USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 17
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The first State Senator for this county was James D. Test, of Council Bluffs, who was elected in 1853; Wm. H. Pusey, of Council Bluffs, in 1857; John F. Duncombe, of Fort Dodge, in 1859; G. W. Bassett, of Fort Dodge, in 1863; Addison Oliver, of Onawa, in 1865; Charles Atkins, of Onawa, in 1869; George
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
D. Perkins, of Sioux City, in 1873; A. W. Ford, of Logan, in 1877; T. M. C. Logan, of Logan, in 1881; L. R. Bolter, of Logan, in 1885.
JUDGES OF THE DISTRICT COURT.
The first person to preside as a Judge of the District Court within the county was Samuel Riddle, of Council Bluffs, who was elected in 1854; Asahel W. Hubbard, of Sioux City, was elected in 1858; Isaac Pendleton, of Sioux City, in 1862; Henry Ford, of Magnolia, in 1866 and 1870; Charles H. Lewis, of Cherokee, in 1874, 1878 and 1882; Chas. H. Lewis, Geo. W. Wakefield and Scott McLadd, of Cherokee, in 1886.
Judge Lewis has served more consecutive years on the bench than any other individual in the State of Iowa except the Hon. George W. Ruddick, of Bremer county, which would indicate the fitness of the man and the faith which the people have in his integrity.
CIRCUIT JUDGES.
Upon the passage of the act of the Twelfth General Assembly of date as hereinbefore designated, whereby the office of Circuit Judge was provided for, and this of date of April 3d, 1868, and taking effect the first Monday of January, 1869, except as to the election of the judges as provided for by said act.
Hon. Addison Oliver, of Monona county, was elected at the general election of 1868, and re-elected at the general election of 1872, and resigned in August of 1874.
J. R. Zuver, of Magnolia, Harrison county, was appointed by the Governor, and at the general election of 1874, was elected to fill the vacancy or unexpired term of Judge Oliver.
Judge Zuver was re-elected at the general election of 1876, and again re-elected at the general election of 1880.
By reason of bodily ailments, Judge Zuver was unable to dis- charge the duties of the office for the last two years of his last term, and the result was that this end of the circuit district
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
was practically without circuit court for the years of 1883 and 1884.
Hon. George W. Wakefield, of Sioux City, was elected at the general election of 1884, and for the years of 1885 and 1886, ably discharged the duties of said office, when by act of the Twenty-first General Assembly, as before stated, was legislated out of office.
This was the prospective ending of the Circuit Judge system, inaugurated in 1869, and abolished or ending with the year of 1886, lasting seventeen years.
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RAILROADS,
At the time when settlement was first had in the county, and I might say up to and until after the organization thereof, were not taken into consideration, in the selections of homes or the location of great cities.
Henry Reel, one of the oldest men in the county, ran away from the State of Indiana, in order to rid himself of the pres- ence of railroads; but scarcely had he quieted down in his new home on the banks of the Boyer, until the advance agents of the.N. W. Railroad were knocking at his door demanding the price of right of away, and offering the privileges of station and town site.
Mr. Reel was like the individual who had formed a great aversion to the Methodists, and determined that he would leave their presence and locate in a place where these shouting, pray- ing excitable fanatics did not exist; so putting family and traps into the "ship of the desert " started toward the setting of the sun. A few were found in Illinois; they were quite numerous in Iowa, but in Nebraska they were very scarce, but wishing to live in a place wholly free from these, he passed on and on until the shores of the Pacific were reached, and not having seen any human being for three or four months, supposed that he had at last come to that place he long had sought, and mourned because
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
he had found it not, until the present; when in the evening hour he and family heard the echoing of a sweet, full voice far down the canyon; jumping to his feet he exclaims: " What's that, what's that? Listen!" when up through the valley is heard the voice of a woman singing,
"Jesus, lover of my soul.''
" Well," says he to his wife, " there's no use trying to get away from these noisy Methodists, and I'm goin' to jine the church to-morrer." So, with Mr. Reel; he then thought that there was no use in trying to get away from the railroads, and made the best terms he could with them, and as a result, they located a station on his land, which to-day is the county seat of the county about which I'm trying to tell.
At the time of the first settlement of this county, there was not a railroad within a thousand miles of this place, and it was more than three years after the organization of the county before there was a tie or rail laid in the State.
The first railroad to reach the Mississippi, pointing toward the mighty west, was that of the Chicago & Rock Island, which first touched the banks of the Father of Waters in 1854, and in the same year the corner stone for the bridge across that stream was laid. How many of my readers remember with what energy, vim and persistency the people of St. Louis fought this enterprise, and how many now know that in less than twenty years thereafter this same people atoned for their folly by building a bridge of their own across the same river at and opposite their own city.
The first railroad built in this State was done in 1856, when the Chicago & Rock Island was completed to Iowa City, and at that time there were three other lines looking towards the Mis- souri river. The first road to deliver and receive freight and passengers at the banks of the " Big Muddy," was the Chicago & North western, and this was in December of 1866.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
The building of the C. & N. W. R. R. from Cedar Rapids to the Missouri river at Council Bluffs, was as follows: 1
From Cedar Rapids to Chelsea, 40 miles, completed Decem- ber 1, 1861.
From Chelsea to Marshalltown, 70 miles, completed December 12, 1862.
To State Centre, 85 miles, completed December 12, 1863.
To Nevada, 100 miles west of Cedar Rapids, July 4, 1864.
To Boone, March 1, 1865; and to Council Bluffs, a distance of 271 miles in December, 1866.
The Sioux City & Pacific road was built and the cars run- ning in the month of December, 1867.
The Milwaukee & Chicago road caught off a corner of the county at the southeast in 1881.
These three roads at the present give to the people of the county reasonable facilities for passengers and freight, being located as follows: The Northwestern entering the county at or about four miles from the northeast corner and running thence in a direction west of south until the town of Missouri Valley is reached, then directly south until the county line is reached, being a distance of 30 and 33-100 miles, assessed at $10,300 per mile.
The Sioux City & Pacific leaves Missouri Valley and runs directly west for six miles and then turns an elbow and runs in a nearly direct line north until the north line of the county is passed, being a distance of from one to six miles of the Mis- souri river on the entire west side of the county, and reports as the number of miles in the county, 31 and 81-100, and reported at the value of $3,500 per mile.
The Milwaukee nearly cuts the center of Washington town- ship north and south and furnishes this part of the county with outlet and inlet by which the settlement of this part of the county has been more rapid and marked than any other part of the entire county. For some reason, not known to the writer,
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
this road gives better terms on freight than the other road, and as a consequence, produce brings a higher price than along the line of the Northwestern. This road reports the number of miles of road-bed in this county at nearly seven.
Many of our people to-day have much to say in the way of "cussing" the railroads and the railroad corporations, but of these crazy few, scarcely one of them lived in the county prior to the time railroads first sent their engines screaching down the Boyer valley or up the Missouri bottoms; for preceding the time of the breaking out of the Rebellion, at a time when there was no means of transportation, except that upon which so many have harped in order to get into office, viz .: the Mis- souri river transportation, and as a sequence, no market, save local demand, the corn which during this year is bringing 40 cents per bushel and "the hog with the wool thereon," brings five cents, then did not command any price; a bushel of corn in 1860 would scarcely purchase a pound of nails, and the hog dressed and ready for the eater went begging on the streets of old Mag- nolia, then the emporium of Harrison county markets, at one cent per pound.
In the winter of 1860 I purchased of Mr. William Morrow, of the Soldier river, two dressed hogs (which I really did not need) for four dollars and fifty cents, they weighing 450 pounds.
Reuben Gurley, who in 1857-58-59-60, resided near the pres- ent site of Modale, made his fences by witheing and pinning the fence rails to the posts. A grain sack, by a very little tailor work, was transformed into a pair of pants; corn would not pur- chase boots unless taken to L. S. Snyder's store' at Magnolia, because this man would "swap " goods for anything that was brought him, from a load of sand up to cottonwood lumber or a consignment of plug hats. This country was all along blessed with a great abundance to eat, but the wearing part, or the ward- robe, often indicated the conditions of domestic manufacture.
Peter Brady, at and about the last of the '50s or in 1860,
14
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carted a load of No. 1 wheat to Council Bluffs, and they did not offer him as much for the same as his expenses were in transporta- tion by horse enginery, and old Uncle Pete became so indignant that he emptied the entire load out in the street, for which obstruction to travel he came near being arrested, and had it not been for his good standing in society and a knowledge that he was at the time of the commission of the act so "infernal" mad, they would have put him in the cooler.
In 1858 one Isaac Parrish came to this country and settled in the neigborhood of California Junction, and had been a Rep- resentative from some of the Ohio Districts in the Twenty-sixth Congress.
One evening at the old "Bates Castle," in Magnolia, Parrish, in speaking of the future of this county, said: "It will not be ten years until there will be railroad cars running up and down the Boyer Valley, and when they do come they will strike Mc- Intosh's Point (the place where Missouri Valley is now located), and will run directly west, cross the Missouri river at Cincinnati and then on and on to San Francisco, and people will be riding across the continent from New York City to 'Frisco in less than twenty years in railroad cars."
I, among the rest of his auditors, thought the old gentleman was a little "loony," and that such a thing taking place in so short a period was an utter impossibility; others thought that such a condition would never come to pass by reason of what they termed a "fact"-that this country was only fit for the Injun and buffalo; that there was too much land and not enough people, and the country between this and the Mississippi would never be settled. Notwithstanding the want of faith of all the persons present, the iron horse was snorting up and down the Boyer within eight years, and the connection made by rail from San Francisco to New York City in eleven years from that date.
Some persons have said to me, "Good prices were here before
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the railroads," which I admit, because a temporary condition existed then which the railroads have made permanent.
The outbreak of the Indians on the frontier had caused the Government to station at Sioux City three or more regiments of cavalry in 1862, and this brought about a direct demand for corn and other edibles at this place, during all the time the troops were kept there. Corn in two weeks jumped from 10 cents per bushel to $1 per bushel, and this, and the demand at and toward the west, kept the prices at reasonable rates, but when Nebraska began raising her own crops, and the soldiers were dis- banded at Sioux City, had it not been for the railroads affording transportation, the prices would not have been any better than in 1859 and 1860.
Before dismissing the subject of railroads, I must tell a cir- cumstance which took place at the incoming of the C. & N. W. R. R., the subject of the sketch being a personage known by all the old settlers, viz .: Mr. Cornelius Dunham, who located in the northeast part of the county in 1851, and who was the most extensive cattle raiser in all the West.
This man, watching the approach of the railroads, thought that when the same had struck Harrison county he would have some cattle so fat that he would ship them to Chicago and astonish the cattle buyers of that place by reason of their superi- ority in size and quantum of fat. To this end, in the spring of 1864, he selected the choice of his herds, some fifty, kept them on tender grass during the summer-this fresh or tender grass being produced by successive burns of the prairie-and when the winter arrived put them on full feed of corn in the ear. This was repeated during all of the summer of 1865, as well as the corning process of the previous winter, and by the fall of 1866 his stock were so fleshy that they could scarcely waddle.
These were put on board of cars and they and Dunham started for Chicago, which mode of changing localities was as new to Dunham as to the stock in the cars in front, and scarcely had
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the train gotten under full headway, when Dunham cried out at the top of his voice, having his eyes directed heavenward: "Farewell vain world, I'm going home." He made the stock yards of Chicago, notwithstanding his first fright, and when once there, his cattle were the wonder of the vicinity. Never had such cattle been seen in the Chicago market, and scarcely ever a man so eccentric as the owner. All persons were admir- ing the cattle and asking questions, "Who raised this stock?" " Where did this stock come from ?. " "Is the owner of the cattle here?" When Dunham, stepping up, said, " Gentlemen, I raised these in western Iowa, and they belong to me." Again he is asked, "How do you manage to put such quantities of fat on your cattle?" Says Dunham, " Why, I, at the fall of the year, have a man at my cabin whose whole business is to make green spectacles, and on each of my steers I put a pair of these, and you should see how these 'tarnal steers eat up all the old dry grass in the neighborhood thinking it to be fresh grass just shooting from the ground, and there you have the result." Dunham's cattle brought far beyond the top of the market, and he was, by the cattle dealers, taken to the finest hotel in the city, being the admired of all admirers. The Sherman Hotel was, at that date, the great hotel, and Dunham being desirous of seeing what the ladies' parlor looked like, made his way into the same, when, being apprehended by the clerk, who wanted to know what Dunham was wanting there, Dunham replied, "Sir, I want a fine tooth comb, and I thought if you had one in the house I could find it here; the fact is, I have been in Chicago four days, stopping at your hotel, and have become lousy." Dunham was a man of fine intellect, well posted on all the issues of the day, and while at his home as generous as eccentric.
THE HARRISON COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY
Was first organized in 1858, and was composed of the following members, viz .: Henry Olmstead, President; John G. Downs, Secretary, and Directors as follows: Dr. J. S. Cole, J. H. Farns-
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
worth, William Dakan, Henry Reel, Dr. Robert McGavren, Stephen Mahony, Lucius Merchant, William T. Raymond, John M. Raymond, Patrick Morrow, John Noyes, Jacob S. Fountain, Daniel Drown, W. S. Meech, et al.
The fairs were held at and around the old court house, the latter being used as a hall for the fine arts, and place for exhi- bition of the cereals and vegetables. Fenced lots in the near proximity for places of exhibition of stock brought for display, and on the streets trotting and running of horses took place. Here these annual exhibitions took place for the period of eight years, at the ripening and ingathering of fruit, vegetable and cereal. Some of those who are young in years, now express themselves that it was a very short and unpropitious exhibition that such early days would bring forth, but such miscalculate the then condition of this most produc- tive country, because it must be understood that the soil of Har- rison county then produced more wonderfully than now, and that, at some of these old fashioned fairs, in Magnolia, there was a better display of vegetables and cereals than are upon the shelves at later fairs at Missouri Valley. True, at these convenings of the county farmers, the cane rack, wheel of for- tune, chuckaluck boards, ball and barrel hole, soap-man, pack- age swindle, running and trotting steals, were not yet invented and practiced in the west. These are useless, dangerous and stealing embellishments to a county fair, and are only permitted because of the money they bring into the society in the way of permits. Man is a strange being, for those who in public and private utterly discountenance saloons and saloon influence, curse high license with select words from the bitterest English, here for a three days' grace, silently lend their influence to the commission of crime by giving the same place, and are partici- pators in the commission of the offense. Consistency is a jewel, and they who could arrest the commission of crime, and will not, but take the blood of the boys of the county as a fee for
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
shutting their eyes for a few moments, compel the belief that their morality in this respect is near the surface. In 1866, a proposition was made to the Society, that the place of holding the fair be determined by the liberality of such location as would put up the best buildings and fence, and prepare the best grounds, in which contest the people of Little Sioux far outrivaled all else, and the place of holding the exhibition was changed from Magnolia to the latter place in 1867. The friends of Little Sioux had not only built a good substantial Floral hall, but in addition thereto, fenced a twenty acre track, and had the same in reasonable condition for speeding the goers. For one or more years there was an attempt to unite this county and Monona, making a common purse of the $400, State money, and that with the gate receipts, sufficient would be realized to justify reasonable premiums. This for some cause was a fail- ure, prominent among which were these, that the exhibition was so situate, in one corner of the county, that the principal farm- ing portion was not in reaching distance and the Monona peo- ple were cautious and fearful that they would not carry home all the prizes, and failed to participate; hence a call for a new location, in which Missouri Valley was promptly at the front, gave good fenced grounds, an excellent location, erected spa- cious Fine Art halls, and put the trotting track in very superior order.
In 1872 the exhibition was held at Missouri Valley, and year by year since, except one, in which the elements so conspired by a constant and continued rain for the entire period which Jonah was kept prisoner beneath the waves, in the bowels of the great fish.
During the summer of 1887 there was an excellent Floral hall erected, being 100x30 feet, and so constructed as to light and ventilation that they who had met at the old hall for the past decade could scarcely select enough endearing words to express their gratitude for this act. Nor was this needed improvement
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
furnished any too soon, from the fact that the old building had become so rickety that it was called the agricultural deadfall, and they who visited the fair were compelled to purchase acci- dent tickets in order to be ready for the emergency.
The new building cost $1,200, and will meet the demands of the fair going people for a half score of years.
This Society has been very ably managed financially, from the fact that, notwithstanding a new hall has been recently added and all stalls and the track put in good order, the Society, after promptly paying rather more than ordinary premiums, is wholly out of debt, and has a bank account of $76.88.
The gate money for the past year exceeded $1,700, to which, adding the rentals for booths, ampitheater, use of grounds, stalls, State money, $200, and cash from all sources, equals the sum of $2,700, from which subtracting the expenses, the remainder is judicionsly distributed as premiums for prizes awarded for goods, etc., on exhibition.
The fine arts were overburdened by the display at the last exhibition, while the stock yards and pig-pens were quite empty. The horses and horned cattle made a good showing, while the fruit, vegetables and such like productions, were simply immense.
The fruit stands and fruit exhibition, though only lacking in quantity, equalled, if not surpassed, in quality, that at the State Fair at Des Moines of the same year. The greatest difficulty experienced is, that producers do not take the trouble of exhib- iting the production of farm, garden, orchard and pasture fields. The younger portion of humanity take this as a holiday, by which to wear off the limbs of their lady-loves, pulverize candy, " bal- ance four and all hands 'round."
Mr. Henry Olmstead acted as President of this Society for two years, at which time Hon. P. Cadwell was elected continu- ously to the same position for twenty years, except the year of 1879, at which time Mr. G. D. Willson relieved Mr. Cadwell for this one year.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
In 1883 Mr. H. B. Cox was elected President and has been reelected to that position year by year up to the present time.
The first Secretary was John G. Downs, who in 1862 resigned by entering the army; and who performed the labors of the Society in this respect from that to 1872, deponent saith not, at which year last named Mr. C. W. Oden took charge of the work by being elected thereto, and ably performed this task until 1878, at which time Mr. James K. McGavren was drafted into the service and remained the secretary thereof until the election of 1883, when Mr. A. B. Hosbrook took charge of the labors and records, and has ably performed the arduous duties since then until the present.
Mr. Hosbrook has given universal satisfaction in the discharge of the duties of this office, but the four-fifths of the fair-going people of the county returned a verdict that the greater portion of the work and management of the office is planned and exe- cuted by his amiable, efficient and accomplished wife.
In 1872 the Society was reorganized by the following named persons: Phineas Cadwell, Joe H. Smith, C. W. Oden, Wm. H. Eaton, J. A. Brainard, J. S. Cole, Elijah Cobb, Patrick Morrow. Job Ross, W. S. Meech, O. J. Goodenough, Jacob T. Stern, Geo. Richardson, Colonel H. Wheeler, A. L. Harvey, R. B. Terry, Stephen King, H. B. Cox, David Gamett, Samuel DeCou, Wm. Chambers and Henry Garner.
The Directors at present are as follows: C. Willey, John Robinson, John T. Coffman, Wm. Kennedy, J. S. Vanderhoof, John Bolch, M. Murray, David Williams, J. Seddon, J. W. Stocker, F. W. Meyers, James Coulthard, Samuel Probasco, A. M. Silsbe, Henry Kirk, Wm. Cutler, E. F. James, James H. Farnsworth and J. C. McCabe.
The other officers are as follows: President, H. B, Cox; Vice President, B. J. Moore; Secretary, A. B. Hosbrook; Treasurer, G. W. McGavren.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
THE COUNTY BUILDINGS,
Regardless of what may be said by persons interested in other locations and who are desirous of changing the present location of the county seat, are wholly sufficient for the present wants of the public; in fact are superior to a majority of the public build- ings in counties in this State having nearly the same population and like property valuation.
The court house, located in the center of the town of Logan, was built during the Centennial year, and hence has only been in use for the past eleven years, and is a good brick structure two stories, 70 feet by 55 feet, the first or ground floor being cut up and finished into six offices for the following county officials, viz .: Auditor, Treasurer, Clerk, Recorder, Sheriff and County Superintendent. In each of these, except the Superintendent's, a first-class fire proof safe is furnished, and in those of the Audi- tor, Treasurer, Recorder and Clerk there are fire proof vaults of the latest improved character, built by Mr. John Hammer, of Council Bluffs, which will preserve the county records, though the entire building was to be consumed by fire. "The second floor is finished off for court and grand and petit jury rooms, thereby affording excellent accommodations for the public for the purposes intended. The court or auditorium room is perhaps the poorest room for public speaking of any in the State, from the fact that the acoustic arrangement has surprised both the contractors and the public. The room is 48 by 48 and 20 feet in heighth, with no effort to wire the same in order to stop the vibrations, and as a result the sound of the voice is echoed in such a manner as to make the same a confused conglomeration of sound not susceptible of being understood at any part of the room. This building was built by Yeisley & Stowell during the Centennial year and as above stated, is equal if not in advance of the county, and will supply the needs of the county for the pur- poses intended for the next ten or fifteen years. The cost of this building to the tax-payers of the county, outside of the
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