USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 17
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By the middle of November the Kelloggs were living in a two-roomed log house of their own. It stood just south of the present Handsaker home on Chestnut street. Now they felt established and were carrying the responsibilities of citizenship. One of these responsibilities was the office of sole agent for the sale of intoxicating liquors in Story County, an office which unsolicited had been conferred upon the doctor by the governor. The government supplied the liquor, the authorized agent disbursed it, kept records of sales and reported to proper authorities. The original packages
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kept in the shed room of the Kellogg house were a source of anxiety and care, and when the doctor was away, Mrs. Kellogg had to answer calls. So many men came for whiskey or brandy for their suffering wives that the sub-agent's sympathies were severely taxed. It was such a pity, she thought, that pioneer women should be so afflicted with poor health! But, two men coming only an hour or two apart, bringing the same bottle-a bottle peculiarly marked with a dent in one side-set her to thinking, and the second applicant failed in his quest. Again, when a reputable farmer brought a new tea canister, (Alderman's store not having a bottle to spare) and wished the canister filled with spirits for the home supply of camphor, Mrs. Kellogg was credulous. But when, an hour later, the same canister was presented for refilling on the plea that accident had emptied it, she saw through the subterfuge. Frequent experiences of this sort made the office distasteful to both the agent and his assistant, and after a while it was gotten rid of.
THE FIRST SHADE TREE.
Now when chopping down and clearing away is one of the occupations of the season, Mrs. Kellogg is reminded by contrast of the assiduity with which she nurtured the first tree in Nevada of which she had knowledge. The sprout came up spontaneously in her calf enclosure. It was a few inches high when she discovered it, and she protected it with a shield of poles. Judge R. H. Mitchell, who was a lover of nature, took interest in the sprout and after a while discovered that it was an acacia. When, some years later, Mrs. Kellogg removed to her lot farther south she took the sapling with her and there it throve till a few years ago it was destroyed by the stock which occupied the ground.
BEREAVEMENT.
On the morning of April 28, 1856, Dr. Kellogg was grooming his horse preparatory to a ride with Mrs. Kellogg over to the McCartney place on the East Indian where was to be held a Methodist quarterly meeting- the first one in Story County. They both prized religious privileges and anticipated a happy day. Instead, an imperative call took the physician where life and death were battling. The struggle lasted some days and ere it was past the doctor himself lay on a bed of pain. His comrade, Dr. Carr, came over from Bloomington with best offices of friendship and medi- cine; but after six days the sufferer was gone. Bilious colic, the malady was called, but Mrs. Kellogg thinks in the light of present day science it was probably appendicitis. The patient shortly before the end, seeming to feel his hold on life loosening, said, "If you see me going to sleep draw your hand over my face and waken me." The wife did not fully under- stand, and when at last her tender strokes adown his face failed in its pur- pose, her surprise as well as distress was complete. Only thirty years old,
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in the vigor of life, in the midst of winning an honorable way, and all the world to her-how could such an entity slip out of sight forever!
"Teach me to feel another's woe, to bear another's grief." No people are credited with coming nearer to fulfilling this prayer than do those of a pioneer community. Needs in emergency were many, resources few. It was the custom of the Nevada neighborhood to bulletin at Alderman's the orders which the stage driver should fill on the occasion of his next weekly trip to Des Moines if he could. Sometimes articles ordered could not be obtained, and sometimes the capacity of the stage was overtaxed. In the latter case, first orders listed were the first ones filled. The Kelloggs with others had ordered flour some weeks before, but extra passengers had crowded heavy merchandise out. The morning after mourning began in the Kellogg home, Mr. Alderman brought over a small sack of flour, and setting it down said laconically, "Use this."
"But it is all you have," Mrs. Kellogg objected, for she knew the con- dition of Mrs. Alderman's larder.
"It doesn't matter; we can eat corn meal till more flour comes;" and the true friend turned away to avoid further remonstrance. "I tell you," Mrs. Kellogg says, "such kindness as that went to my heart; it has never been forgotten."
Everybody was kind, Michael Drain, one of nature's noblemen who was employed to scour the country for cattle for Butcher Turtle, and who had been accustomed to bring proudly to the doctor his good letters from kindred in Ireland-letters which testified to the excellent stock from which the alien came, claimed the privilege of watching at night, "I should not feel right," he said, "not to do something for so good a friend." Smith Goodin paused in his work on the new court house to make the black wal- nut coffin, and on the third day after death-it was Friday, May 14-the newly laid floor of the court house was cleared of litter, seats were im- provised, and the funeral was held. Grief dulled impression of details. A Baptist farmer preacher conducted the service, and neighbors tenderly gave earth to earth. The first long grave made in the Nevada cemetery and the short one beside it which had been made eleven months before, now tokened all that the widowed pioneer held dear.
ALONE.
The offering of the Hindoo woman who throws herself on a funeral pyre might have seemed easy to the lone mourner far from kindred. The brown earth relieved by' not one twig of green-for the season was very late, and grass and trees were native only-accorded with her mood.
But however lightly the oriental woman may cast off the burden of life, the woman in the Christian Occident has to carry it, and happily, her way is seldom utterly cheerless. Mrs. Kellogg was blessed with health, she had manual dexterity, love of activity, sympathy with her kind and
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VIEW OF EAST INDIAN CREEK NEAR NEVADA
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with everything else that God has made, and in the midst of kind friends her days and nights were never utterly desolate; and when in October she gave birth to a daughter, of course purpose was renewed. Her kindred never ceased their importunities for her to return and live with them. They would defray the expense of travel any time, and hearts and homes would welcome her. Often, beginning with the disaster of the storm, she had declared, "If I ever see Ohio again I will stay there."
Yet when with her little six-year-old daughter she did set foot amid the old haunts again, it was to find the changed conditions which are in- evitable with time and to which she felt unsuited; and, after a protracted visit, she was glad to resume relations with the pioneer people of which she was one, and to work out the problem of livelihood amid primitive con- ditions and abiding sympathy. Dr. Kellogg had more than once said, "If you were to be left alone you'd pull through somehow. It would be easier for you than for those women who always stay in the house." She did pull through, and she says today, "Though my life has been checkered, it has on the whole been happy." Those who know her, regard her life a genuine success. Contented, comfortable, hopeful, busy with good works, and cheered by affection, her age is passing as age should pass, and towns- people wish for their esteemed and earliest surviving citizen continuation of best blessings.
Vol. 1-10
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CHAPTER XV. PIONEER INTERVIEWS BY MRS. A. M. PAYNE.
MRS. CLAUDINE WHEELER-A PIONEER OF GRANT TOWNSHIP.
With the arrival of the summer of 1856, George Wheeler, a young Chicagoan, decided to become a pioneer. He had lately spent a couple of years in Louisiana, and now that he had secured a helpmeet he would try the newer and more attractive west. Iowa was the land of promise, he would join the procession moving thither. The tarry there should be but a year or two, however, then, with scrip replenished by the rise and sale of lands, permanent home and business should be established among friends in Chicago.
In furtherance of this plan, Mr. Wheeler purchased from the govern- ment the quarter section of land whereon now stands Enterprise school house, in Grant Township, Story County, Iowa, and spent some weeks of July and August on it preparatory to residence thereon. Having car- ried with him from Chicago the necessary doors and windows and a few other articles for building, he erected and enclosed a dwelling superior to the average pioneer shack, in that it included a chamber, a good cellar and a chimney of bricks instead of sticks and mud. He also put up his winter supply of hay. Real estate was on the boom, and he was offered a liberal price for his land and outfit but chose to await further advance. Return- ing to Chicago, he and Mrs. Wheeler set out early in September on their wedding journey.
Their outfit was a three-horse team and a light wagon, furnished with an easy spring seat, and carrying a ton of household goods and supplies. In accordance with the excursion idea, their trip was by easy stages, nights and Sundays being spent restfully at hostelries or homes along the way, and occupied more than two weeks. Hope and rejoicing glorified the beautiful landscape till the border of Tama County was reached. There the frequent question, "Where are you going?" and its usual answer, "To Nevada, Story County," were followed by the depressing statement, "Fires set by Indians have been sweeping across Story, Marshall and part of Tama Counties; and, unless you left some one to care for your improve- ments, they are probably wiped off."
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Soon the travelers came upon black proofs that the grim rumor had foundation-proofs which increased the farther they advanced.
The relief experienced at the journey's end when their house and stacks were found unscorched, may be guessed more easily than told, as may also their gratitude to their neighbor, Mr. Jacob Erb, who lived about a mile to the northwest of them, and who, unasked, when destruction was sweeping toward the unoccupied property, had plowed the firebreak which saved it. His act was an expression of that good fellowship common among pioneers, which welcomed every new settler as a brother, and sought in all neighborliness to make his stay permanent. The succeeding winter of '56 and '57 was one of unprecedented severity and has left indelible impressions on the memory of Mrs. Wheeler. One vivid recollection is of the blizzard in which Mr. Wheeler was caught one day when returning from Nevada. There was not a house on the way-six miles-snow cov- ered the ground, the thick storm shut out every landmark, and the traveler lost his course. The cold was intense, and wandering about must not last long as he would perish. Unable himself to steer, he gave the horses rein, and the faithful beasts took him to his own door. He was suffer- ing intensely, but the comfort of his rescuers was gratefully looked after before his own. In spite of precautions, however, the hardship suffered by the animals resulted in the death of one of them.
A snow bank heaped half way to the top of the east window whereon were wolf tracks, tokened that vegetation was shut off from foragers. The autumn fire having destroyed the stacks as well as buildings on many a farm, feed could not be obtained at any price, shelter was insufficient, and the loss of stock from starvation and cold was very large. One man liv- ing between Nevada and State Center, who had brought out a lot of oxen for the purpose of doing a large amount of breaking, lost every ani- mal. The field southwest of Nevada known as the boneyard received num- berless contributions. The severity and suffering were felt in Illinois as well as in Iowa, and the condition of stock, when the season ended, was well expressed, Mrs. Wheeler says, by the following "Ode to Spring," addressed to the tardy season by an indignant farmer and published in the Prairie Farmer of that date. We give a part of the address only :
"Now you've cum wen everybody's feed and corn and things hev all been fed out! Now luk at our kritters, will ye? See our katel on the lift, hevin to be steddied by their tales whin they gits up mornings. Look at our hosses wats all rejuiced to skeletons, a weepin' over a troft-a hull troft full of holes. A hull troft full of bitter rekulekshuns!
"Now look at them hogs, as has ben following them katel wat hev bin stuft with ha! See 'em, will ye, a creepin' roun as if they'se tetched with korns! Look at their eres, will ye-bigger than enny cabbich lefe! See the shotes a lenin onter the fens to squele! Look at them mity eres a hangin' pendent onto sich littel hogs!"
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After this dreadful winter there was no sale .for land and occupancy had to be made the most of. Mrs. Wheeler reflects that business in Chi- cago, had Mr. Wheeler engaged in it as he had thought of doing, would have yielded even poorer returns. There the financial depression would have sunk his all. Here the land was left.
Lack of market was a sorry trial for many a year after feed had be- come plenty. Butter carried to Iowa Center brought but ten cents per pound; and a fine Suffolk sow which the Wheelers had brought from Chicago in '57, being slaughtered with several of her progeny, each of which dressed weighed 500 lbs., and the lot sent by team the 120 miles to Iowa City-the nearest railway station-there brought but 11/2 cents per lb. The resulting disappointment and hardship were sore indeed. The Pike's Peak craze in '58 and '59 raised prices. J. C. Lovell, fitting out for the trip, paid Mrs. Wheeler 40 cents a pound for butter. She did not get rich from her sales, however, for sheeting cost 40 cents a yard, and the sleaziest kind of calico 20 cents.
An Indian scare was one of the unhappy experiences brought by war time. The Bushwhackers of Missouri sent terror up even into central Iowa. Word came that they had hired Indians to massacre the whites on Iowa farms, that men prone to swell the Union army might be kept at home. Settlers in some quarters scared by this rumor were precipitately leaving their claims and fleeing to Fort Dodge or back to the east. While appre- hension was wide awake, Mrs. Wheeler one summer day sat sewing on her doorstep. She was alone, even the dog being gone, and glancing around she saw two men mounted on ponies coming over the hill. Watching their approach it became evident that they were Indians, both of whom wore belts stuffed with knives and pistols which glistened in the sunlight. She thought her doom at hand. Retreating into the house, she fastened the door, drew down the shades, and with quaking limbs awaited the next. Before the house resounded whoops, each yell renewing terror such as blanches hair in a night. Then all was still. Silence increased suspense till it became unendurable. Rallying strength, the trembling woman raised a back window, stepped out and peeped around the house. Lo, the enemy was gone. One Indian was disappearing in the distance, and the other was tarrying before the house of Neighbor U. S. Nourse, a quarter of a mile distant. And this was Mrs. Nourse's experience :
She was quite alone when a whoop before the door called her attention, and the comer held up a paper which evidently had some message for her. .She answered the call, not daring to do otherwise, and read on the paper a written request that whatever the bearer asked for be given him. Said bearer peremptorily demanded "meat," and indicated the size of the piece that would be satisfactory by measuring the length of his arm quite to the shoulder. The frightened woman quickly brought from her meat barrel the biggest piece she could lay hands on, and made it a peace offer-
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ing. She confessed later that the entire contents of the barrel would have gone just as readily, had it been the price of the caller's departure; and Mr. Nourse was accustomed jokingly to declare that he could no more leave home for this purpose or that, because it was necessary for him to guard his pork barrel.
Indians troubled the neighborhood no more for some time; but the nervous strain occasioned by the visit noted was a misfortune from which Mrs. Wheeler's health has never fully recovered. And the scare was wholly needless. The alarming rumor had originated with claim jumpers from Chicago for the express purpose of scaring away settlers who had filed on their land but had not proved up. The callers belonged to the Tama band, and were only on a begging expedition.
BLYLER DID NOT LIKE IT.
In connection with the foregoing there is a letter of F. F. Blyler of Polk County, old soldier and veteran politician, whose father appears to have been pursuaded by Mr. Wheeler to come to Story County, but who entered the county from the wrong side, was disappointed and sold out, and went away. Mr. Blyler in his fiftieth year in Polk County and in Iowa wrote of the family migration into and out of Story County as follows :
In April, 1857, father sold his property in Summit County, Ohio, and invested the proceeds in horses, wagons, boots and shoes and matches. He shipped these from Wellsville, Ohio, to Keokuk, and came from there overland to Des Moines. The family remained in Ohio. At Des Moines he met an old Ohio friend named Wheeler who had some Story County land. Wheeler described the land and location as being about 4 miles west of Nevada, and father soon traded for 100 acres of it. This he did without going to see the land, relying entirely on his friend's representa- tions. He also traded for other lands until his stock was exhausted and then returned to Ohio and made preparation to move to Iowa-which we did in September, 1857.
Father had arranged with some one to rent a new hotel just about com- pleted in Nevada. Whether he rented from Wheeler or not I don't know. But we left Ohio intending to settle in Nevada in the hotel business. Which house it was I don't know. Iowa City then was the nearest railroad point. We came by rail as far as Davenport and from there drove across the country to Nevada with our own team, which we had brought from Ohio. We passed on up through Cedar, Iowa, Tama, Marshall and Story Coun- ties. Father liked all of these counties except Story County and this last, of course, in that early day he saw from the wrong side. We came by the way of Marietta, then the county seat of Marshall County. We drove straight through and naturally had to pass over the low wet lands of east-
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ern Story, probably near Colo and much the same route now traveled by rail (about where Marshall-Story ditch No. I is even now helping to transform the face of the country). This was early in October, 1857, the weather was fine, but the roads were bad in that then low, swampy coun- try. Houses were few and far between, as the settlements were found only where there was timber, along Indian creek and Skunk river, and around the groves, and of course none of these were found on the roads east of Nevada.
After much exertion we arrived in Nevada, one horse was sick and father was already sick of the country, and when he found that his land did not lie just where Wheeler told him, but about two miles farther away, he became disgusted and was ready to take the back track without even going to see his land, which was located some 6 miles west and south, and was really in a good country and no doubt was good land and in a loca- tion which would have suited him all right, for over there could be seen some very nice hills and a good deal of timber. He never saw the land and after the war traded it off for a song. This showed poor judgment on his part, but more especially his disgust for Story County.
Early impressions of course are the most lasting, and father never for- got the low wet prairies of eastern Story, now the richest and finest farm- ing country in Iowa. Last fall I took a drive over this country and for a week visited in and about Maxwell and Colo, and visited the remains of many of the old orchards which I had sold to the early settlers as they be- gan to scatter over these prairies. My wife and little granddaughter were with me and as I would point out the orchards to her which I had furnished years before, she was much surprised. Many trees are yet bearing fine fruit, but the most of them are dead. The little girl wanted to know why so many of them were dead. I told her a generation had passed since I sold those trees and that one by one they passed away, the same as did the people who bought them, most of whom are also gone. Way out near Colo I found Elmore and Charles Dolph who were playmates of mine in Ohio more than fifty years ago. They lived on one side of the street and we on the other in the little village from which we came to this country.
To me Iowa always has been an inspiration. I know of no spot on earth which excels it and I now know of no better county than Story. But Iowa counties are all good, and the lands that were once rejected as being too low and wet, are fast becoming the most beautiful and fertile lands of Iowa. Although but II years of age when we came to Iowa, yet I was at once enamored with its beauties. Its changes have been as rapid as the kaleidoscope, and all the time from good to better. For fifty years I have watched these changes and to me they seem wonderful and incom- prehensible, and the man or woman who now owns a farm in eastern Story County is certainly in luck. Fifty years are a long time and one can look
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back and see the many opportunities passed by and see their mistakes along the line, and yet perhaps we are not to blame after all.
F. F. BLYLER.
W. W. SPRING .- ON SQUAW FORK IN 1855.
Mr. W. W. Spring of Grant Township became a resident of Story County on the 17th of November, 1855. He carries the weight of eighty years, yet maintains interest in the march of human events both near and afar. Mr. and Mrs. Spring celebrated their golden wedding in 1905. They abide in a new dwelling on the farm which has been theirs for quite half a century, although their immediate settlement in the county was with others of their migrating company along Squaw Fork, west of Skunk river, their farm being first east of Skunk river in Grant Township.
Mr. Spring and one sister, who is two years his senior and has her home in Kansas, are the last of a family of thirteen who grew up in Owen County, Indiana. His mother passed away when he was a babe and a new mother took her place. An incident which he relates as illustrative of the early age to which his memory goes back, indicates also that the new mother gave to him the tenderness, as well as the care without which in- fancy does not thrive. The incident is of an unlucky fall when he was eighteen months old, which resulted in his striking his head on a kettle and cutting it badly, and of his step-mother binding up the wound and kissing him. Pleasanter is this impression brought down through the long years than is the one resulting from paternal strictures which turned Sunday into a day of dread-a day when to use the lad's jack-knife was to forfeit it, and to indulge in sport of any sort was to incur a whipping.
FROM INDIANA TO IOWA.
The boy became a man, and married the daughter of Samuel Coffelt of his own neighborhood. When, in 1855, the first babe of the young married pair was four weeks old, they became a part of the migration of the Coffelt tribe and their kindred to the promising fields of Iowa. The senior Coffelt had prospected in the new country a few years before and had filed on choice lands along the Skunk river in the interest of his five sons and his son-in-law, as well as for himself. So they started out in hope, even though adversity rested rather heavily on the Spring contingent. Mr. Spring had been ill all summer-ague had shaken away his flesh and strength, had consumed opportunity and his small savings, and now without adequate means and with good prospect of filling an early grave on the new soil, he left the home land assured that in the leaving was his best chance for life.
There were twenty-five people in the company, seven wagons, of which three belonged to Mr. Coffelt, and a lot of stock for use on the new lands.
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