USA > Iowa > Johnson County > Leading events in Johnson County, Iowa history, biographical > Part 33
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Mr. Townsend gave me a book of prayer and instructed me in the use of it. He started me out on a proselyting expedi- tion to gather in some of my boyhood companions to help swell the embryo congregation. He did not expect at first very many to come even through curiosity, for religious jealousy ran high at the time and there was very little amity or comity between the various religious sects then organized at the cap- ital of Iowa.
I well remember our first meeting; it took place in Dr. Rey- nold's school room in the second story of the old Mechanics Academy. I can now recall in memory's picture only that little congregation, five or six in number, aside from the clergyman, nevertheless we went through the services without a hitch, succeeding even in the singing.
We continued to meet with great regularity and the few regular members, all of whom lived at various distances in the country, came without fail, in spite of the severe winter weath- er which soon followed upon our first efforts, and the congre. gation grew slowly in numbers.
Mr. Townsend was a tall, slim man, his face pleasing and impressive; hair, eyebrows, and beard black; and of a bilious temperament. He was naturally kind-hearted and his manner was of the most friendly.
I have said that this trip to the then wild west, the state of Iowa, was on an errand of merey. He had observed the large number of children, offspring of dissolute parents in large proportion, but in many instances waifs from once well-to-do families broken up by business failures and other disappoint- ments, and this mass of infantile humanity turned upon the streets of the great maritime cities of the east with no help, no shelter, nor the guidance of parents, exposed alike to the pitiless storm and the still more pitiless world, to grow up in the main, felons, preying upon the heartless society which had, in its heedlessness of the pain and the wrongs heaped upon these defenceless waifs, brought them to, and forced them into the great schools of vice to be found on every hand in all large cities.
The then wild west of Iowa and associated states was al- most entirely free from such schools of vice and, moreover, being par excellence a farming community, it offered in the
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Reverend Townsend's opinion the very best school for the training of the poor little friendless street arabs of New York City, not only leading them in the paths of virtue and good- ness, but along and on the broad way of industry and useful- uss to suitable trades and callings, through the learning of which they might become independent and useful members of society. Thus his mission to the west was to find places among its farmers and tradesmen for cast off remnants of eastern civilization. He even dreamed of the founding of a home and school for them and hoped against hope, and most devoutly prayed for some Good Samaritan, with riches, to arise in the glorious west, who, with the kindness of heart which he himself possessed, might come forward with an ample endowment for such an institution. He sought aid in his scheme by asking even small donations, and ever enthus- iastie, began to bring as many of the destitute children west as he could find means to transport and maintain.
For many of these he found good homes, where kindly hands and hearts undertook their guidance, and for the rest he provided the best and cheapest shelter that his limited means would afford until fortune should open more friendly doors for the little members of his charge. I am glad to say that so far as my knowledge goes, the majority of the poor, friendless children, placed in Iowa homes by Mr. Townsend. grew up to be good and useful members of society, some even amassing a competence with which they entered successfully into business; and I recall instances where, with the means thus attained, parents long lost were hunted up and taken from public refuges, and made comfortable and happy for the remainder of their lives. On the other hand many of the waifs were found to be unworthy and soon became criminals. It was noted that these failures were among those who had at- tained several years of intimacy with the slum life of the great city where they were born, being in all cases the oldest chil- dren brought out from these haunts of vice.
As from the beginning of human society, failures have at- tracted more notice than have successes, so it was with the Reverend Townsend's efforts, and it was soon noised about that he was importing criminals by the car-load into Towa City and the surrounding country.
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These rumors grew apace and soon it was proposed to put a stop to his apparently "criminal behavior."
To this end a criminal prosecution was brought against him and he was forced to appear before the district court for trial on this base charge. The old man, full of years and good works, came under bonds for trial before a jury on a penal charge based upon his work of mercy and goodness which I have hastily described. The trial was in progress in the court house on a warm summer day, and Mr. Townsend was sitting near an open window with his hand on the sill, when without warning the heavy sash descended upon his fingers and so crushed and bruised them that he sickened and in a few days thereafter died from tetanus, or what is commonly called lock-jaw.
Thus ended a life devoted to charity and aiding the helpless in the most unselfish and painstaking manner. He sleeps, I believe, in an unmarked grave: but let the good which he did be his monument. He made some mistakes, doubtless, in se- lecting the little ones whom he sought to better and relieve, but if he saved even one of them to a life of usefulness and virtue, it went far toward compensating for all such errors.
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MRS. CHARLES W. IRISH, ONE OF IOWA'S PIONEERS
I am now in my seventy-fourth year and as I watch the automobiles and electric ears flash past my window and read of the trips made in actual flying machines, I can but wonder if I am dreaming or am lost in some wonderful Arabian Nights tale, so different does this world of 1911 appear from that upon which my eyes first gazed in 1837.
I was the sixth child and fifth daughter born to the late Zachariah Yarborough and his wife, Hanna Stout. My birth- place was near Lexington, North Carolina. My parents were natives of that state and descendants of the patriotic pioneers that helped to make history by fighting for our national inde- pendence. My paternal great grandfather was Benjamin Merrill, captain of the North Carolina Regulators who bravely went out to meet Gov. Tryon and his force of British soldiers
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ASTOR. LENOX TILD N FOUNDATIONS
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who were laying waste the plantations and homes of settlers along the Alamance. My father was a man of that boundless energy and ceaseless activity which made him successful in his chosen work, that of planter and teacher. His life was brief, but full of accomplishment in these avocations. After his death, my mother married again and soon thereafter the step- father disposed of our plantations and moved us-that is mother and her six children with his five young folks -- to the then new born and far off state of Iowa.
On the 18th of November, 1846, we arrived at our destina- tion-a cabin home three miles east of Iowa City. There were fifteen in our party and we made the long and arduous trip in six weeks. We had only two teams and wagons; of course the prairie schooners were crowded and as the children of those days were supposed never to weary we were coaxed and cajoled into walking much of the way. I feel sure that I did my full share of treking, and can yet feel the blisters and stone bruises on my heels, when I recall that pioneer journey. Bridges were scarce in those days, and the greatest pleasure that came to us youngsters on the trip, was that derived from crossing shallow streams on foot-logs or by wading ; and finest of all when the water was too deep for our childish limbs- being carried over on the shoulders of our brother-in-law, James Hill.
When I first saw Iowa, it was a vast expanse of brown and blackened prairie, strewn thickly over with the bones of many animals that had been victims of prairie-fires that had recently consumed them while burning the rank grasses of the prairie.
The deep snows of that winter and the warm, gentle rains of the following spring obliterated this gruesome scene by scattering beautiful verdure and flowers over these remains. The beauties of spring also dispelled my homesick longing's for my old plantation home in 'the sunny southland.
Corn and hominy were the chief articles of diet in those first years of our pioneering in Iowa. The winter of '46 was so cold that the water wheels of the little mill on the Iowa were frozen up; therefore, bread was a Inxnry to the settlers. Corn sold for five cents a bushel. With this inexpensive corn meal, we had for food the wild game and fowls that were so abund- ant here in those days. Often the wild fowls were so hungry
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that large flocks of them came to the barnyards searching for food, and the farmers set traps there and where wild turkeys roosted, catching them in plenty. I have seen a dozen turkeys secured at one time in the traps. In those days there was no need for anyone to go hungry.
In my eleventh year I went to live with my eldest sister. Mrs. James Hill, on their farm about five miles north of lowa City. While living here I attended the Rapid Creek school and here in the autumn of 1854, Mr. Charles W. Irish, of Iowa City, was the teacher, and I was one of his pupils. A year later, in April, we decided to enter the great school of life to- gether. so we were married on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1855. A year and a half later with our baby daughter we left lowa City for our new home at Toledo, Tama county, Iowa. This location was then on the edge of civilization in this state. So we continued as pioneers, and a cabin home on the edge of a clearing was deemed a luxury, and I am quite sure that the hospitality that emanated from those cabin homes carried more genuine friendships than the hospitality of today, that is served out in such dainty precision from the palatial resi- dences which have in so many instances replaced the pioneer cabin.
We remained in Tama county about nine years ; during this time Mr. Irish was engaged in his chosen profession, civil en- gineering. He also taught several terms of school in the coun- ty. The latter part of our stay here was marked by the hard- ships and sorrows of our great Civil War, and another little girl was added to our household. As Mr. Irish's railway work kept him much from home, leaving myself and little daughters lonely and unprotected in our country home, we returned to Iowa City in 1866, so that we could be near relatives and also have better opportunities for the education of our daughters. From 1866 to 1876 Mr. Trish was engaged in railway building in Iowa and adjoining states; then he was called into the Southwest, helping to build the A. T. & Santa Fe road across Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona. The year 1879 found him busy in the great northwest extending the Chicago & Northwestern road across Minnesota and Dakota. When this railway work was completed in 1886, Mr. Irish was called into the state of Nevada by President Cleveland, who appointed
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him surveyor general of that state. As I had traveled much with him, living in camp on the Dakota plains for a year at a time, I had really become quite a frontiers-woman and now that he was going so far from home for so indefinite a period, our Iowa City home was closed and I went with him to his new headquarters, Reno, Nevada. Our eldest daughter, Eliza- beth, now proprietor and principal of Irish's University Bns- iness College, was at this time living in California, holding a fine position in the U. S. Mint at San Francisco. Our other danghter, Ruth, now Mrs. C. IT. Preston, of Davenport, was principal of the third ward school in Iowa City, and remained with her work.
Seven years later, Mr. Irish was called by President Cleve- land, again, to be chief of the Bureau of Irrigation, with head- quarters at Washington, D. C. This change necessitated the giving up of our Nevada home, so I again returned to Iowa City, opened up the old home, and there the hearth fire has been kept burning ever since.
Mr. Irish and I had become by this time good travelers, birds of passage as it were, winging our flight from one point to another across the United States, feeling at home wherever our camp chanced to be pitched, be it in the wilderness or in the center of civilization. Now that his work called him to the beautiful capital of our nation, I had the pleasure of re- tracing as it were with him my footsteps to the sunny South- land which I had not seen since my childhood. This trip was made in 1895. Together we visited many points of interest in and about the capital and contrasted its beauty and life with the beauty and life of the great wilderness of the west which we had known so long and so intimately. Now after an ab- sence of forty-nine years I returned to the old Tar state, North Carolina, and visited the home of my childhood. Although I still found some of the neighbors and relatives and even the daughter of the old Black Mammy that had given us young- sters such careful and kindly care, still great changes had come, not alone to the "poor colored man" but to the entire South. The beautiful country so cruelly devastated by the Rebellion was even then beginning to feel the thrill industrial- ly and socially that was the forerunner of the movement that is now making a new and progressive South. I was happy in
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the contemplation of these great and really marvelous chang- es, for I realized that the life of the New South would rest on a more just and sounder foundation than had the old, and that Mr. Irish's labors and others in the engineering field had con- tributed largely in bringing about peacefully the new and pro- gressive age.
When I had left the South, in my childhood, travel was mainly by team over rude roads or by water if one chanced to be going to points reached by the navigable rivers, and as I before stated, I practically walked most of the way to Iowa; but my return-how different. In a comfortable, yes luxur .. ious palace car, I was speeded along, covering in thirty-six hours the distance that we, as emigrants, forty-nine years before, had wearily accomplished in six weeks. The patient team of oxen of that day are now retired and steam and elec- tricity are doing their work. Will the next fifty years pro- duce as great changes in transportation as the past fifty have I often ask myself. The flying machine is now here-will it be practical ? What a boon the telephone would have been to the isolated frontiers-man and his family fifty years ago. The rolling prairies of Iowa when I first saw them were pictur- esque with the wild animals and Indians roaming at will across them, and we had great fear of the red-man, especially after the massacre of Spirit Lake and vicinity, but the settlers of that day were not perpetually in half as much danger at the hands of Indians and wild beasts, as the citizens of today are on their streets, because of the rapid transit of electric cars, antomobiles, and the like.
Mr. Irish and I together braved many dangers on the Da- kota plains ; experienced severe winters, with deep snows and famine-followed by floods and a reign of terror due to the attempt of desperadors filled with bad whisky to gain control of the settlement and its meager supply of food stuffs. We knew personally many of the foremost Indian chieftains of the Dakotas, for Mr. Irish had to meet them in council and obtain the right of way across their territory before he could proceed with the building of the railroad. We often entertained them in camp. When Crow Dog was seeking the life of Spotted Tail, the old chieftain, Spotted Tail, first sought protection in Mr. Irish's camp. In Nevada also we knew intimately the
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leading Indians of the time, Sarah Winnenmeca, the noted In- dian woman, Scout Pinte, princess, whose father had guided Fremont across the Sierras, the Pinte chief and lawyer John- son Sides, also Chief Joseph, of Pyramid Reservation, and others.
After Mr. Irish's work in the irrigation bureau was com- pleted he returned to the state of Nevada where until his death in September, 1904, he was busily engaged in mining engin- eering. I am now past my three score years and ten, but have by no means lost my interest in the present or the past, and as I go about my daily duties, for I still love to keep house, I often find myself in reminiscent mood, and in company with those who are now lost to sight I live over again and again my pioneer days.
THOMAS CROZIER
About the time the United States of America were crystal- lizing into a nation under the federal constitution, a young man named John Crozier was united in matrimony to a fair maiden named Jane Lawson, both being natives of the county of Arrnah in the north of Ireland. They were sturdy Pro- testants by conviction, and were connected with the Reformed Presbyterians, commonly known as "the Covenanters." The family were originally from Scotland, and had emigrated to the north of Ireland in search of land and liberty. They he- longed to a race known in American history as "Scotch-Irish" - Scotch in origin and ancestry and Irish by choice and set- tlement ; a people honest and firm in purpose, with full cour- age of their convictions, haters of all oppression, and the un- shrinking friends of civil and religious liberty. Such was the stock to which John and Jane Crozier belonged. Soon after their marriage the young couple sailed for America. The voyage occupied nearly three months. They landed at Phila- delphia and soon made their way to the western part of Penn- sylvania, settling on George's Creek, Fayette county, about ten miles east of Uniontown, the county seat. By combining his trade of stone masonry with the work of farming, John Crozier earned a competence for his rising family of seven children, all of whom were born in the Pennsylvania hills. Of
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these children, David, father of Thomas Crozier, the subject of this sketch, was the third son and the fifth child in the order of birth. Equipped with a common school education such as those primitive times afforded, David Crozier, at the age of sixteen, left the parental roof and learned the carpenter's trade with a craftsman named Stephen Campbell. In 1819 he journeyed down the Ohio river with his brothers James and Thomas, who brought a boatload of produce to Cincinnati. David refused to return, and went out to West Union, county seat of Adams county, to visit some distant relatives, and there worked at his trade. While there he was engaged by Colonel John Means, late of South Carolina, to build him a house near
RESIDENCE OF THOMAS CROZIER
Manchester. Colonel Means, with his sons, afterwards de- veloped the iron interests of Brush Creek, Hanging Rock, and Ironton. He was the grandfather of Hon. William Means, afterwards mayor of Cincinnati. In the fall of 1821 David Crozier was united in marriage to Margaret, eldest daughter of William Means, son of a former soldier of the Revolution, and an elder brother of Colonel John Means. In the antumn of 1822 the elder Means, with all his family, set out from Man- chester to remove to Illinois. The horses, with wagons and flocks, were driven through by land while the heavier freight and moveables were placed on a keel boat which Mr. Means bought and placed under the command of David Crozier. The
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human cargo of this boat consisted of Mr. Crozier, wife, and infant son, Adriel Stout, wife, and infant daughter (Mrs. Stout being a sister of Mrs. Crozier), Eleven Tucker and fam- ily, and a few dockhands. The voyagers sailed from Man- chester on the 10th of October, 1822, and drifted down the Ohio river, past Cincinnati, past the falls of the Ohio, to the mouth of the Wabash ; thence up the Wabash, over the grand rapids, to Terre Haute, Indiana. By this time the winter had set in and put an end to navigation. Messrs. Crozier and Stout then removed to Vermillion county, Indiana, where they joined their overland party and moved on into Edgar county, Illinois. Their first house was built in the latter part of the winter about one mile north of where Paris now stands. Early the following spring three commissioners, Colonel John Hus- ton, and Messrs. Boyd and Kincaid, appointed by the Illinois legislature, located the county seat of Edgar county and called it Paris. At this time David Crozier's carpenter trade was immediately in demand. He laid the foundation for the first honse in Paris for Nathaniel Wayne, and therein the "Inn, by N. Wayne," was kept for the next ten years. Mr. Crozier also built the county jail and assisted in building the first court house and the first grist mill in the county, the latter being located about six miles northeast of Paris. He thus continued to advance the growing interests of the new county until 1832, when the Black Hawk War broke out. He immediately volun- teered, and was elected first sergeant in the company of Cap- tain Jonathan Mayo. Though this war was a mere "squirrel hunt" compared with later events, Sergeant Crozier served with ardor until its close and demonstrated that he had the stuff in him for a soldier. Returning to the bosom of his fam- ily and to the arts of peace, Mr. Crozier continued to be an active factor in Paris until 1835, when, in company with Thomas Brock and Eleven Tucker and their families, he set out for the new and growing city of Chicago, then having a population of about 4,000, where he resided for a time. Later he removed to Joliet, living there five years and working at his trade. Just about that time the country suffered from a great panie, superinduced by wildcat currency and speculation, and to add to his personal troubles Mr. Crozier lost three of his children by scarlet fever. As a result of it all, he decided to
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make an exploring trip to Iowa, and did so in the fall of 1839. His examination of the country in the vicinity of Wyoming, Iowa, and Edgington, Illinois, convinced him that the new region was worthy of a fair test, and the following year he removed with his family from Joliet and located at Edgington, Illinois, determining to use that place as a base of supplies from which to investigate the Iowa country later on. After putting in crops of corn, oats, and potatoes, Mr. Crozier, with his son John, a lad of eighteen, set out to look over the prairies of Iowa. They landed at Wyoming and proceeded inland, fin- ally reaching Iowa City. Hearing of a claim west of the Iowa river, 'Mr. Crozier made an examination thereof, and, after submitting the matter to his family at Edgington, proceeded to purchase from Thomas B. Anthony a half section of land in the bend of the Iowa river, about nine miles northwest of Iowa City, the consideration for Anthony's relinquishment being a spotted horse named "Joe," which Mr. Crozier brought with him from Edgington. The following September Mr. Crozier and his family moved on to the new homestead in what has be- come known as "the South Bend." The Crozier family, as they settled in the fall of 1840, consisted of the parents and seven children, John, Nancy, Jane, William Means, James, Amanda, and Thomas, the latter an infant of six months. In 1841 Mr. Crozier sold the Anthony claim to Rev. Launcelot G. Bell, of Burlington, the pioneer Presbyterian minister of the territory, and, taking up a half section of prairie, opened the farm where he spent the remainder of his days, dying in his seventy-seventh year, March 19, 1876. His wife died Oc- tober 12, 1869, aged seventy years. On this old farm last men- tioned onr subject, the youngest member of the family, was born December 19, 1842.
Thomas Crozier is the only male survivor of his father's family. There is one other survivor, his sister, Amanda Ress Rackett, a widow, who has a daughter and two sons residing at Chicago. Mr. Crozier was educated in the rural schools of his township. On July 12, 1861, at the age of nineteen, he fol- lowed the example of his father in the Black Hawk War, and enlisted in the Sixth Towa Volunteer Infantry, for service in the Civil War. On account of physical disability he was dis- charged, but later, when recovered, he worked in the subsist-
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ence department in the winter of 1863-64. He re-enlisted in Company G, Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry, and was mustered out at the close of the war. On his return from the war, Mr. Crozier spent three years in the west as a contractor on the Union Pacific Railroad. During his mother's illness in 1869 he returned to the home farm, which he farmed and subse- quently bought from the heirs. He continued in active work on this place until 1910.
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