USA > Iowa > Marion County > History of Marion County, Iowa, and its people, Volume I > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
During the next two years quite a number of pioneers located claims in this part of the county. Among them were Lewis and
120
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Trainor Reynolds, David Shonkwiler, Harrison and G. P. Logan, John Lewis, Daniel Vancil, Larkin and William M. Young, Samuel Tibbett, G. B. Greenwood, John P., William S., and Samuel Glenn, Pleasant Prater, Richmond Miller, James and Marion Clifton, Wes- ley Jordan, Daniel Davidson, Thomas Haley, Benjamin Lyon, Wil- liam Henry, Isaac Pitman, Yost Spalti and a few others.
First Things-Lewis Reynolds broke the first ground, on his claim a short distance south of where Pleasantville now stands, in the spring of 1846. The first orchards were set out in 1849 by Lewis Reynolds, Gilmore Logan and William F. Jordan. Most of the trees planted by Mr. Reynolds lived to bear fruit, but the other two orchards were seriously damaged by gophers. The first white child born in the township was Jonathan A. Glenn, a son of Samuel and Elizabeth Glenn, June 4, 1846. The first death was an infant child of William S. and Maria Glenn, in 1847. The first marriage was that of Jesse V. Glenn and Sarah Johnson, which was solemnized on October 4, 1848, Miles Jordan, a justice of the peace, officiating.
The first township election was held at the house of William Glenn in August, 1847, but no records of the result have been pre- served, hence it is impossible to give a list of the officers then elected. John P. Glenn was the first justice of the peace, having been ap- pointed to that position by the governor.
Daniel Shea taught the first school, in the spring of 1847, in a cabin on the farm of Gilmore Logan in the southwest quarter of sec- tion 16, a little southwest of the Town of Pleasantville. The term was for three months, the tuition fee being $2 per scholar. Mr. Shea has been described as "a warm-hearted, visionary Irishman, once a flourishing merchant in Montreal, Canada; a fine scholar, a good mathematician and an honest man."
The first house erected exclusively for school purposes was built in the fall of 1847, in the southeast quarter of section 16, and Miles Jordan taught the first term in it the ensuing winter. It was a sub- scription school, Mr. Jordan having about twenty-five scholars in attendance during the term of three months, at $2 each, making about fifty dollars for his three months' work. In 1914 there were eight school districts in the township, in which ten teachers were employed, and this exclusive of the schools in the incorporated Town of Pleasantville.
Pleasant Grove has two lines of railroad. The Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy enters the township from the east, about a mile north of the southeast corner, then follows a northwesterly course through the Town of Pleasantville, and crosses the northern boundary a little
121
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
east of the Village of Wheeling. The Minneapolis, Des Moines & Kansas City division of the Rock Island system crosses the southwest corner. Pleasantville on the former and Kimball on the latter are the railroad stations.
Shortly after the first settlements were made in the township a contest arose over the possession of the land where the Town of Pleas- antville is now located, a man named Gillman and his two sons on the one hand and William S. Glenn on the other both claiming owner- ship. In the law-suit which followed, the Gillmans employed the notorious Matthew Spurlock as their attorney. This Spurlock was a somewhat noted individual during the early days of Iowa's state- hood, and was frequently referred to as "Old Spurlock, the counter- feiter." This sobriquet came from the fact that he was in the habit of displaying some bright, new silver coins, which he declared were of his own manufacture. There is no evidence that he ever actually made any counterfeit money, but by exhibiting his samples he often found some one desirous of making some "easy money" and offered to sell him some counterfeit coins at a very low price. When the deal was about to be consummated, but always after Spurlock had received the pay for the supposed bogus coins, some friend of his would appear as an officer of the law and the victim would make a hurried exit from the scene without waiting to recover his money. He was a Virginian by birth, but settled on the Skunk River, in Des Moines County, early in the '30s. At the time of the law-suit mentioned he was serving as justice of the peace in Wapello County, but happened to be in Marion and offered his services to the Gillmans for a certain portion of the contested claim. He won the suit, but the land offered to him by the Gillmans was not satisfactory and he returned to Wapello County. A little later the old man Gillman and his two sons all went to Spur- lock's home and sold him the entire claim for a horse and $30 in money, but during their absence, the property being thus forfeited, Glenn "jumped" the claim, secured a title, and afterward sold the land to William F. Jordan.
Of the fifteen townships in the county, Pleasant Grove stands fourth in population and third in the value of taxable property. In 1910 the population was given in the United States census as 1,460, and in 1913 the property was valued for taxation at $1,570,784, includ- ing the Town of Pleasantville.
POLK TOWNSHIP
On July 4, 1848, the county commissioners ordered that township 76, range 19, should be erected into a new civil township to be known
122
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
by the name of Polk, in honor of James K. Polk, at that time Presi- dent of the United States. It was further ordered that the first elec- tion should be held at the house of Warren D. Everett. There was some opposition to the organization of the township, led by Josiah Bullington, who, with others, signed a remonstrance. Then, in re- sponse to a petition of Jeremiah Shepperd and others, the territory was attached to the Township of Knoxville, but on October 3, 1848, the court recognized the legal existence of Polk as a separate and distinct township and the boundaries were then fixed to include "all of township 76, range 19, except the two southern tiers of sections, and all of township 76, range 20."
As thus defined the township included all the present Township of Polk, all of Union, and about sixteen square miles of the northwest corner of Knoxville. On January 8, 1850, it was reduced to its pres- ent area of twenty-four square miles-the northern two-thirds of township 76, range 19. The Des Moines River enters near the north- west corner and flows in a southeasterly direction across the township. In section 10 it receives the waters of the White Breast Creek, which comes from the southwest. Along these streams the bottom lands are level and the soil is far above the average in fertility. White Breast Prairie, north of the Des Moines River, is a beautiful stretch of coun- try, well adapted to agriculture, and many of the first settlers selected claims in this part of the township. Polk is bounded on the north by Summit Township; on the east by Lake Prairie and Clay; on the south by Knoxville, and on the west by Knoxville and Union.
In 1843 Alexander Caton, Mordecai Yearns, Michael S. Morris, George Wilson, Andrew Stortz, George, Edward and Rachael Billaps, a man named Stevenson and his three sons-George, James and Andrew-all settled on the White Breast Prairie, and Richard R. Watts located a claim near where the old Village of Coalport was afterward laid out. During the next three years Andrew, George and William Karr, Frank, Warren D. and John Everett, John Babcock, Robert Ethrington and a few others settled within the limits of the township.
Richard R. Watts and John Babcock were both from Ohio. The latter was a believer in the Mormon faith and his wife was a member of that church. It is said that during one winter Watts and his family were "dependent upon the services of a coffee mill for their daily bread," and during the season ground by this primitive method ten bushels of buckwheat. Think of that, ye women of the Twentieth century! When the household runs short of breadstuffs in the present day, it is an easy matter to give an order to the grocer by telephone
123
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
and in a short time have a sack or barrel of flour delivered at your door. But three score and ten years ago, when Marion County marked the western limit of civilization in Iowa, there were neither telephones nor grocers-not even mills to grind the grain.
The first school in the township was taught by an Englishman, whose name has been forgotten. It was taught in a little log house built for the purpose near the upper end of the White Breast Prairie, about 1848. John Everett taught the second term in that house, which also served the purposes of a church, religious services being fre- quently held there by the Baptists and United Brethren. The great flood of 1851 swept the schoolhouse away, but some years later a frame building was erected near the site, but on higher ground. In 1914 there were six school districts in the township, in which ten teachers were employed, 158 scholars enrolled, and the value of the school property was $3,200, exclusive of the land upon which the buildings stood.
In 1850 Warren D. Everett, Michael S. Morris and James Karr joined together and built a saw mill near the south bank of the Des Moines River. It was a crude affair, driven by horse power, but it answered the purpose in the absence of a better one, and much of the lumber used by the early settlers was made by this mill.
The Wabash Railroad runs through the northern part of the town- ship. Fifield is the only railroad station within the township limits. Coalport and Rousseau were laid out at an early date, but neither ever grew to any considerable proportions. Their history is given in the chapter on Towns and Villages.
Perry is the only township in the county having a smaller area than Polk. The latter therefore stands fourteenth in size and valua- tion of taxable property, but is thirteenth in population. In 1910 the United States census reported the population at 555, and in 1913 the property was assessed at $539,116.
RED ROCK TOWNSHIP
This township is situated in the northern tier and embraces that part of congressional township 77, range 20, lying north of the Des Moines River. It is one of the ten townships erected by the county commissioners on January 6, 1847, and as at first created included, in addition to its present territory, all of the present township of Sum- mit, that part of Polk lying north of the Des Moines River, and all of township 77, range 20, south of the river, now a part of Union Township. On January 8, 1850, its boundaries were extended to include sixteen sections in the northeastern part of township 76, range
124
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
20, but it was reduced to its present area (about thirty square miles ) by the formation of Summit, Polk and Union townships. It is bounded on the north by Jasper County ; on the east by the townships of Summit and Polk; on the south by the Des Moines River, which separates it from Union Township, and on the west by the Township of Perry.
John D. Bedell is credited with having been the first white man to settle within the present limits of Red Rock Township. He was born in Bath County, Kentucky, September 25, 1817, and came to Iowa in the fall of 1842, when he took up a claim and built a cabin near Farm- ington, Van Buren County. After a residence of about two weeks he sold his claim and went to Missouri. Early in the year 1843 he re- turned to lowa and in company with a Frenchman, Louis Le Plant, who could speak the Sac and Fox language, set out for the new pur- chase. The Indian title was not yet extinguished and at the Sac and Fox agency (now Agency City, Wapello County) Mr. Bedell applied to Captain Allen, then in command of the post, for permission to cross the line into the Indian country. Captain Allen explained that he had no authority to grant such permission, but informed Mr. Bedell and his companion that they could cross the line at their own risk, at the same time warning them to keep a sharp lookout for the dra- goons who were guarding the Indian domain.
Leaving the agency early in March, the two men followed an old Indian trail up the Des Moines River until they came to the site of the present village of Red Rock. Here they marked a boundary of a claim by blazing the trees, after which they went to Missouri for a supply of provisions. They returned to their claim in April, 1843, and on the first day of May a pole cabin, fourteen feet square and covered with bark, was built about twenty yards from the river bank -the first house of any kind in Red Rock Township. About two weeks later, in company with John Jordan, who had a trading house on the opposite side of the river, Mr. Bedell went to Keokuk, where he bought a keel boat and at Alexandria loaded it with about ten tons merchandise suitable for a frontier trading house and hired some men to bring it up the Des Moines River.
Amos Shaw came soon after Mr. Bedell and he also established a trading house, in which he lived until his death about two years later. Other settlers who came in 1843 were: John H. Mikesell, Clai- borne Hall, Elias Prunty, Thomas Black, Joel and David B. Worth, James Scott, Israel Nichols, William Williams and his four sons- John, George, James M. and Joshua, Simpson B. Matthews, Nathan Tolman and a man named Shoemaker.
125
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
Among those who came in between that time and the organization of the township were : Robert D. Russell, John W. and Elihu Alley, Ray Alfrey, James Harp, Ezra H. Baker, Daniel Hiskey, the Metz and Johnson families and James A. Chestnut.
John H. Mikesell, with two of his oldest sons and a man named Thomas Martin, came to the township in May, 1843. He selected a claim in section 25, about a mile northeast of the present village of Red Rock, and leaving Martin and the two boys to hold the claim and build a cabin returned to Brighton, Washington County, for his fam- ilv. The house at that time erected was of the wickiup type, open in front with a bark roof sloping one way. Mr. Mikesell returned with the other members of the family and took possession of the new home on May 29, 1843. Some years later he built a large brick residence on the hill just above the old wickiup. He became quite intimate with the Indians and was regarded by them as a friend upon whom they could rely.
Claiborne Hall was born in Virginia in 1819. In 1829 he went with his parents to Missouri and in the fall of the same year to Menard County, Illinois. In the spring of 1843 he came to Marion County and settled near the present village of Red Rock. Two years later he returned to Illinois and married Miss Susan T. Duncan, whom he brought back to his Iowa home. He was elected county surveyor in 1846; was then probate judge, and in 1849 was elected sheriff, when he took up his residence in Knoxville. Subsequently he held the triple office of recorder, treasurer and tax collector, and in 1856 established the Democratic Standard, the first paper published in Marion County in the interests of the democratic party. He was likewise a minister of the Christian denomination and was superin- tendent of the first Sunday school in Red Rock Township.
First Things-The first postoffice in the township was established at Red Rock in the fall of 1845, with Robert D. Russell as postmaster. Rev. M. J. Post, who was one of the early settlers of Pella, carried the first mail to this office from Fairfield, via Agency, Ottumwa and Eddyville and going on to Fort Des Moines, making the trip once a week.
The first religious services were held at the house of Joel Worth, by an itinerant Methodist minister named Johnson, in 1844. Soon after that Rev. M. J. Post conducted services for the few members of the Baptist faith living in the vicinity of Red Rock.
The first saw mill was built in 1846 by Ose Matthews, Jr., about three-fourths of a mile northeast of the village on Brush Creek, then called Mikesell's Creek. Some two years later Daniel Hiskey built
126
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
a saw mill about a mile above that of Matthews on the same stream, and in 1854 Wilson Stanley and John D. Bedell built steam saw mills near the town. The first flour mill was built in 1854 by Simpson B. Matthews. It was operated by steam and was run by Mr. Matthews until he sold out to Talbott & Setzer, who removed the mill to Otley in 1869.
The first divorce case in Marion County came from Red Rock Township. In the spring of 1844 Ray Alfrey, a son-in-law of Ose Matthews, Sr., came from Lake Prairie and moved into the cabin erected the previous year by John D. Bedell, the owner boarding with the Alfreys. It appears that Ray was in the habit of wandering away from home to such an extent that Mrs. Alfrey employed J. W. Alley to procure a divorce, which he accomplished without much difficulty. Mr. Alfrey was away from home at the time the decree was granted and upon returning and finding himself a grass widower he disap- peared from Marion County altogether.
Dr. Reuben Matthews was the first physician to practice his pro- fession in what is now Red Rock Township. Dr. C. M. Gilky came a little later and soon afterward Dr. J. W. McCully opened an office at Red Rock.
The territory now comprising the township was included in the Red Rock election precinct, as established by the county commission- ers by the order of March 2, 1846. The first election was held at the house of Robert D. Russell in April of that year. James A. Chest- nut, Claiborne Hall and Robert D. Russell were the judges, and J. W. Hart and John D. Bedell were the clerks. Forty-six votes were cast. Donnel tells the following amusing incident connected with this election :
"Many people were present from all parts of the precinct and the voting was pretty lively, not a few of the voters receiving a drink of whiskey apparently in exchange for their tickets, which they handed through the open window of the cabin. An Indian that hap- pened to be present noticed this proceeding and thought it would be a nice plan for him to get a drink. So he presented himself before one " of the persons who distributed the tickets, with the request delivered in his best English: 'Me paper, me vote, get drink whis.' His request was readily granted and forthwith he proceeded to vote. Amused at his boldness in attempting to do so, and aware of his motive, those who had charge of the ballots took his ticket and handed him a small drink. Pleased with his success thus far, he thought the plan worth repeating and applied for another paper. It was given him -- either a ticket or some other paper that answered the same pur-
127
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
pose with him-and again he voted with like success. Thus encouraged he continued to vote at intervals all day, or till he got as much of the election as he could carry. Of course, the tickets he handed in counted nothing for anybody but himself."
The first school was taught by Daniel Hiskey, in the Village of Red Rock, in the winter of 1845-46. The schoolhouse was a small cabin that stood near the river and about twenty scholars were en- rolled. Miss Margaret Brown, afterward Mrs. Pendray, taught the first school in the northern part of the township in 1851. The first house built expressly for a schoolhouse was erected in 1854 or 1855 in Red Rock Village. In 1914 there were eight independent school districts in the township, in which fourteen teachers were employed and the value of school buildings was $5, 100.
The Wabash Railroad runs through the southern part of the town- ship, following the course of the Des Moines River. A branch leaves the main line at Cordova and runs to the sandstone quarries west of the Town of Red Rock. Dunreath is the principal station. The population of Red Rock in 1910 was 693, and the value of taxable property in 1913 was $696,924.
SUMMIT TOWNSHIP
This township is one of the northern tier and embraces congres- sional township 77, range 19. It was a part of Red Rock Township until March 3, 1854, when a petition signed by Jacob Pendray and sixty-one others was presented to the county judge asking for the division of Red Rock and the erection of a new township to be called Summit. This name was selected because at that time the popular belief was that the highest point of land in the county was on the ridge between the Skunk and Des Moines rivers, in what is now Sum- mit Township. Judge Brobst granted the request of the petitioners and ordered that the first township election should be held on the first Monday in April, at the house of Jacob C. Brown. At that elec- tion John Ribble and A. F. McConnell were chosen justices of the peace; I. N. Crum, Ira Kelsey and George Reynolds, trustees ; Abram B. Scott, clerk; Ira Kelsey, assessor; P. P. Harp and A. Donnel, constables.
Summit is bounded on the north by Jasper County; on the east by Lake Prairie Township; on the south by Polk, and on the west by Red Rock. Its area is thirty-six square miles. There are no large streams in the township, but several small ones have their sources on the ridge known as "The Divide" and flow each way into the Skunk
128
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
or the Des Moines. When the first white men came to this part of the county they found a beautiful prairie in the northern and eastern parts of what is now Summit Township, while in the southeastern part was a considerable body of timber. The coal deposits are quite extensive and as early as 1849 a mine was opened and worked by John A. Scott.
Probably the first white men to select claims in this township were James Price and Jonathan Donnel, who came together from Burling- ton early in the spring of 1843. After building a small cabin, Mr. Price broke about nine acres of prairie land and planted a crop of corn. That fall he obtained some seed wheat from Fairfield and sowed a few acres, the first wheat ever sown in this part of the county.
Others who came in 1843 were: Samuel Martin, David Fritz, William Adams, Humphrey Blakeway, Ray and Samuel Wilson, Andrew Metz, David and Allen Tice and William Hodge. They were soon joined by Isaac N. Crum, John A. Scott, James Deweese, S. S. Roberts, Allen Lawhead, Alexander B. Donnel, Joseph S. West, Charles Harp and a few others, most of whom located claims along the edge of the timber in the southeastern part of the township.
Some trouble occurred in this township over the possession of cer- tain tracts of land. In one case Andrew Donnel had selected a claim and hauled some logs to the site upon which he proposed to erect his cabin, when business called him elsewhere for a short time. Upon his return he found that John A. Scott had "jumped" the claim and used the logs to build a cabin, in which he was then living. Instead of trying to oust the intruder, Mr. Donne! accepted the situation philosophically and selected another claim in the vicinity, which afterward proved to be greatly superior to the one Mr. Scott had jumped.
In 1862, in response to a petition of a number of citizens of the township, that part of Polk Township lying north of the Des Moines River was attached to Summit, but in 1867 the territory was restored to Polk.
The first orchard planted in the township was that of David and Allen Tice, who sent to Illinois in the spring of 1845 for about fifty apple trees, which they set out on their claim, near the western line of the township. Most of these trees were living forty years later.
The first postoffice was called Divide and was established in 1847. with John A. Scott as postmaster, but Mr. Scott declined the appoint- ment and the office was discontinued. In 1857 a postoffice called Newark was established a little northwest of the center of the town- ship, with William H. Anderson as postmaster. It was afterward
129
HISTORY OF MARION COUNTY
moved to Otley and the name changed to correspond to that of the village.
The first school was taught by Abram B. Scott, in the southern part of the township, but the date cannot be ascertained. Probably the second school was the one taught on the divide by a one-armed man named Watson. His schoolhouse was a small cabin, in which the first Sunday school was organized in 1849, under the superintendency of Andrew Donnel. Religious services were also held in the house at irregular intervals. According to the report of the county super- intendent for the year 1914, there were then eight districts in the town- ship, in which thirteen teachers were employed during the preceding school year, and the school buildings were valued at $6,150.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad crosses the town- ship diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, and the Wabash Railroad touches the southwest corner. Otley, on the former, and Cordova, on the latter, are the only railroad stations.
Of the fifteen townships in the county Summit stands seventh in population and fourth in the value of taxable property. In 1910, according to the United States census, the population was 952, and in 1913 the property was assessed for taxation at $1,249,800.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.