USA > Iowa > Tama County > History of Tama County, Iowa, together with sketches of their towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 48
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bluffs. Both then went to work to saw a door in the new cabin, so we could get in ; but they did not get it quite done, when a rain came up, and we had to put our things in and creep in after them to keep from getting wet. I was there for three months and never saw a woman but myself. Everything in the bottom field was des- troyed, and we had to buy all our grain that year. Late that fall Phebe Fowler came into that township, and William ('ruthers came into York that fall.
My brother was married in July, 1851, and in February, 1852, started to Califor- nia. We still kept our elaim ; had nearly thirty aeres broke on high ground, and moved our cabin on the hill in June. We had a splendid crop or the prospect of it, for I had in a good garden. The last. night in June there came a hail storm and destroyed all of it. My husband planted corn the third, fourth and fifth days of July; had the nicest lot of fodder I ever saw.
After that we had good weather and it began to be settled up ; our neighbors were of the very best. But the first four years we had no christian influence at all. I feel to praise the Lord that it is different to-day, and a number of us have rejoiced in the love of the Lord since.
RACHEL VANDORIN." THE WILKINSON PARTY. [ By Anthony Wilkinson ]
Anthony Wilkinson in company with his father, mother, two brothers, William and Robert, and three sisters, Rebecca, Jane and Mary, left Lewisville, Coshocton county, Ohio, about the 20th of Septem- ber, 1849, bound for Tama county, Iowa, by way of the Ohio canal to Portsmouth, Ohio, thence by the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers to Muscatine, Iowa. The water being very low, they found steam boat transportation hard to obtain, hence they were nearly three weeks in getting to Muscatine. Arriving there, they hired teams to carry them to lowa City. There they rented a house for their parents and sisters to stop, while the three brothers prepared to go on to Tama county and build a cabin for the family use. They purchased a yoke of oxen and having brought a wagon with them, they took such things as were necessary for their purpose, and started on the second day after reaching Iowa City, and in three days reached their destination, viz., on the 14th of October. 1849; and there began a ses- tlement and improvement on land on which two of them Anthony and William still live, in Salt Creek township.
Arriving at our future homes, we set to work and made a shanty with logs, cover- ed it with grass, set up a stove and pre- pared for hard work and rough living, thirteen miles from a settlement, no road and of course no travelers to see, save now and then a straggling Indian, who would grunt at us and go on. We labor- ed at our cabin building for two weeks. When needing some provisions, Robert went to the settlement at Honey Creek (now Koszta ) and while there, heard that a new comer at Iowa City had d'ed sud- denly about ten days before; on his return, and stating what he had heard, we thought best that one should go to Iowa City and see how the family were. Accordingly next morning Robert started on foot, and on arriving there, found that on the morn- ing of the fourth day after we left for Tama, father had been stricken with ap-
James . the olen
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oplexy, while seated at breakfast, and died in half an hour.
This sudden bereavment was a sad dis- couragement to the female portion of the family, being all alone among entire strangers, and no chance of communicat- ing with us, they hardly knew what to do, and who would wonder if they thought of the old home, but Robert made them as comfortab e as possible and returned to work ; meantime we were getting our house well under way and in two more weeks we hired teams to bring the family from Iowa City to Honey Creek, from there we got them home with our own team.
The first settlement was made on the southwest quarter of section 21, township 82, range 13, west, and owned by Robert, where we all lived together for the first year. In that year Anthony built a eabin on the southwest quarter of section 20, and in November, 1850, was married and moved into it.
We got a team of five yoke of oxen and broke prairie, working together for two years. In October, 1851, death again visited us, our sister, Rebecca died, and again, in August, mother died; about two years later Jane and Mary were married. Jane is now living in Richland township, and Mary is living near Houston, Texas. Robert died September 29, 1872, on his farm in Salt Creek.
In the early years of our residence here, we had a great many difficulties to encount- er, but th s is a part of the price of cheap lands and must be looked for by the pio- neers in every part of the country. Up to 1858, we had to go to Iowa City or
Cedar Rapids to mill and market, and usu- ally took three to four days. On such trips we usually camped out, sleeping in or under our wagons ; but bad roads and no bridges frequently made traveling interest- ing. On one occasion in the -month of March, I had been to Iowa City to mill and coming home I had to stay over night some four or five miles east of Marengo The frost was coming out but the ice was still in the creeks. It rained during the night, and I had to ford a creek about a mile from where I staid. On getting to it I found it very high, and I knew if the ice had gone out, it would swim the team, and 1 might be detained for days, so I nn- hitched my team, took one horse and rode in to see if I could eross, the horse could barely go through without swimming, so I at once got ready to ford. I got some sticks, laid them across the top of my wagon box, piled my load of flour and other goods on top, took out my end gates to let the wagon go through the water easier, and drove in, afraid every moment to find the ice break under me, but it held us up, but I had not got entirely out of the water, when, looking behind me, I saw the ice I had just crossed on, come to the surface and float off. Had it given way while I was on it, it is hard to tell what the consequence to me would have been. On another occasion, I had to cross the Iowa river, and, being on foot, I crossed at Honey Creek in a dug-out, but in the evening was some six miles west of there, near the mouth of Salt Creek, but there was no boat and the river quite full. I must get home and did not want to travel six miles away from there to get a boat, so
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HISTORY OF TAMA COUNTY.
I went into the timber, found some pieces of dry eotton-wood, carried them to the river, placed three of them in the water, side by side, fastened them together with a grape-vine, laid two other pieces across them, then one on top of them lengthwise of my raft to sit on, got a small pole to steer with, then got on to my raft to see if it would float with me, which it did nice- ly. So I pushed out in the current and by working across as much as I could while floating down stream, I landed on the other side in about twenty rods, and saved at least twelve miles travel, but at the risk of a good ducking, if no worse. But settlers began to come in rapidly after the first two or three years and we got things more convenient.
TIM. BROWN'S POETRY.
During the winter of 1855-6, the literati of Toledo formed a society for the dis- eussion of such questions as seemed of vital importance to those who organized the society. Among the first questions to come up was that of the "eternity of future punishment." The question being one which highly interested all parties. An early day was set for the debate. . When the appointed day came, the society was called to order by David D. Appel- gate, the president, and the entertainment opened. Among the speakers were T. Brown, T. A. Graham, L. Merchant, I. L. Allen and J. L. C. Foster. The first named, Mr. Brown-now of Marshalltown -shortly afterward composed a poem, giving the detail of the debate. The manuscript is in the hands of J. P. Wood, of Traer, and is as follows :
TO THE CHIP BASKET COMMITTEE. Ye, who in elocution's school are taught, Pray give attention to my scattered thoughts ;
And I'll rehearse some efforts not below The mighty powers of a Cicero.
What I relate I know to be a fact,
I was an eye witness to each separate act, And saw the mighty orators laid low ; Demosthenes compelled to undergo A strange reverse from fortune's fickle hand, For Grecian fame was veiled in Yankee land.
Great Theologians differ in their views, And warm discussions frequently confuse The minds of men ; and on contested points Sometime, the truth is sadly out of joint, With views the different champions entertain For me to set them would be in vain. But to proceed a question most profound Arose in school, proposed by red head Brown ; Something like this :
" Resolved, If we compare
All evidence that's given to us here, We must believe the greater part of man Through all eternity are damned "
Our friend in red this doctrine did confute, And there arose a very warm dispute.
Therefore to settle man's eternal fate, They to the chair elected Appelgate. A man of thought, of comprehension deep. Who studies long, while others idly sleep.
And thus inured himself to mental toil, By the assistance of the midnight oil, Until his mental powers became so vast That he could seize with gigantie grasp Questions like this, that future fate involves, That great philosophers have never solved.
lle with a grave and dignitary air, Seats himself on the judicial chair.
The sides are taken ; breathless silence reigns ! And so intense it almost gives you pain. All earthly cares have wandered far from view, And the dread future is all that's left to you
On Time's vast avalanche you stand in awe, Waiting for God the misty veil to draw That would reveal eternity to sight, Show endless woe or Heaven's radiant light ; Undo nine-tenths of Adam's fallen race Who've lived and sinned away the day of grace.
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HISTORY OF TAMA COUNTY.
A speaker rises ! let us him survey : His face is pale as the cold ashy clay ; JIis auburn locks like wig on marble place In ringlets hang with a peculiar grace. He parts his lips-has Cicero arose And been in school during his long repose ?
With words persuasiye as the lips of love He states the law prescribed by God above, And handed down through inspiration's hand Unto the creatures of this fallen land.
In magic tones elysian fields he paints Of endless joy the blessed abodes of saints, Where God in grandeur all his power displays, And high born seraphs swell the song of praise, Says, he expects to tread those shining plains Where endless j'y and peace celestial reigns.
That blessed abode made for the happy few Perchance, is not, my friends, a home for you. You have a home where Hell's dread monster waits,
Where grief and vengeance bellow at the gates, Where fear and rage and famine on you stare Where dread remorse and howling friends ap- pear.
Where pale disease seize on your quivering limbs
And gnawing conscience rends your souls within. Vile discord there her snaky tresses bear, And HIell's grim furies in your faces stare.
In tones of thunder shook the whitened walls, And for the proof he on the scripture calls And reads this passage " House of Israel, " fly " From your evil ways, why will ye die ?" This being said, friend Lewis takes his seat With looks expressing that he's hard to beat Another speaker steps upon the stand, His brow emblazoned like a flaming wand With sparkling eyes and fiery aspect stood And thundered forth the mercies of his God ; Declared that God through Christ had all men saved
And Hell existed this side of the grave.
Then rose a man, advanced to middle life, To take part in this exciting strife, Read forty texts in proof of endless pain, And modestly required that they be explained
In fifteen minutes, that being the full time To which his opponent had been confined. This being done our " Thomas " sits him down With looks that say " I've vanquished Brown."
Then rose a youth magnificently tall
Whose stately grandeur interested all ; Who in Lycurgus school was deeply read And naught but metaphysics filled his head, He raised his voice and soared on poetic wings And gave his views of spiritual things.
Another rose, with comprehension vast, With eyes enclosed, neath battlement of glass, With jaws all mounted with a coat of hair, He ou his victims cast a haughty stare, And opened his mouth-llell gave a dreadful yawn
And in the tumult "Fostered " hopes had gone. The chair was asked the question to decide. "Men should be damned " he instantly replied.
METHODISM INTRODUCED IN NORTHERN TAMA. By Rev. Solomon W Ingham.
On the morning of June 3d, 1853, I left Vinton for the place now known as Traer. After going about nine miles I ar- rived at Garrison's Grove. There I saw a man with his wagon turned westward, watering his horses. I asked him if he was going in the direction his wagon indi- cated, and he replied " I am." I told him I would soon overtake him, and he said he would wait. He was looking at me very sharp, as though suspicious of something. I was on horseback, and had my portman- teau (vulgarly called saddle-bags), in which I carried my clothing and the nec- essary apparel to last me during my cir- cuit over eleven counties.
When at last we got started, my friend asked me if I had any friends up where we were going. I replied that I had not. " Do you know any one there?"
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" Not any one."
" Have you heard the names of any of the settlers up there?' '
" Yes, I have, " and I mentioned over five of the settlers, his name being among the rest. All being church members he found that his suspicions were correct. "
"Ain't you a Methodist preacher?" he asked eagerly. " Yes. "
"Well, 'sposen we shake hands!" he exclaimed. I rode alongside the wagon and over the wheel we gripped, and shook, he saying: "I'm glad to see a Methodist preacher, I've not seen one since I came to the country.""
Then sitting back in his seat, he asked : "I am. "
" Are you a circuit preacher?"
" How many appointments have you?"
" More than days in the month."
" Poor chance for us-you'll not come here very often, " said he.
" Only once a month, " I replied, "if you wish me to come at all after you hear me preach. "
" Will you form us into a society?"
" Yes, if I find it practicable. "
" Well, I don't know whether you'll make it or not. You'll get three at Os- born's, and one at my brothers. At our house we can't do much for you-we can only furnish you six there. But I don't know about Dean; am afraid he won't stick."
At about noon we arrived at a little cabin, where the woman was sick ; but the man furnished us with a lunch.
Perhaps two hours before sundown we arrived at the house of my friend, which was within a short distance of the present
site of Traer. His wife had been sick for some time with ague and chills, and was barely able to sit up, which she was doing when we went in.
" Well, ma, " said my friend, "that preacher has come. I told you he would."
I took her hand as she sat in the chair, and she had to wipe the tears from her eyes a full minute before she could overcome her feelings sufficiently to speak. I was then made acquainted with all the rest of the family except the oldest daughter, who was not at home. The girls soon pre- pared us some supper and after partaking, the host says : "Now we must go for my brother Giles. They want to see you. Mary is sick."
We went there and I was introduced to the family and the oldest girl of my friend -my present wife. Mrs. Taylor, was un- well, and was in bed, but we had prayers.
" Now " said Taylor, "we must go to Osborn's, they want to see you." We started and had not gone very far when we saw Osborn coming. We stopped and he came up.
" Well, Osborn, " said Taylor, " here is another prospector."
Osborn owned a large amount of land in that neighborhood, but had made up his mind not to allow any one to secure land who did not intend to locate permanently. lle therefore proudly asked: "Do you want to buy land for a home? I do not show land to any one else or to speculators any more. "
Taylor answered: "Ile's not that kind of a prospector. Ile is hunting sheep. "
"Sheep! there never was a sheep in forty miles of here!" exclaimed Osborn.
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HISTORY OF TAMA COUNTY.
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"Lost sheep! Lost sheep!" says Tay- lor.
"Oh! is he a preacher?"
The answer was yes.
" What kind of a preacher? " I answered " Methodist "
IIe seized both my hands and asked,
" Will you preach for us?" I answered that I would.
" Are you a circuit preacher, and will you come again ?"
" If you want me to, after you have heard mne preach."
" Well, let us go to the house, the wo- men will want to see you."
On we went at a rapid pace, I with difli- culty keeping up with him. When we arrived within a few rods of the house Mrs. Osborn met us with a milk bucket in her hands. Osborn told her that "here was a Methodist preacher."
She threw away her milk bucket and seized both my hands. She then wanted to know whether I would preach for them and come again, and insisted that we go in the house and tell her mother. The lady was out at the back door washing potatoes. As soon as Mrs. Osborn got in hearing she began clapping her hands and crying " Mother, mother, here's a Methodist preacher !"
The old lady gave her hands a flirt in the tub of water and met me in the middle of the floor. She threw her arms around my neck weeping and exclaimed : " Praise God, I can once more see a Methodist preacher before I die !" The old lady was over eighty years of age and has long years since passed to her last long. sleep.
The following day 1 preached and
formed a society consisting of the parties named by Taylor. The organization was known as the Wolf Creek appointment, a branch of the Big Woods Mission. Thus was Methodism introduced into the north- ern part of Tama county.
REMINISCENCE BY NEWTON MILLER, OF CLARK TOWNSHIP.
"Newton Miller and Mary, his wife, settled on the northeast quarter of section 2, Clark township, June 1, 1856. On October 9, that same year, Mary in trying to get home to save her children and home from the prarie fire, lost her life. It was ou the second birthday of her baby. No happier family than surrounded the break- fast table that morning. She was one of the best among the good women who became pioneers. She fell in the line of her duty with her face toward lleaven William the oldest son, in trying to save his mother was severely burned. There have been bad fires since, but none so swift and terrible. William got well in about eighteen months, though badly scarred. William, and his next brother, Henry, enlisted at Buckingham, August 29, 1862, for the war. William died at lowa City of brain fever before being mustered into the U. S. service. Henry was wounded in the neck at Champion Hill, Miss., May 16, 1863, and died June 7, 1863, of wounds.
Mr. Miller's present wife was Mrs. Ma- ther. She left Missouri in the fall of 1861, to go north to her brother, L. L. Webb, who lived in Benton county, lowa. She had three boys; they started in the night to go north to "God's country," as they called it; but not knowing the road, they took an abandoned one toward Page coun- ty, which was providential for them, as
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HISTORY OF TAMA COUNTY.
they were followed the next day by a gang of guerillas, that were after their horses. They heard afterward that part of them were taken prisoners near the Iowa line. They found it a cold time to travel and not much money, but grain was cheap, corn 10 cents a bushel. One noble family living near Toledo, in Tama county, invited them into their house to stay all night, would take no pay except for grain. Their names are Mr. and Mrs. Otterman. "I was a stranger and ye took me in." -- Matt. 25: 35. July 3, 1863, John W. Mather, the oldest son, enlisted in the 9th Iowa Cay- alry. That winter he took a severe cold, settling in his throat, cansing him to lose his voice. He was with his regiment about twenty months after losing his voice be- fore he got his discharge. In the fall after he came home he was plowing and bent down to fix the plow, when one of the horses kicked so close to his head that it took his hat off, which frightened him so that he hallooed. The fright and exertion of hallooing caused something to break in his throat, and afer discharging about half a pint of bloody matter he found that he could talk again. Ilis home is now in To- ledo. Frank Mather, her second son, to- gether with her brother, L. L. Welch, en- listed in February, 1864, in the 2nd Iowa Infantry.
In April, 1866, Mr. Miller and Mrs. Ma- ther were married and still live near Dy- sart.
One of the first settlers here was Father Moss and family and his son Henry, and his family on section 18, in 1856. Acel and Catharine Parmenter, settled on the
southwest quarter of section one They have gone to the better country. They were good people, remembered with love and respect by all who knew them.
The first wedding was Newton Perkins and Ellen Moss. The first school was taught by Jacob Parmenter, in Newton Miller's house.
There were nine soldiers enlisted from this township; William, Henry and New- ton Miller, Newton Perkins, Jerome Plum- mer, John Bowen, Matt Eikerman, and Torrence brothers.
Nearly all the inhabitants were Meth- odist.
" THE PIONEER DOCTOR." By H. T. Baldy, M. D.
Voltaire says a physician is a very un- fortunate man, as he is expected to keep the people well, when they violate the very laws of their existence every hour of their lives.
The life of a physician is no sineeure, as all who follow the profession well know -true there is a funny side in the practice of medicine, as well as a serious one.
Twenty-five to thirty years ago, it was rather a serions matter to be a physician- and to make the long and lonesome rides, through this then newly and sparsely set- tled country-when there were scarcely any roads, and no bridges, and you were frequently lost on the wide expanse of prairie, and often floundering in sloughs- to find your horse deep in the mire, and it was with difficulty that you could get out-sometimes your vehicle broken or your saddle girth or your harness torn- this was the funny side very often. We mostly rode on horseback in those days,
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HISTORY OF TAMA COUNTY.
as there were nothing but bridle paths in many parts of the country, but more es- pecially up and down the Iowa river and also up and down Deer Creek, where the paths would more frequently follow along the streams, which were very crooked, and had to be crossed quite often. We were also obliged to ford the Iowa river, which was often very high and dangerous, es- pecially in the night. The writer remem- bers once in having gone across the river to see a patient who wished to be bled. After we had seen the person and performed the operation, we hastened to return home as we saw a storm approaching, or rather a blizzard from the northwest. The rain and sleet commenced to pour down, and when we arrived at the river, we found it had risen quite rapidly, but as we had a large powerful horse we entered the stream and with whip and voice urged him through. Our vehicle was whirled around almost ahead of the horse, but we sue- ceeded in keeping our seat, and getting over all right.
As our little boy was with ns, we hurried home to get his boots off, as they were frozen to his feet, but did him no injury- with the thermometer 20 or more degrees below zero. That was a serious ride.
The people were generally friendly and did everything they could to make Its comfortable, in their small log cabins, with scarcely room for their own families. Sometimes the doctor had to sleep as best he could-sit up all night in a chair.
The most disagreeable rides were those up and down the Iowa river, as the paths or roads ran down the large bottoms cov- ered with a rank growth of grass almost as high as the horse, which at night, or af-
ter a lieavy shower of rain, would be very wet, and you would get your clothes quite wet, and then sometimes you would be chased by wolves, bitten by mosquitoes, and almost scared to death, by the snakes, which often came into the cabins, and would lie near the stove to keep warm, or climb upon the flour sack or even the beds -we have seen them.
We will relate an odd incident about a lady and a water-melon. She had eaten part of the melon, then laid the two halves together, and put them on a box, on the outside of the house, thinking the snakes would not find it; but the next day when she was about to eat the balance of the melon which she had also wrapped up in a table cloth, she had no sooner opened the melon when there lay a large rattle- snake inside. She instantly sereamed and threw the melon, eloth and all, and ran up the creek, still screaming, when, thinking that there was no one withm a half mile or more, she returned, and with a hoe kill- ed his snakeship, which had seventeen rat- tles.
The ague along the river bottoms was almost thick enough to cut with a knife, so to speak, and the settlers were often se- verely afflicted with those diseases, no doubt caused by the dense growth of veg- etable matter, and the breaking up of the soil, producing a very great amount of veg- etable decomposition, which was. dele- terious in its effects. Now for a little amusing incident.
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