ifornia trail was opened across the State, passing through Jasper and Polk Counties. That tide dropped an occasional emigrant upon its line, and sometimes picked up a discontented floater and carried him to the Pacific slope. All these things combined to prepare for the occupation of Story County in the years closely following upon 1850.
It is certainly true that under the Federal census of that year there was no enumeration of any citizen of Story County, as such. But it is also true that there were then at least two families which had homes within the county lines. One of these was probably reported in the census for Marshall County, the other in that of Polk County, or was omitted from the rolls. As these parties came into the county on different lines of travel, took claims about twenty miles distant from each other, and neither had knowledge of the other, each was morally the first settler in a county, the exact lines of which were then scarcely known, except to Government surveyors. For many years it was claimed for the Ballards, by citizens of the western part of the county, that the settlement in Ballard Grove had priority ; while in the southeastern part of the county a similar claim was made for William Parker.
The claim for priority of settlement made by the Ballard brothers, is that Dan W. Ballard, who was then post butcher at Fort Des Moines, obtained from Lieut. Green, of the Dragoons, and from Capt. Robert Allen, United States quartermaster, permission for himself and his brother, Mormon Ballard, to select and locate claims. This was in 1847, and they made selections in the fall of that year. March 8, 1848, they took possession of their claims, which they occupied for many years. Their family name was given to the grove, which it still bears. Each of the brothers built a log house, 14x16 feet in size, with floors and doors made of puncheons, or logs split in halves and dressed to a fairly smooth surface.
As bearing upon this subject, and helping to fix the date with exactness, Dan Ballard claims to have gone to Des Moines to vote in the presidential election in 1848. Also in the fall of that year the father, Simeon Ballard, joined the sons at the grove, where he died about two years later. The death of Simeon Ballard was the first in the county. His coffin was made by Squire M. Cory, and it was fashioned from walnut timber, split and dressed with an ax. Cory settled at the grove in the spring of 1850. Ben Jeffers, Reuben Baldock and Washington Thomas had made selections in 1849, and they also brought their families in 1850. On the other hand, William Parker came to his location near the southeast corner of the county, and built a cabin 12x14 feet in size, April 14, 1849. It was a mere pen, without floor or roof. He cut an opening with his ax for a door, moved in his family 'and household effects, and by using the boards of his wagon-box, soon had floor enough to keep his two babes off the ground. Without unnecessary delay a tree was felled and made into boards for a roof, and in this castle the family remained until a better one could be completed, which was done by the following August.
The better to understand the movements of these early settlers, it may be well to recur to a few facts of earlier date. In 1833, under the President's proclamation of June 1st, a tract of fifty miles in width, west of the Mississippi River, was thrown open to settlement. This was known as the " Black Hawk Purchase." It was soon largely occupied. In September, 1836, a further cession was had. These were supplemented by other treaties in 1837 and 1842, and on May 1, 1843, the west line of settlement was established on the meridian of Red Rock, in Marion County. At this time, also, a