USA > Iowa > Monroe County > An illustrated history of Monroe County, Iowa > Part 12
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General Drake, of Centerville, proposed to build a road from Centerville north to Albia, and thus connect the Iowa Central with the M., I. & N., a road of which he was then president, and which belonged to the Wabash System. He assured the people of Monroe County that the road would be extended on to Des Moines in a year or more from the date of its completion to Albia, if Monroe County would vote a tax for its construction. This tax was to amount to the sum of $20,000; and about $6,000 additional was subscribed to buy the right of way. The tax of $20,000 was levied in Mon- roe and Troy townships, the people voted to be thus taxed, and the road was built.
To forestall the scheme of the Wabash folks, the C., B. & Q. constructed a spur from Albia to Moravia. They in- tended to push the road to Centerville, and to some point farther south; but when the Wabash people completed the Centerville, Moravia & Albia Railway, the "Q." abandoned the scheme and permitted their spur to terminate at Moravia. This spur was to have been a continuation of the Albia. Knoxville & Des Moines spur, just completed.
The contract for building the C., M. & A. Railroad was let to Kennedy & Flemming, and work began in March, 1880.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
On beginning their work, Kennedy & Flemming mortgaged the road-bed to the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, of New York, to secure a loan of $400,000. These contractors failed in 1880, with liabilities amounting to $12,000. Center- ville people held most of the claims against the construction company. The C., M. & A. Company was liable to the con- struction company to the extent of its indebtedness, in the sum of four or five thousand dollars. Kennedy refused to pay his laborers, with the excuse that the measurements were incorrect. General Drake proposed that a re-measure- ment be made, and that Kennedy accompany the engineer. This was agreed to, but that night Kennedy & Company skipped for parts unknown. Many of Kennedy's creditors were Monroe County farmers living along the route, who had performed labor and supplied provisions to the con- struction company. It is also asserted that some of these farmers made an arrangement with Kennedy & Company to perform labor in payment of the tax which they voted to the aid of the C., M. & A. Company, and that no credit was en- tered in their favor when the tax was collected.
The M., I. & N. began running trains into Albia in Au- gust. 1880, but for several years since its completion it did not flourish. For several years it has only been operated be- tween Albia and Centerville, having abandoned its track between Albia and Harvey, its junctional point on the Wabash. The road at present is operated in conjunction with the Central, and, in addition to a good freight traffic, is giving the public good passenger service, with two trains each way daily. Its length in Monroe County is 11 miles, and its assessed valuation per mile, in 1896, was $2,000, or the total value of the road within Monroe County was fixed at $22,000. General Drake is president of the road, and Russell Sage, of New York, is vice-president. Sage is president of the Iowa Central also.
The Chicago, Burlington & Quincy spur from Albia to Moravia, herein referred to as being abandoned, ceased to operate its line, a few years after its completion, and it is doubtful if the road will ever be rehabilitated. For this reason it and the defunct Wabash are not shown on the map. It was originally known as the Moulton & Albia Railway, and its length from Albia to Moravia is 14 miles. In 1896 its assessed valuation per mile was $500. At present the road- bed has reverted to the original property-holders, over whose lands the line lay.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
The abandoned Wabash track between Albia and Har- vey, which is known in the railway directory as the Wabash, Des Moines & St. Louis Railway, has 11 miles of track in Monroe County, and its assessed valuation per mile is $2,500. Its title has not yet lapsed by failure of the company to oper- ate the line within the time fixed by law.
The Kansas City Division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway traverses the southern portion of Monroe County from east to west. It has 10 miles of track within the county, which in 1896 was assessed at a valuation of $4,000 per mile. It passes within 9 miles of Albia, and at Moravia it has transfer facilities with the C., M. & A. Rail- way. It was built in the summer of 1886, and has a large coal-carrying trade, besides good passenger traffic.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
CHAPTER VIII.
The Press.
The church, the school-house, and the local press may be justly termed the "holy trinity" under whose watchful eye civilization is gradually lifted to a higher plane. While they are of equal potency as civilizing agents, it is indeed strange that the country newspapers should not be maintained by the public, the same as the public school system. Instead of these twin offspring sharing the same patrimony, the press, like Ishmael, is an outcast from the parental bosom.
While the country publisher should be, and invariably is, the best and smartest man in the community, he is per- mitted to exist merely through sufferance. Nobody loves him, and yet through his paper he is expected to love every- body. He is not regarded as a fellow-creature, liable to error, or to the periodical demand for alimentary sustenance. He must be "without spot or wrinkle" in the eyes of the ex- acting public. He is not an individual, but an "institution." His real worth is never realized until his form is locked in the chaste form of death. Then his funeral is celebrated with great festivity and pomp. The funeral procession is as long as that of the wealthiest citizen in the village. His rival publisher writes a lengthy obituary notice, extolling his many virtues, praising his worth as a citizen, father, husband, and friend, and winds up with a peroration to the effect that the loss to the community, of the late lamented, is one which time cannot fully repair. To publish even a coun- try newspaper requires a high degree of talent, which in any other public channel would command a handsome salary, but the unappreciative public is insensible of the sacrifice.
The first paper established in Monroe County was called the Albia Independent Press. It was edited and published by A. C. Barnes, the father of the present proprietor of the Albia Union. The paper, which first made its appearance October 10, 1854, was independent in its political views, as it so stated. Yet it now and then exhibited a decided leaning towards the new Abolitionist party, which had not yet be- gun to gather to itself much popularity. In the issue of the Independent Press of September 26, 1855, the publisher has this to say of slavery:
1
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"We have never deemed it our calling or duty to say much about slavery, though we have ever regarded it as an unavoidable evil to both master and slave, in the original slave States. But if slavery had not been extended and was not now being extended over the limits where it was when the Union was formed, we would probably scarcely ever speak or think of it, and we have hoped long since that its agita- tion would cease. When it had nearly ceased, after the pas- sage of the fugitive slave act, the patriots who had abhorred some features of that act had smothered their feelings of opposition and were quiet. Soon again pro-slavery men opened afresh the agitation by their efforts to extend the area of slavery. We did not object to the slave-owner with a posse from a slave State taking the fugitive slave back, but we do object to being made a party to assist him by com- pulsory laws, and then again a party to assist in procuring new slave territory, and not allowed to desist nor not al- lowed to say one word on pain of being called an abolition- ist, and charged with endangering the Union. Nor will we consent to being gagged on any account. We would check fanaticism on the subject of slavery as we would on every other subject, and still preserve and defend the liberty of speech and the rights of conscience."
In the same issue were the minutes of the Agricultural Society. Jas. B. Turner, E. P. Cone, and John Phillips were the committee to award premiums on ox-bows made within the county; Robt. Saunders, E. M. Moore, and Jas. B. Turner were the committee on jacks and mules; and Wmn. Robinson, Hillah Hayes, and Andrew Trussell the committee on stal- lions and brood-mares.
There was also a paragraph giving a statement of the electoral vote for President in the approaching election of 1856. The fifteen Southern States showed 120 votes, and the Northern States 176 votes in the electoral college.
The Press hoisted the standard of Fremont and Dayton, notwithstanding its former non-partisan professions, and in the November election the county gave Frémont 622 votes and Buchanan 603.
In another issue is given the schedule rates for hauling, as fixed by the Teamsters' Association of Albia, as follows:
$1.50
River hauling, per hundred.
3.00
Hauling by the day.
Hauling by the load, in town .30
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
Hauling from Phelps' mill. $0.75
Hauling from Babbs' mill .. .50
Hanling from Easley's mill. 2.50
Hauling from Soap Creek mill 3.00
Hauling from Bremen mill. 2.50 Hauling from Blakesburg mill. 3.00
Hauling lime from Judson's. 2.75
Another interesting communication to the Press of July 2, 1856, is the report of the Democratic convention of Urbana Township. Following is the report, rerbatim:
"The meeting was organized by calling Lewis Arnold to the chair, and R. B. Arnold acted as secretary. Our able and indefatigable prosecuting attorney, T. B. Perry, being present, addressed the meeting in defense of Democratic principles. He spoke warmly. of the action of the Democracy at Cincinnati, and congratulated the Democratic party upon the nomination of such men as Buchanan and Breekinridge. His remarks were duly appreciated by all present.
"On motion, 15 delegates were appointed to attend the convention at Albia; viz., George Reading. M. S. McAlister, G. R. Halliday, C. O. Vancleve, Doster Noland, R. K. Stoops, Jas. Goodman, W. T. Barnhill, Nimrod Martin, JJas. Meintyre, Joseph Caldwell, John Hawk, Levi Herod, and Wm. Dale.
"Ordered, that where delegates fail to attend, any dele- gate of the township may act as a substitute, or the delegates present to cast the full vote.
"On motion of Geo. R. Robinson, Esq., a committee of five were appointed to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting. The chair appointed Geo. R. Robinson, John Hawk, W. P. Wilson, R. B. Arnold, and Fountain Ken- nedy said committee.
"The committee reported the resolutions as appended, which were unanimously adopted.
"Resolred. That the proceedings of this meeting be pub- lished in the Keokuk Weekly Times and the Albia Independent Press.
"Whereas, The present political excitement and the threatened dismemberment of our glorious confederacy de- mand of every friend of constitutional liberty an open and outspoken expression of sentiments, expressive of the in- terest felt in the perpetuation and extension of our incompar- able institutions, and thoroughly convinced as we are, and ever have been, of the truth and justice of the Democratic canse-cherishing, as we have ever done, an unwavering faith
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
in the honesty, integrity, and intelligence of the American people-we have never entertained a doubt of the final triumph and ultimate success of the principles of that party.
"Resolved, That we cordially endorse the action of the Democratic national convention at Cincinnati-that we will give 'a pull, a long pull, and a pull all together' for the nomi- nees of that convention.
"Resolved, That in the persons of Jas. Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, we have statesmen of the highest order, tried and experienced in home and foreign policy. gentlemen whose character cannot be reached by the foul shafts of abolition calumny.
"Resolved, That we deprecate all attempts to agitate the slavery question or any other sectional issue which tends to alienate the affections of the people, and draw one section of the people against the other.
"Resolved, That we approve most heartily the course of our talented and energetic representatives in Congress, Messrs. Jones and Hall, for so nobly sustaining Democratic principles and securing to Iowa the grant of land to aid the construction of her railroads; and we feel a sense of humilia- tion at the conduct, speeches, and sentiments of Messrs. Har- lan and company-exponents alike of the principle of 'Sam' and 'Sambo.'
"Resolved, That we duly appreciate the motives of the patriotic Clay and Webster Whigs, who, like Preston and Marshall of Kentucky, Toombs and Stephens of Georgia, and Benjamin of Louisiana, and others, have joined the Democ- racy and are battling for those principles on which the fathers of the Republic based our social fabric.
"Resolred, That we have no feeling of respect for those who affiliate with that class of politicians who recognize a 'higher law' and who recommend as a code of morals, 'Sharp's rifles and the resistance of law unto a bloody issue.'
"Resolved, That we abide by the decision of the Albia convention to be holden on the 5th of July, and hereby pledge a hearty support to the nominees. Our motto is. 'Principles, not Men.' In the language of Buchanan, 'Mon arc but the creatures of a day. Principles are eternal.'
"The meeting adjourned, cherishing the belief that the country and State would give handsome majorities for the Democracy in August and November.
"Lewis Arnold, Chairman. R. B. Arnold, Secretary.
"Avery, Monroe Co., June 28, 1856."
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
The Independent Press then refutes a prevalent rumor that John C. Frémont is a slave-owner, by publishing some correspondence between Daniel F. Miller, the Whig member of Congress from the First District, of which Monroe County was then a part, and Horace Greeley. Miller writes to Greeley stating that the Democrats were making the charge that Frémont owned twenty-three slaves held in servitude in the South. He requests Greeley to ascertain from Frémont whether the charge is true or not; and Greeley replies in part as follows:
"Well, Friend Miller,-What would you have us do in the premises? The report is false-an inexcusable, un- mitigated lie-we have authority for so reporting it. *
"Col. Frémont is not a slave-holder; but suppose he were-what of it? Do not you and I recognize the right to hold slaves in slave States? Have we not repeatedly voted for slave-holders whom we knew to be right on the great issues at stake? Is it not quite likely that we may do so again? Read the letter of Adam Beatty published in your last, and say whether you would not far sooner support him for President, avowed slave-holder as he is, than any 'Dough-face' in America? Would you not rather vote for Breckinridge than for Buchanan? But suppose you run this particular lie into the ground, you will have accomplished nothing, while the spirit which prompted its fabrication remains in existence. Next day you will be told that Frémont is a Catholic; and, though this is as false as the other, it will be easy for Hookem Snivey to assert that Peter Snooks told him that he heard Frémont tell him he was a Roman Catholic, or saw him attending mass, or something to that effect. Will you waste a week running down this lie also, and then where are you?"
Among the display "ads" is one which reads:
"Beef Hides Wanted .- I will pay the highest price for any dry and green hides delivered to my shop on the south side of the Square, Albia. P. Morgan."
Morgan afterwards located in Des Moines, and built the Morgan Hotel, for a long time the largest hotel in the cit.v.
Mr. Barnes, the publisher, was a most exemplary and pious gentleman, and had such a particular abhorrence to profanity that he states in a paragraph that it shocks him to hear boys swearing while playing on the streets. He
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
concludes the paragraph by stating that it had been inti- mated to him that his own boys were beginning to swear. He assures the public that if there is any truth in the rumor, he will be sincerely thankful for being informed of it, and that he will not be offended. Evidently his friends were a little derelict in reporting any appearing tendencies towards juvenile profanity in the case of little Alpheus, or, at least, it would appear that the proper corrective had not been interposed soon enough.
Mr. Barnes, in the issue of the Press of October 17, 1855, administers a little fatherly advice to T. B. Perry touching the evil of the young attorney's ways. He reproves him on two counts: one was for Mr. Perry's presumption in aspiring to the county judgeship, and the other was for procuring whisky "at the doggery kept near Bremen, with which to promote his interests in the campaign just prior to the August election." The kind-hearted editor states that Mr. Perry is still a young man, and that the opportunity is still open for him to live down his youthful errors. He pardons his offense, but expresses the fear that the young man is on the downward road. This thrust had been provoked by Mr. Perry having alluded to Mr. Barnes as a "Know-Nothing" in a speech at a big Democratic rally at Albia.
Mr. Barnes conducted the Press until the 17th of June, 1857, when it suspended.
The Weekly Albia Republican made its appearance November 5, 1857, under the management of W. W. Barnes, a son of the pioneer journalist and a senior brother of A. R. Barnes, the present proprietor of the Albia Union, and C. E. Topping. After running four months, Topping went to Michigan to visit his relatives and obtain funds to pay for his interest in the paper. He never returned; and Stephen R. Barnes bought the interest of his brother W. W., and published the sheet until 1859, when he sold the paper to Josiah T. Young and T. B. Gray. Young called the paper the Monroe County Sentinel.
The Republican was uncompromising in its opposition to the extension of human slavery. It made vehement assaults on Buchanan and his tardiness or inaction with regard to checking the rapidly advancing crisis of 1860-61. In one issue the publisher calls upon Congress to impeach Buchanan.
The Sentinel, under the management of Messrs. Young
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
and Gray, was Democratic in politics. Mr. Young at that time was a staunch supporter of Stephen A. Douglas.
The Sentinel, in criticising Governor Kirkwood's in- angural address, makes some disparaging comments on the Governor's recommendation that a memorial be presented to Congress praying for the enactment of a homestead law.
The editor of the Sentinel "touches up" his contemporary, the publisher of the Blade, and a Republican, by the caustic accusation that the latter openly and unblushingly de- nounces the fugitive slave law, and holds that a citizen of the North is under no moral or legal obligation to report or intercept runaway negroes from the South. In speaking further of this startling propaganda, the Sentinel man tells his readers that it is whispered that there are several men in Monroe County who entertain similar views.
In the issue of the Sentinel of December S, 1860, Eli De Tar gushes forth in a poetic strain. The poem is entitled "Montgomery Taken at Last." At the end of the poem the poet somewhat mars the rapture of the song by a sordid allusion to himself and the "Big Briek":
"Remember the place in the Big Brick,
Where I'll sell cheap for cash,
But never on tick!"
In the Sentinel of May 25, 1861, is a leading editorial, called forth by threats of mobbing the Sentinel office. The publisher protests his loyalty to the Union, and points out the grave consequences liable to ensue in case the Sentinel office or its publishers should be molested by a mob. Mr. Young by this time had retired from the paper as editor, although he still owned it.
In another issue is published the proceedings of the Urbana Township Democracy in a meeting assembled to discuss the war question. The sense of the meeting was that the only feasible plan of settling the momentous question was by peaceful diplomacy; civil war was unjusti- fiable and inimical to constitutional liberty as established by our forefathers, etc. While the position taken by the Democracy of Urbana Township at the time may have been located on the extreme limit of the border line between pro- and anti-slavery, their publie meetings and utterances do not indicate an approval or indorsement of the secession movement then assuming form in the Southern States. They
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
did not believe it was right for the South to withdraw from the Union, and at the same time they felt that it was usur- pation of power for the North to hold the South in bonds of union against its wishes. In short, the Democratic party of 1860-61 persisted in their entreaties to persuade the South to stay in, if possible; but if not, then the Lincoln adminis- tration at Washington should not hinder their withdrawal by force of arms.
Later on, the sentiments of the publishers of the Sentinel (J. T. Young and J. H. Denslow, the latter having taken Mr. Gray's place) seem to gradually modify in behalf of the expedient of suppressing the Rebellion by force of arms. In the issue of the Sentinel of September 28, 1861, the paper says, in an editorial :
"It is necessary to fight for the country, and the hotter the war the sooner peace. We have been, and are yet, in favor of using all proper means for the restoration of the Union and preservation of all our rights under the Consti- tution, but would much rather that we could get along with- out a bloody war. But the fortunes of war are upon us, and fight we must!"
The Sentinel, however, in commenting on a prevalent rumor that the President and Cabinet had taken under advisement the question of acknowledging the Southern Confederacy, makes this remark: "Under existing circum- stances, this is the best thing the new Administration can do towards settling our difficulties peaceably."
The columns of the Sentinel from 1860 to 1861 are largely taken up with reports of meetings called to discuss the war topic. They are termed "Union meetings," and were participated in by men of all parties. Fort Sumter had been fired upon. Most of those in the North who had hitherto hoped for a peaceful adjustment of the dispute, and who had bitterly censured the President and his Cabinet, now united on common grounds with those who had espoused the cause of the North from the start. At one of these meetings, April 27, 1861, the following resolutions were adopted :
"Resolved, That it becomes all good and loyal citizens to stand by the stars and stripes and defend our glorious Union against internal rebellion or other invasion.
"Resolved, That any man in our midst who in any way
.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
encourages or supports secession or rebellion, or gives aid and comfort thereto, is a traitor and should be dealt with as such.
"T. B. Perry. "T. B. Gray."
HON. JOSIAH T. YOUNG, EX-SECRETARY OF STATE OF IOWA.
It was during Mr. Young's connection with the Sentinel that an editorial appeared in its columns assuring Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, whose State had lately adopted
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
a secession ordinance, that if the North attempted to apply coercive measures towards the Southern States threatening secession, a fire in the rear would roll up from the North to harass the invading Northern army on its march down to the scene of conflict. This utterance became known as his "fire-in-the-rear speech," and in later years, when his political views had become completely changed by his ex- perience and observation as a Union soldier, the allusion to the expression bore with it a touch of humor.
This "fire-in-the-rear" utterance is commonly con- founded with a letter which he wrote to Governor Pickens, of South Carolina, at about the time that State was deliberating on the question of going out of the Union; but, as will be seen from a perusal of the letter itself, 110 such expression occurs.
Mr. Young was a Democrat, and the tenor of his letter to Governor Pickens was not unlike that of hundreds of other Democrats within the county at that time.
Not long after, Mr. Young enlisted in the Union army; he made a good soldier, and endured the hardships of a squalid prison-pen at Tyler, Texas. Whatever may have been his position at one time concerning the issues of the war, there was no ampler testimony of a citizen's loyalty and devotion to the cause of human liberty than that shown by the Union soldier who carried his musket at his side by day and slept upon it by night.
The following is Mr. Young's letter to Governor Pickens, copied verbatim :
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