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TERRITORIAL PIONEERS
The Rev. Charles E. Brown Who Came to the Forks of the Maquoketa as
Baptist Missionary in 1842.
(Written by Farmer Buckhorn for the Jackson County Historical Society.)
 When, in writing the past of some prominent man, it becomes necessary as
is sometimes the case, to expose only the delightful views as seen on
life's broadway screening the alleys with silent lies, it is not a
pleasant duty to perform. It is a positive delight to turn to such a man
as Charles Edwin Brown, whose whole eventful busy life was as an open
book with each side of every leaf turned a clean page. At his own
request he was appointed missionary to Iowa territory in 1842. He left
the comforts of an older community, and brought the gospel into the
sparsely settled region of the Maquoketa valley, and spread it into
distant wilderness parts, going on foot or by rude conveyances many
miles over trackless prairies, through forests and across bridgeless
waters, sometimes swimming swollen screams.
He organized and became the pastor of the first Baptist church of the
Maquoketa region, which was also the first in the territory embraced in
Jackson, Clinton and Jones counties. This church was organized at the
house of Wm. Y. Earle, three miles southwest of Maquoketa. He organized
the first Sunday school in Clinton county. His labors were not wholly
confined to spiritual needs for he was intensely interested in
educational matters. With his own hands he helped fell the trees and hew
the logs and erect the first school house in Jackson and Clinton
counties near Wright's corners. He went east to York state to seek aid
in building the first academy at Maquoketa, and was one of its trustees.
His good wife and others, among them Mrs. J. E. Goodenow and Mrs. Sophia
Shaw, boarded free of charge the workmen who worked on the structure in
order to curtail expenses of building.
His coming meant much for eastern Iowa, and especially Jackson county,
as undoubtedly it pointed the way to others who became life long
residents of these parts and reared families of useful citizens and
ornaments to society, and some have become prominent. We believe that
neither C. E. Brown's parents, nor brothers, ever came here to reside as
his father and several of his brothers were ministers of the gospel
laboring in other fields. His wife, Frances Lyon-Brown, however, was a
sister of Mrs. Truman A. N. Walker, a lifelong and respected resident
near Maquoketa.
Their son, Nelson Walker, in company with George D. Lyon, brother of
Mrs. Brown, was in the mercantile business in Maquoketa in an early day
and died there a the home of C. E. Brown. Another son George Walker, in
later years was a member of the Washington state legislature and had the
honor of naming Idaho. Mrs. Brown was also the sister of Mrs. James O.
DeGrush another pioneer and lifelong resident near Maquoketa, mother of
Fred DeGrush, Civil war veteran and a lifelong worker here as an
educator. Mrs. Brown was also the sister of Mrs. Stephen W. Brown (not
related to the pastor) of Little Falls, N. Y., who was the mother of the
late Mrs. Julia Dunham of Maquoketa.
In the Rev. Brown's own family there were those who like their father
became distinguished and useful to the world giving the lie to that
old saw, "for a devil give us a preacher's son." Two of his sons served
their country during the Civil war. After the war Charles P. Brown was
many years a faithful and successful revenue agent and is now a
successful business man of Ottumwa, Iowa. James D. Brown was for many
years a trusted, respected agent of the C. M. & St. P. R. R. Co. at Lime
Springs, Iowa. W. C. Brown commenced as telegraph operator and by
perseverance rose to be General Superintendent of all the Burlington
lines of railroad in Iowa, and is now vice-president and general manager
of the New York Central Railway. These sons of the Rev. Brown had no
backing only their own efforts and noble qualities inherited and
instilled into them by their parents.
Though Maquoketa was the Rev. Brown's first field of labor in Iowa, it
was not his only one. He spent several years at Davenport and did much
work there and at Rock Island and LeClaire, and afterwards at Vernon and
Lime Springs in Howard county. From that county in 1877, he was elected
to represent the county in the 17th general assembly of Iowa. In the
session following among other work he introduced a resolution to amend
the state constitution so as to authorize a majority of a jury to bring
in a verdict in civil cases. It passed the House but was pigeonholed in
the Senate, as a great many other things are which should become law.
He took the ground that in the early history of the jury system the
unanimity rule governing verdicts was not known, that a majority of the
jury was competent to deliver a verdict, was the rule in England for
many years and still the rule in different European countries. The
unanimity rule was the result of gradual changes in the system by
designing self interest to protract litigation and was contrary to the
principles of a republican form of government in which, as in this
country, a majority must of right rule. It often defeated the ends of
justice by hanging the jury or by leading men to return a verdict
contrary to their honest convictions rather than be kept virtual
prisoners an indefinite length of time. We have not space here to
reproduce the entire plea for the measures which was eloquent and
fraught with much sound reasoning.
There is much in our own recollections and more in that of other old
settlers to eulogize the Rev. Brown, who often preached here at
Buckhorn. For the details of his coming and pioneer work we are
especially aided by a brief account written by himself to please his
children and a few copies published in book form at their expense to
distribute among immediate members of the family as souvenirs. The copy
I have been allowed to use is in the Walker family. It is brief but
every page calls up to intelligent minds so much endured by pioneers, so
much of historical interest not only to the student of theological
history but civil as well, that volumes seem passing before the mental
vision. It is a modest, simple description of a noble life's work, and
is of great value to those interested in early religious and civil
history of eastern Iowa and reads like romance If it was twice as long
it would be well worth a place in the Annals of Jackson County. We will
copy mostly form it as it is much better compiled than one like me can
do, who only received a little "oil of hickory" and district school
education with grammar entirely left out as a not to be endured
affliction.
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES WRITTEN BY REV. CHARLES BROWN 1813-1893
"To the memory of my beloved wife, Frances Lyon Brown, who for nearly
half a century shared with me the trials and hardships of pioneer life,
whose loving, cheerful presence made the frontier cabin the happiest of
homes, and whose happy hopeful disposition found a silver lining to
every cloud, however dark, these reminiscences are lovingly inscribed.
I write this at the solicitation of my children and commence it this 23d
day of February, 1893, the 80th anniversary of my birth. For several
considerations I am admonished to be brief. I was born the 23d of
February, 1813, in the town of Augusta, Oneida county, N. Y. My father,
the Rev. Phillip Perry Brown, was born in the town of Bennington, Vt.,
and died September 1876, at Madison, Madison Co., N. Y., aged 86. For
over fifty years he was a successful pastor of Baptist churches in
central New York. My mother, Betsy Dickey, born in Weathersfield, Vt.,
was a descendant of the Scotch-Irish Dickey, who emigrated from
Londonderry, north of Ireland and settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire,
before the Revolutionary war. My good mother died in Hamilton, N. Y.,
April, 1862. aged 74. I am the second of nine children—six sons and
three daughters. The two youngest and myself are the only ones now
living (1893). Two brothers are buried at Port Byron, Rock Island Co.,
Ill., one brother at St. Louis, Mo., one in Newport, Herkimer Co., N.
Y., one sister in Litchfield, Herkimer Co., N. Y., one sister at Lime
Springs, Howard Co , Ia. My parents are buried at Madison, Madison Co.,
N. Y.
Before my recollection my parents moved to Smithfield, Madison county,
N. Y., a new country heavily timbered. In the midst of poverty, or very
limited means, and the hardships incident to such a new country I lived
until past 18 years of age. Our sugar was made from the sap of the
maple. Our luxuries were the flour short cake, the nut cake and the
sweetened Johhnnie cake, luxuries not often indulged in. In the fall, we
were favored with samp and milk—sometimes had a mess of brook trout. Our
youthful sports consisted in apple pearings, snap and catch buttons,
drop the handkerchief and like sports, sliding down hills and attending
spelling schools. Our school books consisted of Webster's spelling book,
the English reader, and Daboll's arithmetic. The family was blessed with
good health the physician was seldom called. My father became pastor of
the Baptist Church in Augusta in the fall of 1829. During the summer and
fall of 1831 I worked as a farm hand for a farmer by the name of Danford
Armour.
The Armour farm was at the summit of what was known as the "mile hill,"
the grade commencing at Lelands Tavern afterwards known as the "Five
Chimney House," near the top of the "mile hill" the road forked the main
road for quite a distance running southwest then south the other running
due west.
The Armour farm lay along the west side of this west road, and was
bounded on the east by the main road, then called the "Peterboro
turnpike." The house was a small one, being one and a half story and
unpainted. A small kitchen and two small rooms below and a kind of a
store room and one small bed room above. An old-fashioned chimney and
fireplace in the south end, with a ladder leading to the chamber
standing at the side of the fireplace.
Two little boys in dresses, named Simeon and Watson, and a little girl
baby in the mothers arms together with the father and mother made up
the family. The following year a third boy was born, called Phillip D.
The home was a very happy though an humble one.
The parents of Danford Armour came at an early date from New England to
New York, which at that time was "out west". Many years later Danford
returned to Connecticut to find a helpmate who was Miss Julia A. Brooks,
a daughter of a thrifty well-to-do Yankee farmer. I feel the incidents
are especially worth notice when I realize the influence for good
throughout the west which the three little boys above mentioned have
exalted during the last twenty-five years. Phillip D., Simeon B. and A.
W. Armour have honored the name they bear and the place that gave them
birth and are an honor to the sturdy New England stock from which they
sprang. When I left the employ of Mr. Armour there was due me for four
months work $32.00, which was paid me in cash.
Within a week from the time I received this money, I met an
acquaintance, who knew of the amount I had received, and who wanted to
borrow just that amount. He plead so earnestly and made such fair
promises to pay in a short time I let him have the money. It has been on
interest ever since. I went to Augusta late in the fall to learn the
tanning, currying and shoe making business with Hazzard Wilber, a deacon
of my father's church. In the month of September, 1832, in a three days'
revival meeting, became a christian with many others and was baptized by
my father, and was soon impressed with the conviction it was my duty to
preach the gospel and in a few weeks entered Hamilton literary and
theological seminary, now Colgate University. In the spring of 1833
Prof. Daniel Haskell, started a manual labor school at Florence Oneida
county, for the benefit of poor young men. I entered that school. During
term time out of school hours my roommate joined me in chopping down the
big trees and preparing them for logging. During vacation, with a hired
yoke of oxen, we logged and cleared the land, and thus paid a part of
the expense of our education. Three winters I taught school, in the
winter of 1834-35, I taught in Pittston at the head of the Wyoming
Valley in Luzern county, Pa., in sight of Pittston across the
Susquehanna river the Wyoming Massacre of the settlers by the British
tories and Indians occurred July, 1778.
Among the little girls carried away by the Indians was Francois Slocum,
One of my pupils, a young lady, was a niece of this Francis Slocum.
Fifty seven years had passed and no intelligence had ever been received
of Francis Slocum. Some eight or ten years after this she was found
among the remnants of a tribe of Indians in Indiana, the wife of an
Indian, and the mother of grown up children. A brother and sister from
Pennsylvania visited her at her Indian home and tried to induce her to
go and spend the small balance of her life with them, but she declined
preferring to remain with her children.
In 1838 I held revival meetings in the township of Frankfort, Herkimer
county four or five miles west of Frankfort village. A good helper in
these meetings was old Father Harvey, a licensed preacher 104 years old.
His wife (second marriage) was so much younger than himself, her family
opposed the marriage for the reasons she would soon have a helpless old
man on her hands to care for. She had become old and feeble and Father
Harvey being much the smarter and more active had a feeble old lady on
his hands to care for which he did with the utmost tenderness and love.
After this Father Harvey preached in Utica and other places.
In rising in the pulpit, as in his younger days, the first thing was to
take off his coat. I love to think of these school house revivals, with
the minds eye, I can see Father Harvey in his chair in front of the
school house desk. With the minds ear, I can hear Father Harvey's tender
and heart moving voice in prayer and exhortation During the months of
April and May of 1838, preached for the Baptist church in Frankfort At
this time my father, then pastor in Litchfield eight miles south of
Utica, was engaged in revival meetings at Little Falls twelve miles
below Frankfort on the Mohawk river. The meetings were interesting and
powerful. I went down to witness the display of God's saving mercy and
help in the good work. From Frankfort (bridge over the Mohawk) to Little
Falls, was my first ride on a railroad. The rails were made of wood with
a strap of iron about the width and thickness of a cart tire on top. The
passenger coaches consisted of two apartments, each having cross seats
facing each other. The passenger on one seat riding backwards. The
conductor, while collecting tickets, walked on a plank outside and held
onto an iron rail under the eaves of the coach. Arriving at Little
Falls, I went directly to the church where the meetings were held. After
the services I was taken to the home of Mr. Stephen M. Brown, sheriff of
Herkimer county for entertainment and with the understanding it would be
my home while 1 remained in the place. Though of the same name we were
entire strangers and that was my first visit at Little Falls. Meeting
with a cordial reception, I very soon felt at home. Mr. Brown's family,
consisted of himself and wife, Francis Lyon and George D. Lyon brother
and sister of Mrs. Brown. ("It was this chance meeting of Francis Lyon
that eventually done so much for Iowa.") George had been a member of the
Baptist church for some time. Francis, then twenty-five years of age,
was a bright, decided and interesting convert of the revival then in
progress. Rev. J. W. Omestead so long the editor of the Watchman was
pastor of the church at this time.
With a class of about twenty-five, I finished the course at Hamilton
July 15th, 1838. Through the agency of my brother William then pastor of
the Baptist church at Newport, Herkimer county. I was invited to visit
the church at Norway, four miles from Newport, with the view of a
settlement as pastor. The visit resulted in a call to the pastorate of
that church to commence the following November. The 20th of September at
Litchfield, where my father was pastor, 1 was ordained to the work of
preaching the gospel. The 26th of the same month, in the Baptist church
at Little Falls, I was married to Francis Lyon, Rev. Augustus Beech
officiating. The good providence of God, so distinctly marked, made no
mistake in the selection of a most worthy and suitable helpmate for the
young pastor.
Early the following November, we commenced housekeeping in the parsonage
at Norway and also the untried and inexperienced work and responsibility
of pastorial work, on a salary of $275 per annum and the use of the
parsonage. We were both poor but through the kind generosity of Mr. and
Mrs. Brown we had a very plain but sufficient outfit for keeping house.
From this date I will associate my wife in my labors and as a general
thing use the pronoun we.
For reasons that for the time seemed sufficient we remained in Norway
but eighteen months. We found two of the deacons were working against us
because the pastor quite often used the same text in the morning and in
the afternoon presenting different branches of the same subject, this
was done to avoid preaching long sermons. Not knowing what might be the
outcome we quietly resigned leaving the church in peace and harmony, so
that when we returned in 1851 from the missionary work in Iowa, to
repair lost health we received a very cordial call to a second pastorate
of the Norway church, one of the best we have ever labored with. During
our residence in Norway our first child—a little boy—was born in July,
1839, whom we named Benjamin Perry.
I was appointed by the association to visit the Morehouseville church
twenty miles north of Norway, far away in the dense wilderness. During
our first pastorate at Norway we made a Missionary tour into the
wilderness twenty miles beyond Morehouseville to a new settlement at the
head of Peseca lake.
On leaving Norway our next field of labor was Warren, one of the
southern towns in Herkimer Co., entering the work April, 1840. During
the first year but little could be accomplished on account of the all
absorbing political campaign of "log cabin hard cider, Tippecanoe and
Tyler too," which resulted in the election of William Henry Harrison as
president and John Tyler as vice-president. The second year manifested a
good deal, of religious interest. Our increasing interest in and love
for missionary work directed our thoughts to some field in the distant
west. In October, 1840 in Warren, our second son, Chas. P. Brown, was
born.
In October of that year, 1841, our wish was laid before the Board of the
New York State Missionary Convention at the annual meeting held at
Whitesborough. In the application nothing was said about salary or any
local field, only send us to Iowa Territory. The convention endorsed the
application and recommended an appointment by the Board of the A. M.
Baptist Home Mission Society. In due time the appointment came,
designating the Forks of the Maquoketa, Jackson county, Territory of
Iowa, as the field, on a salary of one hundred dollars per annum and
seventy-five dollars for traveling expenses to the field.
As household goods could not be transported so far, we sold all except
clothing, bedding, a common table and stand, which, could be
conveniently packed in boxes, and a kitchen rocking chair, for the
comfort and convenience of the mother in caring for the children on the
journey. We also bought a cook stove of small size, which we took to
pieces and packed in straw. Our goods, well packed in boxes, weighed
about 1,600 pounds. Monday, May 2, 1842 we left Utica on a canal line
boat for Iowa. These boats had a comfortable cabin with berths in the
bow for passengers and a good cook and dining cabin in stern and the
space mid-ship for freight and baggage. The fare, with board and
lodging, was two cents a mile, and no charge for young children. We had
good traveling company, the board, clean and nice, the captain and hands
pleasant, sober and accommodating, so that the trip from Utica to
Buffalo,—200 miles—was comfortable and pleasant. We arrived at
Tonawanda, twelve miles from Buffalo at twelve o'clock Saturday night,
and as the boat did not run on Sunday we lay by until 12 o'clock Sunday
night arriving at Buffalo just at daylight Monday morning.
Our goods were transferred from the canal boat to the steamboat Great
Western Captain Walker, which was to leave for Chicago that evening. We
felt that we were fortunate. The fare from Buffalo to Chicago had just
been reduced by reason of competition, from $20 to $18. The freight on
our goods from Buffalo to Chicago was $18. When the time arrived for
leaving the harbor there were some 800 passengers on board probably not
fifty of them had ever been on the water before and nearly all going to
Illinois, Wisconsin and regions beyond. It was nearly dark when the
great steamer was fairly out upon the dark but quiet waters of Lake Erie
with ominous clouds gathering in the west. The cabin passengers were
very generally gathered on the promenade deck some looking back upon the
lights of the city and towards the homes and loved ones there, some
looking out sadly upon the dark waters, others looking anxiously upon
the gathering and threatening clouds in the west, and very many with
tearful eyes. It was one of the most intensely interesting, solemn
scenes we ever witnessed and took part in. We retired to our state room,
but I guess not to sleep much. The storm came down upon us in the night,
but our noble steamer met and faced it bravely, and brought us safely
into the harbor at Cleveland. The effects of the storm upon the stomachs
of the passengers were readily inferred by the slim attendance at the
breakfast table. We lay at Cleveland a few hours for the wind to
subside. Except having the same thing repeated on Lake Huron, which
compelled us to lay by at Preqsue Isle four hours, we had pleasant
sailing to Chicago, where we arrived Sunday at 1 p. m., and put up at a
small two-story tavern called the New York house. In the evening we
attended meeting at the Baptist church, and heard Elder Thomas Powell
preach. The house stood on the lot now occupied by the Chamber of
Commerce building.
This church building was built by boards and battens up and down, with
no ceiling except naked collar beams, rafters and roof boards. The court
house close by enclosed by a common fence and ornamented with forest
shade trees, looked like a five acre lot with a brick court house way to
the north side of it.
Monday we hired a man from Bockford, who had been in with a load to take
us and our goods to Savanna on the Mississippi river. It was a lumber
wagon. After loading the boxes, the rocking chair we had brought from
our New York home was fastened on top of one of the boxes, a little
chair purchased at one of the furniture store was fastened beside the
rocker. My good wife cheerfully mounted and took her seat in the rocking
chair with the youngest child in her lap and the other one by her side
remarking: "Now this is first rate." I took a seat beside the driver
with our feet resting on the whippletrees ready for a trip of 200 miles
to our future home in Iowa Territory.
We were fortunate in having a dry spring and did not have to use the
poles in the streets of Chicago to pry us out of the mud. We stopped the
first night twelve miles out on the Elgin road. Second night stopped at
a log tavern sixteen or eighteen miles west of Elgin at Pigeon Woods.
Here a ravenous appetite was destroyed by badly tainted ham and in
consequence of two stage loads of passengers to provide for our bed was
on the floor. Early next morning we proceeded on our journey and got
breakfast at a small cabin tavern at or near where Marengo now stands.
At noon were at Belvidere where we enjoyed a short visit with Prof. S.
S. Whitman, one of our former teachers at Hamilton. Here too, we visited
the public square and looked upon the stakes then standing of the
burying place of an Indian chief. The Indian was gone but the upright
poles and a few remnants of his burial dress yet remained—a sad memorial
of the past. That evening at 9 o'clock we arrived at the west side
tavern at Rockford. Our driver went to his home in the little village,
and we to supper and rest expecting to resume our journey in the morning.
To our disappointment our driver had been subpoenaed in a suit to come
off that week and could not resume the journey until the next Monday.
While tarrying we found a good home and kind friends in the family of
Rev. Solomon Knapp, pastor of the Baptist church. We preached for Elder
K., the following Sunday—our first sermon in the west.
Monday morning we started in good health and good spirits on the Galena
stage road to twelve mile grove, then directly west toward the
Mississippi river—good day, smooth roads and brought up at Mr. Crane's
cabin in Crane's Grove about sundown and there we stopped for the night
as it was eighteen miles to the next grove. Mrs. Crane, a woman in
middle life, had just come in from the stable yard with a pail of milk.
She was a Kentuckian. In reply to the inquiry, if she could keep us over
night, she replied, "O I reckon though I'm mighty tired. The old cow
gives a right smart of milk, nigh onto a half a bushel." Next morning
the teamster found one of his horses dead—had over fed with grain. We
hired Mr. Crane to take us eighteen miles to Cherry Grove. We stopped
over night with a farmer, Mr. Gardner, a brother-in-law of Mr. Crane,
who took us next morning to Savanna. We crossed over with our goods that
night to Charleston—now Sabula—and put up at the tavern. Next morning we
hired a man to take us twenty-live or thirty limes to our journey's end.
In consequence of rain we did not get a very early start. At noon we
stopped at a log cabin on the west side of Deep creek for dinner. The
woman had nothing but eleven eggs. These we boiled, but the children
would not eat them and we passed no other human habitation until long
after dark and the children had cried themselves to sleep. At midnight
we dove up to the cabin of Mr. C. M. Dolittle, the end of our long
journey. The good folks got up, gave us our supper, then gave us their
bed and the teamster a settee in the room for his bed and Mr. and Mrs.
Doolittle and the children, who had been in bed with them retired to the
loft.
Tired and worn by the long journey, especially the last 200 miles in a
lumber wagon, we retired to rest four in a bod and rested sweetly with
no unpleasant dreams. Our stopping place was about one mile south of
where
Maquoketa now stands, close by the old ford at the head of McCloy's
mill pond. The country around which we could not see by reason of
darkness, we could not see the next morning by reason of a fog. As we
were poor and our support, except the $100 pledged by the missionary
board, was to come from the field, we made some inquiry about the church
with which we were to labor. But to our surprise there was no church and
the settlement was new with only a few Baptist members scattered over a
large territory. The prospects that morning were not only foggy but
somewhat blue, a feeling however, we deemed best to conceal. Our good
wife did the same thing, made no complaint, nor expressed a word of
regret. In the morning in company with the brother of the log cabin, we
called on some families two or three miles west or northwest. In our
walk the wind breezed up took all the fog away, and with it went all our
blue feelings for a most charming prairie landscape was spread out to
the south and southwest with the Maquoketa timber for a background on
the north. The only drawback to my good feelings was the thought, But
how does my dear wife feel about the prospects? This troublesome doubt
was very soon relieved, for on my return the good woman met me several
rods from the door with her bright cheerful face, and her words of
greeting were, "Charles we have come to Iowa to do good and will stay
and trust in the Lord."
We met a cordial reception not only by the Baptist families, but by the
settlers generally. We arrived on our field May 26, 1842, having been
twenty-four days on our journey. An appointment had been arranged by the
Des Moines association for a meeting at Iowa City commencing June 3rd,
for the purpose of organizing a territorial missionary convention. As
Brother Doolittle had a large family our temporary home was moved to
Brother Levi Decker's, a mile east of Wright's corners. Sister Decker
very kindly offered to take care of the children and thus enable Mrs.
Brown to go with me to the Iowa City meeting. We were furnished by
Brother Doolittle with horse and wagon, a kind of half and half vehicle
between a buggy and a lumber wagon.
We started June 1st, and was directed to take a trail at the west side
of Beuben Riggs field which would take us to Bergoonsford on the
Wapsipinicon river—no inhabitants on the route. We missed the trail but
having a pretty correct idea of the direction did not get lost.
When in sight of the Wapsie settlement we came up to one of those
peculiar brooks from three to five feet wide and from three to four feet
deep with perpendicular banks. We tried to persuade the horse to jump
but there was no go. He was willing to go back or in any direction
rather than jump the chasm. But we were not to be balked in that—twenty
miles on our road and an uninhabited prairie. So I got Mrs. Brown across
and the baggage, then starting far enough away to get the horse on a
fast trot gave him a smart blow with the whip on nearing the chasm and
over we went. While the seat and some other things left in the wagon
took various directions. But mind you, the parson took the precaution to
be on his feet when that run was made.
We got over and stopped at the first house for dinner. We left an
appointment for preaching Tuesday of the next week on our return, and
proceeded on our journey and stopped for the night at Tipton, the county
seat of Cedar county, where we left an appointment to preach on the
following Monday evening. There was a log court house and a log tavern.
The next day Tuesday we arrived at Iowa City. There were no railroads
then west of the state of New York. The western boundary of lands opened
for settlement then was about 18 miles west of Iowa City, and the
western border counties beginning at the south were Van Buren.
Jefferson, Washington, Johnson, Linn, Buchanan, Fayette with Clayton on
the north. On returning we were on time to meet our appointment at
Tipton on Monday evening and the Wapsie appointment on Tuesday, arriving
home late at night and found all well.
The next important temporial matter was to select a location and build a
log house. Log houses were all the go in that region then as there were
plenty of logs but no saw mills. Having become acquainted with the
neighbors about Wright's corners, two and one half miles south of where
some years later was located the village of Maquoketa, we concluded to
locate there. Nobody need ask for better neighbors than we found in the
families of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Wright, Mr.
and Mrs. Levi Decker, Mr. and Mrs. John Riggs, Mr. and Mrs. David
Bentley and others.
The settlers very generally and generously turned out, with teams and
axes, and went five or six miles west to a small grove and cut and
hauled logs for a house about twelve by sixteen or eighteen feet. In a
week or two the body of the house was up, logs hewed on two sides. My
neighbor, Mr. John Riggs. wishing some lumber, joined me in going up the
Maquoketa river eighteen miles, for some sawed lumber must be had even
for a log house. As we must raft the lumber down the river, we went on
foot, made our purchase, and started down the river the next day, in the
afternoon, with a steering oar in front and one at the stern. The river,
at that time, ran through a dense wilderness with a thick underbrush,
with two or three cleared patches in the whole distance. The river was
low, and we had much trouble and hard work by reason of snag sand bars,
frequently having to jump into the water to pry the raft off these
obstructions. About sundown we came to a small cleared patch where an
old hermit by the name of Lodge lived. We called at his cabin to see what the chances were for stopping over night, as the next clearing was
several miles below. The cabin was eight by ten or twelve feet with a
crib made of poles for a bed, and a chicken pen in one corner of the
room. We discovered at once there was no show for us there, and we must
try to get down to the next clearing or camp out. The night was cold,
for the season and we tired and hungry. Darkness in that dense forest,
was coming on rapidly and we finally concluded to risk a run on the
river, and if we suffered shipwreck we could not be any worse off. So we
cut loose and let her drive, for it was not long before the darkness was
so dense the stern man could not see the oar one at the front. The raft
kept going while every moment we expected to run foul of snags, or on to
a sand bar. But, to our surprise, it reached the clearing about 10 or 11
o'clock without any mishap whatever. We concluded our good fortune was
because it was so dark we couldn't see to steer it on to logs and sand
bars. We could see neither house nor house light, and calling obtained a
response from a cabin some distance towards the north side bluff. We
found a comfortable cabin with an old fashioned fireplace, with a good,
cheerful fire; but the inmates were in bed, except the man who got up to
answer our call. He gave us some bread and milk for supper, and then we
began to cast about for a place to sleep. There were two beds in the
small room on bedsteads with three persons in one and three in the
other, when the man should return to bed; and there was a bed on the
floor in the corner by the fireplace, and two men in that. The men very
kindly proposed to wheel and lie across the bed, and thus make room for
two more. Tired as we were, we had a good sleep and a pretty good rest.
The next day we very easily completed the river part of our homeward
journey. From the river landing we had to haul the lumber three miles to
Wright's corner. Wright's corners were on the line between Jackson and
Clinton counties, and our house was fifteen or twenty rods in Clinton
county on the east side of the road running north and south, and the
east fork of Prairie creak in front on the west—the road between the
house and the creek. With rough, loose boards for lower and chamber
floors, we moved in without doors or windows. I had to go to Dubuque,
forty miles, for stove pipe. But we were happy when we were settled in
our own home, although without furniture except table, stand, stove,
rocking and a little chair, and a few dishes, all of which we brought
with us.
Our first bedstead was made of hickory poles. We fortunately brought a
few carpenter tools along with which we could make such needful articles
of furniture. With one of our boxes we made shelves for dishes; with
another we made a cupboard for books, etc.; with another we made a place
for the oldest little boy to sleep. We, including neighbors, went right
to work and put up a log school house. This was located a few rods south
of our house, and before there were any floor, door or windows, we
started a Sunday school with Thomas Flathers, superintendent. This was
the first school house built either in Clinton or Jackson counties, and
this was the first Sunday school organized in Clinton county. This
schoolhouse furnished a place for one of my preaching appointments. Bro.
Earl's house, five or six miles west of my house, was another. Bro.
Earl's house was just a shell of a frame—a lower floor in part—no stove
or fireplace—the fire for cooking and warming was on the ground near the
center with a hole in the roof to let the smoke out. But it did not all
go out and the congregation were quite frequently in tears.
Another one of my appointments was at a private house twelve miles up in
the timber on the ridge. A day or two previous to one of my appointments
the owner of the house killed a monster panther near by. It was trying
to catch one of his hogs. The first sermon I preached in Iowa was in Mr.
John Shaw's unfinished log house where Maquoketa now is, the second at
Iowa City; the third at Tipton, the fourth at Bagoons on the Wapsie, the
fifth at the M. E. quarterly meeting in their log meeting house over in
the timber. The house had no floor and I think no windows. The light
came in through openings between the logs. My preaching place where
Maquoketa now is was in a sod covered log cabin built for a blacksmith
shop. During that summer I preached in Rock Island once, Davenport four
times, Marion three times, Tipton once, Andrew twice.
In running our raft down the Maquoketa river we passed the clearing
where Jackson murdered Perkins. He had his trial at Andrew that summer
and was convicted and hung from the limb of an oak tree near the court
house at that place. The cash receipts on salary was confined
exclusively to the $100 pledged by the missionary society and a heavy
draft on our cash was postage of 25c on nearly every letter received,
and if some friend inclosed a $1 bill the postage was double. In a short
time after moving in our cabin was Bloomfield postoffice and Elder Brown
was postmaster, and received all his letters free. Yes, free. How good
to get a letter from the old home without taking the last quarter to pay
postage. We had a mail each way on horse back once a week.
On Aug. 31st, a meeting was held at the house of Brother Earl for the
purpose of organizing a Baptist church. The organization was effected
and embraced the following members: C. M. Doolittle and wife, Jason
Pangborn and wife, Wm. Y. Earl and wife, Levi Decker and wife, Elder C.
E. Brown and wife, Esquire Taylor and wife, Mrs. Eliza Mallard, Mrs.
Mitchell. The following are names of other Baptist members living in the
region: Ebenezer Wilcox and wife living on Bear creek, Mr. Woodworth
living twelve miles up in the timber, Mrs. John Wilcox living at South
Grove, Mrs. David Bentley living at Wright's corners, old Mr. and Mrs.
Clark living a mile east of where Maquokta now is, Mrs.. Esquire Palmer
living at Andrew.
Brother Jason Pangborn came from northeastern New York. Sister P., a
refined excellent Christian, was perfectly blind—became so before
leaving the eastern home. When we called on the family they were living
in a small log cabin located at the extreme northeast corner of the
quarter section on which the Midland depot is now located and very near
where the house now stands in which brother and sister Pangborn died. In
that little cabin without the first comfort or convenience with herself
husband and four small children to care for, this good woman with no
word of complaint was with extended hands feeling her toilsome way in
total darkness, caring for loved ones. Several years afterwards we
attended the funeral of her little boy. She had never seen his face. At
the close of the service she wished to be led to the unclosed coffin.
There she stood for a few minutes tenderly and lovingly with the tears
fast dropping from her sightless eyes, passing her hands over the cold
face of the dear little one saying, "I have never seen my dear child's
face, I must get an impression of how he looks." The dear mother has
gone where she can see.
At the meeting in June at Iowa City arrangements were made for a meeting
the 16th of the next September at Davenport, for the purpose of
organizing an association embracing all the churches on and north of the
Iowa river. When the time come to go to Davenport, our good brother
Doolittle would furnish us a horse, but the wagon we had for the trip to
Iowa City had left the settlement. The horse I could ride but that would
not fill the bill. All were anxious that Mrs. Brown should go, so I
secured the loan of the hind wheels and axletree of a hoosier lumber
wagon, went to the fence and got poles suitable for thills, and with a
board on wooden pegs were soon ready for the forty mile trip. We had a
bundle of oats for a cushion and enjoyed the ride across the prairies
and through groves unmarred by the vandalism of man. The first human
habitation we saw was at Point Pleasant, where we crossed the Wapsie
river at Kirtley's ford.
Although road carts were not as common and popular as now, we felt no
embarrassment in riding along the main streets of that young
city—Davenport—and in driving up in front of the residence of Dr.
Witherwax. The meetings were held in the chamber of a small frame
building on Front street. The following churches were represented (the
first organized in the territory): Bath—now LeClaire, organized June,
1839, with six members; Davenport organized September, 1839, seven
members; Dubuque organized Aug. 1840, eleven members; Bloomington—now
Muscatine, organized Oct. 1840 five members; Iowa City, organized, June
1841 eleven members; Forks of the Maquoketa, organized Aug. 1842 with 14
members; also the church of Bock Island, 111. Every church north of the
Iowa river were represented except one on the line between Jones and
Delaware counties.
The following winter the longest and coldest, set in early in November
by a heavy fall of snow. Our log house away out on the bleak prairie in
an unfinished condition, was unsuitable to winter in. So, with the
consent of the missionary board, we moved to Davenport with the
expectation of moving back to Maquoketa in the spring. We at once
engaged in the good work with the churches at Davenport and Bock Island.
To save space and cost of printing in the Annals of Jackson County, we
must leave the interesting details of the Reverend's life work outside of
his Maquoketa field, and only follow with an historical outline. For
some reason he did not come back to the Forks of the Maquoketa except at
intervals for five years. In the summer of 1843 he made several
missionary trips up the river and organized a church at Port Byron, IlI.,
and another at Camanche. In that year he went to Dubuque—80 miles—by
land to attend the first annual meeting of the Davenport association.
In one place he states: "Captain Wilson ran the ferry between Davenport
and Rock Island and during the summer of 1843 substituted the horse boat
in place of the little scow and yawl, a very great improvement."
His next field of labor was at LeClaire, where he moved in 1844. In June
of that year we find him going with two others (James Turner and Wm.
Palmer) by horse and wagon to Mt. Pleasant to attend the second annual
Territorial Missionary convention. On account of high water in a stream
they had to devise an impromptu ferry out of the wagon bed and with a
grape vine as anchor line run the wagon and their clothes across after
which the men and horse swam. The Elder Brown had swam across first to
land the ferry and its several cargoes. The elder said: "Swim we must or
go back; to go back was no part of the programme." From another place we
quote: "During our stay at LeClaire, a comfortable meeting house was
built with a stone basement. The credit so far as human agency was
concerned, for this house was due largely to Mrs. Brown. We spent the
winter of 1844-5 in New York state and during our stay Mrs. Brown
collected nearly enough to make a good beginning, and encourage the
church to build. The pastor quarried the rock and tended the mason. In
the summer of 1845 Elder J. N. Seeley, pastor of the church at
Muscatine, with a man and horse, towed a large river lighter, or
scowboat, fifty miles up the river to Port Byron opposite Le Claire for
lime to build a house of worship at Muscatine. I gave him lumber for
doors and windows. That was the way meeting houses were built in Iowa in
early days." (The reader must not mistake the pastor, J. N. Seeley, for
J. O. Seely who is only "Farmer Buckhorn" and not so much of a pastor as
he is a pasture where newspaper publishers and historical societies too
poor to buy literary grass can graze free.)
In 1847 we find Elder Brown moving back to his early field of the Forks
of Maquoketa where he built a house on land donated to him by J. E.
Goodenow the, same being the southwest corner of Platt and Eliza
streets. While living there Nelson Walker (before spoken of) died at his
house and on June 9, 1848, the nine-year-old son of the Rev. Brown was
drowned in the Maquoketa river. While here his appointments covered
Lamotte twenty miles toward Dubuque; Pence's school house 9 miles west
on Bear creek, formerly known as Shake Bag schoolhouse now south edge of
Baldwin; Burleson's or Buckhorn six miles west; south settlement; Andrew
and Cascade. Wouldn't that circuit wilt the collars off some of our
brick pavement preachers?
It was at this time we find the Rev. Brown and wife doing noble work in
behalf of the Maquoketa academy, and going to York State to solicit
funds to aid in the enterprise. In 1850 the nearest stage route to
Chicago was either Galena or Rock Island. In June, 1850, he went to take
J. O. DeGrush and wife, who had been out to make them a visit to Rock
Island and went with a lumber wagon so as to bring back a load of goods
for some merchant and coming home was on the road the most of the night.
There being a heavy dew and cold for the time of year he contracted
inflammatory rheumatism which laid him up many months.
In 1851 he concluded to return to Herkimer Co., N. Y. to recruit his
health among his old friends and relatives. After some time health
improved, he accepted charge of the church at Norway his earliest
pastorate, where he and Mrs. Brown first set up housekeeping. Here he
brought order out of chaos, created by a former pastor's preaching too
much anti-slavery doctrine from the pulpit. Elder Brown never mixed
politics with his sermons. He was at heart, however, a strong
anti-slavery man, and we find him in a 4th of July oration delivered at
Le Claire, July 4th. 1845, making an eloquent argument against slavery.
In the spring of 1857, he was sent by the Home Missionary society to
find a new field of labor in northeastern Iowa. "Glad indeed," he says,
"to return to our beloved Iowa." He left Buffalo, Tuesday evening, July
14th, 1857, on the steamboat, "Southern Michigan," for Toledo. Arrived
at Toledo 2 p. m. the next day. Left Toledo that evening on Michigan
Southern railroad, arriving at Chicago 8 a. m. next day. Mrs. Brown and
children went by railroad to DeWitt, Iowa, and he waited in Chicago for
his horse and buggy which was shipped by freight at Toledo. They arrived
at 4 a. m. next day. Drove his horse from Chicago to Maquoketa where he
found Mrs. Brown and the children well and happy. After visiting
relatives and friends at Maquoketa eight or ten days, and leaving the
family he started for northeastern Iowa, July 30th, 1857, via Dubuque
and stopped at Dubuque the first night. From Dubuque for forty miles
traveled over the same road he traveled in company with Elder B. F.
Brabrook in 1848 to Garnavillo, Clayton county, to be at a meeting on
Pony Creek, or in Pony Hollow, and assist in organizing a Baptist
church. This was about three miles north of Elkader, Clayton county. To
attend this meeting Elder Brabrook traveled from Davenport, one hundred
and twenty miles, and Elder Brown traveled from Maquoketa, eighty miles.
Pony Hollow was one of Elder Ira Blanchard's preaching stations. After
leaving Dubuque he traveled to Bossville, Alamakee Co., where he found
Elder James Schofield with whom the missionary board had directed him
to take council as to a field of labor. But the Rev. Schofield not being
acquainted with the country west left it to the Rev. Brown's own
judgment. He went to Winneshiek county.
Next we And him helping to organize a church at Vernon, Howard Co. Next
we find him at Strawberry Point helping to dedicate a church after which
he traveled 65 miles back to Vernon where he had concluded to make his
home. He says after arriving at Vernon the next two days he helped Elder
Whitman stack oats and on Sunday preached twice to two good
congregations, and Monday mowed hay. Wednesday, Sept. 2nd, started with
two teams for Lansing on the river for his goods. Saturday 4 p. m. he
got back to Vernon and Sunday preached there. The next Wednesday he
started with a one horse wagon for Maquoketa, 150 miles, for his family,
where they had spent the time while he was looking up his field of
labor. Friday, Sept. 11th, he arrived at Maquoketa, Saturday he rested
and Sunday preached for the pastor, Elder Holms (another good old man
after Elder Brown's own heart, the writer knew them both well and Elder
Holms died in Buckhorn where he often preached.)
The next Tuesday the Rev. Brown started with his family of five with his
one horse rig for Howard county and reached there the next Monday
evening. In that vicinity we find him living and laboring the most of
thirty years. In 1858 he was elected County Superintendent of public
schools, serving in that capacity for three years at a salary of $1.50
per day and pay his own traveling expenses. We also find him teaching
several terms of the Vernon district school at a salary of $18 and $20
per month and still going on with his pastoral work. In July, 1858, he
organized the Lime Springs Baptist church. In 1868, he moved to Carroll
County, Ill., where he remained two years pastor of the York Baptist
church, returning to Lime Springs, Howard Co., Iowa, in 1870, and lived
at Lime Springs old town. In the spring of 1870 a Baptist church was
built at Lime Springs and he and an old Brother Baptist called "Father"
Buckland, 80 years of age, quarried the rock for the foundation, then
made a bee to get them hauled.
In 1871 he built himself a house at Lime Springs. In 1875 he and Mrs.
Brown spent a year at the old New York home returning in 1876 and again
became pastor of the Lime Springs church. In 1877 he built another and
his last house at Lime Springs twenty rods south of the depot. In that
house his dear companion died June the 12th, 1887.
In October, 1877, as we have before stated, he was elected state
representative to the 17th general assembly from Howard Co. He was 74
when Mrs. Brown died after which he spent some time in his home keeping
every thing as near like she left it as possible but finally went to his
children dividing his time between them and occasionally preaching here
and there. He preached several sermons in Maquoketa and Nashville after
he was 80 years old. We do not know how it is with the readers but we
have followed the history of the old man's life work with interest and
satisfaction.
Source: Annals of Jackson County, Iowa, Issues 1-7, Reprinted
from the Maquoketa Record. Maquoketa, Iowa: Jackson County Historical
Society, 1905, pp. 45-61.
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