USA > Iowa > Early settlement and growth of western Iowa; or, Reminiscences > Part 6
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8. The bogus legislature, so called because illegally elected, held its first session in July, 1855, and enacted a very stringent pro-slavery code of laws for the territory. The free state settlers elected a legislature early in September, I855, which met at Topeka on the 19th, adopted a dec- laration of rights, and provided for the election of delegates to Congress, on the 2d Tuesday of Oc- tober, 1855. Ex-Governor Reeder was nominated
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as a delegate to Congress, and accepted the nomi- nation in a speech on the occasion. Chas. Robin- son was recognized by the free state organization as governor.
At this time, the United States government re- cognized the bogus legislature and their laws as au- thoritative. The government insisted on obedience to the same. The United States marshal, with United States troops at his back, and as many thousands of Missourians as he might think proper to employ as a posse, eagerly sought to enforce obedience. Thus all the governmental power was on the side of the pro-slavery ruffians. Soon charges were trumped up against the leading free state men, and papers issued for their arrest, and placed in the hands of the United States marshal to be served. Thus the pro-slavery party was shielded by the power of the general government, while the free state men were exposed to wrong and abuse without any redress.
The free state constitutional convention assem- bled at Topeka on the 23d of October, 1855, and proceeded to form a state constitution preparatory to applying for admission to the Union. Novem- ber 21, 1855, Dow, a free state settler at Hickory Point, was brutally shot by a ruffian named Cole- man. Branson, with whom Dow had lived, was arrested shortly after by Missouri ruffians, taken from his bed at dead of night, and carried off on
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a trumped-up charge, but taken from his captors by free state friends. The United States marshal, Jones, of Missouri, had thought to take Branson into Lawrence to induce the people of that place to forcibly release him and thus afford a pretext for destroying Lawrence, the stronghold of the free state cause. About the last of November or first of December, Lawrence was besieged by 1,500 or 2,000 " border ruffians " for a week or two. The ruffians were eager to destroy Lawrence, but feared to do so without a sufficient pretext. Gov- ernor Shannon on coming to Lawrence saw his mistake. The free state men were armed in self defense-a conceded right. The governor saw they were not the lawless cut-throats their enemies had represented them to be. Governor Robinson and General Lane were called upon to protect the people in their rights, and the governor recognized them as the territorial militia and they acted as such under his command. The "border ruffians " were determined to drive out the free state settlers, and the free state men were as fully determined not to be driven out, so that a very unsatisfactory state of things existed in the territory. Human life and property were very insecure, murders were frequent, houses were robbed and burned. By a shrewd device, Capt. John Brown, as a govern- ment surveyor, entered the camp of the enemy and learned their plans for murdering the Browns and
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others who were obnoxious to them. He immedi- ately informed the parties thus devoted to death, and took measures to prevent the carrying out of the plan, by taking the initiative. On the night of the 24th of May, 1856, the three Doyles, Wilkin- son and Sherman were slain.
About May 10, 1856, Gov. Chas. Robinson and wife started east, by boat down the river. At Lexington, Mo., they were violently and illegally seized by a mob of Missourians. He was held as a prisoner, while his estimable wife was per- mitted to go on her way. Shortly after Gov. Chas. Robinson left Lawrence, ex-Governor Reeder was also induced to leave. He made his escape from his enemies by going down the river in the disguise of a boatman.
Companies of emigrants from Illinois, travel- ing in their own wagons through northern Mis- souri, were turned back from guarded ferries on the Missouri, and compelled to retrace their course. The blockade of the river ren- dered it necessary to seek some other way of ingress into the territory. Accordingly in the fore- part of the summer of 1856, in May or June, a small company, led by Dr. Howe, of the blind institution in Boston, coming from Kansas across the country via Nebraska City, made their appear- ance in Tabor. This, I think, was the beginning of the travel of free state men through Tabor.
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This company, which was engaged in locating a road for free state men, were anxious to find Colonel Dickey with a company from the east, whom they were expecting to meet in this vicin- ity. Strangers as they were, and in need of a guide, the parson volunteered to escort them to White Cloud. Leaving Tabor a lit- tle before dark in the evening, we found Colonel Dickey about 10 o'clock p. m. at the residence of Mr. Hargan in White Cloud. From this time onward through that season, Tabor, being the near- est point to Kansas, where all the people were in full sympathy with the free state movement, was made a place of deposit for military and commis- sary stores. Our latchstrings were always out, and much of the time our houses, and granaries, and hay mows were occupied. Provisions were plenty and free, and without price. Persons were passing through almost daily, alone or in companies. Some noted personages were among the number-Rev. Bodwell, afterward pastor in Topeka; Rev. Par- sons, a home missionary ; T. W. Higginson, after- ward colonel of a colored regiment; Dr. Cutter and wife, author of Cutter's Physiology, so much used in our common schools; S. C. Pomeroy and James H. Lane, senators from Kansas after its admission to the Union as a state. Capt. John Brown was here repeatedly for a brief time, and a number of colonels, captains, majors, etc., etc.
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April 21, 1856, a Republican political organi- zation was formed under the leadership of Richard Baxter Foster, then employed in running a steam saw mill in the Missouri bottoms, afterward an officer in a colored regiment in the Rebellion, and since then an efficient and successful Congre- gational minister in Kansas and Colorado. This was the beginning of Republicanism in Tabor.
We have already seen that Lawrence was be- sieged in the early part of December for ten days or more by fifteen hundred or two thousand pro- slavery Missourians, as a United States marshal's posse, to serve arrests on citizens of that place. They sought a pretext to destroy the place, but were thwarted and disbanded, through the action of Governor Shannon, the people of Lawrence, through their leaders, promising submission to the lawfully constituted authorities of the territory. But the free state settlers must be driven out if slavery would succeed, and hostilities were kept up. Murders were still being committed by both parties on each other. A very unsettled and un- safe state of society existed. Hundreds of " border ruffians," well armed, with four pieces of artillery, led by United States Marshal Jones, surrounded Lawrence, served writs on a number of citizens without resistance, then demanded that all the cannon and Sharps rifles be given up. The can- non were surrendered-one 12-pounder brass can-
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non and four I-pound breech loading guns. The Sharps rifles could not be delivered up; they were private property. When they had disarmed the citizens, they then brought their forces into the city, destroyed the printing presses of the two free state papers, battered the brick free state hotel with cannon, and burnt it to ashes. In addition, private houses were broken into, and money and valuables carried off. Thus the ruffians vented their hatred on the people of Lawrence on the 2 Ist of May, 1856. Because Gen. Jas. H. Lane and Gov. Chas. Robinson and the committee of safety wouldn't fight, Captain Brown left Law- rence to its fate. He was not there to witness its sacking. After this onslaught upon Lawrence, Colonel Eldridge, the proprietor of the Free State hotel, passed through Tabor on his way to New England for reinforcements. Major Searles also was at Mr. Gaston's some time, in charge of stores deposited there.
About the end of May, Capt. H. Clay Pate, a Virginian, set out from Westport, Mo., with an armed force for the avowed purpose of arresting " Old Brown." While near Ossawatomie, he took John Brown, Jr., and Jason, his brother, prisoners, while quietly at work, and carried them off, cruelly treating them, and afterward transferring them to the care of the United States forces. June 2d the battle of Black Jack was fought, and Captain
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Pate, with twenty-one men, was captured by Cap- tain Brown. On the 7th one hundred and seventy of Whitfield's men, led by Reid, who had prom- ised to disperse, sacked Ossawatomie. The free state legislature met at Topeka on the 4th of July, 1856, and was forcibly dispersed by Colonel Sum- ner, at the head of a troop of the United States army, acting under orders of the general govern- ment.
In consequence of hostilities existing in Kansas, and not knowing how soon they might extend to the neighboring states, the people of Tabor called a citizens' meeting, and organized a military com- pany, of which G. B. Gaston was chosen captain, Mortimer P. Clark first lieutenant, and E. S. Hill second lieutenant. A committee was appointed to apply to the state authorities for arms, and also to procure music for the company.
KANSAS TROUBLES IN 1856
During the summer of 1856, General Lane was repeatedly in Tabor. The first time he was here for two or three weeks " incog." He addressed the citizens once or twice in the school house, on Kansas matters, and on politics. He came in and spoke and then retired without the people gener- ally knowing where he had gone. He bought a fine cream colored horse of Robert H. Hurlbutt, that was an uncommonly fast walker, on which he
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rode through the wars of Kansas. He entered Kansas early in August, with a company of emi- grants, by way of Tabor. Also Captain Brown, who had brought a sick son and a wounded son-in- law up to Tabor for treatment and safety, returned to Lawrence with Lane. So prominent a part did General Lane and Captain Brown take in military operations, in protecting free state men and pun- ishing " border ruffians," that they became espe- cially obnoxious to the general government, and all their appointees in the territory. The federal troops were employed to disperse their forces and arrest the commanders. On one occasion they were reconnoitering in the northern part of the territory toward the Nebraska line, to intercept General Lane, who was reported to be coming in with an armed force, when the general pushed for- ward in advance of his company, artfully disguised himself as a Mexican " greaser," joined the crowd, and aided in searching for himself, without being detected, while his company under the lead of an- other, by forced marches, successfully evaded their pursuers and safely reached their destination.
Rumors reached us about midsummer that five hundred men were camped on the north line to prevent free state men from entering the territory. Three brothers, Enoch, Everett and Luther, whose surname was Platt, from Minden, Ill., had come on and were by these rumors deterred from going
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farther, until a sufficient number of emigrants could collect to challenge respect and force their way into the territory. These were a fine type of emi- grants, intelligent, active and ready to do every good work. The parson was then building his barn and they helped to enclose it and put on the roof. Luther, the youngest, had a violin which he was fond of playing, and he gathered in the chil- dren of the community and taught them to sing, and entertained them with music and addresses. Since then he has been promoted to the office of Congregational State Sunday School Secretary for Kansas.
Emigrants kept coming, and tents were pitched, and teams were grazing here and there all along on the green prairie, in the valley down by the old mill, and in the timber by John Rhodes'. Mr. Gaston's house was a kind of headquarters, and as many stopped there to recruit, they were over- run with company. Let me here quote from Mrs. Gaston's own statement :
" That summer and autumn our houses, before too full, were much overfilled and our comforts shared with those passing to and from Kansas to secure it to Freedom. When houses would hold no more, woodsheds were temporized for bedrooms, where the sick and dying were cared for. Barns also were fixed for sleeping rooms. Every place where a bed could be put or a blanket thrown down
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was at once so occupied. There were comers and goers all times of day or night-meals at all hours -many free hotels, perhaps entertaining angels unawares. After battles they were here for rest- before for preparation. General Lane once stayed three weeks secretly while it was reported abroad that he was back in Indiana for recruits and sup- plies, which came ere long, consisting of all kinds of provisions, Sharps rifles, powder and lead. A cannon packed in corn made its way through the enemy's lines, and ammunition of all kinds, in clothing and kitchen furniture, etc., etc. Our cel- lars contained barrels of powder and boxes of rifles. Often our chairs, tables, beds and such places were covered with what weapons every one carried about him, so that if one needed and got time to rest a little in the day time, we had to remove the Kansas furniture, or rest with loaded revolvers, cartridge boxes and bowie knives piled around them, and boxes of swords under the bed. Were not our houses overfilled ? "
A Captain Chambry from Indiana came on with a company of fine young men, who had been en- trusted to his care by their parents. He was an intelligent Christian reformer, an advocate of tem- perance and freedom, one who practiced as he taught.
As it was thought unsafe to go on without a considerable force, a call was sent out to the friends
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of freedom around, inviting all who were willing to assemble and form an escort, to come to Tabor. Although our country had then few people in it, a good many responded to the call and quite a number of the young men of Tabor volunteered to go, and went. The parson proposed to be one to see them through the lines, but a pair of spurs was the only part of an outfit he had procured, when information came assuring us that the way was open and emigrants could safely pass in. The gathered host then moved on. But the morning of their departure was overshadowed with gloom on account of a very sad accident. Among those who responded to the call was a son of the pastor of the Congregational church at Lewis and a son of one of the deacons of the same church-Leang Afa Hitchcock and Chapman. They had camped with others down by the mill, three-quar- ters of a mile from Tabor toward Thurman, and as the caravan started in the morning they, in boy- ish glee, ran ahead of the teams, brandishing their weapons and sportively showing fight. At the crossing of Plum Creek, one mile and a half from Tabor, as the road then ran, Chapman, holding in hand a pistol supposed to be unloaded, play- fully aimed it at Hitchcock and pulled the trigger. It went off and Hitchcock fell, and in a few min- utes expired. He was the oldest son of Rev. Geo. B. Hitchcock, of Lewis, in Cass county, Iowa.
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His father, from his deep interest in Christian missions to China, named him Leang Afa, after the name of the first Chinese convert. The corpse was taken to the residence of James L. Smith, and there prepared to be conveyed to his parents at Lewis. But to lighten the shock, if possible, the parson went ahead on horseback to break the sad tidings to the stricken family before the arrival of the corpse. He set out on horseback as the dusk of evening came on, rode all night, break- fasted at a farm house and reached Mr. Hitch- cock's (a distance of fifty miles or more) about 9 o'clock in the morning. He had thought to break the news to the father first, but as he was over in the village half a mile distant he dared not go in search of him, lest in his absence the bearers should arrive with the body and find the family wholly unprepared. The mother and grown sister of the deceased were the only persons to whom he could divulge the matter. They were busy at work, and as the sister went out a few rods from the door to hang out clothes, he fol- lowed her, and there broke to her the news, at the same time endeavoring to keep her quiet; but she no sooner got the idea than she ran into the house wringing her hands and screaming at the top of her voice, " Leang is dead ! Leang is dead ! Oh, ma; Leang is dead!" The mother shrieked and joined in the outcry. Both were frantic and
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uncontrollable. Soon the father returned, and hav- ing created an excitement he could not allay, the parson met him at the gate and informed him of Leang's death. He was deeply moved, but re- pressed his feelings. When Mrs. Hitchcock rushed out to meet him, screaming, "Leang is dead! " he tried to still her by saying, " My dear, God always does right." Such a scene may I never be called to witness again! From it Mrs. Hitch- cock never seemed to wholly recover. A shadow appeared to rest on the household ever after.
The death by accident of young Mr. Hitchcock occurred about the tenth of September, 1856. The host, whose numbers had been accumulating for weeks, and embraced the Platts from Mendon, Ill., Captain Chambry and his company from Indiana, Rev. Parsons of Maine and his followers, together with a number from southwest Iowa, including the following from Tabor: H. D. Ingraham, J. K. Gaston, I. Hollister, Jas. Clark, and R. B. Foster, all moved on, and scarcely a week passed before we learned that Captain Chambry fell mortally wounded in the capture of Ft. Titus, a log cabin in which the ruffians had taken refuge. In the plan of attack upon the fort, the captain had a part assigned him, in the performance of which, with more courage than discretion, he rode up in front and was shot down. But the fort was taken, and R. B. Foster exhibited in Tabor a short time
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afterward the sword of Colonel Titus, kept as a trophy. A colored woman, who afterward passed through here on the U. G. R. R., ticketed for Queen Victoria's dominions, informed us that she, as the property of Colonel Titus, was in the fort at the time of the attack and that a cannon ball struck a trunk on which she was sitting, going in at one end and out at the other. With such mis- siles flying around them, they soon concluded to raise the white flag.
The company that came with Rev. Mr. Parsons of Maine camped west of Plum Creek on the hill- side, which was then covered with timber, and only a few rods beyond the bridge, where Leang Hitch- cock was accidentally shot. There the people of Tabor worshiped with them in the grove on Sun- day, August 31, 1856, when the parson preached from Num. 14:8, " If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey."
On the 13th of September, 1856, Gen. Jas. H. Lane, with an army of seventy-five or eighty men, drove an armed force of the ruffians into some log cabins at Hickory Point, which from their struc- ture afforded protection against even Sharps rifles and from their elevated position gave a command- ing view of the surrounding country. Aware that their assailants had no cannon, the besieged defi- antly raised a flag inscribed, " No surrender." This
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challenge was too bold and daring to pass unac- cepted. So General Lane immediately despatched a messenger to Lawrence for a cannon and rein- forcements, with orders to come by way of Topeka, and then retired several miles west to camp for the night by a spring. On reaching his camping ground a copy of the inaugural of Governor Geary, who had just arrived in the territory, was handed him. Being satisfied, from the address, of the good intentions of the new governor, Lane dis- banded his forces, countermanded his call for can- non and reinforcements, and struck out for the north and Iowa. At Nemaha in Nebraska he met Redpath's caravan of free state men on the 20th of September, and later in the month reached Tabor with fifty mounted men, claiming that they had left the territory to give the new governor a chance to show his hand or indicate his policy, with- out being biased or in any way impeded by their presence. These with their horses were divided around among the people of Tabor, who were then few in number and limited in resources but of large hearts and open hands and fully sympa- thized with the friends of freedom. The parson's barn was now enclosed, the basement still open to the south, and no mangers provided. There fifteen or twenty of the horses-as many as could be accommodated in a space 24 by 28 feet-were quartered. The length of their stay was deter-
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mined by the news received from the territory. While here they practiced cavalry drill on the public square. General Lane had arranged with Jas. L. Smith on the 29th of September for the keeping of six horses, purposing himself to go east, when news received from Kansas caused them all to leave in the night and return to the territory, as suddenly as they came. Redpath's caravan, which left Tabor about the 10th of September, and met Lane's company of mounted men at Nemaha on the 20th of the same month, moved on slowly, and being informed that the government forces were near the border, for the purpose of inter- cepting and disarming them, they buried a cannon and cannon carriage in the ground, and by forced marches evaded the government troops, reached Topeka in safety, and delivered their free state stores.
To return in our story to Hickory Point: The countermanding orders of General Lane, given on Saturday evening, September 13th, on his depart- ure for the north, failed to reach Colonel Harvey, who left Lawrence with a cannon and reinforce- ments that same night about 10 o'clock and reached Hickory Point on Sunday, the 14th, at 2 p. m. Failing to make any satisfactory arrangements with the besieged ruffians, Colonel Harvey opened his battery upon them with such effect that they soon came to terms and agreed to leave the terri-
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tory if Colonel Harvey would graciously permit them to do so, which reasonable request, it is hardly 'necessary to say, was granted.
On this same Sabbath day, September 14th, while Colonel Harvey was at Hickory Point with a force of one hundred and fifty men reducing the fortress, an army of border ruffians, variously re- ported as numbering from one thousand five hun- dred to three thousand, were at Franklin, five miles southeast of Lawrence, on their way to attack and wipe out Lawrence. Captain Brown had been up to Topeka and stopped at Lawrence over the Sab- bath on his way home. The rumors at first gained little credence. The cry of "wolf ! wolf!" had been heard too often to create much excitement or awaken much alarm. But after a time the forces of the ruffians came in sight, their banners flying and drums beating. Then a leader was in demand and Captain Brown was soon called to take that position-a position which he filled so well that when the ruffian hosts came within Sharps rifle range they were opened upon and driven back and Lawrence was once more delivered. No sooner had the ruffians left Franklin than Captain Brown with four sons started for the east, by way of Ne- braska and Tabor. As it had become known that another large company of emigrants was expected soon from the east, several companies of cavalry and artillery marched north to arrest them. Cap-
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tain Brown, disguised as a surveyor, went with them, camping with them every night. He was sick and traveled slowly, having a light wagon with a cow tied behind it, and a kit of surveyor's implements in sight. He passed thus unmolested and unsuspected, although the officer who led the force had a writ for his arrest. The young men who went to Kansas with Redpath were gone about six weeks, and on their return traveled part of the way in company with Captain Brown. They reached Tabor late in October. As might be ex- pected, many of the emigrants from the north grew tired of the privations and hardships and perils to which they were exposed, and especially the fear for their lives, and left the territory that year.
The writer has already stated that after the burning of the Free State hotel in Lawrence, May 21, 1856, Colonel Eldridge, its proprietor, passed through Tabor eastward for reinforcements. He returned from the east in October, with a train of 18 or 20 covered wagons, a mounted cannon, and a company of about 200 persons, including among others, a family from Clarksfield, Ohio. One Wednesday afternoon in October as the sun was descending the western sky and the shadows of evening were rapidly lengthening, a covered wagon came in sight as it ascended the hill by L. A. Matthews' as the road then ran, closely followed by a score of others. They proceeded directly to
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