This is township
90, range 6, and was created Jan. 6, 1851, taking at the
same time the name of Richland. The voting place was
the house of Stephen R. Reynolds.
Richland is in the northwest corner of the county,
having on its western and northern boundaries Buchanan and
Clayton counties respectively. Coffin's Grove Township
is on the south of Honey Creek Township on the east.
When first settled large tracts of timber were to be found
here. Much of this has been cleared and good farms
developed. North and northeast of what is known as the
"Devils Backbone" the surface is rather hilly, so that the
country is better adapted to orchard, timber, vineyards, or
small fruit culture. However, Richland, is fairly well
settled and her people are prosperous.
The Maquoketa River enters the county in Richland
Township and flows nearly southeast, finally leaving the
county in South Fork Township. Above Forestville the
valley for some distance is a rock-walled gorge and this
appearance obtains two or three miles below that village.
The affluents of this stream afford plenty of water for
stock and good drainage for the land.
William Turner
and his father (name not known) were the first to settle
in Richland, choosing for a location a tract of land in the
east half of section 22, on the east bank of the Maquoketa
River. They built a sawmill in 1847 and in the year
last mentioned Stephen R. Reynolds became a settler
here. Mr. Reynolds had the honor of giving the
township its present name.
Hiram D. Wood
located and made preparations for a new home, on section 26,
in 1848. In the spring of 1847, being then nineteen
years of age, he enlisted in a cavalry company and served
until the end of the Mexican war in 1848. After his
discharge he came to Delaware County and located his land
warrant upon the land where he resided so many years.
Mr. Wood was one of the prominent citizens of this
community, held a number of local offices and served as
county surveyor. He was the father of a number of
children, sketches of whom will be found in the second
volume of this work.
C. R. Davis
settled on a farm in section 5, in 1850. Forty acres
of his land contained excellent limestone, which Mr.
Davis converted into the commercial product, having at
one time three kilns in operation.
Henry W. Graves
came with his parents to Delaware County in 1851, first
settling in Colony Township. Later they took up their
residence in Richland Township. Mr. Graves
married Nancy Cuppett in 1866, and in 1867 settled on
section 24.
Franklin Emerson,
a native of New York, located in Dubuque in the '40s.
In October, 1852, he came with his family to this township
and settled on a farm. He had previously served as
sheriff of Clayton County.
[p. 268]
William B. Smith, with his family, came from
Nova Scotia to the United States in 1850, and in the fall of
1853 located in this township on a farm consisting of 315
acres. His son Henry is now one of Manchester's
prominent business men.
John Scriben,
of Pennsylvania, came with his parents to the prairies of
Delaware County in 1853 and settled in Richland Township,
where he married Rozella Bliss in 1857.
George C. Hawley,
of Kane County, Illinois, married Aurelia Lake in
1855. Two years previous, however, he settled on
section 20 in this township, where he raised a large family
of children and became one of the progressive farmers of the
community.
Edward Rolfe
left England in 1851 and first settled in Illinois. In
1853, coming to Delaware county, he chose a tract of land on
section 18 as his future home. This farm he cultivated
and brought to a high state of improvement. Mr.
Rolfe was a veteran of the Civil War.
E. D. Stone,
a Vermonter, settled in the township in 1854.
S. A. Thompson
took up land on section 6 in the fall of 1854 and at once
began to improve it. For many years he was justice of
the peace and a member of the Methodist Church.
Thomas Clark
was born in England in 1830. He immigrated to the
united States and settled on sections 14, 11 and 24 in 1854.
In 1855 he married Elizabeth Wharton, who was also
born in England.
John Durham,
of Yorkshire, England, crossed the Atlantic in 1828 with his
parents, who settled in Lower Canada. Mr. Durham
married Mary Dunham in Vermont and in the spring of
1854 found his way to Iowa, settling on section 13 Richard
Township. At the time there was not a house between
his and York. On his first trip to Delhi to pay his
taxes, he stopped where Manchester now stands to get some
crackers and cheese but there was none to be had.
William J.
Millett was a pioneer of the '50s, coming from Illinois
in 1855 and settling on section 7. Mr. Millett
enlisted in the Twenty-seventh Iowa Volunteer Infantry in
1862. Returning from the war, he resumed farming and
was elected to positions of trust in the township by his
neighbors.
George Hebron,
with his family, came from England to this country in 1853
and immigrating from New York State to Iowa, settled in
Richland Township on section 1, in 1856. Here he
carried on an extensive dairy business, having at one time
forty cows.
E. S. Cowles,
one of Richland's prosperous farmers, entered land in that
township in 1856 on which he resided for many years.
He was born in Wyoming County, New York, Sept. 27, 1829.
Through his efforts the Campton Postoffice was established
in 1857 and he was appointed postmaster and held the office
so long that he had the distinction of being one of the
oldest continuous postmasters in the county. He was
sheriff of the county from 1878 to 1881. He served in
the Seventh Iowa Cavalry and now, at the age of eighty-five,
is quite vigorous, living at Lamont, not far from the old
farm.
H. D. Cowles
was a native of Massachusetts and came to the county in
1854, where he married Sarah Emerson in 1859.
Mr. Cowles for many years was in the creamery
business and manufactured both butter and cheese. He
is a brother of E. S. Cowles and was also a member of
the Seventh Iowa Cavalry.
THE "STAIRWAY" AT THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE
IN RICHLAND TOWNSHIP
[p. 269]
William Hebron, also of
England, settled in this county in 1857, locating on section
11, Richland Township.
John Dubois
came to Delaware County from the State of New York in 1857
and first settled in Delhi, where he married Marian
Walters. He later settled in this township and in 1861
enlisted in the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry.
John Seward
was born in England, immigrated to the United States and
settled in Richland Township in 1857, where he first worked
as a common laborer for about a year and then rented a farm
for himself. He was soon able to purchase forty acres
of land, on which he settled and began to improve. He
broke the forty, fenced it and erected a shanty 14 by 18
feet, in which he made his home for eight years, when a
better home was prepared.
W. P. Sheldon,
a native of New York, immigrated from Wisconsin to Delaware
County in 1858, where he married Julia A. Smith in
1862. For many years he held office in the township
and was highly respected by all who knew him.
FORESTVILLE.
Forestville is one
of the towns that have been forced to give way to the
inexorable laws of the trade. For some years it was
quite a busy little place and drew from a large area a
paying clientele. But that has passed away and today
all that remains of the place is a few houses and about
fifty inhabitants. The town was laid out on section
22, in April, 1854, by Joel Bailey, surveyor, for
Daniel Leonard, proprietor and the plat was recorded
July 15, 1856.
The first one to
settle here was William Turner, who located on the
east bank of the Maquoketa River, in section 22. Here
he built a sawmill and in 1847 Stephen R. Reynolds
became his neighbor. The mill was swept away by a
freshet in 1851, but immediately.
William Turner
opened a store at his home in 1850 and in the following
year he kept the postoffice at his house, the office then
having been established. Mail was brought from
Coffin's Grove and Marcus Phillips was mail carrier.
D. Leonard purchased the Turner Mill in 1852,
including the claim, and opened a store in Forestville.
In 1853 he put up a grist mill near the sawmill and his days
were busy ones keeping up with orders for lumber and corn
meal.
The first tavern in
the village was built in 1852 by Charles Hall, who
came from New York. He afterwards put an addition to
the house in which he opened a general store.
In May, 1852, the
first schoolhouse in the community was built of logs, on
Lee's farm, in the southwest part of the township.
That summer school was opened, for the few children of that
section, and was presided over by William Wilson.
The next school building was a better one. It was a
frame, erected at a cost of $300 in 1854. Elihu
Andrews was the contractor and builder. Part of
this large (then) amount of money was raised by taxation and
the rest was borrowed of the school fund by H. W. Wood,
who mortgaged his land in the transaction. This
schoolhouse stood just outside the town plot on the east
side and the school was first presided over by Mrs.
Brayman. Fire destroyed the building in the winter
of 1870-1, but the summer of that year saw a new brick
building in its place, built by Contractor Henry Doyle,
at a cost of $700. In 1872 Forestville became an
independent school district.
[p. 270]
Rev. John Brown, who located at Rockville and
built the first caravansary there, preached the first sermon
in Forestville, in the log schoolhouse, in June, 1852.
At one time there
were four creameries in Richland Township. The first
established was by Hiram D. Wood, near Forestville, in
the spring of 1874. Large quantities of butter
were made and shipped to the eastern markets.
Loomis & Housman had a creamery in the southwest part of
the township in 1875; H. D. Cowles in the western
portion in 1876; and John Hollister in the northeast
part.
Among others who
held the position of postmaster here were Thomas Hickox,
Enos M. Littlefield, Nathaniel G. Luken, Franklin Emerson,
Hiram D. Wood, Charles F. Vincent, William H. Church,
Henrietta Van Kuren, Walter Moon, David M. Noland, Volney
Wheeler. The first has long since been
discontinued and Forestville is scarcely a memory.
DUNDEE.
Dundee is a small
station on the Chicago Great Western Railroad, situate on
section 27, just south of old Village of Forestville.
It came into existence a short time before the postoffice
was established, which was in 1887. There is now a
population of about one hundred. The town has a
general store, a bank and shops. H. D. Wood was
commissioned postmaster, Jan. 14, 1887. The names of
his successors follow: Gertie Larrabee, July
27, 1889; Maggie Wood, October 30, 1891; Ollie A.
Hazelrigg, December 11, 1894; J. L. Gilbert,
September 14, 1897; A. O., Stone, November 26, 1900;
Nelson Gilbert, September 11, 1902.
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