USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa: A Record of Settlement, Organization. > Part 51
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Of the Story County youth who volunteered under the usual conditions of the service for the Spanish War, we are able to get the names of the following :
Forty-ninth Infantry: C. H. Pasley, Maurice Pearl, H. E. Burkhart. Fiftieth Infantry : Will Spencer.
Fifty-second Infantry : J. R. Larson, Ray Wortman, Frank Underwood, Jerry Fleming, Chas. Fleming, "Bruff" Lewis, Clyde Graves, Franz Wag- ner, Helland, Enge, Whitehead and Arthur Lincoln.
Others who did not then reside in the county, but have since been iden- tified here, were H. B. Craddick, H. E. Hadley and Cloyd Hockensmith.
The only contribution of the county to the mortuary list of the war was Milo Corbin, who was serving in the Regular Cavalry, died in the service, and is buried at Johnson's Grove.
Of the volunteers in the service, those in the Forty-ninth got as far as Cuba, where they did police duty after the war. The Fiftieth stopped in Florida, and the Fifty-second was held in camp at Chickamauga. The Fifty-first, which went to the Philippines and saw the most service, had, as noted, but a single representative from this county. The only representa- tive of the county who was credited with smelling gun powder at San- tiago, was Chas. Lincoln, who received honorable mention at San Juan Hill. A former resident of the county, who saw service in the war, was Albert McCarthy, who had just graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Out of these facts and the general history of the war, it is not possible to make any story of notable military service by the Story County contingent ; but the fact is that every one of the boys enlisted with the expectation of serving his country according to its needs, and they all took their chances of the service. These chances proved, indeed, to be considerable with re- spect to the Fifty-second, which camped at Chickamauga, where typhoid fever became prevalent and was a much more serious matter to contend with than either Spanish or Philippine fire arms; and the fact that the war closed before the active military services of the volunteers were re- quired in the field, was due to the inability of the Spaniards to offer effec- tive opposition to Shafter's Army, and not to any reluctance or hesitation of any of the Iowa boys to render all the service that the government would permit them to render. They took the chance as did their predecessors in 1861 and 1862, and were fortunate that the chance proved not so serious.
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CHAPTER XLIII.
POLITICS IN THE NINETIES.
The politics of this decade hardly seems as notable in a local sense as it had been in previous years. As before noted, Captain Hull got started in congress at the beginning of the decade and remained in congress through the whole of that decade and the whole of the next one. Owing to the agreement between Boone and Story Counties for the alternation of the senatorship, the senatorial politics had become simplified. In 1891, Mr. McCall was presented unanimously by Story County and was nominated and elected, thus attaining a position for which he had often been urged. The honor came to him, however, when he could no longer get from it a just measure of enjoyment; for his health was failing, and he died in the summer following his first session as senator. The convention to nominate his successor was held rather unexpectedly; and the Story County Repub- lican Committee being called together named a delegation in the interest of its chairman, H. C. Boardman, whose candidacy was accepted by Boone County and he was elected and represented the county in the following session.
In 1895, the senatorship went, by common consent, to Boone County, which agreed upon C. J. A. Erickson. Mr. Erickson served his term very satisfactorily, and was after a four year interval returned to the senate for another term. In 1899, the nomination was again conceded to Story County, which presented J. A. Fitchpatrick, and he was also nominated and elected, returning for his second term after the second term of Senator Erickson.
Judicial matters during this period had also become less sensational, the truth being that the arrangement to nominate three judges at once was more favorable to effective combinations and easy nominations than was the old one of nominating one judge in one convention and having a big scrap among the candidates from many counties for the one nomina- tion. In 1891, Judge Stevens resigned under circumstances which made it practicable for Governor Boies to appoint the only Democratic judge that has served in the district since the retirement of Judge McFarland in the middle fifties. Boies appointed N. B. Hyatt of Webster City, who served until the republicans in 1892 could nominate and elect Ben P. Birdsall of Wright County to supersede him. In 1894, Weaver, Hindman and Birdsall were all renominated at Webster City, although Story and Marshall Coun-
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ties sought to open up a contest for Hindman's place. These three judges served without any death or resignation for their full term, at the end of which in 1898, the convention was held in Iowa Falls, where Weaver and Birdsall were again nominated by acclamation, and J. R. Whitaker of Boone was nominated as the third judge, in spite of the efforts of Story County to secure the place for G. W. Dyer. During this time, Marshall County had tired of its relations with the Eleventh District and had been set off into another district with Tama and Benton Counties.
The county had several representatives during this decade. In 1891, the nomination was given to A. L. Stuntz, who lived near the county line, west of State Center, he being a quite representative farmer, and he was renominated over some active opposition in 1893. In 1895, the represen- tative was J. F. Reed, who had served two terms successfully as county superintendent and been chairman of the Republican County Committee. He was an active politician, and after one term in the General Assembly, he became an agent in the United States Revenue Service, where he has since remained. In 1897, he was succeeded in the legislature by W. J. Veneman, who was nominated in a lively primary fight over F. C. McCall, and was renominated, without opposition in 1899.
The county politics of the decade began with the adoption of a two term rule, following the ruction of 1889. The big fight of the convention of 1890 was for County Clerk, for which place C. M. Morse of Maxwell was ultimately the winner, and H. C. Duea of Roland was easily nominated for Recorder, as was also M. P. Webb of Slater for County Attorney. In 1891, there was a fight over many nominations, the old set of officers having voluntarily retired. A. P. King received his second term as Auditor, without opposition; but T. J. Miller, for Treasurer; O. G. Ashford, for Sheriff; and J. F. Reed for Superintendent, were nominated after strenu- ous contests. The convention of 1892 was characterized by the renomina- tion of second termers, and in 1893, the principal contest was for Represen- tative, resulting in Stuntz' renomination.
In 1894, there was another fight along the line. The men who had been nominated in 1890 on the two-term platform did not yield readily to the rule under which they had been first nominated, and they put up a fight to break the rule. There were numerous other candidates, however, and the old officers were eventually thrown out. The new ticket included Chas. Hamilton, of Ames, for Clerk; D. M. Grove of Nevada, for Auditor ; Anfin Ersland, of Cambridge for Recorder; and F. D. Thompson of Ne- vada, for County Attorney. In 1895, there was the last big convention fight in the county, Reed was nominated over a field of candidates for rep- resentative; Henry T. Henryson, for Treasurer; and Geo. W. Phillips for County Superintendent. A. K. Banks was able to return to the Sheriff's Office, where he had served eight years previously and been out eight years and was now to serve for four more; and the convention made a joke of the coronership by nominating Harry Hazlett of Collins; also the conven-
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tion wrote the word "finis" to the most interesting matters of the Conven- tion History of the County by adopting the primary rule for subsequent nominations.
The first county primary was held in 1896, but did not arouse anything like the interest which, in later years, has characterized republican primaries in the county, nor did any of its successors until 1899. The main fight in 1896, was for County Attorney, the nomination for which was won by D. J. Vinje over E. H. Addison and A. L. Bartlett. In 1897, was the Veneman-McCall fight for Representative; and in 1898 was the contest of the three Johns for Supervisor. They were John Evanson, John Twedt and John Johnson. All three were representative Norwegians of high standing, and they were disputing for the place on the board which was con- ceded to the Norwegian element of the party. Evanson had been super- visor years before when the court house was built. Johnson was ending two terms of very exceptionally capable service upon the board, and Twedt was a new man looking for his share of political honor. They divided the vote well between them, but Twedt was nominated. In 1899, the primary system got its best start in the county, with some real fights and more gen- eral interest than had ever previously been manifested, and with the result of getting out a little larger vote than has ever since been polled at a pri- mary election in the county, the total being very nearly 4,000 votes. There were four candidates for senatorial endorsement; Fitchpatrick and Boardman; Nelson and Greeley, all four of whom had or have at one time or another, served in the General Assembly from the county. They were together able to divide the county into its four most definite parts ; viz., two parts of Nevada and of the parts of the county likely to go with Nevada; one of Ames, and one of the Norwegians. It was a record- breaking fight, and Fitchpatrick won over Greeley by 33 votes, while Boardman was ten ahead of Nelson for third place. Hardly less strenuous were the fights for Treasurer, Sheriff and Superintendent, which resulted in the nomination of Geo. A. Klove for Treasurer; H. R. Boyd, as a dark horse, for Sheriff, and Fred E. Hansen for Superintendent.
The great political event of all this decade, however, was the McKin- ley campaign of 1896. It was a campaign in which the people of the county engaged with a fair share of the uncertainties of the opening scenes and with proportionate strenuousness later, and enthusiasm at the close. Iowa had supported Allison for the Republican nomination for president, but had accepted Mckinley with readiness. The Democrats, on the other hand, were very largely of the Free-Silver variety; and when Bryan was nomi- nated, following his speech on the "Cross of Gold," they rallied to him with great enthusiasm. At the same time, those Republicans who had been disposed to favor independent movements at one time or another were im- pressed, as were their fellows elsewhere over the country, with the idea that the proper remedy for the existing national distress was in the cheapen- ing of the money rather than in the restoration of the system of the protec- Vol. 1-29
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tive tariff. The question as to what was the matter became a vital and personal one with a very large number of voters; and in the early stages of the campaign, those who were ordinarily looked to as sources of political information, found themselves more fully occupied than had ever been the case in their lives before. It was a time when almost anyone who could and would talk, could draw a crowd; for people were generally wanting light on the subject under discussion. Even if they were not doubtful in their own general position, they were looking for arguments with which to fortify themselves or to make a better impression upon other persons in their own disputations. The summer was a good one, not too hot to be comfortable, and warm enough to make the shady side of the street a pleas- ant place; the prevailing standard of industrial and business activity was not such as to require the undivided attention of a great many of the people; and there was therefore time, as well as disposition, for the argumentation.
The speaking campaign started before state committees could arrange for it; and in Nevada, the earliest large meetings were addressed by Editor Lafe Young and Major Conger. In September the principal Republican rally at Ames was addressed by Congressman Lacey, and in October, what was intended as the leading Republican rally of the season for the county seat and county was held at Nevada, and was addressed by Mr. L. M. Shaw of Denison, Congressman Hull and Nat Coffin of Des Moines. The participation of Mr. Shaw in this rally was a matter of considerable politi- cal importance in its net results. Mr. shaw was new in the political field, and had never made a political speech until this campaign. Further the speeches which he had made in this campaign had, for the most part, been in out-of-the-way places; and the one speech which he had made in the Mckinley tent at Des Moines was delivered on a rainy night when the at- tendance was very small; so it came about that his first real chance for a notable public effort was afforded him at Nevada, where some friends and favoring circumstances had secured him this opening. He came with the expectation on the part of many that his speech would be good, but with- out there being any general interest save in the campaign itself, as to which there was all the interest that there was any occasion for. He began speaking in the opera hall at half past nine, after the crowd had had a torch light parade and an hour's speech by Congressman Hull; and it is to be recorded that at eleven o'clock, he still had all the crowd that could occupy the seats and stand in the aisles, still calling for more. It was a speech full of information and argument; and, after many years of obser- vation and experience, it is still the editor's opinion that this was the best political argument that he ever listened to from anybody. Before Shaw's speech was ended men sitting on the platform had resolved to help him politically when they should get a chance; and so when, in the following year, he became unexpectedly a candidate for Governor, Story was the first county in the state, away from his own, to rally to his support, and so to
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give him the standing which he needed to get started in his fight; but this is running ahead of the story.
The striking feature of the 1896 campaign was the general participation of the people in the argument; and so far as the county seat was concerned the argument continued through the last half of July and the month of August; until finally some one threw a bucket of water from the top of a business building onto the crowd; and somehow after that, the ardor of the discussion appeared to be dampened. The truth was that the people had had enough. They had found out where they stood; and it was all over but the shouting, which continued with increasing enthusiasm up to the end and culminated on election night in the most enthusiastic after- election demonstration ever witnessed in Story County or anywhere else.
Referring more particularly to the Shaw candidacy for Governor in 1897, besides his political speech before mentioned, Mr. Shaw had been the principal speaker at the dedication of the Methodist church in Nevada, and he had been two or three times a delegate from this conference to the Methodist General Conference; so he had more acquaintances in the county than his speech alone would have accounted for; but the controlling fact in the county was the disposition to get behind a public man who had talked for the gold standard of currency as clearly and directly as he had talked; so when Governor Drake dropped out of the canvass for renomination, and the field was opened to the field of new candidates, after the Story Delegation to the State Convention had been elected, conditions were favor- able for an effective movement in the county in Shaw's behalf. After Shaw's nomination and election, therefore, Story County had the satisfac- tion of being generally regarded as the county which had been foremost in bringing out a successful dark-horse governor. It would be difficult to point out, in Mr. Shaw's after career in the governorship and in the treas- ury department at Washington, any notable recognition of the service so opportunely rendered to him; but his friends in the county had the satis- faction of having rendered the service, and of having thereby assisted to his high position a statesman who, in such position, was a most conspicuous exemplar of the financial and tariff policies which the county has habitually supported.
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CHAPTER XLIV.
THE LAST DECADE.
The last decade of Story County History and the first of the Twentieth Century may fairly be said to be the one in which the people of Story County have come into their own. In this decade there has been very much more gain in wealth and in the general improvement of the county than in any similar period before. The value of the farms has, in this decade, substantially doubled; and the general success of farming as a business has been without precedent in this part of the country. The situation has con- trasted sharply with that of pioneer days, when such wealth as there was was mostly in the towns, and the occupants of the farms were generally a struggling class of people. In these latter days, the farmers who have owned their own farms, have gained very rapidly and obviously in wealth and have expended their gains freely in the improvement of their proper- ties; whereas, towns have been dealing with less favorable conditions- among them, the inequitable taxation of money and credits, and the tax ferret law, the former of which has now been modified and the latter repealed. What the farms have lost in the decade has been largely the result of successful tenants moving to other states where they were able to buy land of their own, while the towns have lost from well-to-do people moving to California and elsewhere with a view to escaping burdensome taxation; nevertheless, the towns have visibly improved.
CITIES AND TOWNS.
In the fore part of the decade, this was truer of Ames than of Nevada or perhaps any other town. As has been previously noted, Ames had pro- gressed notably during the prior decade, its progress beginning with the construction of the Ames and College Railroad and being followed as soon as practicable with the construction of water works and electric light plant by the city and by the extension of the city limits to include the college. It was not until near the close of that decade, however, that there occurred the first fire at the main building of the college, which fire was followed after a time by the manifestly incendiary burning of the rest of the old main building. The dormitories of the college being thus destroyed, the
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town started to building boarding houses, and the building of boarding houses required the moving in of mechanics in the building trades. Also an increasing number of people moved to the town with the view of afford- ing to their children the advantages of the college, and from these same families there came also a largely increased attendance at the local high school. School and college and town therefore grew together and grew rapidly; and finally the construction of the electric interurban road and its absorption of the Ames & College road have brought town and school yet closer together and given both much improved outside connections. In this time, Parley Sheldon, as the mayor most frequently and persistently favored with the confidence and votes of the people of the city, gained recognition as an especial promoter of municipal improvement ; and, under one of his administrations, the city became in 1904 the first in the county to install a sewer system. This was at first constructed for the downtown part of the city only; but it has been from time to time extended, and at the close of the decade, the second considerable system was constructed for the newly developed portion of the city, west and south-west of the col- lege; also paving for the principal streets and broad sidewalks of urban style have had a very notable effect upon the city's development.
For over a quarter of a century Parley Sheldon has stood as the firm friend, and constant champion of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts located at Ames. At no time connected with it in an official capacity he has been able to render it inestimable service during these years of its development into the greatest institution of its kind in the world. His time, his thought, his purse and his influence have always been at the command of any movement which meant better things for the college and its people.
Entire freedom from official connection with the college has made it " possible for him to render innumerable services to the student body, the faculty and the governing board which one officially connected could not and one less generous would not perform.
All connected with the College have a profound respect for Parley Sheldon and a deep sense of obligation to him for his continued and con- sistent loyalty to the institution.
Nevada did not get its fresh start until later in the decade; although it was early in the decade that it finally secured its cross railroad, but later came the Adventist Sanitarium, the Adventist State Headquarters, the Adventist Academy, the Rock Island absorption of the cross railroad, and finally the order by the city counsel for the construction of a compre- hensive sewer system. These larger gains, moreover, have been attended with the full measure of incidental and minor improvements, and the town has probably never felt its prospects to be better than they are at the present time.
The Nevada sewer project has been mooted for some time; and in April, 1909, a proposition to issue $20,000 in bonds for sewer outlet and
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disposal, was voted down; also the city council elected at the time regarded the matter with indifference; but, after some time and after one or two changes in the membership of the council, the situation was altered, and early in the present year, a resolution of necessity was passed by the coun- cil for a sewer system. The matter, however, had been delayed until elec- tion was near, and in the ensuing city election, questions of detail as well as of the general policy were thrashed out. The general result was that the sewer proposition was endorsed; and the sanitarium having offered $1,000.00 if the outlet should be changed so as to afford connection to the sanitarium and the academy, the desired change was agreed to. A new resolution of necessity was passed, the sewers ordered in accordance there- with and contracts entered into for the construction of sewer, sewer outlet and disposal plant at an initial cost exceeding $30,000.
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While Story County has only two cities, and while these cities by reason of their better start and recognized advantages may be expected to main- tain their superiority in numbers and various other respects over the smaller towns of the county, it should be definitely set down that one of the respects in which Story is an exceptionally good county, has to do with its minor towns. It is a very long time since Story County has had all of its interests concentrated in a single place. There are numerous counties in Iowa in which there is one city of considerable consequence and no other town to be considered at all. But such is not the situation in Story. The advancement of Ames by the cross railroad and the col- lege enabled it to become a rival of Nevada, the county seat, and the rivalries of these two towns have made easier the development of other towns. Also the fact that other railroads, when they did come, failed to radiate from a common center but rather crossed the county in parallel lines, has been a condition favorable to the outside towns. Indeed, it was a real blow to Nevada when within two years of each other in the early '8os the Milwaukee railroad was built through the south part of the county and the Iowa Central through the north part. These roads did not touch Nevada nor contribute anything to it. But, on the contrary, they cut off territory, developed some villages and established new towns. Some of these towns, located as they were in good territory and not too convenient to a larger town, have had an opportunity to grow such as is not vouchsafed to outside towns in many other counties. When all of these matters are considered, it would appear that Story County ought to have some good outside towns and that really the inhabitants of such towns have had the responsibility of making good.
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