USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 62
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SURVIVORS OF THE FIRST PIONEERS.
The only persons now living of this first band of pioneers who came with the company, are George Sutherland, then sixteen years old, and his sister, Mrs. Catherine Moses, children of John Sutherland, the former yet living in Scotch Grove and the latter at Center Junction.
OTHER PIONEERS.
In 1838, Donald and Ebenezer Sutherland and Donald Sinclair came. And in 1840, they were followed by Donald and John Livingston, and David Esson.
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The hardships of such a journey overland through practically an unbroken and unsettled country and wilderness, were such as makes heroes and heroines of those who braved themn. When the latter party reached the headwaters of the Mississippi, Mrs. Donald J.i ingston was too sick to stand the jolting of the springless carts. A raft was rudely constructed with limited shelter, and upon this the sick woman was placed in charge of her son about eighteen years old, and the raft and its occupants started down the river. The other members of the party continued their journey southward driving their cattle and carts. As they had to travel some miles back from the river, they could not keep track of the progress of the raft and its occupants. When they got down to St. Paul, which was then a small village, Paul Catherine, afterward Mrs. J. E. Holmes, and her sister, Margaret watched for a week from the bank of the river for the raft, not knowing whether it had passed or would ever come. On several occa- sions, Indian bands would shoot one or more of their cattle, which they could ill spare, but they dare not make any resistance.
Besides these people, there were James Livingston. Alexander Rose, Angus Matthieson who settled in the upper grove, near where Hopkinton is now located, while the McIntyres, and Campbells, James Matthieson and possibly others stopped on the east side of the Mississippi about opposite where Bellevue now stands.
The older people had emigrated from Caithness and Sutherlandshire in the north of Scotland under the patronage of Lord Selkirk to Manitoba, where the city of Winnipeg now is. In the struggles between the Hudson Bay and the Northwestern Fur Company, the settlers on the Red River found themselves like the wheat between the mill stones, severely handled from both sides. They had been promised the services of a Presbyterian minister by i.ord Selkirk. This promise he was either unable or unwilling to fulfill, possibly owing to the opposition of the Episcopal chaplain at the fort. Hence it was, that when Alexander McClain brought back a favorable report of the Maquoketa country beyond Dubuque, these Scotch people were ready to withdraw from the Red River country and make the long journey southward into the new and unbroken wilderness, and seek their fortunes anew.
When these early pioneers with their Celtic characteristics of resourceful- ness and the ability to do without that makes the race naturally pioneers, had finally reached their destination, the land has not been surveyed, and hence each one settled where they chose. The three brothers Donald, Ebenezer and Alexander Sutherland settled about a mile north of where the Presbyterian church now lifts its spire heavenward. John Sutherland and his ten boys and two girls located about the same distance east and north. All of them built their first log cabin within the shelter of the forest primeval. Game was plentiful and was depended on for meat. George Sutherland, whose memory of the early experiences reads like a novel, tells of their having sixteen deer hanging in their log smoke house at one time.
For the first few years, the nearest place where wheat or corn could be ground was at Catfish Creek, near Dubuque, thirty miles away, where Charles P. Hut- ton and sons had built a small gristmill, rather a primitive affair.
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THE FIRST DEATH.
The first death in the new settlement was Christie Sutherland, the young daughter of John Sutherland. She was buried about 1837, on the top of the ridge of land afterward owned by Hazen Clark. John Sutherland expected to enter this land, and in fact began the erection of a log house, but David Brim- ner succeeded in entering the land first. The Sutherlands were required to re- move the body of the girl which they did, reinterring it about half way between where John Fagan and Henry Carson now live. When the coffin was being raised, the box seemed unusually heavy, and upon investigation it was found that the body had become petrified with no visible change in its appearance.
The death of Mrs. Isabel Sutherland, the mother of Donald, Alexander and Ebenezer Sutherland and Mrs. McIntyre, occurred in 1839.
Donald Livingston took up land in the southwest part of the township ad- joining the quarter section that had been selected for a county seat under the congressional grant, and where the town of Edinburg began its struggle for existence. Eben Sutherland also settled in this locality and built the log cabin which was the first courthouse, and was allowed the sum of one hundred and forty dollars. The county commissioners met at the house of Donald Suther- land for the transaction of their business, as we find he was allowed six dol- lars for the use of a room for that purpose.
About two years after Donald Livingston's arrival, the son who had accom- panied his mother down the Mississippi on a raft, died, and was the first burial in the cemetery at Edinburg. Others of the Scotch who died were laid to rest in this cemetery until about the year 1852. After that date, the burials seem to have been made in the cemetery north of the Presbyterian church, and which is now the principal burying ground in the township.
OTHER IMMIGRANTS.
While the Highland Scotch were the first to settle in Scotch Grove, yet it was not long till the immigrants from Ohio and Pennsylvania began to arrive. In 1840, Otho Dawson entered the east eighty of the northwest quarter of section 15. In 1843, M. H. Hutton settled on the west eighty of the same quarter. In 1845, Lewis Dreibilbis, whose wife was Mary McIntyre one of the Highland Scotch, settled on what is now the Adam Sutherland estate farm. James Hutton, a son of Charles P. Hutton, who was one of the first county commissioners, settled on the eighty just west of Middleton Hutton in 1855. This is now owned by his grandson, J. W. Hutton. From 1850, the township filled up rapidly. The several families of Clark's, the Espy's, Mckean's, Glenn's, Gibson's, Overley's, Applegate's, Dawson's, Lovejoy's and other families came in the days of the pioneer. In 1860, the population numbered seven hundred and ninety-six.
THE MILLS.
In 1858, the Applegates who had come a year or so previously, built the gristmill now known as Eby's Mill on the Maquoketa River. Quite a business
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was done at this mill. Wheat was bought and ground, the flour was barrelled and hauled away to market. Later the firm of Applegate & Corbett operated the mill. In a few years, a sawmill was added. In 1875, Samuel Eby purchased the property, and ever since the plant has been known as Eby's Mill. Mr. Eby's son, Joseph Eby now runs the saw and gristmill and is ready to do work of any kind in his line on short notice.
As hereinbefore stated, the nearest mill where corn or wheat could be ground, was at Catfish Mill, owned by Charles P. Hutton, some twelve miles this side of Dubuque. About 1846, a saw and grist mill was built at Canton by John J. Tomlinson. This was a convenient place to have grinding done, and it was also a commercial center. Esau M. Franks, later the founder of Onslow, kept a store in Canton and took in wheat in trade and also bought for cash, usually paying forty or fifty cents a bushel. The settlers brought in their wheat and took home groceries. Mr. Franks had the wheat ground at the mill, put the flour in barrels and hauled it to Dubuque, where it was sold, the teams bringing back goods and supplies for the store.
The next gristmill was that of Jacob Bodenhofer's on Mineral Creek, at the lower end of the prairie. By 1875, the growing of wheat had about ceased and the flour used was mostly shipped in as it is now, in quarter barrel sacks. For several years after this, Samuel Eby shipped in wheat from points further west and ground the flour at his mill, supplying the surrounding towns for several years.
The first local sawmill was a water power built by Dale about 1847 or 1848, above the ford on the Maquoketa River, now known as Dale's Ford. Our infor- mant has no recollection of Mr. Dale himself and first remembers the mill as run by David Kenison, and he thinks a brother in 1852 or 1853. Also that a local Methodist preacher by the name of Frank Amos ran it awhile. Amos after- ward enlisted in Company H, Thirty-first Infantry, and was commissioned first lieutenant October 13, 1862. From 1861 to 1865, Matt Sackett lived at the ford and ran the mill. In the June freshet of 1865, the river rose seventeen feet within a few hours, and the dam and mill were swept away, and was never rebuilt.
J. P. Tibbits had a sawmill about 1860 about five miles above Dale's Mill. But this mill was washed away in the famous rain of July 4, 1876. This mill stood on the premises now owned by Samuel Fluckiger.
All the early sawmills were of the Mulay or Jigg saw type, and were only larger, stronger and thicker than the whip-saw and cut only on the down stroke. A thousand feet of lumber being a good day's work. With the inven- tion of the rotary or circular saw driven by steam, it became possible to make boards in sufficient quantities to be used for fencing. About 1858, J. H. Fuller and brothers brought in a steam mill and located it in the north east part of the township on a tract of land known as the Fuller Bottoms, later owned by Robert Clark, D. O. Sinclair and Pat Fagan. An immense amount of lum- ber, especially fencing boards, was sawed at this mill. With the drift of settle- ment toward the prairie, the need of such fencing material came to be a neces- sity. During this demand for fencing, the price of timberland advanced so that land which had been entered from the government for seventy-five cents
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an acre, in the later '6os sold for as high as thirty to forty dollars an acre. With the advent of barbed wire for fencing, the demand for fence lumber practically ceased, and the price of timber land dropped from thirty to forty dollars an acre to as low as twelve to fifteen dollars per acre, though the heavy original timber had been removed. The first wire fence was built by John E. Holmes and was built by boring holes through the posts, and stringing large smooth wire through the holes, and then applying barbs to the wire with a pair of barbing tongs or pincers.
Norton had a sawmill during the war just west of the Sand Hill Macadam road on land now owned by J. W. Hutton. D. W. Sutherland also had a steam sawmill at the same place a few years later. This outfit was sold to John Gibson at Monticello and used to run his brick and tile factory.
SCOTCH GROVE WATER SUPPLY.
While this township may be said to flow with milk and produces a consider- able quantity of honey, yet it is not a land of rippling brooks or bubbling springs. There is only one real spring in the township, and that one being the McCoy spring on the premises now owned by Henry Ahrnken.
In the early days of settlement, water was easily procured by digging from six to ten feet in almost any draw. It was seldom that these wells were walled up, as it was easier to dig another well, if the old one filled in, than to wall it up. As the land was broken up for cultivation, the soil dried out and the water level sunk until it was very common for a dug and walled well to be from thirty to forty feet in depth. The river and the creeks were depended on to water the stock that had the free range of the timber land, and the unoccupied prairie until the passage of the herd law in the '80s.
The year 1873 was dry, and the year following, even more so, the rain fall for four months after the snow melted in the spring, being but little over six inches. The shallow wells soon went dry. The sloughs became solid. In fact the only place where water in any quantity could be obtained was at the river or McCoy's spring. Hundreds of cattle were watered there every day, and the farmers brought barrels and cans to take home water for home use. Deep wells were then bored and drilled, and within ten years nearly all the farms were provided with some kind of a deep well and wind-mill. In the work of drilling, James Forsythe was a pioneer, and this same man is yet engaged in this same occupation. His work has given universal satisfaction. His home is yet at Onslow.
JOHN E. LOVEJOY.
It might not be improper and out of place to mention the name of John E. Lovejoy as one of the important characters of the pioneer life of this town- ship. He was a brother of Elijah P. Lovejoy, the noted abolitionist who was murdered by a mob at Alton, Illinois, in 1837. John E. Lovejoy was learning the printer's trade in this office at the time of the death of his brother. He was born at Albion, Maine, in 1817. In 1839, he came to Clay township, and in 1841, he settled in Scotch Grove township, where he married a daughter of
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Donald Livingston, the well known Highland Scotch pioneer. In 1850, we find him living on the Donald Sutherland farm, managing it for Mrs. Sutherland, who was his wife's sister, while Mr. Sutherland went to California in search of gold. About the year following, he bought the east eighty acres of what. is now the M. M. Sinclair farm, and he was appointed postmaster of the Scotch Grove postoffice. In August, 1850, he assisted The Anamosa Eureka in its early organization.
In 1861, Mr. Lovejoy was appointed United States consul to Peru, which position he filled for nearly four years. Upon his appointment to this position, Robert Espy, Sr., was appointed postmaster and the office kept on his premises where G. J. Hughes now lives. When the railroad was built, Mr. Lovejoy be- came the first station agent, and he was soon transferred to Center Junction, where he died June 5, 1889, and his body laid to rest in the Presbyterian ceme- tery at Scotch Grove. He was a man of influence and ability, of strong con- victions and a fluent pen.
THE SCHOOLS.
The first school of which any record has been found, was held for a short time in a small log building on the E. Sutherland farm, near the creek by a man named Loper. During the year that Rev. F. A. Pratt preached for the church in 1849-1850, Mrs. Pratt taught school in a room of the house of E. Sutherland. Both of these schools were select schools. About this time a log school was built at the center of section 15, on land that had been entered by Otho Dawson in 1840. The first teacher in this school was a Mr. Chandler.
In 1853 and 1854, we find M. O. Felton instructing the young hopeful citi- zens in the rudiments of education, and we believe he was the first teacher to be paid for his services out of public money in the township. Mr. Felton taught three months in the log schoolhouse mentioned, and then because of the numerous scholars and the limited room, the remaining two months school was held in the Presbyterian church, which stood on the ground now used for the cemetery. Mr. Felton is now living at Center Junction, ripe in years, rich in friends and a splendid citizen. The school directors were: William Overly, J. C. Overly and Lucian Fitch. There were sixty scholars enrolled at this time, and Mr. Felton received the sum of sixteen dollars a month and "boarded around." In 1856 or 1857, Ben Gaut and his wife taught a select school in this same church building.
School number five, or Center School was built in 1860. Newell Austin was the carpenter who performed the mechanical work in its erection; John D. Sullivan, of Cascade, hauled the lining lumber from Monticello in five loads ; the first teacher was George Hill.
At the same time Adam Sutherland taught school in the Yellow school, north of Johnsontown, and a Mr. Johnson taught in number eight, the same winter.
Spelling schools were the rage in those days, and if the young people, as well as the older population did not learn to spell, it was not due to the lack of practice and opportunity to learn. And it must be frankly acknowledged that the scholars of that day were superior spellers.
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In 1868, the school population of the township numbered about two hun- dred an sixty. Number one at Fuller's Mill, had nineteen, J. H. Fuller, teacher ; number three or Rocky Ridge, with C. L. Overly teacher, had twenty-five; num- ber four or the Slough school, with C. B. McKean teacher, had forty; Miss Anna Apthorp at number five had forty-five; Miss Norcross at number six, the Yellow school, had thirty-four; Miss Lydia Clark taught thirty-six pupils at number seven; Emanuel Beckwith struggled with thirty-six pupils at number eight; Miss Mary Jane Carey at number nine, had twenty-three scholars.
SCOTCH GROVE IN THE CIVIL WAR.
The people of Scotch Grove have a reputation for patriotism and loyal citi- zenship second to none in Jones county. The war records show that this town- ship had no drafted men in the Civil War, and in fact the township already had more men in the volunteer service than was their quota. At the first call of President Lincoln, men sprung up from all sides ready to sacrifice their lives, if necessary to preserve the Union. As an instance of the patriotic devotion of the people, it is reported that just after the battle of Bull Run, a war meeting was held in what is now known as Nick Holtz's grove when a number of the boys urged David Magee to organize a company to go to the front. After conferring with his wife who told him to do whatever he thought was his duty, he picked up the flag, stepped into the road and said: "All who are willing to enlist follow me," and thirty of the brave sons of Scotch Grove followed him, and formed the start of Company D, Ninth Iowa, David Magee being com- missioned first lieutenant. One of this company was John Sutherland (nick- named Paradise Sutherland, from his happy disposition), who was promoted to first lieutenant, March 15, 1863; another was Francis C. McKean, who enlisted as first sergeant, and was promoted second lieutenant, July 9, 1862, and com- missioned captain, February 15, 1863. Seven others later enlisted in this com- pany D, in all thirty-seven men.
This Company D was the second company to go to the front from Jones county. Those who have read of the battles of Pea Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Vicksburg and Sherman's March to the Sea, in which the gallant Ninth saw valiant service, know that this company had abundant opportunity to experience what real, cold, bloody war meant. The killed and wounded of this company are named below.
Scotch Grove also furnished forty-two men for Company H. Thirty-first Iowa Infantry. One of these was First Lieutenant Franklin Amos, who had been a Methodist minister. This regiment was mustered in at Davenport, Octo- ber 13, 1862, and saw about the same service as the Fourteenth. The Soldiers' Monument dedicated at Monticello, May 31, 1909, the gift of Major S. S. Far- well, was erected especially in memory of the boys of this company.
With the call for one hundred day men, the need seemed so imperative that the president of Lenox College at Hopkinton, Rev. James W. Mckean, organ- ized a company from the students, all enlisting except one who was too young and of the nineteen from Jones county in this company, Scotch Grove furnished twelve men. The president. Rev. James W. Mckean, was commissioned captain.
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when the regiment, the Fourty-fourth, was mustered into service at Davenport, June 1, 1864. This Forty-fourth did garrison duty mostly.
Scotch Grove had men in other companies and regiments. Provost Marshal Hall's record shows that at the time of the president's call for five hundred thousand men, that Scotch Grove already had one hundred and three men in service, twenty more than her quota up to that time. Five more enlisted making her enlistment one hundred and eight.
AN ENLISTMENT INCIDENT.
As an incident that shows the feeling in regard to the Rebellion, it is stated that when a young man went to Rev. Mckean to purchase a horse for service in the Cavalry, Mr. Mckean said he had no horse to sell, but if the horse was needed for the war, he would give him the horse. And Rev. Mckean was ready to give not only a horse, but encouraged his sons to enlist, which three of them did, Captain Frank, Rev. James W. and C. B. or Beatty. The senior Rev. Mckean had himself served in the War of 1812. It is also related of him that when a rebel flag was hung out at a farm house in the neighborhood to indicate the owner's opinions, the old veteran took immediate opportunity to inform Mr. Farmer that if the rebel flag continued to hang, there would be a man hanging with it. The flag disappeared.
The Highland Scotch were not behind in the matter of enlistments. Four of John Sutherland's sons, John J., Morrison, William and Adam; two of the Dreibilbis boys, John A. and Jacob; two of the three sons of Alexander Suth- erland, Donald and John, being included.
NAMES OF SOLDIERS WHO ENLISTED FROM SCOTCH GROVE.
The following are the names of the soldiers who enlisted in the War of the Rebellion from Scotch Grove: John Sutherland, William W. Sutherland, Adam Sutherland, Morrison Sutherland. Donald Sutherland, D. W. Sutherland, Gust Dreibilbis, Jacob Dreibilbis. C. W. Hawley, Philander Hutton, Harvey Johnson, William Johnson, Daniel McBeth, David Cook, A. Cook, John Cross, John In- gram, Arson Holmes, John P. Callahan, James Miller, Richard Applegate, William Black, William Clark, Lewis Clark, Albert Clark. M. A. Watson, Thomas W. Sweesy, Matthias Sweesy, Captain David F. Magee, F. M. Magee. John C. Magee, David A. Perrine, J. Hunter, Samuel Nelson, William Nelson, Robert D. Nelson. Mervin Nelson, M. J. Nelson, S. J. Nelson. George Carst, William Campbell, William Lightfoot, Samuel Co- overt, Edward Coovert, Andrew J. McFry, James Overley, Henry Overley, James Bridges, C. Darling. Samuel Williamson, Bently, Abner Stofer, Rolland Glenn, C. B. Mckean, Captain Frank Mckean, Miles Corbett, Robert Hawn, William Fuller, Charles Fuller, Samuel Fuller, David Ennis, James Ervin. Thomas Ervin, Ed Hoyt, Robert Espy, J. W. Mckean, James Wright, Benjamin Jarrett, Richard McDonald, George Foster, James Cassady, Andrew Cassady, Charles Murphy, Shull, William Barnhill, William Glenn, Samuel Glenn, A. H. Himebaugh, George F. Himebaugh,
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Robert Filson, Zadock Moore, Oscar Moorehouse, Eph Dubois, Robert Barn- hill, David Inches, Freeman Brady, Alex Bugh, Captain David Harper, joseph. Burdick, Fred Gilbert, Thomas Scott, Isaac White, William Batton, Micita .. ] Green, Jacob Byers, James Conklin, Isaac Charles, William Dixon, Charles Dock- stader, Amos Gilbert, Charles Gridley, J. C. Nichols, A. D. Nichols, Newman Remington, E. Remington, F. Ross, B. Stewart, Charles Carter, George Foster, J. C. Fitch, John B. Gerrett, M. M. Kenny, M. H. Ranken, Benjamin Foust, John Dawson, Owen D. Lovejoy, Byron Merwin.
NAMES OF SOLDIERS BURIED IN SCOTCH . GROVE CEMETERY.
War of 1812: Rev. James McKean, Charles Hutton; War of the Rebellion : Henry D. Hanna, John A. Dreibilbis, Jacob Dreibilbis, Thomas L. Young, F. W. Houser, Samuel Marion Nelson, Nelson McBride, E. A. Prouty, Cyprian Hun- ter, Morrison Sutherland, John O. Callahan, Harvey M. Johnson, Lieutenant John Sutherland, Lewis Clark, Adam Sutherland, Thomas Marshall, James Espy, Captain Frank Mckean.
MEMBERS OF COMPANY D, KILLED OR WOUNDED IN SERVICE.
Following are those members of Company D, of the Ninth Regiment of Iowa Volunteers, who were either wounded or died in the army during the service. A large number of the members of this company were recruited from Scotch Grove:
Alexander Beatty, Monticello, wounded at Pea Ridge.
Isaiah Boyer, Monticello, wounded at Pea Ridge, March 7, 1862, and died one week later of his wounds.
Michael Breen, Monticello, wounded at Pea Ridge.
Eli Boucher, Wyoming, wounded at Pea Ridge.
Joseph Burdick, Monticello, wounded at Pea Ridge and afterwards wounded severely at Vicksburg.
J. L. Byers, Monticello, wounded at Vicksburg.
Andrew Carter, Monticello, wounded at Pea Ridge, died of his wounds and is buried in the National cemetery, at Springfield, Missouri.
James P. Cassady, Johnsontown ; wounded at Pea Ridge.
Isaac N. Charles, Monticello; wounded at Pea Ridge.
William Clark, Scotch Grove; died April 16, 1862, and is buried in the National cemetery, at Springfield, Missouri.
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