USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 42
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I then wrote the Superintendent of this division at Clinton, Iowa, that we had accepted their proposition for the moving of their depot to Lynn Street and had fully complied with the conditions and made the deposits with their agent, O. B. Ingalls, as directed.
During my soliciting it was impossible to keep my doings unnoticed and purpose from being known. It leaked out and a remonstrance was started and circulated in the South district and forwarded to the division Superintendent at Clinton, Iowa, before my report had been sent in. He informed me, after receiving my report, of the remonstrance having been forwarded to him. I called a meeting of my associates for consultation. A committee of three was appointed, Otis Briggs, Banker, Wm. Lock- ridge, Lumberman, and F. D. Thompson, Lawyer, to go to Clinton and investigate the allegations in the remonstrance and the names of signers were, with full power to act.
The next day we were at Clinton, met the Superintendent, and exam- ined the remonstrance. It was numerously signed by Tom, Dick, and Harry without designating locality or business and many not living in Nevada. The committee made me chairman. I took up our subscrip- tion list and explained the extent of business and personal standing of each subscriber, his location and the general surroundings of this busi- ness street and its location when the depot is moved, with the Court House at the South and the depot at the North end of this business street. When I had finished, the superintendent said he could not determine the matter himself, but would give us passes to Chicago to see the President of the Company.
When we reached Chicago, we went to the president's headquarters and introduced ourselves. He greeted us very formally and asked our business. I then very briefly stated our object and some of the reasons why we desired the moving of the depot from its present site to the head of our business on Lynn Street. Either my manner, style of presenta-
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tion or subject matter seemed to interest him, and he became less dis- tant and approachable. He said, "Gentlemen, take some chairs around this table and I will hear you further." When we were all seated, Mr. Briggs and Mr. Lockridge had found their tongues, but I should pro- ceed further, showing the importance to us and the advantage to the Company in the removal. I spread out our plat of the town, called at- tention especially to Lynn Street, our portion of it, the widening of the same and where the depot then was and where we desired it to be placed. I then pointed out the places of business of each subscriber, the amount of business done and the character of each man. Then took up the re- monstrance and pointed out where each subscriber lived and his place of business and why they remonstrated. Then referred to the Company's proposal to me in reply to my letter. That we had accepted their pro- posal and had fully complied with all the terms and conditions. He said there were some legal objections raised to the removal of the depot. I informed him that I was somewhat familiar with the location of the depot, and that one of the conditions when Story County voted its swamp lands to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri Railroad Company, was that the road should run through Nevada and locate its depot within one thousand yards of the Court House. That I was satisfied there could not be any legal objection sustained against the moving of the depot, for when moved it would be nearer the Court House than before. He then said they needed more ground than they had for the depot and that they would move the depot if there were no legal objection. This closed our interview and all of the committee were well pleased with our treatment and results ob- tained.
After our return from Chicago we patiently waited the formal decision on our petition for the change of depot site. During this time the local land agent here of the Blair Town Lot and Land Company made objec- tion to the change, that the Company had no right to move. We sent down another committee of three with Capt. McCall as chairman to inter- view the Lot and Land Company at Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They returned, reporting no success. Some considerable time had elapsed, hearing noth- ing from the Railroad Company, and a few of the donors who had paid in money for the moving of the depot became disheartened and wanted their money back. I told them to delay a short time and I would write a final letter to the Company. I then wrote a letter to the Company, addressing the President, stating in substance our request for the moving of the depot, and their proposal that they would move the depot on certain terms and conditions. That we had accepted and relied upon their proposition and had complied with its terms, had raised the money and deposited it, procured deeds for the necessary ground, with the honest belief that the Company meant what they said and would do what they proposed upon our compliance. That it was a business undertaking and in good part entered into by them, that we had relied upon that good
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faith and complied with all the conditions honestly, and that the Com- pany was now morally and legally bound to move the depot. Now, if the Company. did not move the depot within ten days from the date of this letter I would withdraw the money and papers deposited and de- clare the business off.
I then awaited the effect of my letter; day by day passed, but on the ninth day the Company's men arrived and began moving the depot to its proposed site.
Thus, from the foregoing, you see the first conditions, causes and reasons why Lynn Street became the business street in Nevada and the three methods and means used to make, maintain, anchor and make per- manent that business center on Lynn Street.
During the fifty years that I have lived in Nevada, I have helped to fight its various battles, worked for its general interest, its water works, its library and its electric lighting, been many times on its Council and its mayor, compiled its City Ordinances and seen it grow from a town to an incorporated town and then to a City of the Second Class, and I now consider Nevada City one of the best and prettiest cities of its size in the State of Iowa.
F. D. THOMPSON.
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CHAPTER XXXV.
POLITICS FOLLOWING THE WAR.
In local politics the events of the war, assisted perhaps by the in- creasing immigration of the Norwegians, had had the effect of confirming absolutely the republican control of the county, and whereas in 1859 when the county was turned from Democratic to Republican, the vote was desperately close for all important places on the ticket, Republican vic- tories in after years came with increasing ease, and by the close of the war political interest had become centered in the Republican county con- ventions. Exceptions to the rule of the county by Republican county conventions were in a very few cases successfully made, but the excep- tions were very rare and so notable that each of them calls for a special explanation. With the exceptions thus to be noted the convention rule was absolute for more than thirty years or until the convention of 1895 abdicated its power by directing that future nominations be made in a county primary. From these circumstances it necessarily follows that the political history of the county in the ensuing years is for the most part a convention history.
CAMPAIGN OF 1865.
The first of the county conventions which met for the purpose of making history was that of 1865. It renominated the representative, George M. Maxwell, but otherwise it made a new slate. Judge Evans. who from the beginning of the county with the exception of a single term had held the office of county judge, retired and was succeeded by R. H. Mitchell. T. J. Ross, who had won the treasury in 1859 by a margin of ten votes, also retired and was succeeded by Thomas C. Davis. The vacancy in the county clerkship for which Captain D. P. Ballard had been unable to qualify by reason of being held in the army and which had been temporarily filled by the appointment of John M. Brainard was won by Joseph A. Fitchpatrick. Lucius Q. Hoggatt, of whom more hereafter, had been sheriff through the war and he gave way for his deputy, H. F. Murphey. Rev. J. G. Beckley was the nominee for county superintendent, W. G. Allen for county surveyor, Chas. P. Robinson for coroner, and Isaac T. Evans for the unimportant office of drainage com- missioner. It was a strong ticket and several of the men named have
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PUBLIC LIBRARY, NEVADA
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left a strong impress upon county affairs. Mitchell held the judgeship until the office was abolished. Fitchpatricks' continued prominence in affairs is universally recognized. Murphey died in 1886, before he could be counted an old man or even elderly, and while he lived he was one of the most active and useful citizens of Nevada. Beckley was slaughtered in the bolt two years later and died some ten years afterward. W. G. Allen lived to be quite an old man and the impression which many of the younger generation have of him is of one considerably broken, but he had been an active and very useful citizen, had been postmaster of Nevada and chairman of the committee which started the campaign for the agri- cultural college. In after years he made the first attempt at writing a history of Story County. Robinson was a carpenter in Nevada and he held the office of coroner for many years. Evans belonged to the well- known family in the west side of the county. Davis is not so well re- membered as some of the others, for he removed from the county too soon, but he was genial and popular. Maxwell, who headed the ticket, was one of the strongest men that the county has sent to the General Assembly.
The election of such a ticket in such a county might naturally have been expected without serious opposition, and in fact it did follow in due time and by ample majorities, but the year was signalized by a very peculiar political movement in the state which movement had its influence in the county. This was the so-called "Soldiers'" movement, and its ostensible purpose was to give about all the offices to the soldiers. The war was over, the boys were home, honors of various sorts were thick upon them, and they thought and many others thought that they were entitled to much political preferment. But from the very fact that the soldiers had been in the field they were not yet well in the political swim, and nominations did not come to them readily. In the regular conven- tion Fitchpatrick had indeed won the best county nomination and he was a soldier in the fullest sense, having gone out at the beginning, served until the close, and been seven months at Andersonville. But he was the only soldier to get a nomination on the regular ticket, although several other well-known and sincerely honored soldiers had been candidates. Similar results had attended Republican conventions elsewhere, a few soldiers getting nominations but many more failing to get them. So there arose disaffection among the soldiers who almost to a man had voted for Lincoln the year before, and the Democratic organization which in state and county alike was without hope hastened to get behind the move- ment and push. So a soldiers' state convention was called at Des Moines and similar conventions were called in the counties. The complexities thus suggested were helped along by questions concerning the policies of President Andrew Johnson, who had not yet broken with the Republican party in congress and the nation and over whose course there were as yet many Republican differences. The program which developed was Vol. 1-24
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for the Democrats and soldiers to get together and support the adminis- tration and in passing it may be observed that they did get together sufficiently to land E. D. Fenn in the post office in Nevada.
But the consolidation of soldiers and Democrats did not work as well as its promoters hoped. The state soldiers' convention was held at Des Moines and was well attended, but as soon as it attempted to name a ticket, a large minority of its members bolted, formed a separate conven- tion and endorsed the Republican nominees. In the county soldiers who had failed of Republican nominations were prominent in the soldiers' county convention, and for a time the movement thus inaugurated ap- peared to be formidable, but in the ultimate the great body of soldiers were Republicans and thought it unwise to encourage Republican differ- ences while the problem of reconstruction was confronting the nation. So gradually the soldiers' movement fizzled out and of the men who were concerned in it, a few became Johnson Democrats, but the most of them returned to full Republican fellowship. The fight, while it lasted how- ever, was bitter and the term "possum" was popularly applied by the regulars to the bolters.
CAMPAIGN OF 1866.
The Republican convention of 1866 settled the soldier question so far as recognizing soldiers was concerned by giving the two nominations it had to soldiers. J. A. Fitchpatrick was renominated for full term as clerk, and Geo. F. Schoonover was nominated also by acclammation for county recorder. This ticket was very easily elected but Schoonover died three months after taking office and political conditions arising in consequence of his death had something to do with the troubles arising in the follow- ing year. In this same year the first indications are afforded of active interest in this county over a congressional nomination. Congressman A. W. Hubbard of Sioux City, father of the present congressman from that locality, had been elected in 1862 and 1864 for the sixth district, which then comprised the northwest third of the state, and extended as far east as Marshall and Blackhawk counties. The rule of long terms for con- gressmen had not yet been established and the eastern and more heavily populated portion of the district was much disposed to retire Hubbard. Story County was against Hubbard and gave its support to G. M. Wood- bury of Marshall county. Judge Porter of Eldora was also a candidate and Woodbury and Porter together had a majority over Hubbard in the convention, which met at Webster City; but their friends were unable to agree and after protracted balloting Hubbard was renominated.
In the election which followed Hubbard was duly chosen for his third and last term, but the election itself was attended with a trick which if it had worked elsewhere as it worked in Story County would have ac- complished his defeat. This trick was the circulation on the very eve
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of the election of the definite announcement that Mr. Hubbard, who was known to be in uncertain health, had suddenly died and the recommenda- tion ostensibly of the chairman of the Republican congressional commit- tee that the Republicans cast their votes for G. M. Woodbury of Marshall County. The report found credit. Republicans became confused as to their political duty under the circumstances and in fact the Republican votes of the county was split very evenly between Hubbard and Wood- bury. Investigation after the election indicated that the circulars making the announcement of the recommendation had been printed in the Demo- cratic newspaper office at Marshalltown and it was the Republican belief that the plot had had its origin with some of the most active Democrats in this county. Very likely because some of the local Democrats under- stood the matter the trick was successfully worked in this county, but as to other counties there was an utter miscarriage of the plot and its effects did not appear in the returns.
CAMPAIGN OF 1867.
The year 1867 seems to have afforded to the Republicans at least of Story county more politics than they ever had at any other time gotten into in a single year. But before plunging into the thick of the fight note should be taken of a very high honor that came politically without solicitation to the Republicans and other people of the county. This honor was the nomination of Col. John Scott by the Republican state convention for the office of Lieutenant Governor. Colonel Scott was not a candidate for the nomination nor is it understood that his name in advance had been connected therewith even by gossip. It fitted the conditions of the convention that the nomination should come to some prominent Repub- lican in central Iowa. Samuel Merrill of Clayton County had, after a strenuous contest, been nominated for Governor, and a very strong element in the Southern part of the state were hoping to start Judge Joseph M. Beck on the career in the Supreme Court where he for twenty-four years eminently distinguished himself. 'A' good deal had in the passing years as before noted been also said about nominating soldiers for office, and in every respect Col. Scott fitted the requirements of the occasion. So the sentiment of the hour was expressed on the floor of the convention by Col. Lowry of Boone in a speech presenting the name of Col. Scott and Col. Scott later stated that the man who prevented him from at once declining the nomination was former Governor Lowe. The movement spread rapidly and Scott was easily nominated. His election in Novem- ber followed as a matter of course and he graced the chair of the Senate in the following winter. The office to which he was thus elevated was the highest to which any citizen of Story County has ever yet attained by popular election, and as will later appear the local harmony which made practicable the attainment of such honors by citizens of the county
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was ended somewhat abruptly by the local political events of the ensuing weeks.
The troubles of 1867 seem to have begun with the death of George F. Schoonover, three months after beginning his term as county re- corder. Henry Boynton had been appointed to the vacancy with some suggestion that Mrs. Laura Berry should do the actual work of the office and that the fees over and above her compensation should go to Mrs. Schoonover. The facts of the matter are much obscured but the con- troversy that arose was spirited. Mr. Boynton was a candidate for the nomination for the unexpired term and the main issue in the election of delegates to the county convention seems to have been the recordership. Several candidates came forward and they all fought Boynton. In the end Boynton was beaten in Nevada and elsewhere and did not appear as a formidable candidate in the convention but the fight against Boynton had given the control of the Nevada delegation to the side with which Boynton did not generally affiliate. This side was also on the south side of the slough in Nevada, and its success in the Nevada caucus gave it ascendency in the convention. From this ascendency several results followed. One was that R. H. Mitchell, who had been elected county judge two years before, was refused a renomination and in his stead T. J. Ross, who had been county treasurer for six years following 1859, was nominated. Incidentally Lycurgus Irwin, a brilliant and some- what erratic young lawyer, who had not been long in the county but who later won distinction as the original promoter of the Nevada public library, was nominated for representative over J. L. Dana. Also Rev. Beckley, who was a brother-in-law of Ross, was renominated for super- intendent against the ineffective opposition of the other crowd. H. F. Murphey, who possessed in an especial degree the faculty of keeping out of trouble, was re-nominated for sheriff and did not become involved in the troubles of election. The nomination for recorder which had been the beginning of the rumpus went to Samuel Bates of Howard township and did not figure particularly in the further proceedings save that the regulars resented his apparent sympathy with the bolters and refused him a renomination the next year, although he was then reelected as an independent. The nub of the fight was the county judgeship and the point of that was that the land business at that time was good. Ross was in the land business with Scott, and other men in the land business did not want that firm to have the advantage of an office in the court house. Out of such a beginning came the subsequent disturbance. Some personal misunderstandings of things said helped the matter along and in a short time the disaffected faction was in the field with a bolting ticket for county judge, representative and county superintendent. The candidates were R. H. Mitchell for county judge, J. L. Dana for representative, and F. D. Thompson for county superintendent. Dana undoubtedly wanted to be representative but Thompson had little use for
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the superintendency and in fact did not serve out the term to which he was elected, and there was no general issue which would have encouraged Dana to be a candidate. Probably the fact was that the other two had to run in order to support Mitchell, who really had some grounds for complaint in not being fairly treated in the convention. So they plunged into the fight. The Republican strength in the county was by this time just about two to one over the Democrats, and with the Republicans split in the middle and everybody mad, conditions were right for a very close three cornered contest. On the eve of the election Thompson and his business associate McCall, who together constituted a majority of the Re- publican County committee, sent out an appeal to Republicans to sup- port the bolting candidates as a means necessary to the defeat of the Democrats. This was an argument which the regulars much resented but it appears to have been warranted by the facts, for the returns put the regular candidates in third place, Mitchell defeating Kellogg, Demo- crat, for county judge by twenty-four votes, and Thompson being elected over Bartlett, Democrat, by twenty-one, Dana failed to come in ahead of his Democratic opponent and consequently Major Hawthorn was elected a Democratic representative from this overwhelmingly Republican county by a plurality of twenty-five. Scott, who as before noted was on the ticket at the same time for Lieut. Governor, was scratched to a consid- erable degree in his own county, and all the men who mixed in the matter on opposite sides were suspicious or hostile toward each other from that time on.
A further political incident of 1867 pertained to the senatorial con- vention of that year. In those years there was a different senatorial district at each senatorial election and it was not until 1871 that Story and Boone counties were constituted a district by themselves and appar- ently for keeps. In 1867, the district consisted of the counties of Boone, Greene, Hamilton, and Story, and the Republican convention was held at Boone. Boone had ten delegates, Story and Greene together 12, and Hamilton 5. Just what were the hopes of the Story delegates before they went to the convention is not reported; but when they got there, they found that Boone County was for I. J. Mitchell and that Judge Chase, who was running the Hamilton delegation, intended to nominate him, very likely for reasons connected with Chase's aspirations for con- gressional honors later on. At any rate, the Story and Greene delegations, being thus outside this combination, arranged to make what trouble they could for the combination and accordingly without consul- tation with the Hamilton delegation, cast their 12 votes for Col. G. W. Crossley, a Story County soldier of the Third Iowa, and then as now a prominent citizen of Webster City. The matter was as embarrassing for Chase as had been hoped, and Chase amply confessed his embarrass- ment in a speech of explanation; but he stood by his deal and threw the vote of Hamilton to Mitchell, who was accordingly nominated and
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elected senator and seven years later was nominated and elected district judge on another deal with Chase, who again did not get the congressional nomination he was seeking.
CAMPAIGN OF 1868.
The year 1868 was the one in which General Grant was first elected president of the United States and the Republican policy of reconstruc- tion was sustained. Story County was in full sympathy with the can- didate and the policy, but it is hardly a matter of special note that the county should have given its support to Republican candidates or prin- ciples at any particular time after the war. The main local incident of the year was the candidacy of Col. Scott for the congressional nomina- tion in the old sixth district. From the vantage point of his position in the lieutenant-governorship he pushed his canvass effectively and he had a powerful and well organized support through the greater part of the district. But there were other men of local and general standing who aspired to congresssional honors and the result was a much divided field. Among the other candidates were Judge Chase of Webster City, Judge Couch of Waterloo, and Charles Pomeroy of Fort Dodge, but formerly of Boone. The various county delegations were sharply contested and the convention was held at Boone. When it met, Chase had a small lead, Scott second with rather the more tenacious support, and Couch and Pomeroy not so very far behind. The balloting was protracted and, as is often the case, in such conventions, counties took to throwing around their votes somewhat carelessly. In this proceeding, some one exclaimed excitedly that a certain vote nominated Pomeroy, which it did not do, but the chairman of the Blackhawk delegation was stampeded and changed the vote of his county to Pomeroy who, in fact, was thus nomin- ated. Pomeroy was a zealous Republican and eloquent orator, and he had been a presidential elector in Lincoln's first campaign but one term was all he could get in congress on this sort of a start, and he was easily retired two years later, and in the meantime Story County's excellent time for a congressman had passed.
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