USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 49
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Following these fires Nevada installed a waterworks system and since that has been in operation there have been several fires started in the busi- ness district, but only one building there has ever been burned down. This one exception was the old hotel building opposite the courthouse, which had long been unoccupied and which was burned in the early morning of July 15, 1909, without material damage to any other property.
Ames has been more fortunate than Nevada in some ways and not so fortunate in others. It never has had a fire to clean out an old row of wooden buildings and to compel their replacements with brick ones, the event most of this order being the destruction in two fires of the old main building at the college. In 1887, however, Ames had a fire that was dis- astrous to the town as well as to the people who lost the property. For several years there had been on the north side of the main business street near its east end, a really good opera hall building with other creditable buildings adjacent. This row went one night in 1887 and for several years thereafter Ames did not have a hall suitable for public meetings. This loss and the others incidental to it were of course ultimately replaced; but when the replacement occurred, it was at the west end of the street and not at the east end, which has never regained its former relative busi- ness importance, although in time the burned district has been mostly re- covered. After this destructive fire Ames imitated Nevada by putting in
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waterworks, since the installation of which Ames also has been exempt from damaging fires.
THE PORTER MURDER CASE.
In the fall of 1882 occurred one of the most sensational murder cases that ever happened in the county. It was the murder of Samuel Porter, a farmer some past middle life, living east of Iowa Center. He was killed in a family row, and what was never definitely settled was how he came to be killed and who did the killing. The members of the family who were at home at the time were his wife, Elizabeth, and his youngest son, John. Also, it was a question whether an older son, George, was not at home at the same time. The murder occurred some time about mid-day, and Mr. Porter had been at Nevada in the morning and George was over in the direction of Collins in the afternoon. The belief of many was that George was at home when his father came and was the one to kill him in the ensuing row, and that he got off the place immediately after- wards. The story of the family, as finally told, was that Mr. Porter be- came involved in a quarrel and was shot by his son, John, as a measure of protection for his mother. After the murder, Mr. Porter's body was hid in a granary, and later it was taken to a field out some distance from the house and fixed up with a shot-gun so as to give the appearance of suicide. Then a young boy, Willie Pointer, who worked some for the family, was sent out to that part of the farm to herd cattle, with the re- sult that he found the body. Mrs. Porter and John and George were all indicted for murder; and when the case came on for trial, George elected to be tried separately from the other two. These two were tried at Nevada, and were convicted of murder in the second degree. Afterwards they se- cured a reversal of judgment, and the case was retried at Toledo, in Tama County, with the same result, and both times they were sentenced to the penitentiary for terms of years; but in time they were both pardoned. When George's case came on for trial, in the fall of 1883, he took a change of venue to Boone County, where his trial occupied several days, Judge Reed of Council Bluffs, afterwards of the state supreme court, presiding. The result of this trial was a compromise verdict, part of the jurors be- lieving George guilty of murder and part of them believing him not guilty at all, and the whole splitting the difference by finding him guilty of man- slaughter. This verdict was set aside by Judge Reed as not being sup- ported by the evidence, all the circumstances of the case indicating that either George was guilty of murder or had nothing to do with the case, excepting, perhaps, to try to help conceal it afterwards. But the verdict of manslaughter amounted to an acquittal of the charge of murder; so the case was dismissed, and George relieved of further prosecution. This trial was the first which the editor of this history endeavored, as a young newspaper man, to report, and after hearing all the evidence in court, his disposition was to believe the story of the family.
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CHAPTER XLI. POLITICS IN THE EIGHTIES.
THE LONG TERMERS.
Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the politics of the county in the eighties, was the long terms for the county officers, and the ruction by which a new regime was brought in. In 1880, Harry H. Boyes of Howard Township had been nominated to succeed Ole Hill, as recorder, and D. A. Bigelow had been retired as a member of the board of super- visors in favor of Russell W. Ballard, also of Howard. Mr. Boyes con- tinued in the recorder's office until the end of 1886 and Captain Smith, who had first been nominated in 1876, continued until the same time as clerk. Their last nominations were contested, but the contests were not effective. In 1881, there came in also a new group of county officials, who with Smith, Boyes and Banks, as clerk, recorder and sheriff, made a notable combination in the court house. This new group consisted of C. G. McCarthy as county auditor ; J. A. Mills as treasurer ; and Ole O. Roe as county superintendent. Mills had been deputy treasurer under King; and his nomination in 1881 was effected without serious opposition. McCarthy, with the Ames support, defeated Wilbur Hunt, who had been the deputy-auditor, and Ole O. Roe ousted Baughman from the superin- tendency. Banks was renominated for sheriff and continued to be nom- inated until 1887. Thus, it came about that the six principal offices in the court house, clerk, recorder, auditor, treasurer, sheriff and superintendent were without any change whatever from January, 1882, to January, 1887, making a somewhat remarkable record for continuity of official service for any county. These officials were all of them men with much political capacity, and they were very strong with different elements in the county. They did not necessarily agree in all things; but, on the other hand, they did not fight each other where their personal interests were directly con- cerned; and the men of greatest influence over the county were generally favorable to the bunch. They gave the county a very capable business ad- ministration, and they maintained their ascendancy as long as any group of men could be expected in a county to maintain such an ascendancy.
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In 1886, Smith and Boyes were not candidates for renomination. Smith was voted for strongly in the convention, but his support was not quite
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sufficient to nominate him for the sixth term. The nomination for clerk that year finally went to Henry Wilson of Ames, and J. M. Ingram of Sherman was the winner, after a very protracted contest, for recorder. At the same time, George W. Dyer was nominated with very slight opposition, as the first county attorney of the county. In 1887, Banks stayed out of the fight, and Curt A. Wood of Indian Creek was the winner of another notable battle for sheriff. These were all the changes in important county offices during the decade; excepting that in 1889, McCarthy gave up the auditorship to run for representative, and A. P. King, of Cambridge was nominated in his place as auditor.
LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES.
The rule of long service in the county offices, however, did not apply to the representative position. The convention of 1881 nominated T. C. Mc- Call for representative. Capt. McCall had served one term in the house during the war, and had then left the county to serve as Quartermaster of the 32d Iowa. After the war, he had been active in most of the political controversies of the county, and in 1877 and 1879 had been strongly but unsuccessfully supported for the nomination for representative. In 1879, as before noted, W. D. Lucas had defeated him, but had rather overreached himself in doing so, and in 1881 McCall had Lucas so manifestly beaten that Lucas withdrew from the field and permitted McCall's nomination by acclamation. McCall was a strong representative, and in 1883, he was re- nominated, not without some opposition, however, in behalf of Oley Nelson of Sheldahl, who received the vote of the Norwegian Townships. The en- suing General Assembly was the one which enacted Prohibition, and Mr. McCall was active in the promotion of that measure. In 1885, Mr. McCall yielded gracefully to the two term rule and, by common consent, the nomi- nation was given to Oley Nelson, who served with much ability and was re- nominated in 1887, unanimously, save that the complimentary vote of Washington Township was cast for Geo. A. Underwood. In 1889, there were several candidates for representative, but Mr. McCarthy carried both Nevada and Ames and most of the outside townships, and was nominated by acclamation.
During the forepart of this period, the county had been represented in the state senate by J. D. Gillett of Boone County, who was renominated at Nevada in 1883 at a convention wherein the Boone delegation voted for Gillett, and the Story delegation voted for Dan McCarthy, the Boone vote being the larger and giving Gillett the nomination. During Gillett's second term of service, his bank at Ogden failed, and he became manifestly amenable to the law, for which he had himself voted, making it a felony for a banker to receive deposits, knowing his bank to be insolvent. When he saw the crash coming, Gillett left the state, and he was next located at Windsor, in Canada, across the river from Detroit. From there, he sent
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his resignation as senator, and in September, 1885, a special convention was held with a view to nominating his successor. Boone, at this time, still had the majority of delegates, but it was willing to concede the fractional term to Story, and a struggle ensued for the Story County endorsement. Dan McCarthy of Ames, and J. L. Dana of Nevada were candidates, and there was much pressure on Mr. McCall to be a candidate; the latter, however, finally declined, and Col. Scott came out. McCarthy rallied all of the Ames influence and much of the south part of the county. Dana, with the help of the court house influence, which was actually for McCarthy, succeeded in defeating Scott for the Nevada delegation; but Scott carried the whole north half of the county and Colo, and came into the convention the lead- ing candidate. There was long and very persistent balloting; but McCarthy could not possibly win, and the Ames vote finally broke to J. W. Maxwell. When this was done, the Nevada delegation turned from Dana to Scott, giving the latter the county endorsement and contributing more than ever was contributed at any time toward the solution of the old slough con- troversy in Nevada. Two years later, Scott was not a candidate, and Story County went to the senatorial convention for McCall. Boone, however, had had its own quarrel, resulting in the endorsement of D. B. Davidson of Madrid, and Boone, having the larger number of delegates, Davidson was nominated. The Story County delegation, however protested quite vig- orously, and the outcome was the passage of a resolution that, thereafter, the nomination should alternate between the two counties. This arrange- ment has been adhered to, and all the senatorial contests since that time in the district have been in turn for the endorsement of Story County or of Boone County, as the turn might indicate.
CONGRESSMEN.
Congressional matters in this decade opened with the renomination and reelection of Gov. Carpenter in 1880 by the old ninth district, but the census of that year gave Iowa two additional congressmen, and by the reappor- tionment of 1882, a new tenth district was formed, including Story, Boone, Webster, Hamilton and Hardin Counties and thence to the north line of the state. Governor Carpenter, who had been twice nominated in the old ninth district, and whose home was at Ft. Dodge, was in the district, but had a number of new counties in the district which he had not represented. There were some very serious post office troubles in the old part of the district, particularly at Boone and Ames, and conditions were ripe for a fight against Carpenter. 'Among the results were, that Story County presented Col. Scott; Boone County presented A. J. Holmes, who had been the unsuccess- ful nominee against Maxwell for Senator in 1871, and who was then state representative for Boone County; Franklin County presented Captain Benson, who was its representative; Wright County, Mr. Nagel, who had long been a prominent politician there; Winnebago County, Eugene Secor,
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who was long one of the most prominent Norwegians of the state, and Cerro Gordo County presented John D. Glass, who afterwards served as state senator. Carpenter had the delegation from his own county of Web- ster, and also from Hardin and Humboldt and Hancock, while Hamilton, Kossuth and Worth were divided. The convention was at Webster City; and when the delegates arrived, there was a majority against Carpenter, but no agreement as to his successor. After much negotiation, the opposi- tion agreed to go into caucus and nominate a congressman, who should be supported by the entire coalition. A proviso, however was insisted upon by Glass of Cerro Gordo, whose confidence in his own prospects greatly ex- ceeded any warrant in the political situation, and this proviso was, "That if, before the announcement of the ballot in the convention, the Carpenter force should place to any candidate of the coalition votes enough so that his own county, by changing to him, could nominate him, his county should be at liberty to make such change."
Upon these terms, the caucus was held, and after an all night session, Scott was named. The Carpenter force were advised of the situation and found that Carpenter was beaten. Then they offered their votes to Benson, but his county was not strong enough to turn the majority. The only county in the coalition that was strong enough was Boone, and so ultimately the Carpenter men determined to vote for Holmes. The Carpenter contingent in Hamilton, however, did not, upon the roll call, vote for Holmes, but stayed by Carpenter. In this situation, Boone stayed by Scott, whose nomi- nation was about to be announced when a clerk claimed an error in the tally, which error was investigated and found not to exist; and as the an- nouncement was again about to be made, Hamilton finally changed its vote to Holmes, and Boone did the same, thus giving effect to the Glass proviso and nominating Holmes in place of Scott. The change was almost tragic, after the apparent nomination of Scott, and it ended finally the Colonel's hopes of going to congress. As before noted, Scott received a consolation three years later in this last election to the State Senate. Holmes was nomi- nated in 1884 without difficulty.
In 1886 the state had been again re-districted, and Story County taken from the Tenth District and put in the Seventh; thus for the first time since the admission of the state associating the county congressionally with the southern part of the state. The sitting congressman from the Seventh District at the time was Maj. E. H. Conger, who had been treasurer of state, and who later was Minister to Brazil and to China and Ambassador to Mexico. He was a very strong and popular congressman, but the terri- tory comprised in the Seventh District. was not so strongly republican as it is now, this being in the time when the republican party in the state was much divided over the prohibtion issue, and the reliable Republican ma- jority in Story County was needed to make the district entirely safe; so in the re-districting, Story County had been put where it would do the most good. There was some demur in the county about being thrown into new Vol. 1-28
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political relations; but the new congressman was well received. He was renominated by the Republicans in the new district and his opponent was Mayor Carpenter of Des Moines. Carpenter had a faculty for getting votes from a good many sources, and he gave Major Conger a real chase in the southern part of the district ; but Story County made Major Conger's majority satisfactory. In 1888, there was some maneuvering in the south- ern part of the district to nominate some other congressman in Conger's place; but Polk, Dallas and Story Counties instructed their delegations for him, and his nomination was thereby made absolutely certain.
Major Conger was consequently chosen to the famous Fifty-first Con- gress of which Thomas B. Reed was speaker, and in which he was chairman of the committee on coinage, weights and measures, and the chief manager in the house of representatives of the silver legislation in that congress; and possibly it is proper here to note that the editor of this history was clerk of his committee, and his private secretary, while he was rendering this service. In the forepart of the long session of the Fifty-first congress, Mr. Conger, having really wearied of congressional service, withdrew his name from consideration for renomination, although the sentiment of the Republicans of the district was at this time practically unanimous in sup- port of him; and in consequence of his withdrawal, the nomination was opened to Captain Hull, who had been secretary of state and lieutenant gov- ernor, and twice had made strong but unsuccessful campaigns for the nomi- nation for governor. Hull was nominated without opposition; and later Major Conger, having been appointed Minister to Brazil, resigned, and a convention was held to nominate his successor for the remaining short ses- sion of the fifty-first congress. Captain Hull and Polk County kept out of the contest for this nomination and it was fought out among outside candi- dates. Story County did not present a candidate, but it had, in Ole O. Roe, the chairman of the convention. The nomination finally went to Edward R. Hayes of Marion County, who was elected for the short term, and at the same time Captain Hull was elected for the long term. Thus it was that Capt. Hull entered upon his congressional service which continued for twenty years, or until March of the present year.
INTERNATIONAL FIGHTS.
There were three notable campaigns for the nomination for governor during this decade, in which Story County took an active interest. In 1881, the principal candidates were Buren R. Sherman and William Lar- rabee. Story County politicians were generally for Sherman; but, in the county convention they failed to handle the matter according to their expec- tations, and the delegation as chosen was 7 for Sherman and 4 for Larrabee, and voted thus through the protracted balloting which resulted in the nomi- nation of Sherman. In 1885, the candidates in the preliminary contest were Senator Larrabee again, Captain Hull and Judge.Given. The two last were
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both from Polk County, and after dividing their delegation there, the fight extended to Story, where there was also a strong support for Larrabee. The county convention took a ballot to express its sentiment, with the re- sult that there was a close division between Given and Larrabee, with Hull holding the balance of power. After an interesting debate, in which J. W. Maxwell, T. J. Miller and others participated, another ballot was taken, and the Hull men threw their support to Given, thus giving him the endorse- ment. Given, however, did not stick as a candidate for governor, but on the eve of the state convention changed his candidacy to supreme judge. The Story delegation being thus relieved from their instructions, divided much according to the original alignment, giving about equal vote to Lar- rabee and Hull. Hull was beaten by Larrabee, however, and Given was also beaten for supreme judge by Judge Beck. Larrabee was renominated and elected, as had been Sherman before him, but in 1889, there was another contest for delegations over the state, the leaders being Captain Hull and H. C. Wheeler of Sac County. In these days, there was a good deal of the soldier issue in politics, and also a good deal of the farmer issue, and in this canvass, the soldiers quite generally rallied .for Hull, while the farmer influence was rather for Wheeler. In Story County, the soldiers predominated, and a strong and instructed delegation for Hull was elected. In the state convention, however, the Hull and Wheeler forces were nearly equal in strength, and the balance of power was held by several minor can- didates, so that the leaders killed each other off. The nomination finally went to J. G. Hutchinson of Ottumwa, who was defeated in the election by Gov. Boies. In this first Republican defeat in the state since the pioneer days of the latter forties and early fifties, before Story County was settled, Story County had really no part; for then and in the succeeding years, when the Republican party was struggling hard for its ascendancy in the state, Story was habitually the county giving the largest republican majority of any county in the state.
JUDICIAL CONVENTIONS.
A number of interesting judicial contests occurred in this decade. The first was in 1880, when the judicial convention was held at Marshalltown and D. D. Miracle of Webster City was nominated for circuit judge over H. C. Henderson of Marshalltown as his principal opponent. A year later, following the decease of Judge Mckenzie, the district judge, a special judi- cial convention was held at Ackley to nominate his successor, and Hender- son was this time nominated, although not without a long fight. His prin- cipal opponent was S. M. Weaver of Iowa Falls, who was afterwards dis- trict judge and is now supreme judge. In 1882 Henderson was renomi- nated as district judge, and Stevens with him for district attorney, both without opposition, and in 1884 Miracle was similarly renominated for circuit judge. In 1884, however, a constitutional amendment was adopted
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authorizing the general assembly to increase, at its discretion, the number of district judges in the state, and thus making it practicable to abolish the circuit court and consolidate its jurisdiction and labors with those of the district court. At the same time, the office of district attorney was abolished, and the office of county attorney created. The General Assembly of 1886 passed laws in conformity with these constitutional amendments, and it assigned three district judges to the Eleventh Judicial District. Judge Henderson, of the District Court, was not, in 1886, a candidate for renomi- nation ; but Judge Miracle was a candidate for transfer from the circuit to the district bench and District Attorney Stevens was a candidate for pro- motion from his office to that of district judge. Other candidates were Mr. Weaver of Iowa Falls, Mr. Hindman of Boone, Judge Bradley of Mar- shalltown, and Mr. Hemmingway of Hampton. There was considerable combination in advance of the convention among the candidates, and the outcome of the matter was likely to turn largely upon the delegation from Marshall County. In that county, the Soldiers' Home issue figured to a considerable extent. The General Assembly which reorganized the Judicial System had also provided for the establishment of a Soldiers Home; and after very extended struggles, the institution had been located at Marshall- town. Mr. Weaver had been a prominent member of the legislature and had put Marshalltown under strong local obligations. Weaver was thus able to beat out Bradley in his own county; and a controlling alliance between Weaver, Miracle and Stevens was therefore easily successful. In 1888, Judge Miracle resigned on account of rapidly failing health, his death oc- curring soon afterwards, and the convention to name his successor was held at Webster City. Mr. Nagel of Wright County had the largest number of votes in this convention, but the situation was effectively controlled by the delegations from other counties having candidates, but quite unable to agree with each other. The balloting lasted all the afternoon and far into the night. At one time, Binford of Marshall County was nominated, but votes were changed away from him before the announcement of the ballot. Finally, by one of the combinations that are formed very suddenly in con- ventions, D. R. Hindman of Boone was nominated by 39 votes to Nagel's 38. Thus Hindman entered upon his ten years' service upon the bench. In the most of these judicial fights, Story County was in the winning combination, it having assisted in the nominations of Miracle, Henderson and Stevens and his associates; but in this last convention, the understand- ing of the delegation that it was to help Hindman to a nomination when- ever it could do so, was not carried out, and the final vote was for Nagel. The judicial conventions of the decade closed in 1890 with the unanimous renomination of Weaver, Stevens and Hindman.
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