Items of Interest

   Grant Township has fertile and productive soil, and all of the township is tillable.  There are gravel pits in one area and potters clay is a particular kind of coarse ferruginous sandstone, once much used for base and well walls. It is of the variety known as conglomerate and in England this type of stone is called "pudding stone," from its fancied resemblance to the old English Christmas pudding. It is soft when taken out, but hardens on exposure. The sand and gravel deposit is of glacial origin but the bluff deposit came on top of that. 

    The first settlers in Grant township were from older states in the East and from other sections of Iowa. But after 1870, many Swedish people settled there.

   Burlington was a gateway to the western prairies in the '60's. As Rev. B. M. Halland watched many covered wagons passing through the city, he had a great desire to aid the many Swedish immigrants in forming a large settlement where they could establish churches of their own faith. The opportunity came in 1869 when the railroad was built, and the officials of the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad offered Rev. Halland his choice of location at any point along the line of their road for settlement, as there was to be a large amount of land opened up as soon as the railroad was completed. He decided on Frankfort, Scott and Grant townships in Montgomery County and Fremont and Douglas townships in Page county.    

Old Gillmore Store

    When Rev. Halland advertised in a newspaper that contracts for this land would be offered by him on April 1, 1870, many set out at once from Illinois. They found work on the railroad and lived in dugouts and shanties. For a three year period, many immigrants arrived in Illinois and after a short stay there, continued on to Iowa. The land sold for $6.00 to $11.00 per acre. These settlers were served by three Lutheran churches organized as follows: Stanton and Nyman in 1870, and Red Oak in 1872.

   It is said that Anders Ossian with his wife and several children were the first to arrive on April 2, 1870 and located in Section 24. This farm has remained in the Ossian family.  They lost three crops by hail and grasshoppers.

   Gust and John Ossian, sons of Anders Ossian, arrived with their families about the same time and also had adjoining farms in Section 24. As incident related about them was typical of the Pioneers, who had neither money nor provisions. These brothers went to Henry C. Binns, who was already established in farming in Page county, and he sold them wheat and corn for seed and also each a cow -- all on time. No note or security was required, but that fall one of them returned to the Binns farm to husk corn as part payment.

   John F. Austrin, Section 35, arrived in 1871. He was the first organist of the Fremont church and also treasurer of school district No. 7, when it was organized April 15, 1876, and given the name Mt. Hope. 

	Amil Nelson Blacksmith Shop Coburg, Iowa  About 1912

   The Sven August Peterson family came overland from Fairfield to Section 23 the same year. Seven years later they traded farms with the August Andersons is Scott township.

   Two brothers, John and Charles R. Swanson located in Section 23 in 1872. John, the older one, remained on the farm while the younger one spent a year working on the railroad in Illinois and Iowa, and sending back money for payments on the land.

   Swan Hawkinson, Section 13, followed farming in the summer, and the carpenter trade during the winter. After the family moved to Stanton, they became well known for their hospitality shown to immigrants arriving later.

   Other families arriving in the '70's were: Charley Mattsons, Section 13, August Johnsons, Section 23; Lewis Ring, Section 12, A. G. Sandell, Section 13, and G. Alfred Mainquist, Section 35.