JOHN WINTHROP CORBIN
Delaware county owes a debt of
gratitude to her pioneer settlers. No one who has never lived upon the far
western frontier can realize the conditions which faced the early settlers nor
know how difficult and ofttimes dangerous it was to meet these conditions.
Among those connected with the development and upbuilding of this county from
pioneer times to the present is J. Winthrop Corbin, now residing in Delhi. For many years he has
been closely connected with farming and stock-raising and shipping interests
and is classed with the enterprising citizens of the community.
He was born in South Fork township, January 7, 1841, and claims the distinction of being the first
white male child born in Delaware county, Iowa. The grandfather,
Winthrop Corbin, was a native of Connecticut. At that period the
family.name was spelled Corbyn. He claimed that the family were related to the Winthrops one of whom was
governor of the state for fourteen consecutive terms. Winthrop Corbin married
Roxa Warren, who was a granddaughter of Dr. Warren of Revolutionary fame. The
Americanized Encyclopedia Britannica states that General Warren left a wife
and four children in destitute circumstances and that in 1778 Benedict Arnold
came to their relief with a contribution of five hundred dollars and obtained
from the continental congress a general's half pension for the wife until the
children were of age. There is nothing known concerning the antecedents of J.
Winthrop Corbin in the maternal line save that his grandmother's maiden name
was Esther Densmore and that she came from the blue mountains of Vermont.
His father, John Corbin, who was born in
Chenango county, New York, February 12, 1812, emigrated to Michigan in the
spring of 1837 and there secured a claim but left it in the fall of that year
and made his way on foot to the Mississippi, which he crossed on the ice at
Dubuque, landing at Eads' Grove in the winter of 1837-38. He remained in this county about a year and
a half, during which time he entered a claim on Plum Creek, in South Fork
township, and built thereon a log cabin.
In the fall of 1839 he returned to his native state and found that his
fiance, Miss Eliza H. Phillips, had removed with her father's family to Marietta,
Ohio. Accordingly, early in the spring
of 1840, he started for Ohio with a good team of horses and wagon and at
Marietta wedded the daughter of Simeon and Esther Phillips. The following year Mr. Phillips and his
family came to Delaware county and took up land on Wolf Creek, three miles east
of Delhi. He was one of the first
county commissioners.
With a few household goods Mr. and Mrs.
Corbin started for their claim in Iowa. Arriving at Chicago, he was offered forty
acres of land on the river, where the business center of the city now stands,
for his team and wagon arid five hundred dollars, but he refused, believing
that the land would never be worth much for farming. On their arrival at Dubuque, Mr. Corbin
purchased a window containing six glass, each six by eight inches, and his
cabin became known as the "house with a window in it." It was completed without a nail. The roof
of shakes was held down by heavy poles.
The floor was of puncheons, hewed out with a broadaxe, as were the doors
and casings. A crane hung over the
fireplace from which was suspended the kettle in which the family meal was
ofttimes cooked. The family met all of
the experiences, privations and hardships of pioneer life. Mr. Corbin sold dressed hogs in Dubuque each
winter at an average of about two dollars per hundred and with the money thus
obtained he would enter forty or eighty acres of land adjoining his original
property. Occasionally he would sell a
few loads of wheat at Dubuque, for which he usually received fifty cents per
bushel. His son, J. W. Corbin, the
fall after he was three years old, began riding one horse and leading another,
tramping out wheat laid on the ground in a circle. When the grain was out, the father would
throw off the straw and spread down another layer. When the chaff became too thick he would
rake it up in a pile in the center and then start over again, and on a windy
day he would winnow the chaff by throwing it into the air. It would blow away and the wheat fall to
the ground. Occasionally, by going a
distance of ten or twelve miles, he could borrow a fanning mill and then his
son had a steady job. The first
threshing machine that J. W. Corbin ever saw was one drawn by a pair of oxen
and was a primitive affair compared with the modern thresher, although then
regarded as a most wonderful machine.
With the public interests of the community the father was actively
identified and made the first assessment of Delaware county.
In 1847 J. Winthrop Corbin attended the
first public school taught in his part of the county, the sessions being held
in the log courthouse in Delhi, with Roxa Brown as the
first teacher, and according to the custom of the day, she "boarded
round." Delhi at that time contained but five houses. About the same time
the community was visited by the circuit preacher, who came on horseback and
held meetings in private houses. He preached "everlasting hell fire"
and the burning lake, carrying terror to the minds of his hearers, and on one
occasion the minister preached upon the awful sin of vanity, directing his
remarks at Mr. Corbin’s mother, who had on a calico dress like her neighbors
but had adorned it with a bow and a ruffle.
It was not an unusual thing in this day
to see a herd of deer, while the wolves went in droves and bears were also
plentiful. When Mr. Corbin was four years of age his mother called him to the
window to see a large black bear that was in their yard. The blood-curdling
scream of the panther was frequently heard and as late as 1853 panthers killed
the sheep in the Corbin barnyard. On one occasion a young lady of the
neighborhood, returning horseback to her home, was attacked by a pack of wolves
and nothing was ever found of her save a piece of one shoe and a scrap of her
dress. On another occasion Mr. Corbin's father was treed by wolves but was in
shouting distance of his home and, calling his dog, they successfully scared
the pack away. Such were some of the
conditions amid which the pioneer settlers lived.
In the fall of 1856 John Corbin sold his
farm on Plum Creek and removed to Oberlin, Ohio, but after three years
returned to Delaware county and purchased
the farms of James and Simeon Phillips on Wolf Creek, three miles southeast
of Delhi, there residing until his death in 1883. His
wife removed with her daughter, Esther, to Bellingham, Washington, where she passed away
at the age of eighty years.
After the return from Oberlin, J. Winthrop
Corbin taught in the district school for a
year and in the fall of 1861 enlisted in Company B, Fourth Iowa Cavalry,
under Captain J. H. Peters. His
regiment, commanded by Colonel Porter, reached Rolla, Missouri, in March, 1862, and on
a raid from Rolla Mr. Corbin had the distinction of personally making
the first capture made by the Fourth Iowa, securing a noted rebel bushwhacker
who had many murders and other crimes to his credit. The Fourth Iowa joined General Curtis after
the battle of Pea Ridge and went on the memorable trip from Batesville to Helena, a trip that for
hunger, privations and hardships has been classed with the early trips from Skagway to Dawson by people who
participated in both. While stationed
at Helena the cavalry was kept busy in various
expeditions and minor battles. While
leading a detail from the Fourth Iowa, acting as advance guard, Mr. Corbin ran
into the Twenty-first Texas Rangers and his horse was shot to pieces and he was
left on the field with two bullet wounds.
For about fifteen minutes he was held a prisoner but was soon abandoned
in the flight of the rebels. The Fourth
Iowa was the only regiment of cavalry with Grant's army when he crossed
the Grand Gulf, although there were
portions of other regiments. The
Fourth Iowa led Sherman's advance to
Jackson and after its capture was rear
guard of Sherman's army on Grant's right wing in the investment of
Vicksburg. During the siege of that
city the Fourth Iowa was constantly in the saddle and on one of these
expeditions against Johnson's army Mr. Corbin was wounded and sent up the river
to the hospital at Memphis. He was mustered out in December, 1864, having served
three years and four months. On arriving home Mr. Corbin engaged in
farming, which has been his chief life occupation. In 1871 he took an outfit of seven teams to
Fargo, North Dakota, and graded several miles of the Northern Pacific Railroad
between Fargo and Bismarck. Later for
several years he was a prominent buyer and shipper of hogs, cattle and horses
at Delhi. In 1883 he sold his farm and
moved to Mitchell, South Dakota, where he engaged quite extensively in raising
wheat, but hail, drought and low prices made this venture a failure. In 1888 he returned to Delhi, where he has since
resided.
On the
13th of December, 1866, at Shullsburg, Wisconsin, Mr. Corbin was married
to Miss Augusta H. Plash, who was born in Hanover, Germany, February 27, 1843,
and passed away May
14, 1879. They had two sons, Guy Winthrop and Ira Hyde. The former
married Cora Annis, of Mitchell, South Dakota, and is now a prominent stockman
of North Dakota. Ira H. is now a resident of Athabasca, Alberta, Canada. On the
10th of June, 1880, Mr. Corbin was united in marriage to Miss Lida E. Gleason,
of Delhi, a daughter of Benjamin F. and Eliza Gleason. She was born in Adams,
Jefferson county, New York, June 19, 1853, and they have two daughters, Dorine
Lida and Inez Lyle. Mrs. Corbin was postmistress of Delhi for four years under
Cleveland's last administration and was manager of the Delaware County
Telephone Company at Delhi Central for more than twelve years. Her father and
his family came from Jefferson county, New York, to Iowa in I860, and
Mr. Gleason was a leading millwright of that day. He placed the machinery in
the Quaker mills at Manchester, in the mills at Forestville, Hartwick and other
places and he died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Corbin, at the age of
eighty-eight years, having for twelve years survived his wife.
Mr. Corbin held the office of sheriff of Delaware county in. 1876 and
1877, being elected on the democratic ticket. He has always been regarded as a
democrat although he has been very liberal in politics. He cast his first vote
for Lincoln while in the army, voted for Governor Kirkwood and later for Roosevelt,
but in county affairs has ever considered the capability of the candidate more
than his party connections. In 1877 he became a Mason and has been a member of
the Grand Army of the Republic since its organization. No history of this
county would be complete without extended reference to Mr. Corbin, who is one
of the pioneer settlers and has ever been a public-spirited citizen, as true
and loyal to his country in days of peace as when he followed the old flag upon
southern battlefields.
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