USA > Iowa > Black Hawk County > Historical and biographical record of Black Hawk County, Iowa > Part 17
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His infirm health forbade his engaging in any regular employment after his return to Kentucky, but in 1849, at the solicitation of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, he ne- gotiated jointly with Governor Ramsey, of Minnesota, a successful treaty with the Sioux Indians for the purchase of lands. The latter years of Governor Chambers's life were spent mostly with his children, whose affection and respect were the chief conditions of his happiness. During a visit to his daughter in Paris, Kentucky, he was taken sick at the house of his son-in-law, C. S. Brent, and after a few weeks breathed his last, September 21, 1852, in his seventy- second year.
JAMES CLARKE.
175
JAMES CLARKE.
HE third and last Ter- ritorial Governor was James Clarke. Sometime in the autumn of the year 1837, when the trees were in the "sear and yellow leaf," a printer boy of slender form and gentle appearance might have been seen crossing the laurel hills of his own State. Behind him rolled the waters of the " Blue Juniata," on the banks of which he had spent, in merry glee, his youthful days. He had heard and read of strange countries that lay far off toward the setting sun, through which broad rivers run, and spreading landscapes unfolded to human eyes the most rare and magnificent beauty. With his youthful gaze fixed upon that star which never sets, he set forth into the wilds of Wisconsin, a stranger in a strange land, an adventurer seeking his own fortune, de- pending upon his own exertions, with no recommendation save an honest face and genteel deportment. This young man was James Clarke, who afterward became the able, talented and popular Governor of Iowa.
He remained in Wisconsin, working at his trade as a printer, until after the organi-
zation of the Territory of Iowa, when he removed to Burlington, where the first Legislature of Iowa assembled. After the death of Mr. Conway he was appointed by President Van Buren, Secretary of the Ter- ritory, which office he filled with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the people. During the time he held this office he contributed by his kind, gentle and amiable manner to soften the feelings of hatred and distrust which at one time ex- isted between leading men of the Territory. Whoever had business at his office found him a kind, gentle, quiet, amiable man, al- ways ready and willing to do whatever was desired of him, regretting, at the same time, that he could do no more. During the time he was Secretary he performed a vast amount of labor, but notwithstanding the large amount of business he transacted, he still found time to write for the press, and contributed many valuable articles touch- ing the future greatness of Iowa.
After he retired from the office of Secre- tary he again returned to the printing trade, and became the leading editor of the Bur- lington Gazette. To the columns of this paper he devoted his whole energies, and by so doing made it the leading Democratic paper of the Territory. In the early sum- mer of 1845 President Polk removed Mr. Chambers, and appointed Mr. Clarke to suc- ceed him as Governor of Iowa. Previous to his appointment he had been elected by
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the people of his county a delegate to the first convention which assembled to form a Constitution for the State of Iowa. In this convention he distinguished himself both for his talent and personal demeanor, and contributed to the pages of that Constitu- tion some of the great elementary principles which lie at the foundation of human rights. And although that Constitution was de- fcated, he still had the satisfaction of seeing their spirit and meaning transferred to another, and still continued as the funda- mental law of our State.
The first Legislature after he received his appointment assembled at Iowa City, on the first Monday of December, 1845. His message to the Legislature after its or- ganization is a model of style and clearness. He set forth the importance of an early ex- tinguishment of the Indian title to all the lands within the limits of Iowa, and urged the Legislature to memorialize Congress to purchase a tract of land on the Upper Mis- sissippi for a future home for the Winne- bagoes, and thus induce them to part with their title to a large tract of country known as the " neutral ground," a recommendation which the General Government soon after acted upon and carried out.
January 16, 1846, the Legislature passed once more an act for the purpose of elect- ing delegates to frame a Constitution for the State of Iowa. This time the friends of a State government took it for granted that the people of the Territory wanted a Constitution, so the Legislature provided that at the April election following the passage of this act, the people of the Ter- ritory should elect delegates to a conven- tion. Accordingly, at the April election delegates were elected, and the convention, agreeable to said act, consisting of thirty- two members instead of seventy as in the previous convention, met at Iowa City, on the first Monday of May, 1846, and after a
session of eighteen days produced a Con- stitution which was immediately submitted, adopted, and made the organic law of the State of Iowa. After the result was known the Governor issued his proclamation for a general election to be held in November following, atwhich Ansel Briggs, of Jack- son County, was elected Governor of the Statc.
This proclamation was the last public act of James Clarke, for as soon as the new Governor was qualified, he turned over to him all the archives of his office, and re- turned once more to the printing office. Again he scattered through Iowa his beau- tiful editorials through the columns of the Burlington Gazette, until the name and fame of Iowa became known throughout the length and breadth of the land. He appeared at the capitol at the first session of the State Legislature under the new Con- stitution, delivered to that body an affecting and interesting farewell address, then stood back quietly during the whole of the ses- sion, and gazed with indignation upon his countenance at the dreadful strife, storms and bitterness which was manifested during the entire session.
This was the last time that Mr. Clarke ever appeared at the Legislature. He died soon after, at Burlington, of the cholera. Thus closed the earthly career of a just and noble man, cut off in the prime of life and in the midst of an useful career. He was married to a sister of General Dodge, and this fact being known at the time of his ap- pointment as Governor, drew upon the Dodges the title of the "royal family." But whatever might be said in this respect, the appointment could not have been bestowed upon a better man, or one more competent to fill it. His history is without a stain or reproach, and throughout his whole life no man ever imputed aught against his char- acter as a man and a citizen.
.
ANSEL BRIGGS.
I79
CANSEL BRIGGS.">
HE first Governor of Iowa under its State organization, was Ansel Briggs, who, like his two imme- diate successors, was a son of that won- derful nursery of progress, New England. He was the son of Benjamin Ingley Briggs and Electa his wife, and was born in Vermont, February 3, 1806. His boyhood was spent in his native State, where, in the common schools, he rc- ceived a fair education, improved by a term spent at the academy of Norwich. In his youth, about the year 1830, with his parents, he removed to Cambridge, Guernsey County, Ohio, where he engaged in the work of establishing stage lines, and where, as a Whig, he com- peted with John Ferguson, a Jackson Democrat, for the office of county audi- tor and was defeated. In his twenty- fourth year he married a wife, born the same day and year as himself, of whom he was soon bereft. Before leaving Ohio he married his second wife, Nancy M., daugh- ter of Major Dunlap, an officer of the war of 1812.
In 1836, removing from Ohio, he joined that hardy band, so honored here to-day, the pioneers of Iowa, and settled with his family at Andrew, in Jackson County. Here he resumed his former business of opening stage lines, sometimes driving the stage himself, and entering into contracts with the postoffice department for carrying the United States mails weekly between Dubuque and Davenport, Dubuque and Iowa City, and other routes.
On coming to Iowa he affiliated with the Democrats, and on their ticket, in 1842, was elected a member of the Territorial House of Representatives from Jackson County, and subsequently sheriff of the same county. On the formation of the State government, he at once became a prominent candidate for Governor. His competitors for the Democratic nomination were Judge Jesse Williams and William Thompson. The question above all others dividing the parties in Iowa in that day was that of banks, favored by the Whigs, and op- posed by the Democrats. A short time be- fore the nominating convention met, Briggs, at a banquet, struck a responsive chord in the popular heart by offering the toast, " No banks but earth, and they well tilled," a sententious appeal to the pride of the pro- ducer and the prejudice of the partisan, which was at once caught up as a party
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cry, and did more to secure its author the nomination for Governor than all else.
The convention was held at Iowa City on Thursday, September 24, 1846, and as- sembled to nominate State officers and two Congressmen. It was called to order by F. D. Mills, of Des Moines County. Will- iam Thompson, of Henry County, presided, and J. T. Fales, of Dubuque, was Secretary. The vote for Governor in the convention stood: Briggs, sixty-two; Jesse Williams, thirty-two; and William Thompson, thirty- one. The two latter withdrew, and Briggs was then chosen by acclamation. Elisha Cutler, Jr., of Van Buren County, was nominated for Secretary of State; Joseph T. Fales, of Linn, for Auditor, and Morgan Reno, of Johnson, for Treasurer. S. C. Hastings and Shepherd Leffler were nomi- nated for Congress. The election was held October 28, 1846, the entire Democratic ticket being successful. Briggs received 7,626 votes, and his competitor, Thomas McKnight, the Whig candidate, 7,379, giv- ing Briggs a majority of 247.
The administration of Governor Briggs was generally placid. Although avoiding excitement and desirous of being in har- monious accord with his party, when oc- casion required he exhibited an independent firmness not easily shaken. One perplex- ing controversy bequeathed him by his predecessors was the Missouri boundary question, which had produced much dis- quiet, and even a resort to arms on the part of both Iowa and Missouri.
After the expiration of his four-years term, Governor Briggs continued his resi- dence in Jackson County, where he engaged in commercial business, having sold out his mail contracts when he became Governor.
By his second marriage he had eight children, all of whom died in infancy save two, and of these latter Ansel, Jr., died May 15, 1867, aged twenty-five years. John S. Briggs, the only survivor of the
family, is the editor of the Idaho Herald, published at Blackfoot, Idaho Territory. Mrs. Briggs died December 30, 1847, dur- ing her husband's term as Governor. She was an ardent Christian woman, adhering to the Presbyterian faith, and very domestic in her tastes. She was well educated and endowed by nature with such womanly tact and grace as to enable her to adorn the high estate her husband had attained. She dispensed (albeit in a log house, a form of architecture in vogue in Iowa in that day, as the mansion of the rich or the cabin of the poor) a bounteous hospitality to the stranger and a generous charity to the poor, in which gracious ministrations she was al- ways seconded by her benevolent husband.
In 1870 Governor Briggs removed from Andrew to Council Bluffs. He had visited the western part of the State before rail- roads had penetrated there, and made the trip by carriage. On that occasion he en- rolled himself as one of the founders of the town of Florence, on the Nebraska side of the Missouri River, six miles above Coun- cil Bluffs, and which, for a time, disputed with Omaha the honor of being the chief town of Nebraska.
He made a trip to Colorado during the mining excitement in 1860. After return- ing and spending some time at home, he went to Montana in 1863, with his son John, and a large party, remaining until 1865, when he came back.
His last illness, ulceration of the stomach, was only five weeks in duration. He was able to be out three days before his death, which occurred at the residence of his son, John S. Briggs, in Omaha, May 5, 1881, at half past three in the morning. Governor Gear issued a proclamation the next day, reciting his services to the State, ordering half-hour guns to be fired and the national flag on the State capitol to be half-masted, during the day of the funeral. He was buried on Sunday succeeding his death.
1. Hempas
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STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD.
STEPHEN HEMPSTEAD. +
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HIS gentleman, the second Governor of the State, was born at New London, Connecticut, Octo- ber 1, 1812, and lived in that State until the spring of 1828, when his father's family came West and settled on a farm a few miles from St. Louis, Missouri. Here he remained until 1830, when he entered as clerk in a commission house in Galena, Illinois, and dur- ing the Black Hawk war he was an officer in an artillery company or- ganized for the protection of that place.
At the close of the war he entered as a student of the Illinois College at Jackson- ville, Illinois, remaining about two years, leaving to commence the study of law which he finished under Charles S. Hemp- stead, Esq., then a prominent lawyer at Galena. In 1836 he was admitted to prac- tice his profession in the courts of the Ter- ritory of Wisconsin, then embracing Iowa, and in the same year located in Dubuque, being the first lawyer who practiced in that place. At the organization of the
Territorial Legislature in 1838 he was elected to represent the northern portion of the Territory in the Legislative Council, of which he was chairman of the committee on judiciary, one of the important com- mittees of. the Council. At the second session of that body he was elected presi- dent thereof, was again elected a member of the Council in 1845, which was held in Iowa City, and was again president of the same. In 1844 he was elected one of the delegates to the first constitutional conven- tion of the State of Iowa, and was chair- man of the committee on incorporations. In 1848, in connection with Hon. Charles Mason and W. G. Woodward, he was ap- pointed commissioner by the Legislature to revise the laws of the State of Iowa, and which revision, with a few amendments, was adopted as the code of Iowa in 1851. In 1850 he was elected Governor of the State of Iowa, receiving 13,486 votes, against 11,403 for James L. Thompson, 575 for William P. Clarke, and I I scattering.
The vote was canvassed on the 4th of December, and a committee was appointed to inform the Governor elect that the two Houses of the Legislature were ready to re- ceive him in joint convention, in order that he might receive the oath prescribed by the Constitution. After receiving formal
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notification, Governor Hempstead, accom- panied by Governor Briggs, the judges of the Supreme Court and the officers of State, entered the hall of the House, and having been duly announced, the Governor elect delivered his inaugural message, after which the oath was administered by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
This session of the Legislature passed a number of important acts which were approved by Governor Hempstead, and formed fifty-two new counties, most of them having the same names and bound- aries to-day. These new counties were : Adair, Union, Adams, Cass, Montgomery, Mills, Pottawattomie, Bremer, Butler, Grundy, Hardin, Franklin, Wright, Risley, Yell, Greene, Guthrie, Carroll, Fox, Sac, Crawford, Shelby, Harrison, Monona, Ida, Waukau, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Buena Vista, Fayette, Cherokee, Plymouth, Alla- makee, Chickasaw, Floyd, Cerro Gordo, Hancock, Kossuth, Palo Alto, Clay, O'- Brien, Sioux, Howard, Mitchell, Worth, Winnebago, Winneshiek, Bancroft, Em- mett, Dickinson, Osceola and Buncombe. The last-named county was so called under peculiar circumstances. The Legislature was composed of a large majority favoring stringent corporation laws, and the liability of individual stockholders for corporate debts. This sentiment, on account of the agitation of railroad enterprises then begin- ning, brought a large number of prominent men to the capital. To have an effect upon the Legislature, they organized a "lobby legislature," in which these questions were ably discussed. They elected as Governor Verplank Van Antwerp, who delivered to this self-constituted body a lengthy mes- sage, in which he sharply criticised the regular general assembly. Some of the members of the latter were in the habit of making long and useless speeches, much to the hindrance of business. To these he especially referred, charging them with
speaking "for buncombe," and recom- mended that as their lasting memorial, a county should be called by that name. This suggestion was readily seized upon by the Legislature, and the county of " Bun- combe" was created with few dissenting voices. By act of the General Assembly approved September 11, 1862, the name was changed to " Lyon," in honor of Gen- eral Nathaniel Lyon, who was killed in the civil war.
Governor Hempstead's message to the fourth General Assembly, December, 1852, stated, among other things, that the popu- lation of the State was by the federal cen- sus 192,214, and that the State census showed an increase for one year of 37,786. He also stated that the resources of the State for the coming two years would be sufficient to cancel all that part of the funded debt which was payable at its option.
By 1854 the State had fully recovered from the depression produced by the bad season of 1851, and in 1854 and 1855 the immigration from the East was unprece- dented. For miles and miles, day after day, the prairies of Illinois were lined with cattle and wagons, pushing on toward Iowa. At Peoria, one gentleman said that during a single month 1,743 wagons passed through that place, all for Iowa. The Burlington Telegraph said: "Twenty thousand immi- grants have passed through the city within the last thirty days, and they are still cross- ing the Mississippi at the rate of 600 a day."
Governor Hempstead's term expired in the latter part of 1854, and he returned to Dubuque, where the following year he was elected county judge. This position he held twelve years, and in 1867 he retired on account of impaired health. He lived, how- ever, till February 16, 1883, when at his home in Dubuque he closed his record on earth. He was a useful and active man, and deserves a prominent place in the esteem of Iowans.
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GAMES W. GRIMES.
IS7
6 JAMES W. GRIMES.
SHE third to fill the of- fice of Governor of Iowa, and whose name deserves a foremost rank among the men whose personal his- tory is interwoven insepar- ably with that of the State, was James Wilson Grimes. He was born in the town of Deering, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, October 20, 1816. His parents - John Grimes, born August II, 1772, and
Elizabeth Wilson, born March 19, 1773-were natives of the same town. Of a family of eight children born to them, James was the youngest. In early childhood he evinced a taste for learning, attending the district school and also studying Latin and Greek under the instruction of the village pastor. He completed his preparation for college at Hampton Academy, and entered Dart- mouth College in August, 1832, in the sixteenth year of his age. Upon leaving college in February, 1835, he commenced reading law with James Walker, Esq., in Petersburgh, New Hampshire.
Being young and adventurous, and wish- ing to carve a fortune for himself, he left
his native home in 1836 for the far West, landing in Burlington, then a new town in what was known as the " Black Hawk Purchase." Here he opened an office and soon established a reputation as a rising lawyer. In April, 1837, he was appointed city solicitor ; and entering upon the duties of that office he assisted in drawing up the first police laws of that town. In 1838 he was appointed justice of the peace, and be- came a law partner of William W. Chap- man, United States District Attorney for Wisconsin Territory. In the early part of the year 1841 he formed a partnership with Henry W. Starr, Esq., which continued twelve years. This firm stood at the head of the legal profession in Iowa. Mr. Grimes was widely known as a counselor of supe- rior knowledge of the law, and with a clear sense of truth and justice. He was chosen one of the representatives of Des Moines County in the first Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa, which convened at Burlington, November 12, 1838; in the sixth, at Iowa City, December 4, 1843 ; and in the fourth General Assembly of the State, at Iowa City, December 6, 1852. He early took front rank among the pub- lic men of Iowa. He was chairman of the judiciary committee in the House of Rep- resentatives of the first Legislative As. sembly of the Territory, and all laws for the new Territory passed through his hands.
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He was married at Burlington, Novem- ber 9, 1846, to Miss Elizabeth Sarah Neally.
In February, 1854, Mr. Grimes was nom- inated by a convention of the Whig party for Governor of the State. It was the largest convention of that party ever held in lowa, and the last. He was elected, and assumed the duties of the office in Decem- ber, 1854. Soon after his election it was proposed that he should be sent to the United States Senate, but he made it under- stood that he should fill the term of office for which he had been chosen, and he served his full term to the entire satisfac- tion and acceptance of all parties. He was a faithful leader in the political regenera- tion of the State. He introduced liberal measures to develop the resources of the State, and to promote the interests of all educational and humane establish- ments. Up to the time of his election as Governor, Democracy reigned supreme in the Territory. The representatives in Congress were allies of the slave power. He, after being elected, gave his whole soul to the work, and it may truly be said that Governor Grimes made Iowa Repub- lican and allied it with the loyal States.
January 14, 1858, he laid down his office, only to be placed in another and greater onc; for on the 25th he was nominated by the Republican caucus for United States Senator. He took his seat in the Senate March 4, 1859, and was placed upon the committee on naval affairs January 24, 1861, on which he remained during the remainder of his senatorial career, serving as chairman from December, 186 ;.
Mr. Grimes voted for the Pacific Rail- road bill on June 20, 1862, and for estab- lishing the gauge of the road from the Mis- souri River to the Pacific Ocean, at four feet eight and a half inches, February 18, 1863.
January 16, 1864, Mr. Grimes was again chosen United States Senator from Iowa
for six years from March 4, 1865, receiving the votes of all but six of the members of the General Assembly in joint convention ; 128 out of 134. His council was often sought in matters of great moment, and in cases of peculiar difficulty. Always ready to promote the welfare of the State, he gave, unsolicited, land worth $6,000 to the Congregational college at Grinnell. It constitutes the "Grimes foundation," and " is to be applied to the establishment and maintenance in Iowa College, forever, of four scholarships, to be awarded by the trustees, on the recommendation of the fac- ulty, to the best scholars, and the most promising, in any department, who may need and seek such aid, and without any regard to the religious tenets or opinions entertained by any person secking either of said scholarships." These terms were imposed by Mr. Grimes and assumed July 20, 1865, by the trustees. He received the honorary degrec of LL.D. in 1865 from Dartmouth College, and also from Iowa College. He also aided in founding a public library in Burlington, donating. $5,000, which was expended in the purchase of costly books, and subsequently sent from Europe 256 volumes in the German lan- guage, and also contributed 600 volumes of public documents.
In January, 1869, he made a donation of $5,000 to Dartmouth College, and $1,000 to the " Social Friend," a literary society of which he was a member when in college.
His health failing, Mr. Grimes sailed for Europe April 14, 1869, remaining abroad two years, reaching home September 22, 1871, apparently in improved health and spirits. In November he celebrated his silver wedding, and spent the closing months of his life with his family. He voted at the city election February 5, 1872, was suddenly attacked with severe pains in the region of the heart, and died after a few short hours of intense suffering.
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