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HISTORY OF Monroe County lowa
Yours truly Frank Hickenlooper
An Illustrated History
OF
MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
A COMPLETE CIVIL, POLITICAL, AND MILI- TARY HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, FROM ITS EARLIEST PERIOD OF. OR- GANIZATION DOWN TO 1896.
INCLUDING SKETCHES OF PIONEER LIFE, ANEC- DOTES, BIOGRAPHY, AND LONG-DRAWN REMINISCENCES SPUN OUT BY THE "OLDEST INHABITANT."
LIBRARY BY
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNI : FRANK HICKENLOOPER, 1 ALBIA, IOWA. 1896.
Sold Only on Subscription.
F627 . 16H5
m/f 12/4/85
REESE Torch
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, BY FRANK HICKENLOOPER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
ERRATA.
On pages 50-51, in all names following that of Ira B. Hutchins, to that of Thos. J. Forest, excepting those of N. B. Moore and O S. McCoy. the · date of mustering in should read: "July 17, '61."
On page 138. third paragraph. the name Stephen R. Barnes should read: "Alpheus R. Barnes."
On page 161, the date given in ist paragraph should read 1886; the name, A. A. Ramsay should be extracted from the 3d paragraph; and that of Josiah T. Young inserted in the 4th, immediately after that of J. C. Robeson.
On page 277, seventh paragraph, substitute the word "discipline" for that of "doctrine."
On page 318, the title to the illustration should read: "Wapello Coal Company s Works, Hiteman, lowa."
TO
THE OLD SETTLERS WHOSE FAITH IN THE FUTURE OF MONROE COUNTY
WAS UNSHAKEN BY THE MIDNIGHT CHORUS OF THE WILD WOLVES, THE STING OF THE WINTER'S FROST CREEPING THROUGH THE "CHINK- ING " OF THE CABIN WALLS, THE SWEEP OF THE PRAIRIE FIRES, THE DEPLETED MEAL-CHEST, THE STROKE OF THE PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE, THE PALL OF THE "DEEP SNOW," AND THE LONELINESS OF THE PRAIRIE CABIN-HUSBANDS AND WIVES, YOUTHS AND MAIDENS, WHOSE BRAVE, TRUE HEARTS AND WILLING HANDS DEFIED THE WILDERNESS) AND IN AFTER YEARS MADE IT TO BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE, THIS VOLUME IS MOST SINCERELY DEDICATED.
209730
Torch
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1896, BY FRANK HICKENLOOPER, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
TO
THE OLD SETTLERS WHOSE FAITH IN THE FUTURE OF MONROE COUNTY
WAS UNSHAKEN BY THE MIDNIGHT CHORUS OF THE WILD WOLVES, THE STING OF THE WINTER'S FROST CREEPING THROUGH THE "CHINK- ING " OF THE CABIN WALLS THE SWEEP OF THE PRAIRIE FIRES, THE DEPLETED MEAL-CHEST, THE STROKE OF THE PRAIRIE RATTLESNAKE, THE PALL OF THE "DEEP SNOW," AND THE LONELINESS OF THE PRAIRIE CABIN-HUSBANDS AND WIVES, YOUTHS AND MAIDENS, WHOSE BRAVE, TRUE HEARTS AND WILLING HANDS DEFIED THE WILDERNESS; AND IN AFTER YEARS MADE IT TO BLOSSOM AS THE ROSE, THIS VOLUME IS MOST SINCERELY DEDICATED.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Before unfolding the contents of this volume, the Author desires to express his deep sense of obligation to those who have kindly aided in the preparation of this work, and espe- cially to Rev. E. L. Waring, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and A. R. Barnes, of Albia-two gentlemen pursuing parallel paths in life : the former a minister of the gospel and one of the " path- finders" in pioneer church mission work; and the latter a veteran in both journalism and the War of the Rebellion.
To the former the Author is indebted for valuable assist- ance in tracing the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Monroe County. From the latter the Author has received various forms of encouragement and valuable aid, especially in having granted him access to the historical data contained in the preserved files of the newspapers of the county from 1854 to the present time.
THE AUTHOR.
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
INTRODUCTION.
It is with a mingling of both pride for the locality of one's birth and a sincere desire to preserve the annals of its community that the writer has undertaken the author- ship of this volume. It may perhaps be a source of regret that the work has not been performed by abler hands; and especially by some one who has seen with his own eyes the procession of events as they have transpired. However, in porportion to the disadvantage of being of a later generation, the writer has endeavored, by special pains and untiring ap- plication, to attain the same result as that which would have been achieved with less difficulty by one whose life has been a part of the history of Monroe County from its earliest organization down to the present time.
No words of surprise need be uttered at the mutations which time has wrought within the comparatively brief period of the county's life.
That Monroe County should, in the course of time, become one of the garden-spots of earth, was a natural sequence. Already it has been verified in part; and the most sanguine dreamer may fail to see through the mist of the future the full grandeur of that which is yet to be.
The annals of a community should not be classed as something trivial or commonplace. The history of a county ought to be preserved, in order that some day it may offer to the historian, whose field is of wider scope, details to augment the sum total of a State's, or even of a nation's history.
Another reason why it should be preserved: it sets up to posterity examples of exalted manhood and womanhood, as revealed in the lives of the pioneer settlers. They were men and women with brave hearts and unclouded hopes. Their hands were willing and their faith was strong. They "blazed" out the lines of their habitations in the forests. and broke the violet-studded sod of the prairie, in good faith of a future home.
They built their "claim-pens" in the "New Purchase," not that they intended to acquire the land for purposes of speculation and trade, but that they might mark the places
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
of their homesteads as soon as the Government placed the land upon the market.
And there was still another "claim-pen" built by the early settler, which stood as a monument of his faith and as a testimony of his intention to remain and occupy the land: it was a small enclosure built about with fence-rails to keep out the wild animals or the tread of careless feet; it was the tabernacle of the young father's and mother's parental love, set up in the wilderness, with the wild rose and the violets as the vessels of the sanctuary; it was the little grave of perhaps their first-born infant. They did not carry the little rudely constructed coffin with its precious treasure back to their old home for burial, but they planted it beneath the wild sod of the prairie, or in the lonely forest glades, knowing, as they planted a wild rose for a head-stone, that some day a marble shaft would take its place, that some day the tangled forest would disappear, and that through the embellishing touch of civilized life the little tomb would be ranged with others in avenues of flowers and rows of marble and granite in the village cemetery.
For accuracy of statement, the author, in many in- stances, has relied solely on the memory of old settlers, which, in a few cases, may lead to slight error. He has also assumed the liberty of incorporating a few personal reminiscences, anecdotes, and personal allusions, without consulting the wishes of those whom their narration would involve in publicity. These reminiscences he has regarded as already belonging to the public, and they have been assigned a place in this volume merely to afford the reader any pleasure he may derive from their perusal.
The roster of the Monroe County soldiers who served in the War of the Rebellion has been compiled from the Adjutant-General's Reports, mainly. The Reports them- selves contain frequent inaccuracies, which have been cor- rected in this volume, wherever the errors concerned the Monroe County volunteer. The roster is complete; yet it is possible that a few names have been omitted, owing to the fact that occasionally a volunteer enlisting from Monroe County gave his post-office address as in some adjoining county. This frequently occurred; and the Adjutant-Gen- eral's Reports thus fix his residence in some other county.
This fact will account for any omissions on the part of the author.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
At the close of the war many of the non-commissioned officers were promoted in rank, and their promotion was never reported or recorded in the office of the Adjutant- General. Owing to this fact, the roster herein may not in every case give the promotions, as they were made at a late period, by the Governor of the State.
In the preparation of this volume the author has done the very best his limited ability would allow, and hence feels that he need not consume space by inserting apologies.
FRANK HICKENLOOPER.
Albia, Iowa, September 1, 1896.
History of Monroe County, lowa.
CHAPTER I.
General Remarks.
If all existing land-marks were obliterated, leaving no means of identifying the surface of country comprising Monroe County, Iowa, the boundary lines could be relocated by going down to the mouth of the Arkansas River, where there is an imaginary line running east and west, known as a "base line." Here the surveyor would find another imaginary line, crossing the base line at right angles and extending north and south. This latter line is called a meridian line, and that one which the surveyor would have to follow in the search for Monroe County is known as the Fifth Principal Meridian.
Beginning where these two lines intersect, and ex- tending east and west, and north and south, are lines marked by spaces 6 miles apart, which are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc. Six miles north of the base line, on the meridian line, town- ship 1 is marked, and the township adjoining it on the west would be described as township 1, range 2, west. Proceeding northward until township 71 is reached, here the surveyor should turn his course due west, and proceed a distance of 16 townships, as indicated by the sixteenth range line west from the Fifth Principal Meridian. These range lines, which are those spacings on the base line, are exactly 6 miles apart; but, in order to keep them equidistant, their course has to be slightly rectified about every 40 miles, else the distance between them would increase with the curva- ture of the earth. These shiftings of lines are known as "correction lines." These lines are 24 miles apart north of the base line, and guide or meridian lines are 54 miles apart. Meridian lines are astronomical lines.
By following the course indicated, the surveyor would arrive at Urbana Township, situated in the southeast corner of Monroe County. This township is therefore described as township 71, range 16. west of the Fifth Principal
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
Meridian, and by this system, all the land in the State of Iowa was surveyed by the Government.
In making this Government survey, section lines were also run off, 1 mile apart, east and west, and north and south; and as each Congressional township was laid out 6 miles square, there are 36 sections in each Congressional township, and 640 acres in a section.
In all cases where the exterior lines of townships to be divided into sections and half-sections exceeds or does not extend 6 miles, the excess or deficiency is specially noted, and added to or deducted from the western or northern ranges of sections; hence fractional subdivisions of sections are found on their northern or western borders.
To number the sections in a township, beginning is made at the northeast corner section of the township, and the sections are numbered from 1 to 36, by numbering from east to west and from west to east alternately. Thus section 6 is the northwest corner section, while section 7 adjoins it on the south, and section 12 would be next south of section 1; section 13, likewise, would be the second section south of section 1, and so on.
Monroe County is in the second tier of counties from the southern line of the State; and is the fifth county in the tier, from the Mississippi River. All the counties in this tier west of Henry County have but 12 Congressional town- ships each, having 4 townships in tiers running east and west, and 3 north and south. Monroe, therefore, is less by 4 townships than her northern and southern neighbors.
The townships of Monroe County lie in the following order, enumerating them from east to west, and beginning at the southeast corner of the county: Urbana, Monroe, Franklin, and Jackson; Mantua, Troy, Guilford, and Wayne; Pleasant, Bluff Creek, Union, and Cedar.
Albia, the county seat, is situated in the northern half of section 22.
Monroe County is from 500 to 700 feet above the level of the sea, and varies somewhat, in both geological arrange- ment and exterior character. While its drift formation is not different from that of its neighboring counties, the south- western portion of Monroe County is probably outside of the region of the great coal-producing portion of the lower coal measure of the State. While this fact has not hitherto been positively admitted by geologists, investigations of
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
recent years prove pretty conclusively that the townships of Jackson and Franklin lie west of the western border of the lower coal-bearing district, and it is quite probable that the western portion of Monroe Township also extends beyond these limits, as the lower coal-bed apparently dis- appears at the town of Moravia.
The southwestern portion of the county is a plateau, which seems to blend abruptly into the geological structure of the great southwestern water-shed. Its drift deposits are of greater thickness than those in eastern Iowa and other localities within the district of the Des Moines basin.
The lower part of Jackson and Franklin Townships are drained by the tributaries of the Chariton River, which flows into the Missouri River. The northern and middle portions are drained by Cedar Creek, which empties into the Des Moines River.
While it is true that the lower coal-beds extend farther westward, along Cedar Creek, to the north of this locality, it is barely possible that the coal worked on Cedar Creek and White-breast may lie at a great depth beneath a vast accumu- lation of drift. If it does, it probably lies at a depth of from 300 to 400 feet, as a drilling was made at Moravia to a depth of 300 feet without finding any trace of the lower coal-bed.
The only fact to encourage this conjecture is that the Cedar basin seems to have cut itself to a great depth in this drift deposit.
Monroeand Urbana Townships occupy a lower elevation, and are drained by the headwaters of Soap and Avery creeks.
Little or no prospecting for coal has ever been made in Urbana Township, yet it is quite probable that in addition to the upper coal-bed, which crops out everywhere along Avery Creek, and which is about 3 feet in thickness, with an interval of fire-clay of about S inches in the center, the locality is underlaid by a rich deposit of the lower coal, which in Monroe County reaches a thickness of S feet in some localities.
As the upper portion of Monroe Township, particularly a few miles north of Foster, is on rising ground, no special effort has yet been made to locate the coal, which doubtless lies at a depth of about 300 feet; and as Troy Township rises still higher, prospectors have not yet been tempted to make much search in this township, in the vicinity of Albia.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
By referring to a profile of the C., B. & Q. Railroad survey it will be seen that Albia is situated on a high knoll or eminence, and whether the coal strata pass through this rise, unbroken, is a matter for conjecture.
Not until the Government had surveyed Iowa into Con- gressional townships were the counties established and surveyed. Counties were created by legislative acts of the Territorial Council and General Assembly, which later took the place of the Council when the State was admitted into the Union. The State Constitution provides that in organizing a county it shall be composed of not less than 12 Congres- sional townships.
As all surveys are subject to slight inaccuracies, later surveys do not exactly conform to the original Government survey. For instance, a county surveyor, beginning to survey a township, starts at the southeast section and runs north. The section lines which the Government has estab- lished he adopts as his own survey-i. c., he makes his own measurements to conform to them; but when he gets to the northern line of the township, the variation in measure- ments of the two surveys result in what are known as "fractional tracts," and as the surveyor runs westward after reaching the north line, these same variations occur on the west line of a section. Thus fractional tracts are found on the north and west lines of townships, and what was in- tended for a forty-acre tract by the first survey becomes by the second either more or less. Deeds of transfer are for this reason worded thus, in speaking of the amount to be transferred: "More or less, according to the United States survey of the same."
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
CHAPTER II.
Speculation.
While it is not within the province of the historian to record history which has not yet transpired, the writer can- not refrain from a casual introspection concerning the destiny of Monroe County.
All terrestrial things have an end, as well as a begin- ning; and in the somewhat vague theme of this chapter, one positive conclusion may be adduced-viz., that Monroe County will some day come to an end. Whether this end is brought about by fire and sword; by the peaceful re- adjustment of political boundaries; by the whisk of the tail of some malicious comet; or by the inevitable "crack of doom"-no one can say.
The past affords no basis upon which to even form a conjecture as to the ultimate fate awaiting the subdivisions of the United States, or even of the Republic itself. In the present age the spread of human intelligence has elevated the standard of justice so high that war and invasion can scarcely be reckoned as an agent effecting the downfall of an enlightened state, or, more properly speaking, of its trans- formation into some other political division.
There is a probability that at some distant day town- ships will enlarge their functions until their political organization shall be not very different from that of the boroughs or townships of England and other densely popu- lated regions, but this would not affect the existence of counties. No reason can be conceived, at present, why the boundaries of the several States should be disturbed or obliterated, and new divisions of the domain substituted, thus redistricting the land into smaller or greater sub- divisions.
County seats, located as they usually are, in or near the center of counties, will have a period of life coëxistent with that of the counties in which they are situated. Their growth will be measured by the resources of their respective counties, and not by industrial advantages possessed by them over less favored neighbors. The great cities of the country will become fewer in number, until, by that universal
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
law of natural selection which adds to the favored, to the extinction of the weaker, the smaller cities of the continent will arrive at a stand-still or tend to decay, while the greater will add to their size, wealth, and grandeur. It is the same law which enables the giant oak of the forest to lift its head above a grove of thousands of saplings, when all had apparently equal advantages of growth.
There is a system of modern philosophy which asserts that all physical manifestations operate in cycles. If this be true, civilization, too, in shifting from continent to conti- nent, may some day complete the cycle. The stork and the bittern then will perch upon the Arc de Triomphe, or the wild jackal howl through the valley of the Hudson or scamper through the deserted thoroughfares of New York. The worn-out and rocky wastes, where now only broken columns and fragments of chiseled friezes, façades, and domes mark the burial-places of proud empires, may some day be awakened by the touch of the returning rod of empire.
The indolent Arab, sitting cross-legged beneath the shade of a giant cactus, will watch some sturdy race of foreigners gather up the fragments of tiles and bricks and stones, cart them away, and with plowshare turn under a new growth of soil. By fertilization and culture the land will again produce, and a new race will rebuild cities and make railroads, cut canals, and cultivate soil reënriched by the mold of desolation and by the sweep of the soil-laden winds of the wilderness.
"Cleopatra's Needle," overthrown and submerged in the soil of Manhattan Island, may be exhumed in some far- distant age, and carried back to the valley of the Nile from whence it came.
A broken shaft, over which the sands of the Potomac River have drifted for thousands of years, may tell the future archeologist of a Washington; or the washing away of the shore-line of Lake Michigan may, ere its waters cease to roll, reveal a colossal horse and rider, which to-day stands in Lincoln Park to perpetuate the memory of Grant.
What destroying force, then, shall accomplish this desolation? Shall it be the tooth of time, alone, or the canker of a worn-out, polluted, and vicious race?
In the United States civilization may not reach its zenith for thousands of years. Then will begin the equally slow process of decay; the contest for supremacy will begin.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
Upon the theory of selection, the strong will oppress and enslave the weak; those who have accumulated wealth will pass from luxury to indolence and vice; Government will become tainted with crime and intrigue; the population will be so great that the soil will not sustain it; the people will no longer be self-supporting by legitimate industry, and the stronger will prey upon the weaker; a feudal condition will assert itself, and this population will dwindle away or shift to other zones.
Then it will be that States will be broken up or subjected to principalities of some despotic form. Counties will lose their identity, and thus Monroe County, with her once proud capital, shall have run her race. Away down beneath the surface, submerged like the relies of proud Ilium, some one will find a corner-stone of some stately palace-presumably the parliamentary palace of the Board of Supervisors-and, digging beneath it, he will find a sealed receptacle contain- ing coins bearing the undefinable inscriptions, "E Pluribus ['num." "United States of America," etc. He will also find valuable parchments, and, among them, a copy of this book. Then some archeologist will turn up with a "Rosetta Stone," and by its aid translate the documents, and thus perpetuate the history of Monroe County and the deeds of her illustrious citizens.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
CHAPTER III.
Organization.
Shortly after that vast southwestern territory known as the Louisiana Purchase had been acquired by the United States, from France, Congress, by an act of 1804, divided this new possession into two bodies. That lying below the thirty-third parallel of north latitude was called the Terri- tory of Orleans; and the remaining portion was known as the District of Louisiana. This latter, for political purposes, was engrafted on to Indiana Territory.
In 1805 the District of Louisiana was merged into a Territory of its own. In 1807 another subdivision was made, and the Territory of Iowa was created, which was at first attached to the Territory of Illinois, and later, in 1812, to Missouri Territory.
When Missouri was admitted as a State, in 1821, Iowa was again an outcast, until 1834, when she clung to the skirts of Michigan Territory. By this time all the region west of the Mississippi and north of the north line of Missouri had been purchased from the Sac and Fox Indians, and comprised Michigan Territory. It was usually referred to by the people of Illinois and other Eastern States as "The Purchase."
In 1836 the Territory of Wisconsin was created by an act of Congress, and Iowa Territory was again placed in the keeping of a new foster-parent. by being attached to Wis- consin. In 1838 Iowa Territory was given a separate Territorial government, but it still included a part of Wis- consin, west of the Mississippi River.
In 1846, after considerable wrangling over the boundary question by the people of the Territory, they finally voted in favor of going into the Union as a sovereign State, and accordingly Iowa was admitted December 28, 1846.
Several years prior to the admission of Iowa as a State, the Territorial Council had passed an act to organize new counties, as will be seen in Chapter 34 of the Revised Statutes of Iowa, 1843:
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
"An Act to establish new counties and define their bound- aries, in the late cession from the Sac and Fox Indians, and for other purposes.
"Sec. 4. The following boundaries shall constitute a new county, to be called Kishkekosh, to-wit: Beginning at the northwest corner of Wapello County; thence west on township line dividing townships 73 and 74, to range 20, west; thence south on said line to the northwest corner of Appanoose County; thence on the township line dividing townships 70 and 71; thence east to the southwest corner of Wapello County; thence north to the place of beginning; which county, with Wapello and the territory lying west, shall be attached to Jefferson County for judicial, revenue, and election purposes."
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