The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-07-01
MONTOUR !!
Early History, Business
Prospects, etc.

south side of the Iowa river. 1t is noted
for its beauty, and being an important sta
ton for shipping stock and grain on tn,
G. & NV. r. R., this town should re
ceive the notice in the CHRONICLE, which
its situation demands.
After the Mexican war had closed, tn,
South being SO intensely pro slavery, as t.
be unsatisfactory to western emigrants
composed principally of poor but intelli
gent men; Iowa, although cold and desc
late in winter, was beautiful in her June
dress, and all through the summer of 1S49
large emigration crossed the Mississippi
and settled in the southern and central
portions of the State. Des Moines was 9
town of about three hundred people
Newton, very hamlet; Marietta and
Marshalltown unborn; Iowa City, although
the capital, did not number a thousand
inhabitants.
Isaac Asher, the first settler of Tama
County, made his home in Indian Village
township, near the site of Indiantown in
the fall of 1S49. Robert and Anthony
Gilkerson, settled near Chelsea, the next
Year-1850.
Asher was hard working, industrious
man; he built his cabin, broke the tough
sod and made rude bridge across Indian
creek-and padded scow over the Iowa
river, as all of our brave Hawkeyc pio-
neers generally did, and commenced liv-
ing with patience and endurance,
more commendable than the war heroes,
of which history makes honorable men
ton.
When the Indians grew saucy and
threatening in the spring of 1850, and a
fort was built on Timber creek by the dis.
tracted settlers of Marshall County,
Asher turned deaf ear to his friends in
that section, and quietly remained at
home on his little farm, and his wife as
brave as himself, stayed with him.
Among the early settlers of Indian Will
age TOW nship were Isaac Butler, Judge
Eli Daley, William Taylor, Edwin Taplin
and John Gray.
N. L. Osborn, Of Buckingham township
was settler as early as 1851, Rein Red
man Of Howard township, and MironBlodg
cit, of Indian Village, were prominent
settlers about the same time.
In 1852. the county increasing rapidly
in population and taxable property, the
County Judge of Benton County, issued
an order for an election to be held in
lama County and organize the same.
Heretofore, the votes were counted for
Benton, according to the old State law,
that the few settlements west of an Or
ganizcd county, was counted as part of
it, and helped pay State, but not county
tax.
This election for the organization of
lama was ordered to be held on the list
Monday in August, 1859. Howard town
ship electors were to meet at the house of
Rein Redman; Indian Village at the
residence of Judge Eli Daley, gentle
man who had been County Judge in In.
diana. Buckingham qualified electors at
the house of N. L. Osborn-these were
the Only townships organized at the time.
The officers elected were John c. Yer
miIye, now of Tama City, County Judge;
Myrcn Blodgett, Sheriff; John Ross, Treas
urer and Recorder; T. J. Staley, Deputy
Treasurer; W. Daniel, Surveyor; Abner
Phillips, Prosecuting Attorney; d. d.
Appellate, Clerk; Noah Myers, School
Fund Commissioner.
The total expenses for officers fees for
the year 1852 was 1855.
This was the year of Picrces election
and the Democracy carried everything
before them in the State, although at this
time in Tama County, local affairs entered
largely into the issues Of the campaign.
On the Twentieth of October 1858, J.
W. Ferguson, of Timber Creek, Marshall
Co., and R. B. Ogden, of Montezuma,
Powesheik Co., were appointed Commits
sloners to locate the county seat of Tama.
After looking at point, known as
Burners Mill, also at David F. Burners
house, they concluded to locate the seat
of government for the county, where the
town of Toledo now stands, and after
talking it over with farmers and others,
baptized the town of the future
Toledo"
The first lawsuit on record here, is that
of an injunction and application for
mandamus to restrain Noah Myers from
paying our school monies, Rein Redman,
plaintiff
At the September term 1854 divorce
suit comes up between Jacob w. Appel
gate and his Sife Mary Ann. A man
named Irving sues the School Fund
Commissioner.
In April 1854 an election was held upon
"distraining sheep and swine from run
ming at large" which resulted in ma
jority for distraining. In April, 1854,
Richland township was organized and an
election held at the house of Alanson B.
Rich.
The first probate case on record is that
of the estate of Daniel F. Horton, deceas-
ed, Nathaniel Horton, and Marietta Hor-
ton appointed Administrator and Admin
istratix.
The first marriage license issued by the
County Clerk was to Myron Blodgett and
Sarah Cronk, solemized by Judge Yer
milye at his residence in Toledo, August
list, 1858. The parties to matrimonial
felicity lived in Indian Village.
Col. Isaac Butler of Indian Village town.
ship was quite an enterprising man, and
as all the travel which came up from Iowa
City, Cedar Rapids, and the eastern coun-
ties of Iowa, westward to Marietta, Albion
and Marshalltown passed through Indian
Village, he conceived the idea of laying
out town.
EDWIN RUGGLEs,
now a wealthy merchant of Montour,
built in the spring of 1854, alog store neal
Dailey's house, bringing his goods from
Rockford, Illinois, by wagon, over zoo
miles. The old strap iron rail was moi
then laid from Galena to Chicago, the
Rock Island and Council Bluffs Railroad
was only talked of, and the Ramshorn
railroad from Dubuque to Keoku1, had
been laughed about, and written up; but
not railroad in the States of Illinois OF
Iowa in actual running order. No one car
guess the vexations attendant on bringing
goods into Central Iowa, over the miry