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Bullock's Grove |
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Location
Physical description of the site
Bullock Grove is located “in the north half of the northeast quarter of the east section 25, and the south half of the southeast quarter of Section 24, Lewis Township, [and was] found there when the original survey was made in 1852.”(1)
Is it located within another township?
Yes, it is in Lewis Township.(2)
History
Who were the early residents?
Considering the name of the community and its relation to a family of Latter-day Saints who resided there, one concludes that Mormon pioneers were the original inhabitants of the community.(3)
Did it have other names?
It was also called Bullock’s Farm.(4)
How were the names established?
Doubtless, Bullock’s Grove received its name from Benjamin Bullock, Frontier Guardian agent and resident of the settlement.(5)
Were there any unique contributions or events during their stay?
“Gardner, Amos, son of Moses J. and Polly Gardner, [died] 23 May 1850, at Bullock’s Grove, of small pox, 13 years, 2 months, and 19 days. (Frontier Guardian, 29 May 1850).
“B. K. Bullock and Miss Martha Hart, both of Pottawatamie county, Iowa, [no date], at Bullock’s Grove, by Isaac Bullock. (Frontier Guardian, 7 February 1851)
“James W. Preston and Miss Emeline Houston, both of Pottawatamie county, Iowa, 2 March 1851, At Bullock’s Grove, by Orson Hyde. (Frontier Guardian, 7 March 1851)”(6)
On January 27, 1853, a splinter church, which called itself the Church of Jesus Christ of the New Jerusalem, or “‘The New Church’” for short, advertised its intention of holding “two days meetings . . . monthly at the same place [i.e. Kanesville], and also meetings on the intervening Sabbaths, at Bullocks Grove, or Macedonia, and other placers where there are openings for the Elders until furthers notice.” The article, of which the foregoing is part, is signed by Richard Stephens and Joseph Bardsley, “Presidents of the Church.”(7) By the time of this article, most, if not all of the faithful Latter-day Saints known on record to have lived at Bullock’s Grove had already moved west.(8)
When did most of the Mormons leave?
Ezra Bickford and his family left in 1850 with the “William Snow/Joseph Young Company.” (9) On 21 August 1850, the Frontier Guardian published the following: “We have received two letters from the two last emigrating companies for the Valley. . . . Ezra Bickford, from Bullock’s Grove in this country, died since the mail came through. . . .”(10) No doubt the residents of Bullock’s Grove grieved the loss of their fellow-citizen and brother in the faith.
Asa Bartlett York explains how he helped Mrs. Bickford reach the valley of the Great Salt Lake after her husband’s death.
Brother Joseph Young was captain of our company that was to cross the plains. He rode a good deal of the way with me as we were very dear friends. I was chosen to drive an ox team across the plains for an aged couple. Brother and Sister Bigfor[d]. This was when I was 18 years old. Brother Bigford was seized with cholera and died, and I helped to bury him near the Platte river. His sorrowing widow [Emily] was then placed in my care and I delivered her safe and sound on the public square in Salt Lake City, Utah, free of charge. This I did willingly and gladly.(11)
Presumably, the other two people traveling with the Bickfords, whether children or some other relations or friends, also accepted the charity of Asa York.(12)
Isaac Houston, a member of the community at Bullock’s Grove, wrote the following letter to Brigham Young en route to the Salt Lake Valley:
Houston, Isaac, to Brigham Young, 18 Aug. 1851
Two hundred sixty one and a half miles
From Salt Lake City August 18th, 1851
President Brigham Young
Dear Sir
I heard yours of the 1 st Inst. read on the 10 th, with much pleasure and satisfaction, and in answer to your request would say that on the 22 nd Day of June last I left Bullocks Grove 8 miles south of Kanesville with my Family with my Soninlaw and Daughter Brother John Riggs & Family also Br. Edward Duckworth and Lady[.] we came to Platt[e]ville[.]
Crossed the Mo. River on the 26th[.]
left the River 27th and on the 29th lef[t] Council Grove, 12 miles this side of s d River. Our little Band consists of the above mentioned together with Isaac Sampson & Family[,] James Lemmon & Family[,] W m Nelson & Family[,] (& Capt. W m McPhirson & Family[,] also four men with him (viz) Perly Dickinson[,] Thomas McFarlin[,] W m Reas & Adam--he has two thrashing Machines with him all from wisconsin)[.] we have all had good hea[l]th as usual and have been blessed of our Heavenly Father and prospered thus far on our way for which we have great re[a]son to be thankful[.] we have not been hindered from traveling but 3 hours by high waters since we crossed the Mo. River[.] we have heard of no sickness on the south Route this Season[.] the Roads have been Dry most of the way[.] Feed not Plenty since we were 100 mils below Fort Laramie. Capt. M c p[h]erson went throug[h] to the Gold mines last year.
In haste [I] Remain y obet. Servt,
ISAAC HOUSTON(13)
Brother Houston was traveling in the William McPherson Company of 1851. Another company, that of Isaac Bullock that traveled to the Salt Lake Valley in 1852 contained at least four families who lived in Bullock’s Grove at some point.(14)
Did the town have a Frontier Guardian representative, if so who?
Yes, Benjamin Bullock was the man.(15)
Notes:
1. Allen Wortman, Ghost Towns of Mills County, Iowa (Malvern, Iowa: Wortman, 1975), 74.
2. Allen Wortman, Ghost Towns of Mills County, Iowa, 74.
3. Kanesville, Iowa, The Frontier Guardian, 2 October 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1997), 59.
4. J. (Joseph) Grassl and Joseph Meyer, Iowa ( Hildburghausen: Bibliographischen Instituts, 1852 ), in David Rumsey Collection v4.0, www.davidrumsey.com. Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1997), 83-84, 114.
5. Kanesville, Iowa, The Frontier Guardian, 2 October 1850, in Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions, 59.
6. Lyndon W. Cook, Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852 (Orem, Utah: Center for Research of Mormon Origins, 1990), 9, 31.
7. Kanesville, Iowa, The Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel, 27 January 1853, in Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions, 119.
8. Kanesville, Iowa, Frontier Guardian, 4 April 1851, 298 reel 21, item 4, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah. Cook, Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, 9, 31. Kanesville, Iowa, The Frontier Guardian, 2 May 1851, 18 June 1852, in Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions, 107, 108, 176.
9. www.lds.org/churchhistory/
10. Kanesville, Iowa, Frontier Guardian, 21 August 1850, p.2, col. 3, in Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions, 55.
11. York, Asa Bartlett, Autobiographical sketch, in Mormon biographical sketches collection [ca. 1900-1975], reel 14, box 20, fd. 4, no. 3, 2. Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, in www.lds.org/churchhistory/. Mrs. Bickford’s name was found in the list of individuals traveling in the Snow/Young Company at www.lds.org/churchhistory/.
12. http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/0,15791,4018-1-6760,00.html
13. Brigham Young, Office Files 1832-1878, reel 31, box 22, fd. 7, Church Archives, Salt Lake City, Utah, in www.lds.org/churchhistory/
14. www.lds.org
15. Kanesville, Iowa, Frontier Guardian, 4 April 1851, microfilm # 298 reel 21, item 4, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
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Carterville |
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Location
Physical description of the site
“[Carterville’s] site, which is now a farm field, is almost directly east of the Milwaukee railroad tracks at the Greendale crossings. In 1850 and 1852 Cartersville was a flourishing village of about 500 people, and the principal stopping place for the emigrants enroute west. The rise of Council Bluffs, then Kanesville, however, soon ended the glory of Cartersville, and rapidly placed it among the list of deserted villages.”(1)
Is it located within another township?
Yes, it is located in Garner Township.(2)
Any unique features such as located by a creek, river, etc.
Carterville was just two miles from Kanesville.(3)
History
When was it established?
Carterville was in existence by 1847, and the Mormon pioneers arrived in the region in 1846, so it had to have been established either in one of the two years.(4)
Who were the early residents?
“Cartersville was established by the Mormons emigrating from Illinois to Utah, many of whom stopped to rest in this vicinity.”(5) The early residents included Joseph Young, Robert Calwell, Dominicus Carter, Joseph Kelly, “Mr. Curtis,” Benjamin Waldron, Thomas Waldron, John Walsh, Andrew N. Henderson, Isabella Livingston, Davis Bartholomew, Ruth J. Jones, and possibly T. D. Brown, who married Davis Bartholomew and Ruth J. Jones.(6)
Were there any unique contributions or events during their stay?
The pioneers built a “new road running between . . . [Kanesville] and Carterville.”(7) In its planning stages, the road was referred to as follows: “It is proposed that a committee of three persons be appointed, one from Carterville, one from Kanesville, and one from Big Pigeon, to examine and determine the most feasable route for a public road leading from the prairie south of Carterville through the latter place, passing through or near Kanesville and extending up the Tabernacle hollow to Little and Big Pigeon. Joseph Kelley, of Carterville, Henry Miller, of Kanesville, and Alvah Benson of Big Pigeon are appointed that committee by a number of citizens from all these places. This is destined to be one of the great thoroughfares threw this county, and calls for energetic measures in relation to it; and this committee are the very men to enter into such measures; and after the work is done, the commissioners will probably sanction it. But it requires to be opened sooner than it can be done by petition. We expect that every public spirited man will be on hand, up and doing while it is called today.”(8)
When the “Traveling Elders” set “a schedule . . . for their visits” around 8 August 1849 they included Carterville in their list of places to minister.(9)
“April 3, 1850: Stolen. A valuable set of harness for two horses, (brass mounted,) was stolen from the yard of Mr. Robert Calwell, near Carterville.”(10)
In the issue of the Frontier Guardian for the above date, the following was announced: “The Annual Conference of the Church will commence on Saturday, the 6 th inst., at 10 o’clock, A.M., in the Valley, a little South of Kanesville, on the new road running between the former place and Carterville, if the weather permit.”(11)
“ Davis Bartholomew and Miss Ruth J. Jones [were married] 27 March 1851, at Carterville, by Orson Hyde.”(12)
“Andrew N. Henderson and Isabella Livingston, both natives of Scotland, [were married] 15 May 1851, at Ca[r]terville, by T. D. Brown.”(13)
“Waldron, Thomas A. [died] 30 January 1851 at Carterville, 16 years, 3 months, and 27 days.”(14)
“Walsh, John, a native of Yorkshire, England, 15 October 1851, [died] at the residence of Benjamin Waldron in Carterville, 30 years old.”(15)
“Elder Benson” made an appointment to be at Carterville on Monday, 1 December 1851, starting at 10:00 a.m. His next appointment was the same day at 3:00 p.m. in Springville. The source gives no indication as to the purpose of the appointments.(16)
“ Seymour B. Young’s father [Joseph Young] and family, not having the means necessary to emigrate in 1847, and not obtaining sufficient until three years later, remained in Winter Quarters until the spring of 1848, when, with the rest of the people who were unable to take up their long journey to the mountains, they re-crossed the Missouri river into the State of Iowa. Winter Quarters was then in the Indian Territory and reservation, and hence the Saints were compelled to vacate this temporary abiding place and seek new homes in the State of Iowa.
“During the stay of his father’s family for the three intervening years, Brother Seymour was baptized in 1848, at Carterville, Iowa, by Ezekiel Lee; he also gained his first experience as a cowboy, and like others of his brethren was exposed to the raids of hostile Indians and white cattle thieves. About the middle of June his father’s family bid good-bye to their homes in Pottawattamie county, Iowa, and started for the Valley.”(17)
“The first school ever taught in Pottawattamie county is claimed to have been held in the little Mormon suburb of Kanesville called Carterville. This was in 1847. A Mr. Curtis was the teacher and he contracted to teach for $12 per month, but at close of school was compelled to compromise for a part.”(18)
When did most of the Mormons leave?
Possibly three families from Carterville left for the Salt Lake Valley in the Joseph Outhouse Company of 1852.(19)
Did the town have a Frontier Guardian representative, if so who?
Yes. The first agents' name was Dominicus Carter.(20) On 23 January 1852, B. B. Messenger held the responsibility of Frontier Guardian “agent,” and just six months after, the paper’s title had changed to The Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel, and the paper lists no agent for Carterville.(21)
3. Include any pictures or video clips of the settlement, GPS location, and/or modern driving directions as to location. If after an internet search, interesting sites are discovered, write down the URL so that we can provide a link to it.
Cemeteries
“Old settlement of Cartersville, a flourishing Mormon village, discovered by workmen while excavating for new railroad. Rev. Henry De Long recalls romantic story of Amelia Meekin, who drowned herself rather than become fifth wife of Joseph Young.
“The human bones which the Great Western graders exhumed east of Greendale a few days ago have proven to be those of Mormon pioneers who were buried in the frontier cemetery at Cartersville, some fifty years ago, says the Council Bluffs, Nonperiel of October 14 th. The right of way of the new railroad cuts across a corner of the almost forgotten burying ground, which has for years been used as a cornfield, all visible traces of the old cemetery having disappeared long ago. . .
“During the existence of Cartersville a cemetery was located on the knoll just east of the town, and there it is said that some 200 or 300 people were buried, it then being the only bu[r]ying ground in miles of country. The advent of the Great Western and the cut made by its graders through a corner of the old cemetery has occasioned a refreshing of the memories of the pioneers concerning Cartersville.
CEMETERY IS LOCATED
“Yesterday afternoon Rev. Henry De Long, who came west with the first Mormon emigration in 1846, visited the place where the graders dug out several skeletons last week, in company with a Nonpariel reporter.
“Mr. De Long has assisted in burying a number of people in the old Cartersville cemetery, and he readily located the ground. The Great Western makes a cut of 12 feet on the east side of the old cemetery, and it was there that the bones were discovered at a depth of four or five feet. Only three or four skeletons were exhumed, however, as just one corner of the cemetery evidently lay within the Great Western right of way. The main portion of the burying ground is in the corn field, just west of the cut, and there, according to Mr. DeLong, some 200 or 300 burials were made. Had the graders cut 20 or 30 feet further into the cemetery there would have been a wholesale disinterment of bones.
PIONEERS DIED OF EXPOSURE
“Though 200 or 300 burials seems a rather large number for a small village like Cartersville was, to have in the few years of its existence Rev. Henry DeLong explains his estimate by the fact that it was the only cemetery in this section of the country at that time, and people came from miles around to bury their dead here. Then, too, the death rate among the Mormon pioneers, who had just made the wagon trip across the State from Illinois was great, scores succumbing to the exposure and from scurvy. As far as Mr. DeLong can remember, no plague or contagious disease assisted in filling the cemetery.”(22)
“‘About 300 Mormons were buried in the Carterville cemetery, about two miles east of Council Bluffs, in the vicinity of Green’s packing house. The grounds were well kept and were in an excellent state of preservation until 1854, when they were abandoned. The cemetery was on the old Mormon trail to Council Bluffs a[n]d was started by Joseph Young when Carterville was a rival for Council Bluffs. When the Great Western railroad entered this city several graves were plowed up. [T]he bones were placed in one box and buried along the right-of-way of the railroad.”(23)
“ Nothing but the bare bones of the skeletons were found in the grave thus opened, however, fifty years of burial having turned practically everything else back to dust again. In a few places along the newly cut embankment traces of the boards of a coffin or burial box may be found, but the onetime boards now crumble to dust at the touch. Around other skeletons no evidence whatever of a coffin could be discovered. Rev. DeLong explains this by the fact that in the pioneer days, when Cartersville existed, coffins were unknown to this part of the country, and that it was only rarely that boards could be obtained with which to make even a burial box. Thus, probably the majority of the interments at the Cartersville cemetery were made with the body wrapped in clothes and blankets.
BONES PILED ON GROUND
“All the bones that have been brought to light, and they still remain piled in small heaps along the embankment made by the graders last week, are evidently those of adult white males. They are still in a good state of preservation, though stained a copper color by the action of the clay in which they were buried.
“Concerning the Cartersville cemetery, Mr. DeLong says that he remembers it to have been in good condition as late as 1854, at which time many of the graves had wooden headboards, and a number of them were fenced in with wooden picket fences, as was the custom at that time. Later, however, it rapidly passed into decay, and just when the last traces of its existence as a cemetery were obliterated cannot now be recalled.
The failure to maintain the cemetery is largely explained by the fact that nearly all of the burials were from Mormon families, which soon after moved on to Utah, thus leaving no one in this vicinity directly concerned in the cemetery or its continuance. Then, too, the desertion of Cartersville also practically ended the burials there. When the cemetery was established it was on government land, and, in fact,the first surveys were not made until about 1854. It is probable that nearly all the headboards and fences had disappeared before the land was ever put under cultivation. In any event, the cemetery ground has been used as a grain field for many years.
FATE OF AMELIA MEEKIN
“Of the burials at the Cartersville cemetery, Rev. Henry DeLong could yesterday recall the name of but one person, that of Amelia Meekin, a beautiful young Mormon woman who committed suicide by jumping into Mosquito Creek, near where Green's packing house now stands. Amelia's parents had insisted on her marrying Joseph Young, one of Brigham Young's disciples, who was the leader of the Cartersville colony. Now Joseph already had four wives, and Amelia objected strenuously to becoming the fifth. After a few days at the Young home, where she found that she was not the only one in the affection of her husband, she returned to the household of her parents. The Meekins, however, insisted on Amelia returning to the Young home. She accordingly left the house, but instead of returning to the arms of Joseph Young, Amelia proceeded forthwith to the banks of Mosquito Creek where she took off her wedding gown and plunged into the water. Her body was found a day or two afterward and interred in the cemetery which has just been relocated.”(24)
Notes:
1.“‘ Old Mormon Cemetery’: Railroad Graders in Iowa Unearth Bones. Once Town, now Cornfield,” The Salt Lake Tribune ( Salt Lake City, Utah), 18 October 1902, in http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapottaw/CemCartersville.html.
2. Homer H. Field, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa: From the Earliest Historic Times to 1907 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke, 1907), 1:192, 194, microfilm #900 no. 148, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
3. Hosea B. Horn, Horn's overland guide from the U.S. Indian Sub-Agency, Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River to the City of Sacramento, in California : containing a table of distances, and showing all the rivers, creeks, lakes, springs, mountains, hills, camping-places, and other prominent objects; with remarks on the country, roads, timbers, grasses, curiosities, etc.; the entire route having been tracked by a road measurer, and the distances from place to place, and from the Missouri river, accurately ascertained; with a complete and accurate map , ( New York : J.H. Colton, 1853) , in Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 3 April 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1997), 114.
4. Gail George Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & E Nebraska ( Omaha, Nebraska: Omaha LDS Institute of Religion, 2000), 1; Field, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa: From the Earliest Historic Times to 1907, 1:194.
5. “‘ Old Mormon Cemetery’: Railroad Graders in Iowa Unearth Bones. Once Town, now Cornfield,” The Salt Lake Tribune ( Salt Lake City, Utah), 18 October 1902, in http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapottaw/CemCartersville.html.
6. http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/w/o/wol3/youngj1.htm; Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, 3 April 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 43; Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, 4 April 1851, Microfilm #293, reel 21, item 4, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, 27 June 1849, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 20; Field, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa: From the Earliest Historic Times to 1907, 1:194; Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852 (Orem, Utah: Center for Research of Mormon Origins, 1991[?]), 21; Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, 16 May 1851, in Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, 32, 33, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 71, 75; www.lds.org/churchhistory/.
7. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 3 April 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 44.
8. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 27 June 1849, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 19-20.
9. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 8 August 1849, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 25.
10 Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 3 April 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 43. In the United States Federal Census, 1850, Mr. Calwell’s name is spelled “Colwell.”
11. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 3 April, 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 44.
12. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 4 April 1851, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 71, in Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, 33.
13. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 16 May 1851, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 75, in Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, 33.
14. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 7 February 1851, in Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, 22.
15 Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 31 October 1851, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 88, in Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian, 1849-1852, page.
16. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 28 November 1851, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 89.
17. http://personal.atl.bellsouth.net/w/o/wol3/youngsb1.htm
18. Field, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa: From the Earliest Historic Times to 1907, 1:194.
19. www.lds.org/churchhistory/
20. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian, Kanesville, Iowa, 2 October 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 58.
21. Jacob Dawson, ed., Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel, Kanesville, Iowa, 18 June 1852, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 105.
22. “‘ Old Mormon Cemetery’: Railroad Graders in Iowa Unearth Bones. Once Town, now Cornfield,” The Salt Lake Tribune ( Salt Lake City, Utah), 18 October 1902, in http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapottaw/CemCartersville.html.
23. http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapottaw/CemPioneerBryGrnd.html
24. “‘ Old Mormon Cemetery’: Railroad Graders in Iowa Unearth Bones. Once Town, now Cornfield,” The Salt Lake Tribune ( Salt Lake City, Utah), 18 October 1902, in http://www.rootsweb.com/~iapottaw/CemCartersville.html. This last story sounds rather dramatized. Checking www.familysearch.org, however, I did find a record confirming that Joseph Young had four wives when he was living in Carterville. So, whether this girl wore her wedding dress for days after her wedding or not, the detail of the number of wives Joseph Young had is likely to be correct.
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Centerville |
History
The names of those who are recorded as having lived in Centerville the following: Isaac Caulkins, Edwin Harley, William J. Jolly and Dr. L. Johnson. Each was living there in 1849. (1)
“Dr. L. Johnson, of Centerville . . . [offered] his professional services [as a ‘botanical physician'] to the afflicted portion of the citizens of Pottawatamie county. From the success that has attended his professional labors heretofore, particularly in surgery and obstetics, he feels a confident assurance in the management of the most difficult cases; and also feels competent to manage most diseases incident to this climate.” (2)
Of the few individuals known to have lived in Centerville, only one has information available on lds.org concerning his travel to Utah . He, Edwin Harley, left in an unidentified wagon company in 1852. (3)
Notes:
1. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian , 7 February-2 May 1849, quoted in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Kanesville Advertisements (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1993), 2, 20, 26.
2. Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian , 7 February-2 May 1849, quoted in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Kanesville Advertisements (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1993), 2.
3. http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneerdetails/0,15791,4018-1-40866,00.html |
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Council Point |
 Location
“This place [Council Point] is about four miles up the Missouri River from . . . Kanesville.” (1)
The town site was located on a bend in the Missouri River . The Frontier Guardian of 31 October 1849 made clear that the public had legal access to a grove of cottonwoods along the river bottoms north of this bend, and that “None have the claim or right to prevent the citizens of Kanesville and its vicinity from going to the said cottonwoods to get what wood and timber they choose.” (2)
The site is located in the “southwest quarter of section 15, township 74, range 44.” (3) The town was near the Middle Mormon Ferry on the Missouri River . “This was a river port." (4)
History
“Council Point was the first Latter-day Saint town built in the Middle Missouri Valley . It was built in 1846 near the site of the flood demolished 1842/1843 Fort Croghan.
“Council Point was a support town, perhaps a quarter mile west of present Lake Manawa , for the first or Middle Mormon Ferry over the Missouri River . That ferry was south of today's south Omaha (Highway 92) Bridge. Another middle ferry was built further south, between Point aux poules (Traders Point) and Bellevue , but we don't know if it was established by the LDS or by American Fur Company factor at Bellevue , Peter Sarpy.
“Perhaps most unique of Council Point businesses was a rope walk, where hemp was used for the manufacture of rope and cordage. . . .
“Council Point was the most cosmopolitan of LDS towns in Iowa . More than 8,000 LDS from Europe landed at Council Point by steamboat from New Orleans . . . .
“Among the European Saints were more than 160 from Wales . A Welsh Tabernacle was built, probably a little northwest of Council Point.
“There was a warehouse at Council Point where immigrants could store their belongings while they looked for work and a way to gather wagons, oxen, food, tents, and supplies for the 1000-mile trek to the Salt Lake Valley.” (5)
One book claims that Council Point was simply another name for Council Bluffs , but from primary sources, this claim can be dismissed. (6)
“When the Mormons reached that locality, June, 1846, they found the little village of Council Point already named.” (7)
“Council Point was built by the Latter-day Saints in 1846.” (8)
“ Council Point, Emigrant Landing, Welsh Tabernacle Sites:
“First LDS town built in Middle Missouri Valley , support town for Middle Mormon Ferry.” (9)
“May 8, 1847, they [Horace Fish and family] started west again and arrived at the place where they had decided to locate—Council Point—on the 23 rd day of May. This place is about four miles up the Missouri River from Council Bluffs or, as it was then called, Kanesville. Here they remained for three years.” (10)
“It was here in 1846 that acting bishops were named to look after needy Latter-day Saint refugees, particularly the families who were left behind when the Mormon Battalion marched off to New Mexico and California in the Mexican War.
“This was a river port. A steamboat dock was located on a north elbow of the Missouri , then about two blocks south of here, about four blocks west of where Lake Manawa is today. It was called Emigrant's Landing because nearly eight thousand European Latter-day Saints landed here in the late 1850s and early 1850s.
“After the start of the 1849 gold rush, great quantities of merchandise coming by steamboat up river from St. Louis , were landed at Council Point. Large merchandise and supply houses flourished in Kanesville (now downtown Council Bluffs).
“Near the Landing was Reuben Allred's rope walk. . . . The north bank of the river where the boat landing and the rope walk were located is still visible, if you look west from South 20 th Street about three blocks south of Gifford. . . .
“ Fort Croghan was built here by the United States Dragoons in 1842, but it was nearly all washed away by floodwaters the next year. After the Mormons left for the West in the mid 1850s, Council Point and the Welsh Tabernacle were also washed away by floodwaters.” (11)
“Artemus Millet , of Council Point, and Mrs. Nancy Leemaster , of Silver Creek, [were married] 11 March 1849, at Kanesville, by Orson Hyde. ( Frontier Guardian , 21 March 1849)” (12)
“James W. Webb and Mrs. Sarah C. Botsford , both of Council Point, [were married] 1 July 1849, at Council Point, by William Snow.” (13)
A rather singular occurrence was noted in the 5 September 1849 number of The Frontier Guardian . About two hundred students from “three schools [met] at the Tabernacle [in Kanesville], one from Council point, taught by Mr. Brown and two at this place [Kanesville], taught by Mr. Grant and Mr. Poulterer.” The students marched to the Tabernacle from “about a quarter of a mile distant, . . . after a splendid band of music, with beautiful banners and various and appropriate inscriptions thereon,” and after a picnic lunch (“dinner”), they displayed their feats of scholarship, to the reported great enjoyment of those present. (14)
An inflammatory article in The Frontier Guardian on 21 February 1851 accused Indians of “enter[ing] unprotected houses, and rob[bing] them of every thing most valuable, which we hear they have done to Council Point.” (15)
A citizen of Council Point, “Dr. George Coulson . . . closed by prayer” a meeting of elders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at “the Grove” on Sunday, 20 April 1851. (16)
“One of the severest gales ever known in this section of country, passed over our town [Kanesville] on Wednesday evening, the 16 th inst., between the hours of seven and eight o'clock. In aspect it threatened the demolition of houses and the entire destruction of crops. The wind blew terrific—the thunder and lightning was tremendous, while the rain fell in torrents for about half an hour. . . .
“The people of Ferryville, and Council Point, shared in common with the rest; miles of fences were thrown down through the violence of the wind, leaving the corps exposed to the mercy of the numerous herds of cattle ranging around them at this season of the year. Our farmers are busily engaged in repairing their fences, so as to secure their crops from any further damage.” (17)
A Mr. D. S. lived in Council Point and dispensed advice concerning how to make one's wagon more perfectly through The Frontier Guardian. (18)
The majority of the families of Council Point left with the John Tidwell Company of 1852. (19)
Council Point did have a Frontier Guardian representative. In April 1851, it was James Allred. In June of the same year, it was George Coulson. Something odd occurred between 17 October and 28 November 1851, because on the latter date, the Guardian lists no representative for Council Point. (20) On 23 January of 1852, the Guardian has Mr. Tidwell listed as being its representative in Council Point. In June 1852, when the paper had changed hands and had become The Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel , it was still Mr. Tidwell who served as the “agent.” (21)
The Frontier Guardian of 7 February 1849 advised that “Emigrants to this place [Kanesville], by the Missouri River , should land at Council Point, some three miles above Trading Point or Bellevue . . . . This is the most eligible point on the river for the accommodation of emigrants to get removed to their friends in the various settlements in this region, and also the nearest point to this place.” (22)
The Frontier Guardian proclaimed to “all our principle business men . . . [that the] Kanesville Landing is at Council Point,” indicating that shipments to Kanesville should be dropped off at Council Point. (23) Hence one reason Council Point was so important. Another indication of the town's importance is the sheer number of times it is mentioned in The Frontier Guardian. (24)
“Tabernacle for saints coming from Wales in British Isles just NW of Council Point. Emigrant Landing probably built in 1838 as landing for Government Farm of 40 (later 80) acres to show Pottawattamie/Ottawa/Chippewa Indians how to live without hunting, which had angered older residential tribes of this district (Oto-Missouri & Omaha in Nebraska; Sac-Fox in N Central Iowa; Dakota Sioux in SE S Dakota). Here, more than 8,000 LDS used hemp to manufacture cord, rope, and hemp cable. The cable was used as guide ropes between the Iowa dugway and Nebraska dugways for the Middle Mormon Ferry, pushed back and forth between shores by force of river flow. The dugways allowed loading and unloading without river flow moving the properly caulked boat, capable of carrying two loaded wagons and teams. Here Abraham Lincoln landed in 1859 a few months before he was elected U.S. President. . . . See marker with text South of Gifford Road and just west of 1 st farm driveway south.” (25)
“Council Point, roughly halfway between present Lake Manawa and Twin City Plaza , south and southwest of Kanesville/Council Bluffs, was built in June 1846 as a support town to Middle Mormon Ferry. It was the third most important LDS community in the Missouri Valley .
“Welsh Tabernacle later was built in or near Council Point. West of the town was Middle Mormon Ferry, built between June 15 and 29. . . . A steady stream of ox-drawn covered wagons passed Council Point on their way, day and night, to the Middle Ferry. They crossed the Missouri River, continued on west four miles and waited at Cold Spring Camp for the signal to continue on to Grand Island , Nebraska territory or on to the Rocky Mountains .”
“Emigrant Landing was about a quarter mile south-southeast of Council Point. . . . Davis Hardin and family, including teen-age boys, opened the [government] farm in 1837 . . .
“The Pottawattamie (who far outnumbered the Ottawa and Chippewa) had agreed in Washington , D.C. treaty negotiations just weeks before the LDS arrived, to give up southwest Iowa and remove to northeast Kansas in 1847. The steamboat landing likely remained and was used by more than 8000 European LDS coming from western Europe and the British Isles . Contract ships took them to New Orleans . Then they were transported up the Mississippi and Missouri to southwest Iowa by steamboats to Emigrant Landing.
“Here they landed to find a warehouse for their goods and to make arrangements to buy wagons, oxen and other supplies for the trek to the Great Salt Lake Valley . Or, they were parceled out to more than 80 communities in southwest Iowa where they might work for one or two years to earn and gather the equipment and supplies they needed to move on west.
“A rope walk near Emigrant Landing, established by Reuben Allred, is where the great ropes were manufactured for the Middle Mormon Ferry. Substantial farming also was done around Council Point, but large supplies of grain were brought to Emigrant Landing by travelers from St. Louis . Some of them didn't know, in the late 1840's and early 1850's, they would find large supplies of grain and flour produced by LDS communities. Further south, where Mosquito Creek ran into the Missouri River, east across the Missouri from Bellevue , was Jonathan Browning's gunsmithing shop. There probably were many other business ventures in and around Emigrant Landing and Council Point of which, over the years, we have lost trace.
“We do know, however, that when Abraham Lincoln visited Council Bluffs in 1859 he was able to hire a buggy to take him four miles north, past tall corn fields and patches of sunflowers, from what the LDS had called Emigrant Landing to Council Bluffs , which in 1853 had replaced the name Kanesville. Today, if you want non-LDS to know what you are talking about, you need to refer to Emigrant Landing as Lincoln 's Landing.” (26)
The following is a direct quote from a facsimile of an advertisement in The Frontier Guardian , the newspaper published at Kanesville during the Saints' stay in the Middle Missouri Valley:
ROPE MAKING
Reuben H. Allred, has erected an extensive Rope-walk at Council Point, directly on the river, near the emigrant landing ; and is prepared to supply merchants, citizens, and emigrants with all kinds of rope and cordage, from a fish line to a cable. Rope of various kinds constantly on hand, and manufactured to order. He solicits the patronage of a generous and liberal public.
The rope walk later changed hands twice, to be owned by John F. L. Allred and later by Orrin D. Farlin. (27)
“ Council Point -A place shown on maps from 1855-1868 near the shore of Lake Manawa some three miles south of the business section of Council Bluffs.” (28)
James Needham opened a “dry goods and groceries” store in Council Point around the end of July, 1849. (29)
Charles Bird, a resident of the Council Point area, put up “for sale his improvement, situated at the landing at Council Point, said farm [having] been under cultivation for about fourteen years, containing eighty acres of well improved land, has about thirty-five acres of wheat growing, most of it was sown in August, also four dwelling houses; one good barn, corn cribs, root house, &c., and all out houses that is calculated to make a farmer comfortable. Any person wishing to purchase, so as to double his money cannot do better than call; for the price will be so that I think the grain on the ground will refund the money advanced and have the farm clear. Call and see for yourselves.
“Council Point, Jan. 9, 1850.” (30)
A group of teamsters who contracted to haul freight for a local merchant met at Council Point on Tuesday, 6 May 1851 to organize and start their journey west. (31) They probably met at Council Point because of the ferry there.
William Watts posted a very sad notice in The Frontier Guardian issue of 6 February 1852. He advised “all whom it may concern, not to harbor or trust; on my account, my wife, ELIZABETH WATTS, who has left my bed and board, without any just cause or provocation, as I shall pay no debts of her contracting after this date.” (32)
Council Point served also as a disembarking site for gold rushers traveling up the Missouri river by boat. (33)
Cholera broke out five miles from Council Point in May 1849. “[Four people] died very suddenly. There are two or three cases more reported up to Saturday last.
“Every person should keep free from fear if possible, as this is a powerful auxiliary to help on the disease. Be temperate in your labor, moderate in exercise, calm in your feelings, and guard against exposure. If you are troubled with diarrhea, check it as soon as you can, for this is almost invariable precedes the more powerful attack.” (34)
As many pioneers needed things made of iron, including “irons for yokes . . ., chains, and various other repairs,. . . Dr. George Coulson, of Council Point” showed wisdom, whether he knew it or not, in opening his blacksmith shop in Council Point, where so many pioneers went in order to cross the river and start on their journey west. (35)
Council Point was the endpoint for an 1850 mail route that began in Eddyville and stopped at “Half-way Prairie, Clark 's Point, Wynaldville, Charlton Point, Pisga, Nichnabotna, Silver Creek and Kanesville” along the way. (36)
“Main part of Council Point would have been just north of the present tiny segment of Gifford Road linking 24 th and 20 th Streets.” (37)
“South of Council Bluffs at Gifford Rd , just off South 24 th St, west of Lake Manawa. . . . The road connecting Council Point (then about an eighth of a mile north of the Missouri River) to Kanesville ran NNE, lined with houses referred to as String Town . The road is linked to today's W Graham Ave , over bluffs to E Graham Ave and north on now S 1 st Street (then Hyde St ) to Kanesville business district.” (38)
“Middle Mormon Ferry Site:
“Half mile south of E end of South Omaha Bridge (Hwy 92); first of three LDS ferries over the Missouri River . Project started June 15, ferry with properly caulked boat started officially July 1, 1846. Boat tested at night only by general authorities of the Church June 29. It was to haul powder, shot, and guns out of Iowa and into Nebraska territory, then designated by Congress as ‘Indian Country.'” (39)
“‘At Council Point, west of Manawa, a settlement of Mormons started a cemetery in 1848. A large number of them were buried there while the Mormons occupied this section of the county. After the cemetery wa[s] abandoned it was in after years washed into the river, and the exact location of it could hardly be determined at this date.
“‘In 1850 another burying ground was established by George Schofield on a farm owned by him about three miles northeast of Council Bluffs. Several of his family and relatives were first buried there, after which it became a public cemetery. It is still in existence an[d] is occasionally used now. William Garner, a veteran of the Meican war and one of the three men who built the Ogden hotel, in 1870 started a cemetery adjoining the one on the Sch[o]field farm. [G]arner and many of his relatives are buried there. There is a fine monument which marks the Garner grave.
“‘In 1852 D. V. Clark [e]stablished a cemetery on the Lincoln Avenue road about a mile and a half south of the city limits. Several members of his family are buried there and the place is now in good condition. It is occasionally used now.” (40)
The following died and were probably buried in Council Point:
“Allred, John F. I., 17 July 1850 at Council Point, of cholera, 23 years old. (Frontier Guardian, 7 August 1850)
“Clouson, George, Dr., 8 October 1851, at Council Point, of congestive fever, 50 years and 18 days (Frontier Guardian, 17 October 1851)
“Farlin, Orliva, daughter of Orrin D. and Falvilla Farlin, 8 January 1852, at Council Point, 19 Months old (Frontier Guardian, 20 February 1852).
“Matthews, George W., infant son of James and Mary Matthews, 24 July 1851, at Council Point, 3 months and 18 days (Frontier Guardian 8 August 1851.
“Muir, James, 15 July 1850, at Council Point, 21 years and 4 months (Frontier Guardian, 24 July 1850).
“Raymond, Elizabeth, wife of Samuel G. Raymond, 2 November 1850, at Council Point, 40 years, 6 months, and 10 days (Frontier Guardian, 25 December 1850).
“Smith, Jane, late from England , 31 December 1850, at Council Point, of acute bronchitis, 21 years old (Frontier Guardian, 8 January 1851).” (41)
Notes:
1. Joseph F. McGregor, “Short History of My Grandfather Fish and Family,” (7 August 1941), 3, MSS Film 920 no. 1, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University , Provo , Utah .
2. “Cottonwoods,” Orson Hyde, ed., (Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, Iowa), in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1997), 33-34.
3. David C. Mott, “Abandoned Towns, Villages and Post Offices of Iowa ,” Annals of Iowa (July 1911), 64.
4. “Council Point: Early Mormon Settlement” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1995), Council Point folder, Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
5. “Council Point was Most Cosmopolitan LDS Town,” manuscript, Council Point folder, Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
6. Conrey Bryson, Winter Quarters (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1986), 59; compare Orson Hyde, ed., Frontier Guardian (Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, Iowa), 7 August 1850 (shows that Kanesville was a different place from Council Bluffs because this number says, “Our Democratic friends at Council Bluffs, came here on election day . . .” [Emphasis added.]), in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 54; “Agents for the Guardian and Sentinel in Pottawatamie County,” Jacob Dawson, ed., Frontier Guardian and Iowa Sentinel (Kanesville, now Council Bluffs, Iowa), 18 June 1852, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 105; “Public Meeting,” Dawson, ed., Guardian and Sentinel , 28 October 1852, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 109-10.
7. Charles H. Babbitt, Early Days at Council Bluffs ( Washington , D.C. : Byron S. Adams, 1916), 66.
8. “Council Point: Early Mormon Settlement,” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1995), manuscript, Council Point folder, Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
9. Gail George Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & E Nebraska ( Omaha , Nebr. : Omaha LDS Institute of Religion, 2000), 62.
10. McGregor, “Short History of My Grandfather Fish and Family,” (7 August 1941), 3.
11. “Council Point: Early Mormon Settlement” (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1995), Council Point folder, Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
12. “Married,” Orson Hyde, ed., (Kanesville, now Council Bluffs , Iowa ), in Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian , 1849-1852 ( Orem , Utah : Center for Research of Mormon Origins, c1990), 24, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Conditions , 12.
13. “Married,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 11 July 1849, in Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices , 25, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 22.
14. “Saturday Last,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 28.
15. “Rushes and Indian Depredations,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 68.
16. “Adjourned Conference,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 2 May 1851, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 72-73.
17. “A Gale.,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 25 July 1851, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 81.
18. Orson Hyde, ed., 22 August 1851, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 84.
19. http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysearchresults/1,15792,4017-1-14,00.html .
20. “Agents for the Guardian in this County,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 89.
21. “Agents for the Guardian in this County,” Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian , 4 April 1851, microfilm # 298 reel 21, item 4 , L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah; “Agents for the Guardian in this County,” Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian , 13 June 1851, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Conditions , 76; “Agents for the Guardian and Sentinel in Pottawattamie County,” Dawson, ed., Guardian and Sentinel , 18 June 1852, in Myrtle Hyde, Conditions , 105.
22. “To Emigrants,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 1.
23. “Let there be No Mistake,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 51-52.
24. Myrtle Stevens Hyde, comp., Kanesville Advertisements (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1993), 283; Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 125.
25. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s) , 62.
26. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s) , 43.
27. “Rope Making,” Orson Hyde, ed., 21 March-11 July 1849, “Rope Walk,” 15 May-10 July 1850, “Ropes! Ropes!! Ropes!!!,” 4 April-16 May 1851, all in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Advertisements , 9, 53, 101.
28. David C. Mott, “Abandoned Towns, Villages and Post Offices of Iowa ,” Annals of Iowa (July 1912), 64.
29. “New Store at Council Point,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 25 July-5 September 1849, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Advertisements , 16.
30. “Great Bargain,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 25 July-5 September 1849, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Advertisements , 32.
31. “Teamsters, Attention.,”Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 2 May 1851, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Advertisements , 106.
32. “Caution,” Orson Hyde, ed., in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Advertisements , 141.
33. “First Boat this Season,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 18 April 1849, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 14.
34. “Cholera,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 16 May 1849, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 17.
35. “Prepare for the Valley,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 9 January 1850, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 39.
36. “ Iowa ,” Orson Hyde, ed., Guardian , 13 November 1850, in Myrtle Hyde, comp., Conditions , 61.
37. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s) , 62.
38. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s) , 62.
39. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s) , 63.
40. “Washed into the River,” Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building , Brigham Young University , Provo , Utah .
41. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian , 24 July 1850, 7 August 1850, 25 December 1850, 8 January 1851, 8 August 1851, 17 October 1851, 20 February 1852, quoted in Lyndon W. Cook, comp., Death and Marriage Notices , 1, 8, 13, 16, 18, 20. The reference to Dr. George Clouson's deat is found on a printed loose-leaf sheet containing a list of deaths in Council Point, which list is taken from the book by Cook cited in this note. However, the reference to Coulson's death does not actually appear in the book. Myrtle Hyde's compilation, Kanesville Conditions (87), confirms that The Frontier Guardian of 17 October 1851, the issue in which Coulson's death was supposedly listed according to the sheet previously mentioned, announces a death at Council Point, though Hyde's compilation does not give the name of the deceased. The order and wording of each death record listed in the body of this article are taken from the list mentioned above. Each death record on the compiled list was checked against a photocopy of the actual book by Cook. See, “The following death information is taken from Death and Marriage Notices from the Frontier Guardian 1849-1852 compiled by Lyndon W. Cook and published by the Center for Research of Mormon Origins, P. O. Box 2125 , Orem , Utah 84059 ,” Council Point Folder, Winter Quarters Project archives, John A. Widtsoe Building , Brigham Young University , Provo , Utah .
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Elm Grove |
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Location
“Prior to 1853, the county was simply divided into election precincts and had no distinctive township organization and administration.” So, during most of the time the Saints lived in Elm Grove, the village was not located in a township. However, on 12 February 1853, Rocky Ford Township was created, along with Kane and Macedonia Townships.(1) It was presumably in the second of these three that Elm Grove lay. The Frontier Guardian described the location of the settlement as being “the Elm Grove West of Kanesville, on the banks of the Missouri river.”(2)
It was located “on the banks of the Missouri river.”(3)
History
The Kanesville High Council “resolved that one company of emigrants for the Valley of the Salt Lake, be organized at the Elm Grove.”(4)
Elm Grove did not have a Frontier Guardian representative.(5)
Describe any unique community setup or buildings
By reading the quote from The Frontier Guardian of 29 May 1850, one might not be sure that Elm Grove was anything more than a well-known landmark. However, in the issue from 10 July 1850 of The Frontier Guardian, Daniel Grenig offered a reward for the location of a stray cow lost “from the road leading from Elm Grove to Kanesville.”(6) This statement gives the impression that Elm Grove was more than just a stand of trees.
Notes:
1. John H. Keatley, History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a History from the earliest settlement to the present time, embracing its topographical, geological, physical and climatic features; its agricultural, railroad interests, etc.; giving an account of its aboriginal inhabitants, early settlement by the whites, pioneer incidents, its growth, its improvements, organization of the County, the judicial history, the business and industries, churches, schools, etc.; Biographical Sketches; Portraits of some of the Early Settlers, Prominent Men, etc. (Chicago: O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, 1883), 276.
2. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian ( Kanesville, Iowa) 29 May 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1997), 49.
3. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian, 29 May 1850, in Myrtle Hyde, Conditions, 49.
4. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian, 29 May 1850, in Myrtle Hyde, Conditions, 49.
5. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian, 4 April 1851.
6. Orson Hyde, ed., The Frontier Guardian, 10 July 1850, in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Advertisements (Ogden, Utah: Myrtle Stevens Hyde, 1993), 59.
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Grand Encampment |
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Location
Physical description of the site
Grand Encampment was a long string of wagons, strung out along roughly a nine mile stretch from west to east in western Pottawattamie County, starting about three miles east of the Missouri River. This was, as evidenced by the name, an encampment—the most temporary of all the temporary settlements created by the Latter-day Saints in the region. It lasted a mere two months, “from June until late July or early August 1846” (1). The saints drew up their wagons and pitched their tents in orderly squares, some of which were “enclosed with split-rail fences” (2). As the saints continued to arrive, they set up their tents and wagons further and further east, beside the saints who had arrived before them (3). Grand Encampment was really a network of smaller encampments located on the bluffs, according to Colonel Thomas L. Kane, who visited the Latter-day Saints in the end of June. He wrote that,
“each one of the Council Bluff hills . . . was crowned with its own great camp, gay with bright white canvas, and alive with the busy stir of swarming occupants . . . Countless roads and by-paths checkered all manner of geometric figures on the hillsides. Herd boys were dozing on the slopes; sheep and horses, cows and oxen, were feeding around them, and other herds in the luxuriant meadow of the then swollen river” (4).
Although the Saints enjoyed some good weather, massive storms also flooded local creeks and blew over tents at times during the saints’ sojourn at Grand Encampment (5).
The saints left Grand Encampment gradually, moving across the Missouri to Cold Springs Camp, Indian Territory by ferry. The saints started going to Indian Territory about the first of July and continued at least through the first of August. Probably, the emigration perpetuated into mid-August (6).
History
The saints became somewhat acquainted with their neighbors and formulated plans for their movement to the Rocky Mountains. Their neighbors included local indigenous tribes and a few white people. The whites included fur traders (some of French descent) and a federal Indian agent.
The Church leaders’ plans had to be altered when the United States Government sent Captain James Allen to recruit what became the Mormon Battalion. The saints complied with the government’s request, and gave up over five hundred men to serve in the Mexican War. With “this loss of manpower,” President Brigham Young and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles had to check plans to send a pioneer company to the Rockies that year (7).
When did most of the Mormons leave?
Most saints appear to have left in the end of July and beginning of August. (8) “Grand Encampment was beginning to fall apart. The advancing season brought more heat and less moisture. The three pioneer staples of wood, water and grass were getting harder and harder to find in the vicinity of Grand Encampment.” Various groups of saints scattered throughout southwestern Iowa in search of those three necessities of pioneer life while they waited to be able to cross the Missouri River on the ferry. (9)
The Encampment had a post office which operated out of a wagon, or perhaps at times out of a tent instead. A tall flagpole flying the American flag indicated the location of President Brigham Young’s tent. (10)
Notes:
1. Gail Geo. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & E Nebraska ( Omaha, Nebraska: Omaha LDS Institute of Religion, 2000), 38.
2. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 38.
3. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 38.
4. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 38-39.
5. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 39; Hosea Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, Juanita Brooks, ed. (Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 1964), 176, 177, 181.
6. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 41; Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, 181-82.
7. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 39-41.
8. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 38; Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, 1844-1861, 181-82.
9. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 41.
10. Holmes, Old Council Bluff(s): Mormon Developments, 1846-1853, in the Missouri and Platte River Valleys of SW Iowa & Nebraska, 38. 
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Kanesville, Iowa
(Council Bluff's, Miller's Hollow) |
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 The setlement of Kanesville, Iowa was given its name on April 8, 1848 by Orson Hyde, in honor of Colonel Thomas L. Kane, a loyal and influential friend of the Mormon people. Today this city is known as Council Bluffs, Iowa.
The area that became Kanesville was once known as Miller's Hollow, near Indian and Mosquito creeks. Kanesville was originally established to be a temporary resting place for those heading west. It was actually never intended to be a permanent settlement. The rapidly growing city, however, soon became the hub of all other surrounding Mormon settlements in the area. Kanesville was the site of the tabernacle where Brigham Young was sustained as the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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Keg Creek |
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Location
The Keg Creek settlement was located in Keg Creek Township. View the Keg Creek Surveyor's Record.
History
"The general history of this township is that of Silver Creek up to [October 14,] 1873, when it was cut out of that township." It was given its name when some early settlers found several kegs of whiskey hidden in the willows along the banks of the creek running through the area." (1)
"KEG CREEK . Thought to have been at a site at headwaters of Keg Creek when post office established, about 7 miles northwest of Treynor, 5 miles south of McClelland (SE/SE Sec. 29, Hardin Twp. 75N, R42W), but later on the creek itself at a site 7 miles southwest of Treynor (SW Sec. 21, Keg Creek Twp. 74N, R42W). Established August 3, 1874, Henry F. Mudge; closed August 16, 1875; reopened January 4, 1880; closed November 28, 1881; reopened December 14, 1881, Mrs. Lucy A. Carson (Mrs. James D. Carson); closed February 28, 1883; reopened February 11, 1892, Rasmus Campbell; discontinued February 9, 1899." (2)
Residents
Click on this link http://www.morrillonline.com/html/MorrillLaban-1814-1900-DruryPermeliaHandmore.html to find information about the Morrill family who lived at Keg Creek.
Follow this link for information about the Richardson family who lived at Keg Creek: http://www.richardsonfamily.homestead.com/Shadrach.html
Cemeteries
Campbell or Keg Creek Cemetery
"This cemetery is located in Section 21, Township 74N, Range 42 W, and consists of one acre of land in the W ½ of SW ¼ of Keg Creek Township. It is located south of Highway 92, four miles west of Treynor, then south almost three miles. The cemetery is on the east side of the road. If traveling from G66, it is two miles east of L 45 and north ¼ mile, or three miles west of L 55 and ¼ mile north. The cemetery is fenced, in good repair and still active." (3)
Treynor St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery
Located about one mile west of Treynor on the south side of highway 92. The entrance is marked with brick pillars. The church is on the south side of Treynor. (4) Zion Cedmetery
This is a tiny cemetery on the edge of Pott Co., "out in a cornfield, on an old gravel road".
The cemetery has been abandoned and is no longer in use. |
View or Post Gravestone Photos for this Cemetery! Gravestone Photo Project
Known names of those buried in the cemetery: |
| 1. ?, Friedericke S. 13 Jan 1860 22 to May 1932
2. Johanna 1847 to 1915
3. FISHER, Alice A. 1895 to 1915
4. FISHER, Edward F. 1 Dec 1885 to 20 Apr 1943
5. FISHER, Heinrich F. 15 Jul 1858 to 18 Feb 1903
6. FISHER, John F. 14 Dec 1880 to 16 Nov 1881
7. FISHER, Laura M. 1900 to 1915
8. FISHER, Martha J. 9 Oct 1890 to 2 Jun 1892
9. FISHER, Sarah L. 1903 to 1903
10. FROHARDT, Albert Philip 1885 to 1924
11. FROHARDT, Arthur Homer 1889 to 1923
12. FROHARDT, Carl Edward 24 Feb 1891 to 8 Jul 1897
13. FROHARDT, Dorethea Margareta 2 Jun 1875 to 28 Jul 1912
14. FROHARDT, Ferdenant Christof 17 Sep 1870 to 1 Sep 1947
15. FROHARDT, Friedrich Wilhelm 26 Sep 1846 to 16 Nov 1917
16. FROHARDT, Johann Dietrich 8 Oct 1810 to 10 Jul 1900
17. HEESCH, Anna 1874 to 1897
18. KRUNNING, Christina W. 30 Oct 1827 to 6 Jan 1912
19. MEYER, Matilda J. 1872 to 15 Apr 1953
20. MEYER, William 1841 to 1926
21. POOLE, Alfred M. 1854 to 1938
22. SEWING, ? 12 Feb 1899 to 13 Apr 1900
23. SEWING, Herman J. 2 Mar 1822 to 8 Feb 1884
24. SEWING, Katherine Wilhelmina 25 May 1846 to 9 Dec 1926
SOURCE: http://iagenweb.org/pottawattamie/cem-zionkegcreek.htm |
Photo Copyright (c) 2003 by Sharie. Transcript Copyright (c) 2003 Allen Alsman. All rights reserved except permission granted to reproduce or distribute to not-for-profit individuals or organizations. |
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Notes: 1. History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 202-203
2. Ghost Towns of Iowa, 375.
3. "Keg Creek Township Cemeteries," Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, www.geocities.com.
4.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Plains/5660/kegcreek.htm |
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Point aux Poules
(Trader's Point, St. Francis) |
General vicinity of Trader's Point. Map courtesy of Google Earth.
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POINT AUX POULES
"Pottawattamie/Mills County Line at Allis Rd and Applewood Ave.
Sign commemorates one of several locations, at least in the early and mid-1800s, of the French and Native American village of Pointe Aux Poules, (French for Prairie Chicken Crossing). Americans called it Traders Point. There were as many as three trade posts operating in the village at one time. Residents were mostly Native American wives and children of French, Spanish and American traders and trappers from the Missouri and Platte River valleys and Rocky Mountains. The site was also a crossing point for the first wagon train bound for California in 1844." (1)
Notes:
1. Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, http://www.councilbluffsiowa.com/tourism/attractions.asp. |
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Stringtown |
Though information regarding the settlement at Stringtown is scarce, it appears from various excerpts of the Frontier Guardian that the town suffered its share of disasters.
The Frontier Guardian of October 30, 1850 reported, "On the 16th, the Omaha Indians set fire to the Prairie, a little west of this town, and there being a high wind at the time spread the flames with great rapidity; burning stacks of hay and wheat, fields of corn, and fences, in its fury. At one time it threatened to burn the town, but the wind shearing round, it galloped towards Stringtown, doing immense damage, burning hay, wheat, &c., in its progress. The amount of damage sustained by individuals will amount in the aggregate from five to eight thousand dollars. The loss falls upon those the least able to bear it. It may be very pretty fun for the Indians to destroy the farmers all; but we would like to know where the owners of property are to seek redress for damages." (1)
The June 27, 1851 issue of the Gurdian reported, "Kanesville and the surrounding country received its share of the flood, though no particular loss has been sustained, except that of Bridges, and the roads being considerably broken up. No houses have been carried away that we have heard of; niether loss of life, with the exception of a young man named Webster, who resided in Stringtown, situated in this vicinity, who unfortunately was struck with lightning, which caused instant death. . . . The thunder and lightning during that night exceeded anything we ever witnessed before, the wide expanse at times appeared to resemble a caldron of molten brass, incessantly pouring its burnished contents in streams, promiscuously toward the earth; threatening in aspect demolition and utter destruction of life and property; but through the kind providence of a beneficient Creator and wise Ruler, the storm subsided between the hours of ten and eleven o'clock, without any further material damage." (2)
Notes:
1. Frontier Guardian, 30 October 1850, as cited in as cited in Myrtle Stevens Hyde, Kanesville Conditions (Ogden, Utah: Published by the Author, 1997), 60.
2. Frontier Guardian, 27 June 1851, as cited in Hyde, Kanesville Conditions, 78-79. |
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Union |
Map source: 1895 Iowa Atlas
Location
"Union township was originally a part of Lura which was named for the wife of Dr. G. S. Morrison, a prominent settler in Grant township. At that time Massena, Lura and Union constituted Lura township. When Lura was reorganized, Union became Breckenridge township being so named for John C. Breckenridge, vice-president at that time. As the sentiment of that locality was strongly in favor of the Union forces when the Civil war broke out and Breckenridge became a major general in the rebel army, the name was changed to Union in 1862." (1)
The town is located one mile east of Cartersville, as appears on maps of 1868 and later. (2)
History
Buoyo and Union Branch members: Ann Batson, Barbara Batson, William Batson, William Joseph Batson, Aryaline Carter, Sarilda Carter, Susanna Carter, Elizabeth Davis, Enoch Davis, John M. Davis, Martha Jane Davis, Merica Jane Davis, William L. Davis, James Hendrickson, Nickoles Hendrickson, Catherine Mendenhall, Sarah Nickerson, Sarah C. Nickerson, Uriah Nickerson, Moses Vince. (3)
Notes:
1. Southwestern Iowa Guide: Geology—Points of Interest—History , WPA, 1936, 39.
2. “Cities and Towns of Pottawattamie County," Dec 2005.
3. Ron Watts, LDS Iowa Branch Records Index, 1839-1859. |
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