USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 11
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for him, and by the time the sheriff arrived they had completed about twenty- five dollars' worth. The government officials were dumbfounded when they learned how completely they had been taken in by an insane man and finally accepted as a huge joke what could not be helped.
The sheriff and the doctor had another little trouble in getting Larcom started but finally succeeded in getting him as far as Ogle county, Illinois. But being unable to prove up his residence there, it was determined to take him to the asylum in Ohio. But when they arrived at his old home in Hardin County, Ohio, it was found that it was necessary to prove a township as well as state and county residence. This they were unable to do, and after die- liberating over the matter it was determined to take Tom to his father's at Marietta, Ohio, and suffer him to remain there until he should have acquired a residence, when his father would procure for him admission to the asylum.
As Tom was, or seemed to be, exceedingly anxious to see his father. it was thought that the doctor would have no trouble in taking him to his destination. The sheriff returned to Illinois and the doctor started with his charge. At Bellefontaine there was a delay of about one hour for the Mar- ietta train. Tom became restless and wanted some apples. The doctor gave him twenty-five cents and told him to go to an apple stand and buy. He saw him make his purchase and receive his change. He came back eating his apples, looked at the clock and remarked, "It will soon be train-time ; will you be kind enough to show me the water-closet?" He was seen to enter it and close the door. The doctor read his paper for about ten minutes and observed the door still closed. We waited five minutes. No Tom. Grew uneasy, went to the closet and opened the door, to find that his charge was not there nor to be seen in or about the depot. The depot-master, as well as the city police, were called upon, and a minute description of the missing man was given. His flowing locks of raven hue, his long beard as black as Egyptian darkness, his heavy black beaver overcoat, as well as his cap, were all described over and over to the officers, and a reward offered for his arrest or return. The afternoon and night passed; but no tidings. The telegraph was now brought into use and despatches were sent out over Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, but to no purpose. They could get no trace of the missing man. After three or four weeks the doctor returned to find that Tom had beaten him back by about a week.
But this is not all. On his way back Tom stopped over in Chicago long enough to interview one of the city papers and secured the publication of an article in which he went on to recite that while Judge Larcom and Dr. Adam- son were traveling through Ohio the doctor from some unaccountable reason suddenly went mad, and the judge was compelled to see him safely locked in one of the cells of the asylum at Columbus, Ohio. The article closed with a letter of condolence to the doctor's parents.
Tom's return alone, his many stories and his newspaper articles all con- spired to make the doctor's friends very uneasy, and when the latter returned he found they were about to organize for the purpose of investigating Tom's
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reports. They feared that some violence had been done. It was afterwards ascertained that when Tom gave the doctor the slip he at once sought out an obscure barber shop, where he had his hair cut short, and his face smoothly shaven and exchanged his heavy black overcoat for one of drab color. These changes were so great that the doctor's description of the lost man would not apply.
After Tom's return he was closely watched for several months by his guardian ; but he finally succeeded in making good his escape. It was re- ported that he returned to Ohio, where he regained his reason, went into business and for some years accumulated property, but that he again failed mentally and was sent to the asylum, where the poor fellow died.
( In this connection it may be noted that a number of years later Mrs. Larcom, widow of Thomas, was married here to Moses Hunt, and continued to reside in the county at Nevada and Collins for the most of her life. She died just at the end of the year 1910 at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Alfred Knoll, at Lake Arthur, New Mexico, and she was buried at Collins.)
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A PECULIAR TREE NEAR STORY CITY
CHAPTER X.
COUNTY AFFAIRS BEFORE THE WAR.
While the county seat was getting started and the prairie was being taken up and occupied and the smaller towns were trying to establish a basis for future growth, the county as a whole was gradually becoming a more definite quantity. Its politics were becoming established, routes of travel were be- coming better defined, and much better routes were being most prayerfully hoped for. The period of this gradual unification of the county will be taken as extending from about the time of the organization of the county up to the outbreak of the Civil war. About the middle of this period, the first newspaper was established; and the fact that it was not sooner established may be taken as evidence that the general condition of affairs here was still very primitive up to January, 1857; and the further fact that the paper first established continued to be the only paper in the county until after the open- ing of the Civil war and this, notwithstanding the fact that the time was one of intense political controversy, as to which the sentiment of the county was closely divided, and in which the different elements would naturally have wished to have their views publicly expressed and presented, goes to show that even in the second half of the period, there was still abundant oppor- tunity to hope for future development.
The establishment of the paper, however, may be taken as an event quite as important among the various stages of local development as almost any other of the single matters mentioned. From this time on, there is more of a record of what the people were doing, and it is easier to get an under- standing as to what they were thinking about. As one peruses the record, it is easy to discover that, to a considerable degree, they were thinking about politics, but Editor Thrall was a very discreet man, and he managed to get along without unduly manifesting a political bias. He was, in fact, a good Republican and an anti-slavery man, but he ran the ticket of both parties impartially in his columns, published both platforms, gave both sides oppor- tunity for hearing, and probably in a personal way did what he could to restrain their forms of expression within measurable bounds. At the same time, he kept well to the front the other matters in which the people of the county were vitally interested. These matters were, for the most part. of a general nature ; for it may be borne in mind that all the then existing towns
Vol. I-7
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over the county, regardless of the extent of their town plats, were still. and for a long time afterwards, without municipal incorporations. Indeed. it was not until 1867 that Nevada was set off as an independent school district. nor did its incorporation come until 1868. Ames was not on the map until after the war was over and the railroad had come and its incorporation did not occur until 1869. The other towns of the county continued to be villages in a legal sense until long afterwards ; that is, they were portions of territory. subdivided into lots and showing streets and alleys, but not having municipal organization ; so the only existing subdivisions of the county, recognized by law, were the townships, the affairs of which rarely have been subject of con- siderable controversy.
So in all this period, the county was the organization which was the basis of most important public doings. Aside from the matter of politics, the im- portant activities of the people and of the resident leaders of local opinion may have been directed in various directions, but the results were most manifest in the matter of transportation and of the location of the Iowa Agricultural College. As to neither of these matters indeed were the im- mediate results so very important in their bearing upon the conditions in the county ; but as to both of them, action was definitely taken which did, in time, bring results that have had a great deal to do with the county. Dele- gates, who had been more or less formally or informally commissioned by the people of the county to co-operate with similar delegates from other counties and make such arrangements as might be practicable for the con- struction of a railroad. did. in time reach a choice as between corporations of varying insistence as to their anxiety and ability to build the railroad, if properly supported, and did definitely commit the people and the county to the endorsement of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company as the organization which should, in time, build a road. The road was not secured nearly so soon as was hoped for by those who agreed as to the forma- tion of the company, but the intervention of the Civil war was a matter which checked the work of constructing railroads, as well as most other peaceful enterprises ; and the delay which was due to this cause affords no ground for disparagement of the sound judgment of those representative men who made the alliance on behalf of the county and in behalf of that particular railroad. The county did not, in fact, get the college until more than ten years after the location of that institution was determined, but the efforts which did determine the location were put forward in this period by people, who were, of course, hoping for more immediate educational results, but who had to content themselves with the hope and expectation of the college until such time as the state should be sufficiently free from war troubles to permit of its carrying out its contract to build a college in the county. In matters of such moment, however, as the railroad and the col- lege, it was the present determination and the ultimate success that really counted ; and it stands to the credit of the county in this period that it did assure the construction of what was, in time, to be the best trans-continental
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railroad between the Mississippi and the Missouri and the best College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts that there is anywhere. Viewed in the light of half a century, the people of Story County in the latter fifties were wise beyond their day and generation ; and if the matters of common interest in the county could, in all the intervening years, have been as wisely and effectively conducted as they were in that time, the greatness of the county must now have inevitably been much more striking than it is.
As to the railroad, the fundamental fact was that several years before, congress had made a grant of land for the purpose of aiding in the construc- tion of four railroads across the state of Iowa; such railroads to be con- structed not for the present needs of the new state; for, in fact, the great body of the state was not yet sufficiently settled to have any practical needs, but with a view to encouraging, as rapidly as possible, the settlement of the state. One of these lines of railroad was to be constructed, as nearly as practicable on the line of the 42d parallel of north latitude. This parallel runs very near the middle of the belt of counties east and west in the tier of which Story County is a part, and, doubtless, the fact that the land grant had been made and that the new prospective county seats in this belt of counties were all close enough to the parallel, so that they might confidently expect in time to secure the railroad, had not a little to do with their location and with the readiness with which people went far out beyond the ends of exist- ing lines of transportation and established their homes in such county seats. Nevada had the full benefit of this assurance; for the 42d parallel is only about a mile or more south of town, and all of the conditions were favorable for bringing the railroad to the town whenever it should reach the county.
The land grant was for alternate sections for six miles on each side of the railroad, or, if those sections should already be taken up, then their equivalent of public lands in other parts of the state. In fact, the sections along the prospective line were taken up long before the railroad came, and the alternatives elsewhere had to be accepted. These lands, at government prices, were worth $1.25 an acre and their value per mile of road was much less than the cost of constructing the road. While, therefore, any and every company that talked about building the road, expected, of course, to have the land grant, it inevitably demanded further aid. But, beyond the land grant and any possible local aid, the railroad company which should actually succeed, had to have a considerable amount of capital of its own ; and the great and absorbing local and political problem, was to concentrate the re- sources of the land grant and local support and effective corporate capital, all in the same concern. This problem was not solved without a great deal of difficulty. The government having made the land grant to the state for the purpose indicated, it was, in the first place, for the state to determine what company should have the chance to make use of it. The state accordingly conveyed the several land grants to corporations of much promise, the par- ticular corporation to which was intrusted the duty and responsibility of building the railroad along the 42d parallel being the Iowa Central Air Line
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Railroad, which railroad is frequently referred to in the early discussions as the "Iowa Central" and as the "Air Line," and which, of course, had no rela- tion whatever to the Iowa Central as that name is now applied.
The Air Line was organized as Dubuque ; and its proposal was to make that city the river point for this line as well as for the line which it was hoped later to build across the state in the latitude of 42 degrees and 30 minutes, where the Dubuque and Sioux City was originally built and the Illinois Central is now operated. The first and vital condition of this con- veyance by the state to the Air Line Railroad, was that the railroad company should actually construct a railroad from Dubuque to Cedar Rapids on or before the ist of January. 1859. Concerning the initial arrangement with this company. there does not appear to have been any violent controversy. but the company in time proved itself not equal to the proposition under- taken ; in other words, it was not able to work additional money out of the people or put up money of its own in amounts sufficient for actual construc- tion. It did about thirty miles of grading, but built no railroad. It had at its eastern terminal a practicable or at least possible connection with the Chicago and Galena Railroad that had already been built from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi, and Dubuque political influence was strongly behind the enter - prise of pushing westward. Possibly, the difficulties of the Air Line may have been no more than those which are inevitably confronted by men who at first undertake a great enterprise in a new country : but the fact is that their time limit expired and their road was not built.
The management of the company, however, still had hopes, and they did not yield the field and their claims to the land grant at all readily. They quit-claimed the Air Line's title to the expired concession to a new company. known as the Dubuque, Marion and Western ; and for the support necessary for the construction of the prospective railroad by this latter company a most determined political fight was made. People along the route, however. in the counties most concerned, had generally lost faith in the Air Line and in the men connected with it. At the same time, the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska company, with rather less influence but apparently more capital. and perhaps under more favoring conditions, was pushing a line westward from a point on the Mississippi-just below Lyons-and now known as Clinton, in the direction of Cedar Rapids. In the eyes of the people west of Cedar Rapids, and at Cedar Rapids for that matter, the actual money that was being put into this piece of road, talked; and gradually they became enlisted in the proposition of having the state revoke the conveyance to the Nir Line and make a similar conveyance to the new company which should co-operate with the Chicago. Jowa and Nebraska.
This sentiment culminated in the hokling of a railroad convention for counties concerned, at Cedar Rapids, on the 13th and 14th of June, 1859. At this convention, there were delegations formally accredited from the counties of Linn. Benton, Tama, Marshall. Story and Greene. It would appear that Boone County should have been represented also, but it appears
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not to have had any man of sufficient enterprise actually to be there. The delegates accredited by Story County were T. C. McCall, W. J. Graham, John Scott. Samuel S. Statler, James Hawthorn, E. B. Potter, and George M. Maxwell. In fact, however, the men in actual attendance are understood to have been McCall and Hawthorn. Scott and Statler fully expected to be there, but they went first to Davenport to a meeting of the Masonic Grand Lodge and were prevented, by a washout, from getting back to Cedar Rapids in time for the railroad meeting. To McCall and Hawthorn, therefore, it actually fell, to represent the interests of the county in this meeting, and they manifestly did so effectively. McCall was a member of the committee to confer with the railroad representatives, and Hawthorn was elected a director of the new railroad.
The proceedings of this convention were quite fully published in the newspapers of the counties along the line, and the reports plainly indicated that the convention was conducted with much soundness of judgment and with a determination to reach results. Proposals to organize a new company were presented early in the discussion, but were side-tracked until the rep- resentatives of the different companies should be heard from. Such repre- sentatives were heard both in committee and by the convention as a whole. The report of the commitee was that the Iowa Central Air Line and its protege, the Dubuque, Marion and Western, were unable to present any plan for the actual construction of the road, but that the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska would submit a proposition if the occasion should offer. The Air Line people appear to have put up the best fight they could ; but in the end, the sentiment was overwhelmingly for the organization of a new company. To this plan of operation, the eastern capitalists, who were backing the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska and at least one of whom became very con- spicious later as the chief promoter of the Union Pacific, apparently lent their hearty co-operation; so the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company was formally organized, directors were nominated, their names in- cluded in Articles of Incorporation, and the articles adopted. The eastern capitalists, whose names headed the directory were John Bertran of Salem, Mass .; Oakes Ames of Boston ; L. B. Crocker of Oswego; and John Went- worth and Chas. Walker of Chicago; and there was also one director for each county from Linn to Greene, the director for Story County, as before noted, being James Hawthorn.
This Cedar Rapids convention was the most important event in a busi- ness way, that the people of the central tier of counties in Iowa have had anything to do with. In the ultimate, the plans there formed worked out successfully. The claims of the Iowa Central Air Line to the government land grant, were by the general assembly declared to be forfeited, and the grant was in turn conveyed to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Com- pany. The Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, whose leading spirit appears to have been Oakes Ames, was in charge of men who had money and believed in the exploitation of the country beyond the Mississippi river; and the co-
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operation which it leant to the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Company was always in good faith. The road was actually constructed by the com- pany which was organized for the purpose of its construction ; and as it was gotten ready for operation, it was turned over to the Chicago, Iowa and Nebraska, which operated it. About the time that the work was completed to the Missouri river, the whole enterprise was reorganized as a part of the Chicago & North-Western System. These results, however, were not at- tained without tribulation. The Air Line did not quit its political efforts merely because it had been beaten at Cedar Rapids. Its own hopes of con- structing the road in its own name were, of course, at an end when its time limit expired ; but there was nothing in the way of its asking that the land grant be next tendered to the Dubuque. Marion and Western for which it stood sponsor, and the latter company put forth the best endeavors it could to give the appearance of being entitled to the preference.
Contemporary discussion, however. in papers at both Cedar Rapids and Dubuque indicates quite clearly that the Air Line was hopelessly insolvent ; and that one object, perhaps the main one, of its efforts in co-operation with the Dubuque, Marion and Western, was to protect the creditors of the Air Line, the arrangement being, apparently, that the Marion Company should assume the obligations of the Air Line in consideration of the relinquish- ment of the latter's claims to the land grant. What the people were con- cerned in, however, was the construction of a railroad, and to accomplish this, there were enough difficulties without having to take care of the creditors of an insolvent concern. When the matter came before the gen- eral assembly, the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Company, with its financial and popular support, prevailed over the broken down company from Dubuque and received the vote of the land grant. As before noted. the war intervened before the road was built, and the ultimate results of the Cedar Rapids convention were not realized so soon as had been hoped. but all proved to be well in due season.
But more striking even than the successful organization of what was to be part of the greatest trans-continental railroad, was the attainment by the people of the new county in the same year, and indeed in the same month of June. 1859. of the location of the lowa State College. The contrast is not in the relative importance of the two achievements : for it is hardly possible for anything to be more important to a community like Story than a great rail- road ; but the railroad. or at least some sort of a railroad, was bound to come. while the college might have gone to any one of a great many other localities, and might indeed to have been expected almost certainly to go to some lo- cality in a more settled and better developed portion of the state. Very likely there were some favoring conditions that are not now very apparent ; ail indeed if there had not been some such conditions, it is impossible now to understand how success should actually have been achieved; but there certainly were no conditions pointing this way so strongly that the college and farm could have possibly been located here if there had not been most ex-
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ceptional and strenuous endeavors here to secure it. Conditions which may now be imagined to have been favoring were that under the constitution of the state which had been adopted in 1857. the state capitol had been fixed at Des Moines and the state university established at Iowa City. The eastern part of the state thus having what was expected to be the leading state educa- tional institution, and the most important county in the interior being rec- ognized with the state capitol, the location of the college and farm, if there were to be one, appears in a sense to have been something to be fairly con- tested for by the minor counties in the interior of the state. Indeed that seems to have been the view taken ; for. as the matter of the location prog- ressed, the counties which proved to be the strongest contestants were Polk, Story and Hardin, Polk apparently insisting upon the now widely recognized principle that Polk county is entitled to anything it can get, and Hardin be- cause it really was in position to meet the conditions suggested.
Story county, in this critical time, seems to have been fortunate in hav- ing as its first member of the General Assembly elected from within its own borders, a young man who lived here long, and never afterwards filled any important office, but who always showed himself to be very persistent con- cerning matters to which he gave his attention. This young legislator was John L. Dana of Nevada, a young lawyer who had located here about 1856, and who in 1857 was elected the state representative for the counties of Story. Hardin and Grundy. It was during the ensuing session of the general assembly that the act was passed to recognize in an educational sense the dominant interest of the state by locating, with a view to ultimate establish- ment, an agricultural college and farm. However much or little Mr. Dana himself may have had to do with the passage of this bill, he certainly lost no opportunity to promote the location in this county of the institution which was thus proposed to be established.
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