WILLIAM BAUGHMAN
Pleasant township, with its splendid farming country, lay untouched by the plow, or even untrodden by the feet of the settler, for several years after immigration had commenced in other portions of the county; so that when William Baughman took up his claim and built his log cabin, he found no neighbor in what is now the rich and populous district of Pleasant.
Mr. Baughman came in the spring of 1855 and located land on sections 4 and 5. He then went back east and brought his family to Indiantown, while he came again to the township, cutting logs for the building of a cabin. These logs he hauled to Lewis, where he had them cut. Hauling them back, he built with them the first house in the township, and his family moved into it in the spring of 1856.
William Baughman was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, June 19, 1828. His parents were Jacob and Margaret (Cort) Baughraan, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. William was there reared to agricultural pursuits, receiving his education in the common schools. He was married March 22, 1834, to J. B. Schwartz. In the fall of 1855, they started west by the way of Pittsburg, coming from there to Keokuk on a boat, and thence overland to this county, where he has continued to reside since that time. Mr. Baughman was elected in the fall of 1881, to the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, and served two years.
Contributed by Lisa Varnes-Rex from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pg. 808-809.
