USA > Iowa > Osceola County > History of Osceola county, Iowa, from its organization to the present time > Part 2
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On the northwest quarter of Section 20 lived Fred Nagg. These comprise the settlements made in Ocheyedan in 1871. Nothing was raised that season by these settlers, and the sum- mer was uneventful, except a severe hail storm which swept this part of the County and was unusually severe. Mr. Buchman lost a cow and a calf in this storm; they probably went with it, as cattle will; at any rate he never saw them afterward.
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
The winter of IS71 and 1872 was a disagreeable one, but most of the Ocheydan settlers wintered elsewhere. Those that remained on their claims were Dunham and Frick, Ole Peterson and Fred Nagg. The Nagg family had a hard time of it. They lived in a sodded house, small and cold, and kept a yoke of oxen in the same room, ground corn to live upon, and cut weeds and fed to the oxen to keep them alive. Their lot seemed to be a hard one, and indeed it was. Had they been there by order of some despotic ruler, as a convict goes to Siberia, it would have been unbearable, but thoughts of the coming spring time, and of the green grass and wild flowers of the beautiful prairie which would return in the summer before them, kindled the joyous feeling of promise and of hope, and gave them a heart of sunshine, even amid the snows of winter. But, alas, before the hoped for spring time had come to this poverty stricken family, that grim reaper Death, which stalks unbidden alike into the palaces of the rich and the hovels of the poor, sought out upon the bleak prairies of Ocheyedan during that hard winter of 1871 and 1872 the head of the household Fred Nagg himself, and this terrible afflic- tion just then laid a burden of sorrow upon the family which in addition to their abject condition of poverty seemed greater than they could bear. Nagg had started on foot for Roger's store during the latter part of that winter, the only store then where Sibley now is, obtained a few needed and indispensable articles, and left the store to return to his family, but he never reached them. He had a hand sled and was overtaken with a blizzard and sudden cold weather. He was not sufficiently clad even for weather less severe, and, becoming numbed and senseless by the cold and storm, lay down and died. This blizzard, on February 12, 1872, lasted three days, and at its commencement there were about sixteen men at Roger's store in from their claims. They all started home. Some reached there and others stopped with some settlers on the way. After the storm was over word had been received that Nagg had not reached home, and J. F. Glover, M. J. Campbell, C. M. Brooks, Al Halstead, F. F. and Eugene White started out and followed Nagg's sled trail. About seven miles out southeast from Sibley they found the sled and sack; wolves had clawed into the sack and eaten a part of the contents. The party were unable to find Nagg's body, but went to the house and consoled his wife as best they could, holding out a hope that he might still be alive. His body was found afterwards in the latter part of March, 1872, by W. H. Lean, and it was
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
partially eaten by the wolves. Nagg was buried on his claim, and, there being no clergyman to conduct the usual funeral exercises, Frick read the burial service from an Episcopal prayer book. The few that remained in Ocheyedan Town- ship during that winter of 1871 and 1872 had nothing to break the monotony of pioneer life, so far as mingling in society was concerned, but going to Sibley occasionally, and trapping some, was all the diversion within reach of these few settlers.
In the fall of 1871 Frick came near having serious trouble with an adventurous immigrant pushing out into the wild and wooly west. He had some cattle with him and one of them had strayed away at night, and when Frick got up one morning he saw not far off what he supposed was an elk feeding quietly on the prairie. Frick was a hunter, and the sight of this supposed elk thrilled every inch of his stature, and he moved about with the stealth of an Indian for fear that the slightest noise would frighten this valuable game and send it fleet-footed out of rifle reach. Frick got good and ready, pointed his rifle out of the shanty window, took a good rest and deliberate aim and fired. The object of his mark fell under the aim of the skillful hunter and he rushed out to the bleed- ing body of his victim, but instead of an elk Frick's surprised eyes and astonished senses gazed upon only a cow. It was meat, however, if not venison, and Frick hauled the carcass to his house and proceeded to do the usual carving into roasts and steaks, when a stranger appeared upon the scene, who was no other than the owner of the cow which had strayed away. Circumstantial evidence, as the lawyers call it, was strong against Frick, pointing to theft malicious and intended, and the moving immigrant was about to paralyze everything in reach of him. Frick explained, however, apologized, and scraped together what loose change he had and gave it to the owner of the cow, who went on his way again satisfied and contented.
A. M. Culver came to the County in the spring of 1871. He settled and filed on the southeast quarter of Section 24, Township 99, Range 42.
The previous year, in 1870, he had left the State of Wis- consin and gone to Mills County, in Iowa, and from Mills County he drove through to Osceola, bringing with him three horses, a wagon and buggy, also two cows. His family came with him, consisting of his wife, one son and a daughter. Mr. Culver and family did the best they could with the shelter of
J MANZ & KO. CHICAGO.
GEORGE CAREW.
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, ION'A.
ยท a wagon cover, while his son, Andrew, went to LeMars and got cottonwood lumber enough to build a house, which they. soon did, 12 by 14 in size. Mr. Culver broke nine acres that year and put them into wheat and six acres into oats, and raised an average crop on the sod. When Mr. Culver came first without the family he landed at Huff's house, the first settler and heretofore described, and there being quite a num- ber there that night, he was among the usual number laid out in rows on the floor. Huff and Brooks located Culver on his quarter-section. On the same section there was also located and settled that year Andrew Culver, Geo. W. Bean and R. O. Manson.
John F. Glover landed in Sibley in the latter part of August, 1871, and settled on the southwest quarter of Section 4, Township 99, Range 41. Mr. Glover's coming was by meeting Stiles and F. M. Robinson at Sioux City. Glover put up the usual settler's shack, and obtained his lumber from Windom, Minnesota, going for it with a yoke of oxen and wagon.
After these incoming settlers had established a home, the next thing was to find out who their neighbors were, and in this year of 1871 they were few and far between.
Some other things to think about, and among these some- thing to eat. Glover made frequent trips hunting, but seemed to be unsuccessful. While in McCausland's neighborhood, Mc returned from a trip to Spirit Lake and reported that Rush Lake, near Ocheyedan, was alive with ducks, and Glover be- came so excited over the pictured description of vast lakes and ponds covered with game, that he organized a hunting party, consisting of himself, McCausland and Luther Webb, who started the next day with oxen and a wagon, with which conveyance the ducks and geese were to be carted home. They arrived safely at Rush Lake, and sure enough McCaus- land had not overdrawn the amount of game. They had no boat, and anyone who knows Rush Lake, knows the difficulty of getting game there without a float of some kind. Before the boys had hardly appeared at the edge of the water on one side, the entire army of ducks had moved to the other side, out of reach, and by running around from one side to the other, the boys became about exhausted. Finally Glover gathered pieces of the wagon, some brush, and a decent sized tree or two and formed a raft sufficient, as he believed, to float himself out on the lake, and on it started. When out about twenty feet the frail craft, like many an air castle, fell
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
to pieces, and its only passenger went reluctantly into the water. He soon got out, however, and this dampened all the ardor of hunting on his part, and the other two were tired and discouraged. Webb then started with his oxen to Milford and left McCausland and Glover to tramp twelve miles home, which they did. Just as they were starting McCausland brought down a brandt, and, this being the only game they got, with it they started home, and it was near night. They had brought with them some cooked beans in an iron pot, and a loaf of bread; when the brandt was secured it was decided that bread and beans were nowhere in comparison with a roasted fowl, so that, hungry as they were, their appetite was reserved until they could get home. At last they reached McCausland's house, and Mc sent Glover to Roger's store, three miles, for some necessary articles for the square meal, and to a settler's shack for something else. Glover returned with the articles and Mc had the brandt stuffed and in the oven roasting, but himself was laid out on the bed. The oily odor from the fowl on an empty stomach had sickened him, and Glover was left alone until C. M. Brooks happened to arrive, when he and Glover got the table set, the roast on, and the two of them sat down to a rich feast for homesteaders. But alas for the dreams of fancy, the visions of bliss and the tempting measures of delight, in which we too often indulge, that are at last turned into the bitterness of gall in the round up of indulgence. Glover and Brooks were soon laid out groaning in the agony of too much brandt, and the oily condi- tion of the fowl made them too sick to hope ever to make final proof on a government claim, the taking of which had been the leading ambition of their lives. Their extreme sickness revived Mc and he ate the beans and the bread, and towards morning Glover and Brooks got around all right again, but like a victim of seasickness not a thing was left in them, and as Mc had ate all the grub in the house, the three of them started out for something to eat, and before they got through they had nearly eaten the whole neighborhood out of house and home, and that day there was a tramping to Roger's store for a fresh supply. This sickened Glover for a while on wild fowl; his hunting excursions after that were few and far between, but it seems that another ducking was still in store for him. He concluded that housekeeping was not well done without vegetables, and nothing seemed to be in sight but potatoes, and the nearest these could be had was thirteen miles, but Glover had been `a soldier and could walk like a
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
professional. He started with a sack and went southeast until he came to the Ocheyedan, and when he got to that the water was well up and the difficulty of crossing was before him. There was a small skiff there owned by Ole Peterson, and soon Peterson himself appeared, and, after reciting his experi- ences as a sailor and his capabilities as a boatman, induced Glover to get aboard, and taking a wagon bow for a paddle started out with the frail craft to ferry the now Mayor of Sib- ley across the troublesome stream. Men are apt to make too little margin for what might happen, often miscalculate in more serious adventures than this, and often start out in the bouyancy of expectation, but fall into difficulty with sudden and unexpected precipitation. When in the middle of the stream, Peterson, who was standing up in the boat, fell on one side of it, and himself and Glover went suddenly into the water, and, having no further use for the boat in the interests of navigation, they struck out, Glover for one side of the river and Peterson for the other, and when landed they stood drip- ping with the waters of the Ocheyedan on opposite banks, gaz- ing at each other, Peterson filling the air with profanity, and Glover wondering if Peterson hadn't overdrawn his experi- ences as a follower of the seas.
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L
J. S. REYNOLDS.
CHAPTER III.
The people then living in Osceola County in 1871, did not often get together, only as a neighborhood would gather for social purposes. There were not many in the county in 1871. The county was sparsely settled. It was
" The first low wash of waves, where soon Would roll a human sea."
The first meeting of the people was held at Abraham Miller's place, near Sibley. It was called for the purpose of establishing mail facilities, and to provide for bringing the mail from Le Mars to Shaw's store, then near Ashton. This was the ostensible purpose, and mail arrangements were pro- vided for, but back of it all there were a few political schemes, and several ambitious aspirants for office at the coming elec- tion who wanted to look the crowd over, get acquainted, and try to make the usual favorable impression in order to suc- ceed in making a harvest of votes. If a yankee should be cast away on a desolate island, the first thing he would no doubt do, would be to divide the territory into election pre- cints, and the next thing to call a caucus. The people of Osceola then were strangers to each other, and while other things may have been left behind them at the old home, the great feeling of sovereignty, realization of the fact that each was an individual citizen and could vote and hold office, were a part of their nature, and in this respect they were alike without even a formal introduction. Abraham Miller was chairman of the meeting, and Cyrus M. Brooks, secretary.
The next meeting of the people was held on the 4th day of July, 1871. It will be noticed that the first organization of Osceola was brought about by act of Woodbury County Board of Supervisors. Osccola was then a part of Wood- bury for judicial purposes, and, under the law, for all other also, so that Woodbury's act constituted a division of territory. In other words, Woodbury set Osceola up in business for itself. As provision had been made in the Woodbury County proceedings for the election of Osceola County officers at the general election in 1871, it became the duty of Osceola County people to fix upon somebody to fill each of the offices, and to prepare candidates for them who should be in the field for
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
election. The order for the election of officers was made in June, 1871, and as July 4th was approaching, it was thought best by the people of Osceola County to meet on that day, and celebrate with the usual exercises and at the same time nom- inate candidates for County offices.
The outside world was full of glory and enthusiasm, the air was filled with noise and pyrotechnics, and the voices of American orators were sounding the distinguished valor and heroism of our canonized ancestors. The little band of Osceola County settlers met together with a quaker quiet- ness, comparatively speaking. They had their lunch baskets and were socially agreeable, but the cannon, the fire cracker and fire works were conspicuously absent. The meeting was held on A. M. Culver's claim on Section 24, Township 99, Range 41, and was called and intended, as before stated, not only to observe and recognize the great American holiday, but also to place in nomination candidates to fill the county offices at the first election to be held in October, 1871. At that time none knew each others qualifications, except where men had come from the same neighborhood in other parts of the country. The men to be nominated and elected were to have the trial of service, were to be weighed in the balance, and given the opportunity to prove their fitness, or to be found unworthy of the trust that was imposed in them. H. G. Doolittle was chosen chairman of the meeting and secretary. A few patriotic remarks were made and the meeting proceeded to make its nominations. The fol- lowing named persons were put in nomination :
Treasurer, E. Huff.
Recorder, D. L. McCausland.
Sheriff, Jeff Cutshall.
Superintendent of Schools, Delily Stiles.
Clerk of Courts, Cyrus M. Brooks.
Auditor, McDonald.
( J. H. Winspear.
Supervisors, { H. R. Fenton.
Holmon Township Trustees,
- George Spaulding. Robert Stamm. W. W. Webb. Frank Stiles. H. R. Hayes.
There was present at this meeting, including all, about one hundred. The business and visiting were ended the latter part of the afternoon and the people dispersed.
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
It might be well to follow these nominations to the elec- tion which followed in October. At this election there were no contentions of political parties. The contest involved no controversy, except individual success, and there was no regu- lar opposition ticket. There were independent candidates, however, and the nominated ticket was not wholly successful. A. M. Culver was elected Treasurer as an independent candi- date over E. Huff, the regular nominee. F. M. Robinson was an independent candidate for Auditor, and himself and the nominee, McDonald, were a tie on the election. This tie had to be decided by drawing lots, and the drawing resulted in favor of Robinson, so that Robinson became Auditor. John Beaumont was the independent candidate against McCausland, but McCausland was elected. When the time to qualify came, McCausland was away teaching school, and the board in January, 1872, felt inclined to declare the office vacant, and appointed John Beaumont, Recorder. Afterwards McCaus- land sent his bond, and upon his return, had some little trouble to get possession of the office; but finally obtained it. Cut- shall and his independent opponent both tied, and when the drawing was to take place neither were present, so the board on January 3, 1872, appointed Frank Stiles.
There was at this time under the organization only three townships in the county, and this October election was held in Goewey Township at the house of E. Huff; in Holman Town- ship at A. M. Culver's house, and in Horton Township at the house of H. R. Fenton.
The final outcome resulted in the following named per- sons filling the places :
Treasurer, A. M. Culver.
Recorder, D. L. McCausland.
Auditor, F. M. Robinson.
Clerk of Courts, Cyrus M. Brooks.
Surveyor, M. J. Campbell.
Coronor, J. D. Hall.
Superintendent of Schools, Delily Stiles.
Drainage Commissioner, John Beaumont. J. H. Winspear. Supervisors, George Spaulding. H. R. Fenton.
There were cast at this election in all at the three polling places, - votes.
The County was now fully organized, and the Board of Supervisors had their meeting January 1, 1872.
1
JOHN L. ROBINSON.
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
The proceedings of the board during the first year of its administration are told in another part of this book and we need not here recite them again. The record and the unwritten history of this first year, and a part of the second year, shows that a few unprincipled men came to Osceola County for the sole and only purpose of plunder. These few gathered some friends around them-really had a party-many of whom had no share in the spoils, but were made to believe that the leaders were only doing what the good of the County demanded, and that the opposition were indignant because they were out of office and not in.
There is a certain stubbornness in all our natures, which we often assert, sometimes in the wrong direction, just because some trivial thing has thrown us with this side or that, and occasionally conviction itself will be suppressed by a stand first taken and stubbornly kept. These two parties each had their friends, and were about equally divided, the reform party, however, being mostly in the country outside of the town. Once allied with one side or the other it seemed difficult to change, as it is now difficult to go from one political party to the other when we have once identified ourselves with that of our choice. Some of the people in 1872 and 1873 who joined themselves with the boodlers were not-we will be charitable enough to admit-boodlers with them. There were honora- ble exceptions, strange as it may seem. George Spaulding, who was one of the County Supervisors first elected, and served with Fenton and Winspear, lives in Osceola still, and is a man highly respected. He has held office in Goewey Township, the place of his residence, several different times, and is now on the School Board. Mr. Spaulding is looked upon as a man of integrity and a good citizen. He was made to believe that his co-members of the board, though inclined to extravagance, were working for the best interests of the County, and it is conceded that Mr. Spaulding acted conscien- tiously in his official acts, and though now he may see some things upon which he would vote differently, he felt at the time that his action was right. He would now be voted for with the full confidence of his fellow citizens.
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CHAPTER IV.
John H. Douglass came to Osceola County in October, 1871, driving through by wagon from Wisconsin. He had with him his wife and daughter, now Mrs. Henry Newell, and son. Mr. Douglass filed on the southwest quarter of Section 14, Township 110, Range 42, and made the usual settlement and improvements required of a settler, and in November of that year went to Alamakee County, Iowa, for the winter. In the spring of 1872, Mr. Douglass and family returned to their claim, and got here towards the latter part of March. He started before the frost was out of the ground and while the roads might be fit for travel, but when he reached Osceola County, it was breaking up, and the spring weather had thawed the snow away and the rivers and creeks were running with water. Mr. Douglass came to the Ocheye- dan, that treacherous stream with which every incoming settler seems to have had an adventure, and the prospect of getting over was unfavorable, for the appearance of the stream to cross it was neither promising nor inviting. Douglass arrived at the bank of the Ocheyedan at the Buchman place on the evening of March 7, 1872. The river was narrow at this point but was yet filled with snow, but soft and watery on the surface. He first assisted his family across, and after this was done together with the transportation of a few articles, he was making arrangements to get the horses and wagon over, when the water began to pour down the river over the snow, which startled Douglass with surprise, and confronted him with a difficulty entirely unexpected. He unhitched the horses, tied them to the wagon and then started across, wading in the water on the snow, treading lightly, knowing the danger of being completely submerged. But it seems that he was not to escape so easily, for when about midway down, in he went, and when the bottom was reached his head was just above water. There happened to be at the Buchman shack H. G. Doolittle and his brother. These, with the Douglass family, rescued the venturesome settler and brought him out on the bank, but in a deplorable condition of wet and cold. The next morning the river was still worse, but the Douglass effects were divided and something had to be done. The horses and
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HISTORY OF OSCEOLA COUNTY, IOWA.
the wagon with the household goods, including a barrel of pork and two pigs in a box strapped on behind, were on the other side, and they must be brought over, let the sacrifice be what it may. Douglass, with a board or two, a rope and such other devices as the ingenuity of man will bring into requisi- tion under such circumstances, was enabled to get over to his effects, and, finding them all right, the troublesome question again arose as to how to get them over. Douglass on one side and his friends and family on the other, discussed the difficulty in all its bearings, and the task seemed to be hope- less, and the question without any probability of solution. Finally Douglass was seized with an idea. He had tied to the wagon a red cedar bedstead, which had come down as an heir loom in his wife's family from the old Knickerbocker days in New York State, and which had been prized from generation to generation. It was of the old-fashioned kind, about enough material in it to have absorbed a lumber yard, and with posts of enormous length and size. Douglass got this out, and by a system of mechanical contrivance formed a raft that seemed capable of greater navigation than that for which it was intended. Mrs. Douglass protested, but had to look on while this sacred relic from her ancesters was fast be- ing transformed from its original construction, into nothing but a float for the purpose of ferrying. John succeeded, however, with the help of the others, in taking over the barrel of pork and the other household goods, until all was over except the horses and wagon. He tied a rope to one horse and this to the other and they were led single file, and by swimming and clambering they were soon on the other bank. Then came the wagon. With this, they tied a rope in the end of the tongue and hitching the rope to the horses started with the wagon across. When the hind end of the wagon went down the bank, the box with the pigs in struck the bank and broke off, letting the pigs loose, and they went squealing away, glad to escape. The tongue stuck into the opposite bank, but this was soon pulled loose and the wagon drawn out. The pigs, with the aid of the family dog, were soon caught and got over, and Douglass heaved a sigh of relief. It took all day, how- ever, to do the crossing, and the next day he started on north- west to his claim, and came near having the same experiences in crossing the Otter that he had at the Ocheyedan, but he finally landed at his shack and soon was set up in the usual style of homesteader housekeeping.
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