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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
CHAPTER VI -- PIONEERS (CONT'D)CASS TOWNSHIP.The first settler in Cass township was Benjamin L. Leland, who came to that township and settled in what was subsequently known as Leland’s Grove in 1854. Mr. Leland, like many of the other earliest settlers of Shelby county, had cast his lot with the people commonly called the Mormons, and had started for Salt Lake City, Utah, but becoming disgusted, however, with the evils that crept into the church, he came to the grove now bearing his name. He passed through the winter of the deep snow of 1856-7 and he often said had is not been for the abundance of deer and elk he and his family certainly would have perished, as the nearest place where anything could be bought was Kanesville. Mr. Leland was the first man to hold the office of justice of the peace in what is now Cass township, but at the time of his election this territory was in the township to which Harlan belonged. Mr. Leland was a native of Ohio. Speaking of other settlers of Leland’s Grove, Mr. Lytle was a native of Ohio; Mr. Springer, of Indiana; Messrs. Halliday, Leytham, Bell, Shackleton, and William Handy were all natives of England. Mr. Bullard came from Canada. The birthplace of the other early settlers I have been unable to learn. Of the above named persons, Messrs. Leland, Halliday, Shackleton, Hall, Bullard, Bell and Handy, together with their families, belonged to the Latter-Day Saints church. These settlers went to Calhoun, near what is now Missouri Valley, in Harrison county, a distance of twenty-five miles, to mill sometimes, but generally they went to Wicks’ mill near Council Bluffs, which was thirty miles or more distant. The first school house in Cass township stood on the northwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 31, and the first school teacher was B. V. Springer. Among the first officers were John J. Copeland, township clerk; Henry Halliday, Richard Leytham, Jonathan Bullard, trustees; B. L. Leland, Joseph Seddon, and Henry Halliday, members of the county board of supervisors. The author is particularly indebted for most of the foregoing information to Joseph Seddon, now a resident of Persia, Iowa. He came to Shelby county in 1864, with Henry Halliday, who was his stepfather. Mr. Seddon was born in England, December 8, 1844; he came to America in 1848, arriving at Council Bluffs, July 3, 1850. His father died August 12, 1850, and in 1856 Joseph Seddon moved to Florence, Nebraska. In 1858 he went to Genoa, Nebraska, and in 1864 he came back to Shelby county, where he remained a pioneer resident for many years, and helped to develop the township of Cass. There was a large influx of settlers in Cass township in 1875 and for a year or two later. Among the men who came about this time, were John G. Clark, Constant Leinen, Peter Korth, G. W. Alloway, William F. Green, Capt. George M. Williams, Nels Petitt, John Higgtins, Jonathan Roland, Alexander Sims, George H. Sims, Robert Rockenbaugh, E. E. Hoover, G. W. Walmer. During the sixties William Williams lived in a log cabin built on a part of the land which is now the site of Portsmouth.
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