The unknown grave above Tibbett’s Mill

By: 
Bill Corbin
Monticello resident, historian

     Fletcher and Lot Burnight arrived on Bowens Prairie with their families in 1843. Lot was 28 and born in Ohio. His wife, Sarah, 28, was from Kentucky. They were married in 1836 and started farming in Indiana. When they arrived in Iowa, they had a family of four children: John N., Duncan M., Mary E., and Austin M.

     Fletcher, 24, was born in Indiana and his wife, Malissa, was born in Ohio. They had no children when they arrived in Iowa. They started farming but later moved into Monticello.

     During the early part of 1852, Lot’s oldest daughter, Margaret J., met a young man, James Curran, who was in his early 20s. James started going to the Burnight farm to see Margaret and visit with the family. He told Lot that he was looking for a suitable location along the Maquoketa (River) to build a sawmill. Curran was a skilled carpenter and had the tools needed for that trade. The more the two men talked about a mill, the more Lot was convinced that such a mill was needed to supply lumber and building materials for the new farmers that were arriving in this area. On Jan. 7, 1853, James Curran and Margaret J. Burnight were married.

     Lot Burnight and James Curran scouted the Maquoketa and found a location on the river in Richland Township suitable for building a dam to form a large mill pond. The water from it would provide a constant power source to operate the saw blade, which cut logs into building material. Lot Burnight then bought 40 acres of timber land in the very southwest corner of Section 29 in Richland Township from Asa Bowen on July 5, 1854. The Maquoketa passed right through these 40 acres. Lot Burnight, James Curran and his brother John started building a cabin on the land right away so that the Burnight family could move close to the sawmill. The equipment needed for the sawmill was ordered from Dubuque. In the fall and early winter, the men cut trees and hewed the logs into timbers for the framing of the sawmill building. Loose pieces of limestone along the bluffs were loaded into wagons and hauled to the mill site. These would be used to build a strong foundation for the mill and to fill the log cabin dam placed across the river. It would take many days of hard labor before this mill would start producing lumber.

     By the fall of 1855, the log cribbing for the dam was finished and as soon as the river had frozen solid enough to support the weight of the stone being brought out to fill the cribbing. It took a good deal of skill among the workers to place and pack the stone to make the dam as compact as possible to retain the water. Spring floods were the most dangerous for mill dams. Floodwaters were usually high and contained a good deal of floating ice and parts of trees. This floating debris would pound and weaken the mill dams until they broke and released the water stored in the mill pond. It took a good deal of skill when constructing a mill dam to make it as strong as possible.

     On Jan. 4, 1856, James Curran brought 40 acres of timber and some farmland near the sawmill. The southwest corner of his land touched the northeast corner of Lot Burnight’s land. Thus, the two families were close neighbors. The men soon had a log cabin constructed for the Burnights to call their own home. James and Martha had a son, Nathan, born in 1855.

     The men hoped to have the sawmill completed and operating by the early summer of 1856. On June 9, 1956, final construction work was being completed when an accident occurred at the mill. James Curran fell into the mill pond and drowned before the other men could rescue him. This was a shock and sad news for many of the people on Bowens Prairie. James Curran had become well known to the early settlers who often saw him at Whittemore & Eden’s grocery store and post office.

     Lot Burnight had purchased a lot in the Bowens Prairie Burial Ground. William M. Kingery, who lived on Bowens Prairie, built the coffin for James Curran.

     James Curran’s estate settlement became a long drawn out procedure, due to the fact that a judge only held court in Jones County twice a year. At the first hearing, Martha Curran asked the judge to appoint John Curran as the executor of his brother’s estate. The judge honored her request, but also appointed William Tibbetts as an additional executor. Everything that James Curran owned had to be examined and appraised before being sold at an auction. Any of Curran’s unpaid bills had to be itemized and presented to an executor for later payment. By 1859, all the unpaid bills, only four, were submitted: one from the Whittemore & Eden Store in Bowens Prairie, $7 to William Kingery for the coffin, Dr. Mosses had a bill for medicine, and the last one was a very small amount. Altogether the bills amounted to $44.46. All the appraising was completed and the public auction held. Everything was sold except the 40 acres of land. The items sold totaled $371.52.

     At the last term of court in 1859, William Tibbetts addressed the judge and informed him that Mrs. Curran would not be present at this hearing since she had married Hiram J. Misner and they, along her son Nathan, had left the area. He also informed the judge that the money collected from the sale of James Curran’s belongings was lower than the amount of the bills now at hand. He therefore would like permission to sell the 40 acres of land that had been appraised at $300. The sale was handled by the county sheriff on the courthouse steps on Oct. 24, 1860. The 40 acres sold for $200. The buyer was Harvey H. Dale who had operated a sawmill about 5 miles further down the Maquoketa at a location known as Dale’s Ford. This sale completed the settlement of the James Curran estate. All bills had been paid and surprisingly there was a surplus of $200. The judge ruled that the court would send the $200 to Nathan Curran, son of James Curran.

     Lot Burnight’s sawmill was ready to start soon after the death of James Curran. He hired James P. Tibbetts to operate the mill and be the sawyer. Tibbetts operated the sawmill until the middle of 1861, at which time he planned to move his family to Nebraska. Lot Burnight then operated the mill until Jan. 16, 1863, at which time he sold the land and mill to Perry Babcock and Ruben Farnum for $200. Lot Burnight and family then moved to California.

     Perry Babcock died shortly after he bought half interest in the sawmill. The mill and property then changed hands several times until June 19, 1868 when it was bought by Orlando T. Tibbetts, son of William Tibbetts who was an early settler on Bowens Prairie. Orlando also bought another 40 acres of land adjacent to the sawmill on the west.

     Orlando, 43, was born in Maine and his wife, Sephrona, 38, was born in New York. Orlando was an experienced sawyer and turned out good quality lumber at this mill for eight years. During this period the sawmill became well known to the people living in this area as Tibbett’s Mill. On July 4, 1876, a heavy rainstorm saturated the land to the north of Monticello. The runoff soon turned rivers into rampaging giants. Floodwater coming down the Maquoketa destroyed or heavily damaged bridges and roads in its path. Tibbett’s Mill was no exception. The mill and dam were destroyed and washed away. Tibbett’s Mill, though, has remained a legend in our early county history. The flood left Orlando Tibbetts with nothing by 80 acres of land. To rebuild the dam and mill was unthinkable. Orlando made his decision and sold the land and moved his family to California. On Nov. 14, 1876, Nancy D. Wilcox purchased the northwest quarter and northeast quarter of Section 32 in Richland Township for $2,000, and Samuel Wilcox purchased the northeast quarter and northwest quarter of Section 32 in Richland Township for $2,000. At that time there was a county road that gave them easy access to the property. Neither of the property deeds recorded the presence of a grave on this land.

     On Oct. 8, 1879, Nancy D. Wilcox married John Clark who farmed near Langworthy. There doesn’t seem to be any county record of a change of ownership of Nancy and Samuel Wilcox’s 40 acres of land, but on Oct. 6, 1879, Samuel Wilcox’s 40 acres of land appeared on a county sale list of property to be sold due to unpaid taxes on the property. The owner of this piece of land was not listed as Samuel Wilcox but J.C. Lawrence, a farmer in Wayne Township.

     Nancy D. Clark was at this land sale on the courthouse steps on Oct. 6, 1879 and bought the 40 acres located in Section 32 of Richland Township. J.C. Lawrence paid the back taxes plus interest on this land within a year of the sale and retained the land.

     A few years later, J.C. Lawrence and his wife moved to Land, Ore. Nancy Clark, who was also known as Delila (her middle name) Clark tried to buy this same 40 acres from J.C. Lawrence in August 1886 but failed. Finally on Feb. 1, 1888, Delila Clark was able to buy these 40 acres of land at another sheriff’s sale at the Jones County Courthouse. This time Mr. Lawrence did not contest the sale. The land deed that Delila Clark received did not have a grave listed on it. Two weeks after she bought the land, Delila sold all her land (92 acres) in Section 32 of Richland Township to Samuel Fluckiger, with the exception of a grave in the southwest quarter, northeast quarter, and northwest corner of Section 32 in Richland Township. The grave has a wire fence around it (required by an Iowa law) and is recorded on the land deed.

     Nancy D. Wilcox Clark spent nine years trying to buy this one 40-acre piece of ground and then sold it two weeks later with a grave location now recorded on the land deed. I believe that the grave is that of Samuel Wilcox.

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