History of Linn County Iowa / From Its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time [1911]

by Luther Albertus Brewer; Barthinius L. Wick

Osgood Shepherd and the pioneer settlers with whom he associated were perhaps no worse or no better than the average frontiersmen. They had been trained in hardship and sordid poverty, and the women bore the stamp of the early pioneers, devoted to their families, shirking no hardships, ever willing to move westward on account of the freedom gained and the opportunities offered.

Of a different type of mankind was the progressive, enterprising and enthusiastic Nicholas B. Brown, who purchased Shepherd's claim, the most prominent figure in the history of the early days of Cedar Rapids. Mr. Brown arrived in 1840, purchasing the rights of Shepherd with Addison Daniels and others. On August 4, 1841, he began surveying what was then known as Rapids City. He improved the water power which Brown early foresaw would make the town. A saw mill was completed in 1842 and the waters of the Cedar began to make its machinery hum; this was the first real enterprise of which the town could be proud. A woolen factory was also erected by Brown, which was later disposed of to the Bryan family. In 1846 and 1847 a grist mill was also added. On account of his many enterprises in which he had to depend on others Mr. Brown was involved in much litigation, but he was a born fighter for whatever he thought was right and accumulated a fortune because he had the tenacity of purpose to hold on to what he had purchased. As a pioneer he did some excellent work and certainly was one of the shrewdest business men of Cedar Rapids in his day and generation.

Mr. Brown was born in the state of New Jersey in 1814, removing as a young man to the state of Kentucky. His first wife was Catherine Craig, daughter of Thomas Craig, one of the pioneers. She lived only a few years. His second wife was Susan Emery, daughter of one of the early settlers of this city. Mr. Brown died in 1880, one of the most honored and respected men in the community, survived by his widow and two sons, Emery Brown and Harry Brown. The widow died in 1909, one of the best known and most respected in the city, having personally known nearly all of the settlers in the '50s and '60s.

Dyer Usher is said to have hunted and trapped in Linn county as early as 1836 in company with one Jim Ames; how true this is cannot be ascertained, but he did come to locate in 1838. He came of a sturdy family, was born in Ohio, and at the age of eighteen in 1832 he crossed the Mississippi, being one of the first white settlers to step upon Iowa soil. Mr. Usher brought the first divorce suit in Linn county. This business has grown by leaps and bounds since that time. He attended for a number of years the old settlers meetings and was a well known figure in the early days in this county. Mr. Usher was thrifty, honest, and fair in his dealings. He died December 11, 1894, at the age of eighty years. His widow, Rosanna Harris, died in 1909 at Covington at the age of seventy-nine. She was born June 6, 1829, in London, Canada, and with her parents emigrated to Iowa in 1845. She was united in marriage to Dyer Usher July 29, 1847. To this union were born twelve children, of whom five survived her: Willard R., of Alberta, Canada, Mrs. Alice Harris, of Estherville, Mrs. A. H. Miller, of Cedar Rapids, Mrs. Ray Lockhart, of Shellsburg, and Dyer N. Usher, of Covington. She had been a resident of Linn county for sixty-three years.

It is still a disputed question as to who was the first actual settler on what later became Cedar Rapids. It is true that Shepherd ran a sort of hotel or tavern and was the best known man in this part of the country in that early date, but it is not likely that he was the first man to build a log cabin here. Philip Hull had been located in the lower end, when Ellis arrived in 1838, and Ellis also found William or Wilbert Stone in possession of the land on the west side of the river, and he was the one who staked out what he called "Columbus" in 1838, having previously staked out Westport and sold his claim to John Henry.

Information as regards William Stone has lately been discovered through a daughter residing at North Liberty. She states that her father's name was James Wilbert Stone, but he was commonly called William or Billy; that he was born in the state of Rhode Island and drifted west into Iowa in 1832 or 1833, and that he always asserted that he built the first cabin on land which later became Cedar Rapids. It is said that he drifted west by way of Muscatine or Rock Island and followed the Cedar river as far as Ivanhoe, later coming to the rapids of the Cedar river. Mr. Ellis says that he knew William Stone very well; that he was a quiet, congenial, splendid fellow, and at this time resided on the west side, having a claim along the river extending northward to the bluff, and that a Mr. Galloway claimed south of a large cottonwood tree on the same side of the river. Stone and Galloway were on good terms and owned the adjoining claims. John Young and a man by the name of Granger, O. Shepherd, and Philip Hull were the owners or claimants of the land on the east side of the river. The daughter of Stone asserts that her father always said that he first located his claim on the east side of the river. It may be that Stone may have moved across the river after Shepherd erected his tavern, and made claim to the land near and adjoining the rapids. It is intimated by Ellis that Stone and Shepherd were not on the best of terms and Shepherd, being a large, pompous kind of a person, he might have driven the more quiet and less assertive new neighbor across the river. The daughter of William Stone, or James Wilbert Stone, Mrs. Elizabeth Hrdlicka, states that her father bought goods and traded with the Indians for furs for some years, and that the last time her father talked to her he told her that he was sorry he ever gave up the town of Cedar Rapids but did not think then that it would amount to anything. In 1843 he removed from what was Cedar Rapids to the Iowa river and married Elizabeth G. Brown and settled in Oxford township, Johnson county. To this union were born two girls: one, the eldest, died and the second girl, Elizabeth, now Mrs. Hrdlicka, was taken by her grandfather, Joseph Brown, on her mother's death when the daughter was only four weeks old. After the death of his wife Stone removed to Hudson, St. Croix county, Wisconsin. He returned to see his daughter about once a year. He died at the age of forty-eight years in the state of Wisconsin.

It seems from the story of the daughter of Stone, who is still living, that James Wilbert Stone was undoubtedly the first actual settler on the site which later became Cedar Rapids. From investigation it seems that Shepherd may have jumped Stone's claim and for that reason Stone removed across the river.

In Bailey & Hair's Gazetteer, 1865, the following mention is made of William Stone: "The next [town site] in order of time was called Columbus, built by William Stone, in September, 1838. He abandoned his town the next spring, then being a single log cabin. The site was that occupied by the present city of Cedar Rapids."

Mr. Stone was a speculator and a trader and had made some money trading with the Indians prior to the advent of Shepherd. This is true, that Stone did not harbor any people of unsavory reputations, and his whole life bears the imprint that he was a gentleman even on the frontier. Such a person people would not remember as well as a frontier character like Shepherd. Shepherd, on the other hand, whatever may have been his failings, was a man of a big heart, who attracted people to him. He had the love of adventure, and it is not any secret but that he harbored thieves and gave them more or less encouragement. Mr. Stone, on the other hand, was an honest, quiet man, the opposite of his neighbor, and it is not to be wondered at that they did not get along.