CHAPTER VII
The western
part of the County was settled first, owing
to the prospective incoming railroad. Goewey
Township and Gilman were as early settled
as any, and, indeed, the very first settler
took his claim in Gilman.
In 1871 there was
living in O'Brien County, where Primghar now
is, Mr. Charles F. Allbright. His home
was a small one, we should judge 14x20, one
story with small addition. THis house was
the general stopping place, not only for people
from the north part of O'Brien County, but
also Southern Osceola. It will be understood
that at thistime there was no railroad, and
freight was hauled mostly from Cherokee, and
the Allbright house was about the only
one on the road in O'Brien County in making
trips to and from Cherokee.
Mr. A. H. Lyman
made the first track across the County from
Allbright's to Goewey Township, and Mr.
Lyman came into Osceola County in March,
1871. He came from Grant County, Wisconsin,
and first settled upon and done his filing
on the northeast quarter of Section 26, Township
98, Range 41, now Goewey Township. He put
up a residence with a shingled roof, but the
walls of which were built of sod. He broke
about thirty acres that season, put in beans,
potatoes, turnips and melons, and of these
had quite a crop. His family came in October,
1871. Mr. Lyman's house then became
the stopping place for that part of the country,
and it was often crowded with people, sometimes
the whole floor covered with lodgers, and,
if not cold, some outside.
On this same section,
in 1871, Douglas E. Ball and B.
F. Mundorf took claims,a nd Adam Batie
took his claim on the same section in the
spring of 1872. Mr. Lyman still lives
in Goewey Township. His reputation is that
of an honest and hard working man, but Lyman
is considered quite a talker. He is a man
of ideas and likes to express them. Several
were at Lyman's one day and a fellow
by the name of Patch bet $1 with Lyman
that he couldn't keep from speaking for one
hour. The money was deposited with the stakeholder,
and the hour of silence commenced. In the
course of half an hour some fellow came to
the house to make some inquiries,
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and the rest of them kept in
the house to see Lyman wrestle with
the stranger. His motions were almost awkward,
for he couldn't anwer the questions as his
dollar was at stake, and finally the stranger
left with the idea that Lyman had gone
crazy.
In April, 1872,
Walter Fisher and Reed Patch
started west from Spencer to Lyman's
place. They knew the quarter that Lyman
was on, so took the bearings and navigated
as the sailors do, by compass. They made it
all right and reached the Lyman place safely.
These three men then went to Sibley with a
sleigh. the ground was soft, however, and
the creeks had some water in. While crossing
the Otter the horses suddenly went down in
the soft, watery snow, and went so suddenly
it pitched Lyman out, who went in up
to his neck. Lyman was got out and
over the river, and Fisher, by careful
work, got himself across, and the horses were
unhitched and they safely landed. Patch
determined to stick to the sleigh and not
get wet, the other fellows he though could
look out for themselves. After the horses
were got over, the boys hitched a rope to
the end of the tongue of the sleigh to pull
that out, and Patch was sort of crowing
over his safe and dry-shod transportation.
The horses started and the first jerk of the
sleigh landed Patch into the creek
and up to his neck. The boys got him out,
but he was not only a sorry looking object,
but had the appearance of a man disgustinly
disappointed. Lyman thought honors
were easy, and they soon got where their condition
was made dry and comfortable.
In June, 1871,
J. B. Lent, who was Treasurer of Osceola
County, preceding Mr. Townsend, arrived
at the Lyman place. Mr. Lent also came
from Grant County, Wisconsin, and had started
with some others for Nebraska. The others
who started with him with teams kept on to
Cherokee, while Lent diverted his course to
go to Lyman's for the purpose of leaving
some stock there for Lyman, they having
lived in the same neighborhood in their Wisconsin
home. The reason that the 16th of June arrival
is so well remembered is that on that day
the dry spell was broken, and Lyman
and Lent gazed upon the falling water
with supreme satisfaction and delight.
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Lent, after leaving the
stock at Lyman's went to Cherokee and
told the rest of the party he was so delighted
with Osceola County that he would settle there
and go no further; they went on, except Louis
Folsom and Lent, and these returned
to Lyman's place. The first night they
slept under the wagon cover set on the ground,
and during the night the wind blowed that
over, when they went into the house. Lent
and Folsom soon did thier settlement
and filing, Lent on southwest quarter
of Section 24, Township 98, Range 41, and
Folsom on south half of southeast quarter
of Section 24, Township 98, Range 41.
The great thing
to be feared then on an open prairie was a
blizzard. The early settlers encountered several
of them. In December, 1871, Dr. Hall,
then living in Goewey Township, and his son,
Arthur, a boy, started to the creek
for some willows for fuel. While they were
gone a terrible blizzard came up and they
were caught out in it. They made their way
towards home the best they could, but the
blinding snow and extreme cold made it slow
progress, and the oxen, too, were hard to
get along. Soon the boy discovered that the
father was missing and could not be found
anywhere. Of course no search could be made,
for the boy was stuggling to take care of
himself, but all at once Mr. Hall himself
had disappeared, either strayed away from
the boy or fallen in sheer exhaustion unable
to go further. The boy went west for a while,
then turned and went east again, and after
traveling a few miles the oxen gave out; the
boy then hollered as loud as he could, and
as luck would have it he was near enough to
the house of F. O. Messenger so that
Messenger came until he reached the
boy. The boy's hands and feet were frozen,
but Messenger got him to the house
and after while the boy got around all right
again. The oxen were also rescued. Dr.
Hall himself perished in that December
blizzard, and was not found until the spring
of 1872, and was then found by Mr. Messenger's
dog bringing to the house the bone from a
human body, which was noticed, and Mrs.
Messenger then directed the dog back and
followed him to Dr. Hall's remains,
which were but his bones. The boy, Arthur
Hall, grown to manhood, now lives in Washington
State. The blizzard in February, 1872, the
same in which Nagg perished, was also
a fearful one. The first day of that blizzard,
Lyman with others went to Sibley to
buy goods at Roger's store. The blizzard
commenced wihile they were in town, and they,
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hurried up their purchases in
order to return, and were soon on their way
back again. It was a foolish start, but still
they got through, and no lives were lost.
There were Lyman, B. F. Mundorf, Lon Sanfrisco,
Eve Adler and A. Carpenter. When
they got to the house of A. Romey, Mundorf
and Lyman had about eight miles further
to go, and Mundorf insisted on going
and was bound to go. All the others objected
to any such thing, and Mr. Romey declared
hat not one of them should leave his house.
Mundorf, however, had made up his mind
to go and go he would, and as there was no
other alternative, Lyman, knowing that
Mundorf would surely get lost, started
with him. Nothing saved them but the team
of horses Mr. Lyman was driving. They
who are accustomed to the road know the great
difference between horses in knowing the direction
to go, and Mr. Lyman's team was of
that kind which could find their way home
in the darkest night or in any storm in which
they could travel. This was the reason Lyman
went with Mundorf, and Lyman
made no attempt to guide his team but let
them take their own way, and theylanded these
storm-driven settlers safely home.
At this time there
was considerable of an attempt, and some of
it successful, to hold claims in fictitious
names and cover them up, so-called. It was
done by filing applications in the land office
at Sioux City, and the filer signing some
name which would make it appear of record
that the claim was taken. It took an incoming
stranger a little time, using a western expression
"to catch on to the racket," but
he soon did, and there was not much after
all made in that kind of speculation. Soon
after Lent and Folsom got here,
and they, with Lyman and some others,
were taking it easy sitting on the prairie
grass at Lent's claim, a stranger,
who gave his name as Freman, drove
up and informed these gentlemen that they
were trespasers on other people's claims;
that he had done the filing for them, and
they were now on the road to settle. Lent
cross-questioned the fellow a little, Lyman
gathered himself together for a controversy,
and when the stranger had told all he knew
about it and the boys had sized the thing
up so that a consclusion was reached, Mr.
Freman was told in a most emphatic manner,
and in language that was not doubtful of construction,
that if he was seen in that part of the country
in just sixty minutes after that interview,
they would hang him; and Lyman went
to hunting a rope and to get the well ready
to drop him in, when he started, to use Lyman's
expression, as though the devil was after
him, and was never seen afterwards.
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Mr.
A. Romey, who is now a merchant in
Sibley, came to Osceola County in April, 1871.
He drove through from Fayette County, Iowa,
and William Barkhuff started and drove
through with him; also, Mr. A. Carpenter.
On the road, Mr. J. F. Jones, Joshua
Stevens and Waldo joined them;
also W. H. Lean. Mr. Stephens
and Mr. Waldo are still residents of
the county. Mr. Romey filed on the
northwest quarter of Section 4, Goewey Township.
He put up a sod house, with shingled roof,
and hauled his lumber from Sioux City. He
broke about fifteen acres in 1871, but put
in no crop.
A.
Romey (click on thumbnail for larger image)
Typical sodhouse
CHAPTER VIII
In September, 1881, Henry C. Allen
landed in Goewey Township. There came with
him, August Thomson, C. Thomson and
Francis Allen, these four forming the
party. H. C. Allen settled on the northeast
quarter of Section 8, in township 98, Range
41, where he still resides, and the others
filed upon and settled on claims near him,
and are now non-residents. This party commenced
housekeeping by putting up a house partly
on three quarter-sections, making their home
together until later on, when separate houses
were to be built. In the latter part of 1871,
H. C. Allen and Frances Allen
drove their teams to Minnesota for work, and
they remained there during the winter, Frances
Allen stopping at Eagle Lake and H.
C. going on further to Waterford. H.
C. Allen took his family along with him,
consisting of his wife and three children,
and with them returned early in the spring
of 1872. He drove to Minnesota with a wagon
and started back with a wagon, but on his
way was overtaken with a blizzard and a large
fall of snow, so that he had runners put under
his wagon bed. He was traveling alongside
the railroad track, and a few miles beyond
Heron Lake came to a deep ravine which was
filled with snow and there seemed to be no
way of getting across it, and, as Allen
was anxious to get home before the time run
out to get on his claim, he drove across the
railroad bridge, it being a high and reasonably
long one made in trestle work. It seemed a
hazardous undertaking, but Mr. Allen
got over all right, and in watching the horses
ahead, had actually forgotten that he had
one tied behind, but when fairly landed on
the other side everything was all right and
got over safely. Mr. Allen reached
his claim, but before getting there went down
into a slough which required the aid of his
neighbor, Dagel, to pull him out. Someone
had been in the house and left it open, so
that everything was in confusion and covered
with snow.
To one who drove
over these prairies twenty years ago, the
scenery now in comparison is beautiful and
magnificent. Where stood the sod house and
the usual 8 by 10 shack; there are now commodious
and tasty residences, and groves, whose trees,
dressed in their green and luxuriant foliage,
add to the
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beauties of nature, and mark
the landscape with a fascinating and dignified
splendor. Going back in remembrance to 1871
we could see a shack on Section 8, Goewey
Township, which straddled the line of three
quarter-sections, holding down claims for
H. C. Allen, Frances Allen and one of the
Thomson boys, not a tree in sight anywhere,
and, in fact, not a house. We could see the
boys figuring on how to get through the winter,
and wondering what the country would amount
to anyhow. but forgetting the past and looking
at the living present, we saw the same quarter-section
on 8, which Henry Allen settled upon in 1871,
now under thorough cultivation, with a large
barn and nice residence almost hidden in a
grove of large trees, and everthing about
the place showing that its occupant is in
comfortable circumstances and in the enjoyment
of life.
J. W. ORD'S RESIDENCE,
SIBLEY
W. H. Lean
came from Wisconsin and in 1871 settled on
the southwest quarter of Section 6, Baker
Township. Mr. Lean came with some others,
previously mentioned, and returned to Wisconsin
in 1871, and came back to his claim in the
spring of 1872. Mr. Lean still resides
on the same land, which now has a beautiful
grove and fine residence,w ith other improvements.
He is also the Goewey Postmaster. Mr. Lean
found Nagg's body, the party mentioned
elsewhere as lost in the February blizzard,
1872.
A beautiful residence
greets the eye on the southeast quarter of
Section 2, in Goewey Township. The elegant
dwelling house and large barn are surrounded
with large stately forest trees, and everything
betokens thrift and comfort. The owner is
O. B. Harding, who settled on the east
half of southeast quarter of Section 2 in
1873, and has lived there since. Mr. Harding
has since bought other land around him.
In 1871, W.
M. and J. H. Dagel, brothers, came
from Clayton County, Iowa, driving through
with teams, and between them took the north
half of Section 6, in Goewey Township. by
work and economy they now own over 2,000 acres
of land, and still live on their original
claims.
In June, 1872,
Mr. Thomas Jackson filed a pre-emption
on the northeast quarter of Section 30, in
West Holman Township. Mr. Jackson came
from Wisconsin and after filing returned there,
and came to Osceola County again in the fall
of same year and again returned. In the spring
of 1872 he drove through with a team, bringing
his family with him. On this same section
at that time there were settled William
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Jackson, William Anderson,
Joseph Anderson, Mr. Aldrich and Charles
Kent. Mr. Thomas Jackson broke
about thirty acres in 1872, put up his shack
in the fall of 1871, hauling his lumber from
Heron Lake, Minnesota. Mr. Jackson,
after living there about twelve years, moved
to Fairview Township, whre he still resides,
and is a successful farmer and a substantial
citizen. The perils and troubles of emigration,
in traveling some distance from the old home
to the new one, are often many.
Early in the seventies
there could be seen the emigrant wagons, reaching
out for Northwest Iowa. They were called "prairie
schooners." and a prairie schooner was,
after all a peculiar institution. The navigated,
sometimes single and alone, at other times
in numbers like a fleet of vessels at sea.
A Yankee boy, fresh from Massachusetts, when
he saw one for the first time, said "See
that butcher cart, pa," for, sure enough,
the meat carts in the cities of New England
go about with a white covering. It was astonishing
to see sometimes the amount of "truck"
they carried and the number of inmates. We
saw one in 1873, heaving into Osceola County,
that had three trunks, two setts of harness,
a sheet-iron-stove, several bushels of potatoes,
two dozen hens, and its inmates were man and
wife and eight children; they also had cooking
utensils, bedding, and feed for the team.
This mode of travelling, too,when the roads
are good and the party uited and contented,
is very enjoyable, and certainly very healthy.
These emigrant wagons are now seldom seen,
and when they are they are bound for Dakota.
In June, 1872,
N. W. Emery drove through from Floyd
County with a team and wagon, bringing his
wife and one child (now Forrest Emery,
grown to manhood.) Mr. Emery settled
on the southwest quarter of Section 34, in
Horton Township, where he still resides, in
easy circumstances and with the respect of
the people. The first summer he lived in his
wagon; that is, this was his only habitation.
In the fall he put up a house, 12x14. Owing
to grasshoppers later on, Mr. Emery
returned to Floyd County and remained during
the winter, where he could find something
to do. The following spring he returned, driving
two yoke of oxen, and he certainly had a time
of it, for the roads were bad, and until he
reached Spencer it was nothing but mud and
water. Five other teams were with him, of
parties going to Dakota, and they stuck together,
for they were useful to each other when one
or the other got fastened inthe mud when it
took strength
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to pull the wagon out. Emery's
oxen pulled each of the others out several
times, and once Emery's wagon was so
deep in the mud and water that it took the
five teams combined with Emery's two
yoke of oxen to pull him out. So bad were
the roads, that one day they raveled only
nine miles, and Emery was delighted
when he got back to his claim. The first season
Emery did some breaking away from home
for several weeks, which left his wife and
the infant (Forrest) to keep house
alone.
In all the hardships
incident to pioneer life it is not only the
men who endure them, but the women also,whose
burden is as great, if not greater, to bear.
Their work may not be as hard, but it is constant,
and, with the care of the family and motherly
anxiety, the world does not know, and never
will, the mental anguish of a great many of
the wives of pioneers who were making a home
on these fertile, but then uncultivated prairies.
John P. Hawxshurst
came in March, 1872, from Wisconsin. He settled
upon the southwest quarter of Section 22,
Township 100, Range 42, and is still a resident
of the county. Mr. Hawkhurst helped
start the Sibley Gazette—laid the type
from the "original packages" into
the case, and was with the paper until 1885.
At one time he was sole proprietor, and during
the grasshopper raid had a hard time of it
indeed. At one time, for about a month, he
did not take in any money, nor pay any out,
nor did he have any in his pockets. His cash
account was not hard to keep, and no doubt
there was many a country printer then wondering
half the time where his next meal was coming
from.
In September, 1871,
Mr. John
L. Robinson landed in Osceola County
from 
Alamakee
County. His son, F. M. Robinson, afterwards
County Auditor, had preceded him, and Frank
met his father and mother and one sister at
Algona, and all drove over from there. They
took their claims on a different part of Section
28, on what is now West Holman, put up buildings
and commenced living. Mr. J. L. Robinson
is still living in the county, at Sibley,
and F. M. Robinson is at Atlanta, Georgia.
As will be seen by referring to the Sibley
Records, F. M. Robinson put up the
first building on the Sibley townsite. Afterwards
his father moved into the building, and lived
there during the winter of 1871 and 1872.
While he was living there, in the fall of
1871, the portly form of Elder Webb
darkened the doorway, and went into the room
while Robinson was putting slough hay
and broken
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weeds into the stove. This was
the first time the Elder had seen that kind
of fuel, and he was surprised that it could
be utilized as a warmth producer. Mr. Robinson
was the first Justice of the Peace in the
county, and the office came to him by appointment.
There being some irregularity in the appointment,
Mr. Robinson afterwards stepped down
and out, but while he was in, some cases came
to this court. The first one brought, and
indeed, the first suit in the county, was
between Everett and Freeman,
over a yoke of oxen; and, like sensible fellows,
they afterwards settled it. 
This
was before there were any lawyers her to back
up the respective sides of a controversy.
Mr. Robinson's daughter, Ellen, who
came with him, was afterwards married to Charles
M. Brooks, now a lawyer at Sibley. The
lumber with which F. M. Robinson put
up his first building was hauled from Windom,
Minn., and afterwards they did hauling from
Cherokee.
