CHAPTER XV.
PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
Pleasant township, which is known on the surveyors' plats as township 74, range 37, was originally a part of Cass township, and was set off from it in 1870, when the county was reorganized to make the civil townships coincide with the Congressional. The warrant for the election for organizing purposes was issued to John W. Fuson, June 11, 1870, and the election was ordered to be held in October, of that year, at the Settler school house.
WATER COURSES AND "PLEASANT" FEATURES.
Lone Tree creek has its source in the northwest part of the township in numerous little rivulets, and where these join to form the creek it flows tortuously toward the west, meeting Baughman's creek in the southwest corner of section 7, just before the combined stream leaves the county. Baughman's creek enters the township from Cass, at the northeast quarter of section 4, and flows southwestwardly to its confluence with Indian creek. Clark's creek has its origin in several rivulets a little south of the center of the township, and flows southwest until it leaves the county, about the center of the west line of section 31. Besides these streams and their many branches, small tributaries of other water courses supply various corners of the township, which is therefore finely watered and drained and possesses excellent advantages for the raising of either grain or stock.
This fact, taken in connection with the uniform productiveness of the soil and the accessibility, as a market, of the flourishing town of Griswold, makes Pleasant township one of the most desirable sections in the county, and gives a special significance to the name which is fully appreciated, both by its prosperous farmers and its substantial townsmen. Pleasant Ridge, commencing between sections 1 and 2 and extending southward throughout the entire length of the township, seems to have been bounteously favored by nature. The road which follows it passes through one of the prettiest pieces of farming country in the West. Splendid farms, large and well-kept houses, neat and tasty improvements, sleek looking stock and happy people, blend with the beautiful landscape in a charming picture.
The branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad from Atlantic enters the township from the north, between sections 5 and 6, and the branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy passes out, toward Red Oak, about the middle of the west line of section 19. Good wagon roads intersect the territory at short intervals, usually following the section lines.
PIONEERS OF PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
When that hardy young Pennsylvanian, William Baughman, drove his prairie schooner from Keokuk and landed at his destination--sections 4 and 5--there was not a neighbor with which to consult within the present limits of Pleasant township. Seeing that he was alone, this was not such a hardship; but the following winter he brought his wife from Pennsylvania and located the family at Indiantown, while he came again into the township to cut logs for the building of a cabin. These he hauled to Lewis, where he had them cut into the proper lengths, carted them back and built with them the first house in Pleasant township, into which he moved his family in the spring of 1856. Mr. Baughman became one of the most prosperous and prominent citizens in this section, served two years in the State Assembly in the early 'eighties, and is now a veteran pioneer of seventy-eight.
So far as known, no permanent settlers followed Mr. Baughman into Pleasant township prior to the 'sixties. Samuel Stetler, an Ohio native, an overland miner in California, and a Lee county (Ill.) farmer, traded his land in that State for 160 acres on sections 24 and 25, and in 1862 took possession of his newly acquired property. He returned to Lee county for his family, and in September of that year they removed hither, making the journey with a pair of horses and a wagon. They brought with them their household goods and provisions, camping on the way, and after their arrival used the wagon for their bed chamber until the house was completed. Mr. Stetler remained on the farm which he purchased shortly after the death of his first wife, remarried and reared two families of children, and was the final owner of a valuable homestead and the possessor of an eminently respectable name.
In the spring of 1866 George Stedwell, of Winneshiek county, this State, settled on section 31, and in 1867 Henry A. Barton came from Washington county and located on sections 23 and 26. Josiah Merrit came from Illinois, temporarily, in 1868, and permanently in 1870, finally buying eighty acres on section 4.
In the fall of 1869 Thomas B. Grennell came from Hamilton county, N. Y., and purchased a tract of wild land on section 14. He spent the following winter near Lewis, during which time he built a house upon the land, moving his family into it April 5, 1870. He afterward improved the place in every way, and made an attractive and desirable homestead of it.
In 1869 Joseph Harlan, formerly of Polk county, this State, settled on the southwest quarter of section 24; W. T. Hughes on the southeast quarter of section 22; John Ketchum on the south half of section 35; John H. Lowman on the southeast quarter of section 34, and Simon Proctor on section 14. When a boy John Lowman moved with his parents from Cass county, Ind., to Polk county, Iowa, and from there enlisted in the Civil War as a member of the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, serving in the Southwest during the last three years of the Rebellion. Upon his return to Iowa he occupied a portion of the family homestead for a number of years, and after a short stay in Dakota bought the land in this township, which he has since made his home, honored as a soldier, a public official and a substantial citizen.
In the fall of 1869 Simon Proctor came to Pleasant township, after having farmed for many years in Guernsey county, Ohio, and about two years in Missouri. He had traded his Ohio farm for 240 acres of unimproved land on section 14, upon which he erected a frame house, moving his family into the new residence in the spring of 1870. As subsequently improved, this tract remained the family homestead, and here Mr. Proctor died in February, 1877.
The settlers of 1870 were: S. W. Garvin, of Bureau county, who had previously bought eighty acres of wild land in section 7, adjoining Griswold, and who was afterward county supervisor and elected to various township offices; D. W. Smart, on the southwest quarter of section 6; Frank Sherwood, a well educated New Yorker and school teacher, on the southeast quarter of section 13; W. J. Wood, who had lived in Wapello county since he was a young boy and who purchased unimproved land on sections 31 and 32, which he converted into a highly cultivated and valuable farm.
In 1871 John G. Gibson located on 120 acres in section 34; Jesse Thayer an Iowa soldier and a former farmer of Allamakee county, on section 5, and Henry McCullough, afterward one of the elders of the Griswold Presbyterian Church, on section 26. At the time Mr. McCullough was a young man of twenty-six and settled with his widowed mother and his sisters at the locality named. There the family resided until 1881, when they removed to land that he himself had purchased and improved, on section 11. He was one of the first members and the first elder of the Griswold Church.
Lawrence Dolan was a well educated, intelligent, enterprising and prosperous Irish farmer, his large, thoroughly stocked farm of 320 acres being on section 22. When of age he left his native land for America, and located in New Haven, Conn., where he engaged in the manufacture of axles and hardware. In 1866, when twenty-three years of age, he located in Harrison county, Iowa, and, after teaching for about a year, spent three years on the plains between Omaha and Salt Lake City. In July, 1869, Mr. Dolan purchased 120 acres of wild land on section 22, this township, and erected a small house thereon, building a commodious, modern residence in 1883. He added to his original purchase until he owned, as stated, 320 acres, highly improved and furnished with the latest conveniences ofr the raising of fine livestock.
"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 173-176.Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.
