USA > Iowa > Fayette County > The history of Fayette County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 37
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June 4, 1878, one of our historians first visited the location as given by the Hensleys. About half-way up the slope rising westward from Brown's Brook, where the timber skirts the road, turning to the left into the field and following a foot path to a bit of breaking just done, the visitors reached a large spring perhaps twenty rods from the grove, which empties its waters into the brook. There are evidences that the spring was once walled up with stone for con- venience. Two rods northeast of this spring, the breaking plow had exposed a heap of ashes, lumps of charcoal, broken crockery scaled by fire, fragments of human bones and bits of black bottles. A little way south of east, perhaps ten feet, another and smaller pile of aslies, and then a few rods further northeast, the site of Bill Tegarden's cabin is still plainly visible. The precise location of the ghastly murder was thus clearly determined.
After this visit, Col. Aaron Brown and Mr. Metzgar, a neighbor, made further examination, and by digging on the spot where the ashes, etc., were uncovered by the plow, have established the fact that the bones, ashes and other debris were scraped into an excavation that was probably under the cabin, a sort of cellar in which Tegarden stored his liquors. It was perhaps 3x5 feet and about two feet deep. The impression that it was a hole used as a cellar, with perhaps a trap door or some loose puncheons in the floor of the cabin over it, is strengthened by the fact, says Col. Brown, "that we found as we approached the bottom considerable broken glass, the remains of glass bottles and the frag- ments of a demijohn ; also a large glass vessel in which was some red paint. On the bottom or floor of the cellar, was found a leaden bullet, and above the fragments of glass many fragments of human bones charred and broken ; one, a piece of the right femur, about six inches long, Col. Aaron Brown says, indi- cates a man of more than the average stature .* One of the teeth and the fragment of a finger bone of a child 3 or 4 years old, was also found in this strange mausoleum.
These bones have been carefully preserved by Col. Brown and when all are collected, will be enclosed with other relics in a glass jar and deposited
* Atwood was only a medium sized man, but Tegarden is remembered as an unusually tall man ; some say six feet three inches.
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in the ground on the spot where they have been found. Some sort of a memorial stone, with a suitable inscription should be placed over them to mark the locality.
Among other articles found in this old cellar, are knives, forks, spoons, a bullet mould, a pocket knife in a fair state of preservation, a small top-thimble that evidently belonged to the little girl, part of an old iron spectacle case, etc. This substantiates the statements of Orrear and the Hensleys, father and son, and here, undoubtedly, is the spot where, thirty-five years ago, the cabin was burned over the dead bodies of Atwood, Tegarden and his child.
June 16, 1878, the historian, accompanied by Judge Jacob W. Rogers, of West Union, and Col. Aaron Brown, again visited this locality. In the rude sepulcher, in addition to articles previous enumerated, have been found numer- ous fragments of the bones of the child and the adults, buttons, suspender- buckles, pipe-bowls, pieces of buffing stones used by the Indians for dressing deer skins, an axe which may have been used to kill the unfortunate men, an Indian tomahawk (while the ashes are still full of fragments of bones, broken crockery, bits of glass bottles, etc.), buttons, a file, boot soles, piece of a pad- lock, etc. A closer examination of the upturned sod reveals traces of the walls of the cabin, which was, probably, about 16x20 feet. The smaller heap of ashes about ten feet from the cellar, is apparently where the chimney or :he cupboard or both stood, while the door of the cabin was probably near the south- west corner, next the spring, less than two rods distant.
Since that date, still further and closer investigation by Mr. A. E. Metzgar, has discovered a silver half-dollar, of the coinage of 1819, not much worn but blistered by fire, much blackened by its long burial among the ashes .* Over one hundred different articles have thus far been found here and the identifica- tion of the spot has created a lively interest in the county.
Col. Brown states that in 1852, when he first came to this county, there were in the grove adjacent to the spring, on the north, the remnants of several Indian wigwams or camps, where the Indians had encamped but a few years before, as in some of them, the poles were still standing. The red-skins encamped there, presumably, to be near the coveted supply of fire-water at Tegarden's.
Henry Tegarden or Henry or Moses Tegarden, his innocent child and Atwood were the first known deaths of white people in this county.
The massacre created a feeling of terror and uneasiness among the settlers, in the neighboring counties of Clayton and Delaware, and some families moved away in consequence, but the "scare " was only temporary, although the Win- nebagoes were always insolent and troublesome.
It is said that Wilcox, Frank's father, with his family, came to Fayette as early as 1843, and lived near his son, if not in the same house with him. His given name has been lost, unless it was Frederick or Elias D. If the former, then he must have been here when Tegarden was murdered, for Feb. 17, 1843, Frederick Wilcox was chosen a grand juror. Possibly, however, Franklin was recorded Frederick. Be that as it may, the elder Wilcox did not remain here long, but settled between the Mission and Fort Atkinson, where he carried on blacksmithing. Franklin Wilcox moved there in 1844, probably, and carried on a dairy.
William Van Dorn, Mrs. Frank Wilcox's brother, came in 1843, and M. C. Sperry located a claim near Mumford's, about that time.
A Mr. Oatman, an elderly man, who had been a hotel keeper at La Harpe, Ill., located on the prairie near the little stream called Brush Creek, in Township
* This coin is in the possession of the historian.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
92, Range 7, and laid up the walls of a log house about 24 feet square, on the high ground. The roof was never put on, for Oatman, becoming disgusted with the country, or thinking that the prospects for a hotel at that place were not remarkably flattering, soon left the country. The building he commenced was called the "Light House," by the early settlers. Mr. Oatman's son Lorenzo, a cousin of M. C. Sperry, of Fayette, was killed by the Apaches while on the way to California, in 1850. Another son and two daughters escaped massacre. One of the ladies has written a book narrating her experiences while a captive among the Indians. several copies of which are owned in Fayette.
April 4, 1843, James Tapper was appointed Supervisor of the road from Lowry's farm to the military road, from the Indian line to the hill near Wan- zer's, thence southward to Indian line.
PIONEER MARRIAGES.
The first marriage of Fayette settlers that appears of record in Clayton County, is the following :
I do hereby certify that I did, according to the rules and regulations of the Cumberland Pres- byterian Church, of which I am a member, celebrate the rites of matrimony between William Orrear and Miss Mary A. Wilcox, on the 25th day of February, A. D. 1844, both of Fayette County, Iowa Territory. D. LOWRY, M. G.
Recorded April 3, 1844. F. ANDROS, Clerk D. C.
August 5, 1846, the marriage of Zophar Perkins and Valzick Tegarden, is recorded, followed August 12, by William Tegarden and Asenath Perkins. August 6, 1847, George Culver and Margaret E. Castall were married by Rev. Simeon Clark, the pioneer preacher of Delaware, and March 27, 1848, Charles Glidden and Mary Lowe, by Andrew Hensley, J. P.
A Mr. Messenger settled about forty rods east of the Tegarden spring, on northwest of northeast quarter of Section 6, Town 92, Range 8, probably in 1844, but the precise date of his settlement cannot be determined. The cabin he built is still standing on the farm of J. B. Rogers.
John Moyne located a claim near Bear Grove, in 1844, but he did not enter his land or settle permanently until 1847.
Madison Brown built a rude cabin, with a roof made of basswood bark, north of Bear Grove and located there with his family in 1844, but he very soon sold his claim to Andrew Hensley, and removed to the bank of the Volga, about two miles east or southeast of Fayette where he commenced the farm now known as the " old Newcomb farm."
Indian traders were, as a rule, decidedly averse to having settlers locate near them, for they saw in their advent the precursor of further migrations and the retreat of the Indians, from whom they derived much profit. Mulliken and Bemis, for all that they followed farming, carried on traffic with the Winne- bagoes, and, it is said, they conspired with some of the Indians to have Brown driven off. Soon Brown, when about his work, would occasionally hear a bullet whizzing by his ears, one of his oxen was wounded. and, one day, a gang of three or four Indians, finding one of his steers near the Volga, killed it, tumbled it over the bank into a canoe and floated down the stream to their camp. But Brown held on, in spite of his jealous neighbors, and in the fol- lowing year (1846), more settlers coming in, he was molested no longer.
Orrear's marriage with Miss Wilcox is thought to have been the first mar- riage of Fayette County settlers, but the wedding was probably celebrated at the residence of the bride's father, between the old Mission and Fort Atkinson, as Mr. Lowry was the officiating clergyman, and a question arises somewhat like that in relation to the birth of Mrs. Mumford's baby, " was this a Fayette
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
or Indian Territory wedding ? " Be that as it may, Orrear had a good farm and dairy ; in 1844-5 he built a new house and kept 25 or 30 cows, making butter and cheese for the Mission market. This, so far as is known, was the first dairy in the county. In 1846, he sold his dairy and farm to Horace Bemis who, January 17, 1847, entered the northwest quarter of northeast quarter of Section 5, Township 92, Range 8, which was the first entry of land in the county. It is said that Orrear went to the Mission, where he remained until about 1848, when he removed to Missouri, and his wife died on the journey thither.
About the time of 'Orrear's matrimonial venture, probably in the Fall or Winter of 1843-4, he purchased Beatty's interest in the farm, and the latter built a cabin on the Volga, which proved to be, when the town was surveyed in 1849, on Section 29, Town 93, Range 8. Isaac Webster had a claim on the Volga bottom a short distance east of Beatty's, lived with Beatty, and during the sea- son of 1844, raised a crop of oats on part of the ground now covered by the village of Fayette. The crop was stacked on the hill where the Upper Iowa University now stands, and was "tramped out " by oxen during the following Winter. During the Winter of 1845, Lorenzo Mulliken lived with Beatty, and A. J. Hensley was there a part of the Winter helping Webster thresh his oats, which were hauled to Fort Atkinson and sold. Beatty appears to have been a roving character, disliking to remain very long in a place, a characteristic of the earliest pioneers, who led the way for others to follow. About 1848, it is said that Beatty went to Minnesota, where he afterward became a member of the Legislature.
AN INSOLENT REDSKIN.
During the Summer of 1844, Andrew Hensley employed Daniel B. Noble, of Yankee Settlement, to break some prairie on his claim, north of Bear Grove. During the Winter of 1844-5, he moved his family into the cabin built by Madison Brown, and, in the Spring, made a quantity of maple sugar.
One day that Spring, Mr. Hensley had occasion to go to Hewett's, with whom he had some business. His son, Andrew J., or " Jack," as he is famil- iarly called, accompanied him. They expected to return home the same night, but Mr. Hewett was away, and they waited for him.
Mrs. Hensley, with the four younger children, were left alone. During the afternoon, three Indians approached the house, and one of them entered. He was insolent, and by signs, not to be misunderstood, endeavored to drive Mrs. Hensley and her children away. She was not to be driven, however, and endeavored to induce the redskin to leave, but he was as stubborn as she. She had informed him that she was expecting her husband every minute, and went out to see if he was coming. She was becoming frightened. The Indian fol- lowed her out, and rudely grasped her by the shoulder. She was a strong, muscular woman, however, and proved more than a match for her tawny assail- ant. She shook him off, and nearly threw him down. In the melee, he struck her a severe blow across the breast with his musket. As soon as she recovered her breath, she went back into the cabin, fastened the door, and watched. There were two loaded muskets in the house, and she determined to shoot her insolent foe if he dared to attempt to enter again. He cautiously approached and peered over the door, but, discovering her determined attitude, he did not attempt to enter.
After nightfall, Mrs. Hensley, becoming satisfied that her husband and son were not coming home that night and thoroughly alarmed, concluded that the only safety for herself and little ones was in flight. Accordingly, after making
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a few hasty preparations, she took her baby (Daniel), about 6 months old, and her next youngest child, Richard, in her arms, and, with the others, quietly stole out of the cabin and started for Hewett's, ten miles away. Arriving at Oatman's "light house," she left the older children there alone, bidding them keep quiet until she returned. and pushed on through the darkness, arriving late at night at Moses Hewett's, about a mile west of Joe's trading post.
This exciting adventure with her Winnebago neighbors rendered Mrs. Hensley nervous and worried. She refused to go back to the Brown cabin to live, and Mr. Hensley moved into the Wilcox cabin, near Beatty's, where his family lived until he built a house on his own claim, into which he moved early in the Fall.
It is said that one afternoon, during the following Summer, Mr. Hensley detected an Indian stealthily following him, when he concealed himself behind the upturned roots of a fallen tree and determined to shoot if the savage ap- proached nearer than a stump that stood about twenty yards away. The Indian came to the designated point and concluded to go no farther in that direction. Another account states that there was a " deal of dodging about for two or three hours," and if the sturdy old pioneer had persuaded his treacherous foe to lie down and die, the universal verdict would have been " served him right."
October 16, 1844, James Beatty was paid, by the Clayton Commissioners, one dollar for a wolf scalp, and January 4, 1845, Moses Hewett and Nathaniel Wilcox were chosen to serve as Grand Jurors in Clayton County.
THE FIRST CROP OF WHEAT.
In the Fall of 1845, Mr. Hensley, who had sown winter wheat on the land he had broken the previous Fall, raised a bountiful crop. This was the first wheat known to be grown in Fayette County. In the Autumn, as soon as he could get some of it threshed and dry enough to grind, he sent his two boys, Andrew J. and Jacob G., with twelve bushels loaded on an ox wagon to Cas- cade, Dubuque County, to mill. It was not an easy task "to go to mill " in those days, and the boys were gone eight days. They had reached Hewett's, on their way home with the first flour made from Fayette County wheat, but during the night their oxen strayed away, and, the next morning, not finding their team, the started for home. They were barefooted, and were in constant dread of rattlesnakes as well as Indians. Arriving in sight of home, the boys- were terrified, as they could discover no signs of life about the premises, and feared that the rest of the family had been captured and carried away by the Indians. They approached their home very cautiously, with heavy hearts, but were much relieved and rejoiced when they found their father and mother, at. the other side of the cabin, digging potatoes. Mr. Hensley went to Hewitt's, found the stray cattle, and brought theflour home in safety. The boys dreaded the Indians, and the family appears to have had good cause for hating their un- comfortable and insolent neighbors.
In July, 1845, D. J. Finney settled in Township 92, Range 7.
In 1845, says A. J. Hensley, William Van Dorn and Miss Messenger were married, although the marriage is not recorded in Clayton County, and when Mr. Hensley moved out of the Wilcox cabin, the newly married couple moved into it. This was probably the first marriage in Fayette County, if, as is to be presumed, the wedding was at Mr. Messenger's house, and Orrear's wedding was at the elder Wilcox's house. at the Mission.
It may be well to add that the double cabin of Wilcox was standing as late as 1851.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
In the Spring or Summer of 1845, Webster sold his claim on the Volga to Lorenzo Mulliken, and returned to Dubuque. Mulliken immediately commenced the construction of a stone fence at the edge of the bluff surrounding the south part of his claim. Andrew J. Hensley worked with him, and Horace Bemis, who bought the Orrear improvements the next year, aided him in completing it. Mulliken died in 1847. He was one of the first settlers at Yankee Settle- ment, Delaware County, and his father, Samuel Mulliken, was one of the County Commissioners of Delaware County in 1847-8.
HARD EXPERIENCES.
In the Winter of 1845-6, the Fayette settlers secured employment in haul- ing flour from Quasqueton to the Mission. Accordingly, one morning, Andrew Hensley, Madison Brown, Horace Bemis, James Beatty, Lorenzo Mulliken and - - Messenger started with their teams for Quasqueten. A storm arose during the day, which became very severe, as it was accompanied with consid- erable wind. They missed their way, and instead of making Buffalo Grove, diverged to the left and found themselves in the west end of Coffin's Grove about nightfall. They tried to go forward the next morning, but the storm continued and they were forced to return to their camping place of the night before. Here they encamped again, and got back to Bemis' the next evening.
Two weeks after this unsuccessful trip, another expedition started for Quas- queton. Beatty and Mulliken went with horse teams, and got through to Quas- queton the same night. Horace Bemis and A. J. Hensley followed with three ox teams. They missed the track made by the others, and instead of reaching Buffalo Grove, they traveled to the west, making the Buffalo where it runs across the prairie, near Winthrop. Here they camped. The weather was very cold. They had no means of making a fire, and they lunched on frozen biscuit, making them masticable by thawing the surface with their breath. They made up such a bed as they could in one of the sleds, and under the broad ceiling of the sky, with the scintillations of the stars looking for all the world like yellow icicles, they got such sleep as they could. The next evening they made the dwelling of Mr. Billings. The third day day they reached Quasque . ton, loaded up their flour, and stayed that night with Billings. The fourth night they camped again on the Buffalo, but having brought along some wood, they passed the night in comparative comfort. The next night they reached home. The next morning all hands started for the Mission, Bemis and Mulli- ken taking the horses, and Beatty and young Hensley the cattle. Beatty and the lad reached the Turkey, and found that the mild weather of the day before had made the water too deep to be forded. Meantime, Mulliken had crossed the river on a gorge of ice, and started for the Mission, and Bemis had unhitched his horses and started for home, leaving the flour on the bank of the Turkey. Here Beatty and Hensley camped that night. The next morning Beatty started Hensley home with the oxen, and himself stayed with the flour to keep any stray Indians from stealing it. Hensley trudged along with his six brute companions without trouble until he reached the divided road, one leading to the upper ford and the other crossing the river opposite the Mulliken Bottom. Here his cattle made him a good deal of trouble, for they were determined to go to the upper crossing, which was narrow, and in the high stage of water dangerous. About the time he would get one yoke well started eastward, the others were as well started southward, and he was pretty well tuckered before he got the procession formed to suit him. He reached the lower crossing just before dark, and found it impassable. Bemis was waiting for him on the right
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bank, and shouted to him to stay where he was. Accordingly he fastened his bovines to the tree about where the emigrants of June 1, 1878, lost their wag- ons, and stayed all night with an old Indian bearing the pseudonym of "Jim Crow," who lived near by. The next morning Bemis hauled up a big sap- trough to the ford and ferried the boy over, Mr. "Crow" bringing the cattle across.
VOTING PRECINCTS.
The records of Clayton County do not indicate any change in voting pre- cincts until January 7, 1846, when the County Commissioners
Ordered, that the petition of Joseph Hewett and others, asking for a precinct to be established. and called the Hewett Precinct. It is further ordered that said petition is hereby received and allowed, and that the boundaries of said precinct be defined hereafter by Andrew S. Cooley (one of the Board ) and the Clerk, as soon as a map can be obtained, and said precinct to be called the Hewitt Precinct, and the elections to be held at the house of Daniel Finney, and the boundaries of said precinct, when defined, to be entered on the records. [Said boundaries are so far defined as follows : North of Bemis Precinct and west of Boardman ]
Hewett Precinct ordered to return eight names for jury list.
January 8, Judges in Hewett Precinct, appointed as follows : Joseph Hewett, Daniel Finney and John Nagle. On the same day another precinct appears to have been organized, including all of Fayette not embraced in Hewett. Sodom and Gomorrah were pioneer settlements in Clayton. Sodom was situated very near the southern neutral line in Township 94, Range 6, Clayton County.
Ordered, that an election precinct be established at the Winnebago Agency, and bounds of said precinct as follows : Commencing at the neutral line at Sodom (Township 94, Range 6), thence due north until it strikes the Iowa River ; thence up said river eight miles above Green - zoe's trading house ; thence due south, intersecting the neutral line; thence to the place of beginning. Elections in and for said precinct at the house of Franklin Wilcox, near Fort Atkinson.
From this time until 1847, these two precincts appear to have been all that existed in Fayette County.
By the Constitution adopted May 18, 1846, " The Counties of Dubuque, Delaware, Clayton, Fayette, Buchanan and Black Hawk were entitled to two Senators and two Representatives jointly."
Charles Glidden, from Maine, settled in Township 92, Range 7, in March, 1846.
James Beatty served as grand juror for 1846, and Horace Bemis and George Culver served as petit jurors. Bemis bought the Wilcox house and claim north of Orrear's, probably in 1845.
April 14, 1846, Road District No. 14 was established by the Clayton authorities, and Horace Bemis appointed Supervisor.
COUNTY ROAD ESTABLISHED.
May 9, 1846, the petition of Horace Bemis and others for a road commenc- ing at or near the house of Horace Bemis, in the Bemis Precinct, thence westerly until it strikes a dividing ridge that leads to the Volga; thence on the most eligible route to Sage's mill, Elkader, on Turkey River, was received by the Clay- ton Commissioners, and Henry Brown, Horace Bemis and Nathan Purdy were appointed Commissioners. The road was established Oct. 6th.
The territorial road from Quasqueton to Fort Atkinson was reviewed prior to July, 1846.
JUDGES OF ELECTION.
August election, 1846, Agency Precinct, Elias D. Wilcox, Franklin Wilcox and H. M. Rice. Hewett Precinct, Joseph Hewett, George Culver and Henry Gifford.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
1847, Agency Precinct, Franklin Wilcox, Daniel Hazens, David Olmstead. Hewett Precinct, Joseph Hewett, John Nagle, Moses Hewett.
BOUNDARIES OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Section 2 of "An Act to define the boundaries of the Counties of Clayton and Fayette," approved February 3, 1847, provides :
That the following shall constitute the boundaries of the county of Fayette, to wit: Begin- ning at the southeast corner of Township 91 north, Range 7 west of the fifth principal meridian, on the line dividing Townships 90 and 91 north. Range 7 west of the fifth principal meridian ; thence running west on the line dividing Townships 90 and 91, to the line dividing Range 10 and 11; thence north on the said range line to the line dividing Townships 95 and 96 north ; thence east on said township line to the range line dividing Ranges 6 and 7; thence south on said range line to the place of beginning
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