Recounting history of Ringgold County

 Early History of

Ringgold County

 and Settlers

By Mrs. B.M. Lesan

From the Nov. 25, 1925 Mount Ayr Record News

Attention has been called to the following errors in my article printed November 4.

Alex McCartney settled southwest of Mount Ayr instead of southeast.

John S. Sheller agreed to give half the town lots to the county if the county seat was located on his land. He delivered the deed to the county June 9, 1855, attested by Edward and Jane Temple and Wm. McCormick was hired to do the surveying.

The log court house was blown down in 1858 instead of 1859.

Joseph C. Cofer was the first treasurer~recorder instead of James C. Cofer.

Barton B. Dunning built the first hewed log cabin on the lots where the Iowa State Bank now stands, instead of Barton B. Turner.

In 1855 David Edwards built the second log cabin in Mount Ayr.

In 1855 Chester Sandcliff built the third log cabin.

In 1855 Oran Gore built the fourth log cabin.

In 1856 Dickey and Harvey started the third store.

In 1856 A.W. Tice started the first drug store.

In 1855 the first blacksmith started by David Edwards.

In 1855 the first sabbath school started in Judge Hagan’s cabin.

In 1856 E.G. Martin second blacksmith, bought he shop started by D. Edwards.

In 1856 David Edwards built the first hotel on lot south of the elevator, the lumber being hauled from Burlington; was first frame building.

In 1856 Rev. Elliott, a Methodist circuit rider, came to Mount Ayr and church was held in the log school house until the frame court house was built in 1859.

In 1853 Alex McCartney was the first physician in the county.

In 1855 Dr. Keith was the first physician in Mount Ayr.

Thomas M. Bowen was the first lawyer.

In 1860 D.C. Kinsell started the first hardware store.

On August 6, 1860, the first newspaper, “The Mount Ayr Republican,” was started by P.O. James and Geo. Burton, discontinued in nine or ten months when they both enlisted, one as a private and one as a captain. I have the 24th number of Voulume I, dated January 21, 1861.

In 1862 Ruth Roby started the first millinery store.

The second newspaper was started in April 1865 by Warren  R. Turk and Ith Beall. It was

“The Ringgold Record.”

The first child born in Ringgold county was Manoah B. Schooler in 1847 in what is now Lotts Creek township.

Charles Dunning was the first child born in Mount Ayr in December 1855.

The first child born in what is Liberty township was Mary J. Armstrong Wible in July 1855.

The first child born in Poe township was Arthur Lesan, November 22, 1855.

The C.B. & Q. railroad was built in 1870 and was the first railroad in Ringgold county.

One coal shaft was sunk in 1884 by Hugh A. White, Francis Ellis, C. B. Morse and J.C. Askren, two and one-half miles east of Mount Ayr depot. They went through sixty feet of rack, went in all 326 feet, but did not find coal in paying quantities, so after a cost of $1,200 gave it up as a bad job. This was the only attempt ever made to dig coal in the county.

The first Fourth of July celebration was in 1861.

The first Methodist church was organized in 1870, dedicated in 1872.

The first United Presbyterian church built in 1870 cost $3,000 ; held church in the court house before. The first Presbyterian church organized in  1867; church built in 1873 and cost $3,000, where Mickael’s poultry house is now located. They sold this church later to the Evangelical church.

The first Baptist church was built in 1871 and cost $2,200.

The First Christian church was organized in 1881; church was built in 1883, cost $2,700.

The only Indian to own land in Ringgold county was a Pottawattamie chief, Che-me-use, or Johnny Green, who entered eighty acres where Knowlton now stands in  1854; received his patent in 1855. It was sold for delinquent taxes in 1856 and the decree became final in 1857 as he did not redeem it within the one year limit. Marshall county’s historical society erected a monument to his memory in 1918 as he saved the early settlers of that county in 1855 from Sioux massacre.

Leonard Imus is the oldest living resident of Ringgold county, as he came in  1854 at the age of eight years.

F.B. Soles is the next oldest resident, as he came April 18, 1855, at the age of ten.

Mary M. Lesan is the next oldest resident, as she came May 3, 1855; was eighteen years old and married.

Ellen Freshwater is believed to be the oldest person in Ringgold county, she being 92 years old on September 5, 1925. She came to Ringgold county in 1858.

First Threshing Machine in Ringgold county.

What is supposed to be the first threshing machine in Ringgold county was one owned by Sy Cross in 1867 and 68. Then Levi Terwilliger traded for it and he and Henry Bunker ran it in 1869. This machine had a horse-power that had to be tipped off the wagon, by tipping the wagon over on one side, then holding the horse-power until the wagon was tipped back and pulled away, then the power was set down on the ground. This was what they called a down power. The tumbling rod ran from the horse-power to the separator and was very dangerous as there was no covering over the knuckles and it was very apt to strip the clothes off a man that stepped over it at these places.

Four or five span of horses hitched to the horse-power levers furnished the power. They went around and around the horse-power and over the tumbling rod at every round. There was no straw carrier to this machine. The straw came off the back end of the separator and when a pile accumulated they “bagged” it away with a rail that had a rope tied to each end and a horse hitched to the center of the rope and the rail was placed behind the pile of straw and a man stood on the rail and drove the horse to the straw stack with the straw where it was stacked. The grain ran out in a half bushel and a man had to empty it into a wagon. They kept tally of the grain by having pegs in rows of holes in a tally baord. There were a rows of holes for one-half bushel, one bushel, one hundred bushels and one thousand bushels and this board was also used for a step to get upon the separator. The thresher men of today, no doubt, will think this a crude machine, compared to the threshing machines of today, but it was far ahead of using the old “flail” or tramping out grain with horses or oxen and then winnowing the grain in the wind.