USA > Iowa > Jackson County > Annals of Jackson county, Iowa, Vol 1-6 > Part 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
86LG
William C. Boardman, the founder of the Boardman Institute Library, in whose honor we here meet, was born one hundred and two years ago to- day in honorable New England. In every sense of the word he was a "chip of the old block." Had he been born fifty years sconer, and in Massa- chusetts instead of in Vermont, no doubt he would have been at Lexington with his musket in his hand. He was of sturdy build, nearly six feet tall, endowed by nature with a good degree of health and strength and with his full share of Yankee diligence, thrift and foresight. No one could truth- fully say of him that he ever asked for anything to which he was not en- titled; or that he was ever guilty of a low or mean action, or that any stain ever rested on his honor. That he was the trusted employee and represent- ative in the West of the Fairbanks Scale Company of St. Johnsbury, Ver- mont, then the pioneers and leading manufacturers in the world of plat- form and other scales, and for more than a quarter of a century, speaks in the highest terms of Mr. Boardman's integrity, diligence and honorable dealing.
Fifty years ago, come the latter part of April, this writer had the honor of coming to Maquoketa with Mr. Boardman for the first time. We first met by chance at DeWitt. If the mud, through which our hack slowly plow- ed its weary way, was ever deeper than it was that day, a record should be made of it. Maquoketa was even then a thrifty burg with great expecta- tions, and something over twelve hundred inhabitants ' A corps of railroad engineers made this their headquarters, and buildings for business and resi- dences were going up on every part of the town plat.
CTNOYY
aitall IA
3 10
10
4
Mr. Boardman was then and long had been a married man. His wife Mary Denton Boardman was here, and presided over his home with true New England "faculty." Whenever her name was mentioned by either of the pair, the Benton of it was made prominent. This was because the wife came of a Benton family, which on its native heath ranked among the "400" of that generation. Mrs. Boardman in intellect was in no respect behind the best of her family. As between her and her spouse. she was probably the ablest, and that could be said without in any manner derogat- ing anything from Mr. Boardman as a man, in what he was or ought to be. Mrs. Benton Boardman was in fact, a magnificent specimen of a large, heal- thy, forcible and intellectual New England woman, gifted in every respect, except perhaps in striking personal beauty and except in having a family of children, of which she had none. And yet Mrs. Mary Benton Boardman was a great lover of children, and the children of the Sunday School all loved her. In her last sickness she mentioned a bottle of perfumery which one little member of her class had given her; a bottle she had never opened, for smells of such kind were not necessary in those days for her entrance into the best society our city afforded, a bottle which she had treasured as a keepsake for years. She had abundant time to carry out her plans, and she planned to instruct and delight the flock of little ones that crowded round her in the school, listening with open mouth to the words of wonder and of wisdom falling from her lips.
Mrs. Boardman never forgot the annual Christmas tree, nor the interest of her class in that joyful event. It is mentioned in Grecian fable that the goddess Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea, springing from the waves full grown and beautiful; and so without any fable at all. Mrs. Board- man annually created legions of rabbits full grown and with wonderful pink eyes, from her supplies of cotton flannel, stuffed out to fatness, as rabbits ought to be, and white as snow; white like the rabbits in winter time of her dear New England forests, and not colored like the degenerate race of rabbits that gnaw off the bark of our apple trees in winter in our western orchards. It was lovely to see these rabbits disporting. as it were, among the branches of the Christmas tree, and every member of the class had one, warranted not to bite or gnaw anything. Mrs. Boardman died in 1878 at the age of sixty-eight years, a woman born to be a leader, and a leader in fact in the society in which she moved.
For a few years after his settling in this city. Mr. Boardman continued in the business of selling and locating platform scales. He laid the founda- tion of a substantial addition to his fortune by purchasing in 1855, over a thousand acres of wild land in western Iowa. At that time the best of gov- ernment land could be bought for one dollar an acre. He personally inspect- ed every forty of that land, and with keen foresight knew the coming value of what he was buying. The death of his wife was indeed a sad blow to the subject of this sketch. No children of his own growing up around him, he was in some respects a lonely man. He was now seventy-four years of age. By the prudence of his business life he was beyond the necessity of that active exertion that is a pleasure to those who are in their prime. Ile had been a consistent and valued member of the Congregtional church, east
fall noinert visM
2 10:0:0100
1
-5-
and west, for half a century, and his interest in the welfare of the church to which he belonged, spiritually and temporally, in no manner abated. In 1878 his church in Maquoketa were engaged in rebuilding their place of worship They decided to have the windows of stained glass, but their funds admitted of the purchase of only the plainest kind. The windows came from the factory and Mr. Boardman saw them. He at once offered to procure richer windows if the society would return those they had already purchased. His offer was at once accepted, and to this generosity of Mr. Boardman we owe the windows, second to none in beauty in eastern Iowa, that adorn the building in which we are now gathered.
Up to the same time the Congregational Society of Maquoketa owned no parsonage. Mr. Boardman was born and reared in a part of the country that believed in churches and that a parsonage was the proper adjunct of a church, and the one almost as necessary as the other. He purchased a prop- erty for $2100, and conveyed it to the society : and this he did, like his gift of the windows, with no thought of special publicity, with no thought of self glorification, but as a public service done for the public good, and a wise appropriation of the means with which God had blessed him in the service of his Master.
The last public act of Mr. Boardman was his best one. I refer to his endowment of the Boardman Institute Library. By his last will he set aside five thousand dollars, providing that if a corporation should be created for library purposes with a paid in capital of five hundred dollars, it should re- ceive this endowment under sundry wise conditions for its perpetuation. Those conditions have been and are being faithfully complied with. Under arrangements made with the authorities of the city of Maquoketa. which are to continue for a long term of years, and I hope for ever, a library is be- ing built up with accretions from year to vear. destined to be of nothing but public benefit, the limit of which no one can measure. The Pharaohs of ancient Egypt devoted the lives of countless thousands of unhappy serfs and millions of treasure to the erection of pyramids, which at the best were only piles of stone. We do not now know with certainty whether they were intended to be merely the tombs of those monarchs, or landmarks indicat- ing the points of the compass. They were of no valuable use and did not even have the merit of furnishing paid employment to laborers out of work, for they were built by the labor of slaves. Military heroes, in all ages of the world, have sacrificed the lives of their subjects and of other uncounted millions to their thirst for glory ; and we who read of it, realize clearly that these sacrifices were only for base purposes, without the smallest element of good to anybody, and their authors are being rapidly consigned to the limbo of the forgotten past, except as a warning to the present and coming gener- ations of the evil that men may do when their lives are not consecrated to high and noble purpose.
The life and doings of William C. Boardman were of a nobler type. Ile was a diligent man in things and ways that were good only; he was a pure man no one ever heard a word fall from his lips that might not be spoken in any presence: he was an economical and saving man who learned in his youth the lesson-often not learned-that one's expenditures should not ex-
OW
20
M
Tto epot18
6 20W
-6-
ceed or even equal his income: he was a religious man, not warped by pre- judice or filled with bigotry, who profoundly realized and showed by his daily life that man was created for the high purpose that he should contri- bute with his powers and talents to the great work of making the world better, he was an honest man, and his worldly possessions were acquired in doing that which was of benefit to others, and in strong contrast to the ac- quisitions of many magnates of the present day whose wealth has grown out of the oppression and wronging of others. He honestly earned every dollar he had.
Mr. Boardman made no pretensions to being a learned man or to litera- ture. I am sure he never made a socalled speech in his life. He never wrote out even a humble essay, such as you are now listening to. It is not certain that he ever inquired whether Shakspeare was an Irishman or a Frenchman; or that he knew whether the beautiful extract "The quality of mercy is not strained but cometh like a gentle dew from heaven," was written by Milton or Burns; but he well knew what was for him more im- portant and perhaps better. No one could with more eloquence of conviction explain the merits and value of Fairbanks platform scales than could he; no one was a higher past master in the science and art of properly setting those scales when once the eager customer had purchased them; and to crown all, when they were paid for, every cent of the purchase price that belonged to Faribanks & Company went as straight into their till as Uncle Samuel's mails could carry the money-an event that does not always hap- pen in these days.
From what I have said as to Mr. Boardman's critical knowledge in lit- erary matters, one must not think that he despised or under valued educa- tion .; far from it. He gave a thousand dollars to the son of his pastor, a worthy graduate of our High School, to help him to a college education. He was not only the owner of a share of stock in our pioneer library associa- tion, but he and his family often drew out and read its books, and he paid for and he believed in the editorials of Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune.
The beneficence of Mr. Boardman in the founding of our library appeals to every young person especially, in our community, as an example of right doing. He might have left that five thousand dollars to relatives who did not need it; or he might have devoted it to a monument of bronze or marble: but he, as I think, wisely and nobly did otherwise. He consecrated it large- ly to the improvement of our young people of the present and coming gener- ations, that reading what has been said and of what has been done in the past by the wise and good and truly great. they may acquire strength to dis- charge those duties which a free republic and a kind providence has laid upon their shoulders. God grant that they may see their opportunity and profit by it.
William C. Boardman died in Maquoketa nearly twenty-two years ago. The pupils in our public schools never saw him, except in his speaking like- ness that hangs on the walls of our free public library : and most of the citi- zens who now throng our streets have known him only by name. But in the endowment of our library he erected to his honor that which will be more
..
YouTill 10 BalBUE
adollial
D
.bail out M
SIDO 9101W
TOU 29
dla
I won odw 2019s
enduring than the pyramids-in its usefulness expanding as the ages come- that which will bear richest fruitage for the higher being of our people, as long as men shall aspire to and revere that which is truly great in human character and conduct.
A Sketch Burn's Settlement in Otter
ekson County.
.Towa, Mareb 20: 1000.
ers in the Dear Str .:
T Would. Ha
SLATTERY
B1 C
the fall of 1846 ver-
roche the con In Maquoketa la 10 Smith euk, and had to deal god of y. H rodler brother th tuber to build the wad fis went back I
ip a sawmilll on Otter
but the mill proved a fall ure as they wat of the family e In the spring of 1:46 they
The farm now owned by Thos. Ryail, a short church, from the government
e west of Otter
We l
d on this farm until
and moved to
va, and be Apita, his wife dyr
while Diey teed In CHtes d to Oktahos
Adair county, where he
.died there
In April, 1205, an
which ho bicke up
de his home with huls das
among them. They are Eilus. Martin
-
,
w., an mean eighty-
ww xtatilw ders
--
18-
of Shenandoah; J 1 many of Ringen, Neb, with w
nd Angelina, Mrs. Jas Broc
.
A hur of San Franc
Coune Cad. ; Jo
A Sketch of the Founder of the Burn's Settlement in Otter Creek Township. Jackson County.
(Written by Miss Mayme Slattery for the Jackson County Historical Society )
Zwingle, Iowa, March 24, 1906. Mr. Jas. Ellis,
Maquoketa, Iowa.
Dear Sir: I have been reading your account of early settlers in the Sentinel all winter and I think it is quite interesting, so thought I would send you these few items concerning Zacharia Burns, the founder of Burn's Settlement in Otter Creek townsghip, if you would have it printed, but you may have read his history in the Jackson County History. I do not remem- ber if it is in it or not, however, these items are correct as he gave them himself. He is living at present with his son-in-law, James Degan. in Ben- son, Nebr., and is very well and has a very clear memory for a man eighty- eight years old.
Yours and oblige,
MISS MAYME SLATTERY.
Zachariah Burns. the subject of this sketch, was born March 15, 1818, in St. Charles, St. Charles county, Mo., living there until the fall of 1845 when he and his brother, Uriah, came to Jackson county, Iowa, (an over- land trip) to see the country. They camped one night in Maquoketa in front of Goodenow's house. There were only two dwellings and a blacksmith shop there at that time.
There was no wagon road from Maquoketa to Otter Creek, and had to follow a path through the timber of which there was a great deal and of good quality. He and his brother intended putting up a sawmill on Otter Creek, so Zacharia left his brother there to get out the timber to build the mill and he went back to Missouri to bring his mother and rest of the family out. but the mill proved a failure as they could not get a dam that would hold, so in the spring of 1846 they moved to Otter Creek township and bought the farm now owned by Thos. Ryan, a short distance west of Otter Creek church, from the government paying the regular price of $1.25 per acre. He lived on this farm until 1883, when he sold it and moved to Adair county, Iowa, and bought another farm near Anita, his wife dying while they lived there in 1887. His mother died while they lived in Otter Creek do not know what year. In 1893, he moved to Oklahoma and lived there one year, returning to Adair county, where he remained two years. His daughter, Mary, died there in April, 1898, after which he broke up housekeeping, sold his farm and has made his home with his daughters ever since, dividing his time among them. They are Edna, Mrs. Chas. Martin
zil
-9-
of Shenandoah, Ia. ; Ellen, Mrs. Jas. Degan of Benson, Neb., with whom Mr. Burns resides at the present time and Angelina, Mrs. Jas Brock of Council Bluffs. Mr. Burns has four sons also, Arthur of San Francicso, Cal. ; John and Eustus of Missouri, and Wm. of Oklahoma.
Uriah farmed for a while in Otter Creek, sold out and removed fo San Francisco, Cal., where he died some years ago. There was another brother. Timothy, who kept store on a corner of Zacharia's farm. He removed to Texas where he died a short time ago. Zach, as he was familiarly called, is only survivor of the founders of Burns' Settlement, and is hale and hearty, and has a very clear memory despite his eighty-eight years and can relate quite a few interesting incidents of the early history and settlement of Jackson county.
Jus . bim just the
Jarret to pr
vid
to hold was through with lum suggested that the nifl the John rret nat, at the back of So Douse Mr .. Wa
o away froza the moon
nd-Mrs. 12. A. Turb- ige says, there was
removed withool. an slipped ont and tata
but one of his compan . erder is spread
into a cocked bat. H ooh in pursuit like a pack of
hab when they reached the Martin od- escaped by dropping over the bank es by holding on to the bank with if the dieses
It was said That, som
the bar bo pursued velie dare move
for full
war hiding
The men deg
the pinwond
her sy and T To that dire
he the officers and thult prisoner got a mua
the river and bastened on towards Belli
How to their right wi while the mob chl
er to Andrew went on to that place, not very hastily on U
BT
=- 10 --
theit proy. Chủ
towards Belle
board of a s
safe / .. ITo w
Reminiscences of Mrs. E. A. Turner.
(Written by J. W. Ellis for Jackson County Historical Society.)
After the hanging of Alex Grifford by the Vigilance Committee, April 11th, 1857, the Committee repaired to the house of Henry Jarret near Iron Hills, arrested Jarret with the intention of having him share the fate of Grifford, whose confession had implicated Jarret in the murder of Ingles on the 27th of March. Jarret protested his innocence so hard and plead so hard for a trial that it was tinally decided to take him before Eleazer Mann, a justice of the peace, and give him a hearing, but it was intended to hang him just the same. During the trial of Jarret, the mob had a fire in the front yard, and was passing the time as pleasantly as possible while waiting for the end of the farce, as they considered the hearing. Finally as night was approaching the squire decided that the evidence was sufficient to hold Jarret to appear before the grand jury, but the question was how to hold him, it was very evident that as soon as the squire was through with him the mob would take charge of him. It was finally suggested that the offi- cers, John Sagers and Ambrose Jones, try to get Jarret out at the back of the house which stood near a ravine and smuggle him away from the mob. There was a back door which was not generally used, and Mrs. E. A. Turn- er, who is still living and who was in the house at the time says, there was a dish cupboard standing against the door, and this was removed without attracting the attention of the mob, and the three men slipped out and into the hollow which concealed them for quite a distance from the house, but as they left the hollow to cross a ridge three men, Parker, Warner and Wag- oner, who were sitting on stumps some little distance from the house saw them and one of them cried out to give an alarm, but one of his companions ordered him to shut up on pain of being knocked into a cocked hat. But the alarm was spread and the mob bounded out in pursuit like a pack of hounds and were about to overtake them when they reached the Martin Ferry on the North Fork and the pursued escaped by dropping over the bank where it was dark, supporting themselves by holding on to the bank with their hands to keep an upright position. It was said that some of the mem- bers of the mob stood on the hands of the pursued who did not dare move for fear of disclosing their hiding place. The mob decided that the pursued had gone to the other ferry and rushed on in that direction and as soon as they were gone the officers and their prisoner got a man to set them across the river and hastened on towards Bellevue as fast as possible, leaving An- drew to their right while the mob thinking the officers would take the pris- oner to Andrew went on to that place, not very hastily as they felt sure of
.
21
lod. 8
9
17
-11-
their prey, but not getting any trace of the parties at Andrew, hastened on towards Bellevue and some of them arrived in time to see Jarret taken on board of a steamboat which conveyed him to Fort Madison, where he was safe from pursuit.
He was afterwards brought back to Bellevue for trial but the excite- ment had died out and we believe there was no prosecution of his case at- tempted. Mrs. Turner says that her father John Mann, thought that he was very likely the innocent cause of the murder of Ingles. A few days be- fore the murder, Mr. Ingles employed John Mann to haul up some fire wood for him. Ingles went into the timber and cut down trees and trimmed them up in shape for Mann to drag them up with oxen. The wood had to be hauled through a cleared field belonging to Dave McDonald, and when Mann came with the first load McDonald asked him who he was hauling the wood for. and on being told for Ingles, he was forbidden by McDonald to go across his land any more. Mann, however, plead with McDonald to let him go back and tell Ingles and haul one more load. McDonald consented for him to draw just one more load, but no more. Mann went back and told Ingles what McDonald had said and that he could only haul one more load. Ingles was quite angry and said among other things that McDonald had bet- ter have a care or he would tell something on him that would drive him out of the country quick. When Mr. John Mann was going home he met Eleaz- er Man and told him of his experience with the two men. and of the threat made by Ingles The story got out and it was believed that Grifford was in- duced to kill Ingles to prevent him from telling what he had threatened to tell. McDonald escaped from the country and never came back.
Mrs. Turner was asked by members of the mob, why she did not warn them that the officers were spiriting Jarret away from them? She said the reason was that she liked the Jarret girls and would not for the world do anything to hurt them. Mrs. Turner's hubsand was present and witnessed the hanging of William P. Barger in Andrew by a mob in 1857, but had no part in it. He cut a limb from the tree at the time and carried home with him and kept it for more than 40 years in a little box with his private pa- pers, said box never being opened by any one else until after his death. The relic is now in the writer's possession
Mr. John S. Thompson was also present at the preliminary trial of Hen- ry Jarret, but only as a spectator .. He witnessed the escape of the consta- bles with their prisoner and the mad chase of the mob in their endeavor to re-capture and execute him.
Benton, Kans., Dec. 20th, 1897.
J. W. Ellis, Esq.,
Maquoketa, Iowa.
Dear Sir: I received yours dated 14th and I cannot recollect of any other letters from you. My folks received the papers all right and was pleased with them, but would have been better pleased if there had been more of them, respecting your 25 copies of papers I would like to have them and also your book when it is done. I hope you will give my best respects to Mr. and Mrs. John Goodenow, I would like they could visit me in the near future
Buvete8 abrswot Ircode & Xo binod
Tang 80W 9IX
01
8
dron
100108
L
Z 81077
wodebbot odol.
-- 12- -
that I could have the privilege of returning some of their kindness to me while I was at their place. Give my respects to Mr. Teeple, I would like to hear from him. The afternoon I left Mr. Teeple's place I was giving the horse a pail of water when a stitch took me in the back which I am not well of yet, but I suffered no more in the buggy than I would in an easy chair in the house. I stopped a few days in Cedar Rapids with my connec- tion where I was well cared for. Stopped at Grand Junction next and stay- ed several days with Fletchjoy and his son, Henry, and others that were neighbors in Illinois. Stopped four miles west of Jefferson City with two old friends and at Beatrice, Nebr., and on my way there I stopped at a farm house over night with an old lady and her son and I am sorry that I did not take their names and address, I learned from the lady what became of Bill Fox, the man that helped kill Col. Davenport at Rock Island. She said that after Fox was taken prisoner he gave the posse that took him the slip and went to No Man's Land, Indiana, and died there. With many thanks for your favors and best wishes for my old friends there,
Respectfully,
JOSEPH HENRI.
The writer of the above. Joseph Henri, died at Eldorado, Kansas, Nov- ember 18th, 1899, aged 90 years. J. W. E.
Mt. Vernon, Iowa, January 25th, 1904. Mr. Harry Littell.
Dear Friend: In replying to your favor of the 17 inst, will give you what I can think of that might possibly be of value to you. Father was born in Madison County, N. Y., in 1815; mother in Ashtabula County, Ohio, in the same year, where they were married in 1845. They commenced life for themselves in Wyoming County, N. Y., having purchased a timbered farm which he cleared off. He sold out there and moved to Monmouth Township, Jackson County, Iowa, in the summer of 1853. traveling as far as Rockford, Ill., by cars. He left his wife and three small boys at that place and came to Iowa to purchase. He secured 440 acres of land, partly timber at $3.50 per acre. He then purchased a team of horses, one of Dr. Cook and one of P. Mitchell, merchant of Maquoketa, and rode one and led the other back to Rockford, where he completed the outfit for a trip over- land the rest of the way. He had gone but a short distacne when owing to the neckyoke breaking going down hill, the wagon was over turned and all the family caught under the load of goods, except the mother, who was so badly injured that it was necessary to carry her the rest of the way in a sling bed suspended from the bows of a covered wagon.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.