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 26
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those who so unmercifully criticise, condemn and slander the real lawyer, can tell what the laws of the land are in which they live?
Right here permit me to say that those who seem to have the most to say against the attorneys are those who are the first to call into active being the services of an attorney.
Has the attorney ever manifested the want of ordinary discre- tion that many of the would-be honest farmers do, in matters pertaining to their ordinary business? Let a lightning rod squad come into a community, or a cloth, or tree, or cultivator, or plow peddler, strike a community, and in less than one week, the law- yer's office will be flooded with disgruntled farmers, who, by the flattery and deceit of those last above named, have been duped and magnificently bled out of their honest earnings.
The only way by which the services of an attorney can reasonably be dispensed with is for all men to deal justly one with the other, and let the promise be equally as binding as the written contract; for, rest assured, that as long as there is a determination to take advantage, to get something for nothing, to take advantage of the necessities of the unfortunate, to grind the poor by unconscionably overstepping their power to accom- plish and then, when the day arrives for payment, to take all the crystalizations of the last year's toil for a pittance, will call for the services of one knowing the law.
If there were no violations of the last five precepts of the Decalogue, there would be no lawyers to present a cause, there being no cause to present; but as long as mankind dishonor parents, kill each other, commit adultery, steal, bear false witness and covet and carry into existence this coveteous disposition, so long will there be courts to punish criminals and lawyers to prosecute and defend these forbidden acts.
A man may be a physician and not be possessed of sufficient professional knowledge to distinguish one disease from another, nor to know what remedy to apply, if the disease was properly guessed at, and community call him a great healer.
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The minister of the Gospel may stand in the sanctified pulpit from Sabbath to Sabbath, and on every such occasion be guilty of plagiarism, and sell to his hearers these second class sermons, or give utterances to such dogmas that none but the most credu- lous would, for a moment think of giving place to, and he be called the embodiment of theology simply because there is none to meet him at the end and then and there refute the prop- ositions.
Were the doctors and ministers placed in the arena and com- pelled to produce the authority and philosophy of each statement, when the same originated and under what circumstances, together with the wear and tear of the same from the time of the enunci- ation of such doctrine down to the present, there would be some- what of a different judgment passed on the ability of the different classes.
The lawyer's position is met step by step, and every inch of advancement is met with a degree of earnestness and learning which calls for the time, place, person and all the circumstances by which such finding was reached, under what statute this or that decision was made, and the changes which may have taken place since the first rule, and woe be to the lawyer who cannot produce "thus saith the court" for a position contended for, unless the position is based on the uncertainties of statutes which neither court nor attorney can form any adequate idea as to the thought of the lawmaking power at the time of its crea- tion. The judges soon measure the depth of learning of the lawyer, but who are the judges for the physician and minister? Few of those who attend church can remember the subject of the sermon ten minutes after the same is delivered, and so many are so intently thinking of their various trades, that they never hear the text or the sermon.
CHAPTER VI.
WARS PRIOR TO THE REBELLION.
There are citizens of this county who have participated in three wars, viz .: The Mexican, Indian and the late Rebellion.
In calling attention to those who were soldiers in the Mexican war, notwithstanding forty years have passed since the declara- tion of peace, there are at the time of this writing sixteen per- sons, residents of this county, who served during the greater part of the two years, which marks the duration thereof, viz .:
Col. Addison Cochran, First Cavalry, Little Sioux.
Edward Brown, Sixteenth U. S. Infantry, Little Sioux.
Joseph W. Relley, (teamster) Second Infantry, Little Sioux.
W. A. Babb, First Indiana Infantry, Reeder's Mills.
Edwin E. Ervin, private, First Indiana Infantry, Reeder's Mills.
Wm. D. Frazier, private, First Indiana Infantry, Logan.
Joseph McCallum, First Kentucky Infantry, Magnolia, Iowa. Edward Murphy, Ordnance Corps, Dunlap.
D. P. McDonald, Second Regiment Ohio Infantry, Magnolia. Wm. Mincy, Fourth Tennessee Infantry, Woodbine.
J. B. Baker, Sixteenth U. S. Regulars, Logan.
Nathan Myers, Second Indiana U. S. Infantry, Logan. William Steele, Mormon Legion, California Junction. Abraham Adams, Third Ohio Infantry, Dunlap. S. A. Likens, Fourth Indiana Regiment, Modale. Samuel Vititor, Co. C, First Kentucky Regiment, Modale.
These are all now far past their threescore years and show us that forty years last past, they were men of iron constitutions. I do not know what feeling permeates the minds of other per-
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sons, but I must confess, that for these men I have a feeling of the utmost respect-a feeling bordering on adoration. They appear to me to be the moving, living monuments of an army which knew no obstacle too great to surmount, no suffering too great to over- come and no Mexican army too numerous to attack and conquer. Their achievements and heroism have never been measured by the present generation, because of the battles fought and won dur- ing the four years of war in our own midst. The men in deadly conflict in these latter battles have so far outnumbered the apparent insignificant forces of the United States, sent to Mexi- can soil to maintain the supremacy of our arms and vindicate the Nation's honor, that quite few tarry long enough at the historic page to crystalize the truth and glean therefrom the real boldness, heroism and glory of that short but sanguine conflict.
Mr. Jonathan McKee, of Persia, is reported as being a private in the Fifth U. S. Regulars, but in what Indian war he partici- pated is not stated, and hence the subject spoken of is left with that same uncertainty in which found.
HAMILTON'S DEFEAT
Is the name given by the old settlers to a skirmish, or as some term it, a battle, had by and between the whites and a band of 150 Omaha bucks accompanied by their squaws and families at or near the farm now owned by James Roberts, in Boyer town- ship, being on the left or east bank of the Willow river. This occurred at the first period of the fall hunt of 1853 and came about in this way: These Omaha Indians had no claim to this country as a hunting ground, but claimed a right generally exer- cised by all nations past and present, that might made right, and because there were so few white settlers here at this time and because the red men were most numerous, that therefore they had the unqualified right to hunt where and when they pleased, and somewhat like the young people of this day who go
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out on a fishing excursion, presume that they have the right to all the neighboring hen roosts, and by custom indulged so far back as the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, have the right to milk all the cows in a radius of two miles of camp. These Omahas carrying this right into execution entered the county at the time last named in two squads or bands, one going up the Willow and the other up the Boyer. This band of twenty or more bucks who took the Willow trail, were appre- hended by about twenty-five settlers, who after taking them prisoners, bought them a beef, fed them well and carried them back to the Missouri river and put them on the Nebraska side. But the band which was making their way up the Boyer being strong, having about 150 bucks as aforesaid, together with their squaws and children, would not consent to surrender and take the back track as did the smaller band, and as a result about twenty-five whites came up to them, and desirous of finding them out in small hunting parties, surprise them and thus make the grand rounds until all of the 150 were made prisoners, but "the best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a'glee;" so with plan of warfare for coming up to a small squad of Indians and demanding a surrender: the Injuns attempted to run to camp, but not until John Thompson had taken one gun from a "brave" and James W. Bates had shot another through the arm, slightly wounding him, and upon further reconnoitering the whites as aforesaid, only numbering twenty-five, withdrew their forces and sent for reinforcements. These coming in during the night and during the first half of the next day, gave the whites the thought that though they only had fifty men they could easily knock the war paint off the untutored sons of the forest.
They who answered to roll call at this time were, as far as the memory of those who took part in the battle, as follows: Capt. C. M. Hamilton, then Sheriff of the county, John Thompson, Daniel Brown, Ira Perjue, A. C. Todd, Jesse C. Wills, George Brigham, E. T. Hardin, Horatio Caywood, George Caywood, Frank Caywood,
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Collins I. Cutler, Levi Motz, Jerry Motz, James W. Bates, - Shadley, David Gamet, Sol Gamet, Isaac Gamet, Thomas F. Van- derhoof, E. T. McKenney, Uriah Jewel, S. J. Comfort, Sam Coon, George White, D. R. Rogers, James Hardy, P. G. Cooper, Wm. V. Cooper, et al. These meeting at a rallying point as agreed upon, at the residence of old Solomon Oaks, then living at the farm which Benijah Abrams subsequently owned and upon which he died, listened attentively to a speech from Brown, and having taken counsel as to the order of battle, fell into line and marched for the Indians who were not more than four or five miles from this rendezvous.
Of all others, Shadley, at this distance, was the bravest of the brave, and was determined to excel all others in the number of scalps that should dangle from his belt before the setting of another sun. Passing from this place in a northerly direction, they soon began to see indications of the enemy, and some one of the party, having but little discretion, fired at a deer that sprang up and ran across the trail, when, as soon as the gun was fired, the Indians were seen scampering for the left bank of the Willow river, which was in near proximity to the place where they were then located. As soon as possible, and in much quicker time than it takes to write it, the Indians, as well as all their ponies, were well entrenched under the banks of the stream and out of danger, unless a charge was made to dislodge them. One saucy young brave, mounted on a cream colored pony, kept constantly riding back and forth on the opposite bluffs, giving orders to those under the banks, and, by his bravado, made him- self a conspicuous mark for the whites, who wasted quite a quan- tity of gun-powder and lead on him, but to no avail, the ranges of the rifles being all too brief to reach him. There was but one gun in the corps which would have silenced this saucy fellow, and that was owned by Mr. Charles Gilmore; he refused to draw a bead on Mr. Injun himself or let any one else use his gun, saying, that if they killed any of the Indians it would make
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them mad and they might hurt some of the whites. Long before the whites had arrived at shooting distance of the enemy, Shadley, who, an hour previous, was so brave, came to the con- clusion that he was riding a borrowed horse, and if the horse was killed or wounded he would have to pay for him, so he took a position well in the rear, and, at the commencement of the firing he turned his yellow-colored blind mare and made off at the fastest speed possible; but he had not run over ten rods when the horse stumbled and fell over a gopher hill, leaving Shadley unhorsed, and then hearing quite a fusillade, it is said he began to pray, and some of the survivors of the battle say that his prayer was in the following words:
"O, Lord, bless us, bein' as ye're in the habit of doin' such tricks; be with us to day something similar as you was with Commodore Perry on Lake Erie, or Mad Anthony Wayne; brace up Captain Hamilton and stay his men so that I will have time to get this confounded old yaller mare back to her owner so that I will not have to pay for her; and O, Lord, get me out of this scrape and I'll be dam'd if you'll ever ketch me in such another snap; for Jesus' sake-whoa, Cleopatra, ye old yaller fool-Amen!"
Shadley soon recovered from his unfortunate condition, and mounting old Cleopatra, he broke for the nearest settlement. In his hurry he wore out the ramrod of his gun in urging the borrowed mare to her greatest speed.
As before stated, the settlers had taken position on the bluffs on the left bank-the distance between them and the enemy being so great that both parties were really beyond each others' range, yet, notwithstanding this, now and then the bullets flew alarmingly close to many of them: Soon the Indians began to advance by quietly crawling through the tall grass and tall thickets of canes, and at this time quite one-half of the whites having skulked to the rear and mostly on the retreat, those who had the "sand " and had stood their ground, deemed it impru-
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dent for them to face the enemy when they were outnumbered six to one, when they, too, called a retreat and broke in some confusion for the settlement further south.
John Thompson and David Gamet were the last to leave the field, from the fact that they felt greatly angered at the conduct of those who were so windy before danger was experienced and had so small a stock of fight and fortitude when necessary. These last named were so closely pressed by the Indians that when mounting their horses, Thompson dropped his pouch of ammu- nition and had to tarry until the same was recovered, and Gamet had hitched his horse to a tree near by, and when firing was had the animal had tried to free herself from the danger anticipated, and had so tightened the halter stall, that he was compelled to sever the same with his knife before he could mount, and having discharged his gun at an Indian who had approached quite close to him, mounted his horse and both attempted to load their guns while their horses were on the full run, but in this act they were short of practice and as a result the powder was constantly spilled and could not be made to enter the barrel of the gun.
Part of this fighting force on the side of the settlers were footmen, viz .:. Thomas F. Vanderhoof, E. T. McKenney, Uriah Jewell, S. J. Comfort and George White, and when the skedaddle of the whites became general, these last named were left quite at the mercy of the Indians, from the fact they were cut off from their fellows, and in order to save themselves, drop- ped into a large canebrake near at hand and remained therein until past midnight before attempting to reach their fellows. Mr. Vanderhoof relates that Jewell had a pocket full of hard biscuits which would have knocked the socks off of the most aged "hard tack" in the late Rebellion, and that the possessor thereof kept constantly crunching the same while they remained in the slough, among the canes and water, and that his constant grinding and crunching made so much noise that he felt sure the
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Indians could have heard the sound for half a mile. After the hour of midnight had passed they all emerged from their hiding place and made good their escape to the nearest settlement, and on the following day when they came to examine their wardrobes, those who wore buckskin pants during the battle, found the same in such condition that they had to be sent to the washerwoman for cleansing-the water in the slough having been so muddy, you know.
The casualties of this battle, as furnished by one who partici- pated therein, is as follows, viz .:
Killed, none.
Wounded by bullets or war clubs, none.
Severely frightened, 50.
Ramrods lost in fight, 18.
Ramrods worn out on horses in retreat, 30.
Bruised in retreat, occasioned by want of saddles, 27.
Full of poor whisky, 13.
Prayer meeting in action, 1.
From the time of the earliest settlement until 1853, the Indians were quite troublesome, and at frequent times acted with a degree of insolence and independence that merited instant punishment, but they like all cowards, chose their subjects and opportunities.
In 1849, six Sioux Indians came to the settlement at Calhoun, and boldly rode off six horses, two belonging to Mr. Daniel Brown, and four belonging to a Mr. Litz, without even thanking the owners for the donation. They were immediately followed by Brown and his son and Litz, but wherefore the madness of three men following six Indians, who were mounted with relays, and the fighting force two to one. At this time it was deemed much more safe to perform the farm labor with cattle, from the fact that this character of property was not so coveted by the redskins, or because they could not be so rapidly hurried out of the country.
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In 1848, while Brown was in Missouri, earning flour and meal in the harvest fields of that State, the Indians came to his cabin and appropriated all the edibles and everything of value about the premises, and on his return, he learned that the wife and children had been subsisting entirely on young potatoes and milk for the past two weeks.
In the fall of 1850, Amos Chase (who, in thirty years after the occurrence I am about to relate, was Supervisor from Little Sioux), was herding cattle near the mouth of the Little Sioux river, caught an Omaha buck in the act of dressing a good fat steer, which he had killed. This fellow's name was " Jim Dick," and this daylight larceny so angered Chase that, having his rifle with him, he drew a bead on the blanketed thief, and gave him a good shot in that part of his person where there are the fewest bones, and midway between terra firma and brains. This so supremely surprised " Jim Dick," that, after clapping his hand on his hip, be leaped into the air, left the carcass of the unfortu- nate steer, gave a whoop that would have awakened the slumber- ing dead, and in violent and tumultuous haste broke for the ter- ritory of Nebraska by the nearest and most practicable route.
Two years after this occurrence Old Uncle Bill Martin, who then resided on the Soldier river, at the farm now owned by Mr. James Roberts, was in Council Bluffs, and knowing "Jim Dick," saw him on the street, and at the same time meeting Mr. Chase, just as Mr. "Injun" came up to Martin, Martin said, " Hello, Jim, is this you?" To which the "Injun " replied, by a big grunt, "Eugh, How?" Martin then stepping to the door of the store where Chase had just entered, said: " Here, Chase, I want to see you; come here." Chase came at once, and seeing " Dick " said, " You are the dam'd thief who stole my steers, are you not?" The Indian jumped at once, put himself down to the fastest Indian time on record, and never looked back until he had crossed the Missouri river, and was in Omaha.
From the time of this shooting by Chase, whenever an Indian
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came along whose appearance did not fill the fancy of any of the settlers, they would say, " Are you Jim Dick?" To which interrogatory the Indian would invariably reply: "Me good Injun; me no steal cow," which, if further disputed, the Injun would put in the plea of an alibi, and conclusively prove that he was not in the locality at the time of the larceny, by introducing in evidence that part of his person corresponding with that where "Dick " was shot, which I might say, was con- clusive.
The force of the bad example set by these Indians was not overcome even in the latter part of the '60 decade. For illus- tration I am requested to mention the following circumstance: W. B. Copeland and his family, in 1868, was living on the farm on which the old gentleman still resides, and having retired for the night, soon the dogs gave such a fearful howl, and appeared so earnestly defending some part of the property, that the eldest son, Joe, rose from his bed, and, taking the old musket which his father had carried for three years in the war, he loaded the same with goose shot, and, when satisfied that the " old timer" was in good whack, sallied forth to assist the dogs, as he sup- posed, in frightening away some prowling wild-cat, when he soon reached the place indicated by the dogs, and found them baying up a large cottonwood tree which stood near the stable, and looking eagerly around could see nothing for the infernal dogs to be barking at, but before returning to the house thought he would fire off the old musket so as to frighten away the ani- mal, fowl or whatever kind of marauder was bothering the dogs; so, elevating his artillery, he discharged the same into the tree without taking any sight whatever, and no sooner had the gun been discharged than there came from some portion of the tree a mass or bundle of stuff which much resembled humanity of the masculine gender, and a sack full of something. The marks- man running to the foot of the tree was surprised to see one of the objects rise to its feet and run like a deer-and in running
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leap a five board fence without any apparent difficulty-it was a man-and the sack was full of live chickens. By the next day it was rumored on the streets of Logan that one or two doctors had a half-night's work in picking shot out of a certain man's hips, who had, by the careless use of his gun, discharged a full load into his person. Copeland's hen roost has not been molested since, and Joe is very glad he did'nt see the fellow or he might not have hit him. As corroborating the above, a certain citizen of Logan was crippled and wore a coat shattered and torn by shot at the place covering the locus where the shot was ex- tracted. .
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
When the seeds of discord were planted, or, I should rather say, consciously and helplessly left in our Federal Constitution by its framers, had, before the lapse of a single century of na- tional existence, under the forcing heat of the slavery struggle, burst into the blood-red flower of Civil War, no county in all of the ninety and nine in the State of Iowa more promptly responded to the call, than did Harrison.
At first, the magnitude of the Secession monster was not real- ized, nor was the extent to which preparations had been made in the south half understood by our people .. Many of our men then supposed that three, or at furthest, six months, would sub- due the fractious natures of the Rebel hot-heads, yet, when six, aye, twelve and twenty-four months had elapsed, the suppression of this Rebel sentiment was scarcely nearer completion than when the first man enlisted from this county.
There were three elements in the county which appeared, so far as taking part in the dangers of the tented field, march or battles were concerned, personally conscious, that at the posts last named, there were many dangers to be met, and if possible, hard to overcome, viz .: The rebel sympathizer, the windy abolitionist, and the man of wealth. When the first
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news came that war was inaugurated, the rebel sympathizer boldly told us we could never subdue the South, that there was no power in the Constitution of the United States to coerce a Sovereign State; and what was the most aggravating, was the satanic smile which illuminated their countenances on the recep- tion of the news of a Federal defeat. True, the number of these men in our midst was not great, but more than enough to estab- lish the doctrine of National depravity and party bigotry. On the other hand, the Abolitionist took exceptions as to the man- ner of prosecuting the war, saying that the object of negro emancipation was not sufficiently prominent at the beginning, and unless this was made the objective point, the Union was not worth the saving; that it would be infinitely more preferable that the South should succeed in the establishment of their Confederacy than have a Union such as that of the past, blurred, disgraced, and cursed with human slavery. The men of wealth had worshiped the almighty dollar; the mammon of wealth was the shrine at which they bowed, and the deity that received all their sacrifices; the thought of shouldering a musket and lowering their cast to that of the common soldiery, and partak- ing of the fatigue of the march, the dangers of the battle, as well as being exposed to the killing malaria of the swamp or marsh, kept these at home slumbering in beds of down, and toasting their toes at the pleasant surroundings of a comforta- ble home.
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