the same year. The town is still a busy little mart, with good transportation facilities, and has probably 150 inhabitants.

M. L. Whitmore, Hansell's premier merchant, was raised on a farm and became an itinerant minister of the Methodist church. He arrived in Franklin county in 1880 and engaged in the mercantile business at Hansell. In the meantime for two years he had charge of the Union Ridge Methodist Episcopal Church in Ingham township.

A postoffice was established here in 1880 and George W. Hansell was appointed postmaster.

Vol. 1-18

CHAPTER XX

THE TOWNSHIPS CONTINUED

GENEVA - OAKLAND HAMILTON GRANT-LEE-GENEVA EARLY SETTLED-JOB GARNER CAME TO THIS TOWNSHIP IN 1854 AND WAS FOUNDER OF HAMPTON-DATES OF

TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATIONS.

GENEVA TOWNSHIP

The locality in which Geneva township now lies induced some of the first settlers of Franklin county to make the locality their homes. The land is of a most excellent quality and in value is probably as high in the estimation of those who are experts as any in Franklin county. The territory is well watered, Mayne creek running across its lines from west to east, which with its small tributaries waters and drains the entire township. Considerable timber was found by the pioneers at what afterwards became known as Four Mile Grove and Highland Grove.

Geneva township was erected, out of Reeve township in 1858 and the first officials were appointed by the county court. They were William H. Thompson, clerk; Daniel Tillman and William B. Johnson, trustees. Later in the spring of that year an election was held in a log schoolhouse on section 16. This subdivision of the county has now the following boundaries: On the north, Ingham township; on the east, Butler county; on the south, Osceola township; and on the west, Reeve township. The Minneapolis & St. Louis railroad, formerly the Central Iowa, enters the township at the southeast corner of section 2 and makes its exit from the northwest corner of section 18. Geneva is the only station.

The first settlements in the township were made in 1854. Those locating here that year were Job Garner, Amon Rice and Peter Rhinehart. Garner chose a tract of land on section 15, where he built the first house in the township. He only remained a year, however, disposing of his property to Martin Boots. Mr. Garner then entered land, which afterwards became the site of the county seat and gave forty acres to the county.

Jabish Jones came with his wife and son, Benjamin, and another son, and together they entered a tract of land in Geneva township, in 1854. Here the father lived until his death, which took place in 1882. Benjamin remained until the fall of 1881, when he moved to a farm he had purchased in Ingham township.

Among those who came in 1855 were Martin Boots, J. E. Perdue, Silas Moon, Charles Leggett, Henry Smith, George Hansell, William H. Thompson, Q. A. Jordan, Rufus Benson, Samuel Carbaugh and William Ward.

J. E. Perdue left his home in Illinois in 1855 and coming further west found Franklin county to his liking and settled on section 17, where he lived until 1868 and then moved to Southern Iowa.

Silas Moon came from Indiana and settled on section 17, in 1855. He did not remain long and with the desire of making a change moved to Oregon territory.

Charles M. Leggett in 1855 selected a tract of land for a home, on which he lived for many years. The farm was afterwards owned by J. A. Pickering. Mr. Leggett was elected justice of the peace in 1855 and held the office for fifteen years. He was the first justice in Franklin county. Selling his farm in 1870, 'Squire Leggett moved on to another at the west end of Mayne's Grove. After a residence there of six years he retired from the farm and became a citizen of Hampton, where he remained until 1888 and then became a member of his son's family, at Smithland, in Woodbury county, where he died November 27, 1901.

Henry Smith was in the township as early as the fall of 1854, but did not locate permanently until the following spring, when he entered land on section 17. This property he afterward sold to J. E. Perdue.

George Hansell came west from Ohio in the spring of 1855 and stopped a while in Cedar county. In July of the same year he located on sections 6 and 7, in Geneva township, where he lived until 1873. That year he removed to Ingham township, and the station on the Chicago Great Western in the township is named for him.

William H. Thompson was one who took up his fortunes with Geneva township in 1855, coming here in the fall of that year and locating on sections 7 and 8. Here he improved the land which he had purchased of the Government and there remained until his death, which occurred August 26, 1913. Mr. Thompson was known and designated as one of Franklin county's grand men, a gentleman

of rare mental capacity, one who always stood in the front ranks for the best interests of her people. Few men were more loyal to duty and few left a cleaner life record. At the time of his decease he had lived continuously on his farm for fifty-eight years.

David Church was a Geneva township farmer as early as 1855, having located here in the fall of that year and hired a house. In the following spring he built a habitation into which he moved his family. Mr. Church settled on section 9 and in a few years was the possessor of several hundred acres of the finest land in Franklin county. His neighbor, William Ward, put up the frame house for him. Mr. Church became quite active in the affairs of the county. He served on the board of supervisors six years and after becoming a citizen of Hampton in 1882 he assisted in the organization of the Citizens Bank of Hampton and was one of its directors. He died May 14,

1909.

William Ward, a Pennsylvanian and a neighbor of David Church while living in the Keystone state, immigrated west in 1855 and coming to Franklin county located on section 18 and there improved a farm, which is now known as the J. H. Butson place. About 1873 Mr. Ward moved to Hampton and for two years was in the livery business. He then bought the Shobe place in Sheffield and farmed it for some time, when he moved to Texas.

Q. A. Jordan arrived here early in 1855 and located on section 16. He was a good farmer and worked diligently to improve his place. Mr. Jordan remained until about the outbreak of the Civil war, when he removed to Kansas.

Martin Boots at the age of twenty-one married and began farming in Ohio. In the fall of 1854, with the object of bettering his condition, he came west and spent the winter near Waterloo. The following spring he purchased and opened a farm in Geneva township. In his house was held the first religious service in the township. He was a member of the United Brethren Church.

Rufus S. Benson was from Madison county, Ohio. He immigrated to Franklin county, Iowa, with his parents, Isaac and EuniceBenson, in 1857, and settled near Four Mile Grove on a farm on section 16, which is still in possession of members of the family. In. 1862 he helped raise Company H, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry,. this being the only exclusively recruited company from Franklin county. He was elected its second lieutenant and after the death of Captain J. B. Reeve was promoted to the rank of captain, which office he held until mustered out in August, 1865. Captain Benson.