USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 17
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When a boy, we did not have any too good opinion of Mr. Burleson. large- ly on account of the influence of the expressed opinion of others. who on account of some real or imaginary faults of his, took particular pains to speak ill of him out of his hearing. But after coming to man's estate and judging men by the visible evidence of what they accomplished and weighing them by the scale of justice with the good in one balance and the ill in the other, we come to have a better opinion of Shade Burleson than we have of the average man.
On account of his prominence as a pioneer settler and landlord and his strong will and peculiarly clear cut personality, we have often wanted to write of him as we understood him by the evidence of over thirty years acquaint- ance as a near neighbor. We have already given in part our reason for not liking him any too well as a boy, the remaining reason is a story by itself. But as paper is cheap and my pencil is long to illustrate Mr. Burleson's ability to judge himself we will tell that story. At that time there were perhaps a score of boys from eight to fourteen years of age in the Buckhorn region and no swimming hole short of the river over a mile from the school house. Up stream from Mr. Burleson's land there were high banks to the creek and the boys concluded by damming the creek a short order duck could be had at any hour of the day. After a good deal of hard work, carrying
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stones and cutting rods, a good strong dam was constructed that when full would afford water neck deep to a man for a short way above he dam and enough slack water to make mighty good swimming for goslings such as we. For twenty rods up stream in those days Mr. Burleson and others depended upon the streams flow for stock water. When the water failed to come ·down for a day or such a matter, Mr. Burleson began to think of looking up the source of the drought. He and several who happened to be staying around the tavern, among whom we believe were Bill Deniston and John Crane, took spades and started for that dam. The water had risen to within several inches of the top and the water looked so inviting, as it was a warm day, that the younger men could not resist taking a plunge before they drained the pond. Mr. Burleson was fond of sport himself and a great athelete and after watching the others a minute or so threw off his clothes and sought the cooling waters, after which the dam was destroyed and the thirsty stock below reveled in the waters that came down-not at "Ladore", but from the boys' hoped for swimming hole.
To the writer of this, who was watching from afar it looked to the boy as a rank injustice and a flagrant violation of the rights of boys and the thought was leaven to his rising indignation and after the party of men had returned to the bar room of the hotel, the boy "bearded the lion in his den and Douglas in his hall" and standing in the middle of the room and with a force that would have done credit to Patrick Henry and in language that would do credit to no one, addressed Mr. Burleson on the rights and feelings of boys and explained to him though the boys knew the creek was gettng a little dry below, that in a few hours more there would be water to spare, and he considered it an unwarranted invasion of boyhood land for a lot of grown up men to usurp the longed for pleasures of the boys by taking a swim themselves and then blasting the fond hopes of the juveniles by des- troying the dam. In the boy's mind, there was uppermost the thought of a great injustice done him and his pals and in his voice only scorn and con- demnation for those whom he was judging. He addressed all his language to Mr. Burleson, as though he considered he was the only one of the party of whom he expected fairer treatment. Though the boy's language, smarting under the supposed wrong was scathing, mean and insulting, Mr. Burleson said not a word, but sat stroking his beard as was customary with him when in thought and seemed to be taking no note of what the boy was say- ing-but he was. He was weighing the matter in his mind according to the way he knew the boy felt about it and leaving the thirsty stock out of con- sideration. The boy thought he was only ignoring him and after abusing him roundly walked out of the room. Perhaps Mr. Burleson would not have taken one-tenth of the abuse from any man and he knew well enough he could have sweet revenge on the boy by telling his father of the language used to the man; knew there would soon be a tannery started that would take every hair off the boy's hide. Well he did not tell him and we have thought, since we came to man's estate, that he more than half admired a boy who would stand before him and judge him according to the boy's idea of the justice in the case and condemn him in such scathing language.
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There is no doubt with us now but what the boy would have had a strong friend in "Nucle Shade" if he had used sense enough to have left the trail then instead of leading many of an invasion against Mr. Burleson's best apples and perpetrating various little tricks to annoy him just to "make good" and thereby increasing his disgust for the ways of boys in general and this one in particular. After the passing of the years and one was man grown and the other man grown gray. they were walking side by side, chatting about the day's affairs of life, Mr. Burleson with his hands behind his back and little stooped forward as was often his wont, all at once he left the subject and remarked, "well you seem to have made a pret- ty fair sort of a man, but you was the damndest, meanest boy I ever saw."
In the days of other years when the Buckhorn tavern was in its glory and dancing was a very popular form of amusement nearly everywhere, all the length and half the width of the upper story of the main part of Burle- son's tavern stand was a ball room and several times during each season there would be a wide awake ball at Buckhorn. Burleson alwars took ex- tra pains on these occasions to cater to the comfort and joy of his guests. There were plenty of hostlers and stable room with mangers filled with hay; 'on the tables a "horn of plenty" and in the ball room the best string band the country afforded and a hurrying of feet, and in the bar room cards and checkers and many a well spun story. The popularity of Burleson's balls used to bring many from as far away as DeWitt and Andrew and sometimes from Bellevue and there are plenty from Maine to California and Dakota to Texas, who are now grown old, who have tripped the light fantastic at the old Buckhorn tavern, while S. Burleson was the landlord and we do not be- lieve there are any who have any "kick" at the way they were treated by the Burlesons.
Burleson always was a warm friend of Nathaniel Butterworth, who kept the Butterworth House at Andrew, which might be wondered at if Burle- son hadn't have been Burleson and Butterworth hadn't have been But- terworth. For through the heat of the rebellion; Burleson was the strongest kind of an abolition republican and Butterworth was just the opposite, so much so that once when some one went into the store of an abolition fire beater at Andrew and asked "what is butter worth" he got the reply "he is a d -- ed old copperhead." When there was a ball at Butterworth's some of Burleson's young folks were sure to go to Butterworth's ball. As we are not writing Andrew history we will return to Buckhorn and follow still further the characteristic of and the events in the life of Buckhorn's wid- est known citizen, best liked by his friends and most disliked by his ene- mies.
What gave the name of Buckhorn to this little cluster of houses was the sign of Burleson's tavern, which was a cedar post about twelve feet high literally covered with the antlers of the deer Burleson had killed in previ- ous days, when much of his living depended upon his fire, and what made Buckhorn famous and far known in other days was the Buckhorn tavern and Shade Burleson himself, who was ever ready to grant a favor to those who asked and stand up for his own rights and those whom he believed in
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under any and all circumstances, and just as relentlessly follow those whom he believed was trying to wrong him.
Sometime in the fall of 1865 or there abouts, when his large barn was full to overflowing with hay, grain and farming machinery, it was set affre, about seven o'clock or half past in the evening where a clapboard was loose on the side hid from sight of the house and burned to the ground. (A barn built by him on the same foundation was also burned by accident since S. Burleson died and his son Frank came into possession. ) A man by the name of Rowley Waight, who in after years became an uncle of the writer by mar- riage, was known to have an ill will against S. Burleson and who took no pains to conceal it, was arrested as the most likely person to have committed the crime. There was claimed to have been some other circumstantial evi- ence against him, among the rest the fact that he was gone from home an hour or so at the time the barn was fired and could not account for his absence only by the statement of himself and family that he was at the creek after a barrel of water, having to haul their water from about half a mile from the house. On account of lack of sufficient evidence to convict and the help of Leffingwell, one of the best, if not the very best criminal lawyer, in the state, who later became judge of the courts of Clinton County, Waight was cleared, but it broke him up financially and compelled him to sell one of the best farms in this section, the one now occupied by August Luett. It was a stubborn legal contest, as it might be expected to have been with the interest of such a man as Shadrach Burleson supported by such a lawyer as Darling on the one side and a clients case defended by such a man as Judge Leffingwell on the other side. At the same time, it was being tried and retried in the neighborhood where the crime was com- mitted and Burleson and Waight each came in for their share of condemna- tion or exoneration with the bulk of the sympathy in favor of Waight. In this narrative we are neither judge nor jury, only stenographer recording kuown history and opinion of early settlers for and against S. Burleson. It was the belief of many of this neighborhood that a certain woman, who aspired to the affections of one of the Burleson family and was then there, and whose passion was unrequitted, burned the barn out of revenge. But as be- lief is not proof and Waight was acquitted, the burning is still unsolved.
As Burleson was such a leading spirit in much of the history of this country, we have often wanted to write him up, as we and others have un- derstood him, but have been a little loath to undertake it, as some of it is bound to conflict with the opinion of others and much that has already been written on matter that implicates him indirectly. Shade Burleson was undoubtedly a man of great courage or he never would have undertaken to have settled the W. W. Brown estate; being known as it was that he, like many of Jackson County's best citizens, did not believe Brown was all or any where near what Cox and his friends painted him, and he, like such men as Ance Wilson, Wm. Current, J. E. Goodenow, Nathaniel Butter- worth and in fact many of the leading men of this, as well as other parts of Jackson County, refused to go to help drive Brown out of the country. For all of that, after Brown was killed it was about all a man's life was worth to say a word in defense of Brown or against the manner of disposing of
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glory to be woven into garlands for some future hall of fame, approache Teeple with all the dignity of a superior officer and said: "Lieutenar Teeple give me that sword, " to which, without so much as a military salut or a cessation in the manual of arms, the valiant lieutenant replied "got hell and get your own sword." This story of the sword only illustrates ho little the pioneers cared for military discipline and has led us away fro the subject of Cox and Brown and the Bellevue war and the connectio Shade Burleson had with it in the selling of the W. W. Brown estate. r show what the feeling was (of the Warren and Cox party and their friend which still lives in their descendants) toward those who had faith in Brown a useful citizen of Jackson County, we will mention what Nathaniel Butte worth, Jr., recently told us, he being a boy at that time and rememberit the circumstances connected therewith. (As we have before stated N thaniel Butterworth, Sr., as did such men as J. E. Goodenow, Ance Wilson Wm. Current, Wm. Morden, Shade Burleson, Calvin Teeple and many othe refused to go with Col. Cox and others to drive Brown out of the country J. E. Goodenow said to them "What do I want to help drive Brown out the country for? He is the best man for the country there is in it. Ar man who needs help can get it from Brown. He will trust any man. These men might have been laboring under a delusion, but any man wl knew them will not accuse them of being in sympathy with criminals, (e pecially such men as J. E. Goodenow). But to get back to Butterworth story, after the tragical April 1, 1840. when Brown and several others we killed and still others, who were taken prisoners. whipped and ordered o of the country never to return on pain of death by the Warren and C posse, or mob as you see fit to call it. A part of his heroes (as W. A. Wa ren called them in his defense of the metliod of taking off of Brown) amor whom was Co !. Cox himself stopped in front of Butterworth's on their r turn from Bellevue and called Butterworth out and producing a jug whiskey ordered Butterworth to drink. Not caring to arouse their ill fee ings he complied, whereupon some one of the party said, not Cox, he w in the bottom of the wagon bed too drunk to say anything: "Butterwort the finger of suspicion is pointing at you and if you do not carry yourse mighty straight, we will" indicating what they would do by a move of t hand as though cireling his neck with a rope. This will show what Sha Burleson undertook when he administered on W. W. Brown's estate, bei as he was one of those who were friends of Brown. It also will show som thing of the character and nerve of the man who would undertake it. inasmu as it became necessary for him to commence action against several of the C party for money owed by them to W. W. Brown. Some say "why resurre those things that happened so long ago, when the parties are all dead a the events nearly forgotten." There can be no resurrection of the even for they are still a live issue and while much of the recorded history is ve much inclined to make heroes of Brown's slayers, it causes a stigma upon the past and present, who have been, or are now, skeptical and in writing upt biography of our old neighbor Shade Burleson, we cannot avoid touchi upon the subject of the Bellevue war. We have before stated that in writi this narrative we were neither judge or jury, only stenographer, but
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must also to some extent be Burleson's attorney in a way, to defend him as the "Old Settler" from the attacks made upon him by. W. A. Warren and the "anonymous writer" in the 1879 history of Jackson county. In our de- fense we will mostly use the account of the Bellevue war and events con- nected therewith as found in said 1879 history. All, nearly, with the ex- ception of old Settlers" letter, (which you will find tucked away in an ob- scure place in print, nearly to fine to read, and the letter written by the anonymous writer) was either the word for word writing of W. A. Warren or taken from his writing by the compilers-and is so stated by the publish- ers. In order to make our case clear we will have to quote from said history and will commence with old settler's letter of Sept. 6th, to the Maquoketa Excelsior.
"I saw in one of your papers that a company was getting up the early history of Jackson county, if there is anything to be said about the Bellevue tragedy or war that happened in the early days of the county, I wish it to come before the people in its true light.
"I came to this country in April. 1837, the same summer, one Thomas Cox, had a contract to survey the county and as he was a great friend of Monongahela whisky, he procured a barrel for his outfit. His boss surveyor was a man named McDonald. Cox kept camp and entertained the callers while the others done the surveying, so he became acquainted with nearly every one in the country and when we organized into lowa territory Cox represented this county in the legislature, but never lost sight of his friend, Monongahela. The people, however, began to think they had better not trust him with so responsible a position any longer. Cox saw unless some- thing was done he must go down and that William Brown of Bellevue was bound to be the coming man of the county. This Brown was an off hand business man, he bought property on credit and turned it so as to make money with every change. He bought a hotel of Peter Dutell and ran it him- self. He also had a dry goods store, all bought on creidt no man or beast went away from his door hungry, money or no money, he trusted every body and was just the man for the country. The honest and industrious part of the community thought Brown was doing more for the country than any man in it.
"Cox, however, became politically jealous of Brown and raised a mob to drive Brown out of the country or kill him. To excite the mob, Cox told his friends, Brown was getting rich too fast to get it honestly and that he thought there was a gang of horse thieves and counterfeiters at Brown's and he proposed driving them out of the country, so with the aid of the Monon- gahela whiskey, he got his friends together at Bellevue and ordered Brown to surrender or leave the country. Brown told the comimttee he would not surrender to a mob, but would meet them before any tribunal they might name at any place or time and abide the decision. The mob was very drunk, yet they passed the whiskey around and then swore they would have blood. As every man in the crowd owed Brown more or less for clothing and living and being crazed with liquor and pleased with getting rid of paying their debts they proceeded at once in putting into effect their murderous intent. I do not remember the number, but think from seven to nine were killed,
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several more wounded, five or six whipped and ordered to leave the country. Wm. Fox was one of the number whipped. Soon after I met Fox and he swore he never would do another day's work while he lived, but would rob. murder or steal for a living. They had ruined his character and the sooner he was dead the better it would be for him. Brown's friends in Bellevue and throughout the country, were the industrious part of the community, while Cox's friends were those who minded everybody's business but their own.
We thought in those days the sheriff was not quite as strict in perform- ing his duties as he should have been and endeavored to please everyone he met, women not excepted-although he was a pretty clever fellow."
OLD SETTLER.
The sheriff and others have said that Old Settler was quite a hand to try to please the woman too-and chased after them a great deal, but as we never heard of one complaining of him. we take it as evidence that he never chased the poor dears very far. Old Settler's charge is pretty strong against the men led by Cox and Warren and too sweeping, seemingly, to be accepted in to-to but is no more so than W. A. Warren's reply to it in which he charges that Old Settler was a member of Brown's gang and a sympathizer with murder- ers, horse thieves nad counterfeiters, and intimates he was one of the party who murdered Col. Geo. Davenport at his home on Rock Island the night of July 4th, 1845. True, Warren does not give cut anything to positively fix the identity of Old Settler (as one would expect him to do if he could prove what he charges), but the letter following Warren's, in the Jackson County History of 1879, and written by one who signs "Pioneer", does fix it on S. Burleson by alluding to Old Settler as Brown's administrator, al- though Warren and Pioneer make pretty serious charges against Old Settler, they both fail to point out where the proof can be found as to their charges of Old Settler's criminal record. Is there any proof for any of Old Settler's charges against Col. Cox or his co-operators? or any justification for the faith so many of the pioneers had in Brown as a man and useful citizen? Those pioneers, we mean, among them such men as J. E. Goodenow and Ance Wilson, the latter who yet lives at 90 years of age this coming May, the 5th, 1906, and, who according to Wm. Current's, (his nephew) state- ment to me, remarked no longer ago than a year that according to his abil- ity to judge men. W. W. Brown as a man stood head and shoulders above Thomas Cox. Is there any proof that Cox was an intemperate man and politically jealous of W. W. Brown, as Old Settler charges him with having been, if there is we can find it on page 361 of the 1879 history of Jackson County, in the article titled "A Sheriff Foiled," and mentions a caucus held about six months and a half after Jackson County was organized The article in part refers to a span of horses stolen and claimed by a man named Jenkins, who described them to Sheriff Warren's satisfaction and gained posssession. We quote from the account of the caucus, which was furnished by Warren himself: "About ten days after the departure of Jenkins a cau- cus was held for the nomination of a democratic candidate for the legislature and Col. Thomas Cox, who was the democratic war-horse of Jackson County, was apparently the only man talked of. The balloting was regarded as a mere
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, formality, when to the amazement of Cox and his supporters Brown was de- clared nominated by a vote of two to one. Cox was a very high tempered man and fond of whiskey, which frequently had the better of him. He arose then to denounce Brown and his clan. Just after the meeting two strangers ap- peared inquiring for the sheriff, the elder of whom was recognized as the Hon. E. Brigham of Wisconsin, he was in search of a span of horses stolen from him which he believed to be the ones advertised from Bellevue. He gave the same marks Jenkins had given besides others. Cox and Brigham had served together in the legislature and when the former heard the truth in regard to his friend's loss he declared open war on Brown, previous to this time he had been one of his strongest allies and looked upon him as a persecuted man. But he no longer hesitated openly to declare him a base villain, nor did he ever relent his enmity toward him. And we find Cox one of the leaders at the time the thieves were exterminated. "Strange Cox should be one of Brown's strongest allies believing him to be a perse- cuted man and not find out the true character of him and his clan, until just after those ballots were counted and he was beaten two to one. Strange also Brigham should turn up just at the right moment with the ear marks of those horses to connect Brown with the theft. Such things have been done before now to help fix a political fence.
. By quoting further it seems he didn't get the riders all on. "A decided majority was on the side of Brown, who did not then attempt to conceal his true character and the prospects were not pleasant for those who opposed him. Brigham and his friend left between sunset and sunrise and Cox was saved from injury by going to his home, having announced himself an inde- pendent candidate for the legislature to which he was subsequently elected." (Brown is said to have been dead before that election occurred. ) Does this prove that Cox was an intemperate man and politically jealous of Brown?
History does not state what was the true character of Brown, he no longer attempted to conceal, but it might have been his opposition to Cox and his fence builders. Is there any excuse to offer for the faith of Old Settler and others in Brown being representative man of the country and at least of average good citizenship .? If there is we will look for the proof of it in Captain Warren's own account of early affairs as written by him for the 1879 history of Jackson County, as that is all we have at hand now. Besides we had rather quote words of praise from a known enemy of Brown's -it is more apt to be reliable. At intervals all through W. A. Warren's write up of the Bellevue affair he pictures Brown as a villain of the blackest dye, which might or might not have been true for all we know. We are neith- er for nor against, but we are looking for the evidence. In one passage of Warren's writings in which he condemns Brown, we also find the following: "Brown was a man of fine personal appearance and had the semblance of culture about him. He was possessed of an engaging manner, was hospita- ble, a good talker and well calculated as a leader of men. Mrs. Brown too, was a handsome and accomplished lady and won many friends by her wo- manly and kind ways. Brown himself was a charitable man, benevolent to those in want, ever pleasant and kind to children and really possessed of a humane and generous heart." Mr. Warren does not say Brown borrowed the
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