CHAPTER VIII

THE FIRST WHITE MEN IN APPANOOSE COUNTY-DRAGOON TRAIL AND BEE TRACEMORMONS-FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER-OTHERS CLOSE ON HIS HEELS-FIRST WEDDING-FIRST LAND ENTRIES AND DEED RECORDED THE CIRCUIT RIDER, etc.

The first white men to traverse the soil of Appanoose county, so it is said, were of a company of dragoons, who departed from the island of Rock Island, then known as Fort Armstrong, in the summer of 1832, with the purpose of reconnoitering the country as far west as Kansas. The company, taking a southwesterly course, struck the locality now known as Agency, in Wapello county. Other points touched by the dragoons in their way were the future sites of the villages of Drakesville and Moulton. They then struck off southwest through Appanoose and entered Missouri near the southwest corner of Franklin township. The country between this county and Davenport had not been at that time organized into civil divisions. In fact the treaty between the Sacs and Fox Indians, ceding the land, had not been completed and, as a matter of fact, the country had not come under the jurisdiction of the government, to the extent of throwing it open for settlement. Appanoose county was at this time terra incognita to the whites and the dragoons from Fort Armstrong, as far as is known, were the first white men to tread its soil. They met the owners of the prairies, the hills, the streams and their wild inhabitants, the Sacs and Fox Indians, who were soon to give over their birthright to the "pale faces" and be driven from their hunting grounds.

The dragoons left a trail that for some time after their departure was noticeable to the hardy pioneer who happened this way. Joseph Shaddon, who lived in the county at one time, and was well known to the late Dr. Sturdivant, made the statement to him, that he tramped over a good part of Appanoose county in 1833, hunting for deer and other animals and found many deer and wild turkeys. Shaddon, the first hunter and trapper to visit this section, of which there is any record, noticed the tracks of the dragoons and said they were east of the Chariton river and in the neighborhood of Moulton. However, prospectors coming into the county, with the view of looking up claims, found two trails, the one made by the dragoons; the other had a general trend of Bee Trace, in Washington township, and was known by that name by the Missourians. This "trace" may have been made by the Indians, but early settlers. declare the trail was really a wagon road, as traces of wheel tracks were plainly visible. These tracks, it might be well to say, were probably made by bee hunters, who hauled the honey, then abounding in the hollow of trees, in wagons to their homes in the wilderness. Joseph Shaddon is accredited with being the first civil

ian to enter this region. But the claim is set up for William Kirby, that he was here in 1839, and that he found bee trees in profusion, having in their forks or hollow trunks large stores of delicious honey, which he procured and conveyed to his home in Putnam county, Missouri.

THE MORMONS

The history of the religio-political sect designated as the Mormons, is generally known. By reason of doctrines expounded and certain practices performed they were driven from pillar to post and in 1838 and 1839 began their great movement to the northwest, which terminated at Salt Lake City. Dissensions arose in their ranks and many who believed in the main tenets of Mormonism refused to believe in or adhere to the advanced ideas of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and seceded. Many of these people while on the move toward the mecca of Mormonism passed along the dragoon trail through Appanoose county and some remained here and formed the nucleus of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, still in existence in this county. Large bodies of Mormons passed over this route through this country and made the road so distinct and passable that it was long designated by many as the "Mormon trail."

FIRST PERMANENT SETTLER

A history of Appanoose county was written in the year 1878 and published by the Western Historical Society. From what the compiler of this work can gather by strenuous research, the history is as true a relation of facts as conditions would permit when the work of research was in progress. It was much easier in that day, however, to gather the data for a local history than now. Then a great many of the first settlers were living and in their prime. They were just emerging from a primary state, so to speak, and the recollection of the first years spent in this new country was still fresh in their memories. The men and women who had left comfortable homes in the eastern states and friends of a life time, coming here when there was nothing to greet their eyes but a wilderness, the haunt of wild animals and untamed savages, still were here and were brimming over with tales of their early fears, privations and struggles in building new homes, new towns and cities and should have been seen and interviewed. But they were not and posterity is the loser.

Few there are today, who know out of their own experience what were the conditions of this section when thrown open for settlement by the government. There are men and women still living, who can tell you of the experiences here of fifty or sixty years ago in this county, but they are few in number and becoming less as the days go by. Those who can tell you of the early days of Appanoose know of events, but are woefully lacking in names and dates, the most salient and important features of any occurrence. So it is that the historian of the present day, if not possessed of unlimited time and patience, is sadly handicapped in his researches and his readers are deprived of their just dues.

This digression is the result of a doubt in the writer's mind as to who was the first settler in Appanoose county. The former history, heretofore mentioned, places the distinction on Ewen Kirby, a young Missourian, who came

into the county in 1838, and built a cabin near the east line of Pleasant township and not far from the present village of Cincinnati. Here Kirby lived with his family and trafficked with the Indians for about two years. At the expiration of that time he gathered up his family treasures, burned down his cabin and departed with his family for other scenes of activity. To Ewen Kirby, while living in the county and in the year 1838, was born, most probably, the first white child in the county. The baby was named Elizabeth, who grew to womanhood and married a Missourian by the name of Tate. Elizabeth's aunt, Mrs. William Kirby, whose husband gathered honey along the bee trace in 1839, resided in this county nearly a half century, part of which time was spent with her daughter, in Caldwell township, whose husband was Dr. J. H. Worthington, who came to this county in 1846 and was the first "regular" physician to locate in this section of the country.

If two years' residence in a community is sufficient duration to establish what may be termed a permanent residence, then Kirby was the first settler, or pioneer, of Appanoose county. Those who are versed in matters of this kind are permitted to solve the problem to their own satisfaction. Kirby was a resident of the county two years, that seems to be undisputed. He built a log cabin on a tract of land and established his family therein. He also cultivated a patch of ground and, as he came here mainly for that purpose, it is presumed he bartered and traded with the Indians.

PERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS

The first person to enter the county and take up a claim, locating thereon and making permanent improvements, was Colonel James Wells, who selected a tract of land in section 16, township 67 (Wells), range 16, in the summer of 1839, one year before Kirby had left. On this land, near the timber, Wells put up a rudely-constructed log cabin, in which he installed his family and a few household goods. Two years following his location he constructed a sawmill on his claim and sawed the logs that entered into the construction of habitations for his neighbors, who had come in the preceding year. This was no great task, however. The Wells family had no neighbors until Adolphus Stevens and Austin Jones took up claims in the locality in 1841. Stevens stayed, improved his holdings and added to his possessions. He remained on this farm over forty years. Jones was not a "stayer" and after a few years of "roughing it," sold out and went to California. It is very probable that in 1841, Jack Klinkenbeard was a settler in the Stevens neighborhood, but if he was, nothing remains to identify him with the pioneers of the county.

J. F. STRATTON

J. F. Stratton must be placed in the honorary list of pioneers of Appanoose county, for it was as early as the year 1841 when, leaving his family in St. Francisville, Missouri, he found his way here in search of a claim and selected what he desired in section 2, township 67 (Pleasant), range 18, and about a mile east of the present village of Cincinnati. On this land Mr. Stratton built a cabin and then returned to Missouri for his family and chattels. Prior to this

and while prospecting for a claim, Stratton had left a chest of tools with a Mr. Robinson, who was then living in a cabin just over the Iowa line in Missouri, and Mr. Stratton said that Robinson was the only settler in that vicinity. If this is true the claim made for one Jack Vinton that he was a settler near "the spring" as early as 1837 has been refuted, as Mr. Stratton saw no evidence of a habitation anywhere in that locality.

"UNDESIRABLE CITIZENS"

That part of the county now known as Caldwell township was probably inhabited about the year 1841, or shortly thereafter, by a man named Moore, who was certainly, to use an expression of President Roosevelt, an "undesirable citizen," if it were true, as was broadly hinted at the time, that he was possessed of too many wives. He came to stay, as his building of a cabin indicated. But officers of the law got on his trail and when the doors of the penitentiary closed upon him his career as a citizen of Appanoose county came to an unsavory end.

William Level was another "undesirable," who sought the tall timber of Appanoose for a habitation and a place of seclusion. He came to the locality now within the confines of Caldwell and settled down with one wife, and what may be termed, a near wife, a young woman called Jane, for whom, in the Mormon fashion, he built a separate cabin. But one man maintaining two families in the manner laid down by Level was not according to the code of ethics even at that day. Some time in 1844 he was arrested, convicted of the charge brought against him and sentenced to jail. There being no institution of that kind at hand, he was placed in charge of a deputy sheriff, who gave him employment as a clerk, accepting his word that he would not attempt to escape. He was allowed to spend Sunday with his "families" and in the course of time Level, with both women, sold his property and went to California. The girl while here bore children and was attended by Dr. Worthington, who related the facts in the case as here stated.

Colonel James Wells' family secured neighbors in the fall of 1841, or spring of 1842, when William Cooksey and family settled not far from their cabin. In 1842 Solomon Hobbs made a claim not very far away, in township 69 (Caldwell), range 17. About this time Robert Caughran and George Buckner also made locations in the southern part of the county. Other settlers came into the county in the spring of 1842 and put up rude habitations of logs, the furniture of which was mostly "homemade."

All these settlements in the county up to this time were in direct opposition to the treaty ceding the lands to the government, which prohibited settlement on the land until May 1, 1843, and under the treaty no white man was even allowed to go upon the land for any purpose. Notwithstanding these inhibitions, settlers came into the Indian country and took their chances of remaining unmolested. Some were fortunate, as the Wells, Stevens, Cookseys, Jones, Buckner and Caughrans, but others were not, for in the summer of 1842, a party of dragoons from the post at Agency, Wapello county, was sent out