The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 3

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 3

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This history of Pocahontas County has been undertaken with the convic- tion that such a volume would meet an oft expressed desire on the part of many of the old settlers. At various times in the past leading citizens of the county have prepared, and, in some instances, read on public occasions, valu- able papers on the early history of the county or of particular townships, and these have appeared and a few of them re-appeared in the public press of the county, especially in the Pocahontas (now Fonda) Times, the Pocahontas Record and Reveille.

There are yet living, in or near the eastern part of this county, a few of the first residents in it who are connecting links that bind the present with the past; and as one and another of their former number have "gathered about them the drapery of their couch," and been carried to their last earthly resting place the wish has oft been expressed that some one might perpetuate in some suitable and convenient form the story of their early experiences.

The celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Statehood of Iowa at Burlington, Dec. 28, 1896, turned anew the public mind of the state to histor-

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INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

ic research and under the impulse of this movement George Sanborn, one of the very first to locate on a homestead in Cedar township (1869), editor and proprietor of the Pocahontas (now Fonda) Times since November 1, 1877, de- cided soon thereafter to undertake the publication of a brief history of Poca- hontas County as a matter of public spirit and called upon the writer to see if he would not be willing to arrange and prepare the copy for publication. This request found us wholly engrossed with other engagements and though our assent was given a few weeks later, months passed before we were per- mitted to enter vigorously upon the work of gathering the necessary material.

In the early part of the year 1876 Governor Kirkwood issued a proclama- tion urging all the township officers that year to compile histories of their re- spective townships to that date, and that they be made a matter of record at the ensuing Centennial anniversaries of that year, in order that they might form a true and accurate basis for future records of advancement and prog- ress. In accordance with this request the history of Grant and Powhatan townships were compiled in an admirable manner, the former by Mr. C. H. Toll- efsrude, the latter by Messrs. P. J. Shaw and Thomas L. Mac Vey. An ac- count of the last Indian battle in it, and a brief outline of the general history of the county were prepared at the same time by Wm. D. McEwen, Esq., who, as an officer of the county from 1866 to 1887, with the exception of two years, 1884 and 1885,-a period of twenty years of public life,-had excellent op. portunity of doing this work very efficiently.

We would make grateful acknowledgment of the valuable contributions of these gentlemen to the matter contained in this volume and for their very cordial co-operation. Others who have favored us with more recent contribu- tions are, John M. Russell, the complete history of Lizard township; Messrs. Marion Bruce and A. R. Thornton, editors of the Reveille, copies of that pa- paper containing their own articles on the "Aboriginal Inhabitants" of tlfis country, "Indian Graves aud Relics" by Fred A. Malcolm, "The Relief Ex- pedition to Spirit Lake" by A. H. Malcolm and the "Topography of the Coun- ty" by Lute C. Thornton; Port C. Barron, editor, for files of the Pocahontas Record, April, 1884, to April, 1891, that contained the historic papers, with one exception, of the first three contributors named and a number of others of real value, of which we may note the "Drainage of the County" by the late County recorder, Alonzo L. Thornton, and successful "Fruit Culture" in this section by the late D. C. Williams, nurseryman; Geo. Sanborn for files of the Pocahontas Times from April, 1876, to date, with their numerous articles of historic value, especially McEwen's account of the "Last Indian Battle" and the weekly letters of Hon. J. J. Bruce giving the development of the north- . east part of the county previous to 1884 and an account of the "Swamp Lands" of the county. We would express our obligations also to the county officials for access to the county records, to Hon. Robert Struthers, Swan Nelson, Wm. Brownlee and the many other friends who have so kindly aided us in the work of gathering the materials for this volume in their respective locali- ties.

The work has been embellished with the portraits of nearly two hundred of the leading men and women that have been, or are now, residents of the county, and with many beautiful views of the fine residences and buildings in the towns and rural districts. This feature was not included in the original plan of the work, but is the development of an after-thought on the part of the writer that has had for its object the beautiful setting of some represent-

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

ative of every family of the early pioneers in a place where they might be held in living, loving and grateful remembrance.

The fact that we have been enabled to afford this opportunity to so many persons, and, throughout the entire edition of this work, to insert, in finely printed form by the engravers, the portraits of all those who have entrusted to us the privilege of securing their plate work, and that, too, at rates so nominal as to represent merely the ordinary cost of good plates, has been to us a source of great satisfaction. The ready acceptance of this opportunity of recognition, on the part of so many of those to whom it has been extended, shows that it has been highly appreciated. These illustrations add very much to the attractiveness and permanent value of the volume.

The biographical or family sketches herein contained are confined either to those who have come into greater or less prominence as pioneer settlers of the County, or by dint of their industry, energy and perseverance have made a commendable success in their particular calling, or have specially identified themselves with some public or private interest worthy of grateful mention. No one has paid or promised any consideration for this recognition. The sketches of leading individuals have been prepared to illustrate the achieve- ments of the early settler in a rural district and to convey to others their methods of attaining the highest degree of success in their particular calling. It is believed that interest in these personal sketches will increase as the years go by.

History deals solely with the past and its aim is to preserve the annals of the past and the foot-prints of those who have been leading actors. The lead- ing men of all countries have been those who have best represented the ruling ideas of their times and by the aid of the people, brought them into promi- nence and success. It is not incumbent on the historian that he should pass judgment upon the persons and the events he reviews, and try them by his own standard; but it is his privilege to trace the origin and development of particular events and if possible, show their influence upon succeeding ones. He should be a careful observer and a correct reporter of the past. Abraham Lincoln observed, "If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending we could better judge what to do and how to do it." Every fact in history has a bearing on the future and to those who are gifted with foresight the history of the past becomes a prophecy of the future.

The loss already of the earliest records of the oldest townships and some others belonging to those more recently organized, together with the fact that a number of others have been kept at times in a fragmentary manner, made it impossible for us to obtain the full succession of officers in the various town- ships from the township records, the natural sources of information. The ef- fort to complete these lists through two other lines of research involved an ex- penditure of time and labor that was wholly unexpected.

That this volume might be one of easy and ready reference, the histories of the several townships, including their respective towns, have been arranged in the alphabetical, instead of the numerical, or even chronological order; and the biographies at the end of the volume have been arranged in accordance with the same rule.

In view of the greatly increased size of the volume, due to the insertion

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

of so many pages of illustrations and a desire on our part to give it a reasona- ble degree of completeness, its publication has involved an expenditure of funds many times greater than was at first contemplated, and in consequence, the completed volume, instead of being presented to friends as a souvenir, as originally intended by the publisher, will be offered for sale and at a price so reasonable as to place it within the reach of all.

The strictest accuracy has been steadily kept in view in the preparation of this volume, and the highest degree of this, it is trusted, has been attained that could be expected, in view of the loss already of so many of the township records. That it is not free from imperfections we are only too conscious, yet we feel assured it has this advantage, that its value and interest as a record of the past, instead of being lessened, will be greatly increased with the flight of years.

The hope is therefore expressed that copies of this humble volume of pi- oneer history will be preserved in the home, the school and public libraries of the county, and that it will become the basis upon which the historian of Dec. 28, 1946, the first Centennial of Iowa, will find his record of early events for Pocahontas County.

FONDA, IOWA, Aug. 1, 1898.

R. E. F.

14 PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

CONAWAY & SHAW DES MOINES

THE IOWA STATE CAPITOL, DES MOINES.

EARLY HISTORY OF IOWA.

MOTTO-"Our Liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain."

LOCATION AND EXTENT.

"Let me sieze the pen prolific, While the muses guide me on, Let me chant the song seraphic Of Iowa, land of corn."

HE name of this beau- tiful prairie state, like Ohio, "The Beautiful River," is of Indian origin and signifies "The Beau-

manry of Iowa that "This is the place" "You ask what land I love the best, The fairest land of all the West, From yonder Mississippi's stream To where Missouri's waters gleam: "Tis Iowa, fair Iowa."-Byers.

The State of Iowa has an out-line tiful Land" or "Land of Beauty." It figure very nearly resembling a rec- became identified with this section of tangular parallelogram, the northern country from the name of a tribe of and southern boundaries being nearly Indians, who, previous to 1840, occu- due east and west lines and its eastern pied the territory along the Iowa Riv- and western boundaries are determin- er. The name of this tribe has been ed by rivers that flow in a southeast- perpetuated in the name of this river, erly direction-the Mississippi on the a county and a city of the State, and east and the Missouri, together with the latter was the first seat of the its tributary the "Big Sioux," on the State Government. To this wander- west. The northern boundary is upon ing tribe of Indians must be accord- the parallel of 43 degrees, 30 minutes, ed the discovery of the fact that is now and the southern is approximately so richly realized by the sturdy yeo- upon that of 43 degrees, 36 minutes,

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PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

north latitude. The distance from by circular mounds a mile and a half the northern to the southern bound- in circumference. ary, not including the small angle at

The smaller mounds, having the the southeast corner, is a little more form of low pyramids, appear to have than 200 miles, and the extreme width been used at times as burying places from east to west is a little more than for the dead, but the larger ones built 300 miles. The area of the State is in the form of a hollow square or cir- 55,044 square miles or 35,228,200 acres.

cle must have served either as tem-

The whole state may be regarded as ples for worship or castles for defence.

a part of a great plain situated near

Wisconsin, the meeting grounds the center of the Mississippi Valley and later of the Algonquin and Sioux having a gentle slope to the southeast Indian tribes, is noted for its large where it is only 444 feet above the number of mounds, the work of the level of the sea. The average height Mound Builders. They were located of the whole State is not far from 800 along the rivers and lake banks, and feet, although it is located more than were two to six feet high and fre- 1000 miles from the nearest sea coast. quently two hundred feet long. There Iowa is also centrally situated in the were found in the ramparts there American Republic, its southwest cor- brick built into a regular wall, and in ner being very near the geographical the smaller mounds a very large col- center of the territory of the United lection of pre-historic implements of States, not including Alaska.

copper.

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

MOUNDS IN IOWA. *

"The mounds in Iowa are not so large

In many places, not only in Iowa, but throughout the valley of the Miss- or elaborate as those found in the issippi and its tributaries, the Ohio Ohio Valley, but they present the and the Missouri, there may yet be same characteristics and in them are seen the remains of the works of an found the evidences that they were extinct race of men who seem to have erected by the same people. They are made advances in civilization far be- scattered over the entire State and yond the tribes of the red men dis- are of two classes, elongated or oval, , covered here by the first European and round. The former are in some adventurers. These remains consist instances 600 feet in length and are chiefly of mounds of earth, or of earth usually flat on top, resembling those and rock, sometimes in the form of found in Mexico and Central America. pyramids, but frequently in the form Their height varies from two to thirty of ramparts that enclose areas of feet, those of small area being usually greater or less extent, and that have the highest, and in some instances manifest regularity and similarity of they have contained stone sepulchers form. The walls or ramparts of these or vaults for the dead.

enclosures vary in thickness and A considerable number of these height and sometimes enclosed areas mounds are scattered along the valley that ranged from 100 to 400 acres. of the Des Moines river the and are They were usually placed upon eleva- usually found in groups. There are tions or upon the banks of streams several on the banks of Lizard creek and the area enclosed sometimes bore in Webster county and others in the no proportion to the relative labor be- vicinity of Fort Dodge. Some of the stowed on them. In the State of latter when opened were found to con- Ohio, where it is estimated there are tain the remains of human beings, the 10,000 of them, in one instanceanarea fairly preserved parts of skulls and of not more than 40 acres is enclosed

*Reveille.

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

teeth, together with pieces of charred of the Iroquois and other tribes, whose wood and ashes. Others in this vi- language is still widely spread among cinity appear to have been fortifica- the Indians, advanced from the North- tions; they are built of earth, and West to the Mississippi, they found on their arrangement discovers consider- its eastern side a great nation more able knowledge and skill in the use of civilized than themselves, that lived the strategic art for self-defense. in fortified towns and cultivated the

On the second bottom of the Rac- ground. This people at first granted coon river, near Sac City, there is a the Lenni Lenapi leave to pass through group of eight that range from two to their territories to seek an eastward six feet in height and from thirty to settlement, but afterward treacher- ninety feet in diameter. Along the ously attacked them while crossing Little Sioux river there are a number the river. This conduct gave rise to of them, especially in Cherokee coun- inveterate hostilities in the end of ty, and in these there were found which the fierce and war-like Indians pieces of ornamented pottery. In overcame and forced southward the others in Woodbury county earthen Mound Builders, thereby acquiring pots and jars were found covered with their lands, but none of their refine- hieroglyphics, or figures, and many of ments or arts. This tradition, though them appear to have been glazed."

THEIR BUILDERS.

In view of the number and extent of these mounds, it must have requir- ed the labor of a numerous population that had both the leisure to under- take and the energy to carry to com- pletion, operations so vast. The ques-

imperfect, is not wholly improbable, and is likely to be all that we shall ever learn of the people who built the mounds that now excite our surprise.

The origin of the aboriginal popu- lation of America is a problem that yet remains to be solved. In Europe it is known that man was in existence tion therefore presses, to what people at a very remote period; and there are must we ascribe the construction of some facts that lend some support to the view that man has been a resident of America for many centuries. Por- tions of the human skeleton and frag- ments of human handiwork, associ- ated with the bones of mammals which now have no existence, have been found under circumstances that imply great antiquity. In most in- stances, however, it is not certain that these relics are of the same age of the deposit in which they have been found. these vast works? They cannot with certainty be attributed to the ances- tors of the North American Indians, for they never made any use of them, and their disinclination to work, es- pecially in the ground, has ever been proverbial. They had even lost the story of them. Neither can they be attributed to the early Norwegian Colonists of Iceland and Greenland of the Ninth Century, for they were few in number and seem never to have passed westward of the Alleghanies. Human skeletons and bones in a fos-

Beyond the works themselves to silized state or associated with bones which we have alluded, and similar of extinct mammals have been found ones found in other parts of the in Missouri, Kansas, near Natchez, American Continents, no trustworthy New Orleans, in the Florida reefs and information has come to us in regard in California. Some of these have to these Mound Builders, save a curi- been referred to a very distant period ous tradition through the Iroquois ranging from 10,000 to 50,000 years. tribe to the effect that when the The histories of these communities Lenni Lenapi the common ancestors generally agree that civilization was

PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

introduced by persons who first ap- civilized Empire. Among these in- peared as strangers amidst the people vading tribes there was one that sub- already in possession of the country. sequently rose to high importance, Hence the question has a two-fold as- namely, the Aztecs, or Mexicans prop- pect, namely, the origin of the earliest er, who, living at Atz-lan, a country uncivilized as well as that of the earli- described as being surrounded by wat- est civilized tribes. It is possible, as er, and where the usual occupation of the traditions suggest, that people the people was that of boatmen and have arrived upon the shores of Amer- carriers of wood, (believed to have from different quarters and at been Lower California,) commenced ica different times.

EARLIEST AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS.

In relation to this subject, it will no doubt be of interest to note that the earliest American civilizations are those of Yucatan, Peru and Mexico, including the intervening points along the line of the Andes.

their journey to Mexico in 1090, reached Chic'-o-moz-toc, the original home of the Toltecs, in 1116, An-a-hu- ac in 1177, and laid the foundation of the city of Mexico in 1325. The series of Mexican Kings that commenced in 1352, was continued through eight monarchies to Montezuma, who, in 1519 surrendered to Cor-tez.

TOLTECS IN MEXICO. Prescott in the "Conquest of Mex- On the testimony of Humboldt and ico" calls attention to the following, others, the history of Mexico is traced among other points of resemblance, as far back as the year 544 of our era, between the Aztecs and the nations of Europe, as indicating their European origin. when the Toltecs left their original location (Chic'-o-moz-toc) far to the north or west, and, after a long jour- 1. Their traditions and religious us- ney, in the year 748 invaded Mexico ages; the former including a reference which was then occupied by wander- to a great deluge that a man and his ing hordes. About the year 895 a very wife, together with a dove and some formidable rebellion occurred and one pairs of animals, survived, and the of the chiefs leaving the country with latter, the use of the Sacraments in- a few chosen attendants founded a stituted by Christ, namely, the com- new Toltec Empire further north, the munion and baptism, the latter by ruins of which are yet seen near the touching the head and lips of the in- city of Pueblo. This Toltec popula- fant with water.

tion later penetrated further south,

2. The analogies of science. Their but after the lapse of a few centuries, annals were kept by means of hiero- having been reduced by famine, pesti- glyphics, or picture writing; the year lence and unsuccessful wars, disap- had 365 days, divided into months, peared from the land as silently and and of the twelve signs of the Zodiac, mysteriously as they had entered it.

eight were represented by crea-

After the fall of the Toltec Empire tures or designs identical with there commenced the great movement those in present use.

3. Their own traditions point to a

of the northern tribes toward the south, a movement that continued western or northwestern origin and through the 11th, 12th and 13th Cen- their physical features, such as their turies. This movement consisted of reddish complexion, approaching a cin- a succession of migrations, and its namon color, their straight glossy hair, starting point appears to have been in high cheek bones, eyes obliquely di- New Mexico and California, which re- rected towards the temples, narrow gion was evidently the seat of a semi- forehead and prominent nose, all simi-

THE MOUND BUILDERS.

lar to the inhabitants of eastern Asia, the empire was then still in a state of confirm these traditions.

INCAS OF PERU.

Humboldt, in speaking of the an- cient empire of the Incas of Peru, more extensive than Mexico since it occupied a seacoast of 2500 miles in extent, says, "Although they had no money, and no knowledge of iron or glass and no animals fitted for draught, yet they had utensils of copper, and, like the ancient Egyptians, they un- derstood masonry and mechanics suf- ficiently to dress and move stones thirty feet in length into the walls of their fortresses, and their architect- ure displays a remarkable uniformity not only of style but plan. The ruins of immense structures, apparently never completed, exist on the southern shore of lake Tit-i-ca-ca that appear to have been erected by powerful sov- ereigns with unlimited command of labor, and their unfinished state seems ernment that conceived them and which must have held sway over the whole of this lost, pre-historic em- pire.

According to their traditions, about the year 1000 of our era Manco Capac, with his wife and sister Mama Ocello, persons of majestic appearance, ap-

progress.

The following points of resemblance between these ancient people and the . people of China, as suggestive of a Chinese origin, have been noted.

1. In both, the emperor assumed the title of the "Father of his people" and affected to have sprung from an- cestors, who sprung from heaven like the "Children of the Sun."

2. Both extended an ostentatious patronage to agriculture by celebrat- ing an annual festival in its honor.

3. Both constructed roads for the use of pedestrians and erected store- houses or places of refreshment at proper distances, on precisely the same plan.

4. The bodies of the dead, instead of being interred, in both were placed on the ground and a tumulus or mound raised over them.

5. The Peruvians made coarse pot- to indicate the overthrow of the gov- tery, an art in which the Chinese ex- celled.

6. Both built suspension bridges, made of ropes, over deep ravines. This is a remarkable coincidence as these suspension bridges have been found only in China and the neighbor- ing country of Thibet.

7. Both, while displaying a little peared as strangers on the banks of taste in agriculture, had the power of lake Tit-i-ca-ca and announced them- cutting and moving immense masses selves as "Children of the Sun" sent of stone and the same uniformity of by their beneficent parent to reclaim style pervades their structures of ev- the tribes living there, from the mis- ery size and description. eries of savage life. Their injunc- These and other points of similar- ity, that might be named, suggest that the ancient Incas, the Mound Builders of Peru, had been imbued with a civilization by persons who de- rived their ideas from China. tions, addressed to a people who pro- bably worshiped the god of day, were listened to by a few who settled around them and founded Cuzco. By degrees the surrounding tribes were induced to renounce their wandering habits and give attention to agricult- YUCATAN. ure and religion. Huay'-na (woi'-na) The earliest traces of civilization in Capac, the twelfth in succession from America, however, if the native tra- the founder of the dynasty, occupied ditions are to be credited, originated this throne when the first party of in Yucatan and the neighboring dis- Spaniards visited Peru in 1520 and tricts in Central America, where it is

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The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 3

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