tive little residence for the superintendent of the grounds. This, with other improvements, cost about $3,000.

Quite recently the association bought the patent right for making cement burial vaults. This then suggested the idea of a building for the installation of the vaults and in the fall of 1912 a beautiful and attractive structure was erected near the western entrance of the grounds, the material being of plain Bedford stone, at a cost of about $8,000. The purpose of this building is for the installation of vaults, the temporary reception of bodies for burial and services for the dead. It is a chapel that meets the eye as one approaches the cemetery and is the piece de resistance of this beauty spot.

The ladies of the association now purpose to procure the interests of all owners in Oakland in the plan to raise an endowment fund for the perpetual care of lots. Already quite a number have materially furthered the project and it is hoped that others will see in this innovation sufficient virtue to induce them to join those who have already expressed their sympathy with this object. Taking it all in all the members of the Centerville Cemetery Association have accomplished a magnificent work, the results of which are apparent to even the most casual observer at a glance; and the people of the community are back of them in their work and their aspirations for the future.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE TOWNSHIPS-FIRST COMES WELLS BECAUSE IT WAS FIRST SETTLED-PIONEERS

AND THE TOWNSHIP OF THEIR CHOICE-OPENING OF A NEW COUNTRY THAT IS NOW TEEMING WITH GOOD FARMS AND FINE HOMES-HISTORY OF THE VARIOUS TOWNSHIPS AND VILLAGES

WELLS TOWNSHIP

Wells township was an inviting locality for the early settler. There was manent settler in Appanoose county and is honored in having given to the locality the name of the pioneer, Colonel James Wells.

The township was organized in January, 1848. It is the extreme southwest township of the county and was quite heavily timbered in the center, running diagonally from the northwest to the southeast. There is considerable good farming land in this vicinity and there are farms that will vie with any in the county in productiveness. There are many small streams, the principal one being the Chariton, which mean that the land is generously watered and drained. The township is traversed by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, Keokuk & Western and the Iowa and St. Louis railroads.

Colonel James Wells was the first settler, coming with his family in 1839. He selected a location on section 16 and in the fall built a log cabin, in which he installed his family. Two years after he began the construction of a sawmill on his claim, which was followed a few years later by a flouring mill.

During the year 1841 Adolphus Stevens made a claim not far from where Wells had set his stakes and in the same year Austin Jones settled in the neighborhood. Jones remained but a few years and then removed to California. Stevens improved his farm and became a fixture in the township, living on his place for many years.

William Cooksey and family were also settlers in this township in 1841 and the Cookseys later became well known in the township. The name of Cooksey figures quite prominently in the history of the county.

Wells township was an inviting locality for the early settler. There was plenty of timber, water and arable land. It is unfortunate, however, that all the names of the pioneers cannot be given. A few follow:

James Milton Scurlock was a "Buckeye." He came to this locality in 1844, in territorial days, and married Matilda Cooksey, daughter of William Cooksey, in 1845, which shows that the Cookseys were pioneers of Wells township and of the county. When Mr. Scurlock arrived here all he had in the world was a large

stock of courage and determination-and ten dollars in his pocket. It is a tradition in the family that five years passed before he saw ten dollars more.

C. F. Findley, a Pennsylvanian, came and located here in 1855, purchasing eighty acres of land.

William Horn lived on section 3 for many years. He came to the county in 1848, soon after attaining his majority. Mr. Horn accumulated several hundred acres of land and became one of the valued men of this township.

G. S. Stansberry settled in the township in 1852 and acquired through habits of industry and frugality, a competency. In 1854 he married Rebecca Cooksey, daughter of William Cooksey, one of Wells' pioneer farmers.

James Craig came to this township from Morgan county, Ohio, with his parents, in 1856. The family located on section 2, where James remained after the death of his father in 1864.

S. P. Elam, a native of Virginia, emigrated from Kentucky to Iowa in 1850 and located in this county. He traded a horse for his first quarter section of land, on which he put up a log cabin and made the furniture from hewn timber. The bucket for carrying water was purchased with money he secured from the sale of a 'coon pelt. Needless to say, Mr. Elam succeeded and became well and favorably known.

John and Ann Bond, natives of Ireland, were among the early settlers of this county, having located in Wells township where their daughter, Sarah Louise, who married George Robinson, was born March 28, 1846.

Eli Ankrom settled on a farm near Moulton about 1852.

Matison S. Edwards, with his parents, William and Marilla (Elliott) Edwards, arrived in Appanoose county from Kentucky late in the year 1851 and located on a farm five miles south of Moulton. Here the elder Edwards engaged in raising and selling live stock for a period of thirty years, when he retired from the farm to Moulton and died there in 1885. He was followed to the grave by his wife in 1902.

Thomas and Rachel Law of the Buckeye state, soon after their marriage came west and settled on a farm in Wells township, Appanoose county. They were the parents of seven children, of whom O. H. Law, an attorney and real-estate man of Centerville, is one. He was born on a farm just south of Moulton in 1857.

HAMLET OF DEAN

A village had been contemplated for section 2 and its name chosen. Leona was to be built upon the southeast quarter of the section and was actually laid out and platted. But the project died abornin' and has long since been forgotten.

Not far from the projected and rejected town of Leona, on section 4, was built the little hamlet of Dean. The "future great" was named in honor of Henry Clay Dean, a noted, although eccentric Iowan of his day, who spent his declining years on a farm four miles south and over the Missouri line. Dean was a station on the Missouri, Iowa & Nebraska railroad, but is not now so noted by the assessor in making out his returns. For some little time it was considerable of a trading point, but it has been discarded for places of more importance. Coal abounds in this section and is mined quite extensively.

HILLTOWN

Hilltown was a hamlet established close to the Missouri line, on the Chariton river in 1845, its principal business being done through the mines established in the vicinity. But after a connection had been made with the railroad at Dean and the mines, this source of revenue was taken from Hilltown and then it declined. An important adjunct of the settlement was the Wells mills, established in 1845, which brought no little trade.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP

This township lies in the southeastern portion of the county, being township 68, range 16. It is bounded on the north by Udell, east by Davis county, south by Wells and west by Sharon. The topography is pleasing and the land, which is very fertile, is drained by the Fox river and tributaries of the Chariton. Here are to be found some of the finest farms in the county, upon which are beautiful homes and substantial farm buildings.

Washington township was organized in January, 1848, and the first election was held at the house of Eli Bagley. The judges of election were David Barnhouse, Eli Bagley and John C. Haney; clerks, W. E. Perry and Cortland Harris.

The first persons to settle in this township were William Bratton, James Wright and Jehiel Troxell, They came in 1843 and chose claims directly after the land was subject to entry. It was not long after the advent of these pioneers that others came in and the township became peopled by a class of men and women unsurpassed by any community.

No record is at hand from which to give the names of all the early settlers of this or the other townships in the county, but a partial list has been secured and is hereto appended.

E. A. Drake came from Tennesee to Appanoose county and settled here in 1847. He purchased government land and at one time possessed twelve hundred acres and was one of the wealthy men of the county.

J. N. Dunbar came from Kentucky to Iowa in 1848 and settled in this township.

J. L. Earnest, a Pennsylvanian, came to the township in 1856 and made good. A. M. Harm, who later engaged in selling boots and shoes at Moulton, located in the county in 1855.

John Carr was born in Ireland and immigrated to America in 1840. He located in this township in 1855 and became prosperous as a farmer.

John Cupp was born in Pennsylvania and settled here in 1850, his worldly possessions at the time consisting of his wife and six children, a team and a wagon. By industry and good judgment he accumulated considerable property.

T. H. Hays came to this township in 1856 with his parents and located on a farm on section 9.

S. G. Haughey came from Illinois and settled in the township in 1858, where he first sold lumber and then opened a brick yard.

John P. Jennings was born in old Virginia and settled in Washington township in 1853.

William J. Johnson, with his parents, settled on the Fox river in 1846. His

Vol. I-23

horse, which he rode from Missouri, and seventy-five cents in money, was all the property he possessed. Mr. Johnson prospered.

A. J. Morrison, who became a banker, settled in this township in 1851. He was county treasurer and a veteran of the Civil war.

Thomas Morrison came here in 1856. He was a blacksmith. He enlisted in the Seventh Missouri in 1861.

Robert R. Polk and wife settled in this township in 1853, locating on a farm two miles south of Moulton. He afterward sold the farm and built the Moulton House, over which he presided.

J. R. Rucker settled in this county in 1850 and was one of the pioneers of Washington township.

George N. Scurlock, engineer and machinist, removed from Ohio in 1853 and located in this community.

G. W. Singley came to the township in 1856. He was a machinist and learned the craft in Pennsylvania.

Joseph B. Thomas and Lucy, his wife, settled in Appanoose county in 1850. locating on a farm in section 19.

V. H. Wamsley located here in 1852. He borrowed the money to purchase land and before his death was possessed of a valuable property.

John M. and Nancy A. (Wilson) Taylor came from Kentucky to Washington township in 1849. With them was a family of children, including Lewis Leroy Taylor, editor of this work.

Thomas and Eliza (Barkley) Wallace removed from their old home in Indiana in 1847 to Davis county, Iowa, whence they came to Appanoose county in March, 1848, and took possession of a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in this township. Here his wife died in the early part of 1856, leaving five children.

Levi Davis came to this township in 1857 and located near the deserted village of Orleans. Here he met Martha J. Willett, to whom he was married in 1858.

Elisha Rauson came to Appanoose county in 1856. He located on a farm of one hundred acres, for which he paid four dollars an acre. He became possessed of several hundred acres of land and held various offices in the township.

THE VILLAGE OF MOULTON

Elizabethtown was the first village in Washington township to be platted, and was located on the southeast quarter of section 15, and northeast quarter of section 22, town 68, range 16, lying on, or very near the ancient "bee-trace" heretofore described. But at the time of the laying out of Elizabethtown, the North Missouri railroad was building in this direction, and this induced a change in the plans, and the plat of Elizabethtown was merged in that of the town of Moulton.

The town plat of Moulton originally contained one hundred and sixty acres of land, situated in the west half of the southwest quarter of section 15, town 68, range 16. The land belonged to S. S. Caruthers and the plat was certified to and acknowledged before H. M. Jones, July 4, 1867. The streets running east and west were given numbers, while those running north and south were named East. Walnut, Elm, Oak, Main, Vine, Maple and West.