Part 56 (2/2)
MAINE TOWNs.h.i.+P
We are indebted to a loyal citizen of the county for the following historical sketch of one of the finest districts in the county--Maine towns.h.i.+p. Dr. Ward Woodbridge has treated sympathetically the early days in and around Central City. He long has lived there, has been a potent factor in the development of his community, and knows whereof he speaks.
Maine towns.h.i.+p geographically is located in the northeast corner of Linn county, being in the second row of towns.h.i.+ps from both the north and east.
Its shape is an irregular triangle, containing forty-seven square miles, making it one-third larger than the average towns.h.i.+p. This is due to an early arrangement whereby a portion of Buffalo towns.h.i.+p became a part of Maine. The Wapsie river divides Buffalo towns.h.i.+p nearly in the middle.
In its early history the larger number of people resided south of the river, as there were no bridges in those days, and the river held a high stage of water, making it difficult to cross. These people finally asked to be attached to Maine towns.h.i.+p for administrative purposes, and all that portion of Buffalo on the south side of the river was made a part of Maine, and has never been restored.
The Wapsie river runs along the northeastern border of Maine, and is the dividing line between it and Buffalo.
Along the river, and from one to three miles in width on either side, the land is somewhat hilly, sandy, and has been heavily timbered. When the more level country is reached it becomes a gently undulating plain, rich black loam and very productive.
As we turn in retrospect, seeing its growth and development, we can see the work of the hardy and determined pioneers on every hand. It was they who blazed the way. It was they who built this Appian way of progress. It was their devotion and privation, patiently endured, that have caused not two, but myriads of blades of gra.s.s to grow where hitherto the one blade was trampled under foot by the roving Indian and buffalo, and although their forms have vanished and their voices are stilled, and the hands roughened by honest toil lie quiet, yet their work lives after them. They left that imprint on both descendants and administration which makes of the Maine towns.h.i.+p citizens.h.i.+p today a st.u.r.dy, hard-headed cla.s.s, whose public opinion always crystallizes on the side of righteousness, of truth and justice. Its people never have to apologize for their course.
Probably the first white settler was John Jenkins, who came in 1838 and settled on the farm adjoining Central City known as the Ormus Clark farm. In 1839 Joseph Clark bought the farm of Jenkins, he being a son-in-law of Clark. It lies to the southwest of Central City, and a portion of it lies within the corporation. It is now owned by C. C. Crane.
In the winters of 1838-1840 a few trappers wintered along the banks of the Wapsie, but the names of no permanent settlers are recorded.
In the spring of 1840 two young men, natives of Maine, landed in Maine towns.h.i.+p. They had left their state two years before and stopped at Peoria, Illinois, working there through the summer, and going south in the winter where they worked in the cotton yards of New Orleans. Returning from New Orleans in the spring of 1840 they bought three yoke of cattle, a big prairie plow, and what other necessaries they needed, and headed for the Mississippi river. Crossing it they drove on and on until arriving one evening at the place known as ”Jordan's Grove” they camped for the night. The next morning they cooked breakfast, and while one of them went out to gather up the cattle, the other took his bearings, and when the cattle were brought up he had the plow out of the wagon. On inquiry from his partner as to what he was about he said, ”This looks good to me. Hitch onto the plow.” These two young men were L. D. Jordan and Ed McKinney. They broke enough to hold their claims, went to Dubuque and filed on them, returned, built cabins, went back to Maine and married sisters, returned and made homes, and Mr. Jordan lived his whole life on the spot where he unloaded the plow, dying there in 1890. McKinney moved from the neighborhood some years before his death. They both lived to be old men.
In 1840 the Heaton family came, and P. A. and Will Heaton still live in Central City, together with two or three of the women of the family.
In October, 1844, Chandler Jordan arrived at his brother's place. He remained all night, and in the morning got on a horse and rode north through the grove to the brow of the hill overlooking the Wapsie valley.
It was beautiful Indian summer. All was purple, yellow, and gold, and the blue-joint gra.s.s stood as high as the back of his horse all the way down the valley. He gazed fascinated, rode slowly down the valley of a small creek that meandered from its source in the grove, to the river. In a level place on the bank of the creek he stopped, staked out a claim, returned, went to Dubuque and filed on it, came back and began improvements.
He broke the ground and raised crops, and in the spring of 1847 built a cabin on the spot where he first dismounted, and married Sarah D. Waterhouse in June. They went at once to the cabin and began housekeeping. Later they built more commodious quarters, and in 1860 erected the brick house in which they both died in 1909.
Harvey Powell came in 1844 also, and entered a fine tract of land on the ridge west of Central City, where he lived to a good old age.
In 1846 N. C. Gillilan came; Jennings Crawford in 1854, and the Haas family in the early fifties.
About this time settlers began coming in so rapidly that honorable mention can not be made of all of them, even if they could be traced. It can readily be seen that the earliest settlers coming from the state of Maine gave the name to the towns.h.i.+p. They were a st.u.r.dy lot of pioneers, determined to win success from their surroundings. They knew no such word as fail or can't. They knew no surcease from labor, but toiled on without murmur or complaint.
Markets were a long way off, Dubuque and Muscatine being the princ.i.p.al places where they sold their produce. It took four days to take a load to Dubuque and bring one back. They never made the trip with empty wagons. There were no bridges. The roads ran across the virgin prairie, and often, when sloughs were bad, they had to take off part of the load, drive through a bad place, unload what they had hauled over and return for the rest, thus delaying their journey.
Finally the Northwestern road came to Cedar Rapids in 1859, and later a road to Marion and Springville, bringing, as they felt, markets to their very doors.
They turned the virgin soil, sowed, reaped, mowed, and garnered the fruits of their labor year after year, early and late alike, working with the primitive tools of that day when most of the work was done by main strength instead of machinery. They formed from necessity those habits of saving every thing which, with many, later resulted in an abundance for the rainy day. These early privations, st.u.r.dy devotion to the work, with a fidelity well worth emulation has brought its rewards in one of the richest agricultural regions on earth.
They saw the steady advancement of material things as a reward for their patient toil. They established schools and churches, overcoming as rapidly as possible the drawbacks and inconveniences of pioneer life.
They made the way of the transgressor a hard one, and when law breakers and horse thieves escaped through some sharp practice, they took the law in their own hands and rid the country for all time of the horse thief and general law breaker, thereby putting a premium on honesty.
The villages of Waubeek and Central City were established in the usual way. Blacksmith shops, stores, and post offices being a necessity, they were established on the banks of the Wapsie river, Central City on the north side of the river just at the north line of the towns.h.i.+p, and Waubeek five miles southeast on the south bank of the river.
Some dams were built across the river at both places and saw mills established to saw lumber for the pioneer houses to displace the log cabin. These were followed by grist mills to make flour for the settlers, and for many years the mills at both places were run at their full capacity. Gradually wheat was abandoned as a product, and the people were able to buy a better grade of flour than the home mills could make. They were allowed to run down and were neglected until finally the mill at Waubeek was allowed to fall in the river. The last vestige of its site is gone.
The mill at Central City has run until lately, grinding the feed for the farmers, but it, too, has quit, the wheel is still, and the busy scenes about its doors are but memories of its great convenience and usefulness to those it served so well.
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