USA > Iowa > Sac County > History of Sac County, Iowa > Part 5
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The next settlement was that of 1855. when a larger number found their way to Sac county and became permanent settlers. Among these may be recalled the following: Along the Coon river, upstream from Sac City. as far as Lee's Grove, in what is now Douglas and Delaware townships, the settlers were the two Vetalls. William and Adam, who brought in a large herd of cattle from Illinois: William Wine, who operated the first store in the settlement at Lee's Grove; William Allen and family; James Davis, William Davis, Eugene Criss and family, and a Mr. Ayers and a Mr. Joiner ; also William Fulks and Judge S. L. Watt, who became the first county judge here in 1856. This doubtless made up all the settlement in this county up to the end of 1855.
In 1856 the additions to the settlement included the Tiberghiens. still residing here: Henry Evans. Asa Platt, Robert and George Browning, Mr. Wren, William Impson, Messrs. Condron, W. Il. Hobbs, George Stocker and D. Carr Early, with possibly a few more.
Hugh Cory and many others, hereabouts, verify the statement made above concerning the first actual settler. Otho Williams, the roaming trapper and hunter, who must have been here as early as 1852 and remained but
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about four years, and moved on to a country where civilized life would not molest him. Nothing is known of him after leaving this county. While he was the first white man to inhabit this county, the first to set stakes with the intention of becoming permanent were those of the 1854 colony, the Corys, etc.
One pioneer experience is related of the late Hon. D. Carr Early, who, in about 1856, came from Ohio by river to Burlington, Iowa, thence to Waterloo by stage coach and on foot to Fort Dodge, and on to Sac City. He was two days coming from Fort Dodge, a distance of fifty miles. He pre- empted the northwest quarter of section 12, township 89, range 36, it being necessary to visit the land office, then at Sioux City, a distance of ninety miles, which he made in three days. On reaching Sioux City, Mr. Early ( then a young man ) was surprised to find this "city," the headquarters for the United States land office, which consisted of a one-story frame house, one log cabin and three canvas tents. The first named was the land office, and the log house was the "city hotel." Returning to his claim, he built a log cabin, completing it about June Ist the same year ( 1856), and he lived in it until the end of three months without either flooring or chinking it. The house was simply the bare logs laid together. He also raised an acre of potatoes that summer and also was compelled to raise a small amount of corn in order to make his pre-emption claim good. In January, 1857, pioneer Early sold his pre-emption of a hundred and sixty acres for six dollars an acre, netting him in cash nine hundred and sixty dollars. The land was not worth more than this sum in 1879. This gentleman was later known far and near as "Judge Early." He took the cash named above and had a load of flour brought from Anamosa, for which he paid seven dollars per hundred weight and had to sell the same at eight dollars, so did not make anything clear for his speculation. Worse still, he sold part of the load of flour to people on credit and never received the pay for it.
POSTAL FACILITIES.
At that early day, 1856 and 1857, Fort Dodge was the nearest post- office to Sac county. In the autumn of 1856, when Sac county was organ- ized, there were but eighty-five votes in the county and at that date mail had to be carried by able-bodied men, taking turns in going to Fort Dodge. They had to swim or ford several streams and get through Hell slough and l'urga- tory slough, on the way there and back. One pioneer who has gone through
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this experience describes a trip during which he had to swim Purgatory slough on a horse with the United States mail for Sac county in one hand and his clothing under his arm. Another pioneer states that not far from the same place, and at about this time, a man was hired to carry the mail at twenty-five cents a letter. Papers would not be carried only when the roads were in suitable condition.
In the spring of 1858 the settlers in congressional townships 87, 88 and 89, in range 36, now forming the civil townships of Wall Lake, Jackson and Delaware, thought there was good reason to fear that all vacant land in those townships would be bid in by speculators at the annual land sale at Sioux City, thus preventing its immediate settlement. Nearly all the set- tlers, though not ready at the time to buy, wanted some of this land for their own use. They, therefore, met together and arranged matters, and when the day of sale came, the room in which the sale was held was filled with these settlers, and no others could force their way in. No bids were made, and the land was thus kept open for pre-emption-really a wise movement on the part of the pioneers of this county. While it was possibly a little "shady" in its looks, it certainly worked to the betterment of Sac county and its first settlers, who had no use for "land speculators," who usually held lands for high prices and thus delayed advancement in all new countries.
The first mill in this county was erected on the Coon river, near Grant City, late in the autumn of 1856, the season that has ever since been styled in lowa the "hard winter of 1856-57." The snow of that never-to-be-for- gotten winter was fully three feet on a level, and in places it completely filled the deepest ravines and valleys, and when crusted, after a February thaw, the crust was so hard that a team and heavy load could be, and was, drawn for miles without breaking through. That was the winter in which tens of thousands of deer perished by reason of having no grass to eat and because of broken limbs caused by breaking through the icy crusts of the snow. It was during that winter that pioneers in Sac City and its vicinity hauled grists of corn to Grant City to the mill just mentioned. Other provisions were usually hauled from Fort Des Moines, as our state capital was then known.
It is related by Asa Platt, that he shot and killed a buffalo over the line in Buena Vista county, and that while several were seen in this county, it is not known now that any white man ever killed one in the county.
The Corys and others were compelled to split rails all one winter to secure sufficient rails with which to fence against the deer and elk which
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would otherwise have destroyed the growing crops. They seemed to be very numerous and not altogether as wild as such animals usually are. Great droves of them would congregate on the ice at Hell slough and other lakes in Calhoun county, and there browse upon the wild prairie grass of which muskrats had built their homes. During the latter part of August, 1857, a party of surveyors found a man dead in a slough on the prairie, who was supposed to have been murdered, as a ball had passed through his back. The remains were not identified, and at the date of discovery the affair created great excitement.
The nearest postoffice was at Fort Dodge. The early settlers would frequently meet at Sac City and hire some one to go up after their mail, paying twenty-five cents for each letter or paper received. They also had to go there for their blacksmithing and much of their early milling.
OTHER SETTLEMENT DATES.
At the fiftieth birthday anniversary of the twins, Lamont Lee and Mrs. D. B. Keir, children of Mrs. M. F. Lee, which occurred in the sum- iner of 1913, in Douglas township, this county, the following roster of early settlers was made up, and from the large number mentioned as still sur- viving, it naturally finds a place in this "early settlement" chapter. It is as follows: C. Everett Lee, editor, of Lytton; Mrs. D. Carr Early, 1856; J. W. Tiberghien, 1856; Mrs. J. W. Tiberghien, 1860; Mrs. Eugene Criss, 1855; Orville Lee, 1860; George I. Cory, 1854; Mrs. George I. Cory, 1859; Mrs. George A. Heagy, 1856: G. L. Stocker, 1856; Asa Platt, 1856; Mr. and Mrs. James Staton, 1859; Mr. and Mrs. H. M. Cory, 1854; Mrs. Amos Comstock, 1856; S. L. Watt, 1855; Mrs. John Stocker, 1855: Mrs. William Conley, 1855; Elias Tiberghien, 1856; J. E. Austin, 1863; Abe Basler, 1856; C. Everett Lee, 1862; Mrs. W. G. Wine. 1855.
Judge Samuel L. Watt, who died in 1878, was a settler in 1855. He was the first county judge of Sac county, and was here at the organization of the county; he issued the first marriage license in this county to William Montgomery and M. E. Wine. He also issued the first naturalization papers in the county to a foreigner.
NATURAL RESOURCES.
Concerning the natural resources, etc., of this county, the following was written in that well-known publication. the Western Rural, by their special correspondent at Wall Lake, in 1878 :
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"Our county is rapidly settling up, car loads of immigrants arriving al- most daily. There are townships in the county already where the land has all been sold: still there is any quantity of excellent land still on the market in other portions of the county. To men in the East, who are living (or trying to live ) on rented farms, we would say, sell what you have for cash and come West, buy a farm of your own, say eighty acres, at a cost of about five hundred dollars, or an improved farm at twenty dollars per acre. Our soil is of the very best quality, society good, educational advantages most ex- cellent-no state in the Union being superior. We have pure water at from twelve to thirty feet; the climate is very healthful-we have never seen a case of fever and ague here yet. Every description of farm produce brings remunerative prices; stock raisers do the best here, however. Iowa ships more stock to Chicago in one week than all Illinois does in four. Cattle do well from being herded from May Ist to October Ist; the price for herding is seventy-five cents, and salt thrown in. Any amount of wild hay may be had by simply cutting it."
LIST OF IIALF CENTURY SETTLERS.
At the Fourth of July celebration held at Sac City in 1906 a call was made through the Sac Sun for all to report who had lived in Sac county fifty years and more, and all who did so would be furnished free conveyance in automobiles to the grounds and given seats of prominence and honor on the speaker's stand. The following registered their names as having resided here fifty or more years: J. W. Wren, J. S. Tiberghien, Elias Tiberghien, J. W. Tigerghien, Mrs. J. W. Tiberghien, E. D. Whitney, Abraham Basler, Mrs. Anna Comstock, George I. Cory, W. G. Wine, S. L. Platt, James Bas- ler, H. W. Cory, Mrs. Eugene Criss, G. L. Stocker, Asa Platt, Mrs. George A. Hleagy, Andrew Impson, Mrs. George Hicks, John Condron, Mrs. Asa Platt. Mrs. W. A. Irvine, William Impson, Jr., Mrs. William Impson, Sr., James Shelmerdine.
PROSPERITY OF COUNTY IN 1880.
The Sac Sun said of the prosperity of this county in 1880-a third of a century ago-that "the most prosperous year in the history of Sac county is this year ( 1880). The vote has increased forty-three per cent over 1879. The population of the county has been added to the old number to the amount of two thousand. Many new farms have been opened up; a large
2
RESIDENTS OF SAC COUNTY FIFTY YEARS OR MORE Top row from left to right-George I. Cory, Mrs. George I. Cory, Mrs. Olive Conley, Mrs. Lydia Stocker, S. L. Watt, Mrs. George A, Heagy, Abe Basler. Second row-J. W. Tiberghien, Mrs. J. W. Tiberghien, Mrs. James Staton, Mrs. Eugene Criss, Mrs. W. G. Wine, Mrs. D. Carr Early, Mrs. Mary Comstock, C. Orville Lee. Bottom row- Elias Tiberghien, James Staton, H. M. Cory, Mrs. H. M. Cory, Mrs. Duncan B. Keir, C. Everett Lee, William Lamont Lee, Asa Platt, G. L. Stocker, Elmer E. Austin.
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number of buildings have been erected. In way of factory industries have been added this year a flax mill at Odebolt ; a steam flouring mill, with four run of stones, by Henry Reinhart. Flour from these mills is sold all throughout this section of lowa, and as far east as Dixon, Illinois. Crops ranging from seventeen to twenty-two bushels of spring wheat; oats, from thirty to forty bushels per acre; corn, from forty-eight to sixty bushels; flax, eleven bushels. The average of wheat for the county was seventeen and a half bushels per acre; average of corn was forty-four bushels; oats, forty-one bushels ; flax, twelve bushels.
"Land sales were reported by Schaller & Early and D. Carr Early amounting to more than fifty thousand acres-all to actual settlers-equal to two full townships, or one-eighth of the entire county.
"Stock has been shipped to the amount of one hundred and seventy- five car loads; E. Criss shipped eleven cars of wheat; Criss & Hanger. thirty-five car loads of wheat, five cars of corn; five of oats; two of barley; eight of flax; three of rye ; while J. E. Robbins shipped thirty cars of wheat, and twenty-six of corn. Condron & Woodward shipped out thirty cars of wheat ; thirty of corn ; seven of oats; six of flax. The total of one hundred and six cars of wheat ; ninety-one of corn; twenty-four of oats; two of bar- ley; twenty of flax seed ; three of rye, making a grand total of two hundred and forty-six cars of grain from Sac City.
"The total rainfall for 1880 was twenty-three inches: highest temper- ature, one hundred degrees; lowest twenty degrees below ; mean tempera- ture. fifty-six and one-half degrees."
BURNING CORN.
The Sac Sun of December 6. 1872, said: "Several families in town, and we believe many more in the country, are burning corn for fuel. It is considered cheaper than wood, and it is almost impossible for those who do not own timber land themselves to obtain a supply of fire wood. The day for stealing timber from non-resident timber land owners is about gone forever in Sac county, as most of the timber is now owned by actual settlers themselves and they don't care to part with much of it. It seems to us a good plan for farmers to burn corn and sell their wood if they have any any timber. They can't sell corn for even fifteen cents in cash now and that is less than it costs to raise it."
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LAND VALUES.
After having gone over the early settlement question, in this connection it may be well to insert what prosperity had come to Sac county in 1912, as shown by a letter from Omaha by an early pioneer of this county, the same being published in the Sac Sun in October, 1912: "Having been a reader of your paper since 1872, I would like enough space to say a word concern- ing the present high priced lands in Sac county, which is now about two hun- dred dollars per acre. I saw this same land sell at from three to five dollars per acre in 1871. I sold two hundred and forty acres in 1902 for thirty-six thousand dollars, it being the first to reach so high a figure. I said at that time it would sell for two hundred dollars per acre in less than five years. The same fall I bought a two-hundred-acre tract in Washington county, Nebraska, for one hundred dollars per acre and only last week refused one hundred and fifty dollars for it, and I predict it will be worth two hundred and fifty dollars before it is transferred again. Only last week Arthur Brandeis, of Omaha, sold two hundred and ninety acres to an Iowa man for sixty thousand dollars. This is going some and the end is not yet."
THE SWEDISHI SETTLEMENT.
The history of the Swedish settlement in the southwestern part of Sac county cannot be written without repeating a part of the history of the Swedish settlement in Crawford county, where, only a mile or two south of the county line, we find the first Swedish settlers in the year 1867, when C. J. Star, C. P. Frodig and N. F. Rodine, who had been living in Webster county, decided to locate here, after a trip to the Missouri bottoms, which land they thought too flat. They were joined by five of their friends in the fall of the same year and in 1868 Mr. Star wrote to his friend, A. Norelius, in Minne- sota, and told him of the rich country they had found. Mr. Norelius started across the country in a "prairie schooner" (covered wagon), accompanied by H. Buller, E. Ward and J. Nordell.
Mr. Norelius informed the writer that the first settlers did not know to whom to apply for deeds to the land they had selected until in the fall of 1868, when the enterprising and courteous agent of the Iowa Railroad Land Company, William Familton, appeared among them. He at once decided to reserve a number of sections for Swedish settlers, including the south- west corner of Sac and the southeast of Ida counties. Mr. Familton brought
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Swedish landseekers to this locality from time to time. Being located so close to the less rolling and richer prairies in the western part of Sac county, it did not take the settlers long to cross into the new counties near by.
A postoffice was established in 1873 one mile south of the Sac county line, which Mr. Norelius and Lars Olson decided to name Kiron, which is an abbreviation of the scriptural name of a brook called Kidron.
Among the first to erect buildings in Sac county at this point at that time were the families of John Nordell, John Larson, Erick Olson and N. Lindblad.
Sol Peterson, representing the Swedish people who worked in the coal mines of Boone county, built his house in 1874, and soon came in Andrew Dolk and family ; also Henry Hanson and wife, from New York state. John Baker was one of the first to break the virgin sod and raise a crop. None of the first settlers were rich, but they had some means acquired by hard work either in the mines or on the farm. As a rule their earthly possessions were strong arms, good health, ambition to succeed and faith in God. They were of an intense religious temperament, having separated from the state church in Sweden after the big revivals which spread over that country in the middle of the last century. The community spirit was strong and after the building of the new railroad north of the settlement a society was organ- ized called the Swedish Farmers' Society. They bought and shipped grain and live stock at the new town of Odebolt. Henry Hanson was chosen as manager, and John .A. Stolt as secretary. Another evidence of the pro- gressive spirit of this community was the organization of the Mutual Insur- ance Association in March, 1879. A. Norelius was president, N. F. Rodine, vice-president ; C. J. Johnson, secretary; and August Lundell, treasurer. This association has enjoyed a steady growth and at present time ( 1914) has twelve hundred members scattered throughout eight counties, including Sac. Andrew Norelius, after being secretary for many years, resigned in 1913, owing to old age, and P. G. Lundell was elected. August Lundell is president ; John .A. Pithan, vice-president, and W. J. Sandburg, treasurer.
The farmers of this locality were among the first to organize a mutual telephone company, which they did in 1901. Kiron has had two rural free delivery routes, a year before some of the older towns near by. Many of the farm homes are now lighted by acetylene or gas and heated by the most up- to-date methods. Automobiles can now be seen on most of the farms. No people from the continent of Europe are quicker to learn the language and adopt American customs than the Swedish people.
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The first Swedish people of this community were Baptists. They or- ganized a church in 1869, holding services in a school house until 1876, when a church building was erected two miles south of the Sac county line. Upon the completion of the Mondamin branch of the Chicago & Northwestern rail- way in 1899, the Baptist church was moved to the new town of Kiron, which the railroad company located one mile west of what is now known as old Kiron.
The influx of new settlers brought in many Lutherans, the state church of Sweden being of that denomination. On July 28, 1875. a congregation was organized by Rev. J. Telleen, of Des Moines, and in the fall of 1878 a church was built in the township of Wheeler, Sac county, one half mile north of the Crawford county line. The first regular pastor was Rev. P. A. Philgren, who came from Clinton county, Iowa, in 1881. He was suc- ceeded in 1887 by Rev. S. J. Liljegren, of Algona. He was removed by death in 1890. Then came in their order the following pastors : Revs. A M. Broleen, Jules Manritzson, J. A. Benander, E. C. Jessup and J. A. Christian- son, present pastor in charge. The church edifice has been remodeled twice and enlarged, with basement and reception parlors. A twelve-hundred- pound bell was placed in the tower of the church in 1891. The present membership is nearly three hundred. Both the church and parsonage are lighted by acetylene and the church is heated by a furnace and the parsonage by hot water radiators. The value of the church property is eight thousand dollars.
In addition to the Baptists and Lutherans, there are the Covenant Mis- sion and the Free Mission societies, which erected church buildings in the early eighties. The Covenant Mission built a church just across the Sac county line in Ida county. This was sold in 1908, the members uniting with the mission at Odebolt. The Free Mission church was moved to Kiron in 1809, from its location a mile and a half southeast of the new town. A Baptist church and also a Free Mission church were erected five miles north of Kiron in Hays township, Ida county, in the early eighties. This made six county churches in the settlement prior to the advent of the railroad.
Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to make education compulsory. All the first settlers could therefore read and write in their own language. And schools were erected among the settlers just as soon as districts could be organized and enough children located to attend them. The school houses were used on Sundays for public worship by the various denominations, until they were able to erect church buildings of their own.
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Among the trials of these early pioneer settlers came the grasshopper plague, in the late seventies, and the diphtheria epidemic at about the same time in which almost forty children perished, some families losing four or five of their members. A cyclone struck through the south part of this Swedish settlement in the spring of 1878, destroying considerable property and killing one of the settlers, John Larson. Three or four settlers in Wheeler township lost their lives during the small pox epidemic in the winter of 1881-82. which started at the house of Doctor Stevens in Levey township.
At the present date from sixty to eighty per cent. of the population of the townships of Stockholm and Otter Creek, in Crawford county; Hays township. Ida county, and Wheeler township. Sac county, are of Swedish nationality. The people, as a general rule, are now thoroughly American- ized, the younger element using the English language, except at their religious services, in which both languages are used.
Many of the settlers have bestowed upon their children the benefits of a higher education. Ministers, lawyers, doctors and successful business men can be named who were born and reared in this Swedish community, now conceded one of the best and most prosperous in all western Iowa.
CHAPTER V.
COUNTY GOVERNMENT
When Sac county was organized the county judge system-a one-man form of government-was in vogue. A change in this system went into effect in all the counties of Iowa on January 1, 1861, and the first board of county supervisors met the first Monday in the month of January. Before that the county was really governed after this manner: The county judge had to perform most of the duties now devolving upon the board of county supervisors and the county auditor. When any public improvement was needed the citizens and tax-payers got up a petition and presented it to the county judge, and then came long remonstrances from those in the county opposing such measure and it was up to the judge to determine the legality and validity of such petitions and remonstrances. This applied to roads, bridges, court houses, etc. Certain cliques would get together and scheme to elect a man favorable to their crowd and then the judge so elected was under a certain moral obligation to do the bidding of this clique. His ad- ministration was called the "one-man power."
In 1861 came the system of electing a supervisor from each of the town- ships in the county. A county having sixteen civil townships had sixteen supervisors and they usually inet once in three months, sometimes much oftener. What a majority of these men said was the law of the county. This proved cumbersome and very expensive, so in the seventies this was changed and in the counties having a certain population, the number of county supervisors was cut down to three, and these were to be elected from certain districts. One was to be elected each year, thus allowing two old members to be on the board when the new man took his seat. This still pre- vails in Iowa. Three good men can dispatch more real business for the county than can a larger number. The county auditor acts as clerk ex-officio of the board and looks after the affairs of the county in the absence of the board members who meet whenever there is sufficient business to warrant their meeting.
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