Reminiscences About Nathaniel Hamlin & Early Audubon County
Close on the heels of the organization of what later became Audubon County (named for the celebrated ornithologist John James Audubon, who died that notable year of 1851), Nathaniel Hamlin, a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and of early colonial stock, dissatisfied with his effort to establish a homestead in either Henry or Mahaska, Iowa counties, decided to seek farther west a more satisfactory location.
Accompanied by his brother William P. Hamlin, and three neighbors, William Powell, David Edgerton, and Samuel Ogden, they set out along the old southern Mormon trail as far as Kanesville, now Council Bluffs where they turned north following for some distance along the broad Missouri River .
Finding nothing satisfactory, the defeated explorers turned their journey homeward. One among them held a memory of fair meadows and white areas of varied timberland that fitted his dream of home, and as the little party gained the Nishnabotna, Nathaniel Hamlin separated from his companions and came alone to the remembered trail where he proceeded to "step off a squatters' claim," then unserved domain, blazing desired borderlines on trees with his axe.
Hamlin hastened home to Mahaska County where he filed his claim, and then with his ten year old daughter, Mary, brother William P. Hamlin, Philip Arthur Decker, John and Betsy Ann Hoggard, and John S. Jenkins, his wife and family, returned.
Mr. Jenkins staked out his
claim were Oakfield was later located. Mr. Decker located on what
is now known as the Herrick farm. The Hoggards settled in Section
26, Exira Township, and William Hamlin settled in Benton Township,
Cass County; but later removed to Exira.
Hamlin "Settles In"
Mr. Hamlin broke out 40 acres which he planted to corn, buckwheat, climbing beans and turnips. He built a roomy log cabin about 18X18; above was a complete attic. He then returned to Mahaska County, sold his homestead and business there and returned to Audubon County with his family of a wife and four little girls, September 13th, 1851. An important addition at about this time was Dr. Samuel Ballard, a wealthy physician who held two thousand acres of rich timberland, known as "Ballard's Grove."
Hamlin's claim became known as "Hamlin's Grove."
Both Hamlin and Jenkins brought fine horses and cattle and soon after hogs, a natural complement to the greatest corn country in the world, and poultry of all kinds, a typical Kentucky breed, the spirited "Claybank (a shapely, well built deep tan with black mane and tail which can occasionally be seen yet), and the "black and tan" Kentucky fox hounds. Several hundred sheep were brought in 1854. Spinning wheels and looms became a common adjunct to the housewife's requirements.
Click
here to see the First Hamlin Home
Early
County "Firsts"
The first birth in the new settlement was the child of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Decker, which cost Mrs. Decker's life and either a stillborn or death within days of child. First school house was built by Mr. Hamlin on land he dedicated. He brought the first hand mill which the neighbors used to grind corn, wheat, and buckwheat.
About 1852-53, John Countryman brought in the first power mill and set it up on the east bank of the Troublesome Creek . He also built the first frame house. Martha Jane Hamlin, fifth child, was the first living child born in county. The first coffin was hollowed out of a basswood puncheon for Mrs. Decker, by Hamlin, Jenkins and Kincaid.
The first marriage was that of George L. Kellogg and Susannah Kenyon, Urbane Herrick officiating. First frame barn, Bryant Milliman.
The first Fourth of July celebration was held on a high ridge near Mr. Hamlin's cabin. The first county fair, in 1859.
The first county newspaper, was the Audubon County Pioneer, in 1860. First bank , Charles Van Gorder, 1876. By the time the Civil War (1861-65) was declared, there were 126 pioneers and the families were residents in the county. Oakfield was the first village platted on John Jenkins claim in 1855. Exira was platted in 1857. Brayton, and Audubon were platted in 1878. Elk Horn and Kimballton at a later date. Hamlin was now a busy growing village on the bus route from Des Moines to Council Bluffs. Louisville and Lewis failed from the first to establish settlement.
Two of the Hamlin daughters,
Hannah M., second child, and Sarah Rosanna, third, beautiful teenage
girls, ambitious for more education, spent a school year in Exira
where they boarded in the home of "Uncle Johnny Bush, "their
teacher was the pioneer Beulah Sylvester, whose record extended
over three generations. Many single men, several of whom were
men with college learning also lent their aid with advanced text
books so that the Misses Hamlin became early day successful teachers
at the munificent salaries of $12 per month and free board and
room with patrons of their schools, a week with each family.
Hamlin Hospitality
The ever-increasing trend of immigration continued with slogans lettered on the covers of their wagons such as "Pikes Peak or Bust", "Westward Ho," or "Here We Come From Rackinsack" and, sad to relate, not all found their Eldorado, and later returned over the known trail with evidence of their dissolution in reverse slogans, "Pikes Peak and Busted"; "We Had Come From Rackinsack (Ark.), and Now We Come a-Rackin' Back."
The tired and sometimes hungry travelers soon welcomed the friendly greeting and the opportunity to replenish supplies for both man and beast from the commissary that Mr. Hamlin had early recognized as a needed and lucrative venture. His growing family, as well as the stage drivers and other unattached men, also required lodging and so Mr. Hamlin erected a second log cabin with attic.
Mrs. Hamlin, soon became famous for her fine old Southern cooking and no meal was served for the family alone. "Aunt Peggy" became a well-known and beloved personage.
Click here
to see the giant elm on the Hamlin farm.
Hamlin's
Background
Nathaniel was born March 13th,
1808. About this time many immigrants from Virginia, the "old
Dominion state," crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains into the
blue grasslands of Kentucky. Of such was the Allan Poage family
of which Margaret was born. They later removed to Indiana, when
she was four. She was born in Louisville, Kentucky, August 12th,
1818. When Nathaniel was 26 years of age he immigrated to Indiana
in the locality the Poages and others had settled. Almost at sight
young Nat was enamored of pretty 16 year old "Peggy,"
and they were married that year. Uncle Natty and Aunt Peggy became
famous names, as the first pioneers of Audubon County, Iowa, hospitable,
charitable, helpful neighbors to all within their reach.
Early Customs
For all of their reputation for gallantry, I was always a questioning observer of the masculine monopoly of the blazing winter warmth provided by the plentiful fuel fed at the broad fireplace by the unattached young men, and visiting early settlers who frequently came to grandfather Hamlin for counsel, even for financial aid.
Grandfather in his great arm chair slouched low with his heels firmly set high against the heavy oak and timbers that supported the mantelpiece, always had his place at the extreme right hand, which no one ever dared invade, while the men arranged themselves in a semicircle according to the numbers, around to the extreme left opposite their host. They brought forth clay or corncob pipes and pungent home-cured tobacco and with no apology to any woman who might be present, always back of the men filled and lit up in smoke which the wide chimney, in deference to the ladies, drew upward to the purifying outer air.
If meals had been finished, the women were busy with their needlework, knitting, or at more special crafts, toward the windows by day, close to the homemade crude tables on which rested the uncertain candle or smoky kerosene lamps which were seldom moved about in fear of explosion due to improper processing. Grandmother with the help of other women of the house made unlimited numbers of candles from beef and mutton tallow and spermacetta brought with the supplies from Des Moines or Council Bluffs when grandfather made the spring and fall journeys. Candle wicking also a necessity.
About the time of the marriage
of Mary Margaret, she who had come with her father to make that
first settlement, Grandpa's mother came to make her home permanently.
And the one room cottage, partially wrecked which still stands
near the modern home now occupying the former sight of the second
cabin, was built that the aging woman could retire from the bustle
and chatter of the family. It has been discovered that every foot
of lumber in great grandmother's house is solid black walnut.
Black walnut was frequent in the fine timber included in grandfather's
homestead.
Contact With Indians
In the daily lives of the pioneers, humor, pathos, drama and tragedy came and went with the passing of time. Every type of man threaded his way over the beaten trails, some to settle as citizens, others more or less temporarily. The Potowatomee Indians were common visitors, bringing their paltries to trade for tobacco and blankets, and such items displayed in Uncle Nattie's shelves as caught the fancy. They often set up their teepees just across the little creek which flowed parallel with the wagon road by the barns and cabins.
One early spring day such a party made camp as usual and as the familiar men were gathered in lazy content in the warmth of the fireplace, the outdoor swung open and three or four squaws with a papoose or two silently set themselves on the floor near the hearth and stared into the dancing flames.
Among the men was the young fellow who professed to be a surveyor, and a native of Illinois, who had been the first white child born in Peoria, and bore the full name Peoria Illinois, locally dubbed, P. I. who fancied himself a wit and gloried in tall tales and huge practical jokes. He studied the stolid faces of the squads and sensed a strategy that piqued his curiosity.
He rose and sauntered outdoors and around the upper side of the cabin, where some of the black and tan foxhounds were chained as always to prevent their ranging the wild woodlands where too often they found highly scented animals which perfumed the dogs too richly for human sufferance.
Carefully P. I. peered around the corner of the cabin just in time to see a suspiciously bulky Indian buck just stepping down from the doorway of the seasoned smokehouse some thirty feet beyond the cabin. It was well known that the white man's dogs and the red man had no affinity for each other, so P. I. unsnapped their leashes and the hounds lost no time in scenting the enemy and baying in full chorus. They made for the Indian, who losing hold of his blanket which concealed his burden, leaped into a wild race, ki-yippy-ki-ying, and with every jump shedding flitches of bacon, hams and shoulders; thus relieved of his load the Indian took the five-board fence which enclosed the houseyard in a flying hurdle. A scurry of squaws closely followed by the fireside loungers and members of the family burst out in time to see big Injun leaping the little brook while the squaws fled in panic and lost no time packing their belongings to make a hasty departure.
It was months before any Indians
showed up again. P. I. rolled on the ground in hysterical laughter
while the rest of the family gathered the strewn plunder to the
storage and padlocked all safely. Mother told us the story often.
Breaking Horses
Grandfather had two four-year-old geldings that for want of a competent horseman had not been broken and about the late 1860's, a young brother of father's had come out to join his brother; all three having served in the "War of the Rebellion" and as Sam was a daring rider, grandpa hired him to break the animals. Sam had worked with one to get him used to halter, then bridle and saddle, and after some days of mounting and tooling the high-spirited animal around the feedlot thought it was time to show off his mastery of the beautiful horse and so turned to the road and cantered up past the house where the young ladies were on the front porch and in the yard.
As Sam rode near, the horse became fractious and resenting the bit, reared high, Sam quickly stepped free as the animal fell backward striking on the pommel of the heavy saddle and burst a blood vessel and bled to death.
The second gelding was hitched
beside a work mare to a plow and when he felt the plow take the
furrow, threw himself backward throwing the plowshare out of the
ground, and as he fell, struck the upturned point, hamstringing
himself and bleeding to death in the field. Both horses had grown
too old to take to training, yearlings had to be handled thus
accustomed to control early.
War
Scare
The Civil War, 1861-65, or "War of the Rebellion," made problems of many kinds for the scattered pioneers, in matters of supply and safety of families and possessions. Grandfather's wayside store and tavern had netted him an income mostly in gold, which a small wooden homemade safe provided the only security.
Rumor of a threatened invasion from Missouri about the second year of the conflict disturbed Mr. Hamlin as to possible confiscation of all valuable assets that the army would be able to locate. He confided in no one but his wife. But dressing for a rugged journey, strapped a stout buckskin moneybelt securely around his body underneath his clothing, into which he had buttoned between five and six thousand dollars in gold coin. He slipped away after midnight bound for Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, bent on reaching his good friend "Alphabet" Pusey (a nickname as he had three initials), a banker on that Missouri River town.
Mr. Hamlin arrived one afternoon and deposited his wealth in safety. By the third day he was home once more with a solid scab about his waist amply testifying to the burden of gold. Mr. Hamlin banked for many years with his good friend socially and politically.
The article above is an account of Natty Hamlin's coming, and early pioneer life, written for the Audubon County Journal by Lorena Thomas Witham, oldest living descendant of Nathaniel and Margaret Hamlin at that time. The article is located in a scrapbook made by Iva Milliman in the reading room of the Exira Courthouse Historical Museum.