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 43
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GARNER TOWNSHIP.
corner of Section 5. Its course from this point is almost due south through Section 5, southwest through Section S, crossing the corner of Section 7, and then again flowing almost due south until it leaves the town- ship, after having crossed Section 18 about the center.
The first main road through Garner Town- ship was the old Council Bluffs & Lewis stage road, which passed through the south- ern part of the township. Next, a road was opened between Mosquito and Pigeon Creeks, and this was followed by a road down the valley of the former. The first bridges built across Indian and Mosquito Creeks, were rude log affairs, which were usually badly injured or entirely carried away by the spring freshets. These in time were succeeded by a substantial class of wooden bridges. The point where the old stage road crosses the Mosquito alone being considered worthy of a strong iron bridge, which was built and has been in use for a number of years.
The first term of school ever taught in Pottawattamie County is claimed to have been held in the little Mormon village of Carter- ville in 1847. A Mr. Curtis was the teacher and was promised $12 per month for his serv- ices, but when his school had closed and he undertook to collect his salary. the patrons concluded they had promised him too much, so compromised the matter by paying him a part of it. Not long after this, a young man named Joshua Grant taught a school in Sec- tion 16. In a short time, another term was taught in a little cabin near the present resi- dence of Mr. Scofield, James Gettis being the teacher.
Each succeeding year found some new im- provement in the school system or in the character of the buildings erected for school purposes. Following are the statistics for Garner Township schools for the year 1SS1:
Number subdistricts, 10; number un- graded in each district, 12; average number of months taught, 73. Teachers-Number employed: males, 5; females, 7. Average compensation per month: males, $35; fe- males, $33.40. Pupils-Number of persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years, males, 167; females, 134; number en- rolled in whole district, 300; total average attendance in whole district, 137; average cost of tuition per month for each pupil, 83.13; number of school buildings, 12; frame, 4; brick, S; value, $6,800.
There are no church buildings in Garner Township, nor as yet any organized denomi- nation of Christians. There are, however, many residents of the township who are mem- bers of churches elsewhere located. In 1867. the Chicago & North-Western Railroad was completed through Garner Township. This was the first to be completed of the three railroads which now cross the township. It enters the township from the north. through Section 3, follows the valley of the Missouri and leaves the township at the southwest cor- ner of Section 13. In May, of 1869, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad was completed, entering the city of Council Bluffs on May 10. This road enters the township through Section 2, and follows the valley of Mosquito Creek until it leaves the township in Section 29.
The Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Rail- road was completed in July of 1882, and runs beside the Rock Island road the entire dis- tance across the township. Though Garner Township is so well supplied with railroads. there is not a railroad station within her boundaries. There are, however, four sa- loons, one grocery store, one water mill and a Grange hall in the township; also a small post office on the old stage road, the name of which is Scottswood, with a Mr. McNair
S
336
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
the present Postmaster. The Grange hall is located just east of the point where the old Indian mill stood. It is a frame building 60x24 feet, and was built by a stock com- pany. There were about one hundred and twenty members when the lodge was organ- ized, and it is still in a flourishing condition with Mr. William Childs as Master.
The water mill stands on the site of the old Indian mill, which went down in 1863, as before stated. In 1865, the present mill was built by George Parks and Samuel Bayless. It is a two-and-a-half-story frame structure, and bears on the north end the name " En- pire Mills." It is, however, always men- tioned by the citizens as Parks' Mill. It is supplied with two run of stone, and does the principal part of the custom milling for Gar- ner Township. An industry that has not yet been mentioned. and which, perhaps, was
the largest and most extensive private enter- prise ever undertaken in the township was the Garner Woolen Mills. In 1861, Mr. William Garner built this mill in Section 10. on Mosquito Creek, about three miles above the site of the old Indian Mill. He employed about twenty hands, and did carding, spin- ning and weaving. It was kept in oper- ation until 1872, when the business was abandoned, and the buildings used for barns by the sons of Mr. Garner. This was the last to go down of all the mills started in this township. Parks' Mill alone stands as a monument of all that have gone before it. Its location on the very spot where the first mill was erected in Pottawattamie County is a fitting illustration of the progress made by those early settlers who now patronize it, and who patronized the little old corn mill built by the Government in 1836.
CHAPTER LII .*
LEWIS TOWNSHIP-ITS SEPARATION FROM KANE TOWNSHIP- BOUNDARIES-ORIGIN OF NAME- RAILROADS-DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTE-PLUMER SETTLEMENT, ETC.
K ANE TOWNSHIP, until its separation into Garner and Lewis Townships, and the limiting of Kane to the boundaries of the city of Council Bluffs, extended from north to south from the south line of Crescent to the Mills County line. In 1875, Kane was subdivided into three townships, and Garner was set off its eastern end and Lewis from its southern extremity. In this way being set off, it reaches from the city of Council Bluffs to the north line of Mills County, and from the Missouri River eastward to Keg Creek Township. Its earlier history is iden- titied with that of Kane Township and Coun- cil Bluffs, and for that reason whatever of
- attractive incident belongs to it, has been narrated in the history of Council Bluffs. The western side of the township is the Mis- souri bottom, the most fertile soil in the world. Skirting this is the line of bluffs which rises in many places like huge but- tresses, and again, they slope gently outward and are clothed with timber. Beautiful val- leys cut the bluffs laterally, and out of these flow brooks that have their source in springs far up the gorges. The east side of the town- ship is rolling prairie, and there is little of it that cannot be cultivated. The township is well settled and contains some of the finest farms in the county.
The three Lewis brothers who have been
*By Col. John H. Keatley.
LEWIS TOWNSHIP.
settled there many years, gave the name to the municipality. Their farms are on the east side and on the north of the road leading from Council Bluffs to Macedonia, and be- sides being under a high state of cultivation, have fine orchards that demonstrate that fruit-growing in Western Iowa is thoroughly practicable. No other township in the county has more railroads than Lewis, except Kane itself. The Kansas City and Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy come direct from the south, and the Rock Island, the Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Wabash from the east, passing out through the gorges of the bluffs.
After the railways through the townships, the most important public improvement is the Deaf and Dumb Institute of the State of Iowa, located on eighty acres of land, in the north end of the county, and adjoin- ing the southern limits of Council Bluffs. This is a four-story brick building, about five hundred feet in length, with a center and two broad wings. It stands on a broad table-land some twenty-five feet above the level of the river bottom, and at that al- titude presents an attractive appearance ar- chitecturally. Besides the main building, which is used as recitation rooms, and dor- mitories for the 350 pupils who are now in attendance, the State has provided large work-shops where the pupils are taught the various handicrafts that will eventually make them useful citizens. The building is heated by steam generated in a set of boilers in a building detached from the main editice. The managers have also provided a printing establishment, with funds furnished by the State, where all the blank work is done for the institution, and a weekly journal printed
and published by the labor of the pupils. One of the most important institutions in the township is the nursery of H. C. Ray- mond, whose industry and skill have been directed to make fruit-growing in Western Iowa practicable and successful. His orchard is one of the most attractive spots in the county, and at the season when fruit is ripe is as handsome as a picture. The bluffs which traverse considerable portions of the township are particularly adapted to grape growing. Vineyards already cluster along the slopes, and more are planted that have not yet began to yield fruit.
The Plumer settlement, which begins in Mills County, extends northward into Lewis Township, into Pottawattamie. This settle- ment takes its name from a family of frugal, shrewd and industrious German farmers who settled in the neighborhood at an early day, and who have multiplied and prospered until they are among the wealthiest farmers in the county. Their lands under cultivation ex- tend for miles north and south, and are a perfect paradise in appearance.
The Wabash Railroad has established a station at Poney Creek, five miles from Coun- cil Bluffs, at which great quantities of grain from the rich farms of the county are shipped to market. The township is specially adapted to stock-raising. Thomas P. Treynor, who was for many years City Recorder and Post- master of Council Bluffs, and the Bentons are the principal farmers engaged in that business, and have made it a complete suc- cess. The school interests of the township have been well cared for. Each subdistrict has ample school facilities in good, substan- tial school buildings.
338
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
CHAPTER LIII .*
KEG CREEK TOWNSHIP - ORGANIZATION - FIRST OFFICERS-ORIGIN OF THE NAME-EARLY SETTLERS. ETC.
THE general history of Keg Creek Town- ship is that of Silver Creek up to 1873, when it was carved out of Silver Creek. This was done by an order of the Board of Supervisors, made on the 14th of October, 1873; and it was also ordered that the first election should be held at the brick school- house known as the Keg Creek Schoolhouse, on the west side of Keg Creek, and near what is known as the Dick Hardin farm. This is about twelve miles from Council Bluffs, and at the crossing of the stage road at Keg Creek, a station was kept for many years by Richard Hardin, son of the Col. Hardin who brought the Pottawattamie Indians to their reservation, where Council Bluffs now stands. Richard Hardin, or "Dick, " as he was called, continued to keep a public house at that point until in 1874, when he sold out the farm to John T. Baldwin, and removed to Amazonia, a few miles north of St. Joseph, Mo., where he still lives. The township was named, as its name indicates, after the prin- cipal water-course in the township, a large mill stream, which finds its way to the Mis- souri River after passing Glenwood, in Mills County. The creek was named after a curi- ous circumstance. Some pioneers hunting along its banks had the luck to find several kegs of whisky hidden, or cached, near the stream, and the water-course then being without a name, it was called Keg Creek -- Barrel Creek first.
Among the early settlers who have become most prominent, and who have contributed *By Col. John H. Keatley.
most to the development of this township of incomparable soil, are Wooster Fay, A. W. Wyman, Samuel G. Underwood and Col. William Orr. Mr. Orr's estate is what is known as Hardindale, a short distance from the Dick Hardin Stage Station. Mr. Orr is a native of Western Pennsylvania, and in early life was engaged in the manufacture of iron in his native State. Coming West in the early history of Iowa, he settled in Har- rison County, and assisted in the material development of that section of the State. About ten years ago. he settled in Keg Creek, on the Hardindale farm. Mr. Orr has devot ed much time. and that successfully. to the raising of blooded horned cattle, and given material aid to increasing the interest which has since grown up among Pottawattamie County farmers in that respect. He has one of the finest homes in Iowa, and his hospi- tality is proverbial. Mr. Orr was the Dem - ocratic nominee for State Senator from this county, his successful opponent being George F. Wright, of Council Bluffs. Wooster Fay has resided in the township, and. besides be- ing one of its leading citizens, has for years been one of the leading citizens of the coun- ty. He has been a member of the County Board of Supervisors for several terms, serv- ing as President of the Board when a mem- ber of it, and winning the highest esteem of his fellow-citizens by his conservative con- duct in that responsible station. Samuel G. Underwood, a Scotchman by birth, is another of the pioneers of Keg Creek Township, and one of its largest and most prosperous farm-
339
KEG CREEK TOWNSHIP.
ers. At the autumn election, 1881, he was elected a member of the County Board of Supervisors for three years, and in the year that he has served the public in that capacity, has demonstrated the principle that the man who is most successful in the conduct of his private affairs always makes the most com- petent public officer. Judge Wyman, a neighbor of Mr. Underwood's, is also a large farmer, who has assisted in the development of the township, and is one of its leading and prosperous farmers.
Keg Creek Township has now a post office, at the farm of J. D. Carson, a short distance east of the residence of Wooster Fay. There is also one church organization in the township, known as the Evangelical, the members of which are Germans mainly. The pastoral supply is from Council Bluffs. The build- ing in which they worship was erected in 1874; and the first pastor was William Knoche, and through his personal efforts the church was built. At that time, there were forty members, but it has since increased to sixty. The pastors who succeeded him are August Hauser, Phillip Frase, Gotlieb Hen miller, Christian Smith, and the Rev. Mr. Ashenbrenner and Louis Smith. Peter Bel- sor, of Council Bluffs, officiates as the pres- ent pastor. The church property is free from debt.
The first officers of this township were A. W. Wyman and Frederick Miller, Trustees; Wooster Fay, Trustee, and George Kirby, Justice of the Peace. The present officers are: William F. Frohardt, William Orr and A. B. Perkins, Trustees; Joseph McNay, Township Clerk; J. D. Carson and Fred Hen-
winkle, Justices of the Peace, and Rasmus Campbell, Constable.
The first road laid out was what is known as the State road, established in 1860, by J. P. Cassady, County Judge. It is what is known as the Council Bluffs & Lewis road. For many years this was the only road in the township. It was located nearly on the line of the old stage road, but not quite.
The first school of which there is any rec- ord, is one taught in the summer of 1856, in an old log cabin that had been moved out of Moffatt's Grove onto the edge of the prairie, Miss Catharine Buffington being the teacher. The winter of 1856 was so severe that it was impossible to have any school in the town- , ship that season. The school district now owns eight excellent schoolhouses.
The following are some of the old settlers who came in 1856: Thomas Moffatt, from North Carolina, who lived on the farm now owned by S. G. Underwood; J. D. Craven, also from the same State, who afterward moved to Missouri, the farm he left being the one occupied by Mr. Schell. Moffatt and his wife are both dead. A man named Breckinridge came into the township at the same time, but afterward removed to Nebras- ka. William Campbell also came from New York in 1857, and opened up the farm occu- pied by J. D. Carson. Campbell went to Harrison County, but his son, Rasmus Camp- bell, is still a resident of Keg Creek. Henry Kams, of Council Bluffs, opened up a farm at that date in the township. Rasmus Campbell is the oldest living settler, and Wooster Fay the next after him. Mr. Grierson came when the earliest did, but died in the fall of 1855.
340
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
CHAPTER LIV.“
SILVER CREEK TOWNSHIP-FIRST SETTLEMENT BY THE MORMONS-FIRST SETTLERS-SEPARA- RATION FROM KANE TOWNSHIP-TOWNSHIP OFFICERS-A TER- RIBLE TRAGEDY-SCHOOLS-RELIGIOUS, ETC.
"THIS township was first settled by Mor- mon emigrants, who were connected with the Nauvoo exodus. They made some claims in the township before the lands came into market, and, remaining a single season, either sold their claims or abandoned them to Gen- tiles, who came after them.
The first to open a stage station between Wheeler's Grove and Council Bluffs was a Mr. Gardner, and at that time it was the only one between the two points. He, how- ever, soon sold out to Issac Moore, and moved ou with the Mormons to Salt Lake. In 1854, John Bratten bought out Isaac Moore, and, for three years more, that was a stage route. A post office was also kept at the station, but was discontinued in 1854. It was abolished when Mr. Moore removed from that point.
The first settler who came to Silver Creek with the intention of staying was Pleasant Taylor, Silver Creek Township. He is now a resident of Washington Township, and es- tablished Taylor's Stage Station, on the stage road from Council Bluffs through what is now Oakland, then called Big Grove. He is a native of Tennessee, and, in 1865 and 1866, spent some time in the mining regions of Montana. He is known among his neighbors as Gen. Taylor. John Bratten was the sec- ond permanent settler in Silver Creek. He is a Pennsylvanian by birth, but emigrated from Ohio. He is now a resident of Silver City, in Mills County, on the line of the Wa- bash Railroad, only a few miles from the #By Col. John 11. Keatley.
home he made for himself in Silver Creek Township, Pottawattamie County. The first schoolhouse was at the Station, and it was simply a log hut, with a turf roof. The first teacher was Miss Maggie Weirich, of Council Bluffs. The school was established in 1857. In 1861, a frame school building was erected, and also a church. In 1860, a Protestant Methodist Church was organized, with seven members, but without any regular pastor.
When the township was cut off from Kane, Silver Creek and Keg Creek Townships were one election precinct, and the elections were held alternately in Silver Creek and in Keg Creek Townships. There were hardly enough of voters in the townships to fill the necessary offices. Jason Parker was the first Justice of the Peace. The first marriage was between George E. Smith and Mrs. Clarissa Wheel- ing. This was in 1860. The first child born in the township of whom there is any recol- lection now was in September, 1855, Will- iam, the son of Thomas Wells. Mrs. Bratten attended the birth of this child. Mr. Wells lived on the corner of what is now the James Frazier farm. Mrs. Bratten followed the profession of midwife for all that region of country for years, and her husband that of a preacher in the sparse settlement, both do- ing good. The first death of any adult per- son after Mr. Bratten came into the township was Mrs. Margaret Piles, in August, 1857. An infant of hers died in July of the same year. They were both buried near the stage station. During the Pike's Peak mining ex-
341
SILVER CREEK TOWNSHIP.
citement, the stage station in Silver Creek Township was a lively point. From sixty to seventy emigrant wagons to the gold regions passed through that point daily. In Septem- ber, 1856, 500 Mormon emigrants passed along this stage route, with hand barrows, on their way to Salt Lake. There was not a sin- gle horse in the entire caravan. They were a motley crowd. Many of them had never realized the character of the journey when they left England, as many of them did. They wore silks and other fine goods, and, when they reached this county in the long and weary tramp across the State, many of them were in a sorry plight. They did con- siderable trading with Mrs. Bratten at the station, their taste running more particularly to ribbons and soap. Council Bluffs was then the nearest trading point. When Mr. Brat- ten moved into the township, it was with ox teams, and he and his family were eight weeks on the road. Mr. Bratten moved into Mills County, then back into Pottawattamie, and then into Mills again. In 1865, Mr. Bratten was elected County Judge of Potta- wattamie County, and served nearly two years, having resigned in May, 1867. He has lived in Mills County ever since. Thom- as Wells, as an early settler, has already been mentioned. He now lives in Missouri, and James A. Frazier owns the farm Wells opened up. Mr. Grimes, a Methodist local preacher and exhorter, also came into the settlement at an early date, but left for Mis- souri with Mr. Wells. The McHanna broth- ers came in at an early date and opened up farms. Ole Lawson and Henry Ouren, who are still prosperous farmers of the township, arrived together in 1866. Malcolm McKen- zie, a Scotchman by birth, went from Prince Edward's Island, Nova Scotia, to the West- ern mountain regions, and then came to Sil- ver Creek Township in 1867 and settled,
opening up and improving one of the finest farms in the county, about seven miles north of Silver City. He was followed by several brothers, who also became farmers. John Anderson was also one of the original settlers.
The present (1882) township officers are: J. W. Anderson, James Summers and Mr. Brauchman, Trustees; S. H. Gregory, Town- ship Clerk; and Isaac Hoopes, Assessor.
A terrible tragedy was enacted in this township in the summer of 1875. Jordan Clark, a man nearly sixty years of age, moved into the township some years before, with a large family, and opened up a farm. From the same neighborhood in Illinois also came a man by the name of Joab Stoves and wife. During the winter of 1874 and spring of 1875, a clandestine correspondence sprang up between Clark and the wife of Stoves, and meetings of an improper kind occurred be- tween them. Stoves at last became suspi- cious of their conduct, and intercepted a letter from Clark to the woman. After this discov- ery, an attempt was made to negotiate a set- tlement of the affair, Stoves in part agree- ing, for a money consideration, to abandon his wife to Clark; but friends interposed, and induced Clark to desist from such a foolish matter. The parties came to Council Bluffs to complete the negotiation, coming to the city in the same wagon, and returning in the same. When here, Clark was advised that his life was in danger, and warned to be on his guard, but he treated the matter with contempt, and even with derision. It was harvest time, and all were engaged in the same place harvesting, at Stoves'. It rained so that it was impossible to work in the fields. The forenoon was spent about the house in various kinds of amusement, and to outside persons the friendship that appeared to exist between Stoves and Clark appeared to be real.
342
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
After dinner, some one proposed that they go out into the stubble fields to hunt for prairie chickens. Stoves had the shot-gun, and a man named George Howser and Clark trudged on ahead of Stoves through a small grove, in the road. When Clark and Howser were about fifteen yards ahead of Stoves, the re- port of a gun was heard, and when Howser looked around, just before he ran away in his fright, the smoke was clearing and curling away from the muzzle of Stoves' gun, and Clark fell in the road, dead, with a terrible gash torn in the back of his head with a load of shot. Stoves was arrested for the murder. and, at the December term of the District. Court, he was tried for the crime. B. F. Mont- gomery and C. R. Scott conducted the defense, it being that of emotional insanity, brought about by the discovery of the clandestine correspondence between Clark and Mrs. Stoves. The District Attorney, H. R. Mc- Junkin, and John H. Keatley, appeared for the State. The trial was concluded by a verdict of the jury declaring Stoves not guilty. Stoves and his wife moved back to Illinois in a short time, and lived together as before.
The first schoolhouse in the township was erected on Section 32, near the residence of John Vankirk. There are now six excellent schoolhouses in all in the township. The last one was completed in the summer of 1882, at a cost of SI, 200.
The first road in the township was the old ish.
stage road, already mentioned, through the south portion of the township. This was changed to a line three miles farther north. for the reason that the expenses of keeping the stage outfit was cheaper at Taylor's Sta- tion. The first county road laid out was what is known as the Living Spring road, the peti- tion having been circulated by Henry Ouren, for the accommodation of the settlers between the Big Silver and the Little Silver Creeks. The bridge was built mainly at private ex- pense, by those anxious to obtain the use of the road. The heavy timbers were contrib- uted by some citizens of Macedonia who de- sired to use the road.
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