USA > Iowa > Lee County > Story of Lee County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 10
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The first schoolhouse was built on the Cruickshank farm in 1839 and a term of school was taught in that year by a man named Turner. At the close of the school year in 1914 there were five schoolhouses in
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
the township, five teachers were employed and the number of pupils enrolled was 107.
In 1842 the Methodists built a church at Franklin-or Franklin Centre, as it was then called-the first house of worship to be erected in the township.
Franklin is well supplied with transportation facilities. The Burlington & Carrollton division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad runs east and west across the southern portion, through South Franklin and Donnellson. At Donnellson it is crossed by the Keokuk & Mount Pleasant division of the same system, which runs north and south. The township also has over fifty miles of telephone lines.
In 1913 the taxable property of the township was assessed at $535,270. The officers then were as follows: Peter Lang, Jacob Frueh and A. T. Cruikshank, trustees; August Fey, clerk; J. P. Galli, assessor; J. G. Krehbiel, justice of the peace; John Gibson, constable. The population in 1910 was 1,290.
GREEN BAY TOWNSHIP
This township is the most eastern in the county. It was erected as one of the first ten civil townships in 1841, but the boundaries between Green Bay and Denmark were readjusted in January, 1843. On the north it is bounded by the Skunk River, which separates it from Des Moines County; on the east and south by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the State of Illinois; and on the west by the townships of Denmark and Washington. Its area is about thirty square miles, embracing all that part of Congressional town- ships 68 and 69, of range 3, lying in Lee County. The soil is a deep, black loam, very fertile, though some parts of the township are so low that the land has to be protected by levees. It is one of the lead- ing agricultural townships of the county. In the southern part is the body of water called Green Bay, about four miles long and one-fourth of a mile in width. Lost Creek flows in a southeasterly direction across the township and empties into this bay.
The first white settlements in Green Bay Township were made in 1835 by William Saucer and the Smalls. Thomas Small was elected one of the thirteen constables of Lee County in March, 1838. Wil- liam Franklin came to the township in the spring of 1837, and the population was soon afterward increased by the arrival of Joel Smith, J. C. Poole, John Haynes, William Lucas and the McCowen family. William Saucer was a member of the first petit jury im-
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paneled after lowa Territory was organized in 1838. It is said that the name "Green Bay" was suggested by William Lucas when the township was created in January, 1841.
The Burlington & St. Louis division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad runs through this township, and the stations of Wever and Wescott are located within its limits. There are about five and one-half miles of railroad track and forty miles of telephone lines in the township, which is divided into five school districts, in which 163 pupils were enrolled during the school year of 1913-14. According to the county auditor's report for the year ending on December 31, 1913, the value of the taxable property of Green Bay was $338,995, and the United States census for 1910 reported a popu- lation of 744.
When the township was first erected in 1841, it was ordered by the board of county commissioners that the first election should be held at the house of Wesley Hughes on the first Monday in April. At that time James D. Gedney and John Pomeroy were elected jus- tices of the peace, and Enoch Morgan and Ephraim B. Hughes, con- stables. The officers of the township in 1914 were : Horace E. Hyter, H. E. Lange and Fred Schulte, trustees; Fred O. Tucker, clerk; E. H. Liddle, assessor; William Sweeney, constable.
HARRISON TOWNSHIP
Harrison Township, one of the original ten created in January, 1841, is situated in the western part of the county, and as at first established it included the present township of Cedar. It was named for Gen. William H. Harrison, who was elected President of the United States in 1840. It now embraces Congressional Township 68, range 7, and therefore has an area of thirty-six square miles. It is bounded on the north by Cedar Township; on the east by Franklin; on the south by Van Buren, and on the west by Van Buren County. Sugar Creek rises near Big Mound, in the northwestern part, and flows diagonally across the township toward the southeast. There are also some smaller streams. Along the watercourses the land was orig- inally covered with a growth of timber, but the greater portion of the township is composed of prairie.
James and William Howard are credited with having been the first white settlers in what is now Harrison Township. They came there before the Government survey was made and staked out their claims in the Sugar Creek Valley. A little later Isaac Renfrew and his brother located near the Howards. Isaac Beller, Stephen Perkins
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
and his son, George, and the Lorey and Schweer families were also early settlers. Exum S. and D. T. Mccullough, the former from Tennessee and the latter from South Carolina, came in 1836. E. S. Mccullough became one of the active and influential citizens of Lee County. He served in both branches of the State Legislature, and was otherwise identified with public affairs. His death occurred in 1876. Melinda Schweer was the first white child to be born in the town- ship, Joseph Lorey and Cyrus Howard being born a little later. The first death was that of a Mr. Stewart.
In 1837 the Government survey was completed in the township and the pioneers purchased and received patents for their lands between that time and 1840. The first school was taught in the "Howard Settlement," about 1838, but the name of the teacher appears to have been forgotten. In 1914 there were six school dis- tricts in the township, in which seven teachers were employed and 172 pupils were enrolled.
Across the southern portion runs the Burlington & Carrollton division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway System, about six miles of track lying within the township. Warren is the prin- cipal ralroad station. Harrison also has about fifty-five miles of telephone lines. The value of the taxable property in 1913 was $488,858, and in 1910 the United States census reported a population of 614.
The first election in Harrison Township was held at the house of Jesse Johnson on the first Monday in April, 1841. Stephen H. Graves and Henry Dye were elected justices of the peace, and Wil- liam L. Graves and R. P. King, constables. Stephen H. Graves was elected one of the first assessors of property in Lee County, in April, 1837, and in March, 1838, was chosen one of the first board of county commissioners. The officers of the township for 1914 were as fol- lows : L. H. Schweer, John Bargar and Joseph Kelly, trustees; Wil- liam C. Smith, clerk; E. J. Warson, assessor; Joseph Carver and S. R. Hampton, justices of the peace, and Fred C. Winters, con- stable.
JACKSON TOWNSHIP
This township occupies the extreme southern part of the county. in the triangle lying between the Mississippi and Des Moines rivers. It is one of the ten townships erected by the board of county com- missioners in January, 1841, and includes Congressional Township 65, range 5, except such portions as are cut off by the river boundaries,
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
and a'little of the eastern part of township 65, range 6. Its area is about thirty-eight square miles. On the north it is bounded by the townships of Montrose and Des Moines; on the east and southeast by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the State of Illi- nois; on the south by the Des Moines River, which separates it from Missouri, and on the west by the township of Des Moines.
The first habitation built by a white man in Jackson Township was the log cabin erected by Dr. Samuel Muir in 1820, within the limits of the present City of Keokuk. Much of the early history of the township will be found in the chapter on the City of Keokuk, where the first settlers located. In the extreme northeast corner of the township is the little Village of Sandusky, where Lemoliese, the French trader, established his trading post in 1820. Owing to the fact that Jackson lies within the limits of the old half-breed tract, where titles to the lands were a subject of litigation for so many years, settlers were somewhat slow in coming in and forming permanent settlements. The first township election was held in the Town of Keokuk on the first Monday in April, 1841, when Alexander Kerr and L. B. Fleak were elected justices of the peace, and Leroy P. Gray and Emery Jones, constables. In 1914 the officers of the township (outside of the City of Keokuk) were: Henry Thieme, A. H. Lin- nenberger and Henry Peters, trustees ; Will D. Turner, clerk ; Luman Van Ausdall, assessor. In the city, John Leindecker and James S. Burrows were township justices in 1914, and Austin Hollowell and Henry Reichmann held the office of constable.
The township was named for Andrew Jackson, the seventh Presi- dent of the United States. It is well supplied with railroads. The Burlington & St. Louis division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy system runs along the Mississippi River; the Keokuk & Mount Pleasant division of the same system runs northward from Keokuk through the central portion; the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific runs along the southern border, and Keokuk is the terminal city for divisions of the Wabash and the Toledo, Peoria & Western railroads. Altogether there are nearly seventeen miles of track in the township, which has over sixty miles of telephone lines, so that facilities for transportation and communication are unsurpassed by any township in the county.
Outside of the City of Keokuk, the value of the taxable property in 1913 was $499,927. The nine school districts in that part of the township employed ten teachers and enrolled 273 pupils during the school year of 1913-14, and the estimated value of the schoolhouses was $11,000. The population in 1910, exclusive of the city, was 1,438.
CHAPTER VII TOWNSHIP HISTORY, CONTINUED
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP-MADISON-MARION-MONTROSE-THE TES- SON LAND GRANT-THE OLD ORCHARD-PLEASANT RIDGE-VAN BUREN-WASHINGTON-WEST POINT -- HISTORICAL SKETCH OF EACH-PIONEERS- OFFICIALS PAST AND PRESENT-TRANSPORTA- TION-EDUCATION, ETC.
JEFFERSON TOWNSHIP
Jefferson Township is one of the original ten townships erected by order of the county commissioners in January, 1841. As originally established it included the present Township of Charleston. It is bounded on the north by the Township of West Point; on the east by Madison and the Mississippi River, which separates it from Illinois; on the south by Montrose Township, and on the west by Charleston. Its area is about thirty-three square miles.
The pioneer settler in Jefferson Township was William Skinner, who came to Lee County in the spring of 1834 and soon afterward selected a tract of land on Sugar Creek, in section 5, for which he afterward obtained a patent from the Government. Mr. Skinner was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1795. In 1816 he married there and soon afterward removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, where his wife died, leaving three children. In 1830 he married Elenora Ferre and in the spring of 1834 came to Fort Edwards (now War- saw), Illinois, making the trip by steamboat down the Ohio and up the Mississippi. After a residence of about two weeks at Fort Edwards, he decided to "try his luck" in the Black Hawk Purchase. Securing two canoes, he lashed them together and with this homely craft brought his family and effects across the river at the foot of the rapids. His first residence in Iowa was the frame shanty that had been erected by Moses Stillwell on the side of the hill at Keokuk, but which was then unoccupied.
About that time Lieutenant Crosman came up from St. Louis and began work on the buildings of Fort Des Moines, where the Town of Montrose is now situated. Mr. Skinner was employed to make Vol. I-7
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20,000 clapboards for roofing the barracks and other buildings, for which he was paid $20 per thousand. After this contract was com- pleted he was employed to superintend the erection of the log houses for the military quarters, because not one of Lieutenant Crosman's men knew enough about "mechanics" to erect a plain log cabin. For this work Mr. Skinner received a salary of $60 per month in "real money," as he afterward expressed it. He also assisted in cutting grass and laying in a supply of hay for the horses of the dragoons, and later built a residence for Colonel Kearney, the first commandant of the fort. With the money received from the Government for this work he paid for his land.
In December, 1834, he removed his family to his claim on Sugar Creek. As he had been engaged by the Government practically all summer and fall, he had not erected a cabin on the land selected some months before. The family therefore took possession of a small hut that had been built by Chief Black Hawk during the sugar making season. This hut, the walls of which were of small poles and the roof of bark, stood on the east bank of the creek, not far from the present railroad bridge. Subsequently Mr. Skinner erected a cabin of his own on the west side of the creek-the first habitation of civilized man within the present borders of Jefferson Township.
Hugh Wilson was the second white man to establish a claim in the township, coming a little while after Mr. Skinner and locating in the Sugar Creek Valley. A man named Baker came a little later and in 1838 Mr. Skinner sold his first claim to Henry Applegate and bought Baker's place, the latter going on farther west.
Concerning early conditions in Jefferson Township, William Skinner some years afterward said: "People hadn't much time for amusement or social intercourse. They were too busy making rails, building fences, cutting and hauling logs to build cabins, etc., to fool away their time hunting after anything that did not promise to add to their hopes of an easier day in the years to come. The settlers were always friendly and frequently visited each other, and while the men indulged in the discussion of such themes as interested them, the women knitted, talked and smoked, for in those days it was not considered unladylike for women to smoke. In fact, smoking was more commonly indulged in by the women than by the men. People lived plain and didn't put on any style then. They made no attempt at display, and when some of the young people concluded to leave the old folks and set up for themselves, they did not receive much of a 'setting out.' Brides didn't receive presents then as they do now. Some who had nothing but a single suit of clothes each when they
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
were married settled right down to hard work and economy, and in a few years were well to do. Young people married for love then and worked to earn homes."
Among the early couples to get married were Thomas McGuire and a Miss Mccullough. Mr. Skinner told how he happened to pass McGuire's cabin soon after the young couple went to house- keeping and stopped for a brief visit, "just to see how they were get- ting along." He found McGuire and his wife seated on the puncheon floor before the fireplace, eating mush and milk out of an iron pot that stood between them. Each had an iron spoon and a tin cup, but were without either chairs or table. Such cases were not uncom- mon back in the '30s, yet the men who lived after this fashion were the ones who laid the foundations of Lee County's subsequent prosperity.
The first election in Jefferson Township was held at the house of Cyrus Peck on the first Monday in April, 1841. Arthur Hafferty and Gershom Dawks were elected justices of the peace, and Daniel Dodson and William Grimes, constables. The township officers in 1914 were: Thomas Wilson, George Haeffner and George Smith, trustees ; J. M. Kudebeh, clerk; Z. T. Lyon, assessor; August Burg- dorf, justice of the peace.
The first school was taught in the Skinner neighborhood in 1837- In 1914 the county superintendent reported seven school districts, in which 118 pupils were enrolled during the preceding school term .. The seven schoolhouses were estimated by him to be worth $4,600,. exclusive of the grounds, and the teachers received salaries varying: from thirty-five to fifty-five dollars per month.
Jefferson Township has more miles of railroad and more miles: of telephone lines than any other township in the county-nearly eighteen of the former and over seventy-five of the latter. The St. Louis & Burlington Division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway System runs north from Keokuk to Viele, where it turns east. At Viele it forms a junction with the Burlington & Carrollton Divi- sion of the same system, and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe also crosses the township. In 1913 the value of the taxable property was $605,003, and the population in 1910 was 607.
MADISON TOWNSHIP 4
What is now Madison Township was originally a part of the Township of Washington. The records of the County Commis- sioners' Court for April, 1841, contain the following entry : "Ordered
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
by the board that fractional township sixty-seven (67), range four (4), be, and the same is hereby, set off into a separate township, for the purpose of carrying into effect an act entitled 'An act to provide for the organization of townships,' approved January 10, 1840; and it is further ordered that said township shall be known by the name of Madison Township. The first meeting of the electors of said township shall be at the Washington House, in the Town of Fort Madison, on the first day of May next."
The name was adopted from Fort Madison, and indirectly for James Madison, who was President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. For some reason the election was changed from the first day of May to the first Monday in that month, which fell on the third. John A. Drake and William F. Nelson were elected justices of the peace, and Isaac R. Rose and John D. Williams, constables. In 1914 the justices were Joseph S. Buckler and Joseph A. Nunn, and the constables were C. H. Perry and William F. Kumleh.
Madison Township is situated on the eastern border of the county. It is bounded on the north by Washington, from which it was taken ; on the east and south by the Mississippi River, and on the west by the Township of Jefferson. Its arca is about seven square miles, prac- tically all of which is included within the corporate limits of the City of Fort Madison. Much of the early history of the township is therefore included in the chapter relating to Fort Madison, where a majority of the first settlers located. Among those who settled in the township outside of the town were Dr. Campbell Gilmer, near the northwest corner; James Bullard, two miles west of the site of the old military post; John G. Schwartz, Michael Seyb and Harmon Ding- man, Germans, who came from the Fatherland in the latter '30s and settled at Fort Madison or in the immediate vicinity. John G. Kennedy and Peter Miller were also pioneers of this township, the former coming from Tennessee and the latter from Maryland. Peter Miller was the second mayor of Fort Madison after the town was incorporated. He likewise served as county commissioner, treasurer and sheriff at different times.
In the reports of the county auditor, county superintendent and the United States Census Bureau, Madison Township and the City of Fort Madison are treated as the same jurisdiction. From the first of these reports it is learned that the taxable property was valued at $1,034,248 in 1913; that there were then about eleven miles of rail- road in the township, and forty-six miles of telephone lines. The report of the county superintendent shows forty-one teachers em-
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ployed in the public schools, 1,198 pupils enrolled, and five school buildings valued at $65,000.
MARION TOWNSHIP
At the April session of the county commissioners in 1841, it was ordered that congressional township 69, range 6, be cut off from Franklin Township and erected into a separate township, to be known as Marion. As thus established, and as it has since remained, the township includes the congressional township described in the order and contains an area of thirty-six square miles. It is situated north- west of the center of the county; is bounded on the north by the County of Henry ; on the east by Pleasant Ridge Township; on the south by Franklin, and on the west by Cedar. Sugar Creek and some of its tributaries flow in a southeasterly direction across the township, affording good natural drainage and water for live stock, etc. Along these streams the surface was originally covered with a growth of timber, some of which is still standing, but the most valuable trees have long since been cut down and manufactured into lumber.
It is believed that the first white settler in what is now Marion Township was Alexander Cruickshank, who selected a tract of land in what afterward became the Clay Grove Settlement. He had formerly located in Pleasant Ridge Township, where he cleared a piece of ground and raised a crop of corn in 1834, and in the fall of that year changed his residence to Marion. His son, James Cruickshank, was the first white child born in the township. His birth occurred on May 7, 1835.
Several settlers came into the township in 1835. Among them was Samuel Paschal, a native of Tennessee, but who removed to Illinois in 1825, and who remained a resident of the township for nearly half a century before his death. A man named May started with his family from Illinois, but died before reaching the Black Hawk Purchase. His widow and children came on and located in Marion, where one son, William M. May, became a successful farmer. James and Elias Overton, Solomon Jackson, Luke Alphin and Joseph Carmack all settled in the Clay Grove neighborhood before the close of the year 1836.
In that year the government survey was made in the township by Captain Parks, of Michigan, who was employed as a government surveyor for twenty years or more, and the settlers soon afterward obtained their titles to the lands they had selected. Another pioneer was Lindsey Ware, who selected and cleared a farm in the Clay Grove
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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
Settlement. His daughter, Anna, was married to Zedekiah Cleve- land in the winter of 1836-the first wedding ever solemnized within the limits of what is now Marion Township.
The first store was opened at Clay Grove by a man named Harlan; the first school was taught by a man named Turner, in a log cabin on the farm of George Taylor, in the summer of 1839; the first death was that of Lindsey Ware's wife, in August, 1838. Her body was buried upon her husband's farm, but some thirty years later was removed to a cemetery.
The first regular schoolhouse was built of round logs on Mr. Cruickshank's farm in the fall of 1839. In 1914 there were nine school districts in the township, but during the preceding school year only six teachers were employed and the enrollment was only sixty- three pupils, many of the children attending the parochial schools.
At the time the township was created, in April, 1841, the com- missioners ordered that the first election should be held at the house of John Taylor on the third Wednesday of the following May. No returns of that election can be found. The officers for 1914 were as follows : John W. Raid, Isidor Link and George Hinrichs, trustees ; George Hellman, clerk; August Peitzmeier, assessor; John Mitten- dorf, justice of the peace, and Joseph Fritzjunker, constable.
Marion has about seven and a half miles of railroad; fifty-five miles of telephone lines, and taxable property in 1913 valued at $587,199. The one line of railroad is the Fort Madison & Ottumwa Division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway System, which enters the township from the east near the southeast corner and runs northwest up the Sugar Creek Valley. The population in 1910 was 746.
MONTROSE TOWNSHIP
This is one of the townships bordering on the Mississippi River. It is situated in the southern part of the county; is bounded on the north by the Township of Jefferson; on the east by the Mississippi River, which separates it from the State of Illinois; on the south by Jackson Township, and on the west by Des Moines Township. It was created by the county commissioners on July 8, 1841, by the division of Ambrosia Township, and includes the fractional con- gressional township 66, of range 4, having an area of about thirty-two square miles.
Montrose enjoys the distinction of being the site of the first settle- ment made by a white man within the present limits of Lee County.
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