"History of Decatur County and Its People" Volume I

Prof. J. M. Howell and Heman C. Smith, Supervising Editors

The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago IL, 1915.
 
Chapter XVIII ~ The Names of Decatur County Streams
Pages 203 - 208
By J. E. VAIL
 This, which I opine may consistently be called our county, is very near the great Mississippi-Missouri water shed, and according to the best geological evidence, has its formation both from glacial drift and from the wind-blown soils. The former with the tendency to level off, the latter to irregularly deposit immense strata of variable fine dust like silt, this as time passed on, became subject to great erosions and has left our section of the state generally rough and broken in topography and crossed by numerous streams, sloughs and branches.

These prevailing conditions are the more apparent when a carefully drawn map of Decatur County is compared with that of Pocahontas, or any of the counties which lie in the later Wisconsin glacial formation, and which were not subject to the wind-blown, or Loess drifts and the subsequent great erosions. These conditions therefore, being the geologically attributed cause of the numerous streams which traverse our county, the origin of the names of these may worthily be the subject of a sketch.

It is a matter of regret that the wandering folk who possessed the land while the aborigines remained, left so little upon which to build. The very name of a stream or settlement — and all is said. The stream name continues long after advancing civilization has swept away the rude huts called "settlement." To preserve the vestiges which remain, to compare with others the available data that at this late day must be sought in the memories of men, is the excuse offered for this writing.

Decatur County's principal system of water courses comprise, Thompson's Fork of Grand River, Weldon Creek, Little Creek, Elk Creek and Steel's Creek, all of which are constantly augmented at nearly every mile of their meandering course by some branch feeder, and as most of these have at some time received a name to designate the one from the other, and as many of these names were given in the early pioneer days and were generally taken from those of the early settlers who were attracted to their bottoms because of the natural necessity of all pioneers — wood and water — and as these early settlers by common instinct, almost invariably soon pushed on to the unexplored, and because of the age of the county, their memory now forgotten, the meager date to be obtained, must be taken with at least certain doubts, and it is more than likely that the true facts may be in a large measure forgotten.

As to Grand River, this stream traverses the west part of the county. In an early day it was not thus called, but went by the name of Thompson's Fork, which was later on contracted to Grand, unquestionably because of its being a prominent branch of the river so named. There are those today of the early settlers who in referring to it, always call it Thompson's Fork.

THOMPSON settled at Edinburg, Missouri, about the year 1840 and gave his name to the stream. He was a contemporary of Peter CAIN and probably the two made settlement at about the same period. He appears, by the way, to have been one of the class of hardy hunters, trappers and traders who have ever been immediately in the rear of the vanishing Indian. By reports, he led a strenuous life, making various excursions of discovery, mingling with the distant settlements, hunting, trapping and trading and at times acting as guide, well known over a wide area of country and especially well acquainted with the river as he is reported to have often been met with in the vicinity of Afton, Iowa.

Likewise, Weldon Creek, or River as it is sometimes called, was named after one WELDON who came into the county in the early '40s and is reported to have first settled in or near Burrell Township. He, too, was constantly mingling with the settlements and probably made various excursions into the country tributary to the stream and traded with and had much association with the Mormons who passed through Iowa about 1846, and most likely from these associations, and knowing the country and the different trails and fords thorough the creek was called after him.

Steel Creek, which has its rise in the northwest part of Richman Township, Wayne County, and which enters Decatur County, at Section 13, High Point Township, and joins with Weldon at Sandy Point on the land commonly known as the BEAUMONT farm, was named after one STEEL.

The site of his cabin is placed as being located in the bend of the creek about a quarter mile north of the bridge on the state road and on the farm now known as the Captain ALEXANDER estate. Little if anything is remembered of him and he probably left the county at a very early period. It might be added in connection with this stream that many years ago there was no small excitement of the finding of gold on some of the deep slough branches and that colors were quite readily shown in the pans, and indeed it is reported that one particular day there were more than one hundred men congregated and engaged in the quest, and that a rough sluice box was constructed and all preparations of an extent indicating permanency, but the excitement was short lived.

Likewise, Artillery Grove, a high wooded point of ground near this creek, was for many years a landmark and there are many legends of buried cannon, of a battle between emigrants and Indians and of a skirmish between Missouri Militia and Mormons, and last and most reasonable, that the point was on or near the old trail leading to Fort Des ^loines and that passing troops being encumbered, buried two pieces of small cannon here. It is certain that these have never been found, though on several occasions treasure hunters have vainly sought them. On the whole, the various stories lack corroboration.

Jonathan Creek, which rises just southeast of Van Wert, and joins with Weldon about the Gardner farm in High Point Township, was named after one JONATHAN who settled at a point just east of the Capt. J. D. BROWN homestead. T. J. KNAPP, who came to Iowa about 1851, states that he distinctly remembers the site of the log cabin, which was a few rods north of the Leon-Garden Grove road where the same winds up the hill after crossing the creek. Here he lived and made a small clearing and was engaged in raising and feeding hogs. His last drive to Brunswick, Missouri, was made in the fall of the year 1851.

Just north of his ranch and near the present SCOTT farm lived one CHERRY, likewise an early settler and neighbor, and from him was named Cherry Creek, which branch traverses along the line of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

Kilgore Branch, named from the KILGORES, early settlers and who are referred to by early settlers as being "hoss-traders" and of whose various exploits alone a volume might be written, but is passed for want of space. Mormon-Pool or Brush Creek, north of Garden Grove, probably took its name after having been used for baptismal purposes. The old trail to Chariton passed at a rocky ford just above which was a deep pool of water, probably seven or eight feet deep in places in an early day, the west bank of same being a long, gradual and gravelly slope naturally made it a favorite point for these ceremonies.

While there are many other branches in the county, at this late day it is difficult to get the information and to select the true from the legendary stories. In obtaining data as to names of our county streams, one is surprised even in our comparatively recent settlement, in the meagerness of the actual or authentic facts to be obtained. Very frequently, after interviewing a half dozen old settlers, one only learns that "Old Jim So-and-So lived down there on the bottoms when he came to the county and as he was the only fellow near, we just called the creek JIM Creek after him — he left just about the time we landed here. He was a sort of reticent cuss, anyway, and they say he had mighty good reasons for living away from white folks" — and so it goes.

Aside from Grand River, which is merely an overgrown creek, the remainder of the drainage streams of the county, while numerous, comprise small branches and sloughs, many of them unnamed, and of the named not a few are self-descriptive of local conditions through their course, such as Sand Creek, of which there are several so-called, all of which that I have crossed being with sandy bottoms; Brush Creek, very suggestive from the name; Big Creek; Long Creek; Short Creek; Spring Branch and Turkey Run and a host of similarly designated branches, some of which would hardly bear witness to lieing other than a dry arroyo unless caught in the very act of caring for a three or four-inch rainfall.

I have committed from the more commonly called, a little stream in Center and High Point townships called Granny Branch. An inquiry as to the reason for the name brought forth the following:

"Well, all I know about it is that when we came here there was about the biggest lot of old women living in that settlement of anywhere else in these parts; there was Granny SMITH and some five or six other women whose names I don't now exactly recollect who used to go out nursing and doctoring — mighty handy those days to have them — and just as far back as I can remember we called the creek Granny after the whole bunch of them."

As to Elk Creek, the very name is suggestive. This stream was unquestionably named after the animal long extinct in our county. I have never been able to meet with anyone who remembered seeing a herd of elk in our section. There are, however, various reports passed around of straggling elk having been killed along Grand River. The early settlers of the western townships very vividly describe of the early '50s "that the country was a great expanse of prairie with luxurious growth of grass, and timbered along the rivers and most of the branches— no underbrush — thanks to the yearly fires which swept the plains, and possible to drive almost any place with team and wagon; the creeks and prairie sloughs abounded in small fish, with comparatively clear water and deep holes, many good hard bottom fords, and last of all, the western prairies marked with horns and teeth of elk, these remaining vestiges of this noble creature being plentifully found near the timber line along the creeks and frequently quite far out on the prairies, thus showing that there was a period when they were here in numbers, as the life of the horns and teeth, exposed to existing conditions, is variously estimated from twenty to thirty years, we may assume that the elk quit this range some time in the '30s or early '40s, as our early settlements hardly date further back than 1847." The stream probably took its name, not from some stray specimen, but from the remains of a herd.

DICKINSON Branch in Burrell Township took its name from a hermit settler, Wyllis DICKINSON. I am not informed as to when he came to the county, but probably during the '6Os. He was a peculiar character, a New Englander by birth I believe, reported to have been disappointed in a love affair. He settled in the then glades, later to be quite heavily timbered land not far from Davis City and on the upland east of Grand River. He was a quiet, mild-mannered man. He lived in a small cabin surrounded, when I first became acquainted with the man and the place, by native trees and quite hidden from view from the road. There were only two small fields of four or five acres each in culture at the time, one of which he allowed to lie fallow each alternate year, the other cultivated. There were many squirrels and birds in the trees, for he killed nothing himself and permitted no hunting on his premises, nor did he clear any more of his land than the two little fields before mentioned. The decayed and fallen trees supplied him with wood and the water supply was from the branch which bears his name. He was very affable with his neighbors and might never have been called hermit except for the fact that he shunned the villages and society, and so he lived — almost unknown personally except to a very few, surrounded by his trees and with his stock and the squirrels and the birds as company.
 
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