USA > Iowa > Webster County > Fort Dodge > History of Fort Dodge and Webster County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 30
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After the applications had been made to give it the appearance of great age, it was placed in an iron case, and shipped to George Olds, Union, N. Y. It arrived there upon the 13th day of October, 1868, and upon the 4th day of November, it was receipted for and taken away. Its shipping weight was about 4,000 pounds, the giant itself weighing about 3,000 pounds.
From Union it was taken to a farm owned by a party by the name of Newell, who proved to be the brother-in-law of Hull. The party who hauled the case from Union station down the valley drove across the country in order that no questions should be asked when passing the toll gates. The distance was about sixteen miles. They reached the Newell farm at midnight in a pouring rain. The box was first placed back of the barn and covered with hay and straw. Two weeks later it was buried in a grave five foot deep. Here it remained until Octo- ber 16th, 1869, nearly a year from the date of its burial.
It was while pretending to dig a well upon his farm that Newell struck this strange piece of stone, and at once created such interest as to arouse the whole country for the time. The seriousness with which some people took the dis- covery will be more interesting by reporting some of the authorities of the day concerning the genuineness and worth to science of this great find. Dr. James Hall, professor of geology of the University of New York said: "To all ap- pearances the statue lay upon the gravel when the decomposition of the fine silt or soil began, upon which the forest has grown for the succeeding genera- tions. Altogether it is the most remarkable object brought to light in this country. Although not dating back to the stone age, it is nevertheless, deserv- ing of the attention of the archaeologist."
A pastor of one of the leading churches of Syracuse, said: "It is not strange that any human being, after seeing this wonderfully preserved figure, can deny the evidence of his senses and refuse to believe what is so evidently the fact, that we have here a fossilized human being, perhaps one of the giants."
A lady, who was looking at the giant, remarked: "Nothing in the world can ever make me believe that he was not once a living being."
CARDIFF GIANT
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS.
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
Another prominent clergyman voiced his opinion as follows: "This is not a thing contrived by man, but is the face of one that once lived upon the earth, the very image, and child of God."
Dr. Boynton, a local scientific lecturer, in an address, said, that "he attrib- uted it to the early Jesuits." Another lecturer added to this as follows: "It is the work of a trained sculptor, who had noble original powers; for none but such could have formed and wrought out the conception of that stately head, with its calm smile so full of mingled sweetness and strength." A prominent editor of the vicinity wrote in his editorial: "It is not unsafe to affirm that ninety-nine out of every hundred person that have seen this wonder have become immediately and instantly impressed that they were in the presence of an object not made with human hands. No piece of sculpture could produce the awe inspired by this blackened form. I venture to affirm that no living sculptor can be produced, who will say that the figure was conceived and exe- cuted by any human being." As an actual fact it was defective in proportion and features, and simply a poor job of stone cutting.
Alexander McWorter, a resident student and graduate of Yale, took the pains to make closer observations of the remains than others had, and suc- ceeded, as he presumed, in finding an inscription consisting of thirteen letters, "introduced," as he said, "by a large cross, the Assyrian index of the Deity." Before the last word, he thought that he perceived a flower, which he regarded as consecrated to the particular deity Tammuz, and at both ends of the inscrip- tion a serpent monogram and symbol of Baal. This inscription he assumed as an evident fact, though no other human being had been able to see it. Even Professor White, M. D., of the Yale Medical school, with the best of inten- tions to see it, was unable to find it. White examined the pinholes that covered the body, and expressed himself finally, thus: "Though I saw no recent marks of tools, I saw evidences of design and form in the arrangement of the mark- ings, which suggested the idea of an inscription, and though not fully decided, I incline to the opinion, that the Onondaga statue is of ancient origin." Against such authority and publicity it was very difficult to create any feeling of doubt. In the minds of many thoughtful people the giant was a fact, a reality ; and so many persons had become interested in it, that this belief was constantly increas- ing.
One of the first ones to oppose the idea of the reality of the giant was Hon. Andrew D. White. Upon his first visit he proclaimed it a hoax, "because," as he said, "there was no reason for digging a well at this place, as upon the farm was a spring, and also a running stream convenient both to the barn and house." He gives a description of his first visit as follows:
"And as we drove through the peaceful Onondaga valley, we saw more and more on every side, the evidence of the popular interest. The roads were crowded with buggies, carriages and wagons from the city and farms. When we arrived at the Newell farm, we found a gathering, that reminded us of the gathering at a county fair. In the midst was a tent, and a crowd was pressing for admission. Entering, we saw a large pit, or grave, and at the bot- tom of it, perhaps five feet below the surface, an enormous figure, apparently of the Onondaga limestone. It was a stout giant with massive features, the
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whole body nude, and the limbs contracted as if in agony. Lying there in the grave, the subdued light from the roof of the tent falling upon it, and with its limbs contorted, as if in the death struggle, it produced a most weird effect. An air of great solemnity pervaded the place. Visitors hardly spoke above a whisper."
There was one thing about the figure, however, which puzzled Mr. White, as he says, "and that was the grooving of the under side apparently by currents of water, which as the statue appeared to be of Onondaga gray limestone, would require very many years."
One day one of the cool-headed skeptics of the valley (an old school mate of Mr. White's), came to him and with an air of great solemnity, took from his pocket an object which he carefully unrolled from its wrappings, and said : "This is a piece of the giant. Careful guard has been kept from the first in order to prevent people touching it, but I have managed to get a piece of it, and here it is." "I took it in my hand," says Mr. White, "and the matter was clear in an instant. The stone was not our hard Onondaga gray limestone, but soft easily marked with the finger-nail, and on testing it with an acid, I found it not hard carbonate of lime, but a friable sulphate of lime, a sort of gypsum, which must have been brought from some other part of the country."
Against the opinion that the figure was a hoax various arguments were used. It was insisted, first, that the farmer had not the ability to devise such a fraud ; second. that he had not the means to execute it ; third, that his family had lived there steadily for many years, and were ready to declare, under oath, that they had never seen the figure, and had known nothing of it, until it was accidentally discovered; fourth, that the neighbors had never seen or heard of it; fifth, that it was preposterous to suppose that such an enormous mass of stone could have been brought and buried in the place without some one finding it out ; sixth, that the deep grooves and channels worn in it by the surface water proved its vast antiquity.
To these considerations others were soon added. Especially interesting was it to observe the evolution of myth and legend. Within a week after the dis- covery, full-blown statements appeared to the effect that the neighboring Indians had abundant traditions of giants, who formerly roamed over the hills of Onondaga ; and finally the circumstantial story was evolved that an Onondaga squaw had declared, "in an impressive manner," that the statue was, "undoubt- edly the petrified body of a gigantic Indian prophet, who flourished many cen- turies ago and foretold the coming of the pale-faces, and who, just before his own death, said to those about him that their descendants would see him again." To these were added the reflections of many good people who found in it all an edifying confirmation of the biblical text, "There were giants in those days." There was indeed, an undercurrent of skepticism among the harder heads in the valley, but the prevailing opinion in the region at large was more and more in favor of the idea that the object was a fossilized human being, a giant of "those days." Such was the rush to see the figure that the admission receipts were very large ;- it was even stated that they amounted to five per cent upon three millions of dollars. And soon came active men from the neighboring regions, who proposed to purchase the figure and exhibit it throughout the country.
HOUSE BUILT OF GYPSUM ROCK BY JOHN O'LAUGHLIN
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AS' Or, LENOX AND TI_D VFOUNDA ' : VS
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HISTORY OF WEBSTER COUNTY
Various suspicious circumstances presently became known. It was found that Farmer Newell had just remitted to a man named Hull at some place in the west, several thousand dollars, the result of admission fees to the booth con- taining the figure, and that nothing had come in return. Thinking men in the neighborhood reasoned that as Newell had never been in condition to owe any human being such an amount of money, and had received nothing in return for it, his correspondent had not unlikely something to do with the statue. These suspicions were soon confirmed. The neighboring farmers, who in their quiet way kept their eyes open, noted a tall. lank person who frequently visited the place, and who seemed to exercise a complete control over Farmer Newell. Soon it was learned that this stranger was the man Hull, Newell's brother-in- law, the same to whom the latter had made the large remittance of admission money. One day two or three farmers from a distance visiting the place for the first time, and seeing Hull said: "Why that is the man who brought the big box down the valley." On being asked what they meant, they said that, being one evening in a tavern on the valley turnpike, some miles above Cardiff, they had noticed under the tavern shed, a wagon bearing an enormous box, and when they met Hull in the bar-room and asked about it. he said that it was some tobacco-cutting machinery which he was bringing to Syracuse. Other farmers, who had seen the box and talked with Hull at different places on the road between Binghamton and Cardiff, made similar statements. It was then ascer- tained that no such box had passed the toll-gates between Cardiff and Syracuse, and proofs of the swindle began to mature.
Before the whole affair became exposed considerable time had passed. Dur- ing this time Mr. Newell had the giant on exhibition, and was charging the curious ones fifty cents admission fee. Years afterward, Mr. Hull made the statement that they realized about seven thousand dollars before the giant was taken from its grave.
Spencer of Utica, and Higgins, Gillett and Westcott of Syracuse, saw that the secret would soon leak out, offered Newell $30,000 for three-fourths interest in the giant, leaving Newell one-fourth. Hull was still in the background and very much disgusted. He says that Newell became so puffed up with the importance of the secret, that he could not contain himself, and told it to sev- eral of his relatives and friends. Hull decided to realize at once and quit. He told Newell to close the bargain, which he did, and Newell paid Hull $20,000 as his share.
After Hull and Newell had disposed of the giant, it was taken about the country, and in spite of the exposure, still drew large crowds. It had many imitators, but none proved to be the attraction that the original had been. Finally the giant became no longer a drawing card, and was stranded at Fitch- burg. Massachusetts, where it was held for storage charges until the Pan- American Exposition at Buffalo, when it was again exhibited.
After the exposition was over, it was returned to Fitchburg, where it still remains as part of the assets of an estate. The story of the giant formed a part of the novel, "Your Uncle Lew" by C. R. Sherlock.
Mr. Alfred Higgins, one of the original purchasers. from Newell and Hull, is still living at Syracuse, New York. George Hull died at the home of his daughter in Binghamton, New York, at the age of eighty-one years. Although
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he lias twice been a rich man, yet he died in poverty. Some time before his death in an interview for the "Sunday Times" of his home city, he told the story of the giant. In answer to the question as to how the idea happened to come to him, he said :
"It was at Ackley, Iowa, that I first conceived the idea of fooling the world with the big stone man. I had some relatives at Ackley, and sent my sister's husband 10,000 cigars to sell. He couldn't pay me and I went out there to see about it. At that time a Methodist revivalist was in Ackley, and prayed all over the settlement. The people were too poor to pay him anything, and he boarded around. One night he was at my sister's house, and after supper we had a long discussion and a hot one. I was then and am now an atheist. At midnight we went to bed, and as I lay awake wondering why people would believe those remarkable stories in the Bible about giants, when suddenly I thought of making a stone giant and passing it off as a petrified man. I returned to Binghampton and sold out my business, went to Wisconsin, where the idea continued to haunt me, and went back to New York state with my fam- ily and finally returned to Iowa. But I didn't go near my folks at Ackley."
Mr. Hull in the remainder of the interview tells of how he carried out his idea, how he realized a goodly sum for it, how he refused Barnum, who offered a large amount for it, and how, although beaten in argument, he had still inade a laughing stock of the world.
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CHAPTER XXIII
BREAKING PRAIRIE AND OTHER SKETCHES
THE OLD BREAKING PLOW- TURNING THE SOD-"SOD CORN -THE PRAIRIE SLOUGH --- HISTORY OF DRAINAGE-A MILLION AND A QUARTER OF DOLLARS SPENT FOR COUNTY DRAINAGE-THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT-FIGHTING TIIE COMBINE -A CO-OPERATIVE INDUSTRY-COUNTRY LIFE OF LOST GROVE.
BREAKING PRAIRIE
By Hon. L. S. Coffin
How few of our people who have been residents of Iowa during the last quar- ter of the last century, either by immigration or by birth, have any conception of the meaning of the expression, "breaking prairie!" The old prairie breaking- plow has disappeared from sight as completely as the elk and buffalo. So true is this, that the authorities of our State Agricultural College have been hunting for one for the museum of that institutionfi as an object-lesson and a reminder to their students of the days and ways of early farm life on the prairie, of which they know very little or nothing.
Let us permit the old "breaking-plow" to stand in its wide furrow of 20 to 32 inches, a few minutes, while we digress far enough from our subject to wish it were possible that another object-lesson could be laid before the students of our grand institution of learning at Ames. That object-lesson, if my wish could be realized, would be an average 100-acre New England farm, as it was fifty to seventy years ago, and it is today, with all its appliances, laid down there near the college farm. The young and middle-aged people of this state, who have been born in Iowa, and live on its rockless, hilless, stumpless and matchless soil, have but little realizing sense of the incomparable advantages they have in being residents of such a state.
It is the custom with many of the graduates of our institutions of learning, to spend a year or more abroad. I could wish that the graduates from the agricul- tural course could go to some the New England states and work a year or so on some of those farms. The benefit would be almost incalculable. But we cannot now take the time to explain how and why. To many of the farmers of Iowa, who were New England born, no explanation is needed.
But to return to the old prairie breaking-plow, which we left standing in the furrow. All attempts to present a word picture of it must fail to give any per- son who has never seen one, a true idea of the real thing. These plows, as a rule, were very large. They were made to cut and turn a furrow from twenty
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to thirty inches wide and sometimes even wider. The beam was a straight stick of strong timber seven to twelve fect long. The first coulter was a steel blade fastened to the beam, and extending down close to the point of the "shear," to cut the sod preparatory to its being turned over; but later on the rolling-colter was invented, as we are informed by John Deere, of Moline, Illinois, who also invented the steel plow. This sharp, circular disk cut the sod much better than the primitive straight blade. The word is spelled variously, as "colter," "coulter," and "cutter." The forward end of this beam was carried by a pair of trucks or wheels, and into the top of the axle of these wheels were framed two stout, up- right pieces just far enough apart to allow the forward end of the plow-beam to nicely fit in between them. To the forward end of the beam and on top of it, there was fastened by a link or clevis, a long lever, running between these stout standards in the axle of the trucks, and fastened to them by a strong bolt ruil- ning through both standards and lever; this bolt, acting as a fulcrum for the lever, was in easy reach of the man having charge of the plow. By raising or depressing the rear end of this lever the depth of the furrow was gauged, and by depressing the lever low enough, the plow could be thrown entirely out of the ground. One of the wheels of the truck ran in the furrow and was from two to four inches larger than the one that ran on the sod. This, of course, was neces- sary so as to have an even level rest for the forward end of the plow-beam. The mould-boards of these plows were sometimes made of wood protected by nar- row-strips of steel or band-iron, and fastened to the mould-board. In some cases these mould-boards were made entirely of iron rods, which generally gave the best satisfaction. The share of these plows-"shear," as we western folks called it-had to be made of the very best steel so as to carry a keen edge. The original prairie sod was one web of small tough roots, and hence the necessity of a razor- like edge on the "shear" to secure good work and ease to the team.
And next, the "prairie-breaking" plow team? Who sees the like of it today ? A string of from three to six yokes of oxen hitched to this long plow-beam, the driver clad in somewhat of a cowboy style, and armed with a whip, the handle of which resembled a long, slender fishing-rod, with a lash that when wielded by an expert was so severe that the oven had learned to fear it as much as the New England oxen did the Yankee ox-goad with its brad.
The season for "breaking-prairie" varied as the spring and summer were early or late, wet or dry. The best results were had by beginning to plow after the grass had a pretty good start, and quitting the work some time before it was ready for the scythe. The main object aimed at was to secure as complete a rotting of the sod as possible. To this end the plow was gauged to cut only one and one-half to two inches deep. Then, if the mould-board was so shaped as to "kink" the sod as it was turned over, all the better, as in the early days of "prairie-breaking" very little use was made of the ground the first year. The object was to have the land in as good a shape as possible for sowing wheat the following spring. A dry season, thin breaking, "kinky" furrows, and not too long breaking accomplished this, and made the putting in of wheat the follow- ing spring an easy task. But on the contrary, if broken too deeply, and the fur- rows laid flat and smooth, or in a wet season, or if broken too late, the job of seeding the wheat on tough sod was a hard and slow one.
The outfit for "prairie-breaking" was usually about as follows: three to six
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MRS. JAMES SWAIN (ADELINE M.) First woman nominated for state office in Iowa
MRS. L. S. COFFIN (MARY C.)
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AS On, LENOX AND " D N FOUNDATIONS.
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yokes of oxen, a covered wagon, a small kit of tools, and among these always a good assortment of files for sharpening the plow-share, a few cooking utensils, and sometimes a dog and pony. The oxen, when the day's work was done, were turned loose to feed on the grass. To one or more was attached a far-sounding bell, so as to betray their whereabouts at all times. The pony and dog came in good play for company, and in gathering up the oxen when wanted. The season for breaking would average about two months. The price per acre for breaking varied from $2.50 to $4.50, as the man was boarded or as he "found himself." In latter years when it was learned that flax could be raised to good advantage on new breaking, and that it helped to rot the sod, the breaking season com- menced much earlier.
Three yokes of good-sized oxen drawing a 24-inch plow, with two men to manage the work, would ordinarily break about two acres a day ; five yokes with a 36-inch plow, requiring no more men to "run the machine," would break three acres a day. When the plow was kept running continuously, the "shear" had to be taken to the blacksmith as often as once a week to be drawn out thin, so that a keen knife-edge could be easily put on it with a file by the men who managed the plow. If the team was going around an 80-acre tract of prairie, the "lay" or "shear" had to be filed after each round to do the best work. The skillful "breaker" tried to run his plow one and one-half inches deep and no deeper. This was for the purpose of splitting the sod across the mass of tough fibrous roots, which had lain undisturbed for uncounted years and had formed a net- work of interlaced sinews as difficult to cut as india rubber, where the prairie was inclined to be wet; and it was not easy to find an entire 80-acre tract. that was not intersected with numerous "sloughs," across which the breaking-plow had to run. In many places the sod in these "sloughs" was so tough that it was with the greatest difficulty that the plow could be kept in the ground. If it ran out of the ground, this tough, leathery sod would flop back into the furrow as swiftly as the falling of a row of bricks set up on end, and the man and driver had to turn the long ribbon of tough sod over by hand, if they could not make a "balk." In the flat, wet prairie, it sometimes took from two to three years for the tough sod to decompose sufficiently to produce a full crop. The plow had to be kept in perfect order to turn this kind of prairie sod over, and the "lay" had to have an edge as keen as a scythe to do good work. There were usually two "lays" or "shears" fitted to each plow, so that the team need not be idle while the boy with the mustang went often from five to eight miles to the nearest blacksmith to get a "lay" sharpened. Sometimes the oxen would stray off among the "barrens," or follow the course of some stream for miles and hide among the willows to take a vacation, and frequently they were not found until after two or three days of weary search by the men and boy, while the plow which ought to be earning six or nine dollars a day was lying idle on the great prairie.
There were men who equipped a "brigade" for breaking and carried on a thriving business from about the first day of May to the end of July.
When the rush of immigration began in the spring of 1854, there were not nearly enough breaking teams in the country to supply the demand. In some cases the "new-comers" would consent to have a portion of their prairie farms broken up in April, and on this early breaking they would plant "sod corn." The
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process was simple; a man with an axe would follow the line of every second or third furrow, strike the blade deep in the ground, a boy or girl would follow and drop three or four kernels of corn into the hole and bring one foot down "right smart" on the hole in the sod, and the deed was done. No cultivation was re- quired after planting, and in the fall a half crop of corn was frequently gathered without expense. Those who were not able to get breaking done at the best time for subduing the sod, were often glad to have some done in the latter part of July or the first half of August. So for several years the "breaking brigades" were able to run their teams for four months each year, and it was profitable business.
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