CHAPTER VI.
CASS TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).

LEWIS.

Thomas G. Palmer, of Mills County, and Milton Richards, of Fremont, two of the three commissioners appointed by the General Assembly of Iowa for the location of the county seat, met at Indiantown on the 11th day of March, 1853, and, to the chagrin of Messrs. Conrad, Dickerson and all others interested in that place, selected as the seat of the county government a tract of land less than a mile east, as yet unplatted and unnamed. The location was on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 10, and the west half of the southwest quarter of section 11, township 75 north, range 37 west. The new town was named Lewis, in honor of the United States Senator from Michigan, Lewis Cass, so that the seat of justice and the county itself should combine his full name.

Lewis was at once laid out by David Chapman, the first county surveyor, and Jeremiah Bradshaw, the county judge, proceeded to sell the lots and take in the money. The plat was filed for record on the 6th of February, 1854.

THE FIRST BUILDINGS.

Buildings were already on the move from Iranistan and Indiantown, and a few new structures were going up near the already completed court house. The first house was built by S. M. Tucker, not only the pioneer lawyer of Lewis but of Cass county. It was a frame structure, 16 by 24 feet, and one story only. It was situated in the eastern portion of the town, where it stood for many years. Three or four rods outside the present limits of Lewis the first store was put in operation, in 1854, with Dr. Buckham as proprietor. He had come from Rockport, Mo., where his family remained, and during the two years in which he conducted the general store at Lewis he was popular because he sold honest goods in an honest way.

FIRST MERCHANTS.

George M. Elsey, the first merchant to open a general store within the present limits of Lewis, was a native of Ohio, but his father came West at an early day and was one of the pioneers of Mahaska county, where he died in 1882. In 1854 George M. came to Lewis, bringing with him a general stock of goods from Oskaloosa, and in company with George Baldwin opened his store at the new county seat. The firm of Elsey & Baldwin continued until the summer of 1855, when Mr. Elsey bought the interest of his partner and the same year sold the business to Joseph Wannock. The winter following Mr. Elsey taught the first school in Lewis. Among his pupils were the sons of Jehu Woodward, Chester and Wooster; Neil McClintock and his two brothers, Frank and Augustus. Mr. Elsey was married in 1857 to a daughter of Horace Littlefield, and began housekeeping in the residence of Daniel Stanley, where the couple [couple] remained until July, 1858, when they removed to a home of their own on section 14, adjoining Lewis. There the husband had bought eighty acres, and later purchased 100 acres in sections 22 and 16. He reared a large family of children, several of whom married and remained in the township; was trustee, clerk and assessor of the township and acquired prominence and general esteem.

Isaac Dickerson ran the next store and the second actually situated in Lewis. The building was about twenty by thirty feet, and had been moved from Iranistan, where it was known as the McCarty store. It was opened in 1855, with a fair stock of dry goods, groceries, etc., and Mr. Dickerson was the proprietor until his appointment as postmaster of Lewis in 1856. For the next decade he was either postmaster, or treasurer and recorder of the county, and sometimes both.

John M. Ripley came to Lewis in 1854 and the house which he then erected was the best in the place. He also built a store in which he placed a line of tinware, conducting his business in partnership with a man named Page.

FIRST PHYSICIANS.

Rockport, Mo., was Lewis' source of supply in more ways than one. The first merchant with whom her citizens dealt on home ground came from that place, and not a few of the early business men of Lewis laid in their supplies of merchandise from Rockport. Jeremiah Bradshaw, both before and after he removed to Iranistan, was in the habit of buying his goods there, and on one of his trips was delegated by the good people of Lewis to pick up a reliable physician. In the fall of 1853 he brought with him Dr. W. B. Swisher, who established himself at Lewis as the first doctor of the town and the third in Cass county. The doctor was capable and gave good satisfaction, but had the misfortune to lose his wife in 1857, and soon afterward took his departure for Kansas.

In 1855 Dr. Henry S. Cary came from Albia, Monroe County, Iowa, and located permanently at Lewis, obtaining quite a practice and dying as a resident of the place in 1867. Dr. John B. Cary, his brother, who was in practice with him, died in 1864. The first homeopathic physician of Lewis was Dr. A. Teal, who located in 1856, remained in town for many years, but finally moved to Bear Grove township.

The Rev. Hitchcock had the satisfaction of performing the first marriage ceremony in Lewis, in the winter of 1854-5. The contracting parties were William Stone and Elizabeth Bowen, and the couple afterward removed to Audubon county.

FIRST HOTEL.

The construction of the first hotel in Lewis was commenced in the spring of 1854, and the building was finished and occupied the same fall. S. K. Meyers was the landlord and although his house had no name it became well known, as it was made the stage station. Mr. Myers came from Wisconsin in time to open the hotel. He had a wife and child,and Lewis, his second, was the first child born in the town; the boy was named accordingly. Mr. Myers was well liked by the townspeople, and his accommodations for those days were very fair. In 1853 he removed to Audubon county, selling the hotel to Charles Baldwin, who named it the "Henderson House" in honor of E. W. Henderson, the Lewis merchant. About 1870 the hotel was destroyed by fire.

After running the Henderson House for a number of years--in fact, until the failure of Mr. Henderson as a merchant, in 1859--Charles Baldwin built the Union House. Its first landlord, however, was David Johnson, and the next Joseph Everly. It was under the latter's administration that Jeremiah Bradshaw kept a picture gallery in the building. The hotel changed hands many times before it was burned in 1866.

FIRST PUBLIC SALE OF LOTS.

Although Judge Bradshaw made a number of private sales in 1853 and 1854 and a few buildings were either erected or moved over from Iranistan, the real growth of Lewis did not commence until the first public sale of lots held in October, 1855. As stated, the lots were sold and the money handled by the county judge. Orin O. Turner, sheriff for two years, cried the sale, for which he was paid $5. The lots sold at from $10 to $75 apiece, the lowest price being allowed the Methodist Church and its pastor, Rev. J. S. Rand. Mr. Tucker bought the first lot at $50, the other buyers being C. E. Woodward, J. E. Chapman, Moses Martin, James Queen, Aaron Dolph, J. W. Benedict, J. M. Watson, Cornelius Soper, S. K. Shields, Joshua Bales, R. E. Gordon, David Hitchcock, S. Wilson, Bowater Bales, Barton Garvin, William S. Townsend, S. Mahan, S. K. Meyers, Moses Shinn, W. B. Stone and Messrs. Bevington and Hutchins.

FIRST CHURCHES OF LEWIS.

Although the Methodists effected the first organization in Lewis and built the first church, the Congregationalists were strong and the society which they formed in 1855 is still in existence. On the 11th of April, of that year, Rev. George B. Hitchcock formed his supporters into a church composed of the following members: David Chapman, Polly Chapman, Charles Baldwin, Olive J. Baldwin, Caroline Hitchcock (the pastor's wife), Mary M. Tucker, Samuel Mahan, Henry Meyers, Elihu Meyers and Amasa Chapman. As officers chosen: David Chapman, deacon; George B. Hitchcock, H. Meyers, C. Baldwin, trustees; C. Baldwin, clerk; S. Mahan, treasurer. At first services were held in the Methodist church, near Botna Hall, in the court house, and in any other convenient place until a building was erected. The Congregationalists built their first house of worship in the summer of 1865, at a cost of $3,000.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 94-97.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.