MULLAN, America (Virden) 1817-1902

MULLAN, VIRDEN, DAVIDSON, DAVISON

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Waterloo Times-Tribune
Waterloo, Iowa
21 Nov 1902
Page 1

Death of Mrs. Mullan

Succumbs to Pneumonia at the Home of Her Son at Pomeroy, Iowa.

An Early Settler In The State

Is Survived By Six Children, Including Attorney General Mullan of This City.

The Des Moines Register and Leader this morning contains the following dispatch:

Ft. Doge, Ia., Nov. 20. -- Mrs. Mullan, mother of Attorney of State C. W. Mullan, of Waterloo, died today at Pomeroy at the home of her son, M. F. Mullan, where she was visiting. Pneumonia was the cause of her death. Mrs. Mullan was 84 years old. She leaves four sons, C. W. Mullan of Waterloo, M. F. Mullan, a druggist at Pomeroy, Henry Mullan of Sioux City, an Illinois Central conductor, and John Mullan of this city, engineer for the same road."

This marks the passing of the first residents of the city of Waterloo and one of the first settlers in this section of the state. Mrs. Charles Mullan came to Blackhawk county and settled on the Cedar Falls road at outskirts of present city of Waterloo in the summer of 1846. Since then this place has been the home of the family.

Mr. and Mrs. Mullan drove across from Illinois in a covered wagon in search of a new home. They pitched their tent on the hill on the west side of the river and but a half a mile from the business part of the city, and as the site gave them a fine prospect of the Cedar river and was surrounded by fertile land, they decided to make it their permanent home. A log cabin was erected that summer in which they lived for six years. Mr. Mullan then began the erection of the house which is still standing and is one of the landmarks of the county. It was then the finest structure in this part of the state. The building material was hauled in wagons from the saw mills at Cedar Rapids. Mr. Mullan was the first postmaster of Waterloo and had the honor of choosing the name for the town, and this house contained the first post office. The first church society was also organized within its walls, the society being the foundation for the First M. E. church of Waterloo.

Mrs. America Virden Mullan was born in Tompkinsville, Kentucky, Oct. 24, 1817. In 1825 her father, William Virden, removed with his family to Wayne county, Ill., which was Mrs. Mullan's home until the time of her removal to this city in 1846. She was the second child in a family of twelve children, ten of whom are still living.

She became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1831 and her active christian work extended over a period of nearly seventy years. She was one of the members of the First Methodist society in the county which was organized with a membership of five in 1849. The influence of her strong christian character has been felt in Waterloo ever since its early beginnings as a village over a half a century ago and she has been one of the greatest aids in all of the religious movements of the city. Her connection with the First M. E. church dates from its organization and during its beginnings and early struggles she was one of the chief supports.

Mrs. Mullan is survived by six children, one having died in infancy. They are Charles W., one of the most prominent attorneys in the state and now attorney general for the state, Henry C., of Sioux City, Wm. H., of Aberdeen, S. D., Marion F. a druggist of Pomeroy, and Mrs. Lizzie Davidson. The husband died in 1874. All of the children will be present at the funeral.

For two weeks preceding her death, Mrs. Mullan had been visiting her sons at Fort Dodge and Sioux City, and was taken sick with pneumonia while on the train, on her way to Pomeroy to visit her third son. Because of her extreme age the disease worked with deadly rapidity and her demise occurred within a few hours. Arrangements for the funeral have not been made, but the body will be brought to Waterloo to-morrow night.

Waterloo Daily Courier
Waterloo, Iowa
21 Nov 1902
Page 1

In Fullness of the Years

Mrs. America Mullan Passes Away at Pomeroy, Aged 85.

Pioneer of Waterloo, Settling Here in Summer of 1846.

Body to be Brought Back Tomorrow for Interment.

Mrs. America Mullan, mother of Hon. C. W. Mullan, attorney general of Iowa, who, with her husband, was the first settler in the present limits of the city of Waterloo, passed away at 3:50 yesterday afternoon, after a short illness of pneumonia, at the home of a son, Marion Mullan, at Pomeroy. She was 85 years old on the 24th of last October.

Three weeks ago Mrs. Mullan left for a visit to her sons, three of whom, besides C. W., reside in this state. She went to Fort Dodge to visit J. W., then to Sioux City to visit H. C. While
(photo of America Mullan)
making the journey from there to Pomeroy last Monday deceased was taken ill on the train with a severe pain in her side. She was so ill when she reached Pomeroy that she had to be carried to her son's residence. She gradually grew worse, the pneumonia, which had set in, affecting her heart, and she passed away at the hour indicated.

The body will arrive here tomorrow evening. The attorney general will reach here tomorrow morning and until that time no definite arrangements will be made for the funeral.

Mrs. Mullan was the mother of seven children, six of whom survive. One died in infancy. The survivors are Hon. C. W. Mullan of Waterloo, J. W. of Fort Dodge, an Illinois Central passenger engineer; H. C. of Sioux City, a passenger conductor on the Illinois Central; W. H. of Aberdeen, S. D., a postal clerk; Marion of Pomeroy, a jeweler, and Mrs. Lizzie Davison, who
(photo of Charles Mullan)
has made her home with her mother in the house at the top of the hill on the Cedar Falls road just northwest of the city, where the family pitched their tent when they arrived in this section June 24, 1846, more than half a century ago. Besides the relatives mentioned in the foregoing, decedent leaves three brothers and two sisters. The brothers are Oscar Virden, living in Waterloo township; James Virden, living in the western part of the state, and Frank Virden, living somewhere in the west. The sisters are Mrs. Martha Bunting of Rock Valley, Ia., and Mrs. Nelson Fancher of Chicago.

There is clustered about such a life as Mrs. Mullan lived such a train of important circumstances that only the heads of chapters, as it were, can be touched in an article like this. Her life, spent as it was, from the tender years of childhood, in pioneering, was rich in the wealth of circumstances that compose the unfolding years.

America Virden was the daughter of a hardy family whose name has clinging to it only honor, sturdiness of character and indomitable energy. Her father was William Virden, a farmer who was for quite a time a resident of Kentucky. Her mother was Martha Williamson, a woman of strong character embodying to a wonderful degree the graces that ennoble womanhood. America was the eldest daughter and the second child of these two. She was born Oct. 24, 1817, in Tompkinsville, Ky., and when eight years of age her parents, with their large family, moved to Wayne Co., Ill. That was in 1825, before the first locomotive on the American continent was conceived, and the only means of travel were by crude craft on the water and "prairie schooners" on the land. The trip from Kentucky at that time to the frontier in Illinois was so impressive in its nature that decedent never forgot it, though she was but a child when it was undertaken. After remaining a few years in Illinois enough people migrated to Wayne county to make possible the opening of a school. This was the first school that Mrs. Mullan ever attended. The house was built of logs, the seats were slabs without backs and the other furniture and appurtenances were within keeping with pioneer life. The school was three miles away to and from which Mrs. Mullan walked each day regardless of weather. Present day students in the public schools will be surprised to learn that the "school master" rang his bell at 8 o'clock in the morning, which was the hour for everybody to be in his place and at his books, and there was no intermission until noon. At 2 in the afternoon school took up again and lasted until 6 in the evening. The school grew in numbers as the country settled up and it was not long until the Methodist church, which closely follows the establishing of school houses, opened services there. A society was formed and meetings were held regularly. Mrs. Mullan, at the age of 14, in 1831, joined this Methodist church, and she was a consistent and faithful member of that denomination up to the time of her death, a period of 71 long years.

On March 24, 1842, decedent was married in Wayne county to Charles Mullan. The husband, in the early days of their married life, taught school, while the wife became expert in the handiwork necessary in those days to the proper conduct of a household of one's own. She carded the wool, spun it into thread and wove it into cloth for the garments they wore. The lady used to tell with animation how the pride and pleasure of those days were among her most cherished memories. There used to be a keen rivalry among the women of the neighborhood as to who could spin the best, make the best web of cloth or weave into it the most dainty and fanciful designs.

There came a time when Mr. and Mrs. Mullan received news of the opening of that part of Black Hawk county in which Waterloo now lies for settlement. Such cheering reports came to them of its fertility and healthful climate that they determined to seek a new home for themselves and children and accordingly in May, 1846, the family gathered all their worldly possessions in covered wagon, bid adieu, as they supposed to parents and near and dear ones for the last time, and set out for the land of promise.

The journey required four weeks. The distance was 500 miles. They arrived in Black Hawk county June 24, 1846, pitching a tent on the hill where the home of deceased now stands and where she lived constantly all the years since then. This hill, in the picturesque beauty of the wilderness, was so pretty and attractive that they determined to make the place their home. There were but two other families then living in the county, the nearest three miles distant. These were James Virden, brother of Mrs. Mullan, who had preceded her a year, and Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Hanna. The Indians had not been removed to the recently opened reservation and, regretting they had ceded the land to the government, were sullen and half inclined to be hostile. The young men of the tribe urged open hostilities and counseled the killing of the few white "intruders," but the older men kept them in check, else who knows, but the early pages of the history of Black Hawk county might be red with blood?

On this sightly hill was built a typical log cabin, which is described elsewhere in this article. In the cabin, the family lived until 1856, when the present home was built.

The first winter was one of exceptional severity to the hardy pioneers. The nearest trading post and postoffice was at Marion, Linn county, 60 miles distant. Mr. Mullan, in the early fall, made a trip to that point for breadstuffs and provisions for the winter, and almost his last cent of money was used in making the necessary purchase. But the cold began early and hung on late in the spring. In the dead of winter the flour got low, and other articles of food were becoming depleted. The neighbors were in the same condition and the only escape from starving was for Mr. Mullan again to visit Marion and buy provisions. The making of the trip through the deep snow through a trackless territory had its horrors, but these paled into significance compared to the dangers besetting the little family while the husband and father was absent. There were two small children then, Charles, jr., and Lizzie. For three weeks the mother and these were alone in the little cabin, with Indians besetting them night after night. When darkness came the mother would wrap her little ones in blankets and with a prayer for their safety would place them in their beds, while she remained awake, watchful and silent, with the loaded rifle in easy reach. The self-imposed vigil, prompted by mother love was kept up until the lady was almost exhausted. It is easy to imagine that no home-coming could have been fraught with greater joy and thanksgiving than the one that marked the return of Mr. Mullan, not only in the protection that he himself afforded, but in the replenishing of the larder, which had dwindled to hulled corn and milk and these almost gone.

Two years after the family came, or in 1848, a young Methodist minister, Rev. Collins, visited this part of Iowa and was the first to hold religious services in the county. His chapel was the Mullan home. He came on horseback from Linn county and though having the general location of the Mullan home in his mind as being near the junction of the Black Hawk with the Cedar he wandered about for hours one dark night and only reached his destination after being almost famished with hunger and exhausted with fatigue. In 1849 a church society was organized for the Methodists by a Rev. Mr. Johnson, who was working in the interest of the Home Missionary society. This was the nucleus and beginning of the present First M. E. church. It was organized with five members, composed of Mr. and Mrs. Hanna, Mr. and Mrs. William Virden and Mrs. Mullan. So Mrs. Mullan's membership in this church has dated from 1849, or 53 years a member of the same church society.

In 1852 the tide of immigration began to move to this part of Iowa and the county was settled rapidly. Among the others who came to the new goodly land were Mrs. Mullan's father and mother and brothers and sisters, in 1852, to whom she had said goodbye six years before, expecting it would be the last time she would ever see them again. This meeting was fraught with an outpouring of affection on the part of all concerned that made all rejoice. The father died and was buried here a few years later.

About 1852 the first mail route was established through the county, and Mr. Mullan, senior, was appointed postmaster. The office was in his home. The first trip made by the carrier did not yield largely in the volume of mail matter. One lone letter composed the contents of the mail bag. Settlers were so few that the volume of business of the post office was not large, either. The postal case was an old tin pan that had outlived its usefulness for other purposes, and this was placed near the door where the patrons of the office could "go through" the mail and take out what was addressed to them.

The foregoing, as stated before, is but the mention of a few things which have contributed to develop the sturdiness and honesty and integrity of those two pioneers of Waterloo. The couple had their share in developing what to them was painted as a goodly land and what to us has become a goodly city. Mrs. Mullan had her full share in the city's early, struggling life, in its development and upbuilding. From nothing but three scattered dwellings of civilized beings to a city of nearly 16,000 inhabitants is a long stretch of the imagination, but this woman of whom we are writing lived here all that stretch of time. What a momentous life such a one must have been!

Mrs. Mullan took great delight and pleasure in the annual recurring meeting of the old settlers, and this company of the early Black Hawk pioneers will sadly miss her kind and genial presence among them.

Mrs. Mullan was a rare type of womanhood. She possessed the splendid vigorous, wholesome qualities of mind and heart, characteristic of our early pioneers, who laid so broadly and so well the foundation for the progress that has followed. She lived largely unto herself and family. Home to her was a first duty. She realized its responsibilities as well as it possibilities for good. In those far off early settler days she saw the unfolding of the future, and comprehended the requirements of the actors on that broader stage. She lived to see her hopes fulfilled in her sons, whose success in life and whose prominence as factors in the commonwealth of her adoption, reflects the foundation laid during early home days.

Her life was simple. She loved the natural. To her the studied forms of society did not appeal. She felt within herself and family a self-sustaining strength for mind and heart. In her all of the graces of Christian faith were sweetly blended. her life was a daily example of Christianity in its simplest, truest, and noblest sense. She was endowed with a rare mind. Even in the latter days of her life, after she had passed more than four score years, her mind was quick, forceful. Altogether she seemed to reach out and comprehend the many forces of progress about her. She was attached to the home of her earlier days and loved to be on that favored spot where so many years ago she came in the prime of womanhood and established her life home. She was genuine. She was real. In all her ways she evinced a gentleness that is only possible with strong characters. She was kind and loving. She loved to do for others.

It was indeed a beautiful picture to observe her during the past few years around the old home living perhaps largely in the past and yet happy in the present, looking towards the future sustained by "an unfaltering trust." In the passing of America Mullan our community has lost a splendid and noble woman whose character has left an impression, our institutions a life that is worthy of example.

Of the personal life of Mrs. Mullan too much cannot be said. She was winsome in her disposition, and was a noble woman in all that that term implies. She was extremely charitable and no one in need, not even a tramp, was ever turned away from her door unfed or unclothed. She followed the Master whom she adored and whom she served with a pleasing service, when she fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick, comforted the sorrowing, cheered the disconsolate and did and said only good. With her goodness was innate. Cheerfulness was second nature. Sympathy and kindness were ever in her heart. She was of an intensely religious nature, and her religion was of that practical sort which reaches out and uplifts. Many a person has been made happier and better by coming in contact with her pure life. Finity cannot measure the good that such a life accomplishes; only the infinity can reveal it.

But it is some measure of her influence to be able to know the character of the family she has raised, the stalwart sons and the kind and gentle daughter. They are monuments of the self-sacrifice of her devotion, and they and their children will keep her influence alive in the world.

Gives Early Reminiscences.

In an interview with the late Mrs. America Mullan, given a Daily Courier representative in December, 1900, and published Jan. 8, 1901, in the improvement edition of this paper, the pioneer gave the following interesting reminiscences of the early days in Waterloo.

The interview relates the story of immigration to this section and of her first year's residence here:

In the month of May, 1846, Mrs. Mullan says in company with her husband and children and a man who had been working for them, she left her home in Wayne county, Illinois for Iowa, and the valley of the Red Cedar which was then considered the wilderness of the far west. They made the journey with a covered wagon drawn by a team of oxen. In the wagon besides themselves were all of their worldly goods. They made the journey in about four weeks to the Cedar river and landed here on the 24th day of June, 1846. On arrival here they made their home at first at the cabin of Wm. Virden, a brother of Mrs. Mullan, who had settled here the year previous. Mr. Mullan then entered the land on the hill where the present homestead is located, and Jas. and Wm. Virden and G. W. Hanna helped him to cut the timber for the erection of a cabin of logs a few rods west of where their house now stands. The cabin was completed the fall of their arrival here. The cabin was built without a door, no material for same being handy, and the opening left for the door was protected with a blanket until late in the fall. The cabin was built with an old fashioned fire place which answered the purpose of furnishing heat for building and also for cooking purposes.

In this cabin of only one room the family lived until 1852 when work was begun on the house where Mrs. Mullan lives today. The sills of this house were hewn out of native logs. The studding and joists were sawed at the mill which had been established at Cedar Falls, and the siding and finishing lumber of black walnut was hauled by ox team by Mr. Mullan from Dubuque.

In the year 1852 Mr. Mullan purchased of Horatio W. Sanford of Dubuque a land warrant covering the tract of land on which he had settled and paying $100 for it. The tract comprised 160 acres, including the east one-half of the northwest quarter and west one-half of the northeast fraction quarter of section 26, township 89. The land warrant is still in the possession of Mrs. Mullan. It is number 15,861 and was issued in favor of Asa Dunham, jr., private in Capt. Bodwell's company Maine militia in the war of 1812, and bears the signature of Millard Fillmore, president of the United States. It is dated Sept. 1st, 1852.

Mrs. Mullan says when they reached this section the entire present west side of the city was bare prairie and that the same was unbroken except by one giant tree which stood like a sentinel on the bank of the river about where the Waterloo Building company is now erecting is fine 5-story and basement building. On the east side she says one lone tree stood out on the prairie some distance from the city, and it was known for years as the "Lone Tree." The Black Hawk creek was heavily bordered with timber, and there were several trees on an island lying near the east bank of the river just below the present Great Western railroad bridge, and which was known for many years as "lovers' retreat." This island was swept away during a spring freshet several years ago.

While settlers kept coming to the new country looking it over and going on further west or else returning to the east, the permanent settlers in this section were small in number for several years and the nearest neighbors the Mullan's had were the Hanna's in their cabin about two miles to the northwest.

Mr. Mullan was a surveyor and his work took him away from home considerable of the time, and on one occasion while he was going to what was known as the settlement at Cedar Rapids for flour and provisions he was detained and for three weeks Mrs. Mullan was alone in the cabin with her two children, Chas. W. and Lizzie, then in their infancy.

Very few women could have withstood the perils which surrounded Mrs. Mullan during these weeks of absence of her husband. Although of a brave disposition she was fearful of danger from Indians. She relates that on one occasion when her husband was absent on a surveying trip she had a most unwelcome visit from an Indian. It was just growing dark when she was startled by a knock at her cabin door. One of the children, thinking their father had returned home went to the door and raised the latch, and the astonishment of Mrs. Mullan was increased when, instead of her husband, there stalked into the room a big, burly redskin. The Indian made friendly overtures by handing his rifle and powder flask to Mrs. Mullan, while in broken English he informed her that he had been out on a hunting expedition and was too far away to reach camp that night and that he intended her cabin should be a shelter for him until morning. While considerably frightened, Mrs. Mullan informed the Indian that he could not stay there and that the best thing for him to do would be to leave at once. The fellow paid no attention to her demands, but finding a seat by the fireplace settled down for the night. Mrs. Mullan could then do nothing but make the best of the situation. Late in the evening she threw the Indian a blanket and pointed to the corner of the cabin where he was told to lie down. The Indian obeyed without a murmur and Mrs. Mullan then sought her bed in the opposite corner of the cabin placing the children next to the wall while she half reclined with Mr. Mullan's loaded rifle in her hands, and spent the balance of the night with her eyes fixed constantly on her unwelcome guest. She was prepared to defend herself and children from an attack even if she had to kill the Indian in doing so. About midnight the Indian went to the fire place and replenished the coals. With the rifle pointed at his head Mrs. Mullan ordered him to return to his corner of the room. The Indian tried again to make her understand that he was friendly and that he had been awakened by a toothache. Not moving her eyes from the man Mrs. Mullan went to the door and called their dog in. The dog had been barking for sometime and Mrs. Mullan informed the Indian that his barking meant that her husband was returning. The big fellow then returned to his blanket for the balance of the night.

Mrs. Mullan prepared a breakfast for the Indian in the morning and while she was doing this she discovered that he had been thinking over her ruse to get him away from the fireplace in the night. Looking up at her he remarked, "White squaw not tell truth last night." Mrs. Mullan replied that her husband was expected at any moment and that he would punish the Indian severely for his disturbance of her. She remembers that the Indian had not gotten rid of his toothache in the morning and while his breakfast was cooking he determined to try doctoring the diseased molar himself. To do this he obtained two red pepper pods which were hanging on the side of the cabin and placing them in a cup partly filled with water set the mixture on the coals to boil it. The mixture proved efficacious and the Indian declared after taking one dose of it that the toothache had disappeared. Later, however, when the fellow got some of the pepper in his eyes, Mrs. Mullan says he changed his mind about its good qualities and left the cabin dancing about with the pain.

On another occasion when Mr. Mullan was away from home, Mrs. Mullan received a visit from another Indian who stalked into the room and seating himself on the floor informed her that he had come to buy "the white pappoose" pointing to her baby daughter, Lizzie. Mrs. Mullan thought the Indian was joking, until the brave reached under his blanket and taking out a buckskin bag poured from it a large number of gold pieces, saying he would give $500 for the girl. He left shortly after, however, and nothing further was ever heard from him or his strange proposal.

Mrs. Mullan remembers the plentifulness of game in the early years. She says she looked from her cabin window one afternoon and saw a herd of elk cross the prairie a short distance from her house and wend their way down the Black Hawk. Buffalo were still fairly plentiful in the western part of the state and hunters who had been in quest of this game occasionally came down the river and stopped at the Mullan cabin. Among these visitors were some young men who lived near Vinton and who had conceived the idea of capturing some buffalo and domesticating them. They were returning from a hunt and had with them eight buffalo calves in a wagon. They had taken some milch cows with them on the hunt and from these the buffalo calves were supplied with sustenance. Mr. Mullan saw these calves at Vinton after they had grown up and said they were quite tame.

Notwithstanding the trials and hardships which came to her during these pioneer days Mrs. Mullan still says they were the happiest days of her life.

Waterloo Daily Courier
Waterloo, Iowa
25 Nov 1902
Page 7

Funeral Services

Last Rites Yesterday Afternoon Over Remains of Mrs. Mullan.

The funeral of Mrs. America Mullan, which was held at the old home on the Cedar Falls road yesterday afternoon, was largely attended by old settlers and business men of the city. Rev. J. E. Johnson, pastor of the first M. E. church, of which decedent was a member and had been practically since 1846, conducted the services. The pall bearers were A. J. Edwards, J. E. Sedgwick, L. Sarvay, E. Johnson, W. W. Miller and Dr. A. N. Ferris. The singing was done by a quartette. Burial was in Elmwood. Rev. Johnson, in his appropriate talk, referred to an incident in the life of Mrs. Mullan which meant so much for Methodism in Waterloo. It was that in the early fall of 1846, in Mrs. Mullan's log cabin, a Methodist circuit rider named Collins preached the first sermon in Waterloo by the light of a tallow candle. The congregation was small, composed of the members of the only three families then resident within the limits of the county. From this obscure and what might be considered unimportant meeting, has grown the present Methodism of the city with its more than 1,300 communicants. He spoke of the attractive life of the decedent, saying that the secret of such a life is found in the grace of God in the heart.

All of the children and many of the grand-children and other relatives were in attendance at the funeral.

Black Hawk Obituaries maintained by Karen De Groote.
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