Chapter 10 cont. CLEONA TOWNSHIP. This township was organized in 1857.  Its name was suggested by E. P. Putnam, who declared that it signified fair or beautiful country.  Cleona township is in the second tier of townships from the north and is the first on the east.  It is bounded on the north by Liberty township and on the west by Hickory Grove.  Its western boundary is Cedar county and southern, Muscatine county.  It was one of the last townships organized.  It is exclusively agricultural and there is practically no waste land within its borders.  The first settlement made here was in April, 1851.  Jacob Royal made the first entry in the township September 15, 1851, on the southeast quarter of section 25.  Robert Johnson and James Paul entered land on section 23 in 1852.  Mr. Paul also entered land on section 23.  Ebenezer Cook made entry on section 34 early in 1856.  In 1852 the only house in the township was on section 12, built by the Suiter brothers, John and Joseph.  In the spring of the following year the Suiter boys helped Robert Johnson build a house on section 23.  Thomas Johnson, Robert's father, settled in the township in the spring of 1853, and in the fall of the same year William Paul and his family settled in the township and lived in a house built by his brother James until 1858.  E. P. Putnam was a native of Ohio and settled on section 19 in 1854.  The same year came Jacob and George Wetherhold from Germany.  They were the first Germans to settle in the township.  Ephraim Ellis, an Englishman, was also a settler of the township in 1854.  Franklin Ball, Samuel Leamer, John and Conrad LeGrange, William M. Murray, Henry Egbert, C. M. Stevens, wife and son Morgan, and Gothardt Moeller, from Germany, all settled here in the year 1856.  Samuel Leamer broke a piece of prairie on his claim and returned to Pennsylvania.  He came back in 1857 with his brother Washington and both made a permanent settlement.  The first birth in the township was that of John Suiter in 1852.  He was a son of John Suiter, the first settler in Cleona township.  The first marriage to take place in the township was that of John Jamison, of LeClaire, and Annie Johnson.  In 1857 a school building was erected on section 28, but later removed to section 31.  Franklin Ball, James Paul, Washington and Samuel Leamer, Ephraim Ellis, E. P. Putanm and Robert Johnson were the men instrumental in founding this first educational institution of Cleona township.  Harriet Callem received $16 a month for her services as the first teacher of this school.  The township has good schools in seven sub-distructs.  Of the early settlers the Suiters came from England; the Johnsons and Pauls from Ireland; Henry Peterson, who came to the township in 1866, and Joh Rymers, were natives of Holstein, Germany; William Rains of Waldeck, Prussia, settled on section 4 in 1868, and today the township has a large number of German citizens  who are the best of farmers and prosperous in their undertakings. Debbie Clough G-erischer G-erischer Family Web Site http://gerischer.rootsweb.com/ Assistant CC, Iowa Gen Web, Scott County http://www.celticcousins.net/scott/ List Manager for: IASCOTT-L * G-erischer-L * D-encker-L Fitzpatirck-L * V-lerebome-L * Huntington-L * Otis-L * Algar-L EIGS-L * Pickens-L * McNab-L * Patris-L - Rankin-L style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" SIZE=2 PTSI