USA > Iowa > Washington County > The history of Washington County, Iowa, its cities, towns, and c., a biographical directory of its citizens > Part 38
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In 1839, Simon P. Teeple, from the State of New York, took a claim in section 13, built a cabin and moved into it with his family. He was a physician; the first in English river neighborhood, and among the first in the county. His wife was a sister of Dr. Stone, one of the first settlers of
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Washington. Dr. Teeple was an enterprising and industrious individual, and soon became one of the most prominent citizens of the county. He held a number of prominent offices, among others, that of representative to the territorial legislature, and his house was the place where the first election in the township was held, in 1840. In 1841 Dr. Teeple removed to Iowa City, where he soon afterward died.
During the latter part of the year 1839 A. H. Haskell, Charles Haskell, and Abraham Owens took a claim on English river in section 18, township 77, range 6. The two former individuals were from Rhode Island; A. H. Haskell was a married man, the other two were without families. There was a good mill-site on this claim, which they immediately determined to take advantage of and erect a mill. During the following winter they col- lected quite an amount of timber and prepared the frame for a mill. Dur- ing the following March English river became so swollen as to overflow its banks and some of the timber was carried off by the current, while there was immediate danger of the whole frame being carried off. Charles Haskell and Abraham Owens got into a skiff in order to rescue some of the timber from the current, and while doing this the skiff was capsized and both occupants were thrown in the river. Owens succeeded in getting to the shore half drowned, and Haskell perished in the river and his friends were unsuccessful in attempting to recover the body. Some two and a half years afterward, in August, 1842, a man by the name of George Cline no- ticed a dog burrowing in the ground near the river, abont half a mile below the mill-site; upon examination he discovered the skeleton of a man, which proved to be the remains of Charles Haskell. The skeleton was carefully exhumed placed in a coffin and buried near the present site of the Sutton mill. The death of Charles Haskell is supposed to have been the first which occurred in that part of the county.
A. H. Haskell and Owens proceeded with the erection of the mill but. did not complete it. They sold their claim in 1841 to Mr. N. McClure and left the county.
In 1839 a claim was taken and a cabin erected on the present site of Riv- erside by a man of the name of Wm. Duvall. His claim included a splen- did grove of oak timber, perhaps the best in that part of the county. Duvall occupied his claim till 1842, when he sold out and left the county.
C. D. Gillam took a claim in section 11, township 77, range 7, and built a cabin, into which he moved with his family in 1839. He was a native of Virginia, from where he removed to Des Moines county, Iowa, whence he again removed to this county. He was elected justice of the peace at the first election in 1840. In 1843 he sold his claim and removed from the county. The same year, Nixon Scott came from Virginia and settled in section 9, township 77, range 6. He lived there about two years and then left. The same year, Absalom Tansey, from Indiana, formerly from North Carolina, settled in section 17, township 77, range 6.
In the spring of 1839 Reuben B. Davis settled on section 32, township 77, range 6. The settlement which he begun was near a creek which was named in his honor, Davis creek, and still bears that name. He camne orig- inally from New Jersey, and settled in Des Moines county, this State. He was a member of the denomination called Seventh Day Baptists, and by occupation was what may be terined " jack of all trades." When he moved into his cabin his family consisted of his wife and two children. In 1840 he erected what in those days passed for a frame house, and was probably
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the first of the kind erected in that section of country. It was 16x36 feet, weatherboarded with shaved clapboards, floored with split puncheons, cov- ered with shingles, a stone chimney in the center, and two fire places, The house was originally intended for a tavern, as the military road leading north was laid out about this time; it passed near the dwelling and the owner anticipated quite a run of custom from the travelers who were to throng this thoroughfare. Although the military road did not prove to be as much thronged as was anticipated, the tavern did a fair business during the following four years, as it was a popular resort for travelers and claim hunters.
In the fall of the same year E. C. Fairchild and two sons-in-law, G. McDaniel, and L. W. Day came from Ohio and took claims in sections 33 and 34 of the same township. McDaniel built a cabin on section 33 and moved into it with his family the same fall; the others spent the winter in Illinois and moved to the county in the spring of 1840.
James Summers settled on section 31; Abraham Owens settled on section 21, and built a cabin which he called Point Comfort. Richard Slaughter took a claim in section 11, range 7: John Treft took a claim on section 24; he was elected first constable at the election of 1840. These four last named individuals were unmarried men and did not occupy their claims for more than a year or two when they left the country.
During the year 1840 the population of the north part of the county was more than doubled. Among those who came that year were John R. Haw- thorn and family, consisting of a wife and three children. He came from Pennsylvania and settled on section 31, township 77, range 6. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and entered the land where he settled with a warrant, which he received for his services as a soldier in that war. He was a Presbyterian by profession, and by occupation a farmer.
John Holland came from Georgia and settled on section 36. He was a Baptist by profession, by occupation a farmer and Thompsonian doctor.
R. McReynolds settled on section 36. He was a farmer and a preacher; he belonged to the Baptist church and preached the first sermon in that part of the county at the house of R. B. Davis. He also married the first conple in June of that year. The couple were Frank Forbes and Elizabeth Holland.
H. S. Guy, from Des Moines county, formerly from New York, settled on section 33; he taught the first school in that part of the county in the winter of 1841.
Further west in what is now English River township, in the vicinity of Richmond there were some settlements made prior to the year 1840 .. - The first man who came was Cyrns Cox. He was from Ohio and settled in the spring of 1840 on a claim about four miles north of Richmond, afterward known as the Jackson farm. He now lives in Richmond, and, although quite old, still does some work at the carpenter trade, which he has followed all his lifetime.
The next to come was a man by the name of Oloughlin, with two sons by the name of John and George. They took claims abont a mile south- east of Richmond. There was a fine grove on one of the claims and this was for many years known as Oloughlin's grove. There is a creek which makes nearly a complete circnit around the present town of Richmond; the Olaughlins encamped on the creek the first night and named it Camp creek, and the stream still goes by that name. The elder Olonghlin sold
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his claim to Gideon Bear the following year, receiving for the same a horse, saddle and bridle. The elder Olaughlin died many years ago; George sold his claim and moved west; John, who is a Christian minister and success- ful farmer, still resides in the vicinity of Richmond.
In August, 1839, Wm. Shaw settled on a claim northeast of Richmond, near the Jolinson county line, where he still lives. He is a native of Ohio, and now one of the wealthiest men in the township. Stephen B. Cooper, M. G. Cooper and Samnel B. Cooper, a father and two sons, came from Michigan in 1839, and settled about four miles east of Richmond. The father is dead; one of the sons still lives on the old claim, while the other resides in Iowa township.
The first marriage in the Richmond neighborhood was that of George Oloughlin to Elvira Smith. The first birth was that of their child, which died about one year afterward, and was buried near Richmond; this was the first death in that neighborhood.
The first sermon was preached by a Methodist preacher of the name of Micajah Ruder, at the house of Jeremiah Barton, who lived on the claim now owned by E. W. Kerr.
This settlement has now become one of the most important in the county, . and by reason of the fertility of the soil and enterprising character of the people is the most desirable part of the county.
There were few settlements made west of the present boundaries of English River township prior to 1842, as that part was not included in the purchase of 1837.
The foregoing account will give some idea of the condition of the settle- ments in the north part of this county in 1840. There was not enough grain raised in that neighborhood up to that time to supply the settlers, and the greater part of the provisions had to be hanled from Burlington, which was a distance of sixty miles from the settlement. The chief, if not the only, means of conveying was by ox-teams, and it required a week's time to complete the trip. There were at this time but two teams of horses in that section; one owned by W. A. Seymour, the other was the property of John'R. Hawthorn. The nearest mill was located on Skunk river, in the southwest part of the county, and usually required from two days to a week to make the trip, not that it ever required one week to go and return, bnt frequently the mill would be so crowded that it sometimes took two or three days before the miller caine around to that particular grist.
Such, then, was the condition of the settlements in the county in 1840, when it was first thoroughly organized and the various functions of the municipal machinery were fully set in operation.
Settlements at that time were scattered generally over the county, and affairs which heretofore were in an unsettled and chaotic condition now began to take shape, and the county settled down in a state of permanent prosperity. Pioneer times had not yet ended, and there were many hard- ships to endure and sacrifices to make. The persons already mentioned as early settlers, while they were the first, and probably endured the greatest hardships, they by no means controlled the future policy of the county; they had their share in these matters, and the names of several of these first settlers will be found on the public records as county officers, yet the men. who did most to shape legislation and stamp their characters on the permanent institutions of the county, were those who came subsequent to 1840. In 1846 Iowa became a State. All that was done prior to 1840
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was simply preparatory or introductory. From 1840 to 1846 was the formative period of the State, and what may be said of the State is like- wise true of the county. In many respects these six years were the most important in the history of the county. It was during this period that constitutions were adopted, churches organized and school-houses erected. Owing to the difficulties with the Indians the growth of the county was slow from 1836 to 1838, at which time the inhabitants numbered 283. The Indian difficulties having been disposed of by the new purchase, and there being much available timber lands, the growth during the next two years was more rapid, the per cent of increase in population during these two years being probably greater than during the same length of time in the history of the county. In 1840 the population was 1,571, or an in- crease of almost five hundred per cent in two years. A great many of those who settled during this period were only temporary, and again re- moved westward after the treaty of 1842, while nearly all of them settled in the timber, thus leaving the best part of the farming lands unimproved. "In fact, the most beautiful prairies were shunned by early settlers. In- habitants of to-day whilst contemplating the broad prairies, dotted with neat, commodious dwellings, barns, orchards and artificial groves, look back with surprise at the choice of the first settlers. The uninviting features of the Western prairies is suggestive of a poem written of them which many have read in their boyhood days. The poem was doubtless written by some New England pedagogue after returning from a flying visit to some such a country as this was in early days:
" ' Oh, lonesome, windy, grassy place, Where buffalo and snakes prevail; The first with dreadful looking face, The last with dreadful sounding tail. I'd rather live on camel hump And be a Yankee doodle beggar, Than where I never see a stump And shake to death with fever 'n' ager.'"
The settlers who came between 1840 and 1846 not only settled on the best lands but came to stay. As a general thing they were men of good sense, well educated, industrious, thrifty and in many cases were men of consid- erable means; men not driven from the older settlements by want, but who came to better their condition. The per cent of increase during these years was not so great, but it represented a more permanent population and a more thrifty class of people. In 1844 the population of the county numbered 3,120, and in 1846 it was 3,483. During this period there set- tled in the county many persons who afterward became prominently identified with the history of the county. and some of whom are still re- siding in the same neighborhood where they first settled. Special efforts have been taken to gain information with regard to the leading men of the county who settled during this formative period of the county's history, as well as of some of the more influential citizens who came since. The most interesting facts are those relating to date of birth, nativity, occupation, place of residence, positions of honor and trust held now or in times past, time of coming to the county, date of marriage, names of children, etc., all of which will be found arranged in alphabetical order in a biographical record further on.
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It is the object, however, at the present stage of the work to mention the names of certain ones who came to the county from 1840 to 1846 and show what part they performed in the development of the material resources of the county and point out their influence in originating, directing and con- trolling the moral, intellectual and social enterprises which constitute the distinctive characteristics of the county and distinguish it as being the most radical and progressive in the State. It is admitted that this stage of our work brings us down to a period in the memory of many now living. Many events of that period however are becoming indistinct; these we hope to rescne from the confusion of speculation and place them, arranged in analytical order, in the imperishable receptacle of the printed page. The importance of this is all the more apparent from the fact that the number of those who lived here in those times is rapidly diminishing and the mem- ory of such becoming, year by year, more indistinct. -
It is generally admitted that a higher moral sentiment and intellectual culture prevail in this county than in most of the counties of the State. This is not accidental; it is the necessary and legitimate result of some cause which must be sought for in the formative period of the county's history. It is uni- versally admitted that nothing is so potent in its influence to shape the moral and intellectual condition of society as religious belief. In a record containing the names of one hundred persons who settled during the period before referred to we find that nearly seventy-five per cent, or abont three- fourths of these names, represented communicants of the United Presbyterian Church. The policy of this church in encouraging education, the earnest- ness of its individual members in enforcing strict family discipline and the persistent inculcation of moral truth would necessarily bear fruit, which now appears in elegant and commodions church buildings, educational institutions, both elementary and academical, an intellectual community and a high moral sentiment.
In 1841 Dr. G. C. Vincent, a minister of the United Presbyterian Church came to the county. He was originally from Washington county, Pennsyl- vania. Upon arriving in the county he settled at the county-seat, and with the restless energy which characterized the labors of the pioneer clergyman, he set to work disseminating religious truth, not entirely unmixed with some wholesome political doctrine. We make the following extract from an article from Dr. Vincent's pen, entitled "Early Recollections of Wash- ington County," which appeared some years ago in the local press:
"About this time the anti-slavery controversy began to wax warm. In a public address which I heard Mr. Caldwell make he complained that usnally his preacher was rather prosy, but when he touched upon the slavery question became heated as if Nebuchadnezzar's furnace was in him. On that occasion Dr. Maley was his colleague. They both came to our town. They both came to our town, as Maley expressed it, to settle this business and have no more trouble about it. Though very much indisposed I went to the meeting and heard these gentlemen, and after they had spoken made a few remarks, excused myself and left. The people present with one consent left with me. The strangers were inch disappointed, as what I had said touched their sensibilities and it was thought that they would have spoken better.
"The town and most of the county were in determined hostility to the anti-slavery sentiment and its discussion. Not only because it threatened to disturb political elections, but they did without affectation hate the
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'nigger.' Many of these I am happy to say, when rebellion threatened the life of the Nation, laid aside their petty prejudices and proved them- selves patriots as well as men.
"We were visited by anti-slavery lecturers at various times. The most distinguished of these was William T. Allen, of Alabama, who had been a student at Lane Seminary at Cincinnati, and one who had fled when free- dom of speech had been denied at that institution. He was a most effec- tive lecturer, and by the power which he exercised over his audience was hated, and when public feeling became excited it rose beyond restraint and we had a mob. Yes, a mob in Washington! We peaceably assembled in our own place of worship, and abont 8 o'clock in the evening the windows at the east end of the church were broken in with clubs and eggs and other missiles to the disturbance and bespattering of those present.
"This was an era in onr history. Our sentiments had been long hated by certain parties, according to whose judgment this was the best way to meet and suppress them. We would naturally conclude that the world was wiser than to resort to such means as would aid the cause in question and react with such fearful effect upon wrong doers. But there is a certain blindness and infatnation abont a wicked cause which results in open vio- lence, even against the better judgment of the perpetrators.
"These parties would not meet us in open discussion, but used means privately to inflame the minds of the ignorant and of each other against the person of the reformers, as though truth and right were personal mat- ters. These persons did so in respect to religion. In little knots in the dram-shops and on the corners, especially on Sabbath, while the better class were worshiping God, these were talking profanely and devising how they might suppress and counteract our testimony."
"Of this opposition we were well aware, though some of the most active agitators seldom spoke in such a way as to secure correction, or even con- tradiction, on the part of those who knew how to answer them.
"In view of the persistence and perseverence of these loose and infidel sen- timents I thought it my duty to introduce a course of Sabbath evening lec- tures on the evidence of Christianity. Of course I presented the common arguments, internal and external, and probably animadverted on the opposi- tion with some pungency. It was evidently so felt and understood by those who had been most forward. One of them remarked to my friend, James. Dawson, 'if there were any more such preaching against infidelity, there was going to be blood, and right there.'
"My friend very firmly but kindly replied, that was to be expected. The like had often occurred in connection with the same canse before. These threats and these demonstrations revealed nothing new in the way of intim- idation. But they did show that the conflict carried on, on the same ground where Washington now stands, was desperately in earnest, on both sides. It seems that the cause of truth waxed stronger and that of error weaker and weaker. How could it otherwise be? Look at it. Here, on the one hand, were the sincere worshipers of God, conscientionsly observing the Sabbath. Men and women of sense and of moral uprightness observing the sacraments of the Lord's house and pledging themselves to do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God. Now, where are the others and how employed? Skulking in dark corners, uttering to each other profane jests, illy concealing that malice which constitutes the venom of the Old
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Serpent, the enemy of all righteousness. Any one could gness which is the strong party and which will fly ignominionsly from the field."
A number of others came in company with Dr. Vincent, among others a relative by the name of Isaac Crawford. Dr. Crawford settled in the vicin- ity of the town which bears his name. He died years ago, but his son, Jolin W. Crawford, still resides in the vicinity of the town which bears his fath- er's name.
John Dodds was born in Ireland in 1815; visited Crawfordsville in 1849, and liking the country bought land where he settled the following year.
Solomon McCulley was born in Ohio in 1820; came to Crawford town- ship in 1844 where he lived for some time. While there he married Miss Sarah Ritchey, the first white female who settled in the county. Mr. Mc- Culley now lives in Washington.
Fred Schwaebe was born in Prussia in 1812. He settled at Crawfords- ville in 1845. This gentleman, besides being an early settler, has been more or less identified with the business interests of Crawfordsville from the first.
George Allen was born in Pennsylvania in 1802. He settled in the vi- cinity of Crawfordsville in 1845. His house stood on the road leading from the latter place to Mt. Pleasant. He kept a hotel at the place of resi- dence for a number of years. He was a very estimable and public-spirited man. He died April 6, 1877.
David Crawford was born in Ohio in 1832, and moved to the neighbor- hood of Crawfordsville in September, 1844. In 1845 he removed to the present bounds of Oregon township where he still lives. He came by boat to Burlington in company with the rest of his father's family. A box was forgotten and left on the boat and Mr. Crawford says he waited at Burling- ton till the boat went to Dubuque and returned. When the boat came back he found the box all right. The great solicitnde the family had about the box is accounted for from the fact that it contained two feather-beds and between the beds was another box, a small one, containg four thousand dol- lars. Upon coming to the county the Crawfords bought some eigh or nine hundred acres of land, lying mostly in Crawford and Oregon townships.
J. L. L. Terry settled in the vicinity of Ainsworth in 1844. He had visited the county and selected his claim long before, having come to the county in connection with a surveying party as early as 1837. Mr. Terry now resides in Washington. Among others who settled in that neighbor- hood between 1840 and '45 were John and William Marsden, A. Jef- frey, W. H. Jenkins, Thomas and Woodford Marr and E. W. Ellsworth. John Marsden is dead, Wm. Marsden still lives in the same neighborhood; W. H. Jenkins afterwards became county treasurer and is now dead; Jef- frey still resides in the same neighborhood; Ellsworth left for another loca- tion years ago.
Isaac M. Whitsol was born in Pickaway connty, Ohio, in 1811. He came to the connty in 1841 and settled on a claim in section 11, township 77, range 7, where he still lives. Thomas Tucker had built a small saw- mill on Crooked creek, in section 10, township 74, range 7. Mr. Whitsol bought the mill and operated it for some fifteen years.
Ralph Stafford was born in Ohio, 1808; he came to the county in 1846 and settled in Marion township. He still owns his original claim and re- sides in Washington.
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