Guthrie County IA Archives History - Books .....1850-1860 1932 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 6, 2007, 12:10 am Book Title: A Record [photo] FIRST BUSINESS HOUSE IN GUTHRIE CENTER—1856 Located first door east of present Postoffice and first west of The Guthrian office. Guthrie Center, Iowa, U. S. A. THE following is written of the town of Guthrie Center, Iowa, covering the last five decades of the nineteenth century. It will naturally fall into four installments as follows: The Fifties and Sixties, the First. The Seventies, the Second. The Eighties, the Third. The Nineties, the Fourth. It will be of persons deceased, of times important, memory and inspiration the motive. Not all will be set forth herein that can or ought to be said of these men and their years. Fifty years! Never before such years; never to be such years. Never before such men; we trust always to honor these men in our memory. 1850-60 The first record movement toward municipal organization of Guthrie Center, Iowa, began the first day of May A. D. 1854, the date William Tracy entered the Southwest Quarter of Section Six, in Township Seventy-nine, North, Range Thirty-one, West of the 5th P. M. The east half of this quarter and the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter of said section was all the land involved in the original plat of Guthrie Center. The southwest quarter of the southwest quarter above was entered by Lambert Sternberg, and by him deeded to E. B. Newton. Tracy deeded one-half of his eighty to Newton, and these two were the record owners of the land when it was platted for town purposes, April 28, 1856. The deed whereby the land in said plat to be used for public purposes was dedicated, is dated the same date, and was executed by E. B. Newton and wife. Eveline, and W. M. Tracy and wife; and Thomas Seely took the acknowledgement as a notary public. The land included in this plat was well located and adapted for town site purposes. It was in the center of the county, in the midst of prairie and timber lands without limits. South Coon river furnished drainage, power and pure artesian water in great abundance. A county seat was just hanging ripe on a slender branch at Panora, eight miles east of the center of the county,—"a great injustice to be sure." Place, time, conditions, were propitious. Man, help yourself! The following quintet of gentlemen were responsible and most active in developing this project in the sixth and seventh decades of the nineteenth century (1850-1860)—William M. Tracy, Eder B. Newton, Thomas Seely, Charles Huxley and William Warrington. [photo] CAPT. WILLIAM TRACY WILLIAM TRACY. William Tracy was the Abraham who came up out of the town of Caldwell, Noble county, Ohio, with the vision of projecting a town in the "Western Wilds" of Iowa and acquiring thereunto, or making it, a county seat. He found E. B. Newton at, or near, Morrisburg, a stage station in the southeast part of Guthrie county. Thomas Seely was teaching school in or about Bear Grove in the county and joined in the enterprise. Tracy and Newton, one spring morning in 1853, while standing about where the old soldiers' monument is, with the sun at their backs, beheld the valley of the South Coon river as it extended into the northwest, in their front, and to the southeast, and the valley of Bear Grove to the south, bearing west. The timber along these streams and on the hills northwest was enough to satisfy their timber instincts. The rich, level bottom lands were just suited for streets, alleys and commercial lots; the rolling hills for homes; the spring in the hollow above the Al Wilkins home could be used for city purposes; and the unlimited stretch of prairies in every direction gave plenty of room. Where they stood would be the court house square. Newton knew they were standing in the center of the county. They agreed upon the location. Tracy was to locate certain land warrants covering about nine hundred acres, as contiguous and advantageous to the project as possible. Newton was to enter the timber lands to the northwest a mile' away, which he did, naming it "Newton's Grove," and the project was on. It will appear that Guthrie Center, Iowa, was located not by commissioners, nor by the hand of law, but by nature acting by and through her special agents, men who dreamed dreams and saw visions. In March, 1859, a petition asking that the question of removing the county seat from Panora to the new town of Guthrie Center was presented to the board of supervisors, who ordered the question submitted to the voters of the county. It was voted on in April, 1859, and the movement was defeated. On the second of April, 1860, it was again voted upon and the project carried by nineteen majority, and the county capital came over the hills -to the new town. In 1861 Panora began taking steps for the return of the county seat. It did not reach a vote until April, 1862, and the town of Panora won by a majority of seventy-seven. Back over the hills the county capital went, a welcome pilgrim to Panora and the unoccupied court house. The civil war paralyzed home affairs and forced an armistice of the county seat warfare, and the sixth and seventh decades closed with the capital of the county peacefully abiding at Panora, and further controversy over the same will come within the limits of the eight decades, hereinafter. Tracy was versatile, aggressive, faithful and earnest. He was a blacksmith, lawyer, miller, farmer, soldier and editor. He was not a failure in any of these pursuits. He had an attractive personality; he was a natural leader; his mind dwelt upon and suggested large things. He was rather aristocratic, both in his conduct and thought. His mind was on a high scale, but withal humane and agreeable. He carried with him an air of confidence and admiration. "Small wonder" that the conservative Newton and the shrewd and far-seeing Seely were .drawn to him and entered into his scheme of a new central county seat for Guthrie county. He was a captain in the civil war. William M. Tracy, born in Belmont county, Ohio, February 2, 1820, died at Guthrie Center, Iowa, June 16, 1881. [photo] E. B. NEWTON EDER B. NEWTON. Newton, slow, ponderous and conservative, would and did awaken and attract the confidence of the homeseeker. It was he that added stability and faith in the new venture. Eder B. Newton, born in Greene county, New York, February 18, 1821, died in Ontario, California, in 1897. [photo] HON. THOMAS SEELY Member Iowa Constitutional Convention 1857 THOMAS SEELY. Seely, the shrewd statesman, the diplomat, whose schemes and plans being approved by Newton and Tracy would be executed by all; Seely, the man who could change the name of his township from Center to Valley —that upon roll call it would be among the last of the call and its delegates could therefore vote with full knowledge of the standing of the candidates or matter voted upon, and perhaps hold a "balance of power," an advantage and power which to the politician was a valuable asset. He was a very useful man, wise, shrewd and far-seeing, acquainted with the leading men of the state, and very influential therewith. He, too, was a captain in the civil war. Thomas Seely, born in Wayne county, New York, October 1, 1822, died in Guthrie, Oklahoma, November 11, 1896. CHARLES HUXLEY. Charles Huxley, the Englishman, tenacious, faithful, trustworthy; the first postmaster, the first justice of the peace, the first mayor. His official duties became his religion, and the regular and faithful transmission and distribution of the mail a religious sacrament to be observed and performed, rain or shine, wet or cold. Charles Huxley, born in England, April 16, 1817, died in Guthrie Center, Iowa, June 28, 1881. [photo] FIRST FRAME HOUSE IN GUTHRIE CENTER Built by William Warrington WILLIAM WARRINGTON. William (Billy) Warrington, the blacksmith, came into the county to shoe the stage line horses. "Billy," the useful man, the hard-working man, the necessary man, whose anvil rang early and late. His nails, horseshoes and bolts were all made by his own hands. He cheerfully served the poor and rich alike, was always at his post with the implement of his work in his hand. It could be said of him as one of David's mighty men whose "hand clave to his sword" his "hand clave to the handle of his hammer." Because of his faithfulness in small things, he became influential and useful in the larger things, bigger than he knew. So "Billy," humble and modest, should be placed with the primary quintet that did so much in the beginning to start and give impetus to Guthrie Center. William Warrington, born in England, April 15, 1819, died at Guthrie Center, Iowa, July 31, 1905. POSTOFFICE ESTABLISHED 1856. The postoffice was established April first, 1856. The following were the postmasters included in the period covered by the fifties and sixties, with the date of their commissions: Charles Huxley, April 1, 1856. John E. Motz, October 20, 1863. Charles Huxley, October 8, 1866. It can be said of the sixth and seventh decades, that it was a time of initiative, leadership, instinct, prophecy, faith, venture, courage. The quintet that played their different parts in the scheme of projecting and developing the municipality of Guthrie Center, Iowa, during this period, possessed these virtues and each performed his respective part intensely, faithfully and with a commendable spirit of altruism. They were the pioneers, the skirmish line, the pathfinders for a noble and great civilization that followed them. They are worthy of our memory. Their personalities, conduct the contribution to society should be given all the emphasis and value possible. God Give Us Men! God give us men! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; Men whom the lust of office does not kill; Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; Men who possess opinions and a will; Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking! Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog In public duty, and in private thinking; For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds Their large professions and their little deeds, Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,— Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps. —Josiah Gilbert Holland. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A RECORD History Biography Memory Pioneer Times and Peoples GUTHRIE CENTER I0WA By ELBERT WRIGHT WEEKS 1932 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/guthrie/history/1932/arecord/1850186035gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/ File size: 11.2 Kb