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Chapter XXIII
Elk Creek Township
Pg. 306
- Situation - Organization - First Entries of Government Land
- First Religious Service - Elections - Valuations
- Village of Galesburg
Elk Creek township is
situated on the south line of Jasper county and comprises
almost forty sections of land, all in township 78, range 18
west, except about three sections which lie in range 19, of
the same congressional township.
It is bounded on the north by Buena Vista and Palo Alto
townships; on the east by Lynn grove township; on the south
by Mahaska county and Fairview township, Jasper county; on
the west by Palo Alto and Fairview townships.
This civil township was organized May, 1846, as one of
the original townships or precincts of the county of Jasper.
For a description of its original boundaries the reader is
referred to the chapter on County Organization, elsewhere in
this work.
The pioneer settlers who came in to this fair and
fertile portion of Jasper county were men and women of
sterling worth and possessed the true Western settler traits
of character and indeed they "builded better than they
knew."
Among the first to enter government land in this
section of the county were: John J. Mudgett,
the west fractional part of the southwest quarter of section
29, on Dec. 16, 1856, and the same person on parts of
section 30 Sept. 4, 1847; James A. Tool, on
the east half of the northwest quarter of section 34, Sept.
4, 1847; the same in the southwest of section 27, on the
same date. The lands were purchased from the general
government at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and
are now certain of being worth from sixty to one hundred and
fifty dollars per acre. This shows the reader the base
of much of Jasper county's wealth.
The first sermon ever preached within Elk Creek
township was by Rev. Mr. Hitchcock, a Congregational
missionary, at the house of M. D. Springer, in the
early spring of 1846. Twenty or more persons were his
attentive audience. No attempt was made to form a
church there then.
The schools and churches of this township appear in
their respective places in chapters on these subjects.
It may be said, however, in passing, that in March, 1851,
the record shows that the school fund apportionment for Elk
Creek township amounted to the sum of twelve dollars and
twenty-seven cents.
At the general election in 1852, when General Scott
and Franklin Pierce were running for President of the
United States, the vote in Elk Creek township stood, ten for
Scott and three for Pierce.
In 1855 the question of
prohibition of intoxicating liquors in Jasper county
resulted at an election in which the vote in Elk Creek
township was thirteen for the law and thirty against
prohibition. It carried, however, in the county by
thirty-five votes.
In 1878 the total amount of personal property assessed
in Elk Creek township was $83,267. This included the
items of 786 horses, 66 mules and asses, and 1,670 cattle.
As to the valuation and taxes on property of all kinds
in this township in 1877, the books show that it amounted to
$356,410, and that the taxes turned into the treasury were
$5,073. The state census returns in 1905 fixed the
population as being 909.
VILLAGE OF GALESBURG.
The village, or
hamlet of Galesburg, on section 16 of this township, is five
miles east of Reasoner. It was recorded of it in 1878
htat it contained good store which drew trade from a large
farming section. It once had a postoffice, but after
the establishment of rural delivery of mail in the county it
was discontinued. A general store is conducted there
by A. A. Alloway; also one by William C. DeBruyns
and A. Graffs. The village blacksmith is C.
Breen. At an early day there was hopes of this
becoming a much larger place than it has attained to.
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