Garretson.us :: Garretson OnLine

Fort Madison, Iowa.

April 14, 1922.

0. A. Garretson, Esq.,

Salem, Iowa.

My Dear Mr. Garretson:

I was somewhat surprised, but more elated, of receiving your letter of recent date, inquiring about old Pilot Grove "The Deserted Village" of Lee County. Unusual press of business has delayed this reply. Furthermore, it is not easy, for the writer, at least, to divert one’s thoughts from the tortuous channels of business into the more placid waters of reminiscence. It requires time and a conducive frame of mind to "change the gear".

I must take issue with the statement made by my nephew that I could tell more about Pilot Grove than any other man living. Henry Clay Weir, of Mt. Pleasant, certainly should be able to claim and maintain this distinction, as he was one of the founders of the town as shown by the record of the platting thereof. It is possible that my Father, Alexander Cruickshank, indirectly gave the name to the town from the grove of tall elms that stood out on the high prairie like a low hung cloud of dark green in the Spring of 1834 when he was the sole settler within a radius of more than ten miles, taking the elm grove as a center. He had two years previously crossed the Mississippi and stood on the fertile soil of Iowa for the first time at Puc-e-she-tuc at the foot of the Des Moines Rapids, the site of the present city of Keokuk. Only an Indian trading house of the American Fur Company, and two or three cabins occupied by Whites or half breeds intermarried with Indians, marked the site of the future city.

The territory was opened for settlement by act of Congress July 1, 1833. My father, on March the 4th, 1834, procured a canoe at the town of Commerce, now Nauvoo, Illinois, and took aboard a few personal effects and provisions. Being a sailor of fifteen years experience, he readily rigged up a mast and using his blanket for a sail, he easily sailed up the River eight miles, landing at the site of Old Fort Madison, marked by two or three stone chimneys, the barracks having been destroyed by fire over twenty years before. There were two or three cabins at the landing, occupied by settlers, some of whom had made settlement before the country was opened for that purpose, and had been removed a year previously by Government Dragoons.

Remaining over night at the Fort, my father next morning boldly started for the interior wilderness, afoot and alone, selecting a site for a future home in a point of timber jutting into the wind swept prairie on the head waters of Sutton Creek, fifteen miles North west of the Old Fort, and about three miles South of the present village of Lowell on Skunk River. Returning to the settlement at the Fort, he engaged a man with an ox team who the following day moved the pioneer, his provisions and personal effects to the site selected. They improvised a camp and began at once to construct a cabin, three sides of which were of logs and a bank or hillside was utilized for the fourth. Later on, an old make-shift of a plow was obtained from the Fort and four or five acres of sod were broken out and planted to potatoes, some other vegetables and corn. The helper, with his oxen returned to the River settlement. This was the first settlement in the interior of what afterwards became Lee County. A man by the name of Whitiker had a short time before settled at the present site of North Augusta in Des Moines County, about three miles from the mouth of the Skunk River. The notorious Jim Box, a man who would not spoil a good story by too close an adherence to the truth, settled at a point about two miles North of the Cruikshank cabin, in the May following the latter settlement. Mr. Box’ claim subsequently became a part of Henry County, where he lived until his death some forty years ago.

My father being unsatisfied with his location, began, after he had put in his small crop, to reconnoiter for one where the soil was more fertile and the water facilities better. He had learned from an Indian that stopped over night at his cabin, of a fine spring of water about seven miles to the Southwest. Taking my father to a high point on the prairie nearby, he pointed in the direction of the spring and to a grove that stood boldly out on the prairie about five miles due West. Four miles to the South, the Indian called his attention to a high point of timber (site of the town of West Point). By means of broken English, signs, gestures and grunts, in which an Indian is a past-master in making himself understood, he made it clear to my father that in order to find the spring he must follow the course pointed out, keeping the elm grove to the right and the point of timber to the left, about equally distant from the course line, after crossing Big Sugar Creek, he would see another grove or point of timber ahead, where he would find the flowing spring. Not long after this occurrence, Father started in quest of what he feared might turn out to be the fabled Fountain of Youth with which the Indians lured the early Spanish adventurers. It must be understood that the country at that time was a primeval wilderness and the only guides for the traveler were natural objects, such as groves, points of timber, mounds, bluffs and streams. Indian trails were the only artificial guides and they were few, being narrow paths connecting their villages in most cases. The land on which the elm grove stood is about the highest point in Lee County, and could be seen for miles around. Keeping the grove well to the right and crossing Sugar Creek at a point now known as Pilot Grove Station, my father found the spring at the edge of the point of timber just as the Indian had described. Here, Father made his second claim, on which he built another cabin on the exact spot now enclosed and known as the Clay Grove or Howard Cemetery, where he, my mother and other members of the family lie buried, including the eldest, James, who was born there. (Note: Click on "read more" on the bar below to view the article in its entirety.)

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Note: An old yellowed photo stat copy of this letter was recently discovered. O.A. Garretson was writing an article for the Iowa State Historical Society on Old Pilot Grove before the town had moved to its present location and had written to Mr. J. P. Cruikshank for information. Many old family names in Lee and Henry County are mentioned in this letter, many of which are recognizable today.