USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 17
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 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
Des Moines suffered from misrepresentation and detraction then as it has ever since. "Judge" Arden B. Holcomb, of Boone, in a letter dated Boons- boro, Iowa, May 18, 1856, wrote :
"Under the decision of the supreme court the state capitol is located on the east side of the Des Moines River, on the highlands east of Fort Des Moines. The excitement was tremendous. The old town is ruined. Everything was said and done that could be to induce the commissioners to locate it on the west side of the river. Two hundred thousand dollars were offered: but the com- missioners were firm, and placed the stakes out on the prairie. The town, of course, goes out there. The population is 2,700. A man having five hundred acres of prairie, upon which the stake was put, was immediately offered $500 per acre for the whole tract. The effect was instantaneous upon property on this side of the river. Here, by many it was held at double its former value. It secures the great thoroughfare north and south, and also the railroad this side of the river is placed beyond question."
In July, 1857, Mr. Holcomb wrote :
"The reaction has commenced, and many are losing largely especially in Fort Des Moines. The capital question raised a great excitement; anything like a fair business lot commanded from $4,000 to $8,000. Now business there is at a standstill and speculative prices are tumbling down."
J. M. Dixon, author of the Centennial History of Des Moines, remembered as "the blind editor," was for many years an editorial writer for the State Register, and as a result of overwork lost his sight. He was able, in the dark- ness which enveloped him, to see with his mind's eye the beautiful valley and promising young city upon which his physical eyes had feasted away back in 1855. From his first impressions of Des Moines,+ the following glowing para- graphs are quoted :
"From the eminence whereon we stood our eyes were cast downward along the slope of the hill, the surface of which was dotted by forest trees and occa- sional residences. Further on we saw the plain, or beautiful valley, stretching away from the base of the hill to the river, covered here and there with un- pretentious buildings, erected by the pioneers of the capital city. In the center of the valley, penetrating it from north to south, we saw the River Des Moines, whose limpid and placid current flashed back a myriad rays of light from the sun which was smiling in the noonday sky as though conferring its benediction on the infant city.
"Following the course of the river southward we saw its fine tributary the Raccoon, moving in its quiet and rippling flow from the west, and bringing its mass of sparkling water as a tribute of respect and reverence to the beautiful stream with which it became blended.
"Looking beyond the Des Moines River our eyes fell upon the old town of Fort Des Moines, nestling in the valley, and impressing us with the beauty and picturesqueness of the prospect. Here, near the river, the dwellings and busi- ness houses became more numerous and more ambitious, and beyond these the plain which extended to the bluffs was not only magnificent in itself, but was large enough to form the site of a vast metropolis."
+ Porter-Annals of Polk County, p. 175.
117
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Had the boundaries of the State as fixed by Congress in the spring of 1845, excluding the entire Missouri slope, been accepted by the voters of the terri- tory, the State Capitol would undoubtedly have remained in Iowa City. But, fortunately for Des Moines, as for the State as well, the protest of the pioneer Iowans was heard in Congress, and on the 28th of December, 1846, the State of Iowa was admitted into the Union with its boundaries as they are to-day, embracing more than 56,000 square miles between the Mississippi and the Mis- souri, thus making it far less difficult to re-locate the Capital city in Des Moines, at a point more nearly the geographical center of the State. The population of the county seat in 1846, as revealed by the last preceding census was only 127. In 1856, it had grown to 3,830, and the population of the county to 9,417. In 1857, when Des Moines became the State Capital, it had grown to nearly 5,000 and the county had a population estimated at over 10,000.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE STAGE-COACH AND FORT DES MOINES.
The early location of Territorial and State roads and governmental mail routes connecting Fort Des Moines with the outside world did much to turn the tide of immigration toward "the Forks," and thus to offset the growing uncertainties of travel and traffic by the river route.
The first official recognition of Fort Des Moines as an objective point of overland travel is an act passed by the Territorial Legislature of 1843-44, approved by Governor Chambers, January 29, 1844, providing for a commission of three to locate and mark a road commencing at Fairfield, Jefferson county, thence to Bennet's Point, in Keokuk county, thence to the county seat of Ma- haska county, "to the Indian boundary, in the direction , of the Indian agency, at the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines river." This was followed by an act approved February 7, 1844, naming commissioners to locate a territorial road commencing at Brighton, in Washington county, and running through Rich- land to the county seat of Mahaska, thence to terminate on the territorial road leading from Fairfield "to the Indian Agency, at the Raccoon Fork of the Des Moines river."
"Manifest Destiny" moved the Territorial Legislature of 1845-46 to order and direct the building of a stage road connecting the territorial capital, Iowa City, with the future capital of the State. Over this road, eleven years later, were hauled the records, furniture and other appurtenances of statehood, from the old capital to the new. The law referred to, signed by Governor Clarke, January 17, 1846, named Robert M. Hutchinson of Iowa county, James Doug- lass of Johnson, and John Scott of Polk, as commissioners "to lay out and established a territorial road commencing at Iowa City, and running thence west, by the old trading house, to Marengo in Iowa county, and thence through the counties of Poweshiek and Jasper, to Fort Des Moines, Polk county." The
commissioners were directed to meet at Iowa City on or within thirty days of the first Monday in April, 1846, and, after taking the oath, to proceed to the performance of the duties required of them, taking to their aid the necessary assistance, their "reasonable compensation" to be paid by the counties through which the road would pass.
In 1853 began the State roads movement in which Fort Des Moines was perhaps the chief beneficiary. Between January, 1853, and February, 1857,1 Des Moines was directly connected by State roads, created by three successive legislatures, with Adair, Appanoose, Lucas, Dallas, Jasper, Warren, Marshall, Davis, Monroe, Marion, Lee, Wapello, Mahaska, Delaware, Poweshiek, Cass, Mills, Boone, Humboldt, Webster, Pottawattamie, Madison, Page, Fremont, Hardin, Blackhawk, Clarke, Decatur, Ringgold, Sac, Calhoun, Union, Greene, Guthrie, Dubuque, Crawford, Woodbury and Story, with indirect connections with nearly every other county in the State, also with the principal cities of northern Missouri and eastern Nebraska.
With this network of communication, the citizens and business men of Des Moines late in the Fifties found themselves in the midst of a great and growing commercial field, with an assured future in any event.
1 As shown in detail in the History of Polk County, with which this work concludes.
118
MARTIN L. BURKE
119
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Nevertheless, there was ever :present in their minds the probability, if not the certainty, of a coming time when the steamboat and the lumbering stage-coach would dwindle into comparative disuse and railroads would give Des Moines direct and quick connections with all the great trade centers of the country, such connections directly leading to the development of the little garrison town on the frontier into a populous and commercially important city.
It was with knowledge of the partial fulfilment of the prophecies indulged in by Des Moines in the Fifties that J. S. Clarkson, then editor of the Iowa State Register, sat down one day in 1872 to write the story of "The Vanishing Stage-coach." He began with the statement that July 1, 1854, was the important date on which the first stage of the Western Stage Company "rolled away from before the City Hotel," Des Moines, on its way to the river. The company had succeeded to the franchise of Frink & Walker's stage line, the pioneer line between Fort Des Moines and Oskaloosa. These vehicles are described by the Register as "wagons without springs and with white muslin tops, drawn by two horses, arriving with great regularity semi-occa- sionally." They were routed for Oskaloosa, the first day; Fairfield, the second, and Keokuk the third. There was a tri-weekly line, and the fare was $10. The new company put on two-horse "jerkeys," and operated one line to Keokuk, another to Davenport. One of the founders of the line was E. S. Alvord, "'well known to many of our citizens." This corporation was a pioneer in the modern movement for consolidation. Its operations, commencing in Indiana, extended through eight states; its employes were numbered by thousands and its property ran into the millions.
On the first day of July, 1870, the last of its Des Moines line of stages left the Capital city. Meantime, it had developed from the jerkeys of 1854, to the Concord coach, and "till the rushing railroad trains caused the banishment of the. stage the four-horse coach was an important item in Des Moines life." From a tri-weekly line the business had grown until a daily line was in operation between the Capital and its termini on the Mississippi. "It was not an infrequent occurrence for trains of from six to twelve coaches to arrive and depart between sun and sun." In State Convention times, stages were run two hours apart, "and three or four hundred men were frequently shipped in a single night." It is reported that in 1862, the Twenty-third Iowa Infantry, a thousand men and their accoutrements and camp equipage, were transported by stage from Des Moines to Iowa City in three days, without inter- ference with regular travel.
During the wet season the company kept oxen and broad-tired wagons sta- tioned along the apparently bottomless bottom of the Skunk river, to help its stages over the otherwise impassable roads.
The stock of the company jumped up from $100 to $2,000 a share. The Concord stages cost a thousand dollars each; but, after the dissolution of the company they were sold for the value of their old iron.
The Register states that of the men once employed by the Western Stage Company, one was in 1872 a prominent member of the Iowa Senate; another, who was said to have driven the first stage to Des Moines, held for many years an important office under the government; was a railroad builder on a gigantic scale; and one who drove stage in Ohio afterwards became Governor of Iowa.
A Typical Stage-Driver.
Before we turn from "the vanishing stage-coach," let us stop long enough to fix well in mind a type of the man on the box-the picturesque stage-driver of the Fifties and early Sixties. In a paper, on early immigration in Iowa, read by James B. Weaver, Jr., before the Prairie Club of Des Moines in March, IgII, the author incidentally told the story of Martin Burke-a stage-driver turned farmer-from which the following is a part :
120
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
"He was very short and uncommonly red. Save for a white line where the hat crossed the upper forehead, a ruddy brilliance pervaded every nook and cranny of a face seamed by the pencilings of fifty-eight years lived in the open. The 'driver's box on a prairie stage in Iowa in the late Fifties had power to fix that color as a permanent pigment.
"On a certain day in 1855 what were known as the Frink & Walker stage company lines, operating between Keokuk, Des Moines and Dubuque, brought thirty empty four-horse coaches, with a driver for each, to Knoxville, Illi- nois. Thence they were driven overland, fifteen going to Burlington and fifteen to Muscatine for service on what were then the well-nigh pathless prairies of Iowa. Burke, then twenty-five years old, was one of these drivers. Colonel Hooker, whom some of you will remember, was superintendent of the company. From Burlington some of the coaches were driven up the Des Moines valley to Fort Des Moines. Burke went with the Muscatine contingent; but, home- sick for some of his pals in the other company, at once worked his way over to Fort Des Moines, and entered as driver in Colonel Hooker's company. His route was from Fort Des Moines to Fort Dodge. Upon that route, save for a service of two years between Des Moines and Indianola, Burke drove from 1855 to 1867.
"A list of his passengers would include practically all the names of pioneer Des Moines-Jeff Polk, Barlow Granger, Phineas Casady, Dan Finch, Billy Moore, Frank Allen, Fred Hubbell, Cyrus Carpenter, John Duncombe, John A. Kasson, 'Timber'. Woods, Judge McFarland, Judge Cole, and all the rest of that interesting and adventurous company that laid the foundation of our social structure in and about this city.
"I cannot stop to tell you the many tales he told me of pioneer conditions along her stage routes. Many there were, and good to hear,-amusing tales some of them, such as that of one Bowman, of Boone, who, arrested on Sat- urday and fined for intoxication, and being again arrested on a similar charge on Monday following, plead successfully one continuous drunk and his constitu- tional exemption to being twice put in jeopardy for the same offence; or, again, how drug-store whisky in the old stage days, being only purchasable with something else, the compound to be used for medicinal purposes, resulted in numerous commissions to Burke from the boys along the route whereby his pockets would bulge with bottles of whisky and packages of soda, presumably for spavined stage-horses-whisky that found its proper destination, and soda that begot a trail of soda biscuit the whole length of the route. O, those were rough, rollicking days along the blue-stem trails, days full of hardship and comradeship, of appetites bred of the open air and of that fine hospitality born of true democratic conditions! They left on Burke their picturesque impress -a kind of atmosphere of sufficiency in the solving of difficulties, born of the days when the little red-faced Irishman rode at the helm of his swaying prairie schooner-his four-horse coach with all its precious cargoes, bringing to bear on its problems of blizzard, torrent, mire or fractious leaders, the lessons learned in the rough school of experience."
The veteran stage-driver grew in dignity and repose as the weight of years came upon him. His was "the repose of simplicity, frankness, deep feeling, and the habit of reserve." Burke lived to achieve the regard of all his neigh- bors; "had for twenty years been elected constable and trustee of the township, which was of opposite political faith; had earned a livelihood for a family of substantial numbers, had reared his boys to lives of industry and integrity, and bound the family together-parents and children-by bonds of deepest affection."
'And when he was gone, after seventy-eight active years, there was profound sorrow in the little home on the farm in Bell Point Woods.
ENS
UN
COL. HOOKER'S STAGE COACH
121
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
The Man Behind the Box.
The man behind the box-the superintendent of the Frink & Walker stage line-deserves a passing tribute. "Colonel" Hooker-Edward Foster Hooker, a cousin of General Hooker, and a descendant of the Hookers who founded the city of Hartford, was for years a conspicuous figure in Fort Des Moines- a fine specimen of the old-school gentleman. His beautiful gray hair and beard gave added dignity to his commanding presence. In 1850, he became general agent of the Ohio Stage Company. In 1855, Frink & Walker sold their Iowa lines to the Western Stage Company. Colonel Hooker was a passenger in the first of the new company's coaches, and on alighting in Fort Des Moines, July I, he at once entered upon his duties as general manager of the company's Iowa lines. A small frame building on Third street, near Walnut was his first headquarters and home. Later he built a substantial brick dwelling, facing Locust street, on the present Savery House block. The company's headquarters were in the Everett House building. Its activities added much to the pros- perity of the town. During the war, and before the advent of railroads, the stage-coaches were in great demand. In 1870, overtaken by the railroads, the company sold to the Ben Holliday Overland Stage Company. Four years later the last coach was shipped by rail to Omaha. His occupation gone, the Colonel moved on, accepting the position of manager of the California-Oregon Stage Company. Five years later he was again overtaken by the iron-horse. There being no farther west for the stage-coach, the Colonel surrendered to the ad- vance guard of civilization, accepting the general agency of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company in San Francisco. Four years later, he became General Live Stock Agent of that road, remaining in that position until his death.
Colonel Hooker's open-handed hospitality is one of the pleasing traditions of Des Moines. His ability to meet emergencies was tested on many an occasion. His relations with the small army of men in the company's employ were marked by firmness and kindness. The Colonel spent much time riding from point to point, inspecting the line, the teams and the driver. He was a good buyer of horses and kept his coaches supplied with strong, well-matched teams. His knowledge of live stock and of western conditions and his wide acquaintance with western stockmen were of invaluable service to the Rock Island road. He died in 1896, at the age of 83. Many old friends of the Fifties and Sixties attended his funeral. The line of carriages to the cemetery was headed with an old stage-coach, and two old stage-drivers, John Burgess and Fred Kromer sat on the box.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MEDICAL PROFESSION IN FORT DES MOINES.
The medical profession in Polk county in the Forties and Fifties included two men of marked individuality and state-wide reputation, A. Y. Hull and T. K. Brooks. Dr. Hull might easily be regarded by the reader of the pioneer press as a doctor in name only, but in fact a land speculator, promoter, journalist, politician and legislator. But, fortunately, a brief sketch has come down to us of a pioneer medical society in 1851, of which he was the organizing mind and first president, and, in the newspaper publishing the sketch is an address delivered by Dr. Hull on "The Wants of the Medical Profession," which reveals the same broad view apparent in his published speech in the Senate on the re- location of the Capitol.
Dr. Thomas K. Brooks was a doctor and more than a doctor. When he died, February 28, 1868, the General Assembly adjourned over one day in respect to his memory. Members of both bodies attended his funeral. Dr. Howe, first editor of the Annals of Iowa, credited Dr. Brooks with rare quali- ties of soul, "by whose death Iowa lost one of her most public-spirited and valuable private citizens." 1
Dr. A. Y. Hull, like Dr. Brooks, more politician and public servant than practitioner, by reason of the many calls upon men of brains and education to public service in the early life of the community and county, was nevertheless a physician of large experience and was keenly interested in all that pertained to the practice of his profession. His early success in booming the town of Lafayette, with the utter obliteration of the town by the flood of '51, has else- where been related. His career as journalist and as legislator has also been separately outlined. He was a man of rare versatility and much brain-force. Had he been content to practice his profession, his career would not have been written so large in these pages; but possibly he might have served his age with more of real satisfaction to himself and benefit to others.
Other physicians of the pioneer period in Fort Des Moines were Henry Grimmel. D. V. Cole, H. H. Saylor, Alexander Shaw, A. M. Overman, David Tisdale, H. L. Whitman, W. H. Ward, J. C. Allen, and B. L. Steele.
All except Dr. Ward long since passed away-and all died in Des Moines except Drs. Shaw, Cole and Overman. Dr. Shaw early retired from practice and took an active part in the management of the Iowa State Fair. At the time of his death he was secretary of the Agricultural Society of Colorado. Dr. Ward several years ago removed to Arizona and later to Los Angeles, Calif.
Dr. Davis was an able and successful physician. He dabbled some in pol- itics, and for a time served Polk county in the legislature. He was an army surgeon in the Civil War. He died in 1867.
Dr Pierce B. Fagen is another pioneer physician whose name appears in many places in the chronicles of old Fort Des Moines. He "came to town" in June, 1846, soon following Dr. Brooks. He came with the prestige of suc- cessful experience in medical colleges and hospitals in St. Louis and Cincinnati. He and Mr. Casady came to the Fort together, and for two years or more the two were room-mates and occupied an office together. In 1848, it so happened
1 In the Annals of Iowa, April, 1870.
122
DR. A. Y. HULL Pioneer Physician, Editor and Legislator
DR. FRANCIS C. GRIMMEL Pioneer Physician
DR. H. L. WHITMAN Pioneer Physician
DR. T. K. BROOKS Pioneer Physician, Promoter and Legislator
123
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
that Fagen was nominated for State Senator on the Whig ticket and Casady on the democratic ticket. They good-naturedly made the canvass together. One of the traditions of the campaign was that the lawyer's friends insisted that health was the first consideration and that, while the lawyer could be spared, the doctor was needed at home! The district so voted, though the doctor re- ceived a large vote in his own county. In this connection it is noteworthy that when the crisis came as to the location of the county seat, Senator Casady was glad to see "Tom" Mitchell and Doctor Fagen ride into Iowa City to help him in his efforts to secure the prize for Fort Des Moines.
The great social events in Fort Des Moines in the Forties were the two weddings which disposed of the bachelor chums, Casady and Fagen. At the Casady-Grimmel wedding, in the fall of '47, Fagen acted as "best man,"- though he was a rival of the groom for the senatorship. Some one proposed a poll of the wedding party for senator, and the Doctor won out by a handsome majority, all the girls voting against Casady because he had broken their charmed circle of girls! The moral effect of the vote was lost on the grooms- . man and the bridesmaid, for in November, 1849, the Hoxie home, near the southwest corner of Twelfth and Walnut streets, was the scene of another society event, the marriage of Dr. Fagen and Melissa Hoxie. "Among the out-of-town guests" were Tom Mitchell and Charley Van, "the latter coming with an ox-team." Mr. Andrews relates 2 that "while the wedding ceremony was on, a terrific storm came, compelling the guests to remain through the night -- some for several days. The house was packed. It was an unique affair, replete with all the jollity Charley Van could concoct to 'kill time.'" In 1852, Dr. Fagen removed to Santa Cruz, California.
Mention has already been made of Dr. Francis Grimmel. The Doctor was a typical frontiersman,-a physician and everything else to his community. His drug store, on the corner of Sixth and Grand, was a business and political center and his home a center of church and social activities. His residence in Des Moines extended from 1846 to 1862. He was a man of winning face and manner and of large sympathies and correspondingly extended influence. The Doctor and his wife and five children came from Ohio overland, bring- ing with them in four wagons drawn by ten horses all their movable house- hold goods and a small stock of drugs. "He arrived here late at night, Octo- ber 15, having to ford the river between Grand Avenue and Walnut street, there being no bridges.3 There was not a place for them to unload, and they camped out. The next morning, the only vacant or available place to be had was the large, oblong, log Guard House used by the soldiers. The house was divided into two compartments about fourteen feet square, with small iron-barred windows. The chinking between the logs had broken away, and, to make it endurable, the wagon covers were fastened to the walls. The The mercury fell to 36 below zero; many cattle winter was severe. and hogs froze to death. Provisions were scarce and there was much suffering. The Doctor's family got out of meat. Dr. Brooks came
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.