provements made on the lands owned by the government of the United States, shall be deemed valid in law or equity, and may be sued for and recovered as in other contracts. "That all deeds of quitclaim, or other conveyance of all improvements upon public lands shall be as binding and effectual, in law and equity, between the parties for conveying the title of the grantor in and to the same, as in cases where the grantor has the fee simple to the premises conveyed." Previous to lands being brought into market, each township, nearly, had its own organization throughout the territory. This was to prevent unpleasant litigation and to keep up a spirit of harmony among neighbors, and the better to protect them in their equitable rights of "claim" purchase. A "call meeting" was announced something after this fashion: "The citizens of township 76 north, range 2 west, are requested to meet at Squire B-'s, at Oak Grove (or as the place or the time might be), to adopt the necessary measures for securing their homes at the approaching land sales at B." After a short preamble and set of resolutions, suited to the occasion, a "register" was appointed whose duty it was to record the name of each claimant to his respective "claim." A "bidder" was also appointed, whose duty it was on the day of sale, to bid off all the land previously registered, in the name of each respective claimant. Thus, everything moved along at the land sales with the harmony and regularity of clock work; but if anyone present was found bidding over the minimum price ($1.25 per acre) on land registered in the township, woe be to him! When any controversy arose between the neighbors relative to trespassing (or, in common parlance, "jumping a claim"), it was arbitrated by a committee appointed for that purpose, and their decision was considered final. Newhall describes a land sale, which may bring up to the minds of some of the old settlers a remembrance of one of those absorbing periods. He says: "Many are the ominous indications of its approach among the settlers. Every dollar is sacredly treasured up. The precious 'mint drops' take to themselves wings and fly away from the merchant's till to the farmer's cupboard. Times are dull in the towns, for the settler's home is dearer and sweeter than the merchant's sugar and coffee. At length the wished-for day arrives. The suburbs of the town present the scene of a military camp. The settlers have flocked from far and near. The hotels are thronged to overflowing. Barrooms, dining rooms and wagons are metamorphosed into bedrooms. Dinners are eaten from a table or a stump, and thirst is quenched from a bar or a brook. The sale being announced from the land office, the township bidder stands near by, with the registry book in hand, in which each settler's name is attached to his respective half or quarter section, and thus he bids off, in the name of the whole township, for each respective claimant. A thousand settlers are standing by eagerly listening when their quarter shall be called off. The crier passes the well known numbers; his home is secure. He feels relieved; the litigation of 'claim jumping' is over forever; he is lord of the soil. With an independent step he walks into the land office, opens the time-worn saddlebags and counts out the $200 or $400 silver and gold, takes his certificate from the general government and goes away rejoicing." The meeting of claim holders in each section usually adopted the order of procedure which follows: A register was chosen for each township, whose duty it was to prepare a map, with the several claims indicated thereon; a bidder and assistant bidder were chosen to attend the sale and make the purchases. Conflicts of claimants were submitted to a committee of three, who had the power to settle all disputes. In event of a refusal by both parties to arbitrate, the case was to be submitted to a committee of five. Claimants were authorized to take as much as 320 acres. An equable arrangement was made between adjoining claimants, where their claim lines and the government survey failed to coincide. All persons over eighteen years of age were entitled to the privileges of claimants. The following is a statistical table of monthly receipts at the Burlington land office during the first year and four months of its existence. Perhaps no safer criterion can be drawn of the preeminent character that Iowa had already attained than the receipts which this table exhibits of a country that, only so late as June, 1833, was first subject to occupancy by the white man. Of every hundred acres, it was estimated that ninety fell into the hands of the actual settlers: November 19, 1838, sold by public sale.... January, 1839, by private entries and preemption.. ..$295,495.61 60,751.14 23,047.31 8,778.46 12,706.77 15,675.93 14,356.52 24,909.16 August, 1839, by private entries and preemption.. 8,216.32 September, 1839, by private entries and preemption. 8,836.56 March, 1840, by private entries and public sales, inclusive. 332,222.42 The treaty between the government and the Sac and Fox Indians became effective in 1832 upon its ratification, and previous to that time all this locality was free from the presence of the white man. Within the limits of this county were two Indian villages, Keokuk, the ruling Sac, and Poweshiek, the ruling Fox, were the chiefs of the tribes and ruled over the villages. Keokuk's was in what is now Seventy-six township, about eight miles south of Muscatine near the foot of the lake now bearing the celebrated Indian chief's name-Keokuk. Here the land was rich and fertile and the Indian planted his corn (tomanock). The village was located on the west side of the lake and was probably vacated in 1836, a few years after the treaty with the Indians went into effect. The other Indian village in the county was the home and principality of the noted chief, Poweshiek, of the Fox tribe, which was located on the west bank of the Cedar river, near the Saulsbury bridge, about twelve miles west of Muscatine. Soon after the Black Hawk Purchase, or in 1832, the white man came. In 1832 the first "squatter" made his appearance on the Purchase near Burlington, and David Tothero staked out a claim about three miles back of that point; about the same time Simpson S. White and Amzi Doolittle laid claim to the site of Burlington. These men built cabins and disregarded the provisions of the treaty, which stipulated that no settlements should be made prior to June 1, 1833. In the spring of this year Jefferson Davis, then a lieutenant in the army and stationed at the island of Rock Island, then known as Fort Armstrong, with a squad of men drove some fifteen families off the Purchase, near Flint Hills, burned cabins and destroyed the crops. FIRST SETTLER IN THE COUNTY. It was in the spring of 1834 that Benjamin Nye settled at the mouth of Pine creek, in Montpelier township, and erected a cabin there. Undoubtedly he was the first settler in the county, although the matter has been threshed over times without number that the distinction is not his. "ERR TOLD ME SO." Other histories of the county have given Err Thornton the credit of being the first settler in Muscatine county and for many years the local historian, J. P. Walton, who came to the county in 1838, and lived here seventy years, employing his leisure time in collecting data relating to the early history of the community and placing it in enduring form, contended that Err Thornton was the first settler and so continued in his contention until upon a certain occasion Err Thornton told him that he did not come until after Ben Nye had taken up an abode on Pine creek. In another part of this work the reader will find that the "fall" Err Thornton came to the county, he and his brother Lott stopped at the Nye cabin a short time. However, the controversy is now practically settled. In his own handwriting, on the margin of one of his "scrapbooks," Walton wrote: "It has recently been proven that Nye was here before the Thorntons came; so Err has since told me. J. P. Walton." Benjamin Nye and his cousin Stephen settled in Montpelier township, at the mouth of Pine creek, in the spring of 1834; Err, Lott and James Thornton located in the fall of 1834 on the slough in the southeastern corner of Seventysix township. John McGrew came to Iowa in 1834, but did not settle at once in Muscatine township. He took up his residence in the Thornton neighborhood, but in Louisa county, near the Muscatine county line. Subsequently, in 1842, he moved on to an eighty-acre tract in Seventy-six township, which he purchased of Colonel George Kincaid. Previous to this, in 1833, a man by the name of Farnham had set up a cabin, on the spot now designated by a marble stone placed in the center of Front street, just where it meets Iowa avenue. Farnham put in the cabin a stock of merchandise, being in the employ of Colonel George Davenport, Indian trader, at Fort Armstrong, on the island of Rock Island. He was never, however, considered as a settler, so that at the beginning of 1835 it is considered that there were none but the Nyes and Thorntons in the county as settlers. FIRST SETTLER IN BLOOMINGTON. In May, 1835, came James W. Casey, who settled a short distance west of the Farnham cabin, at the foot of Broadway. He was the first actual settler in Muscatine, then Bloomington, and built a cabin on his claim in the fall of 1835. Here it was his intention to build a town. He had already given the site of it the name of Newburg, although his claim was known as "Casey's Landing" and "Casey's Woodyard." Mr. Casey died in the fall of 1836, and his was the first death in the county. In the summer of 1835 Arthur Washburn arrived at Casey's Landing and remained there until fall. Later, he became a clerk in the store at Montpelier, opened by Major William Gordon and Ben Nye. Dr. Eli Reynolds came in 1835 and settled in what is now Sweetland township. He chose for his claim, with Harvey Gillett, a tract of land on the river front about three miles from Muscatine, and there laid out the now extinct town of Geneva (see Sweetland township). From this time on a steady growth in numbers among the settlers became more and more evident. Colonel John Vanatta came in 1836 to Muscatine and bought the Farnham, or Davenport claim, and in 1837 Weare Long built the first sawmill in the county, on Sweetland creek. The first grist mill in the county was erected on Pine creek in 1837, by Benjamin Nye, and the same year Dr. Eli Reynolds and John Lawson put up a steam sawmill at Geneva, the first in the county. Robert Smith, an engineer, came with the machinery for this mill from St. Louis, and was placed in charge of the mill when it became ready for operation. The mill was later moved to Muscatine. The third postoffice in the county was located at Geneva in 1838 and S. C. Comstock presided over it. He soon resigned and Amos Walton, who had come to the county that year, was his successor, retaining the position until his death, when the office was discontinued. In 1838 there was another store started in Geneva, by James Davis, who was the first sheriff of the county. In 1838 there were 1,247 inhabitants in Muscatine county, and in 1840 the number had increased to 1,942. By 1844 the population was almost double the number in 1840, or 2,882; and from thence on settlers, most of them a hardy, thrifty and God-fearing people, located in the community, many of them entering land and opening farms, and others engaging in business in the new river metropolis of Bloomington, or putting hands and hearts into the various mechanical arts and industries open to them. A partial list of settlers, from the time of the Nyes and Thorntons to the last one in 1839, is here given. To undertake a recital of all would be an utter impossibility, for the reason no record of them is in existence and no one now living is able to remember but a small fraction of even the more prominent ones. Those here given are from the records of the Old Settlers' Association, which are in themselves distressingly incomplete: 1834-Benjamin and Azuba Nye, Err Thornton, Lott Thornton Nye. 1835-James W. Casey, John Vanatta, John McGrew, Arthur Washburn, Dr. Eli Reynolds. 1836 Suel Foster, Moses Couch, William Gordon, John J. Huber, Thomas Burdett, H. Burdett, Addison Reynolds, Samuel Gilbert, Hiram Gilbert, William St. John, Thomas B. Holliday, John H. Miller, John Holliday, Samuel Holliday, Elias Holliday, Levi Thornton, J. H. Benson, Edward E. Fay, J. Craig, John Reece, Henry Reece, Joseph Reece, Harvey Gillett, William Beard, William P. Wright, L. C. Hine, Mr. Higley and his son Jonas, Joshua Stearn, Browning Stearn, Frank Casey, W. H. Sams, Solomon Bair, William Hunter, John Cobb, John Marble, Daniel Edginton, Samuel Kinney, R. C. Kinney, Aaron Blanchard, Samuel Parker, Giles Pettibone, Jonathan Pettibone, John Champ, Silas Maine, Charles Maine, Norman Fullington, Adam Ogilvie, T. M. Isett, Mr. Norton and wife, William Chambers, Sr., and his sons Vincent, William, Isaac, Anderson and John, Aaron Brewer, James Chambers, S. C. Comstock, J. H. Franklin, Henry Mockmore, Robert Bamford, Charles Drury. 1837-Joseph Bridgman, Richard Lord, Silas Lathrop, Isaac Lathrop, Samuel Shortridge, John Briggs, Asa Gregg, Henry Funck, Adam Funck, William Sparkes, Thomas Starks, S. Clinton Hastings, R. Robert Davis, H. Wiley, Silas Goldsbury, George Bumgardner, William G. Holmes, Addison Gillett, Samuel Storms, John Frierson, John Main, Ahimaaz Blanchard, George Storms, Jeremiah Fish, Charles H. Fish, Pliny Fay, H. H. Hine, John Miles, Davie Kiefer, Robert Smith, Jacob Kiser, Wilson Wright, J. Richman, Robert Graham, John Lawson, Martin Sutherland, Alexander Ward, L. T. McGrew, Amos Walton, Isaiah Davis, Alexander Ward, Myron Ward, John Kindler, Dr. Maxon, A. Whiting, William Todd, H. Sany, S. Richardson, F. Richardson, C. Rayburn, A. Cone, Daniel Mauck, Isaac Mauck, S. C. Trowbridge, Giles Pettibone, John Morford, J. Berg, J. C. Cole, J. S. Yates, J. G. Morrow, Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Vandever, John Miller, S. Colver, Dr. H. Lee, Jacob Long, James Bidwell, Peter Bidwell, John S. Abbott, Robert McClaren, Benjamin Baston, John Shefrey, A. L. McKee, Luke Cunningham, Joseph Mounts, Thomas J. Starke, Nathan Parsons, James Davis, Samuel Parker, Christopher Burns, Levi Chamberlain, Samuel Starr, the Coombs family, Anderson Pace, Aaron Usher, Niles Higginbotham. 1838-T. S. Parvin, Judge Joseph Williams, M. M. Berkshire, A. T. Banks, J. E. Fletcher, Samuel Lucas, Thomas Morford, D. R. Warfield, A. O. Warfield, Josiah P. Walton, John W. Walton, S. W. Stewart, W. D. Viele, Peter Jackson, Henry W. Moore, Abraham Smalley, J. A. Reuling, A. M. Winn, Andrew McCurdy, J. Williams, Jr., William Morford, R. Morford, B. T. Howland, J. W. Brady, George Barney, Mr. Hawkins, Irad C. Day, D. R. Petriken, W. S. Ayers, A. West, James Beatty, John M. Kidder, J. M. Brockway, A. Brockway, W. Te |