The Harris Centennial
Harris --The past 100 Years
Records from Osceola County Centennial -1972
Page 23
The first settler in Fairview Township was Mr. Ellis, who took his claim there in 1871. This was the only claim taken in that township during that year. There were considerable many claims taken in this township in 1872, the year of a general rush to Northwest Iowa. In April, 1872, George Hamilton settled in Fairview and took east half of the northwest quarter of Section 30. Mr. Hamilton drove with his team, his wife with him, from Clinton County, Iowa, and after taking the claim lived on it continuously until final proof, himself and wife not being away from it at the same time except one night.
S.A. Dove came to Fairview in May, 1872, and settled on the southwest quarter of Section 8. C.A. Foote the same year took the northeast quarter of the same section. During a later residence in the county, and after one of the blizzards, it was impossible to get around with a team, and the necessaries of life to subsist upon were obtained by going on foot with snow shoes. Dove and John Hanna went to Worthington, eleven miles, with snow shoes, and drawing a hand sled. They hauled butter to town and returned with flour; there was no road, but they made the journey in a day, though their return was after dark. Dove came from Clinton County, Iowa, and drove through with a team. He put up first a sod house, in which he lived two years, and then built a frame house, and in 1890, moved to Ocheyedan.
Most of the settlers in Fairview have come at a
recent date, and but few reach back any number of years.
Among its leading farmers at the present time are S. Wright,
Samuel Peterson, John Ward, Frank Palmer, Levi Coyour, Charles
McLagen, S.C. Palmer, Fred Barneking, Fred Hindt, Ed Ward, Thos.
Jackson, W.E. Proper, D.A. Hall, John Hanna, Ed Severence,
Matthew Walling, William and Samuel Hanna, E.S. Webster, George
Miller, Jerry Bean, Milton Woodrow, George Shephard,
Steinkuehler, W.D. Hendrix and William Mowthorpe.