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 44
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The religious interests of the township are mainly in one church organization. In 1878, W. H. Hartman, of Glenwood, Mills County, organized a branch of the Christian Church at Schoolhouse No. 3, what is known as the Pontious Schoolhouse. The meetings were held at this schoolhouse until the spring of 1881. when, owing to the fact that the great- er bulk of the membership lived near what is called the Silver Center Schoolhouse than the other, the place of meeting was changed, and where the meetings are now held. Elder McFadden is the pastor of this society, he also having several charges in Mills County. In the spring of 1877, a Sunday school was organized at tho Pontious Schoolhouse, and in 1882 one was also instituted at the Silver Center Schoolhouse, both continuing to flour-
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MACEDONIA TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER LV .*
MACEDONIA TOWNSHIP-ORGANIZATION-FIRST SETTLER - EARLY PRIVATIONS - MILLS-OLD MACEDONIA-CARSON-NEW MACEDONIA-CHURCHES-SCHOOLS-SOCIETIES-
BUSINESS INTERESTS-THE FIRE OF 1882-THE CYCLONE, ETC.
THE date of the organization of Mace- donia Township is given at the begin- ning of the chapter on Rockford Township, and it is not necessary to repeat it. The history which follows, relating to that township, of course, will comprise the annals of that por- tion of the old township, as near as may be, as still bears the original name. The dates when her limits were contracted by the form- ing of new townships out of her territory, or in part from it, will be given when those sub- sequently created organizations come to be mentioned in detail and in their order.
The first settler in what was then a lonely region, and remote from other settlements, was Thomas Jefferson Ring. It will always remain a matter of some interest to know some of the personal history of a man who was emphat- ically one of the pioneers of the county. He was born in Massachusetts on the 20th of May, 1804, and, when six years old. removed with his parents to Vermont, where his father died in July, 1810. His mother emigrated to Pennsylvania with her children, and died there in 1824, leaving them to buffet the world alone. Being only twenty years of age, Mr. Ring came to St. Louis, and re- mained there two years. Taking a steam- boat, he reached Louisiana, Mo. In 1848, he started for Western Iowa, overland, and, reaching what is now known as Pottawatta- mie County, settled that year near the site of the old town of Macedonia, on the fertile bottom lands of the Nishnabotna River. He
arrived on the 1st day of May, and was in time to raise a crop of corn that year. He was already married, having gone back, in 1824, to Vermont, and was married on the 23d of Jannary, 1824. He had also three children when he came to the county. His wife, who was born in September, 1804, and who cheerfully shared with him the hardships and the privations of carving out a new home in the wilderness of the West, died Novem- ber 8, 1873.
During that interval, from 1848 to the present, only a single year has witnessed what might be termed a crop failure in the township. In 1850, when the overland emi- gration to Salt Lake City and Utah Territory was at its height, the Nishnabotna River was out of its banks for about three months, and caused great delay, embarrassment and snf- fering to those who were on their way West, and were compelled to cross that stream. There were no mills then within reach. Mr. Ring, before the river rose, got a supply of flour from Council Bluffs, and this he divid- ed with those in need on the east side of the river. This source of supply then failed, and there was no recourse except pounded corn. A rude appliance was made for this purpose, after a primitive fashion, and the family kept from starvation in that way for more than three weeks, and until the water subsid- ed so that they could cross in such boats as they had and reach Council Bluffs. When once over, it took seven days to make the round trip, such being the condition of the
*By Col. John II. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
trail and the intervening streams and water- courses. The next settler who arrived after Mr. Ring was one by the name of Jacob My- ers, from Ohio, who built a saw-mill, and then a grist-mill, in connection with one Hawes, at the old town of Macedonia, just below the present bridge. The mill was built in 1848, but was washed out in the great flood which followed its construction, and Myers returned to Michigan, and was ever after lost sight of. Before it was washed away, a half-interest was purchased by J. B. Stuts. man, the first Gentile merchant of Council Bluffs, and the other half by William Mar- tin. Martin & Stutsman erected a saw mill there in 1851, and in 1853 they had another grist-mill in operation, on the same site, un- der the management of J. Z. Losh as a mil- ler, for a year, and under others until 1861, when another flood took the second mill away, and the location was abandoned. My- ers & Hawes erected a dwelling house on the old Macedonia town site before the Govern- ment had surveyed the public lands, and be- fore any entries could be made. Next came a man by the name of Tuttle, and began to open up the farm now owned and occupied by Capt. Beasley. Tuttle eventually moved on to Salt Lake City with the Mormon emi- gration. The first store opened in the town- ship was by J. B. Stutsman, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work as a resident of Har .. lan, Shelby County, and the first Gentile merchant in Pottawattamie County. He opened his moderate stock of goods at Mace- donia in 1851. The next season, a man by the name of Householder brought a stock of merchandise and sold them out in the same building.
The Mormon and other emigration West made a blacksmith shop at that crossing a matter of some importance, and one was started in 1852 by Henry Adams,
and conducted by him until 1854, when he left, and was succeeded by John McDermott, now conducting the same business in Council Bluffs. The first school ever opened in the township was by Maj. Joseph Lyman, of Council Bluffs, who was then a boy not more than sixteen or seventeen years of age. He afterward served with distinction in the civil war, as Major of the Twenty-ninth Iowa, and is now one of the most prominent and most successful lawyers in the western part of the State. He emigrated with his father from Ohio, and settled on the west bank of the Nishnabotna, opposite the town of Big Grove, as it was for years called, but now designated as Oakland. It is impossible to fix the exact date of that school, but it was not earlier than 1854, and not later than 1555. The school was taught in a building rented for that purpose, and, there being no means for the erection of one at the public expense, and the one leased not being again attainable, two years elapsed before any school was again taught in the township.
Old Macedonia, as it was termed, never grew much. It was always a hamlet, with two stores, two blacksmith shops, a hotel, drug store, post office, saddler shop and a wagon-maker's shop. The first Postmaster was Calvin Beebe, who lived on the William Tompkins farm. Here the office was kept, and here the first election, after the organiza- tion of the township was ordered to be held. Frink & Walker had the contract to carry the mail, then from Fort Des Moines, now the capital of the State, and Council Bluffs. There was a weekly service each way, the car- rier starting from Fort Des Moines on Mon- day morning, and reaching Council Bluffs on Saturday evening, and returning in the same time. As soon as events justified it, the Western Stage Company put daily coaches on the route, and contracted and handled it un-
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MACEDONIA TOWNSHIP.
til the opening of the Rock Island Railroad in June, 1869.
The first schoolhouse built at public ex- pense was erected a short distance east of the old town, A. M. Denton being the contractor. The building was frame, twenty feet wide and forty feet deep. The finishing lumber was hauled by wagon from Booneville, a dis- tance of seventy miles, and the contract price of the structure was $1,100. The first Pres- ident of the Board of School Directors was Andrew Rayburn; and R. H. Woodmansee was the first Treasurer; the first teacher in that building, George A. Clark; and the sec- ond. Mrs. R. H. Woodmansee.
The survey of the public lands under the authority of the General Government, and the opportunity to enter them, they being among the most fertile in the State, and the conti- guity of such a fine stream as the Nishnabot- na. and its excellent water-power. contributed greatly to the early settlement of the portion of the original township of Macedonia. J. Z. Losh came into the county, as is already stated, and conducted the mill for Stutsman, but in 1856, his eye fell npon a mill site sev- eral miles above that, near the south line of Section No. 3, and there he erected what long afterward have been known as Losh's Mills. The new town of Carson, the rival of Macedonia, since the advent of the Rock Isl- and Branch Railroad, has sprung into exist- ence only a short distance east of the mills, and displaced the latter as a post office for that community, a position it long held. Since Mr. Losh erected these mills, they have never been unemployed, except one season, when there was a pause for repairs. They are still owned and operated by him, who is highly regarded over the whole county as one of the most upright of citizens. The future history of this section of the county will not be included in any annals of Macedonia
Township, inasmuch as it has been author- itatively set off to assist in constituting the new township of Carson. One of the most important improvements in Macedonia Town- ship was the construction of a King iron bridge, 100 feet long, in 1872, to replace the old wooden structure put there in the early days of the community. The Methodist Episcopal Church established a station at the old town of Macedonia quite early in the his- tory of the settlement, and constituted it a part of the Council Bluffs Circuit, the serv- ices being held in the schoolhouse in the vi- cinity until 1873, when they built a church at the old town. There are no data in reach now as to the exact period when this first took place.
Regarding the territory embraced within Macedonia Township as valuable for a feeder, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company began the construction of a branch north ward from their main line at Hastings, in Mills County, and completed the same, and had their trains running to a point three- quarters of a mile east of the old town site. at the river, on the 4th day of July, ISSO. Here a new town. also called Macedonia, was laid out by a town company, consisting of Hon. B. F. Clayton and R. H. Woodmansee, of Macedonia, T. J. Evans, of Council Bluffs, and T. J. Potter, General Manager of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. The first store erected in the new town was by R. H. Woodmansee; the first shop. by J. T. Bird, for carpentering; and the first blacksmith shop, by Henry Keeler & Co. A new school building is in course of construc- tion, the old building in the old town still being in use for the inhabitants of both, and will be until the new is fit for use.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church or- ganized a society at Macedonia as early as April 1, 1871, under the auspices of the Rev.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
J. W. Carter. The original members were Jackson Buckner, Jemima Buckner, Alfred Buckner, R. E. Williams, J. H. Smith, Agnes Smith, John Dungan, Mary E. Dun- gan, T. J. Simpson, Sidney A. Simpson, A. L. Bryan, Martha A. Bryan, Joanna Bry- an, Rebecca Rayburn, Fanny J. Clark, Mary Watson, Rev. J. W. Carter and Malinda Car- ter. The Ruling Elders were A. L. Bryan, Jackson Buckner and J. H. Smith, T. J. Simpson and R. A. Williams were chosen Deacons. No change has since been made in the pastor since Mr. Carter first took charge of the congregation. The present membership is forty-four persons. From the date of the organization of the society, in 1871, to 1880, religious services were held at the public schoolhouse at Old Macedonia, but in the fall of the latter year, a neat church edifice was erected in the new town, at a cost of $2,000, and without incurring any debt.
The date of the erection of the Methodist Church at Old Macedonia has been given. The society was organized with a member- ship of about fifteen persons, under the di- rection of the first pastor, the Rev. Thomas H. Smith, now Presiding Elder of the Atlan- fic District of the Des Moines Conference. It was re-organized in 1873, under the super- vision of the Hev. Henry De Long. of Coun- cil Bluffs, and under whose auspices the church was built. When the new town was established, and population tended in that direction, the old edifice was sold and used for public school purposes, and a new one erected at a cost of $3,000, at the new town. It is a frame structure, thirty feet wide and fifty feet long, and has a bell and a bell-tower, the last being seventy feet high. The ministers, besides those already named, who had charge of the congregation in the inter- vening years, were Rev. W. A. Wiseman,
Rev. L. McKay, Rev. Campbell, Rev. J. W. Martin, Rev. R. W. Farlow, Rev. Osborn, Rev. G. W. Griffiths and the Rev. E. M. H. Fleming. At this date, the membership is sixty persons. Since the organization of the new town, the Presbyterians have established a church, this having been done on the 20th of June, 1880, by the Rev. J. R. Brown, of Emerson, Mills County. The members at the date of organization were B. I. H. Mitch- ell, Joseph C. Bearss, Mrs. Mana Bearss, Mrs. Joseph Carse, Mrs. Elizabeth Carse, Miss Anna I. Carse, Mrs. Julia Lowe, J. H. Mitchell and Mrs. N. I. Mitchell, William Throp and his wife, Carrie Throp, J. H. Smith and Mrs. Agnes Smith, and George Reimond and his wife, Barbara Reimond. The pastors since organization were J. R. Brown and F. K. Miron. They have no church edifice, and the membership is thir- teen. The Ruling Elders are J. H. Smith, George Reimond and E. A. Vanvranken.
The first child born in New Macedonia was in September, 1880, to Mr. and Mrs. Will- iam Dye. The first death was that of Mrs. Emma Mitchell, in the same month. She was the wife of Brutus Mitchell, engaged in business in the firm of Mitchell & Mitchell. In August, 1881, the first marriage ceremony was performed in the town, by Rev. J. W. Carter, in the marriage of Mr. Charles Beas- ley and Miss Ora Lowe.
The town was no sooner established than an Odd Fellows Lodge was constituted. The organization was effected on the 4th of Feb- ruary, 1881, with W. Dye, of Fort Madison Lodge, No. 159, Iowa; E. L. Cook, Red Oak, Iowa, Lodge; A. M. Cale, of Green- Top Lodge, Missouri; E. A. Vanvranken, Past Grand of Mystic Lodge, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa; A. S. Staggers, Rapids City Lodge, Illinois; and J. J. Rainbow, as charter mem- bers. The officers installed at the organiza-
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MACEDONIA TOWNSHIP.
tion were: W. Dye, Noble Grand; A. M. Cale, Vice Grand; E. L. Cook, Secretary; and E. A. Vanvranken, Treasurer. The lodge held their first meetings in the second story of the store building of W. Dye & Co .; but this building was destroyed by fire in March, 1882, and all the property of the lodge was destroyed at the same time. Until a new brick building, with a hall over head, war erected, the lodge held none but business meetings. The membership in the meantime has increased to forty-two; and E. L. Cook, Noble Grand; J. S. Carter, Vice Grand; J. C. Bradley, Recording Secretary; W. L. Russell, Permanent Secretary; and F. P. Starrett, Treasurer, are the present officers. The lodge is working under a dispensation from the Grand Lodge of Iowa, and within its jurisdiction.
The first hotel was the Macedonia House, and was opened by George H. Kaler. The post office was removed from Old Macedonia to New Macedonia, and Ohio Knox made the first Postmaster. Through his especial efforts, it was declared a money order office shortly after it was opened. There are two general stores in the place, one devoted to hardware, an agricultural implement estab- lishment, a millinery store, and carriage and wagon factory, with blacksmith and other shops. The drug store of J. M. Kelley & Co. was started in March, 1881, and the building in which the business was conducted was de- stroyed in the generally destructive fire of March, 1882. Dr. E. L. Cook has his office in this establishment, and the business is managed by L. L. Harlam, a registered phar- macist.
Macedonia is in the center of one of the most prolific grain-growing sections of the State, and to reach these crops, Meekelivart & Young erected a steam elevator in 1SS0. It is a frame structure, forty by forty-eight
feet in length and width, and sixty-three feet high. The first grain was handled by the proprietors in September, 1880, and, during the first season, managed about two hundred and fifty thousand bushels, and in 1881 shipped over five hundred car-loads. The resident manager is T. J. Young, the other partner, Mr. Meckelivart, being a resident of Glenwood, in Mills County. A new Howe truss bridge was erected across the Nishna- botna at the old town of Macedonia in 1881, which gives access to the rich country on both sides of the valley.
A joint-stock company was organized at Macedonia in July, 1880, to conduct a bank- ing business under the corporation laws of Iowa, and known as the Macedonia Bank, the shareholders being George Meckelivart, Rich- ard Meckelivart and D. L. Heinsheimer, of Glenwood, and William Dye, of Macedonia. The bank, as now organized, has for its Pres- ident George Meckelivart; Vice President, William Dye; and Cashier, J. M. Kelley. The capital stock was increased from $13, - 000, when the bank first organized, to $25,- 000. Hon. B. F. Clayton, of Macedonia Towuship, who, from January, 1877, to 1SS1, was a member of the House of Representa- tives in the Iowa Legislature, and is now the President of the Board of Trustees of the In- stitute for the Deaf and Dumb at Council Bluffs, is also of the Directory of the bank.
The Masonic fraternity established them- selves in the new town shortly after it was laid out, Ruba Lodge being organized in the winter of 18S1, with a membership of seven- teen. John Craig was made the first Worship- ful Master; J. M. Kelley, the first Senior War- den; L. D. Bulla, the first Junior Warden; Ohio Knox, Secretary; B. F. Clayton, Treas- urer; S. A. Jones, Senior Deacon; D. W. Bomff, Junior Deacon; J. W. Carter, Chap- lain; and A. B. Rayburn, Tiler. The lodge
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
room, at the date of the organization, was the same as that occupied by the Odd Fel- lows, but met the same fate in the disastrous fire of March. 1882. The lodge opened un- der a dispensation, but, at the meeting of the Grand Lodge of Iowa, in the summer of 1882, a charter was granted, under which the subordinate lodge is now working.
The annals of this township ought not to be dismissed without the mention of the erection of a fine flouring-mill on the West Nishnabotna, in 1876-77, by L. S. and Sala- thial Pruden. Its location is about a mile and a half southwest of Macedonia, and the river at this point is crossed by a handsome bridge, and the highway leading from Mace- donia to Hastings, in Mills County, on the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Hastings, for many years after the opening up of the Chicago, Bur- lington & Quincy Railroad through Mills County, in the fall of 1870, was the market town of all that section of country now trib- utary to Macedonia itself.
The most notable event of recent years was the great fire, which, in March, 1882, de- stroyed the main portion of the new town. The buildings thus consumed were rapidly replaced. In the annals of Center Township will be found the narrative of a destructive cyclone which passed the vicinity of Wheel- er's Grove and destroyed considerable prop- erty, and the lives of the Ossler family. The same cyclone passed near the old town of Macedonia, and was clearly witnessed as it whirled its destructive way, with great rap- idity, toward Wheeler's Grove. Large num- bers of men were engaged at work on the grade of the railroad at the time, and were barely able to find refuge under culverts to escape the storm. Trees were uprooted, ani- mals were carried great distances, the ground was mowed, iron plows were borne off and broken into fragments, and the barn of Capt. Beaseley, which was in the edge of the track, was unroofed and otherwise injured, the fury of the storm spending itself with the greatest violence in Center Township.
CHAPTER L VI .*
GROVE TOWNSHIP-INTRODUCTORY-BOUNDARIES-DRAINAGE-" OLD MORMON TRAIL "-FIRST SETTLERS-MILLS-ROADS AND BRIDGES-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-THE GREAT CYCLONE
A LTHOUGH so much has been said by those living in the sections of country covered with a natural growth of dense for- ests about the necessities of timber in the prairie States, an examination of facts shows that what has been considered a scarcity of timber has great agricultural attractions rather than otherwise. No doubt the prairies of Iowa have kept, and are still keeping, some from locating within her borders. For all agricultural, and for most mechanical pur- poses, the State does not lack for timber yet,
and in view of the fact that the quantity is increasing, with care and artificial groves, rather than decreasing, there appears no time, even in the distant future, when the State will want for timber. The best esti- mates give the State 3,522, 880 acres of native timber, or about one acre of timber to ten of prairie land. This would give every farm of a quarter section sixteen acres of timber. It is true that it is not quite equally distrib- uted, and that the remote distances of some farms from timber, necessitates a few extra days labor each year in hauling, but the fa-
*By Frank M. Wright.
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GROVE TOWNSHIP.
cility with which prairie land can be put un- der cultivation and a highly productive farm obtainel, far more than counterbalances the temporary inconvenience in some sections of obtaining fencing and fuel. We say tem- porary, for the rapidity with which timber grows will enable any farmer within five years to gather from his own land all the timber required, if he will but plant. Many beautiful sections of the fine prairie land of Pottawattamie County, which were destitute of trees and homes a few years ago, to-day present the appearance of having been natu- ral timber land, so numerous are the orchards and groves. When an abundant supply of timber for farm purposes may be grown in five or six years, during which time a prairie farm may be brought to the highest state of cultivation, how much greater the natural ad- vantages of the pioneers of Pottawattamie County over those of the rough timbered country of the Middle States who were obliged to spend from ten to fifteen years in hard toil to remove the heavy growth of tim- ber, which, to them at that date was so worth- less that it was not at all uncommon for them to roll together the finest of walnut logs and burn them to make room for their crops.
Grove Township, as its name suggests, and by which its name originated, has within its boundaries a number of fine groves, on the banks of the Farm and Jordan Creeks. The rich. fertile soil, fine groves of timber and running streams of pure, cool spring water, which the early settlers found in that part of Pottawattamie County, which afterward be- came Grove Township, were the natural at- tractions which caused that township to be one among the first settled in the county.
Grove Township was included in the terri- tory of Macedonia Township until September 25, 1858, on which date, by the authority of the County Judge, the territory was divided,
and the following minute of the division placed on record :
" Now, on this day, was organized a town- ship, to be called Grove Township, to consist of Congressional Township 74 north. of Range 39 west, and the same is declared an election precinct, and it is ordered that an election be held therein at the schoolhouse therein on the second Tuesday of October, to wit, on the 12th day of October A. D. 1838." The election was held as ordered, and the following officers elected: George B. Otto, Township Clerk; E. W. Knapp, Justice of the Peace; Cornelius Hurley, Constable; David Watson, Assessor; Thomas Conner, A. J. Field and S. M. B. Wheeler, Trustees.
The present boundaries of the township are Center Township on the north, Waveland Township on the east, Montgomery County on the sonth and Macedonia Township on the west.
Two fine streams of unsually pure water run through the township, which are in- creased within its boundaries by a number of tributaries. Jordan Creek rises in Section 12 of Center Township, and flows west of south, and enters Grove Township about the center of Section 3, on the north side. It then flows south and west to the center of Section 4, where it is joined by a tributary called Spring Creek. It then flows south and south- west through Sections 9, 17, 19, 20 and to the center of 31. where the waters of Farm Creek join it, from which point it flows al- most directly west for about half a mile and empties into Graybill, or Second Creek, which crosses the northwest corner of the township. Farm Creek and its tributaries drain the southern and eastern portions of the town- ship. It rises in Section 1, and flows south- west through Sections 1, 12, 11, 14, 23, and west through Section 22. thence southwest
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