Dean Wagner's Genealogy - Bancroft, Iowa

Bancroft History

Bancroft, Kossuth County, Iowa, USA

Greenwood Township and Bancroft

(Part 1)

from
"History of Kossuth County Iowa
Volume 1"
by Benjamin F. Reed, LL.B.
Chicago
The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company
© 1913
Pages 672 - 677

The thirty-six square miles of territory included in 98-29 have belonged in the past to Bancroft county and to Crocker countv as well as to Kossuth. How the present north three tiers of townships were created into Bancroft county in 1851; how they became a part of Kossuth in 1855; how they were included in Crocker county in 1870; and how the supreme court on the test case blotted out the latter county and caused it again to become a part of Kossuth has been told in Chapter XIV.

The entire war history of the county had been made before settlements began to form in this northern territory. Early settlement history had been made along the river in Cresco, Irvington, Riverdale, Union, Portland and Plum Creek ten years before a single settler piled up the sod for his abiding place is what is now Greenwood township.

The year 1865 was an eventful one for this region of the county, and especially for 98-29. It was that year when the first settlements began to cluster and make history for the future Greenwood. It was at that period when the land could be homesteaded and possessed by simply living upon it for five years and paying a small entry fee. The war had to be practically ended before settlers could be induced to locate at such a remote distance from the county seat and the river settlements.

In March, 1865, Captain D. D. Wadsworth and Lieutenant Pier came to the county, after being released from the army, and began prospecting for some large enterprise. The latter soon left for some other place. The captain, however, homesteaded the south half of the southwest quarter of 22, and the north half of the northwest quarter of 27.

L. K. Garfield also came in March, 1865, and homesteaded the northwest quarter of 21, and a little later Mrs. Garfield secured the quarter adjoining on the south.

In April, 1865, A. P. Buker arrived and chose the northeast quarter of 20 for his home, but his family did not come until in September.

John Hawkes, who came with Buker, homesteaded the southwest of 20. In the Garfield sod house the owner, Buker, and Hawkes all lived together until the Buker family came.

In May, 1865, the Geo. O. Austin family came and located upon the southeast quarter of 21. Several members of the family later became proficient teachers in the public schools.

Wm. Gibbon in July, 1865, chose for the home of his family the northeast quarter of 27, and his son, Joe, entered the south half of the northwest and the north half of the southwest quarter of 26.

When Nathan Hawkes came in September, 1865, he located upon the north half of the southeast quarter of 19 and Vesta Hawkes upon the north half of the southwest quarter of the same section. Cyrus Hawkes, who located upon the northwest quarter of 20, did not come until the following spring.

Samuel Sands arrived with his family during that year, 1865, and homesteaded the south half of the northeast and the north half of the southeast quarter of 35.

Thorn Connell in the fall of 1865 entered the east half of section 24 and located on that tract which now has upon it the eastern portion of Bancroft. The grove just east of the Phoenix hotel was planted by Mr. Connell.

During the winter of 1865-66, A. P. Buker taught the first school in the township. The school house was half cave and half sod on the hillside, on the west side of the river on Captain Wadsworth's land. Cyrus Buker of Swea City is the only person now in the county who attended that early-day school.

Numerous other settlers came to the northern part of the county in 1865, but these parties are all that can now be recalled who settled in what is now Greenwood.

Nearly all of these 1865 settlers have crossed over the silent river. Mr. Austin is yet living and has his home in Bancroft. Dr. Garfield and wife after leaving their farm lived a long time in Algona where he practiced medicine. Both now are gone as have also Buker, Sands, Searle, Gibbon and Connell.

The fate of Captain Wadsworth is not known to anyone in the county so far as the writer can determine. He used to come to Algona in the latter sixties to clean clocks and watches, but he left the county for Nebraska early in the seventies.

In November, 1867, Abner, a son of the Buker family, died. So far as known this was the first death in the township.

Daughters in the new countries, as well as in the old, occasionally get married. The first event of that nature in 98-29 was when Jane Gibbon became the wife of John Dundas, April 7, 1868. The well-remembered circuit rider, Seymour Snyder, officiated.

The next year after this event, Dr. Garfield departed from the usual custom of living in a sod house, and erected the first frame residence in the township of any pretensions.

These first settlers were in the prime of life when the year 1870 came. When they combined to promote a measure they were a power that was hard to resist. They were men of ability and fine intelligence, and had a much better education than most of the pioneers who settled the county.

In those days all the county north of the county seat belonged to Algona township. Such a condition did not suit these settlers. They asked the board of supervisors for a township of their own and kept at it until the board set off one for them twelve miles wide and seventeen miles long, comprising the present Greenwood, Seneca, Swea, Harrison, Eagle and Grant. This territory was set off in January, 1869, and was called Greenwood township. In September, 1870, Greenwood was assigned new boundaries and made to constitute all of the present Harrison, Springfield, Ledyard, the west row of Hebron sections, and the present Greenwood, except the east row of sections; but these east sections were added later to the township.

This large township lost much of its territory when Ramsey was established to include also a large territory. It was not until June, 1890, when Harrison was created to include 99 and 100-29, that Greenwood was reduced to its present form and size.

It was during the period when Greenwood comprised its present territory the present Seneca and all the territory north of them to the Minnesota line, that the agitators succeeded in having Crocker county established in 1870. L. K. Garfield, Captain Wadsworth, R. I. Brayton and G. V. Davis constituted the quartet who engineered the project; and they had able and willing supporters for the measure.

Following the settlements made in 1865 there came during the next few years several men with their families who figured prominently in the affairs of the township in later years. Geo. V. Davis came to the township in June, 1869, and lived for a couple of years near the Samuel Sands homestead. The next year he became one of the boosters for the establishment of Crocker county. In the spring of 1872 he moved into what is now Swea township on his homestead, and in 1876 went to Algona and ran a hotel until 1877, when he moved back to his farm where he lived until he came to Bancroft in the fall of 1881.

O. A. Searle located upon the northwest quarter of 28 and Emerson Searle upon the eighty just south of him.

E. F. Clarke came in 1868 and secured the old Captain Wadsworth farm for a home, and soon became the Greenwood Center postmaster, a position that he held until ordered to move the office to Bancroft when the town started.

William Hunt, father of our well known citizens, Alva and Roswell Hunt, came with his family to the county in the latter 60's, but did not locate in Greenwood for several years after coming. They at first lived on the old Garfield homestead, and then later moved to the old Gibbon place which was later known as the Vaughn-Totten farm.

The Evergreen Preacher was the name applied to Rev. William Spell who was an early settler on the northwest quarter of 2. On his farm he had several hundred evergreen trees and used to sell them to his neighbors when they located years later.

Dan Neeling, on the southeast quarter of 36, and Shorty (Albert) Hudson, on the southeast corner of 35, were long-ago settlers in the township.

The Greenwood Center schoolhouse, that stood near the residence of George O. Austin, was the most popular meeting place for public gatherings in the north end of the county for several years. It was in fact the township hall where live issues of the day were discussed. Even after Bancroft started, meetings were held there of such interest that the town's people attended.

The early schools in that region were usually taught by men of mature years and experience, and as a result they were well conducted. Few, if any, of the sub-directors took more pride in having a good school and having an up-to-date equipment than did Samuel Sands. It was a frequent remark of his that he would rather be sub-director than president of the United States.

Men were not the only ones in those days who had the courage to make things happen lively when necessary. Mrs. Sands was one of these. During a stormy night in 1868, while her husband was absent, she saw in front of the window a deer taking shelter from the storm. She went out, hissed two dogs on the shivering deer, and when they had it down she ran up and cut its throat. This killing was done at a fortunate time, when she had no meat in the house, and when her cupboard was bare.

Among the children of the early settlers who later became prominent in educational circles and did effective teaching were Louise and Audell Austin, Cyrus Buker and Mattie Warner. The teachers doing service in the township in 1886 when the writer first visited the schools as county superintendent, were Ida Moulton, Anna Warner, Ida Davison, and Mrs. M. J. Hawkes. The directors were respectively D. W. Hunt, John Warner, John Peterson and Samuel Sands.

Greenwood has at times had residents with unusual names. Ole Olson Newhouse on section 12, in the early 80's, was one of them. On one occasion when he told his name to Dr. L. A. Sheetz, he also stated that his father's name was Ole Olson Oldhouse. Sheetz replied, "I suppose your grandfather's name was Ole Olson Hoghouse and your grandmother's Mrs. Ole Olson Smokehouse."

Does Greenwood have a spot where an Indian battle was fought? or does it have one where there was an Indian burial ground? It is a well established fact that Musquakies fought a camping party of Sioux on section 8 in Plum Creek in 1852. The settlers in that region know where the battle ground is, but there is no evidence of an Indian burial place in all that part of the county. But what about Greenwood? J. A. Frech informs the writer that in the summer of 1886 while plowing for George O. Austin, on the west side of the river in a bend near the northwest corner of the old Captain Wadsworth farm, he turned up with the soil several skulls, a quantity of pulverized bones, some flint arrow heads, tomahawks and stone pestles. It is his understanding that some time previous a few straggling Musquakies had been hunting along the river and had told some of the settlers that the Sioux had attacked and defeated a party of the Musquakies in the long ago in that region. As to whether these bones and articles marked the spot of a battle ground or a graveyard the reader must draw his own conclusion.

The town site for Bancroft was surveyed in the fall of 1881 by direction of the Western Town Lot Company and A. A. Call, and the plat was recorded on the 23rd of September of that year. The site at that time consisted of nine blocks and twenty outlots, besides the railway reservation. Since that time various additions have been made and the plat filed as follows:

W. T. L. Co., 29 blocks, October 5, 1882; A. A. Call, 2 blocks, April 20, 1885; Benson Searle, 2 blocks and 2 outlots, May 13, 1886; C. R. Moorehouse, first addition, 3 blocks, May 5, 1888; Asa C. Call (executors), south addition, 2 blocks, September 3, 1888; C. R. Morehouse, second addition, several outlots, June 28, 1889; C. R. Moorehouse, suhdivision of outlots, October 7, 1889; George V. Davis, subdivision of a portion of block 13, October 8, 1891; executors of Asa C. Call, subdivision of block 12, October 6, 1891, known as Holloway's subdivision C. R. Moorehouse, subdivision of outlots and part of block 1, October 14, 1891; Ambrose A. Call, 12 blocks, May 23, 1892; John A. Winkel, 10 large lots, August 20, 1883.

The credit of naming the village Bancroft belongs to Ambrose A. Call, who induced the railway company to give it that name instead of Burt, which the company proposed.

Dr. C. B. Lake began the erection of the first building in December, 1881. It was for his grocery and was one-story and twenty feet long. It stood on the site of the First National Bank corner.

Before he had time to finish his store and get his stock on sale, Nathan Hawkes, who had been running a little store over near the Center schoolhouse, slipped his building over on to the corner just south of Lake's store and began the sale of the first goods in town. He was the first merchant, although on a small scale.

W. E. Jordan put in a stock of lumber and did a flourishing business in furnishing material for the new building to be erected, and S. Andrine began first to pound iron at the forge.

Johnson Brothers, in December; 1881, put up their building and began selling a general stock. They were located on the spot where Hatten Brothers are dealing in harness.

That same month Woodworth & Bush erected their hardware store on the corner where the Model Store is now. The depot was soon finished and was counted as one of the town houses.

G. V. Davis also in December built his little hotel on Main street, where the Nemmers hardware store is located, and became the first landlord.

On the spot where the Nemmers drug store is R. M. Richmond, about that time, put up a story and a half building for an office.

The building industry opened early in the year of 1882. In January Elias Tallman opened his Globe House to the public, and one mouth later E. F. Clarke opened his hotel beside him. E. F. Knapp opened up the city restaurant as the third eating place. Many new business houses made their appearance and many new changes occurred. Berryman Brothers established a rival drug store; N. L. Caulkins initiated the furniture business; Johnny Edwards started a livery; Higley & McDonald put in a butcher shop; McGregor Bros. bought out Jordan's lumber yard; Wickwire & Wood began with a rival general store; and Z. Roberts as president and J. C. Jones as cashier started the Bank of Bancroft at the east end of the business street, on the south side. This was the first bank in town. D. A. Ellis also in April started the Bancroft Register in R. M. Richmond's building.

The finest improvement for the town during the year 1882 was the hotel built by W. E. Jordan. It was 36 by 36 feet and with its mansard roof was three stories high. On the north was a two-story wing 16 by 24 feet. This was an elegant building, but before it was hardly completed it burned to the ground, October 13, 1882. It is generally believed that some wretch set it on fire. The present Phoenix House was immediately built upon the foundation by Mr. Jordan, and was opened to the public with J. F. Jordan as landlord in April, 1883.

During the year 1883 several changes occurred. O. A. Searle bought out M. L. Bush and the mercantile firm became Woodworth & Searle; C. W. Goddard bought out John Henry who had purchased the Hawkes stock of goods; E. L. Ward became the owner of the Caulkins furniture store; and W. E. Jordan bought the grain business of P. A. McGuire which the latter had been conducting for several months.