Young, W. H. (Bill)

YOUNG, WARRICK, EDWARDS, BRAMON MENDHALL, WARD, JOHNSON, JOHNSTON

Posted By: Mary H. Cochrane, Volunteer
Date: 7/12/2019 at 08:37:34

BIOGRAPHY ~ W.H. YOUNG

"Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa"
Page 645 (Lewis Publishing Company (1887)),

"W. H. YOUNG, farmer and stock-raiser, lives on section16, Richland Township, where he owns 178 acres of land. He was born September 29, 1852, son of J. D. and Catharine (Warrick) Young, natives of Tennessee. They settled in Decatur County in 1852, where the mother died, in 1878. The father is still living. Mr. Young was reared on a farm, and has followed the occupation of a farmer thus far through life. He was married in Decatur County, in 1874, to Nerresta Edwards, born in Decatur County, and daughter of Anderson and Armina Edwards. They are the parents of three children -- Luella, Nora C. and Carrie A. Mr. Young is holding the office of township clerk and secretary of the School Board. He belongs to Ivy Lodge, No. 464, I. O. O. F. Politically he is a Democrat."

Submitted to the Decatur County GenWeb site by Christy Jay, email: Jaygenie@aol.co

William H. (Bill) Young [born 1854] was one of the prominent farmers in Richland Township. He was the son of John D. Young. His grandfather entered 240 acres from the government in 1853. Bill assisted his father on the farm several years, eventually purchasing part of it and inheriting the rest. As a child, Bill played with the Indians still in the area. There are some Indian beads and moccasins still in the family that the Indians made for him.

Bill gave special attention to livestock, raising shorthorn cattle, Percheron horses and Poland China hogs. Bill married Nervesta Edwards and they raised four children: Luella (married Fred Bramon), Carrie (married J. L. Mendenhall), Frederic (married Ruth Ward) and Martha (married Horace Johnson (sic, Johnston)). Bill's popularity is attested by the fact that in 1900 he was elected county treasurer in a county predominantly Republican (he was a devout Democrat). He was elected four times and served five years due to a change in the law.

Following are some Indian tales Bill related to Frank Garber:

"Mr. Young lived in the northwest part of the county across Grand River, east from Westerville. There was a natural park on the Young farm and here the Indians often camped.

"One evening when Mr. Young was a young man he went to get the cows, and not having much success in finding them, he sat down upon a log to listen for the bell. He had been sitting there but a short time listening when he suddenly looked up and there standing like a statue directly over him was a big Indian buck. To say he was startled would be putting it tame enough; but he managed to speak and found that Indian meant no harm. However, he couldn't quite understand how the fellow got so close while he was listening intently for the cow bell.

"The Indian then invited him to go to the wigwam, which he did. As they approached the wigwam it was very apparent that something unusual was on. The whole tribe was dancing around the wigwam and having a characteristic savage jubilee. The Indian led him to the door of the tent and a sight such as few white men ever saw in Decatur county greeted his eyes. On a rope stretched across the tent were the scalps of 18 Indians.

"The Indian explained that they had been on the war path up north in the territory of the Sacs and Foxes and had come upon a small camp while all the braves were away. Whereupon they had killed and scalped all the old men, women and children and made a clean get-away. The hullabaloo he witnessed was their celebration of the victory.

"Mr. Young remembered of one instance when a band of Indians camped in the locality and had a sick woman with them. She was very sick and they expressed the fear that she would be 'nippoo' (die). She was being transported on a platform made by fastening two long poles at the horse's neck and letting them extend well behind the horse where the platform was fastened. Here the sick woman was laid. Their fears that she would 'nippoo' were well founded for nippoo she did and was put to rest in a tree top near where DeKalb now is. Old settlers tell us that it was no uncommon sight in the early days when passing through the timber to see gruesome bundles lashed to the topmost limbs of some great tree or dangling hideously as the wrappings and contents decayed.

"A settler had built a big two-room cabin not far from the Pottawattamies' winter camping grounds. One winter when the weather was extremely cold an Indian came to the door and was invited in to warm by the big fireplace. Over and over again he grunted his satisfaction. That night after the family had been in bed asleep for hours one of the girls, who slept on a bed near the fireplace, awakened and was horrified to see seven Indian bucks stretched out flat on the floor with their feet to the fire. Too scared to breathe even, she lay perfectly still and after sometime first one Indian got up and stole out silently and then another until they were all gone. Then she bounded for the next room and woke the family. They decided that so long as the Indians continued to molest nothing, the best thing to do was to pay no attention to them. All the rest of that cold winter the Indians came and went as silently as shadows warming themselves at the great fireplace.

"My older brother and my father were going to Leon one day when they noticed a large crowd of men on a ridge on what is now the Biggs farm. They rode over to see what was going on. They found that a man by the name of Pete Haret and the Indians were having a horse race, which Haret won. The Indians wanted to run another with a different horse but Haret took the stakes and beat it to town. The Indians, after a short time, strung out across the prairie and disappeared."

NOTE: Bill went by either W.H. Young or Bill Young. He was born September 28, 1854, and died April 2, 1939. Nervesta (Edwards) Young was born October 29, 1855, and died November 13, 1938. They were interred at the Grand River Cemetery, Grand River, Iowa.

During Bill's term as County Treasurer, there wasn't a courthouse in Leon. On April 1, 1877, thieves had broken into the courthouse and, with daylight fast approaching, placed a charge of dynamite under the treasurer's safe. The charge sent the safe into the basement of the courthouse, still locked tight. However the entire west side of the courthouse had been blown away. The next courthouse was not dedicated until 1908, after Bill had left office.

Photographs courtesy of Sharon R. Becker, his great-great-granddaughter

Copied By Stacey McDowell Dietiker (This is part of my maternal grandmother's Young family)

More information regarding the Bill Young family may be found on the
John Dale and Catherine (Warrick) Young family page