Transcription notes: The
majority of these tales were written by the pioneers, but
some didn't respond to the call for stories by the
newspaper, so short blurbs were inserted by the
editor/proprietor Anton Huebsch. No author is given with
them, but the others indicate the story was written by
the pioneer. There were several photos published along
with the stories, but they reproduced very poorly on the
microfilm, so are not included here. Researchers will
find more information and possibly a photo of these
pioneers in various places on this website. Use the
search box on the main page to find biographies,
obituaries, census records and other items of interest
about the first settlers of the county. Note that
deceased settlers are not included .... and by 1903 there
were a great many!
~*~*~*~*~*~
An Introduction
by A. Huebsch
For a considerable time past it has been
in our minds to issue an edition of The North Iowa
Times, devoted to the early living settlers of
Clayton county. The issue that we present to our readers
to-day, does not entirely satisfy our ambition in this
direction, for there are many names absent, which we feel
should have a representation.
We believe that there are many, among the two or three
generations who have come since the advent of the early
settlers, who through thoughtlessness mainly, do not
appreciate the sturdy labors of the county's frontiersmen
and women. We will have done much if we have assisted in
bringing to a prominent place in your minds, the
appreciation which is just and due.
With these few words we submit to our readers our
"Old Settlers Edition," with many thanks to
those who have rendered us their assistance.
--- --- --- --- ---
Tales of the Frontier
by Mrs. Ann Dickens, Who Came to the County in
1836
(Mrs. Ned Dickens)
It is with much satisfaction that I lend
my efforts to the work of contributing a chaper to the
story of early days in Clayton county. I came to this
county in 1836. The 15th day of April we landed at the
mouth of Turkey River and wended our way up that river on
horse back, which was the mode of travel then, until we
reached the little settlement we had in view. This was
about 5 miles up the river where resided a few families
constituting the settlement; they were Robt. Hatfield,
James Finley, Henry Redmond, J.W. Jones and Wm. Wayman.
A view of the Turkey River and its surrounding bluffs at
this time, would hardly bring to mind what it was in the
days of 1836. When I arrived there, the hills were
covered with immense timber and no undergrowth, owing to
the Indians' custom of burning the ground every fall to
help the growth of feed for deer. The woods were full of
panther, bear, wild cats, wolves, foxes, deer and wild
turkey; and I have often wondered how those wild turkeys
lived and multiplied to such a great extent, where the
woods were full of animals for whom the eggs and the
turkey's young would be such a toothstone meal.
The log cabins in which the few families lived at that
early day had puncheon floors, split timbers, hewed, and
loose on their foundation.
The Indian's name for the Turkey River, was Sesick
Anashungara.
At stated times during the year a regular trail was
formed by the wild turkeys crossing the river, which,
from this fact, took its name. I have seen a train of
them, two to four abreast, extending from the river's
bank to the forest a quarter of a mile away.
A great many of these turkeys were trapped; the trap a
crude affair, but effective to the extent that one night
my husband secured 24 of them. The trap was simply an
area bout 10 feet square, enclosed and covered. A trench
extended from the outside, and gradually descending ran
under the wall, opening on the inside. Through this
trench the turkeys walked, led on by corn that had been
generously sprinkled there.
The land was uncultivated with the excepton of some small
Indian farms, where they raised their corn and a few
vegetables. Speaking of the Indians' farming reminds me
of the way they used to cure their sweet corn for
winter's use. They dug a large pit in the earth in which
they burned wood until it was full of live coals. They
then scooped out about half of these and filled the place
with green corn, half of the husks on. They then covered
this corn with the coals removed from the pit and over it
all placed a good layer of ashes and fet the corn thus to
cook.
There were no laws at the time I came to Turkey River,
nothing but squatter's law or custom. Shortly afterward,
in the winter of '37 or '38 Eliphalet Price was elected
Justice and Dr. Griffeth, the sheriff. In the spring of
1838 the first court was held in Prairie la Porte, now
Guttenberg, when two men lived in that place, Herman
Greybill and Christian Wise. Court was held in the cabin
of Herman Greybill, and every man in the county attended
that court.
The judge, Dr. Dunn from across the river, had ordered
that the proceedings and findings be held secret. Those
were days when anything found by the court was a matter
of excitement; and I never think of the name of Allen
Carpenter, without my mind recalling his going to the
door of the shanty, immediately after court was adjourned
and, not heeding the order of the Judge, calling out
exnitantly [sic] "Hoop, We've found a bill against
old Pigeon." The bill was found for whiskey sold to
the Indians, and from the warning thus given him, he
escaped.
Speaking of Prairie la Porte or Guttenberg, reminds me
that besides the two cabins of Greybill and Wise, there
were a number of miners shanties and one log cabin hotel.
In those days lead was mined quite extensively but the
mineral was never found in paying quantities. There was
enough of it to induce the miners to work just a little
farther, and many fortunes were sunk by hopes that never
materialized.
No, there was nobody in Clayton county in 1832, the year
of the Blackhawk War. The year following, three or four
families arrived, and in 1834, my brothers Martin, Thomas
and Moses Van Sickle came among the first. Thos. Van
Sickle's child, my nephew was the first white child born
in the county, in the spring of 1834.
Eastern Iowa at this time was the frontier of course, and
we lived the life of the frontiersmen. We used to take
what little wheat we raised to Maquoketa to a corn mill
and have it ground. This left it pretty coarse but it did
for most purposes. When we wanted it for finer food we
sifted it through mosquito bar.
There were very few horses, and oxen were our main-stays.
Many a time have I watched my father plow with the very
crudest of instruments. Bass-wood bark for lines, the
bass-wood strips kept laying in a trought of water to
keep them from becoming too dry and brittle, raw cowhide
for tugs, braided corn husks for the collar to the
"harness"; crooked sticks for the hames, with
no iron. A furrow about 7 inches wide was made with our
wooden plow, iron tipped.
No calves could be raised out on the open on account of
the thousands of big grey wolves.
When we came we found the Indians "farming,"
raising corn and beans. Large, heavy peculiarly shaped
hoes were used and corn was not planted in rows but here
and there where a soft place could be found. The Indians
knew enough to hill their corn however, before the white
man's advent to the county.
The Indians here then were the Winnebagoes and they were
not troublesome unless the "civilized" white
man had sold them whiskey.
In the spring of 1838 I was married to my second husband,
whom everybody knew as Ned Dickens. In the fall of the
same year we moved from "The Settlement", to a
place a little north of Colesburg. Here that fall I
stayed alone, from one Sunday to the next Saturday, 7 mi.
from the nearest neighbor, while Mr. Dickens was at the
Turkey River Settlement that we had left that spring,
gathering corn. The only human being I saw during that
long week were the Indians, who would peer in at the
window (or holes that served the place of windows) or
walk into the cabin unannounced, for food or barter.
The next Monday, two days after my husband got home, he
shot within 1/2 mile of the cabin a panther that measured
9 feet from tip to tip. We sold the hide to Judge Price
for $5.00 who had it mounted, and from the tallow of the
panther I made 11 doz. candles! As a joke upon some
neighbors from the East, named Mallory (from whom Mallory
Twp. is named) this panther was divided, dired and fed to
them for venison, and they did not know the difference
for the meat was beautiful.
The little incident of how this immense panther was shot
in the southern part of Clayton county in 1838, may be
interesting. Mr. Dickens was following upon the fresh
trail of a deer when he found them joined by the tracks
of a panther. These he followed for some time until he
came to a place where the tracks of the panther
disappeared. Following the deer trail some ways farther,
he found a place where the snow was sprinkled with blood,
and a portion of the deer lay covered with snow. A little
ways farther on crouched the panther, resting from his
feast and watching the deer's remains. The distance from
where the panther's tracks ceased, to the fallen deer,
was 40 feet, the distance of the animals jump.
That year Mr. Dickens shot six panthers and four bears.
In the year 1839 Mr. Wayman had among his cattle an
animal of which the Indian boys stood in much fear.
Whenever they saw it coming they would make a dash for
the rail fence, and from that height call out,
"Waymana, Waymana, wapshada, nipu!" Wapshada
meaning bull, and nipu, dead, which signifies that they
were afraid the bull would kill them. This cry the white
children soon took up. Their crying it one night so
frightened a Yankee, named McIntire, who thought the
Indians were coming to massacre us, that I also became
frightened, and my husband being gone, ran into the
forest with my children and there hide [sic] all night.
My brother Moses Van Sickle, killed seven bear, single
handed, in a cave on Cedar Creek just below what is now
Garnavillo in the winter of 1840. He entered the cave,
torch and gun in hand, and killed the seven, one by one,
which the men outside pulled up with a rope.
In 1841 we moved to near Farmersburg, which is now
National, on Sni Magill, five miles from the Mississippi.
In the winter of '47 and '48 I myself delivered at one
time to McGregor's Landing, 2,000 lbs of venison to be
wagoned to Ft. Atkinson.
In the winter of '56 and '57, the year of the heavy snow
crust, my husband and son Will, killed 41 deer.
Yes sir, I have followed the frontier all of my early
life and know well its hardships. I was born in Indiana,
but moved westward with my parents in the advance of
civilization.
I was within 8 miles of the great massacre during the
Black Hawk war and moulded bullets for the settlers
during that war.
~Mrs. Ann Dickens
Henry P. Hardin
Henry P. Hardin, son of Mrs. Dickens by her
first husband, was born in about 1839.
~A. Huebsch
Transcription note: census & military records
indicate he was born in 1837; was a Civil War soldier,
died 1863 at Ft. Snelling, MN. I'm not sure why he was
included in the stories about living settlers ... perhaps
for informational purposes (s.f.)
--- ---
Early Reminiscences
by Mrs. Samuel Murdock, a settler of 1837
(Louisa Patch Murdock)
Having seen by a late number of your
valuable paper that you wish to publish a Old Settler's
Edition, I take pleasure in sending you some
reminiscences.
I was born in the suburbs of the city of Geneva, New
York, in the year 1820.
In 1837 my father emigrated, with his family, from New
York to Clayton county in what was then the
"District of Iowa." After crossing Lake Erie,
we took the Ohio Canal to Portsmouth, and then came on a
steamboat to St. Louis, where we remained one week.
We then came up the Missippi river on a steamboat,
landing at Cassville, Wis. Next we took a flat-boat up
the Turkey river to Hatfield's Landing in Clayton county.
We remained in this vicinity for about a year. While
living in this neighborhood I attended the wedding of
Mrs. Ned Dickens, who lived near Price's mill. My escort
was a young man by the name of Eliphalet Price.
My father had been west the year before we came and had
secured a nice claim near Garnavillo, then called
Jacksonville, but concluded not to settle upon it. As
there were no schools in the county he decided to go to
Cassville, where we remained until 1840, when we moved to
Prairie du Chien, then a thriving village, where Donsman
and Roulette were still trading with the Indians.
As we passed through Prairie la Porte (now Guttenberg),
there were seven or eight houses, but there were none in
what is now Clayton City; only underbrush and trees.
There were very few steamboats on the Mississippi river
at that time.
In 1842, we moved to McGregor's Landing, where there were
only two houses - log cabins. We occupied one, but did
not have a neighbor until Mr. Baldwin Olmstead's family
settled there later. In 1844 there were a few houses in
the village of Jacksonville (now Garnavillo). My friends,
Mr. and Mrs. Angus McDonald who were living there,
invited me to attend a Fourth of July celebration at that
place. A young man by the name of Samuel Murdock, who had
come there the year before, delivered the oration, and
that was our first meeting.
He was the first lawyer who settled in the county. We
were married September 11, 1845, and settled on a claim
near Garnavillo where we lived until 1876, when we
removed to Elkader. I visited friends in the vicinity of
this place when there was not a house in what is now
Elkader, and I have seen it grow into a little city with
modern improvements.
I have lived to see the "District of Iowa"
changed into Iowa Territory, in 1838, and to see it
become a state in 1846. And I have not only seen many
changes in the state, the county and the towns of Clayton
county, but I have lived to see nearly all of my old
friends, one after another, pass on into higher life. In
my diary that I have kept ever since I came to this
county, there are records of very many sad events, as
also of a great many happy ones.
Respectfully,
Louisa Murdock
Further, from Mrs. Murdock
Your kindness in printing an Old Settler's
Number of your valuable paper should be appreciated by
all of the early settlers that are left and each should
gladly respond to your request for letters. As you have
asked for further reminiscences from me, I take pleasure
in writing you again.
Regarding Mr. Hatfield, I will say that if my
recollection serves me right, his mother told me that
they came about two years before we did. We lived about a
mile apart, near what is now the town of Millville. At
that time there was but one house there and a saw-mill
which was owned by Eliphalet Price.
I was then, in 1837, seventeen years of age and Marshall
was several years younger, but he was one day the means
of saving my life. He and my sister Orril and I went out
in a canoe, on Turkey river, to gather grapes which were
on a vine clinging to a tree that had fallen from the
shore over the water. When we were under the tree I stood
up to reach the grapes and fell backwards into the water,
my feet still in the canoe. Marshall with great presence
of mind succeeded in pulling me out of the water, without
tipping the little boat over, and thus rescued me from
drowning.
In the winter of 1837-'38 Mr. Price invited a Miss
Elizabeth Walker and myself to go to a ball in Cassville
given by Mr. Ben Farbes. We went, and as it was a mild
day, we enjoyed very much the sleighride on the ice of
the Turkey and Mississippi rivers. The ball was a sucess,
but in the night it commenced raining and by noon the
next day the water was one foot deep on the ice, and it
was two weeks before Mr. Price could get home, when he
walked back over the ice. Miss Walker and I had to remain
six weeks before it was safe for us to return. As we were
strangers in the place we hardly knew what to do, but she
commenced going to school and I began sewing for a very
kind lady, a Mrs. J.R. Farnsworth. After two weeks our
friends found an opportunity to send some clothing. We
became acquainted with some very pleasant people and
enjoyed ourselves so well that we were rather glad we had
been forced to remain in Cassville. It was while there
that Miss Walker found her future husband, Mr. Steven
Tainter. They will be remembered as among the old
settlers of Prairie du Chien. Miss Walker was a sister of
Mrs. Landor, one of the earliest settlers of this county,
also of Mrs. Billey Harper.
My father soon moved to Cassville and commenced keeping
the hotel formerly kept by Ben Farbes. During the winter
of 1839-'40 the river closed earlier than usual and the
supplies for the season were short. Many were obliged to
live on corn bread, but as we had to have some flour, my
father went to the Fort at Prairie du Chien to try to get
some. However, he could secure nothing but two barrels of
"condemned" flour, for which he paid twenty
dollars. It was slightly sour and light bread could not
be made of it. When some of my girl friends wanted to
have small parties they would come to my mother and beg
her to spare them flour enough to make a few cookies or
some cake.
Father bought, in installments, two barrels of
buttermilk, for which he paid five dollars a barrel. All
enjoyed our corn bread and as wild game was plentiful, we
lived well in spite of the hard winter.
The next spring we moved to Prairie du Chien, going on a
flatboat, and it took three days to make the trip. Father
hired two men to row the boat. The first night we stayed
at Mr. McMullen's on McMullen's island near Prairie la
Porte, now Guttenberg. The second night we stayed at the
home of a very kind Frenchman by the name of LaPoint.
This was somewhere near the present town of Clayton. I
remember enjoying the trip up the river very much, as the
scenery was grand and wild, and I was reading a most
interesting book - Scott's "Ivanhoe."
Ben Manahan, John Adams and Thomas Wilkinson, with their
families, also moved from Cassville to the Prairie, so we
had some of our old neighbors near us.
My sister Orril and I were most [illegible] companions,
always dressing alike. In 1839 she was married to John
Sprague and they remained in Cassville, so it was hard
for me to leave there. In a year's time however, they
followed us. But we were soon called upon to give her up
entirely, for in two years she passed on into higher
life. This was the first great grief that came to me. Mr.
Sprague is still living and has been for many years a
prominent citizen of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
I was married in 1845 and two years after that my father
moved his family to St. Anthony Falls, now east
Minneapolis. There my sister Marion, who still resides in
Minneapolis, was married to the late R.P. Russell, a man
who from his early youth until his death was closely
connected with the city's history. And there, also, my
youngest sister, Cora, was married to Joseph Marshall, a
brother of Gov. Wm. Marshall. She lived but a few years
thereafter.
Only two of my father's children were born in the west.
The rest were natives of New York. There were five boys
and four girls in the family. All of my brothers are
still living except a dear little boy who died at the age
of two years, while we were living at McGregor's Landing.
At the time of the outbreak of the Indians, during our
war of the rebellion, my eldest brother Edward, went up
with a company to protect the settlers in Minnesota. In a
skirmish with the reds, he had a narrow escape, receiving
a bullet through his hat. A large number of the Indians
were afterwards hung together on one scaffold at Mankato.
While visiting there some years later I saw the man who
paid five dollars for the privilege of cutting the rope.
All of his family had been massacred.
My brother Gibson became captain of a Minnesota regiment
in the Civil War, but after seeing some hard fighting,
had to resign on account of a sun stroke.
My brother Edward is now seventy-nine years of age and I
am nearly eighty-three. My father passed away at the age
of eighty-six years and my mother lived ten months after
celebrating her one hundredth birthday. Her sister Mary
is still living (in western Iowa) and is in her
ninety-seventh year.
During these eighty-three years many sad experiences have
come to me. I have lost a brother, two sisters, my
parents, my husband and four children, besides other
relatives and innumerable near and dear friends, but I
expect to meet them all again on the other side.
Yours Respectfully,
Louisa Murdock
First Born White Children
Dear Mr. Editor
As I see by the county papers that there is a discussion
as to who was the first white child born in Clayton
county, I again send you a few facts regarding the early
days, but I think it will be hard to ascertain who was
the first white child.
Mr. William Walker, who kept the ferry from the mouth of
Turkey River over to Cassville, lived on the Iowa side of
the river. He had a child born in 1837. A family by the
name of Parks had one born before 1840, and there were
two children in the Jones family born before that year.
My brother Lewis, now living in Denver, Col., was born
March 23, 1838, near where Millville now is, in Clayton
county, Iowa Territory. Julius, my youngest brother, was
born in Prairie du Chien, Wis., Oct. 1, 1840.
I believe the Springer family had two children born
before 1840, and the Henry Redmond family had small
children, also, I think.
Dr. Griffith lived on a small farm near Millville. I do
not know whether he had children born in this county or
not. His daughter Nancy was married to Joseph Quigley
after we moved to Cassville.
The Oliver family, who lived on Turkey River, also had
children. It will be remembered that Oliver was hung in
Cassville about the year 1839, for the shooting of a man
that had worked for him, by the name of Jack Courtwright.
Both men lived in Clayton county, but the shooting took
place in Cassville.
As there were no stores in those days on the Iowa side of
the Mississippi River, trading had to be done in
Cassville. G.M. Price, a brother-in-law of Ben Forbes,
kept the first dry goods and grocery store there. The
town was composed mostly of eastern people and the
society was good.
The young men of the place were Ben Manahan, Charles
Wister, Ira Libby and two brothers, Cloves and Charles
Lagrave.
~Louisa Murdock
Elkader, Iowa, Feb. 12, 1903
nee Louisa Patch
--- ---
Marshall L. Marsh
M.L. Marsh came to Clayton Co. in 1838
and engaged in the milling business in company with his
brother, on Bloody Run. In 1855 he spent a year in the
machine shops in Dubuque. In 1866 he moved on to his
farm, moving to McGregor a short time ago.
~A. Huebsch
--- ---
This Vicinity from 1844
by Eugenia (Wadsworth) Davis
(Mrs. Daniel Davis)
My father's name was Soloman Wadworth and
my mother's, Ursula Van Sickle. I was born in April,
1844, on the Farley farm near Giard in the big woods.
Shortly after that we moved to Sni Magill and the
neighbors that I remember were Lee's, Wolf's, Dicken's
and Montgomery's.
When court was held in Dubuque, the presence of every man
in the county was necessary at that court and the women
were left alone, with no other neighbors but the Indians,
the Winnebagos, to enter the cabins without warning, or
to stand and peer in through the windows, had given most
of the women a fear of them. I remember how my mother on
these occassions used to build a fire in the old fire
place, leave the cabin door open and then with us
children hide in the bushes until evening, when the
Indians had gone away.
In 1849 we moved down to the river's edge across from the
mouth of the Wisconsin. Here father ran a horse ferry for
Alexander McGregor, from the mouth of the Wisconsin
River, Wisconsin Landing, to McGregor's Landing and
Prairie du Chien. The travel was westward and at the time
I remember, principally into Minnesota. The emigrants
announced to the ferryman, if he chanced to be on the
opposite side of the river, their desire to cross the
river, by the blowing of a horn. I remember one year the
multitudes of Swedes and Norwegians, who came westward
with their teams, bound all for Minnesota, and Minnesota
was the only word they could speak in English.
After a few years my father gave up the ferry and it was
operated by Ole Nielson, the present county surveyor.
The "Fire Hunters", as we called them, were a
source of much interest to all of us children. They were
Indians who used to fasten a light, with a triangular
reflector in the prow of canoes and hunt along near the
shore of the river for deer. The favorite haunts of the
deer, and consequently of the "fire hunters",
were called "deer licks". These were places
where salt had been strewn by the men, to serve as an
attraction for the deer, which soon found the spot and
were then shot by the men who were in wait. The deer fed
much on the "deer moss" green the year around
and found much around the springs along the river bank.
A few years after '49, I don't remember exactly, my
father and family moved to North McGregor, and took up a
claim on the Spanish Reserve, a fraction of ground in
about the present location of Wingen's store. Here my
father built the first shanty in what is now North
McGregor. There was nothing there but logs, willows and
snakes. These latter were yellow rattlers and were in
great abundance.
The back of what is now Main Street was riddled with
their dens and I have seen them basking in the sun coiled
into bunches as big as a wash tub.
A large Indian mound was in the valley at that time,
between where are now the railroad tracks and Main
Street. This mound was about 15 feet high and 200 feet
long and at that early date, very early in the '50's was
supporting several oak trees over six inches in
thickness. This mound was leveled by the railroad company
and used for grading.
~Eugenia Wadsworth, Mrs. Daniel Davis
--- ---
Realto E. Price
Atty. Realto E. Price, of Elkader, was
born Aug. 1, 1840 in Jefferson twp., Clayton County. He
is the oldest son of Eliphalet Price, one of the county's
earliest pioneers. He has practiced law continuously at
Elkader since 1863, or 40 years.
~A. Huebsch
--- ---
From the first Settler, to the
County in 1833
by Marshall Hatfield
I was born in Canada on July 4, 1821, and
came to Galena in 1829. I carried a musket beside my
father in the Blackhawk War in 1832, when a lad eleven
years of age.
One year after that war, in 1838, I came with my father
across the Mississippi from Cassville to the mouth of the
Turkey River and journeyed up that river about four
miles, nearly opposite Millville, where we located.
My father, I coming with him, was one of three making the
first settlement in what is now Clayton county, the other
two men being Wm. Wayman and Wm. Grant.
The bottoms on the islands across from the Turkey River
were covered with burr-oaks and so there was an abundance
of acorns. As the flat-boats ferried across the
Mississippi were open sided, many hogs escaped in
crossing and swam to this island. It was not long before
the island was covered with these hogs who grew and
multiplied there and became wild. Every fall a company of
men went to the island and shot their winters supply of
pork. Wild hogs flourished there for many years.
I helped build the first log house in the hollow where
now stands McGregor. It was owned by Alexander McGregor.
The next one that was built was Blazadel's cabin in the
mouth of what is now Bass addition.
~Marshall Hatfield
--- ---
Robert Quigley
Robert Quigley was born in Clayton County
on Dec. 31, 1845, his parents being Joseph B. and Nancy
(Griffith) Quigley, two of the county's very earliest
pioneers. He has practiced law in McGregor since 1869.
~A. Huebsch
Early Memories
by Robert Quigley
The first death* in the county was a Mrs.
Hagard [sic - Hagerty], who was taken to Cassville and
buried, but I do not remember the exact date. The coffin
in which she was laid was made by J.B. Quigley, of the
dry wood of a fallen walnut tree. The tree was cut into
logs, taken to the mill and sawed, and worked into the
finished coffin, in one day and a night. [*Transcriber's
note: the murder of Mrs. Hagerty occurred in 1868, so she
was not the first death in the county.]
The 1st log cabin was put up on the Lander bottom near
Millville, by J.B. Quigley, Robert Hatfield, Dan Beasley
and two other men whose names I do not now recollect.
They came over from Cassville in the summer of 1833, and
put up the first log cabin built in the county.
Robert Hatfield moved over from Cassville and occupied
the cabin and boarded the workmen who were employed in
the building of the first saw mill at Millville.
Another saw mill was then erected on the little Turkey,
two miles above Millville.
Then came Frank Emerson, Wm. Grant, Billy Wayman, and
erected a grist mill at Millville for Frank Emerson.
The only way of obtaining ready money in those days was
by selling the product of the saw-mill, hence they were
the first things engaged in as a money proposition. The
lumber was chiefly walnut, and was taken in a flat boat
to Cassville and thence shipped to St. Louis.
~Rob't Quigley
--- ---
In Iowa in 1836
by Joseph Gardner
I am one of the '36s. In 1834 I was born
in Dayton, Ohio, and in August of 1836 came with my
father to Davenport, Iowa. I visited Col. Davenport, on
the Rock Island side of the river a short time before he
was murdered by John Long, Aaron Long, Young and Fox.
Wm. Fox suceeded in getting away, but the other three
were hanged at Burlington, Iowa.
Father took a claim of 160 acres four miles below
Davenport, I suppose the city now covers it. We moved to
Marion, Linn Co. in 1843. One day mother counted 900
Indians passing our house on their path to receive their
pay from the government.
I remember as a boy how I was frightened one day when a
posse of Indians who had camped near our place,
"burled" two boys (skinoways) who had died the
day before, by hanging them in trees, thinking to get
them as near heaven as possible.
Father moved to Blackhawk Co. and there is where I first
went sparking. An old "buck" persuaded me to go
with him across the river, which we had to wade on
Christmas eve. But there were three nice girls on the
other side, so we "stripped" and waded over,
had a jolly time, then of course waded back in the night.
I then moved to Allamakee Co. in 1856, and cast my first
ballot for James Buchanan. Then in 1893 moved to Clayton
Co.
~Joseph Gardner
--- ---
Here Since 1846
by Alfred Wooden
I was born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1835.
Moved from there to Dubuque and Maquekota, then in 1846
to Elkader, thence in '47 to McGregor's Landing or
better, Syi Magill.
During the summer of '48 I helped Alexander McGregor
during the establishing of his ferry.
In the Spring of 1848 H.D. Evans came here and opened a
general store in the basement of the house now occupied
by Mr. Hoxsie. This house has since been brick venered.
It was built by Alexander McGregor in 1847, when there
was no other house in the valley save a log cabin
standing some where near the present site of Kramer's
store. The present site of McGregor was then nothing but
a hollow into the hills, no different from others around
here, except perhaps a little wider.
When I was at Elkader, Jack Thompson and a man named Sage
were building a stone mill, which is yet standing, since
1845.
~A. Wooden
--- ---
Mrs. Sarah Henderson
Mrs. Sarah Henderson, with her husband,
came to McGregor in 1855. At that time there were no
houses between Jas. Moody's place above the park and the
building being erected by Mr. chapin's father, Mr. St.
Clair, the present house of Geo. McLanahan. Mrs. Chapin
at this time was about three years old and the house Mr.
St. C. was then building, the present one, was about the
finest in town.
Neither was there a building on the road between this
same house and the log cabin of John Orr on Orr's Hill.
Mr. and Mrs. Henderson kept the hotel called the Upper
House, beside a hotel on which was the significant sign
"Eat, Drink and be Merry, for to-morrow we go to
Minnesota."
~A. Huebsch
--- ---
In the County in 1836
by Levi Springer, of Graham, Clayton Co., Iowa
I was born in Fayette Co., Penn., Aug 15,
1832, my father David Springer moved from there to
Galena, Ill., then to Elk Grove, Wis., and from there to
Clayton Co. and settled on Section 19, Millville Twp., in
the year 1836.
I was then about four years old I was too young to go
hunting then, but in those days boys were taught to hunt
the same as they are taught to farm now. Game of all
kinds was plenty then and I remember of a bear killing a
hog near the house in broad daylight. A man named Haggard
shot him with a small bore rifle but did not kill him.
I killed a panther near here that measured 8 feet and 8
inches from tip to tip. I shot him in a den but did not
kill him and he came out at me. I dodged quickly to one
side and as he passed, my dog jumped in and grabbed him
and it being on a steep place, they two rolled down
together into a hollow, which gave me a chance to reload
and shoot again, this time killing him.
Deer and wild turkey were plenty and I have seen as many
as ten or a dozen of the latter at one time playing on a
high point not over 150 yards from our house. They used
to frequent that point in the Spring of the year, but
they were generally poor and we did not bother them.
There was a small slough about 100 yards from ur house.
If we got out of meat we would go down there and watch on
a moonlight night and kill a deer as they went to get a
drink.
The Indians were very plentiful in those days and used to
come to our house. We always treated them well and never
had any trouble with them. There was a camp of
Winnebagoes at the mouth of Peck's Branch.
This branch unites its waters with the Turkey a short
distance above Millville, after flowing a distance of
eight miles in a northerly direction, through high
mountainous hills covered with a dense and heavy growth
of timber. This stream took its name from Dudley Peck,
who located upon the river bottom near its mouth in 1835.
As a hunter this man had few, if any, superiors in the
country.
The Menominees were camped below and then there were
frequent bands of Saxes and Foxes.
The early settlers saw some pretty hard times and had
their ups and downs, but after all I think they got more
enjoyment out of life than people do at the present day.
The stranger was always welcome to such food and
accomodations as the settlers were able to provide.
Settlers were few and scattering, but a stong friendship
existed such as people do not see to-day.
None of the early settlers ever dreamed of the change
that would take place in the country in a lifetime. They
did not realize they were the pioneers of what was soon
to become a gret commonwealth. Of the earliest settlers
but few are left. Their trials and adventures will not be
told by them any more, and will only be known as it has
become a matter of history.
~Levi Springer
--- ---
In Jacksonville (Garnavillo) in 1844
by Mrs. H.C. Noble
(nee Harriet C. Douglass)
By request I add my mite to the
correspondence form the Old Settlers of Clayton county.
At 9:30 Sunday morning the 29th day of July, 1844, I
landed from the Steamer Dubuque at Prairie la
Porte (now Guttenberg). I was then a bride of a few
weeks, my husband Reuben Noble having located in the
county in 1843.
As soon as the plank was thrown from the steamer we were
met by Eliphalet Price with a very warm and kindly
greeting - Well Noble how are you? Glad to see
you!", etc. We were delayed in Prairie la Porte a
few days before a team could be obtained to convey us to
our future home at Jacksonville (now Garnavillo). Mr.
Sam'l Murdock finally succeeded in getting a fine pair of
horses and a lumber wagon and we reached our home in a
little better style than did John Alden and his bride.
We found one house between Prairie la Porte and Dr.
Andros who live a mile south of Jacksonville, which was
then the County Seat of Clayton county, and boasted of a
Court House, and a hotel kept by John Banfill, where we
established ourselves until our own home (then building)
was finished. As I neared Jacksonville in the evening, I
made up my mind form the number of lights in the several
different windows of the hotel, that the town must be of
some size. But upon entering the house, I found that the
entire second story was as yet free from partitians and
was one large room, hence the tallow dips which lighted
the one room, and shone out through the different
windows, conveyed the impression of many apartments.
Looking out of the window in the morning, I searched
vainly for the houses and saw nothing but our house which
was then being built, and what I told Mr. Noble, I took
to be a barn, but what he said was the county's court
house.
Soon after going to housekeeping in the fall of '44 a
postoffice was established and Reuben Noble appointed
P.M., and as Mr. Noble's time was fully occupied in his
law business, I had full charge, and many were the
letters I handed out to the young men of Clayton county
from the girls they left behind. We had considerable
trouble that fall and winter in receiving our letters,
which addressed to Jacksonville, I.T. (for Iowa
Territory) frequently went to Jacksonville, F.T. (Florida
Territory) as that town was better known. For that reason
I had Mr. Noble make out a petition for me, petitioning
Congress to change the name of our settlement. To
everybody who came to the office I presented the petition
for their signing.
One day Mr. Samuel Murdock was at our house and was
humming an air, each verse of which ended in Garnavillo.
The word "Garnavillo" struck my fancy and I
told him to insert that word in our petition. This he
immediately did, Congress granted our petition and
Jacksonvile became Garnavillo.
Some idea may be formed of the frontier life of those
days, when our neighbors were few and far between and I
think there was only one house between Jacksonville and
Poverty Point, now Monona, some 16 miles. There was a
little ditty, the only verse of which I can remember, ran
thus:
"Oh Poverty Point is a very
fine place,
If you've got no money you can run your face."
Four miles west of Poverty Point was a
cabin called Sodom, a fit name, where the owner of the
cabin sold whiskey to the whites and Indians. A murder
was committed at this place by an Indian whose brother
had been frozen to death while in a drunken stupor the
night before. Two miles farther on was a similiar
stopping place, on the road to Ft. Atkinson, called
Gomorrah.
The Indians were with us most of the time, committing
many depredations and also some murders, among the latter
was Lewis Hartge in the Spring of 1846.
Mrs. Wm. Schulte is the only person now living in
Garnavillo Township, who was the head of a family in
1844. Clayton county has always been my home since 1844,
not leaving it for more than six months at a time, and
then only visiting.
~Mrs. H.C. Noble
--- ---
McGregor in 1849
by John Bass
The first sermon ever preached in
McGregor, that I recollect, was by Elisha Warner, a
Methodist living at Prairie du Chien, in the year 1850.
It was preached under the open sky, on the banks of
Tippecanoe creek, the work bench of Tryford, a carpenter,
being used as a pulpit. The hills and forests untouched
by the hand of man, were the frescoed walls, the blue
dome of the sky, the ceiling. I remember the occasion
well, as Tryford was then working in his carpenter shop,
which consisted of a work bench, upon the tread plank for
the ferry boat Rob Roy.
I remember in particular one sentence of the good man, it
was this "Children," he always called his
congregation by that term, "I love the Bible as well
as children love flap jacks and molasses, molasses that
comes by steam-boat from New Orleans."
In the fall of 1850 I was married at La Porte City, to
Miss Phoebe Draper, and I believe we are the only couple
living together to-day who were married at that early
date.
Mrs. Bass taught the first school ever held in McGregor,
in a log cabin occupying the present stand of Henry
Larson's shoe store. In a short time Alexander McGregor
rented the cabin to Wm. Read, a wheel-right. The school
was then moved to the warehouse where steam-boats landed
and called to order in the second story of that building.
A peculiar place it would be in these days, but locations
were not then too plentiful and the slight rocking of the
warehouse, which was built on the bank and then pushed
into the river on rollers, or the very frequent passing
or landing whistle of the steamers, got to be a familiar
thing. There were five or six scholars is all. Gardner
and Gregor McGregor, whom Mrs. Bass taught their
A.B.C.'s; Thad and Albert Jones; and Eugenia Wadsworth,
now Mrs. Dan Davis.
In the spring of 1849, Jones and I began the building of
the Jones & Bass building, where Freeman's saloon now
stands. This was then beyond the water's edge and we were
two weeks piling rock into the water for a foundation for
one building.
In the year 1852 myself and wife lived in a tri-angular
frame building, on the present location of the passenger
depot at about the ticket office. It was a rickety
building and I remember was nearly tipped over one day
while we were there, by a steam boat stopping at the
warehouse. I paid $5.00 a month for one room and a
pantry, and was fortunate in the rush of that early day
to have a covering over my head at that price.
~John Bass
--- ---
First Views
by Mrs. Julia B. Fox
(nee Julia Beeman Plumb)
Dear Times - At your request I will give
you a short sketch of my first views of McGregor when I
came from Prairie du Chien to make my home in Iowa.
It was in the all of 1847 that I came in company with my
sister and her husband Alvah Rogers, to make my home with
them.
Mr. Rogers, at the request of Alexander McGregor,
occupied in company with his family, the first frame
house that had been built there, with the exception of
the Government ware house which was built for the purpose
of storing supplies intended for Ft. Atkinson, which were
hauled 50 miles to their destination.
I came on the old horse boat which was run by Mr.
McGregor, assisted by an old Scotchman named Winters, who
was his right hand man. The "horse' boat was run by
mules, one of whom, an old grey, was quite refractory and
was quite a character in those pioneer days.
It was a very open winter and crossing on the ice with
teams was most of the time unsafe.
Mr. Rogers used to walk to the Prairie to get our mail
trying the ice with a stout pole as he went. He kept
quite a stock of goods that winter and people came from
afar to do their trading.
We only remained there one winter, leaving for Garnavillo
in April, Mr. H. D. Evans, coming there that Spring and
putting in a stock of goods and remaining there all his
life.
I often walked up what is now Main Street and sat on a
log to rest. It was the only recreation I had and helped
to pass away the time which hung heavy on my hands.
~Mrs. Julia B. Fox, Globe, Arizona
--- ---
A Settler of 1838
by James M. Walker
I came to Clayton Co. in October 1838
when I was ten years of age, and stopped in the little
settlement, 4 miles south of Millville.
Then there were three voting places in the county, at
Prairie la Porte (Guttenberg), Millville and Poverty
Point (Monona). Our cabin was about half way between
Dubuque and Poverty Point, just over into Clayton Co.
Millville was quite a settlement. There were Joe Quigley,
carpenter and millwright, Dan Beasley, laborer and
hunter; Isaac Preston, cooper, Robert Campbell,
blacksmith, shop a little north in a cooley; Henry
Redmond and Geo. Jones, farmers. Across the river was
Capt. Parks a petty lawyer, and above him Capt. Wm.
Grant, farmer.
Across the river from Millville, was Warren Cooley,
farmer; one half mile north Col. Henry Sanders; down the
river Richard Holzbecker, since Sheriff of Clayton Co.
West, on the little Turkey was Ambrose Kennedy, then
farmer, but afterwards sheriff for a number of years.
Next above was John Griffeth, the mail carrier between
Dubuque and our little settlement of Millville; David
Springer, a farmer who was afterwards Justice of the
Peace who married me to my first wife. Ned Dickens and
four Van Sickle boys lived here also, and I suppose a few
others who I do not remember. At that time there was no
settlement between Millville and Garnavillo.
One mile north of North McGregor was a stone ferry house,
built by the government in about 1828. From this ferry
house, a military road ran to Ft. Atkinson in later
years, and over this road was wheeled provisions to the
Fort. The road was sparsely settled, the only inhabitants
being at the settlement of Poverty Point and at the
present side of Postville where stood the log cabin of a
man named Post. I made several trips over this road
during 1845.
James Tapper of Monona claims to be the first to break
sod on prairie land, I do not remember in that year. Long
before this however, the land had been tilled on the
Turkey River bottoms.
In 1853 when I was receiving $40 per month, provisions
were at the following prices: butter .08cts per lb, eggs
.05cts per dozen, potatoes 14cts per bushel, flour $1.50
per cwt, pork in the hog 2 1/2cts per lb, wheat was 40 to
50 cents per bushel.
~Jas M. Walker
--- ---
Guy Kinsley
Mr. Guy Kinsley was born on the 12th of
February 1825, in Vermont. In the year of 1853 he moved
to Clayton Co., Giard twp., and settled on a farm half
way between McGregor's Landing and Monona. This farm is
still the Kinsley place and has been owned by him for a
continuous 50 years.
~A. Huebsch
--- ---
Peter Walter
Mr. Peter Walter, came with his brother
John to McGregor in 1856. They were painters but skilled
in handling furniture. The building now occupied by Mr.
Walter has been his place of business and his home ever
since 1856, without a change of location during those 47
years.
~A. Huebsch
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