LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

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FOREWORD

Transcribed by Beverly Gerdts, submitted June 3, 2017

       Facing the problem of writing a history, and searching for a place to begin; we instinctively turn to our Bible.

        The very first sentence reads something like this, “In the beginning, God created the Heavens and earth.” I am afraid if I would suggest that Fredonia was a part of Heaven, some reader might be inclined to disagree with me. Though it is very evident that it is part of the earth now, it is fair to assume it was part of the earth when God created it. And so we commence. Our Bible record goes on to state that the earth when created, was void, without form and dark. So light was created and the light divided into day and night.

        Then the surface of the earth was divided into dry land and the water called seas, the land was made to produce grass, herbs and trees and all manner of moving creatures, as well as fish for the sea and fowls of the air. And finally man was created in God's own image an given dominion over all.

        We know that all this happened a long time ago and all the happenings between then and now are not recorded in a form that is easy to recognize. However there has been constant changes and some of this change has let tracks.

        People who study geology have found fossils in our nearby rock formations, that would indicate that at one time this country was completely covered with water. At another time tropical plants grew here. Still later vast ice formations were supposed to have pushed down from the north-lands, and completely covered this area with a covering of ice several feet deep. These changes involved immense periods of time, and are of some interest, but the records they have left require a great deal of study and can be only partially accurate from a layman's point of view.

        So for history that we can really understand we will begin with Columbus' discovery of America 1,492 years after Christ was born. He came from Spain, and across the Atlantic ocean by ship.

        During the following century many adventurers crossed the Atlantic to different places along our east coast in search of wealth or knowledge of the new continent. In 1620, when the Pilgrim fathers landed at Plymouth Rock, colonists had begun with the idea of making this their permanent home, and the more venturesome were working their way westward. By 1673, our histories record that two French men, Marquette and Joliet had worked their way westward to the headwaters of the Mississippi river and conceived the idea, and made plans to follow down this river to its mouth by boat.

        On June10, 1673, they started downstream, keeping a record of their discoveries and making a map of the river as they went along. Their records indicate that one of their camps was made on our side of the Mississippi, near the mouth of the Iowa river. There was an Indian village there, friendly Indians, of the Illinois tribe, who treated these paleface travelers well. One item in this record of their stop seems especially interesting to me; the Indians were farming in a small way, and their crops were listed as corn, beans and a few melons. Sound like the same crops that are being raised today by our farmers, on this level bottom land. Do you suppose we have improved our crops any since the recording of this first history of Iowa?

        During the next century 1673 to 1775 immigration increased and the immigrants organized themselves into colonies; along the coast of first, then bearing westward, competition along the European countries concerning who was to rule in the new continent, also developed. And from 1754 to 1760 England and France fought a war to decide the issue. However in 1776 the Colonist got together and organized a Federation and declared themselves independent of their old country bosses and a new nation was born, “The United State of America”. Based on a constitution which said the government was to be ,”Of the people, by the people, and for the people.” On April 30,1803 our new government...

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...under the leadership of Thomas Jefferson, purchased from France, the Louisiana territory,1,872,000 square miles, a vast uncharted and largely unexplored, tract of land west of the Mississippi river, for the sum of $15,000,000.

        The Louis and Clark exploratory expedition was organized and started west from St. Louis, on May 14, 1804. They followed up the Missouri river to the headwaters, crossed the Snake and Columbia river to the Pacific ocean, reaching there Nov. 7, 1805.

        Their return brought an authoritative record of the extent and characteristics of this mighty body of land.

        The colonists mover ever westward. The relationship with the Indian tribes they encountered was not too happy, and often marred by constant friction and some times open war.

        In 1832, the Indians in our territory under the leadership of Blackhawk crossed the river into Illinois, with the intention of driving the white people out.

        The result of this war brought this part of the country into very great and sudden interest; in a few short weeks, from a comparatively unknown and untalked of wilderness, it became one of the foremost topics on the lips of many in the south and east who were looking for broader acres on which to build better homes.

        And this part of the country, because of the Mississippi along its entire boarder and of the other great river which permeated it, was considered especially desirable, for in those days navigable streams were of vastly more importance than they have been since the advent of our modern travel.

        Our first settlers came across country by prairie schooner, from the east, or down the Ohio and up the Mississippi river by boat. The first settlements were made along the streams and in the woodlands, with the idea of ready water for their homes and wood with which to construct their buildings, rail fences and furnish fuel for cooking and heating.

        Let us hesitate a moment, and take a look at the circumstances these hardy settlers faced. The first and most important, was getting a shelter of some kind for the family. The best they could do was put up a one room log cabin. If they were very poor, sometimes it would be just a three sided shed or leanto, as it was sometimes called.

        If they were fortunate enough to be able to put up a log cabin, it was a little more livable. It would be about 14 foot square. Sometimes they would get a door made of split logs, fastened together and hang on wood hinges. Otherwise, a blanket would be hung over the opening. For furniture, a table may be made of split logs, and sometimes a door would be taken down and used as a table and rehung. Chairs would be three legged stools or benches, made of split logs. Beds were very important to the pioneers' comfort, and they were made of driving forked sticks into the ground, upon which poles ere laid. The wall end of the poles were either driven into auger holes, or rested between the logs of the cabin. Bark or boards were used as a substitute for cords or springs. Upon this the tidy housewife spread her strawtick, and if she was lucky enough to have a home made feather bed, she piled it up in a luxurious mound and covered it with her whitest sheet or homemade quilt, hung a sheet behind it and there was a cozy prairie bed. A fireplace was made of dirt and stone, with a frame of logs notched to hold them together, to keep the dirt from caving. A roof was made of prairie sod laid on poles. Sometimes as high as 14 people were forced to live in one room, until more room could be added.

        Many of these pioneers were able to bring with them some flour, bacon, coffee and tea. However this was soon gone and a long hard winter had to be endured before any vegetables could be grown, but if game was plentiful it helped considerably. But when corn was plentiful, the preparation was the next difficulty. Mills were so far away they did everything possible to keep from making the trip. Sometimes a time with holes punched in it, and rough piece of wood was used to rub the corn between them to make meal. Sometimes corn was soaked in lye water, made of wood ashes, until the hull peeled off, then it was washed to cleanse it of the lye. It was called hominy, and was ready for use as the...

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...occasion required, by seasoning to taste and frying.

        These are so few of the hardships they encountered, it seems hardly worth the telling. Telephones and electricity had not been heard of here. Nor railroads, of course, no cars, no houses, no barns, no fences, not even a barn lot fenced. No roads, no streams bridged. Tools were mostly a plow and an axe, a few horses, and some oxen for draft work. Neighbors far apart and villages farther; they pulled each others aching teeth, and cut each others hair. Doctors were few, quinine and casteroil a part of every home necessities. Church and schools yet to be organized. However they were used to being without many items; and under their feet lay a rich soil covered with quantities if trees and native grasses. There were fish in the stream and plenty of game in the woodland and open prairie- rabbits, deer, prairie chicken, quail, wild turkey, and migrating ducks and geese. They felt there was hope for the future!

        Those who have gone before us were men of stout nerve and unflinching hearts, who could dare danger, and who were able to endure trials and privations without a murmur.

        They left us a beautiful heritage, a land of plains and rivers rich in its fruitful abundance.

        Like the last lingering glory of a departing day, they case a halo of beauty over the beloved country of their adoption. May their lives and enobling virtues ever stimulate their descendants to deeds of greatness, and may this glorious heritage be appreciated as such a gift deserves.

        The population of the whole district of what later became the state of Iowa, exclusive of Indians was about 16,000 at the end of 1836, a little more than two years after the first settlement was made. During the year of 1835, the chief part of this population arrived.

        One remark made in a book by Lieutenant Albert Lea, of the United States Dragoons, published in 1836, is a good description of our lovely state. Quote, “with very few exceptions, there is not a more orderly, industrious, active, painstaking population west of the Alleghenies, than is this Iowa district.

        “Those who have been accustomed to associate the name of squatter, with the idleness and recklessness would be surprised to see the systematic manner in which everything here is conducted. For intellegence, I boldly assert that they are not surpassed, as a body, by an equal number of citizens of any country in the world.” Unquote.

        It is in this book where the name “Iowa” appears to have been first used in print in reference to this part of the country. It being called the Iowa District.

        In a brief article in the “Annals of Iowa,” Dr Shambaugh states that for at least a century before Lt. Lea's publication, the river that runs centrally through Iowa, was generally indicated by the name Ioway. Back of this, however, are the very natural questions of how and whence did our beautiful river gets its name?

        There are, of course, many explanations both as to the meaning of the word “Iowa', and as to the particular place at which, and to which, it was first applied.

        It is thought that the name “Iowa”, arose in this way: Many years ago, before any Indians had fixed their homes in what is now Iowa, some Indians in search of a new home, encamped on the high bluff of the Iowa river, near its mouth, and being pleased with the location and country around it, in their native dialect exclaimed – “IOWA, IOWA, IOWA” – (beautiful, beautiful, beautiful). Still other Indians came with the same exclamations, and another, and another and so on. Thus the name of Iowa was given to the river.

        On April 20,1836, Iowa was made a territory by an act of congress, although it was 1838, before the government got local government machinery organized, and the land surveyed, a land office established in Burlington, and were ready to sell the title of the new homes to the setters, at $1.25 per acre.

        On the seventh day of December, 1836, by an act of the Territorial Council of Wisconsin, passed and approved that day, the County of Louisa was created.

        The origin of the name is somewhat in doubt, though the most probable view of it is that it was named after a...

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... Louisa County, in Virginia. The name was given by William L. Toole, who was a native of that state and a member of the Territorial Legislature, when the act was passed to establish a county.

        It is believed the first permanent settler in Louisa County was Christopher Shuck, in the year 1832, and not more than three of four settlers were in Louisa County in 1834. The first sale of land was recorded in July 1836, by Solomon Perkins and records the names of Orrin Briggs, John Reynolds and National Parsons.

        The county was organized by the election of Wm. Milligan, Jeremiah Smith, and John Reynolds as county commissioners.

        The first meeting was held in Wapello, April 22, 1837, when they appointed Z. C. Ingraham, as clerk of the commissioners court.

        Samuel Smith was the first sheriff, and Wm. H. Creighton was the first assessor and collector of the county. The first bill passed was for books and supplies for county purposes.

        Surely we have rambled around over the early history of our country long enough, and I hope I have not made too many mistakes in the recording of it. As we have taken it all from printed records. So we will get to the subject of Fredonia.