USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 45
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swamp land. I know there are a good many in the county who do not understand the matter. I hold it to be not the right merely, but the duty of the people to closely scrutinize every official act of their servants and agents."
CHAIN OF TITLE TO KOSSUTH
The land embraced within the boundary lines of Kossuth county, taken as a whole, has an interesting history which had its beginning in the misty past, cen- turies ago. That history includes the early transfer events of every farm in the county and should be realized by the many owners. The prudent landowner, seeking to learn how secure he is in what he believes is his absolute ownership of the real estate he possesses, yearns to become acquainted with its history. He is restless until he has some evidence that the fee simple title is absolutely lodged in him. He wants to know on what consecutive dates it has been transferred; by what right its numerous vendors have received and disposed of it; what clouds have been cast upon its title and whether or not they have been removed. In order for him to know these facts he must know the history of his land. A full and complete account of that history would require a large volume to impart the information. An abtsract of title is but a brief history of the transfer events since 1803, but is generally received as satisfactory and conclusive evidence of what has occurred concerning the titles to the land. These abstract accounts of trans- fers would be much more lengthy did not Uncle Sam stand as a mighty force ready to defend the titles to the lands he has disposed of since he came into possession of them. But what about the history of these lands before the date of the Louisi- ana Purchase? As Kossuth county soil was included in that purchase, every claim upon that vast territory prior to that time affected the title to every acre in the county. A brief review of these claims will now be in order :
The first claim to what is now Kossuth county soil, so far as historians have been able to impart information on the subject, was made by Spain in 1493, not on account of the first voyage of Columbus, for he died not knowing he had dis- covered the continent, but on acount of the rivalry at that time between that country and Portugal. This latter country had taken possession of the African countries and islands she had discovered and was claiming them, history tells us, with the sanction of the pope. Spain asked that she might be confirmed by the same authority on her claims to the land she might discover. To keep peace between them the pope drew a vertical line on the map from north to south, three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verde islands, and then directed that Portugal might claim all the lands which she might discover east of this line which did not belong to any Christian prince, and that her rival on the same conditions could have all on the west side. By this arrangement all of North America became claimed by Spain.
Kossuth county soil was next claimed by England when the Cabots, in 1498, made claim to the whole North American continent by right of discovery. Then in 1620, when King James granted his charter to the Plymouth company of all North America from sea to sea, lying between the fortieth and forty-eighth de- gree of latitude, Kossuth county soil was included. Neither the king nor anyone in the colony knew how far it was to the Pacific ocean. When this company sur- rendered its charter in order to have the boundaries better defined, the Province
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of Virginia was so enlarged and so wildly defined in 1635 as to its boundaries that Kossuth became a part of that province.
In June, 1673, France secured a better claim to all Iowa soil than any other nation had been able to before. All nations conceded her right to it through the discovery of the first two white men who ever looked upon the soil. These were Father Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary, and Louis Joliet, a Canadian of French descent, who beheld the beautiful country from their boat on the Missis- sippi river. During this same year the Massachusetts Bay colony by extending the northern boundary of its province west of the Pacific took in all the northern counties now in Iowa. France in 1682 very much strengthened her claims to all this western country when LaSalle descended the mighty father of waters and took possession in the name of the French king of all the country drained by the lower Mississippi and its tributaries.
The conflicting claims of England, France and Spain caused them to enter into a treaty in 1762 which resulted in England's giving up her claim to the territory west of the Mississippi. A year later France and Spain settled their dispute by the former's ceding all her claims to the territory in question to the latter. Spain then as the result had her grip once more on Kossuth county soil. That country held undisputed possession of this large tract until the year 1800, when France by purchase again became the owner, causing it to come under French control during the time Napoleon was at war with nearly every European country. In April, 1803, the famous emperor, fearing his purchase over in America might be forced from his possession by Great Britian, sold it to the United States for the sum of $15,000,000. By this transaction the soil of this county first became a part of Uncle Sam's great domain.
Kossuth county soil became a part of upper Louisiana in 1804 when congress divided the great purchase, and was attached to the territory of Indiana for judicial and revenue purposes. Then in 1805 it became a portion of the territory of Louisiana, the capital being New Orleans. This territory two years later was attached to the territory of Illinois for a brief period for governmental purposes. In the year 1812 this section of the country was included in the territory of Mis- souri. When Missouri was admitted as a state in 1821 all this part of the coun- try was detached from all government. For fourteen years it was simply in the United States and that was all. Had people been living then in what is now Kossuth county they could not have had any redress from local courts nor had any taxes to pay. They would have been living in the territory of Michigan in 1834 when that territory was established and in the territory of Wisconsin in 1836 when Michigan was set off to become a state.
One of the largest counties ever known to have been created was Fayette county in 1837, and what is now Kossuth was a very small portion of it. This great county was a division of the territory of Wisconsin. So extensive was this county that it practically embraced all the land between the Mississippi and the James river in South Dakota lying north of a line drawn westward from the southeast corner of the present county of Fayette. It contained about 140,000 square miles and included not only the northern portion of lowa but nearly all of Minnesota and the eastern half of the Dakotas. Kossuth county soil therefore once belonged to a county that bordered the British possessions on the north. The territory of Iowa. on being established in 1838, was made to embrace all of Vol. 1-22
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what is now the state of Iowa and most of what had been old Fayette county, Wisconsin. The state with its present boundaries was admitted into the Union in 1846, and the county of Kossuth was established by the Legislature at the third session in 1851. Before the county organization in 1855 had been effected, it had been attached to Webster county for governmental purposes.
This showing of the chain of title to the county as a whole, is sufficient to il- lustrate what powers would have governed the people of this county had they been living here from about the time Columbus landed until the state was admitted and the county established.
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CHAPTER XVIII IN THE REALM OF POLITICS
NOTABLE CAMPAIGN EVENTS
Kossuth county politics had its origin in the summer of 1856 when the contest was made to see whether Asa C. Call or Corydon Craw was to become the first county judge. The real issue, however, was to determine whether Algona was to remain the county seat, or whether Irvington was to become the favored location. The details of this organization election having been already noticed in the accounts of these two pioneer villages, it is needless to repeat them in this chapter. In the early days the delegates sent to attend conventions outside of the county had to travel long distances, as the districts were large and many of the counties uninhabited. During the summer of 1859 Ambrose A. Call, and Lewis H. Smith were chosen delegates to attend the senatorial convention at Sac City, and George P. Steele and L. L. Treat were chosen alternates. All four attended, going in a two-seated buggy drawn by Smith's span of mules. The alternates had some new experience in pioneering when they went along on this journey. The party went south to the forks of the river and stayed all night with Father Sherman. From there they went west across the open. prairie, which had no houses on the route, and which was filled with sloughs so soft that they were almost impassable. The delegates frequently had to get out in the water and pull the buggy out with a picket rope, and once or twice pulled the mules out in the same way. They passed a horse so buried in the slough that he couldn't get out. The party pulled him also out of the mud. They crossed the two Lizards and finally came in sight of Murderer's grove on Murderer's creek in the far distance. The mules, growing tired and lazy, refused to go faster than a walk, and the whip was worn out. Judge Smith thought of a scheme to increase the rate of speed. Occasionally he would walk out on the tongue and then by rapidly opening and shutting the umbrella he would scare the mules into a rabbit canter. That worked well for a while, but its scaring effect gradu- ally became unnoticeable. Then Steele became an inventor. He devised a method of making the mules go faster which out-rivaled the Smith invention. He had some firecrackers along and that helped him to conceive of the ingenious plan. He fastened some of these to his ramrod and by exploding them near the mules' ears and rear extremities produced wonderful results. As old Levi Leland used to say in his comic lectures, "Who'd a thunk it?" The party camped on the prairie that night, but managed to reach Sac City carly enough the next morning for breakfast.
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They had at last reached Sac City-which then had but six or eight houses- after going through the mud and water for a distance of nearly one hundred miles. Judge Criss entertained all the delegates at his hotel where the convention was held, Palo Alto only had two republicans at that time-James Reed and W. B. Davis. The county had sent no delegates. Mr. Call, being chosen one of the committee on credentials, had occasion to observe crookedness so glaring that he became amazed. . It is very evident from what occurred there that bad politics in the district did not start in Kossuth. The many politicians present from Fort Dodge desired to nominate Doctor Pease of that place and were afraid he might be defeated. Noticing the absence of delegates from Palo Alto, they asked Mr. Call before the convention to name any republicans he knew of who lived in that county. He then gave them the names of both Reed and Davis. Remembering this conversation it was no wonder that Mr. Call was thunder-struck when on the committee he saw handed in a proxy purporting to have been signed by Reed and Davis and authorizing C. C. Carpenter of Fort Dodge to cast the vote of Palo Alto county. Proxies from other counties were also handed in which were in a similar handwriting, and which were similarly constructed in phraseology. The Fort Dodge delegates for some mysterious reason had the casting of all these proxies. Doctor Pease received the nomination but John F. Duncombe defeated him at the polls.
The representative convention in 1859 was held at Spirit Lake on the 31st of August, Ambrose A. Call, George P. Steele, L. L. Treat and H. Kellogg being the delegates from this county. Call at that time was a member of the central committee for this county. In those days the county conventions were simply party mass meetings, and not conducted by delegates chosen as is the custom now. It was at one of those mass meetings, presided over by William B. Carey, where the above named delegates were chosen, H. F. Watson being the secretary of the meeting. The district was nearly one hundred miles across in any direction, and Kossuth was the oldest and most populous county in it. That being the case our citizens thought that the representative should be chosen from this county. The sentiment favoring J. E. Blackford for the position, Ambrose A. Call started out to secure pledges enough to nominate him. He left on horse- back, swam the west fork at the old Mahoney ford and interviewed the entire Palo Alto republican population-the same W. B. Davis and James Reed. These two met in mass convention and resolved to support Blackford for the legisla- ture, Mr. Reed being chosen as the delegate. From there Mr. Call went up the west side of the river into Emmet county and stopped at the Jenkins cabin, where Estherville is located. Jenkins, aspiring for the position himself, gave Call no encouragement for Blackford. A deal was soon made which changed his mind. It was easily, wisely and justly done. There was no postoffice there and Mr. Call had the contract for carrying the mail between Algona and Spirit Lake. The two Ridleys and Jenkins formed a mass meeting and elected a delegate. They consented to support Blackford provided Call should use his influence to get them a postoffice. Adolphus Jenkins and Robert Ridley easily harmonized matters. Jenkins was to be the postmaster, and the office was to be named in honor of Mrs. Ridley, whose given name was Esther, and who was the first white woman in the county. Judge Asa C. Call was a democrat under Buchanan's administration and had friendly relations with United States Senator
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Jones. Through the influence of the judge, Ambrose A. Call and the senator, the office was established and called Estherville. The convention, furthermore, nominated Mr. Blackford and as the result he soon began to be referred to as Hon. J. E. Blackford. Those in that convention from this county acting as delegates besides Ambrose A. Call were Mr. Blackford, H. F. Watson and E. N. Weaver.
The campaigns in later years to elect representatives have been attended with a similarity of events, nothing particularly remarkable occurring in one that did not occur in other campaigns. There are a few exceptions, however, to the general rule. The Tom Harrison campaign in 1883 may be cited as an illustration. He was a lawyer at Emmetsburg and had been nominated by the republicans. His opponent was J. J. Wilson, a democrat living in Algona. This district in those days was strongly republican, and this county contained about three hundred more of that political faith than of democrats. In spite of that fact Wilson had been sent to the Legislature twice, defeating two of as good men as the county pos- sessed. He won over Lewis H. Smith in 1877 and over Dr. L. A. Sheetz in 1881. He was not only a leader in democracy, but was a popular business man. He had levers for securing ties of friendship which his previous opponents did not have. He had sold lumber which had been taken to humble homes in every county in the district, and much of that had been sold on time. He had milling interests here and at Emmetsburg which helped to strengthen his standing with all classes. He was again before the public asking to be returned to the Legislature.
Tom Harrison entered the field with his eyes open, knowing what he was up against. He planned his campaign and organized the district, at least this county, into a supporting force as it had never been before. Although he was a success- ful lawyer, his careless attire, coarse features and scrawny beard gave him the appearance of being a laboring man. He took particular pains during the cam- paign to keep his shoes unshined so that they would not look better than those on the feet of the voters he interviewed in the country districts. He arranged to hold meetings at numerous school houses and sent his campaign singer one day ahead to organize a music chorus as an attraction. In this way he secured large audiences to hear what he had to say. He kept moving and also kept the enthusiasm at fever heat until election. He succeeded in being elected, his majority in this county being 411.
Something much more remarkable happened in another legislative campaign, but that campaign was for securing the nomination and not the election. Gardner Cowles had been elected in 1899 and had served one term. He was again asking for the nomination in 1901. No one prior to that time had been elected twice in succession for that office except J. E. Blackford, during the war. A. D. Clarke, who was elected in 1887 and had served one term in the Legislature, was hungry to go back again, and saw no reason why Cowles should be so especially favored as to have a second term so soon. Clarke had always been interested in local politics and was known to be an inveterate worker for any cause he espoused. Then again he had a following of supporters that was hard to take from him. Cowles had dabbled much less in politics, and as a result had an equally strong following. He was a sharp wire puller for others, but had not asked anything for himself from the voters before, except in the campaign which gave him the election in 1899. Both took the field to secure instructed
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township delegates to the convention. Each was aware of the tactics the other was using, or liable to use, and proceeded to counteract them in any way he thought most effective. The campaign started early and was kept red hot all summer. No one knew what would happen next. Delegates instructed for one would be reported in a few days to have jumped their instructions and be in favor of the other. One man, who had been paid $25 by one of the candidates to work up support for him, was caught a little later working for the other. Upon being asked to explain his strange conduct he replied that he had worked out the $25 worth and was then working out $50 worth for the other candidate. So evenly matched were the two candidates in the race, that it all depended on the action of the last caucus to be held to determine the victor. That deciding caucus was held at Burt and will long be remembered. Politicians and many others from all parts of the county were there not only as spectators but as helpers for one side or the other. There never was a caucus like that held in the county before. For two or three blocks the sidewalks were covered with men trying to induce the voters to support whichever candidate the enthusiasts happened to be for. Moreover, the main street had crowds standing in it here and there doing the same line of work. The scene bore a strong resemblance to the Chicago stock exchange. Mr. Cowles won out at the caucus, was nomi- nated at the convention and elected at the polls.
The most remarkable campaigning done, pertaining to the election of county affairs, was in the effort put forth by some to dislodge J. M. Pinkerton from the sheriff's office, and the struggle he and his following made for him to remain in that position. He managed to serve in that capacity for about fourteen years -the longest continuous service ever accorded to any county official. During the year 1867 Samuel Reed was serving the last year of his term in office and was not a candidate for reelection. J. M. Pinkerton that year had been doing carpenter work around town. Having qualifications that seemed to fit him for the position, he was elected without opposition. He was a sharp detective and a whirlwind politician. His administration the first term failed to please all, so Orange Minkler was groomed in 1869 to push him out of the courthouse, but Pinkerton won at the election by nearly one hundred votes. Jack was in the field for a third term in 1871 and had for his opponent J. B. Robison of Irving- ton. The latter, not being able to cope with such a strong politician as was Jack Pinkerton, met with defeat. Pinkerton came up for a fourth term during the campaign of 1873 and entered into the canvass with persistent energy. R. J. Hunt had been selected as the one who could defeat him if anyone could. By this time there was considerable opposition to Pinkerton and that opposition strove to oust him from the office. To resist this movement he became the head of the peoples' party and swung into line a long array of disgruntled republicans who had failed to be recognized by the conventions of the past, all of his personal friends and a great majority of the democrats. This well-organized party was a terror to the republicans for years, and caused many a worthy nominee to go down in defeat. The election finally came, the ballots were counted and Jack as usual was the victor. The count showed that he had received 164 more votes than did Mr. Hunt. The year 1875 found the champion vote-getter laying out his plans on a large scale to enter the race again. Asking for a fifth term was something unusual, but he decided to do so, not so much for the emoluments of
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the office, if elected, as to down his enemies. The republicans this time believed they had a fair show of defeating him, for the nominee, P. L. Slagle, was not the only candidate for the office besides Pinkerton. The democrats had pushed forward C. D. Pettibone for the position and D. J. Long, another democrat, was also in the field. At the end of the bitter contest on election night, it was ascertained that 158 more votes had been cast in favor of Pinkerton than for Slagle, and 56 more than for all others combined. That was such a great victory for Jack and his friends that he promptly decided to try for sixth term. He began campaigning early in 1877 and organized a surprisingly large follow- ing. Pettibone was again in the field, supported by the rock-ribbed democracy, and D. A. Haggard was pushed by the straight republican forces. The republi- can ranks had been badly shattered by the people's party movements, and many of its leaders were discouraged. They had a faint hope that Pettibone would draw enough democrats from Pinkerton's following to elect Haggard. Then again the democrats figured that Haggard would draw to his support enough republicans from the people's party to elect Pettibone. That party, however, instead of growing weaker increased in strength. James Patterson had been and then was Pinkerton's popular deputy. His personal friends were ardent supporters of Pinkerton. Moreover, Patterson's brother-in-law-Dr. H. C. McCoy-who was a leading democrat, influenced many of his party to support Pinkerton at the polls. When the ballots were counted, on the evening of the 9th of October, there was great rejoicing on the one hand and great sorrow on the other: Pinkerton had received 405, Pettibone 200, and Haggard 194.
Flushed with this triumph, Jack began strengthening the ranks of the people's party in every way he could and preparing to capture the office for the seventh time. Many believed that the party that was winning every time in electing the sheriff would soon be the dominant party, and that if they ever received any political favors it would have to come from that source. Neither the organized republicans nor the democrats could keep their members from sifting into that party. Both of the old parties had grown tired of having their best men put up for office only to have them knocked down. Neither of these parties had a man in the county who was willing to make the race in 1879. Both parties believed that if only one candidate was in the field against the sheriff, there would be some show of winning. The democrats finally agreed to not make any effort that year to elect one of their party to that office. Jack in the mean- time was working his tactics to increase public confidence in his ability as a detective, and as an officer whose position no one else could so satisfactorily fill. It was easy for him to find a cold chisel and an old hammer behind a store, and to notify the merchant that burglars were evidently in town, and that a close watch of the stock would have to be kept to prevent a loss. The number of such tools found just before election was surprising. Jack's marriage relations brought him much support. He had married one of the Bumpus girls and her father thought there was no one so competent for the office as his son-in-law, and he took great pride in informing all the Burt country of that fact. John K. Fill having married Mrs. Pinkerton's sister, the three Fills, republicans, worked their German friends to a satisfactory finish for the detective sheriff. Then again he had secured a strong political fighting force by the marriage of Frank Nicoulin to his sister. Furthermore, Jack had done some very effective work
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