Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 725
LUCIUS MERCHANT

Lucius MERCHANT, an enterprising farmer, living on section 8 township 70, range 43, and is in the civil township of Magnolia, may well be looked upon as one of the bold, hardy pioneers who saw the then wild domain of Harrison County in the spring of 1851, and the subjoined notice is a brief review of his life.

He was born in Franklin County, Mass., February 26, 1817, and remained at home with his parents until 1842, when he came to Hancock County, Ill., remained four years, bringing him to 1846, at which time he came to Kanesville, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where he followed farming until 1851, and then came to Harrison County. He settled in Magnolia Township, where he now lives, taking a claim of three hundred and twenty acres on section 8, where he built a log house 16 feet square; broke and fenced ten acres that year. This was about the first improvement that was made in Magnolia Township by those who remained as permanent settlers. There was a man named CLEVELAND, who sold to Mr. LOCKLING, who was here in advance of Mr. MERCHANT. He had a log house and twenty acres under cultivation, which Mr. MERCHANT believes was made in 1849--Mr. CLEVELAND sold out and went to Utah. It will be remembered that our subject came to this county two years before it was organized, and when Pottawattamie and Harrison Counties were as one for judicial purposes. At that time the temporary county seat was being located, and the three commissioners appointed by the Governor, stopped at Mr. MERCHANT's cabin and spoke of locating the county seat there, where upon MERCHANT told them that he intended to make a farm there, and did not care for the county seat. The first land our subject entered was the forty acres that his house is now on. This was at the time of the great California gold excitement, and a neighbor, (TODD) and our subject, each had a steer, and they put these steers together and TODD drove them to Council Bluffs and sold them, and Mr. MERCHANT took what his steer brought, and entered forty acres of land; he entered one hundred and twenty acres in all, but now has two hundred and thirty acres, all improved. He lived in the log house he first built, until 1861, and then erected a frame addition sixteen feet square, which served the family until 1872, when his present commodious frame farm-house was built. It is a story and one-half, 26x32 foot square. In 1883 he built a barn 30x40 feet with sixteen foot posts.

When Mr. MERCHANT first came to this county, his nearest post-office and trading point was Council Bluffs, and the nearest mill was six miles this side on the Pigeon River, and during the summer of 1851 the season known to old settlers as the "high water season," and during June or July four or five teams started to mill down by the Bluffs; the streams were very high, and what few bridges had been constructed had been washed away, and when the party got to the Boyer, which they found was overflowing its banks, a daring feat had to be executed. Mr. MERCHANT was in the lead, all having ox-teams, and they halted at a man's house near the river, the same being owned by Mr. KIRBY, who had a canoe. they decided to take off the wheels of their wagon, and carry them across in the canoe; when Mr. KIRBY had reached the center of the stream, the boat upset, and the boatman swam ashore, the wheels went to the bottom of the Boyer, where they remained for about a month, (it is said the tires did not have to be set during that season), while the canoe was captured by one of the party, and another plan was resorted to, as flour they must have, at least corn-meal! They swam their oxen across the river, tied down their wagon-beds, hitched rope to the to the tongues, and Commodore PERRY never saw a better flotilla of barges than was landed on the opposite shore without the loss of a man.

The Indian scare of 1855 came about in this wise: the Indians had not be war-like, but were in the habit of crossing over the river, and appropriating the property of the settlers to their own use, which aggravated the pioneers, who concluded they would stop their coming across the river, a detailed account of which appears elsewhere in this work

Mr. MERCHANT was married in Hancock County, Ill., April 15, 1844, to Miss Hortensia PATRICK, who was born in Franklin County, Mass., March 30, 1824, and in 1843 she came to Kirtland, Ohio, and remained there one years, and then went to Illinois and remained with the brother until she was married.

Mr. and Mrs. MERCHANT are the parents of nine children, born as follows--Amasa L., March 11, 1845; Sarah, July 26, 1847; Clement E., and Cornelia I. (twins) April 16, 1850; Mary H., August 27, 1852; Joseph W., January 28, 1855; Milton, March 1, 1857; Charles C., July 9, 1861; Cora E., August 4, 1867. Sarah, the second, born of this family died October 1, 1847, Cora E., the youngest died May 8, 1868.

Mr. and Mrs. MERCHANT are both consistent members of the Latter Day Saints Church at Magnolia, he having been a member since 1842, and his wife since 1813, both uniting in Massachusetts, and afterward becoming identified with the Reorganized Church. In the early settlement of this county game was plentiful, such as deer, elk, turkeys, prairie chickens and wolves. One morning Mr. LEWIS a neighbor of our subject's came to MERCHANT's cabin and wanted his rifle, saying he has seen prairie chickens. He go the gun and repaired to the thicket, and to his surprise he found a deer, but some reason his rifle refused to shot, so he excitedly came back to tell MERCHANT, who went back and wounded the deer, but not having his knife, he came home, a half mile, and with his son Amasa, took the ax and went back and cut the animal's head off.

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