USA > Iowa > Madison County > History of Madison County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 22
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BRIDGE WARRANTS
Warrants 1909
.$21,861.20
Warrants 1910 32,475.61
Warrants 1911 32,775.69
Warrants 1912.
35,143.12
Warrants 1913.
20,726.15
RAILROADS
The main line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad passes through two of the northern townships of Madison County and a branch runs from Des Moines to the county seat. The Omaha line reached the present Town of Earlham late in the year 1868 and was the incentive for the establishment of one of the best trading points in the county. The building of the town was well
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undler way in the early part of 1869, and here the railroad company established a station, built a section house, water tank and depot. The projectors of Earl- ham were led to believe by the builders of the road that this place would be made a division point and given shops, but their hopes in this regard have not as yet been realized. However, the coming of the road induced many to locate in the place, and no town in Madison County grew as rapidly and had such splendid prospects as Earlham. It became and is today one of the best shipping points in this section of the state. When grading began, Martin Cook, one of the early Quaker settlers in Madison Township, put up a building at the east end of the "dump," not far from where the tenement house of Clarence Wilson now stands. This small buikling, which they called a "shebang." was stocked with supplies which were sold to the men working on the construction. When Earlham was established in the fall of 1868, Martin Cook moved the "shebang" with his stock of goods into the new town and was appointed by the railroad company its first agent. This was the first railroad in Madison County.
Four years later. in February, 1872, the first railway train entered Winterset over the branch road from Des Moines and generally since then two passenger trains and one local have provided transportation for its citizens. The first train arrived in Winterset on the last day of February. 1872, and was the subject of considerable jollification. Snow was falling, and melting as it came down, but nevertheless a large crowd assembled to greet the train. It arrived about 3 o'clock P. M. and was hailed with every demonstration of joy by the multitude, and music by a brass band added in large measure to the welcome. Contractors and railroad men generally were warmly congratulated and then escorted to the St. Nicholas, where a banquet was served. The train itself was made up of con- struction cars and it was several weeks before passenger trains began running.
The first passenger train arrived here on the 13th of May, 1872. When it left for Des Moines "the engine bell rang and for the first time the conductor called out 'passengers for Des Moines all aboard,' and Winterset was no longer an inland town, dependent upon wagons for communication with the outer world. During the summer of 1872, immediately following this event, seventy-three buildings were erected in Winterset. at a cost of over ninety thousand dollars, and within the seven years next following it more than doubled its population."
C. D. Bevington was one of the chief promoters and builders of this branch of the Rock Island. When constructed, it was named the Des Moines, Winterset & Southwestern Railroad, and when the company for its construction was or- ganized Doctor Bevington became its president. It was under his personal supervision that the line was completed from Summerset to Winterset-a distance of twenty-six miles. The work was all paid for within seven months and when finished, trains stopped at the depot, which stood in the east part of town. on North Ninth Street. Southeast of it on a side track, was erected a large elevator. still standing, but long since out of commission. Some years ago a new depot was erected at North First Avenue.
The Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas City Railroad was built in 1887. entering the county on section 1. in South Township, and leaving it on section 35, in Mon- roe Township. It is now a part of the Chicago Great Western System, and has stations at Hanley, in South Township, and East Peru and Barney, in Walnut Township. At the time of its completion the towns mentioned were established
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
and East 'Peru is the principal station along the line in this county. Hanley is quite a busy little trading point, about 11/2 miles west of St. Charles.
The Keokuk & Western Railroad, now a part of the Burlington System, was built in 1882 as a narrow gauge and entered the county in South Township, just east of St. Charles, making that place its first station in the county. Running in a southwesterly direction, its next stopping point is Truro, from whence it bends southward and then taking a curve on section 26, in Ohio Township, trends in a northeasterly direction and leaves the township and county at section 24. It was changed to a standard gauge about 1896. With these lines Madison County is pretty well supplied with railroad facilities. A number of other railroads were projected in the early years of the county's existence, but little was ever accomplished in the way of their construction, so that today the county has no railroads other than those mentioned, two of which are main lines-the Chicago Great Western and the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific System.
The Creston, Winterset & Des Moines Railroad when projected was intended to have its termini at Creston and Des Moines. The road was built in 1912 from Creston to Macksburg, a distance of twenty-one miles, and never got any farther. On the 31st day of December, 1912, the first train entered Macksburg, and of course, that section of the county was delighted with the prospects. But the improvement has not met the anticipations of its projectors or the people along the transportation line. In the fall of 1914 the property was placed in the hands of a receiver and since then a decided improvement has developed.
CHAPTER XXHI OUT OF THE BOUNTEOUS HIAND OF NATURE
WILD ANIMALS By A. J. Hoisington
Not one wild buffalo was ever seen in Madison County since the day of its first settlement. The very first settlers frequently found the horns, skulls and bones of the buffalo, which apparently had been gone many years from this local- ity. When the Sac and Fox tribe of Indians came into possession of their hunting grounds hereabout there were occasionally small herds of bison to be met with here. Early white hunters of this county, as late as 1850, occasionally found a buffalo or two north and northwest, at a distance of from thirty to one hundred miles from this county. They appeared to be stragglers from the buffalo country in the Dakotas, or from across the Missouri River west. Trappers, who visited this region during the first twenty or thirty years of the nineteenth century found considerable herds in this region of the state. At that time they moved southward in the fall and northward in the spring. But, within the knowledge of the carliest trappers through this region, far back in the century of 1700, buffalo were never in such great numbers here as they were on the Great Plains country beyond the Missouri River and in the land of the Dakotas.
When this county was first settled there were no foxes here. They began to appear on rare occasions about ISSo, since which time an infrequent one may be found.
During the early portion of the last century there was a considerable num- ber of bears in this portion of lowa, but none ever was found wild in this county since its settlement. An occasional bear has been seen by Madison County hunters in west Dallas County, and further north and west, as late as 1850.
Catamounts, or animals called by that name, were occasionally met with in this county when the first settlers came and a lone one might be seen in the more remote timber neighborhoods as late as 1860. There was one ( may be two of them ) seen in the northwest corner of Crawford Township in the summer of 1861.
The prairie gray wolf was an abundant and prolific animal to be found every- where in the county when first settled. During the first few years they could be seen almost any day in any locality. Their food was so abundant that they never attacked any one, although sometimes they would follow a person with fresh meat. They were very fond of tame chickens and the early settlers had to pro- vide safe places for their poultry of all kinds. Sometimes these marauders of the prairie would carry off small pigs. The black, or timber, wolves were scarce and they all disappeared by 1862. Being considered a dangerous animal, they
176
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
were closely hunted down. During the '50s there was a bounty on wolf scalps and when the bounty law went into effect live wolf scalps rapidly became less in number. But they were never exterminated in the county and occasionally one, or even more, may be seen, or more often heard, in the more brushy, rocky and broken districts of the county.
Elk were not found in the county when the first settlers came but had been numerous a few years previous. Up to 1840 they were here in great numbers. Being a prairie animal, they only came to the woods when the snow was deep or the weather cold. Since the beginning of the first settlement elk had not been seen south of the Coon River but north of that stream they were in considerable numbers up to the snowy winter of 1855-6, when they were almost exterminated by the settlers in Greene and more northern counties. That winter a herd of them numbering thousands was seen near Jefferson. They had been driven by the heavy snow storms from the north into the then thin settlements along North Coon. The settlers nearly destroyed the herd by spring and never after was any consid- erable number seen in that region. All the years up to that winter elk could be found in west Dallas, in Guthrie, Carroll, Audubon and more northern counties. The early settlers, who were hunters, used to go every fall to the district north- west of Madison, for this and other wild game. But the hard winter named above ended the sport.
Deer were here in almost unbelievable numbers when the first settlers came and in rapidly decreasing numbers remained until the winter of 1855-6, when they were practically exterminated in this part of the state. Only an occasional one could be seen afterward. At first they were comparatively tame and it required but little ingenuity to get a piece of fresh venison any day. During the first four or five years venison was plentiful and cheap and considerable quanti- ties were hauled to the river markets. Sometimes it had no sale in Winterset. Before 1849 there was no market for deer meat in the county, save as occasionally a new settler, who was not a hunter, would pay a little something for a choice cut. The pelts, of course, always commanded a price at the river markets, but the value was ridiculously low. Charles Farris, who was one of the most skillful deer hunters in Southwestern Iowa, a pioneer settler of Union Township, has been heard to say that in one day he counted over a hundred deer in sight.
WILD TURKEYS
These birds were found here by the early settlers in great flocks, wherever there was a considerable grove or body of timber. At first they were compara- tively tame and easily approached, because the Indians molested them but little and when desiring to catch them they generally used a snare instead of shooting them. To the Indians they had no commercial value, but soon after the arrival of the white man, turkeys were caught in great numbers and hauled to the markets on the Mississippi River or to St. Joseph. During the "cold winter" of 1847-8 many of the birds perished, but they rapidly increased again. The "hard winter" of 1855-6, together with the great destruction of them every season of the few years preceding by the settlers, about finished the supply of the bird in the county. However, a few small roosts, in the most secluded localities in the timber, might be found until about 1860. The last roost on Cedar was extinguished in the fall of 1862.
Vol. 1-12
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
A great many young turkeys, and occasionally a nest of eggs, would be found by the early settlers. From these were obtained the tame birds that later on sup- plied the county. Doubtless, some of their very distantly related descendants are in the county at this day.
WILD FRUITS AND NUTS
At the time the first settlers arrived, in the year 1846, wild fruit was not plenti- ful, except grapes in some localities. There was comparatively little brush any- where, because most of the country was annually burned over by great prairie fires, preventing the growth of the hazel, phun, crabapple and all other varieties of shrubs ; thus, any increase of the timber belt was prevented. Only now and then appeared a plum patch or clump of crabapple trees : even hazel nuts were not abundant. But close along the banks of the streams, entwined on great forest trees, well protected from the prairie fires, the wild grape flourished and not else- where until in later years.
The nuts of the forest trees, the hickory and black and white walnut, abounded in the wooded portions of the county. The great supply of these greatly decreased. as the trees were cut down for building and fencing. By the year 1860 the nut- bearing trees mentioned became comparatively scarce. The carly settlers, and even those of later years, made it their business to gather a supply of nuts every fall for the winter, but this habit largely ceased about 1860 and for the last forty years is seldom done, for quite obvious reasons.
When the first settlers arrived they began to check the devastating prairie fires and, more rapidly than would be supposed possible, grew the various varieties of shrubs and underbrush, yet found in the county ; especially the hazel flourished. The wild plum, crabapple, elderberry and similar shrubbery soon came into bearing along the edges of the old-time forests, so that, by 1850, hazel nuts, plums, crabapples, wild cherry, gooseberries, blackberries, raspberries, currants, haws and serviceberries began to abound. By 1855 these appeared in great quan- tity in most of the timber districts. Their growth and increase were not materially lessened until about 1860, when lands whereof they were indigenous, began to be largely broken up for farming purposes. This curtailment went on, gradually. until about 1880, when much the larger portion of the land had been brought into cultivation.
During the '6os tame fruit began to yield largely and as it increased in quantity wild fruit was not so generally sought, and since 1875 not a large amount of wild fruit has been consumed in the county.
Wild strawberries were in great abundance at the time of the first settlement and continued until the country began to be generally under cultivation. Their quality was good and they were an excellent substitute for tame ones.
Occasionally, wild plums were found of large size, as much as two inches in diameter, but they were very rarely to be found. The larger ones had almost as fine a taste as the common varieties of tame ones. Once in a while a crabapple tree might be found, bearing apples two inches in diameter, but these were almost too rare to mention. The great quantity of these two fruits, from 1855 to 1860 in some portions of the county, seems remarkable to young people of this period. Many hundreds of plum trees have been seen which bore from one to two
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
bushels each and, it was nothing uncommon for a crabapple tree to bear a bushel or more. One plum tree patch in Northeast Union Township, in the Hoisington neighborhood, covered more than an acre, and some years produced abundantly.
But plums and crabapples were abundant only in some localities. This was noticeably true in North Crawford Township, where timber and brush were plentiful, but plums and crabapples scarce. Of course, they did not grow in the prairie districts. These varieties of fruit were mostly to be found in the townships of Union, Douglas, Madison and South, with considerable production along the streams in other townships; Badger Creek never produced much. Wherever noticed, this fruit, as was the case with all the other varieties of wild fruit, was almost entirely found along the south side of the timber belts ; mainly because the north sides were more regularly exposed to sweeping prairie fires before the set- tlements.
In those days, wild fruits were not preserved at all. The usual manner was to dry them on the roofs of homes and sheds, on loose boards and sometimes on cloths-then they were sacked or boxed up and laid away for winter and spring use. Usually, plums and crabapples were boiled before they were dried. Grapes and elderberries were usually dried on the stem. Cherries, haws, blackberries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries were dried as they came picked from the tree or bush. The sweetening used in cooking them was nearly all sorghum molasses, although a few fortunate ones had maple sugar or maple molasses ; may be, one in a hundred, after the first very few years.
SUGAR TREES AND CAMPS By H. A. Mueller
The early settlers found in Madison County a wealth of forests growing along the streams and adjoining hillslopes. About one-fourth of the whole area of Madison County was covered with valuable timber. It was here that the early pioneer built his home where material was near to build his log cabin, fuel for his fire place, and protection for his live stock and himself against the rigorous win- ters of those days. On the rich bottom lands he found excellent groves of hard or sugar maple trees. Some of these groves had been operated by the Indians before their leaving this county in 1845, and for several years Johnny Green and his tribe would return in the spring to hunt, trap and make maple sugar.
In the early days cane sugar was an expensive luxury, so the maple groves in the spring time became the temporary abode of nearly all the early settlers for the purpose of securing their year's supply of sugar. The process of manufac- turing maple sugar in those days was something as follows: If the operator of the grove did not live near by, a rude log cabin would be erected in which to live during the sugar making season. When the season opens depends upon the weather, as the sap does not begin to run until it thaws in the daytime and freezes at night. So the season may begin in January or even as late as the first of April and last until the month of May, or until the above mentioned conditions cease to be.
During the winter it would be necessary to prepare for sugar making. as there was no time to lose when the season opened. Some made small troughs in which
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IHISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
to catch the sap, by splitting a stick three or four feet long and hollowing out the center until it would hold a gallon or two of sap. Others used tin pans or crocks. Then spiles were necessary to lead the sap from the tree to the trough. A spile was usually made from a common elder or a sumach. A stick about a foot long was notched about two inches from either end on opposite sides to the cen- ter and then split, making two spiles. The pith was punched or burned out of the round end, trimmed to fit an inch auger hole and the open part of the spile had a valley cut in the center to lead the sap into the trough. Now, as soon as the sap would run the trees were tapped by boring usually two holes into each tree and driving the spiles therein. Every day the sap would be gathered and hauled to the camp to be boiled down. In an early day the hauling was done with oxen hitched to a sled, on which was a barrel to hold the sap. This boiling down was done either in big iron kettles, or evaporating pans. Iron kettles were mostly used in the early days. The boiling was continued until considerable sap was boiled down and then it was allowed to cool and then was strained through a cloth to take out all the dirt. Before continuing the boiling process, either eggs or milk, or both, were thoroughly stirred into this partially boiled down sap, and then slowly boiled, which would bring all the impurities to the top and then skimmed off. This boiling continued until a syrup was made and if syrup was wanted, the process here ended. Nothing was better to be eaten with corn bread. Johnny cake or buckwheat cakes, than good maple syrup.
If sugar was wanted, the syrup was boiled down until it was so thick that when a small quantity dropped into cold water it would become hard and break into pieces upon striking it against a board. It was then run into molds, pans, etc. If crumbly sugar was desired the boiling and stirring process was continued until it would crumble into small crumbs. This was used for sweetening, much as our cane sugar of today.
Who of the old settlers have not been to a sugaring off? If not, he has missed much of the fun in maple sugar making. Sugaring off is the final process and is usually done after night. The young people of the neighborhood gather in about the camp, watch the process of sugaring off and eat good sweet maple sugar. What pleasant memories sugar making recalls to the early pioneers? Those splendid maple sugar groves are about all gone and the pleasant memories will soon go with them, for in a few years there will be very few living that ever helped make sugar in Madison County. The places of these groves have now become our rich- est cornfiekls, from whose products we get the glucose syrup, usually set upon our tables, presumably to look at, for very few eat it.
Woukl that we could go back to those early days, help bring in the sap, sit around the kettles and feed the flames that would boil down the sugar water into de- licious syrup or sweet tasting sugar ! But those days are gone and a few more years and those that participated in sugar making will have gone to their reward. Few of the present generation know very little of the manufacture of maple sugar and where beautiful maple groves once flourished in Madison County. It is for these that this article is written. Herewith appended is a list of groves and camps :
Groves on North River and on North Branch of North River: The first one of any note was one just below the mouth of North Branch, east half of the south- cast quarter of section 36, Jefferson Township, operated by Alexander Ballentine ;
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
William Schoen had one in the forks of North Branch and North River, on the southeast quarter of section 35, Jefferson Township; David Barrow had a camp or grove of maples on the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 2, Union Township, that was operated for many years and there are still several trees standing, which A. D. Fletcher, the present owner, at times taps for home use; John B. Sturman in an early day had a camp on the south side of North River on the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, Union Township, and Harvey Lee had one on the north side of the same forty which he ran until 1880: Levi B. Phillips operated a camp for some time on the south side of North River, on the southwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, Union Township; William Sturman had one on the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 3, north of the river, and was a large grove, which was run as late as 1890 ; Thomas Garlinger had a camp on the north half of the north- west quarter of section 3. Union Township, which was worked every year by Mrs. Thomas Garlinger until her death about 1880; Benjamin Duckett had a small grove, a continuation of the Garlinger grove, on the south half of the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 34. Jefferson Township; there is a young grove there at the present time; George W. Guye had a camp on the east half of the southwest quarter of section 5. Union Township: James Guye, on the west half of the southwest quarter of section 5. Union Township; Angeline Vanwy, the west half of the northeast quarter of section 7, Union Township, and another on the west half of the northwest quarter of section 7, Union Town- ship; Jonathan Cox, one in the bend on the south side of the river, on section 12, Douglas Township; John Norris, northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 14, Douglas Township, until his death in 1904, and the grove was chopped off in the spring of 1905: Samuel Folwell, a small grove on the south side of North Branch on the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 34, Jefferson Township.
Groves on Middle River: McDowell camp on the south half of the south- cast quarter of section 36, Crawford Township; T. Cason, west of house and east of Middle River, on the northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of sec- tion 36, Crawford Township ; W. T. Cason, the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 36, Crawford Township; John's camp in the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 35. Crawford Township, between the house and river on the south side, below the old mill, was a grove of 200 trees, later owned by Campbell Hughart ; a grove near the old Weller Mill, on the northeast quarter of section 35, Union Township: Van Houten grove, southwest quarter of section 35, Union Township : Sam Fleener camp, northeast quarter section 3. Scott Township; Jack Porter camp, northwest quarter section 4, Scott Township: John Wilkinson camp, northeast quarter section 4, Scott Township; Ephriam Bilder- back camp, northeast quarter section 4, Scott Township: Henry Mckenzie camp northwest quarter section 9. Scott Township: Felt Johnson camp, northeast quar- ter section 8, Scott Township; Sam Crawford camp, northwest quarter section 8. Scott Township; James Thornbrugh camp, northeast quarter section 7, Scott Township; Andy Hart camp, northwest quarter section 7. Scott Township; W. W. Mattox camp, southwest quarter section 7. Scott Township; Charles Wright camp, southeast quarter section 7. Lincoln Township; James Smith camp, south- west quarter of the northwest quarter section 15, Lincoln Township, east of
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