Hensley, old 2000 Lima page, Fayette.Co.IA

Contains webpage links to various Fayette Co. surnames and history projects.
Iowaz Index Page
The photo hosting site contains material regarding history, maps, genealogy of Fayette, Co, Iowa
Iowaz Photo Hosting Site
Fayette.Co.IA folder contains plat maps.
https://public.fotki.com/iowaz/fayette_county_iowa/
Lima/Albany folder
https://public.fotki.com/iowaz/fayette_county_iowa/lima_and_albany/

Page Chronology:  2013Jan07, moved intact as an old 2000 Hensley page from Angelfire to iowaz.info, and added this is a second Hensley page with more current genealogy and burials.

Hensley  descendent tree

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Hensley burials
 in Fayette Co, Iowa

Colored rows = info/data updated; white rows = not updated, needing data. 

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Lima Church & Cemetery & Hensley plot

Lima Cem & Burials:  http://www.iowaz.info/fayetteco/limacemeteryburials.htm

Lima Church

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Andrew Hensely (1803-1878) timeline

1803, Born in Kentucky (Floyd Co)
1822, age 19, came to eastern Illinois from Kentucky with father's family.  Removed  from (Floyd Co?) Kentucky to Edgar Co, Illinois, mid-eastern border area with his father William James Hensley and family.  The Edgar and Coles county area at the time was a total frontier, thus Andrew spent almost his entire life as a frontier pioneer.
1824, age 21, Married Susan Lewis (1806 Virginia-1837 Illinois) in Edgar Co, Illinois.
1825, Son Isaac L. Hensley born (1825-1830)
1829, Dau Emmaline Hensley born (1829-1830)
1831, Dau Malinda Hensley born (1831-1835)
1833, Son Andrew Jackson Hensley born (1833 island in Mississippi below St. L-1925 Fayette)
1836, Son Jacob Goodwin Hensley born (1836-1913)
1837, age 34,First wife Susan Lewis dies in Edgar Co, Illinois area.
1838, Married Sarah Lovell (1819 Indiana-1872 Lima) in Edgar Co, Illinois.
1839, Andrew was farming/gathering in Edgar Co, Illinois from 1822-1839, from age 19 to 26+.  He apparently was moving across Illinois into Missouri plus 'exploring' land possibilities in the north along the Illinois and Wisconsin border.
1839, age 36, Removed to SW Grant County, Wisconsin (across from Dubuque, Iowa)
1840, Dau Elizabeth Hensley .(1840 Coles Co, Ill?-1909 Decorah, Winneshiek Co, Iowa)
1840, The Wilcox settlement starts along the Mission Trail in Fayette Co, Iowa.  Andrew Hensley will shortly arrive to work and live with all of the first pioneers into the area.
1841, Son Reuben L. Hensley born (1841 Grant Co, Wisc- 1929, Albany, Fayette Co, Iowa)
1842, age 39, came to Fayette County for land.  Andrew would arrive in the area around the Wilcox settlement and buy the claim of Nathaniel Wilcox, four miles to the east in Bear Grove, Sec. 1, Smithfield Twp, Fayette County, Iowa, then returned to Grant Co, Wisconsin for the family.
1842/43, Became sick and remained in Grant Co, Wisconsin.
1843, Son Richard N. Hensley born (1843 Grant Co, Wisc. - 1863 Battle of Vicksburg)
1843/44, Brought the family as far as Ead's Grove (Manchester, Iowa) and over-wintered.
NOTE: There is some conflict of thought, mine, as to where the family was staying upon the move into to Fayette Co in the spring of 1844 after over-wintering at Ead's Grove.
1844, Bought the claim and moved into the primitive cabin of Madison Brown, Sec 36, Westfield Twp, at the head of Grannis Creek.
1844, In the spring of 1844,  Andrew rented Joe Hewett's place, northwest of Strawberry Point, just in the edge of Clayton County, and moved his family into a little cabin about one and a half miles west of Hewett's, in the edge of Fayette County, owned by Moses, son of Joe Hewitt.  Here, November 27, 1844, Daniel P. HENSLEY was born, claimed the first white child born in Fayette County.  (Andrew may have been using both the Brown and Hewitt cabin the winter of 1844/45, as there seems to be conflicting bits of info, bz/2003)
1844, Mrs. Hensley had a run-in at the 'Brown' cabin with three Indian braves, became concerned and would not return.
1844, Andrew moves the family into the old Franklin Wilcox cabin at Wilcox settlement 4+ miles to the west.
1845, Age 42, Living and farming in Fayette County begins in earnest on the Bear and Grannis Creek areas.  Andrew made a quantity of maple sugar, probably in Grannis Canyon.
1845, Andrew harvest the first crop of wheat grown in Fayette County.  His young boys, A.J. and Jacob would take a wagon load pulled by 3-4 yoke of oxen, 75 miles to the south to the mill at Cascade, in Delaware County.
1845, Andrew constructed his own log cabin on the first claim he purchased in 1842 from Nathaniel Wilcox on the north side of Bear Creek in Bear Grove in the Corn Hills area, and only a mile+ south of the 'Brown' cabin and claim. Andrew apparently farmed this two claims near Grannis and Bear Creek in the later half of the 1840's.  He would have been doing a variety of activities to 'make a living,' to include clearing timber, farming small fields, raising a few livestock, collecting honey, hauling floor and other items to Fort Atkinson, etc.  Andrew would also have been 'probing' and 'exploring' for new land possibilities across the neutral grounds line immediately to the north of his 'claims' in the Volga River flowage. The Volga river bottoms and hills were very prime land locations for anyone with Andrew's knowledge of farming, subsistent agriculture and apparently milling. It would be to the Volga river bottoms at Lightville (Lima) that Andrew Hensley would take up a nice parcel of farm, built a mill and become a very significant part of the successful development of the pioneer villages of Lima and Albany and the Frog Hollow valley.  He would live the rest of his life in the Lima, Albany area as would some of his descendants.
1845/46, Andrew Hensley, Madison Brown, Horace Bemis, James Beatty, Lorenzo Mulliken and Mr. Messenger hauled floor from the mill at Quasqueton to the Fort a journey about about 70 miles by snow sleds pulled by multiple yoke of oxen. Young A.J., about 13 years old was actively involved, working with the men.
1846/47, The Hensley children attended school at Ead's Grove (Manchester) 40 miles to the SW along the Mission Trail.
1847, Andrew was elected as one of three justice of the peace in Fayette County, which was attached to Hewitt Twp, of Clayton Co.
1848, Andrew Hensley, J.P., married Glidden and Lowe.
1848, Dau Sarah Jane Hensley born (1848 Bear Grove cabin - 1884 Brush Creek or Arlington, Iowa)
1848, From 1844-1848, Andrew, his young sons, and his few pioneer neighbors were subsistent farming and gathering, plus 'making wages' hauling commodities along the Mission Trial from Dubuque to the Fort.  They make numerous journeys to Fort Atkinson and the Mission.  There were long, slow trips by multiple yoke of oxen pulling freight wagons and in winter heavy snow sleds. Starting in about 1850, the family would move into the Volga River valley of today's Lima, Albany and become very successful farmers and millers.  Their life would start to rapidly change from log cabin dwelling subsistence frontier pioneers to stationary quite affluent farmers and millers during the next two decades.
1849, age 46, moved into the Volga valley where he would farm and live the remainder of his live. Andrew Hensley, October 19, 1849, entered section 19, in Illyria Twp, Fayette Co, Iowa. This is the along the Volga River just to the east of the "to be" village of Lima, and on the line between Westfield and Illyria Twp. This is one of the early entries of land in Fayette County above the neutral ground line.  Andrew would soon take over the mill site at Lightville (Lima) about a mile  upriver from this 1849 land entry.
1850, Up to this time Andrew used Dubuque 70+ miles away, as his post office and for necessary commodities and supplies.
1850, As Fayette County government is formed with local control, Andrew was elected at a meeting October 8, as one of the three judges for Westfield Twp.
1851, Andrew acquired the Lima mill site and most of the land immediately around the mill and Lima.  He would move the family upriver about one mile to Lima, from his 'entry' land in sec 19, Illyria Twp.
1852, age 49, Puts the Lima mill into operation. The Hensley mill at Lima, a first generation saw and grist mill became operational.
1853, Dau Cordelia S. Hensley born (1853 Lima - 1826 Lima)
1854, Dau Caroline Amanda Hensley born (1854 Lima - 1911 Eureka, Lincoln Co, Montana)
1855, age 52, Buys and enters the farm just north of Albany to live out his life.  Andrew sold the mill at Lima with the surrounding land to Mr. Durfey.  The Hensley's would get the mill and much of the farm land completely around Lima back in their ownership about 1865.  Andrew would stay at his Albany farm until his death in 1878.  At this time the mill property apparently returned into the hands of the Hensley family from the Durfey family who would continue to run the mill.   A.J., Andrew's son was about 22+ when his father moved to the Albany farm. A.J. retained the land around Lima when his father moved to the Albany farm, plus operated a farm a mile farther north up Frog Hollow of his father.  After re-acquiring the mill site, A.J. would control the mill and continue to farm the fields adjacent and nearly completely around Lima. The Hensley offspring would marry into local families, to include the Jones, Potter, Perkins, Smith surnames, thus through time on the plat maps around Albany and Lima one will see farm area continue to be owned by the 'clans.' The Hensley offspring would also marry into Brush Creek (Arlington), Taylorsville (now gone) and Fayette families.
1856, age 53. Son James Hensley born (1856 Albany farm - ?), his second wife, Sarah Lovell (1819 Indiana-1872 Lima) is age 37 at the time.
1878, age 75, Andrew Hensley patriarch of the Fayette County Hensley clan dies at the Albany farm.
and on into the 1900's, Patriarch of the Hensley family at Lima, Albany, Frog Hollow, Andrew dies.  His farm would be in the hands of his Perkins in-laws, with son Reuben L. taking over the farm and acquiring nearly all of the bottom land and into the western hill side, farming the area in the early 1900's until his death.  A.J. remained on the Lima farm with his daughter Susie Hensley Potter taking over that land prior to A.J.'s death in 1925.  The Hensley clan would marry into several of the local Lima, Albany surnames of the Volga River and Frog Hollow valleys.  The area was never highly populated, with both villages remaining small in support of the a limited number of local farmers, with a store or two, some craftsmen, mills, country schools, a few local churches, a couple of local doctors, etc.
1900's, The Hensley surname, like most of the surnames of Westfield township becomes less obvious with the increasing population and its mobility to the larger cities due to rail and auto transportation. Lima and Albany remained a small farming area and disappeared into memory as the big business of the 1960's and beyond drastically change agriculture and culture.  The area never ended in the mega farms of the row crop prairies to the west of Fayette, but the farms did become bigger with few and few families in the area.  The conservation commission starting in the 1960's acquired nearly all the land from Lima village to the west through Albany and Frog Hollow, plus all the way upriver to near Fayette.  Today the Hensley genes are gone from the exact land they pioneered, but do remain the area with a few related clan surnames.  Actually most of the area surnames are now gone, only memories, as are Lima, Albany, Frog Hollow.

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Notes and info

1842  Andrew Hensley was living at Platteville, Grant.Co.WI and started looking west for new land.  Hensley found a location in Bear Grove of  (to be) Sec 1 of Smithfield.Twp, Fayette.Co.IA, but a bachelor, Nathan Wilcox had already 'squatted' on the same tract of land.  Hensley traded a horse worth $75 for a chance to register the land when it became available.  Hensley then returned to Wisconsin for his family.  (Note condensed/rewritten from T.D. Peterman's "Fay.Co.IA in the 1840s" & personal knowledge of the area, bz/2006)

1843, Because of illness, Hensley did not return to Iowa until 1843, coming to Ead's Grove (groove just south of Manchester on the Maquoketa River, in Delaware.Co.IA.

1844, abt March, Andrew J. Hensley and family rented the cabin/land of Joseph Hewitt  on the Mission Trail on the boarder of Clayton.Co and Fayette.Co.

1844, abt June, Hensley hired Dan Nobles of Yankee Settlement (Colesburg), Delware.Co.IA to start breaking (first plowing of the tall/wet grass prairie and clearing brush for land/fields on his claim at Bear Grove.   The summer was very wet and little breaking of prairie and hill plots could be accomplished.  Nobles used 7yoke (14 head) oxen, a large breaking plow share/brace run between two wagon wheels.  In a three week period it rained all but three days and Nobles only opened six acres of land.

1844, abt July, The Mumford family at Brush Creek (Arlingtno) left Fayette.Co.   The land seemed covered with water (nearly 70% of native Iowa in prairie country was wet/slough grass prairie).  Madison Brown built a sparse cabin frame covered with bark abt. 3/4mi NE of Bear Grove (NE corner of Smithfield.Twp)and just over the hill and north of where John Brooks would later locate (in Fairfield.Twp).  Shortly Brown found a claim he like better and moved a mile east of 'to be' Fayette (around the Big Rocks area). 

1844, abt Sept, Hensley moved his family to Brown's flimsy shelter so he could be near his land claim 3/4mi to the SW in order to start improvements on his land claim.

1844Dec-1845/Mar, Hensley cut and pulled out logs from timber in preparation for a cabin and farmstead buildings, and made maple sugar from the maple trees near the Brown shanty. 

1845, abt April, Being concerned about his family needing more protection from possible Indian aggression he moved to the Wilcox cabin on the Mission Trial at the Wilcox Settlement,  2mi SxSW of  'to be' Fayette.  Hensley immediately started building a cabin on his Bear Grove claim in the spring of 1845, with the help of some neighbors.  With the walls about chest high his help what not enough to continue higher so he passed word to men he knew to the northward at Mission and Ft. Atkinson and to Joseph Hewitt to the SE that he needed help and with a 'log raising' finished a good one and a half story log house, near the springs where 'Bassett' creamery would be built later.  Hensley wanted a stone chimney so probably burned the first lime in the county.  He lined a narrow ravine with lime rocks, piled/rolled logs/wood in the ravine, then piled limestone rocks on top of the wood and set fire to what was basically a crude lime kiln, but produced up to 30 bushels of good burned lime.  Hensley traded corn picking with a mason named Spofford, living at Culver's trading post (1+mi E of 'to be' Wadena) and had a fireplace and chimney started.  Spofford was a master but slow mason, so after ten days with the fireplace built and chimney started, Hensley sent Spofford back to Culver's and finished the chimney himself.

...1847...Brush Creek/Arlington.IA, 1878Aug17 paper:  Hist.of.Fairfield.Twp:  In Aug1847 an election was held at the Hewitt cabin on Mission Trail on the edge of what would be the Clayton and Fayette County line for the purpose of electing officers so a voting precinct could be organized in Fayette.Co, which at the time belonged to Sperry.Twp of Clayton.Co.  A.J. Hensley (father) and M.C. Sperry were elected Justice of the Peace.

...1900Apr26, Arlington.IA paper:  Land Transfer:  A.J. Hennsley to H. Cosleman, lot7, bk12, $628, in Fayette.IA.

...1926Sep23, Fayette.IA paper:  R.L. Hensley is living on the old Hensley place which was bought by his father Andrew Hensley in 1855, from (speculator) Robert Alexander, who to it from the government about a year previous.  They moved onto the farm Spring of 1856.  R.L. being then abt. 15yrs of age.  He has worked on the place every year since, thought for a few years he did not actually live on the farm itself.  But he has been living there not for 45yrs (1881-1926).

...1933Apr13, Sumner.IA paper:  (Is the) Pfeiffer Elm (the) Largest Tree in Fayette.Co.IA?  What is the largest tree in Fayette county, queries the West Union Argo-Gazette? There is an elm with a 125-foot spread on the farm of Wm. F. Pfeiffer, on the south line of Westfield township, two miles southwest of Fayette. The Rev. Dr. Daniel M. Parker, of Fayette, says it is the biggest tree that he knows of in the county; and as he has been practically all over the county on foot, especially in wooded areas and wherever there is anything that appeals to the lover of nature, and as his eyes are on the lookout for anything of special interest in the lines of nature study, he ought to know. This tree is known as the old Alexander elm, because it stands on land that was the home (land at the Wilcox cabin area) of Robert Alexander, who came here (to Westfield/Fayette village) in1849 and who in 1856 gave $10,000 with which to found Upper Iowa, university. The old Robert Alexander mansion still stands just across the road from where this elm grows.  (Not correct, the home at the Wilcox area was ;built by Wm. F. Pfeiffer after he came from Oelwein to the Fayette area.) This tree was a large one when the Andrew Hensley family, the first permanent settlers of Fayette county, came here in 1844. The late A. J. Hensley, then a boy about ten years old, has told Dr. Daniel M. Parker and others that he considered the tree to be at least fifty years old at that time. If so, then the tree would be about 140 years old now, and if this figure is correct then the 'tree looks its age. From the powerful purchase which the wind gets on its enormous top the tree has been partially split in its great trunk, but . Mr. Pfeiffer has drawn the two parts together with an iron rod bolted, and with the kind of care that a man like Mr. Pfeiffer is sure to give it the tree ought to stand in its strength and beauty for many years to come unless overtaken by a destructive storm.

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