HISTORY: Page Co., IA From the A.T. Andreas Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa, 1875 This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Pat April 2003 ************************************************* Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ************************************************* ________________________________________________________ NOTE: For more information on Page County, Iowa Please visit the Page County, IAGenWeb page at http://iagenweb.org/page/ ________________________________________________________ PAGE COUNTY. This county is situated very near the southwest corner of the state, being in the southern tier, and the second east of the Missouri River. SURFACE, CONFIGURATION, AND RESOURCES. The general surface of Page County is usually of an undulating character, well provided with a complete natural drainage by numerous streams and small watercourses, which are so distributed as to leave no marshes or swamp land. The prairie in its natural state was covered with a most luxuriant growth of grass, but is now divided into beautiful and well-cultivated farms, which annually repay the labors of the husbandman with generous harvests, which attest the fertility of the soil. The prairies present the same general characteristics common to other counties in southwest Iowa, the surface being gently rolling with a deep, rich, almost exhaustless soil, composed in part of the bluff formation, in part of the drift deposit, and in the valleys of a dark alluvial soil so well adapted to the production of corn. The valleys of the Nodaway and Nishnabotany are particularly fertile and beautiful, and present a pleasing diversity of landscape scenery, the prairie slopes being particularly adapted to the cereals, while the continued succession of finely cultivated fields, and neat, pleasant farm houses which dot its surface, present the appearance of an old- settled country. The Nodaway is about one hundred and fifty-feet below the general prairie level. On either side there is usually a strip of alluvial bottom land from a half mile to a mile in width, covered with timber and grass. From these bottoms the prairies rise gradually, until they attain the general level above stated. Shallow, grassy ravines come down from the higher prairies at intervals, affording drainage and presenting a diversity which is agreeable to the eye. The county is exceedingly well drained and watered by the East and West Nodaway, the East, Middle, and West Tarkio and their numerous tributaries, which all flow in a general southwest direction, and are in a great measure supplied by springs which afford water all the year. In the east half of the county, good well-water is obtained by digging from twenty to twenty-eight feet. On the high prairies in the west part of the county in many places it is necessary to dig from seventy to eighty feet, but in the bottoms usually about twenty feet. Well water is generally of excellent quality, while that from springs is not relied on for domestic uses, not being so pure and cool. The Nodaway affords water-power sufficient for machinery most of the year. Several small mills have also been erected on Middle Tarkio, but the supply of water is not sufficient only for a small portion of the time. Few counties in Iowa have streams of water more regularly distributed to all parts than this, and all affording an abundance for the wants of stock at all times. The east part of Page County is abundantly supplied with timber, heavy bodies being found along the Nodaways, and extending eastward to the county line. The four east townships, comprising one-fourth of the county, have an abundance of good timber to supply the demands of at least one half the county. Along the other streams the groves are small, with the exception of a considerable body on East Nishnabotany, in the northwest corner township. The timber is principally red and burr oak, black hickory, shell-bark hickory, hackberry, linn, white elm, red elm, black walnut, cottonwood, soft maple, honey locust, black ash, white ash, box elder and mulberry. But little, if any, white oak is found in the county. Among shrubs that are common, may be mentioned sumach, black elder, hazel, and prickly ash, and there is one small, isolated patch of paw-paw on the Nodaway. Among the climbing plants may be mentioned the wild grape, sarsparilla, five and three-leaf ivy, bitter-root, and wild hop. Coal is found in several localities in the county, but the principal banks which are worked, are on the Nodaway. Several banks are worked about two and one-half miles south of Clarinda. The vein is about seventeen inches in thickness, and the coal is equal in quality to the bituminous coal found in the coal-bearing region of the Des Moines valley. This is the same vein which is worked near Quincy, in Adams, and also appears in the northwest part of Taylor. The product of these banks is extensively used for fuel in Clarinda, and also for manufacturing purposes. The mining is done by drifting from the sides of the ravines. There is no scarcity of stone of good quality for building purposes. Within three miles of Clarinda, there is an abundant supply, and also at various points along the East and West Nodaway. A hard, blueish limestone also crops out at intervals along the East Tarkio, extending quite across the country from north to south. This is a good stone for walls and foundations, but is unfit for quicklime, and is said to resemble the rock which has been used in Davis County for the manufacture of hydraulic cement. It is easily quarried, as it makes its appearance above the level of the stream. Good brick are manufactured near Clarinda, Amity, Hawleyville, and at other places in the county. With her fair supply of timber, coal, stone, rich soil, and other advantages. Page County has within her borders the requisites necessary to insure her future greatness. EARLY HISTORY. The first white man who made a settlement in Page County, was George W. Farrens, in the Spring of 1840. His brothers, Henry and David Farrens, also came the same season, but a little later. They were from Jackson County, Missouri, and were all at that time young men without families. They erected a cabin, and made improvements on what proved, after the survey of the lands, to be section 27, township 67, range 36, in Buchanan Township, being the southeast corner township of the county. It soon became the nucleus of a large settlement, and was known at that early day as the Three Forks Settlement, from the fact of its being near the junction of the East and West Nodaway, and also of Buchanan Creek and Nodaway. After the first year the brothers began to have other neighbors than the red men, for, in the Spring of 1841, Thomas Johnson, William Campbell, and Robert Wilson, with their families, joined the new settlement. Robert Wilson pitched his tent a little to the west of the main settlement, near the place now known as Braddyville, on the Nodaway. During the same year, his brother, Pleasant Wilson, settled at the same place, where he died in 1844, being probably the first death of a white man in the county, except Lieut. Buchanan, who was not a resident. Robert Wilson, in 1847, sold out to his brother-in-law, Isaac Davison, and returned to Kentucky. In 1843, Joseph Thompson, Moses Thompson, and Larkin Thompson, three brothers, and Jesse Majors, settled a few miles southeast of Clarinda. Joseph and Moses Thompson died in the county, but Larkin Thompson and Jesse Majors are still living. Among the early settlers were Charles Gaston and ---Brown. Gaston was the son-in-law of Brown, and his first wife dying, he married another of Brown's daughters, who also died within a few months. These two sisters were among the first who died in the county, and the place where they were buried, on the banks of the Nodaway, is still pointed out by the old settlers. The first death of an adult resident of the county, however, was that of Mrs. Elizabeth Stafford, wife of Maj. Robert V. Stafford. She died November 9, 1844, and was buried in the first established graveyard. Several adults and children were afterwards interred, but it was finally abandoned as a burying place. The particulars of the death of Lieut. Buchanan, before alluded to as the first within the limits of Page County, are as follows, as far as known; Some time about the year 1833, this officer of the United States Army, with a small detachment of troops, was passing across the territory of the Missouri River, and, while crossing the East Nodaway in his buggy, about a mile northeast of where Hawleyville now stands, was drowned. His body was recovered and buried on the east bank of the river, near the mouth of a small branch. A monument was erected over his grave, suitably inscribed, but was destroyed by the Indians. Some portions of this monument are in the possession of parties in the vicinity, and are preserved as relics. The place of burial is still pointed out by the citizens. In making the public survey of lands, a small tributary of East Nodaway, some twelve miles below was erroneously called Buchanan Creek— the surveyors not having definite information in regard to the locality where the unfortunate occurrence took place. While on the subject of names, it may be well to mention the circumstance which is said to explain the meaning of the Indian name Nodaway. At an early day Dr. Luther Bent, who had a contract for supplying beef to the Indians about where Council Bluffs is now located, had an interpreter, to whom he noticed another Indian apply the term, or epitaph, not-a-way. The doctor asked the Indian what was meant by the word, and he replied that he was like a rattle-snake, vindictive, revengeful, and cunning. He then asked him if that would explain the origin of the name of the stream so-called. The Indian said it would-that once the borders of those streams had been infested by a great many rattle-snakes, and for that reason they had received the name, Nodaway. All the early settlement seems to have been confined to the southeast part of the county, and was mostly within the limits of what is now known as Buchan Township. In the Summer of 1846 S. F. Snider settled near the center of the county, on Snake Creek, just above its junction with the East Tarkio. He removed to Montgomery County, but subsequently returned to Page, and was elected county judge in 1854. Among others who settled in various parts of the county prior to 1852, may be mentioned Alexander Dike and Dr. William Graves, who erected their cabins on the Nodaway, about nine miles north of Clarinda, in 1851, and Thomas P. Nixon, William Loy, and B. Herrill, also settled in the county prior to the year 1852. Among the first settlers west of the Nodaway were Isaiah Hurlburt and ---Lee, who settled south of Clarinda as early, at least, as 1849, and about the same time a settlement was made in the northwest corner township of the county, on the East Nishnabotany, by Antram Redman, ---Hadden, Doren Hunt and brothers. One of the prominent early settlers of the county was Claibourn McBee, who removed to California some years ago. At the Presidential election of 1844 a poll was opened in the south part of what is now Page County, but was then considered a part of Andrew County, Missouri. A return of the poll-books was made to Savannah, Missouri, David Farrens being the person who made the return. This was the first election ever held within the limits of Page County, which was duly organized in the Fall of 1850, William L. Burge being the sheriff who officiated in the organization. It took place at Boulwar's Mill, this being the county seat. Dr. Alexander H. Farrens was the first county clerk, and Robert W. Stafford the first elected sheriff. Some of the early records of the county were destroyed by the burning of the building in which they were kept. These records embraced the proceedings of the first county courts. Up to 1854, however, the county business seems to have been transacted at Boulwar's Mills, William L. Burge being the first elected county judge. He was succeeded by Judge S. F. Snider, who caused the books and records to be transferred to the present county seat in that year. He erected the first building in Clarinda, in which county business was transacted, after which he resigned, and was succeeded by John Wilson, during whose official term a court house was erected—perhaps in 1856. In 1858 Judge Snider was again elected, and having removed the books and papers connected with his office to his store on the northwest corner of the square, they were destroyed with the building as above stated. Judge Snider subsequently removed to Kansas. The first district court in Page County convened at the house of Phillip Boulwar, September 22, 1851, James Sloan presiding as judge. A. H. Farrens was Clerk; R. W. Stafford, Sheriff, and the court appointed Jacob Dawson, Prosecuting Attorney. The other attorneys present were George P. Stiles and A. C. Ford. About the only business which seems to have been transacted at this term was the admission of one Eberhand Frederick Gammel, of the Kingdom of Wirtemburg, as a citizen of the United States, upon the testimony of G. W. Farrens and William Roach. The second term should have been held in April, 1852, but Judge Sloan had in the meantime resigned, leaving the Sixth Judicial District without a head. The records show that the clerk and sheriff were present, and that the clerk adjourned court until such time as might thereafter be fixed by the proper authority. On the 12th of July, 1852. Honorable Allen A. Bradford, having been appointed district judge by Governor Hempstead, appeared and held the second term of the district court in Page County. Jonathan Shepherd was appointed prosecuting attorney for the term. The attorneys enrolled were C. P. Brown, L. Lingenfelter, James M. Dews and B. Rector. Several cases were disposed of, mostly indictments for assault and battery. The grand jurors were; P. B. Johnson, Joshua Brown, James Murray, William Robbins, Thomas Nixon, Peter Baker, Hiram Beach, James Huggins, A. B. Quinby, Joel Davidson, Jesse Major, Ira Cummings, John Brock, and Henry O. Farrens. William Robbins was appointed foreman of this grand jury. At the September term of 1853, John Wilson and M. K. Skidmore, upon examination, were admitted to the bar. A large proportion of the business of this term seems to have been prosecutions for the unlawful sale of intoxicating liquors. All the courts up to the April term of 1854 were held at Boulwar's Mill. The attorneys who practiced in the district courts of this county, from its organization up to 1858, were as follows; L. Lingenfelter, Benjamin Rector, S. E. McCracken, J. M. Dews, John Wilson, J. L. Sharp, H. P. Bennett, D. H. Solomon, William Kelsey, E. H. Sears, C. E. Stone, Joseph Murphy, H. H. Harding, R. L. Dodge, J. W. Russell, J. Barwick, A. H. East, J. A. Hughes, W. S. Graff, William Herron, and John H. Ware. William Robbins, whose name appears in the panel of first grand jurors, was also one of the early sheriffs of this county. He had a peculiarity in his method of electioneering which was somewhat amusing, if nothing more. He always went with a pair of saddlebags, in one end of which he carried a jug of whisky and in the other tobacco. When asked why he did this, he said; "I never want to leave a man worse than I find him; he has to throw his chew away to drink with me, and of course for the accommodation I must give him a chew of tobacco to make him whole." It is needless to add that he was a successful canvasser, and made hosts of friends. Although from the record it seems that Clarinda became the county seat in 1854 there appears no record of the plat of the town until 1857, when Judge Snider caused the same to be put upon record in due form. There is every reason to believe, however, that Clarinda began to assume the importance due her as the chief town of the county as early as 1854. In the Spring of 1855 Rogers & Hinchman brought on a large stock, and about the same time B. S. Poisley & Co, also appeared in the Clarinda market with a general assortment in the same line. The first drug store was opened in the Spring of 1856 by S. H. Kridelbaugh, M. D., who was also, perhaps, the first medical practitioner in the place. Among the first settlers of Clarinda were Thomas McKinnon and his three sons, S. Addison, Jefferson and Robert. The first marriage which appears on record, after the organization of the county, is that of Henry Davidson and Rebecca Sebastian, November 17, 1852. The reader must not infer, however, that this was the first case of matrimony within the limits of the territory now embraced in Page County. More than one marriage had taken place while the south half of the county was under the jurisdiction of Missouri. The first regular physician who offered his services to the people of Page County was Doctor Alexander H. Farrens, who located in the Three Fort Settlement in 1849. He died a few years ago. In 1848 a small store was started by Brown & Hudson, at what was then known as Boulwar's Mill, two and a half miles south of Clarinda, on the Nodaway. This mill was the first in the county, and was erected by John Stonebreaker in 1846. The first orchard planted in Page County was on the farm of George W. Farrens, in the Spring of 1842. The trees were brought from Jackson County, Missouri. They are still bearing fruit. Another of the early orchards is on a farm in Buchanan Township, and was planted by Birkit Johnson in 1843. There is another small orchard in East River Township, three miles southeast of Clarinda, which is said to have been planted by a wandering Mormon, or by one Nelson Buckley, about the year 1842. The trees in all these old orchards are mostly seedlings, and are said to bear fruit every season. COUNTY PATRIOTISM. Page County furnished her proper proportion of brave and true men to assist in putting down the rebellion, and nobly did her part, both at home and in the field. One fact to her honor and credit, and which attests her patriotism, must not be omitted, and that is the fact that, under an offer made by the Governor during the rebellion, she received the banner for the largest amount of supplies, in proportion to population, furnished to the families of soldiers. THE PRESS. Being unable to secure the data for a complete history of the press of Page County, little more than the names of the papers now published and their editors can now be given. The leading Republican organ of the county is the Clarinda Herald, which is probably the oldest publication in the county being established in 1862. It is owned and edited by Ralph Robinson, an experienced and successful journalist, under whose management it has a large circulation and an extending influence in Page and adjoining counties. The Page County Democrat first made its appearance August 20, 1868, conducted editorially by J. Arick, who in November of the same year sold to N. C. Ridenout, the present publisher, in whose hands it has become one of the most popular and influential Democratic papers in southwestern Iowa. It is a thirty-two column sheet, well edited; is a good advertising medium, and has also in connection a large and well equipped job office. The Shenandoah Reporter made its appearance among the press of Iowa in August, 1871, with the names of Nicholson & Gaff at the head of its editorial column. In 1873 Nicholson retired and –McCabe became senior editor and publisher, and at a still more recent date the establishment passed into the hands of G. W. Gunnison, Jr., a newspaper man of considerable experience, who is making it one of the best and most popular local papers in that section of the state. COUNTY OFFICIALS, 1875. WILLIAM M. ALEXANDER, Auditor. JOSEPH E. HILL, Clerk of Courts. HENRY LORANZ, Treasurer. JAMES L. BROWN, Recorder. ISAAC DAMEWOOD, Sheriff. HUGH WOTEN, Supt. Common Schools. JOHN X. GRIFFITH, Chairman of the Board of Supervisors. CLARINDA. The county seat of Page County, is pleasantly situated in the valley of West Nodaway, about six miles from the east line of the county. Although not on the high prairies, the grounds on which it is located are dry and undulating. Plenty of wood, coal and stone are convenient, and the situation is admirable for building up a thriving and prosperous place. The town plat originally embraced the northwest quarter of section 31, township 69, range 36, but several additions have been laid out so that the town now contains about 400 acres. Its present population is probably not less than 1,500. The organized churches are the Methodist, Baptist, Universalist, Presbyterian, and United Presbyterian. The Baptists have a handsome brick church, while all the others have good frame buildings for public worship. The public school building is a large, handsome edifice, costing over $10,000, and capable of accommodating 500 pupils, and is situated in a beautiful rolling tract of land near the south side of the town. It is finished and furnished in the best style, having a large amount of philosophical apparatus, a fine collection, embracing about 1,400 geological specimens, physiological apparatus, including a manakin, skeleton, and numerous engravings, charts, and a good library. The town is handsomely laid out, with wide, well graded streets, and contains a number of good business blocks, most of which surround the large public square, and several fine residences. The place also contains some important manufactories, among which may be mentioned a woolen mill, plow factory, carriage and wagon shops, flouring and saw mills. Being situated in the center of a good agricultural district, at the terminus of the Brownville and Nodaway Valley Railroad, which renders it an important shipping point, and possessing a class of wide-awake, thoroughly enterprising business men, it has a flattering future. The first sermon was preached in Clarinda in June, 1853, by Reverend S. Farlow. The first school was taught in the preacher's house by Mrs. Isabella Farlow, wife of the minister, in the Summer of 1853. Reverend S. Farlow and family were first to make a settlement on the town plat in April, 1853. The second inhabitant was Judge Snyder. Doctor Daniel Farrens, who died in 1857, was the first physician in the county. Doctor J. L. Barrett was the first physician in Clarinda in 1855, and is still living in the city, noted, as he has ever been, for his wit and cheerfulness in talking and smiling away the "blues" and all sorts of despondency. George Rible, one of the foremost and most active men of Clarinda, was one of the first settlers. He kept the first hotel. The first church was built in 1858; the first school house in 1854. SHENANDOAH Is a thriving young town in the west part of the county, on the line of the Nebraska Branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. It was laid out in 1870 by the Burlington & Missouri Railroad Company, the first house being built in the latter part of July of that year. The first merchant was W. E. Webster, the first physician B. M. Webster, while the first school was taught by Miss Eunice Barker, now Mrs. John Miller, and the first sermon preached in the railroad depot by Samuel Farlow. Being situated in the valley of the Nishnabotany River, which is probably the richest, as well as one of the most beautiful in the state, and surrounded by an agricultural region which has no superior, and few equals in the West, it is necessarily an important shipping point. It has a good graded school, with a large brick school house, the best in the county, three churches— Methodist, Baptist, and Catholic, four dry goods stores, three grocery, two drug, two hardware, two furniture, one clothing, and one jewelry store, three livery stables, two banks, one hotel, two restaurants, two lumber yards, two elevators and grain warehouses, etc., etc. Its natural resources and advantages have attracted enterprising men of capital, in whose hands it is receiving that encouragement which argues well for the future, and promises that at no distant day to make it one of the important places in Iowa on western slope. HAWLEYVILLE. – This was the first town laid out in the county, and is situated on the east side of East Nodaway River, about six miles east of Clarinda. Its original proprietor was Henry McAlpin. In 1850, a store was opened here by J. M. Hawley, being the only one of any importance at that time within the territory embraced in the four counties of Page, Taylor, Adams, and Montgomery. The country around this place is in a good state of cultivation. AMITY. – This is a village within three miles of the south line of the county. The post office is known by the name of College Springs. A good educational institution is located here. The settlement commenced in the Spring of 1856, and the first settlers were Joseph Cornforth, J. P. Donaldson, O. R. Strong, B. F. Haskins, J. G. Laughlin, Elijah Gibbs, M. S. Marrow, Jabez Fickling, J. B. Laughlin, W. R. Laughlin, J. J. Laughlin, Aaron Dow, and W. J. Woods. The place was laid out by an association organized at Galesburg, Illinois, with a capital of $30,000, which was invested in government lands in Missouri and Iowa, for the benefit of a college. HEPBURN. – This is a station on the Brownville & Nodaway Valley Railroad. It is a post office, and a shipping point for a considerable amount of produce. ESSEX. – This is a station on the Nebraska City Branch of the C., B. & Q. Railroad in the northwest part of the county. The other post offices are Bradlyville Center, Franklin Grove, Page City, Snow Hill, Tarkio, Union Grove, and Willsburg.