USA > Iowa > Franklin County > History of Franklin County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 21
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"Judge John Porter read law under distinguished men in Ohio and was certainly more than an ordinary lawyer. He came out west alone and settled at Mason City. He was more of a lawyer than an advocate. He ran through his course without particularly distin- guishing himself and made his home at Eldora. Of the men who came to this county, not referring particularly to those of the legal profession, many of them were highly educated. I presume there were twenty college educated men who settled on farms.
"At the time now in mind, there was but one hotel in Hampton. The lawyers got their meals there and in the upper story of the building was what generally was called a 'school section' full of beds, and in these, those distinguished lawyers and judges all slept, in that part of the hotel, and it might be added, in one room. Those who could not get in the 'school section' were farmed out among the people who had dwellings in the little town. A great event was this one term of court. All business seemed to be suspended and the attention of men was turned toward the court. There was noth-
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ing particularly exciting in the trials. The court got through with the preliminary business, the clerk read the record, it was signed and judge and lawyers went to some other county in the district, which composed nearly all the northwestern portion of Iowa. This was before the war.
"The next term of court I attended was in June, 1861, and the absence of many of the distinguished men of the bar of the different counties around was noticeable. But little business was transacted. The excitement of the war predominated everything else in the county. This one-term system continued until 1864, when two terms were held each year, at one of which we had a case for murder. A young fellow about sixteen years old, Jackson Benham, was the ac- cused. The case raised quite a furor among the people. The boy was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to prison for one year but obtained his liberty in about six months.
"After the year 1865 there was an influx into the county and many a distinguished lawyer settled here. J. W. Mckenzie, who had distinguished himself in the signal service, was later elected judge of the district court, in which capacity he died. There was a firm of lawyers, Reeve & Lahey. Col. A. T. Reeve was the senior member and was a good lawyer, as was also his partner, the latter serving in the Legislature from Franklin county two terms. The last term he was chairman of the judiciary committee. Shortly after the war came J. M. Hemingway, a distinguished lawyer of the town and one of the best in the state. The firm of Kellam, King & Hen- ley was composed of good lawyers. Kellam moved to South Dakota and was supreme judge of the state when it came into the Union.
"One of the most exciting cases ever tried in Franklin county was the State of Iowa vs. Dr. J. S. Hurd. He was indicted for the murder of a woman by malpractice at childbirth. He was acquitted more because it was Doctor Hurd than anything else. About 1870 came W. D. Evans, who became a noted practitioner, was county attorney one term, elected to the district bench and from that was elevated to the supreme bench of Iowa. The members of the Franklin county bar, many of them, have held good positions in the state, among whom was John King, of Kellam, King & Henley. He was a mem- ber of the lower House of the Legislature three terms. W. F. Harri- man was a member of the lower House of the Legislature two terms and a member of the Senate four terms. I might also add, trusting I shall not be accused of immodesty, that for many years I was always on one side or the other of a case tried in this county and served in the Legislature of the state three terms and an extra session."
CHAPTER XVI
TRANSPORTATION-BUILDING OF THE CENTRAL RAILWAY OF IOWA-THE FIRST TRAIN INTO HAMPTON AND WHAT IT ENTAILED-BURLING- TON, CEDAR RAPIDS & NORTHERN-CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN- THE DES MOINES, IOWA FALLS & NORTHERN.
THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL
The first railroad to enter Franklin county was the Dubuque & Sioux City, projected in 1856 as the Dubuque & Pacific. That year the road was completed to Cedar Falls, but the panic of 1857 forced the company to discontinue all construction work and nothing further was done until after the Civil war. The initial company was organ- ized as the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company and in the sum- mer of 1865 placed a large force of men on the road-bed, pushed the work rapidly, which was completed to Ackley in Hardin county, by the middle of October, and early in the year 1866 cars were running to Iowa Falls. Upon reaching the latter point, construction work again ceased, by reason of a lack of funds. Two years of idleness fol- lowed, when again a reorganization took place in the management. A new organization was incorporated as the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railroad Company, and with ample funds at its command was suc- cessful in that which its predecessors had failed to accomplish. Subsequently, the road was leased to the Illinois Central Railroad Company and is now a part of the Illinois Central's system of transportation lines.
The Iowa division of the Illinois Central, described above, crosses the extreme southeastern corner of the county, having a station at Ackley, a small portion of which lies in Franklin.
CENTRAL IOWA RAILWAY
Shortly after the Civil war, the Eldora & Steamboat Rock Coal Company was organized at Eldora, and realizing the necessity of a
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railroad to transport the products of its mines, organized the Eldora Railroad & Coal Company, first securing the interests of Platt Smith, a Dubuque capitalist, in the plans. The articles of incorporation were placed on file in the recorder's office at Dubuque. Shortly there- after, a stockholders' meeting of the company was held and five directors chosen, whose names follow: C. C. Gilman, H. C. Heth- crington, S. F. Lathrop, H. L. Huff, W. J. Moir. This board of directors elected C. C. Gilman president of the company and James Mckinley secretary.
Work of grading began on the road, the route of which already had been surveyed, and in July, 1868, cars were running into Eldora. At the time, a double celebration took place in Eldora for that little city had just received the welcome news of having been de- clared by the Supreme court of the state, the permanent county seat of Hardin county.
July 8, 1868, the Iowa River Railroad Company was organized, for the purpose of building a line from St. Paul to St. Louis. Ar- ticles of incorporation were issued to the company, C. C. Gilman was chosen president, Thomas Kensett, vice president, and R. A. Babbage, secretary. The company purchased the seventeen miles of road built by the Eldora Railroad & Coal Company between El- dora and Ackley, and in October, 1868, the road-bed from Eldora to Marshalltown, a distance of twenty-seven miles, was under con- struction and completed the following year. In 1869, the Iowa River Railroad Company was reorganized and incorporated as the Central Railroad Company of Iowa. C. C. Gilman was elected president, and under his energetic supervision the road was com -. pleted almost to the Minnesota line. Before reaching St. Paul, however, another reorganization and change of name took place, after the road had gone into the hands of a receiver in 1874. In 1879, Russell Sage and others, of the Central Iowa Railway Com- · pany, successors to the Central Railroad Company of Iowa, received articles of incorporation, and D. N. Pickering became president of the company, which finished the building of the road to Des Moines. Within the few years last past the Central became a part of the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad system.
The Central of Iowa was the first railroad built into Hampton, and its coming was looked forward to with great anxiety and no little doubt. This is the road that the citizens of Maysville made strenuous efforts to secure for that point, hoping that in the attain- ment of their great desire their town would not only become the me-
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tropolis of the county, but also be able to show many reasons why Maysville should be made the county seat instead of Hampton.
"The iron horse" made its first appearance in Hampton, Tues- day, June 28, 1870. The citizens of the place having gotten up a program for a Fourth of July celebration, received word from C. C. Gilman, president of the Central, that a train of cars would be run to Hampton on that day with 2,000 excursionists, to assist in the festivities. Of that event and its inglorious termination Editor Ray- mond wrote in 1900 while in a reminiscent mood, as follows :
"It was a great event for our town, and we felt that it was in- cumbent upon us to put our best foot forward on that day and have such a celebration as would put all previous efforts to shame and make surrounding towns hang their heads with envy. We had a meeting to make arrangements, of course, and everybody turned out as we have never known them to do on a similar occasion before or since. This meeting was held early in June and of course the rail- way was not here yet, but C. C. Gilman, at that time president of the road, sent a letter which was read at the meeting, pledging his word that on the 'Fourth' the iron should not only be laid to Hamp- ton, but that an excursion train should be run, bringing 'at least 2,000 people.' Maybe the roof didn't raise when this letter was read! It may seem strange to our people now, but there was a lively contest, to see who should get on the different committees. One man who had not been here very long, but had abundantly demon- strated his abilities as a 'rustler' while he had been here, made a fiery speech, in which he declared that in order to make the cele- bration a success and inspire confidence with the public at large, the 'old ring' that had run previous. Fourth of Julys and similar func- tions must be relegated to the rear and new blood brought to the front. His address elicited uproarious applause, with such good effect that he was promptly elected a member of the general com- mittee of arangements, and after considerable excitement and 'elec- tioneering' eight more were chosen, none of the number now being residents of Hampton except D. W. Dow and the writer hereof.
"Immediately after adjournment the newly created committee held a meeting, when it was discovered that the 'new blood' had captured the committee 'hands down,' and the orator aforesaid was elected chairman of the committee and forthwith delegated with full power to run the machine, the only three opposing being Dow, George Beed and the writer, who were considered as belonging to the 'old ring' that had been running things. About $200 had been Vol. 1-15
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subscribed, besides work enough pledged to fix up the grounds, do the necessary team work, etc. Another new man had been elected marshal, and he was promoted as assistant-in-chief to the chairman aforesaid, and there the direct responsibility of the balance of the committee of arrangements ended.
It was decided to hold the exercises in a locust grove, now cut down, on the Stiles place northeast of the cemetery. Col. John Scott, of Nevada, was engaged as orator of the day and the Ackley band engaged to furnish music. The eventful day dawned bright and clear and public expectation was at the highest pitch. Hamp- ton for the first time was to show herself to the world as a railroad town. The train came from the south about half past ten. All Hampton was at the depot. It turned out to be only a 'special' bear- ing President Gilman and a few of his friends. They did not dis- embark, but after a few moments delay backed out of town. Still, we staid, waiting for the other special with 'at least 2,000 people.' About noon it came, with fifteen or sixteen flat cars with bushes stuck in the sides for shade. Colonel Scott was not aboard but the Ackley band was.
"The marshal was on hand and getting the band into the road he led the way on his prancing charger to the grounds, followed by a miscellaneous crowd of people. Somebody, we forget who, but think it was Tom Mckenzie, read the Declaration of Independence, G. G. Clemmer read the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as it was possible to do with the constant popping of firecrackers around and under the stage, and the intellectual part of the day's proceed- ings was over. The band that had been invited from Ackley strag- gled in and got their dinners as best they could, it never having occurred to the chairman of the committee of arrangements but what they could forage for themselves. We forgot to say that when the train arrived several enterprising citizens who had teams, some of them from the surrounding country, were on hand and the first thing our guests heard was: 'Right this way for the grounds, only a quar- ter!' After the 'exercises' at the grove were over no one wanted to ride back ; all had time to walk.
"The afternoon was pandemonium let loose. A large number of the track-laying gang of the railroad were here, and while the crowd that came on the excursion from the south were mainly re- spectable people, there was quite a sprinkling of 'toughs' among them. (We had a few of our own here in those days too.) There was a 'blind pig' near the depot where whiskey was freely dispensed.
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And somehow or other there were other supplies of the same class of goods in town. We had no city marshal, and as the afternoon wore away the crowd became more uproarious and disorderly. The Fourth of July marshal undertook at one time to stop a row, but he speedily abandoned the job and got himself out of sight, nor by the way, was he ever seen here subsequently, as he evacuated the town, with all his belongings, before daylight the next morning. It sub- sequently transpired that he had collected about $125 of the funds subscribed by the citizens, having been appointed 'deputy collector' by the aforesaid chairman of the committee of arrangements, who was so busy running a ten-cent swing on the Fourth, and on making it on previous days, that he had no time to attend to this part, or any other part of the business.
"Luckily, no damage was done, except a few windows broken and a few heads slightly cracked, all the casualties being among those engaged in having the fun. The citizens generally got off the streets and most of them went home and staid with their families and let the tough crowd have it out. Of course, there were a lot of unpaid bills left; the printers were left and all the merchants who had furnished anything. In fact, we do not recollect whether or not any attempt was made to pay outstanding bills, as the bulk ' of the money had disappeared with the marshal. Of course, the chairman of the committee made no report; how could he with the other fellow gone? But it was a long time before you could men- tion that Fourth of July celebration in this town without the man addressed would either swear or laugh, according as he had been personally interested in the occasion."
BURLINGTON, CEDAR RAPIDS & NORTHERN
In 1881, the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern railroad reached Franklin county, entering its territory on section 34, Lee township. Bearing in a northwesterly direction, the road passes through Oakland township and makes its exit on section 31, Mor- gan township. On this road there are two stations in Franklin county-Dows and Popejoy. This road is now a part of the Rock Island system.
THE CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN
The Iowa & Pacific Railroad Company was organized in 1871 and made a survey of a line to run between Dubuque and the Da-
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
kotas. Considerable grading had been accomplished up to 1876, when the company failed. The Dubuque & Dakota Railroad Com- pany was then organized and finished the work from Waverly to Hampton. Eventually the road was completed, is now under the control and management of the Chicago Great Western and is known by that name.
THE DES MOINES, IOWA FALLS & NORTHERN
This road made its entrance into Hampton August 21, 1907. The first train carrying passengers from the south arrived in Hampton Monday, February 4, 1908. It became popularly known as the Des Moines short line. In the summer of 1908 the road was sold to the St. Paul & Des Moines Railroad Company. The road is a popular one with the people of Hampton, giving them direct transit to the state capital on the south and St. Paul on the north.
CHAPTER XVII
DRAINAGE DITCH DISTRICTS-A LATTER DAY IMPROVEMENT WORTH MILLIONS TO LOCAL FARMS-LARGE TRACTS OF LAND RECLAIMED BY BIG DITCHES-B. H. MALLORY, MEMBER FRANKLIN COUNTY BAR, TELLS THE STORY.
I shall discuss the subject of drainage solely as it applies to the reclamation in whole or in part of lands too wet for food-producing purposes. Man has ever been prone to think he could improve up- on the works of the Almighty in creating the world and especially has this been true with the relation to the distribution of water over its surface and in many instances the hand of man has supple- mented the hand of God to man's profit and God's glory. Many of us are apt to think that the draining of certain lands and the irrigat- ing of others is the result of modern conditions and demands, but the facts are that the most gigantic systems of irrigation were in operation in Egypt and in Asia before the dawn of the Christian era and for some unknown reason portions of Asia that were very fruit- ful in those early days are now practically desert wastes on account of the abandonment of the irrigation systems. However, my pur- pose is to treat of reclamation from the standpoint of drainage alone and to apply the same to the results obtained in this county under the provisions of law in force in this state. Surface water has al- ways been regarded as a common enemy both by man and by the common law, but man with his accustomed proneness to avoid the enemy, unless by a necessity forced to meet him, has always dodged this surface water enemy as long as he could obtain dry lands suit- able for agricultural purposes at a moderate price. In fact large areas of land in the State of Iowa were so unattractive on account of their wetness that individuals would neither buy nor homestead them and the United States Government gave large tracts of this class of land to the State of Iowa under swamp land acts to be used by the state for internal improvements. However, our increased and increasing population has brought us face to face with the problem
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of producing food enough to care for our own people and as a result there is a continual effort to bring new and heretofore unproductive lands under cultivation. Starting with the common law provision that surface water was a common enemy and that the lower or servient estate was in duty bound to receive such surface water as naturally flowed onto it from the upper or dominant estate, we have gradu- ally, through constitutional provisions, statutory enactments and judge-made laws, developed our present system of drainage laws, by which every piece of land in the State of Iowa may receive re- lief by proper application of existing laws. Until the present statu- tory enactments our courts generally held that the dominant estate could not throw water onto the servient estate in a manner different than it flowed thereon naturally. This practically precluded the in- stalling of tile systems outletting upon the lower holders, and in order to obtain relief the owner of wet land must make some kind of an arrangement with the lower holders for a co-operative system or, as more usually resulted, he was obliged to carry the water from his lands across the lower holder at a large expense. Our Legis- lature, recognizing the public necessity of bringing all the lands with- in the state under cultivation, enacted a law by which a majority of the land holders in a given area might petition the board of super- visors to establish a drainage district and place the burden of the improvement therein upon all the land in the district according to the benefits derived. It was soon found that it was impossible in many instances to get a majority of the land holders to join in a petition of this character and the law was subsequently amended so that any one land holder might petition the board for the estab- lishment of a drainage district. Our law has been constantly amended and developed as earlier stated by constitutional amend- ment, legislative enactments and judicial decisions until at the pres- ent time the law in substance is :
That any land holder having land too wet for cultivation may file a petition with the board of supervisors setting out such fact together with a list of the land of other land holders that would be benefited by a drainage improvement, at the same time filing bond to pay the preliminary expenses in case the system is not established. This gives the board of supervisors jurisdiction to take charge of the matter. They place the petition in the hands of a competent engineer who makes a report upon the same and, if in his judgment it is feasible to drain the said land, he prepares plans and specifications, which he submits to the board of supervisors, and if approved by them, a
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hearing is had and the district usually established. Then follows a letting of the work by advisement and an assessment of the land in the district to pay the costs thereof. Development of this law into its present condition has involved all manner of litigation, but the Su- preme court has taken the broad view that public necessity demanded the reclamation of these lands and they have gone to great length to sustain the law wherever it were possible to do so.
Franklin county, on account of its geological formation rather than on account of its elevations, in its natural state, contained a very large percentage of wet land. Practically speaking, the eastern half of the county is surfaced with what is known as Iowa drift and the western half with Wisconsin drift and although the elevations of the western half of the county are higher than those of the eastern half, so far as appearances are concerned, the reverse seems to be true as the eastern half was naturally well drained while the western half remained in a very wet condition. With the exception of a small area which drains to the south and west towards the Iowa river, the drainage of this county is south and east through various creeks into the Cedar river. These creeks all have well defined channels through the Iowa drift, but as a rule have not reached into the Wisconsin drift. In other words, if you should drive north and south through the county on the section line running through the city of Hamp- ton, you would cross a large number of beautiful creeks, some of them quite large. If you would parallel this road four miles west, you would find that these creeks had lost themselves and that the lands in that portion of the county originally were without outlets, except for extreme overflows, and that a large portion of the same consisted of sloughs, ponds and marshes. The earlier settlers in this portion of the county attempted individual drainage and many of them succeeded in draining various portions of their farms into other lower areas with considerable success, but no effective drainage was accomplished until outlets were provided under our present drain- age law.
The first drainage district was established October 3, 1905, and completed about two years later. Since that time about thirty drain- age districts have been established in this county, all but one of them being located in what is known as the western part of the county. The general plan has been to dig dredge ditches emptying into the headwaters of the present creeks and by this method the creeks, the natural drains of the county, have had their lengths extended largely to the west. These open ditches have formed the outlets for
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tileage systems and in many of the districts large tile have been used instead of the open ditches. At the present time we have open ditches aggregating approximately forty-three miles and tile drains ap- proximately one hundred and five miles. There is included in drain- age districts in the county approximately seventy thousand acres and the total costs of these improvements has been $433,512, to which may be added the engineer's estimate on two other improve- ments under headway of $38,000. It should be understood that the systems as put in by the county are simply outlet systems. Of course, these systems have tapped the wet areas and in themselves have re- lieved much of the lands of their surface water, but these lands have required a vast amount of additional tiling in order to receive the benefits afforded by the outlets. This tile has been put in by the individual owners and it would be a conservative estimate to say that the expenditures made by the individual owners have exceeded the cost paid out for the outlets. Again many land holders who were not in drainage districts have been stimulated by the increased price of land and the results they have seen from drainage in these drainage districts to drain portions of their land into natural outlets that already existed and I believe it is fair to say that the sum spent for tiling in this county since the establishment of the first drainage district eight years ago is easily $1,000,000 in addition to the original cost of the outlets provided under the drainage system. This would make a total expenditure of approximately $1,500,000 for drainage purposes in this county in the last eight years. These various drain- age projects have resulted in much litigation and much dissatisfac- tion at the time of the establishment of the different improvements, but I know of no instance where a system has been completed and a land holder has availed himself of the outlet furnished that he is not satisfied with the result and would under no condition allow the improvement to be removed and his land placed in its former con- dition. The litigation has practically all resulted from the selfish- ness that seems to exist in most people. The law provides that each piece of land shall pay its proportionate share of the cost of the im- provement according to the benefits derived. This assessment is made by disinterested parties. Yet it is almost impossible to find a man whose land has been assessed who does not feel that he has paid more than his proportionate share. This, I assume, results from un- conscious selfishness, inherent in mankind, yet being as charitable as possible, I am constrained to believe that many have objected to their assessments, knowing that they were fair, hoping to shift the
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