GEORGE MONLUX'S RECOLLECTIONS OF EARLY
DAYS IN LYON COUNTY
I came to Sioux City on my
first trip to Lyon County, in the latter part of November 1870.
Remaining there a few days, I took the Sioux Falls stage for
Canton. The stage ran the trip once each week. We left Sioux City
in a snowstorm, but it soon cleared up and fine weather followed.
Crossing over the bluffs, from Sioux City into the valley of the
Big Sioux River, we followed that stream up to Canton. There were
only half a dozen houses and settlers in the whole valley, at
that time. Calliope, then the county seat of Sioux County, had
one large house, about 12 by 16 feet in size.
We arrived at Beloit and Canton on the evening of the second day
out, and at Beloit found a sawmill, blacksmith shop, a grocery
store and one big sod house. There were quite a number of people
about, but if you counted the fleas in the sod house as
inhabitants, Beloit would have been as large as populous Chicago.
Canton, South Dakota had possibly a dozen houses and two stores
on the riverbank.
I put up with Mr. Martin, who kept hotel there, and the next
morning I hired him to take me across to the Rock at Mr. H.D.
Rices. In that distance--eighteen miles-there were only three
settlers. Mr. Albertson lived six miles west of the forks. When
we came in sight of the timber from the hills west of the Rock,
Mr. Martin turned back and I proceeded on foot, crossing the Rock
on an old beaver dam. I ran into a camp of Indians in the timber
and dogs attacked me savagely, but I finally got away from them
and went up to the house. Learning from Mr. Rice that my brothers
lived fifteen miles farther up the stream, I tried to hire him to
take me up, but he had his stock to care for and as he and his
wife were all alone, he could not go, but said, "That's
Badgerow's mare, you can ride her." So the next morning I
started up the valley for D.C. Whiteheads. At that time there
were several large groves on the river and
timber all the way, nearly. At what was styled "Four mile
grove"-about a mile above the present day "Omaha"
Bridge-I thought I had struck another Indian camp, but upon going
into the timber, discovered D.C. Whitehead, C.T. Moon, Mr.
Sweeney, Mr. Towsley and John Monlux. They were getting out
material for a house for Uncle Jack Smith.
D.C. Whitehead, John Monlux, C.H. Moon and Uncle Jack Smith, were
located on section 32 in what is now Riverside Township; Mr.
Towsley on section 31; Mr. Sweeney, A.R. and William Hamlin, on
section 30. S.G. Martin, Jud Martin and Clay Martin were located
farther up the river, on land owned later by Cal. Woodford. The
people all lived in log cabins, with sod roofs, ground floors,
carpeted with prairie hay. They seemed fairly comfortable houses
to live in. Theodore Johnson, Edmonds Irwin and McGuire brothers
were located on section 36, in Rock Township, the Schultz family
were on section 32, in Wheeler Township, H.D. Rice, John Hartson
and George M. Queen at Doon, James H. Wagner, east of Doon. As
far as I remember, these were all the settlers in Lyon County
east of what was called the Beloit settlement.
I remained with the settlers two or three weeks, when I went back
to the eastern part of Iowa, determined to return in the spring.
I went across the country to LeMars, with Frank Styles, who had
just commenced operations, building the first school house ever
erected in Lyon County. One of these few early schoolhouses was
still in use in 1895. The Lyon County settlers got their mail,
and all supplies, were hauled from Sioux City or LeMars.
The year 1871 was an eventful one in this county. The eastern
part has been well named, by Jergen Ranken, "The Garden of
Eden." This finest tract of land in all of Iowa had never
been used, except for hunting grounds by the trappers and Indians-but
all was changed during that season. The Sioux City & St. Paul
Railroad was surveyed in the spring and summer was graded to
LeMars. It was ironed as far as Worthington, Minnesota, on Lake
Okobena, late in the fall. Inside of the "ten mile limit,"
from this road, every even numbered section was held subject to
homestead, or pre-emption entry. The odd sections belonged to the
railroad, by virtue of land grants. The even numbered sections
were held by the government at $2.50 per acre, but any person who
had served as a soldier in the Civil War could enter 160 acres as
a homestead.
The western line of the "ten mile limit" entered Lyon
County, and included sections 24 and 36 in Elgin Township,
sections 2, 10, 22 and 28 in Grant, and ran nearly southwest
through Dale Township. These sections can be noted to this day by
the large groves of trees, although nearly all the settlers are
gone.
In May 1871 I drove through from Silver Lake to Rock Rapids. At
Silver Lake-now Lake Park-Mr. Knox came out several miles to show
me the stake of a road, which Mr. Whitehead had surveyed from the
Sioux River to that place. We followed the line of stakes, ours
being the first team through, on the new road, and May 23 and 24,
1871 we drove on the township line to Mr. Whitehead's place on
section 2, in Grant Township. In all that distance we did not see
a single furrow broken, or a settler. At that time Captain Huff
was the only settler in all of Osceola County. But that season
settlers came in by the hundreds and during the summer about
every quarter section in Lyon and Osceola Counties was claimed.
Sod houses arose in all directions as if by magic.
The nearest point at which lumber or shingles could be procured
was LeMars, about sixty miles distant, and not a stream or slough
was yet bridged. So the pioneers built their houses and barns of
sod. They went over to the Big Rock and cut posts and rafters,
put on slough grass and shingled the buildings with sod. This
made a good roof, except when it rained, but it did not rain much
in 1871. It was a very dry year-the year of the great Chicago
fire. The Little Rock River ran dry in June and the Big Rock in
September, and so remained until the following spring.
This year Jesse Monk settled on section 36, Liberal Township, W.B.
May and colony, E.N. Ripley, C.H. King, R.A. Bell, James Roberts,
H. Alspaugh and Jerry Argo, in Grant Township. Many others who
had claims returned to their old homes for the winter. Some sod
corn and potatoes were raised and the grass in the sloughs and
bottoms was immense-higher than a tall man's head.
In 1872 Anson Tolman, C.A. Fisher, Charles Bowen, Henry Bowen,
Thomas P. May, Ruben Hatch, Will Green and J.O. Sweet returned to
the county and located in Grant and Elgin Townships. GEORGE
MONLUX. Rock Rapids, Iowa, September 20, 1894.