Heywood, G. A.

HEYWOOD

Posted By: Volunteer (email)
Date: 10/11/2006 at 01:23:57

G. A. Heywood

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.110, Hardin Twp.)
G. A. Heywood, farmer, P. O. Council Bluffs, was born in Vermont December 25, 1835; is the son of Jonathan D. and Christina (Mathewson) Heywood. His father was born in Massachusetts. He was a farmer on the side of the Green Mountains, but is now living in Pottawattamie County. His mother is dead. Father joined the Mormons in Vermont, but mother's people were Quakers, and she would not join the Mormons. But his father sold out and followed the Mormons to Nauvoo, Ill., although it was against the will of his mother. There they had a farm and town property, and were living here at the time of the uprising of the mob which drove them out. One evening, while his father and mother were standing on the front porch, two Mormons rode by armed, a strap by which the gun was carried broke and let the gun fall to the ground; in striking, it was discharged; one buckshot struck the mother in the neck, while another struck her in the back and glanced to the side. For some time they despaired for her life, but she finally recovered. Soon after this accident, the mob surrounded their house, took Mr. Heywood's father and sent him across the river to the Iowa side, and gave him warning that if he returned they would kill him. He did return, however, was captured, taken to the temple, and, while one was sent for a warrant for his arrest, others watched him, but before the warrant was procured, he escaped and crossed the river. One night, a few days after this, he again returned, to try and persuade his wife to go to Council Bluffs with the Mormons, but she refused to follow them any farther, so he returned but afterward sent a neighbor's boy over to the Illinois side, and this boy induced Mr. G. A. Heywood and his two brothers to go down to the river, and there was a man in a skiff who asked them to take a ride, which they did; he rowed them across to the Iowa side, and there they found their father waiting for them. He took them in a wagon and drove off some distance, and left them with a Mormon family. A short time after this, he went back one night and got his little daughter, who was about six months old at that time. She was soon afterward returned to her mother, however. The father and three sons came to Western Iowa with the Mormons. Mr. Heywood remembers seeing the Mormons make chain shot and fire it at the mob, with a cannon made from a cast-iron steamboat shaft, being cut into and one end filled up. His mother, after recovering from the wound, still lived in Nauvoo for about five years; was then married, and moved to Eastern Iowa, and lived there till her death, about fifteen years after the time of the mob. Her daughter, who had been with her all the time, was now almost woman-grown, but did not know that she had any brothers. The mother had kept the place of her residence a secret from Mr. Heywood's father, for fear that he would try to get their daughter. Just before Mr. Heywood's mother's death, she told her daughter of her father and brothers, and told her where they were, and where some letters were which she had received from her sons through their aunt in Vermont. Laura, the daughter, then made herself known to her father and brothers, and, soon after this, the father and youngest brother went to see her, and soon afterward she came to her father's, but did not live there long till she was married to John Kelley, of Jasper County, Iowa, and is now living there. Thus the family circle was broken up on account of religious beliefs; on all other subjects, there was perfect harmony. But Mr. Heywood's father thought it his duty to follow the church in its varied changes, while his mother could not think the same. His father was afterward cut off from the church because he called Taylor a rascal, so he did not follow them to Salt Lake. The family came here about 1847. (It was in the fall, after the first Mormon emigration in the spring.) They settled on land which Mr. Heywood's father now owns. In the settlement, there were about eighty families, on as many acres. All the houses were log huts, and they called it Springville. They had their schools and churches, but, when the Mormons moved to Salt Lake,they Heywood family was all that was left in the place.. The first year they had to live mostly on corn-meal and game. Everything cost a high price, and there was no money and no work; but after the first crop, which was good, they got along without any trouble. With a few exceptions, Mr. Heywood is as old a settler as is in the county. He was married, in 1857, to Miss Martha J. Allen, daughter of Russell and Sarah (Ray) Allen; she was born in Indiana; parents both dead. They have three sons and seven daughters. Mr. Heywood has not as large a farm as many, but there are few farms in Hardin Township which show more care than his does. He has been on his present place for twelve years; has an apple orchard of 250 trees in bearing, besides various other kinds of fruits. His orchards and shade trees have been out ten years, and some of them measure in diameter as much as eighteen inches.