By Ann Petersen, SBA Columnist | 8/21/25
(SBA) - I have been having an interesting time melding the history of Sergeant Bluff with the 170 year history of the Community United Methodist Church. I am trying to collect all of the various records of the church to create a valid timeline, an interesting task as the records are written in a variety of notebooks, ledgers, and church materials of the times. This week, I found a book entitled “Membership Roll” that was donated to the church in 1925 by A.J. Barkley. Tucked into the front of the book is a multi-page account written by Albert Holman (no date included) called “Reminscences (sic) of Some of the Early Methodist Preachers of Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.” I was able to find some back ground information on Albert Holman by consulting Alliene Baker Lindgren’s 1954 compilation on “The History of Pioneer Valley.”
In the spring of 1854, Albert’s father, W.P Holman and his brother-in-law, H.O. Griggs came from Connecticut to look at property in what is now Sergeant Bluff in order to establish a hotel and stage station. The “proprietors” of the new area gave Holman a lot and promised him the first lumber sawed in a new mill west of town. Holman left a hired man named “Bronson” to build the hotel and returned to Connecticut where in February 1855, Holman, his wife Lois and their three children—Jerome, Albert and Ella came first by train to Iowa City and subsequently by wagon to Sergeant Bluff where they established the hotel that they ran for several years. Albert Holman was just a child, when in the spring of 1855, he witnessed the arrival of the first itinerant preacher, Mr. Black. Albert wrote “I distinctly remember Mr. Black as he came riding up to our hotel on account of the immense saddle bags slung across his saddle in which he carried his “literature,” consisting of Testaments, singing books and tracts. He held services the following Sunday in the store of Mr. Crockwell, a “double log house where the stock was mainly in Indian goods, consisting of calico, blankets, beads, ribbons and trinkets that delighted the Indians. The congregation was composed of every man and woman in the community.” Several accounts of this service recall the fact that two men were playing cards as they crouched under the counter, but Albert Holman’s recounting is the only one that mentions a conversation between the men and the pastor. According to Albert, one of the men said, “While you were working for us, we were working for you and, by agreement the stakes won were to go to you.’ Mr. Black thanked the men and said he would put the money to better use than probably either of them would have done.”
The trip from Connecticut to Sergeant Bluff must have been a trial for the Holman family as Albert’s next words in his document were “On the third day of July of that summer, Mr. Black preached my mother’s funeral sermon.” There is no indication in any source to tell why Mrs. Holman died, but one source indicated that she was “the first white woman buried in that part of the country.” Mrs. Holman was buried in the cemetery, now known as the Woodbury Township Cemetery. Albert Holman later writes that Rev. Black left town later that summer, never to return.
According to Alliene Baker Lindgren’s book, ‘The History of Pioneer Valley” (1954), W.P. Holman became a prosperous member of the community. He married for a second time and his wife, a school teacher, gave birth to two additional sons, Ed and Milton Holman. W.P Holman purchased two tracts of land, “by pre-emption” (purchaser has a year to pay for the land) from the government for $1.25/acre. The first years, the Holman family (now with four sons) “farmed land southwest of Sergeant Bluff to raise hay and corn for the stage horses, as well as for their own stock. They soon diversified their interests, however, taking over a brick plant, which they enlarged and ran for years. They also operated a grocery and a general merchandise store, as well as a slaughtering plant.” All of the Holman grandchildren graduated from high school in Sergeant Bluff.
Woodbury County, so named in honor of Supreme Court justice, the Hon. Levi Woodbury, was created on January 15, 1951 when the Iowa Legislature determined boundary lines for 49 new counties in western Iowa. The village of Sergeant Bluff was established in 1852, the first platted town in Woodbury County. In 1855, Dr. J.K. Cook platted Sioux City and after bitter rivalry between the two towns, Sioux City was named the county seat by a majority of nine votes. Sioux City is still the county seat today. A group of surveyors out of Council Bluffs moved northward in the spring of 1854. “The men were mounted on Indian ponies and marched in single file along an old Indian trail that skirted the eastern bank of the turbulent Missouri River. The tall prairie grasses rose to the top of the ponies’ heads and a sharp lookout was kept on all sides for Indians.” When the group arrived in the sparse settlement of Sergeant Bluff, the men were impressed by the resources available there—water, trees and good farm land—and decided to bring their families to the area. By the time that the Holman family arrived, there were numerous log cabins and several stout families already there.
