USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 29
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( Mr. L. O. Larson must have practiced faithfully with that old "flint-lock" during his boyhood. as he has later acquired the title of "the mighty hunter of Taylor.")-EDITOR.
Mr. Hicks, from near Hardin, was our first surveyor. and Mr. Sutter, of same locality, the first assessor in this locality, and possibly his beat included the entire county then.
1 must not omit to mention the prairie fires that came as regularly as did the frozen grass in late autumn, and only for the fire breaks, a burned strip around the
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hay stacks and field fences, not a stack or a fence would have been left in its wake.
The first schoolhouse was built in 1854-5 in the district now called the Climax, but then included the Excelsior and St. Joseph also. Miss Harriet Phipps, now Mrs. E. Tisdale, taught the first school, commencing in May, 1855. She was then but fourteen years of age, and her salary was $15 per month, minus board, but she says it was then equivalent to $100 now. Ole Larson was the school director that employed her.
Before there was spiritual food to be obtained, there being no ordained clergy- men during the first few years here, Ole Larson, who had served in the capacity, or, perhaps better, function, of "klokker" precentor (leader of psalmody ) during divine services in the parish whence he came in Norway, as well as parochial school teacher, gathered the youthful element together here on Sundays, read the "text," and all joined in singing a few hymns, thus maintaining the religious spirit of the land of their birth. He also for a number of years here acted as "klokker" at religious services held in private dwellings and in the summer time in barns, mainly in Thomas Anderson's house and Arne Barskrind's barn, the latter in section 3, Paint Creek. Martin Ulvestad's "Northmen in America" says the Paint Creek congregation, the first Norwegian Lutheran congregation in the county, was organized by V. Koren, pastor, in 1854, and its first church was built in '56 near Dalby. It is now the Old East Paint Creek church, the dissenters taking the name, while the congregation retained the church property.
Probably the first suit at law in Taylor was that of Ole Larson vs. Asle Knutson (Stakke), about 1852, the latter making an attempt to "jump" a part of the former's land. Court was held at Columbus, by Judge Wilson, I think, and the case was decided in favor of Mr. Larson. The first case of homicide, and I believe the only case in this section, was that of the aged father of Thomas and Miles Roche, who was killed by two strangers on the farm now owned by Mrs. Barney McCormick, on the east line of Paint creek. The Evans family lived there at the time, but Charles chanced to be away from home.
When J. W. Remine, the first lawyer here, came as an emissary of Asle Knutson to talk with father about the above mentioned land case, none could understand English, but that he said "you wrong" and that was guessed at. So father sent me along with Surveyor Hicks to Hardin (Collins' tavern then), where I attended school in a log schoolhouse on the government road from McGregor west, and stayed with Mrs. Hicks and her sister, Miss Baker. While Mr. H. was away the women sent me home to pick hickory nuts for them, and I became lost, sleeping out one night in the tall blue joint grass on Yellow river, in November. in a section where bears were said to prowl in those days. I wandered until the Sencebaugh men working on a road sent me to their home with one of the girls who had brought their dinner, and the next morning Mrs. Reuben Sencebaugh took me on a horse, behind the saddle, to Waterville, and from there I was acquainted with the way. In 1849, the year before locating here, Ole Larson, Ole Storla, Erik Espeseth and Ole Grinsgaard had visted this region and fol- lowed an Indian trail up the Paint Creek valley to the "Big Spring" at what is now Waukon, where they ate their lunch and retraced their steps, as they thought that locality too far from navigation-or future market place.
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PAINT ROCK
This bold and rocky bluff, with its high precipice facing the Mississippi river like an immense natural bulletin-board, which it practically was in the old days, is situated near the lower corner of Taylor township, and was an ancient land- mark when it was first mentioned by any writer. When and by whom among the white explorers of this region it was first so-called is shrouded in mystery. It gave its name to the creek which rises at Waukon and empties into the river a mile below long before there is any known record, and which appears on the very earliest and rudest maps of the region as Paint creek or Paint Rock creek. Near here was the slaughter of an entire French half-breed family by the Indians in 1827, as narrated in an early chapter of this volume. At the time the county was first settled there was on this cliff the painted figures of ani- mals. with the word "Tiger," and some symbols of undoubted Indian origin. The appearance of the word quoted indicates that the white man had a hand in decorating this rock, and it is natural to suppose that at the time of the estab- lishment of the Neutral Ground in 1830, as narrated in a previous chapter, this may have been done to mark the southern boundary thereof so plainly that it would be a warning to the roaming natives. But it was evidently an accident that the painted rock should coincide with the southern line of the Neutral Ground at its river terminus, being approximately twenty miles in a direct line from the month of the Upper Iowa, at Brookings Bluff. Judge Murdock said the painting was there in 1843 and looked ancient at that time.
There has been no end of speculation as to the origin and purpose of these inscriptions, and much has been written about them. But that it was originally the work of Indians, and probably the Sioux, is fairly well established. It may have been first decorated many generations ago, and the inscriptions renewed from time to time as they began to fade. Captain Carver does not mention it in 1763, nor Lieutenant Pike in 1805. The very first allusion to it we have been able to find was by Major Long in 1817. There were other similar paintings spoken of by various writers among the explorers, among the more prominent being that on the east side of the Mississippi in Illinois, which Father Marquette describes in his journal of 1673. S. W. Kearney in 1820 speaks of a painted rock on the east side of the Mississippi about nine miles below Fort Snelling. And on an ancient map of Minnesota there is shown a "Paint Rock Creek" on the west side of the river, in that state. Schoolcraft also mentions a Paint Rock on the upper Mississippi, but does not locate it definitely. And there were also some rocks with like designation on the Des Moines river, in the central part of lowa. (Salter, p. 250.) In 1823 Beltrami, in speaking of our Paint Rock, says the "savages pay their adorations to this rock, which they annually paint."
In his personal narrative of the "Early Times and Events in Wisconsin," Hon. James H. Lockwood, an early settler at Prairie du Chien, writing in 1855, says, in speaking of the Sioux Indian medicine men and their sacrifices to the Great Spirit: "On the prairies are often found isolated granite rocks, which, from their isolated and scattered appearance, are considered holy, and every Indian who passes them either paints them with vermilion or leaves a piece of tobacco as a tribute. Hence the great number of places in this country where the Sioux were accustomed to pass that bear the name of Painted Rock."
PAINT ROCK
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In the case of this Paint Rock under discussion, it was not so readily acces- sible as to admit of every passing Indian making a contribution ; but a camping party with leisure, of either natives or whites, could with little difficulty gain a position on a narrow ledge where these figures appeared. Mr. Ellison Orr, of Waukon, who is an authority on Indian mounds and relics, visited the spot about IgII for the purpose of a close inspection of these once prominent figures, and we are permitted to copy his notes, as follows:
"About one-half mile above Waukon Junction at the mouth of Paint creek, on the northwest of northeast of section 3-97-3, a wide and deep dry ravine, after running almost parallel to the canyon of the Mississippi river for over a mile, opens into it.
"On the river side of the point of the bluff separating the two valleys is the 'Paint Rock.'
"Most of the river face of the bluffs along here is almost sheer vertical walls of rock, sometimes over two hundred feet in height. At the foot of the precipices is another hundred feet of talus of earth and rock debric sloping down to the river bank.
"At the point of bluff where the small lateral valley meets the larger one, at a height of 30 to 40 feet above the foot of the precipice, a narrow shelf runs along the face of it for a distance of several rods. Just above this shelf the cal- careous sandrock is smeared and stained with patches of mineral red, all that is left of pictographs of animals or other objects that gave the place its name. The rock has weathered away so much that the figures with two exceptions can not now be made out.
"The two which remain represent the heads of an animal with horns. prob- ably a buffalo, or perhaps they may represent some Indian deity.
"At the bottom of the cliff, under these figures, some twenty feet in height of the rock base just at the point is Jordan sandstone, and for ten feet up from the point where the slope of loose rock and earth begins are hundreds of verti- cal, or nearly vertical, slashes or marks such as might be made by rubbing the edge of a celt or stone ax up and down on the sandrock till a V-shaped groove or crease was made, 6, 8, or 10 inches long and from a half to an inch deep, many of which are all but obliterated.
"Among these are remnants of figures also cut in the rock. The grooves forming these figures differ from those of the vertical slashes in being half round.
"As usual there are also a few initials and names certainly made by the whites."
Accompanying this is a photograph of the Paint Rock Bluff point looking northwest from the water's edge of Harper's Channel, which is reproduced here by kindness of Mr. Orr.
UNION CITY TOWNSHIP
At the March term, 1852, of the county court, a commission was issued to Ensign Chilson to organize the township of Union City by an election to be called for April Ist. The township as organized comprised all of the present townships of Iowa, Waterloo, Hanover, and French Creek, besides Union City;
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but no record has been found of the election of officers. The name was that given to the settlement in embryo on the north side of the Iowa above the mouth of French creek, but no plat of the village so called was ever put upon record.
In 1856 Mr. E. T. Albert and family came from Wellsville, Ohio, and in April. 1858, Benj. Ratcliffe, a brother-in-law, from Wheeling, Virginia ; and they settled on adjoining farms on the lowa river, in this township, where the town of Union City was to be located, at the river crossing called Chilson's Ford, on the line between sections 34 and 35. This was so called from Mr. Chilson, a blacksmith who made his claim here, but sold it to one Davidson, and he to E. T. Albert. The latter built a large stone house known as "Alberta House," to be used as a wayside hotel. this being the main thoroughfare from Lansing to points many miles north in Minnesota, and was called the "Main Minnesota Road." Mr. Albert sold out to a brother-in-law, John Gilchrist, in 1864, and he to his son J. J. in 1886, who sold to the present owner. Joseph Hartley, in 1&02.
The first bridge across the Upper lowa was built at this ford in 1859, paid for mostly by private subscriptions of the enterprising business men of Lansing, which was the point chiefly interested in the trade to come from this part of the county, and beyond. In 1861 and '62 the proceedings of the Board of Supervisors show appropriations from time to time for repairs on this bridge. And in 1863 a petition of S. V. Shaw and others shows that "in 1859 the sum of $1, 175 was expended in erecting a bridge across the lowa River near Bellows' at what is called Chilson's Ford on the county road; that it was built by private subscrip- tion, but there was $330 pledges uncollectible." The petitioners asked the board to make up this deficiency, which they did. This bridge was later taken out by floods or ice gorges, and a ferry was then established by Porter Bellows of French Creek until a bridge was built in 1866 or '67, which was replaced by the iron bridge known since as the Ratcliffe bridge, put in some eight or ten years later.
The high bluff which stands out boldly one half mile north of the river cross- ing. between Alberta House and their own home, Mrs. Ratcliffe named "Mt. llope," and their farm "Mt. Hope Farm," and known as such to this day. One Dr. Rogers was located on this land in 1855, succeeded by A. H. Pickering, who sold the land to B. Ratcliffe in 1857. The first schoolhouse was built on the north line of this farm, and later one in front of Mount Hope. The church, manse, and cemetery are also on the same farm. Mrs. E. T. Albert taught the first school in this ( Clear Creek ) district, and in the township, in the winter of 1858-59, in one room of their house, to accommodate their own large family, the Sheckletons, Merrits, and some from outside territory. A sabbath school was held in this house until the schoolhouse was built-Robert Wampler was one of the pupils. The schoolhouse was built in the summer of 1859, in which John D. Cole, a resident of the district, taught the next winter. He removed to Lan- sing in 1860, was a gallant soldier during the war, returning to and residing in Lansing until near the close of his long and useful life.
Marshall Merritt was the first postmaster at Clear Creek, from its establish- ment in 1856 until he sold out to Ed. Waters and removed to Minnesota in 1860, when Benj. Ratcliffe was commissioned, holding the office for twenty-five years, when he resigned and the office was discontinued, mail going to French
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Creek and Dorchester. Mr. Ratcliffe was elected to the House of Representa- tives, in the 17th General Assembly of Iowa, sitting in 1878. He continued to reside upon this farm until his death, January 1, 1900, aged 86 years. A grand- son, Benj. Hartley, now owns the farm.
Two miles north of this point, in Clear Creek valley, were the families of Lusks, Dennisons, and Wamplers, coming from Pennsylvania in 1854 or '55, who after a number of years sold out to Germans and went west. Near them was Patrick Fitzgerald, with five sons, who opened up and settled on small farms, but who in the sixties sold out and went a few counties south and west, where they have all prospered. Just south of the river were early settlers, Brooks, Kibbys, and Donovans.
Three or four miles west up the river a number of English families settled on a piece of bench or table land, still known as the "English Bench." These were the Bulmans, Saddlers, and Hartleys ; also Reburns, P. McGuire, and Dr. S. D. Allen who practiced medicine. Some of the first two named are still there, but the rest have given place to others. The Elephant is a lone bluff fronting a bend in the Oneota and sloping back to the English Bench. Not so high as some others, it suggests the animal in a reclining posture.
The Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church was organized in August 1858, at the house of E. T. Albert, by Rev. Joseph Adams of Frankville and Rev. Chas. Fitch, Presbyterian ministers, Rev. A. H. Houghton, Congregational, of Lansing, being present. Ten members were enrolled, and E. T. Albert and Benj. Ratcliffe elected elders. Rev. James Frothingham of Caledonia Presbyterian Church, and ministers from Frankville, came at stated times ; but Dr. A. H. Houghton also served this congregation, holding services also in other schoolhouses in Union City, French Creek and Iowa townships for some years, and was a faithful and self-sacrificing man. The Mt. Hope church was built in the summer of 1870, and cemetery laid out adjoining. A manse was built a few years later, all on land given by Benj. Ratcliffe, and a resident pastor has been supported for many years.
Mrs. Bellows, to whom we are indebted for the greater part of the foregoing reminiscences of Union City and French Creek townships, also contributes the following item of history: On September 1, 1862, the dwellers in the valley in Union City were astonished to see many teams coming down the Minnesota road from the north, each loaded with household goods and the family. Inquiries brought out the fact that they were fleeing from a reported Indian uprising far- ther north, and they continued on their way to Lansing, objects of wonder all along the route until they told their story. Neighbors thought the Alberta House as good as a fort, though the many windows would have been of good service to the invaders as well as to the defenders. Others whose fathers and brothers were doing scout duty spent the night at Mt. Hope farm. The next day a pro- cession of teams went north again, assured from reports received at Lansing that the New Ulm massacre did not reach far south of that point. Sept. Ist is still referred to as the date of the "Indian Scare."
The first 4th of July celebration was called a Sabbath School celebration and held on Mt. Hope farm in 1858, attended by all from far and near. The program included a poem entitled "Liberty" by a twelve year old girl, identity known only to the reader and writer, and an address by Rev. Dr. A. H. Houghton. Martial
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music was a feature of the occasion, as we had a fifer from New York and a drummer from Pennsylvania, the latter resplendent in a costume worn when he played on training day "back home," consisting of a green coat, white trousers. and a tall .black hat surmounted by a red feather. For twenty years perhaps these S. S. celebrations were regularly held, in different localities, and such men as S. H. Kinne, L. E. Fellows, and Chas. Paulk, and others of ability, thought it a pleasure to address the assembled people.
In the northern part of the township. G. W. Carver was among the earliest arrivals, moving onto what is called Portland Prairie in May, 1852, and securing a large claim. Shortly after a land commissioner made a selection of three quar- ter sections adjoining his claim, for lowa school lands, and Mr. Carver contracted for this also, under the state laws, and continued to hold the same until it reverted to the government, as the commissioner had selected too much land, and that among the last selected was the first to be withdrawn. Mr. Carver had some difficulty in attempting to hold this land against other claimants, and the matter went into the courts, those pioneer lawyers, John T. Clark and G. W. Camp being the opposing counsel. The case reached the United States courts, where it remained for ten or fifteen years, until finally with the assistance of Henry Dayton, our member of the Iowa House in 1872, a special act of the legislature was secured reimbursing Mr. Carver for the loss of the land. During the first winter, Mr. Carver said he went to Riley Ellis' mill on Paint Creek to get some corn ground, but found it laid up for repairs. He then went on to Yellow river, where he bought more corn, getting a few bushels each from settlers who could spare it, which he got ground there and started for home. The journey occupied two weeks, and his family near starving. Deer were very plentiful at this time; and straying Winnebagoes numerous. In his later years Mr. Carver resided in Lansing, where he had started the first lumberyard before locating on his farm, and where he died February 20, 1897.
Samuel Evans, settled near Carver's, and a large family from Maine, consist- ing of Josiah Everett, five sons and two sons-in-law, Chas. Harvey and W. Pease, and other relatives, giving the settlement the name of Portland Prairie. In the early seventies all of these removed to Nebraska, where several of them became prominent in state and county affairs, builders of railroads, bankers, and pros- pered generally. In addition to the early settlers mentioned above, the records show the following names among those who took government land in Union City township prior to 1855. Jackson G. Coil, Bernard H. Deters, Jeremiah Shum- way, Patrick Hays, and John G. Gerling.
The following additional items are culled from "Old Times on Portland Prairie," by H. V. Arnold, in 1911.
About the year 1855 William Hartley, a native of England, came from Indiana to the lowa river, where he kept a tavern on the Lansing road.
The winter of 1865-6 was marked in its latter half by a great depth of snow. The 31st of March was a moderate day, with a south wind, and that night a terrific thunder storm ensued, with a heavy down-pour of rain. All of the ravines became rushing torrents and many bridges were swept away, including the Iowa river bridge on the road to Lansing. ( This fixes the date of the taking out of the Chilson's Ford bridge, rebuilt during the ensuing year.)
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The people of Portland Prairie were accustomed to have a big picnic celebra- tion annually on the Fourth of July, and that year they held it at this crossing of the Oneota. In those times scarcely anyone in the whole neighborhood possessed such a thing as a buggy or other light rig. Family parties or other groups had to travel to such gatherings in common farm wagons, if too far to go on foot. Many teams of the prairie people journeyed down to the river, the day being favorable. The bridge there, swept away the previous spring, had not yet been rebuilt, but teams easily crossed at a gravelly ford just above where it had stood. A flat-boat had been used for a ferry when the water was higher than in its summer stage. The picnic was held in a grove close to the river and a little above the bridge piers. Quite a large assemblage of people were present, some of them presumably from that neighborhood.
In regard to the bridge at this point Capt. Bascom of Lansing writes: "In 1856 or '57 I built a ferry boat for Porter Bellows which was used until a bridge was built at Chilson's Ford as it was then called. The first bridge here was built by a man named Curts, I think, in 1859. This was taken out by the ice. I built a bridge here for the county in 1866 or 1867, 160 feet long."
The St. John's Lutheran church of Union City was incorporated September 30, 1884, as the "Evangelical St. John's Community," with the following named trustees: Henry Bisping, Gustav Pottratz, Henry Welper, John Schulze, and Henry Kruse. At present, this church is served we believe by Rev. F. C. Klein as pastor.
The population of Union City township was 138 in 1856, and 613 in 1910.
Township officers in 1913 are: Clerk, Henry Bisping; Trustees, John A. Schultz, E. J. Sadler, G. W. Weimerslage; Assessor, Henry H. Rober; Justices, Ben Hartley and John E. Martin; Constable, Win. Sadler.
UNION PRAIRIE TOWNSHIP
Union Prairie was early organized, the election for that purpose being held April 1, 1852, under a commission issued to Geo. Merrill, who had taken a claim on the north side of section 23. Many of the earlier settlers in this township were truly pioneers, such as the Eells brothers, Gilletts, James Reid, Bush, Merrill, Harris, Horton, Conner, Raymond, Isted, and others, and special mention of them is made in the recollections of G. M. Dean and D. B. Raymond, in a previous chapter. Mr. Dean fails however, to mention his own coming to this township in 1853, when he bought a farm on section 23. But he later became identified with the town of Waukon. John Wallace came in 1853 but later settled in Lud- low. Christopher McNutt took land in sections 10 and 15 in 1850; and Wm. M. Dibble in section 13. The following took government land in 1851: Thomas Downs in section 12; John Magner and Wm. Rea in 18; John, Thos. and Denis Haley in 24, 28, and 33: Benj. Woodward in 35, and John Miller in 36. Others shortly after were: Pat, John and Dan Curtin in section 7; James Griffin, section 7; Wm. Jones, section 12; Michael Donovan and John O'Brien, section 18; Pat- rick Connolly, section 3; Cornelius Toohey and James McNamara, section 5; Thomas Stack, section 8; Conrad Helmning, section 33; and a little later Jacob Plank, J. F. Pitt, Richard Ryan, Simon Ludeking, Nathaniel Pierce, Henry R. Pierce, John Goodykoontz. It is a curious coincidence that the two last named
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and D. Jaquis in Ludlow, all prominent citizens and members of the Waukon M. E. church, died within the one year. 1875. Mr. Pitt before going onto his farm first built a house on a lot east of where the Episcopal church later stood, in Waukon, not far from Father Shattuck's cabin; and since retiring from the farm he has bought and still lives in the Duffy house, one block south of his original home of nearly sixty years ago.
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