USA > Iowa > Palo Alto County > History of Palo Alto county, Iowa > Part 6
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In 1862, James Linn and Wm. D. Powers enlisted in Company I, 32d Iowa Volunteer Infantry. This regiment was in active service until it was mustered out in June, 1865. It was this gallant regiment that bore the brunt of the Confederate charge at the battle of Pleasant Hill, and though losing half of their men in the deadly battle, fought gallantly against heavy odds and turned certain defeat into victory.2
Joseph McCormick enlisted in 1863 and went to the front. This gallant soldier met his death at Memphis, Tenn., and was buried in the National Cemetery.
The county desiring to keep its quota full, hired two substitutes, paying them in advance in county warrants at 30c on the dollar, amounting to $2,600.00. The super- visors also ordered that $10,000.00 in warrants be drawn " if needed to raise volunteers provided they can be pro-
1 Letter of A. B. Carter. Gue, History of Iowa, vol. ii, p. 411.
2 Gue, History of Iowa, vol. ii, pages 319-23. A summary of the service of the 32d Iowa will be found in the same chapter quoted above.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
cured." 1 The zeal and patriotism of the county out- stripped the necessity, as this was one more than the quota called for. The two substitutes were supplied, however, and the warrants were later redeemed at par, so the coun- ty paid well for this service.
But while the war was being waged in the Southland, a different danger threatened the settlers on the northern borders of Iowa. The news of the Sioux outbreak in Min- nesota, under the leadership of Little Crow, in the fall of 1862, brought again the haunting fear of the savage red man.2 In August of that year the warlike Sioux started on a murderous journey through Minnesota, working south until they arrived at New Ulm, where the terrified people had hastily gathered and raised a barricade for protection. The Indians, 500 strong, attacked the town. The prompt arrival of reinforcements alone prevented a general massacre, as the Indians were only beaten off after two days' desperate fighting. The redskins with- drew and continued their depredations on scattered set- tlements.
The settlers fled in terror to the towns for protection, and as the news traveled onward the people in the border counties of Iowa became alarmed. Public meetings were held at Algona and Estherville and volunteer companies formed.
Governor Kirkwood promptly took steps to raise forces for the protection of the border. He ordered S. R. Ingham of Des Moines to proceed to Fort Dodge and other points and organize a sufficient force, placing arms and ammuni-
1 Minutes and Supervisors' Record, no. 1, p. 68, Jan. 2, 1865.
2 The facts concerning the Indian uprising and the organizing of the frontier forces are condensed from an interesting and accurate article, "The Iowa Northern Border Brigade of 1862-3," by Capt. Wm. H. Ingham, in Annals of Iowa, October, 1902, pp. 481-523. That description is fully substantiated by the recollections of Lott Laughlin, Jeremiah Crowley, and others.
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THE CALL TO ARMS
tion and the power of the state at his disposal. At Algona he authorized Mr. W. H. Ingham to enlist forty men to be furnished by Humboldt, Palo Alto, Kossuth and Emmet counties. This company was quickly recruited and organ- ized as Company A, with W. H. Ingham of Algona as cap- tain. The following men enlisted from Palo Alto County, their age, residence and nativity being given in the official roster as follows : R. Fayette Carter, 31, Paoli, Palo Alto, Ohio, 2nd Sergeant; Jeremiah Crowley, 18, Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Ireland; Patrick Jackman, 22, Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Ireland; Lott Laughlin, 23, Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Ireland; Keiran Mulroney, 19, Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Ireland; Joseph T. Mulroney, 26, Emmetsburg, Palo Alto, Ireland.1
Twenty men from this company were stationed at Estherville under the command of Lieut. Coverdale and the other twenty were ordered to Iowa Lake under Lieut. McKnight. Later the whole of Company A was located at Estherville under Captain Ingham, and spent the fall and winter in building a stockade fort and preparing suitable quarters.
Four other companies were raised and stationed along the northern border, forming a complete chain of out- posts. Guns and ammunition were distributed to the set- tlers in the various counties. The report to the governor shows among the list the following: " To Martin Coonan for the use of settlers in Palo Alto County ; five lbs. pow- der, 10 lbs. lead, 300 percussion caps." The troops were well drilled and well supplied with the necessary equip- ment.
These prompt and efficient measures had the desired effect and the Indians were turned to the northward, and
1 "Iowa Northern Border Brigade," Annals of Iowa, October, 1902, pp. 513-4.
.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
did not molest any settlers in Iowa. Gradually confidence returned, and with the added security of the stockades all ready for an emergency, the troops were mustered out in the summer and fall of 1863.
Although Palo Alto County was not on the extreme border, it was near enough to share the anxiety and fear of the time. The Spirit Lake massacre of 1857 was still fresh in mind and the remembrance of those horrors so near their settlements made them prompt in their assist- ance for the defense of the border from Indian invasion.
Capt. W. H. Ingham thus sums up the results : "As to the services of the Northern Border Brigade, the results show that it served an excellent purpose in preserving the settlements of the northwestern border and thereby pre- vented much suffering and an immense loss of property to the citizens of the state. From the reports heretofore giv- en, it will be seen that the brigade promptly met and car- ried out all of the objects set forth in Governor Kirk- wood's General Orders No. 1. By a wise distribution of its forces at frequent stations on the frontier, and under the able management of Col. Sawyers, the brigade un- doubtedly did much in preventing the Indians from invad- ing the state. The companies comprising the brigade con- structed works at the different posts well suited for the purposes for which they were made, as shown by Col. Saw- yers's final reports. These works, together with the pres- ence of the troops, gave a genuine feeling of security not only to the settlers nearby but to all others that were in any way concerned, so that many who had left their homes during the excitement soon afterward returned. The brigade was made up of strong, earnest, loyal men, well fitted by pioneer experiences to meet any emergency that might occur, and its survivors may well take pride in hav- ing been members and of helping to render the last service
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ever required by the state for protection of its northern border from invasion." 1
1 " Iowa Northern Border Brigade," by W. H. Ingham, Annals of Iowa, October, 1902, p. 511.
CHAPTER X
A Decade of Growth -1863-1872
During the Civil War, while the attention of the whole nation was centered upon the great question involved in the internecine conflict, there was practically no move- ment toward western settlement. Conditions were too unsettled and the young men of the country who were in the army had little time to think about going west. Hardly had peace been declared before the people of the eastern and central states began to follow Horace Greeley's ad- vice to go west and grow up with the new country. From 1864 on, settlers began to flock in great numbers into Iowa.
The Homestead Law, approved by President Lincoln May 20, 1862, was another incentive to settlement after the war. By this law the land was given to the settler by the government at a nominal price in consideration of set- tlement and cultivation. Later enactments made special concessions to soldiers of the Civil War. Most of the homesteaders went to Fort Dodge to make their proof, but the extreme western tier of townships in Palo Alto County belonged to the Sioux City land office.
Another fact of importance is that with the coming of the homesteaders after the war the building out on the prairie began. Before this the settlement had been along the lakes and rivers where timber was plenty. The early settlers had thus abundant material from which to build their houses which were always made of logs. As the de- sirable timbered locations were soon all taken up, the homesteaders were compelled to locate out on the open prairie and build homes of sod, thatched with hay, and
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A DECADE OF GROWTH - 1863-1872
covered again with sod. To the early settlers it seemed foolhardy to build out on the unprotected prairie without shelter from the hot sun, the fierce winds and the terrible prairie fires. But these hardy settlers had come west to build a home and make a farm, and the broad and fertile plains offered the finest opportunity for the farmer set- tler. Groves were soon planted around the little homes and before long the growing trees formed a windbreak and furnished needed firewood. In a few years these beautiful groves dotted the landscape, giving a finer ap- pearance to the county and adding real value to the land.
During the early part of the war practically no settlers came into Palo Alto County. The whole population in 1863 was only 142 people. In the next two years the num- ber had increased to 216. From then on an ever-increas- ing tide of settlement flowed into the county until in 1870 the census showed a population of 1,336, and in 1873 the number was about 2,000, although no census figures were taken that year. From 142 to 2,000 represents a remark- able growth for a single county in a single decade. It is the history of this period of growth that is now to be consid- ered in detail.
In 1863, on the last day of July, Geo. J. Jacobs and fam- ily of five children came to West Bend and settled three and a half miles west of where the town of West Bend now is. Mr. William Carter was postmaster then, the post- office being located in his cabin and was known as " West Bend." H. H. Jacobs, then a lad ten years old, in tell- ing their experiences says : " We burned out the first fall we were here, '63. After we got our hay all up and the sheds fixed, father was up helping Campbell put up his hay. It was late in the fall and there was a big prairie fire started down toward Pocahontas, on that side of the river. We could see the smoke coming. The wind blew terribly, and the grass on the river bottom was way up. Mother
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
was scared, with no one but just us children home. She put me on a horse to go after Father about two miles away. I went after him but before we could get back the fire jumped the Des Moines River and came right up through there. There was a colt in the stable and a pig in the pen. Mother got the colt out but could not get the pig out. The pig was in a rail pen and broke out somelow and did not burn. We burned out slick and clean. Just the house was left. The grass was all tramped off around the house and of course it was a log house with a sod roof and it didn't burn, but the family nearly smothered from the smoke. We were left there without hay or anything. There was a place down on the river that had burned in July and Father and John McCormick, who had a mower (the only one in the county) went down and cut hay. Fath- er and Campbell had to put up all their hay with a scythe. McCormick went down there and cut part of it with a mower. Gness we got 10 or 15 tons of hay. It helped out some that winter and then we had to haul hay from Mulroney's and Tobin's and we let out part of the stock. Let Dawson have one yoke of oxen. Lost horses that winter and lost two or three head of cattle. Did not have feed enough. That was one of the hardest winters here. '63 and '64. Joe Mulroney froze his feet. I helped Bickle to put up hay once after. We saw a fire way off miles away but never thought of it coming. Along in the evening it kept coming. I don't know why he didn't know enough to back fire. About midnight it got there and we had a hard time to get the wagon ont with a load on it.
Just got it out and that was about all. His sheds and all
went, hay and everything. Fort Dodge was the nearest
trading point and that was forty miles from West Bend. I made several trips there with oxen. Never had money enough to buy a meal on the road and have ground corn in a coffee mill for my dinner. One spring, the time the
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A DECADE OF GROWTH - 1863-1872
water was so high, Father and two of the neighbors got the seeding done and started to Estherville to mill with what little wheat we had left. There came a freshet and they were gone eight days. Before they got home we were planting corn. The last dinner we had we ground up what little seed corn there was left, in the coffee mill. When we got home Mother had biscuits and that is all the supper we had. The men got home before morning. I broke prairie all one summer with a yoke of oxen. We lived on johnny cake for a month there. The only time we got any wheat bread was when we went home. Father could not stand johnny cake only a little while at a time. " 1
In 1864 the Kirby family, Michael, Henry, Thomas, William, and Lizzie, came and settled near the Tobin- Mulroney settlement at Soda Bar. Jas. P. White was another settler about this time who soon exerted an im- portant influence in the county. He was elected county treasurer in 1865 and held the office three times.
After the war several new settlers came into West Bend township. Among them were C. G. Groves, John De Witt, Jas. Johnson, Ira D. Stone, Joseph Knapp, Jolın P. Bickle, Dan Ditch, Jeremiah Kelley, and a man named Herrick. About the same time Galbraith, B. Franklin, Dr. Under- wood, Goldtrap, and H. L. Joiner located on the west side of the river.
On the east of West Bend in 1865 the Dorweiler family settled in what is now Garfield township, Kossuth County, there being no settlers nearer than seven or eight miles.
John M. Hefley, who had been one of the pioneer settlers of Fort Dodge and a valiant soldier in both the Mexican and Civil Wars, brought his family to Palo Alto County in 1865.
Among the other settlers of that year were Robt.
1 Interview with H. H. Jacobs.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
Carney, Sr., John, W. T., and Robert Carney, Jr., Dennis Carroll and wife and son Patrick, James F. Nolan and Lawrence Burns.
John Doran came to Palo Alto County in 1865 and settled in Great Oak township. Only four families were living there then, Jas. P. White, Michael Kirby, Robert Carney and Lawrence Burns. There were no other set- tlers on the west as far as the Little Sioux River.1
Mr. Doran, telling about the early settlers' experiences in the county, says: "Sometimes the winters were very severe. The winter of '66-7 was the longest, coldest and hardest that I can remember. It set in very cold early in December and as there was no snow on the ground until about the first of January, the ground was then frozen about four feet and the ice in the river about three feet. About the first of January it began snowing heavily and drifting and for three months there were two blizzards a week of three days each and all the change was from cold to colder. On the 10th of April there was an average of three feet of hard snow on the ground and more coming. About April 12th it commenced raining hard and heavy and kept at it for about two weeks. On the 15th the river broke up and there was some water on the bottoms about that time."? The severity of these winters out on the open plain can hardly be imagined by people of the present day. With no groves or wind breaks, the snow drifting and blowing for miles over the level plains made nearly every snow storm a virtual blizzard, dangerous to any person caught away from habitation and a serious menace to the live stock driven helplessly about in the storm. The severe weather and terrific storms were among the real dangers that the pioneers had to contend with.
In 1866 J. G. Crowder, with his wife and four children,
1 Letter of John Doran.
2 Letter of John Doran.
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A DECADE OF GROWTH - 1863-1872
together with John McCoy, came and settled in Great Oak township, and Patrick Lynch returned to his place.
In June of the same year Orrin Sloan, wife, and two sons, W. S. and David, settled on a homestead on section 34, Fern Valley township. Shippey and the McCormicks were the only other settlers in that township and the West Bend settlers were the nearest neighbors on the south and a man by the name of Hatch over in Kossuth County was the nearest settler on the northeast. To the northwest was Bill Crooks's claim and then Neary's on the way to the old town of Emmetsburg.
Other settlers in 1866 were Michael Martin, his wife, three sons, Jerry, John and Tom, and six daughters, the Moncrief family, Henry Grace and W. H. Grace, William, Robert and Thomas Shea, T. J. Lyon and wife, Andrew Lynch, D. H. Halstead, T. C. Wilson, Chas. Nolan, C. S. Warren, Chas. Hastings, Isaac Stewart, Levi Ashley, James Brennan, Wm. E. Cullen, Thomas Walsh, Thomas Laughlin, Myles Ryan, and Patrick Neary.
When Mr. Stockdale was building the old court house at Paoli he brought up from Border Plain, near Fort Dodge, a steam saw-mill and used it to saw lumber to use in the construction of the court house and school house. The settlers used to get most of their lumber there. Dur- ing the war the old saw-mill lay unused and neglected, but some time after the close of the war a man named Martin bought the saw-mill and took it down to Tobin's and Mul- roney's and did a lot of sawing for the people of that neighborhood. Later the old mill was taken up to Spirit Lake and afterwards bought by Fort Dodge parties and taken down there.1 This old mill was of great service to the settlers and many still recall the hardships and diffi- culties they encountered in getting logs to this mill and hauling back the lumber to their homes.
1 M. M. Crowley's statement.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
It was some time in the later sixties that the first thresh- ing machine was brought into the county by a man named Peterson. It was one of the old-fashioned horse-power machines, but it was considered a great thing in those days, and it saved a great deal of work and time over the old methods of threshing out with a flail or stamping out the grain with horses.
The old court house at Paoli was another source of trouble during these years. The county judge had in 1859 made a contract with Wm. E. Clark to build a brick court house and school house at Paoli, the then county seat, and this contract had been assigned to John M. Stock- dale. The work had been commenced but lagged along and had finally been abandoned with the buildings still unfinished.
At an adjourned meeting of the board of supervisors, held on Monday, the 5th day of January, 1865, the Paoli court house contract came up again. It appearing that John M. Stockdale, who had bought the rights and title of Wm. E. Clark, the original contractor, in the contract and the swamp and overflowed lands, had failed entirely to carry the work to completion within the required time, the damages to the county were fixed by the board at $1,800 and John F. Duncombe was employed by them to bring suit against Stockdale and his bondholders. Any moneys collected on the above suit were to go toward completing the aforesaid court house or erecting another as the board might direct.1 Suit was commenced and judgment secur- ed by the county against the contractor. A special meet- ing of the board of supervisors was held at the office of the county clerk on the 14th day of August, 1866 (James H. Underwood, Joseph T. Mulroney, and John Nolan, supervisors, and James Hickey, clerk, being present), for the purpose of making a settlement between the county of
1 Minutes and Supervisors' Record of Palo Alto County, no. 1, p. 71.
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A DECADE OF GROWTH - 1863-1872
Palo Alto and John M. Stockdale and others about the judgment against said Stockdale and others for $9,750 in favor of said county for damages for the non-completion of the Paoli court house. After due deliberation of the board in regard to said matter, said judgment and all matters and disputes between Stockdale and others and the county of Palo Alto were settled and compromised.1 The terms of the compromise are set out in full in the legal document printed in Appendix B to this book.2 Thus ended a long controversy and a rather expensive and unfortunate experience for the county. The supervisors advertised for bids and completed the court house for $1,060.
The court house and school house were poorly located and so bleak and dreary that they could not be used in inclement weather and the county officers preferred to have offices in a more thickly settled region. At a meet- ing of the board in June, 1866, all county officers were ordered to move to the court house at Paoli, but in Novem- ber of the same year the board recognized the necessity of finding more comfortable quarters on account of "no provision for heating." 3
Some light is cast on the interior and furnishings of this old Paoli court house in the report of a meeting of the board held on November 10, 1868. At one end was a plat- form 6 x 8 feet and 18 inches high. The seating consisted of 12 benches and 24 arm chairs. It was heated by two box stoves. The desks were two in number, of black walnut. The specifications call for "2 desks and cab- inets made in the same style as the one now in Jas. P.
1 Minutes and Supervisors' Record, Palo Alto County, no. 1, p. 86.
2 See Appendix B for terms of settlement.
3 The records of the county are full of adjournments from the cheerless old court house to the more comfortable cabins of the settlers .- Minutes and Supervisors' Record, Palo Alto County, i, pp. 136 and 142.
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HISTORY OF PALO ALTO COUNTY
White's house except they shall be 1/4 larger in all dimen- sions." 1
The stage that made regular trips was the principal means of communication and transportation. It was the main artery that supplied the life blood to the frontier settlements. H. H. Jacobs, who drove stage for years through the county, says: "I started to stage it in '70 or '71. I ran seven years out of about nine or ten years. Between '71 and '73 ran pretty much all the time. The postoffice at the Tobin place was established when we came here in 1863. Called Soda Bar. Think it was Tom Tobin that was postmaster. Alice Tobin, Tom Kirby's wife, was postmaster all the time I ran stage. Most of the postoffices were established in '70 or '71 or along there, because they were there when I commenced. Joe Mulroney run stage on the west side of the river up to the beginning of the seventies. Man by the name of Fisher run on the east side, Humboldt to Estherville. Was running four or five years. Both carried mail. 'Two different routes. In '70 and '71 the horses got sick and sometimes I would come horseback with one horse, and at last they all got sick and I had a pair of three year old steers and I made four trips with them. Came up one day and back the next. That was along in the early seven . ties. Another fellow drove from Humboldt to West Bend with a pair of steers. Hickey's postoffice was established about the same time.
"My stage route was across the river from West Bend to Fiddlers' Green, where Franklins and all those people lived; there was a postoffice there. Then from there to Rolfe, then to near Bradgate, then from there to Rutland, and from there to Humboldt and Dakotah City. I would make a trip on the west side of the river, start Monday for Emmetsburg and go down to Hickey's, across to West
1 Minutes and Supervisors' Record, Palo Alto County, i, p. 146.
P. F. VAN GORDEN
E. P. MCEvoy
Z. F. DICKINSON
S. W. BALLARD
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A DECADE OF GROWTH - 1863-1872
Bend to change horses. Cross at West Bend bridge. The bridge was built some time in the seventies. From there down to Rolfe, then the next trip on this side of the river. From Emmetsburg to Fern Valley and then West Bend, McKnight's Point, Wacousta, Tueland, then Humboldt and Dakotah City. That would be in the last part of the seventies. Say from '75 to about '81 that we would run that way. Before that it was just one mail a week.
"I remember when I was staging, Bill Roper, White, and some one else had been to Fort Dodge and a blizzard came, and they got storm bound. They stayed at our house two days. Chas. Ballard was driving stage for me. Think he had made the south trip and I was at home. They wanted me to drive team for them, thinking I knew the road better. We started from home in the morning and got eight miles in the forenoon by working hard. Bill would take butter and put in his coffee, saying that it was as near cream as he could get. We got into Emmetsburg that night, just as it was getting dark. We worked hard all day, shoveling to get through.
"Another time I was driving from Hickey's. Had a little French mare on the stage that day. The roads were full of water, thawed all day. Just before I got to Hickey's there was a cloud came up and it started to snow. While they were changing the mail there at Hickey's it was just one sheet of snow coming down, big flakes. I started for town, had three miles up that bottom and I drove, and if it had not been that that mare would just stick to the track, I would never have reached Emmetsburg. That was the night so many got lost. Lots of farmers started west and had to come back. I could not look up. Could watch down beside the cutter and see that we were in the track. If I had had another mile I know the horses could not have stood it. Their eyes were covered with snow when I got in." 1
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