Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 673
ROBERT P. MCTWIGAN

Robert P. MCTWIGAN, proprietor of an extensive harness business at Missouri Valley, has been a resident of Western Iowa for thirty years. He was born near Providence, R. I., June 3, 1845, and is the son of James and Mary (MCGILL) MCTWIGAN, both of whom were natives of Scotland, and were married in that country. In 1840, they came to America. The father was a dress-tender in a cotton factory, and followed the same until 1856, when he immigrated to Pottawattamie County, Iowa. His family coming the next spring, remained until July and then went back East. In 1861, he and the family went West again and remained one year, but returned, except Robert P., and his brother William H. The father died in December, 1887, the mother having died in 1850. Their family consisted of five children, one of whom, our subject, was the youngest. Three of the children are still living, one brother and a sister living in Providence, R. I.

William worked in a hotel for a time in Council Bluffs, while our subject worked for George MCGAVREN, at old St. John's, and in the summer of 1862, engaged with John HENTHORN, to do freighting across the Plains, under the management of Ephraim BRANDRIFF, who died in Missouri Valley. Mr. MCTWIGAN made two round trips to Denver in the summer and winter of 1862-3, and in the spring engaged with William PEABELER in the same line and went to Denver and from there to Atchison, Kan., returning to Denver with another outfit, and there remained until the next season, when he engaged with the Government to do freighting from Denver to New Mexico, during which time much trouble was experienced by reason of their stock being stampeded by the Indians. After this he continued in the employ of the Government under the management of Thomas POLLACK, into Kansas and down the Arkansas River. At this time the Indians were very hostile, and many a thrilling incident is narrated by our subject concerning these early day experiences beyond the bounds of civilization. The first trouble they experiences was a water spout, which caused a rush of water as high as their wagon bed early one morning while they were camped on the Fountain Ka-boyer, which flood raised the stream beyond its banks. Part of the train had crossed over, while the remainder halted the night before on the opposite side, and the only way the last part of the train could cross the stream, was by making the wagon box water-tight and swimming the mules. When they saw the flood coming the wagon master ordered the mules turned loose, and the men that were the least thoughtful turned all the mules loose, without saving one to ride on themselves, and had it not been for our subject, with more foresight, two or three of the men would have been drowned. On proceeding down to Ft. Larned from Lyons, a distance of about two hundred miles, they were followed by the Indians, and it is interesting to hear our subject, in his own peculiar way, relate how that he intended to have the first Indian's scalp. The company were always on their guard, hence managed to avoid any serious trouble. Upon arriving at Ft. Larned and seeing about thirty thousand Indians in camp, one third of whom were warriors, our subject said to himself: "Mr. Injun, you let me alone and I will you." From the last named place to Council Grove, the trip was made safely, but upon their return trip, when they arrived at Cow Creek, they saw where eleven white men and two negroes had been massacred, while two boys had been scalped alive.

In The winter of 1864-'65 he started for Rhode Island, but stopped at Council Bluffs and farmed the following season, and made a trip to Ft. Collins, eighty miles north of Denver, and farmed the following summer in Pottawattamie County. In 1868 he was employed in the construction of the Union Pacific Railroad, and in the spring of 1869 went into the fish trade, but again in 187071 we find him tilling Harrison County soil. In 1872, he bought a farm in Crescent Township, Pottawattamie County, which he sold the following year, and then spent a year in Rhode Island, and from there came to Missouri Valley, where for eight years he was engaged in the sewing machine business, but since then he has been engaged in the harness business.

Politically he is a stanch Republican, and has been a member of the Council, and was City Marshal of Missouri Valley.

Drucilla JONES a native of Indian became our subject's wife November 7, 1869. Her parents came to Wayne County, Iowa, in 1854, and ten years later to Harrison County, Iowa. They are now both deceased. The mother was buried in Wayne County, Iowa, while the father's remains were placed in St. John's Cemetery, Harrison County. Our subject's parents are both buried in Providence, R. I., his father having served in the Greybeard Regiment from that State during the Civil War. No man under forty-five years of age was allowed in that regiment.

Mr. and Mrs. MCTWIGAN are the parents of three children, James Nathan, deceased in infancy; Robert Alexander, born August 27, 1871, still at home with his parents, and William Arthur, born April 28, 1878.

In reviewing the eventful career of this man's life, one is impressed with the thought that his lot has been cast in the wilds of a new country, and co-incident with many a privation and hardship, though perhaps not without its accompanying advantages and pleasant surroundings. To be a pioneer means to encounter many of the unpleasant things of life, as well as not a few of the pleasant. Mr. MCTWIGAN was but sixteen years of age upon coming West, and a year later crossed the plains, which at that time was described on the geographies of the common schools as "The Great American Desert." A sketch of this character is all too short to picture the transformation which has taken place West of the Missouri River during our subject's residence in the West. In fact the past forty years has been the formative period in the West, and is replete with much of thrilling interest both in adventure and history. All things considered, there are but few pioneers who found their way to the "vast, illimitable and ever changing West," and whose eyes are now growing dim with age, who ever regret having emigrated from the Old World or the back-bound coast of New England, to what has now come to be the "Middle Kingdom" of this great Republic, and our subject may well look back with pride over his experience during the past third of a century.

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