USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 50
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GRINDEM MURDER CASE.
The one murder trial of this decade in the county was that of J. R. Grindem of Roland, for the murder of a man named Lloyd. Lloyd was a
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drunken painter, who seemed to make it a practice to abuse all the people around him and make a general nuisance of himself, and finally he suc- ceeded in so provoking Grindem's wrath that the latter went to his room and punched his head. Lloyd's skull happened to be thin, and he died from the effects of the punch. Upon the trial, Judge Hindman presided and was manifestly of the opinion that the case was one of manslaughter, and the jury followed in their verdict the judge's evident bias. Grindem was sent to the penitentiary ; but he appealed his case and secured a new trial. Upon the second trial, Judge Weaver presided, and the final verdict was that Grindem was guilty of assault ; and the judge imposed a fine of $25.00. As the case came to be understood, there was much sympathy for Grindem, who manifestly had intended nothing but to make Lloyd stop his noise, which was disturbing all of the occupants of the hotel where the affair occurred.
STORY COUNTY IN THE SPANISH WAR.
In the Spanish War of 1898, Story County was represented, as nearly as we can make out. by about two dozen privates and non-commissioned officers, one Second Lieutenant and one Brigadier General. After the Maine had been blown up, and the Board of Inquiry had reported that the explosion destroying it had come from the outside, the already sufficiently perturbed public feeling concerning Spanish misrule in Cuba swelled into national resentment against Spain for wanton outrage upon a visiting American Man-of-war. Upon the declaration of war the State of lowa was called upon for three regiments of infantry, and two batteries of artillery. This requisition did not conform to the organization of the lowa National Guard, which consisted of four regiments of infantry, and there was much difficulty about a readjustment. it being felt on all sides that justice to the National Guard entitled its members to constitute the nucleus of the Iowa quota for the volunteer service. After much insistence, therefore, the order of the war department was changed and the two batteries were dispensed with, and lowa was given four Regiments of Infantry. The National Guard Regiments were officered up to the limit of the regular army organi- zation ; but they were far below the regular service in number of enlisted men, and also many of the officers and men were unable to pass the required examination for the volunteer service, while others were detained at home by sufficient responsibilities. So there was fair opportunity for the young men in Story County who wanted to serve their country in the fiekl to secure admission to the various companies and regiments of the National Guard, but, in doing so, they became parts of the organization of com- panies, previously officered, and had substantially no opportunity to become company officers in the time that the war lasted. The four regiments of the National Guard had been numbered One, Two, Three and Four, but in numbering them for the United States service, it was very appropriately decided to number on from the last regiment of the Civil War, which
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was the Forty-eighth Infantry; so the four regiments of the Spanish War became the Forty-ninth, Fiftieth, Fifty-first, and Fifty-second Iowa In- fantry Regiments. These regiments represented generally the four quarters of the state; but Story County, having no company of its own, its represen- tatives enlisted as indicated, and, according to our information, the county had some representation in each regiment. The larger number appear to have drifted, however, into Company F of the Fifty-second. This company hailed from Algona, and it happened that its Orderly Sergeant was known around Colo, while its acting orderly had been in school at the State College at Ames. Accordingly the volunteers from the east side of the county joined this company because of their acquaintance with one sergeant ; and the bunch of college students who had planned to be in one of the batteries and who were left without an organization when the batteries were dis- pensed with, joined the same company because of their acquaintance with the other sergeant. Others from the county, however, for one reason or another went into other organizations.
It is somewhat notable from this circumstance, that Story County should have had the only Brigadier General that was appointed from Iowa for the volunteer service in this war; but the appointment was made upon merit and upon the practically unanimous insistence of the military organization in the state. The officer thus honored was Gen. James Rush Lincoln, In- structor in Military Tactics at the Iowa State College. Gen. Lincoln has always been, both by talent and inclination, a soldier. A Virginian by birth, he had just graduated from the Pennsylvania Military School at Chester when the Civil War broke out; and, although a boy too young to receive a commission, he commanded a company in the Rebel army virtually from his enlistment to the close of the service, attaining in time his rank of captain, and being many times wounded in the service. After the war he came north, lived for a number of years in Boone County, where he was Deputy County Treasurer, and from the middle Eighties he has been in charge of the military department of the State College at Ames. From the time of its organization, he has been identified with the Iowa National Guard, serving in various ranks from captain to brigadier general, the lat- ter being his present rank. Although at the outbreak of the Spanish war, he was holding only the staff position of inspector general in the organiza- tion, his standing in the same was such as to make him distinctly Iowa's choice for Brigadier General in the volunteer army. Accordingly he was appointed by President McKinley and served as such during the war. The General also had three sons in the war; Chas. Lincoln, who had for some three years been an enlisted man in the Second Infantry Regulars, was ap- pointed a Lieutenant in the 24th U. S. Infantry at the beginning of the war. Also Francis Lincoln was a sergeant in the Fifty-first, served with that regiment in the Philippines, and in 1899 became a lieutenant in the United States Cavalry Volunteers. Arthur Lincoln served with the Fifty- second.
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Of the Story County youth who volunteered under the usual conditions of the service for the Spanish War, we are able to get the names of the following :
Forty-ninth Infantry: C. H. Pasley. Maurice Pearl. H. E. Burkhart. Fiftieth Infantry : Will Spencer.
Fifty-second Infantry : J. R. Larson, Ray Wortman, Frank Underwood. Jerry Fleming, Chas. Fleming, "Bruff" Lewis, Clyde Graves, Franz Wag- ner. Helland, Enge, Whitehead and Arthur Lincoln.
Others who did not then reside in the county, but have since been iden- tified here, were H. B. Craddick. IT. E. Hadley and Cloyd Hockensmith.
The only contribution of the county to the mortuary list of the war was Milo Corbin, who was serving in the Regular Cavalry, died in the service. and is buried at Johnson's Grove.
Of the volunteers in the service, those in the Forty-ninth got as far as Cuba, where they did police duty after the war. The Fiftieth stopped in Florida, and the Fifty-second was held in camp at Chickamauga. The Fifty-first, which went to the Philippines and saw the most service, had, as noted, but a single representative from this county. The only representa- tive of the county who was credited with smelling gun powder at San- tiago, was Chas. Lincoln, who received honorable mention at San Juan Hill. A former resident of the county, who saw service in the war, was Albert Mccarthy, who had just graduated from the Naval Academy at Annapolis. Out of these facts and the general history of the war, it is not possible to make any story of notable military service by the Story County contingent : but the fact is that every one of the boys enlisted with the expectation of serving his country according to its needs, and they all took their chances of the service. These chances proved, indeed, to be considerable with re- spect to the Fifty-second, which camped at Chickamauga, where typhoid fever became prevalent and was a much more serious matter to contend with than either Spanish or Philippine fire arms ; and the fact that the war closed before the active military services of the volunteers were re- quired in the field, was due to the inability of the Spaniards to offer effec- tive opposition to Shafter's Army, and not to any reluctance or hesitation of any of the Iowa boys to render all the service that the government would permit them to render. They took the chance as did their predecessors in 1861 and 1862, and were fortunate that the chance proved not so serious.
CHAPTER XLIII.
POLITICS IN THE NINETIES.
The politics of this decade hardly seems as notable in a local sense as it had been in previous years. As before noted, Captain Hull got started in congress at the beginning of the decade and remained in congress through the whole of that decade and the whole of the next one. Owing to the agreement between Boone and Story Counties for the alternation of the senatorship, the senatorial politics had become simplified. In 1891, Mir. McCall was presented unanimously by Story County and was nominated and elected, thus attaining a position for which he had often been urged. The honor came to him, however, when he could no longer get from it a just measure of enjoyment ; for his health was failing, and he died in the summer following his first session as senator. The convention to nominate his successor was held rather unexpectedly ; and the Story County Repub- lican Committee being called together named a delegation in the interest of its chairman, H. C. Boardman, whose candidacy was accepted by Boone County and he was elected and represented the county in the following session.
In 1895, the senatorship went, by common consent, to Boone County. which agreed upon C. J. A. Erickson. Mr. Erickson served his term very satisfactorily, and was after a four year interval returned to the senate for another term. In 1899, the nomination was again conceded to Story County. which presented J. A. Fitchpatrick, and he was also nominated and elected. returning for his second term after the second term of Senator Erickson.
Judicial matters during this period had also become less sensational, the truth being that the arrangement to nominate three judges at once was more favorable to effective combinations and easy nominations than was the old one of nominating one judge in one convention and having a big scrap among the candidates from many counties for the one nomina- tion. In 1891, Judge Stevens resigned under circumstances which made it practicable for Governor Boies to appoint the only Democratic judge that has served in the district since the retirement of Judge McFarland in the middle fifties. Boies appointed N. B. Hyatt of Webster City, who served until the republicans in 1892 could nominate and elect Ben P. Birdsall of Wright County to supersede him. In 1894, Weaver, Hindman and Birdsall were all renominated at Webster City, although Story and Marshall Coun-
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ties sought to open up a contest for Hindman's place. These three judges served without any death or resignation for their full term, at the end of which in 1898, the convention was held in Iowa Falls, where Weaver and Birdsall were again nominated by acclamation, and J. R. Whitaker of Boone was nominated as the third judge, in spite of the efforts of Story County to secure the place for G. W. Dyer. During this time, Marshall County had tired of its relations with the Eleventh District and had been set off into another district with Tama and Benton Counties.
The county had several representatives during this decade. In 1891, the nomination was given to A. I .. Stuntz, who lived near the county line, west of State Center, he being a quite representative farmer, and he was renominated over some active opposition in 1893. In 1895, the represen- tative was J. F. Reed, who had served two terms successfully as county superintendent and been chairman of the Republican County Committee. He was an active politician, and after one term in the General Assembly. he became an agent in the United States Revenue Service, where he has since remained. In 1897, he was succeeded in the legislature by W. J. Veneman, who was nominated in a lively primary fight over F. C. McCall. and was renominated, without opposition in 1899.
The county politics of the decade began with the adoption of a two term rule, following the ruction of 1889. The big fight of the convention of 1890 was for County Clerk, for which place C. M. Morse of Maxwell was ultimately the winner, and H. C. Duea of Roland was easily nominated for Recorder, as was also M. P. Webb of Slater for County Attorney. In 1891. there was a fight over many nominations, the old set of officers having voluntarily retired. A. P. King received his second term as Auditor, without opposition : but T. J. Miller, for Treasurer; O. G. Ashford, for Sheriff ; and J. F. Reed for Superintendent, were nominated after strenu- ous contests. The convention of 1892 was characterized by the renomina- tion of second termers, and in 1893, the principal contest was for Represen- tative, resulting in Stuntz' renomination.
In 1894, there was another fight along the line. The men who had been nominated in 1890 on the two-term platform did not yield readily to the rule under which they had been first nominated, and they put up a fight to break the rule. There were numerous other candidates, however, and the old officers were eventually thrown out. The new ticket included Chas. Hamilton, of Ames, for Clerk: D. M. Grove of Nevada, for Auditor ; Anfin Ersland, of Cambridge for Recorder; and F. D. Thompson of Ne- vada, for County Attorney. In 1895. there was the last big convention fight in the county. Reed was nominated over a field of candidates for rep- resentative : Henry T. Henryson, for Treasurer ; and Geo. W. Phillips for County Superintendent. A. K. Banks was able to return to the Sheriff's Office, where he had served eight years previously and been out eight years and was now to serve for four more; and the convention made a joke of the coronership by nominating Harry Hazlett of Collins; also the conven-
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tion wrote the word "finis" to the most interesting matters of the Conven- tion History of the County by adopting the primary rule for subsequent nominations.
The first county primary was held in 1896, but did not arouse anything like the interest which, in later years, has characterized republican primaries in the county, nor did any of its successors until 1899. The main fight in 1896, was for County Attorney, the nomination for which was won by D. J. Vinje over E. H. Addison and A. L. Bartlett. In 1897, was the Veneman-McCall fight for Representative; and in 1898 was the contest of the three Johns for Supervisor. They were John Evanson, John Twedt and John Johnson. All three were representative Norwegians of high standing, and they were disputing for the place on the board which was con- ceded to the Norwegian element of the party. Evanson had been super- visor years before when the court house was built. Johnson was ending two terms of very exceptionally capable service upon the board, and Twedt was a new man looking for his share of political honor. They divided the vote well between them, but Twedt was nominated. In 1899, the primary system got its best start in the county, with some real fights and more gen- eral interest than had ever previously been manifested, and with the result of getting out a little larger vote than has ever since been polled at a pri- mary election in the county, the total being very nearly 4,000 votes. There were four candidates for senatorial endorsement; Fitchpatrick and Boardman; Nelson and Greeley, all four of whom had or have at one time or another, served in the General Assembly from the county. They were together able to divide the county into its four most definite parts ; viz., two parts of Nevada and of the parts of the county likely to go with Nevada : one of Ames, and one of the Norwegians. It was a record- breaking fight, and Fitchpatrick won over Greeley by 33 votes, while Boardman was ten ahead of Nelson for third place. Hardly less strenuous were the fights for Treasurer. Sheriff and Superintendent, which resulted in the nomination of Geo. A. Klove for Treasurer ; H. R. Boyd, as a dark horse, for Sheriff, and Fred E. Hansen for Superintendent.
The great political event of all this decade, however, was the McKin- ley campaign of 1896. It was a campaign in which the people of the county engaged with a fair share of the uncertainties of the opening scenes and with proportionate strenuousness later, and enthusiasm at the close. lowa had supported Allison for the Republican nomination for president. but had accepted Mckinley with readiness. The Democrats, on the other hand, were very largely of the Free-Silver variety; and when Bryan was nomi- nated, following his speech on the "Cross of Gold," they rallied to him with great enthusiasm. At the same time, those Republicans who had been (lisposed to favor independent movements at one time or another were im- pressed, as were their fellows elsewhere over the country, with the idea that the proper remedy for the existing national distress was in the cheapen- ing of the money rather than in the restoration of the system of the protec- Vol. I-29
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tive tariff. The question as to what was the matter became a vital and personal one with a very large number of voters; and in the early stages of the campaign, those who were ordinarily looked to as sources of political information, found themselves more fully occupied than had ever been the case in their lives before. It was a time when almost anyone who could and would talk, could draw a crowd; for people were generally wanting light on the subject under discussion. Even if they were not doubtful in their own general position, they were looking for arguments with which to fortify themselves or to make a better impression upon other persons in their own disputations. The summer was a good one, not too hot to be comfortable, and warm enough to make the shady side of the street a pleas- ant place ; the prevailing standard of industrial and business activity was not such as to require the undivided attention of a great many of the people ; and there was therefore time, as well as disposition, for the argumentation.
The speaking campaign started before state committees could arrange for it; and in Nevada, the earliest large meetings were addressed by Editor Lafe Young and Major Conger. In September the principal Republican rally at Ames was addressed by Congressman Lacey, and in October, what was intended as the leading Republican rally of the season for the county seat and county was held at Nevada, and was addressed by Mr. L. M. Shaw of Denison, Congressman Hull and Nat Coffin of Des Moines. The participation of Mr. Shaw in this rally was a matter of considerable politi- cal importance in its net results. Mr. shaw was new in the political field, and had never made a political speech until this campaign. Further the speeches which he had made in this campaign had, for the most part, been in out-of-the-way places; and the one speech which he had made in the Mckinley tent at Des Moines was delivered on a rainy night when the at- tendance was very small; so it came about that his first real chance for a notable public effort was afforded him at Nevada, where some friends and favoring circumstances had secured him this opening. He came with the expectation on the part of many that his speech would be good, but with- out there being any general interest save in the campaign itself, as to which there was all the interest that there was any occasion for. He began speaking in the opera hall at half past nine, after the crowd had had a torch light parade and an hour's speech by Congressman llull ; and it is to be recorded that at eleven o'clock, he still had all the crowd that could occupy the seats and stand in the aisles, still calling for more. It was a speech full of information and argument ; and, after many years of obser- vation and experience, it is still the editor's opinion that this was the best political argument that he ever listened to from anybody. Before Shaw's speech was ended men sitting on the platform had resolved to help him politically when they should get a chance ; and so when, in the following year, he became unexpectedly a candidate for Governor, Story was the first county in the state, away from his own, to rally to his support, and so to
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give him the standing which he needed to get started in his fight; but this is running ahead of the story.
The striking feature of the 1896 campaign was the general participation of the people in the argument ; and so far as the county seat was concerned the argument continued through the last half of July and the month of August ; until finally some one threw a bucket of water from the top of a business building onto the crowd; and somehow after that, the ardor of the discussion appeared to be dampened. The truth was that the people had had enough. They had found out where they stood; and it was all over but the shouting, which continued with increasing enthusiasm up to the end and culminated on election night in the most enthusiastic after- election demonstration ever witnessed in Story County or anywhere else.
Referring more particularly to the Shaw candidacy for Governor in 1897, besides his political speech before mentioned, Mr. Shaw had been the principal speaker at the dedication of the Methodist church in Nevada, and he had been two or three times a delegate from this conference to the Methodist General Conference ; so he had more acquaintances in the county than his speech alone would have accounted for ; but the controlling fact in the county was the disposition to get behind a public man who had talked for the gold standard of currency as clearly and directly as he had talked ; so when Governor Drake dropped out of the canvass for renomination, and the field was opened to the field of new candidates, after the Story Delegation to the State Convention had been elected, conditions were favor- able for an effective movement in the county in Shaw's behalf. After Shaw's nomination and election, therefore, Story County had the satisfac- tion of being generally regarded as the county which had been foremost in bringing out a successful dark-horse governor. It would be difficult to point out, in Mr. Shaw's after career in the governorship and in the treas- ury department at Washington, any notable recognition of the service so opportunely rendered to him; but his friends in the county had the satis- faction of having rendered the service, and of having thereby assisted to his high position a statesman who, in such position, was a most conspicuous exemplar of the financial and tariff policies which the county has habitually supported.
CHAPTER XLIV.
THE LAST DECADE.
The last decade of Story County History and the first of the Twentieth Century may fairly be said to be the one in which the people of Story County have come into their own. In this decade there has been very much more gain in wealth and in the general improvement of the county than in any similar period before. The value of the farms has, in this decade, substantially doubled ; and the general success of farming as a business has been without precedent in this part of the country. The situation has con- trasted sharply with that of pioneer days, when such wealth as there was was mostly in the towns, and the occupants of the farms were generally a struggling class of people. In these latter days, the farmers who have owned their own farms, have gained very rapidly and obviously in wealth and have expended their gains freely in the improvement of their proper- ties; whereas, towns have been dealing with less favorable conditions- among them, the inequitable taxation of money and credits, and the tax ferret law, the former of which has now been modified and the latter repealed. What the farms have lost in the decade has been largely the result of successful tenants moving to other states where they were able to buy land of their own, while the towns have lost from well-to-do people moving to California and elsewhere with a view to escaping burdensome taxation ; nevertheless, the towns have visibly improved.
CITIES AND TOWNS.
In the fore part of the decade, this was truer of Ames than of Nevada or perhaps any other town. As has been previously noted, Ames had pro- gressed notably during the prior decade, its progress beginning with the construction of the Ames and College Railroad and being followed a, soon as practicable with the construction of water works and electric light plant by the city and by the extension of the city limits to include the college. It was not until near the close of that decade, however, that there occurred the first fire at the main building of the college, which fire was followed after a time by the manifestly incendiary burning of the rest of the old main building. The dormitories of the college being thus destroyed, the
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