USA > Iowa > Louisa County > History of Louisa County, Iowa, from its earliest settlement to 1912, Volume I > Part 20
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The petition for Levee District No. 10, signed by H. B. Brock and others was filed May 11, 1908. and J. A. Shriner was appointed engineer. He made his report July 18, 1908, favoring the establishment of the district and showing that it comprised a total of 2,346 acres, all in the north part of Oakland township. and that the probable cost including outlet pipes, etc., should be $3.890.25. This district was established on March 4, 1909, and the contract was let to W. P. Bum- gardner, of Wapello. The total cost of the improvement in this district was $5.300.
The next district is Levee District, No. II, which includes 3,421 acres of land immediately across the Iowa river from Wapello. J. A. Shriner was appointed engineer. The petition for this district was signed by John G. Grim and others, and filed January 4, 1909. J. A. Shriner was appointed engineer and estimated the probable cost to be $35.467.25. The district was established on May 21. 1909, and the contract was let to R. H. McWilliams, of Mattoon, Illinois. The commissioners who were appointed to assess the costs and damages in this dis- trict reported that the items for which the assessments were made were as follows :
For work under contract $25,000.00
For culverts 2,000.00
For land damages 3,000.00
For preliminary, legal and engineering and contingencies. 3.446.3I
Total
$33.446.31
The actual amount of tax levied in this district was $34,108.28 and it will require about $1,700 more to finish paying.
The next district established was Drainage District. No. 12, which takes in about 13,000 acres west and southwest of Wapello. The petition was filed May 26, 1909, signed by J. A. Hale and others and J. A. Shriner was appointed en- gineer. Mr. Shriner recommended the establishment of the district, stating two plans upon which the work might be done and estimated the probable cost on plan No. I at $73,855, and on plan No. 2, $64,716.84. The following estimated items of the cost were included in each of the two plans, namely :
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Land damages $6,000
Railroad crossings 4,000
Preliminary and legal expenses, etc. 6,000
This district was established by order of the board on January 7, 1910. The contract was let to Chapman Brothers, at that time residents of Muscatine. The total cost of the improvements made in this district was about $90,000.
Levee District No. 14 was petitioned for November 11, 1909, by H. O. Weaver and W. E. Shew, and J. A. Shriner was appointed engineer. This district included about a thousand acres on the east side of the lowa river, immediately north of Hogback. Mr. Shriner's estimate of the probable cost of the improvements was :
Levee 47,000 cubic yards at 20C $9.400
Outlet pipes 500
Ditch 6,000 cubic yards at 20c 1.200
Engineering, legal and other expenses 1,110
Total
$12,210
The next district established was No. 13. a joint district in Louisa and Musca- tine counties. The petition was filed by W. H. Hurley and others, March 1I. 1910, and a commission was appointed by the boards of the two counties, con- sisting of J. W. Garner, Louisa county, and J. C. Park, Muscatine county, and these commissioners selected Engineer F. A. McDonald as the third member of the commission. This district was located on Muscatine Island, about one-third being in Muscatine county and about two-thirds being in Louisa county, and is said to contain about 30,000 acres. The commission estimated the total expense of the improvements proposed in this district at $201, 106.45. Included in this estimate is $85,000 for a pumping plant : $8,500 for engineering ; and $9.338 for contingencies.
On June 14. 1911. the boards of supervisors appointed Jacob A. Harmon, engineer, to make a survey of the proposed district, with plans and an estimate of the cost. Mr. Harmon's report suggested a modification of the plans by elimin- ating the construction of a levee along the Mississippi river from Port Louisa to Toolesboro, recommending that that levee be constructed by a separate levee district to be organized for that purpose, and suggesting a different location for the pumping plant and certain modifications due to that change. Mr. Harmon's estimate is as follows :
For the necessary ditches $ 49,830
Pumping plant, machinery and building I 10,000
Sluice way, incidental engineering, court costs, etc. 12,670
Total
$172.500
Mr. Harmon's report estimated the total area of land within the proposed drainage district to be 15,900 acres, and that the average cost would be $10.90 per acre.
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
This district was established by the supervisors of Louisa and Muscatine countics on October 24, 1911, and on the next day a contract was made by them with Jacob A. Harmon of the Harmon Engineering Company of Peoria, Illi- nois, as engineer, which contract provides in substance that Mr. Harmon should have $25.00 per day for his time on said work, and in addition thereto, five per cent of what he succeeded in making it cost the district ; and also $10.00 per day for assistant engineers, $6.00 per day for instrument men, $4.00 per day for recorders and $6.00 per day for draughtsmen and computers, and also pay for all other labor, traveling and living expenses while on the work away from the home office at Peoria. It is hardly necessary to say that the supervisors who made such munificent provision for the engineer were not expecting to have to pay any part of it out of their own pockets. This contract means that the engineer will not merely get big pay for all his time on the job, and the same for all his assistants, but in addition to this he will get $5.500 for preparing the plans of the pumping plant, and nearly $2,000 for making specifications and profiles of the ditches, etc. If, as is sometimes the case, the plans and specifications of the pumping plants are furnished in advance by the bidders, the tax-payers might be inclined to characterize this contract by a harsher word than we have used.
There was some work done by M. L. Jamison on Muscatine Island in 1883, in building a levee which had been petitioned for by land owners of Muscatine and Louisa Counties. The contract price for the work was something like $30,000. Quite a number of the taxpayers resisted the project ; the first tax levied was set aside by the court, and it required a long series of litigation and an act of the Iowa Legislature to enable Mr. Jamison to get his pay.
This matter of drainage is one which has created considerable controversy in the county, due largely to the manner in which the law has been administered. The benefits which accrue from necessary drainage, are recognized by everybody, but it is undoubtedly true that some of the drainage projects put through in Louisa County have cost the tax-payers far more than they should. It so happens that of the dozen or more drainage and levee districts in the county which have been established by the Board of Supervisors, there is not a member of the Board who has any land in any of these districts. This probably accounts for the fact that the engineers have been given practically absolute power to determine the kind and character of the work to be done.
In two of the districts viz : No. 4 and No. 13, the contracts made with the en- gineer are so drawn as to make it to his pecuniary interest to see that the most ex- pensive kind of improvements shall be made. In addition to this, his contract provides that he shall have a certain amount per day for his different assistants ranging from $10.00 to $3.00. The contract is open to the construction that he is to receive these amounts for his assistants whether they cost him that much or not. It has been openly charged in regard to District No. 4, that the bills filed by the engineer include pay for various assistants, of amounts from 50 to 100 per cent greater than the amount actually paid by the engineer. At one time at a joint session of the Des Moines and Louisa County Boards this matter was brought to their attention, while the engineer was being examined, but they refused to allow it to be inquired into. It may be that these charges were entirely unfounded but the taxpayers as well as the impartial observer will be likely to think that if this were so, it could have been shown in the same length of time that was required
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
for the supervisors to deliberate upon, and sustain a technical objection. The drainage law is lamentably lame in that it does not provide some way whereby the taxpayers protect themselves from extravagance, carelessness or incompe- tency of those who control drainage projects. The people of Eliot township have been taxed nearly $100.000, by the six men who compose the Boards of Super- visors of this and Des Moines county, while the voters of Eliot township have no opportunity to vote for or against but one of these six men. If this is the kind of government our forefathers fought for. they might well have saved some of their blood and treasure.
CHAPTER XII.
LOUISA COUNTY SOLDIERS.
TERRITORIAL MILITIA-ALPHABETICAL LIST OF LOUISA COUNTY SOLDIERS IN THIE WAR OF THE REBELLION-SOLDIERS IN THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.
The first territorial governor of Iowa, Robert Lucas, was himself something of a military man, and at once interested himself in an effort to organize a territorial militia. He had difficulty in many of the counties in getting them to take any in- terest in the matter, but it is undersood that the military spirit showed itself quite early in this county. On January 19, 1839, Gov. Lucas made the following militia appointments in this county, all of thien being of the Ist Regiment of the Ist Brigade of the 2nd Division :
Colonel, John Ronalds.
Lieutenant, Z. C. Inghram.
Major, Robert Childers.
There are no records to be found showing just what military organizations were perfected in this county at that time. Such as there were, however. came very near having something to do in connection with the controversy between the state of Missouri and Iowa territory over the location of the southern boundary of the territory. This incident is sometimes called the Border War, or the Puke War. The state of Missouri claimed that the northern boundary of that state ex- tended far enough North to include a great part of Van Buren County, and brought the matter to a crisis by sending an officer up there to collect taxes. This officer was arrested and put in jail in Van Buren County, whereupon the governor of Missouri issued a fierce proclamation and called for a thousand volunteers. Gov. Lucas responded with a much bigger proclamation and called for 1,200 troops. In an article on Louisa County history in the Annals of Iowa for 1870, William L. Toole, referring to this incident, says :
"Louisa County, like its adjoining counties, had for its early settlers a people patriotic and spirited, as was fully shown at the time of our border war; for, al- though then but few in number, they eagerly and freely attended to the call to repel the invaders." Mr. Toole then relates that public meetings were held and patriotic speeches delivered and resolutions made to stand ready for a move against the intruders from Missouri. The display of patriotism was not confined to the males, but the wives and daughters were also zealous in their patriotism. Maximillian Eastwood, justice of the peace, blacksmith and tavern keeper in Toolesborough, was a man of considerable local note and influence and his cabins were places of public resort. On the occasion of one of these "war meet-
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
ings," Mrs. Eastwood, who was a favorite among the people, "assisted by her female friends, prepared a free dinner for all assembled, and enough for all. The dinner was made noted through the huge (John or journey) cake she pre- pared for the occasion ; it was fourteen feet long and about one foot wide, baked on a board before a fire fixed along a large log, and perhaps the largest cake ever made in Iowa."
In addition to the public meetings referred to by Mr. Toole, there were other warlike occurrences in this county at the time, notably the march through the county of a company of the militia from Muscatine. It is said also that a com- pany from Johnson county came as far as the bluff south of Wapello, and then, learning that there would be no war, returned home. The controversy over the boundary was settled some years after by the Supreme Court of the United States in favor of the contention of Iowa.
Among the old files are found the records of two courts martial held in 1840. The following, which seems to have been held on Sept. 19. 1840. was doubtless held in Grandview township, although it does not so state. We quote it literally :
"I do heare by certyfy that the folowing is a corect transaction acording to law. Martin Gray Capt.
"A court marcial being Detailed of the undersined acording to law of the 5 "comp. I Reg. I Birgade 2 Division, S. M. on the 19th of September 1840 was "organised, an as folows asesed the fines of Delinquents as follows :
"Jacob Holbrook fined $2.00.
"Wm. Thompson, Jun. fined $3.00.
"Lot Thornton, fined $2.00.
"Thomas MCoy, fined $3.00.
"Thomas Suleven, fined $2.00.
"Wm. Shoemaker, fined $3.00.
"Abraham Mclearey, fined $3.00.
"Abraham Sellers, fined $2.00.
"S. R. CROW, prs .. JESSE BENEFIEL, WM. P. NORRIS, JOHN TAYLER, ALEXer. Ross."
It seems from the foregoing that Martin Gray was captain of the militia at Grandview. The record of the one held at Florence is as follows :
"Court Martial Held at Florence on the 17th Day of September A. D., 1840, the following are the names of persons Returned by the Court and each one Fined two dollars: James Morris, James Hate. Joseph Ogle, Obadiah Garison, Mark Davidson. James R. Willson, John Devenport, James Willson, Samuel Dunham, Nathan Linton, Thomas Stanly. Henry McFall, Jefferson Frizzle, Richard Curry.
Attest SAMUEL SMITH. President of the Court."
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
These fines were probably for failure to attend drills.
The executive journal of Gov. Robert Lucas shows that on January 13, 1841, he appointed John Rinearson captain of the Wapello Cavalry, in place of M. Wilson, who had resigned. Mrs. Sarah Hurley says she remembers the Wapello Cavalry quite well, and that it was in the habit of drilling out west of town; and that her uncle, David Clark, who at that time lived in Muscatine and had been commander of a militia company back in Indiana, came down here occasionally to drill the boys.
It was the duty of the township assessors at one time to make a return of all of the able-bodied males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, and these returns are among the files for Wapello, Florence, Jefferson, Grandview and Columbus City townships, but none from Fredonia township. From the report made by John Gilliland, Clerk of the County Board of Commissioners, to the ad- jutant general, on June 24, 1844, it appears that the persons subject to military duty in the county were as follows: Wapello township, 143; Florence township, 191 ; Jefferson township, 86; Grandview township, 117; Columbus City township, 143; Fredonia township, estimated, 55. Total, 635.
The return from Grandview township made by Joseph Burr, assessor, shows that there were the following officers residing in that township at that time : Robert Childers, Colonel; Alex. Ross, Major; Nicholas T. Brown, Lieutenant ; Morton Brown, 2nd Lieutenant.
The returns from other townships do not make mention of any officers. One military item of interest is found in the report of Treasurer George F. Thomas, made January 1, 1847, for the year 1846, in which he mentions the payment to Francis Springer, "Captain of Louisa Guards," of the following amounts :
One stand of collars $15.00
One French Horn 8.00
One Bugle 2.00
One Trumpet, 4 Crook 6.00
The history of the Union Guards, will be found in the chapter on Columbus City.
LOUISA COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
According to the report of Adjutant General Baker, made in 1866, the quota of troops to be furnished by Louisa county for the suppression of the rebellion under the calls made by President Lincoln in 1861 and 1862 was five hundred, and the number of troops furnished by the county under these calls is given by the same report as eight hundred and forty-two. This gives the county a surplus over the call of three hundred and forty-two. We find no other official statement as to the quota to be furnished by Louisa county under any of the calls made by the president subsequent to this. Since then the number of troops furnished by this county in the war of the rebellion has been placed at eight hundred and forty- two. We have long supposed that that number was entirely too low, and have made a very careful investigation in the effort to give not only the full number of soldiers furnished by this county, but the names of the soldiers with their respective commands.
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
We have prepared an alphabetical list, which is given at the close of this chap- ter, showing the names and commands of all the Louisa county soldiers so far as we have been able to ascertain them. This list was first made by copying from the reports of the adjutant general for the various years covering the rebellion, the names of those soldiers who were credited to Louisa county. The list was then submitted to quite a number of the Louisa county soldiers and many addi- tional names were suggested. Colonel J. W. Garner was kind enough to go over the list and compare it with the adjutant general's reports and add such names as he could think of not found there. Colonel Garner himself added in the neigh- borhood of one hundred names, which were not on the original list. The list of those whose commands are given numbers upward of twelve hundred. To this list there are fourteen names added, all of whom are believed to have been resi- dents of this county when they enlisted. but whose commands we have not been able to learn.
Louisa county furnished nearly the whole of the following companies: C of the Fifth Infantry: K of the Eighth Infantry : F and G of the Nineteenth Infantry: F of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, and F of the Thirty-fifth Infantry. It also furnished quite a number in Companies C of the Eleventh: C of the Eighth : E of the Fourteenth : C of the Fourteenth : I of the Sixth : E of the Six- teenth : D. G and H of the Seventeenth, and one or more in the following com- panies : A, C, D and E of the First Infantry ; Companies A, G and H of the Second Infantry ; G of the Fifth ; A and I of the Seventh ; HI and I of the Eighth ; A of the Ninth : F. G and H of the Eleventh; K of the Thirteenth ; K of the Fourteenth : H of the Fifteenth: C of the Sixteenth: C of the Eighteenth: C of the Nineteenth : D, E and I of the Twenty-fifth; C of the Thirtieth : A and D of the Thirty-fifth : B and G of the Thirty-seventh ; C of the Forty-first, and B. F and HI of the Forty-fifth ; and Companies A. B, C, D and E of the First Cavalry: A, H. I and K of the Second Cavalry: K and L of the Fourth Cavalry ; MI of the Seventh Cavalry : D. E. F. II, K. L and MI of the Eighth Cavalry and A of the Ninth Cavalry. There were also some Louisa county sokliers in the following commands: Engineer Regiment of the West : the First Battery Iowa Light Artillery : the Fourth Veteran Infantry ; Fifteenth United States Regulars ; the Sixteenth Illinois and the Fifty-fifth Illinois.
A fair idea of the patriotism of Louisa county and her devotion to the Union can be gained from the fact that by the census of 1860 the county had a popula- tion of but 10,370 and that she furnished during the war 1,217 soldiers. This means that practically fifty per cent of the men of Louisa county enlisted in the army.
It is not our purpose to write a history of the war of the rebellion, nor to give a detailed account of the various battles and campaigns in which Louisa county soldiers were engaged. It is probable that some of them were engaged in the following battles, and doubtless in many others: Bull Run, Wilson's Creek, Bel- mont. Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Chickahominy, Manassas. Antietam, Iuka, Corinth, Prairie Grove. Fredericksburg, Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post, Chancellors- ville, Champion Hill, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Jackson, Mississippi, Sterling's Plantation, Rappahannock, Missionary Ridge, Mine Run, Virginia, Meridian Expedition, Sabine Cross Roads, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Totopotamy, Gun- town, Mississippi, Atlanta Campaign, Cold Harbor, Sherman's March to the Sea, Petersburg. Kenesaw Mountain, Tupelo, Mississippi, Nashville and Bentonville.
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
It is hardly necessary to say, in view of the foregoing record, that no citizen of Louisa county was ever drafted. In addition to paying bounties for soldiers who enlisted, the supervisors of the county did a great deal to assist the families of volunteers. Their records show that they received a circular from Governor Kirkwood on this subject and later a letter from Judge Francis Springer, and that thereupon they appropriated a thousand dollars to be expended in the vari- ous townships. The expenditure of this money in each township was under the supervision of a person appointed by the board called a commissary. The super- visors expended several thousand dollars in this way during the war. It is also known that private citizens spent money freely in aid of the families of soldiers where such aid was needed. The following is the alphabetical list referred to and it is believed that nearly every soldier who enlisted from Louisa county is reported in the list. Many of them enlisted either in Burlington, or Muscatine, or Keokuk, and for this reason some are credited to those localities, when in fact they belonged in Louisa county. . The list contains no name which is not vouched for by some of our Louisa county veterans, or contained in the official lists.
By the use of this list, which gives the company and regiment of each soldier, it will be an easy matter, by aid of the recently published "Roster" of Iowa Soldiers, to get the military history of any Louisa county soldier. The "Roster" is published by the state, and has been quite generally circulated ; it also contains a history of the organization and service of all the Iowa regiments. The Iowa soldiers bore an honorable and conspicuous part in the suppression of the rebel- lion, and those from Louisa county, while claiming no superior merit over their comrades in arms from other counties in the state, can truthfully claim to have done their full share. This is honor enough.
SOLDIERS 1861-65, LOUISA COUNTY.
Abbott, Charles H., Thirtieth, colonel.
Acheson, Anderson D., Company C, Eleventh Infantry, private.
Acheson, Martin, Company A, Ninth Cavalry, fifth corporal.
Acheson, Ramsey, Company C. Eleventh Infantry, private. Acheson, Samuel R., Company C, Eleventh Infantry, private. Albaugh, Alexander, Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry, private. Albaugh, John, Company C, Fifth Infantry, first lieutenant. Allen, Charles R., Company B, Thirty-seventh Infantry, wagoner.
Allen, Joseph, Company G, Nineteenth Infantry, second sergeant.
Allen, Joseph B., Company G. Nineteenth Infantry, private. Allen, Joseph P., Company K, Eighth Infantry, private. Allen, Newton, Company C, Sixteenth Infantry, private. Allen, William, Company G, Nineteenth Infantry, private.
Allen, William G., Company F. Twenty-fifth Infantry, captain.
Allison, Eugene, Company F. Nineteenth Infantry, sergeant. Alloway, William, Company H, Fifteenth Infantry, private. Anderson, Clark, Company K. Second Cavalry, private.
Archibald, Robert E., Company H, Forty-fifth Infantry, second private. Archibald, William W., Company -, Eighth Infantry, private. Arrowhood, Thos. J., Company K, Fourth Cavalry.
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HISTORY OF LOUISA COUNTY
Ashbaugh, Andrew J., Company H, Forty-fifth Infantry, private. Ashby, Alexander, Company K, Eighth Infantry, private. Ashby, Bladen, Company K. Eighth Infantry, private. Asher, George, Company E, Sixteenth Infantry, private. Ashford, Aaron M., Company C, Eleventh Infantry, private. Ashford, Elijah M., Company C. Fifth Infantry, private.
Ashford, Jacob, Company -, Eleventh Infantry, private.
Ashford. Percifer C., Company C. Eleventh Infantry, private. Ashford, William, Company C, Eleventh Infantry, seventh corporal.
Asp, John, Company I, Engineer Regiment of West (Mo.), artificer. Atcheson, Samuel W., Company C, Eleventh Infantry, private. Ayers, Charles F., Company K. Eighth Cavalry, private. Ayers, William M., Company K, Eighth Infantry, private. Bailey, Caldwell, Company C. Eighth Infantry, private. Bailey, Charles C., Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry, private. Bailey, Charles O., Company C. Fifth Infantry, private. Bailey, George E., Company C, Fifth Infantry, private. Bailey, Hosford, Company C, Eighth Infantry, private. Bailey, Jonathan E., Company C, Eighth Infantry, private. Bailey. Thomas W., Company K. Engineer Regiment of West (Mo.), captain. Bailey, Willard F., Company F, Twenty-fifth Infantry, private.
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