Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Fox, now residing in Odebolt, can be rightfully classed as pioneer citizens of Clinton township, as their house was the second one built in that township. They were former citizens of Clinton county, Iowa.
On the 27 day of March, 1873, Mr. Fox left Clinton county with a carload of household goods, machinery and a few head of stock, for Vail where the car was unloaded and brought to the farm they had bought the year previously. Mrs. Fox did not come west at this time with her husband, for the reason there was no house for her and the children to move into. When they did come a few weeks later, Mr. Fox had built a house 16x24 one and one-half storys [sic] high. This was not plastered but was lathed and no chimney built, but like many other early timers used a stove pipe running through the roof.
The 160 acres bought was the southeast quarter of section 29, and was railroad land, a man by the name of Wm. Familton being their agent, and who sold most of the land in this section in those days, and paid $5 an acre for it. The payments on the land was $1 an acre down, and five years to pay the balance.
Everything went along fine with this young couple until on the morning of October 3rd. On this morning Mr. Fox had built the fire in the kitchen and went to the barn to do his chores, he had fed what little stock he had and was currying one of the horses when he heard Mrs. Fox call. Stepping to the barn door to answer her he saw the house was on fire and huge drifts of smoke were pouring out. The stove had become overheated setting fire to the lath and as everything was dry the flames sucked up between the lath and they had a god sized fire in no time. On reaching the house Mr. Fox found that his wife had gone to the upper room to get the children, and had just came [sic] down stairs carrying Jessie, the youngest, in her arms. The second trip both the other children were rescued but nearly suffocated. Not having any too much water and the house burning so rapidly nothing was saved but a table which Mr. Fox succeeded in getting outside and a feather bed and one pillow which Mrs. Fox managed to get hold of. In a drawer in a bookcase was $100 in cash which also was burned.
This was a hard blow to the young couple and Mrs. Fox said; "lets go back to Clinton county." But Mr. Fox did not agree with her and said "no, we will live in a dugout before we'll go back," and they stayed.
A man by the name of White had bought a piece of prairie joining the Fox farm on the west, and had built a small shanty to live in while he was breaking it up that spring, and he had returned east for the fall and winter leaving the shanty standing empty. This shanty Mr. Fox hauled to his place and that is where they lived until they could figure out how they were going to build another house and just where they would get the money to buy the material for it.
Father Bennett, as Mr. Fox called him, was Mrs. Fox's father, then living at Davenport, Iowa, and to him Mr. Fox wrote a letter telling of their misfortune and asking him to go and see a man by the name of Anthony, who lived at Camanche, some distance up the Mississippi, that Mr. Fox had had considerable business dealings with as he, Anthony, owned a sawmill and a lumber yard. Mr. Bennett visited him and told what had happened to the Fox family in Sac county.
In a few days Mr. Fox got a notice that there would be a car of lumber at West Side on a certain date bringing material for a new house. The material came, not only the lumber, but in the car was three kegs of nails, two saws and a hammer. The second house was a one story with lean-to and very comfortable.
The new house came very near going the same route as the first one built. A prairie fire which in those days were not a rare visitor, came along one day but by hard work, and by some backfiring the house was saved from destruction.
These early settlers then received their mail at Vail, and at one time along in the winter of 1874-1875 Mr. Fox had gone to Vail for the mail and to do some trading. After he had departed on his errand to Vail one of the worst blizzards of the year struck the country and compelled Mr. Fox to remain at Vail for three days. Mrs. Fox was at home with the children to care for and also some stock to look after. The blizzard soon covered up the well with deep snow so it was impossible to find it, so until Mr. Fox returned she was forced to melt snow for the family needs and also for a cow or two and a couple of horses. This winter, Mr. Fox says was noted for the deep snows and extreme cold weather and those three days storms were felt more than now because there were no trees and nothing to break the winds or snow.
The first house built by Mr. and Mrs. Fox in 1874 was the second one built in the township, Jake Brown having built one the fall before on the farm now owned by Mrs. I. McGeachy, three miles east of Odebolt Cemetery. Although Mr. Fox was second man in the township to build a house, he holds the honor of having broken the first prairie sod in the township. The only bridge between the Fox home and Vail was a rickety old one near the farm of Mr. Trinkle, otherwise it was ford or mud it through all creeks.
Only 25 acres were broken the first year and this with a small piece of sod corn was entirely eaten up by grasshoppers. They even ate up what tobacco Mr. Fox was raising in the garden and what young trees that had been set out was also stripped of leaves. The next year the wild geese and sand hill cranes ate up what sod corn was on the farm.
Prairie chickens were thick and furnished some of the meat the family ate and a few deer were shot but Mr. Fox said that he was never able to get one in range. The Boyer river was a good fishing point for the settlers, Mr. Fox stated that it was nothing uncommon to catch pickerels two, and two and one half feet long. The wild geese, ducks and brants feathers were all saved by Mrs. Fox and they had some good feather beds and pillows. Mr. Fox tells that his wife was always a great help to him, in busy seasons of the year she would be in the field with him to do chores or make garden and she could always be counted on to do her part or more.
In 1876 a U. S. Mail route was established running between Denison and Sac City, and the families [sic] mail afterwards came to Filow [Philo], about three miles northeast of their farm, the mail route was a weekly one and did not always run on time either.
Corn was used as fuel a great deal as it made a good fire, was right handy, and if the settlers sold a load what they received for it would not buy a load of coal. Two or three years later Mr. Fox bought another forty acres laying across the public highway from the home place, this made the farm contain 200 acres and not another acre was bought or sold until the farm was sold to their son Harry.
The first year spent on their farm Mr. and Mrs. Fox could not see one single house, but soon afterwards George Long Sr., George White, Oscar Draper, S. E. Smith and Asa Smith settled in the same neighborhood. Asa Smith bought his farm the same year as did the Fox family, but did not move here until later.
When asked, Mr. Fox said the way they found the corners of a certain piece of land was as follows: The agent for the railroad company would tie a rag on one of the rear wheels of his buggy, after locating some corner, drive as straight as possible. One man would count the revolutions of the wheel with the rag on and when the agent thought he had driven about far enough would stop and look for the corner. Generally a mound would be found and the small excavation on one side or the other told in the surveyors language whether it was a quarter, a half or a section corner. After the corners of the land was found for a buyer, they would mark them with Elk horns, and there were plenty of them.
Mr. Fox said that there has always been more or less talk whether or not Buffalo ever was in this country, he states that at one time while plowing he turned out a fine pair of Buffalo horns that he afterwards polished so that they could not have been so very old and at another time he found a fine pair on top of the ground in good condition but older than the pair that he polished.
At one time when a neighbor was laying some pipes for water, a skeleton of a human being was found and only under the sod two feet. No one in the neighborhood knew anything about it.
Clinton township of today was originally a part of Sac and Jackson townships, and in the early days was three miles wide and twelve miles long and when the townships were established in the size they are today, the naming of Clinton was left to three men, Mr. Fox being one of them, the other two men, as well as Mr. Fox was from Clinton county, and each wanted the name of the township in which he lived to be given to the one they was trying to name.
As a compromise, the three men agreed to mark on a slip of paper how old he was and the oldest was to have the honor of naming it. They did this, and Mr. Fox nosed out ahead of his companions about a month. He then said to his comrades: "We are all from Clinton county, why not name this township Clinton?" which he did.
In 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Fox bought a residence in Odebolt, which they remodeled into a bungalow where they have since resided. The house stands near the corner of 3rd and Park Avenue, the latter was called Pine street before Mr. Fox and others had the name changed to Park Ave. At another time when a new bridge was built over the creek between the Fox home and town, those in charge constructed a foot bridge that went angling from the sidewalk line to the main crossing. This resembled a cattle chute more than it did for what it was intended. Mr. Fox took the matter in hand, (giving a liberal amount) and saw some of his neighbors, bought a neat bridge with concrete floor and steel guards at the side and paid for the installing of it. For every worthy cause Mr. and Mrs. Fox have never failed to help in money matters.
In 1913 they sold the farm to their son Harry, who has since resided there.
Mr. Fox, served the Union during the civil war, in Co. A. 11th Iowa, and at one time when he was in a hospital, his sister was notified that he was dead and asked what shall we do with the body? If those men who sent the dispatch could see him now every day on the streets of Odebolt, or driving the family automobile in fair weather they might conclude that they had sent a false alarm.
If the writer remembers right, Mr. Fox gave his age as 85 and (maybe I ought not to print it) Mrs. Fox as ten years younger.