West Branch Times, West Branch, Iowa, Thursday, August 15, 1901
Transcribed, as written, by Sharon Elijah, September 7, 2018
FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF GOWER TOWNSHIP, CEDAR COUNTY, IOWA
By A. W. Jackson
Chapter V
Gower township has sent out into the business and political world her full quota of men and women who have won more or less renown. I present herewith short sketches of a few of the most prominent, the most of which is from memory, and there are undoubtedly others who should be in the list whose names and deeds I do not at the moment recall.
For a place of “favorite son” there is a close contest between Gen. Ed Wright and Capt. Wm. P. Wolf. Ed Wright—and that was his full name—was born at Salem, Ohio, in 1827 of Quaker ancestry. He was by turns a farmer, school teacher, carpenter and millwright. In 1848 he married Miss Martha Thompson, daughter of Wm. Thompson, the paternal grandfather of Mrs. Harry Vincent. In 1852 he came to Gower township with his family and built the house on the farm now owned by S. C. Gruwell. He operated the farm and prosecuted his trade of carpenter, and was quite a leader in the new country. In 1855 his friends urged him for the office of county clerk, but he was waited on by a delegation of Tipton gentlemen, who told him they already had a man slated for this position, and that if he would wait until the following year he should have the nomination for representative. He waited. This fact has never before appeared in print but it is a fact, nevertheless. In 1856 the so-called Tipton “ring” made good its pledge and he was nominated for representative and elected to the last general assembly which met at Iowa City. He was re-elected in 1857 and again in 1859. In 1862 he was commissioned major of the 24th Iowa—the “Methodist” regiment—serving until the close of the war. He came home with the rank of lieutenant colonel and the brevet of brigadier general. Like Cincinnatus he returned to the plow, where he was not long allowed to remain. He was then living in a log house on the farm now occupied by D. M. Wright. In 1865 he was again elected secretary of state and held that office for six years. In 1873 he was made one of the board of capitol commissioners and assistant superintendent of construction. In 1884 he became custodian of the capital. At the world’s fair he was chief of the bureau of information. In 1891 he became a member of the board of public works in the city of Des Moines, which office he held at his death, December 6, 1895. He was buried from the capitol building with the most imposing honors ever given a man in the Hawkeye state.
Such is an all too brief biography of this eminent man. He was not especially brilliant, but he had a vast fund of what is denominated common sense. With his long years of public life and great opportunities to profit peculiarly from contracts under his supervision, he came through it all with clean hands and integrity unimpeached—a thoroughly honest man, the noblest work of God.
Wm. P. Wolf was born in Harrisburg, Ohio, Dec. 31, 1833. One of his biographers states that he also was of Quaker parentage. Mr. B. T. Gruwell, who married his sister, tells me that none of Mr. Wolf’s people were members of the Society of Friends. At any rate his parents must have had high regard for the followers of George Fox when they named their son William Penn. He was a farmer and teacher in early life and later studied law, engaging in the practice at the now famous town of Canton, Ohio. In 1855 he came to Gower township with his parents, locating near where Mrs. Mary Wood now lives. Here he engaged in farming and teaching, reading law at his leisure. In 1859 he married Miss Alice Macy and shortly after removed to Tipton, where he taught school and practiced law. The first office to which he was elected was that of county superintendent. In 1861 he enlisted in Co. 1 of the Forty-sixth infantry and was made its captain. He saw but little service, being severely wounded, and which subsequently resulted in his early death. For some years after the war he was collector of internal revenue; in 1867 representative in the legislature; a member of congress in 1870; state senator in 1882; representative again in 1881 and made speaker of the house at the session and chairman of the republican state central committee. In 1891 he was elected judge of the Eighteenth judicial district and died in office from wounds received in defense of his country on the 19th day of September, 1896.
“Billy” Wolf had a warm and generous nature. He loved all mankind, and especially his old friends from the west side of the Cedar. It is safe to say that he gave away during his residence in Tipton thousands of dollars’ worth of legal advice. His memory will long be kept green by his old friends in Gower and indeed the entire county. I know of no other inland township with crossroads postoffices that has given to the service of the state two such honorable and eminent men as Ed Wright and William P. Wolf.
Rev. William A. Yetter, another Gower township boy, is preaching the gospel from the pulpit of a Methodist Episcopal church at Maryville, Mo., and has met with a good measure of success.
Harry Mattison is another of the younger men who have gone out from this good old township to accumulate wealth and achieve fame. He is a leading lawyer of Butte, Mont., and information comes to the effect that he has abundantly succeeded in both his aims.
Rev. D. M. Yetter, D.D., is now a fat and sleek presiding elder residing at Sheldon, and is a pillar in northwestern Iowa Methodist circles. A quarter of a century ago he was farming in spring and summer, operating a threshing machine in the fall and teaching school in winter—always busy. He was always of a pious and resourceful nature. On a certain occasion the writer was assisting at the threshing when by accident a clevis went into the cylinder with the grain in “cleaning up”. The concave went out and the internal parts of the machine somewhat disarranged. While Mr. Yetter’s co-laborers were standing around making divers and sundry sulphuric remarks about the accident, he quietly snatched a horse from the power and was well on his way to town for the necessary repairs. He is now in the vigor of life and will undoubtedly attain high eminence as a churchman unless suddenly called from works to reward before age has silvered his hair.
Dr. Edward W. Savage was a surgeon in the civil war. At the close thereof he located on the farm now occupied by D. L. Bell and practiced his profession for some time, removing to West Branch. He was one of nature’s noblemen. A devout Christian—indeed a minister of the denomination of that name—he enjoyed a large practice and often preached from local pulpits. His especial solicitude was the young people, and man will recall the Sunday evening young peoples’ meeting at the M.E. church which he found time to conduct for many years. His name will long be honored in the community where he so graciously dispensed medicine and mercy.
Elias R. Macy, one of the old guard, achieved some distinction by running away from home at the tender age of 11 years and making a circuit of the globe in a sailing ship. Like the prodigal son of old he returned to his father’s house and more than one calf was slaughtered in his honor. He opened the farm where Jos. Matoush now lives but soon tired of the quiet life. For many years he has resided at Malagalpa in Central America, where he owns extensive coffee plantations.
Rev. J. B. Metcalf, now a prominent M. E. divine of Dyersville, was for many years a Gower township farmer and school teacher. I believe he still owns his farm on the county line.
Dr. Wilson Gruwell took a medical course at the state university. He is now a prominent railway surgeon in the state of Washington and is gathering unto himself riches.
J. M. McKarahan was for years a prominent man of the township. He is now in the hardware business in Audubon.
W. S. Bell early drifted to Des Moines where he is a leading dealer in the implement line.
Aunt Alice Hawley, wife of the venerable Joseph Hawley, was for many years a recorded minister of the Society of Friends, who not only heralded the glad tidings of great joy among friends and neighbors, but traveled extensively throughout this and other states and territories, proclaiming the unsearchable riches of the gospel to Jew and Gentile, to bond and free, to squalid negro and barbarious Indian. Her twin sister, Aunt Ann Heacock, was also a recorded minister, but domestic duties precluded her going much abroad. These women were typical mothers in Israel. Both had large families, yet each found time to extend a helping hand to the wanderer of earth, and the stranger within their gates received every mark of attention bestowed on those who were bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh.
Chas. W. Hawley also grew to manhood in Gower. About 1870 he engaged in business in West Branch and the Springdale township people subsequently procured him a good job in the court house at Tipton as country recorder. He has creditably filled a number of official positions, and for a number of years has been cashier of the Tipton Savings Bank.
George W. Gruwell completed the collegiate course at the state university and became editor of the Northern Vindicator at Estherville. He recently disposed of his newspaper and is now a fat and saucy banker at Donnell, Minn.
Rev. Elmer T. Gruwell, Ph. D., is now pastor of the first M.E. church at Oelwein. He completed the classical course at Cornell College and entered the ministry. Like Rev. D. M. Yetter, he got his “start” operating a threshing machine, and many farmers in this section still maintain that he understood his business. He is one of the rising young men of Upper Iowa conference and is certain to reach the front rank as an ambassador of the cross.
R. M. Ellyson, at this writing the high sheriff of Cedar county, grew to manhood in Gower and began life on one of her fertile farms. He drifted to West Branch, as many have done before and since, and from that bailiwick was elected to his present place.
Dr. Forrest M. Mingus graduated from the medical department of the state university and successfully practiced at a number of points outside the state. When last heard from he was in Oklahoma, preparing to join the exodus into the new territory recently raffled off by the government.
Capt. Simon Dickson belongs to the older generation. As a mature man he came to the township about 1855 and became a farmer and carpenter. In 1863 he left his farm and family and with 21 other men from this neighborhood—nearly all boys—started to enlist in defense of the union. At Wilton other squads were met, enough to form a company, of which Mr. Dickson was elected captain. They went to the front and saw much severe service. Some returned after many days and some there were whose mortal remains were left away down south in Dixie. This company—G of the 35th Iowa—still has many gladsome reunions, of which Capt. Dickson who led them all the way in those dark and dreadful days is the central figure. At the close of the bloody conflict he brought his remnant of boys back to the land of their nativity and resumed his place as a private citizen. He is now living a restful life of retirement at Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
I cannot close this resume of prominent men without reference to a contemporary of a quarter of a century ago, whose voice was long since stilled in death. J. Sullivan Enlow was a young man of splendid physique, with brain large in quantity and extraordinary in quality. In addition to what nature had done, was added full collegiate and legal courses at the state university. Happily married to a fitting helpmate, he had barely established himself in the practice of law at LeMars when insidious disease laid its hand upon his rugged frame and he went down to his death in a Chicago hospital. Had this brilliant young man been given the opportunity to demonstrate the mettle of which he was composed it is safe to assert that he would have proved a giant among men and a lasting honor to his county and state.
