Eight Threlkeld generations on a Sunday afternoon

Isaac Newton "Dick" Threlkeld (1852-1940) was portrayed during Sunday's Chariton Cemetery Heritage Tour by his great-great-grandson, David Threlkeld, now of West Des Moines. David and Connie were accompanied to Chariton by their son, Scott. So I'm going claim this morning that eight generations of Threlkelds were present and accounted for in Lucas County that day --- in one form or another. And that's a rare occurrence.

Among the Threlkelds at rest in the Chariton Cemetery, in addition to Isaac N., are his son James Delman (1876-1946), James Delman's son, Lee Oran (1900-1972), and Lee Oran's son, Richard Lee "Dick" (1927-2015), David's father. From the Chariton Cemetery on Sunday afternoon, the Threlkelds drove out to Ragtown to visit the graves of Isaac N. Threlkeld's father, Stephen (1813-1890), and Stephen's mother, Elizabeth Weakley Threlkeld (1781-1874).

That's a whole lot of Threlkelds! Here's the script that David used to tell us a little about his family's history:

+++

There was a time, not that many years ago, when Threlkelds were among the most widely known families in Lucas County --- farmers, a lawyer, the founder of an insurance agency and a bank, a family firm that led the way in the gasoline and bulk fuel trade. But like many other old families, we are for the most part gone now, at rest in this cemetery and others, our children and grandchildren living and working elsewhere.

My name is Isaac Newton Threlkeld, always known as Dick, and I grew up with Lucas County --- east of Chariton along what we called the State Road or the Eddyville Road, but you call Highway 34. My family settled there in 1855, when I was 3, and I lived there until 1938, two years before my death in 1940 at the age of 88.

Some of you will remember my great-grandson, Richard, another “Dick Threlkeld,” who joined us here in the Chariton Cemetery during 2015, among the last to make Lucas County his home.

But so many Threlkelds settled in Lucas County that you would need a directory and several hours to sort us out. So rather than too much about family history, I’m going to tell you a little about what it was like here 170 years ago, when we arrived.

+++

My parents were Stephen and Susannah Threlkeld and I was born during 1852 near Roseville, Illinois, 25 miles southeast of Burlington, Iowa. They had moved to Roseville after their marriage during 1845 from Jackson County, Indiana, and I was the second of five children.

My father’s younger brother, Noah, had blazed the family trail into Lucas County during 1851 and it was upon his recommendation that we followed in 1855. My father worked out a trade --- our 80-acre Illinois farm for a larger Iowa farm --- and we began to prepare for the move once the 1854 harvest was complete. Farmers always timed their moves, when they could, in order to be able to plant a garden and crops in the spring.

We traveled in two ox-drawn covered wagons that contained all we owned. My parents, grandmother, Elizabeth Threlkeld, half-brother, Oliver Threlkeld, and sister, Betty, traveled in one wagon; other Threlkeld relatives who planned to settle in Lucas County, too, in the other. Just a few years later, Oliver enlisted in Company C, 13th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, for service during the Civil War and gave up his life during July of 1862 at Corinth, Mississippi, one of our first great sorrows.

We left Illinois during late January or early February, 1855, and reached the Mississippi shore opposite Burlington on the second day, crossing the river into Iowa on the ice that evening. The next day, we headed west on the State Road for Eddyville, where we crossed the Des Moines River a few days later on ice, too. Eddyville at the time was the major trading and milling point in south central Iowa, as well as the best place to cross the Des Moines by ford or ferry; Ottumwa was just a village.

A few days later, we arrived at Uncle Noah’s cabin along the State Road three and a half miles due east of Chariton, then moved along to our cabin a little farther on. The home we found waiting for us was a three-room log house with a big fireplace on the south side of that busy road that had been surveyed in 1849, the same year Lucas County was organized and Chariton founded.

+++

My earliest memories of our new home include watching the world roll by on what was the mid-19th century equivalent of your Interstate 35 --- horse-, mule- and ox-drawn of course --- connecting Iowa east of the Des Moines River with Council Bluffs and the great West beyond.

Nature had favored Eddyville with the best ford on the Des Moines and a ferry began operating there in 1844. In 1858, the first toll bridge was built. Goods and passengers arrived daily overland or from Keokuk by boat during warm months when the water was high. Western Stage Co. coaches departed the Eddyville depot daily with Lucas County stops in LaGrange, Chariton and Talahoma.

All of our store-bought goods were hauled up to Chariton by ox- or mule-drawn wagons from Keokuk or Eddyville and passed by our door.

The government land office had moved from Fairfield to Chariton in 1853 and Lucas County became the gateway to southwest Iowa. Land was priced at $1.25 an acre and plenty still was available in 1855. In 1854, Kansas and Nebraska had opened for settlement and traffic on our road doubled.

Gold was discovered near Pikes Peak in 1858 and even more outfits headed west. This gold rush is among my earliest memories. Even my father and some of his neighbors were bitten by the gold bug and outfitted themselves to head west --- then changed their minds when word filtered back of gold-seekers’ wagons attacked by Indians out on the Great Plains.

+++

In return, during those early years, we hauled our grain to Eddyville to be milled into flour and cornmeal and drove our livestock there to be sold.

The railroad reached Eddyville on May 1, 1861 --- the most westerly rail terminal in Iowa --- but stalled there as the Civil War broke out. That war changed the nature of traffic past our home.

Volunteer troops headed to the river towns to be mustered now were a frequent sight --- and thousands of head of livestock to feed the Union and our troops passed by.

Cattle came by the thousands, to be slaughtered at Eddyville or shipped farther east. Texas long horn cattle, driven by cowboys, would pass in drove after drove, hundreds in a drove. These cattle had horns about two feet long and were wild. It was not safe to be on foot when a heard was passing. Thousands of head of hogs were driven by our place, too, to the Eddyville market.

+++

I was not yet 10 when the war began, but as I mentioned earlier, my half-brother, Oliver, and many other relatives and friends enlisted to serve. As the war raged, youngsters like me in our neighborhood worked on the farms and attended Highland School, a mile east of our home, also alongside the State Road. My uncle, Washington Threlkeld, cared for his young son’s family in a nearby cabin when that son went off to war.

When I was about 20, I became acquainted with a neighbor girl, Miss America Ann Bryan, always known as “Mate,” and we were married during August of 1874 at her family’s cabin home south of Newbern. We shared five homes during the course of our 62-year marriage --- ranging from log cabins to the fine new home we built during 1910 --- but all within three-quarters of a mile of that first cabin my parents moved into alongside the State Road during 1855. Our four children were James Delman, Herman, Ella Thompson and Esther Feight.

Our final home still stands, just across Highway 34 south of places you know as Country Cabins, Frontier Trading Post and Sodapop Saloon. Mate died there, age 82, on Jan. 18, 1937. During the fall of the following year, I moved into Chariton and our son, Herman, moved onto the “home place.” My death occurred in Chariton two years later, on the 28th of March, 1940.

I had always farmed those acres south of the old State Road and could not estimate how many times I traveled that old road into Chariton by horse and buggy, then by automobile. It changed course slightly over the years and even developed new names: Iowa Primary Road No. 8 in 1919, Harding Highway in 1924 and U.S. Highway 34 in 1926. Finally, in 1928, it was paved --- and the mud and ruts travelers had known for 80 years disappeared under smooth concrete. (Research and script writing by Frank D. Myers.)