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 29
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One of the characteristics of the poltical campaign was a speech in the interest of Grant and Wilson, by Mrs. Matilda Fletcher, the noted and eloquent lecturer. She was at home here again, among her own people, and the novelty of a woman on the stump attract- ed an immense audience. Mrs. Fletcher be- gan her career as a lecturer in the winter of 1868. Her husband was a teacher in the public schools, and in failing health. His wife resolved that the burden should be shared by herself. Being a woman of considerable talent, of indomitable will and courage, she resolved to prepare a lecture and deliver it. To this end her friends approached the writer of these annals, who was then editorially con- nected with the Nonpareil, to create as favor- . able an impression as possible of her talents, in order to give her a fair start. Burhop's Hall was selected as the place of her debut. The curtain rose on seats almost empty, but woman's will was sufficient for the occasion. She had resolved, and there was no deviating from her purpose. For over one hour she
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spoke eloquently, and, ignoring the paucity of her audience, not a half-dozen in all, she went through the ordeal with as much nerve, and more, than if the house were packed. Justice was done her effort. It deserved com- mendation. It was above the ordinary plat- form address. Her career was marked out for her. She took the field in earnest, creat- ing, as she went. new lectures, one of them, " Men and their Whims," as rich in substance as ever adorned the lecture platform. When she came to Council Bluffs in a year or so afterward, with the fame and reputation as- sured, people here were eager to hear her. She had realized what Disraeli had said when hooted at in Parliament during his maiden speech-" The time will come when you will hear me." Her husband died while employed in one of the departments at Wash- ington, and since then his eloquent widow has kept her place among the talented and deserving women of this century.
The Roman Catholic girls' school, St. Francis' Academy, was erected this year. and opened under the auspices of the Sisters of Charity, on Buckingham street. It is one of the largest and most complete edifices of the kind in the State. The winter was memora- ble for another condition of things, in this, that it was visited by what was known as the epizootic among the horses. For several weeks, not an animal appeared upon the streets to perform any kind of labor. The ground was hard frozen and free from snow, and goods were handled and delivered with hand-barrows. The absence of vehicles drawn by horses during that time produced a sort of desolate silence, and the streets were as weird as they well could be imagined.
The greatest sensation of the early part of 1873 was a three card monte case, that occu- pied public attention and the police courts for some days. Rev. W. R. Mosher was liv-
ing in Story County, along the line of the North-Western Railroad. Council Bluff's was infested at that date by a gang of scoundrels known as three card monte men, men who played a game with three cards, which were marked, so that a stranger betting on the game was sure to become a victim. The con- gregation of Mr. Mosher concluded to pay his salary by donations of butter, and in that way he accumulated several hundred pounds that he concluded to sell in Council Bluffs. Taking the train, and having shipped the same by freight, and having received a bill of lading for his merchandise, he came to this city about 9 o'clock at night. Being a stranger, he fell into the hands of a hotel runner, and was conducted to a hotel on lower Broadway, where the three card monte men made their headquarters. After loiter- ing around the hotel office for some moments. he strolled into the adjoining saloon, under the same roof, and had his attention attracted to a game of cards going on at a table. It turned out to be three card moute, and the participants were of that profession, alter- nately winning and losing, to act as a decoy to the unwary. He soon had a desire to en- ter into the game, and, having no money, he staked his bill of lading for the butter against the chances of the cards in the hands of the unscrupulous manipulators, and in a trice he had lost, the winner pocketing his bill of lad- ing, and the game ended. The police, after a day or two of strife, succeeded in securing to him his lost rights; but the sensation it caused, the exposure it involved, and the dis- grace, was more than he could bear, and he went home dazed and half a maniac, a ruined man, and in a few months died with grief. Among those who plied their nefarious busi- ness here as three card monte men at that time was the notorious Canada Bill, the most expert gambler in the West. He was a tall,
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ungainly, sallow, stoop-shouldered individ- ual, and went about with a slouch hat drawn over his face, and spoke with the twang of a Texas cattle drover, and, assuming this role when acting as a capper for his gang, never failed to secure his victim. At one time he exhibited to the writer of these annals a roll of currency amounting to $11,000, which he carried in his pocket. He had one redeen- ing quality, and that was in charity. No suffering or destitute person ever applied in vain to the sympathies of Canada Bill; and even he became an object of charity, for, in about a year after his last exploit in Council Bluffs, came the telegraphic newspaper in. telligence that Canada Bill had died a pau- per in the almshouse at Reading, Penn.
Dr. N. D. Lawrence was again elected Mayor at the spring election of 1873. Judge Riddle was also chosen President of the School Board. That season, the Washington street school grounds were embellished by a handsome stone wall in its front, most effect- ually increasing the attractions of the sur- roundings. On the 31st of May, Berry & Smith, having purchased the press, type and materials of the Independent. began the pub- lication of the Daily Tribune, an independent newspaper, but it only endured a few months, and then went the way of many others. On the 31st of May, the United States Land Office was forever closed here. and the records re- moved to Des Moines, and the land district abolished.
Council Bluffs was now approaching a cri- sis in her fate. Her newspapers and citizens claimed that the legal eastern terminus had been fixed by the proclamation of President Lincoln within the city limits. The Omaha papers and people contended that the Presi- dent had simply declared that the initial point should be located on the western bound- ary of Iowa, and that was in the middle of
the river, and that its obvious construction meant, to avoid absurdity, that the road should begin on the first solid ground west of that imaginary line between the two States. The Union Pacific was in accord with the latter view. There was no proper tribunal where that question could be settled by the process of mandamus. Omaha had sent her representatives to Washington to guard against any unfriendly legislation by Con- gress on this point. Judge A. V. Larimer was in Washington at the same time, looking after the interests of Council Bluffs in the same matter. Hon. George W. MeCrary, the member of Congress from the Keokuk Dis- trict, now United States Circuit Judge, was friendly to the claim of Council Bluffs, and in a position to render important service. An appropriation bill was pending, and in charge of Mr. McCrary, of the proper com- mittee. Favoring the suggestion to give the United States Circuit Court of Iowa jurisdic- tion, in mandamus, in cases concerning the Union Pacific Railroad Company, he per- mitted Judge Larimer to write, at the close of the last section of the appropriation bill, a clause of three lines, giving that court such jurisdiction. in such cases, and the same passed the House as a " rider " to the bill. The "rider " escaped attention when the bill passed the Senate, and it became the law un- der date of March 3, 1873.
That was the first step toward securing the desired end. The next was to avail the rem- edy thus placed within reach of the citizens of Council Bluffs. It was the hazard of a long law-suit, attended by great expense. against a corporation with millions of rev- enue. Judge Larimer, aided by Col. Sapp, was equal to the emergency. Sam Hall and J. W. Morse were engaged in the business of retail grocers on Main street, in the city of Council Bluffs, and, in the way of ordinary
HISTORY OF POTTAWATTAMIE COUNTY.
trade, were shippers of produce to the West over the Union Pacific Railroad, but, in the conduct of their business, were compelled to transport their merchandise to Omaha by or- dinary land carriage and ferriage, before it would be received by the Union Pacific for transportation to its destination. In this they were subjected to the same obstructions as all other local shippers from Council Bluffs were. Judge Larimer procured them to offer the Union Pacific a shipment west in Council Bluffs. and, failing to accept the consign- ment, he prepared to test the validity of their claim that they were not bound by law to op erate their road as one continuous line, in- cluding the bridge transfer, from [Council Bluffs to Ogden, their western terminus. Hall and Morse were neither in a condition to make the fight alone. nor had they the dis- position to hazard all they had in such an at- tempt, one from which others better able had shrunk. Judge Larimer assumed all the risk of the conflict, and indemnified Hall and Morse against any possible loss or damage. To secure the costs and to comply with all necessary orders in the mandamus case. he prevailed upon Peter Bechetele, the public- spirited proprietor of the Farmers' Hotel, to become surety in thousands of dollars, in the bond required in that class of cases, also in- demnifying Mr. Bechetele against loss. With these preliminaries arranged. he set about collecting all the evidence necessary to make out a case. Judge John F. Dillon. then Judge of the United States Circuit Court at Des Moines. after examining the petition prepared by Judge Larimer and Col. Sapp. and after argument. in which the Union Pa- citic was represented by the Hon. A. J. Pop- pleton, made an alternative order in manda- must either to operate their road to and from Council Bluffs as one continuous line, or show cause why the same should not be done.
In answering this order. the railway company set up the order of President Lincoln, made on the 7th day of March, 1564, and their construction upon it as really establishing the " initial point " within the limits of the city of Omaha, and not in Council Bluffs. This pleading was answered by Hall and Morse, and upon that issue the case was heard by Judge Dillon. At this stage of it, at the instance of the city authorities of Council Bluffs, the Hon. John N. Rogers, of Davenport, was called into the case on behalf of Hall and Morse. The city authorities had no power, under the city charter, to employ counsel for such a purpose, but the matter was of such public importance that the irreg- ularity was most cheerfully condoned by the people, especially in view of the final result.
After examining the whole case, Judge Dillon decided adversely to the Union Pa- cific, and made the writ of mandamus abso- lute. compelling them to operate their road ac cording to the claim of Council Bluffs. From this order the Union Pacific appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. The accumulation of business in that court prom- ised an indefinite prolongation of the contro- versy pending the appeal, but, recognizing the highly important character of the issue, not only to those locally concerned, but to those who furnished the traffic for so import- ant aseries of highways, the case was taken out of its order, advanced on the docket, and argued and heard far in advance of any pos- sibility had it been allowed to take its own course. The case was decided by the Su- preme Court in October, 1875. Justice Strong reading the opinion of the court affirming the final order made by Judge Dillon, and a second time and for all time to come. estab- lishing as law the claim made in the begin- ning by the citizens of Council Bluffs. The only dissenting Judge was Bradley, who read
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a short opinion, viewing the case from the standpoint of the Union Pacific. adhering, in his judgment, to the theory that, inasmuch as the western boundary of Iowa is in the middle of the channel of the Missouri River, the President must have meant to locate the " initial point " of the railroad on the first solid ground west of that changeable and changing demarkation.
In obedience to that order, the Union Pa- cific at once proceeded to carry it out. Then began the erection of their handsome and substantial passenger depot and hotel, on the 1,200-acre tract secured for railroad purposes years before, and the Iowa roads, acting in concert, proceeded to co-operate with the Union Pacific. The wide gap of space be- tween the Transfer and the central part of the city at once began to be occupied. until now it is, in fact, one continuous city. The City Council, in liquidating the claim of Mr. Rogers for professional services, paid him $5,000 out of the city treasury. Neither Col. Sapp nor Judge Larimer received any compensation, nor asked for it, for their share in the work. As soon as the decision was announced and the intelligence reached Coun- cil Bluffs, it was hailed with manifestations of intense joy. A platform was erected at the intersection of Bancroft and Broadway. an immense meeting was held, cannon were fired, congratulatory speeches made, and res- olutions passed of the most grateful chiarac- ter, commendatory of all who had aided the result.
The annual conference of Latter-Day Saints was held again, in September, 1873, in the grove at Parks' Mill. Joseph Smith, Jr., presided over its deliberations, and the at- tendance was the largest ever had at any of their meetings.
On the 26th of August, a tragedy occurred in Garner Township, resulting in the death
of a young farm hand named Charles Gran- ville. He and an old citizen named Thomas Davis, a man of intensely high temper, were threshing at Mr. Garner's, and engaged in an altercation. Mr. Davis had a knife in his hand. with which he was opening bundles, and, in the fracas, he cut out the bowels of young Granville and killed him. Mr. Davis was tried for murder, and convicted of man- slaughter, and sentenced to the penitentiary by Judge Reed for six years, but, after serv- ing about two years, he was pardoned by the Governor.
Council Bluffs, like every other city in the country, felt the effects of the monetary panic in 1873. The effect of it was to suspend im- provements. The grasshoppers had devas- tated large sections of the surrounding coun- try, and made special inroads in Nebraska in quarters otherwise specially tributary to Council Bluffs. Real estate was stagnant. Hard times pressed heavily upon the poor and those dependent upon labor for subsis- tence. Heavy drafts were made upon those who were able and willing to dispense char- ity, and at no time in the history of the city were there so many pressing calls for that kind of assistance. The banks here in ope- ration at that time were the First National, the Pacific National, the Council Bluffs Sav- ings Bank, and the banking house of Officer & Pusey. Neither of these institutions sue. cumbed to the general pressure. ' Their con- servatism saved them from the worst features of the panic-suspension of payments. Not for one moment, during the height of the panic, when banks everywhere else, almost, were posting notices of suspension, did the Council Bluffs banks indicate any purpose of wavering.
On the 18th of November, 1873, Council Bluffs, or those having a taste for such events. enjoyed a sensation in the shape of a prize
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fight, preparations for which were made in Omaha, and the details of which were to be carried out in Mills County, near Pacific City, and near the south line of Pottawattamie County. The prize ring contestants were the noted fighters, Tom Allen and Ben Hogan. For several days the rumor gained ground in sporting circles in Omaha, where the pugil- ists were quartered, that they intended to cross over into Iowa, pass through this city, and fight in this State. Sheriff Doughty and other well-disposed citizens resolved to pre- vent the conflict, and Gov. Carpenter was notified of the facts. Council Bluffs had a piece of artillery here, a twelve-pounder, left over from the civil war, and this was in charge of an artillery company, on paper, of which Charles E. Provost was the nominal Captain. Late on the night of the 17th, he began telegraphing the Governor, and re- ceived an order to take his gun to the transfer, meet the train with the pugilists and their friends as they came to this side of the river. He had the gun dragged with horses that night, and nnlimbered on the platform, but not an ounce of ammunition or a man to serve it. The Governor also sent the Olmstead Zouaves, a military company from Des Moines, to assist in preventing a breach of the peace. Sheriff Doughty and the military, a little after daylight on the morning of the 18th, stood shivering on the bleak platform for an hour or more, in anxious expectation of the arrival of the train. It came in sight at last. as the smoke and steam from its engine curled up over the great iron bridge, and the military and the excited spectators were on tiptoe for the event. The pugilistic party were on a train of the Kansas City road; the military were told off into squads and board- ing parties; their arms were loaded and fixed for a deadly assault; but the train merely slacked up as it came along side of the plat-
form. Sheriff' Doughty got aboard, but, be- fore he could make his errand understood. his voice "was drowned by a terrific vell, steam was put on, and the train pushed ahead with swiftness, leaving the military a gaping crowd on the platform.
Upon arriving opposite Pacific City, on the level bottom land, the train discharged its mob, and preparations were made to begin the fight. The ring was formed, the stakes driven and the rope stretched, when a Mills County Constable came up to stop the fight. Several of the stoutest of the spectators took the officer and pitched him over the fence into an adjoining field, and he was glad to have even so much of an obstruction between him and them. The battle began, and, after sev- eral rounds, the friends of the respective par- ties broke into the ring. the fight became gen- eral in a row. and the disgraceful affair ended without a decision on the part of the princi- pals.
At the spring election of 1874, W. C. James was elected Mayor. H. H. Field, R. L. Douglass, J. B. Lewis, John Hanthorn. E. L. Shugurt, W. A. Wood, George Tabor and Horace Everett constituted the City Council. Henry A. Jackson was elected City Marshal. The importance of the office had considerably diminished. owing to the fact that the col- lection of the city taxes had been taken from that officer and transferred to the County Treasurer, Perry Reel, who had been elected to that office in the fall of 1873, and was the incumbent, having defeated Mr. Chapman, who was seeking a third election. The most active principle in politics in this section at that date was the effect of the Granger law, as it was called, by which fares and tariffs were limited in railway transportation. The anti-monopoly movement, the fall before, had so far swept the State that they were able to dictate the organization of the House at Des
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Joseph KnoTh
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Moines, and the law which was the result of that success was going through the crucible of experiment. The Congressional campaign was not without interest at the same time. The Republicans of the district nominated James W. McDill without any contest. The anti-monopolists, however, took control of the Democratic nomination, and Fremont and Mills Counties, practically dictated the nom- ination of Anson Rood at their eonven- tion at Council Bluffs. The nomination was received with derision and profound dissat- isfaction by many who, the year before, had labored for and earnestly hoped for a change.
After the retirement of Col. John W. Ross from the management of the Ogden House, the owners of the building, Messrs. Garner, Banghan and Hammer, undertook to keep it open, with Mr. Baughan as the direet mana- ger. A little before daylight on the 13th of October, 1874, the building took fire from some cause, in one of the inner rooms, on the upper floor, and by dawn the structure was a gaping mass of ruins. The lofty walls stood for a month or so, when a gale of wind blew the east one to the ground, crushing, in the fall, two small brick buildings which stood beneath it. The ground and brick ruins were sold by Garner, Baughan and Hammer to John T. Baldwin, and, in 1876, with the aid of a donation of about $10,000 from the citizens, he rebuilt the edifice, on the plan on which it now exists, avoiding the mansard roof, which, in the late fire, prevented the firemen from reaching the exposed part of the building in time to save it.
Among the auxiliaries devised in 1874 to aid the prosperity of the city, was the organi - zation of the Merchants' Exchange Club. with Horace Everett as its first President. This organization was perfected on the 6th of April. 1874. A suite of rooms was rented in the west end of Everett's Block, on Broad-
way, for the meetings of the club, and they were kept open day and night, for visitors and members. Some of the most important measures affecting the city and its interests were here discussed during the existence of the club for two years. It finally fell into désuetude: it failed to excite interest; and in the end, it yielded up its life. One of the meetings was signalized, in Angust. 1875. by a banquet, on a Saturday night, at which there flowed a considerable quantity of cham- pagne. The speech-making of the occasion was of the richest imaginable character.
The winter of 1874 was one of steady gain in growth and prosperity, and the spring opened hopefully. In March, 1875, Council Bluffs lost one of its oldest and most esteemed I citizens in the death of Dr. P. J. McMahon. He had lingered with disease all winter, and at times there were faint hopes of his recov- ery, but at last the announcement was made that he to whom thousands were indebted for their lives, was no more. On one of the bright Sundays of early spring, his remains were borne to Walnut Hill Cemetery by a long concourse of his brother Masons, and of citi- zens who revered him for his rugged and manly virtues. The Masonic services at the grave were impressively rendered by N. F. Story, the Worshipful Master of Excelsior Lodge.
The annual city election in 1575 was an exceedingly quiet one. C. B. Jacquemin, the senior member of the jewelry firm of C. B. Jacquemin & Co., a Republican, was chosen as Mayor. W. P. Wightman, F. O. Gleason, Peter Bechtele and Henry H. Metcalf were at the same time elected Aldermen.
One of the most noted events, aside from the decision of the Union Pacific question. that summer and fall, was an extensive flood that deluged the city on the night of the 31st of May. The rain set in about half past 6
M
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o'clock in the evening. and continued for over four hours. Every glen poured its contents into Broadway, which, in turn, emptied itself in torrents into Indian Creek, or swept in great swales. off southward to the flat lands below the city. The house of James N. Riley was struck by lightning, in the southern sec- tion, near the bluffs, and. before the alarm of fire could be heard above the raging storm, the house and its contents were in ashes, and the frightened inmates barely able to seek shelter from the flood elsewhere. One of the most important and expensive law-suits in which the city over engaged, resulted from this flool. A culvert led across Broadway, near the residence of William Powers. This had been obstructed in the laying of a gas main along that street, and, when the torrents came down the gorge, the sewer overflowed, the tide swept across the street, over his lots, and drove a huge stone wall with impetuosity into the creek, making it a mere pile of ruins. It cost the city about $1,800 to satisfy the claimant for his damage, growing out of a matter of neglect that might have been avoided by a few hours' work.
The impulse given to business after the re- sult of the Union Pacific decision was a healthy and steady one. Preparations were at once made for a building boom in the spring of 1876-an impulse that has not abated from that day to this. During the long controversy, doubt lingered in the minds of the most hopeful, andjretardedj some of the most necessary enterprises, but, now that the long-drawn agony was over, there was a steadiness of purpose and a confidence that never was equaled before. One of the evi- dences of this was the erection of the hand- some block at the corner of Broadway and Pearl streets by Horace Everett, and the Whitney building, occupied by the Metcalf brothers; and the Keller & Bennett block, at
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