Twiss, E. L.
TWISS
Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/24/2008 at 12:29:05
Jackson Sentinel
Souvenir Edition, 1854 – 1904E. L. Twiss.
I was born in the state of Ohio in 1850, and moved to Clinton county, Iowa, with my parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Twiss, in the spring of 1854, where I lived twenty-eight years upon a farm, four and a half miles southwest of Maquoketa.
As I look back over the early years of life, I can see many of the old land marks of that, then, a new country. For a number of years I trudged to school barefoot, across the prairie to the Wright school house and in my mind, can note the vast country south of us, settled by men of sterling qualities, one by one, until I had grown to manhood. Right here I will say, that in all past life I have never found a place in any country, that had as many natural resources as the Maquoketa valley.
In the fall of 1873, I was married to Josephine E. Bowers, whose parents settled in Maquoketa in the fall of 1849. W. P. Bowers was a mason by trade, but was endowed with great business faculties, combined with a good education and firm determination to succeed in life. He was one of the early teachers of Maqoketa, and taught in the old Shattuck warehouse on West Platt street. During his ten years’ residence in the town, he acquired title to a large amount of now, very valuable land. One day he was suddenly taken ill from drinking water while overheated and died the third day. His wife, Martha J. Bowers, was afterwards married to H. H. French. She died in the fall of 1882.
In the spring of 1883, I removed with my family to Madison county, Nebraska, and settled on a homestead of government land. During our twenty-one years of life in Nebraska, we have passed through all the privations subject to a new country.
Our first school house was built of sod, on one corner of our new home. A wild deer could be sighted now and then, and wild treeless tracts of prairie on all sides. Railroad land could be bought for $1.50 to $2.00 per acre and the same land is now worth from $50 to $60 an acre.
School houses have been built until now we have over one hundred schools in the county. Churches have been erected in all parts of the county. The country has been fenced, roads graded, bridges built, telephone lines constructed, rural mail routes laid out and in fact old methods are fast giving way to new ideas.
Mrs. D. F. Reynolds was the pioneer settler from our family, having settled here in the spring of 1875. Mr. and Mrs. Eckman located here in the spring of 1884 upon 200 acres of fine land. She tells me how she taught school in Clinton county for $1.75 per week and had twenty-three children in the A. B. C. class. She also tells many other incidents connected with the early life in Iowa.
John R. Twiss settled here in 1889 on 280 acres of good land and has built a fine home. He married Melvina Brundige, his first wife, in 1862 and who died in 1867. He married again in 1871 Eurebia Dunlap an early settler of Clinton county, who still lives to enjoy the pleasant home they have made.
Myron Twiss settled in Norfolk, Nebraska, in 1892 making five of us in Madison county. We feel that we have helped to build up two new countries, and passed through many of the hardships all new settlers must endure. We often meet and talk over the old life in Iowa, and all agree that Maquoketa is the garden spot of Iowa.
E. L. Twiss
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