CHAPTER XIV.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).

THE MANY SETTLERS OF 1856.

The year 1856 was very prolific of new settlers. George Magee, an Irishman, who had been a shoemaker in Philadelphia making shoes for the Mexican soldiers (in the employ of the government), came to the township in this year and located on section 18. He purchased the land of a man by the name of Marshall, who had already erected a log cabin, sixteen feet square, upon it. Magee occupied this ready-made house until 1863, when he built a more modern residence, dying in it and on the old homestead June 19, 1881. He was the first shoemaker in the township, and followed his trade usually during the months when he could not engage in agriculture.

William Hedges migrated from Illinois, made a settlement on section 17, and after improving the property to some extent removed to Clark's Grove, Atlantic township, in 1858. In the spring of 1863 he left the State for Missouri.

In August, 1856, Frederick Stoodt purchased the claim of Charles Jackson, as previously noted, and located on the southeast Quarter of section 7, where he passed the balance of his life, with the exception of two profitable years during the Civil War when he was engaged in the Colorado mines.

FIRST BLACKSMITH SHOP.

Frank Nordman, who married a sister of Mr. Stoodt, became a settler of the township two days after his broth-in-law, at which time he bought forty acres of land from William Judd, on section 17, and to which he moved his family. During that fall (1856) he built the first blacksmith shop in Franklin township, working at his trade and residing on his homestead until 1859, when he removed with his family to Colorado. He there engaged in blacksmithing until 1866, returning then to this township and buying a farm of 120 acres just north of Wiota, which remained the family residence for many years.

P. N. Finch located on section 2 in October, 1856, and within the next thirty years amassed an easy competency from his farm, as well as established an enviable position as a substantial, honorable citizen.

LATER COMERS.

John Seaman and his son, Frederick A., came from Wisconsin in the year 1857, and settled on section 20. The father died there in March, 1867, and the son, after a service of three years in the Civil War, with the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, returned to live in the same locality.

In 1857 also came William Prall, who, after a residence of eight years removed to Atlantic township, and Fabius Robbins, who was from Ohio and lived on section 8 until the latter portion of the Civil War, when he left for Southern Kansas.

John W. Humerick, a robust Prussian, came from Ohio in September, 1858, and settled on section 30, built a log cabin and at once commenced making improvements. He and his family lived in that cabin until 1872, when he erected a fine substantial frame residence in keeping with the prosperous appearance of his homestead, and there he died on the 27th of February of the following year.

W. W. Richmond, a settler of '58, resided on section 9 until 1868, when he removed to Missouri. Henry Soper and family, who afterward settled in Atlantic township, located in Franklin township in 1859.

In January, 1860, Robert Turner, an Englishman, settled with his family on section 3, and died in March of the following year. His widow resided on the homestead until her death in January, 1878, and his son, James R. Turner, came into possession of the property, and became one of the solid men of the township and the county.

William W. McClure located on section 4, in 1860, his property including a log house and ten acres of broken land. He afterward brought the place into fine condition, and with the exception of a year spent at Pike's Peak, made the original tract his permanent homestead.

James S. Morgan located on section 7 in the year 1864, first coming to Iowa from the Buckeye State in 1856. In 1856 he entered the eighty acres on which he resided, with an adjoining "eighty" on section 8, but, as stated, he did not come to Franklin township to live until 1864. He afterward added to his property until he was the owner of 245 acres of finely improved land.

William Wood, a native of Derbyshire, England, who held at different times all the offices within the gift of the township, settled in the township in January, 1865, later purchasing a homestead on section 10. It consisted of 140 acres, thirty acres of which were timber.

In April, 1865, James Robinson, who had married a sister of Robert Turner, settled on the northeast quarter of section 3, upon virtually unimproved land. He died in the following July, and the widow and several of her sons continued the improvement of the homestead, which consisted of 200 acres of choice land.

Henry H. Most, German born, settled on section 31, in 1866, and resided there for twenty years or more. S. J. Roe, who located on section 17 during the same year, had seen service in the Civil War as an Illinois soldier; at that time he opened a farm of 360 acres, pronounced to be one of the first homesteads and most productive pieces of land in the county. The original price was $5 per acre.

Nicholas Bartles was also an Illinois soldier, as well as a native of the State, and soon after the War of the Rebellion located on section 22. It was an eighty-acre farm and Mr. Bartles afterward bought another tract of like extent on section 27. In 1870 he married Tabitha Eller, a daughter of Jesse Eller, the pioneer settler of Franklin township, and died ten years later, leaving the widow and three sons, who continued to make their homestead the farm on section 22.

John McKnight, who served with an Ohio regiment through the full Civil War period, participating in the campaigns of the Southwest and Sherman's historic marches and sieges through the southern States, settled upon section 31, in 1870, and eventually owned a fine property of 240 acres.

John M. Engle owed 120 acres on section 27, where he located in the spring of that year. Up to this time he had lived in Illinois, and by trade was a wagon and carriage maker. He had been a zealous member of the Church of God since he was fifteen years of age, and finally was chosen by the brethren, elder and pastor. He commenced to preach in 1872, and continued to occupy a pulpit for a number of years, or until compelled to abandon the portion of his pastoral work on account of a bronchial difficulty. Of his family of nine children only two reached years of maturity, and of his seven deceased, four died in June, 1876, between the 18th and 22d.

Phillip Dasher, a German and a prominent raiser of livestock, was a settler of 1870, and located on section 15, where he owned 240 acres of nicely cultivated land and bred some of the finest stock in the county.

OLIVER COOMES.

Oliver Coomes, well known as a Republican leader and a writer of fiction (of the western adventure type), was one of the most prominent settlers of the middle pioneer times, coming to Franklin township in the fall of 1870. He was born in Licking county, Ohio, August 26, 1845, but when a boy of eleven removed with his parents to Jasper county, this State. Oliver attended district school in winter and worked on the farm and in his father's pottery in summer. In the winter of 1865 he entered Iowa College with the intention of taking a full course, but after a few months his father's financial circumstances compelled him to leave college and return to the potter's wheel. Three years after his marriage he settled in Franklin township, and his farm became a model for productiveness and attractiveness. Besides engaging in its improvement he delved quite extensively in the field of Western romance, contributing many serials to the "New York Weekly" and "Saturday Journal." From the time of his arrival in the county Mr. Coomes was prominently identified with the school interests of Franklin township. In 1877 he was elected to the Legislature of the State over James Byrd, being re-elected in 1879 over R. G. Phelps, of Atlantic.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 166-169.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2018.