Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-05-26
Wall and Evans, young men work
;pr IN tho mill and bOardinp with

tober. During the fall came Henry
B. Hatch who stopped with Kessler,
and two young men named Daggett
and Simmons, who lived with Brew
er and Clark.
There was a liquor establishment
at Quasqueton that Autumn, but it
was soon broken up. No wheat
was raised in the county that year.
Besides the settlement at Quasque-
ton, consisting of the families and
operations of Messrs. Bennett and
Styles, there were but five other
places in the county settled, namely:
/. Sanford's place; 2. Ezra Aliens
place, at Spring Grove; 8. Clark
and Brewers place, on the west side
of the river; 4. Kessler's place; S.
Spencer's place, later known as the
Malcom Estate.
Late in the fall of 1912, one John
son settled between Quasqueton and
the present site of Independence.
He was accompanied by his daught-
er Kate, whom he used to point out
to strangers, as the veritable "Queen
ofthe Thousand Isles" ofthe St Law
renee, and thus infercntially claim
for himself identity with the famous
river pirate of the same name. Pi-
rate or not he certainly had the rep
utation of thief and probably de-
served it. His avowcd object, like
that of Bennett, was to make his set
tlement the future county seat. But
his career was brief, Bennett, jeal-
Gus Of Johnson's ambition for coun-
ty seat honors, and of his rivalry in
rascality, organized a raid upon his
up the river neighbor, the particu-
lars of which we gather from a his
tory of the transaction, in the
Guardian of Nov. 5th, 1865. Ac-
cording to the account, Bennett, on
the 18th day of December, started
with ten white men, five Indians
and keg of whisky to lynch John
son and drive him from the country.
He did not reveal to his companions
the object of the expedition, but on
the way, each having imbibed free
ly from the keg, they formed Il res
olution that if any one OF them
should leave the party before ac-
complishing the object Bennett had
in view he should receive twenty
lashes. Arriving at Johnson's
place, they drove him from the
house, tied him to tree and admin
istercd thirty-ninc stripes. They
made him pack up and leave the
place with his Kate and another
girl whom he had in the house.
johnson left his ''family' twenty.
two miles down the river and pro-
ceedcd to Marion, in Linn county,
where he found Sheriff Gray, and
with him returned. Bennett refus-
ed to be taken with this small force
and the Sheriff left for more men.
The next day Bennett, with his
comrades, Jctfcrs, Warner, Hall,
Day and Evans, fearing the results,
left the place, going northward,
This was the goth of December and
the snow was twenty inches deep.
They were all on foot but Bennett
(who rode horse), and carried
nothing but whisky with them.
The second day Warner was taken
with cramps and was buried in the
snow. Day and Hall could moi
travel fast enough and they two
were left behind. Only two got
through to Coffin's Grove besides
Bennett, neither of them being able
to speak. Those left behind were
found, one dead, standing in his
tracks, another frozen so much that
he lost both feet and the flesh from
his hands. Warner, who was
buried in the snow, lost one Of his
feet. AS a finale to this lynching
affair, one Parrish, as we'll as Styles
and Reese, were sent to States Pris-
on as accomplices in the affair.
johnson, finding the moral atmos-
phere not congenial, left in the
spring, locating in Mahaska county,
where he was shot, it is supposed,
by Bennett, who had been seen
prowling about the neighborhood.
Bennett was never caught. He was
last heard from at Potosi, Wiscon-
sin, where he was keeping dog
gerry.
The settlers continued to arrive,
one after another, until the organi-
zation of the county, very little of
its history for that period having
anything to do with Independence.
Now let us transfer our attention
to the county as it now is, leaving
other historical matters to appear
in the history of our city.
Buchanan county, then, is in the
third tier of counties west of the
Mississippi river and the third south
of the Minnesota line, which
places it in one of the most fertile
regions in the Northwest, and where
twenty years ago it was vast open
country with scarce an improved
farm, now is a thickly settled com-
try and improved in high degree.
ITS POPULATION,
Though not as great as some of
the other counties of the State
which contain large cities, we think
but few portions Of Iowa can show
tract of country twenty-four miles
square with a thriftier or dcnser
farming population. We have ia
ken the trouble to examine the
records regarding the population OF
Buchanan county, from its organiza-
ton to the census returns of 1870,
and the investigation is SO satisfac-
tory that we present the results OBJ
tanned:
YEAR. POP YEAR. POP.
1916. .......... 149 1859. ...... 6,918
1S47. ........ $50 1860. 80. 1906
1S49. ........ 406 1868. ...... 1924
1850. ......... 519 1865. 80. ,O37
1851 ........1 ,OO6 1867. ..12,231
1852. 1,023 1869. IA ,973
1854. 200 1870. ,O42
lS0O. ID, 80