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The purpose of this report is to explore the origins of the first settlers of Solon
.One of the objectives is to provide a framework for studying any possible group migrations to Solon. It is addressed to anyone researching Solon history or its settlers.
Comments and additions are welcome.
Marilou West Ficklin
menu
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Yearbooks of the Old Settlers Association of Johnson County 47/p>
Volume: 1866-1897
p. 4
Anyone who settled before May 1, 1848 was entitled to membership in Old Settlers Association. Representatives of townships included, Henry Felkner (Newport), Charles McCune (Big Grove), Edwin Brown (Cedar).
p. 8
Henry Felkner elected 3rd Vice President of Association. First reunion festival held June 21, 1866.
p. 13
Formation of Old Settlers Association in 1866: Committee of Arrangements, Big Grove Township: C.W. McCune, James Buchanan, Charles Devault, James Payne.
p. 65
First public meeting of Old Settlers held July 4, 1840. Commentary by editor: "Regarding it from a financial standpoint, the settlement was begun at a most unpropitious period. In the year 1837, our country was swept by one of the most disastrous panics that ever occurred. Every bank in the country except those in New Orleans suspended specie payment, business of all kinds became paralyzed, confidence destroyed, and nearly every man that was in debt became bankrupt. For ten years thereafter, the country was strewn with the wrecks of this cyclone, in the shape of unpaid and unpayable debts, nor were these wrecks cleared away until the national bankrupt law, passed by Congress in 1842, opened a grave in which they could be buried."
p. 110
1837: 28 men settled; 8 as heads of family
1838: 38 men settled; 22 as heads of family
1839: 119 men settled; 35 as heads of family (included E. M. Adams, Moses Adams, Bryan Dennis, Sylvanus Johnson, Presley Connelly...and others. Some of these migrated as a group from an eastern state "hundreds of miles from the great river").
(derived from 1850 U.S. Census)
1840 map showing distribution of origins
Origin by Birthplace
Northeast U.S.
New York
Massachusetts
Vermont
Connecticut
Mid-Atlantic U.S.
Pennsylvania
Midwest U.S.
Indiana
Ohio
Southern U.S.
Maryland
Virginia
Kentucky
North Carolina
England
Scotland
Ireland
Germany
Origin by Last Residence Prior to Iowa
(Note: This list is compiled from births of children as shown in 1850 Census and therefore presents an incomplete account of a families migration between and after births of children.)
Northeast U.S.
New York
Massachusetts
Connecticut
Mid-Atlantic U.S.
Pennsylvania
Midwest U.S.
Indiana
Illinois
Ohio
Southern U.S.
None
England
Scotland
None
Ireland
Germany
Ebenezer M. Adams John Agy Abner Arrowsmith Allen Baxter Andrew Binegal Thomas Bolster Isaac Bowen Edwin Brown Peliezene C. Brown Stephen Brown Thomas Brown James Buchanan John Burge John A. Cain Stephen Chase Whetan Chase Presley Conley Lewis Conley Samuel Conlogue David Cox Elijah Cox William DuPont John Eagan Joseph Eagan Henry Felkner Nathaniel Fellows John Gardner John Gilbert John Guilor John Hallar Isaiah Hamilton Yale Hamilton James Harden Benjamin Hanson Martin Harless Green Hill Josiah Lyman James Magruder Jesse McGrew William Morris Jahial Park Warren Stiles William Sturgis
Key to enumeration (no persons over 70 were shown in the enumeration):
Males <5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70 Females <5 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-30 30-40 40-50 50-60 60-70
Abner Arrowsmith 100020000 210010000 Levi Wells 430001000 010001100 William D. Cannon 020110000 020100100 Warren Styles 111011000 011001000 Harvey Lyman 110000100 100001000 Elizabeth Lyons 020200000 000120100 R.W. Orr 000001000 000000000 Leander Jewet 002000100 100001000 Philo Costley 100010000 000100001 E.K. Morse 000020000 000000000 William McIntyre 000010000 000000000 Simon Fry 000010000 000000000 William Derrickson 000000100 000000000 J.M. Choats 000010000 000000000 Charles Gillen 000001000 400100000 Mary Conlouge 100010000 000010000 Richard Willis 000001000 000000000 Edwin A. Brown 000110000 000000000 Jahiel Parks 210020100 011020000 William Smith 000010000 000010001 John West 112030101 001011000 Joseph [sic] B. McGrew 000030000 000010000 David Doke Smith 000002000 020010000 John Smith 000001000 210010000 Warner Spurier 010000100 101010000 Andrew Vinegar 000030000 100010000 Chancey Fowler 000010000 000000000 Valentine Falkler [sic] 014000100 011100100 David Miller 000010000 020010000 Elijah Cox 000010000 220010000 John L. Holler 110021000 200010000
See also links to these Iowa State Census pages:
(Big Grove Township, in enumeration order)
Shows adults with estimated year and place of birth. Also shows estimated years and places of birth of oldest child born in each state
Connor, William 1813 VA
Phebe 1821 VA
Children 1835 OH
1838 IA
Payne, Joseph 1814 OH
Mary (?) 1823 OH
Children 1842 OH
West, John 1798 NY
Clarissa 1801 VT
Orson 1828 NY
Ollerman, boy 1836 OH
Smith, John 1809 OH
Mary 1814 MD
Children 1836 OH
1842 IA
Arrosmith, Abner 1811 KY
Elizabeth 1813 OH
Children 1833 IL
1838 IA
Spurrier, Warner 1807 MD
Harriett 1819 IN
Children 1831 OH
1841 IA
Templeman, Moses 1807 VA
Catharine 1792 OH
Children 1829 OH
1844 IA
John 1781 VA
Cannon, William 1811 MA
Julia A. 1823 MA
Children 1835 IA
[Wilbur ] 1841 IA
Stiles, Warren 1804 NY
Clarissa 1820 NY
Children 1831 NY
1837 IA
Schere, Henry 1836 GER
DuValt, Stod--- 1818 OH
Caroline E. 1829 NY
Child 1849 IA
McDonald, E (?) 1825 IRE
Eliza 1833 IRE
Margaret 1835 IRE
McDowell, Henry 1822 PA
Margaret 1826 PA
Children 1839 OH
Palmer, Charles 1795 CT
DeBoice, William H. 1810 NY
Ann 1829 ME
William H. 1839 IL
Children 1844 IA
Dennis, James 1785 PA
Martha 1789 PA
Children 1844 IA
Benter, Joseph 1813 GER
Anastasia 1802 GER
Children 1829 GER
1834 OH
Bowers, John, Jr. 1827 OH
Willa 1831 OH
Harboll, Nancy 1788 PA
Smith, William 1811 OH
Maria 1812 VA
Children 1843 IA
Eells, C (?) 1809 PA
Martha 1834 OH
Mary E. 1843 IA
Griffith, James 1801 VA
Elizabeth 1803 OH
Children 1827 OH
1843 IA
Payn, Willliam 1786 VA
Ellen 1793 VA
Children 1823 OH
Payn, Joseph 1824 OH
Child 1846 IA
Case, Joseph 1816 OH
Margaret 1818 OH
Children 1839 OH
1841 IN
1843 IA
Peninger, Joseph 1820 OH
Jane 1826 OH
Foster, David 1817 OH
Mary 1820 OH
Children 1835 IA
Conley, Presley 1819 OH
Amanda 1819 OH
Children 1846 IA
Amelia 1825 CAN
Minerva 1834 OH
Case, Nathaniel 1826 OH
Sells, Anthony 1810 OH
Sarah 1814 OH
Thompson, Lidia A. 1840 OH
Oliver 1843 OH
Nelson 1846 IA
Thompson, Sarah 1813 KY
Children 1834 IL
1846 IA
Robinson, Joseph 1820 ENG
Catharine 1815 PA
Children 1846 IA
Huse (?), Sarah A. 1841 IA
Dennis, Malton F. 1826 PA
Eliza J. 1828 OH
Children 1847 IA
Cambell, Bertha 1802 VA
Rosana 1829 OH
James W. 1830 IN
Children 1832 IA
Devault (?), Charles 1814 OH
Rachael 1816 OH
Children 1838 IN
1842 IA
Burns, Elizabeth 1834 OH
McGrew, Jessee B. 1815 PA
Sharlotty 1830 NJ
Tramble, Frances 1831 GER
Caroline 1824 GER
Children 1848 IA
Graver, Kesper 1800 GER
Elizabeth 1807 GER
Children 1833 GER
1844 IA
Blain, Archibal 1814 PA
Julia A. 1813 NY
Children 1841 IA
Calkin, Norman 1812 NY
Mary 1812 NY
Children 1834 NY
1847 IA
Kerr, Hamilton H. 1810 PA
Almira 1829 VA
Children 1848 IA
Cox, Lidia (?) 1836 IN
Andrews, Paul B. 1812 PA
Emaly 1818 ?
Children 1845 OH
1848 IA
Clark, Timothy B. 1816 CT
Alvina E. 1819 NJ
Children 1843 IA
Cambridge, Middleton 1835 IN
Pain, Evan 1813 OH
Ruth 1813 OH
Children 1838 OH
1846 IA
Brakel, John 1810 GER
Margaret 1817 GER
Children 1842 PA
1847 IA
Walter, Anthony 1804 GER
Barbary 1804 GER
Children 1832 GER
1847 IA
Beiser, Volentine 1847 LA
Brown, Peleg C. 1799 NY
Children 1829 OH
Warnhol, Frederic 1794 GER
Elizabeth 1800 GER
William 1832 GER
Fackler, Volentine 1793 PA
Elizabeth 1794 PA
Children 1824 OH
1831 IA
Devault,(?) Henry 1842 IA
Keshner, Michael 1802 GER
Mary N. 1804 GER
Children 1848 IA
Sels, Godfrey 1823 GER
Mary 1827 GER
Children 1848 IA
Drenn(?), Louisa 1800 GER
William 1834 GER
Gates, Wentlen (?) 1822 GER
Catharine 1823 GER
Children 1829 GER
1844 IA
Statser, Rudolph 1823 GER
Wendall 1794 GER
Children 1848 IA
Upmore, William 1815 GER
Louisa 1818 GER
Children 1841 GER
1850 IA
Gipson, James A. 1814 SCO
Elizabeth 1815 PA
Children 1846 WI
1848 IN
Lingle, John 1828 PA
Mary J. 1835 IA
Nickleson, Henry 1816 OH
Maria 1822 PA
Children 1843 IA
White, John 1818 OH
Elizabeth 1824 IL
Children 1843 IA
White, William 1824 OH
Roe, Rice 1819 IN
Perlina 1820 IN
Children 1840 IL
Esterbrooke, Porter 1807 VT
Margarett 1808 NY
Children 1839 OH
1842 IA
Payn, James 1816 OH
Elizabeth 1816 OH
Children 1839 OH
1842 IA
McCune, Charles 1824 NY
Phebe 1829 OH
Children 1846 IA
McCune, Daniel 1826 NY
Robinson, Robert 1812 IRE
Jane 1806 OH
Children 1846 IA
Robinson, John 1808 IRE
Thomas 1839 CAN
Smith, DokeD. 1814 OH
Jane 1814 OH
Children 1838 OH
1841 IA
Aslin, John 1810 NC
Adaline 1815 VA
Children 1835 OH
1843 IA
Smith, Daniel 1818 PA
Rbecca 1813 PA
Child 1844 IA
________________________________
Solon Pioneer shown in the 1850 census for
Newport, Johnson County:
Lyman, Harvey 1795 CT
Mary G. 1805 OH
Children 1833 OH
1838 IL
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Henry Felkner:(From 1903 Yearbook, Old Settlers Association, p. 21) "The first explorers and settlers of Johnson county were Eli Myers, Henry Felkner and Philip Clark. By probity and industry they had each founded a competency, but the call to a new frontier made them early immigrants to California. They were part of a noble company who left our pioneer settlement for the romantic land that is now ahead of the world in many things. Of this company were Dr. McCormick, Judge Hawkins, Samuel J. Hess, Peter Patterson, Rev. J.W. Brier, John Adams...."
Warren Stiles: See biography
Edmund Shepard: "In the spring of 1850, S.J. Hess and I joined a company for California. Our little two-horse wagon had on its side a box for curry combs, etc. George Yewell painted on it little Breeches which name we were known by. At Salt Lake we joined outfits with Bryan Dennis, Jas. McConnell and John Larcomb. We were in business for two years at Bidwells Bar." (From"35th Annual Reunion of the Old Settlers of Johnson County," August 22, 1901, Iowa Citizen Publishing Company, 1901). Edmund is listed in a wagon party stopping at Kanesville, IA (Council Bluffs) on 1 may 1850, in: Louis J.Rasmussen,California Wagon Train Lists, Vol. 1 (Colma, CA: San Francisco Historic Records, 1965), p. 105.
Chauncey Swan: Chauncey went with a party from Iowa City to the California gold rush in 1849. He kept a diary of the journey. From: "Letters of a 49er," ed. Mildred Thone, Iowa Journal of History XLVII, January 1949, pp. 63-77, Nebraska State Historical Society, as referenced in Merrill J. Mattes, Platte River Road Narratives, (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 1988.
Simon Fry: Simon is listed in Solon in the 1840 U.S. Census but not in the 1850 census. Instead a man named 'Simon C. Fry' is shown in the 1850 U.S. Census for California at El Dorado County, in Peru, page 446. It is not known if these two are the same man. From: "Ronald Vern Jackson, Index to 1850 U.S. Census, California, (Bountiful, UT: Accelerated Indexing Systems)
"SOLON - The little city of Solon was incorporated on July 2, 1877 just over 100 years ago. Town Officers at that first meeting were: A.B. Newcomb, mayor; P.N. Connelly, D.R. Randall, John Hess, George Mattas and R.C. Caldwell, councilmen; Wm. Buchanan, recorder; and F.A. Heinsius, Marshall.
The town of Solon had first been founded by John West and H.H. Kerr who surveyed the site back in 1840. Nothing much happened to the little town until almost ten years later when Kerr and P.B. Anders platted it and named it Solon in memory of one of Andres' son.
The pioneer settlement grew into an established community in the early years before its official incorporation. During this growth period the following businesses, churches and services were available:
1841 - first log cabin school house built to replace first school held in the home of Mrs. Fannie Pratt.
1842 - H.H. Kerr, first postmaster, handled mail from his home.
1843 - John Brakel opens first business, a blacksmith shop.
1845 - Big Grove township was established by Johnson County.
1855 - First Methodist Church was established.
1855 - Palmer House stage coach headquarters building was erected.
1857 - Big Grove whiskey agency was discountinued [sic] by Johnson County.
1858 - First Catholic Church was established.
1873 - A flour and saw mill was built by Akerly and Carney.
1876 - The Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern railway comes through Solon.
In 1882, the first newspaper, called the "Solon Reaper", was published. A village history reported that a bank was started by David Randall and that a grain elevator and creamery had been built.
A business directory published in the 1883 history of Johnson County lists five dry goods and grocery stores, one hardware store, a drug store, one harness maker, one implement dealer and grain buyer, one furniture store, two lumber dealers, two liveries, two blacksmiths, one wagon maker, one confectionery and book store, two meat markets, one shoe maker, one brewery, five saloons and four physicians.
The first telephone in Solon was a single line connecting the Samuel Payne farm to the general store in Solon. Payne clerked at the store and used the line to communicate with his wife about such things as when dinner would be ready. A telephone system serving town and country residents was established in 1880."
County began 4 July 1838. Three County commissioners elected 10 Sept 1838 were Henry Felkner, William Sturgis and Abner Wolcott. First district court created by act of the Territorial Legislature of Iowa Jan. 21 1839, Second Judicial District (7 counties) included Johnson). First court held in May, 1839 at John Gilbert's Trading Post. Grand Jury first called in May 1839.
E.M. Adams
1838 Territorial Census 3
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 3 souls 4
1858 Petit Juror 5
Moses Adams
1848 Military service eligible males 6
1839 Signatory, Claims Association 7
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Emmons Family Tree," Sharon Emmons-Mason, ":1845856" database, ID I88014259; and "Tamara & Jerry's Genealogy," Jerry L. Neville, "jerr_bear" database, ID I6058 (Ancestral File W6RZ-6Q ): Moses Adams b. 2 Nov 1815, Oxford, Oxford County, ME m. 8 Jan 1859 to Sarah Jane Keislar (b. 16 May 1836, Columbiana,Columbiana County, OH) d. 23 Mar 1899, Solon, Johnson County, I bur. Oakland Cemetery, Solon
A man named Moses Adams is shown in the 1830 Census, New York, Chautauqua County, Ripley Township, p. 435 39
Ebenezer Adams
1838 Territorial Census 3
Louisa Adams
m. John C. McGrew (See McGrew below)
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Rose/McGrew/Turner/Klaenhammer Family," Fred Rose, "fredrose27" database, ID I777: Louisa Adams b. 1821 m. 25 Aug 1852, Muscatine County, IA d. 1864, Muscatine County, IA
Paul B. Anders/Andrews
b. 1812 Pennsylvania 11
m. Emaly ___________(b. 1818) 1
Mentioned in "Hamilton H. Kerr," biography (See Section 5.)10
1848 Military service eligible males 6
1850 census 11
Abner Arosmith
b. about 1812, KY 11
m. Elizabeth_________(b. 1813, OH) 11
Grand Juror, 1840, October term, p.81 12
1850 census 11
Secondary source: 16
Excerpt from a family group sheet and family tree, "Kah Genealogy," Kathleen Hunt, "lyngaas," database, ID I17525 :
"Abner Arrasmith" b. 9 July 1812, Paris, Bourbon, KY m1. 25 Dec 1831, Colbrook, Warren County, IL to Elizabeth Corbin Peckenpaugh(Elizabeth b. 9 Mar 1814, Breckenridge, KY, d. 31 Jan 1868, Olathe, Johnson Co. KS) 10 children, 6 b. in Cedar Rapids, 4 born in Big Grove Township [Johnson County] m2. 5 Oct 1869 to Charlotte Kent d. 19 Jan 1885, Olathe, Johnson County, KS Father: Wesley Arrasmith Mother: Elizabeth Reed
John Brakel
b. about 1818, Germany 11
m. Margaret _______ (b. about 1817, Germany) 11
First blacksmith 1
1848 military service eligible males 6
1850 census 11
Peleg Brown
b. about 1799 NY 11
1850 census 11
Speculation: 16
Two men named Peleg Brown are shown in the 1820 census for New York:
Chenango County, Smyrna,
Oneida County, _____,
P.C. Brown
1844 Iowa State census, household of 5 souls 4
1838 Territorial census 3
1839 Signatory, Claims Association 7
Edwin A. Brown
1838 Territorial census 3
1840 census 14
J.G. Brown
1844 Iowa State census, household of 1 soul 4
Huldah Brown
1844 Iowa State census, household of 3 souls 4
Norman Calkin/Calkins
b. 1812, NY 11
m. Mary (b. 1812, NY) 11
1850 census 11
1858 Petit Juror 5
1860 Probate, guardianship of Minerva and Elliott Calkin,
minor children of Norman Calkin, deceased to Mary Calkin, 20 Feb 1860,
Probate Vol. 3:217.15
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet and family tree,"Eric Crandall Satterthwaite's Ancestry," by Eric Satterthwaite, "esatterethwaite" database,ID I1447: Norman Calkins b. 28 Nov 1811,Elizabethtown, Essex County, NY m. 12 Dec 1832, Mary Thompson d. 10 Dec 1859, Big Grove Township, [Johnson County], IA Father: John Calkins Mother: Lucy Kellogg
William D. Cannon
b. 22 Mar 1811, Blanford, MA 17
m Julia A. Pratt 17
d. 10 Dec 1856, Solon 17
1840 census 14
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 3 souls 4
1850 census 11
Charter member of ME church 2
Guardian of minor heirs of W.D. Cannon to be appointed by Julia A. Whipple,
19 Dec 1862, probate records, Vol. 3, page 496. This implies that Julia
Cannon had remarried after the death of W.D. Cannon.15
Secondary sources: 16,17
Excerpt from family group sheet of James Craig Sutton, Pedigree Resource File Disk 28 pin 871689;17 see also "James C. Sutton Genealogy," "suttonja" database, ID I00971.
1830 [a William Cannon found in census, St. Lawrence County New York, Stockholm Twp, p.45] 17
Wilbur D. Cannon
b. 6 Nov 1840, Solon, IA
d. 1915
First white child born in Johnson County (Old Settlers Yearbook, 1866-1897, p. 17 47
Biography at State Historical Society 18
His home in Iowa City is now an historic landmark.19
Father: William D. Cannon (above)
Mother: Julia Pratt
Secondary sources: 17
Excerpt from family group sheet of James Craig Sutton (above)
Nathaniel Case
b. about 1826, OH 11
1850 census 11
Secondary sources:
1820 [a Nathaniel Case found in census, Trumbull County,Ohio, Bristol Twp] 20
Joseph B. Case
b. about 1816, OH 11
m. Margaret____ 11
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 5 souls 4
1850 census 11
Secondary Sources : 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Jeannie's Family Tree," Jeannie____,"themiyamas1" database, ID 12047216: Joseph Bonner Case b. 8 Mar 1816, Adams County, OH m. 29 Mar 1838, Adams County, OH to Margaret Cloud (Margaret b. 25 Mar 1818, Highland County, OH) d. 10 Feb 1853, Johnson County, IA Father: Othanial Case Mother: Mary Ann Starn
Timothy B. Clark
b. 1811, Connecticut 11
m. Alvira/Alvina______11
Mentioned in "Hamilton H. Kerr," biography 10
1848 Military service eligible 6
1844 Iowa State census, "J.B. Clark," household of 3 souls 4
1850 census 11
Presley Connelly
b. about 1819, Ohio 11
m. Amanda Isabella Dennis (b. about 1819, OH) (see Dennis below) 11
Mrs. Presley Connelly in "Women of Big Grove Township" 21
1838 Terratorial census 3
1848 Military service eligible 6
Daughter Mathilda, b. 1845/46, married Wilmot Spurrier (see Spurrier below)
Secondary Sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Our Family Tree," Ellen____,"familyinfo" database, ID I351316: Presley Nevil Connelly b. 1819, OH based on U.S. Census 1850-1880 m1. Amanda Isabella Dennis, 20 Nov 1845, Johnson County, Iowa (3 children) m2. Martha Malvina Huss, 14 Oct 1856, Sandusky County, Ohio (6 children )
Charles Connelly
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 8 souls 4
Mrs. Charles Connelly in "Women of Big Grove Township" 21
James Dennis
b. about 1785, PA 11
m. Martha (b. about 1789, PA) 11
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 9 souls4
1850 census11
Secondary sources:16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Our Family Tree,"Ellen____, "familyinfo" database, ID I40416: James Dennis b. 1784 Pennsylvania m Martha Fife (b. 1787, Allegheny County, PA) d. 18 Nov 1859, Johnson County, IA Moved from PA to OH about 1826, to Iowa 1842/3 Buried at Oakland Cemetery, Big Grove Twp, Johnson County, IA
[Milton] Dennis
b.1826, PA 11
m. Eliza J. (b. 1828, OH) 11
1850 census 11
Amanda Isabell Dennis11,16
m. Presley Connelly (see above)
Porter Estabrook
1844 Iowa State, household of 5 souls 4
1850 census 11
Secondary resources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet "Price Family Tree," Barry Price, Ids 151186 and 1151187.These group sheets contained minimal source citations. Porter Estabrook [Sr.] b. 1 Oct 1773, Hartford, Windsor County, VT m. 31 Dec 1795, Lebanon, Grafton County, NH; spouse, Eunice Smith Thurston d. 1815, Waterloo, Seneca County, NY Father: Joseph Estabrook: b. 2 May 1741, Mansfield Center, Tolland County, NY Mother: Theda Porter: b. 16 Sept 1739, Mansfield Center, Tolland County, NY
Porter Estabrook [Jr.]
b: 20 Aug 1807, Hartford, Windsor, VT 16
m. Margaret Van der Werken
d. after 1880
Father: Porter Estabrook (see above)
Mother: Eunice Smith Thurston
A son, John Vedward Estabrook, was born about 1842 in Tuscarawas, Ohio.
Henry Felkner
1838 County Commissioner 46
1838 Territorial Census3
1839 Signatory, Claims Association 7
Grand Juror, 1840, October term 12
1848 Military service eligible 6
Johnson County Representative in Iowa State Assembly 47
Third vice-president, Old Settlers Association, (Old Settlers Yearbook, 1866-1897, p. 8)47
Chancey Fowler
1840 census 14
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 1 soul 4
Mrs. Charles Fowler, "Women of Big Grove Township" 21
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet "Covey Connections," Wes Covey, ID I07622616 Charles Chauncey Fowler b. 8 Oct 1829, Middlebury, Addison County, VT Father: William Chauncey Fowler Mother: Harriet Webster
James Griffith
b. 11 Dec 1801 VA/MD 22
m. Elizabeth M. Hall 11 Jan 1825, Knox County, Ohio 23
(Elizabeth b. 12 April 1805, OH/PA, d. 23 Sep 1891, Chicago)24
d. 27 April 1884, Chicago, IL 25
Father: Joseph Griffith of Belmont and Knox Counties, OH
Mother: Catherine Griffith
Children:
Catherine Griffith, b. about 1827, 11Bladensburg,Knox County, OH26
m. Orson West (see Orson West below)
Rachel Griffith, b. 25 Mar 1832, Bladensburg, Knox County, Ohio,
m. Pleasant Morris Harlan, 28,Sep 1858, Quincy, Adams County, IL 26
William H. Griffith, b. about 1838, OH 11
James Griffith, b. about 1841, OH 11
Elizabeth Griffith, b. about 1843, OH 11
Cyrus Griffith, b. about 1845, IA 11
1850 census11
Land Patent, Big Grove Township 27
Secondary source: 16
Excerpts from family group sheet, "John West of New York and James Griffith of Virginia," Marilou West Ficklin, "alfred_01" database, ID I1.
Mrs. Hannah Hill
b. about 1806, NC 28
m. John West 17 June 1853, Johnson County, IA 29
d. 20 Jan 187234
bur. Sandtown Cemetery, Hills, IA16
Daughter: Rachel Hill, m. George Osborn, 21 May 1854 30
1860 Census 28
1870 Census, Johnson County, Newport Twp. 31
Guardianship of minor heirs of Joseph Hill dec. to Hannah Hill, 1852, Vol. 5:80 32
Guardianship of Louisa Hill by Hannah Hill, 1862, Vol. 3:407 15
Estate of Hannah (Hill) West 33
Hannah Hill, dec., George Osborn, Exec.Probate 1872, Vol.. 6:615; 1875, Vol. 8:201 34
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "The Eugene and Judith Whorton Henderson Family Tree," Judith L. Henderson, "jlhenderson742," ID 145909.16 Mrs. Hannah (Stout) Hill b. 16 July 1806, Denton, NC m1. Zachariah Yarborough m2. Joseph Hill m3. John West d. 20 Jan 1872, Iowa City
Hamilton H. Kerr
b. 1810 Pennsylvania10,11
m. Almira Brooks, 1847, Pennsylvania10,11
d. 1897, Union Township, Johnson County, IA10
Mentioned in local histories:
Biography in Old Settlers of Johnson County10
Mentioned as co-founder, surveyor and first postmaster in "Back in 1877"1
1848 Military service eligible6
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 4 souls4
1850 census11
1870 census, Johnson County, Big Grove Twp.35
Harvey Lyman
b. about 1795, CT 11
m. Mary S.______(b. about 1805, OH) 11
Charter member of ME Church 2,18
Grand Juror, 1840, October term, p. 4412
1840 census14
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 5 souls 4
1850 census (Newport Township)11
Secondary source: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, "Pelton and Barbe Families....," Gary Garbe, "garygarbe60" database, ID I03779: Harvey (Harry) Lyman b. 13 Dec 1794, New Keniford, CT m. 8 Apr 1830 to Mary Sopronia Pelton (b. 21 Sept 1805, Gustavus, Trumbull County OH)
Josiah Lyman
1838 Territorial Census3
Elizabeth Lyon
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 4 souls 4
Lyon
Charter Member ME Church 2, 18
Jesse B. McGrew
b. 1815, PA 11
m. "Sharlotty" ________(b. about 1830, NJ)11
Charter member ME Church 2,18
1848 Military service eligible 6
1839 Signatory, Claims Association 7
Mrs. J.B. McGrew in "Women of Big Grove" 21
Grand Juror, 1840, October term, pp. 15, 23 12
1838 Territorial Census 3
1844 Iowa State census, household of 4 souls [J.B. McGrew] 4
1850 census 11
John Chevalier Mcgrew
Secondary source: 17
Ancestral File, Trudy Arlene Fincher, FLWX-SG; Pedigree Resource File, CD20, Pin 543145 b. 6 Feb 1815, Dayton, Montgomery County, OH m1 Lydia Ann Willetts, 11 Aug 1837, Muscatine County, IA m2 Louisa Adams, 25 Aug 1852, Johnson County, IA (see Adams above) m2 Isabel J. Beck O'Donnell, 29 May 1866 d. 12 July 1889, Muscative, Muscatine County, IA Father: William Mcgrew Mother: Charlotte Chevalier
Jehiel Parks
Mrs. Jehiel Parks in "Women of Ciaden Township" 21
Grand Juror, 1840, October term, pp. 15, 23 12
I.C. Lasher v. Jehiel Parks and John West, 1840, May term, p.99 12
1840 census 14
The following speculative information is presented as a possible link
to Jehiel Parks' origins.
Men named Jehiel Parks are shown in the following census:
1830, Chautauqua County, Ellery Twp, New York, p. 322 37
1825 New York State Census, Chautauqua County, Ellery Twp 38
1820, Chautauqua, County, New York, p. 55 39
History of Cayuga County, NY, p. 260 states that a man named Jehial Parks of
Sterling Valley came to Cayuga County in 1807 and went west with a large
family. 40
William Payn
b. about 1786, VA 11
m. Ellen____ (b. about 1793, VA) 11
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 7 souls 4
1850 census 11
Secondary source: See Joseph Payn below
Joseph Payn
b. about 1814, OH 11
m. Mary ____ (b. about 1823, OH) 11
Secondary sources: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet, Ellen___, "Our Family Tree," "familyinfo" database, ID I888016 Joseph Payne b. 9 Sep 1814, Licking County, OH m. Mary Lake (b. 11 Mar 1824, OH) d. 3 Jan 1895, Solon, Johnson County, Iowa Father: William Payne (b. 1784, Hampshire County, VA) See William Payn above. Mother: Ellen Kelso (b. 1792/3, VA) William Payne shown in the following census: 1820 Licking County, Washington Township, Ohio20
James Payn
b. 1816, Ohio 11
m. Elizabeth_____(b. 1916, OH) 11
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 6 souls 4
1850 census 11
Fannie Pratt
First school teacher, probably prior to 1841. 1
1844 Iowa State Census of Iowa, household of 4 souls 4
Wife of C.T. Pratt (Old Settlers Yearbook, 1866o-1897, p. 112-114 47
Ephraim Pratt
1848 Military service eligible 6
Petit Juror 1858 5
Secondary source: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet (fgs),"Ancestors of Jennifer & Adam Fisher," Susan Fisher, "catlover" database, ID I0352.16 This well-documented fgs contains a transcription of an interesting biography. Ephraim Porter Pratt b. 1820, PA m1. 27 May 1843, Athens County, OH to Amanda M. Roberts (Amanda b. 1822, OH) m2. 1864 to Mary Ford Bentley (b. 10 Dec 1830, Bradford County, PA) d. 10 May 1890, Washington County, IA
Charles Pratt
Petit Juror 1858 5
Julia Pratt
Secondary source: James Craig Sutton, Pedigree Resource File
Disk 28 pin 87169017:17
b. 11 Feb 1823 at Temple, ME
m1 William D. Cannon.
m2 ____Whipple 15
d. 17 Mar 1877, Solon
Charter member ME Church 2, 18
Cyrus Sanders
b. about 1818, OH 35
(Principally an Iowa City man with ties to Solon)
1870 Census 35
1848 Military service eligible 6
Co-author "unfinished History of Johnson County" 41
1839 Signatory, Claims Association 7
Mentioned in local histories 2
Warner Spurrier
b. about 1807, Maryland 11
m. Harriet Ballan/Ballou (b. about 1819, Iowa) 11
(name of wife from secondary sources, Love and Spurrier, below)
d. about 1865 11
children:11
Mary Spurrier b. 1839/40, OH
Matilda Spurrier b. 1843/4, IA
Henry E. Spurrier, b. 1844/5, IA
William Monroe Spurrier b. 1846 (see below)
Wilmot H. Spurrier, b. 1848/9 IA (see below)
Albert Spurrier, b. 1857/8, IA
Samuel Spurrier in 1850 census household (b. about 1831, OH) 11
Moses Templeman in 1850 household, farmer (b. 1807, Virginia) 11
1840 census 14
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 6 souls 4
1850 census 11
Charter Member ME Church 2, 18
Grand Juror, 1840, May term, p. 23 12
Petit Juror, 1858 5
Census enumerator 1854 Iowa State Census 42
Guardianship of Tully Sutliff to Warner Spurrier 17 April 1857, Book 5:482 32
R.W. Spurrier, decd, Warner Spurrier exec, Probate 11 December 1865,
Vol. 4:579 and 31 July 1867, Vol. 5:40434
Secondary source: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet,"Ancestors of William E. Love," database "dehinten," ID I1083.See also "spurrier relativity", Duane Spurrier, database "duanespurrier799," ID I522733794: Warner Spurrier b. 19 Aug 1807, Maryland m1. Mary Hoops, 11 Oct 1827 m2. Harriet Ballan McHugh (b. about 1810, OH) 6 children sons: William Monroe and Wilmot below d. 9 Apr 1888, Lisbon, Linn County, IA
William Monroe Spurrier
b. about 1846, Big Grove Township, Johnson Co. Iowa 43,11
Secondary Source: 16 (See above fgs reference for Warner Spurrier)
William Spurrier b. about 1846/7 Father: Warner Spurrier Mother: Harriet Ballou
Wilmot H. Spurrier (shown as Wilmot E. in 1850 census)
b. about 1848/9 11
m. Matilda Rosamond Connelly 1 May 1867 (See Conley)
Father: Warner Spurrier (see Secondary source for Warner)
Mother: Harriet Ballan/Ballou
Stiles, Warren
b. about 1804, NY 11
m. Clarissa __________ (b. about 1820, New York) 11
Daughter Mrs. Mary Chandler in "Women of Iowa City" 21
1838 Territorial Census 3
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 7 souls 4
1850 census 11
Guardianship of minor heirs of Warren Stiles decd. to Clarissa Stiles
8 Aug 1854, Vol 5:25532
Secondary source: 16
Excerpt from family group sheet (fgs), "Maher, DeMean, Portr, DeVault," Don Patterson, ":445394" database, ID I305.16 This fgs contains a short and interesting biography of Warren Stiles. Warren Stiles b. circa 1804, West Chazy, [Clinton County], NY m. bef 1825, NY to Clarissa ___________ d. 1850, San Francisco, CA bur. Solon
John West
b. about 1797, NY 11
m1. Clarissa ______(b. about 1801, Vermont) 11
m2. Mrs. Hannah (Stout) Hill, 17 June 1853 (see Hill above)29
bur. Sandtown Cemetery, Hills, IA (See secondary source, Hill above)
son: Orson C. West,(below)
Co-founder and surveyor of Solon 1
Charter member of ME Church 2,18
Road District Supervisor 1841; director of road construction
from Solon to Iowa City, 1842 44
Grand Juror, 1841, May term, p. 93. 12
1840 census 14
1844 Iowa State Census, household of 12 souls 4
1850 census 11
Estate of John West, deceased, James Hill execr. Henry Felkner,
appraiser, Probate Records of Johnson County, Vol. 3: 218, 351,
440,427,432,438,493,505 15
Cases before Second Judicial District Court12
p. 99 May Term 1841; I.C. Lasher vs. Jehiel Parks and John West
p. 101 A.H. Frisbee vs John West 1 June 1841
p. 132 Thomas Ford vs. John West.
Mentions Jehiel and Harrison Parks.
Property: se 1/4 sw 1/4 sec 12 T81N R6W, Johnson County Recorder 45
Deed Bk. 10, .146 sold to Norman Calkin 1854.
Moved to Newport and acquired s 1/2 ne 1/4 sw 1/4 sec 25, T80N R6W45 45
Son: Orson West (below)
Secondary source:16
Excerpts from family group sheet, "John West of New York and James Griffith of Virginia," Marilou West Ficklin, "alfred_01" database, ID I32.
Orson West
b. about 1827, New York 11
m. Catherine Griffith, daughter of James Griffith (see Griffith above)
d. 4 April 1901, San Francisco, CA
(see secondary source John West (above) for complete documentation)
Father: John West 11
Mother: Clarissa_____ 11
Purchased sw 1/4 sw 1/4 sec 12 T 81N R6W, from Charles and
Clarissa Gower, Johnson County Recorder, Deed Bk. 9, p. 131. 45
---*---
From Yearbook, Old Settlers Association,1866-1897, p. 137. 47
Moses Adams, of Cedar township, who came here in '39. Mr. Adams is 80 years of age, and cast his first vote for William Henry Harrison two days after he was 21 years of age. (date of reunion not known) [b. about 1819] Description by Miles K. Lewis in 1900 Old Settlers Association Yearbook, p. 11: Mose Adams, who to my personal knowledge bached all alone. I staid over night with Mose and he used an old broken saucer for a lamp, with a wick torn from his underwear, the same being dipped in fried meat grease and lit with a spark from his old flint lock youger, and that lamp gave such a brilliant light that we could hardly tell one card from the other.
From Biography of William J. Felkner, by Ruth Irish Preston, Yearbook, Old Settlers Association, 1915-1916 p. 20-21; 1921-1922, p. 6; 1924-1925, p. 4. 47
Henry and Elizabeth Felkner were prominent pioneers of Iowa. The Felkner family is of German and Scotch descent and for several generations, on the mother's side, had been members of the Quaker faith. They came from Ohio into Iowa soon after the Blackhawk Purchase was thrown open for settlement and brought with them an inherited veneration for those forms of free government so aptly expressed by Manasseh Cutler in the "Bill of Rights" for the North West Territory.
William Felkner was born on a farm in the civinity of Iowa City, July 18, 1852, the third son of Henry and Elizabeth. Like his father, Willilam was stalwart in form, large hearted and kindly. Henry had been one of Johnson County's earliest settlers, one of the organizers and law givers of the State of Iowa, and of him it has been said by one of his noble associates that "He was a typical pioneer. Who that has looked upon his giant form, crowned by a face limned in benignity and strength can forget him!" This man of strength, of courage, of ability and honor--this pioneer Henry Felkner, came into the wilderness of Iowa then known as the Blackhawk Purchase as early as 1837 accompanied by two others of our celebrated and greatly beloved pioneers, Philip Clark and Eli Myers. These brave young men, joined by a few others of like courage and foresight, came into this region when the Indian trails and the rivers were the only highways of communication, and settling on the western edge of the Purchase, set to work at once to lay the foundation of the future State of Iowa. By peaceful though strenuous labor they in a few years wrought marvellous changes in the community that had but recently been a wilderness inhabited only by the Indian and the trapper. By the hands of these pioneers, the Indian trails of this vicinity were widened and along their deep cut banks the wigwams were giving way to the settlers' cabins. Meanwhile the tomahawk and scalping knife were being sheathed and the breaking plow and other instruments of peaceful husbandry were transforming the prairies into cultivated fields.
In 1843 Mr. Felkner returned to his boyhood home in Ohio and claimed for his bride the sweet young Quakerress, Elizabeth Lewis, the choice of his youthful heart. Eizabeth was the daughter of Enoch Lewis and Mourning, his wife, and she was possessed of many virtues and graces inherited from a long line of noble and talented ancestry from which she sprang.
The 1924-1925 Yearbook of Old Settlers, p. 4 states that in 1837 Mr. Henry Felkner was engaged in building a sawmill on Rapid Creek about three miles northeast of Iowa City. His supplied being exhausted, he walked eight miles to the home of the nearest acquaintance, borrowed a horse and rode to Bloomington, forty miles distant, and procured his supplies. Returning to the home of his friend, he walked eight miles carrying seventy pounds of provisions.
h4Hamilton H. Kerr/h4>
From M. Cavanagh, "Hamilton H. Kerr," Thirty-Fifth Annual Reunion of the Old Settlers of Johnson County, p. 25 14
In 1839 there came to Johnson county a young unmarried man from the state of Pennsylvania. He made a claim and afterwards entered land in Big Grove township, and with Timothy B. Clark and Paul B. Anders subsequently made a dedication of the original townsite of Solon and gave it the classic name which it bears of the great Athenian lawgiver. He was the first postmaster at Solon, and served as such for a number of years. This man was Hamilton H. Kerr, who departed this life some years since, and it is felt that something should be said here in honor of his memory. Mr. Kerr was a man of most sterling worth and unblemished character, always aligning himself on the side of the right as he understood it against the wrong; a good neighbor, a fast friend, just in all his dealings with his fellow men, a public-spirited citizen and withal so modest and unassuming, so wanting in self-assertion, that people who were not his immediate neighbors knew but little of his intrinsic worth. He lived for many years at the home he first established and then sold out and bought a small farm near Iowa City across the Iowa river, on which he resided several years, until his advanced age and that of his wife made it advisable that they should give up the active operations of the farm, after which they made their home with their daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. J.R. Breese of Union township. This continued to be their home until Mr. Kerr's death in 1897, and it is still Mrs. Kerr's home.
Mr. Kerr was very social in his tastes and highly prized the society of his old friends and neighbors and in the later years of his life made many visits to their homes, where he was always received with the greatest pleasure and cordiality. In short, suffice it to say that his life was a model of domestic, social and civic virtue, and if any man among the pioneers in letter and very spirit kept every one of the command of the decalogue and observed in all its divine beauty the precept of the Golden Rule, that man was Hamilton H. Kerr.
His early life here had all the trials and vicissitudes incident to those pioneer days, but he was called upon to go through a trial and endure a privation that did not necessarily belong to pioneer life.
I said at the outset that when he came here Mr. Kerr was an unmarried man; now, while this was true, it is also true that he came to select a place in which to establisha home which a fair daughter of the old Keystone state had promised to share with him. She, his affianced wife, he left behind him until he should go to the faraway trans-Mississippi country, the land of beautiful Iowa, which was then firing the imagintion of the young men and maidens of that day in the older states, as the place of others in which to seek and build elysian homes for themselves and their offspring.
When Mr. Kerr came it was his purpose to return within a year and ask the young lady who had promised to become his wife to fulfill her promise. He brought with him a sum of money, the savings of his modest earnings for some years. This money would enable him to provide the home which he was looking forward to with so much anticipated happiness, and to pay his expenses back to Pennsylvania and the return with the wedded woman of his heart. But, alas, he had formed the acquaintance of an honest (?) blacksmith of the neighboring county of Cedar, to whom he loaned his money as an accommodation for a few days; but the few days grew into many days, and the days into months and months into years, and his money was still loaned--a permanent investment--and so the years of this painful waiting dragged their weary length along, until the celebrated historical waiting of Jacob for Rachel was threatened with eclipse.
As it was out of the question for Mr. Kerr to get the money he had loaned he was compelled to wait the slow process of earning enough to assist him in carrying out the plans so dear to his heart. But earning money then in Iowa was a slow process at best in any vocation, and Mr. Kerr being an artisan patronized only by those who could afford tailor-made apparel, his patrons were not many and his earnings were necessarily slow.
But at last in 1847, eight long years after he came, Mr. Kerr succeeded in getting his affairs in shape, and as all things are said to have an end, so this long waiting, and he hied himself away to the betrothed of his heart, and as he had withstood the charms and blandishments of the pioneer belles and beauties of Iowa in that early time, and she had kept her plighted troth, they were married; and who shall say that the long enforced separation of this devoted pair, the "hope deferred that maketh the heart sick," has not added zest and bliss to the almost fifty years of their wedded life which followed, for it was a most happy union. Not that they had no sorrow, for that is not possible in the lives of sentient beings like ourselves. For out of a family of six children born of this union four sweetly sleep beside their father, beneath the grassy sod in the little cemetery at Solon. It has been said that "it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved," and is it not better that children be born, though they die in infancy, than that the parents should always have been childless? Fot is not the memory of these departed little ones and the hope of meeting them in the great hereafter a source of sublimated joy and happiness?
I should say that Mrs. Kerr (or rather Miss Brooks, for this was her maiden name) beguiled the tedium of the eight slow-passing years of Mr. Kerr's absence in Iowa before his return to her by teaching school, and that among her pupils who attended her school for a number of terms in her young girlhood was the mother of the Honorable A.B. Cummins, and who shall determine how much this teaching of his mother by Mrs. Kerr has influenced the aspirations and ambitions which have led him to the conspicuous place he occupies in the eyes of the people of Iowa and made him the candidate of the great Republican party for the highest office in their gift?
In jutsice [sic] to Mrs. Kerr I wish to say that she did not know that there was to be anything said here today in relation to her late husband or herself, otherwise I have no doubt her native modesty and disposition to shrink from public observation would have caused her to withhold her consent. I beg her pardon for taking such a liberty, my only justification being that the valuable lesson of their lives should have more publicity.
From Iowa Writers Project, History of Johnson County, Iowa, Works Project Administration, 1941 46
To the north and northwest of Solon, in Big Grove Township, stretched a broad expanse of level, fertile, well-watered land. It was here that Thomas Lingle, a miller as well as a farmer by trade, located a dam and mill not far from his claim. In 1840 the mill was completed and in operation; the full-flowing creek which furnished the power was known henceforth as Lingle's Creek. But ill-fortune hung over this mill though it was well patronized by the whole countryside. After having been damaged several times by floods, in the early fifties, it was completely washed out and destroyed. Then Frank Riddle took it over in 1854.
From 1921-1922 Yearbook of Old Settlers Association of Johnson County, p. 24. 47
"...the school was taught in a log cabin of one room by Jesse B. McGrew. He was of middle age, probably about thirty years old, and the scholars were of all ages from full adult age down to 7 or 8, and of both sexes. Mr. McGrew was not a professional teacher, and the school he was then teaching is perhaps the only one he ever taught. He was a bachelor but during the term he was then teaching he was married to Miss Charlotte Calkin--one of his pupils, a beautiful and winsome girl of thirteen, and it was said at the time that he eloped with her. However this may be, certain it is that he scurried awa with her to Esquire Sutliff's, a justice of the peace in the eastern part of the county, where they were married. How McGrew managed to procure a lilcense is not known. Some of the most outspoken in condemnation of this proceeding were some of the mature young men of the school who perhaps were smitten by the charms and graces of Lottie, as she was called, for she had charms and graces in profusion. And it is a fact that she was a true and dutiful wife to McGrew as long as she lived, which was many years.
As a teacher Mr. McGrew was not averse to corporal punishment, but he only resorted to it once at that term. The victim was Alban Brown, a son of P.C.Brown, one of the early pioneers. On this occasion the whipped, and accordingly when it was about time for the boy to be back withthe whip I slipped out and stayed until the scene was over.
From a biographical sketch in a history of Washington County, Iowa, page 537 (posted at Rootsweb, World Connect, by Susan Fisher at "Ancestors of Jennifer & Adam Fisher".
E.P. PRATT, farmer and stock-raiser, section 1, Marion Township, is a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1820. He is the son of Elias and Polly (Swain) Pratt, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of Pennsylvania. When he was but two years of age his father moved to Athens County, Ohio, and there the subject of this sketch was reared on a frm and educated in the district schools of that county. In October, 1845, he left Ohio and came to Iowa with his wife and two children, and stopped in Cedar Rapids, where he remained during the following winter. In the spring of 1846 he settled where the Omish [sic] settlement now is, on the Iowa River, where he attended a farm one year for another man. He then went to Johnson County, twelve miles northwest of Iowa City on the Iowa River, and there took up a claim of 160 acres of Government land. He improved that place and made it his home for some six or eight years, and then bought another quarter of raw land, which he also improved, and where he lived eight years. He helped organize the first school district in that county, and held the office of director for twelve years. While living in Iowa County he was on the grand jury that met at an Indian trading point. This was before the admission of Iowa as a State. When he went to attend that Court he found the County Clerk making shingles, on the site of the present city of Marengo.
In 1859 Mr. Pratt went to Douglas County, Kan., and there remained from October to the following May. While there his wife died, and was buried at Bloomington, Kan. In May, 1860, he came to Washington County and leased a farm for four years. During this time he bought a farm of 160 acres on section 1, Marion Township, to which he moved on the expiration of his lease, and where he has since continued to reside. He was first married in 1842 in Athens County, Ohio, to Amanda Roberts, a native of Ohio, and daughter of Amos and Mary Roberts. By that union there were eight children: Jasper N. died at the age of twenty-two years; Lavinna Frances, the wife of Solomon White, of Crawfordsville, Iowa; Sarah Jane married A.F. Bentley, and died in Ringgold County, Iowa, in 1884; Mary Eliza, the widow of John Nichols, who died in Ringgold County, Iowa; Melissa Emeline, now the wife of John White, of Ringgold County, Iowa; Cynthia is now the wife of Blanchard Nevill, of Ringgold County, Iowa; Viola married George R. Black, a mail clerk on the route between Burlington, Iowa, and Albert Lee [sic], Minn.; Sophia is the wife of M.T. Benson, Postmaster at Goshen, Iowa.
Mr. Pratt contracted a second marriage in 1864, with Mrs. Mary F. Benson, the widow of J.C. Benson. She was a native of Pennsylvania. By this union there are five children: Margaret A., the wife of I.M. Lewis, of this county; Ephraim Porter died Aug. 12, 1886, aged eighteen years; Norman N. resides at home; Olive L. died at the age of two years, and Alva B. is at home. Mr. Pratt has thirty-four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, all in good health and smart. He feels a just pride in the fact that all his daughters have married good men. Mr. Pratt is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In politics, he is a Republican. Mrs. Pratt died Jan.6, 1887.
Commencing life in limited circumstances, Mr. P. has by close attention to business, good management and economy, acquired a competency. He is a man well respected by all who know him. A representative citizen of Washington County, his portrait propery adorns the pages of this volume.
Stiles Family Came in 1838
Built 2-room Log House, Biggest Along the Dillon Furrow
From the Iowa City Press Citizen, July 1, 1939, p. 16AA:
Warren Stiles was one of the small band of adventurous settlers who came to Johnson County in 1838. Unlike so many of those first emigrants who came as young men, unmarried, footloose, Mr. Stiles was a married man and the father of several children at the time of his arrival here. It is difficult to visualize the courage and the fortitude which must have been his and that of his brave wife to risk and dare all, even their precious family to reach a new, better land and there establish a home.
Born in West Chazy, [ Clinton County near Canadian border] New York, he had followed the business of merchant there untl 1837 when he brought his little family west, by way of river steamers down the Ohio, up the Mississippi to Bloomington. Here he stopped for a year, but not liking the low, unhealthy surroundings along the "Big Slough," he came on to Napoleon in the spring of 1838 and settled north along what next year was established as the Dillon Furrow linking the new town of Iowa City with Dubuque--the Old Military road.
Here he built a large two-room log house, the biggest along the road, and kept tavern along with his farming enterprise. Here in 1840 was held the first election when Johnson county was laid off in two precincts, the south part voting at Iowa City, the north part at Stiles' log house.
In 1849 Warren Stiles was one of that first great surge of adventurers blazing the dangerous overland trail to California and the gold diggings. He was supposed to have been successful in his mining activities, and in 1850 boarded a boat for home. While still in San Francisco bay, cholera broke out on ship board, the boat was beached and many perished in the resulting confusion. Among them was Mr. Stiles, either from the cholera or murdered and robbed for his gold as some believe.
Meanwhile his widow and six children carried on, running the farm and the tavern for travelers for many years. She did not die until 1880, when she was 80 years old, a remarkable age considering her years of toil and privation following her husband's untimely death. Her oldest daughter, Hannah, married Strauder Devault, himself a true pioneer of the county. Her second daughter, Mary, married in 1855, William Chandler, who came to Iowa in 1858, and followed a course in married life very similar to that experienced by her mother. For, in 1865 her husband died, after just ten years wed, leaving the care of a young family and the management of a farm entirely to her hands. Like the courageous woman that she was and a true daughter of a valient p ioneer mother, she never faltered in her duty, keeping together and educating her little brood, building up and improving for a full generation the Chandler farm, the present home of Mr and Mrs. Stephen Sunier, just north of Iowa City on the Solon road. No one can say that the education which Mary Stiles received in the school of pioneer experience did not serve her in good stead, when the emergency came in her life. [sic]
In 1856 a daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. William Chandler, named Elizabeth, who was destined to have much more than an average experience with the world in her role of school teacher, for, following attendance at the university, lacking graduation in the class of 1880 only because she was a hopelessly "irregular" student, irregular because of the intermittent schooling possible from a fatherless home such as hers she became a school teacher. In 1880 she had the lower grades at West Branch, some 48 pupils in all. Among this number was a new pupil, his first term at school, a blocky little square faced fellow who answered to the name of Herbert Hoover!
John West,a pioneer of Solon, Iowa, was born in New York about 1797. His first wife, Clarissa, was born in Vermont about 1801. Clarissa apparently died between 1850 and 1853. John married Hannah (Stout) Hill, a widow, in 1853. Mr. and Mrs. West, were charter members of the Methodist Episcopal Church built in 1855.
John is mentioned in histories of Johnson County as the partner of Hamilton H. Kerr. Together they hired Cyrus Sanders in October 1840 to lay out eighty acres of Big Grove Township for the town of Solon. Big Grove township was part of the Blackhawk purchase of 1832--land ceded to Johnson County from the Sac and Fox Indians. Johnson County formed in 1837. The first settlers came in 1838. Johnson County land sales were sold out of the Iowa City Land Office after the U.S. Treaty of 1832 which acquired the lands of the Sac and Fox Indians as a result of the Blackhawk War.
John was appointed a director to cut a road from Solon to Iowa City in 1842. His plan to sell lots in Solon was not successful for at that time the U.S. government was selling quarter sections of farm land at a very low price. John did not record title to any of the town land.
John later acquired property in Newport Township north of Big Grove and he and Hannah both died there, John in 1861, Hannah in 1872. They are buried at Sandtown cemetery, Muscatine.
Although John and Clarissa probably had a large family, only one son, Orson West, has been identified. Orson was born in 1827 in New York. He evidently met and married his wife,Catherine Griffith, in Big Grove Township, Johnson County. Catherine came to Solon with her parents, James and Elizabeth Griffith, from Ohio. Catherine was born in Bladensburg, Knox County, Ohio.
Orson came to Solon with his parents about 1838 at age 11. Both Orson and Catherine acquired deeds to farm land in Johnson County about 1850. Orson and Catherine disposed of their land and eventually moved to Illinois and Missouri. Orson became a stock dealer and the couple moved frequently between Missouri and Illinois. This movement might be attributed to the Civil War. Missouri was a Union state with strong Confederate sympathies. Kansas City and the region of southern Missouri became a dangerous place. Kansas Jayhawker abolitionists fought Missouri Bushwacker Confederates in the border between Kansas and Missouri. Illinois was a Union state and would have been relatively safe. They were in Missouri in 1851, Quincy, Illinois in 1857, back in Kansas City, Missouri in 1860 and in Quincy again from 1862-1879, at which time Catherine apparently died. Orson purchased a grave site in Quincy. He returned to Kansas City with his children in 1880. In the 1890s he and his family migrated to Denver, Colorado and then Napa, California. Orson died in a grizzly accident in San Francisco in 1901 when he fell down an elevator shaft and was then crushed by an elevator.
Abbreviations used:
2. Aurner, Clarence Ray. Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History
(Cedar Rapids: Western Histoical Press, 1912-13) pp. 164, 309.
3. 1838 Wisconsin Territorial Census for Johnson County, Iowa, comp.
Ronald Vern Jackson (Bountiful, UT: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1981)
4. 1844 Iowa State Census, Johnson County, transcription at
5. Petit Jurors, Johnson County District Court 1858 Special Term, sheriff's summons, 9 Aug 1858; Johnson County, Iowa Miscellaneous Records, item #1, microfilm 985414, LDS.
6. "Johnson County, Iowa, Military Service Eligible Males, 1848," reproduced at .
7. 1839 signatory to Constitution and Laws of the Claims
8. 1830 U.S. Census, Chautauqua County, New York, Ripley, p. 137,
9. Although reference 1 (above) attributes the name "Solon" to one of Ander's sons, the 1850 census does not show such a son in Ander's household. Perhaps the child had died by then. Alternatively, the origin of the name "Solon" might reflect the hometown of one of the founders, ae, Solon, Cortland County, New York.
10. "Hamilton H. Kerr," 35th Annual Reunion: Old Settlers of Johnson County (Iowa City: Iowa Citizen Publishing Company, Printers, 1901)
11. 1850 U.S. Census, Johnson County, Iowa, Big Grove Precinct, 8 Oct 1850, NARA microfilm M432, Roll 208.
12. Iowa District Court Records, Johnson County, 1839-1841 Second Judicial District, Iowa State Historical Society, Box 2, LDS microfilm 989168, item #1.
13. Index to 1830 U.S. Census, New York, Ronald Vern Jackson (Bountiful, UT: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1977)
14. 1840 U.S. Census Iowa, Johnson County, comp. Rowena T. Obert (Salt Lake City, UT, 1968)
15. Probate Records, Johnson County, IA, LDS FHL microfilm 985944.
16. World Connect, Rootsweb.com at wcrootsweb.com
17. LDS FHL
18. Wilbur D. Cannon Papers, 1860-1915, State Historical Society of Iowa, Special Collection, Iowa City, Iowa City Library Manuscripts, BL 71.
19. Wilbur D. Cannon,Iowa City mansion in series on historic
landmarks of Iowa city, Iowa Press Citizen, Aug. 1-4, 2004, Iowa City.
20. Index to 1820 U.S. Census, Ohio, Ronald Vern Jackson (Bountiful, UT: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1971)
21. "Women of Big Grove," comp. Jacob Risora, Johnson County, Iowa Miscellaneous Records, item #1, LDS Film 985414.
22. Dr. James Griffith birth calculated from age given in obituary, Chicago Tribune, 28 April 1884, p. 3.
23. Griffith/Hall, Knox County Probate Court Marriage Records 1808-1838, p. 117, LDS Film 1294304.
24. Mrs. Elizabeth Griffith birth calculated from age given in obituary, Chicago Tribune, 25 Sep 1891, p. 3. Elizabeth Griffith, Chicago city Board of Health Death Certificate 1891-5219.
25. James Griffith, Chicago City Board of Health Death Certificate 1884-39938.
26. Alpheus H. Harlan, History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family (np,1914)
27. James Griffith, Certificate 3117, Iowa City Land office, 16 Sep 1850, patent 1 Apr 1850, nw 1/4 se 1/4 sec 22, T81N R6W, Johnson county Recorder Bk. 6, p. 218.
28. U.S. 1860 Census Johnson County, IA, Newport Twp., NARA microfilm M653, 2d filming, roll 327, p. 541, Household 365.
29. Marriages of Johnson County, IA, 1839--1867, Vol. 3, p. 142, Johnson County Recorder, Iowa City.
30. Marriages of Johnson County, IA, 1839--11867, Book 3, p. 22, Johnson County Recorder, Iowa City.
31. 1870 U.S. Census, Johnson County, IA, Newport Twp., NARA microfilm M593, Roll 400
32. Johnson County, IA District Court, Guardianships 1851-1938, UGS 1990, microfilm 1705134, item #1.
33. Johnson County Probate Records, Vol. 8, p. 201, LDS FHL microfilm roll 985947.
34. Johnson County Probate Index, Vol. 1, 1840-1883, UGS microfilm 985942.
35. 1870 U.S. Census, Johnson County, IA, Iowa City, p. 7, NARA microfilm M593, Roll 400.
36. LDS FHL. (No documentary sources cited for this submittal).
37. 1830 U. S. Census, New York, Chautauqua County, Ellery,
38. 1825 New York State Census, Chautauqua County, Ellery,
39. 1820 U. S. Census, New York, Chautauqua County, Chautauqua,
40. Elliot Storke, History of Cayuga County, New York, 1789-1897( Syracuse: D. Mason, 1879), p. 260.
41. Cyrus Sanders and Henry Felkner, "Unfinished History of Johnson County," manuscript, Iowa State Historical Society, Iowa City, Iowa.
42. Iowa State Census 1854 transcribed at
43. Willliam Monroe Spurrier, International Genealogical Index (IGI), LDS FHL.
44. Irvin Weber, "Solon History," in "History of Johnson County Iowa," Iowa Press Citizen, 24 Sep 1975, p. 2; see also Solon Reaper, 28 July 1982; and Aurner (2 above), Leading Events..., p. 164.
45. Johnson County Recorder, Iowa City, Iowa
46. Iowa Writers ProgramHistory of Johnson County, Iowa<\/em>,State of Iowa Work Projects Administration, 1941."
47. Yearbook of Old Settler's Association of Johnson County, IA, State Historical Society of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.
www.rootsweb.com/~iajohnso/JCmilitary1848.htm
Association of Johnson County, Iowa, adopted 9 Mar 1839 as transcribed at
www.kinyon.com/iowa/claim/constitution.htm
trans. Virginia Barden and Lois Barris, Chautauqua County Genealogical
Society, 1995, at:
www.rootsweb.com/~nychauta/CENSUS/Ripl1820.htm
p. 322, trans. Jay Priest, Chautauqua County Genealogical Society:
www.rootsweb.com/~nychauta/CENSUS/Elle1830.html
p. trans. Mrs. Lester Lewison, NSDAR
www.rootsweb.com/~nychauta/CENSUS/Elle1825.html
p. 55,trans. Virginia Barden and Lois Barris, Chautauqua County
Genealogical Society, 1995, at:
www.rootsweb.com/~nychauta/CENSUS/Chau1820.htm
iagenweb.org/census/johnson/1854/IA-1854-BigGrove.txt