USA > Iowa > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 20
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26
These incidents are mentioned not that they are particularly interesting or worthy of following to this length. The purpose is to bring the reader to an understanding of a most unusual character, and to finally arouse his curiosity as to a psychological problem growing out of the story about to be related.
CATHOLIC CHURCH, MOUNT CARMEL
169
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
Objectively, the major, in every sense of the word, was a "false alarm." He pretended to be a soldier and famous for deeds of bravery. Physically he did not have the courage of a mouse. He pretended to be a lawyer ; to have practiced medicine ; to have taken orders as a clergyman of the Episco- pal church. He claimed to have been a great traveler and to have carried his explorations into every corner of the world, hunting hippopotami on the Nile and Congo, crocodile and tigers in India, cougars and wild men along the Amazon and grizzlies in the Rocky mountains. In the course of time, in each one of these claims, the major was found to be a most egregious fraud and liar. He came to be regarded as a lazy, good-for- nothing ne'er do well, a spendthrift and a shiftless incumbrance of the earth whom his family had cast off with an allowance which he accepted on the condition that he would take himself as far away from them as possible and remain out of sight. That he was a rascal is not probable. On the other hand he had certain engaging qualities as an acquaintance and was a lavish entertainer while in funds. He was not a drinker or gambler. Prob- ably the worst that can be said of him is that he was trifling and mentally out of tune.
One dark night in the fall of 1882 a number of young men collected at the major's office for a friendly game of cards, whereat he entertained them most hospitably for the early hours of the evening, when some one of the party suggested that they all take some exercise by walking around the block. Being somewhat of a nocturnal habit to this the major readily assented and the party set out for a ramble which at length brought them to the corner of the Presbyterian church, over which a large tree thickened the darkness of an otherwise black and moonless night. When the major and his friends reached the tree a dozen men in masks emerged from the gloom, when his companions took to their heels in alarm and made their way to safety. Not so the major, who was of unwieldy bulk and heavy on his feet. In response to the commands of the men in masks, who had him quite in their power, the major surrendered with dignity.
"Men," said he, "I yield to superior numbers. But if any of you gentle- men will meet me with either sword or pistol, or even with bare fists, it will be your blood and not that of W. August Fonda that will crimson the soil where stands that venerated sanctuary."
To this there was no reply but silence. Silently the white-robed com- pany laid the unresisting major on the ground, where he was gagged, bound and a white cap thrown over his head. Then his body was picked up and carried to a light wagon, which in the meantime had appeared on the scene, and deposited, helpless and mute, in the box of the vehicle. Not a word was spoken. The men in masks started the team, and with guards at his head and foot and the other passengers heavily armed, the party and its captive drove slowly out of town. How far they went or how long a time was consumed the major did not know, but the journey was a tedious one and he resigned himself to whatever might befall. At length the team was brought to a halt. In silence the major was lifted to the ground and the cap pulled from his eyes. His captors foregathered about the helpless body and a deep voice from near his head started to repeat a service for the dead
170
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
taken from the ritual of some secret society. In the black darkness prayers were said and hymns sung, and after these wierd ceremonies the arms of the victim were unbound and the major could feel within their length the moist earth of a newly dug grave. He was asked in a whisper, if he had any word to send to his friends and the major, having signified his wish for speech, was about to begin, when afar off came the beating of a horse's hoof bear- ing down upon the party. The rider came close to where the helpless man lay prostrate, but passed on in the night and the pounding of his horse died out of hearing. But, when this rescue seemed to have failed, and the major had prepared himself for the worst and lost all hope, he found himself alone. The men who had brought him a long distance and had lain him beside an open grave had vanished as if they had sunk into the earth, and the wagon which had conveyed him had disappeared without a sound. He was alone and safe. Not a hair of his head had been injured. He could see a little in the dark and his hands were free. He quickly disengaged himself from the cords with which he had been bound, and with the first gray dawn of the morning he found himself alive and free to go whither he pleased.
By a reconnoisance he was able in the course of time to locate himself. He had been taken to a spot some distance from the road running between Carroll and Glidden, and not a great distance from the latter town. Although as day advanced he could see the road plainly and might have followed it in. This he disdained to do. Recent rains had swollen Storm creek to a stream of considerable size, but the bridge of the public road would have carried him over in safety and dry-footed. Such an end to the adventure was too prosaic, and striking off across the bottom the major swam and struggled through the stream, which was beyond his depth and which must have worried him much to cross. Arriving at Glidden, he recited a thrill- ing story of his struggle in the water after he had by main strength freed himself from the desperadoes who had stolen and determined to kill him, and his bedraggled appearance when he arrived was sufficient to confirm any tale which his fertile mind could conjure up.
While these things were happening to Major Fonda the young men who had been his companions the night before spread the alarm of his capture. The bells of the churches and fire house were rung. The population turned out en masse, and before an hour was gone a party of more than two hun- dred men had scattered over the country to succor the major and confound the outlaws. An all-night search, however, failed of any result, although it was made in all directions but that which the kidnaping party had taken. By morning the town was intensely excited, and when the report came that the major was safe at Glidden the fact only served to inflame the public indignation. From a personage who had become a subject of derision the major had assumed over night the dimensions of a "leading citizen." If he had walked out of town the day before he would have been forgotten in a week. But as the victim of this outrage he all at once grew to the importance of which he boasted.
The first train brought the victim back and half of the population of the town gathered at the station to welcome his return. He appeared accom-
171
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
panied by a delegation of Glidden citizens and speeches were made which irritated the spirit of the assembly to a still higher pitch. If the perpetrators of the deed could have been known at the time they would have been roughly handled. But who the actors were was never known. The major in his speech explained of a conspiracy that had been hatched against him at Omaha among labor leaders, and contrived a pretty theory in which they were made responsible for the rough experiences through which he had passed and from whose clutches he had gallantly rescued himself before they, by their inability to retain him as their prisoner, could inflict upon him the extreme object of their purpose. By exerting his strength at the proper moment and husbanding all of his power, he said, he had scattered his cap- tors right and left and effected a masterly retreat, followed by a storm of bullets. It may have been as he said. There were some doubters. There were those who believed, that if those engaged in the major's kidnaping had been found when popular feeling was at the height of its fury there may have been several hangings and possibly several Carroll families deprived of a loved one.
The revulsion of feeling toward the major did not last long, though there was considerable uneasiness in certain places until after the meeting of the next grand jury. There was some talk of applying the probe in sus- pected quarters, but the major laughed to scorn any suggestion that his abductors could have been any other than an Omaha band of outlaws, and the matter was dropped.
Soon after the episode Major Fonda organized a hunting party of youths to accompany him on a hunting trip to the mountains. His companions straggled back after a little time and said he had reached Bismarck, N. D., and had refused to go any further, giving as a reason that he had been employed to edit a newspaper there. A few years later the report came to Carroll that the major had been killed in a railway accident in Mississippi, and it was in this way that the end came to a most curious individual.
This long story is told to bring out the fact that the mob spirit was once astir and would have been carried to great length if a guilty subject could have been produced at the psychological moment in Carroll county and in the orderly city of Carroll. Happily there was no victim present. Also, happily, and to apply the logic in its ultimate form, the crisis passed with- out stain upon the honor and conservative self-control of this delightful community, thus distinguishing Carroll county from many of its neighbors, few of whom can plead a like immunity from the excesses of youthful indignation.
All along through the history of Carroll county the facts bear out a con- dition of good moral repute and equanimity of temper on the part of the people. From the beginning the community has been one of cleanliness. order and decency.
Before the date set at the head of this chapter there came among the people of Carrollton a couple who gave the name of Elliott and who passed as man and wife. They were persons of good appearance and considerable means for those days, for the effects which accompanied them were above
172
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
the usual in number and value and several teams of oxen were used to trans- port their goods from the Rock Island railroad at Iowa City, the end of rail transportation in Iowa, as far as Carroll county. They appeared to have no certain point of destination, and reaching Carrollton they tarried for a time and finally were induced to take possession of a piece of land and set up their household establishment. It was not long until the new settler and his wife grew into the acquaintance and esteem of the neighborhood and were taking part in all of the social and other affairs of the hamlet. The Elliotts were voted sturdy and honest people and in this reputation they remained for a couple of years, when there came to the village a stranger who sought information on various subjects, and who, concerning the Elliotts, was especially inquisitive. He sought the acquaintance of the men in authority and to them he disclosed the information that he was on the track of a run- away wife, whom he had been able to trace thus far and whom he suspected of being no other than the supposed spouse of Elliott. Of the fact, how- ever, he was not entirely certain and desired such aid as would enable him to make a satisfactory investigation without exciting suspicion in case his belief proved to be without foundation. This aid was given him and by its means he was soon able to satisfy himself that the woman was really his wife and that her pretended husband was a former farm laborer who had eloped with her from Illinois. They had flown together from the farm of the man who had now appeared in their pursuit, and from whom they had taken in their flight much of the property with which they had set up their house.
Here were the elements of a considerable scandal with which there was no machinery of law at hand to deal without great delay, and indeed these devices were found not to be necessary. In response to the call of a leader the patriarchs of the village foregathered when the incident was found to have reached a developed stage, and counseling together they resolved upon a plan of action.
Meanwhile, the stranger and the wife who had deserted him had been brought together and as a result of this meeting it was found that the wo- man's old love had been restored and that she was most eager to go back with him to the old Illinois farm and resume her interrupted reign over the penates and lares of her youthful fancy. The patriarchal board of strategy was well pleased with this turn of affairs, and agreeing to the wisdom of such an arrangement, they turned their attention to the problem of settling the debt of the community with husband number two. For this a way was found. A committee of two was appointed to hold communion with him at the first convenience of the parties concerned and this was soon effected. Elliott was found out in his field at work with his cradle in total ignorance of the crisis which had taken place in his affairs. Under the circumstances there was no opportunity for evasion and Elliott confessed at once.
"Mr. Elliott," said the spokesman of the visiting delegation, "we will give you just fifteen minutes to rid the community of your presence."
The man was disposed to parley at this and sought to gain a little time to go to the house and gather up a few articles and some clothing. The committee was obdurate. Its spokesman stood with his watch in hand.
173
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
"Mr. Elliott," he again remarked, "I said fifteen minutes. Three min- utes of that time you have used in useless talk. In twelve minutes more you must be out of sight and if you shall at any time return to this com- munity it will be at your peril."
Elliott made no further remonstrance. He picked up the cradle from the ground and carried it to a tree where he hung it to the branches. With the same action he turned his back to the men holding the watch and walked rapidly away and disappeared in the underbrush of the timber. He was never seen or heard from again.
Having still the reunited husband and wife on their hands, the settlers found a way to dispose of them also. Word was sent around the neighbor- hood that the goods and property of the Elliotts was to be disposed of at public vendue on the following day at a certain hour. When the time ar- rived a crowd had collected. One of the settlers took his place as auctioneer and officiated as such until the last article of value had been disposed of and the proceeds in ready cash handed over to the rightful husband. By this time a team was in waiting and the couple placed aboard the wagon and escorted to the stage line at Panora.
This narrative is fully authenticated and is repeated to instance the fiber of the pioneers of Carroll county and their ability to deal wisely and justly with the many varieties of circumstance which came upon them in their remoteness calling for the exercise of prudence and good sense.
CHAPTER XV.
RADICAL MODIFICATION OF CLIMATE COMES WITH SETTLEMENT-WINTER'S BLIZZARDS AND SUMMER'S TORNADOES-SAM TODD'S STORY OF AN EARLY DAY TRAGEDY-PARTY FROM HILLSDALE VISITS CARROLL AND IS CAUGHT BY MARCH STORM-FOUR OF THE PARTY REACH HIOME IN SAFETY-FOUR DRIFT WITH THE STORM AND ARE LOST-BLIZZARD CONTINUES THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS-CHARACTER OF THE STORM-AFTER IT SUBSIDES RES- CUE PARTY IS ORGANIZED TO LOOK FOR THE MISSING MEN-TWO BODIES FOUND FROZEN STIFF UNDER BOX OF SLED-BROTHERS PERISII ON THE CARROLLTON-HILLSDALE TRAIL-HORSES FOUND ALIVE BUT CRAZED WITH SUFFERING AND EXPOSURE-CLOSING OF THE TRAGEDY.
There can be no doubt that many and radical modifications of climate have come about within the years which have passed from the present back to the time when the first white man came and made his settlement in the bottoms of the Middle Coon. The extremes of both summer and winter were then manifestly more severe, and while a certain large allow- ance must be made for the exaggeration of tradition there is every war- rant for the belief that tales of snow six feet deep on the level; blizzards that prevailed for weeks; periods of heat and drouth, tornado, hail and insect plague in presence of which farming as a settled and profitable in- dustry was thought to be futile, are not all fiction.
Fifty years ago one might stand on the high points of the divide or any of the eminences of the county and see for miles, or as far as vision can reach at sea, over a rolling uniformity of space of the same color and char- acter, without an object in all of that visible zone to serve as a landmark, save perhaps the course of a stream, where the grass was ranker and taller, or some rare and peculiar outcropping of the surface. Over these unbroken stretches the winds had fair and free play, carrying with them from the northwest in winter the cold and storms of the arctics, and in summer, from the south and west, the "hot winds" at the touch of which vegetation with- ered, or the tornadoes whose powers and malevolence are not to be de- scribed. But fifty years has changed the face of nature. The field of vision from the higher point is now confined to a few miles, and is everywhere interrupted and broken in upon by trees and houses. Forestration alone is said to modify and balance climatic excesses, but when to widespread tree-culture is added the many barricades afforded by the improvement and development of the towns and farms, the original forces of nature are much disturbed in their freedom and where they were once terrible have become comparatively tame.
175
176
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
The tragedies of the old times, however, must not be discounted by the security of the present, when the seasons roll around in a procession with little to distinguish the fat prosperity of one from the fat prosperity of the other ; when life in Carroll county is subject to no hazard that there is not a doctor close at hand to cure, and when the most likely viccissitude is the pos- sibility of death from old age.
On the 13th day of March, 1870, all of the men folks of Hillsdale- and this includes all inside of what is now known at Roselle township-got up early in the morning, dispatched their chores, and hitched up their teams for a trip to Carroll. Sam Todd, the only survivor of the expedition now living in Carroll county, is telling this story. "That was a pretty fair sort of a March morning," says Sam. "There was a little snow on the ground, enough to make a sled run smooth if you kept off the high places which the wind had blown bare. A light snow had fallen the day before, which was Sunday, and before that we had been hauling hay from old man Cole's place on Brushy. The weather had been mild for some time and it looked as if there was going to be an early spring. It never had more of that ap- pearance than the morning we started out for Carroll-three sleds of us, with four teams. In my party there were Joe James and Joe Mathias. Hussey and Coppage came in together, and with the third sled there were four men, Horn, Ashelberger and two young Germans, who had just come over, by the name of Bruner. They brought in a load of wheat and had two teams hitched to their sled. This was all the men there were in the settlement except father and another old man. We didn't try to drive in by the trail; just followed the low places where there was snow enough to make the sled run easy. It was warmish and some watery clouds made it look a little like rain. We all had some traps to buy and errands to do in town. I was busy and didn't notice things much and was a little late getting a pair of shoes fixed at the cobbler's. But about noon I had finished up everything. It was still warm but the sky had clouded over. A little snow was falling in flakes as big as your hand in mushy, wet dabs. There was some wind and when I ran across Joe Mathias and James a little later on Fifth street it was blowing hard-the snow still coming, not heavy but in the biggest flakes I ever saw. There was sharp lightning and thunder. When I met the boys they said we had better start for home, and I was willing, for I didn't like the looks of things.
"'By dad, Sam,' said Joe Mathias, 'We're goin' to have one of them things you read about.'"
"I asked him why."
"Look over there," he said, pointing to the northwest.
"I tell you it didn't look just first class to me, either. Coppage and his partner had started out a few minutes ahead of us. The other team, I found out afterwards, left town about fifteen minutes later.
"Well, in those days there wasn't a house between Carroll and Hillsdale. There were no fences and no other features-just a rolling prairie. South of the river there wasn't any trail worth speaking of. Every fellow made his own trail in those days.
ST. BERNARD'S CATHOLIC SCHOOL. BREDA
177
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
"It was blowing right smart when we started, as I said before, but when we got in the open country across the 'Coon, those big flakes had split up into a million little pieces and were coming at us stinging and slantways. A man could have walked into it head-on the way it was then, but he wouldn't if he could have helped it. Ever see one of them storms? Every second it was growing blacker and thicker and colder. We had to go quartering and the team was beginning to want to take the storm in the rear instead of the flank and go with the wind. But old Sam he had the strings and he knew he had to hang on to the off line and make the critters go his way or there would be trouble. Well, we went b' guess-and-b' god for a couple of hours. We didn't know for sure any more where we were than nothin,' but we knowed we ought to be somewhere near Hillsdale. Say, the way she was a comin' was a plenty. The whole works had broke loose. They was shootin' cinders at us out of cannon, the way she stung and cut. The snow was coming so fast and drifting so deep in the low places that we had to keep on the ridges or get stuck, and just then we didn't want to be detained. We all wanted to get home pretty bad. We weren't lost but we suspicioned that we wouldn't be in just bad luck if we could only get a sight of something that seemed familiar.
"The storm kept getting worse all the time and the cold colder. The only way I knew the team was ahead was by the feel of the lines. Old Dobbin's rump wasn't in sight, but I was hanging on to that off line like grim death and I knew we were still going quartering with the wind. Well, at last we could tell by the way the sled was running that we were climbing a middlin' steep hill. Then the runners on one side bumped up and the sled came near going over. Joe Mathias jumped out to see what was the matter. We had run over a heap of nigger-heads that some one had piled up on the top of the hill just north of Hillsdale. We were mighty tickled, for then we knew just where we were at. The settlement was south of us. We lived a mile west. Over a little ways was a quarter-section, around which there was about five furrows of breaking which had grown up with weeds. If we could strike them weeds we could follow them right up to my old shack door. We had our luck with us, but, near frozen, it was all the three of us could do to make the team half-face the blizzard. Mathias and James got out and led the brutes and we at last got home, plum tuckered out, half frozen and 'most scared to death.
"Well, the storm kept up all night and the next day-and the next night and the next day till four o'clock in the afternoon of the 15th. It had been 35 degrees below zero for thirty-six hours. The wind was so heavy that we had to go out once and brace the cabin with the boom-pole of the hay wagon for fear it would blow to pieces. When the heavy blasts came the shack just canted forward and groaned back and the nails that held it fairly screeched.
Vol. 1-12
178
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
"The storm came to an end in an hour's time and the sun came out. But the air was still so full of snow-there was no wind now-that it seemed to be still snowing. Many of the hollows were filled bank high with snow twenty feet deep, but the knobs were swept bare. We went over to the settlement as soon as it was safe to go outside and there we found that Bussey and Coppage had got home after a hard fight.
"But Horn and his party had not showed up. The women and chil- dren were crying pitifully. We comforted them as much as we could by saying the men might have stayed in town, but they did not believe it and neither did we, though it was at least a hope and some comfort.
"The next day we men hitched up and went back to town, shoveling our way through the drifts in places. In town they thought we all must have perished and the newspaper man, J. F. H. Sugg, had already made up a party to go out and look for us. A crowd of fifty men soon started back in sleds in search of the missing men and outfit. There was little or noth- ing to trace them by, but the men scattered on foot and when we got east of Hillsdale a sled track was found about two miles out going with the wind. By care it could be followed. The sled had packed the track and the wind had kept the snow from filling it so that occasionally these marks were found leading south and east. A couple of miles of careful work brought the rescuers to a hill which overlooked and somewhat sheltered a low gully. At the bottom of this they saw the upturned bed of a sled, where a ghastly and shocking spectacle lay in wait. Under this protection we found the bodies of Horn and Ashelberger, one sitting upright on a pile of sacks with the head and face sheltered by the hands. This was Horn. Ashelberger was lying on a blanket. Both were frozen into solid chunks of ice. A mile from the sled we found two of the horses walking round and round in a track which their hoofs had beaten hard and deep into the snow. The beasts were crazy and on the point of perishing from hunger and cold. The other team drifted before the storm to the Cole place on Brushy and had been given shelter but not until after the storm had gone down. They had also beaten a hard path around the fence enclosure.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.