USA > Iowa > Boone County > History of Boone County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 15
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REMINISCENCES
By John M. Brainard
In the autumn of 1863 the writer of these paragraphs was publish- ing the Story County Aegis at Nevada. It was "war time" and the boys were marching away to Dixie, or being brought home to recoup
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from wounds or disease. The railway had been completed only to Marshalltown and Boone County. To dwellers situated one county nearer market, Boonesboro was only a vague myth, a locality where coal existed, but was unattainable because of the prohibitive freights incident to wagon carriage. In 1864 the railway reached Nevada, and for a year she put on queenly airs over towns and regions not familiar with the "iron horse."
In the spring of 1865 W. W. Walker, chief engineer and vice president of the Chicago, Fowa & Nebraska Air Line Railroad (under which name the present Chicago & Northwestern Railroad was con- structed ) began to advertise a lot sale in the new Town of Boone. Nevada "looked wise" but felt rather patronizing. She knew more in less than a year.
The sale was appointed for March 29. 1865, and the first train carrying passengers was run over the line to Boone, the engine driven by that veteran engineer, George W. Dutton, and this writer being one of the passengers in the coaches behind him. Regular trains did not commence running until the 17th of July following this "Lot Sale Special."
There were some surprises at this sale, for we had seen the land sales of the Osage Land District, in Mitchell County, with its excite- ments and desperate "figuring ;" but this Boone sale was "straight goods." The train stopped on the east side of Honey Creek, some- where in the neighborhood of the Wilson residence on Eighth Street, and the passengers crossed the little rivulet on fence rails covered with straw or hay; thence walked up to the Keeler House, over plowed ground, and looked about. The broken corn stubble still lit- tered the field, the mud was of the usual quality known to early lowa in the March season, a row of cottonwood trees marked the west side of Story Street opposite the Keeler House and a farm wagon stood in the street in front of it, from which the auctioneer announced his decisions and the successful bidders.
The first lots offered were 1 and 2, block 68, being those now carrying the street number, 924 Story Street, occupied by E. A. Ring. land & Company. George Lowe secured them at $600-a tremen. dous price pioneer folks thought, who had been accustomed to lots at $25 to $50. Lowe had been in the farm implement and lumber business at Nevada during the sojourn of the "end of the road" there, and was preparing to follow up the advance to Boone, as he continued to do until the Missouri River was reached.
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The next property was a business site on the west side of Story Street, between Eighth and Ninth, about the middle of the block, probably lot 6 or 7, block 93, say No. 811 of that row now. It went for $200 and again the Nevada folks were astonished. The third sale was a residence lot-one on Fifth Street, where A. E. Munn now lives, No. 1015 of that street and occupied for several years by Rev. Joshua Cooke. It was "knocked off" at $75. Then there was an adjournment for dinner. Mr. Walker remarked that the land company was not anxious to make a record sale in quantities, his principal desire being to "establish prices." Then the Nevada com- pany dispersed and visited in Boonesboro until the train was ready to return eastward.
In the fall of 1869 the writer came to "Montana," a name which caprice had fastened on the young city in the effort to get release from the primitive title of "Boone Station," bestowed by the railway folks, and commenced the publication of the Standard, thus bring- ing him personally in contact with the growth of the City of Boone. Some time in this autumn of advent the foundations for the Knight & Smith flouring mill were laid, and by either that fall or early the next spring, the mill was in full blast. It was a profitable property and was followed in a few years by a storage elevator for grain and the first one by still another. The mill had extensive contracts for the making of flour for the Government order, for military posts beyond the Missouri River and for the Indians on reservations, an arrangement which permitted the use of varying qualities of grain. But the settlement of the cheaper lands, even better for raising small grain than those of Iowa, militated against the mill, which gradually was reduced to corn grinding, or the making of flour from wheat brought from the north. Its business became less from year to year until finally that great enemy of flouring mill property, fire, intervened and the mill was no more. Now we buy our flour; then made it.
The Historical Museum of the Ericson Public Library shelters an old photo of R. M. Weir's foundry and machine shop, which stood in the pioneer days of Boone upon the site now occupied by the Boone Electric Company. It was rather an imposing factory for those days and supplied the necessities of users of machinery-miners, millers, threshers, etc .- for several counties in this part of the state. Mr. Weir was the inventor and patentee of a very good heating furnace for dwellings, some of which are yet in commission, and were made in the old brick structure spoken of. His health, none
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too rugged after his return from the navy during the Civil war, failed in the trying climate of lowa and for many years he has been a resident of California, first at the navy yard at Vollejo and now at Santa Cruz.
In 1869 the high school was held in the second floor of the school building situated on the same lots now occupied by the Franklin school, the same being a four-room structure of brick. Afterwards, to accommodate the increase in attendance at the grades, the high school was shifted to the second floor of the city hall building, offices now occupied by the city clerk and city engineer. This must have been in 1874, for the city hall was not in existence prior to that date. The school board was often hard put in finding accommoda- tions for the school pupils, for the town grew faster in numbers than in wealth. So public opinion said : "Build a high school structure." A site for the same had been in possession of the school authorities for some time awaiting the opportunity to build upon it-being the lots now occupied by Mr. Barkley's residence on Boone and Fourth streets, but previously owned by the Baptist congregation and occu- pied by a quaint little structure of brick. Col. C. W. Lowrie, a prominent figure in those days, resided near this site and did not fancy the presence of a school so neighborly, and to prevent its use busied himself in finding fault with the location and in discovering a new one. He was successful and the present site of the high school was chosen, the other property being sold. The museum has the original "Articles of Agreement" between the school board repre- sented by its president, O. T. Marshall, and the owner of the lots, Daniel S. Love, bearing the date, December 4, 1874. The con- sideration was $1,000, $200 paid down and the rest at interest at 10 per cent. The abstract of title is also in the same envelope, certified by Recorder J. F. Brett and carrying only three entries: John I. Blair to W. W. Walker, power of attorney ; Blair, by Walker, show- ing town plat; and Blair and wife, by Walker, deed to Daniel S. Love; the several transactions extending from 1864 to 1869. The property is in Block 89. Boone, but by an oversight the figure "9" is omitted and the certification is made to apply to "Block 8." It is probable that the title is not in peril, however; the district has had undisputed possession for the full required time to acquire title. The school board was urged when building began to make the base- ment high enough for occupancy with classes, when the future should demand the same; also to acquire the remainder of the then vacant lots in the half block. Neither of these self-evident precautions were
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adopted and the public has suffered from the lack of judgment in its officers ever since. In fact, but one school building in our city has the proper convenient space-that in the First ward with its full block.
On the west side of Story Street, midway between the lot line and the curb and extending from Ninth to Eighth streets, was a row of cottonwood trees, marking the half section boundary during the farm-day period, and at the time of the founding of the city being 16 to 20 inches in diameter. One or two like trees stood in front of the Kceler House on the east side of the street. These furnished nice "roosting places" for loafers' feet and were usually so employed at all times of the day in the summer season. As the young city grew the presence of these trees became a badge of its minority and their removal was demanded by the majority, but stoutly resisted by the owners of adjacent properties as a rule. The city council "ordained" and "instructed its marshal" in favor of cutting down the cotton- woods, but they did not fall. In fact, one more vigorous individual- or at least more bellicose-declared he would resist with bayonet and musket any attack upon his trees! There had obtained a belief that things in the street might belong to the adjoining lot owner. One night Marshal Rhoads, who long held the sword of office, at- tacked the forest; by midnight it was laying corded up in the street, and no blood shed !
It seems ludicrous at this day to recall how thoroughly a trifle like the one recorded should disturb the serenity of a whole village or embryo city.
Portions of the Keeler House, the first hotel on the site of Boone in the spring of 1856, remain, in which Keeler, Beal and Holcomb bought in that spring season 160 acres of prairie, now included in the central portion of Boone, being well convinced that the expected railway would turn down Honcy Creek for a river crossing, and that a town would be made at "the top of the hill." Kceler had put up the frame of a hotel, 46×40 feet and two stories high, in Boonesboro, and had the roof on when this second thought occurred. The building was razed and set up on the new site, where it was afterwards re- christened Wescott House. The St. James and again the Butler House occupied the ground now covered by the Wells House. A part of that original building stands at the rear of the Wells House property, next to the alley, covered with red iron rust; another por- tion became a part of the dwelling house of Mr. Lawson, at 1228 Vol. 1~11
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Story Street; and some of the lumber in the Keeler House doubtless has found place in the interior of the Wells House.
The Keeler House stood on the post-road leading from Des Moines to Fort Dodge and was a stage station from the time of its erection until the advent of the railway, which latter was in 1865. Other farmhouses on the original site of what is now Boone (east end) such as the Phelan home, the original log house of the Hol- combs, and it may be of others, have vanished, so far as the writer's memory serves.
The first city hall in Boone still stands at the northeast corner of Seventh and Keeler streets, an illustration of "the survival of the unfit!" The term is not a new one; it was applied to the building as far back as A. D. 1872-73, and when items were scarce could be held in readiness for a "stickful of local." As a continual dropping will wear away a stone, so the persistent comments of the local press wore out the endurance of the city fathers, and the lots where now stands the city building were purchased and the structure, prac- tically as it now stands, was erected in 1874. The date is assured, for it was "cast in the walls." The surface of the ground at that site was some eight or ten feet above the present street level and had to be dug down and carried away in order that the "traditional hole," in which Boone establishes her public buildings, should be obtained. A customary lack of foresight which has always characterized our city was invoked in that case in not buying sufficient ground for the plainly seen growth of the city. The result has been embarrassment for lack of room and the dispersion of city buildings in several direc- tions, when public policy would have centered them, or should do $0. Another blunder in that "enterprise" was the planning of an ostentatious tower to cap the roof. But the architect had failed to make provisions for a foundation to carry this ornament; the builder either did not notice the deficiency or cared to ignore it until reached, and so the Council was obliged to order its omission and it is said the contractor was something more than a thousand dollars "to the good" in consequence.
In the first years of Boone there was no provision whatever, save access to a very few wells, for fighting fires. The newspapers con- tinued to harp upon this neglect but without avail, until there should be a verification of their predictions. This came one night when the blazes ate up the frame building of James Grace's meat market and adjoining buildings to the corner of Eighth and Keeler, south side of Eighth. Mr. Grace was buried in Des Moines a few days ago.
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His shop stood on the ground on which the Boone National Bank is now rising to its sixth story.
Apropos of fires, the "finest one" was when the lower portion of Story Street, west side, burned down. The entire side of the street had been built up in wood, save one structure of brick, about four or five numbers south of Eighth. A fire started at or near the south end of the row. The summer weather was perfect-no breeze and but very little water protection. What there was consisted of a con- nection with the Northwestern Railway's water-tank, by the line which had been carried up to the depot, at which place the city was permitted to tap it with a three or four-inch pipe, carried down Story Street to Eighth and, it may be, extended to Seventh. The pressure was very small and the stream was not carried with any force upon the buildings, which burned down without much more effort than an autumn bonfire. Most of the movable property was saved and the burned district was built up in brick within a year or so. The picturesque feature which remains most vivid in memory of this "quiet, domestic conflagration" is the immense vociferation which E. L. Haff communicated to the occasion. He had been an old fire- man in some eastern city, was a shoe merchant in Boone and "enjoyed a scrap with flame" as a matter of course. What a carrying voice he had! Brother A. P. Fogg's articulation was paralyzed while Haff had the top of the ladder. The brick building stopped the per- formance.
When the writer came to Boone ( 1869), he found the following brick buildings used for business: The Eagle Hotel, by C. E. Phipps, next to (now) Fitzgerald's drug store ; D. F. Goodykoontz's drug house, on site of his rebuilt store, now occupied by H. T. Cook; Metropolitan Block, now First National Bank and adjoining num- bers; almost, if not all, of the intervening property south of the foregoing to the end of the Goeppinger holdings, on the east side of Story Street between Eighth and Seventh streets; the one lone build- ing on the west side of Story between Eighth and Seventh; the wooden building on the corner, same side (now Mason's retail), had the siding removed that fall and was veneered with brick ; there was no brick off Story Street. Within a year or so G. H. Welsh's present store building, the Boone County Bank Building, the build- ing now occupied by Hoxsie & Wilder and the James Grace Build- ing following his fire was erected. Still later the erection of the McFarland Bank Building, now occupied by the Boone National Bank, was considered a notable structure, one in which the town took
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great pride. The D. B. Knight Building ( Hoxsie & Wilder) was the first to sport plate-glass windows in its front and Boone "strutted some" when the same were perfectly installed. In February, 1873, the writer was appointed by President Grant as postmaster at Boone, the office building being a frame on the site of the Germania Build- ing of Goeppinger Brothers. A. K. Wells, the only banker, proffered to build a brick at the alley corner just west of the city hall for a post- office, and the same was occupied by the postoffice when ready and by the bookstore of Mr. Burtus. The latter failed in business, but the postoffice was retained there during the rest of the official term.
Metropolitan Hall was the somewhat aspiring title given to the third story of the block before mentioned, the same being under the mansard roof of the structure a rather flimsy one and a source of con- stant apprehension when an audience was present through dread of fire and panic in its cramped quarters. It finally did burn down, without other disaster. There cluster about the old building many interesting memories, for it was the amusement and business center of the embryo city. There was held the famous "hot-term congres- sional convention" which nominated Charles Pomeroy for Congress, when the district embraced almost a quarter of the state, extending from Marshall County to Sioux City. It resounded to the fervid "Indiana-pioncer" oratory of L. Q. Hoggatt, of Story, to the long roll calls of its thirty or more counties, and its heated walls caused an effort for relief by accepting the offer of the little frame Methodist Episcopal Church, on the common in Boonesboro south of the school- house, which came nigh breeding a riot between Boonesboro and "Plugtown." In the same auditorium was fought out the contest for supremacy really between the two communities, but ostensibly for or against the nomination of Capt. Jackson Orr.
On June 26, 1882, the rails of the Wabash Road, under the name of St. Louis, Des Moines & Northern Railway, were laid into Boone and by the 28th the manager, C. E. Kinney, announced the readiness of the company to receive freight and passengers. It had been an unusually wet season, greatly embarrassing the work of grad- ing, etc.
A year or two thereafter the street railway was built by L. W. Reynolds. It was an unpretentious affair, a small car, narrow gauge rails, drawn by one horse, but it beat the "mud wagon" and walking. The system, practically under the same management, has grown to the importance of its present existence and may ere long become a part of the trolley system of this region of Iowa. How much the
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installation of this "horse car railway" influenced the sentiment which led to the union of the east end and the west end may be a subject for conjecture, but it did have a tendency in that direction. The substantial growth of Boone dated from the construction of these two public utilities.
It may not be recalled by many present residents that Boone at one time went through the "oil excitement." It had its "gold craze" in the very early day, be it remembered, and about a dollar a day could be panned out from the sands of Honey Creek, between town and the river. The oil though grew out of the release of gas by bor- ing a stock well down in Douglas Township, some time about 1883 or 1884. A company was organized, charters obtained in Des Moines, Boone and perhaps Ames and Perry. A well was sunk in the neighborhood of Crocker and another on the county courthouse grounds in Des Moines and in Boone a pretense for finding water by boring at the present waterworks was encouraged until a depth of 3,012 feet had been attained. The hope of finding oil did not mate- rialize, nor was the gas which was found a permanent supply, but proved to be only the familiar "marsh gas." But it was a famous season for building-"air castles !"
The church edifices in Boone in 1870 were the Presbyterian, a small frame on the present site; the Methodist, with about the same, on the site now occupied by that denomination; a like building by the Baptists, on a lot a short remove north of the present postoffice ; an African about the locality of Mr. Cadd's marble shop on Arden Street, and possibly a Swedish church on Crawford, north of Eighth; and the "little brick" on Division Street, the only one of all vet standing in its original site. There was also the Catholic, now used as Sodality Hall. The Baptist brick, on the Barkley residence lot, corner Fourth and Boone, was idle and somewhat dilapidated. The improvement in the character of the church buildings is apparent to all observers and does not need recapitulation here.
The temptation to protract these reminiscences must be curtailed or they will lead to an undue length. They are pleasant in the recita- tion, it must be confessed ; and recall the equally pleasant social state of the new society gathered here in a frontier town from all quarters of our common country. It must be remembered that the great Civil war had but just closed in 1865 when Boone was launched on the yet turbid waters. The returning soldiers were changing their "spears for pruning hooks" and the new West tendered the lines of least resistance. That bloodshed had ceased was a cause of great joy,
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making assimilation of mixed ingredients the more easy. We had but one class of society-those who behaved themselves and were willing to be friendly. The usual mite societies, Christian Endeavor, Epworth League and the like, together with an occasional dancing affair, music and dramatic home entertainments, formed the chief opportunities for social gatherings. Then there was the presence of almost Universal Youth to aid. A gray head was so rare that one turned on the street to look back at it. Father Theron Reed and the very youthful white head of Chauncey Lowery are the only ones which loom up through the mists of the past upon our recollection. We seem to see a greater sense of chivalry in the young gallants of those days than prevails at this date; and there was a sweet gracious- ness in the young women which somehow contrasts with the occa- sional masculine swing of the girl of the hour-who "don't have to ask mother!" The literary entertainments were decidedly superior to those of the present. Our lecture courses embraced a portion of the very best talent in the land-Professor Swing, of Chicago; Theo- dore Tilton, Wendell Phillips, Camillo Urso, the Mendelssohn Quin- tette Club, and later the Andreas family, were samples of the aesthetic food which the tastes of that day demanded. Our course tickets cost $5 for the winter, and the community was much less wealthy then than now. It wanted the best or none.
CHAPTER XIII
SCRAP OF LOCAL HISTORY
George W. Crooks, one of Boone County's oldest living citizens, was well acquainted with and at one time was a neighbor of Henry Lott, who figures quite prominently in a history of Boone County, published in 1880. Feeling that Lott had been done an injustice, Mr. Crooks some years ago prepared the following paper for the Boone County Historical Society :
Henry Lott, about whose character and conduct much has been said and written, and not a little of which is incorrect, is charged by historians with many crimes of which he was not guilty; this I will endeavor to prove :
With his family, consisting of wife, two sons and a stepson, Henry Lott settled near the mouth of the Boone River in the spring of 1846. He was not a desperado, nor a horse thief, as claimed, but was a trapper, hunter and frontiersman in every sense of the word; very much attached to his family and quite industrious. It was not true, as some writers claimed, that he stole ponies from the Indians, which caused him and his family to be disturbed, but by reason of the fact that his cabin was located upon a section of the country called "Neutral Ground," where quite a few Indian tribes claimed they each had a right to hunt and trap without molestation, but that the white man had no right to do so.
Lott was not disturbed until about January, 1847, at which time an Indian chief, by the name of Sidominadotah, who was also called "Old Chief Three Fingers," by reason of having lost a finger from one hand, appeared at Lott's cabin with six or eight of his band, all tricked out with war paint, who demanded supper, which Mrs. Lott cheerfully furnished. After all had finished the meal the chief informed Lott that he was an intruder on the land; that he had set- tled on the Sioux hunting ground and that he must leave; to all of which Lott refused to agree. Thereupon the Indians appropriated to their use Lott's property of every kind that they could carry away. The miscreants robbed beehives, and shot horses, cattle and hogs so
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full of arrows that many of them died. Not satisfied with this, they threatened and abused Lott and his family. At this juncture it was thought best, for the safety of the family, that Lott and his stepson should secretly leave the premises and make their way to the nearest settlement, which was some twenty miles distant. This they accom- plished. When they reached the Boone River Bluff man and boy looked back and thought they could see the Indians killing the bal- ance of the family. It even appeared to them that they could hear screams of terror and distress.
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