History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 51

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Springfield IL : Union Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1002

USA > Iowa > Hardin County > History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 51

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canoes. Then we came on up, miring down every now and theu, to old Jacob Smith's, where Scotty Smith now lives, just north of Eldora. The next day we came on up to what is now known as the Dickenson farm, a mile or so below Steam- boat Rock, where Samuel L. Higanbotham then lived. Here in the bottom, by then, the 7th or 8th of May, the grass had started a little. I tied the horses' heads down to a foot, and putting a bell on one turned them loose to browse, and went up to my claim, about where the Iowa Central railroad depot now stands at Steamboat Rock. I stayed but a little while, but when I came back my horses were not to be seen or heard where I left them. Tracking them up they had started straight for Indiana, and crossed the river, which was then deep, with their lieads tied down. I never knew how they kept their heads out of water, but they were standing in the water holding np one foot against the east bank, because they could not get out, it being too steep. A silver dollar brought them back.

Soon we put up a little cabin, a little below the old fair ground, near the river, and a little more than a stone's throw from where we now live; planted corn, potatoes, etc. Everything grew wonder- fully. One night some unusually large work cattle, belonging to Henry Kearnes, an old settler, came there, and were devour- ing our little crop at a terrible rate, 80 in my wrath I got a sheet and put it around me and took after the cattle. I was gain- ing ground rapidly. They done their best, but one old ox saw it was no use, so hc changed his tactics and took after me. You should have seen the whole scene to

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realize it as I did. He thought it was life or death and so did I, but thanks to good fortune 1 am here yet.

Our children may be interested to know that we came early enough to see some of the larger game and wild animals.

One day while I was plowing, in plain view, just below Steamboat Rock, in sight of where we live now, there came tearing down the steep bluff, an elk, as if pursued by hounds or wolves, and plunged into the river, staying long enough to cool off. It came out into the bottom, not far from where I was plowing, and stood there till I made some noise, so tame was it. It. stopped once or twice before it was out of sight. Now the iron horse runs on the same track.

There were also bear-tracks within a few rods of the house, and wild-cats and cata- mounts would gobble up rabbits close enough to our cabin so that we could hear the dull thrashing on the ground as they caught them; then the squeak of the rab- bit.

Two of the old settlers, Samuel Jackson and Samuel Higanbotham, just below us, near the upper coal banks, caught two cubs up a tree. One they shot, the other they climbed up and got. But while this was going on, the mother bear came up, ready to devour them; but firing their guns at her, they broke a shoulder, and the two dogs they had, secured them, but she killed both dogs.

James Buckner also killed a buffalo with a knife, it having got down in a snow drift.

NOW AND THEN.

Gov. Eastman, in 1869, wrote an article to his old home paper at Pittsfield, N. II.,

in which he drew a fine comparison be- tween Iowa Territory in 1844, and the State of Iowa at the time in which he wrote. Of course the comparison is now still greater, but the article, even as writ- ten, is worthy of preservation. The reader, if he desires, can draw his own comparisons between Iowa of 1869 and Iowa of 1882. The following is Gov. Eastman's letter :

ELDORA, IOWA, Oct. 17, 1869.

Dear "Times": Twenty-five years ago this day, I left Pittsfield in the daytime, on Holt Drak's stage, to artifice my own fortune in the then far-off West. Westward and westward I rode (but not all the time in that stage) for one full month, till the 19th of October, 1844. I crossed the Father of Waters into the then Ter- ritory of Iowa, and the same day I became an affiliated Hawkeye.

What stupendous changes have been wrought in these fleeting years ! Then Iowa had one dis- franchised delegate in Congress. Now it has two Senators and six Representatives. Then, by a loose count, large estimates and liberal allowances for unborn babes, Iowa claimed to have 75,152 souls, or rather bodies, for I will not go a blind on the souls of all of them. Now, Iowa rejoices in a population of 1,033,961 free people. Then, Iowa imported breadstuff. Now it has a million of cattle, a million and a half of 'sheep, and as many more of hogs; grows annu- ally sixty million bushels of corn, and this year has given to the garners of the husbandmen twenty-five million bushels of wheat, more than two-thirds of which will be exported to feed the hungry world. Then the people of Iowa moved and traveled in wagons and in the saddle, across the country and through the streams, without roads or bridges. Now the State is grid-ironed over with more than a thousand miles of iron rails, upon which more than two hundred loco- motives are in perpetual motion, drawing their lengthened trains of commerce to the marts.

Then, two-thirds of Iowa was owned and peo- pled by numerous tribes of wild Indians. Now,

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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

Iowa has one hundred conntics, in which mnni- cipal law is administered and civil liberty guar- anteed to everyone by an enlightened people.

Then, Iowa had no system of common schools. Now it has a cash fund of $2,557,107, and a land fnnd, not sold, (at $3.50 per acre) of $2,000,000, equaling over four and a half millions of dollars. It has over 6000 school houses, worth over $4, 000,- 000, in which, by law, school must be kept at least six months in each year. It spends over $750,000 annually in building and repairing school houses. It has about 375,000 pupils, and employs about 10,000 teachers, and pays them $1,300,000 annually. Besides this, Iowa has 63 academies, colleges and universities, and 182 newspapers; with asylums for the deaf, the mute, the blind and the insane, with many other public edifices; and owes no debts.

Twenty-five years ago, Iowa was on the ex- treme border of civilization. All west of it for 1,800 miles, to the Pacific Ocean, was one vast mountain wilderness Now that is all in States and Territories, teeming with millions of civil- ized people, subject to municipal law. Then there was but two States and one Territory west of the Mississippi. Now there are eleven States and nine organized Territories. Surely, "West- ward the star of the empire takes its way !"

Then the railroad car ran from Boston to Erie, in Pennsylvania. Now it crosses the continent and waters its steed in the Pacific.

Then the telegraph wire extended all the way from Washington to Baltimore, and began to talk that James K. Polk was nominated. Now it stretches under the ocean and around the world.

Then this nation was half slave and half free. Now Mason and Dixon's line is blotted out, and every man owns himself.

Twenty-five years ago this Government was an experiment, and a reproach and by-word in the mouths of kings and monarchs. Through great tribulation it has come out refined and purified, and now before the world it stands first in wis- dom, greatest in power, and noblest in generos- ity. Its statesmen are teaching the monarchs of the world, and the power of its political econo- my, like the rock cut out of the monntain, is rolling onward with majestic sway, and crowns

and thrones, and principalities, are flowing bc- fore it like shadows of night before the bright morning sun, and crumbling and wasting away, and the surging masses of the people of all na- tions are stretching ont their arms to embrace it.

I came to this county and located in Pleasant Township, on section 21, town 87 north of range 20 west, with my family, consisting of myself, wife, and three little girls, ranging from eight months to seven years old, on the first day of October, 1851, my entire worldly wealth cousist- ing of two pairs of work oxen, two milk cows and two calves, two pigs, half a dozen hens, one old wagon, with a very scanty outfit of house- hold and kitchen furniture; cash, not one pen- ny, and my nearest neighbor about eight miles away; and how I lived through the first year, or especially the first winter, has been and perhaps always will be a mystery to myself, as the spring and summer of that year was an exceedingly wet one, having commenced raining on the 9th day of May, 1851, and continuing to rain more or less every 24 hours until the 27th day of July, therefore there was but little raised in the coun- try at large, and nothing to speak of in this county, and but very little in Marshall, the county down the river directly below us; but the settlers in that, then new county were kind, as frontier men always are, and frankly divided with us up here.

You see from the above dates that it was far · past hay-making time There had already been frosts, and the wild grass was drying fast, and hay my only chance to winter my six head of cattle; hence the first thing was to save the hay, and live out doors until the hay was secured. I next went to work to build a log cabin. and be- foie I got the roof on there fell about four inches of snow on our beds one night. After I got our house covered, I would haul hay in the daytime, and my wife would stack it, and at night she would get the children to bed in one corner of the house, for at this juncture we called it our "housc," and then keep light by putting on the best chips, for we had no kerosene lamp nor oil; neither had we candles, for two excellent rea- sons: first, we had no money to buy them; sec- ond, there were none to buy, to make light for me to see to hew puncheons, split from bass-

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wood logs, for a floor for our house. We would do this until 10 or 12 o'clock at night, and next morning resume the hay hauling. So we worked at house-carpentering in the night-time and hay- hauling in the day-time, until the house was floored and the hay was stacked; yet the space between the logs was open, hence it had to be chunked and daubed, as we frontiersmen call it, to make a wall By this time it was Novem- ber, the ground frozen from four to six inches, and snowing. We had to cut through the frost to get ground for mortar. My wife heated water, and I, with my hands, made the mortar and threw it into the cracks, and it froze there, and made us a warm house until spring thawed it out. We made a chimney out of some boards I had sawed six miles southcast of Marshalltown. By this time we had consumed all our corn meal, and I started in pursuit of bread, without money. Well, the people of Marshall county were kind, and I got a bushel of corn from one man and a half bushel from another, etc., until I collected nine bushels, six for myself and three for my neighbor, James Miller, the second settler in this township. I then went to a corn-cracker, six miles southeast of Marshalltown, on Timber creek. (By the way, the now city of Marshall- town consisted of one log cabin.) Mr. Boman, the mill.owner, very kindly boarded me on but- ter-milk and corn bread for my labor with team, for the privilege of watching the little mill at night, which would grind one and a half bush- els from twilight until about sunrise next morn- ing. The programme each evening, after my day's work was done, and my regular supper was finished, was as follows: I was directed to measure and put into the hopper one and a half bushels of corn; the old man would take out the toll, and leave me to my lonely vigils until morning; he would then relieve me, and then I could give my oxen some poor hay, eat my regular breakfast, and resume my regular busi- nesss of cutting and hauling logs for the sheep house. Thus I worked for six days, and then I left for homc, a distance of 35 miles, and arrived there the next morning about 2 o'clock, with six bushels of meal for myself and threc for Mr. Miller, and felt quite- independent; found my wife and children well, and guarding

our six hens that roosted on a ladder that stood outside the house by the chimney, from the prairie wolves. I then commenced cutting and hauling rail-timber in the log, on the lines on which I proposed to build my fence; broke my axe cutting a tree; had to go 25 miles with my ox team, in very cold weather, to get another, before I could even cut any firc-wood. Now, as I stated in my introduction I could refer to but few incidents, I will relate only one other, so this general statement must suffice : I fre- quently swam my oxen hitched to the wagon, out of pure necessity, and was in swimming water, among floating ice, four times during my first winter, when the weather was cold enough to freeze my clothes as hard as a board in one minute after the air struck me, and miles from any house or fire; but what I said I was going to relate is this : I had shaped my affairs to start on my last foraging expedition for a supply of bread to last till I could get a crop planted, on the first day of March, and on the morning of that day snow was falling and con- tinued until the next day afternoon, and was on a level 18 inches deep, and I left home on the fourth day, and that day the wind got in the southeast, and the snow began to melt, and before I could get a grist of corn gathercd by, a little here and a little there, in the neighborhood of Albion, in Marshall county, the streams were very much swollen, but I got to Lynn creek, below where the town of Marshall now stands, for I was heading for the same mill of sheep- . house-butter-milk - and - corn dodger notoriety. I was compelled to stop on account of the poles that constituted the floor of the bridge over that stream having been taken away by the flood. I remained over night with Mr. Crowder, who lived close by, and through the night the water went down and we found the poles 80 rods below, lodged against a gorge of ice. Mr. Crowder assisted, and we took them, recovered the bridge, and I went to the mill, got my corn ground and returned homeward, and got as far as Minervy creek, which I found about 60 rods wide. There I was compelled to remain for a number of days, until the creek got within its banks. I then, assisted by Mr. Lacy, got a canoe from the river, half a mile below, ran it

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up the creek to the ford, boated my load over, swam my cattle and wagon, loaded my meal and again started for home. Yet there remained another barrier between me and home-Honey creek. By this time the weather was cold, wind northwest and ice rapidly forming in the creek. I carried my meal across in a drift, broke the ice in the channel, and undertook to swim my lead cattle, but they were so opposed to the cold water that they would not go, after repeated effort to make them take the water, and I had become excited, and in a nice sweat, I aban- doned my theory, which was to get the leaders on the opposite shore for an attraction for the tongue cattle. The ford crossed the stream diag- onally up stream, about 4 rods from shore to shore.

As I said, I was mad. I jumped into the wagon and forced my oxen into the creek; but instead of keeping the channel I had broken for them through the thin ice, they went directly up stream to the drift already mentioned, and floated against the perpendicular bank, heads up stream and the water just to the top; water 8 feet deep. I was forced to get in, loose the wagon, which drifted down stream 8 or 10 rods, and sank under water. I also had to unyoke the cattle, as they could not turn around, on account of the ice. One ox went out on either side; therefore, my wagon was sunk in the creek, one ox-yoke on the bank, one pair, my leaders, gone, I knew not where, with the yoke on, my meal and a little meat I had procured laying on the creek bank, my clothes froze on .me from my head to my heels, and two miles to where I could procure means to take my provi- sions to a place of safety. This I did before I saw fire. Well, next morning, with two men to assist me, I collected my cattle, felled a tree into the creek, fastened a rope, connected with chains, around one hind wheel, the only part out of water, hitched on the cattle and pulled it

out, all but the box, which floated off, and I was necessarily compelled to get wet to my hips to procure my wagon-box, and at about 2 o'clock P. M. I was all righted up, wind in the north- west, snow flying, a distance of 20 miles away, with no house between me and home. I went on foot about half the distance, to keep warm, till I became exhausted, then I got into the wagon and arrived home some time in the night, almost dead, speechless, and unable to get into the house without the help of my wife; had been absent about 16 days; found my wife and three little girls almost starved, having sub- sisted on fourteen very small ears of corn, of which five ears yet remained; found our best cow dead, also the big dog, but the little dog was saved alive by our eldest girl dividing with him her rations. Bingo was her's, and a great favorite. My wife prepared her corn in the fol- lowing manner: A part she made up in lye hominy; the residue she parched, ground in the coffee-mill, and baked in cakes. This grist lasted us till I got corn, squashes, pumpkins and potatoes growing, with fish and wild onions, greens, etc., we lived pretty well until garden sauce came in.

I could give other near approximations to the one just related, but we think that what has gone before will be sufficient to give to those that have never passed through the ordeal of settling a new country, some idea of the priva- tions of pioneer lifc; and were it possible for such that have never passed through such an experience, to go back with me and others to the years 1850-51, and endure what we and our families passed through, I would be ready to exchange with the Queen of Sheba, after seeing the magnificence and grandeur of the works of Solomon, and hearing his words of wisdom, for herself, from his own lips. The half has never been told.

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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE WAR FOR THE UNION.

The institution of slavery was always a source of trouble between the free and slave-holding States. The latter were always troubled with the thought that the former would encroach upon their rights, and nothing could be done to shake this belief. Compromise measures were adopted from time to time to settle the vexed question of slavery, but the fears of the slaveholders were only allayed for a short time. Threats of secession were often made by the slave-holding States, but as some measures of a conciliatory character were passed, no attempt was made to carry their threats into execution. Finally came the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the adoption of a measure known as the Kansas-Nebraska bill. This bill opened certain territory to slavery which, under the former act, was forever to be free. About the time of the passage of this act, the Whig party was in a state of dissolution, and the great body of that party, together with certain Democrats who were opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, united, thus forming a new party to which was given the name of Republican, having for its object the prevention of the further extension of slavery. The people of the South imagined they saw in this new party not only an organized effort to prevent. the extension of slavery, but one

that would eventually be used to destroy slavery in those States in which it already existed.

In 1860 four Presidential tickets were in the field . Abraham Lincoln was the candidate of the Republicans, Stephen A. Douglas of the National Democrat, John C. Breckenridge of the Pro-Slavery inter- ests, and John Bell of the Union. The Union party was composed principally of those who had previously affiliated with the American or Know-Nothing party. Early in the campaign there were threats of secession and disunion in case of the election of Abraham Lincoln, but the people were so accustomed to Southern bravado that little heed was given to the bluster.

On the 20th of December, 1860, South Carolina, by a convention of delegates, declared "That the Union now existing between South Carolina and the other States of North America is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has re- sumed her position among the Nations of the earth as a free sovereign and inde- pendent State, with full power to levy war and conclude peace, contract alliances, . establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do."

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HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY.

On the 24th Gov. Pickens issued a pro- clamation declaring that "South Carolina is, and has a right to be, a free and inde- pendent State, and as such has a right to levy war, conclude peace, and do all acts whatever that rightfully appertain to a free and independent State."

On the 26th Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie and occupied Fort Sumter. Two days previously he wrote President Buchanan's Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, as follows:

"When I inform you that my garrison consists of only sixty effective men, and that we are in very indifferent works, the walls of which are only fourteen feet high; and that we have, within one hundred and sixty yards of our walls, sand hills which command our works, and which afford admirable sites for batteries and the finest coverts for sharp-shooters; and that be- sides this there are numerous houses, some of them within pistol shot, and you will at once see that, if attacked in force, headed by any one but a simpleton, there is scarcely a possibility of our being able to hold out long enough for our friends to come to our succor."

His appeals for re-inforcements were seconded by General Scott, but unheeded by President Buchanan, and entirely ignored by John B. Floyd, Secretary of War.

On the 28th South Carolina troops occu- pied Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney, and hoisted the palmetto flag on the ramparts. On the 29th John B. Floyd resigned his place in Buchanan's cabinet, charging that the President, in refusing to remove Major Anderson from Charles- ton Harbor, designed to plunge the country

into civil war, and added: "I cannot con- sent to be the agent of such a calamity." On the same day the South Carolina com- missioners presented their official creden- tials at Washington, which, on the next day, were declined.

On the second day of January, 1861, Georgia declared for secession, and Geor- gia troops took possession of the United States arsenal in Agusta, and Forts Pulaski and Jackson.

Gov. Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the forts at Beaufort and Wilmington and the arsenal at Fayetteville. On the evening of the 4th, the Alabama and Mississippi delegations in Congress telegraphed the conventions of their respective States to secede, telling them there was no prospect of a satisfactory adjustment. On the 7th, the conventions of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee met in secession conclave. On the 9th, Secretary Thompson resigned his seat in the Cabinet on the ground that, contrary to promises, troops had been sent to Major Anderson. On the 9th, the "Star of the West," carrying supplies and re-in- forcements to Major Anderson, was fired into from Morris Island, and turned homeward, leaving Fort Sumter and its gallant little band to the mercy of the rebels. On the same day, the ordinance of secession passed the Mississippi Convention. Florida adopted an ordinance of secession on the 10th, and Alabama on the 11th. The same day (the 11th) Thomas, Secretary of the Treasurer, resigned, and the rebels seized the arsenal at Baton Rouge, and Forts Jackson and St. Philip, at the mouth of the Mississippi river, and Fort Pike at the Lake Pontchartrain entrance. Pensa- cola navy yard and Fort Barrancas were

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surrendered to rebel troops by Colonel Armstrong on the 13th. Lieutenant Slemmer, who had drawn his command from Fort McRae to Fort Pickens, defied Armstrong's orders, and announced his intention to "hold the fort" at all hazards. The Georgia Convention adopted an ordi- nance of secession on the 19th. On the . 20th, Lieutenant Slemmer was beseiged by a thousand "allied troops" at Fort Pickens. Louisiana adopted an ordinance of seces- sion on the 25th. On the 1st of February the rebels seized the United States Mint and custom house at New Orleans. The Peace Convention assembled at Washing- ton on the 4th, but adjourned without doing anything to quiet the disturbed elements. On the 9th, a provisional con- stitution was adopted at Montgomery, Alabama, it being the Constitution of the United States "reconstructed" to suit their purpose. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stevens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the " Confederate States of North America." Jeff. Davis was inaugurated on the 18th, and on the 25th it was learned that General Twiggs, commanding the Department of Texas, had basely betrayed his trust, and that he had surrendered all the military posts, munitions and arms to the authori- ties of Texas.

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History of Hardin county, Iowa, together with sketches of its towns, villages and townships, educational, civil, military and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 51

Author: Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Springfield IL : Union Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1002

Author:
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Springfield IL : Union Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1002