USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 23
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After the war Colonel Merritt beeame editor of the Statesman, one of the leading democratie papers of the state. He died at his home in Des Moines in 1891, mourned by a large eirele of friends all over the state. Colonel Merritt was for half a century one of the most all-round men in Iowa and a leader of his party.
The Weare family arrived here in 1848 and for more than fifty years were prominent factors in the upbuilding of Cedar Rapids. John Weare became a noted banker and railroad promoter. Charles Weare became engaged in con- strueting railroads and took charge of large contracts, was mayor of Cedar Rapids, postmaster, and consul in foreign countries. He was also connected with the First National Bank of Cedar Rapids, as well as with the Cedar Rapids Water Company. George Weare became a noted banker in Sioux City, and P. B. Weare and Ely E. Weare promoters and members of the board of trade in the city of Chicago. Later they promoted steamboat traffie in the Yukon country at the time of the gold fever rush. All these were sons of John Weare, Sr., who removed here from Michigan in the spring of 1845 in order to be with his children who had previously emigrated. Mr. Weare, Sr., held the office of justice of the peace up to the time of his death in 1856.
William Stewart, a native of Pennsylvania, located in Cedar Rapids in 1847 and entered the blacksmith shop of Polloek, later putting up his own shop, and besides operating a large farm. Mr. Stewart removed to California and died there in 1891, having acquired a fortune in Cedar Rapids real estate.
Samuel S. Johnson was another Pennsylvanian who came to Cedar Rapids in 1847. He was a carpenter and joiner by trade but gave that up for farming on arriving in Linn county. Mr. Johnson lived to the grand old age of eighty-five, and passed away at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Robert Taylor.
One of the most enterprising, active business men who located in Cedar Rapids in 1849 was Dr. Seymour D. Carpenter, who was then twenty-three years of age, and had ostensibly come out here to praetiee medieine, but he later turned his attention to land speculations, polities, and other enterprises. Dr. Carpenter is still residing in Chicago, enjoying a hale and hearty old age.
In order to give the reader an impression of Cedar Rapids as it was at that time we shall quote Carpenter's splendid article contained in the History of Crescent Lodge, by J. E. Morcombe, as follows:
"I turned north and went to Ottumwa where I met Judge Greene, then a member of the Supreme Bench of Iowa; he persuaded me that Cedar Rapids was in the near future to become a metropolis and I decided to go there. After four days' hard riding and swimming several swollen streams, I struek the town on the afternoon of Iune 14, 1849; I crossed the river on a rope ferry operated by David King, who lived in a eabin on the west side; on the other side of the river stood a eabin, onee the home of a man named Shepherd, and said to be the resort of thieves in an early day. I can not say that I was very favorably im- pressed by the thirty or forty small one-story unpainted houses that were seat- tered about near the river. There seemed to be a great deal of sand. and the houses were so situated that there was no sign of a street. There were three two-story houses, one on the river near the foot of what is now Third avenue called the "Park House" in which the Greenes had their store, one on Second street in which John Coffman kept a hotel, and one on Third avenue back of the Dows & Ely block, also a hotel. I was discouraged and would have travelled further but only had about $10.00 left and from necessity had to stop. I put up at the Coffman hotel which, as I have said, was a two-story structure with a wing; it had been built of unseasoned oak lumber and was not plastered; the whole of the
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second story of the main building was in one room and contained eight or ten beds and was the common sleeping room of the guests. The lumber had shrunk and there could be no complaint as to ventilation, however short the accomodations might be in other respeets.
"Within a week I made the acquaintance of all the people of the town. Among the leading persons were William and Joseph Greene, brothers of the Judge, Lowell and Lawson Daniels. Homer Bishop and John Weare, all of whom were merchants. The three stores of which they were the proprietors would not compare well with the department stores of today, but all the same they were department stores and in their miscellaneous stoeks the customer could find all he wanted - from castor oil to broad axes.
"Pollaek and Stewart were the blacksmiths, and the carpenters and wagon makers were represented, but I ean not reeall their names. There was also a saloon kept by James Leverieh, a brother of Joe, a respectable man and a good Mason. The inhabitants were mostly young people, John Weare, Sr., Deacon Kennedy and Porter Earl being the exceptions. I found three doctors already located, Dr. Mansfield, Dr. Traer and Dr. Larabee, the latter being what was ealled a "steam doetor." Isaae Cook and Henry Harmon represented the law.
"The town was by no means dull ; emigrants were coming daily, and the saw mill operated by John Weare, Jr., was kept busy eutting lumber for the new houses that were going up. There was no church building, but Parson Jones preached in the school house, as did preachers of other denominations, and Sunday schools and Bible elasses were in full blast.
"On the Fourth of July a grand ball was given at the Coffman Hotel, to which flocked young people from Marion and all the surrounding country ; there were at least fifty couples. The beds were removed from our common sleeping quar- ters, which, decorated with green bonghs, became a ball room. Every part of the house was crowded and the fun was fast and furious. Only one mishap slightly marred the festivities ; near a stove pipe hole at one end of the room the floor was defective, and a husky reveler of more than ordinary weight while exeenting the double shuffle broke through and fell upon the heads below; no injury was done and the danee went on.
"Dr. Mansfield took me as a partner and in company with Judge Cook we had a room 10x16 in a small one-story building opposite the mill, the other part being oeeupied by S. L. Polloek and family ; his blacksmith shop was nearby. Our medieines were kept on a shelf and a store box made a table; our bunks occupied one side and a few stools and two split bottom chairs made up our furniture. We took our meals at the Coffman Hotel; our field of practice embraced the set- tlers, not numerous, in the valleys of the Cedar and Iowa rivers and their tribu- taries; we made very long rides. I was called to see a patient two miles above the present town of Vinton not yet begun; I got lost in the night and waited for daylight under a tree on the bank of the river at the very place where Vinton now stands. Bilious fever and ague were the prevailing diseases, all the newcomers having to undergo one or both.
"We had mail three times a week from Dubuque and Iowa City; the Higley brothers did the service in a two-horse hack; I think Joseph Greene was post- master. John Weare, Sr., was justice of the peace; he was a very original character, fond of company and full of interesting reminiscences extending baek to the war of 1812 in which he had lost a leg. His small office was in the rear of Mrs. Ely's residence which stood on the ground where the Dows and Ely block now is. He gave 'nieknames' to many people and places which stuek to them like burrs; the First Presbyterian church building was begun that summer and as the walls were built of cement, Old Mr. Weare named it 'The Muddy,' which it retained to the last day of its existence."
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Dr. Carpenter states how they tried to promote a railway from Caseade to Fairfield, held meetings coneerning railway extensions, and appointed delegates from various counties to these conventions to diseuss the matter fully and to authorize the government to donate land and have eastern people furnish the money. Ile says :
"Dr. J. F. Ely and myself were selected to go to Fairfield; we left Cedar Rapids on December 3 and after a three days' hard and cold travel reached Fairfield ; Marion sent Col. I. M. Preston and Dr. Ristine. The convention met in a small school house; all the counties were represented; the IIon. C. W. Slagle, of Fairfield, then a very young man, was chosen president, and I was chosen secretary.
"We departed for our various homes thinking the work half done, but sad to relate Cedar Rapids had to wait ten years longer for a locomotive. These two meetings were, I think, the first railroad conventions held in the interior of the state. Soon opposition elaims were started for east and west lines and our projeet was ignominiously ealled the 'Ram's Horn.' The next year was quite a stirring one; new people were coming in great numbers and many were leaving, for the California gold fever had broken out. Several outfits left Cedar Rapids, with one of them Dr. Mansfield, my partner, whose place was taken by Dr. S. C. Koontz, a cousin of mine, well known to the old eitizens.
"That year the first briek buildings were erected; a dwelling on Iowa avenue, near Greene's opera house, and a three-story building on Commercial street by Judge Greene, which for a long time was the show building of the town; we began to put on airs.
"In the spring of 1852 a steamboat eame to Cedar Rapids; it was a great event and attracted people from near and far; she brought a cargo of freight, among which were the household effects of Mr. Bever and my father, both of whom from that time forward became citizens of the town. This year, also, eame Mr. Daniel O. Finch with a printing press and forthwith started the Progressive Era, the first paper in the Cedar valley. [The Era was established in 1851.] Ezra Van Metre, a talented young lawyer from Cireleville, Ohio, also eame that year. Everyone was rejoiced that we had an organ and the editor was over- whelmed with original matter. There were at least a dozen young fellows in the town, myself among the rest, who thought they 'knew it all,' and anxiously rushed into print. The paper changed hands in a year or two. and became the Cedar Valley Times, and continued until a few years ago."
Dr. Carpenter sold his practiee to Dr. Koontz and went into the land business and in politics. Again we must quote what he has to say about the county seat fight which eommeneed the first few years he was here:
"Cedar Rapids claimed that she was to be the commercial metropolis and there- fore ought to be the politieal center. The question was brought to an issue by the county commissioners ordering a new court house at Marion, subject to the ap- proval of the voters of the eonnty. Cedar Rapids opposed the measure, believing that the building would insure the permanent, location of the county seat. Then ensued a most hitter canvass. The voters were deluged with oratory. Marion put on the stump Judge Isbell. I. M. Preston, Col. William Smyth, N. M. Hubbard, W. G. Thompson. and R. D. Stephens, against whom Cedar Rapids opposed Jas. J. Child, Ezra Van Metre. Donald MeIntosh, A. S. Belt, E. N. Bates. I. N. Whittam and others. Every school district was canvassed and much bitter feeling engendered. The Marion people were more adroit politicians and carried the election, but the result did not discourage our eitizens, who asserted that no election could affect 'manifest destiny.'
M. E. CHURCH, TROY MILLS
.
MILL AT PRAIRIEBURG
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"About 1852 Major J. M. May came to Cedar Rapids from Janesville, Wiscon- sin. The Major was a stirring man with a head full of sehemes. He said that Cedar Rapids was a place of immense possibilities and only wanted enterprise to make it the great town of Iowa He bought land at the lower part of town adjoining that owned by my father, and land on the west side adjoining the river and below that owned by David King. He platted out town lots on both sides of the river, and induced my father and King to do the same, which were the first additions made to the original town. He also surveyed the island, sent a plat to the general government and took possession of it, much to the chagrin and sur- prise of the old settlers. Then he began to agitate the question of a free bridge. Everyone wanted a free bridge but were undecided as to the location. The Major induced my father to subscribe $1500.00, and he gave $1000.00, which with sums contributed by others in the lower end of the town secured the location below the island at the narrowest place in the river. The bridge was completed and thrown open to the public, I think, in the late fall of 1852, and proved a great convenience. The construction was defeetive and when the iec broke up in the spring, the heavy cakes knocked down two of the piers, and destroyed the greater part of the bridge. All the people of the town were collected on the bank of the river watching the event, and two young women who were crossing went down with the structure and were drowned. This was the first bridge built at Cedar Rapids. The next was a bridge of boats at the foot of Iowa avenue which I believe was also swept away by ice."
Dr. Carpenter speaks next of the formation of the real company who had money and who meant business in the formation of what was then known as the "Chicago, Iowa & Nebraska Railway," which built from Clinton to Cedar Rapids and to the Missouri river. '"Cedar Rapids was given first directors as follows : Geo. Greene, John Weare, H. G. Angle, S. C. Bever and S. D. Carpenter, which positions we held till the road was built to Cedar Rapids."
In speaking of the amount of money put up by these men in order to get this railway it is said that $200,000.00 was pledged by Cedar Rapids, which amount was raised as follows: $100.000.00 by private subseription and $100,000.00 by eity bonds. Greene & Weare, then bankers, subscribed $10,000.00 : George Greene, $5,000.00; John Weare, $5,000.00; N. B. Brown, $5,000.00; S. C. Bever, $5,000.00; Gabriel Carpenter, $5,000.00, and numerous other smaller sums to make up the amount. Then a city election was had and the $100,000.00 voted by an over- whelming majority. Surveys of the route were begun at once, and from Mount Vernon and Cedar Rapids two lines were seen ; one by the way of Marion, and the other by the river. It was ascertained that the latter route would be the shorter and cheaper by $100,000.00 than the former, but the company proposed to adopt the Marion route if she would subscribe $100,000.00. This she declined to do, and the river line was chosen. Work progressed slowly and the first year found the rails no further west than De Witt, Clinton county.
Dr. Carpenter speaks of another railroad venture when a company was formed known as the "Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad Company" with L. B. Crocker, of New York, as president, and with Major Bodfish and a number of Cedar Rapids men as directors.
"When the legislature assembled in 1859 and 1860 we invaded the capital, and established our headquarters in an old hotel near the river. the name of which I have forgotten. Major Bodfish was the commissary of the body. We had no money to expend, but determined to be hospitable. The Major laid in a barrel of old rye whiskey ; as it was before the war, whiskey was cheap ; also several boxes of cigars. One of our strongest henchmen was J. W. Woodbury, a leading man from Marshalltown, and with him Peter Hepburn, now an honored congressman,
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then a very stripling, but showing evident signs of what was in him. John A. Kasson was then a young lawyer in Des Moines, and we secured him as our attorney. .
"The lawmakers were not in a hurry, but towards the last of the session they passed our bill, and you may be sure there was great rejoicing in Cedar Rapids. On our return the citizens gave us a grand banquet in Greene's Hotel, and we felt that we had at last secured a substantial vietory for our city, as in faet it was, for theneeforth Marion eould no longer be our rival. The cars eame to Cedar Rapids in the summer of 1859, just ten years after we had our first railroad meeting, and we felt at last that hope had ended in fruition. An immense eoneourse greeted their arrival from all parts of the surrounding country. General D. N. Sprague, then mayor, weleomed the guests, and the citizens threw open hospitable doors to all comers. From that time forward Cedar Rapids assumed metropoli- tan airs as the leading town of the Cedar valley."
On polities Dr. Carpenter speaks as follows :
"From the first, on my arrival at Cedar Rapids, I became an active partisan. General A. J. MeKean of Marion was the acknowledged leader, but the following was small. At the state convention in 1851, held in Iowa City, I was the sole representative from Linn county, and there were not more than fifty delegates from the whole state. State officers were nominated and also a candidate for eon- gress. Colonel IIenderson, the father of J. W. Henderson of Cedar Rapids, was named for congress, and without mueh opposition I secured the nomination for secretary of state for my friend, Isaae Cook, who up to that time was entirely unknown. I well remember with what surprise he received the news. Although there was no chance for his eleetion it was the beginning with him of a long and useful career in many offices of trust, alike honorable to him and his constituents. As time rolled on and our population of immigrants from the north and especially from the New England states, and with the bearing of the whig party towards slavery, they became more hopeful, and by the year 1853 or 1854, the whigs ear- ried the county, electing both members of the legislature and the county officers. John P. Conkey was the first member of the legislature living in Cedar Rapids, and at the same election Isaac Cook was chosen for a county offiee.
"About this time Charles Weare, Isaae Cook and many others cut loose from their old eonvietions and became ardent free soilers."
Dr. Carpenter speaks of how he abandoned medicine, how he opened a banking house in 1855, and became a land owner, having at one time as much as 1.600 acres of land near where the town of Norway now stands. He was first connected with Lehman & Kreider, later forming the partnership of Carpenter, Stibbs & Company, the firm doing business until 1861. Dr. Carpenter attended the con- vention at Chicago that nominated Lineoln and was one of the first to enlist in the Civil war as a surgeon. He was mustered out in 1865.
Henry E., Harvey G., Wellington W., and Major M. A. Higley were for a generation merchants, financiers, and leaders in many enterprises in: Cedar Rapids. They were born in the state of Connecticut, coming to this county in the early '40s. Henry and Harvey Higley for some time operated a line of stages from Dubuque to lowa City, and for that reason knew personally nearly all the prominent men of lowa in the '40s and '50s. Jowa City being the capital and Dubuque the most enterprising city in the territory and state, the public men frequently travelled to and from these eities. Harvey Iligley "got caught" with the gold fever and went to California, returning in a few years to Cedar Rapids. The Higley brothers made large fortunes in real estate which have descended to their children.
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The brothers, C. J. and Jacob A. Hart. natives of Maryland, eame to Cedar Rapids in the early '50s, and for a generation were two of the most successful lumber dealers in Cedar Rapids.
Alexander L. Ely was one of the early millers, who died in the '40s. His brother, Dr. J. F. Ely, came later to look after the business interests of his deceased brother, and for some fifteen or twenty years was a successful prac- titioner in Cedar Rapids. He and his wife for a generation were leaders of the business and social life of this eity.
Homer Bishop was an old-time merchant, arriving in the early '40s, and for eight years was postmaster of Cedar Rapids. He was a congenial person, well known, and an enterprising and free-hearted man who did his best to build up a city on what was then thought to be the western frontier.
No doubt the first Scandinavian settler to locate within the confines of Linn county was Nels C. Boye, a native of Denmark, who emigrated to the United States in 1827 and arrived in Museatine in 1837 and located in the vicinity of Lisbon in 1838 where he purchased land and engaged in farming. Being brought up as a merchant he removed with his family to Iowa City in 1843 and for a time oper- ated one of the most up-to-date stores in the new capital. On a business trip to St. Louis in 1849 he fell a victim to the cholera and died there on June 23. A number of his children continued to reside in Linn county, and a number of relations are still residents of this county.
One of the old settlers of Ivanhoe was Dr. S. Grafton, who arrived there in 1843 and travelled horseback up and down the Cedar and Iowa river valleys as far as Jones or as far northeast as half way to Dubuque in the practice of his profession. He was born in Ohio in 1800, and died during the typhoid epidemie in 1845 and 1847. He was one of the best known of the early physicians, a gentleman, a scholar, and a man who did, perhaps, more during the few years of his practice to help the poor and the needy than any other of the early settlers. He was married to Isabelle Patterson, also a resident for many years of East Liverpool, Ohio, but born in Pennsylvania. After the death of Dr. Grafton she married Herman Boye, a son of Nels C. Boye. Mr. Boye was a cabinet maker and farmer. He got caught with the gold fever and emigrated to California in 1850, returning to Ivanhoe within a few years. It is said that he made more money in California seining for fish, which he had learned in Denmark, than he did in digging gold. He died in 1880 at the age of sixty-two years. The widow died January 11, 1897, at the advanced age of eighty years, and is buried at Mount Vernon.
Another of the old settlers of Bertram may be mentioned - Joseph Crane, a cousin of James Doty, who has the honor, at least, of obtaining the first license to marry within the Territory, viz: in 1840 when he was married to Agnes Boghart.
The first settlers seem to have been William Abbe, Daniel Hahn, C. C. HIas- kins, and Edward M. Crow. Which one of these men actually was the first set- tler within the confines of the county may ever remain a disputed question. We have the record when they entered lands, but this does not at all indicate that they did not live on these lands for several years before actual entry was made. The first settler in the vicinity of what became Mount Vernon was, no doubt, Charles Haskins, who located about a mile and a half east of the village in the summer of 1837. He was at least one of the first to locate in that vieinity. It is said that Daniel Hahn came in the spring of 1837, made a claim and built a log cabin, his wife assisting him in building the house. Edward M. Crow has been supposed to have been the first settler, but it seems that he came in July, 1837, in company with his brother, and located near what later became known as Viola, where he made a elaim and erected a small shanty. He returned to the Fox river settlement for provisions and did not come back until in Angust, when he was accompanied by his brother and by James Dawson. About this time also eame
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Joselyn and Russell. Their cabins were located in the back woods in Brown township and was called "The Settlement" for some time.
Later in the fall of 1837 arrived Jacob Mann, having resided previously in Jones county. He located on what was known as "Big Creek" in Linn county, but he did not take possession of his rude eabin or elaim until in February, 1838, when he and his daughter, Sarah, moved onto the claim and began housekeeping. Ile afterward built a grist mill on Big ereck or purchased one built by John Oxley which was swept away in the spring of 1851, when Mann lost his life. refusing to leave his mill which, he said, "was dearer to him than his own life."
Sally Mann is supposed to have been, if not the first white woman in the eounty, at least one of the first. and many are the stories told of Sally, or rather Sarah. Mann. She was more masculine than feminine in her make-up and knew few of the customs and manners of good society. She raised eats for a living and used to sell these at fancy priees to the pioneer settlers. There was nothing attractive about Sally, for she was noted more for her strength and endur- ance than for graee and beauty. But even though Sally had very little to recom- mend her, women were searce in those days and the settlers were. perhaps, not so particular as they later became, and on July 21, 1840, Sally Mann and Aaron Haynes were duly married by John Crow, a justice of the peace. Sally Haynes nee Mann, had many good traits of character. No one was turned away from her door hungry and she would help neighbors with any kind of work if necessary. The western life appealed to her. as it had to the members of her family, and when settlers came thick and fast she and her husband left for the far west in order, it was said, that they could breathe the pure air of the frontier. It was always thus.
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