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In 1907, the citizens of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of the county. They published a brochure telling of outstanding historical events of the county and histories of some of the prominent early settlers. At the time of the celebration, one F.T.C. Johnson of Neola, Iowa, was still living. He dictated some of the incidents of his life for the publication. Among other things he states that he was born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, a son of Francis al1d Mary Jane Hall Johnson. In 1855 he came to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he was employed at his trade of carpentering by William Ho Folsom, but later bought out the business and began contracting and building on his own account. He says that he found it necessary to employ a large force of skilled workmen in executing the contracts which he took over. Mr. Johnson remained in Council Bluffs for fifteen years, then purchased prairie land at Neola, Iowa, where he raised registered livestock. In 1857 he married Caroline Babbitt, daughter of Lysander Babbitt and Amelia Caroline Farmer. Lysander Babbitt served as Registrar in Council Bluffs land office. F.T.C. Johnson died October 5, 1913, at Neola. This personal printed testimony determines how Folsom disposed of his contracting business in Council Bluffs and how extensive his contracting business was.
On Ju1y 23, 1860, William H. Folsom and family left Florence, Nebraska, with -the J6seph W. Young Company for the West (Folsom family record). They arrived in the Salt Lake Valley October 3, 1860. The Deseret News of October 10, 1860, states:
On the evening of the 3d instant, Captain Joseph W. (Watson) Young arrived with his freight train, consisting of some thirty wagons, with ox teams, which have made the trip to the Missouri river and back this season. The cattle, which we did not see, are said to have returned in good order and condition, looking better than some that have only been driven from the States this year. Capt. E. D. Woolley, with a train of nine mule wagons, with which he went to the east from this city last spring for merchandise, was also in company, and several others, increasing the number of wagons that came in with Captain Young to fifty one.”
Joseph W. Young brought the machinery for the paper mill with this freight train.
BIG MOUNTAIN
I hope the leaves were russet, green,
Chartreuse and golden yellow,
That orchid grey came up between,
When Grandma crossed Big Mountain.
And as she looked with tired eyes
To yonder sun burned desert,
God's autumn garden round her there
Gave courage where had been despair,
To block the wheels, plunge head long down
O'er rock and rut along the Trail
Into the Promised Valley.
Composed by Nina Folsom Moss
After the Folsom family decided they could leave for the West, and while her husband was setting the Branch affairs in order and selling his business, Eliza wrote to her friend, Hannah Harvey Reese, in Salt Lake City to give her the good news.