USA > Iowa > Johnson County > History of Johnson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, and its townships, cities and villages from 1836 to 1882 > Part 54
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 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110
465
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
OLD JOHN BROWN IN IOWA CITY.
The events which culminated in the death of the abolitionist, John Brown, at Charlestown, Va., on December 2, 1859, constitute a part of American history scarcely surpassed in interest either by preceding or subsequent events. They were, in fact, the commencement of that ter- rible period which ended with the battle at Appomattox Court House, and the surrender of Gen. Lee; a period which witnessed the most stu- pendous of all civil wars, but which resulted in the shackles being removed from 4,000,000 slaves. And
"John Brown's body lies mouldering in the grave, But his soul goes marching on."
A full sketch of John Brown's life and historic movements does not properly come within the purposes of this volume, but only such parts of it as have a local association with Iowa City and vicinity, or with public men personally well known here.
In 1866, while Dr. Frederick Lloyd was editor of the "Annals of Iowa," he published some articles on John Brown's operations and connections within this State, which are in most of their details reliable history. And from these "Annals" we quote a few paragraphs that are local to John- son county, and a few miles over the line in Cedar county :
It was about the close of the Presidential campaign in 1856, that Brown first visited Iowa City and the Pedee settlement .* He was then on his way east from Kansas, and was accompanied by one of his sons. The Hon. W. Penn Clarke was the member of the Kansas national committee for Iowa, and his residence being at Iowa City, made this town the chief headquarters west of the Mississippi for those who sympathized with the free state men of Kansas. Brown was thus brought in contact with Col. Clarke, Dr. Jesse Bowen, and other residents of Iowa City, who were in active sympathy with the free state pioneers of Kansas.
On his journeys through Iowa, Brown was generally accompanied by fugitive slaves from Missouri, whom he and his armed band escorted through our State to a haven of freedom beyond Michigan. On such occasions Brown could always count on finding at the residence of Hon. John B. Grinnell, in Grinnell, Poweshiek county, not only. rest, food and shelter for himself and his party, white and black, but money and words of cheer besides. After leaving Grinnell, his next ark of safety was the Pedee settlement, where he would quarter his men-passing through Iowa City in the night time to avoid molestation, and then retrace his steps to the State capital, which Iowa City had not ceased to be yet, to consult with Clarke and other friends of the free state movement in Kansas. On such occasions Brown generally required the benefit of a clear head and a cool hundred, both of which he never failed to find at the office of Clarke, who often made up any deficiencies there might be in funds, or contributed the whole amount himself. But there were many others who gave of their means for this purpose, and even Democrats, while denounc- ing abolitionists, were contributing their funds toward the escape of fugi- tive slaves.
*Pedee and Spring Dale and West Branch were Quaker settlements a few miles east of Iowa City, and over the line in Cedar county.
466
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
It was then, as indicated above, in the autumn of 1856, that John Brown first visited the Pedee settlement of Cedar county. As he alighted from his mule (one he had captured at the battle of Black Jack, on the borders of Kansas and Missouri), in front of the "Traveler's Rest," which was the name of the little frame tavern kept by Mr. James Townsend, in West Branch, the old man asked the landlord if he had ever heard of John Brown, of Kansas notoriety-a simple introduction, from which sprung an inti- macy the closest and most confiding. The Quaker landlord thereupon proceeded to chalk John Brown's hat and mule, and both John and beast were ever after on the free list at the "Traveler's Rest," and it would have been difficult to say who was the better entertained, the guest disposing of the buckwheat cakes and sorghum of the jolly red-faced Quaker, or the host devouring the thrilling incidents of the Kansas war, as related by Brown.
Brown was in Iowa City and the Pedee settlement several times between his first visit in 1856 and his last in 1859, but as the objects and incidents of these visits were similar, we omit a particular description of each, and shall confine ourselves to a somewhat minute detail of his pro- ceedings and associations on the last two occasions he was in Iowa.
Generally these visits to Pedee had a two-fold object-the promotion of the Kansas free state cause and the concealment of negroes, but his last sojourns were made chiefly with a view of perfecting his plans, accumu- lating arms, drilling, disciplining and recruiting his band, and taking meas- ures for making Pedee a sort of base of operations for the raid against Harper's Ferry.
In the beginning of the winter of 1857-8, Brown for the fifth time vis- ited the Quaker settlement of Cedar county, determined, as now appears, to spend the winter there in preparation for his Harper's Ferry raid, the plan of which he now disclosed to some of his confidants at Pedee-Jas. Townsend, John H. Painter and Dr. H. C. Gill. On this occasion he was accompanied by his band, consisting of his son Owen, Aaron D. Stevens, John Kagi, John E. Cook, Richard Realf, Charles W. Moffit, Luke J. Parsons, Charles H. Tidd, William Leeman and Richard Richardson, the latter a colored man, who, with his wife and three children, had made his escape from slavery in Missouri.
Besides those named above, who accompanied Brown from Kansas to Cedar county, he had accessions to his company in the persons of some young men resident in Pedee settlement. Among these were George B. Gill, the two Coppic brothers, and Stewart Taylor. Mr. Gill, who held a high position in Brown's confidence, having been secretary of his provis- ional government, was detached from the party in Canada, previous to the Harper Ferry affair, after which he returned home and married; since which his issues have been more quoted and have borne a higher pre- mium than formerly. We never heard that he had any trouble in account- ing for the contents of his portfolio. If the provisional government, of which he was a cabinet officer, ever issued bonds, they probably had the same value a like quantity of any other Brown paper had. Edwin Cop- pic was hung, as will be recollected, while his brother Barclay escaped and returned to his home in Springdale, where his mother still resides, [1866] to be the subject of a requisition by the Governor of Virginia on the Executive of Iowa, and a text for much controversy in the spitfire press. He finally fell a victim to the barbarous warfare of the Missouri bushwhackers, who partially burned the supports of a railroad bridge,
467
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
and the next train attempting to pass thereover, and on which Coppic chanced to be, was precipitated many feet into the stream below, and a large number of Union soldiers, Barclay Coppic among the number, were instantly killed.
Brown quartered his men during this winter at the house of Mr. Wm. Maxson, three miles northeast of Springdale. There is an additional his- toric interest attaching to this house-it being the first cement or gravel house ever built in this state. The farm on which it stands was bought by Mr. Maxson at the first government land sale held in Dubuque in 1839, and the house, which is of cottage style in architecture, 32x25 feet in the main part, was built in 1849. Here Brown's men were trained for the projected raid-assiduously drilling with wooden swords. Brown him- self had his quarters at the home of Mr. John H. Painter, about a mile distant, and the men were under the immediate command of Stevens, who was the drill-master. Considerable attention was paid to discipline. Each hour of the twenty-four had its allotted duty. The men were required to rise at five o'clock, and drill and study alternately occupied the hours of day light.
On Thursday, April 22, 1858, Brown having returned from the east (whither he had gone to arrange some preliminaries) bid his men prepare for the grand movement. The parting from their friends, which took place on the 27th of April, is described as having been affecting in the extreme. Not an eye was dry except the two that belonged to the imper- turable Brown, and in the confusion Cook kissed a very handsome young school teacher, Miss Blake, probably in mistake for one of the old gran- dams of the place. It must be recollected that they left with a full expectation of striking the blow immediately, which, however, was ordered to be postponed by a convention which shortly afterwards met at Chatham, Canada West, to which point they went directly from Pedee. This con- vention also framed a constitution and elected provisional officers.
Postponement having been decided upon, Brown again returned to Kansas, and on the evening of Feb. 4, 1859, we once more find him on his way to Pedee, crossing the Missouri river at Nebraska City*, accompanied by a few of his party, together with twelve negroes-one of the latter, but a few weeks old, and born while the party were at Dr. (now [1866] Gen- eral) Blunt's. After crossing the river, they marched rapidly to Mt. Tabor (the seat of Tabor College, in Fremont county), stopping one night on the way a Dr. Blanchard's. After resting a week at Mt. Tabor, they pushed for Des Moines, putting up at night successively at the houses of Mr. Tool, Mr. Mills, Mr. Murray, the latter's place being a little east of Irishtown. On February 18 they crossed the Des Moines and entered the
* At the southeasterly outskirt of Nebraska City there was still visible in 1874, a station of the " Underground Railroad," known as "John Brown's cave." It was dug into the bank of a deep ravine, where the land for several acres around had been a perfect thicket of hazel and underbrush. One chamber went straight in about twenty feet, and four feet wide. Ten feet back from the entrance was a cross-chamber, or two ells or wings. At the end of the north ell there was a man-hole, just big enough to let a man up or down with a rope in case of necessitv, or to let food down into the cave. In the John Brown days an obscure and unsuspected family lived in a small house a few yards from this cave, and had a wood- shed over the space where the man-hole was, while immediately over the hole they kept a large hogshead, which they used to smoke meat in for a blind, but it could be easily rolled aside when necessary. I visited that cave twice in 1874. It was then being used by a German family for a cow-stable .- H. A. REID.
468
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
present state capital. Mr. John Teesdale, then editor of the Register *, paid their ferriage. Teesdale and Brown had been old personal friends in Ohio, but until now Teesdale was not aware that Ossawattomie Brown and his Brown were one and the same. On February 20 they reached Grinnell, and became the temporary guests of the present representative [1866] of the fourth district in congress [Hon. J. B. Grinnell], who was then at home much more than on the 14th of June, when Gen. Rosseau paid his respects to him, and who delivered a discourse in the church at Grinnell to Brown and his party, besides many of the citizens of the town who were attracted by the novelty of the occasion, and contributed a gen- erous sum to help them on their way.
On the 25th of February, Brown, with his party, for the last time, gained the hospitable hamlets of Pedee, having passed through Iowa City the night previous.
It immediately became street talk in Iowa City that Brown, with a large party of fugitive slaves, was in the vicinity; and, as a reward of three thousand dollars had been offered by the authorities of Missouri for the arrest of the negroes, the disinterested advocates of the rigid enforce- ment of the fugitive slave law, began to discuss the propriety of collecting a mob, and marching on Pedee and capturing Brown and his party; Sam Workman, then postmaster at Iowa City, was the captain of the gang organized for this purpose, but Brown having returned a reply breathing quiet defiance to Workman's threat of capturing him, the postmaster after consulting his friend Capt. Kelly, an Irish gentleman of great eminence, that is to say, six feet and seven inches tall, deferred the undertaking.
At this stage of the proceedings, Mr. Grinnell, fearing trouble, proceeded to Chicago to endeavor to secure a box car, in order that the negroes might be removed quietly. Mr. Tracy, the superintendent, refused to allow the negroes to pass over the railroad, being afraid of a prosecution under the fugitive slave law. Tracy, however, gave Grinnell his draft for fifty dollars, and this draft Grinnell handed to Brown on his return from Chicago. While this was going on the United States Marshal, Summers, was at Davenport, alleging that he had a warrant for the arrest of Brown and his party. At this juncture W. Penn Clarke, who had been absent, returned home apprehending difficulty and even the loss of life, as he knew Brown would fight rather than be taken. Shortly after Clarke's return, Brown visited Iowa City, (as he frequently did while stopping at Pedee). Hearing of Clarke's return, Brown sent to request Clarke to visit him at Dr. Bowen's where he was to stay over night. Here Clarke learned of the effort Grinnell had made, and of its failure. After some discussion, Clarke undertook to obtain a close box car in which to run the negroes through to Chicago. Accordingly, Clarke set out by the early train next morning, and Brown was to be ready next day with his entire party, at West Liberty, a station on the railroad fifteen miles east of Iowa City, and ten miles south of Springdale. It was finally agreed that Clarke should send some one to pilot Brown out of the city, and that the latter should leave in the night, and avoid the main road till he got some distance from town. Accordingly, Col. Clarke, in company with Major L. A. Duncan, (now editor of the Niles, Michigan, Times, [1866] then of the Iowa City Republican) knocked at the door of Col. S. C. Trowbridge, who had been selected for this delicate duty. It being by this time midnight, the Colonel
* Mr. Teesdale had before this been editor of the Iowa City Republican.
469
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
was well into his first slumber, but immediately awoke, and hastily put himself into such light marching order as to go to the door. He readily promised to perform the duty assigned him, merely stipulating that he should do it in his own way. Therefore Trowbridge, by three o'clock, was at Dr. Bowen's where Brown and Kagi slept. One of Sam. Work- man's men was keeping watch over Bowen's horse in Bowen's stable. The early movements of Brown were not contemplated in Workman's strategy, which undoubtedly was to take Brown in town that morning, and then make an easy conquest of his party, deprived of its head, at Pedee. Be that as it may, Brown and Trowbridge, each on his proper horse, and Kagi on foot, were soon floundering in the darkness and mud of the ' upper Muscatine road,' bound for Pedee, among whose quiet cot- tages Trowbridge parted for all time from the adventurers, in the morn- ing gray. [See more of this matter under head of " John Brown's Night Escape from Iowa City."]
The most difficult part of the plan was to procure the car from the rail- road company, but this difficulty soon melted before the commendable finesse of Clarke, who called on the Hon. Hiram Price, then secretary of the railroad company, to whom he confided his business. Price had no control over the cars, but gave Clarke a note of introduction to Mr. Moak, the deputy superintendent. With this note from Price, and Tracy's draft, which he had got from Brown, Clarke retraced his steps to West Lib- erty, where he found Brown waiting, his party being concealed in Keith's steam mill. As the train bound east would soon be along, despatch was all important. The agent, Miller, had just gone to dinner, about a quarter of a mile off. Enoch Lewis, an old man, volunteered to bring him. The agent was soon at the hotel, where by this time Clarke and Brown had made a junction. To obtain the car, it was necessary for Clarke to make the agent believe the railroad officers knew and connived at what was being done. So Clarke showed him the note from Price, introducing him to Moak, and asking him if he knew the signature. Of course he recog- nized it as the sign manual of the secretary of the road., In the same manner was exhibited the draft from Tracy, which he likewise knew to be in the handwriting of the superintendent. Clarke then asked him if he had a close box car, and the cost of running it to Chicago. He answered that he had such a car, and the price would be fifty dollars. Thereupon he was handed Tracy's check, and Clarke told him he wanted the car at once down at the mill, and that it was not his (Miller's) business to know what was going to be put into it. The car was accordingly run down the track in front of Keith's mill, and the fugitives, with the white men Brown had with him, were loaded in as freight-Stevens being at one end of the car and Kagi at the other. All of the men, both white and black, were heavily armed. Clarke, Brown and Kagi dined at the hotel together. During this repast, Clarke gave Brown ten dollars to help him on his way, and advised him to go home and take some rest, which he promised to do.
When the passenger train came along, Brown got into the car with the negroes, By this time it was noised abroad what was going on, and the whole town of West Liberty was out, all being in sympathy with Brown and his fugitives. Clarke's freight car soon formed a link in the chain of coaches. Clarke and Kagi got into the passenger car to be prepared for
30
470
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
emergencies, and with a shout of approval and sympathy from the people of West Liberty, off the train started for Davenport.
Brown and his party arrived without molestation at Chicago, where they changed cars, taking another branch of the underground railroad for Canada, where they all arrived in due time. Tracy, the superintendent, swore some, when the negroes were unloaded at the Chicago depot. A short time after, Clarke apologized to Mr. Farnum, the president of the road, for the harmless imposition practiced on the agent at West Liberty, so that he did not lose his place. [See under head of "John Brown's Last Day in Chicago."]
Shortly before Brown's last departure from Pedee, he effected a sale of such plunder as had been necessarily employed in the transportation of negroes and arms from Missouri and Kansas, such as mules, wagons, stoves and cooking utensils, and tents and other camp equipage, by which he realized a considerable sum. In all business of this kind, his trusty and judicious friend, 'Squire Painter, was invariably made available. Pain- ter at that time was a justice of the peace, and signalized his term of office by uniting in wedlock, 'like white folks,' (including possibly the usual labial salutations,) a colored couple of Brown's party from Missouri, who sought refuge and matrimony at Pedee. It was Painter also, who, after Brown had gone, boxed up the latter's Sharp's rifles and revolvers, one hundred and ninety-six of each, marked 'carpenters' tools,' hauled them to the railroad station at West Liberty, and from thence shipped them by rail to Brown at Harper's Ferry, directed to a fictitious consignee, as previously agreed upon between him and Brown. In this way the arms 'carricd well,' as they also did after they reached their destination.
' Before their final adieu to Pedee, Brown's men, who affectionately designated their commander as 'Uncle,' all inscribed their names in one of the bed-chambers of Mr. Maxson's house under the caption of 'Captain Brown's Little Band,' as may be seen to this day (1866); for, although this 'handwriting on the wall' was simply done with a common lead pen- cil, such is the reverence in which the memory of Brown and his martyr band is held in that vicinity, where they were so well known and so greatly loved, that every memento of their sojourn at Pedee is preserved as jeal- ously as were the two tables by the Israelites.
Pending the affair at Harper's Ferry, their Pedee confidants were kept well informed by one and another of Brown's party of their intended movements. Barclay Coppic, writing to Painter from "Parts Unknown, August 29, 1859," says enigmatically, 'our boss has got quite a number of hands on the job, and he talks of getting a few more, so as to shove things right through. Everything seems to be working along smoothly, and if all goes well a few days more, you will hear from us again.'
To complete the above narrative by Dr. Lloyd, it is necessary to add that Brown seized the U. S. Arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, on the night of October 16, 1859. The next morning a few soldiers and citizens attacked him without success, several being killed on both sides; but in a few hours he was surrounded by 1,500 State and Federal troops, and cap- tured, John Brown and six of his men being still alive, while twelve of them had been killed. October 27th they were tried, and on December 2d, he and his six subordinates were hung. Then began that era of his- tory and song, when-
"John Brown's body lay mouldering in the grave,
But his soul went marching on."
471
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
JOHN BROWN'S NIGHT ESCAPE FROM IOWA CITY.
There some additional particulars connected with John Brown's last night in Iowa City, which now have a special local interest, although of no great historical importance. A Quaker from Pedee had accompanied Brown and Kagi into the city, one riding with him in a light mule team wagon belonging to Brown, and the other on horseback. The fact of their being here was whispered around among the democrats and plans laid to capture them, for the government had put a price on Brown's head, and the Missouri slaveholders had offered a liberal reward for the capture of their escaped negroes. The hideous and heathenish fugitive slave law of the United States was then in full force, which made every man in the nation liable to be called upon by some U. S. marshal to serve on his posse comitatus as a slave catcher, or else suffer dire penalties for neglecting or refusing to do so. We were in fact by law a nation of nigger catchers -and that is why there was so much secret sympathy and co-operation with John Brown in his open resistance and defiance of that satanic law.
At that time James Baumer kept a restaurant and ice-cream parlor in the rooms now [1882] occupied by Mrs. Jane Taylor's millinery store, sec- ond door south of the St. James hotel, and during the evening Brown and Kagi went in there to get some ice-cream and refreshments, but Baumer didn't know who they were. While they were in the back room, or
"ladies' parlor," as Baumer called it, eating their refreshments, two men -George Boatham and a blacksmith named Rice [afterward died in the insane asylum]-came to his front door with a rope in their hands and asked him if John Brown wasn't in there. He answered, "No; I haven't seen any John Brown. Why, what do you want of him?" "Why, he's that damned nigger thief of Kansas, and we're going to hang him!" they replied, and then started off. Baumer went back into the "ladies' parlor" and inquired, "Is your name Brown?" Old John answered, “Yes sir, that's my name-old John Brown of Kansas." "Well, sir, they're going to hang you; been two men here with a rope, looking for you, and I told them you wasn't here." Brown arose and opened his overcoat, display- ing a belt hung full of revolvers and bowie knives, and said, "Let them come on! I'm ready for them!" Baumer says he was the finest looking man he ever saw. He told them to go back into a little room he had to make ice-cream in, wash dishes, and the like, and he would go out and learn what he could about what was going on, and would be back in a few minutes and report to them, so they should know what to do. He was himself a republican. So he went down to the corner of Washington and Dubuque streets, where there was a street meeting in front of Metropoli- tan Hall building. This was a parturient body of pro-slavery sympathizers writhing in the agonies of labor with the breech-presenting problem [and still-born at last] of how to capture John Brown and his niggers, and get the blood-money reward offered for them. As leaders among this gang
472
HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
of hungry slave hounds are remembered Wm. Hockenberry, who after- ward went to the penitentiary; Wm. Sutton, who was drowned; Tom. Graham, who soon left the country, and was no kin of the respectable people of that name now living here. Graham had slyed over to Pedee the Sunday before and spied out the number of "niggers," and the situa- tion of things there, and was presenting the case to this excited mob. But they all understood that Brown and his crowd were armed to the teeth, and no one of this mob was quite ready to take the chance of drawing their first fire for the uncertain possibility of a few dollars reward. The question was, how to "get the drop on them," and capture them without risking their own skins. There was a good deal of bullying talk and blus- ter, and empty brag; however, at a late hour, a "picked crew" was sent to watch Dr. Bowen's barn, where Brown's team was supposed to be sta- bled for the night. Meanwhile Baumer had returned and told Brown and Kagi all he had learned; and then Mrs. Baumer went with them out their back doorway and down the street far enough to show them their way in the dark to Dr. Bowen's house-the same which still stands on Iowa Av- enue, between Governor and Summit streets, and is now [1882] occupied by John Madden. The barn was then on the other side of Ralston creek from where it is now.
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.