USA > Iowa > Monona County > History of Monona County, Iowa; containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 17
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In the summer of 1874, the American Emigrant Company, having failed to comply with some of the other parts of the contract the board ordered a suit brought against the company for the cancellation of the contract, which was done, November 12, of that year. The contest was carried on for about two years, when, while the case was in the United States Circuit Court, on the 6th of January, 1876, George H. Warner, the Secretary and Vice Presi- dent of the company appeared before the board to to effect a compromise. The supervisors sub. mitted a proposition that was not accepted by the company, who in their turn offered the follow- ing terms: The American Emigrant Company, for the sake of quieting their title and settling the suit would pay to Monona County the sum of $5,250 and all taxable costs, if the latter would agree to the entering of a decree on the company's cross bill establishing its right and title to all lands interested and that the county would, also, transfer all the so-
called Serip Lands, and other swamp lands not here- tofore deeded, according to the terms of the origi- nal contract. On this being submitted a vote was taken on the proposition and N. B. Olson, G. M. Scott and 11. E. Colby voted in the atfirmative; ne- gative there were none. With the fulfillment of this new agreement ended the complications that had arisen over this matter, and the county received a fair price for the lands besides bringing them under the operation of the tax law of the county.
HOMESTEAD CASES.
It has ever been the policy of our Government to foster the building of railroads throughout the country, at the expense of the public lands that should have been reserved for actual settlers. Under the act of May 15, 1856, Congress granted certain lands, part of which lay within the limits of Monona County, to the Iowa Central Air-Line Railroad, a paper road, later the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railway Company. This grant was modified and increased by Congress June 2, 1864. Many actual settlers came here. took np their homesteads upon land that appeared to belong to the Government, made the proper entry, broke the land and made such improvements as their means afforded, and proving up their claim under the law, receiving their patents. In 1876 the an- nouncement was made to them that their claim was held for cancellation, and suit was brought by the railroad company for possession of the land. In most parts of the country those similarly placed gave up the property quietly, or were worsted in the courts on attempting to obtain redress, but the settlers of Monona County were made of sterner stuff. Meetings were held to determine upon their course, and finally, Jan. 19, 1877, a number of the defendants in the homestead cases, and others interested in the matter, met at the court house in Onawa to organize an association to fight the mat- ter in the courts. The meeting organized by elect- ing Benjamin Herring chairman, and G. H. Bryant secretary. Q. A. Wooster reported the proceed- ings of a similar meeting in Mapleton, held the 17th of the same month, at which it was resolved to contest the railway suits. A committee, con- sisting of B. D. Holbrook, J. P. B. Day, D. Greeu-
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street, W.T. Boyd and Q. A. Wooster was appointed to prepare a plan of action, who reported immedi- ately the following recommendations:
" That the defendants in the suits brought by the Cedar Rapids & Missouri River Railroad form an association for mutual defense and assistance, of which all persons paying the required sums shall be members.
"That an executive committee, consisting of five persons, shall be authorized to procure counsel to conduct the suits on the part of the defendants, and this committee shall have full power in the management of the suits.
" That for the purpose of raising the funds nec- essary to carry on the defense of said suits, the executive committee shall be authorized to assess the defendants in each suit to a sum not exceeding $50, of which 85 shall be paid before an appear- ance is made by this organization; and that the balance, in such sums not exceeding $10 at any one time, as may be deemed necessary by said committee. And the said committee shall be authorized to abandon the defense of any suit in which the amount assessed shall not be paid within thirty days after an assessment.
" Assessments shall not be made by the execu- tive committee oftener than once in sixty days.
" The executive committee are requested to pro- cure assistance from persons not members of this association, but interested in the questions in- volved.
" The executive committee may be changed at any meeting of the association, on a vote of a ma- jority of all members who shall have paid, at the time of voting, all assessments made against them."
Under the rules which were adopted, the follow- ing named gentlemen were chosen as the executive committee: B. D. Holbrook, Chairman; Q. A. Wooster, Benjamin Herring, A. J. Hathaway and Lewis Iddings. The chair also appointed the fol- lowing individuals to solicit membership and sub- scriptions in their respective townships: J. Smith, Ashton ; Vietor Dubois, Fairview; Anderson Jewell, Franklin; M. Miller, Grant; A. J. Hathaway, Ken- nebee; W. T. Boyd, Lincoln ; David Chapman, Maple;, and J. H. Morris, Sherman. On the adjournment of the meeting the executive commit-
tee organized the same day, all being present. appointing Q. A. Wooster secretary, and A. J. Ilathaway treasurer, and enacted a set of rules for their guidance. Platt Smith, of Dubuque, and John S. Monk were retained as attorneys in the case. A bitter fight in the courts ensued, and, to use the words of the committee, it was " no boy's play to defeat a wealthy corporation, who, with almost every apparent advantage, felt confident of success." Platt Smith, who was to carry on the cases to a finish for some $1,800.on account of ill health, threw the burden of the work upon John S. Monk, of Onawa, and after a time dropped out of the con- test entirely, but the suits were carried on for near eight years, up to the Supreme Court of the United States, who finally decided in favor of the settlers in January, 1881, and the same committee appointed at the above meeting carried on the management to the end. This is said to have been the first victory ever gained by the settlers under similar circumstances, and reflected great eredit upon Mr. Monk's energy and ability. Some eighty suits were defended. From the defendants, their friends and from other sources was gathered the sum of $2,825, and from the plaintiffs as costs $380.70 making a total of $3.205.70. Of this money there was paid out $22.05 for postage, printing, etc .; traveling expenses of committee, $13.90; legal services, Platt Smith $800, Monk & Selleck $1,000; attorney's expenses, $1,025.46 ; transcripts, etc., $72.25; making a total expenditure of $3,058.86.
STORMS AND TORNADOES.
While singularly free from the gyrating, deadly cyelone, the bewildering numbing bliz- zard or destroying tornado, still Monona County has had some experience with the fiercer ele- ments in their Homeric strife. The first of these was in the winter of 1856-7. The early part of the season had been warm and pleasant and the ground was still unfrozen on the morning of December 1. and the wind blew a gentle zephyr from the south. Calm and peaceful as the summer morn was that most beautiful day, but with dark- ness came another scene. The wind veering into the north blew strongly, banking up the heavy
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gray clouds in the northern horizon, and these soon on the backs of hurricane steeds swept down the valley, a mighty invincible army flinging wide over the landscape their white and flashing banners of snow. About half-past eight o'clock the flakes, large and heavy, began to fall, while the tempera- ture grew colder and colder. llarder blew the gale and harder and finer and finer grew the white drift- ing snow that soon wreathed everything in an im- mense winding sheet, until about midnight when the storm had reached its height. Above shrieked and wailed the wind, "as if fiends fought in upper air" while upon the earth with many an eddy and manv a whirl played the soft covering loaned by the Arctic shores, and brought to our doors by Boreas, the rude. For eight and forty hours the storm raged and when it had ceased the few settlers, nestling down in their cabins beheld stretching around them a vast sea of bright, sheeny snow three or four feet deep, while here and there, over some little obstruction, were scattered huge and impassable drifts, that towered up above the sur- rounding desolation. The darkness of the storm, when one could not see six feet from him through the thick of the snow, had cleared off, and the sun shown with resplendent magnificence on the snowy expanse, fairly blinding the onlooker. Says Hon. C. E. Whiting, in writing of this elemental strife, in the Gazette of January 5, 1877:
"When the citizens of to-day are told that there was not a plastered or papered house in the county ; that a dreary waste of snow from four to five feet deep, with impassable drifts, and so crusted over that a team could not move a single foot until the crust was broken with spades and shovels, lay for seventy-five miles between us and Council Blufis, our nearest depot of supplies, they may form some little idea of the hardships endured by the men and women of that time."
Nor was this all, from that time on, all that win- ter the snow clouds cast their burden continually upon the earth, until among the pioneers of the en- tire State it is known as "the winter of the deep snow." In the spring, in consequence of the pres- ence of so much snow, which melted beneath the fervid beams of the sun and poured its waters into the streams, the Missouri River attained a
height never known before or since, running through Badger Lake, the western part of the Whiting settlement, Ashton Grove, west and south of Onawa, and north of William Jewell's and southeast to the Little Sioux country.
The Gazette of July 27, 1872, has an account of the great hail and wind storm that swept over a portion of this county on the 19th of that month. The following is from the columns of that sheet:
"The severest part of the storm could not have lasted over fifteen or twenty minutes and came mainly from the northwest. As far as we can learn it started near the neighborhood of Ingham & Anderson's mill, some nine miles northwest of Onawa, in Lineoln Township, and was confined to a belt of country five or six miles wide extending as far south of the county seat as the Jewell settle- ment. It blew down some houses and moved others off the foundation, tore down fences, and worst of all, utterly ruined hundreds of acres of as fine wheat, oats and corn as ever grew. Many of our farmers lost their entire crop. thus placing some of them in a most embarrassing condition, finan- cially, as well as in point of obtaining something to eat during the coming winter. In many fields there is nothing left but stubble and corn stalks, the wheat heads having been beaten off into the ground and that which before the storm gave such abundant promise of a glorious yield of fine large eorn, was entirely stripped and broken down. The hailstones ranged from the proportion of a com- mon sized buckshot to those of a hen's egg and larger. The windows of almost every house in Onawa, except those which were protected by blinds, were smashed from nearly every direction, the storm being at times more of a whirlwind than anything else, and driving the hail in from all points of the compass.
"John S. Monk's house in the south part of town was blown from its foundation. Ilis wife and baby were in it at the time but fortunately were unin- jured. The floral hall on the Fair Ground, north of town, was blown over and mashed and twisted up considerably. The high board fence on the west side of the same was also flattened to the ground.
"Of the real damage sustained on account of
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the storm, we presume it would be a difficult matter to make anything like a correct estimate. Many of the wheat fields would have averaged twenty-five bushels to the acre, while others would have yielded more, and yet others not so much. And so with corn, fifty bushels, frequently more, being the common average. The yield of oats also varies. We present below the names of many of the farm- ers wbo, unfortunately, came within the range of the storm and suffered loss more or less, however we are quite sure that we have not been able to procure all the names of those who suffered from the storm.
"S. D. Hlinsdale, Addison Oliver, G. and F. G. Oliver, James Merrill, C. Town, John Kelsey, H. W. Cunningham, D. W. Sampson, J. White, D. M. Dimmiek, E. D. Dimmiek, L. Swetfair, J. E. Morrison, Jolm Donner, W. B. Bailey, William Gantz, Lewis Gantz, P. J. Kimball, J. B. Walworth, HI. E. Colby, G. W. Chapman, C. II. Campbell, Dingman & Mosher, Thomas Cody, R. G. Fairchild, William Tone, B. Ingersoll, Neal McNeil, Delia Sears, S. F. Sears, T. Murphy, S. Tillson, Elijah Peake. L. Morton, E. R. Pierce, A. T. Fessenden, Mrs. Grow. A. J. Erb, William Bur- ton, G. Reed, G. W. Riggs, Fred MeCansland, Isaac Riggs, E. J. Selleck, II. W. Cowles, Johnson Cleg- horn, John Hague, John R. Murphy, E. R. McNeil, Moses Adams, Andrew Adams, Walter Burgess, Henry Kramer, D. T. Cutler, Frank Brooks, G. W. Ballard, Benjamin Herring, G. W. Boyd, Captain Burnham, and Messrs. Joslin, Smith, Jepson, Bishop, Rablin, Duncan and Ellison.
Another storm in later years was much more destructive in the county, and should be mentioned in this connection.
On the afternoon of Sunday, April 21, 1878, a tornado entered Monona County at the southwest corner, and after traversing it diagonally, swept on over the county line near Mapleton. The path of the cyclone was but narrow, varying from ten to three hundred rods in width, but within its way it spared nothing. In appearance it seemed a gigantic cloud rolling with corkscrew motion along, one end resting upon the ground, and was accompanied by rain and the fall of hail. In Sherman Township, where it first struck the county, it passed over
the farm of James Cook and then between the farms of J. R. Thurston and Mrs. Reiley, tearing away the kitchen at the latter place, and demolish- ing the stables, fences, etc. At Mr. Thurston's the kitchen was torn from the main building and de- molished, while the rest of the house was moved from the foundation and turned one-third round. William Thurston. then a young man of twenty years, with two of his smaller brothers and two Morris boys, who were standing watching the on- coming storm, ran into the kitchen which in a few seconds was torn from around them and although thrown away from it escaped without injury of moment. It next tore the log house on the Hughes place to pieces. but the family were absent from home. The Davis school-house was lifted from its foundation and badly racked, and from there the storm swept on, bearing wreck and ruin to fence, stable or crib in its path until it reached the house of John White, about two miles southeast of Onawa, where the liavoc was complete. Seeing the ap- proach of the storm the family took refuge in a cyclone cellar, and from that haven of safety, saw the mighty whirlwind first tear off the roof of their house and then pick it up and utterly demolish it. The furniture was all utterly destroyed or carried away, pieces from the wreck being afterwards found miles away. The trees of the grove were twisted and denuded of leaves and the havoe wrought was complete. On swept the storm-king and in his path soon found the little hamlet of Areola, where considerable damage was done, and thenee scattering destruction in its path, crashed through the timber into the Maple Valley, pausing only long enough to wreck the Jones and Updike mill. The dwelling of W. R. Harris, four miles from Day's store, was utterly destroyed, as were barns, stables, sheds, fences, etc., on his place. Nothing was left. On reaching Mapleton, by one of those vagaries that seem to possess these storms, it leaped, so to speak, entirely over the town, doing but little damage. A small dwelling occupied by a Mr. Ilarney was overturned, and the contents of a large kettle of boiling water thrown on his child, from the effects of which it died. A Mr. Klingen- field had all the trees in his orchard twisted off close to the ground.
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On the evening of Friday June 12. 1885, another storm swept over this county, doing a large amount of damage. From eyewitnesses and from the newspaper reports of the time is gathered the fol- lowing account of its horrors:
The day had been intensely hot, the thermometer attaining a height of 102ยบ in the shade in the afternoon. About 5 o'clock dark clouds com- menced to form on the western horizon. Darker and darker yet piled up the fearful forces of the storm cloud until the entire heavens were com- pletely overcast with their sable covering. About 6:30 a black and somber column of heavy clouds was hurled athwart the cloudy expanse and from this proceeded the death and destruction so un- paralleled in the annals of this county.
Rolling along like an immense tidal wave, within a few feet of the ground it first struck the ground in Fairview Township, and when it had lifted, left behind it devastation and ruin. Victor Dubois had a large barn torn to pieces and two wind-mills destroyed and one mule killed. Ilis son lost a wind-mill also. James Barley had his house and its contents, barns, fences and everything swept away but himself, his family and live stock. W. J. Hudgel had his cattle sheds destroyed, wind-mill blown down, and barn wrecked. Dr. Samuel Polly's two barns were scattered to the four quarters of the section and he sustained other damage. George Gullickson had part of his house wrested away and Nels Solen had his blacksmith shop twisted out of shape and his barn unroofed. Other losses would make the storm a destroyer of several thousand dollars in Fairview Township.
South of there it was still worse. C. M. Dean's borse barn was the first to suffer from the billowy, funnel-shaped mass. that with long-hanging rope- like appendages swept over the land, it being blown down upon his three horses. James Larkin's next felt its fury his house being completely wrecked. John Crossley's residence was the next to go. The family were at supper when their attention was called to the coming cyclone, and all started for the cave. A young man living with Mr. Larkin was the first to reach the door, to whom that gen- tleman handed the child and turned to help his wife, but at that moment the full fury of the storm
struck the house and in an instant it was demol- ished. The woman, thrown among the debris, was seriously hurt. .
Nicholas Hite, two miles northeast of the last place was the next to feel its fury and here the destruction was more complete than anywhere in the county. His barn, 34x18, with the shed, 1 1x32 attached was so badly demolished that only about one-third of the lumber was left on the place; buggy house, 14x18, nothing left; outhouse, 14x18, only a few boards left to mark the spot. The dwelling house, a handsome two-story building, torn from its foundation, twisted around and wrecked badly, while cultivators, plows and other agricultural tools were hurled through the air wounding stock and scattered promiscuously over the farm. Fortunately no one here was injured.
Andrew Packwood's house was next demolished, his wife's arm broken and the gentleman himself caught under some of the fallen timbers and badly crushed, and an infant child, but ten days old, carried through the air some fifty yards and de- posited in the mud, all right. Bridges and groves all through that part of the county were de- molisheil.
At Maple Landing several of the citizens lost parts of their houses, and some stoek was killed.
In West Fork the storm lost none of its fury. J. L. Davenport's house was torn to pieces, he and his family, consisting of his wife and six children and his hired man, being carried along in the debris. ITis eldest girl, a young lady of seventeen, and a boy three years oldl were badly hurt. The loss here will foot up some $800. The Dailey school-house was blown from its foundation and badly demoralized. Ira Brown's house was lifted from its foundation, his outbuildings demolished and things generally about the place shaken up. Theodore Sanderson, Ole Eberson, A. Gunsolly, E. M. Casady, Frank and W. Konkle and the Slater school-house also came in for damages more or less, and a vacant house near the river utterly de- destroyed. All through the path swept by the destroyer, its trace is plainly discernable, wreck and ruin, trees twisted off and turned over, fences and crops laid low or whirled rods away and few, if any structures left standing, and those only in a
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dismantled condition. The loss was put at some $15,000 in this county, by conservative men.
The Sunday night succeeding the country was again shaken up by another storm, but which did not here develop any cyclonic tendencies, but did much damage to the crops generally throughout the county. Several houses were twisted from their foundations and chimneys demolished, but the county escaped the destruction that was so wrought by the storm which occasioned the loss of millions of dollars through Western and North- western Iowa.
While but few crimes of any magnitude liave been enacted in Monona County in all the years since its first settlement, still it is to be expected there are some, and one of the most dastardly oc- curred within the limits of this precinct.
It was upon the night of Jan. 2, 1885, about a quarter before midnight, that three men approached the house of Dr. W. W. Ordway, on section 13, and rapping upon the door, attracted that gentle- man's attention. On being asked what they wanted one of them replied that he wanted some medicine for a child of John Potts, whom they represented to have an attack of the croup. Ever ready to at- tend to calls of that nature, the doctor arose al.d let one of them in and invited him to take a chair, while he proceeded to put on his pants. Having done so he prepared to light a lamp. He struck a match and lit the wick, but before he could get the globe on a shot was fired through the north win- dow, and a load of buckshot hurtled through the air, five of the missiles striking the doctor in the face. As he half fell he grasped the stove with one hand and held on to it until it was blistered. By al- most superhuman exertions be raised up and stag- gered through the door, and passing through another room, hardly realizing what he was doing, but blindly trying to get his gun. As he passed through the door the man who had come in the house picked up a trunk containing very valuable papers, and as he passed out of the house called for the fellow outside to " finish him," meaning the doctor. The latter by this time bad reached a ball that still separated him from his weapon, and just as he crossed it the miscreant fired another shot, but fortunately missed his aim. The plucky
doctor then made a rush for him, when The fellow again essayed to fire his piece but it missed fire, and closing with him the two had a desperate lat- tle clear ont of the house and three or four rods from the door; and had Dr. Ordway had his boots on it is his opinion that he could have made a sad looking corpse of the raseal, as the fellow did not find so easy a man to handle as he supposed, even if he was sorely wounded. The men got away, however, but the doctor secured the man's gun, mitten and cap, and returned to the house and bad Dr. Harman, of Onawa, bronght out in the morn- ing to dress the painful wound that he had re- ceived. This laid the doctor up for some ten weeks. and left a scar that will last for life. The miscre- ants broke open the trunk, which contained about $100,000 worth of valuable papers, which they attempted to burn, but the blast was so strong that many of them were strewn around over the snow.
A REMINISCENCE OF WAR TIMES.
BY AN OLD SETTLER.
ATTENTION, COMPANY!
The Monona Union Guards will meet for drill on Saturday, the 8th of June, 1861. By order of the Captain. J. A. Scott, Sergeant.
Such was the notice that appeared in The Mo- nona Cordon, Onawa's weekly paper, edited by A. Dimmick.
On Saturday, April 30, the Cordon came out in heavy black lines of mourning, announcing that civil war had commenced. A column of editorial matter gave a summary of the awful state of affairs in the nation. A pargraph in the same issue said : " Don't forget the military company meeting to organize next Saturday. Let us have a full turn- out; War is upou ns." Another item read as follows: "It is rumored that some white men, somewhere above Smithland, shot an Indian, and after lodging seven or eight balls in his body, he ran away with the swiftness of a deer." Who can blame the Indian for retiring as rapidly as possible under the circumstances?
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