History of Blaine Township – Wright County, Iowa

From The History of Dows Iowa -- 1880-1980 Centennial," 1980, Pages 44 - 46

Blaine Township was originally cut from Iowa and Vernon Townships in October, 1879. It was composed of all of Township 91 - Range 23 and sections 1, 12, and 13 of Township 91 – Range 24. Later in 1883 these three sections became a part of Lincoln Township when that was formed. This left Blaine with its present boundaries - just six miles square.

Blaine was named for James B. Blaine - a statesman and unsuccessful Republican candidate for the presidency in 1884. The first election in the township was held in October, 1879 and township officers were elected. The township was divided into four road districts and by 1883 two more had been added. The first election after reorganization was held in May, 1880. The purpose of this election was to aid the construction of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Northern Railroad. All forty­ nine votes were cast in favor of the project and the railroad reached Dows that fall.

The Iowa River enters north central Blaine and flows diagonally across the eastern part of the township and into Franklin County. This river valley was originally covered with much native timber. Here the first settlements were made. One of the first was at Horse Grove, located in the northern tier of sections, originally containing seven hundred acres. It was so named because of the following incident:

Supposedly, in the early 1850's - a horse belonging to a Mr. Shaw, who was an engineer or surveyor, strayed away and wandered into this grove. He kept wandering through the timber all winter scavenging for food but finally died of starvation in the spring.

Other early settlements in Blaine were Otisville (Dows) in 1858 and Norwich (Galt) in 1881. One of the earliest settlers was N. N. Hiams, who located in the Horse Grove area in 1857. A post office was established in his home and he built one of the first schools in this area. Other early settlers in the rural area were Joseph L. Longley 1867, Wm. Willix 1871, C. W. Burrows 1874, Jesse Severe 1869, and Joseph Grover Ingraham 1875. The west and north portions of Blaine township were settled largely by homesteaders. However, old abstracts show that at least some of the land in the township was originally warranted by the U.S. Government to veterans of the War of 1812. Speculators from the East bought up these acres at low prices and sold them at a profit to early settlers.

These pioneers drained the swamps, broke the prairie sod, and built homes for their families. They suffered many hardships during these early years. Present day residents of Blaine Township are deeply indebted to them for a rich heritage of fertile land and comfortable living.

Blaine Friendship Club - The club was organized in early 1900. It was a neighborhood club. They sewed and did any kind of work that the hostess had to do. Today it is a social club where they attempt to know their neighbor better and enjoy a social afternoon. They entertain their husbands once a year, have a picnic during the summer, and also give to some worthy person each year. Arlene Thayer is the President.

The farm owned by Hi Vanderlip was obtained by the U.S. Government in 1855 by a man whose name was Daniel Robinson. In 1881 H. H. and Anna Kinghorn bought the farm. Mr. Kinghorn became a member of the Wright County Board of Supervisors, and was a member of this board when the County Court House was erected. The name H. H. Kinghorn is engraved on a plate on the southwest corner of the Court House, showing the names of the entire board and year being 1891. The Kinghorn's lived here until 1903, when the farm was sold to William Gorhing. In 1913 Mr. Norman Vanderlip, Hi's father, purchased the farm. Later in 1920 he purchased part of the C. E. Huey farm. Hi remembers that in 1916 a man came by and asked permission to search the river for clams. He used a boat and worked the river about a mile each way from the buildings. He unloaded his boat of the clams, built a fire on the bank to heat the clams to remove the meat, the shells were then hauled to Dows, loaded into a box car and sent to Muscatine, Iowa to the button factory. He has been a member of the County A.S.C. (Agricultural Stabilization Committee) for thirty eight years, of which he was chairman for twenty five years.

Ellsworth Stock Farm

The farm known as the Ellsworth Stock Farm for many years has been the envy of not only the people of Blaine Township, but most of Wright Co. and a great part of the state of Iowa, mainly for its enormous size of nearly 2,000 acres and its magnificent buildings.

The best historical records available show that about 1860, Orlando Ellsworth and Eugene Ellsworth of Iowa Falls would hire a livery team and buggy in the fall and winter and travel from Iowa Falls to near Clarion and would set traps to catch fur bearing animals which were plentiful at that time. They had a small shack and small stable on the site of the Ellsworth farm. They would make this trip about twice each week from October 1 until early in March. These men purchased this farm in two different tracts at a reported price of $2.00 to $5.00 per acre. Around 1890 the farm buildings were started and by 1905 it was highly improved.

E. O. Ellsworth of Iowa Falls acquired this farm from his father Eugene Ellsworth and his uncle, Orlando Ellsworth. Mr. John Buckton became manager of this farm about 1900 and carried on a successful operation of this farm for the Ellsworth family until he retired in 1919. Mr. Buckton maintained a herd of about 200 full blood Hereford cows and in the spring and summer these cows with their calves made a beautiful sight. Mr. Buckton also had a hobby of his own which was raising and training high class race horses. The one outstanding horse which he owned was called "Don Roma", a trotting horse who had a one year record of 2 minutes, 6 seconds for one mile. A large stock barn was built on the farm that had a race track inside the barn one-eighth of a mile in length. There was a large sign erected on the hillside just east of the barn with a painted picture of this favorite horse "Don Roma", also showing the fine race track record. The barns were built adjacent to the railroad so that stock could be loaded directly on to the cars.

Upon the retirement of Mr. Buckton, the management of the farm was taken over by Hans Hansen in 1919, which he carried out until 1947. Mr. Hansen had an extensive grain and livestock program which was the largest of its kind in this part of the country. Horses furnished the power for this operation until 1942 when an International "M" tractor was purchased to supplement the power and several men were employed by Mr. Hansen to carry out the farm work. In 1947 the ranch was inherited by Marsha Middletown, she being a niece of E. O. Ellsworth. This lady lived in California and as Mr. Hansen retired as manager, the duties were taken over by Boyd Patterson in 1947. Boyd was in control of operations until 1954, during this time the same type of practices were continued and extensive fencing was done. The fine wood fences were built and painted white, which added to the beauty of the large farmstead. In 1954 Beryl Mensing became manager under the supervision of the advanced management of the firm of Osgood and Nissely of Iowa Falls. The farm was later sold to Dr. Lamphers, a Des Moines dentist, who retained the same managers. In 1967 the farm was sold by Dr. Lamphers, but divided into two parts. The part west of the north-south blacktop road, which contained most of the buildings, together with the large field lying south of Highway 72 made a total of 1,126 acres. This part was purchased by James Brown and Associates of Hampton and Mason City, Iowa. The part east of the north-south blacktop was purchased by the Inter Development Corporation of Pella, Iowa, who still own this part of the farm. This portion being operated by James Ritter and Forest Denger of Dows, who have a grain and livestock set-up.  The remainder of the farm was sold by the Brown Corp. to Lyle Craig, and was later sold to the present owner, Carl Wibholm in 1973. Mr. Wibholm has recently built a large hog confinement and finishing building and is producing on an average of 2,000 hogs each year. He also has about 125 stock cows, which raise calves each year, and the animals are grown as well as finished by Mr. Wibholm for beef.

Hiams' Brothers Farm

One  of  the  farms  in  Blaine  Township,  that  deserves recognition is the farm of the Hiams brothers located in Section 4 of this township. As you enter the driveway to this neatly kept farmstead there is a sign which denotes that it is a Century Farm and has been in the Hiams family for well over one hundred years.

The first post office in Wright County was established near where the present house now stands in 1856 - this site being called Fryeburg. N. N. Hiams was postmaster from 1868 until 1871, and A. D. Hiams held this position from 1871 until 1882. These men being ancestors of the Hiams Brothers.

The stage coach made trips as often as possible from Alden to Belmond bringing the mail which was sorted in the front room of the Hiam home and the local people would travel there to receive their mail. The above mentioned N. N. Hiams and A. D. Hiams migrated from near Goodell, Iowa to this farm. These men built nine dams on the Iowa River in their time, one of them being the Old Mill Dam south of Rowan and near the Hiam farm. This dam was taken out several years ago when the river was straightened.