History of Linn County Iowa Part 9

"My father was a born pioneer; although born in Connecticut he went to New York when the country was new, and then to Ohio, and later came to Iowa. In California he never mined gold, but teamed and speculated; he was there about two years, returning to Iowa in 1851, remaining in Iowa only a short time when he returned to California with his son, Andrew. My father died in Sacramento, California, February 15, 1854, when about to go to Iowa to bring his family to California, and he is buried in Sacramento."

This interesting letter from a real Linn county pioneer more than seventy years of age gives only an idea of the hards.h.i.+ps of pioneer life, and what this woman has endured as a daughter and wife of the first settlers.

William Abbe's widow, Mary Wolcott, continued to reside in Marion with her family until August 27, 1861, when she died, universally respected by all who knew her.

Mr. Abbe was an old time democrat and as such was in the state senate session, having the honor to appoint Robert Ellis postmaster of the senate, as a reward of friends.h.i.+p and good will. Mr. Abbe also was a justice of the peace for some time, was appointed commissioner to locate state roads, had the contract for the erection of the first jail at Marion, and was otherwise a very useful citizen. He was also master of the first Masonic lodge at Marion, and one of the best known and best educated men in Linn county up to the time of his removal to California. For a number of years Mr. Abbe was the only person in the county having ready money, loaning the same to his friends for the purchase of their claims. He held government contracts for the delivery of meat and provisions to the Winnebago agency at Fort Atkinson and to the troops at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and at other places, and thus was acquainted with many of the military officers in the Black Hawk war and with the Indian chiefs and braves of the Winnebago tribe, as well as the Sac and Fox Indians. It is said that William Abbe conversed freely with the Winnebago Indians, and frequently acted as an interpreter when matters of importance came up between members of the tribe and the white settlers; he was always a friend and protector of the Indians and frequently helped them in securing their just rights when they had been robbed by the white free-booters, hunters and trappers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FORMER PASTORS UNITED BRETHREN CHURCH, LISBON]

William Abbe was a kind and generous man, and his home was always open to the people who came into Linn county at an early day to seek homes.

It is also said that Mrs. Abbe was an excellent cook and many of the old surveyors would ride several miles out of their way to get a meal at the Abbe homestead, for the latch string of the Abbe home was always out.

Mr. Abbe rode horseback a great deal and would be gone for weeks at a time, and while he was away the family lived quietly at home awaiting for days for his return when provisions were frequently scarce and when the snow drifts generally were large. During the first two seasons there were very few crops grown, and consequently the father was kept busy earning a livelihood, the family subsisting mostly on the chase.

He traded provisions with the Indians, at times bringing home large quant.i.ties of honey which was used as sugar in sweetening black coffee as well as in place of b.u.t.ter on the hard johnny cake.

His son, Augustus Abbe, born on Abbe's creek in 1841, later a member of the 9th Iowa Infantry, now a retired farmer residing at Toledo, Iowa, tells the following of his father's life and history:

"There was not a time in my life when I do not remember the Indian children. I played with them constantly. Those were my only playmates in the early days. I learned a little of the Winnebago language, and got along very well. My half sister, Susan, spoke it fluently, as well as my father. I remember when I was about five or six years old a number of Indians were gathered in our house and I climbed a post, sitting on the same to watch the redskins race their horses.

One of the chiefs, one that had the most gaudy clothing on, rode by very fast and picked me off the post and put me in front on his saddle, going at full gallop; he rode a long ways down through the prairie and my mother expressed much anxiety, but my father came out and stood there and watched for me to return. After awhile the Indian came back and put me safely down in front of the house, to my mother's joy--I, all the time laughing, thinking that I had had a good time.

The Indian said to my father, 'papoose no 'fraid.' That pony ride I shall remember as long as I live.

"I also remember my father going away for two or three weeks at a time, and my mother fixing up his lunch for the journey. He had a pair of saddle bags filled with papers and other articles. I still remember when he put on moccasins, overshoes, and a buffalo overcoat of some kind; he would bundle up securely, kiss us good-bye and start off across the prairie at full speed. Many a time I cried, as I wanted to go along, but on these long journeys I was refused this pleasure for my father would not neglect business even for the sake of pleasing his son whom he loved dearly.

"I also remember Robert Ellis, the Ashertons, Willitts, Clarks, and many others who came to our house and talked way into the night about trips they had taken over the wide prairies of Iowa. Our cabin was full of people most of the time; they would come in late in the night and in the morning, much to my surprise, I would find a number of people at breakfast, I not knowing when they came during the night. I never knew or heard of my mother making any charge for keeping anyone over night, whether they were strangers or acquaintances, whether they were poor or rich made no difference; whatever she had she would divide with a traveller or other stranger who came to her hospitable home.

"I do not know that my mother understood much of the Indian language, but she was kind to them and the squaws used to sit on our door steps more than once. She gave them food that she had prepared, sweetened with honey which they liked very much.

"I remember going to Marion with my father many times when it was a very small village with a jail which my father always pointed out as having built. He also taught me that I must do right or else I might have to stay in that jail or some other jail if I did not. These lessons were certainly deeply impressed on me for life. I remember, also, when we removed from Marion to Dubuque. I think that was in 1847, and we remained there for some time, but I think less than a year, when we removed back to Marion. My father held a government position there in the land office, I think.

"My two uncles, Charles and Eliezar Abbe, resided in Ohio, one later removing to Michigan. The latter visited my father frequently. He was related, also, on his wife's side, to Ed Clark, an early settler in Linn county. These men were much taken up with the country and we had hoped that they would come here to locate, but they did not.

"I also, with my father, visited Cedar Rapids many times, and I do not believe I was more than five or six years of age, hardly that, when I first saw Cedar Rapids, where I was much interested in the dam and the mills. The town then consisted of a few log houses along the east bank of the river. The remainder of the town was a ma.s.s of sand burrs, weeds, and timber, and along Cedar Lake and along the river large numbers of Indians were camped, especially up along the Cedar Lake and along what is now known as McCloud's Springs. In this locality several hundred Indians would camp in the winter and spring of the year, trapping, hunting, and trading skins with the whites for red clothing, guns, and ammunition. They would hang around the flour mills during the day time where there were always a lot of people gathered.

"My mother was a member of the Lutheran church, which church she now and then attended, but there were not many churches in that day. My father was not a church member.

"I remember my sister, Susan, teaching one of the first schools in Cedar Rapids, much to the satisfaction of the members of our family. In politics my father was a stanch democrat and an admirer of Andrew Jackson. He also became acquainted with most of the officers who remained in the west after the close of the Black Hawk war, on account of his government employment in which he was engaged. He was also personally acquainted with the persons who had charge of the Winnebago school, as well as those in charge of Fort Atkinson. Nearly all the people who rode horseback from Iowa City to Dubuque came by way of Mount Vernon, and would generally stop over night at our home. I remember my father and the strangers talking over politics until way into the night, and still remember many of these discussions as to the future of Iowa and as to the political aspirations of the various parties. My father took a lively interest in politics, as well as in the development of the west, and when it was settled up he had a longing for starting another pioneer settlement. He used to say when the land was pretty much taken that it was too close, he had to get away, as he wanted more room. By training and environment he was a true pioneer and full of enthusiasm for the upbuilding of a pioneer country.

"When he was away in California we were much interested in his letters and we all wanted to go. When our father returned we asked him all sorts of questions about the gold camps of the west, and what he had experienced, and we spent whole evenings listening to his conversations. He did not take us at that time, but wanted to seek out an ideal location and get settled before he took us out there. But the day never came, and we never saw him again when he left on his second trip to California in 1852. All that we knew was that my mother received a letter from a Masonic order in Sacramento that the order had taken care of him in his sickness and had seen that he received a suitable burial. He was sick only a short time and none of his old friends was with him when he died. Robert Ellis came to Sacramento looking for his old neighbor and heard to his sorrow that his friend had died only a week before. He came into Sacramento from the camps on the American river.

"After my father's death my mother resided in Marion with her family where she died August 27, 1861, at the age of fifty-eight years. As I felt downhearted at the time I joined the army and went to the front. November 29, 1865, I was joined in marriage to Cynthia Walker, daughter of an old Linn county pioneer.

"My father was also sheriff of Linn county. However, of this there does not seem to be any record, as I have been informed. He may have been appointed sheriff to fill a vacancy, or he may have been a deputy, I am not certain about that, but I know he was acting, at least, in the capacity of sheriff and caused the arrest of a number of horse thieves and other alleged criminals. My father was over six feet tall, straight as an arrow, rather slender, but very active, and I never saw a horse that he could not mount and ride at any time without the least effort.

"We used cattle for plowing, but generally kept also several horses, but these were used to drive and ride and not to work very much.

"I believe that among the early settlers of the '30s and '40s my father had the good will of all law-abiding citizens. He was affable to strangers and true as steel to his friends, and was universally respected."

William Abbe will be remembered as one of the most prominent of his day and generation in Linn county, for his kindness, his uprightness, his never wavering from the path of right. Whether amid the influences of the home circle or surrounded by the temptations of the mining camp, he was always the same st.u.r.dy, upright citizen, wanting to do right and helping his fellow men who were more unfortunate than himself.

One of his old and true friends, speaking of his long deceased friend, expressed words of deepest feeling which can be only expressed in the well known stanzas:

"Green be the turf above thee, Friend of my better days, None knew thee but to love thee, None named thee but to praise."

While a great many are now of the opinion that William Abbe was the first actual settler within the confines of Linn county, a number are still of the opinion that Daniel Seward Hahn was the first settler. He came here, accompanied by his wife, Parmelia Epperson Hahn. John J.

Daniels, an old settler in Linn county, and a son of Jeremiah Daniels, who came to Linn county in 1844, was pretty good authority on the subject of the early settlers. In a number of conversations had with him on this subject and from what he wrote for the _Annals of Iowa_, Vol. VI, p. 581, and for the Iowa _Atlas_, 1907, it is gathered that he was of the opinion that Daniel Hahn was the first actual settler, at least the members of the Hahn family, of whom there are a number still living in Linn and adjoining counties, claim that their ancestor, Daniel Hahn, should be awarded the honor. In the _Annals of Iowa_ Mr.

Daniels has the following:

"Daniel Hahn and his brother-in-law, Charles Moberly, came to Linn county in the spring of 1837, made a claim and built a cabin upon it, did some breaking, and in August removed with wife and five children from Mercer county, Illinois. At this time there was no house in Linn county to his knowledge."

This, Mr. Daniels says, was the statement made to him and others in the lifetime of Daniel Hahn.

This may be true, that in the early day very little, if any, social intercourse was had among the early settlers and no one paid any attention to time or place, and it might be that Mr. Abbe, Mr. Hahn, and Mr. Crow might have settled at the same time, one never having known that the others had located here.

Quoting from Mr. Daniels's articles, the following might be stated:

"Edward M. Crow came to the county in July, 1837, in company with his brother, locating near Viola where they made a claim and erected a shanty; they remained there only a few days, returning to Fox river to obtain provisions, having decided to locate in the county. In the latter part of August Edward Crow and his brother and James Dawson began to work on their new possessions; about this time there came also two other pioneers by the name of Joslyn and Russell; they remained in the crude cabin during the winter and their time was spent mostly in hunting, tanning pelts and trading with the Indians. Their cabin was erected at the edge of what was known as the 'Big Woods' in Brown towns.h.i.+p."

Thus it would seem that William Abbe in point of time was the first actual white settler to locate a claim and later to settle on this claim with his family, within the confines of Linn county. True, hunters and trappers may have been here earlier, but no actual _bona fide_ settler, as far as we have been able to ascertain. The testimony of Mrs. Susan s.h.i.+elds, a daughter still living, would seem to suffice as to the time when the great river was crossed and as to the time the family came to Linn county.

[Ill.u.s.tration: HON. SAMUEL W. DURHAM Honored Pioneer]

CHAPTER VIII

_The County Seat Contests--First Railroad in the County_

The county seat of Linn county was established at Marion by a board of commissioners consisting of Lyman Dillon, Ben Nye, and Richard Knott.

As the years rolled by the question arose as to the removal of the county seat to Cedar Rapids, where it seems that it was needed, being what was then known as the commercial metropolis of the county. The people of Marion insisted that that city was the center. While there was more or less feeling in the county over the county seat fight, the legislature of Iowa in 1850-51 created the office of county judge, which was designed to and did succeed the former legislative bodies of the several counties of the state. The judge had the same powers possessed by the board of supervisors which controlled the affairs of the county later. Among the rights and privileges peculiar to the office was that most important one of submitting to the people the question of raising money for the purpose of repairing and erecting buildings for the use of the county officers. (See Code of 1851.)

In 1855 James M. Berry was county judge, and a shrewd fellow he was. In pursuance of the law, and what he thought his duty, Judge Berry took steps to erect a jail and a fireproof building for the use of the county officers. These buildings were contracted for by a firm at Mt.

Vernon, Ohio, in the spring of that year. Then the people arose in arms as to the high-handed methods of Judge Berry. Political questions were lost sight of in the court house struggle. Speakers were employed pro and con. Judge Berry's term of office expired January 1, 1856, and a successor was to be elected in August of 1855. Marion put up Judge Berry for re-election, while Cedar Rapids put up Rev. Elias Skinner, a well known Methodist preacher who had traveled about the county and who was well known by everyone as an aggressive fighter and a man who believed in what he did and would have things his way if possible. The canva.s.s was in the aggregate with Judge Berry at 1,233 votes, while Skinner showed up with 993 votes, the judge being re-elected by a majority of 240 votes, thereby affirming by a referendum vote his policy.

Reverend Skinner is still living at Waterloo, and not long ago the writer had a conversation with him about this the most famous fight that has ever occurred in Linn county over the removal of the court house. Mr. Skinner just laughed and said he put up a good fight, but the other fellow had the votes.

In 1871 another court house fight was had, but the board held that because of many names of voters being on both pet.i.tions these pet.i.tions were defective.

In the spring of 1872 another pet.i.tion was brought out for the re-location of the court house and an endless number of names were again filed pro and con. Much money was spent on both sides; again the Cedar Rapids faction was beaten, some preliminary steps were taken for an appeal but the appeal was stricken from the docket.

Another attempt was made by Cedar Rapids for a change of location of the court house a few years ago, and again the pet.i.tioners lost out, and that case has been pending on the court docket but no action has been taken, so that it has for the fourth time been lost, much to the surprise of the citizens of Cedar Rapids and to the satisfaction of the people of Marion and a large portion of the northern part of the county who have always stood out for Marion in the fights on the re-location of the county seat.

THE FIRST RAILROAD IN LINN COUNTY

While it may have been charged at times that Iowa was slow in getting in touch with railway builders, it must be borne in mind that the first railroad to be built in the United States upon which a steam engine was used was constructed in 1829; but very little was done until about 1833-34. By 1835 there were not over 100 miles of road in active operation within the confines of the entire country. Up to 1841 not a mile of track had been laid in any of the following states: Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan. By the end of 1848 there were only twenty-two miles of tracks laid in Illinois, eighty-six in Indiana, and none in Wisconsin or Missouri.