USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 63
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100
As the fact is well established that there was a strong anti-Cox sentiment in the county as late as the Bellevue war in 1840, six months after the election that returned Cox to the legislature for the second term, and he was far from being popular in Jackson county at the time he was elected to the first territorial legis- lative assembly from the district, comprising these several northeast counties including Jackson. And there were two separate petitions that I am aware of, sent from Jackson county to Governor Lucas to have the legislature refuse to seat Thomas Cox. Even J. K. Moss (who Joseph Henri in Number 2 of the Jackson County Annals says was an enemy of Brown on account of busi- ness jealousy and helped mob him) was at that time-1838-opposed to Cox and wrote also to Governor Lucas, strongly condemning Cox as not a fit subject for
436
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
the legislature. I have not been able to secure Moss' letter as it is not with the Governor Lucas letter files, but the following reply of the governor to Moss will make the contents of it and the aforesaid two complaints plain enough :
Executive Department, Iowa Territory, Burlington, Iowa, October 4, 1838.
Sir :- By last evening's mail I received your letter of 26th ult., also a com- munication containing the affidavits of B. Rodefer and others, complaining of the inelegibility of Thomas Cox to a seat in the House of Representatives of the legislative assembly of this territory. I also received a communication some days since, dated the 20th ult. (September) signed by N. Jefferson and others containing a similar complaint. In answer to your inquiries I can only say that I regret that any cause of dissatisfaction should arise as to the qualifica- tions of any member returned elected to a seat in either branch of the legisla- tive assembly, but it would be traveling entirely out of my appropriate sphere of duty as executive for me to express any opinion with regard to the elegibility of any person that may be returned as a member elect to a seat in either branch of the legislative assembly of the territory, as each branch has the legitimate right to judge of the qualifications of its own members. The subject complained of in your communications is the one that rests with the one returned elected and his constitutory, and as executive I have no right to question the correctness of the returns of any election that may be officially transmitted to me in persuance of the organic law of the territory, and the proclamation of the 15th of August, issued under it. This being the case you will see the impropriety of me ex- pressing any opinion with regard to the qualifications of any person returned as a member elect of a coordinate branch of the government of the territory. With sincere respects, I am,
Your obedient servant,
James K. Moss, Esquire, ROBERT LUCAS.
Clerk, District Court of Jackson county, Iowa Territory.
To be as fair as the case will admit with Colonel Cox, I will say it has been the verdict of pioneers that Moss aspired to a seat in the assembly himself, and that he was working the same political wires against Cox as Cox was against Brown a year later, and with the backing of Cox's known dissolute habits and arrogant nature, that was not long in being in open hostility to Governor Lucas for vetoing a resolution offered by Cox and passed by the first territorial as- sembly in November or December, 1838, authorizing the postmaster at Daven- port to have the mail facilities increased from Davenport to Dubuque for that session of the legislature, so people up this way could learn twice a week what important legislation was being enacted at Burlington. (Cox's unrelenting spirit caused him for this act to oppose every act of Governor Lucas, thereafter, and moved to have Congress petitioned to remove Governor Lucas.)
In Lucas' communication, on returning the resolution vetoed, he informed them that they were assuming powers that could only be exercised by the Congress of the United States or the authorized postmaster general. Cox, with his political proclivities, military record and some of the top notchers of the political and military affairs of the new northwest as props; James K. Moss, clerk of the District Court, Bellevue's first attorney, and a little later probate judge, and W. W. Brown, one of Bellevue's first magistrates, progressive business man, courteous, gentlemanly, generous and well grounded in the good graces of a large part of the industrial community, were all three natural timber for legis- lative honors. Therefore, we find here, in early days, political rings that were "wheels within wheels." as is evinced by the opposition of Moss and others to Brown, in 1839.
The above may explain, in part, Moss' opposition to Cox as an ineligible representative, but it cannot explain the prompt denunciation by sworn state- ment of Rodefer and others, dated September 20, 1838, ten days after the elec- tion of Cox, by a majority of the electors of the several counties comprising the district and sent as soon as possible after the returns were all in (remote and
437
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
slow then) nor can it explain the complaint as to Cox by Jefferson, and others, that reached Burlington, October 3, 1838, the same time of the complaint of - J. K. Moss. It is quite evident Colonel Thomas was not much of an idol near home in 1838. To be explicit as to the district, it contained Jackson, Dubuque, Delaware, Clayton, Buchanan and Fayette, the latter which embraced Minne- sota and Dakota, as apportioned by Governor Lucas as one electoral district, election to be held September 19, 1838. Cox was elected not by Jackson county but by this district, and being Hardin, Nowlin, Andrew Bankson, and Chauncey Swan. It must have been tedious campaigning, but a campaign gun loaded with a barrel of whiskey, at ten cents a gallon, shot a long way in those days.
As we are not telling this story on our own evidence altogether, but trying to be fair by supporting our plea in favor of Brown by the evidence of others, and the probable motive in giving the evidence, this is liable to be nearly as long as the Jones county calf case. A mighty good friend told us it would be so long it would not get read, but as the nights are yet long and the season slack, you might as well follow along a little further and watch us try to put "this and that" together.
We find, at least, four potent forces hostile to Brown in the spring of 1840. Joseph Henri says, in Jackson County Annals Number 2 (and others have corroborated it), "Other business men were jealous of Brown's success in business and claimed he was getting rich too fast. Moss and the Subletts were loudest in denouncing him (one of the Subletts afterward killed him). Brown to retaliate bought up their paper at every opportunity and made them trouble." (Haven't you ever noticed anything very much like this in other places ?)
Warren had a grievance against Brown for trying to cheat him out of the appointment for sheriff, in 1839, by a petition, heading a list of names cut from a petition for an altogether different purpose, so Mr. Warren says. He would have received the appointment if Warren had not shown it to have been a fraud by denying having signed the petition for that purpose, his name being on it, and received the appointment himself.
Joseph Henri says there were two factions in Bellevue at that time hostile to each other. One headed by James Mitchell who was in the good graces of Moss, the Harringtons and the Subletts. The other faction was headed by James Thompson who was shot by James Mitchell for getting a trunk from James Mitchell's house at a dance during his absence, and belonging to the wife of Mitchell's brother, who hired Thompson to get it as he had trouble with Mit- chell who wouldn't give up the trunk. On hearing of it, Mitchell went gunning for Thompson and Thompson hearing Mitchell was out for blood got a gun and headed for Mitchell. Both aimed at the same time, Thompson's weapon missed fire and Mitchell shot him through the heart, coolly turned around and left him dead in the street.
"This," Henri says (and it is well known from other sources, including Warren), "came near precipitating war, January 8, 1840, and both factions went armed for some days." This was not the only factional fight pulled off in Jackson county. The writer has known two or more families and different neighborhoods and members of different races being hostile to each other in earlier days when a little "booze" and a word would martial each clan. I have seen several men in the streets of Maquoketa, Baldwin or Monmouth fighting like dogs-only dogs do not use clubs or junk bottles.
The Mitchell faction was with the Cox-Warren party when Brown's hotel was stormed and Brown and others shot, and members of the Thompson faction were included in the warrant sworn out in March, 1840, for the arrest of M. W. Brown and twenty-three others charged with being confederated to commit crime. They could have been all horse thieves and counterfeiters as charged- and they might have been all victims of factional feeling, primed by business and political hatred. Warren says Thomas Cox never relented toward Brown while he lived.
438
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
This intense factional feeling was at a white heat when Colonel Cox reached home after the legislative assembly had adjourned, January 17, 1840. His second term in the legislature expired that fall and Brown was still a more than likely candidate for he was still popular in Bellevue and the county at large, notwithstanding this other faction was busy pointing suspicion to his door to brand him as a chief of crimnals (let it have been true or false). If Cox feared Brown as a possible successor or had a desire to avenge the hostility of Brown and the people of Bellevue to him at the time of the caucus, 1839, he could not have found a better time to "pull his wires," and using circumstantial and personal evidence it is not hard to believe he got busy. The hostile feeling of the two months following when the above transpired grew more intense and spies were employed by the Mitchell faction and also by Thompson's friends to watch each other, and Cox seems to have been the chief adviser and cooperator of Mitchell's friends. He is said to have been instrumental in sending a com- mittee to Dubuque with a list of grievances, charging Brown and over a score of his friends with committing nearly all the crimes in the criminal calendar, and claiming that they could not be convicted of crime in the Jackson county courts, as they always proved an alibi.
District Judge Wilson suggested that an information be filed, charging them "with being confederated together for the purpose of committing crime," and a warrant be served which would bar them from proving alibis in each others' behalf in case of arrest for particular specified crimes.
Dictrict Prosecuting Attorney James L. Crawford drew up the informa- tion and Harrington swore to it, and Charles Harris, a justice of the peace and a member of the Mitchell faction, issued the warrant which was put in the hands of William A. Warren, sheriff, to serve. All with any knowledge of the contention of those connected with the attack on Brown and others assembled at his hotel to defend themselves from an armed party of their enemies, know those alleged alibis that were said to have made the law helpless, were and still are the excuse for justifying the bloody work of, that claimed to have been posse, but which nearly everybody, including Warren, admits was a mob. I am no lawyer but am going to say without fear of contradiction that the court docket is the record of the court proceedings, showing criminal charges as well as con- victions, and that the territorial court docket of Jackson county, from 1838 to 1840 is as silent as the grave as to those alleged criminal charges, and that, without any other evidence, of which there is much, tears the whole fabrication into shreds.
The claim set up by some that the cases were in the justice courts and the county docket would not show it is not true, as much of the old docket was copied from the justice court records with the record of Justice James Burtis' justice court mostly in evidence. Burtis was whipped and banished by the mob.
We find Cox in evidence at nearly every shuffle of the cards. After that famous warrant was gotten out, we find him riding the country in quest of an armed mob with the avowed purpose of "driving Brown out of the country" and threatening people who refused to go. We find him leading the attack. After the battle was over and the prisoners in the hands of the Cox-Warren party, we find him and Anson Harrington at a meeting of a few of the leading spirits that night to determine the fate of the prisoners, with their faces set hard toward hanging every man.
Their determination couldn't be overcome by those more lenient or more humane, so a compromise was effected by leaving it to a vote of the whole party at 10 o'clock the next day, when the advocates of hanging were over- come by three majority. We find Cox as chairman of that meeting of the sec- ond day, informing the prisoners that the sheriff was relieved of all further duties and that their fate rested with the men there assembled against them. As Chairman Cox could not take the floor against them, Anson Harrington
439
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
turned all the batteries of his fiery nature loose in an attempt to enflame the passions of the mob for hanging. We find Cox at 8 o'clock a. m. of that day, at the landing to meet a steamboat from Dubuque that had come down hear- ing of the fight. Among the passengers were Prosecuting Attorney Crawford, also Sheriff Cummins and a man, the Rev. Babcock with his wife, who came down to look after goods he had placed in Brown's store for sale. Warren says he was under suspicion, but he had come down with at least two officers of the law who had not molested him.
Upon landing, Cox took him by the hand, saying, "Babcock, you are just the man we want to see, we will treat you well today, but damn you, we will hang you tomorrow." This was Colonel Cox, the "law maker," whose feet the Old Settlers' Society on July 4, 1905, annointed with oil and wiped with its hair. It is wonderful what the "potter" in history can mould with the "hand" of time, the "wheel" of the past and a little clay.
As we have said heretofore, we have read the account of the accusers of Brown in several different histories, and they are nearly all to the effect that Brown was a leader of horse thieves, counterfeiters, and highway robbers; a companion and confederate of men guilty of every crime ; a base villain of the darkest hue, yet a man of culture, generous, gentlemanly, affectionate in his family, kind to children, and a thorough going business man and enterprising citizen; good to the poor and really "possessed of a generous and humane heart." Has there ever been another such a man? The Divine Being and satan must have been in partnership when Brown was created. We find most of the charges laid at the door of Brown and men in his employ as choppers and haulers of wood, and were made during the fall and winter of 1839 and 1840 and that there was a hostile faction continually bringing up some charge (whether true or false, I cannot say) to connect these men with crime.
Mixed up in these charges always could be found James Mitchell, Jim Hanby, the Subletts and Harringtons, with J. K. Moss and Thomas Cox as counselors, and one Wells as spy, the latter said to have been previously a confederate in crime of the Brown gang. Wells had suddenly reformed to help the "law and order party" to ferret out the diabolical crimes of these men. His reformation had been so sudden the "gang" had no suspicion of it, so he was enabled to be on the inside of two rings, plotting crime with one, and aiding justice with the other.
One of the alleged crimes he is said to have unearthed was the "gunpowder plot," not the one Guy Fawkes was implicated in, for it was said Bill Fox was the chief conspirator in this. An extended and dramatic account of it is given in the Jackson County History of 1879, almost too dramatic and harrowing to believe. There are, in fact, some incredulous ones left who don't believe all of it. One link in the chain of factional events followed on the heels of the other during the winter previous to the tragedy of April 1, 1840, most of them within a few weeks previous. Counterfeit money had been passed by some- one in Dubuque. The Dubuque county sheriff with a more or less certain description of the two men who passed it, came to Bellevue on the trail and interviewed Sheriff Warren, who presumed the two men he was looking for were Dennison and Aaron Long.
The Dubuque sheriff, with several of the Mitchell faction, among which was James Mitchell and Henderson Palmer, went to Brown's hotel in search of Dennison and Long, who were upstairs with Brown.
Seeing a hostile armed party, composed of sworn enemies in the opposing faction, with pistols drawn, trying to gain the chamber, either Dennison or Long fired a shot at Mitchell, which passed through his coat collar. A rush was made, and the party upstairs was overpowered. The three men claimed they had no knowledge of the mission that brought the party there and had no intention of resisting an officer, but had believed it to be an attack by the opposing faction. Brown was put under bonds for resisting an officer with
1
440
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
intent to kill; Long and Dennison were arrested on the charge of passing counterfeit money. There was no charge against James Thompson for having any hand in any of the proceedings, but he was arrested and taken to Dubuque without a warrant. James Mitchell and Palmer went also to aid the sheriff in taking them up and to show up the bad character of the prisoners. Thomp- son was discharged at once; Long and Dennison were bound over to and acquitted by the court, on the ground of illegal proceedings connected with the "modus operandi" of the accusation. Brown was never brought to trial.
Soon after this came the killing of Thompson in cold blood by Mitchell during the night at a dance, which occurrence brought the Thompson faction out in force to take Mitchell (possibly to deal out quick though unlawful justice, believing he would never get any other kind, backed as he was by a faction that contained several officers of the law and members of the grand jury).
The Thompson faction found Mitchell and a few friends upstairs in a build- ing, armed and with the head of the stairs barricaded. Firing had commenced when Sheriff Warren appeared upon the scene and offered pacification by telling Brown he would answer for Mitchell's appearance in the morning be- fore a magistrate to answer to the charge of murder. After assuring Warren that if Mitchell was not in evidence for that purpose, they would make him (Warren) answer for it, the Thompson faction left the building. Brown later in the night hunted up the sheriff and told him to guard Mitchell well, as the friends of Thompson were drinking and owing to the intense feeling no one could tell what demon of revenge might take possession, if reason was unthroned by too much whiskey. Nothing of the kind happened. The next day was eventful. The inquest was held, the jury returned a verdict of death from a pistol ball fired by James Mitchell. Mitchell was brought before the magistrate and indicted for manslaughter.
Both factions were out in full force and were addressed by Wm. Morden, who was respected by both elements. He deprecated the show of mob vio- lence to Mitchell, guaranteeing to any Thompsonites that Mitchell should be promptly brought to trial, which promise was cheered by the friends of Thompson. Mitchell was confined without bail in his own house, with differ- ent members of the Mitchell faction as guards. The facts were well known. Mitchell was an old enemy of Thompson and had gone in search of him with a gun in the night. The shooting had been witnessed by Montgomery, who lived near Springfield (now Maquoketa). The opposing faction had shown admirable condescension to lawful justice and growing public sentiment was largely against Mitchell's act and sympathetic with the Thompson faction's forbearance. If that sentiment should not change, Mitchell's prospects were not overly bright. (These statements are all embodied in Warren's writings on the subject, and if the sentiment against Brown and others which finally culminated in a bloody tragedy, was created by factional hatred, political ani- mosity, and business jealousy as Henri and others testify to, Warren could never have been deceived by apparent facts, as later sentiment has been cre- ated by his writings as to those "apparent facts.")
The alleged gunpowder plot followed in the wake of the Mitchell-Thomp- son tragedy. Wells (the lately reformed) as spy for the alleged law and order party, is said to have discovered a diabolical plot to kill Mitchell by blowing him up with gunpowder, and his family with him. As to Wells' sudden con- version, I offer this possible key. James Thompson is said by Warren to have been living with a prepossessing young woman who had been induced to elope with him on account of ill treatment by her stepmother. On account of tales by Thompson's enemies of alleged crimes by Thompson, she was in- duced to leave him and go to living with the Wells family. She was soon taken in by Moss, who afterward turned her out, as he was at that time as- piring as candidate for legislative honors and there was some gossip on ac-
441
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
count of the woman. After leaving Moss, she found a haven with the Sub- letts. Thompson had openly accused Wells, Moss, and Sublett as being to blame for her leaving him.
On discovering the alleged gunpowder plot, Wells had fallen in with it, so it was said, and offered to help plant the mine so he could frustrate its deadly intent. Moss' store is said to have been broken into and a large can of pow- der stolen. With the aid of a dark lantern, Wells and Fox fixed the mine. Wells, with a bottle of powder, laid the train, deceiving Fox, so it is said, by making a broken train. The bottle, partly emptied, he left at the end of the broken train. Chichester is said to have fired the train and run. A report followed caused by the bottle exploding, which brought out Harrington, who was on guard. The story continued is, that Harrington, not discovering any- thing, concluded that "someone had attempted some damage on the house and fled."
The next morning an examination revealed nothing, so it was said. The train of burned powder that ran across the summer kitchen floor to the cellar door was not seen or smelled. The attempted plot was not known until the next night, when Wells is said to have found an opportunity to tell the sheriff, who could not believe it. Wells is said to have told him where to find the can of powder and that he could learn from Moss if one was gone from the store. Moss had not discovered his loss until told of it that night.
Here we have a strong factional feeling, seething hot. Mitchell was guarded by friends, conscious of the growing sentiment against him. An attack was said to have been attempted and abandoned which was known of by people the next morning. No powder smoke had been seen or smelled by the guard after the explosion, although Moss knew the next morning his store had been broken into; he hadn't taken an invoice to ascertain if anything was missing. This is the questionable story of the "gunpowder plot" that fell upon the ears of the public like a thunder clap and brought a tidal wave of sentiment against Brown and the Thompson faction, staying at his hotel and employed by him. This is said to have happened about a week before Cox came home from the legislature.
There is nothing to indicate that his coming had a quieting effect upon the deplorable state of affairs, but rather things became more volcanic, as it was about six weeks when followed that eruption called the "Bellevue War."
It was during the winter of 1839 and 1840 that the worst of the criminal acts of Brown and his gang is said to have been committed, and that is when numerous arrests were said to have been made and come to naught on account of perjury. The outlaws were said to have been bold and defiant, and cattle, hogs, horses, and other property was stolen and traced to Brown and his men. By night it was said that Brown's Hotel was the scene of drunken revelry, and debauchery ; nights made hideous by oaths and obscene songs. All of this and more was claimed to have occurred at Brown's that winter. During that time, Anson Wilson teamed from Springfield (now Maquoketa), hauling machinery and other material from Galena, making numerous trips during the winter. Going up and coming back he always put up at Brown's Hotel. If Brown's had been such a hell as has been reported, Anson Wilson would have put up in the woods and slept under his wagon before he would have stopped with Brown. We always knew Mr. Wilson and know he has always been disgusted with such work and is strictly truthful and upright, and though ninety-one years of age, not a drop of any kind of intoxicating liquors as a beverage has ever passed his lips, nor has a quid of tobacco, cigar or pipe ever been in his mouth. He is and always has been honored by all who know or knew him. He is not blind to passing events, but if by some chance he failed personally to detect the villainy of Brown and his men he would have natur- ally have learned of it from Warren. He was a friend of Warren who, at dif- ferent times, would go up to Galena with him. It is a wonder he should not
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.