Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 658
JUDGE JONAS W. CHATBURN

From the earliest day in Harrison county, the name CHATBURN was almost a household word. It was Jonas W. CHATBURN who constructed the first mill in this county and with the same ground the first meal and flour made in the county. He was an early-day county judge and was prominent among the membership of the church of the Latter Day Saints.

Jonas W. CHATBURN was a native of England, born in 1821, who emigrated to this country in 1845, worked as a machinist in Philadelphia five years and in 1850 started west with the idea of going to Utah with the Mormon people, but upon reaching Council Bluffs, refused to go further on account of that people's practice of polygamy. He operated a saw-mill in Mills county until 1853, when he came to Harrison county, entering a quarter section of land near where now stands the village of Magnolia. In 1854 he and Stephen MAHONEY constructed, on Willow creek, the pioneer mill referred to. In 1862 Thomas DAVIS and Mr. CHATBURN erected a large flour mill at Woodbine, and in 1867 built the flour-mill at Harlan, Shelby county, where Judge CHATBURN spent the remainder of his days. He also had a mill at the town of Shelby, Shelby county. He walked twenty-five miles to Council Bluffs to get his first seed corn. He paid a dollar and a half for half a bushel and carried it on his back, wading through water knee deep on the flats where now stands the city of Missouri Valley. In politics he was first an old line Whig and later voted for John C. FREMONT for President and was one of the original organizers of the Republican party in 1856, doing good service in that connection.

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