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Pictures: Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lehrman; George Pirie

PIONEER NAMES THAT LIVE

       It has been more than one hundred years since the first white people came to this area to make permanent homes. One of the earliest was Washington Rigby, who was born in Ohio in 1814. He came to this county in 1836, when Iowa was still a territory. In 1837 he married Lydia Barr in Muscatine, (then called Bloomington). This was the first wedding in east central Iowa. Because there was no court house in this area where the young couple could get a wedding license, and neither minister nor justice of the peace to perform the ceremony, the wedding party had to make the trip to Bloomington. They traveled in a “light spring wagon.” Descendants are Isabel Rigby and Edward Rigby. The latter lives on and operates the original Rigby farm, northwest of Stanwood.

       Robert Cousins, born in Scotland, came to Cedar County in 1841. Descendants in this area are James Cousins and Mrs. Louise Koontz, Clarence.

       John McClellan, born in Perth, Canada, 1832, came to Cedar County in 1848. Stanwood descendants are Robert McClellan and Edgar McClellan.

       James Smith, born in Scotland, came to Cedar County in 1852. Present-day descendants are Donald Smith, Kenneth Smith, James Smith, and Dale Smith and their families. The original Smith farm is owned by Mrs. Harry Smith and operated by LaVerne Guhl.

       James Davidson, born in Ireland 1839, came to Cedar County in 1851. Area descendants are William H. Davidson and his son William II. The original farm is owned and operated by William H., a grandson and William II, a great-grandson.

       James K. Davidson, born in Ireland 1832, came to Cedar County in 1850. Area descendants: Arch Davidson and son Jay; Lilian Davidson; Eleanor Davidson; Edwin Davidson and son Robert. The original farm is owned and operated by Edwin Davidson and son Robert.

       John Spear, born in Germany in 1850, came to Cedar County in 1855. Area descendants: Mrs. Glenn Tenley (Florence) and family; Roland Spear and Cecil Spear and their families.

       Daniel Ehresman, born in Germany in 1850, came to Cedar County in 1858. Mrs. C. D. Brown is his descendant.

       Charles Brown, born in England 1831, came to Cedar County in 1856. His descendants are C. D. Brown and family.

       George Pirie, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, 1827. Upon coming to America he settled first in New York, came to Cedar County in 1859. Descendants: Mrs. Ethel Pirie Boyle and son Kenneth; Mrs. Leone McCafferty and sons Everett and Philip and their families. The original Pirie farm is owned by Mrs. Ethel Boyle and operated by Don Coppess.

       Louis Lehrman, born in Jackson County 1858, came to Cedar County in 1865. Descendants: Herman, Paul, and Walter Lehrman and their families; Mrs. Frieda Johnson, Mrs. Bertha Koch, Mrs. Rose Gerber and their families.

       S. C. Wilkins, born in Vermont, came to Cedar County 1866. Area descendants are Mrs. Kathleen Murfield and family.

       J. B. Wilson, born in Pennsylvania, came to Cedar County in 1866. Descendants are Mrs. W. G. Smith and Hollis Wilson, who are the oldest persons now living in Stanwood who were born in this town.

       W. S. Graft, born in Ohio in 1848, came to Cedar County in 1868. He was the first Stanwood citizen to own an automobile. (See Cedar County Historical Society bulletin for 1968). W. S. Graft was an early advocate of “Good Roads,” and predicted that the time would come when all vehicular roads would be kept in excellent condition as systematically as railroads were. He had much to do in promoting the King Road Drag as a means of maintaining dirt roads. Area descendants: Mrs. Joan Licht, Robert Koch, and Kenneth Koch and their families.

Page 17 Pictures: John Spear; James Davidson; R. A. Davidson, James Burke and James K. Davidson; James Smith

       Lewis Hart, born in Michigan 1837, came to Cedar County in 1867. Mrs. Keith (Barbara) Paulsen and her family are descendants.

       G. A. Cronkhite, born in Jones County, 1846. Mrs. Berniece Jones is his only area descendant.

       W. D. Woolison was born in Lancaster County Pennsylvania in 1826, came to this county in 1869, the year that the town of Stanwood was laid out. He walked from Clarence to the farm now owned by Ernest Wendt. He bought the farm presently owned by his grandson, Truman Woolison, and farmed by Alvin Becker. Other descendants in the township are George Woolison and family.

       Philip Farrington came to Cedar County in 1855 from Cherry Creek, New York. Mrs. Max Coppess is his granddaughter. A grandson, Glenn Farrington, operates the original farm. Other are descendants are Mrs. June Garton and family and Mrs. Chester Eales and family.

       Harvey Coppess, born in Ohio in 1846, came to Cedar County in 1870. Max Coppess, Howard Coppess, and Harlan Coppess, and their families, are area descendants.

       Martin Johnson, born in Ohio in 1843, came to Cedar County in 1871. When he died in 1938 at the age of 95, he was the last Civil War veteran in Cedar County. Mrs. W. C. Hansen is his granddaughter.

       W. C. Maley and S. H. Maley were born in West Virginia, the former in 1815 and the latter in 1818. They came to Cedar County in 1869. These brothers and William Preston owned the land on which Stanwood is located. The three men gave forty acres to the Chicago, Iowa, and Nebraska Railroad, later to be renamed the Chicago and Northwestern. Twenty acres was for the right of way of the westward pushing railroad and the rest for the town site. In return for the land, the railroad was to build a depot here in town, instead of farther east at Flournoy, a flag station on the Fremont-Dayton township line, just east of the present Harry Hegarty farm.

       Clement Hart, born in Massachusetts in 1829, came to . . .

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. . . Cedar County in 1852. Area descendants: Donald Hart and Mrs. Leone Hart McCafferty and sons.

       John Daugherty, born in Ireland in 1831, came to Cedar County in 1857. Descendants: Earl Dougherty. Richard Showalter (not in this area) is a great grandson.

       John Henry Lehrman, born in Germany in 1824. He arrived in Cedar County in 1868, having walked from Bellevue. The original farm is still in the family, now owned by the wife of the late Art Lehrman. Descendants are the children of Henry Lehrman and their families, the children of Caroline Lehrman Von Behren and their families, and the children of Louis Lehrman and their descendants.

Pictures: Mr. and Mrs. Ben Woolison, Veteran thresherman; Old Thresher machine

Woolisons, Master Mechanics

       The history of Stanwood is bound up with historical facts related to its surrounding farms and farmers. Readers of these pages will be interested in this bit of rural history.

       The first threshing machine in this area was operated by Ben Woolison, a son of W. D. Woolison. In 1878, when he was thirteen years of age, Ben started to help operate a threshing outfit, and served the farmers of Cedar County for 60 years. During 44 years of this period he operated the same threshing separator. It is not difficult to explain the longevity of the Woolison Thresher: It was cared for with the utmost skill and attention. The Woolisons were mechanics with a plus. At the end of the threshing season they went over every detailed part of their machine so that if there was any worn part they could (and did) replace it before the next season began. Daily care during the threshing season was correspondingly as meticulous.

       The steam engine that operated this threshing outfit was kept busy throughout the year, shelling corn and sawing wood for anyone who had these jobs to be done.

       At the close of Ben Woolison’s career as a thresher he estimated that he had threshed over a million bushels of grain. When grain prices were at their best the wheat sold for $2.20 per bushel and when the market was at its worst the oats sold as low as 10 cents per bushel.

       In 1969 two of Ben Woolison’s grandsons, George Woolison Jr. and Lester Woolison, serve farmers of this area by operating a repair shop on their farm northeast of Stanwood.

Swing Open The Door To The Past

       The people of the last 100 years speak to you through these pages. In words and photographs you get here a glimpse of Stanwood’s beginnings and her progress from 1869 to 1969. You will meet some of the founders of the town and the surrounding community, who were immigrants to this area from many places. You will follow developments which they and their children have helped to bring about: churches, schools, highways, inventions that have brought better ways of living, and opportunities for recreation. The changes in rural living, for instance, even within our memory, urge us to preserve the past, for ourselves and our posterity. New developments in farm crops, new machines, new methods of farming, especially in fertilizing the land, and new thought trends which challenge us in every direction are but a few of the topics that our children will want to know about. Our Fremont Township and Stanwood community have a story to tell: It is an account of “A Hundred Years in God’s County.”