In September of 2006, I visited the Denison Public library to look up early historical accounts of wildlife in the county and found this interesting report of  a catamount (mountain lion) attack in the 1911 History of Crawford County. The report is found in a section of the book that is reporting the recollections of Thomas Dobson an early and prominent settler.  

  "Early in the spring of 1856 W. J. Todd moved out his family and located about four miles east of Deloit, W. W. Anderton returned to Illinois, J. B. Huckstep, George C. King, and with him one or two brothers, the younger of whom remained, both purchased land; also 0. S. Wright came about the same time.

During the winter several incidents occurred worthy of notice; some very fearful ones before winter had fairly set in or any snow had fallen. Mr. Goodrich had moved to the Purdy farm north of town, had put up his hay for the winter on the west side of the Boyer river, and having placed his stock there it became the duty of a small boy to go there once a day to feed the stock. One day as the boy was making his regular trip, when near the Boyer grove he of a sudden beheld a large catamount but a few steps in front of him in the path evidently awaiting him. The boy suddenly halted, turned and whistled for his dog which was not far away, but as soon as he turned, the ferocious cat sprang upon him, throwing him directly upon his face on the ground, and dragged his enormous claws over the boy’s head and shoulders lacerating the flesh fearfully. The shrieks of the little fellow brought the bull terrier to his assistance, who so surprised “Barnum’s pet” by trying to swallow him t’other end to that he was glad to release his victim and escape to the woods. It is needless to say that this noble dog was ever afterward held in high esteem by the entire family. (p.46)"

The DNR knows of no other accounts of mountain lion attacks in Iowa (phone call to the Iowa DRN furbearer, Ron Andrews) so this is the first and only known human attack in Iowa.  The account appears to be a valid account and fits the pattern known from other attacks on humans. Cougars are more apt to attack children who are alone and this boy was alone.  He was also attacked when he was turned around and cougars are less apt to attack if you face them.  Cougar were originally fairly common in the area since I ran across more mention of cougar in early accounts of wildlife in this county than I did in early histories of other Iowa counties.  Another cougar encounter (Meyers 1911) was by BF Wicks, an early settler in Deloit area who mentions surprising a cougar that was feeding on an animal.  He was going to get a doctor for his sick child and said:  "I started in the night after this doctor [Dr. Huston] and had to go through a considerable woods.  I had gotten but a little way when I saw a large panther feeding on the carcass of some animal. I went back and got the pitch fork for protection as I had no gun, but when I returned the panther had gone.(p.67)"   The panther is also mentioned  in several lists of wildlife and the early (?1950's) records of bounties (Meyers 1911) list "21 wildcats [could also be bobcat]; eleven prairie wolves; two timber wolves; one lynx [more likely bobcat] and one swift wolf. (p. 79)"

Because of the significance of this account I am trying to find other historical records of this attack.  I checked with a local Crawford County historian but he had not heard of this account. I also found an earlier history of the county which I will check to see if this account in mentioned there [it wasn't see note below of September 30th] .  Unfortunately we can not be sure if this is a son of Mr. Goodrich or a boy who was doing chores for him so we don't know the name to look for in family histories (most early histories are not indexed).  I will also see if there are any Goodrich genealogy or histories that mention this account [there were none in the library and the local geneologist did not know of one]. 

For now I will classify this as 6.5 (between probable 6.0 and confirmed 7.0) on my reliability scale.  I will likely raise it to a 7 if I find other historical evidence for this attack.

September 30, 2006  I spent some time in the Denison Public Library in Crawford County to look for more historical accounts.  I discovered that this section in Meyer's book is an account of an earlier settler Thomas Dobson.  He settled in the county in about 1952. The family made their claims close to Mason Grove which is close to the current town of Deloit  (map of Lost towns and Settlements of Crawford County - page 331 Burnside 2004). One might think Deloit is the town referred to.  However, there was a well known Purdy Fort [farm] north of Dennison, which would make the location just north of Denison.  I checked on Goodrich's in the 1893 Biographical History of Crawford and Ida Counties and found two Goodrich's of whom might be the individual referred to.  I think the more likely one would be  Isaac Goodrich who came to this area and in 1855 to 56 "built a house which still stand on the old farm in Goodrich township" (p.262) It could also be his son who would have been 18 at the time.  I could not find the Boyer Grove mentioned in the account on the 1875 Atlas of the county (Andreas 1875).  I found that I could not get confirmation from newspapers since this was before the first newspapers were published (Chapman 1987). While I did not read all of it, I skimmed a lot of an earlier history (Anonymous1893) but found very few early settler accounts of life during the first years on the prairie and little mention of wildlife. 

I also talked to a couple people of the Crawford County genealogical society.  None of them had run across this account elsewhere.  They thought that Dobson's account in Meyers could be trusted. One of them promised to keep his eyes open for any other mention of this account.

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Andreas. 1875 [reprinted version by the state of Iowa] Illustrated Historical Atlas of the State of Iowa. Andreas Atlas CO.

Anonymous. 1893. Biographical History of Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa. Containing Portraits of the presidents of the United States with accompanying biographies; a condensed history of Iowa with portraits and biographies of the governors of the state; Engraving of prominent citizens of the counties with personal histories of many of the early settlers and leading families. The Lewis Publishing Co. Chicago

Burnside, Ruth 2004. Recalling Crawford County, IA Interviews by Ruth Burnside as printed in the Denison Bulletin and Review 1956 through 1963. [Compiled and edited by Hansen, Lochmiller, and Kinney. Published by Memories and More Omaha, NE.

Chapman [editor], 1987 History of Crawford County Iowa. Curtis Media Corporation Dallas Texas. 621 p. 

Meyers, FW. 1911. History of Crawford County Iowa: A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement. Vol.I  SJ Clarke Publishing Co, Chicago.479p.

James F. Mahaffy
Biology Department
Dordt College
Sioux Center, Iowa 51250

Page created by James Mahaffy on September 26, 2006 at 5:30 PM
Updated on:  October 2 at 9:18 AM.