USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 35
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THE TOWN LOT COMPANIES
The Blair Town Lot and Land Company was organized in June, 1871, and took over the unsold town lots and purchased lands along the line of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, and also the avails from previous sales. It was consolidated with The Iowa Rail Road Land Company in 1888.
The Sioux City and Iowa Falls Town Lot and Land Company, organized in 1871 to dispose of the town lots and purchased lands along the Iowa Falls and Sioux City railroad between Iowa Falls and Sioux City, was consolidated with The Iowa Rail Road Land Company in 1888.
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
The Elkhorn Land and Town Lot Company was organized under the laws of the state of Nebraska in February, 1871. There was conveyed to this company the land grant made to the Fremont. Elkhorn and Missouri Valley road. also the purchased lands and town lots at the several stations between Fremont and Wisner. This company was consolidated with The Jowa Rail Road Land Company in 1899.
The capital stock of these three companies was issued pro rata to the stock- holders of the respective railroad companies along the lines of which these town lot companies respectively operated.
The Missouri Valley Land Company was organized in May, 1875, and pur- chased for cash the remaining unsold portion of the land grant of the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad Company, as well as the unsold town lots and purchased lands belonging to that company. This company was consolidated with The Iowa Rail Road Land Company on May 3, 1901.
THE MOINGONA COAL COMPANY
When the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad was extended west from Boone there was purchased for account of the stockholders of that company eer- tain timber and coal lands at and near Moingona - where the line of railroad erosses the Des Moines river. The Moingona Coal Company was organized in June, 1866. These coal and timber lands were conveyed to that company, and its shares of capital stock ultimately allotted pro rata to those stockholders in the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad, who had furnished the money for the construction of the line west of Boone - known as the third division of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad. The town of Moingona was platted and put upon the market and coal mines opened at that point, which mines were operated continuously for about twenty years. In 1899 mining operations had eeased and the personal property of the coal company having been closed out, the remaining real estate was turned over to The Iowa Rail Road Land Company.
The aggregate sales up to 1910 made by these railroads, land and town lot companies and this coal company, including land grant lands, purchased lands, and town lots, amount to sixteen million, six hundred and sixteen thousand dol- lars. The taxes paid by said companies on said real estate while held by then amount to two million, seven hundred and forty-seven thousand dollars.
For many years it has been fashionable for magazine writers and a certain class of politicians to severely eritieise and condemn the public men of that day for their action in making land grants to railroad companies. The members of congress have been characterized as imbeeile and corrupt, and the recipients of land grants denouneed as thieves and robbers. While it is quite probable that in some cases sufficient care was not exercised, and that such grants sometimes have been a little too liberal, looking at the situation as it was in those days and the subsequent results, there ean be no doubt whatever that the policy was a sound one and the aetion of congress in most of the eases exactly right.
A large portion of what is now known as "the middle west" then consisted of vast unbroken stretches of prairie land. impossible of settlement because of the want of timber for fuel and building purposes. This territory could not sup- port a population until transportation facilities were provided for carrying in the necessary lumber. fuel, and supplies, and carrying away the agricultural products as the land should become cultivated. The price of the land at private entry was then $1.25 per acre. The government gave half of the lands within the land grant limits to the railroads and immediately advanced the price on the even sections to $2.50 per acre, not only getting the same amount of money for the same acreage, but making sales of the government land much more rapidly.
SCENE AT TROY MILLS
MILL AND DAM, COGGON
PUB
TILL-A
24.
THE OLD BLAIR BUILDING
Soon after the first of these grants was made it became the policy of the government to give away its public lands to actual settlers. Until the railroads were built through these vast bodies of vacant lands it had not been possible for the United States to even give away its lands, but after the construction of such roads the whole of this vast territory was in a few years occupied by actual set- tlers. This settlement and the growth in population and wealth resulting there- from have more than any one thing contributed to the present greatness of this United States.
The land grant railroads taken as a whole have not been a source of much profit to the original stock and bond holders. In many cases the companies have been forced into extensive and costly litigation to protect their rights; taxing authorities - both county and state - have regarded these land grant companies as legitimate prey. The fact that these several lines of road were built in ad- vance of settlement and civilization in almost every instance, made the first earnings of the roads insufficient to pay interest on bonds issued for construction, let alone dividends to stockholders, so that quite often a large portion of the avails of the sales of these lands had to be used to pay interest on the bonds.
A majority of the land grant railroads have gone through reorganization and foreclosure, some of them several times. In the cases where there has been a profit to the original investors, it has been no greater than it ought to have been considering the risks run.
CHAPTER XXVI
Some of the Old Cemeteries
The father of Osgood Shepherd, who died in the summer of 1839, was interred at the top of the hill above the tracks on A avenue in Cedar Rapids where the Cedar Rapids Candy Company has erected a building. During the excavation several other graves were found, but it is not known who were buried there.
Another cemetery where a number of old settlers were buried was on Fifth avenue and Eighth street where W. W. Higley later settled; these bodies were removed when Oak Hill Cemetery was laid out. At Linwood burials were made at an early date. One of the first cemeteries was known as Craig's cem- etery on section 7 in Franklin township about three miles west of Mt. Vernon. Elias Doty was buried here in 1841 and James Doty in 1847. Members of the Craig family and many others of the first settlers were also buried here. This cemetery is not now kept up and it is not even surrounded by a fence.
Campbell's cemetery was set off by Samuel Campbell, who donated an aere for cemetery purposes. Here Samuel Craig was buried in 1840, members of the Oxley family, the Hunter family, and of the John Paul family, also of the Smith, Berry, Snyder, Blaine, and Darr families, names familiar to all who have a knowledge of early Linn county history.
The Rogers cemetery, laid out by old Dan Rogers, is on the west side of the river near Ivanhoe. Here, also, are buried many of the first settlers who lived on the west side of the river.
A little to the north of Cedar Rapids near the Illinois Central track the relic hunter ean find some ruins of what is known as "MeCloud's Run." Only a few crumbling ruins remain of what used to be an old mill known to all the old settlers in the county. Through this picturesque valley runs a winding brook known as "Cold Stream." a beautiful rivulet whose clear transparent water plays sonorous music as it runs swiftly over the pebbles as if hastening to join its forces with the Cedar. The surrounding hills have in a good measure been shorn of their beauty by entting down the timber, and now only the naked clay hills remain, offering a poor pasture for cattle. West of this stream on top of the hill overlooking the city can be found a few broken headstones and some mounds, but no flowers and no evergreens can be seen, not even a fence of any kind. for this little spaee, like all the surrounding hills, is given up to the pasturing of cattle. There in the vicinity of the eity are more than ninety mounds showing that Linn county was from the earliest time a fit abode for man. Who these first settlers were we do not know; they have left us no other relies but these mounds; their funeral pyres and a few carvings indicate that they were Sun and Star worshippers, but whether they belonged to our Indian race has never been ascertained ; however, the mound builder serves as a chain in man's existence.
On the top of this hill is located the family cemetery of the MeCloud family. John MeCloud came here in 1838, and for a number of years was one of the prominent men of this county. From an examination of the small marble slabs thrown abont in confusion, scratched by the hand of vandals, are to be found the following inscriptions: "Departed this life Jume 6. 1846. Hester, consort of John Vardy, age 37 years; in life beloved ; in death lamented." "Angelia, died August 30, 1852." "Grant, died March 29, 1852." "Alphens, died December
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28, 1861." "Eliza Jane, died January 11, 1862." "Ester Ann, died January 11, 1861, 15 years." All were children of John G. and J. McCloud. "John MeCloud, died November 10, 1863, age 61 years 7 months and 29 days."
Mrs. John Vardy died in 1846 and was buried in this cemetery. Many of these places are neglected, and weeds grow in profusion and the head stones are marred and weather beaten so that the names, dates and deaths of many pioneer men and women have been effaeed. This is the history of many neglected burial places in various parts of this county.
Owners of land on which these small places are located think more of their value for corn lands than they do as places for a cemetery, and in many localities these cemeteries have been changed into pastures and corn fields and not even a headstone can be found to tell where some dear father or mother was buried in the long ago.
The Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, and Romans all protected the burial places of their dead, and after a lapse of 2,000 years we ean still go back and find something as to how the dead were cared for, and the very place in which they were buried venerated by suceeeding generations, while ont here in Iowa after a lapse of only half a century many of these places have been neglected and ignored and now some descendant returning to the home of his fathers may be unable to find any trace of where they were buried. Certainly some protection should be offered by the county or the state so that these sacred places may be preserved and the memory of the old settlers duly honored for what they accomplished during the pioneer days in Linn county.
Spring Grove cemetery, near Palo, is one of the oldest cemeteries west of the river. Many of the early settlers have been interred in this lot.
A few of them are: Dyer and Hiram Usher, Charles Dickey, John Garrison, Peter Davis Burt, Thomas Spencer, George Mathew, J. Z. Drake, Caldwells, the Rawson and Tweed families, F. Klumph, Mrs. Dyer Usher, and many others.
Dyer Usher as well as the other members of the Usher families was always friendly with the Indians and in return shared the good will of the various Indian tribes. In an early day one of the chieftains died and was buried in the cemetery lot of the whites according to the Indian enstoms. This brave was interred with bows and arrows as well as with the dead earcass of a horse or Indian pony. Here the Indian brave has slept for many moons, ready at the final day to join the good Indians on a fleet charger for the happy hunting ground in the by and by.
In the Wilcox cemetery, near Viola, Edward M. Crow and his two wives, many old pioneers as well as old soldiers are laid to rest.
Shiloh cemetery, in Rapids township, has been the burial place for many years of the old settlers in that part of the township.
Seotch Grove cemetery, near Fairfax, has also been used for many years and here are interred most of the old settlers who died in that part of the county.
The Marion cemetery, the Lisbon cemetery, the Center Point cemetery, where is interred a Revolutionary soldier, as well as the Oak Hill cemetery in Cedar Rapids are all places where a large number of the old settlers have been buried during the past fifty years.
The town cemeteries seem to be kept np while the country cemeteries are neglected.
CHAPTER XXVII
Early Experiences in Stage and Express
On way to learn of the history of a city is by studying its developments and the men who were its leaders in progressive enterprises and in things political. It is another phase of the matter, none the less important, to study the lives of the men who did the persistent everyday work three hundred and sixty-five days in the year and sometimes, it seemed, almost twenty-four hours in a day. Cedar Rapids was fortunate in having a large number of both elasses of these pioneers.
Among the latter class who worked steadily and everlastingly from the time Cedar Rapids was a straggling little village to a eity of its present size and who aided materially in its upbuilding is W. Fred Reiner, in the early fifties a stage driver out of this eity, and for many years after a messenger of the American Express company. It may be safe to assume that Mr. Reiner handled as much money and bullion in pioneer days as did any man in Linn county. His exper- iences were common to the stage driver and express messenger of the early day. Ilow he overcame one difficulty after another, eseaped highwaymen, pulled him- self out of mud-holes, ete., as he interestingly relates, is what was the life of the real pioneer of the early fifties and sixties. The events which are most vivid in Mr. Reiner's mind are those which oeenrred after he became an express mes- senger for the American Express company.
We are indebted to the Republican for the following interesting account of the experiences of Mr. Reiner in the stage and express business :
It is fifty-three years since Mr. Reiner, at the age of eighteen, left his home in Germany to risk his future in America. Coming west, he settled for one year at Columbus, Ohio, then pushing still farther west, he came to Iowa City in 1854. Here for a little while he did teaming and other work, then began driving stage between Marengo and Iowa City. Soon he was driving for the Western Stage Company. In 1857. while in the employ of his company, he drove the first stage from Calamns, near Dewitt. at that time the terminus of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, to this eity. It was while on this ronte running to Calamus that Mr. Reiner first became acquainted with Condnetor Holten. now of Des Moines, and well known all over Iowa as the oldest condnetor in the em- ploy of the Chieago and Northwestern.
After working in this capacity for a while Mr. Reiner returned to Cedar connty and took up farming. Soon coming back to Iowa City, he went to the stage company's office and was immediately given a stage between that place and Cedar Rapids.
One day while on his ronte he met at Solon the proprietor of the stage com- pany coming from Iowa City with a fonr-horse stage. The new stage drew up along where Mr. Reiner was, and the proprietor called, "Fred. I want you and your team." Wondering what was going to happen. Mr. Reiner immediately unhitched his horses, and the driver of the leadhorses on the other stage had also unhitched his. Mr. Reiner's team was put on as the leadhorses, and he was told to get on the stage. While coming on into this city the proprietor informed him that he was to run the new stage from this city to Springville, at that time the end of the Dubuque and Southwestern railroad.
As the railroad was pushed nearer and nearer Marion. the stage route became shorter and shorter, until it was finally between Cedar Rapids and the county
HIGH SCHOOL, CENTRAL CITY
BRIDGE OVER WAPSIE AT CENTRAL CITY
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EARLY EXPERIENCES IN STAGE AND EXPRESS
seat. It was while driving between this eity and Marion that he began to carry express, and that in an unusual way. One of the express messengers who ran into the county seat and whose home was at that place, had to accompany the express down to this eity each night on the stage. There being no return stage until morning, he was compelled to spend the night in Cedar Rapids. He would very often asl: Mr. Reiner to take charge of the express at Marion and bring it to this eity. The express messenger was Dr. J. M. Ristine of this eity, now one of the best known physicians in the state.
One day Supt. Thomas Adams, of the American Express company, was at Marion. He opened a conversation with Mr. Reiner in the course of which he asked him if he would be willing to take a position as express messenger on the western end of the Northwestern, at that time nearing the city of Boone. Mr. Reiner took the matter under advisement, and later accepted the position.
Going to Boone, Mr. Reiner was given the first express route from that eity through to Omaha. With the railroad stopping at Boone, and nothing more than a mere trail to follow, with a few stopping places, this route on to the Nebraska eity was everything but pleasant. Nevertheless Mr. Reiner took hold of the work, and on November 7, 1865, after forty-eight hours of almost continuons rid- ing, he carried the first express ever hauled by the American Express company into the city of Omaha.
Early in the morning of the last day a stop had been made at Council Bluffs for breakfast, and when Mr. Reiner was ready to continue the regular stage had gone. The local agent hustled around and found a carriage which he turned over to Mr. Reiner, so that the first express which the American Express ever took into Omaha did not go by stage, but by carriage.
There was nothing delieate or easy in the ronte assigned to the new messenger. He left Boone on Tuesday afternoon. The stage, by changing horses at regular intervals, went steadily on during the afternoon and night, and all the next day and night. Early Thursday morning it would pull into Council Bluffs, where a stop for breakfast was made. The trip was then continued to Omaha, which was reached during the forenoon. Leaving Omaha that same afternoon at four o'clock, the return trip was commenced and kept up until Boone was reached at nine o'clock Saturday morning. As Mr. Reiner had previously driven stage he was nearly always found upon the seat with the driver. Thus he was exposed the same as the driver was. Through all kinds of weather, the blizzards of winter and stifling heat of the summer, these trips were made with greatest regularity. Gradually, however, the railroad was worked farther and farther westward, and the stage driver's route shortened accordingly.
During this period of his life Mr. Reiner had many trying and sometimes exciting experiences. Although he is modest about relating them, those which he told a reporter illustrate what the messengers of that period had to contend with.
"I remember one time," said Mr. Reiner, "it was in the spring of the year and the roads were in terrible condition. From Panora to Boone there was one slough after another. We were driving along one night, I was on the box with the driver, when we came to a wide slough. There were traeks where others had driven through, but of course, we could not go across in the same place for fear of entting through. But the slough looked all right, so we started in a new place. We had got into the center when suddenly the wheels cut through the sod and the stage sank into the water-soaked ground elear up to the axles. The four horses began floundering around in a most dangerous manner. Both the driver and I jumped from our seats down into the mud and water, and as soon as possible unhitched the horses.
"There we were, stuck in the middle of the slough with nine passengers on the inside of the coach, one of them a woman. They, of course, had been aroused by the disturbance, and now called loudly to know what they should do. There
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HISTORY OF LINN COUNTY
was but one thing that could be done, and that was to get out and wade to shore. This they did, one of the gentlemen carrying the woman on his shoulders. They were told that if they would follow the road for three miles they could find lodg- ing for the night. A spring snow was on the ground, and the air was cold, but they started on their way. The driver, capturing one of the horses, jumped on it and rode for help.
"I was left there alone. In the stage coach was my express containing some very valuable property which I did not dare to leave under any circumstances. There was but one thing for me to do, and that was to wade back to the stage coach and climb in and stay there until help should arrive. This I did. I wrapped myself in my buffalo robe which was the best I could do. but it was far from comfortable.
"In the morning help eame and we were pulled out of the mud hole. A fresh set of horses was hitched to the stage and we were soon at the next stop. Here we met all the passengers. They had had good beds to sleep in and warm break- fasts, so were anxious to be off. I hastily swallowed a cup of coffee, and still in my wet clothes, elimbed up on the box seat, and rode all that day and the next night without a rest. This was but one of the experiences which were familiar to stage drivers and express messengers of that time."
Although during his twenty-five years of service for the American Express company Mr. Reiner never lost a penny which had been placed in his charge, it was not because he did not have his opportunities to do so.
"There was one experience, " he remarked, "that I remember well. and which came as near being a hold-up as I ever had. It was the same week that an addi- tional express messenger had been put on the route between Boone and Omaha, and our routes had been altered accordingly. The stage left Boone on a Monday afternoon and was in the neighborhood of Denison. It was a bright night and the horses were jogging along at a good gait.
"Suddenly ahead the driver saw two men erouehed by the roadside. As we drew near they both sprang out into the road and began firing at us rapidly. One of the first shots struck and killed the rear horse on the left hand side. The other three animals sprang forward with such force that they fairly jerked the harness off from the animal which had been shot. They circled to the right and the wheels of the coach ran over the fallen animal. The animals continued their circling until they completely reversed the coach, then they turned and ran down the road along which we had just come. It was always believed that the high- waymen did not know of this change, and thought the stage carried express as before. But the faet was I had left Boone on Monday instead of Tuesday.
"The driver, according to the story he told me afterwards, was eussed most roundly for not stopping the team, but he insisted that the shooting the robbers had done so frightened the horses that they had become unmanageable. Although the highwaymen were far from satisfied with the explanation they made the best of a bad matter, and began to search the driver to see what they could find. Ile gave them his pocketbook, which, he said, contained forty dollars. That, by the way, is more money than I ever saw him have at one time, and considerably more than stage drivers usually carried. The hold-up men took the money and gave the pocketbook back to him. as it contained some papers he wished to save and which were of no value to the robbers.
"Soon after this incident, while going over my route one cold night the driver stopped the team and called to me. I sat in a seat on the inside with my revolvers lying beside me. Getting out of the door, the driver told me there was a man crouched down in the road ahead of us. We were out on the prairie some miles from a station. I went forward, with no feeling of pleasure, to investigate. The man came forward also and I recognized him as a fellow who had been lying
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around one of the stations for several days. I asked him what he wanted and he replied that he wished to get in and ride for a ways. Although the night was cold I could not let him in for fear that he had companions farther up the road and was only getting inside to get the lay of the land. The express was unusually valuable that night. The fellow ran along behind the coach for some time, but the horses gradually outdistaneed him, and that was the last we ever saw of him."
After the completion of the railroad, Mr. Reiner was given a position as ex- press messenger on one of the trains. "Many times," said the veteran express messenger. "I have literally had the car floor paved with gold and silver, over which I walked in doing my work. We had carried lots of gold and silver bars east from Virginia City, in Nevada. In order that the weight should be evenly distributed the bars were spread like paving bricks all over the ear floor. The following description, written by a reporter from one of the Council Bluffs papers while Mr. Reiner was yet at Boone, gives a description of the work of carrying the bullion :
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