USA > Iowa > Pottawattamie County > History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa. Containing a history from the earliest settlement to the present time biographical sketches; portraits of some of the early settlers, prominent men, etc. > Part 12
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In the first years of the California emigra- tion, few women had the hardihood to cross the plains, and they even were of that class whose life is adventure and whose virtues do not include the inimitable charm of purity and chastity.
With the emigrant came also the trader whose business it was to make profit in sell- ing supplies at the last possible point for supplies, before the long, toilsome journey began. When 1850 arrived, the tide was in full swell. Joseph Tootle was the first to come, leaving St. Joseph with a large stock of outfitting goods. James A. Jackson came also in 1851, and joined Tootle-first, as a clerk, and then as a partner, under the name of Tootle & Jackson, and far and wide they were known, from plain to mountain, and from the mountain to the sea. W. D. Tur. ner, who remained many years, Samuel H. Riddle who died only a few years ago, and Joseph L. Foreman, forming a business trio, also moved up from St. Joseph in 1850, and entered into the business of selling goods to the California emigrants. There was no regular or adequate ferry across the Mis- souri, and the multitude going west justitied the owners of several steamboats to come up the river and make the experiment of engag- ing in the ferry business, earning immense profits by a monopoly that was unavoidable. The business of selling liquors was one of the most lucrative. Saloons, drinking-places and gambling hells were established and con- ducted wherever a shelter could be obtained, either under roof or under canvas. Even this, in all eases, was not necessary, for dur- ing the day even the winding paths, the only 1
sidewalks in front of the log storehouses, and
the canvas booths, were appropriated by the owners of gambling devices, and its wild, lawless excitement was stimulated at every turn of the way. Young men and old gam- bled. Bearded men and mere striplings quarreled with each other over cards, and drank deep from the same bottle. There was no division of ranks, where all made no attempt to conceal their vices. To the credit of this mongrel, picturesque frontier society, be it said, that stealing was almost unknown, and life comparatively and remarkably se- cure. Thousands of dollars' worth of goods were kept in no greater place of security than huge canvas tents, or in straggling, sprawling log booths and cabins, with nei- ther bolts, bars nor watehmen. Woe to the man whose cupidity, whose passion tempted him to invade this security and confidence. His life was measured by an ell, and his throbbing life-blood calculated in the cold formula of ounces. No intricate combina- tion locks guarded the receipts of a day's sales, and to hint at the necessity of a burg- lar proof safe was to invite a suspicion that was of contempt.
No art will ever reproduce the early scenes of the liveliest days of the California migra- tion, nor pen bring back in description the kaleidoscopic changes of the seething masses who made up its wonderful life. Its like ean never be reproduced, either by imita- tion, by incentive, or in fact. The character which formed and impelled it has been changed and obliterated in the great mechan- ical and industrious revolution which has transformed almost the entire face of the country in the past thirty years. Imagina- tion in its furthest reaches fails to bring back the image of that notable past, and memory is a bankrupt when it attempts to pay to posterity the debt that it owes.
It is only here and there that we catch a
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
glimpse of men, still remembered, who came to stay. Dr. B. Y. Shelly settle l in the vil lage in 1850, and was soon after followed by Dr. S. E. Williams and Dr. P. J. McMahon, both of whom formed a partnership and es- tablished the first drug store ever opened in the place. Dr. McMahon, after fulfilling an honorable professional career, died in this city, surrounded by his wife and children, in the early spring of 1875, and Dr. Williams, having afterward removed to Mills County, to a large farm formed by him out of the wilderness, about midway of Council Bluffs and Glenwood, closed his life in 1880.
At the date of these transactions, nearly all that constituted Pottawattamie County was embraced in Kanesville, and a group of farm settlements in the immediate vicinity, and, though the facts of the organization and de- velopment of the county will involve other chapters and other heads, it cannot be out of place to here note the inception of regular government at this point. The territory embracing Pottawattamie County up to 1848 was included in Monroe County. In the latter year, Monroe County was divided and Pottawattamie set apart. Reference has al- ready been made to this matter. At that date, there were no County Commissioners or Supervisors. The administration of the counties of Iowa was intrusted by law to a County Judge, elected in each county, who had also jurisdiction in all probate matters, in addition to his other duties. He was also authorized under the law to issue the war- rants of the county, and to contract for, with- out a vote of the people, and erect county buildings, at a cost not exceeding $5,000. He had all the authority now vested in Coun- ty Boards of Supervisors, including the lay . ing out of roads and highways. Extensive abuses were made of this almost unlimited power, and the history of the State is fraught
with examples of the fraudulent issuing of county warrants for no other purpose than to enrich rings organized around County Judges, to enable him and them to rob and plunder with impunity. The records of the courts are plastered all over with the history of suits brought to recover from these coun- ties, on these claims, long after the perpe- trators of the villainy had fled to escape pun- ishment, and to begin fresh careers to dishon- esty in newer localities farther West. This method of robbery was reduced to a science, and no sharper or shrewder set of scoundrels ever made victims of new communities than were the sworn officers of the law in many of the new counties of Iowa. They scarcely made a secret of their operations, and when they departed, it was with the leisure of men who appeared to be conscious of having only performed laudable acts.
The making of money in those days, and under the circumstances of the flood-tide of emigration beyond the mountains, was easy to the men who were prudent, shrewd and en- terprising. In 1852, the crowd moving across the plains was immense. No prospective hardship could daunt those who were on their way to seek gold in the wilds of Cali- fornia, or formed part of the great caravan on its way to the "City of the Saints." Ferri- age across the numerous streams westward was a necessary part of the great business. It had its great hazards and risks, but its pecuniary rewards corresponded with the na- ture of the enterprise. Four persons, two of them J. B. Statsman and William Powers, already named, in 1851, established the fer- ries over the Elkhorn and the Loup Fork Rivers, on the trail to Salt Lake. Their earnings for the season were $50,000 in gold, which was divided by making four even piles of $20 gold pieces, instead of counting it in the usual way.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
Henry Miller, a prominent Mormon, squat- ted on a tract of land which included the ground now occupied by the Pacific House and the park, on Pearl street. As was the case with all the other occupants in 1851, it was simply a claim, with the title in the United States and unsurveyed by authority. Samuel S. Bayliss, a native of Fauquier County, Va., became the second owner of the claim and the log house thereon. He also became the owner of about 400 acres of claims, including the Miller tract. A curious inci- dent of his journey to Kanesville is related of him by Mr. Bloomer, in his published An- nals of Pottawattamie County. Mr. Bayliss started from St. Louis on the steamboat Sa- luda. When the vessel reached Lexington. Mo .. he became alarmed at its unsafe con- dition, and. refusing to proceed farther on that craft, went ashore. He had scarcely left the boat ten minutes, when she blew up, the captain and over one hundred passengers losing their lives. Joseph D. Bayliss, the brother of Samuel S. Bayliss, came soon afterward, and they, with their families, were residents of Council Bluffs for many years. Joseph D. Bayliss, however, went to the Utah silver mining country in 1873, and Samuel S. Bayliss died here in 1874. John T Baldwin, William C. James, A. J. Bump,
Capt. D. B. Clark and Stephen T. Carey came to the settlement during the same year. Mr. Baldwin entered into the mercantile business, and, step by step, grew to wealth. Among other things in the many years of his prosperous and enterprising career, he was at the head of the Pacific National Bank, was the moving spirit in the establishment of the present system of street railways, was Mayor of the city in 1877, represented the county in the Legislature for one term, gave large personal efforts to the attainment of this point as a railway center, rebuilt the Og- den House when destroyed by fire in the fall of 1874, and, amidst all his other duties and responsibilities, exerted a large influence as a Republican, both in local, State and na- tional affairs. William C. James entered upon the career of a lawyer and rapidly ac- quired a lucrative business. He subsequent- ly became County Judge, Mayor of the city for several terms, has all his life been an ac- tive Democratic politician, acquired wealth, and by his public spirit properly directed, has aided in a remarkable degree in the de- velopment of the city. Both he and Mr. Baldwin are still in the prime of life, and look with wonder and admiration upon a city that has grown to such proportions in a mere span of human life.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XIV .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-JUDGE SLOAN-FIRST TERM OF COURT-FIRST BAR-FIRST CASE TRIED-STATE AGAINST ROBERT AND MARGARET KEYS-HUMOROUS SCENE IN THE TRIAL-UNIQUE CHARGE TO THE JURY.
TN judicial matters, this county, when organ- ized, became a part of the Sixth Judicial District. James Sloan was the District Judge. He was an Irishman by birth, of light build, nervous in temperament, and pos- sessed considerable of the humor and wit for which his race is famous. His attainments in the law were by no means remarkable, and in the administration of justice he was not hampered by any of the mere technical rules which make forensic hair-plitting such a fine field for the acute lawyer.
The first term of that court began on the 5th day of May, 1851. Alexander Macrae was then the Sheriff, and Evan M. Green, the Clerk; J. C. Little, J. L. Stiles, William M. Lecompte, Hadley D. Johnson, A. C. Ford and Jonathan M. Bassett were attorneys practicing at that term, at that frontier bar, and seem to be the only ones then browsing among litigants for retainers. The petit jurors were Andrew J. Sharpe, George W. Armstrong, Gilman Merrill, James H. Glines, Benjamin R. Bullock, Daniel S. Jackson, George W. Slade, Zebidee Cotterin, Cyril E. Brown, Warren Austin, Orlando H. Godfrey, Lewis M. Kline and Jude Allen. There was no such an office as District Attorney then known in the State, and the court appointed William M. Lecompte, Prosecuting Attorney.
The first case on the docket was that of the State of Iowa, by Abner Johnson, against Ed O. Beebe, an appeal in an assault and battery case from the judgment of Jacob DeGraw, a Justice of the Peace, and it was dismissed on the motion of the Prosecuting Attorney.
The first civil case was that of Jacob Myers against Abner Johnson, in an attachment suit, and, on motion, the writ was quashed.
The first case tried to a jury was that of the case of the State of Iowa against Robert Keys and Margaret Keys, charged in the in- dictment with breaking into the store of C. O. Mynster and stealing some boots and handkerchiefs. Mr. Little assisted the prose- cution, and Mr. Stiles and Mr. Sharpe con- ducted the defense. A perusal of the record of that case at this late day, and when nearly all the actors in the affair are in their graves, leaves the impression that they were building a forensic monument of some kind. The de- bates of counsel, the rulings of the court, the charge to the jury, and the exact testimony of each witness, are recorded as an essential part of the history of the case, giving a faint out- line and a faded impression of what must have been the ludicrous character of some of the incidents of the trial. A. Hogarth alone would be competent to give the real coloring to what evidently bordered on the burlesque. The prosecution wanted to try Robert Keys first, the defense having severed in their trials. Little urged that Mrs. Keys should be first put in jeopardy, and said that the State of Iowa did not present this bill for the sake of prosecution, but "to see the laws of the State of Iowa magnified." Mr. Sharpe, who was with Mr. Stiles in the defense at this stage, wanted to deliver himself of a speech, but the court objected to hearing him, and the record says: " The Judge held his position." John M. Bell was the first wit- ness. He was an officer intrusted with a
*By Col. John H. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
search warrant to examine the premises of the Keys family, in order to find the stolen goods. When he and Mr. Mynster got there, they met Keys, and the latter told the witness that his wife had been insulted by Mynster. He said: " Keys went into the house and took his sword that was hanging on a nail, and told his wife to go back into the out- building, and the first man that insulted her he would take his d-d head off." He then went to the out-building, sword in hand, stood guard over it and said he would defend the rights of his wife. The witness says he then took Keys into custody, and found un- matched boots under the building, which they upset with Mrs. Keys inside of it. The Judge took Mr. Mynster in hand, and asked him some questions:
" Do you know if Robert Keys stole any- thing from you?"
"I cannot swear to it."
" Did you ever know Robert Keys to have these boots in his possession ?"
" I do not."
" Did you speak of irons that you lost ?"
" I did. We lost flat-irons."
" Did you find them ?"
" Yes; in my own back building."
Upon cross-examination, Mrs. Maria Myn- ster answered some questions:
" Do you know of Mr. Keys stealing those boots ?"
" Yes, sir; I never saw him; his own con- science condemns hin."
George Doughty. many years afterward Sheriff of the county, was next on the witness stand. and said that "Keys came into Jack- son's store and stated that Mynster's store had been robbed. and that Mynster was get- ting out a search-warrant for all Kanesville." Ann Cowen thought she could distinguish the spots on the yellow handkerchiefs. Sev- eral speeches were made at this stage of the
case on a motion to quash the indictment, when the court broke in by saying that " he had given much indulgence to the bar on both sides, and he wished no more litigation on that point." and overruled the motion. Mrs. Keys said her husband was in bed at 10 o'clock the night of the crime, and did not leave home until next morning. She said that she was in the back building, and got mad when she heard Mynster coming.
The charge of the court to the jury is a specimen and an exemplar It is here re- produced entire, as follows:
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY:
I wish to address you. I am weak. I cannot be expected to speak long. I do not wish to. You have taken upon you to try this case, and a true verdict give. It has been told you that a part of you should come out of the jury room and a part re- main, and the jury be discharged. This is to be the last resort. The laws of Iowa have been so framed as to prevent evasion. It is provided, that if you do not find the charge in the bill sufficiently proved in testimony, but find a lower degree of the same nature of crime, it is then for you to act thereon. You will not take into consideration to act on any evidence that is not founded on fact, and is not satisfactory, and you will be aware that much ex- traneous matter has been introduced, the more solid, as well by the proscention as by the de- feuse. The manner in which this case came up, I was satisfied what course would be taken. First, the defense tried to get the other bill dropped and to have this one tried, and when they did not suc- ceed they took up the other and agreed to separate trials, and when the prosecution came to prosecnte the bill they again arose, demanding that this case should be tried, and the prosecuting attorney with- drew the other bill aud consented to try this, or I should have held them to the other.
The record says that the court referred the jury to such "sections of the law as he thought would be necessary for them to ex- amine." After this lucid instruction. the jury brought in a verdict of "Not Guilty." and the case against Mrs. Keys was dismissed. How near the session of the court was held to the nearest saloon, the record does not disclose.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XV .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-PAWNEE AND OMAHA INDIANS-TRAIL TO FORT DES MOINES-A TEN DAYS' JOURNEY-POST OFFICE ESTABLISHED-JUDGE JAMES AND CONTEMPT OF COURT-OCEAN
WAVE SALOON-FIRST LEGISLATIVE REPRESENTATIVE-FIRST NEWSPAPER- THOMAS H. BENTON, JR .- FIRST GENTILE PREACHER, MOSES F. SIINN.
M IXED with the white population of the | house, notorious as far as the obscurest min- village were the Indians of the Pawnee and the Omaha tribes. For months at a time they were encamped on the outskirts of the village, and lounged about the streets in filthy and curious idleness. They were mere scavengers; in fact, the only ones in the place, and learned little from the whites ex- cept their vices, and, in the indulgence of the latter, were, in numerous instances, the sole means of administering to them.
The trail toward Fort Des Moines during this year became pretty well defined. A small hack was the only apology for a public conveyance during the entire distance, and about ten days were employed in making the round trip. The post office had been estab- lished in 1848. but no mail route was ordered or authorized by a stage line until 1853, the mails in the meantime coming by the river. Hyde's new hall, on Madison street, was pur- chased by the County Judge for $200, in . 1852, for court house purposes, and used for quite a number of years. Near it was built a jail of cottonwood logs, that became his- toric in its way, and especially in one nota- ble instance, when Judge S. H. Riddle sent Judge James, his boon companion, to prison for a contempt of court. At the junction of Madison street and Broadway, where the First Methodist Church now stands, was the famous Ocean Wave, a saloon and gambling
ing camp on the Sacramento River. For that day, it was a magnificent structure. It was in the very heart of the business portion of the town. It had all the appointments and attractions of a place of that kind. At any hour in the night, in the glare of lamps, fed with whale oil, the dulcet notes of the fiddle, quivering out afar over the soft air of summer, invited the homeless voyager to its selfish hospitality. Crowds of eager men- young, old and in middle life, thronged its doors, precincts and tables, booted, belted, spurred and armed and equipped for any emergency of frontier life. Men of nerve were then admired, whether they exhibited it in a hazardous stake at the cards, by drink- ing deeper than their comrades, or in resent- ing an injury, fancied or real.
Henry Miller, who sold his claim to Bay - liss, and who afterward moved to Salt Lake City, was the first Representative of the county in the Legislature, and was elected in 1851. In this connection it may also be stated that Archibald S. Bryant, who removed to Kanesville from Putnam County, Mo., in 1852, became the second member of the House in the General Assembly from the county. Upon his settling here, he purchased a large number of Mormon claims of town lots, and when an opportunity was given to perfect the title from the United States, he availed himself of the right, became the real
*By Col, John H. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
owner, and living at this date, to an age of fully eighty years, is still the proprietor cf some of the most valuable of the lots thus secured by him.
G. A. Robinson and William A. Robinson came here in 1851. Both of them are still residents. With them came a brother Martin, who afterward moved farther West. G. A. Robinson built a hotel of logs, a little farther west on Broadway than the Ocean Wave, and christened it the Robinson House, and for quite a number of years it was one of the most popular and most prosperous hostleries on the frontier. G. A. Robinson was after- ward elected Prosecuting Attorney, conduct- ing his business as an attorney in connection with that of hotel keeping.
Two weekly newspapers were published at that date-the Frontier Guardian. estab- lished by Orson Hyde in 1848, and the Bugle, by A. W. Babbitt, in 1850. The office of the latter stood then on the north side of Broad- way, and about four rods from the street, near Indian Creek. It afterward passed into the hands of Joseph E. Johnson, and was published until 1879, after having passed through a varied ownership, including L. W. Babbitt and the writer of these annals. While the Bugle was owned by Johnson, it was under Mormon influence, and had a Democratic leaning, in all cases, however, making political considerations subservient to the interests of the church. Orson Hyde removed to Salt Lake in 1852, and took with him a portion of the printing material used in the publication of the Guardian, the re- mainder passing into the office of the Bugle, and the Guardian as a Kanesville paper was suspended.
In 1851, the county cast a vote of 397 in favor of Woodward, the Whig candidate for State Superintendent of Public Instruction, as against 51 for Thomas H. Benton, Jr., the
Democratic candidate, and who was a nephew of the great Missouri Senator, "Old Bullion," as he was called by his admirers. Thomas H. Benton, Jr., when the civil war broke out, became the Colonel of the Twenty-ninth Iowa Infantry, and subsequently, a Brigadier Gen- eral of volunteers, serving to the close of the war. In 1857, he was engaged in banking in Council Bluffs. His death occurred in 1879, at St. Louis, and his remains were tak- en to Marshalltown. Ia., and placed by the side of those of his wife, who died at the latter place in 1869. His only surviving child is a married daughter, living in St. Lonis.
The vote of Pottawattamie County, in 1852, for President, stood 111 for Gen. Winfield Scott, the Whig candidate, and 182 for Gen. Franklin Pierce, the Democratic candidate. This, however, is no criterion of the popula- tion of Kanesville at that date. It only in- dicates, in a degree, those who had taken up their permanent residence in the county, and especially in Kanesville. There was a float- ing population that varied according to the exigencies of emigration. aggregating, at times, thousands of people who had no other shelter than tents and wagons, and often, simply tree tops.
Up to 1852, no other religious or sectarian influence sought a permanent foothold at Kanesville than the Church of the Latter- Day Saints. Now and then, some lonely and adventurous missionary, on his way to Cali- fornia, during the halt here, attempted to ex- hort some of the hundreds of sinners of all kinds to repentance; but it was seldon that he could induce men to pause long enough in their eagerness, to obtain hearers or make an impression. In many respects, the mot- ley crowd were simply American Arabs.
As far as it can be ascertained, the first sermon ever preached here was by the Rev.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
William Rector, of Fremont County, in 1848; he afterward died in the military service during the civil war. William Simpson, a pioneer preacher of the Iowa Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, came from the eastern part of the State, in 1850, in search of some horses stolen by emigrants. He found the community sadly in need of some religious and moral influence. Re- turning home. he reported to the church au- thorities the exact condition of the people here and its necessities. He was sent, there- fore, by the Bishop to begin missionary work and establish a society. Coming back the same year, he entered upon his arduous task with all the energy, zeal and self-sacrifice which characterized the pioneers in Method- ism, and continued to do itinerant work un- til 1852, when he was appointed Presiding Elder, and was succeeded by the Rev. Moses F. Shinn. Mr. Simpson died many years afterward, in Henry County, continuing in the active ministry to the day of his death. The first church editice of this society was built on what is now known as Pierce street, almost directly in the rear of the Ogden House. From time to time. under the rules of the church, the pastorate of the society was changed, until 1865, when the Rev. E. L. Flemming and the Rev. Joseph Knotts were sent here by Bishop Simpson to use their en- deavors to secure the erection of a church edifice that would comport with the growth and importance of the society and the city. The Rev. Moses T. Shinn was still here. He and C. E. Stone, a Virginian by birth, a law- yer by profession and a participant in the Black Hawk war of 1833, were zealous with Mr. Flemming, Mr. Knotts and the Rev. J. S. Rand in the erection of the present handsome and substantial brick edifice occupying the site of the famous Ocean Wave. Mr Shinn is a resident of Omaha, has reached a ripe
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