USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 41
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Eddie was the baby, and the reader and student of the family ; but his men- tality was too much for his physical strength, and he died from nervous exhaustion.
Robert Crawford removed with his family to Castleville, Buchanan county, Iowa, in 1881, where Mrs. Crawford died April 7. 1890, and he followed her in death July 20. 1896. But our county claims and honors those of their children who have made a distinguished mark in life as "Allamakee boys."
Another Allamakee boy who may well be mentioned in this connection is the Hon. Frank M. Bryne, present Governor of South Dakota. He is a sturdy Irishman, born not far from the rugged Mississippi bluffs in 1858. Fifteen years later attended school with J. C. Crawford, also Coe I. Crawford, as his teachers, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. At twenty-one he homesteaded in South Dakota, where he has since been prominently identified with the repub- lican party, serving as the first State Senator from Faulk county ; then as County Treasurer, and again State Senator. He has "made good' in every way, and as a reward now occupies the highest position in the gift of his state.
William Stinson Dunn, son of Thomas and Temperance Dunn, the fifth in a family of fifteen children, was born in Monongalia county, then in Virginia, August 17, 1817. He was a descendant on his mother's side of David Morgan, a relative of General Daniel Morgan, one of the pioneers of now West Virginia, and settled on the land where Morgantown is now situated, in 1764. The chron- icles of border warfare say, "Mr. Morgan was conspicuous for personal prowess and for daring, yet deliberate courage displayed by him during the subsequent troubles with the Indians."
In April. 1851. Mr. Dunn having purchased from his father, who was a veteran of the War of 1812, an eighty-acre land warrant received from the Gov- ernment for military service, emigrated to Iowa and rented what was then called the Barker place near Monona, Clayton county. He took a claim of 160 acres of heavily timbered land in Allamakce county, eighty acres in Paint Creek town- ship and an adjoining eighty in Linton township : and after raising a crop on his rented farm upon which to live while making a clearing, he moved onto his farm in the spring of 1852.
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Mr. Dunn was one of the very first to own and operate a threshing outfit in the new country. Owing to the scarcity of machines the area covered was large, and the season in the earlier years generally lasted from August until the last of November or first of December. He usually went to what was called the Monona Prairie the first of the season, and his territory extended from Luana to Pleasant Ridge. It was sometimes almost winter before he would get around to thresh for his home neighbors. He served his township as trustee for twenty- five or thirty years. When the County Agricultural Society was organized he became a life member and labored earnestly for its success, always contributing of his best products to help make a good display. Was also a member of the Waukon Grange Patrons of Husbandry. When the C., D. & M. R. R. proposed to build a line up the Mississippi river from Dubuque, Mr. Dunn was appointed one of six to appraise the damage to the property through which it passed in this county.
Mr. Dunn was married to Miss Virlinda Warman in 1840, by whom he had two children. In 1846 he married Miss Mary McShane, by whom he had six children. Of the eight, three children died young. Of the five daughters who grew to womanhood, Temperance married H. C. Stanley and had four children ; Isabel, Dorcas, and Jane taught in the county schools for several years; Isabel married C. A. Robey and had eleven children: Dorcas married F. W. Holford, one child; Jane married J. C. Robey, two children; Virginia married Albirtus Leas, nine children.
Mrs. Dunn died in December, 1879. Mr. Dunn continued to live on the farm on which they settled until the fall of 1893, when he went to Waukon and lived with his daughter, Jane Robey, until his death at the age of eighty-four years, November 1, 1901. He came of a sturdy, long-lived race, his father dying at the age of eighty-eight years, his mother at ninety-one. Of his seven brothers and seven sisters, only one, a brother, died in childhood; all the rest lived beyond middle age and all were married except one sister. Two of his brothers lived to be over ninety.
Joseph P. Jackson, a veteran of the Mexican war, died at the home of his son- in-law, H. F. Gaunitz, in Lansing, January 7, 1913, in his eighty-eighth year. From the Lansing Mirror are gleaned the following facts of his remarkable career :
"Joseph P. Jackson was born in Rushville, Fairfield county, Ohio, June 22, 1825. He enlisted at Somerset, Perry county, May 22, 1846, and at Cincinnati his company was organized into the Third Ohio Infantry, later going to New Orleans, thence to the mouth of the Rio Grande, then to Matamoras, Mexico. In 1847 in the month of February he was at Buena Vista where he remained until his time expired, reaching New Orleans again after a stormy voyage on June 22, 1847, returning to his Ohio home.
"He came to Iowa in May, 1851. October 14, 1861, he again enlisted at Dubuque, serving in Company B, 12th Iowa Infantry. He was wounded in the thigh and came home on a thirty days' furlough, returning later to his regiment at Shiloh.
"On December 25, 1862, he was discharged and in the month of March, 1864, reenlisted at Davenport, seeing some hard service up to the time he was mus-
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tered out in January, 1866. He was commissioned first lieutenant, Company B. 12th Iowa Infantry on May 20, 1865.
"The funeral of this old and esteemed citizen was held yesterday morning. interment being at Paint Rock, beside his wife, who preceded him to the grave five years ago.
"Mr. Jackson was in his eighty-eighth year, and almost up to the time of his death was able to read his newspaper. Since the cold weather began he has not been able to get about. but all of last summer was down town almost daily, ap- pearing to enjoy his visits among his friends."
One of the well-known men of ability whose activities extended throughout the county in its earlier years was H. O. Dayton, from whose diary the following items of general interest have been kindly submitted to us by his daughter, Mrs. Anna Davenport. Other items appear in the sketch of Village Creek. In 1856 he came to lowa, arriving at Hardin July Ist. Here he engaged in surveying and states that his first platting was done July 18, 1856, when he assisted his brother Joel on the town plat of Hardin for Mr. Frazier. During that year and the following he surveyed in and about Hardin, Rossville, Yellow River, Village Creek, New Galena, and Lansing. In October, he was appointed commissioner of Road No. 137, in Center township, which he surveyed, assisted by Messrs. Deremore, Wachter. Christian and Barthell. He describes it as some two miles long and a very good route, yet there was not much room left for anything else between the bluffs. On March 19. 1857, he states, "I finished up my survey of Village Creek." In 1858 he taught the summer school at Hardin, boarding with Dr. Green, who later lived at Postville. The Allamakee county superintendent at this time was J. W. Flint, assisted by Mr. Newell and Mr. Fawcett. In the win- ters of 1858-61 he taught in Milton, or Village Creek; and 1861-2 and '62-3 he taught the Lansing school.
On March 2, 1860, the diary states that Rossville men had some four weeks previously circulated a petition to have a vote at the April election for the re- moval of the county seat from Waukon to Rossville. He volunteered to circulate a remonstrance, and going into Taylor township, which was strong for Rossville, he secured enough signers to defeat the petition, which lacked nine names of a sufficient number to authorize the county judge to order an election.
111 the fall of 1860 Mr. Dayton speaks of attending a county fair at Waukon. Also the first teachers' institute of Allamakee county, commencing September 10, 1860, and continuing one week, and held in the Presbyterian church at Wau- kon. The county superintendent was R. C. Armstrong : and the instructors. Rev. J. Loughran and .\. A. Griffith, the latter attending mostly to elocution.
In his entry of October 26, 1860, he writes: "There is quite a stir with Rose and Twiford about removing the county seat from Waukon to Lansing; they are circulating a petition for this change." And on November 5th : "No school today, but went over to Lansing to lay off Court House Block for J. M. Rose. They give only about one acre of land." He was living at Village Creek then. January 26, 1861, he says: "Went over to Lansing with Mr. Rose. He requested me to see several men about the building of a house for court rooms." On September 21, 1862, after having visited Rossville, he writes: "Rossville seems not to have grown at all during the past six years."
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Warren Estey came to Postville in 1849 when there was only one log house there. The next winter, '49-50, three families lived in a small log cabin three miles northwest of Postville, where together they offered up their prayers and talked of the possibilities of the future. The echoes of the Red Man's war whoop had scarcely died away among the hills; and on this very farm were to be found their fresh made graves, this being a burial place, over one hundred of the tribe having been buried here. It was a most fitting place, marked by high projecting rocks on the river bank. Near by was a bark shanty where they had left some four hundred sap troughs, ready for making sugar the next spring. Mr. Estey moved to Fayette in 1868, where he died in January, 1882, aged eighty-two years.
Charles Wesley Bender came to Post township in the early fifties with his people, who camped at the spring near the Bethel church, and then passed on into the edge of Winneshiek county. He cast his first vote there, in 1853, and later took up land in Fillmore county, Minnesota. He with other settlers ran up the first stars and stripes on Washington Prairie, Winneshiek county, July 4, 1852, the men getting out a flag pole with two pine trees spliced, and the women making the flag. The enthusiastic settlers named the place "Washington Cor- ners," but it came to be called Washington Prairie later. It was always with pride that he recalled the doings of those days, when the vigor of young manhood made it possible to grapple with. the hardships of the pioneers. To them no task seemed too great ; and the home was open to all. Mr. Bender was born in Stark county, Ohio, April 18, 1832, and died March 26, 1913, at Forest Mills, Frank- lin township, at the home of a son with whom he had lived since the death of his wife in 1903. He was twice married and eleven children were born to him, seven of whom survive him. He was a cousin of Cornelius Aultman, Jr., founder of the famous machine works of Aultman & Miller.
CHAPTER XXI
HISTORY OF LANSING
The city of Lansing presents a beautiful aspect when approached from the river, appearing to be entirely surrounded by rugged hills. In summer, when these hills are clothed in richest green and the town lies half hidden in their shadows ; in autumn, when nature has put on her brilliant hues; or in the early spring when the little city nestles in the warming sun, and tender growth is springing-it is as fair a place to look upon as can be found in the valley of the great river upon whose shore it rests.
The bench upon which the principal portion of the city is built, runs down to the river with a bold, clean shore, along which flows the main channel of the Mississippi, affording an excellent landing place at all seasons of navigation.
This truly beautiful townsite was first occupied in 1848, by a man named Garrison, of whom little is known; and he seems to have left no impress upon the locality other than the name he gave to the embryo settlement where he had built his shanty, he having come from Lansing, Michigan, and this name was accepted and adopted by his successors, the founders of the soon-to-be town. He was living in a log cabin, just south of L. O. Rud's present residence, on Front street, when John Haney, Sr., accompanied by his son James, came to the place and located a claim, adjoining. H. H. Houghton came soon after and pur- chased Garrison's claim ; and together with Mr. Haney they secured all the land for a distance of four miles up the valley to the west, or some 1,400 acres, in- cluding several mill sites along the creek. In October of the same year, 1848, Mr. Haney brought his family from Galena (which was Mr. Houghton's home), and on New Year's day they moved into their new log cabin. A postoffice was established in 1849, with James Haney postmaster.
Among the early settlers were also: John Haney, Jr., G. W. Gray, G. W. Hays, James I. Gilbert, W. Ballou, F. D. Cowles, J. W. Remine, A. L. Battles, I. B. Place, H. M. Travis, J. I. Taylor, E. Hale, and G. H. Battles.
The first marriage in the place was that of James Haney and Rachel W. Hurton, which occurred February 5, 1852.
The first white male child born in the place was Frank Cowles. The first female child, Alberta Hale. Death's first claim was little Fanny, daughter of Fanny and John Haney, Sr., who died April 19, 1850, and was the first to be buried in the cemetery now on the property of Mrs. Martha Hemenway, on Front street. Others afterwards laid to rest here were: Mrs. Abram Bush, Mrs. Wat- son, a little daughter of A. W. Purdy, Lizzie Williams, two Patterson children,
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Willie Haney, Mrs. John Haney, Sr., and John Hemenway. The three last named and Fanny Hemenway, the first named, have since been removed to Oak Hill cemetery.
The first merchant who located in the new town was F. D. Cowles, in the fall of 1851 ; the first lawyer was J. W. Remine ; the first doctor, J. 1. Taylor.
The first hotel was kept by Dr. Houghton in a little log building on Front street, just north of Williams street. The first frame buliding was a store erected by F. D. Cowles in August, 1851, on the corner of Front and Main streets, north of Main.
The first frame hotel was the "Lansing House," which is still standing on Front street, north of Main. It was built by Abram Bush in the fall of 1851. The first drug store was kept by I. B. Place on Front street, near the Lansing House. It was opened in the fall of 1852. The first justice of the peace was an Englishman named Luckins
In those early days the only route of communication with the world at large was by the river. During the first year the packets came but once in two weeks and seldom stopped unless for wood or to land passengers. The mails were sent by H. H. Houghton, of Galena, and often thrown from the passing boat by the mate weighted with a stone picked up at the last landing. The Senator was the only boat running at this time. It made the round trip between St. Louis and St. Paul, the famous Captain Smith in command. As business rapidly increased other boats were put on until a packet came daily, up and down, and the event of the day was the landing of the steamboat. How interesting it would be to us now, could we stand some day and looking down the river see the Gray Eagle puffing up the stream. Perhaps it is in July of `63, we have had no news for twenty-four hours : there is a mail bag on board in which are papers and perhaps letters from "the boys" at the front. The boat swings in to the landing, a call from some one on board, "Vicksburg is taken," and a great shout goes up from the crowd along the wharf. Strangers, immigrants in their native dress, men, women, and children crowd onto the planks, all talking in their native languages. Baggage is taken off, and the fifty or more roustabouts, to the time of whistle and song, carry off boxes and barrels, crates and bales, and carry on grain and flour. How delightful it all was as compared with the present day travel by rail !
With the closing of navigation each year this means of communication was removed, and until spring again restored it, such business as was done had to be carried on by teams driven on the ice from Lansing to Prairie du Chien, the nearest railroad town. The ice was always uncertain; hence the mails, and all kinds of business depending upon transportation to and from the eastern centers of commerce, were largely dependent upon that most uncertain if all institutions, the weather.
RECOLLECTIONS OF IS51
After a quarter of a century, in the "front end" of 1877 one of the pioneers, Mr. H. M. Travis, wrote thus interestingly of the early days, as published in the Lansing Mirror at that time :
"At 10 o'clock, P. M., October 24, 1851, the writer stepped ashore from the steamer 'Excelsior,' 'under the bank' in front of what is now the Bates House, and was at once interviewed by a small active man, with a lantern, about as fol-
BIRD'S-EYE VIEWS OF LANSING
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lows: 'Do you keep a hotel?' 'Yes, sir.' 'Where is your carriage?' 'Haven't any ; hotel only a few steps away.' With a friend and his lady we followed mine host, who, I suppose, was the front end of Lansing hotelkeepers, as his double log house on Front street was the front end of Lansing hotels. A few steps brought us to a low log structure, and we entered. Mine host drew some chairs around the stove, near which, on a 'shake down,' three guests were sleeping, placed his lantern on a table and seated himself on a chair.
"A short silence intervened, when the friend with the lady remarked, 'I would like a room.' Landlord-'I would like to see you get that.' Friend-'Well, if you have no accommodations we will not stay with you.' Landlord-'Where will you go? this is the only hotel in the place!' And there the dialogue ended, finally resulting in a compromise ; the lady retired with the landlady ; the landlord curled around the stove pipe on the chamber floor ; my friend slept on four chairs, and the writer kept up the fire and grumbled, until a bright October morning ushered in a day memorable to us as the front end of our twenty-five years resi- dence in Lansing.
"We had to see the 'lion' of course, and first the 'store' met our attention, kept by F. D. Cowles in a little building, at the corner of Main and Front streets, which represented the front end of merchandising, and was without a rival. G. W. Carver, with a $600 stock of lumber, held the front of our now extensive lumber business. Messrs. Haney & Houghton, with a sawmill at the edge of town, were the pioneers in manufacturing. Dodging the stumps, we walked through Front and Main streets, climbed the 'Hog Back,' and thence scaled Mount Hosmer, and enjoyed the magnificent river views, which even now so well repay the exertion. Next day we helped 'raise' the frame of Elisha Hale's house, on Front street, and for weeks, every one was busy preparing for winter. Soon E. P. Bircher put in an appearance, and in a 'leanto' started a saloon, the front end of that now somewhat extensive business. Mine host Houghton, of the log hotel, was the resident physician, and stood No. I on that list. Rev. Bishop, once in three weeks, made us a visit, and gave us a sermon, preaching in private rooms, and once during the winter in a bar-room, with the whisky bot- tles at his back, that being the only room in town large enough to seat the twenty- five or thirty persons present. This front end of religious effort contrasts widely with our present numerous clergymen and churches. The beginning of a minis- terial support was unique. The class leader was Brother G. H. Battles, who was likewise collector, and generally succeeded about as follows: A, merchant-'Yes, here are a couple of dollars.' B, saloonkeeper-Yes, here is a dollar ; tell him I took it in for whisky.' Gambler at table in same room-'Hold on until I win this double pot ; if I do, I'll give you a couple of dollars.' Wins. 'Here is your money ; tell him I won it at poker,' etc.
"Winter's snows clothed the scene; winter's ice shut us in from the outer world, a weekly mail our connecting link with civilization; half a dozen frame buildings finished and unfinished; three log houses; three or four 'shanties'- this was Lansing twenty-five years ago. A. L. Bush opened his hotel, and the glory of the log Astor departed. Many will remember Bush's Christmas ball. Private social parties, not at all exclusive, were the rage, and very nice they were, too. The resounding axe of the woodman made vocal the island opposite town, whereon our former townsman, William Fleming. Esq .. then 'one of the Maine
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boys,' in chopping cord wood, 'illustrated with cuts' the front end of his since extensive lumber business. The weekly debating society was the central point of the local literary effort, and the writer has never since felt himself quite as important as when reading the minutes, or announcing the subject for discus- sion. Let us mention some of the contestants. West-Englishi, staid and decor- ous :- Craig-a fiery Scot; Conner-with his shrewd Irish wit and rapid utter- ance ; keen reasoning Bush : argumentative Hall ; sneering Streeter ; Valley-the champion laughist, etc., not to forget J. W. Remine, Esq., of Virginia, the pio- neer resident lawyer, who wielded his tongue with the same aggressive sharp- ness with which, on another occasion, he slashed with his knife the arm of a hotel guest at Bush's, drawing the first Lansing blood shed by Southern hands.
"Early Lansing was not without sentiment; Cupid was busy here as else- where, and the wedding of James Haney opened the ball matrimonial, being the front end wedding, and the front end concert consisted of the hideous music 'red headed Shaw.' made by drawing a rosined 2x4 across the edges of an open goods box, beneath the window of the nuptial chamber. The birth of a son to Mr. and Mrs. F. D. Cowles scored the first item on our native census list, a business since by no means neglected among us. The grain trade, since grown to such huge dimensions, had that winter its front end. A load of wheat was brought to town, purchased by Mr. Cowles at 40 cents per bushel, stored in a hogshead and some boxes in the unfinished building of E. Hale, and for want of a market sold for chicken feed. 'Great oaks from little acorns grow.'"
LANSING IN 1852-53
From old files of the Lansing Intelligencer, established by Wm. H. Sumner in the fall of 1852, the following items were gleaned and republished in the Mirror thirty-six years ago, and are now the only existing published record of the business and social conditions existing in those days, and hence of historical interest.
In the advertising columns we notice: "The names of J. B. Place, one door south of Lansing House, who had 'just returned from St. Louis with a large stock of goods;' E. P. Bircher dealt in groceries and provisions, 'at the sign of the Elk Horn;' T. E. Williams, 'corner Levee and Williams streets,' kept a plough and stove depot : James Peacock, 'on the Levee, corner of Fourth block,' (lealt in goods, 'wholesale and retail, at Dubuque prices ;' the Lansing House was owned by J. & J. Grant : Chas J. McGee was the furniture dealer; Geo. W. Camp and Remine & Shaw practiced law, and the latter firm 'kept land warrants for sale;' Dr. J. I. Taylor 'returned sincere thanks for liberal patronage and hoped by close attention to still merit a liberal share;' O. E. Hale had 'just opened a, large and well selected stock of goods,' the partnership between Mr. Hale and D. 11. Patterson having been dissolved.
"D. D. Brown quaintly announces his return from the East, 'after selecting his nice stock of goods, which has just arrived by telegraph, disdaining the con- mon way of your slow-plodding. time-serving. conscience-wearing ice boats and land schooners.' His calicos were 'warranted to suit the gravest matron and the most exquisite belle' and to be without his teas and coffees `would be a sin unpardonable.'
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"The steamboats were represented by F. D. Cowles, 'agent for the Galena & Minnesota U. S. Mail Line,' consisting of the steamers Nominee, Ben Campbell and Dr. Franklin.
"A Christmas ball was held at 'Messrs. Haney's building,' and the managers were somewhat numerous, viz .:- For Lansing, W. E. Gardner, W. H. Sumner, J. W. Page, J. W. Remine; for Decorah, A. Newell, J. B. Onstine, C. Moore, Claiborne Day; for Waukon, A. J. Hersey, A. L. Burnham; for Columbus, Uriah Whaley, W. C. Thompson. The floor managers were J. I. Gilbert, J. P. Hughes, Jno. Haney, J. S. Mobley, Scott Shattuck, D. D. Chase, and we may suppose that an entertainment of such cosmopolitan character must have been a great success."
There was a rivalry between Columbus, Lansing, and the now city of Mc- Gregor then called McGregor's Landing. Early in 1853 umbrage was taken at the action of Mr. Garber, who introduced in the Legislature a bill to memorialize Congress for a grant of land for the construction of a railroad from Lansing to the Missouri river, it being claimed that Lansing never asked such action, and that the bill was introduced to unfavorably contrast that place with McGregor's Landing, which place desired the railroad.
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