Chapter Twenty One

HISTORY OF GARFIELD AND HARRISON TOWNSHIPS. 

GARFIELD.

Until 1882 this township was the west half of Oskaloosa township and has been closely associated in its history with the life of the city. In that year Spring Creek and Garfield townships were created and Oskaloosa township was confined to the city limits. Garfield township was named in honor of James A. Garfield, the brilliant statesman who was elected President of our republic of states in 1880. Robert Seevers, one of its pioneer fanners, was the first man to introduce Merino sheep and also to bring a herd of shorthorn cattle to this county. Henry Prine, S. L. Pomeroy and W. T. Smith, of this township, were among the progressive stockmen of the county. Garfield has for years had large coal mjning interests. The township has two hundred and thirty-five farms whose value with its town lots is $236,565. The value of its personal property is $53,149. It has a population of 1,800 persons.

BEACON.

Beacon is a village located on section 27, two and one-half miles southwest of Oskaloosa, in Garfield township. It was laid out in 1864 under the name of Enterprise. On the completion of the Keokuk & Des Moines Railroad it was called Oskaloosa Station. About the year 1863, when Hiram Ethridge was postmaster at Givin, he opened a coal shaft at Beacon and quite a community sprang up. They applied for a postoffice but were denied one because of their nearness to Givin and Oskaloosa. As Mr. Ethridge's interests were mostly at Beacon and it had the prospect of growing more rapidly, he decided to use his authority as postmaster and without any consultation or petition he went down to Givin one Sunday on a handcar and took the postoffice effects from the home of Harry Brewer, where it was kept, and brought it up to Beacon. The Givin community reported the matter to the postoffice department and in a short time received a s~cond commission which deprived Beacon of an office. A second application to the department from Beacon brought a reply that their petition would be granted, but not under the name of Beacon, because there was at that time another office by that name in the state. This brings us to the year 1864, when the village and postoffice were founded under the name of Enterprise, which was changed some years afterward to its present name. E. J. Evans was the first postmaster. Beacon has been quite a business center in the past. Since the mines have been worked out adjoining it, its population has decreased. It has three churches, several general stores and good schools, with a population of about six hundred.

EVANS.

Evans is located in section 17, on Muchakinock creek. It was first called Elida, being the name of the coal company which first began operations there. When the post office was established it was named for D. J. Evans, whose land was among the first to be mined. Mr. T. J. Evans was the first postmaster. The railroad men called it. Knoxville Junction because of its being located at the crossing of the two roads leading north and west. Evans has been for years the center of the operations of the American Coal Company, which, until recently was owned and operated by W. A. McNeill. The population of the place has fluctuated with the coal development.
Bolton, a new mining town in sections 30 and 31, has a population of several hundred workmen and bids fair to become quite a village. It took its name from Mr. J. B. Bolton, the originator of the enterprise.  

HARRISON.

Harrison is one of the four townships in the southern tier of the county. It was laid out by Alvin and WiIliam A. Burt in June and August, 1843, and its section lines were run by Government Surveyor George Wilson in the winter of the following year. It was named for General William H. Harrison. who was elected President of the United States in 1840 by the whigs. He had lived among the pioneers of the west for more than forty years and was loved by the western people. His party adopted the log cabin as their campaign symbol. It was an extremely exciting campaign and quite demoralizing on account of the large quantities of cider and liquors which were drank at the rallies. This drinking was intended to symbolize the pioneer hospitality of the old hero, but many a young man dated the beginning of his intemperate life to the hard cider revels of that campaign.

This township has but little timber, its rich soil consisting mostly of rolling prairie. The boundaries of the township fixed in 1844 have been unchanged. The first elections were held at the home of Samuel Tilbets. The first white man's cabin ever built in the county was located in the south part of Harrison. Of the large number of settlers in the early '40s but few remain. R. W. Moore, of Cedar, is perhaps the only man now living in the township who was here in 1843. His father, J. F. Moore, staked out his claim in that year. James Spurlock, Jesse Newell, Samuel Cole, father of Dr. D. L Cole, and J. D. White are all spoken of as men whose lives and influence are still at work in that community. They had some ability as religious teachers and kept up meetings in their own and other neighborhoods, affording regular gatherings for the settlers, and trained their neighbors to the highest and best citizenship. Mahlan Thomas and his brother Benjamin were also here in 1843. Dr. Ross, who lived sonie miles east of Eddyville, is remembered as a useful man in the early years. The first schoolhouse was built on the Jesse Newell farm and Thomas Ross, a brother of the Doctor, taught the first school, in 1846. He served also as township clerk. Each settler contributed his share of the logs and work to put up the schoolhouse, which soon came to be used as a church. It was called the Newell schoolhouse. In the early '50s James Allison bought out Jesse Newell, who went to Jefferson county, Kansas, and founded Oskaloosa, Kansas, which is now the county seat of that county. Families were trained in that school who went to make new homes in different parts of the west. Its successor is now known as Round Top school. WiIliam H. Buffington, Joseph Funk, Silas and William Scott, Franklin Wall and T. R. Gilmore (afterward state senator) came into the township a little later. On the west side of the township were Samuel Vance, Butler Delashmutt. William Frederick, D. D. Miller; M. M. Davis and others. A full grown bear was killed on the William Frederick place by Delashmutt and Frederick in the early years. In the battle for its life the bear killed one of Delashmutt's favorite hunting dogs, much to the chagrin of the old hunter.

Cedar chapel was built in 1869 and the post office established in 1873. R. W. Moore was the first postmaster and gave the village its name. Some years later, when Wright station began to grow, there was an effort made to move the Cedar post office to Wright. When Mr. Moore and others learned of the move they circulated a petition for the establishment of an office at Wright and recommended the name to the post office department because of the number of persons by that name in the community. The request was granted and J. A. Baitsell was made postmaster. Wright is located in the corners of four townships and is in the center of an intelligent community. Pekay and Lost Creek, in .the south part of the county, are mining camps of varying population and activity. The latter place is operated by the Lost. Creek Fuel Company and is ten miles southeast of Oskaloosa. On January 24, 1902, there occurred an explosion in one of the shafts, which killed twenty and wounded fourteen men. It was the greatest catastrophe that has ever occurred in the annals of the mining industry in Iowa. The explosion was produced by a shot fired by Andrew Pash in room No. 10 at mine No. 2. He was among the dead. A fund of almost $3,000 was shortly afterward raised by special donations for the widows and orphans who were left penniless and homeless by this fatal accident. Harrison township is rich in coal beds and several tragedies have occurred in the mining districts. A disaster which shocked the entire state occurred on the farm of William G. Briggs on the morning of August 12, 1871. A coal shaft had been dug a few hundred yards behind the house.  It was thirty-two feet deep and eight feet square, a ladder leading down to the bottom of the shaft. The water which accumulated in the opening was used for stock water and drawn by a bucket with horse power. Two sons of Briggs,  Mahlon, aged eighteen, and Charles, aged ten, went out to the shaft on this morning to water the stock. While they were there a neighbor boy named Jimmie Cowden came along looking for some stray hogs, and was assisting them. The water was quite low in the shaft and the bucket failing to fill as usual, Charles, the younger boy, was sent down to fill it by dipping. He had only reached the bottom of the shaft when he called to his brother that he was suffocating, and Mahlon went immediately to his rescue, put his brother in the bucket,  got in himself and called to the boy to draw them up, which he did at once, with the aid of the horse. But just as the bucket was approaching the top with its precious burden, young Cowden noticed Mahlon grow faint, and losing his hold, he fell to the bottom. Charles was raised out, but insensible. The boy then called to William G. Briggs, the father, who was within hearing distance. He ran to the shaft and down the ladder, perhaps only thinking there had been an accident. Seeing his mistake, he started out but was overcome and fell into the water. Young Cowden then ran across a field more than half a mile to where there was a threshing crew, to give the alarm. On his way he met Anna Briggs, a fourteen-year- old daughter, running to the shaft, and warned her not to descend into the shaft. But while he was gone the girl shared the fate of her father and brothers. George Briggs, a brother of William G. Briggs, was the first to reach the mouth of the pit, and being confident of his ability to do what he had done many times before, descended the ladder to his death. Edward Grier, an Irishman who had worked in the family for four· years, arrived with the crowd a little later and could not be dissuaded from going down. The crowd wanted to tie a rope around him, but in the excitement he would not wait, and shared the fate of those whom he had tried to rescue. Grappling hooks were obtained as soon as possible and the bodies raised. Six lives had been snuffed out inside of perhaps an hour, almost an entire family. William G. Briggs had been put forward by the citizens of his township as a candidate for the state legislature. On the morning of the accident he had stepped out of his door on his way to attend the township primary, holding the poll books in his hand. On hearing the confusion at the coal shaft he hastily laid them down and responded to the call for help which ended in such a thrilling tragedy.

Harrison township has 336 farms, whose value is $29,978. The value of personal property is $59,705. The corporate limits of the city of Eddyville extend across the county line into this township, adding about one hundred to its population, making the population of the entire township 1,600.