Home | Journeys | Sources | Research Info | About | What's New
Pioneer Recollections, 1941


Page 146
Page 147
Page 148
Page 194
Page 195
    Pioneer Recollections 147
prepared for wheat and corn and so the first settlement in Troy Township was formed.
   About the year 1846, the Hansons, Tom, Steve and John, located three miles from these first settlers  and for six years there were only the six families, together with the Indians, in the new settlement.
  In 1846 my grandparents on my father's side, came out from Ohio, and in 1846 they both died on the same day. A coffin was built of rough planks that were hewn from logs, large enough to hold both bodies, and they were buried in the same grave by a few neighbors and the In- dians who were then camped in the vicinity.
   I was born in the log cabin that my father built in 1845, and it was our home for some time.  During the fall of 1845 my father and mother were severly burned in a prairie fire in the vicinity of  Holbrook and their hands and arms were crippled as a result of the fire and they carried the scars during the rest of their lives.
   After the cabin homes were built the settlers began breaking up the prairie and raising crops, doing all the work with oxen, as horses were unknown at that time in that vicinity. In the early 50'a new settlers began to come in and settle 'in the community. John Watkins, Hugh Evans, Louis Williams and others. The first school house was built of logs near where the cemetery is now located and Mrs. Minerva Long was the first school teacher in Troy Township. Later Marengo was located and became quite a trading post. Muscatine was our milling place for many years and it would always take about six days to make the trip with two or three yoke of oxen.
   In the early days all newcomers would stay at our house until they became settled in their own places. One of these families, Thomas Perkins and wife then young married people, settled on the Douglas Road three miles north of our cabin. Being the youngest and perhaps the easiest to spare from home, my father would often send me out to help the neighbors during threshing time. My job was always that of bundle cutter.
   My father, Evan Evans, was one of the organizers of the old Welch Congregatnonal church and at one time placed a mortgage on his land to assist in raising funds for the building of that church. Of course, when organized the money was paid back. Prior to the organ- ization of that church my father and mother and the oth- er Welch settlers would drive to the Welch church in Johnson county,about twenty-six miles, on Sunday. That