CHAPTER XII.
GRANT TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).
PIONEERS OF NORTHEASTERN CASS COUNTY.
Dr. G. S. Morrison was the pioneer of the northeastern portion of Cass county, which was embraced, in his lifetime, under the name of Lura township, and in which there were probably not more than a score of families at the time of his death in 1863. His wife, after whom the township was christened, died four years later. In August, 1853, Dr. Morrison came from Bureau county, Ill., and entered a large tract of land about a mile southwest of where Anita now stands. Upon it he erected a large double log cabin, and, with his wife, proceeded to make himself at home. He dropped his professional practice almost entirely and did what he could to develop the country, building roads and bridges and ably assisting in civil organization. In order to support himself and wife in this wild country of their choice he became what, in ancient times, would have been called "a mighty hunter." As a sample of his achievements, during the winter of 1855-6 he killed in the neighborhood of one hundred and fifty deer. In the preceding winter Dr. Morrison, Peter Kanawyer, R. D. McGeehon and J. R. Kirk spent about two months in staking out a road and bridging the streams for a distance of about forty miles, from Dalmanutha, Guthrie county, to the Nishnabotna river, about two miles from Indiantown. At that time all such work was done by the settlers without pay, as the taxes were not sufficient to make such improvements. In May, 1855, the Western Stage Company put a line of four-horse coaches from Des Moines to Council Bluffs, the new road built by the citizens of Cass county named above became a section of its system and Morrison's Grove and his log house constituted a regular station of it. The deoctor and his good wife opened a sort of a hotel, and were such popular personages that Morrison's Station became noted from one side of the State to the other.
SETTLERS AT AND NEAR ANITA.
Meredith Rowland settled on section 30 about the same time that Dr. Morrison came into the country, but in 1850 he removed to Guthrie county, where his family resided for many years. While on a visit to his old friend Edward Griffith, of this locality, he died. As stated, Mr. Rowland was elected one of the first three trustees of Lura township.
Lewis Beason, an associate of Mr. Rowland in the trusteeship of the township, lived in Atlantic township for a number of years before settling, in 1861, on section 28, which was on the present site of Anita. Later, for a number of years, he also kept the stage station on the western line, and in the fall of 1870 removed to Benton township.
William E. Peters, a Welshman who had settled at Pittsburg, Pa., came from that city in company with Edward Griffith, so many years a resident of Grant township, and located on section 30, where he lived until his death in 1879.
R. W. Calkins, a New Yorker and an Illinois soldier in the Civil War, settled on sections 28 and 33, in the year 1868. He had there purchased 210 acres of prairie land, and afterward not only farmed it, but engaged in the hardware and implement business. He opened the first lumber yard and implement depot in the city of Anita, and was considered one of the most enterprising business men of the county.
S.W. Wallace, also a native of New York State, migrated from Clayon county, Iowa, where he had been engaged in farming for about eight years, and in 1861 located on a tract of land near the present town of Anita, where he remained until 1870. During that period he was near the old Morrison place, but in 1870 removed to section 24. Two of his brothers were victims of the Civil War. Charles A. Wallace, who was a member of the Twelfth Iowa Infantry, died at Helena, Ark., and Mathew M. Wallace, of the Sixteenth Iowa, died at Columbus, Ky.
Those mentioned above, with others, located mostly on the present site of Anita, or in its vicinity, and shrewd real estate dealers soon realized that here was the proper place for a town and a city. In 1868, when the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad reached the locality, the beauty and desirability of the location were realized by others than those who were permanent settlers. The following year (1869) a station was established at this point, and from that time Anita was a fact.
"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 151-152.Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2018.
