Migration to Iowa, page 4

"The two families who will be concerned in the main part of this story came to Iowa from Ohio -- Van Wert County and Muskingum County in 1855 and 1856, and settled in an area on the high ground above the Skunk River Valley north of Mitchellville, where there was probably already the beginning of the settlement of Santiago, Iowa, in Franklin Township. Between the Prings and the Johnson’s, they added a considerable number of citizens. At about the same time I believe there were others from Van Wert County (Ohio) who came to settle in the same area.

"There were four Johnson cousins among these settlers -- Abel Johnson who was my great-grandfather, Elias Johnson, Cornelius Johnson (usually called 'Colonel'), and Joel Johnson. I am not certain whether some of these were brothers, but all were cousins of Abel, and it is with his life and the lives of his progeny that I am most concerned, altho the children and grandchildren of the other three were in many cases intermingled by marriage with the family of Richard Pring

"I do not know whether Richard Pring with three of his sons and three of his daughters all came at the same time, but it seems likely that most of them did come together, as the land where he and at least two of his married children settled was pretty much of a piece, .

"Another family which also settled in this area was the family ofAbel McCleary, who was also a cousin of the Abel Johnson previously mentioned. I believe this family also came at about the same period

"This area [where the families settled] would then have been partly prairie and partly timbered, but practically virgin territory, being located some thirty miles northeast of Fort Des Moines, which was incorporated as a City of Des Moines in 1856. It can easily be imagined that these families, along with others who had come from the same general area in Ohio and Indiana, became a closely knit community, and my memories from my early childhood are full of names of these families and stories of their associates

"With this as a base for my story, I will follow with an account of what I have been told (and perhaps some that I have surmised), along with facts gleaned from papers and documents which I have from my father about these families, with listings of names in each family."

Note: the remainder of the paper dealt with the Pring family and excerpts will be posted on the appropriate Pring pages.

Copyright

Information on this site related to the Kear family is from The John Cears Kear Family compiled, written and edited by Donald L. Kear, copyright © 1984. Copyright © 2000 - 2006 by Donald L. Kear. All rights reserved. Portions of the pages on this site may be reproduced for nonprofit use only. Credit shall be given to the source.