Andrew Jackson Countryman

COUNTRYMAN ADAIR

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/12/2010 at 18:21:26

Woodbury County History 1984

Andrew J and Sabrina Adair Countryman
By Ardell Countryman

Andrew Jackson Countryman, youngest of eleven children of Peter and Margaret Nicholas Countryman, was born at Janesville, Wisconsin, on July 6, 1846.

The family, being mill wrights by trade, moved many times to new locations during his early years, most of them being on the frontier of this young and expanding country.

First, moved after Janesville, then to Wadena, Fayette County, Iowa, in 1855, where they constructed a saw mill and grist mill on the banks of the Volga River.

In a few years the lure of gold and two brothers, Alex and Eli already living in the territory, prompted them to sell out and prepare for the overland trip to the new state of California.

In an article written for a newspaper he tells in ‘A Pioneers Trip Acrss the Plains’ much of his early days in the west. A few choice exerpts are here included:

‘Our family consisted of father, mother and six of us boys. Our train was composed of two wagons drawn by horses and two wagons drawn by oxen. Horace, my elder brother, had two wagons of horses and oxen, and there were three others who joined us – eight wagons in all. Well, in the early spring of 1861, we left Fayette and started on our western trip to the gold fields of California, and I was highly delighted. We ferried the ‘Big Muddy’ and swam oxen and cows over to a little burg of about ten houses, now called Omaha.

‘Our move up through the sand hills was quite laborious traveling and we did one day make three miles and went into camp. This country seemed to be overstocked with droves of antelope and black-tailed deer, but strange to say, we had not yet seen a wild buffalo.

‘We were traveling up the Sweetwater and we had learned that on the other side of the Rockies, at South Pass, there was a trading post and a black-smith shop. So when we reached there we concluded tohave our horses and oxen shod, as some were getting lame. We drove through Echo Canyon. Many times our train would go splashing down its bed until we could fine land on one side on which to travel. We soon arrived in Salt Lake City. The Morman’s all seemed to be jubilant and happy.

‘We had to take along with us, water from Bear River for our stock to drink until we reached the headwaters of the Humboldt. We reached the Truckee River, when I rushed head long down the bank, stretched myself out and proceeded to satisfy that terrible thirst. The lovliest water I ever drank.

‘We followed up the river into the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas and then into a heavy timbered country of white pine and fir, where we struck good graded roads. Here, in of the prairie schooners, was born a daughter to our captain and his wife.

‘In November we reached Dry Creek, our destination, and we have been nearly eight months on our overland trip. The winter of sixty-one was a most severe one, and hay sold for forty and fifty dollars a tone. In the late falls of ’61 my brother, George, died. Early the next spring, brother, John, died and brother, Lewis, lost several of his children.

‘I was here engaged with others in sectionizing that part of Nevada and running the state line of California.

‘Father and three of my brothers preempted a lot of government land; the city of Reno was located on this land. We left there in the fall of 1866.’
(Complete story found at the Moville Library, also the Sioux City Pulic Library.)

A J, his parents and two brothers, Lewis and Dennis, returned to Iowa. The trip was made by way of Panama, New York, and train to Cedar Rapids.

In about 1870, he met Sabrina Adair, daughter of William and Sabrina Williams Adair. Her father also was a mill wright who together with his brother, George, constructed the mill on the Shell Rock River, which they operated for a number of years. At his writing the building still stands at the east end of the bridge on Main Street. They were married December 31, 1874, at Shell Rock and resided there until 1877 when they together with his two brothers and their families came west to settle on the Soldier river, about ten miles southeast of Battle Creek. In 1883, A J, his wfie and two children, Mabel, age 7, and William, age 1, came to Arlington Township, Woodbury County. They settled on 160 acres of land that was to have been turned back to the government by the railraod, this land being two miles east of what was later to be town of Moville. A J, one brother and a cousin, Manly Irish, had come earlier and built a house, part of wich was in a hillside. It was 14 x 16, with a loft reached by a ladder where the children slept. The lumber was hauled from Battle Creek. They planted a large grove from seedlings, a fruit orcahrd that furnished a beautiful sight at blossom time and fruit for family and neighbors for many years.

A number of settlers had filed for a homestead claim when the Railraod protested their claim to a title, and took them to court. The first hearing was at District Court in Sioux City. The court ruled in favor of the settlers. The railroad appealed to both State and US Supreme Court where in each case the court, again favored the settlers. An older brother, Lewis, was chosen to appear for the settlers at the Supreme Court hearings, and it was not until May 6, 1893, that A J received their Homestead Certificate, a delay of ten years.

During the time this case was settled, a dispute of ownership occurred a mile south of the Countryman farm. A J and a number of the neighbors declared tht the crop should belong to Switzer, the first settler that broke the land. On the morning of August 8, 1885, he made ready to leave home with his team and rack. It is presumed he was armed as the other neighbors were; they had been warned that there could be trouble. His wife ‘Briney’ as he called her pleaded with him not to go, as she was soon to have their fourth child (Uncle Leonard was born on the 18th). But he said the rest of the neighbors were going and that he was needed to be with them. An account of what follwed is included in this book ‘The squatter War’, taken from the Sioux City Journal, August 10, 1885. As far as can be determined, the Law did not intervene and ‘frontier justice’ had prevailed.

Mr Roswell L Riley is buried on the S.E. side of Fairfield Cemetery at Rock Branch located between Moville and Correctionville.

The land today is owned by Jim Anderson of Moville

A J Countryman was a resident of Arlington Township for 44 years. He died July 19, 1927, on the farm which he homesteaded and had been his home all these years. Mrs Countryman passed away July 21, 1925. Both are buried at Arlington Cemetery.

Their children were: Mabel, born June 12, 1876, married R J Rhue. Issue: Esther, b 1903, wed Clayton Jones; Robert J, born 1904, wed Muriel Mace; Charles A, born 1906, wed DeAun Crowl; Delbert, born 1918, deceased, of Moville, Iowa.

William A, born August 4, 1882, wed Eva Hooper, adopted Harriet who wed Howard Wallace, Prosser, Washington.

A Leonard, born August 18, 1885, wed Berta McDonald. Issue: Coleen, born 1924, wed Earl Cassidy, Scottsdale, Arizona.

J Delbert, born March 11, 1888, wed Millie Hendricks. Issue: Fern, born 1920, wed Melvin Kumpula, Correctionville, Iowa; Lloyd, born 1922, wed Edna Neer, Moville, Iowa; Lawrence, born 1924, deceased; Willard, born 1927, wed Lois Bolles, Moville, Iowa; Donald, born 1930, wed Winnie Bolles, Moville, Iowa; Delores, born 1934, wed Maurce Harrison, Sioux Center, Iowa; Marilyn, born 1938, wed Byron Breffle, Ankeny, Iowa.

Cleveland E, born May 23, 1890, wed SusieSchaeffer. Issue: Ardell, born May 3, 1915, wed Grace Petersen, Kingsley, Iowa; Dayton, born March 31, 1918, wed Ruth Hazen, Nevada, Iowa.

Lillian, born May 26, 1892, wed George Morgan. Issue: Jack, born 1918, wed Julie Edmundson, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Blossom, born 1919, wed Joe Taubr, Sr, St Paul, Minnesota; Lavonne, born 1921, wed Glen Bicknell, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Harold, born 1926, wed Norma Breimhorst, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Leland, born 1928, deceased 1946.

Dennis, born September 18, 1896, wed Blossom McHenry. Issue: Duane, born 1923, wed Alice Brown, Modesto, California; Ardis, born 1925, wed Deane Bashaw, Modesto, California; Darrell, born 1933, wed Lou Rice, Danville, Illinois.

During the last 55 years the old homestead was owned by Dell and Millie Countryman. Uncle Dell, the last of the children of A J and Sabrina, passed away October 6, 1983. Aunt Millie, the last of that generation, resides in her home in Moville and their grandson, Jim and family, are now tenants on the old Countryman homestead.