USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 64
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The parents of Charles B. Kessler were Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Kessler, who came to Quasqueton with the first installment of settlers, in the early spring of 1842. His inother, now Mrs. Heman Morse, is still living in Independence.
ACCIDENTAL DEATHS.
A record of deaths which have occurred in the county by accident from flood and fire, or accidental discharge of firearms, would make a chapter not without interest
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and certainly not without value, but longer than our space would warrant. We propose to select from the long list, which, without any design to make such a collection, has come to our notice, a few instances of such deaths which seem to be distinguished by unusual incidents.
The following melancholy history was communicated by the Independence correspondent of the Guardian, in July, 1858:
A lamentable accident occurred yesterday a few miles from this place, resulting in the death of four persons.
It appears that a man by the name of Casper Wright engaged a Canadian, owning a span of horses and a wagon, to take himself, his wife and his sister, a young girl about eleven years of age, to Fair bank on a visit to some friends. They reached Otter Creek about 6 o'clock on Sunday morning, and, in attempting to ford it, the box floated off, and the whole party were soon struggling in the swollen and rapid stream.
A man who saw them passing his house toward the creek, heard their cries, and hastened to the ford, arriving, he thinks, in less than five minutes, but not in time to aid, or even lo see, a single person of the party. He did not warn them, because, as the creek was generally known to be dangerous at that stage of water, he did not think of their attempting to drive through at that place, but, being strangers, they were not aware of the danger.
A Mr. Dyer, who resides near the scene of the accident, and who was milking at the time, had his attention called by his little daughter, who ian to him exclaiming that a woman was floating down the creek in a wagon box. Mr. D. ran immediately along the bank of the creek, till he found the wagon box still right side up, but with no one in it. He saw the horses struggling to ascend the bank and succeeded in res- cuing them, but did not see or hear anything whatever of the persons in the water, so soon was the tragedy ended.
The bodies of the husband and wife, and also of the young girl, were found before 2 o'clock of the same day; that of the girl about twenty rods below the scene of the disaster, and the other two but a few rods from each other, nearly a half mile down the creek. The body of the Canadian, whose name had not been learned, and who was understood to have been but a short time in the county, was not recovered until the third or fourth day, when it was found entangled in some bushes near the spot where the catastrophe happened.
Whether this sad event hastened the building of a bridge at that point, we are not informed.
On the twenty-third of November, 1859, Mr. Gustavus Lang, of Superior, now Hazelton, township, took a little daughter, two and a half years old, in his arms and went to look at a coal pit in the vicinity of his house. Ob- serving that the covering needed repairing in one place, he went up to attend to it, telling the child to stay where he placed her, and not attempt to follow him. Who, that has never seen a darling child in a like peril, can imagine his sensations, when, a few moments after, hear- ing a cry of anguish, he looked around to see that the little creature, in her desire to be near him, had at- tempted the perilous path; had broken through the cov- ering, and was literally hanging in that fiery furnace by her arms! He sprang to her rescue, but the intense heat had already done its work, and after a few hours of suffering, the bright and joyous life went out.
Another death by accident occured the same week as that recorded above, in Byron township. Mr. Edward Ryan, a farmer, had bought a cow of a neighbor, and on the morning of the twenty-second of November, went to take her home. The neighbor offered to help Mr. R. drive the cow after she was in the road, and he proceeded alone to the field. Not returning, a search revealed the fact that, in passing through a heavy gate, it had by some
means fallen upon him, and he was found dead, his skul being badly fractured. Mr. Ryan left a wife and several children.
On the morning of the ninth of March, 1874, the dwelling house of George L. King, situated in the south- west part of Independence, was consumed by fire, and in it perished Mrs. Morris, aged seventy-four, the mother of Mrs. King : Mrs. King, Emma Bell, a daughter aged fourteen, and Frank, a son, aged ten years. The fire originated in the kitchen, which was entered by a door at the bottom of the stairs leading to the sleeping rooms above. Mr. King was aroused at about 4:30 A. M. by the daughter, who entered his room saying that her room was full of smoke. Hastily dressing and descending, he opened the kitchen door, when the pent-up flames burst out upon him like a savage beast. He attempted to re- turn to the rescue of his family, but the raging flames filled the stairway, and after repeated attempts, and in a state more dead than alive, he was compelled to desist. Smarting with pain and crazed with the awful calamity which had overtaken him, he wandered into the garden and sunk upon the earth in a semi-conscious state, where he was found by his neighbors, who, though soon collected about the burning house, were too late to save alive one of the doomed victims of this sad catastrophe. A ladder was placed at one of the front or east chamber win- dows, on the side opposite to the kitchen, and Mr. Baker, a neighbor, a man of stalwart proportions and of iron nerve and courage, entered the room occupied by Mrs. King. The smoke was so stifling that he was compelled to grope around on his hands and knees. The bed was found without an occupant, and, after returning to the window for fresh air, the search was renewed. The bodies of two insensible persons, which prove to be those of Mrs. King and her little son, were found lying as if she might have fallen with him in her arms. They were both dead; and such was the rapidity with which the flames spread, that further search was impossible. Death by asphyxia, it was believed, came to their relief before the flames reached them. This unprecedented calamity, in a town like Independence, cast a gloom over the whole community, and great sympathy was manifested for the husband and father thus suddenly stricken and bereft of all that was dear to him. Mr. King had long been a resident of the town, and enjoyed the esteem and confidence of all who knew him. Mrs. Morris and Mrs. King were highly esteemed members of the Presbyterian church, and the funeral services of the four, whose lives had so tragic an ending, were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Phelps, pastor of the church, on the following Wednesday, and in the presence of a large concourse of sympathizing friends.
EARLY ROADS-"SLOUGHED DOWN.
There are many people in Buchanan county, not much past the meridian of life, who can remember when all communication between the residents of the county and Dubuque; all goods brought from eastern markets; all additions to the population by the coming of new set- tlers, involved seventy miles of travel by wagon, over
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oads which, at certain seasons of the year, to those who had not learned from an expert how it was done, were actually impassable. A slough many rods in width, mud unfathomable in depth, wagons heavily loaded and "sloughed down"-so fast stuck in the waxy mire, that no amount of prying or pulling will avail to move the "balky" mass. Who among the uninitiated will solve the problem and bring the goods and wagon to dry land? The extract given below enunciates the formula "shifting the cargo," but does not, to one not learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, sufficiently indicate the "work," the steps of the solution. It is evident that his loading, women, children, goods, cannot be dumped in the centre of a slough, where several inches, not to say feet, of water may be standing above the treacherous mire; but if he is a solitary pioneer, which, fortunately, was not often the case, caravans being much more com- mon, as well as more safe in cases of emergency, there was but one alternative. The wagon must be unloaded; so much is sure ground-if his goods and chattels were of a character to be carried piecemeal to the farther shore, he set himself resolutely to the task; and, this ac- complished, with the aid of poles and branches of trees, a bridge, still in the embryo state, and by the good will of the patient team that had watched with intelligent interest these efforts to enable them to make a long pull and a strong pull, to some purpose, the ponderous "prairie schooner" is again under way, or, we might say, has weighed anchor, and is ready with her white canvas to move forward through the green waves of the rolling level, stretching away "westward ho."
But if his loading is heavy boxes, which he can move but not carry, then he must build a platform or wharf, of material at hand, the undeveloped bridge, left by some good Christian to aid pioneer pilgrims, stopped short in their progress; and easing his load he must return to his wharf in mid ocean as many times as the safe transit of his cargo demands.
An active minded Yankee, coming unexpectedly upon one of these structures, piled with dry good boxes, in a neighborhood that could be peopled only by Æsop's fav- orite interlocutors, would have jumped at the conclusion that a modern scientist, having arrived at the deduction, that the cause of the slow development of these tribes, since the time of the great fabulist, was entirely owing to neglect on the part of their more advanced brethren, was about to open a curriculum for their rapid elevation ; the condition of admission, being the laying aside of their green coats and buff vests (well enough in a lower stage of development, as in the semi-barbarous times of the troubadours, but quite out of harmony with the in- tellectual age into which the world has advanced), and the donning of more sober colors, with which he had come prepared to furnish them at a little advance upon cost. But this is an unwarranted digression. A friend, whose father was among the earlier arrivals in a central Iowa county, chanced to be one of a stage load of pas- sengers "sloughed down," or "sloughed," as was a fre- quent form of denoting the situation. It was a time of unusually high water; and, much to the consternation of
the lady passengers, they seemed to be actually in a lake. The stage was crowded, and it was absolutely necessary that it should be emptied. After many schemes, pro- posed and rejected, the ladies were transported a la chil- dren's chair fashion, to a fence, which, fortunately for them, had been built across the slough and was but a few steps from the stage. Clinging to the top rail with their hands, their feet moving upon rails barely above water, they zigzagged for twenty or thirty rods, and ar- rived at terra firma, with a story added to their repertoire of western experiences, well worth the price they had paid for it. If this incident did not occur in Buchanan county, there is no reason why dozens of a similar char- acter might not have occurred here. All the requisite conditions existed during the first twenty years after its settlement. The only deficiency in the present rough sketch is the absence of that Hogarth-like talent of the original participant and delineator, for producing the most striking effects hy a few skilful touches. The "creeping things" on the fence might be likened to vari- ous animals; but happily for once the goose must be ruled out. Who ever heard of a flock of geese on the fence, a position those wise birds allow politicians to monopolize.
But, to our extract, which we had well night forgotten was not to be introduced as a text, but as the body of the discourse-the sermon. It is, as will be seen, valu- ble not only for its testimony in regard to the character of early roads and modes of travel, but also for demon- strating the fact that jealousy is not a vice of modern origin, but that even in that golden era of good feeling, when every newcomer was welcomed with open arms and open doors, jealousy between contiguous towns of equal ambition, if not of equal advantages, was not unknown.
A writer in the Quasqueton Guardian of October 15, 1857, called attention to the fact that the greater propor- tion of the travel going west from Dyersville and Dubu- que had avoided Quasqueton, "by taking the direct route to Independence, which though, being some three or four miles shorter as regards actual distance, is, in rainy weather, by condition of its roads, twelve or fifteen miles longer. There are a number of sloughs upon it, which, bad enough in the best weather, are almost im- passable during a wet period. Teamsters almost invari- ably expect to get 'sloughed down' three or four times ; and a trip which does not involve the 'shifting of cargo' is deenied worthy of remark. There are but two or three short sloughs on this road, and we are assured that these could be made passable at all times by a little attention and less expense. There is indeed scarcely a doubt that by the judicious expenditure of a few dollars the whole tide of travel would be turned upon this route ; and we should receive all the benefits which could accrue from the passing of this trade and travel through our town, and which, the citizens will readily perceive, are not inconsiderable."
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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, IOWA.
CHAPTER XIX. THE BUCHANAN PRESS.
THE first newspaper published in Buchanan county, was the Independence Civilian, a Democratic sheet, the first number of which bore the date of May 17, 1855, and the names of B. F. Parker & James Hilleary as pro- prietors. As the pioneer paper of a pioneer town, it was creditable to their enterprise; but they retained it but about a year, and then sold it to S. S. Allen & S. J. W. Tabor-the latter being the editor, and making it thoroughly anti-slavery. But, in the fall of 1856, Mr. Tabor was elected county judge, and soon after sold out his interest in the paper to his partner, who, in a short time, disposed of a half interest to G. W. Barnhart and J. S. Cornwell. In the following July, Barnhart sold to Cornwell and went west; but, in March, 1858, returned and purchased Cornwell's interest.
There have been several proprietary changes since that time-Cornelius Hedges becoming sole proprietor in 1859, and the Buchanan County Democratic association, in 1863, with the Hon. O. H. P. Roszell as editor. In the spring of 1864 it was purchased (for the second time) by G. W. & W. Barnhart, who changed the name to Independence Conservative. Finally, in 1872, W. Barnhart bought out his brother, and became sole owner; as he is at the present time. But Mr. Barnhart is a member of the firm of Barnhart Brothers' type foun- ders, in Chicago, in which city business compels him to spend nearly all his time. He has therefore placed the management of the paper in the hands of L. W. Goen, a sprightly writer, who, for two years, has occupied the editorial tripod, to the entire satisfaction of the many patrons of the paper. E. S. Strohman, who has worked in the office nine years, is now its foreman.
The Quasqueton Guardian, the second paper in the county, was established at Quasqueton by Rich & Jor- dan, December 13, 1856. It was a seven column paper, ably edited by Dr. Jacob Rich, afterward political editor of the Dubuque Times, and now holding an office under the General Government, at Des Moines. The paper was removed to Independence in 1858, and continued there under the same management (Mr. Jordan having died in the army, but his wife retaining his pecuniary in- terest in the paper) till the last of May, 1864, when they sold out to S. B. Goodenow. He conducted it for two years, and then sold it to J. L. Loomis who consolidated it with the Bulletin, which he had established about a year before. The consolidated paper bore, for a time, the rather cumbrous title of the Buchanan county Bulle- tin and Guardian. The last name, however, was drop- ped, after a little, and the paper has since borne the ti- tle which Mr. Loomis first gave it, and which has be- come familiar, not only through the county, but through- out the State. Mr. Loomis continued to manage it with much ability, till the spring of 1869, when he sold it to Judge William Toman, who has remained its editor and proprietor till the present time. The paper has always been Republican in politics, and the fearless advocate of all moral reforms.
The American Eagle was started in Independence as a Republican paper, by D. P. Daniels, in 1859. It con- tinued such for about two years, when it was changed to a spiritualistic paper, and the named changed to Rising Sun. Under this name it rose and set till 1865, when it set to rise no more.
Since the establishment of the first Buchanan paper, in 1855, there have been in the county the usual number of People's Papers, Messengers, Recorders, Vindicators and Reformers, which have gleamed forth for an instant, like fire-flies in the dark, then gone out and left the world no lighter than they found it. The history of these would not be particularly edifying, and we shall therefore con- tent ourselves, in concluding this chapter, with a brief mention of the papers which have been more recently established here, and which are still in existence.
The National Advocate, an eight column folio, was es- tablished and its first number issued at Independence, May 17, 1878, by R. J. Williamson. It was the result of the somewhat popular protest against the bank and bond system, and the general financial policy of the Re- publican party; and, up to the present date, June 1, 1881, continues to be an organ of the National Green- back labor party. Mr. Williamson having been elected to the office of clerk of the courts for Buchanan county on the Greenback ticket, and finding it impracticable to conduct the paper in connection with the duties of his office, sold it to M. S. Hitchcock, one of the pioneers of the Greenback movement, January 1, 1880. During that year a Washington press was procured, and other important additions were made to the stock and furni- ture of the office. The Advocate is now printed both sides at home, and for the six months previous to this date (June 1, 1881), the average circulation of the paper has been over eight hundred copies.
The Buchanan county Journal, the third or fourth newspaper venture at Jesup, was established October 10, 1879, by A. H. Farwell, editor and proprietor. It is Republican in politics, lively and "newsey," and has suc- ceeded in securing a very respectable patronage. "Fe- lix," (M. R. Eastman, esq.,) an industrious collector of "things new and old," pertaining to the history of the county, is its Independence correspondent, and his live- liness and vim have added not a little to its success.
The Weekly Telephone, was started at Quasqueton, January 7, 1881, under the proprietorship of Dr. John Cauch and his son, Willis S., who acts as editor. It is a sprightly and readable sheet, neutral in politics, and, if versatility of talent can command success, it will suc- ceed.
The Independence Courier, a paper printed in the German language, was established in January, 1881, by Hermann Hoffman, as editor and proprietor. It is a six column paper with "patent insides," published every Thursday, and independent in politics. It is printed on the Bulletin press. Mr. Hoffman prepares all the edi- torials, sets all the type-in fact does all the work of the office, with assistance in putting the paper through the press. He often "composes," in both senses, at the case; setting up what has never been set down, except
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in his own head. Mr. Hoffman sold out the type and other property of the office, to Steinmetz & Company, about the middle of April, 1881, but is still retained as editor.
CHAPTER XX.
GENERAL BIOGRAPHY.
HON. THOMAS E. TURNER.
was born in New London, Connecticut, May 17, 18II. When quite young he removed to Butternuts, Otsego county, New York, where he remained until he was seventeen, and from that time till he was twenty-six, he attended school at Guildford academy, Guilford, New York. He was one year with a private teacher at Fly Creek, four years at Oneida institute, Whitesborough, New York, and two years at the Andover Theological institute. Here his health failed, and, after resting over a year, he began teaching. He opened a select school at Dundee in the fall of 1841, continuing until the spring of 1845. He then began teaching in the Starkey seminary, Starkey, Yates county, New York, where he taught two years. In the spring of 1848 he immigrated to Byron, Ogle county, Illinois, where he started a select school, and kept it up until the spring of 1853, when he came to Quasqueton. During the winter of 1853 -- 54 he taught the Quasqueton school, in the west wing of the school-house. In the summer of 1854 he was elected a member of the legislature, representing Buchanan and Delaware counties, being there during the stormny session when a grant was given to the Chicago, Dubuque & Sioux City railroad. During the two winters, from 1855 to 1857, he taught at Quasqueton ; was notary public and justice of the peace. September 6, 1841, he was married to Martha Peer, of Starkey, New York, by whom he had five children-Thomas P., born Novem- ber 29, 1842, died September 17, 1843; George S., born August 17, 1844; Martha, born September, 1847, died May 11, 1848; William J., born November 2, 1849; and Henry Scott, born April 21, 1853. Mr. Turner died on the third day of January, 1861, of con- sumption, a disease which had been hanging over him for twenty years. Mr. Turner was a gentleman of a very social disposition, who, as a teacher, a scholar, and a legislator, was known only to be respected. The high esteem in which his educational talent was held by the legislature, was evidenced by the position conferred up- on him as chairman of the committee on public schools. Mr. Turner was a high-minded, honorable and fearless debater, in whom the cause of freedom and justice always found an eloquent champion.
SIMEON B. CURTIS.
Mr. Curtis, from the time of his settlement in the county, took rank among its leading men. He was born in the State of New York about the year 1811, but early
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in life his father removed with his family to Brown county, Ohio, where the subject of this brief biography spent the remainder of his youth. Soon after reaching his majority he married Miss Sarah E. Hall, and immi- grated to Tippecanoe county, Indiana, where he resided until the spring of 1851, when he came to Iowa. Leav- ing his family in Jones county, Mr. Curtis came into Buchanan, selected and purchased, in Washington town- ship, eighty acres of prairie, and forty of timber lands, of Jacob Minton, entering at the same time three eighty acre lots of Government land, in section five. Here Mr. Curtis made a home for his family, honored among the pioneer homes of Buchanan; here he spent the re- maining years of a useful life, dying in February, 1867; and here his wife died in August, 1880.
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had twelve children, eight sons and four daughters, all now living, ( June, 1881), except Orrin G., who died during the war of the Rebellion, in the hospital at Louisville, Kentucky. All the sons and daughters of Mr. Curtis are married and living in Bu- chanan and Fayette counties, except the oldest and the youngest sons, now in Deadwood, Colorado.
Four of Mr. Curtis' sons were in the army during the late war at one time-Wesley O., Orrin G., Charles G., and Lewis D. F. Marion also enlisted, but was taken sick at Davenport, and was discharged; Simeon G. en- listed, but being under age, and needed by his father, his discharge was procured through the justifiable interfer- ence of Mr. Curtis.
Lewis D. now owns and occupies the homestead, hav- ing purchased it of his brother, W. O. Curtis, who first purchased it of the estate.
Simeon Curtis was a man of much public spirit, and took a deep interest in the schools of his township, serv- ing many years as a township director.
REV. JOHN M. BOGGS.
Rev. John M. Boggs was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, October 20, 1818; and died at Indepen- dence, Iowa, September 1, 1872. He was educated at Washington college, Pennsylvania, at Franklin college, Ohio, and at Princeton Theological seminary. In June, 1843, he was licensed to preach by the Presbyterian church, and was pastor of the churches at Paxton and Derry, Penn- sylvania, during the years 1845-6 and 7. From 1848 to 1856 he had charge of the church at Millersburgh, Ohio; and in the fall of 1856 he accepted a call to become the pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Independence, Iowa, which position he held for thirteen years ; and then, on his own motion, because of failing health, he relin- quished his charge, greatly to the regret and sorrow of his entire congregation. In April, 1870, the legislature of the State elected him as a member of the board of trustees of the hospital for the insane at Independence, which office he held at the date of his decease. He was, for many years, the stated clerk of the presbytery of which he was a member, and his discriminating mind and excellent judgment prompted his co-presbyters often to seek and follow his counsel.
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