USA > Iowa > Wapello County > History of Wapello County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 42
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Vol. 1-27
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Kreckel, who had been his spiritual adviser. In this address and in all his bearings he was as perfectly cool and composed as he had been throughout the trial. His desire was granted, the leaders and crowd facing about, came down to the Catholic Church, into which he was conducted and where the final religious rites were performed.
YOUNG QUAKER PREVENTS HANGING
On coming out and after consultation between the leaders, he was placed in a two-horse wagon and the crowd started with him toward the lower end of town. Just this side of Sugar Creek hill, on the road to Agency, and on the left hand side of the road, they entered the wooded enclosures belonging to Michael Roos, subsequently purchased by the writer, and on which the mineral spring became located. Here they stopped under an oak tree with a limb suitable for the purpose in view, and placing one end of the rope around the prisoner's neck, threw the other end over the limb, but the rope was too short for the purpose desired, and while the leaders were devising plans to obviate this difficulty and their efforts having somewhat relaxed by the dying out of the effects of the liquor which some of them had freely drunk, Fred Arthur, of the Ladd Packing Company, a heroic young Quaker, had arrived on the scene in a buggy. Grasping the situation, with the aid of other willing hands, he quickly slipped the noose off the prisoner's neck, threw him into the buggy, seized the lines, applied the whip, and whirled away like lightning back to the jail, where McComb was delivered into the custody of the sheriff and his deputies.
MILITARY COMPANY CALLED OUT
Thus ended the first act of the McComb tragedy, but the leaders were deeply chagrined at being thus foiled, and it was soon given out that another and successful attempt would be made in the future. This event was precip- itated by the following circumstance. About a month after the occurrence above described, McComb with another prisoner, effected his escape from the jail; they were hotly pursued and retaken by the sheriff and his aides and again placed in jail. Thereupon a cry arose among the leaders of the former mob and some others, that the sheriff was not capable of keeping the prisoner ; that it was more than likely he would escape, and a new mob was organized to thoroughly execute the purpose of the former one; and in the latter part of August of the same year it appeared in force and overflowed the town. In the meantime, however, the sheriff and citizens generally had learned of the purpose, and many of them joined with the sheriff in providing steps to prevent its execution, the most effectual of which was the call of the sheriff on the governor of the state for military aid. The military aid contemplated by the sheriff was the militia company of Ottumwa, of which I was captain.
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This company had been previously organized in view of the conditions that then threatened the border. General Price was making efforts to break through our lines and Kansas and portions of Iowa on the Missouri border were constantly threatened by the inroads of the guerillas. The territory south of Ottumwa had a few southern sympathizers who were ready to join their friends in case of an invasion. Under these conditions, Adj .- Gen. Nathaniel B. Baker wrote me that he had shipped one hundred stands of arms with ammunition, and asking if I would not become the custodian of them and take immediate steps to have a company for self protection or- ganized, and these arms delivered to it. I at once proceeded to carry out this purpose. The company was organized, officers elected, the arms distributed to its members and an armory or place of meeting agreed upon. The com- pany to a great extent was composed of the merchants and other business men of the city, such as Charles Lawrence, Joseph Chambers, Thomas J. Devin, George Devin and others of like character. I was complimented by being made captain. We studied tactics and drilled two or three tmes a week, and when the rumor came that a band of guerillas had invaded Davis County and were proceeding toward Ottumwa, we lay all night with fixed bayonets behind the railroad embankment to repulse the enemy when they should at- tempt the crossing by the ford or ferry.
MILITIA GUARDED JAILED SLAYER
I was accordingly summoned by the sheriff and commanded by the gov- ernor to bring my company to the aid of the sheriff in resisting any attempt that the premeditated mob might make against his authority. Very early in the morning, therefore, our company was in force, fully armed and equipped, in front of the old courthouse to assist the sheriff and prevent a raid upon the jail. We decided to take steps to keep the crowd from as- sembling or approaching near the courthouse and jail. To that end we sta- tioned pickets at the junction of Court and Washington on the hill to prevent any approach from that direction. We also stationed a picket line in front on Second Street, running from Washington to Market, so that there should be no approach from that direction. My company was reinforced by a later one, organized by Captain A. A. Stuart, who had resigned the service and returned from the war, but both companies were placed under my command. By ten o'clock Court Street, below Second, was a solid mass of clamoring men who had been stopped by the pickets that marked our line, and told that if they advanced beyond they would be fired upon by the military force ar- raigned in front of the courthouse and extended in full array with loaded muskets across the square. Several times the surging crowd menaced the line and threatened to break through.
While thus arraigned I made a little speech to the "boys," which in sub- stance was, that we had a disagreeable duty to perform and that it was never-
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theless a duty that we owed to the state and our citizenship; that we must unflinchingly fire upon the mob in case they broke over and made an attack upon us, and I do not believe that there was a single man who would have been backward in performing this duty if he had been called upon. But after some vain attempts to cross the line the mob began to weaken and the shouts to become less defiant. Presently a flag of truce that had passed the line was seen advancing, borne by one man accompanied by two others. As they came up I, in company with Captain Stuart and the sheriff, went for- ward to meet them. The spokesman, whose name was then familiar to people living in this portion of the country but which I prefer not to mention, made this proposal : That if the sheriff would agree to resign, the mob would disperse. My answer was: "Here is the sheriff, let him.speak for himself." The sheriff expressed his unwillingness to resign, and I told the leader that the parley was ended and that he had better advise the mob to disperse for if they attempted to press upon us we should surely fire upon them. The truce bearers returned to the crowd uttering bitter curses and threats against us. In a few minutes after their return the crowd began to disperse and in a few minutes more it had disappeared altogether.
TAKES EXCEPTION TO FORMER VERSIONS
As I have never seen an account of this affair from beginning to end by an eye witness, or a correct account of it, I have thought it well to thus give this narration; nor has any correct account of McComb's execution been given so far as I have ever. seen. It was stated that he made quite a long speech on the scaffold. Such was not the case; it was very brief. I was one of the jurors summoned under the law as it then existed to witness the exe- cution. The following is the original list as made out by the sheriff : E. H. Stiles, R. W. Boyd, J. W. McGlasson, Charles Dudley, Thomas Foster, A. Melick, B. D. Baker, John Newman, William A. Nye, M. J. Williams, T. J. Zollars and Thomas C. Harkins. I am writing this on the Pacific slope, far from Ottumwa, but I happen to have preserved and have with me some of the data on which this communication is founded, for the rest I draw upon my memory, which seems to be very good in respect to long-passed events. I may add that the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the lower court, and that the execution of McComb, which I have referred to, followed in due time. These reflections have often occurred to me : If the mob had pre- vailed and carried out its purpose, the community and state would have been disgraced, and its real standard of morality greatly lowered. On the other hand, if we had been forced to fire upon the mob and had killed some of the persons composing it, it would have been an unpleasant place for some of us, and especially myself, to have lived in thereafter. All's well that ends well.
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THE ORGANIZATION OF OTTUMWA
When I came to Ottumwa, nearly fifty-six years ago, it was, as I have already indicated, merely a village; without figures I should say it had, perhaps, 700 or 800 people. In the following year, 1857, it had grown to probably 900 or 1,000 people. The city up to that time had not been or- ganized, but in the spring of 1857 it was. Ottumwa became an incorporated city with a mayor and common council. I took part in its organization and in the election of our first mayor, Duane F. Gaylord. It had been organized as a town before that. Along with the mayor, but not all of the same poli- tics, were elected for recorder, James D. Devin ; for treasurer, Erastus Wash- burn ; for solicitor, Samuel W. Summers; for assessor, Rosea B. Jones; for marshal, John Newman. The aldermen elected were: D. B. Abrahams, Frederick W. Hawley, Thomas Bigham, H. P. Graves, Alfred Hawkins, James Milligan, Charles Lawrence, William L. Orr, J. A. Hammond.
THE FIRST NEWSPAPERS
The newspapers, when I went to Ottumwa, were the Ottumwa Courier and the Democratic Statesman. Green D. R. Boyd was the able editor of the Statesman. He subsequently went to and died in Oregon. The Courier was then only a weekly. It had no daily, nor did it have until 1864, when one was commenced under its editor, James W. Norris. I have preserved and have with me a copy of the first number issued. The founders of the Courier were Richard H. Warden and Joseph H. D. Street, who established it in 1848. At that time it was the most western paper in the United States. I knew both of the gentlemen named intimately. They were excellent men. Among the last people living in Ottumwa, in May, 1911, who were there when I went there in 1856, was the widow of Richard H. Warden, and during the day I had there I called upon her. She was then very feeble and died within the year.
TRIBUTES TO FORMER COURIER EDITORS
The editor of the Ottumwa Courier when I went there was James W. Norris, who had succeeded Warden and Street. Norris had been educated a lawyer, but diverged to newspaper work and was the founder of the Chicago Daily Journal. He was a small, nervous, active, but rather timid man ; he was, however, an accomplished one, and one of the most finished editorial writers in the state. He had been well educated, traveled much, and outside of his office, in his home, was an altogether delightful man. He was delicately organized, somewhat over-sensitive, and suffered rather keenly whatever of misfortunes he had to bear. I shall always remember him with real affection. With the Courier's subsequent editors, up to the time I left
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Ottumwa, nearly twenty-seven years ago, Maj. A. H. Hamilton and Gen. John M. Hedrick, I was also intimately acquainted. They were both virile writers and virile men in every respect. General Hedrick was one of the most original characters I have ever known, and one of the most interesting ones. Looking back over the list of my companions I believe, taken all in all, Gen- eral Hedrick was the most charming one. His humor, his originality, his uniqueness of expression, were perennial. He was a brave and heroic officer, was in many fierce battles, dreadfully wounded, breveted brigadier general for gallantry. Major Hamilton had also served his country with efficiency and valor ; was taken prisoner, suffered the hardships of severe confinement, escaped with two comrades and wandered through fields and forests, en- during such hardships of hunger and exposure that his two comrades eventu- ally died from the effects thereof. He was a lawyer by education, and sev- eral years of practice demonstrated that he was one of no mean ability, and gave promise that had he adhered to his original profession he would have attained to the first rank therein. But he went to that of journalism and achieved a high rank as a strong and pungent writer. He still lives, his flag still flying, his mental powers unabated.
OTHER PIONEERS RECALLED
In conclusion I cannot refrain from making brief mention of a few persons who were here when I came that I have not mentioned, whose names I am now able to recall. Among them are Paul C. Jeffries and his delightful old wife, who were both aged people, he the first postmaster of Ottumwa, and grandfather of your police judge, L. C. Hendershott. They were fine specimens of old-fashioned, hospitable, Southern gentlefolk; Stephen Osburn, who had also been postmaster, and Thomas J. Holmes, who was the postmaster when I came; George Gillaspy, a giant in stature and natural ability; Joseph Leighton, the justice of the peace before whom I tried my first case-one of the first settlers of Competine Township, who removed to Ottumwa-a useful citizen and a generous, noble man. He was the father of Alvin C. Leighton who is still living in Ottumwa, one of its most worthy citizens, and of Joseph and James Leighton, who died many years ago. I should like to speak of the ministers who were here when I came-of B. A. Spaulding, who was one of the Andover band who came from New England to preach in the wilderness. He was the pastor of the Congregational Church and a splendid and accomplished man, and his wife, who was a sister of J. W. Norris, one of the loveliest of women; of J. M. McElroy, the pastor and father emeritus of the Presbyterian Church, who was the friend of everybody and who characterized his calling by a long and beneficent life; of S. H. Worcester, pastor of the Baptist Church, who afterwards retired from the ministry to engage in business and finally removed to and died in Des Moines; of the venerable Father Anthony
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Robinson of the Methodist Church; of Father John Kreckel, of the Catho- lic Church; the Episcopal Church was not then organized and had no reg- ular pastor. After its organization, the Rev. Daniel Falloon Hutchinson was our first rector-a typical Irishman, a man of eloquence and eccen- tricities; of Heman P. and A. L. Graves; of Joseph Hayne, who held and honored many county offices; of good and good-natured Silas Osburn, the old-fashioned, highly respected and worthy county judge; of Newton C. Hill, of North Carolina Quaker stock, and as good and kindly a man as . ever lived-the father of Mrs. H. L. Waterman; of Uriah H. Biggs, one of the early surveyors and a man of learning; of George D. Hackworth, another of the early surveyors and worthy men-father of James T. Hack- worth; of John D. Baker, who was also one of the early surveyors- father of T. P. and S. D. Baker who are in the butter and egg business ; of Paris Caldwell, kindly, high-minded and faithful citizen, who was on the ground and drove his claim stakes in the early morning of the day after the Indians left; of his brother, Joseph Caldwell, a Methodist church leader who could pray with all the fervency and fight with all the bravery of Oliver Cromwell-father of Wm. H. Caldwell, who has contributed much of the early times to the Ottumwa Courier; of John Newman, the first marshal of the city-honest, sturdy, kindly and true; of James Hawley, Sr., one of the first and most extensive merchants of Ottumwa, and his delightful wife, Juliette, who was the life of every company and lived to the age of nine- ty-one years-father and mother of Frederick W. and James, Jr., and Mrs. W. S. Carter-all gone; of Thomas Devin, Sr., a wealthy merchant and leading man and his sons, Thomas, John, James and George, who were men of high character and influence-all gone; of Gurley Baker and his wife- both robust, fine specimens of the solid people of Kentucky from whence they came.
PIONEERS OF COUNTY
And of those living outside whom I now remember as being there when I came, were James M. Peck, the first sheriff of the county; Clark Wil- liams, R. R. Harper, David and Farnum Whitcomb, Seth Ogg, Michael Tullis, John Overman, D. H. Micahel, once sheriff and later member and president of the board of supervisors ; William C. McIntire, father of William A., state senator; John W., sheriff, both deceased; and Frank, now of the firm of Harper & McIntire Company, wholesale hardware; Henry Reinhard, Ezekiel Rush and A. J. Redenbaugh, the last six in Green Township, I think, at that time. In Columbia Township I recollect Peter Knox, with whom I was a fellow member of the Legislature in 1863-64, and who had been previously county recorder; Samuel T. Caldwell, also a member of the Legislature, prominent citizen and leading merchant of Eddyville; John M. Fish, William Dunlap, Richard Butcher and Michael Welch, also leading
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merchants of Eddyville; Homer D. Ives, R. W. Boyd and William McPher- rin-lawyers and splendid men of that place. Of Adams and Polk town- ships, I recollect Jacob Siberell, once member of the Legislature; William Chisman, Theophilus Blake, Cyrus Van Cleave, S. G. Finney-the latter once member of the Legislature. In Richland, I remember the Kirkpatricks, Henry K. and George W .; William Brimm, Hugh Brown, once clerk of the District Court ; and Dr. D. C. Dinsmore. In Dahlonega, I remember as then being there, John W. Hedrick, father of General Hedrick, and once a member of the State Senate and whig candidate for Congress; Jehu Moore, Alvin Lewis-afterwards removed to Ottumwa, North Dakota; Earl and Loanie Lively, stockmen; Peter White, John and Joseph Kite, Lewis Cobler and George Godfrey, who afterwards came to Ottumwa, and who was one of the most honorable and generous of men. In Highland, James Gray, father of Loton E. Gray, once sheriff, builder of the Mineral Springs Hotel and a great hearted man; J. W. Carpenter, his father-in-law ; and M. M. Lane, who kept the hotel at Dahlonega. In Competine Township I recollect there were Solomon McReynolds, Thomas M. Dickens, Martin A. Dickens, George W. Dickens, twice member of the Legislature; Andrew Majors, Jesse Scott. In Agency and Washington townships, Charles Dudley, member of the Legislature and of the New Capitol Building Commission, Edward Dudley, the Reynolds, the Newels, Major Samuel Cremer, Thomas Ping, Thomas Foster, Mahlon Wright, Thomas Bedwell, once sheriff ; John Fullen, John Q. A. Dawson, and Joseph Flint, doctor, preacher and politician combined, who by his shrewdness and sagacity allied with old-fashioned, homely manners and great popularity, was able at any time to overthrow the best laid schemes of democratic political leaders; he was probate judge and represented the county in both the House and Senate.
Of course these are but a small portion of influential residents that I recollect as being there when I went to the county. After three or four years' residence I think I knew every permanent resident of the county, and I simply give those whose names after this lapse of years occur to nie.
PIONEER MERCHANTS RECALLED
Coming back to the city again, I mention Charles F. Blake, one of the noblest and in all respects, best men it has been my fortune to know; Wil- liam B. Bonnifield, one of the ablest bankers in the state; Josiah Myers, Daniel Zollars, P. C. Daum, Jacob Prugh, Thomas Neville, James Milli- gan, Daniel Tower, William Lewis, who was then sheriff ; his brother, John ; William J. Ross, for a number of years county treasurer ; L. M. Godley, who left a leg on the battlefield before Vicksburg and was for many years clerk of courts; J. W. Garner, small in person but great in business achieve- ments, who was serving his apprenticeship as boy clerk in the store of Thomas Devin; William Daggett and Joseph Merrill, always leaders in
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every great work; Daggett came the same year I did and Merrill, with Col. C. W. Kittridge, a couple of years or so afterwards.
TRIBUTES TO PIONEER PHYSICIANS
Referring again to doctors : Dr. T. J. Douglas came there about the time I did. I think he came with his father, Archibald Douglas, who became a justice of the peace soon afterwards, and before whom the young lawyers used frequently to appear. Doctor Douglas was highly educated and was not only one of the best physicians, but one of the most loveable of men. And here I cannot forbear adding a word to Dr. Seneca B. Thrall. In my opinion he was the best physician, not including surgery, in Southern Iowa. He was a natural doctor, but in addition to his natural arts, he had added the forces of profound learning and training. Everybody had the greatest confidence in him and the women worshipped him-not on account of any physical charms, but for the great confidence they had in his skill and for his supreme gentleness. Dr. J. C. Hinsey must have settled in Dah- lonega a year or two before I came to Ottumwa. He came to the latter place, I should say, about 1862. Dr. E. L. Lathrop came later. They were both accomplished physicians and very skillful surgeons.
OTHER PROMINENT EARLY SETTLERS
In speaking of early Ottumwa people, I should have mentioned William B. Armstrong, for many years the agent for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company ; and Charles Boude, who was the agent for many years for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, and its predecessor, the Keokuk & Des Moines Railroad Company; and also the Ladds, Benjamin and James D., who established the first packing house in Ottumwa; nor should I omit the lamented Joseph G. Hutchison, who came as a young man to be my law partner, and who was subsequently a state senator, the republican candidate for governor when Horace Boies was elected, a prominent leader in every measure of moral and political re- form, and of whom I can personally testify from intimate knowledge, was one of the best and purest men that ever graced the history of Ottumwa.
REMINISCENT By O. C. Graves
My first recollection of Ottumwa is in 1854, when, with my oldest sister, I came up from Des Moines County on a visit to A. L. Graves and family. Having had considerable experience as a typist, I naturally hunted up a printing office and found the Courier, then published by Dick Warden. I think there was a man associated with him named J. H. D. Street. My Vol. 1-28
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recollection is that the office was in a story and a half frame building near where Crip's barn now is, where for many years stood the old Lewis Opera House, on the corner of Green and Commercial streets. But I am not posi- tive about this. I worked for the courier that summer three or four weeks. It was printed on a Washington hand press, which was the way newspapers were printed at that time.
I came to Ottumwa to reside in 1856. In 1857 and for some years after my youngest brother, George, and I cultivated all the land, then the Harrow Farm, lying between McLean Street, and near Harrow's Branch and be- tween the race and the bluff on the north, excepting where stood three small frame houses just east of where the Douglas School now is. They were built by the Major brothers. One of the houses is still standing.
Now on what was then a farm, there are probably two thousand people living, besides several large factories-the Box Car Loader factory, Hard- socg factories and others. Then from McLean Street to McPherson was a country road, on each side of which was a stake-and-rider fence. A close observer will see some haw trees on the north side, between Clay and Ben- ton-shade trees. These trees sprouted up in the fence corners of that old worn fence forty or more years ago. I have seen that lane so full of hogs, driven to market, that a man could walk on their backs from one end to the other. This may be slightly exaggerated but that is the way the impression comes up in my sub-conscious mind. Then we did not ship hogs on cars as we do now, for the simple reason that we had no railroads. The Burlington road reached Ottumwa in the summer or fall of 1859. It stopped here long enough for the Des Moines Valley, as the Rock Island was then called, to get into the town and start on up the river.
When I first saw the town the courthouse was a frame two-story build- ing on the corner of Market and Third streets, where the Edgerly drug house now stands. Where there is now a good brick building on the corner of Main and Green streets, opposite the Ballingall, Daniel Eaton had a cabinet shop in a frame building. I still have two old chairs with the name Eaton and Bennett painted on the bottom, from that shop. I have still a walnut bookcase and table made by Daniel Eaton about 1859.
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