USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 21
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For a long time thereafter, I could call the roll of that school. The in- evitable separations of life carried me away, and except two elsewhere noted, I have seen only a few of those boys and girls, and those few at long intervals, but the memory of those days come into my mind as often. and linger as dearly, as the happiest of all the days since.
Harry Boyes and Jason D. Ferguson followed Addison Davis and my- self to Mount Vernon. We all early enlisted in the Civil war. Ferguson fell at Shiloh. Being in different regiments, we saw little of each other, as we have since, but the memory of these friends of my youth is as clear, as warm, as abiding as it was then.
Another friend made in the Macomber days was George W. Crossley, now Colonel Crossley. Similarity of tastes, of hopes and aspirations drew us together. When I went away to school I did not see him again, until the close of the first day's battle at Shiloh, when he came to the right of the regiment in which I was. His was the first face out of our own com- mand which I knew and which I had seen that day. When he came up, extended his hand with its ever warm grasp and spoke my name, it seemed as if the sight of no friend, alive and unharmed, after such a day, could have given greater pleasure. I knew his wife, too, in those early days, and among the cherished names of my youth and later years, none are more dear than Col. and Mrs. Crossley.
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The winter of 1856-7, I lived, as I did a good deal of the time during my stay in Nevada, at the Nevada House, with landlord John McLain. That winter there were among others at the hotel, John Scott and his brother "Bar," Isaac Walker, James C. Lovell, names long identified with the town and vicinity. I am deeply indebted to Col. Scott for many things of great value to a young boy. He was a man of moods and some eccentric- ities, but sound to the core on many lines, and a friend of boys if they would give him a chance. I lived to tell him in his later years how much his words and example had done for me.
I worked at my trade on the first court house, on the first school house, and I think on the first church built in Nevada, and on many residences. In the spring of 1859, before work began, I helped Mr. Crossley plant corn on his farm just across the Skunk river. A part of the farm is now a part of the town of Ames. We "backed it," and planted corn with an old hand dropper, and a part of it without the dropper. On July 4 of that year, with a great crowd, I went to help celebrate the location of the agricul- tural college at what is now Ames, and in the same year attended the first county fair at Nevada. There were a number of families who were al- ways nice to me, and I have ever held them in kindliest memory. Uncle Davy Child and George Child, Major Hawthorn, R. D. Coldren, Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, John Stephens, the father of Mrs. Sam Statler and Mrs. Smith and their brother Thomas. The Letsons, the home of the parents of Nathan G. Price and Abby Price, Thompson, and others. The passing years have not dimmed the memory of those early friends.
H. H. ROOD.
HON. W. V. ALLEN .- NEVADA IN THE '50S.
Hon. W. V. Allen, from 1893 to 1901, a senator from Nebraska at the national capitol, was in his boyhood a resident of Nevada, and with his people lived in a little house that still stands on Pine street, being the sec- ond on the west side, south from Fourth avenue south. He left Nevada be- fore the war, but was in the war closely associated with many of the Story County boys, as a member of the Thirty-second Iowa Infantry, al- though his company was not K, to which the Story County contingent other- wise belonged. In later years he has been an occasional visitor here with his cousin, M. C. Allen; and it was during one of these visits here that he made a tour of the town, looking up landmarks of the early day and haunts familiar to his boyhood. The vicinity of the city park stirred some recollec- tions which indicated that the epitome of the Nebraska statesman was a decidedly live boy with traits remarkably like those of boys today. Point- ing to the site of the John M. Wells residence, the visitor remarked, "Over there is where Uncle Will (W. G. Allen, whom you remember) found me with some other boys throwing stones at the windows of an empty house and trounced me all of the way home. Uncle Will, inasmuch as my own
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father was not living, exercised considerable guardianship over me and tried to make me a very proper youngster."
Turning westward the retrospect was of the old ford-the Sycamore street crossing of the West Indian which is still used, but which long since lost its distinction as the only feasible crossing place, during most of the year, for a considerable distance north and south. Mr. Allen said, "My most vivid recollection of the Old Ford is that its immediate vicinity was the location of a dog fight. I had a dog-you, M. C., gave him to me- that was the pride of my heart. He had licked every other dog in town, and you know how glorious such a possession is to a boy. One day some movers camped down here by the ford who had a dog which they boasted could lick any other dog on the prairie. Directly there was a battle and my dog came off victor. O, but that was a glorious day !"
There was hint of a gentling force destined to rival even the paternal- ism of revered "Uncle Will" in subduing barbaric tendencies, as Mr. Allen remarked, "Over on the hill beyond the creek was the Sam Briggs place, where I planted potatoes while Mollie Armstrong dropped them for me."
Mr. Allen recalled one establishment of the early day that has been seldom mentioned of late years. It was the tannery located on Sycamore street where it descends the hill toward the ford. There Mr. J. R. Myers had some vats and converted green hides into leather for local use.
FORGETTING $3,500 .- A STORY OF J. D. HUNTER.
Hon. J. D. Hunter, for many years, and until his death, editor of the Freeman-Tribune at Webster City, never had his home in Story County; but he once-and perhaps at other times-told of something that happened to him and another man in Nevada in the summer of 1860. As his story ran, Mr. Hunter and Mr. Erastus Paradee, both then of Eldora, were en route overland "empowered to cast a full vote of Hardin County at the republican state convention to be held in Des Moines. Trips to the capital through the intervening bogs and bridgeless streams were so perilous and rare that the delegates had been made messengers to carry $3,500, the amount of Hardin County's state tax, and deliver the same to the state treasurer. The first day's journey ended at Nevada, and the night was spent at the leading hotel, probably the 'National' Hotel or 'Nevada House,' of which George H. Crossley was then proprietor. The building was located on the Mrs. Lowrey lot, corner of Locust street and Third avenue south, and now forms part of the 'Hutchins House.' At bed-time the money, con- sisting of state bank bills in a sealed envelope, was transferred from an inside coat pocket to snug quarters under the sheet between the two travel- ers. The ambassadors hurried off early in the morning, hoping to reach the capital that day. When five or six miles out toward Cambridge they were seized with consternation by discovering that their money had been left in the bed. Mr. Hunter says:
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" 'Mr. Paradee, who was driving at once turned the horses around and headed for Nevada at a most lively gait, and during the whole of the ride back there was not a word spoken by either of the men. Driving up to the porch of the hotel, the horses dripping with sweat, the men were met by the landlady, who, holding up the package of money, exclaimed, 'It's safe.' It is needless to say that the relief that came to the occupants of the buggy was as welcome as it was overwhelming, and that they never had in all their lives greater reason for thanking their lucky stars than on this occasion. The landlady's chambermaid had found the money and brought it to her in less than an hour after our departure from the hotel. She was at once sought out and handsomely rewarded for her honesty, and the delegates once more turned their faces toward Des Moines. By this time the travelers had recovered their speech and thoroughly canvassed the situation in all its bearings, and were horrified when contemplating the narrow escape they had made from bankruptcy, and the possible loss of whatever character and reputation they may have possessed.'"
THE STATE ROADS-AN EXPLANATION BY HON. CHAS. ALDRICH.
In the pioneer stories there is frequent mention of the "state roads" that run from one point to another, according to convenience and without regard to the government survey. The origin of these roads and the reason why there were not more of them was given a few years ago by Hon. Charles Aldrich in the Annals of Iowa, to which explanation it may be added that the supply of new state roads being cut off and the settlement of the country having led to the abandonment of the early ones in favor of newer highways on the section lines. Mr. Aldrich said :
Some curious results would be reached by studying the manner in which public roads were projected and located by acts of the legislature, territorial and state, up to the adoption of our present constitution. These inchoate highways would seem legitimately to have had but one purpose- that of facilitating travel and intercourse between different portions of the territory or state. But in time their establishment became an abuse which the makers of our constitution did well to suppress. Candidates for the legislature were ready and even eager to promise to secure the establish- ment of these roads, in order to obtain support in securing nominations, as well as votes at the election. The carrying out of pledges was generally easy, for as a rule these projects met with very little opposition in the legislature. Then, these laws provided not a little patronage in the ap- pointment of commissioners to locate the roads, who were also generally authorized to appoint one or more practical engineers and surveyors. A team, a tent, another camp equipage, one or more common laborers, and subsistence for the party, were also required. The location of some roads required several weeks, and as the work was for the most part undertaken as early in the season as animals could subsist on prairie grass, they were
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real junketing, "picnicing" excursions. Nothing could be pleasanter than going out to perform such official duties. The pay was sufficient in those "days of small things" to make the position of commissioner a very wel- come appointment. The appointments seldom went a-begging. The prairies were most beautiful with their carpets of green grass, interspersed with myriads of flowers, and fairly alive with feathered game. Deer and elk were occasionally killed, and as soon as the spring floods subsided fish were plenty and of the choicest quality. Enterprising frontiersmen who had gone out beyond the settlements to make themselves homes always gave them the heartiest welcome. Such settlers were hospitable to all comers, but especially so to these parties whose work promised to open up roads and place them in communication with populous places.
But it not only became apparent that this work had too often degen- erated into mere schemes of politicians, either to acquire influence and votes, or to pay off debts already incurred, but that railroads then rapidly extending westward, would largely obviate the necessity for even genuine state roads. So the convention of 1857, in Article III, Section 30, of the present constitution, prohibited the general assembly from "laying out, opening, and working roads or highways." The summer of that year saw the last parties engaged in laying out state roads. The legislature of 1856, however, had been so industrious in the establishment of state roads, that it takes almost three pages in the index merely to name the various laws or sections in which they were decreed. The commissioners in the sum- mer of that year were very active and "made hay while the sun shone," well knowing that the laws would provide for no more such roads. And so this usage-so pleasant to its beneficiaries-came to an end.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
STORY COUNTY IN THE WAR.
The opening of the Civil war was as much a surprise to the people of Story County as it was to the people of the North generally. Contem- porary records of the actual reception of the news of the firing upon Ft. Sumter, are not at hand; but recollections are that the reception of the news was considerably delayed, but that when it did come, there was in- stant response of loyal enthusiasm. The local reliance for news at that time was in a semi-weekly hack line from Marshalltown to the Missouri river, which line touched Nevada, College Farm and New Philadelphia ; but, when the news did come, it traveled rapidly, and in a very short time a company was organized, under Lincoln's call for three months' volunteers. A committee was sent, consisting of then State Senator John Scott, At- torney Paul A. Queal and George Child, to Des Moines, to tender the services of the company, but the state's quota, under the first call was already full and running over; and it was not until the subsequent call was made for 300,000 men for three years or for the war, that Story County succeeded in being represented at the front, save for four excep- tions resulting from the fact that that number of young men of patriotic disposition were temporarily in the eastern part of the state and were then able to secure admission to the First Iowa Regiment.
A record, compiled in 1876 by Senator J. A. Fitchpatrick for Colonel John Scott, to be used by the latter in his Centennial Oration at Nevada, in that year, shows that Story County was represented in the following Iowa Regiments : First, Second, Third, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, Thir- teenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Eighteenth, Twentieth, Twenty- third, Thirty-second, Thirty-seventh, Fortieth, Forty-fourth, Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Infantry and in the Second and Fourth Artillery, and also in the Second, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Cavalry. The county was hardly large enough to furnish full complements of men for very many independent commands; and the consequence was that squads were en- listed here from time to time and became attached to companies that were being organized elsewhere. Hence in many cases it was difficult for the county even to gain credit for the men it had actually furnished. The dis- tribution of the Story County contingent through so many commands, ren-
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ders it impossible now to follow the career of all of them even generally, but to those commands in which any considerable number of them served, it will be endeavored to give at least some detailed attention; while as to four commands, there should and will be given about all the attention that space permits and material at hand or to be had, makes possible. These four commands were Company E of the 3d Infantry, Company B of the Second Cavalry, Company A of the 23d Infantry, and Company K of the 32d Infantry.
Of these four companies, E of the 3d and K of the 32d, were organized in Nevada-the complement of Company E being in considerable part made up from men enlisted in Boone County, and K having some who had come from Marshall County. B of the 2d Cavalry was organized at Marshall- town, but a large part of its members had been enlisted in Story County by Attorney Paul A. Queal, who became First Lieutenant of the company, was afterwards its captain, and died in its command. A of the 23d was organized at Des Moines, but more than half of its members were enlisted in Story County by D. P. Ballard and S. P. O'Brien, the former of whom was elected first lieutenant and became captain, and the latter of whom was afterwards second lieutenant. These four companies, all of them saw splendid service. E of the 3d was at Shiloh and Corinth, went through the Vicksburg campaign with Grant, met fearful losses afterwards in the as- sault on Jackson, was later divided, those who had not veteranized remain- ing in Tennessee, and the others going with Sherman to Atlanta. Toward the end of the Atlanta campaign, the 3d Infantry had been so reduced that it was consolidated with the 2d, and in this condition the two were nearly wiped out again when the rebels, for the moment, turned Sherman's flank at Atlanta. Company B, as being a Cavalry Regiment, was in more small fights, but not so many big ones. Its hottest engagement was at Farming- ton in the Corinth campaign, where it charged and captured a rebel bat- tery, and it shared fully in the glories of Nashville, where Thomas virtually destroyed the army of Hood. These two companies, E and B, were both enlisted in the first year of the war. The 23d and 32d regiments on the contrary, were raised and organized in 1862, the 23d in September and the 32d in October. Company A saw its hardest service in the Vicksburg campaign. It missed getting really into the fight at Champion Hill, but at Black River Bridge it bore the brunt of the fight, and, charging in column, cut off a large number of rebels from the bridge over which they were endeavoring to retreat. The losses of the regiment in this engage- ment were very heavy, but its glory was correspondingly great. Later, the regiment was sent, by boat, to the coast of Texas, where it helped to hold the country. The 32d was Col. Scott's regiment, and for the first year and a half of its service it had the misfortune to be divided, holding posts in southeastern Missouri or across the river in Kentucky. It was united in 1864, and went on the Red river campaign. Its great engagement was at Pleasant Hill, where it failed to get orders to fall back when the rest
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of the army did so, and held its ground until the fight had passed beyond it. The remnants of the regiment ultimately reached the Union lines in safety, although the losses had been nearly half of the men engaged. Be- fore this experience, the regiment had served in Mississippi, and was with the 2d Cavalry at Tupello. Its last campaign was that in lower Alabama, where it participated in the sieges of Spanish Fort and Fort Blakely.
These four Story County commands had very varied experience, but this experience had the common quality that in due season, they all got into hot places and acquitted themselves with very notable gallantry. Yet through all their trials, they had some survivors who remain yet in the county of their enlistment and from whom the editor has received in- valuable assistance in the compilation of this history. Harry Boyes has written of Company B of the 2d Cavalry. T. J. Miller has written of Company A of the 23d and S. P. O'Brien has added to the story. In respect to Company K and the 32d, we have had only the present benefit of an interview with Silas See, who was in the company from its enlist- ment to its muster out; but Col. Scott left a History of the Regiment, from which we shall draw as seems practicable. Also a letter of Captain Child that had slept for many years, has come to hand and gives most enlighten- ing information concerning the experience of the command among the bushwhackers and slave drivers in western Tennessee.
But the most abundant material pertains to Company E of the 3d. This was the first company; its service was the most protracted; it happened to be engaged in conflicts which have most attracted the attention of the historian and commentator, and somehow, it is the one of the Story County companies concerning which it has always been easiest to get information. Col. Scott was its first captain and the lieutenant colonel of the regiment. J. A. Fitchpatrick served with it from its enlistment until he was captured at Atlanta. Guilf Mullen got away at Atlanta and continued with the com- mand until the grand review. Captain Robert J. Campbell, who is famed among the old timers here as having forced George Helphrey, at the point of a gun, to take off, throw away and stamp on the butternut he was wearing, was with it also from the beginning to Atlanta; and again, after his escape from rebel prison, he was with it at the close, as captain of one of the three consolidated companies of the 2d and 3d Iowa. Col. Crossley was orderly sergeant when the company went out, and came back with a field commission. All of these men, from time to time, have had stories to tell of the 3d Iowa Infantry, stories which reveal more of the soldier life of the Story County Boys in Blue than is to be learned from any other source. From this source, we purpose to quote at very considerable extent, not with any suggestion that the Third Infantry was, or could have been, any more gallant than any of the other commands in which soldiers from this county served with varying opportunity for distinction, but because from this source we have the most material, and because this material pertains almost as much to the service as a whole as to the particular com-
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mand; and because from it, we can see perhaps as well as is possible, at a distance of nearly or quite fifty years, what it meant to have been a Story County soldier in the beginning and to have continued as such until gun- shots, disease, the disabilities arising in the service, the expiration of terms of enlistment, the terrible misfortunes of becoming prisoners of war, or the final glories of peace achieved put an end to the service in the field.
Another very material circumstance had aided in the personal under- standing by the author of the story of Company E and the 3d Infantry. Two regimental reunions of the 3d Iowa have, at different times, long years apart, been held in Nevada. The first was in 1885, only 20 years after the war, and the boys, who were yet only fairly along in middle life, attended in large numbers. The observer of their proceedings and the listener at their campfires was very fortunate. Colonel Scott, their old lieutenant colonel, was then the most prominent citizen here, and managed somehow to have his comrades feast in turn at his table. Twenty-one years later, in 1906, they came again. There were not nearly so many of them, and those that did come appeared very different from those that had ap- peared on the occasion of their earlier visit; but the second visit recalled vividly the memories of the first, and the two together are to be recorded as the only regimental reunions ever held in Story County. Once, as a compliment to Colonel Scott, it was voted to hold here a reunion of the 32d. but before the biennial period rolled around, the old regimental com- mander had moved to Des Moines, and the program for the meeting was therefore changed; so by reason of its earlier enlistment, slightly longer service and occasional returns, there is no injustice to other commands in according to Company E of the 3d the position of a special attention among commands, all of which reflected so much of honor and credit upon the county of their enlistment.
STORY COUNTY ENLISTMENTS IN THE WAR.
For convenience of reference it seems best to group together here the enlistments from Story County in all the commands, rather than to scatter the names amid the later summaries of regimental service. The list of enlistments, however, is not complete nor, so far as we know, is there to be had any complete list of such enlistments. In compiling the following. however, we have had the best help that is here and now to be had. And though the list is not complete we have assurance that it is more' nearly so than any other that has yet been compiled. Similarly, as to the further lists of deaths in the war of Story County soldiers, it is feared that there will be found omissions here also. But the list should be published and recorded for what there is of it in order that recognition may be paid where payment is practicable. With such apology there is therefore sub- mitted the following list of Story County enlistments and of deaths in the service.
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First Iowa Infantry, Company K .- Jason D. Ferguson, Addison Davis, Harrison H. Boyes, George F. Schoonover.
Second Iowa Infantry, Company D .- E. D. Fenn.
Third Iowa Infantry, Company E .- Jesse Bowen, Robt. J. Campbell, Thos. D. Casebolt, Wm. H. Casebolt, John J. Cottle, Elisha B. Craig, Geo. Crossley, Sam'l A. Daniel, Thos. M. Davis, Michael D. Deal, Thos. Dent, David H. Dill, Jacob N. Dye, Chas. F. Ellison, Jas. H. Ewing, Joseph A. Fitchpatrick, Wm. W. Fitchpatrick, Geo. W. Grove, Henry J. Hockerthorn, Henry H. Hadley, E. F. Hampton, Nathaniel Jennings, George Jones, Wm. McCowan, Jos. H. Miller, Chas. B. Maxwell, Guilford Mullen, Wm. J. Mul- len, Isaac Riddle, Mons J. Riddle, John U. Schoonover, John Scott, John Sessions, Wm. B. Taylor, Asa Walker, Wm. C. White, Wm. R. White, Wm. A. Wise, Jesse R. Wood, Lewis M. Vincent.
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