"An Interesting Early History of Decatur County"by Mrs. O.N. Kellogg |
| Chapter Seventeen THIRD TERM OF COURT-OFFICIALS-NEW ARRIVALS- HOME BURNS-SON KILLED-SAW MILL BUILT |
| Mr. Chase still resides on the same farm, the log house, quite a
good one, has been replaced by a frame, the old post and the jail and
orchard doing duty yet. A large family of sons and daughters have gone
out from here to honorable positions in society. One of the sons, Abel
Chase, our county clerk, lost quite a sum of money by the burning of the
court house in 1874. There has been quite a change since Wilson Wafford,
who was clerk after Daniel Moad, carried all the papers in his vest
pocket. This was the third term of court. The grand jury sat in the
school house ease of Decatur City and court was held in Wilson Wafford's
house. Scott and Vanderpool were rivals for some county office. The former sheriff, who could neither read nor write, gained the day. Three other candidates for county offices could barely write their names-could not read writing, any of them. The Cherry farm, opposite Mr Winters', was first claimed by Mr. Winters, and afterward he gave the claim to Mordical Smith, who got logs on the ground ready to raise a house and sent a boy to Garden Grove to invite the Mormon boys to come and help. Through some mistake in the invitation they came two days too late. Meantime Mr. Smith was very angry and declared he would not stop in a country where he couldn't get help to raise a house. This aroused the grit of Mr. Winter's girls and they took hold and raised the house with what help they could get in the two families. When the Mormon boys came they found the family living in it, much to their surprise. Soon it was found that the land was entered. Mr. Smith left it and went out on the prairie. Persuyer was the owner, but he sold it to Jacob Hufford who came on in 1850 and went to improving-planted an orchard that has proved excellent for many years. In February, 1855, Charles L. Kellogg came to Garden Grove from northern Ohio, with his family, Freddie being then an infant. At the same time came Sister Jeannie Johnson and her son, Charles P. Johnson, thirteen years old, my husband's ward. A few days later R. D., more familiarly known since the war as Major Kellogg, came and they have all been more or less identified with the growth and prosperity of the county since that time, the Major having represented the county in the State Legislature two terms. C. P. Johnston is known as the wounded captain, who has lain face downwards upon his county ever since the battle of Jackson, Mississippi. George Poweritz, who came to this county in '51, served during the war as colonel and is now consul from this government at St. Petersburg, Russia. Isaac Miller of High Point, whom we knew at the son-in-law of Father Lea, of Crawford County, Ohio, came in 1854 and bought the farm where he still resides. Hugh Brown also came the same year to Garden Grove, and has made no change of residence except from the old house into the new. In February, '55, Peter Jensen came from Davenport, with my husband, and resided several months with our family. June 8th of the same year, Asabel Culver, with his family, arrived here from Crawford County, Ohio. There was no house vacant, and they camped in their wagons while putting in twenty acres of corn, which he finished planting on the thirteenth, and then procured lumber from John Marshall which he soon converted into a shanty of his own premises and moved into. Always sociable and friendly, they have contributed their full share to the kindly feeling that characterizes a new country. Their daughter, Mary, is my son, Homer's, wife. Their eldest daughter, Marie, married Mr. Orange Culver, and they buried her and her baby in the Garden Grove cemetery two years after her marriage. She died of consumption. Our old friends William and Ruth Davis left Garden Grove for Franklin Township in 1856 and made themselves a comfortable house on the prairie, near several of their children and grandchildren, but their places are now vacant. They were brought up Quakers and continued to use the plain language, though not in their later years identified with that body of Christians. However, the elements of truth and uprightness of character adorned them during all the changes vicissitudes of life, and Ruth was a woman of strong religious feelings and impulses. Both were remarkably unselfish and friendly, always ready to extend the helping hand in sickness or distress. Long may their memory be cherished. Few of the early settlers of this country displayed more energy or enterprise than did John Marshall who came here from Elkhart County, Indiana, in the Autumn of 1852 and settled upon the prairie between Garden Grove and High Point. While cutting and putting up his hay for the Winter and looking out for his supplies generally they lived in a tent. At the end of two months he had built a log stable and covered it with prairie hay, and commenced to build a comfortable log house but before he had proceeded far with the latter, the snow began to fly and the tent became untenable. They then moved into the stable and lived very warm and cozy in it until the fourth of the ensuing March when Mary (now Mrs. Samuel Farquhar), in lighting the lamp, unfortunately ignited a straggling spear of the hay which quickly communicated the blaze to the roof and, in a very few moments, it was consumed. They saved what they could but a chest of tools and some other valuable articles were sacrificed. In 1854 he sold the farm to my husband and built a steam saw mill on the Weldon, west of Garden Grove. In 1855 he added a set of burrs to the mill and produced not only lumber but fine bolted flour as well which, considering the previous condition in that respect, was a great achievement. He also built near the mill a good frame dwelling when a most sad and terrible accident threw a black pall over all earthly objects and made happiness seem a myth. Some persons had rolled a large log upon the inclined plane and left it without blocking it. His little son, Eddie, nine years old, inadvertently stepped upon it, when it rolled, throwing him to the ground, crushing him and eventually causing his death after much suffering. The father could not endure the place which constantly recalled to his mind the fearful event and he determined to leave there. He sold the works out of the mill to parties in Missouri and the building to David Reck for a barn, which purpose it still serves, the farm being now owned by Mack Boyce. The house sold to Major Kellogg and it was soon after moved to Garden Grove. There is nothing there now to indicate the activities that used to make the creek so attractive. Mrs. Patterson has seen fifty Indians and squaws at one time squatting or lounging around the old Mormon mill waiting for meal. Then there were several building and families clustered around there, and again when the later improved mill was in operation and there was also a grave yard there in the days of the Mormons, and even later. Now there is nothing of the kind recognizable. Bricks are made there-nothing remains of all that used to be but the natural scenery. In 1853 Edward Dawes of Crawford County, Ohio, bought the property of my husband known at an early day as the California House, and also the farm of eighty acres belonging to it. He kept successfully a hotel, the Dawes House, until his wife's death, which melancholy event occurred in September, 1858. Previous to this he, in company with John Marshall, built a steam saw mill in Woodland Township, being the first introduction of steam power in utilizing that vast tract of timber. Dan Bowmen came to Garden Grove in 1852 and first kept a store, having bought out John Blades, who built the log house now owned by L. N. Hastings, Sr. Mr. Bowen afterward built a large two-story frame in which he sold goods, also a frame dwelling close by. Later he built the steam mill in company with Mr. McMurray that has proved a permanent source of profit to the different men who have since owned it, and a great convenience to the town and county. Built on the prairie the (several words missing) plenty of water for steam power. A company of Indians and squaws with the papooses visited Garden Grove in the Summer of 1855 for the last time. A young German, Baron von Laer, who has been expelled from the University at home for his Republican proclivities and packed off to America by his friends to keep him out of the way of political surveillance until he should succeed to his estates, seeing how the squaws tumbled about the bundles that they carried, supposed they had stopped and gathered a lot of greens to cook where they camped, little thinking they were papooses, possibly chiefs in embryo. |
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