CHAPTER XX.
NOBLE TOWNSHIP.

SETTLERS OF THE 'SIXTIES.

The 'sixties brought a number of permanent settlers, among whom were E. J. Shields, J. C. Davis, Robert B. Newlon, Henson S. Liston, Wm. E. Buckley, Joseph Weirich and Henry Ackerman. Mr. Shields was one of the prominent men of the county, and especially identified with the public affairs of Noble township. He reached manhood in his native State of Ohio, and during the 'fifties spent three years in the mining and lumber camps of California. In 1856 he became an Iowan by settling in Delaware county, where he was a farmer and a clerk until he came to Cass county in 1864. In that year he made a claim on section 32, this township, which became the homestead for himself, wife, and the six children who were born to him. His wife, who was Sarah Jenkins, died in 1874. Mr. Shields was the last representative of Edna township prior to its subdivision, in 1870, and also previous to the organization of the County Board into three supervisors-at-large. He served three terms in the latter capacity, from 1875 to 1877, being chosen chairman of the board in 1876. Further, he had the honor of naming Noble township, was elected its first clerk, and was altogether one of its most honored citizens.

J. C. Davis, a younger brother of Thomas G., who was prominent in the organization of the township, left Venango county, Pa., where he was born and reared, when he was about eighteen years of age, and came at once to Noble township. At first he stopped with the brother mentioned, but in 1870, after he had been a resident of the township for about three years, purchased land on section 33, which he improved, and which, through his union with two wives, he made his family homestead for many years.

In 1869 Robert B. Newlon bought land on section 1. He was a native of Indiana, but when an infant was brought by his parents to Edgar county, Ill., where he was educated and trained to farm work. In 1853, being then a youth of fifteen, he took a six-months' overland trip to California. For the following three years he engaged in the livery business and in mining, and after he had reached Illinois, via Nicaragua, he had an experience of several years as a drug clerk. While thus employed in Hancock county, Mr. Newlon joined the Union army, in April, 1861, under the the three-months' call, but in May re-enlisted for three years in the Sixteenth Illinois Infantry. Before the expiration of his long term he had participated in the battles of New Madrid, siege of Corinth, Stone River, Lookout Mountain and siege of Nashville, being wounded in a skirmish before the last named city. Mr. Newlon was honorably discharged at Chattanooga, and returned to Dallas, Hancock county, where he was married and remained until he removed to this township. While a resident of the Illinois county he assisted in the organization of the Republican party in that section of the State, and was intimately acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. After settling in Noble township ten children were born to Mr. Newlon.

Henson S. Liston was also a settler of 1869, on section 1, of Noble township. He was a West Virginia farmer at the outbreak of the Civil War, and his parents were natives of that State, but he fought for the Union, in both the infantry and cavalry branches of the service. He was at Winchester and Cedar Mountain, in the second battle of Bull's Run, and was with General Siegel on the Rappahannock river, where he was in almost continuous action for nineteen days. He was married during the war, and in 1867 removed from West Virginia to Muskatine county, Iowa, where he remained until October, 1869, when he bought eighty acres of wild land in the locality indicated above. Mr. Liston's wife was a sister of Herman Pringey, who was an army comrade, and who also became a permanent and respected member of the community, in 1869. When Noble township was organized in 1870, Henson S. Liston became one of its three trustees.

William E. Buckley, who was one of the three trustees elected at the first township election in October, 1870, was a native of Livingston county, N. Y. At the age of eighteen, in 1864, he enlisted in the Twenty-fourth Independent Battery of that State; was captured by the Confederates at Plymouth, N. C., and confined in Andersonville prison for nine months. He was paroled and finally discharged in July, 1865. In the following September he was married to Mary Piper, who was born in his native county, and soon afterward came west with his father, John Buckley. They lived in Noble township for twelve years, when William E. Buckley and family removed to Edna, and afterward to Bear Grove township.

Joseph Weirich, who amassed a competency as a farmer of Noble township and retired to pass the latter years of his life as a respected citizen of Griswold, is conceded to be the first German settler of the township. As boy and youth, he passed eight years in the thorough schools of his native province of Bavaria, and from the ages of fifteen to twenty-five was a miner in the Fatherland. In June, 1846, accompanied by his wife, whom he had married two years before, he landed in New York City, and after remaining there with friends for a year went to work in the coal mines of Schuyler county, Pa. He was thus engaged in various parts of the State for a number of years, when he settled in La Salle county, Ill., and bought a little tract of land on time. He commenced to build a log house, but before its completion was taken sick, and the family lived in it for a year and a half without a roof--having, literally, "no roof over their head" for that length of time. When Mr. Weirich regained his health he purchased coal in the ground at the rate of one cent a bushel, and engaged in mining. In war times coal was high, and he made, with the assistance of his boys, from $4 to $25 per day. His sons paid most of their attention to the farm, while he engaged at his old trade. Thus he was enabled to accumulate money rapidly, pay the mortgage on the land and sell it for another farm in Otter Creek township. At this time, on account of failing health, he abandoned mining and lived with his family on the farm, but in 1869 sold his property and came to Cass county. He purchased 200 acres of unimproved land on section 15--a tract of unbroken prairie, with neither houses nor groves in sight. At first he built a small frame house and barn, and planted a grove, but afterward enlarged his residence and, with the development of his farm, increased his outbuildings in number and dimensions. This place remained his homestead until September, 1884, when he removed to Griswold, where he bought a house and lot and retired to reap the reward of his past industry, surrounded by those things which make life desirable and in the enjoyment of general confidence and esteem.

Henry Ackerman, the second German settler in Noble township, was a youth of sixteen when he came to America and settled as a farmer in La Salle county, Ill. The proceeds of his first year's work, $86, went to his brother to repay his passage money; the second year was more profitable, as he earned $100. In 1862 he married Candace McKernan, and in August of that year enlisted in Company F, 104th Regiment, Illinois Volunteer Infantry. He participated in many important battles, and was severely wounded at Huntsville, Ala., in consequence of which he was disabled for eleven months. He then rejoined his regiment at Chattanooga and started with Sherman's army for the sea, but was soon after returned to the hospital for a short time, joining his command again at Kenesaw mountain. Finally taking part in the Carolina campaign, he was present at the Grand Review at Washington, and was mustered out with his regiment at Chicago, in June, 1865.

After the war Mr. Ackerman farmed in Otter Creek township, La Salle county, and in the fall of 1869 sold his property there to come to Cass county, Iowa. He was a resident of Atlantic from November of that year, until January 1, 1870, when he moved to section 27, this township, where he had purchased 160 acres of wild land at $6 per acre. He built a good frame house, planted a grove and orchard, broke the land to crops or reserved it for grazing purposes, and prospered both as a farmer and a live-stock raiser. From time to time he added to his original purchase until he owned 440 acres of improved and valuable land, with substantial and commodious modern buildings. He had a family of eight children, and was in every way a credit to the Fatherland and the land of his adoption.

Messrs. Weirich and Ackerman wer ethe advance pioneers of a large band of Germans who have since settled in Noble township, and have proved a strong bulwark to its respectability, industry and prosperity. The above, also, perhaps constituted the main figures in the founding of the township as now constituted.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 211-214.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2017.