USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > History of Des Moines County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 51
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DR. SAMUEL FULLENWIDER Came to Yellow Springs Township in 1837
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Freger, David McDill, G. W. Stewart, R. C. Walker, J. W. Holliday, J. J. Hunt, F. Kuithan, G. B. Little, Charles Lengel, S. C. Moss, H. B. and James J. Ranson, G. W. Wahrer (botanic).
HOMEOPATIIIC
Miss A. E. Kendall, W. W. Parsons, R. S. and S. L. Robb, S. E. Nixon, A. H. Pilling, H. J. Tellmar, W. T. Virgin.
We pass from 1878 to 1883 and find the following named persons have joined the ranks of Burlington physicians: D. B. Colcord, N. J. Dorsey, J. W. Lowry, J. C. Moss, G. Nelson Jones, E. M. Stallard, M. Deland, J. F. Frier, D. McMarshall, S. N. Hilleary, J. P. Kaster, H. B. Young.
ECLECTICS
E. Fleshhatt, J. L. McKee.
HOMEOPATIIIC
W. F. Burg, J. L. and Mrs. J. E. Pilling, G. II. Patcher, H. G. Griffith, Henry C. Suess.
From 1883 to 1893 we find the following named physicians to have located in Burlington : E. C. Barnes, J. W. Dixon, W. Hendricks, N. McKitterick, H. F. Steinle, May B. Tuttle, Chas. H. Waldschmidt, G. W. Burch, F. L. Henderson, Henry A. Leipziger, P. C. Naumann, J. C. Stone, Edmond A. Waggener, H. C. Whitney, F. D. Wray.
From 1893 to 1915 there has been quite a change in the physicians of Burling- ton. Some have moved to other localities, while some have passed on and joined the great majority. The following named are the physicians in Burlington in the active practice: Oliver W. Boatman, W. R. Bolding, J. W. Dixon, Miss Julia Donahue, C. P. Frantz, E. G. Guenther, Joshua Holliday, A. G. Hopkins, R. F. Karney, J. I. Kelly, George J. Kinney, E. E. (W. B.) Kirkendall, Frederick E. Koch, Horace Kriechbaum, E. F. LaForce, W. E. Lawhead, Henry A. Leipziger, D. D. Lunbeck, Nathaniel McKitterick, Charles H. Magee, W. W. Milligan, A. C. Moerke, Philip C. Naumann, S. E. Nixon, J. N. Patterson, Philip A. Rep- pert, P. M. Schaefer, A. W. Sherman, John W. Smith, H. F. Steinle, Arthur C. Strong, H. J. Strunk, Carl Stutsman, A. J. Thornber, F. M. Tombaugh, A. H. Vorwerk, E. J. Wehman, E. I. Woodbury, Henry B. Young, A. C. Zaizer.
OSTEOPATHIC
It will not be out of place to speak concerning the physicians whose names appear in the above list, especially of those who practiced their profession in Burlington. The writer has had personal acquaintance with most of them from 1870 down to the present time, and it gives him pleasure to record that he has not known one of those named who has by any act brought disgrace on himself or did anything to tarnish the name and good fame of his profession. No class of professional men deserve the esteem and respect of the community in which they live more than the physician. His relationship to the community in which
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he lives is nearer than that of any other profession, because he comes in direct contact with the family, the parent and child. Their health and lives are entrusted to him in times of sickness. Since we commenced to write this history, Dr. J. C. Flemming, one of the advisory board under whose direction it was commenced, has passed away, yielded up his life when ministering to a young child, and while through his efforts it was being restored to life and health, his heart, which so often "throbbed with joy," ceased to beat, and he passed into his "Redeemer's rest."
DES MOINES COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
This society was organized November 19, 1873. Its charter members were Philip Harvy. G. M. Crawford, J. C. Stone, G. B. Little, H. B. Ransom, D. S. Forney, W. W. Nassau, G. R. Henry, J. V. Bean, P. Brummond, R. C. Walker, F. Knithau, J. J. Ransom, J. Scarff, J. S. Wright, L. B. Power. James J. Ransom and J. V. Bean are the only charter members now living.
CHAPTER XXVII
THE PRESS OF DES MOINES COUNTY
No greater boon was conferred on man than the discovery of the art of print- ing by types the words of speech. The printing press furnishes a thousand, even a million tongues, which speak the written words of one individual to the people who inhabit the earth. It is for this reason the newspapers and magazines are the greatest factors in influencing the minds and consciences of men. They are read in the home, at the fireside, when there is time to think and ponder. Judg- ments formed under such conditions are likely to be permanent.
The conditions existing in 1837 and 1838 in Des Moines County were so dif- ferent from those of today, unless one is familiar with the attitude in which public questions were then approached, that one can form but a poor conception of the men and times.
At those times the space of the paper was not given so much to current events as now. The world did not then move so rapidly as at the present. This was the time of the stage coach, the sickle and cradle, the hand loom and the old spinning wheel. Then, with the people of the West, the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri rivers were the great highways.
The construction of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway had been commenced only five years prior to the extinguishment of the Indian title to the Black Hawk Purchase.
Morse had not yet discovered the means by which a wire strung on poles from one place to another could be made with the rapidity of lightning to convey the thoughts of one person to others living at distant places.
The times during the existence of Old Des Moines County were the times of the flail, and the tramp of horses to thresh the wheat. They were before the old ground threshers, long before the thresher and separator, long before the reaper and mower and binder. Those were the days of shovel plows. Those were the days when a barefooted boy drove five yoke of oxen hitched to a prairie breaking plow, with a wooden mould board, while a man walked between its handles and swore as the oxen tugged and pulled when the plow came to a patch of red roots. Those were the times of whigs and democrats, one for hard money, the other for soft. One for banks, the other against. One for protection to American indus- tries, the other for "free trade and sailors' rights." One thing both agreed upon, which was, to the victor belonged the spoils.
No office, however insignificant, was exempt from a party contest for its attain- ment. Among the smaller of the party, the contention for office of justice of the peace or constable was as spirited as that for delegate to Congress of those higher up in party councils. It was my party. "Wherever Dodge leads I follow."
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"Wherever Grimes or Warren leads, there I go." It was war and bitter war, neither side asking or being given any quarter.
Seldom did editors of journals indulge in personalities. They were masters of logic as well as ridicule, the latter with the mass of people being a powerful weapon.
The democratic party had been in power for many successive years and held the vantage ground on account of federal patronage, the offices being like the successive steps of a stairway, from constable to governor, from governor to United States Senate, and from the Senate to the presidency.
The democrats were like the fat kine and whigs the lean kine which Joseph saw in his vision.
Whether dead or alive, the spirits of the great leaders of both parties were present in the political shouters in the little Town of Burlington, through which the water of Hawkeye Creek bubbled on its way to become lost in the Mississippi, and thence into the sea.
The first newspaper printed in the now limits of Iowa was by John King, May 11, 1836. Mr. King came from Ohio to Dubuque and was one of the judges of the Territorial Court of Dubuque County. At this time there were but two counties and two townships in the state-Dubuque County, comprising Julian Township, and Des Moines County, comprising Flint Hills Township, the dividing line between the two townships being a line drawn from the foot of Rock Island to the Missouri River. Mr. King gave to his paper the name Dubuque Visitor.
The bill creating Wisconsin Territory was approved April 20, 1836, only a short time before the Dubuque Visitor made its appearance. Mr. King was not modest in proclaiming the exalted sentiments by which the patrons of his paper were to be entertained. Its motto was "Truth Our Guide; the Public Good Our Aim." The paper was democratic, and saw the truth and public good as demo- crats saw them. It was always a strong supporter of Hon. George W. Jones, the delegate from the territory to Congress.
Burlington and Dubuque at these times were the two storm centers of politics of the territory. Burlington had the advantage of Dubuque from the fact it was the capital of the territory. It was here the big chiefs of both parties met, and many of them lived, and from this fact, and the further fact that the south- eastern part of the territory was by far more thickly settled than any other por- tion of the country, led it to be the location of two of the most influential news- papers.
The Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser and Iowa Patriot, through different changes of name. became in succeeding time the Burlington Hawkeye and the Burlington Gazette. The Territorial Gazette and Burlington Adver- tiser was established in the year 1837. It really had its birth in 1836 at Belmont, Wis., and was called the Belmont Gazette, which was published by Clark & Russell, Clark being a newspaper man. When in 1837 Clark brought the Bel- mont Gazette to Burlington, the seat of government of Wisconsin Territory, is not known, but we find that in 1838 a paper under the name of the Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser was published by Clark & Co., Mr. Cyrus S. Jacobs being the "company" and its editor. Mr. Jacobs was a lawyer and a man of ability. Mr. Jacobs died in 1838 soon after he had been appointed United States district attorney for the territory. It seems Mr. Clark continued to retain
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his interest in the paper in connection with Mr. John H. McKemey, who was one of the early settlers. Mr. McKemey was among those who enlisted under the call for volunteers in the Mexican war, and was also an officer in the Civil war, and died in Chatfield, Minn. Mr. Bernhardt Henn and James M. Morgan acquired the paper in 1842 and continued its publication until 1845. During the time of its publication by Henn & Morgan, Mr. Morgan was its editor. Whether Mr. Henn lived in Burlington at the time, I am not advised. Fairfield was his resi- dence for a long time. He represented the people of the First District in the Thirty-second and Thirty-third congresses from 1851 to 1855.
In 1845 James Clarke and Mr. Tizzard became proprietors of the paper. Mr. Clarke having been appointed governor of the territory, sold his interest to a Mr. Thurston, a lawyer who came to Burlington from Maine. Governor Clarke died of the cholera in 1850. At the time of his death he lived in the house situate at the northeast corner of Third and Columbia streets.
Tizzard & Woodward, the latter being the mayor of Burlington who refused to sign the ordinance granting the Burlington Water Company certain privileges, became the owners.
During this time Doctor Harny was the editor. At this time the democratic party was approaching a crisis which was to result in its overthrow in the state in 1854. Hon. A. C. Dodge and Hon. G. W. Jones represented the state in the United States Senate. The term of Mr. Dodge would expire in 1855 and that of Mr. Jones in 1859. Each wanted to succeed himself, and every effort that could be made to accomplish this purpose by holding the state firmly in democratic control was made by the Gazette. The "Little Giant," then senator from Illinois, was playing a magnificent but hazardous game in the Senate of the United States, which anyone with forethought could see would result in his nomination for the presidency of his party, or in its disruption. Both Dodge and Jones supported the "Kansas-Nebraska squatter sovereignty" of Douglas. The Charleston con- vention was the culmination of a course of events which led to the dethronement of both Dodge and Jones in Iowa, the election of Mr. Lincoln in 1860, the War of the Rebellion, and downfall of slavery.
When the territory was made a state in 1846, the Territorial Gazette became the Iowa State Gazette. Until 1853 it was a weekly, but in that year was changed into a tri-weekly. Two years later, under the ownership of Col. William Thomp- son and David Sheward, it became a daily paper. Colonel Thompson was for four years a member of the Legislature and served with distinction in the Union army. In 1860 Mr. Taylor bought the paper and in 1862 Messrs. Todd and Bently became its owners and publishers. They changed the name of the paper and it was known as the Gazette and Argus. Two years after the close of the war Richard Barret and Charles I. Barker purchased the plant and the same year Mr. Barker became the sole owner. He dropped the name Argus from the paper and it has ever since been known as the Gazette. Mr. Barker was a prac- tical newspaper man, a forcible writer, was a democrat to the core, and firmly believed if the saints of the party would but persevere, hold fast to the time- proved principles of Jefferson and Jackson, the democratic kingdom would once more be established in Iowa. His party in the state did many things of which he did not approve, but was compelled to endure. Vol. I-28
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
The owners of the paper became incorporated under the name of "Gazette Printing Company." Afterwards the name of the company was changed to the "Gazette Company."
Mr. A. C. Hutchinson was manager of the paper for a time, during which the paper increased largely its circulation.
In May, 1887, Thomas Stivers of Atchison, Kan., and Henry Stivers of Osceola, Iowa, became the owners of the Gazette and published it for one year, when Mr. Thomas Stivers became absolute owner and was its editor and publisher until the day of his death, September 9, 1913, when he was succeeded by his only son, Mr. George A. Stivers. Mr. Stivers was a native of Ohio but the majority of his manhood had been spent in Kansas, where he had been successful as a news- paper man and contractor. He was a keen sighted business man, a born news- paper man, a forcible writer, a man who thought straight, a courteous gentleman who made and kept friends and a worker of electric dynamo energy. It is to his wonderful industry, his steadfastness and his splendid intelligence that the Gazette owes so much of its eminent standing among newspapers of the Missis- sippi Valley today. His son, who succeeds, has been connected with the Gazette in various capacities from carrier up since he was a boy in his teens and is in every way fitted to maintain the Gazette at the high standard of excellency set by his distinguished father.
The Gazette is democratic in politics and is the leading journal of that faith in Iowa. But it is not as a political organ that it enjoys its chief distinction or its ever-growing popularity. Its ability to gather the news, both local and foreign, and to present it to its readers in an attractive manner, has made it a popular home paper of the community to which it caters.
THE HAWKEYE
No journal in Iowa has had more to do with the prosperity and happiness of the people composing lowa when a territory and a state than the Hawkeye.
It has not gone through as many different ownerships as the Gazette, though in the beginning had more with which to contend. The matter of making a news- paper pay seventy-five years ago was a different proposition from that of today. Conditions were different then from the present. It is true that the personality of the editor of a newspaper has much to do with its circulation from one view- point, while from another point, distribution of the news, current events, and the manner in which they are presented to the people has much to do with its circu- lation. People love to be reasoned with, have things written about, well written, love to be made to laugh, as well as to be made to cry.
James G. Edwards, the founder of the Hawkeye, was a remarkable man for the times in which he lived. His environment when young had much to do with the characteristics which he displayed in later life. He had when a young man been a newspaper reporter in New York. This work brought him in contact with the leading journalists of New York. Coming in contact with such men as James Gordon Bennett and other journalists of that time, whetted his perceptions, and prepared him to take a prominent part in journalism later on. He came west and established a paper in Jacksonville, Ill., in 1830, called the Western Observer. The Observer was not a political paper. It was
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HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY
devoted to temperance and sought to make men and women better, to lead bet- ter lives. Whether Jacksonville was a good place in which to start such an enterprise we do not know, but have some doubts, for in 1831 he had thrown up the job of reforming Jacksonville by publishing a temperance paper and had substituted therefor a whig paper which he called the Illinois Patriot. The only newspapers at these times in the West which could be made to pay any dividends had been either whig or democrat. How long he continued to publish the Illinois Patriot we do not know, but the next thing we hear from him, he had taken up his abode in Fort Madison, Iowa, and was engaged in publishing a paper called the Fort Madison Patriot.
Prior to the removal of Mr. Edwards from Jacksonville, Dr. Isaac Galland published at Montrose a paper called the Western Adventurer. Mr. Edwards bought the press, type, etc., of the Adventurer, by means of which he printed the Fort Madison Patriot.
Burlington was at this time the seat of government and the political center of the territory. Here the politicians gathered and laid their plans. The whigs at the time did not have any paper at the seat of government or in the territory except the Fort Madison Patriot.
In September, 1838, Mr. Edwards moved his printing outfit from Fort Mad- ison to Burlington. On December 13, 1838, appeared the Burlington Patriot, which among other matters contained the following announcement: "The sub- scriber proposes to issue at the seat of government of Iowa Territory a weekly newspaper called the Burlington Patriot. In its politics the Patriot will advocate the cause of the people, the whole people and nothing but the people, in contra- diction to the practice of advocating the cause of the government, or govern- ment affairs exclusively, right or wrong." The language used shows the mettle of the man. It was a dare to the opposition, and a clear threat of exposure. Doubtless the challenge threatened was accepted by the opponent.
The name of the paper was soon after changed to the Iowa Patriot.
On the 6th of June, 1839, occurs the following from the pen of Mr. Edwards : "In commencing the publication of the Iowa Patriot we assume great respon- sibility. It is the only whig paper in the territory, etc. We expect to be opposed politically by all those who are attached to the government. In this place the present seat of government, we anticipate that this influence will be strong against us."
The name of the paper was changed from Iowa Patriot to Hawkeye and Iowa Patriot. The word "Hawkeye" was adopted at the suggestion of Mrs. Edwards. The name "the Hawkeye" was adopted June 1. 1843.
Mr. Edwards had sole charge of the editorial department of the paper from its foundation until 1844, when Fitz Henry Warren, a bright, scholarly man, and an excellent writer, became associate editor. Mr. J. M. Broadwell, who was a practical printer and had been with Mr. Edwards for several years, acquired an interest in the paper which was published under the name of Edwards & Broad- well.
A telegraph line had been extended to Burlington in 1848, when for the first time the Hawkeye received special telegraph dispatches, and Burlington was brought in immediate touch with the East and Washington, where Congress held its sessions.
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Up to 1850, the Gazette and Hawkeye were the only papers published in Burlington. In August of 1850, Morgan & McKemey started a paper called the Tri-Weekly Telegraphı. Morgan, "Little Red," as he was called, had edited the Gazette when owned by himself and Bernhard Henn, and was a brilliant writer; had fought for democracy many years, but at this time seemed to have become lukewarm in its advocacy. The same can be said of Mr. McKemey, as to having lost some of his original enthusiasm for the party founded by Jefferson.
The Constitution of 1846, which prohibited the establishment of banks, was a canker which was gnawing at the vitals of the democratic party. The Tri- Weekly Telegraph was a kind of half whig and half democratic paper, a "go- between." Whatever the Hawkeye fearlessly espoused, it opposed. It did not want slavery to be interfered with. The Fugitive Slave Law was supported as a matter of right and justice. It was published three times a week, which made it a good advertising medium and gained it much prestige.
Mr. Edwards in June, 1851, retired from the Hawkeye. Burlington was visited by a scourge of cholera in 1851 from which Mr. Edwards died on the 5th day of August.
The Hawkeye during the time Mr. Edwards had control and has ever since been the advocate of that which "exalteth and uplifteth" man. At no time has it fostered or permitted itself to recognize what is gross and sensual. Has always advocated purity of life and living. Mr. Edwards was an ardent advocate of the cause of temperance. Was opposed to the institution of slavery, and against its further extension. Was a zealous advocate of free schools. Was himself a church member and believed in the Christian evangelization of the people and the whole world. Believed in the right of the people to rule. Was in favor of all those things whose tendency was to the development of man's inward being, as well as to the things which tended to make the material universe the more com- pletely satisfy his wants. When one has done so much, according to his ability, he has accomplished all that in justice could be asked.
After the death of Mr. Edwards, the Hawkeye passed into the control of Judge Stocton and Johnson Pierson. During the time of their ownership, Mr. Stocton was editor-in-chief. Mr. Stocton soon retired, leaving Mr. Pierson sole owner and editor.
Mr. Clark Dunham succeeded Mr. Pierson. Mr. Dunham had associated with him Mr. John L. Brown. This John L. Brown was a genius in many respects. We knew Brown in after years as a land speculator and horse trader, and if he was as good in managing a newspaper as he was in swapping horses or selling town lots, he deserved to be crowned victor. If he could not write editorials for the paper, he could do a vast amount of wind work on the outside for his party and his paper ; and while he was doing this, his good wife would be organizing missionary societies and white ribbon clubs. In these matters, she could not be outdone by her husband in the others.
Mr. Dunham assumed the editorship of the Hawkeye at an opportune time in which to gain both a name and fame. Now came revolutionary times in the political world. They were such that put to the extremest test whatever there was of one's power to formulate and discuss the great question-the good wel- fare and prosperity of the people of the nation for generations to come and the person of the larger ability would be the successful one.
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The Hawkeye and Telegraph, the former under the control of Dunham and management of Brown; the Telegraph under the leadership of Morgan, and under the management of James W. Grimes, Jule Tallant and John G. Foote, were making it hot for the Gazette and democracy. The two whig papers were not wholly in accord : for nobody could be in accord with Jule Tallant and Harry Ray, nor could they be in accord with John L. Brown. Neither was it possible for such men as Dunham and James M. Morgan each to edit a whig newspaper in the same town without occasionally getting their fingers into each other's hair. Morgan was a democrat to the manor born and only a "near whig" by conver- sion, while on the other hand, Clark Dunham was a whig "from away back," a "stand-patter."
In 1854, Grimes had been elected governor and the Telegraph, so far as he was concerned, had served its purpose. The trustees of the company in 1854 were J. F. Tallant, James W. Grimes, Harry Ray, Jr., and John G. Foote, actuary. That of running a tri-weekly and daily paper in Burlington at this time was a big undertaking. It was the first of its kind that had been done in the state. Before the organization of the Telegraph Printing Company the paper was largely in debt, and it was Mr. Morgan's hope that an organization would furnish suffi- cient capital to make it go. On the 7th of June, 1855, appeared on its first page, at the head of a column :
"FOR SALE
"The entire Telegraph Printing Establishment. "May 30. 1855. JOHN G. FOOTE, Actuary."
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