My Grandmother’s Story
As related by Wilma Wilcox Smith
(circa 1924-25)
In the year of 1847, a prairie schooner, drawn by oxen, moved slowly through the fertile prairie valleys of what is now the greatest corn-producing region in the world.
The prairie schooner was moving the Conklin family, of which little Sarah Jane "Sally" Conklin (now known as Mrs. H. M. Beeson, a resident of the Iowa Soldiers Home) was a member.* On the 2nd day of August, 1847, my grandmother’s third birthday, the weary travelers reached the junction of the Little Minerva and Big Minerva Creeks, near Mormon Ridge.
There, in a sheltered spot in the foothills of the highest promontory in Marshall County, my grandmother’s uncle, John Sherman, began the construction of a log cabin for my great grandmother, Mary Sherman Conklin, and her children.** They were hemmed in on all sides by Indians, and, for a time, their nights were rather sleepless, for fear of an attack by the Indians! However, the Redskins were disposed to be friendly, and soon came to be on exceptionally good terms with this family.
Being among the first white families to be lured by the rich soil to risk life in the wilderness and endure the danger from Indians, the Conklin family soon struck up a friendship with their neighbors, the nearest of which was the Asher family. The Ashers lived about five miles away, or about two-and-a-half miles east of the place now called Albion. They were considered by the Conklins to be close neighbors. Two of my grandmother’s half-sisters, Mary Ann Rogers and Elizabeth Rogers, married Asher boys. Asher Creek, which flows into the Iowa River near Marshalltown, was named after this family.
There were no towns here then. The ground on which the prosperous city of Marshalltown (first called Yankee Town) is now located, was then wilderness, with Indian trails here and there. The grass was as tall as a horse’s back. This being the case, the Conklins had to rustle their own food. The family was well-schooled in this and ground their own meal, the same as the Indians did.
Grandmother remembers that there were many deer and turkeys around here. She tells how her uncle, John Sherman, hunted turkeys at night. He would wait until the moon had risen, then go out and locate a flock of turkeys sitting in a tree, get one between him and the moon, and then, providing his priming was fresh and the flint struck properly, the turkey was his.
There was no place to go for amusement like there is now, and grandmother says that when they wanted anything from civilization, or wished to sell any produce, they had to go to Iowa City, the nearest town. Early on, they had engaged in farming, for wilderness people knew that their life depended on their store of food.
Grandmother was a nurse, and doctored for the entire countryside, and, in the wintertime, would travel to her patients on snow shoes. This practically made the family’s living.
On different sides of this pioneer family dwelt the tribes of the Potawatomi, the Winnebagos, and the Musquakies (or Sacs and Foxes). "Johnny" Green, the Musquaki chief, was a great friend of my grandmother’s family, and she visited their tribe many times.
Many gifts passed back and forth between the Conklin family and the tribes, in token of love and friendship. "Johnny" Green would nearly always bring maple taffy to my grandmother and her sisters when he visited the cabin, and he also gave her a pretty string of Indian beads. Another chief, Wapi-ka, gave her a carved wooden flour ladle, which she has managed to preserve up to the present day, and it is one of her treasures of those childhood days.
Grandmother tells a vivid picture of a sham battle the Indians held within sight of the Conklin cabin, in preparing for the donning of war paint to fight the Sioux. The family was thoroughly frightened at such warlike figures and the din of the battle. And, she laughingly recalls that it was several days before any of the womenfolk dared to venture out-of-doors.
However, the family was never bothered by the Indians, and they continued to live and prosper in this golden state. Grandmother is now in her eightieth year (the oldest settler in the county), having lived all but three years of her life in Marshall County.*** She seems to like the climate, and is blessed with good health in her old age, and expects to live to see many more changes added to the already numerous ones that have taken place since she landed here and lived in that little log cabin at the junction of Big and Little Minerva Creeks.
Sub-notes (added by Max M. Smith, son of Wilma and her husband, Forrest
J. Smith):
* "Sally’s" mother, Mary Sherman Conklin, was a widow, whose husband reportedly had been scalped by Indians in Indiana.
** Mary and her brother, John, were first cousins of General William Tecumseh Sherman and his brother, John. World Book Encyclopedia says General Sherman succeeded Grant in 1869 as commanding general of the army, with the rank of full general. World Book also notes that John served fifty years in Washington as a statesman from Ohio…first as congressional representative, then senator, then Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State.
*** "Sally’s" husband, Henry Martin Beeson, was a trumpeter in the Civil War and later ran a general store in Albion. He also owned 700 acres of land north of Albion, which he reportedly sold for $35.00 and acre…a considerable sum in those days. He died on 8/25/23 at the Soldiers Home, and "Sally" died less than two years later, on 6/14/25, at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, "Dolly" and Homer H. Wilcox in Marshalltown.
Wilma Wilcox Smith died at her home in Marshalltown on 3/26/69.
All are buried in the Albion Cemetery.