The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1908-12-10

article, Hamilton Township Before the War" dis
cover errors in matters of which they have knowledge
1T would be esteemed great favor to have them com
Eunicate the same to the writer that correction
may be made before the matter is put into permanent
form. Address Duncan Campbell Peasanton, Iowa
Hamilton is one Of the southern tiet
of townships of Decatur county, Iowa
Its base rests on the Missouri line, and
it is bounded on the east by Morgan
en- the north by Eden, and on the west
by New Buda townships. In few places
the west line is indented by the curves
OF Grand River, and towards the north
east it is crossed by Little River, a
tributary of tho Grand. Several creeks
and small streams carry their waters
into these rivers when the flow is not
exhausted by dry weather. The sur
face, generally, is an undulating prairie,
broken in places by ravines. The river
bottoms were covered with large
growth of timber at the time of it's first
settlement, but much of it has since
fallen before the axe and saw of the
woodman. Later, some portions of the
prairie became covered with dense
growth of shrubs and small timber as
the settlers in order to protect their
dwellings, farm buildings, and fences, to
keep down the running fires which
Hitherto had destroyed the incipient sap
lings. The soil on the few white oak
ridges is light, yielding but meager
reward for the toll of the agriculturist,
but elsewhere good crops are raised
and the people generally make good
living, many of them becoming quite
wealthy.
The first settlers found some bands of
Sac and Pottawattomie Indians still
making the neighboring river bottoms
their winter quarters, but spending the
summers on their favorite hunting
grounds in Kansas. Some of the settlers
made considerable money in trading
with them on account of the Indians
poor appreciation of comparative values.
These traders frequently managed to
get the red man much in debt to them
and when the Indians repaired to the
agencies at Fort Des Moines or Council
Bluffs to receive their annuities from the
government, they usually appeared
with them to collect the balance before
the Indian had time to spend it other
wise, which he was prone to do.
The first actual settlers upon the
lands now embraced i'll Hamilton town
ship appear to have arrived in the
forties. Champ Collier, an uncle of the
Missouri congressman, Champ Clark,
who was named after him, Allen Scott.
Wyilis Dickinson, Aaron and Moses
Turpen. Ed Winkle, William Conover,
Cole Seymour, Alfred Logan, Martin
Casline, John Reid, William Hamilton,
William Acton, Asa Burrell and Gideon
T. Walker were among the earliest. AS
most'of these came in by the way of
Missouri they naturally held to the view
Of that state with reference to the
boundary question, and supposed they
were settling within it's limits. This
view placed the line six or more miles
farther north than the Iowa claim al
lowed, which was that the Sullivan line
run in 1915 was the true boundary. The
supreme court of the United States hav-
ing decided in favor of the Iowa side of
the controversy, these settlers found
themselves in a different state from
what they intended to settle in, and
this will to some extent account for the
mixed politics of the township in it's
early days.
The conditions that obtained in Nor
gan, Hamilton and New Buda townships
in those times were very much alike,
the most primitive order of things pre-
vailed in all of them. Ok teams were
used instead Of horses, and these were
Of the scrubbiest kind. 1t required a
team of six or seven yoke of them to
break up the prairie which at that time
was covered with growth of blue
stemmed grass higher than a mans head.
However, it required but little ground to
raise the corn needed for family uses.
The markets were too distant and the
price paid too low to make it pay to
grow corn for that purpose. There was
little or none needed for the hogs be-
cause they fatted themselves on the
abundant mast which in the little hol-
: lows about the trees could be shoveled
up by the scoopful. One of the early
settlers informed the writer that one
fall he had sold eight hundred dollars
worth of hogs fattened in this way.
Hence about the only corn raised was
that required by the oxen and for the
family bread. Corn needed but little
cultivation then as the famous cookie
burr and other weeds had not begun to
take possession of the ground as they
have in later times. In many cases the
hogs of the different families ran out in
the woods together and little discrim-
ination was shown as to which was
which. When a family got out of
meat one Of the men folks took a gun
and shot the first fat hog that came
within range without very close inquiry
as to where it belonged. Wild turkey,
deer and other game were found in
great numbers and this with the hog
meat made the flesh supplies especially
bountfful.
Cattle were raised cheaply and with
little trouble, thus plenty OF butter
could be had at the cost of the labor of
making it. There was little inducement
to manufacture it for sale at the fire.
quent price of three cents pound.
Eggs were very plentiful and so cheap
that theyswere often fed to the hogs by
the bucketful. Many times there was
no market for them at any price. For
sweets honey was obtained from bee
trees by the barrel, and was the source
of considerable revenue even at the low
price Of twenty cents gallon. In the
way of fruit, wild apples, plums, grapes,
black haws and many kinds of berries
made satisfactory relishes. Sorghum
was introduced in fifty-seven or eight
Inv a Mr. Eialda who livad hout mile