The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 29

Author: Flickinger, Robert Elliott, b. 1846
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Fonda, Iowa, G. Sanborn
Number of Pages: 1058

USA > Iowa > Pocahontas County > The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 29

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In the frontispiece may also be seen two other illustrations of pioneer homes; first, the log house of John Fraser, built in 1868, on section 36, Powhatan township, and in which all of his children were born; and under- neath it a cut of the log cabin built by Henry Thomas* near the southwest corner of-section 24 of the same town- ship, in 1866. This relic of pioneer days, now owned by Miss Dora, a grand-daughter of Ira Strong, is still used as a dwelling house, and the grove of cotton-wood trees around it, planted by Henry Thomas in 1865, are believed to be the oldest and many of the trees the largest of their kind in the county, being about three feet in diameter.

The first settlers in the wilderness of the west, like the savages whom they displaced, contented themselves with very humble and inexpensive dwellings, but the modest log cabin was a palace compared with the tepee or wigwam of the Indian. The log house, with its many cracks and chinks between the logs and its great open fire-place almost large enough for a small bedroom, was just the right place in which to lay the foundation for that soundness and hardiness of constitution which is the most reli- able basis for the highest usefulness.

The men born and reared in the modern well built frame or brick house, that has succeeded the log cab- in in due course of time as wealth in- creased, and replaced the yawning fire-place-the best of ventilators-by the air-tight stove and room, are the ones who fill the growing ranks of consumptives, dyspeptics and rheu- matics.

The pioneer's humble home, His log cabin in the grove, Was the seat of contentment, Of health, gratitude and love. -LEONARD BROWN.

LOST ON THE PRAIRIE.

In these early days on the prairies

The log cabins built along the Des at a distance from the Des Moines Moines river and Lizard creek were river, there were no groves and but quite substantial and rendered good *Erroneously cre lited to Ira Strong, in the frontispiece. very few houses to serve as way-marks for the traveler, and as a natural re- sult the pioneer of these days when

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PIONEER PERIOD.

overtaken on a journey either by night- straps to the lines and the latter to fall or a snow storm, was liable to lose the clips on the singletrees and then his direction and be compelled to placed the doubletree under the wag- spend the night alone on the prairie. on. Removing his boots which were In the summer season this experience full of water, he lay down under the was one to be feared because there wagon, having only the wild grass was no refuge from the bloodthirsty of the prairie for a bed and using the mosquitoes, whose constant attentions doubletree for a pillow.

prevented the approach of "tired Nat-

A little later the running of a wolf ure's sweet restorer," and the barking or fox frightened the horses and they of prairie wolves in the vicinity was ran away dragging the evener and sure to awaken feelings of discomfort; whiffletrees with them. Not seeing but to lose one's way in the winter by but hearing them, he ran after them reason of the falling snow, and especi- and succeeded in catching them at a ally to become bewildered in a blind- distance of three quarters of a mile ing and freezing blizzard, was fearful and, placing the evener on his shoul- and sometimes proved fatal to the der he endeavored to lead them back lost ones.

Among the number of those who experienced a night on the prairie in a lost condition, we note three in- stances during this period-Robert Struthers, John B. Joliffe and one other who perished, whose name is unknown.

About the year 1869 and in the month of June, Robert Struthers, of Des Moines township, found that three of his colts had strayed away. In a lumber wagon, accompanied by his hired man and horse, he started in search of them, first to Dakota City, On February 15th and 16th, 1868, John B. Joliffe, of Powhatan township, came near losing his life in a blizzard. While returning from the home of Henry Cooper, whither he had gone to borrow some meal, he was caught in a blizzard, lost his direction and aimlessly wandered about in the blinding, drifting snow all night. The home of Henry Cooper was on the SW≥ of Sec. 6, Des Moines township, and that of Mr. Joliffe on the NE} of Sec. 2, Powhatan township, two miles distant to the northwest, the di- rection from whence the storm came. His own thrilling account of his ter- rible experience is as follows: then northward. Learning they were in the vicinity of Algona, he sent his hired man for them and started home- ward with the wagon. When the shades of night began to fall upon him it also began to rain and he was then on the open prairie in an unin- habited and trackless section of Palo Alto county. It was impossible for him to see in front of his team and be- fore he was aware of it the horses mired in a slough and stopped. Re- lieving the horses and hitching them by means of a chain to the rear end of the wagon, he drew it out of the slough but did not then know how to cross it. He therefore prepared for the night by removing the harness "Sometimes I sank down in a snow- drift, but my freezing hands and feet warned me that if I expected to sur- from the horses, tying their halter vive I must keep moving and await

to the wagon. All his efforts to find the wagon in the darkness were un- availing and he was compelled to plan to spend the remainder of the night without its comfort and protection. This was done by tying the horses as before to the singletrees and letting them feed while he lay down again on the doubletree, but this time hatless, bootless and exposed to the drizzling rain. When morning dawned he was pleasantly surprised to find he was not more than five rods from the wagon and it was headed toward his home.

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PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

the light of day. When the daylight with the Storm King:

came it brought no relief; there was no cessation of the terrible storm and it was impossible to see more than a few feet in advance of me. My feet and limbs being frozen I felt as though I was walking on sticks, and the al- most superhuman will that had sus- tained me in the weary hours of an- guish in the night, now seemed about to yield to the inevitable-to lie down and die. But just when the feeling of drowsiness was about to overcome me there came to me bright visions .of all that I held dear in life, visions of home and friends, and a thought of their feelings should they find my body frozen and the snow my winding sheet; my thoughts also ascended to the throne of the Invisible and amid the blinding storm I knelt and prayed for deliverance, and He whose ear is open to the heartfelt prayer, answered mine. I rose from my knees with the assurance that my prayer had been heard and deliverance was near at hand. On walking a few rods farther I came to a wire fence, and following it slowly around to the buildings, found I was about to enter again the home of Henry Cooper that I had left the previous evening. When I en- tered this home, scarcely more alive than dead, I fell prostrate and re- mained in it until my frozen hands and feet had been thawed out and I had regained my strength."

Charley Hale left Twin Lakes for Fort Dodge just before the storm came and was caught in its fury at a distance from any settlement. When the falling snow had covered the trail before him and he had driven several hours drifting before the wind, he un- hitched the team from the sleigh, ad- justed the harness on each of them and turned them loose while he re- mained at the sleigh until near morning, vainly hoping the storm would abate. Notwithstanding he was warmly clad, the increasing fury of the storm and intense cold warned him that if; he would survive, he must move with the storm and trust to providence that, as he drifted to the southeast, he might live to reach a settlement along the Des Moines river in the southern part of Webster county. Turning his back to the storm he began a lonely and perilous journey upon a blinding desert of ed- dying snow.

For three days and nights the storm raged with unrelenting fury and dur- ing this period he was driven before it, save at short intervals when nearly exhausted he would bury himself in the snow and snatch a few minutes of rest and sleep, with little hope that he would ever awake again. Posses- sing an iron constitution and indom- itable will he would rise from his fleecy bed, brush the snow from his In the spring of 1866, there was found on the homestead of Robert An- derson, Powhatan township, by his brother John Anderson, the whiten- ing bones of a man who became lost and perished in a blizzard two years before. A part of a woolen mitten still encased a fleshless hand, and his boots, charred by the prairie fires, had to use his hands to lift his numb clung to his feet. His relatives, who lived near Tobin's ford, gathered his bones and gave them christian burial. aching eyes and, with failing strength but determined perseverance continue the unequal contest between life and death. The day passed into night and the night into day but the storm still raged. Hunger, cold and fatigue were proving more than equal to his iron will, yet he struggled on with frozen feet and limbs, so nearly ex- hausted that to make any headway he and useless feet. The morning of the fourth day finally dawned upon the sufferer and, the storm having passed, the rising sun cast his bright rays In January, 1869, a severe blizzard passed over this section, that caught Charley Hale, the stage-driver, on the road between Fort Dodge and Twin Lakes. The following account of his experience is from the pen of Thomas L. MacVey, one of the pioneers of Powhatan township, who met him the over the desert waste. Hale was still alive but no longer able to walk. Working himself along upon his hands and knees he moved slowly toward a house that finally appeared in the distance. He at last arrived at the door and managed to enter it but found no one at home. This family had gone to visit a neighbor just be- fore the storm and had not been able following summer and listened to his to return. They however returned in own recital of his terrible experience time to aid the sufferer and to procure

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PIONEER PERIOD.

for him medical assistance by means made the trip of 200 miles on foot. of which his life was saved but with the loss of both of his feet. His place of rescue was in the settlement just west of Dayton, and during the prog- ress of the storm he had been driven about thirty miles before it.

POSTOFFICES.

Early in the sixties a postoffice was established at Old Rolfe in Des Moines township, and the mail for the north-

The spring was a wet one, the trails were muddy and swampy, and the streams were unbridged except at Cedar Falls. A ferry boat for a trav- eler would consist of a wagonbox set on a few pieces of timber and it would

During this early period there were be propelled either by rude paddles or but two postoffices in the county. a pole. Ile waded through the sloughs and smaller streams and was ready to swim when it became necessary.

In the Lizard settlement he and east part of the county was received others experienced the same incon- once a week from Fort Dodge. In venience in crossing Lizard creek dur. 1865 a mail route was established from ing the three wet seasons (1856-1858) Fort Dodge to Spirit Lake via Old that followed their settlement there. Rolfe, and the mail was received more His own account of going to mill, frequently. The postmasters at this with his first crop of wheat, is as fol- place were W. H. Hait and J. J. lows: Bruce during this period and later, Geo. W. Horton, who was in charge of the office at the time of the remov- al of the county seat in 1876.

The first postoffice in the south part of the county was established in De- cember, 1868, and William Stenson, now in Manson, but then the occu- pant of the west half of the southeast quarter of section 14, Lizard town- ship, was the first postmaster. He held the office nearly four years and received a salary of one dollar a month. He was succeeded by M. E. Owens, who moved the office to sec- tion 10. The postoffice at Manson having been established, this one was discontinued about the year 1873.

TRIALS ON THE WAY.

had a trying time in getting their families to their intended homes on them across in a dug-out. The wind the frontier while the terminus of struck the side of their little craft the railroad remained at Dubuque or

causing it to roll and when they were later, at Iowa Falls. Some of them in the middle of the stream it cap- traveled this remaining distance on sized, throwing all of them into the foot rather than pay the high rates deep water. Mr. Ford, who could not by stage.

swim, caught the boat and clung to it John Calligan, in the spring of 1856 until he was drawn ashore. After at Dubuque, put his wife and four wringing the water out of their clothi- children on the stage and paid $45.00 ing as much as possible they went to for their fares to Fort Dodge while he the home of Mr. and Mrs. Michael

"I had to go to the woods, get a tree and hollow it out for a canoe, then I would transfer the grain across the creek in the canoe, and when. the wagon had been transferred in the same way, piece by piece, I would swim the oxen across, taking one at a time. On my return I had to work the flour, the wagon and the oxen in the very same way."

Walter Ford relates how he and Thomas (a brother of John) Calligan came very near losing their lives by drowning, in Lizard creek in the spring of 1858. At that time there were only three "dug outs" or canoes from basswood trees, along Lizard creek from its sources in this county to its mouth near Fort Dodge. Trav- eling on foot from Fort Dodge, they came to what was then known as the

Many of the settlers of this period Snodgrass ford in Webster county, and George Smith undertook to ferry

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PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

Collins where they were very kindly were in the way of one of these raging received.

demons of the wilderness that should

James J. Bruce in March, 1866, on arouse them from their midnight his way to the Lizard settlement car- slumber and sweep away their prop- ried his grip and footed it from Iowa erty. His only protection from the Falls, a distance of 77 miles, and prairie fire-fiend was the fire-guard made the trip in three days. From which consisted of a number of fresh Fort Dodge he was accompanied by furrows plowed around his buildings Mr. Wallace and when they arrived at or stacks; and if the wind was high the Des Moines river they saw no one these afforded but little or no protec- in sight but did see a boat at the other tion. side. He waded the stream and re-

If the reader will turn to the front- turning with the boat took his com- ispiece there will be seen the cut of a panion and their luggage across. By tumble weed. This cut is from a this time the wife of the owner of sample that was three feet high and the boat was at hand and gave them four feet wide. This weed matures the assurance that it was a fortunate early and as soon as it attains its thing her husband was not at home growth it becomes loose at the root or he would have given them a good and is then ready to commence the thrashing for taking the boat with- tumbling process by rolling over and out her permission. She was however, over with the first breeze that blows. unwilling to take anything for the When dry they are very light and a use of the boat.

THE PRAIRIE FIRE.

To the early settler of this period, who lived out upon the prairie at a distance from the timber, the dread of the "prairie fire" was as great as his fear of the Sioux Indians.

They were exposed to the prairie fire in the early spring, if the season was dry, but the period of special danger was the fall of the year, par- ticularly themonths of October and

strong wind will even pick them up and carry them a considerable dis- tance. The tumble weed aflame has never been a respecter of fire-guards and when the fire on the prairie has been driven by a high wind the thatched roofs of buildings have been seen ablaze before the fire on the ground had reached them.

Sometimes the prairie fire would originate by getting beyond the con- trol of a settler while burning off a they occurred by some careless trav-

November when the luxuriant grasses pasture or field, but more frequently of the prairie had fully matured and the sloughs were dry. Many severe eler throwing a burning match into and apparently irreparable losses did the dry grass after lighting his pipe. they sustain from this cause. Fre- The paper wadding used in the old quently did they see their hay and shotgun and musket, was also suffi- grain, in the field or stack, go up in cient under favorable circumstances to start a fire on the prairie and this

smoke in an unexpected moment, and sometimes their hard earned improve- fact made the hunter a menace to the ments including their dwellings met safety of the pioneer.

with the same fate. It was just as li-

These prairie fires moving with the able to come upon the lonely settler wind would travel with alarming ra- during the night as in the daytime; pidity and leap over creeks, in some and it has been said that many of instances, as many as four rods in them, in this section in dry seasons, width. In a gentle breeze the fire "did fret day and night" lest they would travel as fast as a man walks, should be surprised by finding they but when the wind was high the

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE SANBORN, FONDA.

MANSE OF PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, FONDA, 1893.

RESIDENCE OF GEORGE FAIRBURN, FONDA, 1901.

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PIONEER PERIOD.

"head-fire" would rush through brush mops and buckets of water.

and brake with loud crackling sound "as fast as a horse could run." The fire had crossed Cedar creek in several places in the north part of the county, and the head-fire when first seen was sweeping down the north now an event of the past in this coun- flank of the Lizard creek bottom. An- other head of the fire, separated from the other by a large slough near the source of the west branch of the Liz- ard, was coming down the west and

The prairie fire, as it used to be, is ty, and the following vivid descrip- tion of a fearful one that passed over the county during this period of its history, (just after the war) from the south branches of the Lizard and pen of John M. Russell, of Lizard moving in the direction of the pres- township, will be read with interest:

One fine evening, about the middle of autumn and after the close of the war, the wind, as it ofttimes does, suddenly turned and came from the northwest. The weather for several weeks had been dry, and a hot wind south side of that stream.

Thus this great fre came sweeping eral days, withering the ripened grass across this county like a messenger of

from the south had prevailed for sey- on the prairie and rendering it inflam- mable as tinder.

About dusk a faint glow was ob- served in the sky to the northwest, the appearance of which was similar to that seen in the east on a clear night just before the rising of the full

ent town of Barnum. The progress of this line of fire seemed now more rapid than the other, which was im- peded in its course by the curves of the west branch of the Lizard which it jumped in several places, thus form- ing a series of new head-fires on the

vengeance set loose from the kingdom of Tartarus to scorch, as it were, the "Lizards" and see who could stand be- fore its chargers armed with an hun- dred heats.

About nine o'clock it had come within a short distance of the settlers moon. This glow, as it was afterward and was practically upon them. It learned, was caused by a fire on the was in the dark of the moon and the prairie started by a settler several brilliancy of the fire was even greater days previous along the Little Sioux on this account. The smoky firma- river far to the southwest. Driven by ment was gorgeously illumined with the hot wind it had moved northward lurid splendor and together with the many miles through an uninhabited numerous lines of side-fire, far and near, interspersed with the black, burnt sections, presented a spectacle of appalling magnitude that was both grand and dismal.

section and the side-fire had widened eastward to the west line of Pocahon- tas county. When the wind changed, tbis long line of fire began to move in a southeasterly direction over a vast. expanse of territory.

The noise of this immense display of fireworks was like the continuous

To the observer in the Lizard settle- roar of distant thunder and the thick ment no flame was at first visible, but columns of curling smoke, that issued as the moments passed the horizon petulantly from some deep sloughs, gradually grew brighter and about reminded one of those scenes described eight o'clock the flames of the "head- in Milton's Paradise Lost. or Dante's fire" could be distinctly seen. A little Inferno.

later several fine, luminous lines, like

No one along the Lizard dared to threads of tiny, sparkling beads, be- close his eyes in slumber that night came visible. "Distance lends en- until all felt sure that the impending chantment to the view" but the ob- danger had passed. On the next servers well knew that in those faint, morning they awoke to find the prai- glimmering lines of beauty there rie bare, the air rank with the smell dwelt, in an ungovernable form, the of burnt grass and entire counties a most fiendish of devouring elements, blackened waste. A considerable fed by an abundance of dry prairie amount of hay and timber along the grass and driven by a powerful wind. branches of the Lizard and several In this instance the warning came be- bridges over those streams were destroyed. These streams and the natural protection to the early settler both from the blizzards in winter and the prairie fire in summer, fore bedtime and opportunity was af- forded to provide some protection belts of timber along them were a against it. Those who were not al- ready secure now went scurrying about with plows. scythes, matches.

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PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

The severest fire in the Lizard set- began, and with it came the era of tlement during this early period was sod shanties in both the north and in the fall of 1859, their first dry year. south parts of the county, a circum- The ponds were dry for several months stance due to the fact they had to that year and when the fire came, late build at a distance from the timber in the season, it burned everything; and at a time when lumber was not and the peat in the dry bottoms of available.

the ponds continued to burn for more The leading attraction at this peri- than a week after the fire had passed. od was the homestead and among the

POPULATION.

The population of the county during this period was as follows:

Year

Pop.

Year

Pop.

1855

1860

103

1856

1863

122

1857

1865

215

1858

1867

453

1859

108

1869

637

1870

1446

These figures indicate that there was no perceptible increase in the pop- ulation of this county from the year 1859, when it was organized, until the year 1865 which was at the close of the civil war, and that it was even less in 1860 than in 1859, and only a few more in 1863. Three unfavorable circumstances tended to prevent the growth and development of this coun- ty during this period. These were the years of distrust and hard times that followed the financial panic of 1857 and 1858, the fact that the settle- ments in this county, contrary to all expectation, remained 230 miles dis- tant from the terminus of the nearest railroad, and further, every able- bodied man, responding to the call of his country, had entered the army.

At the close of the war the construc- tion of the railroads across this state was resumed and the Dubuque & Sioux City road (Ill. Central) was built as far as Ackley. The building of the railroads attracted the public atten- tion again to western Iowa and a new impulse was given to the settlement of this county.

It is worthy of note that this new immigration commenced in the year 1865, just ten years after the first one to Robert Russell,

number of those who located in this county at this date-1865 to 1869-we note the following, most of whom were heads of families:

I .- IN NORTH PART OF THE COUNTY.

Beriah Cooper,

Wm. D. McEwen,

Henry Cooper, Alex. McEwen,

Thos. E. Cooper,

Wm. Matson,

Wm. Struthers ('60) Lot Fisher,

James Drown, Roswell Drown, Chas. C. Converse, R. B. Fish,

Park C. Harder, Elijah D. Seeley, George Stevens, Thomas Rogers, Edward Tilley, A. H. Hancher, Henry Fulcomer, Edw. Anderson, Geo. Henderson, Jno. B. Joliffe,

Daniel W. Hunt, Marcus Lind, E. Northrop, W. F. Seaman, Isaac Peed, Gilbert G. Wheeler, Geo. Goodchild, Henry Thomas, Robert Lothian, John Fraser, Robert Anderson, Jas. Henderson,

Samuel N. Strong, Edward Hammond

F. A. Metcalf, ('62) S. E. Heathman,

Thos. L. Mac Vey, Geo. W. Proctor, Andrew Jackson, Wm. S. Fegels,

John B. Strouse, David Hays,

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The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 29

Author: Flickinger, Robert Elliott, b. 1846 Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Fonda, Iowa, G. Sanborn Number of Pages: 1058

Author: Flickinger, Robert Elliott, b. 1846
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Fonda, Iowa, G. Sanborn
Number of Pages: 1058