USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 14
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nook was the domicile of his host, whom he seems to have neglected to name. All around it was beautiful scenery, on the northwest fine timber, while on the east and south was a vast and rich prairie, slightly descend- ing southward. At his friend's hospitable mansion, he found good cheer and pleasant company, and the following morning, he attended Sabbath school and listened to a sermon by Rev. Swearingen in the afternoon at the school house. This was a comfortable frame building, occupying a pleasant location.
Also the editor made a trip across the country to Webster City and back by the way of Homer. Homer was correctly referred to in his report as being "nearly finished." This village was immediately east of the county line between what are now Hamilton and Webster counties and near the fork of the Des Moines and Boone rivers. Its location had been very promising at the time when Boone and Webster counties were a single county under the name of Webster; for Homer was the county seat of the consolidated county, with all the prospects legitimately pertaining to the center of 32 or more congressional townships of undeveloped but prepossessing prairie; but when the counties were divided and two new county seats established, then the hopes of Homer declined, and the visit- ing editor was ready to anticipate its final demise as early as July, 1857.
On this trip, Editor Thrall stopped at Story City, where he found his friend Morganson at his counter ready for customers; though troubled . with a bad felon on his finger, yet in good, jovial spirits as was his wont. He appeared to be doing a good, big business in the way of catering to the wants of his customers. Thence he entered upon the long territory which commenced at this point, and was soon out of Story. Hamilton county, though a fine country as far as was observed, was not, in the editor's opinion, quite so good as Story in several respects. Where broken, Hamilton was the more broken, and where level was more so than Story. Webster City was found to be a thriving business town of some one hun- dred inhabitants. No county buildings had yet been erected. There was a fine tavern, several stores, and at the office of the Hamilton Freeman, which was already established, he found Mr. Aldrich, the publisher. It was a good office, and the publisher was reported as doing a fair busi- ness, and appeared to be a whole-souled gentleman. Homer, he found, as noted, to be nearly finished, and he there visited Judge Smith at the Cottage House. Mr. Almsteed had a fine house at Saratoga, six miles east of Homer, where a short stop was made. The crops looked fine along the whole route, though the corn along Skunk river seemed the most forward of any. Wheat and oats were being cut on several farms. The Norwegians were settling along the road, and they appeared to be good farmers. Over 50 of them had settled in the county during the season.
Along in May, 1858, there was another and quite surprising evidence that the county was progressing; for the editor reports, without any evidence of excitement, however, on his own part, that considerable excitement had
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been raised in town on the previous Saturday by the announcement that gold had been discovered in the creek just west of town, and quite a num- ber had hurried with pans and shovels to the diggings. The editor procured all the specimens said to be discovered that he could find, and, after test- ing, discovered that he had ten specimens of brass and two of gold. The editor reached the conclusion that there might be gold in Iowa, but he was inclined to believe that it could only be found in the soil, and that only by using plow, shovel and hoe industriously on the rich prairies.
There is also, in this same time, the suggestion that the Eldorado in the west which the emigrant was ever seeking, was being looked for farther westward than the residents on the yet only partially settled prairies of Iowa thought to be necessary. The Advocate quotes on this subject, from the Davenport Gazette, to the regretful effect that the excitement for the far west was tremendous, and emigrants and others were over- looking some of the very best lands in the whole northwestern country, when they left the fine lands of Iowa to go to Kansas and Nebraska be- cause the excitement was there; for lands in Iowa and Illinois could be bought cheaper by 25 per cent than in the territories, meaning Kansas and Nebraska, and their advantages were from 25 to 100 per cent greater. The actual settler was advised to go at once and enter himself a farm while he might, of the large amount of the very best quality of lands yet to be entered in Iowa; for Iowa was making rapid strides toward great- ness, and a few years would make her one of the wealthiest states in the union.
About the same time, the Iowa State Journal at Des Moines, published a description of central Iowa, in which it described Story County as em- bracing a large amount of fine prairie, lying between the streams. The amount of timber land in the county was estimated from government sur- veys, at 21,800 acres, and by the census of 1856, there were in the county of occupied and improved land, 8,484 acres, and of unoccupied and un- improved land, 52,045. According to this author, there were in 1856 of religious denominations represented, the Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian organizations. The Skunk river was described as a fine stream, which description does not harmonize well with other reports and perhaps discredits somewhat the prospectus, and says, more truthfully, that the prairie soil is deep, rich and productive. The line of the Iowa Central Railroad is described as nearly bisecting the county east and west. This railroad, be it noted, having been at the time a paper railroad, fitly called the Air Line, and hoping ultimately to be able, by the aid of the land grant which was later forfeited for lack of construction, actually to con- struct the same. Stove coal was stated to be found here, which was true over on Squaw creek on the western border of the county, and has later been true of other portions of the county, although not in quantities that were profitably worked. In Nevada, the Shire-town, and Iowa Center were
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the principal towns of the county and the only ones that were apparently thought worthy of mention.
In all of this time, the travel across the country was generally over prairie routes and by private conveyance. The first postoffice was at Nevada, in 1853, T. E. Alderman being the only settler and inevitably the post- master, and mail was established, with a weekly service over a route to Des Moines, J. P. Robinson being the first mail carrier. Along in 1857, J. A. Fitchpatrick then a youth on his father's farm, in what is now Ames, on the east side of the Squaw creek, was the carrier on a mail route which was then established from Nevada, by way of Bloomington, to New Philadelphia, the postoffice at Bloomington, being known as Camden. This was Mr. Fitchpatrick's earliest public service, and for one round trip each week, he received the compensation of 75 cents. Mail service and travel both gradually improved, however; and whereas, the earliest definite routes of travel had been indicated by a furrow plowed across the prairie from one settlement to another, affording sometimes the only safe guide for the traveler across the otherwise unmarked country, there came to be established from time to time, definite state roads, which were con- structed in the most favorable locations with little, if any regard to section lines, and which were more or less improved where the necessity for such improvement was most obvious at the crossings of streams and sloughs.
These roads led very much more directly from one town to another than by the present highways as between towns that are not on the same parallel of latitude or meridian of longitude; and for this reason, they have, in later years been generally lost sight of in the reconstruction of the highways existing upon lines of the government survey. The most im- portant of these roads across the county, came from Marietta in Marshall County, by way of Clemons Grove thence across Sherman Township to the crossing of East Indian, south of Johnson's Grove, and thence across Richland to Nevada. At Nevada, it crossed by the west ford, near the southwest corner of the Nevada cemetery, thence across the prairie to Bloomington, and from there to New Philadelphia. There were branches southwest from Nevada, from the lower ford, direct to the Skunk river crossing near Cambridge, this being the main route to Des Moines; while southeastward, there was a route through Iowa Center to the county line at Peoria, where it divided in the directions of Newton and Des Moines. As the railroad progressed westward, and the travel increased, a hack line was established over the route from Marietta and from there to Des Moines or Boonsborough; and, when the railroad in the latter part of the war period, finally reached here, the traffic by the Western Stage Com- pany, over this route, became very considerable; that is, for stage travel, but in the fifties, there was very little actually of this sort of service. Col. Scott records that he tramped into town in 1856, and, as a general rule, the traveler who could not furnish his own outfit or find accommodation
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with some one going in the same direction, had to walk or depend upon such facilities as the mail carrier was able to afford.
But all of this time, the county had been developing. It was not yet a great county, but, at the beginning of 1860, it had a considerable popula- tion and well-defined politics, had made the beginnings from which were to result the first great railroad and the very great institution of practical education; and, without knowing what it was really doing it was getting into shape to bear its share in the great struggle for the Union, which was soon to come. As the initial action of the county, in respect to this struggle, it is recorded in the Advocate of January 11, 1860, with most discouraging brevity, as follows: "As per public notice, the republicans of Story County met at the court house and organized by calling J. P. Robinson to the chair, and appointing R. R. Thrall secretary, the object of the meeting be- ing to appoint delegates to attend the state convention to be held at Des Moines, on the 18th inst. and elect delegates to attend the republican na- tional convention; for the purpose of nominating a candidate for president and vice president. It proceeded at once to business and appointed E. C. Evans, T. C. McCall, Geo. Child and P. A. Queal, delegates, and T. C. Davis, M. F. Baldwin, J. H. Miller and F. Thompson, as alternates." There are no comments and there are no suggestions of controversy; but this mass convention, apparently not very largely attended, and certainly occa- sioning no excitement, was the part which the people of Story County, in their individual capacity, took in the nomination of Lincoln. How many of these delegates actually attended the state convention, we do not know, but T. C. McCall did attend, and he lent his best endeavors to the election of John A. Kasson as delegate at large to the national convention. The delegation which Iowa elected to that convention was considerably larger than the number of delegates to which the state was entitled, and the dele- gates had to cast fractional votes, and these were considerably divided as to the candidates; but Kasson was made the Iowa member of the com- mittee on resolutions, and is credited with having been one of the chief framers of the platform on which Lincoln was elected; so Story County was early and effectively lending its influence in support of the political movement that was soon to succeed, but opposition to which would involve the country in a consuming struggle.
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CHAPTER XIII. PIONEER REMINISCENCES.
MAJOR S. P. O'BRIEN-'52 AND LATER-INTERVIEW BY JESSIE B. PAYNE.
It was only fitting that it should be a mellow autumn day that I was permitted to have my chat with the silver-haired major and his smiling wife. One naturally expects a hush to have settled down over a room where even a semi-invalid is confined but there is no gloom-nothing but brightness and good cheer in the room where Major O'Brien sits in his wheeled chair. His mind is clear and his speech unimpeded. And Major Parley Sheldon, who kindly presented me to this venerable couple of the old and new Ames remarked, "You may have infirmities, Major, but they're not of mind, not of mind." In a smiling, unassuming manner then the Major proceeded to give some pioneer stories, and I have tried not to spoil them by changing a word. Major O'Brien said:
It was the 27th of October in 1852 that I first came to this county- to Ames? No, Lord bless your life, there wasn't any. I settled on a squatter's claim about a mile northeast of the present site of Ames (on s. e. 1/4 sec. 35, township 84, range 24). Some of the real history mak- ing events which you can find in any Iowa history were very firmly im- pressed on my mind in those first years. Story County was organized in 1853, in the month of April under the supervision of Judge McCall of Boone County who divided the county into two townships for election purposes. The west half he called Skunk Township and the east half Indian Creek Township. I was at the organization and at the first election but lacked a few days of being a legal voter.
As they neglected to elect a county assessor at that first election I was . appointed to that office by Judge E. C. Evans to take the assessment in July, 1853. At that time there were 109 families in the county, most of whom lived in tents or wagons. In my first assessment I found one man, Wm. Parker, who said he had settled in the southeast corner of the county in 1849, and I judged he had from the looks of things around. In April, 1854, I was elected to the office of school fund commissioner, which office is now extinct. While acting in that capacity I sold several pieces of school lands. Among others a quarter section each to Wm. K. Wood,
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Jesse Wood, and Chris Wood. Wm. K. Wood, is living on the same land today.
The first court was held in Judge Evans' cabin on the Skunk river, be- fore Nevada was located. At that time Barnabas Lowell was arraigned and indicted for the murder of his wife. He was later convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary for life. I had the pleasure of helping put the irons on the old fellow.
Joe Thrift, of Boone County, and Johnson Edgar (of Jasper County) located Nevada. I lived in a cabin on the Skunk river at the time Joe was making his first investigations and witnessed an amusing incident that I used to tell on Joe occasionally. After he got him in the water Joe's horse decided not to swim and turned over on his side until he rolled Joe off into the stream which was pretty much swollen at the time. Then the horses struck out and swam and beat Joe across, and stood on the bank and waited all dripping for Joe who came out also dripping and in not the best temper.
Judge McFarland presided at the first term of court held in Nevada, at which time court was held in a cabin that stood on the lot now occupied by the opera house in Nevada. At this term I was admitted to the bar. Many stories are told of the old judge and I remember one of his friends said in those early days that the judge couldn't sit on a case intelligently unless he had a quart of brandy in him. In the mornings Judge McFar- land would go out and kill enough prairie chickens to last us all day and Mrs. Alderman would cook them for us.
There was plenty of the simple life in those days with no special effort made to get back to nature. The country was full of game, elk, deer, wolves, foxes, and the like. At one time I remember my brother-in-law, H. J. Hiestand, and I stood still on a piece of prairie just north of where Ames is now situated and counted 52 deer grazing in the hollow. Counting all your circuses you have probably never seen more than a dozen in your life, have you? Well in those days they were no curiosity and it was well for us that they were so plentiful. Venison was a staple and add to it corn bread, fat pork, potatoes and coffee and you have very nearly the sum total of the unprinted menu of the times. We had no fruit. no Knick-nacks and what groceries we had to buy, we got in Des Moines and the trip took three or four days. We did most of our hauling with oxen, and when we were first settling I used to take my own grain and that of all the neigh- bors behind from 4 to 6 yokes of oxen to Oskaloosa to be milled. The mail was also an occasion for travel, as the nearest postoffice was at Boons- borough, now the fifth ward of Boone. I remember too, that the lumber for the first frame house in this county was hauled from up on Boone river. Traveling was no simple matter either with oxen or horses. A good deal of land was not cleared and we had great times getting across rivers. There were no bridges and there was much more high water in the streams here than there is now. Men often swam their horses across unless the horse was
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of an independent turn of mind like Joe Thrift's. We frequently had visits from the Musquakie Indians who would camp on Skunk bottom in the winters. My children played with the Indian children often out in the woods. The Indians would never eat with the whites, but they were honest and straight and always peaceable.
In June, 1853, I. N. Briley, who now is a resident of Ames, was born, and he was the first white boy born in the county and my son Sam was the second.
The government land sales were interesting affairs. We had to go to Des Moines and wait until our township was called before we could enter our land and sometimes this required a wait of several days. It seems as though the early settlers had implicit confidence in each other as to their honesty and integrity, and an incident at one of the land sales that I recall is indicative of a very general attitude. Judge E. C. Evans was in the land office at Des Moines waiting his time when another man whom he did not know and in fact had never seen before, came in and while they were both waiting they compared notes on the length of their prospective waits, and finding they would each have to wait two or three days before they could enter their land, the stranger, a Mr. Sowers, said it would be foolish for them both to remain in Des Moines when one could do the business. So he gave Judge Evans the description of the land, three 80 acre lots, which he wished to enter and gave him $300 in gold with which to buy the land and went home. Before he saw or heard from the land he had forgotten the name of the Judge, but afterwards by accident met him and received receipts for his money from the land office. This was a case of absolutely depending on honor. Judge Evans later went one time to enter land for himself and ยท neighbors and had so much gold coin that he put it in a sack and carried it in front of his saddle. The men of those days sometimes carried as much as $3,000 or $4,000 on their journeys and carried it fearlessly.
ATTY. A. K. WEBB.
A. K. Webb has lived in Story County for the most of his life but is now in the practice of law at Wagner, Oklahoma. Writing from that place in June, 1910, he said :
"My parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Webb, came from the state of In- diana to Iowa in the spring of 1848 and settled at Trullinger's Grove in Polk county, three miles north of where Mitchellville is now located. Our first need was that of a cow; and, being short on money, Father and we boys cut and split 3,000 rails for Eli Trullinger for the needed cow. In the spring of 1852, we moved from Polk County to Story County and settled on the old home farm near Iowa Center, a town which was subsequently surveyed and platted by Jeremiah Cory, Jr., in 1853 or 4. This farm remained the family home during the life time of my parents. Father built and operated the first saw mill and flouring mill in Story County. It was near Iowa Center. I
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was present, as a boy, and saw the commissioners drive the stake that located the county seat of Story County at what is now known as Nevada, Iowa. I had walked most of the way from Iowa Center to witness the great trans- action, and I remembered well the heavy rain that overtook us on the way up. Nearly all who witnessed the exciting scene of that day have passed beyond the River of Death."
THE STOLEN MILL.
Another story which is not told on the authority of Major O'Brien but which is told of a matter concerning him by one that is supposed to know and which is quite as significant of pioneer law and justice as anything that has been reported on that subject, runs as follows :
In 1857 and for many years thereafter the talk of the town and sur- rounding country as well was of the remarkable feat of stealing and carrying away a sawmill previously located just west of the block where W. G. Wright and George W. Hemstock now live in the southwest part of Nevada. The mill and fittings were new and had lately been erected by one John Parker, who sold it to Capt. S. P. O'Brien; but it appears that the material used in the construction had not been paid for. O'Brien put everything he had into the mill and a mechanic's lien of $400 was filed which he also paid. Shortly afterwards a Pittsburg firm filed another claim of $1,400, and R. D. Coldren, who lived on the hill just above the mill, acting as deputy sheriff, took possession of the outfit, and Capt. O'Brien threw up his hands and gave everything up as lost. However in a few days thereafter the people of Nevada on getting up one morning found that the mill had passed away in the night, and it has always been said it was never heard of afterwards.
During the present week the writer casually called upon Capt. O'Brien, who is now a cripple living in Ames, to have a few moments chat over old times, and while we were talking over the incidents of the Fourth of July exhibition of fifty years ago, Elijah Purvis, another old comrade, came up and joined in and it soon developed that Purvis was the man who had en- gineered the deal in carrying away the saw mill, and he being asked to state the particulars readily did so about as follows :
The neighbors and friends of O'Brien upon hearing of his misfortune thought it was too bad for their friend to lose all he had in a venture of that kind and they got together and agreed upon a plan of action. They gathered up forty yoke of oxen and several wagons and started for Nevada. Purvis gave twenty-five cents for a gallon jug of the best whiskey he could find and came on a few hours ahead with his ox team. He drove in by way of the mill and meeting Coldren there seemed surprised to find him at that place; and after chatting a while pulled out his jug and invited the deputy to drink, which he readily did and seemed to like the flavor of the whiskey. After some further talk Purvis insisted he must be moving; but after being treated again Coldren insisted that he stay all night. Purvis could not hear of such a
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thing, and moved on up town and in a short time returned the same way. They talked and proceedings as before were repeated and Purvis finally agreed it would be best to turn his oxen in until after supper at least. They went to the house, taking the jug of course. Mrs. Coldren prepared supper and also a quantity of egg nog. By eleven o'clock Coldren and his helper were beastly drunk and retired.
Purvis hitched up his team and repaired to the mill just in time to meet the other neighbors, and they went to work dismantling the structure in short order and loading up the machinery and boiler, which weighed several tons. they then struck out across the prairie for Skunk river which they reached in the early morning and hid the loot in the woods for the day.
Some time that day Coldren recovered and seeing no signs of the mill went out to see Purvis whom he found at home, and who expressed himself as very much surprised to hear that the mill had disappeared, and proffered assistance in looking it up. Elijah soothed Coldren with more egg nog and a bountiful meal, and the deputy then returned to Nevada, reporting that he could get no trace of the stolen property.
The next night the outfit was taken over to the Des Moines river and hid in the timber, and sometime thereafter it was sold to other parties and removed farther up the river, Capt. O'Brien realizing very little if anything in the venture.
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