USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time, Volume I > Part 28
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
the chimney. Not more than half the buildings in Geneva had glass in them; paper made transparent by oiling was often used as a substitute."
FAIRPORT.
Fairport is situated on the line of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Rail- road, near the banks of the Mississippi, seven miles east of Muscatine. At its inception it was called Salem but shortly afterward changed to Fairport. Its leading industry at one time was the manufacture of pottery but the chief interest in the town now centers in the great clam and mussel hatcheries recently estab- lished there by the United States government. The citizens number probably 100. There is a good school and the Methodist denomination affords religious services for the people of the community. Clam fishing is an industry largely engaged in by several of its citizens. There is also a grocery store, blacksmith shop and a small hotel. Quite a good deal of stock is shipped from Fairport and here is a splendid harbor, the water being very deep, permitting large boats to land at low water mark without any difficulty.
SWEETLAND CENTER.
This community of interest is situated about six miles north and a little east of Muscatine. There are only a few families in the community, the business portion of the village consisting of a general merchandise store, a neat church edifice under the auspices of the Methodist denomination, and a few residences. In the early days the stage line from Muscatine to Davenport passed through this hamlet. The farmers in the vicinity are industrious and the farms are among the best in the state. Sweetland also has a very good school, with a large attendance. The citizens do the most of their trading in Muscatine, bringing quite a good deal of stock here, whence it is shipped to the various markets.
DRURY'S LANDING.
The late John McGreer, one of the early settlers, wrote the following article, in 1899, on one of the early points of interest in this section and, while the spot was not of this county, still it was so closely connected with the activities of the Muscatine pioneers, that it is justly entitled to a place in this history :
Muscatine had at one time a remarkably lively competitor for the Illinois trade, only two and a half miles away on the Illinois side of the river. Drury's Landing (familiarly known as the "Landin," or the "Pint"), was the competitor, located just above the head of the Big or Fourth Slough. Today not a land- mark remains to indicate to passers that a lively village once flourished there. Where the "business center" was, is overgrown with trees, underbrush, and weeds. In Jimtown, its suburb, I understand a couple of tumble down log cab- ins remain, and a field occupies the land. Reynolds Drury was its founder, gen- eral merchant, grain, produce and stock buyer, a merchant whose credit was good for all he wished to buy in Cincinnati, New Orleans and St. Louis. (Chi- cago wasn't in it then). He bought most everything the farmers had to sell.
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Those without money he trusted till they got or raised a crop; gave credit from one crop to another ; bought as much produce as all Bloomington did from Illi- nois. Up river steamboats would leave barges for loading, which would be filled to the gunwales ready to hitch on and be towed south on the return trip. All boats stopped there either to load or unload freight or take on boat supplies. He had wood yards on the bank, large ice house and cold storage room combined. In winter he bought and traded for wild game, deer, turkeys, prairie chickens, etc., put them in the cold storage room and on the opening of navigation, he barreled and shipped them to southern markets. When living on the farm, my sister and I had our quail traps and could tell all about it. With plenty of snow and a good price for quail, we did not always have to wear those Dennis Pul- lin's home made shoes.
During the season when high water overflowed the bottom road opposite Bloomington, things boomed at the "Pint." I am sure I have seen as many as fifty teams (including ox wagons), scattered about town at one time. In those times the Bloomington horse ferry boat landed here instead of directly across the river. Unless farmers had special purchases to make in Bloomington which required wagons, they unhitched, tied their horses or oxen to the wagon until their return, and paid foot passage down to Bloomington, but most generally sold their grain to Reynolds Drury. My picture of Drury's Landing is made entirely from memory and my recollection of it as it looked in 1845. * It was my destiny to live there in that year and it came about in this way. My father died on the farm when I was about four years old. In course of time my mother married Dr. Charles Drury, a physician then connected with Dr. Eli Reynolds, with their offices and residence at the Landing. They were the leading physicians in that part of the country and had an extensive practice for many miles around. Dr. Reynolds had first located at Geneva, but when that place began to go down, he moved over to the "Landing," which at that time was the prospective city of the future. We rented the farm for one year and moved to Dr. Drury's home, the roof of which is just shown in the sketch, im- mediately back of Reynolds Drury's store. We went back to the farm again previous to moving to Muscatine. Reynolds Drury's warehouse is shown on corner of upper slough and river. The platform projecting over the water is where steamboats landed to take freight on or off. On the slough side of the warehouse he also had a large door for receiving and delivering freight. The warehouse does not show large in the picture, but its capacity was many thou- sand bushels of grain. The platform on river (where I am seen fishing for dog fish) is where the horse ferry landed. The long building with the double porch is Reynolds Drury's home, and his store in the room on the corner under awning. The lower floor back of porch was a large kitchen and dining room. Right here I will mention one of his generous peculiarities : When dinner was ready, no matter how many customers were in the store, he would say: "Here, everybody shut off now and go to dinner," (and they usually did) but he wouldn't put out a hotel sign and seldom charged for entertainment. Dr. Eli Reynolds had his office and also kept a small "apothecary shop" (as it was then called) in the small square front building next south of Drury's. The next building south was Asbury Warfield's general store. Asbury had previously sold it to
ORURYS LANDING IN 1845.
Drury's Landing in 1845. Sketched from memory by John McGreer
Second Street, east of Cedar, in 1866
View from top floor of Hershey Building, August. 1910
NE
Third Street looking east from Towa Avenue in 1866. Pappoose Bridge in Distance
1
Towa Avene looking north from Front Street
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
two brothers named Neienburg, but after the suicide Warfield had to take the store back. The first house back of warehouse on slough bank was Tom Com- stock's cooper shop. Next was Reynolds Drury's ice house and cold storage room. Then came Jimtown (Drury's suburb). The blacksmith shop here was run by a man named Dupont. The tall dark trees shown on the hillsides are pines and the place known as "Pine Bluffs." The other small houses along the bottom are residences. There were probably six or eight scattered around and back to the hill.
CEDAR TOWNSHIP.
Cedar is one of the original townships first organized in 1842 and comprises all of township 76 north, of range 4 west, lying east of the Cedar river. It is bounded on the west by Cedar river, one the south by Louisa county, on the east by Seventy Six township and on the north by Lake township and the Cedar river. The soil is very fertile here and is traversed by a number of small streams which empty into the Cedar. It is purely an agricultural township, having neither village nor postoffice. Along the river much of it was at one time covered with timber, but there are here some of the best farms in Muscatine county. Its schools will compare very favorably with those of any other township. There are three sub-districts in which school is held nine months in the year, with an average attendance of fifty-eight. The cost per pupil is $2.17.
Matthew Brown was one of the first settlers of this township. With his father, Colonel Thomas M. Brown, he was employed by the government to sur- vey the Black Hawk Purchase. He completed the survey in 1836 and taking a fancy to the country, removed with his family to Muscatine county in 1837. In June, 1842, he died, leaving a widow with seven small children, five of whom grew to maturity in the township. She lived to a very advanced age, with her son Thomas M. Hugh P. Brown, a son of Matthew, came to the township with his father, and for many years resided on section 2. Thomas M. Brown was another son of Matthew and became one of the influen- tial farmers of this section. For many years he ran the Lord ferry.
Samuel Storm was another early settler of this township, coming in the spring of 1837. Shortly after his arrival he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, later purchasing the tract at the land sales, soon thereafter building a little log cabin, in which he made his home for several years. He eventually accumulated four hundred and eighty acres. He lived in the little log cabin alone for some years, after which his home was presided over by a married couple, engaged for the purpose. He never married.
Aristarchus Cone was one of the first settlers in Cedar township, locating there in the early fall of 1837. About the first day of July, 1837, in company with Richard Lord, he left Cincinnati and went to St. Louis by boat, and thence up the Illinois to Peoria. He and a companion were searching for a location and with bundles on their backs struck out on the lone prairie, from Peoria, "Indian file," as Mr. Crone related it, "with grass waist high, a straw hat on my head tied around the ears with a handkerchief and a small bush in our hands, to fight the everlasting and pestiferous mosquitoes." From Davenport the pio-
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neers traveled, stopping the aching void in their stomachs by eating a few small potatoes they had found and, after fasting two days, were kindly taken in and generously fed by the mistress of a cabin that stood in their pathway. Moscow was the travelers' next stopping place and the first in Muscatine county. "with two whiskey shops and three other buildings, the whiskey dens in full blast, with '40-rod' whiskey flowing freely. Here were congregated Indians and whites in every stage of drunkenness; this, we were told, was an every-day occurrence. We came to the conclusion this was no place for us to stop. We got a man to take us across the river and stayed the night in a hospitable cabin. The next morning we tramped down the west side of Cedar river and came upon the re- mains of an Indian village. The 'wigy-ups' were still standing. About three miles away, on the banks of Wapsinonoc creek, we came across a log cabin, occupied by one Kidder, his wife and two little girls. They were Vermonters. From Kidder's we crossed Cedar river and traveled down about eight miles to the east side. The grass was nearly as high as our heads. We came to a beau- tiful prairie, surrounded on three sides by timber, with a stream running through it. I said to my friend," continues Mr. Cone, "this is the place I have been look- ing for. I am going to lay claim to this land," which he did by stalking off a claim, and also his companion, Lord, the latter paying fifty cents to the recorder of claims for the entry, according to the "squatter's" rules then in vogue. In his narrative, part of which had been quoted, Mr. Cone gives some very inter- esting details of his mode of life in that primitive day, which are but a repetition of the tales oft-told by others in this history. Mr. Cone, however, returned as far east as Peoria, traveling on foot a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. From there he went to his native place in Ohio and was back in Muscatine, in May, 1838, with farming implements, paying a man six dollars to move his chat- tels to his claim. He there made a pole "shack" and in a few days was joined by Lord, who had returned from Peoria with four yoke of oxen, with which they that summer broke sod. In the winter a log house was built. Of course he was fated to go through the usual period of malarial sickness and "chills and fever" and had many experiences, suffering hardships and privations, but was brave through it all, becoming eventually one of the prominent men of the locality and enjoying the fruits of a strenuous, industrious and prosperous life.
SEVENTY SIX TOWNSHIP.
This township was organized in October, 1853, and comprises township 76 north of range 3 west, with the exception of that portion in the southeast part lying east of Keokuk Lake and Muscatine slough. It is regarded as one of the best townships in the county. The main body of land is prairie and the farms are highly cultivated. There is no village or railroad station in the township. The residents do the most of their trading at the county seat and some at Letts, in Louisa county. The people of this locality have excellent schools, which keep open nine months in the year. The average attendance for the eight sub- districts is seventy-nine, and the average cost per pupil for the school year is $3.87.
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
The Thorntons were the first settlers in this township and the second in the county. Err Thornton settled on the land now owned by Martin Beck and John Tomfeld. Lot Thornton took a claim just north of this on land now belonging to the Eisele estate. Adjoining this latter, on the north, Levi Thornton located on land now in possession of Thomas and James Hackett. Colonel George W. Kincaid arrived in the township from Lafayette, Indiana, October 12, 1839, and ate his first meal at the hospitable home of Lewis McGrew, who had settled in the township, on section 38, some time previous thereto. At this time Robert Davis was living on section I. In the '40s, about 1842 or 1843, the father of Robert and Lee Beatty settled on section 9, and at about the same time Henry D. Hendrix and sons, Charles, William and Ira, settled on section 33. In the very early '40s Charles Mathis was on section 3, Jones Greene on section 4, and Addison Reynolds lived in the township early in the '40s, but owned no land. He worked the land of his neighbors. The Kincaids first settled on section 4, an "eighty" of which he sold to John McGrew, with a log cabin thereon he had built, in 1842. McGrew immediately moved into the cabin and this cabin was also the home of the Kincaids until Colonel Kincaid had finished the erection of a cabin on an adjoining "eighty" on the east, into which he moved. Colonel Kincaid raised his first crop in Seventy Six township on section I, in 1840, and his second crop on Judge Williams' farm in section 36, Lake township.
John McGrew came to Muscatine county in 1834, where he found the Thorn- tons, Levi, Lot and Err, on their claims in Seventy Six township. He remained here two days, then spent a short time in Muscatine, and finally returned to New Boston. In the following spring he returned to the Thornton settlement with Philip Wagner and each of them staked out a clam in Louisa county, near the Muscatine line. Here McGrew remained until in 1842, when he bought the Kincaid "eighty" on section 4; so that, McGrew's residence in Muscatine county must be computed from the time he settled on section 4. Philip Wag- ner never came to the county to live.
WHEN THE THORNTONS CAME.
James Thornton, now living (1911) at Ashland, Oregon, sent the follow- ing communication for publication : "I received from my sister-in-law a copy of the seventieth anniversary edition of the Muscatine Journal. I find the names of my father, Levi Thornton, and his two brothers, Err and Lot, at this time set- tling at Muscatine. My father was the oldest and had a wife and five children, four boys and a girl; also my mother's sister, Miss Polly Black, lived with us.
"Err and Lot Thornton, their mother and sister, constituted the other family that started from Lafayette, Indiana, in the spring of 1835, and came to New Boston, Illinois, and stopped there with a cousin of my father's named Jesse Willetts. Here they planted thirty acres of sod corn. After this they decided to take up claims in the Black Hawk purchase and some time in June the three brothers and two other men crossed the Mississippi river at the mouth of the Iowa river. There was then a family here by the name of Shook. The party then proceeded up the bluff to where the river bottom widened and there they located their claims. My father, Levi, located the one below Whiskey Hollow; Lot
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HISTORY OF MUSCATINE COUNTY
the next and Err the next. Then they went up the river to Pine creek, where they got dinner and took the steamer back to New Boston.
"Shortly after, Err and Lot and three other men took oxen and one wagon and went over to the claims to put up houses and my father stayed with the families and loaded the wagons and followed, reaching the claims on the 4th of July, 1835. They built two log cabins and here the winter was spent. The cabins built, they began cutting hay for the cattle. The mosquitos were thick and gave us no rest. My father and his brother, Err, and a man named Oliver Dimon, went to what was then called Casey's Landing and took the first rock from the bluff to make a grindstone to sharpen our scythes. Oliver Dimon mowed for us till he was taken sick with the fever and ague and, becoming weakened, he went away and never returned. A blacksmith shop was needed to sharpen the plows, so one was built, which was the only one between Burling- ton and Davenport. They then broke about eight acres of prairie land and let it lay till in February there came a thaw, when they sowed it in rye and spring wheat. This was in 1836. This was the first grain sowed in these parts and it made a good crop. This with the hay kept the stock in good condition through the winter. No more claims were taken that fall but in the summer of 1837 there was a large number of settlers between our claims and Muscatine. Levi Thornton was one of the representatives in the territorial legislature that met at Burlington in 1838 and 1839. He was generally known by the name of Col- onel Thornton.
"In the spring of 1836 a family by the name of Holiday settled about four miles from us, up the bluff toward Muscatine. John McGrew did not come to this region until the spring of 1836. He settled near where Letts now is, on what we called the high prairie. I, with my older brother John, crossed the plains to Oregon in 1850, starting in October. We spent the winter with Robert and Sam Kinney and in the spring of 1851 we went to northern California and mined there about two months, returning to the Willamette in June. In Novem- ber, I went again to the old home in Iowa, reaching there in January, 1852, going by way of Lake Nicaragua and New York on the first trip made by Com- modore Vanderbilt's steamer. I stayed here till April, 1853.
"I bought my supplies for both trips from Peter Jackson. I was one of the boys that drove an ox cart to dam the Muscatine slough. I have been back but once, in 1873; have lived in Jackson county, southern Oregon, since 1854. My father died in 1840 and was buried in what was called the Kiser. cemetery. My mother died in 1846 and was buried at the same place. In the spring of 1853 my brothers and I sold our possessions to Philip Wagner."
PIKE TOWNSHIP.
Pike township was organized in 1853. It comprises all of township 77, north of range 4 west, lying north and west of the Cedar river, and also all of town- ship 77, north of range 3 west, lying north and west of the Cedar river. It is bounded on the north by Wapsinonoc and Goshen townships, on the east by the Cedar river, on the south by Orono township, and on the west by Johnson county.
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The land is mostly prairie and is watered by a drainage ditch, Wapsinonoc creek, which empties into the Cedar river, and Pike run. In the western part of the township are one or two other small streams. Through the township runs the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad from south to north, which is crossed by a branch running from east to west at Nichols. The main line enters the township on section 32 and passes out at section 3. The branch enters the township on section 16 and running almost due west leaves it at sec- tion 18. On section 7 is a station on the branch known as Adams, while Nichols is located on the main line on sections 15 and 10.
John Nicola was an early settler in this township and has furnished the fol- lowing data: "The first trustees elected in this township was Gamaliel Olds, John Rock and Mr. Odell. Olds was the first justice of the peace and Elijalı Younkins the first township clerk. The Caruthers families, consisting of six boys and three girls came in 1836 and were the first settlers. They built the first log houses and took up the most of the land in sections 12, 13 and 14, town- ship 77, 4 west. Samuel Nichols bought land of them in section 14, built a house in 1839 and with his family moved here from Ohio in 1840. There were two boys and three girls. The members of this family were: B. F. Nichols, the father of T. B. Nichols; Townsend, now of California; Elizabeth, mother of Mrs. R. C. Black; Margaret, mother of the Swickard family; and Mary, mother of Ida O. Nash and M. W. Brockway. Up to 1848, the following had settled here: The Purington family; John Ridder Adams, father of Elias Adams ; Andrew Stretch, who came from Urbana, Ohio, with his bride in 1844, and built a home near the town of Nichols; William Watkins, Winchester Coble, Thomas Newton, David Mills and John Criffield. A young physician by the name of Eaton came out and bought land but was soon taken sick and died. His was the first death in the township. His body was placed in a grave on the Gamaliel Olds' place. S. K. Rock died in 1848 and his was the first burial in what is now the Nichols cemetery.
"The first school was taught by David Purington, in 1850, in a room set apart in Jesse Purington's log house. The teacher was paid by the patrons according to the number of pupils furnished. The first schoolhouse was built in 1851 and was erected on the southwest quarter of section 14. It was a log affair. In Mr. Nicola's opinion Pike township furnished more men to put down the re- bellion according to population than any other township in the state. Mr. Nicola also says that he became a member of the Samuel Nichols family in 1848 and claims to be the earliest resident still living in the township. All that were liv- ing in the township when he came have either moved away or passed to the great beyond."
On August 19, 1891, the Old Settlers' Reunion was held at Hechtner's Grove in this township, and on that occasion President Walton among other things had the following to say: "Early in the autumn of 1849 we commenced build- ing the first frame structure in Pike township. It was a regular old fashioned affair, with forty pieces of square timber in it, most of them hewed, and all of them were oak. The corner posts were rabbeted. We don't build houses that way now. It was put up for Gamaliel Olds, who owned it until quite recently. This house was covered with plowed and dropped one-inch pine siding. As there
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were no planing mills in Iowa at that time, it had to be ripped, planed and grooved by hand. The grove we now occupy was known as a part of the old Caruthers farm. On the north where the Brook house now stands, Jesse and David Purington lived.
"The Frank boys lived farther up the creek; on the east and south, Major Reamer, Elias 'Adams, Abner Coble, William Saunders, the blacksmith, and one or two of the Caruthers. West of the creek were Samuel Nichols, John Rock, John Criffield, Gamaliel Olds and the Weston boys. Further down the prairie were the Watkins, the Stretches, the Younkins and the Brockways. These constituted the extent of the neighborhood which reached for nearly ten miles north and south.
"The school districts were constructing a log schoolhouse, the first in the township. We helped to finish it off. As soon as it was completed, we or- ganized a 'debating' school, the older members of the community taking part. It became popular, visitors coming from all around the country. The school- house was used for holding religious meetings, at least once in two weeks. Among the number of itinerant preachers that appeared was Hon. James Harlan."
NICHOLS.
The town of Nichols is located on section 15, Pike township, and was so named by Benjamin F. Nichols in honor of his father, Samuel Nichols, who subscribed liberally for stock of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad Company, and donated to the company the right of way through his land, the company to erect a depot at this point of ground which he also donated. The first building erected in the town was in 1871, by Dr. S. H. Smith, the same being used for a drug store and a dwelling. When the Muscatine & Western Railroad was finished to this point in 1873, the company laid out an addition to the town, calling it Railroad Addition. In 1875 a second addition was made by T. Nichols. A postoffice was established in October, 1870, and Benjamin F. Nichols acted as the first postmaster, filling the position for a number of years.
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