Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1920-10-21
EARLY DAYS OF
AUDUBON COUNTY

II. Norton ana CnaflOCJe I1OWleG,
| Chas. E. Hawk and Hannah M.
Hamiln; Xerxes Knox and Nancy
G. Smith; Judson D. Herrick and
Mrs. LOUISA Strickland; Jaynes Rob-
inson and Mary Heuthern.
In 1867 there were twelve mar
riages. Many of our readers will
remember some of them and a good
| ly number of our citizens of the
present day are descendants of the
contracting parties of these early
marriages. The year 1867 wit
messed the marriages of Georg !.
Virginia Goodale; VIM. Radcliff and
Malinda Hamlin; Ayers D. Martin
and Sarah Whitney; Geo. Bowdish
and Ellen Clark; N. G. Maffitt and
Josephine Lewis; James Luckenbill
and Sarah Carpenter; j. H. Haring-
ton and Maggie Montgomery; Joel
II. Basham and Melissa Hallock;
Vincent Batcham and Maria Paige;
John G. Donnel and Hattie Bonner;
Edward Calph and Martha Hamlin
Henry Decker and Mary Wilson.
In 1868 there were fourteen mar
riages recorded. They were John
Norton and Susie Ostrander; Isaac
jenkins and Clarissa Chase; Henry
Martin and Eliza Reynolds; Hugh
McNutt and Sarah Griffin; Joseph
Walker and Juliet Bowman; Isaac
P. Hallock and Malinda Norton;
Samuel Smith and Mrs. Lnann Bal
ley; Henry Egan and Mary Rey-
nolds; David 3. Soar and Rebecca
Harris; Lysannius Anderson and
Tryphena Hopkins; Samuel Donnel
and Mrs. Tamzey Flora; G. R.
Trowbridge and Elizabeth Hamlin;
Adam Griffin and Sarah Virgins;
DAME! Heald and Mary j. Wood.
In 1866 when the town of Louis
vile was laid out and plated the
saw and Touring mill on the site was
owned by Nathaniel Hamlin, Geo.
T. Poage and Levi Zaner. The
mill did a thriving business until
the railroad went through from
Des Moines to Council Bluffs in
1868. After that event it's business
waned. The old steam boiler broke
through the bridge at Panora while
being hauled away for old iron and
was dumped in the Coon river.
| In 1865 there were but FIVE school
houses in the county, one at Ham
Inns grove, one in Extra township
on section %, known as the Frost
school house, one on section II
Extra township known as the Green
school house and one at Oak6eld.
In 1866 three new school houses
were built and the first county
teachers institute was held at Extra
under the auspices of the county
superintendent, Benjamin F. Thorn
as, and conducted by Professor
Enos, from Cedar Falls.
BY this time settlers were coming
into the north part of the county,
the first settlers being closely fol-
lowed by others, Lincoln township
being the last to be entered, the
FIRST settler, Isaac X. Johnson, locat-
ing in 1871. The first settler in
Neville township, Benjamin T.
Miller, located in 1869 and the first
in Cameron, Robert Gunse, in 1868,
Thomas j. Ellsberry the first to set
tie in Douglas in 1870.
At an early day the Western
Stage Company established a line
of coaches from Des Moines to
Council Bluffs. In June 1865 the
route of this line was changed from
by the way Of Anita, then called
Morrisons, to Hamlin's. Charles
Hawks drove the first coach thru
to Hamlin's Grove after the change
was made.
The Indians continued to come
on hunting trips every year ane
they killed off much Of the wle
game upon which the settlers large
ly depended for their meat. IL
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