HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY  621

3 months and 10 days; Hannah B., born June 12, 1822, who died March
28, 1882, aged 59 years, 9 months and 16 days.
    Within the area of the “Duncan Settlement” there have been but few
industries other than the agricultural. The first circular saw-mill in
the south end of the township was planted on this territory by Ezra 0.
Duncan, joined by one or more of the brothers, which was operated
near the site of the present school-house soon after the close of the Civil
war. There was also a blacksmith shop, conducted by a man named
Isaac Richart, who wielded not only the “hammer and tongs,” but also
the “birch” in season. A character distinctly remembered by the older
citizens of this community was Wiley Smith, a blind man, who, at the
time of the production of flax for the manufacture of home-spun linen
fabric, operated the flax-brake. Smith was the father of Henry 0.
Duncan’s second wife and lived in a cabin west of Henry O.’s house, and
on the opposite side of the road. Another character in this “Corner,”
though of a later day, was Jack Maston, who played the fiddle for the
dancing parties in the “Settlement” and its surroundings.
    Isaiah and Amos Duncan built the first frame school-house in the
“Settlement,” which stood just west of Henry Willis’s residence. The
present frame schoolhouse was built in 1873.
    The present population of this territory and its immediate borders
includes a number of substantial, well-to-do people aside from the
numerous offspring of the family whose early colonization gave it name,
among whom are William L. Price, Henry Willis, Isaiah Harris, Thomas
Wilson, Judson Wagstaff, William Morris, William Gerber. Otto Nixon.
Early Emigration to Iowa.
    In the family of David Thomas, reputed to have been the first white
settler on Eel river, within the territory of Clay county, were four sons
—James P., Elisha, Oswell and Shallum Thomas, none of whom are now
living. Oswell and Shallum Thomas built the first brick dwelling-
houses at Bowling Green, the former in the southwest quarter of the
town, which was afterward known as the Drake property, and the latter
on the high ground in the northwest quarter, which is now occupied by
Samuel Hoffa, who married into the family of Mahala Thomas, widow
of Oswell. Shallum Thomas was one of the pioneer merchants of
Bowling Green, where he lived from the time of the organization of the
county up to the fall of the year 1854, when he moved to the new state
of Iowa, whither emigration from the east was then tending. He
loaded two wagons for the trip—one drawn by two horses, the other by
two yoke of oxen. The family was accompanied by two nephews—
Shallum Thomas, Jr., and Jeptha Thomas, and by Andrew Killion. As
they drove along about forty head of cattle their progress was slow, the
trip consuming a whole month’s time, the party sleeping either in the
wagons or in tents. One night there came up a big storm, which scat-
tered their cattle about in every direction, so that, practically, all the
next day was consumed in collecting and getting them together again.
After going to Iowa Shallum Thomas, Sr., lived twenty-one years and
prospered, as is seen from the following letter announcing his death,
written by a neighbor:
BOONE, Boone Co., Iowa, May 16, 1875.

To the Editor of the T. H. Journal:
    On Sunday last we buried from the Methodist Chapel at Boonsboro,