Pioneers of Marion County by Wm. M. Donnel, 1872

Part II, Chapter XXXI

Franklin Township - Geography and Early History - Early Settlers - John Clark - Milling Adventure -
Nathan Nichols - His Death - Peter Rowe - First Orchards - First Church Organizations - First School House - Caloma

Technically, Franklin is in town. 75, range 21, and is bounded on the north by Pleasant Grove, on the east by Knoxville, on the south by Dallas, and on the west by Warren county.

Much the larger portion of the township is prairie, the timber narrowly margining White Breast, that runs through the south-east quarter, and a small creek called Coon creek, that runs through the north-west quarter. Coal is abundant along White Breast, and several veins have been opened and worked measuring four feet in thickness. The prairies are less broken than in some other portions of the county; and, the soil being excellent, no better farming land can be found than exists in Franklin.

On the 3d of October, ‘48, by order of the county commissioners, this township was defined as a part of Dallas, and so remained till about ‘52, when it became a part of Pleasant Grove, and so remained till the 28th of February, ‘55, when, by order of the county judge, it became a district township, to be known as Franklin township.

On the 2d day of April, of the same year, the first election in and for said township, was held at the house of John Clark, at which John McNeil and John Miller were chosen justices; Samuel Ream and William Sweezy, constables; John Clark, assessor; J. W. Hightree, clerk; Warren McNeil, Isaac Capelin and Samuel B. Wilson, trustees. There is no record of the number of votes cast.

The following are the names of most of those persons who settled in the township at the earliest dates:

Nathan Nichols and Amanda Hewland, in ‘46; Peter Row, William Frazer and James Frakes, in ‘48; John Clark, in ‘49; Daniel F. Smith, in ‘50, and J. W. Hightree, in ‘52.

Of these John Clark is the oldest resident settler in the township, and D. F. Smith the next, the rest having moved away or deceased. John Clark was born in Tennessee, February 14th, 1815, came to this county in ‘49, arriving at Knoxville on the 26th of June. Having traded William Frazer a land warrant for a timber claim on White Breast Creek, he also made a prairie claim, built a cabin on the bottom, and moved to it on the 26th of July. In raising this cabin near help was so scarce that he had to resort to friends in Knoxville, and even then it required three days to put the building up.

The first milling Mr. Clark done was at Brobst’s and Haymaker’s, on Cedar. In ‘55 he went to what was known as Beach’s mill, now a place called Sumerset, on one of the Three Rivers, in Warren county. At that time there was, on the route to this mill, a wide stretch of uninhabited prairie, on which there was neither a tree, trail nor mound to guide the traveler who wished to cross it, and some one had set stakes at wide intervals as the only way-marks. Mr. Clark, with a wagon and two yoke of cattle, and accompanied by a man named Nathaniel Brown, had crossed this desert to Beach’s, and remained there two days waiting for their grinding. Now being in some haste to get home, they set out in time to reach Hammondburg before night. Here they concluded to tarry no longer then was required to feed and (water) their teams and themselves, hoping to reach home long before midnight. So, without further delay, they drove on, but when darkness came they found it impossible to keep the way themselves, and thought it advisable to trust to the instinctive sagacity of their cattle to pilot them through. Unfortunate trust! The brutes, left to themselves, had lost their reckoning, and were as much at fault as their masters - if indeed they cared particularly about what direction they traveled. At all events, after plodding along in this way for a long time, Mr. Clark began to think something was wrong, and set about making a calculation of their locality as well as it could be done by starlight, the result of which calculation proved that they were far out of their way, indeed so far as the breaks of White Breast, not far from the south-west corner of the county. And here, to add to their vexation, the wagon ran into a slough, at which Brown became alarmed and begged Clark to camp till daylight. But the latter was not disposed to lay out if such a contingency could be avoided; so they got the wagon out and proceeded, making a guiding point of certain stars, and reached home at about one o’clock.

Nathan Nichols taught the first school in ‘53, in a house left vacant by one of the Frakes. The house stood on the bottom near White Breast, in section 26. It was long afterwards moved to Mr. Richies, and is doing service as a stable.

The death of Nathan Nichols will long be remembered on account of the painful circumstances under which it took place. He and Mrs. Hewland, who was a widow, and a relative of his, had come from Ohio together and were living together south of White Breast, till a grown son of Mrs. H.’s created a disturbance that caused him to take up his abode alone in a small cabin not far distant. One evening, some time after taking up his lonely abode, he went to Mrs. Hewland’s for a pitcher of butter-milk. On receiving it he took a hearty drink of it, and was observed to take another ere he reached his domicile. Nothing more was known or though of him till next day, when his non-appearance about the premises induced some one to go to his house. There they found him dead, andall the evidences to prove that he had died in extreme agony. He was lying upon his bed his head hung over the railing, and his face black, whilst over him and upon the floor were strewed large quantities of feathers from the bed-tick that he had evidently torn open in his struggles. At one time some suspicious of foul treatment were entertained, but no conclusion was better to arrive at than that the poor man died from a violent attack of bilious colic, induced by the excessive draughts of butter-milk he had taken into his stomach. Mrs. Hewland afterwards returned to Ohio.

Peter Rane went to California in ‘52, and returning after an absence of two years, found that his wife had gone to Missouri, and followed her. He never returned. Frakes went to Wapello county.

Jackson McClain and John Clark planted the first orchards in ‘52. Of the sixty trees planted by Mr. C., but two now live. McClain’s are mostly living.

Rev. A. Colborn was the first preacher in the township, and John Demors organized the first society of United Brethren in ‘51. The meeting was held in sub-district number one, and the class was composed of persons belonging to various denominations. Revs. Banebreak and Sleeper also preached and organized a church of United Brethren at Coloma.

The first house erected for school purposes was in district number one, in ‘50. Soon after its completion Chas. Smith, now living in Pleasant Grove, came and asked the privilege of dedicating it to educational purposes by delivering a lecture on slavery. The request was granted, and this was the first lecture of any kind delivered in the township. W. M. Stone made the first political speech ever made in the township in this house in ‘56, in favor of John C. Fremont for President.

Daniel F. Smith kept the first post office in ‘57, called Coloma, the name it still retains. Mails once a week between Chariton and Newton. Present postmaster, F. A. Harding; mails weekly.

The population of Franklin, by the U. S. Census 1870, was:

Native . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
Foreign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .768

Transcribed by Mary E. Boyer, 12/06, reformatted by Al Hibbard 12 Oct 2013.