HARDIN COUNTY, IOWA "FIRSTS" IN THE TOWNSHIPS

 

PLEASANT TOWNSHIP

 

First Things:
The first marriage, as already stated, was that of Peter Miller and Laura Duke, in the spring of 1853.

The first birth was a daughter of Frank Miller, born in the fall of 1852. It lived but a short time.

The first death was Martha E., daughter of Isaac S. and Mary A. Moore, who died October 4, 1853, aged nine years.

The first school in the township was in the winter of 1853-4, in a log cabin erected by Jesse Waggle, on section 28. Isaac S. Moore was the first teacher. With the growth and improvement in the township, the log houses have given way to frame, and there are now ten in the township. The first regular school house was a frame, boarded up and down, and erected on the farm of Isaac S. Moore in 1856.

The first election was held at the house of James Miller, in April, 1854.

The first physician to locate in the township was Dr. D.C. Atwater. He located in the township in the summer of 1862.

Cemeteries:
There are three cemeteries in the township--The Rough Woods on section 8; Point Pleasant on section 18; and Duke on section 29.

Religious:
The pioneers of Pleasant township, while toiling for the good things of this world, did not neglect the duty they owed to the giver of all good. The first religious services in the township, were held at the house of Isaac S. Moore, in the spring of 1853, by Rev. E.C. Crippin of the Methodist Episcopal Church. A class was organized by Rev. Mr. Steward, from Illinois, October, 1853. The following named comprised the original membership: Isaac S. Moore, Mary A. Moore, James Blair, Hester J. Blair, Catherine Johnson and Martha Lyons--six in all. The following years there were quite a number taken into the Church under the preaching of Rev. Mr. Steward, among who were Archibald Johnson, John Sharar, Harriet Sharar, John Cayton and others whose names are not recalled. Isaac S. Moore was the first Class Leader, and served three years.

A class of Protestant Methodists was organized about the year 1865, and those that remained in the neighborhood, composing the Methodist Episcopal Class, united with it. The society, in 1865, erected upon section 28 a church edifice at a cost of $1,200. To Leonidus Smith and S.B. Hubbard, much credit is due for the erection of this church building.