Boone County IAGenWeb Free genealogy records

Home | What's New | Bios/Family Histories | Birth/Marr/Death | Cemeteries | Census | Courts | Directories/Lists | History | Land/Maps | Military | Photos/Postcards | Resources | Schools

1914 History of Boone County
Chapter XVII
JacksonTownship

Return to index for this book.

Jackson Township is bounded on the west by Des Moines Township, on the south by Colfax Township, on the east by Story County, and on the north by Harrison Township. It contains a full congressional township. At the time of the organization of the county, in 1849, the south two-thirds of the present Township of Jackson was included in Boone Township, and the north one-third was included in Boone River Township. This division of the township continued until March 8, 1852, at which date Boone River Township was discontinued. The boundaries of Boone and Pleasant townships were changed and the Townships of Berry, Yell and Dodge were organized. In the changes of this date the two tiers of sections on the north side of the present Township of Jackson, which were formerly contained in Boone River Township, were equally divided between Dodge and Boone townships. The north tier was included in the new Township of Dodge and the second tier from the north was annexed to Boone Township. These changes were all made in March, 1852, by County Judge S. B. McCall. Five years later, in 1857, Jackson Township was established and named by County Judge J. B. Montgomery. At this date it contained all of the territory within its present boundaries and all that of the present Township of Harrison. Within these boundaries it continued until 1871, when it was reduced to its present boundaries. Thus we see that this township was in process of formation for twenty-two years. Judge Montgomery was an admirer of General Jackson and this accounts for the name of the township. The first settlers of Jackson Township were the families of Milan and William Zenor, who located in Section 12 in the spring of 1851. They came from Clay County, Indiana. They settled in the edge of the beautiful belt of timber along Squaw Fork, a tributary of the Skunk River. The next year John Mitchell and Thomas Eads also settled in Section 12. In 1855 Amos Blunk, Moses Blunk, Charles Weston, King Weston, Henry Latham, Andrew Houghton, John Lundy, Samuel Musgrove and Charles Hunt all settled in the northeast part of the township, near the little stream above named. These people made up a school district, and in 1856 the first schoolhouse in the township was erected. The work of construction was performed by Milan Zenor and William Bell. The first school was taught by William Bell, which was a three months' term, and for which he received a compensation of $55 for the term. At the close of this school term Mr. Bell returned to Ohio. The first township officers elected in the township were: Trustees, Milan Zenor, John Lundy and Samuel Musgrove; clerk, Charles Hunt; assessor, John Mitchell. The first official meeting of the board of trustees was held at the house of Thomas Eads. The (irst birth in the township was that of Sarah Zenor, a daughter of Milan and Amanda Zenor, which occurred in 1853. The hrst death was that of Mary ). Zenor, which occurred in 1854. The first marriage in Jackson Township was in 1855. This was the marriage of Michael Zenor and Amanda Zenor, a daughter of William Zenor, both of whom were natives of Indiana. The marriage ceremony was performed by Judge J. B. Montgomery, who was also a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The first religious services in the township were held at the house of Milan Zenor and were conducted bv Rev. Willis Reynolds, a United Brethren minister. Reverend Reynolds was the means of doing much good in the early settlement of Jackson Township. The Hrst physicians to attend to the wants of the people in Jackson Township were Doctor Mathews of Polk City and Dr. M. A. Parr of Boonesboro. The first road running from the first settlement in Jackson Township to the county seat was not located with any regard to section lines, the object being to shun all the ponds and travel on the high grounds. The second settlement in Jackson Township commenced in the fall of 1854. At that time John Dinwiddie, Joseph Dicas, William Beard and George Beard settled in Section 31. About the same time William Harmon, Lafayette Harmon and Isaac Harmon settled near where Jordan Station is now located. In fact, the station is on the farm owned bv William Harmon. The first settlers of Jackson encountered many of the hardships and privations that the other pioneer settlers of the county did. They had to go a lonh distance to find mills to manufacture their grain into bread stuff, and they had to haul their fuel and other supplies a long distance. It took work, patience and suffering to withstand the hardships that existed before the building of good mills in the county and before the coming of railroad transportation. The settlement of the township was not very rapid until the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad was built. After this homeseekers came and in a short time every acre was placed under cultivation or in pasture. The soil is very fertile and it produces good crops of all kinds. The farmers of this township are industrious and energetic and their homes are nice and inviting. From an expanse of wild land in 1853 it has been changed to a block of nice and fertile farms. With the exception of a smallbelt of timber along the Squaw Fork, in Sections 1 and 12, there was no native timber in the township at the time the first settlement was made. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad was built across the south end of the township in 1864 and 1865. There is one station on the line in the township. It was first called Harmon's Switch, but since then a small town has grown up under the name of Jordan, which will be more fully mentioned further on. The Newton & Northwestern runs across the extreme southwest corner of the township. The streams of this township are the Squaw Fork and Onion Creek. A short sketch of these streams will be found in another part of this work. From the humble little schoolhouse built in Section 12 by Milan Zenor and William Bell in 1856, Jackson Township now has nine good schoolhouses in good repair, in each of which eight months of school is taught every year. This is a glowing proof that the people of Jackson are friends of progress and education. The lay of Jackson Township is generally level, with here and there rises and slopes; but none interfere with the cultivation of land except a small acreage along the breaks of the Squaw Fork. The territory contained in the present Township of Jackson was surveyed into two sections in 1847 by Thomas Harley, deputy surveyor, and certified to by Henry A. Wilse surveyor general, at Dubuque, Iowa. In tlic assessment of Boone township in 1853, which inciuded all of the present Township of Jackson except the north tier of sections, there were only two citizens then residing within its present boundaries assessed. These were Milan and William Zenor. Milan Zenor gave to the assessor the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 13, Township 84, Range 25, valued at $240, and the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 12, Township 84, Range 25, valued at $60. William Zenor gave the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter oi Section 12, Township 84, Range 25, valued at $100, and the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 12, township 84, Range 25, valued at $100. These assessments of lands were very moderate when compared with the present assessments of lands. We may state with certainty that this 200 acres of land was all that had passed from the Government in the present bounds of Jackson Township when this assessment was made in the spring of 1853. All the other lands in the township were then subject to entry at $1.25 per acre. Mitchell's Grove Cemetery was laid out in 1854, and is still in use. Sparsely settled as the township was during the Civil war, ten of its young and middle-aged men volunteered their services and went to the front to sustain the union of the states. The names of those who did so were as follows: William K. Atkison, James Atkison, Moses Blunk. James Eads, Malen Madden, Isaac Stine, Robert Atkison, John Atkison, Samuel Blunk, Amos Blunk and Isaac Hughes. But few crimes have been committed bv the citizens of Jackson Township. 'I'he records of the criminal dockets of the county contain but little in the way of criminal charges against any of them. In 1877 a criminal assault was made upon a nice and respectable young lady nametl Duckworth bv two tramps, who approached her while she was picking wild strawberries. This young lady lived with her father and mother in the southeast part of the township. The tramps fled after the fiendish assault was made. Diligent search was made and one of them was captured, indicted, tried, convicted and sent to the penitentiary. In 1879 a miner in one of the coal camps near Zenorville was killed in a drunken row. The name of the man who committed the crime was Ed Curran. He was sent to the penitentiary at Anamosa for a term ol years, While working on a house there he fell and broke his neck. The winter of 1856-57 tried the patience of the few settlers of Jackson Township. It was a winter of very deep snow and excessively cold weather. All the settlers in the township, except those who lived near the little belt of timber on the Squaw Fork, had to haul their firewood from five to ten miles through the deep and drifted snow. There were no coal mines developed in this part of the state at that time and no transportation system to bring coal to them from other parts, and for these reasons the settlers had to use wood for fuel. The houses were crudely built and it took much fuel to keep them warm. It took the work of a man and a team to keep a house supplied with firewood during that long, cold winter. There were many cases of frozen feet, hands, ears and noses. It was a winter that none of the settlers in the township, or for that matter any of the townships, ever became forgetful of. One morning before daylight during that awful winter, John Dinwiddie heard a man at his cabin door piteously begging for admission. He arose from his bed, opened the door and let the man in. Fuel was placed upon the fire and soon the little cabin was warm. The man sat down in front of the fire and soon was fast asleep. It took him about four hours to again return to consciousness. He had started on the day before to walk across the prairie from the Squaw Fork to Boonesboro. The traveling was so bad that he became belated and lost and wandered around until his strength was exhausted and his limbs and body were benumbed with the cold. It was very fortunate that he succeeded in reaching Mr. Dinwiddie's house as soon as he did, for if he had remained out another hour his doom would have been sealed. It took him until noon to get fully warmed up and then, with the aid of a hearty meal, he went on his way rejoicing. Mr. Dinwiddie's house was located in Section 31, in the southeast corner of Jackson Township, and at that time was the farthest house east on the line running into Ontario. According to the census of 1910 the population of Jackson Township was 874; in 1900, 928; and in 1890, 1,041. This decrease was caused by the decline of the mining population at Zenorville, of which more will be said farther on. In 1857 an effort was made to establish an agricultural society in Boone County. A meeting was held at the courthouse in Boonesboro, at which a committee of five persons was appointed from each township to perfect the organization. The names of those appointed for Jackson Township were as follows: John Mitchell, Andrew Haughton, R. M. Madden, Milan Zenor and William Blunk. Jackson Township never had a town platted within its borders. None of its citizens ever became enthused with the belief that a town could be made to grow and prosper within its borders. Notwithstanding this, two villages have grown up of their own accord in the township. One of these is Jordan, on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and located on Section 32, Township 84, Range 25, about midway between Boone and Ontario. The place was first called Midway, then Harmon's Switch, but was finally changed to Jordan. It contains a postoffice, one store, one blacksmith shop, a grain elevator, a number of residences and a population of about one hundred. Much grain and stock are bought and shipped from this point to Chicago. Jordan is situated in a country unsurpassed in beauty and fertility. It was never platted. The land on which it is situated is a part of the William Harmon Farm, which that gentleman settled upon in the spring of 1855. The other village above mentioned was Zenorville, situated on Section 12, Township 84, Range 25. About midway in the '70s it was discovered that coal in considerable quantity was deposited under the surface of the section above mentioned. Mining operations soon started, so that from 1876 to 1890 considerable coal was mined. In 1880 the report of the inspector of mines stated that there were three mines in operation at Zenorville. The J. Clemens Mine employed 50 men; the Hutchinson Brothers Mine, 35; and the Joseph York Mine, 8 men, making 93 men employed. The same report says that the vein of coal at each of these mines was four feet, two inches thick. The houses it took for these men and their families to live in made up a village of about four hundred people. There were at one time a store, a postofiice, a blacksmith shop, a meat market and a few other little places of business, one church and a schoolhouse. Finally the coal was worked out, the mining ceased, the miners left for other places of employment and Zenorville was no more. Gradually the houses and shanties were sold and moved away until they were all gone. Where the village stood and where the mines were operated the ground is now under cultivation, leaving no trace of the village that once stood there. Verily the change is wonderful. The Zenorville church and schoolhouse have been moved out to the west upon a public highway and are still in a flourishing condition. The church is of the Evangelical order. It has a good number of members and a well attended Sunday school. The minister who has charge of the work at this place lives at Story City. This is the only church in Jackson Township. Jackson Township has been rather fortunate in the number of her citizens who have held county offices. These are as follows: Charles Weston held the office of county supervisor from 1861 to 1865, and the office of clerk of the District Court from 1866 to 1868. Mr. Criswell held the office of county supervisor one or two terms. V. O. Holcomb held the same office two terms. S. P. Zenor held the office of sherifif one term. Archie Patterson held the office of county auditor two terms. Mr. Jones held the same office two terms, and R. R. Cobb held the office of county superintendent three terms. This is enough to satisfy the aspirations of any township. The present township officers are as follows: Assessor, S. H. Sadoris; clerk, George L. Dix; trustees, Fred Pohl, M. Schlegel and Arthur Wills.

Source: History of Boone County, Iowa
N. E. Goldthwait, Supervising Editor
Illustrated, Volume I
Chicago, Pioneer Publishing Company
1914

Transcribed by Lynn Diemer-Mathews and uploaded May 28, 2024.

Site Terms, Conditions & Disclaimer