USA > Iowa > Madison County > History of Madison County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 32
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OLD SETTLERS' ASSOCIATION OF MADISON AND WARREN COUNTIES
The first records of the society were lost, but as near as it can be recalled by Lewis Allen and others, the first "Old Settlers" meeting was held in the Joel Clanton grove, just west of the Joel Clanton homestead, about the year of August, 1885. It was mostly through the energy and persuasion of Dr. William Anderson, a pioneer physician, that the first meeting was held, and the associa-
OLD SETTLERS' MEETING, HELD AT ST. CHARLES, AUGUST 12, 1908 Front Row: Mahala Tincher, Louisa Porter, '56; James A. Rhyno, '5]; Mrs. Amos Fife, '47; "John M. Ilurst, 47; W. W. Gentry, '47; Samuel Fife, '49; Am anda Shigley, 52; Mrs. Caleb Rollings, '4> Back Row: John Martin, Mrs. Harrison Shutt, '52; Mrs. Phelan Close, '52; J. W. Lejnard, '52; Thomas Walker, '50; Mrs. Mollie Roberts, '50; Mrs. Lovina Allen, '52; Caleb Rollings, 48
*John M. Hurst is the oblest son of Hiram Horst, who was the first white settler in Madison County
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tion organized. The first officers chosen were: President, John Byars ; secretary, Dr. William Anderson; John Hartman and Lewis Allen, finance committee. Annual reunions have been held since that time and with one or two exceptions, when it was held at Patterson. the meetings have been held in the vicinity or within the Town of St. Charles, where the society was organized. Reunions are usually held during the month of AAugust. Many look forward to this day as a day of meeting old friends and neighbors, and there congregate annually in the grove north of the Opera House, now owned by the Park Association, from one to three thousand people. Those who have been chosen president since 1902 are as follows: C. W. Faust, Dr. T. Roberts, Lewis Kimer, R. D. Minard, H. P. Anderson, Jas. A. Rhyno, W. F. Law and Dr. J. W. Bishop. Secretaries : M. I. Bean, C. W. Minard and E. K. Anderson. Officers for 1915 are as follows: President : James McCloskey; Ist vice president, Samuel Lee ; 2nd vice president, Lewis Allen; secretary, Dr. E. K. Anderson ; treasurer, J. F. Johnston ; chaplain, Rev. W. W. Williams ; executive committee, H. A. Muel- ler, C. C. Guilliams and J. L. Stayton.
JOHN MILLER POST, NO. 158, G. A. R.
John Miller Post, No. 158, Grand Army of the Republic, was organized at St. Charles and received its charter March 30, 1883. The name assumed for the society was that of a young hero, John Miller, whose home was on the north side of town near the railroad. He was orderly sergeant of Company H, Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, and gave up his life for his country at Black River Bridge, in one of the southern states. Sergeant Miller's body was brought home and given the funeral rites of a brave soldier. This was the first burial of a war hero at St. Charles.
The names of the organizing members of Miller Post follow: George W. Armstrong, J. Me. Armstrong, M. I. Bean, Edward Bell, William B. Hodges, Lewis Kimer, S. A. Lyon, Samuel P. Reed, Thomas Roberts, James H. Stiffler, Silas Sheeley, John Skinner, E. C. Shigley, G. W. Smith, Jefferson Wheat, Wil- liam Wallace, Thomas Wilson, James Waddell, Nathaniel Winship, James Young. The first officers were: M. I. Bean, P. C .; Lewis Kimer, S. V. C .; Jefferson Wheat, J. V. C .; William B. Hodges, adjt .; Thomas Roberts, Q. M .; James H. Stiffler, surgeon ; S. P. Reed, chaplain ; E. Faust, O. D .; John Lathrum, O. G .; George W. Armstrong, S. M .; P. V. Carpenter, Q. M. S.
Post comamnders from the organization to the present time: M. I. Bean, S. S. King. Daniel Matson, W. B. Hodges, J. M. Brown, James H. Stiffler, S. R. Leonard, Thomas Roberts, S. W. Lee, A. O. Scott, J. M. Brown, M. I. Bean, Adam Siedel, J. W. Carman, O. M. Horton, William Harding, Fred Johnston, J. W. Carman, W. L. Allen, Fred Johnston.
John Miller Woman's Relief Corps, No. 242, was instituted January 14, 1892. The charter members were: Mrs. Jennie Browne, Persis Smith, Emily Stiffler, Anna C. Anderson, Sarah E. Leonard, Carrie M. Martin, Anna Hodges, Florence Jeffries, Margaret Horton, Grace Roberts, Casander Burger, Eliza Hoff, Hannah Woods. R. Jane Stiffler, Margaret Armstrong, Elizabeth E. Mack, Catharine Bean, Florence Wood, Elinor Lee, Etta J. Armstrong, Catharine W. Minard. Louisa Johnston, Hattie Lawhead, Addie Carman, Barbara Foster and Isabell Faust.
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MODEL LODGE, NO. 315. A. F. & A. M.
Model Lodge, No. 315. A. F. & A. M. was organized and sent in its application for a dispensation March 25, 1872. The application was signed by W. H. Hol- linshed and R. D. Minard. W. 11. Hollinshed was recommended for master, William Anderson, senior warden, and E. Frank, junior warden. Besides these the application was signed by George II. Check, Elijah Kinnaird. W. E. Mack. Allen Lawhead, Sr., H. G. Phillips, Samuel Wallace and J. A. Myers.
The application was granted and dispensation issued April 8, 1872. The new lodge held its first meeting on April 16, when the following officers were appointed: R. D. Minard, secretary; W. E. Mack, treasurer; S. M. Wallace, S. D. ; G. A. Myers, J. D. ; G. H. Cheek, tyler.
The first lodge hall was on the corner west from Johnston's Bank, where it remained until the lodge built the second story of a frame business building. llere it remained until the property was destroyed by fire in 1898. After the fire a hall was rented and occupied over the corner drug store until the Johnston Bank Building was erected, when the lodge built and furnished the second story, in 1900.
Model Chapter Order Eastern Star was formed at a meeting held in Ma- sonic Hall, in January, 1895, at which time a petition for a dispensation was signed by Mrs. L. C. Hartman, Mrs. Sarah E. Leonard, Mrs. Maggie Horton, Mrs. Lida Johnston, Mrs. Susanna C. Bell, Mrs. Rebecca A. Minard, Mrs. Jennie J. Switzer. O. M. Horton, S. R. Leonard, J. F. Johnston, John Hartman. E. P. Bell, Sr., L. C. Minard, S. S. Switzer, 11. C. Minard and R. D. Minard. The following officers were elected : Mrs. Susanna C. Bell, W. M .; R. D. Minard, W. P .; Mrs. Sarah E. Leonard, A. M .; Mrs. Rebecca \. Minard, secretary ; Mrs. Jennie Switzer, treasurer.
January 15, 1894, dispensation was granted, and on February 25, 1895. Model Chapter received its charter. The charter officials were as follows: R. D. Minard, W. P .; Susanna C. Bell, W. M .: Sarah Leonard, A. M .; 11. C. Minard, secretary-treasurer; Maggie Horton, cond .; Rebecca A. Minard, A. C .; Louisa Johnston, Adah; Jennie Switzer, Ruth; Lura Sayre, Esther; A. M. Horton, warder; E. P. Bell, S.
St. Charles Lodge, No. 416, 1. O. O. F., was organized in St. Charles and a charter granted in October, 1880. The charter members were: C. W. Thomp- son, Dr. Thomas Roberts, IT. Burger, T. F. Hoff and C. W, Hale.
The Odd Fellows first met in the Masonic Hall, where the St. Charles Sav- ings Bank stands. This building burned in 1898. A hall was then purchased over the Jennings drug store, which burned December 23, 1911. In the following year the order built a new brick hall on the same site. The lodge is in a flourish- ing condition.
Madison Encampment, No. 146, I. O. O. F., was granted a charter in October, 1003. The charter members were: George W. Hubbell, Dr. E. K. Anderson, O. M. Horton, J. G. Carter and George Mackrill.
Rebekah Lodge, No. 460, at St. Charles, was instituted in October, 180g. with twenty-eight charter members.
Camp No. 2890, Modern Woodmen of America received its charter April 13, 1895, and had the following members at that time: John W. Baker, W'. . 1.
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ST. CHARLES Erected about 1890
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ST. CHARLES Built in 1868
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, ST. CHARLES Erected in 1905
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Barnes, E. Bell, M. W. Browne, J. L. Davey, H. L. Martin, J. G. Martin, R. W. Martin, J. E. Montgomery, L. M. Ralston, George B. M. Robinette, S. N. Sayre. The first officials were: William A. Barnes, consul; J. G. Martin, clerk ; L. M. Ralston, banker.
St. Charles Homestead, No. 200, Brotherhood of American Yeomen, was in- stituted December 15, 1898, with the following officers: H. F., G. L. Archer ; MI. of C., W. F. Lurr; M. of A., G. W. Armstrong ; W. P., Dr. S. N. Sayre ; C., J. N. Smith ; O., H. L. Martin ; W., W. O. Phillips ; S .. G. B. Chadd ; G., U. F. Templeton ; L. W., Mrs. Lura Sayre ; L. R., Mrs. Mary F. Law ; organist, Mrs. Hattie Archer.
RECOLLECTIONS OF SAMUEL FIFE
David and Amos Fife, being my elder brothers, and myself left our homes in the State of Ohio, September 2, 1849, coming by steamer down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to Keokuk, where we worked until December Ist. David and I then started afoot to Madison County, shipping our belongings by freight team to Des Moines. At length we arrived at Des Moines and the next day, about 4 P. M., arrived at Thomas Cason's, hungry and tired. Mrs. Cason gave us our fill of corn bread and buttermilk and it was the best meal I ever ate, so it seemed. We pushed on to Isaac Smith's, where Amos Fife later lived, and stayed all (Saturday) night. The log house was 16 by 24 feet, and with their six or seven children, the Smiths slept in one room. They had good beds. The bedsteads were fastened to the walls.
Next day we went to church at George Smith's, the first house west of Isaac Smith's. Thomas Cason (New Light clergyman) preached.
David Fife "took a claim" and we built a shanty on the north side of Clanton, which was later owned by R. M. Young, where we both lived all winter, working at making rails.
Thomas Cason came here in 1847 and bought out Hiram Hurst. He was a very enthusiastic Christian and soon was holding regular religious services at his home, at George Smith's and sometimes at other homes until the Clanton schoolhouse was built in the fall of 1850. In those days ministers did not preach for the money there was in it but for the good they might do. The families composing his congregation or church were: Thomas Cason (eight or nine of them), Jacob Kincannon and family, George Smith and family, Isaac Clanton and family, Rachel Clanton, William Hale and family and David Bishop and family.
The settlers here when I came were: Joel M. Clanton, Isaac Clanton, Charles Clanton, Caleb Clark, Isaac Smith, George Smith, David Simmerman, Nathan Viney (on later Queen place), Norval S. Allcock, William Allcock, Pleasant Rollins ( 1847), David Worley, David Bishop, Bud Whited, Doc. Whited, James Fidler, William Hale, William Nunn (single man) and William Stagerwalt.
During the winter of 1850-51 there was a religious revival and William Nunn was immersed in Clanton Creek. Thomas Wilkinson at the time suggested that the minister had better put him under again, as it was current gossip that he was too intimate with a certain neighbor's wife. During that spring, while William Hale was away all day splitting rails near (now) Hanley, William Nunn and Mrs. Hale loaded up everything, even $100 in gold and Hale's land warrant,
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and left for Missouri. Hale found his house and premises stripped of contents when he returned home that evening. Next day, being April election at Viney's (west of Queen's ), Hale asked for help to pursue the parties and recover his wife and property. No one would go, so he walked to Marion County, where he got a wagon and team, then took after the miserable couple, and overhauled them in Missouri. He brought Nunn back, turned him over to the county author- ities, who held him at Winterset for trial, but no one appearing against him he was released. Hale took his family, before court convened, to near Council Bluffs and the next heard of him was early in the fall of 1854, when I met him on Cox's hill. between Winterset and Middle River. He and his father were on horseback going east.
I have omitted Hiram Hurst since he first settled in now Crawford Township, on what later became known as Cason place. This claim he sold to Thomas Cason in 1847. Later he lived on the old Sayre place, on sections 20 and 29, South Township, east of Elm Grove church. I worked for him on May 7, 1851, and hauled rails to his Scott Township farm. Some of the early settlers tried to make out that Hurst was a criminal; that he had stolen hogs in Missouri. Others said he had burned a building and had to leave Missouri. My under- standing was that he got into an altercation with a man in Missouri and nearly killed him. While here he was a very quiet man, had good judgment and was of a fine family. His family here was composed of a wife and four little boys. I have worked for him several times and have always found him a gentleman and his wife a perfect lady. He sold out and went to Nebraska.
Norval S. Allcock came to Madison County in 1847, became quite a noted man in those early days and prominent in the early history of this community. lle took part in politics, being a member of the second County Commissioners' Court. lle was very prominent as a Methodist exhorter and class leader. Mr. Allcock bought his claim of Gifford Lee, where Hanley was laid out, and lived there until the fall of 1851, when he sold to Abraham Black and moved to the Hurst place. east of Elm Grove. Allcock's home was often used for church services and revivals. It always was the home of the circuit rider. When ninety years old Mr. Allcock walked two miles to church, and was highly com- plimented by Reverend Wickersham for his zeal and great services in the cause of Methodism in South Township. A monument should be erected to his memory. Elm Grove Church was the direct result of his early meetings.
The three Clanton brothers and Caleb Clark were the first settlers of South Township. They left Buchanan County, Missouri, in April, 1846, bound for Fort Des Moines, following the dragoon track that extended from Fort Des Moines to Fort Leavenworth. It was then well beaten. Clantons and Clark went to Fort Des Moines and not being pleased with the land over there, turned back, bearing southwest, recrossing North River at Linn Grove, and on the divide went into camp. From there the men of the party went out prospecting for claims, going southwesterly, crossed the county line of Warren and Madison into Crawford Township. They crossed Middle River near Hurst's claim and seeing a cabin went to it and found Hurst asleep. At first he was frightened but soon learned the object of his visitors and gave them much assistance in locating their claims on what was afterwards known as Clanton's Grove. They staked their claims May 3. 18.16.
AMOS FIFE
Came to South Township, Madison County, in 1949. Married Lucy Am Smith in 1851. Was a veteran of the Mexican war, having enlisted in an Ohio regiment. Died in St. Charles, April 28, 1908. His widow Ried March 15, 1915, at her home in St. Charles.
WILLIAM SCHOEN
Came to America in 1851 and to Madison County in 1852. Was the first German to come to Madison County and the first of a German settlement in Jefferson Township. Died May 6, 1910.
* Soo histare af Gurman settlement
SAMUEL FIFE
Came to Madison County in 1849. Member of Company F, Thirty-ninth lowa Infantry. Is still living in St. Charles, Iowa.
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IL. W. HARDY
Served Madison County as super- intendent of schools for thirteen years in three different periods. being elected the first time in 1561. Also taught school in Madison County for over a quarter of a century and was more directly and for a longer time identified with the schools of the county than any other person, Ha dia,la four vanry ann in Wintoroot
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
In the spring of 1850 many settlers came to South Township. J. C. Johnston and son J. M. located south of Jeff Rhyno's place, across Clanton. J. M. Johnston lived east of the creek.
Jeff Rhyno came in 1850 and William Rhyno settled near Peru. Hogan Queen's father settled here in 1850, buying out Nathan Viney, who had settled there in 1848.
Jesse Young came in 1849. He first lived where Caleb Clark lived and built a log house where George J. Carter now lives-one of the original owners of St. Charles.
In 1850 George Hartman and David Downs came from Hendricks County, Indiana. Hartman bought the land owned by Caleb Clark and occupied the previous year by Jesse Young. Downs lived in the same yard for four years.
Hartman was well to do. He brought his money in a chest 18 by 10 by 10 inches-hooped strongly with iron bands, and hauled it out with him in the family wagon. The chest contained $4,000, all in silver. He first opened it at Indianola. Hartman was an honest, charitable man and feared no robbery of his money. Hartman and Downs hired the writer to drive an ox team to and from Burlington in August, 1851, to haul the irons for the first sawmill to be erected in South Township. George Hartman went along. We were gone twenty days and we labored all that fall and winter in putting up the mill. In December, Stephen Divilbliss, of Adel, was hired as millwright. He brought five men along to do the framing and build the mill wheel, but did not finish his work until 1852. The mill began operations as soon as there was a sufficient water supply that fall. The mill and dam were well built and cost heavily. The dam was frame and all the lumber was hauled from Compton's, south of Winterset. Hartman and Downs ran the mill until about 1862 or 1863 and then sold to Dr. Anderson, who at once rebuilt it.
I worked for Joel Clanton from a period in 1850 to August, 1851, and then lived with Hartman until August, 1855.
A town was laid out before St. Charles, about one-fourth of a mile northeast of that place, on sections 24 -75-26. It was named Fairview. Samuel Comstock laid it out in the fall of 1850 and put up a store building out of logs 16 by 24 feet. Simmons Rutty was the surveyor. Comstock went to Oskaloosa that fall and laid in a stock of goods and stored them at Joel Clanton's until his building was ready. The goods were sold at Clanton's and I was clerk during that time. Comstock had bought the goods on time and as he never finished his store room, the next spring his creditors took the goods back to Oskaloosa and the history of the Town of Fairview was ended. Comstock had entered a lot of land through Henn-Williams & Company, of Fairfield. Unable to meet the payments, he lost everything. Hartman bought the land of Henn-Williams & Company and St. Charles succeeded as a trading point. It was located a little southwest.
The first settler in St. Charles was John Byers. He bought the unfinished home vacated by Comstock in Fairview and moved it on lot 7 in St. Charles. The lot was given him as a premium for being the first man to settle in the town. This was in the fall of 1852.
Milton R. Thompson put in the first stock of goods in the spring of 1853 and ran a general store. One Allison in the fall of 1853 put in the second store.
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Before this, trading was done at Winterset, Indianola or Des Moines. In 1855 Allison sold his store, which was in a log buikling on lot 1. to J. M. Browne and William McCreery.
The third store-a log house-was built on lot 5. where the Johnston Bank now stands, by a Mr. Burnsides in the fall of 1854, and a short time later he traded the store to David Fife, who in 1855 moved the stock to Afton, putting up the first store in that new town. J. M. Browne was the manager of this store until 1875 or later.
At the April election of 1852 David Downs was elected justice of the peace of South Township, and Samuel Fife, constable. William 11. Compton had been justice of the peace before Downs, but his constable was Harbert in (now) Scott Township.
The first marriage solemnized in St. Charles was in February, 1854. \ Mr. Simmons was married to Miss Marshall, a sister-in-law of Milton R. Thompson. at whose house the wedding occurred. Justice David Fife performed the cere- mony. I was one of the guests and thus witnessed the first marriage in the Town of St. Charles. Simmons came here from near Burlington to secure his bride and both returned to his home the next day after the ceremony by wagon. No record of this marriage appears in Madison County.
In the spring of 1853 the first bridge for wagons was built across the Clanton, a few rods below the Hartman sawmill. During this spring thousands of emi- grants passed through this part of the county to California. The east and west roads were lined with teams. On this occasion the Clanton was not fordable and hundreds of teams had collected on the bottom waiting to cross. . \ genius among their number, seing piles of slabs around the mill. planned and built a temporary bridge. Trees of proper length were cut for stringers and hauled to the banks of the stream. One end of the log was thrown into the water and floated to its place. Then men and teams swam across and the other end was placed in position. Slabs, loaned by Hartman, were laid on the stringers loosely. and all crossed over safely. A half day was spent in constructing this crude bridge but it answered the purpose and was used some time, or until the next freshet.
The exodus to California began here in 1849 and reached its maximum in 1850, but lasted several years. The early travelers followed up the divide south of Winterset, without crossing Middle River at all.
CHAPTER XXXII
UNION TOWNSHIP
At the sitting of the Commissioners' Court, on January 9, 1849, Union Towil- ship, the first to be named in the county, was created and its boundaries de- scribed. The place provided by the commissioners for holding the first election was at the home of Leonard Bowman. Union is bounded on the north by Jef- ferson, on the west and east by Douglas and Crawford, respectively, and on the south by Scott.
This township has many natural advantages. The surface is divided in about the proper proportion between rich prairie and heavy timber land and was originally dotted with handsome groves. The North River zigzags across the northern tier of sections, with the exception of section I, and the Middle River, in its sinuous way, touches the southeast corner of the township, and with tributaries of North River, such as Cedar Creek, furnishes abundant water and drainage. There is a good supply of stone and the Des Moines and Winterset branch of the Rock Island Railroad traverses its southern sections. The east corporation line of Winterset, or Center Township, occupies part of the west half of section 31, or in other words, the southwest corner of the township.
Union Township attracted to its confines the Guye family, consisting of Samuel, his sons, James, George, Frank and Houston, and daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Angeline and Maria. These people had come to the county on the evening of April 28. 1846, with the Clantons, all being from Buchanan County, Missouri. On the 3d day of May, they staked out claims on section 7, on the south bank of North River. This family became closely associated with the early history of the county, and George Guye, who lived on the old homestead for over fifty years, is now and has been for several years past a resident of Winterset.
Lemuel Thornbrugh was a native of Missouri and migrated to Madison County in May, 1846, settling in the Guye neighborhood, where he built a cabin on land later owned by William Gentry and still later by George Hornback. Thornbrugh returned to Missouri in the fall of that year and brought back with him his family. The Thornbrughs all lived on Lemuel's claim on the Cedar until the fall of 1849, when Lemuel sold out and moved away. James left the Cedar in the spring of 1847 and went south on Middle River. Here he took up another claim on the south side of the river in the timber, where he grubbed a patch of land and with one yoke of oxen put out a small crop. He built a cabin, which was burned down in May, 1861.
James Fidler, with his wife and unmarried children, also came in September, 1846, with Thornbrughs, James Thornbrugh being his son-in-law, with whom Fidler lived until his death a month later. He had taken a claim and built a
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HISTORY OF MADISON COUNTY
cabin in the edge of the timber on section 20. His was the first death in Union Township.
Vincent Brown left his home in Buchanan County, Missouri, in 1847. and with his family settled on section 12. His brother Hezekiah and another brother. James, and his family, came to Madison County about the same time. James settled in Jefferson Township, while Hezekiah made his home at the above place, but went to Kansas a short time before the war.
John R. Beedle immigrated from Northwestern Missouri to Madison County in June, 1846, and settled a quarter of a mile northwest of the present Green- wood schoolhouse in this township, on section 4. That fall he moved to the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 11, and lived there until his death several years ago.
Philip M. Boyles came to the county in the summer of 1846 and located in Union Township. His first habitation was a structure built of poles, which were fastened together with wooden pins and covered with basswood bark. For the first few years he experienced all the trials and privations of a pioneer, at one time walking to Saylorville, in Polk County, where he worked for two weeks at fifty cents a day in order to procure money with which to buy seed corn. He was too poor to own a horse. It is said that Mr. Boyles hauled the first merchandise brought to Winterset, bringing the goods from Keokuk for A. D. : Jones. He was the first clerk of the County Commissioners' Court and took a very active part in the organization of the county. Mr. Boyles became quite a large landowner and for many years prior to his death was a resident of Win- terset, where he engaged in the live stock business. A son. M. Boyles, was born on the Union Township farm in 1853.
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