CHAPTER I

History is always interesting, and there is something peculiarly fascinating in the record of past events. We look forward with feelings of hope, of admiration and of ambition, but we look backward over the seemingly forgotten past in the spirit of meditation, and with our hearts concentrated upon the scenes and incidents of other days, and we ponder them with absorbing interest. The statements of history are sometimes doubted, and controversies arise which can end only in controversy, never settled, because the actors then in the drama of life, are moldering in forgotten and neglected graves. And even when the actors are still living, there often arises a dispute which history cannot fully settle, as demonstrated by the conflicting reports and statements of many a battle by participants themselves in our Civil War. Our history is one of comparative recent events, whose pages turn back only two decades, and which our earliest settles are familiar with, and which will be of much interest to the people of Northwest Iowa generally, and indeed to the people of all parts of the State. The intention of the writer in the history of Osceola County is not only to make record of such facts as pertain to its organization, its growth and progress, but also to weave in reminiscences and events connected with the early settlers, and make mention of every circumstance that will be of interest to the general reader.

In the spring and summer of 1870, the fair and fertile prairie land of Osceola County was without a settler. The older parts of Iowa, with that instinctive feeling that an old settled country has for a new, regarded Northwest Iowa then as a barren and bleak part of the state, and as unfit for man's habitation; but before the close of that year Mr. E. Huff came and filed on a claim November 3, which was the southwest quarter of Section 32, Township 98, Range 42, in what is now Gilman Township, so that this gentleman, now a non-resident, was the first settler.

After Mr. Huff had made settlement as the law required, he returned to Beloit, in Lyon County, and remained there during the following winter. In the spring of 1871, while at Sioux City, he came across C. M. Brooks, who was pushing west under the advice of the lamented and distinguished Horace, but who had started for Nebraska. Mr. Huff explained to him the wonders of Osceola, and the graphic description he gave of this Garden of Eden resulted in Mr. Brooks coming to Osceola County. Mr. Brooks left behind him others, who were to follow when word was received where to go, and when he reached this County and looked upon its fair and fertile prairie land, he determined at once upon settlement here, and wrote to his friends to lose no time in hastening to this new and wonderful country.

This correspondence brought W. W. Web, D. L. McCausland and M. J. Campbell, who, with C. M. Brooks, too, Section 8, in Township 99, Range 41, now West Holman, each taking of it a quarter-section. Mr. McCausland and Mr. Webb came through with oxen, and Brooks and Campbell through to LeMars by rail. About this time, and we believe on the first day of May 1871, H. G. Doolittle, with James Richardson, from Floyd County, arrived at the house of E.-------Huff and remained overnight. The next day they struck for ----claims; Doolittle settled on the southwest quarter of Section 24, Township 99, Range 41, and Richardson on the same section. They built sod houses, and had some lumber with them. Mr. Richardson after being here a short time returned.

Houston A. Doolittle, a brother of H. G., came in June 1871 and filed on Section 30, Township 99, Range 40. He left here in 1889, and now lives in Hancock County. H. G. Doolittle established a land business that year near Shaw's store, elsewhere referred to, and did business in a tent. He was engaged in locating incoming settlers, and did considerable business.

Returning again to Messrs. Webb and McCausland, they, with the others, Brooks and Campbell, came from Fayette County. At the starting of Mr. Webb and McCausland with the oxen, Mr. McCausland was ill, indeed, low with consumption, but the ideas of still going to a new country seemed to infuse new life in him, and his entire recovery afterwards was indeed miraculous.

When Webb and McCausland got to Osceola County and came to the Ocheyedan, McCausland, still weak, undertook to jump across the narrow stream and landed nearly to his neck in the middle. This was severe for a consumptive man near to death's door, but after a change of clothing he was all right again. This was in April 1871, and the weather disagreeable with rain and sleet. There is something wonderful in the mixture of ambition, of romance and love for a pioneer life that will turn a seemingly disagreeable hardship into pleasure and enjoyment. The forces of nature seem to hold a man with peculiar devotion to a venturesome life in a new country; he can scale a cliff, cross troublesome streams, lay down content on the damp ground, and stand all kinds of weather as long as the El Dorado is ahead of him, and indeed, after it is reached. Webb and McCausland that night remained at the bank of the Ocheyedan, and crawled supper less into their wagon and slept soundly until morning. When morning came they drove on west and soon spied a sodden shack, which they reached, and, building a fire had a good square meal. The shack evidently had been put up by a trapper, as some deer meat was hanging inside, but was alive with living evidences of decay. After breakfast they pushed on to the residence of our first settler, Mr. E. Huff. Huff's house was one story, 12 by 16. No windows had been put in and no door, but a blanket hung over the place of entrance. They remained over night, and besides them, within this limited habitation to slumber through, were Amos Buchman, with wife and five children, Huff and his family, James Richardson and H. G. Doolittle, and how they packed themselves around none of them seems to remember. Buchman had been there about one week, and had drove through with his family from Buchanan County.

That sort of hotel accommodations might strike an eastern dude as somewhat inconvenient, but to those early settlers it was no doubt delightful and enjoyable in the highest degree. After a night at the "Huff" house, Webb and McCausland started back with Buchman to locate him where the trappers shack was, and not knowing the exact spot or even the right direction, their going was somewhat devious, but they finally found it, and this claim Mr. Buchman at once settled upon and lived there until 1882 when he moved into Sibley. Mr. Buchman sold the claim this year *1892) and its description is the northeast quarter of Section 22, in Ocheyedan Township. If any new settler ever had a hard time to get along, it was Amos Buchman and family the summer and fall of 1871. They lived on anything they could get;' ground corn in a coffee mill, caught hawks, badgers, skunks and any other animal they could get hold of. Some friend living in Dickinson County sent his team before winter set in and removed the Buchman family to Milford, where they remained until Spring of 1872, when they returned again to their claim. Mr. Buchman now resides at Sibley, one of its most respected citizens, and is able now to enjoy the comforts of life.

In June 1871, Elder John Webb, then living in Fayette County, came to Osceola, and along with the rest filed on a government claim, which was the southeast quarter Section 6, Township 99, Range 41. When the Elder first drove up to where his son, W. W. Webb, was, it was Sunday, and coming across D. L. McCausland with a new gun on his shoulder, said to him, "Young man you are breaking the Sabbath." Mc retorted and inquired, "Why are you not preaching?"

In connection with the coming of these people from Fayette County, the writer wrote to Rev. John Webb, now living in Des Moines, for some contributions in regard to himself or his living here, which he thought might be of interest. Mr. Webb replied and contributed as follows:

"In June 1872, in company with Mr. James Block, I left Fayette County, this state, to visit my son and others who left Fayette to locate in Osceola County on government claims. I was directed from Lakeville to go to Ocheyedan Mound, and was told that when on the mound I could in all probability see the tents in which McCausland, Brooks and W. W. Webb were living. I went to the mound and on top of it, but could not see any signs of life in any direction. Mr. Block and myself then went down to the banks of the Ocheyedan and camped for the night. The next morning we started in search of the boys, and about noon found them one mile east of where Sibley now is. We spent a few days with them, and our horses were picketed out by the foreleg. While the horses were thus secured something gave them a fright, when they ran the full length of the rope and brought up so suddenly both turned somersaults and one of them was killed. I liked the country, and that fall took charge of the Spirit Lake Circuit, and the next year took charge of Sibley Circuit, and formed the first class ever formed in Osceola County at the house of A.M. Culver. I cannot remember all the members of the class, but Mrs. Culver, Annie Webb, Robert Stamm and wife, Mrs. Rodgers, Mrs. McCausland and Mr. Morrison and wife were among them. I built the first Methodist Episcopal Church, or enclosed it, and Rev. Brasheers finished it.

"While I was living at Sibley at that early day there was a young lawyer came to town, not very scrupulous, and persuaded the board of supervisors to pay him $20,000 and he would recover certain moneys due from Woodbury County to Osceola. I heard of it and went to the courthouse where the board was in session, requested them to hear me and they consented. I told them they would regret the day that they issued the warrant, and gave the general reasons why such an official act should not be done, and even as an outsider I made a motion, to the board and to the crowd, that Blackmer be allowed $500 retainer, and a percent, afterwards, and I added to the motion that the hiring include all the lawyers, or the remainder will be coming in for a share. J. T. Barcley, Esq., who was standing close by me, moved an amendment that the preachers also be added, but they were not. This was the last ever heard of the suit against Woodbury County.

"I continued to live in Osceola County, and in 1876 my first wife was taken from me by death, and I was afterwards married again to Mrs. A. D. Bellord, a sister of Captain Chase. I saw the County and town grow from a small beginning to a county well settled and a thriving town. I went from Sibley to Vermilion, South Dakota, where I remained not quite a year; then went to Kansas, where I was three years, and from there to Des Moines. I then went to California and remained there a year, when I longed for Iowa again and returned to it, where I shall spend the remainder of my days, for, take it as a whole, Iowa is ahead of all the rest of the universe, and here let me abide and pass the remnant of this mortal career.

"On my return from Osceola that early time, and after I had got to Independence, the hotel keeper, Mr. Naylor, asked me what the Osceola County people used for fuel. I told him principally hay. I think I could have heard him laugh twenty miles away. 'Hay for fuel,' said the astonished listener, 'why the last armful would be consumed before they could get from the house to the stack and back again.' Notwithstanding, under the circumstances, hay was a pretty good fuel.

"When our Methodist Church at Sibley was ready for dedication, we met Sabbath morning, and, just before time to commence public worship, and while some of us were standing on the steps of the church, it was discovered that something was coming from the Northwest, which looked like a cloud, but still it could be seen that it was not a cloud, and upon its nearer approach we could then see that it was a swarm of grasshoppers. This so disconcerted and discouraged the people that it was impossible to hold them for the purposes of dedication that day, and it was deferred. The ravages of these pests which followed are known to old settlers."

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