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 XIX
THE FIRST SAW MILL The following year, W. A. Clark erected a saw mill farther up the creek in the southeast quarter of section 11-78-4. It was operated by John Barracks, who lived in a cabin on the hill just south of and overlooking the mill. This cabin stood on what is now the Prairie road, directly in front of the residence of Conrad Hormel. The operating of this mill marked the beginning of the decadence of the log cabin era in the Wapsie valley.
Chapter XX
EVOLUTION It is interesting to me to study the law governing the creation and development of things animate and inanimate, and note the similarity of its operations in matters apparently entirely foreign to each other. Scientists have told us of the creation of life and its development from its lowest to its highest forms. First there was the low form of vegetable or inanimate life, but little elevated in its structure above the inert forms of matter. Then a higher order bearing characteristics of animal life in its power to move freely from place to place. Then a form of animal life with plant like structure and fixed habitation. Farther on reptilian forms with birdlike characteristics, and so on from period to period, each epoch or era exhibiting forms of life distinct and peculiar to itself, but partaking somewhat of the form that had preceeded it, as well as that of the one which was to follow, the periods of each lapping over on the other. It would be pleasant to pursue this theme to its supreme conclusion, but enough has been said to serve the purpose for which it has been introduced.
No more dwellings were erected solely of logs. Board floors above and below; cased windows and doors, and board doors appeared and brick chimneys began to take the place of the rude stick and mud piles that had hitherto been used. Occasionally a log house was weather-boarded outside and lathed and plastered within, making them quite like a frame dwelling in appearance and quite comfortable. The furnishings of the houses also became more abundant and convenient and the comfort of the inmates much enhanced. To add to the evolutional aspect of the period, about this time Egbert T. Smith appeared on the scene and bought lands in section 5-78-4, after which he returned to Ohio and had much of the material for a commodious house there prepared ready to put together, and shipped down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi to Bloomington, and from there hauled it by ox teams to the place of erection. Parts of the frame were cut from native timber and sawn by hand with whip saws. The stones for the foundation were hauled from a quarry of Upper Silurian lime stone on the head waters of the Wapsie in section 2-79-4, better known in local history as the " Hickory Grove Quarry." To accomplish this, a road had to be opened and the sloughs and streams bridged. It was a laborious process and took the greater part of the season, but at length the building was completed, and still stands, a monument of the change from the log cabin to the frame and brick dwellings that now dot and embellish our beautiful and prosperous country. This place is well known as the " Henry Felkner place," and is now owned by L. G. Wiggins. True there were many more log dwellings erected after that time, but they bore some of the characteristics of the coming forms of architecture along with their primitive forms.
In 1841, Jesse Purrington settled on the northwest quarter of section 11-77-4 and his brother John on the northwest quarter section of 36-78-4. His cabin stood on the west side of the creek. John Purrington had about thirty acres fenced in on his place, and was one day found lying by the side of the fence, dead. Rumor had it that he had been foully dealt with, and that the Indians were responsible, while others claimed that he came to his death at the hand of a personal enemy; but there was nothing to substantiate either rumor, and it was conceded that he came to his death from natural causes. These were on the lower Wapsie which had attracted settlers much less than had townships 78 and 79-4. These townships had become quite thickly settled along the timber and settlers were beginning to edge away from the timber out on the prairie. There a new danger threatened them each season.