Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II, Part 1

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1464

USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II > Part 1

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GENEALOGY COLLECTION

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DES MOINES

The Pioneer of Municipal Progress and Reform of the Middle West

TOGETHER WITH THE HISTORY OF

POLK COUNTY, IOWA

The Largest, Most Populous and Most Prosperous County in the State of Iowa

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME II

CHICAGO THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY IQII

INTRODUCTION

1143123

The author of the first volume of this work has significantly referred to the steadily increasing value of local history, however faulty it may be, as written from the standpoint of a contemporary. Still greater significance attaches to col- lective biography prepared from first-hand sources as to dates and events, and from contemporary judgments as to the relative standing of the subjects under consideration. Though such collections are lacking in the perspective which time alone can give, the student of the era which they cover will find they have other values more desirable than perspective. He will find them, in the main, reliable as to dates and other statements of fact, the data having been obtained from first-hand sources. He will also find them extremely valuable, in that they embody the judgments of contemporaries, an essential which the historian of a later time cannot obtain from any other source,-"the speech of people," a phrase full of significance to jurymen called upon to weigh the degree of credibility attached to evidence. The collective biography of a period may tend toward over-apprecia- tion ; but that is a fault easily forgiven and readily discounted by the student of local history. Many of those whose lives are sketched in such collections belong to the recent dead; and, as to the rest, in a few decades at the longest, even the youngest of those mentioned in the collections will have passed on into the Beyond. Who would be so captious as to deny the wisdom of the ancients embodied in the maxim, "Speak no ill of the dead!" The biographer who would deliber- ately undertake the ghoulish task of writing men down-of retailing the harsh judgments of enemies and the unforgiving or intemperate charges of partisan critics, would not deserve and would not receive consideration from any reader.

The unvarying rule of the editors of this volume has been to make sure of the essential data-the dates and principal events and occurrences in each person's career. In order to obtain this data, each one of the several hundred who were listed for biographical sketches was asked to supply the skeletons of facts upon which to build a sketch. This obtained, the editors were able, through personal knowledge and investigation, and from all available sources of information, to present a series of biographical studies which, however faulty they may be in the judgment of one and another reader, are collectively sure to be increasingly valu- able as the years pass and as opportunities for first-hand information become more and more rare.

Anticipating the criticism that certain of the leading men of the city and county are conspicuously absent in these biographical pages, the editors of this volume have only to say that while a few men of local or general prominence may have been unintentionally overlooked by the editors, or by mistake may have been omit- ted by the publishers, the fact remains that nearly all the men of prominence in the community and county were invited to supply the data of fact essential to the accuracy of the proposed sketches. Not a few of these kindly consented to supply the requisite data, but failed, or neglected, to comply with the request, though dili- gent effort was made to obtain the desired information. There were also a few men of prominence who refused to supply the data requested, or to direct the sketch-writers to any reliable source of information relative to themselves. In such cases, the only safety was in complying with the evident desire of the partics.

Another criticism may possibly be passed upon the inclusion of some who have not yet "made good." To this the editors have only to say that Des Moines and Polk county are yet "in the making." As many who have earned prominence in the city and county were the unknowns of a single decade ago, so there are men of promise in our midst today, who are sure to be prominent a decade hence. Who is wise enough to measure the relative prominence which these will obtain !

Discounting all which may be said in detraction, the editors of this volume are confident that with every passing year their work will become more highly prized not only by future historians and students of state and local history, but also by present and future citizens of Des Moines and Polk county.

JEFFERSON S. POLK

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JEFFERSON SCOTT POLK.

Jefferson Scott Polk, whose record was a credit and honor to the city which honored him, came to the forefront as a prominent figure in Iowa's history in many ways. A distinguished lawyer of the pioneer period, he was later one of the founders and promoters of the railway system of Des Moines and took the initiative in the development of the interurban railway system of the city. He was connected with the building of steam railways as well as electric lines and was the guiding spirit in many business projects, enterprises and public movements which have been and still are salient features in the development and growth of the capital city. Yet it was not his masterful genius in business that won for Jefferson Scott Polk the place which he occupied in public regard. Great as was his business ability, his character o'ertopped it and made him a man among men whose life constitutes an example of all that is noblest and best in manhood and citizenship. Never did he neglect an obligation, falter in the discharge of a responsibility or forget a friend, and the poorest as well as the richest, the humblest as well as the highest, could and did win his friendship which was of enduring quality.

Mr. Polk was born February 18, 1831, in Scott county, Kentucky. He was descended from Scotch-Irish ancestry, the line being traced back directly to Baron Sir Robert Pollock, of Ireland, son of Sir Robert de Pollock, of Scotland. The second son of Baron Sir Robert Pollock, of Ireland, was Captain Baron Robert Bruce Pollock, who was an officer in Colonel Porter's regiment under Cromwell. The spelling of the surname was changed to its present form when in 1672 he came to America. He was accompanied by his wife, Mrs. Magdalen Pollock, a daughter of Colonel Tasker, proprietor of Broomfield Castle and Moneen Hall, estates on River Foyle, near Londonderry. Colonel Tasker was a chancellor of Ireland and had two daughters, Barbara and Magdalen. The former married Captain Keys and they went with the army to Indiana, where he accumulated a large fortune. Later they returned to Ireland, and their descendants still own Broomfield and a part of Moneen. The younger daughter. Magdalen, became the wife of Colonel Porter, who died soon afterward, and later she married Colonel Porter's friend, an officer in his regiment, Captain Robert Bruce Polk, with whom, as stated, she came to Maryland in 1672. There she died in 1727, leaving Moneen, bequeathed to her by her father, to her youngest son, Joseph Polk, whose daughter, Ann Polk, was married in 1754 in Sussex county, Delaware, to Daniel Morris, Jr., and became the mother of Rhoda Ann Polk, the wife of Ephraim Polk, III, so that in two distinct lines the ancestry is traced back to Captain Baron Robert Bruce and Magdalen (Tas- ker-Porter) Polk. Their son, Ephraim Polk, of Somerset county, Maryland, and his wife, Elizabeth Williams, were the great-great-grandparents of Jeffer- son Scott Polk. His great-grandparents were Ephraim Polk. II, and Mary Caverdale, of Sussex county, Delaware. His grandparents were Ephraim Polk, III, and Rhoda Ann Morris, also of Sussex county. His parents were Jehose- phat and Sallie (Moore) Polk. The family were strong adherents of the Scotch Covenanters and strict Presbyterians.

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

Ephraim Polk, III, removed with his family from Sussex county, Delaware, to Scott county, Kentucky, in November, 1783, after marrying Rhoda Morris, who was a relative of Robert Morris, the Philadelphia financier and patriot, who saved Washington's army from starvation at Valley Forge during the hard winter of 1777, and by his business genius financed the Revolution. In the ranks of that barefooted, suffering host at Valley Forge was Ephraim Polk who in the preceding September had taken a number of horses from Delaware to the army and after their delivery joined Colonel William Wills' Philadelphia regiment, later the Third Continentals of Pennsylvania. He served until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Because of Indian warfare and the continued persecutions of the savages Kentucky was still known as the Dark and Bloody Ground when Ephraim Polk settled in Scott county. In 1814, while preparing to join Jackson at New Or- leans, he died. He had a family of eleven children, nine of whom reached adult age, married and reared families.

The fourth child was Jehosephat Polk, who was born in 1800 and became one of the most prominent and successful farmers of his state. He was a man of wonderful industry and business activity and was extensively engaged in raising hemp, on which he won premiums at the World's Fair in New York. Losing his fortune by paying security debts for kinsmen, he afterward became manager of R. A. Alexander's great Woodburn stock farms, in which service he died. He was for many years an elder in the Presbyterian church. He mar- ried Sallie Moore and Jefferson S. Polk was the fourth of their family of six children. The eldest son, Marcellus M. Polk, was a leading attorney at the Kentucky bar, while another son, James E. Polk, was for years a prominent wholesale merchant of Cincinnati.

Jefferson S. Polk acquired a good public-school education, after which he entered Georgetown (Ky.) College, from which he was graduated. He began reading law in the office and under the direction of R. L. Cable, of that city, who was afterward head of the Rock Island Railroad Company of Chicago, and subsequently matriculated in the law school of Transylvania University at Lex- ington, where he completed the full course by graduation. Admitted to the bar in March, 1854, he began practice in Georgetown in partnership with his brother, Marcellus.

On the 25th of January, 1854, Jefferson S. Polk was married at Georgetown to Miss Julia Ann Herndon, a daughter of John Herndon, a wealthy planter of Scott county, Kentucky. The Herndons had emigrated from Virginia during the early settlement of Kentucky, establishing a home in Scott county, where they took a prominent part in civil and military affairs, especially in contests with the Indians during Wayne's campaign and in the war of 1812. Interested in the great west, noting its opportunities and believing in its future, Jefferson S. Polk determined to remove to a point beyond the Mississippi and at length decided upon Des Moines, Iowa, then a small village of about one thousand inhabitants, as a place of location. His capital consisted of his diploma, a com- prehensive knowledge of law and ambition and determination. Opening an office, he continued in the practice of law alone for a year and also engaged in dealing in real estate, making investments from time to time in property that constituted the foundation of the wealth which he enjoyed in later years. He had to wait for his first client for three months and then received a fee of but ·seventy-five cents. After practicing for a year in Des Moines he became asso- ciated with the firm of Casady & Crocker as junior partner, and for years the firm occupied a foremost place among the lawyers of central Iowa. They engaged in nearly all of the important litigation of the time. When General Crocker went to the front in 1861 the firm name was changed to Casady & Polk, and when twelve or fifteen years later P. M. Casady withdrew from the prac- tice of law Mr. Polk was joined in a partnership relation by F. M. Hubbell.

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

At the time of his death one of the local papers relative to his professional career said :

"As a young attorney Mr. Polk soon made his mark. He was quiet, gentle- manly and studious, and at the same time watchful of his clients' interests and ready for legal fights of any kind. He was of tall, straight figure-a giant in stature-of abundant health and of tireless vigor, physically as well as mentally adapted to the work of hewing and shaping great business enterprises. He had a strong will and tenacity of purpose and was accustomed to follow boldly the course his own judgment pointed out. He became one of the greatest lawyers of the state and had no superior among the members of the Iowa bar of that day. His great force as a pleader in court, the clarity and strength of his illus- trations, were demonstrated in a dramatic way only a few months ago, when he appeared in court himself in defense of his company."

The partnership between Mr. Polk and Mr. Hubbell was maintained for about twenty-five years and in the meantime Mr. Polk and Mr. Hubbell ex- tended their efforts beyond the field of law practice to other business activities. They became owners of the water-works plant and gradually outside interests more and more withdrew Mr. Polk from his profession. The history of his undertakings in business lines is practically the history of the industrial develop- ment of Des Moines. In 1867 he was associated with Mr. Hubbell and other companies in organizing the Equitable Life Insurance Company, which for forty years has held the confidence and faith of the public and is one of the strongest financial institutions of the state. It was the pioneer in the field of life insur- ance in Iowa and as secretary of the company for fourteen years Mr. Polk largely directed its affairs. Three years after the organization of the insurance company Mr. Polk with F. M. Hubbell and B. F. Allen incorporated the Des Moines Water Works Company with a capital of three hundred thousand dollars and secured a city franchise in 1871. The plant was at once constructed, mains were laid to all parts of the town and the residences of Des Moines were sup- plied with water by the Holly system, and the city became the possessor of a water suppply of unsurpassed purity. Mr. Polk was prominent in the manage- ment of the company's affairs until 1889, when he withdrew.

His name is perhaps most widely known in connection with the development of electric and steam railway properties. He was the promoter of the street railway system of Des Moines, which had its beginning in 1866. He practically financed the undertaking although there were associated with him F. M. Hub- bell, W. B. White and M. P. Turner, the last named superintending the con- struction and the securing of the franchise. Under that franchise the present consolidated system of the city has operated. An ordinance was later passed permitting the company to equip its line with electric power. The first tract was narrow gauge and extended on Court street, then the principal business thoroughfare, from the courthouse to the foot of Capitol Hill. Two years later Messrs. Polk and Hubbell sold their interests to Dr. Turner but twenty years later Mr. Polk again became prominently connected with the railway interests of Des Moines. In 1888 he secured a charter for the Rapid Transit Company to operate their cars by steam, cable or the Patton system on all streets, but the work undertaken in this connection was unsuccessful. In the meantime Mr. Polk built a line on Walnut street from the Chicago & Great Western crossing to the fair grounds, a steam locomotive furnishing the operative power for years. A more gigantic task, however, awaited Mr. Polk and was successfuly accom- plished by him. This was the consolidation of all the car lines of the city under one management in 1889. From the time he embarked in the project until his death he devoted his splendid business talents to extending and im- proving the railway system to meet the constantly increasing demands of traffic. As the city grew the street railway kept pace with it. He substituted electricity for horse motive power and gave to Des Moines the second electric railway in

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

the United States and the fastest railway service in the country, hesitating at no expense and carefully investigating every device invented for its improve- ment. At the time of the consolidation of the railway interests in this city there were ten lines, all having the right to charge a five-cent fare. He com- bined these under one system, instituted a plan of transferring whereby one might ride for twelve miles for a five-cent fare, introduced the vestibule cars that the motormen might be protected from the weather and at length secured a contract from the United States government for carrying the mails on the Des Moines street railway lines. Since 1895 all the cars have been equipped with letter boxes into which mail can be placed at any street crossing and no matter what its speed a car must be stopped to receive it. Within twenty-five or forty minutes from the time a letter is posted it has been carried into the central waiting room and thence to the postoffice. No other city in the country has similar service.

Mr. Polk's was a mind that dealt boldly with each problem and when the era of electric lines dawned he did not falter to secure the means with which to extend lines radiating from the city in every direction. He was instrumental in building the electric line from Des Moines to Colfax, twenty-three miles in length, and soon other lines were projected and built to Granger, Boone and Ames and later between Des Moines and Fort Dodge, a distance of eighty miles. The construction of interurbans made necessary immense financial resources. but Mr. Polk met the contingency that arose as he had years before met and overcome similar obstacles in enlarging and amplifying the street railways of the city. At the time of his death he had plans under way for the construction of interurban lines to Indianola, Winterset and Newton. "The street railway of Des Moines," said one of the local papers, "is the monument he left to com- memorate the work he performed in the upbuilding of the city in which he made his home for fifty-two years. It will abide and endure as one of the giant enterprises of a man whom the citizens love and honor and to whom they owe very much for the splendid advancement of the city in the march of modern progress."

At different times, especially in the twenty years' interval in which Mr. Polk was not engaged in the building of urban and interurban railways, he gave his attention to the construction of steam railroads. He was the builder of the Des Moines & Minnesota Railway, which became a part of the Chicago & Northwestern system. He began that project in 1874 and in 1881-2 he built a narrow gauge line to Waukee and with others extended it to Panora and Fonda with a branch from Clive to Boone. In later years this became a part of the Milwaukee system. During the same period the syndicate built the Des Moines & St. Louis road from Des Moines to Albia and also organized and built the Des Moines Union Railway, a connecting transfer line, between all the trunk lines in this city with side-tracks to a large number of factories. It was Mr. Polk who secured most of the right of way and subsidies for the Keokuk & Des Moines Railway, now the Des Moines Valley division of the Rock Island system. He was connected with the building of railways, steam, urban or interurban, up to the time of his last illness. He was always a busy man and although his wealth would have long before his death permitted him to retire he remained a factor in the management of the extensive and important interests in which he was connected.

Aside from any business connections Mr. Polk was keenly interested in the welfare and progress of his adopted city and it is said: "The creed of a 'greater Des Moines' has had no greater apostle than J. S. Polk. His optimism in regard to the city's future was one of the marked characteristics in all his business enterprises. He acquired and held Des Moines real estate as one of the largest investors. He looked forward to the time in the not far distant future when the city would have a population of a half million. He lived to

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

see it increase from fifteen thousand to nearly eighty thousand." At all times his cooperation could be counted upon to favor any movement for the general good. At the time of the Civil war in 1861 he gave substantial evidence of his patriotic loyalty to the Union. Although he was reared a democrat and re- mained an ardent advocate of the party throughout his life, he not only made speeches in behalf of Abraham Lincoln but contributed liberally of his means to support the boys in blue. On the 28th of May, 1861, he received the com- mission as first lieutenant of the Union Home Guards. He was one of the strong advocates of temperance and the best interests of morality. His con- tributions to the building fund of almost every church in Des Moines were liberal and he gave as generously to many philanthropic and beneficent enter- prises.

The death of Mr. Polk occurred on the 3d of November, 1907. He was survived by his widow and two sons, John Scott and Harry H. Polk, and two daughters, Mildred, the wife of George B. Hippee; and Sarah J., who became the wife of Albert G. Maish. The elder son married Miss Maud Haskit and the younger married Miss Alice Kauffman and is represented elsewhere in this work. They had also lost three children, Mollie, Lutie and Daniel, who were respectively the first, third and fifth members of the family. Their home, Herndon Hall, so named in honor of Mrs. Polk's family, was one of the most beautiful residences on Grand avenue, and while there were found all the indi- cations of wealth and culture, one of its most attractive features was its warm- hearted and generous hospitality.

At his death Mr. Polk's sons and sons-in-law, who had already become prom- inently associated with him in the conduct of his important business interests, continued the work which he had instituted. In all of his relations to his work- men and those who served him-about five hundred in number-he was most considerate and kind, was ever thoughtful of their welfare and interests, called many of them by their first names, and he had in unusual measure the loyalty, respect and regard of those who served him. Feeling that the hour of his death was approaching he asked that some of his old and trusted employes should act as pall-bearers at the funeral services.

In one of the Des Moines papers appeared the following editorial: "Jeffer- son S. Polk, capitalist, financier, lawyer, philanthropist, philosopher, good citi- zen and friend, is no more. He was a man of gentle mould. While sagacious and practical in business he never lost sight of the finer and nobler side of life. He was domestic in his tastes to a high degree. Home, wife, children, friends were always first in his thoughts. He loved his books and his magazines, and the cozy hours with them in secluded nooks. He was a great lover of nature and in his quiet walks in groves and fields he found sweet companionship with God's emblems of life and death and resurrection. In him all the nobler and loftier and purer attributes of humanity are so rarely blended that all the world could point to him and say, 'There is a man.' Death came to him too soon. At the age of seventy-seven he was removed from life's activities. Meeting with an accident nearly a year ago, he received injuries which proved stubborn and incurable and finally pressed him into the tomb. He had planned great enterprises. His fine brain had conceived mammoth industries and dreamed of lofty achievements. He was to make Des Moines a great inter- urban center, with steel arteries reaching out in every direction over prairie and woods and into villages and hamlets throughout the fertile state of Iowa. No man has ever lived in our midst who has been a greater public benefactor than Jefferson S. Polk. And all the time he has been the same kind and gentle citizen and friend. He insisted on perfect courtesy on the part of his employes toward his patrons and many men have been dismissed by him for lack of civility to women and children. Such a man as Jefferson S. Polk cannot die without leaving a vacancy in society. Grief for his departure is not confined to the circle

CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY

of his home. It reaches out into the community and heads are bowed and hearts are wounded in thousands of other homes in our midst. The business world will miss him. He was always a valuable adviser and his judgment on the practical affairs of life was sought and cherished. His ideas of life were lofty and clean and he placed the standard of manhood high and distinguishable. And he fitted his daily life to his ideals. The name he leaves behind is the best monument that can be reared to his memory. No marble shaft, however stately, can so grandly honor him as the record he has left on the tablets of human remembrance. He has passed away with the dying year, crowned with honored hairs of silver, a life of busy and fertile hours, love of family, respect of friends and a name unsullied by scandal or the taint of mean and polluting deeds."

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Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume II, Part 1

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1464

Author: Brigham, Johnson, 1846-1936; Clarke (S.J.) Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1464