The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of Linn County Iowa, by Luther A. Brewer and Barthinius L. Wick.

In the early days it was essential to establish means of communication between points. Where there were no navigable rivers the legislatures, and even congress, passed certain acts establishing roads. The Territorial legislature which met in Burlington in 1838 and 1839 among many other road laws approved the following passed January 25, 1839:

"That Isaac [Israel] Mitchell, of Linn county, Iowa, John G. Fay, of Cedar county, and Jonathan Pettibone, of Muscatine county, be and are hereby appointed commissioners to lay out a road commencing at Bloomington, Muscatine county, thence to Rochester and Cedar county and thence to the county seat of Linn county. That said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Burlington on the first Monday of May next to discharge their duties."—Section 3, p. 461, Laws of Iowa.

"It is further enacted that Alfred Carter, Warren Stiles and A. F. Russell, of Scott county, be and are hereby appointed commissioners to lay out a territorial road commencing at Davenport, Scott county, thence to Hickory Grove, thence to Poston's Grove, thence to Red Oak Grove, thence to Pioneer Grove, thence to Big Linn Grove, thence to the seat of justice of Linn county, said commissioners to meet, or a majority of them, to discharge their duties at Davenport on the first Monday of May next."—Section 8, p. 462, Laws of Iowa.

A number of these laws were passed laying out what were known as "territorial and state roads." For example, there was the well known Dubuque-Iowa City road passing through Anamosa, Springville, and Mount Vernon. Then there were the two well known roads passing through Marion, one known as the Toledo road running nearly directly west of Cedar Rapids to Toledo, and a road much travelled in the early day; the other road branched from the Toledo road about four miles west of the city and was an angling road known in this county as the Marengo road, the State road, as well as the Des Moines road, which also was laid out over high ground in nearly a straight angling line to Marengo, and then west through Brooklyn, Grinnell, and Newton to Des Moines. This road was used much by the forty-niners crossing the state for the gold fields of California, and now and then some farmer has picked out of his field where the old road has been changed little horse shoes, shoes used for oxen, hammers and hatchets, and other utensils which had been left or lost by the early gold seekers.

There were two roads between Cedar Rapids and Marion well known in the early days, one called the old Marion road and the other running about where the street railway now runs.

Another road which was much used in the early days was known as the Cedar Rapids and Center Point road. It was much travelled by all people from the north part of the county.

Another road was the Marion-Mt. Vernon road, as well as the Western road, and the Mt. Vernon-Ivanhoe Bridge road leading to Iowa City.

The Code of 1851, referring to the State roads, directs that these roads shall be maintained by the respective counties but that such State roads shall not be discontinued or diminished in size.—Sections 557, 558, Code of Iowa, 1851.

At this time roads were under the supervision of the county court. Later they came under the supervision of the county supervisors.

For many years it was believed that a certain hill overgrown by trees near the Milwaukee tracks in the edge of Kenwood had been a fortification erected by the United States government in the early days for defending the settlers from Indian attacks.

A school house was later erected on or near this locality and was known as "Ft. George School House." Many of the old settlers remembered this locality and called it the old fort. An investigation was made and the following letter written by Samuel W. Durham explains itself:

"The house was built by a man by the name of George, of German descent, and afterwards bought and occupied by Ambrose Harland who gave the little irregular tract and house the name of Ft. George in honor of its first owner and its having the appearance of being constructed to resist, not Indians, but cold winds as they swept up Indian creek. Harland was a character, born in Kentucky, removed to Crawfordsville, Indiana, and was the sheriff of that county. This was the home of Lew Wallace, the author of Ben Hur, and also the home of Henry S. Lane who first named Abraham Lincoln as president in a convention in Chicago in 1860. Harland moved to Linn county succeeding Hosea W. Gray as sheriff, and was succeeded by me in that office. He was a six-footer and large and would fight, but once fell heavily before Perry Oxley's huge fist."

The person who erected the house which appeared like a fort was no other than George Hesing, who owned the land and was a peculiar character in his day. He did plant cottonwood trees around the house and also scraped up dirt so as to keep out the wind and snows as much as possible from his yard. In a few years the trees grew up and the rubbish accumulated, and they gave the place the appearance and made it look like an old abandoned fortification. It is said that a certain Mr. Willard having charge of the erection of a school house near this location named it the "Ft. George School House," which name it bore as long as it stood there.

A number of plats have been filed in the recorder's office at Marion, and these have again been transcripted for public use, but before towns could be platted a number of towns were staked out before the land was laid out and surveyed by the government; of these plats we have no record. The first plat was, no doubt, that of Westport, located on the banks of the Cedar river and near Bertram. This was staked out by Israel Mitchell July 4, 1838. Ivanhoe was laid out some distance below at the present Ivanhoe bridge in the same year. Another town was staked out by J. Wilbert Stone along the Cedar river at the lower rapids within the corporate limits of the present Cedar Rapids. There is no record of any plat of this town. In 1844 Westport was again platted as Newark by James M. Doty. This is the first recorded plat and seems to have been filed November 21, 1844, by John Zinbar, recorder. (See Vol. A, p. 301, Lands.) This is now a corn field and has long since been vacated.

New Linden was another town platted in the early days; this plat was filed by P. S. Embree, surveyor, April 15, 1853, being property owned by A. E. Simpson and A. P. Risley and located on sections 27 and 28, township 84, range 5, Brown township. This, also, now is nothing but a corn field.

Another was the plat of New Buffalo in the town of New Buffalo which is filed in Vol. 4, p. 217, of the Land Records of Linn county; this has also been vacated.

The plat of the town of Mayfield was made by J. M. May and filed for record in Vol. 143, p. 624. It bordered on the Cedar river and embraced lot 4 and part of section 34, township 83, range 7. It also has been abandoned, although May's twenty-five additions, re-plats, etc., made by Major May, are still parts of additions to Cedar Rapids. Major May was a man of enthusiasm, and speculated, believing, with Colonel Sellers, that in every enterprise he undertook there would be millions, but he died a poor, unknown and disappointed man.

Many of the old town sites have been vacated, and many of the old postoffices and country stores which one found throughout the county in the early fifties can no longer be found on the map. From Iowa as It Is, published in 1855, at page 153 we find the following notices concerning Linn county towns and postoffices: Spring Grove, Boulder, Central Point, Cedar Oak, Newark, St. Julien, Ivanhoe, and Hoosier Grove, besides such towns as Cedar Rapids, Palo, Marion, and Mount Vernon. The book also mentions Iowa Conference Seminary, with a three story building, and with Rev. S. N. Fellows as superintendent.

N. H. Parker in his Handbook of Iowa, issued in 1856, mentions a few more new towns not mentioned in the previous list, as follows: Fairfax, Lisbon, Lafayette, Mon Diu, Necot, Oak Grove, Prospect Hill, St. Mary, Springville, and Valley Farm. This author also speaks of the newspapers published in the county, the Register at Marion, and the Times, the Farmer, and the Democrat at Cedar Rapids.

Another handbook of the state, published by J. G. Mills, of New York, in 1857, mentions the towns set out in the handbook of a year previous and adds the new town of much promise by the high-toned name of Paris, located in Jackson township, near the present town of Coggon.

Few, if any, today can locate those villages and towns which sprang up from time to time over the county, and which long since have passed out of history and memory.

Of the newspapers published at that time only the Marion Register has continued to be issued. The others have passed away and one does not now know who were the editors and publishers of these early attempts at journalism in the pioneer days. These newspapers, no doubt, did much in keeping open the spirit of the people and in advertising the state.

BUTLER PARK AT SPRINGVILLE BUTLER PARK AT SPRINGVILLE

BUSINESS DISTRICT OF SPRINGVILLE BUSINESS DISTRICT OF SPRINGVILLE

CHAPTER XIX

Some of the Old Settlers

It is, perhaps, impossible to say even now with any degree of certainty, who was the first actual settler in Linn county. However, it is not very difficult to mention at least some of the early settlers. It is said that Dyer Usher and James Ames came up the Cedar river as far as the rapids on a hunting expedition as early as the spring of 1836; how long these men remained in what later became Linn county is not known, but it is not likely that they stayed very long. We have pretty good evidence that later during the summer came Daniel C. Doty, his two sons, James, and Elias, and nephew, Jacob Crane, as far as Bertram and viewed the country expecting to locate when land was thrown open for settlement. Mr. Doty was born in Essex county, New Jersey, in 1764, had early drifted west to Cincinnati, and by boat had come down the Ohio and up the Mississippi, landing at what is now Muscatine. His children were born in Ohio. They followed the Cedar river until they struck what became later Linn county to locate claims. There were no settlers here, and they found no people with whom to converse, but figured that here would be a good location to get cheap land when this land was opened for settlement. They returned to Ohio for their families, expecting to return the following spring, but they did not, in fact, return for three years on account of the financial depression. Israel Mitchell staked out the town first called Westport in July, 1838, which town was later called Newark, named in honor of Newark, New Jersey, where the family originally came from. Here Elias Doty, Jr., was born in October, 1841. Elias Doty, Sr., erected the first sawmill on Big creek in 1841, in the erection of which mill he was killed in the raising of the timbers. Daniel Doty, Sr., had the following sons, to-wit: James, Elias, John, and Daniel, all young men who early drifted west. Daniel C. Doty, the father of these sons, was never a resident of this county, but simply came here to find homes for his children. He died in Ohio in 1849; the widow died in Ohio in 1863 at the advanced age of ninety-eight.

James Doty, born in 1809, was the first real pottery maker in Iowa. He had learned the trade in Ohio. This crude pottery building was standing on the old homestead up to within a few years ago. At the time of his death, January 17, 1847, he had over three hundred jars, jugs, crocks, etc., ready for delivery. In this early day there was great demand for such merchandise as it was something every farmer had to have, and it could only be obtained in a few places and at high prices on account of the transportation.

Another Linn county pioneer well known in the early days was Israel Mitchell, who staked out the town of Westport in 1838. Mr. Mitchell was born in Kentucky, January 15, 1796, the son of Moses Mitchell, of Scotch descent, and on the mother's side, Elizabeth Grant, of Welsh descent, and a near relative of Daniel Boone, the Indian fighter. As a young man Israel Mitchell attended a Kentucky college and graduated therefrom. He studied for the ministry, but gave that up on account of his voice, and later took a course in medicine, but gave up the practice, as his step-daughter, Mrs. Slavin, writes, "because he was too tender hearted." He had studied law as well as surveying. After his marriage he removed to Ohio in the early '20s with his wife and two children, viz: Angeline and John Mitchell. He soon drifted into Indiana, and from there he removed to Wisconsin, working in the lead mines near Apple river in the southwest part of the state as surveyor. From Wisconsin he came by way of Dubuque to Linn county in the spring of 1838 in company with John, James, and Chamber Hunter, and Jacob Leabo. They all settled on the banks of the Cedar river in sections 32 and 33, township 83, range 6. Mr. Mitchell was a widower at this time and he and his children stayed with the Leabo family. At Marion he married Mrs. Mary Ross, nee Mary Arnold, a native of Princeton, New Jersey, on November 7, 1845, Esquire Goudy, one of the first justices of the peace, performing the marriage ceremony according to the territorial laws of Iowa. Of this marriage were born five children: Luther H., Caroline, Israel, Boone, and Maris Morton. By her first marriage Mrs. Ross had four children. She died in Oregon in 1858.

Mr. Mitchell sat on the first grand jury summoned in the county, was one of the first justices of the peace in the county, and was also the first probate judge. He acted as a frontier lawyer, did more or less surveying, at which he was an expert, and in many ways was a most useful man to the community. Mr. Mitchell was a true southerner, his home was always open, and he did much entertaining. He spent much of his time interesting his friends and acquaintances in new enterprises, and in various ways tried to build up a great town on the banks of the Cedar river. Whether it was due to the failure of his new town to materialize or the western fever that got hold of him, we do not know, but just at a time when he should have remained he saw fit to emigrate, going with oxen overland with his family in 1847, locating about eight miles southwest of Portland, Oregon. Here he tilled the soil and became a noted surveyor. In 1873 he returned to Linn county to visit his old friends, giving glowing descriptions of the far west and especially of the Spokane country. On his return by way of San Francisco to Portland he fell in one of the gangways on the steamer, and received injuries from which he died a few days later after reaching home. Mr. Mitchell was a member of the Presbyterian church and affiliated with the democratic party. J. J. Daniels, his old friend, described Judge Mitchell as follows: "He was truly an educated man, and in early life had learned the science of surveying, and this was the work he was particularly called for; when not engaged in this occupation he farmed and kept a ferry. When the writer became acquainted with him on the Cedar river he was an active man on foot and could swim almost equal to a duck; bathing in the Cedar in warm weather was his usual custom. He was a medium sized man and stood very straight and erect, having black hair a little tinged with grey, large blue eyes, a high, round forehead, and in appearance resembled Edgar A. Poe, and was equally as brilliant a poet as Poe, having enough manuscript to make a book of poems. He was truly a Christian man in many acts of kindness, and verified his profession of faith in a true Christian religion."

Robert Ellis, Linn county's oldest living settler, was born in Westmoreland, county, Pennsylvania, January 20, 1817, emigrated to Ohio in 1837, later to Michigan, and started on foot to Iowa Territory in the winter of 1838. He remained for a few weeks in Cedar county and started again on foot looking for a claim in the timber near some river. Coming to the present site of Cedar Rapids the first man he found was a man by the name of Hull, who held down a claim where the T. M. Sinclair Company packing house is now located; coming further up along the river he found the tavern of Osgood Shepherd. Mr. Ellis liked the place and staked out his claim on his present location near what is known as Ellis Park. He was at work there cutting wood one day when Shepherd came along with another man, and insisted that this claim belonged to him. Ellis was not easily frightened, and as Shepherd was going to attack him, Ellis raised his ax and threatened to chop his head in two if he took another step. This threatening attitude on the part of Ellis frightened Shepherd and he and his companion retreated, Ellis never being disturbed afterwards. Shepherd never referred to the matter. The next summer when Shepherd's father died Ellis and Lichtebarger made the coffin and assisted at the burial, when Shepherd seemed to be very much touched by the kindness of these two men and thanked them profusely.

Ellis became a friend of the Lichtebarger boys and also of O. S. Bolling. Bolling and Ellis assisted Tom Lewis, the old pioneer, to get his wagon and cattle across the river when he came west to locate, on what became later known as "Lewis Bottoms." Ellis worked for awhile at the Winnebago Mission at Ft. Atkinson, Iowa, where he met a number of military men who later became known in the Mexican war, as well as in the Civil war.

As he was frequently in company with men who took newspapers and who had travelled about the country, he heard of the gold excitement in California and at once crossed the country to Marion wanting to go west. At Marion he met Dan Mentzer, a man by the name of Harvey, and another person by the name of Green. They purchased an outfit and started for California in April, 1849, arriving at the diggings in that state the same summer after many hard experiences. He remained for several years digging gold as a placer miner and keeping a grocery store, and for a time he ran a stage between Georgetown and Coloma, earning express, passengers, and the mail. Here he met and associated with Sutter, the old German who discovered the first gold diggings, as well as his partner, saw Fair, Huntington, Mackey, and the boisterous Stewart, some of them "running saloons today and owning mines tomorrow." After remaining in California for seven years he returned home by way of the Nicaragua route and there met and talked with General Walker, the famous filibusterer.

Philip Hull, according to Robert Ellis, had arrived in what became Cedar Rapids just a very few weeks before he came. He says: "Hull was of my age and I took a liking to him. He weighed about 170 pounds, was about five feet eight inches tall, had dark hair and was stoop shouldered. He was a native of Ohio, and returned to Illinois or Ohio in 1840 to get married, as he was very lonesome out here on the prairies of Iowa. Hull never returned to Cedar Rapids. Mr. Hull and I walked to William Abbe's and bought four yoke of oxen, a wagon, and a breaking plow. We had but little money so we agreed that in payment for this property we should break 75 acres of land and cut and split 10,000 rails, which we did. It took two men to break, one to handle the cattle and one to hold the plow. It was no easy job on a hot day when the oxen would pull for a pond with all their might if not closely watched, and many were the times they would give us the slip and would lie down in the pond and we could do nothing but wait till the air cooled and night came on. Neither one of us made anything, and I saw nothing of Mr. Hull till I met him at Sacramento, California, where he had preceded me by several months. We often talked over our lives in Linn county, neither one at the time even believing that Cedar Rapids had any future. Hull was an agreeable companion, a splendid fellow and square in all his dealings. He preferred frontier life and would be content in no other locality except on the frontier."

Ellis says further of Wm. Abbe:

CHAPTER XVIII Historic Roads and Other Monuments

CHAPTER XIX Some of the Old Settlers

CHAPTER XVIII

Historic Roads and Other Monuments

CHAPTER XIX

Some of the Old Settlers