"History of Decatur County and Its People" Volume I

Prof. J. M. Howell and Heman C. Smith, Supervising Editors

The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago IL, 1915.
 
Chapter IV ~ Hamilton Township Before the War
Pages 32 - 47
By Duncan Campbell
Hamilton is one of the southern tier of townships of Decatur County, Iowa. It is bounded on the east by Morgan, on the north by Eden and on the west by New Buda Townships. In a few places the west line is indented by the curves of Grand River, and towards the northeast it is crossed by Little River, a tributary of the Grand. Several creeks and small streams carry their waters into these rivers when the flow is not exhausted by dry weather. The surface, generally, is an undulating prairie, broken in places by ravines. The river bottoms were covered with a large growth of timber at the time of its first settlement, but much of it has since fallen before the axe and saw of the woodmen. Later, some portions of the prairie became covered with a dense growth of shrubs and small timber planted by the settlers in order to protect their dwellings, farm buildings and fences, and to keep down the running fires which hitherto had destroyed the incipient saplings. The soil on the few white oak ridges is light, yielding but a meager reward for the toil of the agriculturist, but elsewhere good crops are raised and the people generally make a good living, many of them becoming quite wealthy.

The first settlers found some bands of Sac and Pottawatomie Indians still making the neighboring river bottoms their winter quarters, but spending the summers on their favorite hunting grounds in Kansas. Some of the settlers made considerable money in trading with them, on account of the Indians' poor appreciation of comparative values. These traders frequently managed to get the red man much in debt to them and when the Indians repaired to the agencies at Fort Des Moines or Council Bluff's to receive their annuities from the Government these traders usually appeared with them to collect the balance before the Indian had time to spend it otherwise, which he was prone to do.

The first actual settlers upon the lands now embraced in Hamilton Township appear to have arrived in the '40s. Champ COLLIER, an uncle of the Missourian statesman, Champ CLARK, who was named after him; Allen SCOTT, Wyllis DICKINSON, Aaron and Moses TURPIN, ___ WINKLE, William CONOVER, Cole SEYMOUR, Alfred I. MORGAN, Martin CASLINE, John REID, William HAMILTON, William ACTON, Asa BURRELL and Gideon P. WALKER were among the earliest.

As most of these came in by way of Missouri they naturally held to the view of that state with reference to the boundary question and supposed they were settling within its [Missouri's] limits. This view placed a line six miles or more farther north than the Iowa claim allowed, which was that the Sullivan line run in 1816 was the true boundary. The Supreme Court of the United States, having decided in favor of the Iowa side of the controversy, these settlers found themselves in a different state from that in which they intended to settle, and this will to some extent account for the mixed politics in the township in the early days.

The conditions which obtained in Morgan, Hamilton and New Buda Townships in those times were very much alike; the most primitive order of things prevailed in all of them. Ox teams were used instead of horses and these were of the scrubbiest kind. It required a team of six or seven yoke of them to break up the prairie which at that time was covered with a growth of blue-stemmed grass, higher than a man's head. However, it required but little ground to raise the corn needed for family uses. The markets were too distant and the price paid too low to make it pay to grow corn for that purpose. There was little or none needed for the hogs, because they fatted themselves on the abundant mast which in the little hollows about the trees could be shoveled up by the scoopful.

One of the early settlers informed the writer that one fall he had sold $800 worth of hogs, fattened in this way. Hence, about the only corn raised was that required by oxen and for the family bread.

Corn needed but little cultivation then, as the famous cockle-burr and other weeds had not begun to take possession of the ground as they have in later times.

In many cases the hogs of the different families ran out in the woods together and little discrimination was shown as to which was which. When a family got out of meat one of the men took a gun and shot the first fat hog that came within range, without very close inquiry as to where it belonged. Wild turkey, deer and other game were found in great numbers, and this with the hog meat made the flesh supplies especially bountiful.

Cattle were raised cheaply and with little trouble. Thus plenty of butter could be had at the cost of the labor of making it. There was little inducement to manufacture it for sale at the frequent price of 3 cents per pound. Eggs were very plentiful and so cheap that they were often fed to the hogs by the bucketful. Many times there was no market for them at any price. For sweets honey was obtained from the bee trees by the barrel and was a source of considerable revenue, even at the low price of 20 cents a gallon. In the way of fruit wild apples, plums, grapes, black haws and many kinds of berries made satisfactory relishes. Sorghum was introduced in 1857 or 1858 by a Mr. FIELDS who lived about a mile west of Pleasanton. He sent to Washington for the seed.

A portion of the clothing of the men was made from buckskin, and being nicely dressed looked quite well. Woolen clothes were made by the women, who carded the wool, spun it, wove it and made it into clothes of such enduring quality that a new dress did not have to be made every other day.

The first land to be occupied was in the timber or adjacent to it. This was because of the facility afforded for getting material for dwellings, barns, fences and fuel. The first houses were log cabins with puncheon floors and clapboard roofs. The puncheons were logs split and dressed or hewed on one side to a flat surface and laid close together on log sleepers. The shingles were made from blocks of oak about three or four feet in length, quartered and then split into clapboards by a froe. These were laid on the rude logs and then weighted and held in place by other logs. The doors oftentimes hung on wooden hinges and fastened with wooden latches. The windows consisted of openings between the logs over which pieces of oil paper or muslin were stretched. The stick and clay chimney, with its open fireplace and wide hearth, was a distinctive feature of those primitive homes and no happier memories cling around the recollection of any hearthstones in the world than do in the thoughts connected with these lowly cabins. The minds of many of those now in middle age harked back to the times when, if as by chance, the young people of the neighborhood gathered in one of those 16 by 18 dwellings of an evening and the stove and the table, the beds and the cupboard were hustled outdoors to make room for the dance.

From a short biography of John E. LIGAB, who settled in Morgan Township in 1844, we take the following:

"The Indians had not then been removed and the county was then in a primitive state. His post- office was at Trenton, Mo., forty miles away, and the postage on each letter was 25 cents, which was invariably demanded when the letter was taken from the office. Honey was scarce and with but little silver to make change and beeswax was used as a substitute, which was in good demand at 25 cents a pound.

"A small gristmill had been erected about four miles below Princeton, Missouri, a distance of about twenty-five miles. This was of very small dimensions, but much better than none and was a blessing for which the pioneers were thankful. His dwelling was a cabin of hewed logs, 18 by 20 feet in size. He had been here the previous autumn and had engaged his location and engaged a man to build the above mentioned, he returning to Missouri and bringing his family the following spring. This cabin forms a part of his present residence, it having been clapboarded on the outside and sealed within. This is the oldest residence in the township.

"Here Mr. LOGAN and wife had lived for a period of forty-two years. A generation has passed away since they settled here. It was a beautiful timbered country, with no underbrush, and deer and other wild game were abundant."

But there were other wild animals in the woods besides the deer; coyotes or prairie wolves roamed about in great numbers and made night vocal with the chorus of their prolonged howls. Many a calf, pig, lamb and chicken fell a victim to their raids on the pens and corrals of the settlers.

When Decatur County was organized April 1, 1850, William HAMILTON, Asa BURRELL and Josiah MORGAN were named as commissioners and their first meeting as such was held May 6th. Henry B. NOSTON was chosen clerk and Andrew STILL was allowed $30 for his work as organizing sheriff.

The county seat was not yet located and it was ordered that until that was done the district courts, the probate court and the commissioners' court should be held at the home of Daniel MOAD about six miles southeast of where Leon now stands.

In July following the commissioners held a meeting in which they organized Garden Grove, Morgan, Hamilton and Burrell townships, naming the last three in which they severally lived after themselves. In the organization of Hamilton Township William HAMILTON, William EATON and Jefferson DIMICK were chosen judges and Wyllis DICKINSON and Gideon P. WALKER, clerks.

In those days the township business was transacted in a most simple and informal manner. At the first election held in Woodland Township the ballot box was a tin pail with a cover and the tickets wer6 written by one of the clerks.

With the '50s many new settlers came in. From 1852 to 1857 more new people came in than in any other equal period since the first settlement. David PURDEN, William SNOOK, A. W. MOFFETT, Daniel BARTHOLOW, George MOREY, G. M. HINKLE, John KEOWN, William LOVING, Austin COWLES, Robert BOOTH, James DUNLEAY, John HENDERSON, James GAMMILL, Dr. David MACY, Dr. GLENDENNING, Dr. MULLINNIX, Fleming, James, Ambrose and Meredith DALE, Wilson STONE, Ebenezer ROBINSON, Amasa BONNEY, W. S. WARNOCK, William ALDEN, Royal RICHARDSON, John PARK, Isaac WALDRUP, Richard HOLDEN, Andrew SCOTT, T. J. GRAVES, John CLARK, Henry LANEY, FIELDS, James ALFREY, HARTMAN, John MILLS, with their families. No doubt there were a number of others whose names have been overlooked.

In the days before grist and sawmills were erected various expedients were employed to meet the needs of the people. It is said that Champ COLLIER went out to the timber, cut down a large walnut, split it up, dressed the boards, and put together a very respectable coffin for one of his neighbors who had died. For making corn meal the grating method was sometimes used. By this means the corn was scraped off the cob by hand on a contrivance like a huge nutmeg grater. Others used a sweep. On the lower end of a suspended pole was a block of wood in which an iron wedge was inserted, with which the corn placed in the cavity hollowed out of the top of a stump was pounded into meal by working the sweep up and down.

In the course of time Allen SCOTT put up a horse mill for grinding corn. The patrons usually supplied the power, which was at first more frequently by oxen than by horses. In the latter half of the '50s several mills were erected, some of them run by steam and others by water power. In 1854 D. C. COWLES built a sawmill at Davis City for William DAVIS, and two or three years later Royal RICHARDSON, William SNOOK, John CLARK and John CLARK put up mills in the south and east part of the township.

Calicos, blankets and coffee and such things were sometimes obtained from the Indians, who brought them from Council Bluffs and Fort Des Moines, when they went to those agencies to draw their allowances from the Government. Allen SCOTT opened the first store, which he kept at his farmhouse, and in partnership with him for a time was a man named FOSTER. The first postoffice was also kept here, and was named Nine Eagles, of which Governor UJHAZY, a Hungarian refugee, was the first postmaster. The mail was brought by way of Princeton, Missouri.

The first school was taught in a vacated cabin on the Hamilton place, about a mile northwest of where Pleasanton is now. Cole SEYMOUR was perhaps the first teacher, followed by Jim Dunkerson, Mr. TILLERY and Gideon P. WALKER, the latter teaching several terms. The teachers were paid by subscription and the length of the terms depended on the amount of money raised in this way.

The Village of Pleasanton was laid out in the spring of 1854 by Daniel BARTHOLOW, and named Pleasant Plains. One-half of the land was given by BARTHOLOW and the other half by William SNOOK. The first store was kept by G. I. HINKLE, who lived on a farm now occupied by John McCORMICK about a mile and a half northwest of the town. Later there were stores by Greenville WATSON, Jeff GARDNER, Isaac WALDRUP and James ALFREY, who first served in a store belonging to BALLOU & PRITCHARD, and afterwards set up for himself. Tom MAJORS, afterward candidate for governor of Nebraska on the republican ticket, had a large stock of goods in 1859.

The goods were at first brought in by ox teams from Keokuk and Burlington, on the Mississippi, and from Brunswick and St. Joe, on the Missouri. Later they were hauled from Ottumwa after the main line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad reached there. The hauling of the goods from those points gave considerable occupation to men and teams, helping materially to piece out the means of living and giving a start in the acquiring of Property.

At an early date William SNOOK entertained travelers, and later Joel PAINTER kept a licensed hotel on the lot where the Pleasanton Bank now stands. Royal RICHARDSON opened his hotel in 1861.

Dr. David MACY was the first physician and located in Pleasanton in 1855. Doctor GLENDENNING was at Pleasanton for a year or more when he first entered upon the practice of his profession about 1856. Dr. P. E. MULLINIX located for practice here in 1859. Dr. W. E. PETERS also that year.

When W. S. WARNOCK, who had been admitted to the Ohio bar in 1853, struck Pleasanton in the fall of 1865 on his way to the West in the search for health and incidentally looking for an opportunity to teach school, there was no school building in the village. Some of the public-spirited citizens, learning that he wished to teach, asked him to tarry for a few days while they erected a schoolhouse. He did so. The men of the village went to work with a will, repaired to the timber, cut logs, hauled them to a site just back of where Mr. RICHARDSON'S present residence is, and in less than two weeks had a building ready for occupancy.

True, it hardly came up to the standard of a modern city school, with its log walls, puncheon floor and clapboard roof, its seats of split logs with wooden pegs for legs. Nevertheless, it served a good purpose, being used as a meeting house for religious services as well as for day school. There were meetings for Bible study and later a Sunday school. Isaac WALDRUP, merchant of the town, preached there with much acceptance.

Doctor FORBES had a school in a log cabin on the site of the Interstate Index office. The floor of the cabin had not been laid and the log sleepers were used for seats, yet the instruction imparted served its purpose in the development of the youthful mind as well as that given today on seats of the latest design and mechanism.

Education was considered of such great importance by the citizens that a building known as the College was erected for educational purposes in the late '50s. It was a 2-story frame building, 40 by 60, and was built by private subscription. The attendance of students varied from fifty to a hundred. But little more than the ordinary English branches were taught. E. LEWIS and wife, George STANTON, John W. CRAWFORD, W. S. WARNOCK and John SALLEE were among the instructors. Myra SNOOK, afterwards the wife of Dr. E. C. MACY, helped in the teaching while attending the school as a student. The building was also used for church purposes, and soldiers were drilled in it during the war. With thirteen other buildings it was destroyed in a fierce tornado which devastated the town in 1864. It never was rebuilt, being a more advanced step than the community could support at that early time.

There were no church buildings erected before the war. The Methodist Episcopal people began one, but it went no further than the erection of part of the frame, which was neglected and destroyed in the excitement attending the opening of the war. There was a Methodist organization which struggled along and religious services were held in the school buildings by Isaac WALDRUP, John MARK, Elijah CRAWFORD and Doctor GLENDENNING.

The Latter Day Saints people effected an organization in 1859, and preaching services were maintained by George MOREY, A. W. MOFFETT and Ebenezer ROBINSON. Their usual place of meeting was at a schoolhouse on the farm of A. W. MOFFETT, but services were occasionally held at other places.

The men carried their arms to the place of meeting and wore moccasins, or more often, when the weather permitted, came barefoot. Those from a distance came in ox wagons.

The legal fraternity was represented by Gideon P. WALKER, W. S. WARNOCK and James ALFREY.

WALKER was reared and educated in New York, where he read law and was admitted to the bar. On reaching his majority he located in the southern states, remaining there for several years, teaching school and practicing law. He came to Hamilton in the spring of 1849, and on the organization of the township in 1850 he was chosen one of the first clerks.

W . S. WARNOCK was a native of Ohio, in which state he studied law and was admitted to the bar. He came to Pleasanton late in 1863, where he taught school, kept postoffice and practiced his profession. In 1872 he moved to Davis City, and in 1878 was elected to represent the district in the Seventeenth General Assembly of Iowa.

James ALFREY, a clerk, storekeeper, school teacher and county superintendent, read some law and practiced in justice of the peace court, but present information does not indicate whether he was ever admitted to the bar or not.

When the postoffice was moved from Allen SCOTT's place to Pleasanton in 1858 the old name Nine Eagles was retained for several years. Early postmasters were Isaac WALDRUP and W. S. WARNOCK; some say the one was the first, some say the other.

In the eastern part of the township Robert BOOTH settled on a farm of several hundred acres in 1854. He had a mill and also a store, and was the first postmaster of the Spring Valley office. The little hamlet which sprang up about his place of business was variously known as Boothtown or El Dorado. This was on the east side of Little River. Almost opposite on the west side of the little stream settled Austin COWLES, with his two sons, D. C. and H. A. On a little hill not far from the river they built one of the first farm frame houses in the township, and on the river itself they put up a Mater power sawmill, to which was afterwards added grinding facilities. Before a regular school was established in the neighborhood the children used to go to their home of an evening to be instructed in the rudiments of reading and writing. Wesley COWLES, another son, had a blacksmith shop in Boothtown.

James I. DALE was another of the early Little River pioneers. He bought out Jefferson DIMICK, who was named one of the township election judges at its organization in 1850. Mr. DALE had four brothers, Fleming, Ambrose, Dudley and Meredith, who all settled in the same neighborhood and raised considerable families that exercised important influence in the development of the community.

James GAMMILL arrived in the same neighborhood in 1854, and also raised a large family of worth and intelligence. Besides these there were the LANEY, DUNLEAVY, SHARP, WILLIAMS, RUTHERFORD, ROBERTSON, NEWCOMER, McDOWELL, BAYLES and BUDD families. T. J. GRAVES came in 1859 and kept a blacksmith shop in El Dorado.

Some distance farther down the river John CLARK established himself in 1856. His biography, as published in the Decatur County Historical Record, gives the following account of him:

"Mr. CLARK entered and purchased in Morgan and Hamilton townships about one thousand acres of land, one-half of which was heavily timbered, much of the timber being of large size and of excellent quality. Here he immediately erected a sawmill for the purpose of manufacturing the timber into lumber. A small log cabin was already on the place, which his family occupied until he could manufacture lumber with which to build a more commodious residence.

"He purchased his machinery at Keokuk and hauled it from that place with ox teams. In 1857 Mr. CLARK added two sets of burrs to his mill property and also carding machinery — combining in the same building sawing, milling and wool dressing. In 1859 he added spinning machinery and looms, manufacturing all kinds of woolen clothes.

"During the War of the Rebellion the demand for his goods increased to such an extent that ten or twelve looms were kept busy. During this period his firm handled no less than 75,000 pounds of wool annually.

"It proved a successful enterprise and the greater part of the abundant wealth of J. CLARK and sons was acquired in the above mentioned manner. Their goods were a source of large revenue to the Government. The surplus funds were turned over to the Government in return for bonds, and thus in two ways did they contribute in a substantial way to the support of the Union in its struggle for existence. The milling business was discontinued soon after they started the woolen factory.

"In 1869 the First National Bank of Leon was organized with a capital of $50,000, of which Mr. CLARK supplied $20,000, and he was president of the bank during the whole term of its existence, or until it became the Farmers and Traders Bank.

"In 1876 Mr. CLARK and his son, William H., purchased the Davis Mill property at Davis City, and in 1875 father and two sons built the present brick flouring mill at a cost of about twenty thousand dollars. The mill had a superior water power, and an important use to which this power is applied is pumping water to supply the tank of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company. This work is done by contract. CLARK & Sons have contributed largely toward the building up of Davis City; each has a fine brick residence and they have erected and own all the brick business houses in town with one exception.

"Another enterprise of public interest and one highly creditable to its builder was the erection in 1878 of a fine brick church at Davis City. Mr. CLARK built this church at his own expense and furnished it with a fine town clock. All of its appointments are of the best. The cost of the church and furnishings was about five thousand dollars. Mr. CLARK has never identified himself with any religious denomination, but recognizing the importance of moral and religious training, he resolved to construct an edifice that should be free to all denominations. It is called the First Union Church of Davis City, and is the only church building in town." Among the most noted characters of early Hamilton history was Wyllis DICKINSON. He was born in Kensington, Conn., about 1799; came to Hamilton in 1840. He first lived on the bottom land by Grand River, but having had an undesirable experience with the overflow of the river he moved farther back to higher ground on the ridge. He put up the walls of a log cabin, and needing the shelter before he could get the roof on, within these walls he made a tent of muslin bought at Cincinnati on his way hither, and in this he lived two or three years before the cabin roof was put on. In this rude and primitive dwelling, without a window, he lived until his death in 1892, a period of fifty-two years from his coming to the township.

For the sake of exactness it should be said that toward the very last a single pane of glass was inserted in the wall near the chimney corner. Before indulging in this piece of luxury his reading during daylight hours was done by sitting with his back toward an opening in the wall made by removing a block of the chinking which was replaced in cold weather, when his reading was over for the time being. At night he read by the light of the lamp suspended by one of the beams which supported the ceiling. It consisted of a saucer-like vessel of metal, with a lip to it, in which lay a strip of cotton immersed in oil or melted grease, with which it was partially filled. The part of the cotton strip coming up through the lip was lighted, and as it burned down was drawn up from time to time with a large pin or other sharpened article.

In this simple way he was accustomed to gratify his love of reading, which was intense, as he was a man of more than usual education for the time and place. He resorted to these simple expedients not because he lacked the means to supply himself with better things, but because of the simplicity of his tastes and character. There were plenty of funds at his command to have provided not only the substantial necessaries of life, but to have given him the enjoyment of refinements, its luxuries and elegancies as well, if he had craved them.

It is said that when he was leaving the New England home his father wished to invest many thousands in liis interests, but he would have none of it, preferring to push his way by natural means in the wilderness ness like another Thoreau far from the rush of modern life as it developed in the older communities. His relatives were liberal in sending him supplies of money so that he never was without the power to pay amply for even the simplest service rendered him, and in this manner he was very independent. He was the owner of 570 acres of land in the county, indicating that the simplicity of his life was not owing to poverty, but to inherent characteristics which induced sympathy with the natural rather than the artificial. That he was fond of literature is not to be wondered at, seeing that he was the cousin of the poet Percival, born in the same town four years before himself, who was a geologist as well, but was known chiefly as a writer of dainty and picturesque verse.

Mr. DICKINSON was a nephew of a Mrs. WILLARD, who maintained a female seminary in the State of New York, where she at one time entertained Lafayette, whose visit she afterward returned in his home in France.

He was much interested in young people making a struggle for an education, and was ever anxious for an opportunity to furnish [himself] with books and magazines. A neighbor's son, John HOLDEN, though now well advanced in years, has still in his possession a valuable work which was the gift of the old hermit.

That he was a loyal citizen and patriot is proved by the fact that during the War of the Rebellion he offered forty acres of his land to a neighbor's son on condition that he would enlist in the army for the preservation of the Union. It is a matter of regret that the offer was not accepted.

Under his influence a nephew, Sherman HART, who lived with him and whom he intended to make his heir, joined the Union army. He was taken sick at Island No. 10, and being taken to Cape Girardeau [Missouri] for hospital treatment, died there. This was more to be lamented inasmuch as he was engaged to an estimable young woman whom he expected to marry at the close of hostilities, the dwelling for their occupancy having already been erected.

He was never married, and though a great recluse was never melancholy or downhearted. On the contrary, he was a singularly happy disposition. His unusual physical strength was under the complete control of dominant will and the serenity of his temperament was the leading trait of his character. His coolness of temper was strikingly displayed by an incident which occurred in 1855. He had just sold some land and was supposed to have had considerable money stowed away somewhere in the cabin, as proceeds of the sale. In the course of an evening, as he sat reading, and after young John HOLDEN, who was assisting him with his corn gathering, had gone to bed behind a curtain stretched across the room, on which account his presence was unsuspected, there came a knock at the door, and not being suspicious of evil intent, DICKINSON proceeded to unfasten the door by removing a large pin.

Upon opening the door a very large man appeared, followed by a smaller one. The large man claimed to be an agent of the Government, deputized to gather up all of the arms found in the hands of the citizens. Mr. DICKINSON expressed his surprise at this alleged action on the part of the Government, especially in his case, as he was well known to be a perfectly loyal citizen from whom the Government had nothing ing to fear.

During the colloquy the old man seemed to be thoroughly unsuspicious, but to the young man behind the curtain the move seemed to be a mere ruse on the part of the intruders to get into their own hands a shotgun, rifle and a musket which were kept upon the wall in the customary manner, in order that the obvious purpose of robbery might be more easily carried out.

Finding that the revolver that he usually carried was not within his reach, he sprang from the bed and seized the leader by the throat, who, on account of his superior strength was enabled to shake him off, but finding that DICKINSON was not alone, rushed through the open door and made his escape with his fellow burglar. One of the pieces from the wall was fired after them, DICKINSON the while remaining perfectly cool and collected, and after the flight of the parties making the remark that he could easily have brained the fellow with the powerful door pin which he still held in his hand.

The hermit was very successful in handling bees and he had perhaps as many as a hundred swarms at one time, and also rendered the honey and wax from forty hives, most of which was shipped to St. Joseph, Missouri, but some went as far as California. Of the honey he was accustomed to make considerable quantity of methelgin, a strong spirituous liquor which he drank freely as a stimulant, also sharing it liberally with his callers, for he was fond of company. Doing his own cooking, he became quite an expert in that line, and many of the young people of the place liked nothing better than to have an opportunity of partaking of the savory viands prepared by his hands, and he took great delight in thus catering to their tastes.

The old gentleman was originally an Episcopalian, but in mature life leaned to the Methodist persuasion, and gave freely of his means to its support, though he never became an actual member of the church. He was a great Bible reader.

Allen SCOTT, who lived on section 19, one of the very first of the pioneers, was a remarkable character and included in his make-up both the virtues and the vices of the class and time of which he belonged. He was somewhat of enterprising spirit, having the first store, the first postoffice and the first mill in the township. Some of the timbers of the framework of the old mill were still to be seen standing in a field by Sand Creek bridge as late as in the '80s.

After Mr. SCOTT had lived in the township some years he was visited one winter day by a wife and daughter whom he had abandoned in the old Indiana home. After making the call and receiving the blessing in the shape of some silk dress patterns from his store, they left his place on foot for the purpose of returning to the home of a relative living beyond Davis City. While crossing the prairie, bottom land intervening, they were overtaken by a fierce snowstorm and blizzard, and being blinded by its force, they became bewildered and lost their way. They wandered aimlessly about until benumbed by the freezing rain, and overcome by the stupor which affects persons in such cases, they dropped in the snow, and after the storm was over, were found frozen to death. Their bodies were buried in what is now the orchard of this writer.

In those early times horse racing was one of the chief forms of recreation and dissipation. Between Scott's house and the river a track was laid out and his place became the rendezvous of sporting men from all parts of the country, in order to test the speed of their horses, gaining and losing money.

Horse thieves abounded in those days and many times the best animals of the honest farmers came up missing. The matter finally became so grievous that it was found necessary to adopt heroic measures in order to put a stop to the serious losses incurred in this way. The farmers quietly banded together, and at night visited those known to be engaged in this nefarious business, took them out to the timber and treated them to a liberal application of hickory switches. This method of procedure effectually cured the evil, the parties receiving treatment speedily betaking themselves from the country, one dose being found quite enough.

One one occasion it was strongly suspected that SCOTT knew more about such things than he was willing to tell, and it was proposed to use radical measures to make him willing. One night he was rather forcibly invited to an interview under an oak in the road leading to Pleasanton. A noose on the end of a rope was placed about his neck, the other end was thrown over a limb, and he was shot rapidly skyward. After dangling in the air for some time he was lowered to the ground and given an opportunity to share the desired information with his friends, but he was still unwilling; and a second application also failing to elicit any knowledge from him, he was set free, His captors thinking that after all he might be wrongly suspected. The tree on which the operation took place was afterwards known as the Al SCOTT tree and remained a prominent landmark in the highway until it was cut down a few years ago for firewood, much to the regret of the old settlers.

At one time there was quite an excitement over the alleged discovery of gold on the SCOTT place in the bed of Sand Creek. There was a considerable amount of gold found, but there is reason to believe that the peculiar spot where the supposed discovery was made had been salted for commercial purposes, that the value of the land being raised SCOTT would be able to sell his farm at high price. However, the plan did not work, for the gold was sought with such avidity that the supply gave out before any trade for the farm was consummated, and the excitement soon died out. The salting of the creek bed was easily accomplished by collusion with one or more of the many gold seekers who were constantly passing to and fro on the California trail during the days of the gold fever in 1849 and the '50s. The SCOTT place was a noted resort for such parties. The farm remained in his possession until 1876, when it was sold to Stephen BEACH.

But SCOTT was not all bad. He had his good points. Like most of us, he was a mixture of the worst and the better elements in the human aggregation. He was generous and hospitable. Everybody was welcome to his board and no one was refused a bed when occasion required. The needy were never turned away empty handed, and those in want of accommodation cheerfully received such help as he could give. But like many another free-hearted soul who failed in recognition of the higher aspects of life, he lived long enough to become a pensioner on the bounty of his friends. He was misuited to the conditions which followed the war; his property gradually frittered away, until he found himself without a home, but not altogether without friends.
 
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