George R. Carroll in his _Pioneer History_, speaking of Leverich, says: "The Mound Farm did not remain long in the possession of Broady, possibly a year and a half, when it came into possession of the notorious Joel Leverich; everybody knew him and everybody dreaded him, especially when he was under the influence of liquor, which was often the case. Even his best friends then felt it to be prudent to give him a wide berth, not knowing what instant he would take it into his head to knock them down. Whiskey seemed to make a demon of him, and to attempt to reason with him while under its influence would have been as futile as to try to reason with a cyclone. His poor wife, a most patient and estimable Christian woman, would sometimes hide away from him for days lest in his fits of uncontrol and uncontrollable passion he might take her life. And yet old Joe, as he was popularly called, had a good deal of influence in the community. He was a strong partisan politician, and whoever arrayed himself against him was sure to have a hard battle to fight and in the end would very likely meet with defeat. He was as keen and cunning and wily as the old serpent himself, and it was very hard to circumvent him in his plans. He was accused of harboring horse thieves and of making counterfeit money; as to whether he ever did either or not I could not say." While T. S. Parvin was United States attorney at Muscatine Joel Leverich was tried for counterfeiting, and while Parvin had said some hard things about Joel's mode of making a living he had also said some very nice things about Joel's wife. Later Leverich called on Parvin at the hotel, insisting upon speaking with him. Parvin's friends warned him not to do so as Joe would likely kill him, but Mr. Parvin thought he would take his chance and Joe did see him. Leverich said, "Ain't you afraid of me?" "No," replied Parvin, "you can kill me if you want to but you cannot scare me." "Well," replied Joe, "I admire your grit; I came not to scare you or to hurt you but to tell you that you did tell the truth about my wife." Some time after that Parvin passed where Leverich lived and accepted of Mr. Leverich's hospitality. Joel Leverich's brother, James, was a saloonkeeper in Cedar Rapids and when he ascertained that Joel's death was due to his dissipation, causing a serious stomach trouble, he quit the business. Joel Leverich sold his claim in 1843 to Judge Greene. He resided near the McCloud Run for a short time and then moved to town, dying in the '40s.