Stories from old newspapers
STEVENS, COOKSEY, WELLS, SCURLOCK, HORN, CRAIG, ELAM, STANSBERRY, EDWARDS, BOND, BENNETT, EVANS, CRAIG, MORROW, AWMILLER, KIRBY, WILFAUN, COOKSEY, PROBASCO, CAMPBELL
Posted By: Allison Tuinstra (email)
Date: 12/12/2008 at 18:26:37
I found this Daily Iowegian article by Phyllis Cosby on-line. It contained some neat information about some of my Appanoose ancestors (Awmillers), so I thought I'd post it here, since many old citizens are mentioned.
Published September 26, 2008 10:02 am -
Local newspapers still favorite source of information
By: Phyllis Cosby, Moulton Correspondent
The other evening I sat up late watching the T.V. and the devastation caused by Hurricane Ike. Once again it occurred to me how much most of us take for granted the miracle of television, bringing us instantaneous news. Even though I live in Wells township, away from most of the exciting events going on in this old world, I still have access to them thanks to the T.V., my computer and the newspapers.
I often think of the first settlers, some who were my relatives, who came here and settled in Wells township. In many cases they left behind family members back East, some they would probably never see again. They were cut off from the rest of the world in this primitive place and perhaps the news of the outside world was irrelevant those first years of trying to tame this wilderness. There were no newspapers there to give us an account of the first settlers here in Wells township. What we have learned about them came from stories later on. We can only imagine the hardships those dear people endured during those first years. Every bite of food and everything that made their lives bearable had to come from their own hard work and ingenuity. Since this was still considered Indian territory, we will never know why or how Col. James Wells happened on to this tract of land in 1839 that would one day be the Iowa-Missouri border but by 1841 he had built a log cabin and moved his family there. The families of Adolpus Stevens and William Cooksey moved close by that same year.
A couple of years later James Wells had erected a saw mill, and there was a store and a post office known as Wells Mill and as more settlers came into the area, a school was established. A number of names we still recognize today settled there around this time: James Milton Scurlock, William Horn, James Craig, S.P. Elam, Dr. G.S. Stansberry, William Edwards and John Bond.
A story that came out of this time was Col. Wells, out in the wilderness one day in 1842 found the body of a man leaning against a tree, shot in the head. In one hand was a memorandum book and in the other was a pencil. Who he was, no one ever knew. What he was doing there was never found out but according to the story he was given a decent burial. If only there had been a newspaper back in those early days I know there were many stories we would be reading about today preserved in the pages of those precious issues.
Until around 1880 news from rural communities in local newspapers was sparse. Very little social news was reported. It was more likely to be on everyday events such as an 1880 Wells report in the Moulton Ensign stating that William Horn was building a new home and had hauled all the pine lumber from Glenwood, Mo. Joseph Cooksey was cutting lumber to build his home.
Death and illness were very real everyday occurances out in rural areas and the Ensign reported in an 1880 news item at Hilltown A.R. Bennett age 60 and William Evans age 34, had both died of consumption, noting that Mr, Evans had died leaving three small children. Also Mrs. AB Wells and Rachael were reportedly seriously ill with typhoid fever. Although education was important to many settlers, in some families, students often needed at home, attended only when they could. With bad weather and illnesses, it was not uncommon for a student to quit school before they went the full eight years. An 1880 Ensign reported, “the schools in Wells Township are all fixed up and ready for the winter weather,” these schools included Bond, Stansberry, Hilltown, Dean, Short, Eldorado, Buzzards Roost and Grant. Wages were to be $27.50 a month.
Looking through some 1881 Wells news evidence that travel conditions were improving the Ensign reported that the piling has been driven for a new bridge across the Long Branch near the William Staton Place 1 1/2 miles south east of Dean. Settlers were expanding, buying more land. The Ensign reported James Craig purchased the remainder of the farm known as the old Billy Morrow Farm. Consideration as $500, $20 per acre.
Even with transportation being slow back then, I noticed in the 1882 news that many residents were traveling some distances. Perly Awmiller and his brother William were “visiting the scenes of their childhood on the placid banks of the beautiful Muskingum River in Morgan Co. Ohio.”
Some residents who had been in the township earlier and were left now moving back. Elisha Kirby who had been living in Kansas Indian Territory had moved back to Wells Township and William Thompson who had been living in Ohio and Kentucky was back in Wells township.
Ten years later, going into the 1900’s, life was still hard but getting better for the settlers in the Hilltown/Dean and soon-to-be Coal City area. Most rural roads were still mud roads, only a few had shale on them and were often impassable during the winter, spring thaws or rainstorms. Social life was for the most part centered around close-by neighbors calling upon neighbors, or basket dinners and picnics after church on Sundays.
Around this time Moulton acquired a new newspaper, the Tribune and the paper often carried news items of the social events amongst the friends and neighbors in Wells Township noting there was a music party at the Taylor Cooksey home drawing a large crowd of young folks, or the surprise party for Thomas Kirby on his forty-third birthday with a bountiful dinner and some excellent music provided by Ed Wilfaun, Rob Cooksey, D.W. Probasco and John Campbell.
Newspaper items were reporting there was still much illness and death that was plaguing families with pneumonia, influenza, heart disease, typhoid and strokes. Too, remember there was no refrigeration and many people became ill from food spoilage and often died due to diarrhea.
About this time it became evident that large quantities of coal were located in the Dean/Hilltown area. Soon coal mining would become an additional source of income for many families in the area when most homes had an annual income of $200 or less. Work in the mines brought about the establishment of coal city, providing housing for the many mining families who located there.
Although Iowa acquired statehood in 1946, rural families still remained somewhat isolated from organized communities for several more years. When the town of Moulton was founded in 1869 and after a newspaper was established there, the paper often carried news items from Wells Township along with news from these rural families and the outside world. For me, spending an afternoon at the Garrett Memorial Library in Moulton, I like to spend time searching through the bound volumes of old newspapers, looking through the many scrapbooks in the library Genealogy section and finding the names of those hardy people from the past. Their lives become more real as I read of their social events, their marriages, births, the many illnesses and deaths.
After the turn of the century, times would be changing dramatically. By now Iowa had been a state a little over 50 years. The railroads would come to Wells Township. The telephone would be available for those who could afford it. Before many years would pass, battery operated radios would occupy a prominent spot in many farm homes. Even with those wonderful inventions, it has been the newspaper that has given us the most information about life of our early day families.
Starting with the turn of the century, reports became much more detailed. Thanks to those news items from local newspapers, today we can get a more intimate somewhat personal glimpse of what life was like back then, not so many years ago as history goes.
Not earth shattering occurances, but just news of everyday citizens. Yes, today we have television and computers bringing up happenings from all over the world, but most of us still look forward to that local newspaper...the one that really cares about us.
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