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CHAPTER V.THE FIRST SETTLERS. (Cont'd)From History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915)
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Rev. Richard Collins Meek was born in Kentucky, whence he went to Wayne county, Indiana, where he was educated, taught school and entered the ministry in the Methodist church. He preached in Indiana until 1833, then went to Niles, Michigan, and continued preaching in northern Indiana and in Michigan until 1850. When the Methodist church split, in 1844, he joined the Methodist church, South. He went to Holt county, Missouri, whence he came to Audubon county in 1855. He bought his first home here from Walter J. Jardine in section 27, in what is now Exira township. He entered, and also secured by purchase, several hundred acres of brush land east and south of the "Big Grove." The town of Dayton, in section 22, was laid out on his land. He was a Democrat, and his sympathies were with the South. During the war he was at an Indian mission school in Kansas, and returned here at the close of the war, in 1865. He was deeply interested in religious affairs, and was a preacher of more than ordinary ability, but exceedingly old-fashioned. He often preached here to attentive audiences. His wife was Eliza Tatman, better known as "Aunty Meek." They were truly pious people, and of most unblemished characters. She was a homeopathic physician, but not a general practitioner. He bought the old first school house in Exira, and converted it into a dwelling, where he sometimes lived, and alternately on his farm. Once, in early times, there REV. R. C. MEEK AND WIFE.Griggs's success with the business exalted him to the top notch in the estimation of "Aunty," besides netting him a handsome reimbursement for his professional skill and service. And, perhaps, learning that he was the son of a Methodist presiding elder, did not decrease her admiration. At any rate, from that time onward he stood in "high feather" with Mrs. Meek--so much so, that she made it a point to frequently consult his opinion on divers subjects. During the "grasshopper year," 1875, the prospect of losing the crops by those pests, looked probable. One day, in the worst of the scare, "Aunty" called at John's office to take advice whether it would be propitious to call the people together for a general meeting to pray to have the grasshoppers removed, and earnestly sought his best judgment on the subject in the very best of good faith. John was puzzled for once. It was out of his line. So he cautiously told the old lady: "It can do no harm to try." And then the spirit of mischief and mirth tempted him further to advise: "When the people come to the meeting, let them all go down into the timber and each secure a good brush, and then they can kill a great many grasshoppers in that way." She accepted his remark with a coolness which savored of her doubt of his sincerity. However, about that time the hoppers unanimously rose up in a twinkling and flew away, never since to return. Who can say whether the good intentions of "Aunty" Meek did not hasten their departure? She was a strong temperance woman, a thorn in the flesh in her day to the "booze venders," and she actively engaged in prosecution of the dealers in intoxicating liquor. Mr. Meek and his good wife were childless. |
