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 25
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William Turner was the member of the Board of Supervisors from Kane Township when that body assembled, in January, 1867. The Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad was completed to the Missouri State line, and all the shares of the county in that road were assigned at that meeting to Willis Phelps, in consideration of that completion. The board also resolved to pay a large amount of swamp land orders that had been issued by Judge Sherman. and the issuance of which, in part, occasioned his removal from office. This course of the board was far from being approved by the tax-payers. The issu- ance of bonds to the M. & M. R. R. Co. was also restrained by the District Court. An intensely bitter feeling was engendered by the charge, and rumor that the board had contracted with several lawyers to secure the injunction for a fee of $38.000; but if such an agreement was ever made, it was not car- ried into effect in any way, for the reason that other citizens than those charged with complicity in the matter took it in hand and pushed the suit to a satisfactory conclusion.
Regular trains began to run on the Chicago & North-Western in February, but heavy
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snows between that and spring frequently interrupted railway travel on that line. The first movement was then made to secure a county poor-house and a poor-farm, but the credit of the county was strained as much as it could then bear, in the building of the new court house, and the poor-farm project was postponed. Another institution, how- ever, localized at Council Bluffs, had taken on shape. The State was using temporary quarters at Iowa City in maintaining an in- stitnte for the deaf and dumb. Col. Sapp, as a member of the House from this county, backed by leading citizens, and exercising excellent judgment, secured a preliminary appropriation for the erection of suitable buildings for such an institute at Council Bluffs. The resistance to the project was a bitter one, but the claim that the western part of the State had not received proper con- sideration in the distribution of the State in- stitutions had great influence in finally de- ciding the result.
The ultimate future of Council Bluffs was foreshadowed in the action of those at the head of the Union Pacific Railway enterprise. Thomas C. Durant, the Vice President of the corporation, on behalf of himself and other officers of the company, bought 1,200 acres of land in the western part of the city, in- tended to be utilized for railroad purposes in the future. How was not definitely settled or determined, but it was evident that in the expansion of railway business, a wide scope would be required on both sides of the river when it was once bridged. This is the same tract of land now used by the Union Pacific as their transfer grounds and the magnificent union depot for themselves and the Iowa roads.
At the spring election, Judge Street was elected Mayor, the opposing candidate being Col. Babbitt. A. J. Bump was again chosen
Marshal, and Samuel Haas was among the new Aldermen elected. D. C. Bloomer was again chosen President of the School Board. Wheat sold in the market here at that date at $2 per bushel, corn at S5 cents, and flour from $5 to $6 per 100 pounds.
William and Patrick Lawn, of Mills County, were asleep as guests of the Farmers' Hotel, on Broadway, kept by Peter Bechtelle, on the night of the 13th of June, 1867. Be- fore daylight the next morning, a mob of un- known persons came into the city, waked up the sleeping men, compelled them to go with them, and just inside of the Mills County line, they were hung until dead. Their bodies were brought here and buried in the Catholic Cemetery. They were merely sus- pected of being guilty of crime. No oppor- tunity was given to vindicate themselves. Both men had served in the Union army. and their comrades in Council Bluffs, on each succeeding Decoration Day, have reverently and devoutly decorated their graves. W. W. Maynard retired from the Nonpareil, and was succeeded by S. T. Walker, who, in conjunc- tion with Mr. Chapman, was its publisher. Council Bluffs Lodge, No. 49, of Odd Fel- lows, was revived and re-organized at this period, and has ever since flourished. The Empire Block stood on the south side' of Broadway, between Main and Pearl streets. On the 24th of June, this block, consisting of a series of handsome three-story brick buildings, was totally destroyel by fire. There was no fire department in existence at that date, and nothing could be done to save the property. The loss was estimated at $100,000. The type, press and material of the Nonpareil were totally destroyed, as well as the Young Men's Library. Only a few of the books of the latter were saved. This disaster terminated the usefulness of the li- brary, and for a number of years no effort
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was made to supply its place. The Pierce Street Schoolhouse and the Court Street School Building were erected during the summer, at a cost of about $12,000. The latter building was placed west of the track of the North-Western Railroad to the trans- fer. The Germans organized a society, and erected a handsome brick school building, just south of the city building, and on the west side of Glen avenue. Rev. George L. Little during the same time erected a large brick building, on Sixth avenue, between Main street and Sixth street, for a young ladies' seminary, and the institution was con- ducted as such until the spring of 1870, when it was abandoned for want of patronage. It subsequently became the property of J. F. Evans, President of the First National Bank, and by him transferred, after changes in construction, into a handsome private resi- dence for his own use.
The first Turn-Verein out-door exhibition was given in August. Athletic exercises, un- der the auspices of this society, were a nov- elty, and attracted an immense crowd both by themselves and the excellent instrumental and vocal music. Omaha sent a large dele- gation, and the festivities were truly charac- teristic of the Fatherland. In the gymnastic exercises, John Epeueter drew the first prize, and Henry Lehman, of Omaha, the second.
This was what is called a " grasshopper season. " They came in clouds from the southwest, and literally covered the fields and grounds throughout the valley, eating up and devouring all kinds of vegetation, and fairly making a desert of one of the most promising agricultural regions of the West. They were not simply the grasshopper, but the locust of the plains, the same which vis- ited the region again in 1873 and 1874.
Excursions of another and less detrimental kind also occurred during the same summer.
The opening up of the new railroads, the inva- sion of the plains of Nebraska by the Union Pacific, invited and brought sight-seers, land speculators and adventurers of high and low degree in large numbers. One or two mass excursions of business men and Eastern edit- ors became the guests of the people of the city, and the latter went fairly wild in their hospitality. Among new enterprises was the establishment of a German newspaper, which first saw light as the Frie Press, under the direction of Messrs. Wenbore & Worden, in September. The paper had a splendid out- look in starting. The German business men in the town gave it substantial encourage- ment, and the large German farming element in Pottawattamie and Mills Counties were liberal in its support. It afterward changed hands, and for quite a number of years bare- ly existed. In 1880, it passed into the hands of a gentleman by the name of Peiffer, from Oregon, who, having character, ability and capital, placed the paper on its feet, and it is now again on the road to prosperity.
The election for State officers and a mem- ber of the Legislature, in October, was a spirited one. Col. Babbitt was nominated by the Democrats for Representative, and Maj. Joseph Lyman by the Republicans. Judge Casady was the Democratic candidate for State Senator, in a district composed of Pottawattamie, Mills and Fremont Counties. Maj. A. R. Anderson, of Fremont County, received the Republican nomination for the State Senate. Pottawattamie and Fremont Counties gave majorities for Casady. and elected him, and Col. Babbitt defeated Maj. Lyman in the race for Representative. Will- iam Porterfield, the Democratic candidate for County Treasurer, and Perry Reel, the candi- date of the same party for Sheriff, were also elected. Col. Samuel Merrill, the successful Republican candidate for Governor, had a
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minority of the votes in the county as against Judge Charles Mason, of Burlington, the Democratic candidate. The same season witnessed the erection of a series of brick buildings extending from Pearl to Main streets, and including Bloom's Opera House, the last being by Gen. Dodge and Sol Bloom, and the others by Samuel Haas and John T. Stewart, and used by Stewart & Haas, and afterward by the Stewart Bros., as a whole- sale grocery house, by John T. Baldwin, and by Mrs. Martha Knepper, the widow of Sam- uel Knepper, deceased. The Stewart & Haas building was at once filled with groceries and heavy goods. On the 9th day of November, the central supports in the cellar gave way, and the entire building fell in. A number of persons were within it at the time of the fall, but, though buried in the ruins, they escaped almost unhurt, and were soon extri- cated. The building was re-erected at once, but only to the height of two stories, as it now remains.
The Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad was open and ready for business as far south as Hamburg, in Fremont County, within a mile and a quarter of the Missouri line, on the 17th of December. The Directors of the road at that stage were Willis Phelps, E. W. Bond. W. M. Carson, G. M. T. Davis, Hor- ace Everett, J. P. Casady and L. W. Babbitt. Christmas night, 1867, was celebrated in the new court house by a dance gotten up by John Hammer and F. T. C. Johnson, the contractors, and a grand supper given in honor of the near completion of the edifice. In this way it was joyously dedicated, the citizens generally joining in the festivity. The next day. the citizens were treated to the spectacle of the crossing of the river by the first locomotive, on a temporary bridge sup- ported and stayed by the strong ice of the Missouri. After that each season, when the
river was firmly frozen, and until the stream was permanently bridged by the existing magnificent iron structure, a temporary bridge was used to transfer trains to the west bank with the greatest facility, from fall un- til spring, and until the ice began to move.
On New Year's night, another fire devas- tated a portion of the city. This time it as- saulted a row of wooden buildings, on the south side of Broadway, and east of the junc- tion of Bancroft street. In the absence of a proper place for a County Clerk's office, one of those wooden buildings in that quarter was used for that purpose, and was totally destroyed with a great portion of the records; not all, however. The fire was evidently the work of an incendiary, and suspicion attached, for years, to the names of several well-known citizens, as implicated, but no proof was ever reached as to the real culprit.
Considerable excitement prevailed in this section over a bold robbery, consisting of the blowing open of the Harrison County safe on the 20th of February, 1868. On the 27th of the same month, that of Mills County was dealt with in the same way, and large amounts of public money in both instances secured. The party suspected were traced to Council Bluffs, where Michael Rogers, a man of considerable means and local celebrity, was arrested, together with five others. Rogers was arrested in his own house here, and in a stove many thousands of dollars of paper currency were found. He had at- tempted to destroy it by fire, and failed. There was a disposition to lynch the prison- ers, but moderate counsels prevailed, and they were taken to the Sidney Jail for safe keeping, there being none here or at Glen- wood, or at Magnolia, that was deemed safe for that purpose. In a week or so afterward, they all escaped, and Rogers was never again heard of, except incidentally, as being in
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refuge in Canada. Subsequent developments showed that, for some years, he had been tho head and front of a gang of counterfeiters and robbers, whose operations extended over many States and Territories.
The annual election for city officers was held on the 10th of March, 1868, and result - ed in the choice of Thomas Tostern for May- or. The school election was held on the same day, and Mr. Bloomer was again chosen President of the School Board. Col. Bab- bitt, while being a useful member of the Legislature, made a humorous point in favor of Council Bluffs, by introducing a joint resolution asking Congress to relocate the capital of the United States at Council Bluff's. On the 5th of April, the Broadway Methodist Episcopal Church was dedicated, the dedicatory sermon being preached by the Rev. Dr. Eddy, of Chicago. The Odd Fel- lows, on the 26th of April, celebrated the forty-ninth anniversary of the establishment of the order. The street parade was one of the most attractive ever seen on the streets of Council Bluff's, and is still referred to by members of the order as a memorable event. The addresses were delivered in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a grand banquet at the new court house.
The 3d of May witnessed the establishment of a new daily newspaper, called the Daily Democrat, under the management of Alf S. Kierolf & Co. Mr. Kierolf was a native of Kentucky, and was a sensational political writer after the manner of Brick Pomeroy, under whose tuition he had acquired the " redhot " style of journalism. The paper was published in the interests of Democracy, and had for its office the old land office, on Broadway, where the Everett Block stands. A bitter rivalry existed between it and the Bugle, then again under the editorial control of Col. Babbitt and David Sheward, the lat-
ter of whom had the questionable honor of having been a Fort Lafayette prisoner during the war. This rivalry neutralized the suc- cess of the Democracy of the county the year before, and created a personal feud in the party that did not disappear for years. Per- sonal journalism was carried to a bitter ex. treme by these two papers. The Democrat ceased to exist in a few weeks after the de- feat of Seymour for President, an ! the elec- tion of Gen. Grant. Mr. Kierolf went to Missouri, and thence to Louisville, Ky. He was subsequently a member of the Kentucky Legislature, but he paid the penalty of his highly nervous temperament by an early death. He was a man of most generous im - pulses, though his journalistic belligerency indicated totally the contrary.
A special election was held on the 25th of June, appropriating $20,000 of the $60,000 loan for the purpose of purchasing a steam fire engine. A Silsby steamer was pur- chased, and Bluff City Engine Company or- ganized to manage the steamer. The new engine arrived on the 17th of September. An engine-house was erected in the rear of the city building, on Glen avenue. F. T. C. Johnson was made the first Chief of the fire department, when that body was once organ- ized. The Des Moines Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church was held here. beginning its sessions on the 20th of August. with Bishep Simpson as the presiding officer. The first anniversary of the city Young Men's Christian Association was held on the 6th of September, and the Rev. George L. Little was re-elected President.
The political campaign was of an unusual heated character. Club rooms were opened by both parties. The Seymour and Blair Club met at Burhop's Hall, and meetings were held at least once a week during the campaign. The Grant and Colfax Club hired
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HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
an unfinishod room in Rice's Block, west of Glen avenue, and as the campaign waxed warm meetings were held each night. At these, D. C. Bloomer, John W. Chapman, William Hale, of Glenwood, now Governor of Wyoming, Frank Street and other Repub- lican talkers, made stirring speeches. The elub was a regular tanner's organization, and in parade the members wore tanners' aprons, glazed caps and carried torches in their pro- cessions. F. W. Palmer, the present Post- master of the city of Chicago, was the Re- publican candidate for Congress. His home was then at Des Moines. He was also the editor and principal proprietor of the State Register. His Democratic opponent was P. Gad Bryan, a distinguished lawyer of In- dianola, and a good stumper. In Septem- ber, a joint discussion was had at Council Bluff's between these two candidates. Each party vied with the other in making a dem- onstration, and the two processions organized for the occasion were simply immense. No collision occurred between the marching masses. The meeting was held in the after- noon, one of the most beautiful of the many delightful days of that glorious autumn. The sun went down behind the Nebraska hills before the debate closed, and the general ver- diet was that both the contestants had acquitt- ed themselves most deservingly. The debate was reported in full for the Nonpareil by the writer of this paragraph, and published ver batim in the next morning's issue.
An amusing incident of the campaign was a wager between Judge S. H. Riddle, an ar- dent Democrat, and Capt. J. P. Williams, a no less enthusiastic Grant supporter. It was that in case of Grant's election, Riddle should don a tanner's apron, take a torch, wear a glazed cap, and march by the side of Will- iam- in a jollification procession. Williams stipulated to do the same with Riddie in case
of Seymour's election. The election of Grant was celebrated in a grand demonstration at night. Riddle kept his pledge, and when marching at the head of the column, by the side of Williams, the wildest enthusiasm and the best of good feeling prevailed, and pre- vented every thought of unpleasantness in the presence of political defeat. During the campaign, on the 22d of October, a grand free dinner was given by the Republicans, to which came people far and near. Broadway and other streets were handsomely arched, and wagons were fitted up and bevies of young ladies decked out to represent the States, to form part of the handsome proces- sion.
The summer of 1868 was an exceedingly active one in the way of improvements. The President of the United States fixed, by proc- lamation, the township in Pottawattamie County in which the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific should be located, but the pre- cise point where the bridge should be located when the time should come to build it was a matter of more than ordinary interest. Two sites were examined, and the river sounded within the city, and another four miles south, at Child's Mill. Gen. Dodge, the Chief En- gineer of the road, eventually determined upon the one where the bridge now is, and the annonncement of that selection was made to the people on the 2d day of April, and the occasion made one of demonstration and a manifestation of great joy. An impromptu mass meeting was held in front of the Pacific House, and abundance of speech-making took place and cannon were fired in honor of the result. This was not obtained, however, without some important concessions. John T. Baldwin, Horace Everett and Mayor Tos- terin had been constituted a committee to visit New York and negotiate with the officers of the Union Pacific with reference to a dona-
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tion to the company. An agreement was made that $205,000 in the bonds of the city should be donated to the railroad company, provided they would locate the bridge at the point selected by Gen. Dodge, and also pro- vided they would erect suitable passenger and freight depots within the limits of Coun- cil Bluffs. Five thousand dollars of this amount of bonds was to be applied to the se- curing of the right of way over the lands of private persons in the city. When the Union Pacific was subsequently completed, in 1869, and the bridge built over the river at a still later date, inducements of an extraordinary character were offered by the business men of Omaha, and the county of Douglas, in Ne- braska, to the company to locate their eastern terminal facilities in that city, and an im- mense union depot was erected there for the purpose of carrying out that design. The litigation which terminated favorably to Council Bluffs in that matter and settled the terminal question, belongs to a later period of these annals, and at its more appropriate place will receive the requisite attention.
July, 1868, marked the completion of the Council Bluffs & St. Joseph Railroad. This gave Council Bluffs another outlet to the East, the new road connecting with the Han- nibal & St. Joseph Railroad at St. Joseph, Mo.
Gen. Grant, then the chief of the army, and candidate for President, accompanied by Gens. Sherman, Sheridan and Frank P. Blair, who had been on a visit to western military posts, crossed from the west side of the river, and were conveyed to the depot of the St. Joseph Railroad, on the 30th of July, to take the train south. An impromptu re- ception and a cordial welcome were given these distinguished officers by the people of the city, regardless of party feeling, which otherwise then ran exceedingly high.
No year witnessed greater efforts to im- prove the condition of the public schools than that of 1868, and to keep them at a proper pace with the advance, advantages and growth of the city. Mr. Adam Armstrong, a gradu- ate of the Springfield. Ohio, College, was engaged as the first Superintendent of the city schools. He had selected this as his profession, and with the requisite experience already acquired in other fields, he proceeded to re organize the public schools of Council Bluffs on an enduring basis. The first step was in grading them. The high school was organized, and conducted first in the eastern part of the city, and then in the Washington Street building until the erection of the high school building on the bluff, on Glen avenne in the year following. Twelve teachers were employed for the public schools in this year. The year closed with great prosperity in busi. ness. Some of the most important buildings erected during the fall were the brick build- ing now occupied by D. Maltby as a grocery store, and then owned by Capt. A. L. Deming; and the three-story brick at the southwest corner of Broadway and Main streets, by Off- cer & Pusey, for the Pacific National Bank, and an Odd Fellows' hall on the third floor. J. M. Phillips, Mrs. Knepper and John Kel- ler and John Bennett also erected handsome two-story business houses during the season, on the south side of Broadway, between Main street and Bancroft street.
One of the first of a great series of law- suits, involving the liabilities of cities for injuries to passers on the sidewalks, was tried at the December term of the District Court before Judge Day. George Schidele was the owner of the lot, and had let the contract for a two-story brick building, in 1867, and which now constitutes the second one from the west side of what is known as the Non- pareil Block. All west of that was then va-
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cant lot, and persons living on the north side of Indian Creek, going by Center or Sixth Street Bridge, took a path leading across this vacant tract as a sort of a cut-off. It was claimed that no proper guards or protec- tion were thrown around this excavation made for the Schidele building, and Henry Rowell, or " Hank " Rowell, as he was called, a man given to over indulgence in liquor, when on his way home, and while attempting to find his way across this vacant lot, fell in- to the open cellar at night and shattered his leg, and became a permanent cripple. He brought suit against the city for negligence and against John P. Williams, contractor, and Schidele, as the owner of the building, and in the trial of the cause, a verdict was obtained against the city for $8,000. Clin- ton & Sapp represented the claimant, and S. J. Hanna, as City Attorney, the city. The bonds of the municipal corporation were is- sued subsequently in payment of the judg- ment. The city never, in any way, under- took to recoup itself against the contractor, and the owner, whose own negligence was the primary causo of the injury.
The act of the Legislature of 1863, creat- ing Circuit Courts, to supplement the juris- diction of the District Courts, and to increase the judicial facilities of the State, went into effect on the 1st day of January, 1869. Judge Douglass, who had been elected one of the Circuit Judges for this, the Third Dis- trict, opened court for the first time on the Sth day of February, and proceeded to re- organize the probate business of the county, it having, under the old system of adminis- tration, fallen into great confusion and un- certainty.
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