PREFACE.
IN presenting
this work to the people of Dallas county, we have
reason to believe that we are placing it in the
hands of its friends. A friendly disposition was
manifested toward our representatives during its
compilation, and we trust the volume in its complete
form may be in no sense a disappointment, though
we by no means claim for it perfection. If we have
accomplished nothing more, we have, at least, rescued
much important matter from oblivion. Ten years more
would have made the record of many important facts
and incidents, which are herein presented, an impossibility,
for much of it was recorded only in the memory of
the early settlers, and must have passed away with
them sooner or later, unless recorded in some more
enduring form for future generations.
The first settlers
of Dallas county have passed the mountain tops of
life. Memory is one of the first faculties of mind
which shows signs of decay, and even among those
of the old guard still living, another decade would
have found many a link rusted out from their chain
of recollection.
More than thirty-three
years have come and gone since white men came to
occupy and develop the highly productive lands of
Dallas county. These years were full of changes
and interesting history, and had more of the vigorous
minds and ready pens of the early settlers been
directed to the keeping of a chronological journal
or diary of events during the earliest days of settlement,
as a very few have done through the later periods,
it would be a comparatively easy task now to write
a much more full, interesting and correct history
of the county. In the absence of such records the
magnitude of the undertaking is very materially
increased, and rendered still more intricate and
difficult by reason of the absence of so many of
the pioneer fathers and mothers who were first to
make settlements in the county and were eye-witnesses
to these various changes and events, and who themselves
were the important actors in the scenes. In this
history we have endeavored to present to the reader
a picture of the past and present of Dallas county,
noting also many of the more important changes intervening.
We have labored to introduce him to the wigwams
of its aborigines, to seat him by the hearth-stone
of its pioneers, to trace the history of the county's
organization, to complete a sketch of its leading
institutions, as also of its towns and townships
from their organization and establishment, and to
represent the condition of the county while entering
the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
This has not been
so much the work of ourselves as that of Dallas
county's own citizens. We have compiled what many
of these men and women have long known, and placed
it in permanent form for the present generation
and for those to come. We have not the confidence
to presume that the work will contain no mistakes,
for the fallibility of memory produces a hundred
conflicting statements, and dates are slippery things
to handle. Names will get twisted, and not a few
things met with in preparing such a work are exceedingly
crooked by nature so that they are unruly things
to spread on paper. On these accounts errors will
creep in, even with the best of care. Some of these
will belong to our informants and some to ourselves.
But we trust that a charitable public will not forget
that "to err is human."
The sketches on
the Northwest, and the articles, descriptive and
historical, on Iowa, embracing the first two hundred
and fifty-six pages of the work, were prepared by
A. R. Fulton, of Des Moines, and we doubt
not will prove highly interesting and instructive,
as showing the steps by which, within the present
century, a vast region, inhabited by savages, has
developed into mighty States.
In our "War
Record" we have endeavored to give, in epitomized
form, the part taken by individual soldiers from
Dallas county, with a full record of those who engaged
in the service from this county during the late
war.
The especial value
of much we have presented, particularly in our biographical
department, will be patent a generation hence. It
will, we trust, be endeared to hundreds of firesides.
With regard to
the important facts and incidents in the early history
of the county we are especially indebted to Judge
Lloyd D. Burns for the most valuable and reliable
information given by important documents and verbal
statements, and especially by his Centennial History
of Dallas county, which he had prepared by appointment
of the Governor of the State for record, and a large
portion of the first of which had been published
in the Dallas County
iv
PREFACE.
Gazette, 1877. On this important document
we have relied for the principal information concerning
the early history of the county. And it is exceedingly
fortunate for all parties concerned that such a
document was in existence, otherwise much of the
early history would have been lost, and especially
the political record during the first three or four
years, as the records of those years are most imperfect,
and Judge Burns is the only one found in the county
who has kept anything of a full record of that period.
Articles of a similar character also were prepared
by Mr. Benjamin Greene, and published in the Dallas
County News a year previous to the others above
mentioned, from which, also, we have received important
information, but were unable to get access to more
than three numbers of the paper.
We wish thus publicly
to express thanks for these favors and for this
valuable work in thus presenting the early records
and history of the county, which service is not
less valuable to the readers than to the publishers
of this work. We desire, also, thus publicly to
express our appreciation of the kindness which has
been shown us in this enterprise. To the several
hundred citizens who have co-operated with our representatives
in securing the information which made the accompanying
work a possibility, we tender our hearty thanks-to
the Press of the county, especially to editors of
the New Era and Dallas County News, for the use
of files of papers and for general information;
to Judge Jeremiah Perkins for Masonic history and
important information regarding his town and the
political matters of the county; to Mr. Cole Noel
for aid in preparing the list of county officers,
and other valuable assistance and information; to
Mr. Thos. C. Walsh for generous aid and valuable
statistics so freely rendered; to Mr. L. Swearingen,
the county auditor, for free access to the records
and for such liberal kindness displayed to all our
representatives; to all the county and town officials
for similar acts of kindness and aid rendered; to
the various pastors and officers of churches for
the numerous and valuable sketches and statistics
regarding their several churches; to the county
superintendent, Captain Amos Dilley, and the various
principals and teachers of the county, for educational
reports and statistics, and to the various citizens
in towns, townships and county who so kindly and
willingly rendered us important aid in furnishing
statistics and particulars regarding the early history
and present condition of their respective towns,
townships and localities, to all such we tender
our heartfelt thanks.
Whatever of satisfaction,
instruction, or enjoyment the perusal of these pages
may bring to the reader, will be a gratification
to
THE PUBLISHERS.
Map of Dallas County-1879
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