USA > Iowa > Fremont County > History of Fremont County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistic, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Fremont County, constitution of the state of Iowa, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 64
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II. Cursed as our country is, with the institution of slavery-an insti- tution that has not only withstood the indirect application of gospel princi- ples for two hundred years, but has in the meantime extended greatly its bounds and multiplied its victims-we believe the time has come to treat the holding of men as slaves as we would treat any other flagrant sin.
III. In obedience to the divine injunction 'remember them that are in bonds as bound with them,' we feel constrained to bear testimony in every proper way against this giant sin of our land; and consequently we will not admit slave-holders or apologists for slavery to the privileges of the
579
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
church, nor will we patronize mission boards that support churches in which slaveholding is not treated as a disciplinable offense.
IV. We cordially concur in the principles of the American Reform Book and Tract Society, and also the American Missionary Association, and believe them worthy of the confidence of the christian world.
V. Resolved, That this church will admit no persons as members who make, vend, use, or provide intoxicating liquors as a beverage."
It was moreover agreed that we observe the missionary concert on the first Sabbath evening of each month. This last meeting was regularly observed until slavery was abolished, January 1, 1863, and was then closed with a meeting of praise and thanksgiving to God, who had answered our prayers sooner than we had dared to hope, and in a way of which we had not dreamed.
From August, 1853, until November, 1854, public religious meetings were held in Brother Gaston's house, on the southeast corner of Orange and Park streets: from November 22, 1854, till the autumn of 1860, the place of meeting was the school-house till recently on the northeast cor- ner of Center and Elm streets; from 1860 till 1865, the college chapel, in its original size and form (32x42), on the northwest corner of Center and Elm streets, furnished the place of meeting; and from 1865 to 1875, the church worshipped in the chapel in its present form (32x66). Since 1875, the new edifice has been occupied. It cost $22,000, including pulpit, chandeliers and furnaces, of which $3,200 are still unprovided for.
In the spring of 1854, Jonas Jones brought with him our present bell, the first church bell in western Iowa.
To the original eight members, in 1852, there were added:
YEAR.
BY LETTER
ON PROF'N
YEAR. -
BY LETTER
ON PROF'N
YEAR.
BY LETTER
ON PROF'N
1853
11
1
1862
7
17
1870
11
6
1854
20
S
1863
6
1
1871
17
32
1855
0
4
1864
3
0
1872
12
1
1856
17
14
1865
6
6
1873
12
5
1857
7
1
1866
13
32
1874
10
58
1858
14
5
1867
21
13
1875
22
18
1859
8
9
1868
9
36
1876
4
16
1860
9
9
1869
5
15
1877
6
17
1861
21
0
Of all that have united with this church two hundred and sixty have united by letter, and three hundred and twenty-four on profession-in all, five hundred and eighty four-an annual average of ten by letter and thir- teen by profession. Sixty-five of the whole number have died, three hun- dred and forty-five are still members, leaving one hundred and seventy-
580
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
four who have gone out from us, carrying with them impress of the influ- ences received while among us. Of the entire number ten are, or have been preaching the gospel, two are in the theological seminary, five are practicing law, three in the medical profession; one hundred and sixteen are, or have been, teachers; thirteen are, or have been, the wives of min- isters; six have labored among the Indians, and one has been for ten years a missionary to Jaffua, Ceylon, India, and two have taught among the freedmen.
A Sunday school has been kept up without intermission for twenty-five years, varying in average attendance from ten to two hundred. For the last year the average has been about two hundred. The members of the Sunday school have for the last ten years supported one, and sometimes two children in the girls' school in Udupitty, Jaffua, Ceylon. Brother G. B. Gaston was for many years the superintendent of our Sunday school. James L. Smith had charge of it for a time, but now for several years President Brooks has been superintendent.
For several years assistance has been rendered by church members in. the support of Sunday schools in neighborhoods around us. The pastor of the church supplied Silver Creek, Glenwood, Florence, Sidney, and Civil Bend with preaching part of the time during the first eight or ten years following the organization of the church at Tabor.
Revivals of greater or less extent have been enjoyed by this church nearly every year of its existence. Extra meetings were held, usually during the greater leisure of winter, which were conducted mainly by the pastor for the first fourteen years. Prof. Johnson Wright, who came to Tabor in 1866, proved for several years a most efficient helper in revivals. In December, 1870, Rev. Arson Parker labored most effectively for three weeks among us. At three different times Rev. H. S. De Forest ren- dered successful service, and Elder Balcom, in the winter of 1873-4, awakened much interest. Success, under God, in winning souls to Christ, has been the result of efficient work by the lay members of the church mainly, who most heartily co-operated with the pastor, by earnest prayer and abundant private labor with the impenitent. Many jewels will be found in the crowns of those faithful ones, in the day of their crowning. We have ever found God ready and willing to bestow blessings upon efficient labor, as the fruit of his word, and find just occasion to thank him for his goodness and faithfulness to us in the past, and thereby feel greatly encouraged to look for still greater things in the future.
At the Quarter Centennial of the Tabor Congregational church, held October 11, 1877, the following poem, by . Arabella E. Smith, was pre- sented as a most interesting feature of the evening's programme. The poem is somewhat retrospective and historical in its character, and is here
581
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
reproduced chiefly for its historic interest, though of itself worthy of preservation in permanent form:
IN OTHER DAYS.
Amid the daily toil and care, With thankful hearts our feet we stay, The memories of the past to share, On this, our anniversary day.
And we strive to thee, to bring, Oh Thou great Shepherd of the sheep! The thanks we cannot speak or sing, Thy mercies are so high, so deep.
We thank Thee for the pastures green, Whose pleasant paths our feet have pressed; For waters still, for skies serene, Where over wearied hearts might rest.
We thank Thee, too, for cloud and storm, For darkness and for whelming flood; Did they not show to us the form Of one like to the Son of God?
All day our memories backward turn; All day we keep the past in sight; What human heart that does not yearn O'er vanished days, or dark, or bright?
Again we see the hill-top rise, With outlook wide or level sward. Outstretched beneath the morning skies, The beauteous landscape of the Lord.
We see again the cabins rude, So lonely on the prairie vast; Close by, the wild fowl hid her brood, And the fleet deer went bounding past.
Oft their wild comrades came, the band Of red men, natives of the soil, With curious eyes our homes they scanned, But scorned our lives of quiet toil.
582
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Full soon the tide of human life, Came pouring o'er the prairie free; Wild beast and wild man in the strife, Were hurried toward the western sea.
Meanwhile we toiled for daily bread, And 'neath our Father's sheltering care, Across the level plains were spread In autumn days the harvests fair.
We reared no stately house of prayer, Our offerings were but scant, though free, Still He, whose love is everywhere. Abode with us; the two or three.
And, since like those of olden days, Of gold and silver we had none, God sent us work in other ways; Full many a frightened, fleeing one,
From many lands most fair to see, Sought our wide, northern, windswept plain, At peril of his life, to gain The blessed boon of liberty.
Whom God made free, no man shall claim We said; and o'er the dangerous track, No hunted fugitive went back. The oppressor's threats were all in vain,
And when the Lord's good time drew near, He saw his humble children's woe, And rang aloud in every ear, His mandate, " Let my people go."
We heard the sounding battle cry; We sent our best and bravest ones ; We waited while the days went by, And heard afar the echoing guns.
Till passed the war-cloud's dismal night, And Freedom's shone broad and bright. They came again, the tried and true, Wounded and weary, faint and few.
.
583
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
We welcomed some with joy and cheers, And some with only silent tears. We call them back, those days of old, Their memories wake a smile, a tear;
But cherished most are those we hold Unspoken to the listener's ear. We see what others cannot see, Through the long vista shadows glide,
They pass among us silently, And take their places by our side, The faces of the loved and lost The faces we must miss through all:
Till Death's dark river safely crossed, We meet them where no shadows fall. For him, who bore with patient heart The heat and burden of the day,
Who unrepining took his part, Through all the roughest of the way, Nor paused to murmur or complain, When storms of sorrow o'er him swept,
Counting all loss for Christ, as gain, Until, being overworn, he slept- Within our inmost hearts we keep The memory of that noble life,
With generous thoughts and actions rife; And when, faint-hearted, we would creep Aside to fold our hands and weep, Because our harvests are so scant,
It rouses us to earnest strife; Again with patient hands we plant The seed; nor mourn we may not reap. For him who found a calm retreat,
Where idle summer was to rest, Soft lie the turf above his breast ; No more by wearing cares oppressed, His slumbers shall be deep and sweet;
584
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Upon his tomb we fain would lay Some tribute to outlast the years, But words are vain; we bring to-day Only our silence and our tears.
Not lost; his life is with us still, The seed he sowed in toil and pain, In time to come shall crown our hill, With shining sheaves of golden grain. Alas how many names we love, Are graven on the marble cold; What vacant chairs our firesides hold, What tender yearnings all untold, Our sad hearts keep for those above. The shadows of the grave divide The faithful few, who planted here In human weakness and in fear, The seed upon the prairie wide. The number on the other side Grows ever larger year by year , And lonlier are the homes denied The love that was their joy and cheer. We keep their memory sacred yet; And they, who deems that they forget? Think you not as we stand to-night, Within the walls they toiled to raise, That in the city out of sight They keep the anniversary days? For him whose resting is not yet, Who labors still with constant care, Think you the world will e'er forget His steadfast heart, his patient prayer? He needs no idle words of praise, In him our hearts most safely trust; And bright through all the coming days Shall shine the pathway of the just.
And not alone across the past Our wandering thoughts go out to-day; Forth through the future vague and vast, They strive to scan the winding way, But short of sight and weak of hand, We cannot pierce the clouds that hide, And only this we understand,
585
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Our Father is on every side.
All as he wills or smooth or steep
The way that lies ahead may be, The journey ended, tenderly He gives to his beloved sleep, And we will trust nor ask too see.
Only God grant our hands to fill
With earnest work, our hearts made strong
To do or suffer all his will,
Whether the time be short or long.
When heaven and earth are passed away,
And even their places are forgot,
God grant we stand, in that great day, A glorious church without a spot.
In connection with the history of this church it may be proper to men- tion the
WASHINGTON TEMPERANCE SOCIETY,
which was organized on the 22d of February, 1855, with the following officers: W. J. Gates, President; J. K. Gaston, Vice-President; O. B. Clark, Treasurer; A C. Gaston, Secretary.
The organization appears to have been perfected in the afternoon of the 22d, for it adjourned " to seven o'clock in the evening to hear another address from Esquire Turley to the ladies." After listening to this ad- dress the society adjourned until February 28, at 6 o'clock P. M.
The following was the constitution and names of those who signed.
CONSTITUTION.
ARTICLE 1. This society shall be called the Tabor Washingtonian Temperance Society, auxiliary to the Fremont County Washingtonian Temperance Society.
ART. 2. The officers of this society shall be a president, vice-presi- ident, secretary, and treasurer, who shall be chosen annually, by nomina- tion and by the voice.
ART. 3. The objects of this society shall be to keep alive the fire of temperance in our bosons, and to promote the cause around us so far as practicable.
ART. 4. The annual meeting of the society shall be held on the first Thursday in February.
ART. 5. Any person may become a member of the society by sub- scribing to the constitution and the sub-joined pledge.
586
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
ART. 6. This constitution may be altered or amended at any regu- lar meeting of the society, by vote of two-thirds of the members present.
PLEDGE.
We will not use intoxicating liquor as a beverage; we will not give it to others, nor traffic in it to be so used; and we will earnestly endeavor to procure the suppression of such traffic by law.
NAMES.
GENTLEMEN.
LADIES. E. P. Gates,
Wm. J, Gates,
J. K. Gaston,
Emma J. Gates,
G. B. Gaston,
M. C. Gaston,
O. Cummings,
Hannah Cummings,
Jesse West,
M. H. Cummings,
John West,
A. S. Jones,
L. A. Matthews,
H. M. Jones,
Isaac Townshend,
E. C. Townshend,
Wm. Madison,
A. E. Terryberry, Abby Cumings,
Wallace Madison,
M. P. Clark,
A. E. Jones,
O. B. Clark,
M. S. Nash,
John Todd,
M. A. Todd.
John Hallam, M. W. Thayer,
S. C. Gates,
Wm. Webster,
L. E. Gates,
C. A. Webster, Jos. Munsinger,
H. E. Townshend,
Jonas Jones, M. T. Spees, Cephas Case,
S. E. Madison,
L. T. Matthews,
L. H. Matthews,
C. W. Smith,
M. E. Gaston,
L. Townshend,
C. M. Adams,
Arthur Williams,
J. A. Jackson,
J. T. Madison,
E. J. Madison,
J. M. Cumings, A. C. Gaston, A. M. Gaston, J. A. Todd,
M. A. Madison,
S. R. Shepherdson,
M. S. Madison,
L. C. Hume, H. M. Jones.
Mary L. Todd,
A. C. Gates,
P. C. Jones,
D. A. B. Spees,
587
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
TABOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Much of the history of the public schools of Tabor belongs to the his- tory of Tabor College, under the immediate supervision of which they were for a long time placed. The citizens have always cared, with liberal hand, for their dearest interest in this direction, and to-day the school stands almost equal to the best in the country. The building occupied by the various departments is a neat and commodious structure, tasteful in architecture and pleasant as a school home, for such the place where a great portion of the early life of an individual is passed may be properly designated. The school statistics of Tabor are as follows:
DEPARTMENT.
TEACHER. 1
Males.
Females.
Total.
High school.
A. S. McPherrin .
16|17
33
Intermediate. .
Belle E. Smith.
27 26
53
Primary Miss - Tolman
22 16
38
Grand total
65 59 124
Complete statistics, financial and otherwise, are given below, which, it will be seen, compare favorably with any town in the county:
INDEPENDENT DISTRICT OF TABOR.
No. of teachers employed the past year .
3
Salary per month paid to males $ 42.00
Salary per month paid to females 34.00
No. of months of school.
9
No. of children of school age
183
No. of children enrolled in the district.
124
Average attendance in the school.
79
No. of school houses brick.
1
Value of school property . $6,500.00
Amount paid teachers the past year
Amount paid for school houses. 990.00
Amount paid for contingent purposes 972.33
588
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
INCIDENTS IN THE HISTORY OF TABOR DURING THE TROUBLES IN KAN- SAS IN 1856.
BY REV. JOHN TODD.
The adoption by Congress in 1850, of the omnibus compromise measures, was followed in December of 1853, with the introduction of a bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, in which the fol- lowing statement in regard to slavery, commonly termed " squatter sover- eignty," was embodied: "That all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and in the new states to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the decision of the people residing therein, through their appropriate representatives." The bill became a law May 24, 1854.
When therefore Kansas and Nebraska were opened for settlement in 1854, a strife was inaugurated between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery people of the country, as to who should first get possession of this fair land. The south seemed willing enough that Nebraska should be free, but determined that Kansas should be slave territory. Each section of the country eagerly sought to make its own form of society dominant in the new territory. In the south were organized " Blue Lodges" "Social bands," "Sons of the South," etc., and in the north, "Emigrant Aid Socie- ties." The opposing parties became known as " Border Ruffians," and " Free State Men." South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama joined hands with Missouri in the attempt to fasten slavery on Kansas, while New England and all free states sought to make it free.
When, therefore, Gov. Reeder assumed authority in the territory in the fall of 1854, and appointed an election, many of the pro-slavery residents of Missouri organized in companies, invaded Kansas and forcibly voted for men, who sympathized with them, thereby placing abettors of slavery in office, and preventing an honest vote of the bona fide settlers of the country.
This injustice aroused the friends of freedom anew. Companies of emigrants were raised, and encouragements were given to free state men to enter the territory. Nor were the distant slave states lacking in energy or zeal. At first the route taken generally was via St. Louis, and by steamboat up the river, until the Missourians by force and arms boarded boats, searched for and put off free state men, and compelled them to return. Ferries too on the river were guarded-crossing forbidden to free state men-and the river practically blockaded.
At this juncture measures were taken to open a way into the territory via Iowa and Nebraska. It was in connection with this new route, which lay through Tabor and Nebraska City, that the people of Tabor became
589
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
involved. The summer and autumn of 1856 was a time of constant excitement in this little village, which then numbered about twelve families in all. Bat- tles, skirmishes, and murders, seemed to be the order of the day, as the forces of the contending parties struggled for the mastery in "bleeding Kansas." In July, 1856, Dr. Howe, (then superintendent of an institu- tion for the blind, in Boston, and afterward a commissioner with B. F. Wade and others to San Domingo under U. S. Grant's administration), and others came through from Topeka to Tabor by Nebraska City to survey and open a route for emigrants to the territory. As the business required haste and the doctor was looking for Col. Dickey, who was already far on his way with a large company of emigrants from the east, and the road was indistinct for night travel, the Tabor pastor escorted them to Mr. Hargan's log house near Whitecloud, where Col. Dickey was found about ten or eleven o'clock P. M. After a short interview the doctor's company and escort returned to Tabor, where the doctor remained for a , short time making arrangements for the cause, as a kind of commissary- general. He procured a charger for Gen. Jas. H. Lane, who, in the meantime stopped a few days at Tabor, while his company of emigrants under Col. Dickey passed through on the way to Kan- sas. On the 5th of August this company was camped at Plymouth, four miles south of the Kansas and Nebraska line, where Capt. Brown met them and found Wm. Thomson, whose brother, who had been wounded in the battle of Black-jack, the captain was conveying to Tabor. Leaving the Thomsons at Tabor to go on east, Capt. Brown returned immedi- ately with Gen. Lane, Col. Samuel Walker, R. B. Foster, and two others, to Topeka, where they, having passed around Col. Dickey's company, arrived on the 10th of August, when Lane at once took command of the free state forces.
Capt. Shombri, a most worthy Christian man, in charge of a company of young men from Indiana, came along about this time, waited a while at Tabor and entered the territory with or soon after Col. Dickey's com- pany. Shortly after Ft. Titus-a log-house and fort-was captured and in the attack upon it Capt. Shombri was shot and killed. A fugitive slave woman, who afterward passed through Tabor, said she belonged to Col. Titus, was in the house at the time of its capture, and sat on a trunk when a cannon ball went in at one end of it and out at the other.
Some time in August the report reached Tabor that the entrance to Kansas via Nebraska was barred by a force of 1500 " border ruffians," and that it was unsafe for small companies to attempt to go through. About this time four young men from Mendon, Illinois, came along and waited some weeks for company. An effort was made to raise a force from the friends in the neighboring counties sufficient to open the way.
.
590
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Quite a number responded, and of the people of Tabor many were pre- paring to go when word came that the way was already open.
Near the last of August Rev. Mr. Parsons came all the way from Maine, conducting a company into Kansas. They camped in the woods on the hill-side beyond the old bridge-half a mile or more southwest of the old mill. The spot is now in John Rhode's field and has been cleared off. There the people of Tabor joined them in worship on Sunday, Au- gust 31, when the Tabor pastor preached from Num. 14: 8, "If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land." etc.
Jas. Redpath - author of Capt. Brown's life, and recent correspondent of the Inter-Occan from Ireland-was also present and camped with a company near the old mill. Also Dr. Cutter, author of Cutter's Physiol- ogy, with his wife, who at that early day sometimes occupied the rostrum.
Major Searles from Lawrence, Kansas, spent several weeks at Mr. G. B. Gaston's, as an agent of the free state cause, receiving and forwarding despatches, and looking after the commissary stores, etc.
Col. Eldridge, proprietor of the free state hotel, which was burnt in the sacking of Lawrence, by the border ruffians, May 21, 1856, passed through in August on his way east to raise and bring on a company.
Parsons and Redpath and their companions in travel struck their tents, and left their camps near Tabor, on tlie morning of September 13, 1856, for Kansas. Several from Tabor joined them. Jas. K. Gaston took his team, and I. Hollister. H. D. Ingraham, Owen Brown, Dr. Kinney, and Woodruff went with him. A sad and fatal occurrence transpired that morning. Two young men from Lewis-Leary Hitchcock and Chap- man-ran ahead of their team, sportively brandishing their weapons and playing fight, when the latter aimed his revolver, which he supposed was empty, at his friend and shot him dead. The Tabor pastor carried the heavy tidings to his parents, Rev. Geo. B. Hitchcock and wife, that night, and attended the funeral at Lewis the next day.
This company met Gen. Lane with fifty mounted men between Nebraska City and Nemaha, who were on their way to Tabor, but passing on, by several days forced marches, they evaded the United States troops, who were intercepting and disarming emigrants, and delivered their stores in safety at Topeka.
The occasion of Lane's leaving the territory at this time was this: He had driven some ruffians into log houses at Hickory Point, and in order to dislodge them had dispatched a messenger to Col. Harvey, at Lawrence, for reinforcements and a six pound howitzer, and retired to some springs a few miles off to camp for the night. At his camping ground that even- ing, a copy of Gov. Geary's proclamation to the people of the territory fell into his hands, and believing the governor to be peacefully disposed, he immediately countermanded the orders already given, disbanded his
591
HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
men, and started for Tabor. But as Col. Harvey failed to receive the countermand, he set out at 10 p. M. on the 13th, and reached Hickory Point at 2 P. M. on the 14th, and by a well directed cannonade brought the ruffians to terms before night. They asked permission to leave the territory, and promised to go, and leave was granted.
Gen. Lane, with a troop of fifty cavalry, reached Tabor in the latter part of September. They divided up and quartered among the people of Tabor. Lane himself left his horse at Jas. L. Smith's and on the 28th of September engaged its keeping for an indefinite time, that it might recruit, while he himself took a trip east. But, very soon and before he had got away, a message came from Kansas, urging Lane's return, and he set off' immediately, taking his company with him. While here they one day practiced cavalry drill on what is now the public square. While all were mounted, their steeds were of a variety of races, sizes and colors -mules and horses of all shades-a motley group.
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