The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 32

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 32

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In June, 1869, thirty days after the completion of the railroad to Fort four years from 1895 to determine the

Dodge, The Illinois Central R. R. Co. leased the road and established a train service to that city. When the rail- When this first railroad entered Po- cahontas county in the road was completed to Sioux City the Construction Company establish- ed a daily train service about August 1, 1870. This service at first consisted of one train a day each way, and during the months of August and September their agent located at New- ell, Captain E. W. Stetson, still a resident of the town of Newell, attended to all the business at the Marvin station by coming to this place on one train and returning to *The Dubuque & Pacific R. R. Co. built the railroad from Dubuque to Independence, a distance of 69 miles, reaching that place June 3, 1860. The Dubuque & Sioux City R. R. Co., their successor, extended it to iowa Falls, a distance of 74 miles, on April 15, 1866. On Oct. Newell on the next one. This train was a mixed one, consisting of several freight cars and one passenger coach. On October 15th, the Illinois Central R. R. Co. having leased the entire 23, 1888, all the railroad built by the lowa line of the road, established a through train service, which, during the first year, was similar to that established

About ten miles of this railroad were built in Pocahontas county. It entered the county on the south side of Sec. 34, Colfax township, and passed through it in a straight line running about 15 degrees north of west to the west line of Sec. 19, Cedar township. It is so free from steep grades that a Mogul engine, the kind now used on it, having 18x24-inch steam cylinders and weighing 25 tons, can draw a load of 300 tons exclusive of the weight of cars, over its entire length in Iowa.

The Western Union Telegraph Co. handles the telegraph business along this road, under a contract given Sept. 20, 1863, to the Illinois & Missis- sippi Telegraph Co. The telegraph company furnishes the necessary ma- terial and the R. R. Co. the labor for the maintenance of the line, all mes- sages of the R. R. Co., pertaining to their business, being transmitted free. The American Express Co. has charge of the express business, and on the main line the mails are weighed every compensation for carrying them.

spring of 1870, a settler resided upon a homestead in the vicinity of Storm Lake, but there were no visible indi- cations of the thriving city that now bears that name; and when it reached Cedar creek, the section of country now occupied by the city of Fonda was a wild but beautiful prairie broken only by the trail of an occasional team to Fort Dodge.

Falls & Sioux City R. R. Co. was conveyed to the Dubuque & Sioux City R, R. Co., and it still owns the road from Dubuque to Sioux City.

250

PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

FONDA FOUNDED IN 1870.

Peter G. Ibson, who is still a resi- dent of the county, but then a black- smith for the bridge builders along the line of the railroad, in February, 1870, erected a blacksmith shop about twelve feet square, on the present site of the Fonda water works, and this was the first building erected on section 27, Cedar township. He had entered the employ of the bridge builders of the railroad construction ent of the bridge builders was George . Sargent.

cottonwood trees that may be seen north of the railroad and about forty rods west of the east line of the sec- tion. In this building, which was erected also in the fall of 1869, John A. Hay and his brother, Harvey W. Hay, lived during that winter, and the former kept a small stock of gro- ceries, receiving his supplies from Fort Dodge.

In the summer of 1870, John A. Hay built a store building that was Dodge. Wm. Marshall, who arrived in May, 1870, built the first dwelling house, hauling the lumber from Pome- roy. This was a one and a half story building located north of Second

company near Webster City the pre- first located on what for many years vious year, and moving his shop west- has been known as the Geo. Ellis ward with the progress of the road, property, south of Second and east of chose this location as one convenient Main streets, where he sold goods for the builders of the railroad bridge under the firm name of Hay & Alford, across Cedar creek. Thesuperintend- the latter being a resident of Fort

Previous to this date, (Feb., 1870) two small buildings had been erected about three-quarters of a mile west of Cedar creek on section 28. One of street, first on lot 6 of block 8, and at these was a little one-story frame present on the southwest corner of the building built in the fall of 1869 by next block east. Mr. Marshall had Jacob Silbar, a Jewish peddler, who no desire to keep hotel but it became sold his goods from a wagon during a matter of necessity that he should the summer, and erected this build- be willing to receive and entertain ing for a home during the winter. It transients until a hotel was built. He established a lumber yard north- west of the depot, later owned by Geo. Fairburn and now by the Shull Bros.' stood south of the railroad grade, and as soon as Cedar creek became dry in 1870, Maurice Chase, a resident of the settlement at Sunk Grove and who Lumber Co. The depot was the next the previous year had hauled the building completed, and Wm. Bott lumber for it from Fort Dodge, drew and family began to occupy it about this building on a set of skids across the first of August. Two months later the creek at the old fording place when he had to vacate it, the work- north of the Catholic church, and lo- men under his care in one day erected cated it a few feet east of Ibson's a building north of the track, into shop. The sight of these two unpre- which he moved and remained a con- tentious looking buildings on the siderable time.

prairie just south of the railroad, is a

In September, 1870, John I. Blair, matter of very distinct recollection on of Blairstown, N. J., owner of the the part of many of the older residents section, (27) had Frederick Hess, of of this community.

Fort Dodge, make a survey and plat

The other building west of Cedar of the new town which he called Mar- creek, was built by John A. Hay on vin, in honor of Marvin Hewitt, su- his homestead on the north half of perintendent of the Illinois Central section 28, and the place where it R. R. Co. at that time. The original stood is still marked by a grove of plat embraced four streets running

GEORGE FAIRBURN

President, Pocahontas County Bank, Fonda.

A.B.P. Wood

mrs

Mrs Geo. Fairburn

Jo's Mallison

-----

Mrs Jean Busby

Geo Brower.

1813 180

Brower

Fonda and Vicinity.

a B.P. Wood

capt dos Mallisono

Mrs.

251

SECOND PERIOD, 1870-1882.

northward from the railroad, on the block from the railroad. This build- east bank of Cedar creek, and named ing for many years was the home of from it, Howard, Main, Franklin and Capt. Joseph Mallison, but in 1899, King streets; and four streets running the large cottonwood trees that had east and west, numbered from the been planted in front of it were cut railroad, First, Second, Third and down and it was removed to the lot of Fourth streets, the last being south Frank Scott, near the cemetery, to of the Presbyterian church. This make room for the two-story brick plat was filed for record Sept. 13, 1870, block of J. W. Rock. Wm. Snell es- and Fonda thus became the second tablished a real estate agency in part- town platted in the county. Mr. nership with Jacob Snyder, and a Blair set apart for public use as high- place for the sale of agricultural ma- ways forever all the land included in chinery in partnership with Wm. Mar- the streets and alleys as shown in the shall.

original plot, the width of Main street being 100 feet and of the other streets 80 feet.

After the town was platted, John Hay moved his store building to the west side of Main street on the lot now occupied by the north half of the Fairburn bank building, Jacob Silbar erected a new building on the next lot north of it, and Peter Ibson built a new shop south of Second street near the former site of Hay's store, where it remained about two years or until it was moved to the corner on the west side of Main street now oc- cupied by the brick block of Roberts & Kenning.

When Geo. Fairburn arrived he was accompanied by W. S. Wright, a young man also from Dubuque, and both of them made their home in the depot. The latter became the first express agent and postmaster. He es- tablished the first postoffice in the depot, under the name of Cedarville, and during the year he remained in charge of it the mail was kept in a little box that had only four pigeon- holes.

The first hotel was built by Albert Hay, an uncle of John A. Hay, on the corner north of the railroad, now oc- cupied by the Washington hotel, for which it is still used as a kitchen.

On the east side of Main street on the first block from the depot, several other buildings were built in 1870. One was erected as a restaurant by Horace and Charles Skinner, on the corner now occupied by the bank building of the Farmers' Loan and Trust company. Their first structure consisted of a board roof that rested on corners and pillars built by placing bunches of shingles on top of each other and the spaces between them were protected with canvas or tent- ing. Canute Tisdale, severing his connection with Jacob Silbar, built a shoemaker shop near the south corner of that block. North of it M. D. Skinner, of Webster City, built a long frame building that was intended to serve as a residence and printing of- fice. A printers' outfit entirely new was put in the front room of this building and Mr. Skinner as editor and proprietor began to issue the Po- cahontas Times. Previous to the is- sue of the Times, W. S. Wright, the express agent, had had several weekly issues of the Cedarville Herald print- ed at Storm Lake and distributed through the postoffice at the depot. Dick Mills erected a temporary meat market near the alley a little north of the site of McKee's brick block and Charles Skinner a flour and feed Abont this time Samuel Hughes ar-

The second good residence building store on the west side of Main street. was built by Wm. Snell, on the east side of Main street and on the second rived and, purchasing the building

252

PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

and stock of goods owned by Jacob ace R. and Chas. Skinner on section Silbar, moved the building forward to 6; John A. Hay on section 28; Wm. the line of Main street, and its previ- Richards on section 32; Wm. Lawler, ous owner left the settlement.

CEDAR TOWNSHIP-FIRST RESIDENTS.

1868. The first residents of Cedar township seem to have been Elijah Chase and family, consisting of wife and five children, and Geo. Spragg and family. These two fami- lies were related to each other by marriage, and bringing their effects from Buchanan county on wagons drawn by oxen, they located at Sunk Grove on Sec. 6, Aug. 9, 1868. At this date there were no settlements west of those along the Lizard streams and not even a beaten wagon trail through this township.

For several months during the fall and winter preceding, Bartlett M. Morse, now a resident of Calliope, Sioux county, had engaged in trapping around the lake at Sunk Grove, and lived in a rude shanty in the grove; and another trapper by the name of King occupied it the ensuing winter, but neither of them became perma- nent residents of the township.

1869. On March 23, 1869, Ephraim Garlock, Abram O. Garlock, Geo. Hathaway and A. W. Creed entered and with their families began to occu- py homesteads on section 24, and Geo. H. Wright and family on section 36 of Cedar township. Andrew J. Norem entered his homestead on section 22, on March 5th previous, but he did not immediately locate upon it.

In May following, Wm. Erastus Garlock and family and his brother George Garlock arrived in wagons, bringing their own and their father's stock from DeKalb county Ill., and lo- cated also on section 24; John Dunker- ly and family on section 6; Sidney E. Wright, (a brother of Geo. H.) Geo. W. Wood and John R, Perry on sec- tion 36, and Julius F. Stevens on sec- țion 4.

In June the new settlers were Hor-

John Brown and Wm. Lynch and family of four children, all on sec- tion 2.

Other settlers that arrived later and entered their homesteads that year were Harvey W. Hay and J. S. Howell and family on section 28; John Diviny and Mrs. Rachel Hartwell .on section 6; John Lemp on section.18; John M. Wood on section 36; and John Olson, wife and three children, who bought the SE} of Sec. 33, and lived upon it until 1885.

1870. The first homesteaders to ar- rive in Cedar township in 1870, were Geo. Sanborn and family on section 34; Austin G. (brother of A. W.) Creed, on section 12; Matthew Byrne on section 4, and Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Mallison on section 20. These were followed in the spring by Jeremiah Sullivan and Chas. Breslin who came together and located also on section 4, April 7th. Among those who followed later that year were Samuel H. Mc- Deid, Geo. E. Thompson and family and Geo. H. Thompson his nephew, all of whom located on section 18; Geo. A. Woolworth and Albert Wolfe on sec- tion 11; Pelatiah F. Bennett and Al- bin C. Spearin on section 8; Joseph C. Stevens, Albert Hanke and his broth- er Frank Hanke, all on section 6; Ad- am Cleghorn on section 20; Thomas Slater and Edward Mellen on section 36; John N. Welsh, Carrie, sister of A. W. Creed, and David Spielman on sec- tion 24.

The following additional persons in in 1869 visited and located homesteads in Cedar township, namely: John D. Nichols, Wm. H. Schooley, James C. Kromer, Alfred Rowe, Grimes I. Snow, Justus F. Heath, Eugene Criss, Wm. Curney and Charles M. Hunt; and in 1870, Henry Pallersels, James F. Capen, Wm, G. Winn and John Munro, but they remained only a short time and their claims were cancelled.

253

SECOND PERIOD, 1870-1882.

WILLIAMS TOWNSHIP, 1868-1870.

With the tide of immigration that reached the western part of Pocahon- tas county, along the route of the pro- posed railroad, a settlement was formed in Williams township, Calhoun county, adjoining Cedar township on the south and tributary to Fon- da as a center of trade, of which the following facts, pertinent to the his- tory of this period, will be read with interest.

1868. The first families to locate in this settlement were those of Wm. H. Stott and of his wife's brother, Wm. P. Bush, both of whom located on section 14, in the early part of 1868. Soon afterward that same year they were joined by Samuel Poland, Jacob Stilts and family, George Fastle, Hugh Hocking, Jr., and his brother Wm. Hocking, all on section 10; Hugh Hocking, Sr., and his family, and his son John Hocking, on section 2.

1869. In 1869, John Stott and fam- ily located on section 18, on which his two sons, John Jr., and George also took homesteads that so cornered with their father's that when they built their house, which had three rooms, one room of it was on each of the three homesteads.

William Kennedy and family in April located on section 4, on the farm now owned by Charles Zeigler, and as the three "Williams."

on June 5th, 1869, they were his brother-in-law, with whom the

D. C. Morey.

Lemuel Milnor, Isaac Warner and family and Silas Flint and family lo- cated on section 12, the latter and his son George taking homesteads on that section, and Charles Flint on section 14. Charles H. Poland, Sr., RoderickJ. Ab- bott and his brother Wm. Abbott, lo- cated on section 10; Nicholas Strauss and family and Henry Baker and fam- ily on section 6. Orlando O. Brown and family and his two sons, Nathan L. and Lyman W. Brown, located three homesteads on section 8, and James Rigby on the fraction of sec- tion 4. The latter was an earnest Seventh-day Adventist and in 1876 or- ganized an Adventist church of thirty- six members in the Kennedy (now Mayo) school house.

Mrs. Mary Jane Jenkins (daughter of John Hocking, Sr.) and family, Jacob E. Kephart and David Thayer and family located on section 2.

In 1870, Obed Slater and family lo- cated on section 2, James Whitbeck on section 12, and a number of others, too numerous to mention, in various parts of the township.

At this date the settlement had al- ready come to be known as the "Will- iams settlement," by reason of the fact that three of the first men to lo- cate in it-Wm. Stott, Wm. Bush and Wm. Kennedy were often referred to

In 1871 when the township was or- joined by Geo. Sanborn and family, ganized, it was very naturally named 'Williams" in honor of these three latter remained until February, 1870, men whose public spirit made them when he moved to his own homestead as prominent as the fact they were on section 34, Cedar township, one- early pioneers.

half mile south of Fonda.

The first death in this settlement is

Sarah J. Clemens and family of four believed to have been Amanda Stilts, children, purchasing the homestead the daughter of Jacob Stilts, who right of Alfred Hay, located on sec- died about December 28, 1870, and was tion 12, and in December, 1870, she buried on a spot of high ground on was joined by her eldest daughter, her father's homestead which was on Harriet A., then a school teacher, but the E} SW} Sec. 10. The location of now the wife of Baxter S. Chapman. this grave is still indicated by a clump This homestead is now the farm of of cottonwood trees that were planted

254

PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

around it after her burial.

The first board of directors con-

Miss Harriet A. Clemens taught the sisted of O. O. Brown, president; Wm. P. Bush, secretary; John Stott, treasurer; Wm. Kennedy and Roderick

first school in this settlement, a term of two months, in January and Febru- ary 1871. This was before the organi- Abbott. zation of the township, and among the

The first permanent school buildings pupils that she enrolled there were in Williams township were built in two that were over age, namely, John the Warner, Kennedy (now Mayo) and Stott and Wm. P. Bush. The latter Jackson districts, in the season of 1874 was thirty-two years of age and gave and by Abram O. Garlock, a resident as the reason for his attendance the of Cedar township, as contractor and fact that his enlistment in the army builder. prevented him from going to school in his younger days. He is now a resi- dent of Gilmore City.

The Jackson district received this name from Joseph Jackson, who lo- cated in that district about the year 1871. He was a carpenter as well as a farmer, and in 1875 was the contractor and builder of the school house in dis- trict No. 3, the Strauss neighborhood. The first teacher to occupy this build- ing was George Sanborn, the present editor of The Fonda Times.

In the spring of 1871 this settle- ment was divided into two school dis- tricts. In district No. 1, the first teacher-was Miss Harriet A. Clemens, (now Mrs. B. S. Chapman) who taught the summer and winter terms of 1871, the former term in the summer kitch- en of Wm. H. Stott, on section 14, where she taught the previous term, "American youth behold where you THE TOWNSHIPS ORGANIZED. stand! and the latter one in a small tem- porary school building that was lo- To you must be given the care of this cated near the center of section 11 on land; the north part of the farm now owned Prepare for your calling; be worthy the trust. " and occupied by Isaac P. Longnecker. Roderick J. Abbott taught the sum- mer and winter terms of 1872 and Mrs. Rachel Hartwell, of the Sunk Grove settlement, the summer and winter terms of 1873 in the same temporary building. In 1874, when the school house was built in this, the Warner dis- trict, James Clemens was the first teacher to occupy it.

In the other district the first teacher was Edgar E. Mack, who taught the summer and winter terms of 1871 and also of 1872, in the home of Nathan L. Brown, on section 8. Mrs. Alice B.

As a natural result of the immigra- tion to this section, induced by the construction of the first railroad through it, four new townships were organized in Pocahontas county in the year 1870, namely, Cedar, Bellville and Grant on June 6th, and Dover (in- cluding Marshall) on September 6th, following. One year thereafter Colfax and Swan Lake townships were es- tablished; and in 1872 Lincoln (under the name of Carter) and Center town- ships.

About this date the ravages of the Ellis, wife of Capt. Ellis, of Ft. Dodge, grasshoppers and other causes of hard taught the summer and winter terms times checked immigration very seri- of 1873 in the same place. In 1874, the ously and a period of four years Kennedy (now Mayo) school house elapsed before Washington township was built and the first two terms in it was established (Sept. 5, 1876.) and were taught by Miss Sarah J. Darling, Lake, the year following. Another now the wife of Judge S. M. Elwood, period of three years, suggestive also of Sac City.

of hard times, elapsed before Sherman

255

SECOND PERIOD, 1870-1882.

township was established. Finally two last were felt more or less serious- on June 5, 1882, Marshall township, ly throughout the whole country. the last one remaining, was estab- THE GRASSHOPPERS. lished under the name of Laurens.

The last date given marks an im- portant epoch in the history of this county. It not only denotes the time when the organization of the town- ships of the county was completed, but the period when this county was traversed in the north and east by two more important railroads, the Toledo & Northwestern and the Des Moines Valley (now the C. R. I. & P.). This date also marks the end of a period of repeated disappointments, hard times and unexpected disasters on the one hand, and the beginning of an era of uninterrupted growth and pros- perity that has continued until the present time.

As early as 1856 and 1857, and again in 1864 and 1866, the grasshoppers of the Rocky mountain region visited the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Ne- braska and Kansas, but owing to the limited number of the settlements at that early date, their ravages were not seriously felt or emphasized.

In Pocahontas county there were three distinct visitations of grass- hoppers that are well remembered. These occurred in 1867 and '68, in 1873 and '74 and, in diminished numbers, in 1875 and '76, when they departed, unwept and unmourned.

These visitations were the cause of a vast amount of suffering through- out the entire northwestern part of The following exhibit of the popu- lation of the county during this peri- od, 1870-1882, shows when its growth was retarded by unfavorable circum- stances and when manifest impulses were received. this country and added greatly to the ordinary hardships of pioneer life. When they came sweeping through the land on the wing they darkened the face of the sun, and when they lighted on the farmers' gardens and growing crops they darkened the face Year Year Pop. Pop. 1869 637 1875 2219 3713 1870 1446 1880 of the husbandman, who saw before them his hope of subsistence but after 1873 2175 1885 6154 them only a desolate wilderness. It will be perceived that there were two short periods of manifest growth that in general may be said to have embraced the first two and the last two years of the period under con- sideration; and that almost the en- Whilst they would satisfy the cravings of their hunger, when necessary, by feeding on the tough native grasses of the prairie, they always manifested a keener relish for the tenderer vegeta- tire decade included in the seventies tion that grew in the cultivated fields -1872 to 1879-was an era of slow of the settler, and when they found growth in the development of the them they "cleaned them out."

county, a circumstance that was no The region known as the permanent doubt due to the trials and hardships home of the Rocky mountain locusts experienced by those who were resi- or grasshoppers, where they breed ev- dents of the county during that time. ery year and are always found in

If we seek for the principal causes greater or less numbers, embraces the that checked the forward impulse of greater part of Montana, a narrow 1870, it will be found that they were strip of western Dakota, most of Wy- three in number, namely; the grass- oming and Colorado, the eastern por- hoppers, the financial panic of 1873 tions of Utah, Idaho and Oregon, and and the strikes or hard times of 1877. a very large area in the British posses- The first of these retarding causes sions north of Montana that equals was in some measure local, but the more than one-third of the whole re-

256

PIONEER HISTORY OF POCAHONTAS COUNTY, IOWA.

gion. The region over which they gust until winter he is actuated by a have temporarily migrated in years reckless ambition to bore holes in the ground about the size of a pipestem and then to fill these holes with cream- colored eggs. Although he is small of excessive abundance, but from which they have disappeared the fol- lowing year, includes on the eastern he attends to business and is a tri- side of the mountains all of Texas, In- umphant success. In stature he is a match for a six-penny stub nail and in form he is like unto a linchpin. He wears a green sealing-wax head dian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, western Missouri, the greater half of Iowa, nearly all of Minnesota, Mani- and a pair of large glass eyes, so that toba and the country north to Lake with his long-tailed duster he looks like an unsophisticated school-master. Winnipeg.

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The pioneer history of Pocahontas County, Iowa, from the time of its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 32

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