CHAPTER I.
GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, ETC.
From History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915)
by H. F. Andrews
Audubon county is situated in the west central part of Iowa, the third county east from the Missouri river, about fifty-four miles distant. Lying almost wholly on the Missouri slope, its east boundary approximates nearly the summit of the watershed dividing the Mississippi and Missouri water systems. It is bounded on the north by Carroll, on the east by Guthrie, on the south by Cass, and on the west by Shelby counties. Its area is four hundred and forty-three square miles.
The general surface of the county is rolling, open prairies. The greater and higher lying portions of its lands are of the drift formation and of great fertility, even to the summit of the divides; the lower lying lands along the river bottoms and their tributaries are alluvial deposits of marvelous, matchless richness, often from five to ten feet in depth. The county is nearly free from ponds or lakes. Magnificent stretches of landscapes can be viewed from the high divides in every township in the county. It is rare to witness such fine prairie scenery as abounds in Audubon county.
NATIVE GRASSES.
In its virgin freshness the prairies were vast billows of wild grasses, waving in the wind; the home of the noble elk and graceful deer, but which later became the pastures of numerous herds of horses and cattle, until the native grasses were upturned by the plow of the farmer and converted into veritable gardens. The wild grasses began to grow about April and reached the height of eighteen inches on the hillsides and often six feet in the lowlands. Such noble natural meadows have been rarely witnessed on earth. Many a man remained poor at that period for want of stock to eat up, for his benefit, the wild, rich grasses.
About the month of October the grasses were killed by the frosts, and a little later the ground was swept by prairie hres, leaving the face of the country a bare, black, lonesome wilderness-a transformation from the beautiful to an unsightly, desolate waste. On who has not witnessed such sights can but partially realize them. Those prairie fires, marching and advancing like an army over the hills and hollows in the night-time, illuminating the sky to noonday brightness, were truly wild, magnificent, grand pictures, never to be recalled or forgotten. Those annual fires, destroying vegetation, were the causes which prevented the growth of timber, except in favored localities.
THE SOIL.
The soil is remarkably free from stone or gravel. There is no coal or building stone found in the county. Sand is occasionally found. There is an abundance of brick clay. The rivers and streams are deeply eroded into the fine, black, alluvial soil and furnish an abundance of pure water. The rolling surface of the country affords the best of natural drainage.
For agricultural purposes the soil of the county can hardy be excelled. Its fertility is widely and favorably known. Except what is occupied by rivers, streams and highways, practically all the land in the county is adapted to tillage or grazing. It would be difficult to find a country in the world containing a higher percentage of arable lands. Horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, poultry, cereals, grasses, vegetables and fruits usually found in this latitude are produced in profusion and abundance.
THE RIVERS AND WATER SYSTEM.
Approximately the northeast half of Viola township is drained into Brushy creek, a tributary of the Raccoon river system, which flows southeast. A small area of eastern Viola township drains into the South 'Coon river. The remainder of the county is drained by the Nishna Botna rivers and their tributaries, which flow from north towards the southwest. The East Nishna Botna rises in Carroll county and enters Audubon county at section 3, in Cameron township: thence southeast into Viola township; thence south into and across the extreme northwest corner of Melville township, into Leroy township; thence south across Leroy, Hamlin and Exira townships, leaving the county near the line between Exira and Oakfield townships; traversing the county its entire length from north to south. Its principal tributaries are the East branch, which rises in Melville township and enters the river in the northwest corner of the township; Blue Grass creeek [sic creek], which rises in Cameron township, and flows south across Leroy township and enters the Botna on the west side in section 15, in Hamlin township. Another branch rises in the northwest part of Hamlin township, flows southeast and enters the Botna on the west side in section 27, same township. David's creek rises in the northeast part of Melville township, flows southwest across Greeley township, and enters the Botna at West Exira. Anderson creek rises in the northeast part of Exira township, and flows west into David's creek at West Exira. Sifford creek rises in the south part of Hamlin township, flows south into the Botna on the west side, in section 17, Exira township. Buck creek rises in the north part of Oakfield township, flows south and enters the Botna on the west side, near Lewis, in Cass county. Troublesome creek rises in the southeast part of Greeley and northeast part of Audubon township, and flows southwest across Audubon and Exira townships and enters the Botna near Atlantic, Iowa. Crooked creek rises in the southeast part of Audubon township, and flows southwest into Troublesome creek, in Cass county. Indian creek rises in the southeast part of Douglas township, flows south through Sharon township into Shelby county; thence south into Cass county and enters the Botna near Elliot, Iowa. Little Indian creek rises in the southwest part of Hamlin township and southeast part of Sharon township, and flows southwest across the northwest part of Oakfield township, and enters the Main Indian creek in Shelby county. The East fork of West Botna rises in Lincoln township, flows south across the northwest part of Douglas township, and enters Shelby county at section 18, Douglas township. Lone Willow creek rises in the east part of Douglas township, flows west and enters the East fork of the Botna in section 9, of same township. Another tributary of the East fork rises in the southwest part of Lincoln township, and flows south, reaching the river in section 18, near where it leaves the county. Still another tributary of the East fork rises in the southwest part of Douglas township, and flows northwest into the principal stream in section 18, same township. Thus the three tributaries which form the East fork of the West Botna unite near together in section 18, in Douglas township.
TIMBER AND GROVES.
When the county was settled it contained some of the best timber in western Iowa. It extended from the county line on the south, up the east side of the Botna river north to the north line of section 14, in Hamlin township. For about fifteen miles, it was an unbroken fringe of timber next to the river, enlarging into several extensive bodies of heavy, fine timber. One large grove on the Ballard land extended from the county line up to the Mark Heath farm, embracing the heavy timber in sections 30 and 31, in Exira township, and in sections 25 and 36, in Oakfield township, about eight hundred acres of timber and brush land in all. Another extensive tract, called the "Big Grove," of about two thousand seven hundred acres, extended from the town of Oakfield north to the Herrick farm and from the river east two miles. It embraced lands in sections 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, 22, 28 and 29 in Exira township. It was the largest and finest body of timber in the county. There were other smaller groves at Gault's, Milliman's, West Exira, at the Wilson and Dodge places, also in sections 27 and 14, in Hamlin township, and at Barlow's and Luccock's groves, in Leroy township. Beginning again at the county line, the timber extended in fringes up Troublesome creek, alternated with the groves of Bowen, Hamlin, Lewis, Walker and Thomas, nearly to the north line of Audubon township, about eight miles. There was a small grove in the extreme northeast of the county and another in section 18, in Douglas township, later called Donaldson's grove. A fringe of timber extended up the creek from the latter-named grove to section 9, in the same township.
In the early days these groves contained many varieties of deciduous trees, namely: White oak, burr oak, black oak, black walnut, shellbark hickory, white hickory, white maple, linn or basswood, cottonwood, white elm, red or slippery elm, aspen or poplar, wild or black cherry, hackberry, willow, ironwood, wild crabapple, wild plum, hawthorn, black haw, occasionally a buckeye, with wild grape and gooseberry. Majestic specimens of the lordly oak and towering walnut were found in great quantities, as well as enormous elms. The writer remembers to have seen here in the early days an oak eight feet in diamter and a walnut which made three logs each twenty feet in length, eighteen inches in diameter at the top and three feet at the butt.
There is now growing on the ancient Nathaniel Hamlin estate a white elm tree eight feet in diameter.
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Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, September, 2019, from History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915), by H. F. Andrews, page 33-36.
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