USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 47
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there being before the convention quite a field of candidates for superin- tendent, and ultimately the nomination went to L. B. Baughman, who was teaching at Iowa Center, but had had relatives at or near Ontario. Baugh- man was not strongly identified with the county, but he proved to be strong enough to get the most of the Republican votes, and although Franks was enthusiastically nominated by the fusion opposition and made really the one fight that was made in the county in the ensuing election, Baughman was duly elected along with the rest of the ticket. In the course of this convention, while the balloting for representative was still in progress, but after the McCarthy vote had begun to disintegrate, Dan is remembered as traveling around through the rear part of the court room looking for his hat, and observing disconsolately but good naturedly that he was more interested in that hat than he was in the balloting.
In 1878, there were two county conventions and the biggest fight was in the first one, which was called to elect delegates to the state, congres- sional and judicial conventions. The issue was over the judicial delegation. There were contests in the Judicial District for both the nomination for judge and the nomination for district attorney. The former contest was of the more general interest; but Story County had concluded to go after the district attorneyship, in place of M. D. O'Connell, who was voluntarily retiring, and in the county there were three candidates for the local en- dorsement. These were John L. Stevens of Ames and S. F. Balliet and G. W. Dyer of Nevada. Balliet defeated Dyer for the Nevada delegation and the issue in the county was joined between him and Stevens. When the convention met it was apparent to the managers on both sides that the result would probably depend upon the delegation from Grant Town- ship, which was contested; and the contest was about as clear cut and sectional as any that ever occurred in a Republican convention in the county. Ames had the chairman of the county committee, who nominated an Ames inan for chairman of the convention, and he appointed a commit- tee on credentials consisting of three men from the west side of the county. This committee reported in favor of the Stevens delegation from Grant Township; but the report was rejected, as was also a motion from the other side to scat the Balliet delegation. The facts of the case were that the caucus in Grant Township was called in a time of high water, when Skunk River and West Indian were both somewhat obstructing travel, and the people of neither side of the township were getting their papers. Also there appears to have been neglect of politicians on both sides about going into the township and stirring it up. The call for the caucus, however, was properly published; but when the time came, the only person at the caucus was the township chairman, G. W. Shugart, who elected himself and two other Balliet men as delegates. Later, the west side of the town- ship was stirred up by Ames politicians, and a caucus quite representative of that side of the township held, without notice, and a Stevens delegation elected. Ultimately, the convention seated both delegations and divided Vol. 1-27
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the vote between them; and a ballot, being taken, Stevens won the endorse- ment of the county by a majority of one. The result was accepted, how- ever, and Stevens authorized to name the delegation. He did this; and the delegation, which was representative of the whole county, went to the convention and secured his nomination, although not without a big fight. In this judicial convention, Judge Mckenzie of Hampton, was the nominee for district judge. He was a very able and prepossessing man and was much admired and esteemed, and he had been somewhat famous in the time of the Atlanta campaign, as being the signal officer, who, on behalf of General Sherman, signaled from one mountain across the valley to Gen. Corse, at Altoona, to "Hold the Fort for I am Coming." His service as judge, however, was brief ; for he was not in rugged health, and he died after only about two years of service.
The later county convention of 1878, nominated Capt. Smith for his second term as clerk, by acclamation, and also nominated Ole K. Hill for his third term in the recordership, against opposition. A. M. Norris was nominated as supervisor, and he proved afterwards one of the forceful men on the board.
The congressional delegates, who were chosen at the earlier convention, went to Cherokee and supported Carpenter for congress. The other can- didates were Pendleton of Sioux City and Senator Russell, of Jefferson. O'Connell had also been a candidate for congress but had been beaten by Carpenter in Ft. Dodge, where they both lived. There was considerable finesse about this congressional convention. Owing to the prohibition bolt from Gov. Gear in the previous year. the governor's vote had been dis- regarded by the Republican state committee in apportioning delegates to this year's state convention, and the example of the state committee had been generally followed by county and local committees. The congres- sional committee, however, was controlled by the Sioux City faction. which figured that there were about half a dozen counties in the eastern part of the district which would lose about a delegate apiece if the vote for governor was taken as the basis of representation : so the committee called the congressional convention on this basis, and thereby planned to cut Carpenter out of just about so many votes. The counties affected. how- ever, of which Story was one, claimed their full delegations on the basis of the vote for Lieutenant Governor Campbell, and, by a close vote, their claims were recognized. The votes thus added to the Carpenter column were important ; and. after protracted balloting. they carried him over the line. Carpenter had been register of the state land office in the latter sixties and in 1871 and 1873. had been elected governor ; in 1878, upon the creation of the board of railroad commissioners. he had been named as one of the first board. and his candidacy for congress was well justified by his ability and experience. He served for two terms in congress, and his re- tirement by the Tenth District is a very interesting story, which will come up further on.
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The Republican convention of 1879 was one of the most hotly contested of any ever held in the county. There was a large field of candidates for nearly all offices and a compulsory line-up of the two sides of the county, it being impossible for leading candidates to get the united support of their respective sections for themselves, without conceding the same support to candidates of less prestige for other offices in their same neighborhood ; so Ames and Nevada went into the convention with nearly straight tickets, and the margins by which nominations were secured were very small. In Nevada, there were three candidates for sheriff, and it had been agreed among them or by their friends that the Nevada caucus should take a ballot for sheriff and that the delegation should be divided between them pro-rata, all fractions to go to the benefit of the candidate having the most votes ; the result being that A. K. Banks went to the convention with four votes from Nevada ; J. F. Gillespie with two and Z. Shugart with one, the whole delegation being committed to other Nevada candidates. In the convention, there were 59 delegates and Oley Nelson was chairman and made an eloquent speech. It took thirty votes to nominate; and for rep- resentative, W. D. Lucas of Ames got just 30 votes, McCall, as the Nevada candidate, being just a little short. Lucas, however, had traded too hard for this nomination, and he was unable to hold his seat as long as a man of his ability might have been expected to do. For auditor, J. R. Hays was nominated also by thirty votes; and one of the stories of this nomina- tion is that the Milford delegation was instructed to vote for no third term man, but that Hays placated this opposition by assuring them that it was not his third term but his fifth term that he was running for. King got his third nomination for treasurer by a little better margin ; but Banks, after the elimination of weaker candidates, had about four majority over W. H. Stevens of Grant. There was confusion also on the superintend- ency, but Baughman was renominated; and for supervisor, Anfin Ersland, in whose behalf the Union delegation had been diligently trading, was duly successful. So much struggle in the convention might easily have resulted in dissension at the polls; and perhaps a few years before such would have been the case, but at this time the politics of the county had settled down, and the ticket was all elected-Jerry Franks making his last run for super- intendent, but not making great impression.
In this county convention, the delegation was elected to the senatorial convention. Not very much attention was given to the choice of the delega- tion; for, after the temporary boost which the Story representation had been given by the court house vote of 1874, the natural preponderance of Boone County in district conventions reappeared ; and Boone had in the senatorial convention, now to be held, one more delegate than had Story. After the county conventions, however, it developed that John D. Gillett of Ogden, who was the Boone candidate for senator, was not supported by one of the Boone delegates, and the opportunity was thus opened, with good management, for the nomination of a third Story County senator
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to succeed Geo. M. Maxwell and W. H. Gallup. Lucas, who was fearful that he might not get the solid vote for representative and was anxious to reconcile opposition, was quite anxious to have the senatorial nomination go to McCall; and, with his co-operation, there was little difficulty in se- curing McCall's endorsement at the caucus of the Story delegation; but the fights in which McCall had been engaged in the county had been such that he did not readily secure the united support of a picked up delegation such as was the one from this county in this case; and, after some scatter- ing ballots, the Boone County one vote for McCall was compensated by a Story County vote for Gillett. who thus was nominated and served for six years, or until he absconded after the failure of his bank at Ogden.
THE NEW COURT HOUSE.
The most important event to the people of the county in this period, however, was the building of the court house. The controversies over the merits of the proposition and the contest over the vote having been disposed of, it having been definitely determined that the court house should be built, it devolved upon the board of supervisors, consisting of John Evanson, Walter Evans and S. I. Shearer, to build the court house. They secured plans from Mr. Foster, an architect of Des Moines, and, after advertising for bids, let the contract inside of the authorized figure of $40,000.00. The contractor is long since forgotten, but it may be said that he did not make any money on the contract, became financially in- volved, and by his insolvency occasioned considerable trouble and some litigation in the final settlement for the work. The actual work of con- struction, however, was not slighted, and the general results to the county were highly satisfactory. The building was set on concrete footings and solidly built so that it has withstood the effects of wear and weather far better than would ordinarily have been expected. The work of excavating for the court house was started in the spring of 1876 and the construction progressed satisfactorily during the summer and autumn months. The inside finishing was done in the winter, and the court room was ready for use at the February Term of the District Court. The dedication of the court house was a matter of much felicitation, and a great crowd was present in the court room for the occasion. Nevada rejoiced, and Ames was present, through competent representatives, to congratulate. This was in the winter of 1877.
While the court house was thus complete and thus occupied and dedi- cated, there was hesitation by the board of supervisors on account of the financial difficulties of the contractor, about formally accepting it, and the wish of the supervisors was not to accept the structure until the settle- ments concerning its erection could be effected. The weather was pretty cold. however, and the county officers, in the old frame court house on what is now the Lockridge residence corner, were not at all comfortable.
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Of course, they had all been candidates for the offices and had been elected to places in the old court house, and they were doubtless pleased with their respective successes ; but, nevertheless, they were not at all satisfied to stay in the old court house and shiver over the hot stove while there were new offices and pleasant quarters to be had in the new building. Also, it was reasoned quite conclusively that the court house was built and that it would be quite impracticable for the contractor, or the contractor's credi- tors, to take the same away. The county had the structure and might as well begin using it; so one by one and without any particular order, save that Mr. Hays as the county auditor and clerk of the board of supervisors had more deference to the supervisorial wish than had the others and was the last, they all moved over ; and Mr. Hays also moved over soon after the rest. Thus the court house was not only built, but occupied, and the people rejoiced over its completion.
THE GLYNDON MURDER CASE.
In this period occurred the trial of Glyndon for the murder of a young girl in Grundy County. The case was brought to Story County for trial upon change of venue, after having been for some time in the courts of counties further east. It was tried here in the fall of 1879, and Glyndon was found guilty and sent to the penitentiary for life. Glyndon always persistently denied his guilt ; but the girl had been met upon the highway, dragged into a field, outraged and murdered, and Glyndon had been in the vicinity. The circumstantial evidence against him was strong, and it was believed by the public, as well as by the jury; although there was a recognized possibility that injustice might have been done him. Glyndon remained in the penitentiary for thirty years, and was then pardoned. Aside from the facts of the trial and conviction and sentence, the general facts known about him were that his name was not Glyndon; that he was a veteran of the Civil War, and that he hailed from Columbiana County, Ohio.
CHAPTER XL.
AFFAIRS IN THE EIGHTIES.
MILWAUKEE AND IOWN CENTRAL.
The early eighties witnessed the construction of two new railroads and the founding of several towns. The railroads were the Chicago, Milwau- kee & St. Paul, which was constructed through the southern part of the county in 1880, and the Story City branch of the Iowa Central, which was constructed through the northern tier of townships in 1882. Both events were very important to the county, but the Milwaukee Railroad, being the greater railroad. as well as a little the earlier of the two, and going through a more generally settled part of the county, was the occasion of the greater interest and perhaps results. The Milwaukee did not ask for the voting of subsidies as had been the case with all the earlier railroads, that were projected but never actually built ; but the Milwaukee at this time was already a very important railroad system having lines in various parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota ; and it was the determination of its management to have a line to connect with the Union Pacific at Omaha ; so the line was put through without very much fuss, and with a view to getting the business of territory that was not convenient to existing trunk lines ; so cast of Tama, a route was chosen at a convenient distance north of the North-Western, and after crossing the North-Western at Tama, the route was continued as seemed most convenient between the North- Western and the Rock Island. Very few towns of importance were found along this route ; but the country was as good as other parts of lowa ; and the plan of securing the shipments for the agricultural belt along the line was quite well considered and successfully executed. The route chosen not only missed large towns; but, in choosing it, very little attention was paid to small towns.
At this time, the principal towns in the southern part of Story County were Iowa Center and Cambridge, and east of the southern part of Story County was Edenville. The road hit Edenville and called it Rhodes. It also hit Cambridge, but it missed lowa Center, and its construction was followed by the location of Collins, Maxwell and Huxley and also Elwell, which never got so good a start as the other towns named. While the railroad management did not ask for subsidies, it was interested in town
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lot speculation, and in the location of most of these towns there was con- siderable of railroad politics. Cambridge had to raise a subscription to get the depot where it wanted the same; and the men who were most prominent in business at Iowa Center cooperated in the location of Max- well and in the purchase of a farm there and the laying out of the town. The nearest towns to the present location of Collins were Clyde and Peoria both of which passed out of consideration after the construction of this railroad, and Collins forthwith became a village and shipping point of greatly increasing consequence. Huxley was from the start a shipping point ; but, as a town, it did not develop until very much later. The cir- cumstance that Palestine Township was divided into independent school districts, and that Huxley was close to the line between two of these dis- tricts and was therefore for a long time unable to get a school, was one of the conditions embarrassing to any hopes there of a rapid growth. This difficulty, however, was in the court of time, overcome; and since the con- struction through there of the Electric Interurban Line, Huxley has been obviously prosperous. Slater was not started until some time later, and was not one of the original Milwaukee towns. Cambridge, as the oldest town, would naturally have prospered most from the coming of the road. and it did prosper in no small measure; but in the days before there was any uniformity about railroad rates, Cambridge was never a favored point of the railroad management; and the advantages which it got were only normal.
The Milwaukee town that was started with the most enthusiasm and grew most rapidly was Maxwell. It was founded by men of business in- fluence and good judgment and large personal and political activity. Also, it was singularly free from quarrels such as were more or less to the em- barrassment of other towns ; and, on a smaller scale, it exemplified, probably better than any other Story County town ever has done, the spirit of sub- lime local confidence that is characteristic of Kansas City, Seattle and Los Angeles. Maxwell from the start was a booming town; its residences were good for the time; its business structures were as well built as could be hoped for; and in Maxwell men that wanted to run for office had the united support of the whole community. So the coming of the Milwaukee offered to the southern part of the county the advantages of towns, good shipping, additional post offices, and all the general benefits that are to be expected from the coming of a good railroad into a fairly developed com- munity.
The Iowa Central Railroad, in contrast with the Milwaukee, was built for the local traffic. It branched from the main line a little north from Marshalltown; but its towns were mostly in Story County. It was not made for a through line; and, although at Story City it might have con- nected with the north and south line of the North-Western, it did not do so, but stopped just a little short; and, in fact, there is no con- nection between the two roads to this day. It was built in 1882, as a local
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road and through townships which in the east half of the county at least, were largely unoccupied. The townships in the county that had been the slowest to settle up were Lincoln and Warren; and though there were a number of fairly developed farms in both townships, there was in neither township anything like a community center ; and, in fact, until the coming of this railroad, there had never been a post office in either township; so Zearing and McCallsburg. (the latter of which sought to be called Latrobe) were the beginnings of towns in their part of the county. Howard Town- ship was, of course, much better settled, and Roland was already a recog- nized inland village; but the development of Howard Township and the number of its people, were then only a suggestion of what may there be found now, and the same is true, in a much greater degree, of Roland. There was a store or two, and there was the Star Route post office ; but, of course, there was no shipping point, and in consequence the village dates distinctly from the coming of the railroad. The other two towns. not having the country about them so well developed. did not pick up as rapidly as did Roland; but Zearing made very good progress. and, after waiting a number of years for the township about it to settle up. McCalls- burg did the same. In later years the two have been fairly rivals for busi- ness and development ; have both had new buildings and numerous fires and the general ups and downs of country towns that have in them fair elements of growth. Story City was already a town of recognized conse- quence before the lowa Central came. The Narrow Gauge, which was afterwards the North-Western, had reached it some five years before; and when the Iowa Central came also, the town had the benefits of competitive transportation and was the first town in the county to secure such compe- tition. Its growth from this time on was steady; and, in the course of years, it has fairly won the place of third. following Nevada and Ames, in improvements and importance in the county. All of the townships trav- ersed by the lowa Central voted five per cent taxes in its aid. While they paid considerable for the railroad, which there has been little disposition of its management to develop beyond the needs of a strictly local service ; yet, it has been worth to them all that it cost and very much more, and has in fact been a condition without which the north part of the county could not have developed at all as it has.
THE COLLEGE RUCTION.
In the fall of 1883. there was a ruction at the Agricultural College. The college at this time was controlled by a board of five trustees, elected by the legislature; and, without there having been any apparent purpose to choose a board antagonistic to President Welch, it came about that at this time there were three trustees who were positively opposed to him, and another who was not especially favorable. President Welch had been at the head of the institution for 14 or 15 years, and had, of course, in this
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time advanced considerably in years. He had considerable private inter- ests that demanded much of his attention. His position was also one in which a man, however well qualified and successful, is bound in time to create troubles for himself, and President Welch, with all his ability and tactfulness, could not be an exception to the rule. He had survived a very serious disturbance some ten years before, when the college had been investigated by a legislative committee, and the conclusion arrived at, that some moneys had been expended without proper authority, but, neverthe- less, under the pressure of urgent necessity. In that controversy, it had been a question whether President Welch or Prof. Jones, who was next to him in the first faculty of the college, should be forced out of the institution, and it had finally been Jones that was forced out. After this determina- tion, matters at the college had moved more smoothly for a long time, and it was not especially apparent that they were running otherwise than smoothly when suddenly President Welch was dismissed by the trustees and Prof. S. A. Knapp, who was at the head of the agricultural part of the institution, was designated as acting-president in his place. President Knapp held the position through the following college year; but his admin- istration was a turbulent one. The political alliances of Pres. Welch in the state were very strong. The sentiment at Ames was much in its favor, although probably local sentiment as to the management of a college is not so important as outside sentiment and influence, and among the alumni he had a general and very devoted support. The consequence was a politi- cal war, which only awaited fair opportunity to become strenuous. When the next general assembly met, there was accordingly a movement to oust the trustees who had dismissed Welch. In the state at large, however, while there had not been a sentiment to demand or particularly suggest dismissal of Pres. Welch, there was a strong sentiment that, he being out and the controversy having been brought on, the best way to settle the matter for the interest of the college, would not be to restore him to his former position. So the matter was adjusted by enlarging the board of trustees, leaving the anti-Welchmen whose terms had not expired, but so in- creasing the number of the board that there should be one from each congressional district. The additional members were named by a caucus of the Republican senators and representatives from the several districts, and the result was a continuance of division in the board. It was there- fore recognized that Welch could not go back, but that Knapp could not continue. A solution satisfactory to both sides was sought, and the choice for the presidency fell upon Leigh Hunt, who was at the time superintend- ent of the East Des Moines schools. He was very successful for the time in playing both sides of the fight. He had, however, no recognized qualifi- cations for the presidency of the institution, was not a college man hin- self, and fell very far short of meeting the requirements of the situation. The Welch and Knapp factions had been reconciled by the appointment of ex-President Welch, as professor of mental science, and the appoint-
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