Village of Highland & Evergreen Groves in Highland Township

FISK, CHAPMAN, LAYTON, QUIGLEY

Posted By: Ken Johnson (email)
Date: 7/4/2023 at 19:32:44

From the Thurs., 25 Feb. 1897 issue of the "Elkader Argus," page 4, column 5:

A Ride to Highland.

On Sunday last the writer in company with Rev. Fisk, took a ride to the Highland Illyria church, a distance of about thirteen miles west from Elkader on the West Union road, passing through the country first seen by him in April, 1855, and in which he grew to manhood on the farm now owned by Mr. Chapman. The country from Elkader to West Union in that early day was unsettled save a few houses here and there and usually these were log cabins built in a sheltering grove off the road for comfort and convenience. The country was one vast expanse of prairie with now and then a patch of hazel brush or a small oak grove struggling for existence from the ravages of the prairie fires that swept over it every fall or spring consuming rail fences, stacks of hay or grain and sometimes destroying the very houses of the people. But this is a productive soil and today the scene is changed. Farm houses and large barns appear in continuous succession all along the road and the land is nearly all cultivated to grain, hay and pasture. Large groves of oak are yielding the necessary supply of wood for fuel and the farmers know nothing of the devastating prairie fires of the early days. After traveling about eleven miles we reach the place known in the early days as Highland. It then consisted of a tavern, postoffice, store, blacksmith shop and a few dwellings.

The four horse stage coach made daily trips from Elkader to West Union loaded with passengers seeking lands and homes in the new west, just fairly opening to settlement. This was the summit, a bleak prairie and the main point on the route between the two important towns of Clayton and Fayette counties. The change here is the most striking of any along the line of road mentioned. The little village has disappeared and the place is now occupied by a farm house and barns belonging to the Layton family. For miles around this central point large groves of evergreen trees have been planted about the homes of the people, which gives the country a pleasant and cheerful appearance in mid-winter. For this beautiful scenery the Quigley family, whose farm adjoins this village site, are entitled to the lasting praise and thanks of the community and the public. In the early 60s’ William Quigley gathered from the Black river swamps of Wisconsin great quantities of very small evergreens and rafted them down the Mississippi river landing them in Clayton county and thence hauling them to the Quigley farm where with the greatest care and nursing they have since developed into the beautiful and stalwart evergreen groves that dot and embellish this most beautiful farming country. At the church a few of the oldest settlers of that early day were seen and greeted, but some now living there, were too old and feeble to attend. The pleasant and comfortable church built by the people of Highland and Illyria townships and which adjoins the cemetery is a great convenience and reflects credit on the intelligence and foresight of the people of the community. The church was filled with people mostly young and middle aged, the occasion being the funeral service of Mrs. Nancy B. Quigley, thus impressing upon the mind of the writer the fact that life is but short at best and that we are rapidly passing away from the earth scenes of our existence.

[NOTE: In column 4 of the same page is the obituary of Nancy Quigley, mentioned in this article at the end, and posted in the Obituaries section of Clayton County document. This article and her obituary were probably written by the same author.]