History of Linn County Iowa Part 105

While I was at Waubeek when the river was high I had a stable on the north side of the river and I used to cross in a skiff to feed my horse and attend to calls on that side.

The north side of the river was all woods for three miles in those days, and my practice was largely on that side. I used to go into Delaware county, and I had a large slice of Jones county. And may I say it, there are some families in that county which have had no doctor but a Sigworth for forty-four years. After fourteen years I sold to Dr.

Crawford and then in four years he sold to Dr. Woodbridge, who in ten years moved to Central City. At the present time Dr. Ward is in Waubeek.

The practice in those days was fraught with a great deal of difficulty and inconvenience. Swimming the river on horseback was one of the experiences which I did not like. Many times have I been wet while fording the streams with my feet on the dashboard of the buggy, my attention being taken in guiding my horse to an opening in the timber or a safe place to land.

Those were the days in which we drank brandy mixed with sorghum, which was browned in the oven. This served the place of coffee. Grape-nuts, I think, originated from this.

Of all of the forty-two doctors whom I have mentioned in this article I have met thirty-five, and at the present time there are six doctors on this field.

THE OLD MILL OF CENTRAL CITY

One of the land marks of the county is the old grist mill on the banks of the Wapsie at Central City. For a history of this mill, as well as for other interesting matter relative to the neighborhood, we are indebted to E. S. Wetherbee, editor of the Central City _News-Letter_, which paper in its issue of May 2, 1907, contained the following sketch and reminiscence:

There are in the history of every city or hamlet many incidents of early times which are interesting to the present day generation, and are often worth recording, otherwise they are apt to pa.s.s into entire oblivion. But few remain of the early settlers of this community to tell the story of those early days. Although not one of the first, yet being among the very oldest of those yet alive and living here is Mr. James Outing, and it is to him we credit the data of the contents of this article. [Mr. Outing died about a year after this interview.]

Among the very first people to settle here may be named Chandler Jordan, who still lives on his farm southeast of town, old "Uncle Joe" Clark, who came in 1839, and other families by the names of Heubner, Crawley, Pond, Tisdell, and others who might be named who appeared here about the same time. For a number of years the only way of getting across the river, and that only when the water was low, was by fording it somewhere near what is now known as the upper bridge. From this the place received its first name, and whatever honor was attached to it was given Mr. Clark by calling it Clark's Ford.

At that time Mr. Clark owned quite a large tract of land here, comprising all the land now inside the corporation west of Fourth street, the eighty acres lying east of Fourth street being owned by some land concern in Cascade. As did all his neighbors, Mr. Clark farmed in those days entirely with oxen.

The place went by the name of Clark's Ford but a few years, however, for Mr. Clark and a few others conceived the idea of laying out a town, and the Cascade men came over and together they laid off the plat, and it was then decided to call it Central City.

One of the first needs of the people of the little neighborhood was a more convenient way of crossing the Wapsie, and this meant that a bridge must be constructed.

Accordingly one was built at the place where the north or upper bridge now crosses the river. It was not what in this day would be called an expensive structure or so very handsome when completed, but it represented much hard work, privations, and expense to those interested in the building of it. The county had but little to do with it, if any, the whole thing being done by popular subscription, and in those times, there not being many to subscribe, the task was indeed a big one for the little handful of people. There was some money raised, but more gave in work, others furnished lumber, a stick of timber, and so on, until finally it was completed and traffic over it was begun in 1857. This bridge did not stand the test long. In the summer of 1859 there came a big freshet and the bridge went down stream. With its going out occurred an incident, which, though possibly forgotten by others, yet still remains fresh in the memory of Chandler Jordan. He was on this side of the river and while the bridge swayed and was considered unsafe he concluded to risk it as he was anxious to get home. He was on horseback and over he started. When about half way across the bridge began breaking loose, and realizing his danger Mr. Jordan jumped off his horse and started on the run for the sh.o.r.e. The horse also made an extra effort to find solid footing and both succeeded in getting on the opposite bank just as the bridge swung out into midstream and started floating down the river. It was soon replaced by another wooden structure built by the county and costing about $4,000. This stood for many years but has long since pa.s.sed away and been replaced by the steel bridge now spanning the river on the same site.

But we started out to write about the old mill. It still stands, and with the exception of the necessary repairs which from time to time have been made, contains the same timbers and lumber it did when built. In the early fifties there came to this neighborhood two men, one by the name of St. John, the other by the name of John Peet, both men of push and ambition. Realizing the tremendous power to be obtained from the waters of the Wapsie, and the ease with which a dam could be constructed where it now is, with the rocky banks on either side, and knowing the great demand for lumber, in the then fast settling community, they begun the construction of a dam with the intention of running a saw mill with it. The work on the dam was begun in 1855 by the two men mentioned, but was not finished until the next year, the work being engineered by old Mr. Bowdish, father of I.

P. Bowdish. It was finished in 1856, as was also the old saw mill which stood for many years on the south bank of the river and did a flouris.h.i.+ng business. Like many other old land marks it is gone. But many a stick of timber and lots of the old oak boards sawed there may yet be found in the older buildings about town.

The country all about here was fast settling up, and one of the princ.i.p.al crops was wheat. It was a long way to market, the nearest railroad station being at Marion. St. John and Peet concluded that a flouring mill would be a paying enterprise, and began the erection of the mill. The lumber was sawed at the sawmill, and the heavy timbers, of which there were many, mostly came from a forty on what now belongs to the Gus Hatch farm north of town.

Mentioning these timbers calls to the mind of Mr. Outing an incident which he threw into this narrative. There was a character who lived here by the name of Henry Hutchins. He was fond of hunting and fis.h.i.+ng and would be gone often for a period of several days, no one knowing of his whereabouts.

About this time he disappeared, and his absence became so protracted that his many friends began to fear that something had happened to him. It was while a party of choppers was hunting for timbers for the mill on the forty mentioned that one day they found Hutchins' lifeless body and beside it lay his gun with every indication that he had committed suicide.

When the timbers were all on the ground, hewed and framed, everybody for miles around was invited and came to help with the raising. It was a mammoth job and occupied the better part of a week. Mr. Outing was there from start to finish.

The mill was completed and began operations in 1859. St.

John and Peet ran it for only about three years when they sold it to E. R. Burns, who ran it until 1867, when it pa.s.sed into the hands of Hatch & Co., they paying for it the sum of $16,000. They conducted it for five years when it again pa.s.sed into the hands of Mr. Burns who owned and operated it until sometime in the latter eighties. Since then it has changed hands several times, but the valuation for many years has not been one-fourth of what it originally was. For a great many years it did a big business grinding thousands and thousands of bushels of wheat each season, the flour being hauled across the country to Marion by teams. As the raising of wheat played out so the value and popularity of the mill depreciated until finally, as now, it was used only as a grist mill. The building is now owned by parties in the east and is being run by T. J. Liddington who runs it and any day may be found there taking care of any demands made upon him. He works alone, surrounded by a vast amount of empty s.p.a.ce that was once filled with piles of grain, machinery, and the several men required to look after the big business.[O]

LAND a.s.sESSMENTS

Statement showing total acreage, valuation and average equalized actual value per acre of land in Linn county for 1909 and 1910.

Towns.h.i.+p Acreage Valuation Average

Bertram 15,816 $ 705,880 $44.63 Brown 22,689 1,226,160 54.04 Boulder 22,275 1,149,447 51.60 Buffalo 14,985 568,850 37.96 Cedar 13,268 1,002,296 75.54 Clinton 20,689 1,256,772 60.74 College 22,361 1,350,511 60.39 Fairfax 22,852 1,451,070 63.50 Fayette 15,463 770,599 49.83 Franklin 20,621 1,222,768 57.92 Grant 22,267 1,030,492 46.27 Jackson 22,090 1,016,365 46.01 Linn 22,874 1,278,324 55.88 Maine 29,537 1,345,650 45.55 Marion 46,922 2,779,332 59.23 Monroe 22,025 1,044,440 47.42 Otter Creek 22,423 1,206,721 53.82 Putnam 17,467 786,950 45.05 Spring Grove 22,558 1,086,186 48.15 Was.h.i.+ngton 18,026 797,423 44.23 ------- ----------- ------ Totals 437,208 $23,076,236 $52.78

COMPARATIVE TABLE

Showing actual and taxable valuation of Linn county, 1899-1909.

Actual value Taxable value

1909 $67,148,140.00 $16,787,035.00 1908 64,391,760.00 16,097,940.00 1907 63,806,912.00 15,951,728.00 1906 59,215,180.00 14,803,795.00 1905 57,547,092.00 14,386,773.00 1904 59,404,000.00 14,851,000.00 1903 57,505,160.00 14,376,290.00 1902 51,864,092.00 12,941,023.00 1901 50,501,132.00 12,625,283.00 1900 48,876,016.00 12,219,004.00 1899 48,083,716.00 12,020,929.00

The history of the settlements in Linn county has been a history of struggle, of privation and of endurance. It was not an easy matter to have to go to Muscatine or Dubuque to mill and market; to travel by night on horseback some fifty miles for a doctor, and equally far to find a drug store. There were no roads pa.s.sable for a greater part of the year; the rivers were not bridged, and the streams oftentimes were swollen so that the only means of crossing was by swimming or by making some temporary raft. The pioneer settler who wandered out over the prairie in a winter blizzard no doubt many times looked for the "smoke that so gracefully curls above the green elms" to indicate that a cabin was near.

The new settlers found Iowa as they had so often heard of it as "a wilderness of prairie land." It was well watered, and along the streams could be found enough timber to erect fences and furnish fuel and rails. They generally located in the edge of the timber and along the streams, and hesitated about locating on the prairie till much later.

There they found richer land than along the timber. These first settlers came from the far east and south, Ohio, Indiana, New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and the New England states. They came from Maryland, from Kentucky, and Tennessee. Some walked, like Ellis and Crow. Still others came in canvas covered wagons, in which the family were housed. They brought enough utensils to cook their scanty meals.

The wagon was drawn by horses or oxen, followed by a few cows, an extra horse or two, and several dogs. At night they would camp by the side of some stream or near an oak tree.

Not till the fifties and sixties did the foreigners arrive in any large numbers. As soon as they had been here a short time they wrote home their first impressions, and from that time a steady stream of foreign immigration poured into Iowa. These early pioneers waited long for railroads, for steamboats, and for good roads. Their produce was cheap and money was scarce, while interest was high. But they held on to their claims, ever looking for the brighter day. They possessed courage, hope, and the ability to wait and struggle till the times would change for the better. While many of the first settlers did not live to see their plans realized, later descendants sing their praises and embalm the memories of those who made the county, the cities, and the towns what they are today.

Truly it can be said of the settlers of Linn county that they were a st.u.r.dy cla.s.s of men and women, of whom their descendants may be justly proud. And the old pioneers who remain--when they reflect on the past and recall the days of old lang syne--cannot refrain from shedding affectionate tears for those who have gone hence. They call to mind the lines of the poet:

"Two dreams came down to earth one night From the realms of mist and dew, One was a dream of the old, old days, And one was a dream of the new."

Pioneer days in Linn county were days of hards.h.i.+ps, often of exposure, but their trials only served to develop the manhood and womanhood of the early settlers who never thought of returning, whose "only aim was to wait and see."

Certainly Kipling's lines apply to conditions as they existed in Linn county in pioneer days:

"To the far flung fenceless prairie Where the quick cloud shadows trail, To the barn in the neighbor's offing, To the land of the new cut rail, To the plough in the league long furrow, To the gray lake gulls behind, To the weight of half a year's winter, To the warm, wet western wind."