of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 233-234
CEDAR TOWNSHIP. Cedar is one of the original townships first organized in 1842 and comprises all of township 76 north, of range 4 west, lying east of the Cedar river. It is bounded on the west by Cedar river, one the south by Louisa county, on the east by Seventy Six township and on the north by Lake township and the Cedar river. The soil is very fertile here and is traversed by a number of small streams which empty into the Cedar. It is purely an agricultural township, having neither village nor postoffice. Along the river much of it was at one time covered with timber, but there are here some of the best farms in Muscatine county. Its schools will compare very favorably with those of any other township. There are three sub-districts in which school is held nine months in the year, with an average attendance of fifty-eight. The cost per pupil is $2.17.
Matthew Brown was one of the first settlers of this township. With his father, Colonel Thomas M. Brown, he was employed by the government to survey the Black Hawk Purchase. He completed the survey in 1836 and taking a fancy to the country, removed with his family to Muscatine county in 1837. In June, 1842, he died, leaving a widow with seven small children, five of whom grew to maturity in the township. She lived to a very advanced age, with her son Thomas M. Hugh P. Brown, a son of Matthew, came to the township with his father, and for many years resided on section 2. Thomas M. Brown was another son of Matthew and became one of the influential farmers of this section. For many years he ran the Lord ferry.
Samuel Storm was another early settler of this township, coming in the spring of 1837. Shortly after his arrival he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, later purchasing the tract at the land sales, soon thereafter building a little log cabin, in which he made his home for several years. He eventually accumulated four hundred and eighty acres. He lived in the little log cabin alone for some years, after which his home was presided over by a married couple, engaged for the purpose. He never married.
Aristarchus Cone was one of the first settlers in Cedar township, locating there in the early fall of 1837. About the first day of July, 1837, in company with Richard Lord, he left Cincinnati and went to St. Louis by boat, and thence up the Illinois to Peoria. He and a companion were searching for a location and with bundles on their backs struck out on the lone prairie, from Peoria, "Indian file," as Mr. Crone related it, "with grass waist high, a straw hat on my head tied around the ears with a handkerchief and a small bush in our hands, to fight the everlasting and pestiferous mosquitoes." From Davenport the pioneers traveled, stopping the aching void in their stomachs by eating a few small potatoes they had found and, after fasting two days, were kindly taken in and generously fed by the mistress of a cabin that stood in their pathway. Moscow was the travelers' next stopping place and the first in Muscatine county. "with two whiskey shops and three other buildings, the whiskey dens in full blast, with '40-rod' whiskey flowing freely. Here were congregated Indians and whites in every stage of drunkenness; this, we were told, was an every-day occurrence. We came to the conclusion this was no place for us to stop. We got a man to take us across the river and stayed the night in a hospitable cabin. The next morning we tramped down the west side of Cedar river and came upon the remains of an Indian village. The 'wigy-ups' were still standing. About three miles away, on the banks of Wapsinonoc creek, we came across a log cabin, occupied by one Kidder, his wife and two little girls. They were Vermonters. From Kidder's we crossed Cedar river and traveled down about eight miles to the east side. The grass was nearly as high as our heads. We came to a beautiful prairie, surrounded on three sides by timber, with a stream running through it. I said to my friend," continues Mr. Cone, "this is the place I have been looking for. I am going to lay claim to this land," which he did by stalking off a claim, and also his companion, Lord, the latter paying fifty cents to the recorder of claims for the entry, according to the "squatter's" rules then in vogue. In his narrative, part of which had been quoted, Mr. Cone gives some very interesting details of his mode of life in that primitive day, which are but a repetition of the tales oft-told by others in this history. Mr. Cone, however, returned as far east as Peoria, traveling on foot a distance of one hundred and fifty miles. From there he went to his native place in Ohio and was back in Muscatine, in May, 1838, with farming implements, paying a man six dollars to move his chattels to his claim. He there made a pole "shack" and in a few days was joined by Lord, who had returned from Peoria with four yoke of oxen, with which they that summer broke sod. In the winter a log house was built. Of course he was fated to go through the usual period of malarial sickness and "chills and fever" and had many experiences, suffering hardships and privations, but was brave through it all, becoming eventually one of the prominent men of the locality and enjoying the fruits of a strenuous, industrious and prosperous life.
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