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 13
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old age, and witnessed the expansion of the village of Kanesville to two cities, one on each side of the Missouri River, with an ag- gregate population of more than 60,000 per- sons.
Not only did the Methodist Episcopal Church undertake to establish a congregation here, but, on the 15th of November, 1851, the Rev. G. G. Rice, who is still a resident of Council Bluffs, began his labors under the most discouraging circumstances, as a Con- gregational minister. He states the popula- tion then at from two to three thousand, vary- ing, of course, according to the tide of emi- gration, four-fifths of them Mormons, and very few of them here with an idea of re- maining, and nearly all of them occupying temporary and rnde shelter. The Gentiles in the village were mostly impatiently wait- ing for the spring trade. The first services held by him were in the log court house on Madison street. Quite a number of the Lat- ter-Day Saints, including some of their Bish- ops and their families, listened to his preach- ing. He and the few acting with him, then rented a log house on the north side of Broadway, between Bryant and Market streets, on the ground occupied by the pres- ent Bryant House.
There was preaching every Sunday; a Sun- day school was organized and a Wednesday evening prayer-meeting established. There were in the town at that time only two fami- lies of orthodox Christians. One of these was that of a merchant belonging to the Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, and the other that of the Methodist Episcopal minis- ter, Mr. Simpson, already mentioned. The latter and Mr. Rice, alternately, preached to a congregation of from fifteen to twenty per- sons, and the Sunday school had from twenty to thirty children. In the spring of 1852, a large house was purchased, on the north side
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of Middle Broadway. Emigration mainly ceased by the middle of July, the trains hav. ing gone forward over the " plains," and the population of the town was thereby reduced to about 500. The cholera broke out among those who remained, and many persons died from it.
When emigration was resumed in the spring of 1853, a congregation was formed. on the 12th day of June, and a church society organized with eight members. Five of these were Congregationalists, two of them Presbyterians and one of them a Free- Will Baptist. In the autumn of the same year, the house which they owned jointly with the Methodist Episcopal society, was sold, and, until 1855, the services were held at the resi- denee of Mr. Rice. In the latter year, they
erected a plain, substantial brick edifice, on the east side of Pearl street, opposite the Park, on the lot of ground just north of J. J. Brown's three-story brick store-room, now oc- enpied by Smith & Crittenden for wholesale purposes. The structure was destroyed by fire in 1872. In 1869, the society began the erection of a handsome frame church at the southwest corner of Sixth street and Seventh avenue. The building was already inclosed, and possessed an elegant tower, in April, 1870, when a tornado swept over the city and re- duced the church. all but the brick basement. to fragments. It was rebuilt in a short time, and now constitutes the place of worship of one of the most flourishing religious societies in the city.
CHAPTER XVI .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-FIRST SCHOOL-FRANCIS A. BROWN FIRST TEACHER-JAMES B. RUE-FIRST PUBLIC SCHOOLS-ORIGIN OF NAME OF COUNCIL BLUFFS - THE CITY INCORPORATED- CITY GOVERNMENT SUSPENDED - BAYLISS PARK LITIGATION-FIRST BRICK HOUSE-THE SAMUELS MURDER-LYNCH LAW-FRED LORD MURDER.
THE educational interests of Council Bluffs were not neglected from the very first. The first school- a private one-of which there is any memorandum or recollection, was by a Gentile teacher, whose name is forgotten, in a building directly east of the Broadway Methodist Church, and in the rear of what was then the Ocean Wave saloon. The next school remembered was by a Mormon teach- er, named Francis A. Brown, in 1853, in the old log court house, on Madison street. In the same year, James B. Rue opened a pri- vate school in a small wooden building. on the south side of Washington avenue, on the second lot west of the junction of North Main street with that avenue, in Mynster's Ad-
dition. Mr. Rue and his wife came from Kentucky. He was a ripe scholar, a grad- uate of a Kentucky College. and an experi- eneed and successful educator. He remained here many years. reared a large family, and engaged in the sale of furniture and in trad- ing, a portion of the time being Principal of the public high school after it was organ - ized. He also took part in the organization, and, during his residence, was a member of the Presbyterian Church. He and his family removed permanently to Santa Rosa, Cal., in 1877.
The public schools were first opened, in 1854, in the old Methodist Church, on Pierce street, in the rear of the present Ogden House. The history of the growth and de.
*By Col. Juhn Il. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
velopment of these will receive the proper attention in detail more appropriately in another place. During 1853 and 1854, two ladies by the name of Rockwell conducted a private school, one of them now being Mrs. S. N. Porterfield, of Atlantic, and for many years of her married life a resident of Conn- cil Bluff's.
The post office was changed in name from Kanesville to Council Bluffs, in the begin- ning of the year 1853, and to conform to that change, the name of the village was also altered during the same period. It was un- derstood by some tradition preserved by the Indians, and also by the employes of the fur company, that Lewis and Clarke, in 1804, when passing up the river, had met some of the Indians near this spot, in council, and to materialize that tradition, the new town eventually received the name which it now bears. It was given its new name on the 19th day of January, 1853. At that date, there were no restrictions upon the Legisla- ture, in the matter of granting special char- ters to cities, and accordingly, at the session of that year, and on the 24th of February, the act passed creating Council Bluffs an in- corporated city. Hadley D. Johnson was in the Senate from this district, and Archi- bald S. Bryant represented the county in the House granting these municipal fran- chises. The first election of city officers took place on the first Monday in April of that year, when the following officers and Council were elected: Cornelius Voorhis, as Mayor; W. H. Robinson, City Recorder and Clerk to the Council; M. W. Robinson, City Marshal; S. S. Bayliss, Rev. G. G. Rice, Stephen T. Carrey, L. O. Littlefield, L. M. Klein, Joseph E. Johnson, J. K. Cook and J. B. Stutsman, Councilmen. There was a quorum present at the first meeting of the Council, but J. K. Cook and J. B. Stutsman
absented thomselves, and were fined $5 each for the neglect of duty. The Council ap- pointed A. D. Jones City Surveyor; G. P. Stiles, City Attorney; Isaac Beebe, Street Su- pervisor, and G. A. Robinson, Chief of the Fire Company. The public lands were not then in market. They had been surveyed under the direction of the Washington Land Department, in 1851 and 1852, in the county, but at the date of the organization of the city under the new charter, each occupant was either a mere squatter, or the holder of a claim through some prior squatter, and no tax on lands and lots could be levied. It is a fact that it became a serious question, whether a city government under such circumstances could exist, and, as there was no revenue to maintain it, except about $280 assessed as licenses upon saloons and gambling houses, for the first six months of munipcial existence, the Mayor, Mr. Voorhis, resigned, and the government ceased to exist for almost two years, and until the title to the lots and lands became vested in the citizens.
During this abeyance of titles in the lands, Mr. Bayliss decided to lay out the claim ac- quired by him from Henry Miller, into town lots, and his first plat for Bayliss' First Ad- dition was filed on the 15th of June, 1853. This includes the ground occupied by the Pacific House, and all the lots on the west side of Main street, southward from Broadway, and on both sides of Pearl street, embracing what is now known as Bayliss' Park, on the west side of Pearl street and one square south of Broadway. The Park grounds were donated by him to the county, as he claimed, for a site upon which to erect a county court house. When the county authorities came to locate the present court house, they disregarded Mr. Bayliss' alleged gift, and purchased lots in the square immediately south of the present park, and declined to use the latter for court
B.F. Clayton
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house purposes. About ten years after the original donation, and after the dedication of the adjoining streets to public use, by Mr. Bayliss. the city began to exercise control over the park, without any objection on his part, so far as ever known, and planted trees and eventually inclosed the same, and exer- cised some care over it.
About twenty years after the original do- nation by him to the county, he brought suit against the county, in the State courts, to set aside the original gift and to resume it. During the pendeney of the action, he died here, and his widow, in whose name the suit was afterward prosecuted, as administratrix. removed to Nebraska City. Being thus a citizen of another State, she obtained a trans- fer of the case from the State courts to the United States Circuit Court for Iowa. and when it came on for hearing in the latter, Judge Dillon, of that court. decided against the plaintiff and in favor of the city, on the following grounds: It seems that two sepa- rate plats of that particular forty acres were recorded by Mr. Bayliss. The park traet was designated by him as "P. S.," meaning public square. Judge Dillon held that as be- tween the estate of Mr. Bayliss and the city of Council Bluffs, this constituted a complete dedication to the public. In deciding this point, he said: "The city was incorporated before either of the plats was recorded. The statute declares that the acknowledgment and the recording of such a plat is equivalent to a deed in fee simple of such portion of the land as is herein set apart for the public use. * The city is the representative of the public rights in the square. It was called by him a public square in his dedication." The suit was brought by Mr. Bayliss against the county, but the city, to protect its rights in the controversy, intervened. The case was decided in IS78, the United States Circuit
Court then being constituted by Judges John F. Dillon and James M. Love. No appeal was taken to the United States Supreme Court, and there the matter has rested ever since, with the title to the park quieted in the city of Council Bluffs, and has now be- come one of its brightest ornaments and most delightful resorts.
The first brick house ever built in the city was erected in the year 1853 by William C. James, on the south side of Broadway, in Bayliss' First Addition, on the third lot west of Center, or First, street, as it is now desig- nated. It was a one-story residence, and is still standing, the property and home of Ja- cob H. Rogers. The second was a one-story brick, still standing on the west side of Main street, on the second lot south of Willow street, or First avenue. The third was by P. J. McMahon and Dr. S. E. Williams, a double briek residence, on the west side of Bancroft street, about 350 feet south of its junction with Rroadway. That building was removed to give place to others of a different character. in 1878. About the same time, Stephen T. Carey erected a one-story brick dwelling, at the southwest corner of Main street and First avenue. which was subse- quently occupied and owned by Dr. P. J. Me- Mahon, and removed. in 1882, to give place to the brick block erected by E. L. Shugart for the use, in part. of the Citizens' Bank, organized during the latter year. Adjoining the lot occupied formerly by the briek dwell- ing erected by Drs. McMahon and S. E. Williams, is a frame dwelling, which has an historic value in this, that it was the home of Gen. Grenville M. Dodge at the breaking- out of the civil war, and continued to be lis home during that conflict, and afterward while he served in Congress for a dis- triet which extended from the Des Moines River to the Missouri, and included F
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nearly all of Western and Southwestern Iowa.
It is singular, yet nevertheless true, that notable erimes, committed in the early his- tory of a settlement, are remembered with more vividness, and acquire through tradition a more fascinating character, than those of a recent date, although the latter may be at- tended with circumstances of a greater sin- gularity. Two murders are remembered with great distinctness by the older citizens, the first of the kind ever committed, either in the lown or in the vicinity. It is an indistinct recollection, that the others were perpetrated about the same time, and the bodies of the victims buried on the slope of the hill. on the west side of Madison street. It is alleged that these were cases of blood-atonement by the Danites. The two crimes to which refer- ence is now specifically made, were not of that character.
On the 13th of May, 1853, what is now known as Glendale, occupied by Market street and Glen avenue, on the south side of Broadway, was simply an encampment of California emigrants. Among the number was a man named Samuels, from Columbus, Ohio. and another giving his name as Muir. Samuels was found the next morning in his wagon, brutally murdered, and his money gone. Muir was also missed by those who had seen them together the evening before. As soon as the crime was known, search be- gan for him, and he was caught on a trail which led out toward the Mosquito Creek, through the woods. in the direction of D. B. Clark's, and brought back. He was placed in the hands of the Sheriff, to undergo a regular trial, the county then having been organized. but the crowd of California emi- grants was impatient of such a slow process of justice, and demanded a more speedy method of punishment. Judge Lynch's Court
was at once opened, and a jury constituted from the settlers and others, and a trial had. A. C. Ford was selected to defend the accused, and made the best possible effort he could under the circumstances, but the evidence was so overwhelming against Muir that the jury had no difficulty in reaching a verdict of guilty. He was tendered spiritnal conso- lation by the Rev. Moses Shinn, but prompt- ly and savagely declined it. An immense crowd assembled to witness the execution that evening. The culprit was taken to a tree, about twenty-five rods from the murdered man's wagon, just at sunset. A rope was put about his neck and thrown over the limb of a tree, and the end of the same attached to a mule's neck, and in that way the mur- derer was swung into eternity. Glen avenue, for many years, from that incident. was known as "Hangman's Hollow," and the tree upon which Muir expiated his crime. stood by the wayside and the street side for a long time, shuddered at by old and young in the gloaming. and shunned by a superstitious fear.
When Muir was arrested. no money that could be fairly considered as belonging to Samuels, was found on his person. but when he found that no mercy was to be granted him by the crowd which surrounded the place of his execution, he made a statement that he had buried the money taken from the wagon at the root of a tree. but refused to designate the spot. In 1875, while the city authorities were opening a street and improving it, on the old trail to D. B. Clark's, and on the route taken by Muir at the time of his arrest. an old stump was dug up by the laborers, and from a " pocket " at the decayed roots of it, about $350 in gold and silver, having the appearance of being in the ground many years, and coin of dates prior to the hanging of Muir, rolled out. Circumstances indicated that this was about the amount that Samuels
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
had when he reached Council Bluffs, and the conclusion was that they had found the cache that Muir, even in his dying moments, refused to reveal. The money was divided among the five laborers there at work.
The second murder of which there is still some distinct trace, in the circumstances of it, was that of Fred Lord, by a man named Jim Golden. Both were rude, rough charac- ters of the frontier. Lord was a powerfully built man, and as strong as a lion. Golden was of medium height, and stoutly framed, and had a sinister look. They were en gaged, during the summer of 1853, in quar- rying stone at Trading Point. on the river a few miles south of the city, and one day had some disagreement about their business mat- ters. Lord's duty was to haul the rock to town with an ox-team. On the day in ques- tion. Golden attempted to interfere with Lord's plans, and the latter abruptly and rather profanely resented it. Golden retort- ed angrily and left. A short time afterward. he went to a cabin in the timber, some dis- tance below the quarry, and borrowed a gun, saying that he had seen some wild turkeys in the brush that he wanted to shoot. Lord started toward the city with a load of rock, and, as he was passing up the trail, sitting on the wagon, a shot from behind tore a hor- rible hole in his body, but the shot failed to do more than mortally wound him, and he fell back upon the load of rock; his oxen came up toward town, and he was met and cared for. Martin W. Robinson, one of the three Robinson brothers, who came here in IS5l. assisted in taking care of him. As soon as he rallied, he made a dying state-
ment, and, in response to a question as to whether it was Golden who did the shooting. he said that he saw Golden as plainly as could be, as he turned to step back into the woods after he fired. During one of the days that he lingered on, he told Robinson that they should watch when he was going to die, and then give him morphine, so that he might die easy.
Golden was arrested and taken before Stiles, a Justice of the Peace. Stiles had all the peculiarities of a backwoods character. G. A. Robinson conducted the prosecution, and Capt. D. W. Price, who had just come into the country and began his long and hon- orable career as an Iowa lawyer, took charge of the defense in the preliminary examina- tion. The evidence was all in, substantially as stated in this narrative, when Price arose and said that he supposed Golden would be held to answer to the next grand jury, and suggested, that, inasmuch as his client was poor and had no friends who could respond in bail in any large amount, he hoped the surety would be placed low. Robinson re- sponded that this was not a bailable offense, that the crime, whoever committed it. was premeditated. and that Golden, if held, could only be sent to prison to await the session of the District Court. The eloquence of Capt. Price had its desired effect. Giles fixed the bail at $100, and William Powers, who had an intense dislike to Lord, promptly went on the bond. Golden remained until court, the case died in the grand jury room, and he eventually disappeared, and was never heard of again. Mrs. Sweener. the mother- in-law of Lord, still lives in Council Bluffs.
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CHAPTER XVII .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-JUDGE S. H. RIDDLE'S ELECTION - NO LAWYER BUT A GOOD JUDGE - LAND OFFICE OPENED-STREET AND BALLARD APPOINTED-SKETCH OF BALLARD-NOMINATES KIRKWOOD-DR. ENOS LOWE AND L. W. BABBITT-FIRST FIRE IN 1853-TOM
NEELEY THE DAVY CROCKETT-OPENING OF THE PACIFIC HOUSE - JUDGE DOUGLASS - LIFE AND CHARACTER.
THE regular judicial elections in the State were held in the spring of 1853, and Sam- uel H. Riddle was voted for and received an unquestioned majority of all the votes cast. He had never been bred to the law-in fact, never claimed to be a lawyer, and the can- vassing board, for that reason, refused him a certificate of election. His opponent, ac- cording to well-settled principles, was also denied the certificate, and there being thus a vacancy. Gov. Hempstead, regarding the plain wish of the citizens, appointed Riddle to serve antil the next election. The choice of the people and the discrimination of the Governor were justified by results. Judge Riddle was a Kentuckian by birth, had come to St. Joseph, Mo., and engaged in the mer- cantile business, and thence to Council Bluffs. and was endowed with a remarkable degree of plain, common sense, which he car- ried with him to the bench. There was a quaintness in some of his decisions that fre- quently defied definition, according to tech- nical rules. and no Judge in Towa ever re- ceived a more uniform approval, through a review of the Supreme Court, than he.
In 1854, be was regularly chosen for the full term, and served with great credit to himself and with universal approval. Long after he left the bench, his opinions and ad- vice were sought, and with as full confidence as if he had spent his youth in close applica- tion to the study of those principles which
underlie the great lawyer's career. He was one of the most affable of men, but on the bench was decided, positive and firm, and knew neither friend nor foe, being univer- sally just. In social life, he mingled in the rough pastimes of the frontier. Lawyers at the bar who were his associates, when the cares of his position were thrown aside, pre- sumed, at their peril, in court, and frequently felt the difference between a man as a Judge and the same person as a citizen and a com- panion in the ordinary enjoyments and affairs of life.
The Council Bluffs Land Office was first opened in the spring of 1853. This invited another class of residents, in the persons of speculators, eager to absorb the rich lands of Western Iowa. Eighty-three thousand land- warrants had been issued by the Federal Government to the troops that had aided in the conquest of New Mexico and California, and who were with Taylor and Scott in the brilliant and brief campaigns from Palo Alto to Buena Vista, and from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico. Thousands of these war- rants came into the hands of speculators, and were located upon Government land in West- ern Iowa, through the Council Bluffs Land Office. Joseph H. D. Street was the first Register. and Dr. S. W. Ballard, the first Receiver. The former was the eldest son of Gen. Joseph M. Street, who performed an important part in the adjustment of the diffi- culties with Black Hawk, in 1832 and 1833,
*By Col. John II. Keatley.
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
and was also the Indian agent at what is now Agency City, on the Lower Des Moines River. Both of the incumbents of the land office were Whigs, and received their ap- pointments from President Filmore just at the close of his administration. Dr. Bal- lard, at the time of his appointment, was publishing a Whig newspaper at Iowa City. Among those who were serving an apprentice- ship to the art of printing in his office then, was Col. William P. Hepburn, subsequently a distinguished Iowa soldier, part of the time on the staff of Gen. Phil Sheridan in the Army of the Cumberland, and who became also a member of Congress from this, the Eighth District of Iowa, from March, 1881, to March, 1883.
Dr. Ballard settled down to a permanent residence in Western Iowa, and rapidly ac- quired lands, until now he is the largest land owner in this section of the State.
In the political revolution of 1854, when the Whig party forever disappeared from sight. he united his fortunes with the Re- publicans, assisting in the formation of the party. and presiding over the first convention of that organization ever held in Iowa. His home is still in Council Bluffs, although much of his time in later years has been spent by him on his immense prairie farm in Audubon County. a few miles north of At- lantic. Dr. Ballard is a man of marked per- sonal peculiarities, and a notable man in ap- pearance. In his prime, he was much over six feet in height and of giant frame. Sev- eral serious accidents have impaired his health and physique, and the once vigorous and robust frame has diminished to almost childish helplessness. Through all the vicis- situdes of the Republican party, he was a zealous advocate of its principles, an untiring worker and a shrewd politician. His latest exploit, in a Republican convention, was in
1875. Gen. James B. Weaver, who has since become famous as a Greenback Congressman from Iowa, and the candidate of that party for President, in 1SSO, came up to the Re- publican convention of 1875 with a majority of delegates pledged to his support as the candidate for Governor, Samuel J. Kirk- wood, of Johnson County, the old War Gov- ernor, had not been mentioned during the preliminary canvass before the convention met. When announcements were being made, previous to balloting, the stalwart form of Dr. Ballard appeared in the arena, he being a delegate from Audubon County, and his stentorian voice was heard to utter the name of Gov. Kirkwood as a candidate. More than a score of delegates were on their feet in a moment, demanding by what authority this surprising announcement was made, and whether Kirkwood would accept. Ballard, without taking his seat, responded: " In the name of the great Republican party. I make this nomination, and in its name and for it I promise that the great War Governor will accept." The effect was electrical. The nomination swept the convention like a storm. Kirkwood accepted. was elected. became a United States Senator, and. in 1SS1, a mem- ber of the cabinet of President Garfield.
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