USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 51
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The country began to settle up and. Peter's father had more work in the shop, but Peter did not like blacksmithing and would rather work in the open air. When he got older his father let him work in the clearing at piling and burning brush. Polly would help him pile and burn brush. She would go with him after the cows and hunt squirrels and turkeys. Their mothers made them some bathing suits and their fathers taught them to swim in the creek near by. Polly's mother taught her to do house work, spin and weave as well as raise poultry, so that she would know how to keep house.
We cannot say that the friendship of Peter and Polly ripened into love, for they always loved each other from babies. One day as they were out for a walk together Peter said :
"Polly, do you know what I have been thinking about?"
"No, Peter, what is it?"
"I have been thinking about going west across the big river. 1 will be twenty-one in the spring and you will be nineteen. If we ever expect to get a home of our own, it is time we were thinking about it. I am tired of try- ing to make a farm in this timber. I have been reading what a beautiful country it is beyond the river, good water, timber and nice prairie. All we would have to do is to plow up the ground and plant a crop, without so much chopping, digging and burning."
"That would be very nice, Peter, but I cannot think of your going off that way alone."
"It would be so lonesome I could not live without you. I would select a nice home and come back after you."
"I cannot consent to have you go so far away alone. If you will go, I will go with you."
"Well, Polly, I would like to take you, but it would be a hard journey."
"Not nearly as hard as it would be to stay at home. I would be afraid the Indians would kill you."
"Then there is but one thing to do and that is to get married and go together."
"All right. I cannot let you go alone."
So they told their parents of their plans, and while the older people did not like to have them go so far from home, they could not object, for it was precisely what they had done. Preparations were made for the journey in the
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spring. On the first of April the carpet bags were packed and all was ready but one thing. Then they called in the parson one evening and were made one. A fine wedding supper followed and in the morning they took an early start.
It had been their plan to take the old diagonal road from Paris, in Edgar county, Illinois, to Galena, in the northwest corner of the state, about three hundred miles. Peter concluded this would be too long a journey for Polly to make on foot and carry her satchel. They went directly west, striking the Mississippi at the nearest point and taking a steamer for Dubuque where they would get supplies for the remainder of their journey.
Dubuque was a small village of about three hundred inhabitants, mostly French traders who had married squaws. Dubuque, for whom the town was named, married the daughter of a chief of the Sac and Fox Indians. There were very few white women in the place at that time, 1838.
The inhabitants were very much interested in Peter and Polly, never hav- ing seen such a couple before. They were large and of fair complexion. Peter stood six feet in his stockings, was well built and weighed one hundred and eighty pounds, while Polly was a beautiful girl, fair and rosy, five feet eight inches tall, and weighed one hundred and fifty pounds, very different from the Indian squaws. The Frenchmen all fell in love with her, but Peter gave them to understand that she belonged to him and he was able to protect her.
Peter bought a wagon and a fine yoke of oxen from an emigrant, a break- ing plow, tools for building and a cooking outfit, also provisions to last until they could raise some. He bought the finest rifle on the market and a good COW. He also covered the wagon with oilcloth that it might serve as a shelter until a house could be built.
Taking the old trail from Dubuque to St. Paul, they traveled two or three days, aiming to strike the neutral strip that the government had purchased from the Sioux and the Sac and Fox Indians, thinking that they would not be troubled by Indians as that was neutral ground and neither tribe had per- mission to occupy it. One evening they came to a fine little creek of clear water at the edge of the timber, a good place to camp since there was plenty of wood for fire and grass for the cattle.
The next day being the Sabbath, they rested, and on Monday Polly said :
"Is not this a beautiful spot? It looks more like home than any place we have seen. Have we not traveled far enough? Here is good water, tim- ber and prairie all together, and if we are going to raise a crop this year it is time (May 15th) we were planting it."
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Peter agreed, so they unloaded the plow and Peter turned over some sod, where Polly put in the garden while he broke more for corn. This spot is now a part of the A. N. McGarvey farm just northwest from the bridge.
They used the wagon for a house until the planting was done. They worked away happily and were not bothered by neighbors, the nearest being Joe Hewett down in Clayton county. Wild animals were plentiful, but not troublesome. The wolves were saucy, but they would bring the cattle up to the wagon in the light and Peter trusted to his rifle for protection. As long as the Indians did not molest them they were not afraid. After the crop was planted they built a shanty and took time to build a good one, as they knew it was a cold country.
As soon as possible Peter and Polly sent a letter by messenger to the nearest postoffice. This letter was addressed to their parents back in Indiana. It told of their safe arrival, set forth in glowing terms the fine country they had found and the splendid location they had chosen. It also told of the ex- cellent opportunity of obtaining land at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre already cleared. It told of the advantages of the prairie over the tim- ber especially when the timber was near by.
They got their house built in good time for winter and raised a fine crop of corn, potatoes and garden truck. They also made a lot of hay for the cat- tle in the winter, so they were well prepared for the cold weather. They could not get their corn ground, but they could grate it and hull it, and Peter would kill a deer once in awhile, so they had plenty of venison. It was too cold a country for the wild hog and the wild turkey, as they could not live over win- ter here. In a short time there were two young men came from the east and took land south of them (now the Lamb place), and a family named Mumford settled on Brush creek. Another family named Parks settled a mile west on what is now the V. E. Strayer farm.
Peter's father was induced to sell out and came west in 1839. He built a log house on the west end of Peter's house, so they had a double log house. And the old gentleman took land north of Peter's.
Peter's brothers thought they would speculate some, so they got a break- ing team and would look up nice locations and break up five or six acres to hold the place for pre-emption, and when the country began to settle they would sell their claims at a good profit. Andrew Hensley bought his land from one of them at Bear Grove in Smithfield township in 1842. Peter and Polly had plenty of neighbors, but they were doomed to disappointment.
Our hero had settled on the neutral strip, thinking that he would not be troubled by Indians, but Uncle Sam traded for the land of the Winnebagoes
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in Wisconsin and moved the full blooded Winnebago Indians here. Then the fun began. The Sioux on the north hated the Winnebagoes as badly as they did the Sacs and Foxes, and would scalp them when they could catch them.
In 1840 the government built Fort Atkinson and stationed two companies of soldiers there to keep peace among the Indian tribes and for protection to the few white settlers there were in the country. Peter's father was a black- smith and was getting rather old to farm. He liked the trade better, so hired to Uncle Sam to work at the fort and moved up there.
One day as Peter was out near the old military road mowing, there came a young man plodding along with an old fashioned saddlebag across his shoulders. The stranger introduced himself as a doctor looking for a loca- tion. He had heard there was a white settlement out here somewhere and was looking for it.
"The only white settlement I know of is here," said Peter, "but I do not think we need a doctor. I am sure Polly and I do not, but you look tired. Come down to the house and get something to eat and see Polly and the chil- dren."
The doctor admitted that the family did not seem much in need of a phy- sician, so after staying over night he proceeded to Fort Atkinson and finally established himself at the mission five miles this side of the fort where he be- came a very useful and influential man. He was a minister as well as a physi- cian, and when the school was established at the mission he was employed to teach it.
All went well with Peter and Polly and their few neighbors until in the fall of 1842. A family named Tegarden and a young man named Atwood came up from Dubuque and built a log house in the ravine about one and one- half miles west of Peter's cabin (this was across the road from where James House now lives on the Lease farm), and began selling whisky to the Indians. Indians are very fond of "fire water" as they call it, so it is even more certain to make trouble with them than with white men.
One evening three Indians came to Tegarden's shanty and with Tegarden and Atwood began drinking freely. Tegarden was ugly and drove his wife out of the house. She went down to Peter's cabin for the night. The five men became still more intoxicated and finally all lay down on the floor before the fire and went to sleep.
Sometime in the night the Indians awoke and finding the white men still asleep, they tied them and commenced to beat them with a club. Tegarden said if they were going to kill him to take the gun and shoot him. One of the Indians then took the rifle and sent a bullet through his head. Atwood was
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tortured longer, but was finally killed. The little boy was killed with a club and the two other children were badly wounded with a knife.
These two were sharp enough to pretend to be dead, and the Indians thinking they were, went out to the stable to harness and hitch up the horse. While the Indians were thus busy the two wounded children, a girl of nine and a boy of seven, slipped out of the house in their night clothes and hid in the willows by the spring three or four rods from the house. When the Indians had hitched up Tegarden's horse they returned to the house and after taking what whisky they could, set the building on fire and left.
By the light of the burning cabin, the two children made their way one and one-quarter miles east to the Beatty place. Their route next day could be traced by the blood on the snow. When they got within forty rods of Beatty's house, now the Lamb place, they could go no further but climbed on a fence and hollowed. Beatty heard them, and going out brought them in, one under each arm. Their toes were frozen, but not badly, and they both recovered except for scars.
Of course there was great excitement in the little white settlement. Mrs. Tegarden went back to Dubuque with her wounded children. The Mumford family went back to their house on Brush creek, north of where Arlington now stands. Parks, who was on the V. E. Strayer place, took his family to Hew- ett's cabin in Clayton county. Polly became so nervous that Peter took her up near the fort where they could have better protection. The settlement was nearly broken up, but Beatty and Orrear and the two Wilcox boys said they were not going to leave. They had good rifles, plenty of ammunition and a couple of large, savage dogs. With these, they felt able to meet quite a body of Indians. The soldiers were notified and soon captured the Indians, sending them to Dubuque for trial.
After Peter and Polly left there was not a white woman in Fayette county, unless perhaps Mrs. Mumford still remained near the Clayton county line.
Some time during the winter of 1843 Orrear married Peter's sister, who was living with her parents near the mission, five miles this side of Fort Atkinson. He brought her home with him and Beatty hired a man and moved down on his land where Fayette now stands, putting up a cabin near the site of the present Mrs. James Robertson residence. Parks came back to his place and his stepfather, Messenger, came in 1845, settling near him. Peter sold his home to Polly's brother, Van Dorn, who about this time married a Messenger girl.
The little settlement was thus started again. There should be a monument
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raised where this old Wilcox house stood, where Peter and Polly first settled. In addition to being the first house built in the county I think it sheltered more families than any that has since been built.
As we stated in a former chapter, Peter and Polly were Frank P. Wil- cox and wife, who settled on what is now the A. N. McGarvey place, in either 1837 or 1838. Orrear and Beatty came in 1838 and the elder Mr. Wilcox in 1839, Asa Parks in 1840, the Mumfords in 1841 and the Tea- gardens in 1842. I think old Mr. Wilcox and wife were buried at the mission near Fort Atkinson. Beatty and Van Dorn sold out to Mulliken and Bemis and they all went to Oregon in 1847, except Beatty, who went to Minnesota with the Indians in 1848. He was one of Minnesota's first representatives.
There is some dispute about the time the first house was built in Fay- ette county. Mrs. Mumford says her husband helped Beatty and Orrear build their log houses in 1841. I think that is true, but that is not the first log house they built. When they first came, in 1838, they built a small log house and lived in it a number of years. When Orrear made up his mind to marry, he built a larger log house about two rods north of the first one. I think that is the one Mumford helped to build. He also helped Beatty build his house on the J. E. Robertson place at Fayette. Orrear used the first house for a smoke-house and when Alexander bought it, they used it for a kitchen.
The second white settlement in Fayette county was made at Bear Grove, in Smithfield township. Andrew Hensley located his land on the line between Smithfield and Fairfield townships in 1842, but did not bring his family until 1844. John Moine made his selection of land in 1845, and took up his residence on it the year following. In 1846, Dan Finney located north of Arlington. Both Chauncey and John Brooks, with their families, came in 1847, and settled north of the Grove. The former's second wife and daughter still live on the old farm.
Parm Newton came in the fall of 1847 and took the land adjoining Finney on the west and lived in the house with the Finney family until he could get his house built, which he finished in 1848. Two more families were added to the settlement in the year 1848, Dave Fussell who settled south of the Grove, and Lemon Whiteley located northwest of the Grove.
These pioneers, though so far removed from civilization, were not with- out patriotism, and as the Fourth of July, 1847, drew near, arangements were made to celebrate the nation's birthday at the Finney home. Early in the day the few families of the settlement gathered at the appointed place, ate their picnic dinner, after which they played games, shot at targets and enjoyed
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various other amusements. I do not think they had a fife or a drum, and am not at all sure that they had a flag, but their patriotism was just as sincere as though there had been a procession of a thousand, headed by a good band and with flags galore.
Wild animals were plenty in those days. A fine hog which Hensley had gotten from Joe Hewett strayed off in the woods north of Finney's. One day Finney heard a hog squealing and thinking a bear had the hog, grabbed his gun and ran. Sure enough, when he reached the scene of action he found that a big black bear had just finished killing the hog.
Being in such a hurry, he had not used as much caution about making a noise as he should have done, and the bear hearing him, ran. Very little of the hog had been eaten and thinking the bear would return to finish his breakfast, he hid behind some thick brush and waited. He didn't have to wait long before he saw bruin coming. He got his gun all ready and just as the bear commenced eating he took good aim and brought him down at the first shot, so he was well provided with pork and bear meat.
He thought this would be a good time to get the big wolf that had both- ered him so much, so he set a trap by the pig and was rewarded by catching a big grey wolf. The hides of the bear and wolf made fine robes and alto- gether he felt quite satisfied with his efforts and better paid than did Hensley, who furnished the bait.
Pertinent to the foregoing "hog and bear" story is the following dia- logue, which appeared in the Fayette County Pioneer on November 30, 1863 : "A passing traveler in the backwoods met with a settler near a house and inquired : 'Whose house?' 'Mogs.' 'Of what built?' 'Logs.' 'Any neigh- bors?' 'Frogs.' 'What's the soil?' 'Bogs.' 'The Climate?' 'Fogs.' 'Your diet?' 'Hogs.' 'How do you catch them?' 'Dogs.' This, it is pre- sumed, ended the dialogue, and the traveler spurred on in a good jog."
LOST ON THE PRAIRIE.
In December, 1855, N. W. Spears, who had settled in township 92, range 10, in August previous, purchased a cow of a settler in Smithfield township, and went with his boys, Frank, aged thirteen, and Hart, aged twelve years, to drive the animal home. They hitched the cow to the "tail end" of the wagon and started for home about two o'clock P. M., but they had gone only a short distance when the refractory animal broke away. They pursued her until sunset, when they arrived at the cabin of Mr. Barnes, at
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Long Grove. This was six miles from home, and there was no other cabin on the prairie. It is said that Spears and his boys drove their cow into Barnes' yard and "desired to stay all night, but they (Barnes' folks) would not keep them;" but this was very unlike Western pioneers, who were re- markable for their hospitality ; and one can scarcely credit that anybody would turn away a neighbor on a cold winter's night. However this may have been, Mr. Spears and his sons started for home, leading the cow. Soon after they started, darkness overtook them, and the wind changed to the northwest and blew a gale, driving the snow before it in clouds, and the little party soon became bewildered. They struck the south fork of the Volga too far south, turned and followed it northward a mile or two, and then crossed. Taking the wind for their guide, they traveled until about midnight, when they brought up at Crab Apple Grove, about six miles south of home. Here they found a track leading homeward, which they followed and arrived at home about two o'clock P. M., having been twenty-four hours without food and nearly exhausted.
During the winter of 1856-7, Rev. H. W. Zimmerman, Peter Corbly, Joshua Burch and S. R. Maslay got lost on the way from Strawberry Point, and traveled in a circle for a long time. A severe snow storm was prevail- ing, and it was with the utmost difficulty that they reached home after abandon- ing their load of corn. Mr. Zimmerman was so much exhausted when he reached home that he could not speak, and his face was covered with ice and snow.
In 1842 Andrew Hensley came from Wisconsin to Fayette county, and purchased the claim of Nathaniel Wilcox, on or near section I, township 92, range 8, about five miles east of Beatty and Orrear's. Mr. Hensley went back to Wisconsin, intending to return to his western home in the same fall, but sickness prevented. In September, 1843, he returned as far as Eads' Grove, Delaware county, with his family, consisting of a wife and four children, among whom was Andrew Jackson Hensley, then a lad of ten years. Here he spent the winter. In the spring of 1844, he rented Joe Hewett's place. northwest of Strawberry Point, just in the edge of Clayton county, and moved his family into a little cabin about one a half miles west of Hewett's, in the edge of Fayette county, owned by Moses, son of Joe Hewett by his first wife. Here, November 27, 1844, Daniel P. Hensley was born, a claimant for the honor of being the first white child born in Fayette county. He is still living. Major Mumford and wife were residents of this county in the summer of 1843, when their daughter was born, while they were temporarily absent in Delaware county.
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It is said that one Doctor Wilbur, probably a member of a gang of out- laws infesting the western settlements in Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa, came from Wisconsin to Volga City, Clayton county, in 1842, because he did not care to contend with the United States about a little matter like manufacturing imitations of the coin of the realm. The bail in the case, three hundred dollars, he had paid to two friends, with a bonus for their trouble, and migrated to Iowa, where he resumed his illegal trade at Volga City, a part of his tools being manufactured by a blacksmith of that place.
It is said that Hewitt, and others in the vicinity, afforded Wilbur facilities for prosecuting his vocation, and for circulating the spurious coin he manu- factured : and it is also said that after Mumford's departure, some of Wil . bur's traps were found in his house. Wilbur's goods were of superior quality and finish. Mr. John Padelford is authority for the statement that some of his coin was received without detection at the United States land office at Dubuque. Wilbur did not remain long, however, and left in 1842. Counter- feit money was also made and distributed in Fayette county for a number of years, commencing at a later date than the above, and several early settlers in the northern part of the county were under suspicion. One of them served fifteen years in the penitentiary.
POSTOFFICES.
Forty postoffices show upon the records of Fayette county. Of this num- ber, but twenty are in existence today. It is not, perhaps, too ardent a flight of fancy to say that the course of progress in the county is marked by post- official graves.
Many of these mail distributing points established by the government for the benefit and convenience of the people of the county are not remembered, even remotely, by the present generation. Several of them were so transitory as to almost preclude the necessity of placing them upon the records. Others remained in existence many year's, finally yielding up the ghost under pressure of circumstances incidental to the march of empire.
The stage lines gave way to the railroads, and the map changed. Towns which once seemed rich with promise faded away or settled down to a drowsy, stunted life, while others, favored by the powers that chose the pathway for the lines of steel, took on lusty growth.
Later the rural delivery service came and delivered the final blow to many postoffices which had survived the former readjustments, and that val- table and ofttimes picturesque character, the cross-roads postmaster, prac- tically ceased to be a factor in the affairs of the county. In his place is the
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mail box, in which the government carrier deposits daily the letters and papers of the dwellers in outlying districts. There is probably no more elo- quent indication of the changes that have occurred in Fayette county during the past thirty-five years than is to be found in its postoffices and in the mail service given the people.
It is not the purpose of the writer to burden the reader with non-essential and uninteresting data, yet a list of the postoffices of the county, now dis- continued, would seem necessary in order that the record may be fairly com- plete. Such a list follows, with the year of establishment of each office : Louisville, 1851 ; Gamble Grove, 1851; Taylorsville, 1853; Mill Grove, 1853; Eden, 1853 ; Corn Hill, 1855 ; Richfield, 1856; Penn. 1861; Scott Center, 1865 ; West Albany, 1872; Illyria, 1851; Bethel, 1866; North Fairfield, 1853; Windsor, 1853; Leo, 1855; Orion, 1856; Wilson Grove, 1861; Putnam, 1862; Seaton, 1865, Scott, 1897.
The postoffices in present existence in Fayette county herewith follow, together with the date of establishment, and the names of the postmasters of each office, in the order of appointment :
West Union, 1850-J. W. Rogers, D. Cook, William McClintock, D. Lacy, P. F. Crane, S. W. Cole, E. N. Phillips, C. H. Talmadge, William McClintock, C. H. Talmadge, Thomas Loftus, T. L. Green, C. F. Chambers.
Oelwein, 1873 (formerly Otsego, 1857)-J. G. Woods, J. Mettlin, B. H. Bennett, H. S. Day, H. Sprague, J. B. Bennett, P. Sayles, J. B. Ben- nett, I. Pattison, J. C. Miller, P. Kane, G. W. Jamison, H. R. Martin, Lew. I. Sturgis, A. M. Odell.
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