USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > History of Muscatine County, Iowa, from the earliest settlements to the present time, Volume I > Part 15
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"An old fellow by the name of King, who kept a tavern where a good many members boarded, was nominated for justice of the peace and rejected almost a dozen times. King was called 'The Bell Ringer.' He had a bell on a post out in the street that he rang before meals. On one occasion Hempstead, of Dubuque, afterward governor, when King had been rejected ten or a dozen times, on the arrival of a message from the governor, inquired of the president of the council if the 'aforesaid Bell Ringer was back again.'
AN ARBITRARY MEMBER FROM MUSCATINE.
"Frierson, a member from Muscatine, was probably more the cause of the continued trouble than all others. He assumed to speak for the governor and would threaten all measures before the legislature that he did not like with the governor's veto; and the governor's veto was then absolute. The legislature, by more than two-thirds majority, passed a memorial to the president of the United States for the removal of the governor. The memorial was prepared by a com- mittee of which J. W. Grimes was chairman, and drawn mainly by Grimes. It was very nearly a copy of the Declaration of Independence, in the following words :
"He has declared to members of the legislative assembly his determination to veto all laws for which he would not vote as a member of the assembly, there- by placing his isolated opinion in opposition to that of the representatives of the people, as well as possible in matters of more expediency. He has appointed and nominated to office persons from abroad who were neither domiciled among
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nor had they any interest in common with the people of Iowa, and some of the persons thus nominated or appointed were connected with his excellency by inti- mate ties. He has manifested such a total want of abilities, not only to govern in time of peace but more especially to command in time of war, as are justly calculated to inspire your memorialists and their constituents with alarm for the security of their country, bordering as it does on the very confines of savage, warlike tribes.
"Wherefore, and in consideration of the above recited facts, your memorial- ists are driven to the unpleasant alternative of appealing to the constitutional guardian of this people, who has, they firmly believe, the best interests of the people at heart, although in the language of your Excellency, the appointing power cannot always be well advised in its selections and the experience of every county has shown that public officers are not always proof against tempta- tion, and of declaring, your Excellency, in the language of the Declaration of Independence, their firm conviction that Robert Lucas is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
"They therefore, impelled by facts alone, and in nowise influenced by party or political motives, most respectfully and earnestly pray, that his excellency be forthwith recalled from the further discharge of the executive duties of the territory, under the full conviction that the grievances of the people, whom they have the honor to represent, will not be heard and remain unredressed and that the misrule that otherwise might terminate in the ruin of the fairest and hitherto most prosperous and quiet portion of our common country will be practically and constitutionally arrested.
"The governor was not removed and no one expected that he would be when they voted for the memorial, but congress did change the law creating the ter- ritory by allowing the legislature to pass a measure over the veto of the governor by a two-thirds vote.
"There had been no politics in the election of the members to either house of the legislature. Every single member had been elected on a local issue, either the county boundary or county seat question, and mainly on the county seat question. The people then had heard of railroads but no person then expected that they would carry produce to market. They might take people and light baggage but never flour and meats. The water courses alone were relied upon for the transportation of produce. The Des Moines, Skunk, Iowa and Cedar rivers were all relied upon as navigable streams, especially the Des Moines. That river was to be the Muskingum of Iowa, with its banks lined with thriving towns. Farmington had been made the county seat of Van Buren county, by the Wisconsin legislature, and then changed to Keosawqua, but Bonaparte, Ben- tonsport, Columbus, Farmington and Rising Sun were all ready to take their Bible oath that their town was the proper place for the county seat. Each of these towns had one or more candidates for the legislature and each elected a member of one or the other house except Columbus. In Lee county the con- test was between Fort Madison and the town of West Point. Fort Madison got the council and West Point the house members. In Henry the contest was be- tween Mt. Pleasant and Trenton. Mt. Pleasant elected the two members of the council and two of the house. In Des Moines, it was Burlington and Franklin
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and Burlington got all but one member. In Louisa it was Wapello and Colum- bus City. Wapello got all. In Muscatine it was Muscatine and Moscow. 'All the members lived in or near Muscatine but Moscow elected Hastings. In Scott, it was Davenport and Rockingham. Davenport got the members, as did Belle- vue and Dubuque in Jackson and Dubuque counties."
The writer then gives in detail a description of the personality of each member of this first territorial legislature of Iowa and his method of handling the subject is more than interesting. But space forbids the inclusion of any of them save and except the men who were sent from Muscatine and Louisa counties, which formed this district at that time. An exception will be made, however, in that of General Jesse B. Brown, of Lee county. The narrative, among other things had this to say of him :
FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL.
"From Lee, came Jesse B. Brown, the president of the council. Brown was six feet seven inches in height and straight as an arrow. He has had no dupli- cate in Iowa or elsewhere. Sam Houston, of Texas, is the only man that had similar traits and the same capacity to attachments warm. But for dissipation Brown would have been the great leader of the people of Iowa and would have commanded any position desired. He never forgot a face or name, and his polished politeness when sober is a lost art at the present day. He was never beaten for any office in Lee county. The people would declare, after his troubled sprees, that they would never again 'support General Brown,' but they would forget their promises the next time he wanted their votes. But he had one re- markable trait. He never excused himself or made any excuses for his sprees ; he made free confessions of his unfortunate habits and evil acts and begged the forgiveness of his friends and he was forgiven. It is the man who denies when guilty and excuses himself that is not forgiven. Brown was the speaker of the house of the first Iowa State assembly, known as the 'Pappoose' legislature.
HASTINGS A UNIQUE CHARACTER.
"From Muscatine and Louisa came John Frierson, S. C. Hastings, William L. Toole and Levi Thornton. Hastings was from central New York, tall and as straight as an arrow, dark oily face, coarse, long black hair like an Indian, strong gutteral voice-a lawyer-and could carry more of the old-fashioned, un- adulterated whisky of that day, without losing his balance, than any other mem- ber. Of the little money then in circulation a good deal of it was counterfeit and a decently good one dollar counterfeit was never questioned. About the only money in circulation was wildcat and it was not much better than coun- terfeit. Hastings carried in his pocket several hundred dollars of counterfeit money. He did not try to pass it. He was the paid lawyer of the organization of counterfeiters and horse thieves and said that they always sent him a bill of each new issue, that he would know that any one arrested for passing that issue, or kind of money, was to be defended by him. Hempstead told a story on Hastings that the latter greatly enjoyed. Two horse thieves had been ar-
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rested for horse stealing and were committed to jail in Dubuque. They were in jail several weeks before the meeting of the court, and had applied to no lawyer at Dubuque to defend them up to the day that court met, when they sent for Hempstead. They told Hempstead that they expected their lawyer from Mus- catine, but he had not arrived, and that they had been instructed to employ him if Mr. Hastings did not come. The next morning, soon after the court met, a tall, uncouth, long haired specimen of humanity came into the court room and looking around, inquired for Hempstead, to whom he made himself known as the attorney expected by the horse thieves. The following morning the thieves were arraigned under indictment and plead not guilty, Hastings making oath that he could not proceed to trial on account of the absence of material wit- nesses. Their case was continued until the next term and bail set at $3,000 each. Two men swore that they were worth the required amount and Hastings, the two sureties and the two horse thieves marched out of court together. The next that Hempstead heard of Hastings was as a member of the legislature at Burlington; but he never heard of the thieves and their sureties. Some years later Joe Loverage, who was the head factor in the horse line in the Cedar valley, was indicted for some of his horse operations. Joe was in great trouble and employed General Lowe, who then lived at Muscatine. Lowe would not agree to be associated with Hastings. Joe wanted Hastings and continued suggesting to Lowe the advisability of employing Hastings. Finally Lowe got mad and said: "Yes, take your case and employ Hastings." "Oh, no, General, I cannot give you up, you must manage the case. Oh, no, I cannot give you up," answered Joe, but in a whisper said: "It may become necessary to steal the indictment." Lowe told him that he might employ Hastings for that purpose if he wanted to. But the court decided the indictment dead and it was not neces- sary to steal the indictment.
AN "ODD LOOKING FISH."
"At the opening of the legislature the speaker adopted a rule that has never been followed since, I believe. He called members to the chair alphabetically. The result was that a good many members were called upon to preside that had no fitness for the position and was the cause of many amusing incidents. Wal- lace as speaker established and required a courteous order that I have never seen equalled in any legislative body since, and least of all, in the house of con- gress. When the house had been in committee of the whole and rose, the speaker would walk up on one side of the rostrum, while the chairman would go down on the other, proceed to his desk, report the action of the committee of the whole, the most perfect silence being required during the report-in fact, per- fect order was required at all times. There were twelve double desks and one single desk. I occupied a desk with Van Delashmutt, a man full of humor. Robert G. Roberts, of Cedar county, did not get to Burlington for several days after the meeting of the legislature. Roberts was a character-a man of good sense but rough, uncouth, unlearned and sensitive. He was a burly, rugged fellow. He wore a coarse suit of cassanet. His coat in breadth was large but in length was of the present dude style and very odd at that time. His
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WEST FROM COURT HOUSE DOME
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shoes were of the brogan kind, now out of fashion. His hair was long and loose, with no evidence of ever having seen a comb.
"All in all, he was an odd looking fish. He had never before seen any of the brother members but Hastings. The speaker, learning that he was in the city, sent for him to be sworn in. I never saw a man that seemed to be worse scared than Roberts. Van Delashmutt would whisper to me loud enough to be heard by other members near, 'He'll run, he'll run!' but Roberts did not run. He took a seat at the single desk and was the subject of much amusement during the session.
THE FIRST BILL INTRODUCED BY HASTINGS.
The first bill was introduced by Hastings for the benefit of Robert G. Rob- erts, legalizing his acts as justice of the peace. He had been appointed justice of the peace by the governor and had acted as such without being sworn in.
HASTINGS BEWILDERS A STUTTERING MEMBER.
"Sam Parker was from West Virginia and had at one time held the dignified office of constable. He was a fellow of quick wit and feared no one, was rough and uncouth in manner but naturally kind and clever. The first time that Sam was called to the chair, and the committee arose, Sam went to his seat but made no report to the house. The speaker looked dignified and the members were in a broad grin but Sam did not understand it. Colonel Patterson went to him and told him he must report the action of the committee to the house. Sam jumped up and in a noble voice said: 'Mr. Speaker, the house in committee on the whole have considered the bill, have amended it and have told me to ask you to concur.' The speaker without a smile put the question: 'Will the house authorize the speaker to concur in the amendment made?' and the house told him to concur. Sam was again in the chair during the fight for the capital location. The fight between Burlington as the temporary and Mt. Pleasant as the permanent location, and a central location by commissioners, was bitter in the extreme, lasting two days. Sam was for the Burlington and Mt. Pleasant combination and the vote stood thirteen for Mt. Pleasant and twelve for com- missioners. Hastings was one of the most active members of the minority and the whole of the two days had been spent mainly in voting down amend- ments, striking out Mt. Pleasant and inserting the name of some other town unheard of. Name after name had been proposed by Hastings and voted down. Sam's patience was exhausted, when Hastings proposed the name of Mississippi- wonoc. Sam rose and said: 'The gentleman from Muscatine proposed to strike out the name of Mt. Pleasant and insert the name of Mis-sis-sis,' and down sat Sam. Hastings got up and pronounced the name, when Sam made another attempt but got no further than 'Mis-sis-sis' and again sat down. Hastings again got up and repeated the name slowly and in a very sonorous voice, when Sam jumped up and with his shut fists and in a furious voice said: 'That may be the name Mr. Hastings, but if it is it is d-d badly spelled.' Up to this speech the members had been fighting mad but all shouted with laughter at Sam's decision. Sam had restored good feeling and Laurel Summers, of Scott,
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changed his vote from the majority to the minority and the commissioners were appointed who located the capital at Iowa City. Swan was chairman of the commission and had charge of the laying off of the town. He settled there, built and kept Swan's Hotel, and if all that was said and done in that hotel could be written, it would be a readable book. Tom Johnson always stopped at the Swan and said many witty things. It was in that hotel that Breckenridge met the defeat that sent him back to Kentucky. He wanted to be the 8th of January orator but that post of honor was given to Mills, who was killed in Mexico, and Breckenridge left the Yankee country. In that hotel a Lee county senator raised a row because they numbered his cowhide boots 13 (the number of his room). He said his boots were only tens and that if he was to be so in- sulted he would leave the house.
NO SPOILS FOR MUSCATINE.
"There were but two counties west of the Mississippi, while a part of the Ter- ritory of Wisconsin, (then spelled Oisconsin), Des Moines and Dubuque divid- ing at Pine river between Muscatine and Davenport, and at the session of the Wisconsin legislature in 1837-8, held at Burlington, the members of the old county lived in that part that remained after the new counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Slaughter (now Washington), Louisa and Muscatine had been taken off, and they gave all the offices in the legislature to citizens of the old county. When the members from the new counties met in the Iowa legislature they de- termined to retaliate on the old county. There were duplicate candidates from Des Moines for all the officers of the legislature but the members from the new counties apportioned out the officers, giving Des Moines county the fireman they would not have. The Legislature met in the Zion Methodist church, then just built and not finished. It was the finest church in the territory and had been built under many trials. I. C. Sleeth had charge of the church and would gladly have taken the place of fireman. It paid three dollars a day and Sleeth could have hired a man to do the work for one dollar and besides he was most anxious to guard the building from fire. If there was any insurance on buildings in Bur- lington at that time, I never heard of it. There was no insurance on the church.
"The Des Moines delegation had candidates for all the offices down to fireman but were beaten by the combination for firemen. There was no nomination. The Des Moines delegation would not name a man and no other member would. Sleeth and others in Burlington wanted the place but Grimes and the other mem- bers refused to name them. Finally Hastings nominated an old Frenchman by the name of Dupont, who had been a sort of hanger-on among the Indians, and was a perfect specimen of an ill spent life but, as Hastings reported, he had a very handsome wife. The first ballot Dupont got one vote and Blank twenty- five. It was about the seventh ballot that Dupont got a majority and an election and not until all were satisfied that the Des Moines delegation would not name a man. It took Hastings and the consumption of a good deal of whisky and sev- eral days to get Dupont sober enough to be able to perform his duties as fireman but he sobered up and made a good one. Sleeth carefully looked after him and the building."
CHAPTER IX.
CIVIL WAR.
PRESIDENT LINCOLN CALLS FOR SEVENTY-FIVE THOUSAND MEN TO PUT DOWN RE- BELLION-MUSCATINE COUNTY INTENSELY PATRIOTIC-SENDS MORE MEN TO THE FRONT THAN ANY COUNTY IN THE STATE-THE SOLDIERS' MONUMENT- SHELBY NORMAN POST GRAND ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC-COMPANY C, 54TH IOWA NATIONAL GUARDS.
John Brown, who declared and honestly believed himself chosen of the Lord to strike the shackles from the southern slave, was hanged on the gallows at Charlestown, near Harper's Ferry, Virginia, on the 2d day of December, 1859, as a penalty for his misguided attempt to cause an uprising of the blacks in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry, where he and his small band of followers had forcibly taken possession of the United States arsenal. This event caused a furor of ex- citement in the south, and events that made for internecine strife and the blood- iest civil war on record were hastened at a furious speed toward Fort Sumter, where the shot was fired that echoed its baleful significance throughout the hills and vales of Christendom. The walls of Fort Sumter were battered by the rebel guns at Charleston, South Carolina, by the would-be assassins of the Union on the morning of April 12, 1861, and in twenty-four hours thereafter news of the world momentous action had reached every accessible corner of the United States. In the south the portentous message was generally received with boisterous demonstrations of joy and the belief on the part of the masses that the day would soon come for their deliverance from the "northern yoke" and that their "peculiar institution" was to be perpetuated under the constitution and laws of a new confederacy of states. In the north a different feeling possessed the people. The firing on Fort Sumter was looked upon with anger and sadness, and the determination was at once formed to uphold the integrity of the Union and the perpetuity of its institutions. It was then that Abraham Lincoln began his great work of preserving the Union.
THE CALL FOR TROOPS.
On the 16th of April, four days following the assault on Fort Sumter, Gov- ernor Samuel J. Kirkwood, of Iowa, received the following telegram from Simon Cameron, secretary of war :
"Call made on you by tonight's mail for one regiment of militia for immedi- ate service."
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That very day the Governor proclaimed to the people of Iowa that the na- tion was imperiled and invoked the aid of every loyal citizen in the state. The telegram above alluded to was received at Davenport. The governor was then residing at Iowa City but there was no telegraphic communication in those days between the two cities.
It was important that the dispatch should reach the eyes of the governor at once, and General Vandever, then a civilian, volunteered to take the message to Iowa City. The governor was found on his farm outside the city by the self-appointed messenger, dressed in homespun and working in the field. Read- ing the dispatch, Governor Kirkwood expressed extreme surprise and exclaimed : "Why, the president wants a whole regiment of men! Do you suppose I can raise so many as that, Mr. Vandever?" When ten Iowa regiments were of- fered a few days later the question was answered.
THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION.
President Lincoln announced, April 15, 1861, that the execution of the laws of the Union had been obstructed in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas by "combinations too powerful to be sup- pressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the marshals by law." He called out the militia to the number of 75,000. Seeing that the insurgents had not dispersed in the states named and that the inhabitants of Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee had joined them, he issued this proclamation, August 16, 1861 :
"Whereas, on the 15th day of April, 1861, the president of the United States, in view of an insurrection against laws, constitution and government of the United States, which has broken out within the states of South Carolina, Geor- gia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, and in pursuance of the provisions of the act entitled, 'An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose,' approved February 28, 1795, did call forth the militia to suppress said insurrection and cause the laws of the Union to be duly executed and the insurgents having failed to disperse by the time directed by the president ; and whereas, such insurrection has since broken out and yet exists within the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennes- see and Arkansas; and whereas, the insurgents in all the said states claim to act under the authority thereof, and such claim is not disclaimed or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of government in such state or states, or in the part or parts thereof in which combinations exist, nor has any such insurrection been suppressed by said states :
"Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States, in pursuance of an act of congress approved July 13, 1861, do hereby declare that the inhabitants of the said states of Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi and Florida (except the inhabitants of that part of Virginia lying west of the Alle- ghany mountains, and of such other parts of that state and the other states hereinbefore named as may maintain a loyal adhesion to the Union and the con-
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stitution or may be from time to time occupied and controlled by the forces of the United States engaged in the dispersion of said insurgents), are in a state of insurrection against the United States; and that all commercial intercourse between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other states and other parts of the United States, is unlaw- ful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection shall cease or has been suppressed ; that all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from any of said states with the exception aforesaid, into other parts of the United States, without the special license and permission of the president, through the secretary of the treasury, or proceeding to any said states, with the exceptions aforesaid, by land or water, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same or conveying persons to or from said states, with said exceptions, will be forfeited to the United States; and that from and after fifteen days from the issuing of this proclamation, all ships and vessels belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of any of said states with said exceptions found at sea or in any port of the United States will be forfeited to the United States, and I hereby enjoin upon all district attorneys, marshals and officers of the revenue and of the military and naval forces of the United States to be vigi- lant in the execution of said act, and in the enforcement of the penalties and forfeitures imposed or declared by it; leaving any party who may think himself aggrieved thereby to his application to the secretary of the treasury for the re- mission of any penalty of forfeiture, which the said secretary is authorized by law to grant if, in his judgment, the special circumstances in any case shall re- quire such remission.
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