Iowa
Old Press
THE MALVERN LEADER
Malvern, Mills co. Iowa
May 15, 1884
SOME HISTORY OF MILLS COUNTY (Written for The
Leader, by W. H. Taft).
Number VII. This highway was called the "State Road"
and was the main thoroughfare from Glenwood eastward. After
crossing the Nishna it followed the valley northward to Indian
Creek grove, from whence it pursued the most favorable route to
the next, Frankfort, the county seat of Montgomery county.
A tri-weekly stage or hack line was established on this route in
1856 to carry the mails and passengers between Ottumwa and
Glenwood, touching at the different county seats. The road was at
that time varied to accommodate a postoffice at the new town of
Fayette (afterward named Loudon,) and was then placed on the
route by the Fellon hill. From White Cloud, (laid out in 1855,)
it was also changed to run directly east, on the township lines,
to a new Montgomery county town called Red Oak Junction, now the
important city of Red Oak. As the travel through this region
increased, daily mails replaced the tri-weekly service and
four-horse coaches were substituted for the hacks, but as the
railroad progressed westward, the staging business became of less
importance, the route gradually shortened and in December 1869,
the Western Stage Company's wheels rolled for the last time
through Mills county, the last mail bag was tenderly handed from
the boot to Postmaster Coolidge, the last regretful passenger was
politely aided to dismount at the Ward House, and the last
accommodating driver was turned loose, to repent of his profanity
and to meditate on the instability of stables, while seeking a
position as expert baggage smasher on the iron horse coaches.
Superintendent Tracy then gathered up the company's outfit and
shipped it to the seaports of Idaho and Montana, there to
commence a new career amid mountains, gulches and road agents.
SOUTH OF THE LINE OF ROAD JUST DESCRIBED LIES A MAGNIFICENT
COUNTRY, THE HOME OF THE WAHBONSIES, TABORITES AND OTHER
SCATTERING TRIBES WHO HAD SETTLED THERE QUITE NUMEROUSLY
PREVIOUSLY TO 1854, AND HAD ATTAINED TO A CONSIDERABLE DEGREE OF
COMFORT IN THEIR SURROUNDINGS.
The whole territory extending from two miles west of the
Nishnabotna to the Missouri, appears to have been known as Rawles
township and was so named after Joseph Rawles, who came from
Missouri in the year 1847. This old settler subsequently moved to
a farm on Keg creek near Glenwood, which he again left to go to
California, where he continued to prosper for a number of years
till his death.
That beautiful valley a part of which is embraced within the east
line of the township and is now occupied by Whitfield, Aistrope
and Davis, was then the property of the Dunagans and E. Witt. Dr.
Wm. Barrett was also there and farther south was Chas. Kesterson.
Mount Tabor was the name of the town that had been planted just
over the line in Fremont county by a colony from Oberlin, Ohio,
which had at its first coming up the Missouri, located on the
bottom, but finding the land too wet had moved eastward to the
high plateau which overlooks the Nishnabotna on the east and the
Missouri bluffs on the west.On this elevation, and extending
northward from the town were located Townshend, Gardner, Jones,
J. Munsinger and Gaston; farther north were U. Williams, Boyds,
Terryberry, Rains and Utterback.
Westward, where the hills become less sloping and more abrupt,
and timber fills the hollows and extends upon the uplands were
the homes of Estes, A. Williams Wolf, McPherons, Blair, Creech,
Burger and Wiles.
Still westward and within the boundaries of present Lyons
township, among the Waubonsie hills, and at the foot of the
bluffs, on the smooth bottom land stretching with a gradual slope
toward the river, sheltered on the east by the precipitous cliffs
through whose deep ravines came the musical flow of water from
gurgling springs, and whose ample "pockets" disclosed
romantic sites for cosy homes, were to be found the Lamberts
Kerns, Reed, Buckinghams, Folden, Shepherdson, Dean, Troth,
Lampson, Cutler and Haynie.
In 1857 the township of Lyons was organized, and was given all
the territory embraced in congressional township 71 Range 43. The
west side is fractional and deficient in about three sections,
resultant from the course of the Missouri river. While there are
several large farms in the township chiefly on the bottom, for
instance, John Haynie's, W. E. Dean's, A.R. & J.D. Wright's
and Buckingham's, it contains as many land owners, for its size,
as any township in the county. This occurs from the large body of
timber in the eastern portion being divided into small lots and
partitioned among a multitude of proprietors.
Fortunately, the township has developed an unequaled civil
engineer, who being " to the manor born", can tread his
native heath with confidence, where in the maze of lofty
pinnacles and abyssmal gorges, others would be irretrievably
lost, and who by the aid of his staff and compass can unravel the
tangled lines of boundaries, decipher the testimony of witness
trees and mounds, and topographically depict the superfices of
each owner's area, however parabolically formed, serrated or
conical, it may be. We are happy to record that this skillful
scientist, who has already gained high honors in his own country,
is not only a native of Mills county, but is also the son of one
of her foremost pioneers, who has himself reflected luster on her
history by worthily filling official positions in township and
county. William E. dean, the pioneer alluded to is a native of
Vermont and came to this county as early as 1849. He located on
the land which he still owns, and which is acknowledged to be one
of the most admirable farrms in the county. As the first Drainage
Commissioner, he was well known by all the early residents of the
land bordering on the streams and the thirty-five years that have
elapsed since his coming hither, seem not to have abated his
joviality, nor rendered him less alert as a progressive farmer
and enterprising citizen.
His son, Seth Dean ( a three year old stripling at the period of
our history), has been four times elected County Surveyor, and it
is safe to predict that he will continue to be chosen to that
position until a larger field opens, in which, as a mathematical
expert of versed scion, he may find a broader plane whereon to
rectangulate his meanderings, irradiate the homologous chords of
well-ranked logarithms, bisect the acre of anarchy, and like a
true telescopic seer, predicate the perimeter of the prismoidal
parallelo-pipedon.
[submitter: G.K. Aug. 2003]