USA > Iowa > Lucas County > History of Lucas County, Iowa containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc > Part 1
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HISTORY OF LUCAS COUNTY, IOWA: CONTAINING A
HISTORY OF THE
COUNTY, ITS ...
LOELL LOBER
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
Gift of
KUMM, Ferdinand G. and Sarah L. Book Fund (1992)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
RL
NRPU
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Warren S. Dangan
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HISTORY
OF
LUCAS COUNTY, IOWA
CONTAINING
A HISTORY OF THE COUNTY, ITS CITIES, TOWNS, ETC.
A BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY OF MANY OF ITS LEADING CITIZENS, WAR RECORD OF ITS VOLUNTEERS IN THE LATE REBELLION, GENERAL AND LOCAL STATISTICS, PORTRAITS OF EARLY SETTLERS AND PROMI- NENT MEN, HISTORY OF IOWA AND THE NORTHWEST, MAP OF LUCAS COUNTY, CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, REMINISCENCES, MISCELLANEOUS MATTERS, ETC.
ILLUSTRATED.
DES MOINES: STATE HISTORICAL COMPANY. 1881.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
DEC 1 8 2003
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PREFACE.
There is no proper place in history for the element of fiction. In the correct delineation of a landscape the artist judiciously employs both lights and shades; so the historian must need contrast the true and the false, that the eternal beauty and symmetry of truth appear, but draw upon the imagination, he may never. As in the landscape, the true out- line of objects is obscured in the shadows, requiring the full blaze of day to bring them into proper view, so history brings out the facts partially obscured in the haze of tradition-itself never history.
The history of the growth of any branch of knowledge has a double interest; that which comes to it from the knowledge itself, and that which comes from its relations to the history of the operation of the human mind. Men think under the limitations of their times; they reason on such material as they have; they form their estimate of changes from the facts immediately known to them. What Matthew Arnold has written of man's thoughts, as he floats adown the "River of Time," is most true. Says he :
" As is the world on the banks, So is the mind of man. Only the track where he sails He wots of: only the thoughts Raised by the objects he passes, are his."
Impressions thus received, the mind will modify and work upon, trans- mitting the products to other minds in shapes that often seem new, strange and arbitrary, but which yet result from processes familiar to our experi- ence, and to be found at work in our own individual consciousness. And this is the necessity that renders history, as entirely distinct from tradi- tion, imperative. Here the province of the historian begins. It is imper- ative on him that he record facts as they are, freed from the gloss given them by verbal transmissions.
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PREFACE.
Lucas county ranks among the first in political influence, and is not behind in the intelligence of its people and its jealous regard for educa- tion; its material resources are practically unlimited, and the promise for its future ever brightening. Now, to clearly understand this happy present, its glories and its greatness, its opportunities and its wonders, it is our duty to look back to their sources. We shall find that the seeds which have so auspiciously borne fruit in this present generation, were sown by men tried and true; men who deserve to be remembered, not merely as historic names, but as men in whose broad breasts beat the noblest hearts, and within whose rustic homes were to be found the very bone and sinew of this Western world; men whose sterling worth and integrity have contributed very largely to its present high position.
The whole history of this county is one of surpassing interest, and the more it is studied the clearer does it become that underlying its records are certain truths, which afford a clew to the causes that have contributed so powerfully to bring it to its present marked prominence. They will be found identical with those which have influenced the history of the nations during many centuries. To narrate these facts is the object of these pages; with what success this has been done, we do not presume to say. It has been our aim to learn and present the truth, without favor or prejudice.
It has heretofore been possible for the scholar, with leisure and a com- prehensive library, to trace out the written history of his county by patient research among voluminous government documents and dusty records, sometimes old and scarce; but these sources of information, and the time to study them, are not at the command of most of those who are intelli- gently interested in local history; and there are many unpublished facts to be rescued from the failing memories of the oldest residents, who would soon have carried their information with them to the grave; and others to be obtained from the citizens best informed in regard to the various pres- ent interests and institutions of the county, which should be treated of in giving its history. This service of research and record, which very few could have undertaken for themselves, the publishers of this work have performed. While a few unimportant mistakes may, perhaps, be found in such a multitude of details, in spite of the care exercised in the produc- tion of the volume, they still confidently present this result of many weeks' labor, as a true and orderly narration of all the events in the history of
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PREFACE.
the county which were of sufficient interest and value to merit such a record.
Authenticity is always difficult in history. Much passes for history which is mere anecdote, and that domain is always doubtful. Other facts, again, come to us through the prejudice and colours of personal narra- tion. Great care has, therefore, been necessary to prevent publishing misconceptions as history. There has been admitted no statement of fact without ample authority, and mentioned not even the slightest incident without the support of creditable testimony. Attention is called to one feature, considered of special value-the introduction of the original records for all transactions directly affecting the interests of the county. Concerning the first records and the facts they teach, little or nothing need be said. Of this period in the county's history there have been explored for evidence, every known early document, and, where not muti- lated, they have been presented in full. If, among the pages devoted to early settlers and settlements, the sentences seem short and broken, and the method of treatment faulty, it should be borne in mind that the nature of the data renders any other method of presentment impossible. Accu- racy, rather than finish, has been the object held steadily in view.
In the preparation of this volume, the oldest residents and others have cheerfully volunteered their services in the undertaking, adding largely to the value of the results obtained. Special thanks are due to the following named persons, who have not only aided us by placing at our disposition much valuable matter, but have themselves devoted much time to search- ing records, and afforded every opportunity in their power to perfect the chronological sequence and accuracy of the data used: Moses Folsom, S. F. Stewart, D. D. Waynick, Doctor W. W. Waypick, J. Lee Brown, county auditor; Richard Reed, county recorder; W. K. Larimer, clerk of courts; Elijah Lewis, county treasurer; George H. Ragsdale, proprietor of the Chariton Patriot; Branner & Best, proprietors of the Chariton Leader; Colonel Warren S. Dungan, I. N. Elliott, J. M. Hanlin, county superintendent of schools; N. B. Gard- ner, Esq., Hon. S. H. Mallory, Joseph Braden, G. J. Stewart, M. J. Burr, and other old settlers in the various townships of the county. Through- out the county are many impossible to name here, who have freely given what of history they had. The clergy and other church officers, and
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PREFACE.
those of civic associations, have been universally obliging in placing at our command the needed statistics of their several societies.
Under the sway of cause and effect, historic events cannot stand alone; they form an unbroken chain. This history of so limited a territory as a county in Iowa, has its roots not only in remote times, but in distant lands, and cannot be justly written out without consulting the influence of such a foreign element ; nor can such a county history be understood in all its relations,' without a historic review of at least the state of which the county is a part ; hence, we feel that in giving such an outline we have been more faithful to the main purpose of the work, while we have added an element of independent interest and value. We little doubt that this book will be a welcome one to the inhabitants of the county, for all take a just pride in whatever calls to mind the scenes and incidents of other days. It is presented in the belief that the work done will meet with the heartiest approval of our readers; and if, through that commen- dation, it awakens an earnest spirit of enterprise and emulation among the younger citizens of the county, it will be a source of just pleasure and congratulation to
THE PUBLISHERS.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY ....
19
Geographical Position. . . . ....
19
Early Explorations
20
Discovery of the Ohio .......
...
32
English Explorations and Set-
tlement .... 34 American Settlements . .59
Division of the Northwest Ter-
ritory .... 65
Tecumseh, and the war of 1812 69
Black Hawk, and the Black Hawk War .. . .. Present Condition of the North-
73
west ... 79
THE EARLY HISTORY OF ILLINOIS 88
Early Discoveries ..
88
First French Occupation.
91
Genius of La Salle.
92
Early Settlements .
94
The "Compact of 1787"
95
Physical Features of Prairie
States .. 99 Progress of Development ...... 101 MATERIAL RESOURCES OF THE
STATE
. . 102 Coal is King .. 103 The Religion and Morals. ... 106 Education .. 107
THE STATE OF IOWA,
109
Geographical Situation
109
Topography ..
109
Drainage System
110
Rivers.
Lakes. ....
118
Springs ...
119
Origin of the Prairies.
120
Geology .. 120 The Azoic System 121
Lower Silurian System. 122 Upper Silurian System. 123 Devonian System 123 Carboniferous System 124 Sub-carboniferous System. 124
PAGE
The Coal-measure Group
127
Cretaceous System .. . . . . ..
129
Peat ..
130
Gypsum ...
131
Minor Deposits of Sulphate of
Lime. ....
135
Sulphate of Strontia
136
Sulphate of Baryta.
137
Sulphate of Magnesia
137
Climatology.
137
THE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF
IOWA. .... ..
139
Discovery and Occupation.
. ..
139
The Original Owners
147
Pike's Expedition.
151
Indian Wars.
162
The Black Hawk War ...... 157
Indian Purchases, Reserves, and
Treaties.
. 159
Spanish Grants ..
....
163
The Half-breed Tract .........
164
Early Settlements.
166
Territorial History ..
173
The Boundary Question
177
State Organization
181
Growth and Progress .....
185
The Agricultural College and
Farm ...
.. 186
The State University ...
...
.....
187
State Historical Society ..
193
The Penitentiary.
194
Additional Penitentiary 195 Iowa Hospital for the Insane .. 195 Towa College for the Blind ..... 197 Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. . 199 Soldiers' Orphans' Homes ...... 199 State Normal School 201 Asylum for Feeble Minded Chil- dren ... .. . 201 The Reform School ........... 202 Fish Hatching Establishment ... 203 The Public Lands . . . 204
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CONTENTS
PAGE
The Public Schools 218 Limitation of Actions. 297
Political Record
223
War Record.
229
Infantry.
233
Cavalry ..
244
Artillery
247
Estrays.
299
Miscellaneous.
248
Casualties among Officers of Iowa
Regiments during the War ... 250
Casualties among Enlisted Men of
Iowa Regiments during the War 252
Number of Troops Furnished by
the State of Iowa, etc. ... 254
Population of Iowa.
255
Illinois.
257
Indiana.
259
Lowa.
260
Michigan
263
Wisconsin.
264
Minnesota
266
Nebraska,
267
Constitution of the United States and its Amendments. .. 269
Vote for Governor, 1879, and Pres- ident, 1876. 283
Vote for Congressmen, 1876 ..... 283
Practical Rules for Every Day Use 284
Codicil.
310
Satisfaction of Mortgage ....
310
U. S. Government Land Measure 287
Surveyor's Measure ...
288
Form of Mortgage.
311
How to Keep Accounts. ..
288 Names of the States of the Union, and their significations. ..... 290
Population of United States .. .... 291 Population of Fifty Principal Cities 291 Population of Principal Countries
of the World .. 292
ABSTRACT OF IOWA STATE LAWS .. 293
Bills of Exchange and Notes ... 293 Interest. 293
Descent .. ..
293
Wills and Estates.
294
Taxes ..
295
Jurisdictions of Courts
297
PAGE
Jurors ...... 297
Captal Punishment .......... 298
Married Women ....... 298
Exemptions from Execution ..
298
Marks and Brands. 300 Damages from Trespass .. 300
Fences ..
300
Mechanic's Liens. 301
Roads and Bridges
302
Adoption of Children
303
303
Surveyors and Surveys.
Support of Poor ..
303
Landlord and Tenant. 304
Weights and Measures ..... 305
Definitions of Commercial Terms. 305 Notes. 306
Orders
306
Receipts ....
306
Bills of Purchase
306
Confession of Judgment ....
306
Articles of Agreement ..
.
307
Bills of Sale
308
Notice to Quit.
309
Form of Will
309
Form of Lease
312
Form of Note.
313
Chattel Mortgage
314
Warranty Deed.
314
Quit Claim Deed.
315
Bond for Deed.
315
Charitable, Scientific, and Religi-
ous Associations ..
316
Intoxicating Liquors ... ........
317
Suggestions to those Purchasing
319
Books by Subscription ..
Statistics of Agriculture of Iowa
(Census of 1875). ...... 320
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Wolf Scalps.
300
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CONTENTS.
HISTORY OF LUCAS COUNTY.
PAGE
Introduction. 321
Name and Location 323
Physical Character. 325
The Prairies
327
First Census,
444
First Public Highway .. 445
Official Salaries.
446
Natural History of Lucas County. 343
Birds.
344
Woody Plants and Vines ..... 359
Common Medicinal Plants ..... 363
Toads, Frogs, Snakes and Tur-
tles. 364
Fresh Water Mollusks. 368
Mammals 369 The Red Man 371
The Pioneers .. 373
First Land Entries. 388
County Organization. 391
County Seat .. 400
The First Court House .. 407
Early Courts and Judges ... 417
Probate Court. 417 Railroads 571
County Court .... 421
District Court. .. 423 First Grand and Pettit Juries .. 424
The District Judges. 427
Circuit Court .... . . 430
Board of Supervisors. 431
Township organizations 433
Chariton 434 English. 435
Cedar.
435
Union ..
435
Washington.
435
Liberty Township.
616
Otter Creek Township.
620
Pleasant Township
623
Union Township 626
Otter Creek. 437 Derby ... 630
Benton 437 Warren township. 631 Washington Township. 634
Pleasant.
437
Jackson.
437
Russell
637
Lincoln ..
438
.
White Breast Township
639
Early Record Events 439 First Marriage License 439
PAGE
First Warranty Deed. 441
First Mortgage .. 442 First Quit Claim Deed. 443
Climate. 330 The Red Man's Summer. .. 335 Geology 336 County Institutions. 447 The Old Log Court House .. 447 First County Jail. 448
New Jail .. 448
Poor House and Farm . 449 Financial Review. 471
Political Record. 453 Agricultural Interests. .. 483
Swamp and Saline Lands
. .
515
The Press of Lucas County .. .... 518
Educational Progress.
... 526
School Statistics.
536
Religious Advancement
.... ..
..
538
The Temperance Cause. 540 War Record of Lucas County .. 542 Criminal History 562
Townships, Towns, etc .. 573 Benton Township. 574 Cedar Township. 576
Lagrange . 579 Chariton Township 580
Chariton.
580
English Township 604
Jackson Township. 606
Lucas ..
608
Cleveland. 611
Lincoln Township 615
Warren.
436
White Breast. 436
Liberty ... 336
Conclusion,
641
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CONTENTS.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
PAGE.
PAGE'
Benton township 650
Otter Creek Township 699
Cedar Township .. 653
Pleasant Township.
707
Chariton Township 656 Union Township 710
English Township 676
White Breast Township 715
Jackson Township.
683
Warren Township. 718
Liberty Township 592
Lincoln Township
696
PORTRAITS.
Col. W. S. Dungan . Opposite Title.
John W. Hamlin. · opposite 416
Joseph Mitchell. 227
N. W. Stover.
480
M. J. Burr .
261
Absolom Knotts .€ 528
D. D. Waynick
279
D. W. Williams 624
Lewis Bonnett.
. opposite 320
Washington township. 724
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION.
When the Northwestern Territory was ceded to the United States by Virginia in 1784, it embraced only the territory lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, and north to the northern limits of the United States. It coincided with the area now embraced in the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and that portion of Minnesota lying on the east side of the Mississippi River. The United States itself at that period extended no farther west than the Mississippi River ; but by the purchase of Louisiana in 1803, the western boundary of the United States was extended to the Rocky Mountains and the . Northern Pacific Ocean. The new territory thus added to the National domain, and subsequently opened to settlement, has been called the "New Northwest," in contradistinction from the old "Northwestern Territory."
·
.
In comparison with the old Northwest this is a territory of vast magnitude. It includes an area of 1,887,850 square miles ; being greater in extent than the united areas of all the Middle and Southern States, including Texas. Out of this magnificent territory have been erected eleven sovereign States and eight Territories, with an aggregate popula- tion, at the present time, of 13,000,000 inhabitants, or nearly one third of the entire population of the United States.
Its lakes are fresh-water seas, and the larger rivers of the continent flow for a thousand miles through its rich alluvial valleys and far- stretching prairies, more acres of which are arable and productive of the highest percentage of the cereals than of any other area of like extent on the globe.
For the last twenty years the increase of population in the North- west has been about as three to one in any other portion of the United States.
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
EARLY EXPLORATIONS.
In the year 1541, DeSoto first saw the Great West in the New World. He, however, penetrated no farther north than the 35th parallel of latitude. The expedition resulted in his death and that of more than half his army, the remainder of whom found their way to Cuba, thence to Spain, in a famished and demoralized condition. DeSoto founded no settlements, produced no results, and left no traces, unless it were that he awakened the hostility of the red man against the white man, and disheartened such as might desire to follow up the career of discovery for better purposes. The French nation were eager and ready to seize upon any news from this extensive domain, and were the first to profit by DeSoto's defeat. Yet it was more than a century before any adventurer took advantage of these discoveries.
In 1616, four years before the pilgrims "moored their bark on the wild New England shore," Le Caron, a French Franciscan, had pene- trated through the Iroquois and Wyandots (Hurons) to the streams which run into Lake Huron ; and in.1634, two Jesuit missionaries founded the first mission among the lake tribes. It was just one hundred years from the discovery of the Mississippi by DeSoto (1541) until the Canadian envoys met the savage nations of the Northwest at the Falls of St. Mary, below the outlet of Lake Superior. This visit led to no permanent result ; yet it was not until 1659 that any of the adventurous fur traders attempted to spend a Winter in the frozen wilds about the great lakes, nor was it until 1660 that a station was established upon their borders by Mesnard, who perished in the woods a few months after. In 1665, Claude Allouez built the earliest lasting habitation of the white man among the Indians of the Northwest. In 1668, Claude Dablon and James Marquette founded the mission of Sault Ste. Marie at the Falls of St. Mary, and two years afterward, Nicholas Perrot, as agent for M. Talon, Governor Gen- eral of Canada, explored Lake Illinois (Michigan) as far south as the present City of Chicago, and invited the Indian nations to meet him at a grand council at Sault Ste. Marie the following Spring, where they were taken under the protection of the king, and formal possession was taken of the Northwest. This same year Marquette established a mission at Point St. Ignatius, where was founded the old town of Michillimackinac.
During M. Talon's explorations and Marquette's residence at St. Ignatius, they learned of a great river away to the west, and fancied -as all others did then-that upon its fertile banks whole tribes of God's children resided, to whom the sound of the Gospel had never come. Filled with a wish to go and preach to them, and in compliance with a
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
request of M. Talon, who earnestly desired to extend the domain of his king, and to ascertain whether the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico or the Pacific Ocean, Marquette with Joliet, as commander of the expe- dition, prepared for the undertaking.
On the 13th of May, 1673, the explorers, accompanied by five assist- ant French Canadians, set out from Mackinaw on their daring voyage of discovery. The Indians, who gathered to witness their departure, were astonished at the boldness of the undertaking, and endeavored to dissuade them from their purpose by representing the tribes on the Mississippi as exceedingly savage and cruel, and the river itself as full of all sorts of frightful monsters ready to swallow them and their canoes together. But, nothing daunted by these terrific descriptions, Marquette told them he was willing not only to encounter all the perils of the unknown region they were about to explore, but to lay down his life in a cause in which the salvation of souls was involved ; and having prayed together they separated. Coasting along the northern shore of Lake Michigan, the adventurers entered Green Bay, and passed thence up the Fox River and Lake Winnebago to a village of the Miamis and Kickapoos. Here Mar- quette was delighted to find a beautiful cross planted in the middle of the town ornamented with white skins, red girdles and bows and arrows, which these good people had offered to the Great Manitou, or God, to thank him for the pity he had bestowed on them during the Winter in giving them an abundant "chase." This was the farthest outpost to which Dablon and Allouez had extended their missionary labors the year previous. Here Marquette drank mineral waters and was instructed in the secret of a root which cures the bite of the venomous rattlesnake. He assembled the chiefs and old men of the village, and, pointing to Joliet, said : " My friend is an envoy of France, to discover new coun- tries, and I am an ambassador from God to enlighten them with the truths of the Gospel." Two Miami guides were here furnished to conduct them to the Wisconsin River, and they set out from the Indian village on the 10th of June, amidst a great crowd of natives who had assembled to witness their departure into a region where no white man had ever yet ventured. The guides, having conducted them across the portage, returned. The explorers launched their canoes upon the Wisconsin, which they descended to the Mississippi and proceeded down its unknown waters. What emotions must have swelled their breasts as they struck out into the broadening current and became conscious that they were now upon the bosom of the Father of Waters. The mystery was about to be lifted from the long-sought river. The scenery in that locality is beautiful, and on that delightful seventeenth of June must have been clad in all its primeval loveliness as it had been adorned by the hand of
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
Nature. Drifting rapidly, it is said that the bold bluffs on either hand "reminded them of the castled shores of their own beautiful rivers of France." By-and-by, as they drifted along, great herds of buffalo appeared on the banks. On going to the heads of the valley they could see a country of the greatest beauty and fertility, apparently destitute of inhab- itants yet presenting the appearance of extensive manors, under the fas- tidious cultivation of lordly proprietors.
SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
On June 25, they went ashore and found some fresh traces of men upon the sand, and a path which led to the prairie. The men remained in the boat, and Marquette and Joliet followed the path till they discovered a village on the banks of a river, and two other villages on a hill, within a half league of the first, inhabited by Indians. They were received most hospitably by these natives, who had never before seen a white person. After remaining a few days they re-embarked and descended the river to about latitude 33°, where they found a village of the Arkansas, and being satisfied that the river flowed into the Gulf of Mexico, turned their course
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THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.
up the river, and ascending the stream to the mouth of the Illinois, rowed up that stream to its source, and procured guides from that point to the lakes. " Nowhere on this journey," says Marquette, "did we see such grounds, meadows, woods, stags, buffaloes, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beavers, as on the Illinois River." The party, without loss or injury, reached Green Bay in September, and reported their discovery-one of the most important of the age, but of which no record was preserved save Marquette's, Joliet losing his by the upsetting of his canoe on his way to Quebec. Afterward Marquette returned to the Illinois Indians by their request, and ministered to them until 1675. On the 18th of May, in that year, as he was passing the mouth of a stream-going with his boatmen up Lake Michigan-he asked to land at its mouth and celebrate Mass. Leaving his men with the canoe, he retired a short distance and began his devotions. As much time passed and he did not return, his men went in search of him, and found him upon his knees, dead. He had peacefully passed away while at prayer. He was buried at this spot. Charlevoix, who visited the place fifty years after, found the waters had retreated from the grave, leaving the beloved missionary to repose in peace. The river has since been called Marquette.
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