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History of Onion Grove

Picture

     1862, a merchant at the time made the suggestion to change the name of the then town of Onion Grove to Clarence in honor of his native town of Clarence, New York, and being voted upon that became its new name.

     But the history of Onion Grove began many years before. As far back as 1831 when the first white men came to this part of Cedar County. Antoine LeClaire, Col. Davenport, George Davenport, and Alexander McGregor blazed and staked out a claim in a rolling timber of red elm trees one mile north of present day Clarence. It had a wide creek and a huge abundance of wild onions, forever being referred to as Onion Grove.

     They did not occupy the claim and by squatters law of the day, the claim was considered as abandoned. By 1836, other settlers began to arrive in the Grove which was much larger in those days. It was originally established as Union Grove on May 10, 1854, under Thomas Robinson as the first postmaster. It was changed to Onion Grove on November 18, 1854. By 1855, James Girard erected a store there along with a post office which provided weekly or biweekly mail from an Iowa City to Dubuque route. There was a church in the area and a small school. All the makings of a small town were there.

     The death blow to Onion Grove was dealt in 1858 when the railroad, then called the Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad, was graded and track laid as far as the lane leading to the Glenn Press farm from the east. Lack of funds and approaching winter forced them to switch a boxcar to a side track to become the first depot. A farmer named William Hoey who lived where Bill Bachman’s farm is now located, became the first station agent. With the prosperity of the railroad staring the residents of Onion Grove in the face they moved the few buildings from the village site to the present town site near the railroad, taking the name of Onion Grove with them.

     The merchant mentioned earlier, L. B. Gere made the suggestion to change the name of Onion Grove to a more fitting name for an up and coming town. It became Clarence.

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PLAT OF CLARENCE

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MAP OF CLARENCE

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Sister City
Clarence, New York

     Our sister city of Clarence, New York, was recently in the news with the crash of Flight 3047. Since the library was the command center for the news, Arlene Krafock was prompted to write to the library. The reply (printed at the end of this article) indicates that we still have close contact.

     Earlier contact involved Adelia Liercke. The following is condensed information from her article in the March 30, 1995 Sun News and the August 27, 1996 follow-up article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette by Dave Rasdal.

     The “sister” connection with towns across the states may be in name only, but Clarence, New York and Clarence, Iowa have a granddaughter and grandmother relationship. Clarence, New York was born in 1808 and Clarence, Iowa in 1859.

     Lucien B. Gere, who once lived in New York, moved to Iowa and gave birth to the new town. When folks wanted to name this brand new place after him, he wanted it named for his old hometown.

     Mrs. Liercke wrote to the mayor of the town to ask if there might be anyone aware that they had an offspring in Iowa. She really didn’t expect a reply, but was surprised to receive a Page and a half letter. They had received a centennial booklet and were most complimentary about the documentation of the town. They had celebrated their 150th in 1958. Other information indicated that they had no evidence that Lucien Gere had ever lived in Clarence, New York. Perhaps Mr. Gere only lived there a short time.

     There is a museum in the city which documents the history of their city beginning with the Indians. An addition to the museum was a gift from Wilson Greatbatch. He is the inventor of the implantable pacemaker. He also established Wilson Greatbach, Ltd. which makes batteries for the implants because he could not get manufacturers to make smaller batteries to fit the pacemakers.

     They also prepared a packet of information about the town which Adelia donated to our Edna Zybell Library. Carol Syring took Pictures which “Dee” (Adelia) sent back to New York. The exchange of information renewed ties that had really begun in 1859 when Gere had lumber shipped from Buffalo, N.Y. for a nice new house that would help build an Iowa town.

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Letter from New York library