USA > Iowa > Appanoose County > Past and present of Appanoose County, Iowa : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 39
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The early days of lowa were not lacking in sensations, though the country was but sparsely settled in 1852 as compared with today. Then there were about two hundred thousand people in the whole state, while now there are two million more than that. There was then not a single tie or iron rail in the state: now it is crossed and cris-crossed like the web of a spider, with rail- road tracks.
Many murders were committed in the early days and were a- numerous in comparison with the population as now, if not more so. There were no means
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of keeping money and valuables safe, it being generally carried on the person or hidden about the house. The first year we lived in lowa many were the blood-curdling tales told us of murders and robberies in the eastern part of the state. The murder of Colonel Davenport, of Rock Island, and the hanging of the Hodges at Burlington for divers murders, were all fresh in the minds of the people, and many a time, especially after night, have | clung to my mother's skirts, listening to the recital of those bloody deeds as told by the neighbors.
When we came to Cincinnati in 1854, we found that the pioneer had been far ahead of us and had in places trod the prairie grass and killed some of the snakes. Some of the pioneers, like Daniel Boone, fearing that civilization was getting too near and population too dense, had sold or traded their land and gone west to California, or elsewhere. The four farms, cornering on what is now the public square, were owned by L. R. Holbrook, two hundred acres, on the southwest; Solomon Holbrook, one hundred and sixty acres, on the south- east: Daniel McDonald, two hundred acres, on the northeast; and John T. Matkins, one hundred and twenty acres, on the northwest. My uncle, John McDonald, came from Pennsylvania in May, 1854, and purchased the one hun- dred and twenty acre farm from John T. Matkins, so that the two Hlolbrooks and two McDonalds were the owners and proprietors of the land on which the original town was platted and laid out, which was accomplished on the 7th of March. 1855.
CINCINNATI PLATTED
J. F. Stratton, county surveyor, surveyed the land and made the plat- twelve lots on each corner-and the same was acknowledged by the proprietors and their respective wives, three of whom were named Mary and one Esther, before J. H. B. Armstrong, justice of the peace. The plats were ordered recorded by Amos Harris, county judge, and were recorded by John T. Over- street, recorder, on the 25th of March, 1855. I have the original plat in my possession, which is somewhat dimmed with age and mutilated with handling. Since that plat was made there have been several additions platted and added to the original town. Coming into possession of some of the land owned by my father, I have been instrumental in platting two additions and joining in two others. My father, with J. R. Putman, made one. J. H. May one, he and his sisters one, he and Smith & Clawson one, Albert Mitchell and wife two, Solomon Holbrook three, J. N. Marsh one, known as Maple Park, and E. J. Gault one subdivision. The county auditor caused to be platted and recorded many lots that had never been platted or numbered. The town now as incor- porated, is one and three-quarter miles east and west, and one mile north and south. It has not, however, all been built on and perhaps never will be.
OLD POSTMASTERS
The first postmaster and merchant that I knew in Cincinnati was Walter S. Johnson, the father of the late Allen Johnson. He kept his office and store in a shed addition to the house owned by John T. Matkins, where the May sister- now live, but the house now occupied by them is the third built on the site. After the farm of John T. Matkins was sold to my uncle, John McDonald,
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Walter S. Johnson built a small frame store on the corner now occupied by C. A. Comstock, to which he removed the postoffice and his stock of goods. In 1853 William M. Cavanah built on the corner now occupied by the Odd Fel- lows block, and put in a stock of goods. Mr. Johnson removed to Bellair, a rival village, and Mr. Cavanah became postmaster. In this connection I might add that the business of handling mails was not only new, but light. Mr. Cavanah did not have much idea of business, so when it became necessary to obtain a supply of postage stamps, he enclosed five dollars in a letter to the postoffice officials at Washington, asking the return of its value in stamp -. The -tamps were duly sent and with them his five dollars with the trite proverb attached, "Fools make feasts and wise men cat them."
About the year 1856 Bazel MeKechan lived in a pretty good log house on the spot where Edward Gault now lives. He was a poor man, honest and industrious as the sun in midsummer, and the happy possessor of a big family of children, which had arrived in his home with the regularity of the return- ing seasons; and you can well imagine his astonishment when one morning, near the anniversary of our American Independence day, he rose carly and found a young habe on his door steps. His hands went up in horror at the thought of the additional burden he would have to assume if he had to take this babe also. He was willing to accept all that came to him in the usual and .accustomed good way, but to have his burdens augmented in this irregular and alien manner, was more than he was prepared for. Mrs. Josiah Gilbert had lost a habe a short time before this unexpected find, and to mollify her grief. thought to take this charge of the family of Bazel Mekechan, but the young- ster was too vigorous and noisy for her and after a couple of weeks the authori- ties found a home for the waif with Hugh B. Fox and wife, who had no chil- dren. The boy found a good home and was reared to manhood, afterward mar- ried and raised a family. You may talk of close corporations but the par- entage of this child has been kept a secret for fifty-six years.
From the year 1854 until the breaking out of the Civil war in 1801. there was a great influx of immigrants into lowa and Appanoose county and Cincin- nati had its share. I might mention the following as being some of the many who came during that period and settled in this town or vicinity: John Kirk- patrick, David M. Rice, James J. Rice, Thomas Rattan, Geo. W. Maddux. Dr. Hall, John P. Boyles, William B. Adamson, Francis Gault. Henry Gault. John Russell Matkins, James Beer and sons, Peter, George W., Moves X and Joseph ; George Beer and son William A .: John Strickler and sons, Andrew R. William B. and John H .: John B. and Newton McDowell, Reese E. Chand- lee, Henry Il. Baker, and Henry Baker, a brother of Simeon; Elias Ervin. Samuel Ervin, A. S. Brown, Sr. and Jr .: Joseph Cline, George Hamm and son Frank ; George Jaquiss and son Thomas; William Jaquiss and son Henry ; Henry Languith, John Patterson, John Fox. H. B. Fox, Asa Smith, Edward S. Harper, Asa Harris, James King, Robert B. Rice, J. M. Rice, and mother and sisters; John Bowhon, Thomas L. and Creed M. Bozwell. E. (. Smith. I. G. Parker, Joseph Glasser. J. W. Stevens, A. E. Stevens, Alva B. Leonard, Abraham Hoover, Thomas Wilkinson, Herbert and Alfred Capper, John Buck and sons Charles, Sylvester. Eli. Elias, Edward. and Jasper: Jacob I. C. Green. The war coming on operated as a deter-
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rent to immigration, and the town and county did not increase in popu- lation very much during that period, aside from the refugees that sought shel- ter from political persecution in Missouri and other states. Notable among such accessions were the members of the Wolfinger family. James Putman with a large family, and Joseph Gorsuch with another large family, from Ten- nessee.
OLDEST INHABITANTS
The oldest inhabitant in point of residence perhaps is Mrs. Albert Mitchell, who came to Cincinnati with her father, 1 .. R. Holbrook, in the year 1850. Oliver K. Holbrook, a cousin, came the following year.
Charles Sumner Armstrong seems to be the oldest native born inhabitant, having first seen the light in 1853. My first recollection of him was as a babe in short dresses, unable yet to talk. The oldest persons in point of years now living in Cincinnati are: Henry H. Baker, eighty-two; Joseph Morrow, eighty- four : Mrs. Amelia Wood, eighty-eight : Mrs. Sophronia David, eighty-six ; Sam- nel Corporon, eighty ; and Elias Ervin, eighty-six.
PIONEER TAVERN
I have heretofore spoken of William M. Cavanah, one of the pioneer mer- chants, who erected a store building with dwelling combined. He hung out a sign for a hotel. It was a swinging board, erected on a frame attached to a high post set in the ground, and notified the public that he kept the "Cincin- nati Ilouse, 1855." This man did a good business for a while and seemed to prosper. He took in a partner, by the name of Thomas Rattan, built a store room in Caldwell township, about two miles east of Exline close to a mill, and removed his family thither. In a short time his wife died and he moved back to his store in Cincinnati. It so happened that, while he was a republican in politics, his children fell heir, through their mother, to a negro slave in Ken- tucky. As strange as it may seem, Mr. Cavanah ordered the slave sold, which brought nine hundred dollars and he became guardian for his children for that sum. This was an object lesson to many people here of the baneful influences of slaveholding and the consistency of the partisan.
Pleasant W. Johnson, a brother of Walter S., who was a printer by trade, a poet also on the side, and a telegrapher, married the oldest daughter of Mr. Cavanah, a beautiful girl, about the year 1800, moved west and got a position with the Western Union Telegraph Company as an operator. Both he and his wife fell sick with typhoid fever and died at Julesburg, Colorado, within a short time of each other.
'SQUIRE FLANNIGAN AND HUIS MATRIMONIAL MARKET
Runaway and mismated couples from lowa sought this modern Gretna Green, and the town was the point where all roads centered to the much sought Justice Flannigan. Couples from here would ship down on a Sunday and get the nuptial knot tied. I remember William D. Armstrong and Ann Rigler were going to school. They took a sleighride on a Sabbath evening beyond the
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state line and were in their places in school Monday morning as though noth- ing out of the ordinary had occurred. John T. Harl, father of the Harl boys, also took one of the Rigler girls and was tied to her for life at the same bureau.
An old lady and a broth of a lad ran away from Oskaloosa, sought this market and were made man and wife. But all the people united by this man in mar- riage did not live in lowa. A man by the name of Robert Knowles told me in 1859 that he induced the daughter of Burleigh Bramhall, then living in Putnam county, Missouri, to marry him, so to the justice they went on a Sun- day evening and 'Squire Flannigan solemnized the marriage. After the cere- mony the Squire sat them down to supper, filled them up on good things and then they hied themselves to the wood pile, where the men filled their pipes and smoked. Then Knowles "jewed" the justice down to twenty cent- for his fee and afterward gloried in relating the manner in which he got sup- per and two dollars worth of marriage all for the simple sum of two bits.
About the first marriage that I can remember as having taken place here was that of Walter S. Johnson and Miss Sarah S. Gibson, February 11. 1855. Charles R Crowder and Matilda Johnson had been married before our arrival, on November 10, 1853. I also remember a hurry-up marriage be- theen a Mi -- Stanton, niece of Seth P. Stanton, and a Mr. Gordon, in which the bride borrowed a wedding gown belonging to Mrs. W. S. Johnson, who had been married a short time previously. Later I had the honor of attending a well- ding in part, as I loaned my coat to my best chum to attend the nuptials of Pleasant W. Johnson and Miss Elizabeth Cavanah. Afterward weddings were not such a novelty, though the young swains were backward and the maidens coy. There was not nearly the same ease and familiarity between the sexes as exists today: However, as in the days of Noah, there was marriage and giv- ing in marriage, and Henry Gault married Hester MeCture, Thomas Mcclure Ella Ball, Daniel MeClure Miss Anna Griffith, of Putnam county, Missouri : Alexandria LaFortune Christina Ball. Thomas Norwood Ann Atkinson and Welles Norwood Adessa Atkinson, the two grooms being brothers and the brides sisters. George Frush, of Fairfield, married Jane Armstrong, Elza Moore married Sophia Gilchrist. Truman Gilbert married Laura Moore, Edwin Barber married Maria Stanton. Other marriages were Austin Stanton to Miss Wood- mansec. of Lee county, John Fox to Sarah J. Boyles, Ervin Stanton to Elizabeth Ielliott. of Drakesville, and Wallace M. Harvey to Nancy J. Conger.
A little incident in the courtship fine, amusing to us youngsters at the time, i- in relation to Thomas Stanton and Colvin Ball, who were each paying court to the same girl. Stanton easily led in the contest, notwithstanding Ball's attempts to persuade the girl to drop his rival. He also tried his blandishment- upon Stanton in an effort to have him drop the girl in his favor, his chief argu- ment being "I need a wife a good deal worse than you do." The facts in his case were, however, that he needed a wife about as badly as a cart needed three wheels, as he had at that time the encumbrances of an almost blind mother and two sisters to support. As often happens, both Ball and Stanton failed in securing the hand of the girl they covetel, and Stanton married Miss Mary Lane, of Centerville. The wife of. Ball was a girl from Nebraska.
It was during the winter holidays of 1858 that John B. McDowell wedded Katherine Colvert. Their wedded life was a short one, for in about eight
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months McDowell died and later the widow wedded Jacob Straw, of near Centerville. She soon again became a widow. Straw meeting a sudden death by being killed by falling tackle from a derrick at the Watson mine, which had been sunk in front of his property. Katherine then remained a widow until her death.
HARDSHIPS TO OVERCOME
The early settler had hardships to encounter that the present generation knows nothing about. Everything was new and raw and the prairie had to be broken up. Almost every other man had a work team consisting of from four to seven yoke of oxen and with a plow some of them made a business each sum- mer of breaking the prairie for those who desired their services. Most of these teams subsisted on prairie grass, into which they were turned out at nights to graze and then had to be rounded up in the morning. The heavy dews made the grass very wet and in wading through it, the men's clothes would become soaked but had to be worn until the sun had dried them on the wearers.
PRIMITIVE WAYS OF THRESHING GRAIN
There were no threshing machines for a year or two, nor machines to grind the grain. Farmers were compelled to clear off a place on the ground and either flail or tramp it out with horses or cattle, and when it was winnowed you may rest assured it would not be entirely clean. The nearest mills were Drakesville and Bonaparte, and they were not fully equipped with appliances for making the best flour. Grain would be loaded up by the farmer and hauled to mill between thirty-five and seventy miles away, and a week was consumed in procuring and bringing home a grist of stuff that was scarcely edible.
In a new country wild game is generally plentiful but not so here. Poor Lo. the Indian, had cleaned the ranges pretty well and had gone west to grow up with the country and seek new hunting grounds. Still there were a few deer in the woods, a few wild turkeys and prairie chickens without number : but they, like the Indians, could not stand civilization, and in a few years sought the wild further west and north.
There is a brackish spring a mile or so south of Cincinnati, known as the Deer Lick, of which fabulous stories used to be told of hunters lying in wait for and killing deer when they came to drink its saline waters. lf any of the poor. innocent animals ever met their death at this place I know not. for I never saw either hide or hair of any. I did see, however, in the summer of 1855. three live deer come out of the woods north of town and up the ridge to nearly where the school house now stands. They stopped and took a look at the few new houses, then turned tail and took to the woods again. I looked with long- ing boyish eyes at the zoological exhibition and ran for my father's rifle, but sad to relate, as many deer got back into the woods as came out of it.
TRADING POINTS FAR AWAY
Markets for farm produce were distant and were reached by earthen roads. It was a three days' drive to Keokuk, Fort Madison and Burlington, and all
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supplies bought by the early merchants had to be hauled by team from those points, a week being consumed in making the round trip. The price for hauling was Si per hundred pounds. Contrasting the price of hogs today with that of the late '50s, say about the panicky year of 1857, 1 know of farmers slaughter- ing their hogs, hauling the fresh pork to Keokuk or Alexandria, Missouri, and selling tor $1.50 per hundred weight-only a half cent per pound above what the hauling was worth. No wonder the carly farmer got rich !
We had one advantage those days in that some enterprising man would appear at our homes with a wagon load of goods and sell to the consumer. The first of this class of merchants that I remember was the late William Bradley, father of D. C. and J. A. Bradley, of Centerville. He had a two-horse outfit. rigged out in good style and carried an honest line of goods, which he sold at reasonable prices. He was of such a jovial nature and so pleasing to deal with that we were always glad to have him come. As he was a Pennsylvanian, like my father, he often, on grounds of nativity, made our home his local head- (marters.
HOUSE BUILDING DIFFICULT
The building of houses and fencing of farms was a difficult proposition. My father spent the best seven years of his life in getting from the stump. rails to fence and cross fence one hundred and sixty acres and material for building a new house and barn.
lf the farmers of Appanoose county had recognized the fact that unfenced land would not stray away and that cattle and other stock, unrestrained. would, and if they had fenced their stock and let the fields remain unfenced, they would have been tens of thousands of dollars ahead, say nothing of the loss of stock by straying and loss of fencing material ( rails) by decay, for it is a notorious fact that no sooner do you lay up a rail fence than just that soon it begins to rot down. A frame house had to be cut from the timber from cellar to garret, sills, joists, studs, siding, flooring, lath, shingles ; all cut, hewed, sawed, rived, shaved, planed and dressed, even to door and window sash, and most of it was done by hand.
The swiftest and surest means of locomotion was by horseback. Very few of the early farmers owned a team of horses; most teams were oxen. Sad- alles were scarce, sheep skins were substituted and buggies were more scarce than automobiles are today. In fact my father brought the first buggy to the place. it being an open, two-seated one, which, standing in open sun and weather for lack of shedding, soon went like the Deacon's "one horse chaise."
Mail was received but once a week-on Saturday. Dr. John B. Armstrong, an old and prosperous physician and now a resident of Gardner, Kansas, was the first carrier. He made the trip on horseback to Centerville and returned the same day. A few years later, when the Civil war came on, people became so anxious for news that they took turns and voluntarily carried the mail on alternate days, and after the war a tri-weekly mail service was established by the government from Centerville to Unionville, Missouri. This service con- tinued until 1873, when the advent of the first railroad brought us a daily mail. Of course no such thing as a daily paper was thought of. All papers were weekly and the majority of them were of republican proclivities. 1 remem-
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ber among the papers taken here were Horace Greeley's Tribune, from which as a boy, I drew a good deal of anti-slavery inspiration. The National Era. another anti-slavery paper published at the national capital, had many readers, and the paper, edited by the ex-slave, Fred Douglas, also had some readers. My father was a subscriber to all these in addition to the Dollar Times, of Cincinnati, Ohio, the Free Presbyterian, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, and the Juvenile Instructor for children. published at Syracuse, New York.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES
Schools and churches had been established when we arrived. The early settlers were of a religious nature and had organized a umion Sunday school.
As I have already stated, one reason that my father located here was that the community was a temperate one. The church was Wesleyan Methodist, it being the anti-slavery part of the parent Methodist church. The church build- ing was the log schoolhouse situated on land now owned by W. B. Strickler at the cross roads, three-fourths of a mile west from the public square in Cin- cinnati. This building was constructed of logs, with the long, uneven ends protruding two ways from each corner, long enough for turkeys to roost on. It was, perhaps, 16x20 feet in size. The minister was Rev. John Elliott, of Drakesville, who came on foot once in two weeks, and stopped a few days each time with members of his congregation. Later Rev. George Jaquiss came. He never failed in his sermons to denounce the slaveholder and the saloon keeper. He was succeeded by Rev. J. T. Locke, who remained until the society was absorbed by the formation of the Congregational society. These minis- ters above named, however, were not the only ones who served the church up to 1867. I remember Revs. Lumery and Connor and Rev. Robert Hawk who also filled the pulpit. It was not long until the Methodist Episcopal confer- ence placed a man in this field and he preached on alternate Sundays. About 1858 the Free Presbyterians organized a society, they being an anti-slavery offshoot from the old school and new school Presbyterians. Their first min- ister was Rev. John Fisher, who betrayed them by trying to serve two branches of the Presbyterian church at the same time. He was dropped by the Free church and left the town, but afterwards served the church in Centerville. Later. this society was absorbed by the formation of the Congregational society. The Wesleyan and Free Presbyterian churches stood for the abolition of slavery and after the war, there being no need of their further existence, they were merged with other societies.
The Methodist preachers 1 can recall on this charge were Revs. Cyrus Morey, Charles Clark, Miller, Thomas Stephenson, Swanson, J. 31. Mann, Hurt, Kirkpatrick, J. W. Orr. James Hunter, J. A. Sinclair. The early exhort- ers whom I can remember were: John Kirkpatrick, Dr. J. W. Hall. Anthony Martin, John Delay, Lucien Bryant, Calvin Spooner, J. R. Matkins.
The first building erected by the Methodist society was in 1809 but this has since been remodeled, reseated and greatly improved.
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THE OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE
The old log schoolhouse and the new one erected in town served for many years for all kinds of gatherings. With three religious bodies in existence, they sometimes made appointments that conflicted, but the matter was always set- tled amicably and sometimes union meetings were held. The United Brethren, Dunkards, or German Baptists, and the Christian denomination also held occa- sional meetings at the schoolhouse. The first church building created in the town was by the Free Presbyterians in 1859. The structure was of brick and stood on the lot now occupied by the Congregational church. It was dedicated before it was completed. January 1. 1800. The Rices, McDonalds, Mr. Robert- son and a few others were the main contributors to this enterprise. In a short time the building was leased to a new society of the United Presbyterian faith. Their pastor was Rev. John Beard. The society only existed for a short time. however. Later another attempt was made to organize a Presbyterian society in the town. This time it was by those of the new school. The congregation was ministered to by Revs. Bloomfield. Wall and a Rev. King of Moulton This church, too, was short lived.
UNION TOWNSHIP
Unien township was established in January, 1848. The polling place was to be at the house of G. W. Moore. Judges, Andrew Morrison, James Ewing. Elijah Thompson ; Levin Dean, S. W. Woods, clerks.
This township is in the northeast corner of the county and is bounded on the north by Monroe county, on the east by Davis county, and on the south and west by (dell and Taylor townships, respectively. Most of the land here was heavily timbered at the time of its settlement. Soap creek traverses the northern portion from east to west and the southern portion from cast to west. It has many branches which make a network of streams. The topog- raphy is rough and hilly. There is not a village or hamlet in the community
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