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[Erminia Mckissack]

The Beginning of our Town, Listonville
They came with two covered wagons loaded with sod-buster plow, small tools, feed some furniture, several weeks' provisions, a cow tied to the back of the wagon, and a coop of chickens tied to the side. Dan always owned good horses. It was treacherous driving on the prairies because of the many sloughs. You usually bogged down in some of these sloughs, then the wagon had to be unloaded, and when the wagon was pulled out, everything had to be reloaded. They crossed the Mississippi River by ferry at Davenport, Iowa. They came across Iowa by the southern route through Iowa City, Marshalltown, and Des Moines which in 1864 was just a fort. They crossed the Raccoon, Des Moines and Boyer rivers and several smaller streams in making this trip. From Fort Des Moines the trail went to Adel and Panora, Iowa. From Panora you followed the stage coach route to Denison. You crossed the Little Sioux River below Little Sioux, Iowa, where there was a ferry crossing. Near Onawa their wagons became mired in gumbo, and an axe was used to chop the gumbo from the wheels. They followed the Little Sioux River, then the Maple River, and came on to this area. Very little sod had ever been turned on the land he had purchased.
All one could see in any direction was prairie grass, some shoulder height to a horse, and that along the sloughs of a shorter variety, and many cattails grew in the sloughs. There were no trees except for a few along the Maple River banks. There were many wildflowers. There were thousands of prairie chickens and rabbits. There also were grey wolves, wild turkey, deer, and hundreds of muskrat houses everywhere in the swamp area. There were many beavers, and they had houses in the Maple River. There were several species of the long legged family here, too, in 1864.
The Thomas family moved into a house left by a settler on some of the land Dan had purchased. The house was small and believed to have been the small house straight west of the Danbury park which is presently owned by Arnold Ortner. Dan set to work plowing sod on which he wanted to plant his crops the next year. This gave the sod a chance to mellow and was called "back-setting." Dan also cut prairie grass with a scythe and stacked it so as to have hay for his horses and cow through the winter. He built a shed for his animals and fenced an enclosure to hold them, and it was made of willow poles notched and mortised at the ends.
Dan bought more land after he came here, most of which was low, wet and it had many sloughs. This wet land would be bought for a little as $1.25 an acres, and some of it sold up to $6 an acre. Courthouse records say Dan Thomas owned more than a thousand acres, much of it being purchased from Thomas Davis and the Iowa Railroad Land Co. He owned the present Herman Sohm farm in Sec. 21, the Ralph Scott, Glen Patterson, Herman Sohm 80 north of Danbury, and present land on which Danbury is located, all in Sec. 27, Leo Schrank land Sec. 28, Lola Durst land Sec. 26, and Norbert Brenner farm Sec. 31. C.E. Whiting and W. Ordway of Monona County also owned large amounts of land in this area.
Animals were left to graze on the prairies by day, often herded, and at night they were rounded up and yarded. Horses were often stolen, and they also were easy prey for the cougars. Fourth Thomas told this story:
"Grandfather had fine horses, and he kept them in a pasture along a creek bottom where there was shade from a few scattered willows and other trees. One day when he went to round up some of the horses, he found one mare with deep gashes that ran along her back from her withers to her rump. Evidence pieced together indicated that a panther had attacked her from a tree limb. The horse ran under low hanging branches in an effort to get the animal from her back, but in doing this the animal had clawed the horse from one end to the other."
Some of the Thomas land was too wet to farm. At one time there was a large lake extending from the present schoolhouse to present Main Street. Thomas E. Frentress, an other early timer, often told the story of the deer drinking at this lake and how he had at one time shot one. The Maple River then had two large oxbows or bends, and one bend almost extended into town limits by the Glen Patterson barn. The river was more shallow then, the banks more sloping, and there was a gravel bottom in many places. The Maple River was crossed, before we had bridges, in the bend that nearly reached the town limits. The river afforded excellent fishing of catfish, carp, buffalo, bullheads, etc. In time many of the sloughs dried up, and by 1877 T.K. Frentress said there were wheat fields from the Thomas farm in North Danbury to the river.
Dan Thomas moved to higher ground on the 80 acres now owned by Herman Sohm a couple of years after he came here. His buildings would be more centrally located to his farmland. He built a new frame house and plastered it. All lumber and material was hauled from Denison. He also built a livestock shelter and a corn crib. To make a fenced enclosure for his animals, he went to the river and cut willow trees then trimmed them and drug them home. He used the poles to make a fence. The poles were first notched and then the ends mortised. Dan Thomas also dug a well. This was not much of a problem in 1860s as the water level was close to the ground. All wells then were open wells. Water was brought up with a pail attached to a rope and a winch. In the winters these open wells were a problem. The water would freeze, and then a hole was chopped and the pail was submerged beneath the ice to get water.
Fourth Thomas said, "After getting settled in Iowa, Grandfather found it necessary to make frequent trips to Denison, Mapleton, Onawa or Dunlap to get supplies. A few other families were moving into the area, and they often asked Grandpa to haul supplies for them on the return trip. On each trip, he brought extra supplies. This business grew and finally one room of the house was set aside to store merchandise until it could be picked up by the parties ordering them. Later a small room was attached to the house to store the supplies, and he soon brought back more than had been ordered and started a trading post in his home. The trading post was started by 1866 or '67.
When the Thomas family arrived, Lovina was 7, Ida 6, and the baby Benjamin Franklin was 3 months old. A set of twins were born on February 1, 1866, and they were the first babies born in Listonville. One of the twins survived, Alice, and she weighed but 2 1/2 lbs. when born. Another baby born in 1868 died in infancy. A son, Charles Daniel, was born on January 7, 1871.
The Country School
Schools were very important to these first settlers, and as soon as they were settled on their land, a schoolhouse was built so that the children could attend school. The first school in Woodbury County was built in Smithland, Iowa. It was built near the cabin of Eli Smith in 1853. It was a log cabin structure, and it took 5 days to construct it. O.B. "Buckskin" Smith superintended the building of the school. Everyone turned out to help. A framework was built of logs, and large chunks of sod were used on the roof. Slabs of logs served as seats and desks, it had an earthen floor, and glass for the windows was obtained from a sunken steamship in the Missouri River near Sioux City. While the men constructed the school, the women prepared a dinner of wold turkey and corn pone. Only 5 or 6 children attended the school at first. None had suitable books. The school was operated by subscription money. Mrs. Hannah Van Horn was the first teacher, and she received $2 a week and Mr. O.B. Smith boarded and roomed her free of charge. A school fund commission managed the country school until 1858. The first schools were far apart, and they were built wherever some settler gave some of his land for a school. Some children walked as far as 4 miles to school.
The first school in Oto Township was a pole-like shed. It was built the year the Thomas family arrived. School was only held there in the summer months. Kate Ratchforf taught the school. Hay was used for the roof in that school. The teacher and pupils had to make a hurried exit one day because snakes were falling from the hay, and many were up above them with their tongues out and were hissing, etc. The teacher and pupils had intruded into their winter home.
In 1858 the first county superintendent, H.H. Chaffee was elected. In 1859 there were 248 pupils in Woodbury County, in 1863 there were 466 pupils enrolled, and in 1869 there were 1,020 pupils.
By 1867 Lovina Thomas was 10 and Ida 9, and neither of them had attended school. There were several other families, too, that had children of school age. Lot and Zella Chapman Koker, Davis and Lydia Herrington Chapman, John and Elizabeth Cline Bowser, William and Catherine O'Neill Smythe, and Abel Stowell were some of them. John and Theresa Townsend Herrington had come here with a son, John from Illinois in 1866. They bought land along the Maple River presently owned by Carl and Caroline Treiber Uhl. John Sr. gave a piece of his land. The school sat along the creek band across the road from the present Caroline Treiber Uhl farm. They wanted to be near water springs as they often relied on the springs for water. The school was built of lumber, some native. The name of the first school was Habana. This was an 8-grade school, and the principle subjects taught were reading, writing and arithmetic. Teachers were hired for a 3-month period. School started in September, but it was dismissed during the month of November, so all pupils could help their parents pick the corn. It resumed again in December. Many of the older boys and girls just went to school in the Winter months. Occasionally a married couple would attend school during the Winter months. A school term was 8.3 months.
Because so many older boys attended school, school masters were often hired as teachers. They could discipline these large boys, and often the school master reprimanded them with a willow stick in the woodshed. Isaiah "Pony" Davis was one of the first teachers in this school.
The schoolhouse in the 1860s and 70s was the center of all social activity. Often religious services were held there. Many debates were held there. The Hesperian Society, a debating society, would debate about some political question with some other team from Mapleton or some other town. Spelling bees and box socials, too, drew large crowds.
By 1872 more schools were needed as there were more families coming every year. A second school was built in Listonville in 1872. Dan Thomas sold a plot of ground to the county, and the school was built where St. Patrick's Church later was built. This school was named Maple Valley. It was wooden, and it had a bell and belfry. It was a small school, and it was not in use too long, as when the Danbury Public School was built in 1879, it was discontinued. One of the first teachers to teach here was Plinn Woodward who was born in Piero, taught school in Smithland, and then came to Listonville to teach in the Maple Valley School in 1876. This school was moved to the Albert Fisher farm in 1883 when the Danbury Catholics bought the property up on the hill.

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