like Moses of old, they voted to send three men out to "spy" on the land and report to the "congregation." They chose Ferdinand Wagner, Herman Braasch and John Gensmer. These three traveled by train from Chicago to St. Joseph, then by boat to Omaha, and then walked to West Point where they looked up the homesteader who had originally given the report of the land to the Rev. Heckendorf. At his direction they proceeded on up the Elkhorn Valley until they reached the Norfork of the Elkhorn. They arrived there on September 15, 1865, they chose the spot, and returned to Wisconsin to make their report. The party started their trek on May 14, 1866, reaching the area of the Northfork River on July 17. They immediately set about building the first church for the congregation still known as St. Paul's Lutheran Church. It is reported that some of the cottonwood logs used to build the church were brought from the area on Battle Creek where timber was plentiful. Many of the descendants of these first settlers in what was to become Madison County later came on to Battle Creek. The Government had the land surveyed and staked at the close of the Civil War.

The Madison Star Mail of March 19, 1925, relates that in 1867, a settlement was made on the Battle Creek, nearly five miles south of the present site of the town.

This was undoubtedly the very first settlement on the "creek." First to come was George St. Claire, later known to his friends as "Ponca George." St. Claire had at first settled in the Norfolk area about the time the colony of German immigrants came in July, 1866. It is related that he did not like his German neighbors and therefore came on west and south to settle on Battle Creek. In checking the land records in the Madison County Register of Deeds Office, we find that he settled on land in part now owned by George Neuwerk and in part by George Zohner and a forty acre tract of the Kohl land, legally described as the S1/2NE1/4, NE1/4SE1/4 and SE1/4SE1/4 of Section 26, Township 23, Range 3. He did not stay long after proving up on his homestead. Evidently the Germans continued to plague him, though all nationalities got along well. Every one needed his neighbor.

Then the Madison Star relates that a Patrick Scully followed "Ponca George" St. Claire on March 1, 1867. The land records do not disclose that Scully proved up on his land and it is quite possible that the name was spelled wrong as it is about that time that Joseph Skala settled in the S1/2NW1/4 of Section 1 and the S1/2NE1/4 of Section 2, all in Township 23, Range 3. This land is now owned by Fritz Ziemer. It first descended to Joseph Severa, who was Mr. Skala's stepson. Mr. Skala was the father of Mrs. Mitch (Anna) Lovelace, who lived on land being the N1/2 of the two tracts mentioned above for many years, and another daughter became Mrs. Ralph Simmons. George Simmons, who now lives in Iowa, was her son.

Then only a few weeks later in March of 1867, came Michael and Rosina Ketterman to settle on the NW1/4 of Section 12, Township 22, Range 2.

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