CHAPTER 16.
IONIA AND PONCA TOWNSHIPS - Their citizens, Etc,. Etc.
IONIA TOWNSHIP
The region comprising the township of Ionia is bounded on the north and east by the Missouri River, south by the townships of New Castle and Ponca, and west by Hooker. Except the bottom land along the river, the country is rough and hilly, but all, whether hill or valley, has excellant soil, good water, and, especially on the bottoms, large tracts of valuable timber. The township has now about 550 inhabitants. It has had no village since the town site of Ionia was swept away by the river. The only reminders of that unfortunate place now remaining, are the Ionia ferrybat which, as near as may be, still traverses its ancient path across the river, and the Ionia post office a mile or two east of where old Ionia stood. To this part of the county the notice of settlers was attracted at an early day, and at one time, as we have seen in the preceding pages, Ionia was a place of much importance and business. Among those who have been in the past or are at present prominent in Ionia, are the following:
L.T. Hill was born in West Concord, Vt., in 1823. Was married to Sarah J. Smith in Boston, Mass., in 1852, and in 1857 they removed from Boston to Davenport, Iowa, where he was engaged in business until the spring of 1859 when he came to Ionia, that town site having been purchased for him the year before by the Messrs, Pierce. To the building up of Ionia, Mr. Hill, with energy and success devoted several years, and saw it advance from a naked town site to a prosperous place of business, with a population of several hundred. A more extended account of its growth has been given elsewhere. During the Indian scare of 1863, Mr. Hill was away from home and his wife refused to leave the place, herself and family being the only ones in that part of the county that were not frightened away. In 1861, with the assistance of John Taffe, then delegate in congress from Nebraska, Mr. Hill succeeded in establishing a post office at Ionia, and at the same time a post office at Vermillion, Dakota the latter being the first post office established in that territory. In 1881, Mr. Hill, with his family removed to Canton, Dakota, where he built a large grist mill, and where he resided until 1892. In that year he went to California where some of his children had preceded him and where he now resides. During all the years that he lived in Ionia, his doors were always open to any and all who chanced to come that way, and his hospitality knew no bounds. Mr. Hill was a prominent citizen of Dixon county during his residence here. He was probate judge for several years.
Henry M. Pierce and his father, J.J. Pierce, were fitted out by L.T. Hill in Davenport in 1858 and employed by him to come west and locate a town site somewhere in the wilds of Nebraska, and the same year they secured the town site of Ionia which had previously located, Mr. Hill joined them the following year. J.J. Pierce died in North Bend in this county about twenty years ago. Henry M. Pierce is now living in Sioux City, Iowa.
Nelson Feanto and Isaac Feanto, brothers, settled upon the farm now owned by J.F. Gibbs, northwest of Ionia in 1861. Issaac Feanto died upon the place he located in 1872. The wife of Nelson Feanto died and was buried upon their farm in 1870, and he died at St. Helena, Cedar county in 1890. Both brothers left large families. Nelson Feanto, Jr., of Emerson, is the only descendant of the two families living in the county.
Charles H. Smith, came with L.T. Hill to Ionia in 1859, was married in 1862 to Clarissa Pierce, and now resides on his farm of over 200 acres near the original town site of Ionia. He has for several years past been postmaster at the Ionia post office. He has the finest farm and the finest buildings in all that part of the county and has raised a family of eight children, seven of whom are living, and three married and settled near him.
Almond Smith and wife, the father and mother of Mrs. L.T. Hill and C.H. Smith, came to Ionia in 1860 where they lived with their son, C.H. Smith, and where Grandma Smith died in 1878 and Grandpa Smith in 1880 at the ages of 78 and 86 years respectively. Bothe were buried in the Ionia cemetery. They enjoyed the distinction of being the oldest couple in the county for several years.
Roswell Hotchkiss settled above Ionia upon the place now owned by T.J. Ryan, in 1856. Removed to Colorado in 1868 where he still remains.
Joseph Stefani settled in Ionia township in 1859 upon the place now owned by J.F. Gibbs and was married to Betsey Sutherland in 1869. He conducted a general store in Ionia in 1872 and 1873 and removed to Burbank, Dakota in '73, near which place he now resides.
In 1870 William B., Allen H. and John W. Ellyson, brothers settled in Ionia, and together built the first steam ferry in operation in the county. They are now all prosperous farmers in Ionia township. A.H. Ellyson was county commissioner and supervisor several terms.
Edward Newton and family settled in Ionia in 1869. He with Bosley and Landon leased and run the Ionia steam saw and grist mills of L.T. Hill for five years. Bosley retiring, O.P. Sullenberger took his place in the firm the second year. Mr. Newton is now a successful farmer, living upon one of his farms in Ponca township.
Dexter Rice settled with his family upon the place now owned by A.H. Ellyson in Ionia township in 1866, removing from there in 1876 to a valuable farm in Hooker township where he now lives.
Benjamin, James P. and Sylvester Cook, brothers, settled near Ionia in 1864. Benjamin removed, went to Iowa in '86 and remained there. James P. removed to Ponca in 1880 and has since lived there, and Sylvester still resides, a well to do farmer, upon his farm in Ionia township.
T.J. Ryan, the supervisor of Ionia at this time (1895), came to that township in 1881 from Dakota and devoted himself to farming and stock raising with great success. He now owns 1,120 acres, a large share of it being rich Missouri river bottom land, 450 acres of which are under cultivation, 300 acres of timber and the balance meadow and pasture. His farm has two good houses, several large farm barns, one of them being 85x100 feet, two flowing wells, respectively 407 and 265 feet deep, the first wells of the kind in the county, a steam saw mill, and in connection a steam syrup factory, all with the best machinery and latest improvements, in which he made 5,000 gallons of sorghum syrup in '94 and the same in '95. He is one of the most progressive and independent of Dixon county farmers and cannot be worth less than 35,000. His family consists of a wife, one son and six daughters. See his portrait elsewhere.
Amasa Pettit, supervisor in '92 and '93, came from Dakota about 1885. He has 200 acres of bottom land and is a good farmer in good circumstances. He has a large family.
John F. Gibbs is one of Dixon county's best citizens, resides in Ionia, where he and his sons own 600 acres of excellent valley land. Mr. Gibbs was a member of the board of supervisors in 1887-8.
Among the other prosperous farmers of Ionia at this time, may be mentioned Eli Heald and B. Pearson.
Rev. W. S. Bates, a much esteemed former resident of Ionia, died at Nevada, Iowa, October 28, 1879. He was superintendent of schools for Dixon county during 72-73-74 and 75.
As a matter of course there are many more farmers in the township, thickly settled as it is, than those we have mentioned above. Among them are Elias Warner, quite an old settler who, in addition to farming, has had a mill since 1869; M.L. Smathers, Andrew Spellacy, etc., etc. The names of others have not been furnished us.
Ionia township has good school houses and the school are generally well attended and have efficient teachers. Ionia used to be celebrated for its valuable timber, its volcano, its town and its hospitable citizens. Of the timber there is yet much remaining, although the best has been cut off and made into limber. The volcano and the townsite are now both buried in mud at the bottom of the Missouri river and the hospittality and good society of an excellant class of citizens alone remain.
The portraits of Mr. and Mrs. L.T. Hill, will by their many former friends and neighbors in Ionia, be seen with pleasure, and they will be found on the engravings page. They will bring back the remembrance of old times and the hardships and pleasures of frontier life.
PONCA TOWNSHIP
The citizens of Ponca township are now numerous, and the names of a few of them will be found here.
Charles F. Putman, one of the most respected of the pioneers, was born in Cavendish, Vt., in 1835. He went to Massachusetts in 1846, and later to Ponca in 1856, where he made his home there or in Ponca township. He roughed it in the early times along with the other pioneers and lived in Ponca for one year , then took as a homestead a place now owned by J.G. Crowell, a mile west of Jeff. Wilbers farm. The farm he now owns and has lived on for the past twelve years contains 180 acres, and is well located and cultivated. Mr. Putnam was the first sheriff of Dixon County, and has since usefully filled several offices. Mr. Putnam is married and has two sons and one daughter.
A. Davis, another pioneer, came to Dixon County January 3, 1861, and first located in Ponca. In the fall of 1865 he was elected county treasurer, and held that office year after year by almost unanimous consent of the citizens, until January, 1876 ten years. Much of the time, Mr. Davis, like Bisbee, carried his office in his hat, yet with such extreme carefulness, that every cent received was promptly accounted for. A few years ago he removed to Ponca township where, on an excellent farm and with a clear conscience, he passes his honorable days with his family in peace and comfort.
M.B. Dewitt came here in 1866, took a homestead and now lives on what was the old Beardshear homestead. He and his children have 510 acres well cultivated and good buildings. Has a wife and four sons and three daughters. He was sheriff five terms, and supervisor six years. His portrait appears with those of the supervisors of 1895. Some of his experiences as sheriff appear in connection with the Matt Miller trial and the Indians who murdered Munson.
Rev. H. Beardshear, the father-in-law of Mr. Dewitt, came in 1865, and located where he now lives.
Samuel Biggerstaff, 1864, lived and died in Ponca township. Owned 160 acres. Thomas Stobaugh and Joseph Morehouse came with Biggerstaff. Morehouse is dead and Stobaugh in Missouri.
S.H. Coats, 1867, came from Iowa, was county surveyor several years and had a farm near sheriff Dewitt's. He was prominent in county affairs and a useful citizen. He went to the Black Hills about 1875.
Mordecca Smith came in 1870 and has a good farm where he resides.
John Roden is one of the wealthiest men in the county. He has several hundred acres where he lives, and is largely engaged in farming and stock raising. He was one of the early settlers of the county, comming here in 1856.
Jefferson Wilbur has been a resident for over thirty-five years. He has a large farm about a mile west of Ponca and owns property in town.
David Carnell came with Mr. Dewitt, his brother-in-law and settled near him. He died many years ago, leaving a large family. His widow married Charles Barber.
George Mattison was an early settler and is a prominent farmer and business man. For several years he was in the milling business and is now largely engaged in farming, buying and shipping cattle, etc. He has a large farm, fine house and improvements where he and his family reside, and has the respect and esteem of the county at large. He was elected to the legislature a year ago and served his constituents with ability and success.
B.H. Beller and his brothers, E. Beller and Phil Beller, came here at an early day. They first located in the township and B.H. now resides there. The others have removed to Ponca City. B.H. Beller was sheriff of the county in 1874 and 1875. All are respected and worthy citizens.
"Old Man" Shook, as he was called, came here in 1862 from Sioux City and lived in the timber several years. He died about twenty-six years ago.
John Enders came in the fall of '65 and his brother, Jesse Enders, about '66. Both are farmers and both have valuable farms and improvements. They have families and are in comfortable circumstances.
Julius Shirner came with Nick Wallenstein from Germany in 1873, and owns a valuable farm of 4oo acres. Has a large family.
Benjamin Sencenbaugh, the father of Lee Sencenbaugh and Cy Sencenbaugh of Ponca City, located about 1866 in Ponca township on a homestead adjoining and south of the Donlin place, (a mile east of town). Late in the fall of '69, while digging a well, and when at a depth of forty feet the hoisting box filled with dirt came loose and fell that distance upon him, injuring him so severely that he died that night. He was a good and industrious man and much liked in the community.
Daniel Donlin, from Bear Creek, Iowa, settled near where Martinsburg now is, in June 1856. He lived there till February 13, 1866, and was frozen to death in a blizzard while returning from a trip to Sioux City. (An account of this is given elsewhere). He left a wife and ten children. In March, 1866, his wife and part of her family removed to their farm on 160 acres, about one and one-half miles east of Ponca, and has lived there since. Two of the sons, D.F. Donlin and Mike Donlin, live and are in business in Ponca; Wm. and Thomas Donlin at Martinsburg, and James and John on the farm east of Ponca.
Wm. O'Conner came from Erie, PA., in 1863. Bought the place where he now lives, in October of that year. Left and went to Iowa after buying the land and was there five years. Married in Iowa in 1865. Came back here in 1868 and bought Adam Smith's farm south of Ponca. Lived there ever since '68. Has six children, all living and all born here but one. Mr. O'Conner knew President Garfield in 1848, when both were drivers on the canal in Ohio. Mr. O'Conner is noted as having an excellant memory and education.
John McKinley and judge Arnold, both of whom have been in a great measure identified with Ponca township, have brief sketches in the chapter relating to Ponca city.
Wm. Shea was a soldier in the regular army from 1835, for near twenty years. Was stationed at Fort Randall in 1861, and from there went south and came back in 1864. Soon after, he took a homestead of 160 acres in this township, adjoining the Arnold farm, and bought eighty acres more on which he lived. He died in 1882. He had no family. The farm is now owned by Wm. O'Conner.
D.P. Sherwood came here from the east ewith his family in 1876, and bought and located on the farm of Phil Beller, about a mile northwest of Ponca. The same year he commenced raising an orchard. Since then he has added to the first quarter section until he now has 720 acres, hill and valley, well watered and suitably divided into fields by several miles of fence. Since the first also, he has devoted his attention largely to orchards and fruit. He has now over 8,000 fruit trees, mainly apple, 5,000 of which are old enough to bear. His trees are divided into four orchards, in the first of which, about 1,0000 trees are seventeen years old. In addition to apple trees, he has pear, plum and cherry trees and a large number of choice grape vines. He has demonstrated that fruit, and good fruit, can be raised here in abundance and with profit. Mr. Sherwood deserves the friendly remembrance of the citizens of the county for the persistence with which he has, in the face of difficulties, short crops and many discouragements, kept to his determination to have a great fruit farm. Within a few years, when all his great army of trees are bearing, the results will be thousands of bushels per year. It is to be hoped he will live to see and enjoy the day. Mr. Sherwood is married and has a large family of sons and daughters.
Charles Fredrick Blecker came from Prusssia in 1862, Stopped in PA seven years and then came to this township. Wm. Blecker and August Blecker came with him. Wm. died after being here a year, and August moved to Iowa about sixteen years ago. Charles bought a farm of 160 acres and paid $310 for it. He has now 480 acres well improved and is a fine a location as the county affords. Has three sons, two of whom Robert and Charles A., are married and have good farms near by, and one daughter, married to Fred Rogosh, who lives on West Creek.
Barney McShane, another prosperous proprietor of a large farm came here some fifteen years ago.
H.I. Brown has a large farm, highly improved and cultivated, a fine residence, and groves, fruit trees and grape vines in splendid condition, about two miles northwest of town. Mr. Brown came here a few years ago and has since been prominent in public affairs.
M. Huddleston owned and ran the ferry across the Missouri at Sioux City in 1857 and conveyed across a large number of people who at the time came to Dixon county. He afterwards went to Niobrara and in 1864 came here and bought of John Stough the farm he afterwards lived on up to about four years ago, when he sold sold it to the Ponca Driving and Fair Association for fairgrounds, race course, etc. Mr. Huddleston was never married. A short time before he came here, his brother, Wm. Huddleston, became a resident of Ponca, and lived there much of the time since then. Both are men who have a multitude of friends and without an enemy in the world.
B.G. Rahn, a resident for a number of years past, has a well improved farm of 400 acres.
Perry Douthit came from Iowa in 1870. Has 400 acres. Is largely and profitably engaged in dairying.
F.S. Payne, a successful farmer, has resided here 6 or 8 years.
A. Reynolds, up to his death about two years ago, resided for several years on his farm, a short distance northwest of Ponca. He was county judge in '90, '91, '92 and '93, and performed the duties of the office acceptably. He had also been supervisor of Ponca township in 1886, and some years before was postmaster at Ponca. He left a wife and several children, who still reside on the pleasant farm owned by him.
E.W. Shaw came from New York in 1879. Started a harness shop in Ponca and then bought a farm two miles east. He has 333 acres, well improved, and is a successful farmer.
W.F. Robinson and family came here from Meigs county, Ohio, in April, 1890. Wm. Scott and J.D. Kantz (sons-in-law of Mr. Robinson,) and their families came with him. All live in Ponca township. Robinson has 160 acres, and Scott and Mr. Kautz 200 each. Mr. R. has a wife and nine sons and daughters, six of whom are married.
Antone Engle, came to Ponca township about 1872 and is a successful farmer. He was one of the county commissioners in 1883 and 1884, two years, at the end of which time he resigned.
O. Waterman came in 1883 from Ida county, Iowa, where he had been auditor and clerk for ten years. He first bought 100 acres here, and now owns 400, all fenced and improved. Has a wife and eight sons and daughters, all married except two.
An institution that in a county of so much abundance is next to useless, is the county poor farm. The farm is in Ponca township and is situated three miles west of Ponca on the Silvercreek road and contains 180 acres of good land. The house is 24x50 feet, and two stories high, containing 18 rooms. The grounds around the house are artistically arranged and attractively filled with shade trees, vines, etc. The building was completed in the summer of 1894 and on the 1st of November of that year was opened. R. P. Williams, an energetic farmer of Otter Creek, was appointed superintendent and remained a year giving good satisfaction by his excellant management. During the time there were from two to three inmates.
The names of other residents of Ponca township are doubtless also deserving of mention. These brief notices in all townships are furnished us by those who are acquainted with the residents, but of course they have been liable to forget many of them.
Copyright (C) 1998-2001 Robin Mosier
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