USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa : its people, industries and institutions, with biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of many of the old families > Part 42
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ship. The effects of these two methods of living are apparent today. But it was not casy work to keep up these services. There was no nicely-fur- nished church, no sweet-toned bell, no large congregations, to inspire en- thusiasm, but scattered people, unfinished homes and rough plank benches, minus backs which were not restful to bodies wearied with six days' work. It was easier to stay at home, or spend the Sabbath in visiting. Yet they persevered in spite of obstacles, and it paid.
A little town-site was platted on the table land three miles south of Dunlap, called Olmstead. Its streets were named and recorded in the county records. Matthew Jennings occupied the house, the brick part of which was built and occupied by Lorenzo Kellogg in 1858, and which was on a corner of High street. But the nucleus never grew and the visions of a populous city never materialized. It lacked houses and people, two essen- tials to the existence of every city.
Now we have a faint glimpse of the "then" of Harrison township. The "now" is more apparent.
In 1801 there are one hundred and thirty-five comfortable houses dot- ting the prairie, every man's field is fenced and cultivated. There is no open, or waste land. Each home has its little grove and orchard, and all the con- veniences for comfortable living. No prairie fires ever cause consternation and destruction. There are bridges over every stream, river, creek and gully, school houses within casy distance of well-clad, well-shod girls and boys, with teachers of a high graded scholarship. The thriving village of Dunlap is within its borders, easily reached, over graded roads, by every in- habitant in the township, and every real need and many of the luxuries of life.
AS IT WAS SIXTY YEARS AGO.
The following reminiscence was written by the late Judge D. M. Har- ris, in the Missouri Valley Times, his newspaper, in October, 1905, six years previous to his death, and it is so replete with interesting things of long ago, in contrast with those of today, that it is here reproduced for a permanent record in this county :
"Just fifty-one years ago, Sunday, last, October 8th, D. M. Harris and family left Tennessee to try his luck in Western Iowa. Fifty-one years ago next month (November 8th ) they landed in Audubon county, lowa, having been thirty days on the road that can now be easily traveled in thirty hours. At that time "Bob" Harris, the present editor of the Missouri Valley Times, was only six months old.
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"Not a foot of railroad in the state, where now every county in the state, ninety-nine in number, has one or more railroads. Not a telegraph or telephone pole in the state. or a legally established highway from Des Moines to Council Bluffs. Not a bridge on any of the numerous streams on the way over the state. Council Bluffs was then known as Kanesville and was merely a hamlet, or encampment, of the Mormon emigrants on their western march. The Missouri river at this point was crossed by a ferry-boat paddled by hand-oars; Omaha was a mere speck on the map, as a town on the outskirts of civilization. There were but a few small "shacks" to indicate the loca- tion of a mighty city to be. Sioux City was but a name to indicate an In- dian trading station.
"The emigration to California was by team, generally cattle, and gen- erally consumed from four to five months, now made in four days. This state was spoken of as "The Black Hawk Purchase," and the land west of Des Moines had just come into the market at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, being now worth from twenty-five to one hundred dollars per acre. The beautiful city of Des Moines was then known as "Fort Des Moines," taking its name, no doubt, from a few log cabins on the bank of the Des Moines river called forts. At that time the city contained but one brick house, a one-story building known as "Grimmell's Office" and the balance of the buildings were of wood.
"James Grimes had just defeated Erastus Bates for governor, being the first Republican governor of Iowa. The state only had ten members in the lower house of congress and the two United States senators, who were Hon. A. C. Dodge, of Burlington and Hon. G. W. Jones, of Dubuque.
"What a change! Since then the ox team has given way to the mag- nificent palace cars, and instead of traveling three or four miles per hour, we now go at the rate of sixty miles and, if in a hurry, we may increase the speed to eighty or ninety miles per hour. Our journey from the cast to the west will now easily be made in as many hours as we were days in coming here fifty-one years ago.
"Sioux City has grown to be a large city, full of energy and push, and is distinguished for its "Sioux City way" of doing things.
"Omaha has long since thrown off its swaddling clothes, and taken her . position with the important cities of the land, and the Kanesville of 1851-54 has come to be the Council Bluffs of 1905, a city of beautiful homes, fine churches, schools and factories, and an important railroad center, while Des Moines has dropped its "fort" and added its "capitol." It is without
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doubt the best place in lowa today. The old hand ferry has given way to the great bridges and the old stage coach is a thing of the past.
"Since then the nation has been engaged that most stupendous con- fiets between the North and the South, known as the Civil War, in which the North was victorious and American slavery was abolished and four million slaves set free.
"The East and West and the North and South have been united with ribs of steel; the people talk by lightning, travel by steam in magnificent Pullman cars and we have our mail delivered at our own door by Uncle Sam and, before another fifty years have passed, the public will be flying through the air like the proud American eagle.
"Japan, then unknown to the world as a nation, has thrashed Russia to a stand-still and the world has rejoiced at the advance of the little brown man to place and power.
"Fifty-one years has marked many a wonderful change in the world's history, and who can think what the next fifty-one years will bring to the nations of earth."
OLD DAYS INN MAGNOLIA.
By Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis.
During the early fifties my father and mother came under the influence of Lyman Beecher, the celebrated preacher and teacher. At this time my father and mother were living near Cincinnati, Ohio. Lyman Beecher was then passing through the experience of a heresy trial. He was known as an Abolitionist, and an anti-slavery man. His name became a household word. Under his influence my father became a radical and a liberal. At that time Lyman Beccher threw his influence in favor of the great West. Some years before he had given a series of addresses at Andover and Y'ale Seminaries, and later at the newly founded college of Oberlin. A wave of enthusiasm for home missions swept over the churches of the land. A group of young ministers pledged themselves to take the state of Iowa for the college, the higher education and the Christian religion. They were . called the "lowa_ Band." The religious newspapers of the time were filled with the story of their plans. Harriet Beecher Stowe was then living in Cincinnati, and preparing for her "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Henry Ward Beecher was preaching in the Second Presbyterian church of Indianapolis. Lyman Beecher and his son. Edward Beecher, were in Illinois and Indiana,
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telling the story of the Christian College, and starting the movement that culminated in the lowa College at Grinnell, Tabor College, and the Denmark Academy. Under these influences my father and mother went to Anamosa, in Jones county, and in the spring of 1856 to Magnolia.
My earliest recollections have to do with the burning of my father's house in Magnolia, and the chill of being dropped down in the snow in the dark of a February night. Then I remember the sound of the fife and drum, and the starting of the soldier boys. I was six years of age when Lincoln was assassinated, and I well remember the neighbor who opened my father's door and exclaimed: "Abraham Lincoln has been shot!" It was as if an eclipse had passed over the sun. I did not understand the tears and grief, but I felt that the whole world was coming to an end. Magnolia was so remote that, although Mr. Lincoln was shot on Friday night, the news did not reach Magnolia until Sunday. All the people rushed to the church, and I remember the minister's grief, the people's sobs and tears, and espe- cially the terror of certain women whose husbands were at "the front."
THE OLD MAGNOLIA HIGH SCHOOL.
I was twelve years of age when the old high school was completed. At the time, it seemed to me like a marvel of art and architecture. Before my imagination Professor Hornby stood forth as the embodiment of all human wisdom. For a little time I revered this principal as Thomas Hughes and Arthur Stanley revered the great Arnold of Rugby. I well remember the day when Almor Stern won a prize in the senior class. Ou the same day Emma Day gave a recitation of "Enoch Arden." If my memory is correct, it would have taken a half dozen Charlotte Cushmans to have equalled one such effort. In my own class, my rival was David Main, one of the purest. kindest, bravest boys who ever lived. It was in the old school house that I was initiated into the mysteries of Latin and Greek, and I recall the hours I gave as a boy of sixteen to Caesar's Commentaries, and Xenophon's Re- treat of the Ten Thousand. I was the youngest member of the class in Latin and Greek, and was working with students who were three and four years older than myself. But the number of physicians, lawyers, teachers, missionaries, that came out of the old Magnolia high school indicates that the old town grew professional people as naturally as the farms grew corn and wheat.
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MISS JIESTER ABBIE HILLIS.
I was but five years of age when my sister Hester entered Towa College. Prior to that September, the institution had never opened its doors to women. I have been toll that there was something of dismay in the minds of the faculty and trustees, when my sister's application was received. At the end of her second year in Grinnell, one of the members of the faculty came out to Magnolia, to preach, and to find students for the college. Doc- tor Magoun preached in the little Congregational church. The great edu- cator was then in his prime. He had a voice that booned like the roll of artillery and yet, at the same time, it lingered in my ears like the sound of sweet flutes. His sermon was on the Pilgrim's Progress. In retrospect it seems to me more like a lecture than a sermon. At the close of his argu- ment he appealed to the families to erect a high school building and develop an academy as a fecder to the college at Grinnell. I am not sure that it was not one of the carlier impulses that came to me for the higher educa- lion. From that time, for years, some one of the family was always a stu- dent in Iowa College. My sister Hester graduated in the class of 1866. My sister Frances in the class of 1868; my sister Mary died before com- pleting her studies in 1870. The house was always full of books; the con- versation always had to do with Grinnell and Tabor and the higher educa- tion. Later, my brother went to the lowa State University, and another sister to a woman's college in Illinois. But the great intellectual influence in my life was that of my father and mother. Winter and summer my fa- ther was always up at five o'clock. About 1868 he passed under the influ- ence of Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia. Doctor Barnes had just been tried for heresy and his book on the Evidences of Christianity, his volume of ser- mons and his commentaries exerted a profound influence upon my father. He was never interested in the little things of life. I have never known a man who was so detached from the world in which he lived. He lived in the realm of dreams, visions and ideals. He was hardly interested suffi- ciently in the world of things and politics to much care how events went. My mother's influence was not less potent. I strained my eyes by my study of Latin and Greek by lamp-light in the early morning. During one winter my mother read to me practically every page in which I was interested. I used to go through the paper and mark the article that I wanted to hear and my mother read it to me. Since those far off days in the old Magnolia high school I have seen many cities and countries, and studied and lingered in
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many libraries, colleges and universities. I owe an immeasurable debt to certain great books, to noble authors and educators. But my chief intel- lectual debt is to my father and mother and sisters and to the old friends and students in the okl Magnolia high school. For neither time nor events have ever lessened my conviction that the scholar is the favorite child of heaven and earth and that the old book, and the old scenes, and the old friends are the richest gifts that God has vouchsafed to me in my earthly career.
THE PIONEERS OF SIXTY YEARS AGO.
By D. W. Butts.
[The following interesting reminiscence was written for a former his- tory of Harrison county by the late D. W. Butts, of Little Sioux newspaper fame, in 18go, and was headed "Forty Years Ago." Hence it treats on men and events of pioneers who lived here about sixty-three years ago now. --- EDITOR. ]
The hills and valleys, the deep canyons, the shady ravines, the bubbling springs, and sparkling rivulets and pebbly brooks, in many places that we know from away back. may yet be seen and admired by the new comer, and the shape of the ground and the size of the stream and rivulet, are much the same today, as forty years ago; but beyond these few remaining features of ancient sameness. how changed is the scene in this beautiful garden of the western Iowa country! Where before there was much that was wild and grand, and rich in verdure and foliage, now we see in many places bar- ren landscape and the deep beaten paths of steady tread and use as the years have come and chased each other away. Where the hunter of "ye olden time" used to gallop far away unhindered and free over the broad prairies and flat lands, covered with a wealth of grass and hay, so rich and abundant that to tell of it now would seem exaggeration, how changed is the scene! Where the grass used to grow thick and wavy, far up on the green slopes, we now notice apparently bare ground, interspersed with weeds and mullen here and there, and some man's cattle and horses and hogs and sheep are ready to nip the last vestige of the wild grass as fast as it appears. And then forty years ago, who dreamed that these broad rich acres would be so soon fenced, and with iron cords at that. We used to think that the lumber would have to be imported for both buildings and fences, little dreamning that the wire fences would soon destroy the freedom of range and travel and make it necessary almost to travel around a township to get across it. All
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fenced up in forty-acres, good, bad and indifferent. Tame grass has taken the place of wild, except where the latter has been. in a few instances, wisely saved for its valuable hay crops which, so far, have not been duplicated in value by the tame product.
Speaking of grasses, there are perhaps few present inhabitants that would believe, if told, the exact truth about the abundance of the hay crop of forty years ago in this "garden" section of Iowa. I well remember, when in the carly days of September, 1853. I rode from Kanesville ( Council Bluffs) to what is now southeastern Monona county. on a large load of printing material and household goods, up the Missouri Valley to Soldier river, and thence up that stream. At that season the ground was dry enough and the sod strong enough to hold heavy loads, and sitting up on the piled- up loads we could not see any one, horsemen or teams, except in places where the trail chanced to be straight enough, until we came quite near them. The grass, the natural product of this valley, was so high and luxuriant for miles and miles that horsemen might hide from each other, at a distance of two hundred yards. Quite as surprising as this true statement, is the rapid change by which this tall grass disappeared very quickly after the white man appeared with cattle and crowded out the deer and the elk and the red men. We expected to see the range gradually reduced, but were hardly pre- pared to see it go down from six to two feet in a few years. However, the wild hay of this section has been a mine of wealth to many, and is yet to those who had the foresight to save it from flock and plow. Forty years ago this part of the state was noted for grass and hay, as it is now for "corn and hogs!"
CATTLE WORE GREEN GOGGLES.
One of the pioneers of the fifties. standing upon a high bluff and look- ing in the warin sunlight for miles at the waving grass of valley and hill, was heard to groan deeply and this is what he wished: "Oh, that I had cattle to cat this grass." Another, who bore the rank of first settler on the Willow, in eastern Monona county, used to drive cattle to Chicago, and on one occasion he drove a lot of sleek steers, fresh from his green pas- tures, that ranked and were published as first premiums for the week. The tobacco-chewing Westerner informed the men of the Garden City that he had not fed them an car of corn. "How did you get them so fat on grass alone?" We can in memory see the old man's jaw with a sort of short nip. nip, as he answered: "Put green goggles on them that made everything look green to them." We subsequently learned how he kept the fresh, green
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on the landscape all summer for his herd. So far as grass land, he was monarch of all he surveyed, and he used it in this wise: In the summer or fall he would run a great ox-plow for miles, plowing strips a rod or two wide hali across a township, and then plow other strips across this im- mense native pasture, dividing it into a number of sections, on which the new grass would spring up; and upon the strips broken up he would plant pumpkins. Then in the summer, as the common range began to grow old, he would burn off the old grass from one of the pastures on which new, ten- der grass would soon spring up. In this way rotating from one to another, his cattle always had fresh, green grass to subsist upon. Thus his "green goggles" produced premium beef.
But now this is all changed, and the great pasture with the pumpkin rows to fence out fires, is divided up and fenced off by many owners, some of whom are able to produce first-class beef by the "green goggle" process.
The "hill country" that Mr. Dunham and others used for pasture in the fifties, is worth about twenty dollars per acre now, and double this sum with fair improvements. At that time no one wanted it and no one believed it would amount to much in the farm line, and only the finest formation of bottom or "bench" land was thought fit for the plow.
The pioneer of forty years ago carried not very much specie about his clothing. but he was a good liver, even if at times his general appearance was a little rough. Going to mill fifty miles had an upward tendency for an appreciation of the grist. Going fifty miles to put a letter in the postoffice, and perhaps receive one from "Mary Jane," had a tendency to enhance values in the line of correspondence.
Thomas B. Neeley, the first representative in the legislature from the "Big Ninth," used to walk from the north line of Harrison county to Kanes- ville (Council Bluffs) to receive and forward mail matter, and was said to have always made good time and never missed a meal or a smoke.
The first dance advertised in a regular way by printed tickets, in the year 1854 or 1855, was at the stage station, known as Fountainbleau (in Little Sioux township). The. place was operated by one La Ponteur, a French-Indian trader, who fitted up gardens and arbors and vineyards with trellises, painted or whitewashed, giving an attractive appearance not ex- celled in the same vicinity to this day.
In general, the life of the pioneer of those early days was a rugged one, but not devoid of its pleasant features and a neighborly goodwill that is more the exception now than then.
In conclusion, some of the land that "broke" in 1854-1855, has borne
-
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good crops from that date to this, without fertilizing, or even a thorough, good sub-soil plowing. The peculiar soil of this county is a mine of untold wealth, and the husbandman who may exercise but ordinary industry and economy has never failed to succeed well.
HARRISON COUNTY DURING THE CIVIL WAR PERIOD.
By Hon. Stephen King.
[Hon. Stephen King was the first county judge of this county, lived in Cass township, at Woodbine and finally at Logan. He was a man of much worth to the county; he taught some of the carlier schools, was an excellent official in county and township and village offices and stood honored and highly respected by all within the limits of his county. He died a few years ago, and his death marked the passing of one of the county's truly good and intelligent citizens. In the nineties his pen was employed in writ- ing the following concerning Harrison county during the dark days of the great Civil War, hence will be read with interest, the statements coming from a man who would not misrepresent the condition of affairs, locally, or otherwise. Editor. ]
The winter of 1860-61 will be remembered by the older people of today as one of great excitement. Abraham Lincoln was smuggled through to the capital and inaugurated on March 4, 1861, and on April 11, Fort Sumter was fired upon by the Southern Confederacy, and on the 14th of the same month surrendered to them by Major Anderson, after having exhausted his provisions and his magazines being surrounded by flames. As the news spread through the northern states, the people were filled with indignation and sorrow. The magnitude of the secession and the extensive preparation that had been made in the South to make it a success, was not realized by the people. When a call was made to help sustain the Union, no state was more ready than Iowa, and no county than Harrison, to respond to the call. Pub- lie meetings were hell and the situation was discussed. The Republicans, almost unanimously, and the Democrats generally, believed that the time for peace meetings had passed, and war was not only inevitable, but had actually begun. It is true that there was a rebel clement in the county, not only at the beginning of the war, but all through. There were those who declared the South could never be subdued, that there was no power in the Constitution to coerce a Southern state, or prevent her from seceding. This was, of course, very unpleasant, especially for those who had friends in the
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field, but the most aggravating of all was to see the smile of satisfaction, and the look of "I told you so," whenever disaster befell the Union forces, or victory crowned the rebels.
It was currently reported and generally believed. at the time, that there were secret organizations and regular meetings held, both by those who favored and those who opposed the Union cause, for the purpose of devis- ing ways and means, for the success of those they favored; but the good . sense and moderation of the leaders on both sides, prevented any outbreaks of personal violence, or destruction of property.
Over one hundred and fifty men in the county had enlisted in other companies, before a company was organized within the borders of Harri- son county. From the Ist of May, 1861. until the close of the war, at sev- eral places in the county, men met every Saturday for drill, preparatory to entering the field, either as members of infantry or cavalry. Those who went to the front were noble men, we always speak of them with the most enthusiastic praise, but I have often thought that those who remained at home, hardly received the credit due them for the part they bore during that great conflict. It is true that those in the field did suffer more privations, and were in places of greater danger, but the anxiety. the joy and sorrow at their success or defeat, was felt just as keenly by those at home.
MONEY SCARCE.
At the commencement of this period the finance of the county was in a deplorable condition, the price of produce and labor was low; dry goods. groceries, hardware and taxes were high, and money was scarce. The farmer hauled his wheat thirty-five miles and sold it for thirty-five cents per bushel, in trade. Pork sold at two dollars per hundred-weight; corn at ten cents a bushel. It took a load of wheat to pay for a bolt of factory cloth, and fifteen bushels of wheat to pay for a keg of nails. The farmer learned that except for paying taxes, he could get along with but very little money, and many were the expedients resorted to for raising money for that purpose. The days of the "tallow-dip" had not yet passed-people must have light, and as kerosene had not come into general use. candles were com- monly used, and had ready sale. I knew one farmer who killed his hogs, tried the lard from the fat portions, mixed a little ahun and saltpeter to harden it, then moulded it into candles and sold enough to raise cash to pay his taxes with. Sugar was twenty cents a pound ; coffee, forty cents; calico, thirty cents a yard. In 1863. nails sold at seven dollars and fifty cents per
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