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 47
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" Whose silent tents are spread, On fame's eternal camping-ground.
"If it be true that the spirits of departed friends may hover near congenial scenes on earth, then are our comrades near us, whilst we mingle here in pleasing associations, and with love and reverent esteem we call the muster roll of our heroes dead." [We give the list elsewhere.] "These, all, with the others whom disease since mustered out-have paid the highest tribute that patriot can pay to his endangered country-his life-his heart's blood. These, all through disease, exposure, or gathering into their heroic bosoms the bullets of treason,
"On field or redoubt They were mustered out And mustered into eternal life.
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"These, all, are a part of that vast hecatomb piled four hundred thousand high-a sacrifice-oh, an inestimable sacrifice, for the preservation of our country and its liberties! Think you the fathers, who upreared and maintained the standard of freedom in this republic, will be forgotten in history and song? No more will these. History, co-extensive with time, will recount their valorous deeds, and every coming generation that shall look upon yon star-spangled emblem of liberty, will sing pæans in their memory, as to America's truest, bravest and best.
" Oh, unreturned and unreturning comrade! In memory of thy costly sacrifice, anew we swear allegiance, and by our best efforts as citizens pledge the preservation of that grand republic for which thy noble life was given.
"Ye more fortunate comrades, who scathed, maimed, unharmed, have survived the dangers of the red fields of war, have lived to see the old flag triumphantly vindicated, to see white winged peace alight, and find a resting place on the staff bears the 'stars and stripes,' and to return to your inviting homes, and to your loved ones there. You have, I doubt not, obeyed your Colonel's parting injunction, 'Be as good citizens as you have been soldiers.'
"And ye happy boys, who went out leaving those sad sweethearts with a sigh in the heart and a lock of your hair close to it, which they had just clipped with the scissors as a remembrance. Did you on your return find them 'so glad when Johnny came home from the army?' Are you sure that none of them have since helped themselves to your locks without the aid of scissors? * * *
"Surviving soldiers of the Twenty-seventh Iowa Infantry, your hard service in the ranks has doubtless given you a higher appre- ciation of the value of that excellent Government for the preserva- tion of which you imperiled your lives. You have lived to see it become what the fathers intended it should be, an edifice of free- dom whose corner stone should be the personal rights of the individual citizen, guaranteed and secured by the fundamental law of the nation. The bitter sectional spirit once so prevalent is be- coming obliterated. The different States are more nearly united in interest and in sentiment than ever before. Recovering with unexampled rapidity from the terrible scourge of war, the country appears entirely upon an era of prosperity, unsurpassed in its own, or in the history of any other nation. Equality of civil rights before the law of his country, is now the heritage of every citizen, in every station, from ocean to ocean, and from the lakes to the
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gulf. The republic stands on better foundation, and is to-day stronger than ever in the past. Decay cannot reach it whilst the intelligence and virtue of its citizens are maintained.
"As your past performance of military dnty has liberally, con- tributed to this grand result, so in the performance of your civil duties, and in the exercise of your political privileges, defend and maintain such principles as will tend to the continued unity, purity and permanency of our institutions. And may the God of nations perpetuate those highest civil blessings, which your instrumentality has helped secure and preserve, to the latest generations of men."
CHAPTER IX.
AGRICULTURAL.
The Cedar Valley is probably the most fertile, as well as the most beautiful, of all sections in the great Northwest. Words to this effect have often been published by all the newspapers of rival sections. As a sample, we clip the following short notice from the Dubuque Express and Herald, of April-, 1859 :
"The Cedar River, next to the Des Moines, is the largest river in Iowa, flowing from the southern part of Minnesota, and form- ing a broad and lovely valley, not excelled in beauty and fertility in the Western country. The river has numerous branches, all of which are rapid and exhibit almost a succession of mill sites from source to mouth. The valley of the Cedar must become the great- est manufacturing region in the State, and of this interest Cedar Falls and Waterloo will become the centers, although Cedar Rapids will divide largely the honor with them; while Waverly and St. Charles City, on the north, will be but slightly behind. We be- lieve it will be a safe calculation to say that in a few years 1,000 mills and factories will be in operation in this magnificent valley, which in our eyes bears the palm of beauty over any portion of the Great West we have yet seen."
However, it must be admitted that, while the soil is " fertile," adapted to every sort of farm and garden product, the climate is such as to limit the varieties profitable to cultivate here. The chief production and quick currency of the county is wheat, which on average to this date has produced fifteen bushels per acre. The second product in value is corn, with its concomitant, pork, and the third is cattle. Much time and money have been ex- pended in vain endeavors to raise fruit unsuited to the climate. The inhabitants generally came from localities where apples, peaches and pears were produced in abundance, and on arrival here they were determined to have the same. While a few varieties of apples do well, especially the Duchess of Oldenburg, pears, peaches and plums always fail. Many varieties of crab-apples bear well in this region, and some of them in size and quality compare favor-
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ably with standard apples. Currants, gooseberries, raspberries and the hardiest varieties of grapes do well. Garden vegetables excel. Even peanuts can be profitably raised here. Flax, broom- corn and sorghum also do well. From 1865 to 1875 that poisonous, lazy bug, the Colorado potato beetle, did immense damage to po- tatoes, but "lady-bugs " and Paris green have since that time about used them up. In 1858 wheat was nearly a failure on account of excessive rains, and corn was greatly injured by early frosts.
Most seasons the farmers raise good crops of wheat, corn and other products just mentioned as profitable in this section of the country. Some seasons have been too dry or too wet; wind, hail and frost have done some damage, and insects and diseases a very little.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES.
A meeting of citizens of several towns in Floyd County was held in Cheney & Brackett's Hall, St. Charles City, on Saturday, Feb. 26, 1859, for the purpose of forming a county agricultural society. The meeting organized by electing James Coley, of Floyd, Chair- man, and D. W. Poindexter, of St. Charles City, Secretary. The importance of organizing an agricultural society of the county was discussed by various gentlemen present, and the secretary read the statutes of the State which relate to the encouragement of agri- culture, from which it appeared that the county was entitled to $200 annually from the State treasury, provided a like sum is ap- propriated by the citizens, for the benefit of agriculture. It was also apparent that this county had been constantly paying taxes to benefit the agricultural interests of other counties, without enjoy- ing any such benefit herself.
After a thorough discussion and investigation of the subject, it was voted that a committee of one from each township in the county be appointed by the chair to draft a constitution or articles of incorporation for a county agricultural society, and report the same for adoption at a meeting of the citizens at the same place, two weeks from that time. The committee appointed were: Hor- ace Stearns, Rockford; David Ripley, Union; W. P. Gaylord, Rock Grove; John Ball, Ulster; N. A. Rice, Floyd; David Craw- ford, Cedar; Newman Dutcher, Niles; R. W. Humphrey, St. Charles, and D. J. Horton, Riverton.
In order to make sure that the articles of incorporation be in legal form, three lawyers were appointed an advisory committee, viz .: Messrs. Patterson, Parsons and Poindexter.
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March 12 a meeting was held, articles of incorporation were re- ported, adopted and signed. On the 19th Chester Butterfield, of Floyd, was selected President; John Ball, of Ulster, Vice-Presi- dent; A. B. F. Hildreth, of St. Charles City, Secretary; M. G. Cook, of Floyd, Treasurer, and as Directors, J. Chapman, of Ul- ster; D. J. Horton and W. F. Denniston, of Riverton; M. W. Raymond, of Floyd; N. Dutcher, of Niles; S. Harwood and R. W. Humphrey, of St. Charles. The secretary was instructed to correspond with the agricultural societies of neighboring counties with reference to holding a union fair.
Every spring for a number of years the constitution of the "Floyd County Agricultural Society " was printed in the Charles City Intelligencer; but as it is not in vogue, we do not give it here.
June 6, 1859, the society met at the secretary's office in St. Charles City, Hon. John Ball, Vice-President, in the chair. An " advisory committee " was appointed to look after the interests of the society, and advise about the coming fair in their respective towns. A committee of arrangements was also appointed, as well as officers of the day, and awarding committees.
The following proposition, signed by seventy-one citizens, mostly of St. Charles, and pledging in the aggregate $252, was made to the society and adopted: "We, the undersigned, hereby agree to pay the respective sums set opposite our names, toward fitting up the fair grounds and making preparations for the first annual fair of said society, and furnish material and do labor for the same purpose, as may be directed by the officers of said society, and as herein specified by each of us, provided that the first annual fair be held at St. Charles City."
It was thereupon voted to hold the fair at that point.
Adjourned to the following September.
The committee of arrangements immediately advertised for pro- posals for fencing the grounds. Sept. 10 the society met and ap- pointed committees for completing all arrangements for a successful exhibition at the grounds. The time for the fair-Oct. 5 and 6 -arrived, the weather was favorable and all went on smoothly. The number of entries was 451, as follows: Field crops, 27; vege- tables and fruits, 85; orcharding, 2; farming implements, 6; horses, 36; cattle, 34; sheep, 6; swine, 4; fowls, 9; dairy, 8; sugar and honey, 7; mechanic arts, 21; household manufactures, 74;
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miscellaneous, 95; stoves, tinware, etc., 1; penmanship, 1; discre- tionary, 3; female equestrianship, 6.
When the entries ceased the marshals formed a procession of the officers and members of the society and citizens generally, who marched through the principal streets of the town and thence to the platform beneath the flag-staff upon the fair grounds. They were escorted by the Mechanic's brass band, of Mitchell, and the St. Charles Light Guard, mounted on gayly caparisoned horses. Band music and an opening prayer formed the opening exercises, when Mr. Hildreth, the Secretary, delivered the opening address, closing by announcing that the " First Annual Fair of the Floyd County Agricultural Society was now formally opened." Moses Conger delivered the oration, in the afternoon.
The number of people attending this fair was variously esti- mated at 1,500 to 2,500; the usual exhibits were made, speed of horses tested, ladies' equestrianship witnessed, premiums awarded, etc., and all passed off smoothly, to the satisfaction of all parties.
The receipts more than covered all expenses. The exhibits far surpassed the most sanguine expectations, and skeptics concerning the enterprise were completely silenced. Crops turned out well this season. Wheat yielded thirty bushels to the acre, and corn- stalks were found which measured eleven and one-half feet in height and three inches in circumference. M. G. Cook, of Floyd Township, had corn during the summer which grew thirty-six and one-half inches in one week, commencing July 11. The least growth in twenty-four hours was four inches, and the greatest seven and one-half inches. The winter following was a season of unusual business prosperity.
On the 6th the constitution of the society was so amended as to authorize the appointment of one director from cach township, and the following officers were elected for the ensuing year: Chester Butterfield, President; Sanford Harwood, Vice-President; A. B. F. Hildreth, Secretary; M. G. Cook, Treasurer. Directors: R. W. Humphrey, St. Charles; D. J. Horton, Riverton; R. C. Horton, Union; George Wyatt, Rockford; W. P. Gaylord, Rock Grove; Norman A. Rice, Floyd; John Ball, Ulster; Isaac Naden, Cedar; and Newman Dutcher, Niles.
At the general election of Oct. 11, 1859, by a vote of 456 nays to 72 yeas, swine were not allowed to run at large in the county.
The first portion of the year 1860 was very dry in Northern Iowa, while there was a plenty of rain in Southern Iowa and regions east-
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ward. Nevertheless, the farming community was pleasantly sur- prised at the final yield of the crops. The question of locating and furnishing permanent fair grounds coming up, John Ball, of Ulster, and L. G. Buck, of Rockford, each offered ten acres of ground to the society for such a purpose.
The second annual fair of the Floyd County Agricultural Society was held at St. Charles City, September 19 and 20, 1860; and, al- though the weather was somewhat unfavorable, being cold and blustery, there were a goodly number of people in attendance. The first day was chiefly occupied in making entries of articles and in completing preparations. On the formal opening the next day, Dr. D. G. Frisbie, of Mitchell, delivered an exceedingly inter- esting and able discourse upon the agricultural condition and needs of this section of the country, but was annoyed by occasional gusts of wind and rain, which in some measure scattered the audience and distracted their attention. We shall be pardoned for giving several extracts from Dr. Frisbie's address in this place, as it was so instruct- ive, and appropriate to the character, needs, capacities, etc., of the arming community of Floyd County.
"The Dignity of Labor .- ' Man is formed for action.' The first necessity of his being is self-preservation. The highest object of his life, the perfection of his faculties, moral, mental and physical. That his moral faculties may reach the highest state of refined sensitiveness, that his mental forces may become clear, strong and vigorously brilliant, it is absolutely and essentially necessary that his physical organization be fully and harmoniously developed.
" That such development may be perfect, action, that brings into full and free exercise the complex machinery of his entire organ- ism, is requisite. Such exercise must be indulged day after day, and year after year, while life shall last. This law of action is coeval with the race. Ever since the fiat went forth, 'By the sweat of thy brow shalt thou eat bread,' it has been the universal law adapted alike to the sirocco-breathing African, the .Alpine peasant, the red man of our Western prairies, the blubber-loving Esquimaux, and the hardy and enterprising Anglo-Saxon; nations that have yielded obedience to this law have become famous in the history of our race; have been exalted to the highest point of excellence and greatness, while other nations, living in disregard or in violation of this law, have remained in barbarism or fallen into the deepest degradation. As with nations, so with individuals. The individual who gives up to indolence becomes a drone in
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society; his moral faculties become vitiated; his physical organ- ization diseased.
" The question naturally arises, If action be so necessary, in what ought that action to consist? As 'self preservation is the first neces- sity of man's existence,' it becomes obvious that the law of action is intended to administer to that necessity. Hence, that action which clothes and feeds, and warms and cools, by turns, the animal being, thus keeping the individual and the race from extinc- tion, is the action required and demanded by this law. Action thus applied is labor.
" Labor, then, conduces to man's comfort, happiness, usefulness, to the enlargement of his mind, to the purity of his morals, and to the health and vigor of his body. Labor frees man from poverty, keeps him from crime and leads him to competence and honor. Labor gives freshness and buoyancy to youth, strength and manli- ness to middle age, cheerfulness and contentment in old age. It is fashionable in some localities to speak disrespectfully of labor and of the laborer, to maintain the doctrine that there must be a laboring class to do the drudgery of society, and a class above labor to do the thinking, speaking, writing and governing, containing within itself a chivalric class who alone are to do the fighting. If our view of labor is correct, this idea of a class superior to the laboring class is erroneous. In our opinion, if 'the laborer is the mud-sill,' so also is he the framework of society. If there must of necessity be a laboring class, from that laboring class of necessity will spring the brightest ornaments of society (unless the laborer is denied the opportunities of improvement), for as long as the law of development by physical activity remains, so long whatever of dignity, whatever of power, whatever of wisdom, the superior class may claim, is derived from obedience to that law. Wherever labor is confined to a class, or to an inferior race, there the class or the race that arrogates to itself the title of superior, will in time be- come tyrannical, effeminate and grossly sensual, and in a few gen- erations will degenerate to such a degree, that whatever of liberty they possess will be wrested from them by some more active neigh- bor who has not ignored this great law of man's nature.
"In confirmation of these premises we have only to read the his- tory of our race. If we look at European nations, we find them, generally speaking, active laborers, that is, the mass of them. If we survey Asia, we find that indolence is the prevailing law. When the two are contrasted, in all that tends to elevate humanity,
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and give comfort and happiness to man, Asia, notwithstanding her early greatness and magnificence, her genial climate, her pro- lific soil, and her teeming millions, falls far below the standard of her smaller and less populous neighbor. The nations of Africa are examples illustrating the effects of indolence. So also are the tribes of Indians who were the original proprietors of the American continent. Refusing compliance with the law of labor, they are dwindling away, and in a few generations their council fires will be extinguished; their war songs will cease, the prairies 'that now know them will soon know them no more forever.' We have an example in our own nation of the effect upon the intelligence, the virtue and temporal prosperity of men, when they repudiate labor as dishonorable, and as only to be performed by a menial race. * * * It may be said that too great prominence is given this argument to labor, that it is elevated above Christianity. This is not intended. Christianity is an institution of labor. Its great and divine founder was a carpenter; its chiefest apostle a tent-maker. One of its fundamental precepts is 'be diligent in business.' In short labor and Christianity go hand in hand. Indolence is one of the greatest foes to the spread of gospel truth in all countries.
" Labor, then, is an elevator of the human race, the promoter of freedom, in that it is a leveler of men, bringing the high down and the poor up to the rational level, the medium line, on which men in the mass can stand. It is the handmaid of religion and the hope of the world.
" If, then, labor plays so important a part in human affairs, any organization that has for its object the encouragement and improve- ment of industrial pursuits, a generous emulation among those en- gaged in husbandry and mechanics, that has a true and practical appreciation of the dignity of labor, and that ultimately looks to the perfection of all these, is an institution that demands our atten- tion and is worthy of our support. Such is believed to be the nat- ure and object of your organization. Long may it flourish, and as your county increases in years, in population and in wealth, may this society be placed upon a permanent basis and become in its re- turning anniversaries the most attractive feature of this, one of the most attractive societies of Cedar Valley.
" You have many natural advantages-a new country-its soil has not been compelled to yield its most cherished treasures for cent- uries at the command of man, but in virgin purity it is now offered to the plow and proposes for the remainder of time to add to the
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sum total of human enjoyment its richest blessings. In this soil, deep, rich, and possessing the elements of strength, is to be found more gold than glitters at the famed diggings of California Gulch or Pike's Peak. For a prairie country you have an abundant sup- ply of timber, which by careful use will increase rather than dimin- ish as time roils on. The Red Cedar and Shell Rock rivers afford many excellent water-powers, which add much to your advantages. Your fine prairies not only furnish abundance of good arable land, but here and there, scattered with a wise reference to the wants of the settler, are to be found excellent natural meadows, while their entire surface is covered with sweet, rich grasses that will compare favorably with the home grasses of Eastern States for pasturage.
" In many localities and sufficiently dispersed for convenient use, is found in large quantities a superior quality of grey limestone, useful in the erection of buildings, fences and bridges, and afford- ing an inexhaustible supply of one of the best fertilizers when your soil shall have become impoverished by the continual growing of the cereal grains.
" A prairie country offers another and not a small advantage. Any industrious and enterprising man can within three years have a farm that looks as though it had been tilled for ages, with the ex- ceptions of buildings and fruit and ornamental trees. Our sires and grandsires, when they were felling the mighty forests of New England, New York and Pennsylvania, never dreamed of the beau- tiful farms that lay spread out inviting cultivation, ready for the plow, which their sons were destined within a century to occupy in the regions toward the setting sun. The great variety of beautiful flowers that deck the prairies add to their loveliness and attractive- ness, and invite the lover of nature to take up his abode here. They also furnish an evidence that the author of nature delights in loveliness, and that he will not frown upon the efforts of his creat- ures to adorn their homes with whatever is pleasing in art or beau - tiful in nature.
" But greater and more important than all these advantages is the almost unequaled healthfulness of the climate. The pill vender will thrust his box beneath your gaze, bearing the truthful adage, ' Health the greatest earthly blessing,' but one quaff of this highly oxygenated atmosphere is worth more to an invalid than all the nostrums vended by the whole tribe-and ' their name is legion ' -that infest our country. This more than all else will invite the Eastern farmer and mechanic and the citizens of the old world to
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seek a home here where no dire malaria loads the atmosphere with its fatal poisons, and where the consumptive may add a few years to life in comparative comfort. So long as there is pertinence in the question ' What will not a man give for his life?' so long will this healthful climate be reckoned one of the greatest natural ad- vantages of this portion of the West.
"In this country you have such a diversity of plow lands and meadows, and such a rich profusion of pasturage, that you are not compelled to be a grain growing county, nor a pastural people, but can diversify your products, thus being enabled to take advantage of the times better than if you were compelled to be exclusively the one or the other. * * *
" Your first necessity is a home, and when I say a home I do not mean a place just large enough to screen the family from the blasts of winter and the heat of summer, with only one room for kitchen, parlor, dining-room, bed-room, pantry, chamber and cellar; the abode of the cat and kittens, and the kennel of the dog; the store- room of the farm, with potatoes and pumpkins in one corner, and wheat and oats in another, with a box for a table and a pail turned bottom upwards for a chair, with a bed spread upon the floor at night and piled in the corner on the potatoes in the day. In such a place a family can stay, but it is not a home in the comprehen- sive meaning of that word. In such a place the industrious house- wife can go her endless round of family duties and drudgery, but she realizes much more than her lord the inconvenience of her abode. The erection of a comfortable house should be the first im- provement made by every settler. A house warm and dry, pleas- ant and convenient, with at least kitchen and pantry, cellar and garret, bed-room, and if possible, parlor, warm and dry, well-venti- lated, with well, or cistern, or both, and a necessary supply of plain furniture. Such a home is indispensable to comfort, health and happiness, and if pioneers as a general rule would use more exer- tion to secure such a home, they would find it profitable in more than one direction.
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