USA > Iowa > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Iowa; Volume I > Part 67
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
The weather was extremely cold, and nearly all were frost bitten before we got to Davenport. This was in January. When we got to Davenport the doors were all open and everything was free. James Campton, of Du- buque, was captain of our company, and, on a wager of twenty dollars, he drank one hundred glasses of whiskey, ate the peppers and drank the sauce of two bottles of peppersauce in one day, helping to dress six beeves the same day, was sober at night, and won the bet. After the election we were returned. I stopped at Bellevue, where I made my home with Charlie Bilto, and worked at the carpenter trade, taking such pay as I could get ; there was no money in the country. I was elected constable, beating Jim Hanby two to one. The country at that time was overrun with horse thieves and counterfeiters. W. W. Brown was the most prominent man in the county at that time ; he kept a public house in Bellevue, ran a butcher shop, a general store and a wood yard, employing a great many men; he was successful in business and was good to the poor, as was his amiable wife, and he was generally considered the most useful and best citizen in the place. Travelers said that Brown set the best table from there to New Orleans. Brown was never known to pass coun- terfeit money to his customers, he also said if any one got bad money at his house he would make it good; there were other men in business in Bellevue who were less successful and could not compete with Brown, and were very jealous and claimed that Brown was getting rich too fast.
J. K. Moss and the Subletts were the loudest in their denunciation of Brown's methods of doing business, and he, to retaliate, bought up their paper wherever he could and made them trouble ; this made matters worse. Brown continued to prosper in business and his enemies openly accused him of being the leader of all the outlaws in the country.
On the 8th of January, 1840, war was almost precipitated and barely averted, by the killing of James Thompson by James Mitchell. Mitchell and his brother had been having trouble over partnership business. Jim had retained a trunk full of clothing that belonged to his brother's wife and would not give it up. On the night in question, while Jim was at a ball at the new hotel, his brother got James Burtis and James Thompson to go with a team
461
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
and get the trunk. Jim and Thompson had been having trouble and threat- ened each other; when Jim heard of the visit to his house, he got a gun and set out to find Thompson, whom he soon met in company with Ab Montgom- ery. Thompson was very drunk. Thompson and Mitchell approached within striking distance of each other and leveled their guns at each other; Thomp- son's gun failed to go off, and the bullet from Mitchell's gun passed through Thompson's heart, killing him instantly. The wildest excitement was cre- ated by this incident, as the two men represented the two factions, and the breach between the factions was considerably widened and both sides went armed at all times. .
In March, a warrant was procured from a justice of the peace named Harris, near Fulton, for the arrest of Brown and his friends. As constable and deputy sheriff, I called upon Brown and tried to arrange matters peacefully. Brown said he was willing to go before any tribunal and defend himself against the charges and was willing to give bonds for the appearance of the men named with him in the warrant, but would not advise the men to surrender to a mob. He also said if his enemies were so anxious to get rid of him, he would submit the matter to three appraisers to be selected from outside the county, he to select one, his enemies one, and the two to select a third, and he would take two thirds the appraised value of his property.
On the fatal Ist day of April, 1840, the so called citizen's committee mnet at the store of J. K. Moss, who kept, among other things, tinware, large stock of coffee pots which were filled with whiskey on this occasion, and freely cir- culated among the men, who soon became so drunk that they could not be held in restraint; they swore they would go up and kill Brown themselves. They were led by Colonel Cox, who was very drunk himself. He finally gave the word to march, and they marched up to the Brown Hotel. As they came up Brown stood in the front door, his gun pointed at Cox, who also had his gun pointed at Brown. Cox ordered Brown to ground arms and Brown dropped his rifle so the muzzle pointed to the ground, and it went off.
Cox was pushed out of the way by the men behind, and Tom Sublett and one of the men who kept the ferry at the mouth of Tete des Morts Creek, whose name I have forgotten, sprang to the side window and fired through it at Brown, who stood by his wife, just inside the door, one of the balls striking him in the temple and the other just below the ear, killing him instantly. I stood in the street about four rods from Brown's house. There were four or five men with me who took no part in the fight, among them were two men who had landed a log raft there that morning. They had worked with me during the day to settle the trouble without a fight. Mr. Farley was also one of the party. He had come up to the mill, and I told him there was going to be trouble, and had him put his pony in the stable with mine. With the report of the guns which killed Brown the firing became general. There were not more than ten men in the house with Brown when the fight commenced. There was one young man in the hotel whom Brown had befriended, who had a claim near Bellevue, and he said, "If Brown had to go he would go with him." He was an exemplary young man, and had not an enemy in the place and never drank or gambled.
When Brown was killed, the house was soon filled with smoke, so that those inside could see nothing. This young man stepped out on the porch, singled out his man and fired, and turned to go inside again, but a ball struck him and he fell on the porch, his head hanging off. His groans and cries were pitiful to hear. I started once to go to him, but realizing the danger, turned back. Mr. Farley was greatly affected by the situation of the unfortunate young man, and finally he said, "I can't stand this any longer," and went to the porch and bent over him to lift him up. Just as he stooped over, a ball from one of the citizen's guns struck him and he fell across the body of the man he was trying to succor, and neither of them spoke or moved again.
462
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
About this time those who were in the house broke out at the rear and jumped over the fence by the privy which was riddled with bullets. Bill Fox was among this crowd, and was wounded in the side and captured. Tom Welch, a boy who had been working for Brown, was shot through the side and fell, the pursuers passed him, thinking him dead. Charley Kilgrove, on returning, saw him move. "Well, Tom," he said, "you are not dead yet?" and put his pistol to his face and fired. Tom threw up his hand and turned so the ball went through his hand. Those two men were good friends that morn- ing. When Kilgore had gone, Tom struggled to a sitting position again, when a Methodist exhorter, from Galena, who had worked in the stone quarries there, came up to Tom. He said, "you rascal, you are not dead yet," and kicked him three times and passed on. Tom got to his feet and made his way to Kirkptarick's place, which was near by. He asked Kirkpatrick to protect him from Kilgore and others who were after him again, and Warren coming up again, he and Kirkpatrick interfered in behalf of Tom and he was saved from death. We took him to Bilto's and I dressed his wounds.
After the fight was over, half a dozen men were dead and as many more severely wounded. The citizens who had remained in town and had not taken part in the fight, wanted some one to go to Dubuque for doctors. I was pre- vailed upon to go. I rode one horse to Tete des Morts, and pressed a horse there and ran the horse all the way to Dubuque. I think two doctors went down from there, and some went from Galena. I stayed over night in Dubuque and when I returned, the men who had been captured at Brown's house had been whipped and driven out of the country. The Cox party who had been victorious in the fight, were arrogant and abusive to all who had not sided in with them.
I worked there a while, then went to Davenport and worked at the car- penter trade. In about eighteen months I returned to Bellevue, but there was nothing for me to do, so I left town, going down the river on the steamer "Nauvoo." Joseph Smith, the Mormon prophet, was on the boat, and there were two professional phrenologists aboard and they were examining heads for so much a head. Joe Smith told them he could tell them more about their dispositions and not touch their heads than they could by examining the heads, so the phrenologists examined several people, and then those same people went to where Smith lay on the deck and he told their fortunes, as they called it then, without looking at them, and they all decided in favor of Smith.
The second summer after the Bellevue war, I was in Natchez. I had been sick, and was not able to work yet, and was sitting down on the levee one day, when who should turn up but Bill Fox. He seemed very much surprised to see me, and uneasy, but as there was no chance to dodge he came up and we had a long chat. He asked me how they felt toward him in Iowa, and if I thought they would allow him to come back there. I told him I thought if he behaved himself he would not be molested. I never saw Fox again, and the next time I heard from him he was implicated in the murder of Colonel Daven- port. I was well acquainted with Colonel Davenport, who was a good man and good to the poor.
I went back to Pennsylvania, rented a mill, got married, have lived in several different states, but my home is now in Benton, Butler county, Kan- sas. This is my only visit to Iowa since 1841, and will be my last. I was eighty-eight years old last February (1906), have been visiting old friends in the east and am on my way home.
A. H. WILSON ON THE BELLEVUE WAR. (By J. W. Ellis.)
In conversation with A. H. Wilson, who came here in the spring of 1839, on the 23d day of April, 1906, the writer asked him for his opinion of W. W. Brown, the principal victim of the Bellevue mob in April, 1840. Mr. Wilson said :
463
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
"I knew Brown and his wife well; I stopped at their hotel frequently on my trips to and from Galena. I helped build several mills and frequently went to Galena for supplies. Brown was a fine looking man, tall, well built, dark com- plected, of genial, pleasant manners, and a perfect gentleman in every way. Mrs. Brown was a small woman of neat appearance, with a winning way that made her very popular and a suitable helpmate for her husband. Brown was an all- around hustler, conducted the best hotel in the country, some said on the Mis- sissippi River, had a wood yard, a general store, and was interested in a meat market. He trusted everybody and gave everybody work that needed it. He employed a great many men to cut wood in the winter season, which he sold to the steamboat companies in the summer. I never heard that Brown was accused of committing any crime himself. The worst said about him was that he had a tough set of men about his hotel. I never knew of anyone getting bad money at any of Brown's places of business. Brown always said if anyone got bad money at his house or store he would make it good.
Some time in February or March, 1840, Colonel Cox came through this part of the county trying to get the people to turn out and drive Brown and his gang, as he called them, out of the country, but he got no help from these parts."
Mr. Wilson says he told Cox that he would have nothing to do with such an undertaking and that he thought Brown would be a fool to surrender to a mob. He said Cox threatened him that he might be the next victim after Brown. He also thinks that the mob was quite largely made up of men from the lead mines near Galena. He says that Tom Welch, the young man mentioned by Joseph Henri, who worked for Brown as stable boy and who was badly wounded in the fight on the Ist of April, 1840, and who Charley Kilgore tried to finish by emptying all the barrels of his pepper box pistol into Tom while standing over him, and was saved at the intercession of Warren and Kirkpatrick and sent to friends in the forks and afterward lived with Mr. Wilson and gave him many particulars of the conflict.
Mr. Wilson says the talk about so much crime being committed in the county at that time was greatly exaggerated; there were no horses stolen in this county, and if Brown and his boarders were banded together to rob, steal horses, and pass counterfeit money, they must have done their work in some other locality. Mr. Wilson was a warm friend to Colonel Warren, but blamed him for this action in mobbing Brown, who considered Warren a true friend to him to the last.
Mr. Wilson was quite familiar with the trials and troubles his neighbor, Shade Burleson, had in trying to settle the Brown estate, especially in his efforts to collect on notes and accounts. The probate judge had been Brown's worst enemy while living, and had been a leader in the mob that killed Brown, and nearly every man that was sued demanded a jury which was always largely composed of members of the mob and in every case verdict was given for defen- dant. Mr. Wilson said, "I once asked Burleson why it was that he could not get
a verdict against men of whom he held their promissory note. Burleson's an- swer was characteristic of the man. He said, 'If you sue the devil, and have got the trial in hell, what show have you got for a favorable verdict?'"
Mr. Wilson says that the people of this side of the county were never friendly to Colonel Cox after the killing of Brown. That he never was invited nor attended any of the Fourth of July celebrations or other public functions in this locality. He describes Colonel Cox as being over six feet in height, splendidly proportioned, and altogether one of the finest specimens of physical manhood he ever met. Mr. Wilson said that when the capital was established at Iowa City through Colonel Cox's influence, a Mr. Ball of this county got a job of cutting the stone for ornamenting the new capitol, and his work was so well appreciated that Governor Lucas secured him a job to work on an addition that was being built to the National Capitol. The same Mr. Ball cut the stones to mark the grave of Mr. Wilson's first wife and daughter in the Maquoketa Cemetery.
464
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
THE BELLEVUE WAR .- A REVIEW.
(Written by Harvey Reid for Jackson Historical Society.)
The interesting details of events connected with what has always been known locally as the "Bellevue War," brought out by the researches of Mr. Seeley and Mr. Ellis, have great value historically because as now viewed by scholars, history should be a record of facts, whether those facts accord with preconceived notions or not.
It will be observed, however, that all the marshaled array of new evidence and argument only goes to show that good people were not agreed at the time, and are not now, as to the personal guilt of W. W. Brown. It may readily be conceded that Shade Burleson and Joe Henry, who knew him fairly well, and John E. Goodenow, Anson H. Wilson, Colonel John King, and J. V. Berry, who knew him casually or by hearsay, may have been convinced that Brown was an honorable citizen, who was not to blame for the character of those who made his public hotel a rendezvous. It may be conceded that Colonel Cox, Sheriff Warren, Judge Moss, Judge Harrington, and their confreres may possibly have been mistaken in their opinion that Brown was actually implicated in the criminal acts of those with whom he associated and whom he seemed in a large measure to control. Still the fact remains, testified to by both parties in the controversy, that Jackson county was infested with a gang of criminals guilty of all kinds of crimes against property, and that the cyclone of wrath which culminated in the bloody tragedy at Brown's Hotel on the Ist of April, 1840, effectually rid the county of their presence, and created a sentiment of detestation of malefactors that has its influence to this day.
That the riddance was not accomplished by the orderly and lawful proceed- ings planned and counseled by Judge T. S. Wilson and District Attorney James Crawford must be admitted. The sheriff's posse became at once without the formality of organizing, as typical a vigilance committee, as ever were those which in California, and in northern Indiana, and in other primitive communi- ties, protected society when the law was powerless to act. Our Jackson county vigilants dissolved as quickly as they assembled. Their own exhibition of power sufficed ; no perpetuation of their authority became necessary or advisable.
I have said that the short but desperate conflict which cost more in human lives than any other battle which ever occurred on Iowa soil since its settlement except the Spirit Lake massacre, has been universally known here as the "Bellevue War." No other term so well expresses the character which it assumed. The demon which enters men's souls in the ardor of conflict must be reckoned with, and General Sherman's phrase cannot be denied. Let it be remembered, too, that a large portion of those who formed Colonel Cox's posse had already seen service as enlisted soldiers in regular warfare. Cox himself had at least served sixteen years in Illinois militia, rising through all ranks from private to colonel, during which, in the War of 1812, he had, as one of a company of scouts, led his command against savage foes in positions of the most extreme danger. Again in the Black Hawk war, he had accepted service of equal peril, although exempt by age from military enrollment.
Among others from the posse was Colonel James Collins, who had com- manded a regiment in the Black Hawk war which bore a leading part in the battles of Wisconsin Heights and Bad Axe. He was afterward colonel of an Illinois regiment in the Mexican war, but the only time he was struck by a hostile bullet was in this short lived "Bellevue War." He ended his military career as brigadier general of California militia, where he died in 1864.
General John G. McDonald had been a lieutenant in General, (then major) Henry Dodge's Battalion of United States Mounted Rangers, in which he served a year. At the time of the Bellevue affray he had recently (January 14, 1840) been commissioned brigadier general of the First Brigade, Third Division, Iowa
465
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
Territorial Militia, but the militia possessed then the merest semblance of an organization.
James L. Kirkpatrick had been first lieutenant in Captain Enoch Duncan's Galena company in the Black Hawk war, and his brother, Rev. Joseph Scott Kirkpatrick, had been a private in Captain James Craig's company.
Wm. A. Warren, William Jonas, Vincent K. Smith, who fired one of the fatal shots that killed Brown, William Dyas, Thomas Graham, John D. Bell, James McCabe, Hastings Sangridge, Enoch Neville, Joshua Seamonds, all had served in the Black Hawk war. Indeed, I believe that every Black Hawk war soldier then living in Jackson county was in Colonel Cox's command at Bellevue, except the brothers, Rev. Nathan and Jesse Said, of the forks of the Maquoketa, Charles Bilto, then living at Bellevue, and William L. Potts, who lived, however, over the line in Clinton county on Deep Creek.
Another of the posse was Captain Len M. Hillyard, who held a commission as captain of Company "D," First Regiment, First Brigade, Third Division, Iowa Territorial Militia. This company soon afterward perfected the most complete organization of any Jackson county militia company, and took the name of "Brush Creek Rangers." Thad. C. Seamonds, who became a neighbor of Captain Hillyard in 1847, tells us that the captain had the handle of his tomahawk shot through that he was carrying in his belt.
Of the personal character of W. W. Brown we have significant testimony in a book written soon after 1847 by Edward Bonney, called "The Banditti of the Prairies ; A Tale of the Mississippi Valley." Bonney was a detective who ferreted out and caused the arrest of those concerned in the robbery and murder of Colonel George Davenport on Rock Island, July 4, 1845. He found that the guilty scoundrels were John and Aaron Long, Wm. Fox, Robert Birch, and John Baxter, with Granville Young and Grant and Wm. Reddin as accessories. Of these, Fox, Aaron Long and Baxter were among the Brown gang at Bellevue. Fox was a leader of what Bonney calls the banditti. He was known among them as Judge Fox, and Bonney tells of many affairs of robbery in which he was engaged.
Bonney finally traced Fox to his father's home in Wayne county on the eastern border of Indiana, and by displaying some genuine unsigned bills of the Miner's Bank with which he had been provided, gained the confidence of Fox, as being a dealer in counterfeit money. Bonney detailed several conver- sations which he had with Fox, among which is the following :
"Did you ever get caught before you were arrested in Bowling Green?"
"Yes; I was at Bellevue, in Iowa, at the time the mob shot Brown. They arrested me at the same time, but could prove little or nothing against me. So they tied me up to a tree and whipped me nearly to death and then let me go. Some of them may have to pay for it one of these days. I should not have been caught at Bowling Green if the boys had followed my advice."
"Were you acquainted with Brown who was killed at Bellevue?"
"Yet, my first horse was stolen under Brown's instructions."
"I presume that was not the last one."
"No, not by fifty."
It is hardly conceivable that Bonney could have manufactured this bit of testimony, any more than it is that Warren, Harrington, Moss, Cox and their associates could have proceeded to the extremities without a profound belief, at least, that Brown was the chief sinner in the coterie of criminals.
The bias of Jo Henry may be partly explained by his being a rival of Jim Hanby, who seems to have been Warren's right hand man and deputy sheriff. He agrees that "the country at that time was overrun with horse thieves and counterfeiters," but could not admit that Brown was guilty of anything worse than prosperity.
The hysterical letters of Colonel King and Public Prosecutor Berry were written when they had no knowledge of the affray except what was brought to
466
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY
Dubuque by Mrs. Brown and the friend who accompanied her. Governor Lucas in his reply tells Berry that the account published in the Territorial Gazette differs materially from the one given in his letter. Berry was inspired partly, it is evident, by personal hostility toward "the infamous sheriff" Warren. That this feeling was reciprocal, may be inferred from the fact that Warren consulted District Attorney Crawford on the visit of the Bellevue committee to Dubuque, rather than Public Prosecutor Berry. That the feeling of the Dubuque gentlemen, as well as Governor Lucas, underwent some modification soon afterward, seems certain. Sheriff Warren and Probate Judge Moss were not removed from office and the militia commission of Brigadier General McDonald was not revoked. Mr. Moss was not removed from the office of postmaster. The legislature met in extra session in July of that year. The journal does not show that any proposal was made to expel Colonel Cox from a seat in the house, but on the contrary, does show that he received votes for speaker in three ballots. At the regular election in August he was reelected by the people of Jackson county to represent them in the territorial house and when that body met in November his colleagues therein elected him their speaker without another candidate being named. And, in 1844, he was chosen president of the territorial council, the highest office, except Congressional delegate, which a resident of the territory could attain by election.
That we may further understand who were the "base and foul felons" who formed "the most infamous mob that ever was assembled in this or any other country," let us glean from history and from the memories of our county pioneers, somewhat of how they were regarded by their compeers. General James Collins came into the affair by accident. His wife was a sister of Colonel Cox. They lived at White Oak Springs, Wisconsin, (now Lafayette) Iowa county territory and were on a visit to Mrs. Collins' mother, then living with her son, John W. Cox, whose home was near the mouth of Brush Creek in Fairfield (or Jackson) township. Colonel Collins detestation of crime and his military instincts prompted him to join with his brothers-in-law, Thomas and John Cox, when the call came to go to Bellevue. The military career of this gentleman has been mentioned, and his civil record was no less prominent. He had been a member of the house in the Wisconsin territorial legislature in 1838, when it met in Burlington, and at this time he was a member of the Wisconsin terri- torial council, in which he served six sessions and became president of that body in 1841. In 1845 he was the whig candidate for delegate to Congress, but was defeated by Hon. Morgan L. Martin, of Green Bay. In 1862 and 1863 he was a member of the general assembly of California, and in 1863 was elected treasurer of Nevada county, California. Thus the "infamous mob" contained within its ranks members of the law making bodies of two different American common- wealths.
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.