USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > History of O'Brien County, Iowa, from its organization to the present time > Part 6
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claim upon a quarter section of O'Brien county land, for ten dollars, and this much experience Mr. Corroll had to start with. After remaining in Cherokee, they started north and camped for the night at Nettleton's place, which is remem- bered by the early settlers. They were then bound for Waterman, which Mr. Carroll had been told was quite a town, and he drove on the next morning straining his eyes expecting over the landscape to see church steeples and prominent build- ings, and a metropolis of extensive proportions, not knowing that "Waterman" consisted only of the humble and unpre- tenious residence of Hannibal Waterman and his good wife and children. When they got to Mill creek they met two teams, with whose drivers they stopped to chat. Mr. Carroll inquired where Waterman was, and the answer came from an Irishman, who answered, that "A divil a bit of use was it for him to be inquiring for a town, in a new country like thot," and this news induced Mr. Carroll to go back a ways to their claim, which was done, Mr. Carroll then found a tire he had
lost from one of his wheels that morning in Mill creek. They camped at that claim all night, and got some water for themselves and horses by digging for it. The next day they got to Wallace Rinker's shack in Baker township, where they found Austin Sutter and Jonathan Egy. Austin was just going breaking with several yoke of oxen, and upon Mr. Carroll's in- quiry for land, he left the H. C. LANE. oxen with James Carroll, then a red headed boy of ten years, and located the Carroll family on the south half of the southeast quarter of section 34,
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HISTORY OF O'BRIEN COUNTY, IOWA.
in what is now Carroll township. Mr. Carroll then dug a well and found water, took the covers off the wagons, and by this established a habitation, and lived in that way until he had completed a sod shack, which he moved into in September, 1870. The first thing soon after getting on the claim, was to go to Cherokee after provisions which he did, and the next thing was to trade horses, which he also did for a yoke of oxen. One ox was a Texas steer, whose propensities for all kinds of antics prevented his usefulness from being discovered,
CLARK HOUSES
CLARK HOUSE, SANBORN.
· so that he was never yoked by them. Another ox fell into the well and was drowned, so that one yoke of oxen only was left to do the farming. They broke twenty acres that year, and off of this the following season raised a good crop of wheat. That fall Mr. Carroll worked on the railroad, grad- ing, and from that on, continued as a farmer on his original claim. Mr. Carroll's wife died there November 23d, 1883, and Mr. Carroll died in March, 1896. The township was
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named after Patrick Carroll, who it will be seen was its first settler. Sarah, a daughter, married John O'Donnell a thrifty farmer of Floyd township. Kate married George E. Bartlett, Maggie, John and Thomas are still living on the old home- stead, and James who in- herited the sturdy, manly qualities of his father mar- ried some years ago, and they live on the south half of the same quarter ad- joining the old homestead. H. C. Holyoke who after- wards lived in Sheldon, and whom we call Deacon, took his claim in Carroll township in the fall of 1870, and establishing his residence there in the spring of 1871. He bought Frank Smith's claim which NELLIE JONFS. was on section 34, and paid for it by learning Smith's wife the art of photography, so that Smith went to taking pictures, and Holyoke to raising wheat for the grasshoppers. Mr. Holyoke was a very sincere conscientious man of upright life, he died in Sheldon some years ago.
The writer in preparing this book, has had occasion to drive considerably over the county, and to one who drove these prairies some twenty years ago, the scenery now, in compari- son, is beautiful and magnificent. Where stood the sod house and the usual 8 by 10 shack, there are now commodious and tasty residences, and groves, whose trees, dressed in their green and luxuriant foliage, add to the beauties of nature, and mark the landscape with a fascinating and dignified splendor.
The settlers of those early days and particularly in the first few years of grasshoppers were decidedly hard up. When
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there was but little, if any income from crops, improvements to be made, and the family to be clothed and provided for, it was quite satisfactory if there was enough to eat. You would sometimes see a settler with his head tied around with piece of a gunny sack and very often in the winter time, this was used for protecting the feet. Clothing was meager and shabby, and corn meal with too many of them, was the prin- ciple diet. But after all, there was a feeling of con- tentment and happiness, there was no social distinction, all were on a level, and all struggling for the same end. Their clouds of adversity had silver linings of hope and future promise, and some- times the hard struggles of life are happily borne, when he who must endure them knows, that he will finally reach contentment and pros- perity. But the poverty of the settlers of O'Brien county PERCY HALL. in those early days, was not the poverty of the squallid poor of a large city, where the gilded carriage of Crœsus will dash dust into the eyes of hunger, it was the poverty of misfortune, it was unrequitted and unrewarded toil. It was where the settler had worked without return for his labor, but in either case the great world moves on with but little heed of its troubles and misfortunes.
During the last two years of old O'Brien, and after the re- moval of the county seat, there was something of a rush of set- tlement to the county. Then, there could be seen the emi- grant wagons, reaching out for northwestern Iowa. They were called " prairie schooners," and a prairie schooner was, after all, a peculiar institution. They navigated sometimes
7
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single and alone, at other times in numbers like a fleet of ves- sels at sea. This mode of traveling, too, when the roads are good and the party united and contented, is very enjoyable and certainly very healthy. These emigrant wagons are now sel- dom seen, and when they are they are bound for Dakota.
CHAPTER VI.
Up to 1873, the settlers of the county were able to get along : Some crops were raised, and it was a living anyway with all, and improvement and accumulation with some. But the dark days of discouragement and misfortune came in the summer of 1873, the year of the removal of the county seat, and contin- ued for several years, as will be seen in a chapter elsewhere devoted to the grasshopper era. If ever men's souls were tried in an effort to live, and if ever the heroism of men was taxed to its utmost in the race of life, it was from 1873 to 1877 in O'Brien county.
There is much of individual heroism in common life that is lost to history, and which is not blazoned among the distin- guished deeds which make some men famous, and their names immortal. Some military chieftain in the nick of time, and by natural genius and adroitness as well as personal courage, drives the enemy into general slaughter, and his government with fulsome praise sends his name down the ages, and all time has a hero fearless and undaunted. Sometimes the great- est of all heroic acts are manifested by one in the humblest walks of life, which find no recognition in the record of his- tory, for it is only in the exalted stations of life that the names of men glitter on the scroll of fame, and much that is the most heroic of all heroism, dies with the hero. We have an old news- paper which recites the conviction and execution of a negro slave, in which case Henry Clay was the public prosecutor. The negro was a faithful servant, and had not been accustomed to the degredation of corporal chastisement. During a tem- porary absence of his master, he was placed under the charge
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of a young and passionate overseer, who for some slight or imaginary offense, lashed him cruelly with a horse whip, and brought wicked blows about the head that were unmercifully given.
The spirit of the slave was aroused, and, seizing a weapon that was near him, he laid his overseer dead upon the spot. Soon after, he was borne to a place of execution, and the
E. T. LANGLEY.
pride of character he there displayed, was worthy of a Roman patriot. Being asked whether he was anxious that his life be spared, and, answering under a feeling of the injustice that had been done him, and under the fact that he was in bond-
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age, he replied proudly and sternly: " No, I would not live a day longer, unless in the enjoyment of liberty." The pages of history might be searched from the beginning to the pres- ent, and nothing in the notoriety of preserved events would exceed this personal proudness and bravery of an obscure slave, whose words are lost in the din of pyrotechnic language, over names which were prominent with the people.
W. M. SMITH AND FAMILY.
Carrying the thought still further, one does not need to go to a battle field, or to find tragedies in blood for the world's greatest heroes. Many unknown in life, bearing their bur- dens under difficulties and under depressing circumstances, and under the crushing conditions of poverty and misfortune, are heroes, and the women who toil with them are heroines. The writer in the early seventies knew several families in northwest Iowa who were without money, and without friends, -for the world is cold and uncharitable to the borrower-
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whose crops were an utter failure, and where existence was continued by living on anything that was accessible, and whose diet principally was corn ground in a coffee mill.
We, who are living in the present progress and prosperity of O'Brien county, cannot realize the crushed and despondent heart of many a mother, whose little ones, in the early days of the county's history, were crying for bread, and where but inch boards protected them from the severity of the winter, huddled around the fire made by twisted hay, and whose only hope was in a change, which the future, dark and doubtful, would bring to them. These early settlers who were thus battling against misfortunes of the country then, were heroes.
These early days were hard and trying to settlers who were endeavoring to make a home here, and establish a farm on the prairie. Most of them came without means, and depended on their grit and muscle to pull through.
Those that brought money with them, and were reasonably well fixed to start on, seemed to be the most unfortunate after all, especially when the grasshoppers came, for the reason that they did not hes- itate to use their means in building good houses, and sur- rounding themselves with comforts and conveniences, ex- pecting an early re- turn for their invest- ments. But when the pocketbook became empty, and no crops C. S. M'LAURY. as expected, and no value to land, they were not only discouraged but disgusted, and soon got out, while the fellows who started with nothing
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were more inclined to stay it through, still hoping to realize and get return for their labor.
We can easily see how much grit and determination it took to stay here several years, one after another, without a crop at harvest time, and still stay another winter and burn hay and take chances on enough to eat. Money could not be obtained only on gilt-edged security at a rate of interest, from three to eight per cent a month, and sometimes at ten. Many a farm
and much live stock and farm machinery of these early set- tlers passed into the hands of these money lenders; we can- not say unjustly so, but as a matter of business, because the money was due, the deb- tor unable to pay, and that insatiable Shylock, the chattel mortgage, seemed never to be satisfied.
During the years above mentioned, say 1871, 1872 and 1873 all the townships 16.70 became settled, or rather had a settler, for they were not GEORGE F. COLCORD. even then, numerous enough to be near neighbors; it was only here and there a shack could be seen. In the year 1871 a few settlers came into the western part of the county, and from then on they kept coming.
Some few in Baker and Carroll in 1869 and 1870, but the first in Floyd in 1871. These did not increase much until the Sioux City & St. Paul railroad, now the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha reached the townsite of Sheldon, which was July 3, 1872. From then on the western part settled rap- idly, and government claims were soon all taken. In 1871 and until July 1872, the settlers in the western part of the county, did about all of their hauling from Cherokee, and some from
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Marcus, except in what is Caledonia, and these mostly at LeMars. C. F. Butterfield, now of Sheldon, made the first track from Mr. Albright's, near where Primghar now is, to his claim near Sheldon, which is on section 4, in Carroll, and this diagonal road straight northwest was soon a regular trav- eled road. The home of C. F. Albright at that time was the general stopping place for the Floyd and Carroll township part of the county, and also of southern Osceola. The Al- bright house was not a large one, it was one story and small in size.
Sometimes if severe weather set in, what settlers happened to be there were detained for a day or two, and Mr. Albright and his wife were always pleasant and entertaining, and did the best they could for the number that were there, and with the conveniences they had.
The writer has seen the main room in the house at night, entirely covered with sleepers lying closely together, each with his own blankets, with some supplied by the house. They were generally tired and sleepy, they might not all have slept the sleep of the just, but they slept the sleep of a homesteader, and if anyone should happen to wake up in the midnight hour, he would hear a discordant variety of snoring which was far from musical. These trips made to Cherokee in the summer time, or in DAVID PALEN. warm weather were very pleasant, for the air was pure and the prairie beautiful, but during the winter, across an unprotected prairie and danger of blizzards, it was disagreeable indeed. Nothing but the stout heart of an ambitious settler struggling to make a
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home for himself and family, ever could have stood it, and even with them sometimes it was almost beyond endurance.
A. J. Brock came to O'Brien county in 1870, and arriv- ing at old O'Brien accepted a situation in the store of W. C. Green as clerk, and as deputy postmaster. L. G. Healy came the year following and settled in Carroll township, whose daughter Mr. Brock married in September, 1872. Jack (for this was what Brock was usually called), was after- ward a partner in the store with Mr. Green; he left the county in 1878 for Arkansas, but a few years after return- ed to Iowa.
Mart Shea, who was after- wards sheriff, settled in Highland township, on sec- tion 10, in 1871. Mr. Shea now resides in Sioux City.
McAllen Green, father of W. C. and Lem, came from Illinois to O'Brien county in 1869, and settled on section REV. C. ARTMAN. 26 in Highland. He was elected recorder of deeds in 1870. Harley Day also came to the county in 1871, and settled on section 26 in Carroll township. He was afterwards a mem- ber of the board of supervisors, and now resides at Sanborn.
C. F. Albright was the advanced pioneer for quite a number from Durant, in Cedar county. Mr. Albright first came up in in the fall of 1870, selected his own land, which was the north- west of 6, in Highland township.
Through the aid of W. H. Woods, he also selected several other quarters for different parties of his neighbors and friends, in and about Durant. Mr. Albright then returned to Durant, and in the spring of 1871, himself, John Hardin, C. F. Butter-
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field, Gus Herrick, Joe Kuehle and wife, M. Hosquin, com- monly called " Frenchy," John Miller, Milton Gillispie, J. W. Walter, Theodore Leomaster, Chas. Toothaker and Homer Herrick, each one having a team of his own, left Durant about the 25th of March of that year (1871) to drive through, and arrived at W. H. Woods' about the Ist of April, and at Prim- ghar townsite a few days after. When they got to Mr. Woods a blizzard set in, and they were kept three days, mak- ing about sixteen persons in a small room, and twenty-four horses in close quarters for a stable. The boys laid down and sat up alternately, and put in the time as best they could. After they reached Primghar townsite and were unhitching, a buggy drove up with two strangers in it, one of them was an officer from the Des Moines river country, who said he had a warrant for every man of them. It seems that while they were driving through Humboldt county, they passed a farm where there were two goats feeding around, and an axe sticking FLETCHER HOWARD. in a log of wood. The first wagon touched the axe handle, causing the axe to fall to the ground. C. F. Albright, who was on foot, laid the axe over the fence in the field. The goats were frightened a little, and they wandered away, so that when the farmer returned and had seen this procession of wagons going along the road, and the axe and goats missing, he had every reason to believe that the high-handed outrage of larceny had been committed, and that his axe and goats had been gobbled by these parties.
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He immediately sought a justice of the peace, filed an informa- tion, and a warrant was soon issued and placed in the hands of an officer, who was on the road the next day, following the fugitives.
As above stated, they were caught at Primghar town site, and confronted with the charge of theft. Surely here was a dilemma. Eight ambitious pioneers, former citizens of Cedar county, and these highly respected, men whose honesty had never been questioned, and who were striking out in this land of promise innocent of any crime as unborn babes, here they were listening to the reading of a warrant, in which John Doe, Tom Roe, and other like names (meaning the boys, in ignor- ance of their true names,) accused of the usual rigmarole of offenses, that they did, on or about March 30, 1871, steal, take and carry away two live goats and one axe, of the value of fifty dollars, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Iowa. They listened to the reading, but supreme in the consciousness of innocence, there was no fear nor tremb- ling; indeed, Milt Gillespie laughed outright, and the officer was told, that he could search, and that if he found any of the property in the crowd, they would return and plead guilty, but Milt told him he thought Homer Herrick had one of the goats in his pocket, and Joe Kuehle MRS. D. A. W. PERKINS. had the other in his, and was not sure but what Charley Albright was using the axe for a jack-knife. Search was made, however, and of course none of the property found. The officer and the farmer returned, and when they reached the premises of the stolen property, there were the goats feed-
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ing as usual, and the axe in plain sight. The O'Brien county settlers were fully vindicated. This was not the only trouble, however, they had in being under suspicion.
After starting and reaching West Liberty, near that town, Walters got an armful of hay from a cattle rack near the road, and for this by some impecunious farmer they were all threatened with arrest, and while near Newton they were afraid of horse thieves, so while camping for the night a part of them were on guard, while the others were sleeping, and then, some of the neighboring farmers thought it was a pre- text to steal chickens. The boys arrived all right however at O'Brien county, with their skirts and consciences clear of any offense. Sometimes from a few roving and plundering gypsies in covered wagons, the occupants of every other covered wagon are supposed to be bent on plunder. These parties were soon settled on their respective claims.
They all did some breaking that year, and the next year put in crops, getting about forty bushels of oats, and eighteen of wheat to the acre. C. F. Albright has held several county offices, and now resides at Primghar. Mr. Husquin (Frenchy), a few years ago sold his farm, and moved to the Pacific coast. John Hardin did not remain here long, Walters is now living in Kansas, Milt Gillespie in the grain and lumber business at Sheldon. C. F. Butterfield is in the shoe business at the same point. John Miller died many years ago. Gus Herrick died in 1877. Joe Kuehle is at Hospers, Iowa.
At that time in 1870, and years following, the streams in O'Brien county, now mostly dried up, had quite a volume of water, and particularly in the spring they were troublesome to cross. In the fore part of 1871 Isaac Toothaker loaded his wagon with tools and grub, and started away from home to do some breaking. He was obliged to cross the Floyd, which at that time of the year, and owing to the rain, was quite a stream. When he came to cross, he hesitated about going, as the chances were a disaster in store for him; he drove on however and headed for the opposite bank. When
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in the middle of the stream the water floated the wagon box off, which was carried down, and the rapidly running water seemed bent on taking it beyond recovery. Isaac landed with his horses, left them standing on the bank, while he undressed, laying his clothes on the wagon bed, and started down stream for his floating outfit, which he found, and going in, hauled the box sufficiently on the bank, to keep it there. He then returned for his horses, but when he reached the spot where he left them, he could find neither the horses nor his clothes, and here sure enough was an awkward dilemma.
He started for James Glenn's house a mile away, and when he got as near the house as decency would permit, he went through a series of motions and grimaces, and hollowed at the top of his voice, which led Mr. Glenn to believe that a wild Indian was there, with perhaps followers not far away. Mr. Glenn advanced toward him, and when he found out the situation, and that it was Toothaker, he rigged him up in a suit of clothes. The horses were found, and Isaac was soon enabled to go on his journey. These episodes in crossing the Floyd were numerous, and it is a won- der, that somebody was not drowned. Not long after the foregoing, Isaac Toothaker and James Mc- Farland went to Marcus with two yoke of oxen, and a wagon, for a load of coal. Upon their re- G. W. DOYLE. turn with the coal, they struck the Floyd where there was something of a ford in a diagonal course across the stream. The oxen started in, but their preferences were to go straight across, and this they did, and were soon in a heap at the oppo- site shore. McFarland loosed the oxen from the wagon,
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Toothaker got on the back of an ox on the front yoke, and finally managed to get them to the ford and across; the other yoke after making many ineffectual attempts to climb the bank, finally did, which left McFarland on the wagon, which was covered with water. He had to swim ashore which he did, and by means of ropes and chains, they finally dragged the loaded wagon onto dry land.
In 1871, Thos. Holmes came to O'Brien county from Jones county, the place where a calf case ruined several litigants. He came from England several years before that to Clinton county, Iowa. Before coming to the U. S. land office at Sioux City, he was informed that land here was all taken up. But he met there one of the Garrell boys, who referred Mr. Holmes to W. H. Woods. He was written to, and answer came back that claims could be had. Mr. Holmes then went to Cherokee, and there met Mr. Clark, and rode out with him to his place.
After Mr. Holmes rode that distance in O'Brien county, he was decidedly blue. It was sparsely settled, with only here and there a sod shack, and by reason of the prairie grass being burned over, there was an appearance of general desolation. He decided to get out of the county, and started back for Cherokee, when he met Mr. Stanley and Silas Pool return- ing from Cherokee on foot. These two settlers persuaded Mr. Holmes to return, which he did, stayed all night at Paine's, and next morning hunted the ever indispensable Huse Woods, who that day located Mr. Holmes on the southeast of section 22, in Carroll township. He then brought his family to Cherokee, where they remained until he built a house, which upon its completion was occupied by his family. Mr. Holmes remained in the township the following winter, and has there resided continuously since. Mr. Holmes was hailed out three times, and one year undertook to burn around his grain stacks to keep them from the danger of the prairie fire, but the fire started for protection got away from him, and a calamity he was trying to avert, happened at once, for the
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