USA > Iowa > O'Brien County > Past and present of O'Brien and Osceola counties, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 42
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67
Being settled at a time when its territory was included in Center town-
419
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
ship, many of its "first settler" notes occur in the last mentioned town- ship. It should, however, be stated that it was settled by a thrifty set of people who have made the prairie wilderness "blossom like the rose" and today, on every section, are well tilled farms and many excellent farm houses and artificial groves that lend enchantment to the rural scenes. To be a possessor of a farm of almost any size in this goodly township is but to be known as a well-to-do man. The population of Omega township in 1905 was five hundred and fifty-seven. This was exclusive of the village of Moneta, which had at that date a population of fifty-nine, but has double that now. Land sells at from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars per acre.
VILLAGE OF MONETA.
This is the only town or hamlet in the township and was platted on sections 13 and 24, township 96, range 39, on May 10, 1901, by C. H. Colby. The first house on the plat was the lumber office of C. H. Colby. erected in 1901, in which there was also kept a small general store and a boarding hall, by F. H. Howard. The second building was the railroad depot. The first general merchandise store, proper, was that of F. H. Howard; the first hardware was put in by E. E. Dodge; the first meat market was by F. H. Howard; the first grain dealers was the firm of Haas & Ruwe.
The business interests of today are in the hands of the following persons : Bank, The Moneta Savings ; blacksmith, John Lunbach ; auto-ga- rage, Louis Ruwe ; restaurant, Mrs. H. S. Moeller ; meat market, Lawrence Monsen : lumber, Flote Lumber Company: depot agent, I. E. Crane; grain dealers. Farmers Elevator Company, C. H. Betts; general merchandise, E. T. Dunlap, Byers Brothers; pool hall, Louis Ruwe; hardware imple- ments, Jepsen Brothers; cream station, Fairmont Creamery Company and Hanford Produce Company.
INCORPORATION HISTORY.
Moneta was legally incorporated in 1902, with A. C. Wede, mayor. He was succeeded by Henry Ruwe and the present mayor, J. W. Jepsen. The officers of 1913 are: J. W. Jepsen, mayor; Charles Burlet, clerk- treasurer ; Louis Ruwe, marshal: Henry Jepsen, L. F. Anderson, Henry Killmer and Martin Martinsen, councilmen.
420
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
The postoffice was established here in 1901 and the postmasters have been F. H. Howard, Hugo Riessen, Frank Hemmingway, P. F. Riessen and J. W. Jepsen. It is a fourth class office and has one rural delivery of twenty-four miles length.
The town has had several fires, including that of March 8, 1910, when the lumber yard, a general store belonging to P. A. Riessen, the bank, a restaurant and other buildings were consumed by the flames. This por- tion of the town was all soon rebuilt. In 1911 the grain elevator was burned and in 1913 an oil house of Ed. Dunlap's was burned.
The Methodist Episcopal church is the only one in town; it was erect- ed in 1903 at a cost of about two thousand five hundred dollars.
BAKER TOWNSHIP.
Baker township was organized as follows: On April I. 1872, what is now Baker and Caledonia were set apart from Liberty and called Sutter. The first election was held at the house of George Sutter on section 14. in the township of what is now Baker. On October 4, 1873, a petition was filed before the board of supervisors to have this name of Sutter changed to Eldorado. It was passed over, first to the January meeting for 1874 and then to the April meeting for 1874. An election in the township was called to determine the question in the meantime, which election deter- mined that it should be called Baker, and which was confirmed by the board. April 6, 1874. The township was named for General N. B. Baker. who about this same year was taking an active part in securing and dis- tributing the relief voted by the Legislature, and contributed by relief com- mittees, as otherwise stated.
The census of 1910 gives this township a population of six hundred and thirty-five. This is a township without a town or village and is on the west line of the county, second from the south line of the county. It was here that George Sutter made the first settlement. He came in the early spring of 1870 and built quite an extensive house for a homesteader. His son, S. G. Sutter, came in 1869 and secured the claims for the family. George Sutter had several grown-up sons who became residents of the county. He located on the southwest quarter of section 14; D. Sutter, on the northeast quarter of section 10, and Samuel, on the northeast of sec- tion 2. The father died in the nineties; S. G. removed to Missouri and Austin to Storm Lake.
John Wagner made the next settlement in the township. He was
421
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
also accompanied by his brothers, George and Wesley Wagner. They came early in the summer of 1870 and built a sod house on the center of section 22, so that it would stand equally on each quarter section, thus enabling each to hold down his claim. Their cousin, named Wilson, had the fourth quarter of the same section. John Wagner became a prominent man in this county.
In the summer of 1871 came in Byron and James Donovan, brothers. from Iowa county, Iowa, where the Wagners came from. Byron located lands on section 20 and James on the southwest of section 12. A. J. Dono- van, another brother, came to the township in 1872, settling on the south- east quarter of section 12. Besides having a residence on his claim he also had a store. This general store was known all over the western part of O'Brien county and carried on a thriving trade until the starting of Sheldon. The mother of these boys and a sister. Lottie, came on soon and took each a claim, in Baker township, but sold them without making final proof and removed to Sheldon.
John Wood and his brother, Robert, came to Baker township in 1871. John settled on the northwest quarter of section 20, while Robert located on the south half of the same section. Robert came in first, in June, in time to do some breaking. John arrived in November and batched with the Wagner boys, at their sod shack, until he built his own claim shanty. He was an early justice of the peace and a good all-around citizen. Later he removed to Clayton county, Iowa. Robert also sold and removed to a point somewhere in eastern Iowa.
Among other pioneer settlers may be recalled Levi Allison, who re- moved to Lyon county, Iowa. D. W. Wellman located on the northwest quarter of section 12, in the spring of 1872, although he had made his selection the previous autumn. He was from Madison county, this state, and was a justice of the peace for many years, and the Sheldon lawyers had many tilts before his court.
Enoch Philby came in from Madison county, Iowa, in 1870, and located on the northwest quarter of section Io, in Baker township. He was then a single man. He hauled lumber from Marcus and first built the usual claim shack, in which he lived until Sheldon was started, when he pur- chased lumber from H. C. Lane and erected a good dwelling. In 1890 he donated land on the northwest quarter of his section for a Methodist Episcopal church, which building was erected that year. Its spires stands as a monument to his generosity and liking for religious things.
422
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
DALE TOWNSHIP.
On June 8, 1880, on petition of A. J. Carman and eleven others, Dale township was set apart froin Highland and the first election held in the school house, on the corner of section 6, and A. J. Carman, Louis Woodman and H. A. Cramer made organization judges of the election.
In the census reports, published in 1910, Dale township was given five hundred and eighty-seven population. This is one of the central sub- divisions of the county. A portion of the town of Primghar is situated in the northeast part of its territory. Throughout this six-mile square tract of fertile land one today sees many beautiful farm houses and ex- cellent general improvements. The soil, in common with all the county, is the richest in all the great Northwestern country. All grains, grasses and corn grow in great abundance, and crop failures are seldom, if ever, known. Lands here range from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and ninety dollars per acre and are steadily increasing. This price would not obtain unless the soil could be annually counted upon to bring in wonder- ful yields, which it does.
The numerous schools of the township have been noted in the chapter on education, hence need not here be repeated. The settlement here was made by excellent men and women who have reared splendid families to do their family name honor. To be a land owner in this goodly township, in this. the thirteenth year of the twentieth century, is indeed to be an independent American citizen. From the numerous homesteaders and squatters of forty years ago, the land owners are today well-to-do farmers, with plenty and to spare.
SETTLEMENT.
This township was not settled to any extent until about the eighties. when several families came in, including O. P. Tjossem and L. Goodman- son, of Marshall county. Severt L. Tow, A. L. Tow. O. K. Tow and H. Graden, of Benton county, with J. P. Tjossem, from Ida county, and they purchased all of secttion 26, in Dale township. They located on these lands in the spring of 1884, and at once began improvements after a modern style. O. P. Tjossem, having all confidence in the country, pur- chased the southwest quarter of section 24. also. S. L. Tow also added to his original farm by purchasing an eighty in section 35. Hardin county, Iowa, was represented here by C. Thompson, who bought the southeast quarter
423
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
of section 35, in the autumn of 1884, commencing his improvements in the spring of 1885. Iver Goodmanson, a cousin of the last named, pur- chased an eighty in the same section, in August the same year.
Another settler in this vicinity was Mr. Crosbie, of Cedar county, Iowa, formerly of Glasgow, Scotland. His land, however, was situated in Union township, on section 24. He was a minister in the Friends Society.
Dale township was largely what was known as a deeded township, which meant that most of its land went to title direct to a purchaser, from the United States, and not by homestead. There were but few early home- steads, though later on there were many squatter homesteads. In that chapter those items will appear. In Chapter III, on "Where the People Came From," we made mention of the Scottish settlement in 1881, by Hector Cowan, Sr., Alexander Scott and other Scotchmen. His son, Hector Cowan, Jr., was for many years a large section farmer in this township. William P. Davis, in 1881, opened up a large farm on section 36 and later became a banker in Sutherland. The three families of John M. Thayer and his two sons, Hiram C. and Herbert E. Thayer, were among the earliest settlers, the latter becoming a land agent and abstracter of titles in Primghar. Archibald Shearer, father of Arthur and Douglass Shearer, settled on section 4, where these sons still reside with their mother. One daughter, Miss Ethel Shearer, is the present primary instructor in the Prim- ghar schools. Miss Sarah is in Twin Falls. Lewis Woodman, on section 6, still resides on same. The succeeding settlers, in the hundreds, are too numerous to give in detail.
HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP.
On February 20, 1871, what is now Highland township was detach- ed from Waterman, and what is now Dale detached from Liberty, and the two townships, Highland and Dale, called Highland. In 1881 Dale was detached from Highland.
The township of Highland had, according to the federal census of 1910, a population of seven hundred. It is well developed with the rich- est of farms and the best type of buildings in the county. Its people are both prosperous and happy. Land is steadily advancing in price and within a few short years there will be none at less than two hundred dollars per acre. There are no towns except Gaza, which is located on section 28. It is a station point of no little importance on the Sioux Falls branch
424
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
of the Illinois Central railroad, and was started soon after that road was constructed through the county. It derives its name from that other Gaza, situated upon the waters of the Mediterranean sea, in the Holy Land, and which is spoken of in the Bible. The town now under consideration was platted as "Woodstock," April 18, 1888, on section 28, township 95, range 40, by the Cherokee and Western Town Lot Company, but when it was found that Iowa contained another town by that name it was changed to Gaza.
The first store building and general stock of goods here was the prop- erty of H. Ehlers, who began operations in 1887. He was also first post- master. A Congregational church was erected at Gaza in 1896 and had for its pastor a lady, Mrs. A. L. B. Nutting.
Highland township was one of the townships within the railroad limits where the homestead law permitted, in many cases, only eighty acres, but this resulted in more families and more people. Several very large families grew up in Highland. Among them was an Englishman, known as "Uncle" George Johnson, on section 32. One son, William W. Johnson, was for many years a member of the board of supervisors and is now a banker in Sanborn. Another son, Robert W. Johnson, still resides on section 18. Others of this large family are widely scattered. The family of William King, on section 9, was still larger and many are still in the county, down through the generations. Anderson M. Cleghorn was an old soldier and old homesteader and raised another large family. Mrs. William Smith, of Dale, being one: the widow, Mary Cleghorn, and W. S., a son, being still in the county. Mr. Cleghorn was an early-day veterinary of the self-made school. Horatio Stanley, on section 2. from Connecticut, was the father of Mrs. Daniel Bysom, Mrs. F. P. Jenks. Wakeman Stanley, deceased, and Mrs. Lyman, and lived to be ninety-two years old. George W. Doyle, on section 12. raised seven children, John F. Doyle, in Primghar, Mrs. George McDowell, at Archer, and others scattered. Mr. and Mrs. James T. Dewey reside in Primghar, the parents of Mrs. Dr. H. C. Rogers. Mr. and Mrs. William Welch, on section 12, live in Primghar and are the parents of sons still in the county. Melchoir Husquin, on section 6, was an eccentric bache- lor and a Belgian. Charles F. Albright and his wife, Mrs. Adaline C. Albright, homesteaded the quarter adjoining Primghar, on section 6. He was a member of the board of supervisors, built the first and other buildings in town, was at one time mayor, and was the father of Mrs. Esther Winterble and Roy Albright, dentist. Mrs. Adaline C. Albright will long
425
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
be remembered for the hundreds of sick she cared for, among the early settlers and later citizens, not simply in one neighborhood, but in many throughout the county. Her monument lies not in mere mention herein but in the hearts of the scores of families as the Good Samaritan and mother to the sick and afflicted. Russel Salisbury, on section 30, raised two sons, Norman and Herbert, stock shippers at Gaza for many years. Mrs. Catherine Debricka. on section 14, was the mother of Mrs. James Brosh and Frank Dobricka, who also homesteaded on section 14. Jacob Klema was the father of Thomas and Frank Klema, residing at Sutherland. Emanuel Kindig was a member of the board from this township in the first uplifts of affairs. Frank D. Mitchell, county recorder four years. homesteaded on section 2. William A. and Mrs. Henrietta ( Wheeler) Acre on section 6. Mrs. Acre was perhaps the only member of a school board, which place she held for three years at Primghar. She was a woman who had seen some of the best situations and opportunities in life and had ex- perienced some of the hardest of homestead trials. Mr. and Mrs. Will- iam E. Baldwin, on section 34, took much part in public early matters. Ed. C. Dean, the first resident of Primghar, still resides there. James Fraser was the father of another large family. Lem C. Green, brother of Clark Green, on section 26, and their father, McAllen Green, county recorder, both settled on section 26. George Hakeman and William W. Johnson, both members of the board, each settled on section 20.
GAZA'S PRESENT BUSINESS AND OTHER INTERESTS.
In the fall of 1913 the following interests were maintained at Gaza : There are two general merchandise stores, one by Harry Gerner and one con- ducted by Mr. Grending. There is also a good blacksmith shop and implement house, by Mr. Smith: a garage by Hans Peterson; Bruce Edgerton Co. operate a first-class lumber yard and buy grain of all kinds; the banking business is carried on by the Farmers Savings Bank, organized in 1910, with ten thousand dollars capital, and now has a surplus of two thousand five hundred dollars. They own their own banking building. The present officers are Frank Martin, president; Henry Lake, vice-president; C. F. Reifsteck, cashier. The above with Charles Schnoor constitute the board of directors. It was in this township, on section 7, where Paine's store was conducted from 1870 to 1872, before Primghar was started.
426
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
POLITICAL INCIDENT IN HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP.
Prior to the organization of Dale township, in 1880, it belonged to and was a part of Highland. Highland at this time was well settled. The Dale end of the big township only had about one-third of the voters. Each of these old settled townships desired to retain one of these new or raw townships as part of itself as long as possible, in order to collect from that township the school and road taxes from the raw township. The old homesteaders of Highland township resented these doings of what was termed that little wild upstart of a township. The campaign was on for county officers, with a hot fight, two sets of candidates being out for each office. The fight was quite evenly balanced over the county, it being con- ceded that the crowd that could control Highland would win in the county. At the time of the calling of the township caucus Dale township was only half organized. The record proceedings to organize a township occupied about four months, and this was in the midst of organization. Everybody in both ends of the township was on hand. This peculiar, long-headed scheme was carried out. The voters and candidates were all on hand. One bunch had studied it out thus. They could see that the Highland end of the township could control. One of the candidates on that side simply arose and made objection to Dale township participating, shooting it into Dale that they had seceded. The human nature of this, as can be seen, was to line up the two ends of the township against each other on any question that would arise. This clannishness of the two divisions thus held together, and they of Highland naturally went to the bunch of candidates who ap- peared to be espousing their cause. The bunch of candidates on that side, however, saw to it that they only went so far as to object and raise the question, but not to insist on it, as that would or might bring Dale out with a new Dale caucus, which was desired to be prevented. The voters en masse of either township never fully realized that the whole scheme had been studied up during the afternoon before. This knowledge of human nature was taken advantage of. It was a political maneuver that could only be worked once, but that was enough. It was a hit growing out of township organization.
GRANT TOWNSHIP.
Grant township was originally a part of old Waterman township, but later in the history of the county was set off as a separate township. On January 3, 1870, the south tier of sections of what is now Grant was set
427
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
apart from Waterman to Grant, except the southeast quarter of section 36 of same. On January 21, 1871, the southeast quarter of section 36 of same was likewise set back to Grant.
In 1910 the population of Grant township was placed at six hundred and thirty. Land was rated and actually sold at from one hundred to one hundred and ninety dollars per acre.
This sub-division of the county is second from the southern line of O'Brien county and is on the extreme eastern line of townships.
Waterman river, or creek, courses through the territory from northi to south. To be the possessor of a farm within this six-mile-square tract of fertile land is indeed to be fortunate in life. To appreciate the rural scenes here, one must needs travel through the country in midsummer when the waving grain and dark green corn roll in all their shadowy billows.
Just who had the honor of being the first settler in what is now Grant township, no one seems to be able to determine. It is perhaps sufficient to say that Alfred B. Husted and family resided on section 4, on his claim, which was entered in 1868, at which time he said there were eleven voters in the township. Mr. Husted came from Sac county, Iowa, and in 1897 was one of the four first settlers in the county, then residing here. He entered the land in 1868 and the spring following moved his effects here. At first he worked at Old O'Brien for Major Inman and built his own house on his land at odd spells when work for others was slack. He was a carpenter by trade-the first in this county. He it was who built the school house at Sanborn and also was employed on the Tea- bout store building of the same town.
In the spring of 1869 came to Grant township D. B. Harmon, locating on section 36, his claim being on the southeast quarter. He came from Wisconsin, from which state he had written to several points in Iowa to learn about cheap lands and homesteads. A letter from Ft. Dodge set him thinking about O'Brien county, and hence he left home and went to Ft. Dodge, having to walk from Iowa Falls, the end of the railroad, a distance ot forty miles to Webster City, where he chanced to get a ride with a farmer the balance of the journey. He came on to Old O'Brien to work under a promise of receiving four dollars per day, but he never realized that amount. On the way up he met Horace Gilbert, William Wager and others. Having decided to set his stakes here in Grant township, he sent back for his wife, who arrived in Fort Dodge in the latter part of May. He pur- chased oxen and, borrowing a wagon, brought his effects on up as far
428
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
as he could get. The roads were "out of sight" in mud and water. While crossing "Hell Slough," the water up to his wagon box, his ox-yoke broke in two, in the middle of the slough. He was forced to carry his young wife to the shore on his shoulders, after which he carried the wagon and pro- visions over, piece by piece. He then mended his yoke and went forward. That summer he lived in a tent and in the fall built a sod shanty. The first season he broke out twenty acres and put it into crop the next year. He had broken the sod too deep and the rainy year that followed caused him a slim yield in wheat-the sod was very tough. His wife, who had just left her schoolroom duties and was not used to the duties of a housewife, found trying times in the new prairie country. Adjoining this farm was the claim of William Wager, who also settled in this township in 1869. He was from Canada and, like Mr. Harmon, had many early-day discourage- ments, but finally came off ahead and held much valuable real estate. An- other 1869 settler was Mr. McBath. Later than these was Frank Martin, of section 30. He came to Peterson in 1871 and to Grant township in 1872. In 1870 came J. S. Brosh, who filed and settled on the west half of the southeast quarter of section 14 in Highland township. His wife died from the effects of a stroke of lightning.
George W. Jones, a soldier from New York state, settled here in Sep- tember, 1870, on section 6, where he took up a homestead and proved up on the same, or rather his wife did, for he died about 1875, after which the widow married R. Powers and, while they still retain the farm in the family, Mr. and Mrs. Powers reside in Primghar. Some time before 1870 came John Lowder, also William Wilson, who later moved to the far West. These men became sick of the country in grasshopper days. Charles Stearns was another pioneer in Grant township; he lived to the south of the Jones homestead, on land taken up way back in the seventies.
Mrs. Jones-Powers, above mentioned, relates how her first husband had to draw provisions from Cherokee, and wood from down on the Water- man, in the southeast part of this county. Later the timber was all cut off and settlers were compelled to burn prairie hay during the long win- ter months. The Germans did not begin to come into this township until the eighties, when they swarmed in in large numbers.
Among the old settlers in Grant we should also mention N. L. Ches- ley, who raised a large family, among them being Henry Chesley, for many years postmaster in Sutherland. O. A. Sutton was an old soldier and homesteader on section 14. Samuel J. Jordan still resides on section 30 and is one of the first and one of the half dozen largest farmers in the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.