Lakin's Grove, Iowa - A Hamilton County Settlement
text By Martin E. Nass
It was common for the early settlers to locate along
a river where they could find water and timber. This village started
on the banks of the Skunk River at NW Sec. 24-87-24 in 1854. It was
named for the first settler, Luther Lakin. He was accompanied by Elisha
Lakin, Oscar M. Lakin, and Dr. Cochran. All four men entered land
and then returned back east to get their families.
Luther married and returned to start the first home
in Lyon Township. He was accompanied this time by Elisha Lakin, B.
A. Lakin, and E. P. McCowan, who settled in a grove of trees which became
known as Lakin's Grove. Luther built a log house which took him three
months. In the meantime his bride cooked in a "bark shanty" which
was a wooden framework of twigs and branches covered with tree bark.
Today, a similar structure can be seen at the Indian
Village at the Living History Farm in Clive, Iowa. The family slept
in a covered wagon.
The post office was established on Sept. 15, 1857 when
William B. Patrick was named postmaster. By 1870 the population had
reached 188. This village served for a time as a stage stop for the
line from Newton to Nevada to Skunk Grove.
On June 15, 1878 after some discussion as
to how little mail business was generated, the post office was closed and
moved to Callanan. It was suggested in the newspapers that the Callanan
postmaster was a scoundrel and deliberately withheld mail from going to
Lakin's Grove to make the count appear lower than it actually would have
been.
The text above is from: <http://iagenweb.org/hamilton/LakinsGroveSettlement.htm>
Also available from: https://sites.google.com/site/hamiltoncountyhistory/home/ghost-towns/lakin-s-grove
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Like many road signs in Hamilton County, the sign indicating
Lakin's Grove is not where this settlement was. The Laking's Grove
Avenue road is about 6 or 7 miles west of Highway 69 instead of indicating
a road north of Ellsworth.
It is appropriate that there is a road with this name, because that
indicates that the settlement of Lakin's Grove existed and is historically
significant.
You can see, in the map above, where Lakin's Grove
was located.
Lakin's Grove can be found in this 1878 map
shown below.
Paths and trails are shown, but there is still no Ellsworth.

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Lakin's Grove
This text is adapted from "The Centennial History of Ellsworth"
Lakin's Grove settlement was built along the early
Indian trails and early immigrant trails in the southeast part of Hamilton
County. It was never platted, but grew for about 20 years (1856-1878)
until Callanan was developed and came to about three miles southwest of
where Ellsworth is now.
Lakin's Grove was the first settlement
in Southeast Hamilton County. In 1854, Elisha Lakin; Luther, his
son; a son-in-law, Dr Homer Cochran; and a relative, Oscar Lakin came from
Illinois, DeKalb County, and entered claims on some land and preempted
more making a large strip along the Skunk River. Then, they returned
home and planned to start out again in the spring of 1855.
Luther, who had recently married Emlie
Staples and lived some distance from the Lakins, had made plans to start
from the Staples home and would meet the rest at a given point. For
some reasons, their timing was not just right and Luther Lakin and his
bride arrived about two weeks before the others did in June. This
made Luther Lakin the first settler. The caravan consisted of the
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Elisha Lakin and some younger children; their son
Brint and his wife (whom he had just recently married), and a son-in-law,
Ed McCowen and his wife, Lucida. Lucida had the first been married
to William Kandell and had two children, Gus and Helen, and also two children,
Frank and Ann Morgan by a second marriage. The third marriage was
to Ed McCowen, who came with the Lakins. They had brought with them
some of the older children.
This group of relatives hurriedly built
a log cabin and Eveline McCown was born. She was the first baby in
these parts. Later, McCown had another child and both mother and
son died.
Mr. Lakin contracted to carry the mail from Webster
City to Mariette, the county seat of Marshall County for $500 per year.
He was then a man of about 60 years of age. It was necessary for
him to cross the Boone River at the beginning of his route, and then to
cross the Skunk River.
The first school was started about 1856. This
building burned to the ground and a new one was built where the first one
had been. Church services were soon held by a minister from Webster
City and followed by Sunday school. These services were held in the
school house. The school house was also a social center, especially
after the Civil War, when farmers came in large numbers and young soldiers
came west.
I is believed that Dr. and Mrs. Cochran
did not come until after her people did. After his house burned down,
he moved to Lehigh. This left the community without a physician for
years, and then Dr. Black came, sometime after the spring of 1869.
Several people, at that time, had typhoid fever. Dr. Black later
moved to the new town of Callanan.
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(click image to enlarge)
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The following text is also adapted from "The Centennial History
of Ellsworth:
Luther Lakin first built a bark shanty in which they cooked
and lived. They used their covered wagon for a bedroom until they
built a log cabin on the hill east of the river. Here all of their
sixteen children were born and it served as their home until the present
house was built when Emily was a baby. Luther Lakin raised a lot
of stock, especially cattle. He would herd several hundred head of
cattle on this prairies.
One outstanding thing that people remembered was the
well and the first windmill. A tank was built with one half of it
in the road for the traveling public to use. For this he was given
a tax reduction.
Mr. Staples evidently had more money as he bought a
farm and built a frame house, the finest in the community for years.
The land came to the section line on the north; but there never was a road
through there, as the road only on quarter of a mile south had been established.
This left the Staples farm so that they had to go through other people's
timber and ford the river to get out.
John Bonner, the first owner of Rose Grove, bought
land of Elisha Lakin. The house was located on the fork of the road.
A baseball park was created by a young soldier, who
had learned the game from boys raised in the east. The clearing used
by the Indians during the fall while gathering rushes and hunting made
an ideal baseball diamond.
The William Barkhuff family, like John Cooper, came
from Janesville, Wisconisn in 1864.
Near the Dan Rinker home located about one half mile
east of the road going south of the Grove, and near the river where it
turned south again, was located a small graveyard on the sunny hillside.
There was no bridge and possibly high water was unable to get to the graveyard
that the Lakins had started several years beore.
Lakin's Grove was never platted, and most of the business
places were located on the norht side of the road, which was all timber.
View a business
in Ellsworth that was moved from Lakin's Grove.
The Civil War had four soldiers that called Lakin's
Grove home. They were Charles Lakin, Gus Kendell (son and grandson
of Elisha Lakin), John Cooper, and Chilson Sanford (see next image).
A number of young men came seeking their fortunes,
married, and helped to build a larger community. Two of these were
James Buckels and Frank Dalbey. As the Grove was in the southeast
corner of Lyon Township, it soon had farmers spreading out into adjoining
townships. Lakin's Grove, as a town, lived less than a quarter of
a century.
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