Nancy Means Thompson and her husband,
Joseph, were early settlers of the area.
The Thompsons homesteaded a tract east of Algona. The “Christmas House” owned today by Henry
and Janet Ricke sits where the Thompson house once stood.
In December of 1914 Mrs. Thompson
presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Kossuth County Historical
Society which was later printed in the Kossuth County Advance on December 14,
1914. In the presentation she describes their
journey to Kossuth County and many early events, including their tribulations
during Christmas and the winter of 1856-57.
With Christmas 2015 a little more than a week away, it seems a good time
to read her story and be reminded of both the ordeals and the pleasures
experienced by our pioneers. So here, in
her own words, is Nancy Means Thompson.
Recollections of a Pioneer Bride
Other papers having been read before
the historical society about early days in
this county, I feel that I can say
but little that is new or interesting. More
than fifty-eight years have passed by since I first saw the Algona town site
and made the acquaintance of the few people who resided in the new village.
 |
| Nancy Means Thompson |
While living in Jackson County, Iowa,
in the spring of 1856 we heard of the cheap lands and fertile soil in the
region of Call’s Grove in this county and left for this place in April. We started from Fulton, where we had been
married a few months previous. As D. W.
Sample was moving to the county with us, we had two wagons and four yoke of
oxen in our little train. Passing
through Cascade, Delhi and Independence to Waterloo, we there crossed the river
to Cedar Falls in a ferry. At Belmond we
began following some trappers who were going to Armstrong. We kept with them until we came to Dutch
Henry’s cabin in Plum Creek. From that
place we turned towards the south and soon were at Call’s Grove. The log cabins of Judge Call and Joe Moore
were the only ones on the Algona town site.
Boarding the Bachelors
At the Moore cabin I was granted
permission by the bachelors to bake some bread, and then we went on to
Irvington where Mr. Sample’s friend, James G. Greene, had located the year
before. On our way down we called at the
Malachi Clark cabin. As Mr. Thompson and
I were a young-looking couple, Mrs. Clark mistook the bachelor Sample for the
head of the family and remarked that he was wise in bringing his children
along. This is not strange for I was not
yet nineteen years old. After a few
week’s stay at the Green cabin, which had no floor—the other places we had
visited had the puncheon floor made of split logs—the only fire for cooking and
heating was in the corner of the room on the ground. The smoke ascended and escaped through a hole
in the roof. We came back to Algona and
soon made arrangements to move into the Moore cabin with the understanding that
I should do the cooking for the boarders—Father Taylor, Lewis H. Smith, J.E.
Stacy, Geo. A. Lowe, Gad Gilbert and a Mr. Skinner, all bachelors except the
former, were members of my interesting family.
They were a fine lot of young men and showed their appreciation in many
ways.
Cabin, P.O. and Church
In that cabin the post office was
established with Mr. Moore as postmaster.
It was also used as a church and Rev. Taylor, the Congregational
minister, held services in the fore-noon and Rev. McComb, the Presbyterian
missionary, in the afternoon.
On the outskirts of town lived the Rists,
Paine and Blackford families. In June,
Mr. Henderson, the Moores, Schencks and Riebhoffs with their fine horses came. That summer Mr. Henderson built his log hotel
on the present City Hall site. The first
frame buildings were erected by Lewis H. Smith and H.F. Watson, Lewis Smith’s
was on the present site of the garage west of the Court House and the H. F.
Watson’s on the Ingham residence corner.
The settlers at first bought provisions
along with them to last for a few months and then went long distances for more,
but in July or August Major Williams sent up provisions from Fort Dodge and
placed them on sale.
Tin Pan for a Drum
A little band of settlers celebrated
the 4th of July 1856 near the present site of Mrs. Frank Nicoulin’s
home. The procession was headed by Lewis
H. Smith beating a large tin pan for a drum.
In October we moved to our little cabin
on our pre-emption a mile and a half east of town. The place is now known as the old Lund
farm. This was the first prairie home in
the region of Algona.
Typical Pioneer Hospitality
The noted cold winter of 1856-7 began
early by deep falling snow and bitter cold weather. Our friends in the village became alarmed for
our safety as the road leading to our place became one of continuous snow
drifts. On the 23rd of
December a messenger on foot arrived at our house with a petition signed by the
bachelors and other friends in the village asking us to accept Mr. and Mrs. H.
F. Watson’s hospitality for the winter.
Among the many tokens of friendship I have received, this act of our
friends exceeds all others in that regard.
The next
day we started about noon with an ox team, thinking of course
we could make a mile in half a day. But
as it was very cold and drifting, shoveling was of little avail. So we decided to go back and start early the
next morning. The next morning,
Christmas, we started early and arrived at the Watson home at sun-down, after
shoveling snow and breaking the roads through the drifts. If ever a Christmas supper tasted good it was
the one we ate that evening. The winter
was so severe that March found us still at Watsons.
 |
| Ricke Home on McGregor Street in 2015 Site of original Thompson homestead |
When the news of the Spirit Lake
massacre reached this community I remember how the excited settlers centered
for three nights at the log hotel and how diligently the men labored in
building the fort around the new town hall.
Perils of the Road
In October, my mother, who had a claim
here, left with an ox team for Jackson county, and my brother and I went along
for a visit at our old home. We started
back in April 1858; my brother, who was 17 and also my husband’s brother, age 19. The journey was long and tedious, for the
rain fell almost without ceasing. At
that time there were no bridges and practically no roads. At dark we reached Prairie Creek, some five
or six miles southeast of Irvington and found the creek rising. We attempted to cross, but the wheels sank to
the hubs and could not be pulled out. In
a covered wagon surrounded by a world of water we had to remain all night, while
I held in my arms my baby girl who was only nine months old. In the morning my brother-in-law left on foot
for Algona to get help. We waited all
day and until 11 o’clock that night before assistance came. Mr. Thompson and his brother James brought
two yoke of oxen to help pull out the load.
The night was so dark and misty that I feared they could not find us, so
I lit a tallow candle and held it up so they might catch a glimpse of the
light; fortunately, they saw it. All three
teams were hitched to the wagon, but on account of the ground being so very
soft, they were unable to get a foot-hold.
So after every effort we were compelled to leave the wagon and walk to
the nearest house; Mr. Green’s near Irvington, where we had dinner. We borrowed a wagon and drove home. It was nearly a month, however, before they
were able to pull the wagon out of Prairie creek.
A Pioneer Romance
In writing this, I live over again that
night and day until help came. I, a
helpless woman, with my baby and those two boys, swamped in that desolate and
lonely country, 15 or 20 miles from home.
We did not know where we were. In
fact we were lost. So delayed by bad
roads, we were out of provisions—just a slice of bread left.
I want to say right here though there
was some romance as well as tragedy in those days. While on my visit, my husband and Jerome
Stacy had kept bachelors hall at our cabin on the farm, and our friends in the
village determined to give them a surprise, and a good supper, thinking,
perhaps, they might be tired of their own cooking. So one night a large sled load of people
drove out with a good warm supper. I
understand that was the first time that Mr. Stacy met the future Mrs. Stacy
(Miss Harriet Taylor, the minister’s daughter).
In December, 1861, we decided to move
back to our old home in Jackson County, as times were hard and there was no
work. My uncle built a large mill and
had assured Mr. Thompson work. So we
hired a man with a team of horses to take us to the nearest railroad
station: Cedar Falls. We sold a dressed hog we had brought
along. At first we received a bid of a
cent a pound. But later we thought we
were fortunate when we sold it for one-half cent more.
$40 Per Acre in 1870
In 1864 Mr. Thompson went out to the
gold mines of Idaho and Montana where
he spent four years. His cabin at Helena was one of the first in
that place. After his return, we moved
to our farm which we sold in 1870 for $40 an acre, the highest price ever paid
for Kossuth County land at that time.
This was the year the first railroad, the Milwaukee and St. Paul came to
Algona. |
| Ricke home on McGregor Street in 2015 Where original Thompson home stood |
In 1911 we moved to Algona where I
expect to spend the remainder of my life—the town I have seen developed from
two log cabins to a thriving city. When
I see the hundreds of young people on the streets or on their way to school, I
can hardly comprehend the change that has taken place since the days of 1856
when Almira Heckart (mother of Mrs. Will Walker), Margaret Heckart, now Mrs.
Thomas Henderson and Nancy Henderson, now Mrs. Ambrose Call, were the only
young ladies in town.
A feeling of sadness steals over me
when I realize that of all the heads of families who came to Algona that year,
I am the only surviving lady of that trusting little band.
The
Thompsons raised six children: Mamie,
who married Joseph R. Hofius; Carrie, wife of C. H. Blossom; Henry; Frank;
Clifford; and Jennie. Mr. Thompson died
in May of 1901. Nancy built a new house on
east Call Street in 1911 where she lived until her death on May 5, 1916 at the
age of 79.
Until
next time,
Jean
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