Jasper Co. IAGenWeb
Past and Present of Jasper Co.

CHAPTER V
EARLY SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTY

Past and Present of Jasper County Iowa
B.F. Bowden & Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1912


To have been a pioneer in Jasper County, Iowa, while the fair and fertile domain was yet under the territorial government was indeed an honor to those who braved the frontier hardships, away back in the early forties, when the Indian was still in part possession of this section of the "vast illimitable and ever-changing West." The sons and daughters of these early settlers may well refer to their ancestry with a just pride, for it was they who set the first stakes to a civilization now far surpassing their most sanguine dreams. Then, too, many of the pioneer band and their offspring went forth in 1861 in defense of the flag of the Union and laid down life on a Southern battlefield, or perchance returned maimed for life. Indeed the pioneer band who first invaded the wilds of Jasper County were men and women of the truest and most sterling type of manhood and womanhood.

It was on April 23, 1843, a week prior to the legal time set for white men to set their claim stakes in the "New Purchase" in Iowa, that four daring, rugged characters, accompanied by three others, left their families in Jefferson County, Iowa territory, in search of lands on which to build for themselves new homes. These men were Adam M. Tool, William Highland, John Frost and John Vance. Of the three men who accompanied those just named, this narrative will not undertake to trace further than when they parted from the four who are the subjects of this item in the early settlement chapter now being prepared by the compiler of this work.

These four brave-hearted pioneers carried ten days' rations, and blankets on which to sleep at nighttime, and traveled a distance of eighty miles up the Skunk River. On the night of the 28th of April 1843, these weary travelers and home seekers camped for the night at a point where now stands the town of Monroe. They prepared their evening meal, rolled up in their blankets and slept peacefully in that solitude as yet unbroken by the work of the white race. The next day they passed on south to the trading post of Dick Parker, at the red rocks of the Des Moines, then the only house west of Jefferson County. Here they chanced to meet that now historic steamboat, "Ione," which was slowly making its way up the Des Moines River, having on board a company of infantry, commanded by Captain Allen, who was then building a barracks at the Raccoon Forks (present Des Moines City). The land seekers were headed for a "squatter's" place, whose name was 'Mosier, in the Narrows near where Oskaloosa now stands, but as if by the strange hand of fate, or Providence, they were caught in a drenching, cold spring rain. They walked briskly along the Indian trail till late at eventide, finally reaching their objective point, badly jaded by exposure.

In the morning of the following day Adam M. Tool was especially disgusted with his experience and talked of returning to Jefferson County and there purchasing a claim of another. They had been informed (possibly by the trader Parker) that the New Purchase would not be ready for settlement for at least twenty years yet. The quartette of home seekers all seemed to have a bad case of the "blues." Highland was not satisfied, but believed that, on the whole, they could not do better than retrace their steps and stake out claims up the river. Finally a council determined that they should go back to the point of timber in which they had camped on the night of the 27th. Frost and Vance, the other two, being footsore and generally fatigued, thought it best for them to remain at the "Narrows" until the wagon loaded with provisions which was to intercept their wanderings came in sight, when they would have more provisions and axes and other implements with which to make some needed improvements. Hence it was that Tool and Highland sallied forth and made their way to the Skunk Bottoms, arriving at their former camping spot on the night of the 30th of April 1843. The next day was hailed with great delight, as that was the day fixed by the government on which claims might legally be staked out. They did not have the opposition met with in later years in Oklahoma land lottery days, but only had to select such choice lands as their judgment led them to believe were most desirable to them.

They, went forth at break of day, with tomahawks in hand, and began the work of blazing and staking off their claims, Highland blazing and Tool doing the staking act. That day they staked out two claims and the day following staked the other two out.

On the morning of the fourth day of their residence in the goodly location, which vicinity later became known as Tool's Point, they ate the last of their "grub," but were soon delighted to see the promised supply wagon, with a fresh supply, accompanied by their partners, Vance and Frost, as well as the drivers, James A. Tool, son of the pioneer, and the son-in-law, Washington Fleenor. The son and son-in-law soon staked out a claim, each for himself, adjoining the other four already referred to. This land was about one-half timber and one half prairie, and each claim was supposed to contain three hundred and twenty acres, the prairie land being situated along the south side of the Skunk River.

These men were all true as steel and not possessed of selfishness or graft, but agreed that, as long as the men Tool and Highland had been the real pioneers in staking out claims there they should have the first choice of claims. Hence it was that the older Tool took the claim farther to the west, at the head or point of the grove, while Highland took the third one toward the east. Then Frost and Vance drew cuts to decide their choice. Vance's lot fell between Tool and Highland.

The law, as well as their own needs and that of their families, which were soon expected on, demanded that within thirty days they each provide themselves with cabins on their several claims. The six men above named set to work and succeeded in building up as far as the plates, one house a day. Highland's was the first built and consequently was the first erected in Jasper County by white men. After having completed their cabins these men went back to Jefferson County to meet their families and tell them of the wonderful country they had concluded to settle in. A happy meeting it must have been, too!

MRS. WILLIAM HIGHLAND FIRST WOMAN

As Mr. Highland at once packed up and moved his family here, Mrs. Highland was undoubtedly the first white woman to invade the wilds of what is now Jasper County, but which county had not yet been organized. This, the first family to be "at home" in the county, dated it's coming in May 1843. Vast the change in these later eventful decades in Iowa's history!

As the township histories contain much of the early settlement and other matter concerning the various sections of the county, the only further attempt in this chapter to give the comings and goings of the first men and women who settled the county, will be brief sketches of a few of the first men who located in the month of April and May 1843, closing the chapter with a list of the persons who are found on the tax list of 1847, four years after the settlement was made at Tool's Point.

Willis Green visited this county in 1845, accompanying James Pearson. Green located a claim while here, but did not succeed in selling his former claim in Mahaska County, so the claim here was taken by David Edmundson. Green finally settled in 1847 and for two years thereafter spent most of his time in hunting bees in Marshall and Hardin Counties. Joab Bennett was usually his comrade on these bee hunts. Bennett was a genuine frontiersman and it is said of him that he could talk the Indian dialect fluently. Indians frequently visited Newton to sell or trade ponies, and while other settlers were getting ready to buy a choice animal, expecting to pay ten or fifteen dollars, Bennett would walk up to the vender and, after a moment's talk, would walk off with the bridle on his arm, having paid two or three dollars for the animal.

Seven claims were made in 1843, but only three can now be definitely fixed as having been made in 1844, one having been that of Manly Gifford, in section 36, township 78, range 20. This man remained many years and made a prominent and useful citizen. Later in life he moved to Keokuk County. John Campbell came to Jasper County in 1844, but whether he claimed land that season is not certain to the writer.

The beginning of a settlement was made in the southeast portion of the county during the summer of 1844, one claim being taken by "Tandy" Mayfield, and another by Wesley Stalling, in what is now styled Lynn Grove. The families of these men probably did not arrive until the spring or summer of 1845.

"TOOL'S TAVERN"

Adam Tool's family arrived at his cabin September 2, 1843, and, among the weeds and pea vines and tall grass, they halted their teams, built a fire by a huge dry log, and there cooked and ate their first supper in Jasper County, happy in the thought that they were on their own land and free to carve out a home worth the having. The cabin being too small to accommodate the whole family of boys and girls and parents, the sons slept in their covered wagon for a while. Soon a shed was built and then more room was had for all hands in the "house." However, very soon the strong sons and rugged father, with ax in hands, went forth to the forest, from which they felled trees and then with a broad-ax hewed out and built a commodious log house of good proportions. Their nearest saw mill was seventy-five miles away, so lumber was not to be counted on, but all was worked out by hard hewing and chopping. It is the oldest house in the town of Monroe and stood many years as a landmark of those days in 1843 when it was built.

As it turned out, it came to be a pioneer tavern, for long before it was ready for real occupancy a weary traveler wanted lodging there, and, as the government had set about establishing a post at Fort Des Moines, this being the nearest house to the trail from that point to Oskaloosa, it became a stopping place for many of the men in government employ as well as strangers looking up locations for homes for themselves. Hence Mr. and Mrs. Tool had to become real landlord and landlady, a thing which they were quite well adapted to, and they had a large patronage for a time."

Pioneer Adam Tool, who passed from earthly scenes in the seventies, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, July 31, 1794. His father was a teamster and young Tool had to do his share at helping cultivate the soil in order that the large family might subsist. He commenced farming on his own account, with one horse, when but sixteen years old. He was drafted into the military service at the age of nineteen years. He married Susan H. Stinson in 1817 and settled down for the struggle of what proved an eventful but prosperous career. In 1836 they moved to Coles County, Illinois, where land was claimed, but on account of the fever and ague there, he sold and went to Jefferson County, Iowa territory, where he was reduced in property by reason of sickness, having lost his eldest daughter, and other misfortunes overtook him. It was in the fall of 1841 when he arrived in Iowa. After this his history is known to the reader, if he has read the fore part of this chapter.

William Highlands was born in Pennsylvania in 1803; removed to Ohio when a young man, and married Ellen Slaine. In 1837 he removed to Illinois and there became acquainted with Adam Tool. In September 1842, he located in Jefferson County, Iowa, to await the opening of lands in the "New Purchase." He reared a large family, all of whom have long since removed from Jasper County to other parts of this country, one daughter marrying James Fudge and moving to Poweshiek County.

Had the four men who went up the Skunk on a land-hunting expedition in the month of April 1843, shot a deer they were after for food purposes, their supply then being about exhausted, the chances are that they would never have become first settlers in Jasper County, but such are the strange accidents in all stages of life.

John B. Frost was a native of Virginia, settled in Fairview Township in 1843, married Miss McCollum. In 1847 he sold his claim to another and moved on farther toward the setting sun.

John Vance, the other named among the four who first located here, was born in Washington County, Virginia; was a bachelor; made his claim and sold to Manly Gifford in 1845 or 1846, himself removing to Mahaska County, Iowa.

Perhaps no better method is now obtainable to give the names of the persons who made up the population of Jasper County four years after the coming of the four men already narrated about, than to copy the list as shown in the assessment roll for 1847, which in substance is as follows, leaving out the amounts which each were assessed for:

Jacob Bennett, Jesse Rickman, Peter Miller, Katherine Good, John H. Franklin, James Edgar, John Campbell, Ezekiel Shipley, M. S. Logsdon, C. C. Thorp, William Chenoweth, Willis Green, James Fry, Henry Hammer, Sr., David Edmundson, William Edmundson, Sylvester Tiffany, Martin Adkins, Elbert Evans, John B. Hammack, John Ship, John Fleming, Nathan Brown, Wesley Brown, Benjamin Browse, Madison Tice, Amanda Tice, James D. Norris, Joel B. Worth, Peter Browse, Joseph Hill, Stephen B. Shelladay, Mary D. Shelladay, Jacob Pudge, John Davis, Mary Baldwin, John Carr, Adam Tool, Manly Gifford, Daniel Mosier, Uriah Robbins, Jeremiah Kintz, John Wyatt, John Thorp, Mary Adamson, John Rodgers, Cyrus Insley, Joseph Slaughter, Andrew Insley, Samuel Sewell, James Guthrie, William C. Harpe, William P. Norris, Robert C. Brown, Andre J. Brown, Stephen Reffel, John A. Mikel, Jacob Bruner, William Hays, Sarah Wyatt, Abner Ray, Alex. McCully, Asher Prunty, Elias Prunty, Thomas Tuttle, Alex. Black, Jacob Booher, John Q. Deakin, Henry Shewer, Daniel W. Shewer, Samuel H. Shewer, George Anderson, A. Anderson, John R. Sparks, Samuel Mor, Hezekiah Northsent, Robert Patterson, Jesse Hammer, Wesley Stallings, E. N. Parks, William Turner, Elijah Friend, David Campbell, Mercy Shoemake, Sabin Stanwood, J. W. Swan, Henry Sweet, Isaac Myers, A. Davis, Atwell Holmes, William Smith, Ira Hammer, Evan Adamson, Abraham Adamson, Sims Richman, Ballinger Aydelotte, A. T. Prouty, Washington Logsdon, Nathan Williams, R. B. Dawson, William B. Campbell, Jacob Herring, Samuel McDaniel, Joseph Cooper, A. J. Smith, William E. Alexander, William Peterman, John Sherman, John Bisbee, Joseph Hiner, Silas Sawyer, William Welch, A. B. Miller, George Kryser, Clark Kitchen, Evan Jones, Nathan McConnell, William Johnson, Arnold Shepherd, David Shepherd, Hartwell Hays, William Highland, John Reed, Ellison R. Wright, Newton Wright, John C. Baldwin est., Archibald McCullon, Washington Fleenor, Daniel Spaw, Q. Patterson, James A. Pool, George Binkley, Lann Maradtt, John Snoas, John J. Mudgett, James Blake, P. M. Sparks, M. T. Mather, William T. Mayfield, J. M. Trease, Walter Turner, Jabez Starr, John E. Copp, David E. Cooper, William J. Buffington, Thomas Mitchell, Curtis Dooley, William Logsdon, Wilberger Logsdon, Calvin Wolf, Zimri Hinshaw, David Hinshaw, Elijah H. Barton, Lewis Adamson, Alvin Adkins, Thomas Pearson, Matthew Campbell, William J. Asher, Joseph Davidson, Joseph Logsdon, Maria Prouty, Thomas J. Adamson, Seth Hammer, Henry Hammer, Rachel Hammer, Elisha Hammer, G. W. Halley, James Elliott, Mitchell Robertson, William C. Smith, Blakely Brush, J. M. Ferguson, James Asher, Moses Hames, Henry Hammer, Jr., A. S. Cox, William P. Cox, Joshua Kent, John Wilson, Jesse Amos, Moses Lacy, Shelby Wyatt, Simon Ballard, Philip Ballard, John Duke, James Miller, Cavender Gear, Shelton Gear, John Ballard, Thomas Garden, Isaac Asher, William Ballard, E. E. Bush, Washington Asher, Lemuel Perrin, James Richman, David LaFollett, Joseph Kintz, William B. Meacham, James Finwick, George Howell, Eleanor Maggert, David A. Maggert, Josiah Cox, E. R. Wyatt est., Richard Barker, A. J. Berry, A. A. Cummings, Daniel Cox, Evan Henshaw, Lewis Herring, John Moss, Joseph Dodd, David McKinney, William D. Allen, Henry Adamson, Benjamin Adamson, George Dooley, Silas Dooley, Thomas Rees, William M. Springer, Joseph Jones, Albert Ship, William Thomson, Ira Adamson, Samuel K. Parker, Edwin Terril, Abraham Peer, Hart Spring, William Howell, William Rickey, John C. Kartchmer, Charles A. Dolson, Joseph Stobaugh, Samuel Morrow, Milton Edwards, Joseph Hewitt, Joel B. Worth, Charles Fry.

THE HOLLANDERS IN JASPER COUNTY

As a result of the' religious persecution in Holland in 1835, as between the government and the Reformed church' (one class of its members), a colony was formed under the leadership of Rev. Henry P. Scholte, who in 1846 landed with four boatloads of these people in Baltimore. They went to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by canal boats and on down the Ohio and finally landed in St. Louis, where they recruited and finally wended their way to Marion county, Iowa, the objective point had in view by their leader. They settled up many of the northern townships in Marion county, Iowa, and it is their sons and daughters who today are known as the "Hollanders" of the southern townships of Jasper county, among whom are many of the best, truest citizens within the county, being industrious, religious, temperate and in all ways fit subjects of their adopted country.

THE PIONEERS

The following gem of a poem was read by its author, the editor of the Newton Herald, in 1904, at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Louis, on the Fourth of July occasion that year. It was in the Iowa building, before an intelligent Iowa audience, and is very befitting in this connection, hence will be given, both as a setting to the chapter now at hand, as well as to show the literary talent of one of Jasper county's young authors and publishers at that date, George F. Rinehart:

We love best the man who dares to do
The moral hero, stalwart through and through,
Who treads the untried path, evades the rut;
Who braves the virgin forest, builds a hut;
Removes the tares encumbering the soil,
And founds an empire based on thought and toil.

Within his veins the blood of humble birth,
Ills purpose stable as the rock-bound earth,
His mind expansive he and his pulsing brain
Resolving problems not of selfish gain
This man will never servile bend the knee
He feels the uplift of the century.

Leviathans for him forsake the main,
And monsters leave the forest and the plain;
The future holds no terror for his soul;
No avarice collects its robber toll;
No social caste, no party creed nor clan,
To make him more a slave and less a man.

With wants but few, no pioneer will crave
A crown in life nor plaudits at his grave;
He leaves behind the slavery of style,
The myrmidons of pride, deceit and guile;
Enlisting with the cohorts of the free,
The motto on his shield is "Liberty."

What cares he for the monarch's jeweled crown?
For prince or plutocrat, for fame's renown;
The turmoil and the strife of endless greed,
When honest toil supplies each simple need;
He seeks not glory; yet the future years
Weave brightest laurels for the pioneers.

Thus we have met in this fair spot today,
To honor those, as well we may,
Who, thinking deep, perceived God's mighty plan,
And carved the creed of liberty for man;
Who made Bunker Hill a spot divine,
And built at Valley Forge a nation's shrine.

For emblems of that liberty so wide,
So vast that with eternity it vied,
They snatched the blue of heavens for the scroll,
And sprinkled it with stars to make the goal,
Where we might, far beyond the crest and crag,
In liberty and justice plant the flag.

We venerate its patriotic pride,
The sacred cause for which the martyrs died;
And feeling thus, you will with me agree
That much of what we are, what we may be,
We owe to those who wrought for future years,
And earned my toast, "God Bless the Pioneers."

WILD GAME

Pioneer James A. Tool states that wild game was not very plentiful when the first settlers arrived, but that within a short time deer and wild turkey became abundant. The wolf had always been in evidence. In the winter of 1848-9 the snow was very deep and it was so light that the turkeys could not fly to their roosts. One morning Hugh Patterson, living near by, went into Tool's orchard and rode down and picked up as many turkeys as he could carry away with him. May 1, 1849, he states that he stood on the Skunk River bluffs, on what is the southeast corner of the Silas Nolan farm, and from that view-point counted forty-one deer. They were supposed to be migrating, for the like had never been seen before nor since that date.

When the first settlers came here they found but few elk, buffalo or antelope, though evidences of large numbers of receding buffalos was found in the trail they left visible going to and from springs of water and streams. There the noble animals used to quench their thirst. There were but few panthers and less bear, owing to the thinness of the bodies of timber, affording them but scanty protection from cold wintry blasts. Wild cats and black wolves infested the groves, while troops of coyotes roamed at will on the broad prairies, but these animals were not dangerous, except that frequently they feasted on the pigs and lambs owned by the pioneers, who could not (or did not) at all times house their domestic animals.

Perhaps the greatest, most exciting wolf hunting in Jasper County occurred in the winter of 1846-7. The snow was very deep that season, averaging, it is said upon good authority, thirty-three inches on the level. Washington Fleenor was the crack wolf hunter of those days. There were a few greyhounds owned by the pioneers, two of which were indeed noble animals. When the snow was not too deep, these dogs could easily run down a wolf and handle him with skill and success, but during the winter just mentioned the dogs would soon tire of the chase. On one occasion Fleenor started out on horseback, carrying only a stout club, and was followed by the dogs. The horse, though he made hard work of it, could outrun the wolves and during that day Fleenor killed seven wolves with his club.

It goes without saying that the poor horse he rode was only too glad to reach his stall at nighttime.

Pioneer Sparks stated in one of his reminiscences that a wolf succeeded in getting at a calf he owned and made a good meal off of it, yet the calf recovered, he being bitten and chewed about his hind quarters. Later, the calf was sold to an emigrant going to Oregon and was driven along the trail toward the setting sun.

Owing to the fact that the Indians had been crowded into a small territory in Jasper County, there were not many deer left in this section of Iowa. The treaties of 1832 and 1842 had caused the hunting ground of the Indians to be circumscribed to a small domain. But by about 1850 more deer were to be seen in these parts than before. As late as 1857-8 venison was by no means a rarity in Jasper County. An early settler named Mosier, in the winter of 1850, came upon two fine bucks on the Skunk bottomlands. They had been engaged in a fight and had become entangled by their great sharp interlocking horns and could not free themselves in time to make good their escape, hence both were secured by Mr. Mosier.

In 1852, possibly a year later, William Highland (now so well known to the reader as the first man with his family to locate in Jasper County) caught a fawn between his farm and the Skunk River, which he took home and confined in a lot. This drew many bucks around the house, almost daily, and sometimes they would approach within a few rods of the dwelling.

The majority of the bee trees had been discovered and utilized by a few enterprising men long before the actual settlement had been made. There were some still found on Elk creek. The expert bee-hunter would hang about the timber-lands until he saw a bee and then watch him till he made his flight for his home tree and in that manner the bee tree could be easily located. Many hundreds of pounds of delicious honey were taken from some of these trees. Another mode employed to locate the bee trees was to place a small amount of honey in a tin box, then several bees were captured alive and placed in the box, and when they had "filled up," one was released and the hunter would follow the bee in its "bee-line" to the tree where its store was kept." Of snakes, it should be said that rattlesnakes were never very numerous in Jasper County, as compared to other sections of the West. It is stated that Calvin Wolf, while walking on the open prairie, barefooted, encountered a massasauga, which he stamped to death with his heels, a very imprudent, rash deed, too. In the southern part of Jasper County, however, the reptiles were more numerous. At a ledge of rocks on the Des Moines River the rattlesnakes hibernated during the winter, and for miles around their den they were liable to be encountered in the summer months. About 1849 a party visited the ledge, on a warm spring day, and managed to kill over three hundred and would have killed many more only for the sickening smell caused by the act, which turned their stomachs.

THE FIRST BAD CHARACTERS IN THIS COUNTY

The two Castner boys, the fifth persons to come in for the supposed purpose of taking up lands, proved anything but good citizens. While Adam Tool, the first settler, was down in Jefferson County with his family, after having made his improvements, preparatory to bringing the family here, Benjamin and Jonas Castner came in from Missouri. Finding Mr. Tool's cabin unoccupied, they at once moved into it. When the good pioneer returned, rather than have trouble, he gave the boys fifteen dollars to vacate. They then claimed lands near by and built themselves a cabin. It was not long before it was noticed that Jonas was making frequent visits to his old home in Missouri to see his father, and it was also observed that whenever he went south that some of the friendly Indians lost several ponies, as they would come along and inquiry was made by them for stray ponies.

These Castners committed all kinds of depredations, at one time robbing a poor Indian's tent during the absence of the squaw, of all the blankets, buffalo robes, camp kettles, and in fact everything that was worth carrying. That night when the Indian returned and discovered his loss, he started for Castner with a gun and butcher knife. Arriving at Frost's the latter persuaded him to stay all night, fearing he might get killed if he went there in the night alone. The following morning he went to Castner's and found his goods, but while there parleying about them, one of the boys came running in, saying to the Indian, "There is a turkey out here; let me take your gun," which the Indian did; but the young man forgot to return and while the Indian was in search of the young man to get his gun the goods disappeared and he never saw them afterwards. During the trouble that followed the Indian got his hand shot and claimed that it was done by Jonas Castner. In the fall of 1845 Jonas finally got his just deserts at the hands of a mob near old Fort Des Moines. It was government payday at the fort and when Jonas was discovered hanging around, a party painted like Indians, but probably all whites, seized Jonas and ran him to the woods and gave him an unmerciful flogging. There was no trial and no questions asked. They said his curses were frightful. That fall the family went to Missouri, but afterwards returned to Iowa, bringing a large amount of stock with them, which mostly died during the following winter. Typhoid fever soon broke out in the family; the old man, his eldest son, Henry, and several younger ones died. The balance of the family scattered, some going in 1862 across the plains. The Castners were Virginians by birth and several of their near relatives had served time in the penitentiary of that state.

FIRST EVENTS IN JASPER COUNTY

There always lingers about the first happenings of the settlement of every new country much of interest, and here follows an account of some of the more important events in the settlement of Jasper County, as vouched for by James A. Tool, who dates back to the very first pioneer band of settlers, hence is not likely to have been mistaken in his statements.

The first white child born in what is now Fairview Township, as well as in Jasper County, was a son, Robert, born in 1843 to William and Ellen Highlands. His mother was the first white woman to settle within Fairview Township.

The first wedding took place at the house of Adam Tool in February 1845. The parties concerned were William Hill, a young officer in a company of dragoons then stationed at Fort Des Moines, and Susan A. Tool. Rev. Pardoe, a chaplain in the army, officiated.

The first election was held in April 1844, and the place held was at Adam Tool's. This was a township election.

The first death occurred at Warren's Grove. In the fall of 1844 or spring of 1845 a family settled there consisting of a man, wife and one child, and the wife's brother. In the summer the brother died without medical attendance or anyone knowing of his illness until a few hours before his death. John Brown and James A. Tool cleared off the hazel brush patch and dug a grave, after which they sat up with the corpse all night. The lumber used for making the rude coffin was hewed from a plank taken from the loft floor of Adam Tool's house. He was lowered into his last earthly resting place by the tender hands of entire strangers. His name is not now recalled and no tombstone marks his resting place, but his grave is within the corporation of Monroe, on land later owned by Mrs. Huddleston. That same autumn two others died and were buried in the same locality.

The first schoolhouse in the county was one standing near William Highlands, on land later owned by Lucy Whitted. It was built of round logs, had eight-by-ten window lights, hewed slabs for floors, seats of the same stuff, with holes bored in and pins for legs. The first teacher was E. R. Wright. Church services were also held in this building.

The first mill of any kind in Jasper County was the sawmill constructed by A. T. Sparks in the fall of 1846, on the North Skunk River, in Lynn Grove. By harvest time, 1848, he had added machinery by which a fair grade of flour was produced. In fact it was no makeshift affair, but a good flouring mill for those days.

The early settlers here had no means by which wheat could be threshed, save by treading it out with cattle or horses. The bundles of grain were placed with their heads inward in a circle on the ground. After being trampled for a time, the straw was stirred and the process continued, the horse or team going round and round, fastened to a center pole. This was done when the flail was not used instead. Then came the slow process of separating the chaff from the wheat. This was either clone by waving a sheet up and down to fan out the chaff as the grain was dropped before it, or by taking advantage of the strong autumn winds, often brisk enough to blow off the chaff rapidly, and, by frequently stirring the grain, a considerable quantity could be cleaned in a day. Threshing machines and fanning mills had been just recently introduced in the Eastern states, but the people here in Iowa had not yet got forehanded enough to purchase other than the necessary plows and hoes.

Here it may be stated that it is believed the first threshing machine ever operated in Jasper County was the one owned by Isaac Cooper, of Polk County, who had a few jobs in the southern portion of this county in 1848. This was an old "chaff-piler." This had no separator attachment and the grain fell inclosed in the chaff, at the mouth of the cylinder, while the straw was blown by the current created by the motion of the cylinder a little beyond the grain, whence it was removed by rakes and forks. There are but few persons remaining in the country now who saw or used one of these early-day machines. The contrast between these and the fine power threshers of today, with separator, self-measurer, self-stackers and self feeders and band cutter attachment, some of which such machines have been invented and are now extensively manufactured in Newton, is indeed great. None desire to go back to those days of flail and treading out wheat, but as we praise modem improvements, we should revere the memory of our forefathers who worked on in faithfulness until these good days of the twentieth century were in sight.

As to plows, it should here be stated that prior to 1846 in Jasper County, both breaking and stirring plows were made by home blacksmiths. The cutter-bar in the one and the landside in the other, with the points, were made of steel and the moldboard of wood. In 1846 a Mr. Sperry, of Jefferson County, Iowa, commenced to make a fair moldboard plow. Cast plows were used some, but would not scour in our soil. The first harrow "drags" used were homemade and had wooden teeth. Many had the harrow made in the shape of a letter A.

The first election in the territory of Jasper County (then in Marion) was held in April 1844, Mahaska County having been organized in the February prior to that date, and its territory included that of present Marion county for election purposes, and by reason of this, the little settlement in Jasper County, as now understood, was allowed to vote at the house of Adam Tool, at Tool's Point. William Highland was elected justice of the peace and township clerk; Washington Fleenor as constable, and Adam Tool as one of the trustees.

FIRST PORTABLE SAW MILL

Perhaps the first portable saw mill ever invented was the product of pioneer John Cary, of Jasper County, who was one of the founders of old Wittemberg College, of Newton Township. He came to the county in 1853 and after the college had been decided upon, there was the obstacle of lumber not being at hand. Mr. Cary returned to Ohio, his old home, and tried at various places there and in Pittsburg to get some firm to construct him a portable saw mill, but failed, for they said it could not be successfully accomplished. He finally secured a firm at Norwalk, Ohio, who followed his plans and made him the first portable saw mill of which history seems to have any definite knowledge. It was shipped on here to Jasper County and set up. It worked finely and cut much of the lumber for the old college buildings, as well as for many of the pioneer buildings in Newton and surrounding country. Later the mill was shipped up the Des Moines River and as late as 1880 was still being operated. Prior to this circular saws had been operated by horsepower, or by stationary engines, but the Cary portable saw mill created a revolution in the sawmill industry, east as well as west.

CLAIM PROTECTION SOCIETIES

In the spring of 1846, a Claim Protection Society was formed by the settlers of Lynn Grove. The meeting place was by a pile of logs in a clearing on the farm of John A. Sparks. All the settlers in the vicinity attended. Rules were adopted substantially the same as those found effectual in other counties, and the clerk of the meeting made a plat of the precinct on which all the claims then made were noted, and also registered on a separate piece of paper. When a newcomer put in his appearance he was advised to inspect the plat kept by the clerk in order that he might see what land was already claimed. Any of the settlers would gladly spend a day, or more if need be, with him in hunting up a desirable location. Settlers were very sensitive about the movement of strangers who were not fully vouched for. Jasper County, however, did not suffer as much from claim jumpers as many of the counties further east, many of the professionals in that line having been taught a lesson before coming here.

Pioneer Sparks related once at an old settlers' meeting how he was accompanied by a Mr. Coleman, the surveyor who located the territorial road from Iowa City, and how they visited the cabin home of John J. Mudgett. The surveyor had some thought of locating a mill-site, and their business was mainly to see if one could be found there. Mr. Coleman asked Mr. Mudgett to give him the number of the section he was living on, which the latter did, and then preceded to describe the spot the surveyor had just mentioned. Coleman interrupted him by saying that he knew all about it, which alarmed Mr. Mudgett, who at once became cold and reserved and had no more information to offer. Sparks and his companion soon left. That evening Sparks, who well understood Mudgett's change of manner, made the surveyor promise to return the next day and visit the suspicious settler, in order to remove the unfavorable impression he had created. This he promised to do, and started off early the following day. He found Mudgett, stayed to dinner, and returned, leaving his hast fully convinced that he had no covetous intentions regarding his claim.

What was known as the Independent Protection Society was farmed about 1846-7, having in view the protection of those occupying claims, but without means of entering them at once. The scope of power assumed by the organizers of this society was to prevent persons from entering lands claimed by others in good faith, and in case the land was actually taken from the claimant to force settlement which should be satisfactory to the first holder of such land. In many other parts of Iowa a state of war had sometimes arisen over these collisions of capital with the understood rights of the first comers; but in Jasper County there were only two such cases. at least of any considerable note. These occurred in 1848. The first case was that of A. T. Prouty, who entered forty acres of land claimed by James Edgar, a blacksmith, which is now situated in the city limits of Newton.

Prouty had the patent issued to his son, Joseph, who at the time was under age. As soon as the transaction was noised abroad, a meeting of the settlers was held, which delegated a committee to wait upon Prouty for the purpose of demanding an explanation. This he thought best, everything considered, to offer, and compromised with the stern-faced visitors by executing a bond for a deed and requiring Joseph to make a deed also, in favor of Edgar. Joseph afterwards went to California and while there sued for the recovery of the forty, but without success.

In the second case, Prouty had entered a claim already claimed by John Moss, three to four miles east of Newton, Hearing that the neighbors of Mr. Moss had fixed a day for the purpose of visiting him again, he left home, The neighbors went to his house as determined as before, but were put off by Mrs. Prouty, who promised that her husband would pay Moss a fair price for his claim. The sum was agreed upon and the trouble thus settled.

Another statement is that the land was entered by Prouty's daughter, Maria, who made the settlement; but the girl did not entirely give up till the crowd of "Protectionists" had first appeared in front of the house and as an evidence of what might happen to her, they applied a coat of tar and feathers to the front gate post.

GOING TO MILL-VALUE OF BREAD

People today, who eat of the fancy brands of roller process flour, little dream of what hardships their forefathers endured in trying to secure bread on which to feed their families. Seventy-five to one hundred miles from a mill, and that run by an uncertain waterpower and crude machinery (sometimes without a bolting mill attached), made milling very uncertain in pioneer days in Jasper County. In the winter of 1843-4, it is related of Adam Tool. William Highlands and John Frost, that they made a trip to Locust Grove mill, some twenty-five miles northwest, on the Skunk River, arriving there Saturday night. The miller would not run his mill on Sunday, but agreed if a certain man could be hired to run his mill on Sunday he might grind their grain for them. The man was secured and the grain was ground, so they started home early Monday morning. It required ten days to make the trip.

In 1844 it became necessary for the same party to have milling done again. Both corn and money were scarce articles. There was, however, a man named Elder who had corn to sell at twenty-five cents a bushel. They all secured the necessary amount except Mr. Highlands, who had no money with which to pay for corn, and his acquaintance was too slight to ask credit of Mr. Elder. But finally Adam Tool and John Vance went his security for five bushels of corn. That was all the breadstuff the fami1y had from that date until the new corn crop was old enough to grate. This will show what value was placed on early breadstuffs.

In 1845 a mill was erected by Mr. Duncan on the Skunk River north of Oskaloosa.

Another milling trip may suffice to show early milling trials. In the winter of 1845-46 the snow was deep and drifted so that it was almost impossible to cross the prairie between Tool's Point and Fort Des Moines, therefore all travel from and to Des Moines left the prairie road four miles west of where Pella now stands, and followed the Des Moines River, which gave a timber road; consequently there was no broken road from Tool's Point, in the direction of the mill, nearer than eight miles. Breadstuffs were fast running out and must soon be provided for, so the neighborhood turned out to break the roads, starting from John Frost's. They broke two miles of the road the first day, and returned home for the night. The next day by hard work they succeeded in getting clear through, and stopped for the night at the house at the end of the snow-shoveled highway, rejoicing in their success.

In the winter of 1846-7, James Moss, with an ox team, went to Duncan's Mill, on the South Skunk River, near Oskaloosa. On his return trip he was caught in a northwest blizzard. It became very cold, the team and himself became bewildered and laid out all night. Then he was finally found he was badly frozen and later both feet were amputated at the instep. Where were no surgeons or doctors here and it is said James Pierson performed the surgical operation with a pocketknife and saved the young man's life.

In the winter of 1847-48 the snow was so very deep on the prairies that it took all of the men, oxen and horses in the neighborhood two days to break a road from Elk Creek, near the Dan Gifford place, to the Lynn Grove mill. The neighborhood having been out of all meal, flour or bacon for about four or five weeks, had subsisted during that long period on pounded and boiled corn, grated potatoes and wild meat. The same winter, Nathan Hammer took two yoke of cattle, hitched to his wagon, and with a grist of corn, went over the same road. The snow was so deep he uncoupled his wagon, put the hind wheels on the front axles, loaded on his grist and completed his journey to the mill, where he stayed all night. The next day he started for home, and was caught in a southwester, which filled up the tracks of the previous day. He became very cold and when he arrived home his feet were badly frozen. They foolishly applied a poultice of roasted turnips, and he was obliged to wear moccasins until spring.

Transcribed by Ernie Braida in July 2003