Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa
(Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1887)

  • Title   Decatur Co.   Garden Grove   Lamoni
  • A. Cochran   T. J. Bell   E. Banta   A. Moffet
  • W. Hudson   W. W. Blair   Jos. Smith III
  • D. Dancer   Z. H. Gurley, Jr.   E. J. Robinson
  • H. Stebbins   D. P. Young   E. Robinson

  • Transcriber's comments   More Decatur Bios


  • (note: all Decatur Co. images added from other sources)  1855 map   1875 map   Old Lamoni


    Wm. Smith on Mormonism   |   Saints Herald   |   The Return   |   Doctrines of Mormonism
    Elijah Banta   |   History of Decatur Co. (1915)   2nd copy   3rd copy   |   Lamoni in 1929

     




    BIOGRAPHICAL  AND  HISTORICAL

    RECORD


    OF

    Ringgold  and  Decatur  Counties,  Iowa.


    CONTAINING PORTRAITS OF ALL THE PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FROM WASHINGTON TO
    CLEVELAND, WITH ACCOMPANYING BIOGRAPHIES OF EACH; A CONDENSED HISTORY OF THE
    STATE OF IOWA; PORTRAITS AND BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GOVERNORS OF THE TERRITORY
    AND STATE; ENGRAVINGS OF PROMINENT CITIZENS IN RINGGOLD
    AND DECATUR COUNTIES, WITH PERSONAL HISTORIES OF
    MANY OF THE LEADING FAMILIES, AND A CONCISE
    HISTORY OF RINGGOLD AND DECATUR
    COUNTIES AND THEIR CITIES AND
    VILLAGES







    THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
    113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO.
    1887.



     

                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          477


    ASA S. COCHRAN, justice of the peace and notary public, was born in Geauga County, Ohio, January 24, 1843, a son of George C. Cochran, and a grandson of John Cochran, one of the pioneers of the Western Reserve, settling there from Blanford, Massachusetts. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, where he lost his health, and died in 1818, leaving four sons and two daughters, George C.
     



    478                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    being the youngest son, and was a farmer by occupation. In his last years he was a great sufferer from rheumatism, and died in Portage County, Ohio, in the fall of 1863. His widow still survives, and is now making her home in Hamilton Township, Decatur County. Asa S. Cochran, our subject, was reared to manhood in Portage County, Ohio. In September, 1862, he responded to Governor Todd's call for "squirrel hunters," to repel the threatened invasion of Ohio by Rebel General Morgan, thus he saw a little service, although he was obliged to remain out of the war, as he was the only support of his parents. After leaving Ohio, he went to Allegan County, Michigan, where he taught school for several successive winters, beginning in the winter of 1863-'4. He was married June 27, 1866, to Miss Mabel E. Church, who was born in Portage County, Ohio, May 23, 1845, a daughter of Horace and Sally Church. Of the eight children born to this union four are living -- Frank E., Clara, Wilbur and Cora. Willie and Carrie died in Michigan, the former in his third year, and the latter aged two months; and Walter and Josephine died in Decatur County, in the year 1880, the former aged two and a half years, and the latter in her sixth year. While living in Michigan Mr. Cochran cleared a small farm, which he occupied till November, 1875, since which time he has been a resident of Fayette Township, Decatur County, Iowa. In 1879 he moved to Lamoni, when that village was just started, and engaged in the lumber trade with David and Albert P. Dancer, with whom he was associated for three years. He sold his interest to his partners in March, 1883, and became connected with the Saints' Herald publishing house, as secretary and cashier of that extensive establishment. The year ending March 15, 1866, the business of this office reached the sum of $182,000. In business and social life Mr. Cochran ranks very high in the county, and by his persevering energy and good management has has met with success. Besides his fine residence he owns other valuable property in Lamoni, and is one of the active and enterprising citizens of that place. He is a prominent member of the church of the Latter-Day Saints, and is the presiding elder of the Lamoni branch. In politics he is identified with the Republican party.
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          479


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    480                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    THOMAS J. BELL, of the firm of Blair & Bell, general merchants of Lamoni, was born in Clark County, Indiana, April 30, 1851, his parents, James and Frances (McKutchan) Bell, being born, reared and married in the same State. The father died on the old homestead where our subject was born, September 22, 1855, aged fifty-six years. The mother still survives, and resides at the old home with her three youngest children. The names of their children are -- Thomas J., our subject; William, living in Lamoni; Charles P., of Orange County, Indiana; Elias, of Clark County, Indiana; Mrs. Jemima McKinley lives near her mother; Mrs. Sarah Bell, of New Albany, Indiana, and Elizabeth, Andrew and Telford, living at the homestead. Thomas J. Bell was reared to a farm life, and educated in the district schools. August 11, 1872, he was married to Miss Jincy Ann Scott, who was born in Floyd County, Indiana, February 9, 1854, a daughter of Herbert and Nancy Scott. They are the parents of three children, a son and two daughters -- Edward Curtis, Clara May and Tina Ethlyn. Mr. and Mrs. Bell commenced married life on her father's farm in Floyd County, Indiana, and in the spring of 1875, removed to Sandwich, Illinois, and in the autumn of 1876 came to Decatur County, Iowa, and located at Davis City, where, in company with B. V. Springer, Mr. Bell worked at the carpenter's trade for eighteen months. July 17, 1879, he entered the mercantile establishment of Clark & Sons, where he was engaged in clerking till September, 1882. In January, 1883, he removed to Lamoni, and March following he was engaged in the lumber yard of David Dancer, where he remained until he became associated with Mr. Blair in the mercantile business. They carry a general stock of dry-goods, groceries, clothing, boots, shoes, etc., their stock being worth about $6,500, their annual sales amounting to about $18,000. Mr. Bell is a man of excellent business qualifications, and by his gentlemanly and courteous manners has become a popular merchant. In his political views Mr. Bell is very liberal, and is not allied with any party. Both he and his wife are prominent members of the church of the Latter-Day Saints, and for the past three and a half years he has been an elder of the Lamoni branch of that denomination, He served in the city council at Davis City three years, and was a member of the first council of Lamoni.
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          481


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    482                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    HON, ELIJAH BANTA, of Lamoni, one of the leading citizens of Decatur County, was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, January 5, 1823, a son of Peter A. and Mary (Voorhies) Banta, natives of Ohio. The mother died in 1828, and November 29, 1829, the father settled with his family in Johnson County, Indiana, where he followed farming till his death, in 1851. at the age of sixty-nine years. He reared a family of six sons and four daughters to maturity, of whom our subject was the ninth child. Only one brother is now living -- William, who resides in Kansas. Elijah Banta, our subject, was married in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, October 6, 1846, to Miss Emeline Campbell, and a year or two after their marriage Mr. Banta again returned to Johnson County, Indiana, where he remained till 1865. In 1869 he was elected auditor of Johnson County on the Republican ticket, he being the first Republican candidate for office ever elected in the county. In 1864 he was elected to the General Assembly of Indiana on the same ticket, being the first Republican elected from his district. In the spring of
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          483


    1865 he removed to Sandwich, Illinois, leaving Johnson County one year before his legislative term expired. He resided, in Sandwich until he became a citizen of Decatur County, his wife dying there May 14, 1876, aged forty-nine years. He was again married November 29, 1877, to Miss Hattie E. Crosby, near Chatfield, Minnesota, a native of the State of New York and to this union have been born four children -- William Elijah died aged nine months; Mary Crosby, Ethel May and Albert Jefferds. Mr. Banta was the first president and manager of the Colonization Society, incorporated in 1871, and in the fall of that year Elijah Banta, David Dancer and I. L. Rogers, as agents for the "First United Order of Enoch," visited Decatur County, where they purchased about 3,300 acres of land, the object of which was the founding a colony of Latter-Day Saints, and in 1872 these lands began to be occupied. On coming to this county Mr. Banta first occupied himself in erecting several houses on the company's lands, remaining in charge of the company's interests as president until 1876, when he was succeeded by David Dancer. Mr. Banta first made his home in Fayette Township, on section 12, where he improved a farm of 240 acres. In 1882 he built a very fine residence in Lamoni, which he at present occupies, and in connection with his city residence he owns twenty acres. He also owns a fine stock farm of 800 acres in New Buda. In 1872 Mr. Banta took part in the political campaign as a liberal Republican, and supported Horace Greeley as a candidate for President. In 1876 he avowed himself a Democrat, and supported Tilden and Hendricks. Without his consent or knowledge he was nominated by the Greenback party on the county ticket for supervisor; this nomination was indorsed by the Democrats, and by the votes of the Greenback and Democratic parties, he was elected by a fair majority, running ahead of the State ticket. In 1883, though not being in full accord with the Democratic party on the liquor ticket, which bad not then adopted the "Local Option" principle, Mr. Banta was nominated for and elected to the Iowa State Legislature, leading in his own county the State ticket of his party 189 votes. He has now retired from political life, but against his will was nearly elected mayor of Lamoni in March, 1886. In the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints Mr. Banta is one of the most prominent and influential members, and is bishop's counselor. He is treasurer of the Board of Publication of the Saints' Herald. Mr. Banta is of Holland-Dutch extraction.
     



    484                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



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    486                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    A. W. MOFFET, one of the representative citizens, and an old and honored pioneer of Decatur County, now residing on section 16, Hamilton Township, is a native of Ohio, born on the Western Reserve, in Trumbull County, February 9, 1824. His parents, Zelotus and Sophronia (Brookett) Moffet, were natives of New York State, the father being of Scotch ancestry. They were married in Trumbull County, Ohio, and to them were born five Children -- Erastus, Alfred W., Wealthy Ann, Chauncey and James. In 1835 Zelotus Moffet removed with his family to Hancock County, Illinois, where he died in September of the same year, his body being the first buried in La Harpe cemetery. His widow subsequently married Dr. William Smith, a native of Maine. She died in Henderson County, Illinois, in November, 1843, Dr. Smith served as surgeon in the Mormon Battalion during the Mexican war. He afterward went to Nevada, and was a member of the Legislature for that Territory. Alfred W. Moffet, our subject, spent his youth in working on the home farm. He attended school but thirteen months, but by study at home and close observation he obtained a good, practical education. He was married May 23, 1845, to Miss Lydia Ann,Wright, who was born in Oswego County, New York, September 16, 1826, a daughter of William and Magdaline Wright. To her parents were born nine children. The Wright family settled in Kane County, Illinois, in 1847, and in 1849 removed to Whiteside County, Illinois, and subsequently settled in Decatur County, Iowa. Eleven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Moffet, of whom only five are living -- Mrs. Irene Madden, living in Butler County, Kansas; William, living on the old homestead; Mrs. Mary Thomas, living in Favette Township; Joseph Judson, of Pleasanton, and Nettie L., a successful teacher, living with her parents. Wealthy Ann died, aged seventeen months; Jane, at the age of nineteen years; Saraph died in infancy; James A., aged nine years; Julia Ann, aged seven years, and Sophronia at the age of eleven years. Besides their own family Mr. and Mrs. Moffet have reared and cared for several orphan and friendless children. In 1840 Mr. Moffet united with the Mormon church, and was baptized by Elder Z. H. Gurley, but in 1846, owing to a difference of belief in regard to spiritual wives, which afterward culminated in polygamy, our subject withdrew from the church. In 1861 he joined the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints, when he was ordained an elder in that denomination. In February, 1846, he removed from Hancock to Whiteside County, Illinois, where he lived till 1852. He then came to Iowa by team, before a railroad crossed the Mississippi River, and on arriving in Decatur County, located on the farm in Hamilton Township, where he has since made his home. He had but $9 in cash and his wagon and team when he landed here. His land was in its natural state. entirely unimproved, and here he experienced all pleases of pioneer life. He frequently worked with his team for a bushel of corn a clay, which could have been bought for 25 cents. His milling was done at Nine Eagles, Iowa, on a horse mill. Leon had at that time but one log house, the residence of Dr. Thompson. Pleasanton
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          487


    was then unknown. Decatur County was then sparsely settled, the nearest neighbors in many places being ten and fifteen miles distant. The log cabin and log stable of pioneer days have been replaced by a good, substantial frame residence, and a large, commodious barn for his grain and stock, and where the wild-plum and crab-apple tree flourished is now a good orchard containing the best variety of fruits. The farm, which contains 167 acres, is now well improved and under fine cultivation. Mr. Moffet has served five years as justice of the peace, has been a member of the School Board and county supervisor under the old law. He has represented the Decatur District as elder of his church at the General Conference for ten years, and has presided over the branch of this district about fifteen years. He baptized the first two that united with this church in this county, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Walker, and has given freely of his time and means for the Master's cause.
     



    488                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



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    490                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    WILSON HUDSON, general merchant, Lamoni, Iowa, was born May 2, 1842, at Summitville, Madison County, Indiana, a son of James and Eleanor (Colgon) Hudson, natives of Connecticut and Ohio respectively. They commenced married life on the farm in Indiana, where our subject was reared, the father dying at the old homestead, in 1884, aged seventy-three years. The mother still survives, being about seventy-four years of age. They were the parents of six children, of whom four are yet living -- John, of Bond County, Illinois; Thomas, living at the old homestead in Indiana; Wilson, the subject of this sketch, and Joseph, of Delaware County, Indiana. Wilson Hudson was united in marriage in Madison County, Indiana, November, 1860, to Laura E. Kent, and in the autumn of 1864 he left his native State, with his family, for Kendall County, Illinois, where he followed farming till the spring of 1867. He then removed to Lee County, Illinois, remaining there till he came to Decatur County, Iowa, in the fall of 1873, when he located on section in Fayette Township, on a farm containing 160 acres of almost entirely unimproved land, which he brought under cultivation. In the year 1874 he erected the largest barn in Fayette Township, being 36x54 feet, with 16-foot posts; this barn being destroyed by lightning August 31, 1876, but was immediately rebuilt on the same foundation. Mr. Hudson was bereaved by the death of his wife in the spring of 1879, at the age of thirty-five years, who left at her death five children -- Adra, wife of J. F. Hopkins, of Fayette Township, Oliver, now engaged in his father's store, is married to Miss Adra Kent; Ella, wife of W. W. Scott, a clerk in Mr. Hudson's store; Hattie and Minnie, living at home. Mr. Hudson was again married in 1880, to Miss Emily Green, who was born in Jackson County, Iowa, a daughter of A. J. Green, late of Fayette Township, Decatur County, now deceased. To this union were born three children -- Frank; Jessie, died aged eighteen months, and Esther, died in infancy. Mr. Hudson sold his farm in Fayette Township in 1882. He established his present business in Lamoni July 3, 1880, and carries a stock of everything needed for general family supplies, such as dry-goods, groceries, hardware, boots and shoes, crockery, etc., and by his strict attention to his business, he is building up a good trade and meeting with success. Mr. Hudson is a member of the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints, In politics he is a Republican. He has been a member of the council of Lamoni since that city was organized. The grandparents of our subject, Mathias and Sarah Hudson, were both natives of England. On coming to America they first settled in Connecticut, and later moved to Pennsylvania. They subsequently located in Ohio, the town site of Newton Falls, that State, being on their pioneer homestead. They lived to an advanced age, the grandmother dying at the age of ninety-seven years, and to the end of her active
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          491


    life she could read or sew without the aid of glasses. They reared a large family, and now their descendants can be numbered by scores.

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    498                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    WILLIAM WALLACE BLAIR. -- In preparing a record of prominent the citizens of Decatur County, we feel that it would be incomplete did it not contain a sketch of W. W. Blair, who, although not a pioneer, is now one of her most influential and respected citizens. He is the fifth son of James and Fannie (Hamilton) Blair, and was born in the town of Holley, Orleans County, New York, October 11, 1828, his parents moving to that place from Blanford, near Worcester, Massachusetts. His parents were both of Scotch-Irish extraction. Both his grand. fathers were soldiers in the war of the Revolution, and his father served in the war of 1812-'14. In 1838 his father, with his family, removed from Jamestown, New York, to Illinois, and settled near what is now the city of Amboy, being among the pioneer settlers of that region. Chicago, 100 miles away, continued for some years after to be their nearest grain and stock market. Schools were few in number and poor in quality, and churches were still fewer and very feeble. Society, although rude, was friendly and orderly. In that pioneer home W. W. Blair grew to manhood, assisting in his youth to improve a farm and make a home. In 1854 he left the farm and engaged in commercial pursuits at East Paw Paw, Lee County, Illinois. He passed through the financial crisis incident to the unexpectedly-sudden close of the Crimean war, and then again settled on his farm near Amboy. In April, 1859, he entered the active ministry of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and for twenty-six years labored with success in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Michigan, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Colorado. In April, 1885, he left the ministry and located in Lamoni, Iowa, and has since been identified with the editorial department of the Herald publishing house. His chief object in life is to aid as best he can in building up the interests of his chosen church, and he thinks he can reach more people through the press than the pulpit. He is a graceful writer, expressing his thoughts with his pen forcibly and effectively. As a speaker he is fluent and easily commands and holds the attention of his hearers. He is devotedly attached and loyal to his religion, and is one of its ablest defenders
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          499


    and most eminent advocates. Although he is conservative, holding that we ought now to have the Christian church the same as it was anciently in doctrine, organization, ceremonies, promises and spiritual gifts and graces, yet he is broad, liberal and progressive, believing that all will be measured by their works rather than by their profession. He is by nature one of the most kindly and courteous of gentlemen, a pleasant conversationalist, and one who easily makes friends and has few, if any, enemies. Mr. Blair was married December 25, 1849, to Miss Elizabeth J. Doty. To them have been born seven children, five sons and two daughters. All are living except one daughter, Fannie C., who died at Amboy, Illinois, in 1860.

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    512                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    JOSEPH SMITH, of Lamoni, president of the Re-organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, was born in Kirtland, Lake (then Geauga) County, Ohio, November 6, 1832. His parents, Joseph and Emma (Hale) Smith, were united in marriage in South Bainbridge, New York, January 18, 1827. They removed from Kirtland to Jackson County, Missouri, and soon after was commenced the persecution of the Saints, which finally culminated in the death of both Joseph, Sr. and Hyrum Smith, at Nauvoo, Illinois. From Jackson the Smith family moved to Davis and Clay counties, and thence to Ray and Caldwell counties, Missouri. In Caldwell County Joseph Smith and others were arrested and thrown into prison. While awaiting the trial, his wife and her family moved to Quincy, Illinois, where the husband joined her in the winter of 1838-'9. The Saints were expelled from Missouri by order of Governor L. W. Boggs. The subject of this sketch well remembers being pushed from his father's side, by a sword in the hands of a guard at the time of the arrest of his father. The result of the trial was in their favor, it being judicially determined that no sufficient cause existed for their arrest or detention, and all were discharged; but persecution had done its work, and the Saints left Missouri. From Quincy the Smith family moved to Commerce, after. ward Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, in the spring of 1839. Commerce at that time was a very unhealthy place, and the Smith house was a hospital for fever-stricken patients. Every room in the house was occupied, there being at one time ten patients in one room. The mother and her children slept in a tent pitched in the yard, his father at that time being absent on a visit to Washington to place before the authorities the circumstances and facts connected with their expulsion from the State of Missouri. Our subject, then a boy eight years old, was employed in bringing water from a cool spring tinder the bank by the river to quench the thirst of the sick. He remembers with pleasure, that of all who were cared for at that time by his mother not one died. Joseph Smith, Sr., and his brother Hyrum were killed at
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          513


    Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, June 27, 1844. The widow with a family of three sons, and an adopted daughter, was left to care for herself. Her youngest and fourth son was born the following November. Joseph being the eldest son was her main reliance, and thus early in life was called to assume great responsibilities. Taking up the family history after his father's death, it must not be forgotten that his mother opposed the ambitious schemes of Brigham Young, which opposition her son, Joseph Smith, shared. She would not submit, hence her position among her religious associates was a peculiar one. In the meantime the antipathy of the people against the Saints had increased into animosity, and in the spring of 1846 an exodus of the Saints from the State of Illinois took place. Mrs. Smith did not accompany the migratory host, but remained in Nauvoo until September 12, when for safety she fled with her family, taking passage on the steamer, Uncle Toby, Captain Grimes, commander, for Fulton City, Whiteside County, Illinois. Here the family spent the winter of 1846-'7, and February 19, 1847, returned to Nauvoo, and moved into the hotel, the Mansion House, occupied by them before the father's death. This hotel Mrs. Smith, with her family kept, Joseph being her chief help, until December 27, 1847, when she married Major Lewis C. Bidamon, a former resident of Canton, Illinois, with whom she remained as landlady of the same hotel, and also of one on a contiguous block of the city, until her death, in April, 1879. Joseph Smith remained with the family until his marriage to Miss Emaline Griswold, October 22, 1856. She died in March, 1869, leaving her husband three daughters, all now living, and two are married. His youth was passed amid trials, sorrows and afflictions that would have embittered one of less noble character against the world. His life has been saddened by the events of those years, but his manhood has not deteriorated, and it may be that the persecution of his family, which did not end with the death of his father, has had much to do with forming his character. No semblance of intolerance has place there. The same liberty of action and thought he exercises himself, he freely accords to all. In religion, loyal to the faith of his father, he recognizes in every worker of good, a brother. As a citizen, no man outranks him in his fealty to the Government. As a man, his character of honor and integrity stands unquestioned. At his stepfather's solicitation Mr. Smith began reading law in his sixteenth year, with Wm. E. McLennan, a local attorney at law, which he continued, closing with a year's reading in the office of the Hon. William Kellogg, of Canton, Illinois, in 1855-'6. Mr. Smith did not seek admission to the bar, disliking the practice of the law. He was chosen a justice of the peace in 1858, and was re elected in 1862: was a school director for the same period of time, served one term as alderman of the city of Nauvoo, and made an unsuccessful run for the mayoralty. In the year of 1860 he became satisfied that it was his duty to take up the advocacy of the religion of his father, as understood by him, and into the faith of which he had been baptized by his father before his death. He felt called to this duty, and in April, 1860, he, with his mother, united with a number of others in a religious movement in opposition to the church in Utah under President Brigham Young. The new movement was called the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was at its beginning composed of those who were members of the church before the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and who, like Mr. Smith and his mother, would not accept the dogmas of Brigham Young and
     



    514                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    the church in Utah. At the session of Conference in April, 1860, there were about 150 members represented. Mr. Smith was chosen and ordained as president of this Reorganized church, and still presides; there being now over 400 congregations and a membership of nearly 20,000. Mr. Smith was appointed editor of the Herald, the church organ, in 1863, but did not take active charge until 1866, when he removed from Nauvoo to Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, with his family, and assumed the editorial control, which he has held uninterruptedly to date. Mr. Smith's wife died at Plano, and within the year after, he married Miss Bertha Madison, who shares his home with him now, with three sons and two daughters. They occupy a very fine residence a short distance west of Lamoni. During Mr. Smith's stay in Plano he served several terms on the Board of Trustees of the town, and for three years as a justice of the peace, elected by the people. He removed from Plano to Lamoni in October, 1881, accompanying the office of the Herald, removed at that date. In politics Mr. Smith was first an Abolitionist, then, as a consequence, a Republican, but is not a politician, being engrossed in his religious pursuits. From his fifteenth year he has been a strong advocate of the temperance cause, and an uncompromising opposer to licensing the sale of intoxicating drinks, and has lectured in many places in the temperance interests. Of Mr. Smith's church work, it may be said, he early conceived the idea that the original faith of the church organized by his father and others, in 1830, was true and defensible on good and honest grounds; that polygamy and its kindred evils were not properly a part of the faith of the church, and that it was nowhere set forth in the published documents of the church during his father's lifetime; that these obnoxious features were an aftergrowth for which the original church and faith were not responsible; he was baptized into the original, but not into these hurtful and untrue dogmas. Acting upon this hypothesis, he has persistently opposed President Brigham Young, John Taylor. and the Utah church, in public and private, and with his co-workers in the faith has made all the efforts possible to set the matter straight before the world. He has taken more than a casual interest in the nation's perplexity, the Utah problem; has twice visited the Capital of the nation in efforts to draw the lines of demarcation between the primitive faith of the church and the polygamous perversion in Utah; and in 1885 he spent six months in an active mission in the interest of his people and faith, in Utah, Montana and Idaho, among the adherents of the polygamous theory, with excellent success. He has, with others, labored diligently, and congratulates himself that he has seen the church over which he presides grow from a handful, obscure and unpopular, into a body of persistent workers of many thousands of honest, honorable men, known and loved by their neighbors and loyal to their country.

    (remainder of pages 514-540 not transcribed)




     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          541


    DAVID DANCER, the business manager of the Saints' Herald publication office, and one of the prominent citizens of Decatur County, was born in Oneida County, New York, February 20, 1827, a son of William and Phoebe (Mix) Dancer, who were natives of New Jersey and New York respectively. Of their seven children who lived to maturity our subject was the youngest. He has two brothers and one sister yet living -- George, of Will County, Illinois; William, living in Eastern Indiana, and Esther, living in Will County, Illinois. When our subject was young his parents removed from Oneida County, New York to Will County, Illinois, locating near where Kankakee City now stands, where the mother died, August 20, 1839, aged fifty-one years. The father spent his life in making a home and caring for property for his children, living in Will County till his death, which occurred September 23, 1852, at the age of seventy-five years. Our subject grew to manhood in Will County, and there received a common-school education. His father being a poor man he was early inured to hard work, and in his youth learned lessons of persevering industry, which have been of lasting value to him. He was married March 16, 1851, to Rosalia Harvey, who was born in Lower Canada, January 31, 1833, a daughter of Hiram and Nancy Harvey. When she was five years old she was taken by her parents to Will County, Illinois, where he mother died, August 9, 1876, aged seventy-two years. Her father is still a resident of that county, being now seventy-nine years of age. To Mr. and Mrs. Dancer have been born five children , as follows -- Nancy, died aged twenty-two months; Ella, died aged three years; Eugene, a lumber-dealer of Lamoni; Albert, died aged twenty years, and Walter, attending school. Mr. Dancer made his home in Will County until 1876, when he sold his property there, which consisted of 900 acres, and moved to Plano, Illinois, where he resided with his family for one year. In the fall of 1871 he became associated with E. Banta and I. L. Rogers as agents for the "First United Order of Enoch." They at that time visited this vicinity as agents, and purchased 3,300 acres of land, the preliminary step toward founding a colony of Latter-Day Saints. Mr. Dancer is one of the strongest supporters of the church of the Latter-Day Saints, and gives liberally of his means for its support. In 1877 he came with his family to Decatur County, Iowa, and made his first home on section 5, of Fayette Township, where he improved a farm of 1,280 acres from a state of nature, living there till the fall of 1882. He then built his present fine residence at Lamoni, which was erected with a view to comfort and convenience, which has since been the home of his family. Mr. Dancer is one of the wealthiest men in Southern Iowa, owning 1,900 acres in Fayette Township, all well improved, and devoted to the raising of stock, grass and grain. He also owns a half interest in a tract of 150 acres on Grand River, east of Davis City. He is a member of the city council of Lamoni.
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          493


    (Text under construction.)



    He is one of the most liberal and enterprising citizens of the county, and all that promotes the true interests of the county, township or city where he makes his home, finds in him an earnest supporter. In national politics he is a Republican, but in local elections he votes for the best man, regardless of party.

    (remainder of pages 493-538 not transcribed)






     

                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          539



    ZENAS H. GURLEY, of Pleasanton, Iowa, was born February 24, 1842, in Hancock County, Illinois. The name Gurley is probably Scotch in the original, but spelled differently, in some instances by leaving out the "e," and again by inserting an "o," making it Gourley. The first of the name of which we have any account in America, was William Gurley, born in 1665, and stolen from some part of Scotland, probably Edinburgh, at the age of fourteen years, left in this country, and brought up in the family of Rev. Mr. Stoddard, of Northampton, Massachusetts. He left but one child -- Samuel Gurley, born May 17, 1687, who was the first that settled at Mansfield, Connecticut. He died February 23, 1760. His father, William, was a sincere follower of the Lord Jesus, and Samuel, it is said, "was distinguished for his piety, and was eminently useful in the cause of religion and humanity." Samuel's wife was Experience Rurt, daughter of Nathaniel Rurt, of Northampton, Massachusetts. She died in the year 1768. Samuel Gurley, son of Samuel aforesaid, was born June 30, 1717, married Sarah Ward, by whom he had eight children, and after the death of his wife married Hannah Walker, by whom he had five children, and after her death
     



    540                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    married Hannah Bosworth. Samuel's fourth child by the second wife was Zenas, who married L. Dimock, and after her death E. Hovey, of New York, by whom he had four children -- Henry, Eunice, Lovina (Mrs. Morris, of Chicago, who was one of the charter members of the Home for the Friendless, of that city), and Zenas H., born at Bridgewater, Oneida County, New York, May 29, 1801, and died August 28, 1871. He married Margaret Hickey, daughter of John and Margaret Hickey nee Castleman, born January 1, 1808, and who still survives her husband. By this marriage, which took place at Williamsburg, County of Dundas, Canada West, in 1825, he became the father of eleven children. He was reared in the Christian religion as taught by the Presbyterian or Congregational church, and in early manhood united with the Methodist church, and became a local preacher therein. In 1837, with his wife, he became a convert to the faith of the Latter Day Saints, and shortly afterward moved to Missouri in the expectation of finding "Zion," where, after sharing with others the vicissitudes, perplexities, suffering and disappointment attendant upon such an ignis-fatuus, quitted the State in the spring of 1839, taking refuge in Illinois. After the death of the Smiths, in June, 1844, Mr. Gurley moved into Nauvoo, where he resided until the autumn of 1846, and was driven out with that portion of the church which could not get away in the spring previous with Brigham Young, with whom the great body of the church, together with church archives, etc., went into Utah.   He was a prominent and successful minister in the church, and an over-ardent admirer of the prophet, Joseph Smith, and would have gone with Brigham Young and associates, believing them the truest exponents of the prophet's policies and measures (and his position enabled him to know), but the providential death of his team, a fine pair of horses, forbade his intended move, and instead of going West he, with his family, was barely enabled to get to Jo Daviess County, Illinois, having lost nearly all his earthly possessions at Nauvoo. At Jo Daviess County, he was materially helped by the Masonic fraternity, of which he was a member, and, considering his very straightened circumstances, this help was most opportune. Mr. Gurley with family moved near Burlington, Wisconsin, in 1849, and in 1851 to Yellowstone, some ten miles east of Mineral Point, in the western portion of the State. Here at this point and vicinity he did preaching and baptized a number of converts, but becoming dissatisfied with the developments which were taking place under Young, Strang, Wm. Smith (the prophet's brother), and others (who were leaders of Mormon factions), believing now, that they were all gone astray, and fearing that the prophet, Joseph, had made some fatal errors before his death, and that these men were but continuing them, he determined, in company with Jason W. Briggs and a few others, in 1852, upon a reformation or revolution, hence he renounced allegiance to or association with any and all of these leaders aforesaid, and he denounced polygamy which was then being openly taught in Utah, and which had been secretly taught for years in the church; he also rejected "marrying for eternity," called also "sealing for eternity," or "spiritual wifery," that is to say -- "if a man's wife die, he has a right to marry another and be sealed to both for eternity; to the living and the dead," thus establishing polygamy in heaven; and further of this doctrine and practice by way of explanation the prophet, Joseph, said in May 1843 (as recorded in his history), that "except a man and his wife enter into an everlasting covenant and be married for eternity, while in this probation, by the
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          541


    power and authority of the holy Priesthood, they will cease to increase when they die; that is, they will not have any children after the resurrection. But those who are married by the power and authority of the priesthood in this life, and continue without committing the sin against the Holy Ghost, will continue to increase and have children in the celestial glory." Against these and other delusive doctrines Mr. Gurley and associates declared, and for the same were excommunicated from the church and branded as "apostates." They organized their movement in 1852, however, and commenced the publication of the Saints' Herald in January, 1860 (which sheet is being still continued at Lamoni, Iowa,) with Wm. Marks, Zenas H. Gurley and Wm. W. Blair as publishing committee, and Isaac Sheen, editor; and one fact well worthy of notice here is, that in their first issue, the leading editorial is devoted to the subject of polygamy, averring that the prophet, Joseph, did give the revelation, or command enjoining it, and that it was given as a curse, because of the idol which had been set up in the hearts of the church. Joseph Smith, the present president of the Reorganization came and united with them in April, 1860, since which time the policy and position of the church as touching his father's complicity in polygamy has been changed from an averment of, to a flat denial.   Of Mr. Gurley's children -- John E. was a soldier in the late Rebellion, entered the service as Captain of Company C, Thirty-third Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers. Was forty days at Vicksburg, after which was transferred to staff duty of the Fourth Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps, and served upon that staff with efficiency and success until near the close of the war, when he was promoted to the office of Colonel of the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth United States Colored Infantry, by Abraham Lincoln, and transferred to the staff of General Frank P. Blair. Colonel Gurley fought at Vicksburg, Coldwater, Jackson, and with the Fourth Division subsequently, wherever engaged, being in the heaviest of the fight on the 22d and the 28th days of July, before Atlanta, Georgia, and thence to the sea with General Sherman's army, taking part in the grand review at Washington. He was mustered out of service at Louisville, Kentucky, in December, 1865, and returning to Wisconsin he engaged again in the practice of the law, he having been admitted to the bar at the opening of the war, and previously received his education at Lombard University, Galesburg, Illinois. In 1868 he was taken sick, and with a constitution broken from the effects of the war, was unable to resist the attack of death, and he passed away quietly and peacefully in April, 1869, in full assurance of eternal life, being but thirty-one years of age. Another, the eldest son, Samuel H., died at Lamoni, Iowa, a few years since in the fiftieth year of his age. He was a faithful follower and minister for Christ. The youngest son, Edwin H., is also a minister of the gospel, and resides at Lamoni, and another, George W., at Sandwich, Illinois, who is a thorough business man. Zenas H., whose name appears at the head of this sketch, came to Decatur county in November, 1870; married Gracie Robinson in 1872, making his home here since that date. His time has been largely occupied as a traveling minister for the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, having received from the church the same honor conferred upon his father, that of an Apostle, of the quorum of Twelve. In the year 1874 he was sent as a missionary in charge of Utah, where he battled with polygamy and its concomitants, remaining in Utah nearly one year, but continuing, whether in the Territory or out of it, to wage war against the "twin relic" -- returning to Utah again in 1878, at which
     



    542                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    time he was enabled to make a more careful and thorough study of the Mormon problem. Returning home he was sent, in company with Elder E. L. Kelly, to Washington, to urge upon the Forty-seventh Congress, the necessity of additional legislation for Utah. He took an active part with his colleague, working night and day for three months for the passage of the Edmunds Bill, and for labor performed there has received many flattering compliments, both from individuals and the press. In 1882, he was appointed with Joseph Smith, a committee, to wait upon the Secretary of State, of the United States, for the purpose of obtaining further recognition for the church, and making distinction between the Reorganization and the church in Utah. Was first introduced to that officer by Senator McDill and Hon. W. P. Hepburn, who expressed a wish that Mr. Gurley should appear in writing, which was readily agreed to, and in March, 1883, being joined by Mr. Smith, appeared before said officer, again being introduced in this interview by Senator Allison, and Hon. W. P. Hepburn. He returned East the succeeding fall, going as far as the isle of Grand Manan, in the Bay of Fundy, traveling as a missionary, and all these years supporting his own family, believing it "more blessed to give, than to receive," though, of course, he made no financial gain during that period, but steadily declined. In 1878, the church in General Conference, adopted the "Inspired Translation of the Scriptures," by Joseph Smith, together with the Book of Mormon, "The revelations of God in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants," and the revelations this present Joseph Smith had received, or ever should receive as a rule of faith and practice -- whereupon Mr. Gurley, being in Utah at the time, immediately returned home and sent in his resignation as an officer, being unwilling to serve a church who took such (to him) insane position. His resignation was accepted the following spring upon that issue, but in September, of 1879, a compromise position was reached, wherein it was agreed that the revelations of Joseph Smith should not be made a test of reception into or fellowship in the church (thus revoking the act which made them the law of God to the church), whereupon, Mr. Gurley was reinstated, and went to Washington and the East, doing the work as referred to. During his labor at Washington, he was frequently questioned whether or not, he and his people believed in gathering the church together in one or more localities, to which he responded in the negative, because of the act of the church in September, 1879, referred to above. This position could not fail, as it did not, to make prestige and friends for the church with the Government, for this gathering of the church together, concentrating its power for religious and political purposes, had from its inception down till to-day proven abortive of good, and highly detrimental to the Government. Mr. Gurley calls attention to the paper lodged with the Secretary of State, setting forth the only principles and doctrines held sacred and indorsed by the church in General Conference unanimously in April, 1883, as being in perfect accord with the position cited above. But to his great surprise and disappointment in Heralds for 1885, he is charged with having denied the faith, by one of the presidents of the church, alleging as proof that he denied the gathering, and also the law of tithing (which provides that the individual member of the church shall give all his surplus property into the Bishop's hands, and after that shall pay one-tenth of all his interest annually -- and those refusing this shall not be worthy to abide in the church. See D. and C., Sec. 106), and citing as law
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          543


    against him, that the church was bound to "receive and respect Joseph Smith's words and commandments, the same as if from God's own mouth," -- to all of which Mr. Gurley plead "guilty," provided that be the faith of the church. He held, however, that it was not, but in April of that year the General Conference refused to sustain him as an officer, which was the result of the controversy in question, whereupon, after the elapse of another year, and seeing the disposition of the church, as expressed by leading authorities, was to reinstate and establish the revelations of Joseph Smith aforesaid, as the law to the church, -- the rule of faith and practice, and believing that to be a gross violation of the Acts of 1879 and 1883 (which last indorsed the paper presented to the Secretary of State) Mr. Gurley concluded to withdraw from the church entirely, so in April of the year 1886, together with his wife, and mother, aged seventy-eight years, his brother Edwin H. and wife, and Elder Jason W. Briggs, one of the founders and fathers of the church they withdrew, refusing to accept the revelations of Joseph Smith as a rule of faith and practice, believing that he proved himself an unsafe leader. They affirm the gospel as taught by the Saviour and the original witnesses, denying to Joseph Smith, or any man or angel the right to add a codicil to the last Will and Testament of Christ, but, believing this to have been done, and that it has proved the curse an bane of the Mormon church, and also of the Government, and the Reorganization now insisting that these revelations aforesaid are God's law to the church -- this is laid as sufficient cause for their act, holding that the Mormon problem can never be solved successfully by any process other than a thorough and critical examination of all of Joseph Smith's revelations, and their errors and evils exposed. To illustrate more fully to the reader's mind the benighted and terrible condition of the leaders of the church, and that the devilish doctrine of polygamy was taught as early as 1843, and that, in teaching this, the leaders fulfilled the prophetic prediction of the Apostle Paul, as recorded in I. Timothy, iv:1-2, repeating also the predicted history of the past as seen in II. Peter, ii: 1-2, Mr. Gurley submits the testimony of Ebenezer Robinson and wife, who are well known in Decatur County (and Mr. Robinson throughout the State), being perfectly reliable.
    "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

    "We, Ebenezer Robinson, and Angeline E. Robinson, husband and wife, hereby certify that in the fall of 1843, Hyrum Smith, brother of Joseph Smith, came to our house in Nauvoo, Illinois, and taught us the doctrine of polygamy. And I, the said Ebenezer Robinson, hereby further state that he gave me special instructions how I could manage the matter so as not to have it known to the public. He also told us that while he had heretofore opposed the doctrine, he was wrong, and his brother Joseph was right; referring to his teaching it.
    "EBENEZER ROBINSON,        
    "ANGELINE E. ROBINSON.        

    "Sworn to and subscribed before me this 29th day of December, 1873.
    [L.S.]     "J. M. SALLEE, Notary Public."

    Mrs. Robinson having died since the execution of the foregoing, and some question arising as to how and wherein the said Hyrum Smith (one of the first officers and leaders of the church) had given special instructions to Mr. Robinson, he was questioned in regard to the matter, whereupon he executed the following:
    "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:

    "This is to certify that in the latter part
     



    544                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    of November, or in December, 1843, Hyrum Smith (brother of Joseph Smith, President of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-Day Saints) came to my house in Nauvoo, Illinois, and taught myself and wife the doctrine of spiritual wives or polygamy.

    "He said he heard the voice of the Lord give the revelation on spiritual wifery (or polygamy) to his brother Joseph, and that while he had heretofore opposed the doctrine, he was wrong, and his brother Joseph was right all the time.

    "He told me to make a selection of some young woman and he would seal her to me, and take her to my home, and if she should have an heir to give out word that she had a husband who had gone on a mission to a foreign country. He seemed displeased when I declined to do so.
    "E. ROBINSON.        
    "Davis City, Iowa, Oct. 23, 1885.

    "Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Notary Public in and for Decatur County, Iowa, this 24th day of October, A. D. 1885.
    [L.S.]   "Z. H. GURLEY, Notary Public."

    The Gurleys take to the ministry of the gospel and practice of the law naturally, one of the family having been Attorney-General of the State of Louisiana, and another, John A. Gurley, Universalist minister, and member of Congress, from Ohio. Z. H., himself, is noted as an able reasoner, and possessed of good oratorical powers, having, as a rule, full houses of attentive listeners wherever he speaks, and, notwithstanding the opprobrium of the name Mormon, has for years been permitted the use of various church-houses, assisted by ministers of various denominations, and all simply because he preaches the gospel, and abuses no sect nor people. He has very many firm friends in the county.


    EBENEZER J. ROBINSON, of Lamoni, Iowa, has been a resident of Decatur County since the autumn of 1873, when he made his home on section 16, Fayette Township. He at that time bought two improved farms in that section, each containing 160 acres, and later added an additional eighty acres. He also owns 120 acres of land in Bloomington Township, and forty acres of timber land in Harrison County, Missouri. His parents, Joseph and Maria (Wood) Robinson, were natives of Vermont and New York respectively. They were married in Oneida County, New York, and there the subject of this sketch was born, October 19, 1835. In the spring of 1841 the family removed to Hancock County, Illinois, where they joined the Latter-Day Saints. The father was a man of large means, and the expulsion of the Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois, was disastrous to him financially, although he managed to save much of his property, and is quite wealthy. The family on their way to Salt Lake City, spent two winters where Omaha now stands. The subject of this sketch grew to to manhood at Farmington, Utah Territory. In 1848 he renounced Mormonism as taught by Brigham Young and his apostles and later joined the Reorganized Church of the Latter-Day Saints, of which he is still a member. He was engaged in stock-raising in the mountains of Montana and Utah, where he spent twelve or thirteen years. In 1861 he began farming and stock-raising in Alameda County, California. He was married in that county in 1863, to Miss Chloe A. Young, a native of Hancock County, Illinois, and a daughter of Daniel P[arks] Young. They have seven children living -- Delmer E., Amelia C. and Walter Y. Their secind child, Album, died in California in his third year, and Marion, their sixth child, died in Fayette
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          545

    Township, Decatur County. In 1886 Mr. Robinson erected a fine residence in Lamoni, where he now resides. He has three dwelling houses on his farms in Fayette Township, two and a half miles from Lamoni. He has stocked most of his property, and has rented all of it on five year leases. In his political views Mr. Robinson casts his suffrage with the Republican party.

    (remainder of pages 545-587 not transcribed)




     



    588                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       





    HENRY A. STEBBINS, of Lamoni, is a native of Ohio, born in Lucas County, January 28, 1844, a son of Charles and Julia E. (Pease) Stebbins, the father a native of Massachusetts, and the mother born in Connecticut, a daughter of Chandler Pease, a soldier of the war of 1812, who died September 22, 1837. The parents of our subject were married in Ohio, where both were reared, and to them were born five sons and one daughter -- Henry A., our subject; Charles M., a man of wealth, who has spent the past five years traveling in Europe; George I died at Denver, in 1877; Homer P., living at Atchison, Kansas; William R., a general banker of New
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          589

    York City, with branch offices at Deadwood, Dakota, Billings, Miles City and Livingstone, Montana, and at other points in Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming; and Harriet S., wife of Dr. Thomas Stevens, of Mechanicsburgh, Pennsylvania. When our subject was seven years old his parents removed to Rock County, Wisconsin, and there he grew to manhood. August 5, 1862, he enlisted, during the late war, from Winnebago County, Illinois, in Company B, One Hundred and Seventy-fourth Illinois Infantry, and was in General Buell's department, in Kentucky. He was at the battle of Perryville, although not actively engaged, and soon after was broken down by hard marches, and was finally sent to a hospital, at Danville, Kentucky. March 20, 1863, he returned to his mother's home, in Winnebago County, his father having died in 1858, making his home with her till her death, which occurred in 1874. Henry A. Stebbins was married at Burlington, Iowa, to Miss Clara B. Sellon, who was born in Shiawassee County, Michigan, December 13, 1858, a daughter of W. R. Sellon, a resident of Burlington. Mr. and Mrs. Stebbins have one daughter -- Helen V., born July 4, 1880, in Plano, Illinois. In November, 1880, Mr. Stebbins became identified with the business interests of Lamoni, when he became associated with David Dancer and A. S. Cochran in the grain and lumber business, under the firm name of Dancer & Co., which partnership was dissolved a year later. In the summer of 1863 he united with the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-Day Saints, and in 1868 began service in the ministry, since which he has devoted his life to the service of his church, excepting during the one year named above, his mission fields having been principally in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa. Before coming to Lamoni Mr. Stebbins was associate editor of the Saint's Herald, at Plano, Illinois, from April, 1876, till October, 1880. He is presiding elder of the Decatur District, including six counties in Iowa -- Decatur, Wayne, Appanoose, Lucas, Union and Ringgold, and two counties in Missouri -- Harrison and Worth. In the spring of 1886 he resigned his charge as pastor of the Lamoni congregation and as superintendent of the Sabbath-school. He is secretary and recorder of his church, and as such, keeps a record of names of all the members throughout the world, including churches in Australia, Society Islands, England, Wales, Denmark, Switzerland, United States and Canada, showing their births, baptisms, and confirmations; also the official record of all ordained to the ministry. And as secretary he issues licenses and certificates of appointment to the ministry, also other official documents of the church.

    (remainder of pages 589-649 not transcribed)




     



    650                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       



    DANIEL P. YOUNG was born in Cayuga County, New York, January 31, 1808. His parents, David and Sarah (Parks) Young, were born, reared and married and lived all their lives in the Empire State. Our subject was reared to a life of toil on a farm, receiving only the educational advantages common to the poorer classes of the early day, but a life partaking much of adventure -- changes of residence, a citizen of different States -- has enabled him to learn much of the world and its ways, and now in his old age he is full of reminiscences and recollections of an active life. He was married in the State of New York in 1832, to Miss Martha Ford, who was born in 1812, and now for fifty-four years have they traveled life's journey together, experiencing many severe trials and hardships, as well as many pleasures and joys. In 1833 they moved to Geauga County, Ohio, where they lived until 1844, when they joined their fortunes with the Latter-day Saints, and made their home in Hancock County, Illinois. After the exodus from Nauvoo they, in 1846,made their home near Council Bluffs, Iowa, living on a farm until 1852, when they crossed the plains on their weary way to Salt Lake. They lived in Utah until 1861, when we again find them on the emigrant train, en route to Almeda County, California, where they again made a home, and engaged in farming and stock-raising until 1873, when they returned to Iowa and settled on section 18, Fayette Township, Decatur County, to spend the rest of their lives. Mr. Young has been a cripple since 1874, the result of inflammatory rheumatism, but otherwise is in the enjoyment of good health. He and his wife have a family of twelve children, six of whom are living -- Celia, wife of A. B. Moore, of Fayette Township; John and Alburn, in California; Francis D.; Chloe, wife of E. J. Robinson, of Lamoni, and David D. Ansil, Delmar, and four infants are deceased. Francis was married in Utah to Gracey, daughter of Dr. Dennis, of Salt Lake. After some years' residence in California he lived for a time in Montana, coming thence to Iowa in 1874. He has six children -- Martha, Edwin, Hattie, William T., Talitha and Clarence. David married Florence, adopted daughter of Samuel Gurley, and has four children - Chloe, Samuel, Ansil and Roy M. The entire family are members of the Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints.
     

    J. S. KENDALL, a prominent farmer and stock-raiser, is one of the pioneers of Decatur County, and resides on section 35, High Point Township, where he owns 400 acres of excellent land. He was born in Gallatin County, Kentucky, in 1824, son of Noah and Elizabeth Kendall, also natives of Kentucky. He came to Decatur County in 1856, and settled upon his present farm. He first purchased 250 acres, for which he paid $10 per acre. He has added to his farm until it has reached its present size. He has also given 160 acres to his children. He was married in Indiana, August 26, 1847, to Elizabeth Ammermon, daughter of Daniel and Martha (Taylor) Ammermon, natives of Kentucky. Their children are -- La Fayette, who married Celia Swope, and has had four children -- Cora B., Harley E., Maggie and Bertha, deceased; Louisa is the wife of Jesse Adair, and they have four
     



                             BIOGRAPHICAL  SKETCHES.                          651

    children -- James S., Harry M., Luther A, and Bertha M.; Edward is deceased; Martha, William; Marion married May Fleming, and their children are -- Carl W. and Wilda M., Angeline and Edwin. The deceased were Nelson, Philander and Henry. Mr. Kendall has held the minor school and township offices with satisfaction. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, Lewisburg Lodge, and himself and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Kendall commenced life without a dollar. He has accumulated a competence by hard work, energy, perseverance, industry and economy. Politically he is a Republican. Postoffice, High Point.





    EBENEZER ROBINSON has been a resident of Decatur County since April 1855. At that time he settled on section 15, Hamilton Township. Mr. Robinson purchased 160 acres of land in 1854, of Thomas Grim, at which time there were only some seventeen families in the township. On this land he settled. He also entered and purchased 640 acres adjoining and near his first purchase. Here he made his home until April, 1882, when he sold his homestead to his son-in-law, Zenas H. Gurley. At the time he settled there, 1855, there was but one mill in the township, Allen Scott's horse-mill, at which he paid 33 cents a bushel to get corn ground. In 1858 there were five steam mills in operation in Hamilton Township. Mr. Robinson was born in the town of Floyd, Oneida County, New York, May 25, 1816. His father, Nathan Robinson, removed to that State from Vermont that same year. He was a native of Connecticut, and died in Ohio at the advanced age of ninety-five years. The mother, Mary (Brown) Robinson, was of New England birth and died in March, 1826, when Ebenezer was ten years old. Our subject was reared on his father's farm until fifteen years of age, when he went to Utica and began learning the printer's trade, in the rooms of the Utica Observer, E. A. Maynard, publisher. In June, 1833, he started for Ohio and landed at Cleveland July 5. Three of his brothers, Clark, Nathan and Samuel, had preceded him and settled in Russell Township, Geauga County. He remained with his brothers until August, then went to Ravenna, Portage County, and engaged as compositor on the Ohio Star, published by L. L. Rice. In December of that year Mr. Rice sold out to other parties, and Mr. Robinson went to Hudson and worked on the Observer, a Presbyterian paper. In May, 1834, he returned to New York, via Niagara Falls, to visit his old home, and the following winter taught school. At this time he was in his nineteenth year. The following May he returned to Ohio, where, in the meantime, his father had removed. Soon after he went to Kirtland and went to work in the office of the Latter-Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, published by F. G. Williams & Co., and edited by Oliver Cowdery. This paper was the organ of the church of the Latter-Day Saints, usually called Mormons. At that time Mr. Robinson was not a member of that church, but soon found, to his surprise, that they taught the gospel, with all its gifts and blessings, as set forth in the New Testament scriptures, and that the Book of Mormon taught the same, and became convinced, in his own mind, of the truth as taught by them, and October 16, 1836, was baptized by Joseph Smith, and has ever since held to the doctrine of that church. Polygamy is not, and never has been, countenanced by that branch of the church to which Mr. Robinson belongs, and it is stoutly and emphatically forbidden in the Book of Mormon. December 13, 1835,
     



    652                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    Mr. Robinson was married to Miss Angeline Eliza Works, a native of Cayuga County, New York. Soon after he was baptized he was ordained an elder, and June 2, 1836, went on a mission to Richland County, Ohio, where he baptized several persons. He returned in July and soon after went on a mission to Oneida County, New York, where he baptized several persons, including a brother and a sister. He returned to Kirtland, and in April, 1837, removed to Caldwell County, Missouri, and in the summer of 1838 he was engaged in the publication of the Elder's Journal, in Western Missouri, which was then the headquarters of the church. At the State election, held at Gallatin, the following August, trouble began between the Missourians of that county and the Mormons, which resulted in the issuing of an order by Governor L. W. Boggs, that the Mormons should be "expelled from the State, or exterminated." Consequently the whole church of about 12,000 members fled to Illinois. Mr. Robinson went to Quincy and worked on the Quincy Whig until May, 1839, when he removed to Commerce, now Nauvoo. In June, 1839, in company with Don Carlos Smith, youngest brother of Joseph Smith, he published the Times and Seasons, a semi-monthly journal. In August, 1841, his partner died, and Mr. Robinson purchased the entire paper and connected with it a general job office and stereotype foundry and bindery. February 2, 1842, he sold out the whole business to Brigham Young & Co. and June 18, 1844, left Nauvoo, accompanied by his wife and Sidney Rigdon and family, for Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where they arrived on the 27th, the day Joseph Smith was killed. After this tragic event Brigham Young assumed control of the church, ignoring the claims of Elder Rigdon, whose right it was to preside. Here the church divided, the greater part adhering to Brigham Young, while a minority, of whom Mr. Robinson was one, adhered to Elder Rigdon and ever after opposed Brigham Young and his doctrine of polygamy. Mr. Robinson established a paper at Pittsburg, called The Messenger and Advocate of the Church of Christ. In May, 1846, he removed to Greencastle, Franklin County, Pennsylvania, where he remained until April, 1855, when he removed to Decatur County. Mrs. Robinson died April 8, 1880, and February 5, 1885, Mr. Robinson married again. The first wife had but one child, a daughter, Mrs. Gracie Gurley, wife of Zenas H. Gurley. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson have one child, born June 26, 1886. Mr. Robinson is highly esteemed in the community where he is known as a Christian gentleman and a worthy citizen.

    (Remainder of biographical section transcribed.)





     

                              EARLY  AND  CIVIL  HISTORY.                           711


    EARLY  AND  CIVIL  HISTORY.


    The county of Decatur is in the southern tier of counties of Iowa, and nearly midway between the Mississippi and the Missouri, there being five counties to the east and four to the west. It is bounded on the east by Wavne County, on the South by the State of Missouri, on the west by Ringold County, and on the north by Clarke County. It contains twelve whole and four fractional townships, the latter being four miles wide, so that the whole area of the county is 528 square miles, or 343,910 acres, which is 13,162 more than the total assessment, owing to exemptions for railroads, wagon-roads, school and church lots, poor-farm, orchards, etc. The fractional tier of townships lies along the southern border, and owe their small size to the fact that the boundary line between Iowa and Missouri cuts off two tiers of sections. The townships in this county run from 67 to 70 north, and the ranges from 24 to 27 west.

    EARLY SETTLEMENT.

    There were several settlers in the south part of Decatur County as early as 1840.

    Among them were William Hamilton, Reuben Hatfield, James Hatfield, Alfred Stanley, John McDaniet, John E. Logan and Allen Scott. Some of the above came even as early as 1833, and then supposed they had settled in Missouri. Before the settlement of the boundary question, several slaves were held in the south part of the county. We find the following among the early records:

    "I, John McDaniel, of the county of Decatur, and State of Iowa, do hereby release, give up, and set at liberty as a free man, George, a black, a colored man, who has resided in my family from boyhood. Said man is about forty-five years old at this time, about five feet, eleven inches high. Witness my hand and seal this 25th day of February, A. D., 1852.
                        "JOHN McDANIEL" [L. S.]

    George died in the south part of the county, or in the edge of Missouri, and McDaniel removed years ago to Oregon.

    The boundary dispute, above alluded to, was an important incident in the history of Iowa, and at one time it looked serious for the peace of the country. Congress finally decided in favor of Iowa, but this settlement was not made until nearly 1850. Immigrants wanted to locate here before that, but the land in this region had not been acquired from the Indians by the United States Government. Wherever settlers were found on Indian lands in Iowa, they
     



    712                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    were driven off by the military authorities. This explains why all the first settlers of Decatur County were in the southern portion. They were not supposed to be in Decatur County at all, but in the State of Missouri, and hence not trespassers upon Indian lands.

    In the autumn of 1847 a body of Mormons, who were on their great journey across the plains to Utah, stopped at what is now Garden Grove, in the northeastern part of the county, to winter. The following spring the main body of them moved on west, but a few remained two or three seasons to raise stock and provisions. The last of the Mormons left that place in 1851. Some of them sold their horses to immigrants, who now began to come in considerable numbers.

    Anthony Vanderpool, near Westerville, is supposed to be the oldest settler yet living in the county. The oldest person, however, is Jane Burrell, 106 years of age, now living in Eden Township. Allen Scott, now living in Bethany, Missouri, is the only survivor of the first settlers.

    HUNGARIAN SETTLEMENT.

    In 1850 L. Ujhazy, who was civil-governor of the fortress Komorn, in Hungary, came to the United States and settled on the left bank of Grand River, occupying the lands on the right bank, where Davis City now stands. A postoffice was established, to which he gave the name of New Buda, after the capital city of Hungary, Buda-Pesth. He was appointed postmaster. With him came some five or six Hungarians, and it was known as a Hungarian Colony. In 1851 L. Madarasz, with his son, Joseph Majtheuyi, with his son, Theodore, Francis Varga and Ernest Drahos, all Hungarian exiles, who held very important positions during the Revolutionary struggle in Hungary, in 1840, settled in Decatur County. Governor Ujhazy lost his wife in the fall of 1851, and moved to Texas with his family, near St. Antonio, where they bought land. In 1853 Ignace Hainer, with his family, and some other Hungarian exiles, settled near New Buda,, In 1856 Drahos and Aufricht laid out 9, town, which they called New Buda. For some years it was a good trading point, but since the railroad was built to Davis City it nearly disappeare -- even the postoffice is now discontinued. When Governor Ujhazy left he sold his claim to a German colony, in 1852, who came from Prussia, Germany. They sent out seventeen men in advance to prepare homes for their families, who were to come next year; but, as is mostly the fate of such colonial enterprises, very little was done by them during the winter, and when, in 1853, the members of the colony with their families arrived, not finding houses ready, got discouraged, sickness took away some, and most of them moved away, only five or six families remaining, who are doing well, not as a colony, but as individual farmers. The balance of their lands was occupied by American settlers. New Buda was surveyed by the General Government in 1852, and afterward was organized into a township and named New Buda.

    ORGANIZATION.

    The county was organized April 1, 1850. The first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners was held May 6, 1850. The Commissioners were Josiah Morgan, William Hamilton and Asa Burrell. Henry B. Noston was the first clerk of the Board. The first order was one allowing Andrew Still $30 for services as organizing sheriff. They also at this meeting made an order that the district court, probate court, and commissioner's court be held at the house of Daniel Moad until "such time as the county seat shall be located."

    At a meeting of the commissioners in
     



                              EARLY  AND  CIVIL  HISTORY.                           713


    July of the same year they divided the county into four civil townships, to wit: Garden Grove, Morgan, Burrell and Hamilton -- the last three names being their own. Who will say they were unwise in thus providing for the perpetuation of their own names, fame and memory? In the several townships thus organized they appointed the following judges and clerks of elections:

    Garden Grove judges, William Davis, Victor Doze and Hiram Chase; Clerks, Joshua R. Monroe and Enos Davis, Morgari Judges, Reuben Hatfield, William Oney and Christopher Wainscott; Clerks, Thomas Gilgore and Samuel McDowell. Burrell Judges, Asa Howard, John McDaniel and John Still; clerks, James Woodmansee and Andrew Still. Harniton Judges, William Eaton, Jefferson Dimick and William Hamilton; Clerks, Wyllis Dickinson and Gideon J. Walker.

    FIRST COURTS.

    The first district court convened at the house of Daniel Moad, May 19 zzz, 1851. This was about six miles southeast of the place where Leon is now located, on the fine farm now owned by Levi Chastan. Hon. William McKay presided as judge, and Daniel Moad served as clerk. John J. Stanley was the sheriff. The following were the grand jurors; Mordecai Smith, Anthony Vanderpool, Elijah B. Hole, Oliver Hoskins, Alfred Stanley, Hiram J. Stanley, John Price, William Oncy, John Jordan, Charles Jordan, Simon H. Harmon, John Vanderpool, Stanley Hatfield, Isaac Craig, Andrew Hatfield, Andrew J. Randolph. Mordecai Smith was appointed foreman, and Thomas Kilgore, bailiff. William H. Bramfield was appointed prosecuting attorney for the term.

    The first case was a suit for divorce, John Blades vs. Maria Blades. The case was continued until the next term, and the plaintiff finally succeeded. About the next case was also an application for divorce -- one Ann Knapp vs. Zelatus W. Knapp. The prayer of Ann's petition was granted. The first marriage license was issued May 18, 1850, to Henry Hall and Eliza Ann Ewing. On the same day a license was also issued to Thomas Ewing and Mary Ann Carson. No return of marriage certificate seems to have been made in. either case. The first marriage certificate on record is that of John Zimmerman and Harriet L. Lamb, married by William Cutchlow, a justice of the peace, September 22, 1850.

    COUNTY SEAT.

    On the 18th day of January, 1851, an act of the Legislature was approved appointing commissioners and providing for the location of the county seat. The commissioners who officiated were Henry Allen and F. N. Sales. On the 21st day of July, 1851, they reported to the Board of County, Commissioners that they had selected the east half of the southeast quarter, and the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 27, township 69, range 26, "being high, gently-rolling prairie, through which runs the main road from Fort Des Moines to Independence, Mo., and in the immediate vicinity of good timber and stone, with good mill privileges." They also reported that they had named the town "Decatur." N. Westcoat was employed to survey the new town. A sale of lots was ordered to take place in Decatur, August 25, 1851, notice being given in the Des Moines Republic and Sentinel at Fairfield.

    FIRST COURT-HOUSE.

    At a meeting on the 27th of October of the same year, the Board of Commission- ers determined upon the erection of a new court-house, to be 20x22 feet, and fourteen
     



    714                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    feet high, and to be built of hewed logs. This first "temple of justice" did not long serve the purpose for which it was erected. It was afterward made to serve a useful life as a hotel. It was built by John J. Stanley, on contract, for $375, and stood on lot number 5, block 18, which was conveyed to the county by Allen Scott.

    ELECTION OF 1852.

    At the August election of 1852, S. C. Thompson was elected County Judge; W. L. Warford, Clerk; A. J. Evans, Prosecuting Attorney, and Thomas Miller, Supervisor of Roads.

    REMOVAL OF THE COUNTY SEAT.

    It was claimed by some that the selection of Decatur City had been illegal, because on account of high waters, the commissioners had not been able to reach the site inside of the limits of time fixed by the statute. The General Assembly accordingly ordered an election to take place the first Monday in April, 1853, to decide anew the county-seat location. It was urged that the point to which it was proposed to change the county seat was but little, if any, more central than Decatur, and that the county had incurred expense in building a courthouse. To the people of Decatur County this proposition elicited more interest than the pending presidential contest of that day. The vote, however, was taken, and resulted in favor of removal to "Independence," afterward called "South Independence," and now Leon, situated on the southwest quarter of the southwest quarter of section 28, and northwest quarter of the northwest quarter of section 33, township 69, range 25. The county surveyor was employed to survey the new town. At the next April term of the county court a sale of lots was directed to take place on the second Tuesday of May, 1853, notice to be given by publication in the Des Moines Valley Whig, Fairfield Sentinel, Iowa City Reporter and The Pioneer, at Trenton, Missouri.

    Forty acres of land on which the town was located had been donated to the county as an inducement for the removal of the county seat, and the survey of the town was made in May, 1853. On the 12th of the same month a court-house was ordered to be built, and Peter C. Stewart became the contractor, the price being $1,650. For Some reason he failed to discharge the contract, and at the June term of 1854 another order was made for a court-house, to be built of brick, 24x4o feet, and two stories in height, with three rooms below for offices, and one above for a court-room. A contract for the brick work and plastering was let to Arnold Childers for the sum of $900, and for the wood work to F. Parsons for the sum of $800. This building was in use when burned, with all its contents, March 31, 1874.

    TOWNSHIPS.

    In 1854 the number of townships was by division increased to sixteen, thus making each congressional township, and also each of the four fractions on the south a civil township. In 1873 Leon was also made a township, with limits coinciding with the town corporation, so that there are now seventeen townships, as follows: Bloomington, Burrell (formerly written with one l"), Center, Decatur, Eden, Fayette, Franklin, Gardcn Grove, Grand River, Hamilton, High Point, Leon, Long Creek, Morgan, New Buda, Richland and Woodland.

    GROWTH IN POPULATION.

    The most rapid growth of the county was from 1853 to 1857. Then it was almost stationary until 1868. From that year to
     



                              EARLY  AND  CIVIL  HISTORY.                           715


    1875 there was consideable increase, since when the growth has not been rapid, and since 1880 there has been an actual decrease. The population by different census reports has been: 1850, 965; 1851, 1016, 1852, 1,154; 1854, 3,026; 1856, 6,280; 1859, 8,238; 1860, 8,677, 1863, 8,370; 1865, 8,052; 1867, 8,501; 1869, 10,339; 1870, 12,075; 1873 11,598; 1875, 13,249; 1880, 15,336; 1885 15,083.

    (remainder of this section not transcribed)






     

                                      VILLAGES.                                 775.



    VILLAGES.
    _______

    GARDEN GROVE.

    On the 20th of January, 1846, a pioneer band, who now have their lodgement at Salt Lake City, or in graves along the route, crossed the Mississippi River opposite Nauvoo, Illinois, and proceeded on their western course in search of the "New Sion." One month later, the remaining band of Mormons, in obedience to a general order from their leaders, crossed the famous Father of Waters on the ice, and in companies of ten wagons each followed in the footsteps of their "brothers gone before." In their march through Southern Iowa and Northern Missouri, they established "stakes" and resting places in the wilderness. The two most important of these "stakes" were in Southern Iowa, one called Mt. Pisgah, about two miles and a half southeast of where the flourishing village of Afton, Union County, now stands, and the other (first in order of date) on what is now known as the Weldon Fork of Grand River, and called it Garden Grove. Arriving here after a severe march in the inclement weather of spring, they found shelter in the beautiful grove of timber which skirted Weldon, with a vast prairie, abounding in pasturage, to the north and east. Here they erected a log tabernacle, 22 x 72 feet, and fenced a "claim" of near three sections which they tilled for the use of the company. They remained at this point for some years, preparing the while for the needs, hardships and dangers that were before them in the long and difficult trip across the plains. Less than twenty years ago there were many pocturesque spots in woodland and on prairie and decaying old houses left as mementoes of the sojourn here of the Latter-Day Saints. Of the houses, but one is now remaining, and, with old settlers, it is still known as the "Old Mormon Castle." It is situated west of town, near the old Mormon cemetery, and yet serves as a habitation for a family. The old Mormon temple, which stood quite near the heart of town, is vividly remembered by many in this part of the county, as it was torn down but about a dozen years ago. It was a long two-story log building, 22 x 72 feet, and divided into two large rooms below, separated by a rude passage way, and a fine dancing hall above. After the departure
     



    776                          HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                         


    of the Mormons the building was converted into a hotel and named the "California House." It received this appellation because a large number of persons who attempted the hazardous journey across the plains for the gold region followed the Mormon trail through this place. The constant stream of travelers westward, during the California excitement, made the village very lively, and the "oldest inhabitant" still loves to recount the stories of the Mormon regime.

    In 1851 the presence of a few "Gentiles" admonished them to again take up their line of march westward, which they did, with the exception of six or seven families who remained until 1854. Among the early and actual settlers, who came here in 1848 were Enos Davis, O. N. Kellogg, William Davis, Amasa J. Davis, and probably a few others who subsequently passed further west or whose names have escaped the memory of our oldest inhabitants. Enos Davis is yet living, in Garden Grove Township, and Amasa J. Davis lives in Franklin.

    Mrs. Ann Knapp and her children, Thomas J. and Mary E., the latter the wife of L. E. Zichey, are now the only three living residents of the village who came here in 1851. In the same year and previous to 1856, the colony was reinforced by S. F. Baker, C. R. Lampman, Ben Wooley, G. W. Piper, Hiram Chase, Edward Dawes, R. D. Kellogg, D. Stearn, A. B. Stearn, J. R. Cary, Hugh Brown, J. H. Woodbury, Thomas Chamberlin, Nathaniel Shaw, Dan Bowen, Sylvanus Arnold, J. D. Burns, S. Meteir, Hiram Chase [jr.?], Thomas Lilliard, John Vail, S. P. McNeill, Robert McBroom, and others; some with families and others singly. Nearly all these old pioneers are still residents of this county, and many of them substantial farmers.

    These immigrants, both men and women, being people of more than usual vigor, intelligence and enterprose, by their thrift and industry soon made the section of country in and around the town a desirable point for location. It attracted hither enterprising capitalists from Ohio and other of the States east of the great river, who spent their means liberally in the purchase of government lands and the general improvement of the country. Stores and shops were built in the village and upon the wide prairie and in the brush districts near town houses became more numerous each year.

    ITEMS.

    The early settlers ground wheat and corn in a corn-cracker.

    William Davis bought the entire Mormon "claim" for $400.

    The Mormons sold 400 head of sheep to the settlers at an average of 45 cents per head, and subsequently the wolves ate the most of them -- the sheep, not the Mormons.

    About 200 Pottawattamie Indians encamped on the creek west of Young's farm in the winter of 1851-'52.

    The first trees planted in the village were two willows. They were cut in Davis County, Iowa, by Tom Knapp and O. N. Kellogg, and after being used more than three days as riding switches, they were planted.

    The nearest settlement to Garden Grove in 1850 was Dodge's Point, now in Appanoose County, forty miles distant.

    The first meadow of tame grass (timothy) cut in the county was a twenty-acre lot of which Prof. Harkness' residence occupies the southwest corner.

    Josephine Kellogg, daughter of O. N. Kellogg, and ex-superindendent of the county schools, was the first child born in Garden Grove.

    In the winter of 1848-'49 the nearest post-office was at Princeton, Missouri, and for three months there was no communication
     



                                      VILLAGES.                                 777.


    between the settlers and the outside world.




    (remainder of page not transcribed)





     

    782                          HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                         



     

    LAMONI.


    Lamoni is a bright village of 400 inhabitants in Fayette Township. It is on sections 2 and 11, and was laid out in 1879, by a company under the auspoces of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company.

    The township is largely settled by the Latter Day Saints, a very thrifty and industrious class of people. They are strongly opposed to polygamy, regarding the Utah branch as apostates. The Order of Enoch was organized in 1870, and representatives were sent to this region, to buy land. Finding much of the fair prairie of Fayette and adjoining townships in a state of nature, they purchased a large quantity of land here, and the immigration commenced. At this time there was in this vicinity only a farm-house, on the eighty-acre farm just north of Lamoni. It was owned by a Mr. Shepherd, whose widow afterwards sold it to F. Drummond. The latter erected the house now occupoed by E. H. Dancer, in 1877. The original farm-house is now owned by J. Foreman. The next nearest farm was that of E. Ferguson, half a mile east of where is now Lamoni.

    A. J. Green was, when he died, the oldest settler in this region, and he was one of the early Saints. The first Saint to settle in this locality, however, was named Walker. The third of the three houses on the plat of Lamoni before 1879 was built by the Order of Enoch for a farm-house. It is now owned by William Deam.

    Z. H. Gurley had the first stock of goods in the vicinity, and kept them in the school-house at Hopkins' corner, as early as 1876.

    E. Banta managed the business of the order until 1876, and D. Dancer then acted as agent until the land was all sold.

    The railroad was built through in 1879, and the village laid out. The same year Thomas Teale built his hardware store, Z. H. Gurley his drug store, Messrs. Bissel, Dickson and Ferguson their residences, and D. Dancer started his lumber yard.
     



                                            VILLAGES.                                       783.


    In 1880 Z. T. Earl & Co. began business, Paul Biggs built his office and grain house, now owned by James Smith, and William Earl built the store now occupied by W. Hudson.

    In 1881 N. Reeder and D. Dancer began selling farm implements, E. C. Dobson entered upon the furniture business, and the publishing office of the Latter Day Saints was moved here from Plano, Illinois.

    In 1882 George Young built the store now owned by N. Reeder. On 1883 the cheese factory was built by a joint stock company and the mill by P. Harris. In 1884 the church of the Latter Day Saints was mostly built.

    The part of Lamoni west of the original survey was laid out by D. Dancer, and is occupied by private residences. The first birth was that of Bertie Lamoni White. The first marriage that of Neal Hammer and Lillie Brown.

    The school building was erected in 1882. It is two stories, has three rooms and three teachers are employed.

    The Methodist church was built on Mr. Buck's farm, a mile and a half from Lamoni, in 1872, and removed to the village in 1881. Rev. Mr. Dix, of Davis City, preaches here alternate Sundays.


    The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, whose principal place of business is at Lamoni, Decatur County, Iowa, is a proper succession of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as organized by Joseph Smith, in Fayette Township, Seneca County, New York, April 6, 1830, and of which it is a re-organization.

    The circumstances which led to and made a re-organization necessary briefly told are: The original church attempted to remove from Kirtland, Ohio, where there was a considerable number of communicants, a temple, stores, mills and other adjuncts of social organization and occupation, into Jackson and adjoining counties, Missouri, with a view to establish their earthly Zion, and its spiritual government. The new religion held by the saints was obnoxious to the orthodox element of Ohio; and the pronounced and radical views upon political topics held by the principal and leading men, rendered them equally obnoxious to the political element, and under this pressure the removal from Ohio to Missouri went on from about 1831 to 1837-'8. In the latter year the church was officially expelled from the State of Missouri, by the executive order of Governor Liliburn W. Boggs, carried into effect by Generals Clark and Lucas, in command of the Missouri State Militia.

    Various causes have been assigned as the reasons for this expulsipn from the then new State of Missouri, some few of which are: The Saints were mostly Eastern men, and by education, political preference and religious bias were opposed to slavery. Their immigration into Missouri was in itself a threat against the institution of slavery. They were not slow to state their opinions; and though in no single case is it known that a slave was interfered with or counseled or aided to escape from his master, the presence of so large a body so opposed to the peculiar institution was a standing menace, and the pro-slavery element was roused to resist further influx and enchroachment. This was the principal reason. Another is to be found in the fact that the religion of this peculiar people was strongly aggressive, and its devotees made it a virtue to push the propagandizing everywhere vigorously. This brought the ministry into active forensic combat with the preachers of other denominations, and bitter religious animosity resulted, as in all other similar cases has been the history of the world. Old faiths, entrenched in their conservative methods, could not brook what they termed the arrogant dogmatism
     



    784                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    and presumpttuous claims of the new, and so resisted the aggressiveness by persecution. Besides this, there were undoubtedly bad, orresponsible men on both sides, in the church and out, who made the religion of the people a cloak: the one to shield, the other to bring discredit upon the faith and the people, while serving their own interests in unlawful ways. All these combined brought difficulty and collision between the Saints and citizens of Missouri, until the interference of the executive authority of the State was invoked to restore and maintain the public peace. The final determination reached by the executive was followed by the arrest of some of the leading men against whom prosecution to conviction was never urged, and the expulsion of the entire body, and the abandonment of the State by some 12,000 of her citizens, against the very great majority of whom no charge was ever made, other than their religion, and their anti-slavery sentiments as a result of that religion.

    After this expulsion from Missouri in 1838, the Saints settled in Illinois; Commerce, Hancock County, being made the principle seat of the church. Here the church flourished, with more or less of frictipn between themselves and other citizens, until the brothers Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed at Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, Illinois, on June 27, 1844, by a mob of 150 to 200 men, variously disguised to prevent recognition. The killing of these men was in itself bad enough, but when it is known that at the time they were waiting trial before the County Court, and in jail at the request of Governor Ford for ostensible safety against mob violence, it becomes atrocious, and assumes the form of a confession that the men were not guilty of what they were charged, and would not have been convicted if they had been tried.

    There had been an unprecedented growth in the church; the City of Nauvoo, which had absorbed the town of Commerce, numbered 18,000, and there were in the county of Hancock and near adjoining counties about 7,000 more, a total of 25,000. These, however, were but a small part of the whole, as it was estimated that at the death of the Smiths the church numbered 150,000 in Europe and America. The conflict between the citizens and the Saints was sharply renewed soon after the Smiths were killed. Brigham Young assumed the leadership of the church, and his policy was not calculated to ameliorate the condition, but tended to irritate the outside element and aggravate the situation. The result was that in 1845 the church, by commissioners upon its part, contracted with that portion of the citizens of the State hostile to their stay, through and by the aid of the officials of the State, who were engaged in the difficult and fruitless task of keeping the peace, ostensibly dealing impartially with both parties, to leave the State of Illinois, as a body. This contract was consummated by a convention of delegates from nine counties held at Carthage, Hancock County, September, 1845, which convention appointed General Hardin, Commander of the State Militia, Senator Stephen A. Douglas, W. B. Warren and J. A. McDougal to demand the removal of the Mormons. This demand was made by these commissioners and an acquiescence returned in writing, dated October 1, 1845, and signed by Brigham Young and Willard Richards for the Saints. The agreement was carried into effect during the spring and summer of 1846, leaving a remnant, pratially or wholly helpless, to be driven out by a mob in the fall of 1846, after the season had become inclement.

    The policy pursued by President Brigham Young, and the dogmas which he
     



                                            VILLAGES.                                       785.


    introduced were not in keeping with those held by the church prior to the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and many, including the widow of Joseph and all of his immediate family, three of the original twelve, William Smith, brother of Joseph and Hyrum, John E. Page and Lyman Wright [sic] and William Marks, President of the Church Stake at Navoo, refused credence and allegiance. These disaffected ones scattered from the City of Nauvoo and the county of Hancock in every direction; notably along the route pursued by the fleeing Saints in their exodus, Southern and Western Iowa and Northern Missouri retaining a large percentage of them.

    As the views and tenets introduced by Brigham Young became more widely known, the number of dissenters grew larger, and in 1851 a movement looking to a regathering and re-organization of the scattered fragments of the church so left, began among a few of the elders and members located in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. Among those who were most active in this movement were Jason W. Briggs, Zenas H. Gurley, Sr., David Powell, Cyrus and Reuben Newkirk, H. H. Deam and others, all of them having held official membership in the church before the death of the Smiths. After a term of private labor from house to house, and by correspondence, a conference was called and convened at Newark near Beloit, Wisconsin, June 12, 1852. At this conference measures were adopted for an organization, and further dissemination of the views held touching church polity and doctrine, and resolutions strongly denunciatory of the dogma of polygamy or plurality of wives, then known to be secretly held by the church in Utah under President Brigham Young. This was very timely; for within three months thereafter, on August 29, 1852, eight years and two months and two days after the death of the Smiths, Brigham Young threw off the mask of concealment and had the dogma of plural marriage promulgated at a special conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, proclaiming it much in the style of a Bull from the Pope.

    At the conference held at Newark, June 12, 1852, the principle upon which it was proposed to prosecute the work of this re-organization as contradistinguished from the Utah church, may be found in the following:

    "Resolved, that this conference believe it the duty of the elders of the church, (who have been legally irdained), to cry repentance and remission of sins to this generation through obedience to the gospel as revealed in the record of the Jews, the Book of Mormon, and Book of Doctrine and Covenants; and not faint in the discharge of duty."

    A committee consisting of Jason W. Briggs, Zenas H. Gurley, Sr., and John Harrington was appointed, who wrote a pamphlet entitled, "A Word of Consolation to the Scattered Saints." This pamphlet was freely circulated, and on October 6, 1852, another session with increased numbers was held, and the groeth and vigor of the movement are shown in the following extracts from their own historian:

    "At the conference the gifts were abundantly enjoyed, and the Saints were greatly strengthened and assured of the triumph of the work of restoration to the old paths. Also, during these meetings we were forwarned of the war between the South and North, its sanguinary character and its extent; also, the success of the North was portrayed in all the vivid exactness of the subsequent history of the civil war."

    From this date to the 6th of April, 1853, great activity prevailed among those engaged in the work of re-organization. On the date named, a conference assembled
     



    786                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    at the Yellowstone, Wisconsin, and after much discussion an organization more complete in its character was perfected, and upon what was deemed competent divine direction the following persons were selected and chosen to fill the respective offices named: Samuel Blair, General Church Recorder; Zenas H. Gurley, Sr., Henry H. Deam, Jason W. Briggs, Daniel B. Razy, John Cunningham, George White and Reuben Newkirk, Apostles. A stake of Zion was established at Argyle, Lafayette County, Wisconsin, of which Wm. Cline was chosen President, with Cyrus Newkirk and Isaac Butterfield, Counselors; David Newkirk, Wm. Cline, Jr., Wm. Newkirk, Ira Guilford, George Godfrey, Wm. Smith, Wm. Hartshorn, Wm. White, Benjamin R. Tatem, Ethan Griffith, Samuel Blair, Geirge W. Harlow, H. W. Ovitt, Edwin Wildermuth, Major Godfrey, Wm. Griffith, John Butterfield and Wm. Harlow, Seventy.

    In respect to this organization Elder Jason W. Briggs, the constitutional lawyer of the body at the time, has stated:
    "And in justification of the course taken and the principles involved on the question of authority, we have ever courted, and still court investigation in the rigid character of the facts in the first organization. Here they are: Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained to the lesser priesthood by an angel; then by this authority and a commandment, they on the 6th day of April, 1830, ordained each other elders, and the eldership ordained high priests and apostles, and this high-priesthood ordained, by commandment, the president of the high priesthood, the highest office in the church, so that the alleged lesser ordaining the greater is common to both the first organization and the re-organization alike. The class of facts justify both, or condemn both.

    "But this stream, rising higher than its fountain, is only seeming, not real. By what authority, according to the law of God, is anyone ordained? Answer: By the power of The Holy Ghost, which is in the one who ordains him. Instead of this then being the stream, it is the fountain itself, from which flows the stream or authority of both priesthoods, from its highest to its lowest offices. Moreover, all ordinations are performed in the name and authority of the church, and are therefore the act of the 'Spirit and the Bride.' So that in addition to the authority which its adherence to truth guarantees, the re-organization is technically right, and on legal grounds invulnerable; before which all the factions have melted away save the one -- and they dare not assail it, but always decline."

    At an annual conference held at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois, April 6, 1860, Joseph Smith, now of Lamoni, Iowa, connected himself with the movement. He was received into fellowship upon a baptism performed by his father before his death, and was chosen to preside by a unanimous vote, and ordained by Wm. Marks and others. His coming and presence at the conference had been certified by the Spirit and confidently predicted; and when he with his mother was presented to the assembly great enthusiasm was manifest. The various prophecies concerning the event had now been fulfilled and all were filled with testimony of the acceptance of the work already done.

    The number composing the church when this event took place was probably less than 200, comprised in some three or four organized congregations, with a great majority scattered in various localities of Northern Illinois and Iowa, and Southern Wisconsin. One church in Wayne County, Illinois, under the pastoral charge of Elder Thos. P. Green, numbered forty-two, and was built up by Elder Green personally, he having been ordained and sent into Wayne
     



                                            VILLAGES.                                       787.


    County by Joseph Smith, the elder, in 1842.

    The adhesion of Joseph Smith to the reorganized church, and the position he assumed in regard to the leadership of Brigham Young and the dogma and practice of polygamy, raised the issue direct between the two churches; the one in the valleys of Utah, the other in the States; the one seemingly in defiance of the laws of the United States, the other teaching an obedience to such laws; the one teaching and practicing a plurality of wives, the other the sacredness of the family relation in monogamy. Both claimed to be a legal succession to the church organized April 6, 1830. These rival claims were placed in examination before the District Court of Common Pleas, Lake County, Ohio, for the February Term of 1880, in an issue joined to test the validity of a claim made by the re-organized church to the Temple, at Kirtland, in a suit to perfect the title in said re-organized church; Hon. L. S. Sherman, Judge; F. Paine, Jr., Clerk, and C. F. Morley, Sheriff. This suit was brought by the re-organized church against a number of defendants, including the church in Utah; and the decision of the court was in favor of the former, declaring it to be the "true and lawful continuation of, and successor to, the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled to all its rights and property.

    From 1860 the new movement gained ground rapidly. All over the West, elders moved here and there propagating the renewed gospel, the necessity for, and the correctness of, the reorganization. Able ministers were chosen and sent abroad. Joseph Smith and his brothers, Alexander H. and Daniel [sic - David?] H. who united with the church, went at once into the active ministry. Many once connected with the church in the days of Joseph and Hyrum Smith flocked to the standard thus upraised. Samuel Powers, William W. Blair, E. C. Briggs and James Blakeslee had been successively ordained into the apostolic office: William Marks, Sr., and W. W. Blair were chosen as counsellors to the President: an effort was made to systematize ministerial labor; branches or organizations were authorized and established, and a general era of prosperity inaugurated. In 1863 E. C. Briggs and Alexander McCord, the latter one of the celebrated "Mormon Battalion," recruited at Garden Grove and Council Bluffs for the Mexican war from the fleeing Saints in 1846, were sent by the church to Utah as missionaries. They presented themselves to President Brigham Young, stating who they were, whom they represented, why they were in the Territory, and asking the use of public buildings in which to present their views to the people. They were received with scorn and their request for buildings in which to speak was denied -- indignantly denied -- by President Young. Indeed, Elder Briggs was told that "no building in the Territory, over which President Young had authority, should be open to him or his preaching." Elder Briggs reported to General P. E. Connor, then in charge of the United States troops at Fort Douglas, stating who he was, what his object in visiting the Territory was, and asking the protection of the Government, if necessary. General Connor notified Brigham Young that if harm came to the "Josephite missionaries," as the Mormons called them, he would hold him responsible. Whether this was necessary or not, circumstances seemed to justify it. From 1863 to the present the re-organized church has kept an active missionary force in Utah with headquarters at Salt Lake City. They have congregations at Salt Lake City, with a small, but neat church building; at Pleasant Grove, Provo, Springville,
     



    788                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    Salem, Richfield, Beaver and other points in Utah; at Malad, Idaho, with a building, and at Reese Creek, Montana, and a building; all active and as flourishing as the conditions permit.

    There are now rising of 400 branches in the several States and Territories, a membership of over 1,000 on the Society Islands, under the pastorate of Apostle Thomas W. Smith; a fair and increasing membership in England, Thomas Taylor of Birmingham, in charge; a number of branches in Wales, Thomas E. Jenkins in charge; several branches in Australia, Joseph F. Burton, missionary and in charge, with a membership of nearly 20,000 communicants in all.

    In the same year of 1863, Jason W. Briggs, Charles Derry and Jeremiah Jeremiah were sent to Wales, thus opening the work of the re-organization there under these efficient men. When it is known that large numbers of those making up the mass of the church in Utah; that there were in the British Isles, under the pastorate of Orson Pratt, at one time over 35,000 members, and that 10,000 of those apostatized in one year after the introduction of plurality of wives in 1852, it will be seen how important it was that good men should be sent from these re-organizers in America. Of the work thus commenced in Wales, Elder Briggs states "that it commenced in the same street of the same town, and within half a stone's throw of where it began in Wales in the days of the fiest Joseph; and it is received by the very people that received it then."

    The church began the publication of an organ called The Saints' Herald, at Cincinnati, Ohio, Elder Isaac Sheen, editor, in January, 1860; the paper was then a small sixteen-page pamphlet and was issued as a monthly periodical, and appeared at irregular intervals, until in the summer of 1863, Israel A. Rigers, Bishop of the church, purchased the material of an ordiary country newspaper, including a No. 4. Washington Medallion hand-press, headings, type, etc., removed the same to the little town of Plano, Kendall County, Illinois, and established the Herald office, with Elder Isaac Sheen, editor, and W. D. Morton, printer, in a room 16 x 18 feet in size. Mr. Sheen was also church recorder, and held his office in the same room. To this small beginning constant additions were made until the establishment in charge of the Board of Publication, consisting of George A. Blakeslee, of Galen, Michigan; Phineas Cadwell, of Logan, Iowa; David Dancer, E. Banta and W. W. Blair, of Lamoni, Iowa. Of these, Mr. Blakeslee is President; Mr. Banta, Treasurer, and Mr. Dancer, Business Manager, and in charge.


    The First Herald Office, Lamoni, Iowa

    The property at Lamoni consists of a two-story brick building 30x70 feet in size, containing a counting and sales room, a store-room, mailing-room, press-room, in which an excellent Ames engine of eight horsepower furnishes the power, all on the first floor; up stairs, an editorial-room and library containing several hundred volumes belonging to the church; the church recorder's room, now occupied by Elder Henry A. Stebbins, Elder Sheen's successor; a composing-room, where a corps of printers under John Scott, superintendent, set the type for the Herald, the organ of the church; Zion's Hope, a Sunday-school paper; the Sanhedrin's Banner, a Scandinavian paper, and all other church papers and books. The Board of Publication print and keep on sale the books of the church; the "Holy Scriptures," a translation and revision of the Old and New Testaments, by Joseph Smith; the "Book of Mormon" (Golden Bible); the "Doctrine and Covenants" (book of discipline); "Voice of Warning," a "History of Joseph
     



                                            VILLAGES.                                       789.


    Smith," by E. Tullidge, a large, fine edition, and one by his mother, Lucy Smith, entitled "Joseph Smith and His Progenitors;" together with tracts in quantity, designed for church work. The office and the plant are valued at near $20,000, and it is undoubtedly the finest establishment of its kind in the State; and the building seen from the trains as the pass to and fro over the Grant City Branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, makes an imposing and fine appearance.

    The branch at Lamoni was organized in 1871, with barely a constitutional membership of nine. Elder Charles H. Jones presiding; it now numbers 577. The principal seat of church business is here, the printing office, where the church organ, the Herald, is published, the church library, and the recorder's office and the office of the presidency are all located here. A church 50x90 feet, with the vestibule, having an auditorium 48x78 feet, above, and a room for ordinary lectures, Sunday-school, and prayer service in the basement. The ceiling in the main room is twenty-five feet in height in the center, and has a fine pulpit in walnut, the workmanship and gift of the architect of the building. Thomas Jacobs, resident at Lamoni; the seating capacity of this room is calculated to be 1,000. There are two towers on the front of the building, the one on the north side having a bell of fine tone hung in it.

    The following epitome contains the principle features of the faith of this singular people.
    We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. Matt. 28:19. 1 John 1:3. St. John 11:26.

    We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgressions. Ecc. Matt. 16:27. 1 Cor. 3:13. Rev. 20:12-15.

    We believe that through atonement of Christ all mankind may be saved by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel. 1 Cir 15:3. 2 Tim. 1:10. Rom. 8:1-6.

    We believe that these ordinances are: --

    (1st.) Faith in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ. Heb. 11:6. I Pet. 1:21. I Tim. 4:10. John 3:16, 18, 36. Mark 11:22. John 14:1.

    (2d.) Repentance. Matt. 3:2, 8, 11. Luke 13:3, 24:47. Ezek. 18:30. Mark 1:5, 15. Acts 2:38. Rom. 2:4. II Cor. 7:10.

    (3d.) Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins. Matt. 3:13-15. Mark 1:4. 5. Luke 3:3. John 3:5. Acts 2:38, 22:16, 2:41, 8:12, 37, 38. Mark 16:16. Col. 2:12. Rom. 6:4, 5. John 3:23. Acts 8:38, 39.

    (4th.) Laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Deut. 34:9. John 20:21, 22. Acts 8:17, 19:6. I Tim. 4:14. Acts 9:17. I Cor. 12:3. Acts 19:1-6.

    (5th.) We believe in the resurrection of the body; that the dead in Christ will rise first, and the rest of the dead will not live again until the thousand years are expired. Job 19:25, 26. Dan. 12:2. I Cor. 15:42. I Thes. 4:16. Rev. 20:6. Acts 17:31. Phil. 3:21. John 11:24. Isa. 26:19. Ps. 17:15.

    (6th.) We believe in the doctrine of eternal judgment, which provides that men shall be judged, rewarded, or punished, according to the degree of good or evil they shall have done. Rev. 20:12. Ecc. 3:17. Matt. 16:27 OO Cor. 5:10. II Pet. 2:4, 13, 17.

    We believe that a man must be called of God, and ordained by laying on of hands of those who are in authority, to preach the Gospel, and administer the ordinances thereof. Heb. 5:1, 5, 6, 8. Acts 1:24, 25, 14:23. Eph. 4:11. John 15:16.

    We believe in the same kind of organization that existed in the primitive church;

     


    790                        HISTORY  OF  DECATUR  COUNTY.                       


    viz., Apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, etc. I Cor. 12:18. Matt. 10:1. Acts 6:4. Eph. 4:11, 2:20. Titus 1:5.

    We believe that in the Bible is contained the word of God, so far as it is translated correctly. We believe that the canon of Scripture is not full, but that God, by His Spirit, will continue to reveal His word to man until the end of time. Job. 32:8. Heb. 13:8. Prov. 29:18. Amos 3:7. Jer. 23:4, 31:31, 34, 33:6. Ps. 85:10, 11. Luke 17:26. Rev. 14:6, 7, 19:10.

    We believe in the powers and gifts of the everlasting Gospel, viz.: the gift of faith, discerning of spirits, prophecy, revelation, healing, visions, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues, wisdom, charity, brotherly love, etc. I Cor. 12:1-11, 14:26. John 14:24. Acts 2:3. Matt. 28:19, 20. Mark 16:16.

    We believe that marriage is ordained of God; and that the law of God provides for but one companion in wedlock, for either man or woman, except in cases where the contract of marriage is broken by death or transgression. Gen. 2:18, 21-24, 7:1, 7, 13. Prov. 5:15-21. Mal. 2"14, 15. Matt. 19:4-6. I Cor. 7:2. Heb. 13:4. D. & C. 42:7. 49:3.

    We believe that the doctrines of a plurality and a community of wives are heresies, and are opposed to the law of God. Gen. 4:19, 23, 24, 7:9, 22:2, in connection Gal. 4th and 5th c. Gen. 21:8-10. Mal. 2:14, 15. Matt. 19:3-9. The Book of Mormon says: "Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be ONE WIFE, and concubines he shall have none, for I, the Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me, saith the Lord of hosts." -- Jacob 2:6-9.

    We believe that in all matters of controversy upon the duty of man toward God, and in reference to preparation and fitness for the world to come, the word of God should be decisive and the end of dispute; and that when God directs, man should obey.

    We believe that the religion of Jesus Christ, as taught in the New Testament Scriptures, will, if its precepts are accepted and obeyed, make men and women better in the domestic circle, and better citizens of town, county and State, and consequently better fitted for the change which cometh at death.

    We believe that men should worship God in "Spirit and in truth;" and that such worship does not require a violation of the constitutional law of the land. John 4:21-24. Doctrine and Covenants, sec. 58, par. 5.

    We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where or what they may.

    The Lamoni Gazette was started in November, 1885, by Sumner E. King, from Mormontown, Missouri. He sold, three months later, to Walker & Hansen, the present proprietors. It is a six-column folio, published on Tuesdays, at $1.00 per year, and independent politically.

    The only lawyer residing here is W. A. Williams.

    The first physician at Lamoni was Dr. Bissell. Those now residing here are Drs. J. W. De Noon, J. J. Stafford, J. H. Hansen and D. D. Steiner.

    The business of Lamoni in 1886 is represented by the following firms:

    George Adams, mill; Robert Booth, grocery; Blair & Bell, general store; Miss Cazley, millinery; George Derry, harness and shoes; E. H. Dancer, lumber and implements; Z. T. Earl, general stock; William Gray, hotel; W. H. Graham, hotel;
     



                                            VILLAGES.                                       791.


    Walker & Hansen, drugs; Hogue, Clum & Bailey, hardware and tinshop; W. Hudson, general store; Hopkins Bros., implements and furniture; George Johnson, jeweler; Miss L. L. Lyons, postmistress; D. F. Nicholson, hardware; Olsen & Lewis, furniture; J. W. Ockerman, station agent; N. M. Reeder, general store; J. B. Rogers, blacksmith; Joe Rabidou, blacksmith; Stoddard Bros., lumber; Thomas Teale & Co., general store; H. L. Tilton, general store; Mrs. Wicks, millinery; Walker & Hansen, Lamoni Gazette.

    (remainder of text not transcribed)






     

    Transcriber's Comments



    1855 Map of South Central Iowa  (Garden Grove underlined)
     



    Index to 1887 Biographical Sketches
    A
    
    Adams, George
    Aker, B. B.
    Akers, Benjamin
    Akers, S.C.
    Albaugh, W. H.
    Alden, William
    Alexander, E. H.
    Allen, Charles
    Allen, Jacob
    Andrew, J. N.
    Andrews, J. R.
    Andrew, M. L.
    Anstey, William
    Arnold, G. P.
    Ashburn, J. M.
    Aten, J. W.
    Atlee, I. R.
    
    B
    
    Baker, G. W.
    Baker, Jacob
    Baker, J. F.
    Baker, S. F.
    482 Banta, Hon. Elijah
    Barr, Benton
    Barr, C. W.
    Barrackman, C. J.
    Barrett, Edmond
    Bason, George
    Bathe, G. R.
    Beach, Stephen
    Beavers, Joseph
    Beck, J. H.
    Beck, T. T.
    Bedell, D. E.
    Bedier, F. F.
    Bell, T. J.
    Bellomy, J. B.
    Bennett, Jason
    Bicknell, R.
    Biggs, William
    Black, W. T.
    Blair, James
    Blair, W. A.
    498 Blair, W. W.
    Board, C. L.
    Bone, H. C.
    Boyce, Mark
    Boyce, William
    Boydston, L. H.
    Bozarth, W. W.
    Brammer, Alexander
    Brammer, F. M.
    Brammer, LaFayette
    Brenizer, O. C.
    Brenizer, Theophilus
    Bright, Henry
    Briley, S. H.
    Brothers, H. P.
    Brown, Harrison
    Brown, Joseph
    Brown, Thomas
    Brown, W. A.
    Bruce, Bryson
    Bryan, Moses
    Bryant, H. D.
    Buffon, A. G.
    Bullock, N. P.
    Burns, A. M.
    Burns, J. D.
    
    C
    
    Cash, William
    Carlton, Samuel
    Chase, A. E.,
    Chase, E. L.
    Chase, Hiram
    Chase, L. B.
    Chastan, Levi
    Chester, V. L.
    Clark, I. N.
    Clark, John
    477 Cochran, A. S.
    Cockerham, W. D.
    Coffey, S. W.
    Cole, Tunis
    Conkle, W. P.
    Cornett, Nathaniel
    Conwell, Edward
    Cowles, D. C.
    Cozad, J. A.
    Cozad, W. C.
    Craig, S. L.
    Craig, William
    Crees, Joseph
    Crees, Michael
    Cruikshank, Peter
    Crum, Jacob
    Culver, Joseph
    Culver, Sylvanus
    Cummings, Alfred
    
    D
    
    Dale, J. M.
    492 Dancer, David
    Dancer, Eugene
    Daniels, Moses
    Daniel, T. B.
    Davis, Enos
    Daykin, John
    Delong, I. N.
    Denham, J. A.
    Derry, George
    Dickson, Searight
    Dodd, Eli
    Doolittle, E. W.
    Duff, W. D.
    Dunbar, John
    Dunlavy, James
    
    E
    
    Eals, C. S.
    Eiker, J. M.
    Ernest, Elbert
    Euritt, D. F.
    
    F
    
    Fear, Robert
    Ferguson, Ephraim
    Ferguson, S. A.
    Ferry, D. M.
    Fesler, W. H.
    Fierce, E. W.
    Fierce, F. W.
    Fierce, W. E.
    Fisher, J. T.
    Foland, Michael
    Forgrave, Lyman
    Forrey, Samuel
    Frost, W. H.
    Fruitt, J. R.
    
    G
    
    Gammill, J. C.
    Gammon, James
    Gammon, W. E.
    Gardner, J. W.
    Gardner, W. A.
    Gates, S. A.
    Gates, S. H.
    Gaulter, Lewis
    Gentry, Curran
    Gibson, Garret
    Gibson, William
    Gillen, J. W.
    Gilreath, H. H.
    Gilreath, W. B.
    Goin, J. A.
    Grady, P. O.
    Graham, G. E.
    Graham, W. H.
    Graves, T. J.
    Gray, J. H.
    539 Gurley, Z. H.
    
    H
    
    Hagen, J. F.
    Hainer, Ignace
    Hall, C. K.
    Hamilton, Archibald
    Hamilton, F. M.
    Hamilton, G. A.
    Hamilton, Joseph
    Hamilton, S. A.
    Hanson, J. H.
    Harvey, J. W.
    Harvey, Refine
    Hartman, J. W.
    Hatfield, H. H.
    Hebener, L. W.
    Henderson, J. K.
    Hensley, W. K.
    Higbee, J. C.
    Hildreth, I. F.
    Hilfiker, Otto
    Hingston, S. O.
    Hine, Willis
    Hines, Samson
    Hitchcock, James
    Hollingshead, Joseph
    Hopkins, William
    Horn, Elisha
    Horner, J. B.
    Houston, R. L.
    Hubbard, M. L.
    Hudson, Wilson
    Hughes, M.
    Hutchinson, G. J.
    
    I
    
    Imhoff, Peter
    
    J
    
    Jackson, A. M.
    Jennings, F. A.
    Jennings, S. C.
    Johnson, Calvin
    Johnson, J. H.
    Johnson, Lewis
    Judd, Hawkins
    
    K
    
    Kelley, W. F.
    Kellogg, C. L.
    Kellogg, Josephine
    Kellogg, O. N.
    Kellogg, R. D.
    650 Kendall, J. S.
    Ketchum, W. A.
    King, Elias
    King, George
    King, H. M.
    Knowles, T. H.
    Koger, B. F.
    Koger, Jordan
    
    L
    
    Laney, W. J.
    Landes, J. F.
    Latta, Calvin
    Layton, H. R.
    Layton, J. W.
    Leonard, Harrod
    Lillard, J. M.
    Lillard, J. W.
    Logan, J. E.
    Long, A. B.
    Lott, Simeon
    Loving, William
    Lowrance, E. M.
    
    M
    
    Machlan, G. W.
    Macy, David
    Macy, E. C.
    Madaraz, Ladislas
    Mader, Jacob
    Manning, John
    Mather, J. W.
    McBroom, R. M.
    McCall, Robert
    McCleary, Isaac
    McCleary, J. B.
    McCleary, M. V.
    McClelland, J. R.
    McDonough, John
    McHarness, Moses
    McKee, J. M.
    McKee, W. L.
    McKibben, John
    McLain, Adam
    McLaughlin, J. W.
    McNeil, S. P.
    McVay, William
    Mendenhall, Elijah
    Mercer, J. T.
    Metier, Samuel
    Millin, Randall
    Miller, H. S.
    Miller, Isaac
    Miller, Jefferson
    Mitchell, E.
    Mitchell, L. D.
    Moffet, A. W.
    Monroe, Isaac
    Moore, A. B.
    Moore, C. W.
    Moore, G. W.
    Moore, W. D.
    Morey, D. D.
    Morgan, Thomas
    Morris, Madison
    Morris, Mahlon
    Mullinnix, C. P.
    Mullins, Patrick
    
    N
    
    Newlin, H. E.
    Newlin, John
    Nicholson, D. F.
    Norton, C. L.
    
    O
    
    Orfield, P. P.
    Osborn, Christopher
    
    P
    
    Parrish, J. O.
    Parris, W. H.
    Peck, Joseph
    Pence, William
    Penniwell, J. F.
    Perdue, James
    Pettis, Andrew
    Pierce, G.
    Piercy, J. W.
    Pryor, Allen
    Pryor, J. A.
    
    R
    
    Rauch, Anton
    Reardon, Thomas
    Redman, George
    Reeder, N. M.
    Rhoads, Lewis
    Richard, A. K.
    Richardson, Royal
    Riggs, N. H.
    Robbins, W. S.
    Robey, F. A.
    Roberts, Jesse
    Roberts, Richard
    651 Robinson, Ebenezer
    544 Robinson, E. J.
    Rogers, J. T.
    Ross, Francis
    Ross, Jacob
    Ross, W. A.
    Roy, A. A.
    Rudibaugh, G. W.
    Russell, J. W.
    
    S
    
    Sage, James
    Samson, Seth
    Sayles, L. H.
    Schuetz, Louis
    Scott, John
    Sears, D. G.
    Sears, J. J.
    Shaw, A. C.
    Shaw, G. W.
    Shields, J. S.
    Shinn, D. W.
    Shewmaker, G. W.
    Sigler, L. P.
    Smith, D. E.
    Smith, George
    Smith, J. R.
    Smith, John
    512 Smith, Joseph
    Smithson, I. W.
    Spaeth, George
    Spencer, N. C.
    Springer, B. O.
    Springer, J. B.
    Springer, J. G.
    Springer, Oliver
    Stanley, Henry
    Stearn, A. B.
    Stearn, Daniel
    589 Stebbins, H. A.
    Stiles, G. W.
    Stiles, O. E.
    Stone, James
    Stone, John
    Stone, Rev. Wilson
    Stout, W. J.
    Sullivan, W. J.
    Swan, Frederick
    Swope, A. P.
    
    T
    
    Teale, E. B.
    Teale, J. E.
    Teale, Thomas
    Tift, E. W.
    Tillotson, Elijah
    Tilton, H. L.
    Thompson, F. M.
    Treanor, James
    Trullinger, J. W.
    Tucker, Charles
    Turner, Robert
    Tuttle, Oliver
    
    V
    
    Vail, James
    VanWerden, H. C.
    Varga, Francis
    
    W
    
    Wadsworth, G. W.
    Walker, B. T.
    Walker, G. P.
    Walker. S. F.
    Waller, Thomas
    Walton, H. L.
    Warnock, W. S.
    Warrington, N. B.
    Wartenbe, John
    Wasson, M. A.
    Watsabaugh, P. C.
    Webster, S. W.
    West, William
    Westervelt, Theron
    Wheeler, W. C.
    Wiley, Isaac
    Williams, Samuel
    Wilson, N. T.
    Winget, J. H.
    Wolverton, Perry
    Wood, C. C.
    Woodard, E. P.
    Woodbury, George
    Woodmansee, J. W.
    Woods, W. M.
    Worden, C. D.
    Worden, E. T.
    Worden, J. W.
    Worden, Silas
    
    Y
    
    Yarrington, Alvah
    Yost, Jacob W.
    650 Young, D. P.
    Young, G. T.
    Young, J. L.
    Young, Timon
    Young, W. H.
    
    Z
    
    Zichey, L. E.
    Zook, Joseph
    
    

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