CHAPTER III.
SETTLERS PRIOR TO COUNTY ORGANIZATION (CONT'D).

FIRST DEATHS.

In 1850 the little daughter of a Mormon widow named Breeker was playing with some embers left from an emigrant party's fire, and was so severely burned that she died in a short time. This was probably the first death of a white in Cass county.

The first death which occurred among the gentiles in the county was a tragic one, and happened in the fall of 1852. The victim was a young man named Pettit, who, with his wife and child, lived in a cabin near the junction of the Nishnabotna and Indian creeks. One day, with a companion, he accompanied a man named David Hoopes, who wished to locate land a short distance away, the party setting out together with a team and wagon. Arriving at their destination, Mr. Hoopes left the wagon to prospect in the locality and the two young men prepared to hunt game. The former had not gone far when he heard an agonizing cry and returned to find Pettit on the ground, dying from a terrible hole in his head, caused by the accidental discharge of his gun. It seems that in pulling it from the wagon, muzzle first, the hammer had caught, was pulled up and descended, the unfortunate young man receiving the charge full in the forehead. He expired when only about 300 yards from his cabin home, and was buried at Rock Ford, Indian creek, about one-half a mile above Steven's mill.

PIONEER SCHOOL AND SCHOLARS.

The first school in Cass county was taught in an old cabin at Indiantown, in the winter of 1852-3. The teacher was a Mr. Hazen, and among the first scholars wer eLucy, Harvey, Calvin and Lydia Bradshaw and Orson and Mary Conrad.

FIRST TOWNS AND MANUFACTORY.

The Indiantown, as formally platted in 1853, was so near the site of the old Pottawattomie village of Mi-au-mise as to be considered its successor. It was therefore heralded abroad and more generally known than Iranistan, a mile and a quarter away and about two miles west of the present town of Lewis. Strictly speaking Iranistan is the pioneer village of Cass county, the original owner of its site being F. E. Ball who located there to superintend the construction of a saw-mill. This was in the fall of 1852. Mr. Ball sold both the mill and the town site to S. T. Carey, of Council Bluffs, who finished the former as the first manufactory of any kind in Cass county, and in the winter of 1852-3 laid out Iranistan as the first village.

Outside of the section of Cass township centering in Iranistan and Indiantown, a few pioneers came into the county prior to 1853, settling chiefly in its northwestern portions in what are now Washington, Brighton and Pymosa townships. Benton township in the north and Edna, in the south, were also among the sections of the county which received several pioneers during this early period.

EARLIEST SETTLERS OUTSIDE THE TOWN.

Perhaps the earliest settler outside of the present limits of Cass township was George Reeves, who located on section 35, Washington township, in 1851. He built a cabin, but otherwise made very few improvements, and from all accounts was rather an unreliable character. He died in 1856, while driving along in his wagon, and his was the first burial in the township.

Johnson Brandom settled on section 27, in the winter of 1851-2, died in the county, and shortly afterward the family removed to California.

Thomas Coon, a native of Ohio and one of the stallwart Democrats of early times, settled on section 26, Washington township, in October, 1852, afterward removing to section 13, where he passed his last days. His first location was on the Mormon route to Salt Lake City, and soon after settling in Washington township about 3,000 Mormons passed his place on their way to their western homes.

UNRELIABLE SETTLERS OF GROVE TOWNSHIP.

What was subsequently Atlantic, and still more recently Grove township, witnessed both the temporary and the permanent settlement of some of the first pioneers of Cass county. The rover, George Reeves, mentioned above in connection with Washington township, appeared on section 31, Grove township, and broke some land, but does not appear to have planted anything. No one has been able to decide whether he came in 1850 or 1851--which makes little difference as to the material history of the county.

Some time in 1851 William Mose, an eccentric half-wild man, located in a cave, or "dug-out," on section 30, near the Grove. In about a year he disappeared from sight and history.

RELIABLE PIONEERS.

But a more reliable and permanent class of settlers was soon to establish homes within the limits of Grove township, for on the 12th of June, 1852, R. D. McGeehon, Morris Hoblit and George Shannon came from Logan county, Ill., crossed the state of Missouri by team, and selected their claims near Turkey Grove.

FIRST HOUSE IN GROVE TOWNSHIP.

Mr. McGeehon was the first of the trio to locate his claim, and he and his companions commenced the erection of the first house in the township. It was located on section 14, was eighteen by twenty-four feet in dimensions, one and a half stories high, and built of hewn logs, with floors of split puncheons. The timber for the door was of black walnut, bought at Glenwood, Mills county, about sixty miles southwest as the road then run. It also boasted the first twelve-light window of Cass county, and was altogether quite an elaborate affair. It was raised about the middle of August, 1852, with the assistance of Adam Vinnage, John Brannon, George Reeves and Jesse Marshall and his two sons, Miles and James. The building endured for about half a century, during the last years of its life being transformed into a stable.

GOES AFTER A WIFE.

After putting up ten acres of hay, Mr. McGeehon left his friends in charge of the house, returned to Bloomington, Ill., where in September he married, and immediately brought back his bride to their new Iowa home. While their own residence was being completed the young couple made their home with Mr. Vinnage of Indiantown. They lived on the original farm until 1862, although at one time Mr. McGeehon owned 1,000 acres of land. In the year named the family moved to Grove City and in 1869 to Atlantic, where he engaged in the mill and elevator business and was also interested in a small fruit farm and nursery.

Of Mr. McGeehon's companions George Shannon afterward went to Iranistan, where he was the first blacksmith, while Morris Hoblit traded his land for a farm in Franklin township, later returned to Illinois, graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1862, and prior to his death in 1864 was a successful practitioner at Grove City.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 50-53.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.