West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, July 25, 1901
Transcribed, as written, by Sharon Elijah, September 5, 2018
FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GOWER TOWNSHIP, CEDAR COUNTY, IOWA
By A. W. Jackson
Chapter I
It is my purpose in a humble way to give through the medium of THE TIMES a short history in three or four chapters of Gower township, which I hope to make of readable interest to a considerable number of people. Much of the material therefor has been gathered at intervals from old settlers and otherwise, and a considerable part will be from personal recollections. I hope to make it as authentic as possible from the information at hand. The data presented will be from what is considered reliable sources, and if errors occur therein I will be glad to have them pointed out, to the end that history may be kept straight for the benefit of those who shall live after us.
The township is technically known as “township 80 north,” all of it lying in range 4 west of the fifth principal meridian, which is the eastern boundary line of the county of Cedar, except two fractional sections—that on which is located the town of Cedar Valley and the stone quarry of that name, and a very small part of section 18, which are in range 3. The eastern line is irregular, by reason of the Red Cedar River cutting across the northeast corner of what would otherwise be a full congressional township. However, it lacks but little more than a section and a half of land of having the thirty-six square miles of territory allotted to such sub-divisions.
In 1841 the three townships now known as Gower, Springdale and Iowa were constituted an election district or civil township, under the latter name. As the country settled up, Springdale was constituted, embracing what now comprises both Gower and Springdale. About 1856 Gower was set off from Springdale and has been compelled to jog along alone ever since. The township was so named in honor of Hon. Robert Gower, who was not a resident, but for long years operated the ferry at the now flourishing village of Cedar Bluffs. “Gower’s Ferry” was almost a seaport on the map in the good old days and there are many people yet on earth who remember the old ferryboat and also that it took “two bits” in lawful money to cause it to get under way. Mr. Gower did business much after the manner of the minister who upon occasion was wont to remark, “No pay, no preach.” The old ferry went out of business in 1877, when the present steel bridge spanning the river at that point was built. Mr. Gower was a leading man of the county for many years, and I believe represented it in the general assembly. At any rate he was Cedar county’s representative in the constitutional convention of 1857, which gave to the state its organic law that has stood the test for more than forty years with slight modifications.
The township has a very diversified landscape, ranging from the finest gently rolling prairie to precipitous bluffs. The supply of natural timber was abundant during the period of early development, but the ax of the woodman and the grubbing hoe of the settler have made serious inroads upon it. In the early ‘50’s much of the land was purchased from the government at $1.25 to $2.50 per acre by eastern capitalists, who were holding it for an advance in price. A considerable quantity of this land was covered with young timber, with many large trees scattered here and there. When the bona fide settler was in need of firewood or rails or logs for his cabin he invariably got a liberal supply from the “speculator’s” land, even though there might be a splendid visible supply on his own “quarter.” By this process the speculator was soon “out of soap,” or strictly speaking, out of wood. There is, however, at this late day a large amount of natural timber, and a very fine assortment of artificial groves.
The people of Gower are intelligent and law-abiding. Very little criminal business from that quarter has ever occupied the attention of judges and juries. If there has ever been a murder committed in the township or a serious crime of any sort, the writer hasn’t heard of it. Although probably half the present population are either foreign-born or descendants of foreigners, yet Jew and Gentile dwell amicably together, each and all in honest pursuit of wealth and happiness. The census of 1890 gives the township a population of 932; that of 1900, only 900 even—a loss of 32 in ten years, which is a straw indicating that the people are not obeying one of the divine injunctions generally faithfully observed.
The first settler in what is now Gower township was undoubtedly a man named Nicholson who located near the mouth of the creek which now bears his name, running centrally through the township from west to east. He must have settled there prior to 1839, as the Maxsons and Grays, who located further down the river in that year, found him there when they came, literally monarch of all he surveyed. He afterward sold out to Mr. Howard, who has many descendants in the township.
A few families came in ’50; a few more in ’51, but the greatest influx was in ’53-’54. Long trains of prairie schooners poured in from the east, nearly all from Ohio and Indiana. Some of the newcomers had friends on the ground who had preceded them a year or two. These friends gave them a royal welcome, bringing out their rare old china and killing everything in the vicinity that was fat enough to kill. It often happened that several families spent the winter in a little cabin, the women and children occupying the house, while the men made themselves comfortable at the “stable”—there wasn’t a big red barn in all Cedar county in those days. The writer has often heard of one good old father in Israel—Uncle John Heacock—who provided entertainment throughout a long winter in his one-roomed log cabin for fourteen grown people, to say nothing of several children. And during that time there were three separate and distinct courtships carried on by the inmates of Uncle John’s cabin, all of which ripened into matrimony and bore fruit to replenish the earth. These pioneers gave each other a helping hand. They borrowed and they loaned; they divided their last loaf—generally a corn pone—with the stranger within their gates. They realized in the fullest measure that mankind are dependent upon each other; that in union there is strength; and so bent every energy to get neighbors and to keep them.
A considerable number of land entries were made in the township with what were known as “land warrants,” virtually a bounty from the government to soldiers and sailors of the Mexican and prior wars for services rendered These instruments were negotiable by assignment and were purchased for a song from soldiers in the eastern states by speculators and intending settlers. They could be laid on any “quarter” of government land remaining open to settlement. One of these warrants was laid by a soldier in Ohio on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 18, who sold his holding to Sarah Ellyson, who located therein in ’53 and has since continuously resided there. It has never been transferred or encumbered. Not many tracts have a record like this.
Pedee was the nearest postoffice in the early ‘50’s, and settlers westward bound were instructed by their friends on the frontier to enquire for this landmark. Sometime in 1854 a postoffice was established at Springdale, and shortly thereafter an office was opened at Samuel Macy’s cabin, on the farm now owned by Mrs. Eliza Scully. This was called Honey Grove, although the honey grove of reality was on the Ellyson farm, a mile and a quarter distant. Mail came to Honey Grove once a week from Springdale, being usually carried by Elias Macy, but when the hunting and fishing were real good, the delivery was not so frequent, unless his father, “Uncle Sammy,” who was also postmaster, made the route. Later on a star route was established from Iowa City to Tipton, with “Five Points,” (now Fairview settlement), “Graham” (now Oasis) as postoffices. There were also offices at the Keisler farm, now owned by W. G. Mingus, and at Gaskill’s ferry, where the route crossed the river. The ferry was operated for two years by N. W. Gaskill, now living in Chicago, who found business unprofitable and moved away. The ferry was located about a mile below the present day railroad bridge. It went down and the route was changed, running thereafter from Iowa City to Cedar Bluffs. A postoffice name Zoar was established exactly three miles north of the town pump in West Branch and R. E. (“Bob”) Campbell made postmaster. Honey Grove, Keisler and Gaskill Ferry offices were discontinued simultaneously. Zoar continued to do business for some years, practically until the completion of the B.C.R. & N. main line in 1871. The township now has two postoffices—Plato and Cedar Valley. The southwestern corner is well provided with mail facilities by rural free delivery route No. 1, running out of West Branch.
There was some little diversion out of the ordinary in the early days. A gang of bandits and horse thieves, with a base of operations along the Mississippi river made life quite a burden to the pioneers of the early ‘50’s. The heart of the early settler is yet full of these raids of the border bandits. Upon a certain occasion a horse was stolen from a settler in Gower. A number of able-bodied men gave chase and caught their man red-handed in the heavy timber along the Cedar river. The party had guns, but ammunition was too valuable to waste; there was a rope, but it was needed to tie a horse; they also had an axe. With this a hole was cut in the ice and the horse thief chucked in. He never stole another horse. There are probably men yet living who participated in this summary and unique execution by order of Judge Lynch. At least, it can be property verified with little trouble.
There was also an occasional streak of fun in these horse-stealing episodes. Once upon a time a young man named “Jim” Lewis—for some years a well-known local character—hied away up in the region of “big grove” to “spark” his best girl. He got through with the job all right, and toward the break of the following day set out for home on foot. Being weary—for the girls were heavy in those days—he lay down under the friendly boughs of a spreading oak and was soon wrapped in the arms of Morpheus. Along in the forenoon he was rudely awakened by a gang of masked men and directed to make his peace with his Maker instanter. Mr. Lewis protested that there must be some mistake. His protestations were of no avail. He was curtly informed that his newly-made acquaintances composed the settlers’ vigilance committee which had been trailing a horse thief for three days and nights; that they had now landed him, as he (Lewis) tallied with every description of the man wanted. Whereupon they encircled his neck, so recently entwined by the arms of his fair Dulcinea, with a stout rope, threw it over a limb and held him in suspension between heaven and earth for a considerable season. After a time they let him down in the hope that he would “fess up” and tell where the stolen horse could be found. “Jim” eagerly embraced the breathing spell to protest his innocence of the crime charge; told them where he had been and how long he had stayed; all about what he had said and what she had said; plead guilty to being “off his reservation” in quest of a wife, but strenuously denied that he had stolen anything more valuable than a few kisses. He closed his plea by saying that Uncle Isaac Gruwell could identify him. He was taken forthwith to Isaac’s cabin, who properly vouched for his moral and upright conduct. He was duly liberated and never went out on another “sparking” expedition without taking two or three of his friends along.
Go to Chapter I ~ * ~ Chapter II ~ * ~ Chapter III ~ * ~ Chapter IV
Chapter V ~ * ~ Chapter VI ~ * ~ Chapter VII ~ * ~ Chapter VIII
