Obrien County IA Archives History - Books .....Chapter III The Early Settlers 1914
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Book Title: Past And Present Of O'Brien And Osceola Counties, Iowa
CHAPTER III.
THE EARLY SETTLERS.
Our people, happily, were either Americans, or belonged to those desirable
classes of foreigners who readily amalgamated with and forthwith became
Americans. Happily, indeed, that we have had no foreign population which has
become clannish to any such extent that feuds are created or friction caused.
The very fact that for ten years last past the district court of the county has
only averaged two to three jury trials per term of court proves this.
The government having passed the homestead law just about the time of the
organization of the county, naturally, in its earliest years, brought a class of
people seeking free lands. Embodied in that homestead law has been the idea that
first possession gave right, or first title, which soon developed the
"squatter"
as a part and portion of homesteading and induced people to come who were
seeking land on the government domain. The old soldier was given sundry special
privileges and rights peculiar to the idea of a pension or recognition of his
services as applied to government lands. As a consequence of this, some five
hundred and seventy-five old soldiers have settled in the county during the
years. Later the word "squatter" was more distinctly applied to those taking
possession of the overlapping or railroad lands, as will be seen under that
head. However, the words or phrases, homesteader, old soldier, squatter, settler
and hay twister, became to a large extent intermingled terms, applied somewhat
promiscuously. In thus writing these early historic items we are unable to draw
boundary lines, and in many cases apply them as the early settlers used them in
common parlance. The term, "squatter," as understood in O'Brien county, does
not
mean or have the meaning of a squatter as might be applied to a party squatting
down on some sand bar in the Missouri river, not caring whether it ever belonged
to the government or not or even whether he ever got title or not. The squatter
in O'Brien county developed into a full-grown homesteader and won out, becoming
a permanent citizen of the county, contesting for his rights for title and home,
alongside the settler and soldier, contending that of right he should become the
owner of the lands the railroads had failed to earn, and won out in the highest
tribunal in the land, the supreme court of the United States. In these
capacities we shall deal with these several classes of early settlers.
WHERE OUR PEOPLE CAME FROM.
O'Brien county's people came from everywhere. While this is true, it is
probably also true that well nigh two-thirds of its people, or their parents,
have at some time lived in some other county in Iowa. Iowa, being universally
agricultural, the idea of agriculture, even in emigration, moves on farming
lines. Its old homesteaders were, many of them, old soldiers in the Civil War.
The fact that soldiers were given certain privileges brought them here. These,
as a rule, were Americans, but, though largely from Iowa, came at least from one
or other of the states. At least they came from no one locality. According to
George W. Schee's Book of Army Records, there were about five hundred and
seventy-five old soldiers who have at one time or another lived in the county.
This would represent about that many families, and would mean that from two
thousand to twenty-five hundred soldiers or soldiers' children or grandchildren
reside in the county, making due allowance for removals. Decoration Day
celebrations and old soldiers' reunions have therefore been a distinctive
feature of the public days.
The coming of or building of the Northwestern railroad in 1881 produced a
very pronounced resultin fact, the most noticeable in the county in starting
out and heading for O'Brien county one definite division or nationality, the
thrifty Germans. The road naturally brought them in from the many German
sections in and around Gladbrook, Davenport, Reinbeck, Dubuque and other Iowa
places. They represent probably about two-fifths of the total population of the
county. While many Germans in the county originally came from Germany itself,
and many directly to O'Brien county, the larger portion came from those large
German communities named. Caledonia township may be said to be solidly German.
For a period of thirty years that township has not averaged more than three
votes per year of other nationalities. While there are Germans in every
township, yet they will be found in the largest numbers in Caledonia, Union,
Liberty, Dale, Highland, Center, Omega and Hartley. In land sale parlance, it is
often remarked that whenever a German or Hollander purchases a farm it adds five
and ten dollars per acre to the value forthwith.
A few from among the older families came direct from England. At the time
that D. Edward Paullin platted Paullina and established and founded its name, it
was thought that a large English colony would be established by himself and the
Close brothers, who colonized several large English communities in Plymouth and
Osceola counties. But those gentlemen finally expended their energies elsewhere,
and the large English colony failed to materialize in O'Brien county. The
English in the county may be said to consist of single families here and there.
The families of John Archer, Thomas Holmes, Thomas Hayes and others in and
around Archer would come the nearest to being a definite English colony, with
several others in the county of a few families in a community.
Prior to 1880 the Scottish-American Land Company and the Jackson Land
Company opened up land offices in Emmettsburg, Palo Alto county, in which county
was planted a large Scotch colony and where these two companies held large
tracts of land. These companies were organized by William J. Menzies, of
Scotland, and Alexander Peddie, a Scotchman, and the manager in this section of
the country. These two companies owned several thousand acres of land in and
around Paullina, in Union and in Dale townships. This colony of Scotch people
came from Roxborough and Selkirk counties, in the south of Scotland. William
Aitkin first came in the year 1880. It was his son, Thomas Aitken, who, in later
years, was cut and mangled to his death-by a runaway team with a reaper. Mr.
Aitken was followed, in 1881, by William Cowan, William Redford, Alexander
Scott, James M. Christy, Thomas Scott, Hector Cowan, Sr., and James Gifford and
their families, all of whom bought large tracts of this Scottish-American Land
Company land. These families now reach down into the third and fourth
generations, many of them well known in the later years. However, as a Scotch
colony, its people have so scattered and removed to the towns that as a colony
it is all but disintegrated, but during the years 1880 to 1900 it was one of the
most formidable colonies in the county. One of their number, Miss Belle Cowan,
was county superintendent for the years 1889-1890, and was also a teacher in the
high schools of both Primghar and Paullina.
The Irish settled in largest numbers in and around Sheldon. They were mainly
homesteaders, and the foundation families were those of William Gavin, Thomas
Burns, Michael Burns, Timothy Donahue (at one time member of the lower house of
the Iowa Legislature from O'Brien county), John Dougherty, John McGrath, Pat
Kennedy, Pat Kelly, Timothy Donoghue, Pat Carroll (after whom Carroll township
was named), John Hart, John R. Deacon, Joseph Berry, Dan McKay and Pat Sullivan.
The descendants of this colony of Irish have maintained their residences down
through the generations.
Next to the Germans in numbers in this county, the Hollanders, in fixed
communities, have the most definitely established themselves. The Hollanders
coming direct to O'Brien county are mainly from Sioux county, where they
constitute the large majority: The Hollanders in O'Brien county have been
characterized by thrift in the purchase of more land for themselves and their
sons. The Sioux county Hollanders came mainly from Pella, Iowa, where is one of
the largest of the original Holland settlements direct from the Zuyder Zee. The
same persistence that pushed back the waters of the sea and made more land in
Holland has resulted in success in the Sioux county Hollanders pushing over into
O'Brien, and, by the larger price he is willing to pay, he, by cash argument,
invites the other owner out. He never loses or lets go a farm once purchased. It
is no doubt true that both the German and Hollander have a higher idea of land
value than any other class. Their views of things are solid as the earth. Land
to them means, as it in fact is, that, with its use, it reaches down to the
center of the earth and the air above it, clear to the sky. So definite is the
Hollander in his fixedness in the county, that Holland churches are to be found
in Sheldon, Sanborn and Hartley. The Hollanders will perhaps number a full tenth
or more in the county. The same may be said of the German all over the county.
He keeps his own land and buys out his neighbor. These people will be noticed
under several other heads.
The Scandinavians have many small settlements, but are more scattered than
the Germans or Hollanders. The most noted definite colony perhaps is the
Scandinavian Quaker settlement in South Dale and Highland, where they support a
Quaker church and school, and hold services Wednesday as well as Sunday. Among
the foundation families of this colony are those of Lorenzo Rockwell, Curtis L.
Rockwell (for many years a member of the board of supervisors), Loui Rockwell,
Archibald Henderson, Christian Thompson, Roy Rockwell, D. J. Peckham, Joseph
Henderson, Oman Tow, James Mott, O. P. Tjossem, A. R. Rockwell and Sam Norland.
HOW THE EARLY SETTLERS LIVED, WHAT THEY DID AND HOW THEY DID IT.
Future generations will inquire, as indeed will the present reader, not only
how the country appeared before the hand of civilized man had marred its virgin
beauty, but how the first comers managed to live, to procure the means of
subsistence, how they met the varied requirements of civilization to which they
had been accustomed, and with what resignation they dispensed with such as could
not be had.
If correctly told, it would be a tale of intense interest; but it would
require a master hand to draw a picture that would show the scene in all its
detailspersonal experience alone could unfold the tale. When a newcomer arrived
he first selected a location where he could make his future home, and the
question arises, of whom did he get permission to occupy it? The answer might be
given in the language usually used in defining political or civil rightsevery
one was free to do as he pleased so he did not interfere with his neighbor. When
the government had extinguished the Indian title the land was subject to
settlement either before or after the government had surveyed it. The settler
had no deed or paper title to start with, but simply the right of possession,
which he got by moving onto and occupying it; this gave him a right to hold it
against all others till some one came with a better title, which better title
could only be obtained by purchasing the fee of the government when surveyed and
brought into market. The right of possession thus obtained constituted what was
called a "claim." These were regarded as valid titles by the settlers, and were
often sold for quite a sum. This was a little dangerous, however, as the federal
law was that the government would not recognize a sale. In fact it left the
homesteader open to having his rights contested, as the law in reality intended
and the affidavits he had to make said that it was bona fide and for his own
express benefit. They did it by signing what was called a "Relinquishment" to
the United States. This the government recognized. But we can see that when once
filed, the first man who next filed got it, and it the purchaser was not
immediately on the spot he was left out in the cold and lost his money. These
sales would usually run from about two hundred and fifty dollars to as high as
seven hundred dollars for good improvements. Pre-emption laws were also on the
statute books as passed by Congress, giving to claimants who had conformed to
certain specified improvements the exclusive right to purchase the land at the
government price. Beside certain buildings and improvements they were required
to plant and keep in thrifty condition about fourteen acres of trees, which
accounts for some of the larger groves on some of the farms.
When the settler had selected his location or made his claim, his first
attention was directed to procuring a shelter for his family. So anxious were
the people for settlers that often in the first years two and even three
families were known to actually live in and occupy a settler's cabin twelve by
sixteen in size, more or less. But if he located far from a neighbor, for the
first year many occupied the covered wagon in which they came to the country,
sleeping in or under it, and cooking or eating in the open air or in some rude
contrivance, perhaps covered with prairie grass, or a tent made of the bed
blankets he had brought with him, if the family was too large or a shelter could
be provided. This was usually, when finished, a dug-out or sod shanty. One
little incident known to the writer was a settler who sent his boy to a neighbor
two miles away before breakfast to inform him of the latest news that they were
to have a new neighbor who had just located six miles away. Far-away neighbors
were then near neighbors.
The prairie region offered advantages far superior to a timbered country; in
the latter an immense amount of labor had to be done to remove the timber and
for years afterward the stumps prevented free cultivation, while on the prairie
the sod only had to be turned and the crop put in. Still, this sod had to go
through the process of rotting or being subdued, which often took several years,
especially when broken up too late in the summer. It was a curious fact even in
O'Brien county, however, that the very earliest settlers huddled close in around
the little fringes of timber on the Waterman and Little Sioux, the rougher land
of the county.
The homesteaders would combine with their oxen and often make up a team of
several, even five and six yoke, and turn up a big, wide furrow two feet or more
in width. The broad, black furrow thus turned up was a sight worth seeing. The
nice adjustment of the coulter and broad share required a practiced hand, and
the tip of the share or even the wrong filing of the coulter would throw the
plow on the twist and require a strong man in a tough sod to hold the plow in
place, but if nicely done the plow would run a long distance without support. A
good blacksmith then had a good job. Many of these first plows were clumsy and
found too large, and later it was found that a smaller plow and even fewer
animals did better work. It was found that the best time to break the sod was
when the grass was rapidly growing, and it would decay quickly and the soil be
mellow and kind; but if broken too late in the season it would require two or
three years to become as mellow as it would be in three months when broken at
the right time. It was found often that shallower breaking required less teams,
and would often mellow, up sooner than the deeper breaking. But many of the
settlers arrived late in the season and had to break whenever they could, even
late in the fall, and do with it as best they could.
The first sod crop was mostly corn, planted by cutting a gash into the
inverted sod, dropping the corn and closing it by another blow alongside the
first, or perhaps planting into the lucky mellow soil thrown up by a gopher. Or
sometimes it was dropped in every third furrow and the next furrow turned on. If
the corn was so dropped as to find the space between the furrows it would find
daylight; if not, it was doubtful. This sod corn crop would be laughed at now as
a crop, but the early settler had to make the most of it. At least corn so
planted would make a partial crop, sometimes, when favorable all the season,
quite a full crop. Prairie sod thus turned in June would be in condition to put
in to oats or corn the spring following. Melons and vines seemed to do even
better on these tough sods than later in the years. This subduing of this tough
sod with deep roots was a problem with which the later farmers are not familiar.
We can thus see some of the reasons why it was early discussed whether this
would ever be a corn country or not. But after the first crops the soil got
better and better. But while his crops were growing, the settler was not freed
from other cares and worry. His few chickens and pigs had to be sheltered and
housed at night as a protection against owls and prairie wolves. Even his cattle
had to have a good corral, as even the calves or younger cattle were not safe
against a hungry wolf. The problem of getting the cattle home at night was a
serious one, as, with such free, wide range, cattle would often roam five and
ten miles, and nearly always had to be searched for, at least every few days,
and every day receive attention as a regular item. As there were then no trees,
this question of shelter was serious in view of the blasts of winter. The
primitive shack sheds, with grass tops and illy constructed sides, did the
protective act badly. The grimly humorous remark or question of sundry of the
Easterners who would visit this county in those years, "Why don't you have barns
and houses and other conveniences like we do in the East?" certainly would
arouse mirth. He should have been answered, "You are enjoying the fruits of the
labor of several generations of your ancestors, while we have to create all we
have. We have necessarily made rude and cheap shelters for ourselves and our
animals, have fenced our farms, dug our wells, have to make our roads, bridge
our streams, build our school houses, churches, court houses and jails, and when
one improvement is complete another want stares us in the face." All this taxed
the energies of the new settler to the extent of human endurance, and many fell
by the way, unable to meet the demands upon their energies. The only wonder is
that so much has been accomplished; that so many comforts and conveniences have
crowned our efforts; that we have reached a point for which a century of effort
might have been allowed. Political and financial theorists have tauntingly told
the farmers of Iowa that they knew nothing of finance, except what wiser heads
have told them; that they have made nothing by farming, and would be poor except
for the advance in the price of their farms. These sages should be told that the
toil of those farmers has made the farms increase in prices; made those
improvements, planted orchards and fruit gardens, made roads and bridges,
converted a wild country into a land of beauty, and made it the happy abode of
intelligent men. All this had to be done to make these farms advance in price,
and those who have done this, and raised and educated their families, have done
well; and if the advance in the price of their farms has given them a
competence, it is what they anticipated, and nothing but the most persevering
industry and frugality would have accomplished it.
In addition to the labor and a multitude of cares that beset the newcomer,
he had it all to accomplish under disadvantages and in the face of dangers that
of themselves were sufficient to discourage men not of stern resolve. Traveling
unworked roads and crossing streams without bridges was often a perilous
adventure. Crossing the wide prairie at night, with not even the stars to guide,
was both uncertain and dangerous, and often the wayfarer traveled until
exhausted and had to camp until the morning light should guide him on his way.
In warm weather, although an unpleasant exposure, this was not a dangerous one;
and, although the sensation of being lost is an irksome one and the lonely
silence in the middle of the prairie, broken only by the howl of wolves, is more
unpleasant than one inexperienced would imagine, with perhaps hunger added to
the discomfort, yet all this would pass with the night and a brighter view and
happier feelings would come with the dawn of the morning. But crossing the
trackless prairie when covered with a dreary expanse of snow, with the fierce,
unbroken wintry blast sweeping over its glistening surface, penetrating to the
very marrow, was sometimes a fearful and dangerous experience. No condition
could inspire a more perfect idea of lonely desolation, of entire discomfort, of
helplessness, and of dismal forebodings, than to find one's self lost on the
snow-covered prairie, with no object in sight in any direction but the cold
undulating snow wreaths, and a dark and tempestuous winter night closing fast
around his chilled and exhausted frame. His sagacious horse, by spasmodic
efforts and continuous neighing, shows that, with his master, he appreciates the
dangers and shares his fearful anticipations. With what longing the lost one
reflects on the cozy fireside of his warm shanty, surrounded by his family,
which he fears he may never see, and when the dark shadow of night is closed
around and has shut in the landscape, and chance alone can bring relief, a
joyous neigh and powerful spring from his noble horse calls his eye in the
direction he has taken; he sees over the bleak expanse a faint light in the
distance, toward which his horse is bounding with accelerated speed, equally
with his master cheered and exhilarated by the beacon light which the hand of
affection has placed at the window to lead the lost one home. Nearly every early
settler can remember such an experience, while some never found the home they
sought, but, chilled to a painless slumber, they found the sleep that knows no
waking. Crossing the uncultivated prairie on a cloudy night, or on a snowy or
foggy day, was very liable to have an uncertain outcome. In a clear night the
stars were a very reliable guide, and, like the Eastern Magi on the desert, the
settlers came to have a close acquaintance with the constellations. A steady
wind was also a very reliable guide; the traveler would get his bearing, then
notice how the wind struck his horse, right or left ear, etc., and then keep
that same direction, regardless of any other guide, and he would generally come
out right. But if the wind changed, of course he went with it. Without these
guides, it would be a mere accident if a person succeeded in a still atmosphere,
on a cloudy night, or snowy or foggy day, in crossing a prairie of any extent.
The yearly burning of the heavy annual growth of grass on the prairie, which had
occurred from time immemorial, either from natural cause or from being set by
human hands, was continued after the white settlers came in, and was a source of
much annoyance, apprehension and, frequently, of severe loss. From the time the
grass would burn, which was soon after the first frost, usually about the first
of October, till the surrounding prairie was all burned over, or if not all
burnt, till the green grass in the spring had grown sufficiently to prevent the
rapid progress of the fire, the settlers were continually on the watch, and, as
they usually expressed the idea, "sleeping with one eye open." When the ground,
was covered with snow, or during rainy weather, the apprehension was quieted and
both eyes could be safely closed.
A statute law forbade setting the prairie on fire, and one doing so was
subject to a penalty and liable to an action of trespass for the damages
accruing. But men did not like to prosecute their neighbors and convictions were
seldom effected, though fires were often set. Fires set to the leeward side of
an improvement, while very dangerous to improvements to the leeward, were not so
to the windward, as fire progressing against the wind is easily extinguished.
Imagine the feeling of the man who, alone in a strange land, after building
a very modest homestead shanty or home; has raised his corn, wheat and oats, and
fodder for stock, and has his premises surrounded by a sea of standing grass,
dry as tinder, stretching away for miles in every direction, over which the wild
prairie wind howls a dismal requiem, and knowing that a spark or match applied
in all that distance will send a sea of fire wherever the wind may waft it; and
conscious of the fact that there are men who would embrace the first opportunity
to send the fire from outside their own fields, regardless of whom it might
consume, only so it protects their own. Various means was resorted to for
protection. A common one was to plow several furrows around a strip several rods
wide, outside the improvements, and then burn out the strip; or wait till the
prairie was on fire and then set fire outside, reserving the strip for a late
burn, that is, till the following summer, and in July burn both old grass and new.
But all this took time and labor, and the crowd of business on the hands of
a new settler, of which a novice has no conception, would prevent him doing what
would now seem a small matter; and all such efforts were often futile. A prairie
fire, driven by a high wind, would often leap all barriers and seem to put human
efforts at defiance. When a fire had passed through the prairie, leaving the
long lines of side fires, like two armies facing each other, the sight at night
was grand; if one's premises were securely protected, he could enjoy such a fine
exhibition hugely, but if the property was exposed, the sublimity of the scene
was lost in the apprehension of danger.
In the year 1881 a colony of French people settled in Grant township, with
several scattering families in other townships. A few of them came direct from
France, but in the main they came from in and around Cliffton, Iroquois county,
Illinois, a part of Illinois where many French settled long ago. The very name
of that county in Illinois denotes French. Henry C. Colby had settled in Hartley
several years prior in the land and banking business, and in fact was one of the
most enterprising men in the county in inducing people to come to O'Brien
county, and was a very successful man. It was Mr. Colby who induced these people
to come to O'Brien and establish this colony, and sold many of them their lands.
He was not a Frenchman himself, but his judgment as to the future of the county
was accepted by them. The following families are among the number: Theodore
Richard, Anton Guyett, Eli Frankers, Frankie Frankers, Samuel DeMars, Napoleon
Renville, Calvin Mayhew, Louis Guyett, Edward Morrow, Fred Cota, Pearly Morrow,
Albert Mayhew, Oliver Marcotte, Thomas Marcotte, Isaac DeTour and John DeTour
and others. A few other families settled in Clay county, just across the line.
The following table gives the number of people, by nations, in O'Brien
county where both parents are foreigners:
Austria 25
French Canadians 8
Canadians 73
Denmark 35
England 142
France 4
Germany 2,419
Holland 452
Ireland 256
Norway 220
Russia 7
Scotland 71
Sweden 141
Switzerland 10
Wales 18
Other foreigners 229
POPULATION OF THE COUNTY.
1860 8
1863 40
1865 30
1870 715
1875 2,349
1880 4,155
1885 8,389
1890 13,060
1895 15,609
1900 16,985
1905 16,710
1910 17,262
Additional Comments:
Extracted from:
PAST AND PRESENT OF
O'Brien and Osceola Counties, Iowa
BY
HON. J. L. E. PECK and HON. O. H. MONTZHEIMER
For O'Brien County
AND
HON. WILLIAM J. MILLER
For Osceola County
VOL. I
ILLUSTRATED
1914
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY, Inc. Indianapolis, Indiana
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