USA > Iowa > Lucas County > Past and present of Lucas and Wayne counties, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 14
USA > Iowa > Wayne County > Past and present of Lucas and Wayne counties, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 14
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25
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man killed in the mine during all of this time. That was the man's own fault, but the company did not dodge behind any technicality. They saw to it that the man was buried as he should have been, and that his family was cared for until the wife found another husband. The accident was a pe- culiar one. One of the men was prying away on a prop with a crowbar, when the bar shipped, the man fell to the ground and the heavy iron bar fell with such force as to strike him across the stomach and cause his death.
"The vein of coal averages five feet and nine inches in thickness, and has no seams of rock or other impurities. It is the cleanest looking coal I have ever seen. The greater part of the mine has iron rails in position and dozens of rooms could be turned off rapidly. Wooden rails have been used in the new openings, as have been in all mines, and these are replaced with rails just as soon as the work is advanced to that point where there will be need for rooms. Thirty feet of solid slate overlies the coal, making a safe and easily kept on roof. The mine has the advantage of not only the excellent roof but also a fine footing for the props. there being absolutely no 'give' to the props when they are once set and the only way they will ever move is by the lapse of time.
"This mine is but one of the several bodies of coal which the Inland people control. They have other fields which they have prospected and which they will develop as time requires. It is their intention to sink more shafts and go after the coal for all it is worth when the opportune time arrives. They have the Rock Island now completed to give them an outlet and have hopes that the Milwaukee will come sweeping down through that end of the country and give them still better service and a still better market. The North-Western is headed toward Chariton. A new shaft is being sunk by them east of the present Inland holdings, and this surely means a track will be extended to that shaft. If the track is extended that far it is reasonable to suppose the North-Western will eventually push along to other holdings still nearer the Inland holdings. There is every reason to believe the North-Western will push ahead to their own property and this will enable a switch to be run down from the Inland mines, not those now under way, but new ones to the east which will be de- veloped. This is the case where the men have looked ahead
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for a dozen years and have seen part of their past hopes brought into realization. It is reasonable to suppose that they will be right in thinking of the Milwaukee and the North-Western coming into Lucas county and giving better facilities for getting the coal to the market. And this is no idle dream for have not the men who have watched things been correct in the surmises? Have they not watched the development of other coal properties? It can be figured down to the very point that when the railroads want the coal they will be coming into the Lucas county field. The tests which have been made have told the quality of the coal. Lucas county has a great future before it, but many of the men do not know it. Chariton has a future that is bright, but the merchants do not seem to have a full realization of what lies at their door, and the development of which will mean the distribution of the golden coin over their coun- ters. If they do know it, they are not saying anything. But Messrs. Haven and Verner know it, and they will not wait too long. The development of the mines will mean more houses will be needed in Chariton. It will mean larger stores and more advertising for the newspapers and the man who realizes right now that this is no joke will find himself ready to meet the new conditions.
"It will mean that 10,000 acres of Lucas county land, which is controlled by the Inland Fuel Company, will some day be sending out into the world's market 1,000 tons of coal per day. The three hundred working days in the year will find the men busy and for forty years the mines will be running, and Lucas county will be crowding Monroe county for the first place as the coal producing county of the state."
A RETROSPECTIVE VIEW
The history of Lucas county might be divided into three periods. In the first place we can turn back the pages of history until we come to the days of the pioneers. While the picture of those glorious days is becoming dim, and the primitive land marks of that period are few and far be- tween, vet by carefully collecting and gathering together every circumstance attending their mode of life, we can ob- tain a fair picture of the days and mode of life of those
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grand old pioneers, who founded homes in the then wilder- ness of Lucas county. We can, in imagination, see the curling smoke arising from many cabins, hid away in the tall grasses and brush, fringing the streams. While they were called upon to endure many privations, yet the disposi- tion to aid and assist each other rendered their life com- paratively happy. They had no doctors within a hundred miles and while they were comparatively free from the most virulent types of disease, yet it is true that there were a few instances of fever, common to new countries.
Cases of fever and ague were quite common, but they had learned to control and cure this disease by the use of qui- nine. We learn that it was difficult to find a house in which a supply of quinine was not kept on hand, and if any family did not have this ague specific a neighbor was glad to fur- nish it. By good nursing and the use of primitive remedies. the colony was kept comparatively free from disease.
Again, these pioneers also provided entertainments, which assisted them in whiling away many happy hours. By the use of ox teams they would frequently meet at different points for recreation and amusement.
Again, traveling preachers would occasionally visit the country and entertain them with religious meetings.
Crimes were almost unknown to the community. They could make claims for lands anywhere and they had very little money or personal property to quarrel about. They learned to rely implicitly on each other, and the crime of larceny was unknown. It was not necessary that they keep their personal property under lock and key. It mattered not where they left their property, they were assured that it would be there when they looked for it.
While they had an abundance of work in the improve- ments of their claims, yet they had a quiet and easy life, working only when they pleased to work. They lived largely on game. The fleet-footed deer would cross their pathway wherever they went, and the country was filled with delicious wild fruits.
While the men would gladly participate in the early elec- tions and in adopting measures tending to the comfort and prosperity of the colony, yet there was no political contro- versy. It is true that they each retained their prior politi- cal prejudices to a certain extent, and took pride in call-
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ing themselves "Democrats," or "Whigs," yet in conduct- ing the business of the county they did not permit political prejudice to influence their action. Theirs was an indepen- dent mode of life, free from graft or local controversies, and take their independent life together, they were happy and contented.
THE SECOND PERIOD
In and during the second period of the history of the county we find these pioneers engaged in trading with the new comers. The new comers who came between the years of 1859 and 1865 brought some money and considerable property with them, and the pioneers spent a considerable part of their time in trading with the new comers. They would sell or trade their claims to the new comers and then proceed to obtain other lands for themselves. They were thoroughly acquainted with the country, and in this they had the great advantage of the new comer. This disposition to barter and sell lands and personal property and speculate, necessarily resulted in controversies and law suits, and hence the inhabitants of the second period, to a certain extent. acquired the reputation of being "sharpers," and the people were not so happy or contented as were the people of the pioneer period.
THE THIRD PERIOD
The third period in the settlement of the county began about the year 1865, when most of the government lands were entered. The war had just closed and money was plenty. The war had made some millionaires and the reign of money or the worship of money then commenced. Busi- ness of all kinds seemed to start anew ; everybody seemed to become controlled by the desire to become wealthy ; manufac- tories started up all over the country, and strange to say. with the coming of school houses and churches, there came modern schemes to get rich, followed by a wave of crime, such as generally attends schemes to obtain the money and prop- erty of others. The farmer, mechanic and professional man. in fact, all kinds or classes of citizens, seemed to be con- trolled by a desire not only to obtain all the money they
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could earn, but all that their neighbor could obtain. This worship of money still continues, perhaps it is the same among the people of Lucas county and the people of any other local- ity in this respect, but it is a lamentable fact, observed by any and every person, who has given the proposition any thought, that in this age and day of the world people have become money worshippers. In old times, certain men, per- haps in every community, were called and known as "stingy" persons, but as a rule this characterization now applies to all men, the exception is the liberal man in finance. Andrew Carnegie has said that "the time is coming when it will be considered a disgrace for a man to die worth a million of dollars." That time may be coming, but it certainly is not here, and it does not appear to be very near here. On the other hand the evidences are that the more money a man obtains the more he wants, and as a rule, his action seems to warrant the belief that he can and will take his money with him when he departs this life.
TAMOPK
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Beal's Park Auditorium North Side Square
Light Plant South Half, West Side Square North Half, West Side Square
VIEWS OF CORYDON
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY
Three score years ago today the Indian owned and con- trolled the territory embraced in what we now call Wayne county, Iowa. Here he chased the fleet-footed deer, gath- ered the furs from the beaver and otter, whiled away his hours in games, and recounted in dances and songs the lives and achievements of the braves of his race. But the white man gazing across the broad Mississippi, became infatuated with the rich country beyond, and by means of what he called treaties he caused the Indian to agree to transfer to him the broad and beautiful domain extending from the Mississippi river to the ever restless Missouri, and stretching from the lakes of Minnesota to the ever green verdure of the south. It is said that the white man purchased this vast territory, but he paid for it largely in tobacco, beads and whiskey; in other words the Indian sold his birthright for a "mess of pottage." However, the time was approaching when the white man demanded the fulfilment of his contract, and then he commanded the Indian to move on, move on, and seek a new home in the wilds west of the Missouri river. How- ever, the Indian was loth to leave this beautiful home of his childhood and the graves of his kindred. He still lingered along the streams when the pioneers of Wayne county moved in to take possession of his home. For the greater part of a year after the time had expired for his removal from the territory of Iowa he was still here, in groups, entertaining the pioneers with songs and dances originated by his fathers. and the chieftains of his tribe. He was loth to leave this beautiful home. Early historians inform us that Iowa was the favorite home of the Indian. It has been said that-
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" Here the dark-eyed Indian girl roamed in all her native simplicity, gathered her flowers in the valley, built her bow- ers on the hill, decked her long black tresses with the choic- est gems of the prairie, sang songs in harmony with the birds, glided down the streams in her bark canoe, or, at the dead hours of the night bathed with her tears the wild flow- ers that blossomed upon the graves of her departed kindred."
When the government of the white man again notified the Indian that his time was up, he quietly and sullenly gath- ered together his ponies, his bows and arrows, and his accum- ulation of a century, and wended his way to the home of the buffalo, west of the turbid Missouri, where he again pitched his tent and founded his home.
The continuous history of Iowa begins with the Black Hawk war in 1832. In the summer of 1832 a company of cavalry set out from Davenport, Iowa, on a reconnaissance which extended as far west as Fort Leavenworth. They passed through the counties of Appanoose and Wayne in a nearly southwest direction.
The state of Missouri was quite well settled at this time and many of its citizens had an intimate knowledge of hunting and woodcraft. A hunter's instinct is powerful, and the sons of the "b'ar hunters" of Kentucky could not re- press the desire to plunge into the wilderness in search of game, and to follow the streams towards their origin for honey in the summer and for beaver in the fall. Hence, when the white men came into the country in search for claims, they found two trails, one route taken by the cavalry men, and the other leading in a general northern direction. The Tjos route was called "Bee Trace" and the marks of wagon wheels could be distinguished leading off towards the groves all along this trace. The wagons were probably brought into the wilderness to carry off the honey found in the timber.
Another "Bee Trace" ran from Missouri diagonally through Davis county, Iowa, and terminated in the vicinity of Unionville. Who made these two trails is unknown. Those who came in search of bee trees cared little for the fertile soil or its capacity for producing the comforts of life. The bee hunters were more concerned about the exchange value of beeswax for gunpowder and whiskey than they were for the desirability of this region for homes. It is stated that Joseph Shaddon, a resident of Putman county, Missouri,
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visited the region near the Chariton river in 1833, and if so, he was certainly among the very first white men to enter what is known and now called Appanoose and Wayne counties. He found large numbers of bee trees and he took home to Put- man county, Missouri, a large store of honey.
In perhaps all of these counties in southern Iowa the first settlers organized what was called
THE CLAIM SOCIETY
This was done for the purpose of protecting the first settlers in securing the title to the tract of land on which they had settled. As the country had not been surveyed into sections or other governmental divisions it was impossible for the first settler to determine the exact boundary lines of his claim. He could only guess at this matter, and hence, when a new comer arrived and began to select his claim, his movements were regarded with suspicion. It was feared that he would attempt to secure the title to lands included in the claims already selected by others. Hence, he was re- quired to apply to this Claim Society, and satisfy the mem- bers thereof that it was not his desire or intent to obtain the claims of others. If, upon examination, it was found by the Society that he was a good-faith settler, and would abide by the orders and decisions of this Society as to the boun- daries of his claim when the country was surveyed, then the Society would aid and assist him; but if it was found that he had engaged in a scheme of speculation and that he would contest the rights of other settlers to their claims or any part thereof, he was peremptorily ordered to move on, and if he failed to do so he was in jeopardy. The authority of this self-constituted society was probably arbitrary, but in one sense it operated to mete out justice to all parties.
The first settlers claimed that they had made sacrifices in establishing their right to a tract of land where they had built their cabins and that it would be unjust to permit the sec- ond crop of pioneers to deprive them of the rights which they had obtained by means of such sacrifices. Hence, the rules, regulations, and we may say the laws, enacted by this Society, were strictly enforced, and instances were common where parties who sought to evade its decrees were compelled to leave the country.
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Many Indians lingered on the "New Purchase" till 1845, hunting and trading with the settlers. The Sacs and Foxes had always been peacably disposed toward the whites, and very few settlers had any trouble with them.
In the summer or fall of 1844, however, a large band of Indians visited the southwestern part of Wayne county. Several Missourians had made claims in the vicinity, and, being fearful that the Indians would steal from them, ordered their visitors off, and undertook to seize and flog some of them. The chief of the band, however, who was near by, collected his men, and repairing to the scene, sternly informed the whites that there would be instant trouble if they per- sisted in their intentions. Seeing themselves greatly out- numbered, the whites gave over their intention indefinitely.
GAME, ETC.
When the first settlers came, deer, elk and antelope were not plentiful, the Indians having hunted them down and thinned their numbers. Still, venison could be had without much trouble, and deer became annually more plentiful for several years. Antelope were occasionally seen, but soon dis- appeared.
Wild turkeys and prairie chickens were abundant, and it was not difficult to bag several of either kind of birds in a couple of hours: but the pioneer hunters preferred to hunt for deer, and when in search for this game would not con- descend to shoot at a turkey. As Mr. Dean quaintly ex- presses it, "When they went deer-hunting they didn't go turkey-hunting."
Bee trees were to be found along the smaller streams, par- ticularly in the vicinity of Chariton river, and one skilled in woodcraft could obtain honey along the streams for several years after the first settlement. The usual practice was to search in the vicinity of the timber till the bee was found. when it would be watched till it had gathered its load. This done, it would make a "bee-line" for the tree to which it be- longed. The hunter would follow this course into the tim- ber, but if he could not readily find the tree, he would search for another spot, considerably one side of the place where he had found the first bee, when, by waiting awhile, he would be able to trace the flight of another. Of course, the angle
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formed by the meeting of these courses would be about where the tree stood of which he was in search. Sometimes the hunter had a little box partly filled with honey and covered with a lid. If he could capture several bees, they would be placed in the box and allowed to load themselves. One being released, the hunter would follow its course as far as he could with safety, when another would be allowed to fly, and so on till he arrived at the tree, on a line quite as accurate as if run with a compass.
Bears and panthers were almost unknown. Mr. Strat- ton states that once, when going from his claim toward Cen- terville, he noticed some tracks in the light snow, that he supposed to be those of timber-wolf; but, coming to where the animal had made a leap of several paces, he knew it to be a panther. It is stated by old hunters that they had no fear of these animals, for they were always cowardly. and pre- ferred to battle with a sheep rather than with man or any animal that would face them.
Wildcats were numerous in the timber lands, but were not to be feared, except in a close encounter.
The most troublesome and altogether malicious enemies of the pioneers were the wolves. These pests would not only howl around the lonely cabin all night, but were always rav- enous and ready to pounce upon any unguarded calf, pig. sheep or chicken that they could get at, and the settlers were obliged to build pens against their cabins in which to keep their small flock. Chickens were frequently taken into the house in order to preserve them from the attacks of wolves, polecats and weasels.
Prairie rattlesnakes were very numerous for many years after the county was settled. Mr. Stratton gives an instance that is worth relating. After he had brought his family to his new cabin, in returning home one evening he gathered up a lot of hickory bark that had been peeled from some rails. intending it to be used for fuel. This he threw down near the door, and went to bed at an early hour. Soon after he heard a calf bleating and gasping in a peculiar manner, and got up, thinking perhaps a wolf had attacked it. Getting a light, what was his horror to see a rattlesnake under his brother's bed, coiled, and with head erect for a fight. He seized the Jacob's-staff of his compass to kill the reptile, but just then the dog rushed in, seized the snake and killed it, but
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not before the snake had bitten the faithful fellow. The calf was then attended to, and the investigation showed that the snake had bitten it in the neck, and had then bitten several chickens and a hen under his bed before he got up. Mr. Stratton doctored the calf, dog and hen, and all recovered. It was too late for the chickens, for they were dying when he discovered their condition. The dog always afterward had a violent antipathy toward rattlesnakes, and would attack and kill them whenever he could find them, and would prick up his ears whenever the word snakes was mentioned. Mr. Stratton believes he had carried the snake to the house in the bark he had gathered up.
About 1865 Thomas Shoemaker, of Sharon township, was bitten in the thumb by a rattlesnake while loading a grub on his wagon, the reptile having nested in the roots. The poor man died in two or three days, having suffered untold agony.
The early history of Wayne county is very similar to that of the history of other counties of southern Iowa. In the first place the physical character of the county is substantially the same as other counties in southern Iowa, and the first settlers thereof met with the same trials and tribulations common to the pioneers of other counties. One thing was com- mon in the settlement of all of said counties. The pioneers did not come in companies or colonies. They came along by them- selves, or perhaps two or three persons from the same family came at the same time. A great many of the pioneers of south- ern Iowa came by water to Keokuk, and from there they wan- dered westward-some of them stopping at different points or places for a few years, and then again making another move.
For instance, it appears that quite a large number of the first settlers in Lucas and Wayne counties stopped for one or two years in the counties of Van Buren, Jefferson or Lee. The general physical appearance of the country is the same. The streams are low and fringed with timber and brush, and while the bottom lands are subject to overflow, yet they are not, as a rule, marshy.
Quite a large majority of the first settlers of Wayne county came from Ohio and Indiana. We have not been able to correctly ascertain the very first settler in the county, but the following named persons are thought to be among the pioneers of the county, to wit: D. S. Duncan, James T.
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Rames, Jesse Barr, Isaac Wilson, Nathan Brown, Thomas Joel, Kendall Rogers, A. A. Brown, E. Alephin, William Guinn, S. L. Vest, L. L. Slaven, H. B. Duncan, Greenwood Wright, W. H. Richman, H. R. Sullivan, David Sharp, Jacob Chilcote, John W. Syfred, Thomas Richardson, James Camp- bell, George Wright, Hartly Bracewell, John K. Rankin, G. W. Wilkie, John E. Hayes, James Peck, J. Zimmerman, John R. Allen, T. S. Hancock.
It is reported that H. B. Duncan, who came from Ken- tucky, settled near the village of Lineville in Wayne county, about November 13, 1841, and that he erected a cabin at that point, and that he and his family slept in their wagons until their cabin home was completed. It is said that Mr. Duncan supposed that he had settled in the State of Missouri, and laboring under this belief he was elected and acted as one of the county commissioners of Putman county in the State of Missouri. He was also elected to the positions of probate judge and as representative in the Missouri Legislature.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
The territory embraced in Wayne county at one time formed a part of Des Moines county. It was organized as a separate county on January 13, 1846, and was then attached to Appanoose county for judicial revenue and election purposes.
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