USA > Iowa > Marshall County > The History of Marshall County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men etc > Part 53
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These figures show that fruit can be raised here. In most parts of the county, apples will eventually become an excellent crop; but the prize can be won only by skillful management.
A farmer would not think of using an unknown variety of wheat for seed, or a new kind of corn for planting, and then expect to reap a full harvest with- out proper cultivation of the soil. Why, then, should he expect to grow fruit from unknown trees, without even watching them, to protect them in their early stages from weather and insects ?
The best orchards in the county are those which receive the best care. In five years' time, a thrifty yield of fruit may be taken from trees which are three or four years old when planted, if prudent selections of varieties are made.
Let those who wish to have good orchards, first visit the fruit farms of ex- perienced men, and from them learn what to do. Then let the instructions so received be followed to the letter-and within a decade this county will be famous for its fruits, especially for its apples and its pears.
447
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
THE COUNTY FARM.
In 1867, the Board of Supervisors decided that they would submit a propo- sition to the people of the county, relative to the purchase of a farm and the construction of buildings thereon to be used as a County Poor Farm. The following November, the question was voted upon, and received 1,434 affirma- tive and 280 negative votes. The amount appropriated was $6,000, to be raised by special assessment.
In June, 1868, the first Committee on Poor Farm was designated by the Board. It consisted of Supervisors S. T. Mote, William Barnes, S. Beeson and C. B. Rhodes. After suitable examination of the various sites proposed for the farm, the Committee selected wild prairie in Washington Township, described as the southeast quarter of Section 8, and the south half of the south- west quarter of Section 9, Town 83 north, Range 19 west. The price per acre is minuted in pencil on the records of the Board, and from that we infer that the original amount was $12. The Clerk of the Board, J. L. Williams, was added to the Committee.
D. S. Kellogg was chosen first Steward. A brick building was erected as a Poor House, and considerable improvement was made during the first two years. T. E. Carey was chosen to succeed Mr. Kellogg as Steward, and the work of developing the property slowly advanced. W. R. Herrick was the next manager, and under him the progress was marked. Less than a year ago, E. E. Hutchins became Superintendent, and is still in charge.
The farm is one of the finest in the county. It is rolling prairie land, of rich soil and well adapted to stock raising and general farming. Of course, the early years of its existence, in its present form, were not profitable ones to the county ; but the farm is now upon a self-sustaining basis, including the care of the paupers placed thereon. At present writing, there are over twenty inmates, but the number varies with the seasons, and is likely to reach a much higher one than now shown.
As a prudent measure, to the end that many of the paupers now supported at different points might be placed in charge of the Superintendent, on the farm, a large frame addition to the house is being put up this Summer, and other permanent improvements made. These improvements will cost between $5,000 or $6,000, but are wise and judicious investments. The Supervisors of the county take an active interest in all that pertains to the work.
Last January, the inventory showed the following valuations of farm prop- erty :
Land, 240 acres.
$8,000 00
Tools, grain on hand, etc .. 1,042 00
Cattle and live stock. 2,546 50
Furniture and fixtures ... 594 45
Total valuation
$12,182 95
The permanent improvements made in 1877 amounted to $660. The income from the farm was $2,405, and the total expenditures $3,409. This made the cost of sustaining $344 over and above receipts. With ordinarily good returns this year, the farm will sustain itself and care for a large number of helpless poor.
The farm is well managed, and has one of the finest herds of young cattle we have seen in the county. Poland-China hogs are raised, and from this drove the premium car-load was shipped last year. The correct idea has been
448
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
grasped by the managers of the institution in regard to the profitable breeding of stock.
In ten years this farm will be not only a source of large revenue and a ma- terial aid toward the support of the poor, but it will also be a special object of pride if a proper spirit is shown by the Board of Supervisors.
LE GRAND QUARRY CO.
This incorporated concern is doing a fine business in the eastern part of the county, at Quarry Station and also at Le Grand. The officers of the company are : President, George F. Kirby; Vice President, Isaac B. Howe ; Secretary and Treasurer, Henry J. Howe.
The general office is located at Marshalltown, but branch offices are located at various convenient points. From eighty to one hundred and forty men are employed in the different branches of the work at the quarries.
The famous Iowa marble is procured at this company's quarry. This most beautiful formation is used extensively for ornamental work, in trimmings for houses, interior decorations, furniture tops, etc.
The stone has been in use for more than twenty years, and its durability has been thoroughly tested. Competition is sharply made with all other quarries, and the increased sales from Le Grand establish the excellent quality of the material. The stone is varied in the numerous strata, so that a wide range of products is rendered possible. From coarse work to highly polished, elaborately carved cut work, the entire range of variety is shown.
The company is controlled by the same gentlemen who own the stock of the Kirby & Howe Stone Co., of Chicago, and thus another advantage is enjoyed by the co-operation of the two concerns. The Chicago house own a quarry at Lemont, Ill.
Railroad tracks run from the North-Western Road directly to the several quarries.
This industry is an important one in the commercial development of the county.
FIRST GRIST-MILLS.
Wm. Asher built the first grist-mill in 1847. Wmn. Asher, John Campbell and Carpenter Gear built the second grist-mill, a part of which is the make-up of the Rock Valley Mills, in 1849. In 1850, the memorable year to the early settlers of Marshall County, called the year of the big flood, when the early settlers were hedged in on every side by the high waters for six weeks, almost every family erected a mill within their own door, for manufacturing their own meal for bread, in the shape of a mortar and pestle, or a grate, on which corn softened by boiling was grated into meal, such a thing as flour being out of the question. In the time of this great scarcity of bread, the ingenuity of the inventive brain was called into requisition to secure bread in the cheapest form of labor and in the easiest possible way. It was during this wet season that Mr. Edward Edwards, a brother-in-law of Wm. H. Weatherly, of Marshall- town, invented a novel mill, near the place where the house of Mrs. Thomas now stands in Marietta Township, in the following manner, to wit: Going into a ravine in which there was much water, during the wet season, he erected a dam, good and strong, then hewing out a large trough with the end which
449
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
pointed up stream the heaviest, so that when fastened upon a pivot, with the greater length of the trough pointing down stream it would still balance up ·stream, fastened this on the end of a long sweep or pole and set forks upright in the ravine a little distance below. On this, he fastened his pole on a pivot. the trough being fastened on the upper and in such a way as to catch the water in his trough as it poured over the dam, and when full, the heft being on the end pointing down stream, it would turn on its pivot and empty itself, and when empty, it would fall back in position again. On the other end of the beam to which the trough was fastened was fixed a heavy pestle so as to strike into a large mortar below, and as the trough would empty, as before stated, it would draw down the pestle with great weight, and when empty, in falling back into position, would raise the pestle for another blow. The mortar was from time to time filled with shelled corn, which in time was beaten or ground into meal by this odd mill which run night and day for several weeks, furnishing a constant supply of meal.
In 1854, Mr. G. W. Woodbury purchased the water power on the Iowa River one mile north of Marshalltown, and the following season had a flour-mill in active motion. He afterward added a distillery and carding machine. In 1874, Mr. Fred Woodbury, son of G. M. Woodbury, removed the old mill and erected a new one at a cost of $60,000 or upward, adding steam fixtures, so that when the water is too high or too low for grinding, he can run it'with steam.
The mill familiarly known as the Schofield Mill, on the Iowa River, north of Le Grand, was built by Thomas and Isaiah Schofield in 1856. It has since been rebuilt and added to until it is now a substantial structure, with five runs of buhrs and all the modern improvements necessary to do first-class work. It is now owned and operated by Hiram Hammond and G. W. Benedict, under the firm name of Hammond & Benedict.
Dr. Hixson built and operated a flouring-mill in an early day, near the mouth of Minerva Creek. The mill failed to prove a success, and the doctor abandoned the enterprise and let it go down.
Mr. Wm. Hill built a steam flouring-mill at Marietta in 1858, but finding it costly to run by steam, took into partnership Mr. Marshall Bishop, and removed the mill to the Iowa River, two miles west of Albion ; after operating it some considerable length of time, they sold to Mr. Abraham Stanley, of Albion, and the mill was burned while owned by him, in the month of May, A. D. 1876. There are good steam flouring-mills owned and operated, one in State Center, one in Marshalltown, and one in Edenville, and a good flouring- mill built by Ralls & Willets on South Timber Creek in Le Grand Township, run by water-power.
SPECULATIVE AND PROPHETIC.
The man who cannot find something to love and applaud in the land he has chosen for a home, is devoid of the elements of patriotism-that devotion which cements these States and preserves the Union in indissoluble bonds. But where one finds a region so abundant in natural advantages, so enchanting in landscape, and so salubrious in climate as this in which we write these lines, the lack of patriotic enthusiasm falls little below a crime in magnitude and character.
That such a deficiency does not exist in the hearts of Marshall County men .and women we have learned by personal investigation. The residents are
450
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
proud of their homes and ambitious that the world should know of it. Nature smiled when these broad acres were perfected. The gradual action of the ele- ments resulted in artistic forms of hillock, plain and valley, as though the creative. force had endowed the agents of transformation with esthetic attributes. The crude touches in the landscape are found where the water-courses still push their way through gorge and marsh, and offer a protest against criticism. as though to impress one with the idea that their work is but half performed. As an artist might turn in angry warning upon one who was bold enough to speak harshly of his sketch when but half completed, so do the smaller streams speak volumes to the thoughtful mind, which is prepared by culture to commune with Nature. The graceful sweep of field, which now gladdens the heart of the expectant husbandman, was once the bed of such a stream as this. Ages ago, the process of evolution began, and countless years have passed since first the impeding twigs or pebbles changed the direction of the waters. The results of Nature's ceaseless workings are now beheld in the lovely range of prairies, dotted with homesteads and beautified by waving grain.
There is a township in the county known as Eden. The traveler may well pause to admire the scene and speculate upon the comparative beauties of the original and modern region. It is almost impossible for man to conceive of a more delightful combination of hill and dell than that which unrolls itself before his eye, in grateful succession, as he journeys slowly through it. The. popular Eastern idea of Iowa is that the monotony of landscape is wearisome to eye and brain ; that the prairie reaches away like some limitless sea, which is unruffled by a breeze, until the horizon swallows it up in very desperation. The truth is, that no Eastern field presents the variety of conformation that these fertile ranges do. From some elevation one may see far away, but from a carriage, one's vision is intercepted before the eye is fairly satisfied with the glimpse obtained. The waves of land are not in mathematical regularity, like some humanly planned creation, but are as broken in outline as the face of some great mountain. The characteristic difference between mountain and prairie is that the former is crude, from upheaval of rock and from the action of mighty tempests, while here, the gradual mounds have been shaped by the constant deposit of sediment from the stream that lapped their base. The sinuous course of rivers is traceable as distinctly as when the northern waters rushed through their winding beds. Here a gentle ascent widens and lifts itself into a ridge- which bends, with graceful sweep, but increasing proportions, far out of sight behind that mound yonder. Two rivers met here, one day, and ever after sep- arated. to unite again where the ridge descends to the level of the plain. The mound was once an island, caused by the eddy that swirled just beyond the force of the river stream.
Thus has the prairie land been made as is explained in the article upon the geologic formation of the county.
The beautiful lands are by no means confined to the south of Linn or Tim- ber Creeks. The north is equally fine, where the immediate vicinity of the river is left. The northwestern townships are as desirable as man can hope for, and taken all in all, this county is one of the most charming in the State.
The future of Marshall County is no idle speculation. Long ago, the period of uncertainty was past, and the continued development of natural resources guaranteed. There are within the reach of man the grandest possibilities for those who earnestly seek to secure them. The population of the county now exceeds 20,000 souls, and the fixedness of the interest in the improvement of the region is beyond peradventure. The county cannot retrograde so long as.
451
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
the ambitious spirit which at present controls Marshalltown exists. At the close of this century, the population should equal 75,000, at the rate of increase enjoyed during the past decade ; but such a percentage is neither a reasonable. nor a desirable expectation. There undoubtedly will be 50,000 people here within the limit of the county before another quarter of a century rolls by. Marshalltown is destined to improve in every way and maintain its high rank as an enterprising city.
The following is the total value of each assessment of the county of Marshall from 1858 to 1875 : 1858, $1,975,643 ; 1859, $2,133,297 ; 1860, $2,527,750; 1861, $1,029,697 ; 1862, $1,900,775 ; 1863, $1,844,742 ; 1864, $2,226,158; 1865, $2,173,184; 1866, $3,300,979; 1867, $3,361,163 ; 1868, $3,406,985 ; 1869, $3,859,626 ; 1870, $4,117,613 ; 1871, $4,681,720; 1872, $4,860,846 ; 1873, $4,819,310 ; 1874, $4,941.873 ; 1875, $5,414,818.
It will be observed that the assessments for 1861, 1862 and 1863 were light, owing to the pressure marked at the commencement of the war. These figures show an increase of taxable property in the county fromn 1858 to 1875-a period of seventeen years-to be $3,439,175, showing a yearly increase of the taxable property of the county for the last seventeen years to be $202,304. The probability is, that the true estimate of the real wealth of Marshall County is over $12,000,000. Even at this ratio of taxation for the next twenty-five years, the county will then have a taxable property in Marshall county of $10,000,000, the true value of which would be at least $25,000,000.
How marked have been the transformations in the social world since the organization of Marshall County! The slow-moving ox-cart has given place to the stately family carriage, the patient beast to the spirited blooded horse. Those who made pilgrimages to primitive altars for the worship of God, now bow their heads in costly piles of stone and brick, and offer devotional sacrifices in the scores of church edifices which stand so thickly in every portion of the land.
School houses have been erected at almost all the crossings of section-line roads, and educational advantages are offered the children of the pioneers. Nor is the system of instruction as of old, but a slow inadequate exercise of the mental powers. The methods then were like the ox-cart itself in movement and result ; all was plodding, heavy, ungraceful, unskilled. But now the youthful brain is stimulated by the most carefully arranged gradations. The child. from the first, has just the point of intelligence appealed to that is necessary for his swiftest growth. And with the mental stimulus the physical is roused as well ; the whole nature is included in the training. By rapid and certain stages, the pupil is brought to the desired knowledge, and the result is a quick and well- balanced development that shames the cumbrous growth of earlier years. There need no longer be any proportion of illiterate persons in the census returns. The avenues to education are as open as the highways, and he who will not walk, at least a little way in them, must be indeed a blind and unworthy creat- ure. That which a large proportion of our fathers and forefathers lacked was opportunity. With capacities equal to those of the present, circumstances often dwarfed and misdirected them. But this cannot be urged now. In all direc- tions the scope has widened ; male and female alike have the range of all fields of learning. But a few years ago, the question of the equal education of the sexes was one that agitated the enlightened world ; to-day, it is practically settled ; and what then seemed to involve momentous resolution and possibly large social destruction, is now one of the smoothest running wheels in the whole machinery of life. Thus rapid have been the steps toward enlightenment -thus long and grand the strides toward universal freedom.
452
HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
A prophet who should in this day attempt to forecast the future, could scarcely dip his wand in too bright colors. He would be safe in exaggeration, safe in seeming to exceed even the bounds of possibility. From the near past, what may we not hope and expect in the near future ? We are growing to look upon miracles as commonplace. The bump of wonder is likely to be wholly obliterated from the phrenological chart. And the West, young and vigorous as it is, is not a whit behind older civilization, but leads off already in many ways, and is likely yet to distance all by 'the strength of its sinews and the courage of its health.
These reflections come up naturally from the contemplation of a portion of country like this county of Marshall, which we have been studying in all its phases, with a view to a thorough understanding of its present status and of its future possibilities. It would be too much like flattery to apply them strictly to Marshall; but it is simply truth to apply them to the West as a whole, and surely no one will deny that Marshall is a typical Western region.
One sure sign of continued progress is that progress no longer startles people. With what sang froid even the wonders of the telephone are accepted; for within the year of the application of that wonderful principle, we find that business men here. as in older places, make nothing of connecting their houses and offices with the bewitched wire on which speech travels audibly. It is not a matter of wonder; it is accepted as the most natural and commonplace thing in the world. No one's equanimity is disturbed, no one's pulse quick- ened.
The tendency is to universalize. Regions no longer produce types-all are cosmopolitan. The West, which was for a long time the synonym of the New, the Crude, the Out-of-reach, is to-day just as accessible, just as central, has just as many advantages as the East. And it is a little younger, and spryer, and more eager, and more daring, and for that reason, rather leads in the march. We have said that the West wonders at nothing, and yet the world wonders at the West !
It is by comparison that we best mark progress. It will be interesting, and no doubt even amusing, a quarter of a century hence, to take, for example, the pages of this history, and, reading of Marshall County as it was, to note how old-fashioned and moderate were our estimates of its possibilities ; from the height of its achievement to look back to the level of its aspirations. Some inay then speak of its early days with perhaps the half-pitying, half-charitable affection with which men speak of their youth. Yet there will never be a day when Marshall will not be proud of its youth-of that youth's mighty brawn, of its equal courage, of its efforts that would not be stinted, of its determina- tion that would not be balked. There will never be a day when the men who began the structure, and laid its foundations so strong and broad, will not be gratefully remembered by those who are at work on its towers and pinnacles, and adding the finishing beauty to its vastness. Had the pioneer been shiftless, and idle, and uncivilized, the generations that followed him would have been the same. But we are safe in hoping what we do when we remember from what seed the present has sprung. It is not arrogating all the greatness to To-day, but it is giving honor to Yesterday, when we boast of what is being done, and augur for the future still more remarkable achievements. It is because the root was sound that the plant has thriven and flowered so beautifully. Honor to the pioneer ! Honor to the good right arm that turned the fruitful furrow! Honor to the patient ones who helped him to toil and build and endure !
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HISTORY OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
WAR RECORD.
When, on the 12th of April, 1861, the Southern rebels fired upon Fort Sumter, it found this vast North unarmed, untrained in the art of war, and in a state of such profound peace as to warrant the belief that hostilities could not be begun by those who had, since the foundation of this Union, boasted loudly of their loyalty to the Constitution of the United States. The rumors of dis- affection that had alarmed the more watchful, had aroused but trifling fears in the breasts of the great mass of Northern citizens. War between the States had, prior to that time, been deemed an impossibility. The sentiments of fra- ternal unity were so decp-abiding in the hearts of the North that treason was regarded as an improbable crime, and overt acts of antagonism to the govern- ment too base in their intent to be worthy of serious consideration.
But the hand of the aged Ruffian, as he laid the blazing torch upon the gun within Stevens' battery, lighted a flame which spread throughout the land with electric rapidity, and illumined the nation with a glare that revealed the truth of rebel threats. The boom of that first gun awakened the passive people to the dread reality of their position. From Maine to Oregon, from Su- perior to the Ohio, the country arose, as with a single impulse, to respond to the demands of the hour. There was no need of prompting them, no need of canvassing for strength, no hesitating as to measures, no thought of compromise. But one course could be pursued, and that the people comprehended as though inspired by somne higher mentor. The Union must be preserved. Each indi- vidual member of society felt the urgent necessity of prompt and concerted action. Towns did not wait to hear tidings from sister towns; each heard in the roar of brave old Sumter's guns a summons direct, imperative and irresistible, for aid in the defense of the nation's honor. Rivals in business and in politics grasped each other's hands and hurried forth, side by side, rivals no longer, save in their eagerness to enroll first their names upon the list of citizen-soldiery.
Almost simultaneous with the news of the attack upon Sumter, came the call from President Lincoln for troops. In the remote towns and rural locali- ties, where telegraphic communication had not then penetrated, the appeal and the response were recorded at the same time.
On the 15th of April, the President issued his call for 75,000 ninety-days troops. The State of Iowa was peculiarly fortunate in having as its Chief Executive Sam- uel J. Kirkwood, whose loyalty and unceasing devotion to the cause of the Union have embalmed his name forever in the annals of the State. Within thirty days after the President's demand was made public, Iowa had a regiment in the field.
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