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 XXVI

A WOLF HUNT

When the white man first came here wolves were quite numerous, but rarely committed depredations except the occasional theft of a pig, or lamb or chicken, though occasionally they would attack a young colt or calf. Sometimes there were rumors of bands of timber wolves committing depredations on stock and following and attacking belated travelers, but these rumors always located the place, like the " milk sickness," in some remote settlement, and I find no authentic account of anyone ever coming to harm from them. But as the country became more populous, the wolves, instead of diminishing in numbers, appeared to have increased, till they were very frequently to be met with. With this condition as an excuse, the settlers would sometimes organize a wolf hunt on a large scale, but it was more of an opportunity to work off some of their surplus energy and have a hilarious time, than an overwhelming desire to reduce the wolf population, that these hunts were organized. Sometimes they would include an entire township or more in the territory to be passed over. The order of the procedure would be to call a meeting of the people at some central point and there select a time for the hunt and arrange the lines of starting and the point of convergence, with captains appointed to direct stated parts of the lines and time of starting. At the time appointed, men and boys appeared on foot or horseback, armed with guns, revolvers or clubs, and at a given signal, usually the blast of a horn, each individual was supposed to start and travel in a direct line to the place of meeting and drive the wolves to a common center, where they could be slaughtered. This was the theory of the hunt, but in practice it sometimes lacked in orderliness and effectiveness, and consisted of a mob of youths and men, riding and walking hither and yon, over the prairie and through the patches of brush, scaring up great numbers of prairie chickens and rabbits and sometimes a few deer.

The writer has participated in a number of these hunts, and now recalls but one instance in which a wolf was captured, and that one had broken through the lines and was killed by a random shot from a revolver. At one of these hunts, held while deer were still plentiful, there were found to be more than thirty of them within the lines when the men had closed in within sight of each other. But at the sight of the deer there was a wild rush by the men with guns, thus breaking the lines, and through these gaps the deer all escaped. But the crowd had had the excitement they craved and were satisfied.

The cabin which John Hawkins had built and occupied for a time on the southeast corner of section 28-79-4 was occupied early in the 50's by H. A. Watters, while he built a frame house across the road and farther south. In 1859 came William Aylsworth, of Massachusetts. He lived for a time with the family of W. A. Clark, but on the coming of his family he built a substantial log house on the land of Clark's very near to where the depot in West Liberty is now located. Later they moved to the Springer farm, now known as the James A. Nay farm. So far as I have been able to learn this was the last log house erected in the Wapsie valley, and completes the list. I fear it is incomplete and in some instances incorrect as to locations. The sources from which I have obtained my information have sometimes been very conflicting as to dates and locations. The same families have been located long distances apart by different parties. One cabin in particular, occupied by a prominent family early in our history, has been located in four different places by as many different residents of the locality at that time. So it is with much trepidation that I have made these locations of cabins a matter of history. And there may have been some omissions. The original publication of this sketch in the " West Liberty Enterprise," has drawn forth corrections and criticisms that have been of much help in correcting errors, but I still feel that some may have been overlooked. It has been a long time since the first cabin was erected. It is sixty-six years since Sutton and Nyce settled on the Wapsie, and that time has wrought great changes in the appearance of the country by the cutting off of the native timber, the planting of groves and the changes of roads; and even the channels of streams have materially changed their course in many places in that time. There are but few remaining among us that were here in those early days, and memory is a treacherous data to depend on for a certainty for that length of time, in the face of the many changes that time has wrought. But in the main, I believe this record to be correct and the incidents narrated to be founded on fact, as narrated by participants or by those personally cognizant of them.

As near as I have been able to learn there were about sixty of these original cabins erected in the Wapsie valley between the years of 1836 and 1845, inclusive, and with the exception of two or three, the last log of them has disappeared, and these few remain interesting relics of an interesting epoch in our history. The occupants of these cabins, like the cabins themselves, have nearly all run their course and disappeared from our midst. A few remain, rugged characters who withstood the vicissitudes of pioneer life and have lived to see the virgin wilderness come slowly up from nature's hand till it now lays in the summer's sun and winter's snow as fair a land, as beautiful, as cultured and as rich as any in all the wide expanse of our loved country.

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