Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Part II, Chapter XXII

Union Township - Geography and Early History - Town ship Officers - Names of First Settlers -
Simeon Reynolds - A One-man Garrison - A Family Council - Andrew Startz - Hill Milling Adventure -
A Dog Trial and a Big Drunk - Samuel Teters - Sickness and Privation - A Long Walk -
A Successful Wolf Hunt - Saving the Corn - Borrowing - The First School Teacher

On the 7th of October, 1850, in compliance with a petition, it was ordered by the Commissioners that all of town. 76, range 20, south of the river, and all of 77, same range, south of the river, be called Union township, from and after the first Monday of April, 1851.

This township is bounded on the north by Red Rock, with the Des Moines river as its boundary line; on the east by Polk, on the south by Knoxville, and on the west by Pleasant Grove and Swan.

There is no stream of any considerable size coursing through this township, but many small creeks, the largest of which is Camp creek. That portion lying contiguous to the river is somewhat hilly, but well timbered. The strip margining the river is mostly flat bottom land, partly prairie, the most noted of which is Butcher’s prairie. In some places the upland terminate in abrupt rocky cliffs. The southern portion of the township is mostly upland prairie, and is a good farming district.

The first election in this township was held at the house of William Ballard, April 2, 1851. After the appointment of Wm. Ballard, Geo. Teters and Simeon Reynolds, as judges of the election, and Westley Teters and Wm. M. Norris, as clerks, the following named officers were elected: Wm. M Norris and Samuel E. Teters, Justices of the Peace; Andrew Startz, Wm. Ballard and Alfred Reese, Trustees; James Amos, Treasurer; John W. Broadess and Robert Gusten, Constables; Andrew Startz and Samuel Ballard, Road Supervisors; and Simeon Reynolds, Clerk. No record of the number of votes cast.

The names of a majority of those who settled in the township at an early date are, Simeon and Geo. Reynolds, Wm. Richard and John Butcher, Hiram Steel, Duncan Neil, Vandenford, John Flanders, Robert Gusten, Andrew Startz, Samuel, Geo. and Westley Teters, and Wm. Luty.

John Flanders now lives in Red Rock township, having sold his claim to William Ballard at an early date. Wm. Luty came from Ross county, Ohio, in 1843. Died August 21st, 1871.

Simeon Reynolds was born in Duchess county, New York, March 16, 1786, moved to Ohio in 1816 or ‘17, and from thence to Marion county, November, 1845, elected member of the State Legislature and served in the House in 1847. Died April 21st, 1852.

Mrs. Amanda Reynolds, his widow, still lives on the farm they first settled on, on Butcher’s prairie, and his two sons, who also took claims at the same time, live in the neighborhood. Mrs. R. was the first white woman that become a citizen in this part of the country.

On their arrival, November 2d, Mr. Reynolds and family took lodging in a little cabin formerly owned by Butcher, to whom the government had granted the privilege of making settlement there as early as 1843, in consideration of services he had rendered by repairing or making roads. The claim was at this time owned and occupied by Steel and Neal, of whom Mr. R. purchased it. Soon after this Vanderbilt entered a portion this claim, securing a title therefore, then took a fortified position on the opposite bank of the river in order to hold it. But he was at length persuaded to capitulate by giving a deed for the land, which he did, and received his entrance money.

The first summer of their residence here was extremely warm, and for a time every member of the family was prostrated by the ague, and consequently much reduced in the way of subsistence. Discouraged at the prospect, Mr. Reynolds began to entertain serious thoughts of returning to the East; but this, he also thought, would be an arbitrary act, in case it should be contrary to the wishes of at least a majority of the family. So he convened a council of all who were of a sufficient age to understand and appreciate the importance of the question, to discuss it fully, and then vote as their judgments dictated. In spite of the most persuasive argument manifest in the pale face of every member of this model republic in favor of returning to their old home, a decided majority was against it, and all peaceably yielded to the decision.

Some time during the winter of ‘45-6 Mr. Reynolds and his sons erected a new house 24 by 18 feet square, of hewed logs and lumber, there not being a sawed board about it. For some time this dwelling served as a house of entertainment for immigrants going up the country, and was often so full that there was scarcely room for all to lie down.

Andrew Startz was a native of Pennsylvania, from whence he began to move westward in 1805, till he arrived at Burlington, Iowa, in 1839, and from thence to the White Breast Settlement, in 1844 or ‘45, and finally settled in Union. Since then he has been to California two or three times. He is now a citizen of Missouri.

In 1844 Mr. Startz went to Burlington to get some corn he had cultivated there, and took thirty-six bushels of it to get ground at Waterville. In this trip he was greatly detained by high waters, and did not reach home till about the end of six weeks. During this time Mrs. Startz and two of the children cultivated fifteen acres of corn with hoes and kept it clean.

Such was the scarcity of breadstuffs at this time that Mr. S.’s supply of meal was besieged by so many borrowers that he soon loaned out all but about three bushels. Fifteen bushels of it were never returned.

Mr. Startz made three trips to Burlington to mill. At this time there was no settlement between Fairfield and Oskaloosa, and but few houses between that and Red Rock. On one occasion it was so cold that Mr. S. was compelled to run for several miles to keep from freezing till he could reach a shelter, which he found at Blakeway’s in what is now Summit, after midnight.

Mr. Startz was the hero of a legal contest that came before a justice’s court in Red Rock, in ‘46 or ‘47, under the title of “Brown vs. Startz,” the object of which was to establish the ownership of a certain dog claimed by both parties. As numbers of people came to witness the trial. After it was over, and judgment was rendered in favor of Startz, the latter proposed to treat the company, which was not objected to. But, as enough whisky could not be found, several kinds of liquors were mixed, and the result was soon perceptible and highly entertaining. A small quantity of such a compound was sufficient to disturbe the mental if not the physical equilibrium of even those who had been accustomed to drinking one kind. It is supposed that there were more tipsy people in Red Rock that day than have been there at one time before or since. Even staid old fellows who prided themselves upon their sobriety, made the unfortunate mistake of taking “a drop too much” on that occasion.

Samuel Teters, who still resides on the farm he originally claimed and entered, in the southeast quarter of the township, first came from Ross county, Ohio, in the autumn of 1844, to Van Buren county, Iowa, where he remained till the spring following, when he came to this county. As it was in March when he arrived with his family, and the weather was cold and rough, they took up their quarters with a family named Hahn, living on the north side of the river, till a place could be provided on their own claim. They then took up their residence in a small claim pen that had a bark door shutter, and prepared to battle against the inconveniences of frontier life; and it was, indeed, a hard battle to fight.

Mr. Teters was a blacksmith and gunsmith, and with a view of earning something at that business he put up a temporary shop on the bank of the river, set his anvil on a stump, and employed himself at stacking plows, sharpening plow-shares and repairing guns. In the autumn of ‘46 he and his family fell sick, and became so helpless that at one time they had neither fire nor water in the house for three days. Game was plenty, and once Mr. T. was able to shoot a turkey from the door, but was too weak to get it. And all this time they had no kind of breadstuff except boiled corn. But so soon as he was able to get abroad with his gun, he killed two large deers one day, one of which yielded fourteen pounds of tallow. Next day he got help to bring them home, and on the day following that he took them to Red Rock and sold them for seven dollars in cash and a sack of flour.

In the autumn of ‘48 Mr. Teters had occasion to go to Iowa City, a distance of about one hundred miles, to enter his land. On this occasion the utmost haste was required, and Mr. T. performed the journey in forty-eight hours, going by way of Oskaloosa, and traveling night and day.

In those early days when neighbors were so far apart, and even then few of them were in possession of those etceteras that neighbors are in the habit of borrowing and lending, the cost of borrowing sometimes overrun the value of the article borrowed. Yet such small articles were deemed indispensable, and those who chanced to have them could scarcely refuse to lend to those who had not. An instance or two may apply here. At one time a man came down from the Fort to the Butcher farm for corn. But there was nothing to measure the grain in, and the purchaser paddled down to Red Rock, borrowed a half bushel measure, and returned the same day, making a trip of sixteen miles. And it was not an uncommon occurrence for persons to go eight or ten miles to grind their axes.

Many stories are related of the depredations of those intolerable pests of every new country, the wolves. The winter of 1848 and 1849 will long be remembered on account of the depth of snow that fell and the severity of the cold. And the wolves, should any that experienced that winter yet survive, may have the most sorrowful occasion to remember it on account of their numbers that were slaughtered by their natural enemies. Weakened by starvation, and impeded by the deep snow, they were easily run down by men on horseback. Mr. William Ballard relates that he and his two sons thus killed nine in one day, and his exploit is but one in many instances.

The Indians also proved troublesome by appropriating everything to their own use that could be used for food. Once during the absence of Mr. Startz, they appropriated most of his corn from the crib; and Mrs. S., in order to save some of it had to store it in the house. Not having any sacks to carry it in, she used a bed tick for this purpose.

Among the first persons that taught school in Union was Nancy Beckwith. This was in 1848, in the western part of the township, and in a cabin owned by Jacob Haynes.

Population of Union township by the U. S. census of 1870:

Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 755
Foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .765

Transcribed by Mary E. Boyer, 12/06, reformatted by Al Hibbard 12 Oct 2013.