USA > Iowa > Floyd County > History of Floyd County, Iowa : together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 46
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491
HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
Captain Lyon, as Captain of the Third Battery, was responsible for from $75,000 to $100,000 worth of Government property, consist- ing of several hundred different items, every cent's worth being fully accounted for and a final settlement made within a half hour after the muster out of the battery.
He is active in times of peace as a Christian soldier; has been a member of the Congregational church for twenty years, and has superintended the Sunday-school for a long time. He is a man of pure and generous impulses; has always been philanthropic and humane in his feelings, and a thorough hater of oppression.
He has never voted any but the Republican ticket. In October, 1877, he was elected Representative for the Sixty-ninth Assembly District, having a majority of more than nine hundred votes. He was re-elected in the fall of 1879. During his two terms of service at Des Moines, he was Chairman of the Committee on Banks and Banking, and served on the Committee on Military Affairs. He was also an active member of the Committee on Claims, Library and Compensation of Public Officers. During his second term in the Legislature, Mr. Lyon introduced a bill to protect depositors in banks and banking institutions, and to punish fraudulent bank- ing. It is a bill of considerable importance, and the wonder is that this sensible safeguard in bank depositing had not long ago been established. The bill was passed in due course, and is now a law of the State.
He was appointed one of the commissioners to superintend the building of the first Howe-Truss bridge erected over the Shell Rock River at Rockford. He was local School Director, and Chairman of the Building Committee at the time of the erection of the present graded-school building, and was also Chairman of the Building Committee for rebuilding the Congregational church, in the summer of 1882.
Mr. Lyon was united in marriage April 23, 1867, to Belle A. Bradford, of Milwaukee, Wis. They have had seven children, all living and all at home-Anna S., born Feb. 29, 1868; Clara B., born June 30, 1869; George A., born June 9, 1871; Jessie B., born April 14, 1873; Arthur C., born Nov. 16, 1874; Edna B., April 17, 1876; Susie E., July 10, 1878.
In railroad, educational, and other public enterprises, Captain Lyon has always been prompt to act and efficient in his work. In stature he is below the average height, being only five feet and six
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
inches tall. His weight is one hundred and forty pounds. His social qualities are excellent.
The Second Battery, Illinois, Company G, had a private named Jolm Darland, from this county.
THE PATRIOTIC DEAD.
Let us not forget their virtues, Nor that life to them was dear ; 'Twas to rescue Freedom's altar That they suffered so severe.
Following is a list of the brave men from Floyd County who were either killed in action, or on picket duty, or died of disease, during the long months of the terrible struggle for the preserva- tion of the Union. What their individual efforts accomplished, what they endured, may never be known to the outside world; but let us remember that the "stars and stripes " which looked down upon their deeds, and their nightly vigils, are silent; the leaden rain and iron hail are unseen, and leave no trace but upon the records of the muster roll, and not upon the air they cleave; the pestilence, though it stalked at noon-day, hides its story in the grave of its victim; the dying pours his tale of suffering into the callous ears of hardened nurses; the tottering victim writes his grief and experiences to only sympathizing loved ones at home, who, in their turn, lock it with his memory in their breasts. And so what they suffered, what they endured, will not, cannot be fully known nor realized until the graves shall open, the sea give up its dead, and the secrets of all hearts be revealed. Like the unmarked grave of an honest man, though his record cannot be scanned by the eyes of the living, "on the other side," when answer is given to roll call, the angels will read, "Here is a brave man;" then, and not till then, can the history be truthfully written, and the world know what the brave boys of Floyd, with the many thousands of gallant Iowans "engaged in the service of their country," endured on the battle-field, in the hospital, upon the march, and in the camp. Let their names be the monuments of their patriotism, their heroism, and the achievements they helped to accomplish. "All honor to the fallen dead ! "
THE ROLL OF HONOR.
" 'Tis sweet, oh, 'tis sweet, for our country to die! "
Allen, Jacob C .- private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteer=, Company G, died at Memphis, June 9, 1864.
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
Boon, James H .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Little Rock, Arkansas, Sept. 26, 1863.
Boon, Sylvester M .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Jan. 3, 1863.
Blood, Eber L .- private, Twenty seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Mound City, Illinois, Jan. 14, 1865.
Brentner, Payton-private, Third Battery, died on Steamer Ella, No. 2., Oct. 10, 1864.
Chapman, Geo. W .-- private, Third Battery , died at Memphis, Feb. 26, 1864.
Darland, Benj .--- private, Third Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company I, killed at Blue Hills, Sept. 17, 1861.
Dean, Daniel M .- private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died, Feb. 26, 1864.
Decker, Wm. C .- private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Pleasant Hill, La., April 9, 1864.
Doan, Wm. H .- private, Seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Com- pany B, killed in battle at Belmont, Nov. 7, 1861.
Fleenor, Geo. F .- private, Third Battery, died at Pacific, Missouri, Dec. 7, 1861,
Fleenor, Isaac N -private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volun- teers, Company G, died at Cairo, Illinois, Dec. 19, 1862.
Folger, Timothy W .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volun- teers, Company G, died at Pleasant Hill, La., May 4, 1864.
Goble, Sam'l C .- private, Third Battery, died at Forsyth, Missouri, May 14, 1862.
Gleason, Nathaniel B .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volun- teers, Company G, died at Pleasant Hill, La., April 21, 1864.
Grow, Aldine G. - private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volun- teers, Company G, died at Memphis, Jan. 1, 1863.
Hall, Wm. T .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Helena, Arkansas, Sept. 17, 1863.
Hawks, Everett-private, Seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Com- pany B, killed in battle at Belmont, Nov. 7, 1861.
Mahoney, Geo. W .- private, Twenty-seventh Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volun- teers, Company G, died at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 18, 1864.
Miller, Francis M .- private, Thirty-second Regiment, Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G.
Miller, Elias G .- private, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company- G, died, Benton, Ark., Dec. 12, 1863.
Mitchell, John-private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Fales Landing, La., May 22, 1864.
Moore, Wm. C .- private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Memphis, Feb. 20, 1863.
Phillippi, John-private, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, killed at Pleasant Hills, La., April 9, 1864.
Pixley, Charles J .- Fourth Sergeant, Third Battery, died at Benton Barracks, Nov. 12, 1861.
Pierce, Wm. B .- private, Third Battery, died, Rock Grove, Floyd, Iowa, Nov. 31, 1864.
Powers, James F .- private, Forty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company E, died, Helena, Ark., Aug. 21, 1864.
Purdy, Stacy J .- private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Pleasant Hills, La., May 11, 1864.
Robbins, Eliphalet G .- private, Third Battery, died, Lebanon, Mo., Feb. 28, 1862.
Smith, Joseph-Fourth Corporal, Seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company B, died at St. Louis, Jan. 4, 1862.
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
Smith, Myron-private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died, Little Rock, Ark., Nov. 20, 1863.
Story, Stephen-private, Twelfth Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company E, died at Montgomery, Ala, May 10, 1862.
Swain, Wm. E .- private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died, Memphis, Sept. 10, 1864.
Treat, Lewis-Sergeant, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, killed at Big River Bridge, Mo., Sept. 27, 1864.
Weeks, Ansel D .- private, Thirty-second Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died at Camp Franklin, Dubuque, Iowa, Nov. 13, 1862.
Wise, Samuel -- private, Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry Volunteers, Company G, died, Memphis, Jan. 8, 1862.
Fort, Jacob-private, Third Battery, died at Cassville, Mo., Mar. 27, 1862.
SOLDIERS BURIED IN FLOYD COUNTY.
W. Dutcher
Jacob Beck
Robert Phelan
F. A. Dutcher
A. E. Brown
J. M. Durkee
Homer Phelps
J. C. Allen
Anton Kestler
N. D. Grow
B. F. Darland
E. B. White
Conrad Beck
D. M. Dean
R. A. Pool
W. H. Wait
Reuben Kelly
W. E. Swain
T. J. Edson
A. G. Grow
John Mitchell
G. D. Cheney
C. Pfarr
Samuel Allen
J. G. Whitter
S. Story
Myron Smith
G. B. Austin
S. J. Purdy
S. Wise
Anson Pelton
E. L. Blood
M. Olmstead
J. W. Kellogg
W. C. Decker
H. G. W. Bedell
W. C. Moore
I. N. Fleenor
J. Montgomery.
SOCIETY OF VETERANS.
On Decoration Day, 1871, a movement was inaugurated to or- ganize a soldiers' society, to be composed of veterans of the last war living in Floyd County. A committee was appointed to devise a plan of organization, which they reported at a meeting held on the first of July following, namely: 1. To collect the necessary facts and prepare a brief history of all deceased soldiers buried within this county, and also of all soldiers living within the county. 2. To render all necessary aid and assistance to the fami- lies of deceased soldiers in the county, and to make all neces- sary provisions for the care and support of our sick and disabled comrades. 3. To participate and assist in the funeral rites and burial of deceased comrades, and, when necessary, to provide for the erection of suitable monuments to their graves. 4. To observe with appropriate ceremonies and exercises the day set apart for the decoration of the graves of deceased soldiers. 5. To promote the mutual happiness and interests of the soldiers of the late war, to cultivate friendly and fraternal feelings among them, to revive and perpetuate the recollections of their late companion- ship in arms, and to strengthen those sentiments of patriotism
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
and duty that impelled them to their country's service in the hour of her danger.
The committee further recommended that the members of the association be organized into a battalion of two companies, under the laws of the State, and that they procure arms from the State; one of these companies to have its headquarters at some point on Cedar River, and the other on Shell Rock River, and that they meet occasionally for drill and exercise.
Copies of the above report were furnished to township sub- committees.
REUNION OF THE TWENTY-SEVENTH IOWA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY.
One of those joyous occasions which commemorate the glorious achievements of the Union Army, which excelled that of all pre- vious ones, was held at Charles City, Sept. 6, 1871; on that occa- sion the Hon. W. G. Donnan delivered the ablest and most telling speech we have seen; its depth, its pathos, its satire, its logic and eloquence are incomparably grand, truthful, deep and convincing. We make the following extracts:
" COMRADES! Who that have endured hardships, suffered priva- tions, overcome obstacles and braved dangers, in behalf of any cherished object in life, but loves, after its successful attainment, to frequently revert to the trying scenes through which he has passed, recall the sentiments of devotion which pervaded him, recount the obstacles he has overcome and rehearse oftentimes the story of his success ?
" Who, having been associated for a time with others in danger- ous travels and perilous adventures, but loves to meet again in after years the companions of his wanderings and his hazards, to renew the closely-formed friendships incident to such cirumstances and with them recall the toils and dangers they have together ex- perienced? And who, forsaking all of friendships and associations which become so precious to one in the various walks of civil life, has gone forth with the many hundreds who composed the roll of a volunteer regiment, and, side by side with them has per- iled all for the nation's defense; with them has been called by war's stern duties to stand, time and again, where the terrible tempests of death have swept over and all around him-lives there one among such who ought not, and who will not, in after years, love to embrace an opportunity to meet his old comrades of tent and field, recall the thrilling scenes through which they unitedly have
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
passed, the privations and hardships of camp and campaign, relate their hair-breadth escapes, replace in vivid memory the virtues and the heroisms of the absent, bravely fallen, and tell again how they bore, in direst battle, their country's standard on to victory ?
"Under such circumstances, my old comrades of the Twenty- seventh Iowa Infantry, you are assembled to-day.
" In such gloomy days, recognizing the dread necessities of the nation, and aroused by its contemplation, yourselves, in common with multitudes of men all over the loyal North, leaving every variety of employment, permitting nothing to deter, sprang to arms, and filled the quota of that marvelous aggregate (300,000) which oftentimes afterward, on the tented field or on the march you used to shout in general chorus, ' We are coming, Father Abra- ham, six hundred thousand more.'
" Gathering in from the counties of Allamakee, Buchanan, Chicka- saw, Clayton, Delaware, Floyd and Mitchell, nine years ago to-day, saw a round thousand men rendezvoused in camp at Dubuque, awaiting ' muster in' as a distinct regimental organization. Let me retrace with you to-day, briefly as I can, some of the pages of its history. The hours upon hours each day during which you were put through the positions, the facings, the wheelings, the guard mountings, the guard duty, with sticks for guns, the corporal drill, the company drill, and the battalion drill, will not be sooner forgotten by you all than any other seemingly preposterous and irksome duty. Have you, even at this late day, forgotten the loud complaints which followed if the new, soft baker's bread wasn't the very best the city could afford, or if the ice in the pure spring- water gave out? Ah! how you were being mistreated. Surely no other soldiers suffered such privations as these!
" And when that distinguished personage arrived, who rumor said was to wear the regimental eagles, walking so erect that the boys declared he leaned backward, what great doubts arose whether a mere civilian could be capable to command a thousand such men as we! An ordinary man might do for a Lieutenant, possibly for Captain, but how unfortunate that any other than a trained mili- tary genius should be assigned to command such a fighting regi- ment as ours was about to be! For had not our own Company H, with inexpressible appropriateness and modesty assumed the name of 'Tigers;' and let our stalwart men but get to the front and op- pose the enemy, how we should strike daylight through the rebel hordes! Nor is this much overdrawn. Oh! the ardor with which
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Sanford
Ripley
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
the young soldier enters upon the service of his endangered country! If, in some respects, it smacks of the ridiculous, in others it was none the less bordering on the sublime.
" A few days later, in obedience to orders, but with many an ex- clamation, more forcible than polite and reverential, the command embarked, not for ' the front, ' but for the headwaters of the Miss- issippi River, the Mille Lacs of Minnesota. Short service awaited the regiment there, however, and in a few weeks you gladly turned your faces southward, and the latter part of November reported to Gen. Sherman. *
"Up to this date, covering one half of your three years' enlist- ment, the regiment had seen varied service; hard service, dangerous service, through privation and exposure, as decimated rolls only too sadly proved, but had, as yet, seen but little of that heroic service of which the young soldier dreams, for which he donned his country's blue, through which he gallantly lives or bravely falls. But your line of march was henceforth to be direct to 'cannons' roar and muskets' rattle.' Your future pathway was to lead to 'glory or the grave.' March 14 witnessed your first contest with the enemy in the Red River campaign, your first charge upon the enemies' works, and saw it most gallantly made and completely successful, in the capture of Fort De Russey, with its entire garrison and munitions of war. * * It was under such circumstances, not as the foremost of an advancing, fighting army, but as the rear of a retreating one, that on the morning of the 9th, the grand old Second Brigade, under the command of the rough, but gallant, grim old Col. Shaw, of the Fourteenth Iowa, moved into its assigned place, farthest of any, advanced toward the already coming foe. Not long it waited. On came the impetuous enemy, and that day's sanguinary work began. Hour after hour stood those gallant men and received the concen- trated fire of the rebels. Musket ball, nor shot, nor shell, nor des- perate charge could move it. There they stood, whilst officers and men, thick and fast, fell around them.
There they stood, and in return, hurled back death, if not dam- nation, to hundreds of the rebel foe. Unflinchingly they stood, and a valor unsurpassed and unsurpassable rolled back the tide of disaster of the previous day, which had threatened to engulf the entire command. The conflict ceased as darkness settled down up- on the field, leaving our troops in its entire posession, except the advanced position of the Second Brigade, from which it had retired to the main line, in obedience to orders, late in the afternoon .* 31
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
"I hope to be forgiven for telling a little incident, just as the staff reported it. We had received orders to form a strong, com- pact line. A general charge was to be ordered in perhaps half an hour. General Thomas and staff rode along the rear of the line. When he reached our corps, surprised and perhaps provoked, he approached General Smith, when the following colloquy ensued: 'Gen. Smith, where are your reserves, sir?' 'B-b-by God, I haint got any, sir.' 'Your lines are too light! Your lines are too light, sir! They will never carry these works in the world, sir!' ' Wait till you see! Wait till you see 'em go, sir! These G-d d-d sons of b-s of mine, would take the tops of them mountains if I should order them to.' With a smile of incredulity, disdain and perhaps contempt, Gen. Thomas turned away, with extreme dissatisfaction, for the charge was to commence here and if it was successful in carrying the works in their immediate front, it should extend from right to left along the entire line. A few minutes later saw the entire right of Gen. Smith's forces advanced upon the hill where rested the rebel left. Gradually they swept on, and although the rebel fire was severe, and the resistance most resolute, their advance was irresistible and in a few minutes our first flag was upon the intrench- ments of the enemy. Knowing the general order, Colonel Gilbert, without waiting the command of Garrard, the division commander, wheeled his horse and gave the regiment the looked- for command to advance. The men sprang to their feet. There was a moment of silence then they took the long-drawn, continuous yell of the Union Charge, and dashed forward; then a screeching of shell, the cracking of grape and canister, and the prolonged roar of musketry, and intermingling with the whole, the Union yell; then a sudden cessation of musketry and artillery in our front, and old A. J. Smith's entire single line of men had carried everything before them, carrying the enemy's artillery upon that part of the field and thousands of prisoners. A few moments later sent back answer- ing shouts of victory, and the remnant of the rebel army, hopelessly shattered, were fleeing in utter confusion through Brentwood Pass. Oh, it is worth a lifetime to have participated in such an action, fighting in behalf of a just and noble cause! The result of this victory was the capture of eighty serviceable cannon, scores of bat- tle flags, seven generals, 100 staff and line officers, 13,107 prison ers of war, besides 2,207 deserters who came in and took the oath of allegiance.
501
HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
"Colonel Gilbert was promoted to full grade of Brigadier-General as a recognition of your energy and his bravery. Your last battle was the besieging of Fort Blakely, the last defense of Mobile, April 9; the main line was distant over eleven hundred yards from the fort, the distance being filled with fallen timber. Torpedoes were planted in front of the works, wires stretched from stump to stump, a double line of abatis, and in the rear of all a strong line of earthworks. Men have said to me, 'How we ever got over that space, I cannot tell.' But somehow you did. From the com- mand, 'Forward,' the line raised that yell and kept it up over trees, over wires, over torpedoes, through abatis, and over the works in gallant style; our brigade captured nine pieces of artillery and nearly six hundred prisoners. This action occurred on the day that General Lee surrendered. Since your enlistment, three times the sun had gone to his winter solstice and returned to cast his perpendicular rays upon your sultering, marching column. Three times the fathers and brothers at home had gathered the harvest's golden grain. If you were not among those who earliest went to their country's call, you went forth in the gloom of rebell- ious night, and fought until the dawning of the blessed daylight of peace. If your first unwelcome campaign was into the cold winds of Minnesota, you were in the last fighting, and your last marching was upon Montgomery, the hot-bed of secession, and the early capital where first unfurled the insulting emblem of confed- eracy.
" In these three years you traveled more than half the distance around the globe. You participated in some of the hardest marches, endured great privations and exposures, and took gallant part in some of the greatest battles of the war. So active in the skirmish, so firm in the solid line to resist and hurl back the iron storm of treason's hosts, so true and irresistible in the wild, dangerous and thrilling charge, that you became, deservedly, with many others, a synonym for gallantry. Are the battle-fields of Little Rock, Fort De Russey, Pleasant Hill, Yellow Bayou, Lake Chicot, Tupelo, Old Town Creek, Nashville and Fort Blakely inscribed upon your reg- imental colors? They are more indelibly written elsewhere. The record of the fields you have fought, and nobly fought-of the vic- tories you have won, and nobly won, will not perish with your- selves, for they have become a part of the eventful history of the country ; and letters have rendered history more enduring 'than monuments of brass.' You went out to defend your country's
1
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HISTORY OF FLOYD COUNTY.
flag, its glory dishonored, its power defied, you turned not home- ward your steps until its worst enemies were compelled to bow in allegiance and acknowledge its invincibility, until once more-
" Over old Sumter, blackened and seamed, Over our land now twice redeemed, Over our veterans, scaled with scars, Flutters our flag, with its glorious stars.
" But heroic deeds, in the dire arbitrament of battle, are not per- formed without peril."
[Names of the wounded we give in another place.]
"Hitherto I have spoken to you as though the rolls of the round hundreds are all filled with living, returned soldiers, now again en- gaged in the pursuits of civil life. Alas! did I produce here the original rosters, around what numbers of names must we draw the heavy black lines of mourning. I have no words to speak of the burdened sorrows of fathers and brothers, when compelled to re- alize that the soldier son or brother could never again come home; of the never-to-be-healed heart-wounds of sisters and wives, when they knew that those dearer to them than life itself, were wounded unto death; of the woe-swept heart of the mother who sent forward her eldest and her youngest when there came the dread certainty that her country had required the sacrifice of him for whom she had prayed: ' Protect him, Father! Bless my boy.'
" The pleasures of re-union with you to-day, are not for such as the mild and genial Captain Haslip, the stern, patriotic old Captain Drips, the exemplary, good Christian, Brush, and all the others
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