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History of
Floyd County, Iowa Pleasant Grove Township Was born in Canada
and moved to township 94 north, 16 west in 1878. He married Mrs. Joseph
Johnson, nee Julia Ripley. Mr. Allen is one of the oldest residents
in the county. She is a daughter of Col. David Ripley, formerly County
Judge, whose sketch will be found among the illustrious dead. To Mrs.
Allen we have given the credit of being the first in the field of pioneer
education in Riverton and Pleasant Grove. She also taught one of the
earliest schools in St. Charles Township. Mrs. Allen’s life has
been continually upon the frontier line until very recently, her father
at first moving to Floyd so early as to necessitate a retreat from the
Indians for two years; then back again; then, in 1864, to Colorado;
then two years in Southern Iowa; then again north into Southeast Dakota.
Mrs. Allen was born in Gallia, Ohio, May 8, 1837. One of the residents of the Maine or “Down East” settlement, was born in Dover, Maine, Dec. 14, 1842. He was a son of Herman and Phebe (Doore) Beal; his mother was a daughter of Joel Doore of the same town, and sister of Joel Doore, who now resides in this township. Bringing the relation of “Uncle Joel” to a veritable fact in Mr. Beal’s case. Mr. Beal received the common school education of a Maine district school, living at home until his thirteenth year, when, in his sixteenth year, the gold fever seized him and he packed his trunk and started westward via the isthmus. For two years he was mining at Willow Springs, Placer County, after which he “railroaded it” on the San Francisco & San Jose Road. California life did not agree with him – the wet season was too wet, and the glare of the sun after harvest season was too scorching to be at all pleasant; and so in four years from the time of his arrival he started eastward, landing in Maine in 1864. He bought a farm in Charleston, upon which he lived four years, selling out in favor of one in Dover, working that one year. A chance as foreman of a large fancy stock farm at Upton, Mass., owned by D. W. Batchelor, boot manufacturer, induced him to sell again. His uncle, Joel Doore, having about this time got settled in this new “Garden of the West,” wrote him to come; and thus, in 1870, he came to Pleasant Grove Township. He bought two eighties – the southeast of section 29 and the southwest of section 28. When he came here nothing but a log cabin stood on the place for a house, and from this, in a storm a few years afterward, the roof was blown, nearly crushing Mr. and Mrs. Beal and Mr. George Beal’s family. About this time things looked gloomy and lonesome enough. By hard, honest toil and a practical mind he has today one of the best and pleasantest homes in this portion of Floyd County. From a log cabin he now has a house of all modern comforts and all the conveniences to be found in any farm house. From a straw and turf stable he has a commodious barn 60 x 32; crops about eighty acres annually. He was initiated into Olive Branch Lodge, No. 124, of A. F. & A. M., at Charleston, Maine, in 1865, and is now a member of Alpha Lodge, of Greene. He married Carrie Batchelor, of Dover, Maine, April 14, 1866. Miss Batchelor was daughter of Nathan and Olive (Gerry) Batchelor, who are long residents of that town. Mrs. Beal was one of the first in the ranks of the W. C. T. U., being its charter Treasurer. Charles F. Beck Pages 845 – 846 Was born in Greene
Township, Gallia County, O., Mary 18, 1845. He was the sixth in a family
of thirteen. His parents are Jacob and Sophia Beck, now living in Riverton,
whose biographies may be found in the contents of that township. Charles
F., like the majority of boys in those early days, received but a common
school education, but by a wise use of that, together with shrewd powers
of observation, has mastered all obstacles, so far as general knowledge
and business laws, and the right and wrong in the political economy
of the county goes. He was at home during his minority, and until his
twenty-fourth year, when he took unto himself a wife, marrying Miss
Viola Reynolds, daughter of S. L. Reynolds, formerly of this township,
but more recently of Greene. Miss Reynolds had the honor of being the
first teacher in School house No. 1, and perhaps in the district. About
the date of his marriage he bought his present home – a farm of
ninety acres, on section 8. To them one child, a daughter, has been
born. Mr. Beck crops about eighty acres on his own place, and some forty
more on an adjacent section. Inasmuch as we found Mr. Beck to be one
of Floyd’s earliest settlers, we have used many of the facts thus
gleaned in the body of the work, and for which we give credit. Born in Erichshagen,
Wolpe County, Kingdom of Hanover, Dec. 17, 1815, was a son of Conrad
and Marie (Lubbers) Bicknese, and the eldest son of six children. He
lived at home until his fifteenth year, when he worked for a year and
a half in a hotel. Then for two years for a dyer, when he entered into
a contract to learn the trade. In August 1838, he took out a passport,
dated Aug. 30, 1838. In those days a passport book had to be obtained
and each night to be left with the police until further movements demanded
its possession. His movements were about as follows: starting from Erichshagen,
he staid first at Celle; from Celle he went to Bremen, from Bremen to
Oldenburg. At each place all travelers are examined to see if they have
been vaccinated, and if they have traveling money -$5 being requisite
before proceeding. From Oldenburg he went to Varel, then to Aurish,
then to Burgsteinfurth, where he worked nearly two months. After this
to Osnedrick, then to Wildeshausen, then to Buckeburg; from here to
Hildeshein; from here to Braunschweig, then to Grimma, Saxony, then
to Leipsig; from here to Dresden; from here he went to Breslau, Prussia;
from here to Lignitz, then to a part of Prussia Poland, Zduny; from
here to Kozmin; from here to Thoren, then to Elbing via Grauding and
Marenwerder; from Elbing to Soldan; from here to Hohenstein; here he
worked three months. Then to Konigsberg; from here to Danzig, Prussia,
again; from here to Stolp, then to Coslin, then to Colberg, then back
to Stolp, where he secured five weeks’ work. From here to Landsberg,
then to Rueenwale; here he worked fourteen weeks. From here to Soldin,
then to Stettin. During this time he was traveling on foot, and here,
having sore feet, he had to be still a few days. Then to Stralsund;
from there to Demmin, from there to Paswalk, from there to Naubrandenburg,
from there to Frankfort-on-the-Oder, then back to Breslau; from there
Leobschuetz, then to Hirschberg, then to Zittan, then to Freiberg, from
there to Chemmitz. There he was fortunate enough to find work for one
year and a half, where he had charge of forty-five men. After this,
desiring more experience, he resigned and went to Erfurth, working about
five weeks; then to Gotha, then to Minningen, then to Coburg, then to
Bavaria, Culmbach, from there to Bayruth, then to Schnabelwid, then
to Nurnberg, then to Ausbach, then to Westertrudingen, then to Koslinger,
then to Donanworth, then to Augsburg, then to Schwabmunchen, then to
Kaufburen, then to Kempten, then to Iesny, Wurtemburg, then to Leutkirch,
then to Stuttgart, then to Nalen; there he worked fourteen weeks. From
there to Gmund; there he again worked fourteen weeks. From there he
went to Tubengen, then to Balingen, then to Schafhausen then passing
over the border of Wurtenburg, to Gallen, Switzerland; there he worked
fourteen weeks. From there to Berne, then to Lucerne; from here back
to Germany, Baden Baden, to Freiburg, then to Menheim; from there to
Wurzburg, then to Bamburg; from there to Cumbach, then to Hof, then
to Griez, then to Altenburg, then to Hildeshim, and from there to where
he was born, arriving home Dec. 8, 1842, making a journey of four years
and four months. This has been taken from the passport book. It also
shows about what the German journeyman has to pass through to gain that
perfection in his trade that brings demand for his labor. He worked
at his trade about one year at home, then from Bremen sailed to Baltimore,
landing in America, Aug. 18, 1844. From Baltimore he went to Wilkinsburg,
Pa.; worked seven years and a half in the Baltimore coal mine, Alex.
Gray being proprietor. From here to Dane County, Wis., in 1852. While
in Wilkinsburg he married Frances Hogstien. He lived in Dane County
fourteen years and a half. Then came to this township, Nov. 30, 1866.
His children are – Clemerce L., Mary C., John Francis, Bernard,
Katy, Frank, Joseph, Dora and Lena. His wife died in March 1878. He
owns 405 acres, and crops: of corn, eighty-five acres; of oats, forty-two
and one half acres; of wheat, eighty-six acres; tame grass, fourteen
acres. One of the earliest
pioneers of Iowa, and one who has seen nothing but frontier life since
his early boyhood in Shelby County, Ky., until now, was born of good
old Kentucky stock in Shelby County. His parents moved from there to
Monroe County, Ind., when he was a small boy. His reminiscences of Indiana
or Hoosier pioneer life; of their log cabins without a scrap of iron;
their primitive customs as a whole, are very interesting. He lived at
home, assisting his father to carry on the farm until his nineteenth
year, when he went to work on the river, piloting the old styled flat
boat between Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans. It was a life of intense
hardship. One of these boats, floating with the stream, took fifteen
days or more to do the journey. The boats, when they arrived, were sold
for the lumber in them, though some of them have been brought up the
stream by means of ropes and horses. In 1843 he married Adeline Head,
of Monroe County. Her father emigrated from “New Virginia”
when she was but two years of age. Their names were Josiah and Lydia
Head. Both died when she was quite young. Mrs. Brisco is a grand example
of what our early pioneer women were, having endured privations and
hardships with her husband, working in the field as in the house, being
a “better shot” with the frontiersman’s rifle than
the majority of them themselves, and lastly having raised a family of
fourteen children, the greater portion living today to bless the mother
and father from whom they have inherited sound constitutions and pure
blood. Mr. Brisco, today is healthy and vigorous. Upon Mr. Brisco’s
marriage they moved to Kosciusko County in the fall of 1847, and from
there moved to Allamakee, living there until 1861, when he moved to
Riverton. In Allamakee County he moved to Rossville, where he bought
200 acres – two besides himself living in that section at that
time, and laid out the town, now Rossville. He carried on the farm for
three years, then moved to town and went into the manufacturing of plows
and blacksmithing with David Skinner, and remained in the company seven
years, when he sold out and formed a partnership with Mr. Ross and built
a steam grist mill, which he ran about one year, returning to the farm.
During the time he ran the manufacturing of plows he went into and established
a shop at Oronoko, on Zumbro River, running it one year and sold out.
During this time he also made two trips to Pike’s Peak, it being
the time of the gold fever, crossing the plains four times with an ox
team; the first time there was a company of sixty men and thirty wagons;
the second time twenty-seven men, one woman and sixteen wagons. During
the last trip they made a halt at Denver, the Indians being on the war
path. At the time of their settlement in Iowa, bears and game were abundant.
Mrs. Brisco has seen five bears at one time. The pigs had to be kept
in the house; and being afraid they would molest the children, Mrs.
Brisco learned to use the rifle. Some of her shots rival the stories
of the frontier marksman. Her husband once wagered a pair of pants against
a new dress that she could not kill over four or five partridges or
wood pheasants at a shot; but her scoring thirty-one birds with every
shot won the dress. Few women in the history of frontier life have equaled
this. Squirrels and wild turkey were doomed if she could see as much
as their heads. She has killed two deer. In 1870 he bought a farm of
ninety acres in Pleasant Grove and lived there four years; then sold
it and bought the one of 160 acres, where he now resides. Their children
are – Prier L., Lydia M. and Elizabeth Jane, born in Monroe County,
Ind.; Jeremiah and Harriet M., born in Kosciusko County, Ind.; Matilda
I. (the first child born in the county), John L. (died when three years
old), Emmie L. (Died in infancy), Josiah, Clementine, and Robinson M.,
born in Allamakee County, Ia; Charles C., Francis U. and Walter M. born
in Riverton, Floyd County. Was born in Delaware
County, N. Y., Oct. 16, 1830; received a common school education; remained
with his parents until about twenty-one years of age, when he commenced
to do for himself, by working for his neighbors. At the age of twenty-four
he bantered a chum of his own age to respond to the call from Kansas,
for settlers from the East. Though his friend declined, he packed his
trunk and started for the broad prairie land of the West. He spent the
first year in Illinois, and in 1855 he came to Iowa. An incident we
here relate illustrates the expeditiousness required upon the part of
the settler in order to get land, on account of the fast inflowing population.
Mr. Brownell arrived in this county Dec. 15; the Government land office
at Decorah opened on the 20th. He commenced improvements on 160 acres,
section 24, Riverton, now Pleasant Grove Township; filed his papers
for pre-emption in the meantime, securing the land on the 20th. Upon
this land he resided until 1868, when he sold and moved to Mitchell
County and purchased a farm and made that his home two years. At the
expiration of this term he returned to Floyd County, and farmed land
on shares three years. In 1873 he purchased the farm of 160 acres where
he still resides, section 36, Pleasant Grove. He crops about 125 acres;
corn, seventy; oats, thirty-five; balance tame grass; keeps about twelve
head cattle, four horses and from fifteen to one hundred hogs. Has always
escaped the hog cholera till last year, when he lost seventy-five head.
During the war Mr. Brownell was drafted as second to a drafted man;
there being only one man drafted in the county. Fortunately for Mr.
Brownell, the man was accepted upon examination. The township organized
an insurance company for the benefit of those who might be drafted.
Their first papers proving inefficient they drew up new ones. They all
signed the new ones except this Mr. Wilcox, who happened to be the only
man drafted in the township. Mr. Brownell was married in Bradford, Chickasaw
County, Ia., April 21, 1961, to Miss Jane Adams a native of Canada.
Their family consists of five children – Elva A., Martin C., Minnie
O., William I. and Robert S. He is a member of the order of Freemasons.
Is a member of the Baptist church, and has been a Republican ever since
the party had existence. Voted for Fremont in 1856 and was previously
an Abolitionist. While a citizen of Riverton Township he held the office
of Assessor seven years, and was County Supervisor some three terms;
was Township Clerk one year previous. Since becoming a citizen of Pleasant
Grove he was elected Assessor, which position he has held for the past
three years. Besides being a member of the School Board the greater
part of the time, while residing in both townships, several years, he
acted as Secretary. Mr. Brownell cast the first vote in this township.
Mr. Brownell stands high in the esteem of his fellow towns people, as
a man whose word is as good as his bond; such, too, is the reputation
given the Brownells in the history of Delaware County, N. Y. Son of Joel and
Sarah (Cushing) Doore, whose sketch joins this, was born in Atkinson,
Piscataquis County, Me., May 19, 1844. He came to this township the
first year of its organization. He received an academic education; taught
several terms of school winters, and helped his father on the farm summers.
His idea of Western prospects have been quite full realized. He married
Alice M. Lockwood, daughter of J. C. Lockwood, of this township, May
19, 1872. Their children are – Raymond L., Allan W., Harry C.,
and Grace M. He has 240 acres of land in Scott Township, sections 32
and 33. Mr. Doore, like his father, is a thrifty farmer, bringing Maine
pluck and energy. The attraction of the prairie to the farmer-bred New
England are great. Mr. Doore when first arriving in this locality thought
he saw, at least,: "easy agriculture” compared with that
among the rocks and stumps of Maine, and wrote his father to this effect.
He had no intention of staying when he left home, the object being in
the main to escort his sister, Mrs. Rudolph Young, to her home. The
surprise he had, together with the great difference between the soil
of the Pine Tree State and that of the Hawkeye, made him form the resolution
of staying, and buying a quarter section, immediately sent word to his
parents to come West. In two years his persuasions brought the “old
folks”. Father and son live in happiness and comfort together.
He has 225 acres under cultivation: 100 acres of corn; sixty, rye; sixty-five,
oats. Has gone into the bee culture, having at present fifteen hives. Or “Uncle
Joel,” as he is familiarly called by nearly every one living in
the “Maine settlement,” came to Pleasant Grove Township
in 1869, at the urgent solicitation of his son and daughter –
now Mrs. Rudolph Young of Verndale, Minn. He has been a member of the
Methodist Episcopal church for many years. The old style Scotch practice,
so eloquently described in Robert Burns’ “Cotter’s
Saturday Night,: seemed peculiarly appropriate to Mr. Doore’s
whole-souled, yet simplicity of, character, and the morning worship
thus conducted will ever be remembered by the writer of this sketch.
Mr. Doore was born in Dover, Piscataquis County, Maine, Nov. 7, 1813.
He was a son of Joel and Hannah Doore, one of Piscataquias’ early
settlers. The family consisted of eight sons and three daughters. Of
course in those early days, even East, schools were in a rude and primitive
state, in consequence of which no one received but a common school education,
and education, like many other branches of vital importance to the development
of character, being dependent on a mans mind, his powers of self restraint,
observation, integrity of charter and purpose. He has always followed
the farm as a means of livelihood, with the exception of one year, which
he spent in California in 1849 – ’50. He married Miss Sarah
Cushing, daughter of James and Nancy Cushing. The names of the children
born to them are – Eliza N., James N., Nancy C., Isley O., Allen
J., and Pauline S. Eliza N. married Charles Ramsdell and is living directly
opposite her father; his two sons, Isley O., and James N., were of the
first of those brave volunteers who left the comforts of their homes,
their social and domestic pleasure, and who severed for the time the
ties which linked them to their families and friends, to rally for the
defense of their country and the institutions under which they had been
permitted to enjoy these comforts, pleasure and affections; to face
the stern realities of grim-visaged war; to endure the hardships and
privations of the field; to inhale the pestilential emanations from
Southern swamps; to languish in sickness and pain, and to find solitary
and unknown graves where neither father, nor mother, nor brother, nor
sister could come to drop affection’s tears. And thus they died,
and lie with thousands of unknown and unmarked graves, the former near
New Orleans, where he died of fever, November 1862; the latter on Ship
Island, of the same disease, July 17, 1862. But their patriotism and
their sufferings, in the hearts of their towns’ people, and on
the Roll of Honor, shall be an enduring monument. Pauline S. married
Clifton Huckins, M. D., son of Deacon Huckins. Mr. Huckins was the first
and only physician in Pleasant Grove. Mr. Doore moved from Maine in
1869, buying 160 acres in section 32. He brought with him Maine ways
and economy – the wholesome teachings of thrifty, broad-minded
parents, as all New Englanders of the past generation, who reared large
families among the rocks and forests and the hills of the East, were.
From these teachings he has been able to meet the world in a practical
and yet pleasant way, and to have accomplished in these few years of
Western experiences what many of our more Western residents, with an
easier notion of life and methods, have been years longer in doing.
He has fine buildings, a barn about 40 x 60, and his manner of husbandry
evinces plainer than words its practicability. Politically he is a Republican,
and when a resident of Maine held the various town offices at different
periods. He crops this year about forty acres of spring wheat, twenty
acres of oats, fifty acres of corn; has a large number of horses, and
about fifty pigs. Was born in Rockport,
Spencer County, Ind., July 18, 1841. His parents were James and Elizabeth
(Varner) Egnew of Kentucky. His father followed farming for a livelihood.
Of a family of fourteen, Andrew A. was tenth. He lived at home during
his minority, enlisting in the Fourth Indiana Cavalry, Company K, Captain
C. C. Mason commanding, a month succeeding his minority. He was engaged
the first six months in hunting, running down the Kentucky guerrillas,
Mason, the rebel, among them. After this he was in Rosencrans’
advance, going through the ever to be remembered battle of Chickamauga.
After the retreat of the troops from Chickamauga this company went into
the march after Wheeler, when he crossed the Tennessee, after the Federal
supply trains. After this his regiment was ordered as the advance, doing
reconnoitering and surveying duty near Fayettesville. While thus engaged,
doing picket duty, a mini-ball entered the arm through the inferior
portion of the triceps muscle, two or three inches below the articulation
of the humerus with the clavicle, and passing just beneath the bone,
emerged near the center of the biceps muscles, lacerating these most
important appliances of nature’s handiwork in a fearful manner,
resulting in an almost total paralysis of the arm and a withering of
the hand, the latter rigidly contracted. The ball passing out of his
arm entered his right side, making quite a serious though flesh wound.
After this he was transferred to the veteran reserve corps, not receiving
his discharge until the February of 1865. He is at present drawing a
small pension – a pension much too small. After his discharge
he taught school for ten or twelve years about his home, assisting on
the farm during vacations. He was married April 9, 1869 to Cynthia M.
Starkweather. Their children are – Sydney C, and Minnie R. Mr.
Egnew lived in Spencer County until March 1877, when he moved to Butler
County, Ia.; lived there three years, then moved to Marble Rock, residing
there one year; from there to this pleasant locality, section 8, township
94 north, range 16 west. Although we cannot claim Mr. Egnew among Floyd’s
soldiers, we can claim the same spirit for him as imbued their breasts
– to fight, suffer and die for the preservation of the Union and
the honor of the stars and stripes. An Englishman by
descent, was born in Simonstown, Cape of Good Hope, Africa, April 1857.
His parents’ names were James and Elizabeth Fiddick. His mother
was born in Cornwall County, England in 1826; was married in 1852, and
moved to Cape of Good Hope in 1853. Mr. Fiddick was for many years connected
with the civil service at Simonstown, living there thirteen years. Mr.
Fiddick died in Cornwall, Nov. 18, 1873. Their children, born at the
Cape, were Pricilla J., Richard, James, William, Laura J., Ellen E.
and Emma A. Thomas and Bertha M. were born in England. James, the third
of the children, emigrated to Rockford, Ill., when his mother and family
came, in 1874. They lived in Rockford five years, moving to Pleasant
Grove Township, to section 19, where all the family are comfortably
settled. He married Rebecca Pooley in 1881, sister of John B. Pooley,
a near neighbor. He is cropping about 100 acres. Mr. Fiddick is a member
of the Methodist Episcopal church at Greene, and a most exemplary man. A native of Lyster,
Southern Norway, was born in the year 1837, and was the youngest and
fourth son of Knut and Carrie Forthun. He lived with his parents until
his nineteenth year, receiving such education as was to be had in Norway’s
common schools, when the desire of adventure took possession of him,
the wonders of America being the unknown magnet. Bidding goodbye to
father and mother, sister and brothers, and his native land, he eventually
reached Dane County, Wis., after many interesting experiences. As always
happens to emigrants to whom the English language is foreign. Here he
lived one year, moving into Rock County, where he farmed for six years.
Here it was that he assisted in setting out the first acre of tobacco
set out in this county – a branch of farming that now is extensively
carried on. From here he moved into Crawford County, and from here,
in 1864 he enlisted in the Eleventh Wisconsin Infantry, Company E, being
engaged in the memorable battle before Mobile, where he was wounded,
a mini-ball striking him directly in the mouth. The eagerness with which
the majority of men of foreign birth, and in come cases, of newly arrived
emigrants, watched the late war, and enlisted when calls for more men
were made, is a fact remarkable in history. After his return in 1865,
he married Mary E. Joslyn, daughter of Marsena and Mary A. Joslyn, late
of Pleasant Grove Township, now residing in Greene, Butler County. In
1866 he moved to Pleasant Grove Township, and bought an eighty, or the
Joe Ripley farm, in what was then Ripley’s Grove. Also at the
same time he bought an adjoining eighty of Washington Young, moving
into a shanty built by Mr. Young a few years before. The work at first,
as was the case with all new farms in the timber, was that of grubbing,
but by assiduous labors it has brought the acreage of available land
from a few to those of his large farm of today, he cropping over 100
acres of corn and oats. A few years ago he bought another eighty adjoining,
east of the last, upon which he has built convenient farm buildings.
Mr. Forthun has been active in politics, and has been chosen to most
of the township offices, at different intervals, and for the past three
years has held that of County Supervisor, of which today he is Chairman.
Three children have been born to him – Jessie May, Horace Orville
Wallace, and Walter S. Much credit is due Mr. Forthun as member of the
Board of Supervisors for the rapid construction of the present court
house and also as a man, who coming to a new county, in a few years
mastered its language, customs and politics so as to be one of the leading
spirits. Was born in Mecklenburg,
Germany in 1834, under the Grand Duke Frederick Frantz. His parents
were Frederick and Lottie Grierish, and had six children, William being
the youngest. He lived at home, working on a farm till his nineteenth
year, when in 1854, he emigrated to America, landing first in New York,
staying eight months, and eventually coming to Milwaukee, Wis., where
he remained a short time, and then went to Waukesha County and worked
on a farm till 1866, when he went to Columbia County and staid three
years, finally coming to Pleasant Grove Township, Floyd County, where
he still resides, settling on 120 acres of wild land. He now has 200
acres of fine land, on section 25, under a good state of cultivation.
Has in crop forty acres of oats, twenty-five of wheat, sixty of corn,
seven of barley and twenty of tame grass. He owns forty head of cattle,
nine horses and sixty hogs. He was married in 1861 in Waukesha, Wis.,
to Ann Bullen, a daughter of Edwin and Sarah (Osborn) Bullen, natives
of England. They had a family of eleven children. Ann being the third
child. They came to America in 1854 with a family of eight. Mr. and
Mrs. Grierish have two children – Edward W. and Albert J., aged
twenty and eighteen, both born in Waukesha, Wis. Edward W. is Secretary
of the Blue Ribbon Lodge. His buildings are on the east side of his
farm; the house is a story and a half, the front part being 16 x 20
with a wing 14 x 22. His granary is 18 x 28 and fourteen feet high,
with stone basement underneath for horses; has an addition to the granary
for four horses; has a cow barn 22 x 30, sixteen feet high and holds
nineteen cows, with a hay-mow over head; has a corn crib 22 x 32, with
corn on one side and hogs on the other; has a windmill, the Union Star,
sixty feet high. Was born in Judah,
Green County, Wis., in 1852. His parents, who moved from Worchester
County, Mass., are Marsena and Mary A. Joslyn. They have always taken
an active part in the promotion of all religious movements. Their early
married life was amid the noise and unhealthy odors of an Eastern cotton
mill, to escape which they came West, moving from Green County to Floyd
in 1865, thus being residents before it was an organized township, separate
from Union and Riverton. In other portions of this township history
will be found an account of Mr. Marsena Joslyn, as having been Leader
of the first class, and Superintendent of the first Sabbath school in
the township. He is a public-spirited citizen, and is always to be found
on the side where justice reigns. Of late years he has moved to Greene,
his son Edgar running the farm. The log cabin yet standing on the home
place was the first one they built, an old fashioned pioneer’s
cabin. Edgar M. Joslyn married Zilpha S. Robinson, of Hampton, Ia.,
in January 1881. Mr. Joslyn has also been useful to his fellow townsmen
as a teacher of their schools for several terms. And while the “old
folks” are enjoying the quiet of a retired life in so pleasant
a village as Greene, it must be a comfort to know that the “old
place” is still running on in the hands of the family. Mr. Joslyn’s
sister, Mary E., is the wife of Lewis Forthun, a neighbor, and the present
incumbent of the Chairman of the Board of County Supervisors. Was born in Dover,
Piscataquis County, Me., June 7, 1838; was a son of Paul and Maribah
(Fish) Lambert. Their family consisted of eight children – Lanson,
Hiram F., Samantha, Nancy, Julia, Ruby, George F., and Prudence F.,
all having passed to the better land but Hiram F. (now living in St.
Charles Township) and George F. He lived at home during his minority
and until his twenty-fourth year, when in August 1862, he enlisted in
Company I, Twenty-second Maine Volunteer Infantry, Colonel Girard commanding.
Went into camp at Bangor about five weeks; breaking camp, they went
via rail to Washington, camping in the heights; was in camp there about
one week. From here the regiment went to Newport News; was there until
the 25th of November. Then went via steamer “S. R. Spaulding”
to Baton Rouge, and was put under Gen. N. P. Banks in his expedition
against Baton Rouge. While at Baton Rouge he was taken sick with the
dumb ague, as many thousands were, and went into the hospital, being
off duty about three weeks. Then in March was taken with the measles.
About 100 of the men were sick with them at the same time, and all were
unable to do duty until after their discharge in August. In August 1863,
were mustered out at Camp Pope, Bangor. Mr. Lambert has a very narrow
escape from dropsy. After his return he went back to farming, and lived
there until his thirty-eighth year. He was married in Dover, Sept. 15,
1861, to Mary E. Page, daughter of Samuel J. and Susan H. (Goss) Page.
In 1876 they sold out in Maine and moved to Pleasant Grove Township,
northeast section 29, buying of his brother, J. F. Lambert. The grove
about his home was set in 1877 and 1878. We find Mr. Lambert’s
home typical of the comfortable New England home – the pleasantest
of any in the world, especially to us Yankees. Mrs. Lambert was in the
first movement toward the furthering of the cause of temperance, being
the first Secretary of the W. C. T. U. of this township, auxiliary to
the county; and has been Vice-President for two years. Three children
have been born to them – Laura M., born in Dover, Me., Aug. 15,
1862; Guy C., born in Dover, Me., Jan. 21, 1868; and Bessie A., born
in Pleasant Grove Township, April 28, 1879. Mr. Lambert crops nearly
his whole farm; oats, thirty acres; corn, ninety-three acres; wheat,
eight acres; tame grass, fifteen acres. He has five cattle, five horses
and 200 hogs, the largest number in the township. Mr. and Mrs. Lambert
and eldest daughter are members of the Baptist church at South Dover,
they having been members for twenty-five years. Mrs. Lambert, mother
of George F., came West with Mr. Lambert and lived her four years in
her son’s home. One of the honored
veterans of the late war was born of good New England blood. His father,
Seth Lockwood, whose interesting sketch appears here, and as will be
seen was a native of staid old Connecticut. James P. was born in Greene
County, Nov. 19, 1816, being second son of Seth and Diantha Lockwood.
He lived with his parents until in his fourteenth year, when he turned
to the state of manhood – “looking out for himself”.
Between this period and that of his coming West he followed various
avocations that would bring him an honest penny. At first he worked
on the Croton Water-works about New York City; then in the lumber business,
and also learned the joiner’s trade, working at it at different
times, until his moving to Floyd County, in Syracuse and Rochester for
several years. He helped to build the propeller “Indian Chief,”
after the completion of which he went up through the Welland Canal,
just completed, and so on to Milwaukee, Wis., in which State he remained
for several years, and from which he enlisted. While on the lake the
propeller struck a ledge of rocks, giving him a touch of old ocean experience
– his first and last. He lived in Detroit a few weeks only; and
a year or longer in Milwaukee. He helped to build the depots along the
route of the Prairie du Chien Railroad – that road, the civil
engineers of which made but one important mistake, as the story went
those days. When asked by the President their opinion of the road replied
“that it was all right only they might have got one more curve
in it as well as not”. From railroad work he went to Menasha (Sweet
Water), Northern Wisconsin, at the out-let of Lake Winnebago, where
he was in season to help build the first frame house in that town. He
also helped to build two sawmills, dam and flumes, and ran each a year
or so. His experiences in this town were not of a profitable nature,
working there at the hardest kind of pioneer labor for five years, and
not having scarcely money enough to get fairly out of the town with.
His next residence was at Union, Wis.; from there to McGregor’s
Landing, where he built the dry docks; from McGregor’s he moved
to Racine, working in the works of the J. I. Case Threshing Machine
Company. It was while at Racine he enlisted in the Twenty-second Wisconsin
Infantry, being in service two years, or until his health failed him.
He was detailed as hospital nurse, and afterward given full charge of
a hospital from that time out. These duties are always very arduous.
Some incidents connected with the duties made them extremely so. For
one instance among many, we relate that while at Danville, Ky., at a
rumor that Gen. John Morgan’s fiends were on a raid in that locality,
the whole force, 15,000 strong, broke camp in search for them, leaving
Mr. Lockwood for four days in sole charge of 150 sick men. This is what
ruined his health; and awhile afterward he returned to Wisconsin, bringing
with him all the sick he could, landing them at Chicago. After regaining
his health he threw up a pension and re-enlisted in the 100 day’s
enlistment, going into Company F., Thirty-ninth Wisconsin Regiment,
and for which he holds a certificate of the President’s thanks
for honorable service. After his discharge he was foreman of Racine
& Mississippi Railroad; from this work he moved to Pleasant Grove
in 1866, where he has since resided. Mr. Lockwood is a man of good judgement,
out-spoken, but of honorable intentions and purposes. He was married
in Menasha, Wis., in 1847, to Eliza Atwood. She died in 1857, in Chickasaw
County, Iowa, leaving four children. In 1860 Mr. Lockwood was married
in Racine, Wis., to Candace M. Salisbury, a native of Delaware County,
N. Y., as were also her parents, April 29, 1870. Mrs. Lockwood died
in Pleasant Grove, leaving a son, two years of age – Charles Erskine,
who is residing with his father. Was born in Smithfield,
Madison County, N. Y., May 15, 1828. Lived there until nine years of
age, when his parents moved to Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County, N. Y. While
living there he was engaged in railroading, canaling and farming. Was
engaged in the civil engineer corps in the construction of the Erie
Railroad, and in railroading in general for seven years on the Canada,
Great Western & Detroit. Was married to Mary L. Farwell, of Hinsdale.
Seven children have been born to them, five of whom are now living –
Alice M., Anna Katharine, Carrie M., Edith M., and Mattie. He moved
to Pleasant Grove Township in November 1868, buying 200 acres. Mr. Lockwood
is at present Justice of the Peace and was elected County Supervisor
in 1874. One of the oldest
citizens in the county was born in Goshen, Litchfield County, Ct., May
7, 1793. At two years of age his father moved to Windham, N. Y., now
Lexington, Greene County. Lived there until 1820. Was married there
to Diantha Thompson, the 6th day of May, 1813, who died in Madison County,
July 17, 1824, leaving four children. In November 1814 he cast his first
vote for Governor, in 1817 his first vote for President, James Monroe
being the candidate. Mr. Lockwood has never missed a vote since his
first of 1814. Married Hepsy Boyden, of Smithfield, Madison County,
in 1825, who bore him three children; she died in 1871. From Greene
County he removed to Madison, Feb. 28, 1820, living there till 1837;
then moved to Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County, May 21, 1837, and lived
there thirty years, removing to Floyd County in November 1868. The children
by his first wife were – Eli T., James P., George M., and Sarah
Ann; by his second wife – Mary F., J. C., and F. E. Of the four
children of first wife but one is living – James P., of Pleasant
Grove Township. In 1825 Mr. L. read law with Huntington & Palmer,
of Peterborough, N. Y., for three years, and practiced until the new
code of New York went into effect in 1842. He was justice of the sessions
for two terms in Cattaraugus County. For reminiscences, Mr. Lockwood
distinctly remembers the extraordinary eclipse of June 6, 1809, when
for about two hours fowls went to roost. He has seen the ground and
fences white with snow the 4th of July. Mr. Lockwood has always taken
an active interest in the political issues of the county; voted the
Democratic ticket until 1856 – or the Kansas question –
when, according to his views, the Democrat party receding from true
Democracy, he voted the Republican ticket, when John D. Fremont was
candidate. Any one being acquainted with that question will remember
the cause for change. Was born in parish
of Strathdon, county of Aberdeen, Scotland, Feb. 9, 1820. His parents
were James and Ellen (Beattie) McRoberts, natives of same parish. Lived
at home during minority, working on the farm of his mother, his father
dying before he was a year old. Their family consisted of six children,
James F. being the youngest. He then left for America, landing at Quebec
in August 1841. From there he went to Hamilton, Canada West. He lived
there until the war closed, when he moved to Coffin’s Grove, Masonville,
Iowa; lived in town about two years, then moved to Pleasant Grove about
1868. He was married in Hamilton to Miss Sarah Allen, who died there.
Their children are – Martha, Ann, John, Isabel, James H., David
(deceased), Alexander and Elizabeth. Who, without doubt,
owns the largest number of acres in the township; who has the most convenient
and complete set of farm buildings; who, undoubtedly, has the largest
acreage of corn and small grain in this vacinity, and probably in Northern
Iowa, and who earned it all by honest toil, was born in the town of
Sempronius, Cayuga County, N. Y., in the year 1830 He was a son of hard
working parents, who, in their turn, transmitted their zeal for industry
and enterprise to their son. His early life was spent on the farm. After
his farm experience, he engaged with a canal company as canal boy, and
followed this for some years. His parents moved from New York State
to Cherry Valley, Winnebago County, Ill., thus giving him an early taste
of frontier life. He married Miss Jane Toogood in 1852. Her parents’
names are Sydney and Olive (Slade) Toogood, formerly of Tompkins County,
N. Y. Mr. Toogood moved to Rockford over forty years ago, and helped
to plat and build the town. Is now a resident of Webster City, Iowa.
Mr. Perry’s parents’ names are Oziras and Eliza (Merchant)
Perry, now of Cherry Valley, Ill. Mr. Perry left Cherry Valley in January
1855 with his family and household goods and all paraphernalia of an
emigrant’s equipment – a pair of cattle, a covered wagon,
cooking utensils, etc., and a cow in train behind. A year previous,
however, he had been into Floyd County prospecting, and purchased 200
acres of what is now section 33, township 95 north, 15 west, or what
was set apart for the school lands. He had bought this land of David
Dyas, yet living in Riverton, paying him about $5 per acres, and also
some $4 bonus for the privilege of living in the timber, its protection
seeming indispensable. We believe, however, that this price included
the improvements (?) and the crops. It is certain that Mr. Dyas immediately
bought Government land for $1.25, the price he paid for this. The opinion
of its being impossible to stand the bleakness of an open prairie has
long since exploded. Mr. Perry’s journey here was one of old fashioned
pioneer experiences. Reaching the Mississippi River, they, by driving
one ox over at a time, drawing the wagon by hand, and dragging the cow
on her side, succeeded in passing safely over, the river breaking up
the next morning. In Dubuque he bought provisions and started for Floyd
via Independence, working the trip in three days; his wife staged it
to Independence, then came in on the ox cart, as all other pioneer women
had before. We think the first year in the log house must have been
a lonely one, especially when her husband was gone a week to Independence
or McGregor’s Landing, for grist and provisions. Pork being $1.40
per hundred weight, wheat 20 cents per bushel, and it taking a full
week to go and come, an idea of the profit in farming can be had. And
these experiences have made Mr. Perry a firm believer in railroads and
their advantages. Floyd County as he saw it at first, and at the advantages
of milling privileges at least seventy-five miles distant. Charles City,
styled Freeman Postoffice, had three log houses, one being used as the
Postoffice and general store, the others were occupied by John Blunt
and Harvey Kellogg. It was the next spring that Joseph Kelley started
a sawmill. His neighbors were E. C. Wilcox, Sanford Ripley, Samuel Clark,
John Porter and Hamilton Clark; these were residents between his place
and Nashua, though at that date Nashua was unknown. He lived there about
eighteen years, selling to Charles Arthur, and moved to this township
where, at different purchases, he has bought 960 acres, his present
farm. This by no means indicates the acreage of his possessions in the
county, nor of that in Dakota. When he bought his present home place
there were no buildings thereon. Today the best in the township are
his. Not a house was in sight, and his good wife thought of a third
pioneer experience. But it was not long before neighbors in this instance
were welcomed. Mr. Perry is cropping on his home place about 800 acres,
560 of corn and about 200 acres of oats. To Mr. and Mrs. Perry have
been born six children, names as follows: Edgar R., Leander O., Oscar
J., George E., Carrie L., and Edbert D., all being industrious temperate
and respected young men and women. A gentleman of keen
discernment and practical worth in any community, and who by hard labor
has today a fine fame with necessary requirements by which farming is
made profitable, was born in La Chute, Canada, Aug. 7, 1846. He lived
with his parents until about his eighteenth year when he came West and
into the States. His parents’ names were Orlando and Lydia (Hutchins)
Powers, both natives of La Chute. Mr. Powers first came to Black Earth
County, and moved from there to Iowa in 1870. He was married in 1869
to Lucretia Angel. Their children are Edwin, Alice and Annie. His step-children
are Charles and Lizzie Angel. Mr. Powers has a farm of 320 acres; is
cropping about 125 acres, divided somewhat as follows: Sixty-five acres
of oats, twenty acres of tame grass, and the greater portion of the
remainder of corn. Since the failure of wheat, he has taken the practical
view of the situation, which was to raise more hay and keep more livestock,
consequently he owns 110 head of cattle, ten horses and 100 hogs. We
bespeak for Mr. Powers a successful future. Was born July 3,
1853, near Detroit, Mich. His parents, William and Elizabeth Pringle,
moved from there to Butler County, Ia., in 1855, and bought eighty acres
of land from the Government. This was when that section was new, with
but few settlers, and very few improvements. He and his brothers, Robert
and James, lived at home until their mother died, when the family broke
up, and he looked about for himself, moving into Pleasant Grove and
working for I. P. Dean by the month. He bought eighty acres on section
28, and married Georgie A. Smith, daughter of H. W. Smith, Pleasant
Grove. Their children are George N., who died in infancy, and Allen
J. One of Pleasant
Grove’s most practical farmers, was born in Starr County, Ohio,
June 7, 1836. His parents were George and Margaret Reams, both natives
of Pennsylvania. Mr. Reams was reared on a farm, and has always been
an industrious and hard-working man. He lived at home until his marriage,
at the age of twenty-seven. He then moved to Fillmore County, Minn.
From there he moved to Pleasant Grove Township. In 1862 he married his
present wife, to whom he owes much of his present prosperous condition,
she being a practical farmer in every sense of the word, and one who
will always be a helpmate, a woman whose advise is sound, and who has
health and strength to follow up what she advises by a willing and helping
hand. Such women are not to be found in the crowded and fashionable
marts, but where pluck and common sense is the capital in trade. Mrs.
Reams’ maiden name was Mary A. Brisco. Mr. Reams is farming at
present fifty-five acres upon his own land, and sixty-five acres on
land adjacent. Was born in what
was called No. 11, in Somerset County, Maine, Oct. 28, 1831. He was
a son of William J. and Susan (Foster) Smith, born natives of Maine.
Their family consisted of five children, three boys and two girls, of
which Henry A. was the eldest. He lived at home until his twenty-second
year, and in his twenty-third year he purchased a farm in Sebec, Piscataquis
County, and farmed it about four years. About this time he married Plooma
Cushing, of Atkinson, same county, her parents being James and Nancy
Cushing; their family consisted of nine daughters and two sons. Mr.
Smith, after selling his farm in Sebec, owned several others and a mill,
and in November 1865 came to Iowa and bought a farm of Charles Bowman,
the farm he has since resided on, it being the northeast of section
28. The next June he moved his family out, consisting of wife and two
children – Georgie A. and Hattie A. When he arrived it was as
nature had made it. Taking it from the wild prairie, he at first built
a board shanty on the center of the north lines, in which he lived two
years. It was in this that the first meeting of the township was held,
conducted by a man named Swan, a local preacher of Waverly, having services
off and on for six months. After this, in 1867, Geo. R. Edmunds, a local
preacher from Charles City, preached every two or three weeks, until
School house No. 5 was built, when the meetings were held there. It
was through the efforts of Mr. Smith and a Mr. Gilman, each of them
pledging $25, and raising the same amount, that Elder Lee, of the Upper
Iowa Conference, included them in the Rockford work, supplying them
with regular services through Rockford’s preacher, Rev. Mr. Rowen.
Thus to Mr. Smith we give the credit of establishing regular gospel
services in Pleasant Grove Township. Mr. Smith made the first assessment
in the township, being Assessor the first two years. Has held several
other offices in the township. Is a member of the order of A. F. &
A. M., being charter member of Alpha Lodge, of Greene. We find Mr. Smith
with fine stock and a practical idea of farming. He has erected a large
and commodious New England like barn, has the best pumping-milling apparatus
in the township, the well being seventy-five feet deep, and contemplates
putting up a new house the coming year. His first wife died Dec. 17,
1874. He married Miss E. J. Brisco, a daughter of John Brisco (see sketch),
an early pioneer, Dec. 25, 1876. To Mr. Smith we are indebted for many
facts of interest pertaining to Floyd County. He has on his home place
sixty acres of corn, thirty of oats, nine of wheat, and will have about
fifty tons of hay. He has fifteen cows, thirty-two young stock, eight
horses and seventy-five hogs. Was born Feb. 14,
1842 in Kentucky. His parents were Theophilus and Nancy Waller; he was
the youngest of five children. His father died four months previous
to his birth, and his mother and family moved to Rock County, Wis.,
where they lived for fifteen years. He received a common school education
and has worked on the farm all but two years. When twenty-three years
of age, he tried his fortune in the silver belt of Virginia City, going
there mostly for his health; he gained much experience, and from there
he moved to Floyd County, about 1870, bringing his mother with him,
and bought one quarter of section 22. He was married in May 1875, to
Sarah J. Jackson, of Canada, and has two children – Jessie M.
and Marshall W. He has in crops about thirty acres of oats, forty-five
of corn and forty of wheat. Has fifty hogs, twenty-five cattle and seven
horses. Was born in Eastern Tennessee, Monroe County, March 12, 1828. He was the youngest son of Joseph and Lydia (Norman) Woods, and of a family of thirteen children. When about twelve or fourteen years old the family moved to Callaway County, Mo., living there six years, moving to Jo Davies County, Ill. During the latter years of his minority he worked by the month for neighboring farmers. In 1853, he married Maria Chouder, of Magoffin County, Ky., buying a farm and living there till 1855, when he moved into the territory, now section 5, Pleasant Grove Township, Ia. In 1849 he went to what is now West Union, Fayette County, before Floyd had been visited by settlers, and made claim to a quarter section of land. He erected a log house in a day and a half, Hoosier style, with neither nail nor bricks, and moved in, covering the logs with a canvas until he had hay for it. He lived in that two years, when the Indian war-whoop getting too near for pleasant dreams, and safety of wife and children, he with other earlier settlers moved back to Illinois, staying there through that year. He moved back in 1859 and has since been a citizen. He has seen this country grow from a prairie to the present improved State; from driving to Waverly with grist, to grinding by the modern windmill. He has ever been a hard-working citizen, and has reared a family of thirteen children, as follows: Sara Jane and Wm. H. born in Illinois; Mary Elizabeth, Geo. W., L. August, Grace Ellen, Celestia, Viola, Jessie, Norman C., Ernest J., Archibald D., and Carrie M., born in Pleasant Grove Township. The first school ever kept in the township was in his old house, he having built a frame one. It was kept by Miss Grace Davidson, of Charles City, in 1862. She had ten scholars. School was held here three or four years. The following are some of the teachers: Misses L. Conlee, Nellie Conlee and Miriam K. Bliss, of Charles City. He has 158 acres of land, fifteen or twenty cattle, eight horses and thirty hogs.
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