History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 64

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730

USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 64

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).

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have let Wilson know what danger he was in when putting up among such crooks, who, it has been said, were so bold they robbed a steamboat in broad daylight. Wilson probably knew Brown better than any other man in the Maquoketa Valley, with the possible exception of Shade Burleson and John E. Goodenow, and his opinion of Brown and his wife was most favorable. He has said that if Brown was the horse thief it has been said he was, he must have done his work in some other country, as no horses had been stolen in Jackson county at that time.

He has said, when asked his opinion of the two men (Cox and Brown), that, "so far as I am capable of judging men, Brown, as a man, stood head and shoulders above Cox."

He told the writer that Cox took dishonorable and underhanded methods to injure Brown during the campaign of 1839, when Brown and Cox were running against each other for representative. He also told the writer that Thomas Cox was a very intemperate man and died from the effects of hard drinking. There is plenty of evidence of Cox's intemperate habits; A. J. Phillips told Mr. Reid that Cox was the first man he ever saw dead drunk. The wife of Lauriel Summers wrote to Harry Littell that she knew Cox well, he several times had been at their house, having been in the territorial legislature with her husband, and that Mr. Summers had frequently performed legislative duties belonging to Colonel Cox when Cox was too "full" to perform them himself.

At one session, when Cox was acting speaker of the house, he was only in his seat the first three days, being on a protracted spree all the rest of the ses- sion, and Lauriel Summers acted as speaker and closed the session, after the first three days, Cox never appearing in his seat with the exception of a short time one day. I think this was the spring session of 1840, after the Bellevue war.

What do we owe to a man who cannot, or will not, assert his manhood long enough to perform his sworn duties to those who have honored him with public ' eminence ? A man whose family and relatives (many of wealth) left his grave unmarked for sixty years, with no monument but the shifting sands of a plowed field. The enthusiasm of present day historians has paid him greater honor than any man in Jackson county has ever received; this honor to this man, "a law maker," who caused more laws to be broken than he ever helped to make. Spent much time in different parts of Iowa, organizing so called "law and order societies" that were largely composed of the irresponsi- ble part of society and were nothing but mobs that often hung men without legal trial or benefit of defense, sometimes with no evidence of guilt but sus- picion aroused by some personal enemy. No man knew when he would be- come a suspect of these committees. In some instances anti-vigilance com- mittees were formed by the conservative industrial element and known mem- bers of these "regulators" were informed that if any more lynching was done they would soon swing also. This had a very soothing effect and alleged crime was much less frequent.

There are times when the unofficial public can view with half closed eyes the execution of mob law, as was the case with Barger, but it cannot be ex- cused by any official or by any law respecting man, yet we find Cox setting his constitutory that example. We find him searching Jackson and Dubuque counties, and even the Illinois side, in quest of a mob to "drive Brown out of the country" (the quotation is Cox's own words as given me by Mr. Wilson) and threatening at least, in one instance, to make a victim of people who refused him aid.

Almost to a man the industrial element refused. He made no claim to be raising a legal posse, although Warren did, but was also refused, getting only four in Jackson county outside the official ring which was well represented in this aforesaid Bellevue faction. Aside from this, as we have before said, Cox

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drew his men from boats plying the river, from the Galena mines, and from relatives, one of whom was Colonel Collins (but it is understood, in most cases, I gather my information from the evidence found in the written and verbal statements of others).

Collins lived at White Oak Springs, and had come down to "visit" (so Mr. Reid says). Whether we believe this mob was assembled before Brown's house, April 1, 1840, by the call of "outraged justice" depends much on what kind of a receptive mood we are in. We learn from history that they were there, and Brown and some of his friends were there to receive them. Some say, "if Brown and his men were not criminals, what were they there for, armed to resist an officer." My pen takes wings to write, "what a question."

Whether Brown was criminal or saintly, he knew the feeling of Cox and the Mitchell faction toward him, and that they were inflaming the passions of men to bring him into a mob's power. When the sheriff served that blanket sheet warrant, that was only intended to deprive twenty-three citizens of the right of defense in case of trial on any charge, either real or trumped up, Brown told Warren the warrant was, in his opinion, not legal and he did not feel bound to respect it. It was at this juncture that the sheriff started after his posse and Cox after his mob. Brown is said by pioneers to have told his enemies that if they wanted to be rid of him, he would choose a man and they one, the two the third. Let them appraise his property and he would take two thirds of the appraised value and leave. That didn't seem to be what they wanted, though it appears to me it would have been a good investment in more ways than one. (This was written prior to Mr. Wilson's death.)

When eighty men, forty of them heavily armed, were in the streets of Bellevue, ready for an attack on Brown's Hotel, Sheriff Warren went to Brown and appealed to him to surrender, and they should have protection. Brown told him he knew that if it was in his power to protect them he would do so, but it was not. He told Warren that so far as he was concerned he was willing to surrender, but he would not advise his men to surrender to the mob, as he feared they would stand a poor show.

That being the case, he proposed to stay with them and should hold the sheriff, and if his house was fired on he would likely be shot, believing that ruse would cool the ardor of the Cox party. Warren told him that would cer- tainly bring on an attack, and seeing Cox forming his men in the street before the house, he told Warren to go. Headed by Cox and Warren, the mob charged the house.

In reading Warren's account of the affair, so far as it favors Brown, there is little room to doubt but that it was Cox whom Brown doubted, and Cox had not promised them safety. It is supposed Brown still hoped to avert blood- shed, as the Cox-Warren party were allowed to reach the house without being fired upon. (Warren vouches for that fact.) Brown had ordered his men not to shoot until a shot had been fired and he with his rifle at his shoulder appearing at the door, meeting Cox and Warren with pistols pointed at him.' He had Cox covered with his rifle. The first guarantee of safety from Cox he received then. Cox said, "Surrender, Brown, and you sha'n't be hurt." War- ren says, "Brown lowered his gun, evidently with the intention of surrender- ing." Whether he lowered it with that intention, or for a truce in behalf of his men will never be known, for in shifting his rifle it was accidentally dis- charged. Before he could speak, Vincent Smith and Thomas Sublette simul- taneously fired, instantly killing him, while his wife and daughter stood beside him. At almost the same instant, Brown's men opened fire, purgatory was loosed. Several on both sides were killed and wounded. Brown's house was shot as full of holes as a pepper box (James Ellis has an old piece of siding about ten inches long, from that house, with three ball holes in it, two so close together they are broken into one). The fight lasted but a few minutes, for .

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being outnumbered four to one and their leader shot, Brown's men soon suc- cumbed and tried to escape, but were shot or captured.

Mrs. Brown's name has never been placed on the "hall of fame," but is should be. While this kettle of hades was getting ready to boil, she stood by Brown's side, holding reserve rifles for him, and after he fell she handed loaded arms to the men. When the battle was over, some of the mob looted the house. Mrs. Brown had concealed Brown's money and would not tell where it was. She was taken to the river and threatened with being lashed to a plank and set adrift if she did not tell where the money was. She coolly told them she was only a poor, weak woman, and a hundred men could do with her as they had threatened, or kill her as they had her husband, but they could not make her tell what she did not want to.

They did not want her life, but her money ; not being able to get it, she was allowed to go back where her daughter was, and her husband lay in his blood. If these men were heroes, as some historians say, God deliver us from too much heroism. From here on the "heroism" increased. The prisoners were in the hands of the mob, the mob drunken with blood and whiskey. (Warren says no whiskey was drunk by them that day, but Joseph Henri, Anson Wil- son, Shade Burleson, and others, say the mob was drunk.)

The mob was calling for ropes with which to string up the captives, and only Warren and several others of the more conservative, appealing to Cox, saved an instant hanging, while the dead and wounded lay neglected. In writing this, we may be bringing hades down to our ears, but we are gathering nearly all our facts from Captain Warren's writings, while we word it with the eulogy of the victors left out. Brown's history has never been very ex- tensively written from his side of the fence, as no relative was left to do it, and people often fear victory's shadow. Just what popular history would have been if Brown had shot Cox when he had him covered with his rifle and if his men had been the victors, is mere speculation. But as I never was much of a speculator, I will only bring forth the skeleton of what history was made in the twenty-four hours following the battle. By skeleton, I mean just the bones of events not covered by the regular historian's eulogy tanned skin that lauds mob violence as a true act of heroism.

We will go back to the charge when the Cox-Warren party is claimed to have been a legal posse. Brown was ordered to surrender with the assurance he would not be hurt, lowered his gun "evidently with the intention of sur- rendering." Though this move must have been seen and understood, not- withstanding his gun was accidentally discharged while grounding arms, he was shot on the instant by two of the Mitchell faction, without orders.

If there was anything legal in the whole affair at all, it ended when the charge was made. Following the surrender, was the looting of the house, and the inhuman treatment of Mrs. Brown, and a cry for a rope and a quick shift for the prisoners. That being averted for a time, the meeting was held to determine whether it should be gibbet or cat o' nine tails. The lash won by a hair in spite of Cox, Harrington, and the others' cry for the extreme. The sheriff and a few more of the more rational ones stood for lawful proceedings, but were swept from that position by the demon of madness and were obliged to compromise on the aforesaid ballot for hanging, or scourging with the lash. Before the balloting commenced, and while the court of Judge Lynch was open for argument, Warren says Chichester (one of the prisoners), fol- lowed Harrington's argument in favor of blood by making "one of the most fearful appeals for life I ever heard."

James L. Crawford, prosecuting attorney for the district, arrived from Dubuque that morning of the 2d, and was present at Judge Lynch's court, and followed Chichester's "fearful appeal for life," and it can't be said to his credit that he made a very strong plea for the law. He said he was in favor of lawful methods, but had been informed there was no prison that would hold

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the prisoners and that their friends would likely rise up and liberate them. It is not a matter of record what influence Crawford's speech had on the result of the ballot, but it couldn't have increased the prisoners' respect for law that could not be supported by nearly a hundred armed men present with three companies of militia within a day's march of the county seat.

It may be though that in those days some criminals had a good many friends. Chairman Cox, as Judge Lynch, passed sentence giving the number of lashes to be laid on the naked skin with fifty as the maximum, then put the men into canoes and drive them away forever with death for returning. The sentence was exe- cuted apparently to the satisfaction of the court. This was the sentence imposed upon thirteen former neighbors for resisting a mob of men with a warrant which might have been and seemingly was, issued to wipe out old scores of the Mitchell faction and humiliate Brown before the public to the political safety of Thomas Cox and others.

It is believed the sheriff and others had been deceived by personal enemies of Brown and the Thompson faction, and were acting in good faith (I am inclined to it), and what followed during those two eventful days, and years since, was the logical outcome of resisting a passion swayed mob with the after necessity of trying to justify the mob's actions, the natural results.

The whipping in most instances was severe and brutal, especially so in one case. One man, though a strong burly Irishman received fifty lashes so well laid on, he fainted three times during the ordeal and at its end was in a perfectly help- less condition, unable to sit up and had to be lifted into a canoe in which he was set adrift. Warren says, "Every stroke of the lash cut out pieces of the flesh." In that condition he drifted out into the night on the 2d day of April, 1840. In his condition in the cold of that season and the chill and damp of the mile wide river, his voyage couldn't have been as pleasant as a mid-sum- mer night's dream. History has not recorded the emotions of Mrs. Brown and daughter, alone with their dishonored and neglected dead, while the town was aquiver with the "Call of the Wild." There is a good deal of history that has never been written, save on the annals of some heart.

Since we began a systematic search for the facts as to the bloody affair at Bellevue on April 1, 1840, it seems that at every turning over of a chip some hidden or obscure evidence comes to light to show more and more that mob's act as a damnable piece of business, and Thomas Cox as a drunken bully failed to shield unprotected women. The following letter was voluntarily contributed to me since I commenced to write the bald headed facts as to the Bellevue mob. It is from the pen of Mrs. S. F. Shaw-Kelso, daughter of Maquoketa's early pioneer and long honored citizen, John Shaw, and wife of the eminent Judge Kelso, of Bellevue. To the facts set forth by Mrs. Kelso, her sister, Mrs. Laura Shaw-Broekschmidt, of Cedar Rapids, lends her name in vouching. This is their evidence :

Bellevue, March 12, 1907.

Farmer Buckhorn :- After I noticed the articles in the Excelsior, I became interested in them, as they correspond with what my father used to relate. I have written out some of these items, not that I am anxious to be noticed, but to add my father's testimony. There were others outside the then village of Bellevue who held the same views as he-temperate, law abiding people.

It is since my father's death so many articles have been written on the Belle- vue war. I was in my seventeenth year when my father died, and many times I have heard him relate the incidents of the Bellevue mob. His opinion of it was the same as that given by you from Mr. Anson Wilson and others. My father left the east in the fall of 1838, reaching Steubenville, Ohio; finding the river low, they were obliged to remain there during the winter and then continue their journey down the Ohio and up the Mississippi when navigation opened. A few years before he had been west and made his claim in the Maquoketa country, but was waiting for a few families to come in. For a year he remained in Du-

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buque engaged in the drug business with E. M. Birsell. In April, 1840, he re- moved to Bellevue and in preparing to go there several trips were made. His stopping place was Mr. Brown's. He always spoke of him as did Mr. J. E. Goodenow and Mr. Wilson and others, as a pleasant, obliging man, generous, kind hearted and willing to help others, comparing him to J. E. Goodenow, who never turned anyone from his door. He also was a man of more than ordinary ability, having some legal knowledge, and was often employed to look after legal matters.

My father was in Bellevue the day before the mob, and the day after, mov- ing his family to town. The feeling against my father was very strong because he believed mob violence should not take the place of law, but he was fearless when he thought he was in the right. He used to say if it had not been for his personal friends in Dubuque-Judge King, Judge Wilson, and others-he might have been injured. The spirit of some members of the mob was such that a sug- gestion was made that Mrs. Brown and her daughter be put into a canoe and then they could paddle or sink.

S. Burleson went with her when her husband was buried and my father took her to Dubuque. Judge King had my father appointed postmaster, the commis- sion I have. One evening before Mrs. Brown finally left, my mother went to call on her as she was ill. During her absence Mr. Harrington came in saying Colonel Cox and others were drunk and threatening violence and he feared they could not be restrained. My father replied that the children were left in his care, that he had traveled over the greater part of the United States and never carried anything but a pocketknife, and that he should remain there. The house belonged to Mr. Harrington, store rooms on one side and dwelling rooms on the other. As none made their appearance, it is evident quiet was restored, but I have heard my mother say she kept doors and windows fastened on her side of the house.

It is not strange when we find that Colonel Cox and others were drunk, not only April Ist but other days. Colonel Cox in those days wore a long beard, was a tobacco chewer and when drunk the tobacco juice would run down his beard. This my mother saw on the street from her windows, and I have always carried this picture in my mind. After we moved to Maquoketa and Colonel Cox came to the village, I remember fearing him, but doubtless he was peaceable then as at first there was no fire water for sale.

Anson Harrington was a personal friend and used to visit us after we lived in Maquoketa. When I was a child, before his death, he said to my father "I believe you were in the right as to the Bellevue mob." My father used to say a curse rested on Bellevue, for if Bellevue was mentioned, the reign of mob law was first spoken of, but after a time better judgment ruled. Ministers of the Gospel came, churches were established, and he said the curse was being lifted. Now Bellevue is noted for its beautiful situation, pleasant homes and hospitable people. Respectfully,

Mrs. S. F. Shaw-Kelso.

(Will add my sister, Mrs. Laura Shaw-Broekschmidt.)

It is evident from this lady's testimony, Warren in his writings gave Anson Harrington credit for more vindictiveness in the part he played in the mob than he was really entitled to. It is clear from reading Mr. Warren's writings he doesn't ·paint Warren with the same brush he does Harrington, Cox, and others, as he is always found in his writings on the legal and humane side ; nevertheless, all evidence yet produced condemns Cox, and Mrs. Kelso's statement as to hear- ing Harrington say to her father "I believe you were in the right as to the Bel- levue mob," and that after the mature deliberation of years, is the most conclu- sive evidence that can be produced against the claim of justified action by the mob.

In reading the popular version of this story of blood as it was with all haste reported at the time by the members of this lynch court, which comprised nearly

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all the officials of the civil court of Jackson county, Territory of Iowa, and as it was later grafted into many histories of the west, you will notice that Mitchell, Hanby, the Harringtons, Wells, and the Subletts are extolled as law abiding, tireless workers in the interests of the law and good citizenship and "acquitted" themselves with heroism in ridding the country of the "outlaws." I have cited several instances where they were tireless, and to be fair and just, I will state that I know some of them were "acquitted." James Mitchell, the leader of the often mentioned "Mitchell faction," was acquitted from jail by the mob, and acquitted by this Jackson county court at the spring session in 1840, of the killing of James Thompson.

On January 8th previous to this (if my memory serves me as to the dates on the docket), he had been indicted and convicted of keeping a gambling house and his name appears on the records of every term of court for years, as de- fendant in suits for debt. At the June term of court in 1838, Wm. Sublett was indicted for murder, but was acquitted because of a defective indictment. The records do not show, that I can find, that he was ever again brought to trial on that charge. A possible key to the tireless workings of some of the faction, especially the Cox wing, may be in the fact that John Cox owed Brown and would not pay him and Brown had brought suit in the fall term of court in 1839, and obtained a judgment for forty-eight dollars. Few men can have that money taken from their pockets in that way without becoming "tireless work- ers" in an effort to get even.

I will pass no opinion as to the gratitude of some of these men for Brown's generosity. No doubt it was unbounded, for at the time of his death he was carrying them on his books for the necessaries of life, which in those days in- cluded whiskey.

Among those who were indebted to Brown as shown by notes of hand and book accounts, and with whom Shade Burleson, administrator of the Brown estate, fought in the courts for about four years trying to settle the estate, were C. Mitchell, John Petersen, John Stuckey, Elisha Barrett, John Jonas, Joseph Charlevile, Lyman Wells (the claimed tireless spy in ferreting out Brown's ras- calities), James White and W. A. Warren (White and Warren came into court and confessed judgment without making Mr. Burleson any trouble).

Another of Brown's debtors was Charles Harris, the man who issued the warrant for the arrest of Brown and over a score of his friends. In nearly every instance the jury was composed of men who were in the mob, and it was seldom that Burleson could get a judgment. If anyone wishes to verify this, I refer them to the proper records which I am confident will show these facts, as I have only mentioned what the records actually show.

Mr. Burleson says in "Old Settler's" letter to the Excelsior in 1879, "Nearly every man who helped mob Brown, owed him." Several of these individuals who comprised the officialdom of Jackson county, and the grand jury, after the close of Judge Lynch's court, fell back into their official positions, and it is said for years they controlled county affairs, even to the nomination of candidates for office. It is certainly a fact that a man known to be out of sympathy with the mob's work, seldom if ever held office in this county for a number of years after 1840.

All this Mr. Burleson had to contend with in settling up Brown's business in behalf of Mrs. Brown and her daughter, and many people also showed a dispo- sition to cheat the estate. . All this was well nigh distracting to Mrs. Brown, so recently widowed in this horrible way and a victim of scorn and gossip, and it was no less a great trial to Mr. Burleson as administrator.

As soon as possible after Brown was killed, Mrs. Brown was taken to Du- buque, and after Mr. Burleson was appointed administrator she received a letter from her brother, P. Morehouse, of Adamsville, stating that his wife was very sick and wished her to come at once. Mrs. Brown could not get to see Burleson before she left, he doubtless being at his home in the western part of the county,

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so she started for Michigan, taking with her Brown's money which she had con- cealed on her person. Of course that money was a portion of the estate and the estate of Brown had debts as well as credits, so that the administrator had to secure that money for the purpose of making settlements. Consequently he wrote to P. Morehouse in regard to it and informed him of the extreme diffi- culty experienced in getting justice. In reply he received the following letters from Mr. Morehouse and Mrs. Brown. The first letter given here is from Mr. Morehouse to Burleson in reply to one written by him previous to Mrs. Brown's departure for Michigan, in which he evidently expressed himself as disgusted with the attempt to get an honest settlement with Brown's debtors, also mentions property belonging to Morehouse, and Mrs. Brown's discouragement and de- spondency as to the state of affairs. (Mr. Burleson had been chosen adminis- trator because he and Brown had been friends and all members of the two fam- ilies were on most intimate terms.) These letters were found in F. V. Burle- son's garret in an old cotton sack, jumbled together with about half a bushel of others belonging to the Shade Burleson family.

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History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I, Part 64

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 730

Author: Ellis, James Whitcomb, 1848-; Clarke, S. J., publishing company
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 730