USA > Iowa > Cedar County > A topical history of Cedar County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 44
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Mr. McFadden's house was torn to pieces, Mr. Frink's moved several feet from its foundations and his stock destroyed. Horses and cattle were tossed about and instantly killed in many instances.
The storm seemed to be general for at this same time a second appeared in the eastern part of the county. The house of James Reeve's was here blown down. Mr. Gay's barn was destroyed, numerous farm buildings were picked up and material carried for miles before being deposited. Mr. Blazer's house was carried a hundred feet and then totally wrecked. At the time there were eight persons in it and all were more or less injured.
East of Onion Grove-Clarence-the storm was more terrific than here. The town of Comanche, further east in the state, was entirely destroyed. About one hundred lost their lives in this neighborhood. (For a full account of the Comanche hurricane see the History of Iowa by Gov. B. F. Gue.)
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Many eye witnesses have written and told of this storm. Their accounts written or told at the time are very vivid and indicate the terrible scenes of the day following and the sorrowful events brought about by the destructive tornado here and elsewhere in the year 1860.
One says: "A cloud, most singular in appearance hung over the town and community. The earth, so far as the eye could reach, seemed cloaked in a peculiar green, while the cloud overhead was writhing and twisting and was lashed into fury by some invisible force. There was a general stampede for the doors to fasten and, if possible, keep them fastened. Every house seemed rock- ing to its very foundation and trembled as if an earthquake was beneath us. The wind was but of brief duration-scarcely ten minutes in all. They were minutes of suspense-and they seemed ages to those waiting. On going to my south window I found my stable a complete ruin. The dwelling house of Mr. Kenlon of Onion Grove was knocked off its 'pins.' (Houses were built with no founda- tion and set up off the ground on short blocks sawed from a log and these are the 'pins' referred to here .- Ed.) The lumber yard of Mcclellan & Co. was- a scene of confusion, the boards flying in every direction, and the large new wood house of the railroad company (C. & N. W. now) was 'caved in.' Shortly after I was called to the country and at almost every step I was retarded in my journey by fallen trees. I cannot stop to tell of the loss of property-it is too great to describe-but the wounded humanity must be first accounted for.
"I stopped at Fred Piper's, on the south line of Jones County. Here I found his two daughters, the oldest and the youngest of the family, dead; him- self, wife and two other children all injured. I met Drs. Younkers and Stone. They reported a little child of Elisha Miller's dead. Dr. Mershaun reported Mrs. William Allen and whole family of three children dead and Mr. Allen in a dying condition. John Niles, a young man passing at the time, stopped for shelter, and he, too, was in a dangerous condition."317
From another eye witness at Mechanicsville: "The tragedy of last Sunday night is not one of merely local interest but one that will be a fruitful topic of conversation in every state in the Union. The oldest inhabitant does not recollect of ever having seen or read of any storm so fearfully destructive of life and property.
"Towns and villages that were the homes of happy people on that Sunday morning are now by that storm alone 'numbered with the things that were.'
"A little boy in the Burger settlement was seized by the whirl, and as he was passing up caught the top of a large tree. Another blast brought the tree to the ground and the little fellow along. He was almost covered with leaves and rubbish and yet was able to extricate himself and reach shelter.
"A man was found south of Mount Vernon who until Thursday had not been recognized, and the belief was current that he came from across the river. 'Squire Saums, who lives at Inland Grove, some five miles north of this place, says that when the storm was at its very worst his wife and daughters told him twice that they distinctly heard some persons screaming and he now believes it was some person passing in the whirl who had been picked up from the earth by its violence. This could not be impossible since huge timbers were picked up and carried for miles."
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The prosperous neighborhoods untouched by this dreadful calamity very promptly sent aid to the injured and endeavored in many ways to comfort the sorrowing, but not all the burden could be removed in one short season. The entire family of Mr. Allen at Onion Grove were buried at one time: A solemn procession of citizens followed them to the cemetery, and among them all not a single relative to mourn since none lived in the state and messages and trans- portation were not as now, when one can cross the continent in time to bury his dead. All these were laid side by side in the same grave-the father, the mother, the three children, according to their respective ages. This was a sight the silent gathering of people will always remember.
Mr. Piper, who was so badly injured, told of his experiences in the following language : His first efforts were given to keeping the door closed, but failing in this he went "rolling and tumbling like a wagon wheel," after his log house was blown away. His wife, as soon as able for the storm, went in search of her family. 'As mentioned before, two of them were killed, and the others she found and carried them all, including her injured husband, into a shelter of an unin- jured portion of the barn.
During this storm all who were fortunate enough to reach a cellar were uninjured. In later years "storm caves" have been provided by many families in districts accustomed to experiences of the tornado kind.
The amount of stock killed and the peculiar ways of slaughter are almost beyond belief, but are vouched for by people of the time. All animal life in the path of the storm was subjected to vast injury-even the smaller rodents that one supposes safe in the earth whenever exposed suffered death.
This storm was so extensive that reports came from it across Lake Michigan and one report gives it as four hundred and fifty miles in extent from Fort Dodge, Iowa, to the northeastern corner of Ottawa County, Michigan. In counties lying west of Cedar much damage was reported and on Lake Michigan a schooner was wrecked by it.318
A severe storm struck Cedar County in April, 1883, coming from the south- west making its first appearance here in Iowa township. Opinions seem to agree that two clouds met at the farm of Mr. Woolley, a half mile east and two miles south of Springdale. Damage was mild here, but at Jason Negus' it took out- buildings and fences clear.
Samuel Mather's large barn was left a complete wreck, with five horses buried under the ruins of the barn on which was left thirty tons of hay which had to be cut away to rescue the animals. One valuable animal was found crushed to death in the ruins. A couple riding along the road were caught by the wind and thrown out of the carriage.
The barn of John Leonard was torn from its foundation and his horses im- prisoned. James Phelps met with the greatest misfortune. Both his house and barn were destroyed. The house was made of cement and was crushed out of shape, one wall bending in and the other bending out, while partitions and floors were torn apart and windows and doors removed. This was the old "Maxson place," where the family all ran into a cave thirty-eight years before to save their lives from a tornado which crossed almost at right angles to this one. One may
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see the effects of this storm in the forties on the "old stone house," where it has been secured by iron rods, if he chooses to pay it a visit.
During this storm of '83 Mrs. Willard Maxson ran into a hen house for shelter when the building was caught up and tumbled over and over, injuring her badly.
Large timbers were carried through the air and thrust into the ground with force enough to fix them there. Like all storms of this kind, it was intermittent and left certain sections unharmed, appearing again six miles farther on toward Center township where it was last heard from. This storm passed west of Tipton over the Aldrich farm, doing some damage there. At the old Lee farm the wind- mill tower was torn from its foundation and driven through the barn roof. There was no loss of human life, yet the people of the neighborhood of Springdale as- sembled and made arrangements to assist those who had been unfortunate.319
The Presbyterian church, Tipton, was once damaged severely by lightning. In September, 1888, the Rev. Mr. Townsend going to the north window of the parsonage saw that the church, a short distance away, was on fire. This was about four o'clock in the morning and a startling thunder clap had awakened the entire town. The pastor summoned Mr. Piatt across the street and these two succeeded in putting the fire out. Not until morning could the entire damage be determined. The church then was surmounted by a square tower, and a spire some thirty-five feet in height above this had been struck by the bolt and it had torn the covering entirely off, leaving the bare scantling of the framework. The windows of the tower were blown out as if a mine had exploded within. The plastering on the arch of the church when it broke through was thrown across the building to the opposite side shattering the window. The metal about the panes of glass was melted, the casings torn off and the sash left hanging by the weight cords. Where the electricity struck the ground it penetrated to unknown depths and the ground was plowed up like a furrow. The building had been in- sured the day previous to this lightning stroke.
July 4, 1876, was a great day in Cedar County. One of the largest crowds in history assembled at the county seat to honor the anniversary. Only one dread- ful accident marred the occasion.
The word went over the crowd that "two men had been shot to pieces." A great stampede at once took place in the direction of the accident. The salute was being fired on the slope just south of the Presbyterian church, when a pre- mature discharge of the cannon occurred. Frank Clark had his left arm torn away and his right hand so injured that amputation of part of it was necessary. Captain Sanford was burned and his right hand badly lacerated.
Eight miles southeast of Tipton, on the Muscatine road, in the home of Gilbert Johnston, who emigrated from the south part of Scotland to this county in 1840, stands an old time-piece that Mr. Johnston thinks may be two hundred or more years old. It is doubtless the oldest clock in the county, and maybe in the state. It was an old clock when Mr. Johnston's grandfather purchased it, when a young man in the south part of Scotland, and with his young bride moved into his new home, where for sixty years it struck off the fleeting hours. It came to Gilbert Johnston as a legacy at his grandfather's death, crossed the ocean with him when he was a youth of eighteen, and has been in his possession for sixty years, since 1840 articulating time in Cedar County.
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When Mr. Johnston brought the clock to America it was enclosed in a heavy oaken case, deeply carved. Twenty years ago this case had become a mere shell through the ravages of worms and the dry decay of sheer old age, and had to be replaced by the carpenter with another that, like the former, "was taller by half than the old man himself, though it weighed not a pennyweight more." They key, though a veritable windlass in size and made of solid steel, was also worn out and had to be replaced by another twenty years ago, as were also the cords. Other than this and cleaning and oiling, it has had no repairs.
The very substantial works are of steel and brass and look good for two hun- dred years more. It has a brass dial plate, with the numerals expressed by Roman letters, and outside of this circle the minutes of the hour expressed in Arabian figures. It has also a second hand, tells the day of the week, and has a resonant brass bell which sounds the hours with a voice a modern clock might envy for clearness. By touching a spring it may be made to strike at any time, but always, when so invited to speak, repeats the notes of the preceding hour ; never till the proper times arrives will it strike the succeeding hour. For, like George Washington, it "cannot tell a lie."
On the lower part of the dial plate, in English script, in a hand an American schoolboy might covet, is inscribed, "Will Wilson, Kendal;" thus revealing its English origin. Kendal is an English town on the frontier near Scotland, where the old clock, then young, rang its sweet bell many years before George Wash- ington was born or Rip Van Winkle took his little nap. Still in Mr. Johnston's home it stands and keeps excellent time. With a feeling of awe we heard its bell sound the hours as it did. when the Mayflower's trip was yet fresh in the minds of the people, and we wondered if this old clock would not still be in some- body's sitting room ringing out the hours of the millenium morn.320
The old iron cannon that did duty for many years on Memorial Day and July 4 was finally disposed of in a last explosion on July 4, 1897. The old gun was a relic of the Mexican War and at one time came from some old battlefield. "Tinner" Hammond brought it to the court square some time in the sixties and on each succeeding Fourth of July it spoke its Independence.
It was the premature discharge of this gun that cost Frank Clark an arm and crippled a hand for Captain Sanford. At another time some boys with more zeal than good judgment loaded it to the muzzle for noise, which they got and also a big bill of expenses for broken windows in the vicinity.
Then it was that those in authority ordered the gun out of town. By some means it was taken to Wald and later discovered, as all things forbidden are, and on a second occasion it was loaded for the usual early noise on an insane Fourth of July. Now it lost its voice forever, since it was blown into a thou- sand fragments and they have not all been found yet. One piece cut off a tele- phone pole; another went through Mrs. Campbell's woodshed. The gun was fired in the Monument Park, but no one was hurt.
That genius may work out means to satisfy the needs of men in emergencies is well illustrated by the home-made mill, if the expression may be allowed, con- structed by Mr. Brisbane, an early settler of Springdale township. He had long had his mind fixed on the water power of the little stream-Wapsinonoc. By means of a crude dam built of brush and logs and a hollowed log for the sluice-
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way he led the flowing stream to his water wheel, made of two cross pieces pass- ing through a pole which served as the main shaft, and for a rim another pole flattened on two sides and bent around the ends of the cross pieces. In this circular pole were bored a number of holes and two-inch uprights about two feet long placed, to which were attached wings eighteen inches long, formed of boards and furnishing a large surface for the flow of water to strike as it came on its way from the dam above.
The shaft to which these fans were attached was placed between two trees for support and extended beyond the tree for some distance. To this was at- tached a pulley connected with a shaft that carried power to an old cast iron mill costing about fifty dollars-the kind that were formerly run by horse power, and if used now by a gasoline engine. This mill ground eight bushels in twenty- four hours and ran night and day. While its owner slept it toiled on under his arrangements to keep corn in the hopper all the time.
In 1870 the silver excitement at Rochester was matched by another sensation in the "iron ore" found in Shearer and Gray's quarry near the "old stone mill." By those of experience in such things, including Mr. Geo. Schmucker, it was pronounced ore of a fine quality and specimens were shown that bore out his assertion. It was found in a clay rift in the sandstone in this quarry.
In 1871 considerable excitement was aroused by the activity of the silver interests at Rochester and vicinity. One item of the time reads very much like a rich find: "Rochester is noted for its silver mines. We were informed by one of the mining companies that a man had been sent for a crusher and it would be ready for operation by April I. (This was in September, 1871.) Mr. C. informs us that there is no doubt of its paying. One ton of the quartz sent to Chicago contained twenty dollars in gold and sixty dollars in silver. A speci- men of the quartz was taken from the farm of Mr. John Russel, twenty-seven feet under ground. An old California miner states that it bids fair to be as rich as the California mines.
The time of the commissioners during the ten years from forty to fifty was taken up in great measure in hearing and acting on petitions for roads in the county and providing for its government. It is a gradual development of the division of labor in matters of county affairs. At first a number of duties fell to one officer that now are found in different departments. Details of affairs came before the board of commissioners that would be settled now by the officer in charge. The rapid settlement of the county in the years from forty up made roads imperative and this is evident upon the records. Other matters of cross- ing streams, caring for the rights of property, and securing funds to run the government were in evidence at every session.
To illustrate: To help clear the county of wolves a bounty of one dollar per scalp is offered if the person claiming it can furnish six at one time. License to run anything seemed necessary. Grocery stores must pay, ferries must secure the right to obstruct a stream and then the county fixed the rates. A license was issued in 1845 to John Culberston to sell liquor, for the amount of thirty dollars for the year. A petition was presented later on, 1849, by the citizens of Tipton and vicinity, fifty-four names attached, praying that the board would not issue any
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liquor license. This was laid on the table and so far as any record goes was never taken off.
A great many of the residents of the county during the gold fever in Cali- fornia thought that there was more in the yellow metal than in Iowa farms and made the long journey across the plains and home the same way or by way of the Isthmus or Nicaragua and then concluded to dig the gold from the soil of the home county. Some thrilling tales are told by these adventures, and they are doubtless true, yet one is led to wonder how they ever lived to return to the home they left. Some years ago one veteran of the '49 campaign asked for a re- union of these men, but history does not state that he succeeded in getting his friends together. Among these men we find the names of Munroe Adams, the four Walters Brothers, Blalock, Diltz, Wm. Knott, Basil Wiggins, who walked across Nicaragua, Montgomery Fraseur, and J. M. Adams with probably many others who have been forgotten.
There was a teacher of geography in the early days who went about teaching that new subject, then, by means of rhymes set to music. On one of these occa- sions in 1860 he was assaulted on the road by some unknown party. He attributed the assault to his open support of the anti-slavery movement when in the society of the opposite faith, or, as he said, to his attempting to teach singing when he did not know a note. His name was W. B. Grinnell.
Some say that a soldier of the Revolutionary War is buried in the county and search has been made for some one who could locate the grave. Some who knew have long since died and the nearest that it can be ascertained now is that the grave was in the old cemetery where the remains must still lie since they were not removed to the Masonic cemetery when that was laid out, 1862. O. M. Cul- ver wrote of this some years ago and referred to the fact of his being buried with military honors by the military company of Colonel Henry Hardman, who hap- pened to be drilling his company when the burial took place in Tipton. If the remains of this old soldier are still resting in the northeastern part of the cor- poration, just southeast of the school building, it would be near enough to an exact location to secure the marking of the spot with a monument as has been done elsewhere. This burial occurred in 1844.
Sleeping in the Masonic cemetery are the bodies of several soldiers of the War of 1812. These names are Daniel Linn, Mustoe Chambers, Colonel Samuel Daniels and one whose christian name seems to be missing, Walters. In the Inland cemetery are two more, Jeremiah Argo and James Wharton. There may be others, but they are not found in the record.
Mormon Hollow seems to be unfamiliar to the men and women who live here today, and it is only by accident that its past history can be arrived at at all. If one should say "to take the road to Mormon Hollow," his instructions would not be very definite to most people.
The Masonic cemetery lies in the forks of the road leading to "Mormon Hollow and Miller's Mill," the south road is understood to go toward the camping ground of a party of Mormons who camped there, two miles southwest of Tipton, when Rochester was a metropolis. One Wright was the leader of the camp, and a Mr. Lynn, of Rochester, besides Dr. Whitlock, of doubtful reputation, were interested in the safety of the company.
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Away back in the youthful days of men now carrying on the business of the place there were a few mechanics who have been remembered in a special way. A few references now interesting as of historical value are taken from the "Forges of Tipton":
"For twenty-nine years when this article was written Mr. R. H. Adams had made music on his anvil. For six years he was the only blacksmith in the place. He often rose at two o'clock and forged ten shoes by daybreak and each day's work was planned for by his customers for two weeks in advance. He did the smithing for James Safley for all the years mentioned. His first job was for Wm. Knott and amounted to the sum of six cents. Perry Thompson, who died but recently, was a partner of Mr. Adams.
"Michael Cottrell wielded the hammer for many years, his specialty being the shoeing of horses. Four horses per day was his stint and when one figures the number for a year at that rate he is able to understand the steady industry of the shoer."
On more than one occasion the square where the public library now stands in the town of Tipton was the camping ground of wagon trains on their way to Pike's Peak in '59. The older residents tell of these numerous parties and of how often they came back over the same road sadder and wiser than when they went the other way.
Great herds of cattle sometimes came through the country, having been driven from the great feeding grounds in the southwest. On one occasion it is mentioned that four hundred head, three months from Texas, passed through the county.
(For the Muscatine Journal.)
"Tipton, Ia., August 7, 1849.
"Editor Journal :
"Our election passed off very quietly yesterday with the exception of some little excitement in the election of county commissioners. The Loco candidate was in favor of licensing doggeries and the Whig candidate was opposed to it. I regret to record the fact that with this issue before them the people of Cedar County elected a man by fifty votes or more who openly prates of the advantages a civilized community are to receive in the shape of revenue derived from these earthly hells and sinks of moral pollution. 'Old Billy,' the commissioner elect, says : 'Finally, I reckon, as how, as we had better give 'em license, and as how we may make that much for the county, I allow, as how, pre-haps, may-be so, I reckon so!' Go it, ye dogger-eyes!
"The Locos elected their whole county ticket, except recorder and treasurer, and surveyor. We have not heard the exact majorities from all the townships, but I suppose the Loco candidates for the Board of Public Works are consider- ably ahead. The voters of the county were not all out. Probably 100 less votes were polled than there are voters in the county.321 Yours, etc.
*******
(Iowa Democratic Enquirer, February 21, 1852.)
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COUNTY SEAT REMOVAL.
We were shown a caricature the other evening, representing an attempt at the removal of the county public buildings to Rochester from Tipton, in which some of the prominent characters of that county stand out in bold relief.
The picture represents the court house with a yoke of oxen hitched to it, their tongues lolling and they panting, "not from notoriety but from sheer exhaus- tion," in their endeavors to start the building. Ridgeway, their driver, is whip- ping, "hollering," and urging them on, while Green sits astride the cone of the house, cheering and telling them to go ahead and he'll secure the citizens against any or all taxation that may be imposed for the removal. Others were repre- sented with their shoulders to the wheel, pro and con, striving to their utmost to carry out the wishes of their leaders.
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