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 22
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The breakfast was just such a one that tempted the appetite, whether the party be hungry or otherwise. Breakfast being over the head of the family reverently took up the family Bible, selected and read a chapter, and then saying "let us bow in prayer," all but the candidate knelt, he sitting as immovable as a rock. Prayer being over a change came over the countenance of the good Deacon, who formerly was all smiles; now a cloud of contempt rested on his visage. The candidate and friend soon departed, but received a very mild good morning.
Scarcely had the politicians started, when the candidate was addressed by his friend in these words: "You eternal fool, why
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in the name of Jim Buchanan didn't you get down on your knees at prayers; by your want of respect to that good couple who did all in their power to entertain us, you lost the support of Mr. L., and you'll find him doing all he can, reasonably, to defeat you." And such was the fact; the host turned his atten- tion to Mr. Harvey and carried with him seventeen votes, and thereby Harvey was elected by a majority of one.
I have never censured the person who so kindly entertained the two politicians, for as in this case, the guest who would so out- rage the feelings of those who did all in their power to make the call pleasant, and would not conform to the customs of the family in the matter of family worship, justly merited a defeat at the polls.
While the electors were casting their ballots at the Whitesboro precinct at the fall election in 1867, John D. Dow, now of Cass township, was about to vote when he was gently tapped on the shoulder by Judge King, and requested to vote the Republican ticket, whereupon he was immediately approached by the Hon. L. R. Bolter and kindly presented with a Democratic ballot. Scarcely had these been received by him, when a boy delivered him a telegram from Boone. This being nearly the hour of noon, Mr. Dow made a circuit of the school house and came around to the polls on the other side, and slyly slipped up to the polls and voted, supposing that by so doing he would be unob- served by his political tormentors.
Then quietly retreating to the rear of the house, began to cleanse his pockets, found to his dismay that he had voted the telegram, for he still had the two opposing tickets.
As soon as the polls were opened after dinner the votist explained his predicament to the election board, and wanted his dispatch, which request being refused, our hero camped on the ground until the counting out of the ballots, when his dispatch was handed him; but now it was too late to make amends, for time, being the essence of the order, he had let it slip by political
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carelessness-the profits on a shipment of 500 sacks of flour had vanished. The moral is: vote your convictions regardless of the importunities of friend or foe.
A little escapade took place at Bigler's Grove school house on the Saturday evening preceding the election in the fall of 1867, which will not be forgotten by those who were then present. Hon. L. R. Bolter was the Democratic candidate for Represent- ative, and Joe H. Smith the standard bearer for the same place on the Republican ticket. This was the last meeting of the campaign, and was considered as the " round up," for these two worthies had met in joint discussion in very many places in this and Shelby county, and the contest had been one of considerable spirit.
The meeting at this place was one called by the friends of Mr. Bolter, and was intended to take Smith by surprise, and therefore take the pole in the race; but Smith was somewhat on the alert and caught the trick on the fly. Both were just returning from Shelby county and met at Woodbine, when Smith was informed by a good, staunch Democratic friend that Mr. Bolter had made some exhibits not commendatory to Mr. Smith in a temperance point of view, and this exhibit being one in which the competitors had jointly invested, and both tried quite frequently to suppress. But empty bottles, like Bancho's ghost, will not down at every bidding, hence the charge by Mr. Bolter and the corroborating evidence.
The meeting at the school house aforesaid was called to order, when the Hon. W. W. Wilson (now of Lincoln, Neb.), was called to the chair, when Mr. B. entered on the discussion by saying:
"MR. CHAIRMAN-I appear before you to-night to discuss the principles which divide the two great political parties. I have drawn, presented and filed an indictment against the Repub- lican party, charging this party with malfeasance and corruption in office. And, (addressing the chair,) Mr. Chairman, if you will
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pass me that satchel, from that I will take and read you the indictment to which your attention has been so frequently called."
The chairman caught up this bundle of Democratic proof and in attempting to pass the same to the speaker, the center of gravity fell beyond the base, and to the consternation of all, (even Mr. Bolter,) out rolled a quart of very poor whisky and fell at Bolter's feet, the bottle breaking into a thousand frag- ments and the fluid running in a stream toward the west.
At this the friends of Smith set up such an unearthly howl that even the rafters of the little building creaked and bent, saying: "Bolter, your indictment has busted. It is a poor article. That is the old argument; we have had enough of that. No reform in that," etc., etc., etc.
Who ever has read of the salt statuary of Mrs. Lot and tried to picture in imagination the appearance thereof, can form a reasonable opinion of the appearance of the speaker on this occasion; for of the presence of the bottle in the grip- sack, Mr. Bolter has often assured me that he had not even the most remote idea of the same being there.
Mr. Bolter was unquestionably taken by surprise, for at the happening of this misfortune, he stood speechless, the great drops of perspiration gathering on his forehead in quantities indicat- ing that he was taking a Turkish bath.
Some wild persons hint that Smith, even now, knows some- thing as to the presence of this "Democratic indictment," but of course he would refuse to give any testimony convicting him- self.
When Frank W. Palmer and P. Gad Bryan were competitors for Congress in the fall of 1868, the friends of both parties had set a day for a joint discussion at Magnolia, and to accommodate the public a booth was erected at the north side of the old court house. When the people had assembled, there was a vast mul- titude congregated to listen to the respective speakers.
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The discussion was opened by Mr. Palmer and the same being a little lengthy, one of the Democratic brethren from Douglas became " thirsty "-adjourned to a neighboring saloon to wet his Democratic whistle, and on returning had a rush of blood to his head, and therefore was compelled to steady himself by catching hold of one of the pillars that held up the shedding of the booth, and in this condition, not noticing that Mr. Palmer had closed his speech, began to mutter something about the " black Abolitionist " in a way that resembled the groanings of a calf in great pain; whereupon the speaker, Mr. Bryan, stopped and loudly said: " I do wish some good Democrat would take the dogs off that Republican calf," referring to the individual hold- ing on for dear life to the post. Then the crowd of Republicans yelled back, "that's your own calf-that's your own stock, help him yourself."
One more illustration, and I'm done. It is this: Of persons present at the National Democratic Convention, which met in the city of Chicago, in 1884, none felt the inspiration of the occasion more forcibly than Fred Kimpel, Esq., of Logan.
Mr. Kimpel, though not a delegate from his State, became convinced that this great National convocation of the good Demo- crats might perhaps need his counsel, and hence, like thousands of others, was preseut to guide and assist the party, in case an emergency should arise. However, Mr. Cleveland was nomi- nated and elected, and the subject of this sketch still declares that the voice of the convention was evenly balanced until he threw his support for the successful candidate.
The Convention being over, and the party intoxicated with excitement, was ready to take in the city. Mr. Kimpel, among the others of this immediate vicinity, wished to gaze on the noble features of Mr. "Paddy" Ryan, and to that end passed directly to the saloon occupied and engineered by the said worthy. Fred was never at a loss for words or cheek, for as soon as he had entered the building, he approached the retired
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pugilist and said: "Mr. Ryan, Mr. Paddy Ryan, Dear Sir: My name is Mr. Fred Kimpel, from Logan. I keep a creamery there -glad to meet you." Fred called for something to inspire, and then said: "Mr. Ryan, jist charge this, and when I git back to the creamery I'll send you a firkin of butter, you bet." This did not quite suit the tastes of the man of fighting qualities, and had it not been for the presence of some of the friends of the butter making, self-constituted delegate, Ryan would have been offered a share of the creamery.
18
CHAPTER V.
MURDERS AND MURDER TRIALS
In the county since the first settlement made therein, while not as numerous as in many other places, still present a record, showing that the spirit which actuated Cain to kill his brother has been by far too often practiced.
The first person murdered in the county, so far as the recollec- tion of man runneth, was one of the wives of a certain French- man, by the name of Charles La'Ponteur, who at the time referred to, viz .: 1850, resided at a place near the prosperous village of Little Sioux, on a tract of land which was by him subsequently laid off into a town, and called Fontainebleau, and now owned and used by Mr. Michael Murray as a cornfield.
This man La'Ponteur, was an Indian trader, and had married, previous to this time, two Omaha squaws, and both were living with him at the time of the occurrence of which I am about to relate.
The Omahas and Sioux Indians were at this time at war with each other, and in the spring of 1850, while these squaws or wives of La'Ponteur were out on a little strip of plowed ground planting corn, the Sioux, numbering a score of warriors, secretly stole upon them, and before they were within shooting distance of these defenseless beings, they well knew the fate that awaited them. One of the wives had a daughter not quite fourteen years of age, and while the bloodthirsty Sioux were advancing, the mother of the girl told the daughter that as soon as the advanc- ing party would shoot, for her to fall instanter to the ground and feign death, and remain in that condition until an oppor- tunity would offer by which she could escape, and that she, the mother, would run for the river, and possibly might escape, "for,"
(274)
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said she, " the Indians will shoot at me, and the possibility is that I may only be wounded, and if you fall, they will think that they missed me and shot you." Scarcely had this direction been given, when the shots were fired, and the girl, true to the orders given her, fell prone to the earth, but the mother, wounded, as full well knew she would be, like the mother bird, when molested at the coveted nest, ran and partly flew so as to call the atten- tion of the invader to her, and save the young; but by the time she reached the Little Sioux river, was captured, tomahawked and scalped, the girl in the meantime making good her escape.
The next Indian murdered was in the winter of 1864, in Clay township, in the helt of timber that skirts the Missouri river, and was as follows: A band of Omahas, or Pawnees, were at work in the timber cutting saw logs and cordwood, and this being so very close to the time of the brutal massacres in Minne- sota and Northern Iowa, the settlers had much to say con- cerning Indian cruelty and perfidy, which conversation was usually more or less had before the children of the family or neighborhood. In the many families in which these stories were constantly dwelt upon, none more fully discussed the situa- tion than the families of Horatio Caywood and James Mathers, and the latter having a step-son named William Brown, a lad of eighteen summers, and withal brutal as well as cowardly, being educated by the expressions of the home, and supposing that he would make himself famous, deliberately took a rifle and quietly stole near where a party of young Indian men were at their work, and without any cause or justification shot one of the young men aged about twenty-three, whereof he immediately died.
This act of cowardice and cruelty passed quite unnoticed from the fact that the public mind at this time was constantly being fed on news from the battle-fields in the South, and the reading or recital of a battle, unless the killed exceeded ten or fifteen thousand, was scarcely worth mention. This, chinked by the
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murder of Provost and Deputy-Marshals in many parts of the State, to which add the Indian massacres as before stated, left the assessment on a poor Indian's life scarcely worth the paper on which the mention thereof was made by the public press.
Then followed the cold blooded murder of an old Omaha Chief by the name of Yellow Smoke, at Dunlap in 1869.
Many of the men now, who were boys in the last half of the '60 decade, well remember old Yellow Smoke as the old " Injun" who would visit the schools in the east half of the county while the schools were in session and ask the teacher for something to eat, and point at the dinner baskets of the different pupils which contained the commissary of the pupils, as they hung sus- pended on nails along the walls of the school room.
This old beggar once or more times entering a school room where Prof. S. G. Rogers was teaching, would make his hungry condition known to the teacher, who would donate his dinner to this " dusky son of the forest," and as soon as this was eaten he would signify to the teacher and scholars that he had not been furnished half a meal, and the children, with one hand on the top of their heads to still keep possession of their scalps, would immediately donate all the commissary stores to him in order to save Mr. Injun the trouble of taking a patch out of the top of their heads, as they supposed he would, as an ornament to his belt.
Yellow Smoke was an expert gambler, and in the year above named while at Dunlap one night taking a hand in a game, and being somewhat more successful than they who were at the board with him, a quarrel arose, as is usually the case in such entertainments, and from a quarrel the feud ripened into mur- der, for on the following morning old Yellow Smoke was found dead near the depot grounds, his skull being broken in two or more places, and every indication in the near proximity where the dead Indian was found showed that a fierce struggle had taken place, and that the old Chief had died game.
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This was an act of white men, but by whom committed, the Grand Jury or others never knew, and to this day the murder of old Yellow Smoke is still shrouded in mystery.
Before leaving the subject of "Injuns," I am constrained to relate a laughable circumstance which took place at Magnolia during the life of Yellow Smoke, and in which one Ike DePew, of that place, figured in a certain ridiculous way. It is this:
Old Yellow Smoke and his band of forty or more bucks, at many times accompanied by their squaws, would make hunting excursions through the country, and when there would be a scarcity of game they would prospect all the back alleys and barn yards in the neighborhood for dead hogs, cows and even dogs and sheep, and when such carcasses came in their way they would confiscate the same and would have a real feast. It made little difference to the "Injun " how long the animal had been dead so long as the flesh would hold together, nor was any in- quiry made as to what disease produced the death. The presence of the carcass and the obtainment of the possession thereof was the all-important consideration of the forager.
Apropos: at one of these taking up proceedings, old Yellow Smoke discovered three or four heads of hogs hanging on a fence along a back alley near where Mr. Al. Ovaitt lived, and Mr. DePew noticing the Injun in the act of confiscating the same, caught up a very large club and took after the blanketed thief, and in his anxiety to catch the fellow, apparently ran into a board fence and fell over the same, when the hungry fellow catching sight of the angry countenance of DePew, and seeing the large club he was possessed of, took to his heels and ran, when DePew seeing his game on the wing, took after him and chased him for twenty or more rods, when the Indian, to evade being clubbed, turned a corner of the street and ran directly in front of DePew's harness shop, which place the latter ran into, and gathering up an old gun which had neither cock or trigger, ran out into the street and pointing it at the fleeing Indian, halloed, "halt."
.
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No sooner did the Indian see the rifle pointed at him than he right about faced, tossed his red blanket off his shoulder, spilling more than a bushel of hogs' heads and livers, and then drawing his tomahawk and swinging it in the air in fanciful curves, made directly for DePew, beating his breast with the other hand and muttering all sorts of deprecations in the Indian vernacular. By this time the fun had taken a change of forum, and instead of DePew having all the fun to himself, the Indian had changed the deal so that DePew felt like retreating.
There never was a man so egregiously frightened as was De Pew at this stage of the proceedings, but being in presence of those who laughed so heartily at the Indian's discomfiture, he could not for shame call a retreat, but stood pale and motionless, as the Indian advanced with uplifted tomahawk; and when the Indian came nearly up to his thoroughly frightened victim, they who were witnesses to the apparent tragedy, interfered, helped Mr. Indian gather together his cast off provender and sent him on his way rejoicing. But Ike has never tried to chase an Indian since, or more particularly, point an empty gun at one in order to see him run. Tradition has it that DePew's mind for two weeks was wholly occupied during his sleep by Indian dreams. This continued until the change of the moon.
This is given as an illustration of the fact that a white man can race an Indian with a whip or club, but the moment a gun is drawn on one, that moment friendship ceases.
The first term of District Court held in the county was in No- vember, 1855, being presided over by Samuel Riddle, of Council Bluffs, at which time the first grand jury in the county was em- paneled, the names of whom are as follows: Creed Saunders, James Gamet, John Conyers, Chester Staley, H. H. Locklin, Thomas Meadows, P. R. Shupe, Thomas Sellers, S. A. Lyman, Solomon Barnett, John Deal, J. H. Holton, Solomon Gamet, and, two others failing to appear, Silas Rice and D. E. Brainard were taken from the bystanders to fill up the panel. These,
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after being organized, sworn and charged by the court, remained in session until noon of the following day, when they reported to the court that there were no indictable offenses committed within the county, and asked to be discharged, as they accord- ingly were.
The first criminal case tried was that of the State vs. Aaron Earnest, charged with larceny; and the first petit jury in the county, in a court of record, was had in this case, and were the following persons: Isaac Ellison, Thomas B. Neely, Jacob Min- turn, George W. White, H. H. Locklin, James Hendrixon, Geo. Thorpe, Warren White, Eli Coon, G. Feril, Andrew Allen and E. T. Hardin. These, after being duly sworn, and after hearing the evidence, argument of counsel, and being duly instructed by the court, retired, and in a short time returned into court with a verdict of "not guilty."
The next term that convened here was on the 5th of May, 1856, at which there was tried a cause from Woodbury county, entitled, The State of Iowa vs. W. B. Thompson. This man was charged with the murder of an Indian agent near Sioux City, by the name of Norwood. A jury was empaneled the first day of court, and in two days thereafter the farce of a trial was ended by the jury acquitting the defendant of the crime charged in the indictment.
At the same term another case was brought to this county from the same place on change of venue, and entitled as follows: The State of Iowa vs. Elias Shook. This case was the same as the one last above, being that of murder, and the killing was brought about in this way: Shook was a man of considerable property, and was holding down more acres than the law allowed him for a claim; and the man murdered had attempted to exercise his rights to a portion of the land by squatting on part of that claimed by Shook. Shook notified him to abandon the premises by a week, and if the party jumping his claim did not leave by that time he would eject him. To this threat the party claim-
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ing the rights of settlement paid no attention, and as a sequence, Shook, at the expiration of the week, loaded his gun, walked deliberately over to the place where the party had built his shanty, and without word or remark coolly shot him dead. In the trial of the last named case the defendant admitted the facts as above stated; admitted that he killed the party who attempted to, jump what he called his claim, and his attorneys put in a plea of self-defense; that the defendant had the unqualified right to defend his property, and especially his castle.
The attempt at this time to jump another's claim was consid- ered, the unpardonable sin, " the sin not to be repented of," and any person who would attempt to do so great a wrong to another was worthy of death. "Squatters' Rights" was the entire burden of the arguments of the defendant's counsel, and with results that fully warranted the plea, for scarcely had the jury been out a half hour when they had formulated a verdict and returned into open court with the old stereotyped verdict, " We the jury find the defendant not guilty."
The first case tried in the county on charge of murder com- mitted therein, was that of The State of Iowa vs. James E. Trip- lett. This was a cause which at the time of the origin and time of trial, perhaps caused as much comment, division or clustering of political lines as any one case in the entire State.
The defendant was indicted for the murder of his wife by the use of poisons, administered by his own hand while she was sick and under the guise of medicines. Of the numerous neighbor women who attended her during the time of her sickness and all through the time that the woman was gradually dying under the broken doses of strychnia said to have been given her by the defendant, none thought or even suspected that the deceased had died by violence; and though fourteen months after she had been buried, grave suspicions. began to have being in consequence of the conduct of the defendant. This conduct revealed the facts that for a long time prior to the death of the wife, the
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defendant and the daughter of his employer, Lewis S. Snyder, had been practicing assignations, and that at the very time the wife of the defendant was dying, the victim of the defendant's lusts, Miss Maggie Snyder wasenciente, together with other con- duct which I have not the time to fully set forth herein, and this suspicion ripening into action, was followed by the following named persons, viz .: Dr. J. H. Rice, Geo. G. Downs, Nathaniel McKimmey, Isaac Bedsaul and Joe. H. Smith repairing to the graveyard at Magnolia at the noon of night and exhuming the corpse of the deceased wife and after taking therefrom the stomach, placing the same in a jar and sealing the same, then returning the corpse back to the resting place in the grave, and taking the stomach to Omaha and having a chemist analyze the same, upon which analysis there was sufficient strychnia found to poison a half dozen of persons. This being reported to those above named, caused a warrant of arrest to be issued charging the defendant with the murder of his wife Phebe Triplett. The murdered wife had lain in the grave for fourteen months and so effecually had her system taken up the strychnia, that at this period, there was not the least noticeable decay of the body. The defendant after arrest was bound over to appear before the District Court at the following session, which convened in May, 1864, at which term he was indicted and the trial was begun on the 11th of said month, with the following named persons, residents in the county, as jurors, viz .:
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