"Almost all our information about John Calligan was written in the book, The History of Pocahontas County Iowa, by Flickinger, published in 1904. Following are some interesting excerpts from that book.

"Calligan John (b. 1822), who was the first settler to effect the location of his family in Pochontas County, on the se1/4 Sec.2 Lizard township, is native of Galway County, Ireland. In 1847 at 25 he came to St. John's, New Brunswick, and the next year to Maine, where in 1849 at Ellsworth he married Bridget Broderick.(b.1821), sister of Michael Broderick. He remained there until the spring of 1856, when he brought his family to Fort Dodge, where he arrived on may 13th. This trip was one he never forgot. He came on the cars as far as Dubuque, which was the terminus of the railroad. He paid the driver of a stagecoach $45 to take his wife and four children to Fort Dodge, and then he set out on foot and walked the entire distance of 200 miles. The only bridge west of Dubuque was at Ceder Falls over the Ceder River. Usually he had to wade or swim the streams. Arriving at Fort Dodge he pushed on 20 miles farther west where his brother-inlaw, Michael Broderick, was awaiting his arrival, and by his help he was enabled to locate his family on the frontier in the Lizard settlement before those who had taken claims before him."

"Both the claims of Michael Broderick and John Calligan were entered and paid for in cash at $1.25 an acre on July 3,1856, which is the earliest date on which any lands in Pocahontas County were entered or sold."

"These fact suggest the courage and indomitable perseverance of the man. He did not shrink from the task because it was difficult. If the wilderness was wild before him he knew why he had traveled all the way from Maine to the Lizard and without any indecision or hesitancy began to lay the foundation for his future home and fortune. In this effort he encountered many discouragements, but rising above them, achieved good success. He possessed the faculty of utilizing to good advantage the resources of nature that for many years were free around him."

"The Cabin of John Calligan, built in July, was the first one erected in 1856. It was built of unhewn logs taken from the native timber on the premises and the roof was constructed of split clapboards covered with dirt and prairie sod. It had a large fireplace on the east end of it and Christmas Eve some logs were rolled in and the fire kept burning all night. The burning of the Yule log on Christmas Eve was an event of considerable interest in those days since there was little or nothing in the way of variety to attract attention. He occupied this log cabin for seven years and in 1863 built a larger house of hewn logs and sawn lumber, hauling the latter from Boonsboro, the first county seat of Boone County."

"During the first year Mr. Culligan raised a good crop of potatoes and sold some of them the following spring at $2.00 a bushel. He had seventeen acres of fine looking corn that had been planted and cultivated with a hand hoe after the sod had been turned, but a severe frost on the 16th day of September completely destroyed it. He was a good hand with the flail and many a crop of wheat did he pound in the cooler weather with this rude implement for the man of muscle, using a bare spot of ground for a threshing floor, before the arrival of the threshing machine. The first sack of flour bought at Fort Dodge, weighing 100 pounds, cost him $10 and bacon 17 cents a pound. Salt was seven cents a pound and butter was also seven cents a pound, but the farmer could not get a pound of salt for a pound of butter, because the farmer had to be paid in cash while the latter was payable in trade. To appreciate this apparently this anomalous statement it must be remembered that all groceries and store goods had to be hauled on wagons from the Mississippi River, a distance of nearly 200 miles, and there were but two stores in Fort Dodge, the one kept by Major Williams and the other by John Haire. There was great demand for salt, and it was a cash article while butter was neither in demand nor its price payable in cash."

"There were about twenty acres of timber on the claim of Mr. Calligan and forty acres on the adjoining claim of his brother-inlaw, Michael Broderick. This timber, which was along the banks of the Lizard Creek, was full of game, such as beaver, mink, and the muskrat. Mr. Calligan had never engaged in Trapping, but when he found the Indians and others came long distances for that special purpose and were often very successful, he began to do so, too, and realized an annual income from this source ranging from $100 to $130 for several years. Many a time did Mrs. Calligan carry a sack of furs all the way to Fort Dodge, twenty miles distant, and return the same day lugging her purchases."

"This Lizard settlement was founded on the frontier in the expectation of immediate railroad facilities, but the panic of 1857 followed by the Civil War of 1861, put a sudden and absolute check on all such enterprises and left them unexpectedly without money or help twenty miles from Fort Dodge, the nearest trading point, which was then nothing but a deserted soldier's barracks that was often in need of provisions sufficient to meet local demands. There were no grades or bridges, and the sloughs were impassible a great part of the year except in skiffs or dugouts."

"On one occasion in the winter of 1857, Mr. Calligan saw an otter at a distance moving in the direction of a spring. He managed to get near the spring without being observed, and when the otter arrived it showed signs of battle, until he laid it low with a whack from a club he had provided for that purpose. This otter weighed about thirty pounds and he received $6.00 for its fur in Fort Dodge." "On another occasion two braves that had been trapping around Lizard Lake came to the home of John Calligan at a time when he and his wife were in the field, and Ellen Broderick (Mrs. Philip Russell) and Mrs. Dennis Conners were in the cabin. Edward, the oldest of the children, was sent to the field for Mr. Calligan and when he arrived they signified by various gestures that they wanted something to eat. Corn bread and meat was very freely served them on chairs outside the cabin." "Then they went to the home of Henry Brockshink where they frightened the women folks, shot the dog and stole a blanket and several other articles. When Brockshink returned and learned what the Indians had done, he hastened to Fort Dodge and, returning with a posse of armed horsemen, he surprised the settlers considerably, but found no other traces of Indians."

"As the years passed, he (John Calligan) enlarged and beautified his home; increased his original farm to several hundred acres and occupied it until 1894 when he moved to Gilmore City, where his estimable wife, also a native of Ireland, died at 80 in 1901."

His house was used for the elections and meetings of the township officers during the year 1865. He served as a trustee of the township in 1862, was a member of the first school board, and the first school district was named in his honor."

His family consisted of five children: Edward M. (born Maine, 1850), who taught the first school in Fonda, in 1878 married Mary Lane and located on a farm. He served several years each as clerk, trustee and justice. A few years ago he moved to Dakota City where his wife died in 1898 leaving a family of eleven children. Edward Calligan, 6 feet 2 inches in height and weighing 240 pounds, was the largest man raised on the Lizard. Mary A. in 1872 married M. J. Henneberry, lives in Humboldt County and has six children. Thomas J. (born Maine, 1853), in 1878 married Mary J Crilly and their only child died in infancy. He has a splendid farm in Lizard township which he occupied until a few years ago, when he moved to Gilmore City where he has since been engaged in the real estate business. He was a member of the board of county supervisors 1884-86. Ellen F. 1878 married P. R. Powers, lives in Lohrville and has a family of nine children. Maggie (born Aug. 11, 1857), the second child born in Pocahontas County, in 1881 married Morris O'Connor, who died the next year leaving one child. In 1884 she married James Whalan, lives in Emmetsburg and their family consists of eleven children.

"Patrick Calligan, John's brother, was killed through an accident in the fall of 1856, and his death was the first one that occurred in the county."

Actress and academy award winner, Diane (Hall) Keaton, is a descendant of Ellen Calligan Powers. Transcribed by: Dan