and a small one in Clinton county then claimed by a man named Wilson, later owned by Robert Walker and now the property of John Thompson, all land, right or left, was open and unclaimed. In closing his article Dr. Sugg says: "Although the foregoing description of the condition of Sabula and the surrounding country in 1843, may not be minutely and in every particular strictly accurate, yet it is believed to be substantially true, and that pioneers who survive and peruse it, will recognize the faithfulness of the picture, and fully endorse the statements therein made."
REMINISCENCES.
W. R. Oake.
Editor Gazette: As our esteemed friend and historian of Jackson county, Chas. Wykoff, of Van Buren, has frequently written every interesting articles of pioneer days of Jackson county, articles that have been very interesting and very widely read by the readers of your very valuable paper, I therefore contribute my mite as food for the future historian. While not claiming in the full sense of the word to be a pioneer, there are but few now living in this vicinity that have been here longer. On the 16th day of May, 1852, my parents with a family of seven children left the shores of old England, embarking at Liverpool on the good sailing vessel "Warbler," and after an uneventful and monotonous fifty- three days on the Atlantic Ocean, landed at New Orleans, July 8, 1852. The late Wm. Ward and family, consisting of himself, his wife and six children, came over with us, landing as we did in New Orleans, in midsummer with cholera and scarlet fever raging. It was almost miraculous that we escaped its ravages. We remained in New Orleans two days, then we took a steamboat for the north. While en route to St. Louis, the youngest child of Wm. Ward, the only girl in the family and a bright little child of two years, was taken sick with the cholera and
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died. Arriving at the quarantine grounds a few miles below St. Louis, we were held there several days until all fear of any further cases of diseases of a con- tagious nature arising were dispelled by the healthy condition of the passengers. We were then allowed to proceed on our way to St. Louis. On arriving at the latter place we remained there two days awaiting the sailing of the steamer "Brunette," which was then running between St. Louis and St. Paul, and I sup- pose there are few now living in Sabula who remember that palatial steamer.
The trip from St. Louis to Sabula on that fine steamer will ever remain vividly in my mind. It appears that the day the "Brunette" left St. Louis another steamer whose name I have forgotten, also started, and as there was rivalry between the two boats it was a continual race, both boats using the most com- bustible material that they could get to produce steam, and at times it seemed that every plank would shake and tremble by the working of the powerful machinery. I little above Le Claire, Iowa, the "Brunette" took the lead and its competitor was soon lost to view. Having distanced its rival the steamer proceeded more leisurely, and on the 30th day of July we arrived at our destination. At that time the boat landing was just above the old packing house, where the residence of Geo. F. Laing now stands, that corner then being occupied by the frame store building of E. A. Wood, which was removed quite recently and now used as a barn by Geo. F. Laing.
Those were the halcyon days of steamboating on the Father of Waters, there being no competing lines of railroads and no bridges crossing the river to impede the passage of the boats. The traffic of the Mississippi Valley from New Orleans to St. Paul was done exclusively by the fine line of steamers that traversed the entire length of that mighty stream. These were indeed profitable days for steam- boating and also for the earlier settlers along the river, by giving them employment in the way of cutting cordwood and ranking it along the banks of the river to be used as fuel by the many crafts that were continuously passing up and down. In those days there was but very little coal used as fuel and in traversing the river, every few miles hundreds of cords of wood could be seen ranked along its banks ready for the boats whenever they should require it. I think it was cus- tomary for a steamboat when in want of fuel to land at some woodyard and take what was needed, whether the owner was there or not, an account being kept of the amount taken and settled for later on.
The first home we resided in upon our arrival at Sabula was the Marshall house, as it was called at that time. It has since been remodeled and is now owned by A. J. Copp. This was in the fall and winter of 1852-3. In the spring of 1853 father rented eighty acres of land of Dr. Westbrook, who is well re- membered by all the old residents. Forty acres of this was timber land, about two miles west of Sabula, and of the other forty acres about thirty were tillable. It was later owned by W. Wirt. On the timber about eighty rods south of Squire Samuel Clark's place, in a ravine close to a fine spring, was the farm residence to which we moved, a true description of which I feel unequal to give, but will say it was a log structure (very common in those days) and while it might not have been as palatial in appearances as the more modern residences of Senator Lambert or Captain N. C. White, both of which are models of archi- tectural beauty, I think it was just as convenient, for while the above mentioned residences are supplied with separate compartments, our residence consisting of kitchen, dining room, parlor and bath, were combined all in one room, whereby the inmates were saved the laborious work of opening and closing doors in going from one apartment to another. In all modern residences it is very annoying to have the dust accumulate in cracks of the floors, this in our case was avoided. Our sleeping apartments were situated in the attic of the building and were easy of access, being reached by a pole ladder with slats nailed across it, which was in one corner of the room. After retiring we could pull up the ladder and all means of travel between the two compartments were removed.
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Not only very convenient in respect to getting from one part to the other without the opening and closing of doors, from a sanitary standpoint it was more healthy than dwellings of more modern date. It was covered with what was called skates in those days. Those building residences would select a fine straight grained oak tree and cutting its trunk into three foot lengths would then by using a frow split them into shingles and lay them lengthwise on the roof as common shingles are laid, but being of oak they would soon warp and in a few years you could see through the roof in a dozen places.
Many a time in the winter of 1853 have I lain in bed in the attic of that log cabin and watched through the roof the stars twinkling in the heavens and it was no uncommon thing to awake in the morning after a fall of snow to find an inch of snow covering the bed clothes. But as I have previously said it made our place of habitation more healthy, allowing all impure air egress through the roof, thus saving us the bother of opening and closing windows. Our cabin was also supplied with a furnace. Not the new fangled furnace of the present date but the good old sensible ones that would hold anywhere from one quarter to a half a cord of wood and would not only give heat to all parts of the building but would make the interior as light as day, putting to blush the expensive artificial light of the present time. I remember one very cold night during that winter we had quite a young calf and my father was afraid it would freeze during the night if he left it out in the storm so he brought it in the cabin and tied it near the fire- place and I can tell you, my gentle readers, talk about sweet anthems or Sousa's band, they were not in it. That calf kept that sweet refrain up all night and I don't believe it missed a single note, but since that time I have not been very partial to instrumental music.
Great changes have taken place in the face of the country since that time and one leaving the country at that time and after a lapse of fifty years again seeing it would hardly know it. Then it was covered with heavy timber which has mostly been cleared and in its place finely cultivated farms appear and in many instances every vestige of the stumpage of that fine body of timber has disap- peared. Game was also very abundant, deer and wild turkey being more abun- dant than the common rabbit at the present time. I well remember of once see- ing twenty-seven deer in one drove, and one morning my father went out early to feed the oxen-we had no horses those days-and he came running back for his gun and soon returned with a wild turkey.
During the summer of 1853 our family was troubled with ague most of the time, not being acclimated, and more or less malaria, as in all the new countries. Some member of the family was shaking all the time and we were constantly calling on Dr. J. G. Sugg, who then lived on the farm, for quinine, and we used so much of it, that our cabin won the sobriquet of Phil Hall.
While on this place I saw the first threshing machine we had seen in America, and has long since gone out of date. It was called the Traveling Machine. You would hitch a team to it as you would to a wagon, drive up and take on board about a dozen shocks of grain and then start the team and this would start the machinery and keep going, scattering the straw all over the field and when all on board was threshed would load and start again until the whole crop was threshed. While it did not thresh quite as fast as the steam thresher of the present time it was all right in those days of small crops, but anyone contemplating going up in the Red River country and engaging extensively in raising wheat I would not advise them to buy the ancient traveling threshing machine.
In those days there were more oxen used than horses. A yoke of well broken oxen were worth one hundred dollars, and while some of the young steers were easily broken, others were wild and it required patience and time to subdue them. One instance in particular I now recall. The late Chas. Briggs, his father, who will be remembered by the older residents of our city, and John and James Elsden, two young men who came from England with the Briggs' in 1851, bought a pair of wild and unbroken steers of the late James McCabe and taking a yoke with
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them one day, went out to the McCabe place with the intention of catching and yoking them up. Driving them into a yard they finally got ropes on them and succeeded in putting yokes on. At that time all south and east of the McCabe place for half a mile was dense thickets of plum, crab apple and other trees and almost impenetrable. After getting the yoke on the steers they opened the gate and let them out, thinking that they could hold them by the long rope tied round their horns. No sooner were the steers out than they gave a lunge and got away from the boys and made for the timber, and strange it may appear, they hunted for days and were unable to find them and finally gave it up. About ten days after this occurred, on going out to his barn, Mr. McCabe discovered one of the steers drinking at a drinking place near the barn and from the emaciated condition of the animal it was evident that it was almost starved and had but recently re- leased itself from the yoke. McCabe at once sent word to the boys in town who came out at once and renewed the search for the other steer and about a week later found it, dead. It appears that in running through the thick brush the ropes became twisted around some trees and held them fast and had the key of the yoke not dropped and released one, both would have shared the same fate. The dead one had eaten all the brush in its reach before it succumbed to starvation.
Although not having the luxuries we are now having at the present age of the world, I think the early settlers fully enjoyed themselves as well as at the present time, as they were all on about an equality. While they might not have been able to dress as well nor ride in as fine a carriage as the majority do at the present time, they generally managed to get enough to eat, such as it was. Corn bread and pork with a liberal supply of game, which was very abundant. In those days the bottom lands back of Sabula as well as the islands would teem with thousands of ducks, and geese, and it would require no very expert marks- man with the guns of today to kill a wagon load in one day. Game that in- habited the uplands were equally as plentiful, such as deer, turkeys, pheasants, quail, and prairie chickens, and it would be impossible to go half a mile without finding one or the other. I remember one morning, in 1853, that the late Isaac Esmay, who then resided in an old log house that stood on the high bank about one hundred and fifty yards from the road just west of the Reardon sand pit, came to our house and wanted my father to go on a deer hunt with him. During the night there had been a fall of about one foot of snow and it was an ideal morning for the sport. While Esmay was considered a good rifle shot, father had never been used to one, consequently was a very indifferent marks- man with that kind of a gun, although he owned a very good rifle for those times. While they were getting ready, I coaxed my father to let me go along. I was then in my tenth year, and was very anxious to see how they shot deer. Leaving the house we went north to near where Squire Clark's house now stands, where we struck the fresh tracks of two deer, which were headed in a northwest direction. We followed the tracks to within about a half mile of the Graham farm, now owned by J. Bruce, when we heard the crack of a rifle in that direction. We stopped still as Esmay said some one had shot at the deer and unless killed, would in all probability, come back in our direction.
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