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cont: Page 337:
THE FIRST
ELECTION
July 29, 1839, the County Commissioners of Dubuque County passed the
following:
| "Ordered,
That an election precinct be established at the house of
Jacob Schwartz, to be known as the Schwartz Precinct."
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There is no record of an election at Schwartz's in that year, but that
there was such is indicated by the Commissioners' records of Dubuque
County, of date Monday, August 26, which provided for the payment of
Judges of Election, Clerk and Messenger, of Schwartz Precinct, at the
election held the first Monday in August, as follows: John W. Penn, Lucius
Kibbee and Jacob Swart
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(Schwartz),
Judges, $1.00 each; G. D. Dillon, Clerk, $1.00, and William H. Morning,
Clerk and Messenger, $4.50.
At this election, the settlers of Delaware County voted for Dubuque County
officers and for members of the Territorial Legislature; but in relation
to the number of votes polled, the records are silent.
Lucius Kibbee served on the Grand Jury of Dubuque County in August, 1839.
Leroy Jackson and William H. Whiteside were, also Grand Jurors in that
year, but nor from Delaware.
The first religious services in Delaware, of which record or tradition
remains, were held in 1839, by Mr. Simeon Clark, a Methodist preacher from
Dubuque County, at the Moreland settlement, or colony. He was called
Preacher Clark by the settlers, and "Cap-head" Clark by the ungodly boys,
because he generally went without a hat, having a handkerchief bound
around his head. He was not an ordained minister at that time, but was an
earnest exhorter, and generally preached to the settlers on Sunday, while
out upon his bee-hunting expeditions. In the Summer of 1839, Mr.
Clark and a Mr. Funston, also of Dubuque, traversed Delaware County,
hunting bees. In relation to the first religious services by Mr.
Clark, Mr. McNamee writes: "The first sermons he preached were in a little
cabin occupied by four or five young men (names not given, but probably
Gilmore, Baker, Thomas Cole and others), who were "keeping bach," as they
termed it. Said cabin was the first one that was built in this township,
and the first sermon that was preached in this township was in this
bachelor cabin."
In the Fall of 1839, a war party of the Sacs and Foxes, or Musquakas,
numbering twenty-five, under the lead of one of Keokuk's sons, stopped at
Moreland's on their way to the head waters of the Volga, whither they were
going to surprise a camp of Winnebagoes. While at the Colony, Jacob B.
Moreland, then a lad 18, sold them his dog for a deer and coon they had
killed. This party afterward surprised the camp of Winnebagoes while the
chief and his braves were absent hunting, killed twenty-five old men,
squaws and children, and captured two of the chief's children.
During 1840, immigration to the Delaware settlements began to increase
very considerably, and relatively large accessions were made to the
population. Among those who sought homes in the groves and on the prairies
of Delaware in 1840, may be mentioned the following:
Clement Coffin, who made his headquarters at Eads' Grove, while he
explored the country, permanently located in the beautiful grove since
known by his name, in the southern central part of Township 89 N., R. 6 W.
(Coffin's Grove), and became one of the leading, influential citizens of
the county; at that time his family was located farther west than any
other white family in this part of the Territory of Iowa.
Of Judge Coffin, Mr. Peet in his Centennial sketch remarks: "He was a
genuine and true man to his friends; of great fidelity to his trust;
entirely free from anything like hypocrisy; he made up his mind with
deliberation, and then expressed his opinion whether his hearers were
pleased or not; and we always knew where to find him. He was a millwright,
a carpenter, a dairyman, a wagon maker and a successful, energetic farmer.
Mrs. Coffin knew how to draw around her wilderness home the wise and the
good. She raised her family well, and fitted them for the highest
and best social positions.
Daniel Brown had settled at Eads' Grove. Brown is said to have been the
first blacksmith in the county, but Joel Bailey was a gunsmith, and, as we
have seen, worked some at blacksmithing.
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Robert Gamble, William R. Evans, and perhaps others settled near Eads.
Drury R. Dance had settled near Schwartz, and Oliver A. Olmstead located
near Dillon's.
The Moreland colony received comparatively large additions to its
population during this year. Leonard Wiltse and family (April), John
Melugin and family, Drake Nelson, Nathan Springer, Amasa Wiltse, William
Montgomery and James Montgomery settled in that vicinity. Abraham and
William H. Whiteside, formerly of Jo Daviess County, Ill, located and
probably settled on the North Fork of the Maquoketa in the Fall; William
H. Whiteside was one of the Judges of Election in Paul's Precinct, Dubuque
County, in August 1840.
Duncan McCullom settled in the southeast part of the county, near the
Livingstons. Richard Waller, Joseph Ogilby, Elder Ira A. Blanchard (who
was the first minister of the Gospel, Baptist) to settle in Delaware
County, Orlean Blanchard and perhaps some others settled on Buck Creek, in
Township 87, R. 4 W.
Benjamin F. Moffatt settled on Plum Creek (east of the present town of
Delhi), near Schwartz; between Moffatt's and Penn's Grove George and John
Cutler built their cabins, and near them settled Moses Pennock. The
Lindsey family. formerly at Eads' Grove, settled in this vicinity about
this time.
Charles W. Hobbs came in 1840, and lived one year at Dillon's then moved
to Penn's grove.
William R. Adin, John and Leverett Padelford, with their mother and three
sisters, settled near the mouth of Honey Creek, in Township 89 N., R. 5 W.
(one of the sisters, Delotia, subsequently married John Nagle, one of the
first settlers of the Colony. Leverett Padelford, his mother and sister
Sarah died here, and lie buried in a field south of Jones' woolen mills,
and a little west of Acres' Addition to Manchester, with nothing to mark
their last resting places.) Leverett Rexford, who was the brother of Mrs.
Padelford, his son Francis, daughter Olive, and nephew, Valorus B. Rexford,
came with the Padelfords.
About the same time, Joel Pike took up land in the same township, near
Hutson's, and near the present site of Millheim.
Leroy Jackson, whose boyhood days were spent in the frontier settlements
of Kentucky, served in the Black Hawk war, and settled in Dubuque, in
1833. He was well skilled in all the arts of woodcraft, and frequently
traversed the Delaware prairies on hunting expeditions. He took a
plat of the lake, in 1837. In one of his hunting expeditions in
1840, he came to Nicholson's cabin. The father was dead and the widow did
not wish to remain, and Jackson bought the sons' claim and property,
consisting of thirty-five acres improved land, 160 bushels of wheat
400bushels corn, 2 yokes of oxen, 2 cows, 3 or 4 young cattle, 2 bbls.
strained honey, * 1 barrel honey in comb, some hogs, hay, etc. The price
was $800, and Jackson paid $775. One of the Nicholsons afterward went to
California. After making the bargain, Jackson returned to Dubuque, and
induced Henry A. Carter, then in trade at that place, to join him in the
purchase.
| * This seems at
this day to be almost incredible, but it must be
remembered that at that time, wild bees were numerous,
and this was a land literally "flowing with wild honey,"
if not with milk. The groves were full of "bee-trees,"
and the early settlers always had plenty of honey. Judge
Bailey states that in 1840, the Spring was mild, and one
afternoon in March, he took his bait box, went out and
found two bee-trees, from one of which, he and Keeler
took about one hundred pounds of nice honey. Their mode
of finding the bees was simple. The hunter was provided
with a small box, in the bottom of which a piece of
honey-comb was placed; this box was pinned with a lid in
which a piece of class was set. There was also a slide
by which the honey could be shut from the bees in the
top. Sometimes a piece of bee bread was taken along to
be burned to "toll" the bees. Arriving at the scene of
operation, the hunter watched until he found a bee on a
flower, when he would quietly approach with his open
box, suddenly shut the lid, and the bee finding himself
imprisoned would fly up against the glass, the slide
would then be closed until the insect became quiet, when
it would be gent'y opened and the bee would soon drop
down upon the honey and go to work. The box was then
opened and the bee rising in the air would circle around
a few times and the strike a "bee-line" for its tree.
If it was near, it would be but a short time before
there would be several bees return to the treasure
the first had found, indicating some mode of
communication between these industrious and intelligent
insects; watching their flight, the hunter was soon able
to determine what direction to take, and seldom failed
to find the tree. |
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