USA > Iowa > Clinton County > The history of Clinton County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns &c., biographical sketches of citizens > Part 75
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Probably the first white man to locate in Deep Creek Township was one Boone, a nephew of the famous Daniel, who took up a claim at what has since been known as Boone's Springs, near the present residence of Sylvester Hunter, where he made some slight improvements. Before the land in the township
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was surveyed, John Jonas and Dennis Collins resided within the township, but did not enter claims for themselves, though they were engaged by non-resi- dents to look after their interests. The first permanent settlers were Matthew Flinn, James Kerwin, Thomas Watts, afterward County Surveyor, and Capt. Hubbard. About the same time, 1836-1838, came the Simmonses, James, Hiram and Egbert, father and sons, and soon after John Mormon, William L. Potts and Isaac Ramsay and family.
The pioneers were from diverse localities, but lived together in enviable peace and tranquillity. Most of them secured the enormous claims of 600 to 1,000 acres, and even more, by the comprehensive process, as " Tom " Watts recounts, with but little of humorous exaggeration, of going up on a rising ground till a place was found that suited the prospector, who then went and staked off all the land in sight. Very little land was obtained in Deep Creek by the original settlers, except at the Government offices. They were not annoyed by speculators or claim jumpers (the former getting only "odds and ends ") in this township.
Though the Indians gave possession of the country in 1837, for ten years thereafter, every winter, large bands, sometimes numbering fifty or twenty per- sons, of friendly and honest Sacs and Foxes, would return to the Deep Creek and Goose Lake region and there encamp, attracted by the abundance of game and fur, and pass the winter hunting and trapping. Otter, mink and muskrat swarmed in the streams, and deer were so numerous, till about 1855, that it was almost impossible to take a walk for half a mile without seeing several. Small game was also abundant. The wives and families of the settlers were on the most cordial terms with the Indians, who paid a liberal tribute of game for occasional luxuries furnished them by the good housewives, who found them far more civil and grateful than are the white vagrants of to-day. Frequently, when Mr. Watts was reading in his bachelor cabin, before 1842, the window would be darkened by a tawny savage's painted face, full of curiosity at seeing the pale-face so intently regarding a sheet of paper. The pioneer would step out, perhaps invite the red man in ; and, after getting comfortably warmed and exchanging compliments, the latter would noiselessly glide away upon the hunting trail. The last elk in the township, and possibly in the county, was killed after a chase so long and exciting as to fully task the hunter's powers, by an Indian, well known as "Jim," he having adopted the name of James Bourne, after the aboriginal custom, paying a delicate compliment to a person by assuming his name.
The first farms occupied were naturally those along the rich bottoms and adjacent slopes ; the last, those in the almost hilly north of the township. The bottom lands had another most powerful attraction in the magnificent springs that gushed out of the rocks at the base of the bluffs. Perhaps the presence of such choice " Adam's ale" was a cause of the remarkable temper- ance that, for that period, prevailed among the settlers along Deep Creek. Inebriation was very rare, and therefore quarrels and accidents were unknown and sickness very rare at that time. Nevertheless people enjoyed themselves. The level sward encouraged ball-playing and pitching quoits ; and raisings and similar gatherings prevented sociality from decaying.
The first child was born to William L. Potts, in September, 1839. The first funeral was that of Charles C. Smith, held soon after. The first wedding was in 1844, when Thomas Watts was married to Emmeline, daughter of Robert Hunter, at the house of the bride's father ; William Hunter, Justice, performing the ceremony, there being no clergyman within thirty or forty
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miles. It must have been an auspicious wedding-day ; for though the then blooming prairie bride has entered into her heavenly rest, the husband and father still survives, stalwart and vigorous, with his descendants multiplying about him.
The first post office was, as before mentioned, at Boone's Springs, in Sec- tion 5, Township 85 north, Range 5 east, established in 1850, with Philo Hunter as Postmaster. His successor was John Evans, who dispensed the weekly mail, by the Bellevue and De Witt horseback route, till, in 1872, the office was removed and changed to Goose Lake, where John Dickey has ever since served as Postmaster.
The first stated religious services in the township were held at Hunter's Log Schoolhouse, in the north part, in 1844, by both Methodists and Congre- gationalists. Rev. O. Emerson and other missionaries officiated. In 1854, congregations met in the log schoolhouse near B. T. Cook's. The names of those energetic workers, Larkins and Blackford, are found among those who dispensed spiritual food in the decade ending with 1850.
In 1862, a Methodist Church, costing $3,000, was built by a general con- tribution. Rev. Daniel Conrod is the present local clergyman in the Congre- gational Church of Deep Creek, and Waterford assisted in building a Union Church at Preston, in Jackson County, in 1876.
Among the early teachers in the old log schoolhouses above mentioned were Philo Hunter, Miss Marietta Rhodes and Mrs. Rodman. The schools were quiet and orderly, insubordination being less common than in these days. The inconveniences of the buildings were patiently endured. Teachers boarded around and were sustained in their legitimate functions by the school patrons. Deep Creek was one of the first townships to renew its schoolhouses at an aver- age cost of about $91.
The panic of 1857 was weathered very comfortably by the farmers of this township, as few of them then had any interest to carry. Since that date, the financial history of the township has substantially been that of the rest of the county. In common with the others of the two northern tiers of townships, substantial benefit was derived from the building of the recent railways. The Midland crosses the north part of Goose Lake on a solid embankment, just north of the old stage-route from Lyons to Maquoketa, which has, by the expenditure of much toil and money, been converted from a quagmire, in which coaches stuck and through which perspiring, muddy and profane travelers wallowed, into a firm and dry highway.
The winter of 1842-43 was memorable for its intense windless cold during January, February and March, so that on the first Monday of April, a load of 1,000 bricks was hauled across Deep Creek on the ice.
In 1849-50, was the deepest snow remembered by old settlers, twenty inches being measured on a level.
The greatest annoyances were prairie fires and wolves. The latter have, indeed, not lessened in numbers or in boldness, owing to the increase of lurk- ing-places in ditches and groves. Formerly, when swine were allowed to run at large outside of the fenced and broken fields, a large tribute of young porkers was secured by the wolves. Now the sheep are the victims, and farmers have generally been compelled to give up their flocks. Prairie fires, till as late as 1855, were an almost annual visitation either in rainless winters or in the fall, when the grass had been killed by frost. As they swept over the broad valley and climbed the bluffs, the sight was often inexpressibly grand. Sometimes they advanced at a speed of not less than twelve miles per hour,
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though the usual rate was only two to four miles. The settlers usually pre- served their fences and property by building counter-fires, which burned against the wind, so as to leave an open space, over which the advancing billow of fire could not leap. It is a mistake to suppose that these fires ceased when the Indians left the country. Owing either to carelessness of hunters or to design, they were just as frequent as long as there was a grassy jungle as dry as tinder for the flames to feed upon. Old settlers tell of the curious way in which it used to advance by wedges, so to speak. Many fences were burned and ditches were, therefore, at first often used for dividing lines. Next came the board fence, destined to give place to wire. Little did the emigrants ever expect to get their fencing material from Pittsburgh or Cleveland. Many acres have been added to the arable area of farms by sloughs drying up, owing to culti- vation and the wash from plowed land filling them up. Where were once oozy bogs now wave fields of corn. Much land has also been reclaimed by ditching.
In 1865, in Section 16. transpired the only capital crime chronicled in the annals of Deep Creek since its settlement, but a murder so melodramatic and . fiendish in its motive and circumstances, as to savor of the climes where vol- canic passions invoke the dagger to settle rivalries. One J. M. Mattoon, a man of ugly and licentious disposition, had, in his household, a comely hand- maid named Hannah, whose position was, by the neighbors, pretty accurately supposed to be similar to that of Hagar, in Abraham's household. However, she appeared not to be at all exclusive in her affections, but to divide them with tolerable impartiality between Mattoon, whose wife bore the infliction with sin- gular equanimity, and a rather aged but ardent admirer named Ray. Miss Hannah's course of polyandry ran smoothly enough, till Ray's son, Oliver, a gallant soldier in Company K, of the Twenty-sixth Regiment, arrived home. He, too, became cnamored of the voluptuous domestic, and she very naturally preferred the frank, martial young man to either the senior Ray or morose Mattoon. The old man Ray, upon being notified by Oliver, of the latters liking for the girl, gracefully withdrew, but into Mattoon entered the green- eyed devil of jealousy. Upon Oliver's calling upon the girl at the house, he was ordered out of the house by Mattoon, and went to the adjacent house of W. D. Weir, whither the lassie followed him. Presently Mattoon made his appearance and picked a quarrel with young Ray, finally calling him a liar, for which he was promptly knocked down by the veteran. Mattoon then went into the pantry, obtained a large, sharp butcher-knife, and, concealing it in his sleeve, walked into the door-yard, and soon returning renewed the quarrel, and plunged the knife twice into Ray's body, who fell, bathed in blood, to the floor, and, after lingering some days died, killed in a trivial broil, after having gone through the war without a wound. Owing to the culpable apathy of the neigh- borhood, Mattoon was neither lynched nor arrested, but made his escape to the Far West, and was never heard of again, though one of the settlers, Mr. Bron- son, of Goose Lake, found traces of him. The buxom cause of war married and went West. The only fatal accidents, aside from the drowning of a child recorded elsewhere, were the suffocation of Messrs. Kruse and Wilson, while dig- ging a well in Section 15, and the death of Samuel Cooper, by driving off an embankment near Bryant. Henry Boock committed suicide in Bryant.
A post office was established at Bryant, a station on the Midland in the southeastern part of the township, in 1870, the railroad being completed to that point in December of that year. The first Postmaster was C. Hass, suc- ceeded by Otto Behrns, E. Reiff, and the present official, E. N. Nagel. In 1877, a great need of that section of the county was met by the building of
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the Bryant Steam-Mills by a stock company, 100 shares at $50, being sub- scribed in the neighborhood. The officers are James Sewell, President; N. E. Ingwersen, Secretary ; O. H. Buck, Treasurer; P. H. Dunn and Hans Bruch, Directors. The first business men were E. N. Nagel, E. Reiff and C. Anderson. An independent school district was organized, and a school build- ing costing $2,400 erected in 1874. Among the older settlers and large farm- ers in this part of the county are the Ingwersens, Patrick Laughlen, P. H. Petersen and Josiah Davis. Many of the farms run from 600 to 700 acres in size, and compare in cultivation with any in the United States.
Previous to 1854, the settlers around Goose Lake had been greatly annoyed by losing horses and cattle, owing to a regular line of horse-thieves from St. Paul to Missouri and Kansas, where the border-ruffian element then made it a snug harbor for all kinds of desperadoes. In that year was organized a Home Protection Society, of which Capt. C. B. Hubbard was President. Six- teen active citizens were chosen as riders, and thereafter the mere existence of the organization rendered property in live stock secure. About this time, James Spurrell lost a valuable steer, which the thief took to Lyons. The culprit was tracked in the snow and captured, but succeeded in making his temporary escape during biting cold weather, on horseback, without boots, hat or coat, and was horribly frozen.
ELK RIVER TOWNSHIP.
Elk River Township is the northeast township in Clinton County, and is bounded on the east by the Mississippi River, on the north by Jackson County, on the west by Deep Creek Township, and on the south by Hampshire and Lyons Townships. It comprises Congressional Township 83 north, Range 6 east, and fractional Township 83 north, Range 7 east. It is one of the original six townships organized, though its boundaries were then more extended. The present population is about fourteen hundred.
The name of this township and the stream which flows through it was sug- gested by the number of elk-horns found along the banks of the stream by the first settlers, and which indicated that large numbers of these noble animals must have roamed these prairies. One "last survivor" was killed in the township since its settlement.
It was the best-timbered township in the county, probably, there having been seven or eight sections in the township that were covered with original timber. Its surface is somewhat broken and hilly, along the Mississippi and the streams, and the surface generally is undulating. A valley extends west, giving an outlet for two railroads, the Midland and the Sabula, Ackley & Dakota, and, by the peculiar conformation of the surface, these two roads, one approaching from the north and the other from the south, where they seek their western route, approach each other to within sixty-four rods.
From Teed's Grove to the mouth of Elk River, a distance of about four miles, as the stream winds, the banks are lined with quarries of excellent stone, in every desired size and thickness, and in almost inexhaustible quantity. The splendid residence of Mr. David Shadduck, on Section 24, Town 83, Range 6, costing $15,000, was built of stone from these quarries.
The Elk River has two branches, one flowing southeasterly from Jackson County and the other in a northeasterly direction, until they unite at Teed's
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Grove, and thence flows with a very tortuous channel, but in a general south- easterly direction, until it empties into the Mississippi. After the junction of the two branches, the rapid fall in the stream affords several excellent mill- sites.
The oldest settler in Elk River was - - Teed, from whom Teed's Grove takes its name. He settled in the thickest oak timber in the grove, on Sec- tion 16, Township 83 north, Range 6 east. This was in 1836, and, although surrounded with rich prairie land, he girdled the oak timber to make him a clearing, as they did "down East." When the Government surveyors came through. in July. 1837, they informed him that he had located upon a school section. He immediately pulled up in disgust and left, saying that "he wouldn't stay where he couldn't have timber." He was never heard from in this section since.
On the 8th of July, 1839, the following settlers were in the township : Arthur Smith. Otis Bennett. C. E. Langford, Levi Shadduck, David Shad- duck. George Hollis, John Hollis, James McIntire, O. A. Crary, Joseph McCrary, John Carr, William Alexander, William Dinwoodie, Martin Toel, Michael Toel, George Griswold, Alfred Brown, Thomas Calderwood, Daniel Smith. James Leonard, Sr., Robert Cruthers, William Smilley.
The township, by a vote of the settlers, was at first named Fair Haven, after a town of that name in Connecticut, from which several of them came. This, however, was previous to the organization of the township, which was then called after the name of the principal stream.
A petition was then made for a post office, and, in the fall of 1839, the petition was granted, and the office was established on Section 11, Town 83 north, Range 6 cast, and James Leonard, Jr., commissioned the first Post- master. This office was shortly after discontinued for want of patronage. While in operation. the mail was carried on horseback on the Davenport and Dubuque route.
The next post office was established November 11, 1843, and called Elk River, and John Sloan was the first Postmaster. This is the post office now called Almont, and is at the station by the same name on the Midland. The following have been the Postmasters at this office since Mr. Sloan : Thomas Calderwood, William G. Haun, A. J. Bingham, J. S. Herwick (with whose in-coming it was changed to Almont) and E. (). Langford, the present incumbent.
A post office was established on the Sabula, Ackley & Dakota Road in 1874, and called Mead, Isaac C. Finch, Postmaster ; but, two years after, the
€ office burned and was then discontinued.
There is also a post office at Teed's Grove, on the Sabula, Ackley & Dakota Railroad.
There are three churches in the township. The oldest is an Episcopal Church at Hauntown. In was originally built, in 1846, by William G. Haun, for store purposes, but was afterward rebuilt into a church. Occasional ser- vices have been held there, but no regular preaching is maintained. A Union Church was erected near Almont Station in 1872, the title to which is in the Methodist denomination. No regular services have ever been maintained, and services are seldom held at the present time.
When the Almont Church was built, " Uncle Harmer," as the Rev. S. T. Harmer was familiarly known, was a pretty strong Methodist, and he insisted upon a denominational Church, and a building costing about $3,000 was erected, upon ground to be donated by the owner. After the building was completed,
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the owner's wife would not sign the deeds unless it was made a Union Church, which was accordingly done.
A Congregational Church was organized at Teed's Grove in 1854, and a church building erected and dedicated in 1855. Rev. O. Emerson was the first minister. He remained with them for about two years. He was succeeded by Rev. Mr. Butterfield, and Rev. Mr. Littlefield was his successor. In 1861, Mr. Emerson returned, and has preached here from that time until the present on each alternate Sabbath.
The old church having grown gray and dilapidated, in 1871, a new Union Church was erected, jointly by the Congregationalists and the Methodists, who occupy it upon alternate Sabbaths. It is on Miles Circuit.
The first school was taught in a log cabin where Chester Babcock now lives. near the Almont Church. The first teacher was Miss Julia Carpenter, of Fulton, Ill., who taught in the summer of 1842. There are now thirteen school districts, all having good schoolhouses or about to have them, as all the old buildings are now being replaced with new ones at an average cost of $1,000. The people cheerfully pay their taxes for education and seem inter- ested in the welfare of their children in this direction. The average wages of teachers is $25 per month.
When this township was first settled, great fears were entertained by the settlers that the supply of timber would be insufficient for the necessities of the inhabitants, and the fencing was all done by ditching, but to-day it is believed that there is more timber growing in the township than there was when the first settler cut the first tree.
There are only 700 acres of non-resident lands in the township; 300 acres are owned by Mr. Rand, of Burlington, and 400 acres by Robert Knowles, of Moline, Ill.
The last piece of Government land was entered in 1852.
The farms are generally of moderate size, the largest in the township being 500 acres. The population is quite largely German or of German descent, and their proportionate number is yearly increasing.
There are nearly twenty miles of railway in this township on the Midland, Sabula, Ackley & Dakota and the Dubuque lines.
In 1837, O. A. Crary and James Leonard built a saw-mill on Elk River, on Section 11, Township 83 north, Range 6 east. It was operated as a saw- mill from that date until 1842, and did a large amount of business until the supply of timber was diminished. It was then taken down and removed to a stream in Jackson County near Green Island.
The next attempt at mill-building was in 1843, when John Sloan, William Sloan, George Griswold and M. L. Barber began the erection of a mill for the manufacture of hemp, at the place where Hauntown now is. Hemp-seed was purchased for sowing at $2 per bushel and large quantities of it raised for the purpose of being converted here into rope, twine, bagging, etc. Like many other visionary schemes, it was found to be impracticable, owing to the immense amount of labor required in the process. After this result, the manufacture of these goods was abandoned and the mill was to be converted into a grist- mill. The Messrs. Sloan and Griswold sold out their interest to William Gray, Mr. Barber, who was a millwright. retaining his. In the winter of 1845-46, Mr. Gray went to St. Louis, where he fell in with William G. Haun, and, in the spring of 1846, they returned, bringing with them all the necessary machinery for a flouring-mill. This enterprise was pushed rapidly to com- pletion, a distillery being also immediately built, together with a store,
R
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malt-house and warehouse, and in November the mill and distillery were in full operation. The capacity of the distillery was nine barrels per day. Its product was mostly sold in the pineries, and as the reputation of Elk River whisky was not yet fully established, it was customary to brand the barrels "Old Rectified Whisky, from B. J. Moore & Co., Cincinnati, Ohio." From this date until 1857, Hauntown was one of the most important business points in this section of the country, and "Billy G. Haun" considered to be one of the financial "heavy dogs." Mr. Haun also built a steam saw-mill at the mouth of Elk River. In 1859, his creditors had dispossessed him of his Hauntown property, and he went down midway between there and the Missis- sippi, to which point he removed his steam saw-mill and converted it into a distillery. Both these have long since gone to decay. The grist-mill at Hauntown, now owned by Wood & Struve, has been from time to time repaired and improved, and is now in successful operation.
Mr. Gray, before mentioned, sold out his interest to W. G. Haun and went to Teed's Grove and built a new flouring-mill, which is the one now in ope- ration there.
In 1841, Messrs. Calderwood & Dinwiddie commenced the erection of a saw-mill on the Elk River, on Section 18, Township 83 north. Range 7 east. After two failures, resulting from the imperfection of the water-wheels, Mr. Dinwiddie withdrew from the firm. Mr. Calderwood, however, succeeded, late in the fall of 1842, in completing a mill that was of ample capacity for the wants of the locality. The supply of timber being good-plenty of Govern- ment land-lumber was shipped to Galena and various other points, for wagon- building, etc., until 1850, when Mr. Calderwood went to California, selling the mill shortly after to Mr. C. E. Langford, who operated it for several years, and there laid the foundation for the present extensive and first-class steam saw-mill owned by himself and Mr. Hall, in Fulton, Ill. The Calderwood mill is now owned by Mr. Daniel Favorgue, but the supply of timber having given out, little or nothing is done in the way of manufacturing lumber. A grist-mill, however, built by Mr. Favorgue, is in successful operation.
An attempt was made, in 1842, to build a "current mill " in the sloughs of the Mississippi, on Section 17. Township 83, Range 7, by Messrs. Frederick Hess and George Griswold. The frame was raised in March, 1843, but the enterprise was abandoned.
The last encampment of Indians was in the fall of 1839, at the mouth of Elk River, at a place where an old trading-house had been previously built, the chimney of which is still partially standing. Not regarding the laws of " meum et tuum," they were speedily driven away.
That part of the township known as fractional Township 83, Range- 7, being the timbered part of the township, was brought into market in 1840, of which considerable was entered shortly afterward. The first piece of land bought in Township 83, Range 6, was purchased by W. G. Haun, being the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 13, at the land sale in Dubuque in 1846.
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