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 36
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Grand Reunion of Iowa Veterans.
The public spirit and liberality of the Capital city, and a State appropria- tion of $15,000 to aid in defraying expenses, made the grand reunion of 1870 a glorious success-a historic event-the greatest of its kind in the history of the State. .
The high grounds on Capitol Hill were chosen for the camp and ample pro- visions were made for tents and other equipments. The railroads generously transported the private soldiers free, and officers at half-fare, from and to their homes. Though the reunion was put off till the last day in August, arrange- ments began in April, with that energetic and resourceful organizer, Gen. N. B. Baker, as secretary of a State and local executive committee.
A local finance committee was named, with George C. Tichenor at its head,
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and that committee named prominent men in each ward and township in the county as a sub-committee to raise funds for the reunion.2
Passes were issued by the railroads to veterans in every county in the State. The supplies necessary to feed and "sleep" the visitors were enormous and great was the activity of the local committee and local dealers.
The day of the grand reunion finally came. It had been anticipated by thou- sands of veterans who, on their arrival, were met and provided with quarters, either in canıp or in hotels and private houses. Along with these came many wives and children and friends and neighbors from all parts of the State.
On the morning of August 31 the trains leading into the city were packed, and the overland routes were thronged. All Polk county came on foot and a-horseback, in wagons, carriages and stages. The registered were .duly housed in tents and homes, about three-fourths of them in tents, where they could the better live over the camp-life of the early Sixties. Many were the glad reunions of friends and relatives who had not met since the close of the war. The regu- lar rations were dispensed with a system born of war experiences, and none went without breakfast and dinner, and none went supperless to bed.
At about nine a. m. the hero pre-eminent of the Western Army, General W. T. Sherman, appeared in front of the headquarters opposite the Capitol. "The boys" would not be denied the pleasure of grasping their old commander's hand, and so the General took his stand on the Capitol steps, and for twenty minutes a sea of eager hands swept toward him. He met all comers with good- natured helplessness, until the cry went up for a speech. The General simply thanked "the boys" and said he had had practical evidence that they were all well! And with that the handshaking was resumed. The General, though not given to retreating, soon felt compelled to beat a retreat to the State treasurer's office.
At 10 o'clock the exercises began in Capitol square. Governor Merrill pre- sided. At his right sat General Belknap, and at his left General Sherman. Rev. P. B. Morgan, of St. Paul's Church, offered prayer. A large choir of chil- dren, led by Professor Pond, sang "The Glorious Cry of Freedom" to the air "The Battle Cry of Freedom." Governor Merrill briefly addressed the assem- blage, concluding by presenting General W. W. Belknap, secretary of war. The General was at his best, his heart, warmed by the welcome given him, gave added eloquence to his carefully prepared address.
General Sherman could not escape this time. He responded to the loud and prolonged cheers and calls, saying that after the eloquent address to which the audience had just listened, it was his business simply to pronounce the benedic- tion ! He was no speaker-only a soldier, and it would give him more pleasure to meet the boys in their tents and talk familiarly of army times. He said his experience antedated those of his audience. While the Iowa boys were toiling here at home, he was fighting in Louisiana. He had told the Louisianians that if they attacked the life of the nation the spring freshets of the North would "rush down and sweep Louisiana into the Gulf." His words had been fulfilled. The great issue of the war was the principle of nationality. He trusted that a few more years of peace would restore the places laid waste by "the little bum- ming we did in the South," adding, "and the southern people will yet thank you, soldiers, for what you have done."
2 The sub-committee was: First ward-Taylor Pierce, G. A. McVicker; Second-J. B. Stewart, F. R. West, J. H. Hatch; Third-G. W. Cleveland, J. C. Parish, Capt. F. S. Whiting; Fourth-Capt. J. H. Dykeman, Col. G. H. Godfrey, Capt. R. W. Cross; Fifth- Charles G. Lewis, J. O. Skinner, Isaac Brandt; Sixth-John A. Elliott, J. G. Painter, James F. Brooks; Seventh-Hugh Murray, Ed. Loughran, Dr. J. E. Hendricks; Douglas township -W. G. Madden, J. Brazelton ; Elkhart-W. J. Venneman, J. B. Gray; Franklin-Col. F. Olmstead, A. C. Bondurant; Four Mile-A. J. Barton, Charles Leftwick; Jefferson-Jacob Rittgers, A. Elliott, Jr .; Lee-(outside Des Moines) Resin Wilkins, Alfred Harris; Madi- son-Capt. J. M. Walker, Col. C. J. Clark, P. D. Ankeny; Saylor-Frank Nagle, Col. R. K. Miller. W. B. Howe; Valley --- Joseph 'E. Fagan, Sanford Haines; Walnut-J. C. Jordan, John Evans; Washington -- J. K. Hobaugh, Edward Penn.
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sixth, Major Hamilton, 200; Thirty-seventh (Graybeard), Lieutenant Duncan, 100.
Fifth Division, General James A. Williamson commmanding.
First Brigade-Colonel Cummings; Thirty-eighth, Captain Rogers, 40; Thirty-ninth, Major Griffiths, 400; Fortieth, Colonel Garrett, 200.
Second Brigade-Colonel Stone; Forty-first to Forty-seventh (excepting the Forty-fourth), Lieutenant Wollen, 100; Forty-fourth, Captain Henderson, 160; First Iowa (colored), Captain Burch, 120.
The Engineers, Captain Brackett in command, consisted of 40 men.
Following the column were carriages filled with maimed heroes of the war, some without a leg, others without an arm, and others otherwise disabled. These were the recipients of much applause along the route.
Cannons boomed at frequent intervals as the procession moved through the streets, and hand-clapping and hurrahs greeted the veterans all along the line.
In front of the adjutant general's office, Colonel Thompson halted the cav- alry division, and Adjutant General Baker and Colonel Thompson exchanged greetings and congratulations.
Music by cornet bands and drum corps added stirring music to the combina- tion of pleasures.
There were said to be 14,000 soldiers in the column. This was about half the number in attendance on the reunion, if we may judge from the published report that Colonel Voorhies issued 27,000 rations three times that day.
A rainstorm at night did not seriously disturb the campers, so complete were the arrangements.
Thursday was visiting day, and while thousands visited the Capitol and other points of interest in the city, other thousands held informal meetings in camp. Many a glad reunion occurred which found record only in the memory of the veterans and of their children. All that day, outgoing trains, stages and vehicles of every sort were crowded with returning veterans and their families and friends.
A painful incident in the campaign of 1870 was the charge, made by the Manchester Union and repeated by others, in effect that Judge Cole, of Des Moines, a candidate for reelection to the Supreme Bench, had collected a cer- tain claim against the Masonic Grand Lodge of Iowa, and had not accounted for the funds. Messrs. Clarkson, Humphrey, Aldrich and Wullweber, members of the republican State central committee, went to Dubuque and there investi- gated the charge, only to find unanimously that there was no evidence which "should in any way impair the confidence of the people in the Hon. C. C. Cole as a man and as a jurist," and recommending the judge to the continued confi- dence and support of republican electors.
The postoffice business of Des Moines in 1870 aggregated $30,904.05. Dur- ing the year Des Moines had mailed 666,244 letters and received 639,435.
On the whole, the year 1870 had been one to encourage the progressive citi- zens of Des Moines. With two railroads running trains in four directions out of the city, with the iron ready to be laid for a third, and with a fourth and a fifth "in sight," with many new store and residence buildings and the new Capi- tol foundation begun, with iron bridge's reaching across the two rivers, with three of "the finest school buildings in the west" and more projected, and withal. with a large increase in population during the year, there were substantial rea- sons for anticipating the growth and prosperity which was soon to follow.
1871-THE YEAR WINTERSET WAS "ANNEXED."
"The Lady of Lyons," by "home talent," and for the benefit of the city library was put upon the stage in Moore's Hall, January 12, 1871, with H. Y.
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Smith (afterward congressman) as "Claude Melnotte" and Miss Flora Mckay as "Pauline." The other parts were taken by James Ellis, Charles J. Mckay, Lou Abdill. John Parish, "Laphe" Young, Charles Rogg, G. L. Eason, A. F. and C. W. Rogg, Mrs. James Savery, Mrs. Lunt and Miss Carrie Brown.
The founding of the Iowa State Leader by Barnhart Bros. & Dawson, an- nounced early in '71 was eagerly anticipated by the democrats who had long been without a party organ.
The first appearance of Susan B. Anthony, pioneer woman suffragist, was an event in Des Moines. Her audience, February 13, was small but "very respectable." The Register editor pronounced her lecture "a noble plea for a noble cause," but thought the lecturer somewhat too dogmatic and dictatorial.
An election held in Des Moines township April 28 resulted in a majority of 53 for a tax of one per cent in aid of the Des Moines & Winterset Railroad. The contest was spirited. Carriages brought unwilling and infirm voters to the polls. The vote insured the road.
On June 14 General Sherman paid his Des Moines brothers a brief visit. He came Wednesday and went Thursday. The train which brought him also carried General Phil Sheridan, but he could not be persuaded to stop over. He simply bowed his acknowledgments from the car platform. The Olmstead Zouaves, headed by the new German band and backed by three thousand citi- zens, were at the depot to receive General Sherman. His brother, the Major, drove to Sherman Place, where Martin Tuttle, mayor, extended a welcome on behalf of the city. The General, from the balcony, expressed his gratitude for this renewed evidence of the city's friendliness to him.
The steadily diminishing number of the old pioneers was reduced on the 23d of July by the death of Mrs. Caroline, wife of Isaac Cooper, and mother of five children, one of whom is Mrs. Frederick M. Hubbell, of Des Moines. Mrs. Cooper came to Fort Des Moines in the spring of 1846 to join her husband, who had preceded her. After a seven years' residence about six miles north of the Fort, the Coopers removed to town. Mrs. Cooper was one of the twelve who joined Rev. Thompson Bird in organizing a Presbyterian church in 1853. Her exemplary life and fidelity to family, friends, church and every worthy cause was the subject of general comment.
In July occurred a series of fires consuming property aggregating about $70,000. On the 16th, the woolen mill of W. W. Carpenter & Company in East Des Moines burned down, incurring a loss of about $37,000, with only $12,500 insurance.
Late in July, "old John Robinson" with his circus and menagerie gave two shows in the afternoon and two in the evening to accommodate the immense crowd from town and country. Show-day was followed by the mysterious murder of one James Guyn, a rough character in the employ of the show. No clue was found to the murder.
At last the Des Moines & Winterset grading contract was awarded and Marcus Kavanagh, a local contractor, received the award. The contractor was put under bonds of $5,000 to have the grading, 28 miles, done by the first of December. The Rock Island agreed to iron fifteen miles of the roadway as soon as it was ready and the rest as fast as it was graded.
The Winterset line once assured, the Des Moines boosters next turned their attention toward the proposed Milwaukee connection. A meeting was held at the courthouse August 23, with Colonel Godfrey in the chair. President Greeley, of the road, concisely stated the case. He told how the old Iowa & Minnesota road broke down for want of backing, and said the Milwaukee, Nashua & Des Moines Railroad had the indorsement of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Company. If Des Moines would only do her part in voting the proposed tax, thereby guaranteeing the road-bed, the railroad from Milwaukee to Des Moines would be a fixed fact. Mr. Polk recited the failure of the Iowa & Minnesota road.
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and from its story pointed the moral, a vote for the levy or no connection with Milwaukee.
August 24, Des Moines township voted aye and Lee township voted no on the tax in aid of the Milwaukee road. The result stirred the embers of the old "devisive strife" between East and West Des Moines.
A Board of Trade was organized in Des Moines August 26, with Wesley Redhead, president and Harry West, secretary.
The Des Moines Western Railroad was another possibility seriously con- sidered by Des Moines capitalists in '71. A letter addressed to the officers of the proposed road, signed by Messrs. Ingersoll, McWilliams, Cavanagh, Cook, Tuttle (Martin), Allen, Laird (F. R.), Stewart, Casady and Polk, assured these gentlemen that once they had secured the road from Waukee to Panora, Des Moines capital would complete the road to Des Moines. The city had "voted a tax in aid of every road that had asked it, and would vote a tax for this."
Mrs. James Sherman, who came to the Fort with her husband in '47, followed her husband, recently deceased, September 8. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman had resided in their home on Mulberry street for twenty-three years.
The District Fair in September was attended by fifteen thousand people on the big day-a record-breaking attendance at the time. Large as these figures looked in '71, they look small when set alongside the more than sixty-two thou- sand in attendance one day of the fair of 19II.
Horace Greeley, of the New York Tribune, came to Des Moines on the morning of September 22. The conqueror came in a caboose attached to a freight train. He "took the usual number of naps on the way." With him came one of the Vanderbilts of New York, and J. B. Grinnell. He spent most of the forenoon preparing his address for the Fair in the afternoon. After dinner Judge Cole drove him about the city. He was the object of much curiosity and many were pleased to meet him. The one disappointment was the non-appearance of "the old white hat!" But he did have with him the equally famous "old white overcoat." Mr. Grinnell offered to substitute an overcoat made of Iowa wool; but Mr. Greeley responded: "I guess not. The old coat has lasted me twenty years, and I'm pretty sure it will last as long as I shall!" Mr. Greeley put in a full day in Des Moines. With his ride, the handshaking, a lengthy address at the Fair, and his famous lecture in the evening on "Self-made Men," and a night ride to Waterloo, he demonstrated his surprising mental and physical vigor. His friends attributed his reserve power to his frequent naps !
Des Moines township was again disappointed, September 23, over the second refusal of its East side neighbor, Lee township, to vote the Milwaukee tax. After making the mistake, years before, of declining to aid the Northwestern, and so losing the main line of that great road, the Register wept bitter tears over this second blunder.
Des Moines responded generously to the call for aid to the sufferers from the great fire in Chicago. At a meeting in the courthouse, October 10, Governor Merrill and others described the fire as they had witnessed it. A resolution was carried unanimously, asking the council to levy a special tax of five mills to take up a warrant for $10,000 to be issued at once. To add to the relief fund, ward committees were named to solicit further aid for that purpose. A theatrical benefit was also planned to the same end.
Harry Stephenson, a Fort Des Moines forty-niner, passed away October 14. He had been successfully engaged in mercantile business in Fort Des Moines from '49 to '65.
The first State Convention of the Iowa Woman's Suffrage Association held in Des Moines was called to order October 19. President Harry O'Connor being absent, Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, of Council Bluffs, presided. Among the prom- inent Des Moines women who were active in the convention were Mesdames Palmer, Harbert, Savery, Callanan, Kissell, Cattell, Pitman, Fuller and Ruttkey.
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The installation of Rev. A. L. Frisbie, the able and popular young pastor of the Congregational church, took place November 7. Rev. Dr. Magoun of Grinnell, preached the sermon. Many brother ministers added their congratu- lations and good wishes.
The corner-stone ceremonies of the new Capitol occurred November 23.3 John A. Kasson delivered before a large audience, in Moore's Hall, Decem- ber 4, an interesting descriptive lecture on Egypt, the lecture drawn from Mr. Kasson's own experiences and observations.
After the seeming death of the enterprise, the Iowa and Minnesota Railroad gave encouraging symptoms of life. A party of engineers surveyed a new route, clearing the river bluffs, and reaching the prairie level at the farm of Mrs. Thompson in Valley township. With the road already graded from Polk City to the northern terminus, President Greeley wrote Mr. Polk, assuring him that all the money needed to complete the road itself would be supplied in January, 1872.
The Yankees in Iowa banqueted in Des Moines on the 22d of December, "that well-remembered day," with General Baker, marshal-in-chief, John A. Kasson, master of ceremonies, and Governor Merrill, Dr. (then plain "Mr.") Frisbie, Colonel Godfrey, J. S. Runnells, and others as responders to toasts.
The dedication of the new Masonic Hall, with a banquet and ball, made St. John's day, December 26, a memorable gala day.
On the same day "all Indianola" excursioned to Des Moines and were ban- queted at the Savery.
With the close of the year Colonel Tichenor retired from the lumber firm of Getchell & Tichenor. The firm then became H. F. Getchell & Sons.
The completion of the city waterworks was the crowning material achieve- ment of the year.
The hog crop reported for the season by Des Moines packers was: J. M. Tuttle, 18,000; Murphy & Co., 8,000; Stowers' Packing Company, 400; Dennis & Keyes, 1,500; Dickey & Schramm, 700; total 32,200. The packing industry in Des Moines was steadily increasing. The amount paid for hogs in Des Moines thus far in the season was $350,000.
The year now closed developed a number of notable improvements in the city. The Clapp Block, Seeberger's, Spencer's, Tuttle's, Bird's, Harbach's, Aborn's seven stores and the Odd Fellows' building with six stores, the Williams and the Barnett Block, new dwellings by E. P. Chase, Captain Harbert, and others, were some of the more notable improvements. On the East side were the McFadden Block and the Eastman & Company building on Walnut street, Goldstone's three-story brick, Webb's wholesale store, the linen factory and a number of fine residences.
Business in Des Moines at the Beginning of 1871.
Bushnell's Business Directory of Des Moines in 1871, as compared with the first directory published by Mills & Company in 1866, shows a rapid develop- ment of trade in the five years immediately following the war. The insurance agencies, for example, had increased from 19 to 22; the agricultural implement houses, from 3 to 8; the banks from 3 to 5 ;- the Capital City and the Citizens' having been established meantime, the first named by B. F. Allen, with A. L. West, cashier; the second, by Samuel Coskery and John W. Ulm. The dry- goods and the drug trade had been consolidated into fewer hands, the first-named having been reduced from 22 to 19; the second, from II to 10. The number of grocers had increased from 35 to 54.
Meantime six wholesale grocery houses had sprung into existence, namely : Dennis & Keyes, J. M. Laird & Co., John McWilliams, Moody & Son, William Shaw & Company, and R. C. Webb & Son.
3 The event, a sequel to the history of the new Capitol, is later described in detail.
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The city's hotel service had increased from 10 to 13-the hotels now listed, but not in '66, being the Avenue, the Buckeye, the European, the Groves, the Indiana, the Jones, Lee John's (South Des Moines), the Monitor, the Pacific, the Pennsylvania, the Shamrock and the Valley. The only hostelries which had survived the five years since 1866 were the Avenue, the Savery and the old Demoine, and in all three of these the proprietorship had changed. In the first-named, James H. Long had been succeeded by Barnett & Johnson .. In the second, G. W. Savery had given way to G. B. Brown & Company. In the third, J. Carroll had been succeeded by Knickerbocker & Folger.
In fire insurance the State and the Hawkeye survived; but the Central Iowa had been absorbed. The Western Accident had also ceased to be. Mean- time, the pioneer life insurance company in the Capital city, namely, the Equitable Life of Iowa, had come into being and evidently had come to stay. Its principal office was in the Sherman Block. It was strongly officered as follows: Presi- dent, P. M. Casady ; Vice President, B. F. Allen; Secretary, Hoyt Sherman ; Treasurer, F. R. West ; General Agent, A. Morris.
The pioneer jewelers of '65, the Plumb brothers, Joseph Z. Rogg, McCoy, Goodwin and Parmelee, were reinforced by W. W. Booth, and F. L. Rosentreter.
Of the five livery and sales stables in '65, Ensign and Kennedy alone remained, and eight new firm names appear, among these the well known name of L. J. Wells.
Conrad T. Youngerman, the stone-cutter of '65, appears in '71 as a contractor.
Of the five newspapers of '65, four remained,-the Register, the Statesman, the Homestead and the Iowa School Journal ; but in place of the defunct Temper- ance Platform of '65, we now find the Staats Anzeiger, Joseph Eiboeck,-still its editor and publisher-the Western Pomologist, Mark Miller, editor ; the Iowa Review, Stewart, Waterman & Speed, publishers; The Western Jurist, William G. Hammond, editor ; Plain Talk, M. H. Bishard, editor and publisher-still in existence, owned and edited by Bishard Brothers,-and The New Broom, Carter, Hussey & Curl, publishers.
It is noteworthy that whereas there were twenty saloons listed in '65, six years later there were only eleven ; but there were ten "saloons and restaurants," a combination since prohibited by law.
The pioneer dealers in hardware and stoves, Comparet & Stark, J. S. & A. F. Dicks, Howell & Seeberger, Kurtz & Brother, were still in the field; while Albertson & Palmer, Hart & Fowler, Newman & Newton, J. Purington and Sanford & Sherman, had given way to McKisson & Bolton, A. L. F. Mower, Wellslager & Matthews and W. R. Ray.
The learned professions had undergone many changes. The well-known physician and publicist, T. K. Brooks, meantime had died. Among the twenty- eight other physicians practicing in Des Moines at the close of the war, only thirteen were still in the service of the public in '71, namely, Doctors Beach, Dickinson, Field, Grimes, McGorrisk, Rawson, Ward, Skinner, Steele, Thomp- son, Tisdale, Whitman and Willis. Among the new names, since become en- deared to many homes are Carter, Hanawalt, and Hunter.
In the legal profession, six years had made equally marked changes. Of the sixty-eight attorneys in practice in '65, only twenty-one remained in practice in '71. 'These were: Attorneys Barcroft, Gatch, Bartle, Cavanagh, Crane, Dorr, Ellwood, Etheridge, Finch, Godfrey, McHenry, W. H. & M. D. McHenry, Nourse, Phillips & Phillips, Polk, Hubbell, Smith (H. Y.), Smith (Seward), Turner, Withrow, Wright (T. S.), Ingersoll, Kauffman, Kenyon, Brown (T. E.).
Among the well-known names that in this short space of time disappeared, by reason of retirement from practice, removal or decease, are Andrews, Bates, Callanan, Casady, Bartholemew, Dickson, Dixon, Hoxie, Hull, Kasson, Lynde, Lyon, Mitchell, Orwig, Sibley, Whitcomb and Williamson. Among the more prominent new names are Bissell (afterward attorney general), Dudley, Christy, Connor, Leland and Goode.
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1872-THE YEAR ALLISON DEFEATED HARLAN.
One of the most exciting personal and political contests ever held at the State Capital terminated in a party caucus of the republican members of the Fourteenth General Assembly on the 10th of January, 1872, resulting in the defeat of James Harlan, United States Senator since 1856 (with the exception of a few months' service as Secretary of the Interior in 1865), and the election of Representative William B. Allison, of the Dubuque district, in his stead. The contest had been waged long and with a degree of intensity rarely developed in Iowa politics. For several days prior to the caucus friends of the rival candidates filled the hotels and thronged the Capitol. Old charges, often refuted, were revived and reiterated with all the force of seeming conviction. On both sides hints at undue corporate influence were passed on from one to another until they gained currency with many. Sectional jealousies, long held in abey- ance, broke forth with tremendous force. The Capital city was divided into two hostile camps.
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