Nodaway Township

Nodaway Township

Gotlieb Meyer. David Templeton and family, also from Indiana, were among the very earliest settlers of Nodaway Township, as was also Colonel John W. Kelley, afterwards the first attorney admitted to the bar of Holt County. David Templeton arrived in the county with four sons. Monroe Templeton located near the site of what was afterwards the town of Richville. John Norvel, a native of Tennessee, but directly from Kentucky to this state, settled in Nodaway Township in 1847.

At an early period came Jacob Kunkel from Ohio, Henry Marion; W. Jones and Alexander Jones, both from Illinois; Daniel Holman from Clay County, Missouri; Ephraim Adams, Willis Brockman, A. J. Hollister, from Ohio ; Beecham, Rice, the Patricks, Bornberger, Hiram Shutzer, Jesse Carroll and others, were among the earliest settlers of the township, arriving some time previous to the coming of some of the above mentioned. Richard Barkhurst, the first representative in the Legislature from Holt County, lived in 1842 on the southeast quarter of section 23, township 60, range 37, on a farm now owned by Mrs. Mclntrye, in this township.

One of the earliest religious organizations in Holt County, was effected in Nodaway Township, in 1840. This was a Missionary Baptist Church, of which the Rev. Ebo Tucker was first pastor. This church, at the period of its original organization, had thirteen male members, beside their families. Among these were John Norvel, Willis Brockman, Shelton Arterbury and Thomas Wickham, also Levi Ruhl, John Robinson, Lewis Jones, John McFadden and Preston Ham. The records of this primitive church are lost, and it is impossible to obtain much more extended information of the original membership. The first meetings of this church were in groves in the summer season, and, as the country advanced, in school houses, which the intelligent pioneers, lost but little time in erecting, after their arrival in the country. In 1860, they built a brick church, on land then owned by Francis Nickols, and donated by him for that purpose. This building stands near the south boundary of the southeast quarter of section 8, township 60, range 37, west, on an eighty acre tract, now owned by the Gotleib Meyer heirs. It was originally styled Nickol's Grove Church. At the breaking out of the Civil war, the church was not entirely completed. It was, however, occupied and used for religious purposes by the one hundred and fifty-two members who composed the organization. These members were nearly, if not all, southern sympathizers and, as a natural consesuence, the church, by the fortunes of war, went down. After the rebellion a number of emigrants, chiefly Germans from the State of Ohio, settled in the neighborhood, as the original settlers and members of the pioneer church moved away, or had failed to return after the proclamation of peace. The building stood for many years and verging upon dilapidation, a monument of the religious enterprise of the early days. It finally was torn down and the site on which it stood used for agricultural purposes. The congregation, greatly reduced in numbers after the Civil war, worshipped for a time in a school house in Richville.

The Methodist Episcopal Church at Richville, was organized about the year 1840, shortly after the Baptists. The Templetons and Evanses were among the original organizers of this church. The building, a brick structure, 40x30 feet, was erected about 1855, some five years before the village of Richville, in which it now stands, was laid out. The first Methodist preacher to exercise his calling in this township was Rev. James Baker. About 1844 the Methodists held a camp meeting in section 27, township 60, range 27, on a farm at that time owned by David Templeton, one of the earliest settlers of the county, and the first county surveyor appointed.

The beginning of the work of organizing the Evangelical church in Holt County dates back to 1865, when two families, Ulrich Burger and Adam Rung, moved from Indiana and located near Oregon. The same year Rev. H. Haas was appointed to take charge of the work in this county.

In October, 1866, Joseph Anselment and Henry and Daniel Zachman, with their families moved from Ohio to Nickol's Grove. The following winter Rev. Haas held a revival meeting, assisted by Rev. Temer. In the spring of 1867 Rev. John Wuerth was appointed to this mission and served two years. About this time the first class was organized with Adam Rung class leader and and Joseph Anselment exhorter. The following winter Rev. Wuerth began a revival meeting in the NickoTs Grove School house, but the attendance became so large that services were held in the Baptist Church in the neighborhood. From that church the meeting was moved to the Kunkel factory near Oregon.

In the year 1868 a brick church 36x46 feet was built at a cost of $3,200. This was the first Evangelical Church in Holt County. It was destroyed by a hurricane in 1879. A frame structure was built in the spring of 1880 on the site of the brick church. It was located on the northwest quarter of section 17, township 60, range 37, near the northwest corner of the farm now owned by C. L. Kunkel. The cost of the present church was about $1,500.

Adam Rung, Joseph Anselment, Daniel and Henry Zachman, Ulrich Bucher and Henry Smith and their wives. The first minister, by whom the original class was formed, was Rev. Henry Haas. His successors and the year in which they began their work, have been: Revs. John Wuerth and Henry Mattil, 1868;

The church at Nickol's Grove enjoyed a splendid growth. In 1868 it had a membership of seventy. Of the membership at that time one only is living - Henry Hershner.

The German Methodists were organized from the congregation in Oregon, in 1858. In the fall of 1881 they built a frame church 44x28 feet area, with 14 feet ceiling. This is known as Emanuel M. E. Church. It was completed at a cost of about $1,500. The church edifice is about two miles east of the church of the Evangelical Association, and stands on a farm formerly the property of R. Davidson, but now owned by Kramer. The present congregation was organized by Rev. C. Herman, January, 1880 with the following members: John Hornecker and wife, Adam Smith and wife, Charles Hilsenbeck, Martin Yetter, John Abplanalp, George Hornecker, Fred Meyer, John Barts, Ulrich Burger, and Fred Meister. The wives of the above mentioned were also members of this organization, as was also Mrs. Gottleib Meyer.

The Woodville Presbyterian Church is one of the younger church organizations of Nodaway Township. It was organized in October, 1911, and has an active and growing membership. A neat substantial church building has been erected by this congregation. Rev. T. D. Roberts, of New Point, has been the minister since the church was organized.

The first school within the limits of what is now Nodaway Township was taught in 1848, by James Scott, later a resident of the town of Oregon. The building was a hewed log house. It stood on section 10, township 60, range 37, on a farm then owned by Jacob Kunkel, but now the property of John Hornecker. The schools in the township at the present time

The site of what once promised to be a good inland town extends from the southwest corner of the northwest quarter to the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of section 27, township 60, range 37. It was laid out in 1860 by Thomas Templeton, a son of the pioneer. A son-in-law of Templeton, a man by the name of Gregg, was the first to sell goods there. Dresden succeeded him. During the war, Walter Lloyd started a small store in the place, and sold goods as late as 1878.

The most important building in the village, or rather in its immediate neighborhood, was the brick Methodist Church above referred to. In its best days, Richville contained but five families, and it never enjoyed the convenience of a postoffice. As a hamlet, it now exists in memory only.

Doctors Norman, Throp and Dozier practiced in the locality now known as Nodaway Township, from the earliest period of the settlement of the same, but as late as 1847 there was no resident physician within the territory included in its present limits.

Nodaway Township, in point of natural, as well as of added improvements, is inferior to no other portion of the county. Fruit of all kinds, which constitutes so large a portion of the export wealth of the county, is extensively grown in this township. An orchard of considerable importance, and remarkable because of its area at the time of planting was on the southwest quarter of section 18, township 60, range 37, on a farm then owned by E. C. Nazum. The farm, which included 840 acres, was formerly the property of Jabez Beaumont. The orchard planted by him in 1865 covered an entire quarter section. Three years after this orchard was set out, a fire in tall grass, communicated to the trees, destroyed eighty-five acres of apple trees in the center of the orchard. This disaster occurred in 1868. The destroyed trees were never replaced. Jabez Beaumont, who had moved from the state of Minnesota to this county, afterwards sold the 840 arce farm on which this orchard was planted to E. C. Nuzum for $26,000. Mr. Nuzum was a resident of Kansas, and the farm has been worked by renters. He sold the farm to W. A. S. Derr, the present owner, but the big apple orchard is now known only to history ; the land is used for general agricultural purposes.

Early Pugilists

A noteable incident in the history of the early settlement of Nodaway Township was a fisticuff duel which occurred in 1843, the result of a dispute growing out of the conflicting claims of two parties to the same piece of land in Nickol's Grove. These were Frank Nickols and I. W. Jones. Seconds were chosen, a circle formed, and all the formalities of the ring maintained in the presence of about 200 spectators who had assembled to witness the contest. The combatants were nearly equally matched and the victory long remained doubtful. Fortune at last decided in favor of Nickols, who took possession of the claim without further dispute.

Nodaway Township, with an abundant supply of timber for all necessary uses, is also excellently well watered. Besides the Nodaway River along its entire eastern boundary, NickoFs Creek, before mentioned, flows in a northerly direction into Hickory Township, whence it flows in an easterly course into the Nodaway River.

Carroll's Branch heads in the southern part of the township and flows in a northeasterly direction, emptying into the Nodaway near the south boundary of the southeast quarter of section 14, township 60, range 37.

Mill Creek, a considerable stream of the county, rises in the southwestern part of Nodaway Township and flows in a southwesterly course into and through Lewis Township into the Little Tarkio, which it enters near Forest City.