USA > Iowa > Johnson County > Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History > Part 3
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"Early in May, 1837, Philip Clark and Eli Myers reached the homes selected by them the year before on the western limits of the Black Hawk Purchase, bringing with them teams and oxen, implements, seed for planting and food to main -. tain them until crops could be grown. Having rested their teams, the breaking was started and by the 20th of May, 1837, each of the pioneers had planted upon the fresh turned sod of their new homes ten acres of corn and a goodly acreage of potatoes and other vegetables. The farm selected by Mr. Clark was situated southeast of the trading house and in after years was divided and formed what was known as the Morford and Burge farms of Pleasant Valley. As first staked out by Mr. Clark it comprised about 480 acres.
"The western line of the Black Hawk Purchase entered what is now Johnson county near the southwest corner of Liberty township and ran thence in a straight course north- eastwardly to a point in the corner of Cedar township where it entered Cedar county. All west of that line was Indian land until October, 1837, at which time the Sac and Fox In- dians sold all their lands in Iowa. At the time Clark and
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Myers made their location they were within one mile of the Indian lands. Mr. Clark retained his first claim until 1838, when he exchanged it for one farther up the river. (See Map A.)
"With the increase of settlers came divided opinion as to the location of a town site which in time would become the county seat. One party favored a location west of the river and they determined to name their town Osceola. The other
FIRST COURT HOUSE IN JOHNSON COUNTY, BUILT AT NAPO- LEON, 1838 From Sketch furnished by Gilbert R. Irish
party, under the lead of Gilbert and Clark, favored a town east of the river, and they selected upon Indian land in what is now section twenty-two East Lucas township for a town site, and obtaining consent of the Indians they built thereon a small cabin and employed John Morford to live in it and hold the claim for them when the Indians should sell and vacate the land.
"After the treaty of 1837 the town site became government land and Clark traded his farm located in 1836 for the Mor- ford claim and proceeded to lay out a large town, giving it the name of Napoleon. A court house was built, and on July 4, 1838, Napoleon became the county seat of Johnson county. Philip Clark, after the location of the territorial capital at Iowa City, converted the town of Napoleon into a farm and for
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many years was one of the foremost farmers and business men of the county. At the second election of county officers, Mr. Clark was chosen as one of the county commissioners, which position he held for many years. In January, 1840, he went to the Dubuque land office for the county and filed a pre- emption claim on the quarter section that had been selected as the county seat. Later in that year he was appointed to lay out the county quarter into blocks and lots and in much of the early territorial and county business and many of the stirring events of pioneer times he took a prominent part.
FIRST COURT HOUSE IN IOWA CITY, 1842
"Philip Clark was born in Ireland about 1803. Coming to America he formed part of the wave of humanity that, flowing ever westward, built their homes upon the lands of the rapidly vanishing aborigines. In 1844 he married Miss Clarissa Lee. In the spring of 1850 he gave his brother-in-law power of at- torney; left his wife and son and his great farm of 740 acres in his keeping, and with Eli Myers started overland for the gold mines of California. Soon after reaching their destina- tion Mr. Myers died, and with varying fortunes Mr. Clark worked in the mines until 1857, when on horseback he made his way from Sacramento to Iowa City to find his wife es- tranged, his great farm sold and his home destroyed by the villainy of his trusted agent and friend. After a long contest
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with a gang of thieves and their employers he regained pos- session of his property. Some years later he sold it and the early county seat and the site of the town of Napoleon became the present farm of James McCollister. Obtaining land in Newport township, Mr. Clark there conducted a farm. Though partially blind and much bent with age he remained active in mind and body up to the time of his death, which occurred at his home September 10, 1891, at the age of eighty- seven years. One must remark here that it is not creditable that the man who first founded a home within the county should rest in an unknown and unmarked grave on land he gave for the use of the church and a cemetery." '
Searching for a home, Eli Myers came from the place of his birth in Ohio to Elkhart county, Indiana, in 1836, where he formed the acquaintance of Philip Clark, a man like himself "seeking a home in a new country."
"Learning that the Indians were about to sell and vacate a large tract of land west of the Mississippi river, the two young men determined to examine the new country. Procuring sad- dle horses and provisions they made their way to the then four year old town of Chicago, where they found the infant city to be only a few frail houses in the marshes at the mouth of a fever breeding river.
"Continuing westward they reached Fort Armstrong in time to cross the river and witness the gathering of the thous- and warriors, orators, and braves that met Governor Dodge of Wisconsin at that point in September. Among the many who attended the treaty was John Gilbert, an Indian trader stationed on the Iowa river, and by his invitation Myers and Clark extended their trip to his trading post, and after an ex- amination of the country they determined to locate their homes in that vicinity and at once proceeded to stake the boundaries of their prospective farms and build upon each a cabin, thus becoming the first owners of farms and houses in what is now Johnson county.
"The land selected by Mr. Myers for a farm was about one' mile southeast from the trading house, and in the spring of 1837 there was turned the first furrow in the county. In the month of May of that year breaking was done for Philip Clark and Henry Felkner. Mr. Myers improved his farm and re-
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tained its ownership for many years. It was long known in Pleasant Valley as the Myers farm.
"In December, 1840, Mr. Myers was married to Miss Sarah A. Kidder, the daughter of John M. and Lydia Kidder of Seneca county, New York. Some years later he became the owner of the south half of block one in the county seat addition of Iowa City and there built a very substantial brick residence. In the spring of 1850 Mr. Myers and his fellow pioneer, Philip Clark, with a splendid outfit of horse teams, left Iowa City for a trip to the gold mines of California. Their journey was long and eventful. They at once engaged in mining but the long time friends were soon separated. Mr. Myers was taken ill and died in Sacramento City, October 23, 1850, at the age of thirty-seven years. He was survived by his wife and three daughters. Mrs. Myers continued to reside in Iowa City for many years, and died at the home of her daughter in Salt Lake in March, 1891." 10
To write of Henry Felkner's early life is to write the early history of Johnson county. He came here in 1837, having learned something of the district through his friends Philip Clark and Eli Myers and others who had some knowledge of the country. In the summer of 1837 he came to the vicinity and made a claim near those of his friends, Eli Myers doing some breaking for him the first year. It so happened in the following winter, as mentioned elsewhere, he became a par- ticipator in the first "public meeting" ever held in the county, the object being "to petition the territorial authorities for a mail route from Bloomington [Muscatine]." This was the meeting which in the minutes was called "large and respect- able," and no one has questioned the latter fact even if it had one Indian and one negro. As to "large," one must under- stand that this is a comparative term, and "six" may be large in comparison with some other quantity.
In 1838 Mr. Felkner, it would appear, saw the future of this great prairie state, and entered nearly one thousand acres of land on Rapid creek, and with Eli Myers built a dam and then erected the first saw mill in the county, and probably the first in this part of Iowa, if one may judge from other settlements at the time. The machinery for this mill was brought up the Iowa river on a flat boat, so it is said. This saw mill was in
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active operation for many years, and much of the lumber used in the "Old Capitol" came from Felkner's mill, and some have said he refused to sell lumber to private parties for a time, so anxious was he to hasten the work of erecting the capitol, or the "state house," as the title soon ran. In 1865 observers
Commencing at the top reading from left to right
MRS. DORA LOUIS MRS. CATHERINE WAGNER MRS. HENRY SHINN MRS. AGNES BAKER MRS. CATHERINE SUEPPEL
MRS. CATHERINE BASCHNAGEL MRS. THERESA HOHENSCHUH
reported remnants of the old mill still visible. The land was sold in 1882 to Mr. Coldren.
The old records of the county commissioners contained in the first book, which may now be found in the auditor's office, the names of the three men who first sat in the capacity of a
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"board," and one of these was Henry Felkner, who was chosen for the position with Wm. Sturgis and Abner Wolcott at the election of September, 1838, the first ever held in Johnson county as a county. At the first session, on the motion of Henry Felkner, the "eagle side of a ten cent piece" was made the county seal until a permanent one could be provided. It was during his official membership that the county seat was located on section fifteen, on the northwest quarter, and ad- joining the capital section on the south, the line being where Court street is now located.
Mr. Felkner served on the first petit jury drawn in the county, and in August, 1840, was chosen as the first member of the territorial legislature from Johnson county. He was also chosen for a second term, and when the first convention was called to form a state constitution, in 1844, he was one of the delegates. In 1850, in company with many others, he crossed the plains to California, leaving the quiet farm life for the excitement of the gold camp for a short time only, since he returned within two years to the farm and mill he had left.
At the time of the organization of the Old Settlers' Asso- ciation, 1866, he became first vice-president because he refused the "place of presiding officer," it would appear from the re- ports, and during his life he was an active promoter of the interests of this organization. His death, May 7, 1885, left but one man in the county who preceded him as a settler, this being Philip Clark, who at this time lived on the land he en- tered in Newport township and adjoining the land once owned by Mr. Felkner, and where he built his saw mill. Some twenty years before his death Mr. Felkner removed to a farm near Downey, where he spent the remainder of his life. The testi- mony of his neighbors and friends is the best estimate of a man's life, and in this he was the fortunate possessor of the confidence of all the witnesses.11
Elizabeth Lewis was a native of Highland county, Ohio, of Quaker lineage, and from that part of the state which furnished many settlers to the Black Hawk strip, among them Enoch Lewis, whose daughter she was. Her coming to Johnson county was due to her marriage with Henry Felkner, of that group of "gallant young bachelors," as they had been called, Samuel H. McCrory, Cyrus Sanders, Henry Felkner, Philip
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Clark, and others whose cabins were the seats of hospitality unlimited. The house of the elder Parvin, the father of Hon. T. S. Parvin, and grandfather of the present curator of the Masonic Library and Museum in Cedar Rapids, "sheltered," it is said, "this gentle and significant ceremony." The Par- vins came from Ohio, the son, T. S. Parvin, coming first from Cincinnati in company with the first governor of the territory, Robert Lucas, and it was quite congenial, it appears, for those who had come from neighboring communities in the Ohio Val- ley to be neighborly in the new valley of the Mississippi. It was on December 31, 1843, that Elizabeth Lewis became Mrs. Henry Felkner in what was then the town of Bloomington.
Samuel H. McCrory was another of the first pioneers of the county, and his name is very frequently mentioned in connec- tion with responsible positions in county affairs. Born in 1807, in the old state of Virginia, he left the home of his na- tivity early in his boyhood to make his own way in the world, so that his education was acquired largely on his own account after business hours in the store of an uncle. Sometime in 1832 he came to Illinois, and for a short period engaged in business in Peoria, but in 1837 he moved on to Johnson county, Iowa, where he took possession of a farm on which he lived until the day of his death in March, 1878. Very few were left at the time of his death to recall the days forty-one years be- fore when he came to the county and made a familiar acquain- tance with the Red Men of the country around, trade with whom was the principal business of the settlers. The new social conditions then forming found in him an active agent, and he became a part of the community as its first postmaster in Iowa City. He was one of the trustees of the First Presby- terian church when it was passing through its struggles, yet he was not a member of any church. Eleven children were present at his funeral to honor his memory.12
The name of Col. S. C. Trowbridge, who came to the county in 1837, will always be prominent in the history of this com- munity. A most interesting account of his appointment to the office of sheriff of the county of Johnson, he being the first to hold that office, is given by Hon. T. S. Parvin, who was private secretary to Gov. Robert Lucas. It runs substantially as fol- lows: "In the early autumn of 1838, we well remember it, a
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young man some half dozen years our senior [Mr. Parvin was not more than twenty-one years of age at this time, according to his diary] came into the office of the governor [Lucas] and presented to him a commission from Henry Dodge, governor of Wisconsin territory, dated June 22, 1838, less than a fort- night before the organization of Iowa, appointing him the first sheriff of Johnson county, Iowa territory, which county was yet unorganized. That paper was the only introduction of the late Samuel Cushing Trowbridge [he died in 1888], and was duly honored by the governor, Robert Lucas, who entered into a lively conversation with the young man who sought the of- fice, learning much of the county and its history from him. He was thoroughly informed, and his intelligent communica- tion upon matters of interest made a deep impression upon the mind of the governor, who subsequently located in Johnson county and became a neighbor and fast friend of Mr. Trow- bridge. At the close of his conversation he turned to me and directed that I, then his private secretary, make out and hand to the young man a commission as sheriff of Johnson county, Iowa, then having a population of about two hundred people, and being unorganized, as mentioned. The office was soon made an elective one and Mr. Trowbridge was elected by the people in October, 1840. In September, 1842, he resigned, after having held the office for four years from three different authorities [Governor Dodge, Governor Lucas, and the elec- tors]. In November, 1838, the first land sales were held and the first legislature of Iowa territory met, and we got to see much of our early acquaintance, which ripened into a warm friendship, ending only with his life. Mr. Trowbridge spent much of the fall and winter of 1838 in Burlington looking after the interests of his neighbors and the people of the county as a 'lobby member' of the legislature.
"May 13, 1839, as district attorney of the middle district, there being three, which middle district included the county of Johnson, we went to the town of Napoleon, a single house, the trading post of Phelps, managed by Gilbert, and held the first court, Joseph Williams, the judge of the district, being a resi- dent of Muscatine. The latter appointed John [Luke] Doug- lass clerk, and S. C. Trowbridge was the sheriff. He held court in the old trading house, having no window, and it kept the
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sheriff and his deputy busy keeping the doorway clear so as to admit sufficient light to dispense justice. Samuel H. McCrory was the foreman of the grand jury, who with all his associates, so far as we know, preceded our friend, the sheriff, to the gateway of the higher court. A petit jury was also empan- neled, and we recollect that Philip Clark, the first settler of Johnson county, who still lives [1888] hale and hearty, was one of these jurors. When the grand jury had been sworn and charged they were ordered to retire in charge of the bailiff. But where to go was the question, as there was no house to go to. We followed, as in duty bound, and seeing a sawlog in the prairie near by, hauled there the previous winter, we suggested that as a fit landmark, and mounting it made our first address to the first grand jury of Johnson county. A true bill was found against one Andrew J. Gregg, a horse thief, for 'passing counterfeit money.' " This was the staple offense of the crim- inals, a floating population, of that day.
Mr. Parvin at this point in his narrative concluded that the recital of the events of that one week when he came for the first time as prosecuting attorney and which was "so deeply colored with the romantic facts of the early period" would "fill a newspaper" and must be passed over. How much it is now to be regretted that he did not fill the newspaper and con- tinue his narration of all the matters suggested by the death of his friend, Colonel Trowbridge. The title of colonel is inter- esting, and has been attached to the names of other men in adjoining counties in the same way it was attached to his name. The Iowa militia of territorial days was commanded by such men as Gen. Jonathan Fletcher, of Bloomington, and the divisions included many colonels, among them Mr. Trow- bridge, who was commissioned to this office by the governor, whereupon he became a most efficient officer and "was the leading spirit in the organization and early development of Johnson county."
"In 1842, August 30, S. C. Trowbridge became postmaster of Iowa City, the fourth to hold that office. He was preceded in that position by James M. Hawkins, appointed September 2, 1841, Chauncy Swan, the capitol commissioner, November 14, 1839; and Samuel H. McCrory, the first postmaster of Iowa City, commissioned July 4, 1839 [although appointed April
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18, 1839, according to government records], the day on which Governor Lucas laid the corner stone of the new capitol build- ing. This office Mr. Trowbridge held until 1849, when he was succeeded by James P. Bradshaw, the father of Mrs. Mozier and Mrs. Coast, of Iowa City."
After that period Colonel Trowbridge devoted most of his time to the cultivation and improvement of his farm near the city. He was for several years the librarian of The State His- torical Society, and in this capacity became "a great curiosity from his knowledge of the specimens contained therein and events in our history, and his quaint recital of them as the greatest of these collected in that storeroom of old and rare objects." He was sergeant-at-arms of the Constitutional Con- vention of 1857, and an acquaintance of numerous public men who had come into the county in attendance upon the legisla- tures that met here from 1841 to 1857. His knowledge of men and movements that had taken place in the history of Johnson county and of the state of Iowa was pronounced "wonderful indeed." His memory was regarded as extremely accurate, and Mr. Parvin said: "We always relied upon him and never but once found his memory at fault, and then he only gave in upon the presentation of documentary evidence in proof of our position. We do not hesitate to say that in his grave was buried, with his sleeping memory, more of the history of early Iowa than was ever covered by the clods of the valley as they fell upon the remains of mortal man." Still Philip Clark sur- vived and remained the "oldest settler in Johnson county," his comrades fast falling beside him.18
In the early autumn of 1838 young Dr. Henry Murray, for many years identified with Johnson county, was attracted by the magnetism of the great west, and he broke the ties of his early home in the city of Cincinnati to "share the trials of the Iowa pioneers." He was born in Dublin, Ireland, of a Presbyterian family, and came in early childhood to the United States with his parents who later settled in the city on the Ohio, where the young man secured his medical diploma from the University of Louisville. Then taking passage by steamer down the Ohio and up the Mississippi he landed at Burlington, then capital of Iowa territory, in the latter part of August, 1838.
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The site of Iowa City was just at that time coming into notice as a point on the map as a possible territorial capital, and hence capital also of the future state. It then had no real existence beyond a mark on the map, and in the consider- able discussion in the few papers that had ventured to become interested in the future of the prairie state. Here the young doctor "set his stake" and it has been said that while he lived he was always the "first physician in the place as he had been in that early day the first to hang up his sign - 'Doctor H. Murray.'"
He became known far beyond the borders of Johnson county, "rides of fifty miles" being required of him in the scattered settlements of the new country. He was, according to his biographer, a favorite with the Indians, who were nu- merous in the vicinity, and they called him in their language "Little Medicine." The family of Dr. Murray was estab- lished here in 1841, when he married the daughter of W. M. Leffingwell, of Muscatine, the sister of the well-known jurist, Judge W. E. Leffingwell, of Clinton county. When the Civil War came on, William, the eldest of the family, became a lieu- tenant in the marine corps. Other members of the family held honored places, and one daughter "earned a flattering repu- tation as a portrait painter."
In 1850 Dr. Murray undertook the journey to the gold fields of California, but returned the first year, coming by sea and the Panama route. Again in 1861 he crossed the plains, but with the exception of two brief absences he maintained a con- tinuous residence for more than forty years in this community, where he exhibited the traits of a true physician in the great cholera epidemic of 1855 by facing the dangers without any thought of fear. He held public office, and that often without any regard to party affiliation. He approved of public and Christian work of every kind and supported it with his means. He was a Mason of high rank, and was "honored in the order." One must be reminded during all the research in the county records of the presence of Dr. Murray in the affairs of the county, for his name is among the most conspicuous.14
Surviving her husband by many years, Mrs. Walter Butler was one of the most widely known women of the pioneer days. Butler's "State House," one of the most frequently mentioned
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buildings in Iowa City, was built by Walter Butler, and he kept a tavern among the first established in the city. He was an early official, being the county sheriff, and dying while holding that office. But of the woman who shared his pioneer days one finds the following tribute at the time of her death in 1888, at the home of her son, J. W. Butler, in Lucas township: "Around her table sat the pilgrims who had chosen this as their land of promise; cheered by her kindly greetings and cared for by her skilful and willing hands, many a homesick wayfarer blessed the day that he cast his lot within the in-
OLD CORD BEDSTEAD Owned by John Wagner. Wedding hat and coat. Chairs made by hand by Henry Wieneke
fluence of this good wife, noble mother, and kind hearted friend." At the time of her death Mr. Gilbert R. Irish, who was a boy in those pioneer days, said: "The memories of my early childhood bring to me the first impressions of my friend. In those gloomy days the cheerful smiles and pleasant words of the woman who endured the hardships of frontier life without a murmur gave to the recipient a glow of kindly feel- ing that time cannot efface. Much is said and written of the men, their deeds of bravery, kindly acts and remarkable in- tegrity, of the pioneer days, but there is yet a brighter page in the lives of the wives and mothers of that long ago. Of these heroines was my friend. To enumerate all her virtues now would be but cold tribute of a friend to one who has so
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