USA > Iowa > Story County > Biographical and historical memoirs of Story County, Iowa > Part 24
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Chicago & North-Western Railway, and trade was henceforth held to the county. A rapid influx of settlers and speculators followed this opening up, so that the county had its greatest " boom," though not its most valuable growth, until the transient element had sloughed off. This line has been most typical of the county's solid growth, and has gained the good-will of the people throughout the acrid contest between Iowans and their railways. The main line now has four depots in the county, and 24.23 miles of track, valued at $10,100 per mile, or a total value of $244,723. This is the highest valuation per mile of any rail- way in the county-over $4,000 higher than its rival to the south.
In 1870 and 1871 a demand for a cross-road culminated. There were several applicants for the place, and they came from various cross- directions, all attempting to pass through Ne- vada. They all received encouragement from the citizens of the county, many of whom were very active. The Nashua & Milwaukee Rail- road was surveyed, but nothing farther was done. The Iowa, Minnesota & Northern Pa- cific made a trial the same year; probably there never has been such a year of railway fever as 1871. The McGregor & Des Moines Railroad Company was a third, and suffered the same fate. Nevada and Ames made brave struggles to secure the cross line, ard after much delay and numerous failures the western part of the county, led by Ames, together with Des Moines parties, organized a corporation to build a nar- row gauge called the Des Moines & Minneapo- reached the limits of the county in the follow- | lis Railway. Washington Township voted a ing winter. During the open season of 1864
five-mill tax, and after many delays the road it was pushed through the county, and Colo, i reached Ames on July 4, 1874. The terminus Ames and Ontario were its new towns. At this time its terminus was the farthest west- ern railway terminus in the United States. The new line was soon consolidated with the 1 lay at Ames for some time. In 1877 La Fay- ette voted a five-mill tax toward having it pushed through to Story City; this was com- pleted by December, 1877. This line was of
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less advantage than was anticipated until the Chicago & North-Western Railway secured it and broadened the gauge; since then it has given a valuable outlet to the capital, and to the north, while Story City, Gilbert, Kelley, Slater and Sheldahl are its new towns, that have arisen upon it to the north and south of Ames, where it crosses the main line, and furnishes a most prominent transfer point and union depot. This line now has 26.4 miles of track in the county, valued at $5,000 per mile, or a total value of $132,000.
The year 1881 was a year of culmination of some activity for new lines, this time in diagonals for the east part of the county. The only failure in this line was the St. Louis, New- ton & Northwestern Railway, but out of this move grew the Story City Branch of the Cen- tral of Iowa. It was to give the north part of the county a more direct outlet to Marshall- town, and quietly they secured the right of way : and a three-mill tax from Howard Township and a four-mill one, each, from Warren and Lincoln Townships. The track was finished by November and December, 1881, and forthwith arose the new towns of Zearing, McCallsburg, and Roland, while the terminus was made at Story City. The line has developed the north part of the county remarkably and rapidly. It is now called the Story City Branch of the Iowa Central, and has 19.5 miles of track in the county, valued at $3,000 per mile, or $58,- 500 worth of property altogether.
During the same months the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul Railway, quietly, and with no agitation or subscription except from towns en route, built its line through the southern tier of townships, and crossing the Des Moines & Minneapolis Branch at Slater. Early in 1882, by the time trains were running. and be- fore, new towns were springing up all along its line as briskly as on the Story City Branch.
There are Collins, Maxwell, Elwell, Cambridge, Huxley and Slater, of which Cambridge is the only old town, while Maxwell has nearly ab- sorbed Iowa Center, and Slater taken a goodly amount of Sheldahl. This line has exception- ally good depot buildings and does a very large local business. It now has 24.79 miles of track within the county, at a value of $6,025 per mile, or $149,359.75.
These roads are so convenient that no farmer in the county is over six miles from a. station, where they can find good markets and all ship- ing accommodations, there being seventeen railway stations altogether, 94.92 miles of track, adding to the county's taxable wealth $584,583. They have been town-makers, too, and moved towns to their own sites as if they were chess-men, the only town that shows any signs of resisting them being Iowa Center.
Practically, there has been added to Story County fifteen towns since the first railway appeared, in 1864, and this urban population furnishes a considerable home market. The mere presence, too, of the railways within the county enhances its wealth many fold.
The history of Story County finances may be illustrated by a review of her valuation, taxa- tion and bonds. The rate of valuation in Iowa has been scarcely more than from thirty to forty per cent, so that the following figures ought really to be doubled or nearly trebled in order to estimate the actual wealth of the county. The valuation assessed in 1855 is not accessible; in 1865 it was $1,795,120; in 1875 it reached $3,482,114; in 1885 the amount was $4,670,955; and in 1889 the total reached $4,863,043, which, if the assessment rate be taken at thirty per cent, would make the real wealth of the county at about $15,- 000,000.
The total amount of taxes levied by decades is as follows: In 1855 but $3,990.30 was
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levied; in 1865 it sprang up to $41,638.77; in 1875 it more than doubled to $97,683.06; in 1885 scarcely a third was added, making $134,- 400.36; and in 1889 it fell to $118,161.96.
There have been but three notable occasions for bonding the county, namely, to secure the location of the Agricultural College, and for funding the floating and court-house debts. The first bonds were ordered from a vote of the county on February 7, 1859, to give $10,- 000 to the college. The location was secured by this and other means, and bonds were issued payable in ten years and bearing seven per cent. These were all paid off on time. Then followed the issue of July 15, 1870, for funding the floating debt accrued during and since the war, and in March, 1876, another issue for a similar purpose followed, including the floating court-house debt. This issue was for $40,000, bearing ten per cent interest and due in ten years, and payable at the option of the county. In 1879 there was $10,000 retired for annual payment, and a re- issue made of $25,000 at seven per cent. The entire amount was paid from time to time until it was cleared in 1859, since which period the county has been entirely free from indebted- ness.
On May 31, 1890, the twenty-four funds of the county treasury all showed balances in their favor. The county fund, for general county pur- poses, had a balance of $14, 775.28 in the vaults, the largest balance of the various funds. The teachers' fund, for the payment of public- school teachers, came next with $4,443.69 in cash, while $2,528.22, the next largest, was credited to the domestic animal fund, a fund formed from dog tax to pay private claims for domestic animals killed by dogs. Four other funds had nearly equal balances. The school fund, a tax levied annually according to school enumeration, had $1.560.32; the bridge fund, a general county tax for bridges and roads,
had $1,298.67; the poor fund, a tax to sup- port the county farm and others in poverty, had $1,135.16; and the contingent school fund, a tax to meet miscellaneous school necessities, as fuel, etc., had $1,346.33. Other funds with balances above $400 were the bond fund, which has a surplus of $861.95 left over from former bonding actions, ready to be applied to future cases of bonding that may arise; the soldiers' relief fund, with a balance of $691.47, which was provided by State action to aid cases of need not reached by other sources; the school-house fund, credited with $777.38, from a district tax for building purposes and still unused; the road fund, having $668.45 in the treasury, from local township taxes: the institute fund, with $402.38 accrued from teachers' license fees for the support of county institutes : the permanent school fund, having $992.65 unloaned, out of the (over) $44,000 held in trust from the State as the proceeds of sixteenth-section sales, but, at this writing, all loaned; and the temporary school fund, the interest on the permanent, with a surplus of $451.64. Other funds falling below a $400 balance, are the State fund, a tax for State purposes, credited with $199.95; the in- sane fund, with $167.79in its favor for the State support of insane; the corporation fund, a tax collected by town corporations, having a balance of $344.55; the library fund, having $9.82 for the Nevada library ; the cemetery fund, another local surplus of $7.41; the railroad fund, hav- ing $12.14, what was left from the operations of townships in voting tax for railways; the board of health fund, another local surplus of $5.54, held for those divisions of the county, who have such officers; the drainage fund, a small amount of $160.42, left from a former tax for ditches along Skunk River and in Rich- land Township; the school-house site fund, with $22.50, accrued from condemned sites for
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school-houses; and the water-works fund, the tax collected by Nevada for her water- works, with a small credit of $33.55. These make a grand total of $32,887.26 in Story County's treasury on May 31, 1890, and no indebtedness. They also illustrate the extent of subjects over which the " county fathers," the State and local divisions of the county, have shown watchful care and interest.
It must be of interest to trace the growth of Story's population from the earliest days of the first settler. As far as known, the first white man located within the boundaries of the county in 1847 or 1848. According to an early map of Iowa, published in 1854, the cen- sus of 1850 found forty-two persons in the coun- ty. This census was taken for Story with other counties, however, as she had no organization, but the number seems altogether probable. In 1852, two years later, the number had increased to 214-a five-fold growth ; in the next twoyears it quadrupled to 836 in 1854, the second year of the county's organized existence, when it had not a railroad, but two post-offices, miles of Skunk River overflowed bottoms, multitudes of prairie frog-ponds, tall prairie grass frequented by the terrible prairie fire, roads that were mere paths along furrows, log houses along the streams, and only two townships. In 1856 it had trebled to 2,868; in 1859 it was 3,826; in 1860 there were 4,051 people; in 1863 but 4,368, while many were in the army; 1865 en- . Vermont. 82 from Virginia, 18 from West Vir-
rolled 5,918; then in 1867 it sprang to 6,888; in 1869 to 9,347; in 1870 to 11,662; in 1875 to 13,311; in 1880 to 16,906; in 1885 to 17,- 527, and in 1890 to -----. It is interesting to note, too, that in 1885 but 10 were colored, and those were all in Nevada. Of the 17,527, there were 14,054 native and 3,473 foreign born, the latter being distributed as follows: 2,057 from Norway. 415 from Denmark, 243 each from Canada and Ireland, 212 from Ger-
many, 154 from England, 74 from Sweden, 41 from Scotland, 20 from various countries, 8 from France, and 3 each from Wales and Holland. These lived in 3,410 dwellings scat- tered over the county, and in 3,510 families. Omitting towns, Palestine Township was the most densely populated (1,201), Howard came next (1,190), and Collins third (1,003). Of the entire population, 6,425 were married, 10,- 593 single, 476 widowed and 33 divorced; 392 were born in the year 1884. The voting pop- ulation was 3,866, while there were 491 aliens, of whom 372 had not taken out first papers. There were 111 above ten years of age unable to read or write, while 23 were deaf, blind, in- sane or idiotic. The nativity of the 14,054 native born were as follows: 1 from Arkan- sas, 6 from California, 4 from Colorado, 35 from Connecticut, 7 from Delaware, 1 from Florida, 2 from Georgia, 1,673 from Illinois, 782 from Indiana, 7,952 from Iowa, 66 from Kansas, 59 from Kentucky, 3 from Louisiana, 36 from Maine, 69 from Maryland, 41 from Massachusetts, 88 from Michigan, 43 from Minnesota, 69 from Missouri, 23 from Ne- braska, 3 from Nevada, 38 from New Hamp- shire, 40 from New Jersey. 752 from New York, 14 from North Carolina, 1,110 from Ohio, 2 from Oregon, 582 from Pennsylvania, 2 from Rhode Island, 3 from South Carolina, 32 from Tennessee, 4 from Texas, 127 from ginia, 266 from Wisconsin, 13 from Dakota, 1 from Montana, 4 from Utah and 1 from Wy- oming. The only States or Territories not represented were Alabama, Mississippi, Ari- zona, Idaho, New Mexico and Washington-a most remarkable condition, which promises excellent things for Story County if the theory regarding the superiority of mixture of blood holds good. Of the entire population, but one person was over ninety-five years of age-
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Mary Brennan, of Ames, aged one hundred and twelve years, the second oldest person in Iowa. 14,771 independent vines gave 17,143 pounds and 418 gallons. From 1,715 stands of bees were gathered 28,061 pounds of honey and 376 As to the county's general physical condition in 1885, there were 214,194 acres of improved land, 139,152 of it in cultivation, 88,537 acres unimproved and 60,306 acres in pasture, while the farms averaged 124 acres in size, there be- ing 1,553 managed by the owner, 66 by a man- ager, 142 by a tenant for money rent, and 485 by a tenant for crop rent. These farms were fenced with 564,150 rods of barbed-wire fence, 216,636 rods of hedge, and 206,881 rods of other fence. On these farms were produced (in 1884) 86,384 bushels of Irish potatoes on 1,124 acres; 399 bushels of sweet potatoes on 2 acres; 1,267 bushels of onions on 2 acres ; 675 bushels of beets, 3,722 bushels of turnips, 1,136 bushels of peas and beans, 3,745 pounds of tobacco (3 acres) ; 2,848,625 bushels of corn on 87,158 acres; 70,318 bushels of spring wheat on 5,281 acres; but 70 bushels of fall wheat (12 acres) ; 1,292,534 bushels of oats on 37,263 acres (the straw reaching 20,394 tons) ; 20,169 bushels of rye on 1,585 acres; 937 bushels of barley on 66 acres; 4,217 bushels of buckwheat on 567 acres; 3 tons of broom- corn on 6 acres; 314 acres in sorghum, 20,888 gallons of syrup and 175 pounds of sugar, but 11 gallons of maple syrup. In timber, there were 12,595 acres of natural and 1,316 acres of planted forest, while from these were cut 6,730 cords of wood (in 1884). The orchards had 44,226 apple trees, furnishing 30,246 bushels in that year: 18 pear trees, giving but a solitary bushel of its fruit, and only 3 peach trees, not bearing, while 4,079 plum trees pro- duced 1,453 bushels; 4,610 cherry trees gave 726 bushels, and there were 3,783 other bear- ing trees, with 109,587 not yet bearing. From 11 acres of vineyard. 21,740 pounds of grapes pounds of wax. The grasses and the dairy: 1,107 acres of clover gave 1,115 tons of hay and 209 bushels of seed; 18 acres of Hunga- rian gave 8 tons of hay and 45 bushels of seed; 65 acres of millet gave 115 tons of hay and 34 bushels of seed; 17,005 acres of timothy gave 15,652 tons of hay and 5,155 bushels of seed, while 46,576 tons of wild hay was cut; 2,798 acres of flax gave 24,001 bushels of seed; 76,- 837 gallons of milk were sold or sent to butter and cheese factories, with 204,603 gallons of cream; 665,626 pounds of butter, 3,009 pounds of which was factory made, came ont of Story County in 1884. In stock, there were 187 Short- horn, 1 Holstein and 2 Jersey thorough-bred cattle, 2,132 grade cattle, 11,194 milch cows, with 20,489 other cattle, 5,108 of which were slaughtered or sold for slaughter; there were 20 Percheron, 5 Clydesdale and 247 other pure- bred draft horses, with 1 standard-bred, and a total of 10,167, there having been 225 sold for export during 1884; the number of mules and asses were 359, but 7 only sold for export; there were 12,200 Poland China, 1,484 Berk- shire, 1,730 Chester White, 586 Duroc-Jersey, 87 Essex and 1,183 other improved breeds of hogs, with a total number of all kinds of 56,- 771, there having been 36,128 slaughtered or sold for export besides. There were 55 Merino, 222 Cotswold, 104 Leicester, 214 Southdowns and 149 of other improved breeds of sheep, the total of all kinds reaching 3,418, besides 1,022 slaughtered or sold for export and 48 killed by dogs; 2,508 fleeces giving 14,860 pounds of wool were produced. The common chickens numbered 131,333, improved breeds 10,417, with 18,727 other domestic fowls, and 434,292 dozen of eggs. It may be observed that 1,776 and 44 gallons of wine were produced, while | dogs were abroad in Story County that year,
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some of which may be, no doubt, classed as ! election showed a turn to the Republicans, refined poodles. In manufactures, brick and tile, foundry, furniture and saddlery products deserve mention, and in this order: Of 346,613 acres of land in the county, the reported aver- age acre value was $8.94, equalized to $8.05, making a total value of $3,020,286, besides which $513,201 was the value of town lots. The personality was valued at $998,031, and railroad property at $488,393. The total re- ported value was $5,019,911. The exemption for trees planted was $64,279. This sort of wealth supported 8 newspapers, and made nec- essary 14 post-offices, of which 2 were inter- national offices. It also made necessary 16 voting precincts. The large Danish popu- lation has led to the appointment of W. D. Gandrup, of Story City, as consul for Denmark. He is one of but two foreign consuls located in Iowa.
Let the whole be illustrated by the successive semi-decades of corn production-the leading crop: In 1856 there were 116,000 bushels; in 1860, 194,000; in 1865, 374,000; in 1870, 390,- 000; in 1875, 1,783,000; in 1880, 3,580,000, and in 1885, 2,884,625.
In politics Story County first divided on mere geographical locations; the two town- ships, Indian Creek and Story, on April 4, 1853, voted solid, the former casting 26 votes for Adolph Prouty and the latter 37 for E. C. Evans as county judge. Story, of course, se- cured Judge Evans' election. In 1856 the first real political division was shown by the vote for Fremont, 232; Buchanan, 272, and Fillmore, 79. In 1857 the Democratic candi- date for governor had 243 and the Republican, 217. The vote on the State bank law in 1838 was 424 for, to 18 against, and was not polit- ical, neither was the vote of 1859 on $10,000 donation to the Agricultural College, 402 for, to' 48 against. In 1859 the gubernatorial
395 to 358 Democratic, and the presidential vote of 1860 gave a still larger bound toward Lincoln, giving him 418 to 332 for Douglas. There were about a half-dozen Breckinridge men in the county, but no ticket was out. The gubernatorial vote of 1861 gave 412 Repub- lican to 317 Democratic. Of course, the vote of swamp lands in 1863 to the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railway Company, which was 334 to 98 in favor, was not political, but the State election of that year still continued Republican by 453 to 342, while the presiden- tial vote of 1864 gave 549 for Lincoln and 342 for MeClellan, the returned soldiers evi- dently all voting for Lincoln. The State elec- tion of 1865 had three gubernatorial candi- dates, the Republican received 539 Story votes, the old Conservative Democratic candi- date but 2, while Thomas H. Benton, Jr., who was called the " soldiers' candidate," received most of the Democratic and a few Repub- lican votes, to the number of 439, while the State vote of 1867 came out strongly Repub- lican, 767 to 406. In 1868 Grant received 1,058 and Seymour but 432 votes, and the guberna- torial votes of 1869 and 1871 were respect- ively Republican, with 992 to 374, and Repub- lican, with 1,199 to 470 votes. The vote of 1872 gave Grant 1,405, Greeley, the Liberal-Demo- crat and Republican candidate, 346, and Charles O'Connor, the straight Democratic candidate, but 26. The State vote of 1872 began to show signs of scattering, the Republican vote being 958, the Democratic, 696, and 1 scattering; and that of 1875 gave 1,346 Republican, 603 Democratic and 2 Prohibition. The famous presidential vote of 1876 gave Hayes 1843; Tilden, 579, Cooper, the "Greenback" candi- date, 327, and a few Prohibition votes. In the State elections of 1877 and 1879 these di- visions were still more marked; in the former
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it was 1,260 Republican, 344 Democratic, 644 Greenback, 187 Prohibition, and in the latter 1,701 Republican, 308 Democratic, 736 Green- back and 42 Prohibition. In 1880 Garfield received 2,054, Hancock 539, and 467 were Greenback and 1 Prohibition. The State election of 1881 gave candidates for governor- Sherman, 1,474; Clark, 474; Kinne, 283, and Allen, 1, while in 1883 they were Republican, 1,912, Democrat, 840, Greenback, 263, and Prohibition, 1. In the great campaign of 1884 the vote sprang back into the two old paths and gave Blaine 2,314, Cleveland. 1,212, with 11 St. John and 2 Butler votes. The only appreciable change in the county vote in the next two State elections was the appear- ance of the Union Labor party. In 1885 there were 1,978 Republican. 1,083 Fusion Demo- crat and 22 Prohibition, and in 1887 the re- turn was 1,897 Republican, 991 Democrat, 51 " Union Labor " and 2 Prohibition. The last presidential contest showed the vote to be Har- rison, 2,420; Cleveland, 1,050; Streeter (U. L.), 98, and Fisk (Pro.), 37; The State election of 1889 showed much the same with the usual falling off, 2,196 Republican, 937 Democratic, 37 Union Labor, 15 Prohibition and 3 scattering. There need be no further comment, for whatever the activity of any party, the vote is the only real description of political opinion. Locally there was a Republican bolt in 1867, and slight breaks in the seventies and in 1889. It may be mentioned though that the above Prohibition vote does not in the least indicate Story County's fighting power for a distinctively prohibitory amendment or any prohibitory measure disconnected with national politics. In the vote on the amendment in June, 1882. thecounty stood 1,921 for, and but 553 against-a clear majority of 1.368, with not a single precinct giving a majority against it.
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A marked characteristic of Story County has been its general unity in any organized movement within or embracing the county. Associations have been formed for various sorts of protection, for the promotion of agriculture, horticulture, stock improvement, public fairs, various kinds of agitation-political, railway, temperance and the like. The medical frater- nity have also united to promote common inter- ests, while the old soldiers have also re-welded the old-time fraternal links, as have the pio- neers of the Skunk and Indian Creek regions. Probably the first association was the Story County Agricultural Society, organized August 14. 1858, at the court-house, with John Scott as president. A fair was held in the court- house and yard, on a homely, modest scale. After the war the society was reorganized, and although a similar society sprang up in the west part of the county, all united later on to form one. A reorganization took place on January 2, 1869, with forty stockholders and a capital of $200. This has since been increased to $3,000, and the membership is 325. They have held twenty-four annual exhibitions and have twenty-nine acres of land at Nevada, with an excellent half-mile track, two good halls, am- phitheater, barns, booths, pens, etc. The presi- dents of the association since 1880 have been Col. John Scott, Solomon Young, James C. Lovell, F. D. Thompson, W. K. Boardman, A. M. Norris and George H. Maxwell.
The Story County Grange movement began very early, probably before 1871, and grew rapidly, so that at its county reorganization on February 15, 1873, there were fifteen granges in the county. R. R. Paine was chosen presi- dent at this time. Their stores and other co- operative schemes arose all over the county, and their influence in a political way became very marked, both as to local and State affairs. The movement has gradually died out or merged
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into some other. An offshoot of it was the Farmers' Institute, which was organized in 1871 to reach those outside the Grange society. It flourished and fell with the Grange, and both served good purposes. In a sort of new form this movement revived again in The Story County Farmer's Alliance, which was formed at Nevada on May 28, 1887, with the following officers: O. D. Allen, president; Elwood Fur- nas, vice-president, and A. L. Stuntz, secretary. It is non-partisan, and was intended to absorb all sorts of farmers' associations and local alli- ances. There were six local alliances repre- sented. These have increased to thirteen, with 537 members. Its annual meetings are held in the Nevada City Hall. The successive presi- dents have been: O. D. Allen, 1887; Elwood Furnas, 1888-89, and J. M. Wells, 1890. On July 1, 1887, this society organized the Farmers' Mutual Fire and Lightning Insurance Association, with these officers: A. J. Graves president; E. Furnas, vice-president; D. M. Hayden, secretary, and B. Confare, treasurer. A director was also chosen-B. Confare, of Mil- ford; E. Rex, of Washington; R. W. Liddle, of Franklin; E. Furnas, of Richland; C. W. Mills, of Grant; J. A. McFarlan, of La Fayette; Col. Jolm Scott, of Nevada; D. M. Hayden, of Franklin, and A. J. Graves, of Washington.
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