INTRODUCTION

published by B. F. Bowen & Co., Inc., Chapter 1, pages 33-34

Transcribed and submitted by Alvin Poole January 16, 2019

Prior to 1846-47, sixty-eight years ago, and fifteen years before the opening of the Civil War period, no representatives of the white race had ever traversed the prairies and valleys of valleys of Harrison county, as known to the geographies of today.  A little more than three score years ago the scene presented in the beautiful valleys of this county, such as the Sioux, Boyer, Soldier and Missouri rivers, was made up of Nature’s own landscapes, which are ever a feast to the eye.  This was then, and has been for long unknown centuries, the hunting and camping ground of the Sioux, the Sac and Foxes and other Indian tribes, who battled one with the other for supremacy.  Than all was as nature had fashioned it.  The prairie flowers bloomed on every hillside and fertile valley within what is now sometimes called “The Kingdom of Harrison,” on account of the size of this sub-division of Iowa.  The wild rose sent forth its rare, delicate fragrance which was wasted on “the desert air.” The autumn was as beautiful then as now, but the scene was far different, for the red man tilled no fields and the wild grass smitten by the early frosts made fit fuel for the endless prairie-fires that annually swept down the valley consuming all in its way, even to the water’s edge. 

The wild grass has gone; the underbrush along the streams has long since given way to the more profitable vegetation.  The dusky warrior’s rude cabin has given way to the large, modern, well-built farm-house, some of which have electric lighting systems and many more both hot and cold running water.  The wild shrub has gone with the Indian, and the orchard and vineyard have come as a result of civilized life.  The trail of deer and the antelope has been exchanged for the great steel rail highways, that cross and re-cross the domain now known as Harrison county.  Then the wintry storm drove the frightened, suffering elk and bison to their hiding places; now the cold blast drives the farmer’s stock to a comfortable shelter.  Less than seventy years ago not a furrow had been plowed here; where the wigwam stood, as the abode of the savage, blood-thirsty Sioux, now may be seen many prosperous towns and cities.  The Indian trailed along the picturesque stream then, but now the swift flying freight and express trains go hither and yon, carrying their cargo of the products of the fertile soil and the descendants of  a nobler, more useful  race of people – the white race.

Before entering into the history of the earlier settlers account of the territory in question, while it was yet a part of the territory of Iowa, with its transfer to the present state of Iowa, which is about the date of the coming of the first Mormons to this section of the West.  Many of the Mormons, having disagreed with President Brigham Young on the question of polygamy, located along the Missouri river, and settled these southwestern Iowa counties, finally becoming known as the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints.  Here, among the hills and valleys of this county, where so many of their descendants still reside, they settled, like the Pilgrim Fathers, in a place where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.