"An Interesting Early History of Decatur County"

by Mrs. O.N. Kellogg
 
Chapter Twenty-One

EARLY SETTLERS-M. E. CHURCHES-GARDEN GROVE SCHOOL REBUILT-
WOOLEN FACTORY BUILT AT LEON
 
John Jordan came into this county in 1852 and has been conversant with all the important events in its history, having participated in many of them. John Tharp came in 1853. They lived at first in a cabin twelve by fourteen-two families together-twenty-three in all. Their beds were in tiers, one above another, and the floor full besides. The first Sunday they felt homesick but a wagon load of them went to Mr. Patterson's to church and, after meeting, Auntie would have them stop to dinner and they felt comforted and were able to endure hardships as good soldiers. How much a kind, friendly recognition helps a stranger in a strange land.

There were at that time only eight buildings in Leon. L.H. Sales came in 1856 to Leon but he was an old resident of the State, coming here from Henry County. He and his aged mother, who resides with him, are familiar with the history of the State while it was yet a territory. His wife says Leon looked pretty new when they came, not a tree or shrub to be seen in town except a little cottonwood that Mrs. Hawley had set out in her dooryard, and a crabapple tree near the Sales' house. The first courthouse, which served also as a schoolhouse, had blown down in 1855 which catastrophe necessitated the building of a schoolhouse, and this in turn served a double purpose, that of school and church until the Fall of 1858 when the first church edifice in the town, (Methodist Episcopal), was enclosed and meetings held in it. Thus the germ that was sprouted in the little claim cabin, then transplanted to the comfortable log house, thence to the schoolhouse, comes now into the house of the Lord, built especially for HIS worship. It was the second in the county, Decatur City (also M.E.) having been built in '53. Both are frame buildings.

F. D. C. Shaw came to Garden Grove in 1855. In the Spring of '56 came G. W. Shaw, an extensive agriculturalist and popular writer on subjects of practical interest. June 1, 1856, came their father, Nathanial Shaw, with his son, A.C. Shaw, and three daughters, Mrs. Ellen Lillard, and Misses Charlotte and Sarah Shaw, and two grandchildren, Willie Jennings and Minnie Lillard. Four of the family immediately united by letter with the M. E. Church, also Mrs. Daniel Hine united at the same time. Meetings were then held at Mr. Arnold's house. This was an important acquisition to the little band. Father Shaw being one of the substantial men of the county and in the church a pillar. Since his death, which occurred several years ago, his daughter, Charlotte, has nobly supplemented his labors and usefulness.

The school house at Garden Grove was rebuilt of brick in 1850 on the same foundation and in the same style as the former wooden building. A donation party for the benefit of Rev. J. L. Brengle was given in it by way of dedication.

J. D. Burns came to Garden Grove in 1850 and followed the mercantile business a short time but soon engaged in agricultural pursuits. He was the first of a large family connection who afterward settled in the county.

L. M. Hastings, Jr. came to Garden Grove in 1858. That year the first teachers' institute ever held in the county convened at Garden Grove. It was an interesting occasion, both to teachers and citizens generally. The days of other years long gone by, when Mr. Hastings was the leader in everything that pertained to the children and youth especially are doubtless cherished by many as among the very happiest of their lives. An indefatigable worker, both in the Sunday School and also as teacher of the high school, he was in some respects perfectly inimitable. For instance, there was a district Sunday School convention appointed here at one time, and he set himself to work to prepare music for the occasion. With no instrument but the violin, and no books for the children to sing from, he taught them both words and music of over thirty pieces. As a great general is powerless without an army, and an army will become demoralized without good leaders, so in this case he was fortunate in being ably seconded. Miss Lucretia Knapp (Mrs. Armstrong), Miss Libbie Burns (Mrs. Kellogg), Little Libbie Woodbury (Mrs. Young), also Mr. E. Knapp, were grouped together so as to have the benefit of the book, while he “line the hymn” in old fashioned style for the children until they had learned them perfectly. At the time I thought that was the best singing I ever heard.

Mr. Elijah Vail of the Ohio House, Garden Grove and two of his sons, John and Jonathan, came in '54 or '55 and his son-in-law, Aaron McBride, an excellent blacksmith and good citizen, came also at an early day.

James Vail has succeeded his father and knows how to keep a hotel. He is especially fortunate in having such excellent cooks and housekeepers as his sister are, who contribute very much to the popularity of the house. They are a good family throughout and have deserved the popularity.

In 1858 Henry Simmons, formerly a merchant in New York City, moved to Garden Grove. The family is highly gifted; two of the daughters, Mrs. Flanagan and Mrs. Vail, writing with great facility, either prose or poetry. The only son, John B. Simmons, an energetic business man, finds the muses very indulgent whenever he propitiates their favors.

Charles D. Hall came to Garden Grove in 1855. Sister Lucille Hall came later, bringing the younger members of the family. No place, however, seems like home to her but Norwalk, Ohio, whither she has returned. Charlie's “taking off” from confirmed old bachelorhood tot he state of matrimony was somewhat romantic. While in the service he became acquainted with a Union family where the regiment to which he belonged was stations in which a young lady from Ohio. A relative, visiting. A mutual attachment resulted and he asked the lady to become Mrs. Hall. She thought the boys in blue were all right, especially only of them, and consented. After Charlie got his discharge he came home, fixed up his farm and log cabin a little, then struck out for Ohio and soon returned with his prize.

Rev. James P. Brengle preached in Garden Grove, Leon and Prairie City fifteen years with great acceptance to all. Preaching was held in the school house after it was built until Mary 27, 1866, when the first Presbyterian Church in the county was dedicated. It is a frame building thirty by forty-six. In 1869 the Methodist Church of Garden Grove was built. It is of brick-a good and commodious structure with a parsonage attached, and all paid for.

The First Baptist Church of Garden Grove was organized in the Summer of 1869 at the school house near Rev. D. Winters' residence with the following members: Mr. and Mrs. Winters, Mrs. Sparling, Mrs. Bumgarner, and Mr. Sanders. In 1874 there were fifteen members. As a specimen of rapid growth, the following was related to respecting a neighborhood in Garden Grove Township. In '69 Welcome Browning moved to Pleasant Ridge. There were then but three fortys priced between Garden Grove and the county line. In '74 it was all fenced and settled and looked like an old country. A year after they moved there, thirteen householders met for consultation on school matters, no one of them having been there a year except Mr. Browning.

Hiram Chase, long a merchant in Garden Grove, has retired upon an excellent farm in High Point. The first resident of the township was Mr. Hankins, one of his daughters marrying Richard Baker, who, with his brother, Samuel and wife, lately married and, making it their wedding excursion, came to Garden Grove in 1851. The firm of D. and A. B. Stearns succeeded to the first store in the county through Henry B. Notson, O. N. Kellogg, Nouson Westcott, and George W. Piper. The business near their management has attained mammoth proportions, being, it is said, the largest retail establishment in the State. A. B. Stearns came to the county in 1854; his brother, D. Stearns, in '55.

In the early settlement of the county wolves were exceedingly plentiful. A certain Mormon woman, who recanted and wrote a book (name forgotten) described a night spent in a lonely cabin on the west bank of the Weldon near Garden Grove, that was truly appalling. I have been told her husband was a Davite, or destroying angel. Through some complication in her affairs, she was left entirely alone, with no human habitation in sight-yet not alone-she had an infant very sick; and when night came, it died. Meantime, with the darkness, came the wolves in troops and surrounded the cabin, making night hideous by their dreadful howling. She fastened down the blanket at the door as tightly as possible but she knew it would not restrain them long. She then placed chairs upon the bed and climbed up from them to a temporary loft of joists without any flooring and sat there and held her dead baby until morning, with the house full of wolves jumping at her and gnashing upon her with their teeth.

I have, myself, seen a wolf canter leisurely across the public square in front of the California House after sunrise one morning, his wolf-ship having been reconnoitering our poultry yard, and helping himself to such as he liked. At night they came all around the house but not in great numbers and nobody thought much about them. In the Winter of '53 and '54, Mrs. Knapp's boys killed twenty-five, the Bakers twenty-six, and Mr. Meacham, fifteen, in Garden Grove. Judge Sales knew of two men killing twenty-five in one afternoon in December of 1858. There was two feet of snow on the ground and the men were on horseback. The wolves would try to hide in the hazel thickets.

In the Winter of '55, John Wolverton lived in a claim cabin built by John S. Brown, not far from Mr. Arnold's. The wolves came to their house and ate their meat, kept in a temporary storeroom attached to the house. In herding sheep it was not unusual for a wolf to jump into the flock and carry off a lamb in broad daylight. Wolves are very fond of the smell of asafetida. Doctor Robers had several times to put his horse to his utmost speed to outrun them, they being in such numbers as to endanger both himself and the horse. It was hard to part with his drugs, but if the worst came to the worst, he had but to throw his saddlebags at them and the possession of the coveted aroma would satisfy their capacity. This reminds of a circumstance. When the commissioners and surveyors had finished running the state road through the center of the south tier of counties west of Bloomfield to the Missouri River, they went north into the second tier, and struck the old Mormon trail to Council Bluffs, and came home by a traveled road. In Mills County they were very hospitably entertained at a mission which had been lately established by the Presbyterian Church. The resident minister's family was very much annoyed by skunks, which would get into the house and into the cellar and everywhere in spite of them. They would uncover and get at their butter, but they nibbled daintily at it and never got into the vessel containing it. In fact, they found them to be rather nice in their habits, but there was an odor about everything connected with the place which they apologized for, and related the following anecdote: A young minister came from the East to visit the mission and while there, he was furnished with a good horse to ride, the saddle being provided with a handsome bearskin cover. The prairies were in their glory, clad in bloom of ten thousand hues. He was enraptured. But not the eye alone ministered to his delectation. He waxed eloquent in praise of “the delightful aroma which pervaded the atmosphere.” The bearskin accounted for the “aroma.”

Sometime in 1851 a panther came up the Weldon and was heard in the woods by several different persons. One night it came up very near Mr. Chase's house in a point of scattering timber and brush in his pasture on his old place now owned by Sarah Shaw. It's terrible human cry, as of one in mortal agony, was enough to freeze one's blood.

John Wolverton made a good improvement on a prairie near Mr. Culver and Father Lillard, and after a few years sold to John McKibben, who came to the county in 1856 and settled first on a hill farm west of the Weldon. Both of these families have proved themselves enterprising citizens, the latter having been active members of the M. E. Church for many years.

The Leon Woolen Factory was first built and put in operation in 1863 near where the railroad crossing is now, on Jonathan Creek. It was in operation there one season then moved to Caster's Mill at Leon, with a spinning jenny and a set of machinery attached. It was then sold to Billy Stout and moved to its present location. He operated it one season and part of another, then sold out to Major Mudgett. He added another set of machinery and five looms, also made additions to the building, and after prosecuting the business successfully two years and over, he sold a half interest to his son, Morris and half to his son-in-law, E. Y Knapp, who afterward bought out his partner and then sold to his brother, C. M. Knapp. It is a good mill, and paying institution. A letter which we now insert in the next chapter will explain itself.
 
 
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