USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > Past and present of Winneshiek county, Iowa; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 22
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
The Springwater school in those days must have been the most advanced of any in the county, and in the spelling contests it always gave a good account of itself. Independent of the regular school, a peculiar geography class flourished, conducted by Charles Gordon at so much per head for the term. A set of large wall maps was used containing all the geographical·knowledge then extant and the pupils met on certain evenings in the week to chant in unison the lesson under consideration. The members of the class were mostly young men and women. It was a pretty good method of fixing geographical locations in the mind, and in- teresting because the world was new and the pupils were interested in each other. Some of the elders looked askance at this class on account of the singing-not by any means too hilarious-because they regarded music in any form as a snare devised by the adversary of man to entangle human souls. . They thought it essential to salvation that all the aspects of life should be drab colored.
This view, however, was held by a minority of the congregation only, and was more or less a bone of contention. A school entertainment in the winter of 1857-8, perhaps, produced a rift within the lute, which, while it did not widen sufficiently to produce discord that could be discerned by outsiders, it still im- paired the harmony of the life there more or less. One of the features of this disrupting entertainment was music from an accordian or concertina, or what- ever the instrument was, and Miss Mary Gove was the performer. In the midst of one of her selections, one of the elders, sitting on the other side of the lower partition-the two rooms had been thrown into one-placed his hands upon it and vaulted over with the agility of a boy who has been robbing an orchard, and rushing up to Miss Gove, seized her hands exclaiming, "Does thec know that this is the house of God?" The entertainment ceased then and there and that elder did not enhance his popularity in the community by his zeal. He was one of the first to move away. David West, who was not a Quaker, in relating the in- cident, said: "Why, when the old man vaulted over the fence, his coat tails snap- ping in the breeze, I thought it was a part of the performance, d-d if I didn't !"
An interesting Sunday school was maintained for a number of years in which everybody, young and old, showed much interest and nearly every member of the community became an expert in bible knowledge. In connection with this school a circulating library was maintained by individual contributions. This literature, as a matter of course, was highly flavored with Quakerism, but books were scarce and it served. The autobiography of John Woolman was one of the books.
An intellectual-devotional diversion was a "reading circle" held on Sunday afternoon in summer and in the evening during winter. At these gatherings members took turns in reading aloud recent books of an instructive nature, biogra- phies, travels, etc., alternating with purely religious matter.
At a somewhat later period a peripatetic writing master drifted into Spring- water and taught some terms of writing school. He was a good penman but a bad citizen and subsequently married and deserted one of Decorah's fair daugh- ters.
The sentiment in regard to music eventually changed to such an extent that a singing school was allowed in the schoolhouse, conducted by James W. Mott, who had previously qualified by taking singing lessons in Decorah. A musical wave rolled over the community and in almost every home some instrument was under-
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going torture at the hands of would-be musicians. But there were children who were compelled to take to the woods to practice, out of sight and hearing of their (lissenting parents.
The New York Tribune was about the only secular paper read in Springwater. It was everybody's friend, philosopher and guide in worldly matters, and Horace Greeley was a prophet in that locality. The abolition sentiment was strong and' during the Lincoln-Douglas campaign everyone became a republican except David West, who was a democrat, and did not care who knew it.
The dress usually worn was the conventional Quaker drab-drab gown and bonnet for the women, severely plain habiliments with broad brimmed black hat for the men. The only color allowed the Quaker maidens was that which glowed in their cheeks, and bright eyes were their only ornaments-but these sufficed. At the time of the bloomer outbreak that costume was occasionally seen on the Springwater hills, but not for long.
One of the very first pioneers of the place-forgotten in the enumeration above-was a character known by the sobriquet of "Greasy Ole." He was a bachelor who lived by himself in a 6x4 shanty and wore a pair of leather breeches which were never changed or washed. He came to the locality so early that he shot a bear on what later became the Odson farm. One story about him was that being invited to dinner by one of his Quaker neighbors at one time, he showed that he was not devoid of table manners by wiping his knife on his breeches before inserting it into the communal butter.
The first white child born in Springwater was the present superintendent of the well known Minnesota school for feeble minded at Faribault, Dr. A. C. Rogers.
The first death was that of Eunice Gripman, a fine young woman of eighteen or twenty. Her grave was the first in the Springwater burial ground.
The first postoffice was called Aquila Grove, Nathan Chase, postmaster.
The first member of the old guard to desert the ranks was Ansel Rogers, who sought other and better pastures.
No one accumulated a swollen fortune there. No member of the colony dis- graced himself by becoming a malefactor of great wealth. The best wheat in the United States was raised on those hills, but it was a slow and strenuous process to grub out the stunted oak shrubs and prepare the soil for the plow, and there was no home market for the grain. It had to be hauled to the Mississippi at Mc- Gregor or Lansing, and when the draft animals were oxen it required three or four days to make the trip.
So most of the settlers became tired of the hard work and the meager results and by the end of the first decade the community was rapidly disintegrating. Death claimed some but most were lured away by the greater opportunities else- where.
Only two of the oldest group lived there to the end of their days. John Odsor and Joseph Mott, and only one still survives, Mrs. John Odson, who now lives in Decorah.
Of the younger group next in age, Charles Gordon became an inventor and made a fortune in New York and Brooklyn; A. A. Benedict became a rolling stone who gathered considerable moss: Lindley, Josiah and John Chase are somewhere in the West and doing well; Miss Lucretia Bean married one Thomas
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Truman and lived and died in West Decorah; Nathan Rogers went to the Pacific coast. The whereabouts of others is to the writer unknown.
Those who were the children in the settlement are now gray-haired men and women, the radiant light of the world's morning long since faded from their faces. Some departed never to grow old. James Mott went west but returned and died in his prime. His widow is the well known Decorah business woman. Milton Gove, one of the champion spellers of Springwater in the days of spelling schools, lives in Decorah. Aiden Benedict became a theatrical manager and lived in New York during the last years of his life and died there; his sister, Mrs. Rathbone, is at Phoenix, Arizona. J. I. Tavernier is the West Decorah miller. Bailey Street is a citizen of Hesper. Lucy Mott, Maria Chase and Janie Chap- pell died when on the threshold of promising womanhood.
Mrs. Annis Mott Ellingson is the only descendant of the original settlers who now lives in Springwater.
Such are a few glimpses of a brief phase in the history of one settlement in old Winneshiek.
" 'Tis all a checker-board of nights and days, Where Destiny with man for pieces plays : Hither and thither moves, and checks and slays, And one by one back in the closet lays."
CHAPTER XXVIII
GLENWOOD TOWNSHIP
Of several sketches of Glenwood township, none are better than that pre- pared in 1905 by O. P. Rocksvold, one of the pioneers of the township. It was printed in the "Atlas of Winneshiek County," published that year by Anderson & Goodwin. Mr. Rocksvold says, in part :
"Gjermund Johnson was the first Norwegian settler in township 98 north, range 7 west, which was the way the township was known.
"He located in the southwest quarter of section 31, and built the first dwell- ing house in the township. Nels Throndson and Andrew Gulbrandson Haugen came later the same year, and settled on section 32. These were the only set- tlers in the southwest part of the township. In 1851 Knut Evenson and others settled in the same neighborhood. In the southeastern corner of the township, Hans O. Eggebraaten and family, Hans Blegen and wife, Ole and Hans Pat- terson, their three sisters and their old father were the first Norwegian settlers in the east part of the township.
"Claims were made by Philander Baker, L. Carmichael, John Brant, Jack Brant, George Coney, John Bush, Wm. and John Barthell and others, but they soon sold their claims to Norwegian settlers and disappeared. Samuel Drake came in 1850 to the northwest part of the township, and settled on section 7; his father and brother Nathan came in 1851. Other families settled in the neighborhood but moved away in a short time. In 1851 Timothy Fuller, Rus- sell and Benjamin Goodwater, Wm. Smith and Levi Barnhouse settled in the township, but Russell soon sold out, the others remaining for a number of years.
"In 1852 the Norwegian emigrants began to come direct from Norway, and continued to come until the outbreak of the war, which checked the emigration for some time. A few years later they began to come in large numbers, so that soon every acre of available land in the township was taken up.
"William Smith built a sawmill on Trout river in 1853 and supplied the first settlers with lumber ; before that time they had to split logs for the floors, doors and other purposes. Glenwood was well supplied with wood and water, the two main objects for which the settlers were looking. lowa river running along the north border of the township, Trout river from the south through
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its center, Coon creek from the southeast, all emptied into the lowa river at the north part of the township on section 2.
"All of these streams were well stocked with fish, the two last mentioned with speckled trout. Even in the lowa river a good many trout were caught. Wild game was plentiful, red deer could be seen every day, and I often saw them grazing among the cattle in the summer. Game birds were also numerous, such as prairie chicken, partridges, quail and wild pigeons. The latter were often so numerous in the spring of the year that a flock would almost shade the sun. In 1866 a flock came along and picked up the seed on a ten-acre field that had been sown by hand by the writer of this sketch, so it had to be sown over again.
"Glenwood contained very little prairie land; the most of it was timber with some open patches here and there, consequently was hard to clear for farm purposes. The soil is of the best kind -black loam, underlaid with clay. After fifty years of cultivation it produces the best of crops. The timber varie- ties are burr oak, white oak, black oak, black walnut, butternut, elm, poplar. and many other varieties.
"I find from the census of 1880 that Glenwood had a population of 1, 190. That year the Waukon and Decorah railroad branch was graded, so many of the professional railroad hands were enumerated as citizens of Glenwood, where they did belong at the time being. In 1890 the population was 1,034 and in 1900 just about the same .* Hundreds of good citizens have emigrated to Min- nesota and the Dakotas, where land was cheap.
"At the outbreak of the Civil war. Glenwood was not slow to send her sons to the front. Four companies of infantry and one of cavalry were organized in the county, going into the regiments as follows: First company in the Third. second in the Ninth, and the third into the Twelfth, the fourth into the Thirty- eighth and the fifth into the Sixth Cavalry. All of these companies were more or less soldiers from Glenwood township. A few soldiers also went into the Fif- teenth Wisconsin as a Scandinavian regiment. It was soon found that all of these boys were of the right kind of material of which to make good sokliers.
"A certain family, Thrond Steen and wife of Glenwood, sent six sons to the front, one to the First Minnesota, three in the Twelfth lowa, one in the Thirty-eighth lowa, and one in the Fifteenth Wisconsin, and the seventh and oldest brother was drafted in 1864. but when it became known that he had six brothers in the army before, they let him go home to take care of his old parents. Glenwood has more than furnished its quota of soldiers, but Decorah got the credit of a good many of them, as they did not think of demanding their enlistment as a credit to Glenwood township, so in 1864 when a draft was ordered, four men were drafted in the township.
"There are three Norwegian Lutheran churches in the township. The first was built in 1857 and remained until 1870, when the congregation had outgrown it, then a large stone church was built that year by the side of the okl one at a cost of $13,000. A few years later a part of the congregation seceded and built a church for themselves in 1889. Two years later others joined them, so they removed it to a better location and remodeled it at a cost of $3,000.
* Population in 1910, 871.
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Another church was built in the southwest part of the township about the same style and cost as the one above mentioned.
"There have been two flour mills erected in Glenwood township. One was built in 1868, known as the stone mill on the Trout river, and had adequate water power for a number of years. Another was built in 1872 by B. B. Sander on the same stream further down, but after a few years the water gave out, so the machinery was sold as scrap iron and the building was con- verted into a creamery. The stone mill mentioned above was run for several years by steam, but finally was closed, as it did not pay expenses."
Vol. 1-14
CHAPTER XXIX
HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP
Nels Larson, a pioneer of Highland township, is the author of this sketch. Before Highland township was organized it was at first a part of Pleasant township and the west part of the township was commonly called "Pleasant prairie." In 1852 or 1853 (according to recollections) the first settlers began to come in and locate in the south part of the township. The first settlers were the Stoens, Brunsvold, Arnesons and Mikkel Solberg; and in the north and east part were located Peter Uldvikson, Paul Dagfinson, Bersie, Kjomme, Kroshus, Mikkel Walhus and some others. In the west part were Wennes, Halland, Luros, Svenung Bergan and Ole Johnson Svartebratten. The two latter soon sold out to Elihu Talbert and Thomas Painter. Shortly after that time the township was organized. It borders on the state line of Minnesota and contained only a little over thirty sections of land.
In those early days there was no mill nearer than Decorah and Freeport, about twenty miles distant. With ox teams it took one day to go and another to come back, besides waiting from one to three days at the mill to get the grist. Some time later a mill was built on the Canoe river, known as Spring- water, about ten miles off ; and still later a mill was built inside the township at what is now known as Highlandville. This mill was discontinued because the water power failed. The mill was owned by one Peter Olson, who died a short time ago. From the beginning and up in 1860, nearly all parts of the township were more or less settled. In the winter of 1857 there was a big snow on the ground from two to three feet deep. A rain on the top of that and cold weather made an ice crust about one inch thick, so that no teams could move without first crushing down the ice. Some people had their hay stacked out on the prairie where it was mowed, and the writer of these lines has seen men on snow shoes with a hand sled drawing their hay home, a distance of about two miles, on the top of that ice. Such were the pioneer days for the first settlers.
The first school in the township was taught by Addison Hoag in a private house belonging to N. N. Kjomme, but soon after a log schoolhouse was built on the four corners near the center of the township. The first teacher in that
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schoolhouse was Samuel Aikins, a well known resident from over the line in Minnesota. Another schoolhouse was shortly after built in the west part of the township, on section 7, by private subscriptions, and that schoolhouse was afterwards moved one mile south.
At the present time the township is well provided with schools, having six on a territory of twenty-six and one-half sections of land. A small part of the township belongs to Pleasant township for school matters.
During the War of the Rebellion the township furnished several soldiers as volunteers and some substitutes who were paid a liberal bounty by the residents to save the township from drafting.
There is no record old enough to show who were the first township officers but among some of the oldest officers were K. Tobiason, John Anderson Kros- hus, Nels N. Kjomme, Aad Nordheim, F. M. Gunning, Ammon Arneson and some others.
There is only one town inside the township, the platted village of Highland- ville. It has a population of a little over one hundred. It is a town without any railroad, and yet it is doing a lively business as a country town. Besides a postoffice there are three general stores, one blacksmith shop, one creamery, one doctor, two or three establishments for the sale of farm machinery, besides mechanics, and last. but not least, a new modern schoolhouse, built lately at a cost of about twenty-five hundred dollars. The building looks well and is an improvement to the town.
There is one Lutheran church inside the township and two creameries doing good business. The farmers of the township have made good progress and as a rule are well to do. Highland township had 808 residents in 1800: 829 in 1900, and 785 in 1910.
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Methodist Episcopal Church Catholic Church
First Norwegian Lutheran Church I'nited Lutheran Church
( ongregational Church A GROUP OF DECORAH CHURCHES
CHAPTER XXX
HESPER TOWNSHIP
Sparks' History gives an extended account of the settlement of Hesper township, but because its important features are given in more condensed form, and others Sparks did not record, we prefer to use a sketch prepared by the late E. M. Carter. Mr. Carter says :
"E. E. Meader, with his wife and four sons, were the first permanent set- tlers of Hesper township. They came from Southern Indiana in the fall of 1850 and spent the winter on the Volga, in Fayette county. In the spring of 1851 they came to northern Winneshiek, and in the early days of April reached their destination. Mr. Meader immediately began the erection of a log house, and although the section lines were not established, the house stood on almost the same spot as where now stands the commodious residence which was the home of Mr. and Mrs. Meader until his death February 13, 1896. Mrs. Meader, who is nearing her ninetieth year, still occupies the home as a summer residence.
"When the official survey of the line between Iowa and Minnesota was made the chief engineers of the surveying party boarded at the Meader home. Some- times chiefs of a different kind would call at the door and demand something to cat, but 'poor Lo' soon found that Mrs. Meader was a woman who would inuch sooner respond to an appeal than to a demand.
"During the summer of 1851 a Mr. Wheeler built a log house on the slope in the north part of the present village, and near a big spring that was for many years the main water supply of the village. This was the first residence within the limits of the present village plat. Among others this humble cabin sheltered some of the 'first families' of IIesper but was finally abandoned, and torn down.
"In the spring of 1855 David C. Tabor and family came from Vermont and were for a time occupants of the Wheeler cabin. Uncle David and Aunt Harriet now live in the beautiful home on the southeast corner of Main and Center streets.
"Russell Tabor, an older brother of David Tabor, came from Vermont in the fall of 1855, built himself a house, and also built a combined saw and grist mill, the latter near the spring above mentioned.
"In those days most of the freight from the East came down the Ohio and up the Mississippi, stopping at McGregor or at Lansing. In the fall of
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1855 David C. Tabor, with three young men as assistants and with a heavy wagon to which were attached four yoke of oxen. went to Lansing. about twenty-five miles east, to get the boiler for the mill. They were on the road eight days, and during two days of the home trip they made but eight miles. They came via Decorah and Burr Oak, coming into Hesper from the west, as by that route they could ford the Upper Jowa and other streams and avoid some of the worst roads and sloughs.
"Russell Tabor was the original proprietor of The Village of Hesper as platted by Ed. Pew,' in 1857. The deeds given by Mr. Tabor contained a clause forever prohibiting the manufacture or sale, as a beverage, of intoxi- cating liquor upon the premises conveyed. As Hesper has never harbored an open saloon, the validity of the deeds has never been tested in the courts.
"In the early summer of 1856, L. N. Wilson and family came from Jackson county, this state. Mr. Wilson immediately began the erection of a frame house on the southwest corner of Main and Center streets. Before the house was fairly enclosed they began entertaining the traveling public, and until old age compelled Mr. and Mrs. Wilson to retire from active service, the wayfaring man was sure of a warm welcome and a square meal.
"Of the early settlers of Hesper and of 'the village.' just across the line in Minnesota, including the Allens, Batteys. Blackmarrs, Cooks, Aldriches, Bene- diets. Streets, Pikes, Haines, Painters, MeMullens, Worths, Mitchells. Morri- sous. Whaleys, Wickershams, Talberts. Johnsons and others, the majority were members of the Society of Friends, most of whom did not believe in vocal or instrumental music as part of their church service.
"However, in 1869 or thereabout, a part of the celebrated Hutchinson family. temperance abolition singers, who 'came from the mountains of the old granite state,' visited their relations, the family of Tristram Allen, a leading member of the church. On Sunday near the closing hour Randall Stuart felt it borne in upon him to remark to the effect that if any of the visiting friends had any- thing to offer in the way of 'psalmus, hymns or spiritual songs,' he presumed their offering would be acceptable. The visiting Friends accepted the invita- tion and favored the congregation with several of their choice songs suited to the occasion. Mattie Gidley of the Springwater meeting, and Zeno Battey, son of Amos Battey, who was for many years 'head' of the Hesper meeting. occa- sionally gave their testimony in song, but not until quite recent years has singing become a part of the regular service.
"At the time of the Sioux uprising in 1863, several of the young men of Hesper organized under the command of Dr. Win. C. Battey and went in search of the hostiles. They went beyond Austin, Minnesota, but encountered no Indians. llesper and vicinity furnished its full quota of those who did loyal service in the army during the dark days of '61-65, and the remains of twenty-two of the 'boys in blue' and of one enlisted nurse, Cynthia Cameron, are at rest in our cemeteries.
"The first meeting house in the township was built by one branch of the Friends church on the northwest corner of section 17, a mile west of the village. The other branch of the church met in Russell Tabor's house. . 1 union of the two branches having been effected. the meeting house was moved into the village, and is now occupied as a dwelling by J. M. Camp. The Friends
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meeting house, which burned October 22, 1904, was built in 1871. At about the same time the Norwegian Lutherans and the Methodists built comfortable and commodious places of worship.
"At an early day in its history Hesper township attracted many Scandi- navians within its borders, among them Helgrim Larsen, Ole B. Anderson, Burre Olson and others, their descendants now being among our prominent citizens.
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