USA > Iowa > Johnson County > Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58
The records of the Old Settlers' Association commence with 1866, and the permanent organization appears to have been made then. Doubtless the period of the Civil War postponed, for a time, the regular meetings. Some have said the first meeting should be counted at. the laying of the corner stone for the "Old Capitol" and the subsequent celebration on the same day of the nation's independence. But they were not "old settlers" at that date, for the constitution determined twenty years of residence as a prime qualification and that was then a long way in the future. The first president, 1866, was David Switzer, vice-president, Capt. F. M. Irish, second
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vice-president, Robert Walker, treasurer, Peter Roberts, and secretary, Silas Foster.
It was more than an ordinary occasion when the old settlers met twenty years later in 1886 to observe the fiftieth anniver- sary of the settlement of Johnson county. The attendance was larger than that of any similar occasion preceding this. The number is placed at one thousand. When the roll was called among those responding one may find the names of Philip Clark, Mr. and Mrs. James Magruder, William Smith, J. K. Strawbridge, Mr. and Mrs. G. R. Irish, Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Sanders, Horace Sanders, Ed Worden, Col. S. C. Trow- bridge, Mrs. Jane Sanders, Jacob and Jerry Stover, Titus, Henry, and John Fry, Henry Earhart, Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Irish, Henry G. Reddout, Mr. and Mrs. Ford, Sam J. Hess, Mr. and Mrs. George Paul, Mrs. Sarah A. Myers, Garrett Lan- caster, W. D. Cannon, Sr., Samuel Magill, Hezekiah Hamilton, and many others who were prboably more recent comers to the county.
C. W. Irish was the speaker of the day. In his remarks he reviewed the history of the exploration of the Mississippi valley and the causes leading up to the Louisiana Purchase and the opening of the Indian lands to settlement. In connection with the early history of Johnson county he said: "About the year 1822 American traders, taking the place of the French traders, came to the mouths of the rivers Des Moines and Iowa, and passing up along these streams located trading posts or forts, as such places were then called. One set fixed them- selves on the Des Moines river near to the present site of Agency and Eddyville. Two of these men are now [1886] Colonel Jordan of Ottumwa, and Capt. William Phelps. A brother of Captain Phelps came up the Iowa river and built his fort inside the lines of Johnson county. The ruins of this trading post can still be seen just below the mouth of a small creek in section ten in Pleasant Valley township, on the east side of the Iowa river. I believe the creek is called Byington's creek, but however that may be I should like to see the name of that pioneer given to it. Here as early as 1826 boats from St. Louis discharged their cargoes and took on loads of furs. Here came the dusky inhabitants of the groves and prairies to barter for blankets and trinkets and arms. I had intended
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to read to you a letter from Mr. Phelps describing these early scenes but having mislaid it I cannot do so. In 1833 there were not over a score of white men making their homes in Iowa, and the first permanent occupation of the country by United States troops took place, I believe, in 1834. Meanwhile the Black Hawk War had come to a close and by treaty a large tract of country west of the Mississippi was thrown open to settlement. At once venturous settlers began to arrive upon the banks of that stream. In 1834 the war de- partment ordered Lieut. Albert M. Lea to make an examina- tion of the territory of the Black Hawk Purchase. This he did, and in 1836 made a report and gave to the public the first map of it.
"In 1836 Philip Clark and Eli Myers, pushing their way on horseback from some point in Indiana, crossed the broad prairies of Illinois and came by invitation of John Gilbert to his trading post on the Iowa river, it being the same, as I believe, as that of Mr. Phelps, the founding of which I have already described. Near it was another owned by Wheaton Chase. Gilbert and Chase, together with three or four other white men, constituted the white population of Johnson county at the time. Myers and Clark selected claims near the trad- ing houses and soon had cabins raised thereon. The sound of their axes ringing in the passive woods were the first sounds of the keynote of the coming tide of civilization. Their plowshare was the first to overturn the virgin sod of Johnson county, and that plowshare laid securely the founda- tion of all the wealth with which our county is teeming on this fiftieth anniversary of their efforts. Of the noble soldiers who with nerves of iron and heart of steel led the way let history's page tell their deeds. One of the band, who with Lieutenant Lea paved the way for the star of empire within our state, still lives within its borders.
"After the expedition of Myers and Clark in 1836 settlers flocked to the county, and soon there began to appear in the groves and upon the prairies the cabins of the settlers. These were golden days: privations, though great, were unfelt; a universal feeling of security, honesty, and good will prevailed, and locks upon doors were unknown. The stores and pro- visions of settlers were free to all who came. We have here
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Philip Clark, the first man to turn the prairie sod, the first man to hew the timbers which gave strength and shape to our first dwellings and public edifices. We still have among us the men who hewed and laid the stone in our first capitol building. We have here the man who made our first brick [Sylvanus Johnson] and the man who traced our section lines [Cyrus Sanders]. Some of the first county officers [Trowbridge and Clark], and of our lawyers there still survive a few, while in yonder cemetery the polished shaft marks the final resting place of many of the founders of our present prosperity.
"Let us each record what we may know of their work and of our own to the end that posterity may know to whom it is indebted for clearing the way for its happiness and great- ness. If it shall prove that my effort in that direction shall become the corner stone for such a history, then I am content. I have endeavored to show how by slow degrees the discovery and settlement of this country came to this our beautiful state of Iowa. How the foundations of civilization, society, and all their accompaniments of security, wealth, happiness, and honor, with increased expansion were laid, and how they were cemented by the blood of martyr, soldier, and pioneer. It is now my hope that those who followed Myers and Clark to this country fifty years ago, many meeting with us today, come for- ward and recount the story of their labors. I see on the one hand, Cyrus Sanders, the pathfinder of our county, the man who helped to trace our section lines ; on the other I see Samuel Hess, the man whose drum beat called together the volunteers for the Mexican War. I well remember how the rat-tat-tat of his drum-beat caused my heart to beat faster, and filled my mind with visions of the tented field; and before me stand men and women who are the heroes of our early days of settlement, golden days, now to become history. Let us brightly write them on its pages."
Following the address of Mr. Irish, which is worthy of more extended study, a most pathetic scene occurred. Philip Clark, the man mentioned so interestingly by the speaker, was called for by the assembled people and owing to his feeble body, he was assisted to the platform where he said:
"Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Old Settlers' Association of Johnson County :
"Mr. Irish has told you how I began my labors in this county
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fifty years ago. After I made that claim I laid out upon my own land at another point on the Iowa river our first county seat and called it Napoleon. The general government then laid out the capital of Iowa territory, Iowa City, where it now stands, and the legislature by an act removed the county seat from my town to the territorial capital, and I was one of the county commissioners who under the law removed the county seat from my town to the present site, where the court house now stands. I have opened and improved several farms -"
At this point Mr. Clark was compelled to cease speaking. His voice trembled and became very weak, on account of his age and enfeebled condition. This was probably his last at- tempt to speak to an audience.
At the conclusion of this meeting T. W. Townsend secured a picture of forty or more of the settlers in the county before 1840. It is hoped that this picture is still possessed by some who were in that group. The notable feature of this particular anniversary by the speakers is the emphasis placed upon the records of those who could then give them. Following the address of Mr. Irish, Rev. O. Clute, who had been a pastor for eight years in the county said: "A hundred years hence or five hundred years hence, your descendants will look back with interest and pride to their ancestors who were pioneers in the county. They will read with eager eyes the old and yellow pages wherein is told the story of your toils and privations. Some of you smile when I say this; you are disposed to think that your work has no historic significance. Friends, you are mistaken. You and your work will not be forgotten. It is, therefore, of real importance that now, ere your gray hairs are laid beneath the clods of the graveyard, you write out records of your early experiences, or relate these experiences fully to those who will write them out in order that they may preserve a faithful picture of our country's early life." 27
The building of a log cabin by the present generation of men would be impossible unless they were instructed by some of those who came with their fathers when such construction was necessary. The old settlers made a practical demonstration of their "cunning" in this kind of labor when they prepared for their "exhibition" in 1889 which was to occur at the county fair in October. The first question was to decide whether it was to be built of rough or hewn logs as a matter of architec-
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ture. The more polite, but less rustic form was decided upon and "hewn" it was to be and in dimensions sixteen by twenty feet, a single story of ten feet. Frank Hutchinson furnished the stone for the corner foundation and George Borland hauled them to the ground. John E. Jayne directed the work, and with him were Messrs. Swafford, Beuter, Stover, Wray, Den- nis, and many more who could recall the early building of like structures a half century before when the hewed log was al- most an aristocratic structure among the frontier houses of rough timber, projecting ends, and outside chimneys. It was said that lapse of years had dimmed the details of cabin build- ing, but it took only a few strokes to bring to memory the action of unused muscles. Some "scored the logs" while others rough hewed a plane side for the outer wall. Many hands carried each "pole," as they called them, to the proper setting. Of those who had once built log cabins for their own homes, and found in them as much comfort as in any palace, those who were placed in charge of the "corners," there were J. Y. Stover, A. W. Beuter, Edward Barnes, Jarius Pratt, W. P. Teneyk and Peter Rohert. There were other "old timers" who remembered the adage: "They also serve who only stand and wait."
But one could not write of all the things that occurred at this "raising" of a log cabin in an orchard, on a hillside in the presence of almost a thousand who came to "help," and inci- dentally to eat the good things furnished by the homes no longer made of log cabins, but one must place a record for Azariah Pinney, eighty-six, who gave to the memorial cabin two oak logs grown from acorns that he planted on his farm forty-nine years before. Matthew Teneyk, who built the first house in Iowa City, was present. Warner Spurrier came over from Lisbon to meet his pioneer friends and renew the stories of a half century. Two familiar faces were missed, that of Philip Clark, the senior of all the old settlers, and that of James Magruder, both detained by illness. T. N. Roberts, formerly of Madison township, came from Cass county to be present at this meeting; G. W. Fleming brought with him a "trammel" for the fireplace, and Peter Coyle a "splint broom for the hearth." The oldest person in the company was "Grandmother" McCallister, at eighty-seven, accompanied by
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OLD SETTLERS MEETING
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three gentlemen descendants. Half the company present were women who came to assist in the building by preparing the dinner.28
It was not until the following year, in 1890, that the house was "chinked" and made ready for the "Old Settlers." Many more pioneers came again to the spot to see the finishing touches to this memorial of fifty years. At the meeting the year before there had been no formal speeches, while on this occasion there was much "poetry." Col. E. W. Lucas gave a short address which included a reference to the two struc- tures now completed, the log cabin, due to the initiative of Gil. R. Irish, and the log house to Isaac Bowen. To the "mod- ern man" an explanation of the term "cabin" and "house" may be necessary. At this meeting those present who came before 1840 were: Philip Clark, 1836; Sylvanus Johnson, George Paul, Joseph Walker, 1837; Prof. T. S. Parvin, J. Y. Stover, James Magruder, J. R. Hartsock, 1838; Austin Cole, Bryan Dennis, I. V. Dennis, Jonas Hartman, John Fry, J. B. Denison, Wm. Fry, E. M. Adams, Moses Adams, Strawder Devault, D. B. Cox, C. B. Cox, Azariah Pinney, and E. W. Lucas, 1839, and several women who came during that time, Mrs. Jacob Ricord, Mrs. Geo. Paul, Mrs. H. J. Wieneke, and Mrs. Cyrus Sanders.29
Father Magill, the poet of so many old settlers' meetings, and present at the log cabin building, was not long to remain in the world, for in November following he was called away. He came to the county in 1847 and remained here until his death, at one time being a member of the city council and al- ways a supporter of the old settlers' reunion. He published a volume of his verses, many of them relating to the pioneer days and the old settlers' meetings.
The social customs of the pioneer have in them many sug- gestions of all that goes to make the family life the center of the interests of all those who belong in it. All the events tended to make that the first consideration. That the feelings of the "old settler" for the good old days are not only genuine but often related with a sense of loss, no one can doubt, if he is willing to study the customs that prevailed so far back in the local history. The description of that time has been given in such a way that it is not difficult to understand why those days
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had in them "sincere and charitable lessons" for the present generation. "The latch string is pulled and the first comer at the evening's gathering takes his seat at the fireside to wait for the coming of the neighbors. Presently the creaking of the snow and the 'whoa' of the driver announces the arrival of the ox team. The wide door swings on its wooden hinges and in come the troops of small children followed by the 'grown folks.' The little people sit about the big fire on buf- falo robes and quilts, while the fathers and mothers take the comfortable seats. They hang their wraps on the wooden pegs driven in the wall of the cabin, and while doing so the men of the party arrive having given the oxen the shelter of the hay- stack with plenty of good, sweet, prairie hay to feed upon.
"It is noticeable in the company that all are comparatively young, not a pale, nor a frail face among the group, and ruddy, healthy faces of the outdoor life indicate clear consciences and healthy appetites. The garments worn by the company are all the work of women of the household and made to serve the individual in comfort, not regarding the style to the detriment of serviceability, and no apology is offered because the cut hap- pens to be one of the year before.
"The evening meal follows in due time and then the old custom of 'the elders first' is observable, the children waiting for the 'second table,' when they take what is put before them without any complaint; modestly and quietly they carry on the conversation without slang or oath, nor would one hear during the entire evening by adults or children, evil spoken of any one. All were friends, all were on an equality."
The first of the different nationalities to come to the county would include the native Americans and the Irishmen. Philip Clark was born in Ireland, and of his nationality were Patrick Smith and his wife Mary, James Wicks, William Croty, John Conboy, and Michael McGinnis. The native Americans who came at the same time, or in the near future, were John Gilbert, Eli Myers, the Walkers, Earharts, Harrises, and Hamiltons. Of the early German settlers the names of Casper Dunkel, Casper Nick, Matthias Lane, Joseph and Gregory Gross, Chris- topher H. Buck, Ferdinand Haberstroh, Jacob Wentz, F. Bros- hart, Peter Stoetzer, and Philip Schwertfager are prominent.
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Among the Scotch were George Andrews, William Kemp, David, Henry, and William Gillaspy.
Late in the forties the Bohemians made their appearance. Now and then upon the streets one might see the native costume, but soon they began to arrive in large numbers and in 1853 and '54 they made settlements in the northern part of the county. The settlements have gradually extended until these people form a considerable part of the county's population. Taking up the roughest and least valuable portions of land along the streams they have converted thousands of acres of apparently worthless land into profitable farms and made pos- sible the purchase of other farms of the best there is in the community. They have redeemed the rough and hilly land along the streams from its useless conditions of stumpy sur- face, which not only adds to the wealth of the individual who improves the land but to the wealth of the entire economic area in the immediate vicinity. As a people they have been said to retain much of their national characteristics and to be closely united in their social life. They have furnished many leading men in the county's affairs and many who stand for the highest . ideals in civil life.30
The view from the Old Capitol in 1844 was described by the only person qualified by personal observation to make such a description interesting, and it is given on the authority of those who made the record on that date. It was on a still winter's day when Chauncey Swan, F. M. Irish, Henry Felkner, Samuel H. McCrory, with several ladies, climbed to the top of the un- finished cupola of the building to view the surrounding coun- try. That scene is gone, but the story of it remains. It runs thus: "As far as the eye could reach was an unbroken stretch of snow covered plain, no road, no path, and the calm day al- lowed the smoke from every settler's cabin to go straight to- ward the skies, so that it could be located without difficulty. Directly to the east was the house of Allen Stroud, then occu- pied by Archibald Shaw; a little farther on could be seen the unfinished cabin of Peter H. Patterson; just beyond this was the first and the last home of Judge James P. Carleton; north of this a short distance was the home of F. M. Irish, which now forms the sitting room in the house of David Borts, and which is the oldest sitting room in the county, having been built in
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1842. A short distance east of the Carleton cabin, where Jacob Metzger now lives, was the house of Matthew Brown; a blue signal of smoke to the south of the Carleton home located the cabin of William L. Gilbert, and farther to the east ap- peared the fine double cabin of William Sturgis; occupying a site close to the present home of Judge Fairall, far to the northeast, were the cabins of the Hayden brothers and D. Sumner, and just beyond the first home of good old Isaac Bowen nestled in the grove; far up toward Ralston creek the volumes of blue smoke suggested the enjoyment of John Mat- thews and Green Hill, while far away to the east the houses of Matthew Teneyk, John Parrott, and Charles Jones, and from the hillside just north of the present residence of Glenn McCrory, the cabin of S. H. McCrory was seen, which was said to have been the home of every single man in the county in early times, and here a large part of the county business was transacted.
"North of the McCrory house was that of I. N. Sanders, John and Benjamin Horner; then far to the southeast could be seen the farm of W. B. Snyder, in what is now Higbee's Grove; it was well known as the office of the first doctor in the county ; down the river the once-commercial center of the county was pointed out by the group of smoke columns over the old trading houses and the one time court house of the county, in the now deserted town of the high sounding name of Napoleon; over the river beyond the trees the cabins of the Harris, Hamilton, Secor, and Seahorn families; the dwellings of Edward Foster and Joseph Stover were well in view on the same side of the stream, and near the old lime kilns were the homes of Pleasant Arthur and Elisha Yost. Then turning a mile to the north one could point out the home of Walter Terrell; east of the river, at the base of the hill on the road to Butler's bridge, stood the cabin of Austin Cole; to the west of this where the smoke floated in the tree tops was the spot of gloomy memories where the cabins of David Henry, William Kemp, and Billy Glaspy had been built in such high hopes, and where they had died before being permitted to realize the desired independence; and then far to the west was found the advance guard of the Clear Creek settlers in the cabins of Nathaniel Fellows and Alexander Able."
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So much for the view of the surrounding country as it then was which could only be distinguished by the ones who knew every foot of country around and were willing to neglect the city closer by until they had made the circuit. Then they de- scribed the city itself from the same point of view: "Here the American House and Butler's Tavern were the most con- spicuous; to the south of the Capitol were the stores of John Powell, and Wesley Jones; and beyond them the unfinished walls of the Old Stone Church, now gone excepting the founda- tion, from its old location; on the avenue, where now stands Weber's blacksmith shop, was the office of Dr. Jesse Bowen; east of this the pioneer store of Murray and Sanxay nearly opposite the last store; on the north side of the avenue was a small frame building, which carried on the peak of its roof a pair of buck horns, suggesting the name of the proprietor, C. H. Buck, who sold groceries and provisions. Continuing three blocks east of this point the observers located the drug store of Louis and Jacob Gobin; a little farther on were found great piles of bark in front of Gobin's tan yard; north of the Musser lumber office was the announcement of the physician Dr. William Reynolds; south of the square, where the present homeopathic hospital stands, was the old blue church, and north of it the Methodist church; in every direction the smoke from the wood fires rose over the city from the houses that sheltered the population of less than one thousand souls. Not a dozen persons were in sight in the town and only one saddle horse was seen, that of Dr. S. M. Ballard, hitched in front of the office of Murray, McCormick and Swan on Clinton Street."
It is said that one of the party, Mrs. Frances D. Gage, after- wards wrote an account of these observations for an eastern paper, but which one, or where is not now known.31
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CHAPTER IV
The Indian and His Claims
T HE treaty of 1832, commonly called the Black Hawk Pur- chase, contained the following which is of local interest, aside from the further fact that the land was then for the first time opened to the white settler.
The line thus established, as near as may be drawn from the study of the government surveys, passed through the north- eastern corner of the county, and the angle made by the two lines forming the western boundary of the Purchase, as shown upon Map A, fell upon the Cedar river about one mile east of the county line opposite the section line dividing sections twenty-four and twenty-five, in Cedar township. As indicated on the map, the line drawn from this point on the Cedar river, through the intersection of the east line of the county and the southern line of Cedar township, or township eighty-one north, would intersect the south line of the county near the south- east corner of section thirty-two, in Liberty township, or sev- enty-seven north, range six west. The north line of the Keokuk Reserve met this western boundary of the Black Hawk Pur- chase on the line between ranges five and six west, in township seventy-nine north, now the east line of East Lucas township.32
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