USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 21
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Hon. John Foley, a participant, had been a member of the first legisia- ture of Wisconsin Territory, and in 1843 was elected to the Iowa Territorial House. He was also sheriff of Jackson County 1853 to 1855, and again in 1859 to 1861.
Capt. William A. Warren had been enrolling clerk for the Wisconsin Legislature which met at Burlington in 1838. He was appointed sheriff of Jackson County by Governor Lucas in 1839 and held that office under suc- cessive territorial governors for seven years. He was elected to the Consti- tutional Convention of 1857 by the people of Jackson County. He was com- missioned by President Lincoln, as Captain and assistant quartermaster U. S. volunteers in 1862 and served in that responsible position for three years, during which time he handled millions of dollars worth of government prop- erty. The writer remembers meeting him (without knowing, however, what state he was from) when he was depot quartermaster at the post of Murfreesboro, Tenn., a position of great responsibility. He was Justice of the Peace in Bellevue almost continually for over twenty-five years.
Hon. James K. Moss was at the time, as has been mentioned, postmast- er of Bellevue (appointed November 1, 1839) and Probate Judge of the county (1839-40). He then became clerk of the courts and in 1841, he was elected a member of the Territorial House of Representatives.
Gen. John G. McDonald had held a commission from President Andrew Jackson as lieutenant of U. S. Mounted Rangers. He was doorkeeper of the Iowa Territorial House for the session of 1839-40, and was commissioned Brigadier General of militia by Governor Lucas at the close of that session. By an act of the same legislature he was appointed one of the commission- ers to locate the county seat of Jones county. He was county surveyor of
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Jackson county 1839 to 1843 and also served as clerk of the courts (about 1842) and as county recorder 1842-45. In 1849, as deputy U. S. Surveyor, he had charge of the surveys of nine townships in Allamakee county. Gen. Mc- Donald was twice wounded in the Bellevue tight. He was unable to go on the day previous with his neighbors, the Coxes and Nevilles. and, no horse being available, started early in the morning of the first of April on foot. He stopped at Butterworth's log cabin about eight o'clock and proceeded thence to Bellevue. He arrived when the firing had begun, and was just in time to see one of Brown's men step out and level a gun at Colonel Cox. He leaped in front of the Colonel and received the ball in his hip. Soon after he received a slight wound in the left wrist. (This information comes from N. B. Butterworth of Andrew, and from Gen. McDonald's son. R. H. Mc- Donald, of Halstead, Kan ) The quality of his heroism will be appreciated too, when we know that his honeymoon was scarcely over, his marriage to Margaret A. Hildreth, at Burlington, having taken place on January 16th, 1840.
Anson Harrington, who swore out the information by virtue of which the warrant was issued under which Sheriff Warren acted, was elected Pro- bate Judge at the election of 1840 to succeed James K. Moss. An amend- ment by Congress to the Organic Act by which Iowa Territory was organiz- ed, was passed March 3rd, 1839, which authorized the territorial legislature to provide by law for the election of judges of probate, sheriffs, justices of the peace and county surveyors which officers under the original act were appointed by the governor. The legislature of 1839-40 provided that the officers thus named should be elected by the people of each county at the general election of 1840. This limited the term of Judge Moss, and he was appointed at its expiration clerk of the courts by the district judge. (Clerks were not elected by the people for several years afterward, I think not under territorial government at all). Then Moss in 1841 was elected to the legis- lature and John G. McDonald succeeded him as clerk.
Lieut. James L. Kirkpatrick, the Black Hawk war soldier, was county coroner at the time, and in 1846 became one of the Board of County Com- missioners. Rev. J. S. Kirkpatrick was not engaged in the attack but was an undoubted sympathizer. He was appointed special sheriff at the term of court held soon after the event and selected a new grand jury to in- vestigate the matter. He was elected to the Territorial Council at the elec- tion of 1840, and in 1844 was elected a member of the first constitutional Convention of Iowa. Col. Samuel W. Durham, who was a fellow member of that convention says of him in a recent address before the Linn county Historical Society at Cedar Rapids :
"Rev. Scott Kirkpatrick, of Jackson county, an Illinoisian, was the largest and tallest and jolliest member and a good speaker." N. B. Butter- worth says that he was about six feet four, and that he could perform the feat of lifting a barrel of lead mineral. Anson Wilson's interview published in these Annals mentions his engagement as 4th of July speaker in that summer of 1840.
Hon. William Morden was not present on the first of April, as far as we know,'but he had advised and helped plan the movement. He was at that
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time one of the board of three County Commissioners and in 1844, became a colleague of Scott Kirkpatrick in the first Constitutional Convention. He was also in 1856 elected a member of the sixth Iowa General Assembly. Geo. Watkins, who was a participant, succeeded Morden as one of the County Commissioners in the election of 1840, and his son James Watkins, also a par- ticipant, was sheriff of Jackson County from 1847 to 1853, and from 1855 to 1857 and from 1861 to 1865.
Dr. Enoch A. Wood, of Sabula, (then Charleston) was also one of the County Commissioners. He was not present, but in a letter written in 1879 and published n the Jackson County History, he says: "I know of my per- sonal knowledge that they [ Brown and his clan] were guilty of committing many crimes and misdemeanors and I justify the steps taken by the repre- sentative men of the county who drove them from our midst." John Howe was County Recorder at the time and John T. Sublett, County Treasurer, and both were participants-Sublett particularly active.
Mr. Berry's letter says that it was reported that every one of the grand .jury summoned for the next term of court was acting with the "mob" except Brown and he was killed. This was probably very near the truth. We can find the names of David A. Bates, H. G. Magoon, Thos. J. Parks, Thos. Sublett, V. G. Smith, J. L. Kirkpatrick, John D. Bell, John Stick- ley, Nicholas Jefferson among those drawn upon juries about that time.
Thus it appears that within the ranks or aiding and abetting this "most infamous mob" of "brutish beasts," were legislators present and pros- pective of two territories and two states, three who helped frame constitu- tions for Iowa, the probate judge, sheriff, recorder, treasurer, clerk of courts, surveyor and coroner of the county, with two of the county com- missioners advising and consenting, and nearly all of the panel of grand jur- ors ... There were also two militia officers, one man who became probate judge, two who became sheriffs, a prospective recorder, clerk and county commissioner. Surely a body of men who did not need instruction from the hysterical Berry, nor even from the honorable Col. John King, postmaster -and first chief justice of Dubuque county.
The brave men who lost their lives in their desperate effort to enforce obedience to the mandate of law, were all men of high character, respecta- ble, honest, law-abiding citzens. Henderson Palmer and I think, John Brink, lived in Bellevue; John Maxwell, Andrew Farley and William Vaughn were farmers. The version given by Jo Henry of the part taken by Andrew Farley was a profound surprise, when published in 1897, to the peo- ple of the environment in which he had lived. The story of Capt. Warren (told from memory 35 years after the event) that Mr. Farley appeared in answer to a summons, was never questioned by his family or the pioneers of the Deep Creek neighborhood. I am inclined to believe, however, that, as Henry's version implies, he was overtaken by Warren, while on his way so mill at Bellevue, and that he was unarmed, but that he impressed Warren as being in entire sympathy with the movement. I regard it as doubtful whether the Deep Creek settlement was visited by either Cox or Warren, because from what we know of the character and sentiments of Col. Wyc- koff, Samuel Carpenter, Lorin Sprague, David Swaney, Wm. L. Potts and
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others of that settlement, I do not believe they would have allowed An- drew Farley to go to Bellevue alone if they had known of the call.
The desperate character of the conflict and the high grade of marksman- ship displayed by the squirrel hunters on both sides, is well shown by the large number of casualties, especially on the part of the assailants. They received nearly as many bullet wounds in all as the number of Brown's forces. The statement of Henry that there were no more than ten men with Brown in the hotel is manifestly an error. There were three killed and thirteen captured, and Warren says that "Negro Brown and six others made their escape."
Capt. Warren wrote at least three accounts of the Bellevue War. The first was published in 1865 in the "Loyal West" by Henry Howe in Cincinnati. Extracts from it are given in a paper by F. Snyder then editor of the Jack- son Sentinel, printed in the Annals of Iowa for April, 1869. Another very long account was published in the Bellevue Leader in 1875. and this is large- ly quoted, and partly condensed by the compilers of the Jackson County His- tory published in 1879. Then in the same history is printed a communica- tion from Capt. Warren written in the fall of 1879 in reply to one signed "Old Settler" of which Mr. Seeley makes mention. All of these were evi- dently written mainly from memory, and contain some discrepancies in de- tails as Farmer Buckhorn points out.
We trust that this renewed discussion of that notable event in the his- tory of lowa Territory may bring out more light upon its obscure details. The Jackson County Historical Society will be glad to receive communica- tions from any one knowing of facts regarding it.
Notes -- On farther investigation I find enrolled as soldiers in Galena companies during the Black Hawk war, the names of Thomas Sublett, Wil- liam Vance, James Beaty and John Stuckey, all of whom are named by War- ren as participants in the attack on Brown's Hotel. William Vance was badly wounded, being shot in the thigh. Thos. Sublett and Vincent Smith are supposed to be the two whose bullets killed Brown, and it is a curious coincidence that they were comrades in Capt. Enoch Duncan's company of Colonel Henry Dodge's regiment in the Black Hawk war. J. L. Kirkpatrick was a lieutenant in the same company, John Foley a sergeant, and William Vance and William Jonas, privates. Another private was Loring Wheeler. afterwards an Iowa lawmaker from Dubuque and later from De Witt.
My authority for the names of those enrolled in the war is the "Record of the Services of Illinois Soldiers in the Black Hawk War," compiled by Adjutant General Isaac H. Elliott in 1882. The book was secured by the Boardman Library recently from a second hand book store in Chicago.
The Hon. Ebenezer Brigham, mentioned on page 63 and again on page 72 of Mr. Seeley's article, was a former Sangamon county friend and political associate of Colonel Cox. He had removed to the lead mines in 1827, and at The time of his visit to Bellevue was a resident of Blue Mounds, Dane coun- ty, Wisconsin Territory, and was a member of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. Capt. Warren was mistaken in supposing that Brigham and
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Cox were in the legislature together. They were both territorial lawmakers but in different territories. The insinuation that Brigham "turned up at the right moment" to help Cox "fix up political fences" is hardly consis- tent with the good Farmer Buckhorn's usual fairness.
Warren, in writing from memory, must have been somewhat muddled on the date when the caucus was held in which Brown beat Cox out of the leg - islative nomination. It is hardly supposable that it was while the river was frozen over, since the election would not take place until August. Then Buckhorn's conjecture ( Page 63) that the election occurred after Brown's death, does not accord with the. statements of both Warren, and the writer signing himself "A Pioneer," (supposed to be the late William Y. Earle), in the Jackson County History, who both say that Cox ran as an independent candidate against Brown and beat him badly. It is very much to be regret- ted that no records exist of the votes cast in Jackson county earlier than 1857. We would much like to know who were the opposing candidates and what their votes at all of those early elections.
James C. Mitchell, the homicide, went to Council Bluffs at the time of the great California emigration in 1849 and became owner of two stores there, accumulating quite a fortune. We have the testimony of Warren's 1865 account, and again of the one written in 1879, corroborated by the let- ter of "A Pioneer," and by the memory of N. B. Butterworth, that Hen- derson Palmer was the first man killed in the fight; that he was shot down in the charge before the hotel was reached, and before Brown was shot. Warren's 1875 history reads as though the episode of Brown being called upon to surrender opened the battle, but he makes no mention of how Pal- mer met his death, so we must conclude that firing began from the hotel, as all of the other accounts state.
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1 ha name to his settlement. Another memor al oly was for the establish-
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eta er ce and that Win. Uw Makok e appol
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an loquiry to the od friend Congressman ,, and also tor of the first postoffices in Nachson county! A
. P. M. General, who says
"4ye can Blad no record of a post office named Malokets. in Towa. Jones
foty, neitlier can we locate the Mill Rock offrons '
Followog is the list of names and dates given, some of which are roty Woprising:
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Belle
Ablished March 17, 1836: John
Bell, Postmuster. C County, Wis., and changes Into Jack
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Early Post Offices in Jackson County.
(Written for the Jackson County Historical Society by Harvey Reid.) B
Among matters pertaining to the welfare of their budding common- wealth, there was nothing that the members of the early territorial legisla- tures took greater interest in than the establishment of post offices and post routes by the General Government. So every member at some time during each session would press the adoption by the legislature of memorials to Congress asking the establishment of new post offices and new post, routes. These requests would generally be consolidated into one memorial on each subject and would always pass.
In a memorial adopted by the Second Territorial Assembly for the es- tablishment of post routes we find this clause:
"From Charleston by Goodenoe's mills, by Burliston's settlement, by Elk ford to the point on the Territorial road where the said road crosses the Wabsepinica river and thence to the county seat of Linn county."
But evidently the memorial was not granted so far as that particular route was concerned, for we find that at the next session, that of 1840-1, an- other memorial was adopted asking for post routes which included :
"From Savannah, Illinois, via Charleston and Goodenoe's mills and Burriston's settlement, to Edinburgh, the county seat of Jones county."
Note the odd spelling of the names and that Maquoketa had not yet be- come Springfield even. It was known as Goodenow's Mills, and Shade Burle- son had not started his Buckhorn Tavern to give a name to his settlement.
Another memorial in the Third General Assembly was for the establish- ment of new post offices. and one clause in that reads :
"One on the military road in Jones county, where the said road crosses the Makoketa river, to be called the Makoketa post office and that Wm. Clarke be appointed postmaster.'
The location thus specified would be near the north east corner of Jones county. Curiosity to know whether a postoffice in Iowa ever did bear the name of Makoketa, prompted the writer to address an inquiry to the post office department at Washington, through our good friend Congressman Dawson, asking as to that fact, and also for a list of the first postoffices in Jackson county. A prompt reply was received from Hon. P. V. DeGraw, 4th Asst. P. M. General, who says:
"We can find no record of a post office named Makoketa in Iowa, Jones county, neither can we locate the Mill Rock office."
Followng is the list of names and dates given, some of which are very surprising :
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Belleview, Jo Daviess County, Illinois, established March 17, 1836; John Bell, Postmaster. Office changed into Dubuque County, Wis., and changed into Jackson County, Iowa, Nov. 1, 1839, James K. Moss., Postmaster.
Silsbee established April 11, 1840, Obadiah Sawtell, Postmaster. Name changed to Andrew, October 26, 1841, Nathaniel Butterworth, Postmaster.
Fulton established June 19, 1851; William Marden, Postmaster. Waterford established March 2, 1855. Fayette Mallard, Postmaster. Higginsport established October 31, 1851; John G. Smith, Postmaster. Sterling established June 3, 1852; C. S. Ferguson, Postmaster.
Springfield, Jackson County, established June 4, 1840, John E. Goode- now, Postmaster; J. B. Doane, July 2, 1841; J. E. Goodenow, Oct. 13, 1842; name changed to Maquoketa, March 13, 1844.
Bridgeport, established May 1, 1850, R. S. Dyas, Postmaster; W. C. Grant, Oct. 30, 1851.
It would be interesting to know where the ridiculous error was made of recording Belleview as in Jo Daviess county, Illinois, in 1836. And did anybody know before that Andrew was not established as a new postoffice, but was removed from Sawtell's, in Richland township, and its name changed from Silsbee to Andrew? Inquiry as to Charleston brought particulars of an office of that name in some other part of the state established in 1850, instead of old Charleston, now Sabula. The first postmaster of our Charles- ton was Wm. H. Brown, appointed in the latter part of 1836 or early in 1837. The name was changed to Sabula in 1846.
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of bir Tom nd was saved at the .Inte
of Warted and Kirkpatr to friends in the forks, and afti lived with. Mr. Wilson and gave him funny particulars of the ecofiel
Mr. Wilson says the talk about so much erinie being committed I
bis at that time was greatly exaggerated There were no biores stolen
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in this county, and Br
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A. H. Wilson on the Bellevue War.
(Written by J. W. Ellis for the Jackson County Historical Society.)
Anson H. Wilson, a pioneer of Maquoketa who came here in the spring of 1839 and the only person living who came here in the thirties, as a full grown man, is still hale and hearty though past ninety and is full of remin- iscences of early days in the Maquoketa valley. In a conversation with him on the 23rd day of April, 1906, the writer asked him for his opinion of W. W. Brown, the principial victim of the Bellevue mob in April, 1840. Mr. Wilson said: "I knew Brown and his wife, well, I stopped at their hotel frequently on my trips to and from Galena. I helped build several mills and frequenity went to Galena for supplies. Brown was a fine looking man, tall, well built, dark complected, of genial, pleasant manners, and a perfect gentleman in every way Mrs. Brown was a small woman of neat appear- ance, with a winning way, that made her very popular, and a suitable help- mate for her husband. Brown was an all round hustler, conducted the best hotel in the country, some said on the Mississippi river, had a wood yard, a general store, and was interested in a meat market. He trusted everybody and gave everybody work that needed it. He employed a great many men to cut wood in the winter season, which he sold to the steamboat companies in the summer. I never heard that Brown was accused of committing any crime himself. The worst said about him was that he had a tough set of men about his hotel. I never knew of any one getting bad money at any of Brown's places of business. Brown always said if any one got bad money at his house or store he would make it good.
"Some time in February or March, 1840, Col. Cox came through this part of the county trying to get the people to turn out and drive Brown and his gang, as he called them, out of the country, but he got no help from these parts." Mr. Wilson says he told Cox that he would have nothing to do with such an undertaking and that he thought Brown would be a fool to surrender to a mob. He said Cox threatened him that he might be the next victim after Brown. He also thinks that the mob was quite largely made up of men from the lead mines near Galena. He says that Tom Welch, the young man mentioned by Joseph Henri who worked for Brown as stable boy, who was badly wounded in the fight on the 1st of April, 1840, and who Charley Kilgore tried to finish by emptying all the barrels of his pepper box pistol into Tom while standing over him, and was saved at the intercession of Warren and Kirkpatrick and sent to friends in the forks, and afterwards lived with Mr. Wilson and gave him many particulars of the conflict.
Mr. Wilson says the talk about so much crime being committed in the county at that time was greatly exaggerated There were no horses stolen
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in this county, and if Brown and his boarders were banded together to rob, steal horses, and pass counterfeit money they must have done their work in some other locality. Mr. Wilson was a warm friend to Col. Warren, but blamed him for his action in mobbing Brown, who considered Warren a true friend to him to the last. Mr. Wilson was quite familiar with the trials and troubles his neighbor, Shade Burleson, had in trying to settle the Brown estate, especially in his efforts to collect on notes and accounts. The probate judge had been Brown's worst enemy while living, and had been a leader in the mob that killed Brown, and nearly every man that was sued demanded a jury which was always largely composed of members of the mob and in every case a verdict was given for defendant. Mr. Wilson said, "I once asked Burleson why it was that he could not get a verdict against men of whom he held their promissory note? Burleson's answer was characteris- tic of the man. He said, 'If you sue the devil and have the trial in hell what show have you got for a favorable verdict?' "
Mr. Wilson says that the people of this side of the county were never friendly to Col. Cox. after the killing of Brown. That he never was invited nor attended any of the fourth of July celebrations or other public functions in this locality. He describes Col. Cox as being over 6 foot high, splendidly proportioned and alltogether one of the finest specimens of physical man- hood he ever met. Mr. Wilson said that when the capital was established at Iowa City through Col Cox's influence, a Mr. Ball of this county got a job of cutting the stone for ornamenting the new capitol, and his work was so well appreciated that Gov. Lncas secured him a job to work on an addition that was being built to the National capitol. The same Mr. Ball cut the stones to mark the graves of Mr. Wilson's first wife and daughter in Maquo- keta cemetery.
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VOL.
Part 3
Early Local History.
An Estimate of William C. Boardman.
be (Written by Prof. D. A. Fletcher of Maquoketa, Iowa.)
Virginia has been called "The mother of Presidents." In like manner New England, more honorably, may be said to be the mother of men; for no part of the world has given birth to a higher type of man, in the best sense, than has New England. For business thrift and enterprise, and for a high standard of morality and practical piety, no other country has sent into the world in the past two hundred and fifty years, so large a proportion of the kind of men that make a nation substantial and truly great.
Critics may sneer at the days of the Salem witchcraft and the land of wooden nutmegs and wooden clocks, but those nutmegs were a myth, and those clocks and their successors of good brass, have been keeping time to the perfect satisfaction of their owners. not only over all America, but in all the contines of the civilized world. We must not forget that the battle of Lexington was fought on New England soil, and that the echoes of that bloody strife have ever since been rolling over some down-trodden people, and to-day are sounding with unabated solemnity in bureaucratic Russia.
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