USA > Iowa > Delaware County > The history of Delaware county, Iowa, containing a history of its county, its cities, towns &c., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers > Part 37
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camp. When the Sheriff saw the divided trail, he sent part of his men back to Eads', and following the northward track with the others. Arrived at the camp, he made Bennett's acquaintance, and was chatting cosily with him, when an acquaintance of Bennett's politely introduced them. The fugitive instantly covered the officer with a pistol, who was again forced to retire from the pursuit. The same day, one of the Sheriff's men, mistaking a young squaw for Bennett, hastily shot at her, killing her instantly. Bennett was afterward arrested and tried in Dubuque before Judge Wilson, but there was not sufficient evidence against him and he was acquitted. Johnson and his girl were much courted for a time. but it leaking out that he was an impostor, and she a girl of uncertain virtue, they were quietly dropped as being undesirable acquaintances. The pair then returned to Southern Iowa. A young man named Peck eloped with the girl from Mahaska County, and Johnson being afterward fired at and killed, while sitting in the window of a house, Peck was arrested for the murder, of which it is believed that he was entirely innocent.
In the Fall of 1842, Mr. Lowrey, in charge of the Winnebago Mission School, in the northern part of Fayette County, advertised for proposals to furnish 15,000 pounds of pork. Joel Bailey and John Keeler had hogs enough to supply that amount, and Keeler went to the Mission to bid for the contract. He found several other competitors there, who had hogs which they were anx- ious to sell. Keeler put in a bid of $2.25 per hundred; the others gave the same figures. Keeler reduced his bid to $2.00, and started for home, discour- aged. The first night, he stopped with Joseph Hewett, who lived about seven miles northwest of Strawberry Point, in the edge of Fayette County. Hewett, after hearing his story, told him that, unless he put in a still lower bid, he would lose the contract, and proposed that if he would make a bid at $1.75, he (Hewett) would carry it to the Mission himself. Keeler hardly knew what to do. That was a ruinously low figure ; but he and Bailey had the hogs, and hardly knew how they were to winter them, and he finally adopted Hewett's suggestion, sent in the bid and came home.
About a week afterward, Mr. Babbitt, who lived on the Wapsipinicon, near Marion, came down to Bailey's place, with a notice from Lowrey that Keeler's bid had been accepted ; that they must file a bond and deliver the pork on Christmas Day. They hesitated about filling the contract, and while discussing it, Babbitt, who also had a lot of hogs he didn't know what to do with, offered to give them five dollars for their contract. They concluded that if he, living still further from the Mission, could afford to do that, they could afford to fill the contract themselves.
Accordingly, on the 17th of December, Joel Bailey, John Keeler, James Kibbee, William R. Padelford and Lucius Vandever, with three ox teams (seven yokes) loaded with corn and supplies, with their drove of hogs, started for the Mission. The weather was cold and the snow "knee-deep ;" but, after a toilsome journey of eight days, camping every night save one, they reached the Mission on the 25th, and were joyfully welcomed by the Mission people, who had begun to fear that they might be forced to live without meat during the Winter. Immediately after their arrival, preparations were made for slaughtering the hogs. This was done on the open prairie. The weather was bitter cold, and it was not an easy or comfortable task for five men to kill and dress twenty-five hogs a day. On the fifth day, the weather began to moderate, and about noon, having finished their work and settled with Mr. Lowrey, with barely provisions enough to last one day, the little party started on their return to Delaware, January 1, 1843, intending to camp on the banks of the Little
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Turkey that night, and "make " Beatty's cabin, on the Volga, twenty miles, the next day. They encamped at Little Turkey Crossing, as designed. Dur-
ing the night, a furious snow storm from the southeast commenced. The next morning, however, they commenced their journey ; but the storm was so severe. and the snow became so deep that, about noon, they lost the track, became bewildered, and finally were forced to turn back, arriving at the camping ground they left in the morning about dark, cold, wet, weary and dispirited.
The storm continued during the night with unabated fury, and the next morning it was still snowing as hard as ever, but our little band concluded that it could not last much longer, and, hoping to reach the Volga timber. before night-fall, again broke camp and started. The snow was now from two and one-half to four feet deep. The men were forced to wallow ahead, to break a track for the oxen, and their progress was slow and wearisome, espe- cially as both men and animals had been without food for nearly twenty-four hours. The weather was moderate, and their clothes were wet. About 10 o'clock in the forenoon, the storm ceased, and the wind, shifting suddenly to the northwest, blew a heavy, biting, freezing gale, and the little party were forced to face the new danger of freezing to death. A little after noon, the Volga timber was discovered; but, when the sun went down, they were still miles away from it. As long as they could see the timber, they kept on, but at last it became so dark, that they could no longer see it, and there, on the open prairie, exposed to the full fury of the bitter January blast, with the air filled with fine snow, driven by the wind, without food, exhausted and freezing, the little party were compelled to stop. Their largest sled was about ten feet long. It had on it a box for holding corn, the length of the sled and two boards high. By shoveling the snow off of a little spot beside it, as it sat well up to the top of the snow, the top of the sled box was about as high as their heads. By doing this, they were partially sheltered from the piercing wind, and had a hard surface on which to stamp their feet. They whittled up the box on another sled, and endeavored to make a fire, but every match they had was used with- out success ; their ammunition had become damp, their fingers were too much benumbed with cold to use the flint and steel-they could have no fire. It was a critical situation, without food, without fire, completely exhausted. It was a wonder that they were not discouraged. Death not only stared them in the face, but was feeling with icy fingers for their hearts. Their lives depended upon keeping awake and moving. To remain still was to sleep, and sleep was death. The poor fellows wrapped their blankets about their heads, and here they stood, huddled together, stamping, yelling and talking, keeping each other awake. The fearful horrors of that terrible night, says Judge Bailey, from whose lips this narrative is taken, "are as vividly impressed upon my memory, as if they occurred but yesterday. We had to watch for each other's voices. If we failed to hear one, we hunted about, in the dark, until we found him lean- ing against the sled, and started him a-going again. It seemed as if the day would never dawn. It was the longest night I ever experienced."
Daylight came, at last, and they resumed the wearisome way. About noon, they reached the Volga, and obtained some water. It was still three miles to. the cabin of Beatty and O'Rear. Would the exhausted party ever reach it? They would try. On they staggered, famishing and freezing, and hardly car- ing whether they lived or died. They struck a track about half a mile from the cabin, which gave them new courage, and, at last, about dark, badly frozen, famished and utterly exhausted, they reached Beatty's cabin. Here they found G. D. Dillon and Mr. F. Culver on their way to the Mission and the Fort
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beyond, with two loads of butter, eggs and poultry, snow-bound; also a Mr. Johnson. Beatty and O'Rear at once provided for the wants of Bailey and his party. One of them, drawing upon Dillon's load, prepared supper, and the others procured tubs filled with cold water, into which the frozen feet and limbs of the sufferers were plunged. While they were thus drawing the frost from their frozen feet, a good warm supper was served them, and they broke their protracted fast of forty-eight hours. Bailey, Keeler and Vandever were so badly injured, that they were compelled to remain at the hospitable cabin of Beatty and O'Rear, which was near the spot where the Garden family were soon afterward murdered by the Indians. As soon as they were able to be moved, beds were arranged for them on the sleds, and they started for home, accompanied by Johnson. The great hearted Beatty accompanied them to Maj. Mumford's, near Brush Creek. It was only seven miles, but they were all day in making the journey, Beatty helping to break the track. The next day, they reached Joe Hewett's cabin, seven or eight miles farther. and on the evening of the third day, arrived at Eads' Grove. Here they found Bennett and Judge Cof- fin. Day, mentioned in the preceding sketch, had just died, and Mr. Coffin thought that as Bennett was the prime cause of all that trouble, he should bear, at least, a part of the expense. Bennett, however, was not inclined to help bear the burdens he had imposed. Mr. Bailey was unable to walk for three months after this affair. Both his feet ulcerated, and the flesh dropped off one of his toes, and the dead naked bone was cut off by Keeler with a "dog knife." Kecler was also laid up for several weeks. Vandever fared the worst. The flesh fell off all the toes on one of his feet, and three of the other, exposing the bones to their articulation with the bones of the feet. There was no surgeon nearer than Dubuque; and his nurse, Lucius Kibbee, detached the naked bones of the toes, using an old bullet-mould for forceps. After this novel surgical operation was performed, the mutilated feet finally healed, but poor Vandever was a cripple for life.
Some time in the next Winter, Leroy Jackson, who had sold some hogs at Camp Atkinson, went there on horseback for his pay. On the journey, his ears, face and hands were severely frost-bitten. With much difficulty, he managed to reach a cabin occupied by two men (probably Beatty and O'Rear, mentioned above), who, at once, ministered to his needs, treating the frozen parts with roasted turnips and onions, until he was able to return. When he reached home, it is said that his features were so much swollen and discolored, that Mrs. Jackson did not recognize him.
During this severe Winter, many persons were lost and frozen to death on these then almost trackless prairies. One might as well be in mid-ocean in a storm, without compass or rudder, as to be out of sight of timber on these prai- ries, in one of those fearful winter storms. All through the month of March, 1843, says Judge Bailey, the cold was as intense as it had been during the entire Winter, and on the 1st day of April. the snow was so deep that the highest fences were covered, and teams drive over them on the frozen surface. On this day, Henry Baker started from Coffin's Grove to visit Joel Bailey, and see how he was getting along. The snow was so deep, and the surface frozen so hard, that he had no difficulty in making his way.
At the meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, in January, 1843, Theodore Marks, the County Treasurer, was ordered to obtain an account hook.
The Treasurer's book of 1843 contain the following entries of moneys received :
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January 4th, G. D. Dillon, Justice of the Peace, fined Jonas Gallahan for breach of the peace on Lucius Kibbee, $5.00.
January 12th, James Rutherford, Constable, fine (of) Horace Malery for breach of the peace, by Wm. Montgomery, Justice of the Peace, $5.00.
January 25th, William Montgomery, Justice of the Peace, fined Missouri Dickson for breach of the peace on Ezra Hubbard, $5.00.
July 20th, license to David Bierer to trade one year, (warrants), $25.00.
January 12, 1843, by act of the Legislature, Robert W. Green, Jocl Bailey and O. A. Olmstead were appointed Commissioners to "locate and mark a Ter- ritorial road, commencing at Bennett's Mill, in Buchanan County (Democracy, since Quasqueton), by the county seat of Delaware County (Delhi), to intersect the road from Marion, Linn County to Dubuque. at or near Olmstead's Mill," on the North Fork of the Maquoketa, where Rockville was afterward founded.
At the time this act was passed, Mr. Bailey was suffering from the effects of his exposure on the prairie near the Mission, and the Commissioners did not proceed to their duties until December, 1843, when they proceeded to Quas- queton and located and marked the road from that point to Olmstead's. The snow was several inches deep, and the party were three days on the way. Re- turns were made to the Legislature, which, by act approved February 12, 1844, declared it a Territorial road. Soon afterward, in the Spring or early Summer of 1845, a mail route was established on this road from Dubuque to Quasqueton and Independence, and it was, until the railroad was built, the mainly traveled road from the Mississippi River to the western settlements. It is proper to add that the present road across the county, from Bailey's Ford to Rockville, is substantially as it was located by the Commissioners in 1843 .*
By a joint resolution of the Territorial Assembly, approved February 13, 1843, Col. Thomas Cox was authorized to employ C. M. Doolittle, of Jackson County, to furnish a full set of seals for Delaware County.
By act approved February 13, 1843, the county of Delaware was attached to Dubuque County for judicial purposes.
April 4, 1843, the Commissioners met at the house of Simeon Phillips. Buchanan County was evidently attached to Delaware for election purposes at this time, and was an election precinct, for at this meeting Rufus B. Clark, Dr. Brewer and Stephen Sanford were appointed Judges of . Election for Buchanan Precinct for 1843, and the house of James Sanford was designated as the voting place. At the same meeting, Jolin Hinkle, Supervisor of the Territorial road at Eads Precinct, was removed, and Daniel Brown appointed in his stead.
On the same day, the Commissioners ordered that Lewis Walls, a pauper then in Eads Precinct, be notified to leave the county. This was the same Walls who had lost both of his feet from being frozen during the previous Win- ter, as stated in preceding pages.
July 3d, the Board met at the house of Simeon Phillips, and received a petition for a county road from Delhi to the Colony. The road had been "staked out" by the settlers in 1842, and a bridge built by them across Plum Creek, but they now wanted it made a county road. The Commissioners
Ordered, That the petition for a road from Delhi to the colony be and the same is hereby granted, and that Missouri Dickson, John Keeler and Chas. W. Hobbs be and they are hereby appointed Viewers to locate the same.
The Viewers made a report of their survey, having employed Joel Bailey as Surveyor, and, January 1, 1844, the Commissioners accepted their report and ordered the road as surveyed " to be recorded as a public county road."
* Judge Thomas S. Wilson, in a note dated Dubuque, May 13, 1878, says: "The County Surveyor informs me that the road to Delhi was laid out in Dubuque County in the year 1845."
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Lewis Walls, the pauper who had been ordered to leave the county, was not in condition to be moved, and the Commissioners at this July meeting ordered that William Eads be paid eighteen dollars for keeping him three months, and that Eads be employed to board said pauper twelve weeks longer, and to purchase for him two cotton shirts and two pairs of cotton drilling pantaloons.
In 1843, David Bierer opened the first store in the county, at the Colony, where Colesburg now stands. Bierer was from Rockford, III., and soon after he came, it is said that some members of the "Prairie Banditti," that then infested the country on both sides of the Mississippi, followed and robbed him. Among the gang were Charles Oliver, John F. Baker and William McDole; the latter was Bierer's brother-in-law. For several years, about this time, the settlers lost their best horses, which were stolen by the members of this band, whose headquarters were established in Illinois. For a time, the settlers attributed their losses to the Indians, and frequent messages were sent to Camp Atkinson, asking that they be removed from the Turkey timber. Wil- son, who was shot, about 1852, near the southeastern corner of the county, was undoubtedly one of the band. Broadie, whose name was as familiar as the Dris- colls in Northern Illinois, stole a horse from a preacher, who followed him to Missouri and recovered his property. Carter had a horse stolen, but recovered the animal.
In 1843, Mr. Leverett Rexford returned to his claim, near Bailey's, and with him came his son-in-law, John Lillibridge, and his family, who still reside on the old place.
There are no records of elections in Delaware until 1848, and it is not pos- sible to determine all who were elected from year to year until that time. At the election in August, 1843, it seems that Whiteside, Phillips and Dickson were re-elected Commissioners, C. W. Hobbs, Recorder, and Leroy Jackson, Sheriff.
Tax Payers of 1843 .- The assessment roll of September 1, 1843, is com- plete. and furnishes a list of 112 tax payers in Delaware County, and 12 in Buchanan County. The tax of Delaware was $198.35, and of Buchanan, $18.13.
Delaware County .- John Hinkle, Robt. Hutson, Win. Eads, Thos. G. Eads, Jas. Montgomery, Leonard Wiltse, Jas. Cole, Wellington Wiltse, Lawrence McNa- mec, Horace R. Perce, Ezra Hubbard, David Moreland, S. L. Montgomery, D. L. Sheets, David Bierer, Frederick Bierer, Drake Nelson, Aratus A. Blackman, John W. Penn, John McMann, Jacob Landis, John Melugin, James Rutherford, Missouri Dickson, Lucius Kibbee, Jr., Hawley Lowe, Gilbert D. Dillon, William Nicholson, John Corbin, Samuel Pennock, Simeon Phillips, Fayette Phillips, Leroy Jackson, Joseph Ogleby, Eleazer Frentress (non-resident), James Craw- ford, Theodore Marks, Orlean Blanchard, William Lawther, William Hoag, William Burnham, John Burnham, S. P. Whittaker, Joseph Rutherford, Joel Bailey, John Keeler, William Padelford, John Padelford, Clement Coffin, Henry Baker, Charles Ausburn (Osborn). Horace Tubbs. Charles W. Hobbs, E. Scroggins, R. II. Thornburg, Samuel Kelly, James H. Eads, Jolin A. Bell, James Belcher, Oliver P. Anderson. Daniel Brown, Alexander Brown, Daniel Noble, Arenso Mulican (Mulliken), Leonard Wiltse, Amasa Wiltse, Fipps (Phipps) Wiltse, Edward Wiltse, Allen Fargo, Silas Gilmore, Jacob Moreland, Amos Williams, Robert Torrence, John Henderson, John Flinn, Moses Dean, Abraham Whiteside, John Bradley, John M. Holmes, Franklin Culver, Pris- cilla Culver, Oliver A. Olmstead, William H. Post, Josiah Fugate, Drury R. Dance. John Cutler, George Cutler, Hugh Rose, Arthur Laughlin, Henry A. Carter, John Lovejoy, Hugh Livingston, Argus Madison, James Livingston, R. Kameron, James Cavinau, Roland Aubrey, Jefferson Lowe, Leverett Padelford,
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Hiram Minkley, Henry W. Hoskins, Elizabeth A. Carter, Christian Miller, J. E. Holmes, John Stansberry, Adin Padelford, Augustus Button, William H. Whiteside.
" Buckhannan " (Buchanan) County .- John Cordell, Allen Mc Vain, Joseph A. Runnels, David Stiles, William Wilford, Rufus B. Clark, William Bennett, Hugh Warren, Ezra G. Allen, James Cober, Stephen Sanford, M. Mc Vain.
October 2, the Commissioners ordered that James Miller, a pauper, be noti- fied to leave the county at once.
Jacob Landis, Sr., built and operated a saw-mill on a branch of the Little Turkey, about two and a half miles southeast of Moreland's, in 1843.
Charles W. Hobbs commenced building a cabin near the southwest corner of the plat of Delhi, but not on it, in the Fall of 1843; but did not complete and occupy it until the next Spring.
January 1, 1844, the County Commissioners met, at the house of Simeon Phillips, and
Ordered, That the returns made of the survey of the Colony road from Delhi be and the same is hereby accepted, and ordered to be recorded as a public county road.
The Court House was not yet finished, and was the only building on the plat of Delhi. Previous orders had not been accomplished, and January 2d the Board passed an order authorizing William H. Whiteside to "contract for the finishing of the Court House."
Chapter 87 of the Territorial Laws of 1844, approved February 8, 1844, provided that "the county of Delaware be and the same is hereby organized ; and the inhabitants of said county are entitled to all the rights and privileges to which, by law, the inhabitants of other organized counties in the Territory are entitled ; and said county shall be a part of the Third Judicial District, and the District Court shall be held at Delhi, the county seat of said county, on the first Monday after the fourth Monday in September, in each year." By this act, Buchanan and Black Hawk Counties were attached to Delaware.
Soon after the passage of this act, Charles W. Hobbs was appointed Clerk, pro tem. of the United States District Court for the County of Delaware, by Judge T. S. Wilson.
The Dubuque, Clayton, Delaware and Jackson Mutual Fire Insurance Com- pany was incorporated February 5, 1844-John Gammell, E. G. Potter, Ansel Briggs, Patrick Maloney, Thomas Wright, R. B. Wykoff, James McCabe, Thomas McCraney, James Langworthy. William Myers, Lyman Dillon, J. M. Emerson, Caleb II. Booth, Robert Waller and David Moreland, corporators.
February 13, 1844, the Legislature appointed William H. Whiteside, Joel Bailey and Lucius Kibbee to locate a road from Delhi to Cascade, Dubuque County.
April 1, 1844, Commissioners met at the house of Simeon Phillips, and pro- vided for election precincts, as follows :
Ordered, That the election precinct formerly known as the "Corbin Precinct" (formerly Schwartz), be and the same is hereby divided into two election precincts, one of which shall be called the Delhi Precinct, and the other the North Fork Precinct.
Ordered, That the North Fork Precinct shall be bounded on the north by the road leading from Dubuque to Camp Atkinson, commencing at the county line between Dubuque and Dela- ware, running west until it intersects the Colony road, from Delhi; thence south, to Plumb Creek ; thence down Plumb Creek until its junction with the South Fork; thence down Southi Fork; to Jones County line; thence east, along the corner of Delaware County .; thence north, along the county line between Delaware and Dubuque, to the place of beginning.
Ordered, That the Colony Precinct be bounded as follows: Commencing where the Colony road from Delhi crosses the Camp Atkinson road, running east, along the Camp Atkinson road,
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to the Dubuque County line ; north, on the Dubuque line, to the northeast corner of Delaware ; thence west, along the county line, to Elk Creek ; thence south, up Elk Creek, to the place of beginning.
Ordered, That the Eads Precinct be bounded as follows: Commencing where the Colony road, leading from Delhi, erosses the Camp Atkinson road ; thence north, down Elk Creek, to Delaware County line ; thence west, to the northwest corner of the county ; thence south, along the county line, to the township line between 88 and 89; thence east, to Plumb Creek ; thence up l'lumb Creek, to the Colony road ; thence north, along the Colony road, to the place of begin- ning.
Ordered, That the Delhi Precinct shall be bounded as follows : Commencing on the town- ship line between 88 and 89 on Plumb Creek ; thenee south down Plumb Creek to its junction with the South Fork ; thence down the South Fork to the southern boundary of Delaware Coun- ty ; thence west along said line to the southwest corner of Delaware County ; thence north along said line between Delaware and Buchanan to The township line dividing 88 and 89 north ; thence east to the place of beginning.
Judges of Election and voting places were appointed as follows : North Fork Precinct, Abraham Whiteside, Henry A. Carter and Henry Hoskins, Judges : voting place, house of G. D. Dillon. Colony Precinct, William Montgomery, Missouri Dickson and Ezra Hubbard, Judges ; voting place, house of David Moreland. Eads Precinct, William Eads, Daniel Brown and Robert B. Hutson, Judges ; voting place, house of William Eads. Delhi Pre- cinet, Clement Coffin, John Keeler and William Burnham, Judges ; voting place, the Court House. Horace R. Pearce was appointed Constable for Colony Precinct, and William Eads for Eads Precinct.
April 2, Precinct Assessors were appointed as follows : Silas Gilmore, Colony ; Lorenzo Mulliken, Eads' Grove ; John Corbin, Delhi ; Henry A. Carter, North Fork.
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