West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, August 1, 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 II
The first blacksmith shop was operated by George Wright, father of the venerable Joseph Wright of Plato, who came to the county in 1844, locating in Iowa township. Later he established a shop about a mile west of the present town of Cedar Valley, where he conducted business for some years. About 1855 “Bob” Campbell opened a shop on the farm now owned by A. R. Ohl, three miles north of West Branch. His first stand was near the roadside, about twenty rods north of the corner, and about 1860 he erected a commodious shop on the corner of what is now Mrs. Krouth’s farm. Here he drove a flourishing business for many years and made enough money to retire and move to town. Mr. Campbell was somewhat afflicted with an impediment in his speech. He is now enjoying a green old age at Miles City, Montana. In the fall of 1865 Wash Jackson established a wagon shop on the farm now owned by Jos. Matoush, which he operated for four years with a good run of custom. Scarcely a vestige remains of these old-time landmarks.
The first schoolhouse in the township was that at Honey Grove, built in 1855 by Gen. Ed Wright, of whom more later on. There was a very sparse settlement at this time, and no tax or appropriation available as a building fund. Much of the material was donated by settlers anxious to see the cause of education go forward, and a large part of the work was done by voluntary contribution. The building was dedicated before completion with a fall term of school taught by Miss Clara Staples, a sister of our townsman, Asa, and “Billy” Wolf (of whom more anon) taught the winter term, and also for the two succeeding winters. There are gray-haired men hereabout who as boys walked three miles through deep snows to attend these sessions. Several of the pupils in these early days were full-grown men, and I am told the enrollment reached 40 to 50. A portion of “Billy’s” text-books was a varied assortment of elm sprouts, ranging from a quarter of an inch to the size of a fork handle in diameter, which he applied with judicial reference as to the gravity of the offense and the stature of the pupil. The schoolmaster of that period was not only teacher but board of education and county superintendent as well. No appeal could be taken from his ruling. Pupils who didn’t admire the way he “kept” school could go fishing—and there was fishing in those days, too. I have no information as to how Mr. Wolf was recompensed for his services, but presume he collected a per capita tax from each pupil attending, as that was the method then in vogue in the new state.
If the old Honey Grove schoolhouse could talk what a valuable mine of information it would prove to the historian! Within its classic walls were held religious services, elections, political meetings, magic lantern, guinea pig and sleight-of-hand shows, war meetings, Good Templars’ lodge, Sunday-schools, Patrons of Husbandry lodges and it has lodged husbands who were patrons of “the old army game.” Among other things the writer has seen therein as fine a reproduction of “stripping the willow” as has ever graced the West Branch opera house. What a host of young people have begun and finished their education at this old landmark! The old house has gone the way of all things earthly, but its pleasant memories remain. It stood on what is now the railroad right of way, near the bank of the raging Nicholson, and along about the days when the “crime of ‘73” was being enacted it was condemned as out-of-date at the early age of 18, and a modern affair erected a few rods to the north. This has since been moved forty rods further north to get away from the railroad. The old house was sold to S. C. Gruwell who has allowed it to go into innocuous desuetude until there is scarcely a trace remaining. It ought to have been preserved in the State Historical rooms. As an evidence of the rapidity with which the country was settled, this schoolhouse, built in 1855, was soon succeeded by others, and in less than ten years the township had its full quota of eight.
In 1854 a survey was ran up the Nicholson creek for a projected railroad. It followed much the same route that thirty years later was taken by the present Clinton branch of the B.C.R. & N. A line was also ran about this time reaching the high ground near the present residence of T. D. White and on west to Iowa City. This projected railway was called the “Lyons & Iowa central,” its starting point being the village of Lyons in Clinton county. It was engineered by a few shrewd men who saw in it an opportunity to suddenly get rich at the expense of the people of the new country. They made a bold attempt at grading and the like, and did not fail to ask the people of the counties through which the survey passed to vote bonds in aid of the line. Some of them voted the aid asked and had cause later on to regret their action. I believe the county of Cedar did not get caught on this pin hook, but its neighbor, Johnson, was held up to the tune of $75,000, which it had to pay with interest. The projectors of this scheme abandoned the route after a time and later linked their fortunes with the projectors of the Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska company, which in 1858 completed a railroad from Clinton to Cedar Rapids, now the Chicago & Northwestern main line.
In 1871 a railroad surveying party again ascended the Nicholson, running a line for the proposed Iowa Southwestern R’y. There was much railroad talk afloat. The B. C. R. & N. had been completed through West Branch the preceding winter, and the people were much exercised over the projected new line and the talk of a new town on the north which would divert much trade from the Quaker City. Joseph Steer, father of our present merchant prince, and the then leading man of the village, had an interview with Mr. Hinckley, the promoter of the new enterprise, and induced him to run a survey through West Branch, assuring him that it was the most practical route for the proposed line. The survey ran just south of where the M.E. church now stands and on up the wet branch of the Wapsie. Mr. Steer’s solicitations and protestations were unheeded, and the Nicholson creek route was adopted as the one on which to build. Work began at once and dirt flew lively for a time. Piers were erected for the bridge across the river and a great deal of grading done. In October of that year occurred the great Chicago fire, which paralyzed the finances of the projectors. Work suddenly ceased and everything became dormant on the new line. It remained in a comatose condition, although there were many spasmodic attempts to revive it, until 1834, when work was resumed and the line speedily completed to Elmira. It is now a splendid feeder to the B.C.R. & N. main line, reaching both Clinton and Davenport, with a spur nearly two miles in length running to the Cedar Valley stone quarries. The township has in all nearly ten miles of railroad.
Along about 1858 one Detwiler, state organizer for the Independent Order of Good Templars, came into the township and held some meetings preliminary to the organization of a lodge. There was suddenly a great awakening on the subject of temperance, or, according to the tenets of this order, total abstinence from the cup which cheers and also inebriates. The topic was in everybody’s mouth, and soon a large lodge was organized at the Honey Grove schoolhouse. Meetings were held therein and at private houses throughout the neighborhood. In that year or the one following a lodge hall was built five miles north of West Branch, on the corner of the “forty” recently disposed of by A. Beranek. This was at that time the center of population for the membership, a number living in the region of White’s schoolhouse in Johnson county.
The order flourished like a green bay tree for some years. There were many more young people in the country then than now and they were all “Templars”—some good and some “just middling.” An organization was kept up during war times, principally by the wives and sweethearts of the boys at the front, and when Johnny came marching home again it took on a new lease of life. But in an evil hour dissensions arose. The center of population had shifted to “Quaker ridge” three miles away from the lodge hall, and the members over that way wanted the edifice moved so they could attend the meetings without traveling over the rocky roads leading to Dublin and elsewhere and nowhere. An amicable agreement could not be reached. One bright winter’s day a gang of sturdy young fellows from the “ridge,” led by the redoubtable Thomas Bishop, who later became a Kansas refugee, “hooked up” to their bob sleds and hied away to the lodge hall. While the opposing faction was busily engaged in cutting cordwood up in the “big grove” they rent the hall asunder and carted it away to the “ridge”, where it was set up on the corner of the farm now owned by R. C. Heacock. Here it stood for some years, but the early zeal in the matter of cold water as a steady beverage died out and in time the organization disbanded. The hall became an abode for swallows. In 1872 Mordecai Reeder was stricken with blindness by being poisoned in the eyes with a noxious weed while operating a threshing machine, and the surviving members of the I.O.G.T. order again loaded up their hall, carted it to West Branch and presented it to him as a dwelling. It now stands on the block north of the creamery, still used for that purpose.
