CHAPTER VI.
CASS TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).

REMINISCENCES OF HARRIET L. HOWARD.

"The first white inhabitants to locate in Cass county, as near as can be ascertained, came in the years 1846 and 1847; and they were not permanent, being the Mormons on their way to Utah, who stopped all through western Iowa and took up as large tracts of land as possible, especially timber land. These lands they sold for all they could get, in order to help them on their way to Utah.

THE TOWNSENDS.

"In 1850 and 1851 Jeremiah Bradshaw and William S. Townsend came to Cass county and located at Indiantown. Mr. Townsend kept a ferry where the Lewis bridge is now built, and erected a long double log house west of that locality. It was in a bend of the river, and the land has since been planted to a maple grove. In 1851 the water rose so high that the Townsend family were taken off the roof of this log house by a boat. They afterward located at Edna Grove, in the southeastern part of Cass county, and Edna Grove and township were named after Mrs. Townsend; also, Miss Edna Brenton and Mrs. Peter Hopley, now of Lewis. The last known of the Townsends they were living in Nebraska, on the Nemaha river. The log house that they built was washed away the first night of the great July flood of 1858.

SETTLERS OF THE 'FIFTIES.

"In 1851 Joseph Everly located on the east side of the Nishnabotna and began improving a farm. On the opposite side a man named Johnson Brandon settled, but did not remain long, selling his claim to William Dickerson. The farm is now owned by Harry Hopley.

About 1852 Messrs. Croft and Buckwalter built a large hotel at Iranistan. It was afterward used for a farm house, and was burned in 1888. Isaac Moore kept travelers and farmed at this place, in the early years of the settlement of Cass county. As early as 1852 a man by the name of Van Houten settled on the east side of the river on what is now called the Spencer farm, and Madison Watson on land now owned by a man named Lawson. Thomas Johnson owned the grove near where the city of Atlantic now stands; it was called Johnson's Grove, and he also owned a farm in the present Washington township, on the west side of the river, on section 23. Mr. Johnson died at Des Moines, in 1860, and his farm is owned by his daughter, Mrs. Bell Waddell.

BEGINNING OF LEWIS.

"The town of Lewis commenced to be built in 1855. William Dickerson entered a great amount of land all through western Iowa, and laid out the first lots of the town. George Elsey located in the east part of Lewis, improved a farm adjoining the town, and taught the first school there. He lived in town thereafter, and died at Lewis in July, 1906.

"A man named Bowater Bales, a local M. E. minister, lived on Turkey creek, on the farm now owned by William Hopley. He was very active in establishing the Methodist Church, in the early settlement of the county. Rev. Moses Shinn was a minister of the Lewis church, in the early years, if not the first, and a house of worship was built in 1856. A man by the name of Tucker, a lawyer, built the first dwelling house in the east part of the town, and it is probably still standing. The first court house is now used for a dwelling.

PREACHER AND AGENT OF "UNDERGROUND RAILWAY."

"In 1853 Rev. George B. Hitchcock, a Congregational minister, came to Lewis with a commission from the American Home Missionary Society to preach in Cass and Audubon counties. He preached two years, prior to organizing the Congregational Church, April 11, 1855, with eleven members. Mr. Hitchcock lived in a log cabin west of Lewis, and afterward built a stone house on the farm now owned by a Mr. Roberts. He preached and labored as a minister in western Iowa, going the rounds of the Council Bluffs Association until April, 1865, when he moved to Kingston, Mo.

"Mr. Hitchcock was active in all branches of church work, and in all good movements--especially in helping negroes to obtain their freedom by escaping from their owners on what used to be called the 'Underground Railway.' Many times his cabin home was full to overflowing, and both they, and all others who were in need, were always welcomed, fed, aided, and well treated in every way. He was a native of Massachusetts, and, when a young man, began preaching in Michigan as a home missionary. Preaching and laboring for about five years, he made his way slowly westward. In 1870 he removed to a place in southeastern Kansas called Baxter Springs, where he died in 1872.

A "RAILWAY" INCIDENT.

"In the first week of November, 1858, a great excitement was created through this section. Nichols, a government contractor who lived in Nebraska City, Neb., owned and held slaves at that place. Two of the black girls, whom he had sold, were to be sent, in charge of a steamboat captain, to the extreme South. At that time the boat had gone up the Missouri river as far as navigable, and on its return the girls were to be taken aboard. Some free blacks, living in Nebraska City, discovered the plan, and helped the slaves across the Missouri river to a place called Tabor, which was John Brown's depot in the time of the Kansas troubles. Two men of that place, Benedict Hill and John Hunter, brought the fugitives to Lewis.

"Oliver Mills told the girls that it would be unsafe for them to stop at either his place or Mr. Hitchcocks', and sent them three miles northeast of Lewis, near where the Cass county poor farm is now located. It was Sunday that the Tabor men brought them to town, and as soon as it was light enough to drive Monday morning James Baxter started to Quaker Divide with them; the place is now called Adair. Nichols, the owner of the slaves, followed them, and offered a reward of $500 for their capture. He was in Lewis quite early Monday, and had a goodly number of people helping him, who thought they could not pass through the place without being caught. The pursuers were watching for the girls to come from the west, but they had passed before Nichols arrived.

RECORD OF A PIONEER TEACHER.

"I have been a resident of Cass county since October, 1857, and have taught seventeen terms in this county, one in Pottawattamie, and two terms in Monona county, Iowa. Several histories have been written of Cass county, andone contained a very erroneous article concerning myself. The statement was to the effect that I taught the first school in Brighton township, and only had two scholars. At that time there was very little farm machinery, and all corn planting had to be done by hand. The first week of the term I only had two scholars, as every child who was large enough to drop corn had to do so; but there were twenty scholars after corn planting was over, and the average attendance was seven and a fraction, for each day. I could give the name of each one who attended that term, but it would take too much space. The school house was burned the following winter, and everything in it. I also taught the same school in the summer of 1862, and the following winter, commencing December 1, 1862, and closing March 1, 1863. At that time there was only one school in Brighton township."

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 108-111.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.