Henry Faust - Son of Samuel J. & Elizabeth Faust
There
were some interesting guesses on Who’s Who No. 45. One person who has
succeeded in naming correctly several of those that preceded it, said
it was Frank Molyneux, and still another thought it the likeness of Tim
Campbell. Mrs. Hugo Miller was the first one to five the correct name
– that of Henry Faust.
Mr. Faust came to Cherokee county in the
‘60’s and has ben an eye-witness to about all the amazing developments
that has taken place from the days of wilderness to the present. Asked
recently for some information regarding those early days, Mr. Faust
said:
“I was born in Center County, Pa., in 1856. Father took a
notion to go west and of course I had to go along. We stopped at
Charles City for a while. I was getting old enough to remember a few
things then. My eldest sister was married there to a man by the name of
Harvey Wansley. During the Civil war we moved to Webster City, and my
sister and her husband moved on to Cherokee.
Father then
rented one of the Funk farms and stayed there until he got a nice bunch
of cattle. I went to school in town and country. Father took a notion
then to go to Nebraska and took a homestead close to Lincoln. That summer we all | 
Henry Faust
(click on image to enlarge)
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took
the ague excepting him. While in Nebraska my brother and I herded
cattle on horse back and chased more than one antelope but did not
catch any of them. Late in the fall we came back as far as
Cherokee. At that time my brother-in-law ran the mill where the
old dam is.
After wintering at Cherokee we went back to
Webster City and father bought forty acres there. Just before the
railroad reached there, he sold the 40 acres and returned to Cherokee.
That year the railroad was built through here. He took a
homestead southwest of Aurelia and I worked someone that summer on the
railroad grade. I was in the old stockade a number of times.
They
used to ford the river about 60 rods south of the old dam. There
were three roads that came down the hills on the east side of the
river. One where the Jesse Loucks home is; one just a little
north of the rendering works, and one down over that high point on the
north side of the first Badger creek bridge. All three led to the
ford.
I certainly remember the grasshopper years, but I believe
they were really a blessing. Before the hoppers, the
farmers raised mostly wheat. Everyone thought we were too far
north to grown corn, so they planted only a little, but after the
hoppers they seemed to turn more to corn and stock.
I recall the
total eclipse of the sun the first summer I went to school in Cherokee
county. The school was held in a little slab building close to where
the Wilson school house now stands. May Wheeler, afterward Luther
Phipps’ wife was our teacher. Her father and his three daughters took
four 80-acres homesteads. He built a house on the four corners of the
land, and in that way each could sleep on his or her own land.
(Source: Former Cherokee County Historical Society scrapbook)
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