CHAPTER VIII.
COUNTY SEATS AND COUNTY SEAT CONTESTS. (CONT'D)
From History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915)
by H. F. Andrews
In 1874 the Exira Hall Company was incorporated at Exira, and erected a building for a courthouse and county offices. The records of the supervisors on June 30, 1874, show the following business was transacted:
"On motion, the following was adopted: The Exira Hall Company hereby tender to the board of supervisors of Audubon county, Iowa, the two south rooms and the north room down stairs of the company's building for the use of the county officials exclusively, and the main hall upstairs of the company's building, at such times as it may be required to hold the district and circuit courts, provided the county will repair all injuries while in use for said purposes.
"W. F. STOTTS,
"H. F. ANDREWS."
"Voted by the board of supervisors of Audubon county, Iowa, this 30th day of June, 1874, to accept the above proposition of the Exira Hall Company in fulfillment of the bond of Charles Van Gorder, et al. to furnish offices and court room for the county in case the county seat should remain at Exira."
Thus the contest ended and the county occupied the building for court house and county offices at Exira until 1879.
The county seat fight of 1879, between Audubon and Exira, yet lingers in the memories of those who participated in it. The advantage was with the north half of the county. Back of it all was the railroad company, with Bert Freeman and Captain Stuart as chief fuglemen, who were too adroit to resort to the vulgarity of personal broils, but had tools to do their bidding. Many new settlers had come to the county since 1873. The Danes had made large settlements in Oakfield and Sharon townships, and the so-called homesteader movement brought a large number of people into the north of the county, who were naturally an increase to the interests of the new town of Audubon. In 1878 the Rock Island Railroad Company built the road from Atlantic and founded the town of Audubon in the midst of their land. Settlers poured in from the start. During the summer of 1879 the town of Audubon was a busy place. The railroad company employed a large number of workmen to erect the new court house. Stuart & Son employed many others to build their elevators at Audubon and Exira, as well as other buildings there and to work on their extensive farms. People at Audubon and the farmers in the north part of the county found employment for all the extra men they could use and accommodate. It was reported that men could readily obtain free board and lodging there for the sixty days before the county-seat election, as they were expected to vote for Audubon for the county seat. There were lots of new faces seen in the north part of the county and about Audubon, who were not seen there after election. The writer had occasion to examine a denizen of Audubon as a witness, who was a new comer at that time, and in answer to an interrogatory as to his place of residence he said that he was at home in any place where his hat was on. The same condition probably applied equally well to others stopping about Audubon at that period. On the day of the county-seat election the railroad company conducted a free train from Atlantic to Audubon and towns along the line to carry voters to the election. Our old friend Jack Lemon, who is still conductor on the Audubon railroad, was the conductor who had charge of that election train in 1879. It was current talk at the time that any man could vote at Audubon that day and no questions asked.
The newspaper clash during the campaign was something remarkable. The Advocate was at first conducted by Kimball. Here follows his salutatory in the Advocate, on January 1, 1879:
"Good morning. The Advocate has but little to offer in the way of introduction. The circumstances that combined and created a demand for another paper, the building of a new railroad and town, are all well known to the public; therefore it has no excuses to offer for its appearance in the crowded field of journalism. Neither does the editor of this paper need an introduction to the majority of the citizens of Audubon county. We first came here in 1869, on the 2d of April. * * * During these years we have formed many pleasant acquaintances and made many warm friends * * * and we have made a few, and we think a very few, just as warm enemies who have made known their position in an unmistakable manner. Entering the newspaper field as we did five years ago, inexperienced, it is only surprising to us that we did not make more mistakes and alienate more friends during the three years and five weeks that we published a paper in this county. Not that we do not expect to tread on somebody's toes in the future, either intentionally or otherwise, but we hope our past experience may profit us to a certain extent and help us to make the Advocate a welcome visitor in nearly every household in the county.
"We are probably well acquainted with at least three-fourths of the citizens of this county and we think we know the character of a paper that will meet their demands, but whether we are able to furnish such a one is for them and the future to determine. They know our faults and foibles, peculiarities, eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, and with such knowledge they do not act blindly when they subscribe for, and pledge a hearty support" to the Advocate, as scores of men belonging to all shades of political parties and members of every sect have voluntarily done. * * * Our duties are to control the editorial columns. * * * It is, of course, necessary to state that the Advocate will be, politically, a Republican paper and will support the Republican ticket and every candidate who is fairly and squarely nominated by a regular Republican convention, but should some demagogue, a member of another party, by trickery and chicanery, or, even a pretended member of the Republican party, succeed in capturing a Republican nomination by running in Democrats, Greenbackers and what-nots, in Republican primaries, the Advocate will throw him overboard instanter. We are not preparing a way to bolt nominations, by any means, for we expect to support the Republican ticket, pure and unadulterated, but we have in the past seen one or two instances of such contemptible political trickery, where Republican conventions were captured by outsiders and incompetent, unpopular, unprincipled demagogues nominated, that we thought proper to state emphatically that the Advocate will not countenance any such unwarranted proceeding. The Advocate will support any and every competent and responsible Republican candidate, regularly and fairly nominated, whether it likes him personally or otherwise, but it will not be bound to support an unprincipled political demagogue who obtains a nomination by chicanery and fraud"', etc.
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Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July 2022, from History of Audubon Co., Iowa (1915), by H. F. Andrews, page 149-151.
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