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 14
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The career of Dr. Ballard and of Mr. Street, in the land office, was a short one. The administration of Gen. Pierce succeeded that of Millard Filmore, on the 4th of March, 1853, and, in the following June, Dr. Enos Lowe and Lysander W. Babbitt, both Demo- crats, came from the eastern part of the State to assume the two offices respectively. Dr. Lowe was a resident of Burlington at the date of his appointment, and Mr. Babbitt's home was on the Des Moines River. Dr. Lowe eventually became a citizen of Omaha, and took an active part in the founding of that city, and died there, several years ago,
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highly honored by her people. Mr. Babbitt continued to reside in Council Bluffs, in 1868, serving in the Legislature: also several terms as Mayor, at various times, and, in 1881, removed to Beebe, in the State of Ar- kansas, which now is his permanent home. He was also the editor and publisher of the daily and the weekly Bugle, during a large portion of the existence of that paper, and during its vicissitudes held it to its duty as the standard of the Democratic party.
It may be of some interest to know that the first entry made at the Council Bluff's Land Office was by Joseph D. Lane, the sec. ond by Jacob Bush and the third by Mrs. Maria Mynster, the tract of the latter includ- ing what is now known as Mynster's Addition to the city, on the north side of Indian Creek, and extending northward beyond Mynster's Springs, where this venerable old lady has her beautiful and romantic home.
Among the necessary improvements made in the part of the city embraced in the local- ity just referred to, was the erection of a water-mill, at a point about one-third of the length of Scott street, from Washington ave- nue, and where the bluff slopes to the west. Indian Creek, though only a crooked, devious, shallow brook, was utilized and dammed above Market street. the water carried north- westward, in a race which crossed what is now Washington avenue, where the City Mills stand, and to the mill in question. Traces of this primitive water-way are still visible at several points, though every other vestige of the mill has long since disappeared. That was the last and only effort made to em- ploy this fickle stream for any other purpose than drainage and sewerage.
The first fire that is noted in the annals of the city occurred on the 14th of November, 1853. Twenty-five buildings, nearly all of them log houses, standing in a group in the
vicinity of the junction of Madison street and Broadway, were consumed. Stutsman & Donnell, R. B. Pegram and Tootle & Jack- son were the principal sufferers. The Bugle office was also seriously damaged.
An incident characteristic of frontier life was attached to this fire. Thomas B. Neeley. an eccentric individual of the Davy Crockett species, had emigrated from Indiana and set- tled in a lonely cabin, on the borders of what afterward became Monona. and Harrison counties, and lived in that remote spot as a bachelor long before he had any neighbors. By and by settlers surrounded him, and. in the turn of the political wheel. he was chosen to the Legislature in 1853. To make a re- spectable appearance at the capital of the State, he came to Council Bluffs in his fron- tier garb and bought a new suit of clothes and a satchel. With these he intended to surprise his fellow-members from the more fortunate districts in the eastern part of the new State. The young woman whom he in- tended as his wife was living at D. B. Clark's, and, going out there that evening to see her, he concluded that he would leave his new clothes at Tootle & Jackson's store, and wear them for the first time at the State Capital. That night the store was destroyed by fire, and with it his new satchel and its contents. Nothing daunted, he went his way. dressed as he came, and when he appeared in his seat in the House, his uncouth appearance and garb were the wonder of his fellow-mem- bers. One of them, with more nerve and as- surance than the rest, approached Neeley with the inquiry: "Why is it that they don't send men here from your part of the State that seem to know more than you do, Mr. Neeley?" "I don't know any other reason," replied Mr. Neeley, " than that it is because I am the only one out there who has clothes good enough to come." With all his oddi-
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ties, he was a useful member, and at the end of his term settled down again to hunting, farming, in a way, fishing and telling stories, of the latter of which he had an abundance, with much native wit, and, having reared a large family in frontier style, much after the manner of Rip Van Winkle, and growing restless of his surroundings, in 1881, he hied away to Washington Territory, with all he had, to begin the world over in the virgin forest. Like Daniel Boone, when he left Kentucky for Missouri, he began to feel that he was crowded, and wanting more elbow room, sought it on the Pacific coast.
An event notable in that day was the opening of the Pacific House, on Christmas, 1853. The extraordinary influx of strangers during the summer, prompted S. S. Bayliss to build a new hotel in the addition laid out by him, and this resulted in the erection of the Pacific House, where it now stands on Broadway, opposite the junction of Pearl street with the latter. At first, it did not cover the space that it now includes. The three-story brick "L" on the west side was added in 1869, destroyed by fire in the winter of 1871, and rebuilt two years later. For many years, this constituted the principal hotel in the city, and until the erection of the Ogden House, in the summer of 1869.
Council Bluffs, during the winter of 1853 and the spring and summer of 1854, received many accessions of citizens, who performed an important part in its development, and who have, under all circumstances, adhered to its fortune, good or ill. Among these were Addison Cochran, A. V. Larimer and Judge R. L. Douglass. Col. Cochran is a native of Loudoun County, Va., having been born near Hillsboro, a few miles from Harper's Ferry. Being of an adventurous disposition, as a young man, he took part in the war for Texan independence, and participated in quite
a number of the actions which formed the prominent events of that notable conflict. He engaged in the real estate business upon coming to Council Bluffs, and pursued that for many years. In 1878, he became Mayor of Council Bluffs, having served in the Coun- cil in 1858, 1859, 1860 and 1861. During the last three years, he has spent most of his time improving and cultivating a large farm in the river bottom, in the vicinity of Little Sioux, in Harrison County.
Judge Douglass, who came to Council Bluffs in 1854, was born at Hagerstown, Md., and removed to Indiana in his youth. In the latter State, he studied law, and after practicing his profession there for some years, came here to resume it. His great force of character soon assigned him a leading position in local affairs. His professional suc- cess was positive, and all his business enter- prises brought him wealth and independence. In 1855, he became City Attorney, and held that office during that year, when C. E. Stone was Mayor, and also during the next year, 1856, when Capt. D. W. Price was Mayor. Mr. Douglass became a member of the City Council in 1864, and served the term of two years, and was again chosen, in 1866, for another two years. In 1873, he was again chosen for a full term, which he served. The Legislature which met in January, 1868, for the purpose of increasing the facili- ties for administering justice in the rapidly expanding interests of the State, constituted two Cirenit Judges and two separate circuits in each of the twelve judicial districts into which Iowa was then divided. At the No- vember election of that year, Mr. Douglass was chosen one of those Judges for this, the then Third Judicial District, for a term of four years, in the circuit embracing Council Bluffs; and James W. McDill, at present a United States Senator, was chosen the other Circuit
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Judge for the territory embracing his home, Af- ton, in Union County. Judge James G. Day. of Fremont County, since then and for several terms one of the Judges of the State Supreme Court, was the Judge of the District Court, and the three constituted, under the law, an Appellate Court, called the General Term. The General Assembly of 1870 abolished the appellate jurisdiction, and reduced the num- ber of Circuit Judges. Judge Day resigned, and Judge McDill succeeded him in the Dis- trict bench. and Judge Douglass served as Circuit Judge until the 1st of January, 1873. when he was succeeded by T. R. Stockton, of Fremont County.
Judge Douglass took an active interest al- ways in politics and was an enthusiastic Re- publican. He was also an early advocate of railway improvements and interests, and, at
an early date took a leading part in the or- ganization of the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad, together with Horace Everett, W. C. James. L. W. Babbitt and other citizens of Council Bluffs, and of which S. F. Nuck- olls was the first President.
Soon after hostilties ceased in the Southern States, Judge Douglass was induced to make investments in Alabama and Florida, and, his health becoming precarious in the years 1875 and 1876, he spent part of each year in Florida, improving and developing an orange grove. In 1877, he died on his plantation, in that State, and his remains were there buried. His widow, he having left no lineal heirs, soon afterward removed from the Council Bluffs homestead to Cleveland, Ohio, and now makes that her residence.
CHAPTER XVIII .*
COUNCIL BLUFFS-GENERAL CURTIS, AND J. D. TEST-SKETCHI OF JUDGE FRANK STREET-PATRICK MURPHY-TEST, JOHNSON AND CASADY-A. V. LARIMER'S SKETCH-FORT CALHOUN CLAIM FIGHT-DEATH OF SHERMAN GOSS-H. C. PURPLE WOUNDED-
A. J. POPPLETON OF OMAHA-LOST ST. MARY'S.
TT is the human interest in the men who have built a city that makes a sketch of its growth and progress valuable and entertain - ing, even. It is the ordinary and almost uni- versal experience of men who have visited battle-fields, that those where the conflict was in the midst of thriving villages and farms and farmhouses, have an attraction, and excites emotions that are impossible where the dead- ly struggle was unwitnessed, save by the sav- age forest or the sterile and treeless plain. It is the men who found cities that we want just as they were, and hence the annalist is most profitably occupied with those facts
which endow the dry narrative with human life. ' A sound mind in a sound body ' is al- most a universal truth. Strong, vigorous men are mainly those who pioneer early settle- ments. It was peculiarly so in the case of Council Bluffs. Judge James, Judge Lari- mer. Judge Douglass, John T. Baldwin, Judge Caleb Baldwin, Dr. Ballard. Gen. Benton, Gen. Curtis, Col. Test, D. C. Bloom- er and others, who shared the early fortunes of Council Bluff-, were men of powerful frame. They were physically constituted to do the arduous work of the frontier. It is by an insight into their early training that we catch a glimpse, also, of the real work
*By Col. Johu H. Keatley.
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that they accomplished. Happily, the op- portunity has not passed when the material of such a review are within the reach of the careful annalist.
Among those who came to Council Bluff's in 1851, and virtually lived through what may be termed the transition period. assisting in stamping his own character upon its institu- tions, was Patrick Murphy, who died here on the 18th of February, 1877. in the seventy- fifth year of his age. Mr. Murphy was born at Kilkenny, Ireland, on the 16th of July, 1502. At an early age, he was sent to France to be educated. the rigidity of English law against Catholics operating in his case pre- cisely as in the case of the great Daniel O'Connell, who was sent for the same pur - pose to the College of St. Omer. Mr. Mur- phy thus became a fine classical scholar, and cherished to the day of his death, and amid his most active pursuits, his early acquired literary tastes. His first settlement. after arriving in the United States, was at Rich- mond, Va. He removed from there to Seda- lia, Mo., where he remained until he came to Council Bluffs, and made this his life home. At Sedalia, he was married to Miss Mary Dolan. One child, Mrs. Anstin Darraugh, was the result of this marriage, and, in 1854, Mrs. Murphy died in this city. Mr. Murphy became one of the most prosperous of the early merchants of Council Bluffs. and. in 1860, retired from business with sufficient to provide for himself and only child during his life. His wealth was in- vested mainly in substantial improvements, the most prominent one being the Bee-Hive brick building, between the Nonpareil building, on Scott street, and the location of the new opera house at the corner of Broad. way and Center street.
Not only was Judge Street the medium through which the lot owners acquired their
tilles from the United States, but during his long residence here he filled a large space in public estimation. both in city and in county affairs. The date of his arrival has already been given.
The Street family, to which he belonged. are traced to Salem, Salem Co., N. J. It was from that State to Ohio that Judge Street's father removed, and then passing into Kentucky, he eventually settled at Knox- ville, Tenn., where the Judge was born, and where his father lived five years afterward, and then moved North again. Judge Street was of Quaker origin, and had many of the characteristics of that widespread people. He was born on the 12th of July, 1819. His father moved from Salem. Ohio, to Spring- field, Ill .. and from Springfield to Salem, Henry County. in this State. Here Judge Street remained until the date of his coming to Council Bluffs, in the meantime having studied law at Mt. Pleasant, and having made a trip to California in 1850. and being absent two years. He was married in 1842, and, at his death. on the 21st of February. 1877. left several sons and one daughter, one of the sons being the Clerk of the District and Circuit Courts of this county. He was always active and prominent in politics, be- ing a thorough earnest Republican, and when in his prime was regarded as a pleasing and an effective speaker on the stump. He was the Republican candidate for State Senator. in 1857. against W. H. M. Pusey. when the Senatorial district extended along the Mis- souri River from the Minnesota to the Mis- souri line. and when a whole day was some- times spent in making the journey from one cabin to another in the district. The two contestants for State Senatorial honors trav- ersed the territory separately. with private conveyances, occasionally crossing each other's paths, and sometimes. as they did it at Sioux
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City, engaging in an impromptu joint dis- cussion, when Sioux City was scarcely more than a mere village. Judge Street was de- -- feated by his competitor, and it is a singular fact that Mr. Pusey had a majority in every voting precinct in the district, and a major. ity in every county in the district. Mr. Street, however, was elected that year as City Re- corder, and held the office for two terms. He was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, in 1860, when Abra- ham Lincoln was nominated for the Presi- ciency, and, in 1861, he was made Register of the Council Bluff's Land Office. This po- sition he held until 1869. when Sylvester Dodge. the father of Gen. G. M. Dodge. was appointed by the administration of Gen. Grant, and Judge Street retired to private life. He took quite an active part in the po- litical campaign of 1868, but his health soon after began to fail, and he declined from time to time until the date of his death just 1 stated. After his vigorous constitution be- gan to be sapped, he spent several years in Kansas, but always turned to Council Bluffs with a longing that was irresistible, and yielding at last to it, he came back to spend his days, then already numbered. He died as he had lived, withont incurring the hatred of a single mortal. His funeral from the ! the Territory, and spent several years in Presbyterian Church, of which he became, in his closing years, a member, was one of the largest Council Bluffs ever witnessed.
Another former prominent citizen who came to Council Bluffs in 1853, was Col. James D. Test. The traveler by rail from the south, on approaching the city, cannot fail to have his attention drawn to a hand- some spot in the bluffs, and a neat, snug brick house on the right of the railway as the city limits are reached. This was the home of Col. Test in the latter years of his life, and here centered all his manly pride and devotion.
His father was Judge Charles H. Test, of Rush County, Ind., where Col. Test was born, in June, 1827. In 1850. he emigrated to Burlington, Iowa, arriving without funds, and obtaining employment in a wholesale drug house. Ho remained there until 1853, when his adventurous spirit brought him to Council Bluffs. Judge Jefferson P. Casady had just made this his home, and he. Hadley D. Johnson and Col. Test entered into a part- nership to deal in real estate, their office being established at the northeast corner of North Main street and Broadway, in a build- ing that afterward gave way to the brick block now occupied by the First National Bank. Mr. Johnson and Judge Casady were both members of the bar, and Col. Test, hav- ing read law with them during their part- nership, was duly admitted to practice in the courts. Mr. Johnson withdrew from the firm in 1856, leaving it still to exist as Casady & Test, and by this title a business in land, ex- change and banking was conducted by them until 1862. In 1854, Col. Test was elected a member of the State Senate, and. in 1860. was one of the Breckenridge candidates for elector in Iowa. When the gold excitement in Colorado broke out and became epidemic, he went to Central City, in what was then profitable mining operations. He eventually returned to Council Bluffs, and made it his home until his death. He was married to a daughter of the late Col. A. S. Grovenor, but his wife died after a short married life. leav- ing one daughter. who. upon attaining womanhood, married A. T. Elwell, of this city. She, too. survived her marriage with Mr. Elwell scarcely more than a year. Col. Test made a journey on business to Chicago, in February, 1869. He was there taken sick with congestion of the lungs, and lived only a few days. His remains were brought home
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for interment, and seldom has there been here a more positive demonstration of public grief than at his funeral. He was a man of most generous impulses, and cordial and winning address. He was an eloquent public speaker, and possessed a splendid physique. As a political writer for the newspapers, to which he frequently contributed as an amateur, he was sometimes bitter and canstic, being a warm and uncompromising partisan, but the sauvity of his ordinary intercourse extracted the sting from many a pungent paragraph that was traced to his pen. He was public- spirited in a high degree, and this led to the forgiveness of all his faults.
The name of Col. Test could not be men- tioned without associating that of Judge J. P. Casady, who stands as a solo representa- tive of a business still surviving after a lapse of twenty-nine years. He was born at Con- nersville, Ind., and removed to the city of Des Moines in 1852, when that was simply on the frontier and still had about it the odor of a mere military post. He was admit- ted to the bar at Des Moines, and removed to Council Bluffs in 1853. where, as already stated, he entered into the land business with Test and Johnson. He was elected County Judge in 1858, and was made one of the Di- rectors of the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad Company in 1861. In 1967. he was elected to the State Senate from the dis- trict composed of the counties of Pottawatta- mie, Mills, Fremont and Cass, the district being largely Republican, but Judge Casady's high character and general acquaintance gave him an almost unprecedented popularity. His Republican competitor in that conflict was William Hale, of Mills County, now the Territorial Governor of Wyoming. He was married to Miss Joiner, but was deprived by death of his estimable wife in the spring of this year. Amidst his other public and pri-
vate duties, he has been an active promoter of the religious and educational interests of the city. He assisted in the organization of the Presbyterian Church, and has always been regarded as one of its most important members. He has also served on the Board of Education, and, in 1871, 1872 and 1873, was a member of the City Council.
Among those who came here, early in 1854, and left their impress upon the city, and still survive to witness its growth and prosperity, is Hon. A. V. Larimer. His name is connected with the most important piece of Congressional legislation, and a decision of the courts, that ever in any way, effected the interests of Council Bluffs. Reference is here made to the juris- (liction that was given to the United States Circuit Court of Iowa, to entertain certain mandamus cases, and also to the decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the mat- ter of the eastern terminus of the Union Pa- cific Railroad.
These matters will receive appropriate at- tention in the proper places when the narrative of the events themselves are reached. It is only now with the personality ot Judge Lari- mee, that we have to deal as one of the carly pioneers of Council Bluffs.
Judge Larimer was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, on the 21st of March, 1829. His early education was such as could only be obtained in the log schoolhouse of that day in the winter months, with arduous toil on the farm in the summer time. Ambitious to ac- quire something more of an education than the meager country schools of that day afforded, he procured a scholarship at Allegheny Col- lege at Meadville, Penn., through the Joan of such scholarship by the Hon. John Keatley, then Marshal of the Western District of that State, and the uncle of the writer of these annals. With $10 borrowed from James Blair, his former teacher, Judge Larimer as a hopeful youth, set out on foot, with a compan-
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ion, to trudge for more than 150 miles to Meadville, to take his place among strangers in the contests of life. He remained at college for a year, and his means having given out, he abandoned the idea, came home, worked on the farm for a time, and then came West, engaging in flat boating from Ripley, O., to New Orleans. In 1848, he returned to college, and after a year's study, was suspended for boarding at a hotel in violation of the college regulations. He was unsettled for some time, but eventually commenced the study of law, with ex-Governor Andrew G. Curtin, in Bellefonte, and also at- tended a course of law lectures at the famous law school of Judge McCartney, at Easton, Penn.
In March, 1854, he started to Council Bluffs, and in the spring of that year became one of the citizens, a title he has worthily borne ever since. In the fall of that year he became the Democratic candidate for Prosecuting Attorney against L. M. Kline, the Whig aspirant to that office, and was elected. By the resignation of Judge Hall a vacancy was created in the office of County Judge, and Mr. Larimer was ap- pointed to fill it, holding the position until 1856. He was elected in the latter year to the House of Representatives in the General As- sembly of the State, his opponent being B. R. Pegram, who at that time was engaged in bank- ing, Col. Test, at that date, also being the Sena- tor from the district, in part composed of Pot- tawattamie County. Many of the citizens of Council Bluffs at that date took an active in- terest in claims in the newly-formed Territory of Nebraska. Many serious conflicts took place between claimants, and some of these appeared considerably warlike. On the 27th of August, 1855, a collision occurred at Fort Calhoun, at which were Hadley D. Johnson, Addison Coch- ran, A. J. Poppleton, James C. Mitchell, J. P. Casady, A. V. Larimer and a number of others from Council Bluffs. Firearms were freely used, and Sherman Goss, a settler in Rockford Town-
ship, was twice shot and almost instantly killed. H. C. Purple, who was tong identified with the city, was also severely and dangerously wounded.
As is common in the early settlement of com- munities, friendships are formed that endure for a lifetime, and attachments spring up that are only severed by the hand of death. Such was the case with Col. Test, A. V. Larimer and Judge James, forming a trio of friends never broken into except in the case of the death of Col. Test, already mentioned. Larimer spent his first winter in Council Bluffs, in the office of Judge James, on Maine street. and after a lapse of twenty-eight years lie is still an occu- pant under the same roof with him, only a few feet from where they first met.
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