USA > Iowa > Wapello County > History of Wapello County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 41
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His efforts in organization and his knowledge of drills and regulations, secured for Mr. Wyman the captaincy in 1884. He continued as commander- in-chief of the company for a number of years. Howard L. Hedrick, another militia enthusiast, who now resides in Des Moines, was first lieutenant. L. M. Powers was second lieutenant, and Harry Field, quartermaster sergeant.
The company was not organized and established in time for the encamp- ment of 1884, but the next year found the guardsmen on deck with colors flying. Drill regulations were not materially different from those of the present day. The militiamen then, however, did not have the wardrobe of the present soldiers. He had but the one suit, the blue dress uniform of today. His equipment of course was not so adequate nor was his rifle so ingenious and deadly as the present gun.
Company G has held its own all through the thirty years. Its members have always been in the front rank in all contests at encampments, in shoot- ing and in fact everything that is a qualification of a good and efficient company.
The condition of the people of Cuba and Spain's treatment of them became intolerable to the civilized world in 1898 and when the Maine, a United States naval vessel was sunk in the harbor of Havana in February of that year, President William Mckinley declared war against Spain. To make up Iowa's quota of the troops called for Company G, Second Regiment National Guards, was ordered into camp at Des Moines, where its members were put through a rigid physical examination. The second then became the Fiftieth Regiment and was sent to Camp Cuba Libre, at Jacksonville, Florida, there to prepare for foreign service. The regiment got no further but remained in the Southern camp until September, when it was ordered home and mustered out of the United States service.
The regiment was reorganized in 1899, as the Fifty-fourth and Frank W. Eckers was elected captain. He was followed in command of the com- pany by William R. Armstrong, who was in turn succeeded by Captains Eugene B. Hill, Cyrus Coughlan, Edward J. Rosenaur, and by the present commandant, Clarence E. Schamp, who received his commission February 24, 1908. Its first lieutenant is Frank B. Younkin ; second lieutenant, Oscar B. Nelson.
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Company G's headquarters are in the armory on the corner of Fourth and Market streets, which was built by the Turner Society and long known as the Turner Hall. The building went into the hands of an Eastern capi- talist and was sold at sheriff's sale in 1906, Company G making the purchase for $9,000. The building is a brick, stanchly built, but when secured by Company G was practically a shell. To put it in proper shape for the pur- poses intended, about ten thousand dollars additional was expended on the property.
Below is given the roster of Company G, Fiftieth Regiment, Iowa National Guards, as mustered into the United States volunteer service, and under command of Colonel Douglas V. Jackson :
Frank W. Eckers, captain ; Theo A. Stoessel, first lieutenant ; Charles S. Tindell, second lieutenant ; William R. Armstrong, first sergeant ; M. G. Holt, quartermaster sergeant ; Alex G. Kasparson, Leroy Christie, William D. Summers, Alvin J. Crail, sergeants ; Roy J. Cook, Albert V. Lindell, Eugene B. Hill, Jr., William F. Bickley, Charles Brown, Edward Steller, Grant I. Emery, Saml Manro, George W. Blanche, George H. Elliott, Mernie S. Ballagh, John H. Wright, corporals; Joseph Hayes, Otto Armstrong, musi- cians; William T. Smith. artificer ; Ivory H. Cook, wagoner.
Privates-Bartlett J. Byron, Emerson E. Barnum, John H. Bitters, Charles S. Boughner, Frank M. Burr, E. W. Bell, D. T. Blair, Richard J. Burke, John E. Black, John W. Bowser, William L. Brown, Patsey Burns, C. N. Bennett, Valva Caswell, John Curran, William F. Compton, Dean K. Church, Frank Cullen, Harvey A. Davis, Harvey A. Dubrava, Albert Devolt,. Richard E. Edwards, Foster R. Ellis, Roscoe Emery, Robert Frost, Chaun- cey A. Graves, Oscar A. Grube, August Goetz, George W. Harward, Bert D. Higgins, William A. Hobbs, Eugene F. Hedrick, Norman E. Harris, Wil- liam P. Hobbs, Robert Heddleston, Wallace E. Johnson, Andrew M. John- ston, Taylor Johnston, Harry Jobe, Jesse Kennedy, J. Elliott Langford, Rob- ert W. Lowe, Harvey Lenhart, Charles B. Lievsay, John Lumbert, M. M. H. Mitchell, Thomas Mungoven, Charles F. Moore, Charles E. Moore. Luncy C. Odam, Alva A. Parker, Fred W. Parker, Charles S. Pickett, Elijah K. Pirtle, Foster T. Paris, Elsworth R. Pounds, Walter J. Phelps, Albert D. Penny, Merit V. Rolison, John T. Riordan, Allen B. Riordan, Henry Richter, Charles U. Scott, Harry M. Simmons, Edward O. Smith, Robert Stribling, Claude Sweinehart, Sam A. Souder, Nate L. Sunley, Isaac L. Stone, Charles E. . Streepy, Harold R. Stapp, John J. Snyder, Cyrus S. Turner, John C. Trease, Ed A. Trowbridge, Otis T. Terrell, George H. Webb, Herbert K. Wheelock, John D. White, Guy J. Winslow, William W. Williams, Stewart White.
The company lost three of its boys by death, which was superinduced by typhoid fever. Two died while in camp at Jacksonville, Florida-Joseph Hayes and Oscar A. Grube. C. N. Bennett contracted the malady while in
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camp in Jacksonville and succumbed to the disease after his return to Ottumwa.
FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT BAND
This musical organization came into being in July, 1869, under the name of Schwabkey's Band, and consisted of six members, the leader, Carl Schwabkey, Clay Rees, E. B. Rees, J. B. Rees, Henry Zulauf and William Fiedler, all of whom are still living with the exception of the organizer. Later the membership was increased to sixteen, and in 1897 the name was changed to The Wapello Chief Band. At this time Carl Schwabkey retired from the leadership and was succeeded by E. Higbee, who had several suc- cessors, one of whom was Professor Kindig, under whose leadership the band was admitted to the Fifty-fourth Regiment, when it increased its membership to twenty-four.
In 1905 B. O. Worrell took charge of the organization and made of it one of the finest bands in the state. The present membership is fifty, and the director is W. Harold Kelley.
CHAPTER XXXIX
REMINISCENT
Hon. E. H. Stiles, up to a few years ago one of the leaders of the Wapello County bar, now a resident of Pasadena, California, has written for various publications, articles on themes of which Ottumwa, or Wapello County, made a substantial background. This honorable gentleman wields a facile pen, which portrays its subjects always true to the life and in all cases eloquently and entertainingly.
Recently Mr. Stiles in his beautiful California retreat prepared a reminis- cent article for the birthday number of the Ottumwa Courier. With mind active and tractable, and memory clear and reliable, Mr. Stiles wrote of the early days of Ottumwa and the county, beginning at 1856, the year of his location in the county seat, and extending through a period that is always interesting to the lovers of tales told of pioneers and the condition of things when this county was in its swaddling clothes. The contribution from him is a valuable one and is herein made a part of this work :
On the 16th day of December, 1856, I landed from a stage coach at the only hotel in the place. It was a log structure situated on the north side of Main Street, between Court and Market. A new proprietor had just taken possession in place of the previous one, "Becky" Hall, as she was familiarly known. This new proprietor was John Potter, who came from Ohio, and who was the father of a boy about sixteen years old, who afterward became the quite celebrated railroad manager, familiarly known as Tom Potter. I was somewhat older than Tom, but we were young men and rolled ten-pins together. He had a very beautiful sister, Mary, who subsequently died. Another sister married the loveable and lamented Samuel B. Evans, who was one of the ablest and most pungent newspaper writers of his time, as well as an antiquarian of some note. For a time he represented the Chicago Times in making explorations of the mounds and other monuments of the aborigines of New Mexico and Arizona.
THE EARLY PHYSICIANS
The only brick houses in town at the time, as I now recollect, were that of Albert Mudge, standing on the corner of Main and Jefferson, where the opera house now stands, and I think a little dwelling in which Dr. Wood lived and in which his very aged widow recently died. Doctors Wood, War-
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den, Orr, Thrall and Williamson were the doctors then here. Dr. Warden was the first physician who located in Ottumwa. He came there in 1843 and was about retiring to enter the mercantile field when I came there in 1856. Dr. Orr came there in 1852 and was carrying on a drug store as well as practicing medicine when I went there. Dr. Williamson, I think, had been there some three years and Dr. Thrall came the same year I did. Doctor Wood must, I think, have been the first regular physician who settled there after Dr. Warden. They were all on deck when I went there, and they were all splendid, level headed men and physicians. I doubt if any pioneer set- tlement has ever been favored with an abler medical staff than Ottumwa had at that time.
THE FIRST BRICK BUILDINGS
The erection of a new hotel was commencing at the corner of Main and Market streets. When built it was called the Curlew House, and on its top was erected quite a large metal cut of that bird. The first proprietors of the Curlew House were Crone and Gilson, both Pennsylvanians, and both re- turned there in a few years afterwards. There was also being commenced by John Pumroy a brick building on the corner of Main and Market, opposite the Curlew Hotel, which was afterward occupied by Pumroy as a drug store, subsequently sold to and occupied by W. W. Ennis for the same purpose, and finally superseded by the new Ennis Building. John Pumroy was a very tall man and was very capable in the narration of early incidents, to some of which I gave an attentive ear. In 1857 I recollect the store of Thomas Devin, one of the earliest and most influential citizens of the place. In it Samuel Mahon, then a lad I suppose of some fifteen years, was a clerk. His subse- quent career is too well known to require anything further from me.
HAMLET OF LOG HOUSES
Leaving for the time being these individual references, let me say some- thing more regarding the place itself. It was simply a straggling hamlet, consisting in the main of low wooden or log buildings. The mercantile part of Main Street lay between Market and Court. Upon the completion of the Curlew House building in 1857, Simon Adler and B. A. Feineman, under the firm name of Adler & Feineman, opened a dry-goods store in a part of or an adjunct to that building. Nehemiah Baldwin kept a general store on Main, between Court and Market. All the buildings on Main were of wood or log, except the two new brick buildings, the erection of which were being commenced at the corners of Main and Market. Dr. Warden also had a general store in the same locality in a two-story building, the upper story of which I commenced to occupy as a law office in 1858. There were no build- ings on Main Street west of Court except, perhaps, a few shanties or little structures farther up the street.
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WHEN THE STEAMBOATS LANDED
On the south side of Main, commencing at Court, was a part of the river bottom for quite a long ways out which was covered with water in the freshet time or high stages of the river, before the construction of the railroad em- bankments. On this shore line which projected out at the foot of Court Street was what was known as the wharf where the steamboats landed that then plied the river in the spring of the year when the water was at a favor- able stage. If I recollect rightly the steamers that plied the river were the Edwin Manning and Edward Davis, the first named after the quite distin- guished father of Calvin Manning, and the other, Edward Davis, an old set- tler and river man.
This Davis and Joel Myers had a sawmill on the west side of, and at the foot of Market Street. The place when I came was simply a frontier village without paved streets or much of sidewalks, and with mud knee deep in the wet spring period. The state, it must be remembered, was then in its infancy. It had been admitted into the union only ten years before and the Indians had taken their departure only thirteen years anterior to the period of which I speak; their departing footprints were scarcely effaced; their wailing fare- well to the land they loved could almost be heard in the whispering winds of the surrounding forests.
TAY SINNAMON AND THE COMMON LAW
Among the men I found there was Tay Sinnamon, a big burly Irishman, but a strongly marked and sensible man, who loved his grog and was full of Irish wit and eccentricities. He never used more than the first letter of his Christian name in writing it and when asked his name his reply would be "Tay Sinnamon." He became a justice of the peace and his court was a favorite amusement resort. He was an Irish patriot and disliked everything English. In a case before him one of the lawyers insisting upon a certain point, Tom asked, "Where is the law for that? Show it to me in the code." The lawyer replied that it was not a part of the statute law, but was in force as a principle or rule of the common law of England which had been adopted and became a part of our jurisprudence. Whereupon the justice excitedly exclaimed, "To hell with your English law and your common law, which you say is made by long custom; for if that be so stealing hogs at the lower end is the common law here, for I know that it is their custom to be at it ever since I've been here."
STILES HAD A DOLLAR WHEN HE LANDED
I was five days in coming from Connecticut to Ottumwa. That place was my objective point, for Aaron Pinney, whose first wife was my sister, was
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operating a sawmill some five miles west of Ottumwa on the bank of the Des Moines River. I came by the railroad to Burlington via Chicago, which was then comparatively new and rough in many of its features adjoining the lake; crossed the Mississippi at Burlington on a ferry boat ; came from there to Mount Pleasant by rail, and from Mount Pleasant to Ottumwa in one of the western stage coaches. The journey had been longer and the expense greater than I had expected, and when the stage stopped in front of John Potter's log hotel, I found that I had just one dollar left, and that consisted of the worst dollar bill that was ever seen, I think. It was on the Corn Ex- change Bank of Indiana and was greasy, dirty, creased, crossed and furrowed and wrinkled in every direction. I wanted a dinner before proceeding any further, but was afraid to offer that bill for fear it was a counterfeit. I accordingly went across the street to what proved to be Dr. Warden's store, handed him the bill and asked him if he would kindly tell me whether it was good or not. He said he would look in the Bank Detector and see; he accordingly picked up a magazine or pamphlet bearing that designation and after looking at it and the bill, said it was all right, and I thereupon pro- ceeded to circulate it for something to eat. This done and the stage starting on toward Eddyville, I boarded it again and the driver let me off with my trunk when we reached the house of Nathaniel Bell, near which was the sawmill referred to. I found my brother-in-law, Mr. Pinney, with the as- sistance of one of Mr. Bell's boys, Frank.
FIRST JOB WAS TEACHING SCHOOL
I learned from him and Mr. Pinney also that a vacancy had occurred by reason of the resignation of the teacher, in what was known as the Com- stock schoolhouse. I immediately applied for the situation to Mr. Howard, whose first name I have forgotten, the committeeman. He said he was very glad to hire me to fill out the term. I asked if an examination of my fitness was desired. He said no, that he was satisfied that I was all right. I was prompted by a spirit of vanity-having some knowledge of Greek and Latin-to remark that I supposed they did not want the languages taught. "O, yes," said he. "What ones," said I. "McGuffy's reader and 'rithmetic," was his reply. I felt easier. I was told afterward that Mr. Howard could neither read nor write, though I can testify that he was a sensible, honor- able man, who treated me like a gentleman ever afterwards. In a few days after the contract was closed under which I was to commence the school on the first Monday after Christmas, I learned that the resignation of the school- master had been caused by reason of a row between him and his pupils, and which had resulted in his having been thrown out and snow-balled out of sight. If I had known this before the contract was made I certainly should not have entered into it, but it was too late to recede. Several of the boys and three or four of the girls were as old and bigger than I was, but I relied
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on my diplomacy to get through all right. When I went to the schoolhouse at the time appointed I found quite a collection in attendance. The school- house itself was a curiosity to me. There was a rough table in the center of it used for writing on, but not a sign of a desk or seats except that for the latter there were slabs which had been sawed from the outside of logs, through which sticks or legs had been stuck crosswise and these slab benches were lined about the room. I called the school to order and made the at- tendants a speech, saying that I understood there had been some difficulty between them and their previous teacher, of the merits of which I did not seek to inquire or know ; that I had come there for the purpose of doing all in my power to teach them properly and improve them in knowledge; that I should do my best in their behalf and should treat them kindly and properly, and I expected them to treat me in like manner in return. To make a long story short, I had not the least difficulty. We grew to like each other, and during all of my subsequent residence in Ottumwa they were clients when- ever they needed a lawyer and my devoted friends always.
SPEAKS KIND WORDS FOR PIONEERS
To mention some of these kindly people and their parents, there were Nathaniel Bell and his wife, his daughter and his three sons, Adam, Frank and Jefferson. The father was a good specimen of an old fashioned rugged pioneer from Indiana, to which his father had emigrated from Kentucky in the early days, as I recollect it. The next nearest to him was Mr. Harris and his wife, both old people and of like stock and characteristics as the Bells. Then toward the schoolhouse was Mr. Houk, another pioneer of the same order. He had a son, Jacob Houk, and one or two daughters. Then not far from the schoolhouse was Dr. A. B. Comstock. He had quite a large farm and two or three boys, and a daughter who afterward married Mr. Shields, who purchased the Houk place and lived there after his marriage with Miss Comstock. The doctor was tall, dark-haired, rather slim and very deaf. His wife was red-headed and was as quick and alert as he was calm and dignified. Mrs. Houk was somewhat on the order of Mrs. Comstock, quick and impulsive, but kind-hearted and heroic. I could never forget her on account of her kindness to me, but more especially because of her connec- tion with the following incident historic of Ottumwa.
OTTUMWA'S FIRST MURDER
About fifty-three years ago the dead body of a woman was found in the river at Ottumwa. There was then no bridge and the crossings had to be made in a ferry boat, operated by Edward Davis or John Prosser. The water was at a low stage and in crossing the rapids he discovered the body of a woman whose skirts had caught upon one of the rocks. He immediately
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made the fact known and her body was brought to an empty room on Main Street; the coroner was summoned and an inquest held, at which I was present. The body proved to be that of Laura Harvey, the daughter of a Rockford, Illinois, lawyer. She had eloped with her lover, whose name was Lawrence, and they were traveling westward with a two-horse team. They had been joined by a man on horseback, whose name was McComb. All three of them had the night before the murder stopped at a hotel in Eddyville and had left there the following afternoon. McComb had been seen riding in the wagon with the two others, leading his horse from behind. The mur- der was a mystery. The woman's skull had been broken with some dull instrument, deeply indented finger marks were on. her throat, a shriek had been heard on the road in the night, the two men and the team were gone. The conclusion was that the two men for some reason had murdered the woman and fled with the team. Efforts to arrest them were unavailing. Several months passed, when one day a hunter crossing one of the deep ravines on the east side of the road between Ottumwa and Agency, dis- covered a skeleton, to which the clothes and some of the flesh still hung, lying at the bottom. It was determined by a coroner's jury that it was the body of Lawrence, and the conclusion was reached that both he and Laura Harvey had been murdered by McComb; that McComb while riding in the wagon behind them had killed Lawrence with some blunt instrument, and then Laura, who had screamed in the struggle. Lawrence had several hun- dred dollars with him and with that and the team McComb made his escape, throwing the body of Laura into the river as he crossed the ford and that of Lawrence into the ravine as he went further on.
THE ARREST OF M'COMB
Further search was then made for McComb, but without avail. Several years more passed and the war came near to a close. Some soldiers ren- dezvousing at Davenport were in a saloon when a man stepped up to the bar to take a drink. One of the soldiers who had known him, recognized him and immediately notified an officer. McComb was arrested, brought to Ot- tumwa, placed in jail, brought to trial, found guilty of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be hung. An appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, which suspended the execution, while he awaited the result in jail. But notwithstanding this, on the day on which the judge had fixed for the execution at the time of passing sentence, which was July 27, 1864, a large crowd had gathered from different directions, some of them, doubtless, to witness the execution, which they had not heard had been suspended, but probably the greater portion for the purpose of breaking the jail and hang- ing McComb despite the suspension. Shortly after noon the mob assembled in front of the jail and loudly clamored for the delivery of the prisoner to them by the sheriff. I had not returned to my office from dinner, and while
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at my house received a private message from the sheriff, George A. Derby, telling me of the situation and urging me to come immediately and endeavor to appease the mob. I did so with all haste and found an immense crowd, among which were a number of women who had been deeply stirred by the dastardly murder of the girl, assembled in front of the jail. Judge H. B. Hendershott was addressing them from the steps of the jail. I pushed through the crowd and took my stand by the side of him, and as soon as he had concluded, I commenced to address them myself. It seemed to have a palliating effect and the crowd began to visibly loosen and give way, where- upon Mother Houk, as she was called, mounted the fence which then stood in front of the jail, and in a high-keyed and decidedly revolutionary voice ex- claimed : "You men are a set of cowards. This bloody, cruel murderer of a poor girl should be taken out and hung on this day fixed for it, and if you men have not the courage to do it, we women will."
ATTEMPTED LYNCHING OF M'COMB
The effect of this on the crowd was as electrical as one of Napoleon's addresses to his soldiers. It set the mob on fire. The crowd not only pressed toward the front door where Hendershott and myself were standing with the sheriff, but those armed with sledge hammers and battering-rams jumped the fence where Mother Houk was standing and rushed for the rear, the crowd following. Almost instantly I heard them beating down the lofty board en- closure which environed that end and constituted the prisoners' yard. I knew then that further resistance was useless. Breaking their way almost instantly through the enclosure, they battered down the rear wall of the jail and drew out into the street the prisoner amid cries of "hang him, hang him, hang him to the first tree." Under the guidance of the leaders they started up Court Street to find a suitable tree at the top of the hill. Those living now and that were old enough to note and remember, will recollect that the first Baptist Church in the town was built under the supervision of its pastor, the Rev. S. H. Worcester, and was located at the corner of Fifth and Court streets, and that at the time of which I am speaking, a ravine or deep gully coursed down Court Street on that side clear to the jail, being conducted across Fifth Street by an underground conduit, and in front of the Baptist Church, which was a small wooden structure, the ravine was so wide and deep that the church was reached by means of a broad platform covering the ravine and connecting the church with the street. As the crowd with the leaders in charge of the prisoner approached the church and this platform, he requested the leaders to permit him to say a few words from this platform. The re- quest was granted and he addressed the multitude. He said in substance that he was innocent but that he saw they were bound to hang him and that as he was shortly to appear before his Maker he wished to be taken to the nearby Catholic Church for final preparation at the hands of Father John
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