SOUTHERN IOWA HISTORY

In the Clarke County Historical Museum is an historical account titled "Four Trails and a Tale or Two" written by Margaret Reeve and Beverly Wilson. The following is taken from those records:

Right on the heels of the Mormon migration came the Iowa settlers. When Iowa was made a state in 1846, it opened the gates to those seeking new and cheaper land. During the 1850s, hundreds of families purchased land in Iowa. Along the Marmon Trail east of where Hebron would be located, Robert Jamison became Clarke County's first settler in 1850. David Overton came in 1851, and settled one mile east of Green Bay (the schoolhouse two miles south of Leslie bore his name), while A.J. Crew settled one and a half miles southwest of Leslie's future location in 1855. Green Bay rapidly became a small settlement at the same time Osceola was founded in November of 1851. In fact, Green Bay boasted of having Clarke County's first doctor, Jerome Bartlett. A post office was established in Green Bay, a store was erected there and several homes were built. The Atlas of 1875 shows four. A church was erected and a cemetery plotted. The names of Arnold, Booth and Miller showed early claims to land:

My father, Ted Thurlow, told me the story of how the Green Bay cemetery came to be. It was a part of a 160-acre farm situated northeast of Green Bay. In the extreme southwest corner of the farm was a beautiful wooded grove. The two-story brick farmhouse was in the northeast corner of the farm. Here a young woman dying of consumption sat in the upstairs window with a white cloth in her hand. She watched until she saw her father reach the spot in the grove she had chosen for her grave, then waved the white cloth. He carefully marked where the grave would be dug later with the pole he carried topped also with a white cloth. That was the beginning of the Green Bay Cemetery. Leslie never established a cemetery, and many of the early settlers were laid to rest at Green Bay. New babies who couldn't quite survive the rugged pioneer life, grandmothers whose years of difficult living at last claimed the proud spirit, those who were careless in the timber and with animals, were the ones sought by death — it was mostly the young, those susceptible to disease and deprivation. Again, my father's story:

I remember the new baby brother who lived only a few days, and who surely broke our hearts for we seven children had never known a death in our immediate family before. Mother dressed his tiny body in the baby clothes he was to wear — the long white dress and petticoats and wee booties. He was placed in the wooden box and then in the wagon. We children who were large enough all got in the wagon with Dad, Mother, the girls and aunt came in the carriage and we drove to Green Bay where Dad had bought a lot and dug the small grave. By using the cemetery plot map, I was able to locate this large lot with one small, solitary grave.

During the 1850s and early 60s, the countryside surrounding Green Bay, Lacelle and Leslie were quickly settled. Isaiah and Lydia Mehitable Otis Twombley migrated from Ohio in 1853, and settled near the town of Lacelle. In 1855, my great grandfather, J.W. Thurlow, coming also from Ohio, came into the same area and soon opened the Lacelle store. Meanwhile settlers were driving their livestock to market at Eddyville. Sometimes driving a wagon with a load of shoats but most often driving the cattle, hogs, and sheep on the hoof. But can you imagine driving a flock of turkeys or geese that distance? That was done but at a slow process. Dwight's grandfather who came to Iowa as a lad in 1855, used to talk of the "early days in Iowa," and I have never forgotten John Wilson Adams' story of doing just that. It was a slow process, for a flock of turkeys was never hurried and as it began to grow dusk he began to look for a grove of trees, perhaps in a kind farmer's wood lot. Many were the wagons of wheat, oats and corn that went there as Eddyville had the nearest mill, and flour and cornmeal came back.

In 1861, Van Wert had a post office and the Civil War began. It was the national conflagration that interrupted the flow of covered wagons. Farm boys were eager to enlist and in the southern counties of Iowa, anxiety was caused by the Missouri slave holders. Slaves were going north by the underground railroad and all along the border were northerners ready to help and southerners bound to see that they didn't. Clarke County had its regular underground railroad and skirmishes were bound to occur as this valuable southern property disappeared into Iowa. Wagon loads of firearms came into the area and the Home Guard was established. Knox Township had its own. A few small conflicts were resolved even in Clarke County. The Home Guard was to gather at the slightest provocation of civil unrest in the township. Naturally, there was extreme caution and distrust of strangers.

The fighting lasted from 1861 to 1865, but the aftermath lingered on until the turn of the century. Even in the 1930s, the very last of the old soldiers would gather on the town squares of Iowa and fight again the battles of the Great War. In 1867-'68, the railroad came through from east to west and now transportation of long distances changed completely. In 1867-'68, Woodburn and Murray were plotted and settled. In 1874, Eden Yates settled 'right at Leslie;' he came in time to give the plot of land to the north-south railroad, the D.M.O. and S.R.R. (with financial help from neighbors and friends) so that Leslie might have a station there. In November, 1882, A.C. Rarick surveyed and plotted the town of Leslie and Leslie received a post office. In 1884 there were two stores, A.B. Seay and a store in the shed of his barber shop, and Tallman and Pollock had started one also. A.B. Seay built a house and by now the train was regularly stopping at Leslie. In 1865, Tallman and Pollock sold their store to a man named Hutsinpillar, who was also a grain buyer. Now Leslie had not only a new station, but a stockyard and grain bins with a spur from the narrow gauge to load out produce, livestock and grain. People were going not only to Osceola, but now on to Des Moines on the railroad pass.

The narrow gauge brought new life to this area. Leslie boasted two stores, a post office, blacksmith shop, four to six houses, and in one store a bank and barber shop. The trouble with the railroad came when ownership changed and it became the Des Moines and Kansas City Railway Company owned by the C.B.& Q. In 1888, the facility was moved to Green Bay. By 1891, the station was back as were the grain bins, stockyards, and spur line and Leslie was going again. As a small section of this great land, probably Leslie was not a great deal different from any other area in many respects. It was strictly rural; the people who shared this area through the years seem to have come from pretty much the same background; most of those still in the area are descendants of those who moved west through the years. The land was the magnet that called them to Iowa. When they had sunk the breaking plow into the good rich prairie earth, they knew they had truly come home.

The Iowans were proud and self-sufficient, but also ready to help if the need arose. They sent their young men off to the Civil War, the Spanish American War, World War I, finally World War II and they rolled out the grain , the hogs and cattle to help feed America and the world.

And always there was the school and the church. A.B. Seay had given the land for the church in 1891. By the turn of the century, there were fertile small farms all over the area and everyone milked cows and raised chickens. Leslie had a chicken packing plant and candled eggs. There was a farmstead about every quarter of a mile down every road. There were orchards and gardens, and people were feeling that Iowa, Clarke County, Knox Township was truly the garden spot of the world and a most special place to grow up, raise their families and live.

Front row: ___, ___, ___, ___, Lillie Luce and Roberta Eddy, Bessie Johnson and Margaret Thurlow, Opal Thurlow and Jane. Back row:
Jennie Camblin, Lois Linder, Alice Blain and Harold,___, ___, Blanche Eddy, Mabel Pound, Fern Yates, ___.

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Last Revised April 4, 2014