Letters From Early Settlers
Audubon
Iowa
April 10, 1915
Editor Exira Journal
Exira, Iowa
Friend Jack:
Have just come across your offer of a prize to one who has lived in the county longest. I believe I can make some claim to being among the number. 60 years ago today I landed in Audubon County, Iowa, and the first night in the county we stayed in an old log house known as the old Decker House and it was about 100 yards west of the present home of Boy Herrick. This house was about 18 by 20 feet with a flat roof, ground floor, and one room. The Decker house was then occupied by Uncle Dan Crane and family. The nearest neighbor was Urbane Herrick, uncle of Boy Herrick, and he lived at what is now known as the Temple farm. Uncle Ed Herrick then lived about 2 miles south of the present town of Exira and about a mile up the creek from what was afterwards old Louisville. Uncle Alvin Herrick, father of Urbane and Ed Herrick, and grandfather to Boy Herrick, then lived on what is now known as the Dick Gault farm. There were no schoolhouses, roads, bridges, or fences, and the nearest markets and post offices were Des Moines and Council Bluffs.
I remember of an incident which happened to uncle Ed Herrick. His wife's father lived in Wisconsin, I believe it was. In the year or so after we came to the county, Uncle Ed and his wife made preparations to go to Wisconsin to see her father. They were all ready to start the next morning when a letter came saying that her father had been dead for two years
As far as I can remember, the following houses in the county where white people lived were Uncle Natty Hamlin, Uncle Harry Bowen, John S. Jenkins, Bryant Milliman, David Edgerton, Nathaniel Wiggins, Mr. Perkins and Mr. Kinyon, and those above mentioned. I believe that was about the name and number with the exception of Samuel Hopkins and Samuel Ballard. Hopkins lived on what is known as the Ike Hallock property in Oakfield, he being an uncle to my wife whose maiden name was Tryphena Hopkins. His wife, Annie Hopkins, died and was buried somewhere in the town of Oakfield.
There were many Indians in the county and they camped at different places in the county. Wild game was quite plentiful at that time and we never thought of killing domestic animals and curing the meat. I have seen my father shoot deer from his own door.
We stayed at the Decker house one or two nights and then went north and stayed for some time with Bryant Milliman who then lived about 150 yards southeast from where Ad Siebert now lives. Bry was then living in a little log house about 16 feet square. We lived in the wagon and tent until long in September when father built a house on what was afterwards known as the uncle David Anderson farm now a part of Exira. The present Catholic cemetery of Exira is now located on the northeast corner of his farm. He got this land from the government and deeded it to my mother. He went to breaking prairie.
The social affairs were not very extensive but consisted principally of visiting back and forth among the few families.
Within a few years other families came in among the first which were Dodges, Hallocks and Nortons.
Hoping that some other old
residents will respond to the invitation, I remain,
Yours very truly,
L. M. Anderson
Brayton,
Iowa April 12th, 1915
Exira Journal
Messrs:
I was born and raised in Hamlin, Delaware County, New York, September 20, 1838, and lived and worked on a farm until the first of April 1854. My father, mother, sister, and myself started west April 1, 1854, stopped a few days in Erie County, Pa., a short time in Chicago and Rock Island, and a few days in Iowa City, the capital at that time.
I saw a man shaking with the ague and asked why he did not get cured. He said he could not die until his time came. I tried to convince him he was mistaken when an old gentleman by the name of Samuel Hopkins said to me: "Young filler, did you ever see a man die before his time?" I surrendered. I took a big notion to him. I found he was coming to this county where his wife had died and where his children lived.
He persuaded us to come here to what is now called Oakfield. We came as far as Des Moines by stage and the rest of the way in a wagon and I. P. Hallock senior came with us.
We arrived when plums were in blossom, April 20, 1854. We lived in one of John S. Jenkins cabins till we could build one of our own, as there was not a railroad in the state when we came, so to be sure to get timber which we could not do without.
John S. Jenkins and family arrived here in May, 1851, I think, nearly three years before we did. They are all gone to the land of the dead except John T. who was 76, the 14th of November. I am also the last of our family alive.
Nattie Hamlin, Mark Heath, the Kincaids, John S. Johnson, Dr. Sam Ballard and family, Ben Hyatt, Sam Hopkins, Wilkinson and Gage lived here when I came and I believe the Hon. W. H. Bowen and family and the Carpenters lived here, also. Alvin Herrick and all of his children lived here then. Tommy Rogers, the blacksmith at that time, lived at Indian Town, near Lewis and there was a family in what is now Exira that took care of Mr. Hopkins youngest child. There were several boys that lived at Mark Heath's.
Prairie chickens were plentiful and we had right smart of deer, elk and wild turkeys at that time.
John S. Jenkins had a small field of wheat which did well and he threshed with horses and I think took it to Panora to mill. We got corn ground at Indian town. Very few spuds were raised then but they were the best pinkeyes . Hogs generally ran; mosquitoes were abundant. This was a good place to live then . Yours truly,
D. B. Beers.
P. S. We built a bridge across the river in 1854.
The articles above were taken from clippings compiled by Iva Milliman, Exira. The articles are in a scrapbook in the Exira Courthouse Historical Museum reading room.