This post office is situated on Section 22, Independence Township. This part of the county was settled at a comparatively late date, the Township not having been created till March 9, 1858, the bounds being those of Congressional Township 81, Range 20. The southern and western parts of the township are well timbered, but the remaining two-thirds are open prairie.

The business of Baxter is represented by a store, post office and a physician's office. There is a hall where people assemble for worship, and a school house near by. There are several residences in the immediate vicinity, so that the locality may be fairly treated as a village.

Baxter is the scene of the tragic event narrated on page 407, wherein Constable Flock lost his life attempting to arrest the Weir party. ~ Page 505

Constable Flock Killed in Arrest Attempt

June 22, 1876, Nichols, the station master at State Centre, in Marshall County, was robbed by burglars, who, on the 24th, were tracked to Baxter by ___ Ewing, of Marshalltown. The Deputy gave a description of the men to Constable Charles Flock, of Independence Township, and himself proceeded in the direction of Clyde. During the evening, Flock reconnoitered the residence of Charles Wilcox near Baxter, and ascertained that the suspected parties were lurking there. Sunday morning the 25th, Flock, accompanied by Adam Engle, Benjamin Graves, Capt. Nichols, Joseph Lundry and the two Nicholses of State Centre, surrounded Wilcox's house, and part of them knocking at the door it opened to them. Flock and Engle entered and found seven or eight men in the room. Flock then demanded the surrender of the three strangers present, when John Weir, of Des Moines, gave himself up.

Another of the party demanded to see Flock's warrant, who replied that he had a warrant and should arrest them. One, who afterward proved to be one of the burglars, swore he would not be taken, and drawing a revolver began firing at Flock only two paces away, one ball taking effect in the right lung. The other burglar also opened fire, and shot Flock through the bowels. They both jumped out of a window and made for the timber about ten rods away, followed by Flock who began firing at them, the two men returning his fire as they ran. Flock soon fell, he having been mortally wound in the house.

One of the burglars giving the name of Hill, was captured after a short chase by Engle and Graves. The other escaped, but he was probably the same party who called at William Hessford's, five miles southeast of Baxter, the same afternoon. He was very lame, and explained his condition by saying he had hurt his thigh by a fall, and offered Hessford a large price to carry him to Newton, but Mrs. Hessford not liking his looks, persuaded him from going. Hill was lodged in jailed at Newton.

Weir and Wilcox were taken to State Centre and examined, but evidence being insufficient, they were discharged. Weir drove back to Baxter in a buggy where he was arrested by the Sheriff of Polk County, who wanted him for a case of horse stealing.

Poor Flock lingered along two or three days, suffering much, but conscious that he had done his duty.

Bill Weir, who hid under the bed at Wilcox's when Flock's party visited the house, escaped unnoticed, and was seen in the timber near Colfax, on Monday evening. A party went out to secure him but failed, he evading them by swimming the river below town, and then starting southeast. His clothing was reduced to a shirt and trousers. He was captured near Colfax, on the following afternoon.

On the 22nd, all three - Hill and the two Weirs - broke out of Des Moines jail by the help of confederates outside.

It is said that soon after the above events transpired, several people living in Independence Township visited one of their neighbors and exhorted a confession from him that he had frequently harbored thieves and other bad characters, and that he surrendered up the names of those who had visited him. But as has been seen in the Knisely case, no evidence is more unreliable than that obtained through torture or fear. It is hoped that in Jasper County, no collection of citizens will ever be convened again without lawful warrant to enforce the laws. Judge Lynch is unreliable and unsafe, and nothing but the highest necessity should induce the people to invoke his authority.

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