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 37
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In the deciding caucus, there were three ballots, the last showing 63 votes for Allison, 40 for Harlan and 17 for James F. Wilson.
After the caucus, the old Savery House vestibule and halls were thronged with the victors. Full of exuberance, they made that hostelry ring with their shouts and cheers. Responding to loud calls, Mr. Allison appeared on the stairs and in a few words thanked his friends for the deep interest they had taken in his welfare, and the legislators who had honored him with their votes. He promised them that he would do all in his power to merit the honor paid him. Later, Senator Harlan came to Mr. Allison's room and "in manly, generous terms" congratulated his competitor on his success. The Register says :
"It was a scene of rare interest, and Senator Harlan, in all the eighteen years of his public life, never appeared more truly great than when he thus forgot the disappointment of the hour and tendered to the man of victory his good wishes and congratulations."
The General Assembly in session, with its visitors, the State Press Associa- tion, the State Temperance Association and the State Horticultural Society packed the hotel with strangers much of the time during the first month of the new year.
The Des Moines and Northwestern Railroad Company incorporated Febru- ary 27, with a capital stock of $5,000,000. The local incorporators were T. F. Withrow and B. F. Allen, and Des Moines was made its headquarters.
At the spring election, the so-called "Gards" sprung a surprise on the regulars, electing Foster mayor, McHenry solicitor and Lowry treasurer, over the regular republican ticket by large majorities.
The spring longing of the local railroad promoters was expressed in the new cry, "On to St. Louis!" The road proposed was the Albia, Knoxville & ·Des Moines.
The exciting presidential campaign of 1872, which included the rise and fall of the liberal republican party, the triumphant reelection of President Grant and the overwhelming defeat of Horace Greeley, soon followed by the death of the defeated candidate, made some new alignments in Des Moines, but, on the round-up at the polls, it was found that the local situation had not materially changed.
On the 14th of November the eventful career of Stewart Goodrell was brought to a close at the early age of 56. Mr. Goodrell's adult life was thoroughly identified with Des Moines. A member of the first and second General Assemblies of Iowa, and of the Constitutional Convention of 1846, he came to Des Moines experienced in legislation. After serving on the Capitol Location Commission, escaping the censure heaped upon other of his associates, he was, in 1860, elected from Polk county a member of the Ninth General Assembly. In '61 he was appointed Register of the United States Land Office. In '63 he was made
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special agent for the Treasury Department at Natchez. In '69 he was appointed United States Pension Agent, with headquarters in Des Moines. He had fre- quently held local office and always acceptably to his constituents. His death came as a blessed relief from prolonged suffering. His eldest daughter is the principal of the East Des Moines high school. His son and namesake was prom- inent in insurance circles in Chicago until his untimely death in August, 19II.
The selection of Albert W. Swalm, then of Jefferson, to the pension agency made vacant by the death of Mr. Goodrell, brought back to Des Moines one of the old-time printers and journalists on the State Register force. Mr. Swalm has since occupied several posts in the consular service, and is now United States Consul at Southampton, England.
"Father" John S. Dean's death, in December, removed a resident of the town since 1847, when he, with his family and relatives, together about thirty in number, came to Fort Des Moines. He entered 318 acres in what is now East Des Moines, north of Court avenue. He built a cabin on East Second, between Walnut and Locust, and in '49 he built a steam-mill. In '52 he sold the mill to Shepard & Perrior.
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1873-THE YEAR THE MEXICAN WAR VETERANS HELD A REUNION.
The year 1873 opened with a big hope that the Milwaukee narrow-gauge project would during the coming summer be pushed to its ultimate destination, --- a connection, via Des Moines, with the great system of narrow-gauge roads then building in Kansas and the territories.
After spending over $4,000 in prospecting for coal Wesley Redhead finally, in June, reached a vein 4 to 41/2 feet thick, at a depth of 125 feet from the sur- face. The shaft was sunk in "South Park," near the Seventh street bridge. He called it the Black Diamond coal, and organized the Des Moines Coal Company to operate it. The event gave a strong impetus to the development of the coal- mining industry of Des Moines.
Dr. Aborn, finally after much deliberation, decided to erect a hotel instead of an opera house, on the old B. F. Allen property. The Aborn House, still a lively memory of political gatherings, legislative lobbies and innumerable ban- quets, was the result of this sage conclusion.
The silver wedding anniversary of the marriage of Judge and Mrs. C. C. Cole was a prominent social event of the summer of 1873. The wedding was held in Oxford, N. Y., June 25, 1848. Friends gathered from New York, Ken- tucky, Illinois, and, all quarters in Iowa, to attend the anniversary. Members of the Supreme court and of the bar of Des Moines were out in force. The Cole mansion was beautifully decorated with evergreens and flowers and the spacious grounds were brilliantly illuminated. Among the many rich presents given was a set of eight silver pieces from the Polk County Bar. About five hundred guests were present.
Another notable social event of the summer was the golden wedding of General and Mrs. Ankeny of Des Moines. In Berlin, Pa., July 29, 1823, occurred the auspicious wedding of Joseph Ankeny and Harriet S. Geisey. On this anni- versary. occasion there were gathered round the venerable couple seven children and twenty-five grandchildren. Many old family friends and old-time neighbors gathered to pay their respects, and the fair bride and groom received them with delightful graciousness. The Ankeny family is closely identified with Polk county history and this gathering of all the members of the family-without a single loss by death-was memorable.
The stockholders of the Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad Company met in Des Moines September II. The deeds to the roadbed and the transfer of the franchise by Polk & Hubbell were accepted. The directors elected were: Messrs. Polk, Hubbell, Callanan, Stewart, J. F. and R. V. Ankeny, Ward, Patterson, Harter, Elliott, Jack, Getchell, Rawson, Hippee, Hatch, Day, Merrill and Welch.
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An issue of bonds to the amount of $60,000 was authorized and the amount sub- scribed. The directors organized with Samuel Merrill, president; J. B. Stewart, vice president ; F. M. Hubbell, secretary, and James Callanan, Jr., treasurer.
The reunion of the veterans of the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, a notable body of men now passed on into eternity, occurred in September. The list of surviving veterans of the War of 1812 included only eleven. Among these were the following residents of Des Moines: C. S. Moers, aged 66; William Moore, aged 95 ; Richard Comin, aged 77; Ralph N. Barcroft, aged 79. Of the. veterans of the Mexican War, the following were residents of Des Moines : Josiah Given, F. Olmsted, Isaac W. Griffith, James C. Gregg, G. D. Ulrich, L. T. Filson, A. C. Edmunds, Hugh McKelvouge, L. D. Sims, James Stanton, P. D. Ankeny, James Gray, Henry Hutsonpillar and James Slee. Hon. D. O. Finch happily welcomed the veterans and Captain Griffith, Sergeant Griffith and Gen- eral Given did most of the speaking. General Given was the soul of the meet- ings, his humor and eloquence combining to make the occasion memorable.
Des Moines had become the great convention city of the State. The con- ventions held in the city had grown so numerous that an effort to report them here-even in outline --- would be to ignore all regard for relativity. To give the reader an impression of the new and growing importance of the Capital city as a meeting place, a bare mention is here given of the organizations convening in Des Moines during the year 1873 :
Iowa State Grange, County Board of Supervisors, Rankin Investigating Committee, with its numerous witnesses, Polk County Agricultural Society, Woman Suffrage Association of Iowa, Polk County Bible School Convention, Anti-Monopoly County Convention, State Eclectic Medical Society, Polk County Republican Convention, Republican State Convention, Polk County Fair, The Survivors of the War of 1812 and of the Mexican War, Anti-Monopoly State Convention, State Fair, Evangelical Lutheran Synod, State Universalist Society, Des Moines and Minnesota stockholders' meeting, District Fair, Christian Church Convention, Masonic Grand Commandery, Grand Consistory, Grand Council and Grand Chapter in annual convention, Polk County Sunday School Convention.
Every succeeding year has added to the list of conventions held in Des Moines, until now, in 1911, scarcely a week passes which does not bring to the Capital city several organized bodies.
1874-THE YEAR OF B. F. ALLEN'S ILL-FATED CHANGE OF BASE.
The Fifteenth General Assembly passed through the process of "benevolent assimilation" at the Capital without friction and townspeople welcomed them with open arms to hospitable homes. Hotel people and trades-people felt the new impulse to their business and were happy.
Victoria Woodhull, the radical Woman's Rights champion, -- the "Lady Cook" of 1911,-spoke in the Capital city in January, 1874, and was described as a woman of wonderful eloquence. The first part of her lecture was styled "rank communism." Her social theories were "not of a kind to commend themselves to a people that think one wife is enough for one man and one man enough for one woman." She was described as "witty, and sometimes logical, but as an orator second to few in the land." It was admitted that she told some "dis- graceful truths," disgraceful "to the parties whose habits make them truths."
Early in the new year, the old Valley Road was reorganized as two roads, one the Keokuk and Des Moines, the other the Des Moines and Fort Dodge, thus making Des Moines the termini of the system. The reorganization was effected in New York.
After years of dependence upon the courthouse and Sherman hall for lec- tures and amusements, Des Moines awoke in February, 1874, to find herself pos- sessed of a real live opera house !- with "Uncle Billy" Moore, the pioneer, its
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projector and owner. Its dimensions were 66 feet on Walnut street by 132 on Fourth street. The "grand entrance" was on Fourth street. The stage, 35 x 63, was "one of the largest in the west." There were six dressing-rooms and two proscenium boxes, "none handsomer to be found in any theatre in the union." William Foster, afterwards and for several years, the proprietor and manager of all the theatres in the city, was its architect. The Harbachs furnished it. The cost of the entire building was estimated at $60,000, that of the new part $40,000. The completion of this structure was pronounced "an era in Des Moines worth special mention and remembrance."
In the pioneer days, when a past generation were young and imaginative, Thespian societies had full swing and were well patronized by admiring rela- tives and friends. It was natural that their descendants and newcomers should catch the torch from the hands of their elders and bravely carry it on. Let a single instance suffice to illustrate the dramatic trend of society in the early Seven- ties. "Uncle Billy" Moore, the pioneer amusement man of Des Moines, was look- ing over his old papers one day when he fell upon an account of the opening of his opera house, February 5, 1874. It was in the upper story of the corner of Fourth and Walnut streets, better known to newcomers in the nineties as the Wonderland Music and Bijou theatre. The opening performance was given over to home talent. There was a musical program by Miss Minnie Hill, soprano; E. Shultz, tenor, and William Lewis, violinist. The play was the thing! It was entitled "Flying Clouds." The cast of characters was:
Mr. Hartzman Martin McHenry Ernest Gatler. Hoyt Sherman, Jr.
Stornthal John Weldon, Jr.
Jan Tom Shissler
Schalden Welker Given
Kruger Elwood Gatch
Flinn .. Bart Smith Lindy Hatty McManus
Colonel Rheinberg. Jacob Kennedy
Raub Homer D. Cope
Katrina Emma Given Isaak Henry Sessions
The performance was a financial success, for the receipts were $3,280.75.
The golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. David Bush, February 10, 1874, brought together most of the surviving pioneers and their descendants and many new- found friends. Mr. and Mrs. Bush had been married twenty-three years when they crossed the Mississippi. In the spring of '47 they came to Fort Des Moines. Their fiftieth anniversary was held at the home of Mr. L. H. Bush, now the old- est resident of Des Moines, having come with his parents a child of two years of age, and having resided in the city ever since. Among the golden wedding guests were Bishop Andrews of the M. E. Church, Rev. Mr. Nash of the Bap- tist Church, many strangers and all the well-known survivors of old Fort Des Moines. On behalf of thirty-six of the old friends the venerable Judge William- son presented Mr. Bush with an elegant gold-headed ebony cane. In the course of his remarks he said :
"Many of us remember well the hospitable log cabin where you and your children happily dwelt ; your hospitality was proverbial. The old dwell- ing is gone with the years that have fled, but their recollections are enshrined in our hearts as they are in yours, and while thrift has thrown around you greater comforts than they afforded, yet the happier hours will be enjoyed by chasing back these old memories."
Alexander Bowers, a teamster in Fort Des Moines in '48, and at the time of his death Deputy United States Marshal, died in Des Moines, February 27, full of years and with a well-earned reputation for integrity.
The elegant residence of James C. Savery was burned March 19. The direct damage was placed at $12,000-with no insurance, but the house was crowded with rare books and works of art, a collection resulting from years of travel at home and abroad. The Savery home was a "Mecca of Des Moines society," and in its destruction the city's loss was great.
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Terrace Hill.
The removal of B. F. Allen to Chicago in 1874 was the greatest loss the business interests of Des Moines had suffered in many years, for Mr. Allen had been the Mecænas of every struggling institution in the city, and the liberal subscriber to every issue of stock for railroads, headed toward or eman- ating from Des Moines, and an ungrudging taxpayer in support of public im- provements in the city. What to do with his capacious and palatial residence was the question. It was too large, and the care and expense of maintaining it too great, to be seriously considered by any one of the small capitalists of Des Moines at that time. "Terrace Hill," as it had been named, was the delight and pride of social Des Moines, and to have that sightly place closed, and, worse still, to see it run down by lack of that loving personal attention which the Allens had given it, was deplorable in the extreme.4
The Catholic society looked it over, but dared not seriously consider the pur- chase of the property.
Judge Cole conceived the idea of a university-"the Allen University." He visited Mr. Allen in Chicago and speedily arranged for the purchase of the prop- erty, on behalf of Iowa Presbyterians, at a cost of $250,000. Mr. Allen offered to donate $150,000 of this sum, on condition that the promissory notes for the balance, with an option to run till 1885, should be turned over to him. He also offered to endow the president's chair at an outlay of about $30,000,-"a princely offer, worthy of the large heart and liberal purse of the great banker of the west." Judge Cole returned much elated and received much encouragement. The judge hoped to secure the Parsons fund for the endowment of professor- ships for the proposed Allen University.
The Presbyterian Synod which convened in Des Moines in October consid- ered the proposed "Allen University," and too, that of a Presbyterian Univer- sity of any kind, and appointed a committee to consider the project in all its bear- ings, taking into account location, funds, course of instruction, professorship and everything connected therewith.
There the matter ended !
The Attack on Kasson.
The republican county convention in the Des Moines district in July, renomi- nated John A. Kasson for Congress against the vigorous opposition of the State Register and a number of influential republicans. The nominating convention did not stop with a strong indorsement of Kasson. It passed resolutions, offered by Mr. Loughran, accusing the Des Moines postmaster, Mr. Clarkson, of "obtain- ing government funds in double offices, for which he" had "rendered no service," and of "organizing conspiracy with the enemies of the republican party to defeat the wishes of the party and its candidates for office," also of "wilfully and maliciously libeling Representative Kasson." It appointed J. C. Jordan, A. Elliott and G. W. Edwards a committee to confer with Senator George G. Wright and with the authorities at Washington "for the purpose of securing the removal of J. S. Clarkson as postmaster of Des Moines."
After these several whereases, came the resolution-"That the Iowa State Register under the present management by Postmaster Clarkson, is a stigma upon honest journalism, and unworthy the confidence or support of honest men of any party."
Mr. Hatton here ventured a prophecy. He said: "You may resolve and re-resolve against the Register, but it is upheld by the people, and they will sus- tain it."
After a bitter contest in the convention, Mr. Kasson was nominated on the first ballot by a vote of 47, as against 10 for Colonel Cummings and 12 for Mr
4 The story of B. F. Allen's failure is told in a later chapter entitled "Pioneer Banks and Bankers and their Successors."
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Dashiel. The election of Mr. Kasson over the combined democratic, anti-monop- oly and disaffected republican opposition, by a majority of nearly 2,000, was remarkable in view of the adverse influences arrayed against the candidate at the outset.
The Des Moines Southern Railroad Company was organized and incorporated in September with the leading capitalists of Des Moines on its board. The object of the corporation was a narrow-gauge railroad from Des Moines to St. Louis, the capital stock to be three million dollars. The project was locally regarded with that same delightful optimism which in the past had won victories and sustained defeat with like equanimity.
The Lynching of Howard.
The local historian is compelled from time to time to paint into his pictures of community life a dark background of sin and crime. It is inevitable that in the most law-abiding and progressive communities are the depraved, the motions of whose souls are "dark as Erebus," and, too, the weak whose appetites and pas- sions are wont to sway them from the path of rectitude. In fact, the very pros- perity and promise of a community had for the weak and wicked an irresistible drawing power. Des Moines had been the scene of several brutal murders since the new decade began. And then came the murder of John Johnson by Charles Howard (Nelson) with the awful tragedy which followed Howard's trial and conviction.
The case occupied fifteen days. The defense was accorded able counsel. The courtroom was crowded every day during the trial. Johnson had been foully murdered in the darkness of the night. Soon followed the atrocious murder of Mrs. Ellen Barrett. There was no connection or association of the one crime with the other, but the public was nervously excited and alarmed. "The very air seemed tainted with rapine and murder," said Judge Maxwell. The judge in his remarkable sentence presented what was regarded by many as a strong plea for the vigilance committee where courts are lax and dilatory, and where technicalities defeat justice. The sentence was imprisonment for life. The prisoner, defiant throughout, received the sentence with a smile. This was Monday.
Tuesday morning at four o'clock a mob of "vigilantes" overcame Jailor Wise and the extra guards kept about the jail, took the jailer's keys, proceeded to Howard's cell, where the prisoner and his wife 5 were sleeping, and laid their hands upon Howard. The wife, screaming with terror, threw herself upon her husband, thinking to protect him. It was not till Howard himself pushed. her from him that they were able to throw the rope over his head. The prisoner was dragged out of bed, across the floor, into the corridor and out into the street. Soon the body of Howard was dangling from the nearest lamp-post. The deed was done in darkness and in silence, except that many shots were fired for the purpose of intimidation. It was estimated that at least a hundred men were engaged in the outrage against law and order. The intense feeling into which the community had lashed itself was the only pretext of excuse for the crime.
A citizens' meeting was hastily called Tuesday afternoon, at which resolu- tions were adopted condemning the lynching, and calling upon the authorities "to take all necessary steps for the apprehension and punishment of those guilty of this base and most infamous offense." But nothing was done to bring the offenders to justice.
1875-THE YEAR GRANT CAME TO DES MOINES.
The new year, 1875, started in well for the infant industries of Des Moines.
5 Under indictment with him for the murder of Johnson.
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In 1873, the Tone Brothers began the manufacture of baking powder in the city and their business had already grown to large proportions, giving promise of rapid increase. Several years before, John H. Given had begun to manufacture in a small way, and now his iron works were doing a large and growing business. The Skinner Brothers, who had begun manufacturing plows on a small scale, could now point to shipments abroad-even to India. The Waldron Brothers had steadily increased their pay-roll until now it contained eighty names. McDon- ald and Meara, the pioneer boilermakers, were making boilers for all Iowa and shipping to neighboring states.
The Board of Directors of the State Fair, in January, agreed on a "perma- nent" location for the State Fair. The tract selected consisted of 73 acres and cost $10,000. The site selected, known as Brown's Park, was then a mile west of the city limits. It is now in the residence portion of the city.
The pork packing season of 1874-75 showed from November I to March I, Des Moines packed 74,017 hogs. Of these, J. H. Windsor & Co., 23,000; Tuttle & Igo, 32,035; Joseph 'Shissler, 13,802 ; other parties, 5,180. This was reported as an increase of 31,000 over the previous year. These figures placed Des Moines ahead of Keokuk and Cedar Rapids, with only six other cities in the country ahead.
Like a flash of lightning from a clear sky came the news of the suspension of B. F. Allen's Chicago bank, the Cook County National Bank.6
Vice President Henry Wilson was the city's guest, May 29. He was met at Dexter by a citizens' committee consisting of Mayor Newton, Governor Car- penter, Senator Wright, and Superintendent Royce. The party drove to the Savery House, where an informal reception was held. Host McCartney spread a bounteous noon dinner in Mr. Wilson's honor. A formal reception in the afternoon was attended by several hundred ladies and gentlemen. At four Mr. Wilson was given a drive about the city. On Memorial Day the vice president was the principal orator. As chairman of the Military Committee when in the Senate, he had found that "when the call came for men to fill up our army, no State in the Union responded better than the young State of Iowa. None sent truer or braver men." The speaker eloquently pleaded for a new era of good feeling between the sections.
At the State Temperance Convention held in Des Moines late in June, resolu- tions were passed absolving all temperance men from allegiance to the republican party and committing the convention to a new party. Gen. J. B. Weaver advised against such policy and on its adoption the Marion county delegation withdrew.
The Polk county delegation went to the State convention with fifteen votes for General Weaver for Governor and one-Judge Nourse-for Kirkwood. The unexpected return of Kirkwood to party leadership was a. severe strain upon the republicanism of many who supported General Weaver.
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