Residents of the Settlement of Indiantown, Cass County, Iowa

Residents

1850 U. S. Census

On November 29, 1850, Luke Johnson began the enumeration of Indiantown which would now be located in Cass County. The dwelling numbers 1388 through 1405.

#1388 Gabriel Johnson (age 44)
Sarah (wife) (age 42)
Emaline (age 22)
Nancy (age 17)
Nephi (age 6)
Harriet (age 3)

#1389 John Camel (age 34)
Lucy (wife) (age 21)
Angeline (age 5)
Augusta (age 3)

#1390 Slazell, Andrew (age 25) (Andrew J. Millslagel)

Known as “Old Slagel,” A. J. Millslagel was the first professional prairie breaker. He was universally disliked and sentenced to fourteen years in prison for killing John Stipe and wounding James Shores. They were members of a mob that surrounded his home when he bought a wife from Frank Wilson for a gun and several pigs. He served his time in a prison at Fort Madison. He was also known for his prodigious appetite (1). 

#1391 John Pettingill (age 56) (John Christopher Pettingill)
Palina (wife) (age 51) (Paulina Clarissa Spink)
Clarinda (died 31 Mar 1845)
Eliza Jane (died 14 Sep 1844)

John Christopher Pettingill was born to Elihu and Susan Walworth Pettingill on November 23, 1795, in Rome, Oneida, New York. John married the daughter of Colonel Christopher and Clarissa Carpenter Spink. She was born November 20, 1800, in Bridgewater, Oneida, New York.

The couple had three children, all born in Jefferson County, New York. Clarinda was the oldest, born August 11, 1819. Then came Elihu Ulysses on April 3, 1821, and finally Eliza Jane on March 28, 1834.

Clarinda never married and died on March 31, 1845. Eliza Jane married John Pursel in 1842 but passed away on September 14, 1844. The families were living in Indiana at that time. By the fall of 1847, the Pettengill’s moved to Indiantown.

In 1852, the Pettingill’s left for the Valley with the James C. Snow Company arriving in October 1852. They lived in Bountiful, Ogden, and finally in Willard, Box Elder County, Utah. John was crippled by a fever sore on his leg. He died on December 20, 1863. Paulina passed away on December 8, 1885.

Elihu (age 27) (Elihu Ulysses Pettingill)
Jane (wife) (age 23) (Jane Clotilda Marsh)
John (age 10/12 months) (John Christopher Pettingill)
Clarissa Paulina Pettingill (born 26 Sep 1851)

Elihu met and married Jane Clotilda Marsh in 1849 while in Indiantown. Jane was the daughter of Josiah and Sally Clotilda Powell who had also made their home in Indiantown. They had two children before they went west to the Valley. John Christopher was born August 30, 1850, and Clarissa Paulina was born September 26, 1851.

The Pettingill family joined the James C. Snow Company to cross the plains. They settled in Bountiful, Davis County, Utah. He ran a sawmill there. In 1856, they bought a home in Willow Creek, which became Willard, Box Elder County, Utah. They found the next year very difficult. They had to go to the Cold Springs south of Willard where sego grew as large as onions and they would dig as many of them as would keep fresh for any length of time. They made bread of them dried and boiled them and used the sego in many numerous ways for food.

With the threat of the advancement of Johnson’s Army, Elihu and Jane and their six small children had to leave and move south. During this time, they lived in a little bullrush hut and covered wagon. When allowed to return, they found a fine crop of volunteer wheat. Eventually a total of 15 children were born to the family. Only two died young.

Elihu died on April 4, 1899, and Jane on June 6, 1904—both in Willard.

#1392 Salmon Warner (age 50)
Rebecca (wife) (age 34) (Rebecca Delight Billington)
George Mason (age 26) (George Sterling Mason) (son of Jesse Mason and Rebecca Delight Billington)
Hariet (age 18) (Harriet Delight Warner)
Orphy (age 16) (Orpha Warner)
Salmon (age 14)
Amos (age 12)
James Warner (died 18 Feb 1841)
Daniel Warner (died 20 Jan 1841)
John Warner (died 17 Jan 1842)
Lucina Warner (died 31 Jul 1845)
Samuel (age 6) (Samuel Bent Warner)
Mary (age 4) (Mary Rebecca Warner)

Salmon Warner was born October 27, 1789, in Franklin County, Vermont. His parents were Salmon Warner Sr., and Lucinda Field. He left home as a teenager and went to Ohio. He was working as a can contractor when he met Rebecca Delight Billington on October 7, 1830.

Rebecca was the daughter of James and Delight Huntley Billington and was born June 2, 1807. She had been married twice before. First to Jesse Mason. They had one child, George Sterling Mason. When George was about 1 year old, his father died. Rebecca then married Patrick Maloy in 1827. He turned out to be a drunkard and only were married one year before he passed away.

Salmon and Rebecca had one child before they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1833. Salmon was asked to be part of Zion’s Camp march in 1834. He left his family to travel from Kirtland to Jackson County, Missouri. After four months, he returned to his family. Two more children were born while they were living in Ohio and before moving to Sangamon, Illinois. Two sons were born there before they moved to Nauvoo in 1841.

The Warner family left Nauvoo in the fall of 1846. They stayed in Van Buren County, Iowa but then went to Indiantown by the 1850 U. S. Census. They traveled with the James C. Snow Company to the Salt Lake Valley. There were nine in the family at that time.

The Warner’s settled in Willard, Box Elder County, where Rebecca passed away on February 18, 1855, and Salmon on March 7, 1870.

George Mason (George Sterling Mason) (son of Jesse and Rebecca Delight Billington Mason) 

George Mason was born June 2, 1824, in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. George’s father died when he was one year old. George crossed the plains as a bachelor.

#1393 David Bunnel (age 41) (David Edwin Bunnell)
Sarah (wife) (age 37) (Sallie Heller Conrad)
Daniel (age 19) (David Kimball Bunnell)
Ithamer (age 17) (Stephen Ithamer Bunnell)
Samuel (age 15) (Samuel Gardner Bunnell)
George (age 13) (George Henry Bunnell)
Pheby (age 10) (Phoebe Elizabeth Bunnell)
(Martha Jane Bunnell) (died 11 Sep 1847)
Mary (age 8) (Mary Armstrong Bunnell)
Alpietta (age 2) (Alpharetta Jane Bunnell)

David Edwin Bunnell was born in Springfield, Union County, New Jersey on June 25, 1809. He married Sarah Heller Conrad April 15, 1830, in the Peter Whitmer, Jr. home. Christiana Whitmer was Sarah’s sister. Sarah was from Tioga, Elmira County, New York, and was born on September 19, 1810.

David and Sarah joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1831. Shortly after, they were sent to Brownstown, Michigan to build up the Church. They moved to La Harpe, Hancock, Illinois in the spring of 1842.

In 1846, the Bunnell family moved from La Harpe to West Point, Hancock County, Illinois. They moved with five other families to Indiantown in the fall of 1848. Stephen Ithamer Bunnell, Sarah and David’s son, recorded the conditions in the Winter of 1848. The cattle were starving and their provisions ran out in about February. Stephen remembers going to bed hungry and praying to God to deliver them from starvation. He felt comforted that they would be provided for the next day. The next morning, there were thousands of prairie chickens hovering around our log cabins, and tame that they could be killed with sticks. The last and eighth child, Alpharetta Jane, was born on November 30, 1848.

In 1849, David was called on a mission. He returned to Indiantown, and they earned enough money to buy a yoke of cattle and wagon and leave with the James C. Snow Company in the spring of 1852.

The Bunnell’s settled in Provo, Utah County where their ninth child was born. David battled illness for several month before he died on July 3, 1865. Sarah lived as a widow for the next thirty-eight years. She passed away on July 23, 1903.

#1394 William L. Townsend (age 36) (Willliam S. Townsend)
Edney (wife) (age 36) (Edna Ann Mills)
Polly (age 14) (Mary E. Townsend)
John L. (age 12) (John S. Townsend)
Dooly (age 10) (William Henry Townsend)
Samuel (age 8)
Elizabeth (age 6)
George (age 2) (George W. Townsend)

William A. Townsend, also called, Buck, was a typical pioneer. The Townsend family lived in a cabin on the Botna not far from the present bridge west of Lewis. 1852, he took up a claim in a wooded area in what is now Edna Township. Edna Township was named for his wife. The Townsends moved to Missouri in 1858 (2).

1395 John Nite (age 40) (John R. Knight)
Melia (wife) (age 30) (Millicent Mary Amelia Watson)
John (age 13) (John Knight)
Anne Knight (died 1846)
Mary (age 8) (Mary Jane Knight)
Sarah (age 5) (Sarah Ann Knight)
Ellin (age 1) (Violet Ellen Knight)

John Knight was born on January 15, 1813, at Gisburn, Yorkshire, England. He was the child of John and Mary Hancock Knight. He became a weaver by trade. He married Millicent Mary Amelia Watson in 1836. She was born March 3, 1818, the daughter of James and Ann Gabbott Watson.

The couple had a son born to them on December 17, 1836, named John, and a daughter on May 29, 1839, named Ann. In 1840, they were baptized member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and later that same year, left Yorkshire for Nauvoo, Illinois.

While in Nauvoo, John worked on Joseph Smith’s farm, making ditches and fences. On September 19, 1842, Mary Jane was born. In 1846, their daughter Ann, died at the age of seven years. In the same year on August 15, another daughter Sarah was born.

In the fall of 1846, they left Nauvoo and settled in Indiantown. John worked in the milling business and operated a sawmill. While in Indiantown, another daughter was born, Violet Ellen, on April 9, 1850. They stayed at this residence until the spring of 1852. With other families living in Indiantown, they joined the James C. Snow Company for the Salt Lake Valley.

After a few days rest, they continued north and settled in Slaterville, Weber County. Millicent Mary died there on January 5, 1868, and John followed on December 3, 1889.

#1396 James Campbel (age 40) (John Campbell)
Fanny (age 30) 
Colista (age 12)
Cornelia (age 9)
George (age 7)
Franklin (age 2)

John D. Campbell located near the Botna River west of the present site of Atlantic. His cabin was on the west side of the road not far from the brewery. His land was filled with groves of trees and was an attraction for hunters. He lived there three years and then moved to Pottawattamie County (3).

#1397 Joshua Bracken (died 1845)
Hannah Bracket (age 38) (Hannah Bell Bracken)
Mary (age 17) (Mary Ann Bracken)
John Bracken (died 1841)
Catherine (age 11) (Catherine Bell Bracken)
William (age 9) (William Nellis Bracken)
Aaron (age 7) (Aaron William Bracken)
Hannah Bell Bracken (died 1849)
Franklin Bracken (died 1849)
Moroni Bracken (died 1846)

Joshua Breckon or Bracken was born April 24, 1804, in Yorkshire, England to John and Catherine Portas Brocken. He was the third of twelve children.

Hannah Bell was born in Northumberland, England on May 30, 1814, to Robert and Alice Rutter Bell. Joshua and Hannah were married in 1830 in Northampton. Four children were born in Newcastle, Northampton—Alice, Mary Ann, John, and Catherine Bell. John died before 1841.

Joshua and Hannah were not satisfied with the Church of England. Joshua prayed that they might find the right church. When two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints called at their home, they knew that they had found that church. They crossed the Atlantic in 1841 on the ship Rochester. They settled in Niagara County, New York. While in New York, three and possibly four children were born—William Nellis, Aaron William, Hannah Bell, and Franklin.

The family moved to Nauvoo in 1845 where Moroni, was born and died in 1846. They left with the Nauvoo exodus. They got as far as Mr. Pisgah and Joshua was very sick. He was taken back to Fort Des Moines where he died. The family continued west and came to Indiantown.

Hannah with children, Mary Ann, Catherine, William, and Aaron left with the James C. Snow Company. Her oldest daughter, Alice, had married Cyrus Hewett Tolman, in 1847 while at Mt. Pisgah. They had gone west with the 1848 Brigham Young Company and settled in Tooele County, Utah Territory. Hannah and her children settled in the same area. Hannah died in Rush Valley, Tooele County, on November 7, 1886.

#1398 Nathan J. Wicks (age 30) (Nathan Sanford Weeks)
Martha (wife) (age 30) (Sophia Elizabeth Tucker)
Reuben George Weeks (born 27 Apr 1851)

Nathan Sanford Weeks was the son of Shiverick and Lydia Barden Weeks. He was born October 18, 1818, in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sophia was born March 10, 1825, to James and Nancy Joy Tucker. Her parents and family joined in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1841. They sold their farm and moved to the Nauvoo area, probably on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River in Lee County.

The first child of Sophia and Nathan, Charles Sanford, was born in May 1844 and then died in July of the same year. The families may have moved to Iranistan, Pottawattamie County. Family tradition says that twins were born on June 28, 1844—Sarah and Edwin. Sarah died the same day as her birth and Edwin two days later. The families may have moved to Indiantown where the next three children were born. Emma Helena was born May 30, 1847 and died on October 30, 1847; Ellen Adeline was born on April 7, 1849 and died on February 17, 1850; and Reuben George, was born April 27, 1851.

Both heads of households James Tucker and Nathan Sanford Weeks died before the families could leave for the Salt Lake Valley. Nathan died at age 33 years of age will fighting a prairie fire.

Sarah’s mother, Nancy Joy Tucker (age 48), and her children, Amasa (age 19); George (age 15); Charles (age 6) and Sophia Tucker Weeks (age 25) and her son Rueben (age 1) joined the James C. Snow Company.

An entry in a journal for Thursday, September 23rd read: “Traveled 5 miles this day. Considerable snow fell. Yesterday, John Pettengill, John Knight and the widows Tucker and Weeks had the Valley Fever so bad as to leave the company without Captain Snows permission.” They finally reach the Salt Lake Valley on October 10, 1852.

The families went to Battle Creek, Utah County which is now called Pleasant Grove. Joining the Tucker family in Battle Creek was the Hiram Winters family. The Winters family were also in the Snow Company. Hiram’s wife, Rebecca Burdick Winters, has passed away on August 15, 1852, near Scotts Bluff. On July 24, 1853, the widow Sophia Tucker Weeks married the widower, Hiram Winters.

Sophia died on September 9, 1873, and Hiram on October 20, 1889. Both died in Pleasant Grove, Utah County.

#1399 Samuel Ferrin (age 40) 
Sally (wife) (age 35) (Sarah Clotilda Powell)
James (age 15) (James Madison Ferrin)
Ebenezer Ferrin (died 1838)
Sarah (age 10) (Sarah Maria Ferrin)
Moroni Ferrin (died 1844)
Heber C. (age 4) (Heber Chase Kimball Ferrin)
Brigham (age 2) (Brigham Young Ferrin)
Lydia Powell Ferrin (born 8 Mar 1852)

Samuel Ferrin was the second of fifteen children for Ebenezer and Lydia Phelps Ferrin. He was born November 12, 1804, at Hebron, Grafton County, New Hampshire. Ebenezer moved his family to Erie County, New York.

Samuel was a lumberman and working in forests. He married Olive Fidelia Coon on March 1, 1825. They moved to Genesee County. Their first child, Julia Fidelia, was born on November 2, 1826. Samuel moved his wife and child to Cattaraugus County. Here a son was born. He was born June 1, 1830 and named Jacob Samuel. Olive died 8 days later. On January 21, 1833, Samuel married the widow of Josiah Marsh, Sally Powell Marsh. Sally had a son from her previous marriage, George Josiah Marsh, who was born April 15, 1830. She became a widow in 1831.

Sally and Samuel had two sons while living in Randolf—Josiah Marsh Ferrin, born January 22, 1834 and James Madison Ferrin, born July 14, 1836. They moved to Erie, Pennsylvania and then to Sangamon, Illinois. Three more children were born here--Sarah Marie, Ebenezer, and Moroni. Both sons died. During this time, they were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The family moved to Nauvoo in about 1843 and remain there until they were driven out in 1846. They remained Lee County where he and his older sons broke prairie land for $1.25 an acre. They used the money to buy supplies for the trek westward. Heber Chase Kimball Ferrin was born here on October 4, 1846. They left Lee County in the spring of 1848 and settled in Indiantown. During the summer they built a cabin and harvested hay.

In the fall of 1848, Samuel and the boys left for Missouri and threshed wheat to purchase their winter meat. They had to grate corn with a grater made out of a tin can to use for food. On January 8, 1849, Brigham Young Ferrin was born. A daughter, Lydia, followed on March 8, 1852.

Samuel’s family joined the Allen Weeks Company where Samuel was made a Captain of Ten. The Company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on October 12, 1852. The family remained in Salt Lake City for a couple. e of years when they moved to Ogden, Weber County. It was here that Brigham Young Ferrin died on June 17, 1854, and then Sally Powell Ferrin died at age forty-two on September 29, 1855.

Samuel and his sons built one of the first sawmills in Ogden Canyon. Samuel married four more times. In 1862, he moved to Eden and then to Pleasant View in 1869. He died there on January 24, 1890. He was the father of twelve sons and four daughters.

#1400 Julie Ferren (age 24) (Julia Phidelia Ferrin) (daughter of Samuel and Olive Fidelia Coon)

Julie was the oldest daughter of Samuel and Olive Fidelia Coon Ferrin. She was born November 2, 1826, in Wyoming County, New York. By the 1850 Census, she was living next to her father, Samuel and his second wife. She was only 3 ½ years old when her mother died.

Julia didn’t marry until she was in Utah. She married first Luther Moses Palmer and had one daughter, Alice Fidelia Palmer. She was later divorced and then married Hiram Norton Byington. At the time of the 1850 Census, she was living at this time with the children of Israel and Sarah Woodward Stoddard who had lost their parents.

(Children of Israel and Sarah Woodward Stoddard)
Rebecca Stoudard (age 20) (Rebecca Stoddard)
William (age 17) (William Stoddard)
George (age 15) (George Platt Stoddard)

Israel Stoddard was born on May 7, 1804, in Burlington County, New Jersey to William and Lydia Patterson Stoddard. Sarah Woodward was also born in Burlington County on November 3, 1805. She was the daughter of David and Ruth Bird Woodward. Israel and Sarah were married on October 25, 1823, in Burlington County. The couple had seven children before they joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and moved to Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois. One child died in New Jersey and another in St. Louis while they were going to Nauvoo.

After they reached Nauvoo, another son was born but he died two years later, and another daughter died there. When they were driven out of Nauvoo and crossed the Mississippi River and were in Lee County when Sarah born a son on April 7, 1846. She died that same day and the baby died soon after. Israel then died in May of 1846. Charles Henry, Rebecca, William, George Platt, and Frederick Augustus were left to finish the journey.

Charles Henry Stoddard left for the valley with the Harry Walton/Garden Grove Company in 1851. Rebecca joined him in this Company. The youngest of the children, Frederick Augustus, was living with the Cynthia Davis Clyde family in Decatur County, Iowa according to the 1850 U. S. Census. Cynthia and her family also joined the same Company to come west. Frederick was probably in that Company as well.

William and George Stoddard came to the Salt Lake Valley in 1852 with the James C. Snow Company.

#1401 George Reeves (age 62)

George Reeves, accompanied by a southerner, Wade Hampton Holt, located on a tract of land near Turkey Creek in what is known as southwestern Grove township. In 1855, George was found dead in his wagon. He was buried in Sawyer’s Grove by Eli Watson Holt (4).

#1402 Lewis Toodore (age 26)

Moses Harman (age 23)

#1403 Vincent Mathew Conrad 
Mrs. Conrad (age 36) (Electa Cotton Bradway)
Mary Jane (wife) (age 21) (Mary Jane Eighmey)
Orson (age 2) (Orson Hyde Conrad)

Vincent Mathew Conrad took up a claim during the Spring of 1850 and returned to Dubuque to spend the winter. He planned to return to Indiantown and his new claim the following spring. Because of high water, his return was postponed until the spring of 1852 (5). The first store was opened at Indiantown in 1854 by Mr. Conrad.

#1404 William Hines (age 46)
Catherine (wife) (age 37)
Lucy (age 16)
Lydia (age 15)
Elizabeth (age 7)
Susan (age 5)
Emma (age 2)

#1405 Peter Gubson (age 37)
Sarah (wife) (age 32)
George (age 5)
Ann (age 2)

From the Pottawattamie High Council Minutes of 1846-1853, the following resident was listed (6).

John Pettingale (from Indiantown Branch)

Possible Births

Name	Father’s Name	Mother’s Name	Birth Date
Sarah Weeks	Nathan Sanford Weeks	Sophia Elizabeth Tucker	28 Jun 1846
Edwin Weeks	Nathan Sanford Weeks	Sophia Elizabeth Tucker	28 Jun 1846
Emma Helena Weeks	Nathan Sanford Weeks	Sophia Elizabeth Tucker	30 May 1847
Ellen Adeline Weeks	Nathan Sanford Weeks	Sophia Elizabeth Tucker	7 Apr 1849
Brigham Young Ferrin	Samuel Ferrin	Sarah Clotilda Powell	17 Jan 1849
Violet Ellen Knight	John R. Knight	Millicent Mary Amelia Watson	9 Apr 1850
Reuben George Weeks	Nathan Sanford Weeks	Sophia Elizabeth Tucker	27 Apr 1851
Lydia Powell Ferrin	Samuel Ferrin	Sarah Clotilda Powell	8 Mar 1852

Marriages

From the Pottawattamie County Marriages, the following individual was listed as coming from Indiantown (7).

Elihu (Pettingale) Pettingill married Jane C. Marsh in 1849.

Travel Companies

Departing on July 5, 1852, the James C. Snow Company consisted of about 55 wagons and 250 individuals. The Company left from Kanesville with many of the families that had settled in Indiantown. Listed in the Company are:

John Christopher Pettingill (age 57)
Paulina Spink Pettingill (age 51)

Elihu Ulysses Pettingill (age 31)
Jane Clotilda Marsh Pettingill (age 24)
John ChristopherPettingill (age 1)
Clarissa Paulina Pettingill (infant)

Salmon Warner (age 53)
Rebecca Delight Billington Warner (age 45)
Harriet Delight Warner (age 20)
Orpha Warner (age 18)
Salmon Warner, Jr. (age 16)
Amos Warner (age 13)
Samuel Bent Warner (age 7)
Mary Rebecca Warner (age 4)

George Sterling Mason (age 26)

David Edwin Bunnell (age 43)
Sarah Conrad Bunnell (age 42)
Daniel Kimball Bunnell (age 20)
Stephen Ithamer Bunnell (age 18)
Samuel Gardner Bunnell (age 16)
George Henry Bunnell (age 14)
Phoebe Elizabeth Bunnell (age 11)
Mary Armstrong Bunnell (age 9)
Alpharetta Bunnell (age 3)

John Knight (age 39)
Amelia Watson Knight (age 34)
John Knight, Jr. (age 13)
Mary Jane Knight (age 10)
Sarah Ann Knight (age 5)
Violet Ellen Knight (age 2)

Hannah Bell Bracken (age 38)
Mary Ann Bracken (age 18)
Catherine Bell Bracken (age 13)
Aaron William Bracken (age 9)
William Nellis Bracken (age 9)

Sophia Elizabeth Tucker Weeks (age 27)
Reuben George Weeks (age 1)

William Stoddard (age 18)
George Platt Stoddard (age 15)

Bibliography

1. Hopkins, Harry L., Ellen S. Woodward, L. S. Hill, Emery S. Petty, Henry G. Alsberg, Jay Du Von, and Marion O. Shell, Southwestern Iowa Guide, 1936, p. 38.
2. Ibid, p. 38.
3. Ibid, p. 38.
4. Ibid, p. 38.
5. Ibid, p. 38.
6. Pottawattamie High Council minutes, 1846-1852; 1850 December-1851 March; Church History Library, https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/dff41a9e-b768-40b7-bde1-98b2c19f8c90/0/0 (accessed: December 14, 2021)
7. “Pottawattamie County Marriage Records,” Pottawattamie County Genealogical Society, 2000.