WILLIAM S. IVINS

IVINS, WILCOX

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/6/2020 at 21:28:48

WILLIAM S. IVINS, was born in Burlington County, New Jersey, on the 13th of May, 1824. On the first day of May, 1841, he came to Keokuk with his parents being then in the seventeenth year of his age. He was married on the 25th of April 3849 (misprint believe to be 1849), to Miss Virginia W Wilcox, daughter of Major John R. Wilcox, of the United States Army. In 1850, he opened the Ivins House, at that time the leading hotel of the place, which he kept till the 5th of April, 1853, when he left for California by the overland route, with a train of wagons and a herd of some two hundred head of cattle, and was a hundred and ninety-three days in making the trip, arriving at Petaluma, Sonoma County, on the 14th day of October.

While crossing the plains he was captured by the Indians, and taken some 40 miles away from his train. He effected his escape by a consummate piece of acting, only made possible by the emergency, though he was entirely unconscious of the high art he was performing. The Indians had taken him to their wigwams, and made him understand by going through the motions that they intended to shoot and scalp him. It occurred to him to take it all in good part, and act toward them in the most friendly and confidential manner. He played his role so effectively as to deceive the Indians and disarm them of their hostile intentions. When he made up his mind to leave, he assumed that they would take it as a matter of course that he must go, and pointing with an earnest look toward his train, he shook hands with them all, turned his back and walked off. They did not follow him nor molest him. He did not dare to look back, for that would betray a lack of confidence, and bring his little drama to a tragic termination.

When he got a sufficient distance from the Indians, he began to shape his course towards his train. It was a cloudy day, and he had nothing to guide him but the wind. He knew which way the wind blew. He traveled all day with the wind blowing on his right cheek. Night came on so dark that he could only see occasionally by the flashes of lightning. At length he discovered a light in the distance, proceeding as he soon found, from the camp of some emigrants, and as he approached he whistled: Yankee Doodle,” to let them know that he was not an Indian coming to murder them. He inquired if they had seen anything of his train, and was shown a light some miles, off which proved to be that of a lantern which is good wife had hung up as high as the could on a pole, in hopes that if he should escape from the Indians and be benighted, he might find his way to the camp. He reached his train and all went well after that.

Arriving in California, he remained till the 5th of September 1855, engaged in the dairy business, when he returned to Keokuk and commenced speculating in city property, which he continued till 1857, when the financial crash stripped him of everything he had, which was the fortune of hundreds of others at that time. There were over thirty thousand dollars of judgments out against him, and the sheriff turned him out of his house—a house which cost him over eight thousand dollars.

He then, on the 11th of September, 1858, commenced the omnibus business, and since then he has paid up his debts and accumulated an ample fortune. He now lives in one of the finest houses in the city, on the bluff, overlooking the beautiful scenery of Illinois, and the towns of Warsaw and Alexandria.

On engaging in the omnibus and livery business, Mr. Ivins went on increasing gradually according as his means would allow, and the demand increased till he has now the most complete and extensive establishment of the kind in the State.

We know one remarkable fact which we presume cannot be duplicated by any other citizen of Keokuk if any other city, and that is that Mr. Ivins has lived here about thirty years and there has not been a single day that he has not been down town.

This remarkable health, enabling him to give close personal attention to business, has been one cause of the marked success he has attained. He has also been a man of great application, perseverance and strict integrity, doing business on honorable principles, and paying his debts even where the law would not compel him to do so.

Mr. Ivins, has never been a politician. He has often been solicited to take offices, but has always declined on the ground of a preference for his own business over that of the public or of anybody else. He has avoided all litigation, choosing to risk milder means in the collection of debts than sueing men.

He has three children, one son and two daughters. His eldest daughter, Erra N. Ivins, was born in a wagon in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, on the way to California, and was named after the place where she was born. The first syllable of Sierra being dropped , and the initial letter of Nevada taken, she is called Era N. for brevity.

Source:
Illustrated Historical ATLAS of Lee County, IOWA
A. T. Andreas
Chicago, ILL.
1874

Transcription by Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer