USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 48
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In this county convention, the delegation was elected to the senatorial convention. Not very much attention was given to the choice of the delega- tion; for, after the temporary boost which the Story representation had been given by the court house vote of 1874, the natural preponderance of Boone County in district conventions reappeared; and Boone had in the senatorial convention, now to be held, one more delegate than had Story. After the county conventions, however, it developed that John D. Gillett of Ogden, who was the Boone candidate for senator, was not supported by one of the Boone delegates, and the opportunity was thus opened, with good management, for the nomination of a third Story County senator
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to succeed Geo. M. Maxwell and W. H. Gallup. Lucas, who was fearful that he might not get the solid vote for representative and was anxious to reconcile opposition, was quite anxious to have the senatorial nomination go to McCall; and, with his co-operation, there was little difficulty in se- curing McCall's endorsement at the caucus of the Story delegation; but the fights in which McCall had been engaged in the county had been such that he did not readily secure the united support of a picked up delegation such as was the one from this county in this case; and, after some scatter- ing ballots, the Boone County one vote for McCall was compensated by a Story County vote for Gillett, who thus was nominated and served for six years, or until he absconded after the failure of his bank at Ogden.
THE NEW COURT HOUSE.
The most important event to the people of the county in this period, however, was the building of the court house. The controversies over the merits of the proposition and the contest over the vote having been disposed of, it having been definitely determined that the court house should be built, it devolved upon the board of supervisors, consisting of John Evanson, Walter Evans and S. I. Shearer, to build the court house. They secured plans from Mr. Foster, an architect of Des Moines, and, after advertising for bids, let the contract inside of the authorized figure of $40,000.00. The contractor is long since forgotten, but it may be said that he did not make any money on the contract, became financially in- volved, and by his insolvency occasioned considerable trouble and some litigation in the final settlement for the work. The actual work of con- struction, however, was not slighted, and the general results to the county were highly satisfactory. The building was set on concrete footings and solidly built so that it has withstood the effects of wear and weather far better than would ordinarily have been expected. The work of excavating for the court house was started in the spring of 1876 and the construction progressed satisfactorily during the summer and autumn months. The inside finishing was done in the winter, and the court room was ready for use at the February Term of the District Court. The dedication of the court house was a matter of much felicitation, and a great crowd was present in the court room for the occasion. Nevada rejoiced, and Ames was present, through competent representatives, to congratulate. This was in the winter of 1877.
While the court house was thus complete and thus occupied and dedi- cated, there was hesitation by the board of supervisors on account of the financial difficulties of the contractor, about formally accepting it, and the wish of the supervisors was not to accept the structure until the settle- ments concerning its erection could be effected. The weather was pretty cold, however, and the county officers, in the old frame court house on what is now the Lockridge residence corner, were not at all comfortable.
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Of course, they had all been candidates for the offices and had been elected to places in the old court house, and they were doubtless pleased with their respective successes ; but, nevertheless, they were not at all satisfied to stay in the old court house and shiver over the hot stove while there were new offices and pleasant quarters to be had in the new building. Also, it was reasoned quite conclusively that the court house was built and that it would be quite impracticable for the contractor, or the contractor's credi- tors, to take the same away. The county had the structure and might as well begin using it; so one by one and without any particular order, save that Mr. Hays as the county auditor and clerk of the board of supervisors had more deference to the supervisorial wish than had the others and was the last, they all moved over; and Mr. Hays also moved over soon after the rest. Thus the court house was not only built, but occupied, and the people rejoiced over its completion.
THE GLYNDON MURDER CASE.
In this period occurred the trial of Glyndon for the murder of a young girl in Grundy County. The case was brought to Story County for trial upon change of venue, after having been for some time in the courts of counties further east. It was tried here in the fall of 1879, and Glyndon was found guilty and sent to the penitentiary for life. Glyndon always persistently denied his guilt; but the girl had been met upon the highway, dragged into a field, outraged and murdered, and Glyndon had been in the vicinity. The circumstantial evidence against him was strong, and it was believed by the public, as well as by the jury; although there was a recognized possibility that injustice might have been done him. Glyndon remained in the penitentiary for thirty years, and was then pardoned. Aside from the facts of the trial and conviction and sentence, the general facts known about him were that his name was not Glyndon; that he was a veteran of the Civil War, and that he hailed from Columbiana County, Ohio.
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CHAPTER XL. AFFAIRS IN THE EIGHTIES.
MILWAUKEE AND IOWA CENTRAL.
The early eighties witnessed the construction of two new railroads and the founding of several towns. The railroads were the Chicago, Milwau- kee & St. Paul, which was constructed through the southern part of the county in 1880, and the Story City branch of the Iowa Central, which was constructed through the northern tier of townships in 1882. Both events were very important to the county, but the Milwaukee Railroad, being the greater railroad, as well as a little the earlier of the two, and going through a more generally settled part of the county, was the occasion of the greater interest and perhaps results. The Milwaukee did not ask for the voting of subsidies as had been the case with all the earlier railroads, that were projected but never actually built; but the Milwaukee at this time was already a very important railroad system having lines in various parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota; and it was the determination of its management to have a line to connect with the Union Pacific at Omaha; so the line was put through without very much fuss, and with a view to getting the business of territory that was not convenient to existing trunk lines; so east of Tama, a route was chosen at a convenient distance north of the North-Western, and after crossing the North-Western at Tama, the route was continued as seemed most convenient between the North- Western and the Rock Island. Very few towns of importance were found along this route; but the country was as good as other parts of Iowa; and the plan of securing the shipments for the agricultural belt along the line was quite well considered and successfully executed. The route chosen not only missed large towns; but, in choosing it, very little attention was paid to small towns.
At this time, the principal towns in the southern part of Story County were Iowa Center and Cambridge, and east of the southern part of Story County was Edenville. The road hit Edenville and called it Rhodes. It also hit Cambridge, but it missed Iowa Center, and its construction was followed by the location of Collins, Maxwell and Huxley and also Elwell, which never got so good a start as the other towns named. While the railroad management did not ask for subsidies, it was interested in town
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lot speculation, and in the location of most of these towns there was con- siderable of railroad politics. Cambridge had to raise a subscription to get the depot where it wanted the same; and the men who were most prominent in business at Iowa Center cooperated in the location of Max- well and in the purchase of a farm there and the laying out of the town. The nearest towns to the present location of Collins were Clyde and Peoria both of which passed out of consideration after the construction of this railroad, and Collins forthwith became a village and shipping point of greatly increasing consequence. Huxley was from the start a shipping point ; but, as a town, it did not develop until very much later. The cir- cumstance that Palestine Township was divided into independent school districts, and that Huxley was close to the line between two of these dis- tricts and was therefore for a long time unable to get a school, was one of the conditions embarrassing to any hopes there of a rapid growth. This difficulty, however, was in the court of time, overcome; and since the con- struction through there of the Electric Interurban Line, Huxley has been . obviously prosperous. Slater was not started until some time later, and was not one of the original Milwaukee towns. Cambridge, as the oldest town, would naturally have prospered most from the coming of the road, and it did prosper in no small measure; but in the days before there was any uniformity about railroad rates, Cambridge was never a favored point of the railroad management; and the advantages which it got were only normal.
The Milwaukee town that was started with the most enthusiasm and grew most rapidly was Maxwell. It was founded by men of business in- fluence and good judgment and large personal and political activity. Also, it was singularly free from quarrels such as were more or less to the em- barrassment of other towns; and, on a smaller scale, it exemplified, probably better than any other Story County town ever has done, the spirit of sub- lime local confidence that is characteristic of Kansas City, Seattle and Los Angeles. Maxwell from the start was a booming town; its residences were good for the time; its business structures were as well built as could be hoped for; and in Maxwell men that wanted to run for office had the united support of the whole community. So the coming of the Milwaukee offered to the southern part of the county the advantages of towns, good shipping, additional post offices, and all the general benefits that are to be expected from the coming of a good railroad into a fairly developed com- munity.
The Iowa Central Railroad, in contrast with the Milwaukee, was built for the local traffic. It branched from the main line a little north from Marshalltown; but its towns were mostly in Story County. It was not made for a through line; and, although at Story City it might have con- nected with the north and south line of the North-Western, it did not do so, but stopped just a little short; and, in fact, there is no con- nection between the two roads to this day. It was built in 1882, as a local
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road and through townships which in the east half of the county at least, were largely unoccupied. The townships in the county that had been the slowest to settle up were Lincoln and Warren; and though there were a number of fairly developed farms in both townships, there was in neither township anything like a community center; and, in fact, until the coming of this railroad, there had never been a post office in either township; so Zearing and McCallsburg, (the latter of which sought to be called Latrobe) were the beginnings of towns in their part of the county. Howard Town- ship was, of course, much better settled, and Roland was already a recog- nized inland village; but the development of Howard Township and the number of its people, were then only a suggestion of what may there be found now, and the same is true, in a much greater degree, of Roland. There was a store or two, and there was the Star Route post office; but, of course, there was no shipping point, and in consequence the village dates distinctly from the coming of the railroad. The other two towns, not having the country about them so well developed, did not pick up as rapidly as did Roland; but Zearing made very good progress, and, after waiting a number of years for the township about it to settle up, McCalls- burg did the same. In later years the two have been fairly rivals for busi- ness and development; have both had new buildings and numerous fires and the general ups and downs of country towns that have in them fair elements of growth. Story City was already a town of recognized conse- quence before the Iowa Central came. The Narrow Gauge, which was afterwards the North-Western, had reached it some five years before; and when the Iowa Central came also, the town had the benefits of competitive transportation and was the first town in the county to secure such compe- tition. Its growth from this time on was steady; and, in the course of years, it has fairly won the place of third, following Nevada and Ames, in improvements and importance in the county. All of the townships trav- ersed by the Iowa Central voted five per cent taxes in its aid. While they paid considerable for the railroad, which there has been little disposition of its management to develop beyond the needs of a strictly local service; yet, it has been worth to them all that it cost and very much more, and has in fact been a condition without which the north part of the county could not have developed at all as it has.
THE COLLEGE RUCTION.
In the fall of 1883, there was a ruction at the Agricultural College. The college at this time was controlled by a board of five trustees, elected by the legislature; and, without there having been any apparent purpose to choose a board antagonistic to President Welch, it came about that at this time there were three trustees who were positively opposed to him, and another who was not especially favorable. President Welch had been at the head of the institution for 14 or 15 years, and had, of course, in this
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time advanced considerably in years. He had considerable private inter- ests that demanded much of his attention. His position was also one in which a man, however well qualified and successful, is bound in time to create troubles for himself, and President Welch, with all his ability and tactfulness, could not be an exception to the rule. He had survived a very serious disturbance some ten years before, when the college had been investigated by a legislative committee, and the conclusion arrived at, that some moneys had been expended without proper authority, but, neverthe- less, under the pressure of urgent necessity. In that controversy, it had been a question whether President Welch or Prof. Jones, who was next to him in the first faculty of the college, should be forced out of the institution, and it had finally been Jones that was forced out. After this determina- tion, matters at the college had moved more smoothly for a long time, and it was not especially apparent that they were running otherwise than smoothly when suddenly President Welch was dismissed by the trustees and Prof. S. A. Knapp, who was at the head of the agricultural part of the institution, was designated as acting-president in his place. President Knapp held the position through the following college year; but his admin- istration was a turbulent one. The political alliances of Pres. Welch in the state were very strong. The sentiment at Ames was much in its favor, although probably local sentiment as to the management of a college is not so important as outside sentiment and influence, and among the alumni he had a general and very devoted support. The consequence was a politi- cal war, which only awaited fair opportunity to become strenuous. When the next general assembly met, there was accordingly a movement to oust the trustees who had dismissed Welch. In the state at large, however, while there had not been a sentiment to demand or particularly suggest dismissal of Pres. Welch, there was a strong sentiment that, he being out and the controversy having been brought on, the best way to settle the matter for the interest of the college, would not be to restore him to his former position. So the matter was adjusted by enlarging the board of trustees, leaving the anti-Welchmen whose terms had not expired, but so in- creasing the number of the board that there should be one from each congressional district. The additional members were named by a caucus of the Republican senators and representatives from the several districts, and the result was a continuance of division in the board. It was there- fore recognized that Welch could not go back, but that Knapp could not continue. A solution satisfactory to both sides was sought, and the choice for the presidency fell upon Leigh Hunt, who was at the time superintend- ent of the East Des Moines schools. He was very successful for the time in playing both sides of the fight. He had, however, no recognized qualifi- cations for the presidency of the institution, was not a college man him- self, and fell very far short of meeting the requirements of the situation. The Welch and Knapp factions had been reconciled by the appointment of ex-President Welch, as professor of mental science, and the appoint-
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ment of Pres. Knapp's son, Hermann Knapp, as treasurer of the college, which position he still holds. Pres. Knapp went to Louisiana, where he engaged in the sugar industry on a large scale, and continued to be chiefly so occupied until his recent death. President Welch continued to hold his professorship until his death in 1889. Leigh Hunt lasted at the college for about a year and one-half when he abruptly retired and was succeeded by President Chamberlain, who came from Ohio with excellent recommen- dations, but who also failed to meet conspicuously the demands of the state. In 1891, he gave way to Pres. Beardshear, with whose administra- tion begins the later development of the college.
MOVING SHELDAHL TO SLATER.
A mixed matter of railroads and towns in this period was the moving of Sheldahl to Slater. When the Milwaukee Railroad crossed the North- Western a mile and one-half north of Sheldahl, it made no attempt to locate a town. A law of the state, passed, we think in part for the sake of this particular matter, required the location of a station at the crossing of the roads, where there was no town near on either road; so a depot was built right at the crossing, and was known as Sheldahl Crossing. Some time later, when there came to be thought of a town there, the first town plat was called Sheldahl Crossing. As the idea developed of having a town of some consequence, however, the name which indicated that the town was incidental to Sheldahl, was no longer acceptable, and the new name of Slater was chosen. Nothing in particular happened, however, until a con- troversy arose between the shippers at Sheldahl and the North-Western Railroad. It was before the days of the Interstate Commerce laws, and the successful shippers, as a rule, were those who got sufficient rebates from the freight charges that they were supposed to pay. One of the circum- stances of the standardizing of the Narrow Gauge had been the attempted abandonment by the North-Western, of Polk City, and the straightening of the railroad so as to leave Polk City out and cause the location of the new station at Crocker. The North-Western did tear up the track south of Polk City, but Polk City having in the beginning voted a subsidy in aid of the narrow gauge, carried the case to the supreme court, and the rail- road was compelled to maintain its line to Polk City from the north; but the railroad did not like the situation and Crocker got the benefit of the rebates. The fight in behalf of Crocker resulted to the disadvantage of Sheldahl, which was the next town north, and gradually Oley Nelson and the other shippers at Sheldahl found that they were facing a situation that they could not successfully meet, the margin between what their com- petitors were paying for grain and what they could get for grain in Chi- cago not being sufficient to pay the cost of carriage and furnish a business profit. Complaints to the North-Western officials were without result, and negotiations were opened with the Milwaukee management to move the
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town over to the Milwaukee Railroad. The Milwaukee, of course, was very glad to get the town and its business, and was willing to offer the considerations which were usual in the time. Finally, the North-Western was directly notified that it must change its policy immediately or the town would move, and there being no advice of a change the deal was closed with the Milwaukee. After this, the North-Western official car was side- tracked at Sheldahl in the endeavor to effect an understanding, but the officials were advised that it was too late.
There followed the most notable move of a town that had occurred in the county. Arrangements were made so that those who abandoned their residence or business lots in Sheldahl, should get similar lots in Slater, and the town proceeded to move. A good trail was laid out across the prairie from one town to the other; and for several months a passenger on the Des Moines branch of the North-Western, in passing that neighborhood, always could see at least one house on the way from one town to the other. As has been before noted, Sheldahl was in three counties, the main part of the town being in Story. The proposition to move to Slater was entered into with much more enthusiasm by the residents of Story County at Shel- dahl than by the residents of Boone and Polk Counties. The business street of the town was the county line, and the business houses on the north side of the street and most of the residences north of the same street were moved to Slater. . The buildings on the south of the street, however, gen- erally remained, and in course of time some of the lots on the north side were again built upon. The general effort, however, to make Slater in- stead of Sheldahl the business center for the Norwegian community in the southwestern part of the county was successful. The importance of Sheldahl was never restored, while Slater made rapid growth until it had reached the development which the conditions of the surrounding country fairly warranted. Slater was thus the last town of similar consequence to be actually established in the county. The building of the Short Line Rail- road long afterwards resulted in shipping points at Fernald and Shipley, but these stations have never developed the same importance as the older township centers. Slater, however, became almost at once, one of the four principal towns in the south part of the county, and so it promises permanently to be.
THE INFLUENCE OF FIRES.
In the development of Nevada and Ames during the eighties, the ele- ment of fire bore its gruesome part. Nevada had, in or about this period, . three considerable fires. The first and greatest of these was in December, 1879. It started in a photograph gallery on the west side of the street and it spread both ways, cleaning out everything from the brick wall at the east end of the opera hall building to the veneered brick wall on the south side of Alderman's hardware building. Nevada's equipment for re- sisting fires consisted chiefly at this time of a hand fire engine, familiarly
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known as the "squirt gun;" but this implement undoubtedly made it pos- sible to prevent the fire from taking the east side of the street also. Shortly after this fire the town council was hastily called together and an ordinance passed prescribing fire limits and prohibiting the erection of wooden buildings inside of the same. This action prevented the erection of some new wooden buildings on the burned district and resulted in the district being largely covered in the next two or three years by more sub- stantial brick structures.
The next fire in Nevada occurred in 1882 and was on the west side of the business street in the upper block. There was not so much here to burn as there had been in the lower block, but what there was was cleaned out. The east side fire did not occur until December, 1887, and then it was shut in between the White and Bamberger and old First National bank buildings at the north and the Ringheim building at the south. Be- tween these limits there was a solid row of wooden buildings and the fire took all of them excepting the old Briggs building next to Ringheim's, which was saved by ripping out some of the smaller buildings next to it. This building survived until the row had all been built up again with good buildings and then one night it got afire and was sufficiently wrecked so that it had to be torn out.
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