Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days . asrife. He deceased in 1874. John D. was a Virginian by birth, and a boat builder by came to Henry County in 1845, and to Jefferson Township in1851, and began farming on an extensive scale. His activities andsterling qualities at once brought him into notice, and in 1852, hewas appointed Deputy County Assessor for two years. In 1853,Byron Kice, the County Judge, appointed him the first Justice ofthe Peace in the township. He held the office until 1874, when hishealth became impaired and he resigned. In 1876, he was again
Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days . asrife. He deceased in 1874. John D. was a Virginian by birth, and a boat builder by came to Henry County in 1845, and to Jefferson Township in1851, and began farming on an extensive scale. His activities andsterling qualities at once brought him into notice, and in 1852, hewas appointed Deputy County Assessor for two years. In 1853,Byron Kice, the County Judge, appointed him the first Justice ofthe Peace in the township. He held the office until 1874, when hishealth became impaired and he resigned. In 1876, he was againpersuaded to take the office, and served until 1878, when his healthagain compelled his resignation. Such was public esteem of him,he was frequently pressed into seiwice as Township Clerk and NATHAN ANDEEWS 27 Other highly esteemed and prominent families were the Mur-rays, John and Thomas, the latter having the notable distinction ofbringing with him to the county, in 1851, his seventeen robust andbuxom children, who grew and made good. September Eighth, LEONARD BROWN LEONARD BROWN NO record of the early history of Polk County and Des Moine3would be complete without reference to Leonard Brown,whose sayings and doings have been interwoven in manyways into the warp and woof of the social fabric. He is of thatclass of early settlers who became such by force of circumstances,who were brought here in infancy by their parents, or were bomhere, grew up with the country, and are now identified with lead-ing industries of the commimity. In the Fall of 1853, Aaron Brown and family started on theirpilgrimage by wagon from Indiana, to a better coimtry. All wentwell until about midway of the twenty-mile prairie which spreadout wild and bare between Newtou and Uncle Tommy Mitchellstavern—unoccupied, and deemed uninhabitable by natives of Indi-ana and Ohio, for want of timber for fence rails and fuel—thewestward plodders reached a small creek which had a few hoursbefore become swol
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