USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 44
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gress and he made the situation interesting while the candidacy lasted. About the beginning of the war he lost a leg in a threshing machine and later he had a cork substitute. It was a diversion of his at one of his numerous debates, while the other fellow was talking, to sit and drive pins into his cork leg-which performance was somewhat startling to some who might otherwise be taking in dangerous arguments. Hoggatt was one of the marked men of the county and he was a factor in its history for a long time.
POLITICS SETTLING DOWN.
The years 1874 and 1875 witnessed the wearing off of the excitement occasioned by the upheaval of 1873. In the Republican nominating con- vention of 1874, the practice of snubbing the Norwegians was abruptly discontinued. Fitchpatrick was again nominated for clerk, but Samuel Bates was finally retired from the recordership through the nomination of Ole K. Hill. The vote on the first ballot for recorder was 24 for Bates, 28 for Hill and 6 for H. H. Boyes, who later on, was Hill's suc- cessor in office. Hill's nomination is notable as the first one of a Nor- wegian for one of the principal county offices, excepting that of Torkel Henryson for the same office, six years before. The Republicans of the county in the meanwhile, however, had learned something. Hill's nom- ination was accepted in good faith and he was elected by a good majority.
At the same time John Evanson of Roland, another representative Nor- wegian, was renominated for supervisor and S. I. Shearer was nominated for a vacancy on the board. M. C. Carr, who was already filling the vacancy, failed of renomination in the Republican convention, but was nominated in the antimonopoly convention. Other antimonopoly nominees were James Ross for clerk and James Sloan for recorder. Evanson was indorsed by the antimonops and was elected almost unanimously. In the congresssional contest of this year the fight was not quite so spirited as it had been. Congressman Orr was generally repudiated and his own county of Boone elected a delegation against him. The eastern side of the district generally supported Judge Chase; but when the convention met at Fort Dodge, Judge Addison Oliver, of Onawa, had a majority of dele- gates, the situation was recognized and Oliver was nominated by acclama- tion. Judge Chase, in seeking this nomination for congress, had relin- quished his claim on the district judgeship and the judicial convention at Marshalltown on the fifteenth ballot nominated I. J. Mitchell of Boone, M. D. O'Connell was renominated for district attorney. The ensuing election was a landslide in the country towards Democracy, but in Story County there was a return to regular Republicanism and the local ticket was easily elected. For this return of politics to its usual channel, not a little credit was due to the nomination of Ole K. Hill. Mr. Hill was a man of fine ability and admirable character. He was warmly backed by the Norwegian element in the county and he won from the American
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population a hearty acceptance of his candidacy. While he was still in office he made a trip over to Norway and upon his return was accompanied by a considerable colony of fresh emigrants. His death within a few years after his retirement from office was a real loss to the county.
It is quite possible that the placidity of the local political campaign of 1874, was facilitated by the fact that the people had something else to think about. At the September session of the board of supervisors, by the votes of Supervisors, M. C. Carr and John Evanson against that of Walter Evans, passed a resolution submitting to the voters of the county the question of issuing $40,000 of ten per cent bonds for the erection of a new court house at Nevada, the supervisors supporting the proposition accompanied the same with a published statement and financial state- ments of one sort or another were the ruling feature in the local papers for the next few weeks. There was the hottest sort of a fight for and against the court house and, insomuch as the vote was the most important of any single vote ever taken in the county, its detailed results are worth setting down here by townships, as follows:
For Against
Collins
69
28
Franklin
16
109
Grant
60
33
Howard
25
55
Indian Creek
125
27
Lafayette
2
58
Lincoln
7
21
Milford
57
31
Nevada
365
. .
New Albany
107
21
Palestine
6
83
Richland
71
9
Sherman
14
II
Union
81
80
Warren
7
. .
Washington
7
393
Total
1019
959
In this vote there will be noted very much of a sectional division. The court house was carried in all of the townships east of Skunk River, including Union, excepting Howard and Lincoln; and it was defeated, heavily, in all townships west of Skunk River, as well as in Howard and Lincoln. Much the closest township in the county was Union, which is divided by Skunk River. But the net majority of 60 for the court house was decisive. Its conclusions were resisted for a time, but were later accepted, the court house Vol. 1-25
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was built and a structure secured of which the county has ever since been proud.
The campaign of 1875, witnessed some renewal of the controversies of 1873; but the Republican ticket was again successful. In the Republican convention, Milton Evans, of Ames, was, after some balloting, nominated as a dark horse for representative. Hays was again nominated for auditor without opposition, and J. A. King, who was then bookkeeper for Baldwin & Maxwell at Iowa Center, and who has ever since been a prominent figure in the county, was nominated for county treasurer. J. F. Gillespie, also a man of mark in the county to the present time, was after protracted balloting nominated for sheriff over J. R. McDonald and W. H. Stephens. C. H. Balliet was nominated for superintendent, his principal opponent being Miss Emma Chamberlin, of Ames. S. I. Shearer was renominated for super- visor and George Giddings was named for surveyor. In this same conven- tion, W. H. Gallup, editor of the Representative, was indorsed for state senator. The heavy vote on the court house the year before had resulted in giving Story a preponderance over Boone in the number of delegates in the senatorial convention, and Story proceeded to imitate the example of Boone four years before in dictating the nominee. In choosing the candidate, however, there was some regard for the feelings of Boone and Mr. Gallup probably owed not a little to the fact that in the Holmes-Maxwell fight he had supported Holmes, the regular nominee. In the election the only fights were on treasurer and superintendent ; but Balliet ousted Jerry Franks from the superintendency by a majority of 83, and King ousted Statler from the treasury by a majority of 6. Thus the full Republican ticket was elected and the sweeping victory of 1874 was confirmed. The abso- lute Republican dominance in the county dates from these two elections; for from 1874 down to the present time every Republican nominee upon a county ticket in this county has been elected.
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CHAPTER XXXVII.
VARIOUS MATTERS AFTER THE WAR.
In the decade following the war, there were a number of other matters probably of less importance than some we have been discussing, that, never- theless, should be here noted. One of these matters which never amounted to anything but which occupied no little attention, relates to
SOME PROJECTED RAILROADS.
The discussion of this matter pertains chiefly to Nevada, for the reason, heretofore set out, that the first cross railroad that was seriously considered was located at Ames; and while this railroad like many others remained for several years in the projected class, it was ultimately built, and the strong confidence on the west side of the county that the road already promised there would, in time, become a reality deterred the people in and about Ames from chasing notably after other still more elusive enterprises. Not so with Nevada. Nevada had the Northwestern, as had Ames; and Nevada saw Ames in the way of getting a cross road and Nevada was ready to con- sider with much interest such other propositions as came along.
The most persistent of such enterprises was the Eldora, Nevada and Des Moines railroad. There was a whole lot of talk about this along in 1868 and 1869, and in May, 1868, the matter had progressed far enough so that a five per sent tax was voted in aid of this road with 221 votes for and 48 against. A preliminary survey was made and it appears that between Eldora and Nevada there were to be sixteen miles of road in Story County, two and three-fourths in Marshall County and thirteen and one-fourth in Hardin County, the estimated cost being about $90,000. Judge Porter was an active promoter of this road, as he has been of many other paper roads in a half century along this route, and T. J. Ross and T. C. McCall were one committee that made a trip to Eldora in the interest of this project. But the proposition never got beyond the matter of talk and taxes, as was the case with an electric road that some forty years later was planned over the same route and with the difference that it was called the Des Moines, Ne- vada and Eldora railroad instead of the Eldora, Nevada and Des Moines. The proposition always looked well and it could be worked up to a certain stage, but capital to build the road was never forthcoming.
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This project being abandoned, we find mention, in 1871, of the Milwau- kee and Nashua, which was projected by way of Nashua, Parkersburg, El- dora, Nevada, Ames and "the old Iowa and Minnesota grading to Des Moines." Also there was some suggestion of the north and south ends of this same line with the intermediate section by way of Ames, Iowa Falls and Ackley. This suggestion carries some significance as to the discouraged state of the Narrow Gauge project between Des Moines and Ames and il- lustrates that when once an actual beginning is made anywhere by turning dirt for a railroad, the grade so made will remain and there will, from time to time, be people who will try to use it. But this particular scheme for making a Milwaukee connection in this territory did not get very far, and it soon dropped out of sight.
The next project was more promising and along an entirely different route. And it was known as the Iowa and Minnesota and Northern Pacific. It was to branch off from the Des Moines Valley railroad, now a division of the Rock Island, at Monroe, and was to be built through Newton, Nevada, up through the northern part of the state and continued through Minnesota as should be practicable. This road was better worked up and came nearer to being a success than did any other railroad prospect that was ever run through this territory. The leading local promoter of this road was Major James Hawthorn, who was experienced in such promotion and went into this matter wholeheartedly. He had been one of the local representatives at the Cedar Rapids railroad convention in 1859 and had been a director of Cedar Rapids & Missouri River railroad. His successful relation to that enterprise gave him courage for undertaking another and gave the people confidence in him and his efforts. He was vice president of this road also and he raised money for surveys and preliminary expenses and canvassed for the voting of taxes. The enterprise became locally active in the summer of 1871 and for a year or two it was pushed with great activity. Taxes were voted by the townships crossed in Jasper and Story counties and then up into Hamilton and more northern counties. Webster City and Eagle Grove were on the route and, further north, the route of the present Northwestern line seems to have been substantially followed up through Algona to Blue Earth City. In addition to the township taxes voted along the line Jasper voted its swamp lands to the enterprise and Hamilton half of its swamp lands, the other half having presumably been voted to the Dubuque and Sioux City line. Major Hawthorn returned from one northern trip with the report that he had the townships worked up along the route in the counties up to Kossuth; and after another trip, about the Fourth of July, 1872, Kossuth had responded also. The paper at Blue Earth City, Minn., reported his arrival there and the favorable consideration of the enterprise. Some litigation arose over the tax voted in Newton and there was conse- quent consideration of an alternative route up through Colfax and Wash- ington township of Polk County to Nevada and thence northward. But this matter was fixed up, somehow, and the Newton route adhered to.
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Ground was broken in Jasper County at a big barbeque and the road was definitely located to Nevada. Everything was proceeding favorably and the eastern capital necessary to the further financing of the project was definitely arranged for. But delays occurred and two things happened. The financial situation in New York became uncertain and the prospect for legislation, in Iowa, adverse to railroads, became threatening. It is difficult now to get the whole truth of the matter, but the fact is that the subject was put off until the panic following Jay Cooke's failure in 1873 occurred and the Iowa Granger of 1874 was passed. Then the subject was dropped. The Keokuk Gate City in March of the latter year observed that 22 townships between the Des Moines river and the state line had voted subsidies which were still available in the amount of $1,123,133; also 7,200 acres of swamp land in Jasper county. Grading had been finished from Monroe to Newton and the road was to be had on favorable terms. Powerful corporations were reported to be looking at it-but they never bought. No more rail- roads were built in Iowa until the financial situation eased and the Granger legislation was softened. The grade between Monroe and Newton was ultimately utilized but nothing else came of a very promising project. In after years for a very long time it was almost a periodical matter for some individual or party to come up from Newton, and a meeting of business men would be hastily convened in some Nevada office to talk about a rail- road from Newton. We think that visits of this order continued until about the middle eighties and that what finally occasioned their discontin- uance was the construction through the intervening territory of what is now the Chicago, Great Western railroad. This railroad did not come near to either Nevada or Newton but it furnished an outlet for the territory from which the Newton and Nevada road would have been expected to draw business. In much more recent years a railroad actually has been built from Newton through Cambridge to Boone but it has paid operating ex- penses only as the result of electrifying its western end; and the eastern end the receiver has been asking permission of court to tear up and aban- don. Surely there is a story of hard lines in connection with the railroad northwest from Newton.
BIDDING FOR THE STATE CAPITOL.
One incident of this period is worthy of note in its demonstrating the county seat of Story County was able to aspire to the highest honor that was to be conferred by the state upon any town in the state. In the latter '60s the demand for a new statehouse was becoming imperative and in March, 1868, Nevada, having at last settled the Slough question in favor of the north side, thought that its time was coming. Encouraged by apparently vivid hopes of the Eldora railroad, and by a standing offer of John I. Blair to give a quarter of a million dollars to the town that should get the capitol onto the main line of the Northwestern railroad and being further able to
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demonstrate that Nevada was nearer to the center of the state than any other county seat town, the business men of Nevada determined to put up the remaining three quarters of John I. Blair's million and get the capital. In the resolutions which they adopted they omitted to state just how they proposed to raise the three quarters of a million and this omission may serve as some explanation why the matter was not further heard from. But that they made so much of a start is a matter of record and the record appears in the Ægis of March 19, 1868, which says :
"At a large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Nevada and vi- cinity, called at the land office of Ross & Irwin, to take into consideration the propriety of removing the capital of the state, the object of the meeting being forcibly stated by T. J. Ross, the chairman, a committee consisting of E. B. Potter, Jas. S. Frazier and L. Irwin was appointed to draft resolu- tions embodying the sense of the meeting and reported as follows :
"'Whereas the Legislature is discussing the propriety of appropriating $1,500,000 to build a new Statehouse and
"'Whereas many of the leading papers of this state, especially the Mar- shall Times and Montana Standard, are advocating a relocation of the . capitol and
"'Whereas, Des Moines is not in the geographical center of the state, but is too far south, and
"'Whereas, John I. Blair has offered the sum of $250,000 to have the capitol located on the Northwestern Railway and
"'Whereas, Nevada is the nearest available point to the center of the state and is the crossing of the E. N. & D. M. R. R. and Northwestern,
" "Therefore, be it resolved,
"'Ist. That Nevada will donate the sum of $750,000 to be expended in building said Statehouse, at Nevada, and also donate grounds for said buildings.
"'2d. That our Representative Jas. Hawthorn be instructed to use all honorable means to secure the location of the capitol at Nevada.
" '3d. That the State Register and other papers favorable to the re- moval of the capitol be requested to copy.'"
THE COUNTY FAIR.
It was during this period that the County Fair was started. It will be remembered that the first Fair was held at Nevada in 1859, but the Lincoln- Douglas campaign sufficiently occupied attention in 1860 and after that the war stopped nearly everything that did not pertain to itself. But after the war the subject was revived and the people of Ames and vicinity appear to have taken the initiative. David Child of Nevada appears to have been the first president of the revived organization and Robt. Marshall of Frank- lin township, the second and Wm. West of Ames the third. The first Fair was held in Ames in 1868, but later on Nevada raised the money to buy
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the Fair ground, captured the Fair organization and brought the Fair to Nevada, where it continued to give annual exhibitions for about forty years. It was in its period of greatest prosperity, or at least of popular in- terest, probably in the time when the trotting horses had not yet gone out of vogue in the county and the big drafts had begun to come in. Still later, however, the more notable improvements were made in the Fair ground but it seemed to take an increasing amount of effort to keep up the interest.
NEWSPAPERS.
For a considerable part of the decade following the war, the Story County Ægis at Nevada continued to be the only newspaper in the county. As we have abundantly demonstrated, it was conducted with much ability by John M. Brainard. Mr. Brainard sold out in 1869 to V. A. Ballou and the latter in turn sold it in 1870 to W. H. Gallup, who called it the Rep- resentative and was in 1875 elected to the Senate. As Amnes was started it came to have aspirations to be a newspaper town also, or printers sought to make it such. The first attempt was in behalf of a paper named the Re- flector and in 1868 it was made an additional county official paper; but its life was short and its record scant. The Ames Intelligencer was started in April, 1869, by A. McFadden; and he made it go well enough so that after a while he sold it to John Watts, who built it up materially. About 1871 the Watchman was started by R. H. Rhodearmel and it changed hands quite frequently for several years, Mr. Rhodearmel going back into it for a time and pushing it quite successfully. In 1880 it was bought by Mr. V. A. Ballou, formerly of the Ægis, who conducted it for all but a few months of its remaining existence or for more than a quarter of a century and in this work identified himself with the affairs of the county from the Democratic point of view. These three papers, The Representative, the Intelligencer and the Watchman constituted the press of the county until some time in the 80's, when the Maxwell Tribune, the Story City Herald and some other papers of less permanency began to make their appearance in the outside towns.
SOME PERSONAL MENTION.
During this period there were a few men who came into the county either as visitors or for what proved to be temporary residence and who, while they remained, were persons of especial note in the community. One of these was Chauncey Welton, who came to Nevada in 1867, purchased an interest in the "National" hotel and assumed at that hotel the position of "mine host." This was an event of interest; for Mr. Welton was a per- sonage universally known and equally esteemed in these parts for many years. The "National" was the old "Hutchins" house, then on the Lowrey lots northwest of the city park, and the movement of the town from the south side to the north side was only just fairly started. Mr. Welton, how-
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ever, did not stay in his first location long. He sold his interest in that hotel, and the building itself was moved by the purchaser to its familiar location opposite the court house. But he continued in the hotel business, purchasing and converting to hotel uses the Alderman building that was at the time now under review just being completed north of the court house square. To this building he added a one-story addition that came out to Lynn street and served as the office of his new hotel. And here he was, doing a good business and always serving good meals, when the writer first became acquainted with conditions in Nevada. We think we first met him when we accompanied Clyde Lockwood, who had some garden truck of his own raising to dispose of for pocket money and who struck Mr. Welton, successfully, for a sale. Mr. Welton seemed to us then about the fattest man we had ever seen; and although this superlative may have been undeserved, he was certainly large. But he was also jolly, and the more we saw of him the better we liked him. He continued in the hotel business here until his hotel went up in smoke on the December night in 1879, when the most of the west side of the business street went out and up.
Shortly after this fire Mr. Welton moved away, going first to Des Moines, and thence to Mapleton, and finally dying a number of years ago at the Soldiers' Home. He retained some property interests here for a time, however; and we remember quite distinctly that he came back here and sold the lots north of the park, where the Representative families still have their homes. Mr. Welton was all right; and all the old-timers will recall him with pleasure.
Another man who came here in the Spring of 1869, was W. E. Waring. He came from New York with a considerable fortune and invested the bulk of it in property in and about Nevada. He was a city man and is supposed to have made his money in some department of the liquor business. He understood that business well enough; but his conception of values in a pioneer country was poor, and he became in consequence the purchaser of a large amount of property at prices that no one else would have paid for it. In this way he succeeded in tying up a good part of his money, and when he closed out and went away it was at a sacrifice. Mr. Waring and his family remained here for about three years, and they did all that was indicated in the prospectus, and more. They were liberal in their ways generally, and they were very prominent in the community while they re- mained. When they left it was with discouragement and with a view of replenishing their fortunes amid environments to which they were better adapted than they were to those obtaining here. Also they left for good, and there does not appear to be any recollection that, once they had gone, any of them ever returned: nor is very much known here of them after their departure. But they were for the time-being a notable part of the community, and the first introduction through the Ægis was not over- drawn. It was as follows:
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"Some time since we noticed the fact that Mr. W. E. Waring of New York City had been making some purchases of real estate here. We have now to state that he has bought two sections of land just north of this village, 160 adjoining the village plot on the east, running up to the rail- road, a parcel of land from Col. Scott, and also from Maj. Hawthorn. He has also bought the Welton House and nearly all the block south, several houses and lots, among which we learn is the Adamson property. The Welton House is to be moved back, and a large hotel with 40 feet front and 60 feet deep and three stories high is to be erected in front of and in connection with the present one. We learn from good authority that he intends to invest $45,000 in and about Nevada, and this would indicate that he has the 'rocks' to do it. Work has already commenced on some of his repairs which will be pushed forward rapidly. He obtains possession of the Welton House on the first of May and will immediately proceed to erect the new hotel. Several men of means will probably come with him, and will make this their abiding place. These improvements are in the right direction and will have a tendency to advance the general prosperity of the place and thereby the entire county. We may look forward to a season of unexampled prosperity. Our citizens will welcome all that come to make this point their home, who do so with a desire to assist in making it a place worthy of its name. That Mr. W. will do this there appears to be little doubt."
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