USA > Iowa > Poweshiek County > Grinnell > Early history of Grinnell, Iowa, 1854-1874 : compiled from the files of the Grinnell Herald of Jan., Feb., and March, 1874 > Part 2
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L. H. Marsh, late of Vermont, and wife, with their children, Edna, George, Charlie and Ella,-the names of all the children were known then-also sheltered by the same roof, now are widely apart-a common dispersion in American families; Edna being the wife of Mr. Buck, a pioneer farmer in Kansas; George, graduating at Iowa college, is a missionary in Euro- pean Turkey; Charlie, a farmer, and only Ella at home; a college graduate and teacher in the public school.
The same hospitable roof also later sheltered Dea. A. Whitcomb and lady, from Chester, Vt. How their eyes moistened with gratitude as they alighted from
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the wagon; or were they involuntary tears evoked by the three days' blasts of Aeolus as if the fabled wind-god had come forth from his cave to drive back emigrants and despoil on the prairies. The flaxen- haired Abbie peeked out at the last halting, and Helen was unbundled; not then old enough to be the heroine of a Trojan war, or even to speak good Eng- lish, yet now officiating as college tutoress, and the elder sister a high school instructor.
From Maryland, in canvas covered wagons came John Hays and family, now among the respected citi- zens of Chester; the Misses Hays, residents here, who brought with them an ex-slave, "Uncle Ned," who was well treated and a character in his way, and Darius Thomas, an educated gentleman and teacher now residing in Newton, all of whom kept under can- vas and cooked on the ground until their houses were built. It should be mentioned that S. G. Paige, a protege of Homer Hamlin, and most serviceable in hauling the first brick and load of plows at an early day, left the bachelor ranks, marrying a daughter of Mr. Hays', and now resides in Chester. Other and later arrivals we must leave to group with the inci- dents of 1855.
Our tribulations in securing a postoffice were neither trivial nor of brief duration. We were four miles from Sugar Grove postoffice, the nearest, and three miles from the mail route. Then we were Abolitionists and had established an underground railroad station it was said; and it is undenied that a stranger of a suspicious color had been secreted for the night in a pile of Carlton's shingle shavings, and under the escort of a broad-brim had gone on his way about the time-if ever-"that ghosts troop home from church-yards." Besides this culpable disunion act and the rumors, there was no real administra- tion "Frank Pierce" man here until the arrival of A. K. Lowry, in 1856, who kept what is now the Mercer House, and secured the postoffice, Chas. H. Spencer, a good Whig deputy. Mail arrivals and departures were regulated by uncertain chance and public char- ity. Capacious pockets were at first used, then hand-
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kerchiefs, and when government allowed a locked mail sack it was regarded as special lenity to a peo- ple not loyal to slavery. The safety of money in let- ters by mail was about equal to the certainties of law or medicine, and on one occasion a large draft came near being a loss to the mail carrier. John B. Wood- ward, before mentioned, as post rider for the day on opening his private mail found a large remittance and on the way it was with other packages jostled from his pocket, but undiscovered until he reached home. Mortified with his, carelessness and returning in haste he espied the swine in the grove tearing to pieces sundry newspapers, or with mouthfuls soften- ing their nests, and continuing his search for the valuable letter at last found it in the jaws of a fleet and maternal porker, which he managed to run down and force to drop the prize, bringing it back exult- ingly, in a mutilated but negotiable condition - on which he was advised to explain in writing to the bank: "Snatched by an Abolitionist from the swine on account of this paternal pro-slavery government not giving us a postoffice."
CHAPTER IV.
Land For a University-The Clause Prohibiting Sale of Liquor-East College Built-Iowa College Moved To Grinnell-The First Fac- ulty-First School House Burns -Other Incidents.
The time had arrived for laying the foundations and adopting a public policy. There having been a failure in securing the large body of land desired and the delay of certain parties made the colony pro- ject impracticable; but families with a common pur- pose could get land or lots and make a home.
Roads were to be laid out, mills secured, the town platted, a school house and meeting house built, and provision made for an institution of learning. The northwest quarter of section 16, on account of the railroad line and gentle undulations, was chosen as the town site, and deeded to a board in trust, con-
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sisting of A. Whitcomb, Henry Lawrence, L. C. Phelps, Thos. Holyoke, J. B. Grinnell, G. Gardner, Anor Scott, Geo. W. Chambers, D. Thomas and A. Bixby, condi- tioned that the net proceeds of the lots should be given to Grinnell University, and with the express provision in the instrument that the lots should re- vert to Mr. Grinnell if ardent spirits as a beverage should ever be sold thereon without his consent or that of his legal representatives. The trustees in making sales gave the usual covenants of warantee with this condition: "Provided that intoxicating drinks as a beverage are not sold on the above de- scribed premises, such acts causing reversion of own- ership to the donor of the town plot of Grinnell, agreeably to record." The land having been deeded for a nominal consideration and to promote educa- tion, those who held it in trust could give no better title than their own, and the legality of the provision no one has as yet dared to test by selling liquors openly as a beverage; nor is it apprehended that it ever will be, so detrimental would its sale be to the college, and so overwhelming is publie sentiment against it. This inhibition has attracted many of the best residents to Grinnell, enhanced the value of property, discouraged trifling litigation, brawls and every grade of vice, and been the conservator of edu- cation, good morals and religion. It is not known that there is in this country any other town, with a population of thousands and two railroads, in which ardent spirits, is not, and has never been sold openly as a beverage. The emphatic triumph of this prin- ciple here amidst the general predictions of a failure has also been an inspiration and example to other localities in the region, so far educating a public sentiment that the pioneers here may justly felicitate themselves for that foresight and resolution which gives Central Iowa its merited national reputation in exemption from the evils of intemperance.
Eminent educational advantages too have grown out of the liberal founding of the town and the sacri- fices made by those who early contributed to the "literary fund." The first subscription, of $20 cach,
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gave a vote on all questions of policy and location, and the second gift for East College, now burned, em- braced every land owner, each donating from $10 up to $500, evincing a determination to make provision for a first-class home education. Iowa College, the oldest in the state, located in Davenport, which had been founded for ten years and had gained a large place in the hearts of the friends of education east and west, it was not the purpose of the friends here even to rival, much less to absorb. Historic fidelity requires here the admission that the first plan for a building was for ladies which was to be across the town from that provided for gentlemen, and that only by discussion and the development of time did that opinion here obtain which secured a hearty approval of the co-education of the sexes. With a spirit of sacrifice the inquiry was for the best methods, and about the time a rupture seemed imminent here, Iowa College was vexed by street opening through its grounds; by foreign and undesired city influence, and the manifest advantages of a rural and more central location were discussed. Grinnell, at this juncture was brought into notice, with its temperate, moral and homogeneous community, in a locality of marked native beauty and eminently healthy, with a fine building in process of erection, classes of stu- dents and professors and land and money, a contribu- tion which was represented at the formal coalescence of Grinnell University and Iowa College in 1865, by the president as "an untarnished reputation, two professors, a half-hundred of students, the good will of a community and a considerable dowry of the value in college buildings, lands, and cash of twenty five thousand dollars." It was the foundations well laid which secured this college prize, a rich legacy in name and historical founding, and made unavailing the tempting offers of rich and older towns. Well- redeemed pledges to the institution, good fortune in its instructors, the high character and increasing number of its students, with the warm devotion of friends and liberality of patrons at once confirmed the wisdom of the trustees in its removal and loca-
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tion, and furnishes occasion of the highest satisfac- tion to those who contributed to the conditions which are pledges of a bright and honored future.
The University faculty was thus constituted: J. B. Grinnell, A. M., president; S. L. Herrick, A. M., pro- fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; Thos. Holyoke, M. D., professor of chemistry, physiology and agricultural chemistry; Sam'l Loomis, A. M., pro- fessor of Ancient Languages, Mental and Moral Phi- losophy; Mrs. A. J. Hamlin, wife of H. Hamfin, in- structor in French, etc .; Mrs. C. S. Wyatt,-Mrs. Frank Wyatt-instructor in music; Miss J. E. Loomis, instructor in Rhetoric, etc .; Miss L. Bixby-wife of H. A. Wolcott-instructor in English branches; Dar- ius Thomas, instructor in vocal music.
The above were all here giving more or less of their time to the institution, some of the officers laboring gratuitously. Professor L. F. Parker and lady came later and were able and devoted instruct- ors before the removal, and in the college after re- moval filled their respective positions with ability and fidelity.
A large and artistic school house with two stories and a tower was projected. And what should be the dimensions of the new district was the question, and looking out from the top of the first framed building on the expanse it was exclaimed: "What may it not be!" The dormant insects and hibernating races, the migratory tribes and the occasional timid groups of deer seen by the groves could have no voice, and the howling packs of wolves driven in by hunger, fright- ening small children, disturbing the pigs and dis- lodging the fov:ls, were unconsulted save in a hasty retreat by a shot gun, for of all the numbers chased on horseback Henry Hill may claim bringing in his game to have been the nimrod of the day. Then the present cultivated townships of Chester, Sheridan, the west half of Malcom and two-thirds of Grinnell had no residents in need of school tuition or liable to tax- ation, and from the total area of Chester, two-thirds of Grinnell, and the west half of Sheridan and Mal- com the district was set off, embracing 61,000 acres
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of land and distances of 12 miles from the town; so remote that "boarding round," however once desir- able, would not be practicable in that wide, almost apocryphal area, embracing townships.
That historic school house, rebuilt and doubled in size, surmounted by the pioneer bell, though insured, yielded in 1871 to a fire from the furnace, thus blot- ting out an early, conspicuous landmark, and melting into the cinders below the metal which had rung out for years our joys and tolled our voiceless griefs, calling forth tears as it fell, and inspiring sundry local poetic effusions which might here most properly be produced if evidence were wanting of a liberal be- stowal of favors by the Muses. It is to be regretted that a passion for souvenirs, juvenile energy among the debris, and questionable appropriation forbid the re-casting of our bell, and we are left with a single memento in the college museum.
The first New Year in Iowa found to be added to the before mentioned persons, G. Gardner and family and H. A. Wolcott, from Ohio, John Barter and B. Howard. George Chambers was living in what is now the stone part of the Mercer House, renting the north half of the chamber for public worship. L. C. Phelps kept Mr. Grinnell and family and several way- farers, and having plastered his house, kept really the first tavern, where his brick block now stands. The winter was mild and favorable for the pioneers, who had large plans, everything to build and to buy, and immense appetites. In the comparisons at that time we laughed at those old settlers who in a sickly mood paradoxically complained of being "powerful weak," but personally owned to a "dreadful appe- tite."-Whiskey at that day was only 16 cents a gal- lon-new at that-but to it could not be attributed those abnormal stomach yearnings-morbid appetites which the cooks sought in desperation to gauge. Prairie chickens were plenty and cheap, and while one roasted might sate the hunger of one man it would not suffice for two. He is yet a resident who will read this to remember that in gauging his own appetite laid in for private winter use some 25 bush-
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els of crab-apples-too many by 20 bushels to be used or given away; and this purchase was supple- mented by a whole wagon load of hams, they costing but three cents a pound, and such a number of rab- bits as would have glutted a city market, which the sportsmen were paid for on condition that they would forego their delivery.
A busier people may not have been known since that remote industrial era in temple building when every man "built over against his own house." Horses were driven at the top of their speed, men perspired in those days and moved about as if on their way to dinner or pursued by an officer of jus- tice. Nooks of timber were to be looked out, stakes set for plowing, government corners found, and land surveying was regarded as an accomplishment .- There were few that did not perform service in car- rying chain, stakes, flag or compass. Amid the num- berless shifts and the devices of the time, there was a ludicrous occurrence which must not be omitted. It was when the line was lost and a white signal be- came necessary to be seen in the distance or disband the party. H. M. Hamilton, of the number, deter- mined not to be baffled, tore from his linen a gener- ous strip for the occasion, which was fastened to a pole, and for the summer floated in the breeze and was known as "shirt-tail flag corner."
CHAPTER V.
First Election-Railroads-First Lawsuit-Amos Bix- by Defends His Farm.
The first general election held in Grinnell was on the 6th of August, 1855, and the poll book of the oc- casion being before me I transcribe the following facts: The judges of election were Sumner Bixby, Anor Scott and J. B. Grinnell; clerks of election, A. Whitcomb and C. I. Gambell; whole number of votes cast was 35. The candidate for county judge, R. B. Ogden; treasurer, M. A. Malone; county surveyor, Thomas Holyoke, receiving all the votes cast.
Near 19 years have passed and the following per-
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sons are found here, showing them to have been well anchored: W. S. Leisure, J. B. Grinnell, S. Bixby, Anor Scott, A. Whitcomb, Thos. Holyoke, L. C. Phelps, Henry Lawrence, David Sutherland, L. H. Marsh, and E. S. Bartlett, being eleven of the 35. Those who have passed away by death are Jas. Har- ris, C. L. Gambell, John B. Woodward, N. W. Clark, John Torrode, and Rev. Homer Hamlin, being 6 of the 35.
The poll book further discloses voting on Hog Law and on the issue of railroad stock, both of which were supported with great unanimity .- Swine were never tolerated in the streets here, fierce as the coun- ty conflicts have been on that question. Many votes were taken on the issue of bonds to the railroad in exchange for stock-the Montezuma route securing quite an unanimous local vote and then the northern route was quite as fiercely voted against by the same localities; the contest ending in a subscription of $100,000.00 stock to the M. & M. R. R. located on the present line. The Grinnell party favored a compro- mise, while the injunction suit against the levy of a tax for interest was pending, which would have saved the county one-half the debt, and interest, and later desired a sale of the stock at 60 cents on the dollar rather than for 16 cents, the sum for which it was sold to the C., R. I. & P. R. R. The plea of the "wise men" that "nothing would have to be paid" was, if honest, a costly legal delusion .- Happily the litiga- tion is ended and the most of the railroad debt paid.
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Long before the arrival of the cars from the east the St. Louis and St. Paul R. R. company was organ- ized, and Cedar Falls, Toledo, Grinnell, Oskaloosa, and Albia, were points named in the charter. Grin- nell was the first president and Lampman, deceased, the engineer; and it is only justice to a few citizens of this town to say that when dollars looked as large as cart wheels they bore the burden of the survey never losing faith in the line, which, regarding direct- ness and feasibility, should never have been abandon- ed. 1
Later combinations and the urgent necessity for
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cheaper lumber and coal, led this community to con- tribute near $80,000-rare liberality- to the present Central railroad, but a wise investment, regard being had to competition, natural outlets for agricultural products and the growth of college and town. If the plans have been many, the burdens onerous, and the actors alert and shrewd, there is here in legitimate reward cultivated society-many enjoying compe- tence, legitimate business and railroads which afford rare opportunities for an enlargement, and the intro- duction of new enterprises, and a college of the first class, all of which have no relation to mere chance, but are the outgrowths of wise activities and gener- ous plans.
Our early difficulties in securing a postoffice and the first lawsuit have a close relation. Two worthy gentlemen were furnished us from abroad of un- questioned political orthodoxy, and this royal official postoffice line stands in this chronological order: A. K. Lowrey, John Delahoyde, of Malcom, Chas. G. Adams, of Montezuma, and L. C. Phelps who resign- ed in favor of W. S. Leisure, our present postmaster. There were many agreements that we would not pro- mote a lawsuit, and for several years the early set- tlers avoided the scandal, among themselves, but "offences came." Agents and stage drivers took more than a passing interest in the political contests of the day; and it was then deemed safe to trample on the rights of citizens. It did not so prove in the case of Amos Bixby, Esq. The stage drivers thought it a better road to cross his fenced field, about where Dr. Cravath now lives, than to pass the road by Rev. Mr. Rouse's land, now Rev. Mr. Brainard's farm; be-' sides they could make a shorter distance by the hy- pothenuse. Bixby protested and forbid, but the driv- ers reviled, showed their guns with warlike demon- stration, and the exasperated owner, seeing his wheat destroyed by cattle and defied, presented himself at the fence, which was thrown down as usual, and while the stage was passing through Bixby drew his rifle which sent a bullet to the heart of one of the lead horses, so far worn out that his sudden "taking
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off" was not a great pecuniary loss. A fresh horse was secured but the fence and field thereafter was left inviolate. What should be done? The great U. S. mail had been stopped, a horse had been shot; and, inspired by prejudice and accompanying whis- key, it was not hard to stir up indignation against the abolitionist. No such wanton act had been per- petrated, it was said, in the history of the state, and the stage company, and friends, promised the offend- er a prison and the extreme penalty of the law.
The day for' the trial came, and Bixby waived all proof as to the identity of the one of the three per- sons who shot. The trial was a most exciting one; E. W. Eastman, of Eldora, since lieutenant governor, was defendant's counsel. But few witnesses were examined, yet a vast amount of law and precedents were read to the jury by the prosecution. Bixby rose, and, with earnest, thrilling speech, said: "Gen- tlemen of the jury; I am the guilty man, if there is one. I did the shooting; and what would you farm- ers have done? I am one of you; my growing wheat was the bread for my family, which the cattle let in were destroying. Had I not a right to my own land and crops which my own hard labor had fenced? Then, gentlemen, the ruffians, on my own soil, raised a stake to strike me down and pointed a gun at me in a threat. Was I to endure this? No; I had no enmity towards the driver and would not harm him, and I chose the most effective plan of reaching the company to turn back the trespassers, by dropping an old horse about ready to die. My crop was saved by the best method of defense within my reach. I followed my convictions of right and am ready to suffer if guilty of any wrong. Gentlemen, you, with the spirit of men, would have defended your property. I had no other certain remedy-I would do so again, and now am not afraid of your verdict." Judge Stone, since governor, gave a favorable charge, asserting that the right to defend property, without malice, was unquestioned; did this act in an emergency con- stitute a crime? Did not the trespass of the company invite violence ?
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The jury at once gave a verdict of not guilty, and the court house rang with cheers while the prisoner was overwhelmed with congratulations. Thus ended an exciting trial, the first and the last of note in which the old settlers have had a part .- Mr. Bixby and family, to the regret of all, settled several years since in Colorado, where he is an esteemed citizen.
CHAPTER VI.
Chester-Rough Experiences-Sod Broken-First Chester Reunion-Many Interesting Experiences.
The town of Chester, north of Grinnell, about this time was set off, and this history would be incom- plete without more than a passing allusion to that fraternal feeling existing which nothing has ever dis- turbed.
This being a Vermont town from which the Fisher brothers came may have secured the name. The name Cushman was proposed, for Rev. Job Cushman, who had shown many favors to Chester people, as a large land owner, and was a liberal benefactor of Iowa College. Henry Lawrence contracted the first breaking, which was done by a plow S. G. Page brought into the country, and near the location of J. W. Sherman's present fine orchard and grounds .- The same gentleman now uses as a granary the first house in Chester, which was built in Grinnell and drawn out by a breaking team -- certainly a small beginning on that 23,000 acres of land comprising a township which has made progress second to none in the county in agricultural development. Nor is it to be forgotten that a spirited people are interested in even the trivial incidents of their early history, and I can only give the facts of the period as to the first settler on the testimony of a gentleman of un- doubted veracity, who declared that the only inhabi- tant seen on his land-tour was one that on the com- ing up of a rain storm took refuge in the aforesaid house, or under it, he being restrained from a joint occupation by an appeal to his olfactories which in- dicated that it was better to endure a drenching rain
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than to engage in that unequal contest which a floor- less house and such an enemy invited-one that Dr. Beecher did not vanquish with a lexicon and an arm- ful of book missiles.
A spirit which craves the honey and is not afraid of the sting of bees drove out the invader, and the citizens soon began to boast that they were a politi- cal unit-all voting the republican ticket-that time is not now, the war over and slavery dead; and it was not long before they gained hearty praise for their roads, which were models, and for houses, fences, and gardens which denoted thrift and taste.
If true that the most they know of law is by serv- ing on juries, it is not to be forgotten that the town never had a lawyer, nor a saloon, nor a drunkard; not even a resident physician, strange to assert-not that the two facts have any necessary relation-of their 700 people there has not a male adult of their number deceased since the town was organized.
And here not even by antithesis will be raised the question whether this people are more than half a mind to give half the road when traveling-it is pre- sumed they are-many oaths not judicial to the con- trary; nor is it doubted that the absence of stores, shops and saloons, which are said socially to pro- mote lounging and alluring the male creation to late hours is as great an evil as that proximation in other towns which so readily convenes and early graduates juveniles in vice, and summons all the ingenuity of the paternal guardians to give a satisfactory excuse for late hours. The fine school houses, too, of this fortunate town must be mentioned which are over- looked by Iowa College towers-at once an inspira- tion, and speaking a welcome to the children of her generous benefactors .- And where can be found a more fortunate yeomanry, on rich farms with wells and springs perennial; where not a stump or stone vexes the reaper or the plow; and in what country is there a larger percentage of the people that assem- ble at the call of the Sabbath bell for worship?
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