USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 39
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STORY COUNTY AS IT WAS.
About the same time or a little earlier a book was published by a General Wilson, entitled "A Description of Iowa and its Resources." The work notes the location of the county and its possession of the State Agricultural College and Farm and advises the world concerning the general advantages of the county as follows :
"The county is watered by the Skunk river, a fine branch nearly divid- ing the county, and the west branch of the same and Indian creek, with their various tributaries. Timber of many kinds is found in large bodies on the larger streams and numerous groves are distributed throughout the county. In the southern part of the county are numerous ponds which when improved will serve as excellent depositories for the surplus water of the rolling prairie lands, and give abundance of stock water. Much the larger portion of the county is prairie, the soil of which is deep, rich and very productive. The line of the Cedar Rapids railroad runs east and west through the county, affording excellent facilities for sending off surplus products. Stone coal is found in several parts of the county but in rather thin vein to be worked to advantage. Good building stone is afforded on the banks of the streams.
"Improved lands are held at from ten to twenty-five dollars per acre, unimproved lands, from three to ten per acre; wages of farm hands, one dollar per day ; mechanics from two and a half to three dollars per day. ·
"Nevada is the county seat, near its center on the line of the railroad; and Iowa Center and Cambridge are the other principal towns in the county. A good newspaper is published at Nevada."
WHAT THE RAILROAD SAID.
Another view of this time, written apparently with a large measure of local intelligence, is taken from a work which but for the accompanying
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extract would doubtless long ere this been lost sight of. The work was entitled "Turner's Guide to The Rocky Mountains," and the extract indi- cates clearly that the purpose of the work was to write up the country along the line of the new Northwestern railroad and the regions in the farther west to which the railroad led. This work appears to have been prepared in 1868, about two years later than the review previously quoted from Mr. Benj. F. Taylor. Between its lines it is easy to read the exultation of the railroad management over the benefits which the railroad was bring- ing to the new country. But the statements are definite and, probably, to a large extent accurate. The extract relating to Story County is as follows:
"Leaving State Center we immediately enter the county of Story and passing the small depot town of Colo, reach Nevada the seat of justice of Story county, a pleasant prairie town of from ten to twelve hundred people. The county was organized in 1854, and the first house was built in Nevada the same year. The town was doomed to many years of languishment and to those untoward vicissitudes incident to an inland point without the means of egress to the outside world, when happily the railroad, now a part and par- cel of the great Chicago & Northwestern corporation, came, like a special providence, to its relief. The location was excellent, the surrounding coun- try beautiful and rich in organic function almost beyond comparison, hypo- thetical wealth and importance stood out in large proportions and colored with hues deeply tinted a la rose, yet ingress and egress were slow, expen- sive and altogether too occasional. Anon the railroad came with its pon- derous engines and sweeping trains, almost entirely annihilating distance and overcoming obstructions which had theretofore startled the traveler and retarded immigration. The golden moment was known to be at hand. Hope deferred became crystallized in pleasurable fruition. Story County, by this new order of things, experienced a sort of miraculous reconstruction, and Nevada, the county seat, was put in connection with the world of civili- zation. The town is peculiarly and particularly of the prairie order. The fecund soil will certainly cause grass to grow under the feet of the pedes- trian unless his steps are made to the measure of quick music. In this there is no respect paid to persons. The town has fair developments and fair prospects. Already there are four general stores, three drug stores, all of them are very fine, affording the only token that the place and county are not blessed with perennial health; two grocery stores, one variety store, one clothing store, two harness stores and one leather and harness store. Hon- orable mention deserves to be made of the fact that 'this place, like Cedar Rapids, has no saloon nor any place where alcoholic liquors are publicly sold. There is a union graded school with buildings costing ten thousand dollars, free to all, which is in a very flourishing condition. The churches are Methodist, New School Presbyterian and Cumberland Presbyterian, which latter we confess to be an outshooting of evangelism beyond our knowledge or comprehension. Spiritualism has here no specific organiza- tion, but has some adherents.
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"The county of Story has not a large population, although it is gradually and surely adding to its numbers. Ten thousand is now the ultimate figure. It contains five hundred and seventy-six square miles or three hundred and sixty-eight thousand six hundred and forty acres of land. The inevitable prairie abounds, rich, black and productive, interspersed at intervals with fine groves of oak, hickory and walnut, with maple and elm along the streams. At least one-fifteenth of the surface is covered with timber. Nearly one-third of the county is waste, and wild, ready to be appropriated at moderate cost by new-comers. The soil, of sandy loam and vegetable mould, is everywhere with a subsoil of clay and gravel. Water is abun- dantly distributed by the Skunk river, East and West Indian and Squaw creeks and their numerous tributaries. Springs of pure, cold water are often met with. The surface is generally sufficiently rolling to afford per- fect natural, and in all places to make, easy artificial drainage. Some coal deposits have been found in the county, but none have yet been practically developed. There are several quarries of fine building stone. The climate is healthy and pleasant. Unimproved lands sell at from four to ten dollars. per acre, and improved farms from fifteen to thirty dollars. Timber lands range from fifteen to sixty dollars per acre.
"Ames is in the western portion of Story County on the Skunk river. The first settlement was made in July, 1865, about which time the railroad was opened to the place. The population is now not far from five hundred. The business of the town is considerable. There are four general stores, one hardware store, two drug stores, three grocery stores and two lumber dealers. Messrs. Evans & Co. deal largely in grain and other produce and sell agricultural implements and farm machinery. Marshall, Drake & Rain- bolt have a real estate and collecting agency, and Mr. Rainbolt is an attorney at law. The town being within two miles of the agricultural college of the state, a special act of the legislature prohibits the sale of wine, beer or any spirituous liquors. As the general law does nearly the same thing the special one may be considered, perhaps as a work of supererogation. If both laws are not violated Ames may well claim the "crown of virtue," in Iowa. The liveliest interest is taken in schools and a fine union school house is nearly completed. The churches are Methodist, Episcopal and the Congregation- alist, each having a good house of worship. There are two hotels. Ames is directly north of Des Moines, the capital, and very near the geographical centre of the state.
"The Iowa Agricultural College, an imposing structure, is located on the state farm, about one mile and a half from Ames. The college is in plain view from the railroad. The officers of the institution are as follows :
Hon. B. F. Gue, President.
Hon. H. M. Thomson, Secretary and Superintendent of farm.
Maj. S. E. Rankin, Treasurer.
C. A. Dunham, Architect.
"The farm contains several hundred acres of land, selected with due
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reference to geographical position, timber, water and quality of soil. All these conditions are happily blended. The college building is of brick, of ample dimensions and constructed with due regard to its prospective uses. It is nearly completed, and will be appropriately opened soon. This is an institution of great importance to the state of Iowa, and cannot be too highly prized by the intelligent yeomanry of that State. It has taxed the time and energies of the best talent to bring it into existence and will, it is hoped, long stand as a monument to the names of its projectors. The col- lege is munificently endowed by an act of congress appropriating lands for such purposes."
AS SEEN BY THE IOWA STATE REGISTER.
Again in the early part of 1869, we find evidence from the Iowa State Register, which had become then, as it is now, the leading newspaper of the State, that Story County was regarded as worthy of somewhat extended notice. Accordingly the county was written up for that paper, not only in general but also in considerable detail. And the general statement affords quite definite opportunity for measuring progress made in some respects up to that time. The most available part of this statement is as follows:
"The county has one railroad, the Chicago and North Western, com- pleted, running east and west near the middle, and bringing every portion of it within from 12 to 14 miles of railroad advantages. On the line of this road are four shipping points within the limits of Story County, viz .: Colo, Nevada, Ames and Ontario.
"The Iowa and Minnesota railroad is mostly graded from Ames south to Polk City, a distance of 18 miles, and will doubtless in due time give the people of the county a southern outlet.
"A Railroad Company was organized about a year ago called the Eldora. Nevada and Des Moines Railroad Company, and articles of incorporation duly recorded. A survey has been made diagonally through the county from northeast to southwest, passing through Nevada, and the citizens of that place are sanguine that his road also will be built. It will therefore be seen that Story County is not without excellent railroad facilities, present and prospective.
"The present courthouse is but a temporary building, but the question of building a $40,000 edifice is now being agitated. The county poor farm is situated two miles northwest of Nevada and contains 200 acres. About 60 acres is in good state of cultivation, with a frame house on it. This farm was purchased about a year ago for $16.50 per acre.
"An agricultural society was organized at Ames something over a year ago, and has held one fair at that place. The present officers are Wm. West, President; Geo. Child, vice president; and W. D. Lucas, Secretary.
"A proposition has been made to locate the fair grounds permanently near the center of the county, but as yet the matter has not been decided.
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Another organization has more recently been effected at Nevada, and a union of the two societies has been proposed.
"By the last October report of the superintendent we have the following statistics in regard to educational matters: Persons in the county of the school age, 3,505; attending school during last school year, 2,775; average attendance, 1,747; schools taught, 91; male teachers, 41, female teachers, 77 ; average compensation of male teachers, $9.96 per week ; average com- pensation of female teachers $7.59 per week; aggregate amount paid teachers during the year, $14,649; total number of school districts 75-two of them being independent districts; total number of schools houses 72, of which 4 are brick, 65 frame and three log; value of school houses $23,330.121/2 and value of apparatus $1,370.31. The school houses are generally good, and several of a superior grade were erected last year.
"Ames had a good frame school house, 30x50 feet, and two stories high, built in 1868. A fine school is now in progress, with about 120 pupils in charge of Henry May as principal and Miss Ella Fitchpatrick as assistant.
"Teachers institutes have been held annually for several years and are usually well attended .- At the last, held in October, 51 teachers were pres- ent. F. D. Thompson, the present superintendent is well advised in all matters pertaining to schools. Story county has the advantage of having located within her borders an educational institution next in grade and im- portance to the State University.
"The leading religious denominations of the county are Methodists, Presbyterians, (N. S.) congregationalists, Lutherans, Baptists and Chris- tians. In Nevada the Methodists have just erected a handsome edifice at a cost of $5,000. It is a frame building 36x60 feet and is supplied with a bell weighing 1,020 pounds, which was purchased at a cost of $403.73. This society was organized in 1856. The present membership is 140 with a Sabbath School also of about 100 pupils. The present pastor is Rev. B. Shinn.
"The New School Presbyterians have also a new church built last year. It is a frame 38x46 feet and cost $3600. This society was organized in the fall of 1864, by Rev. Isaiah Ried. who is the present pastor. The member- ship is now about 40 and a Sabbath School of about 100 pupils.
"The Catholics have an organization in Nevada, and as I learn are about to provide themselves with a church.
"Ames also has two good edifices for religious worship, belonging respectively to the Methodists and Congregationalists.
"The Methodist church is a frame building erected in 1866, and is 30x40 feet. This church has a large society, with many recent accessions, and a Sabbath School of 75 pupils. Rev. E. Kendell is pastor, Revs. Miller and Marshall are local ministers who have rendered efficient service here.
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"The Congregational church of Ames was erected in 1865 at a cost of $1700 and is 30x40 feet in size. There is a large membership and a Sab- bath School of 75 pupils. Rev. Simon Gilbert is pastor.
"The Baptists and Christian denominations also have societies at Ames. There are Lutheran organizations in several places in the county, with some two or three church edifices."
THE LOCAL EDITOR'S VIEW.
Some editorial comments of the Ægis, in May, 1869, afford still further proof that the time was one of rapid transition in the affairs and conditions of the county. An extended list is given of the names of men who were building residences at the county seat, and the more general condition is noted as follows :
"The country is the very place to depend upon and Story county is set- tling up rapidly. One cannot go any direction, for even a short distance, but he will find new houses and plenty of breaking. In conversation with Mr. Child, President of the Agricultural society, he informed us the pros- pect was that more breaking would be done the present year than the pre- vious six years. We were aware work was in progress, but did not set our figures quite so high. Mr. Child is well posted in such matters and no one will question his word in the least. The improvements are general throughout the county and are not confined to any one locality. Story is one of the best counties in the state and will be all right soon.
"At all times of the day may prairie schooners be seen perambulating our streets bound to that place of the muse, The West. We have heard the west pronounced from the far west to the sunny south, up towards the north pole, and farther west than this. Still the 'west' is mythical, delu- sive. Travelers tell us that in the western territories and California they tell about the 'west,' what we here call the east, that place noted for super- stitution and intolerance. Where is the west in our glorious country? Is it not true 'there is no east, no west, no south, no north?' Let one go to the farthest standing place, and still one hears of the various points of the compass, yet a little farther. It is simply a subtlety of speech, to serve a local purpose, and right well does it serve it.
"Soliloquizing aside, movers of all kinds, classes, grades or by whatever name they may be called, are now passing westward, to seek homes, many of them in our glorious state, others go to the neighboring states and terri- tories. If we were to make a guess as to the number of teams passing here daily we would make the average as high as twenty-five, with the proba- bility of its being considerably higher. The influx of settlers into Iowa has never been equalled. North and south of us the same is the case. The number of those stopping in the 'garden of the world'-Iowa-is immense. The only way to characterize it is by saying we are coming, coming, coming without number and without reserve."
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CHAPTER XXXII. AMES AND THE NARROW GAUGE.
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THE FOUNDING OF AMES.
As has been heretofore noted, the City of Ames with all of its present growth, prosperity, modern improvements, great educational institution and flattering prospects was not one of the original towns of the county. No town was started or even projected at or near its present site by the orig- inal settlers of that portion of the county. Possibly no particular explana- tion is needed for the omission of pioneers to pick upon any one piece of prairie as a location for a future city and seat of learning; but there are two reasons apparent why some other sites should have been better suited to pioneer conditions. One reason pertains naturally to Skunk river, the crossing of which in the early days was probably as difficult opposite Ames as it was anywhere. And the other reason pertains to Squaw Fork, which lies west and southwest of the main part of Ames, and which, though not nearly so troublesome as Skunk river, was quite capable in its lower reaches of affording considerable obstruction to traffic. In other words, the loca- tion of Ames is all right in a time when transportation is by railroads and improved highways; but it was quite unsuited for a community center in a time when routes of travel were by prairie trails and fords. Nor did the location of The State Agricultural College and Farm on the west side of Squaw Fork, in 1859, convey to the inhabitants thereabout any apparent suggestion of a future town where Ames was later established. In the first place, Nevada activity and influence had contributed chiefly toward bring- ing the prospective institution to the county and had seemingly been unaf- fected by any apprehension that the upbuilding of a rival town might thereby be occasioned; also New Philadelphia, to the westward, was as near to the college location as in that time any town needed to be to any particular spot ; and finally, if anyone should at that time have seen vis- ions of a city near the college, he most certainly would not have imagined the town over to the eastward across Squaw Fork but, more likely, would in his mind, have put it to the west and southwest of the college where, in very recent years, has sprung up the district which features the Fourth Ward of Ames. So although a somewhat imposing farm house was built on the college grounds and interest was directed more or less actively toward the
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institution that was to be, the owners of the farms between Skunk bottom and Squaw Fork, entertained as yet no thought of cutting up their land into city lots.
Nor does the coming of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River railroad -later the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska and still later and more perma- nently the Chicago & Northwestern-appear to have conveyed any local suggestion of a town in the particular spot where Ames was founded. One may even suspect that the absence of such suggestion was a material reason for the selection of the particular location. For the absence of suggestion left the price of land in the immediate locality undisturbed and one of the very notable prerogatives of railroad management in times of pioneer rail- road construction was to buy up cheap farms in favorable places along the line of a projected railroad and to locate on such a farm a station and a town. In the case of Ames this mode of operation appears to have been singularly illustrated. The location of the station and town seems to have been quite distinctly a little side enterprise of John I. Blair, the great cap- italist who was the chief promoter of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. And the matter of securing the site was conducted with exceptional shrewd- ness. The agent for the purchase was Mrs. Cynthia O. Duff, a woman of no especial pretensions but of much personal worth, who appeared in the neighborhood with plenty of money and bought the farm next east of Sher- iff Hoggatt's. In due time the farm, or the most of it, was conveyed to parties more directly representing the railroad management, the station was located and the main part of the town platted. The determination as to the location became public along in the fall of 1864. The railroad had reached Nevada with its construction on the Fourth day of July of that year and traffic had almost immediately been established to this point. There was some deliberation about the further extension to Boone; but on Oct. 19, 1864, The Ægis made what is undoubtedly the first public reference to the subject in hand, in a short paragraph as follows :
"The railroad company, as we learn, have determined to locate their next depot to the west of Nevada at a point on the Squaw Fork, near Sheriff Hoggatt's farm. What name it will bear we have not learned, but suggest the highly appropriate one of 'Ditto,' which has already the sanction of common usage in these parts."
The point of the joke about "Ditto" is lost to us with the passage of time, but the development of the plot already outlined was further noted by the Ægis on Nov. 30 of the same year, when a name had evidently been found authoritatively for the town and some of its hopes or prospects were noted thus :
"We learn that the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River company are about surveying a line to determine the practicability of building a branch from Ames Station in this county to Des Moines. Letters say it is the best that could be chosen, boing a dividing ridge very nearly all the way. If such a branch should be from that point, we may look for a right smart specula-
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tion in corner lots. By the way, the company have been securing consid- erable tracts of land in that neighborhood, which may have a meaning."
From all of the foregoing it is easy to see that when Ames actu- ally was started its initial progress at least was bound to be rapid. It was a station on the first railroad across the state; there were suggestions-later to be realized-of a branch railroad to Des Moines, assurances sometime of a college nearby, and a developing community about it which appears to have accepted instantly and cheerfully the new town as the hub of its af- fairs. So in the season of 1865 the town sprang up quite rapidly and in the course of the season appears to have gained the recognized character- istics of a new and hopeful railroad town. One of these characteristics was the first church, which had been erected by the Congregationalists and which because of its being the first church there was the recipient of the only birth gift that we know to have been presented by Congressman Oakes Ames to the town which bears his name. This gift was a church bell and its presentation and acceptance suggest naturally something of the story of the giver and of the naming of the town. Oakes Ames was both a financier and a statesman. He served in Congress from Massachusetts during most of the sixties, and he risked, and nearly lost, a very large for- tune in the promotion of far western railroads. Worse than that, he, for a time, lost his reputation in scandals that later on arose over the construc- tion of the Union Pacific, and which, most unfortunately, he did not out- live although in their relation to himself they were not especially long- lived. The time when the town of Ames was established was before Mr. Ames had rendered his greatest public services and of course, long before the clouds had come upon his reputation. But his interest and participa- tion in the promotion of pioneer railroads in the West were already mani- fest, and it came about therefore very naturally that when his friend and associate, John I. Blair, was manipulating the construction of the first and best railroad across the state of Iowa, Mr. Blair should have named for Mr. Ames about the most promising new town that the railroad manage- ment was laying out. And insomuch as Mr. Ames was a man of liberality and appreciation as well as of political acumen and business sagacity, it fol- lowed that when the town that had been named in his honor got big enough to have a church he was considerate enough to donate a bell for the church. This he had done and the local satisfaction thereat was expressed in formal resolutions by the Congregational society of Ames, which resolution de- clared as follows :
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