HISTORICAL
AND
REMINISCENCES
OF
CHICKASAW COUNTY,
IOWA.
BY J. H. POWERS.
J. H. Powers Biography
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HISTORICAL AND REMINISCENCES OF CHICKASAW COUNTY, IOWA. BY J. H. POWERS. |
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DES MOINES:
IOWA PRINTING COMPANY.
1894.
Dedication,
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO THE
OLD SETTLERS, WHO WADED SLOUGHS, SWAM
STREAMS, BREASTED THE STORMS OF
WINTER, LIVED ON CORN MEAL,
AND GREETED ALL COMERS
WITH GENUINE HOS-
PITALITY.
BY THE AUTHOR.
Preface.
The pages following do not pretend to reach the dignity of history, but only a rehearsal of events that were of interest at the time, and which are now recalled with the zest that time brings to events long past. In some measure, they show the way new settlers meet the loneliness of a new country, and how, out of hardship, they extracted recreation, and how crude character is developed and made to play a part in crystallizing a forming civilization. They recall some of the notable actors that took part in the opening up of the county, and in reducing a wild, wet and unattractive wilderness, to comfortable homes and productive fields. To the writer they recall experiences, that are revived with interest, repeated with pleasure. and recorded with pride.
Iowa.
The territory embraced within the present state of Iowa, is but a fraction of the vast domain originally discovered by French Jesuit missionaries during their frequent early incursions into the wilds of the Northwest, and taken possession of and annexed as French territory by right of discovery.
In the year 1763, after almost a hundred years of peaceful possession, France ceded to the Spaniards all of her possessions lying beyond the Mississippi river, and this vast rich territory remained under the management of Spanish authorities until the beginning of the present century when it again came into the possession of France.
In 1803 the treaty known as the "Louisiana Purchase" was consummated, whereby France, in consideration of $15,000,000 relinquished all her rights and title to the territory beyond the Mississippi river west to an indefinite boundary.
On the 31st of October, 1803. congress passed an act providing that all military, judicial and civil powers exercised in governing this new acquisition should be "vested in such persons and exercised in such manner as the president of the United States shall direct."
A year later (1804) the territory was divided, that part lying south of the 33d parallel becoming the Territory of Orleans, and that portion north of said line the District of Louisiana. The executive government of the latter division was placed under the control of General William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana, and the judiciary under the direction of the judges of Indiana Territory.
In 1805 congress again made an important change. On the 4th day of July of that year this district became the Territory of Louisiana, with executive and judicial powers vested in a governor and three judges, to be appointed by the president, with the consent of the senate.
December 7, 1812, the territory again underwent a great change, on that day becoming the Territory of Missouri, with the addition of an important factor in its government, that of a legislative department, consisting of a council and house of representatives, the latter composed of one representative for every five hundred free white male inhabitants, to be elected every two years by the votes of free white, male tax-paying citizens. The council consisting of nine members, was to be chosen by the president of the United States (with the approval of the Senate) from citizens residents of the territory, for an official term of five years. Vetoing power, absolute, was vested in the governor.
Congress, however, on the 29th day of April, 1816, enlarged the power of the people, granting, among other concessions, the right of popular vote to select council.
March 4, 1821, congress passed an act defining the boundaries of Missouri, and it was admitted as a state. This division left all that vast expanse of territory of which the present states of Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota are a part, again directly under the jurisdiction of congress, in which condition it seems to have remained until the middle of 1834, when it was attached to the Territory of Michigan.
Only as a matter of history, however, had these great changes affected in the least what is now known as Iowa, for it was not until the year 1833, the year previous to annexation to Michigan, that white people manifested any special interest in its settlement.
The Territory of Wisconsin was organized on the 3d day of July, 1836, carrying with it the two counties of Demoine and Dubuque.
The relationship thus existing between the counties of Wisconsin under one territorial government, of the people west of the Mississippi river, terminated July 3, 1838, with the organization of the general government, of the people west of the Mississippi river, into a separate territory to be known by the name of IOWA.
President Van Buren appointed Robert Lucas, of Ohio, Governor, and William B. Conway , of Pennsylvania, Territorial Secretary.
The seventh Territorial Assembly passed an act providing for the holding of a constitutional convention, and designated April 6, 1846, as the date for the election of delegates. This convention convened at Iowa City on May 4th of same year, and adjourned May 19th, after formulating a constitution which was afterwards ratified and adopted by the people at an election held August 3,1846, by the small majority of four hundred and fifty-six votes.
Under this constitution the State of Iowa was admitted as the twenty-ninth State of the Federal Union, on the 28th day of December, 1846, and the first State election held on the 26th day of October, 1846, so as to be ready to assume Statehood on Congress passing an enabling act.
Chickasaw County.
CHICKASAW COUNTY was first created as a political sub-division of the State of Iowa, in 1851, by Chapter 9, of the Acts of the Third General Assembly, Section 33 of which reads as follows: "That the following shall be the boundaries of a new county, which shall be called Chickasaw, to-wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of township 97, range 10; thence west to the northwest corner of township 97, range 14; thence south to the southwest corner of township 94, range 14; thence east to the southwest corner of township 94, range 10; thence to the place of beginning," which act was approved on the 15th day of January, A. D. 1851.
By Chapter 120 of the Acts of the Fourth General Assemby the boundaries of Chickasaw county were changed as follows:
"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Iowa, That the north half of township 97, of ranges number 11, 12, 13 and 14, following the line of tile United States sub-division thereof shall be, and the same are hereby, detached from Chickasaw county, and attached to Howard."
By the Acts of the Fourth General Assembly, Chapter 12, approved January 12th, 1853, Chickasaw county was "attached to Fayette county for election, revenue and judicial purposes."
By Section 1 of this Act "the counties of Mitchell, Howard, Floyd, Worth and Franklin were attached to the county of Chickasaw."
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ORGANIZATION OF CHICKASAW COUNTY.
A PETITION having been presented to the county judge of Fayette county, asking that the county of Chickasaw be organized, the judge issued his warrant on the 31st day of June, 1853, as follows:
State of Iowa,
Fayette County.
John Bird --- Sir: By virtue of power vested in me by the Code of Iowa I have this day appointed you organizing sheriff for the organization of Chickasaw county. You are hereby required to post up at least five written notices in said county, that on the first Monday in August there will be an election held at the house of E. A. Haskell in the town of Bradford, for the purpose of organizing said county and electing county officers, as follows, to-wit: County judge, district clerk, recorder and treasurer, school fund commissioner, prosecuting attorney, sheriff, coroner, and county surveyor, and also one justice of the peace, three township trustees and town clerk, and make due returns to me of the same at my office in West Union. The above mentioned notices to be posted up at least ten days prior to the election.
THOMAS WOODLE, County Judge.
June 30, 1853.
In pursuance of this commission an attempt was made to organize the county in August, 1853, and officers were elected, but not in accordance with the wishes of the organizing sheriff, and as the easiest way to prevent the opposition getting control of the county no return was made, and as a consequence no power was given to those elected to perform the functions of their office.
Acting under the same authority the organizing sheriff called an election on the 3rd day of April, 1854, at which election the following officers were elected: James Lyon, county judge; S. C. Goddard, county clerk; John Campbell, treasurer and recorder; D. A. Babcock, prosecuting attorney; Andy Sample, sheriff. The only record showing date of election is the bond of John Campbell as treasurer and recorder, signed by G. R. Rowley and James L. Frazee as bondsmen (this was preserved from the wood box), and filed in county judge's office April 12, 1854. On the back of the commission is "Notice to organizing sheriff, filed December 31, 1854, in the office of county judge of Chickasaw county, J. Lyon, county judge."
Legend says that S. C. Goddard resigned as county clerk and J. A. J. Bird was appointed to fill the vacancy. The earliest record we find of J. A. J. Bird acting as county clerk is upon the commissioner's report for the locating of the county seat, which reads as follows: "Filed in the office of the clerk of the county court August 14, A. D., 1854, J. A. J. Bird, clerk."
TOWNSHIPS.
At the organization the whole county constituted but one precinct, and was known as Bradford.
In the County Judge's record is the following entry:
"At the March term of the county court, the 1855,
Ordered that the county of Chickasaw constitute five election townships.
1st. Township 94-14 and 13, to be called Bradford district.
2d. Township 95, Range 14 and 13, to be called Chickasaw district.
3d. Township 96, Range 14 and 13 to be called the Brink district.
4th. Township 961/2-97, Range 11 and 12 to be called the Obispo district.
5th. Township 94 and 95, Range 11 and 12 to be called Yankee district."
At a special session of the county court, held July 23, 1855, it was "Ordered that the Brink district be attached to Chickasaw for election purposes."
At the March term, 1856 "Application was made by petition to organize township 96, range 14, and asking for the name of Deerfield to be given the same, which was granted, and south half 97, range 14 added thereto."
"Township 94, range 14 (should have been 13) was ordered organized and called Richland."
"Application was made to organize 96 and south half 97, range 13, which was granted." No name given on the record, but should have been Washington.
June term of Record, says: "It appearing to this court that the township of Washington failed to effect a legal organization in accordance with the order of this court made at the March term thereof A. D. 1856, therefore the said township of Washington is attached to Deerfield township for township and county purposes." The real offense was that the vote of this town, if allowed, would have removed the county seat from Bradford to New Hampton.
February term 1857, "Town 95, range 13 was ordered to be organized under the name of Dayton."
April term, 1857, " Township 95, range 12 was ordered organized under name of New Hampton." Also, township 96, range 13, and south half of township 97, range 13 under the name of Washington; township 94, range 11 and 12, under name of Fredericksburg; the west half of township 94, range 12 was attached to Richland; township 95, range 11 under name of Stapleton.
March term 1858, township 96, range 12, and south half of township 97, range 12 was ordered organized under the name of Jacksonville.
Township 96, range 11 and south half of township 97, range I I was ordered organized under the name of Utica.
In 1859, township 94, range 12 was ordered organized under the name of Dresden.
Subsequently the east tier of sections of Dresden were detached and attached to Fredericksburg but were afterwards returned with the exception of the southeast quarter of section 12 and the northeast quarter of section 13. The northeast of the southeast and the southeast of the northeast of section 12 have been detached from Dayton and attached to New Hampton.
Thus it will be observed that we have lost as townships names the euphonious ones of Obispo, Brink and Yankee.
[NOTE: The original text contains five line drawings showing the layout of the townships in Chickasaw County in the years 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858 and 1894. These line drawings are not reproduced in this transcription. However, you may see similar line drawings on this web page ../maps/townshpsevol.htm].
NAMES.
Prior to the settlement of the County, it was occupied by a Tribe of Indians bearing the name of Chickasaw - in early documents it was Chickesaw - and their chief was named Bradford. The County and the Town of Chickasaw were named after this Indian Tribe, and the Township of Bradford after its chief.
The Town of Brink was named after a man by the name of Brink, who built the "Brink House" about two miles northeast of the present City of New Hampton, on the banks of the east Wapsie.
Obispo was named by "Yankee Smith," for his patron Saint, St. Obispo.
The Town of Yankee was suggested by Fred Padden, he declaring that it was settled by a set of "d----- Yankees."
Deerfield was named by J. A. Sawin, and the name was suggested by the vast herds of deer seen grazing on her prairies.
The name of Richland was selected at its first election by ballot. Malachi Havelick suggested Milan, J. D. Hawes Medina, and F. D. Hall Richland, remarking that the fertility of its soil would thus be expressed in its name. A motion was made to ballot for a name, and when the ballots were counted, it was found that the name of Richland had the most ballots, and that name was adopted.
Washington was named in honor of the Father of Our Country, by S. W. Byers.
Dayton was named by E. R. Gillett to commemorate the name of the man who run for vice-president with Fremont, Gillett having been his ardent supporter.
New Hampton was named by Osgood Gowen in honor of his old home, he having come from New Hampton, New Hampshire.
Fredericksburg was named after Fred Padden, who was one of its first settlers.
Stapleton was named after Thomas G. Staples, he being her first settler.
Jacksonville was named by J. H. Dickens in honor of his old home, he having emigrated from Jacksonville, Illinois.
Utica was named by Hugh Johnston, after his old home in Venango County, Pennsylvania
Dresden, having become settled with a large per cent of Germans, they desired to commemorate a spot of their father land, and named the township Dresden.
The villages of Bradford, Chickasaw, Fredericksburg and New Hampton, take their names from the townships in which located.
Nashua received its present name from E. P. Greeley, in honor of his old home in New Hampshire. It was at first called Bridgeport, and when Andy Sample and Dea. Woodbridge became its proprietors, Sample had it changed to Woodbridge. When Greeley became its principal proprietor he gave it its present name.
North was prefixed to Washington, for the reason there was so many post offices in the State by the name of Washington, that the department refused to grant another.
Lawler was named after John Lawler, of Prairie Du Chien, he being the active agent representing the railroad company when the town was laid out.
Ionia is a second thought, it being first named Dover, but as the department refused to grant another post office by that name it was changed to Ionia, but who suggested that name is not certain. Its first name was given to it by Mr. Hammond in honor of his former home.
Bassett was named after one of the firm of Bassett & Hunting, an extensive wheat buying firm along the line of the railroad, they both living in McGregor.
COUNTY SEAT.
At the organization of the County there was but one Precinct and that was Bradford and per force of that fact it became the County Seat.
Section Five of Chapter Twelve of the Laws of the Fourth General Assembly provided
"That a majority of the citizens of any County, after becoming organized, may petition the district judge in whose judicial district the same is situated, during vacation of the General Assembly, whose duty it shall be to appoint three Commissioners from three different adjoining Counties, who shall proceed to locate the County Seat of such County according to the provisions of this act."
Under the authority here conferred a petition was presented to Judge Wilson, who was at that time district judge of the Second Judicial District of Iowa, of which Chickasaw County was a part.
There is no record showing who was appointed except the report of the Commissioners, which was filed in the office of the Clerk of the District Court August 14, A. D. 1854, the filing on the back being "J. A. J. Bird, Clerk," and signed by William McClintock, of Fayette County, and John B. Onstine, of Winneshiek County. The third man not signing his name is lost in oblivion. The following is the report of the commissioners:
To the Honorable County Judge of Chickasaw County, Iowa:
The undersigned, Commissioners appointed by the judge of the Second Judicial District of the state of Iowa, to locate and establish the County Seat of said County of Chickasaw, respectfully report that having had the same under consideration, they have selected the town of Bradford in the county and state aforesaid, as the point at which said County Seat is hereby located and established.
Wm. McClintock,
John B. Onstine,
Commissioners.
At the February term of the County Court, 1856, a petition of J. C. H. Miller and two hundred and twenty-four others was presented, praying "that at the next April election to be holden thereafter in said county, a vote shall be taken between Bradford, the existing County Seat of said County, and New Hampton, for the County Seat."
The prayer of the petitioners was granted, and in accordance therewith an election was held, and New Hampton received two hundred and thirteen votes and Bradford two hundred and six votes.
When the vote was canvassed the township of Washington was thrown out, and this left a tie, giving each place two hundred and three votes, and as it took a majority to move the County Seat, the canvassing board decided in favor of Bradford.
On the sixth day of June, 1856, an information was filed by Osgood Gowen, in the office of the Clerk of the District Court, asking for a writ of mandamus, and in accordance with the prayer, a writ was issued against the board of canvassers the same day. On the day following, two members of the board -- W. E. Andrews, who was ex-officio County Judge, and John Bird, Justice of the Peace, filed a response, which is given in full, as it contains nearly all the history of the case, and is, moreover, a unique specimen of that legal explicitness which is supposed to be attained only through technical verbiage.
State of Iowa, In the District Court of
Chickasaw County. said County.
To the June Term thereof, A. D. 1856.
In the matter of the information of Osgood Gowen for Mandamus against the board of canvassers of Chickasaw County aforesaid, in the matter of an election between Bradford and New Hampton, for the establishment of the County Seat of said County.
"And the said W. E. Andrews and John Bird, canvassers of election in said information, mentioned, come, and answering, say that they admit that at the February term of the County Court, of said County of Chickasaw, A. D. 1856, a petition was presented to said County Court, by J. C. H. Miller and two hundred and twenty-four citizens, as alleged in said information, upon which said petition an order was made by said County Court that the question of a relocation of said County Seat of Chickasaw County be submitted to a vote of the legal voters of said County in the year 1856; and that, in pursuance of said order submitting the question of a relocation of said County Seat to a vote of the legal voters of said County at the April election A.. D. 1856, said question was submitted and voted on at said election. And your respondents further answering, say severally and respectively, that in the returns of said election and according to the same, it did appear that the town of New Hampton had received the number of two hundred and thirteen votes for the County Seat of said County, and that the town of Bradford received two hundred and six votes for the County Seat of said County as appeared on the face of the papers purporting to be said returns of the said election. And your respondents aver, and they so answer, that all the returns so made to the County Judge of said County of Chickasaw at the election so held in and for said County, were then and there to-wit: At Bradford in said County, duly examined and canvassed as the law directs, by said board of canvassers; and that after such examination and canvass as aforesaid it was found that the said election returns at the election held as aforesaid for the purposes aforesaid, were duly and properly made in compliance with law, with the exception of the Township of Washington in said County; and after duly examining and canvassing the returns of said election so held as aforesaid, for the purpose aforesaid for all the townships and precincts in said county, it was found that returns of the votes for the said Township of Washington were insufficient, irregular and of no effect, and utterly null and void in law, and so said respondents, answering as aforesaid, aver that said votes of the Town of Washington, given at said election, having been found and decided by said board of canvassers, and were then and there within the time aforesaid duly and legally rejected by said board of canvassers, after a legal canvass of the said votes and returns, then and there held for insufficiency, irregularity and nullity, and for no other reason.
"And your respondents, further answering, say that after said returns of all said townships and precincts of the said county of Chickasaw was so canvassed as aforesaid, and the returns of the votes of the said township of Washington were so rejected as aforesaid, the state of the canvass was as follows, to-wit: Bradford received two hundred and three votes; and of the votes so rejected after said canvass as aforesaid, ten votes were cast for New Hampton and three votes for Bradford; and that your respondents there made out and signed a statement of the canvass aforesaid, specifying the said number of votes cast for the respective places aforesaid, which remains of record in the office of the County Judge of said county, by reference to which will more fully appear. And your respondents, further answering, deny that they have done ought in the premises aforesaid; they have acted fairly, honestly and in good faith, as they believed, and still believe, in strict accordance with law and their duties as canvassers as aforesaid. And your respondents having fully answered herein, beg to be discharged.
W. E, Andrews,
John Bird."
It was claimed by the relators that the board of canvassers having found the returns from Washington Township irregular, were in duty bound to return them to the township officers for correction, and to stay the canvass until the returns were corrected and returned, and then complete the canvass. A change of venue from the County was applied for, and the case fell between the courts, it being claimed that the proper fees were not paid for a transcript, and the decision of the canvassers remained and the County Seat remained at Bradford.
The reason given for the change not being completed, seems strange at this late day, for it belongs to the applicants for the change of venue to pay this fee, and a failure on their part left the case pending in this County. It was more than a hint that the relator plowed with the Bradford heifer.
The throwing out of the returns from Washington Township not only defeated the removal of the County Seat to New Hampton, but changed the election of every County Officer in the county. The public mind was in a high state of excitement, and local party feeling run high.
A public meeting was called to meet at the Brink House -- a well known hotel on the banks of the east Wapsie, about one and one-half miles northeast of New Hampton --the objects and proceedings of which will more fully appear by a perusal of the report of one of the board of canvassers, and which was issued as a hand bill.
INDIGNATION MEETING.
Pursuant to notice the citizens of central, western and the northern parts of Chickasaw County, assembled at the Brink House on Wednesday, April 23, 1856, and organized by calling Hon. J. C. H. Miller to the chair and electing E. R. Gillett, Esq., secretary.
The chairman stated the objects of the meeting in a few words:
"It seems," he said, "that we are called together to deliberate upon the ways and means, whereby the people -- the majority of the people -- claiming to be republicans, shall be heard, and the 'elective franchise' vindicated." On motion, a report (minority) from G. R. Rowley, one of the county board of canvassers, was read and ordered to be printed in the Dubuque Tribune. On motion, a committee of three was appointed to procure counsel. Osgood Gowen, T. A. Jacobs and David Edwards were appointed said committee. Mr. Cutler introduced the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted.
Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting, and the report of Mr. Rowley (together with 200 circulars struck off) be published in the Dubuque Tribune. On motion the meeting adjourned sine die.
E. R. GILLETTE, J. C. H. MILLER,
Secretary. Chairman.
A MINORITY REPORT.
To the Electors of Chickasaw County, Iowa:
As one of the canvassers of the election held in Chickasaw County on April 7th, I deem it my duty in justice to you, to inform you of the number of votes cast at the time for the different County Officers, and also for County Seat.
They are as follows:
Whole number of votes cast for County Judge was 426.
Mr. Miller received of these votes 215
Mr. Bailey received of these votes 210
Leaving a majority in Miller's favor of 5
Whole number of votes cast for County Clerk was 423.
Mr. Jacobs received of these votes 216
Mr. Webster received of these votes 207
Leaving a majority in Jacobs' favor of 9
Whole number of votes cast for County Surveyor was 423.
Mr. Webster received of these votes 196
Air. Billin as received of these votes 183
Leaving a majority in Webster's favor of 13
Whole number of votes cast for School Fund Commissioner, 412.
Mr. Tucker received of these votes 219
Mr. Wriollit received of these votes. 206
Leaving a majority in Tucker's favor of 6
Whole number cast for County Seat was 420.
New Hampton, or Geographical Center, received of these votes 213
Bradford received of these votes 206
Leaving New Hampton, or Center, a majority of 7
The Hon. W. E. Andrews, then acting as Judge, John Bird, Esq., and myself, constituted the board. We differed on the validity of the returns from the Washington Precinct. (The reasons assigned by the canvassers for the throwing out of Washington Precinct, was this: all the board of election in that Precinct did not sign the returns, and hence this ousting business. Washington is a new Precinct, having only organized at the last election, and they had not the Code to guide them.) But there being two to one they overruled me, and throw out those returns, after having them down on the clerk's tally list, which, if not destroyed, can yet be seen in the office; they were crossed off, and the remaining precincts counted, which changed the result of the election. If, fellow citizens, this was the first time that Bradford and her hirelings had polluted the sanctity of the ballot box, we might overlook it. It is no longer ago than last August that we elected this same J. C. H. Miller as our County Judge by over fifty majority. Then the Hon. Judge Lyons and E. A. Haskell, Esq., perverted the will of the majority of the votes of the County by throwing out a precinct with over sixty votes to obtain their ends, without any just cause, as I verily believe, and so the Court decided, before whom the honorable Judge was taken, and it saw fit to bind him over to answer for fraud and corruption in changing the result of the election.
But what do we now see? The same prosecuting attorney, who took such an active part against the Hon. Judge Lyons, and had him bound over, now is called upon to act as judge and canvasser. How much does he lack of perverting the will of the people? Has he not also taken advantage of ignorance or oversight, and changed the result of the election, when it was in his power to have avoided it ? "O, consistency thou art a jewel."
Fellow citizens, the day of our freedom and independence has gone by in this far-famed county of Chickasaw; the will of the majority has to succumb to a meager minority. The democratic will, "the greatest good to the greatest number," is perverted, and its glorious precepts trampled on with impunity. Again, the American principles, "The majority shall rule," is cast aside, and a new plank is instituted, thus "The minority shall rule in Chickasaw county henceforth and forever."
Fellow citizens, was ever so palpable gross fraud perpetrated as this? Were ever inconsistencies so glaring as those of our Bradford neighbors? We may boast of our love of liberty, and expatiate with owlish gravity upon the wrongs of Kansas, but I tell you the home ruffians in this county tower in brutal atrocity and unmitigated villany above the Kansas-Missouri brigands. We may talk of going to Kansas to defend the ballot-box from a Missouri mob; but we know little of our duty when we thus talk and act; we little think the same thing is transpiring in our very midst; the ballot-box is wrested from us -- the palludium of our liberties assaulted -- the voice of the majority slighted -- the rights of the people taken away.
Fellow citizens, how long shall we be slaves to the minority in this land of liberty, "this land of the free and home of the brave? " If our voice is not to be heard and heeded at the ballot-box, what security have we for our lives and our property? Are they not in jeopardy? Are they not in the hands of those that could barter them away for a "mess of pottage?" What! the minority rule? If the minority continue to rule how long before we are burdened with taxes. How long before we are called upon to build county buildings at Bradford? The minority rules and we must submit! Shall we let this wrong pass unnoticed and unrebuked? Is there any assurance that there will not be a repetition of the same offense next year? and the next? and so on for a series of years? In the language of Patrick Henry, "shall we gain strength by inaction and irresolution? shall we lay supinely on our backs, and hug the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies have bound us hand and foot?" Answer these questions, fellow citizens, upon the altars of your hearts. Answer them with an eye single to the welfare, happiness and prosperity of this beautiful county.
As your canvasser, fellow citizens, I have laid the subject before you for your consideration. Hoping that you will take notice of such facts as I have submitted to you.
I am, respectfully, your humble servant.
G. R Rowley.
Finding that they were thwarted at the ballot-box, and having elected E. R. Gillett as, Representative who was favorable to a change of the County Seat, an act was passed by the General Assembly appointing a Commission to relocate the County Seat, and by Chapter two hundred and thirty-six, of the Laws of the Sixth General Assembly it was provided, "That D. B. Wallen, of Bremer county, H. B. Hoyt and C. A. Newcomb, of Fayette county, be, and they are hereby appointed Commissioners to relocate the Seat of Justice of Chickasaw County, on the first Monday of March, 1857, or within two months thereafter, as a majority of them may agree in the pursuance of their duties under the provisions of this act."
Under this appointment D. P. Wallen and H. B. Hoyt met and relocated the County Seat at New Hampton. The entry in the County Judge's Record says: The Commissioners appointed by the Act of the Legislature to relocate the County Seat of Chickasaw county, report in favor of the Geographical Center, or New Hampton.
There was a general desire of the south part of the County that there should be an effort to take the County Seat from New Hampton at the next election. But one town could be voted for at one election, and there were three aspirants for the place, Fredericksburg, Forest City and Bradford. Many were the councils, and protracted the discussion as to how they should settle upon a place, for to even hope for success there must be harmony. At a final interview it was agreed that a representative of each town should together visit every voter in the southern tier of Townships, taking their first and second choice of places, and when so taken, they were to add the first and second choice together, and the town having the largest sum was to be the town to be voted for. This looked fair on its face, but it was soon found that the middle town bad greatly the advantage. When this dawned upon the outside towns it was too late to join and make common cause, for Forest City had foreseen this and had crowded the canvass so that nothing could be done and Forest City was successful.
Up to this time, one of the principal actors in representing the interests of Bradford, was John Bird. Of medium stature, dark complexion, and compact build, he was the early local politician and manager that controlled the interests of Bradford. To be a Bradford man was to evoke his interest at once. As a wire-puller, he stood head and shoulders above his compeers, and freely used all that came to band for his purposes, and even the shrewd Case and the cautious Howard, were more than once used III-o poke his chestnuts from the fire. Subsequently the other fellow poked the chestnuts, much to his sorrow. The trouble with him that he did not grow as fast as his surroundings, and when the County S6at left Bradford, Bird lost his prominence, and never regained it. Among the leaders that came to the front as managers of the changed interests of the south, was Hiram Bailey, who, so long as Forest City had interests, pulled the ropes that changed the scenes.
A petition was presented to the County Judge, asking that the question of the removal of the County Seat from New Hampton to Forest City and the prayer of the petitioners was granted and the question was submitted to a vote of the electors of the county, on the fifth day of April, 1858. When the vote was canvassed, the vote of Washington township was thrown out and not counted, for the reason that there was no accompanying poll list. It was found that the Deerfield poli-book had been tampered with, and the aggregate of the vote for County Seat, had been changed from fifty-three to forty-three, although the accompanying tally Sheet showed the number of fifty-three, and by counting only the forty-three, it left ten of the aggregate of the vote cast, unaccounted for. As soon as the vote on the County Seat question was canvassed, and without waiting to complete the balance of the canvass, declaration was made that the County Seat was at Forest City, and the canvassing board was adjourned to meet there at 2 o'clock that afternoon. Within a few minutes the books, furniture and papers of the county offices were in transit for the newly declared County Seat.
On the 3d day of June, 1858, an information was filed in the clerk's office, asking for a writ of mandamus compelling the board of canvassers to count the votes that had been cast, including those of Washington and the ten in Deerfield. A special term of the District Court was called to meet in August to hear the case. At the August term an alternative writ was issued, and after hearing, a peremptory writ issued as prayed, and respondents appealed.
At the time of the filing of the information for a writ of mandamus an information was filed asking for a writ of certiorari. At the special session of the district court these papers were lost and leave was granted to file new ones at the next term of the court.
The mandamus case was reversed by the supreme court as being an improper remedy, so far as the count of Deerfield was concerned, but that it was a proper remedy to force the counting of the vote of Washington, not with standing the poll list was lacking.
On the 12th day of April, 1859, an application was made to the district judge for an injunction restraining the county officers from holding their offices at any other place than at New, Hampton, and one was issued.
At the next term of court the injunction was made perpetual.
Thus was the wrong righted and New Hampton again received her own.
There has been talk of trying to take the county seat from New Hampton, and at one time there was an attempt to secure an election to that end, but the remonstrants so far outnumbered the petitioners that even a completion of their official count was prevented, by the petitioners withdrawing their petition.
[NOTE: The original text contains nineteen tables showing the voting results for State Senator, Representative, County Judge, Clerk, Treasurer and Recorder, Coroner, County Superintendent of Common Schools, Recorder, Sheriff, County Assessor, Auditor, Surveyor, Drainage Commissioner, and Supervisors. There is also a table of voting results for "Special Questions Submitted to the Electors of the County" and a table of yearly tax levies from 1855 to 1890. Among these tables is also found the text, transcribed below, about the School Fund Commissioner. These tables are not reproduced in this transcription. However, you may see a list of office holders during this period on this web page http://iagenweb.org/chickasaw/history1919ch05.htm].
SCHOOL FUND COMMISSIONER.
At the organization of the county John Bird was elected, but no record was made of his election.
The records in the office show that he acted continuously until October 20, 1856, at which time he made a contract with J. A. J. Bird for the sale of Northwest quarter of the Northwest quarter of section Sixteen, Township Ninety-four North of Range Fourteen West of the Fifth Principal Meridian.
William F. Wright was elected at the spring election of 1856, but no record made of the same. We find that he was acting on the 31st of July, 1856, when he received a school fund mortgage which was executed on that day to him as School Fund Commissioner. It would be impossible, and probably unwise, to reconcile the acting of two School Fund Commissioners at the same time.
In 1858, at the April election, C. A. Orvis received 470 votes for the office of School Fund Commissioner, and R. Baldwin 275. As the office was abolished Orvis never acted.
Reminiscence
About 2 o'clock of the morning of the 10th day of May, 1857, the whistle sounded and the steamboat swung in toward McGregor's Landing," and supposing that the shore had been reached I stepped over the edge of the boat and found myself in water. I was pulled on shore and thus found a helping hand on my return to Iowa. Went to the hotel and wrung out my clothes, and at the time of the starting of the stage at 8 o'clock, was enjoying a steam bath, but embarked on the stage for West Union, where I arrived in the evening, cold, hungry, and a little depressed. Went to my room early and proceeded to open up my wet clothes and hang them around the room to dry. Had just got to bed when I was disturbed by a rap on the door and, opening it, found that - there was another guest who was expected to lodge with me. On looking in and observing the appearance of things he declined to come in and share my room with me, and as he left I heard him remark, "that d--d fool has got his washing out."
Starting the next morning on foot, for the ample reason that I had no money with which to pay stage fare, at the hollow west of town, found a team stuck in the slough with a load of potatoes and stopped to give the men a lift, but as the stage came along and the passengers and driver refused to stop, concluded to pass on and let them help themselves. Passed the stage at the "Vermont House" and did not see it again until it reached Fredericksburg . My directions as to the road were: "Pass Potter's at the county line, follow the wagon trail leaving the twin trees to the right, and the first settlement will be the town."
My entrance into Chickasaw was on the 11th day of May, I857. I arrived in Fredericksburg some time in the afternoon, just as it began to rain.
As I came up to the old log hotel Webster Pease greeted me and asked if I had seen the stage. I told him that I passed it at the "Vermont House." where it had stopped for dinner, as I judged from appearances. Thus Webster Pease was the first man to speak to me in the county. He was acting as hotel clerk, the house being kept by Lorenzo Carter.
As I passed into the house I was greeted by E. W. Davis, who was then acting as County Surveyor. For the first time, through his kindness, instructions were given me about Townships, Ranges, Sections, and the subdivisions of sections, and other things pertaining to the United States survey. Among those present were Abner Pease and Charles E. Zwick, and soon Fred Padden came in and I was introduced to him. and he was represented to be the leading spirit of the place. He presented the prospective growth of the town with such a breezy confidence, and so glowing was the prospect, that I felt that fortune had smiled upon me in leading me to a place where my fortune was so fully assured.
As it rained all the balance of the day I was obliged to stay all night. As I desired to see all that was going on I was escorted to an upper room where was the only faro table I have ever seen in the county. As I had walked from West Union, for the reason that I had no money with which to pay stage fare, I did not make much display bucking the tiger. On the morning of the twelfth I started for Forest City, a prospective town located on sections twelve and thirteen, township ninety-four, range thirteen, being in what is now Richland township, and one mile west of the present Williamstown post office.
The first settlement on the road west of Fredericksburg was that of A. V. Allen, who kept hotel in a log house, situated on the northeast corner of section 18-94-12, he having a large straw-covered building for a horse barn. Opposite and further west was the log house of Vinal Thayer, about twenty rods from the road.
A little west of Vinal Thayers I called where a log shanty was being erected, and on accosting the workman, found it was E. W. Proctor, whom I had known in Ohio. Thus E. W. Proctor was the first acquaintance I met in the county. On the southwest corner of section seven was the log house of William W. Pike. Walking through the mud another mile, I came to the "city," where I found Hiram Bailey and wife, and a number of acquaintances that I had known in Ohio.
Here I took another lesson in western hopes and prospects, and learned how fortunate I had been in escaping Fredericksburg, and coming to so magnificent a place as Forest City was bound to be. Fredericksburg was well enough as an outlying town, but was too far to one side to ever amount to much, or to become a leading town in the county.
Forest City was in the center of the county, east and west, and would always be on the main stage and railroad route, and there would never be any trouble from the inhospitable and bleak prairies of the north part of the county. My presence in the city was soon known, and its denizens came to call upon me, and among the number was William B. Grant, to whom I was introduced, and who was reported as being the moving element of the place, and engaged at that time in the erection of a saw mill, to which was to be added a grist mill in due time.
If Fred Padden was breezy, Grant had a towering confidence that left no doubt, at least in his own mind, of his ability, and while the leading spirit of the "Burg" was we'll enough in his place, yet he would never do to look after the interest of such a place as Forest City was bound to be. Both of these old pioneers have been canonized by having the post-offices of their respective towns named after their given names, although Williamstown has been moved one mile east of the old cite of Forest City. In many things there was a striking likeness in the career of these old pioneers; both relying upon borrowed capital with which to carry on their work; both erecting saw mills; and while both did much to develop the country, both met disappointment in not realizing the full fruition of their hopes.
To be sure there has been a family compensation, for their respective brothers, " Low " and " Preck," have both been prospered and have each an abundance of this world's goods, thus again exemplifying that "one shall sow and another reap."
As I came through Fredericksburg, the ones that impressed me as being the leading spirits, were Fred Padden, Charles E. Zwick, D. B. Hanan and Lorenzo Carter. Padden showed symptoms of celtic origin, active, aggressive and ready for the main chance. Carter was more phlegmatic, and appeared to be ready to enter into a deal with any one who appeared to present good fallow ground for his speculative plow.
Charles E. Zwick was a slim, light haired, light complexioned, cadaverous and nervous appearing person, showing nervous zeal in whatever he engaged, and was subsequently appointed Deputy Sheriff under Padden and on Padden's resignation was appointed by the County Judge to fill the vacancy. He became a strong partizan, during the county seat fight, for the "south," and proved to have a wonderful memory, where there was an official act to be done in its interest, but where, in his judgment, delay was favorable, his memory was not so acute.
D. B. Hanan was, to all appearance, a representative of the "boys," and was interested in a bowling gallery and its accompaniment, talked horse and gun and played the fiddle.
The residents of Forest City were Hiram Bailey and wife, William B. Grant and wife, Joseph George, wife and two sons, Dr. Samuel B. Carpenter, who was living with his fifth wife and had come west to grow up with the country, Prescott Grant, Richard Elliott, Zelotes Bailey, Turner S. (commonly called " Tip ") Bailey, Amy Bailey and Henry H. Bailey.
Zelotes, Turner S. and Amy were minor wards of Hiram Bailey, lie having been appointed guardian. of his deceased brother's children.
Soon after my arrival I found an intense excitement, caused by a prospective meeting of a Legislative committee which was to locate the County Seat. There was great activity in circulating petitions to be used in influencing this committee, and it was with much regret that I could not sign, for I had not been in the county sixty days.
At Forest City, Dr. Carpenter and Hiram Bailey were living in unfinished frame houses, and the others were living in log shanties with shed roofs made with split shakes and in some instances these were covered with sod to make them warmer. Grant was building a frame house in town and Joseph George was building one half mile north.
Zelotes and "Tip" Bailey had burned a kiln of brick the fall before, being the first brick made in the county, and I went to work building a brick hen-house for Hiram Bailey, which was the first brick building erected in the county. I also built a chimney for Joseph George on his new house. As the town existed only on paper, I went to work, after finishing my brick work, surveying the town, according to the plat they had adopted. As it then stood it was covered with hazel brush, with the exception of the slough that run just south of the saw mill, and this was full of water.
On the Sunday following my arrival, I attended a Sunday School at the log house of Malachi Havelick, one mile north of town. This was followed by a temperance meeting, and among the speakers were Judge Bailey, Hiram Bailev, E. R. Gillett and M. Haverlick, and Mrs. E. R. Gillett read an essay, and here I made my first speech in the county. The singing was enthusiastic and did credit to the old song:
"Thrice welcome friends, and here we meet in friendship's circle bright,
Where nothing mars the pleasure sweet or dims the radiant light."
My next oratorical effort was made when the steam whistle sounded for the first time at the sawmill. This was looked upon as an event, and but the herald of the locomotive that would soon go screaming through and past the town. It was a good time to let the eagle soar and we let him fly. It was for a long time a disputed point as to which could be heard the farthest, the steam whistle, or Judge Bailey.
Judge Bailey was a character that could only exist in a new country, and could be developed and brought out nowhere else.
Born in a new and timbered country, of poor parents, his early life was spent at work and without the benefit of schools. At his majority he could hardly write his name, and the county records show that he never developed the art of chirography to any great extent.
Reared in a rural and sparsely settled country, surrounded by a class of religionists that related their experience with more fervor than thought, his imagination was developed in volume and spirit characteristic of uncultured force. Of large square build, with a small, compact and round head - given to being bald - with an uncommonly large and projecting nose, and a stentorian voice, he sounded forth his convictions and experiences, and exhorted the unrepentant to flee from the wrath to come in tones that would put to shame the " Mad Bull of Bashan," and shook up Stones's Corners and Joppa, where he used to live, like an earthquake. Of course this "Divine Affiatus" could not be enduring, and when relaxed his active mind sought other outlets, and, in his gropings, he became a firm believer in phrenology, as taught by Fowler, and turned his attention to "bumpology," as he called it.
About this time he fell in with a work on the theory of creation, known as " The Vestiges of Creation," and his lively imagination found new inspiration, and his intellect an inspiring thought, as be fancied he saw the creation of new worlds and systems, and saw evolved from the fiery mass of immensity the tangible forms of spheres and systems as developed under the author's theory. Hungering as he was for knowledge, absorbed as he was in the sublimity of the supposed discovery, pauperized by the want and knowledge of the use of words, and yet desiring to find expression and give vent to the sublime truths that he believed to be burning in his soul, he acquired an extravagant and hyperbolic, enunciation, not always strictly accurate or scientific, but always forcible, if force comes from volume and manner. Without the experience or education to take up work systematically, and without preparation, he entered upon the duties of County Judge, who at that time was not inappropriately called " County King," for he had charge of everything in the county, including roads, bridges, poor, county buildings, and the levy of all taxes, except local school taxes, and the disbursement of all funds.
Confiding to a fault, he was in the hands of his friends. George W. Reed had been elected County Clerk, and being wholly unqualified to conduct the office, F. D. Bosworth was appointed Deputy Clerk and did the business, and he proved himself wise beyond his years, and absolutely refused to draw or file a paper that in his judgment was not authorized by law and demanded for the public good, and the Judge yielded in most cases, and where be did not, the files show that the documents are in some other handwriting. In all premeditated cases the counsel of his brother Hiram was generally asked and usually followed with safety, unless overpowering personal motives biased his judgment.
His character can be summed up in this: He was a man of uncommon physical energy, with little experience or forethought; willing to reward his friends and, not adverse to hitting his enemies; easily persuaded and moving at once from the impulse; without the experience or acumen of a debater, but with the force of a pugilist; enamored with his own voice and power as a speaker, yet lacking the culture and tact to use this power to a purpose, he swept over the county like a prairie fire, not leaving many ashes or doing much harm.
The first of June I took a trip to New Hampton, to see the town that was destined to be a successful rival of Forest City. One mile north of Forest City was the log house of Judge Bailey and a little further along and on the opposite side of the road, was the log house of Malachi Haverlick. One mile further north was the log house of James Upham. When I reached his place I found him breaking, and as he had but one leg, be was using the plow handles for one and hopping along behind the breaking plow. The next settlement on the road and the only one before reaching New Hampton, was three miles south of town, where Wesley Swayzee lived in a log house on the west and John Johnson, a Norwegian, on the east, also in a log house, of the town line road. To reach this settlement from Upham's, it was necessary to make a detour westward, via the groves, for the sloughs and high grass prevented a more direct route.
On my arrival in New Hampton, I found the population to consist of Harrison Gurley, wife and son, Homer Hamlin, wife and three children, Gideon Gardner and wife, David Edwards, wife and two children, E. T. Runion, wife and two children, C. Carpenter and wife, and E. W. Parker.
Gurley bad a store in a log house and lived in the back part, this being the first store building in New Hampton, having been erected by James Jared and sold by him to Osgood Gowen, and was used for post-office, and the only place of public resort in the town, but he was building his old store building that has stood for the last third of a century on the southeast corner of Main street and Locust avenue. E. T. Runion had a pen of poplar poles, without cover, in which he had a bellows and anvil, and called it a blacksmith's shop. David Edwards was living in a frame house, the studding of which were flattened poplar poles, and it was sided with basswood boards and then filled in between the poles with prairie mud. There were seven houses and shanties in the town.
I remained until about two o'clock in the afternoon, and so well pleased was I with the town that I invested every cent I had in the world, before leaving, that is to say, I paid twenty-five cents to David Edwards for my dinner. I walked back to Forest City that night, and the next day went to laying brick on the sawmill arch and chimney.
Soon after this I attended my first wedding in the county; the contracting parties were Richard Elliott and Amy Bailey. I had the honor of being first man, and Lizzy Smith, subsequently Mrs. F. D. Bosworth, was bridesmaid. The bride was fourteen years old, an orphan, and not very well supplied with this world's goods. Tradition was still clung to that white was the only suitable color for a bride, and this was met by the bride borrowing a dress of regulation color, if not in form, of Mrs. Dr. Carpenter. It appeared to be in what has since been called Mother Hubbard style, but was adapted to the occasion by encircling the waist with a ribbon, borrowed from the same source. Her feet were encased in a pair of stockings borrowed of "Tiney," and shoes from Dr. Carpenter. Judge Bailey performed the ceremony, and in an exceedingly short time I had the pleasure of saluting the new made wife.
Crude as this may now seem, this couple have raised a family that are now occupying positions of confidence and trust, and the mother is an honored and benevolent woman, carrying a blessing with her where ever she is known. I am old fashioned enough to prefer seeing young people start at the end of the ladder that these young people did, and go up, than see them mount the upper round and go the other way.
As soon as the report of the commissioners was announced, locating the County Seat at New Hampton, means were taken to submit the question to a vote of the county, to bring it to some point in the south part of the county. Bradford, Forest City and Fredericksburg wanted it.
It was absolutely essential that the south part of the county be united, to give even a semblance of success. Much canvassing was had to devise some means by which there should be harmony as to the town selected. Hiram Bailey proposed a plan that was adopted. A committee of one from each of the southern townships, who were to go together and canvass the votes and have each one designate his first and second choice for places to be voted for, and when the canvass was completed they were to add the, first and second choice for each place, and the one, having the largest number, when thus added, should be the place to be voted for.
The committee appointed were John Bird of Bradford, Hiram Bailey of Richland and Fred Padden of Fredericksburg. There were but three townships then, as Dresden had not been formed. To make the thing safe for Forest City, the other townships were canvassed first. This was so that they could divide their second choice so as not to have either of the other towns secure the largest number. Forest City was selected, and then came the securing of petitioners to call an election, and as the lists of choice for Forest City had been kept with that in view, it was but little labor to prepare them so they could perform this second duty. As Judge Bailey was to pass upon their sufficiency, there was no fear but that they would be accepted, and notice was published that a petition would be pre6ented at the March term of the county court.
I attended the spring term of the District Court it being held in Bradford. As I passed west to the Wapsie, I came to the log house of Rev. S. M. Prentice, a baptist minister who used to preach over on Crane Creek and at Fredericksburg. Crossing the river was the log hotel of David Tingley, who had built his house on the bank of the river and had raised it high enough, as he supposed, to keep the water out of his house, but this season he was obliged to raise his threshold two inches to keep out the floods. In the grove west of Tingley's was the log house of David McDonald, it being the only house until Two Mile Creek was reached, where Truman Merritt had made the first permanent settlement in the county. No other settlements intervened between Merritt's and Bradford.
At this time G. W. Howard, A. G. Case and F. D. Hall were members of the bar and the only local practitioners. G. W. Howard was Treasurer and Recorder of the county, and did very little at the law. He was cool, reticent, and a self-contained mortal, and no one knew but little about him. With all his gravity, he was possessed of a grim humor, and while he had no special personal following, he was held in respect by everybody who met him, either in a financial, political or social capacity. His character may be illustrated by a little. incident. He had been boarding for months with a lady, having a suite of rooms of his own. Without notice, he failed to appear at his meals, and his whereabouts was unknown for months.
Returning to his rooms, he went to his breakfast the next morning and walking in he took his seat at the table just as though he bad been a continuous boarder, and no word from him betrayed the fact that he had been absent. After J. H. Powers resigned his seat in the State Senate, to enter the army, he was elected to fill the unexpired term. He was subsequently appointed Major of the twenty-seventh regiment of Iowa Infantry Volunteers and made a brave and cool officer.
F. D. Hall had been elected Prosecuting Attorney and was a young man of close and discriminating mind, when legal points were placed before him, but he lacked the gift to raise and grasp them of his own volition, as original proposition, either as main or auxiliary supports of a case. Added to this, he was weighted with a sensitive embarrassment that overwhelmed him, mentally and physically, which left him stranded, when be should have been possessed of his every faculty and power.
Thus lacking the vary element so much needed for success in anew country, "brass," he soon dropped out of practice and took up the work of an agriculturist and has remained an honest, influential and respected citizen.
A. G. Case was a young man who had received a classical education, and thus started with an advantage over his compeers, all of whom had graduated from the "Poor Man's College," the common schools.
He had studied law under the most favorable circumstances, yet, with all these advantages, his appearance was decidedly vernal, and his practice circumscribed. However, beneath this schoolboy appearance there slumbered a force as yet unknown and unfelt, that was to develop the man and show that he possessed legal acumen seldom equaled, and that he had a classifying power that could make all ends subserve his purpose, and bad not the enticements of a business life taken him from the profession, he would have stood the peer of the foremost.
This same marked power has not forsaken him in the business world, and he has become president of two National banks and is burdened with the care of his accumulations.
Think not that these were the only ones that a new comer had to meet, for there was the "traveling bar," consisting of William McClintock, Elijah Odell, Milo McGlathery, L. L. Ainsworth, S. S. Ainsworth, S. B. Zeigler and J. O. Crosby, who came from the eastern counties and carried free lances, ever ready to enter the lists, either singly or in a body, as chance presented itself.
It was something more than a surmise that most of them had formed a syndicate to crush out all local lawyers who proposed to attend to their own cases without calling in their aid.
Having studied law in Dayton, Ohio, and having attended the Law School at Cincinnati, I had an exalted idea of the dignity of courts, and when I entered the district Court of Chickasaw County for the first time and saw the presiding Judge sitting beside a table with his chair tilted back and his heels resting on the top of the table, while he was whittling a pine stick with all the enthusiasm of a yankee boy, and emitting vast floods of tobacco saliva front his mouth, I felt that my ideal was not realized.
It was at this term of court that I was admitted to the Chickasaw County Bar, and had my first case in the county. It was an appeal case, my client being James Upham; L. L. Ainsworth was opposing counsel, and it was found that in the court below, both parties had forgotten one and one-half bushels of potatoes that my client had received from the other party, and that they were worth eighty cents per bushel, making a judgment against my client of one dollar and twenty cents. My client declared that this was right, and that if either of them had thought of the potatoes, he would have paid for them. Thus in my first case a righteous judgment was given.
At this term of court, F. D. Bosworth was acting clerk, George W. Reed, who had been elected clerk, being wholly incompetent. Bosworth was a young man who had received a common school education, living with his father and attending school at Butternut Ridge, near Tiffin, Ohio, and on reaching his majority, came west to grow up with the country. After arriving here be taught school and split rails, and showed that he had the spirit of success in him. As Deputy Clerk, all the business of the office fell upon him, and he entered the office with little knowledge of men, but with the vigor of youth and a sterling integrity. The fact soon became apparent that the whole of the county business had fallen into his hands, and that in fact he was the arbiter of the county, as he found appeal for direction by the County Judge.
This was a misfortune to him, for he first found it out, then felt it, and then acted it, and it took long years of stern schooling and frequent disappointments, to eradicate the manner thus acquired. His brusqueness was only seeming, for no kinder or more considerate heart ever received a place in human breast than was his. With an unimpeachable integrity, a stainless character and a loving nature, be was esteemed and beloved by all who intimately knew him. Had he studied and known more of men, his public life would have been more of a success.
As a home and family man he had few peers.
On my first visit to Bradford I met, aside from the lawyers, Andy Sample, A. W. Billings, George A. Bronson, L. Corey, Leonard Kingsley, E. A. Haskel, Levi Hubbel, D. A. Babcock, J. A. Bird, John Bird, "Stick" Dodge, Captain W. W. Foster, Deacon E. W. Woodbridge, Judge DePuy and Judge Andrews.
These were the representative element of the place, and expressed great faith in the future of the town. As to its location, it seemed that nature had exhausted herself to make a beautiful place for the town, and on paper it presented the appearance of a metropolis with its additions and depots.
Physically W.W. Foster was the most striking figure, and a bearing that made a marked man of him. Six feet three inches tall, straight as an arrow, full and robust physique, high forehead and white flowing locks, be was a true type of a physical man. In physical contrast was E. A. Haskel, five feet six inches high, small and effeminate, when standing by the side of Captain Foster the contrast was striking in the extreme. A.W. Billings was of square build, medium height, a blonde, and had the appearance of being a good liver and having it reasonably well moistened, was a rollicking, good natured fellow, and appeared to be one of the boys. Kingsley was the reverse of Billings, being dark complexioned, and bearing none of the marks of being one of the boys, but a peep behind the scenes would show that he was known to them and able to carry his part. Corey was a nervous, active man, and full of plans, which, if successfully carried out, would have made- all prosperous and himself a moneyed man. Like many another castle builder, his schemes failed to profitably materialize, and the empty buildings that absorbed his substance long stood as monuments of his impracticability and along their halls echoed his lost hopes.
None could meet the men of that day without recalling the pleasant smile, affable word and greeting of Deacon Woodbridge. While not one of the boys, he was on good terms with them, being entirely void of any sanctimonious bearing, and was greeted by all as a social, good natured and genial companion. I learned to like him for his kindness and friendship in after years. After the removal of the county seat to New Hampton there was little business, and as I had married and had a family to support, found that I must supplement my professional fees.
After closing my business in court, I went to work on a job I had in hand. The Prosecuting Attorney desiring to leave, the court appointed me to supply his place before the Grand Jury. The Sheriff failing to find me, went to Deacon Gardner to make inquiry. Deacon Gardner was foreman of the Grand Jury, and he told the Sheriff that I was probably digging a well for Gurley. Deacon Woodbridge was a member of the Grand Jury, and when be heard the remark, be asked, "Does he dig wells?" He was assured by Deacon Gardner that I did everything I could find to do, when not employed with professional work. To this Deacon Woodbridge remarked, "Can't kill him, can't kill him. I will go home and tell the boys it's no use, they can't kill him," and from that hour he was my warm personal friend, and many a dollar his influence put in my pocket. His memory is still green, and I cherish it lovingly and gratefully.
George A. Bronson was the proprietor of the "Bronson House," and if he was to have judgment passed upon him in modern slang phrase, he would be called "cranky." If he liked a man, no place was too good for him, and no labor too great to make him comfortable, but if he took an aversion to him, such guest would be the last served or looked after, and if there was complaint it would not call forth soft and soothing words, but a deluge of expletives, he not always bearing in mind the third commandment, although at heart, he was a kindly man.
"Stick" Dodge was a marked character, being deformed, not more. than four feet high, mostly body, with little stumps of fingers, and the keeper of a saloon that he run under the euphonious name of "Pig's Eye." His saloon was headquarters of all the fast men and boys, and the earnings of many a day's work found a place in his till, and many a pocket book was lighter when it left than when it entered his place of business, although it was reported that he never allowed a game of chance to be played unless limited. This was not so much from principle, as for self protection, for if there was no limit, there was chance for exhaustion on a single bet, and in that event there would be but one treat, thus reducing his patronage, or relying on trust.
Had I come directly from home surroundings, I should have been taken by surprise, but as I had spent a, year in Texas, I was prepared to expect departures from my early training, and I met it philosophically, hoping that the time would come when there would be a change more in accordance with the, decalogue. In recalling the votaries of the "Pig's Eye," I think of none who have filled places of honor and trust, but many who have ended in poverty and shame.
D. A. Babcock was a genial and popular young man, and when the war of the rebellion broke out, showed his patriotism by entering the great army of volunteers as soon as lie could disguise his misfortune by securing a glass eye, so as to give him the appearance of being eligible. A good fighter, a faithful comrade and true hearted man, his example might have been an inspiration and his life a success.
When inspired by his surroundings, there would flash from him glints of oratory that would thrill and amaze, but they only showed what might have been, had he not been weighted by an indolence that was the bane of his life. Nor was this indolence confined to his mental action, but it run through every fiber of his being, until from utter inanition his mental power was dwarfed, material prosperity destroyed, moral preceptions weakened, until, without ambition, without money, home or friends he was buried by charity beneath Carolina's sunny skies. He had held a position on the Capitol police, until a change of administration took it from him, and at the time of his death he was looking after an interest lie bad in some mining property in South Carolina.
At this term of court A. E. Bigelow was Sheriff, having been elected as the successor of Andy Sample, who had been elevated to that position at the organization of the county. There were many suits pending against Andy Sample, and in serving the processes of court, the new Sheriff had levied upon and persisted in retaining property claimed by Sample, and many were the threats made against the man who bad the temerity to come in contact with the terrorizing force of Sample and his friends. Bigelow was small of stature, close knit and wiry; and as he had been a "49er" who had been overland to California, and had the experience and schooling incident to the gold fields in their early days, was silent and unrelenting in his performance of duty, they took counsel of prudence, and there were no overt acts of violence as had been threatened.
Subsequently A. E. Bigelow was elected Treasurer and Recorder of the county. At the expiration of his term. of office, be started the Chickasaw County Bank, and run the same until it was merged with the Bank of New Hampton, the consolidated banks becoming the First National Bank of New Hampton. Mr. Bigelow has been Director or President of this bank since its organization, and has proved himself a successful business man. There has been some droll experiences in his dealings with some of the old pioneers that would disturb the equanimity of most men.
There was a little hotel kept in Chickasaw, and, being a guest, desiring supper and breakfast, have been requested to advance the amount of my bill so that they might purchase supplies at the grocery with which to supply the table. When Bigelow left his farm and moved to town he bought out this hotel, and with the anxiety of a parting host, the former landlord took him aside and in an anxious manner made the parting request that the new landlord should not allow the hotel to lose its standing and reputation while in his hands.
Andy Sample was a character of note in those days, and was connected with every move that had for its object the advancement of Bradford's interests. Without an education, he was possessed of great executive ability and a spirit of adventure and audacity that, counting results, amply compensated for lack of education.
Not being particularly trammeled with conscientious scruples, he was a terror to his opponents and a power for his friends, in a new country. His test of a man's grit was peculiar to himself. At the first term of court that L. L. Ainsworth attended in the county, there had been an action for assault and battery commenced against Sample, in which G. W. Howard had been acting for the prosecution, and the threats of the accused against him were dire and numerous, and Howard instructed his client to employ Ainsworth. On the trial, Ainsworth was severe in his remarks on the defendant, and secured his conviction. This kind of fearlessness pleased Sample, and he went over to the old store building where court was being held, and called Ainsworth out and told him that he wanted to see him back of the building. It looked rather ominous, and having heard about his threats against Howard, be began to suspect that his time bad come. When they had retired behind the building Sample asked him if his name was Ainsworth. It was no time to dodge, and Ainsworth said that was his name. At this Sample said: "My name is Sample, Andy Sample, and you will find my name on the docket in here and in Floyd county, and wherever you find my name on the docket I want you to write your name opposite to it as my attorney. Do you hear?"
Thus began the long continued relation of client and attorney that only ended when Sample left the county. In speaking of it, Sample said: "When I heard that little crooked nosed cuss going for me, I made up my mind to have him." Sample, after he was elected to the office of Sheriff, made the first arrest in the county. A hog buyer bad been up the Cedar, and as lie advanced down the valley, his drove increased faster than his purchases were made. Complaint was made to Hank Johnson, who had just been elected the first Justice of the Peace of the county, and turning to Sample, said: "Sheriff, arrest that man at once for stealing hogs." Armed with this command, Sample Started at once, and in due time presented the person of the offender before the Justice.
Here the court found itself in a dilemma, for it had no Code, and had never seen a trial. Rising to the occasion and assuming an attitude of dignity, and in his most impressive manner, he prepared to act in the case. Saluting the prisoner, he commanded: "Stand up, sir; takeoff your hat, sir, hold up your right hand, sir; " and then he proceeded to administer the following oath; "You solemnly swear by the uplifted hand of Almighty God that you didn't intend to steal those hogs as you hope to be damned." The prisoner assented by bowing his head and received the parting words of the court: "Well, you can go this time, but turn the hogs loose and don't steal any more." Thus ended the first trial in the county.
After Sample was elected Sheriff of the county, he was sent to Iowa City, the then capital of the State, to lobby and look after the interests of Bradford before the Legislature. After his arrival, the lobby soon learned his business, and that his legislative experience was limited, and prepared to practice upon his credulity. At this time much was made of the organization of the lobby, it going through all the forms of the House of Representatives.
After its organization, with "Old Timber" (J. W. Woods) as Speaker, he holding that position by prescription, having held it since the State was organized, Sample was introduced, and one of the wags gave him a good send-off, and recommended him to the kind consideration of the House. Supposing, as be did, that it was the real House of Representatives, he commenced to open up his subject, and was soon encountering a crossfire of questions for which he was not prepared. After standing it as long as he could, he turned upon his tormentors, and assuming a tragic and threatening attitude, said: "Which, I am the High Sheriff of the Northwest, and if you insult me I will cut your damned hearts out."
Thinking that perhaps they had caught a Tartar, they induced him to let some other person present his claims, and referred his matters to a committee.
At the first meeting of court at Bradford, when any business was done, the Grand Jury being called, the officer whose duty it was to examine them as to qualification, was directed by the Court to proceed. Taking the Code and turning to the section which says that they must be citizens of the United States, of the State and county; that they must be endowed with their faculties, such as bearing and sight, and must be of good moral character, he proceeded to ask the questions seriatim.
Having asked as to citizenship, he proceeded with " Can you all hear? " " Can you all see?" and receiving affirmative answers, he proceeded, "Are you all of good moral character? " At this, Andy Sample, who was a member of the panel, turned to the Judge, and with a look that no other person could give, and twisting his mouth', said: "Judge, that is a d--d tough one;" then assuming a dignified look, exclaimed: "Yes, but that is the first time I ever heard anybody swear to it." The roar of laughter that followed indicated that the spectators saw the point.
One of the historic characters of that day was Judge Lyons, who had been elected the first Judge of the connty .
At the time of his election, he was living on Crane Creek, eking out a precarious living at farming, supplementing it by trapping. He bad formerly lived in Bradford, and was selected as the Bradford candidate for that reason, they believing that through his old acquaintances be could be brought to attach himself to their interests. He was a man of no education or public experience, and had no special fitness for the place, not only lacking in education, but in nearly all the requisites necessary for an executive officer, except honesty. Of medium height, sandy hair, florid complexion, deeply freckled, ungainly gait, he was probably the last man in the county that a stranger would have selected for any official position. When once in office, he showed his constituents that he meant, to be honest, and while his sympathies were with the party that elected him, he would not knowingly, be used as a tool of any faction. He left the office carrying with him a respect for his honest intentions, although many thought he bad been misled into certain official acts, notably the throwing out of the returns from North Washington township and refusing to count them ., that was in and of themselves, wrong. He left the office carrying with him a respect for his honest intentions, under most trying circumstances, when few men of his experience would have stood as firm.
After the close of his official career, he worked at his trade, that of carpenter, and helped to frame the old court house at Now Hampton. The munificent salary of two hundred and fifty dollars a year had not left him in opulence.
In an early day the road from Bradford to West Union, was around by the Bordwell ford, on section twenty-nine, in Dayton township, thence past D. A. Jackson's, two miles west of New Hampton, past the Brink House two miles northeast of New Hampton, fording Plumb Creek at the old Indian trail on section three township 95-12, via Tom Staples and the Vermont House to West Union. The Baileys had started a town one mile north of where Forest City was located and named it Milan.
D. A. Babcock and E. A. Haskel, of Bradford, were appointed a committee to go over the route and report as to the practicability of running a road on a direct line from Bradford to West Union, and they reported such a route feasible and against making a deflection northward to Milan. On hearing this, the Baileys threw up their Milan scheme and started a new town which they called Forest City, and on the proposed new road. When Judge Bailey was in office, he made heavy appropriations out of the county fund to grade the flats and sloughs and bridge the Wapsie and other streams on this line. Between Forest City and the Wapsie was one of the most impassable sloughs in the county, travelers being obliged to go far to the north to pass it. The contract for its grading and bridging was given to Bronson, of Bradford, and there was much talk of getting out an injunction to restrain the Judge from thus using the public funds. When Judge Dore, who was elected as a northern man, came in, he made like appropriations for bridging and grading between New Hampton and Chickasaw and in Deerfield township. Under Bailey no county money was expended on roads and bridges in the north part of the county. There had long been a road known as the "Old Military Road," running from Ft. Atkinson westward through the north part of the county via Jacksonville, Pettybone and Osage westward, which was an outlet for the western counties.
There was a town platted in North Washington township, on the south half of section thirty-three, township ninety-seven, by a man by the name of J. T. Donovan, and was named by him St. Peters. He prepared a of the State, showing this town with two railroads running through it, and placing a coffee mill and miniature house, which was thirty inches by forty inches and three stories high, upon the town site, marking one "Grist Mill" and the other "Hotel," he represented one as being a grist mill in good running order, and the other as a commodious hotel. He secured lithographs of the public buildings of St. Peters of Minnesota, and these figured as public buildings on the margin of his .
Lots were sold to eastern parties, under these representations, and the whole plat finally closed out under a lottery scheme, every ticket drawing a prize. Many a victim came to look after and inquire about his purchases, and the mails were loaded with inquiries as to the value of these lots. I recall one man who was a tailor from Philadelphia, who came in person to look after his purchase, who would not take, our representations as to the lots, but decided to go up and see for himself. On his return he had the coffee mill, saying, "I have got that d-d old mill that fooled me." Having secured a tax title of this land, and as the plat did not meet with the requirements of the law and never was dedicated, I bought the land of Donovan and became the owner of the city. Donovan told me that he made seven thousand dollars out of this steal.
Hastings and Podunck were two other towns started for the sale of lots, but the preparations were not so elaborate, and they failed to find as many victims as did St. Peters. Among the victims of the Hastings plat was Ernest Werner, who gave two hundred dollars for a lot and was never able to find it.
After I had set the boilers for the steam saw mill, built a small brick outbuilding for Hiram Bailey, and built a chimney for Joseph George, I opened up my first office in the county. I had received my library from Ohio, consisting of Blackstone's Commentaries, Greenleaf on Evidence, Adams' Equity, and Gould and Stephen on pleading. I secured the Session Laws and Code of Iowa. My office furniture consisted of a dry goods box, which served as a table and book case, two chairs, and a wooden candlestick of my own make.
The first partisan convention held in the county was in Jacksonville, in June, 1857, when the Republican party was organized. Gideon Gardner, F. D. Bosworth and myself rode over from New Hampton with David Edwards. At this meeting W. E. Beach was elected chairman and J. H. Powers secretary. An executive committee was formed of one from each township, and Hazard Green of Jacksonville, was chosen chairman of this central committee. This was my first visit to Jacksonville, and I met as her principal citizens W. E. Beach, Hazard Green, J. H. Dickens, Charles Pitch, Allen Vaughn, J. P. North, J. Cole, H. H. Brakeman, M. L. Palmer and Frank Cruver.
Hazard Green was Jacksonville's first settler, in the village, and was keeping a hotel in a log house, and being on the Old Military Road from Ft. Atkinson to Osage, was full of customers. He was an ardent Baptist and preached sometimes. He was a man of sterling integrity, and although of limited educational accomplishments, his influence among the new settlers was second to none. Of medium height, dark complexion, and a full face adorned with a large mouth that spread across his face when he smiled, and accustomed to the privations and hardships of a new country, he was a true type of a successful pioneer. Like most men who have kept to the front as settlements moved westward, he had received local political honors, and he always pointed out the practicability of any measure that he was advocating by declaring, "That's the way we did in Illinois when I was a member of the Board of Supervisors."
W. E Beach was living in a shell of a frame house, and was an enthusiast as to the future of the town. He had a lithographed plat of the town of Jacksonville, Illinois, after which they had patterned, and he pointed out where churches, school houses, and other public buildings were to be located, and the probable route of the railroad that would pass through from east to west. As I subsequently became acquainted with him, I found him well informed, genial, when in good humor, irascible under small provocation, and a perfect pattern of honesty, as was fully shown during his two terms as Treasurer and Recorder of the county. He bad been a member of the House of Representatives in the State from which he came, and was well informed as to passing political events. Anyone familiar with his besetting, weakness could tell at once when he bad been annoyed, and if they took counsel of prudence, they let him alone at such times. This petulance, under slight provocation, was the bane of his life, and he often sat in sackcloth and ashes, as lie recalled and regretted what he had said to others. Unwilling to do, or even think, a wrong to others, we learned to overlook this weakness, and measure him for his true worth.
J. H. Dickens had come from Jacksonville, Illinois, and the town of Jacksonville was platted and named after that town. Dickens was a Methodist minister and had considerable of the gift of eloquence, and commenced gathering a congregation, to which he preached a part of the time. He was by nature a disputant, and to battle for his creed was to him meat and drink, and seldom a visitor left him without first having received a printed sermon that had been prepared by him, with the assurance that if it was read with care, he would be convinced. Receiving a copy, I perused it with some care, and found it divided into paragraphs, each paragraph culminating in a declaration that the point made could not be doubted. I am led to speak of this, as it is a pretty good index of his character.
Charles Fitch was a good-natured, overgrown boy, and was not calculated to make a very large mark in the world, but he was a very good school teacher, teaching the town school, and received the honor of being elected County Surveyor. J. Cole was the son-in-law of J. H. Dickens, also taught school, and was the echo of his father-in-law.
Julius P. North was a young unmarried man, a tinner by trade, and divided his time between his business and looking after his interests with her who subsequently became his estimable wife.
At this convention speeches were made by W. E. Beach, Gideon Gardner, Hazard Green and J. H. Powers. In the remarks of Mr. Gardner, allusions were made that were destined to figure in the following election.
Jacksonville was a prospective aspirant for the county seat, and the Rev. J. H. Dickens was the principal manager of her interests, and there was more than a suspicion as to his loyalty to New Hampton. In fact, it was a pretty loud rumor that he was figuring with the Bradford interest. In his speech Mr. Gardner remarked that "there might be the lying spirit of an Achan present, desiring to hide some of the spoils in his own tent." This allusion was so pointed that it was plain who was meant, and it was answered by the reverend gentleman with much spirit, and had it not been for the intercession of mutual friends, there might have been another fallen Achan, or an immolated deacon.
At the fall election these remarks were used with much effect against what were known as the New Hampton candidates, and F. D. Bosworth, who was the candidate for the Bradford side, received a heavy vote in Jacksonville, without which his Opponent, Wesley Swazee, would have been elected.
About this time I attended my first funeral in the county. It was the daughter of Vinal Thayer, who lived two miles east of Forest City, on the north side of the road, in a log house about twenty rods north of the road. The deceased was a very fleshy woman. There was no lumber out of which to make the coffin, except some poplar boards that had been sawed out of poles, and were not edged. Richard Elliott and myself went to work making the coffin. We set up posts and then sided it up like the siding of a house, and made a pitched roof for a cover. After it was done we attempted to stain it with logwood, but the dye uniting with the sap, turned it a bright yellow. This did not seem to be in character, and we took wood coal and rubbed it over, and thus modified its color. After it was thus colored we were furnished a piece of beeswax by Mrs. George, and we rubbed it over with that for varnish. The necessities of the hour were thus met.
During the summer of 1857, the roads were almost impassable. A stage route was established from West Union to Bradford. It was one of the old Walker Mud Wagons, with canvas sides and top, drawn by four horses, which were driven by "Sandy." It was years before I knew that his name was Honneywell, and he is now living in Dresden township on the road that was the stage route. He is now a prosperous farmer and likes to review the exploits of early days. The roads became so bad that they were obliged to build a drag large enough to take on the stage and Allen hitched on his breaking team of eight yoke of oxen and drew it across the Wapsie flats to Tingleys.
Bradford was the center of the southern faction, and the north having no town in which to meet and organize, was forced to canvass among individuals, as to the course to pursue. The north finally concentrated on J. C. H. Miller, who lived on Crane Creek, in what is now Jacksonville, as their leader and standard bearer. He had already run as the candidate against Judge Lyon, and would have received the certificate of election if Washington township bad not been thrown out by the canvassers, for some claimed informality. DePuy was run as the Bradford candidate, as it was proposed not to elect another to the office of County Judge, unless it was first known the extent of reliance that could be put upon his official acts, in their interests.
He was a farmer and there were no antagonisms that would tend to weaken his candidacy. He had a common school education, and was a strong partisan of Bradford. When weighted with his official oath, be found that the free imaginings of the partisan must be curtailed under the obligation, and after carrying the honors for a few months, he resigned on the 7th day of April, 1856. Many were the surmises as to the cause of his so soon leaving the office, but from subsequent events it finally became the settled opinion that be was prompted by his former supporters, who felt that he had not come up to their expectations in carrying out their plans.
In April, I857, after the commissioners had located the county seat at New Hampton and the Clerk and Judge had their offices there and M. B. Taylor, as Deputy Treasurer and Recorder, came over from Bradford and did some business for the Treasurer and Recorder, but Howard himself remained in Bradford the balance of his term of office, and kept the Treasurer's books.
I came to New Hampton the day the county offices came, and opened an office in the back room of Gurley's Store. I remained until the newly elected officers took possession, and Bosworth having been elected Treasurer and Recorder, resigned his position as Deputy Clerk and I was appointed in his place. I remained to fill that position for one year, the county offices being, for the first part of the year, in the front room of David Edward's house. At this time, the County Clerk was ex-officio clerk of the County Court, and as such, had charge of matters under Judge Bailey's administration. The Judge would come up from his home once a month and ask what there was to do, and would sign all the records that had been prepared by the clerk, and proceed to sign all kinds of blanks, so that whatever was required might be made out over his signature, and would sign a lot of blank legal paper so that anything wanted that was not covered by the blanks signed, might be made out on this paper. After signing warrants in blank sufficient to run the county for another month, his work was clone. This was the manner the office was run while Bosworth acted as Clerk, and as I look back, it seems a loose way of doing business, and while we could not say "I am a bigger man than Old Grant," we could say that we were bigger men than the County Judge." This method of doing business seems like temptation, when viewed in the light of modern experience, but you must recollect that there were not so many American financiers in Canada then, nor was the highway to that country worn smooth by being traveled by men who could not withstand temptation.
It has been with much self complacency that I have recalled these acts of confidence and trust of my most active and persistent opposers, and these acknowledgments of my personal integrity have done much to draw the sting and buffer the blows of my opposers, and what would have otherwise have been annoying and painful, has only elicited a smile.
When the records were removed to New Hampton, the county officers and myself boarded with Harvey S. Hill, he having purchased the, old log house of Gideon Gardner that stood on the back of the lot where the Babcock building now stands, and opened it as a hotel.
At this time New Hampton was about as desolate a town as could be found. There was not travel enough to mark a trail where the roads ought to be, and they resorted to the expedient of hiring Zalmuna Morton to take his breaking team and draw a log where the wheels ought to run, so as to give it the appearance of being a traveled road.
During the summer Hill sold out to Dan Shook, and he commenced to build the old frame hotel which was burned in 188I. Shook only erected the central portion of the hotel proper and the kitchen. He was succeeded by Don A. Jackson, who sold to W. A Gardner. Mr. Gardner added the west main portion of two stories, and afterwards sold to John Dixon, who built upon the east side, moved the kitchen to the rear of the Gardner addition, and extended the main part to the rear.
C. M. Webster settled on the northeast quarter of section four, township ninety-five, range thirteen, now Dayton township, and wanting to have a place to receive his mails, made application for a post-office, and one was given him under the name of Beaver City and he was appointed postmaster. When there was a postoffice located at New Hampton, there was no further need of an office at Beaver City, as no mail came to the office except to the postmaster and that through the New Hampton office, and he had to carry it himself, and it was just as easy to get the mail when directed to that office, as to take it home and be obliged to make reports to Washington. I was informed that the office was to be discontinued, and I requested that in place of discontinuing it, that he appoint Hugh Johnston of Obispo, his Deputy, and then resign in his favor. This was done and the office was removed fourteen miles to Johnston's residence, and the northeast part of the county supplied with a postoffice, without the knowledge of the Postoffice Department at Washington. In time another man wanted to be postmaster and a petition was sent in asking the establishment of a postoffice in Utica township, a new township formed out of a part of Obispo, and the prayer of the petition was granted and the postoffice named Zillo. This left a superfluous postoffice, and I again put Beaver City postoffice on its travels, by having T. G. Staples appointed Deputy. In time there was a desire to have a postoffice in Stapleton township by the name of the town, and this being secured, my peripatetic postoffice had no new fields to enter, so it died.
Rev. C. M. Webster was a Methodist minister and delivered the first Sermon preached in New Hampton. The following letter which appeared in the New Hampton Courier January 23d, 1867, explains itself:
In these times it may be interesting to some, to know the pioneer efforts to establish Christian privileges in New Hampton. In August, 1855, I first came into Chickasaw county, stopping with J. D. Colt who had built one-half mile north of the present village of New Hampton.
David Edwards had preceded me about two weeks with his family, and had a small plank house up and partly enclosed a little east of the present tavern. A Mr. Jarrard was also putting up a log house for entertainment in the new plat of New Hampton. By consultation it was agreed that we would have preaching services. We held them in the room of David Edwards -- one end being supplied with blankets for siding. I came with my family in October following. We missed religious privileges, and although I ministered occasionally, yet we felt the necessity of an organization. I sought out the Rev. Wm. Holbrook who lived at St. Charles, and had charge of all these regions. He came and organized a class at New Hampton, holding services at the tavern. Such was the beginning of an organization which has always had a being. Some of the first members still reside here.
C. M. WEBSTER.
The hotel spoken of here was the log one, subsequently kept by Harvey S. Hill and Dan Shook.
Among the things that surprised me in my Iowa experience, were the breaking teams, with plows carrying beams sixteen feet long, eight inches square, at their largest places, and drawn by eight and ten yoke of oxen. The furrow turned was from twenty-eight to thirty-two inches wide and the forward end of the plow beam rested on a pair of "trucks" the wheel running in the furrow being a little the largest, the beam being raised and lowered with a lever, the rear end of which was set and held in place by a pin running through the lever and two uprights at the rear end of the beam. The thickness of the furrow could be controlled by this lever, and it varied from two inches, on smooth prairie, to such depth as the conformation or character of the ground demanded.
In approaching a grove of small timber, no halt was made, but the lead oxen, which were generally selected as being especially adapted to this service, would stride the young growth and bend them down, and if too large they would be lopped with an ax, the plow would be let down so as to cut deeper, and under the whip, every ox would settle himself for a pull and I have seen poplar trees four inches in diameter go down like grass. Of course only very small oaks could undergo this treatment, for they have a very firm and hard tap root and it was necessary to grub them before breaking. Hazel brush that was high enough to hide the team from view, was not considered an obstruction, and was rolled under as readily as prairie grass. These great breakers have gone, having served their day, and only exist in the memory, but it would gladden my eyes to again see these great teams turning over the virgin soil.
The hotel accommodations of those days were not very commodious and no one could fully appreciate the old saying that "an omnibus would always hold one more," until after being a guest in a new country hotel.
Generally the upper story-mostly a halfstory -- was all in one room and this was called the" School Section," taking its name from its figurative resemblance to the government school section, which was number sixteen, these rooms being supposed to contain sixteen beds.
The capacity of a hotel was just begun to be taxed when the beds were full, for there was still the floor and tables, and I have known boards to be laid on the stove to make beds on. Neither was the extraordinary capacity of a house confined to a hotel, for David Edwards of New Hampton, with a family of sixteen, wintered in a house fourteen feet by sixteen feet and one story high, and extended hospitality to many a traveler. This house was only sided up and was unplastered, and one of the children froze a finger while in bed. Mr. Shoffler had a house in Richland township, eight feet by ten feet, and the table had to be put outside before they could make up their bed. This was a palace compared to some of the places in which some of the early settlers were forced to stay. This kind of life was much harder on the women than on men, and the remark of a close observer that " a new country was hell on women and oxen," was literally true. Most emigrants spent their first years in Iowa at the age when the wife must reasonably expect to put on the cares of the maternal relation, and these women, having left home and friends, and without any of the auxiliaries of civilization to aid them in their hour of trial, but with an accumulation of cares and responsibilities, grew prematurely old, as a natural sequence of such demands upon their vitality and strength. The sacrifices, that these women have made, the lives that have been expended, the hearts that have bled none can tell, but there is much of woman's life that has entered into and become a part of these homes that are now being enjoyed by their children and grand children, and their memories should be kept green, and if living. their declining years made peaceful and happy.
Unknown in public life, unrecorded in public records, yet women have been the heart and soul of our development and growth.
Antedating the railroad, there was a heavy freighting business along the old military road running, via Ft. Atkinson and Jacksonville, thus on westward via Pettybones and Osage into the western counties.
Teamsters usually went in gangs for mutual help and company, and nearly every house on the route kept travelers. Of course these teamsters became acquainted with the peculiarities of every stopping place.
On one of these trips, a new teamster had joined them, and the snow was deep and the drifts heavy, and it was late when they reached their rendezvous for the night. When they had taken care of and fed their horses they went to the house to partake of a bountiful supper that the good woman of the house had prepared. When seated at the table and the matron had poured the coffee, she commenced to ask each one if he would have milk in his coffee. This question was answered in the negative by all the old teamsters, but when it came to the new man he responded, "If You please." At this she brought forth the maternal fount and dextrously commenced to deposit the lacteal fluid into his coffee. Seeing this, he hastily exclaimed, "No, no, no; it sours on my stomach." He ever after went by the sobriquet of "Sour Stomach."
The first convention for the nomination of county officers, that I attended, was in the fall of I857. The convention was held in New Hampton in the lower story of Gurley's unfinished store building.
The fight was between the north and the south. The first struggle was on the basis of representation. If the basis was on the vote cast at the preceding election, as was intended by the south, then the south would be in the majority, but if the vote was to be an additional one for each township, as claimed by the north, then the north would be three in the majority. Bradford was on hand, and just at the hour of organization nominated one of their number as chairman and at once declared him elected. Then came the question of township representation, and when the roll was called, the presiding officer ruled that none of the representatives from townships could vote, and when this ruling was appealed from, he made the same ruling on the right to vote on the appeal. Of course that left the south masters of the situation. At this the northern delegates withdrew, and going to a lumber pile that had been drawn to erect a house for Deacon Gardner, it being the house now just south of the Court House square, they organized by electing Edwin Cudworth chairman. The southern wing nominated Lorenzo Bailey, County Judge, F. D. Bosworth, Recorder and Treasurer, Fred Padden, Sheriff, and C. M. Webster, Surveyor. The northern wing nominated J. C. H. Miller, County Judge, Wesley Swazey, Treasurer and Recorder, A. E. Bigelow, Sheriff, and Henry Shaffer for Surveyor. Owing to the treachery of Jacksonville the southern candidates were elected. This was undoubtedly due to the figuring of the Rev. J. H. Dickens to bring out Jacksonville as a rival for the county seat. The Bradford men used the argument that if it was to go north, it ought to go to a place that was dry enough to allow of the building of a town, and as New Hampton was so wet that it would be impossible to build anywhere only on a little knoll, it ought to go to Jacksonville, and thus practiced upon the credulity of its voters, while to the south they held that as but one town could run at an election, Jacksonville could be most easily beaten, beside it would divide the north. Thus it will be seen that political taffy had an early growth in the county, and sometimes I have the feeling that it become deeply rooted and has not been entirely eradicated yet.
Edwin Cudworth, who was elected chairman of what was known as the "Board Pile Convention," was a man of rotund appearance, and upon whom official honors had not been lavishly bestowed, although he had often intimated that the county could not do better than to elect him.
Reared in Vermont, retaining the proverbial Yankee twang in exaggeration, jovial and credulous, he was an ingredient that could illy be spared in a new country, and was a perfect specimen of Dicken's Mark Tapley. The pranks that were played upon him, and the tax upon his credulity only need to be recalled, to bring a blossoming smile upon the faces of the "Old Chickasaw Boys."
In the winter of I857 there was much gathering of logs at the sawmills, and it was more a question of team and ability to do the work, than title to domain, that measured ones supply at the mill, and owners of timber lots became somewhat exercised as to their rights, as against trespassers. There was an oak tree noted for its size, growing upon the land of Dr. Sam Carpenter, Jr., and W. W. Birdsell and Thompson Bailey decided to appropriate it. It was over four and one-half feet in diameter, and it took them over half a day to prepare it for loading. When they rolled it upon their sled, it broke the sled to pieces. Not to be baffled, they went to Smith's and secured another sled and after much labor, landed it at the saw mill. They had met Hiram Bailey on their way to the mill, and he having Carpenter's timber in charge, took the back track and found where the log came from. Just as they were finishing unloading the log, Bailey rode up and asked the boys where the log came from and who it belonged to. They took in the situation and both declared that they did not know, that they had hauled it in so they could say that they had delivered the largest log ever delivered at the mill. He told them that it came off of Carpenter's land, when they proposed to have it sawed and give the lumber to Rev. N. R. George, a Baptist minister, who was a brother-in-law of Bailey, and was then building a house. Seeing that it was to be used for a righteous purpose, and from entirely disinterested motives, Bailey consented and the lumber was delivered to the Rev. and went into his house, it making about two thousand feet of boards. I afterwards bought the house and moved it north of New Hampton, where it is now used as a farm house. This house was moved seven and one-half miles in one day, using twenty four yoke of oxen. I bought a house that had been built for the father of Hiram Bailey, which was located on the Wapise flats, sixteen feet by twenty, with twelve feet posts, and sided with oak siding, and moved the same to New Hampton, and it was my home for fourteen years. It was in this house that I received Governors and United States Senators, and embarrassed my young wife by necesitating her to cook in the only room in the house, and in the presence of our guests. This house was also moved seven and one-half miles in one day.
There were many stories about adventures in stealing timber in those early days. There was a Mr. H. W. --- living in Chickasaw, who had a fine piece of timber, and the boys laid plans to secure a part of it.
Going to the owner, in confidence they told him that they knew where they could get some fine logs, but as they had no team, they could not avail themselves of their knowledge. They proposed to cut the logs and help him load, if he would draw to the halves. He readily assented, and they took him around through the brush so that he did not know his whereabouts, and for two days he hauled logs. On Sunday he thought he would go out and look after his own timber, when to his surprise he found that he had been stealing off his own land.
The Bradford interests had secured A. J. Felt to start a. paper, and the northern interests had secured Isaac Watson to start one in Jacksonville. Felt was a young man who had learned his trade while with, and had been connected with the North Iowa Times, a paper published by Colonel Richardson, at McGregors Landing. When I first saw Felt, he was a slim dandy looking young man, and was wearing a circular cloak jauntily thrown over his shoulders, and would to-day impress one as being a "dude." He was a democrat in politics, but started a neutral paper under the name of The Cedar Valley News, but it bore a tinge of the politics of its editor. He proved to be a journalist of superior ability in catching the popular ear, and although surrounded with little out of which to make a newspaper, in its modern sense, he added to his scant material, a vivacity and wit that challenged interest, and his paper was much sought after. He had a wonderful preception of passing events, and a full appreciation of the ludicrous, and a new country was indigenous of circumstances that gave free scope to his facile pen, and no number of his paper was without some example of his power in this line.
While at times be trenched upon doubtful ground as to the proprieties, yet we overlooked these indiscretions, and looked with interest for each issue. His ability to write was supplimented with a readiness as a speaker, to respond at short notice, and in a vein that captivated and made enjoyable, although some of his conclusions did not follow as a sequence from his premises. With a sparsely settled country, and with a population largely engaged in making new homes and fighting the wolf from the door, there was little chance to make a newspaper self-supporting, and as soon as the gratuity that induced the embarkation of the enterprise was exhausted, it began to feel the blighting influence of an empty exchequer, and in a few months was sold to other parties, and Felt went into mercantile business, where he was found at the breaking out of the war of the rebellion. Having been a Douglas Democrat, he espoused the Union side and was among the first to enter the service as a volunteer, and was mustered into the service as private in Company B, 7th Iowa Infantry. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Belmont, and remained, with others, incarcerated in Southern prisons for several months, and when exchanged was a pitiable object, being scarcely more than skin and bones.
Having passed through the alembic of rebel hate, the rectifying process had distilled all Democracy out of him, and he has ever since been a Republican. He subsequently started a paper at West Union, sold out and again entered the office of the North Iowa Times, where he remained but a short time before he again embarked in another newspaper enterprise, and started the "Rough Notes" at Decorah. He remained here but a short time when he returned to Chickasaw county and started the Nashua Post. This he edited for some time, when he sold out to J. F. Grawe and bought an interest in the Waterloo Courier, which he edited until he emigrated to Kansas, where he is now (1892) Lieutenant-Governor of the State and editor of a paper. He made a full success as an editor, but while in Iowa he never attained to official trust and confidence, although a frequent aspirant, and this was largely due to a want of confidence in his sincerity, and because of his faithlessness to individuals. Many an aspirant for preferment who had trusted his cause in his keeping found, to his dismay, that he had been betrayed to his opponent, and bitter were his imprecations as be drank of the dregs of disappointment.
Isaac Watson was a square. built, middle aged man, and came to Iowa from Missouri, where he had been engaged in editing a paper. He was a reserved, quiet gentleman, with the natural instincts of a newspaper man, and while he lacked the vivacity of Felt, he published a paper that the most fastidious could not object to introduce into his family.
The same causes that 'drove' Felt out of the News, drove Watson out of the Chickasaw County Republican. He returned to Missouri in a few months, where, at the breaking out of the Rebellion he espoused the Union side, and was killed by bushwhackers. Strong in his convictions, as was shown by his being a Republican in Missouri before the war, he took aggressive ground in favor of a united country, and was sacrificed upon her altar.
At the starting of the two papers there was considerable rivalry as to which should issue first, and it becoming known that the Republican expected to start on the second Wednesday of May, the News quietly decided to issue the Tuesday before, and thus become the first paper in the county. Learning this, through M. B. Taylor, who was then a Deputy in the Treasurer and Recorder's office, and whose home was in Bradford, I started about 9 o'clock P. M. and walked to Jacksonville and gave them notice, and then walked back again, arriving in time to take breakfast, without anyone suspecting that I had been absent. As a result, of my visit the Republican was issued on the first Wednesday of May, I858, and thus became the first newspaper in the county.
Finding that Watson would be unable to continue the publication of the Republican, on the I8th day of December, I857, the " Chickasaw County Republican Association" was formed, and the following amount of stock was subscribed: F. D. Bosworth, $10; D. A. Babcock, $10; J. H. Powers, $10; W. E. Beach $10; J. Cole, $200 (turning in forty acres of land to make the payment); H. H. Brakeman, $60; G. W. Howard, $10; J. P. North, $30; Little & Wood, $50; A. Vaughn, $20, and Cruver, $20. Hazard Green was elected President of the Association, and J. H., Powers Secretary. Walter E. Beach was chosen editor, to be assisted by whoever would be willing to contribute under his censorship. Earl, one of Beach's boys, about thirteen years old, had learned to set type, and by walking over and working the press at night we issued the paper for several months, but the burden was too heavy, and the paper died.
In the meantime the history of the News was similar. Felt sold to a man by the name of Bushnell, and he, realizing that time alone would exhaust his resources, gave notice of its early demise, and a joint stock company was formed. The stockholders and subscribers of this association were: D. A. Babcock, $30; R. C Horton, $30; G. W. Howard, $30; B. E. DePuy, $20; A. W. Billings, $30; W. W. Foster, $10, Thomas Pooler, $30; Luthan Morgan, $10; L. L. Morse, $30, and A. E. Bigelow, $10. D. A. Babcock was selected as editor, and in a short time he was joined by G. M. Reynolds, a veteran editor from Pennsylvania. This arrangement ran for a time, and then it died.
Soon after entering upon my duties as County Clerk, and while the office was held in the northeast room of David Edwards' house, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, a couple rode up on horseback, with blankets and blind bridles. The woman dismounted promptly, and, giving the reins to the man, run into the office and asked if the Clerk was present who made marriage licenses. On being answered in the affirmative, she said: "That man out there wants to get one, and as he is very bashful I thought I would mention it before be came in." As suggested, when the young man came in I opened the way and commenced to fill out a marriage license. The woman remarked that they had got stuck in a slough, but left their wagon where it was, fearing that if they stayed to get it out they would be too late to get a license that night. As I came to the age of the parties, he gave his age as twenty-three. Turning to the woman, she promptly gave her name, and in place of giving her age, shook her head and looked imploringly. With a gallant impulse, I remarked. "all right, twenty-two," and left the blank unfilled. While the man was unhitching the horses, she leaned over the table and in a stage whisper, said, " thirty-five,' and I filled up the blank and delivered it to her. This couple wanted that I should marry them, but not having the authority, I directed them to Judge Bailey, who lived on the road by which they must return. By the time they bad returned to their wagon and extracted it from the slough, it was late, and in the darkness they missed the road, and about 9 o'clock in the evening they brought up at the house of Malichi Havelick. Hallooing, Havelick came to the door, and they asked if they could stay all night. An inquiry was made as to their number, and being informed that there were but two, Havelick remarked they might if they were husband and wife, for he had but one spare bed. To this remark the woman quickly responded, "we are not, but have got a license and want to be." With true western hospitality, and with a heart yearning for the welfare of humanity, he told them to come in and he would have them fixed. While supper was being prepared, Judge Bailey was sent for, but further disappointment awaited the fair couple, and on hearing the news that the Judge had gone to McGregor that morning, the poor disappointed woman burst into tears and amid heartbroken sobs, declared that she did not want to sit up all night. This was another strong appeal, and a man with Malachi's sympathies could not but be touched, and he immediately dispatched a boy for F. D. Hall, who was Prosecuting Attorney and ex-officio County Judge in his absence. Coming with haste, without any idea of this urgent call, he found to his dismay that he was expected to perform the marriage ceremony. The host arranged the couple side by side, and demanded that the officer proceed with the ceremony. As he was young, bashful, and had never acted in that capacity, and clinging to court forms, he began, "You solemnly swear" ---At this point he was overhauled by Havelick and told to marry them and not to swear them. The task was done, the ceremony completed, the goal reached and the two made one. Hall went to the house of Judge Bailey to spend the rest of the night, and the newly married couple were sent up the ladder into the loft of the log house to spend the remainder of the eventful night. The next morning while the host was commencing to build afire, he was much surprised to see two feet plant themselves on the top round of the ladder.
Shortly the bride of the night before stood by his side and with an anxious and disturbed look asked if the marriage of the night before was legal. On being asked why she asked that question, she replied that they did not take hold of hands. She was assured that it did not make any difference, and that it was just as legal as though they had. She did not appear quite satisfied, and added, " I don't feel like a married woman." The irreverant and peculiar reply of Haverlick would not appear well in print.
At another time a couple came in from the ' south and desired a marriage license, which was issued to them. This couple also desired that I marry them. I informed them that I had no authority, but as I was going their way, I would conduct them to Judge Bailey, who would marry them.
When about a mile north of where the Judge lived, we found him loading hay. The wind was blowing and his bat, hat blown off, and his shirt collar and rist-bands were unfastened. So far as ventilation was concerned, he appeared to be a success. As we came up, I accosted him and he responded with "How are you, Powers?" To this I responded and then added, "these young people have a little business with you." "Want to get married, don't they?" To this I responded that they did. "Is it all right, Powers?" I answered that I had issued a marriage license to them. At no time had the Judge stopped work, and as he placed another fork of hay and commenced treading it down, he swung around and asked them if they wanted to get married. They nodded an affirmative, and, without stopping his work, the Judge said, "All right, drive on, you are husband and wife; Powers make out the papers." I obeyed orders.
The winter of 1857-8 was cold and stormy, and the snow was very deep, and as the country was sparsely settled and New Hampton off any regular through route, there was but little to change the monotony, and it was quite a relief to have some one come in on business. The county offices had been moved from the front room of David Edwards' house as soon as the room could be finished, into the front upper room over Gurley's store. There was an unplastered room at the head of the stairs, through which they passed to enter the county office, and Powers and Bosworth put in a bed and Taylor made his on the office table.
As there was no break from the stair entrance into this room, these sleeping apartments were a little chilly, and as Taylor slept by the fire, it was his duty to get up in the morning and build a fire, and when the room was warm call those outside, when they would shake the snow off their clothing and run in and dress by the fire. The outsiders did not escape practical jokes, for one very cold morning when there was a regular blizzard, Taylor dressed, and without making a fire slipped out and went to the hotel, calling the outsiders as he went through, announcing that breakfast was ready. With a rush, Bosworth jumped barefooted into the snow, and gathering his clothing and shaking it, rushed into the office expecting to find a warm fire to dress by. It may not have been very warm, but Bosworth was, and it sounded sulphurous. We boarded with Dan Shook, and during the winter there was a snow blockade, and our landlord run out of all kinds of provision but sauerkraut and buckwheat, and for weeks these were our diet three times a day. As we were each paying four dollars a week for table board, Taylor calculated that a good sized cabbage head would bring Shook about a dollar. A traveler coming along, our landlord bought a can of oysters. and by cutting in pieces of trype that he got of Haslam, we had a great feast. During this blockade we were without mail for six weeks, and then hired a Norwegian who lived three miles south of town, by the name of John Johnson, to go to Waucoma on his snow shoes and bring the mail. His snow shoes were ten feet long and about four inches wide and turned up a little at the front end, and slipping his toes under a strap about the middle, he slid them on the surface of the snow. He carried a hoe for an alpine stick, which he could strike into the crust and retard his motion if he found himself going down hill too fast. He was gone three days, and we looked over the prairie with anxiety, and were much relieved when he put in an appearance. When we first commenced boarding with Shook he lived in a log house situated where Briggs' drug store now is, he having bought out Harvey S. Hill, who had kept it for a hotel. This Hill was a character in his day, and by reason of his notoriety as a talker and "blower, he was called "Gabriel," and claimed the right to blow his trumpet. He was something of a sport, and his running horse, "Topsy," was just fast enough to make it interesting, but not profitable.
Not being able to hire a horse my trips about the country were made on foot, and I have walked from New Hampton, to Bradford, fifteen miles, attended a lawsuit, and then walked back: again, without any dinner, for the reason that I had am empty exchequer. Having a suit to attend before Esq. Clason, who lived nineteen miles from New Hampton, in the north part of Obispo, I walked over, attended the suit, and walked back as far as Jacksonville, where I stopped at the house of W. E. Beach. He asked me if I had been to supper, and I told him that I had had neither dinner or supper. He told his boy Frank to get out the hand-mill and grind some meal, and sent Earl to build a fire, and to hurry up, as I was hungry. In due course of time there was prepared a kettle of mush, and I was served with mush and milk in a ten quart tin pan. Mrs. Beach was much embarrassed that she had no more to serve her guest, but of all the meals I have ever eaten, none ever tasted better than that pan of mush and milk. It was hospitably given, thankfully received and remembered with gratitude. After supper I walked to New Hampton, where I arrived about ten o'clock. It was pretty close times in those days, and I have seen the time when I could buy a load of wood for fifty cents, yet was obliged to carry wood on my back, from the timber, three-quarters of a mile, because I could not raise the funds to pay for a load.
M. C. Roby lived in a building about three-quarters of a mile northeast of New Hampton, was not possessed with many of this world's goods, but he had a large family of children and during the winter of I857-8 he found that it was hard work to keep the wolf from the door.
At one time he found himself without a mouthful to eat in his house, and he started out to find something. When night came he did not come, and the little ones were crying for something to eat. The house was cold and the mother decided to put them to bed to keep them warm, but they cried for food, and the mother had to whip them to make them go to bed.
In the meantime, Roby had secured half a bushel of corn, and taking it to David Edwards' "Little Giant" mill, and hitching on an old stag, he led him around until the corn was ground, and then taken on his back and carried home. When he got home they made mush and the children called up and made happy with a good meal. Roby used to say that he could hardly keep the tears back when he went to take up his little girl and found the tears still standing on her face where she had cried herself to sleep because she was hungry. Of course we that were holding official positions were not without the means to live, for we received for the first half of the term at the rate of two hundred and fifty dollars a year, and for the last half three hundred and fifty dollars. I think it was never known how the raise in the salaries came to be made. At this time the salaries were based on population of the county, and the salaries were so small, and the Judge thought that the population had increased enough to raise the salaries at least one hundred dollars, appointed M. B. Taylor to make an enumeration, and he reported that he found five more than enough. This report was very gratefully received by the officers, and they never questioned the legality of the new census. Few men at this time were able to wear an overcoat, and it was two years before I was able to own one, but wore a shawl instead.
A favorite device was to pin a bag over the shoulders, and I recall how, day after day, Tim Donavan, Sr., used to wear one, as he drove his yoke of stags from his place to the Middle Wapsie, for wood, and that amid all this hardship and labor he was always cheery, and greeted all with a pleasant word. Of keen perception, frugal and industrious, he attained an opulence and raised a family to fill places of honor and trust. He was a true type of the American Irishman, adopting in spirit, as well as in name, the country to which he had sworn allegiance, and left an inheritance for his children, not only of material substance, but above all the right idea of manhood.
On taking a trip to Chickasaw in the summer of 1857, when coming to the Middle Wapsie, I saw a rude building covered with hay, with smoke emitting from it, which indicated that it was occupied, and as I was thirsty, concluded to call and get a drink. This was my first call on Barney Tierney, who was just starting his new home, and the contrast between his hay shanty, amid a wilderness of grass, and his spacious and well furnished house, immense barns and well cultivated fields of to-day show what industry, economy and perseverance will accomplish.
The town of Chickasaw was started with a desire to develop the water power, and to build up a rival town to Bradford. John W. Taylor, of Dubuque -- Tucker being the local active agent in pushing the enterprise -- was its backer. After it had figured quite extensively on paper, a gentleman started to pay it a visit, and reaching the town site, no town appeared to materialize. Seeing a boy, be asked where Chickasaw was, and was informed that "the store is in that log house, but Tucker is down at the mill." On arriving at Chickasaw one of the most striking things that I found was the firm of Albertson, Waite & Baldwin. Albertson was six feet two inches in height, Baldwin six feet three inches, and Waite six feet seven inches. If Tucker's legs had been as long in proportion as his back, he would have outmeasured them all. On remarking as to the size of Waite's hand, "Bro." Whitmore declared that " it was as big as the hand of Providence." In those days Chickasaw was a little "loud," and Sunday was a great day for sport.
At the organization of Obispo township, J. J. Rutherford was elected one of the Justices of the Peace. Soon after his election, a young German couple came to him and wanted a divorce. Not questioning their right or his jurisdiction, he proceeded to make out the papers. When the papers were about ready to sign, the husband and wife held a conference, and as a result, told the Justice that they had looked the matter over, and as it was coming on winter, if divorced to take effect then, they would have to keep two fires, and desired the papers made out to take effect in the spring. The papers were changed as requested, and the parties left contented. It took but little to give this Justice jurisdiction. Meeting his neighbor, John Clason, he told him that lie was going to sue him next Friday, as he had been told to collect an account against him. Clason remarked, "I have paid that account and will be on hand when sued." Without further notice, on the Friday following the Justice entered judgment against Clason for the full amount of the claim. After an injunction had been served on him and the Constable who held the execution, the Justice said that Clason ought to have attended to it, for he told him he was going to sue him. He also threatened to issue papers and impeach the County Judge for issuing an injunction to restrain the collection of a judgment of his rendering, and for interfering with his court.
At the fall election of 1857 I attend my first election in Chickasaw county, although I had attended one in Allamakee county before, and as I lived in New Hampton, voted in that township. Election was held in the log house of Josephus Straw, five miles from the town. This was the last election held, away from the village. Bosworth and I walked down, and as Bosworth was running for Treasurer and Recorder, stayed to see how the election went, and found that Bosworth received two votes, his own and mine. This was as expected.
The fall term, I857, court was held in Gurley's unfinished store building, seats being improvised of rough boards laying on timbers and the Judge was elevated upon the work bench. He had a stand furnished by Gurley for a desk. I was acting as Clerk and used one end of the work bench for a table. Judge Samuel Murdock presided and made a political speech in the evening.
G. R. Rowley was elected a Justice of the Peace at the organization of Chickasaw township, and was a marked character in his day, and was only exceeded in rotundity, in the township, except by his neighbor Cudworth. With a limited education, large frame and full abdomen, easy going and good natured, and smoking a corn cob pipe with an air of dignity, he was a typical specimen of a new country squire. With a full sense of the dignity of his position, reckless of technicalities and precedent, ignoring legal rules and untrammeled by the law of evidence, in coming to conclusions he appealed to his innate feeling of justice and common sense, and results were generally right, and was looked upon as one of the reliable men of the county. Too easy going and careful of over exertion to accumulate a fortune, he was happy with his large family of boys, and was satisfied with very plain fare, but when his country called for volunteers to defend her integrity, he was rich in material, and gave the largest number of any family in the-county, sending five.
While a trial was in progress before him, a couple presented themselves to be married. The Justice was nothing loth, but there were unseen difficulties, but they were finally overcome by his Honor keeping his back to the wall as he sIid into position, thus keeping from view the catastrophe that had befallen the rear of his pants.
The location of the village of New Hampton was owing to its being the geographical center of the county and not for any natural advantages it possessed. It received its name at the hands of a New Hampshire man, Osgood Gowen, who thus commemorated his native town amid the hills of the old Granite State by giving its name to this prospective town. There had been a town of four blocks laid out in the northwest corner of the southwest quarter of section seven, in township ninety-five, range twelve, and named Chickasaw Center, but the plat had never been recorded. In the summer of 1856 Messrs. Gideon Gardner, Harrison Gurley and Homer Hamlin became interested in much of the land that constitutes the original plat of New Hampton, and late in the fall moved to their new homes. Gurley returned to Grinnell for a stock of goods that he had ordered from the east before his purchase in New Hampton, and moved them to Greenwood, where he spent the winter, as there was no place that could be had in New Hampton until spring. Mrs. Gurley moved into the northeast room of David Edwards' house with her little boy, "Willie," and taught school in the same room during the winter. The school room was unfinished, and as cheerless as the imagination could well picture, with the walls of prairie mud filled in between the flattened poles that served as studding. Severed from husband and friends, upon the wild, bleak prairie, sorrowing the loss of an only daughter that lay sleeping near her old home in Connecticut, this faithful woman took up her task, and with sore heart and tearful eyes, began a lifework of self denial that has endeared her to all who have known her.
Early in the history of New Hampton there was a feeling that its foundations should be laid with a firm trust in God, and this strong religious feeling was exemplified in the starting of a Sabbath school and in the holding of devotional meetings. The first sermon was preached by C. M. Webster, a Methodist, and the second by Wm. L. Coleman, a Congregationalist. Both were preached in the log house built by Jared, and which subsequently became the "Old Log Hotel." These gathering families were all professed Christians, and felt the need of organized work for the Master.
The New Hampton of 1856-7 was not the New Hampton of to-day. Where now are business blocks, churches, school houses, the homes of fond parents and joyous children, then the wild prairie grass waved in its luxuriant beauty, trailed by the wild deer and prowling wolf, and the hiding place of the prairie hen. The formative work went on. Sabbath schools, devotional meetings, and an occasional sermon by a traveling preacher, until early in 1858, when there was felt the pressing need of some organization that should bring a regular ministration of the gospel, and voice their aspirations for a higher life. A meeting was called, and on the 8th day of February met in the school house, being the log house that had been used by Gurley as a store and postoffice, at which it was resolved:
To take the preliminary steps to organize a Christian church that shall embrace all evangelical Christians.
Under said resolution a committee of seven was appointed, consisting of Gideon Gardner, David Edwards, D. Calkins, Caleb Arnold, Walter E. Beach, Dr. Wilson and J. H. Powers, to report a Basis, Articles of Faith and Covenant. W. E. Beach lived in Jacksonville and Dr. Wilson in Richland, and neither of them ever met with the committee. Of the remainder of the committee, Gideon Gardner was a Congregationalist, David Edwards a United Brethren, Denizen Calkins a Free Will Baptist, and J. H. Powers had never been a member of any church, though raised a Presbyterian.
Report of committee made on the 13th of February, and report approved and adopted. On Sunday morning, the 14th of February, 1858, the citizens met in the old log school house. The Rev. J. C. Strong, who was then pastor of the Bradford Congregational church, was present to aid in the services, and a church was organized with Gideon Gardner, Naomi Gardner, Harrison Gurley, Isabella Gurley, James D. Colt, Amelia Colt, Jason Morton and Julius H. Powers as members. At the April meeting following, Mr. and Mrs. Olney were admitted as members of the church by profession. February 6th, 1859, C. O. Case, Mrs. Mary Case, Miss Christina Morton, Mrs. Hannah Morton, John L. Vanauken, Mrs. Catherine Vanauken, Mrs. Emma Vanauken, G. A. Hamilton and Mrs. Ruth Hamilton joined.
At the organization of the church the following resolutions were adopted:
WHEREAS, In the language of John Wesley, slavery is the sum of all villainies; and,
WHEREAS, It is a notorious fact that not only individual Christians, but churches, do tolerate it; therefore,
Resolved, That we will not fellowship any person who advocates the system of American slavery.
Resolved, That we will not fellowship any individual that traffics in, or makes use of, except for mechanical, medicinal or sacramental purposes, any spirituous or alcoholic liquors.
In the summer of 1862 the church called their first regular pastor in the person of Rev. Thomas N. Skinner. Mr. Skinner took charge of the church July 5th, 1862, and remained prstor two years. While he was pastor he preached every alternate Sunday at New Hampton and Fayette. In the spring of 1863 he commenced to agitate the building of a house of worship, and being reinforced by a return from the army of a number of members, the work was begun, and with untiring zeal he worked early and late to accomplish the end. Preaching twice every Sabbath, riding forty miles every week between his charges, lie always worked from one to three days on the church building each week, and was a true type of western energy, and gave $50 out of his limited salary, besides his labor. During his pastorate be preached in the lower story of the new school house, and as the church building was not dedicated before he left, he never preached in it until his return on a visit, when he occupied the pulpit. Thus one soweth and another reapeth.
The next pastor called by the church was the Rev. Harvey Adams, who commenced his labors on the first day of December, 1866, and closed his services with the church December 27th, 1870. Mr. Adams was one of the "Andover Band," who came to the Territory of Iowa in 1843. This band, although not political, did much to give trend to public sentiments, against the dominating influence of the southern emigration that came pouring into the Territory, and largely owing to their influence and antislavery sentiment, was there a party of freedom formed, which came into power by the election of James W. Grimes as Governor.
In the spring of I858 I was appointed to survey the Swamp Lands of the county so as to prepare the evidence to present to the United States under the grant of swamp lands to the State, the same having been transferred by the Legislature to the county. Taking Zelotes Bailey, E. M. Aiken and O. O. Popleton with me, we proceeded to make the survey. While running on the east side of the county, in Stapleton township, we carne to the houses of Thomas Staples, C. A. Orvis and E. D. Filer, a kind of aristocratic settlement of good, comfortable frame houses, quite in contrast with most western homes. I found Staples a live Yankee, who had come west for business, and with energy enough for a whole township. This was the rock on which he split, allowing his energy to run away with his judgment. If he was doing well with one threshing machine. he would at once buy another. This was a type of the man, and old settlers recall how he run a farm with a large stock of cattle, threshing machines, and a hotel, and divers other kinds of business, and as a result he proved a better disburser than gatherer, and failed to make a financial success. Filer and Orvis were not in the habit of looking at life as a field calling for great physical exertion, and when the prospect of being called, into official positions appeared to depart, their agricultural zeal departed also, and they moved to greener pastures. North of Staples we came to Michael Burns, a fullsouled, jolly, hospitable Irishman, and who subsequently became a member of the Board of Supervisors, and held the office of Justice of the Peace so long, and so supreme was his contempt of precedent and the opinions of higher courts, that his court became known as "Burns' Supreme Court," and while his legal attainments were not burdensome, he had a faculty of remembering his friends.
As we passed north into township ninety-six we came to the little log house of John S. Lee. Lee was trying to make a home, and having invested his money in land, was relying upon what he could raise for living and incidental expenses. It was a struggle that required grit and perseverance. At this time postage to the east was ten cents for a letter, and so straightened was he for funds that a letter laid in his house, after it was written, for six weeks, he being unable to send it for want of money, and only succeeded when a neighbor sent a dime to town with him for tobacco, and he got trusted for the tobacco and used the money to send the letter. It was by such hardships as this, together with a rigid economy added to industry and perseverance, that he now has his elegant home, stately barns and productive acres, and has been able to give each of his children, as they left the paternal roof, a good farm and that aid that does so much towards making a successful start in life. When I see the inheritance of industry they received from their parents, crowned with success, I am led to exclaim that their worldly goods are not the richest of their inheritance.
Between Lee's and Jacksonville were Noel Gates on the east bank of Little Turkey, A. M. Snider and Hugh Johnston on the hill west of Little Turkey, Win. Everingham in the timber, and Dan Kirby on the east bank of Crane Creek. Sylvester Reiley was living on section seven, Terance Commerford on section five, Owen Galigan on section eight, and Amos J. Smith on the southeast corner of section six, in township ninety-six, range eleven.
There was a Catholic church on the north-west corner of section eight, it being the first place of worship erected in the county. A. J. Smith lived about forty rods northwest from the church, and was everywhere known as "Yankee Smith," and was a very strong Catholic and appeared to have the care of the church building. I had my attention specially called to this church and its burying ground, from the circumstance that a Catholic family living in Bradford, one of their children dying, and there being no other consecrated ground in the county, they took the child on a sheet which was attached to two poles, like a stretcher, and carried the same the whole twenty-seven miles on foot. It took them two days to go, and a little less to return. As they laid the dead body on the ground while they rested, it was as pathetic a scene as I had ever seen. I must say that outside of that church I have never seen such devotion to the traditions of the church. I have been in hopes that some one who was present at the building of this first church would give a history and a full record of its birth and death registers, together with its marriage record, for nothing would throw a clearer light upon the early history of that part of the county than would such a record.
North, in township ninety-seven, were the Clason brothers, George Arnold and W. C. Mitchell. Mitchell became an aspirant for legislative honors, and ran as the Democratic candidate in 1859, the district consisting of Chickasaw and Bremer counties, and was defeated by G. W. Ruddick, of Bremer county. His majority over Ruddick in Bremer county was one hundred and twenty-five, but the truth that "A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country," was again exemplified, and he was defeated by the vote of his own county.
George B. Arnold I had known in Ohio. When I knew him in Ohio, he was the son of opulent parents, dressed in broadcloth and kid gloves. When I found him in Obispo he was living in a little log house, teaching school, and had the appearance of having come west to grow up with the country. In fact, it appeared as though Iowa winters and practical life had taken all the "dude" out of him. He gave me a hearty welcome, and has ever remained one of Chickasaw county's reliable men.
Passing over from Little Turkey to Crane Creek, in township ninety-seven, range twelve, we came to the log house of Samuel Shaff, who was keeping a little store of groceries. Passing down the Creek into township ninety-six, to a settlement that was known as "Up the Creek," we found J. C. H. Miller, John and H. H. Shaffer, the three Palmer brothers, and Langdon. On approaching the log house of H. H. Shaffer, the sound of music was heard, and on standing at the open door we saw Mrs. Shaffer playing on the violin, holding the instrument in her lap with the neck upwards near the shoulder. The novelty of the thing, added to the sweetness of the music, was only equaled by the surprise of the performer when she found that she had an audience. Her husband was elected County Surveyor, and gathered a large property which he left to his wife and surviving children.
Above this settlement stayed John Badgley, using one part of a log building for his home and stabling his oxen in the other part. He had shielded his cattle from the inclement weather by chinking between the logs, although the gables were unclosed, but he was not so particular as to himself, and the wind blew through between the unchinked logs so that his dog, which sought shelter under his bed was frozen to death. This same Badgley appeared to be impervious to exposure. He was crossing Crane Creek during high water when the ice was running, and he was upset into the water and floated down stream until he caught hold of a bush. The bush was not large enough to sustain him so that he could crawl out, but would hold his head and shoulders out of the water. He gave the alarm in lusty tones, and the neighbors gathered on the bank of the stream. There was no boat with which to rescue him, but they caulked a wagon box, and launching it above with a rope attached, floated it, after repeated trials, to within his reach, he having been in the water more than an hour. He was taken. into the house and clothing, wrapped around him, but be declared he would not remain, and on inquiry it was found that his uneasiness was caused by remembering that his money was in his coat, and fearing that it would be lost, he had taken off his coat and hung it on a bush. It was recovered next morning.
In North Washington we found S. W. Byers, James Rumbaugh, Jonas Rice, J. H. Vantassel and two or three others. Byers was engaged in burning a kiln of brick and was running several lines of business, including a store. He had invented a brick machine that he represented was to revolutionize the brick making business, and expatiated upon the advantages of North Washington as a place for a town. It seemed to me then, and time has not changed the impression, that in his enthusiasm he was liable to undertake more than he could accomplish. Jonas Rice was the castle builder of the place, and could talk up a line of business so as to convince himself that want of success was an impossibility, but in practice his plans never materialized, and his life has been a chase after the unattainable. Vantassel was the more practical, and his quiet, persistent business habits have made him one of the successes of the county.
During the spring of 1858 partisanship run high, owing to the pendency of the county seat question, and pervaded all lines of action, and the contending forces, as to north and south, were as much a part of every suit in court, as were the facts in the case.
Among the early suits that brought in contact the contending forces, was a case of replevin, the writ having been issued by C. Arnold, a Justice of the Peace at New Hampton, the writ being in the hands of B. E. Morton, a Constable of New Hampton, for service. He served the same by giving notice to Carter and taking possession of a yoke of cattle, and had started for home, when he was overtaken by a large company of Carter's friends, and the cattle forcibly taken from him. To give color to this proceeding, a counter replevin was at once sued out before J. Q. A. Quackinbush, a Justice of the Peace of Fredericksburg, against the New Hampton constable. This trial proceeded before Quackinbush, in the meantime the cattle disappeared. During the second day of this trial, the Constable prolonging the trial while his men were out looking for the cattle, an altercation occurred in the court room between Ozro Hill and Charles Snow. A fight ensued, and Hill got Snow "in chancery," and the blood was spattering the bystanders, when Case, a one-legged man, jumped up in high glee, and as he brought his wooden leg down with a thud, yelled "Give him h-ll." In a few minutes the position of the combatants was changed and the other fellow was "in chancery;" then came the same cheerful words from the same party, and the gleeful jumping was resumed. Outsiders interfered, and among the number was D. B. Hanan.
In the melee Hanan was struck by one of the parties and was taken out bleeding. Under the directions of the court, there was an information filed against each of the parties to the assault, charging them with assault and battery, and the cases taken up for trial at once, the court holding that criminal business took precedence over civil cases. On the trial, Hanan was employed for the defense, and was put on the stand as a witness for the state. As he sat giving his testimony, and wiping the blood from his wounds, he became facetious and playful, and testified that he did not think they intended to hit him, but that it was a little fun the boys were having, and that was all. As he came off the stand he turned to the accused and remarked, "I will defend you now, but as true as there is a God in Israel, I will get even with you for this." On the second night after the trial began, the New Hampton Constable learned that the oxen had been run into the edge of Bremer county, beyond his jurisdiction, but nothing daunted, he took a basket of corn, saying, "There is no law against oxen following a man," and they followed him. across the county line, when he immediately took possession of them, and before morning he had them secreted in North Washington, beyond the reach of the Fredericksburg forces.
A little after noon the following day, a boy came and reported the cattle gone. At this Carter ordered the suit stopped, and it was dismissed.
The two Justices of the Peace in Fredericksburg, were J. Q. A. Quackinhush and O. H. P. Searles. Quackinbush was a very precise and dignified man, never allowing himself to be inveigled into any hilarity, and his position as Justice of the Peace intensified this dignity.
Searles was as different as well could be, and was a rollicking, joyous boy among the boys, as full of anecdote as an egg of meat, and a veritable Munchausen. The mythical stories he told, of which he was the hero, were many and amusing. As a sample of one of his mildest and most modest, he declared that he had a neighbor who had a drove of fifty hogs that had grown so large that there was no cask or kettle in the whole country large enough to scald them in, and he offered a dollar a head to any one who would take the bristles off those hogs. He then declared he took the job, and added:
"There was a little lake close at hand and a pile of stones by the side of it, and I built a fire on the pile of stones and when they were hot, threw them into the lake. This made the water boiling hot, and while it was boiling, I rushed the hogs through the lake and they came out on the other side and running through a patch of hazel brush, in five minutes they had scraped every bristle off. The owner had to catch and dress them as my contract with the owner was only to take the bristles off."
During the county seat disturbance, an altercation arose between the sheriff and a little lawyer by the name of Fox, who lived in Chickasaw, and as Fox turned to go, the sheriff accelerated his motion by a well directed kick. This gave rise to an action for damages, and the case was brought before G. R. Rowley, a Justice of the Peace. A jury was demanded, and after being impaneled, the trial began. During the progress of the trial, Fox took the stand to give evidence as to the manner of the assault. D. A. Babcock and A. J. Felt were the attorneys for the defendant, and when they took the witness for cross examination, they by cross questions, located the place of the battery, and then demanded that the witness be required to exhibit the injured part to the jury, so that the jury could judge for themselves the extent of the injury. This was stoutly resisted by Fox, who was acting as his own attorney, and hours were spent in arguing the question, the court being in doubt as to his duty in making the order, until a juror interposed and threatened to go home if they did not stop fooling. The exhibition was overruled, and on submission to the jury a verdict was rendered for the plaintiff. The case was appealed and died between the courts, as the plaintiff did not desire further action.
On the fourth of July, 1857, I walked over to Jacksonville to attend the only celebration in the county. The speaker of the day was J. H. Dickens, supplemented by remarks by E. W. Beach. There were toasts and songs, and the song that appeared to give the most satisfaction was one which run, "The cars are coming through this town, I know," and I had the honor of responding to the toast, "No north, no south, but all citizens of one county." Being a supposed representative of the south half of the county, this gave me an opportunity to show my cosmopolitan views, and as I was posing as a young attorney looking after the main chance, this was no time for excessive modesty, and if platitudes and soaring, with a strong spice of taffy, was filling the bill, then I was a blooming success, and I closed with the sentiment, "Green, the founder of Jacksonville, may his enterprise be successful and his memory as green as his name." This thought brought out a speech from Hazard Green, and he glowingly pictured the cars running through the town, and exulted in the prospect of hearing the steam whistle in a few months. This called for the repetition of the song:
"The cars are coming through this town, I know."
Among the number in attendance at this celebration, was George Arnold, an old Ohio acquaintance, and as I came off the platform, he greeted me and wanted to know if I "was that little white headed cuss that attended the Academy in Mesopotamia?"
The gathering of the sparsely settled population could not help but make a joyous time, for it was not often that these old settlers met and broke the loneliness of their hard lives as they were struggling to make homes. Jacob Clason led the music, and he had brought a little wheezy melodeon, and the pride with which he displayed it was equal to that of any modern miss when she receives her first piano.
After the vote had been taken upon the removal of the County Seat from New Hampton to Forest City, there was much interest in the canvass, as New Hampton had once lost their rights when it was between Bradford and New Hampton, by the canvassers throwing out Washington Township, and many from all parts of the county were present to witness the proceedings. At this time, the Returns were required to be deposited with the County Clerk, as they were delivered by the messengers from the several Townships. J. H. Powers was acting as County Clerk, and on the day before the law required the votes to be canvassed, and when all the returns were in the safe, with the exception of those from Deerfield and Washington Townships, the County Judge demanded the key to the safe, and the Clerk surrendered it to him. At this time the Washington Returns were in the hands of the Messenger, and had been in town several hours, but for reasons best known to himself, he had failed to deposit them with the Clerk. The Returns of Deerfield were offered to the Clerk by the Messenger, but as he had no safe place in which to keep them, he refused to take them into his possession, but referred the Messenger to the County Judge, and they were delivered to him sometime in the afternoon of the day before the canvass.
The County Offices, at this time, were all held in the upper room over Gurley's store. The room was plastered with a thin coat of morter, but none of the other rooms were plastered. J. H. Powers slept in the adjoining room on the South, and was awakened in the night by a murmer of voices. His curiosity was at once aroused, and soon he heard a man say, "Hand it to me, I'll do it, I am not afraid," and then there was silence for a short time, when the same speaker said, "There, that will fix it, and possession is nine points in the law." Then some one uttered a warning s-h-h, and asked if any one slept in the adjoining room. Then some one said, "It don't make any difference, for we can prove an allibi by each other, and we can swear any one to the devil that dare peep."
The next morning, while the Clerk was at the hotel for breakfast, the canvass commenced, and when he returned they were on the second township. Complaint was made by the Clerk, as it was his duty to keep a tally list, and the canvass was delayed until the entry of the two townships which had been canvassed could be made in the Clerk's record. Then the canvass proceeded, the Judge taking the envelopes containing the returns and pinching off little bits at a time, until the end was opened, and then withdrawing the returns, passed them over to the canvassers. These envelopes were carefully preserved by the Clerk, and the little pieces that bad been torn off where first fitted on so as to identify where they came from, and then placed in the envelope from which they were torn.
These envelopes (January 20, 1892) are in the possession of J. H. Powers.
On examination it was found that Deerfield's returns had been opened by cutting along the end of the envelope, in the fold, and had been stuck together with mucilage. In opening, the judge had opened the end that had not been tampered with. Next came Washington Township, and when the envelope was opened, there was no accompanying Poll List enclosed. These returns were in the hands of the County Judge the night before, and of course could not have been disturbed by any one without his knowledge, after they came into his hands.
In the subsequent trial of the County Seat question, the Township Clerk swore that the list was made, and that it was not left with him, or in his office. The whole returns of Washington Township were promptly thrown out and not counted. It was found that Deerfield returns bad been tampered with, and the vote for New Hampton reduced ten votes.
The rejection of the vote of Washington, or the reduction of the ten from Deerfield, either of them, would change the result, and give Forest City the majority. Without waiting to accertain the results of the election on any thing but the County Seat, and as soon as the columns were added showing a majority for Forest City, after excluding Washington and the ten from Deerfield, the County Judge declared Forest City the County Seat, and immediately adjourned court and the Board of Canvassers to meet at Forest City at 2 o'clock P. M.
Within a few minutes the books, papers and furniture of the county offices were being carried down and loaded into wagons which the Forest City people had in readiness, and the safe was pitched out of the window, and in falling, one of its legs were broken off, and the safe was placed upon a wooden "drag" that had been prepared for the purpose, to which was attached a long string of cattle, being the oxen from several breaking teams. When loaded, the procession started for Forest City, E. P. Greeley and D. A. Babcock acting as drivers of the oxen, swinging their whips and each trying to outdo the other with their yells of " who haw buck."
During this time, and while all was activity in the removal of the books and papers, a meeting of citizens claiming that their rights had been invaded, was being held in the old log school house, to take into consideration the course to be pursued.
This meeting was addressed by some who were in a perfect frenzy of excitement, who were in favor of forcible resistance and the reclaiming of the county records, and their return to where they belonged. Others, more discreet, counseled milder measures, and the cooler ones finally triumphed, and a committee was appointed to commence legal proceedings to reclaim rights that were wrongfully taken from them by those holding official positions.
In accordance with instructions, a suit was commenced at the next term of the District Court, and on the third day of June, 1858, an information was filed in the Clerk's office, asking that a Writ of Mandamus compelling the Board of Canvassers to count the votes that had been cast, including those of Washington Township, together with the ten that had been taken off from Deerfield. A special term of court was held in August to hear the case, and an Alternate Writ was issued, and on final hearing, a Peremptory Writ was issued, and respondents appealed.
At the same time of the filing of the Petition for a Writ of Mandamus, a Petition was filed asking for a Writ of Certiorari. At the special session of the District Court to try these cases, these papers could not be found, and leave was granted to file new ones at the next term of court. The Mandamus case was reversed by the Supreme Court as being an improper remedy for correcting the vote of Deerfield, while it was all right to compel the counting of the Washington returns, and in the opinion given by the Supreme Court it was intimated that Injunction would be a proper remedy. I immediately started on horseback for Garnavillo, where Judge Murdock resided, and on the 12th day of April, 1859, an application was made to the District Judge for an Injunction restraining the county officers from holding their offices at any other place in Chickasaw County other than at New Hampton.
At the following spring term of court, the, Writ had been granted for temporary relief, the case was brought on for final hearing, and that, with the Certiorari, were decided in favor of New Hampton. Thus New Hampton had restored to her by the courts, what had been taken from her by fraud and the misguided acts of the Canvassing Board. After the Injunction was served on the county officers, they were loth to obey, and not until C. O. Case, who was a New Hampton man, did any of them obey. In the fall when District Court convened, E. H. Williams having been elected District Judge, his attention was called to their contempt of the writ, and he very peremptorily told them that it would be to their interest to obey the writ, and they immediately responded by returning to New Hampton.
There was a crude panorama of the County Seat scenes painted at Chickasaw, and "Bro." Whitmore delivered an impassioned address upon the same. The first scene represented Powers delivering the safe key to Judge Bailey. The key, as represented, was about three feet long, and was being passed to the Judge, and had passed about six inches beyond the point of the Judge's nose before he could reach it. As this scene came in sight Whitmore would bellow out, "Powers, give me that safe key!" and it never failed to bring down the house. Another scene was a long string of oxen drawing the safe, with Greeley and Dave Babcock as drivers, and as it passed along Greeley was heard to yell, "Dave, lick up those head bulls!" The climax of the exhibition was reached when Judge Bailey was represented as making a speech when the county books arrived at Forest City, and Whitmore impersonated the Judge in making his speech, and it could hardly help entertaining anyone who had a taste for comedy. These paintings were subsequently arranged as transparencies and exhibited during court at New Hampton, but the carrying of them was not very popular after the Bradford boys got a habit of deluging them from upper windows, and they were retired from public exhibition and were used as kitchen curtains for several years by Runion. The personal feeling engendered by the County Seat disturbance remained for several years, and woo be to any aspirant for office who had been one of the actors. Party affiliations were ignored, personal obligations disregarded, and the question of locality was paramount.
During the fall of 1858 I made my first visit to Deerfield. As it was an electioneering trip, I met most of the prominent settlers. Stopping at Heman Culver's, I found him surrounded by a large family, consisting of two boys and a whole troop of girls. He proved to be one of the most genial of hosts, and his wife met the full requirements of an ideal hostess. Their hospitality was abounding in all that makes a guest comfortable and contented. Although they were living in a log house that was taxed to its utmost capacity to hold their large family, and although, when retiring, I was notified that I should have to sleep in the shed, where they had erected a bed, with my host as a bed fellow, it was done in such a genial and hospitable manner that there was no feeling that I was an intruder taxing their hospitality, but a feeling that it was a mutual pleasure. What would not many a person walking in what is called the "higher circles," give for this tact?
This was the first time that I had met J. A. Sawin "on his native heath," and at that time there was no indication that he had any ambition to enter the responsible positions he subsequently occupied. In 1862 he was elected County Superintendent of common schools, and did much towards straightening out the schools so they would comply with the new school law. He moved to New Hampton and became the editor of the New Hampton Courier, having leased the interest of W. E. Beach, leaving the publishers, Sawin & Young. He left the county in 1862, returning to Wisconsin. While in Deerfield, he was a fair disciple of Isaac Walton, and many a string of fish has he landed on the banks of the classic Wapsie. Mason Harris and W. H. Larrabee were among the leading men of the township, and M. P. Choat met me on the square, and ever proved to be a reliable and consistent friend. The main object of my visit was to consolidate the northern part of the county on E. H. Williams as District Judge, and Elijah Odell as District Attorney, and I had no reason to regret the effort, for every vote in the township was cast for them.
On leaving the county, J. A. Sawin having sold his interest in the Courier to G. M. Reynolds, the office of County Superintendent became vacant, and the Board of Supervisors appointed the Rev. Thomas N. Skinner to fill the unexpired term. He was at that time preaching for the Congregational church at New Hampton. He was a fine scholar, and entered the work with vim, but was too plain spoken in his criticisms of teachers and their work, and in calling attention to the insufficiency of the school houses and want of proper books, to become popular.
There was much dissatisfaction with the school law, forming, as it did, one district of each organized township, with sub-districts, all governed by the one township board. The law bad been reported by the quasi legislative body, the State School Board, as provided by the new constition, and their work had been reviewed and amended by the General Assembly, but many thought the change too radical and mourned for the old individual independence of the one-man power. This feeling was so widespread that the Board of Supervisors, at their meeting in 1863,
Resolved, That the Board of Supervisors of Chickasaw County, Iowa, deem after long experience and mature reflection, the present school system of Iowa a nuisance -- a conglomerate of misunderstandings and inconsistencies, having a direct tendency to squander the school fund and benefiting the youth of our State but very little; and that we would recommend and use our influence to have the present school law remodeled, and each sub-district of the township to have the exclusive control and management of their own school matters, and that the County Superintendent be instructed to forward a copy of this resolution to the Secretary of the Board of Education.
This is an indication that they had been hurt and had lost the individual control of their school, and probably did not recall the old adage that "The pride of the school district is the fool of the town." The law has stood the test of three decades, and the schools of the State have become the pride of every well balanced citizen.
It is with a smile that we look back at the resolves of these wise county solons, as they sat in judgment on this law that at that time had only been in force two years, and declare that "after long experience and mature reflection." I think they could all read, and I never had much trouble in deciphering their writing, but they bought a twelve-dollar dictionary to decide whether it was "spile-driver" or "pile-driver." The board were about to purchase such an article, and L. H. Weller called it "pile-driver," and Frank Dane called it "spile-driver." Dane was at once corrected by the erudite gentleman from Bradford. Dane at once asserted the correctness of his way of calling it, and ridiculed the idea of it being called "pile-driver." Earnest and eloquent speeches were made, pro and con and to settle the matter the Sheriff was ordered to get a dictionary. A. E. Bigelow was acting as Sheriff, and he went out and bought a twelve-dollar dictionary and presented it to the board, together with the bill. The cause for which it was ordered was lost sight of in the reflection upon the light in which these representatives of the people would be looked upon in buying such a book for their education. G. A. Hamilton was County Auditor, and had made application to have his salary increased one hundred dollars per year, and seeing the obligation he would place the board under to him if he helped them out of this unfortunate dilemma, he proposed to take the book off their hands and not have the account of the same appear in the record. They promptly accepted the offer, and as promptly raised his salary one hundred dollars a year, thus making the taxpayers pay, in fact, one hundred dollars for this dictionary.
Among the first settlers of Richland township was John D. Hawse, who was loaning money at a high rate of interest, generally forty per cent. It was reported that he was the representative of William Picket, who lived east. L. H. Weller had become the son-in-law of Picket, marrying his only daughter and prospective heiress. There was a little antagonism existing between Weller and Hawse, and it was rumored that after Hawse came west there was another exemplification of the old adage, "While the cat is away the mice are at play," and that Hawse bad been supplanted in a way that entirely changed his prospective relations to the Picket family. This feeling left good fallow ground for trouble, and in one of their interviews it ripened into a personal encounter, and Weller became the fleeing and Hawse the pursuing party. In the melee Weller was hit on the head, which assault was destined to figure in the courts, in after years, in a suit against Hawse for alleged injuries to the person and mind of Weller, he claiming that it much impaired his mental and physical powers. It remained in the court of this county for a time, was taken by change of venue to Howard county, and was eventually decided in favor of Hawse. Perhaps Weller was not quarrel some by nature, but he was certainly unfortunate in his encounters, and when he came out second best with a Bradford party, the victor was presented with an immense leather belt, which was delivered with much eclat, including public speeches and song. Having let all his plowing on one of his farms to William Shoemaker, he agreeing to plow all that had been plowed, when it was about finished, he put in an appearance, and the question of payment was suggested by the workman. At this he was coolly informed that the slough bad once been plowed, although no attempt had been made to cultivate it for years, and that there would be no payment until that was plowed. The outraged workman then said, "Then I will take it out of your hide." The process commenced, but in a short time Weller appeared to think this too expensive, and promised payment if released. As soon as released he started for town, calling back, "I will go and have you arrested for this." Quickly came the retort, "Then I will take that out of your hide too," and he commenced to execute his threat. In time there was a feeling that the matter had gone far enough, and on promise to pay and not prosecute, be was again released. Going at once to the office of Dr. Mixer for personal repairs, he was sewed, patched, and sponged, into reasonable shape, and when the job was done he put his hand in his pocket and asked the doctor what was to pay. At this the doctor, in his most genial way, said, "Nothing, nothing at all, I am amply paid to know that you got your deserts once." Weller was subsequently elected to Congress over Thomas Updegraph, an ex-congressman, by an overwhelmning majority. At the next term. he was again a candidate against W. E. Fuller, of West Union, and was as badly beaten as was his oponent the term before. He was a candidate against Aaron Kimball, of Howard county, the district being Chickasaw, Bremer and Howard counties, for State Senator, and carried Bremer and Chickasaw counties by one hundred and twenty-five majority each, but Kimball carried Howard by a much larger vote than both of these and was elected. He also served as Justice of the Peace for Bradford township. Probably as a specimen of the genus homo, he has not a counterpart in the world, and would put to shame the schoolmaster in Goldsmith's deserted village,
"For, e'en though vanquishe'd, he could argue still;
While words of learned length and thundering sound
Amazed the gazing rustics ranged around,
And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew,
That one small head could carry all he knew."
Yet he has considerable native ability, and in following out his crotchets, he has delved among a class of authors whose works are seldom found on the shelves of scholars. If he could have had a good balance wheel, he would have reached a much higher point than he is now likely to attain.
As I was the only professional man of any kind within many miles of New Hampton, I had calls., some of which were appalling, but, arising to the emergency, I soon found myself getting quite a practice as a physician, dentist, and surgeon. Borrowing a turnkey that was originally made for extracting colt's teeth, and attaching a smaller hook, I was prepared for business, and as there was power enough in the instrument to extract a white oak stump, whenever I hooked on, the tooth had to come, and many a victim. that came to my office with the toothache, left nursing a lacerated jaw. George Arnold, of Utica township, came and said he had two teeth he wanted extracted, remarking that every one that had tried had failed. I hitched on, and if you ever heard the deep-sounding bay of the bloodhound when he sighted his game, you have a faint idea of the sound that followed; but the tooth came out, and so did a splinter of the bone to which it was attached. About six weeks afterward I met him on the prairie between his house and New Oregon, with a shawl over his head. On accosting him he said that I had hurt him so that he had been up to have a doctor draw his other tooth, and then pathetically added, "The darned fool pulled out more of the jaw bone than you did." I was called up early on the morning of the fourth of July, and found Jenny Brand, a buxom Scotch lass, who wanted some teeth extracted. Seating her in the front door and taking her head between my knees, I pulled out three double teeth, and no sound was uttered until the last was out, when she jumped up and said, "Now, brother, I can go to the dance, can't I?" This family moved to Oregon, and Jenny is the mother of a large family of Scotch-Americans, if I may be pardoned for using the term, for Scotchmen who become citizens are so thoroughly Americanized that you seldom hear of the prefix. In surgery I had quite a practice. I recall one day's work. We had erected a pole swing, and Abner Jackson was showing how high he could swing, and slipping, shot off on the prairie. Striking on his hands, both wrists were dislocated, and his hands and arms looked like grindstone cranks. On examination I found that both wrists were dislocated, the carpal bones where they articulated with the ulna and radius, and where they articulated with the metacarpal bones. I reduced them with great skill, but failed to fully replace the cuneiform bone on the left wrist, and it left a small bunch. Just as I had finished this job, I was called to go out three miles to dress a wound on Emanuel Watham, an ox having stuck his horn under his lip, it coming out just under his eye. Here I made a mistake, for I commenced to sew at the top of the wound and, when I came to the dividing line on the lip it did not come out even, and when be got well there was a little notch on the line of his lip, but otherwise it got well all right. On my road home I met a messenger urging me to make haste, as M. C. Roboy's little girl bad fallen off the fence and broken her collar bone. This was the last call I received that day, it not being a very good day for surgery. It taught me a lesson of caution, however, for when William Wilkins slid off a haystack, followed by a hay-knife, which struck with the edge across his nose, as he looked up to see what had become of it, nearly severing it from his face, I took the first stitch, at the top, for I did not want to mar his looks by sewing it on crooked. It grew on all right, but the scar that it left looks like a string of yarn laying across his nose. My surgical outfit consisted of a jack knife, three-cornered glover's needle, a roweling needle, and a pair of bullet moulds for forceps. My pharmaceutical outfit was more elaborate. I had "Culver's Physic," a root that grew upon the prairie that possessed, in its effects, many of the properties of blue mass, salts and castor oil, for cathartics; boneset, salt and water, and mustard, for emetics, and nettles for a counterirritant. Then there was pennyroyal, catnip, horse mint and peppermint for teas for children. I also was presented with a bag of saffron to be used on very young children, and in case of measles, but the fair doner did not tell me where, in case of measles, I was to get the other articles of hard cider and its accompanying ingredient, to make the prescription full as a New England Orthodox remedy. A syring was improvised by inserting a hollow elder into the neck of a bladder, and while we did not, like Sancho Panza, give clysters of salt, snow-water and sand," we found a very good remedy in soap suds and milk. As an antifebrile, we used slippery elm, and it also made a very soothing poultice. There was one remedy that we used as a general alterative, and in case where there was an unsatisfactory diagnosis, and that was a tea made of the ashes and coal left when burning prairie grass and weeds, and it became very popular, especially when colored with burned sugar, and the doses ordered dropped out with great care. Some cynic may call this charlatnaisim, in thus practicing upon the credulity of my patients, but they all got well, and I have the feeling that I shall long remain unharmed, if I wait for some regular practitioner, who is without like sin, to cast the first stone. We had none of the modern anticeptics, but in lieu of carbolic acid, sublimate, etc., we used powdered charcoal. Not having anesthetics, we substituted it with " grin and bear it," and it did very well, so far as the operator was concerned. Medicating madens, waiting upon matrons, reducing dislocations and setting broken bones, binding up wounds and pulling teeth, and administering to many unknown ills, I bad a practice that would have been the envy of a young physician, but somehow there was a feeling that my services were often called for, for the reason that I made no charges.
Think not that there were no other calls in other lines, in a new country life, for often have I been called and tried to comfort mourning ones, by a few last words over the graves of loved ones. Some of these are the saddest in memory, yet they had a silver sheen behind the dark cloud. Sad, that I was called upon to witness the proof that man is mortal, and that hearts were called to bleed as the last sad rites over their loved ones are performed, yet bright in the hope and trust that the young flower or matured fruit has been transplanted to a more congenial clime on the other side. Coming from an eastern home, bringing forth her first born after months of loneliness, homesickness and privation, and then, just as the little one had filled the mothers heart, to have it taken from her and buried on the bleak prairie, is an experience that many a young mother has been called to pass through in her western home.
It was related that at the funeral of Noel Gates, a man past seventy, there being no one to conduct religious service, and feeling that it would be barbarous to bury him without something more than just covering him with the cold earth, it was suggested that a hymn be sung. Under this suggestion some one started the old funeral hymn:
"Sister, thou wast mild and lovely,
Gentle as the summer breeze,"
But the ludicrousness of the words, when taken in connection with the old man whom they were burying, was too much for their dignity, and voice after voice was silent with suppressed mirth, and there was a fading out of every voice at the end of the second line. This appeared to be a favorite hymn, perhaps the only one that memory recalled, and was sang as the funeral service at the burial of old Mrs. Bellows, William Everingham and N. R. Johnston constituting the choir. Everingham insists that there were others that attempted to sing, but that he and Johnston were the only ones that held out to the end. Thus we see that there was a struggling after civilized forms under difficulties.
A trip to McGregor's Landing, which was our nearest market, took from five to six days, and with bottomless sloughs, streams unbridged and hills ungraded, small loads were a necessity, and with wheat at forty cents a bushel, and dressed pork at one and one-half to two dollars per hundred, the greatest economy was necessary to pay expenses, if hotels were patronized, and farmers were obliged to sleep under wagons and carry their provisions with them, if they saved anything.
That there should be a longing for a railroad was but natural. Every straw was caught at and every suggestion nourished, that gave the slighest hope of securing one. A railroad grade had been commenced at North McGregor, on a survey running up Bloody Run, that had been made by a company whose leading spirit was Jack Thompson, of Clermont. This company was known as the McGregor, St. Peters and Missouri River Railroad Company, and Judge Bailey of this county and Judge Call of Kossuth county were elected directors. Deacon Clinton was imported from Wisconsin to assist in soliciting aid for this company, as he had been very successful in Wisconsin, in this line of work, and to give him prestage he was elected one of the directors.
A series of meetings were held along the proposed line, and donations of land solicited, with the avowed purpose of using them as a basis of credit, to aid in the construction of the road. The wily Deacon was an expert in showing the great advantage that would accrue to the farmer, even if they donated one-half of their lands. That the want was pressing, and that he aroused enthusiasm, was evidenced by his success, and many tracts of land were deeded to the company. Notable among the donors was David Edwards of New Hampton, he giving three eighties, being nearly one-half of his possessions. As might have been expected, these donations were absorbed without any perceptable advance in building the road. For this campaign, Judge Bailey had prepared a speech, and the "boys" found out that on the slightest provocation, it could be called out, and many a time have I listened to his roarings, and the applause that was sure to follow, was certain to increase its volume.
In one of his climaxes, in showing the exhilerating effect the advent of the road would have on the farmer, he likened it to the feelings of an old batchelor after he bad tasted of the sweets of married life, and his description was vivid, as he declared, "his boots flew, his suspender buttons were jerked off, his coat stripped, and he had a crimea in his head." Travelers were pointed to the location of the depots on this proposed line, at Calmar and West Union, New Hampton and Fredericksburg, Bradford and Charles City, Chickasaw and Jacksonville, and so on along the whole line. In time this company became insolvent and sold out to the McGregor and Sioux City company.
The second term of court held in New Hampton, was held in the second story of the oId school house, which stood one block south of the Opera House. Judge Murdock, who was then District Judge, rode to the county on a spotted pony. At the hotel, the Judge amplified upon the speed of his pony, and some of the boys thought that they would test the speed of the pony and not let the owner know that they had had him out. Just about the time they had the pony ready for the race, the Judge was listening to an argument being made on a writ of error, by J. O. Crosby. Crosby had reached his third point in his argument, and had extended his right arm upward to its full length, and was pointing with his index finger, and was saying, " Now your Honor, in the third place," just then the Judge happened to look out of the window, and seeing the boys about to start his pony in the race, yelled out, "Mr. Sheriff, adjourn court for five minutes." and rushed to the platform at the head of the outside stairs, where he could have a good view of the race. When the race was completed, the Judge ordered the Sheriff to open court, remarking, " The little cuss got beat,"
It was at this term that I had my first criminal suit, defending M. C. Roby for an action of assault and battery. I succeeded better than in my first civil case, for I secured his acquittal, but I never was quite sure that the acquital was as fully in accord with justice as was my first civil case where I was beaten.
There was a coterie of Yankee settlers On the east side of Stapleton township, who had been raised under circumstances and with surroundings that left an impression upon them that they were better adapted to serve as county officers, than to open up farms as pioneers, and in order to accomplish this, they began to toy with the south part of the county, which bad been in control of the county offices. It was soon found that they could no longer be relied upon to co-operate with their former co-workers, but the south was becoming relatively weaker, by reason of the increasing immigration into the north part of the county, encouraged this break, and in the fall of I858, attempted to extend it, by nominating Pat Galigan for Sheriff. The north nominated Pat Tierney, of Utica, for his competitor. While Pat Galigan did not strengthen the southern ticket, he was elected over his opponent, by ten votes. This was a result that has often been repeated in county elections, for he was affiliated to " Irish Ridge," and whoever gets hold of that string, pulls a full line of votes running through Stapleton and on up to Howard county. The newly elected Sheriff did not do much of the business himself, but appointed a southern man his deputy, who did most of the business. Pat wore the honors with dignity, introducing the Sheriff's Cockade, for the first time in the history of the county. The south found that they had reckoned without their host, when they demanded services that would tell against his former associates, and he remained faithful to his former allegiance, and the little coterie that hoped to gain so much by his election, never reaped the reward they had planned.
At the division of Obispo township, in I858, Hugh Johnston was appointed organizing constable, of the east half, thus forming a new township by the name of Utica, and not understanding the forms of procedure, requested me to bring over the papers and assist him, which I promised to do. I was detained in my office, and it was between nine and ten o'clock in the evening before I could get away. I then started on foot for the place of holding the election, fourteen miles distant. When near Plumb Creek, I found that my short cut through the hazel brush had nearly exhausted me, and I laid down and unfolding my shawl and spreading it over me, was soon fast asleep. I must have slept some time, for when I awoke, the snow was two inches deep over me, and I found that I was cold and stiff and could hardly walk, and I was hardly warm when I reached Jacksonville, about four o'clock in the morning. After getting some coffee, the walk was resumed to Johnston's, where I arrived in time to open the polls.
Speaking of cold, in those days, after I was able to own a horse, I always took the precaution to take candles and matches, so that, if overtaken by a blizzard and forced to camp out, I could turn my sleigh over and keep from freezing by burning the candles under the sleigh. Subsequently I made the discovery that by taking my dog into the sleigh and covering him with the robe, his breath and body would soon warm me, and by this means I have been saved much suffering. The precaution was always taken to take along paper and pencil and handkerchiefs, so that if a storm forced the releasing of the horse, to be able to tie a message to the horse, telling where I could be found, thus having it act as a guide to a rescuing party.
Soon after A. J. Felt was elected Justice of the Peace for Bradford township, there was a suit brought before him that tested his fealty to one of the cardinal principles of his party. He was at this time, an ardent democrat, and a strong defender of the Dred Scott decision, which had just been handed down, in which the court declared that " a negro had no rights that a white man was bound to respect," and was ever ready with an argument, claiming that the principle was right. A negro living in Bradford had his watch stolen, and a suit of replevin was brought before Felt, by the negro, claiming possession of the watch, but the defendant declared he had bought it and would not give it up. On the trial, D. A. Babcock appeared for the defense, and moved to dismiss the case, on the ground that the plaintiff was a negro, and that the Supreme Court of the United States had decided that he had no rights that a white man was bound to respect. This was a home thrust, but the court was equal to the occasion, and turning to the attorney, said, "Look here Dave, that may be good politics, but Dred Scott decision or no Dred Scott decision, this [man] is going to have his watch." Where upon, Dave said, "I don't see the use of proceeding further, for this case is decided, so you can give the [man] the watch."
One-half mile north of the center of the county, at New Hampton, being just north of where the M. & St. Paul depot now is, J. D. Colt had built a log house, he having entered the land and received a duplicate from the United States, for the same. After his house was built, it was found that there was a previous entry upon this land and Colt found that he bad no right to the premises. The Government allowed him to change his entry to an eighty cornering this on the northwest. He subsequently bought the Corner where his house stood. Just north of Colt's was the log house of William Haslam. These were the only houses in that direction until we reached the houses of John S. Marr and Tilden S. Rice who lived on land adjoining what is now Devon. Northeast one mile, was Jesse T. Hays, and just beyond was the old " Brink House," on the banks of the Wapsie. East of this about a mile, was John and Jacob Vanauken and R. H. Coe, and north of this settlement was the log house of I. P. Hartley, being the only one until near Jacksonville. One mile east was the log house of Denizen Calkins, and further east on the banks of the Wapsie, lived "Wapsie" Gardner, with his eleven children. No other settlement in that direction, for six miles. The only houses south for six miles were those of John Johnson and Wesley Swayzee who lived three miles south. West one mile and a half was the home of Don A. Jackson, and one-half south of him was Zalmuna Morton. One mile west of Jacksons was William S. Morley who had been elected Justice of the Peace and figured as a democratic politician, and long after that party was organized gave himself credentials as a representative from that township and was an aspirant for legislative honors, but was beaten in the nominating convention by C. W. Mitchell of Utica. D A. Jackson was the first and only County Assessor, and in assessing the county, only made one mistake in the description of real estate, in the whole county, and in this, shingled a part of one forty and left an equal amount unassessed. This was a remarkable record, probably not equaled in the state While there was not much of the Pyrotecnic in his nature, there was a persistent working that accomplished more than many that appeared to do much more. My familiarity with his assessment was through the making of the tax books from his work. As a hunter, he was only exceeded by one man in the county, William Everingham, of Utica.
On section twenty-six, Dayton township, lived Levi Young. When I first saw him he was trying to make a living by farming, but as be had been a printer he did not make a brilliant success. He bought out the old office of the Chickasaw County Republican, and in company with W. E. Beach started the New Hampton Courier. When Beach leased his interest to J. A. Sawin, he continued to be a partner, and when Sawin sold out to G. M. Reynolds he still continued to be a partner, but subsequently sold his interest to Reynolds. He was a man of a little less than medium height, and when setting type his body always vibrated towards the case at the picking up of each type, Several times has he allowed his name to appear as a candidate for office when he knew that defeat was certain, so intense was his Republicanism that he was willing to be thus sacrificed for the good of his party. Living a little south of him was E. R. Gillett, who was the first Representative from Chickasaw County. He was a New Hampton man in the county seat fight, and through his efforts a legislative committee was appointed to locate the county seat, and probably had an idea as to what the results were to be before he named the committee. He did not remain in the county but a short time, and on the breaking out of the rebellion he entered the service of the government, and I met him at Memphis during the war.
Ezra Hewitt lived on the northwest quarter of section one, and Benoni Cotant, J. B. Cotant and Charles Cotant lived on section three, township ninety-five, range thirteen. In the summer of 1858 Samuel Cotaut built, a small building upon the ground now occupied by the First National Bank, for a store. The frame was blown down twice while he was building it. He started the second store in New Hampton. Gurley had brought his old partnership sign from Hartford, Conn., but had not cut off his partner's name, and there was no sign in town except my law sign. I proceeded to paint a sign for Cotant. The board was prepared and a coat of white put on, but there was no brush with which to paint the letters. Going to Gurley's hog pen, I pulled enough bristles out of his hogs' backs to fill a goose quill, and drawing them into the quill thus improvised a brush, with which I painted the first business sign erected in New Hampton. It only contained the name "S. COTANT," and the letters were heavy block letters. We did not aspire to flourishes.
McCullow came to New Hampton in 1859 and formed a co-partnership with Cotant, and for many years the firm of " Cotant & McCullow"' did business in the town. They both served as postmasters during the time of their co-partnership. Gurley cut off the partnership part of his imported sign, and thus presented the first gold-leaf sign erected in the county.
About this time gold was discovered in the ravine south of town, and there was a general rush with milk pans to pan out the precious metal. Everyone could get "color," but it proved to be so thin scale gold that it could not be made profitable. After it was found to worthless for mining, someone put in a quantity of brass filings and wonderful results were shown outsiders who came to see the new gold mine.
During the county seat disturbance practical jokes were not uncommon and turned up at the most unexpected times. As arrests were common, no one knew but what be would be the next man in limbo. At a meeting of the northern men at New Hampton, to discuss the county seat matters, a large number were present form Chickasaw, and among the number was Fox. After talking over the arrests that had been made and the probability of the next arrest, it was hinted that the probability was that Fox would be the next victim, from what had been dropped by the Forest City side. About this time, Wm. Tucker and " Bro." Whitmore disappeared from the meeting, and Whitmore went to the house of David Edwards and disguised himself, and when disguised, went out and secreted himself on the prairie. In a few minutes Tucker rushed into the room where the meeting was held, and claimed to have seen the Sheriff sneaking up behind a rock on the prairie. Fox at once rushed out to see what there was of truth in the report. Just as he passed around the corner of the house, Whitmore raised his head in sight. This was enough to confirm the report and the credulous Fox rushed back into the house, and pulling off his boots, started for Chickasaw. As be looked back, he could see the supposed Sheriff running, around the house, as if in search for him. This accelerated his movements, and much excited, he run all the way to Chickasaw, starting in his stocking feet and reaching there barefooted, having worn out his stockings in his flight.
At the fall election of 1858 C. O. Case was nominated by the northern party for Clerk, and T. G. Staples for the south. E. H. Williams had been nominated for District Judge, and Wm. McClintock as the Democratic candidate. Milo McGlathery was the Republican candidate for District Attorney, and Elijah Odell was nominated by the Democrats. Things looked a little dark for Williams, and as I had opposed him very bitterly in the convention he was uneasy as to what I was doing during the campaign. Williams and McGlathery came to New Hampton to see me, and it was agreed that all my efforts were to be given to save Williams, and that I was at perfect liberty to trade or sacrifice McGlathery to help him, McGlathery saying that he was so secure that nothing our county could do could hurt him. I immediately went into the south part of the county and talked fealty to the party, and a day or two before election I raised the cry in the north part of the county that McClintock and McGlathery were the attorneys for the south and that it would never do to elect them, and we had a northern ticket with Williams and Odell, and went it solid. It elected Williams and came very near defeating McGlathery. I always had the feeling that it left a sore spot with McGlathery.
On election day I went to Utica after voting, and when the count was made found that that the whole vote was for the north, with the exception of Pat Tierney and his hired man's. A company of twelve had gone to Stapleton to look after Case's interests, as Staples, the opponent, was a resident and old settler of that town. When they got there they found that the Staples and McClintock interest had eight gallons of whiskey, and the New Hampton crowd only had two. After holding a council it was agreed that all hands would pitch in and drink up the eight gallons, and not let them know that they had any in reserve. Those that, had the whiskey in charge were willing to furnish all the New Hampton folks wanted, hoping to get them drunk, and then they would run the election to suit themselves. Headed by Dan Shook, they drank as freely as though it was water, and would then go out behind the house and vomit it up. By ten o'clock the whiskey was gone and a part of the New Hampton contingent were laid out. Now came the other whiskey and it was husbanded with much care, and no one was allowed a drink who did not vote the northern ticket. During the day it was found that there was much antagonism against Powers, and to make all the capital they could for the occasion the New Hampton men pitched into him in a terrific manner, although he was working in Utica for the same side. I rode down from Utica full of victory, as all but two had voted as I desired, and as I rode up to the polling place in Stapleton, expecting to receive a warm welcome from my friends, I found myself surrounded by a belligerent and vindictive foe, and not a New Hampton man dared to say a word for me or come to my aid. Sticks, clubs and clods were brandished and the vilest charges made, and threats that were flying about portended anything but peace. John Nicholas seized my horse by the bridle and commenced kicking it in the side and it soon cleared quite a circle around me, and he spoke to me and said, "jump on for your life," and I spang upon my horse and Nicholas let go and gave my horse a slap and I was soon out of reach of the stones and sticks that followed me. It was new to me then, but I have been misrepresented so often, since, that some one might be advanced, that I have ceased to notice it, and have learned to pity the small man that tries to ride into public favor by misrepresentation and calumny. C. O. Case was elected and for years made an efficient officer, until a spirit of conviviality measurably weakened his executive ability. It was not generally understood, but his wife was the main stay of the office for the last few years, and she became his deputy so as to be able to look after the business. After Case had qualified on his first election he went to Forest City to take charge of the office and remove the same to New Hampton, the court having enjoined the county officers from holding their offices at Forest City, or else-where in the county except at New Hampton. As the law required that he appoint a deputy, he appointed me, but the County Judge had to approve the appointment, and Judge Bailey refused to endorse my appointment. A. E. Bigelow was then appointed and I pointed out the property that belonged to the clerk's office and it was promptly removed to New Hampton.
During the summer it rained almost continuously, and the little streams looked like rivers. W. E. Beach, Mrs. Nehemiah Vaughn, Miss Johnston and myself desired to go from New Hampton to Jacksonville, and we took passage, in a lumber wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen. When we reached Plumb Creek we found that the banks were overflown and it looked like a river. It was thought practicable to ford, and we started in, but, when the forward wheels of the wagon dropped into the channel of the stream the chain came loose that attached the oxen to the Wagon, and we were left stranded. It was thought that by unloading, and by hitching the chain to the end of the tongue, the wagon might be drawn out. It was suggested that the men each take a woman and carry her ashore. Mr. Beach being a married man and I single, it was suggested by him that he would carry the married woman and I the young lady. At first this struck me favorably, but when I came to see that the married woman weighed about eighty-five pounds, and the girl about one hundred and ninety pounds, I had some doubts of his disinterestedness. Beach took up his burden and deposited her safely on the shore. Boldly meeting the responsibility that was soon to rest upon me, I encircled my one hundred and ninety pounds, and she trustingly put her arms around my neck, and I started. Alas, how soon were my hopes to be dampened, for stepping upon a bog, I slipped, and this changing the center of gravity and removing it outside of the base, I fell and my burden upon me. My embrace was broken, her arms were unclasped, and the cold waters flowed between us, as we singly waded to the shore. I could not help but moralize, as I recalled the prayer of disappointment that flowed from a prominent character in a romance that was then fresh in memory, when she prayed that "the waters of oblivion might flow between them," bow different it would have been, had it been the waters of Plumb Creek.
This recalls another incident that took place on Main street in Forest City. A load of us had been out to spend the evening, and on our return the horses sloughed down and could not be induced to get out. There was nothing to do but to unload, and it fell to my lot to take Miss S., who weighed about one hundred and fifty pounds. I had on rubber boots, and when unweighted could keep them on and pull them out of the mud. When I had taken the young lady as an additional weight, I found that no effort of mine could give a rising influence to my rubber boots, but that, like one who is near closing a life of dissipation, I found myself going down, down, down, until the number six shoes that encased my burden's feet were fast showing like symptoms, and I felt constrained to yield up, not the ghost, but my burden, and give her an opportunity to sink or swim, survive or perish, as best she might, and by the appearance of her apparel the next morning I was led to conclude that she bad to swim.
After the election of 1858, at which time the question of the removal of the county seat from New Hampton to Forest City had been voted upon, there were a large number of arrests, each side swearing out warrants against parties of the other side. One was sworn out against William Tucker, and he was taken to Nashua for trial. It was agreed by Tucker and his lawyer that no defense should be made, as he was not charged with any crime under the Code of Iowa. When the time for trial arrived Tucker and his counsel remained passive. This was unexpected and left the prosecution in a dilemma. The defendant was bound over to attend the next term of the District Court to abide the action of the Grand Jury, and bail fixed at one hundred dollars. Tucker refused to give bail and demanded that he be either sent to jail or that he, be released. This was an unexpected move, as there had been no intention of sending him to jail. They offered to furnish the bond but Tucker would not accept it. He was finally sent to jail to Waverly. He remained about two weeks, having a good time around town, and demanding a change of linen at the end of the first week, which was furnished by the Sheriff of Bremer County and paid for by Chickasaw County. The parties that had caused his imprisonment became uneasy, and the Justice of the Peace, having found that he had made a mistake in committing him for an unknown crime, sent down and recalled the mittimus, and Tucker came home and had a good laugh at the other side. While they were after Tucker the other side were not idle. An information was filed and warrant issued for the arrest of Judge Bailey, and placed in the hands of the Constable. Taking about twenty with him he went to Forest City and found the Judge in the county office, which was then in the second story of the back wing of Grant's house. The officer made known his business, but the Judge did not propose to go unless forced to. S. S. Ainsworth, of West Union, coming about this time, he was consulted by the friends of the Judge. On learning the facts he expressed the opinion that the only thing to do was to go and stand trial, and if he did not get clear to appeal. He intimated that as the Judge was a party he could not issue a writ of habeas corpus for himself, and that there war, no officer competent to issue the writ in the county. Geo. W. Reed, who was Clerk, said that in the absence of the Judge he was ex-officio Judge, and that the Judge being under arrest was absent, under his construction of the law, and he would issue the writ. Ainsworth said that if they had nerve enough to do that he would make out the papers. In the meantime the Constable had taken possession of the Judge, he resisting just enough to require force. The Constable and another man took him by the arms and pulled him out of tile door, and then several helped to put him into a wagon to which a yoke of oxen were attached. The crowd started with their prisoner, and in a few minutes the writ of habeas corpus was ready and placed in the bands of a bystander and the crowd started to overtake those in charge of the Judge. As they started out D. A. Babcock and myself started, but thinking that discretion was the better part of valor, I suggested that we remain behind and wait their return. They overtook the constable in front of Judge Bailey's house, and what followed has facetiously been called the " Battle of Bailey's Land." As soon as the advancing party had overtaken the Judge and his escort, they demanded the release of the Judge. The officer refused to surrender him and a general scrimmage began, and there was a general intermixing of parties. Soon it was seen that individuals were pairing off and paying special attention to each other. Among the more notable were Frank Bosworth, brother of Fred Bosworth, and Dan Shook. Each had taken several falls, when Yager dealt a telling blow from the back side, and Shook fell like a log. Just at this instant William Haslam, who had his pipe in his mouth and continued to smoke complacently, gave Yager a blow and then turned his attention to Bosworth, whom he felled several times. As Shook came to his feet he found himself confronted by Yager, and then for a few minutes there was a joining of two heavy weight Germans, and the contest would have passed as first class in any prize ring. In the fracas Yager got Shook's finger in his mouth, and he soon showed he had vigorous jaws. In the meantime Shook was taking in the situation, although Yager had taken in a part of him, and turning his finger in Yager's mouth, and while his teeth were cutting to the bone, inserted his thumb into Yager's eye, and then the native German expression escaped from him as he yelled, " Yah," and as his mouth flew open, Shook gave him a knock down. During this time Runion, armed with a hickory club, was playing round outside hitting a head whenever he safely could. Among the active participants probably Haslam knocked down the most men, and received the least personal injury. He was an old boxing master and went in smoking his pipe and came out with it in his mouth. At the close of the fight F. D. Bosworth was on the fence giving very encouraging words that some might call profane. Shook and Frank Bosworth were the only ones who were laid up for more than a day or two. It is probably the only instance on record where force was used in the service of a writ of habeas corpus. If all had been present who claim to have been, then there would have been quite an army. This is probably not the first instance where heroes have sprung up after the battle.
After this warrants were issued against twenty-four northern men for resisting a writ of habeas corpus, the writs being issued by N. D. Smith, a Justice of the Peace at Forest City.
The warrants were placed in the hands of John Dixon, sheriff. He immediately proceeded to search for the accused, and coming to New Hampton, found all present, as they were holding a meeting in the old log school house. He told them his business and they all took it in good part, and were soon deeply in conversation with the Sheriff. One after another slipped out and to the sheriff's surprise he found that but one was left. It was very easy for one to secrete himself, for within a few rods of the house the grass would hide an ox. When the Sheriff took in the situation he was very angry and made strong threats. His ire was especially directed against Runion. He immediately started for Runion's house, and found Mrs. Runion in possession. He then proceeded to question Mrs. Runion as to the whereabouts of her husband, and received the prompt reply that it was none of his business. He then informed her that lie should be under the necessity of searching the house for him, and immediately commenced the search. After climbing the outside stairs of the old log house and searching in all possible and impossible places where a man could hide, he commenced the search below. Words of imprecation fell upon his head from the keeper of the home castle as the search went on, and after looking under the bed and elsewhere without success, he spied a ring in a trap door that led into an improvised cellar under the floor, and stooped to raise the trap door. At this Mrs. Runion sprang, upon the door and told him he could not go down there. The Sheriff insisted he would, and pushed her off. Not to be foiled, Mrs. Runion reached under the bed and secured a weapon not used in ordinary warfare, and raising it aloft, threatened to submerge him if he attempted. The Sheriff retreated and left the woman in possession. It has never been quite safe to call this episode, to the attention of the Sheriff. The next day, with a suitable posse, the Sheriff started for the same parties, but when a little way out he met the entire party on the road to surrender themselves. They made no defense and were all bound over to bide the action of the grand jury at the next session of the District Court. At the next term of court they were all on hand, and when the papers were handed to Judge Murdock he took them, and on looking them over said, sotto voce, " Resisting a writ of habeas corpus; what in the devil is that?" and then turning to the parties, said, "Go; you have no business here." Thus ended another action.
I recall a little episode that transpired during the trial of Tucker, at Nashua. As we were there two days, when the first night came I was put in bed with Tucker. During the night there was a strange sound under the bed, and asking Tucker what it was, he said it sounded like a badger. He reached under the bed and pulled out a young badger, saying, "Adversity makes strange bedfellows." It proved to be a tame badger that had escaped.
Soon after Judge Bailey was released under the habeas corpus proceedings a warrant was issued in Chickasaw for the arrest of the Judge, and placed in the bands of A. E. Bigelow for service. Taking with him one Finch, they went to the Judge's house early in the morning, before be was up, and took him away before he could rally his forces. When he arrived in Chickasaw he met a noisy crowd, and their remarks were more forcible than assuring. A change of venue was taken, and the Judge eventually released. In fact, there never was much of an idea of holding him, but they wanted to show that he could be arrested and taken away.
At the special session of court to try the county seat question, Forest City had as her lawyers, L. L. Ainsworth, Milo McGlathery, Wm. McClintock and A. G. Case. New Hampton had Wm. B. Allison, Wm. J. Barney, Wm. B. Fairfield, Wm. Munson and J. O. Crosbv. All the New Hampton lawyers boarded at Hiram Bailey's, and on the second night after court convened, a son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Bailey, and it was presented the next morning from behind the hanging sheet that separated the bed-room from the sitting-room, it was declared that in honor of the occasion, and the number of Williams present, the child should be named William.
We little thought at that time that we were suggesting as namesakes a District Judge and a United States Senator. The parents declined to adopt the name suggested.
Fairfield was not at this time a prohibitionist, and he had brought a two gallon jug of whiskey for use during court. On the second morning, the hired girl, while doing the chamber work, found the jug, and she dropped it into the cellar, which was without stairs, and about half full of water. When they came for dinner the jug was missing, and a search instituted for its recovery. It was found floating in the water in the cellar, but beyond reach, and it was decided that the three Williams should let Fairfield down and hold him while he secured the jug. He was accordingly let down, and just as he announced he had it, the hired girl put in an appearance, and giving the holders a push, they dropped their man to save themselves. The whisky was passed up and the lower man took a good drink so as not to take cold.
It was a very wet season, and there was scarcely a place in the town where a horse would not mire. The stage mired down with four horses right in the middle of Main street, and it took a team of six yoke of oxen to draw it out. The stage at this time was driven by "Sandy," and few knew but that this was his real name, but we now know him as one of our respected, prosperous and honored citizens, by the name of Honeywell.
Many were the jokes that were passed with reference to the depth of the mad. Judge Murdock declared that just after he passed Fredericksburg the little frogs sung out in high treble, "knee deep," but as he approached Forest City the bull frogs in deep bass sung, "no bottom."
During the trial, a large number of the northern men camped in the school house. One morning one of the cows was found on its back, fastened in that position, and when discovered by the woman who went out to milk she expressed dissatisfaction, but was informed by the northern men that they always did that way in Forest City, for in no other way could they get at her to milk, as the mud was so deep.
There was to be a convention to nominate a successor to Judge Murdock, and there was a feeling that it would not be detrimental to the interests of New Hampton if the delegates to be elected were in favor of New Hampton, and also supporters of the incumbent. The county convention was called as a republican mass convention to meet at Forest City, Monday evening the day before the convening of court. This was satisfactory to the South, as it was supposed that the north would not put in an appearance, until the first day of court. The central committee consisted of G. W. Howard, F. D. Bosworth and J. H. Powers. At the hour of convening the convention Howard and Bosworth were on hand together with about a dozen southern men to go to the school house to elect delegates. As yet no northern man had been seen. On reaching the school house all was dark and still, but on striking a match it was found packed with northern men. Howard was chosen chairman and a full set of delegates were elected. The next day there was another convention called and another set of delegates elected. The northern men refused to enter this second Convention, and the contesting Convention delegates had a poor show, as the first Convention had the notice called by the entire Central Committee, and their credentials were signed by a majority of them, one as Chairman and one as Secretary of the Convention. They supported Murdock at the District Convention, but E. H. Williams was nominated over him by one-quarter of a vote.
Probably no team traversed the ground between Forest City and New Hampton during the summer of 1858 without being sloughed down, and a set of ropes were kept at New Hampton with which to draw out teams mired down in trying to reach that place. It became so bad on the stage road between Bradford and Fredericksburg that A. V. Allen built a big flat scow large enough to take the stage, and hitching on eight yoke of oxen -- this being his breaking team -- took it over from his place to Tingley's. I have seen the whole four stage horses mired down on main street in Forest City. I have also seen teams mired down on main street in New Hampton. The present citizen of the county has but little comprehension of the condition of the country in 1858.
During this season hay could be bought at one dollar per ton, delivered and stacked, but corn was one dollar per bushel, and interest forty per cent.
When the decision came to hand on the county seat question, and an intimation, that a remedy was injunction, the question was, how can one be obtained, and after holding a meeting of the friends of New Hampton, it was decided that I should go to Garnavillo, Clayton county, Judge Murdock living there, and got a temporary injunction, and J. D. Colt agreed to furnish a horse and I was to go horseback. I took the trip and secured an injunction, and found myself involved in a case of attachment, for while there I became acquainted with a young lady who was on a visit from Massachusets, and I judge there was a final settlement of the case, for I married her that fall.
There was a growing feeling that there was too much power vested in the County Judge, and an agitation against his being continued as "county king," and holding the power to levey and disburse taxes, entered into the platforms of all parties. At the fall election the question of striking the word "white" out of the constitution, was submitted as a distinct proposition, this being the time of voting on the new constitution, and there were three votes cast in New Hampton in the affirmative. One was cast by Rev. Charles Hollis, one by myself, and the third by John Mays, he making a mistake by handing the wrong ballot to the judges and not finding it out until too late to recall. I followed the county seat, after the records were forcibly taken from New Hampton, being deputy clerk at that time. The Clerk's and Recorder and Treasurer's office would have expired in the spring but the abolishing of spring elections prolonged their terms of office six months, and thus they conformed to the new constitution. As I was appointed as deputy for one year, my time expired before the term of office, as extended, expired, and Frank Bosworth was appointed to the place. As I had invoked the ire of the south because I refused to approve of their county seat steal, I could expect no favors at their hands. The bitterness was intense, and when the new deputy came into office there was a general overhauling of the books, to find mistakes. I had been to Bradford, and on my return was taken to task for over fifty mistakes they had already found in the tax books. I requested to have them pointed out, and found that they had scratched the books so as to have the defects stand out prominent, and in every case the mistake was fifty cents too much in the final sum. I then complacently pointed out the statute that required the addition of a county poll tax of fifty cents on each resident. When they came to the court records they made the startling discovery that the record was not complete, and the new deputy was put to work making a complete record of every case, and among the first was the long one of the county seat case. When complete, I was again raked over the coals, by Reed, for thus causing him extra expense in hiring it done, and threatened with a suit to recover this extra cost. I then meekly called his attention to the fact that a complete record was only required in equity cases, and that every equity case had a complete record, as the law required. This kindness did not allay any of the feeling against me, although I had kindly pointed out the law that governed. In fact, I never found any appreciation of my kindness in thus aiding them when they had made mistakes.
There was to be a State Senator to be elected in the fall of I859, and desiring to be a candidate, I looked after my interests, before the county convention, and secured a majority of the delegates.
Among the opposition delegates, was Hiram Bailey, who, as the representative of the south, opposed instructions to delegates to give their support to me in the District Convention, and he protested vehemently against the same, and said he would support any other man in the county.
The convention was firm and the instructions were adopted. D. A. Babcock and F. D. Bosworth were put on the delegation, and when they came to the District Convention, after casting an informal ballot, under their instructions, they deserted, and used every power in their means to defeat me.
On my nomination there was a settled purpose to either drive me from the field or defeat me at the polls. At the meeting of the District Court, there was a conspiracy to have me indicted and bring in the indictment after the petit jury had been discharged, and thus prevent a trial and then let the indictment hang over me, thus expecting to force me from the field. One of the witnesses gave me a hint of what was up, and the judge was informed of what was being done.
He was informed that in case of an indictment a trial was wanted at once, and it was promised. The south had the sheriff in their interest and a Grand Jury had been fixed for the occasion, and being aided by the District Attorney, the programme was carried out, and as soon as the Petit Jury had been discharged and had started for home the indictment was brought in. As soon as the indictment was in court the Judge asked that it be passed up for inspection, and turning to me said that I had been indicted. A trial was demanded, and the Judge ordered the Sheriff to empanel a Jury. To this objection was made, and a demand for the regular panel. The court then ordered the Sheriff to have the regular panel there by 9 o'clock the next morning, or he would be removed and an officer appointed to do his work. They were all on hand the next morning. One of the jurors had started for home on foot and was within a quarter of a mile of home when the officer overtook him, and without going home, he turned and walked back the eighteen miles during the night. When the opposition saw how things were moving, the District Attorney wanted to nolle prosse the indictment, but under objection the court refused to allow it, and ordered the trial to proceed at once. Jno. T. Clark, J. O. Crosby, Wm. B. Fairfield and several others volunteered to defend me, and on submission to the jury they returned a verdict of not guilty without leaving the jury box.
The fight against me did not abate, and A. G. Case, instigated by Hiram Bailey, prepared a bitter attack upon me, and sent the same to the North Iowa Times, a paper published at McGregor's Landing, and as I was to be married to a young lady in that county it was very trying. The week following there were communications in the same paper from J. O. Crosby, John T. Clark and Wm. B. Fairfield, and these were followed by an apology from Colonel Richardson, who edited the paper, and it failed to accomplish what was intended, and my prospects in the matrimonial line were undisturbed. Moses Conger of Floyd was nominated by the Democrats as my competitor, and he was noted as an orator, and much was expected of him during the campaign. I took much pains in preparing a couple of speeches, receiving aid and documents both from the State and National Central Committees, and Senator Harlan coming along stumping the north part of the State, I rode with him several days, and was put in training by making short speeches, and receiving instruction from him as we rode over the prairie. Conger challenged me for a joint debate, and without waiting for a reply, issued bills for all the nine counties of the district, making the first meeting at Bradford, where the local feeling was very bitter against me. As I was the challenged party, I claimed the opening and closing the first night, and it was accorded me. I was loaded, and I fired the best shot I had, and before half my first hour had expired, cheers greeted me long and loud. I had overcome personal opposition and supplanted it with loyalty to party, and the victory was won.
Conger came into the campaign without any special preparation, relying upon the inspiration of the moment, and when he arose to speak he was laboring under visible embarrassment, and after using forty minutes of his hour and a half, he yielded the floor. As we went to the hotel he took me by the arm and said, "I have caught a Tartar, for they told me you were a d-d fool, but I was the biggest d-d fool for not looking you up myself, but I will go around and show you off, just the same."
We traveled together, he riding on a buckboard, and I riding on a borrowed pony, until the last of the campaign, when the pony was required by its owner. He used to tell me what exagerated statements he would make at the next meeting, and we would talk over the proofs necessary to show the fact. When we arrived at Howard Center the Democrats were holding a county convention in the school house where we were to speak, and refused to surrender the same. Conger asked if there was a Republican present who would play a game of euchre to see whether they should both vote for him or both vote for me. The challenge was accepted and the game commenced. In a little while Conger sung out, "Powers, be has beaten me, and I will vote for you." He voted for me. After speaking the night before we reached Osage, I started out, and when I found a good place, I staked out the pony, and taking the saddle blanket, camped for the night, thus saving the expense of hotel bill, and as I did not reach Osage until after breakfast, saved that also. My horse was sent for this day, and I rode from Osage to Floyd with Conger, and stayed all night with him, he taking me to Charles City the next morning, where the joint campaign was to terminate. I had but fifteen cents left, and at noon I bought five cents worth of crackers and went down by the river to eat them. After speaking in the evening, I went out and bought ten cents worth of crackers, and started on my twenty mile walk for New Hampton. When I had traveled ten miles, and reached Chickasaw, my feet were painful and I pulled off my boots and started on in my stocking feet. It was too cold to stand it, and I took the documents that I had been using during the campaign, and putting them in my stockings, found some relief. When I reached home, just before daylight, there was a feeling that campaigning was hard work. While I was away the opposition were active, and a large sheet was issued against me, headed "The Peoples' Champion," setting up the indictment, etc., the printing being done clandestinely, by crawling into the printing office window without the knowledge of its owner. The following is the closing appeal to voters: "J. H. POWERS, the Republican candidate for Senator now stands before you charged and indicted as a criminal for illegal voting, for willful violation of that right, the hard won and blood bought right of FREE SUFFRAGE, which is, and should be held dear and sacred by every true friend to freedom. Will you allow dishonest politicians to set the thumb screws of party drill upon you, and coerce you to support such a candidate, for the sake of party or anything else, contrary to the dictates of your honest judgment? Will you, fellow Republicans, with the indisputable facts here given you, send a man to represent you in the State Assembly, who, if the law is allowed to take its course, is a candidate for the State Penitentiary?" My friends had not been idle and they had issued an answer, heading it, "Champion' Refuted," the closing paragraph was as follows: "We the undersigned having seen a secret circular headed "The Peoples' Champion," and signed "Many Republicans," herebv declare that said document received its origin among Democrats, and that A. G. Case, of Bradflord, is the real author, and that it was published at the 'Cedar Valley News' clandestinely in the night time and on the Sabbath, without the knowledge of the editor, and that the same is being and has been circulated by Moses Conger, as a secret electioneering document, and that subsequent events have shown that the indictment was secured from personal feeling, and for electioneering purposes, and that the citizens of Chickasaw county look upon the whole thing as a Democratic trick for political effect." " D. A. Babcock, G. W. Howard, D. Campbell, W. D. Pomroy, E. A. Haskell, L. S. Thomas, R. C. Horton."
These were all citizens of Bradford, and among my most bitter opponents when nominated. My expenses for securing the nomination were three dollars and fifty cents, I paying the hotel bills of the Chickasaw county delegates at Charles City, where the convention was held, and my electioneering expenses in the district were eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents. As I now look at it, as there were nine counties in the district, this outlay is not great evidence of the subsidising of either the press or electors.
There were many enjoyable incidents during the campaign, and I recall the appointment in Utica township. When we arrived there we found that no provision had been made for a meeting, and we started for Pat Tierney's to stay all night. On the road there was much chaffing as to which should secure his vote. Conger claimed that being an Irishman be must be a Democrat, and that Democrats always voted the straight ticket and that insured him his vote. We were hospitably received, and when the horses were cared for, Conger seized a pail and went to milking a cow, saying sotto voce, "don't you see I have got the vote?" When supper was called, we found potatoes boiled with their jackets on, salt, coffee and bread. Taking the potato in my left hand with a blow from the right I drove it through, and the skinned potato fell upon my plate, and I laid the skin to one side. As I did this, Conger leaned back and laughing loudly said " He may vote for you, I can't come that 'Paddy Trick'." There was a neighbor that had lost a child, and we were urged to go to the wake, but we declined, but sometime in the night we found that we had not been forgotten, for a delegation presented themselves with a tin cup full of refreshments.
Just after my nomination there was a Representative convention which met at Bradford, and the district consisted of Chickasaw and Bremer counties. Bremer was entitled to six votes and when they arrived it was found that three of them were for C. Tarbox Smead and three of them for John Pattee. This left the choice with Chickasaw county, and on consultation it was decided to leave the selection to me, as I was running for the Senate and was most interested. It was conceded that it was to go to Bremer county. I found that the principal object of the delegates from Bremer county was to defeat the other candidate.
I had met a young man by the name of Geo. W. Ruddick, and I suggested him and he received the nomination, much to his surprise. At the election there was a local issue in his county, and not getting any of the Wapsie vote he was far behind in his own county, but again this county came to his relief and he was elected by a fair majority. W. C. Mitchel, of Utica township, was his opponent. It is not often that a man is nominated without his knowledge, and elected after he has acknowledged his own defeat at home. Subsequently, when an opportunity offered, he failed to remember past favors and pandered to "favors to come," and has lived to taste the bitter fruits of disappointment, for had he been true to his friends, he undoubtedly would have been elevated to the Supreme Court.
Between my nomination and election, I was married. My bride was in Clayton county and there being but one carriage in the county, I was obliged to go to J. E. Shepard's, sixteen miles, to get it, and I got a span of horses of Crawford, of Jacksonville. As I brought my young bride into the county on the third day of September, 1859, there had been a heavy frost and all the vegetation had been killed, and the blackened prairies showed that fire had been burning the grass and the outlook was not very cheering. Coming as my wife did from New England, and used to the comforts of an eastern home, the change was great, and if she had not had a stout and loyal heart she would have succumbed to the surroundings. A noble woman, a faithful and loving wife, she has been a blessing to her family, and has been the means of making me a better man than it would otherwise have been possible for me to have been, and her influence has always been on the side of right.
The winter of 1859-60 was fearfully cold, and there was no way of reaching the Capital but by private conveyance. We started from New Hampton on the last day of the year, with the thermometer twenty-six degrees below zero, and reached Waverly the first night. New Years opened with the thermometer marking forty degrees below zero, and we only made Cedar Falls the next night, arriving in the evening. On the 2d of January we started, with the thermometer twenty-six below, and passed out upon the Grundy prairie, where we traveled all day without seeing a habitation, until within four miles of Steamboat Rock, when we came to a sod house, and our load stopped to warm, my wife claiming that she was no longer cold, which symptoms alarmed us, as we knew that meant freezing. When brought to the fire we found our fears were well founded, and that but a short time was necessary to have completed the work. The other teams went on to Steamboat Rock, and when we arrived we found they had baked up all the flour they had in the house into warm biscuit. When we came to retire in a cold room, we found that one of the cold sheets was a table-cloth. We shook and shivered an hour or two before we could go to sleep. As we had eaten them out the night before, we had to go to Eldora for breakfast. We reached Nevada, Story county, that night, and should have reached Des Moines the next day, if we had not taken the wrong road, and at dark brought up at a small house which they said was eleven miles from Des Moines. Against the protest of the owner we unloaded, there were sixteen in the company, and taking his oxen out of their straw barn, put the horses in their place, and then made arrangements for the night by taking down the bed so as give us room to get in. Soon after, another load came up and were taken in with the others. The baking of cakes commenced and was continued most of the night. Myself and wife went into the woodshed, and on a bundle of buffalo robe, camped for the night. It was a gay wedding trip, and when we reached Des Moines the next noon we were ready to stop. I was fortunate enough to be appointed chairman of the committee on township and county organization, and as the abolishing of the County Judge had been an issue during the campaign, I went to work at once to accomplish that end.
Two tides had flowed into Iowa in populating the State, one from the east, bringing the New England element and habits, with its memory of town meetings and individual rights, and one from the south, bringing with it the southern element with its thoughts and polity.
In the early settlement of the State, the southern had largely predominated, and the State's early organization was fashioned and moulded by that influence, and the old Baronial system had been perpetuated through the slave power, where necessity required a centralizing. To abolish this one man power and disperse it among the many was looked upon by the southern element as dangerous in the extreme, and considerable bitterness was engendered when a change was demanded.
Party lines were thrown down, and former influences and surroundings controlled the vote. As chairman of the committee, having the bill in charge, I prepared and presented the following report with the bill: "Your committee to whom the different Memorials, Petitions and Bills relating to the reorganization and change of the county government was referred, by a majority of their number, report: That having examined the matters touching the same, find that in their opinion, the present system is not adapted to or consistent with the genius of our institutions, tending as it does to centralize rather than diffuse political power. Admitting as we do, that the County Judge system possesses an efficiency far above any other, we cannot concede that it places power where it will always secure the rights of the people by whom it is delegated. As a financial agent, the County Judge is placed beyond the immediate reach of the people, and the very efficiency with which be wields power, makes it the more dangerous. Secure in his own councils, he may prepare the way, and in an unexpected moment, strike a blow that will paralyze, and cripple the energies of a county for years.
Believing that all political power is inherent in the people, and should only he delegated by them, when an act is to be done that cannot be performed in their individual capacity, and when so delegated, should be provided with checks and balances, and retained as near as possible, we are led to conclude that the power of the County Judge is a dangerous one, and so far as it pertains to the finances of a county, should be taken from him, and vested in agents more immediately from the body of the people. Even if the finances could be safely intrusted to one man, we should find potent reasons for objecting to the present system.
Possessed as is the County Judge of Probate Jurisdiction, by following the course of human events, all the property of the State passes through his court as often as once in thirty years. The present inefficiency in protecting the estates of decedents alone, would be sufficient to warrant a change.
Chosen, as is now the County Judge., for his financial ability rather than any attainment that would entitle him to the position of a Judge of Probate, this becomes a secondary matter, and in many instances is entirely lost sight of. Your committee would in view of these facts, recommend the passage of the following bill as a substitute for Senate Files Nos. 45 and 46." The forces were nearly equally divided and the bill passed only by one majority. One of the arguments against the change was that it would raise up a brood of small politicians, there being so many offices to fill, and this would make a disturbing element. That there has arisen a brood of "small politicians " I am willing to concede, but not from that cause.
At the election of 1859 there was a County Superintendent of Common Schools to be elected, and that fact had been overlooked by the county convention, and when the tickets were to be printed I called the fact to the attention of the printer, and he wanted to know who had better be put upon the ticket. Dr. J. P. Wilson was Suggested and agreed upon, but there was no one that could give his initials, and as I had a letter from J. C. Strong who was a congregational minister in Bradford, his name was suggested and substituted, and much to his surprise he was elected without knowing that he was a candidate, or that there was such an office to be filled. Thus he became the first County Superintendent. About the same thing happened in the nomination of a member of the State School Board, it being provided under the new constitution that there should be one elected from each Congressional District. After the nomination of a Representative, I arose and moved that A. B. F. Hildreth of Charles City be nominated by acclamation, and this developed the fact that there was not another member of the convention that knew that there was such an office to be filled. Hildreth was nominated. In 1861 J. F. Wilson Was elected Representative. He was sandy complexioned, red haired, and a close student, but had a hobby about a grammar constructed upon physiological principles, and he prepared a first part of a volume and had it published, wherein the letters were classified according to the organs used in uttering them, and these were subdivided according to the special action of the organs thus used. It showed much thought, and as a theory had some things to commend it, but before a pupil could comprehend it, a full knowledge of physiology was necessary. Its very weight was enough to make it impracticable and useless, as a text book. The spring of 1861 opened with the excitement incident to the action of the southern states in passing ordinances of secession, and all business was brought to a stand.
An extra session of the legislature was called, and hiring a horse from George Morton, I started on horseback for Des Moines. I was four days on the road, and left my horse out in the country for keeping during the session. At the close of the session I returned with a commission from the Governor to raise a company of volunteers, and was requested to act as aid to the Governor. The forepart of the season was used in the drilling of squads in different parts of the county.
There bad been a fire company organized at Bradford under the name of " Fontenelle Co., No. 1," and they bad secured belts with the name emblazoned upon them, although there was no engine, ladders, truck or pails to be used in case of fire. As was remarked by an old citizen, "They were h--l on parade, but not of much use." This appeared to be an opportune time for the exhibition of their special talent, and securing wooden guns, and buckling on their belts, they passed through evolutions that would have surprised a drill-master. As I now recall their "hollow squares," " labyrinthine wind," and many other evolutions, I can but think how little any of us comprehended what war meant. Word came to me that a company had been accepted, and then came the enlisting for three years, or during the war, and when this line company of dress parade men were called to enlist in earnest only one man was willing to volunteer and that was D. A. Babcock. Afterwards there was a change of sentiment, and probably sixty to seventy per cent of the fire company enlisted. Most of them were mustered into Company "B," 7th Iowa Infantry. The company was to start on the 14th of July, and there was to be a general gathering of the company at Chickasaw on the 4th, where there was to be a celebration, and it seemed that the whole country came to see the boys before they left for the field of conflict.
It was an anxious day, long to be remembered, and little attention was paid to the address, but little knots of friends gathered around the men who were so soon to start to the front, and the suppressed sobs of mothers, wives, sisters, and loved ones who dare not show the intensity of their feelings, was trying in the extreme. There was a little incident when the president of the day said that "the Rev. Witted would now pray to them." The Reverend Witted arose and remarked that the president was mistaken, for he "should not pray to the people, but to Almighty God," and if there ever was an earnest invocation that ascended to heaven, then I believe he then and there uttered one. The day, the surroundings, the state of feeling, all conspired to bring out to its fullest intensity, the aspirations of the people and a desire that God would protect the boys and the loved ones so soon to be left at home. There was to be a gathering of the company at Bradford on the Morning Of the 14th day of July, and squads of men that had enlisted in other counties came on the 13th. The night before the company was to start three of the boys were married.
At Bradford, on the 13th inst., by Rev. Mr. Nutting, Mr. George Morse to Miss Adelia Bird, all of Bradford.
Also at New Hampton, same date, by G. A. Hamilton, Esq., Mr. F. D. Bosworth to Lizzie Smith, both of Bradford.
Also at New Hampton on the 14th inst., by C. O. Case, Esq., acting county judge, Mr. G. S. Arnold to Miss Lois Amelia Gillett, both of New Hampton.
After the battle of Donelson, F. D. Bosworth, he having been promoted from Orderly to Second Lieutenant on the death of George Dodge, who was killed at Belmont, resigned and returned home, but Sheldon Arnold never saw his wife again, as be died at Iron Mountain, Missouri, being the first to die in the Company. Early on the morning of the 14th the New Hampton contingent went to Bradford, and there met the balance of the Company. A large number of farmers were present with their teams to take the volunteers as far as Cedar Falls. At Cedar Falls the boys thought they were badly treated, as they were obliged to lie on a carpeted floor in the Odd Fellows' hall, and were not furnished beds. When they were on their road home they would have felt that they were being treated as lords if they could have found such luxuriant quarters, but then they had become soldiers, and were no longer simply country boys. We were quartered at the "Peosta" in Dubuque, and a high old time we had while there. There was a circus in town and we were passed in as soldiers. When the performance was about half through word came that there was a boat to take us to Burlington, and rising above his paint and garb, the clown gave us one of the most patriotic speeches I ever listened to.
The following, is the muster roll of the Company, showing from what county each man came:
FROM CHICKASAW COUNTY.
1. Babcock, D. A. .............. Bradford.
2. Biggar, Thomas ............. Bradford.
3. Campbell, D. ................. Bradford.
4. Campbell, D. L. ............. Bradford.
5. Dodge, G. W. ................. Bradford.
6. Felt, A. J. ...................... Bradford.
7. Foster, C. W. ................. Bradford.
8. Haskell, E. A. ................ Bradford.
9. Horton, Truman ............ Bradford.
10. Laird, John ................... Bradford.
11. Morse, George ............... Bradford.
12. Newman, William ...........Bradford.
13. Pettit, L. C. ................... Bradford.
14. Rutherford, J. ............... Bradford.
15. Tannahill, William ........ Bradford.
16. Thomas, Jefferson ........ Bradford.
17. Albertson, Fernando ..... Chickasaw.
18. Case, Allen ................... Chickasaw.
19. McTaggart, Daniel ........ Chickasaw.
20. Thomas, John .............. Chickasaw.
21. Witted, Matthew ........... Chickasaw.
22. Witted, Rev. J. G. ......... Chickasaw.
23. Pease, Geo. .................. Fredericksburg.
24. Mills, Robert ................. Jacksonville.
25. Bean, Henry .................. Nashua.
26. Bean, Levi L. ................. Nashua.
27. Fisher, I. M. .................. Nashua.
28. Holmes, O. A. ................ Nashua.
29. Hurley, Frank H. ........... Nashua.
30. McConnell, John ........... Nashua.
31. Montrose, H. W. ............ Nashua.
32. Shannon, D. H. ............. Nashua.
33. Trott, Chas. ................... Nashua.
34. Arnold, G. S. ................. New Hampton.
35. Bordwell, Frank ............. New Hampton.
36. Carkins, Levi ................ New Hampton.
37. Gardner, Gideon ........... New Hampton.
38. Jackson, A. D. .............. New Hampton.
39. Morton, B. E. ................ New Hampton.
40. Magee, John ................. New Hampton.
41. Morton, A. H. ................ New Hampton.
42. Powers, J. H. ................ New Hampton.
43. Rollins, Thos. E. ........... New Hampton.
44. Tisdale, G. J. ................ New Hampton.
45. Wisner, H. S. ................ New Hampton.
46. Nye, Meltiah ................. Washington.
47. Bailey, J. P. .................. Williamstown.
48. Bailey, Zolotus ............. Williamstown.
49. Birdsall, W. W. ............. Williamstown.
60. Bosworth, F. D. ............ Williamstown.
51. Jackson, Wm. H. .......... Williamstown.
52. Poppleton, B. H. ........... Williamstown.
53. Smith, H. P. ................. Williamstown.
54. Taylor, Ed. J. ............... Williamstown.
FROM FLOYD COUNTY.
55. Haughey, Sylvanus ....... Floyd.
56. Hoisington, P. M. .......... Howardville.
57. Wolling, John C. ........... Howardville.
58. Baker, Jas. ................... Marble Rock.
59. Cornelia, Geo. ............... Marble Rock.
60. Clark, Henry H. ............. Marble Rock.
61. Folsam, Samuel ............ Marble Rock.
62. Hawks, Everett ............. Marble Rock.
63. Hawks, ------ ................. Marble Rock.
61. Smith, James ............... Marble Rock.
65. Ford, O. C. .................... Nora Springs.
66. Gregory, H. A. .............. Nora Springs.
67. Mead, G. W. ................. Nora Springs.
68. Wilson, James A. .......... Nora Springs.
69. Wilson, Joel C. ............. Nora Springs.
70. Brown, J. ..................... Shell Rock City.
71. Brown, E. B. .................Shell Rock City.
72. Myers, J. R. ................. Shell Rock City.
73. Smith, H. J. ................. Shell Rock City.
74. Craig, Robt. ................. St. Charles City.
75. Doan, Robt. ................. St. Charles City.
76. Doan, Wm. G. .............. St. Charles City.
77. Reiniger, Robt. G. ........ St. Charles City.
78. Andrews, Davis C. ....... Watertown.
FROM HOWARD COUNTY.
79. Benson, H. .................. Howard Center.
80. Seeley, David. .............. Howard Center.
81. Thayer, W. E. ............... Howard Center.
82. Gallahan, J. M. ............ New Oregon.
FROM MITCHELL COUNTY.
83. Wilbur, Charles .............. Osage.
84. Johnson, Knut ............... Osage.
85. Sprague, P. T. .................. Osage.
86. Wright, John .................... Osage.
87. Howard, J. R. ................... Dayton Twp.
After being mustered in at Burlington, I came up the river with Governor Kirkwood and Adjutant-General Baker, and was given a commission to raise another company, as I had refused a commission in the first, that was tendered me by the Governor, knowing as I did the elements that formed the company, composed as it was of politicians and county seat partizans that had been a disturbing element in the county. That there were faults in the Captain commissioned to the company is probable, but no man could have been a successful officer in that company, until the men were accustomed to military orders, and I was not surprised when the company, led by G. J. Tisdale, showed their insubordination, by requesting the Captain to resign. Under the direction of the Governor, I raised another company, and was commissioned as a Captain, and was mustered into the 9th Iowa Infantry. Having expended every thing I could raise in enlisting men, my family were left with the allowance given by the county to families of enlisted men, and until late in 1851 their only support was from that source. A young wife and a little babe here upon the bleak prairies, relying upon a county stipend, was not calculated to make life cheerful, but like hosts of others, she met the demands of our country in giving up her natural provider and protector, and wore the crown of self sacrifice in the spirit of an American woman.
In the winter of 1862, our little boy that I had embraced and placed in the arms of his mother, was taken sick. As I was laying in Missouri at the time, with typhoid fever, it was kept from me. My wife hearing that I had died, sent her father to bring home my body for burial. The day after he left the boy died, and not hearing from her father, she kept his body five days to bury him with me. She then heard that I was alive and had the boy buried at once, so as not to have the sorrow of burying him take from my chances of recovery. It was a sad home to come to, but there were loving and tender ones to nurse me back to health. The following summer, while camping back of Helena, Arkansas, one of the men brought me a paper which gave the detail of the drowning of the wife of Capt. J. H. Powers, of an Iowa regiment. At this time no leave of absence was allowed, but when I showed the commanding officer this account, an exception was made in my case, and I had leave of absence to come home. On my way home, many of my acquaintances who had seen the account, sympathised with me in my affliction. When I reached Bradford, my heart failed me and I decided to return to duty without coming to New Hampton. The friends there insisted that it would be better for me to go home before returning and G. W. Howard offered to come over with me. When about two miles out of New Hampton, we met J. A. Sawin, who then lived just opposite my house. I had not the heart to mention my wife, but after telling me that his family were all well, he added, "and I guess your folks are for your wife was at my house when I left." The next thing I realized, Howard had me by the coat, and was saying, "hold on Powers, I am going too, and you had better ride."
The mistake arose in giving the J. H. Powers as being of an Iowa regiment, in place of an Illinois regiment, according to the facts. It is not often that both husband and wife mourn their partners as dead while they yet live.
After most of the able-bodied men had enlisted there began to crop out a feeling of disloyalty to the government, and mutterings of discontent with the administration and the conduct of the war. From a grumbling and fault-finding spirit it grew into outspoken and threatening opposition. This was but the result of an influence that bad been assiduously introduced among the northern stay-at-homes by southern emissaries. The wave that passed over Iowa was but a ripple, but it brought to the surface a class that only wanted an opportunity to show their true sentiments. In the propagating of this Sentiment secret organizations were formed under the name of "Knights of the Golden Circle," and one was formed in Chickasaw county, and a list of its members came into my possession, but I refrain from publishing it, for if there was no other reason, the sins of the fathers should not be visited upon the children. These rebel sympathizers were called " copperheads " and "butternuts," and aroused very bitter feelings against them by the friends of the men in the army, and by the loyal element at home. Their denunciation was bitter, and even the pulpit partook of this feeling. There was a United Brethren preacher who came to New Hampton occasionally to preach, and on one occasion when there had been some overt act that aroused his feelings, he took the occasion to pour forth the vials of his wrath against all "copperheads." After he had piled up denunciation after denunciation, he reached the climax of hyperbole by declaring that "If God was to roll a pill into hell as big as this earth, He could not physic out as mean a thing as a copperhead."
Ed Rollins who lived between New Hampton and Fredericksburg, was home on sick furlough, and in derision the " butternuts " I used to wear sections of the butternut for bosom pins, and the Secretary of the Chickasaw circle attended a spelling school wearing one, and was asked what it was. He answered that it was a butternut. He had hardly got the word out of his mouth before Rollins grabbed for it, and not only took the butternut, but took the whole front of his shirt as well. After William Everingham was discharged for disability, they attempted to meet in the school house near him, and he took his rifle and started for the school house, and on his approach they all fled into the brush. They knew better than to trifle with William. When some of the boys came home on furlough and learned who was President of the Circle, they sent word to have him appear the next morning with his gun, for drill. He came, and although he had declared that before he would recognise the right of Lincoln, or any of his hireling soldiers, to coerce a State that had seceded from the Union, he would wade in blood knee deep, he came on time and was put to drill under the command of one of the boys, and when he became tired, another relieved him, and before they were through with him, there was little brag left, and he went home a subdued and loyal man, so far as future words showed.
Like all immigration into a new country, the population was composed mostly of young men, and there were but few exempt from military duty by reason of age. In New Hampton nearly every household sent a representative, and there were many sad farewells as we left for the war. Alvin H. Morton had three little boys and a young wife, and he left them for the last time, as he was killed at the battle of Belmont, being the first man to fall in battle, from New Hampton. Left as she was, without means of support, she took up the task of raising the family of boys and day after day found her bending over the wash tub, as she earned a scant living for her family. This is but a type of the sacrifices that the women made for their country. The anxious waiting, the dead monotony of intense loneliness, and the heart throbs for absent ones, had to be borne without complaint, for, in their womanhood, they never allowed one word or thought to escape from them to weaken the hearts of the boys in the field. While their loved ones were heroes in the field, they were martyrs at home. God bless them and their memory, and may we who were spared to return, feel that as the evening of life approaches, we are lovingly to shield them with the protecting mantle of love and care, and may their closing days be filled with comfort and peace. To those who lost their loved ones, we owe a duty hard to meet, for it is not in the power of the living to do them justice.
As time developed the suppressed feeling of disloyalty, there were emissaries traveling over the state to organize and arouse opposition to the administration, and Stilson Hutchins was advertised to hold a meeting in New Hampton, but when the day arrived his place was supplied by Wm. McClintock of West Union. McClintock made a bitter and denunciatory speech against the administration, and against the war, and he was followed by a citizen of this county who made the following speech:
Fellow citizens: --- We have met here to-day to perfect an organization, to arrest the evils of our country and to bring it back to peace and prosperity. We have an unnecessary war, a great war debt and an unjust Conscription Act that values the life of the poor man at $300. Abolitionists tell us we can have a good jollification now, but in a few months we shall be drafted into the army or sent to imprisonment. We must have harmony in the Democratic party. The Democratic party had always come up to the right scratch; as many Democrats had gone into the army as Republicans until the last call, when the war was changed into an Abolition war. It was so all over, so in this State and particularly in this county. Two years ago a Union Convention was called. Col. Merritt, with fresh laurels from Mill Springs was nominated. The Democrats gave up Judge Mason, their candidate for Governor and united with the Union men on Col. Merritt. The Republicans were tricky and run a party candidate; so it was in this county --- a mean party trick. They say it is no time for party organization and that we are getting up a traitor organization, when they are making secret organizations all over the country and sent a circular to me. They are organizing at Bradford and Chickasaw, and I presume in this place. Democrats won't organize secret societies they don't believe in them. We want a Democratic organization. Abolitionists say it is no time to oppose corruption and fraud -- no time to talk of fraud -- for it is opposition to the Government, while they are up to their elbows in fraud, swindling government and plundering the public crib. Senator Harlan and the Republicans cried out against frauds two years ago; what was sauce for the goose then is not sauce for the gander now. We Democrats won't have them guardians over us now. Cameron could plunder the Government and be sustained; Morgan and Wells, in ship contracts, plundered Government; Simmons received $40,000 interest on a contract and was afraid of an investigation that he resigned and went home. So with McKinstry and Fremont, both guilty of frauds, and the people, we the poor people must be taxed to pay the debts.
What shall we say of arbitrary arrests? The accused are taken from their homes without trial. I would not complain if they would only give them a fair trial; but they let them all go; released them, even Mahoney, with an honorable discharge without any trial. We Democrats at first sustained the war; but when it was changed into an Abolition war democrats complained, and were arrested for merely complaining about it.
Military arrests were only made in time of war; and in times of war tyrants seized the government to make themselves tyrants, and I believe the Administration mean to seize our Government. France elected Napoleon president and in time of war he seized the government of France aided by the army; so it was the universal practice of all governments to overturn all the rights of the people, and I believe the cry of military arrests is an organization to overturn our government. This is the danger apprehended by Jefferson, Adams, and Washington. The Democrats have held the government (except for a few years,) since its formation. This is the maiden attempt of the Republicans and just see how our country is ruined in two years. We must arrest the wrong and save the country. The Democrats nipped the nullification in the bud in 1832, but this Administration has been two years in doing nothing but plunging the country in debt and ruin. The Abolitionists are the hell-broth of our civil war. (Great applause.) They say we have no right to question any act of the Administration; no right to meet to-day to discuss any of these questions in our country. The Abolitionists say that public opinion must be suppressed; men must not be allowed to express their opinions; freedom of speech is forbidden us Democrats. If it is attempted Abolitionists admonish us that it is an attempt to destroy the Constitution. The Abolitionists have made such a debt that it cannot ever be paid, but the tax-gatherer must always knock at the poor man's hamlet. We can organize and overturn them, and next fall we will see them annihilated. We must show honorable conduct and kindness to each other, and then when we have got the Government into our hands we can restore it to purity and peace; and as our country is a great and growing country, if the Democrats get the Government into their hands we believe there is vigor and energy enough left, that in a few years we could pay off all our indebtedness.
The following resolutions were adopted:
Resolved, That we condemn the present administration for the enormous indebtedness it has fastened upon the people by its reckless extravagance and corruption and for the taxation of the laboring white man to purchase the freedom and secure the elevation of the negro.
Resolved, That the war should be prosecuted vigorously for the Union, the constitution and the enforcement of the laws as originally commenced, and we denounce the course pursued by the party in power, for diverting it into a warfare for the abolition of slavery.
Resolved, That we denounce secession as a dangerous heresy, opposed to the spirit of the constitution, and as such should be suppressed that the Union and the constitution may be preserved as our fathers made it.
Revolved, That we are unalterably opposed to the "American citizens of African descent" (under former administrations, called the negro) being transported into the State of Iowa.
Resolved, That we condemn the acts of the abolition party in organizing and establishing secret political military societies in our county and State, and declare ourselves opposed to all secret political organizations.
Resolved, That the late conscript act which values the poor man's life at $300, and furnishes an easy exemption for the rich is unjust and oppressive in compelling that class of our fellow citizens to fight our battles who are so unfortunate as to be unable to purchase their exemption, and we hereby condemn this attempt to build up a privileged aristocracy in this country.
Indignation run high, and the women who had members of their families in the army, were, aroused to a frenzy, and were determined to take vengeance then and there, by attacking with, brooms and mops and driving the offenders from town, and had it not been for the firm stand of Mrs. Powers, an attack would have been made. She was successful in showing the outraged women that it would not be for the best, and that time would bring its punishment, and she has lived to see the prophecy fulfilled, and the dregs of the punishment were drastic and bitter.
Viewed in the calm of later years, I have the feeling that this speech was uttered more in the spirit of partizanship than in that of disloyalty, and with the hope to ride triumphantly upon the wave of reaction that the opposition believed was soon to submerge the country.
At the election of W. E. Beach to the office of Treasurer and Recorder in 1860, Russel Baldwin, of Chickasaw, had been spoken of as a probable candidate for the office, and to promote "harmony," Beach had to promise to make his son, Horace C. Baldwin, deputy. This bargain was charged during the campaign, and was disposed of in such a way as to make it impolitic for him to enter upon his duties at once, as it might give rise, to unpleasant comment and have a tendency to verify the charge made, and then there was something more than a rumor that his son was not qualified, and under the stress of circumstances Russell Baldwin came himself to the county seat and acted as deputy, for a time, but business, ostensibly, calling him home, his son was sent over to take his place. With little practical qualification he commenced to record instruments, and by laboriously following the form and copy of the work of M. B. Taylor, who had been a deputy under Howard and Bosworth, and who was the best recorder ever in the office, up to that time, he soon acquired his handwriting, and without a previous knowledge, it is hard to distinguish their writing one from the other, the copy is so complete.
Of course the father never came back into the office, and the son remained as deputy. This painstaking perseverence developed a natural talent, and he acquired painstaking business habits that have followed him through an active business life, and contributed much to his success. He is now the Mayor of the city in which he lives, and the President of a National Bank. When volunteers were being called for, it was suggested that he enlist, but he said that he might as well stay at home as any one, as some one would have to do the work, but if some one could be secured who could not enlist because of inability, he would go.
Mr. Beach at once appointed Miss E. C. Stebbins as his deputy, and as she was disqualified for enlistment, not only because she was a woman, but further because she was not regulation height or weight, being less than five feet high, and weighing less than ninety pounds. The requirements having been met, he enlisted, and subsequently became captain Of Co. C, thirty eighth Iowa Infantry. Thus it was that Miss Stebbins was the first woman in Iowa to hold a county office. She also was the first woman in the world to be appointed a Notary Public.
At the election of 1861, Caleb Arnold was elected successor of C. H. Dore., as County Judge. This position was given him in sympathy for the loss of his son in the army, and not for any special qualification.
He was a native of Vermont, and had received a very meager common school education, and his life had not been such as to develop any natural talent he might have had, and the record shows that there was little in his official life to commend his fitness for the position.
He was below the medium height, square built, wore a smiling countenance, and always appeared with a stub of a pipe in his mouth. His industry as a farmer was not such as to bring great returns, and he left his farm and sought official honors as Justice of the Peace and County Judge.
At the election of 1863 Henry C. Vinton was elected Representative. He came from Massachusetts and had friends in Bradford, and came West to grow up with the country. He went into the raising of sheep and erected barns and sheds and stocked his farm with sheep. He was one of those good boys, white haired, light complexion, and lacked what is so necessary to success in a new country, "vim." He was elected for various reasons, and among them was the fact that his friends stood high, and their influence was a power, and this was supplemented with the cry that he would be a representative of the farming interests of the county, especially of the new industry of sheep raising. Then again most of the men who would likely be aspirants were in the army, and all who were in the habit of shaping the politics of the county had left.
He was a good man, but had little force to impress himself upon a legislative body, and he was never heard from, only as a voter, and not making a success of his business he sold out and left.
In 1859 J. K. Nutting came to Bradford and commenced his labors as a minister of the gospel, in the Congregational church. At this time there was not a protestant church building in the county. Nutting went to work, holding meetings in an old vacant building and hall. He was an inveterate worker, and being something of a mechanical genius, he was architect and general overseer. I have seen him mixing mortar and doing the most laborious work, in fact there was a large amount of Nutting worked into the building. He improvised a furnace, utilizing the remains of an old boiler in its construction. As an instance of his ingenuity, I recall his using an old mill gearing in the making of a horse power for sawing wood, locating the same on the banks of "Dry Run," adjoining his house. The bull wheel, or power wheel, run above his horse, the track for his horse being under its outer edge. He also built himself a "grout" house that still stands as a relic of the past. After much sacrifice and personal exertion, the church was completed, and on his solicitation, a bell was furnished by one of his eastern friends, and thus the first church had the first bell in the county that pealed forth an invitation to gather for worship. The church was painted a brown color and fitted the inspiration of W. S. Pitts, who wrote that beautiful song that has been sung around the world, "The Little Brown Church in the Vale." Thus, while the "Pig's Eye" was gathering in the disciples of Bacchus, with " Stick Dodge" as high priest, Nutting was rallying the forces of morality and religion to a higher life, and laying the foundations upon which was to rest future civilization and development.
In point of numbers, the bachanalian hosts seemed to be in the ascendancy, and as their spirits run high, their triumphant hosannas were wafted upon the midnight air, to the homes of the waiting and watching ones; while the followers of him "that spake as never man spake," were preparing the way for the future.
While the revels of the one are only a sad memory, the influence of the other has moved steadily on, until its power is leading civilization to a higher standard. This man Nutting had a way of his own of making a point and sending it home. His neighbors hens commenced to destroy his garden, and after calling the neighbor's attention to the destruction they were making, and getting no relief, he went to another neighbor and borrowed a shot gun. In a short time there was a great commotion among the hens, and the continued shooting and cackling of the hens, soon brought his neighbor upon the field of action. The words that were showered upon the divines' head were not few or mild, but still the shooting went on and no word from Nutting.
When the garden was cleared, and after he had listened to the profane denunciation of his neighbor, who declared there could be no christianity in such a man, he meekly returned the gun to its owner with thanks. The party of whom he had borrowed the gun, felt it was a duty be owed him, and proceded to remonstrate with him for shooting his neighbor's hens. In much surprise, Nutting exclaimed, "Shooting hens, shooting hens, why, I have not shot any hens, I was shooting my neighbor for not caring for his hens. There was no shot in the gun and I did not hurt his hens." Of course this came to the ears of the offending neighbor, and that night he came over and apologized for what he had said and his hens were taken care of.
Feeling that his work should be supplemented by an educational work, he was instrumental in starting an academy, and W. P. Bennett was secured as principal and teacher. Through this instrumentality, there was developed an ambition for a higher education, and as a result of the stimulus thus engendered, a number of young people were developed and helped to advance in life's work. Among others, were the two Grawe brothers, one of whom became a Congregational minister, and the other a school teacher, County Superintendent of Schools, and elected the second time in 1874.
Subsequently he became the editor of the Nashua Post, succeeding A. J. Felt. To succeed the versatile Felt, was no easy matter, but in place of lowering the standard of the paper, time showed that it had hardly entered the confines of usefulness, until it was developed by J. F. Grawe. After a short labor as pastor, the brother died, and thus a prospective honorable and useful career was cut off. Another young man that received his start in this school was Hart who graduated at Iowa College and who is now one of the educators of the state. His wife, Mary Bigger, also started here and graduated at Iowa College, but died soon after marriage. Aside from these individual and prominent examples, there has been an abiding influence for good growing out of that school, and many a man and woman occupies a higher position to-day, than they would had it not existed, and many a parent is unwittingly singing its praises, as they give trend to the character and development of their children.
In 1864 there came into the county a cadaverous, stooping young man, driving a flock of sheep, and one observing him would conclude that the pace that he was taking, as he followed the flock, was but typical of the movements of the procession that would soon follow him to his last resting place. Subsequently he came to New Hampton as an itinerant singing school teacher. When I first saw him he was stoop-shouldered, hollow chested, and the most marked thing about him was his mouth, which was out of all proportion to the rest of his body. He appeared to be a good singer, and the opening out of which came the sound was ample, but where the sound came from, after looking at his shrunken body, one wondered.
Among his songs was "Katie Lee and Willie Gray," and the soul he put into that song indelibly impressed it upon me. Seeing him as we saw him then, no one would suspect that it could be our portly townsman and banker, W. L. Darrow, yet such is the fact. W. L. Darrow is a creature of western development, acquiring his corpulence and money here in our county.
In 1864 B. E. Morton having returned from the army, having been wounded by a bullet through the leg, at the battle of Franklin, was elected Recorder without opposition, and held the office for three following consecutive terms. He was one of three brothers that went out from New Hampton, one, Alvin H., having been killed at Belmond being the first to be killed in battle, that went from New Hampton. As a Recorder he did the work reasonably well, but he lacked the faculty to store his earnings, and at the close of his official career had saved but little, and followed the example of his father, by moving west to grow up with the country, and made his home in Kansas. His father, Jason Morton, was the first to receive burial in the New Hampton Cemetery, being moved from where he was first buried, about two miles west of town. He was a Maine man, and started out from the land of his birth, with his young wife in a covered wagon drawn by oxen, stopping en route to Iowa, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and landed in Iowa in 1858 with two covered wagons and a large family. He had emigrated from place to place, just ahead of railroads, and when he died had never seen one.
His aged wife went to Kansas ahead of the advent of the iron horse, and when she died a few years later, she had never seen a railroad.
In the fall of 1865, the boys having returned from the army, G. J. Tisdale was nominated for Representative, and D. A. Babcock run as an independent, against him. They canvassed the county together, and Tisdale was elected by a small majority. If Babcock could have had equal prestige by receiving the party nomination, he would undoubtedly have been elected.
M. C. Ayers located as a practicing attorney in New Hampton in 1865, being the third lawyer to open an office in that town. He was not fully equipped for his profession by a preliminary education, for he had struggled with the demands of this life in the support of his family by working at the trade of lathing and plastering. He was as good a theorizer in the law as often appeared at the bar, but lacked the power to utilize his theories and his success was limited. Then his habit of action led him to delay what could be postponed, and he failed to secure a reputation for "push." I think his peculiar trait in this line was fully exemplified by his preparation for building his morning fires. It mattered not how cold and stormy it might be, he never made preparation the night before for building his morning fire, but would go out in the morning and split kindling wood with which to build it. He was an amiable, honest, reliable man and bore an unimpeachable character. He emigrated to Dakota.
Tisdale went out in the Seventh Iowa Infantry, and when the Seventh and Ninth regiments met at Benton Barracks, St. Louis, he desired a transfer to the Ninth, and I consented that one of the men in my company who had acquaintances in the Seventh, might be transferred in exchange for Tisdale. When he came to the Ninth, I had him mustered into Company E, that company being composed of men unqualified to act as Orderly, and he was appointed to that position. At the battle of Pea Ridge, he was wounded, and the Captain being killed in the same battle, the First Lieutenant was promoted to Captain, and Tisdale was jumped to First Lieutenant. When the new Captain resigned, the Second Lieutenant was jumped to Captain. He was a young man of towering ambition, and possessed of sufficient assurance to assert his claims, and although counted a little "fresh,' he made a very favorable impression in the legislature.
In October, 1865, Captain Gardner brought a stranger to my office and introduced him as Dr. Mixer. The wants of the town and surrounding country were discussed, and when about to leave the office, the doctor remarked that if he could find an office, he would locate in New Hampton. I told him that he might stop in my office until he could do better, and he commenced practice that afternoon, and nothing further was said about changing office for twelve years, he remaining with me for that time. As I had received some experience in attending where necessity, in the absence of a doctor, had required, be always took me along with him as assistant, in cases of surgery, until the advent of more doctors, when I dropped out of the practice.
Dr. Mixer attained the summit of professional reputation, and became one of the most extensive practitioners in the county, being especially noted as a surgeon. While being thus pressed with professional cares, he found time to build the Opera House, and run two or three farms, and write a continuous series of political articles that appeared as editorials in the New Hampton Courier. So frequent and scathing were these articles, that the question was asked at each recurring election "Who is Dr. Mixer going for now?" I recall only one instance where the question could have been put the other way, and that was at the first election of John Foley as Treasurer, when he not only pitched into his opponent, but gave Foley open and affirmative support. Combative to excess, the years carried many political stings under his lashings, and when the Dr. became a candidate for legislative honors, they were fully settled, and in some cases, paid with good ten per cent compound interest. He was naturally a strong man, ambitious to lead, unsparing to opponents and could brook opposition with poor grace. He did much to develop the county, and when he left in 1892 parted with many sincere friends.
At the June session of the Board of Supervisors, I went before them and urged the necessity of building a court house. In a spirit of banter they asked for plans and specifications, and I went to my office and during the afternoon of the same day, presented them with plans and specifications. They then said if I would find a contractor that would take his chances of ever getting his pay from the swamp land fund that the county might get some day, they would let the job. I told them I would take the contract and give bond for its performance. Still thinking it audacity on my part, they asked me to prepare resolutions for the appointment of a committee to enter into contract with me. I set down and hastily drew the following, resolutions:
Resolved, That Palmer, of Jacksonville, Haslain, of Dayton, and Woodbridge, of Bradford, be a committee to enter into agreement with, and if practicable make a contract with any responsible parties, for the erection of a county building, according to the plan and specifications now on file in the office of the clerk of the board. And if they deem changes or additions necessary, stipulate for the same to be paid out of the county funds, but in no case to exceed $500.00 for such last mentioned purpose.
Resolved, That said committee be empowered to offer the contractor an interest of ten per cent., payable out of the county funds on sums due for the erection of said building, and payable, out of the swamp land fund, until said fund shall be received by the county, and paid over to contractor or his order.
Resolved, That the committee report their doings in the premises together with a copy of any contract they may enter into for the action of the board.
The committee made the following report:
Your committee to whom was referred a resolution in reference to the erection of a county building would respectfully report:
First. We would respectfully recommend that the building be double plastered and painted inside and out.
Second. We would recommend that the accompanying contract be adopted and approved.
Third. We would recommend that to meet the first payment the county hire of the school fund five hundred dollars.
Fourth. We would recommend that the clerk of the board of supervisors be authorized to issue to the contractor warrants for the several sums due on said contract as they become due, drawing on the several funds as set forth in the contract.
Accompanying this report was the following contract:
This contract entered into on this 6th day of June, A. D. 1865, by and between Chickasaw county, State of Iowa, of the first part, and J. H. Powers of the second part, witnesseth: that the said party of the second part agrees to erect and finish according to the specifications now on file in the office of the Board of Supervisors, a county building, the work to be done in the style of the work done on the Congregational Church in New Hampton, and the weather work to be of good pine lumber; the building to be erected in a good workmanlike manner, finished inside and out, and painted with two coats of paint of white lead or zinc; said building to be plastered and complete for use, the seating used being the seats now owned by the county for county purposes. The walls of the building to be double plastered by lathing and plastering between the studding; the vault to be square as platted, and the entrance to the same being under the stairs and to have double doors of boiler iron, one opening inside and one outward, with good iron hinges and iron fastenings for the same, and the walls of said vault to be at least sixteen inches thick with an opening in the same, and at least the outer wall to be of brick or stone. Said building to rest upon a good substantial stone foundation in height similar to the one under the Congregational meeting-house in New Hampton; said building, to be completed before the 26th day of November, A. D. 1865.
And the party of the first part agrees to pay the party of the second part, for the erection of said building as above described the following sums, and on the conditions and terms to-wit: Eight hundred and forty dollars ($840) paid down in cash. Five hundred dollars ($500) to be paid when the building is raised, said payment to be made by an order on the funds in, or to come into the possession of the county as "swamp land funds," with interest thereon payable out of the county lands at ten per cent per annum payable annually, until the county shall receive money from the United States as said swamp land funds" and until the same is paid the said J. H. Powers, or his order; five hundred dollars ($500) when the building shall be enclosed payable on the conditions, and in the manner above stated; and eleven hundred and sixty dollars ($1,160) payable as the foregoing, out of the said swamp land fund when the building is completed; and G. W. Butterfield, W. E. Beach and W. B. Grant shall be a committee to examine, and if found complete according to this contract, to accept said building from the hands of the contractor, previous to his receiving his last payment.
And it is further stipulated that the said J. H. Powers enter into bonds running to the county, in the sum of thirty-five hundred dollars, with surety to be approved by the clerk of tile board of supervisors, F. D. Bosworth and A. E. Bigelow, before he shall be entitled to draw any of said money. In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands this sixth day of June, A. D. 1865.
WM. PALMER,
Wm. HASLAM,
E. D. WOODBRIDGE.
We being appointed a committee to let contract for building county building; to be approved by the board.
HIRAM BAILEY,
Chairman Board Supervisors.
J. H. Powers.
The recommendation of the committee was adopted with the exception of the third, which was changed so that instead of hiring " five hundred dollars school fund," the clerk to issue ten county warrants in sums of fifty dollars each. This contract was completed in the forenoon of the seventh day of June, 1865, and I filed my bond and had it approved before noon, and then went down to the hotel and traded eighty acres of land to a traveling man, for a span of horses and a wagon, eat my dinner, drove to Forest City, contracted for the square lumber, and such other hard wood as I could use, and before sundown delivered a load on the site of the proposed building. The same night I bought the stone, being a lot that had been blasted by Ernest Werner, and the next morning started with my team for McGregor, to purchase the balance of the lumber, and order the iron doors for the vault, and hardware. I was back on the fifth day, with a load of lumber. It was fortunate that energy was displayed at first, for it rained almost incessantly, all the remainder of the season, and some days I could only haul two hundred feet at a load, from Forest City. Of course the building was completed on time.
During the season of 1867, there was considerable excitement as to the disposition of the United States Land Grant for the building of a railroad on the forty-third parallel. The coming Legislature was to have the disposition of this grant, and the line securing the election of the most members in their interest, was reasonably certain of securing the grant. West Union, Fredericksburg and Bradford, were on what was known as the southern line, and New Hampton and Chickasaw, favored by the whole northern part of the county, were in favor of having it run through the center of the county, and this line was known as the northern line.
It was found by the southern interest that if they could secure an equal number of this County's delegates with the northern line, taking into account the number already instructed for Judge Hitchcock, of Osage, who was pledged to their interest, it insured their success.
The delegation when elected, was equally divided. This did not look very promising but we were bound to do the best we could. I was left off the delegation, by request. To make sure of their victory, McClintock of West Union, who had special charge of the southern interest, the day before the convention, sent a couple of men to New Hampton to watch my movements. I divined their purpose at once, and when they came to my office, I was as affable as possible, and chatted with them until supper time, when I asked to be excused until after supper, asking them to return and spend the evening with me. I had expected to go in the afternoon to Charles City. After supper, they joined me in my office, and I spent a very pleasant evening with them, but as it grew late I suggested that as my wife was alone, I would be obliged to bid them good night. I went to my house, and was aware that they were watching me. I turned down the lamp, rolled up the curtains, and then again turned up the lamp. This gave outsiders a full view of my actions, and I disrobed, as if preparing for bed, turned out the lamp, and hastily redressing followed so I could see them enter the hotel. In a few minutes I could see their shadows in their room, and after disrobing, they turned out the light. I then went to my stable and harnessed my horse, and before breakfast time the next morning I was twenty miles away, at Charles City, ready for the convention. The missionaries from West Union returned the next morning and reported that everything was safe, as I had not gone to the convention. In conferring with the friends of G. J. Patterson, he being our candidate for senator, the prospect was anything but encouraging, but when Howard county delegation came, I thought I could see, a possible ray of hope, as two of the delegates were my First Lieutenant and a Sergeant in my company, in the army. Of course I was glad to see them, and made known my wants. They informed me that they had been instructed for Judge Hitchcock, and that if I would invent some way for them to overcome that, they would vote for my man. They finally agreed that if they could get beyond the informal ballot, they would support Patterson. I had a short interview with Starr, who was looking after the interests of Patterson, and it was arranged that at the close of the informal ballot, he was to make a motion at once for a formal ballot, before any other motion could intervene. There was no time to explain, as I had got excused for a moment's absence, after being seated at the dinner table. On the informal ballot, Hitchcock had two majority, and he and Patterson supposed that the contest was ended, and it was with an effort that Starr got the floor to make his motion. The formal ballot progressed all right, and when my friends came to vote, I handed them a ballot and they cast for Patterson, giving him a majority of two. I threw up my hat, shouted, jumped over the chairs and did everything I could until I could get to Starr to have him make a motion to adjourn before any motion should be made for further action, and the convention adjourned without even appointing a committee.
This was point number one gained. Tisdale having held the office one term, it was thought that opposition to his nomination would be futile, and he took the party nomination as a matter of course. To make assurance doubly sure, Weller, of Nashua, came out as independent, and it was fixed so that we were in the condition of "heads we lose, tails you win," and to support either, we would vote for the southern line.
G. M. Reynolds, the editor of the Courier, and Dr. Mixer, espoused the cause against Tisdale, and charges and countercharges flew fast and furious. To make the fight exciting, and to allay all suspicion, I espoused the side of the regular nominee, and all circulars were met at once with one to rebut anything that was said. It became evident that there was something secret being prepared. and a lookout was established to see if any bills were printed. It was reported that the press had been at work one night, and that they had counted by the shadow when they took an impression, that there were fifty impressions taken. Before morning there had been an impression taken from the forms which they had failed to distribute, and early in the morning an answer was ready. The circular was suppressed, and again there was a like report as the night before, and the type was distributed, and the Doctor took all the copies home, and it appeared that we were baffled, but as luck would have it, there was a mistake when they took their proof, and they took the first proof impression to wipe off the forms with, and this they threw out, and from this we were prepared the next morning with an answer.
Much blame was laid to the workman, but they denied all complicity with securing the copies. This circular met the fate of its predicessor, and was suppressed. The next night the guard reported that fifty more impressions had been taken, but in no way could a copy be obtained. The watch was kept up all night, and early in the morning they were seen giving a boy a package in an envelope, and the boy started towards Jacksonville. As he went by the Brink House road, I took the timber road past the old Vanauken place, running my horse over to Hartley's, about two and one-half miles northeast of New Hampton, when I turned and met the boy just as he had crossed the Wapsie. I asked him if they had sent those circulars, as they were in a great hurry for them, and he assured me he had them. I then asked to see them so as to be sure they were the right ones, and he handed me the envelope, and after extracting one, I returned the envelope, assuring him that they were the right ones and that he must hurry. In an hour we had an answer and presented it to the Courier for printing, much to their surprise. I speak of this to show how vigilent we were to keep up the fight between Tisdale and Weller so as not to arouse suspicion as to what we were doing. In the meantime I had secured a little printing press belonging to E. E. Adams, the son of our Congregational minister, and the young lad struck off the tickets with the name of William Tucker for Representative, running the press in the second story of the Parsonage. The following circular was printed in like manner and distributed with the tickets:
RAILROAD!
In political struggles it is the duty of each voter to cast his ballot for the man who will carry out his wishes.
The only question of vital importance to the voters of Chickasaw county, in the election of Representative is, shall the land granted by act of Congress to the State of Iowa to aid in the construction of a railroad from McGregor westward on the 43d parallel, be taken from the company running from Calmar through the heart of Chickasaw County and give to a new company running from McGregor through West Union, Fredericksburg and Bradford?
The people of Fayette County, and southern part of this County, are doing all in their power to elect a member from this County, as they have done for the last six years, who will represent to the Legislature of Iowa that it is the wish of Chickasaw County that the land grant should be given to the company proposing to run through West Union, Fredericksburg and Bradford.
Voters, is it your desire that this should be done? If it is not, and you desire to build up and bring wealth and enterprise into northern and central Chickasaw, the time has now arrived when you must strike strongly and unitedly in favor of the man who will look well to your interests. But one of the roads will be built, and that will be the one obtaining the grant of land from the next Legislature. See Section 2, Chapter 144, of session Laws of 1866.
Will you cast your ballots in your own interest or in the interest of others?
ANSWER AT THE POLLS.
At the request of many voters whose interest is at stake as well as my own, I have consented to be a candidate for Representative, and pledge myself, if elected, to use my utmost influence and energy to secure the Land Grant for the benefit of the northern route if they comply with the law in building the railroad.
Wm. TUCKER.
CHICKASAW, October 7, 1867.
Just before election, and in the night time, I took the circulars and tickets, and beginning at Stapleton, left a bundle with trusty agents in every northern township. The last town to be visited, was Chickasaw, where Tucker lived, and as I came up the hill from the north, I saw Tisdale and Weller coming into town. I immediately backed my horse down the hill out of sight, and leaving my horse in the brush, crossed over the dam to the mill to see Tucker before the candidates should meet him. I found him in the mill, and told him what had been done. He was much excited, and when I told him who was up town, he wanted to know what be had better do. I had been nominated as Drainage Commissioner, as a joke, that being an office without duties or emoluments, and was passed around from year to year for the full that could be gotten out of it. I told him to refuse to commit himself to either of them, as he was pledged to use all his influence for my election, and that a pledge to either might hurt his chances. I recrossed the dam and Tucker started for uptown. Wringing out my stockings, l went to my horse and rode into town, arriving about the time Tucker did, and jumping out shook his hand warmly, and asked what my chances for election were. He assured me he was redeeming his pledges to me by giving me active support. Both candidates had a very unsatisfactory interview with him, and as they waxed warm trying to convince him that my nomination was simply a joke, it was fun to see with what tenacity he stuck by me. It was not until election morning that they were apprised of Tucker's candidacy, when they reached New Hampton, on their road from North Washington, where they had spoken the night before. On hearing the report, Tisdale came to my office and asked if it was so, and I informed him that it was, and gave him a copy of the circular. He immediately started back to North Washington, and I jumped upon my horse and run her up the Wapsie, and reached the polling place a mile ahead of him. They had told each of the candidates the night before that each would receive as many votes as the other.
As I stood concealed when Tisdale came up, I heard him call Byers out and ask him how it was running, and Byers told him that he would get as many votes as Weller, but that neither would get a single vote. Tucker was voted for by a solid north, while the south was divided, and thus we made our second point in electing Tucker. Some one not in the secret, had reported that Tucker was going to be a candidate on the railroad issue, and Weller issued a circular with the intent of placing himself right with the north part of the county. As Tucker was in ignorance of the move, when the circular of Weller's appeared, he declared he was not and had never intended to be a candidate, and we took much pains to get this denial before the people, lest the south part of the county should believe it and concentrate on one of the other candidates. The following is the Weller circular, written by Dr. Mixer and printed by G. M. Reynolds:
FARMERS OF CHICKASAW COUNTY-READ AND PONDER.
Wm. Tucker, a played-out politician, a life-long office-seeker, a man whom you never trusted, and never gave a position, who would not dare present himself on his merits, this man, is sprung upon you at the eleventh hour, and you are to be made to vote for him under the pretext that your Rail Road interests are in danger. The whole thing is a dodge! Mr. Weller's position is no secret! Read his letter! Don't permit yourself to be made the victims of a Confidence Game:
BRADFORD, IOWA, Oct. 3d, 1867.
To all Persons whom it May Concern:
In a card, published in the Nashua Post, and New Hampton Courier, I have heretofore (as I supposed in some unmistakable terms), set myself before the people of Chickasaw county, on the question of the McGregor Railway, running west on the line of the 43d parallel of latitude; in which card I distinctly set forth that I favored no north, nor south line, nor any particular town, but that if elected, I would use my influence to secure the application of the Land Grant to build a railway, so as best to accommodate the people of the whole county.
But certain persons in New Hampton, and other towns in the north part of the county, desiring a more explicit statement of my position, I wish to say: That, in view of the fact that the McGregor Western Railway Co., have built forty miles of road in substantial compliance with provisions of the act of congress; and are now making a survey preliminary to an extension of the road westward through the central part of the county; I am therefore in favor of holding the land for said company on their compliance with the provisions of the Grant; and if elected I cheerfully pledge my influence, in and out of the legislature, in favor of such action.
L. H. WELLER.
Tucker was an Englishman by birth, and a fine specimen of a physical man. He was faithful to his pledges on the railroad question, and worked hard for the object his constituents had elected him for, and the the land grant was given to the northern route, and this secured the road through the center of the county. He is now in the Treasury department at Washington, where he has been for many years. After Tisdale was defeated, he became agent for a school book publishing firm, and also became conductor of county school institutes. He was employed by the county Superintendent of this county, and gave a lecture to the teachers. Dr. Mixer had been so active in opposition to his candidacy for Representative, that he could not withold a caustic criticism of the effort, prompted, probably, partly by feeling, and partly because it, was deserved. There was a reply, and a lively personal war of words followed. In this criticism among other mild things, was the following: " It evinced no study; showed no deliberation; was prepared with no care. It had neither beginning nor ending; neither premises or conclusions. It was a wild farago of senseless, sounding phrases, as disconnected as the words in the dictionary, and as meaningless as the clatter of hailstones upon the shingled roof."
To this there was a reply charging that the critic was self-conceited, "which was the effect of self-esteem and a great diploma, obtained by graduating at some great institution of learning, in some great city, which causes its possessor to get outside of the region for which nature designed him, and to frown at every thing that does not come up to his exalted standard of perfection, not realizing
How much a dunce who has been sent to Rome,
Excels a dunce that has been kept at home;
And how much he who at true merit sneers
Excels a donkey, save in length of ears.
To this came the retort courteous, "In wallowing in filth, this man Tisdale can dive down deeper, stay longer, and come up dirtier than any other man I ever saw."
Had Mr. Tisdale been possessed of sufficient moral stamina, he would have had a bright future before him, but he succumbed to his passions, and met the reward of those who ignore the moral code, and prospects faded and hope departed, and he sought pleasure with those whose path lead downward, and wholly disappeared to his old constituency.
On the evening of the thirteenth day of February, 1867, E. T. Runion was on his way home from a trip to the east part of the county, and when he came to the house of W. E. Beach, about a half mile west of old Jacksonville, he called to see his daughter, who had married Frank Weed, a step-son of Beach, leaving his team standing in the road. His daughter, Hannah, decided to go home with him, and handing her father a bed quilt to be used as a wrap, they started for the team. Just as they started the team started also, and thinking that they would overtake it in a few minutes, they followed. When they had passed beyond the old Wolf place at the top of the hill, it was open prairie to New Hampton. With the team in sight, they followed, expecting to overtake it at once. Not more than a quarter of a mile after striking the prairie, they were struck by a blizzard, and the team disappeared from view, but they pressed on as fast as possible, thinking that they would overtake it soon. Coming to two roads, the team took the right hand one and they the left, it being a wood road that led much too far south, and of course all prospect of overtaking the team disappeared. The storm was blinding and they soon lost the road amid the drifts. Exhausted, Hannah could walk no farther, and as the storm and darkness prevented seeing any object, they camped for the night., Runion wrapping the girl with the bed quilt and kicking the snow around her to keep her from freezing. Runion stamped and walked around her through the night, to keep himself from freezing and to scare away the wolves that were howling around.
When morning came he aroused his daughter for the purpose of gaining a habitation, but found that her feet and legs were frozen nearly to her knees, and that she could only hobble a little with his aid. As the storm was still raging he became convinced that he alone could not succeed, and he decided to protect her as well as he could and go for help. Stamping the snow to get a place to protect her, he broke through the ice that had been formed when the water was high, and then receded, leaving a hollow cavity between the upper ice and the bed of the creek. Into this he put the girl, and crowding down after her the bed quilt, he started for help. He finally reached Vincent's, one mile east of New Hampton, with his hands, face and ears frozen. As soon as they could thaw him out, they took a team and went for the girl. To their dismay the place could not be found, and after hunting the rest of the day, they returned to Vincent's. The next morning the alarm was given and the entire male population of New Hampton started on the search. About ten o'clock one of the searchers broke through where she was, and to the surprise of all she was alive. She was taken to the house of Mr. Jolly, where she received medical aid. As it subsequently appeared, when she was put under the ice, her frozen feet broke through the lower ice into the water. Not knowing it, she left them there until the cold water extracted the frost. She was, during this time, in a semi-conscious state, amusing herself watching the fishes and hearing the searchers calling her, sleeping during the night.
She suffered but little from the exposure, only losing part of two toes. The same night that they started for home, a company of married people had gone with a four horse team to Forest City, to spend the evening. It was a mild and beautiful night, but there were premonitions of a storm, and we started back, meeting the blizzard about three miles south of town. When it struck us it was blinding, and we set out men on each side of the track to guard against losing it and it was with much relief that the announcement was made that they had struck David Edwards' fence one and one-half miles south of town. Men were kept along the fence calling to the driver, so that he should not go astray. The sleigh was blown over once, and it was almost impossible to make the, horses beat against the storm. As we came past Runion's house there was a light and they were putting out his team that had left him. When we got home, the storm was terrible, and we run the horses into the barn and left them with their harnesses on until morning.
During the summer of 1868, C. O. Case resigned his office as Clerk of the District Court, to accept the position of station agent at Waverly, and F. D. Bosworth was appointed to fill the vacancy. Bosworth became an aspirant for election to the position, at the fall election. The four southern townships had a majority of one delegate under the representation based upon the preceding election, in the Republican convention, and Bosworth had carried all but Richland, that being deemed secure, it being his own township. The arrogance of these townships in dictating to the county who should be nominated, had engendered considerable feeling, and to this was left the sting of former county seat difficulties.
As a bitter partizan southern man, Bosworth was objectionable to most of the northern voters. Partaking of this feeling there was not a very strong desire for his success, and a diversion was sought of some of his delegates, by which his defeat might be accomplished.
The day before the caucus in Richland township, I made it in my way to pass from Bradford to Williamstown, and as Zelotes Baily lived on that road, took pains to interview him. He was found trying to plow a small field of sickly, weedy corn, with an old blind horse, he being driver and holder of the plow. As he started from the road side to plow from the road, I hailed him, and he stopped his horse and came to the fence. He had but one suspender, wore a hat with the rim half torn off, was barefoot and without coat or vest. In fact he was about as true a specimen of discourage gent as I had ever seen.
After passing the time of day and speaking about the prospect of a crop, be replied that his health was very poor, that be had no team, and that he was about discouraged. I then suggested that he run for clerk, and assured him that if he could secure his township delegation, be would be nominated the next day. After a few moments of reflection, he said he believed be could, and unhitching his horse, hanging the harness on the fence and turning his horse into the road, he started for "Uncle Hi's," and that night secured the delegates from Richland township. This secured his nomination, and he was elected and held the office for the three following terms. His health became so impaired, he never having recovered from his army exposure, be was obliged to leave the office.
Zelotes was brother to the first bride it was my pleasure to see married in the county, and he had a brother, T. S. Bailey, who aided him in erecting the first brick kiln burned in the county, and who was generally known by the nick-name of "Tip," and at the breaking out of the rebellion, he was struggling along, trying to get an education, paying his way by his own exertions. At the call of his country for volunteers, he entered the military service, and joined the Third Iowa Infantry. He lost a hand at the battle of Jackson, Miss., and returned to his studies, with the additional disadvantage of having but one hand with which to battle for subsistance, and carve his way to success. He worked his way through his studies and entered the ministry, and attained to the position of State Secretary for Iowa, and has charge of all Presbyterian missions and missionary churches in the state. Cut off by the loss of his hand from pursuing a life of manual labor, he has developed his head and heart in a way that almost makes us thankful that the current of his life was changed beyond his control. As a Christian gentleman and servant of his Master, he stands the peer of the foremost, and the eloquence and soundness of his discourses, added to his executive ability, make him one of the leading and marked men of the state.
F. M. Haislet was attracted to Chickasaw county, by representations of parties that there was a chance to make a successful venture in the newspaper business, as there was but one paper at the county seat, and that he could become spokesman for an opposition that had revenges and heartburnings, and that he could become an opposition organ. Up to this time the press had been moved by high principle and a spirit of fair dealing, and had ignored all personal journalism, and the safety of personal character was assured, but there were those who felt that they should like to see the moral and religious element humiliated, or at least made to suffer the darts of a disturber. The scorner, the discontented, the disappointed and constitutionally sour, were elements that were to welcome any paper that should raise the "skull and cross bones" and float the pirate flag. This was not only done editorially, but in fact, by having the "skull and cross bones" painted as a sign. There was this commendable thing about it, it did not sail under false colors. It came down "like a wolf upon the fold," and made itself a reputation and a place as an exponent of opposition.
With a good intellect, a fair discerner of events, the Tribune had no politics, but used its influence to build up a kind of personal party, trying to make selection out of both parties, and for a consideration, boom them. If perchance they were elected, they were pointed as the fruits of the Tribune influence; and if they were defeated, they passed into innocuous desuetude, and their defeat soon passed into oblivion.
This appeared to be its settled policy until the county became democratic, when the "skull and cross bones" were hauled down, and it came out democratic. That this will be its settled policy is more than probable, for the county appears to be unchangably democratic.
Under the promptings of a returning consciousness, and while nature was administering a stern rebuke during her hours of recuperation, his better nature has moved, and some of the best temperance lectures have flowed from his pen, and the exclamation has been, "What might have been."
These attempts have been spasmodic and succeeding issues have shown that he had again drank some inspiration that reversed these convictions, or that he had been dealt with by his followers as recalcitrant to the code that had given him prominence. That he should have such lapses seems strange, for he has had a home life that has been in every way adapted to develop his better aspirations.
As the years go by there it a mellowing of invective, personal character is more respected, and there appears to be a desire to escape the mark of Cain that he may feel that every man's hand is not against him. Since writing the above the Tribune has been sold to other parties, and in his editorial valedictory the editor shows that he realizes that greener pastures must be sought, and that "natural selections" (by the purse) has had its day, and that the type, of politics has become fixed in this field. I append his valedictory on leaving the Tribune, and I judge by its tone that it passed through the alembic of his own feelings:
"Why did you sell?" I have been asked a hundred times. There are many reasons, chief among which is ill health. Another is rather a singular one, but it has much weight in my case. From early childhood I have been galled beyond endurance by anything bearing the semblance of slavery. In boyhood days I was terrified by being locked in a room with the key on the opposite side. When in Decorah, a number of years ago, "we boys" used to visit the ice cave and there was one place about ten feet long where a man of ordinary size could enter by crawling. Fear of getting fast in that hole has "raised the hair on my head " many a time. "What has all this to do with it?" you ask. Simply this: To be compelled to run a rank partisan paper; that the character of the nominee must not be taken into consideration -- in fine, to have what little intellect one possesses bolted in, and a padlock on his month, is too much for me. If I cannot write what I think I shall not write at all. Time was, in Chickasaw county, when a man could conduct a democratic paper, maintain his self respect, and still make money; but according to my way of thinking that cannot now be done by any man holding my views. There are too many partisan bosses, bull-heads, and office-seekers, multiplying without number, to suit my taste. All this is slavery in my case and I cannot brook it. However, I have much to be grateful for, and many heartfelt thanks to extend to the good and generous people of Chickasaw county.
In the fall of 1870 C. A. Harris, of Chickasaw, was put in nomination for Recorder, by the Republicans. The Democrats put in nomination L. R. Vanburen for the same office, and J. M. Gilliland for Clerk. It became evident that C. O. Case was to be elected, and Gilliland secured a change, he becoming the nominee for Recorder, and the other nominee on the Deniocratic ticket for clerk. The central committee had the Democratic tickets printed with Gilliland as Recorder, but by some oversight, there were none sent to Stapleton township, and they sent over for two hundred straight Democratic tickets. Dimick Reynolds was then foreman in the Courier office, and either from design, or by mistake, he printed the tickets as nominated by the convention, and Stapleton voted for Gilliland for Clerk, in place of Recorder, and he was defeated by eight plurality. C. A. Harris was elected for the four following successive terms. At the close of his official career, he went into the commercial business, but not meeting the success he anticipated, he left that calling and went into a hotel, which has continued to be his business up to the present time. He is now, 1894, in Eldora, Hardin county.
In 1869 G. W. Butterfield had been elected Representative over D. B. Hanan and Wm. Tucker as competitors. In 1871 Hanan again became his competitor, and Tucker running independent, detached enough voters to give Hanan the election.
Hanan was taken sick soon after his election, and was confined to his room during the entire session of the Legislature, being able to leave his room for the first time on the day of its adjournment.
It was a facetious remark that this term of Hanan's official life presented the cleanest record of any man's that was ever elected to the position. Notwithstanding he was unable to appear and qualify, the Legislature gave him his salary, but no traveling fees.
In 1873 F. D. Bosworth was nominated by the Republicans, and D. B. Hanan by the Democrats. During the campaign there were complications in connection with the election of State Senator that materially interfered with Bosworth's success.
It was generally understood that in the Senatorial District, which was composed of Howard, Bremer and Chickasaw counties, that the Senator was to come to Chickasaw county. Bremer holding her convention first, Hiram Bailey went before her convention and claimed to be the choice of Chickasaw county, and secured instructions of that delegation to himself. When Chickasaw came to hold her convention, in place of instructing for Bailey, her delegates were instructed for A. J. Felt.
Howard county came instructed for a man of her own. Thus Bailey was a candidate in opposition to his own county. The feeling of the Bremer delegation was decidedly in favor of Felt, but they considered themselves bound by their instructions. The balloting was continued until adjournment for supper, when it was agreed that on the second ballot after supper, Bremer delegates would vote for Felt.
Learning this, there was a successful effort made to have Howard's delegates go to Bailey on the first ballot after supper, and thus the nomination of Bailey was secured, notwithstanding a large majority of the convention personally preferred Felt. Bailey was notified and appeared before the convention, and it was fortunate that it was after the nomination in place of before, so far as his candidacy was concerned. It was arranged that the friends of Bailey should take charge of his interests, and Bailey was to remain on his farm.
The friends of Felt were chagrined that he should have been beaten by a man of Bailey's caliber, and called a convention, with a view of putting him in the field as a people's candidate.
At this convention Wm. Tucker was also an aspirant, and when the convention met, was clearly the choice of the convention, but the call had been made to nominate Felt, and no obstacle was to deter them.
Tellers were appointed favorable to Felt, and when the vote was announced, Felt was declared the nominee notwithstanding Tucker had a majority, and the ballots were scattered upon the floor. Felt at once challenged Bailey for joint discussions but Bailey's friends insisted that he should stay at home and pose as an honest granger, obliged to attend to his farm work.
This did not meet the ideas of Bailey, for his nomination had so inflated him with the idea of his ability, that he accepted the challenge.
Of course Felt's friends stood by him, and when he went to his first appointment, in Bremer county, he was accompanied with a long string of carriages containing his supporters, and Capt. Lucas put in an appearance to see what could be done for Bailey. Felt had things his own way, as Bailey lacked both ability and experience, and Felt lacked neither. Bailey was at sea and became angry, calling Felt names and charging him with being a liar. Lucas was disgusted, and told Bailey that he was defeated. Just at daylight the next morning, Bailey called me out and telling me the trouble, wanted to know what to do. I repeated my first advice, and told him to go home and stay there.
When Lucas arrived home, he found a batch of coupons cut off from a lithographed railroad bond, that I had sent him, on which Felt's name appeared as secretary. Taking these he put in an appearance at the next meeting and asked the privilege of appearing for Bailey, who had been called home by urgent farm matters. Leave was granted, and Lucas made a vigorous attack upon Felt as Secretary of a snide railroad that was levying taxes and issuing bonds to swindle the farmer and tax-payer. When Felt came to reply, he denied that he was in any way connected with a railroad that had issued bonds, denied that any bonds had been issued, and in general called Lucas a prevaricator. When Lucas came to reply, he produced the coupons, signed by Felt as secretary of the company. Felt wanted to see them, but Lucas said that any other man in the meeting might take them, but not Felt, for "a man that would lie would steal," and that he wanted to keep them. Felt protested that he never signed any bonds, but admitted that the signature was his. Lucas and the others believed that Felt was falsifying, but he was telling the truth. Felt did not know of the existence of the bonds, the same having been lithographed under the auspices of the President of the road, without his knowledge.
There had been some difficulty about the payment for lithographing, and one of the bonds had been slashed, and with the attached coupons, sent to me to collect payment for the job. I took the remainder of the coupons not sent to Lucas, to Howard county, and gave a coupon to each Grange in the county, Howard county was full of Granges then, and secured the endorsement of both political parties of Bailey's candidacy, and a bitter denunciation of Felt as a railroad swindler. Learning late one evening that J. M. Hooker of Ionia, was seen going east on the cars, I surmised that he was enroute for Howard county, in the interest of Felt. I started across the country and the next morning met him coming South from Cresco, and on asking him how things looked, be said "you have put it up wicked and well." On returning in the night following, I got lost on the prairie and brought up at Frank Dane's about two o'clock in the morning. Felt carried Chickasaw and Bremer counties with good majorities, but failed to overcome Howard's solid vote, and Bailey was elected. In securing the defeat of Felt, we believed we were paying him for his perfidy to our friends, but we have always doubted if we did not pay too great a price for our victory. We certainly missed the broarder view that Felt would have had. In this fight Bosworth was sacrificed on the senatorial altar and Hanan was elected.
In the fall of 1871, W. W. Birdsall having held the office of County Treasurer for three terms, became an aspirant for the fourth term. As he had been in position to place many parties under obligation to him, and as his official life had made him an expert in using his friends, he was able to manipulate the township caucuses so as to give himself a majority in the county convention, and secured the nomination at the hands of the republicans. There was a large wing of the republicans who were opposed to his holding the office another term. In fact there had grown up a general dissatisfaction, it being claimed that holders of county warrants, which were at great discount, could not get them cashed, and that they were forced to sell them to the Chickasaw County Bank, and that when there were county funds in the treasury, the bank always appeared to know it before any other holder of county warrants. It was thought useless to try and beat him with an independent republican , for his family relations would carry a majority of the democrats, and the prestige of being the regular candidate would hold a majority of the republicans. In searching for an opposing candidate it must be some one that could hold the Catholic and Irish vote. After a full canvass it was decided to bring out John Foley, a young Irishman, living on Crane creek, in Jacksonville township. There were some reasons why he should not be the candidate, and, among others, his intense partisanship and his belligerency. Time has shown that this beligerency was but the exuberance of Irish impetuosity, for no more considerate or tolerant gentleman lives in the county than Mr. Foley.
The fight during the campaign was bitter and called out some of the most scathing articles, which were written by Dr. Mixer under a nom de plume, and published in the New Hampton Courier. Foley was elected, and thus he entered upon his successful career, holding the office of County Treasurer four consecutive terms. He also desired to continue in the office, but there was a revulsion of feeling against one man continuing so long in office, and he was defeated by J. A. Green.
It was more than intimated that he too was not entirely void of offense, in forming rings to control the township caucuses, in his own interest, and even his own party aided to give a rebuke. That this feeling was ephemeral, was shown by his party electing him as a member of the state legislature.
After the second term of Hanan in the legislature, Frank Dane, of Jacksonville, became an aspirant for the office of Representative, and had carried enough of the township caucuses to give him the nomination, if he carried his own township, which was conceded to him. Their caucus was to be held the night before the county convention, and all unsuspectingly and in full confidence, Dane went to the caucus, expecting that as a matter of course that delegates would be selected in his interest. To his surprise he found that McHugh, of Lawler, had come into the township and secured the co-operation of some of Dane's neighbors, and by importing men, both Democrats and Republicans, from Stapleton, secured the election of delegates in the interest of McHugh. Of course this took Dane out of the field. Subsequently the Democrats proposed that they would support Dane in good faith if he would come out as an independent candidate, and as there were many Republicans who felt that the means used to defeat him in his own township, were unjustified, and that they would like to support him, Dane consented. The Democrats appeared to be working in good faith until the last moment, when the man who was taking the ballots to Washington township, containing the name of Dane, was overtaken and he was induced to return to New Hampton and destroy the ballots first received, and supply their place with McHugh ballots. As he was burning the Dane ballots he exultingly exhibited a hundred dollars he claimed for the job, exclaiming, "Here is the money that is to carry North Washington for John McHugh," but refused to tell who gave it to him. There was much interest taken in the campaign, and among other things, there was issued a circular, a set of verses in the interest of Dane, of which the following is a copy:
DANISH LYRICS.
Come over the Wapsie and Cedar,
Come over the Turkey and Crane,
And rally around our Old Leader,
And vote for HONEST FRANK DANE!
Come out from the Grove and the Prairie,
Come out from the Hill-side and Plain,
And though toil-worn with harvest and weary,
Come out for Old Honest Frank Dane.
Come out then, my fine Irish yeoman,
Come out then, in Sunshine or rain,
Come Yankee and Norseman and German,
And rally round Honest Frank Dane.
They say he is lank and ungainly,
They say he is coarse in the grain,
But his heart it is true, and all vainly
They sneer at Old Honest Frank Dane.
He is honest like Abe, and as homely,
And faithful to friends will remain,
And his foes are all false, though more comely,
Then hurrah for Old Honest Frank Dane.
He is six feet and upwards in stocking,
And be stands without blemish or stain,
And good thoughts forever are flocking
Around the kind heart of Old Dane.
He has wallowed through snows of hard winters,
He has waded through mud with his train,
And smash all our timber to splinters
If we turn on Old Honest Frank Dane.
Money lender, and buyer and seller,
May come with the tricks which are vain,
But kid gloves and shoes of prunella,
Won't win against Honest Frank Dane.
For his hands are all horny with labor,
His feet have gone bare o'er the plain,
And be loveth and helpeth his neighbor;
Who shouts for Old Honest Frank Dane.
He soweth the grain that he reapeth,
And his head is as sound as the grain,
All tender and true his heart keepeth
This Honest Old Farmer Frank Dane.
He has earned what he's got, and no bummer
Shall treat him with scorn or disdain;
Then away with your starched up new comer,
And Hurrah for Old Honest Frank Dane.
Come over the Wapsie and Cedar,
Come over the Turkey and Crane,
Come rally around our Old Leader,
And vote for Honest Frank Dane.
In Lawler these lines were parodied and sung in the saloons when there was a full head of McHugh inspiration, closing each stanza with the refrain, "To hell with old Frank Dane." McHugh was elected, but Dane carried a majority of the republican vote, and it was generally conceded that if it had not been for the Washington episode, and if there had been no religious influence brought to bear, McHugh being a Catholic, Dane would have been elected. Dane came out of the campaign retaining his full self respect, and continued to hold that of his fellow-citizens.
Frank Dane entered the county in 1854 driving a pair of oxen attached to the forward part of a bob sled upon which was his supplies for himself and team. He commenced building a log house upon his claim in Jacksonville, he being the third settler in the township, and occupied his new house as a bedchamber before the roof was completed. Sleeping where his vision was unobstruced from gazing upon the sparkling diamonds that bespangled the vaulted roof above him, the handiwork of Him "that maketh the seven stars of Orion," he closed his eyes to peaceful slumber, the sweet reward of honest toil that brings a morn of refreshed and vitalized vigor for the labors of another day. Industry, economy, and good judgment have been his, and these, supplemented by a strong and enduring constitution, have all conspired to bring success, and he now has the largest farm, the most profitable herds, and the fullest granaries, of any farmer in the county. And the reward is not unmerited, nor the accumulation unjust.
A native of Vermont, receiving his first experience amid the rocks and hills of that sterile state, knowing more of work than of thought, more of physical than mental action, slow to develop, weighted as he was with physical effort in making a home in the wilds of the west, it was many years before he became conscious of the hidden force that lay within, uncultured, undeveloped and untried as it was, and when it dawned upon him, his astonishment was as great if not greater, than that of his friends, and although not always expressing himself clasically, he has developed a power that makes one sigh for what might have been, had his opportunities been equal to his possibilities. His wife has been a veritable help meet, and "Aunt Jane" will long be remembered as one that brought sunshine wherever she was known. The neighbors who aided in his defeat, have some of them been aspirants for public favors, but as yet success has not perched as a crowning chaplet upon their brows, and the future does not present glowing prospects for their success.
In 1872 R. O. Sheldon was elected sheriff and held the office for five consecutive terms. At his first and second elections he was opposed by Horton Manderville of Nashua. He was first elected as a Republican, but as time went on party affiliations hung loosely and he built up a "Sheldon party," and it was more than intimated that he looked after his personal interests with more care than after official duties.
He carried scores of unserved executions and it was the current belief that every execution debtor against whom he held unserved executions was his staunch supporter. His methods of electioneering were peculiarly his own. It was reported that while with the Irish, he claimed that his name was R. O'Sheldon, and with the Norwegians that his initals stood for Rye Ole Sheldon. The ten years during which he held the office were the most lucrative ever known in the county, reaching as high as $7,000 per annum, but he failed to develop any talent for accumulating and when he took off his official robes he was a poor man.
In running for his sixth term he was confronted by his old antagonist, H. Manderville, and results showed that his ten years fitting had developed his running qualities so that he passed the pole ahead of his old opponent. He held the office for two terms and made a very efficient officer. He was a man of many good qualities, an inveterate joker, a jolly companion, and although a bachelor, he had a warm place in his heart for children (and sometimes for their mothers) and many a sorrow has been soothed, and many a burden made lighter by his timely benevolence, and although his interpretation of some parts of the decalogue was not strictly orthodox, he never let his right hand know what his left hand did.
Wm. B. Perrin was elected the two succeeding terms of the legislature, having for his opponent, the first term, O. K. Hoyt, and the second term his opponents were George McCaughey, who was a candidate of the Grangers, and Michael Ries, of North Washington, who was the democratic candidate. As Perrin was unacquainted with many of the people in the north part of the county, he invited me to make the canvass with him, and I found him, what I knew before, a gentleman of culture and ability, and one who could appreciate favors received, with as much warmth, and acknowledge them with as much gratitude, as "favors to come," and this is a rare gift among politicians, for in my experience of over a third of a century, he is one of the three that were in political life, who was possessed of that virtue. It was my fortune to visit the State Capital during the session of the legislature in which he was serving, and I was proud of him as our representative, and could but contrast his standing, as compared with his predecessor, who was obliged to vote against a resolution of his own introducing, he not having the sagacity to comprehend its political significence until it was beaten into him by his party associates. Modest and retiring, almost to a fault, he will never pose as a candidate, of his own volition, yet he will never shrink from a public duty that be believes that be should perform, and what he does will be faithfully and well done.
O. K. Hoyt, his opponent, was a young man with an ephemerally brilliant mind, that flashed forth like a meteor, but want of correct personal habits, did for him, what it has done for so many brilliant minds, wrecked him before his usefulness was hardly begun,
George McCaughey, who was brought out by the "Granger" element, as one of the candidates that run against Perrin at his second election, was a man of sterling worth, handicapped somewhat by his large family and by an official bee in his bonnet. He had served as a member of the board of supervisors, and had shown himself possessed of practical business talent. The grange movement had mounted several unpracticable hobbies, and of course was to run a brief career and the hobby horse died, as a political party, with the ride of this candidate for legislative honors. The Democrats nominated Michael Ries, of Washington township, and he was a man of more than ordinary ability, having been justice of the peace and general business adviser to his neighbors for many years. He was no politician, and could have been beaten by any shrewd politician, even if his party had been in the majority, which it was not, having been depleted by the grange movement. Ries stands as one of the best and most reliable men in the county, and ranks next to Frank Dane in his landed possessions. He came to Chickasaw county in 1858, and purchased a small farm that has continued to enlarge as year after year he has added the results of earnest toil.
There is one subject that gives me pain to speak of, as it shows the moral trend of the practical workings of modern politics. For years after I came to the county, it would have been the death knell of any man running for office, to have had it known that he used money to induce any one to use his time or influence to secure votes. This was so cardinal a principle that a candidate that was expected to carry a large majority came near losing his election for the reason that the report got out that he had sent money to one township to buy a barrel of beer with which to influence voters, and this was before the days of prohibition. Probably the first demand of any significance upon the managers of a party came from Jacksonville from a man that demanded twenty-five dollars for his influence in controlling the Norwegian vote of the northeast part of the county. Under the stress of the occasion, as party success appeared doubtful, the committee weakly yielded and paid the sum demanded. It appeared to have accomplished its object and the voters cast their suffrages as desired, but it is very doubtful if it was caused by the influence of the hired party, for experience has shown that no class of people are more moved from principle than our Scandinavian citizens. At the next election the committee found themselves confronted with the same proposition, and for three consecutive years the twenty-five dollars was paid.
A new chairman was placed at the bead of the central committee, when this demand was ignored and his influence counteracted, as against the party, by reporting the man who was claiming to deliver the vote of his countrymen on sale, and if he ever had any influence with them, his locks were shorn as closely as was the victim's of Delilia's perfidy. The reaction against him left him in a very unenviable position and he never again became the almoner of an electioneering fund. While he was disposed of, it opened the door to an abuse that was bound to grow, and while the sums demanded have generally been very modest, claiming, ostensibly, to charge only for time spent, yet no chairman of a central committee but what is importuned for funds for "personal work," and this has grown to such an extent that a new man running for office in the county is appalled at the demands made, and the class of men making them. There are many men of pronounced political faith that give a candidate of their party to understand that if they are not remembered in a substantial way, their success will be problematical, at least. These men are known in both parties and provision is made to dispose of their claims, either by political promises, submitting to their demands, or by counteracting their influence by giving out their offer to buy and sell their followers, which generally acts as a squelcher, for voters rebel against being creatures of barter. Not only does this destroy his power to deliver, but places him in a position where he generally votes his party ticket with considerable ostentation, to show that there is nothing mercenary about him, but that he is actuated by the highest of motives, that of standing by his principles. There is quite a large percent, and has been for years, of voters while professedly belonging to one party or the other, have no fixed principles, but are subject to temporary influences, either material or personal. These are what is called the "floating vote," and a list is kept and most of the fine work of our later political campaigns has been with this class of voters. The minority party is at a disadvantage with this class for the reason that the probable defeat of a candidate does not tend to open his purse, and further, many like to be on the winning side so that they can dilate about our victory.
I have known of some laughable occurrences in this buying influence. A democratic candidate for clerk desired to secure a line of Norwegian votes and went to a man who claimed he could deliver him twenty of his friends and relatives who generally voted the other way, and the candidate paid him ten dollars for his services in seeing that, they were all at the polls and voted for him. The chairman of the republican committee hearing of this, he being a candidate for a county office himself, requested me to go with him and have an interview with this man who claimed he could deliver the votes, and when we found him he complacently gave us the facts, but was finally persuaded to retain his allegiance to his own party, and received an additional ten dollars for special work that, was to be done for his own party on election day. The day before election, the democratic candidate heard of what had been done and went to see about it. All the facts in connection with the transaction were freely given to him and he reinforced his former influence with an additional five dollars and left in high glee, thinking that he had outwitted the Republicans by having the last interview. The next day being election, the much influenced man stayed at home and dug potatoes all day, retaining his twenty-five dollars with an innocent smile. Much of this pernicious growth has been fostered by some of the newspapers, they making it a point to treat an election as a time to tax candidates for supporting them. While this has been more, marked with a kind of piratical journalism, yet these are not the only ones not without sin, for I have known papers that claimed to be organs of a party, demand hundreds of dollars for supporting the regular nominee of the party. The claim was put upon the ostensible ground that they had a costly plant and could not afford to carry the investment unless candidates paid them for their support. This faliacious position has too frequently been yielded to, for these self-same papers hold their standing and sustain their circulation and advertising patronage largely because they are the organs of a party, and the party has just as moral and legal right to make demand of them for this influence as they have to demand payment of a representative of the party for support.
Much of this deplorable practice has been remedied by the reform ballot. Quite recently a brother democrat, one who has been high in the councils of his party, said to me, that the success of a certain party as a candidate would be assured if the ballot was as it used to be, "for then we could 'rush the growler' on the quiet, and then take the voter by the collar, and placing a ballot in his hand, lead him to the polls and see that he voted it all right." All hail that day when we can feel and know that a ballot always represents an intelligent conviction of principle.
In stating early memories there are many things that come crowding in, and there is a long procession of old timers that come marching before me, but it would be impossible to mention them in detail, or give the incidents connected with each; and, as I trust that others may be prompted to give their early experiences, I desist from multiplying the number receiving mention by me. To detail events nearer the present time, would divest them of the reminiscent and make a statement of current events. That there is crudeness in presenting these incidents of the past, none can more fully appreciate than myself, and many will condemn the selections; such is the fate of all effort, but I have enjoyed recounting them, and hope that others may be incited to record their experiences, and thus perpetuate from memory what otherwise will soon pass into oblivion.
Historical and Reminiscences of Chickasaw County, Iowa By J. H. Powers
Iowa Printing Company, Des Moines, 1894.
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