USA > Iowa > Page County > History of Page County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. : a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Page County, constitution of the state of Iowa, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83
6. Since the authority to regulate emigration and intercourse between the United States and foreign nations rests with the congress of the United States and treaty-making powers, the republican party, regarding unrestricted immigration of the Chinese as a matter of grave concern- ment under the exercise of both these powers, would limit and restrict that immigration by the enactment of such just, humane and reasonable laws and treaties as shall produce that result.
7. That the purity and patriotism which characterized the early career
484
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
of Rutherford B. Hayes, in peace and war, and which guided the thought of our immediate predecessors to him for a presidential candidate have continued to inspire him in his career as chief executive, and that history will accord to his administration the honors which are due to an efficient, just and courteous discharge of the public business, and will honor his ve- toes interposed between the people and attempted partizan laws.
8. We charge upon the democratic party the habitual sacrifice of patriotism and justice to a supreme and insatiable lust for office and pat- ronage; that to obtain possession of the national and state governments and the control of place and position, they have obstructed all efforts to promote the purity and to conserve the freedom of suffrage; have de- vised fraudulent ballots and invented fraudulent certifications of returns; have labored to unseat lawfully elected members of congress, to secure at all hazards, the votes of a majority of states in the house of representa- tives; have endeavored to occupy by force and fraud, the places of trust given to others by the people of Maine and rescued by the courage and action of Maine's patriotic sons; have by methods vicious in principle and tyrannical in practice, attached partisan legistation to appropriation bills, upon whose passage the very movement of the government depends, have crushed the rights of the individuals, have advocated the principles and sought the favor of the rebellion against the nation, and have endeav- ored to obliterate the sacred memories of the war and to overcome its inestimable good results, freedom and individual equality.
The equal, and steady, and complete enforcement of the laws, and the protection of all our citizens in the enjoyment of all privileges and im- munities guaranteed by the constitution, are the first duties of the nation. The danger of a "solid south" can only be averted by a faithful perform- ance of every promise which the nation has made the citizens. The exe- cution of the laws and the punishment of all those who violate them, are the only safe methods by which enduring peace can be secured and genu- ine prosperity established throughout the south. Whatever promises the nation makes the nation must perform. A nation cannot with safety rele- gate this duty to the states. The "solid south" must be divided by the peaceful agencies of the ballot, and all honest opinions must there find free expression. To this end the honest voter must be protected against terrorism, violence, or fraud. And we affirm it to be the duty and com- mend the purpose of the republican party to use all legitimate means to restore all the states of this union to the most perfect harmony which may be practicable, and we submit to the practical, sensible people of the United States to say whether it would not be dangerous to the dearest interests of our country, at this time, to surrender the administration of the national government to a party which seeks to overthrow the existing policy under which we are so prosperous, and thus bring destruction and con-
485
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
fusion where there is now order and confidence and hope. The republican party, adhering to the principles affirmed by its last national convention of respect for the constitutional rules governing appointments to office, adopts the declaration of President Hayes, that the reform of the civil service should be thorough, radical and complete. To this end, it demands the co-operation of the legislative with executive departments of the govern- ment, and that congress shall so legislate that fitness, ascertained by proper practical tests, shall admit to the public service.
NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM-ADOPTED AT CINCINNATI, JUNE 23, 1880.
The democrats of the United States, in convention assembled, declare :
1. We pledge ourselves anew to the constitutional doctrines and tradi- tions of the democratic party, as illustrated by the teaching and example of a long line of democratic statesmen and patriots, and embodied in the platform of the last national convention of the party.
2. Opposition to centralization and to that dangerous spirit of encroach- ment which tends to consolidate in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a despotism.
3. No sumptuary laws; separation of church and state for the good of each, and common schools fostered and protected.
4. Home rule, honest money, consisting of gold and silver, and paper convertible into coin on demand; the strict maintenance of the public faith, state and national, and a tariff for revenue only.
5. The subordination of the military to the civil power, and a genuine and thorough reform of the civil service.
6. The right to a free ballot is the right preservative of all rights, and must and shall be maintained in every part of the United States. The ex- isting administration is the representative of a conspiracy only, and its claim of right to surround the ballot boxes with troops and deputy mar- shals to intimidate and obstruct the electors, and the unprecedented use of the veto, to maintain its corrupt and despotic power, insults the people and imperils their institutions.
7. We execrate the course of this administration in making places in the civil service a reward for political crime, and demand a reform by stat- utes which shall make it forever impossible for a defeated candidate to bribe his way to the seat of a usurper by billeting villains upon the peo- ple
8. The great fraud of 1876-77, by which, upon a false count of the electoral votes of two states, the candidate defeated at the polls was de- clared to be president, and for the first time in American history the will of the people was set aside under a threat of military violence, struck a
486
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
deadly blow at our system of representative government. The demo- cratic party, to preserve the country from the horrors of a civil war, sub mitted for the time in the firm and patriotic faith that the people would punish this crime in 1880. This issue precedes and dwarfs every other. It inspires a more sacred duty upon the people of the union than ever ad- dressed the conscience of a nation of freemen.
9. The resolution of Samuel J. Tilden not again to be a candidate for the exalted place to which he was elected by a majority of his country- men, and from which he was excluded by the leaders of the republican party, is received by the democrats of the United States with deep sensi- bility, and they declare their confidence in his wisdom, patriotism and in- tegrity, unshaken by the assault of the common enemy; and they further assure him that he is followed into the retirement he has chosen for him- self by the sympathy and respect of his fellow-citizens, who regard him as one who, by elevating the standard of public morality, and adorning and purifying the public service, merits the lasting gratitude of his coun- try and his party.
10. Free ships and a living chance for American commerce upon the seas; and on the land no discrimination in favor of transportation lines, cor- porations, or monopolies; the amendment of the Burlingame treaty, so as to permit no more immigration except for travel, education, and foreign commerce and therein carefully guarded; the public money and the public credit for public purposes solely, and the public lands for actual settlers. The Democratic party is the friend of labor and the laboring man, and pledges itself to protect him alike against the cormorants and the commune.
We congratulate the country on the honesty and thrift of a democratic congress, which has reduced the public expenditures $40,000,000 a year; upon the continuation of prosperity at home and national honor abroad, and, above all, upon the promise of such a change in the administration of the government as shall insure genuine and lasting reform in every de- partment of the public service.
NATIONAL GREENBACK PLATFORM-ADOPTED AT CHICAGO, JUNE 10, 1880.
Civil government should guarantee the divine right of every laborer to the results of his toil, thus enabling the producers of wealth to provide themselves with the means for physical comfort, and the facilities for men- tal, social, and moral culture; and we condemn as unworthy of our civili- zation the barbarism which imposes upon the wealth-producers a state of perpetual drudgery as the price of bare animal existence.
Notwithstanding the enormous increase of productive power, the uni- versal introduction of labor-saving machinery, and the discovery of new agents for the increase of wealth, the task of the laborer is scarcely light-
-
487
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
ened, the hours of toil are but little shortened, and few producers are lifted from poverty into comfort and pecuniary independence.
The associated monopolies, the international syndicates, and other in- come classes demand dear money and cheap labor,-"a strong govern- ment," and hence a weak people.
Corporate control of the volume of money has been the means of divid- ing society into two classes; of the unjust distribution of the products of labor, and of building up monopolies of associated capital, endowed with power to confiscate private property. It has kept money scarce, and scarcity of money enforces debt trade, and public and corporate loans- debt engenders usury, and usury ends in bankruptcy of the borrower.
Other results are, deranged markets, uncertainty in manufacturing en- terprise and agriculture, precarious and intermittent employment for the laborer, industrial war, increasing pauperism and crime, and the conse- quent intimidation and disfranchisement of the producer, and a rapid decli- nation into corporate feudalism.
Therefore, we declare:
1. That the right to make and issue money is a sovereign power to be maintained by the people for the common benefit. The delegation of this right to corporations is a surrender of the central attribute of sovereignty, void of constitutional sanction, conferring upon a subordinate irresponsible power, absolute dominion over industry and commerce. All money, whether metallic or paper, should be issued and its volume controlled by the government, and not by or through banking corporations, and when so issued should be a full legal tender for all debts public and private.
2. That the bonds of the United States should not be refunded, but paid as rapidly as practicable according to contract. To enable the govern- ment to meet these obligations, legal-tender currency should be substituted for the notes of the national banks, the national banking system abolished, and the unlimited coinage of silver as well as gold established by law.
3. That labor should be so protected by national and state authority as to equalize its burdens and insure a just distribution of its results ; the eight hour law of congress should be enforced; the sanitary conditions of in- dustrial establishments placed under rigid control; the competition of con- tract convict labor abolished; a bureau of labor statistics established, fac- tories, mines and workshops inspected; the employment of children under 14 years of age forbidden, and wages paid in cash.
4. Slavery being simply cheap labor, and cheap labor being simply slavery, the importation and presence of Chinese serfs necessarily tends to brutalize and degrade American labor; therefore immediate steps should be taken to abrogate the Burlingame treaty.
5. Railroad land grants forfeited by reason of non-fulfillment of contracts
488
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
should be immediately reclaimed by the government, and henceforth the public domain reserved exclusively as homes for actual settlers.
6. It is the duty of congress to regulate inter-state commerce, all lines of communication and transportation should be brought under such legis- lative control as shall secure moderate, fair, and uniform rates for passen- ger and freight traffic.
7. We denounce, as destructive to prosperity and dangerous to liberty, the action of the old parties in fostering and sustaining gigantic land, rail- road and money corporations and monopolies, invested with, and exercis- ing powers belonging to the government, and yet not responsible to it for the manner of their exercise.
8. That the constitution, in giving congress the power to borrow money, to declare war, to raise and support armies, to provide and maintain a navy, never intended that the men who loaned their money for an interest con- sideration should be preferred to the soldier and sailor who periled their lives and shed their blood on land and sea in defense of their country, and we condemn the cruel class legislation, of the republican party, which, while professing great gratitude to the soldier, has most unjustly discrim- inated against him and in favor of the bondholder.
9. All property should bear its just proportion of taxation, and we de- mand a graduated income tax.
10. We denounce as most dangerous the efforts everywhere manifest to restrict the right of suffrage.
11. We are opposed to an increase of the standing army in the time of peace, and the insidious scheme to establish an enormous military power under the guise of militia laws.
12. We demand absolute democratic rules for the government of con- gress, placing all representatives of the people upon an equal footing, and taking away from committees a veto power greater than that of the president.
13. We demand a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, instead of a government of the bondholder, by the bondholder, and for the bondholder; and we denounce every attempt to stir up sec- tional strife as an effort to conceal monstrous crimes against the people.
14. In the furtherance of these ends we ask the co-operation of all fair- minded people. We have no quarrel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, but only against vicious institutions. We are not content to en- dure further discipline from our present actual rulers, who, having domin- ion over money, over transportation, over land and labor, and largely over the press and machinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over our institutions and over life and property.
489
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
THE BORDER WAR.
The citizens of Page county, shortly after the firing on Fort Sumter, immediately took steps to defend their homes and fire-sides from maraud- ers, who might invade the county from the south. All the border coun- ties took this precaution, and the consequence was quite an army was raised in a short time for home protection. June 24th, 1861, the following general order was issued by John R. Morledge, commanding:
" To the officers and companies of the Iowa volunteer militia, in the counties of Page, Taylor, Adams and Montgomery :
" You are hereby commanded to meet in companies, under command of your officers, at Clarinda, Page county, July 3, at nine o'clock A. M., for the purpose of forming a regiment for the protection of the border, at which time and place you will proceed to elect one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, and one major, for the said regiment, and go into a temporary en- campment until four o'clock P. M., and after the election you will be re- quired to hold a regimental drill on the evening of the 3d and morning of the 4th, and to remain in camp on the night of the 3d. Each company is directed to bring with them such temporary camp equipage as will serve for one night, say one tent for each mess of eight men, and two days ra- tions for each man, and those companies who have been armed by the state will come properly armed and equipped, and each man in companies that have not yet received state arms, is requested to bring his rifle and such arms as he can best procure for the occasion. You will be discharged on the 4th, when you can return to your respective homes.
By order of the governor. JOHN R. MORLEDGE, Commanding.
In compliance with the foregoing order the following companies assem- bled at Clarinda:
Company A-National Frontier Guards, Captain McCoun; number of roll 47.
Company B-Harlan Blues, Captain McCormick; number of roll 43.
Company C-Border Guards No. 1, Captain Mckinley; number of roll 64.
Company D -- Independent Riflemen, Captain Brown, Plattville; num- of roll 55.
Company E-Nodaway Home Guards, Captain Smith; number of roll 41.
Company F-Clarinda Guards, Captain Moore; number of roll 49.
490
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
Company G-Union Guards, Captain Van Sandt; number of roll 58.
Company H-Montgomery County Tigers, Captain Brown; number of roll 45.
Company I-Union Rangers, Captain Langdon; number of roll 43. Company H-Highland Blues, Captain Baker; number of roll 45.
MOUNTED RIFLEMEN.
Company A-Taylor Light Horse, Captain Dale; number of roll 44. Company B-Page County rangers, Captain Cramer; number of roll 59. Company C-Nodaway Rangers, Captain McLean; number of roll 45. Company D-Independent Eagle Company, Captain Vandeventer; number of roll 51.
Company E-Montgomery Rangers, Captain Smith; number of roll 45.
John R. Morledge was elected colonel of the regiment; L. T. McCoun, lieutenant colonel and David Ellison was elected major.
Scarcely had the various companies reached their homes, after com- pleting the organization, until they were called upon to render assistance to their neighbors of Nodaway county, Missouri. Concerning this, to- gether with two other expeditions the regiment made in 1861, Col. Mor- ledge reported the following to the governor of the state:
HEADQUARTERS FIRST REGIMENT, WESTERN DIVISION, IOWA VOLUNTEER MILITIA, CLARINDA, PAGE COUNTY, IOWA, OCT. 15, 1862.
" To His Excellency, Gov. S. F. Kirkwood, Commander-in-Chief of State Militia-SIR :- Permit me to make the following report of three ex- peditions with a portion of said regiment on the border of the state, and in the state of Missouri, adjacent to the border, in the months of July, August and September, 1861, for the purpose of aiding in suppressing the rebellion.
"On the 5th of July, 1861, at the hour of midnight, we were called on by the union men of Nodaway county, in the state of Missouri, to go to their assistance as the rebels were about to overpower them and drive them from their homes and from the state.
" With what force I could muster from midnight until daylight, (some two hundred and fifty men) I marched the next day to Maryville, some thirty-three miles, where we found the people in a perfect state of excitement, and all under arms, under Col. Davis, who had made the call on me for assistance. We remained there some three days, during which time we kept a strict guard over the town and arrested in town and in different parts of the county some sixty prisoners, who, all but some five or six took the oath of allegiance and were discharged. On the third
491
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
day Col. Tuttle, with a part of the Iowa 2d, came into Maryville and took charge of the place and prisoners, and I marched my command home again. We, in this expedition, captured a secession flag, the one presented to you at Bedford.
"On or about the 10th of July, 1861, the rebels collected in considerable numbers in Gentry and Worth counties, and threatened our borders south of Taylor county. Col. Cranor, of the Missouri state militia, undertook to put them down, but they were too strong for him, and they advanced to Allenville, eight miles from the state line. Col. Cranor called on us for help, and on the 18th inst., with some five hundred of this regiment and some two hundred volunteers from Fremont county I marched to his relief, but when within a few miles of Allenville I found the rebels had fled to Gentryville, some forty miles from the state line, and Col. Cranor had been reinforced from other parts of Missouri. I having no provisions and but little amunition, sent forward two companies of infantry and one of cavalry, under command of Lieutenant Colonel McCoun, and marched the others back and discharged them in Taylor county, Iowa.
" Lieutenant Colonel McCoun, with his force, reached Col. Cranor's camp just as Col. Cranor and the commander of the rebel force had made a compromise, when each party disbanded their forces. In this expedition we took a good many prisoners, some fifty or more, who all took the oath of allegiance and were discharged. In the neighborhood of Westport, Gentry county, we took a secession flag, which we will send you by the first opportunity.
"Again, on the 28th of August, Col. Cranor was threatened by the rebels and he again called on us for help. Lieutenant McCoun, with two companies, one of infantry and one of cavalry, went to his relief, and formed a junction with him in Gentry county, some twenty-five miles south of the state line, their united force being but six or seven hundred men. The rebels, with two hundred cavalry and one thousand infantry, marched to attack them, and they had to retreat, which they did in good order, to the state line, and informed me that the enemy was too strong for them. On the 3d of September, I marched with some four companies more of this regiment to their relief, and joined them at the state line, where we took up our line of march but could not come up with the en- emy. One evening we came within seven miles of them and anticipated an attack that night, and made all the necessary preparations for defense. Our force was now about three thousand strong, that of the enemy about six or seven thousand. Our pickets and theirs exchanged a few shots, and we think killed some five or six of them, but we could never ascertain to a certainty. The next morning we prepared to attack them, and started on our march for that purpose, but when we had marched some two miles our scouts informed us that they had gone. We followed them
492
HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY.
to the city of St. Joseph, where we understood they would make a stand and give us battle. We arrived in the city on Sunday afternoon, the 15th, about three o'clock, but they had robbed the union men and union stores of such articles as they wanted, to the value of about forty thousand dollars, and left for Lexington, and so far ahead of us that we thought it useless to pursue them further. By this time our forces had augmented to some four thousand. We remained in camp at the city some three days and then returned home, where we arrived on the 23d of September, and discharged our men.
" During this trip we took a good many prisoners and organized a court martial and held an examination in each case, and when we found testi- mony sufficient we held them in custody to be handed over to the United States authorities at St. Louis; others were released. We took the nota- ble Prince L. Hudgings, of Andrew county, and Simon Gammon, of Gentry county, both leading men in the secession ranks, and men of influ- ence in their neighborhoods; and another by the name of Baker, an orderly sergeant in one of their companies, with his books, muster rolls, etc., in his possession, with others of less notability. They were all handed over to the United States authorities at St. Joseph, to be shipped to St. Louis.
"St. Joseph looked desolate, and as though she had been despoiled of all her goods. Whole blocks of business houses were closed up, many of which had been broken open and robbed of all, or nearly all of their con- tents, by the rebels in their flight through the city two days before.
"All of which is respectfully submitted.
JOHN R. MORLEDGE,
Colonel Commanding First Regiment W. D. I. V. M."
On the 16th of July, 1861, the citizens of Maryville, Missouri, held a public meeting and passed the following resolutions:
Resolved, That to the brave boys of southern Iowa we return our most grateful thanks for their promptness in rallying around the standard of our country and hastening to the assistance of their brethren in arms against treason in Nodaway county.
Resolved, That by their timely aid the backbone of secession in Noda- way was broken, and all the horrors of civil war thereby averted.
Resolved, That the presence of Iowa soldiers is a sure antidote for se- cession.
Resolved, That if the ladies of southern Iowa are as pretty and modest as their soldiers are brave and generous, the charms of the one and the arms of the other are alike irresistible.
Resolved, That our best wishes ever attend the soldiers of Iowa, know- ing that they will ever be found wherever our country needs their services.
After the expeditions heretofore referred to, the citizens along the border
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.