Lee
County Pioneers Arriving Before July 4, 1840 Form Old
Settlers Association in 1871
Thirty three men will have their names copied for your
interest today because they signed a roll early in 1871,
founding the "Old Settlers Association of Lee County."
They met first at the Court House in Fort Madison, on
Jan. 5 and chose as their first President Hon. Philip
Viele, with R. W. Pittman to serve as the secretary. The
meeting was adjourned to April 13 to perfect the
organization and appoint a committee to draft a
constitution and by laws, which were submitted and
accepted by the general meeting held on July 4, at the
fair grounds in Fort Madison. This latter was the first
of a series of annual gatherings for reminiscence,
speeches, music, basket dinners and a general good time,
with the assembly moving to other parts of the county,
such as Keokuk, in later years.
What had these thirty three persons in common? All were
men, all had arrived in Lee County before July 4, 1840,
and all had the good fortune to live and remain
residents of the county until 1871.
By a subsequent amendment, as the "old timers" became
fewer, persons coming before December,1846 were admitted
to membership. By 1874, the roll had lengthened to about
200 members. Biographical sketches of the members were
written down as a memorial to their pioneering labors.
Here are the 33 names, as printed in 1874, that were
inscribed in 1871, all with their year of arrival or of
birth in Lee County, many giving even the month and day
of their entry into Lee. Some had come as men, or their
own decision, and some, we know, like James W. Campbell,
were children brought in by their parents or other
kinsfolk.
The two first officers started the list: Philip Viele,
June 2d, 1837, and R. W. Pittman, April 2d, 1835. Their
names are followed by Alex Cruikshank, March 1st, 1834;
Elias Overton, Aug.16th,1836; James W. Campbell, Oct.
1829; Peter Miller, Sept. 22d,1836; John G. Kennedy,
April 12th,1836; E. S. McCulloch, May.1836 and J. A.
Casey, July 6th. 1836.
Continuing, we find the names of James T. Blair, Nov.
16,1839; Elkanah Perdew, June 19,1840; Samuel Paschal.
Sept., 1835; Daniel F. Miller, April 15,1839; James
Caldwell, May 4,1837; R. McHenry, 1840; James
Cruikshank, May 7,1835; George D.Leidy, May,1840; Robert
A. Russell, April,1839; Philotus Cowles, May 3,1838; R.
McFarland, Nov.,1839; and Silas D. Hustead, June, l835.
Concluding the names,we are led to remember: J.C.
Parrott, Sept. 1834; John Vandyke, Jan. 22, 1837; J.E.
Marsell, May 1, l839; May 1, 1839; I. Hale, May, 1839;
Hazen Wilson, July 1837; Ferdinand Kiel, March 15, 1849;
John H. Douglas, June 20,1836; E. G. Wilson, Nov.28,
1837; George L.Coleman, Nov. 29,1887; Cromwell Wilson,
Feb. l, 1837; Louis G. Pittman, April 2,1835; and Jacob
Abel, Oct.15, 1836.
Apparently the above 33 first signers were not all who
were eligible. The "Old Settlers' Memorial" is quoted as
listing Mark Aldrich as at "The Point," now Keokuk, as
early as l829, perhaps earlier, but he had gone to
Warsaw and died in Arizona. The " Memorial" names some
other men who were in various parts of Lee County in
1837, though not all of them were still living and still
residents of Lee County in 1871. Among these arrivals
before 1837 had been: Col.Wm.Patterson, John Box, Joshua
Owen, James Brierly, Capt. Jesse Brown, Hawkins Taylor,
Dr. Walker, Edwin Guthrie, William Coleman, David and
Edward Kilbourne, Stephen Burtis, Judge Johnstone, John
Gains and Isaac R. Campbell, Mr. Campbell moved to St.
Francisville, Clark County, Missouri about 1837, and his
partner, Dr. Samuel Muir, Indian trader at the site of
the future site of the city of Keokuk, one of the
earliest settlers in Lee, died in the cholera epidemic
of the early 1830's.
These men and others not named endured the hardships of
pioneering, cut the timber, built cabins, broke the sod
and participated in the founding and government of their
townships and the cities of Lee County, while some
served in the Iowa Territorial Legislature.
Written by Pearl Gordon Vestal, Hamilton,
Illinois, contributed by Connie Street
Letter from Mr. Henry
S. Austin
Vicksburg, Miss, Sept. 27, 1885
Mr. Edward Johnstone, President
My Dear Sir: -- Sometime since I received an
invitation to attend your Reunion at Keokuk to be held
the 30th inst. I had determined to attend that
meeting and revive the memories of the past, but along
this journey of life we are subjects of
disappointment. I left my home in Chicago, Ill.,
on the 12th inst., for Jackson, Miss., to take car of a
suit in the Chancery Court, involving a large amount of
money, with an attachment on 250,000 acres of
land. I expected to have been through with that,
in time to be at your reunion, but fate and the law’s
delay determined otherwise. I did not get
through with my suit till last evening – and came here
this morning. I find myself “stuck” here for the
day and shall not get home in time to visit you on that
occasion when there will be a happy meeting of old
settlers and old friends. There are no friends
like OLD friends. How I shall miss the
pleasure I had anticipated and hoped for, I cannot tell
you. I want to tell you of many things, past long
years since. I came west in the summer of 1835,
fifty years ago, half a century, can it be
possible? How time flies! “We take no note
of time, but from its loss.” Yet I have kept
some notes of things; a journal, daily, for over sixty
years (that shows me what most men call an old man,) 74
years old, and NOT ASHAMED of my past life.
I took possession of “Old Fort Des Moines,, ten miles
north of your city, on the first of June, 1837 (?), when
the United States Troops left for Leavenworth, leaving
me there alone, so far as white men were concerned, with
about three thousand Indians around me, the Sac and Fox
Nation. I soon formed the acquaintance of Old
Black Hawk (called Muk-e-tah-Mosseka-ka) and his wife
(mo-a-e-quah) and his son Nash-eash-kuk; and old Keokuk,
(Pash-c-pa-ho) and others, Frank Labessier, the
half-breed, &c, &c. Then came in the
Kilbournes and Colemans, and many others who proved fast
friends during eight months of fighting troubles with
the border ruffians sent by the Reddick ring from St.
Louis to dispossess us under the “Spanish Claim.”
That fall we laid out the town of Keokuk, and the town
of Montrose. WRIGHTS will never forget the
hog-stealing cases tried before old justice Gaines, of
Keokuk, who now lies buried in your cemetery, and who
was a well meaning man, but much governed by the early
practices of that early period. They, (the
Wrights) will not forget the whiskey jug that stood by
the seat of justice, and the tin cup passed from time to
time to the jurors called to try the “thieves,” (for
they were not examining for a probable cause to bind
over to a higher tribunal, but the J. P. claimed and
exercised the power to TRY and punish all
malefactors.) Do the Wrights remember the
occasion? The good old man (Wright) has gone to
the happy home above, but I believe some of the family
still live north of and near your city, and I hope will
be at your meeting. I cannot say more now, but
hope to meet your association at some future time.
Please express to your Association my regrets that I am
unable to be with you at this meeting.
I enclose you my resemblance of the 50 years agone and
now, that you may see how the young man looked when he
emigrated to the west and fought prairie fires, and how
he looks now, while yet hale and and hearty, and still
fighting “the world, the flesh and the devil.”
With kindest regards, I am truly,
Yours,
Henry S. Austin
Transcribed by Sally Youngquist with
the help of Barbara
Sketches and Anecdotes
of the Old Settlers and Newcomers
by Col. J. M. Reid Attorney at Law
Keokuk
R. B. Ogden, Publisher
1876
It used to be the custom here, in “early times,” to
select for every character of any special note in the
place, some soubriquet or nick-name such as the whim of
its donors might deem appropriate; upon the same
principle, it is presumed, that Napoleon was dubbed by
his idolizing soldiery, the “Little Corporal,” Jackson,
“Old Hickory,” and Taylor, old “Rough and Ready.” Thus,
we had here, some eight or ten years ago - the originals
of which every Old Settler will readily call to mind
from the soubriquet - The tall Cedar of Lebanon; Devil
Creek; Citizen; Dot and go 1; Joe Doane; Doublehead;
Compromise; Government; Pompey; Sweet William; Split
Dog; Big Muddy; Donty; Flitterfoot; Cousin William; Old
Jums; Rouser; Little Pee Dee; Fat Boy; Peril; Oh!la me;
Peezzle Weezzle; Wharf Rat; Little Reed; Red Fox; Heels;
Terror; Dornicks; B---s Bill; Berkshire; Osprey;
Jurisprudence; Little Duff; Pacing Johnson; Dabney;
Picayune Andrews; R.B.; and Bucket No. 1; Bucket
No. 2; Bucket No. 3, etc., etc., etc.
Among the well known “institutions” of Keokuk in early
times, and still remembered also in connection with her
public men, was “Rat Row,” a string of log cabins
stretched out upon the ground between the fine store
houses now fronting upon the levee, and the river; the
“Shot Tower,” a noted frame building, somewhat upon the
lantern order of architecture, that formerly embellished
the ground now occupied by the Hardin House; the
ancient “Wharf Boat,” fitted up for the accommodation of
passengers on their arrival and departure; the “Rapids”
hotel - sometimes under the noted management of “Sweet
William” - the Astor House of the aspiring young City,
and where “Peril” the “Tall Cedar,” and others, did
sometimes congregate to concoct and perform their
exploits; the old “Mansion House” - the rival of the
“Rapids” - catered for in those days by the inimitable
“Pompey”; the “Old Elm Tree,” a short
distance above the old Packet Depot, to which most of
the Steamboats landing here were in the habit of “making
fast”; the “Painted Rocks,” down near the first Pork
House, a favorite place of resort - until their beauty
and romance were destroyed by the barbarous innovations
of modern stone quarries - of ardent young “lovyers”
upon any pleasant Sunday afternoon; the “Fleet of
Tow Boats”, used for carrying freight over the rapids in
low water, and for hauling which, when the supply of
rope on hand fell short - as happened not unfrequently -
the native grape vine, found in abundance along the
river bank, or the bark of the paw-paw and the hickory,
was put in requisition as a substitute.
The tall Cedar of Lebanon was General Jesse B. Browne
Devil Creek, William A. Clark, first Mayor of Keokuk
Citizen, A. Browne, Commission Merchant
Dot and go 1, Capt. Silas Haight
A. Holland, Capt. Trotter
Joe (rest indecipherable)
Doublehead, Colonel John Hillis
Compromise Roberts, Robert Roberts
Government, Captain Adam Hine
Pompey, L. B. Fleak
Sweet William, William Coleman
Split Log, Colonel Mitchell, of Missouri
Big Muddy, Lou. Collins of Muddy Lane
Donty, Dr. Birdsell
Flitterfoot, Valencourt Vanorsdall
Cousin William, William F. Telford
Old Jums, James H. Wise
Rouser, Captain William Holliday
Little Pee Dee, P. D. Foster
Peril, Dr. O’Hara
Terror, Dr. Hogan
O! la, me, John A. Graham
Red Fox, General H. T. Reid
Peezle Weezle, William C. Graham
Little Reed, J. P. Reed
Heels, Lyman E. Johnson
Dornicks, Calohill E. Stone
Taller, Dr. Thos. M. Sullivan
Burns Bill, William C. Rentgen
Pacing Johnson, J. Nealy Johnson
Berkshire, William Timberman
Black Hawk, Israel Anderson
Osprey, George C. Anderson
Jurisprudence, Joseph A. Clark
Dearduff, Little Duff
R.B., Ross B. Hughes
Dabney, Zephaniah Meeker
Billy Confang, William Morrison
Horse Head, Dr. D. Hoover
Picayune Andrews, James Andrews
Bucket No. 1, Isaac R. Campbell
Bucket No. 2, Henry J. Campbell
Bucket No. 3, Captain Jim Campbell
Beef McCready, John McCready, of the country
Chips, J. B. Thurman
Wharf Rat, Capt. Daniel Hine
Sheeps, George A. Hawley
____, John McKean
Jiggery Jones, Joab Jones
Garry, Lewis R. Reeves
Garret, C. F. Davis
Wapsi, Hugh W. Sample
Old Continental, Peter Eicher
Black Bill, Bill Thompson
Off Ox of Democracy, J. C. Hall
Old Blueface, Palmer of Iowa City
Cock-eye, Henry W. Starr
Bow-legs, W. H. Starr
Old Timber, J. W. Woods
Elcana Perdew, Kil Kenny
Uncle Toby, Francis Semple
Peach Blossom, Phillip Viele
Old Tilthammer, Peter Miller
The Old He Possum, Josiah Clifton
Old John A. Murrell the Law Pirate, M. M. Morrill
Ghost of Buster, Daniel F. Miller
Old Buck, Captain William Edwards
Chief of the Blackfeet, Dr. J. D. Elbert
King of the Hairy Nation, Dr. John J. Sellman
Cottonwood, John Hill
Besides the foregoing there were numerous others such as
“Skillet Head,” “Trigger Leg,” etc., in Iowa,
Illinois and Missouri.
Contributed by Carol Griswold Salli
For a directory of members in 1880, click here.
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