USA > Iowa > Jones County > History of Jones County, Iowa, past and present, Volume I > Part 21
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MILEAGE AND ASSESSED VALUATION OF RAILROADS IN JONES COUNTY. CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL RAILWAY.
The number of miles of railroad of each company whose lines pass through Jones county, and their valuation and assessed valuation as fixed by the board of supervisors of Jones county for 1909, is herewith given :
C. & C. B. Division, 25.54 miles. Assessed Valuation $11,035 per Mile.
Miles.
Valuation.
Oxford township
5.93
$65,437.55
Oxford Junction
-55
6,069.25
Hale township
6.41
70,734-35
Rome township
5.45
60,140.75
Olin
1.08
11,917.80
Greenfield township
5-42
59,809.70
Martelle
.70
7,724.50
Dub. & S. W. 19.78 Miles. Assessed Valuation $4,000 per Mile.
Miles.
Valuation.
Fairview township
.4.27
$17,080.00
Anamosa
1.74
6,960.00
Cass township
3.75
15,000.00
Wayne township
3.70
14,800.00
Lovell township
5.05
20,200.00
Monticello
1.27
5,080.00
Dav. & N. W. 27.67 Miles. Assessed Valuation $4,000 per Mile.
Miles.
Valuation.
Oxford township
.6.99
$27,960.00
Oxford Junction
.64
2,560.00
Wyoming township
2.46
9,840.00
Wyoming City
.58
2,320.00
Madison township
4.94
19,360.00
Center Junction
-75
2,920.00
Scotch. Grove township
5-55
22,200.00
Wayne township
1.59
6,360.00
Lovell township
· 3.28
13,120.00
Monticello
I.OI
4,040.00
C. &. N. W. 22.98 Miles Assessed Valuation $4,100 per Mile.
Miles.
Valuation.
Onslow
.37
$ 1,517.00
Wyoming township
.6.29
25,789.00
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
Madison township
. 5.37
22,017.00
Center Junction -73
3,075.00
Wayne township
. 3.22
13,202.00
Jackson township
3.40
13,940.00
Fairview township
2.67
10,947.00
Anamosa
.93
3,813.00
C. A. & N. 4.77 Miles Assessed Valuation $3,000 per Mile.
Miles.
Valuation.
Anamosa
.03
$ 90.00
Cass township
4.74
14,220.00
THE JONES COUNTY CALF CASE.
The prodigal calf has had a great deal to do with making Jones county fa- mous. From the stormy shores of the Atlantic to the tranquil beach of the Pa- cific, and from the cold borders on the north to the balmy clime on the south, the Jones county calf case, has been heard of, and discussed.
Robert Johnson, the present mayor of Anamosa, was the principal party in this prolonged and expensive litigation which began in 1874 and continued for over twenty years. A history of this famous case is worthy of a place in the pages of this volume, and the same is herewith given.
Four calves the market value of which was twenty-five dollars, were the cause of the greatest lawsuit in the history of American jurisprudence. The litigation started by their sale extended over a period of twenty years, was tried in seven different counties before one hundred and fourteen jurors, was four times appealed to the supreme court of the state, entailing fees amounting to seventy-five thousand dollars for an army of lawyers, and concluded with a final judgment for one thousand dollars and court costs, amounting to two thousand, eight hundred and eighty-six dollars, and eighty-four cents.
This litigation-a monument to the cost at which legal redress may be se- cured by a persistent litigant-is known as the "Jones County Calf Case," from Jones county, Iowa.
Robert Johnson, of Anamosa, to vindicate himself of a criminal charge pre- ferred against him by a "Horse Thief association" of pioneer days, fought through this long period against seven opponents. Since the conclusion of the case five of the defendants have died without property and two are yet alive, but have never gained a foothold since the famous lawsuit consumed their wealth. Johnson has prospered, but by strange destiny of fate in his every enterprise he must cross swords with the opponents in his long legal duel. When he became a candidate for mayor of his city last spring, fifteen years after the settlement of the suit, his opponent was B. H. Miller, a relative of one of the defendants in the twenty years' litigation. Johnson's record in the "Calf Case" for being a persistent fighter together with a platform for strict law enforcement and a moral city, won him the election. He is mayor today.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
WHEELER EARLY IN THE CASE.
C. E. Wheeler, of Cedar Rapids, as a young law graduate of Notre Dame, received his first retainer from Robert Johnson. He made his maiden speech in the "Calf Case" and remained in the litigation from beginning to end. He won his victory after opposing before the juries such brilliant orators as Ex-Governor Horace Boies, of Waterloo. When final judgment was rendered he was a gray- haired old man and a lawyer of experience.
In the early days of lowa, Robert Johnson was a stock buyer in Jones county. In June, 1874, he sold to S. D. Potter in Greene county fifty head of calves. A short time later John Foreman, one of his neighbors asserted that four of the calves belonged to him, and in a Green county justice court, by replevin pro- ceedings, recovered their possession. To reimburse Mr. Potter for the value of the calves Mr. Johnson gave him his note. He explained that he had bought the animals from a stranger who gave the name of Smith. In a country store at Olin, the proprietor and several loungers heard the bargain made between John- son and the stranger. Shortly after this proceeding an indictment was returned in Jones county against Johnson, charging him with having stolen the four calves. Johnson and a brother then went to Greene county and had Potter point out the four claimed by Foreman. They proved to be high-grade calves, whereas John- son had bought scrubs of Smith. Then Johnson discovered for the first time that he had not handled the Foreman calves at all and began to believe he was the scapegoat for another's crime. He refused to pay the note he had given Potter, on the ground there was no consideration. Suit was commenced against him in justice court, and after a long and expensive litigation Johnson was de- feated and had to pay the note, on the ground it was in the hands of an innocent purchaser.
When he was indicted Mr. Johnson filed a motion to quash because of a de- fect. The prosecution of Johnson was prompted by an organization of those early days known as the "Horse Thief association," perfected as a protection against the prevailing wholesale stealing of stock. A few days before the court gave consideration to this motion Johnson found on his horse block near his home a note, accompanying a piece of rope tied in a hangman's knot. It read:
"In view of the present indictment we understand that you calculate to have the indictment set aside. We advise you to appear and be tried under the in- dictment with the defect, if any exists or take the lamented Greeley's advice and go west, or take this-"
WE, THE COMMITTEE.
Johnson was a fearless man. He pursued his motion. The indictment was quashed. Another was returned. A change of venue was taken to Cedar county. He was tried and the jury disagreed by a vote of eleven for acquittal and one for conviction. Then one night his house and barn were mysteriously burned to the ground. He was tried a second time and acquitted.
MALICIOUS PROSECUTION SUIT OPENS.
Johnson determined to have revenge and vindication. He gathered informa- tion concerning the membership of the "Horse Thief association," and on May
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23, 1878, started suit in Jones county for malicious prosecution, demanding ten thousand dollars damages from E. V. Miller, David Fall, George W. Miller, Abe Miller, John Foreman, S. D. Potter and Herman Keller. A change of venue was taken by the defendants to Linn county, and from there a change was taken to Benton county. The case was tried here first with a disagreement of the jury, It was tried a second time and Johnson recovered a verdict of three thousand dol- lars. The court set the verdict aside. A change of venue was then taken to Clinton county. At the conclusion of the trial there, Johnson secured a verdict for seven thousand dollars. The court set that verdict aside. A change of venue was then taken to Blackhawk county. There Johnson again won. This time the jury said he would have five thousand dollars. From this verdict the defend- ants appealed to the supreme court of Iowa and the case was reversed. On the next trial in Blackhawk county, Johnson was awarded, by the jury, a verdict for six thousand dollars. From this the defendants appealed to the supreme court and again the case was reversed by this highest tribunal. On the last trial in Blackhawk county Johnson recovered a verdict for one thousand dollars against six of the defendants, the court having instructed the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, Herman Keller, whose connection with the "Horse Thief as- sociation" was not proven. The six remaining defendants filed one motion to arrest judgement and another for verdict for the defendants on the ground the findings were in conflict with the general verdict. The judge having submit- ted certain specific questions for the jury to answer. Both motions were over- ruled and judgment rendered against the six defendants. Thereafter they ap- pealed and judgment of the lower court was affirmed, January 27, 1891.
When it came to the payment of the trial costs the defendants against whom the verdict stood wished to pay but six-sevenths of them, contending the exon- erated defendant should pay his share of the defense. They once more went to the supreme court on this question and the higher tribunal directed the six to pay the total costs of the defense, this last ruling was made December 20, 1894, so the case consumed from the beginning twenty years.
E. V. Miller, Abe Miller and H. D. Keller died about the close of the litiga- tion without property. John Foreman died about six years ago and David Fall, three years ago. George Miller is now living in Anamosa at the age of ninety years, with but little property. S. D. Potter is still living in Greene county, but has no property.
Robert Johnson is now seventy-one years old, having been born in Delaware county, Ohio, in 1838. He was married in Jones county in 1861 to Miss Mary Saum and they raised a daughter and son to womanhood and manhood during the progress of the Jones County Calf Case. Concerning the suit, Mr. Johnson says :
"I know I was right in this case. I do not regret the tiresome litigation. My honor and integrity were questioned. It pays to fight under such circumstances. I lost my farm of one hundred and sixty acres and all my property but I feel well repaid. My wife, my children and my friends know now I was innocent, and I can look any man in the face without a blush."
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN JONES COUNTY.
Catholicity in Iowa, as in the discovery of the country, was co-temporaneous with the footsteps of the first white man. The Jesuit missionaries, Marquette and Joliet, paddled their boat down the Wisconsin River, and entered the great "Mesipi," the mention of which they had heard from the Sioux Indians, in the summer of 1763. The view filled them "with a joy that I cannot express," says Marquette's record. These missionary explorers discovered the Mississippi on the 17th of June, in the year above mentioned. They were the first Europeans in this region. Rowing, or drifting down the current, they saw wild animals, wild birds and fishes in great variety, but no sight or vestige of human beings, until the 25th of June, when they perceived the footmarks of men at the water's edge, with a well-beaten path leading out to the expansive prairie. Following this pathway for six miles, the two "Black Gowns" came upon an Indian village, of some three hundred huts, whose inhabitants called themselves "Illini" (men.) That was the first time a white man had set foot on the soil of Iowa-"The Beau- tiful Land,"-and there and then the first message of the Gospel of Christ was imparted to the native Redskin, in his own tongue and territory, west of the Father of Waters. The noted pathway, and the historic landing occurred, as nearly as can be ascertained, at what is now known as Sandusky creek, Lee county ; and the inland village was situated on the borders of the Des Moines river some distance above Keokuk, in the southeastern corner of this state, After a stay of four or five days, Marquette continued his sail down the Missis- sippi as far as the mouth of the Illinois river. Changing his course, he ascended this river, and eventually made his way back to his headquarters at the mission of St. Ignace, Michilimackinac, Michigan. Two years later, May 19, 1675, he died at the mouth of the river Marquette, so called to honor and perputuate a worthy name.
In 1680 Father Louis Hennepin, starting northward from the Illinois River, undertook to explore the upper Mississippi. Passing along the eastern borders of Iowa, it is presumable he made some stops for investigation, and it is not un- likely he preached, and possibly offered up the Holy Sacrifice for the first time upon Iowa soil.
With the death of Father Potier, in 1781, the Jesuit missions in the north- west were closed; and for a period of thirty years there was no priest stationed west of Detroit.
In the year 1700, one Le Seuer, a member of a party of French and Spanish explorers, entered the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic ocean, and headed the prow of their boat into the mouth of the Mississippi. They proceeded north as far as the present site of Dubuque City. They were driven away by the Indians, but not until Mr. LeSeuer got an idea of the mineral wealth buried in those beckoning bluffs. Mistaken as to the material, he reported the discovery of a "hill of copper." On the strength of that report, nearly a century later, Julien Dubuque set out for the Eldorado of the west. But scant justice is done to the memory of this most resourceful man. He was the Livingstone of his day, ranking not unfavorably with Lewis and Clarke, and other blazers of civili- zation's trail. In fact, little or nothing was known of his origin or antecedents,
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
until the late M. M. Ham, editor of the Dubuque Herald, traced back his record. His birth and baptism are registered on the 10th of January, 1762, at St. Pierre, district of Three Rivers, on the borders of the St. Lawrence. At the age of twenty-three, in his youthful roaming, he reached Prairie du Chien; and pro- ceeding down the river, in 1788, he set his eyes and his heart on the acquisition of those valuable mines. By marrying a squaw-the daughter of Peosta, chief of the Foxes-he gained a title to one hundred and forty-eight thousand, one hundred and seventy-one acres of ground, at the mouth of the Catfish creek, where, with ten Canadian labores, he commenced operations in the "Mines of Spain." The same mines had been previously worked to some extent by a Mr. Cardinal, and before him again, by one Longe, who was the first operator.
At the opening of the nineteenth century, Europeans in goodly numbers be- gan steadily to advance upon the outposts of civilization. With the bravery of desperation, the Redmen fought, under their chief, Blackhawk, for their birth- right and their hunting grounds. Their patriotism was no less admirable than it was unavailing. As a result of the last Blackhawk war, terminating in 1832, a strip sixty miles broad, along the west bank of the Mississippi, was ceded to the United States. At first this was under no judicial control. In 1834 it became Michigan territory. In 1836 it was made Wisconsin territory. In 1838 it was changed to Iowa territory; and in 1846 it received the designation of the Great State of Iowa. The first settlement in the state was at Dubuque. The first two- story log house, north of St. Louis and west of Detroit, was built at the cor- ner of Bluff and First streets, in 1833, by Mr. Patrick Quigley, father of Dr. John P. Quigley, who at one time kept a drug store in Dubuque, then lived in the comforts of well earned retirement, and at last moved to spend the declining years of age with a son at Salt Lake City, Utah, where he died some years ago. Again, the star spangled banner was first unfurled on Iowa soil, by an Irish- man, Nicholas Carroll, living in the vicinity of Dubuque, just after midnight pre- ceding the morning of the 4th of July, 1834.
For years before what is distinguished as the "Blackhawk Purchase," some venturesome immigrants, generally French or Canadian-French, had engaged in fur trading and other traffic with the Indians, along the Iowa streams entering the Mississippi. Their religion, as far as they had any religion, was Catholic. But Catholicity is more than a mere name. The mustard seed sown in baptism without constant cultivation, is likely to become choked out by the thorns, and briars, and rank weeds of wickedness, that grow up for ever from the subsoil of old Adam's fallen nature. It is as easy as it is imperative, for old-world Christians, in the ranks of their coreligionists, to keep step with the moving procession. There are temples "with groined arch, and vaulted aisle," under lofty spires reared by fraternity's free labor, in the Middle Ages. Here it was far different. No mellifluous sound of bell summoned the first settlers on the Sabbath morning, no swelling peal of organ or trained choir charmed the worshippers, no godly man to shrive the old or instruct the young, no books or papers or family devo- tions to keep by-gone memories green in their souls, no friends no advisers no good example-it is small wonder that the inhabitants of the log cabin gradually grew to know little, and care less, about religion in any of its forms. If the sources of information are reliable, the pioneer populace of the lead mines
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VERY REV. LAURENCE ROCHE Former Pastor of Temple Hill Church, now of Cascade
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
lapsed in course of time to entertain hardly any fear of God, and hardly any re- gard for man. Of the one thousand persons resident in the mines in 1835, it is believed not more than two hundred could be called Catholics.
It is a platitude to say that the history of the world is the biography of its great men. It is trite that the history of the church is the history of the papacy ; and it is no less true that parish history is the history of the successive pastors in charge. The life story of the pioneer pastors, or missionaries, was little known of men, much less reduced to a written record. Their life was an ordeal hidden in God, written only in the Book of Life. The recording angels were their sole biographers.
In the late '30s of the past century, occasional visits were made to the scat- tered Catholics at either side of the Mississippi, by priests who had no home, but whose headquarters were now at Detroit, now at Galena and now at St. Louis. There was no pastor resident in Iowa before the first bishop. In 1837 Dr. Loras, of Mobile, Alabama, was appointed bishop of Dubuque, where he arrived to take up his residence in the spring of 1839, after having spent the previous year in his native country, France, in quest of volunteer missionaries to help him minister to the wants of his new charge.
Immigration, in large measure Irish and German, was then pouring rap -. idly into the territory. In 1843 Rev. J. G. Perrodin, a Frenchman, came to contribute his quota of "doing good" in this section. Father Jeremiah Treacy was received into the diocese, about the same time. Returning from a visita- tion to Rome in 1850, the bishop brought with him among others, Michael Lynch, who was soon afterward ordained, at Mount Saint Bernard, Key West, four miles outside Dubuque. He, too, joined the ranks in the vineyard. Those names are mentioned above others, because they are fundamentally connected with the history of Catholicity in Jones county.
In 1843 whilst assisting at the fifth provincial council of Baltimore, Bishop Loras effected arrangements with the Sisters of Charity, Blessed Virgin Mary, then stationed at Philadelphia, to move to Iowa. They located their mother house ten miles west of Dubuque, on the Cascade road, where also they estab- lished a boarding academy.
In 1849 a branch of the Cistercian order of monks, commonly called Trap- pists, laid the foundation of their monastery at New Melleray, where the dio- cesan bishop donated them a large tract of land. This, too, was situated west of the city, near what is known as the United States Military road, running from Dubuque to Iowa City, then the state capital.
Four miles west of the city the bishop erected and opened an ecclesiastical college or seminary, called Mount Saint Bernard's, which its founder expected might possibly grow with the growth of years, until it equaled the old seats of learning to which the thousands, thirsty for knowledge, came to sit in their shadow and partake of the intellectual pabulum that fell from their chairs.
Near this college, the brothers of Christian Instruction, a teaching com- munity from Puy, France, laid the nucleus of a novitiate of their order, under the name of New Paradise Grove, whose graduates were supposed to supply in future years all the needs of pedagogy, in the state and beyond it.
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HISTORY OF JONES COUNTY
The star of Bethlehem, like the "star of empire," westward wends its way. All the above hopeful ecclesiastical foundations were set to the west of Dubuque. It is easy to perceive how such promising, if not yet prosperous institutions at- tracted a large number of the class of Catholics who wished above all to live in a religious atmosphere and secure their families safe in the faith of their fore- fathers. The vicinity of the monastery consisted largely of immigrants drawn thither by the name and fame of the brothers. They were the "guides, philoso- phers, and friends" of the entire neighborhood. They well deserved it. "There were giants in the earth in those days." Brother Murphy was acknowledged uni- versally as among the ablest business men of his day. Father Bernard concealed under his coarse "cowl" more mental and mystic wisdom than many a head that wears a mitre.
Garryowen was probably the first rural mission to which a resident priest was assigned. Its limits extended into the surrounding counties, Jackson, Du- buque and Jones. Jones is next on the west. Cascade is partly in Dubuque, and partly in Jones county. Its two Catholic churches stand on the county line.
Honor to whom honor is due. To Washington township belongs the credit of being the cradle of Catholicity in Jones county. Catholics began to settle there as early as 1839, led by John Glenn, Daniel Curley, and James McDermott, uncle of Supervisor T. J. Finn. Their nearest church was ten miles distant (Gar- ryowen), to which they regularly drove by ox-teams. Father Perrodin was resi- dent, or rather itinerary pastor. He was a learned man and published a treatise on Christian doctrine, prefaced by a brief sketch of the author's life, which is still preserved as precious heirloom in almost every home of his ministrations. He left in 1851, and died in Dubuque, where he lies buried, in the old cemetery, on Third street hill. He was succeeded by Rev. J. Treacy, whose circuit included all the northern tier of townships, as far at least as Castle Grove, where we shall hear of him later in this connection. Father Treacy was in many respects much above the ordinary. Like the fabled warrior of old, who was invincible as long as he kept his feet upon the ground, this good man toresaw the absolute necessity of his countrymen settling down on the land-their own land-if ever they should expect to rise above the rank of "hewers of wood, and drawers of water." Another Moses, he appeared in New York to lead a colony of his chosen people from the city slavery to the possession of the western promised land, which the "Lord hath given to the sons of men." Archbishop Hughes, then in his heyday, drove the "crazy crusader" out of the city. The prelate lived long enough to acknowledge that the poor western priest's judgment was superior to his own. In 1856 Father Treacy organized an Irish colony in Dubuque, which he accompanied through Independence, Fort Dodge and Sioux City, to a point twelve miles farther west, where they formed a settlement which was first named St. Johns, but is now known as Jackson, Nebraska. He afterward went into the Civil war, as chaplain, under General Rosecrans, administering to both armies. In 1879 he was stricken with paralysis, and ten years later died in the Alexian Brothers' Hospital, St. Louis, not having spoken an intelligible word for five years.
Rev. P. Maginnis came from Garryowen, and was the first resident pastor in Washington township, or in Jones county. He erected the first church, a
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ST. MARTIN'S CHURCH. CASCADE, IOWA
ST. MARTIN'S PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, CASCADE
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frame structure attached to the district school, both virtually forming one build- ing. He also gave the place the name of Temple Hill, from the fact that the church or temple was erected on an elevation overlooking the surrounding coun- try. Thomas Finn, father of Patrick Finn, and uncle of Supervisor T. J. Finn, donated five acres, out of the forty which he then possessed, for a church site. It was dedicated to St. Peter. Cascade, although having had a church since 1845, was at this time an out mission attended from Temple Hill. Father Maginnis, after leaving this place, drifted to different parts of the country and even to Aus- tralia, where he remained for several years. Finally returning, as he used to say, to the "old hunting grounds" like the chased hare described by Goldsmith, that came to die at the starting point-he ended his varied career at Clinton, having spent the closing years of his usefulness as assistant priest in Deep Creek, now Petersville, the same county.
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