REGISTER OF
OLD SETTLERS
BOOK ONE
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MUSCATINE COUNTY IOWA REGISTER OF | |
Source: REGISTER OF OLD SETTLERS , BOOK One, page 470 b-1 thru b-8
submitted by Charlene Nichols Hixon, October 30, 2007
OLD SETTLERS’ REUNION Held at the Fair Grounds, Muscatine,
Wednesday, Aug. 30th, 1899The forenoon was spent in social converse and in exchanging greetings among the pioneers.
After a lunch dinner, the assembly was called to order by President J. P. Walton and after an appropriate prayer by Rev. Jacob Fath, the president’s address was delivered, as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen, Old Settlers:
It has been customary for the president to make a short address at their annual reunions. Things change so fast and so much it is uncertain how long this custom will be followed. We don’t wish it understood that we have any doubt of the permanency of the Old Settlers’ association, far from that, our organization is of such a nature that it will hardly stop with us, we expect our descendants to perpetuate it for all time to come. The disposition to perpetuate “the scenes of our childhood” is imperishable in the American breast, time can hardly erase it.I am in receipt of a proclamation issued by the governor of the State of New Hampshire (my native State), setting apart a full week from August 26 to September 1st, of the present year, as an “Old Home Week,” and inviting every person who was a resident of the State, or the descendant of any former resident, to return and visit the scenes of their youth, and renew their acquaintance with the people. They are observing it in many towns in the State this week. This is as near an old settlers’ meeting as it is possible for the New England people to have. Our society has been organized for forty-three years, and is fully as flourishing now as ever, although not more than half a dozen of its first members are now living. If our descendants are fully American as their parents are, its continuance is assured.
It is true the age is moving. No one realizes it better than myself. It was my intention to hold our meeting in Weed’s Park, and I wrote up a history of the park in its earlier days for my opening address to the old settlers. I happened to meet one of our old members, who entered a protest, not against the park, but against the means of getting there. (This was by a lady, I won’t say how old, for our widow ladies never get very old.) I informed her that I had secured wagonettes from the trolley cars to the park at 5 cents a trip; the price did not seem to play any part, the objection was the likelihood of having to wait too long, and the trouble of climbing in and out, also the rough ride. Now, in bygone years this lady has very frequently climbed into a common lumber wagon, away down towards Grandview, and rode to Bloomington, did her shopping, and rose home again, in all 20 or 30 miles, and thought she had a nice trip. The inconvenience of getting the young ladies and old men to and from Weed Park induced me to accept the fair grounds.
When the trolley cars reach Weed Park and the management passes into the hands of the city, which it will necessarily have to, before city funds can be applied to it in any considerable extent, it will be one of the grandest places for holding meetings of this kind.
But to return to our subject. The travel in early days. A few days ago a pair of leather saddle bags came into my possession. They offered to my mind a wonderful amount of history, up to sixty years ago the traveling in the southern and western States was largely done on horse back, then the saddle bags were in use. The traveler would pack his spare clothing and other effects in his saddle bags and throw them across the horse, back of the saddle. If the weather was cold he would tie on his leggings, put on his overcoat and mount his horse. He was then ready for a…
*** continues on page 470 b-2 *** …long ride of from 30 to 50 miles. If the weather was warm the leggings and overcoat were rolled up and tied to the back of the saddle. Many an early settler has made a trip of this kind from Ohio or Indiana to Iowa, and return, taking six weeks or two months before settling in Iowa.
In those times the ladies rode on horseback. The Sunday outfit of a young lady was a calico dress, a new hat and a side-saddle. Her ordinary dress was linsey woolsey, or muslin, died with walnut bark. Every well to do house had a hose block. It was made of a log about the size and height of a large barrel set on end, with a notch cut out of the upper back corner to make a step. This was used by the women in mounting and dismounting from their horses.
When horse back riding went out of use early in the fifties, the road wagon and buggy took its place. The saddle bags disappeared, the carpet-bag taking its place for a while. The carpet bag has now become almost as rare as the saddle bags. The most prominent place the carpet bag was said to have occupied was in the hands of the northern office holder n the southern states shortly after the civil war.
- - - - - - - -
The Old Settlers’ Reunion. Draw the chairs closer, the circle grows less.
With each year of Time’s swift passing flight;
With a sigh that we cannot, and would not repress.
Of the pioneers speak, who have banished from sight.In their beautiful home, do they think of us still?
And remember the days of privation and toil?
And the many kind actions of friendly good will,
Whose memory naught from out hearts can uncoil?We think of their virtures, so ruggedly grand,
Of the many brave hearts that were tender and true,
Hospitalities tendered with free, open hand,
Kind neighborly acts, running humble lives through.The prosperous farms, in our bounteous land,
Are their gifts, on their children bestowed,
And now, by the breeze of prosperity fanned,
We reap, what ‘mid hardship, they sowed.-- Elizabeth Barrows Walton.
Muscatine, August 30, 1899.
- - - - - - - - Secretary Jackson then read the necrology of the old settlers for the past year, as follows:
Names of old settlers who have left since our last anniversary:
(pages 470 b-2 & b-3)
1898 Frederick Timm, Oct. 28 Mary C. Hartman, Nov. 4. Thomas Bush, Nov. 7. J. A. Reuling, Nov. 7. Sarah Oney Hill, Dec. 19. Leonard Arnold, Dec. 19. Jacob D. Miller, Dec. 22. Mrs. Conrad Hacker. Wm. O`Toole, Dec. 30. 1899 John Pantel, Jan. 21. Samuel C. Dunn, Jan. 5. F. Marion Bachelor. John Knopp, Jan. 22. Oliver P. Connor, Jan. 21. Wm. A. Halter, Jan. 22. Geo. Keck, Jan. 22. Mrs. Aumiller, Jan. 31. D. C. Richman, Jan. 25. Thomas F. Wiles, Jan. 29. E. M. Kessinger, Jan. 29. Mrs. Lucy A. Campbell, Jan. 10. Dr. Hoffmeyer, Jan. 7. Mrs. Elenor Smith, Jan. 15. Andrew Smalley, Feb. 7. Mrs. A. Overman Beeson. Mrs. Elizabeth Hoopes, Feb. 11. Mrs. Martha Bowen, Feb. 2. Mary Walton, Feb. 14. Margaret Schwab, March 4. Mrs. Groschell. Mrs. Charles Chaplin, April 13. Benjamin Chambliss, April 16. Wm. L. Browning, June 4. Henry Smalley, June 29. Mrs. Mary E. Boyler. C. E. Miller. Mrs. B. Sullivan, July 29. Mrs. Mary Holzhauer, July 24. John Stockdale, July 24. John Brase, July 25. John Keckler, July 16. Wm. Lewis, Aug. 5. Elias Adams, Aug. 6. Mrs. Jos. W. Will, Aug. 21. Mrs. James Foster, Aug. 20. Chalres Schulte, Aug. 19. Nicholas Buthman. George R. White, Aug. 1. Uttig Houseman, Aug. 24. Anastatia Dulanty, Aug. 6. Wm. Calder, Aug. 22. Henry Miller. E. F. Richman, from the committee on resolutions, reported as follows:
“By the list of familiar names read in our hearing, we are again reminded that the pioneers of Muscatine county are rapidly passing away. It is a sad thought, but in the not distant future only those who were children of the early settlers will be left to perpetuate this association and bear testimony to the worth and works of the good fathers and mothers who founded our community.
Old age has come to many of us, and to all of us it comes apace. It warns us we are following swiftly in the footsteps of those whose light of life has gone out from this world forever.
Resolved, That we hold in grateful remembrance the deceased members of our association. We bear witness to the useful and helpful lives they lived and to the kindly and neighborly offices they rendered to the unfortunate and distressed.
Resolved, That we recognize our indebtedness to them for the measure of political and social civilization we enjoy. It is matter of congratulation that their lives were spared to see children and grandchildren citizens of a prosperous community, where wealth, education, social advantages and the comforts of life are easily within the reach of deserving effort.
Resolved, That we recognize a brotherhood and sisterhood as existing among the old settlers, arising from the exigencies of pioneer life; that there are ties of fellowship and friendship between them such as are not usually found in modern society, because not promoted by its conditions. And when a brother or sister of our guild falls, chilled by the cold touch of death, it is with a feeling of personal bereavement we extend the hand of sympathy to the relatives of the deceased, who feel a nearer and a keener grief and who sustain the double loss of kinsman and friend.”
Among the relics of pioneer days on exhibition were the following:
By J. P. Walton – Saddle bags, powder horn and fawn skin pouch, perforated tin lantern, key to old jail.
By Samuel Sinnett – Bullseye watch, tortoise shell snuff box, ancient newspaper and old letter.
By Mrs. J. M. McLaughlin – Winding blade.
- - - - - - - - Mr. J. P. Walton, President Old Settlers’ Society of Muscatine:
Los Angeles, Cal., Aug. 25, 1899.
My Dear Friend: Your invitation to write a letter to be read at the next meeting of your society is at hand, and gladly will I comply, though just where to begin, and perhaps where to stop, is a question upon which I am not clearly decided.However, I count it a privilege to send a cordial greeting to all the early settlers of Muscatine county, whether still resident or scattered abroad. There my childhood and early manhood were spent, covering a period of fully forty-three years. During the seventeen years since I left there I have watched the proceedings of your annual gatherings with increasing interest, and gladly would have been with you in person as I have been in spirit.
The list of those who have passed over the great divide is growing so large that it seems there must be few left, and yet the names of those present at your annual reunions show a large number still on this side.
My recollections of the early days of Muscatine (then Bloomington) is very fresh in memory. When my parents came there in the spring of 1840, I was a lad but eight years old. We first stopped with Capt. Jim Palmer, who kept the two-story frame hotel, then on the corner where the Cook, Musser & Co. bank is now located. Our first cottage (?) home was a log cabin sit-…
*** continued on page 470 b-4 *** …uated about where the southwest corner of the present Commercial Hotel is located. Here by brother “Pars” and I had free access to the river’s edge, where we could almost every hour in the day see the Musquakie Indians, as they plied their canoes up and down the river.
I shall never forget the great scare I gave my good mother, by going off with the Valandingham boys one evening down to a landing about half way to the present Hershey mill, to see a whole lot of Indians, with ponies. I did not return until late, and my parents thought surely I had fallen into the river and had been drowned, and were busy with neighbors dragging the waters for my corpse near where I was last seen.
About the year 1842-3 my father, Zephaniah Washburn, was jailor of the county. The jail was then a log structure of two stories, and two rooms to each story, the rooms being about 15x15 each in size.
The family lived in the upper story and the prisoners were confined in the lower rooms, being let down through a trap door on a ladder, which was pulled up when the prisoner was down. The food for the prisoners was lowered down in a bucket on a rope. In winter it was very cold in the lower rooms without fire, and in a few cases for humanity’s sake we would allow prisoners to come up where there was a fire. One case in particular I remember. A man named Mitchell, said to have been relative of the Mitchell Geography man, was in jail on some charge of swindling. My father let him up to get war on several occasions, on his honorable promise not to attempt to escape, and his gratitude hardly knew any bounds at first. He was a cultured man, for that day, and so ingratiated himself into father’s confidence that he could hardly believe him capable of taking advantage of the kindness bestowed upon him.
But he illustrated the saying that when there was an object “the devil a saint would be,” but when the opportunity to escape came, “the devil of a saint was he.” He skipped out and I do not remember if he was ever recaptured.
This capacious jail was not only a place to confine criminals, but in cases, the insane. A notable case was that of a Mr. Salms, who lived up the river road near the Anderson tile factory, who became violently insane. He was almost a giant in stature, more than six feet in height, and large in proportion. There were no asylums for the insane in Iowa then. But the man must be confined. There was no place but the jail, yet it would be inhuman to place him in the lower cells. So the County Commissioners had a cage partitioned off in the upper back room, of stout oak studding well braced, and a bunk for him to lie on inside. At times for a week or more he would be as docile as a kitten. Then in an instant, at some little incident as a remark or dislike of some food, he would fly into a rage and be as fierce as a roaring lion. It would seem at times he would burst asunder the bounds of his cage. On these occasions nothing would seem to stop him till father would get Michael Green to come over and they would give him a good punching with rods through his cage until he would cry enough, and then he would be quiet and rational for a time again. The pathetic part of it was that his insanity was caused by the loss of his wife, whom he continually mourned. I believe he finally recovered and died sane. (He was insane long before his wife “Charity,” as he called her, died. J. P. W.)
The jail was near the present court house, in the northwest corner of the square. An outside stairway at the east end led to the second story.
Some of the old settlers may remember “Hart Washburn” in connection with his yoke of calves. While our family lived in the jail our cow had a calf, and I corralled it in a pen under the outside stairway. Soon after it had learned to draw its nourishment from its mother, I began to give it lessons in the “gee” and “haw” business. By the time it was two months old, father bought me a mate to it – both white-faced and red and white on the bodies. When those calves were six months old I had them so well trained I could drive them anywhere like an old ox team.
If I chanced to be sent down town…
*** continues on page 470 b-5 *** …for 50 cents worth of sugar I generally yoked up my calves and went sailing down town with the team to get it. There were no groceries then nearer than John A. Parvin’s or “Black” Bennett’s stores, on Front street, near Chestnut.
On one of these occasions an incident happened that nearly broke my heart for a time. It happened to be the evening of an election day. I was going down town on Walnut street, about half way between Third and Fourth, when David G. McCloud, afterwards for many years County Sheriff, and Henry Reece both young bloods of that day came along, with just enough election juice in them to want some fun. They evidently thought so young a yoke of oxen was a funny sight, and greatly to my consternation McCloud jumped into my ox cart and began to flourish a large club and cry in stentorian tones “gee up there,” “gee,” “haw,” etc. I thought my oxen were goners then, sure enough. But they soon subsided and I was glad to get rid of them, and though fifty-five years have passed since, I have never quite forgotten them for it.
Well, I must not prolong my reminiscences. It may interest you all to know of the Muscatiners who have drifted off to this western coast.
B. W. Earl and family have a nice fruit ranch nine miles out from Los Angeles, at Alhambra.
Thos. S. Parvin, son of Hon. John A. Parvin, has a nice place near Clearwater, twelve miles toward the ocean. Tom and “Food,” as we used to call him, and the writer, used to play marbles and leap-frog around the schools of Muscatine fifty to fifty-five years ago. Now we are old, yet spared to meet often and talk over our boyhood days.
The venerable Marshall Farnsworth lives here in the city.
Frank R. Holcomb, J. M. Vail, Wm. McDermott and several other Muscatine Islanders live at Fullerton, twenty miles out.
Samuel Strohm, formerly of Wilton, resides in this city. R. M. Baker and J. G. Evans are also here.
Milton Painter, C. W. Tebbetts, C. A. Tebbetts, Wilson T. Kirk, Calvin W. Abbott and quite a number of others live at Pasadena, nine miles out.
Again sending a cordial greeting to all old settlers and acquaintances at the old town and county on the great “apex,” as well as those who may be scattered abroad in so many parts of our great western country wherever ur favorite old Muscatine Journal shall carry the message,
- I am, yours truly,
- L. H. Washburn.
- - - - - - - - The next thing in order was the election of officers. On motion of John Mahin, the following were chosen for the ensuing years:
For President, J. P. Walton.
For 1st Vice-President, W. S. Fultz.
For 2nd Vice-Pres., S. W. Stewart.
For 3d Vice-Pres., John Barnard.
For Secretary, Peter Jackson.
For Treasurer, Mrs. P. Jackson.
The familiar and appropriate song for old settlers’ meetings, “Auld Lang Syne,” was then sung by the audience, led by Mrs. C. Weed, while persons appointed by the president took up a collection to meet the expenses of the society.Mrs. A. C. Hopkinson then read a poem for the occasion written by Mrs. Walton. This was printed in our report yesterday out of its order.
R. W. Leverich, a native-born Muscatiner, was introduced as a man who never wrote a speech. He modestly refused to take the stand. He said as a rule he would rather not look back but ahead. He paid a high tribute to the people of Iowa – to their intelligence and enterprise. He was glad he lived in this age. He said he was born near Moscow – would rather have been born in Muscatine, but we can’t always control such events. He gave a number of interesting pioneer reminiscences, especially in reference to the rude school houses in early days and the methods of teaching. No graded schools in those days. He spoke also of the growth of corporations and of the benefits they have conferred on the public in the way of providing better methods for farmers and mercantile business. He touched also on the progress that has been made in religion and politics…
*** continues on page 470 b-6 *** …and enforced the importance of performing the duties of citizenship so as to subserve the public good. Personal liberty may become the liberty of the pirate or brigand.
John H. Wallace, of New York, was next introduced. He addressed his audience as “old neighbors and their children.” He spoke of his impressions when he came to Iowa and landed at Bloomington in 1845, with its forbidding hills and hollows. Tom Johnson, a citizen at that time, said there were enough hills to fill up the hollows and have a few wheelbarrow loads of dirt left. The condition of Muscatine shows that this leveling up process has been well accomplished. The speaker had something to do with this policy of public improvement when elected Mayor of Muscatine in 1855. He said on his present visit he hardly knew he was in Muscatine, so great has been the improvement. Mr. Wallace referred to his own personal experience, after leaving Muscatine, and said he had been reasonably successful in relying upon his own resources and availing himself of his experiences in early life.
W. S. Fultz read a good paper on the mission of the pioneer, which our reporter failed to get for publication.
John Mahin read the following letter from T. S. Parvin:
Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Aug. 28, 1899.
Hon. John Mahin, Editor Muscatine Journal, Muscatine, Iowa.My dear sir: I have just been reading and with much interest a little volume containing a collection of Pioneer Papers, which my old friend, J. P. Walton, had published in one of your city papers. The reading was very suggestive and I might add a number of articles and supply some of his omissions, I will only, however, refer to one or two:
On page 12 of his volume in speaking of Thos. M. Isett became Colonel I cannot tell”—you will allow me to tell:
At the first session of the Territorial Legislature November, 1838, the Legislative Assembly had enacted a military law providing for the appointment of Majors, Brigadier Generals, Colonels, Captains, etc., by the wholesale—there were more officers than high privates; Mr. Isett during that winter visited Burlington and like may another young man he was very ambitious, ambitious for a military title. Having made my acquaintance and knowing my relation to the governor as his private secretary he asked my influence to have him appointed colonel – not that he cared anything about the office or its duties, but that he wanted the title – I mentioned the matter to Governor Lucas and learned that all of the places had been filled, which fact I communicated to Mr. Isett: he said if the governor would appoint him colonel, so that he could get his name in the paper he would resign the office immediately. This I also mentioned to the governor, who was inclined tohumor the joke and ordered me to make out a commission as colonel for Isett, this I did, as I remember, on Friday, certainly not an unlucky day for the new colonel, who immediately went down to the office of the Territorial Gazette, edited at that time by Jas. Clark its founder, who published quite a complimentary notice of the appointment of Thomas M. Isett as Colonel: the paper appeared Saturday afternoon and the Colonel was much flattered. True to his promise he brought the Commission to me with his resignation, he had secured and accomplished all he desired – the commission, the title and had it published in the weekly, one of the only two papers published at that day in the territory.
Now it is a little singular that title clung to colonel Isett through all his life and since his death, provided he is dead, with the tenacity of the grippe, while many another who had received the title of Colonel or even General passed into oblivion. The fact is that while very young in years then I was in one respect the most conspicuous man in Burlington or Iowa, being about the only one that had no title, for Generals, Colonels, Majors and Captains were as thick as bees in swarming time, I alone having no title.
I note that Mr. Walton says the Court House was built in 1840. As I was reading his book I had lying before me a letter from a gentleman, speaker at the old settlers’ meeting of…
*** continues on page 470 b-7 *** …Keosauqua for this year, in which he says that the first Court House and the first public building erected in Iowa was the court House at Keosauqua; he does not give the year however of its erection. I had always supposed that the Court House in Muscatine was the first temple of justice erected in Iowa; certainly it was the most pretentious for many years of the buildings of that class.
He gives an interesting account in two or three chapters of the bridging of Pappoose creek, but omits one of the most important and interesting incidents in connection with the work. Bloomington was organized as a city or town of the second class and was not dignified with officer entitled to be called “Mayor” but we had a town organization and the President of the city was Mr. Mathew Matthews, who was the owner of the first brick building in the town erected by his brother, Hiram, for him. The Board of Trustees, as the Council or Aldermen were called, voted to build a culvert on Second street. It was constructed under the supervision of Mr. Matthews, who had been a contractor on the National Pike through Ohio from Maysville, Ky., to Indianapolis. He commenced the culvert at a diameter of less than four feet; many of the citizens remonstrated with him, assuring him it was not large enough in diameter – he laughed them all to scorn, when they called upon me and asked that I would have a conference with him on the subject as I was his especial friend. I did no\\so, but he said he knew a great deal more than I did about culverts; he had built a great many on the national road from Baltimore west and he knew it was large enough. I said to him I had never built a culvert, I had, however, traveled over that road and noticed that many of its culverts were much larger than his and assured him that I had myself seen more water rush down that creed across Second street tan would fill a dozen such culverts. However, he was head-strong and completed is work and it was accepted by the Board of Trustees on Saturday afternoon. That night there was a violent rain storm, a little flood indeed and the very many tributaries of Pappoosee swirled the main channel in its egress Second street to the river. The following morning (Sunday!) I got up very early and went down to see what effect the rain had on Mr. Matthews’ culvert – there was not a single stone left to tell the tale that a culvert had ever existed there; the force of the current was such as to sweep every vestige of the culvert into the Mississippi. From an inspection of the place where the culvert once stood I went to Mr. Matthews’ house and called him up and asked him to take a walk with me; he consented and I escorted him to the spot of his masterpiece of work. The old gentleman was very much surprised and astonished. I told him I was not in the least for I knew that would be the natural result of the firs rain that should come. Not long after that the city erected a bridge there some twenty feet in width and half that in heighth and yet not only I but others saw the flood was over the top of bridge.
Mr. Walton speaks of Dr. Eli Reynolds, of Geneva, a very conspicuous figure in the early history of the county and mentions the fact that he was a member of the Legislative Assembly of Wisconsin, while Iowa was a part of it. He fails to mention a very interesting incident in connection with his official service. In those days the county seats were fixed by legislative net and Dr. Reynolds resided at Geneva, a little village of a few straggling houses three miles north of Bloomington, secured the passage of a law making Geneva the county seat. General Henry Dodge was then Governor of Wisconsin and be vetoed the fill – to him and to that veto the citizens of Muscatine are indebted that their town later became the county seat of Muscatine county.
I might name many other interesting matters, but I am not the historian of Muscatine county.
- Yours very truly,
- T. S. Parvin.
- - - - - - - - The Journal reporter made an effort to get the names of all the old settlers in attendance. The following list, however, he fears will be incomplete, as may came late and he was unable to see all who were on the grounds during the exercises.
*** continues on page 470 b-8 *** The figures after the name indicate the year at which the person settled in Iowa or was born in this State.
Amlong, R. S., 1855. Leverich, R. W., 1838. Austin, Mrs. P. A., 1863. Lindle, J. B. and wife, 1851. Ady, James H., 1851. Lee, J. B., 1853. Brogan, Jesse, 1843. Lucas, Mrs. Anna B., 1851. Baird, R. B., 1859. Madden, Henry, 1849. Bowser, Mrs. Eunice, 1855. Mahin, John, 1843. Blanchard, Mrs. Henry, 1856. Mauck, Mrs. C. F., 1840. Bartlett, Mrs. M., 1850 McQuesten, W. W. and wife, 1861. Bridgman, Joseph, 1839. McGreer, Wash. and wife, 1864. Brockway, Mrs. Elizabeth, 1841. McLaughlin, J. M. and wife, 1855. Bennett, Joseph, 1842. Maylone, W. H., 1858. Clough, Geo. M., 1846. McColm, Mrs. J. L., Chaplin, Charles, 1848. Magoon, Mrs. George D. Couch, Mrs. Moses, (aged 90), 1837. Nichols, Thornton and wife, 1838. Cone, A., 1837. Nichola, John and wife, 1839. Canon, J. H. and wife, 1855. Neibert, Mrs. Jacob, 1851. Crawford, W. P., 1851. Othmer, August and wife, 1856 Cook, J. L., 1850. Oakes, Norman, 1858. Conner, W. H., 1857. Patterson, Mrs. L. L., 1834. Chesebrough, Mrs. Eliza, 1837. Peasley, C. L., 1853. Derby, C. W. and wife, 1853. Peasley, W. S., 1853. Dillaway, H. W. and wife, 1857. Purcell, Elizabeth, 1839. Eckel, O. W., 1856 Pollock, Mrs. L. L., 1855. Eichelberger, Levi, 1844. Richie, W. S., 1856. Freeman, J. P. and wife, 1840. Richman, J. S. 1839. Fultz, W. S., 1850. Richman, E. F., 1845. Fath, Jacob and wife, 1854. Rosseau, Mrs. H. A., 1852. Griffin, Mrs. M. W., 1850. Rock, Mrs. Addie, 1851. Gilbert, Mrs. Samuel, 1839. Rankin, B. B., 1845. Giesler, Chas., 1844. Stahl, Mrs. Henry, 1842. Greiner, Ben., 1854. Stewart, Samuel W., 1838. Greiner, Elizabeth, 1854. Shields, George, 1855. George, R. B. and wife, 1853. Sinnett, Samuel and daughter, 1839. George, Mrs. Sallie, 1841. Smalley, Mrs. Henry, 1866. Hart, Miss Mary A., 1848. Schreurs, W. G. and wife, 1847. Heaton, F. M., 1840. Simpson, Jacob, 1838. Hoopes, Joseph E. and wife, 1849. Smalley, Abraham, 1838. Hoopes, J. W., 1855. Smith, H. G. and wife, 1850. Holtz, John, 1857. Tunison, Alfred and wife, 1853. Hopkinson, A. C. and wife, 1855. Thompson, John L. and wife, 1861. Holmes, Mrs. W. G. and
grand daughter (Mrs. Rock), 1842.Van Camp, K. and wife, 1850 Hudson, J. B. and wife, 1841. Wales, J. G. and family, 1852. Hunter, W. S. and wife, 1861. Whicher, Mrs. S. E., 1850. Jarvis, J. B., 1856. Walts, J. G., 1851. Jackson, A., 1843. Walton, J. P. and wife, 1838. Jackson, Peter, 1838. Weed, Mrs. C., parents came in 1848. Kneese, Mrs. Olive, 1839. Whitcomb, Mrs. Jennie, 1852. Kemper, B. and wife, 1844. Wise, Samuel and wife, 1842. Lang, George J., 1853. Wallace, J. H. and wife, 1845. Lewis, E. B. and wife, 1851. Wintermute, B. K., 1855. It will be seen that the person in the above list who has lived longest in Muscatine county is Mrs. L. L. Patterson, who came with her father, Benj. Nye, the first settler of this county (at Montpelier) in 1834.
The oldest was Mrs. Couch, who is over 90. She was able only to ride out to the grounds in a carriage without alighting.
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