1838-1938
| West Liberty History 1838-1938 | |
Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
LOG CABIN HISTORY Chapter XIII
A PROSPEROUS YEAR The new settlement had now passed through its baptismal of trials and had survived the ordeal. The year of 1839 came bringing greater prosperity and encouragement. That it had not been crushed by adverse circumstances was evidence of its inherent strength. Early in the season the settlers were active, and emigrants were coming in increased numbers.
Andrew Brisbane and his sons, William and Andrew, settled on the east half of section 32-79-4, where they remained during their lives, and the premises are yet in possession of their descendants. Sam Proctor built on the southwest quarter of section 33-79-4, and William Proctor on the northwest quarter of the same section. This land of Sam Proctor's afterward came into the possession of John LaRue, who took the gold fever in 1852, and sold the house, farm and furniture to Wm. Lane, who was about to marry and bought the place ready prepared for housekeeping. John Hawkins occupied a cabin somewhere on the east side of the west branch of the creek. He at one time lived in the southwest quarter of section 33-79-4, and at another on the southeast quarter of section 28-79-4, and at another on the northwest quarter of the same section. Robert Harbor built a cabin on the northeast quarter of section 9-78-4 on land now owned by Lin Lewis. Enos Barnes, who had been here the previous season to study the possibilities of the country, brought his numerous family of stalwart sons and daughters, and occupied the cabin at Big Spring till he had built on his own farm, the east half of the northwest quarter of section 12-78-4, now occupied by Robert Hindee. Down the creek E.Stucker took the southwest quarter of section 26-77-4; John Crechfield the southwest quarter of section14-77-4; Winchester, south half of the northeast quarter of section 26-77-4 and Robert Coruthers the southeast quarter of section 13-77-4. F. B. Hubbard, who had arrived the year previously, had settled on the northwest quarter of section 23-77-4.
On the organization of the territory of Iowa, an election was called to elect local officers and this precinct or township, which embraced all that part of Muscatine county lying west of the Cedar River, held its first election in the cabin of W. A. Clark, when eight votes were cast presumably that being the total number of voters in this precinct. It was also in this cabin Martin Baker, elder of the Christian church, preached the first sermon to the community, This preacher seemed to be well adapted to fill the place of spiritual adviser to these people. His home was on the east side of the Cedar, below Rochester, where he died, leaving a rich heritage of good will and kindly deeds, all done in the name of his Master.
John Bennett also came that year. He lived in a tenant house on the Nyce place, as also did James Van Horn, who came the same year. William Coleman who had passed the winter in the cabin at the Big Spring in section 10, that spring, built on the southeast quarter of section 28-79-4, and moved his family there. A. B. Phillips and family of Virginia arrived that season and settled in the cabin made vacant by the death of Springer, the autumn before. Also Valentine Bozarth came and began to improve his farm, which was in the southeast quarter of section 3-78-4, where E. C. McGowan now resides. No doubt he was influenced in his choice of location by the grove of beautiful oak trees and a copius spring in close proximity, a combination rarely met with in a prairie region.
S. A. Bagley was another of the men who came that year to try his fortune in this land of promise, he selecting the southwest quarter of section 1-78-4, the place now well known as the J. A. Webb place. Bagley was not satisfied with the accommodations afforded in a log cabin and soon began to erect a frame dwelling near the cabin they had occupied. This was in 1839 and before there was a saw-mill anywhere in the country. The frame of the house was of hewn timbers, the siding of boards split from logs with a frow and shaved down with a drawing knife, as also were the shingles. The finishing lumber was sawed by hand and lath roughly split from logs. This was the first attempt made toward a frame dwelling on the Wapsie; and while it may have been more pretentious in appearance than its lowly log neighbors, yet when the blizzards of winter swept over the prairie and roared around it, it could not compare in real comfort to the log structure. It has many times been disputed that there ever was a log house on that place, but the testimony of some who had occupied it for a time in the winter of 1839-40 is indisputable. The frame house spoken of now stands deserted and lonely, at the intersection of Seventh and Columbus Streets in West Liberty, its weatherworn siding warped and curled, the boards loose and creaking in the wind, the shingles slipping from their places from the action of sun and storms of many years, and reminds one of O. W. Holme's poem " The Last Leaf." Bagley also erected a tavern on the crest of the hill just east of his residence known as the " West Liberty House." For many years it received a large patronage, as it was at a station on the stage route where they took dinner and changed horses. Many men of national prominence stopped there on their journeys to and from the state capital. But the coming of the railroad and the removal of the town to its present site, destroyed the patronage of this famous hostlery, and the building was later moved east to that triangular lot in the northwest quarter of section 12-78-4, where it is now in use as a stable. Thus have the mighty fallen, and become relegated to ignominious uses and obscurity.