USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 5
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53
CHAPTER V.
THE NEW COUNTY.
From the discussion of the settlements such as have been noted, the review passes naturally to the organization of the new County, There seems to have been concurrence of action on this subject, for the General Assembly on the 12th day of January authorized the organization. Samuel B. McCall, who was then County Judge of Boone County, and afterwards Captain of Company E of the Third Iowa Infantry, who also, though never a citizen of Story County, figured in the affairs and history of the County probably more than did any other non-resident, and who still lives, or not long ago did live in the Soldiers' Home at Santa Monica, California, was authorized to divide the County into the necessary precincts, for the purpose of holding an election for County purposes; and Commissioners were ap- pointed to locate the County Seat of the new County. The election was held on April 4. 1853, and the County Seat was located on June 27th of the same year. Judge MeCall divided the County into two Townships for the purpose of this election. The eastern half or more of the County being in- cluded in Indian Creek Township, while some confusion of names as to the Western Township seems unnecessarily to have arisen, but probably Skunk River was the name. The fact, however that there was a section of the County willing to be known permanently as Indian Creek, while seemingly. there was no corresponding portion that wanted to be known always by the name of Skunk, has made the difference between one name continuing on the map and the other being relegated to innocuous desuetude. At any rate. the election was held and the settlers in the two utterly separated portions of the County agreed on each side on a slate of candidates and voted for them straight. The one exception to this rule was in favor of John Zenor of the Squaw Creek neighborhood who received the unanimous vote of 04 for Recorder. The result of this election it is worth while to set down in detail. E. C. Evans was elected County Judge by 37 votes to 20 for Adolphus Prouty. Franklin Thompson was elected Clerk by 30 votes to 24 for E. H. Billings. Eli Deal was elected Sheriff by 37 votes to 27 for 1. . N. Alderman. Otho French was elected Surveyor by 31 votes to 19 for Frank- lin Thompson. Shadrick Worrell had the solid West side vote of 35 for Coroner, with no east side opposition. John Keigley was elected School
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
Fund Commissioner by 32 votes against 23 for David Neal. The returns of this election were canvassed by Judge McCall, with the assistance of Adolphus Prouty and James Corbin, Justices of the Peace, and so the new County Government was ready to start.
Under the first constitution of the State of Iowa, which was adopted at the admission of the State in 1846, the County Judge possessed almost autocratic powers with respect to the affairs of his County. There was then no Board of Supervisors, and the revenues of the County were collected and disbursed very much according to the discretion of the County Judge. The election therefore of Evan C. Evans as the first County Judge, was a matter of no small consequence, and was significant of the high degree of confidence entertained for him in the neighborhood where he resided and was known. The salary attached to his office was small, and the first formal record book of the County indicates that he must have done a good deal of work for the compensation he received; but the work he had he attended to faithfully, and the people continued him in office, without regard to political differences, for several years even after political differences had arisen and had come sharply to divide the County, the opposing democrats, who for a time had the majority in the County, were able to keep him out of the office for but a single term, and with the exception of this term, he continued in the office from the beginning of the County until 1865, when he seems to have voluntarily given up the office of County Judge. Doubtless he did this the more readily for the reason that the office had by this time been shorn of very much of its power as the result of the creation of the Board of Supervisors, and he accepted instead the office of County Re- corder.
It was fortunate indeed for the young County that a man of Judge Evans' worth was, in the formative time of the County, put in charge of its affairs. The extent of this fortune is only to be appreciated through comparison of the proceedings in this County with those in other Counties, wherein the County Judges were sometimes chosen, not in the interest of the County but in the interest of the too enterprising individuals who chose them. In the Northwestern part of Iowa, as well as in other states, where considerable tracts of country had been marked off by legislative enact- ments as Counties, and left to the control of whatever individuals should happen first to move into them, either for temporary purposes or of per- manent residence, it very often happened that the County affairs were conducted with a single view to running the County into debt as far as pos- sible and dividing the proceeds among the men running the County. O'Brien and other Counties in North-western Iowa, and any number of Counties in Kansas were the scenes of political enterprises of this order, and when the bona fide settlers really came into such Counties, in the hope of permanent residence and of up-building worthy communities, they found the County organization already made, and the County finances hopelessly involved. In such cases. debts had been contracted for Court Houses that were never
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IHISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
built ; bridges had been ordered, half of the payment for which was to be made when work should be commenced, and the laying of a single stick of timber upon the ground was made the occasion for such payment and marked all there was of the enterprise, except the matter of redeeming the public obligations later on.
But no such scandals pertained to the organization of Story County and to its early administration by Judge Evans. In fact, never in the early organization nor later on, has there been but one defalcation by a County Officer, and, in this case, the loss to be borne by the County was small. To Judge Evans it fell to make the first permanent division of the County into Townships, to secure the carly record books, to contract for the building of the first Court House, and to start the County generally on its way to its present development. The only considerable debt which the County in- curred during the period of his ascendency was the result of the aid voted by the people for the location of the Iowa Agricultural College, and such further obligations as may have been incurred in the securing of enlistments for the War, or the caring for dependent families at home. The record is a splendid one, which shines by comparison with many others, and is fairly typical of the whole story of the County.
One of the first official acts of Judge Evans was to appoint a County Assessor. The office was an elective one, and there is no valid reason why it should not have been filled at the first election of the County in April, 1853. but the simple fact was that the office was forgotten, and no one was voted for to fill it in either Skunk River or Indian Creek Township. There being thus a vacancy, Judge Evans appointed to fill it Stephen P. O'Brien. who had settled in the County as before noted, in the October preceding. and had been present at the election for county organization but had then lacked a few days of being six months in the State. He had therefore not been eligible to vote at that time, but when the occasion came for filling the Assessorship by appointment, he was eligible and was appointed. Mr. O'Brien made the assessment in June of 1853. He says that he was paid $1.50 a day for the work, and the first formal entry in the existing record book of the County Judge is an order marked "No. 1," that Stephen P. O'Brien received $30.00 for services as Assessor of Story County. This record book does not. in its dates, go back to the time of the April election
in '53. and the inference is that the still earlier records, what there were of them, were kept on loose sheets of paper and their whereabouts now, if any of them still exist, would be very hard to determine. But this record, made in October of that year, shows that Mr. O'Brien was credited with twenty-four days work, and his story for it is that he assessed ninety-nine men. Among those whom he assessed on the Western side of the County were Squire M. Corey, Shadrick Worrell, Thomas Vest, John Wheeler, John T. Wheeler, Eli Deal, J. B. Zenor, R. J. Zenor. J. J. Zenor, Jacob Wheeler, John Housong, Michael Deal, James Briley, Samuel Hiestand, John 11.
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Keigley, Nathaniel Jennings, E. C. Evans, William D. Evans, Frank Thompson, Eli French and P. R. Craig.
The foregoing all lived in the part of the county where Mr. O'Brien lived and with which he was familiar, but his jurisdiction extended to the settlements on Indian Creek and eastward, and so he started out afoot to reach his constituents on the other side of the wide, pathless and slough in- terrupted prairie. The first home he reached on this journey was that of J. P. Robinson before mentioned, on the east side of West Indian Creek in the Southern part of Nevada Township. Proceeding South and East, his next stop, and the only one on the West side of East Indian, was with Elisha Alderman. Crossing the East Indian, he visited the two Pearsons, two Proutys, Geo. Dye, W. K. Wood, William Parker, James Sellers, the two Brouhards, W. W. Utterback and Sam McDaniel. The last named he met on the prairie and McDaniel told him that he was going to Newton to get two doctors to examine the body of Mrs. Lowell, who had died very suddenly and was believed to have been murdered by her husband. Con- tinuing on his circuit, he visited the Lowell cabin on the West side of East Indian, across the Creek from the McDaniel farm, and assessed Lowell, and found Lowell there. Lowell had not yet been arrested but was expect- ing that he soon would be; and, in fact, O'Brien, on his way home across the prairie, met Sheriff Zenor and Coroner Deal on their way to make the arrest.
THE FIRST MURDER.
Story County has been fortunate in not having very many murder cases, but of such cases as it has had, the most revolting appears to have been the first one. This was the case already referred to, wherein Barnabas Lowell was believed to have murdered his wife. Further developments did not in any wise remove the first impression. The essential fact of the matter seems to have been that Lowell tired of his wife and choked her to death. Lowell, as before noted, was one of the following of Sam McDaniel. Associated with the two was a young man named Billings, whom McDaniel had met in Jasper County and brought home, and who married McDaniel's sister. Lowell seems to have followed Billings to the neighborhood and brought with him his family, consisting of his second wife and two practically grown girls. Lowell crossed the creek and built his cabin in the edge of the timber on the east side, on a farm which, for many years, has been the property of John M. Wells.
The first person, outside the Lowell family, to be advised that anything was wrong, was Mrs. Mary Hague, a widow who had that Spring moved into the Country and established herself, for the time being, a little North of the Lowell cabin. She had been preceded by her son, Isaac, and was accom- panied by her son-in-law, S. Harvey Dye. as well as by the younger children ; and her family have been more or less prominent and always highly es- teemed in the vicinity since. One of the Lowell girls came over on Sunday
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
night and urged Mrs. Hague's immediate attention, as her mother was very ill. Mrs. Hague responding, found the woman dead. The circumstances immediately aroused suspicion, for there was no apparent reason for the woman's death, and she had been quite well when the family dined that day at the McDaniel cabin. Furthermore, there was about her neck a coarse handkerchief, which Lowell refused to have removed, and his whole atti- turde was that of one who did not want the body to be examined by Mrs. Hlague or any of the other neighbors who had in the meantime come in. The body was buried in what was known as the Mount Cemetery on the McDaniel's farm; but the neighbors were not satisfied, and, as noted, Mc- Daniel went to Newton for doctors, and the doctors, when they came, found plenty of evidence of foul play. The Lowell girls, when matters had pro- gressed far enough so that they dared to tell something of what they knew. in spite of their father's threats, related how he had shut the door between the two compartments of the Lowell cabin, and had refused to let them come in, notwithstanding the very great disturbance in the room where he and his wife were. There were sounds as of striking, choking and struggling, but Lowell was a man of much strength and the struggle did not last very long. It was also said by the girls that their own mother, Lowell's former wife, had (lied under similar circumstances in Ohio; and it seems not to be doubted that Lowell was a man of Bluebeard disposition, who married women as he had opportunity and felt inclined, and disposed of them when weary of them.
The County at this time was organized, but had not yet had a term of District Court. There were Justices of the Peace, however, and Squire J. P. Robinson held the preliminary examination over the Lowell case. The examination was held at the house of a Mr. Heald, and it is said that Lowell lay upon the bed and threatened those who testified against him. He was reputed to have been a pirate in his earlier years, and he carried a sheath knife on his leg. There was consequently no great anxiety to testify against him; but the case was clear and there was no disposition on the part of any to let such a malefactor go. There is indeed a story that has oft been told. although probably not true ; but it is so much a part of the early traditions of the County that it must be recorded here: The story is that Squire Robin- son, when he reached the conclusion of the case, became confused as to his jurisdiction as an examining magistrate and proceeded to sentence Lowell, as being an undoubted murderer, to be hanged. Whether the story is merely one of the sort that people in any new Country delight to tell on each other. or was really with some foundation, the preliminary examination was not followed by summary proceedings, but Lowell was sent to Des Moines to jail to await the action of the Grand Jury.
The district judge for this District was at the time William Mckay of Des Moines. He convened a special term of Court for Story County to attend to Lowell's case, and the Court was held in September, at the home of Judge Evans, on the west edge of Milford Township, in the Bloomington neighborhood. The Grand Jury was empaneled, and it appears as a slightly
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
remarkable coincidence. cha: Squire J. P. Robinson, who had presided at the preliminary examination, and bas so biten claimed to have sentenced Lowell to te hung. was foreman of the grand jury. Other members of the grand jury were Samuel Hiestand. John H. Keigley. William D. Evans. Nathaniel Jennings. David Wilkinson. Jeremiah Corey. William K. Wood. Hiram Vin- cent. David B. Neal. Judiab Ray. Horace Heald. Ichn G. Sellers. Jennings Wilkinson and John Zenor. The bailiff was Wiliam Arrasmith, and the court officers. aside from Judge Mckay, were Frank Thompson as cler's : El: Deal. as sheriff : and W. W. Wilkinson of Des Moines as district at- torney. This was the first term of district court in the county, and it was a very short term, lasting. we think. for only one day. and certainly no: more than two days. An indictment for murder was very promptly rerummed. bu: Lowell. who had made considerable trouble while being brought up from Des Moines for arraignment. was possibly able to guess that if the same parties who had conducted the preliminary examination and served on the Grani Jury. should also constitute the trial jury. their minds as to his case mould probably be quite well made up. and he represented to the court that the people of Story County were prejudiced against bim, and petitioned for a change of veste. This change was granted, and accordingly, the case was transferred to Polk County, where Lowell was subsequently tried, found galley of murder and sentenced to state prison for life. Just why his crime was not considered to have been sufficiently brutal to warrant capital purist- ment. we have never seen explained. but such explanation might be called Hor as to many criminal cases in later years, and this historian will have to Let it go that Lowell Pared about as have many other murderers, whose de- kerts might have entitled them to more summary punishment. Lovell died in the penitentiary basile of three years, and the incident may be closed with the suggestion that his orphan girls grew up and married. and were mell thought of motwithstanding their father's infamy.
One important incident of the board at Jarige Evans, near Blooming - the main business of which was the indictment df Lowell and the granting to him of a change of venue to Polk County, was that Se settlers on Indian Creek ani eastward. made their Ers in any numbers to the west sille of the county. In doing this. they opened a trail across the prairie, which trait appears to have been well selected. and was the main route bf travel for the increasing traffic between the two neighborhoods for a long time thereafter. This court therefore hall a permanent effect in bringing the timo sections of the county into more definite relations with the other. even though as met the county seat was daly a piece of land that bad been selected by the commis- stoters appointed for the purpose of such selection. but had not yet been badly mort house of cabin of even a shanty.
THE COUNTY SEAT.
As before noted. the legislature of :553 appointed o
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JHISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
Thrift of Boone County; Johnson Edgar of Jasper County: and Thomas Mitchell of Polk County. The last named of the three was the one who, in after years and probably then, was the best known of any of the three in the state, but he was detained at home by illness in his family, and did not, in fact, have anything to do with the location of the new county seat. Messrs. Thrift and Edgar, however, attended. according to such appointment as be- fore mentioned. on the 27th day of June. 1853; and a large portion of the adult male population of the county, as well as some strangers looking for opportunities for investment, were present watching the proceedings.
The commissioners looked the country over in the vicinity of the center of the county, and for reasons which appeared good to them, finally made the choice of the east half of the northwest quarter and the west half of the northeast quarter. both in Section 7. Township 83, Range 22, west of the Fifth Principal Meridian. Having made this selection of a site, the next thing was to choose a name. Mr. Thrift has been a "Forty-niner" in California. and in his journey across the continent had greatly admired the Sierras Nevada; so he proposed to his colleague that they name the new town Nevada. Mr. Edgar readily agreed and no one else objecting, the name was determined. This event, be it noted, was all of ten years antecedent to the naming of the state of Nevada for the same mountains, and any suggestion therefore that the name of the county seat of Story County was taken from that of a decadent mining camp on the borders of the great American desert. is without foundation. If one political division coukl be imputed to be named for the other. it woukl be the state for the county seat ; but, as a matter of fact, both were named for the mountains, and the county seat does not even have to accept responsibility for the unpromising state.
The county seat having been located. and all the territory there about be- ing government land. it became the duty of Judge Evans, as the general ad- ministrator of the county, to enter the land with the government in the name of the county, and obtain possession thus of the town plat ; but Judge Evans appears to have been a little slow in the matter, and a Des Moines speculator named Jenkins W. Morris, presumably getting information of the action of the commissioners, entered the land on the ist of July, and thus put matters in a position to drive a bargain with the county. He was not. however. in position to drive an especially hard bargain ; for there was plenty of prairie soil about ; and if too much annoyance were to be occasioned. the commission- ers might perhaps be again called together and a new county seat determined upon ; so Judge Evans and Mr. Morris reached a compromise, in accordance with which Mr. Morris conveyed the land to the county, and the two eighty acre tracts were platted into the original town of Nevada. Later, the judge. on behalf of the county, conveyed back to Morris one-third of the lots in the town plat. Undoubtedly, this transaction in time yielded to Morris a liberal profit on his speculation, but town lots were not then very valuable. There was nobody here that was ready to move onto one of them, and he had to wait for some time before he could dispose of his hoklings.
T. E. ALDERMAN The Founder of Nevada
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
Following the location of the county seat, and pending the conclusion of the deal with Morris, the town site was platted by Mr. Barnard, a surveyor of Polk County, in 49 blocks, three separate half blocks being reserved for public uses. These three half blocks were the north half of the present court house block : the north half of the present city park, and the east half of the block immediately southwest of the court house block. The last named was the original court house block, on which in due season and as soon as the county judge could, in the following season, make the necessary arrangements, there was erected the first court house. The other two half blocks, one of them north of the slough and the other south of it, became the centers about which gathered the local business interests, whose rivalries divided the town for many years, with disastrous results that have been al- ready noted and will be further enlarged upon. Just why the people who were conducting this business did not put their two half blocks of reserva- tion for general uses, both on the same block, and have the town about that block, we have never seen explained ; but in these two "squares," there were seeds of discord which were destined to propagate, and the sowing of which creates the only occasion that we know of for a grudge by the later generation against the original founders of the town.
THE FIRST INHABITANT.
Among the strangers, who were present when the commissioners located the county seat, was Theodore E. Alderman. He was then not quite 28 years of age, had been farming in Lee County for two or three years, and had there his wife and oldest son, Oscar B. He had found it desirable, owing to the condition of his eye sight, to seek indoor occupation ; so he made a trip into the central part of the state to pick out a location for a mercantile business, and, learning of the plan to designate a county seat for Story County, he came with the commissioners and the crowd to watch the proceeding. Approving of the location, and being convinced by the ap- pearance of the country and its people that there was here a good business opportunity, he determined at once to come to Nevada and estab- lish here a general store for the pioneer trade. He was here again at the first sale of lots, in the following September, and he then secured two lots at the west end of the south half of what is now the court house block, and engaged Squire Robinson to haul logs for his first cabin. This cabin was erected as speedily as possible, and as nearly as can be told, it was on the site that is now marked by a monument in the southwestern portion of the court house grounds. The monument bears the inscription, "Nevada founded here October 11, 1853, by T. E. and Hannah Alderman." It was on the date here indicated that Mr. Alderman and his little family actually occupied the primitive home, which was the first structure of any sort erected on the town site of Nevada. The cabin was 16x20 feet, and within a few weeks, another room of the same size was added on the west side. Vol. 1-4
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HISTORY OF STORY COUNTY
In this building Mr. Alderman and family spent the following winter of 53 and '54 as the only residents of Nevada, having there their home, his store and the necessary hotel accommodations for the wayfarer when the same had to be afforded.
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