USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 39
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"At all times of the day may prairie schooners be seen perambulating our streets bound to that place of the muse, The West. We have heard the west pronounced from the far west to the sunny south. up towards the north pole, and farther west than this. Still the 'west' is mythical, delu- sive. Travelers tell us that in the western territories and California they tell about the 'west,' what we here call the east. that place noted for super- stitution and intolerance. Where is the west in our glorious country? Is it not true 'there is no east. no west, no south, no north?' Let one go to the farthest standing place, and still one hears of the various points of the compass, yet a little farther. It is simply a subtlety of speech, to serve a local purpose, and right well does it serve it.
"Soliloquizing aside, movers of all kinds, classes, grades or by whatever name they may be called, are now passing westward, to seek homes, many of them in our glorious state, others go to the neighboring states and terri- tories. If we were to make a guess as to the number of teams passing here daily we would make the average as high as twenty-five, with the proba- bility of its being considerably higher. The influx of settlers into Iowa has never been equalled. North and south of us the same is the case. The number of those stopping in the garden of the world'-Iowa-is immense. The only way to characterize it is by saying we are coming. coming, coming without number and without reserve."
CHAPTER XXXII.
AMES AND THE NARROW GAUGE.
THE FOUNDING OF AMES. .
As has been heretofore noted, the City of Ames with all of its present growth, prosperity, modern improvements, great educational institution and flattering prospects was not one of the original towns of the county. No town was started or even projected at or near its present site by the orig- inal settlers of that portion of the county. Possibly no particular explana- tion is needed for the omission of pioneers to pick upon any one piece of prairie as a location for a future city and seat of learning; but there are two reasons apparent why some other sites should have been better suited to pioneer conditions. One reason pertains naturally to Skunk river, the crossing of which in the early days was probably as difficult opposite Ames as it was anywhere. And the other reason pertains to Squaw Fork, which lies west and southwest of the main part of Ames, and which, though not nearly so troublesome as Skunk river, was quite capable in its lower reaches of affording considerable obstruction to traffic. In other words. the loca- tion of Ames is all right in a time when transportation is by railroads and improved highways ; but it was quite unsuited for a community center in a time when routes of travel were by prairie trails and fords. Nor did the location of The State Agricultural College and Farm on the west side of Squaw Fork, in 1859, convey to the inhabitants thereabout any apparent suggestion of a future town where Ames was later established. In the first place, Nevada activity and influence had contributed chiefly toward bring- ing the prospective institution to the county and had seemingly been unaf- fected by any apprehension that the upbuilding of a rival town might thereby be occasioned; also New Philadelphia, to the westward, was as uear to the college location as in that time any town needed to be to any particular spot ; and finally, if anyone should at that time have seen vis- ions of a city near the college, he most certainly would not have imagined the town over to the eastward across Squaw Fork but, more likely, would in his mind, have put it to the west and southwest of the college where, in very recent years, has sprung up the district which features the Fourthi Ward of Ames. So although a somewhat imposing farm house was built on the college grounds and interest was directed more or less actively toward the
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institution that was to be, the owners of the farms between Skunk bottom and Squaw Fork, entertained as yet no thought of cutting up their land into city lots.
Nor does the coming of the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River railroad -later the Chicago, lowa and Nebraska and still later and more perma- nently the Chicago & Northwestern-appear to have conveyed any local suggestion of a town in the particular spot where Ames was founded. One may even suspect that the absence of such suggestion was a material reason for the selection of the particular location. For the absence of suggestion left the price of land in the immediate locality undisturbed and one of the very notable prerogatives of railroad management in times of pioneer rail- road construction was to buy up cheap farms in favorable places along the line of a projected railroad and to locate on such a farm a station and a town. In the case of Ames this mode of operation appears to have been singularly illustrated. The location of the station and town seems to have been quite distinctly a little side enterprise of John 1. Blair, the great cap- italist who was the chief promoter of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad. And the matter of securing the site was conducted with exceptional shrewd- ness. The agent for the purchase was Mrs. Cynthia O. Duff, a woman of no especial pretensions but of much personal worth, who appeared in the neighborhood with plenty of money and bought the farm next east of Sher- iff Hoggatt's. In due time the farm, or the most of it, was conveyed to parties more directly representing the railroad management, the station was located and the main part of the town platted. The determination as to the location became public along in the fall of 1864. The railroad had reached Nevada with its construction on the Fourth day of July of that year and traffic had almost immediately been established to this point. There was some deliberation about the further extension to Boone; but on Oct. 19, 1864, The Agis made what is undoubtedly the first public reference to the subject in hand, in a short paragraph as follows:
"The railroad company, as we learn, have determined to locate their next depot to the west of Nevada at a point on the Squaw Fork, near Sheriff lloggatt's farm. What name it will bear we have not learned, but suggest the highly appropriate one of "Ditto,' which has already the sanction of common usage in these parts."
The point of the joke about "Ditto" is lost to us with the passage of time, but the development of the plot already outlined was further noted by the . Egis on Nov. 30 of the same year, when a name had evidently been found authoritatively for the town and some of its hopes or prospects were noted thus:
"We learn that the Cedar Rapids and Missouri River company are about surveying a line to determine the practicability of building a branch from Ames Station in this county to Des Moines. Letters say it is the best that could be chosen, boing a dividing ridge very nearly all the way. If such a branch should be from that point, we may look for a right smart specula-
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tion in corner lots. By the way, the company have been securing consid- erable tracts of land in that neighborhood, which may have a meaning."
From all of the foregoing it is easy to see that when Ames actu- ally was started its initial progress at least was bound to be rapid. It was a station on the first railroad across the state ; there were suggestions-later to be realized-of a branch railroad to Des Moines, assurances sometime of a college nearby, and a developing community about it which appears to have accepted instantly and cheerfully the new town as the hub of its af- fairs. So in the season of 1865 the town sprang up quite rapidly and in the course of the season appears to have gained the recognized character- istics of a new and hopeful railroad town. One of these characteristics was the first church, which had been erected by the Congregationalists and which because of its being the first church there was the recipient of the only birth gift that we know to have been presented by Congressman Oakes Ames to the town which bears his name. This gift was a church bell and its presentation and acceptance suggest naturally something of the story of the giver and of the naming of the town. Oakes Ames was both a financier and a statesman. He served in Congress from Massachusetts during most of the sixties, and he risked, and nearly lost, a very large for- tune in the promotion of far western railroads. Worse than that, he, for a time, lost his reputation in scandals that later on arose over the construc- tion of the Union Pacific, and which, most unfortunately, he did not out- live although in their relation to himself they were not especially long- lived. The time when the town of Ames was established was before Mr. Ames had rendered his greatest public services and of course, long before the clouds had come upon his reputation. But his interest and participa- tion in the promotion of pioneer railroads in the West were already mani- fest. and it came about therefore very naturally that when his friend and associate, John I. Blair, was manipulating the construction of the first and best railroad across the state of Iowa, Mr. Blair should have named for Mr. Ames about the most promising new town that the railroad manage- ment was laying out. And insomuch as Mr. Ames was a man of liberality and appreciation as well as of political acumen and business sagacity, it fol- lowed that when the town that had been named in his honor got big enough to have a church he was considerate enough to donate a bell for the church. This he had done and the local satisfaction thereat was expressed in formal resolutions by the Congregational society of Ames, which resolution de- clared as follows :
"Whereas, through the kindness and disinterested liberality of the Hon. Oakes Ames of Massachusetts we are recipients of a first class church bell, therefore, be it,
"Resolved, that we, desiring to express our appreciation of his continued remembrance and timely and appropriate gift, do hereby manifest our grat- itude for this exhibition of public spirit and generosity and tender to him our sincere thanks for this magnificent present : and be it further.
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"Resolved, that these resolutions be published in the Story County ÆEgis and a copy sent to Mr. Ames."
The later explosion and scandal with which Mr. Ames's name is his- torically identified, related to the Credit Mobilier, which was an American company with a French name that had the contract for the construction of the Union Pacific railroad. The stock of this company Mr. Ames distrib- uted among public men, where, as he said. "it would do the most good." The performance was not in accordance with the best official taste; but when the exposure came, Ames was too independent to lie out of the mat- ter, and he was made the scapegoat of numerous politicians who with less frankness dumped onto him the responsibility for everything in congress that needed explanation. As a result the house of representatives passed a resolution censuring him, and he died not long after as the result, it was believed, of the humiliation. In the calmer judgment of time, however, it is felt that Ames was the victim of much injustice and the great services that he actually rendered to the country have come to be really appreciated. llis sons fought after his death to vindicate his memory, and one of them became governor of Massachusetts-which is a position of very great honor as the matter is understood in that state. The incident of the church bell illustrates his disposition before his troubles came; and it has since become evident that if he had lived a few years longer he would have seen the troubles that vexed him to death pass into insignificance. He was in fact a pretty good man to name a town after.
The leading matter in connection with Ames' development during the season of 1866, was the successful struggle with Nevada for the location of the cross railroad to Des Moines. But the railroad itself did not pro- gress so rapidly as did the controversy over its location and this subject will be considered further on. The general local progress, however, was considerable and its measure is given with some definiteness in a letter written to the .Egis in March. 1867, by Captain Lindsey M. Andrews. Capt. Andrews was an ex-soldier, ex-editor, politician and man of affairs who shortly after the war bought what has since been known as the Me- Elyea farm close to Ames, and was a prominent citizen of the county for a number of years, but moved away before very many of his predictions had time for fulfillment. He was a scholarly man and what he had to say was well stated as well as reliable. At this time he said :
"Six months ago our family settled here. At that time Ames contained one small dry-goods store, one drug store and one blacksmith and wagon shop. A few days after this our blacksmith and wagonmaker moved their shop to Nevada. The Congregationalists had commenced building a church, and the M. E. denomination had begun to purchase lumber for their church. Mr. Iloggatt & Co. also had a ware-room and a few thou- and feet of lumber, which they called a lumber yard. I believe these em- braced all the business establishments then in operation. Since which time, the two churches have been completed and have more than quad-
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rupled the number of their communicants. A new wagon shop and two new blacksmith shops have been built and put in operation; a new dry- goods store, three grocery stores, an eating house and a new drug and book store have been opened, and business houses containing them have been built. Two large hotels have also been built and opened since that time, also hardware and tin shop, harness shop and shoe shop. The citizens have also taken initiatory steps for building a large new school house, which by another spring will be needed by at least one hundred and fifty pupils. A carriage shop and several shops and stores are already in process of erec- tion or under contract. A saw-mill is advertised to be here soon, and large numbers of logs await it. A grist-mill company is also being formed.
"Nor is the country in the vicinity of town behind it in progress. New houses are springing up all around ; while new settlers are pouring in by scores. Only a few days ago, I am told, twenty-seven members of the M. E. church alone came here to make their homes near the State Agricultural College, only a little more than a mile distant from town.
"Probably the building of the I. M. & M. railroad attracts now a few. The contractors who are building the road expect to put a very large force at work on the grade near Ames as soon as the weather will permit.
"Mr. Richardson, contractor of the Agricultural College building, is pushing the carpenter work and stone cutting for that building forward with an energy that promises an early completion of the structure. Mr. Thompson, I believe, contemplates making numerous improvements on the farm during the coming season.
"Many of our farmers are preparing to build a great amount of post and rail fence (supposably to replace rail fence) and to break considerable prairie. If this portion of Story county continues to improve for a year to come as rapidly as it has during the last six months it will rival some of the young cities of adjoining counties. True, Story county is in places quite wet and interspersed with numerous ponds; yet it is not unhealthy. The water in these ponds is pure, and the soil in most places is rich. In fact, for grazing Story county is not excelled in central Iowa. (Note the ab- sence of any remarks upon Story as an agricultural county.)
"In the vicinity of Ames there is a plenty of timber, which lines the valleys of Skunk river, Squaw, Clear, Warrell and Walnut creeks, all of which, save Walnut, center within a mile of Ames. These give this lo- cality all the grades of soil found in the state.
"Several enterprising farmers hereabouts are making fine beginnings in the dairy business, for which these hills, bottoms, groves, streams and springs so well fit the country. A cheese factory at Ames is already con- templated.
"After all, it is only a question of time for Ames to grow into quite a little village. When the I. M. & M. R. R. is completed, as it will be before long, forming a continuous line from Galveston to St. Paul, Ames will be a fine railroad town, having at present the advantages of a continuous rail
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from New York to Fort Kearney. The freight business has increased more than tenfold in six months; but though settlers are pouring in rap- idly, yet we have room and work for hundreds more."
THE IOWA & MINNESOTA R.MILROAD.
It has been before noted that the principal event of the year 1866, so far as Ames was concerned, was the campaign for the location of the lowa & Minnesota railroad, or in other words "The Narrow Gauge," which later became the Des Moines branch of the Northwestern. The same event was also the most important of the year for the county as a whole, for though Ames did not immediately realize upon all its anticipations with respect to the second road in the county, its general influence was very great. The cam- paign began very early in the year and it was actively conducted by both Ames and Nevada and the rivalry of the two towns was most actively pro- moted by the management of the railroad. Mr. B. F. Roberts of Des Moines, vice president of the railroad, appears to have been the chief fo- menter of this divisive strife between the principal towns of Story county; and he appears further to have been an adept both at promoting the strife and at getting results for his company. And the strife was not confined to Nevada and Ames, for Cambridge would be on the Nevada route and was the ally, therefore, of Nevada, while Polk City was on the Ames route and accordingly was the ally of Ames. The record of the matter is found chiefly in the columns of the Nevada paper. for as yet there was no Ames paper; but from even this biased source of information, taken with the general knowledge of the matter that has come with the passing years. it is easy to see that there were two sides to the question. It was in effect admitted from the Nevada standpoint that it would cost ten or fifteen per cent more to build the railroad from Des Moines to Nevada than to build it from Des Moines to Ames: but on the other hand it was claimed for Nevada that the natural route from Kansas City through Des Moines to St. Paul lay by the way of Nevada : and that in the long run, the great north and south route would be much better built through Nevada than through Ames. This being a fair statement of the issue, and we believe it was such, and it being further conceded that the people along either route from Des Moines to the Northwestern railroad would contribute about all they could and that the difference in their ability to contribute was not great, the determination was destined to turn upon the relative anxiety of the railroad management for economical construction or for ultimate ad- vantage. . As a matter of fact. the railroad was built about as cheaply as was possible and that only after long and wearisome delay. The five per cent tax in Washington township in aid of the railroad was carried by only a few votes, and we may well believe that if the tax there had been de- feated the route to Ames would have been abandoned; but the tax there was carried and it was carried also in the Polk county township which
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included Polk City; and also it appears that the right of way was almost wholly donated. So the friends of the west route maintained, by their liberality, all of the advantage which was primarily theirs by reason of easy construction. It is very evident that with the railroad management such practical arguments as these were not to be overcome by any expansive cliscussion of routes to St. Paul. What the railroad managers were acti- ally figuring on was a railroad of three foot gauge, the cheapest that could possibly be built, from Des Moines to the Northwestern railroad; and to this end. it was manifestly easier to follow the divide to Ames with no bridge of consequence excepting that over Squaw Fork than to come up through Cambridge and cross Skunk Bottom.
But this conclusion was not accepted until the matter had been very thoroughly thrashed out. As early as January, 1866, the subject was ac- tively mooted and from time to time meetings were held, committees ap- pointed, subscriptions raised and general activity manifested. Money was raised on both sides for the survey and the survey was run to both Nevada and Ames. The Neyada editor reported that skeptics of the county seat were wont to suggest that the survey was all that Nevada would see of the railroad ; but he insisted that such discouragement should not prevail ; and he urged that the fight for Nevada should be kept up-as it was -; but fighting did not change the fact that the governing principle of economy was sending the road to Ames. Long years since, the Nevada argument as to the better route from Kansas City to St. Paul and Minneapolis, which last named city was not nearly so important then as it is now, has been twice justified: first by the course of the Chicago & Northwestern in deflecting its north and south line to the westward rather than to the east- ward in the direction of the Twin Cities and by the ultimate adoption of the Nevada route by another railroad system for its trunk line between the cities noted. But this is another story. The present proposition is that Ames by a narrow margin carried its tax and with the help of others sim- ilarly interested made its natural advantages count and so secured the rail- road. Insomuch as the matter was largely an Ames and Nevada fight and likewise the first fight of that order, the story of the fight may be concluded by the Nevada report of its outcome. This statement was in the F.gis for July 20, 1866, as follows :
"The board of directors of the I. & M. railway company on Wednesday last held their meeting in Des Moines and voted to locate the line of their road to Ames. So good-bye railroad. The unfairness our people complain of is this, that the company after sucking four or five hundred dollars out of us for surveys, never gave ns an offer of how much would secure the road. It might have been beyond our means to raise, but we would have been better pleased had it been made. As is now appears, we were used as the monkey's paw to rake the dimes out of our neighbors at Ames."
That the location of the railroad, however, was not quite the same thing as the building of a railroad, the people of Ames had abundant opportunity
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to realize for some time. The right of way having been donated very largely, and a narrow gauge railway not requiring to be especially well graded, the construction work on the new road progressed after a fashion for a while; but the matter came to a stop and for some time the stop ap- peared to be indefinite. In October, 1868, the editor of the ÆEgis reported having spent a day in Ames and further observed "The faith and hope that animate the denizens of that little town are certainly deserving of a liberal reward; and such seems now imminent in the prospect of the resumption of work on the 1. & M. railway." Perhaps the work was resumed. but the road was not completed in that year nor in the following year. How- ever, in 1874, it was actually built and though it was not nearly so much of a railroad then as it is now the little cars it operated were a great conveni- ence.
In the middle seventies the road was extended northward from Ames to Story City and up into Hamilton County where it stopped on the prairie at a now forgotten place called Callanan. But after being operated for four or five years as a narrow gauge, the road was bought by the North- western. The line between Ames and Des Moines was promptly widened to standard gauge and also straightened sufficiently to cut out Polk City. save for the spur to that village, all too familiar to travelers; and the line north from Ames was also widened soon after. During the years that the narrow gauge was operated, it was the subject of very many jokes; but it became the basis of a very important line of railroad; and to the people of Ames and other places that contributed to its construction it was worth all it cost them.
NEW AGRICULTURAL HALL, IOWA STATE COLLEGE, AMES
CENTRAL BUILDING AND MORRILL HALL. IOWA STATE COLLEGE. AMES
CHAPTER XXXIII.
FOUNDING THE COLLEGE.
As is often the case in the matter of the first steps toward the founding of some institutions, the people who, in the first half of 1859, secured for Story County the location of the Iowa State Agricultural College had but small conception of the work they were actually doing. Their contribu- tion, with that of their neighbors in Boone County, had an estimated value of $21,000 of which amount $10,000 was in bonds voted by the people of Story County and the remainder was in private donations of cash and of land. This contribution, however, was a larger one than the people of any other county would make for the institution, and trifling as the amount was in comparison with the sums that have since been put into the institu- tion by the state and national governments, it was sufficient in the existing conditions to secure the prospective institution. What the people actually secured at the time was a name for an institution and a chance that some time the institution would be of account. The original state appropriation with which their cooperation was invited was for only $10,000; and there was very little suggestion in that amount of the public liberality, that would be necessary for the upbuilding of a considerable college.
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