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 35
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A Union Christian Convention began its sessions in the Congregational church February 18. The event of the occasion was an address by D. L. Moody, of Chicago, "a stirring appeal to the church for self-sacrificing service." Several hundred delegates were in attendance from all parts of Iowa. Dr. S. N. Fellows of Iowa City, presided, and George J. North of Des Moines, was secretary.
In February, 1868, the State Historical Society, at the request of Adjutant- General Baker, returned to the surviving members of the Second Iowa the old flag followed by them in many an engagement. The members met with the Adjutant-General on the 25th, and received the precious relic, and passed reso- lutions of thanks for its return.1
The death of Dr. Thomas K. Brooks, late in February, was deeply felt by the surviving pioneers. At a large meeting of the early settlers of the county, with Isaac Cooper in the chair, and Peter Myers secretary, a resolution was
1 Through the kindness of Capt. W. D. Christy, this historic flag was loaned the author who obtained a photograph of same from which an engraving was made which appears in this book.
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WALNUT, UNIVERSITY & KINGMAN
PY CO
ELECTRIC
DES
MOINES
ONE OF THE FIRST STREET CARS IN DES MOINES IN FRONT OF THE GOVERNMENT BUILDING
A GALA DAY IN DES MOINES IN THE '80s Government Building on the right, old courthouse on the left, the new Youngerman building in front
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adopted recounting the pioneer services rendered by the deceased, and expressing sympathy with the widow. Tributes of respect were paid by Messrs. Casady. Wright, Leas, Spofford, Hatch, Cleveland, and others. The association attended the funeral in a body, also the Masonic body and city, county and State officers. An organization of a county society of early settlers soon followed.
That was a close city election held March 2, on which date W. H. Leas was chosen mayor over S. F. Spofford by one majority. Mayor Cleveland, on retiring from the chair in which he had long and faithfully served, was presented with a gold-headed cane by a number of his friends, Frank Palmer making the presentation.
The Des Moines Musical Association after successfully repeating the "oratorio" of Esther at home, ventured in April to take the aggregation to Keokuk and Ottumwa. They were enthusiastically received and royally enter- tained.
The Iowa and Minnesota railroad project began again to move upon the minds of men and frequent meetings were held, eloquent appeals made, and the experiences of the early fifties and sixties were repeated.
A Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention at the courthouse on May 6, was "fairly electrified" by one of Harry O'Connor's characteristic fifteen minute speeches. He was greeted with a whirlwind of applause. The convention was an embodied protest against Andrew Johnson's "usurpations of power."
A congressional convention on the forenoon of the same day nominated Frank Palmer of Des Moines, to succeed General Dodge in Congress. The nominee gratefully responded.
A State convention on the following day named delegates to the Republican national convention which brought out Grant as its nominee. Judge Nourse supplied the platform and Harry O'Connor, the eloquence. General Williamson of Des Moines, received the highest number of votes for delegate at large, and Messrs. Melendy, Dodge and Hedrick were chosen as his associates.
The circuit court convention of the first district for Warren, Polk and Dallas, on the day following the State convention, on motion of Hoyt Sherman, named John Mitchell of Polk, as its candidate for judge, a nomination which the subsequent election ratified.
Memorial Day was given much prominence in '68. General Williamson acted as Chief Marshal and Generals Tuttle and Clark and Colonel F. M. Smith assisted. Addresses were made by Judge Wright, Hon. D. O. Finch, General Ed. Wright and Colonel C. C. Carpenter. At that time there were twenty-seven soldiers of the Civil war buried in Woodland cemetery.
The laying of the corner-stone of the new government building was cele- brated June 3, 1868, the Grand Lodge of Iowa Masons officiating. Hon. John A. Kasson delivered an oration, followed by remarks from E. A. Guilbert of the Masonic body. On the same day the Eclectic physicians of Iowa, convened in the city, also the Congregational Association. The three occasions drawing several thousand strangers to the city.
July 15, C. C. Cole and J. W. Mills were elected directors of the Iowa and Minnesota Railroad, and, Judge Casady having resigned the presidency, Mr. Mills was elected to succeed him. Judge Cole was made general agent and General Baker, who had resigned from the directory, continued to act as attorney for the company. B. F. Allen remained as treasurer and Mr. Tidrick as secre- tary. Judge Cole went on from the meeting to New York and Boston to finance the road. He returned confident of results. September 26, a contract was let to Smith, Ward & Co., to build the road to. Polk City. Franklin Fanning of Atchison, was made chief engineer and W. W. Walker, chief engineer and vice president of the Northwestern, was made consulting engineer. It remained for Des Moines to determine by its course how soon the management would be able to enter the city with the road. Injunction proceedings came in afterwards to balk the well-laid plans of the management.
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A unique religious discussion took place in June, beginning on the 22d, between A. I. Hobbs of the Cherry Street Church of Christ and W. W. King of the Universalist church. The topics agreed upon for discussion are interest- ing as showing how doctrinal discussion has shifted in forty years. The proposi- tions covered: (I) The question of endless happiness for the wilfully dis- obedient, the argument to be based upon the Scriptures; (2) the question of end- less punishment for the wilfully disobedient.
The campaign of 1868 opened early and continued briskly with mass meet- ings and rallies innumerable, both in city and county. The great mass meeting of Saturday, September 8, was declared by the Register to be "the proudest day Polk county republicans ever had." The torch-light procession, a mile long, included "Tanners" Clubs, Grant Cadets and citizens. The flag presenta- tion by the young ladies to the Grant Cadets, was an interesting incident. The great party leaders, Governor Kirkwood, Senator Harlan and Representative James F. Wilson, delivered addresses.
The eloquent Henry Clay Dean held a big meeting of the democrats in the city September 8. Dean was a "red flag" to the republicans of his period.
The campaign was enlivened, September 25, by a joint debate between F. W. Palmer and P. Gad Bryan, rival candidates for Congress. Each party claimed the victory for its candidate.
The old Fifth Street Methodist church became very unsatisfactory and something had to be done. As a consequence one of the marked improvements of the year 1868 was the erection of the Centenary church, on Seventh street. Early in the fall the lot was purchased, and William Foster, then a rising young architect, planned the structure. Its walls went up fast, and on the 27th of December the building was dedicated. Dr. Bowman, president of Indiana Uni- versity preached the dedicatory sermon. The total cost of the church was about $7,000.
The Register reported the improvements in Des Moines in 1868 aggregated $1,600,000, and maintained it was prepared to prove that during the year the city had grown faster than any other city of its class in the Union. It placed the aggregate brick manufacture of the year at II,150,000.
The lumber business of the city had long since reached the million point. At the close of the year, Getchell & Tichenor had handled 7,700,000 feet of pine lumber ; R. W. Sypher, 2,000,000 feet ; A. J. Jack & Co., 3,000,000 ; the Gilcrests, 3,000,000 ; the Fosters, 1,000,000 and Carver & Co., 800,000.
CHAPTER V.
A BRILLIANT SOCIAL EVENT -- A MILLION AND A HALF ADDED TO THE MATERIAL WEALTH OF THE CITY IN '69.
The death of Rev. Thompson Bird occurred on the 4th of January, 1869. The history of old Fort Des Moines could not be written without frequent reference to this public-spirited and noble man. He had been confined to his house for more than a year and his decease was not unexpected. A large con- course of citizens attended his funeral. Twelve pioneers served as bearers. Several ministers took part in the services; but it remained for the surviving pioneer preacher, and the long-time friend of the deceased, Rev. J. A. Nash, to deliver the fitting eulogy in which were recounted the eighteen years of public service the two had rendered side by side.
Another year had rolled round and still no Iowa and Minnesota railroad connection for Des Moines. There was another election of officers and George W. Jones was made president ; C. C. Cole, vice president ; B. F. Allen, treasurer ; and R. L. Tidrick, secretary. The same well-worn hope was aired, that the road would be speedily built, and the same appeal made to Des Moines for aid. "Ames to Indianola via Des Moines by rail inside six months," was the word.
Tired of controversy over creeds, Rev. W. W. King, pastor of the Univer- salist Society, of Des Moines, on the 17th of January, urged the other pastors of the city to unite with him on the common ground of opposition to intemperance, which he pronounced "the one great evil of our time and of our city." The invitation involved Mr. King in a prolonged newspaper controversy with Mr. Hobbs, pastor of the Christian church.
The social event of the winter was the fifteenth wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Allen, celebrated at their new and beautiful mansion on the hill in the then western suburb of the city. Many of those who, with "Frank" Allen, had helped transform a small garrison town into a city, were there to rejoice with him, and a younger generation, and many new friends drawn to the Capital by the results of pioneer enterprise, united with the pioneers in doing honor to the man whose push and public spirit had brought rich returns not only for himself but also to the community. This quarter-million-dollar home was a marvel to those who realized that only eighteen years before, Mr. Allen was a newcomer in Fort Des Moines, with only a few thousand dollars, but unlimited pluck and sagacity to invest in the new town.1 That was a dis- tinguished assemblage in the mansion on the hill that January night, forty-two years ago. There were assembled several prominent citizens of Chicago and of the river cities of Iowa. There, too, were representatives of the State, Gov- ernor Merrill, Auditor Elliott, Treasurer Rankin, Congressman Kasson and Congressman-elect Palmer, Adjutant-General Baker and General Clark, also representatives of the great journals of Chicago, Indianapolis and Cincinnati; and, too, the many personal friends of the genial host and hostess who had shared in Mr. Allen's prosperity and were not envious of his larger opportuni- ties and greater financial successes. The reporter, overwhelmed with the
1 Mr. Allen was a nephew of Captain Allen of Fort Des Moines. When a youth he followed his uncle to Mexico, and later he was attracted to the Fort by the Captain's great faith in the future of the Des Moines valley.
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magnificence of the entertainment, has recourse to figures to represent the general largess. He tells us the flowers for the evening cost $2,000-one bouquet gracing the center of the supper table alone costing $700. He tells us the spread on the banquet board cost about $6,000. And as to the toilets of the ladies, he is sure "the drawing rooms of gorgeous New York, elegant Boston or stately Philadelphia are never graced with more brilliant appearing ladies than the charming ones that thronged these parlors on Friday evening."
Des Moines was grievously disappointed when the State Fair was located at Keokuk; but concluded to wait and quietly work for a change.
Proverbially free from disastrous fires, Des Moines was visited with one of the biggest fires in its history down to that time. On the early morning of May I, it was discovered in the wareroom of the Laird Brothers' building, corner of Fourth and Walnut, and, spreading rapidly, it swept over the wholesale and retail buildings of the firm and on to Butler's saddlery, the commission house of Patterson & Chaffee, the hardware store of Comparet & Stark, and the wholesale saddlery house of W. A. Reed, and was with the utmost difficulty prevented from destroying the Exchange Block. The Laird Brothers lost $18,000 ; insurance $6,000 ; Patterson & Chaffee lost $14,000; insured for $7,000. The other losses were not so great. The burnt district was soon restored, with better buildings than before.
The Register of May 8 has a column "ad" of Dr. Aborn, who was making his first professional visit to the city. The Doctor's "specialties" included not only eye, ear, head and throat, but also the lungs! Three weeks after the appearance of the ad, the Doctor invested in the B. F. Allen residence lot, Court avenue and Fourth street, taking in the garden and orchard. The price paid was $14,000, or $229 a front foot,-"pretty fair figures for real estate in a town that has just attained its majority." The Doctor's original intention was to build a business block and opera house, instead of the hostelry with which his name was long afterward connected.
May II, 1869, witnessed the completion of the second line of railroad across the state of Iowa, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, and Des Moines' first east and west connection with the outside world. Having direct connection with New York and San Francisco, and with the lower Mississippi to the southeast, the city's ambition to become a railroad center seemed in a fair way to be realized.
At a city election May 22, every ward in Des Moines voted for local prohibi- tion. The majority was 535, or nearly double the total vote for saloons.
Following up the events of the previous year, in 1869, Des Moines established the habit of turning out en masse on Memorial Day to pay tribute to her soldier dead. Colonels Gatch and Godfrey and Rev. A. C. Williams were the orators of the day.
The new capacious planing mill of the Gilcrests, east of the Rock Island bridge, was an event. of the year. This, with improved machinery, meant much to the city at that early day. It cost about $25,000.
H. M. Bush's new warehouse, Sixth and Vine, was another trade item of significance. Mr. Bush had engaged in business on the East Side about three years before. The new building covered four lots.
June 1, Stewart Goodrell of Des Moines, succeeded Colonel Thompson as U. S. pension agent for Iowa and Nebraska.
The Des Moines, Indianola and Missouri Railroad came in for a large share of promotion in the summer of '69. A big meeting in Moore's Hall, with Mayor Hatch in the chair and J. W. Snow and J. S. Clarkson, secretaries, was attended by many citizens and by several prominent residents of Indianola. The object of the meeting was stated in a sentence by B. F. Allen: "We need the road and must raise the money to build it." Mr. Griffith of Warren, said all his county's part in the grading was done except a space that a few hundred dollars would build. His county would have raised $20,000 more, if Des Moines and
REV. THOMPSON BIRD
Pioneer Preacher and First Mayor of Fort Des Moines
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Polk county had not treated Warren so offishly. Judge Cole counseled waiting upon the parties that, on sectional grounds, had enjoined the city from issuing bonds, and offering them an amicable division of moneys between the Ames road and the Indianola road. While a committee raised to report on a plan of procedure was in consultation, Mr. Polk made a stirring speech urging the meeting to quit talking about raising the money anywhere but from their own pockets. General Tuttle, from the committee, reported recommending that the meeting proceed at once to raise money. "We can't expect to have all our railroads deadheaded to us !" General and Martin Tuttle each subscribed $1,000; B. F. Allen, $2,000 ; and twenty-five men present subscribed considerable amounts from $50 to $500 each. The subscriptions amounted to over $25,000. Other meetings followed in which Warren county representatives aired their grievances and Des Moines promised to do better !
The appearance of General Tuttle's new and elegant phaeton, the product of home industry, was an event duly heralded. This novelty on the streets of Des Moines gave the Munsell Carriage Factory, on Third street, much free advertising.
The Capital City Zouaves, Capt. F. Olmstead commanding, "cut quite a figure" in those days. The boys hadn't much money to subscribe, but they agreed to put in two weeks' work on grading the Indianola road.
A distinguished party of astronomers camped down in Des Moines early in August, to observe from this point the total eclipse of the sun on the 7th. Three observatories were fitted up for their use. The Naval Observatory, on the hill at the head of Third street, was presided over by Prof. William Harkness. In Courthouse square was the famous Prof. Simon Newcomb. A bluff on the East side was occupied by Dr. C. H. L. Peters of the Litchfield Observatory, Hamilton College, New York, with a number of other wise men of the East. S. V. White, of New York, made observations from the B. F. Allen home. The weather was clear and the observations were satisfactory. At 4:46 the sun was totally obscured. The total obscuration lasted nearly three minutes. The astronomers were as jubilant over their success as a party of Des Moines promoters would have been had a new railroad swam into their ken!
One morning in September the Walnut street bridge broke down precipitating a hundred head of Texas horses into the river and killing two. Both the city and the owner of the horses brought suit for damages.
The building improvements in Des Moines in 1869 were estimated at $1,580,- - 850. Of this amount, $1,221,700 was charged to new houses and house im- provements, and $359,150 to hotels, stores, offices, churches, etc.
Miscellaneous public improvements, not included in the foregoing, were : Baptist University, $3,500 ; Des Moines Valley Railroad, $80,000 ; C. R. I. & P., $10,000; West side public schools, $2,000 ; State Arsenal, $2,600 ; streets, $25,000 ; Walnut street bridge, repairs, $7,356.74 ; fire cisterns, $2,600 ; sidewalks, $19,000; Driving Park Association, $3,000; Gas Company, $20,000.
The improvements classified were: Houses, 225; hotels, 5; churches, 3; schoolhouse, courthouse, depot, postoffice, planing mills, 3; business blocks, 12; warehouses, 2; flouring mill.
Vol. I-17
BOOK III.
PART IV. FOUR DECADES OF PROGRESS.
ANNALS OF A GROWING CITY-ITS EVENTS AND OCCURRENCES ITS FAILURES AND SUCCESSES.
- 1870-1909.
PLAN
OF DES MOINES Polk County ) CIOWA
(
ARE
ARD
121.3
....
Four that :
IST WARD
PLAT OF DES MOINES IN THE '70s
CHAPTER I.
THE FIRST DECADE OF PROGRESS.
1870-THE YEAR OF THE GRAND REUNION.
Agitation as to the desirability of a new Capitol building was lively in the winter of 1870, and activities relating thereto occupy much space in the news- papers of the period.1
A sixty-thousand-dollar fire was a temporary setback which the ambitious young city confronted one Monday forenoon, May 2, 1870. The fire destroyed the Gilcrest's new planing mill on the east side, of which the city had been exceedingly proud. The disaster was charged to spontaneous combustion. The fire was a total loss.
The up-and-coming boomer of the Seventies saw in his mind's eye another railroad connection for Des Moines. In April, Mayor Hatch named B. F. Allen, J. W. Mills, John A. Elliott, W. W. Williamson, L. W. Dennis, J. M. Tuttle, J. H. Day, John W. Jones, L. A. Grout, G. M. Hippee and B. F. Van Leuven delegates to represent Des Moines in the Cedar Rapids convention, May 5, to take "the proper steps to connect Des Moines with Dubuque, by building a road from Marengo to Cedar Rapids.
The Knight divorce case, before Judge Maxwell, in the District Court in May, was the first local case of the kind to be given full newspaper publicity. Rosa F. Knight sued her husband, R. A. Knight, for divorce on the ground of inhuman treatment endangering the plaintiff's life. The testimony of the par- ties and of other witnesses and the arguments of the opposing attorneys, Messrs. Polk and Gatch, occupied column after column in the Register, showing the interest the case excited. On May 17, the court denied the plaintiff's petition, leaving the public divided as to the justice of the decree. The case was appealed and in '71 the Supreme Court confirmed the decree of the lower court.
The Des Moines township election in May resulted in 478 votes for, and 106 against, township aid to the Des Moines, Indianola & Missouri railroad. Lee township voted for the proposed aid by seven majority. Bloomfield voted down the proposition.
The Kasson and anti-Kasson feud in the republican party in the Des Moines district, which began four years before, broke out with fresh fury in the early summer of 1870, resulting in the defeat of Mr. Kasson by Mr. Palmer for the republican nomination-which was equivalent to an election.
The high school on the West side, costing over $75,000, and the new and incomplete high school on the East side, caused Colonel Cummings in the Win- terset Madison-to give the Capital city high praise for its interest in education.
The Des Moines & McGregor Railroad Company, another line of much promise to the Capital City, held its annual election in Des Moines, June 7, the meeting bringing together in common bonds of locality interest men of prominence in Polk, Marshall, Tama, Black Hawk and Winneshiek counties, also the well-known eastern capitalists, James Buell, Russell Sage and Martin I. Townsend. Messrs. Woodbury, Couch, Larrabee and Merrill were named a con:mittee to confer with the Milwaukee people in the interests of the company.
1 This subject has been presented in separate chapters.
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G. M. Woodbury was elected president ; William Larrabee, vice-president ; G. W. Couch, treasurer, and F. M. Mills, secretary. Messrs. Woodbury, Dewey and Mills were authorized to confer with the Bedford, Winterset & Des Moines and the Missouri Valley Railroad Company, with a view to a consolidation of the roads, etc.
In June, Doctor Aborn renewed his faith in Des Moines by buying of Mr. Allen the Cleghorn property, paying $15,000 for it.
Representative Palmer secured an additional appropriation of $16,000 for the new government building in Des Moines. The government had already expended nearly $25,000 on the property.
A woman suffrage meeting held in Moore's Hall, July I, brought to the front those stand-bys of the equal suffrage cause in Iowa: Mrs. Coggeshall, Mrs. Savery, Mrs. Callanan, Mrs. Cattell and Mrs. Ed Wright, themselves a refuta- tion of the charge made then-and since-that womanly women do not want the suffrage.
The shipments from Des Moines over the Rock Island for the first four months in 1870 included 1,937 cars, of which 862 went east and 1,075 went west, carrying 20,630 tons of freight. During the same time there were received in Des Moines I,II cars, carrying 15,745 tons of freight.
Fourth of July this year brought out at the fair ground the following orators : Judge Mitchell, T. F. Withrow, Judge Cole, and J. S. Clarkson.
The completion of the railroad from Des Moines to Fort Dodge led to a con- nection with Sioux City by the completion of the line from Dubuque to Sioux City.
A presentation to the oldest living resident of Des Moines occurred August 16. The occasion developed from an announcement that Thomas McMullen, who came to Fort Des Moines in December. 1845, was soon to remove to Colo- rado. The presentation was made in the office of Tuttle Brothers. Ed. Clapp, next in line for the honor, (having come to Fort Des Moines in March, 1846) advanced to the table on which lay a new breach-loading rifle, and presented the gun as a token of the respect and esteem in which he was held. Mr. McMullen was grateful for the unexpected gift, keenly appreciated because it came from old friends. Judge Casady and others followed with informal speeches.
With the close of summer, the Daily Evening Bulletin changed hands, its founder and proprietor, R. G. Orwig, having turned the paper over to Mills & Company, then owners of the Register. In his "parting words," Mr. Orwig said that consolidation with the Register would secure unity of republican effort, and would give him much needed relaxation. In view of the remarkable suc- cess of the present-day dailies of Des Moines at the one-cent rate, it is notable, as showing the changes wrought with the years, that one of the two reasons given by the Register for the non-success of the Bulletin was that "it was pub- lished at a price too low to pay expenses." The other reason given was that there was no demand for another daily in Des Moines.
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