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 81
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97
1 Fifth Reunion, Pioneer Law-makers' Association, p. 20.
Rafinkim
Pioneer Legislator and Builder of the New Capitol
JOHN A. KASSON Legislator and Diplomat
593
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
of the measure itself. Senator Cattell and the friends of the measure fought bravely ; but, it became apparent that theirs was a losing fight. With the discre- tion of a wise general, Cattell summoned all his strength for a retreat, securing postponement until the 25th,-the bill as amended to be printed meantime.
The prospect on the 25th was far from hopeful. On the 26th, an amendment in the nature of a substitute, authorizing an advertisement for plans for a new state house, and providing for the repair of the old, was adopted by a vote of 27 to 20. All seemed lost; but a friendly senator moved a reconsideration, which motion carried. The bill, with its load of amendments, was referred back to the committee, March 30; the committee reported a substitute calling for plans, for a new capitol building, and appropriation money for repairs on the old. This was so amended as to call for plans for a two-million dollar building. On the third day of April, the substitute was adopted, by a vote of 39 to 7. The house promptly ratified the senate's action. The substitute was adopted by the house by a vote of 59 to 6.
The net results of the session were:
I. A commitment of the state to the consideration of the question of a two million dollar capitol building.
2. A popular awakening to the desirability, if not necessity, of a new building.
The Thirteenth General Assembly found Mr. Kasson in his seat and ready for the fray. His colleague in the House this session was George W. Jones. In the senate the seat vacated by Jonathan Cattell was now occupied by B. F. Allen, one of the best known of the pioneer bankers and business men in Iowa, not gifted in debate but strong in the committee-room and in the lobby-a "good mixer" and a resourceful manager of men and measures.
The opposition in the house, formerly led by the trio, Traer of Benton, Dud- ley of Wapello and Brown of Van Buren, was now measurably strengthened by Cutts of Mahaska, a vigorous organizer and forceful debater. Mr. Kasson in after years especially mentioned the redoubtable John P. Irish, of Johnson, and the witty Pat Gibbons, of Keokuk, as among his most serviceable allies.
The tactics of two years before were reversed. The bill, this time, first saw the light in the senate. The building committee, of which Griffith of Warren was chairman, reported it out on the 28th of January, 1870, and it was made a spec- ial order for February 4. There seemed to be an understanding that the fight this time would be in the House. In due time it was reached. In the Senate it was slightly amended and engrossed, and, on the following day, was read a third time and passed, by a vote of 27 to 18. Then began the fight for its life.
The bill came over from the senate February 7, and on the usual motion to refer, Traer was opposed to any reference. Cutts urged indefinite postpone- ment. Dudley urged immediate action. Kasson's motion to refer to the build- ing committee finally carried by a vote of 53 to 39,-a vote which could not be taken as a measure of the strength of the bill.
When the day set for the presentation of the committee's report arrived, a postponement of the special order until the 8th of March was asked and granted, though Cutts and Dudley vigorously opposed the motion. The day arrived and after a preliminary skirmish, the real battle of words began. Traer moved an indefinite postponment, urging the bad condition of the State's finances and the paramount needs of the several state institutions. Gibbons, of Lee, made a good-humored, generous plea for the new building. Ball, of Jefferson, took many words to declare himself unalterably opposed to the bill. Irish rose to the occasion, drawing from Ball an admission that if he felt free to vote he would vote aye. Then followed Cutts, "the Ajax of the opposition." Mr. Kasson long afterward said, "it would be difficult indeed to surpass that speech in artful adaptation to intimidate fearful members and to prejudice the doubtful against the entire proposition." It was a compound of humor, satire, argument and appeal. It is difficult to read with seriousness Mr. Cutts' picture of Iowa's pov- erty,-"little children running round with their little knees protruding through Vol. I-38
.
594
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
their pants, their coats all ragged and tattered and torn, their little caps with their fore-pieces off and all torn; their father gone to the county seat to pay out the last half-dime which is to go into that magnificent state house !"
It remained for Mr. Kasson to reply to "the Ajax of the House." As in mythology, Agamemnon awarded to Odyseus over Ajax the coveted arms of Achilles, so the verdict of most listeners to this notable debate was that the Polk county statesman fairly won first honors in the contest for supremacy. Mr. Kasson maintained that the reputation of his State was depreciated by the mean and narrow housing of its legislature and its executive officers. Dealing with plain, practical men, he did not rely on mere sentiment. He maintained that (I) the State house then occupied was at best only temporary and wholly inadequate, and was unsafe as against fire or storm. It had no committee rooms; its walls were defective and had been pronounced unsafe; the opposition had shamefully discredited the financial condition of the State, the appropriation asked could easily be paid out of existing resources without increasing taxation or robbing other state institutions; (2) that the old State house would be untenable before the possible completion of the new; (3) and that the implied obligation of the State to build a new capitol in consideration of the valuable grants of land and pecuniary sacrifices made by the people of Polk county should be fulfilled.
Mr. Kasson was frequently interrupted by questions and comments, but he deftly parried every thrust and cleverly answered every question.
The debate was continued into the next forenoon with Cutts, Irish and Ball frequently on the floor.
Once the former member from Jefferson turned the laugh on the cleverer member from Polk. In the audience that packed the old capitol during the debate were many public-spirited women of Des Moines. Professing to regard the presence of the Des Moines ladies as an attempt to influence votes for the bill in which they were interested, Mr. Ball ironically remarked :
"Don't you see, they have sent all these ladies and gentlemen to prove that there is danger here! They sit here, I have no doubt, in danger and fear !
I am pretty nearly --- not quite, though -. satisfied to vote for the bill !"
Everybody laughed.
Mr. Kasson good-humoredly retorted that his old friend's modesty prevented him from seeing that the ladies of Des Moines were not there to show their courage, but were drawn thither by "the attractions of the gentleman from Jefferson."
Ball came back with the remark that he had always had an excellent opinion of himself, and it was now demonstrated to his entire satisfaction.
Kasson's friends laughed last, for with nimble wit came the quick retort: "I take back what I said about the gentleman's modesty."
But the tension was not long relieved. Intimations of attempted bribery were made and were met by ridicule, denunciation and challenge for proof. Petitions were met by remonstrances, and feeling ran high.
Then came the calm following the storm. The period of compromise was reached. Mr. Kasson and his friends were driven to admit two riders on the third reading, their poverty of votes and not their will consenting.
On the morning of April 8, four weeks after its engrossment the bill was called up for a third reading. The strained condition of the House is well il- lustrated by an incident related by Mr. Kasson.2 He says:
"As I left my house on the morning of that day for the capitol, I stopped at the hotel to see that no dilatory friend of the bill should be lingering there. At that moment a citizen hastened to tell me that of county, whose vote we counted on, had just been seen going into a drinking saloon near by. I sent him to look for this member, and received the report that he had
2 Fifth Reunion of Pioneer Law-makers' Association, p. 27.
595
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
slipped out the back door. . . I learned that he had been beset by some anti- capitol members the night before who had drugged him with whisky, put him in his room and locked his door, thinking he would not awake in time for the vote. I dispatched a wagon instantly for my good friend, Father Brazill, whose in- fluence over this member I knew, with an urgent request to follow him and bring him to the State house as soon as possible. I then proceeded to the State house with increased anxiety, not knowing whether that one absent vote might not defeat our bill at the very crisis of its fate. A short time before the voting began, however, I discovered the absentee entering the house, followed closely to his seat by the good priest who took post behind his chair, and did not let him out of his sight until the voting was over. He found the absent member on the lonely bank of 'Coon river, sitting solitary on a log, like a man either in manly shame of himself, or having a racking over-night headache. But when Father Brazill said, 'Come with me,' he went."
That Father Brazill, of grateful memory, saved the day for Mr. Kasson, and for Des Moines and Polk county, is evident from the spirited report which follows :
"The two rider amendments were adopted without a division, and the roll call began. Every member was present except three. Hall and galleries were crowded to overflowing, as they had been throughout the debate. Many mem- bers had roll calls in their hand keeping count as the call proceeded, myself among them. The silence was intense-not a sound was heard save the clerk's mon- otonous call of names and the answer aye or no. The phonographic report of that session prints the figures '20' after my name on the roll call. This will re- mind some of you of a laughable incident that occurred at the time. If we had fifty-one ayes (no matter about the nays) the bill became a law, and I was therefore counting the ayes. At the moment the clerk called my name I was writing the number of nays, and inadvertently answered the call by shouting 'twenty,' at the top of my voice. It broke the silent tension of feeling, and for nearly two minutes the roll-call ceased, while the whole house and audience were convulsed with laughter. I do not know that the mistake made any votes for us, but it certainly put our opponents into a more amiable humor. The official count gave us one solitary vote to spare, 52 to 46, with only two absentees. The immense audience shook the frail walls of the old building with their ap- plause. There was the usual motion to reconsider and to lay that on the table, upon which 66 members voted with our friends, and only 31 voted against them. Two-thirds of the house, indirectly befriended the measure. This vote probably represented the real judgment of the house, certainly much more than the vote on its passage.
"The senate promptly concurred in the amendments, and the new capitol was finally authorized by law. Of course there was joy in the Capital city of Des Moines. The people of Polk county expressed their satisfaction by a procession headed by music and bearing to my door a gold-headed cane, which I have handed over to Mr. Aldrich as a souvenir of the event, to be deposited in that capitol museum which does so much honor to its founder and to the state."
But Polk county had further use for Mr. Kasson. Two capitol commission- ers, selected at large had been forced into the bill, and six others were to be nominated by congressional districts and elected in joint legislative convention. This procedure gave the State a partisan commission and, withal, too many in numbers. As was to be expected, the foundation work done was so defective as to give rise to a demand for a new start, with the probable reopening of the question of location. The appropriation which went with the bill was for a single term only. An annual appropriation and a working commission was the dual need which compelled the leader from Polk to accept a third term at the hands of his friends and neighbors. Mr. Kasson's colleague in the House this time was General Tuttle. Mr. Allen was a senate hold-over.
Investigation was the first step taken. The investigating committee reported
596
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
condemning the stone and the foundation. The house committee on public buildings reported an amendatory act February 27, 1872; but its consideration was postponed until April 2. Mr. Kasson moved that Maturin L. Fisher, of Clayton, Robert S. Finkbine of Polk, and Peter A. Dey, of Johnson, two re- publicans and two democrats, be named as capitol commissioners. The Gov- ernor was made ex officio chairman of the commission. The old board was abolished. An annual appropriation of $125,000 was secured. After much de- bate and many votes, it was finally voted that the commission should keep in view a cost of $1,500,000. An amendment giving preference to all other ap- propriations over that for the capitol was forced through, (only to be voted down in the senate, ) and the bill passed by a vote of 63 to 24. The bill met with no mishap in the senate, carrying that body by a vote of 34 to 9.
After a scurrying for votes to enable the senate amendments to pass the house, the bill as amended passed the house a second time, -- and the long fight for the new capitol ended with a signal victory in which every one apparently rejoiced.
CHAPTER II.
THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE IN '71.
The laying of the corner-stone of the new Capitol occurred on the 23d of November, 1871. A procession was formed, led by and under the direction of Gen. Nathaniel B. Baker, Adjutant-General of the State. The other marshals were Generals J. M. Tuttle and J. A. Williamson. The Olmstead Zouaves, with a detachment of cavalry, followed; then the firemen of the city. Following these were Governor Merrill, ex-governors and lieutenant-governors and state officers present and elect, the capitol commissioners, architects, mayor and city council, invited guests, judges national, state, district and circuit, members of Congress and members of the press.
A second division, marshalled by Gen. J. M. Hedrick, Col. C. H. Mackey and Maj. D. C. Cram was made up of members of the 13th and members-elect of the 14th General Assembly, and the clergy, officers and members of the state, district and county agricultural, horticultural and historical societies, offi- cers of state institutions and colleges, superintendents, contractors and mechanics who had been employed on the building, and members of the Stone-cutters' Association.
A third division, marshalled by Col. S. F. Spofford, Capt. R. W. Cross and Hon. J. W. Jones was composed of citizens of Des Moines and other parts of the State.
A fourth division was marshalled by Col. J. M. Griffiths, Maj. A. R. Ander- son, Col. S. D. Pryce, Maj. Thomas Cavanagh, Conrad Beck, Esq., Capt. M. T. Russell and Col. George C. Tichenor, was composed of members of civic bodies, as follows: Turners' Association, Knights of Pythias, Sons of Erin, Sons of Temperance, Good Templars, Temple of Honor, People's Temperance Associ- ation, Odd Fellows and Masons.
The procession formed soon after 10 a. m., and moved through the principal streets of the city to the Capitol grounds, escorted by bands of music.
Rev. Thomas O. Rice, of Des Moines, offered prayer. Hon. James F. Wilson made a brief address at the laying of the corner-stone. The principal address of the day was delivered by Governor Samuel Merrill, recounting the history of Iowa down to the event of the hour and with eloquent words of warning and of cheer pointing to the future of the commonwealth.
Prof. A. S. Hardy, then of Iowa College, had written an Ode in honor of the occasion, which was read by Hon. J. B. Grinnell.
Following is a part of the poem written by Prof. Hardy :1
"And here 'twixt suns that rise and set, 'Twixt river and river, sea and sea, Will we build thee a shrine, he said, where yet Our children's children shall worship thee As their fathers have, O Liberty !
1 Arthur Sherburne Hardy, soldier, educator, author, editor and diplomat, graduate from U. S. Military Academy, 1869, second lieut., 3d artillery, prof. civil engineering, Iowa College, '71-3; Dartmouth College, '74-93; ed. Cosmopolitan magazine, '93-5; U. S. minister to Persia, '97-9; to Greece, Roumania and Servia, 99-01; to Switzerland, '01-3; to Spain, 03-5; author of several mathematical works, essays, novels and poems.
597
598
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
Here where with stealthy eye and feet
The Indian crept on the trail of war;
Let its white walls stand, a symbol meet Of the tablets pure of peace and law,
Till the world is dead and time grown hoar.
And freedom shall be its corner-stone, And truth the pillars that tall and fair
Rise stately above the great white throne Where Justice sits to guard her own, And over all shall hover there The solemn breathing of a prayer."
Hon. J. A. Kasson, on behalf of the architects, Messrs. Cochrane and Pique- nard, presented the Governor a beautifully engraved silver trowel and, on behalf of the local superintendent, James Appleyard, a handsomely carved mallet, of Iowa wood, mounted with silver.
Governor Merrill, taken wholly by surprise, accepted the gifts, assuring the donors that he would carefully preserve them as mementoes of the occasion.
General Baker then moved the procession to the southwest corner of the Capitol building where the Governor deposited the leaden box-20 by 10, and 12 inches deep, with its historic contents, and, with his newly acquired trowel and mallet, smoothed the mortar and adjusted the stone, then, turning to the assemblage, said :
"In the name and in behalf of the people of Iowa, I pronounce the corner- stone well set."
The band played "The Star-spangled Banner," Rev. Mr. Rice pronounced the benediction and, as the audience dispersed, Captain Olmstead's Zouaves fired a national salute.
The corner-stone was of Iowa stone, cut from a quarry in Buchanan county, and presented by David Armstrong. Its dimensions are 7 x 3 x 3. A panel, fronting west, contains this inscription :
.
CAPITOL COMMISSIONERS.
GOV. SAMUEL MERRILL,
S. G. Stein,
G. M. Dodge, Jas. F. Wilson, Jas. Dawson, Chas. Dudley,
J. N. Dewey, J. O. Crosby, Wm. L. Joy, Cochrane & Piquenard, Architects.
The stone in the new Capitol Building is as follows :
The foundation stone is chiefly from the Bear Creek and Winterset quarries of Iowa.
The basement is from Iowa City quarries.
The buff-colored stone of the superstructure is from St. Genevieve, Mo., and the "blue stone" is from Carroll county, Mo.
The granite in the base course is in part from the "prairie boulders" of Bu- chanan county ; but the dark colored pieces are from Sauk Rapids, Minn.
The outside steps and platforms-which need replacement-are "Forest City" stone, near Cleveland; the rails of Sauk Rapids granite.
The pilasters and piers in the interior of the basement are from the Anamosa quarries, and from Lemont, Ill.
All the columns, piers and pilasters in the corridors of the first story are from Lemont.
The red granite columns in the second story are from Iron Mountain, Mo.,
599
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
the dark granite, forming the bases and caps of the pedestals, is from Sauk Rapids.
The carved capitals, pilasters, and piers are of Lemont stone.
There are twenty-nine varieties of marble in the interior decorations :
Domestic : "Old Tennessee, Knoxville and Holstein-Tennessee; Glenn's Falls and Virginia-New York; Moriah-Vermont; and Iowa Coral-Charles City, Iowa.
Foreign: Mexican onyx-Mexico; Lisbon-Spain; Sienna, Verona Red, Statuary White, Veined, Italian Dove, Alps Green, Bardiglio, Brocatelle, Le- vanto-Italy; Languedoc, Rose vit, Rouge Greotte, Greotte Renaissance, Yel- low Eschalleon, Juan, Fleure-France ; Fermosa, Bougard-Germany ; Belgian Black, Belgium; Kilkenny Green, Victoria Red-Ireland.
The cost of the marble work alone was $114,815.
The length of the Capitol north and south is 363 feet, 8 inches ; east and west, 246 feet, II inches. The height of the building from ground to dome is 275 feet.
CHAPTER III.
THE ARMY POST -- THE THIRD FORT DES MOINES.
On a clear day, as the eye, looking southward, follows the horizon line from the library porch of the Capitol, it rests upon a shadowy flag seen floating from a shadowy flag-staff. On inquiry, the stranger learns that that is all which can be seen of Fort Des Moines from this point, four miles distant. It is the regimental flag floating over the third government fort of the same historic name. The first, planted early in the Thirties, near the mouth of the Des Moines river ; the second, located early in the Forties, on the point of land at the junction of the Des Moines and the Raccoon; and the third, the "city set upon a hill" -- or plateau-beyond Richmond Heights.
The location of a cavalry post at the State Capital of Iowa was the conception of a number of Des Moines' leading citizens, but chiefly the achievement of one man, Congressman John A. T. Hull. Long chairman of the Military Committee of the House of Representatives, Captain Hull was in position to do things. To him it seemed extremely desirable that such a post should be located at this central meeting place of the great railroads of the middle-west, enabling the War Department in an emergency to reach in a few hours any point of dis- turbance along the Mississippi or the Missouri.
The project dates from 1894, when a preliminary conference was held with Congressman Hull in Des Moines.
Mr. Hull first introduced his cavalry post bill in the Fifty-fourth Congress, but the measure failed. He introduced a similar bill in the Fifty-fifth Congress, and that failed, also. He introduced practically the same bill in the Fifty-sixth Congress, and it passed.
The bill carried an appropriation of $219,000. This has been supplemented by other appropriations until now the third Fort Des Moines, the second in the history of Des Moines, represents much more than a million dollars spent on the building and grounds.
Could Captain Allen come back from the grave, it would be difficult for him to comprehend the fact that the humblest of the many officers' cottages on yonder hill overlooking the site chosen by him, has cost the government at least twice as much as the entire cost of the cluster of log cabins and barracks which blossomed out at "the Forks" in 1843.1
Congressman Hull freely acknowledges his great indebtedness to the public- spirited citizens of Des Moines, whom he enlisted for active cooperation with him in the fulfilment of his promise to provide a suitable and satisfactory site for the proposed fort,-with adequate water supply and other favoring condi- tions. The sum of $40,000 was subscribed and paid in by the citizens' committee and their friends, and, with this sum duly approved, the Briscoe-Denny site -- four hundred acres in all-was purchased and the property was turned over to the government.
Government engineers took charge of the grounds and, under their direction. a vast amount of grading was done. The water supply was developed into a system connected with the city system of waterworks. Skillful architects planned scores of buildings. Competent builders erected them; skilled decorators fur-
1 Captain Allen's instruction was not to exceed $2,500 in the erection of buildings, etc.
600
PREPARING THE GROUND FOR FORT DES MOINES, NO. 3
601
CITY OF DES MOINES AND POLK COUNTY
nished them, and in a few years an entire village built of brick had grown up and around the regimental flag,-a village having that symmetry and single central thought which bespeaks a well-defined general purpose. The post was designed to accommodate I,200 cavalrymen, with their horses and general equip- ment.
The parade ground, 1,000 feet in width und 2,000 feet in length, surrounded by the administration building, hospital, chapel, officers' quarters, sabalterns' quarters, barracks and stables, presents a beautiful appearance from the en- trance, with varying phases of picturesqueness as seen from other points of view. When the ground is alive with a regiment of splendidly mounted and well-uniformed cavalrymen, on dress-parade, or in exhibition drill, the scene is impressive. Old army officers, who from time to time have inspected the post, unite in pronouncing the site ideal and the improvements made upon it the best and most attractive to be found in the country.
The purchase of the four-hundred-acre tract at a cost of $40,000 was made by a popular subscription, including the names of about two hundred public- spirited citizens, firms and corporations. Where all were generous it would seem almost invidious to name any, but no one of the contributors to this fund would in this instance withhold the names of the committee who managed and pushed the campaign making possible the success of Congressman Hull. The committee consisted of F. M. Hubbell, C. L. Watrous, H. S. Butler, F. M. Garrison, B. S. Walker, J. G. Rounds, C. W. Johnston, W. L. White and Lewis Schooler.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.