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duties as fireman but he sobered up and made a good one. Sleeth carefully looked after him and the building."

franklin county in the general assembly

The men who were from Franklin in the General Assembly of Iowa were of high character and sterling worth. They had fitted themselves for broader and more responsible activities during the years that called for their energies and abilities at home. Most, if not all, of them had been trained to a greater or lesser extent in finesse and the intricacies of governmental affairs, so that they went to the Legislature equipped for the duties before them in that wider field.

Chauncey Gillett, according to the Iowa Official Register, was the first person to represent Franklin county in the General Assembly, whose home was in the county, and only those will be here mentioned. He represented the legislative district in the Eighth General Assembly and was present in an extra session held before the expiration of his term. The names of others from Franklin in the Legislature follow: Michael A. Leahy, fourteenth and fifteenth; Lorenzo D. Lane, sixteenth; Rufus S. Benson, nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first; John W. Luke, twenty-second and twenty-third; W. F. Harriman, twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth; C. F. Johnston, twenty-sixth, twenty-sixth extra session and twenty-seventh; D. J. Patton, twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth; D. W. Dow, thirtieth, thirty-first, thirty-second and thirty-second extra; Nathaniel W. Beebe, thirty-third and thirty-fourth; Frank A. Thayer, thirty-fifth. Mr. Thayer died February 28, 1913, and Orson G. Reeve was elected to fill the vacancy. Elisha G. Howland, of Otisville, was sent to the Senate for the Fourteenth General Assembly. He afterwards moved to Belmond, Wright county, and from there was returned to the Senate for the Fifteenth General Assembly. The present Senator from the Forty-third Senatorial District is Thomas J. B. Robinson, of Hampton.

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CHAPTER IV

BEFORE THE CREATION OF FRANKLIN COUNTY-THE FIRST TO SETTLE HERE-MAYNE'S GROVE SELECTED BY THEM-SKETCHES OF PIONEERS THE INDIAN SCARE-HUNTING STORIES.

The late L. B. Raymond was for many years the leading journalist of Franklin county and made his paper, The Recorder, a household necessity in this section of the state. His versatility as a writer, lucidity of expression and keenness in securing facts made the products of his pen more than ordinarily valuable.

Early in the "Seventies" Mr. Raymond began collecting data for a history of Franklin county which he had in mind. Preparing his material with precision and literary taste, chapter after chapter appeared from week to week in the Recorder and met with universal interest and approbation. The writer of these articles had come to Franklin county early enough to meet face to face many of the men and women who first settled here. He got from the lips of these hardy and brave pioneers the stories of their early experiences in this new and wild country. He related in a plain, but fascinating manner the tales told him, without any frills, and exhibited consideration for facts truly admirable.

While in the midst of his multifarious duties, Mr. Raymond continued in the quest for local historical material and gathered a mass of valuable data that can never be replaced, as the sources of information are long since nonexistent. The real pioneers of Franklin county are gone, never to return, and the Raymond collection of historical data and reminiscences may be considered as treasure trove by the citizens of the county, who take a pride and pleasure in the preservation to themselves and future generations of these oft-told tales of the venturesome, courageous and thrifty men and women of the "Fifties," who came into this comparatively unknown land, cleared away the timber, broke the virgin prairie soil and turned a wilderness into cultivated fields, yielding annually bounteous harvests.

In the year 1883 a Chicago publishing concern took upon itself to give to the people of Franklin county the first printed history in book form of the community. L. B. Raymond was prevailed upon by the publishers to contribute of his valuable store of pertinent material to that history. One article from his pen was entitled "Early Settlers." It was prepared with care and having his facts at first hand this pioneer historian of the county preserved for posterity the names of the first settlers of the county and the periods of their arrival without making a material mistake as to either. That article appears below in its entirety:

"The first permanent settlement of Franklin county was indirectly due to the fact that in 1852 a man named Addison Phelps, residing in Ashtabula county, Ohio, started with his family, to find a new home in Iowa, and as one of his neighbors, named James B. Reeve, had for some time a desire to examine this unknown region for himself, Phelps employed him to take a team and bring a portion of his goods. Phelps had relatives residing on the Cedar river above Cedar Falls, and thither they went, and upon arriving there they left the family, and Phelps and Reeve struck out still further west. They went to Rice's mill on the Iowa river (now Hardin City) and there were joined by a man named Moore, of whom nothing is known excepting that they found him at Hardin City. These three men struck out on the trackless prairie and headed northward toward the body of timber now widely known as Mayne's Grove. Late in the afternoon they reached it and having found a suitable place to camp, near the Butterfield place in the west end of the grove, one of the party went out and shot a prairie chicken for supper. The noise of the gun brought to them in a few moments, to their great astonishment, a white man who, when he heard the gun, knew that it was, as he afterwards expressed it, 'no Injun's gun,' and started to look up his new neighbors.

"This man was John Mayne, who had that day come to the grove, following up the stream from its junction with the West Fork of the Cedar. He had an old style Hoosier wagon drawn by two yoke of oxen, his wife and child, a bundle of beaver and mink traps, his trusty rifle and a very scanty supply of domestic utensils. He also had in this wagon a tent which was not yet pitched, but upon meeting with Phelps, Reeve and Moore, he forthwith proposed that all should camp together, and the tent was put up. Mrs. Mayne got supper for the party, and while history is silent as to what the major

part of the meal consisted of, yet it is handed down that the hostess made biscuit for supper that were shortened with coon's grease.

"Messrs. Phelps and Reeve were so well satisfied with the appearance of the grove and its surroundings that they decided to locate there. Mayne said that if they would make claims, he would also. So the next day all hands packed up and turned down the creek and made their claims. Mayne took the farm now (1883) occupied by John C. Jones; Phelps the present Carter farm where S. H. Carter lives, and Reeve the place now occupied by his widow. With Mayne's oxen they broke furrows to mark the boundaries of their claims, and Phelps and Reeve returned to the Cedar river by way of Rice's mills for provisions and for Phelps' family. Mayne immediately set about building a shanty, which stood near the ford just east of John C. Jones' house and was the first building erected in Franklin county. It was of logs, of course, with no floor but the dirt, and covered with basswood bark, the chinks being daubed with mud. In a few days Reeve, Phelps and family returned and all took up quarters with Mayne. Phelps began a cabin on his claim just north of the house on the farm owned for many years by Colonel A. T. Reeve, but after getting it three or four logs high, cold weather set in and he abandoned the idea of finishing it until spring. As there was no hay to feed the horses belonging to Reeve, the latter returned with them to the Cedar, near Janesville, where they engaged keeping of them for the winter, and came to Mayne's grove on foot. Reeve and Mayne went to trapping and hunting for employment, being quite successful, and as the country abounded in elk, buffalo and smaller game, they did not lack for fresh meat. In fact, their larder was so scantily provided with everything else and so plentifully supplied in this respect, that it began to tell upon the health of the party. The supply of flour and meal becoming exhausted, Reeve started on foot for the Cedar river to bring back the much needed supplies with his team. The nearest settlement at this time was at Boylan's Grove, now Bristow, so he struck across the trackless prairie in that direction. Soon after he set out it began to storm and came on bitter cold. He found along towards night that he was freezing, and it required all his powers of endurance to keep up. Several times he was on the point of giving up and lying down to his fate, but by superhuman efforts kept under way. At last, just at nightfall, he reached the body of timber now known as Allen's Grove on the West Fork of the Cedar. Having a few matches he broke up some twigs, built a fire, and upon taking off his boots found that his

feet were badly frozen. Surrounded by howling wolves and suffering the most excruciating tortures with his feet and hands, he wore away the long night and in the morning upon attempting to put on his boots, found his feet so swollen that it seemed an utter impossibility to get them on, but finally, after cutting the boots nearly to pieces, he managed to get them on and set out for Boylan's Grove, where he arrived late that night more dead than alive. After two or three days' rest there, he got a team to take him to Janesville, where he remained for some weeks, unable to stand upon his feet, and only returned to Mayne's Grove in March, just in time to find Phelps and family discouraged and about to leave, which they shortly did. From the effects of this adventure Reeve never fully recovered. The flesh nearly all came off from the soles of his feet and his toes and it was several years before he could expose himself with impunity during the coldest winter weather.*

"After Phelps' departure and about the time that the winter was breaking up, Reeve and Mayne divided their furs, Mayne giving Reeve a little dun mare and a certain number of weeks' board for his share. In a few days after the trade was made Mayne got up a quarrel, and it immediately occurred to Reeve that this was done to save the board. Mayne was ugly and vicious but Reeve was not to be discouraged nor scared off, and so he stayed by, and when Mrs. Mayne prepared a meal, Mayne would seat himself on one side of the table

* Orson G. Reeve, a son of Judge Reeve, gives a different version of this incident from Mr. Raymond. He says that Phelps had no team and after concluding to quit the settlement he borrowed Reeve's horses and wagon to take his wife and children back to Cedar Falls, promising to leave the team at Janesville, in Bremer county. After Phelps had been gone about a week, Mr. Reeve got uneasy about his team; there had come quite a snow storm and later a freeze, which made a hard crust on top of the snow. He started on his journey at about noon to look after his horses and after going some distance the sun had thawed the snow crust so that it became soft and at almost every step he would break through into the soft snow beneath. This wet the buckskin thongs used to tie on his snow shoes, so that they stretched and he had great difficulty in keeping the snow shoes on his feet. This caused delay. Reaching a tract of land between two creeks, he discovered two otters traveling in the path from one creek to the other. These he killed, and skinning them, used their pelts as gloves. This also caused delay, and in the meantime the wind suddenly changed to the northwest and in a few minutes a blinding blizzard confronted the traveler, who stood facing the wind to get his directions. The wind and snow became so furious that when Mr. Reeve got to Boylan's creek, and within a half mile of Boylan's house, he walked off an eight-foot bank. The thaw had raised the water three feet deep over the ice where he had to cross the creek. He could see the timber on the other side and reaching it, he gathered a few twigs and by shooting a wad of paper into a piece of punk, after many discouraging trials, he finally managed to start a blaze, which saved him from freezing to death.

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