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About Nathaniel Fellows
Birth Date: 1 February 1764
Birth Location: Gloucester, Essex, Massachusetts, United States (Source: "Massachusetts, Births and Christenings, 1639-1915", FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZZB-M3J : 15 January 2020, Nathaniel Treadwell Fellows, 1764)
Death Date: 12 July 1838
Death Location: Iowa, but exact location is unknown.
Nathaniel Fellows, an early pioneer of Johnson County and a member of the small group of settlers known as the “38ers,” arrived in Iowa during its first year of white settlement. On May 6, 1838, Fellows and his family established a homestead along Clear Creek, west of what is now Coralville, drawn by the promise of fertile land and fresh water.
Nathaniel Fellows was born on February 1, 1764, in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to Samuel Fellows and Mercy Treadwell. He was baptized shortly after birth, as was his younger brother Samuel the following year. Their mother died while the boys were still young, leaving them to be raised in Essex County. Their father’s life reflected the political turbulence of the era: once a British customs officer and maritime enforcer, Samuel Fellows Sr. resigned his position as revolutionary tensions mounted and relocated his family inland, adopting the life of a landowner and farmer.
As a teenager, Nathaniel moved with his family to Dorchester, New Hampshire, where his father purchased property in 1777. Upon reaching adulthood, Nathaniel acquired land of his own, likely aided by a family inheritance, and established himself as a gentleman farmer. Around 1795, he married Mercy Flanders of Boscawen, New Hampshire. Together they raised five children, including their eldest son, Nathaniel Jr., whose decisions would eventually carry the family westward.
Nathaniel Fellows Sr. remained in Dorchester for most of his adult life. Following Mercy’s death before 1830, the family gradually dispersed. Nathaniel Jr. married Olive “Polly” Foss and began his own household, later selling his New Hampshire property and relocating to Ohio by the late 1820s. Nathaniel Sr., along with other family members, remained behind for a time before selling his remaining land and rejoining his son in the West.
According to a recollection recorded later by Elizabeth Fellows Dennis, the family’s journey toward the frontier resumed in earnest in 1837. Three generations traveled to Indiana, where the two adult men worked as shoemakers for a year to fund their continued migration. In the spring of 1838, they joined a large ox-driven wagon train and traveled across Illinois before crossing the Mississippi River into Iowa.
Breaking away from the main group, the Fellows family navigated difficult terrain toward the Iowa River. With no ferry available and the river running high, they encountered a Sac and Fox village led by Chief Poweshiek near present-day Iowa City. Although cautious about allowing settlers onto tribal land, Poweshiek ultimately permitted the family to cross. With the assistance of tribal members, the family, their animals, wagon parts, tools, seeds, and household goods were transported across the river by canoe, a process that took an entire day.
The family camped nearby and resumed their journey on May 6, 1838. After scouting the land ahead and surviving a tense encounter with a large group of Native Americans, they reached Clear Creek. Struck by the clarity of the water and the productivity of the surrounding land, the family chose the site for their permanent home.
At the time, the area was nearly uninhabited by Euro-American settlers. The Fellows family received help from Bowen Wright, a hunter and trapper living nearby, who assisted them in building a small cabin and provided game for food. They began planting crops and establishing their farm along the creek.
The physical strain of years of travel proved too much for Nathaniel Fellows Sr., who died on July 12, 1838, at the age of seventy-three. With limited supplies, his son and a neighbor constructed a wooden casket secured with pegs rather than nails. Nathaniel was laid to rest near what later became a central intersection in Coralville.
For several years, the Fellows family lived peacefully alongside the Sac and Fox people. Before relocating his village farther west, Chief Poweshiek formally granted the family the land they had settled. Because the transfer occurred outside federal land processes, it was not recorded until a later survey. The property, eventually known as Evergreen Farm, later passed into the Dennis family following Elizabeth Fellows’ marriage to Isaac Dennis in 1843.
Service Information
Source: Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War, compiled 1894 - ca. 1912, documenting the period 1775 - 1784, Record Group 93
Burial Information
Cemetery Name: Oak Hill Cemetery
Cemetery Location: 1512 7th St, Coralville, Johnson County, Iowa (Coordinates: 41.68920, -91.56530)
Additional Information: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/78634898/nathaniel-treadwell-fellows
Nathaniel Fellows was first buried at the "corner of the family's claim" at the site of what is now Coralville, IA.
In November 1940, the Nathaniel Fellows Chapter, NSDAR, dedicated and presented a permanent marker to State of Iowa for the gravesite of Nathaniel Fellows, Sr. The Iowa Highway Commission maintained the marker until 1971 when the commission informed the chapter that they could no longer maintain the marker due to the relocation of Highway 6. The chapter applied for, and received permission from, the City of Coralville to move the marker to Oak Hill Cemetery, just inside the entrance. The City of Coralville moved the marker to the present day site.
Front of Memorial 1
Front of Memorial 2
Front of Memorial from a Distance 3
Back of Memorial
Source: Stefanie Wager personal photos, Taken July 25, 2025
Additional Information
Additional genealogical information can be found at https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/LWDF-FRS.
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