USA > Iowa > Story County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa > Part 20
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It may reasonably and modestly be said that, with very few exceptions, the judges of the courts of Story have been men of respectable standing in their profession, and quite a num- ber of them possessed of superior ability and legal learning. Those who still live in Iowa sustain themselves well upon the bench or in the practice of the law to which they have re- turned. Story County has furnished but one of the number, who, still young, maintains a standing with the ablest and best of them.
[The judicial convention of 1890 has, with- out opposition, nominated the judges now on the bench, Stevens, Hindman and Weaver, for
another term, to which they will without doubt be elected. ]
Of the judges of the courts of record in Story County, from the earliest times until now, there stands forth, unique and peculiar, the figure of C. J. McFarland. Physically, as well as intel- lectually, he was pre-eminent. He was of large frame, well balanced, had a well-rounded con- tour, but carried no superfluous flesh. A large head well covered, a beard extending to his girdle, and a florid face well lighted with ex- pression, he was a man to be marked and re- membered by all who met him. He was fond of athletic and other sports. Being addicted to the use of intoxicants, he was often under their influence when on the bench, and, drunk or sober, was liable to do whimsical things. Many amusing things have been published re- specting him, and many more have passed from lip to ear that would not bear the light of the printed page. One incident that happened at Marietta, then the county seat of Marshall County, found its way, with appropriate illus- tration, into the press. It was said that a case was on trial before the court, and a lawyer from Burlington was addressing the jury; the name of the attorney was James S. Woods. He was jovial, rollicking, and of a youthful appearance, though his age fairly entitled him to the play upon his name which was indulged in by the younger fellows who traveled the circuit with his honor. They, as well as others, spoke of him familiarly and impudently as "Old Tim- ber," or "Timber Woods." The court-room was on the first floor; the day was warm; the windows were open; in the rear of the building was a feeding-yard filled with teams; Lawyer Woods was earnest in his cause, and his re- sounding voice was heard in the yard and on the streets. When he was at the very highest pitch of earnest eloquence, a mule in the yard set up a loud and long continued bray that
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startled the lawyer and caused him to halt. The judge reassured him by joining in with the mule, and roaring ont: "Go it, Old Timber! There's two of you now !"
Judge McFarland is remembered by all the early settlers, and not unkindly. He drank intemperately, but he passed his bottle gener- ously among the crowd, even as he sat upon the bench, or jumped and wrestled with spec- tators outside. He had no concealment of his judicial or personal conduct. He would some- times arbitrarily take the case from the attor- neys and the jury and decide it without refer- ence to anything except his momentary whim. Such acts were regarded rather as matter of jest than anger by the even-tempered people, and excited little comment. It is said that in stating the law and their official duty to the grand jurors in another county he said: " This Maine liquor law, fanatics made it, and some think it unconstitutional, but that is not your business. You are to indict all persons who sell liquor. There is plenty of liquor sold in this town. If you want to know where it is sold, wait until court adjourns, watch the by- standers, and see where the judge goes."
It should be remembered that public senti- ment as to the use of intoxicants as a bever- age has greatly changed in the last thirty-five years.
Among McFarland's accomplishments and tastes should be noted his fondness for his dog and gun, and his ability as a keen sports- man. From court to court on the circuit he was invariably accompanied by his two finely trained bird dogs and his fowling piece. The first act on his arrival at the door of the primi- tive hotel was to unload and care for the game he had taken on his journey. Then an inter- val in court business, or an early adjourment in the afternoon, would be the signal for the gun and dogs, and a scout on the prairie for
game. When such a jaunt was taken at Ne- vada he was nsually accompanied by the boys and idlers, who in addition to the pleasure of beholding and applauding the fine work of the judge and his dogs, had the further in- centive of as many prairie chickens as they cared to carry home.
It is but justice to the memory of C. J. Mc- Farland to state that examination of the rec- ords, as well as the testimony of those who practiced before him, indicate that with all his failings he was an upright and conscientious judge, faithful to his friends, and kind and indulgent in his family. He had the pro- nounced and terrible misfortune of being a drunkard without shame, and his seat on the bench was a gross outrage on the people and an insult to common decency.
Among those who traveled the circuit with him and tried causes before him were the brilliant and genial D. O. Finch, Marcellus M. Crocker, the then able attorney and subse- quent distinguished soldier, John A. Hull, yonng, vigorous and aggressive, and taking his share of both work and play, and the not to be forgotten "Timber " Woods. These at- torneys were among the interpreters and found- ers of jurisprudence here. They practiced law in courts where the library consisted of the Code of Iowa and a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries. Beyond this they were thrown on their own resources. To present their causes to court and jury they must rely on their own sense of right for the discovery of the true principles involved, and upon inven- tion and discovery for the means of making these clear to others. There were then few decisions by which to be governed, and these young men were engaged in formulating the precedents of to-day and the future. That they did this wisely and well is the testimony of those who now profit by their labor and genius.
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As to many other judges and attorneys of the bench and bar of Story County, some of the oldest of whom yet live and work, it is scarcely time to speak. It may in general be said that those who may not have been brilliant were at least painstaking and earnest in their work, which is much the better. Their monu- ments are still under the mallet and the chisel, which themselves yet wield.
McFarland and Crocker and Hull and Woods are dead. Maj .- Gen. M. M. Crocker's fame as a brave and able soldier is a part of Iowa's proud heritage. As the friend and confidant of McPherson, as the organizer of the famous Iowa Brigade which bore his name throughout the war, as one whose memory is cherished in the hearts of the people, the State did honor to herself in ordering his features to be frescoed in her capitol. It may please some old-time citizens of Story County, many of whom knew him well, to be told that in his failing health and fading life he turned with pleasure to memories of men and things of in- terest alike to him and to them. His last meal in Iowa, taken when on his way from his command in Arizona to report to President Lincoln, at Washington, where he died, was eaten at the table of a friend in this county.
Hon. D. O. Finch, long a law partner with the lamented Crocker, represented the firm in many of the causes tried in the early courts of this county. He was brilliant, witty, genial and greatly admired by the pioneers. His home was then, as now, at the State capital, where he is still engaged in law practice. He has within few years past filled the office of district attorney for the United States in the southern district of Iowa.
Hon. Enoch Eastman, who at an early day lived in Burlington, afterward in Oskaloosa, and subsequently in Eldora, was one of the pioneer lawyers who practiced in Story County.
He was lieutenant-governor of the State dur- ing the war, and a member of the State Senate at the time of his death. He was the author of the patriotic sentiment inscribed on the Iowa stone in Washington's monument; "Iowa: The affection of her People, like the Rivers of her Borders, flow to an inseparable Union." It is told as an incident bordering on the pa- thetic, that when both were frail with advanc- ing years, Eastman was counsel for his long- time associate of the bar, "Timber" Woods, in a cause tried in Hardin County, to which the latter was a party plaintiff. Woods then lived at Steamboat Rock, where he died at an advanced age.
What unwritten memories of the pioneer courts of Central Iowa are buried with these men!
The first attorney to locate in the new county was Isaac Romane (1854). He turned his at- tention gradually to farming and live stock, and drifted out of the practice of law. He re- moved to Missouri many years ago. George A. Kellogg came in next. He was young, modest, never of rugged health, and went to the Pacific States some years since, hoping for improved health. He is comfortably fixed at Fairhaven, on Puget Sound. James S. Frazier (1856) has been an industrious attorney, but has mixed in lands and farming at the expense of his law practice. He still lives in his pleas- ant home in Nevada.
John L. Dana (1856) has also dallied with real estate and pensions. He still has his home, where he has continuously lived for about thirty-five years. John Scott (1856) has been more in other lines than in the regu- lar practice. [See biographical notice. ] Paul A. Queal (1859) was a brilliant young law- yer, and bade fair to take a leading place at the bar. He died in the army, during the war. L. Irwin was a genial fellow, of good
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ability, a fine sense of humor, and of singular modesty. He was a soldier in an Indiana regi- ment, settled in Story County at the end of the war, served a term as postmaster, and died about 1880.
To Mr. Irwin more than to any other person belongs the credit of establishing the Nevada Public Library. It was through his labor and influence that interest was aroused, and a tax ordered. He was for some years entrusted with the selection of the books, a trust that he executed with ability and taste. He was a systematic reader of good books, and was en- thusiastic in bringing them within the reach of others.
J. R. Gage, remembered mostly for his genial comradeship, has been for some years collector for manufacturers in other States. J. R. McDonalds ran to invention in machinery rather than Blackstone, and he is in business in Chicago. The brothers Balliett practiced law in Nevada for several years. S. F. Balliett is practicing law in Des Moines; Samuel A. Balliett has been in practice for several years in Idaho and Montana. Charles H. Bal- liett, a fine chancery and business lawyer, is now in practice in Omaha. N. A. Rainbolt's law office was in Ames. He removed to Ne- braska some years since.
George A. Underwood, Cyrus E. Turner, Daniel McCarthy, George Barnes and M. J. Smith are attorneys at Ames. Underwood and McCarthy have engaged also in live-stock farming, and have had other financial interests that demanded attention.
John L. Stevens' county law practice was done at his office at Ames. His promotion as district attorney, and thence to the bench, where he now is, was in recognition of his ability and character. [See biographical notice. ]
John A. McCall, T. L. Sellers and G. W. Barnes are comparatively young men, whose
ambition called them to the more crowded bars and yet more busy courts at the State capital.
John R. Hays emigrated to Nebraska some years since. T. C. McCall has given his atten- tion to loans and lands, as have also M. C. Al- len and J. A. Fitchpatrick, making a specialty of collections rather than legal contests. F. D. Thompson, having taken the post-office, to that extent leaves the law. [See, for each of these, biographical notices. ]
The bar numbers as its present members G. W. Dyer, H. M. Funson, J. F. Martin, D. J. Vinje and E. W. Gifford, of Nevada; A. K. and M. P. Webb, of Slater; E. H. Addison, of Max- well, and Lewis Nelson and M. M. Keller, of Cambridge, aside from those of Nevada and Ames already specially mentioned, who are all engaged in active practice as attorneys. As a whole, the bar of Story County will compare not unfavorably with that of any section where the general business of the population is agri- culture. That occupation is not conducive to litigation proper, nor does it offer a promising field to the criminal lawyer. If not a large number of famous jurists have arisen here, it may be matter for congratulation that the peo- ple have not furnished the litigation on which they feed, and that if without the luxury, they have been spared the cost of maintenance.
Because the alleged murder of the wife of Barnabas Lowell by her husband was the first crime of that magnitude committed within the limits of the county, and because of the cir- cumstances connected therewith, the homicide and the trial of the accused have always been matters of interest. The facts, or at least the stories related at the time, or said to have been told, were quite sensational in character.
In the month of November, 1852, as told by Mr. Ray in the chapter on early settlement, Barnabas Lowell lived in one of the two con- tiguous cabins on the claim of Samuel McDaniel,
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near the center of Section 23, in Nevada Township; but early in April of 1853, when the Widow Hague and her family arrived at the same place, Lowell had set up for himself in a cabin which he had built about half a mile farther north. This was on Section 14, on the land afterward owned by Pierce, and about forty rods northeast of the house built by Pierce. The place is now owned by John M. Wells. The Lowell cabin consisted of a house of logs, with a shed-room on one side, and a door between the two apartments. The logs of these cabins form a part of the stable near the house where Pierce lived.
Doc. Billings had a cabin in Section 23, northwest of McDaniel's place, into which Mrs. Hague moved. She had bargained for the claim, which was held by the custom of the country rather than by fixed statute, but was induced to yield it to McDaniel on some pre- tense, and had bought a claim of a man named Hall, in Section 36, of Richland Township, four miles farther north, which, for many years thereafter, was her home. While she lived in the Billings cabin she was the neighbor nearest to the Lowell place, and McDaniel was not much farther distant.
While Mrs. Hague still remained at the Bil- lings cabin, awaiting possession of the Hall place, she was called upon, one Sunday night, by one of the Lowell children, who nrged her to visit the mother, alleging a sudden and severe illness. Mrs. Hague responded prompt- ly to the call, but on hurrying to the place the woman was found to be already dead. Other neighbors came in. It was represented by Lowell that the woman " had a fit," and that its probable cause lay in her very hearty eating of the Sunday dinner and supper of Mrs. Mc- Daniel, where the day had been passed in vis- iting. Lowell's actions, however, were peculiar, and, in connection with his unsavory reputa-
tion, aroused suspicion of foul play. He re- fused to permit the body to be prepared for burial in the usual manner, and insisted that it should be wrapped in sheets without chang- ing the clothing, or removing a coarse hand- kerchief that was about the neck. He kept watch of everything that was done until the body was buried in the Monnd Cemetery. on the McDaniel farm.
Within a few days, on comparison of views and further investigation, the neighbors de- termined to have the body exhumed and exam- ined by physicians. This was done. The disclosures of this inspection and the testimony of Lowell's children, and others, satisfied the examining magistrate, Joseph P. Robinson, that Lowell should be held to answer for the murder of his wife. It appeared that on the day previous to her death the woman seemed to be in good health. During the night the children heard sounds which indicated a des- perate struggle in the small room occupied by Lowell and his wife. The door between the two apartments was of heavy slabs, and was braced by a beam that extended from the far- ther side of the room. Lowell refused the chil- dren admittance. They testified that the sounds were such as would be produced by striking, choking and struggling. Lowell was a man of such strength that he could readily take the woman's life by such brutality, and the impression was general that he had done so. It is also said that the children stated that their mother, a former wife, had died in Ohio under similar circumstances.
During the magistrate's examination, at the honse of Mr. Heald, Lowell lay upon the bed, and threatened those who testified against him, or gave opinions in favor of his guilt. He was reputed in the neighborhood to have been a pirate on the high seas in his earlier years. He habitually carried a weapon " like a sword "
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in a sort of sheath on his leg, and he succeeded in terrifying some of the witnesses to such an extent that they would not tell what little they knew. Lowell was committed to the jail of Polk County until his supposed crime could be placed before the grand jury. Judge Mckay ordered a special term of the district court to be convened at the house of Judge Evans for the disposal of this case. A grand jury was called and charged, consisting of Joseph P. Robinson as foreman, Samuel Heistand, John H. Keigley, William D. Evans, Jennings Wil- kinson, David Wilkinson, Jeremiah Cory, Will- iam K. Wood, Hiram Vincent, David B. Neal, Judiah Ray, Horace Heald, John G. Sellers, Nathaniel Jennings and John Zenor; William Arrasmith served as bailiff. The principal of- ficers of the court were, judge, William McKay, of Des Moines; Frank Thompson, clerk; Eli Deal, sheriff, and W. W. Williamson, of Des Moines, district attorney. As seven of the jur- ors were near neighbors of the accused, and under the excitement of the case had prejudged it and already condemned him, and as the fore- man had already acted as the examining and committing magistrate, it is not surprising that the indictment was promptly endorsed " a true bill," and returned into court. The sessions of the grand jury were held in an unfinished house in course of erection by William D. Evans.
The opening of the court and investigation by the grand jury occupied two days. The in- terest in the case was very great, especially among the citizens of the eastern part of the county, and they attended the court in large numbers. The distinguished visitors, attor- neys, and officers of the court, among whom were D. O. Finch, Jolın A. Hull, and "Old Timber," slept in the court-house, and took their meals with Judge Evans, but the general crowd mnst needs lunch and sleep as best they
could in fence corners and under the trees, or around the blazing heaps of burning logs. The trail made by the travel to and from this trial by the crowds from the eastern part of the county was used for many years as the leading highway in that direction.
On being arraigned, the accused took a change of venue, and he was afterward tried at Des Moines, found guilty, and sentenced to the penitentiary, where he died.
Although the judgment of the people was quite unanimous as to Lowell's guilt, and is entitled to respect, yet to such an extent has a sickly sentiment within the past thirty years hedged in the criminal, that it would be now difficult, if not impossible, to convict a man on the evidence of the crime alleged to have been committed by him.
At this first term the court "ordered, that the clerk use the eagle side of a United States half dollar as the temporary seal."
On the 17th of October, 1864, some chil- dren following a path near the ravine, on the west side of the creek, about the west line of Block 36, in Nevada, discovered appearances of a hasty interment of a human body. The locality was but a short distance from the line of travel, near what was then called the "lower ford," and was covered with a growth of hazel. Being near the creek, it afforded water, and was used as a camping place. An investigation dis- covered the mutilated body of a man. Inquiry showed that two men, traveling together, had camped there quite recently. The trail of the outfit was soon struck. Active pursuit was made. The destination of the survivor was dis- covered to be not far from Springfield, Ill., and he was arrested there. His name was Mc- Mullen.
Photographs of the murdered man were dis- tributed, and he was identified as one Town- send, whose home was in Southwestern Wis-
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consin, to which he was returning from the mines in Colorado. It transpired that Town- send had picked up his murderer as a fellow- traveler, and in return for his kindness met the fate mentioned. In addition to the bru- tality of the murder there were elements of treachery and ingratitude in the crime that made it most inhuman and revolting. When the case came to trial, the attorney for the State was induced to accept the plea of guilty of murder in the second degree. There was profound feeling when the judge, John Porter, sentenced McMullen to ten years' imprison- ment. At the expiration of this time, less the commutation for good behavior as a convict, McMullen went free.
June 14, 1870, south of the grade of the Chicago & North-Western Railway, on the bot- tom west of Skunk River, a man was seen run- ning through the tall grass toward the main highway. Afterward the body of a man was found on the track of the railway in the cut west of the grade. The bullet of the assassin had done its work. William Patterson, a foreman of the laborers, had been murdered. In a nook at the roadside were evidences of the delibera- tion.with which the murderer had waited for his prey. He had taken food with him, and for more than one day, apparently, had held watch and guard over his intended victim. The cir- cumstances preceding the homicide, a quarrel, threats, etc., all pointed to George Stanley, who had been one of the laborers, as the man of blood. He was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death at the hands of the hangman.
There was soon a great clamor over the fate of this murderer. The governor was urged to extend executive clemency, and to commute the capital sentence to life imprisonment. A re- prieve was granted, which gave time to urge the matter upon the General Assembly. A
bill was introduced, and capital punishment was abolished. The governor then changed the sentence of George Stanley, and he was sent to the penitentiary at Fort Madison. The death penalty has since been restored.
May 9, 1875, one of the pioneers, known personally to all the early citizens of the county, and heretofore named with credit, George N. Kirkman, of Indian Creek Town- ship, was taken from his bed under cover of darkness and slain. The prominence of the murdered man, former family jars of some notoriety, a separation and supposed reconcili- ation of husband and wife, all tended to excite interest. The manner of the death, the body being found suspended on a small tree, indi- cated that several persons were concerned in his foul taking-off. The investigation made by the coroner, who examined about seventy-five witnesses, resulted in holding a son and a son- in-law of the murdered man, a former employe, and two neighbors to answer for the crime. The wife was also arrested. All the suspected parties were liberated, and to the general pub- lic the matter is still wrapped in mystery.
All these homicides, though occurring within the limits of Story County, were known or strongly suspected to have been committed by those who lived elsewhere, and are in no sense to be considered a stain upon the fair fame of our own people. The same is true of the kill- ing of Mr. J. O. French, the mayor of Max- well, October 22, 1887. His death at the hands of Perry Ackers, who also killed him- self before he could be arrested, appears to have been simply the wild freak of an insane man. It was a very sad tragedy, but if done under the mad pulse of insanity cannot be called a crime.
The famous homicide by the notorious Bar- nabas Lowell may also be properly classed among those committed by non-citizens. He
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was but a bird of passage on his way from the scene of one crime to that of another, and happened to find shelter here till whisky and his fiendish nature asserted themselves as there told.
The murder of Samuel Porter is the only one that may be laid to residents of the county. Even that was from family troubles, and implicated no member of the community other than those under the roof of the murdered man. The very singular facts and confessions developed by investigation are as follows:
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