USA > Iowa > Iowa County > The history of Iowa County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 39
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The following fall it transpired that there was a good crop of corn and wheat. Wheat was worth sixteen cents; pork a cent and a half per pound
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'HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
and corn one picayune per bushel. Mr. Downard had frequent overtures to trade goods for produce but owing to the difficulty and expense in con- veying the produce to other markets he was not disposed to trade. The first transaction of that kind was with Mr. Hollowell. Hollowell being a kind and dutiful husband was anxious to purchase for his wife a new calico dress, so he approached the merchant, saying: "Downard, let me bring you a load of corn; I want to get my wife a new dress; I'll put on the side boards and heap the load full." Mr. Downard consented, the corn was brought and unloaded in a heap in the rear of the store building. While the corn was being unloaded the honorable board of county commissioners. which was then in session, passed down that way and one of the honorable members broke forth in the following enthusiastic remark: "Look here, a grain market already established at Marengo; you will yet see the time. when corn will bring three picayunes per bushel, right here in Marengo."
In less than three years after that official prophecy, corn sold readily in Marengo for two dollars per bushel.
At this place it may be proper to relate the circumstances of Mr. Down -. ard's acquiring the title of "general." After he had opened his store in Marengo, he was astonished and somewhat chagrined to find that every man in town and the region round about had an honorary title; they were all squires, doctors, judges, captains, majors, or colonels. Amidst this array of titled gentlemen it was very annoying for the sole merchant and capitalist of the city to go by the simple name of "Bill Downard." So one day the merchant called aside a certain youth by the name of "Wash Kitchens," and knowing his fondness for tobacco, told him he would give him all the tobacco he could "chaw" in a month if he would always address him as "General Downard." The contract was accepted and the. same closed by the payment of the first plug of old "Virginia Twist."
Kitchens fulfilled his part of the contract and it was not long till "Bill Downard" became generally recognized and universally addressed as "Gen- eral Downard."
Although the gentleman no longer aspires to that title, he nevertheless- afterward legitimately earned it by his active, honorable and long service in the Union army during the war of the rebellion. It is said that Mr. Downard's term of service exceeded by six weeks that of any other volun- teer from the State of Iowa.
Although it was no credit to a man to have conferred upon him the title of "doctor," after he has received that of "general," yet such was the case with Mr. Downard, and there are doubtless those who will be interested in the relation of the circumstance of its conferment.
The members of the medical profession belonging to " Thompsonian " school from this and surrounding country, met in convention at Marengo in 1852. After the learned and dignified body had been in session for- some little time it transpired that there was no one of the delegates who had sufficiently mastered the vulgar accomplishment of penmanship to be able to make a record of the proceedings. After consultation it was re- solved to dispatch one of the delegates for the " storekeeper " who was pre- vailed upon to attend the sessions of the convention and make a record of the proceedings. It was generally understood among the doctors that Mr. Downard, in order to attend the convention, was under the necessity of employing a clerk to attend his store, and at the closing session it was de- cided that it would be very discourteous not to reimburse the secretary for-
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
his loss of time. The delegates all agreed that the secretary ought to be paid, but there was no money in the treasury and very little, if any, in the pockets of the delegates. In the midst of their perplexity one of the dele- gates hit upon a way out of the difficulty. He arose and laid open his plan in the shape of a preamble and resolution, something as follows:
WHEREAS, Mr. Downard has faithfully and efficiently performed the duties of Secretary at pecuniary sacrifice at the solicitation of this body,
Resolved, That he be paid; and
WHEREAS, There is no money in the treasury,
Resolved, That this convention award tohim a physician's diploma.
The motion was carried with a whirl of enthusiasm and forthwith Mr. Downard was constituted an M. D.
R. B. Groff, widely known as an author and lecturer, has been identified with the Marengo settlement from the first, although for a short time his residence was some two miles northwest from Marengo. Still in the full tide of health and activity he yet resides in Marengo, dividing his time be- tween commercial pursuits and literary labor. Here, as well as in our ac- count of the first organization of the county, we shall draw extensively from a manuscript prepared by Mr. Groff some years ago.
On the 7th day of April, 1845, Mr. Groff left his home in Pennsylvania, with his goods marked " Burlington, Iowa." He was twenty-two days in coming via Pennsylvania Railroad and Canal, Ohio and Mississippi rivers and private conveyance to North Bend, in Johnson county, Iowa, where he first settled in the spring of 1845.
In the fall of 1846 he visited Iowa county and was much pleased with the valley of the Iowa River. He proceeded up the river as far as Honey Creek and stayed over night with Lewis Lanning, a gentleman of whom we shall speak farther along. He then returned home and sold his land in Johnson county to Nicholas Zeller for six hundred dollars, three hundred of which he placed in the hands of Nathaniel Scales, who was about to visit Dubuque, where the nearest land office was then located; the money was to be used in entering 240 acres of land, immediately south of the Iowa River, in this county, the same tract which is the place where John Swaney now resides. From the record of original entries, we find that on the 28th day of May, 1846, there were entered at the land office in Du- buque, in the name of R. B. Groff, the three following parcels of land; to-wit, e hf se qr of sec 26, ne qr ne qr sec 35 and nw qr nw qr sec 36.
When making his first tour of observation through the county in 1846, Mr. Groff visited the old trading house and he gives the following account of it, together with some other things he saw:
" When I first came to the trading house in the fall of 1846, it was occu- pied by Robert Hutchinson. The rails around the section (broken up by Mr. Phelps, of Illinois, for the governinent, by an order from Congress through the executive in 1837-Mr. Van Buren) had been burned and stolen so that not more than one hundred and sixty acres were then enclosed in one field. This had been bought by Hutchinson at the minimum price, $1.25 per acre.
" This had remained as the most advanced trading post in central Iowa for nearly twelve years. The new purchase, including this, had just been made; many of the Musquakie tribe were lingering around their old home. Nothing is so curious to man as his own species. I gazed with wonder on
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
their ponies, wigwams, squaws, papooses, dogs, guns, play-grounds, well- tramped by the human understandings.
" We gathered up the bones of an old pony as white as well burnt lime- stone, and being slightly acquainted with comparative anatomy, I skillfully laid them together. When they saw this they collected around me in groups, manifesting the greatest interest. When the vertebrae were nearly adjusted, one of the tall, lean, lank, straight-built, well-formed men said, ' Heap know how,' pointing to the structure. These were the only En- glish words I heard them say.
"They closely scrutinize every move of a white man. Many stood around me poorly clothed, with their dark twinkling eyes, forms erect, as if a light- ning rod had directly clenched head, back and heel.
"I saw them running foot-races. I proposed to run with one of their skinaways or boys. This pleased them; they soon collected around; I slipped my coat and boots, tied a light kerchief round my head, ready for the sport. The boy far surpassed me, though I did my level best. I laughed with them. They thought I had been beat; I thought these wild children of nature enjoyed the sport.
" I passed through their old cemetery. Such places from boyhood always made me meditate, but much more so to view the simple, unostentatious dec- orations of these simple people. Round most of the graves were pens or parallelograms, made of round poles. Some had roots of trees placed at the head of the corpse, roots up, touched with red paint. Bodies were laid on the ground covered with rushes. The skull of one being uncovered I climbed over the pen and took the cranium home to study phrenology. The distance from ear to ear around the face was very large. When this was covered with skin and hair it was enormous. I never saw a head or skull that was so deep or wide through the regions of combativeness and secret. iveness. All the organs of the propensities were well formed, while the sentiment and intellect seemed shallow. Only one upper tooth firmly ad- hered to a pair of capacious jaws, ground short off, as if through life it had faithfully done good service; a pair of high cheek bones, spread out like a. wedge, crowned with a low, swift retreating summit, beneath which was a pair of large, empty holes where eyes once were, but whose light had long been extinguished.
"There is no system here which is seen in more civilized nations. They are placed in groups or scattered at wide intervals according to the incli- nation of the grounds, with pipe, bow and arrows beside them, resting in peace.
"As the shades of eve were gathering round I saw them making a low heap; and my mind quickly caught the idea of a war-dance, of which I had heard so much in my boyhood. Travelers from the trading post quickly col- lected, formed a large ring round the log heap burning like a great furnace. Presently an Indian appeared with an old scoop asking shuneo, or money, much big money, big dance. This was continued for the third time, when suddenly looking in the direction of the great wigwam I saw six large men leap into the open space, their yellow skins glistening like burnished copper; I was frightened at the wild sounds and strange gestures of savage life; some seemed to stand still and shake their bones, others rolled on the ground; accessions were made from time to time to their number till some forty or fifty were included in the wild dance. The war-whoop was most thrilling -deep, hollow, wild guttural sounds, supassing anything I ever heard.
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
"I saw them at worship next day; they had, blacked faces and a deep sol- emn look. One old man looked up as he threw a large red ball in the air, uttering wild, ear-piercing cries to the Great Spirit, which were caught up by the others till distant hills re-echoed back the sound.
"I lived ten years surrounded by Indians; they took potatoes, corn, water- melons, when hungry, but never knew them to steal. I had more kindness from them than some white folks; I have found them in the brush asleep only when white men sold them whisky."
Allusion has already been made to the store kept by Horace Hull, a short distance west of Marengo. Mr. Groff makes the following observa- tions with regard to the storekeeper, his stock of goods and his manner of doing business.
" Horace H. Hull was the first merchant in the county ; money being scarce and skins plenty, he traded groceries for skins. If a man wanted one pound of sugar, the customer gave a coon skin and the merchant handed out the sugar, and a rabbit skin in way of change.
"Mr. Hull got his supplies from Gover & Holt of Iowa City, and it was dur- ing a trip for goods that the said Hull performed the first legal act, to my knowledge, in the county. He had been elected justice of the peace and his jurisdiction was co-extensive with the county. A pair presented them- selves as candidates for matrimony, at Brush Run, now Homestead, on the way to the city. They were both dressed in all the beauty of primitive simplicity. The groom had on a pair of pants and a shirt, the bride a pair of shoes and a dress. The justice said to the pair, 'please be elevated, rise up, join hands'; then to the groom, 'you take this woman to be your wedded wife, promising to nourish, cherish and sustain her during death and sickness, and all the incidents of natural life, and -- Oh! there is a mis- take, it used to be usual in Ohio where I was brought up to inquire if any- one has any objections.' This brought down the house. After order had been restored, the justice said to the bride, 'what do you think of these things"; she said, 'I think they will do.' The justice then said, 'I think so too; you are man and wife.' "
Amos Crocker, another early settler, located on the ridge south of Ma- rengo; he died some years ago.
The first place of public entertainment, or tavern as it was called, stood near where the pork house now stands; it was kept by a man named Kirk- patrick.
A man named Betts, another early settler, built a cabin on Hilton Creek not far from Marengo. One night during a storm, a water-spout descended among the headquarters of the creek and flooded the whole valley. When Mr. Betts awoke the water was in the house several feet deep. He aroused the family and grasping two of the smaller children made his way to the bluffs; his wife followed leading another child; a son named William, with two other members of the family were the last to leave the house, and by the time they left the water had risen to such a height that the three were taken down by the current; the young man escaped but the other two were lost. This same William Betts was afterward drowned in the mill- race at Marengo.
Before there was any settlement at Marengo, a number of persons had located at Hoosier Grove, in the northwest corner of the county. Prom- inent among these, and prominent in the first organization of the county, was Lewis F. Wilson.
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
Mr. Wilson was born in North Carolina whence he moved to Indiana while yet a youth, and remained there. In 1842 he emigrated to Johnson county in this State, and remained there about one year. In the fall of 1843 he crossed over from Johnson county and following up the Iowa River located a claim on Walnut Creek, within the present bounds of Pow- eshiek county. His settlement on Walnut Creek dated from the sixth day of May, 1843. After living there a short time he abandoned his claim and took a new one near Honey Creek in this county.
When Mr. Wilson located on Honey Creek he found that several persons had already settled there. Immediately across the Iowa River was a cabin which had been built and was occupied by John Adams. Adams resided there till the gold excitement of 1850, when he started for California, and perished in the mountains.
A man named William Taylor had also settled in that vicinity; his claim was about a mile and a half east of the present site of Koszta. Tay- lor was a very eccentric character, he never wore boots or shoes, and even when he went to Iowa City to trade was unadorned with these useless ap- pendages. According to reports, to this man Taylor belongs the credit of naming the creek which flows into the Iowa River at that place. Wild honey was everywhere a staple article of diet among the early settlers, and Mr. Taylor, wishing to provide the necessaries of life for his family, started out to find a bee tree, shortly after he arrived at his claim. Finding one near the stream he cut it down, and it falling into the creek, he called the stream Honey Creek. Mr. Taylor left the county some years ago.
Stephen Chase was another who settled in the county about the time Mr. Wilson came; also a man named Furnas, and another named Snyder. Chase is dead, and Snyder, after remaining a short time, left, remarking: "I will go twelve miles further and find the land of Caanan."
Edward Trotter and Robert Greeley were two others who settled there at an early time.
Lewis Lanning came soon after Mr. Wilson. The two were brothers-in- law. Lanning is dead but his widow still resides in the county near the old claim.
When Mr. Wilson resided in Indiana he had a neighbor named Ander- son Meacham. Soon after he located in Iowa county Meacham also emi- grated west and located near Wilson in this county; with him camne two sons, one of whom, called familiarily Alf, afterward became Indian agent. He is the same individual who of late years has figured so conspicuously in the Indian difficulties on the Pacific slope. The father, Anderson Meacham, now resides in Johnson county. This family of Meachams is believed to be the same to which belongs W. H. Meacham, one of the early settlers of Fort Des Moines, who was so zealous in his efforts to break up a gang of horse thieves, and who figured so extensively in the celebrated Cumquick murder case in an adjoining county. At this place we will digress some- what in order to give a brief statement of Meacham's connection with this case.
A frightful murder was committed near Montezuma, in Poweshiek county, in 1856. Two persons named Casteel, a man and his wife, were the victims and their dead bodies were hidden in some shocks of corn fodder. No clue was obtained calculated to identify the murderers for nearly a year when through the efforts of Meachem and others, a man living in Polk county named Thomas, alias Cumquick, was apprehended and before his
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
case was brought to trial was hanged by a mob near Montezuma. It was evident that Cumquick had an accomplice and Meacham determined to find him. Accompanied by several persons he made a descent upon some suspected parties, and by dint of curses and threats, and brandishing of deadly weapons succeeded in capturing a man by the name of Van Schoick, whom he fastened with a chain and forcibly took to Poweshiek county. In Poweshiek county Van Schoick was pronounced not to be the man whom circumstances had identified as the murderer. Mr. Meacham had, there- fore, kidnapped an innocent man and after he had been detained in illegal custody for nearly a week he was released and told to go home.
But other evidence, or a least what was supposed to be evidence, having been obtained, again this bevy of men, who were officers ad libitum, burst upon the unsuspecting Van Schoick, and captured him with his father-in- law, Mr. Ridgway, and barely allowing them time to get their coats, they were put into a sleigh, threatened with death if they attemped to resist, and borne away to Montezuma. But from the intense cold, and the diffi- culty of reaching Montezuma on account of the state of the roads, after reaching Jasper county Mr. Meacham brought his prisoners to Des Moines, where he surrendered them to the sheriff and filed informa- tion against them for murder. A trial followed, but the proof against them was of the most trifling nature, and they were speedily acquitted.
Fear of again falling into the hands of the merciless Meacham induced Ridgway and Van Schoick to commence an action against their late illegal custodian for kidnapping, but it appearing to the court that Mr. Meacham was monomaniac on the subject of taking horse thieves, and various other felonious characters, he was on this and similar facts acquitted.
To return to where we digressed we will again refer to Mr. Wilson. After residing a short time on Honey Creek he sold his claim and removed to a claim near Marengo, where he lived during the five years of his official career, in which he had more to do with the management of county affairs than any other man in the county. Mr. Wilson still resides in Marengo, and we shall have occasion to refer to him frequently in another chapter.
This settlement on Honey Creek, at first called Hoosier Grove, after- ward was called the Hench settlement, named thus in honor of William Hench, commonly known as "Uncle Billy Hench."
Mr. Hench settled in the county in 1844. He cultivated a claim and kept a tavern. He loaned the county commissioners the money to enter part of the land upon which Marengo is located. He is a noble hearted and highly respected old man and still resides in Koszta near the identical spot upon which he erected his cabin when he came to the county.
Charles Kitchens first located at the trading house, but soon afterward removed to a claim on Bear Creek near where is now the town of Ladora, where he erected a saw mill, the first in the county. Mr. Kitchens had several sons, among whom were A. P. Kitchens, T. W. Kitchens and G. W. Kitchens, familar known as "Wash." G. W. located near the Iowa River immediately above Marengo; the other sons located near the father, on Bear Creek, and aided in the erection and operating of the saw mill.
T. W. Kitchens was killed by lightning during a thunder-storm, while standing in front of his fire-place. The Kitchens were implicated in all the claim trouble and were accused of committing many depredations. They emigrated south many years ago.
North of the Iowa River there was a chain of scattering settlements ex-
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
1
tending from the mouth of Honey Creek to the Johnson county line. Chief among these settlers was David Troup, who came from Bates county, Mis- souri, in September, 1846, and settled near the extreme corner of Iowa county north of the river.
When Mr. Troup came a man named Andrew Stein resided there. Fur- ther down the river on the same side was R. F. Mason. John Irwin who had some trouble about some claim also resided north of the river. Abra- ham Price, from whom Price Creek took its name, resided near the mouth of that stream. Stein still resides in the county; Irwin went to California.
Sometime after 1846 a man named Hallopeter settled north of the 'river; he died some years ago. A man named Wannemacher settled near Troup; he died while in the service of his county during the war of the Rebellion.
Along with Mr. David Troup came to the county a brother named George Troup, and his step-father, named Casey, with his family.
In 1852 a man named Stewart constructed a ferry across the river a short distance above Marengo; George Troup assisted to operate it. A short time after the ferry was put in operation there came along a California emi- grant with a three yoke ox team. The oxen were all driven on to the boat and the ferryman neglected to take the precaution of chaining the cattle to the guards. When the boat was launched out into the stream the oxen be- came frightened and backed off the boat into the river, the boat sank and and with it the three men; viz., Stewart, Troup and the emigrant.
David Troup resided upon his claim for twenty-two years, and then re- moved to Warren county where he remained till 1871, when he again pulled up stakes and emigrated west of the Missouri River, locating in Sumner county, Kansas, where he now resides.
The first settlements in the south part of the county on English River where not made as early as those on Old Man's Creek and along the Iowa River. Prior to 1848 there were, however, quite a number of people located along the valley of English River, and English precinct had been established. At the election held at the house of George Miller, in April of that year, there were eleven voters. The names of the voters were as follows: William K. Miller, Thomas Dedmore, Reuben Miller, Burris Cole, Aaron Cheney, George Miller, Nicholas Tinkle, David Tinkle, Chris- topher Tinkle, Lewis D. Green and John Dennis.
It will be seen that George Miller was the leading settler and elections were held at his house. He was probably one of the first who came, and it is understood that William K. Miller and Reuben Miller were his brothers. From the settlement begun at that early date, and named after this first leading family, sprang up the town of Millersburg.
A branch route of the Western Stage Company diverged from the main line at Iowa City. and passing down through the Miller settlement and on through Dresden and Montezuma, intersected the main line again at Latti- mer's Grove, near the west line of Poweshiek county.
There was a time when Millersburg was nearly as important a place as Marengo.
During the early settlement of the county, that is from 1843 to 1850, while the country in the valleys of the Iowa River, Old Man's Creek and English River were being densely populated, the land fenced and the coun- try teeming with its busy people, there was scarcely an inhabitant upon that wide and beautiful ridge which intervenes between the valleys of the
20
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HISTORY OF IOWA COUNTY.
Iowa and the English rivers; the whole region was a bleak, trackless, unin- habited waste. People thought it would never be adapted to agricultural purposes and could not be settled, owing to the scarcity of timber. It was not till 1854 that this portion of the county, now the most productive and prosperous, began to be extensively settled. An account of the improve- ment of this part of the county which was subsequent to the period of early settlement does not properly belong to this part of the work. The same is true of the German colony which, in more recent times, has figured so ex- tensively in the history of the county. These matters together with an ac- count of the first settlements at Victor and other parts of the county will be fully narrated in connection with the township history.
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