Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1909-09-02
Audubon County
EARLY History
HON. H. f. ANDREWS

from the start, and turned out some
thing like 10000 feet of lumber day,
with it's big circular saw. Green was
the sawyer.
| Mr.. Green sold his share in the mill |
to John Mcconnell May 10, 1857, and
Burnham sold his share to S. III. My
ers May s. 1857. 1t is claimed that
Green owned an interest in the mill
afterwards.
| He was sawyer in the mill in 1866.
1t was then owned by the firm of
Hamlin, Poage and Zaner. A Touring
mill had been attached and did a
fourishing business. The saw mill
was run in the day time, then the en-
CINE was connected with the grist
mill which was run at night by Levi
Zaner or Leman Carley People pat
ronized it from Cass, Guthrie, Shelby
and Carroll counties for flour, meal
and lumber. 1t employed about
dozen men and worked on full time.
Lumber sold at $50 per thousand.
The old boiler was lost in attempt
ing to haul it to Des Moines for old
iron, by breaking through the Coon
J, river bridge at Panora, and was dump
ed in the river and left there.
Mr.. Green entered several tracts of
land. One was the Cooper place,
: where George Milliman now resides.
His home place was the sw4 of sch and
sci of sw4 of section 9, Extra town
ship, and his dwelling was one of the
best in the county in 1865, built of
motive lumber. The kitchen part was
one of the first plastered houses in the
county. The main part was not plaS-
tered until after 1865. He planted
one of the first orchards in the county
before 1865. At that period it was
claimed that tame grass and fruits
could not be grown here.
Possible Mr.. j. L. Frost planted
fIuit trees as early as the Green orch
ard was planted.
Little if any tame fruit or berries
were grown here as early as 1865; per-
haps there were Strawberries, cur
rants, gooseberries OF grapes, but no
apples, cherries or tame plums or
peaches, and no tame grass.
Green was aSRepublican and an Alb
olitionist; a firm Union man during
the war, and yet mild, conservative
and reasonable. In the time of the
Kansas Nebraska troubles, escaped
s negroes from Missouri travelled by way
= of Fremont county to Lewis, Iowa,
!, thence up Turkey creek and on to
/. Des Moines. This route became so
/, we'll identified that it was DETECTED
!. further north from Lewis, and at
n least some negroes escaped through
n county. These operations were highly
a dangerous to those engaged in it, who
II if discovered, would have been liable
Is in damage for the value of the escap-
n ed slaves, and the operations were
k conducted with the utmost secrecy.
IS Green told his son Henry, years after
a the events occurred, that he had as
~ SlSUcu 'IlcSIUcS W CSCdpc. llldU lie
e made place near the mill to resemble
l. a pile of slabs and covered it with saw
dust, where the fugitives could crawl
into and hide themselves. They came
to him from Lewis by night, rested
- and got food and then went on to-
# wards Des Moines and liberty, again
r. in the night time.
n Rev. Mr.. Cummings, the Congrega-
le tional minister at Extra about the
,e same period, was also supposed to
~ have been an agent on the "Under-
~ ground Railay." 1t is said he made
10 mysterious travels in the night time,
IS and no one knew where he went OF
u whence he came. 1t is claimed that a
~ party of negroes were at one time dur
II ing this period hid out in the "Big
10 Slough a mile south of Extra.
y Hon. Oliver Mills, of Lewis, reputed
~ as an ardent, but discreet, Abolition.
n list. Rev Mr.. Hitchcock, one eyed
& Congregational minister, was noisy
u abolitionist. who is said to have de.