USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 20
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"Lemuel Pratt entered the land where Michael McCroden now lives, and kept hotel there. [Present owner P. J. Quillin.] The postoffice for all the region round about was kept in his house, and he was the first postmaster in Makee township. In 1856 he sold out and moved to Minnesota.
"In the spring of 1851 Augustine and L. W. Hersey came in with a small stock of goods, purchased the remnant of the stock of Lemuel, and opened a small store in the dwelling house of Augustine on Makee Ridge, later owned by G. Schellsmith.
"In the sprng of 1851 several familes came into the settlement, among whom were Abraham Bush, David Bartley. Elijah Short, George Randall, Howard Her- sey. John Pratt, Doctor Flint. the pioneer physician of the settlement, John A. Wakefield and perhaps others, who settled in what is now Makee; and George Merrill. Henry Harris, John Harris, II. H. Horton, Francis Treat. John Ammon, Eells brothers, Moses Bush, John Bush, Wm. S. Conner, and others, who settled in what is now Union Prairie; and the country began to present an appearance of age and prosperity, but there was as yet no Makee, Union Prairie or Waukon."
D. B. RAYMOND'S RECOLLECTIONS
In 1877 Mr. David B. Raymond, then living in Ohio, contributed a series of papers to the Waukon Standard which were so interesting that copious extracts are given here for preservation in permanent form. Mr. Raymond was one of eight children of John Raymond, who located the whole west half of section 35. in Union Prairie township in 1852. After describing their journey, and arrival at Lansing on a steamer three days and nights from Galena, he tells something of their disappointment in finding so rudimentary a town; and the narrative continues :
"Before leaving Lansing I must tell what was there in the fall of '52 in September. I cannot recall who kept the hotel then under way. A Mr. Birchard | Bircher] kept a grocery directly at the landing, just opposite where G. W. Gray's warehouse was afterwards built. I remember Birchard had a large yellow rattlesnake confined in a box : this was the first rattlesnake I ever saw, and it left no pleasant recollections of the breed. A Mr. Ballou had established a lumber yard. The Hasseys were then making some additions to their plat of the town; there was a fine strip of bench land between the creek and the bluff, extending cut to where the sawmill was in course of construction. I think there was not more than six or eight dwellings completed then, but all was bustle and activity ; every boat brought from two to three hundred passengers, and a few days or weeks made great changes.
"The first gambling I ever witnessed was in an unfinished saloon in Lansing ; the glittering coin in stacks is now fresh in mind. * * * Gambling in the Mississippi Valley in those days was considered a legitimate business.
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John W. Remine, John Mobley. John J. Shaw, James I. Gilbert, and the Cowles came about this time. The Grant brothers kept a hotel soon after. There were many others whose names I cannot recall. There was a constant noise like a bedlam from carpenters' tools, and like Jonah's gourd Lansing grew in a night.
"But hark! The same sounds are heard down the river. What means this? A rival town in existence only one mile away, and upon inquiry learned the name was Columbus. How my pulse beat upon learning the name! I had left the good old State of Ohio with its capital of that name : but this young Columbus was hardly distinguishable. Nevertheless the same racket was there, and an enterprising man, Mr. Elias Topliff, had already the county seat in embryo at the foot of Capoli bluff, but was in danger of slipping off into the river. If he and Mr. Leonard B. Hodges had expended their energies on a favorable location their prestige would have won them much that was otherwise lost.
"But we must leave Lansing and see what is out on the 'cow-path,' which we found to be a tolerably good wagon road. A mile or more out we came to the first of Iowa's famous springs. The sparkling water came gushing out of the limestone rock at the foot of the bluff and dashed across the road as if to hurry on to mingle with the Father of Waters. I drank from this spring my first square drink on Iowa soil, and many times after stopped to drink of this sparkling water.
"A few miles out we came to an abrupt hill which we wound up with diffi- culty and when on the summit found we were on the famous 'Lansing Ridge,' and within the range of the eye there seemed a dozen more just like it. Away to the south was the so-called Columbus Ridge. These two rival towns had rival ridges running parallel, and rival roads on these two ridges terminating at nearly the same point on Union Prairie. Between them flowed a beautiful stream called Village creek.
"Standing on the Lansing ridge about eight miles out from the river and looking over the valley of Village creek, and to the north where the ridges and ravines with their rippling streams are lost in the view towards the Upper Iowa river, I think is as romantic as any view ever beheld by the writer; the more so as the first view was when not a living white man had a house in this region save what I call to mind in these papers. I believe I am correct when I say that Mr. Thos. [this doubtless should be John A.] Wakefield was the first who put up a dwelling on the ridge out from Lansing; at least we found him ensconsed in a good house with some improvements at our first advent there. He was a man of considerable avoirdupois and went by the title of colonel or major. He had a great desire for prominence and office, and was subject to many hard hits from competitors. As he often gloried in his valorous deeds in the war with Black Hawk, the keen cutting sarcasm of J. W. Remine and some others drove the old colonel almost to frenzy on some occasions. I believe he never succeeded to any office while a resident of the ridge, which sorely discour- aged him. As he was indeed a pioneer he sold out and moved to Nebraska in the summer of '54. He was quite enterprising in improvements, and had a water ram in operation several rods below his house to force the water from a nice spring to his dwelling, which was considered a great luxury on the ridge. the elevation carrying the traveler many feet above some good springs
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on either side. Thus my memory reverts to the many draughts of cool water from the pipe at the colonel's place and can only think of him as a true benefactor.
[A sketch of Colonel Wakefield's career will be found in another chapter.]
"In the summer of '53 the writer walked from Union Prairie to Lansing and back on a hot day to get medicine for a sick mother, there being no physician nearer than Lansing at that time to our knowledge, unless Dr. J. W. Flint had located in the Hersey and Pratt settlement prior to this.
"The next dwelling out from Col. Wakefield's was, I think, Mr. Judson Hersey's, where we found this true Yankee behind a counter selling goods to the passing immigrants. My first impression of this man was lasting, and I can only think of him as a genial gentleman with genuine enterprise. In subsequent years I met him and found him the same. He was the pioneer merchant of all the country west from Lansing. [This is not quite correct, as A. J. Hersey (known as Judson) purchased the stock from his brothers Lewis and Augus- tine, who had a year or so the start of him; and they had taken over the rem- nant of goods opened up by Lemuel Pratt in 1850.]
"The first settlement formed in '52 [1850-'51] by the Herseys and Pratts at the western termination of Lansing Ridge was at that time a prominent place, characterized by great enterprise, but when the commissioners drove the stake for the future county seat at Waukon, the enterprising residents of Makee fol- lowed like a flock of sheep and became pioneers in building up this beautiful village within plain view of the scenes of their first labors. Much of the early enterprise of Waukon is due to the Herseys and Pratts. But I am running ahead of my story, as I intended to note a chain of circumstances.
"As we approached the level country eighteen or twenty miles west from the river-I say level because near the river the bluffs and ravines were so unlike what I was used to in Ohio that the country at the head of the streams was to my mind level, although it was all rolling and interspersed with miniature ridges and ravines-when we reached Union Prairie after traveling through two or more miles of 'openings' from Hersey's store, what a beautiful scene was pre- sented to view ! The open prairie gently rolling like waves of the sea, all covered with grass, apparently as even as a floor; the fluttering prairie chickens as they rose from the wagon path; and the bright crimson waves of the sun towards evening glittering over the waving grass; such a sight can never be seen again in the same place and under the same circumstances.
"I will name a few of the first families that preceded us to Union Prairie township and vicinity: Mr. Edward Eells had one of the finest selections in the county, and had commenced improvements on the lovely spot where he chose to erect a cabin, alongside a beautiful spring. He was a prominent man and his place was an intermediate point between Lansing and Decorah, consequently it was a stopping place for all travel on this road, and the first postoffice in this part was kept by Mr. Eells. He had a family of boys, of which I remember Andrew, Giles, Enos, Edward, and Spicer. I think there were two daughters, one of whom married a Mr. Williams, of Lansing, a tinner.
"A brother of his, Mr. Loren Eells, made a fine selection just west of Edward's. Just north of this two brothers, Welshmen, Henry and John Harris, had a splendid location and had raised some fine erops that season. Vol. 1-11
$ 400
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"Following down this spring brook were others who located about the same time, and to the north there were many who came and took up land. The set- tlement was so rapid that the land was soon all taken in this region, far in the direction of the Upper lowa river.
"To the south of the Eells selection were others : Mr. Wm. Abbott, and Mr. Wm. Conner, who soon sold to a Mr. Freeman, who became so homesick he soon sold out and went back to York state. South of Mr. Abbott's was John Raymond's selection. and south of that the Woodward brothers, Ben- jamin and Reading ; the latter sold out and went to Minnesota. Just west of the Woodwards, Mr. James Logan located. He was a true Scotch farmer and prospered well. Just east of John Raymond's was a selection made by Mr. Rob- ert Isted, a very enterprising man and a most untiring worker, who aided in every enterprise to improve the country.
"Mr. Ezra Reid had located on the southeast of this prairie, with a choice rivalling the Eells selection. He was indeed the pioneer of this section. Mr. Luther Howes, his son-in-law, located on the west of 'Uncle Ezra ; and south of R. Isted was Mr. Henry Holcomb.
"This brings us near to the beautiful prairie where Waukon is now located. The first time I beheld the gentle rolling land on which your town now stands my impression was that the Allwise Being had bestowed uncommon beauties on this spot. **
* The pioneer cabin of Mr. George Shattuck was like a dot on this rare picture. It stood in a clump of hazel thicket with a few burr oak trees around. and near the spot where the Episcopal church stood later. Mr. Shattuck had entered considerable land here, and made a wise selection, never dreaming his location was to become the future county seat. The writer worked for Mr. Shattuck a few days in the fall of '52, and took turnips for pay. Mr. Shattuck was a staunch whig then. and the election of Winfield Scott was to him almost bread and butter. 1 being schooled differently thought the old man overzealous. hence some bickerings between us : I being young and having no vote was always worsted in these talks. Mr. Shattuck was anxiously awaiting the return of a son from California with funds to free him from debt and make improvements. He was advanced in years and could not labor much, but was hale and hearty for his age."
The county seat was located by the commissioners upon Mr. Shattuck's land in the spring of 1853,-or. rather. upon the land of his sons, Scott and Pitt Shattuck, who had entered claims adjoining, and the embryo town was christened Waukon (after John Waukon, a Winnebago chief ), by John Haney, Jr., of Lansing, it is generally believed, as narrated in the history of Waukon, in another chapter. Mr. Raymond gives the credit to John W. Remine, also of Lansing. They may both have been present at the time. Mr. Raymond makes the assertion that the prominent men of Lansing assisted in the selection of Waukon as the county seat for the purpose of crippling their down-river neigh- bor, Columbus, with the ulterior purpose of securing the prize for Lansing at a later date, which was temporarily accomplished in 1861. Continuing Mr. Ray- mond writes :
"Soon after the location of the county seat some of the more wise considered the necessity of giving it a name. Many were the names proposed, of which the writer cannot remember any except the one now so familiar, and which
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seemed so fitting. The name Waukon was proposed by J. W. Remine, and adopted. Thus one of Lansing's citizens gave the name to the embryo county seat. The writer had the pleasure of seeing this old chief some years prior to his death while on his way to Washington to see the 'Great Father.' He was represented to be then past eighty years of age. He was tall and straight as a reed, but showed the feebleness attending old age. His whole appearance was commanding, and his voice superb.
"About the time or immediately after the stake was set a son of Mr. Shattuck returned from the land of gold and deeded the land then held by his father, a part of which was school land. If I mistake not they deeded forty acres to the county for the new county seat, and commenced to improve and build on some lots as soon as the plat of the town was laid out. The first building put up in the new town was put up by Scott Shattuck, nearly due south from the old cabin, just across the ravine near the spring. This building served as a dwelling and hotel in one, and faced on Main street, running east and west. [This was on the north side of the street, and is still standing, in 1913, shown in the pic- ture on page 209.]
"Scott Shattuck also put up a barn at the same time, which was unroofed by a storm in July following. This was the first storm witnessed in the new state by us newcomers, and was a fearful one indeed. Heavy hail fell and destroyed the crops in its track, the cornfields being utterly destroyed as if immense droves of cattle had roamed over them. * *
"There were a number of buildings put up in Waukon nearly simultaneously. One was for the county, a low frame a little south of the courthouse square on the east side of Allamakee street. [This little building still stands, 1913, and is shown on page 209. with an addition built on the south in 1857.] All was bustle and activity. Many came and bought lots and prepared to build before the deeds were made out. Carpenters were in demand, and a goodly number came. Among the first was one Wm. Ramsdel, who I think, built the first two or three buildings in town. His brother Joseph worked with him."
Mr. Raymond's reminiscences were interrupted here by pressure of other duties ; but a few years later, after another visit here he called up further recol- lections, from which we quote :
"Thomas Howe expressed my thought when he first looked over Union Prairie in my company one morning in September, 1852, and in answer to my question what he thought of it, replied, 'Why, it's a rale hiven on airth.'
"I also remember the log cabin where Dr. J. W. Flint lived as the first prac- ticing physician in the locality, and how one cold winter day I called to have a tooth extracted. The appliances were of the old style and the doctor strong and not very cautious or tender in his manner ; he drew from his pocket an old jack- knife which had been a stranger to the whetstone for months; with this he cut the gum, or rather tore it loose, down to the jaw, 'and don't you forget' that tooth had the ache taken out suddenly. I suggested to the doctor the propriety of having the tooth in as the aching ceased but he never left jobs half finished : the old cant hook was wrapped with a very ancient looking handkerchief and crowded into my mouth which then felt like a hardware and dry goods store com- bined; one twist and that tooth left its hold and rolled on the floor and for a moment I conceived it had gone through the top of my head and left a big hole,
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but in a few minutes the doctor suggested that I could safely return home. I deposited a half dollar with him and left, since which time I have retained my teeth intact, but will always remember the doctor and my first rough experience with him. He was afterward a physician of good practice in Waukon and a good souled man. One Anderson, who kept a livery at the time in town, and was quite a wag, said the doctor was very liberal in administering medicine as his powders were usually as large as a good sized frog. But the good doctor has long since gone to his rest. and I must kindly remember him now as no doubt many of your citizens will, as a prominent man in business and politics in Alla- makee."
NORTH OF THE ONEOTA
In a booklet entitled "Old Times on Portland Prairie," published by H. V. Arnold in 1911, we find some interesting recollections regarding the settlement of the northern part of the county, which, though written more particularly for the edification of those residing north of the state line, contain references to Allamakee people as well; and being a truthful narrative of the settlement and building up of an agricultural community applies it to any similar locality, the experiences related are those of all our early settlers. The region known as Portland Prairie has long been noted for its beauty and fertility, and is partly located in Waterloo and Union City townships, its drainage being largely through Waterloo and Clear creeks into the Oneota river, or. as Mr. Arnold says, "the Upper Iowa of maps." To quote :
"The early settlers found the sunshaded sides of the ravines and tops of some of the ridges between them fairly well stocked with timber, largely full- grown, with groves of smaller growths where the bluffs merge into the swells of the rolling prairie. There was but little pine anywhere, and the chestnut, so common in the eastern states, was not found here. The sides of the bluffs that received the rays of the sun in winter, were high and steep, were apt to be bare of trees. The border prairie groves contained oaks of different varieties and sizes, but largely consisted of poplar and wild cherry.
"The first comers into this section did not occupy the open prairie, but rather sought out locations about its south and eastern borders, where the land was partially timbered. Two or three considerations usually influenced them, to-wit, the shelter of timber, and nearness to water combined with good land. A log cabin once built, other conveniences might be left to be attained as soon as might be, while some privileges commonly enjoyed in the communities from which they had emigrated, were to be indefinitely postponed or left to come as they would.
"The first settlers to locate in the neighborhood of Portland Prairie appear to have been Freeman Graves, Everett brothers, George Carver, John Edger, Mrs. Jas. Robinson with her sons and daughters (all in Allamakee except Edgar), and a few others who did not remain long in the country. Freeman Graves was a native of Vermont, and came to section 34. Winnebago township, March 15, 1851. After the government survey of the state line in 1852 he found that most of the land he had selected lay on the Iowa side of it. He spent the remainder of his long life on his farm and ten children were born to the family.
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ONEOTA VALLEY, NEAR HANSON'S, IN HANOVER TOWNSHIP
ONEOTA RIVER BLUFFS, IN HANNOVER TOWNSHIP
MEANDERINGS OF THE ONEOTA RIVER. LOOKING SOUTH FROM THE "ELEPHANT," UNION CITY TOWNSHIP
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"James Robinson was a native of Ireland, and died in 1841. In 1851 Mrs. Robinson and family located on what is still known as the Robinson place on the southern border of Portland Prairie and on the lowa side of the line. Her four sons were William, Henry, George and John. William only was old enough to make entry of a claim. The Fourth of July was observed by raising a log cabin. Another early settler was John Coil who located south of the Robinson place.
"George Carver settled some distance to the south of where Eitzen now is. in 1852. He was a native of New York. The sons of Col. Josiah Everett. as he was called, also settled on the Iowa side of the line. The sons were Josiah, Andrew, Franklin, Benaiah, and Seth. Two daughters, named Orra and Lucy. The family were from New Portland, Maine. Possibly the Everetts gave to Port- land Prairie the name that has come down from settlement days. The settlers had to get their mail at Lansing, or bring it out for several families. An old Indian trail from the lowa to the Root river followed the watershed of the prairie in its course northwesterly, and the first road followed essentially the course already marked by the old trail.
"John Edger and three other Irishmen located in section 32, Wilmington, in 1852, but Edger soon moved his location to the southeast corner of section 36, where he built a log cabin, and the others soon sold out and left. It was from Rhode Island and a neighboring portion of Massachusetts that quite a contin- gent of the carly settlers of Portland Prairie came, and those from Rhode Island being more numerous than those from any other single state, the prairie was referred to by some as the 'Rhode Island Settlement.' The first from Rhode Island came in the spring of 1854. These were James M. and Duty (or Darius) S. Paine, Charles F. Albee, and Jeremiah Shumway. They bought out John Edger and occupied his log cabin until they could establish themselves on places of their own. Edger moved down on the Mississippi river bottom somewhere to the south of the state line. This party came by boat to Lansing without any very definite idea where in southeastern Minnesota they would locate. Learning of a prairie tract some twenty miles northwest of Lansing as yet scarcely occu- pied by settlers, some of the party went out to view the land there and reported that there would be no need of looking for any other location. J. Shumway remained on the Edger claim, having land on both sdes of the state line. For the present C. F. Albee lived in the Edger cabin with the Shumway family and worked at building the few frame houses that were put up that year, the lumber Being teamed from Lansing. It is said that at one time the cabin sheltered sixteen inmates. Mrs. Albee in her old age wrote out her vivid recollections of those times, of which the following is a part :
"'Our goods had not come; we had only what we brought in our trunks. The roof of the cabin was thatched with shakes, and leaked. Now it rained so much it made the Iowa river raise so it could not be crossed, and Lansing was our trading point.
* The boys had got two cows and these had calves, so we had milk, with some little string beans, and potatoes as large as marbles, with a little flour for our first meals. Monday night Mary was so sick she was unconscious ; then Charles really seemed to have the cholera and was very sick.
* Up north about a mile, Duty and wife and James and wife and my # * father had their log cabin, and were just as hard up for food. They were trying
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to fix a better roof. Well, news came that a neighbor's wife had died with cholera on her way home from Lansing, and what could be done? One of the neigh- bors asked if Jerry could not make a coffin if he brought some boards. He said he would try, and so went to work. Charles would raise up on his elbow and tell Jerry how and what to do. My two brothers and Jerry with Mr. J. Coil went along to bury her. They had not been gone long before a regular tornado swept in upon us. The floor boards of the cabin were not nailed down and began to fly up, and the shakes flew from the roof. I expected the logs would tumble next, and no one but myself able to do anything. So I got my babies' wraps on and Charles got Mary and her baby to the door ready to go. I never can forget how Charles looked, so much like a dead man with my white bed- spread over him. I looked up on the hill and what a sight! My poor old father trying to keep up with the oxteam in which the women and babies were loaded. The roof of their house was gone, trunks blown open and clothing scattered to the winds. This was Thursday, and 1 had not been in Minnesota a week.
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