USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 19
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COUNTY CORONERS.
In 1856 Joseph H. Austin was elected coroner of Sac county and fol- lowing him came the following, elected at the time indicated: J. H. Austin, 1857; Elias Tiberghien, 1861; Dr. R. G. Platt. 1869; D. M. Lamoreaux,
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1871; Dr. William Warren, 1873; S. W. Duncan, 1874; Dr. A. T. Brenton, 1877; Dr. Z. Fuller, 1879: C. M. Hopkins, 1880; C. Brown, 1883; C. Brown, 1887; C. Brown, 1891 ; C. M. Hopkins, 1893; C. M. Hopkins, 1895; Thomas Farquhar, 1899: T. Farquhar, 1901; W. H. Townsend, 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1912.
SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS.
The office of county school superintendent has had numerous changes in lowa, since Sac county was first organized. At first there was what was styled a school fund commissioner, which office in 1858 was changed to that of "superintendent." This was an elective office until by the provisions of the lowa Legislature at a recent session, when it was changed so that it has the same duties to performn, but instead of being elected at the general elections by the people. it is one in which the holder is elected by the various school boards within the county.
The first school fund commissioner in Sac county was William Todd, elected in August, 1856. G. F. Browning, the first school superintendent, was elected in 1858; William Todd, 1861; William Kromer, 1863; William Chapin, 1865; William P. Drewry, 1867; R. Ellis, 1869; R. Ellis, 1871 ; John Dodson, 1873, also 1875; James Darling, 1877 ; same in 1879; H. L. Martin, 1881 and 1883: Clarence Messer, 1887: same in 1889; C. E. Stalcoop, 1891, also in 1893; J. W. Jackson, 1895: C. H. Jump, 1899, also in 1901; H. C. Coe, 1903, also in 1906; John R. Slacks, 1908, and still holding the office.
The above are the principal officers of the county, and the others, such as surveyors and county attorneys, are named in the section of this book treat- ing on elections, etc., hence need not be repeated in this connection.
CHAPTER XVII.
TOWNSHIP HISTORIES.
The civil township is to the county what the county is to the state. Each township has a government peculiar to itself, though in perfect harmony with its sister sub-divisions in the same county. Here in Sac county, fortunately, these civil townships are all the same in size, an even six miles each way, or a full congressional township. As now constituted and named they are as fol- lows: Boyer Valley, Cook, Cedar, Coon Valley, Clinton, Douglas, Delaware, Eden, Eureka, Jackson, Levy, Richland, Sac, Wheeler, Wall Lake and Viola.
These townships have been constituted or organized at different dates within keeping of the advancing settlement of the county. The following is the order, according to dates when these various subdivisions of Sac county were made separate townships for governmental purposes: Sac and Jack- son, 1856; Douglas, 1860; Boyer Valley, 1871 : Wall Lake, 1871; Eden, 1871 ; Clinton, 1874; Cedar, 1875; Delaware, 1875; Eureka, 1875; Viola, 1875; Wheeler, 1875 : Richland, 1876; Coon Valley, 1877.
Douglas township was taken from Jackson; Boyer Valley and Cedar taken from Jackson and Sac; Cook taken from Boyer Valley ; Eden and Dela- were taken from Douglas; Levey and Viola taken from Sac; Wall Lake and Clinton from Jackson and Sac; Ricliland was taken from Clinton; Coon Valley from Wall Lake township.
NAMING OF TOWNSHIPS.
The various townships were named from the following facts and inci- dents: Sac township, from the name of the county and originally from the Indian tribe, the Sacs, who, with the Foxes, at one time held all this portion of Iowa.
Douglas, named after Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, who ran for President against Mr. Lincoln in 1860.
Delaware township, from some of its earlier settlers who came from the state bearing that name.
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Eden township was named from the fact that the pioneers who settled here thought they had struck an earthly paradise.
Eureka, from "I have found it," as the settlers said when looking for a good section in which to claim land.
Cook township, for the largest farmer and landowner in the township and one of the largest in Sac county, Mr. Cook.
Boyer Valley township, from the river that flows through the county and finally empties into the Missouri at Council Bluffs.
Jackson township, after "Old Hickory," Andrew Jackson, a former President of the United States.
Cedar township, from the Cedar river, or creek, that courses through it. Coon Valley, from the Coon river.
Wall Lake, from the walled lake in the southern portion of the county, of which so much has from time to time been written, but really the "wall" consists of the prairie boulders that have with passing generations been heaved up by the frost.
Clinton township was named after that most excellent county in eastern Iowa, from which many of the early comers to Sac came.
Richland township, as might naturally be guessed, was named for its excellent soil qualities.
Wheeler township was named in honor of Hiram Wheeler, the once great land owner near Odebolt, who was a candidate for governor on the Republican ticket and defeated by Hon. Horace Boies, when temperance was the leading issue in this state.
Levey township was named for C. N. Levey, an early settler and county official.
Viola township, from Viola, Illinois, by W. A. Robinson.
DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP.
Douglas township is in the extreme northeastern corner of Sac county and comprises all of congressional township 89, range 35 west, and is along the "correction" line of Iowa, with Buena Vista county at its north, Calhoun county to the east, Cedar and Jackson townships at the south and Delaware on the west. It contains thirty-six full sections. It was named in honor of that great Democratic statesman who was a candidate for President against the lamented Lincoln, in 1861-Hon. Stephen A. Douglas.
Coon river flows to the south, meandering through sections 30 and 31,
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while small streams are found here and there over the prairie land of the township.
The population of Douglas township in 1910, according to the United States census reports, was five hundred and fifty-eight.
The schools and churches are named at length in general chapters in this volume.
The first settlement was effected along the river, as was the case in all new counties in the West. There are no towns or villages within the borders of Douglas township. At first Douglas was cut off from Jackson township in 1860, and at that date Douglas ran to the west line of the county and was one of three townships in Sac county, each being twenty-four miles long. In 1875 Delaware township was created, leaving Douglas as it is now bounded. only six miles square.
The settlers in 1855 and 1856 in what is now known as Douglas town- ship were as follows : Martin Deardorf, who claimed land directly west from the M. S. Lee farm, on the river. He soon tired of the country and sold to George Stocker for five hundred dollars, and moved to Kansas. Mr. Stocker arrived in June, 1856, from Steuben county, Indiana. He did not remain after purchasing this claim, but went east and did not return until 1867, ac- companied by his family. A son and his family are still residing in Sac City.
William Montgomery and a sister came in 1856 and claimed land just south of the first settlement, the same also being on the river in the timber. He was the first man married in the county, an account of which is given else- where in this work.
Another settler in 1855 was Adam Vetal, who claimed the land now in- cluded in the Lee farm, at the grove called "Lee's Grove." His brother, William Vetal, also came at the same time. He went to California in 1861 and Adam moved to Illinois.
The next to effect a settlement in the township, as now bounded, was Robert Quail, who took up land just to the south of the Lee place, probably in 1855, certainly not later than 1856. He claimed a quarter section. Later he moved to Missouri, where he died many years since.
It should be stated that the old Lee place was originally pre-empted by Seymour Wagoner, who bought it for speculation and never became an actual settler there.
On the south, still farther down the river, was the settlement of William Wine, in 1855. He remained several years and moved on to California in Civil War days. He was the grandfather of Lacy Wine, now a merchant in
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Sac City. He had a large family, and immigrated from Indiana, claiming a quarter section of land here. It is now owned by W. B. Wayt and son, of Sac City.
About the close of the war came in William McDeid, Trowbridge Rouns- ville, now living in Sac City, but still holding his splendid farm in Douglas township. His brother, Sylvester, came also. James Gordon was another about that date to claim land in the township. The Gordon school house was the second one in the township, the first being the frame house erected at Lee's Grove, by James Davis. Many of the men who came in just after the war were returned soldiers.
The first cemetery, or country burying place, was on section 15. Later most of the bodies were removed to other cemeteries.
Sac City was the first trading place for this settlement. Grant City, then "Big Grove," also had some facilities in that line, including a corn grinding mill, if such it might have been called. It was to this mill that many of the settlers in Sac City and those further up the river had to go in the dead of that memorable winter of 1856-57, with a sack or more of shelled corn, tied onto a long hand sled, and in this manner obtained the use of a huge coffee mill at Grant City, and thus stayed up all night, each taking his turn at grind- ing by hand a little corn meal upon which the Cory and other families man- aged to get through until spring came. Coons were then killed for the rich fat they contained, and with this "coon-grease" the good housewife would grease the griddle and fry the johnnycakes, over the brightly glowing fire place.
The first settlers were mostly all Americans, but after the war there came in a goodly number of thrifty German families.
Rush lake, on section 9, was a noted early-day swamp and lake, but, thanks to modern drainage and tiling methods, it has all been reclaimed and here one finds the best of crops growing annually. One of the big dredge- ditches of Sac county runs through the bed of this old lake.
WHEELER TOWNSHIP.
Wheeler is the extreme southwestern subdivision in Sac county and was named for Hon. Hiram C. Wheeler, the once great farmer of this section of the Northwest. It was organized in 1875. In 1880 its population was six hundred and twenty-seven. In the census books for 1910 it is given as six hundred and thirty-one. Wheeler is bounded on the east by Levey township, on the north by Richland, on the west by Ida county and south by Crawford
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county. It comprises all of congressional township 86, range 38 west. It is a magnificent farming section-one of the finest in Iowa. It has no native timber, but several small prairie creeks which water and drain the fertile farming lands which have ever been famous for productive qualities. Wheeler has no towns within its borders, but is near by Odebolt, the second largest town in the county. The great Wheeler ranch or stock farm occupied, originally, a large portion of the township's valuable land, but of recent years the larger farms have been reduced somewhat and are gradually coming into the hands of more farmers than hitherto. Its railroad facilities are the Chi- cago & Northwestern line from Wall Lake west to Onawa. This road just touches the northeastern corner of the township.
The settlement here was effected as early as 1871 and was made by Americans and a large Swede colony in the southern part of the township. This has long since been known as one of the banner agricultural districts of Iowa. Stock raising and general farming predominate. The schools are excellent and are treated with others in the chapter on Education.
The first election in the township was held in October, 1875, when Daniel Leshar and William Henderson were elected justices of the peace; Martin Purcell, assessor : A. D. Peck, first clerk (by appointment ) ; trustees, John Bruce, Solomon Peterson, A. D. Peck; Orin Haskins and Louis Lumberg. constables. The first road supervisors were A. P. Nelson and G. A. Gustafason.
COON VALLEY TOWNSHIP.
Coon Valley township was organized in 1877, and in 1880 reported a population to the federal census enumerator of four hundred and nine. Its population in 1910, as shown by the United States census reports, was seven hundred and twenty-three. It derives its name from the fact that the coon river flows through its territory. Nearly all of the lesser streams of the township flow into the Coon and later find their way into the Des Moines.
This township is on the eastern line of Sac county, with Calhoun county for its eastern boundary line, Cedar township, this county, on the north, Wall Lake township on the west and Sac township on the south. Some timber skirts the banks of the streams, especially the Coon river. It is now all well improved and its people happy and, generally speaking, very thrifty and prosperous. Its excellent schools are named in the Educational chapter in this volume. There are no towns or hamlets within Coon Valley township. The land owners and settlers of today trade at Lake City, Sac City. Lake View or Auburn, usually. Sac City being the nearest, and it being the seat
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of justice, farmers naturally go to that point for most of their supplies. as well as banking.
In 1882 a cream station was established at the place known as Pettis, and, from paper files, it appears that six miles southeast of Sac City, where Pettis was located, a creamery was burned in December, 1901, causing a loss of two thousand five hundred dollars. It was owned by W. H. Pettis, who had an insurance on the plant amounting to one thousand five hundred dollars. The cause was a defective flue. The plant was never rebuilt.
This township is an exceptionally well watered and naturally drained portion of the county. Its farmers are not afflicted with the go-to-town habit. but remain at home largely, and the result is that the township has many fine farm homes, with general prosperity around them, perhaps more so than as though the township had a large number of towns and hamlets within its borders.
COOK TOWNSHIP.
Cook township is on the western border of Sac county and is the second from the north line, with Eureka and Eden at its north, Boyer Valley at its east, Richland township to the south and Ida county at the west. It com- prises all of congressional township 88, range 38 west, and its north line is the "correction line" of the northern portion of lowa. Here the jog in township surveys varies three miles, the townships to the north of this lapping by to the west that distance. This civil township was once included within Boyer Valley township, but in 1876 was created into a separate township. In 1880 the census showed the population to be about four hundred. while it is given as six hundred thirty-five by the 1910 United States reports on enumeration. The first settlers were, inclusive of William Cory, 1868, J. E. Sanborns, Joseph Dick, Charles Prentice, for whom Prentice schoolhouse was named, and it was the first in the township, erected in 1872. Other settlers in Cook and Boyer Valley, some one side the line and some the other, were Elias Powers, Dr. Warren, H. A. Wilson, Hiram Sweet, J. Shelmerdine and a Mr. Hays.
Cook has no towns or villages and many large farms. A few of its small streams, mere prairie creeks, run toward the west, but most all flow to the east and finally find their way into the Boyer river.
Early, Schaller and Odebolt are all sought out by the residents of Cook township as trading and market towns.
It was in this township, but before it was divided from Boyer Valley.
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that C. W. Cook, for whom the new township was named, commenced in 1873 to improve his great farm, known as the Cook ranch, or stock farm.
Of the excellent educational advantages afforded by the nine public schools, the Educational chapter will fully treat, in a general way, with the other districts of the county.
This township is well settled, highly cultivated and its people, both foreign and American born, are among the prosperous and contented portion of the population of Sac county. Here nature did much and man has im- proved such spots as needed improvement and utilized the fertility of the soil in the production of immense crops that have never failed to bring reward ample and sufficient to gladden the hearts of the husbandmen, who fully appreciate the fact that their lines have been cast in pleasant places.
P. W. Lashier became the pioneer settler in this township in 1870. H. A. Wilson, the Gardners and others soon followed him into the township, which at that time was a part of Boyer Valley township. The first trustee to serve in Cook as well as in Boyer Valley was P. W. Lashier, a man of good judgment.
THE COOK RANCH.
The Inter-Ocean of Chicago, in its issue of April 16, 1873, has this con- cerning the opening up of the great Cook ranch in Sac county: "A large sale of Iowa land was consummated yesterday, by which a Chicago resident, Mr. C. W. Cook, became the sole owner of twelve sections of farming lands in Sac county, Iowa. The purchaser proposes to convert the entire property into a mammoth stock farm. This tract embraces seven thousand six hun- dred and eighty acres and the amount paid was five dollars an acre, making a total of thirty-eight thousand four hundred dollars. The sale was made by J. B. Calhoun, land commissioner of the Iowa Railway Land Company." This land, we believe, all lies in West Boyer township. "This makes two seven-thousand-acre farms in Sac county. Better this size than none at all. We welcome Mr. Cook, and hope he will make a good farmer and get rich."- Sac Sun, 1873.
An advertisement was run in the local paper in Sac City in 1874 thus : "We have two hundred thousand acres of land all in Sac county, Iowa, and not to be excelled in any state of the Union. Prices of wild prairie average from three to six dollars an acre .- D. Carr Early, Real Estate Dealer."
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RICHLAND TOWNSHIP.
Richland township is the second from the south and third from the north lines of Sac county, lying on the western border, with Ida county at its west, Cook township at its north, Clinton township at the east and Wheeler town- ship at its south. It is six miles square, being all of congressional township 87, range 38 west. Its only town is Odebolt, in sections 27 and 34. Odebolt creek is the principal stream in this township. It is, strictly speaking, a prairie township, though now dotted here and there and everywhere with artificial groves, planted out by the hand of the thoughtful pioneers. It is a coveted garden spot and agricultural section, with thrift and contentment on every hand. Many of the older settlers have long since either died or retired to some one of the near-by towns, and are now enjoying the fruit of their earlier years of toil and sacrifice. This township was cut off from Clinton township by the board of county supervisors in the autumn of 1876, and was named "Richland" by a Mr. Stewartson, of Illinois, who saw great beauty and promise in this portion of Sac county, from the fact of its exceptional fertility of soil. Among the first township officers may be recalled C. H. Babcock, clerk; N. B. Umbarger and J. B. Caulkins, justices of the peace ; Thomas Dorman and P. H. Sanderson, constables: A. L. Miner, S. Buchler and E. A. Bennett, trustees; W. P. Purcell, assessor; road supervisors in districts as follows: No. I, A. Domenberg; No. 2, J. Miller; No. 3. E. Colvin ; No. 4, J. Stickles.
When Hiram Wheeler, the proprietor of the "largest farm in Iowa," came to this township in the seventies, his nearest neighbors were fully twelve miles distant, but with his improving so many thousand acres of valuable land, came in many to assist him in his great undertaking. By the time this was accomplished others had found their way to the township and purchased lands which proved to be the best kind of an investment possible to make. Every foot of the land has long since been cultivated or used for pasture lands and hay lands by the actual owners. The above list of township officers probably made up nearly all of the first settlers in what is now Richland township.
The population of this township in 1910 was one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine, including the town of Odebolt, which had at that date about one thousand two hundred and eighty-three.
The history of the schools and churches will form a part of other chapters in this volume.
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THE GREAT WHEELER FARM ( NOW ADAMS' RANCH).
What is known by all early settlers in this part of the West as the "Great Wheeler Farm" of Sac county was the most extensive of any in Iowa, and contained more than a township of land. The first mention in the press of the country was the item in the Chicago Inter-Ocean in the month of October, 1871, which read as follows :
"H. C. Wheeler. of Chicago, elevator man, has bought seven thousand acres of land in one tract from the railroad company for the purpose of estab- lishing a dairy farm on a large scale. Mr. Wheeler is known as a man of great wealth and energy, and when he undertakes anything he always carries it out successfully. He lost heavily in the recent Chicago fire, but it will not affect him much. He has now about sixty thousand feet of lumber on the ground out in Sac county, Iowa, and will commence at once to go to work erecting buildings suitable for the purpose intended."
This was said of the late Hon. Hiram C. Wheeler, of Odebolt, who was a candidate for the office of governor of Iowa against Horace Boies ( Demo- crat ) in 1891. The temperance issue was then on and many of the Repub- licans of Iowa left the party and voted with the Democrats at that time, hence this, with other reasons, caused Mr. Wheeler's defeat at the polls. After many years, Mr. Wheeler did not prove that he was possessed of as good business qualities as at first supposed. He lost much in Iowa, and finally sold and went to Texas and there engaged in another large dairy business, in which he signally failed. He lost his only son and became disheartened. He removed to Chicago and there died, September 25. 1909, almost penniless. His farm was sold in 1896 in Sac county, consisting at that date of about six thousand acres, for one hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars.
In 1888 it was written of this large farming enterprise, by a Cedar Rapids newspaper correspondent, as follows: "By mere chance your corre- spondent and reporter got into conversation with Mr. Wheeler, the greatest farmer of all northwestern Iowa, and learned some items that are worth publishing. Talk about your manufacturing and jobbing in Iowa! There is no institution in the entire state that shows so stupenduous an exhibit of painstaking and good management as this Sac county farm. Seventeen years ago, Mr. Wheeler came to Iowa, and went to Sac county, bought his land, built his houses and barns. When a railway came along he donated liberally for a station and gave the site of Odebolt and today it is one of the most prosperous of northwest Iowa towns, growing commercially fast. The
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magnitude of Mr. Wheeler's work can be understood when the products of his farm for the last year are given. He raised sixty thousand bushels of corn; twelve thousand five hundred bushels of timothy seed; six thousand bushels of oats; ten thousand bushels of flax seed ; three thousand bushels of millet seed; and had seven hundred head of stock on his place, five hundred being breeding animals. In two years he expects to sail for Europe to pur- chase a stud of English and Scotch horses. He has ordered to have in readi- ness on his return, a barn, which to build will require seventy-five thousand feet of lumber. He will have his stock on exhibition at the Iowa state fair at Des Moines this fall. As a business man and manager of practical affairs, Mr. Wheeler has been a decided success. When he purchased his farm in Sac county, there was not a house within twelve miles of him."
In October, 1888, Mr. Wheeler had at Des Moines much of his fancy stock. On his farm he then kept thirty-three head of Norman-Percheron and English shire stallions. These were among the finest animals ever imported to the United States.
This famous farm has long since been in the hands of the Adams family, of Illinois, and has come to be a wonderful farm, especially as a successful sheep ranch, where the heaviest, finest grades of sheep are bred and grown. It is commonly styled the "Adams ranch."
The senior Adams is the one of Adams Express Company fame and the son, a middle-aged gentleman, is in company with his father and has sole charge of the great farm, living on the ranch a part of the time and in Chicago the remainder. This is especially a sheep ranch, but raises immense amounts of corn, which is marketed through their own elevator at Odebolt, where for many days in succession five car loads of shelled corn are shipped. The farm now contains twelve sections of land, all fenced off by mile lengths of woven wire, with concrete posts, which, together with the hundreds of beauti- ful shade trees which have been set out along the roadway and fences, give a charming appearance. This place is within both Richland and Wheeler townships. Oats and timothy are raised to feed the one hundred and twenty teams that are required to run the ranch. Over the long rows of sheep barns has been sentimentally painted in clear, attractive letters, the words "Feed My Lambs." In the plowing season there may be seen, all working at one time, eighteen gang plows and seventeen single stirring plows and eighteen manure spreaders and there are also eighty farm wagons. There are forty-five men employed in the slack months and one hundred and fifty men in the busy season. All are boarded in the buildings provided in a
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