USA > Iowa > Palo Alto County > History of Palo Alto county, Iowa > Part 4
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1 Interview with John McCormick.
2 "Some Reminiscences of a Pioneer," Chas. McCormick.
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NEW SETTLERS - 1856-1862
folks are all gone.' We then drove to the barn, which was about ten rods away and built by setting forked posts or crotches, as they were then called, in the ground, laying poles across, throwing a lot of willow brush on top and standing up other and smaller poles on the sides, and then covering the whole with the desired thickness of prairie hay, leaving a large portion of the south side open for the cattle to go out and in at will. The west end had been enclosed and partitioned off for a horse stable. We un- hitched our horses and led them into the stable. It hap- pened that there was a hen's nest in the feed box to which I led one of the horses and in the nest were five eggs. I said to the Judge, 'I don't believe I can eat a mouthful of food in that house tonight. I am hungry. I can suck an egg and I propose that we suck these eggs.' ' All right,' said the Judge. I handed him one and took one myself, broke the shell on the manger and swallowed the contents. The Judge did likewise. We repeated the performance, but when I handed him the fifth egg, he said, 'No, you take that; I can eat in that house.' I took it. We then went out and viewed the stock. There was quite a large herd and among them two tame elk that had been caught when calves and reared with the cattle. The Judge kept saying, 'Let's go in,' but I put it off as long as I could, though the weather was cold. As soon as we went into the house Mrs. McCormick went out and I had a good opportunity to look over the premises. In the middle of the room stood a pine board table covered with as nice a clean, white, linen table cloth as I ever beheld. On the center of the table sat a large plate of buns, baked to a nice brown. On one side of the buns sat a plate of potatoes, cooked with their jackets on, and on the other side was a platter of fried ham. There was also two kinds of fruit, which turned out to be preserved wild crabapples and preserved wild plums.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
On the stove sat the tea kettle and the teapot and the skillet in which the ham was fried with the grease still in it. In one corner of the room was a bed (in which we slept that night), with curtains extending from the ceiling to the floor. Presently Mrs. McCormick returned, took the skil- let off the stove, turned the grease on to the platter of ham, then took the teapot and began pouring the tea. As she did so, she said, 'Sit up. It's ready. I intended to have some eggs for you to eat with your ham, but something has taken them.' I liked nothing better than fried ham and eggs in those days, but I had stolen my supper and eaten it raw." 1
Another early settler in what is now Fern Valley town- ship was William Shippey, who built a cabin on the east side of the river, a few miles below where the old trail crossed Cylinder Creek. He came to the county in the spring of 1856, and his cabin was the half-way house be- tween McCormick's and the Irish settlement. For quite a number of years his house stood alone without any neigh- bors near at hand. Thos. Cahill and Orrin Sylvester were two other settlers who settled across the river a few miles west from Shippey's. In the spring of 1857 the Hickeys, who had spent the winter with the Irish colony, moved across the river to section 35, Emmetsburg township. The Hickey cabin stood on the bank of the river, just across northwest from what is now known as the Burns bridge, where Mrs. Gibbs now lives. In those early days the Hickeys kept a small skiff by means of which they ferried people across the river. Somewhat later there was a bridge, but that was washed out during the spring rains and the ferry boat continued to be the only means of trans- portation across the river at this point until about 1875 or 1876, when the county bridge was built. When Mr. Hickey
1 Letter of J. N. Prouty, Humboldt.
MYLES MAHAN
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NEW SETTLERS - 1856-1862
was elected county judge he took a prominent part in the organization of the county.1
In the spring of 1857, Myles Mahan and his wife Mary Ann, five sons, Miles E., James, John, Patrick, William, and four daughters, Mary, Anna, Maggie, and Esther, came to Palo Alto County and selected a location on the southwest quarter of section 22-97-33, in the edge of the timber near the river. They built a log cabin about 16 x 24, which was a large house for those days, and as many as sixty persons have stayed all night there.2 They had wagon box beds piled one above the other and these could accommodate a large number. There was no floor in the house, and one little window of one small pane of glass not over 10 x 12. The cellar went down under the bed so as to keep anyone from falling in. There was a root house outside for larger storage, as the inside one was small. The cabin was in the edge of the timber and right where the bluff slopes off to the east rather abruptly. The cabin was then about twenty-five rods from the corner stake of section 22. One night Miles Mahan was taking stock of his provisions and found that all he had was one sack of corn meal. He went to bed with a heavy heart, as it was all he had in the world and no money. He had not yet gone to sleep when a knock was heard and there stood Captain Martin and forty soldiers who were out scouting. The Mahans worked all night feeding and caring for the company and the next morning the meal was gone, but they had $40 in money and felt that they could begin again with new energy the pioneer fight for life. At a later time Captain Martin and a squad of soldiers brought Umposhota and one other Indian on the way to Fort Dodge and then to Des Moines where they were to be hung for having participated in the Spirit Lake massacre. Mrs.
1 Those events will be more fully treated in a later chapter.
2 Interview with M. E. Mahan.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
Mahan drew a revolver and was for shooting the Indians on the spot, but the captain begged her not to fire and finally she put up the weapon. That night the Indians, pretending to be sick, went out and started off down the bluffs. The soldiers shot after them, but Mrs. Mahan said to stop shooting and she would get them, and taking the dog with her to track them, started out in full chase. The dog got in a fight with the Indian dog, lost the trail, and the Indians made good their escape. Mrs. Mahan was a type of the fearless frontier woman, who knew no danger and no fear.1 The Mahan cabin was thirty-five miles from Spirit Lake and the only house this side of Spirit Lake. So all the travel from Spirit Lake to Fort Dodge stopped at Mahan's and it was the refuge for weary sojourners for many years. For twelve years they kept a sort of tavern. J. P. Dolliver stayed there many a night, rolled up in his blanket, and slept on the floor, and always had his dollar to pay for his lodging and breakfast.2 Myles Mahan was a courageous old man and refused to leave even when the Indian scare was at its height. Once when the Indians were reported as coming, Ned Mahan, who had gone to Laughlins for safety with the other settlers, started out alone with his gun to meet the Indians so as to have a good shot at them. He was also a fearless man. In the sixties Myles built a new house 16x 24, 12 feet high. This was shingled with oak shingles, and was a better house than the old one. It was considered one of the best houses in Northwestern Iowa. The logs were all scored down to six inches thick and carefully laid. In 1858, Myles Mahan lined up a road from his house north to Spirit Lake. He sharpened willow sticks and set them along in a line to mark the trail. Before that the trail was dim and travel- ers got lost and couldn't find their way over the vast
1 Interview with M. E. Mahan. " Early Days on the West Fork," by Ambrose A. Call, in Upper Des Moines Republican, August 15, 1906.
2 Interview with M. E. Mahan.
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prairie, every one making a track of his own around the sloughs and ponds.
Trapping was the salvation of the early settlers. Uncle Ned Mahan made $75 trapping in one day. The sale of furs, etc., was what kept the people supplied with money.
In the fall of 1857, Myles Mahan went up to Mankato, Minn., for groceries and supplies and on the return the oxen, which were dusty and warm from the long trip, saw Spirit Lake and ran away to get in the water and cool off. They were well trained or they would have dumped all that precious load of provisions into the water. As it was they stood until cooled off and then he started them off on the trip home and arrived safely.
Prairie fires were a great menace in those days. The fires traveled over the prairie faster than a horse could run and would jump the river where it was from seventy to one hundred feet wide. Many settlers here lost all their property and barely escaped with their lives in the path of those terrific prairie fires. The grasshoppers were a fearful pest in 1873 and later years. M. E. Mahan remembers rowing down the river to Emmetsburg when the hoppers were a foot thick on the water and more com- ing over the banks just like a waterfall.1
Patrick Nolan was another who settled in the timber along the river not far from the Irish colony in 1857. He was jocularly called "Paddy in the Bush" by the settlers, to distinguish him from two other Patrick Nolans who soon after settled in the county.
William Murphy came to the county in October, 1857, and pre-empted the southwest quarter of 30-96-32 and lived there until he proved up. His log shanty was built near what is known as the John Doran place. Mr. Mur- phy was a single man and did teaming and other work at Fort Dodge. After helping lay out the ill-fated county-
1 Interview with M. E. Mahan, Graettinger.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
seat on the bank of Medium Lake in 1858, he that fall re- turned to Fort Dodge and as times were hard went back east to look for work, and did not return to Palo Alto County and settle permanently until May, 1871.1
Michael Jackman and family built a cabin on the east bank of Medium Lake and their hospitable home was well known among the early travelers from the east who passed that way. They became prominent in the later affairs of the county. That old cabin still stands as one of the few remaining landmarks of those early days.
Jolm L. Davis was another settler who came here in 1858 and lived across the river in Great Oak township, where the McCoy farm now is. He had oxen enough so that he could run a large riding breaking plow. This was one of the first riding plows in the county. He would let his wife ride and he would drop corn. He was one of the judges of election in 1859 and it is said that there was some difficulty in that election on account of several people who tried to vote, although they had practically left the county and had simply come back for some of their goods. Mr. Davis as judge of election made them swear in their vote before he would allow them to participate in the election. He only stayed in this county until 1860, when he left and did not return. 2 It was rumored shortly after he left that this man Davis was a horse thief and was a part of the gang that was working this whole part of the country. One of the vigilance committee from this county who was down at Iowa Falls when they rounded up this gang there, re- ported that Davis was among the number, but that they could not prove anything against him and had to let him go. Years later a cave for horses was discovered in the bank of the river near his place. This band of horse thieves was a notorious affair in 1856 and 1857. They
1 Interview with William Murphy.
2 Statement M. H. Crowley.
MARTIN COONAN
MRS. CATHERINE COONAN
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NEW SETTLERS - 1856-1862
were well organized and had various rendezvous and sta- tions along the frontier. They became so bold in their depredations and such a menace to the communities that the settlers organized and finally cleaned the band out in 1858. They were rounded up by the sheriff and his posse in Grundy County, and several of them were hung. A number of underground stables were later found and evi- dences were abundant as to the large territory covered by these transactions. Several of the citizens of Palo Alto County remember this band and their operations very well. They did not molest the settlers here so much, but they were a continual menace to the peace and safety of the people and the early settlers were very glad when these desperadoes were finally rounded up.1
William Reed and family lived near the Davis place. He had two sons, and one winter they got lost and were out all night and one of the boys froze his foot so badly that it had to be taken off. A trapper by the name of Ward Whitman stayed with them one winter and made quite a large catch.
Martin Coonan and Catherine his wife, and five boys, bought a farm on the bank of the river half a mile south of the Irish colony. They moved on to their land in 1858, built a cabin and began the work of clearing up the timber and preparing for a permanent home. This land is now known as " Riverdale " farm. The important events that transpired at this historic spot will be more fully treated in a later chapter .?
Another new settler was James McCosker, who was elected the first county surveyor in 1858. He did not, however, remain long in the county. John L. Davis was
1 Statements by A. B. Carter, M. H. Crowley, M. E. Mahan and others. For evidence that this gang operated over a wide territory in Iowa, see "Chronological History of Cedar Rapids," Cedar Rapids Republican, June, 1906. Gue's History of Iowa, vol. i, chap. xxvii.
2 Chapter xi.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
the second surveyor to be elected, as he was chosen at the election of the following year.
" Tom Tobin, his father, mother, and sister Alice, and Joe and Kern Mulroney came in the year 1857 and old Mrs. Mulroney and Maggie came one year later. The Sheas, Coonans, Pendergasts, I think, came in the spring of 1858." 1
Among the other settlers who came to this part of the county about this time were: Thomas Maher, William Maher, Daniel Kane, Thomas Downey, Thomas Dawson and Patrick Lynch. All of these settlers had settled in the county by 1860.
. In the first few years of settlement in the county the task of threshing the grain was a difficult one. One of the ways devised by Martin Coonan was quite generally used. The bundles of grain would be laid on the ground in a large circle and then a horse would be led around on the circle of bundles and thus stamp out the grain on the ground and his hoofs would grind up the straw much as a modern threshing machine. They would then gather up the grain and holding it up in the air let it fall on to a sheet on a windy day when the breeze would blow the chaff and dirt out of the grain. It was hard work, but the wheat and oats and small crops of other grains were very precious in those days with the market so far away and grain and feed of all kinds so very scarce.2
" Palo Alto got its first mail service in 1858. The first trip from Algona to Spirit Lake started July 1st that year. The first postoffice was at Jack Nolan's, Mr. Nolan being the postmaster. It was called Emmetsburg. When routes were established from Fort Dodge to Spirit Lake, and Fort Dodge to Jackson, a postoffice was established
1 "Some Reminiscences of a Pioneer," by Chas. McCormick, Reporter, August 2, 1906. See also same article, Semi-Centennial Record, pp. 389-90. 2 Recollections of Martin Coonan, Jr.
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NEW SETTLERS - 1856-1862
at Mulroney's, called Soda Bar, with Mulroney as Nasby, and one at McCormick's on the east side, called Fern Val- ley, Thomas McCormick postmaster, and Nolan's office was moved over on the river and Martin Coonan made postmaster. There never was a postoffice in the county called Paoli."1 When the postoffice was first established at Nolan's, the mail which came once a week was put in a big milk pan and the settlers would come over on Sunday afternoons and pick out their own mail from the pan.2 This practice also served as a social feature, as the var- ious families thus came together at a common center to visit and talk over events transpiring in the local com- munity as well as the news from the outside world.
The settlers in the county very early began to inaug- urate some needed improvements. Schools were organ- ized, religious services were held, better houses were being built, and social intercourse encouraged.
In the summer of 1861, J. P. White taught school in a cabin in Walnut township. This was the first school taught in the county. M. H. Crowley still has in his pos- session a McGuffey's speller with his name and the date showing that it is the book that he used at that first term of school. School books were procured from Fort Dodge and the old settlers say the books they used in those days were the same recognized authorities and that there was no trouble about different kinds of books or new editions. They were always the same; and reading, writing and arithmetic, with some geography, was the invariable course of study.3
1 "Early Days on the West Fork," by Ambrose A. Call, in the Algona Upper Des Moines Republican, August 15, 1906. The above facts are verified by statements of M. H. Crowley, Chas. Nolan, Lott Laughlin, and others.
2 Statement of Chas. Nolan.
3 Statement of M. H. Crowley, supplemented by the recollections of many others.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
A little later in the same year a log school house was built at West Bend, Mr. Carter hauling the finishing lum- ber from Boone. Mary E. Mathews of Irvington, Kossuth County, was the teacher.1
" The first religious service held in the county was by Father Marsh of the Catholic church, in the year 1859 or 1860. Father McComb, a Presbyterian minister, held the first Protestant service in the summer of 1860. This ser- vice was held in my father's cabin in Fern Valley town- ship. A Presbyterian church was organized and services held at my father's house. Services were also held at Carter's, at old West Bend, at McKnight's Point, and at Powhattan in Pocahontas County. The Struthers, Hen- dersons, Frazers and others joined this little body of church-going people, among whom were Seth Sharp, Percy Nowhan, James and Jolin Jolliffe, and Abel Hais, and they all did their best to sustain this little Presbyterian church. The church survived, though at times it was nip and tuck, but in the end all came out right." 2
In the early sixties a postoffice was established at Tobin's called "Soda Bar." This was on the route of the weekly mail service from the south and was very con- venient for the settlers there. Tom Tobin was the first postmaster, but his sister Alice (who later married Thom- as Kirby) was the real postmistress for several years.
About the same time a postoffice was established at Hickey's across the river, called " Great Oak." There were several large oak trees standing in the Hickey yard and this gave the name to the postoffice, and later the same name was given to the township when it was organized.
A lull in settlement occurred in 1861 and 1862. The difficulty in getting land titles and the distractions of the
1 Statement of A. B. Carter. Mr. Carter was the school director who hired this teacher and he remembers distinctly that this school started a short time after the school in Walnut township.
2 " Some Reminiscences of a Pioneer," by Chas. McCormick.
THOS. TOBIN
J. L. MARTIN
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NEW SETTLERS - 1856-1862
war prevented the further growth of the county for a time. This period of growth came to an end, but it was only a short time before a new line of development opened up for the county enlarged opportunities for progress.
CHAPTER VII
Early Speculative County-seats
Visions of riches made over night has always been the dream of the county-seat promoter. If he could only lo- cate a town that would become the county-seat, his fortune would be made. But many a well laid scheme turned out to be only a bubble. The western country in the early days was full of such " stake-towns " and towns on paper. Palo Alto was no exception to the rule, and the story of the early attempts to locate a county-seat presents an in- teresting chapter in our history.
As early as 1858 three Fort Dodge speculators, Hooli- han, Cahill, and Cavenaugh by name, came up to Palo Alto County. They brought a surveyor with them and made extensive plans for laying out a town. William Murphy, then a young man who had come to this county in October, 1857, and pre-empted a claim (southwest quarter of section 30-96-32), and was living there for the purpose of proving up, and was also doing teaming from Fort Dodge, was employed to assist in laying out the town. A site was selected on the west bank of Medium Lake at its southern extremity, where Call's addition to our present county-seat is now platted. This was but a mile and a quarter from the log cabin of Martin Coonan, on the east bank of the Des Moines River, at the place which is now known as the Riverdale farm.
These parties surveyed and staked out a town and then proceeded to build a log court house, store, and black- smith shop. As yet the town was without a name, but one day when the buildings were well under way the four were
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EARLY SPECULATIVE COUNTY-SEATS
talking the question over. Hoolihan, who was a very well educated man and an enthusiastic champion of the cause of the oppressed Irish, suggested that they name the town after Robert Emmet, the fearless Irish patriot, of whom he was a great admirer. In order to distinguish it from Emmet County, the name "Emmetsburg " was finally agreed upon, and the four men returned to their work, full of hope for the future which was to see their town of Emmetsburg the metropolis of Palo Alto County. Their dreams were in fact realized many years later, but they did not reap the benefit, and it was only after many tem- porary expedients and many vicissitudes that Emmets- burg became the thriving county-seat that it now is. But alas for their hopes ! Their money gave out and they were obliged to abandon the enterprise and return to Fort Dodge.
This town was therefore never officially platted, or filed for record. The buildings stood for some time, until they were probably hauled away by someone who, no doubt, considered that he needed the logs a great deal more than did the stakes in the abandoned town. Although the ven- ture was a financial failure and disappointing to the high hopes of its promoters, yet the name " Emmetsburg " clung to the stake-town, and persisted through the vicissi- tudes of fortune until it was finally preserved to posterity and became an important factor in our county's history.1
In 1859 another attempt was made to establish a county- seat. John M. Stockdale, representing a syndicate of speculators from Fort Dodge, bought up the swamp land of the county in payment for which he agreed to build a court house and school house. He was an influential man, besides being on the inside of state politics, 2 so he easily
1 This description follows the facts as given by Wm. Murphy, who remembers them distinctly, and he is corroborated by others.
2 Stockdale was a cousin of Samuel J. Kirkwood, governor of the state in 1860.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
secured the appointment of county-seat commissioners favorable to him.1 Accordingly Judge C. J. McFarland, district judge of the 5th Judicial District of Iowa, ap- pointed Cyrus C. Carpenter of Webster County, John Straight of Pocahontas County, and William Pollock of Webster County, to locate the county-seat of Palo Alto County. On January 3, 1859, they located it on the north half of section No. 6, in township No. 95 north, range No. 32 west of the 5th P. M., on the town plat of Paoli. This was a town on paper, supposed to be located on what is now known as the Dooley, or Consigny, farm, two miles south of Emmetsburg. It was here that Stockdale had procured control of the land and proposed to build the county-seat as a nucleus for a thriving city.
In accordance with his contract with the county, Stock- dale began to build a brick court house and school house at Paoli, but the work dragged along and when completed the court house fell down and was rebuilt one-half as large as the original specifications called for. Considerable liti- gation resulted over this, but was finally compromised.
Somehow the new town did not prove attractive. Court was held there for a time, but the judge and others in at- tendance had to go several miles away to the nearest set- tler for their meals and lodging, and so the bleak old court house was finally abandoned for more comfortable quar- ters and soon fell into decay. The time had proved in- auspicious for the founding of a town, the surrounding territory was not sufficiently settled to make a town neces- sary, and the plans of the promoters of the county-seat failed utterly.
Thus the county lost the money they put into the public buildings and the speculators failed to realize their antici- pated profits. The town of Paoli never was more than a
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