Iowa

Three Evans brothers, John, William and Robert had moved into Marion Township in Putnam County, Indiana well before Michael Heckman arrived. The county had been formed in 1822 and shortly after that the three brothers arrived and bought virgin land from the government. Robert�s land was just across the fields southeast of Michael, and Michael�s son Solomon and Robert�s daughter Louisa became acquainted, eventually marrying in September of 1845.

They were both still teenagers and since their first child was expected toward the end of 1847, they acquired 40 acres from father Michael in June of that year and set up their own home and farm. William Henry Hickman, our great-grandfather and 3^rd cousin of the previously mentioned Wright Brothers, was born in December and a year later they obtained another 44 acres from Michael. It appeared that all was well and they were settled down for a long stay, but in Solomon�s young life he had already lived in three different states and the call of the virgin prairie was exceedingly strong, as we shall see.

Louisa Evans� father Robert was born in Kentucky and his forebears have been traced to Virginia where the trail becomes obscure. Robert�s grandfather, also named Robert, married a Hoge and there is an interesting story about the immigrant Hoge. The Hoges from way back produced branches which resulted in the descendant Sir Douglas Haig of 1^st World War fame and the American general, Alexander (�I�m in control here�) Haig, chief of staff for President Richard Nixon. Our William Hoge of Musselburg, Scotland was the son of Sir James Hoge and was forced to immigrate to America in 1682 at age 22 because of his refusal to give up Presbyterianism. At the same time James Hume of Paisley, Scotland, from the same line that produced philosopher David Hume, and his wife had been imprisoned and their land seized for similar reasons of religious preference, but they were released on condition they depart for America.

They left on the ship Caledonia with their 12-year-old daughter Barbara and they met William Hoge who was on the same ship. Enroute Barbara's parents died of an epidemic so William, 10 years her senior, became her protector and delivered her to an uncle, Dr. Johnson, in New York. He continued on to New Jersey where he married but he and Barbara wrote to each other over the years. When William�s wife died, he traveled to New York where he asked Barbara, now 19 years old, to marry him and they lived a long life, to age 89 for him, 75 for her, after having nine children. To bring this into perspective, they were this writer�s 7^th great-grandparents.

But getting back to the three Evans brothers, it is interesting to follow Louisa�s Uncle John Crow Evans for just a bit since he was the first to break away from Indiana. By 1836 he was in Illinois. But the Iowa Territory was being opened up and settlers were urged to come. John moved his family again, this time to Wapello County in Iowa (not to be confused with the town of Wapello near the Mississippi river), which was officially opened for settlement at midnight on April 30, 1843. The eager settlers camped along the county border and, at the sound of a shotgun, they raced into the virgin fields, seeking out the best spot to stake a claim. Within a month of this settlement, 5,000 people were living within Wapello's borders.

Monroe, the bordering county to the west, lay within the Sac and Fox Indian Purchase by the treaties of 1837 and 1842, but not until 1845 did the Indians finally surrender the land. The Mormons were probably the first white settlers in this area as the Mormon Trail passed through just south and east of what is now the town of Chariton. Iowa officially became a state in 1846 and Monroe was split so that its western half became Lucas County. By 1849, the folks back in Indiana had probably heard from John that to the west the Indians were gone and the government was selling land at $1.25 an acre. There were books and pamphlets urging young families to settle the west, one example being the following introduction, in flowery 19^th century prose, from the Handbook for Immigrants by Nathan Howe Parker:

The Young Men of Iowa

into whose hands will, ere long, be entrusted the destiny

of our young state, and by whom her free soil, her

boundless resources, and her republican

institutions, are soon to be deve-

loped, controlled, improved,

and perpetuated,

this book is respectfully

D e d i c a t e d.

That they prove worthy of the sacred trust,

never swerving from the path of duty, and that they

exert their prerogatives as freemen, to ad-

vance into an ever-expanding prospe-

rity the noble state whose helm

they hold, is the desire

and hope of

T h e A u t h o r.

So the young family of Solomon, Louisa and 1 � -year-old William Henry along with Louisa�s parents and their other seven children set out for Iowa in the early spring of 1849. They crossed the state of Illinois in their wagons until they reached the Mississippi river, �The Father of All Waters� as the Indians called it. They had heard talk of a railroad bridge to be built across the river at Davenport but that would be later. For now they had the option of taking a steamboat across or loading their wagons and property onto a large raft to be pulled across by cable. When they reached the other side, according to author Parker the Hickmans and Evans were greeted with this idyllic Iowa scene:

In the spring of the year, when the young grass has just covered the ground with a carpet of delicate green, and especially if the sun is rising from behind a distant swell of the plain and glittering upon the dewdrops, no scene can be more lovely to the eye. The groves, or clusters of timber, are particularly attractive at this season of the year. The rich undergrowth is in full bloom. The rosewood, dogwood, crab-apple, wild plum, the cherry, and the wild rose are all abundant, and in many portions of the State the grape-vine abounds. The variety of wild fruit and flowering shrubs is so great, and such the profusion of the blossoms with which they are bowed down, that the eye is regaled almost to satiety.

The gaiety of the prairie, its embellishments, and the absence of the gloom and savage wildness of the forest, all contribute to dispel the feeling of loneliness which usually creeps over the mind of the solitary traveller in the wilderness. Though he may not see a house or a human being, and is conscious that he is far from the habitations of men, the traveller upon the prairie can scarcely divest himself of the idea that he is travelling through scenes embellished by the hand of art. The flowers, so fragile, so delicate, and so ornamental, seem to have been tastefully disposed to adorn the scene.

They still had a hundred miles to go to even reach John�s place in Wapello County. Covered wagons without number streamed across the prairie from the east. After stopping at Johns where they stayed a short while, they were eager to push on to the west in order to find some good land. The further west they went, the fewer cabins and farms they saw. They stopped at a point on the north side of the Chariton river running northwest to southeast, where on 24 June 1849 Solomon paid the government $200 for 160 acres in Lucas County. Louisa�s father Robert did the same for Monroe County land that was just on the other side of the county border. Today, part of his former property is submerged in the form of Lake Rathbun. Some years ago the Chariton River was dammed up for flood control and to create a recreation area, resulting in a large lake that puts part of his former property under water. Seen today, the property is no longer farmed and appears as though it never was. Wildlife such as turkeys and other small animals can be found in the adjoining woods. It is in a beautiful lakefront location with a gorgeous view.

Solomon�s land purchase was the 206^th in the county, so on average each family had two square miles to themselves. According to the federal census for the following year, there were 192,214 Iowans in the entire state. The first order of business was to build a small cabin out of logs. Then he had to find someone to hire that had a prairie plow to �break prairie�. These were the same as regular plows but much larger and they took five yoke of oxen to pull against the strong, wild prairie grass roots, which were much stronger than the �tame� kind. The first few years of frontier life were very hard. The difficulties were that helpers were hard to find, towns, markets and supplies were few and far between, and there was always the threat of sickness at the change of seasons. Lucas County didn�t even have a Court House until the year after they arrived. It was built of oak logs in Chariton, the county seat about 13 miles to the northwest, and was one and one-half stories high with windows and a door in the front and outside stairs leading to the second floor.

The family survived that first year and in the following year the 1850 census taker for District 13 showed Solomon, Louisa and William living on their farm in Lucas County. In 1851, Louisa�s Uncle William Evans arrived from Indiana and purchased land across the way from brother Robert. They all eked out a living for two more years, but when Louisa became pregnant in 1852 she began to think about going back to Indiana to have the child. It had been five years since William Henry was born, which suggests that perhaps she bore a frontier child that did not survive. George Washington Hickman was born in October of 1852. All of the census records but one indicate he was born in Indiana, the lone exception being a reference to Iowa. The sheer weight of that evidence seems to indicate that he was indeed born back in Indiana. After all, a parent wouldn�t forget the adventure involved in travelling back across two states to bear a child. The railroad didn�t arrive �til the 1860s and even the Western Stage Coach Co. didn�t come through the county �til the following year. She would have had to take a wagon back or to the next county to catch the stage coach. Why didn�t she just stay home because, after all, her mother lived just across the fields? Perhaps she did lose a child the time before and maybe her mother went with her back to Indiana to be closer to the safety of civilized amenities for the birth. The full record as far as is known for Solomon and Louisa�s family:

Family of Solomon Jonas Hickman

Solomon Jonas Hickman born 23 June 1826 in Loudoun Co., VA, died 26 May 1892 in Clay Co., IA, married 11 September 1845 in Putnam Co., IN to Louisa Evans born 17 May 1827 in Washington Co., IN

Children:

1. William Henry Hickman born 11 Dec 1847 in Putnam Co., IN, died 27 May 1882 in Clay Co., IA, married 8 Aug 1869 in Linn Co., IA to Samantha Servison born 22 Jun 1848 in Tuscarawas Co., OH, died 12 Jun 1889 in Linngrove, Buena Vista Co., IA

2. George Washington Hickman born 11 Oct 1852 in Indiana, died 11 Jun 1916 in Grand Junction, CO, married in 1874 in Benton Co., IA to Phena Semantha Reeves born 25 Jan 1855 in Washington Co., IA, died 18 Jul 1884 in Clay Co., IA.

married about 1889 to Jennie Rebecca Adair born 1869 in Clay Co., IA, died in 1954 in Grand Junction, CO

3. James Hickman born about 1855 in Iowa, died before 1870 in Iowa

4. Sarah C. Hickman born about 1858 in Missouri, died before 1860

5. John M. Hickman born April 1860 in Knox Co., MO

married Lizzie _____ born December 1864 in Illinois

6. Sarah Ellen Hickman born 25 Apr 1865 in Linn Co., IA, died 5 Aug 1942 in Grand Junction, CO, married 24 Aug 1884 in Clay Co., IA to Lewis Alvin Hunnel born 22 Feb 1854 in Iroquois Co., IL, died 6 Jan 1942 in Grand Junction, CO

In 1853 Louisa�s uncle John C. Evans came on over from Wapello County and settled near brothers William and Robert. It was about that same time when a lumber mill was established in the county and lumber was freighted into their area by teams of horse or oxen. Frame houses began to appear among the log cabins. It was claimed some years ago that there were several of these houses, hand framed of oak and walnut still being lived in for more than a century, still plumb and solid. So there were gradual improvements on the frontier but the going was still rough. 1854 was not a good year and in order to raise some cash he mortgaged his property to one Peter Gittinger to secure payment of $40 in 12 months from 7 Aug 1854 with interest at 10%. He met those terms and in September of 1855 he satisfied the mortgage. That was the year that son James was born.

In May of 1858 the value of Solomon�s property had soared to six times what he paid for it. Martha Ann Woodruff made an offer he couldn�t refuse and so he sold it to her for $1200 and moved his family about four miles away to the south side of the Chariton river near Milledgeville in Appanoose county. Three months later he met one Benjamin Baldwin of that county who had 40 acres down in Knox County, Missouri that were available for a reasonable price. So in August of 1858 he paid Baldwin $225 and moved the family down there, a trip of some 65 miles to the southeast. Their stay was short but they did manage to have two children while there, Sarah C. and John M. about two years apart. Sarah C. died in early 1860 and perhaps losing their only daughter (at that time) was part of the reason they wanted to leave. In February Solomon sold the property to one Ira S. Kingsley for $400 and the family returned to Appanoose County, Iowa.

In April of the following year, the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. The telegraph didn�t arrive in that part of Iowa �til the following year, but there was probably quite a buzz when the news finally arrived. The Atlantic Coast was a long ways away but of course the war was destined to have a profound effect on the entire nation. In June, Solomon heard that another Knox County, Missouri family wanted to sell some land they owned in Linn County, Iowa. Linn County, 105 miles to the northeast, was a booming place at about that time and the prospect looked appealing. So Solomon bought 80 acres of land in Marion Township from John and Mary Vansickel. This was about five miles north of Marion, about half way to what is now the town of Alburnett. Toddville now lies to the west at about the same distance.

He may not have moved his family there right away, though, because his name appears on the Monroe County Militia Roll of 1863 as S. J. Hickman, age 36, farmer, Jackson Township. Why his name appears on that county�s roll can only be guessed at, but Jackson Township is only a couple of miles north of Milledgeville and is where Louisa�s father and brothers lived. In fact, her brother James appears on the same page as Solomon. In any event, we know they were in Linn County by the spring of 1863 because Solomon �of Linn County� bought another 10 acres there. In October he bought another 15 acres jointly with his brother-in-law James. These two properties were a couple of miles east of the current day Bever Park in Cedar Rapids. As far as we know, James was the only Evans who moved to Linn County. The others stayed in Monroe County, thrived and multiplied, and were buried in the Evans Cemetery close by the Evans and Hickman properties.

In the fall of 1864, James Evans and wife Sarah sold their interest in the 15 acres to Solomon so that now he owned the 80, the 10, and the 15 acres in Linn County. He wasn�t through. In April of 1867 he bought a small 8 acre plot near Toddville. He was probably buying these on a speculative basis, banking on the values increasing as the economies of Cedar Rapids and the surrounding areas continued to thrive. But he did have four sons at that time and perhaps he was making plans to set them up with their own properties in the future.

Daughter Sarah Ellen was born in 1865, her name apparently in remembrance of the first Sarah. The Civil War ground to a close after claiming the lives of 12,500 Iowans out of the 70,000 who served, and in 1868 Iowa became the first state in the nation to grant African-Americans the right to vote.

By 1869, Solomon had sold off most of his Linn County properties at a net profit of about $1,755. The profit was due to what he gained from the 80 acres, since he lost money on the smaller holdings. The 1870 census shows his family living in Linn County in Fayette Township on the 8 acre plot. It�s interesting to note that his entry is written as Sol J. Heckman, probably the last remaining evidence (assuming it wasn�t an innocent error by the census taker) of our German heritage, reflecting the spelling as it appeared in the church book back in Virginia over 40 years before.

Son James had died some time before 1870, leaving just three surviving sons, William Henry, George Washington, and John M. along with daughter Sarah. These four are shown in the 1870 census, but William Henry had married Samantha Servison the summer before. Apparently they stayed with their parents for a year and then moved into their own home because they are also shown in the 1870 census taken 18 July with their first child George at four months of age.

Why Solomon kept on the move is a mystery, except that in order to realize the handsome profits available due to rising property values, he had to sell out so apparently he figured that he might as well move to a new place while he was at it. The next move was across the county line to the west into Benton County. Sons William and George moved their families there, too. We know this because in June of 1871 he sold apparently the last of his Linn County properties and indicated in the deed that he was from Benton County. Research in Benton does not reveal any land transactions for him or the two sons, but we know they were there because of the following events, all of which occurred there:

� William Henry�s second child Lydia born in November of 1872.

� William Henry�s third child William Alpheus born in September of 1873.

� George Washington married Phena Samantha Reeves in 1874.

� William Henry�s fourth child Marilda born in July of 1875.

� George Washington�s first child Fred born in 1875.

The Hickman �caravan� then moved on to Herdland Township in Clay County, Iowa, 170 miles to the northwest, sometime between 1875 to 1878. There is nothing to show that it was actually prior to 1878, but the forerunner of the move up there might have been one John H. Heckman. On 13 December 1876 a John H. Heckman was granted under the Homestead Act a patent to 80 acres of land situated in Clay County 15 miles west of where Solomon eventually settled. If we roll back the clock to 1853 in Putnam County, Indiana, we note that Solomon�s nephew by way of brother John Henry Hickman was born so that he would be 23 years old at the time of this Clay County event. This is just speculation but if he were that nephew he might have told Solomon and his cousins about the virtues of living in Clay County in the 1870s. He may have told them not to worry about Indians just because General George Custer and his troops had been massacred by Sioux chief Sitting Bull in the Battle of Little Bighorn in June of that year. After all, that was some 600 miles west and the Indians had been chased out of Iowa long ago. But whatever the impetus was, all three of the families were soon settled there with properties practically adjacent to each other - Solomon, William and George, with John M. soon joining them with his own property after he married. Solomon's purchase was 160 acres from O. E. Palmer for $1,040 in January of 1882.

William Henry Hickman was probably named after William Henry Harrison, the 9th American President who defeated the Indians at Tippecanoe in Indiana. Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, and in April of that year William Henry bought 80 acres of Clay County land in Herdland Township from D. C. Thomas for $440. That fall his 5th child, Louetta, was born, and for the next two years William Henry had to work extra hard to support his growing family. In late May of 1881, he decided to plow under some corn that had not done well, so he hitched up a team of horses to a corn plow and went to the fields. His brother and a young boy were already at work when some dark storm clouds formed. Suddenly there was a tremendous roar in the vicinity of William Henry and the horses. The brother and the boy came running to see what happened. They could see the horses and William Henry flat on the ground. As they rushed to the scene, the two horses struggled to their feet, but poor William Henry lay silent. He had taken a direct hit, a stroke of lightning, and he would rise no more. Less than two months later, Samantha would give birth to their 6th child.

Was the boy our grandfather, William Alpheus? It could have been. He would have been 8 years old that fall. More likely it would have been George Elmer, not yet 11. Just a few short years after this incident, William Henry Harrison Elementary school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa was built, named in honor of the president. In years to come, three of William Henry Hickman's great-grandchildren, including this writer, would attend that school.

Samantha was now a 33 year old widow with six children and she had to make some tough choices. In the summer of 1883, she disposed of the 80 acre farm in Clay County and in the winter, while in Linn, signed a deed for a smaller farm of 40 acres in Clay. Later she decided the best thing to do was to split up the family. Solomon and Louisa, William Henry's parents, were getting on in years, had an empty house, and could use some help from the boys. George Elmer and William Alpheus moved to their place. Marilda May moved in with her Uncle John's family, and Samantha took the other two girls, Lydia and Louetta, as well as little Henry, back with her to Linn County. She and the girls moved in with the family of Richard Lanning in Otter Creek Township, while Henry was placed with the family of one Dick Tims on an adjoining farm. There is a good possibility that Richard Lanning was a brother or close relative to Samantha's father's first wife, Nancy Lanning. In 1884 another tragedy struck. Phena, wife of William Henry�s brother George W., died. Such was life, and death, in the 19^th century.

In the spring of 1887, our great-grandmother Samantha married widower W. H. Pelley and a year and a half later bore him a daughter, Effie Ellen. After all she had been through, it seemed as though things might finally work out alright. But less than six months later she was dead at age 40, cause unknown. She was buried in Linn Grove Cemetery on the other side of the line with Buena Vista County but a marked grave could not be found.

Family of William Henry Hickman

William Henry Hickman born 11 Dec 1847 in Putnam Co., Indiana, died 27 May 1882 in Clay Co., Iowa, married on 8 Aug 1869 to Samantha Servison born 22 Jun 1848 in Tuscarawas Co., Ohio, died 12 Jun 1889 in Linn Grove, Buena Vista Co, IA

Children:

1. George Elmer Hickman born 21 Jun 1870 in Linn Co., IA

2. Lydia Allas Hickman, born 27 Nov 1872 in Benton, Co., IA

3. William Alpheus Hickman born 8 Sep 1873 in Benton Co., IA, died 26 Feb 1954 in Cedar Rapids, IA, married 7 Dec 1900 in Toddville, IA to Alice May Garretson born 11 Apr 1877 in Linn Co., IA, died 21 Feb 1937 in Cedar Rapids, IA

4. Marilda May Hickman born 24 Jul 1875 in Benton Co., IA, died in Pasadena, CA, married ____ Thompson

5. Luetta Hickman born 25 Nov 1879 in Clay Co., IA

6. Henry L. Hickman born 20 Jul 1882 in Clay Co., IA

In 1889 George W. married his second wife Jennie, and in the spring of 1892 Solomon, the weary traveler, patriarch of the Iowa Hickmans, died a month short of his 66^th birthday. He was laid to rest in Burr Oak Cemetery, high on a hill surrounded with oak trees overlooking a beautiful valley. The 1895 Iowa state census shows Louisa living alone, keeping house, religion: Methodist Episcopal. She died in 1901.

The inscription on their combined stone:

Not lost blest thought

But gone before.

Where we shall meet

To part no more.

In about 1905, George W., his wife, his sister Sarah and her husband Louis Alvin Hunnel sold their farms and headed off for Colorado. Brother John M. left Clay County at about the same time. But what of our grandfather, William Alpheus Hickman, second son of William Henry, who was born the year the James brothers, Jesse and Frank, carried out the first train robbery near Adair, Iowa? He had left before the turn of the century, the destination: a return to Linn County.