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Research submitted by
Doug Dickens
Additional
information on this family can be found at Doug's website
at:
http://imhdd2.ms11.net/HURCREK/01.html
Anne
Dickens
Note: Mother of
Henry P. Harding,
John Wesley Dickens
and Lucius Dickens
DICKENS, JENNINGS, TAYLOR,
REDMOND, JORDAN, READ, HILL, DUBUQUE, WILLOUGHBY, PRICE,
STOUT, VAN SICKLE
Posted By:
S.
Ferrall <clayton@sharylscabin.com>
Date: 1/7/2005 at 22:45:46
Oldest
Woman in Iowa Celebrates Her Birthday
McGregor, Ia., Aug 14, 1909 - On Aug 19 Mrs. Ann Dickens,
who lives with her daughter, Mrs. Larry Jennings, on a farm
three miles north of McGregor, will celebrate her
eighty-seventh birthday. On June 10 she celebrated the
seventy-sixth anniversary of her arrival in Iowa. Indeed, it
is believed that her term of residence ante-dates that of
any other settlers by two years.
A member
of the State Historical society said of her recently: "There
is none other known to us who can lay claim to Mrs. Dickens'
distinction."
When it
is recalled that Iowa was first recognized officially as the
home of the white men on June 1, 1833, the startling fact
presents itself that there is yet living in the person of
Mrs. Dickens one whose term of residence in Iowa, if we
except ten days, has been as long as the actual existence of
the state itself.
Prior to
June, 1833, a number of settlements had been made on the
eastern border of Iowa, notably at Dubuque, Burlington,
Keokuk, Davenport, and McGregor. Their permanence, however,
depended upon the friendship of their founders with the
Indians. It was not until Black Hawk and his Sac and Fox
followers were routed at the battle of Bad Ax in the summer
of 1832, and as a punishment for their bad faith were
compelled by the United States government to surrender
forever all claim to a fifty mile strip of land west of the
Mississippi, that actual settlement authorized by the
government took place in Iowa, then a part of Michigan
territory.
Early
Settlers Come
No sooner had the news of the "Black Hawk Purchase" spread
through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio than a crowd of settlers
from those states, fired with the tales of the wonderful
beauty and fertility of the land included in the Purchase
strip, began to hurry by team and flat boat to the
Mississippi. Many of them, though the land was not open to
settlement until the first of June, hazarded getting across
the river early in the spring and squatting on the land. The
Indians complained of their coming and the government
ordered Col. Zachary Taylor and a detachment of soldiers
from Fort Crawford to go to the lead mines at Dubuque, where
most of the settlers were landing, and drive them back east
of the river. This was done and a military patrol of the
west shore established to prevent their return. The soldiers
had their hands full for the several months that intervened
before the first of June, as many of the settlers resorted
to all manner of schemes to outwit the troops and squat on
the land before the appointed time.
On June
1, the last of the Sacs and Foxes quietly withdrew from the
land, the soldiers went back to the fort and the eager
throng of waiting settlers came pressing across the river at
Dubuque and other points on the river, as fast as the few
ferry flat boats could bring them. During the first week,
Mrs. Dickens, then 11 years old, reached Jordan's Ferry,
opposite the "Mines," with her mother and her stepfather,
John Redmond.
The
Redmonds Arrive.
They had left their home near Terre Haute, Ind., the winter
before, and inspired by the stories of the beautiful country
west of the Mississippi, told them by their neighbors, the
Langworthy brothers, they had gone to Mineral Point, Wis.,
and waited there during the winter, in order that they might
be among the first to get to Iowa, when the "Black Hawk
Purchase" was opened up in June.
It was
several days after the arrival of the family at the ferry
before they could get across, as the only means of
transportation was the one flat boat which was poled and
oared across the river by "Old Man Jordan" and his crew of
four. The crowds already on the east bank were fighting for
the first right to be carried across in this. The Redmond
family finally got aboard June 10 -- Captain Read embarked
at the same time. The captain had won distinction in the
Black Hawk war and was destined to become one of the
founders of Clayton county and a prominent figure in the
beginnings of northeastern Iowa.
Dr.
Hill, the first physician to come to Dubuque, and, for some
time after his arrival the only practitioner in Iowa, was
also on the ferry. When a yoke of oxen and a large amount of
freight were added to the load and the platform of boards,
which was all that separated the passengers from the water,
sank under their weight perilously near the level of the
river, Mrs. Dickens remembers the fright of all on board as
they started on their journey.
First
Scenes at Dubuque.
A crowd of people were already on the shore at Dubuque when
they landed, and with confused hurry were pitching tents,
putting up temporary shacks, and digging furiously in the
hills for lead. There were only two finished buildings: one
was the house in which Julien Dubuque had lived, the other a
log hotel where Widow Willoughby was attempting to feed and
lodge the crowds that were daily coming. The hotel had only
the ground for a floor, and, on this, Anne Redmond with her
mother and many others of the women and children slept at
night. A store consisting of a clapboard roof and rows of
shelves nailed to the poles which held it up, had been
opened near the hotel. Around this store the hotel, and the
blacksmith shop where the men worked all night as well as
all day; on the shore watching the new arrivals and on the
hills where the men were digging for ore, Anne Redmond found
many things of absorbing interest in the two weeks she
remained at Dubuque with her mother. At the end of that time
her father returned from a trip of exploration to the north,
and took them up to the cabin he had built on the Maquoketa.
They lived there until 1836 when the report of the greater
richness of the valley of the Turkey river led them to go
farther into the wilderness. The second cabin was built near
the proposed site of Millville, in Clayton County.
Married
at 15.
Here, on May 27, at the [illegible] Anne Redmond was married
to Edward G. Dickens by Judge Price. The [illegible]
marriage north of the Turkey river which any record has been
kept [illegible] of Berryanrive Stout and [illegible], a
Winnebago girl known [illegible] Prairie Flower." As that
ceremony was confirmed by Captain Read, consisted of the
bride and groom joining hands and jumping several times back
and forth across a canoe paddle, it is safe to accord to
Mrs. Dickens the honor of being the first woman married in
northeastern Iowa.
For some
years after her marriage she lived in the woods with her
husband, miles away from her parents and any neighbors. The
only human beings she saw were the Winnebago Indians who, by
permission of the government, were allowed to hunt along the
Turkey. In describing her life during those years she says
in substance: "The timber fairly teemed with panthers,
bears, wolves, deer, elk, and all manner of wild game. We
often could not sleep at night because of the fearful
howling of the wolves and the cries of the wild cats. We
always had plenty to eat, for no man with a gun needed to go
hungry in those days. And of all the delicious food ever
eaten by any one it was the meat we got of the woods and
cooked over the open fire in our log cabin. Besides venison,
elk, bear meat, and wild turkey and other small game, we had
bass from the river and trout from the streams. The woods
were full of wild fruits, and the honey barrel which stood
in the corner was never empty. After the first year we had
corn and potatoes from our little piece of breaking in the
timber.
Corn
Cracker at Last.
"At first we had to grind it ourselves by hand, but in the
second year a "corn cracker" was started at Eagle Point and
we carried our corn there in the fall to have it ground into
meal. Whatever other supplies we needed the men bought when
they took their raft laden with furs down the Turkey and the
Mississippi to the "Mines" and brought back with them on the
boat which they had taken along. During the first trip my
husband made to Dubuque, I staid alone in our cabin in the
wilderness with no other protector than our dog. My only
visitor during the time was an old Winnebago Indian who made
me a friendly call and presented me with some game he had
killed.
Mrs.
Dickens has been a continuous resident of Clayton county
since she came to Millville with her parents in 1836. For
the past forty years she has lived near McGregor. She has
been the mother of twelve children, seven of whom are still
living. Three of her sons served in the northern army during
the civil war. One lost his life in a southern hospital, and
because of his death in the service she has drawn a pension
for many years.
Though
Mrs. Dickens is so soon to celebrate her eighty-seventh
birthday, she still enjoys reasonable amount of good health
and her memory of the events of her younger days in Iowa
remains remarkably clear and accurate. She is immensely
proud of her long life on [illegible] and devoutly loyal to
the state [illegible] she saw born and has watched grow and
develop for more than three-quarters of a century.
"There
never was, there never will be again such a frontier as
Iowa. Indeed it is the 'beautiful land' and we who came
first know best how true that is" she says with a thrill in
her voice and an impulsive gesture of her aged hands as she
sits and rocks and tells her story, the story that she alone
still lives to tell.
source:
newspaper clipping, likely from a McGregor or Elkader
newspaper, dated August 14, 1909
transcribed by Sharyl Ferrall
transcribers notes:
1. Ann Dickens died September 5, 1909
2. The Henry Redmon & Jacob F. Redmon families were
enumerated on the 1838 census
http://www.rootsweb.com/~iaclayto/directory/gazetteer_p126.htm#census
3. Ann's maiden name was Van Sickle
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