CHAPTER IX.
BRIGHTON TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).
In the summer of 1855 Mr. Meredith broke up about sixty acres of land on section 32, which afterward became known as the John Berry farm. "The next spring," he says, in an account which he prepared many years ago, "I sowed about thirty acres of wheat and had a good crop--about twenty-five bushels per acre. I tramped out some in the fall, and took some of the wheat to West Nishnabotna--to what was called Stutman's mill--and brought the flour home and sold it at seven dollars per hundred pounds. Corn was then a dollar per bushel, but within a few years corn was only worth fifteen cents, and wheat twenty-five cents a bushel. As soon as we broke up the virgin soil and it brought forth abundantly, we overstocked the market, and as we had no outlet, except by team to Council Bluffs or Des Moines, prices fell. I have hauled wheat to each of these markets.
"The next settler that came into Brighton township was Thomas Leadly. He bought out John Porter. Samuel Shields came in and built a log house. They were all from Napierville, Ill. The first school in the township was kept in the house of Samuel Shields.
"Adelia Page was the first school teacher; she was the sister-in-law of Shields. Joseph Everly married the girl soon after the death of his first wife. Everly was a clever man and a good neighbor, but a fool when he got drunk--as he would do when he went to Iranistan. He and Jake Watson went home together on a sled, as they lived at that time on the river a few miles north of Lewis. Everly was killed on the way home and his body found next day. Jake, fearing trouble, went away for awhile, and then came back; but nothing was ever done about it. It was a drunken freak, and the people thought if he got drunk and wanted to whip everybody, he ought to be killed."
Mr. Meredith also tells of one cold winter, about 1858, when thousands of elk were forced down south from Minnesota and Dakota, and poured into Cass county. He and the Leslies and the Hebings, making a party of five, went on a hunting excursion between Indian and Camp creeks, and though they had three good rifles and saw droves of elk and nearly got frozen to death, they did not bring down an animal. Mr. Meredith naively concludes: "We had no more elk hunting that winter, although there were many killed during that time with clubs, in snow drifts--but they had become very poor in flesh."
Mr. Meredith became active almost from the first in the development and public affairs of the township and the county. In the fall of 1859 he built one of the first bridges across the East Nishnabotna river, under contract with the county, for which he paid $1,475. Cornelius Soper built the embankment at twenty-four cents per cubic foot. Mr. Meredith also represented Brighton township in the Board of Supervisors during 1861 and 1862, and a portion of 1865.
"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pp. 126-128.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, October, 2017.
