A 1942
interview with historian Hattie Barkhuff concerning early settlers of the
eastern portion of Hamilton County was published on April 23, 1942, when
Webster City and the rest of Hamilton County was celebrating a double anniversary.
1942 was the 85th anniversary of when the name of the town Newcastle (platted
in 1854) was changed to Webster City, and when it's newspaper (first known
as the Freeman, next called the Freeman-Tribune, and now
know as The Daily Freeman Journal) began. Pages
1 and 6 of Section Two of that commemoration issue featured the contents
of that the Hattie Barkhuff interview about Lakin's Grove and Callanan.
You may click to enlarge this article for easier reading, but the portion
which told about this early town of Lakin's Grove is also printed out below
this image.
By Miss Hattie Barkhuff of Ellsworth Township
First Settlers in Eastern Half of Hamilton County
Faced Many Hardships
Lakins Moved West in 1854
Broke Sod and Planted Buckwheat as Main Source of Food
for First Winter in New Region
In 1854 Elishia Lakin, then
a man of 57 years, with a son, Luther, and a son-in-law, Dr. Homer Cochran,
and a relative, Oscar M. Lakin, came from DeKalb, Illinois to Hamilton
County, Iowa. For the senior Lakins the was the fifth big move.
He was born near Boston. As a young man he went to Pennsylvania
where he married Cynthia Ainslee and they were the parents of five sons
and ten daughters. During the time of bearing this large family,
Mrs. Lakin made four long migrations by wagon.
Father was In Revolution
Elisha Lakin and son, Luther,
pre-empted about a section of land along the Skunk River were it runs in
a southeasterly course for about a mile.
First Settlers
In May, 1885, Luther Lakin
left home to marry Emily Staples and they planned to start from there for
their new Iowa home. He planned to contact his relatives and
arrive together. Somehow he and his bride got a head start and arrived
about two weeks before his rlatives. So they were the first
settlers.
His parents, with several
younger children, a brother, Brint, and his bride (Abigail Fuller) and
a sister, Lucinda and her husband, Ed McCowen, were in the party.
As Lucinda had been married twice before she brought three or four Kimble
and Morgan children with her. These made up the caravan that
followed in June.
They built a log cabin
on the east side of the river for the McCowens and a few weeks later Eveline
was born, being the first white resident born in Lyon township.
Build Bark Shanty
Mrs. McCowen died when Eveline
was only a few years old. When grown, Evelin married a Mr.
Brower, of Webster City. They had two children and then parted.
She later married a Mr. Welsh, lived around Webster City and Jewell for
several years, and is buried in the Webster City cemetery, it is believed.
The Lakins broke up
some sod and planted buckwheat which was their main sourse of food the
first winter. In the fall a bark shanty to cook in was
built for Luther and his wife, but they had to sleep in their covered wagon.
A log house was built for the parents and part of it is still standing
where Fred Nelson now lives. Brint Lakin settled about two
miles south of the rest.
Some of this group slept in
hay covered shacks the first winter.
Brint Lakins had the first
baby boy, La Fayette born in January, 1856. He died when eight
years old. Luther Lakins' son, Hoah, was the third child, born
a little later.
Had Large Families
Brint Lakin had 14 children,
four died in infancy and two later. Luther Lakins had 16, one
dying in infancy, but 15 lived to be married. In the first
30 years, 30 Lakins were born and now only one boy, Fred, and one girl
Mona (Mrs. William Loder) live in Lyon township. The Lakin
name will soon be extinct, as there are only a few grandchildren by that
name.
In 1857 Elishia Lakin, then
about 60 years old, took the contract to carry mail from Webster City to
Mariette, county seat of Marshall County, stopping at Lakin's Grove, Illinois
Grove, New Providence, and Bangor. This is probably when the
Lakin's Grove post office was established. The place for travelers
to eat and sleep was at the Lakin home. For this service, Elisha
Lakin received $500 per year. He crossed the Boone and Skunk
Rivers and had many lowland places without bridges, and only trails to
follow. This continued for five years.
The little settlement soon
built a shoolhouse where they also held church, supplied by a circuit minister.
Later there was a Sunday school. The first building burned
down and the second was built in the first ten years.
A Suicide
Mother Lakin had had a hard
life and was rearing an orphaned grandson, Eddie Pinter. She
was operating a stage house and her husband was gone most of the time carrying
mail. One winter evening in 1859 when everyone was at church
she was doing some baking. She gave Eddie something to eat
and sent him to bed. When the family returned she was dead
from poison. She was nearly 56 years old.
A few years later, Mr. Lakin
married a Mrs. Dalbey, mother of Frank Dalbey, of Webster City.
They built and operated a new and larger stage house for several years.
Mr. Lakin lived to be 82. Mrs. Dalbey Lakin died at the home
of her son, Frank, and her gravestone bears only the wold "mother" and
the dates. The name Dalbey is so low that it cannot be seen
when the grass is up, and it was thought to have been a different person.
The second generation, Lute
and Brint, with their large families, made history in various ways for
60 years. Lute bought stock and fed cattle. He
had the first wind mill and had a long watering tank that extended into
the road so the public could refresh themselves and their horses.
He also built a bowery for dances and promoted picnics for years.
Start Cemetery
The start of the now Ellsworth
cemetery was immigrants camping there. A young man died from
a lung hemorrhage. The other was a new born baby.
The party moved on leaving the graves unmarked. In 1915 when
friends were digging the grave for James Buckels, a casket containing adult
bones was found. They moved over and dug up the bones of an
infant. The family then chose a lot in the new part.
It is possible that these were the unknown immigrants now on the lot when
the Buckels girls.
Family history by word and
dates on gravestones conflict as to just who was the first local person
buried there, but it is one of two - Mrs. Elisha Lakin, who took her life,
or her oldest daughter, Lucinda, the mother of the first baby.
Her gravestone bears the name of her first husband, Kendall - 1857 and
1859.
Elizabeth Lakin married Ole
Anderson. She had one son, Emory E. and died soon after
in 1860. Her grave is marked with a flat slab on the ground
and four corner posts with a chain making a fence. This marker
was brought overland from Chicago.
For a number of years
there were four little graves on a hill on the west side of the river,
about a mile south. The first was a small son of Robert Knox,
who lived several miles south and west. The grave could have
been made there on account of high water and no bridge over the river.
Later a child of Charles Knox Edna, nine months old, daughter of Ward Edwards,
became tangled in bedding and smothered. In 1886 Gertie Edwards,
five months, smothered while sleeping between her parents.
The little white marker could be seen from the road a half mile east.
In about 1895 they were moved to the cemetery.
Lakin's Grove
The little town of Lakin's
Grove lived about 20 years. It consisted of a stage house with
the post office in it. After the Civil War it flourished.
A general store was built and run by a soldier, S. G. Johnson.
A blicksmith shop was operated by a Swedish immigrant, Peter Ryberg.
A few homes were built.
The schoolhouse had been built
early. The first one burned, as did Dr. Cochran's home.
At the northwest end of the town the road forked. One went
west to the Boone river and Webster Citoy, the other went north, crossed
the river and headed northeast to Rose Grove and on to Iowa Falls.
At the southeast end one road went south crossing a swampy place where
a 90 foot corduroy bridge was built. One went east, crossed
the river and on to New Providence and on top of a high hill Luther Lakin
built his permanent home where they spent the remainder of their days -
63 years. Mrs. Lakin died Nove. 1918 and Luther a few years
before.
There are still several people
living here that as children can remember Lakin's Grove. Especially
do they speak of Mrs. Ryberg as always giving anyone dinner if her husband
was doing work for them.
The holes where the cellars
were can still be seen. I have a dish that was bought at the
Johnson store and a book printed in 1830 that was loaned to the children
who attended Sunday school. Lakin's Grove died in 1877-78.
A new schoolhouse was built in the early '80's where the main part of town
had been.
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