History: Clay’s Grove, Lee County, IA Historical Significance

Current Day Location:  Highway 218 and 150^th Street, Marion Township (called Clay Grove Corner)

First Township Settlement:  The first white settlement in Marion Township was at Clay’s Grove in the fall of 1834.  Alexander Cruickshank (1805-88; born

in Norway but of Scottish ancestry) built

a wood plank cabin at the present-day location of the Clay Grove Cemetery.  Mr. Cruickshank was specifically looking for a site with access to a good water supply and was directed there by

an Indian who was aware of a nearby spring.  The spring is on the east side of present-day Highway 218 (Avenue of the Saints).  Clay’s Grove was one of the first “inland” settlements in the County.  The Cruickshanks lived in this cabin until 1836.

(Among the) First White Births in County:  A child named James Cruickshank, son of Alexander and Keziah Perkins Cruickshank, was among the first children born in
 Lee Co.  (The first white children born in Lee Co. were born to soldiers at Fort Madison – Editor insert.)  James was born in the cabin at Clay’s Grove on May 7, 1835.
He is buried at the exact location of the cabin.  Alexander is buried in what was the front yard.

Visits by Chief Black Hawk:  Black Hawk, a Sauk war chief, visited the Cruickshanks at Clay’s Grove.  He reportedly bounced the Cruickshank children on his knee.  He presented Alexander with a bone handled knife that is currently owned by a descendant.

Early Post Office:  This functioned at Clay’s Grove from 1857-63 and again from 1868-92.  The post office building was in the southwest quadrant of Clay Grove corner.  I have electronic copies of two envelopes that were mailed from there.  The postmaster was a Mr. Harlan,

who also operated a store there.  There is a photograph of him and the interior of the post office.

~ Card reads J A Williamson, Clay Grove, Iowa (Lee Co.) NOTE:  Postage was One Cent

Stagecoach Station:  This was located in the southeast quadrant of the present-day Clay Grove Corner.  Broken bricks, limestone, and porcelain chips are still available in the farm field.  The station may have been on a dirt road between Franklin and Salem that appears on an 1846 map published in Philadelphia by Samuel Augustus Mitchell.  It may also have been on a dirt road between West Point and Big Mound that appears on another map from roughly that time.

Brick Kiln:  The remains of a kiln were (and perhaps still are) visible west/southwest of the current town of Pilot Grove.  Clay’s Grove was about two miles southwest of Pilot Grove, so the kiln would have been reasonably close to Clay’s Grove.  Reportedly, Alexander Cruickshank made the bricks for his fourth residence in Lee County,

which he built in Franklin Township in 1850.  It’s quite possible that the bricks were made at the aforementioned kiln.

Pioneer Diary:  Catherine “Kate” Cruickshank, daughter of Alexander, was born in 1837 and traveled by wagon to the Montana Territory in 1864.  She kept a diary, which was published as part of a book that was edited by S. Lyman Tyler, former head of libraries for Brigham Young University.  Surviving remnants of the original diary are in Brigham Young’s western history collections.

Courtright Home at Clay’s Grove:  The brick home and farm buildings of Edward Courtright were memorialized in a drawing in the A.T. Andreas Maps of 1874.  The artist stood to the east of the property and looked westward.  The post office building is just visible near the back of the scene.  The residence still stands today.

“Crookshanks Point”:  Prior to building his cabin at Clay’s Grove, Alexander Cruickshank was the first white settler in Pleasant Ridge Township in early 1834.  His cabin site, three miles south of present-day Lowell, was designated as “Crookshanks Point” (note the incorrect spelling) on a map that accompanied a book written by Lieutenant Albert Lea, United States Dragoons, and published in 1836.  The book was titled, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory, Particularly with Reference to the Iowa District, or Black Hawk Purchase.  The book was based on exploration of the Des Moines River valley that commenced at Fort Des Moines (now Montrose, Iowa) in 1835.  The map shows that the ongoing route took the expedition close to Clay’s Grove. Albert Lea is the namesake for the city of that name in southern Minnesota.  He was heard to say, on at least one occasion, that he believed Lee County, Iowa was named for him.

~ Taken from D/Credit/Memos/Clay’s Grove Summary 12-07.doc of John Stuekerjuergen’s notes