History of Monona County, Iowa; containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 18

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, National Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 666

USA > Iowa > Monona County > History of Monona County, Iowa; containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 18

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President Lincoln's Proclamation calling for 75,000 men appeared in the same issue, causing the

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greatest excitement and rousing the patriotism of the North to fever heat. The first man in Onawa, if my memory serves me right, that left his home to join the United States army, was Albert Fair- child, He went to Council Bluffs early in Inly, 1861, to enroll himself among the nation's de- fenders. Ilis body now lies in the Onawa cemetery -- buried before the war closed.

In July fifty United States cavalrymen passed through the town on their way to the northern frontier, and fifty more were reported as following. A courier arrived one day at noon about that time who had ridden from Sioux City, forty miles in three hours, with the exciting news that a massacre had taken place at Sioux City; two soldiers of the local company had been killed by the Indians in a field while peaceably engaged in hoeing potatoes. After dinner, mounted on a fresh horse, he set out in hot haste for Council Bluffs, where he arrived at midnight -- 100 miles from Sioux City in fifteen hours over bad roads. The courier had been dis- patched from Sioux City by Judge Hubbard, and the result was a company of volunteer infantry from Harrison County that reached Onawa at mid- night, rousing the citizens from their slumbers by their sudden and noisy invasion, and causing a panic in many a household under the impression that the Indians had come to kill, and burn the town. As soon as it was known that they were friends instead of focs. the ladies began to prepare coffee and other refreshments and gave them a royal welcome. The company bivonacked in and around the court house. At early bugle call they took up their onward march toward Sioux City, where they fraternized with the local volunteers in the protec- tion of the people from savage foes.

On the day following the arrival of the courier from Sioux City, a meeting of citizens was called at the school house to consider the propriety of forming a military company for home protection. The meeting was organized by calling T. Elliott to take the chair, and T. R. Chapman to act as secre- tary. After considerable discussion A. Oliver was appointed a committee to confer with Judge Hub- bard, whereupon the meeting adjourned. This was on Wednesday. On the following Sunday sixteen good and true men of Monona County left Onawa ]

on horseback for the frontier. The best way to protect the town was to send men to the front.

I may say by way of explanation that the re- redoubtable Monona Union Guards had quietly melted away in the hot July sun to come to life again, however, in 1864 under the head of Capt. Charles Atkins, and armed with real muskets. Of their valiant deeds in keeping the hostile Sioux Indians at bay, I may have a word to say at the proper time. The last drill of the Guards of 1861 took place in the shade of a small buikling on lowa avenue, where Mr. Stark's store now stands. It was a limp affair. The heat was too great to permit a promenade as far as the Court House. where the Guards usually assembled for the dis- play of their marvelous serpentine line of beauty and the execution of their eccentric evolutions.

The roll-call of the names of the immortal six- teen heroes that left Onawa on the first day of the week in July, 1861, is as follows:

T. R. Chapman, B. D. Holbrook,

Seneca Morgan, Frank Milam,

Thomas M. Flowers, Thos. Powers,

Marion Perry, W. C. Lanyon,

Wm. Ilaley, Adam Miers,

John Craig, .J. H. Overacker,

Wm. Sherman, Omer Lytle,

Daniel Howard, O. J. Goodenough.

A large crowd assembled to witness their de- parture from the Onawa Ilonse and showered blessings upon them. Three rousing cheers were given them as mounted upon spirited horses of their own they wheeled and shot out of town at a rattling gait. By noon they reached Shipman's tavern where they took dinner, and a little after dark entered Sioux City. The next day they were enrolled in Capt. Tripp's company and went into camp. The first week in August some members returned on furlough and reported seeing more elk than Indians -- in fact they hadn't caught sight of a "single red." All were in good health. T. R. Chapman, after several weeks' service in Capt. Tripp's company, returned home and reported with military brevity. "Hard work, poor pay and no Indians."

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EXPERIENCE OF D. T. HAWTHORNE IN THE WINTER OF THE DEEP SNOW.

In the fall of 1856, prairie fires destroyed a large amount of hay in this and adjoining counties, and Elijah Adams, Bayliss of Woodbury, Thomas Flowers, John Truman and Frederick D. Winegar hired Edward Young and D. T. Hawthorne to herd their cattle on the rush-beds on the banks of the Missouri River in Franklin township. This was the "winter of the deep snow," as it is known throughout the whole West. December, 1, 2 and 3, witnessed the first great fall of snow, that laid the earth under a snowy mantle some four feet deep, with drifts and hillocks twice as high. Being hem- med in and storm-bound. and provisions running short for both man and beast, the snow covering the forage of the rush-beds, the two men sat down and played a game of eucher to decide which of them should struggle through to make their condi- tion known, and the fates, luck or skill decided that Young should make the attempt. With an early start he succeeded, after a hard and desperate struggle, in reaching the cabin of Mr. Hays, some four miles distant, by nightfall. Resting there that night, he reached Ashton the next day and notified Mr. Flowers. It was some two weeks be- fore the latter could get back to Hawthorne on horseback,and had at that time a hard and desperate battle with the drifts ere he reached him. Getting word to the other parties who owned the cattle, they started to drive out what had not died of cold, exposure and hunger, or had been killed by wolves, and succeeded in rounding up all but nine head that had sheltered themselves in some willows. in an out-of-the-way place, and succeeded in driv- ing them through to food and shelter. Hawthorne returned for the balance, shortly after, between Christmas and New Years, being storm-stayed at Ashton one day on the way. The next day he found the kine he sought and started them though the hnge drifts in the right direction, intending to make a camp where the main herd had been, that night, but in wading through the snow the matches in his pocket had become wet, so he was forced to go on. About 2 o'clock in the morning, after in- credible hardship he reached the cabin of a

man by the name of Miller, where he sought and found shelter. Next morning he hired a boy to help him drive the cattle, and being unable in that neighborhood to get any hay, drove them through to Ashton. There he paid $2.50 for a bushel of corn to feed the animals, and as there was no hay to be bought, to use the expression of the pioneer, "he came Indian on it" for that necessary article. Early the next morning, with the thermometer standing some 40 ? below zero he started the eat- tle for Smithland, but another storm coming up he was compelled to leave them at Fairchild's hay- stack, on the West Fork of the Little Sioux River, and go on to his destination alone. The next morning in company with a man by the name of Allison he started back to look for the cattle. Being nearly frozen with the cold and exhausted with fatigue, Allison gave up several times and laid down in the snow vowing that he could go no further. Hawthorne by persuasion and sometimes by gentle force, urged him on however, knowing it was death for him if he was left there, and after incredible hardships finally about midnight reached the cabin of F. D. Winegar, who with the hearty hospitality of the time took in the perish- ing men. There being but enough beds in the house to supply the family, Allison was put into two of the boys' bed, while they and Hawthorne sat up the balance of the night and told stories and ate corn bread until the dawn. Allison who was completely worn out was, also, badly frost bitten about the face. The next morning, finding the cattle they were driven through to Smithland. Allison followed along in the track broken by the herd. Mr. Hawthorne is still a resident of Mon- ona County, living on section 8, Center Township.

THE FIRST RAILROAD IN MONONA.

During the winter of 1858-9 parties in Council Bluffs, Sioux City, and towns between, organized the Council Bluffs & Sioux City Railroad Company. Monona County was represented by A. Dimmick, Director, and J. C. Hazelett, Engineer. The scheme was well talked up and plans concocted until on January 22, 1859, a mass convention was held at Onawa to consider the subject, and it was resolved by a large majority to have an election ordered on

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the question of issuing $75.000 in bonds guaran- teed by 140,000 acres of swamp lands, the idea being that the lands would meet the interest for the time placed, and eventually pay off the bonds. Although the day was stormy and cold people came out and a decided opposition led by Leonard Sears, F. A. Day and C. C. Bisbee, grew into such a cloud that the projectors of this plan to place $75,000 bonds to the credit of an irresponsible com- pany deemed it wise to back down and out of the first bonding job of Monona and no election was ordered.

HOW WE CAME TO MONONA IN '55.

By J. B. P. Day.

On the 25th of October. 1855, Preston Day and his brother Joe started to navigate two yoke of oxen and a heavily loaded wagon from St. Charles, Ill .. to Monona, a distance of over 500 miles by the routes then traveled. Neither of the boys had ever yoked up or drove cattle and it was only a matter of course that the first hard pull found them stuck. A kind carpenter going their way helped drive a mile or two until a hill was reached that proved too much for the team and they were "stuck" for good. A snow storm two days before had wet the ground thoroughly and it was soft and nasty as Illinois mud can be at short notice. The carpenter went ahead a mile and sent a farmer's boy back with a yoke of steers, with which help the outfit soon reached the farmer's yard and it was determ- ined to buy the steers and hire the boy to drive to Davenport and instruct his employers in the science of handling oxen. The next day they went off nicely until about four o'clock the wheels went down to the hubs in a slough and the load bad to come off which job was repeated four times on the trip. The boys lived wholly out of doors, having an old cow hitched on behind that furnished a good share of the living. During some 3,000 miles trav- eled in the ensuing year they never slept in a house but once and had good reason to repent of that rash act. The trip down the Rock River and to Daven- port was over good roads and the boys had learned how to swing the long whip in artistic style. At the Mississippi River the boy Dan started back. He had written instructions how to reach home by

the railroads but it was afterward learned that he footed it back over the old trail and saved his fare; not going to trust himself on the roundabout railroads. On November 4, just as they approached the C'edar River at Moscow, then the terminus of the Rock Island Road, the only railroad in Iowa, they were overtaken by F. A. Day, Frank L. Day and wife, who were traveling with horses. Iowa City was passed November 7, and on November 14 the wagon was capsized in the timber in East DesMoines and made a diversion for awhile. The river at DesMoines was forded and it did not take many minutes to pass through the little village which has since developed into the beautiful Capi- tal City of Iowa. The gate posts of old Ft. Des- Moines were still standing in what is now the heart of the city. On the 16th they camped about five miles west of Adel and woke next morning to find eight inches of snow on the ground. They were camped near a widow's cabin, an old lady, a native of Virginia, who saw Alexandria burned by the British. At first she did not like the looks of these moustached fellows, but as they sat around her big open fireplace and told stories, her heart seemed to warm up and she tendered some of her good things to help out the supper. Before the snow storm was over she was earnestly persuading the whole crowd to winter with her and go on in the spring. It was rather a blue outlook when they started out with over a foot of snow and took up the trail anew. At the ford of the Coon, near Wiscotta, the leaders of the team balked in mid-stream and Joe off with his boots and waded in to straighten them out. This cool bath with rocky bottom was a tough job es- p: cially on coming out into the snow, resulting af- terward in an ugly stone bruise. The 21st was a se- vere cold day and they made the drive from Bear Grove to Turkey Creek at Morrison's, now the site of the village of Anita. This drive of twenty-five miles without a house was the hardest day of the entire trip having to dine on frozen bread and milk and when they came into the stage station they found people waiting for them and a good supper ready, it being half-past ten. As the night before they had stayed with the ugliest woman met on the road, this unex- pected reception was all the more appreciated, and the kindness of the Morrisons will never be forgot-

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ten. The next day being Thanksgiving they laid by and celebrated their first one on the Missouri Slope, having crossed the divide the day before. This was a stormy day and our host went out in the afternoon hunting for deer, killing three before night. As there were lots of passengers on the route that day the good people were kept busy getting up corn cakes and venison steaks which were duly appreciated. From this point westward the snow grew less and the weather milder until on the 29th they went out of the snow and came in sight of the Missouri Valley, camping at noon at the mouth of Mosquito Valley and reaching Coun- cil Bluffs in the afternoon. The warm weather and dusty roads seemed to welcome them to the Big Valley of the West that was to be their home. On December 1 passed where Missouri Valley now is, and were overtaken that afternoon by Uncle Sammy King and his family on their way out from Indi- ana. On the eve of December 2, camped at Lar- penteurs and the next morning crossed the Sioux and were in Monona at noon, camping that night with John B. Gard, where they met a hearty wel- come. On December 11, F. A. Day, Frank L. and Joe B. P. went to Smithland, where they met Dr. Ordway who had lately been rohbed of a large sum of money and some notes and everybody was talking about it. On the 13th Frank L. and Joe B. P. pitched a tent just in the bend above the Kennebec bridge, where they were joined by the rest of the party on the 15th and they settled down for the winter in two nine foot tents joined at the ends. A big camp fire was built that was not allowed to go out for over a month. as the weather was the cold- est ever known in the West-snow never melted on the sunny side of a tree from December 17 until the middle of January and several mornings the mereury was chilled. Yet in spite of the weather the emigrants kept at work on a cabin until they moved on March 1, and camp life was ended. The old cabin in which the Days lived nine years was a familiar place with many old settlers who have often tripped the light fantastic to the music of the first piano in Northwestern lowa, brought across from Iowa City in the summer of '56. The cabin was divided in '65, and Edwin Pritchard took one-half to his homestead at Ticonia where it was

burnt, and the other half was moved to J. B. P. Day's farm near C'astana, where it was occupied until the fall of '89, when it was torn down.

* **

The writer hereof visited O. B. Smith one day in order to save some items of history in which Monona County people will be interested and which are herein noted.

O. B. Smith, founder of Smithland, Woodbury County, Iowa, and known to the old settlers as Buckskin Smith (in consequence of his always wearing buckskin suits in the pioneer days, like his brother pioneers Boone, Crockett and others), was born in Preston, Chenango Co., N. Y., and had lots of brothers and sisters. At sixteen he went to Cineinnati, Ohio, and drifted down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, then to Texas and back to Natchez, then a noted gambling town and there Smith lost in some game, all he had, then worked up the river and settled in Ogle County, Ill., at Kilbuck. He joined the California emigra- tion in 1851, coming to Council Bluffs where he rested and when the eity was organized, took out a license as auctioneer. In 1851-52 the place was full of people bound for Salt Lake or California. As this was the last of settlements and steamer communications,many found themselves overloaded with goods and the surplus was generally sold for a song. Many a good English-woman bound for Zion or Utah, saw her nice feather beds sold at auc- tion for one dollar and other things at similar prices. Smith made the first entry in the Bluffs' Land Office on April 22, 1853. He had to buy out eleven Mormon cabins that were on the tract which was after occupied by L. W. Babbitt. In the fall of 1852 in company with Ed. M. Smith and John Hurley he came up into Monona, crossing the Sioux at Larpenteurs' Ford and camping that night on the Missouri below Cooks. As they drove up to the timbers a big flock of turkeys surrounded them and Smith shot fourteen without getting off the wagon. They went thence by Oliver Lake's to a bridge on West Fork, built by Curtis Lamb and William White, who lived up the Sioux and traded with the Indians. They found Wm. White at Smithland Grove where he lived several years and had a ferry on the Sioux until a bridge was built

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when he moved to Silver Lake near Whiting, where he was drowned years ago. Lamb lived above Smithland and went to Newport. Neb.

On this trip Smith purchased of Josiah Sumner his claim in the Smithland Grove for $100 in gold and in February, 1853, he moved Eli Lee up to his claim. In June he came up with some goods as far as Larpenteur's and found the bottoms under water, so hired Wm. Townsley, who was tenting near by, to go and help haul his load through the hills, and paid him fifty cents per day and all the whiskey he could drink, and had whiskey been the present prices it would have been a dear bargain. He crossed over to the Soldier and went up between Jordan and Beaver Creeks, crossing the Maple near Norcross Bridge heading the Wiley Creek. While building a bridge over the Maple the cattle ran off and Townsley had to go back to the Beaver being gone all day. Smith left his cattle at Smith- land and returned to the Bluffs and in July with five teams moved his family, Seth Smith helping him this trip. As they came up the Soldier Valley they found two wagons in camp at Preparation and this was the advance location committee of the col- ony that settled there, Barnum, Condit and three others. From the Soldier, Smith came over the trail to the Beaver at mouth of Miers Creek, crossed near Ilowe's Bridge on a beaver dam and named the creek Beaver. They bridged the Maple in Lake Park just below Castana. While building this bridge Smith noticed an ox traek in the bend and after getting over he started the teams up the bluff near Old Castana and he followed that ox trail up the valley to the Wiley Creek near Nor- cross Bridge, where he met an old white ox he had left at Smithland in June. The fellow had been tormented by flies, mosquitoes and solitude until he was well worn out and he capered around Smith, bellowed and tore up the ground in his joy, following Smith like a dog, licking his hands in his glee. In the meantime the teams had tried the divide back of the valley and found it so rough they came back to the valley and Smith met them near the King Place; they went up that creek just before sunset and Smith shot three deer before sup- per. The next day they went over the divide to the Sioux. While on the divide they saw the bones

of a man bleached and old, and Seth Smith always insisted that this was the remains of Moses who stood where he could look over into the Maple Val- ley-"The Promised Land." Seth Smith after- ward located on the site of Rodney, and lived in Monona until his death.

In 1855, Smith with Eli Lee, Ed. M. Smith, Wm. Townsley and Joe Bowers built a bridge at Ida Grove, completing the trail to Ft. Dodge that was used for years by the Ft. Dodge & Sioux City stage line and was the road to the Northwest, and it is fitting that those pioneers have credit for their gratuitous work in opening this trail. Ed. Smith built a cabin on the old town site of Ida that sum- mer and here his daughter Ida was born, the first white child of Ida County. William Townsley put up a cabin just south of the grove at Ida in 1855. This bridge party shot a wagon load of wild hogs, deer and turkeys about the grove, and elk were plenty all around that vicinity at that time.

During the summer of 1855, Smith conceived the idea of building a town in Monona County, and made arrangements with some of the Preparation settlers (who were getting uneasy under Thomp- son's yoke) to pre-empt and purchase the location known as Belvidere Beach and a number of families left Preparation in August and located at Belvidere, which at one time was quite a little village, with store, blacksmith, shoemaker, cooper-shop and saw mill. The parties who were in possession finally froze Smith out of the job and others took a hand in it; but in the county seat election of 1861, Smith worked hard for Onawa and claims his influence turned the scale and gave him his revenge.

In the summer of 1859, J. B. Gard, William Townsley, John Dingman, Abe Mosher, Doc. Conk- lin, A. J. Hathaway, James Roberts and O. B. Smith, went over the plains and located on head of Cherry Creek, Colo., building a cabin on the Sante Fe Trail, where they spent the winter of 1859-60, and after laying in a supply of game secured on a trip to Pikes l'eak, Smith hauled timber and built.a larger double log cabin on the site of West Denver, being the first house in Denver. The next season Col. Laramie laid out Denver on the other side of the creek and Smith built a store on Blake street.

MONONA COUNTY.

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Mr. Smith is one of the most entertaining old settlers in the county to meet and is full of stories covering fifty years of the history of the West. Ile was a splendid specimen of athletic manhood, has been a great hunter and counts deer-slaying

up into the thousands, was a match for any Indian in trailing and scouting and has been the indirect means of locating hundreds of Monona's settlers. Ile is now settled at Smithland and bids fair to be with us for many years.

BLUE GRASS.

FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.

CHAPTER VII.

IlIS beautiful sub-division of the county in which is situated the county seat, embraces all of Congressional Township 83, range 45, and the fractional town 83. range 46. The sur- face is extremely level, and is, to a large extent, brought under cultivation. The soil is a dark, rich, alluvial loam, with just the right admixture of sand to make crops spring up quickly and mature early.

Franklin lies in the western part of the county, its western boundary being washed by the rapid Missouri, that separates it from Nebraska. It is bounded on the north by the town of Ashton and Lincoln; on the south by Sherman, and on the east by Belvidere. The population is about 1,000, the census of 1885 showing it to have then 809 inhabi- tants, 677 of whom were of American birth.

EARLY SETTLEMENT.

The first settlement in the county was made in · what is now the township of Franklin, in the sum- mer of 1851. Aaron W. Cook, and his son, James, a lad of fourteen years, and Josiah Sumner, resid- ing at the time in Pottawattamie County, this State, started from their home with a wagon and ox- team, up the Missouri bottom in search of bee trees. In the course of time they arrived in the timber on the bank of the river west of where Onawa now stands, and there found three shanties, on what is .now section 30, town 83, range 45, deserted by their former occupants, probably Indian traders, standing in a triangle, about eight rods apart.

Here they took up their lodging and remained three weeks or thereabouts prosecuting their search for honey, and then returned to their homes with some twenty-five or thirty gallons of the sweets of the woodland grove.

While here they discussed the question as to their returning here and making a permanent set- tlement, the timber being so handy to the river, that they could supply all boats passing up and down the river. Besides this, they observed that there were large beds of rushes along the river bottom, where cattle couldl feed all winter long. Filled with these ideas, they reached their homes. Collecting a herd of some 150 head of cattle from their neighbors, which they agreed to winter for twenty-five cents a head per month, in the latter part of October, 1851, again came to their old camping place. On their arrival at the shanties, they found one of them occupied by an Indian trader by the name of Rose. who had filled up the cabin with a lot of supplies to sell to the Indians. and presumably a quantity of whisky, that being the most saleable article. Mr. Cook settled his family, whom he had brought with him in the shanty toward the south, and Mr. Sumner's family occupied the northern one. Rose, the trader, hav- ing the cows, which be used to draw his outfit, stolen by Indians. during the winter, sold out to Messrs. Cook and Sumner, for forty cords of wood to be delivered on the river bank in the spring, and finally left here in February, 1852. On the open-

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History of Monona County, Iowa; containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 18

Author: Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, National Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 666

Author:
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, National Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 666