USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 59
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Thos. Dawson died during the following week on the 4th day of February. He was a veteran of the war, having served in Company K, Eighth Wisconsin Infantry. His was the third death that had been caused on account of freezing.
During the winter of 1867-8, following a year of hard times owing to the loss of crops on account of the continued wet weather. Manning Kinney, the fourteen-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Kinney. froze to death while the family were living in what is now Seneca township. The little hand mill with which they ground their corn into meal got out of repair, and the boy was sent down on the Black Cat to get material for having it fixed into running order again. On his way home he became tired out while trudging through the
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deep snow, and sank to the earth never to rise alive again. His parents settled on the premises immediately following the war. This victim by freezing was the fourth in the county.
The fifth death from freezing, or the fourth one known to the settlers, oc- curred out in the Lotts Creek country Sunday, January 16, 1870. One of the settlers in that township was an old army veteran by the name of Colwell. He was totally blind, both eyes having been shot out in some battle engagement of the war. The family of his son-in-law. Smith, were neighbors in 1870. One member of this Smith family was a boy about eighteen years old named Clarence. He had been at Colwell's nearly all day Sunday waiting for the storm to cease. Along towards evening as there were no signs of the abatement of the storm, Clarence bundled up and started for his home which was about three fourths of a mile away. Not having arrived that night, his relatives began searching the next day. No clue to the fate of the missing boy was found on Monday, and it was not until some time the next day that the body was found in a drift of snow. He had traveled just about far enough, to reach his home, but had wandered from the right course, and perished as the result.
The sixth to lose his life from freezing was Julius Ranney, a brother of F. L. Ranney, a well known resident now of the county seat. He was a victim of the eventful blizzard of January 7, 1873. His home was in the Darien settle- ment in what is now Fenton township. He, like numerous others that day, had come down to the Algona timber, and after having loaded his sled with wood started home across the bleak prairie. A treacherous storm soon made its ap- pearance after he had left the river settlements. By the time he had reached the Peck premises the storm was on in all its fury. Mr. Peck warned him of the impending danger and urged him to put up his team and stay over night. Thinking of the anxiety his family would have if he remained away during the storm, he decided to go on to his home which was only about three miles away. That was the last time he was ever seen alive.
When the storm had somewhat abated and he had failed to reach home, a search began. His team was found in a vacant building not far from his own home. One of the horses he had carefully blanketed and the other blanket was missing. The storm occurred on Tuesday, and it was Thursday afternoon before the body was found. It lay face upward, with the folded blanket under his arm. It was less than a mile from the team and within sixty rods of the McDonald home, which Mr. Ranney had evidently attempted to reach in the blinding storm. Why he met his death while the blanket was still unfolded has always been a mystery. He probably sank from exhaustion and was unable to rise again. He was buried on his farm on the southwest quarter of section 23.
Abijah Batterson, brother of Mrs. Barnet Devine, lost his life on the 31st day of December, 1884. He had moved to the county in the fall of 1875 and had settled in Seneca township. He had been engaged in carrying the mail for some time previous to his death. The weather was intensely cold and stormy while off on his last trip. As there were no witnesses present during his last few hours, the circumstances concerning his death have remained un- known since that time. His death was the last one that has occurred in the county on account of the severity of the weather, and making seven all told who lost their lives in that manner. He had come up from Algona with the
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mail, and in the blinding storm his team turned and drifted with the wind when near his home, into John Klein's field, where his body was found two days later by William Klein. The team was found unhitched and tied to the cutter, and the package of groceries he had along had been taken from the cutter box and placed a short distance away, beyond the reach of the horses. The body lay not far away, speechless to tell the sad story. It was carried to the school house by William Kerr and the two Kline brothers, and preparations made for the burial. The funeral services were conducted by Reverend Paden, a Pres- byterian minister. Mr. Batterson was sixty-three years old at the time and left a wife and five children to mourn his loss. From the fact that the body when discovered lay covered with a horse blanket and buffalo robe, some have always believed that he was attacked by heart disease, and finding that he could go no further lay down on his wraps and awaited the death messenger.
A PEEP AT THE OLD-TIME HACK DRIVERS
The old-time hack drivers were about the most popular class of people there were in the country, because so much depended upon them, and because the arrival of the mail was an event that was always looked forward to with pleasure. The coming of the railroads made an abrupt change in the methods of carrying the mails. For instance, in 1862, when H. F. Watson was post- master at Algona and having his office near where the city hall now stands, and I .. I. Treat was performing like service at Irvington, the south mail left Tuesdays and Fridays and arrived Wednesdays and Saturdays. The line extended to Des Moines, passing through Cresco, Dakota City and Fort Dodge. The north route went through Kossuth Center, where W. H. Ingham was the postmaster for a long time, then on through to Blue Earth and from there to Mankato. The mail left Mondays and arrived Saturdays. The east mail went to McGregor by the way of Forest City and Clear Lake, leaving Wednesdays and arriving Saturdays. On Mondays the mail left for Emmetsburg, Esther- ville and Spirit Lake and returned Thursdays. The line to Dubuque went through Irvington, Hampton and Cedar Falls, the mail leaving Mondays and returning Saturdays.
The lines of these early routes were not always as described above. Pre- vious to 1862 the way the mail came in from the east was somewhat different. These various lines gave employment to quite a number of persons who were regarded as important functionaries.
On the Forest City route Sam Nixon and Geo. P. Taylor were early hack drivers and they were followed by James Mckibben and Nicholas A. Knouf. Knouf drove a bay horse that traveled with a "hitch" gait, so in a little while the driver himself was called old Hitch. He lived at the time on what afterwards became the Mathers farm, on the Irvington ridge. Tom Henderson was on the Blue Earth route during the war and brought in the well remembered startling reports about the advance of Little Crow's band of savages in the fall of 1862. W. B. Carey was also on that line for awhile, and Jacob C. Cummins had an early job on the Cedar Falls route. While John K. Fill and Charles Moll, in the fall of 1864, were hackdriving between Algona and Spirit Lake they abandoned their work and went into the employ of Uncle Sam in the
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Second Cavalry. After the Milwaukee trains began bringing in and taking out the mail, the routes and drivers changed. The tri-weekly stage line to Fort Dodge through Irvington, Lotts Creek, Dakota and Springvale, was operated at first by a singular genius by the name of Hasket. After he sold out to D. P. Russell there was something doing all along the line. If anyone was spoil- ing for a scrap he could always get into one when Doc. was around. The stage that went up to Blue Earth three times per week delivered and received mail at Kossuth Center and Buffalo Forks. M. V. Nichols was the hardy driver who operated that line. Robt. Pinkerton was driver on the route to Estherville which passed through Darien, Seneca and Armstrong Grove. For a while the route extended as far east as Clear Lake. Bob was a jolly fellow who never knew what an enemy meant. The route from the end of the railroad at Algona to Emmetsburg was controlled by Williams & Horton. They made their trips each way three times per week and did quite a thriving business in conveying passengers across the prairie, and over that most dreaded creek, the Cylinder. A little later Humboldt was the division on the Algona-Fort Dodge line. Thos. Henderson drove the hack on the north end of it, and Rufus Walston on the south. While they were performing this service Mr. Shaw was doing likewise on the line to Emmetsburg.
Frank C. Rist drove the hack between Algona and Fort Dodge for years. He performed that service longer than any of the others on any route. He conveyed many of the soldiers away from home and brought them back years later. His fee was ten cents for making the purchase of any small article and bringing it up from the "Fort." He went down one day and back the next, taking his dinners at the Richards "half way house." Kossuth never had a better citizen than Frank Rist nor a more popular hack driver. His given name was Francis, but no one in those days ever spelled it in that way.
There was another hack driver who had more distinction than all the others combined. That was old Joe Hewitt, the Indian trader, a buffalo and elk chaser, and a natural born frontiersman. His home while in this county was for the greater part of the time at Irvington, but he lived a short time in Algona. In the latter fifties his route was from Algona to Forest City, by the way of Buffalo Grove, and return. A part of the time he drove from Clear Lake to Upper Grove and from there to Irvington and Algona, and then back again over the same track, across an open prairie where the storms fairly howled much of the time during the winters. He could stand hardships that would kill a dozen ordinary men; for he had been used to a rough life all his days. His mail cart or cutter had a canvas top with holes in front through which the lines were passed. He kept candles burning during the stormy days for warmth, and lived on fatty substances. In the falls he would set up poles with brush tops, every three hundred or four hundred yards, across the open prairie along his route to serve as guides when the air was filled with flying snow. He was then over sixty years old and was as hardy as an Indian. Just before the war he moved back to Clear Lake whence he had come and died there shortly after.
Old Joe Hewitt had a history that was interesting if not enviable. He and his wife came into Iowa from Ohio about 1843 and settled at Strawberry Point where he traded with the Indians. His wife soon ran away with another man and then he married a Mormon woman in 1851. That year he came to Clear
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Lake to take up a claim, three years before that country was surveyed. Old Uncle Jimmie Dickerson came with him and the two spent most of their time catching young elk and buffaloes. They had several clashes with the Indians, but both escaped with their lives. While there Old Joe's Mormon wife ran away also, and for revenge he went back to Strawberry Point and married a mere girl in her teens. She was his wife while the Hewitt family lived in this county. At Irvington he at first lived in the old pioneer village and then moved on to the old J. G. Green claim, now a part of the Sample farm. The old log house where he lived has perished with the lapse of time.
Hack drivers, or horseback riders, for a long time after the war had to carry the mail to little offices which the government had established in the private homes of settlers, for the accommodation of those in the vicinity. How long ago it seems since "Hatch" was the name of the office in the Lotts Creek settlement, where Mrs. H. P. Hatch handled the mail for years. Then again there was the little office of "Hale" in southern Riverdale, the location of which used to be designated on the map, but which has long since been erased. O. F. Hale himself is no longer a resident of the county. Greenwood Center, Buf- falo Forks, Seneca and Swea were among the number of the early offices where the long-ago hack drivers had to call in delivering and receiving mail.
THE TWO PHENOMENAL EVENTS
While recording the narratives of the events of the long ago, it it fitting that some account of the total eclipse of the sun be given ; for one, and one only, has occurred since the first settlers came to the county. That well-remembered event came in the late summer of 1869. For years afterwards the dates of other events were recalled by determining the length of time they occurred before or after the eclipse. Even at this late date some continue to use the date of that event as a starting point from which other dates may be located. There are those also who do not remember the year of the eclipse, but they do remember how many years before or after that year they came to enter homesteads in this county.
It was harvest time, and the farmers were rushing their work so that they could go to the county seat to see Cramer's circus, the second one of the kind ever in the county. While the reapers were rattling and the binders were sweat- ing to keep up their stations, the moon began to show itself on the face of the sun. The small curve that first appeared steadily became larger, and the tem- perature began to lower. When the little planet had passed three-fourths of its way across the face of the sun, twilight seemed to have spread over all of the earth. The teams in numerous fields were unhitched and taken to the barns. By that time darkness had settled over the world to such an extent that lanterns had to be used in putting up the teams. Total darkness came at 4:24. The chickens taken by surprise flew to their perches and the mosquitoes became active in seeking their victims. That the eclipse had caused the darkness could not be realized. It was night to the people, and their day's work in the field was done. The temperature had fallen eleven degrees, and the air became chilly to those whose shirts were wet from the perspiration, caused by the intense heat while in the fields, only an hour before. The eclipse came on so gradually
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that it caused but little surprise. It was too real; for night had surely come, although the clock showed that it was not yet five, in those long days in August. There was a surprise, however, and a great one, when the rays of the sun once more appeared and the new day came forth. The temperature rapidly rose again and was as warm as it had been at noon. If chickens ever act foolish, they certainly did when they jumped down from their perches and walked around in bewilderment. The young people were likewise affected. They couldn't tell whether it was time to go to bed, time to get up or time to go to the circus. They chose to do the latter, and when they reached Algona, they found a ball game in progress on the public square, Professor Root, the stout man of the circus, being the pitcher.
Since history should be kept straight, those in the county who were here at the time of the eclipse, August 7, 1869, and still persist in saying that the event occurred on the day when the first circus was in town, when Orton Brothers were here, and when their stout man, Andy Gaffney, did the pitching at the ball game, should get it clearly fixed in their minds that they have been mistaken. Orton Brothers were here the year before and showed in the afternoon when there was no eclipse.
Numerous amusing stories pertaining to that event were in circulation for years after it had occurred. The one best remembered was frequently told by R. I. Brayton, and concerned what James Dundas said at the time the darkness was the most dense. The story is to the effect that Mr. Dundas did not know the nature of an eclipse and was not aware that one was about to occur, until night overtook the harvest crew in the middle of the afternoon. When darkness suddenly appeared, he and his sons gathered close around the reaper and were whispering with the greatest caution. Just at that time some reckless Yankee harvest hand, a few yards away, tested his lung power by giving a loud "ya-o-hoo!" To this daring vocal blast the father replied in a commanding tone: "I want no hollerin'; I am fraider that nur I am the dark." This story may or may not be true, and if true Mr. Dundas may or may not have spoken these words in fun.
In a previous chapter a lengthy account has been given of the various expe- ditions which passed across what is now Kossuth county soil, many years before even the state was organized. There was something else that passed over the county long after it was created and long after it was fairly well settled. It did not travel with the slow speed made by the trains of the military detachments, above referred to, but went with such lightning velocity that it astounded all the spectators who happened to be in a position to catch a view of the flying object.
On the second of May, 1890, a great ball of fire passed through the air like a bullet discharged from a rifle. It was going a little east of north and leaving a misty smoke along its trail .. If its route over and across the county could have been marked on the ground, the line would have begun near the southwest corner and extended to near the center of the west line of Winnebago county. It appeared to be only two thousand or three thousand feet above the earth, though it may have been a mile or more. The writer was back of his house, in the garden, when it passed over at 5:15 o'clock in the afternoon, and caught a glimpse of it when it was coming and going. It certainly passed over his head for he had to turn his face upward and turn around to see it as it passed
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over. On its way from the southwest it gave forth no explosions, but instantly after passing over Algona, two sharp, explosive sounds were heard. It was still in sight at the time, and many supposed it to be directly over the Milwaukee depot.
Immediately scientists and curiosity hunters from all over the country started along the line of the meteor's trail, seeking to find where it fell. The first report of a discovery came from Forest City, where a piece weighing seventy-five pounds was found near by in a field. A squabble between the finder and the owner of the land on which it fell, ensued for the right of possession. The finder on becoming victor sold it at auction to the highest bidder. For $125 the State University of Minnesota became the owner of the meteor fragment. Later B. F. Smith found a piece in Ramsey township. No other fragments were ever found in the county. The explosions heard in Algona must have occurred while the meteor was in its flight over Ramsey township, instead of over the Milwaukee depot, as the Algona people supposed.
PRESENTATION OF CANE TO JUDGE CALL
No event in Judge Call's life was more pleasing to him than was the demon- stration by his friends when they presented him with an elegant, gold-headed, ebony cane, bearing the engraved words: "The citizens of Kossuth county to Asa C. Call as a memorial for public services. May, 1870." The presentation occurred on the wide porch of the old Cliff hotel on Saturday evening, the 14th of that month. Rev. Wm. Leggett, the Baptist pastor, was a great admirer of the judge, and it was he who engineered the presentation program. After a large number of citizens had assembled at the hotel, a livery was sent to convey the judge and Mrs. Call to that place, Reverend Taylor going along to extend the invitation and to see that there was no hitch in the arrangement. After the arrival of the parties Father Taylor in making the presentation speech said in part :
"If I should attempt to speak of what you have done here, and of the obli- gations which the community owes to you, I should fail of doing justice to the subject, and it is better that I refrain. But as a slight token of our esteem and of our appreciation of your services, I am entrusted with the pleasant duty of presenting to you in behalf of those present, and of others in the county, this beautiful cane. Like an image which a distinguished personage of old dreamed of seeing, the head of this cane is gold, but unlike that, no part of it is clay. The purity and intrinsic value of the gold may be regarded as a symbol of the integrity of your motives, and of the value of the work which you have accom- plished; while its imperishable nature should remind you and us that our work, such as it may be, will endure, and that we are laying foundations upon which coming generations will build to the end of time. When your physical strength shall decay. and you shall find this cane a convenient support for your tottering frame, may your social and moral frame also be sustained by the consciousness of the good will and sympathy of an appreciative community."
Following this presentation speech Judge Call responded with much emotion in these words: "Father Taylor and friends: My life has been a somewhat eventful one, but I was never before placed in a situation so embarrassing. I
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had some intimation of this thing, but I had no idea that it was going to be anything like this. I have to confess, too, to a little weakness in such matters. An exhibition of friendship or esteem by a single true heart is about as much as I can well get along with, and such a demonstration as this overwhelms me. I find the English language, copious as it is, all too poor to express my feelings. It is not this beautiful staff, rich as it is-gold might have purchased that-but it is that stronger, safer, and more precious staff standing beyond this staff, that all the gold of California couldn't buy-the friendship and confidence of true men and women. I understand perfectly well that this was not given me for anything that I have done, or for anything that I can do individually, but as a pledge that you will stand by and support any one who tries to do his duty as a citizen-as a pledge that we will each help the rest; that we will stand together in all proper enterprises to build up our county and our state; but as a community we will not try to pull each other down to a level in the mire, but that we will build each other up until one may stand on a high land where envy and jealousy and meanness shall have no place. To a community like that everything be- comes possible. As the Banyan tree, supported by a hundred trunks, each sus- taining the rest, defies the tornadoes of the Tropics, and even the earthquakes themselves, so a band of men governed by honorable impulses, and faithful to each other, may safely defy the malice of men, or the accidents of fortune. I accept your beautiful staff, shod with steel and crowned with gold, and with Father Taylor's permission I would say that to me it is a fit emblem of the character of the dear friends I see around me, strong in friendship, true as steel, and pure and precious as gold. I thank you for the cane and for the honor you have done the town and yourselves. The honor is to you and not to me. Anyone would do what I have done, and accept such a beautiful present, but only the generous and the noble could unite to bestow it."
THE COMING OF THE RAILROADS
The coming of the first railroad into the county was an important event which occurred in the latter part of the summer of 1870. The immediate move- ment, which caused the road to enter this county, began during the summer before. On the evening of August 5, 1869, General Lawler in addressing a mass meeting at the courthouse gave the terms upon which "the east and west road" would come into the county and establish a depot at Algona. The com- pany demanded a donation of the right of way, and 400 acres of land, besides the gift of a $10,000 depot or its equivalent in money.
Later, these conditions having been complied with substantially, the work of the construction began. The line survey from Clear Lake to Algona was run by Captain Grant and the grade surveys by Captain Woodman.
The occasion was a joyful one to the entire citizenship of the county, when the track on the "Milwaukee" road was sufficiently completed to allow trains to pass over it and arrive at the county seat. The track layers reached the town site Friday evening, August 12, 1870, and the first passenger train came in over it on the following night at 11 o'clock, L. L. Cadwell being the conductor. Much interest in the progress of the road had been manifested by the people since the time when the surveys were run the year before. Having been fooled by several
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