USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 37
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CONCLUSIONS.
On reaching Chattanooga I found a few of the Third Iowa boys and was put on quarter rations, looking for a fight any time; but as soon as the road opened, General Thomas sent me a furlough on my own time with no date to it and in a short time I was among relatives in "God's country" (Iowa). After my visit I wanted to see the boys, and went right back to Newbern, North Carolina. I met them at Raleigh, though a good many old faces I failed to see. This is to my good old comrade, James H. Trotter, Company "C," Third Iowa Infantry.
R. J. CAMPBELL.
Hollenburg, Washington county, Kansas, late Company "E," Third lowa Infantry.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE DECADE AFTER THE WAAR.
The ten years following the close of the Civil war and the return of the soldiers from the field was a period of rapid development in Iowa, and in this development Story County had its full share. Not only did the county gain materially in population with the resulting conversion of prai- rie lands into farms, but the towns grew also and the conditions and in- stitutions that were to characterize the county permanently became estab- lished. It was during this time that the lowa Agriculural College was evolved from a hopeful prospect into an educational fact. Also during this time the lowa and Minnesota narrow gauge railroad, after many tribula- tions concerning its location, was finally built from Des Moines to Ames, thus connecting the county by rail with the state capital. and largely dis- posing of the previously ever important question of the Skunk river cross- ing. The actual opening of the college near Ames and the assured and final construction of the north and south railroad to that point had the very natural effect of adding very materially to the importance of that village and still more of raising the hopes of its citizens as to the future of their community. Consequent upon these hopes there developed a court- house fight, which fight never actually reached the stage of a definite claim made by Ames for a transfer of the county seat to that village, but it did take the form of a very definite local opposition in Ames to the construc- tion of a new court house in Nevada.
The need of a new court house for the general purposes of the county was fairly evident ; for the original court house had been burned and the building which had been hastily erected in its place was fairly to be regarded as of a temporary nature. So Nevada asked the county to build a new court house which should comport better with the growing prospects of the county, and with Nevada's legitimate aspirations to be the hub of so fine a county. In the issue thus outlined Ames naturally had the coopera- tion of those individuals all over the county who looked with disfavor upon any proposal to increase taxes for public improvements. So in the line-up the county very closely divided. The court house question was submitted to the people twice. The first submission was in 1808, when it was pro- posed to issue bonds in the sum of $30,000 for a new court house. This
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proposal was defeated by a majority of sixty votes. The matter rested for a time but in 1874 there was another submission, this time of the prop- osition to issue bonds in the sum of $40,000 for a new court house. It will be observed that in the intervening years the prevailing notion of the amount of money necessary for a suitable court house had grown. But in the meantime it is very likely that the taxable value of the county had so increased as to make the larger but later proposition the one more easily to be borne. At any rate the tide turned, and the proposition for a new court house was this time carried by a majority of sixty votes. Ames was not satisfied with the result but contested the election, and Nevada retali- ated by securing the indictment of college students who had voted on the Ames side of the question. For a time the controversy promised to become very bitter, but cooler counsels prevailed and ultimately the matter was compromised on the basis of Ames withdrawing its contest and of Nevada paying the costs so far incurred in the contest proceedings and quashing the indictment against the Ames students. It was a good settlement of what might have been a very serious quarrel. From this time forward the two towns were able to get along with more or less of rivalry, but with a mu- tual recognition that Ames had the college and Nevada the county seat.
Another quarrel of the same period. however, was not so fortunately adjusted. This quarrel was the one in Nevada which has already been referred to in the first chapters of this work, and which arose over the question whether the main part of the town should be on the north side or the south side of the before mentioned "Slough." This contest was won commercially by the north-siders, and upon the whole the north-siders also had rather the better of the political fight. But in order to win the political fight they had to bolt the ticket regularly nominated in the republican county convention of 1867. This matter will be taken up more at length under the general subject of politics, but it may be here set down as one which the county seat and county did not get over in a very long time. As to the location, however, of the business part of town, that was a question which it was well to have settled in any way; and when it had once been settled the people thereafter moving into town were able to accept the sit- uation as they found it. The dispute as to the "Slough" was one issue which they did not have to help determine, and thus the controversy over the "Slough" was in time permitted to die out as the actual participants therein become willing to drop it or moved away.
On this subject of moving there was also an interesting time in Nevada over the moving of the North Western depot. In a previous chapter it has been explained that in the first place the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River Railroad Company, having been organized at Cedar Rapids by the people of the counties along the forty-second parallel, had as a matter of course been accorded by the legislature the benefits of the land grant which had been voted by congress in aid of the construction of a railroad on or near this parallel. In the second place, the railroad had made the demand
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successfully upon Nevada for the swamp lands of the county in con- sideration of the railroad not passing Nevada by but locating its depot within one thousand yards of the court house. And in the third place the railroad had made a further demand for a cash subscription as a sort of supplement to the vote of the swamp lands, which demand had been complied with so far as making the subscription was concerned, but had been evaded with respect to the payment of the sums subscribed. So the depot had been located between the main track and the side track on the vast side of what is now Pine street, and in a neighborhood where the land speculators who followed the railroad had laid out some small lots and had hoped to establish a third business centre more important than the one on the south side of the Slough or the north side of the Slough. During the year when Nevada was the terminal of the railroad and the outfitting point for emigrant trains, this locality was, in fact, the head- quarters for outfitting the emigrants and it continued to have the station of the Western Stage Company so long as that company had occasion to run its stages between Nevada and Des Moines. But the locality never be- came established as a permanent business centre and in time the trouble of going to the depot at the place indicated became a subject for increasing complaint. It was not, however, until after the period under consideration in this chapter that the annoyance thus provoked was finally disposed of by the conclusion of an agreement between the town and the railroad for the removal of the depot two blocks and a half westward and near to what had become the main business street of the town.
During this decade Nevada and Ames were both incorporated as municipalities, and also independent school districts were organized with each of the towns as a centre. Other towns of the county also were formed or gained in local or general importance. The building of the narrow gange-as it was commonly known-was followed by the appearance of the town Shekdahl in the county corner with additions in both Polk county and Boone county, and also by the establishment of a station at Kelley on the township line six miles northward. The peculiar situation as to Sheldahl and the growing consequence of the village as the center of a Norwegian settlement that lay chiefly in Story county but extended into both Polk and Boone counties led later on to a serious effort to change county lines and to include Story county those portions of the village which lay in the other counties. In accordance with a law passed for the especial benefit of the people of Sheldahl, the question was submitted to the voters of all three counties to consolidate the village as aforesaid. Story County, which was to get the benefit of the consolidation, voted unani- mously for the change, but the people of the other two counties, which were to lose territory, did not see the matter that way and they voted down the proposition. Some years later, after the Milwaukee railroad had come through the county, passing about a mile and a half north of Sheldahl, the matter was settled by the Story county portion of the village abandon-
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ing their location and moving their portion of the town, business buildings and residences, to the new town of Slater. But this is another story.
Other towns which had owed their existence to the coming of the railroads were Colo and Ontario, Colo had an immediate importance as a depot of railroad supplies for a time, and its establishment had had the effect of destroying utterly the near-by village of New Albany which never had been a considerable burg but which nevertheless had been known upon the map. Ontario was immediately adjacent to New Philadel- phia, which village it geographically superseded. But Ontario never was able to succeed to the measure of general interest and importance which New Philadelphia had enjoyed. New Philadelphia in its palmy days be- fore the railroads had been the one community center in the region about Squaw Fork, and comprising the greater part of the county west of Skunk river. Bloomington, just east of the river, had been its nearest rival and its general consequence had been variously recognized with public meetings, political debates, and Fourth of July celebrations. Ontario had obvious ad- vantages of transportation over New Philadelphia, but at the same time that Ontario was located, Ames also was founded. By common consent the business and political interest which had centered in and about New Phila- delphia was later directed to Ames.
In the south part of the county Iowa Center prospered notably. The firm of "Baldwin & Maxwell" built up there much the largest business that there has ever been in the county depending wholly upon the farmers for trade. There were not so many farmers in the county then as there are now, and such farmers as there were were not so well-to-do as is the average occupant now of his own farm; but the time was before the day of the catalog mail-order houses and what trade there was in the country, Baldwin & Maxwell very largely commanded. The firm had its head- quarters and main business at Iowa Center with important branches at Cambridge, Clyde-a little over the line from Collins township into Jas- per county-and Colo, the latter place being the one for railroad ship- ments. With such business interests at Iowa Center, and with no railroad south of about the middle of the county, excepting the narrow gauge in the extreme southwest, Iowa Center ranked distinctly next to Nevada and Ames among the towns of the county. Its only rival south of the principal towns, was Cambridge, which had rather lost in importance with the building of the narrow gauge and the transfer of traffic away from the Skunk river crossing at that place.
In this time there were but two recognized towns in the north half of the county, these being Story City and Roland. These were both "Inland" towns; for the Iowa and Minnesota narrow gauge was not extended north from Ames until late in the '70s and the Story City branch of the Iowa Cen- tral was not yet so much as projected. Story City had displaced the original town of Fairview and was probably the larger of the two northern towns, but Roland was in a township which upon the whole was better developed and
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undoubtedly was more of a unit, and with these advantages Roland was fairly holding its own in a rivalry that has not yet ceased to be more or less observable. In the northeast four townships of the county there was nothing that so much as called itself a town or village, and the nearest approach to anything of the sort was the rural settlement and strictly country postoffice at Johnson's Grove, where the mail was delivered once or twice a week by a carrier who travelled between Nevada and Eldora, stopping at Johnson's Grove and at Illinois Grove and at New Providence. In the extreme north- cast corner of the county there was developing something of a settlement, but its postoffice and community center was at Illinois Grove over the line in Marshall county. For the most part the northeast quarter of the county was open prairie, a fine place for herding cattle in summer but offering nothing in the way of towns.
Of the earlier villages of the county which had been started at one time or another but which had failed to make good Defiance in the extreme south- east corner of the county had been lost sight of and Sheffield in the south- west corner of Howard township had given place to Roland; Peoria on the county line between Story and Polk counties southeast of lowa Center was still known to the map and the post office department and continued so to be known until the coming of the Milwaukee railroad ; but it had not par- ticularly developed. Bloomington in the bend of Skunk river north of Ames. had in the pioneer days been the location of a postoffice known as Camden and had been the location of the first district court, which indicted Barna- bas Lowell for the murder of his wife. But such aspirations as it may have had to become the metropolis of the Skunk river region had been blasted when the railroad passed to the south and made the station at Ames. Bloomington retained its name and its character as a neighborhood and it in fact retains them both to this day : but as the affairs of towns are under- stood it was not a rival of Roland nor of Story City nor of Ames.
THE STANLEY TRIAL.
Probably no single event in the county during this period was of more general or continuing interest than was the trial of George Stanley for the murder of William Patterson. Not that a murder trial is something that moulds institutions, or influences greatly the subsequent course of events ; but there are murder trials in which the people generally become interested and maintain their interest, and this trial was one of that sort. The matter became of such state wide interest that it was made the text of a successful campaign for the abolition of capital punishment, and it was such abolition that eventually saved Stanley from the gallows, that was at one time in the course of construction for his use. After thus having his sentence in effect commuted by the general assembly and being in consequence sent to the peni- tentiary at Ft. Madison for a life term. Stanley became a quite persistent applicant for pardon, his case coming up quite regularly before successive
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general assemblies, but not receiving any favorable consideration for many years. On the occasion of the local publication of notice of one of these applications, Mr. J. A. Fitchpatrick, who had been clerk of the court at the time of Stanley's trial, and who was one of the men most familiar with the matter, furnished the following concise statement of the case, which state- ment is here reproduced as the best to be offered. Mr. Fitchpatrick said : "At the September term 1870 of the Story county district court, George Stanley was indicted for the murder of William Patterson. The murder was committed on the 15th day of June 1870 on the railroad track just as it enters the cut on the west side of Skunk river, about So rods east of the depot in Ames. At the time Patterson was section foreman of the section running east of Ames. The two or three years previous he had been foreman at Ogden, and Stanley had been in his employ for a time while there. Stan- ley was a rough brutal looking fellow, but notwithstanding this fact an undue intimacy sprang up between him and Patterson's wife, which led to his dis- charge from the gang of workmen. Stanley after his discharge attacked Pat- terson with a club, striking him over the head several times and in the fracas Patterson managed to stab Stanley with a knife several times, inflicting se- rious wounds, laying him up for several weeks. While he was confined with his wounds several of the good people of Ogden tried to prevail upon him to file information against Patterson, but he declined to do so, saying that he was the aggressor and Patterson was not to blame, but he declared that if he recovered and should meet Patterson he would kill him. Patterson was finally indicted and tried at Boone in April 1870 and acquitted, Stanley ap- pearing as the principal witness against him. After this trial Stanley declared himself to be a 'bull-dog,' and when once he undertook to down a man he would never let up and said .I will kill Patterson yet.'
"Stanley was first identified as seen in Ames on June 13th. At that time just opposite the scene of the murder, and about thirty feet north of the track, a deep gully had been washed out, leaving a high embankment of dirt between it and the track. On this day he was seen by Mrs. Nellie E. Gregory going into that gully about 5 o'clock in the evening. Gregorys at the time lived just south of the track. She saw him again the next day raising up out of the gully just after Patterson and his men had passed on their way to work, viewing them closely, but acting as if he did not want to be seen.
"On the evening of June 15th, Patterson left his work in the cut east of the river about 5 o'clock, telling the men he was going to town and gave them instructions to finish the jobs they were at and then come in. The men started in near six o'clock and upon reaching the spot opposite the gully they found Patterson's dead body lying across the track with two bullet wounds in his head-one entering the eye and coming out the opposite ear and the other full in the top of the head going downward. An old rusty revolver with one empty cartridge shell, the chamber also rusty and showing no signs of recent firing was found near him and also a box of cartridges. Patterson was never known to carry a revolver.
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"Mrs Eleanor Bradley, still residing in Ames, heard a shot and saw a man running but thought nothing strange of it at the time. The same evening Stanley called at the house of A. Dayton in the west part of Nevada asking for a drink of water and appearing very warm and excited. The next day he was seen at Liscomb, Marshall county, and asked for and secured a ride to Eldora. W. 11. Carnick, mail agent on the train, noticed him and told him he answered the description of the man Stanley, who had murdered Pat- terson at Ames. He said he had never been at Ames and did not know Pat- terson. The day following he was arrested near Eldora and at the next session of the grand jury was indicted. Ile was tried at the April term A. D. 1871 of the Story County district court. Messrs. Boardman and Brown of Marshalltown and Dan McCarthy of Ames appeared as his attorneys; he was ably defended : the jury after a short deliberation returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree and he was sentenced to be hanged.
"The case was appealed to the Supreme court on technical grounds, Hon. G. W. Ball of Iowa City appearing for him on appeal, and February 24th 1872 the court affirmed the judgment of the lower court (33 Jowa page 526. ) The court says: 'Weighing the evidence before us most cautiously, and con- sidering it all with great care, we are thoroughly satisfied that the jury were authorized thereon, without a reasonable doubt to convict the prisoner. The grave duty is imposed upon us which we discharge with a due sense of our responsibility to God and the state, to pronounce the decision of this court confirming the judgment of the court below. condemning the prisoner to suffer the extreme penalty prescribed by the law for the heinous crime of which he stands convicted." The opinion was written by the late Chief Jus- tice Beck and the case was well considered.
"The time for the execution was fixed for early in April, 1872. The tim- bers were on the ground and workmen had been engaged to erect the scaf- fold. In the meantime the legislature had passed the law abolishing capital punishment and only the day previous to that fixed for carrying out the sentence of the court. Governor Carpenter sent a special messenger with a commutation of sentence to that of imprisonment for life.
"The foregoing are the cold facts gleaned from the record in the case. That the murder was most foully committed after lying in wait for at least three days for that purpose, no one who heard the trial doubted at the time and there has been no occasion for change of views since.
"While under sentence Stanley was a docile and well behaved prisoner in every way. He settled down meekly to submit to his punishment whatever it might be. Upon one occasion the other prisoners confined with him broke jail and escaped. Stanley could have gone but refused to go saying that it was 'too cold to venture out.' Nothing is known here of his antecedents. Whether or not he had any relatives living did not develop upon the trial."
Mr. Fitchpatrick did not at this time take the position that Stanley should not under any circumstances or at any time receive a pardon, and in fact a few years later, having in the meantime been elected to the state
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senate, he gave the consent that was essential to Stanley's pardon. This was in 1902 when Stanley had been in prison for thirty years. Stanley had be- come the prisoner of much the longest service in the penitentiary and though still in his '50s as to age, he was broken down by his prison life. The relatives who were not known of at the time of his trial or for many years afterwards had made their appearance, and when Stanley was finally re- leased in the year stated they met him at the prison and took him back to his native state of Maine, whence there has been of him no further report.
THE KIRKMAN MURDER.
One other murder belongs to this period, that of Geo MI. Kirkman in the early summer of 1875. Mr. Kirkman had been one of the very earliest set- tlers of the county, having located on its extreme southern border, a little east of the creek, in 1851. He appears to have come to the county with more means than was the case with very many of the pioneers, and he took up a good farm, improved and enlarged it and was counted one of the dis- tinctly successful men of his neighborhood. He was a man of positive character and had both friends and enemies. To a certain extent this condi- dition obtained at home and there had been family quarrels that were more or less known to the neighborhood. Whether these quarrels had anything to do with his murder, is a question that never was tried out in court and con- cerning which the people of the neighborhood have always been very chary about expressing opinions. The fact is that some time after there had been an apparent reconciliation of the family disagreements, Mr. Kirkman was one night dragged from his bed by some men who entered the house and was hanged to a small tree in his orchard near by. The matter was made the the subject of earnest investigation by a coroner's jury consisting of E. W. Lockwood, Wm. Lockbridge and W. K. Wood ; but the jury was not able to fasten the crime upon parties suspected or on anyone else either within or out- side of the family. Two or three of the sons-in-law and one or two other parties were arrested but no indictments were returned against them and they were soon released. Whoever were concerned were able to keep their own counsel and if they are still living are to be credited with having done so for more than 35 years. The Kirkman mystery has never been unravelled and is not likely now to be.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
GENERAL CONDITIONS FOLLOWING THE WAR.
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