USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 31
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The 30th day of May, 1881, was strictly observed by the people of Council Bluffs as Decoration Day. Up to 1880, there had been no memorial services of the kind held in this city, although quite a number of veterans of the late war occupied unmarked graves in the - various cemeteries here. There was no or- ganization of veterans to take charge of such ceremonies and tribute to the valiant dead. About the middle of April, ISSO, as a pre- paration for Decoration Day, one hundred and twenty old soldiers met in the court house and organized the Pottawatamie Vet- eran Association, and took the necessary steps, in connection with the citizens, to properly celebrate the occasion. It was a bright Sunday. Thousands turned out to - take part, and the people marched to Fair- view Cemetery, where a platform had been erected, with appropriate music, to decorate , the graves, about a dozen in all. They were completely buried in masses of flowers be- stowed by loving and reverent hands. Hon. ' the river.
J. R. Reed and Maj. Lyman delivered elo- quent eulogies on the soldiers.
The 30th day of May. 1881, Decoration Day, was again observed in an imposing manner, at the same cemetery, Col. W. F. Sapp. Col. Smythe, of Omaha, Rev. F. T Webb, of the Episcopal Church, and others, delivering appropriate addresses, and the tombs being again strewn with flowers. The Cemetery Association, the year before, had donated to the Veteran Association a hand- some plat of ground for the proper burial of such soldiers as died hore in poverty and without friends. Several burials had already occurred in that beautiful lot. Among the graves decorated in 1991, which were not in the cemetery in 1830, was that of the distin- guished physician. Dr. Henry Osborn, who had filled an honorable place in the service of his country as a medical officer on the bat- 1
tle-fields of the Western army.
The spring of 1881 was ushered in by what will always be known as the great flood. Heavier snows fell in the West, and espe- cially in the Upper Missouri country, than had been known for many years before. When these began to melt, at the end of March. there were indications of an unusual Hood. Intelligence came from Yankton, Sioux City and other points in the North and Northwest, that there was an unprecedented rise in the river, and that cattle and houses had been swept away. Now and then a house from up the country swept past Council Bluffs, but no local alarm was created. On Friday night, the water of the Missouri was out of its banks in the northwestern part of the city, but no apprehension was felt by the citizens generally. although the city authori- ties felt the danger of the breaking of a dyke made by an old embankment of the North- Western Railroad Company, extending to
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The grounds west of the North Western track were much lower than east of it. This section of the city was then occupied by smaller residences. The dyke broke, the water came through, but not in any great rush, and gradually spread over the table- land, not disturbing the foundations of the buildings. It was late at night when the real alarm was given, and the scene was more appalling in appearance than in actuality. Numerous families were rescued in the night and taken to the court house. Dohany's Hall, Bloom & Nixon's, and other places, for safety and comfort. By daylight, the whole area from the North-Western track to the river bank, was an open sea, dotted with houses as islands. During the forenoon of Saturday. nearly all were in a place of safety, yet the water kept rising till it crossed the railroad track, covered all the south and west part of the city as far east as Ninth street, and wholly cut off all intercourse between the central part of the city and the transfer, ex- cept by boat. Until Wednesday of the next week. commerce between Omaha and Council Bluffs was wholly by boats. The water stood at the transfer platforms to the upper edge. Men made from $15 to $20 per day in carry- ing passengers in boats from the North-West- ern depot to the transfer. During the flood. scarcely a house was moved from its founda- tions. The water eventually fell about a foot, and people congratulated themselves that the crisis was over, but they were start- led, in a few days again. with the intelli- gence that the river was rising at Sioux City to a height equal to the former flood: and in a few hours, the water advanced over its former route, submerging the same portions of the city to a height of about two inches more than before. It stood at that stage for nearly a week, and then subsided, leaving one of the fairest portions of Council Bluffs
a desolate waste, so far as mere appearances were concerned. Fences, outhouses and sidewalks were gone, entailing heavy loss upon individuals, ill able to bear it, and upon the public. Many families of the lab- oring classes were fed at the public expense, as their employment at the railroads was wholly interrupted.
The 26th of September, 1881, was signal- ized in Council Bluffs by the observance of appropriate memorial services. on the day of the funeral of President Garfield, at Cleve- land, Ohio. The day set in with a shower. but by noon it cleared off bright and clear. The entire city took part in the ceremonies. At noon, a salute was fired from a twelve- pounder, but during one of the discharges of the piece, the arm of Joseph Spaulding, an ex-soldier of the civil war, was torn off so that amputation had to be made at the shoul- der. He recovered otherwise from the acci- dent, and when the mail carrier system was established here, he was appointed by Mr. Armour, the Postmaster, in that branch of the public service. This was the second ac- cident through that piece within two months. While it was being used at the Shenandoah Soldiers' Re-union, in the latter- part of Au- gust, James Matthews. of Council Bluffs, who was engaging in serving the gun, lost his hand by a premature discharge. The people of Shenandoah very generously pro- vided a large sum of money for the benefit of Mr. Matthews, whose circumstances justified such an act of charity.
The civic societies, the post of the Grand Army of the Republic, and the Veteran Asso- ciation. marched in column to the Pearl Street Park, where appropriate services were held, among them the delivery of an eloquent eu- logy by John N. Baldwin, son of Judge Baldwin, deceased.
Scarcely had the people left the park on
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their way home from the ceremonies, when a terrific explosion was heard, the noise of the crash coming from the southwestern part of the city. Persons in the second stories of buildings, looking in the direction of the Rock Island depot. saw a huge column of va- por and smoke rise into the air at a great height, indicating the explosion of a steam boiler as much as anything else. Hundreds of squares of large French-plate glass, more than a mile from the Rock Island depot, on Broad- way and on Pearl and Main streets, were shattered to fragments, and the streets were filled in a moment with crowds of panie- stricken people. An earthquake seemed to be, to most of them, the only explanation. It was soon ascertained that a car load of dyna- mite had caught fire in the freight yard of the Rock Island Railroad Company, and had exploded. The wreck made on the grounds was terrific. Box-cars constituting trains were split into kindling wood. The large briek round-house near by was totally de- molished, and some of the largest stone in the structure hurled immense distances. Oil- houses, dining-cars, machine shops and tool- houses were literally torn to pieces. Dwell- ing-houses, a quarter of a mile away, were rendered ruinous, and where the ear stood a hole was scooped out of the earth more than a hundred feet in diameter and fifty feet in depth. the earth having deen thrown up in great blocks weighing many tons each. Sin- gularly enough, not a life was lost. Only a few moments before the disaster occurred. Jerome McClintoek, in charge of the freight department of the company, and aware of the car being on fire, notified the men in the yard and shops of the impending danger, and they abandoned the premises none too soon. Many suits have been begun against the rail- road company to determine its liabilities for the results of the explosion. Before winter
set in. the railroad company had completely restored their destroyed buildings.
The canvass for the election of officers of the city at the spring election, in 1882, was. without exception, the most active the eity had ever known. Mayor Vaughan was a ean- didate for re-election. He made a struggle to secure the delegates to the city Democratie Convention, but was defeated in his effort. He had at the same time been nominated by a large convention of the laboring men, and entered on a fierce strife for ratification at the polls. The Republican Convention nominated Dr. N. D. Lawrence, and the Demo- crats, Thomas Bowman, a young Democrat, a native of Maine, who came to Council Bluff's in 1867, and who had twice been elected County Treasurer by unprecedented majori- ties. Many Democrats, who were in sympa- thy with the labor cause, voted for Mr. Vaughan, thereby diminishing the chances of Mr. Bowman as against Dr. Lawrence. The most intense excitement prevailed on elec- tion day. The result was that Mr. Bow- man defeated Mr. Vaughan by a majority of 138 votes, and Dr. Lawrence by thirty-four votes.
During the summer of 1882, the Driving Park Association made especial efforts for its fall meeting, to begin on the 18th of Sep- tember. A new art and agricultural hall was erected, at a cost of $6.000, the finest edifice of its kind in the West. It was built in the form of a cross, each arm of the same being 150 feet long. In addition to the excellent mile track made the year before, the associa- tion constructed a half-mile track inside of the other, and made the grounds most at- tractive in every respect. Arrangements were made for the holding of a county fair at the date of the fall meeting, and this was con- ducted with the most eminent success, owing to the admirable management of Dr. A. B.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
McCune, W. S. Pettibone, N. M. Pusey, L. C. Baldwin, J. W. Peregoy, Directors of the association. The daily atiendance during the four days' fair and races was about 20,- 000 people, they coming from all parts of Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska. The fair was a success, not only in numbers, but in display and financially. The art exhibi- tion under Mrs. N. M. Pusey, Mrs. J. B. At- kins and other ladies of the city, was the finest and most attractive ever seen in Coun- cil Bluffs.
Following the fair, and beginning on the 28th of September, was the re-union of the Veteran Association of Southwestern Iowa and Northwestern Missouri. The Driving Park Association gave the use of the fair grounds to the reunion. Through the aid of a bill introduced by Congressman Hepburn, the War Department loaned to the associa- tion 150 hospital tents, capable of sheltering over 2,500 men. A rain occurred on Wed- nesday night, the re-union beginning on Thursday, and laid the dust. The first morn- ing opened bright, clear and cool, and the first trains brought veterans by the hundred, and by night 3,000 of them were comfortably quartered in the camp. Col. John H. Keat- ley was the Commandant, aided by Col. D. B. Dailey, Chief of Staff. Gen. G. M. Dodge, the former commander of the Six- teenth Army Corps. and the first Colonel of the Fourth Iowa, organized here, was on a visit home from New York, to meet the old regiment and to take part in the re-union. On the afternoon of the first day. the veter- ans were organized into two battalions, the one called the Wabash Battalion, under com- mand of Col. Ellis, of Vallisca, and the other. the Northwestern Battalion, commanded by Col. J. C. Cook, of Carroll. Both battalions gave handsome and interesting dress parades at 5 o'clock that evening, witnessed by many
thousands of spectators. The veterans had not forgotten, in the fifteen years since the war closed, their military habits, and moved with a precision that was remarkable.
On the second morning, at 9 o'clock, the column formed at the fair grounds, and marched into the city for parade and review. Old, tattered and torn battle-flags were borne in the column, headed by the commandant and Gen. Dodge, the reviewing officer. At the Methodist Church, the column counter- marched, and as Gen. Dodge passed it on return, he was received with respectful and pathetic silence, and many a gray-haired veteran wept at the spectacle, never again to be repeated. Gen. Dodge placed himself at the corner of Broadway and Bancroft streets, where the column passed, marching by platoons, and riding away when the last maimed veteran passed his gallant old com- mander, there was a feeling of sadness, not only in the men themselves, but in the more than 40,000 people who in dense masses lined the sidewalks for nearly two miles. It was a memorable day, the greatest Council Bluffs ever saw, and perhaps will never see its equal again. Congratulatory dispatches and letters were also read in camp, before the parade was dismissed from Gens. Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Howard. The after- noon was occupied by speeches from Col. Hepburn, Maj. Anderson and others, to their comrades, and a sham battle between an armed post of the Grand Army of the Re- public from Carroll, and a cavalry company from Coburg, Iowa, under Capt. Kretchmer, and with a dress parade of both battalions in the evening. That night, the city was bril- liantly illuminated, in honor of the veterans, and Gen. Dodge, assisted by his daughter, Mrs. F. S. Pusey, gave the Fourth Iowa and other military guests, and his civilian friends, including Hon. A. C. Dodge, ex-United States
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
Senator of Iowa, a hospitable reception at his residence on Bluff street. The re-union closed on Saturday, with farewell greetings, and the election of officers of the association for the ensuing year, and the fixing of the next place of meeting at Marysville, Mo.
With this paragraph, the annals of Council Bluffs close, at a point, too, in its history, and in an event which will not soon be for- gotten either by the writer or by those who witnessed this assemblage of the men who had gallantly fought the battles of the great nation.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXXII .*
KNOX TOWNSHIP-FIRST SETTLERS-FIRST MARRIAGE-FIRST WIIEAT SOWN-MISSIONARY WORK -AVOCA-ORIGIN OF NAME-RAILROADS-CHURCHES-SOCIETIES- THE PRESS-BUSINESS INTERESTS, ETC.
N EXT after Kane, Knox Township is the most important township in the county, inasmuch as it contains the largest town in the county after the city of Council Bluffs. Not only that, the main line of the Chica- go, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad passes through Avoca, and it is also the northern terminus of the Carson Branch, and the southern terminus of the Harlan Branch, of the Rock Island. Besides these considera- tions, a great portion of the township con- sists of the far famed Nishnabotna Valley, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.
The first settler in Knox Township was Washington Lewin, who came in in 1851, and settled about a mile and a half east of where Avoca now stands, in what has since been called Lewin's Grove. Mr. Lewin sub- sequently changed his residence to Omaha, Neh., and the tract of land that he occupied in 1851 has been divided into lots, and owned principally by H. Meredith. Lewin occupied a log cabin on the land.
William Henderson, a bachelor, was the second settler, and located in Lewin's Grove in the fall of 1851. He opened out a small clearing in the timber, and the next year raised a light crop of corn. He lived on this land several years; was afterward married there, and died in the township. His widow is now a resident of Shelby County.
Joshua Headlee and his two sons, William and James, came into the township in 1852, > By Col. Jobu H. Keatley.
and settled near Newtown, on Section 22. Joshua Headlee is now dead. His son James removed to Harrison County, and William to Butler County, Kan. The mother is a resi- dent of Avoca. Her two daughters also live in the same town. Joseph Headlee arrived in the fall of 1852. He now lives in Valley Township. George Headlee settled on the J. A. Sinclair farm, near Avoca, and his death, in 1854, was the first in Knox Town- ship. Jackson Headlee came about the same time and stayed until the war broke out, when he went into the military service as a Union soldier, and died in the South. Where Joshua Headlee first settled is now the prop- erty of Cyrus True.
Ira Baker and Thomas F. Davis arrived and made a settlement in 1853. Baker dis- charged the duties of Justice of the Peace and of Township Clerk for several years. Joseph A. Bunnell came in 1852, but did not make a permanent residence, part of his time being spent in Shelby County for a few years, and he did not definitely locate until 1854. Josiah True, who is one of the leading citi- zens of the county, and who was one of the Democratic candidates for Representative in the Legislature in 1879, settled near where Avoca now is in November, 1857. Cyrus True came during the same month. Jona- than Hall, who now lives in Woodbury Coun- ty, settled in Lewin's Grove, but the date is not now remembered by the old settlers of the township. John Krutzinger bought out the Joshua Headlee claim, and built a saw
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mill on the West Branch of the Nishnabotna, on Section 21. This was the first improve- ment of that kind made in Knox Township, and the second in the eastern part of the coun- ty. Krutzinger also connected a small grist- mill with his saw-mill. He was a man of some means. He was killed at Glenwood, Mills County, in the fall of 1856. He moved from that place in 1854, and built his mill the same summer.
Jonathan Hall was also a man of some means and influence; acted as Justice of the Peace, and frequently practiced medicine among the needy settlers. Joseph Losh came to the township in 1854, jumped a claim where Avoca now stands, and built a cabin, but did not remain long, moving farther down the river and building Losh's Mill, near Carson. Henry Brown bought out Losh's claim. He lived on it for quite awhile, and then sold it to J. A. Sinclair. Henry Peter- son. J. Wineland, John Wood, John Nelson and Joseph Crews came in about the same date and opened up farms. Buck Townsend arrived in the fall of 1855, and laid out the town of Wooster, in Section 21, in the winter of 1855-56, and opened a store on the town site. Samuel Perrin, of Council Bluffs, was the surveyor who laid off Wooster for Town- send. The original proprietors were Town- send and Samnel Knepper and Dr. S. M. Ballard, of Council Bluffs, who had in view the railroad from the Mississippi to the Mis- souri River at that date. After from fifteen to twenty houses were built on their site, they found difficulty in the title, and, dissatisfac- tion having arisen, and John Krutzinger bought forty acres just across the line, and laid it out, calling the new site Newtown, by which the spot has ever since been known, anything like a town having long since dis- appeared in the opening-up of railroads in .other directions. Newtown was the center
of business in Knox Township until Avoca was laid out, as the result of the building of the Rock Island Railroad. Newtown had three stores at one time, and a blacksmith shop. The elections were held at that point, and nearly all the meetings in the township. The first frame schoolhouse in the township was at Newtown, and was erected by Cyrus True as the contractor. This was in 1858. But the first school was in a log cabin built by Joshua Headlee. This was not a public school, but was sustained by private subscrip. tion among the settlers, and was taught by R. M. Donahue.
The first marriage celebrated in Knox Township was between George White and Miss Mary Townsend, the daughter of Buck Townsend, who laid out Wooster. The new- ly married couple went to Council Bluff's to live after they were married. The first birth in the township was a son to Joseph Head- lee and his wife, in 1853. The first preach- ing was in a log cabin, at a quarterly, held by the Rev. Moses Shinn, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The second mill built was on the Main Branch of the Botna River. by Seth Hunt & Sons. This was the first regular flouring-mill: but the machinery was afterward taken out and made a part of the Centennial Mills in Avoca. A parsonage was built at Newtown for the Methodist min- ister. John Wilson bought out Buck Town- send's store at Newtown, and discharged the duties of local Methodist preacher. The circuit extended for twenty miles in each di- rection from Newtown, the first circuit-rider as a preacher being Rev. Mr. Card. Dr. S. M Ballard, who was at one time Register of the United States Land Office at Council Bluffs, laid out a State road from Iowa City to Council Bluffs, and passed through Newtown, and is still known as the Ballard State road. The first bridge was on this
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
road, across the Botna, and was constructed by James A. Sinclair. The post office was opened at Newtown by John Wilson, as Post- master. He was succeeded by Cyrus True. James A. Sinclair succeeded True. A steam saw-inill was brought up from Big Grove to Newtown in 1858, and operated there for some years. After Mr. Krutzinger's death at Glenwood, John Stickley, who now lives at Clarinda, in Page County, operated Krutz- inger's Mill.
The family of Woods was quite an impor- tant one at an early date in the township. John H. Wood now lives in Missouri. The family consisted of a widowed mother, and five brothers and two sisters.
The first wheat sown was in the spring of 1855, and the first threshing by a machine. in the harvest of 1856, on the farm of James A. Sinclair. The great distance the town- ship lay from railroads and the river, and especially from railroads, until the advent of the Rock Island in 1869, retarded the set- | been a Democrat. His farm of eighty acres, tlement of the township, although the soil is the most fertile in the State.
The United Brethren Church began mis- sionary work among the settlers shortly after the Methodists, and organized a society, con- ducting their services in the schoolhouse at Newtown. They have now about fifty mem- bers, and their meetings are held at the schoolhouse at Pleasant Hill. Their pres- ent minister is the Rev. Mr. Jenks. They also have a Sunday school in connection with their church organization. The Rev. J. M. Dosch was the first pastor of the society. One of the original members is James A. Sinclair.
The following sketches outline the career of some of the early settlers of the township, its pioneers. William Pierce came to Potta- wattamie County in 1855, and settled at Mac- edonia, and remained there about three years,
when he removed up the river to where Han- cock, on the Carson Branch now is, and lived there for three years more. He returned then to Des Moines and stayed four years, and moved back again, settling in Avoca. While at Macedonia, he had a blacksmith shop, and kept the toll-bridge across the Nish- nabotna River for its owner, J. B. Stuts- man, and others, who had erected it and were operating it under a license. When he first came into the township, wolves were abund- ant and terribly annoying, howling all night long around his cabin; and deer could be easily shot at any time. Game of all kinds was then abundant. Mr. Pierce was born in Ohio in 1828, and lived in his native State until his removal to Iowa in 1855, following his trade as a blacksmith. He was married, in 1853, to Miss Elizabeth Brown, also a na- tive of Ohio. They have four children living -three sons and one daughter. In political sentiment and opinion, Mr. Pierce has always near Avoca, is finely improved, and constitutes for him a comfortable home. When he went to where Hancock now is to settle, there was not a house on either side of the river from Big Grove to Newtown, a distance of eleven miles. In order to secure his claim of 120 acres of land, he had to borrow money, and was compelled to pay 60 per cent per an- num for the use of what he needed. He bor- rowed the amount from Ira Platner, of Coun- cil Bluffs. Mrs. Pierce greatly assisted her husband, especially when they resided at Macedonia. The constant stream of emi- grants westward made the baking of bread for sale to them extremely profitable, her net receipts, some days, from that source, being as high as $5. When she kept toll-bridge at that point, a Mormon train came along, hav- ing with it about fifty hand-carts. She had not been given the rates of crossing for this
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kind of vehicle, and jumped at a conclusion, and charged them $2.50, the rate for a two- horse wagon being 20 cents.
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