USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 43
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In county matters this year the situation quieted down to some de- gree. J. A. Fitchpatrick was renominated for clerk without difficulty and was re-elected as he continued to be for several terms. The other place on the county ticket was that of county-recorder. Bates' elec- tion for the previous year having been for the vacancy only. There was not so much fuss about the matter as in the previous year but the con- vention was controlled by the regulars and they as before noted refused Bates a renomination, putting on the ticket in his place Torkel Henry- son of Story City. This action is notable as the first nomination of a Norwegian, by the Republicans of the county, for a county office. The Norwegians had been a growing force in the county for ten years and
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back in 1859, their vote though small, had undoubtedly determined the political complexion of the county. In succeeding years, however, their vote though larger, had not been so badly needed and had therefore com- manded less attention. Undoubtedly it is further true that their vote did not increase as rapidly as did their settlement. The first Norwegian settlers in the county in the latter '50s, had come from Illinois and were for the most part already citizens; but later on the immigration came more directly from Norway and the newer arrivals had to wait the process of naturalization before counting in politics. In spite, however, of such delays, the Norwegian power and influence were becoming more appreciable and the nomination of Henryson was clearly dictated by good politics. Mr. Henryson was then-and is yet-one of the most represen- tative citizens of his portion of the county, and he would have filled well the recordership as his son, thirty years later, did the treasurership. But the politics of the previous year had not yet settled down and the people of the county were not yet habituated in the matter of voting for Nor- wegians for office. Bates bolted and ran independent and he was sup- ported by a combination of Democrats, bolters of the previous year and probably others who regarded with disfavor the nomination of a Nor- wegian. The combination was effective and Henryson was beaten. But it is to be said of him that he took his defeat in good part and the matter was not made the occasion of further political wars.
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CHAPTER XXXVI. POLITICS FOLLOWING THE WAR-(CONTINUED).
CAMPAIGN OF 1869.
The year 1869 was more of an off year in county politics than there had been for some time. The divisions at the county seat continued, but the outside of the county became more assertive, and the outside spirit was manifested in the nomination for representative of W. K. Wood of Iowa Center. He had been one of the earliest settlers of the county, had always been universally esteemed and was indifferent as to whether business in Nevada should be done chiefly on the north side or the south side of the slough. In the Republican County convention the nominees were W. K. Wood for representative, E. G. Day for treasurer, C. P. McCord for auditor, R. S. Osborn for sheriff, John R. Hays for super- intendent, C. P. Robinson for coroner, Mr. Griffin for drainage commis- sioner and M. C. Allen for county surveyor. Of these nominees the first and last are still prominent citizens of the county; John R. Hays is one of the leading men of Nebraska and resides at Norfolk in that state; Osborn was beaten in the election but went to Kansas where he become auditor of state; Griffin we never heard of; but Day, McCord and Robinson were men long prominent in the county and in the course of years went the way of all that is mortal. But together they were a forceful bunch, and they won the nominations in a convention the pro- ceedings of which indicate that there was a fight.
The main issue of the fight appears to have been to clean out the bolters of two years before. The bolting faction was still strong in the county seat and it was in control of the Nevada delegation in convention; but the opposite faction from Nevada and the people on the outside who were tired of the fuss got together and dominated the convention. We have a suspicion that E. G. Day had his identification with the bolters; but he never was aggressive on that side and he got his nomination by a margin of one vote over W. D. Lucas of Ames. But Dana was de- feated for representative and Mitchell for auditor, in each case the nomin- ation going to the country, which up to that time had not been in the habit of taking nominations to any considerable extent. Why Osborn was nominated over Murphey is not so clear; but it may be that he had
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a bunch of delegates that were needed in the outside combination. At any rate Osborn was nominated; but he was immediately voted as being no good, and the Democrats were given the hint that if they would nominate an old soldier for sheriff they might get one office. They nominated Alf Goodin, who had served through the war, and part of the time in Andersonville, and he beat Osborn by a big majority, it being a fact worthy of renewed mention that Goodin thus became the only Dem- ocrat to be elected to office in this county on a straight Democratic nom- ination since 1858.
The convention was called to order by T. J. Ross, and its chairman was Robert Marshall of Washington township. V. A. Ballou was secre- tary. It was not one of the famous conventions of Story county Re- publicanism; but it evidently knew what it wanted, and by sitting down hard on the bolters it probably made its contribution toward the factional feud which lasted in the county for twenty years. Explanatory of the candidacy of R. H. Mitchell for renomination for auditor, it should be said that the general assembly of 1868 had abolished the office of county judge, but had created the office of county auditor, and instead of legis- lating the county judges out of office, it had provided that for the re- mainder of their terms they should discharge the duties of the new position. The glories of the county judgeship had been much dimmed several years before by the creation of boards of supervisors; and the further change which made the county judge clerk of the board and gave him a suitable title was readily accepted by all.
SOME FURTHER POLITICS.
In the Republican convention of 1870 Fitchpatrick was renominated for clerk, and Sam Bates again secured a regular nomination for re- corder. Both candidates had opposition but not enough to bother them greatly. It was in this year that supervisors were first elected by the county as a whole, the boards up to this time having consisted of one member for each township. This convention therefore had three super- visors to nominate, and after some balloting the honors fell to W. R. Woodward, J. W. Maxwell and A. J. Graves, their strongest competitor being John Evanson.
There was in this year also a notable contest in the sixth district congressional convention, Chase and Scott, who had been the principal . candidates in the convention at Boone two years before, but who had been beaten by Pomeroy, received a few votes but were not candidates. Judge Couch of Waterloo, however, was again pushed by his friends, while yet more active candidates were Judge Ford of Sioux City and Jackson Orr of Boone. Pomeroy started in as the leading candidate but was not able to hold his lead and on the fourteenth ballot Orr was nominated. Orr had lived at Fort Dodge and Jefferson and at this time
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was a merchant at Boone. He seems to have had the faculty of moving around and getting office where he happened to be. Some years later he went to Colorado and figured out there in politics as a Populist. There may have been some reasonable excuse for the sixth district send- ing him to Congress, but we do not know what it was. In the judicial convention of this year, Judge Chase of Webster City and District At- torney Bradley of Marshalltown, were both renominated. In the elec- tion of this year the political troubles of previous years were not acute and the whole ticket was elected without especial interest being aroused
The campaign of 1871 is notable chiefly for the beginning of con- troversy between Story and Boone counties over the senatorship, but there were other political matters that were speedily disposed of. For representative the Republican convention of that year renominated W. K. Wood on the second ballot, although there was a strong support for L. Q. Hoggatt, and J. L. Dana was also voted for on the first ballot, the most of his votes going to Wood. For treasurer, E. G. Day was re- nominated against the divided opposition; and for auditor John R. Hays who had been deputy under McCord, received his first nomination; thus starting on a term of service which continued for ten years. The Re- publicans having lost the sheriff two years before were cautious about their nomination and returned to H. F. Murphey, who had demonstrated his ability to be elected whenever he was nominated. For superintendent the nominee was B. Bisbee who for thirty years was notable as one of the two men from Franklin township who actually got Republican nom- inations for county offices, and both of whom were beaten in the elec- tion. For supervisor there seems to have been an agreement to concede something to the Norwegians, but some difficulty in agreeing on the man. On the third ballot there was a tie, thirty votes apiece, between John Evanson and Abel Olson, both of Roland, but on the fourth ballot Evan- son was nominated. W. G. Allen was nominated for surveyor and the convention forgot to name anyone for coroner. The same forgetful- ness extended to the opposition, but in the election, C. P. Robinson was re-elected by a few scattering votes in Nevada.
But as before noted the real question of the year was the senator- ship. This was the first senatorial election in which Story and Boone counties constituted the senatorial district. The outgoing senator was I. J. Mitchell of Boone, but ten and a dozen years before. Story had had Scott and also Potter to fill out Scott's term. At all other times since the settlement of the counties they had been represented by senators not residents of either county. In this situation Story set up the claim that a Boone senator was going out and it was Story County's turn. Boone on the other hand argued that the two counties so far had had equal representation, and that the senatorship now on a new proposition should go to the larger of the two counties. On the basis of the votes of the last election the chairmen of the respective Republicans county
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committees agreed on a call for a district convention in which Boone County was accorded thirteen votes and Story ten. If Boone therefore should insist it could take the nomination, but the disposition in Story was to insist strongly on the other side. So the Story convention upon a ballot gave G. M. Maxwell forty six votes and T. J. Ross thirteen and thereupon named a solid delegation in the interest of Maxwell. Boone at the same time with perhaps equal apparent unanimity but with not so strong backing among the people gave its endorsement and delegation to A. J. Holmes. Holmes was a young lawyer, who in later years was representative from Boone County, and for three terms a member of Congress, but at this time his reputation was not established and Story County knew very little about him. Maxwell on the other hand had served two terms as representative, was a campaigner of undoubted force and was the natural choice of the county for the position. So the two delegations came together at Ames with an idea on the Boone side that Boone could afford to take the nomination and with the idea on the Story side that such action was not to be submitted to. So the two delegations had a conference in advance of the convention. Story wanted to know what Boone proposed to do about it; Boone said it proposed to take the nomination. So Story absented itself and Boone proceeded to organ- ize a convention. The committee on credentials reported thirteen dele- gates from Boone and no credentials from Story. Boone sent a com- mittee to invite the Story delegation to come in and the delegation not coming, a motion was adopted authorizing Story County citizens present to cast the vote of the county. In the meantime the Story delegation had organized in Dan McCarthy's office, and Dan McCarthy appeared in the Boone convention and asked time for Story to present a proposition. Time was most cheerfully granted and later T. E. Alderman presented the proposition which was that the candidacies of Messrs. Maxwell and Holmes be referred to a primary of the two counties. The Boone chair- man advised Mr. Alderman that such reference was without the jurisdic- tion of the convention-which advice was manifestly unsound-and Mr. Alderman withdrew. This closed the negotiations. In the Boone con- vention, the Boone delegation cast thirteen votes for A. J. Holmes, and somebody cast ten votes for J. Patton. Holmes was declared the nominee, whereupon the Story delegation in McCarthy's office nominated Max- well. In the later discussion Maxwell asserted that if Boone objected to him personally he had proposed to withdraw and Boone might select another Story County man, but he was advised there was no per- sonal objection to himself. In the subsequent campaign the senatorship was about the only matter that received attention. The Democrats did not attempt to run a candidate between the two Republicans but re- frained from making a nomination. Generally they appear to have sup- ported Maxwell, and in Story county, W. H. Gallup as chairman of the Republican county committee, and Major Hawthorn as chairman of
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the Democratic county committee arranged for a joint discussion between the two candidates. Just how many such discussions were actually held we do not know but there were some and Maxwell was built for that sort of politics while Holmes was not. So Maxwell had all the advan- tage of the game, and in the returns he had 1,067 majority in Story County while Holmes was able to get only about 650 majority in Boone. Holmes had a small vote in Story County from Republicans who were anxious to be regular, but there was little heartiness in their support, and the county was about as unanimous for Maxwell as it ever was for any- one. For county superintendent Bisbee was defeated by Jerry H. Franks who thus entered upon a quite notable career in Story County politics, but otherwise a straight Republican ticket was elected.
The politics of 1872 appears to have been singularly devoid of ex- citement. At the early convention to choose delegates to the state con- vention which was to elect delegates to the national convention, the Grant administration was endorsed and President A. S. Welch was complimented with the chairmanship of the state delegation. The latter incident reminds that President Beardshear was similarly complimented in the county in 1898 and President Storms in 1904. President Welch was unquestionably a man to meet with tactfulness the responsibilities of such position, and President Beardshear also entered with spirit and evident appreciation into the rather lively proceedings of the Dubuque convention of 1898; but President Storms was differently constituted and he stayed away from the state convention.
In the later conventions of the same year, Fitchpatrick for clerk and Bates for recorder, secured their usual renominations,-the latter without open opposition. And J. W. Maxwell, who had drawn the short term at the organization of the board of supervisors was renominated. The second convention also took an expression of congressional preference. The candidacy of Congressman Orr for renomination was regarded with evident indifference and former Congressman Pomeroy was regarded as at least a tentative candidate in opposition. So the convention after some deliberation concluded that the proper thing was to present a candidate of its own and it accordingly gave its endorsement to Col. Scott. The endorsement however was without effect, for the opposition to Orr in the district failed to get together and he was renominated by acclama- tion in a convention which was held at Storm Lake and as to which the leading comment at the time was one of wonder why the convention was called for a place where there were only 200 people and a body of water that the assembled delegates could not conveniently use. The cir- cuit judges who four years before had been provided for, two for each judicial district, had had their offices consolidated to one for each judicial district and had their salaries increased to correspond with that of dis- trict judge. Judge Hudson of Boone, who for the term had been the judge for the southern circuit of the Eleventh district, appears to have
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dropped out of sight, and the nomination was given to District Attorney Bradley of Marshalltown. Bradley's promotion made a vacancy in the district attorneyship which in a later convention was filled by the nomina- tion of M. D. O'Connell of Fort Dodge, whose later career has been notable and who has only recently retired after many years' service as solicitor of the treasury at Washington. In the ensuing election, all of the Republican nominees were re-elected as a matter of course, excepting that J. W. Maxwell had a very close run for supervisor. This year is further and perhaps chiefly notable for the first serious consideration of the primary plan for making county nominations. In the previous year's convention, a motion had been carried with little attention endorsing the primary plan. And the first convention of 1872, to elect state delegates to choose national delegates, was apparently obsessed with the idea that the plan must be gotten rid of. So that convention referred the matter to the latter convention, to choose state, congressional and judicial dele- gates, and that convention voted the matter down and left the nominations of the year to be made in a third convention in the usual manner, in which manner they continued to be made for more than twenty years.
POLITICS OF 1873.
The year 1873 was one of political upheaval. The Liberal Republi- can campaign against Grant in 1872 had fizzled because the rank and file of the Democrats would not accept Greeley as their national leader; but in the following year the forces of unrest found more effective expres- sion. The first manifestation was in a Republican convention held to elect delegates to a state convention. The attendance was very slim but a resolution was adopted denouncing the "salary grab" in congress. This denunciation was for the benefit of Congressman Orr, who had secured renomination the year before from a reluctant constituency and who had celebrated his success by voting for the famous $5,000 back pay proposi- tion and promptly appropriating the money. The second Republican convention after some desultory balloting, nominated A. W. Stewart, then of Ames, for representative, renominated John R. Hays for auditor by acclamation and E. G. Day for treasurer by a close vote over S. R. Corneliussen. Sam Zenor, who in after years and following repeated trials, was actually elected sheriff of Boone county, was the nominee for sheriff. M. C. Stephens was named for superintendent; R. H. Mitchell for surveyor, and C. P. Robinson as usual for coroner. Maxwell's close call of the preceding year had resulted in a vacancy in the supervisorship and he was renominated for the long term; the vacancy going to Jacob Mason of Grant Township, who was long one of the wheel horses of Republicanism in the county. The opposition of this year took the form of a new anti-monopoly party, in the organization of which Democrats and disaffected Republicans coalesced with much enthusiasm, although
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with very little singleness of purpose other than to "bust the ring." The point of agreement further was for the regulation of transportation rates, in favor of which the Republican convention also resolved when the time came and the struggle became one for precedence in the matter of "doing" the railroads. The economic result was a series of laws in this and other states that were known as "granger legislation" much of which was overthrown in the courts and the rest of which was after- wards materially modified but all of which constituted the beginning of the present system of regulating transportation. In the county this new organization held an enthusiastic convention in which many candidates were voted for but the successful ones were accorded the united sup- port of all. L. Q. Hoggatt was nominated for representative, Sam S. Statler for treasurer and Charles Christian for sheriff. No candidate was named in opposition to John R. Hays for auditor, which circum- stance later proved very fortunate for Hays, and similarly as to C. P. Robinson for coroner. R. H. Mitchell was also endorsed for county surveyor, but he appears not to have cared to run on two tickets with the result that another candidate was put up and came within ten votes of beating him. Jerry Franks, who had been elected as an opposition candidate for superintendent two years before, was renominated; and Walter Evans and M. C. Carr were named for supervisors. The sub- sequent campaign was exceedingly lively. Joint discussions were ar- ranged by Dan McCord as chairman of the anti-monops and J. A. Fitch- patrick as the chairman for the Republicans, the discussions being be- tween "L. Q. Hoggatt and others." In other wards, Hoggatt, who was the spokesman for the opposition and well qualified for the part, was combatting any Republican who would stand up against him. Of course the Republican candidate who should have met Hoggatt was Stewart, the Republican candidate for representative, but Stewart was not equal to the situation; and the situation became so unsatisfactory to the Re- publicans that on the eve of the election there was a spontaneous move- ment for Col. Scott as an independent candidate for representative.
So the Republicans went into the election utterly demoralized, the demoralization in the county being typical of that in the state. They carried the state and county for the state ticket but the house of repre- sentatives was equally divided, and all they elected in the county was the surveyor by ten votes and the auditor and coroner to whom there was no opposition. The general troubles had been intensified by the per- sistent snubbing of Norwegian candidates and the resulting resentment had been made effective in Charles Christian's nomination by the anti- monops for sheriff ; so locally the opposition practically swept the board. The nearest to an exception of consequence was in the matter of repre-
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sentative as to which Scott gave Hoggatt a real chase, but enough Re- publicans stayed by Stewart, the regular nominee, to let Hoggatt in.
L. Q. HOGGATT.
At this point it seems desirable to make some further notice of Col. L. Q. Hoggatt, who headed the successful anti-monopoly movement in the county, in 1873, and enjoyed personally the highest honor which the county had to give at that time. Col. Hoggatt was an Indiana man, had been in the Mexican war and had served in the Indiana legislature. Coming to Iowa, he located on the East side of Squaw Creek and his farm has since become an important part of the city of Ames. He was elected sheriff in 1861 and 1863 and thus held this highly important office nearly through the entire period of the war. After his retirement from office he continued to be active in Republican politics until his break with the Republicans in the anti-monopoly movement. After this break, however, he remained unreconciled, and his attitude was generally that of a Green- backer or Populist. In the years before the opposition had quite given up the idea of making a fight for at least some of its candidates for a county office, he was always prominent in the county conventions of the opposition, which was usually a fusion of some sort. After hope had been given up he used to come over to Nevada periodically to attend Populist conventions and these conventions were about the only occasions on which he did come over. In county matters he was a persistent fighter for the Ames side of the controversy, whatever it was. He was prominent in the campaign for the location of the Iowa and Minnesota railroad, and he was a fighter against the new courthouse at Nevada. When he was beaten, however, he had the grace to acknowledge his defeat; and it is to be recorded that he came over to Nevada and made a speech at the dedi- cation of the court house. The hour of his triumph, however, was when he was elected to the 15th general assembly. The House was equally divided between Republicans and antimonops and in the turbulent scenes of that session he was well fitted to bear a part. One of the prominent issues of the time was the investigation of the business conduct of the Iowa Agricultural College and he had a resolution to order an investiga- tion. But, when John H. Gear was finally elected speaker, he immediately recognized some Republican member to offer a resoluton of investigation. It was no fault of Hoggatt's, however, that his resoluton was not the one considered. In 1878, when the Greenback movement was at its height, he was the candidate of the fusion of Democrats and Greenbackers in the Ninth district for congress. Col. Hoggatt had a quite famous buckboard that he drove with one horse around the district, stopping at each town to explain the dangers of resumption. His opponent was Gov. Carpenter and as the district was Republican, Carpenter was elected; but Hoggatt was the only Story County man who actually got a nomination for con-
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