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 22
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of a justice of the peace, and was entitled to the fees of such officials; also to administer oaths and take acknowledgments.
Following this mere outline of the Des Moines incorporation law of 1857,2 the reader cannot have failed to note that while the law under consideration con- tains numerous clauses recognizing the conditions of the small city of its period, it also contains several sections which clearly anticipate even present-day con- ditions-conditions covered by the "Government by Commission" law under which the city of Des Moines is now working.
The question of a charter for the city of Des Moines, apparently settled by the Governor's signature, on January 28, 1857, was reopened, March 9, 1858, by a bill introduced in the House by Mr. Mitchell, of Polk, "for an act to repeal an act incorporating the city of Des Moines," etc.
On the 18th, the bill passed by a vote of 42 to 19.
In the Senate, March 10, Mr. Davis of Polk, presented the remonstrance of B. F. Allen and 400 other citizens of Des Moines, against the passage of a re- pealing act.
On the 19th the bill passed by the House was referred to the Senate committee on corporations, Mr. Davis of Polk, sitting as an additional member.
On the 20th, Mr. Mann, from the committee on corporations, reported the bill to the Senate recommending its passage. On motion of Mr. Rankin, the bill was laid on the table,-and there ended the opposition to incorporation of the city of Des Moines.
The movement for repeal grew out of charges of bad faith at Iowa City in '56, in railroading the bill through the legislature without regard to East side interests and an undue preponderance of power with the West side, as developed and perpetuated in the terms of the charter itself.
A constitutional question having arisen as to the right of the General Assem- bly, under the new constitution, to repeal laws of this character, coupled with the presence of an influential lobby in support of the B. F. Allen protest, seems to have killed the Mitchell bill in the Senate.
2 Laws of 1857, Chapter 185-The Law includes 28 sections and covers 14 pages.
CHAPTER II.
THE CITY STARTED ON BORROWED CAPITAL.
In 1857, the new city of Des Moines was organized with W. H. McHenry,1 mayor; B. D. Thomas, recorder; Benjamin Bryant, treasurer; William De- ford, marshal; B. Callan, city engineer ; Will Tomlinson, street commissioner, East side ; John McNamara, West side. The city council was composed of : Will- iam A. Hunt, James F. Kemp, F. R. West, Lovell White, Isaac Cooper, W. C. Burton, R. L. Tidrick, G. W. Connor, J. W. Stanton, J. A. Williamson, H. H. Griffiths, W. A. Scott, John Hyde and R. Lawrence.
It proceeded to fortify itself at all points with ordinances, and these were published in a pamphlet of 121 pages-prefaced by the law of January 28, 1857, under which the city was created, and followed by the Constitution of Iowa.2
The ordinances, twenty-nine in number, cover the usual range of city ordi- nances, including the following general heads :
(I) Charter and seal, (2) election and appointment of officers, (3) council organization, (4) duties and compensation of officers, (5) assessment and col- lection of taxes, (6) division of the city into wards, (7) a mayor's court, (8) mis- demeanors, (9) nuisances, (10) licenses, (II) board of health, (12) fire depart- ment, (13) street labor, (14) grading, (15) sidewalks, (16) weights and meas- ures, (17) weight of coal, hay and grain, (18) concerning the floating bridge across the Des Moines river-declaring it a toll-bridge, the toll to be fixed by the council from time to time, (19) flues and stove-pipes, (20) gunpowder, (21) concerning the impounding of hogs found running at large, (22) taxing dogs, etc., (23) granting to "the Avenue and Market street bridge companies" ex- clusive right to approaches to the river, (24) requiring the building of sidewalks, (25) the grading of Court avenue from the Des Moines river to the public square, (26) fixing the grade of Walnut street, (27) the grading of Walnut street, (28) concerning ordinances.
The 29th and last ordinance throws light upon the financial condition of Des Moines when it took on the weighty responsibilities of a Capital city. The ordi- nance is introduced by this significant "Whereas: Owing to the present scarcity of money, it is found impossible to collect sufficient of the taxes due the city to defray current expenses, and to pay outstanding indebtedness; and Whereas, it is impolitic and unwise for the city to pay the rate of interest demanded on loans ; and Whereas, it seems probable that if warrants on the city treasury were issued in a form to render them readily negotiable, parties holding them would be enabled to dispose of them readily to taxpayers and others; and Whereas, by the general circulation of convenient warrants, taxpayers would become pos- sessed of means by which to pay their taxes: Therefore," etc.
Section I ordains the issuance of city warrants, in denominations of 1, 2, 3 and 5 dollars, to an amount not exceeding in the aggregate the amount of taxes assessed for the current year.
Section 2 provides that the warrants "be executed on bank note paper and in the form and with designs usual to bank notes, the style of the same when in blank being :
1 Father of Judge W. H. McHenry, of the present Polk County District Court.
2 Printed by "William Porter, City printer. 1857."
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CHARLES MASON
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"State of Iowa.
"The city of Des Moines will pay to the bearer (one, two, three, or five as the case may be) dollars at the office of the city Treasurer, out of any moneys in his hands, not otherwise appropriated."
Section 3 gives details as to the issuance of the warrants.
Section 4 instructs the mayor to appoint a permanent committee of three, to be known as "the Finance Committee" whose chief duty was to "have control of the warrants when executed, subject to the direction of the council, and to use all legitimate means without expense to the city, to give the warrants credit and circulation."
Thus, at the outset, anticipating the philosophy of modern high-finance, "sufficient unto to-morrow is the evil of to-day"-thus perilously did the little city of Des Moines start out on its long, rough, steep road to fame and fortune ! But, it would be difficult for the wisest student of municipal finance to say just how the mayor and council of Des Moines in '57 could have more easily tided over the complicated situation which confronted them.
1
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY IN DES MOINES-CAPITOL AND CAPITAL CITY COME TOGETHER.
The assembling of the Seventh General Assembly of Iowa in the new Capitol was an event marking a new era in the history of Des Moines, introducing into the little frontier city a new element,-that of State politics, and bringing into the social life of the people the picked men of the State. Temporarily resident in Des Moines in the winter of '58 were many legislators who afterwards took a more prominent part in the affairs of the State and nation. It is difficult to realize the extreme youth of many of the embryo statesmen of that period. Gov- ernor Grimes was only 42. Almost the Nestor of the Senate was Kirkwood, afterwards Governor, United States Senator and Secretary of the Interior, --- then only 45 years old. There, too, was Saunders, afterwards Governor of Nebraska and United States Senator from Nebraska,-then 40 years of age. Grinnell, afterwards member of Congress,-then 35; Cattell, afterwards Auditor of State, --- then 38; Rankin, afterwards Colonel of the Seventeenth Iowa,-then 35; Pusey, afterwards Congressman, -- then 28, and Trimble, afterwards a dis- trict Judge and democratic nominee for the Supreme court and for the United States Senatorship,-then 31. The oldest member of the Senate was not yet sixty. In the House were: Belknap, later Secretary of War,-then 29; Mc- Crary, originator of the plan of an Electoral Commission to settle the Hayes- Tilden imbroglio, Secretary of War in the Hayes administration and United States Circuit Judge,-then 23; Wilson, afterwards in turn a member of each House of Congress,-then 30; Gue, afterwards Lieutenant-Governor,-also 30; Carpenter, afterwards Governor,-then 29; Wright, later a Brigadier-General,- then 31. Tom Mitchell, 42; Tom Drummund, 25; Mahoney, 37; Seevers, 35; and others of more or less prominence in later years.
These comparatively young and inexperienced statesmen abounded in the social qualities which gave wings to ambition, and keenly appreciated every at- tention paid them. Des Moines was alive to the presence of these men and their associates, and made unusual efforts to impress the visitors with her hospitality. Not to be outdone by Iowa City, the time-honored custom of giv- ing a ball in honor of the visiting statesmen and their families was duly ob- served. A banquet and ball was accordingly held in Sherman's Hall on the 22d of February, 1858, which brought the citizens and the visiting statesmen together in a decidedly enjoyable manner. The courtesy was returned by the legislators, on the 18th of March following. The House was occupied by the dancers and the Senate Chamber by the promenaders, and in the Supreme Court room and the Library was spread a bountiful supper.
Lathrop in his Life of Kirkwood, bears indirect testimony to R. S. Finkbine's shrewd estimate of men. Speaking of Kirkwood, the newly elected United States Senator, he refers to a visit paid Des Moines by Senator Blaine in 1876, on which occasion Blaine asked Finkbine what kind of a Senator Kirkwood would make. Mr. Finkbine said: "Some day when you least expect it, and when a matter is before the Senate involving a constitutional question, he will get up, apparently without any previous preparation, and in a speech of no great length will discuss that question and present every point so clearly, illustrating
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it so aptly, and read his conclusions so directly that you will all wonder why you have not taken the same view of the subject that he does."
After Kirkwood's Senate speech on the Army Appropriation Bill, June 21, 1879, Mr. Blaine said to Mr. Finkbine, "Your predictions in regard to Governor Kirkwood have been verified."
The record made by this pioneer General Assembly is one of rare achieve- ment. It enacted a law for the creation of a system of branch banks which gave the State good riddance of "wildcat money." It followed the wise sugges- tions of Horace Mann and Amos Dean in the reorganization of our educational system ; wrestled with the problem of the Des Moines River Improvement Com- pany ; built several needed State institutions, and accomplished many other re- sults which have proved both wise and expedient. The session was in every way full of promise for the future of Des Moines as the Capital city.
At the third reunion of the Pioneer Lawmakers, in February, 1892, Hon. C. C. Nourse delivered an address, heartily welcoming the city's guests to the "Iowa home," of which they had been "the architects and builders." He continued :
"As you look at your surroundings to-day, this city with its sixty thousand in- habitants, its manufactories, its warerooms, stores and beautiful homes, its spa- cious hotels, the Capitol building crowning yonder hill, the home of the Young Men's Christian Association, where we are assembled-it is hard to realize that until October, 1845, less than fifty years ago, this portion of Iowa was in the exclusive possession of the Sac and Fox Indians, and that it was unlawful for a white man to make a settlement here."
Recalling the early days of Des Moines, the Capital of the State, Judge Nourse said, "No doubt many of you have floundered in the sloughs of the Skunk river bottom in order to reach your homes after the adjournment of the Gen- eral Assembly.
"Even in this goodly city in the spring of 1858 you reached the old Capitol building from your hotels by traveling a good part of the way over the floods of the Des Moines in boats."
Hawkins Taylor in a letter to Judge Wright, which was read at the first meeting of the Pioneer Lawmakers' association, humorously described "the first lobby that ever invaded the Iowa legislature." He facetiously termed it "the Owl family," with headquarters at the Demoine House. The owls were "asking that a grant of land given to the Iowa Central should be given to the Clinton, Cedar Rapids and Missouri. Crocker, the president of the road, natur- ally headed the invading army. Crocker was a dignified gentleman in manners, and the color and cut of his hair, his large eyes and solemn aspect made him a perfect duplicate of the owl." Colonel Bodfish's care was to subdue the "rowdy west" legislator, Governor Nat. Baker. The big-hearted, noble Nat was the recruiting officer, and he had a small army of scouts to run down members, and sound the gong of the "owl family." It was a sight never before seen when this outfit, including the scouts, went over the river to the Capitol. In the hotel they occupied several rooms on the lower floor, and the mustering officer and scouts kept the rooms well filled with members and others. I do not think that they drew largely on their bank account, but they were liberal in promising the land they were trying to get from the legislature."
At the evening session a notable address was delivered by Governor Carpen- ter, entitled "Reminiscences of the winter of 1858 in Des Moines." Omitting,- as not pertaining to the subject in hand-the glowing tribute paid Governors Grimes, Lowe and Kirkwood, and prominent members of the Seventh General Assembly, space may well be given the Governor's vivid picture of the embryo city which greeted the first legislative body to assemble in its midst, and of the open-handed hospitality extended by her citizens. Said Governor Carpenter :
"On the IIth day of January, 1858, this General Assembly came together at Des Moines. It was the first General Assembly that had met in this city. The peo-
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ple of the city were much elated at what they regarded as their good fortune in securing the re-location of the Capitol, and were correspondingly rejoiced at the first assembling of a legislative body in their midst. We were therefore wel- comed with a hospitality and friendly warmth that could not well be repeated. I came here two or three days before the time of assembling, traveling by stage down the old State road leading from Fort Dodge to Des Moines, staying over night at Boonsboro, and arriving in the city the evening of the second day.
"Des Moines was then a town of about 3,000 inhabitants, as two years there- after at the Federal census, it only had a population of about 3,900. It was literally a city of 'magnificent distances.' The site of the Capitol was chen a wooded hill, occupied by the old (then new) Capitol building, and perhaps some twenty-five or thirty family residences scattered here and there in the openings of the timber. The bottom intervening between the foot of the hill and the river was a low muddy flat, comparatively unoccupied and unim- proved. In this connection I remember an incident which shows the character of the bottom during much of that winter. On the day fixed for the election of State Printer, Binder, etc., Will Porter, who was the Democratic caucus candi- date for printer, started with a friend in a buggy to come over from the West side to witness the proceedings of the Joint Convention. Their horse and buggy stuck in the mud and they were detained until the State Printer, John Teesdale, had been elected. Will laughingly said, on his arrival, that if his horse had not failed him he would have broken the Republican slate. The east bank of the river was fringed for half a mile along the main front with residences, a few shops, a mill and a woolen factory. The west side of the river comprised the larger portion of the population and business. There were then but few resi- dences which to-day would be regarded as equal to second class, and all business was confined to the street fronting the river and Second street.
*
-X- -X *
"The day of adjournment found the Des Moines river bank full of water. A small steamboat had come up the river and was lying at the so-called Point. In the afternoon it moved down the river carrying all the members from the southeast portion of the State and those living near the Mississippi even to the northwest corner of the State, as they could reach their homes easier and quicker by going to Keokuk and up the Mississippi, than by traveling all the way across the State in a mud wagon. I stood on the bank and waved them adieu as they swarmed like bees upon the deck of that little steamboat."
In the House of Representatives, in the afternoon, Senator Pusey, of Coun- cil Bluffs, indulged in this reminiscence :
"One cold winter morning in 1858, after traveling one hundred and fifty miles in a stage coach, with the thermometer twenty-one or twenty-two degrees below zero, I arrived at the old Des Moines House and asked where the Capitol was, and was directed up here to a little brick building. I came to the building, and when I went in and stepped forward, I found Charley Nourse there as Sec- retary pro tem of the Senate. I handed him my credentials and was sworn in -- but never qualified. I dropped into the nearest seat I could find. There was not a face in the room that I had seen before. I didn't know personally the Governor, nor a member, nor a single State officer. . . Being one of the
youngest members, of course I was inexperienced and unknown. In fact, I didn't know my own constituency. I had only been in this State one year, and was a representative of twenty-eight counties out on the Missouri river. There. are fifteen or twenty of you here now representing those wealthy counties."
The Senator follows with an amusing story of an old farmer in the Senate who presumably didn't know anything about finance, and yet had the audacity to speak on some question relating to banking. He and Senator Trimble con- cluded to "go for him." The result was a lively debate covering the whole question of banking, the result of which was that the "old farmer," Samuel J.
Old Indian Agency at Des Moines (From a daguerreotype)
OLD BRICK CAPITOL, DES MOINES
Old Brick Capitol, Des Moines
First Brick Building in Des Moines, built by Jim Campbell at 'Coon Point
First Public School building in Des Moines, at Ninth and Locust Streets, built in 1855 at a cost of $11,000. Torn down in 1869
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Kirkwood, was complimented with a resolution unanimously placing him, along with Pusey, on the committee on banking !
Early in March the Western Stage Company, "among the severest sufferers by the monetary pressure," resorted to the issuance of scrip, redeemable in one year and bearing six per cent.
The Citizen of March II facetiously proposes a dismemberment of the Union on the line of the Des Moines river, the West side to return to its former name, Fort Des Moines ; the East side to be designated "Capitol Clause Corner." Be- coming serious, it is "satisfied that a little more blood and thunder on the part of our pious folk will not leave a fragment of the Capitol City large enough to be preserved as a memento of the great fight of 1858."
On March 13, the editor devotes a column to the unwisdom and danger of "devisive strife" between the East and West side, declaring that legislators look- ing with surprise at the local jealousies may "conclude that it is better to re- move the bone of contention"-the Capitol.
The condition of the streets of the Capital city may be inferred from an item, March 16, to the effect that a wagon laden with lager beer was inextricably stuck fast in the mud on Walnut street !
The postmaster at the beginning of the new era was the pioneer merchant, Wesley Redhead. His assistants were G. S. Rosser and E. P. Stewart. The postoffice was then located at the corner of Third street and Court avenue. There was one mail a day from the east and the west, and there were three mails a week from the north. The outgoing mails left daily by stage for Iowa City, Burlington, Council Bluffs and the south, and tri-weekly for Fort Dodge.
There were eight churches in Des Moines in '58, as follows : The Episcopal, E. W. Peet, rector, Seventh street, between Locust and Walnut; Congregational, West's Block; Presbyterian (New School), Thompson Bird, pastor, Fourth, between Court and Walnut; Methodist, G. B. Jocelyn, pastor, Fifth, between Court and Walnut; Presbyterian (Old School), Rev. Mr. Drake, pastor ; Metho- dist (East side), A. E. McDonald, pastor, Keokuk street; Catholic, Father Plathe. . N. Summerbell, pastor, announced "Christian worship in the public school- house every Lord's Day."
The first number of the tri-weekly Citizen, January 12, 1858, describes Des Moines during the past few days as "a scene of bustling animation. Governors, Senators, Representatives, candidates for office and miscellaneous visi- tors," were congregated in the new Capital city. The city itself "has thrown aside its air of depression. Omnibuses thunder along the streets ; and assisted by bridges and accommodating conveyances, the east and west sides have easy communication with each other. A new era in the history of Des Moines has been inaugurated. New responsibilities crowd upon our citizens, and" adds the editor, "we trust that every man of us, whether his home be near the State House or remote from it, will consider that he has something to do in direct- ing the destiny of the Capital City."
One phase of the public spirit of the period is presented in a card, signed by A. Shaw, H. H. Griffiths, W. A. Scott and J. A. Williamson, offering to assist any one, having business at the Capitol, in procuring rooms and board in pri- vate houses "where ample provisions have been made for the comfort and ac- commodation of guests at reasonable rates."
The inauguration of Governor Lowe in the new Capitol at II A. M. on the 14th of January, 1858, was, in a social as in a general sense, the inauguration of a new era for Des Moines. The occasion was one of historic interest. The weather was ideally clear and almost abnormally warm, "like an Indian summer dropped into the lap of winter." The House was crowded with citizens and visitors. The interest was lively. Chief Justice Wright administered the oath to the incoming State officers. The address of Governor Lowe was brief, sum- marizing the needs and possibilities of the new State, and eloquently pointing the way to the irrepressible conflict just ahead growing out of the two con- Vol. 1-11.
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flicting interpretations of the Constitution as to the question of slave-holding in the territories.
The ceremonies concluded, a committee of Des Moines citizens took posses- sion of the House to make ready for the Inauguration Festival in the evening, in honor of ex-Governor Grimes, Governor Lowe, Lieutenant Governor Faville, the other executive officers of State, the Supreme Court, and the members of the Senate of the Second General Assembly.
The Citizen describes the Inauguration Festival as "rather impromptu in character and western in style," the ladies of the city preparing the refresh- ments for the occasion on tables occupying nearly the whole area of the hall: "The festival had nothing of a party character; men of all parties vieing with each other in this cordial greeting to officials and strangers from all portions of the State."
It was estimated that more than seven hundred persons were present, of whom nearly a third were ladies. All the State offices were thrown open and the Senate Chamber was devoted to music and dancing.
Judge Casady was president of the evening. Mr. Finch announced the program. After the responses to the health of the Governor and the Lieutenant- Governor, there were a number of impromptu toasts and responses, among them the following by local speakers: "The Patriots of the Revolution," by John A. Kasson; "The Army and Navy," by M. M. Crocker; "The Clergy," by Rev. J. T. Cook; "The Press," by J. Teesdale. Other speeches followed. The Citizen thus rhetorically rings down the curtain on the event: "At a late hour the omni- buses bore the last of the guests to their homes, the lights were put out, and silence reigned throughout the festive halls. The demonstration was worthy of the generous citizens of Des Moines; a happy introduction of a multitude of strangers; and a fitting prelude of other entertainments and pleasures in store for those who would gladly thus be relieved, occasionally, from the monotonous round of official labor."
At the "Senatorial dinner" given January 29, by the newly elected U. S. Sena- tor, James W. Grimes, to which several prominent citizens were invited, the Citizen pronounced the speech of the Senator-elect as one which left upon all who heard it the impression that its author was peculiarly entitled to the office conferred upon him, by reason of his large ability and efficient public service.
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