Denison Review, Thursday, August 21, 1941, Denison Review 75th Anniversary Edition
(Note: The following brief history of early settlement in Crawford County was prepared and delivered by the late N.L. Hunt at the Old SettlersÕ Picnic in 1925)
[Please note that names that I have changed names that were abbreviated in the original article to the full name so that they can be found in searches. These names are in brackets. Please also note that other sources have the first births in the county as David and George Jesse Mason. Š Ed.]
The first settler in Crawford County was Cornelius Dunham. He came from Jackson County, Iowa, in the spring of 1849 and brought with him Franklin Prentice and left them at the place known as Dunham's Grove.
Mr. Prentice built a cabin for Mr. Dunham, who brought his family out the fall of the same year. A man by the name of [Reuben Blake] came with him.
Mr. Prentice took a claim at the mouth of Otter Creek on the Boyer River near Mason's Grove. This is just below the present town pf Deloit. The next settlers were Jesse Mason and family, Noah V. and George J. Johnson who came to the Grove in the spring of 1850. That fall Levi Skinner and Calvin Horr settled at the same place. The next settler in the place was Thomas Dobson, who came in the spring of 1851. In the call of 1853 Edmund Howorth with his sons, Edmund and Daniel, located at Three Bee Tree Grove, near Dunlap.
In 1854, Benjamin Dobson, A.R. Hunt, Clark Winans, B.F. Wicks, and E.W. Fowler settled at Mason's Grove and during the same year Benjamin Dobson erected the first saw mill at this place.
This same year the following located at various parts of the county as follows: John Gilbreath, John Bassett, and Moses and Daniel Riddle at Coon Grove; Mathias Didra at Buck Grove; Robert D. Butterworth and Charles Kennedy at Three Bee Tree Grove, and William H. Jordan at Lost Grove, near the present town of Dow City. John A. Dunham and Rufus Richardson came late in this same year and these were all the settlers up to 1855.
During the spring of 1855 Reuben and John Vore, S.E. Dow , S.J. Comfort, Cyrus B. Whitmore, James Purdy, Isaac B. Goodrich, S.R. Greek, S.S. Sisley, Edward Van Fleet and H.C. Laub came and settled in various places in the county. In 1856 another lot of settlers came, among them were: [George C. King], [William J. Todd], John B. Huckstep, Edwin Caldwell, Tracy Chapman, Morris McHenry, Esau McKim and Joseph Brogden, all of who located at MasonÕs Grove. Another group came soon after and settled in the south and south-west part of the county Š they were: R.B. Alexander, S. Bell, B.B. Bishop and William Willkie.
J.W. Denison came to the county in the fall of 1855 and during that year and in 1856 selected a quantity of land for the Western Land Co. and in September of 1856 commenced the settlement of the town of Denson. The first marriage ceremony in the county was solemnized by [Elder Thomas Dobson] and was triple affair as it united three couples.
Those united by the marriage were: Noah V. Johnson and Jane Mason, George J. Johnson and Eliza Ann Mason, and Calvin Horr and Elizabeth Mowery.
The first birth was that of Don Butler who lived in Arion for a number of years, the first death was that of John Dunham.
The first school house was built in MasonÕs Grove and Uncle Morris McHenry taught the first term of school in 1856.
The first lawyer was S.J. Comfort and the first physician was David McWilliams.
