USA > Iowa > Monroe County > An illustrated history of Monroe County, Iowa > Part 16
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To the prompt and summary action of the Vigilance Committee is due the credit of exterminating one of the most daring hordes of outlaws that ever terrorized a civilized community. The members comprised the very best element in society, and in view of the tardiness and uncertainty of the civil power in punishing criminals, the action of the Vigil- ance Committee has always been approved by the public.
Some years prior to the episodes narrated in this chap- ter, Monroe and other southern border counties were over- run by a band of horse-thieves whose organization was more extensive than that of subsequent date. A chain of oper- ations extended from Indiana to Nebraska, and a complete record of their lawlessness is given in a little volume found in nearly every pioneer library, entitled "Bandits of the Prairie."
A detective named Bonny finally came in their midst. in the disguise of a counterfeiter. He gained their con- fidence. learned their secrets, and, like a sleuth-hound, tracked them one by one to their hiding-places and arrested them. But few of the band escaped the gallows. Monroe County was searcely organized at the time, and none of the gang were lynched on Monroe County soil. The Hodge brothers were hung in Van Buren County.
Shack Phipps was another member of the gang, and was a relative of the Long men. Phipps reformed, and settled on a farm in the western part of Towa. There is at least one other member of this notorious gang residing at present in Monroe County. He was a boy at the time, but was accused of being an accomplice. Whatever may have been his rela- tion to those bandits at one time, he has since lived down the stigma by a most exemplary life. He has since then held responsible offices of publie trust, and ever since the writer first knew him, many years ago. he has been held in uni- versal esteem.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
The murder of Chris McAlister, a farmer who lived near Blakesburg, in Wapello County, on the night of November 6, 1883, led to one of the most sensational lynch- ings ever recorded in the history of the State. For some months after the tragic event no clue could be discovered towards the apprehension of the murderer.
At length suspicion began to attach itself to Pleas Anderson, a married man of about forty years of age, who lived on a farm in Urbana Township.
Since the date of the murder, Anderson had made occasional remarks which appeared suspicious to his neigh- bors, and his strange actions on several occasions tended to strengthen the suspicions. £ Anderson already had an unenviable reputation as a pugilist, bully, and a ruffian in a general way. He had, at different times, been mixed up in several shooting scrapes, and was known throughout all the southern tier of counties of Iowa as a hard citizen. He and his brother William were finally arrested June 8, 1883, on a charge of complicity in the murder of McAlister, on an information sworn out by L. T. Stewart, of Blakesburg, based on circumstantial evidence.
They were lodged in the Ottumwa jail, and on examina- tion William was released, no evidence being shown to implicate him.
Pleas was examined before Justice Orr, of Ottumwa, and enough circumstantial evidence was drawn out in the examination to warrant the holding of the prisoner to await the action of the grand jury. He was indicted for murder in the first degree, at the next term of the District Court, and his attorneys secured for him a change of venue to Mahaska County.
Anderson was arraigned in court at Oskaloosa, Decem- ber 13, 1883, and indicted on the charge of murder in the first degree; and, after a long and tedious trial, lasting over a week, he was acquitted. There seemed to be a state of general disapprobation in consequence of the acquittal of Anderson, yet he returned to his home in Urbana Township. About this time his residence was consumed by fire, and he moved in with his father-in-law, Mr. Fielding Barnes, whose residence is about two miles southwest of Blakesburg.
Anderson, on his return, conducted himself rather in- solently, especially towards the witnesses who had testified against him in his late trial. On the night preceding the
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murder of MeAlister, he shot into the house of S. G. Finney, a neighbor. For this he was indicted by the grand jury of Monroe County at its fall term of 1883, but, after a long delay, he was tried and acquitted.
On Monday evening, December 29, 1884, five men resid- ing in Monroe County went to the residence of Fielding Barnes, who lives near Blakesburg, and where Pleas Ander- son and family were residing, Anderson being the son-in-law of Barnes. The men secreted themselves near the barn, and when Mr. Barnes and Anderson came to the barn to feed the stock for the evening, the men covered them with revolvers. Anderson was seized and driven to Blakesburg in a sled. From Blakesburg he was taken to the Prairie school-house, two miles east of Blakesburg, and while en route, the mob informed everybody that Anderson would be tried for the murder of McAlister.
About 9 o'clock p. m. the crowd, which had increased to one hundred or more people, was called to order by the leader of the Vigilance Committee, and a jury of eight persons was appointed to determine what punishment should be meted out to the prisoner. A short time after a verdict had been rendered convicting the prisoner of killing Mc- Alister, eight masked men suddenly filed into the room, disguised in old quilts and blankets. They marched in and surrounded Anderson, and one of them, picking up a rope which lay on the floor, and which contained a noose, placed it around his neck, and the prisoner was thus led out and loaded into a sled and driven to the locality where the murder was committed.
On arriving at MeAlister's place, a sled was driven under a large cottonwood-tree and the rope passed up over a limb. Anderson was then lifted upon a spring-seat, which was placed on the sled. He was placed with his face towards the door in which MeAlister was murdered, and given a few moments to talk. He protested his innocence, and requested a person in the crowd to draw off his boots, which was complied with. He also requested some one to tell his wife to keep the children together and try and do the best they could. The sled was then driven from under him, and he was hung. The mail-carrier from Ottumwa, passing early next morning, saw the body hanging and reported the fact. The body was frozen stiff when eut down.
Several, if not all, of the lynching party were afterwards
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
apprehended and brought before the grand jury, but they were released without punishment. It was generally sup- posed that the murder of McAlister was perpetrated by two persons, but no second party was ever apprehended.
On the 22d of March, 1893, Lewis Frazier, a German living between Carbonado and Oskaloosa, called at the house of Mrs. W. H. Smith in Hiteman, to see his wife, who was a sister of Mrs. Smith. He wanted his wife to either return home with him, or else give him the custody of their two children. She refused, and a quarrel ensued. Mrs. Smith took up the quarrel, and Frazier stabbed her fatally. She died in about twenty minutes. Frazier fled, and was pursued and captured by Deputy Sheriff Joe Lewis and an assistant deputy, about four miles from Hiteman, on the same day. The officers started to return to Hiteman with their prisoner, but were overwhelmed by a mob of about a hundred men from the mines. They seized Frazier and hung him on a tree in Hiteman in the evening of the same day of the murder. At the inquest held over the remains none of the witnesses seemed to recognize any of the lynchers.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
CHAPTER XIL.
Miscellaneous Topics.
On the election of Grant and Colfax, in November, 1868, the Republicans of Monroe County held an enthusiastic jolli- fication in Albia. Wm. Davis, a negro barber who had been brought up fron the South at the close of the war, was called on for a speech. He mounted a platform, and in the course of his remarks recounted his experience and hardships as a slave on a Southern plantation. He spoke of his adventures as a Union soldier, and, later, his experience as a citizen of the Union. His remarks were loudly cheered by the crowd.
Several negro children were brought and sent to Monroe County in 1864-5. These first arrivals considerably ruffled the feelings of those who entertained pronounced scruples against the mingling of the two races. It is related that one day. while passing the residence of Win. Welsh, just south of town. R. E. Robinson, a gentleman residing in Monroe Township. saw a couple of small negro children playing in the yard. The spectacle was overwhelming to the honest farmer. It called up in his mind a long train of evil conse- quences resulting from the emancipation of the black race. The spectacle was a premonition of the debasement and ulti- mate coalescence of the two races. It was a public day of some kind, and there was a long train of farmers' wagons be- hind. Mr. Robinson arose in his vehicle and addressed the crowd in an animated and eloquent oration. He called upon his friends to note the degradation which the emancipation of the slave had entailed upon a superior race, in the humiliat- ing spectacle before them.
IIngh McQueen was another youth sent up from the South. He bore but a faint trace of African blood, which was seldom detected. He was something of a beau among the young ladies of Monroe Township, and it was not gener- alty known that he was of African descent. Andrew Stamm. an lowa soldier. in some way got possession of the boy while he was a slave in the South. He found him sitting on a fence. and the boy either followed him voluntarily or was coaxed away.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
On August 31, 1868, a hickory pole of prodigious height was reared in Albia by the local Democracy, as a symbol of the "Old Hickory" or Jacksonian type of Democracy. It was during the campaign when Seymour and Blair were the Presidential standard-bearers of the Democratic party. It was jointed, and the sections secured by iron bands. A year later one Davis, a Democrat who had invested a dollar in the pole, and who therefore claimed to be a joint stockholder, cut the pole down for fire-wood.
In the Sentinel of 1860, in an article descriptive of early times, J. T. Young tells the following incident :
"Standing in a small grove of timber near the east line of the township, and owned by old Mr. Gillespie, who sold it to its present owner, Thomas Hickenlooper, is a log- cabin. The grove is composed of a thick growth of small saplings and underbrush. A long time ago, it is said, a panther made his home in this dark and secluded spot. His screams were heard at night by friend J. W. McIntyre, who lived about a mile from the grove.
"The animal would occasionally sally forth to some neighboring sheep-pen, ten rails high (and such rails as Mr. Lincoln never split), take one of the fattest sheep, and make off with it as easily as a cat would carry a mouse. Mr. Panther went to Milton McIntyre's sheep-pen one night, picked up a sheep, and made off with it, when he was beset by the dog. This raised Milton's spunk, and he gathered a club and made at the panther, which fled and was never seen again."
The legendary panther, or "painter," as it was usually termed in the vernacular of the pioneer settlers, was an animal the very mention of whose name spread terror in the hearts of children, a few housewives, and not a few timid men.
While it was generally regarded as an animal of great ferocity, there is no record of its ever having attacked any one. Nobody ever saw a dead panther, and the phantom form of the live animal was never calmly viewed by mortal gaze, save only by an occasional furtive glance while the "painter" crossed some dark, secluded path in the forest. In fact, about the only tangible proof of the existence of the "painter" was the very abundant auricular evidence of hearing the animal's blood-curdling screams by night. The scream is said to be not very unlike that of a terrified woman.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
These screams, which terrified whole neighborhoods, can be heard almost any night in the forests. They are uttered by a very small owl, between the size of a screech-owl and that of a large horned owl. It is about the size of a pigeon, and has no "horns" on its head. The real panther does not scream, but utters a sharp, prolonged screech. It is about the size of a dog, and very shy and cowardly.
It is quite probable that there were a few of these animals passing through the forests at times, but it was the common wild cat that so often became confounded with the panther.
The wild cat is about the size of a small dog, and is of a gray color, marked with small specks. It has a large head, small ears, and a short tail. It is very destruc- tive to young pigs, lambs, and poultry. It was abundant in the forests of Monroe County. but soon disappeared on the advent of settlers.
If the animal were a large specimen, and the beholder's imagination vivid, he raised the report that he had seen the "painter." The "painter," however, was a sort of Satyr of some utility to the settlers. If a settler knew of a fine patch of wild blackberries which he wished to save for his own use, he circulated a story that the "painter" had been seen or heard in the vicinity, and the berries would be unmolested.
The Canada lynx was another animal allied to the wild cat which occasionally passed through a neighborhood. It was a little larger than the wild cat, and had long, pointed ears and a short tail. Its fur was marked with larger spots. It was probably the real prototype of the "painter."
Wild game in those days was quite plentiful in Monroe County. Deer were quite common in the '60s, and up to about 1870 one or more might be seen passing through the county. They were the common Virginia deer of the West and South.
The bear and bison had been extinguished long before by the Indians, and the writer has no knowledge of any bears having been found by the white settlers, save one, which was killed on one of the Avery creeks long ago, by Butler Delashmut and others, of Eddyville.
Wild turkeys were once abundant in the forests, but of late years have become all but extinct. Occasionally one is still seen in the woods, but probably within a half-dozen
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
years there will not be one in the county. Twenty years ago the fields and prairies swarmed with prairie-chickens. They usually hatched in Minnesota and farther north, and came southward in September and remained until June. They congregated in immense flocks, and hunting them was a great delight to the sportsman. Occasionally a small flock is still seen in the winter season.
Wild geese, ducks, and other water-fowl are also transient guests, and alight occasionally in ponds, while passing.
Squirrels are still plentiful in some localities within the county, but they, too, are destined to go, forever, with the ultimate destruction of the forests. There are two varieties, the gray and the fox squirrel. The latter is a little the larger.
There are a few raccoons, and the skunk is still plentiful and keeps on amicable terms with man. The badger has become extinct, and the prairie-wolf has about become so. The timber-wolf was a larger species, but was never numerous.
The circular wolf-hunt of thirty years ago was one of the grandest fete days in the county. The settlers would set out on some appointed day, and converge to some previously arranged center, designated by a pole. They would blow their horns, ring bells, and discharge fire-arms as they traveled along, and at a certain hour all would surround the pole in a solid phalanx. Here no guns were allowed, and any wild animals caught within the circle were dispatched by dogs. The usual catch of these hunts was a few skunks and occasionally a fox.
There are two varieties of fox, the gray and the red fox. They are few in numbers.
Rabbits are still plentiful, and as they are capable of rapid increase, they will remain a long time. The ground- hog, or woodchuck, inhabits the woods and is quite plentiful.
The prairie gray squirrel belongs to the marmot or wood- chuck family, and dwells on the prairie. A smaller species, known as striped squirrels, or chipmunks, infest the woods, and in the meadows are found still another variety, also striped. These two species are about the size of a small rat.
The pocket gopher is disappearing rapidly. The otter has long since disappeared, but the mink and musk-rat are still denizens of the county.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
The rattlesnake is the only poisonous snake in the county.
There are still a few pheasants, and an abundance of quails. The wild pigeon, once so numerons, is now extinct.
Strikes.
In February, 1880 .. the coal-miners working in the Albia Coal Company mines, at Cedar Creek just west of Albia, who were out on a strike, were replaced by negroes.
Henry Miller, president of the company, conceived the idea of trying to operate the mines by negroes. He went to Missouri and secured a force of raw negroes, and put them to work in the mines. They learned the trade rapidly, and made a good livelihood for themselves and families, and were less inclined to place the interests of their employers in jeopardy by strikes.
The striking white miners, however, on finding their places taken by the blacks, assumed a threatening attitude towards the latter, and doubtless blood would have been shed if the company of militia stationed at Albia had not appeared upon the scene to repress any outbreak. On Sat- urday night, of February 21st, the negroes were fired upon by the strikers. The negroes returned the fire, but no one was hurt. These were the first colored miners that came into the Monroe County mines.
"The Deep Snow."
"The deep snow" represents a period in the chronology of pioneer times, from which all old settlers reckon dates- as, for instance, three years before "the deep snow" the con- test over the county seat occurred; or, the first school-house in the county was built five years before "the deep snow," or in 1844. Likewise the first marriage occurred in this year, being that of Nelson Wescoatt and May Searcy. Three months later the bride died of fever. Or, if the settler wishes to recall the period when horse-stealing was prevalent in the county, he will say that it was the winter after "the deep snow," or in 1850. The event itself occupies the same relationship to local pioneer chronology that Noah's flood does to Christian chronology, or the flood of Deucalion to the chronology of Greek mythology.
The snow began to fall about the first of December, 1848, and continued until April 6, 1849. The snow was three feet
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
deep on the level, and it was very severe on both domestic as well as wild animals. Large numbers of deer were caught when a crust had formed on the surface of the snow, which impeded the speed of the animals, but enabled the dogs to pursue them on the surface without breaking through.
In passing through the forest at the present day, one will occasionally meet with a decaying monument of this memorable snow, in the form of stumps of trees cut during the winter of the snow, when the axman walked on the sur- face, borne up by the crust. These stumps usually stand about six feet in height, and have often attracted curiosity in those who do not recall the incident of "the deep snow."
Nationality.
The first settlers of the county were mostly of American birth; but not long afterwards a colony of Germans settled on Coal Creek, in a locality sometimes alluded to as "Dutch Ridge." This locality was originally one of the most barren and unpromising regions in the county. It was composed of white oak soil, covered with underbush and dense growths of saplings. Just why the prudent, thrifty German should have selected this region was always a mystery to the native settler. The German always had plenty of money, and he could have had his pick of the land. What was still more sur- prising, he thrived and prospered on this wild "Dutch Ridge." He laid up money and improved his farm, while the native settler, located in the garden-spots of the county, scarcely made a living.
There were the Hertzers, the Mertzes, the Wiedmans, the Landsbergers, the Steinbergers, the Manleys, and others. They were a hardy, industrious, and law-abiding community. and have transmitted to posterity an equally creditable class of citizens in the present generation.
For many years, Philip Hertzer, or "old Dutch Philip," as his many friends have affectionately styled him, was, by a sort of universal reverence, acknowledged to be the chief counselor of the colony, or a sort of "burgomaster."
These Germans never took any special interest in local politics, and during every political canvass in the county the "Dutch Ridge" became a much-coveted vineyard to the stump-speaker. They were fond of their beer, and when the State prohibitory law was enacted, the inhabitants of "Dutch Ridge" became disgusted with the Republican party, and withdrew their allegiance to it.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
Whenever a party leader desired to augment the strength of his party in the county, he considered it highly necessary to establish diplomatic relations with "Dutch Philip." Then, on election day, the Germans would be out in force. "Dutch Philip" would be their counselor, and Judge Hilton and Tom Baldwin, each representing his re- spective party, might be seen wreathed in seductive smiles, bestowing their blandishments upon the apparently en- raptured German voters, and incidentally setting forth the merits of their respective parties. The good-natured and sagacious German usnally listened with an expression of well-affected interest and profound deference, but before either party champion could get his man started towards the ballot-box with the proper ballot snugly folded within his vest-pocket, the latter could invariably be seen meandering behind the school-house in company with "Dutch Philip."
The Irishman is always the first on the ground every where. There is no place under the sun where you will not find him. He forges to the front, not only in a geographical sense, but in a social and political one as well. If a public policy is to be consummated, an Irishman pushes it through ; if a sortie or charge is to be made, or a forlorn hope led into the death-valley of an enemy's guns, an Irishman is at the head. He has done everything for the advancement of other nations, and nothing for his own little down-trodden isle. He is an Irishman for Ireland as long as he lives on the isle, but as soon as he steps ashore at Castle Garden he becomes an American citizen at heart, and really does not require the naturalization act of courts, which he avails himself of as soon as the prescribed term of residence is up. On landing. he immediately discards his nice, neat moleskin knee- breeches and high hat, and dons a pair of blue overalls, takes up a shovel, a peddler's pack, or a policeman's "billy," and goes to work. He attends all political meetings, and votes the Democratic ticket as soon as he gets his naturalization papers-and sometimes before. When he becomes a citizen. he does not waste his energies in sentimental and equally futile attempts to redeem his own unhappy native isle from its thralldom. Deep in his heart he feels her unhappy con- dition, but he feels that his labors and statesmanship in the new world are of too high a value to be interrupted by a sentiment that cannot be realized, or a dream that can never be fulfilled.
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HISTORY OF MONROE COUNTY, IOWA.
The west half of Monroe County is largely settled by Irishmen. Their farms are all well cultivated, and yield their owners a comfortable living. Like the Germans, they selected a wild, broken region for their homes; but this is more readily accounted for by the fact that they came to Monroe County with small means and were obliged to select cheaper lands. Most of the Irish vote the Democratic ticket.
Notwithstanding the rural disadvantages which many of the neighborhoods of this Irish colony possess, most of the brightest young professional men of Monroe County are either Irishmen or the sons of Irishmen. The O'Bryans, the Carrs, the Richmonds, the Nichols, Ed. Morrison, Jas. M. Robb, and A. J. Cassady, and others, are of the legal pro- fession; and Ed. A. Canning, while a prominent citizen and highly valued public official, may yet turn his attention to jurisprudence and become a successful lawyer with the rest.
The extensive development of the mining industry with- in the county has of late years invited other nationalities into our midst. A large majority of the miners-say three- fourths- are Welsh and English. The remaining fourth is made up of Americans, Swedes, and a few Italians, French, Scotch, and Belgians. There are no Irish miners, and but few Germans. The Dutchman will not venture into the dark, and the Irishman always wants to be on top. The English and Welsh miners are the most successful miners, as for centuries the calling has been hereditary with them. There is but slight national distinction between them. The English are from Durham or Cornwall.
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