USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 2
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In 1809 when Nathan Dane founded a professorship of law at Harvard Justice Story was elected to fill it and removed to Cambridge. where he resided the rest of his life. During his professional life he received a salary of one thousand dollars per year. As a teacher of law he has had few equals. The number of students rose from one to one hundred and fifty-six during his occupancy of the chair. In 1831 Judge Story was
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STORY COUNTY COURT HOUSE, NEVADA
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
offered the chief justiceship of Massachusetts but he declined. After the death of Chief Justice Marshall, being the senior member by appointment, he presided over the deliberations of his associates until the confirmation of Chief Justice Taney, and during the illness of the latter, in 1844, he again filled the place for a few months. He had nearly completed his ar- rangements for retiring from the bench and devoting his energies ex- clusively to the law school when he was stricken with a fatal illness. In 1818 he was elected an overseer of Harvard which, in 1821, conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., as did also Brown in 1815, and Dartmouth in 1824. For many years he was president of the Merchants Bank in Salem and in 1842 was active in establishing the Alumni Association of Harvard of which he became vice president.
Judge Story gave to the world more text-books on jurisprudence than any other writer of his time. The list comprises his "Commentaries on the Law of Bailments," in 1832; "Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States," in 1833; "Commentaries on the Conflict of Laws," in 1834; "Commentaries on Equity Jurisprudence," in 1835-6; "Equity Plead- ings," in 1838; "Law of Agency," in 1839; "Law of Partnership," in 1841 ; "Law of Bills of Exchange," in 1843; and "Law of Promissory Notes," in 1845. He also edited "Chitty on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes," in 1809: "Abbott on Shipping," in 1810; and "Laws on Assumpsit, with Notes of American Statutes and Cases," in 1811. All of these works have passed through many editions and are recognized not only in America but by British judges and on the continent where they have been trans- lated into French and German. His decisions as a circuit court judge are contained in thirteen volumes ; the reports of the supreme court during his judicial life fill thirty-five volumes, of which his judicial opinions form a large part ; the notes he contributed to Wheaton's reports fill one hundred and eighty-four closely printed pages; and besides all these legal papers, he delivered many discourses on literary and other themes, wrote many bio- graphical sketches of his contemporaries, contributed elaborate papers to the North American Review, wrote one hundred and twenty pages for Dr. Lieber's "Encyclopedia Americana," and drafted some of the most im- portant acts of congress. His name in Class J, Judges and Lawyers, re- ceived sixty-four votes in the consideration of names for a place in the Hall of Fame, New York University, October, 1900, and was accorded a place with those of James Kent and John Marshall. A statue of Judge Story was modeled by his son and stands in the chapel of Mount Vernon cemetery. He was a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, a fellow of the American 'Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society.
About 1805 Judge Story married a daughter of Rev. Thomas Fitch Oliver, rector of St. Michael's church. The late William Wetmore Story, eminent sculptor and author, was his son, and Julian Story, the famous artist, is a grandson.
Vol. 1-2
CHAPTER II.
A GENERAL VIEW.
The history of the county will be found, as we proceed, to divide itself naturally into various themes, of which the first, of course, will relate to the earliest settlements. Following this up, there will be that of the organization and the early development of the county, including the earlier efforts to secure railroad transportation with the outer world, and from this period of the county the story runs inevitably into the subject of the Civil War. Excepting for the fact that near the end of the war, the railroad actually reached the county, this period was one of tremendous effort, but probably of not very great local progress; still, even the war itself could not stop altogether the westward tide of migration, and dur- ing even war years the county continued moderately to grow. This part of the history will be found, however, to relate much more to the doings of the soldiers who went out from the county and in the south rendered the service which the need of the nation required, than it will to the events at home. Following the war, the county received a greatly ac- celerated tide of migration, and its vacant prairies were much more rapidly occupied than had previously been the case. Rivalries between the dif- ferent towns and different portions of the county, which had previously been scarcely observable, sprang into existence and for a time appeared to consume the most of the public efforts of the people. The beginning of the most important of these rivalries, so far as we are able to observe, was in the location of the Des Moines & Minnesota Railroad. This was the cross-line which was to be built from Des Moines to some point on the line of the North-Western Railway, and the question arose whether such point should be Nevada, which was the county seat and the oldest town and the most important in the county, or Ames, then a very new town, but already developing considerable aspirations. The ultimate suc- cess of Ames in this controversy was undoubtedly due to the long stand- ing difficulty of making for anything an easy crossing of Skunk river ; but such success, added to the fact that the Agricultural College, which had been located about ten years before, was now being opened, encouraged the people there to set up claims for the county seat. These county seat
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claims were finally negatived, and the people of the county, by a small majority, voted to build in Nevada a new court house; but before this conclusion was reached and the court house built, an alignment had been effected which had much to do with the affairs of the county for a long time. Another division which arose about the same time was also geo- graphical in its origin, although the reason may now seem trival; but the effect was undoubtedly important and unfortunate. This was the division over the Nevada Slough, and about this matter much of the political history of the county and not a little of its business affairs, for some years, revolved. The time was before Ames undertook to set up in business for itself, and the basic fact was that Nevada had two business centers, and between them was the slough. Men who were interested joined their political and business efforts to establish the supremacy of the side of town in which they did business; and the men concerned being themselves of much the widest influence in the county, the controversy between them extended widely.
Somehow as one looks back over the general history of the county for the first twenty years of its existence, the few facts that seem to stand out as dominant above any others in the effects upon the future of the county are the impassibility of Skunk river, the location of the Agricultural Col- lege, the political conversion of the county in 1859, the coming of the first railroads, the influx of the Norwegians, the row over the Nevada slough and the aspiration of Ames to become the county seat. These matters of course worked variously for the good or ill of the county, but whether the effect was good or otherwise, the impress was lasting. The first matter in which the people of the county endeavored to get together and exert their common influence to a single end, excepting of course that from the be- ginning they all wanted a railroad, was in the matter of the location of the Agricultural College. How this location came about it is difficult now to understand; but the fact is, that the county as a whole voted $10,000 for the college, and the people of the county gave enough more in the way of land and money to raise the local donation to $21,000, which was more than double the initial appropriation of $10,000 made by the state. In doing this, the people of the county outbid the people of any other county, and it was because they did so outbid the other counties that they secured for this county the location of the college. This was a start for Story County which might well have had lasting effects other than those naturally pertaining to the college itself, but before the college could be actually established, the war came on and of course this stopped nearly all enterprises excepting the war itself. When the war was over and the time was at hand for new improvements and new enterprises, there came on that row about the slough ; and to one who came into the county as a youth some years later and has since remained and who in subsequent years was intimately asso- ciated with most of the men who had been parties to the slough controversy, it became painfully evident that however cordial these men might be to the
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newcomer or to one younger than themselves, yet among themselves the old grudge stood and never, so far as our observation went, did anyone who was on one side of that controversy willingly and heartily give assistance in any important matter to anyone who had been too active on the other side. The issue of the slough itself was settled, and the town moved to the north side, but the settling of the issue had no effect upon the quarrel per- taining to the issue, and for twenty years, or until the men concerned were for the most part dead or moved away. the effects of that quarrel were a standing hinderance to the advancement of any Story County man's ambi- tion or of a local enterprise that demanded general cooperation.
The Court House struggle with Ames, though quite as sharp while it lasted, was probably not so serious; yet, for many years the Republican County Conventions, in which the political affairs of the County were de- termined, presented habitually a situation in which the Nevada interests. more or less embarrassed by the remnants of the slough controversy, were represented by one slate of candidates, and the Ames interests, embarrassed by no considerable local division, were represented with much greater unity and, upon the whole, were more frequently successful.
l'rior to about 1875 or 1880, the County may fairly be said to have been passing through the first stage of its development : for all of this time there were lands that were yet unimproved, unfenced and unfarmed, and in- deed it was not until about the middle eighties that the Northeastern por- tion of the County could be said to be generally divided into farms; but. of course, the matter of the second stage of development did not await wholly upon the first, and it was along about the middle seventies that the towns of the County began to replace the earlier wooden business build- ings with structures more substantial, and the people of the County began to feel sufficiently prosperous to vote money for a better class of public buildings.
It was about this time that the writer of this history began to have his personal acquaintance with the situation now in hand. It was in the fall of 1874 that the people of the County voted to supplant a cheap and very in- adequate wooden Court House with a brick structure, very much larger. very much more costly, and probably at the time it was built-the best to be found in almost any county seat town in central or western or northern Iowa. In the following Spring, the people of Nevada made a similar ap- propriation for a large fine new school house to supplant the old and in- adequate one. AAt about the same time, the Agricultural College on the West side, which had been established a few years before with abundant advertising but with a small body of students, began to be of increasing interest and importance. So, in many ways, the County was beginning to take on a new growth and to manifest the results of the earlier thrift and industry. In the recording of events and developments, succeeding the time here indicated. the author is going to be able to speak from matters to a great extent within his knowledge; but in the matter of a work of this
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character, it is to the earlier events, the beginnings of things, the whys and wherefores of the conditions which we all understand, that the larger meas- ure of interest pertains; and in treating of these matters of earlier and, in fact of greater interest, we must depend upon the records that have been left and upon the assistance of members of the older generation who have lent in one way or another their kindly cooperation to the work. As the work proceeds, the extent of this obligation will become more and more ap- palling; but in the beginning, it may be said, that were it not for a few favorable conditions we would not know how to proceed. First of these conditions relates to the files of the Story County Advocate and Egis, which files are by no means as perfect as we wish they were, but in which the earlier history of the County is very effectively covered and reviewed. The Advocate was established in 1857, very early in the year, and the first paper which appears in the files bears the Number 4, and is dated January 29th. The paper was published by R. R. Thrall, and the more we have reviewed it and studied it, the more have we admired the patience and fair- ness and manifests justice with which Mr. Thrall, as the sole editor in the County, made his record of current events. Mr. Thrall left an excellent file for about three years, but early in the sixties, the file becomes very incom- plete. and during the subsequent administration of the paper by Geo. Schoonover, who re-named the paper. "The Reveille," and by common re- pute ran a paper of exceedingly vigorous quality and exceedingly satisfac- tory type to the loyal sentiment of the community in war time, there is very little record at our command. If, as the matter develops, it becomes ap- parent that the earlier period of the war is not so well covered in this His- tory as the later period of the war, the circumstance of these missing files must be the explanation ; but about the time of the Battle of Chattanooga, the paper passed to the control of John M. Brainard. From this time on, the files are excellent, and they show that Mr. Brainard kept a record such as the Historian of any County is fortunate in being able to refer to. It is to the files of Mr. Thrall's paper, and to the records, and to the reminis- cences of the older settlers that we must refer for the most of our story of the period of the settlement of the County. The actual service of the soldiers in the Field, we are able to get, most fortunately, from survivors of several of the commands with which Story County was most closely identified : Co. E. of the 3d Infantry ; Co. B. of the 2d Cavalry ; Company A. of the 23d Infantry, and Company K. of the 32d Infantry were all raised for the most part in this County ; and if it shall seem that the Story County Soldiers, who served in these commands, have their record more completely set down here than is the case with soldiers from the County in other commands, the reason must be given and accepted that it is much easier to get the Story where there are survivors, than to get it where the survivors, if there are such, are scattered and out of reach.
Along with the files already spoken of, and the records furnished by surviving soldiers, and the reminiscences of various pioneers, it should be
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emphatically set down, that any History of Story County would be much less complete than it now is or promises to be, were it not for the records left by Col. John Scott. Of all the men and women connected with the County in its early day and its period of most rapid development, he was by far the most impressed with the ultimate value to the community of having the events of its founding set down, and he was quite alone in the measure of effort which he was willing to make to this end. He came here in the prime of life, a man of education, wide experience, unusual mental equip- ment, with literary habits acquired as an editor for a few years in Eastern Kentucky, and with the ability to get personal enjoyment for himself out of setting down the story which should be for the entertainment of others. The first file of the paper of the Advocate contains a review of the County very possibly his work, and affording by all odds, the best statement of the condition and attainments of the County up to the time of the publication. Nearly twenty years later, on the centennial Fourth, July 4, 1876, he was the orator at the county celebration at Nevada, and in accordance with an arrangement that was state wide he delivered an oration which was pub- lished in full, was a history of the county up to that time and is the medium of much of our best information now concerning matters in the earlier days. A dozen years still later, while memory was still fresh and the appearance of things had not yet changed to so great an extent but that it was still possible to trace out the old amid the new, he wrote for the Nevada Rep- resentative, the modern successor of the Advocate and the Reveille and the FEgis, a series of reminiscences, establishing for that time and with much definiteness the relation between the earlier and what might now be con- sidered the middle stage of the County's progress.
Perhaps it is in the review of this comparison that we are able now to find the best standard for measuring the still later development of the County, and particularly of the County Seat. The memory of the present editor has often to be hard drawn upon and reinforced in order to find in all cases the relationship between things as he states them for '57 and '8 and '88, and as they are now. From this record and comparison, it is now obvious that Nevada has made vastly more progress in the twenty years and more since this record was made, than it had in the thirty years and more before which the record was made, and what is true of the County Seat. we are satisfied is true of the County as a whole. As our observation goes, it is true of the towns generally. Ames is altogether a different town from what it was twenty years or so ago. Story City offers really no comparison, neither does Maxwell nor Cambridge, nor Roland. Slater had then little more than a beginning: Collins, Zearing. McCallsburg, were very new towns; Colo was older than some of these, but not nearly so good a town as it is now, and the same is true of Gilbert Station. Huxley had hardly found a place upon the map. Kelley has made considerable improvement. and lowa Center has survived conditions which have destroyed many an- other town, when the railroad came close without hitting it. In all of the
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
larger or more aspiring towns of the County, there has been substitution of good buildings for old ones. Fires which are almost always a disaster to individuals, but not always so unfortunate for towns, have contributed to the revision of the municipal landscapes and have hastened the development such as is most pleasing to observe.
At the same time, there has been a very rapid advance in the price of farm land, and to this advance there have been contributions from better markets, better prices, better methods of production, better tillage and bet- ter drainage. These causes of advancing farm land have operated together and upon each other, with the general result that the lands yield very much more in the value of their salable crops than was the case in the earlier day, and the tillable area of the County has very largely increased. From the time when the government lands were all taken up in the fifties, to the time some thirty or more years later when the lands might all be said to be occupied but not as yet improved to any great extent excepting in the way of buildings, the rise in the price of farm land in the County had been only gradual, and, so far as our knowledge and understanding go, the value of the products had not greatly outrun the reasonable profit on the value of the land and upon the labor necessary to produce them; but about 1890, there came a material change in the situation. A tide of migration to South Dakota was turned backward by drouth and grasshoppers; while at the same time, farmers in Eastern Illinois found that they could sell out at home and buy here at a very considerable profit, getting for the same money considerable more land of similar productiveness. These two factors operating at the same time, one from the West and the other from the east, gave a fresh start to Story County farms. Still it was not until the Dakotas were settled, so far as they are arable, and Oklahoma real estate pretty well taken up, and the land speculator driven to Texas or Canada for the subject of speculation, that the Story County farmer really began to come into his own. Prior to this time, the idea had been working into the County, that it was more profitable to drain ponds than to plow around them, but it was not until along toward the latter nineties that the idea became prevalent that, where practicable, it was cheaper and better to drain lands already in possession and fit them for satisfactory tillage, than to buy more lands and manage them in the way in which cheap lands are wont to be managed. The consequence of this idea coming into vogue and of the continuing increase in the general profit of farming, there was gradually inaugurated a system of farm drainage which is as yet by no means complete but which has had a tremendous effect upon the general condition and prospects of the County.
Indeed this subject of farm drainage is one of the most important with which the people of Story County have had occasion to deal or have undertaken to deal. The necessity for it goes back to the very condi- tion of things obtaining in the County when the white man came here. The County is flat or has very considerable flat areas in which are
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
numerous shallow basins, where the water inevitably and naturally gath- ers. The reason for this state of affairs has to be learned from the geolo- gist, who delves into the history of the world many ages before man dwelt here. According to these authorities, there were times, long eons apart, when for causes not well understood, great floods of ice, wide in extent and of indefinite but very great depth, slid from the North down over the prairies of the upper Mississippi Valley, grinding off the surface, and when they melted and receded, left where they had been vast quantities of debris. The general effect of such passage of fields of ice or glaciers over the country was to plane off the irregularities in the surface of the ground, and leave the ground substantially flat, save for the deposits of rough gravel and rock that were left when the ice melted and the ice cap receded. Naturally, however, when the ice melted and the vast quantities of water produced by the melting run away, the surface of the country over which the water should run and upon which the rains and floods of subsequent periods might fall, would be very materially worn and chan- neled and, as the geologists say, eroded. If another glacier came down, but did not actually go over the given piece of territory, there would be the effects of eroism without the effects of smoothing. As a matter of fact, as the geologists tell us, this process was several times repeated in Iowa, nearly all the state being covered by glaciers twice, and a great part of the North half of the state on two other occasions. The natural condi- tion was that the North half of the State got the larger amount of planing off and the South half the larger amount of washings out: so it comes about that the South half of Iowa is a very much rougher country than is the North half and has very few places where water is likely to stand. but the north half of the State, and particularly that portion of the North central part of the State lying west and North from Story County. had more of the planing and less of the washing than any other part of the State. This is a fact pertaining to which there is scientific agreement, and. because of this fact, we have in Story County, and to the North and West of it, an expanse of country where the streams are shallow, the bottoms wide and the natural drainage of the country very imperfect. Such a condition of the country implies nothing in the way of derogation when the land is once properly improved. Upon the contrary, the broad and level fields across which the plow can be driven for half a mile or more without turn, are the ones which can be tilled with the greatest economy, and from which the finest crops can be raised, but before this agricultural perfection can be achieved, the work of nature must be supplemented by the work of man, and the channels for drainage which nature has neglected to furnish must be artificially supplied. To meet this necessity. there must be expended much of labor and of money, and it is only as men can see the prospective profits from such expenditure that they will go to the necessary trouble and expense.
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