USA > Iowa > Washington County > History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Vol. I > Part 14
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"Insatiate monster ! would not one suffice ?" The C., R. I. & P. in the fall of '70 proposed to extend from Washington to Sigourney, Oskaloosa and Knoxville, and trains reached Sigourney April 9. '72.
Muscatine. disgruntled at their poor investment in the M. & M. road, induced the Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad Company to build from
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Muscatine to Riverside in this county, and it was done in '73, and a five per cent tax voted in Iowa, English River and Lime Creek townships, carried the Muscatine Western railroad through the northern tier of our townships.
In the late '6os, we made another botch in railroading, crazy to get a north and south road from Cedar Rapids and Iowa City to Keokuk, a point below the rapids, supposed to be vital to get river competition with the rail- roads. Burlington men urged us to go in with them into the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern railroad, and Washington could have been on that prosperous line stretching now from St. Louis to St. Paul, but no, we stuck to the old I. N. C., and sunk a lot of money. That "hoss" would never "go." Its eyes were "sot." It had poll-evil, blind staggers, heaves, "stove- up" shoulders, botts, burrs in fore-top and tail, the sorriest old crow-bait that ever took dust.
Finally, we got the Burlington and North Western, a narrow gauge, in the winter of '79-'80, and a lot of us went to a jollification banquet in Bur- lington, and heard effervescent oratory galore. In 1901 it was broad-gauged in one Sunday, badly cracked. At Winfield the line forked, one leg going through Coppock and Brighton to Oskaloosa. The Iowa Central also threads the southern tier of our county's townships.
The Milwaukee road built an air line through Washington from Rock Island to Ottumwa in 1900-01, giving Dutch creek, at last, its fond desire, a railroad, and adding to the map Haskins, Titus and Rubio.
There are about one hundred and thirty miles of railroad in the county. thus-omitting fractions :
Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, twenty-six miles, valuation for taxation, twenty-six thousand eight hundred and twelve dollars per mile.
B., C. R. & N., Muscatine division, four miles, valuation, sixteen thousand eight hundred dollars ; same road, Iowa City division, twenty-one miles, valua- tion, twelve thousand dollars.
C., B. & Q., Burlington and Western division, thirteen miles, valuation, sixteen thousand four hundred and eighty dollars ; same road, Burlington & Western division, thirteen miles, valuation, sixteen thousand four hundred dollars.
C., R. I. & P., southwestern division, twenty-four miles, valuation, thirty- six thousand dollars ; same road, Oskaloosa division, fourteen miles, valua- tion, sixteen thousand eight hundred and sixty-four dollars.
Iowa Central, eleven miles, valuation fifteen thousand two hundred dollars.
As a curio, the shipments from here from September 6, to December 31. '58, after the M. & Ml. road. now the C., R. I. & P., opened, were-hogs, twelve thousand four hundred and twenty : cattle, seven hundred and forty-
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eight ; merchandise, three hundred twenty-nine thousand and twenty-two pounds ; total pounds, four million two hundred nineteen thousand and twenty- two.
Shipments into town, in the same time-salt, one thousand eight hundred and ten pounds ; lumber, one million eighty-six thousand feet ; coal, seven hundred eight thousand pounds ; merchandise, one million six hundred seven thousand seven hundred and eighty-six pounds ; total pounds, nine millions four hundred twenty-two thousand seven hundred and eighty-four.
Washington station's Rock Island receipts average ten thousand dollars a month, and the Burlington and Milwaukee roads do a good business. The exports of cattle, hogs and horses are heavy. West Chester makes an enor- mous showing of live stock shipments, and Ainsworth. Wellman. Kalona, Riverside. Brighton make remarkable reports. Our farmers do not ship so much grain ; they have not for over thirty years raised enough wheat to bread our population ; almost everybody buys flour, and stock-raisers aim to export all the corn into the inwards of their steers and hogs. The horse history is astonishing. A few years ago his extinction was freely predicted, and he did, indeed. become so cheapened that he could hardly be given away. He was disdained as a wedding present, and by thieves. But all that dull time his neck was still clothed with thunder, though the noise was muffled under his mane. He rallied, he cantered down the country lanes, the price went soaring, and hundreds and thousands of him were sent east and south. The country seemed to be made of horses. Throw a few shovels-full of dust into the air, the particles assembled in the shape of a horse, and one could plainly read on his flanks the bright characters. "one hundred and fifty dollars," "two hundred dollars," and even "two hundred and fifty dollars."
The railways have made this county, but it is impossible to gather a jury that will do the roads simple justice, so intense and irrational is the popular prejudice. But-courage! patience ! In a thousand years or so this may all come right.
To make the celebration of the advent of the first railroad complete, let me add that Muscatine gave a return party that fall, and a great crowd went from Washington, filling all the passenger coaches and box cars that could be scraped together. The scramble for entrance and for seats was like the assault of ants on a chicken bone. Clothing was torn, skin abraded, and the loss of buttons, sweat, cuticle, women's squeals and men's cuss words was great. Witnesses have never quit laughing at the remembered comical aspect of one very stout woman who despaired of getting in via the platform. A squad of her male friends picked her up and tried to chute her in head first thro' an open window. She sprained the window, and stuck at the hips. No
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amount of pushing from the outside and pulling of arms, neck and waist from within, could budge her voluminous and redundant corporosity. Men tugged and pulled to the tune of "he' O, he'," as at a house-raising-in vain. She kicked, squealed, screamed, but it was no go. . And to yank the wedged-in creature out was quite as serious a proposition. The men feared they would pull out her legs, as they had served grasshoppers, in boyhood. But she was not needed to fill the train. Half the crowd stood up all the way, packing the aisles and dangerous old-style platforms. The train did not stop at Ainsworth, for not another soul could be taken aboard. The crowd there were so mad at the slight, they soaped the track on the stiff grade just west of the station, and the train, returning in the evening, stuck as effectually as that fat woman. The engine spilled all its sand, and more was shoveled on the slick rails, and the big wheels spun around furiously, and the train crew did not talk Sunday school language, while the Ainsworth avengers laughed, guyed, joshed, and made exasperating suggestions. At last, the wheels gripped, and soon tired humanity was dumped at the great metropolis.
A belated report may be inserted here, showing the average Rock Island shipments out and in per month, a monthly business of ten thousand dollars:
Forwarded
Received
Corn
64 cars
Coal 405 cars
Oats
67 cars
Lumber
56 cars
Horses
38 cars
Salt
12 cars
Cattle
163 cars
Building Material
IIO cars
Hogs
132 cars
Vegetables-Fruit () cars
Flour 68 cars
Sheep
14 cars
Live Stock 84 cars
Hay
17 cars
Miscellaneous
252 cars
Implements 23 cars
Miscellaneous 92 cars
CHAPTER X.
CHURCHES-RELIGION.
Norman Everson used to recite with droll animation a lingo that Henry Clay Dean would get off at pioneer meetings :
"No sooner had the hardy pioncer crossed the Mississippi river with his ox team and family and few possessions, close on the heels of the retreat- ing Indians, and made a claim in this beautiful wilderness, built a log cabin, planted a garden and perhaps an orchard, and a field with corn, far removed from his eastern home and all he held dear, than the Methodist circuit rider came along on his old white mare, sitting on saddle-bags containing a Bible and a hymn book, and singing cheerily,
"How happy are they Who their Saviour obey."
That is, man is an animal re-inforced by an intellect, a heart and a soul. He is a spiritual being. Religious institutions grow out of him like buds, and he puts forth, as leaves, churches, Sunday schools, prayer meetings, camp- meetings, revivals. The new men and women in these new places in the county organized themselves on several lines at once-creating local govern- ment, churches, schools. Crystals of organization were shooting in every direction. and at the earliest times the settlers were fashioned into a civilized society, developing and protecting itself by agencies and influences secular and spiritual. In nearly every settlement there was hearty co-operation to provide religious service and education. Of course, there was a difference in communities. In some nooks there was a rough, tough element : the names given to their localities, and which still adhere as tightly as chimney-swallow mud nests. indicate that they were heedless as to religion and education. In all strong migrations such an element was a sort of jail-delivery back east. Here and there, mingled with good people, were "undesirable citizens." rowdies, men with criminal tendencies, lawless, given to drink and violence men and women who had broken all the commandments, and found it con- venient to get out of the scene of broken laws into backwoods localities where their former exploits were unknown. This county was no exception. There
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are bad streaks in all counties, people who had been or easily might be thieves, adulterers, drunkards, ne'er-do-wells in the old homes. It was a very import- ant matter-the character of the first-comers for they shaped the history of their localities. Birds of a feather flocked together. Good people attracted their like and repelled their opposites, and vice versa. As a rule, it was good, self-respecting, enterprising stuff that came to this county as raw material to be worked up into a thrifty, intelligent, moral body-politic. And it was quite as natural for them to bud out in schools and churches as for a plant in spring to unfold buds and blossoms and bear fruit. Our people had the church- going habit. It is a very good habit. Habit it is. Most people who go, go auto- matically- it is inheritance or habit, and folk act under this habit as under any other habit. All sorts of things enter into this Sunday-go-to-meeting habit as warp and woof, as custom, requirement, ennui, etc. There is the social instinct. People like to see each other once a week at least, touch palms, touch antenna like bugs, and there is a subtler strand-the eye-beams that lovers exchange at church are stronger than steel cables and draw from far. Then the enjoyment of music, the gratification to self-respect that comes with the Sunday bath and donning clean clothes, one's best suits ; the Sunday shave, and shoe-shine, all these furnishings up of the person are sort o' religious. Then there is the pleasure of hearing new things, new truths, or old truths pleasingly re-stated. Altogether, church-going amounts to a kind of mild inspiration ; there is an up-lift both agreeable and helpful. It is a good habit, I repeat. So thought our pioneers, and they went with zest to religious service in log cabins, in school houses, at camp-meetings in the woods, and they seemed to delight more in funerals than in any other form of religious diversion. That is true of all pioneer neighborhoods. It was so on the Western Reserve in Ohio, to my personal knowledge. Funerals appealed to everybody. If a funeral occurred on a week day, still they all dressed in their best and went. The mourners felt it as quite an alleviation to grief, if the string of buggies, wagons and other vehicles was as long as any that had been carefully counted in those parts lately. Every woman had brought from the east some bit of finery, perhaps a black silk dress, that was reserved especially for parties, church and funerals. And the men had brought a best coat and a beaver and perhaps a silk hat of more or less ancient vintage. It had seen so much of such holy service, having been dedicated to re- ligion, that usually the nap was worn off in spots, and the edges of the brim and band were greased as if with spiritual unction. Many a dent had it re- ceived, as if in a crowd it had been squeezed or sat upon. Costumes in this county in the '30s and '40s did not change with the present day kaleido- scopic velocity. A pioneer could wear a plug hat fifty years without any real
ONE OF THE GROUP OF ELMIS IN WEST WASHINGTON Under which First Communion was held in Washington County
HE NEW YORK I UBLIC LIBRARY
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need of upholstering. Children remembered the different hats in a congrega- tion for a generation. You would no more get confused as to Smith's tile, Brown's cady, and Robinson's plug, than as to the identities of their good wives. Everybody knew everybody else's hat, coat, calf-skin boots as in- fallibly as each farmer's ox or horse team and vehicle of whatever sort it was.
My vividest memory of the days in the '4os in Ohio was of these vener- able plug hats-heirlooms that had been in families for generations. Such a tile was an unique, forgotten and, except in this survival, extinct fashion, like the cold craters of volcanoes-narrow, straight brims, greasy edges, per- fect cylinders of uniform bore, the "hair" mostly worn off it; the nap had disappeared in spots, leaving a glazed surface like a horse's flank where the tng has worn off the fell ; it looked like a spoon with the nickel or silver wash destroyed. The owner of this fossil curio always wore it on state occasions, to market, to political meetings, elections, church, and especially to funerals. In no other form could he show equal respect to "the remains." It was in- stinctively felt as an insult to "the corpse," to leave that immemorial plug hat at home. So every funeral was a museum of all the antiquated plugs, brought out in profound respect for "the diseased;" as they called the cadaver. In heat, in cold. in rain, in snow or shine, they religiously wore those plugs to the graveyard.
No religious service drew like funerals. All went, even babes at the breast, to see "how hard they took it." The main industry of some people, especially women, was going to funerals, to get thrills, and a chance to weep. The patriarchs tottered to the house of mourning, their dark-veined hands trem- bling so with palsy they could with difficulty hold their sticks. We see a general outline of the ancient manners yet. The house is reserved for women and children ; the men sit outside, whittle, masticate tobacco, gossip, talk crops, expectorate with deadly aim, laugh and tell stories. "The remains" don't know it, and would not care if it did, for that is hoary custom and inviolate. Every body seemed to enjoy funerals, and perhaps folks nowadays get more solid satisfaction out of some people's funerals than in any other sort of matinee.
So with the traditions, customs and habits of the old home places, our pioneers did not long go without means of grace. In nearly every settlement in this county it is known who preached the first sermon in the township, at whose log cabin, on what date-it was a red-letter day, and was set down in the local annals. The minister that day was so very great a man-board measurement-the earth's surface sank quite a bit as he passed along. Some woman is still alive who can tell you just how much that distinguished man
15
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ate that day, and she'll count off on her fingers the dishes, wild turkey, squirrel, 'possum, quail, prairie chicken, all the vegetables, butters, preserves, jams, jels, seventeen kinds of pies and puddings, and that holy man-why, to hold all the stuff, he had to be a holy man, full of holes and cavities, and fil! 'em all up chuck, or the hostess would be hopping mad. Let's take a few samples of first preachments, leaving out the restaurant details :
At Brighton, at Seneca Beach's home, in 1839, by Rev. Mr. Crill, M. E., just across the line in Clay.
In this city, Rev. Geo. G. Vincent did it on Sunday, February 7, 1841, in Captain Wm. Stone's house. He was sheriff. A sixteen-foot room held the audience, four women and two men, members and all the rest. That was pretty early, and dew was on all things.
In Clay, in 1841, Rev. Mr. Burnham, M. E., followed Mr. Crill who also preached early in Marion.
The first quarterly meeting in the county was held at Matthew Moor- head's cabin in Crawford, in the winter of 1837-8, Rev. Jos. Kirkpatrick, pastor ; Rev. Henry Somers, P. E.
In Iowa township Rev. R. McReynolds preached the first sermon in R. B. Davis' house in June, 1840. In '42 a M. E. held forth at Samuel Marlin's home.
In Seventy-six township the first sermon was by Rev. Mr. James. a tanner, in Charles Patterson's cabin, in '46.
In Cedar, Rev. H. Johnson, Baptist, was not "too much Johnson" at Mr. Ayers' house.
In Highland the first service was held in John Forbes' cabin in the winter of '43-4, by Rev. F. R. S. Byrd of the United Brethren church.
As early as '42, Rev. Jos. Hamilton preached at Wm. Wright's cabin in Snake Hollow, English River, and also in the school house, but the first service in English River was by the Methodist. Micajah Reeder. at Jerry Barton's, about 1840. Brother Hamilton practiced as well as preached. He started in a Methodist, but died a Spiritualist.
Nor was Lime Creek destitute of the heavenly manna. The first spiritual downfall was at Jos. Wasson's cabin, Rev. Mr. Nichols, Presbyterian, dis- tributing the provisions.
The first service in Marion was at "Dickey" Moore's log cabin, and people came to it from six to seven miles around, on foot, on horseback, hauled by oxen. At first only six to eight attended regularly, but the congregation grew to twenty. Mother Moore made all stay to dinner, and this mixed material and moral diet seemed to agree with all. Probably angel cake and food were mixed up on the table.
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Brother Crill, M. E., organized a church in Clay in '39 or '40, and a Con- gregational church was founded there July 3, 1842, barely escaping fire-crack- ers, roman candles and squibs. Rev. Mr. Burnham held a first service, or almost first one, in Hickenbottom's grove, now owned by John Robinson.
Edward Brinton's father was a soldier in the war of 1812, turned Quaker, and burned his wicked uniform, a religious sacrifice or auto-de-fe incident well worth preserving. A religious hallucination may also be noted: At a first service in what is now Rubio in the Fairview neighborhood, at Elijah Smith's house, Wilton Alter, a Friend, preparing for the ministry in Ohio, persuaded himself that he was commanded by the Lord to build a Friend church at Rubio, and a Rev. Mr. Maloy was commanded to bring a tent and help the Lord build it. The sequel is all unknown to this subscriber.
I may say that these were not elaborate services. Probably no flowers, surely no pipe organ, or horn, or trained choir with solos, and no "preludes," "postludes," and "offertories," and other high-sounding things. Probably it was not till much later that there was anything but the baldest congregational singing ; perhaps a chorister stood up, bit and gnawed a tuning-fork and tentatively quavered ho, he, hi, ho, hum, then jumped in and swam for dear life in the waves of melody. The minister lined out a psalm or hymn, two lines at a clip, meanwhile the singers getting their second wind-it acted like courses at dinner.
There was more demonstration then, more display of emotion, more fervor, and, perhaps, too much denominationalism or partisanship, or stress laid on doctrines. It was so in Ohio, and probably in Iowa. In hamlets, usually at cross-roads, two churches stood either side of the road, and had a belligerent aspect, as if they were roosters, and their chief function that of game cocks, and each was seeking an opening for a fight. They seemed to have heads lowered, necks extended, both wary, and if they had suddenly jumped into the air off their foundations, struck with wings and spurs, thus bloodily defend- ing the faith, that is, the special doctrines each church stood sponsor and challenger for, you would not have been surprised, as that seemed to be what they were there for-to scrap for a dogma.
There was an amen corner, and it had vigor and vociferation. Churches, as they have become elegant and aristocratic, have gone dumb, lost pictur- esqueness and what was called "the power." In the time of which I am writ- ing, folks would shout when "happy," and perhaps take a lively run over the tops of benches, leap down, grab a saint or sinner around the neck and tow him toward the mercy-seat, but all that has lapsed; we have left the simple life far in the rear, and "hollering" and blowing noses quite loudly are no
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longer good form in religion. This is not sneering-it is trying to paint a picture of what once was, but now is lost.
A good many churches were organized in the first ten years, till Iowa became a state in '46, just as immediately after that date a mania set in in this county to build school houses of the better sort, and congregations left log cabins and log school houses, and changed from one church building to a still more ambitious one, a series of transformations from grub to butterfly. Brighton had a Congregational church by July, '41, and went into a one thousand five hundred dollar frame in '56. Rev. Charles Burnham was pastor and the charter members were John, Sarah, Harvey, Bradford Ing- ham, Seneca and Edna Beach, Eldridge and Jonah Reed, Elizabeth Wash- burn, Margaret Lyon.
The incorporation books in the recorder's office show that Brighton has so churchy a history, it is in the odor of sanctity. In October, 1848, William, Elizabeth, Reuben. Maria, Elizabeth A., Eleanor and Wm. G. Israel. Nathan Horner, Jane P. Gooderich, Nancy Tracy, Mary McCullough, Joseph Fred- erick, Phoebe Garrett launched the Church of Christ ; Arthur Miller, pastor ; James H. Auld, superintendent of Sunday school. A one thousand three hun- dred dollar church was built in '50.
February 9, '50, Elder Gunn dedicated a Baptist church. In '63 a one thousand four hundred dollar brick church was built. The charter mem- bers were Abijah, Sarah, Lewis, Anna, Hannah and Gilbert Fisher, Isaac Arnold, Wmn. and Mrs. Mount, Elizabeth Parshall, James and Mary War- ren. The elders have been Wm. Elliott, Mitchell, J. C. Burkholder, David Morse, H. II. Parks, J. G. Johnson, N. H. Daily, and these more remote ones will bring the cloth down into the range of current memories.
On January 8, '69, the Seventh Day Adventist church materialized, a Methodist church August 19, '93, and the Presbyterian July 17, '04. At least these dates are of official record, whether of organization, incorporation or re-incorporation, I do not say.
Clay, too, was truly good. The Millses, Meachams, Coopers, Woodfords and more organized a Congregational church in July, '42. It gave two young men to the ministry, Harlow Mills and Wm. Woodmansee, and Clay turned out seven other preachers. Belle Plumb, Ralph Shatto, Jane Smith, Jehu and Oliver Embree, Edward Brinton, Eugene Robinson, Thomas Hyde. There was an M. E. church very early at Black Hawk, the Disberrys, Dillons and others prominent in it, and Mr. Ricker was its first pastor. A six hundred- dollar frame church was built in '63. Other ministers were Koch, Haines, Kirkpatrick, McDowell.
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SECOND UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Can I read aright that the Congregationalists worshipped in a log school house till a four thousand-dollar church was built in 1902?
Marion did not hide her lights under a bushel. The M. E's. at Eureka organized in September, '49, and by '58 had an eight hundred and fifty-dollar church. The Baptists were on the map in April, '56, and by '70 had a one thousand seven hundred-dollar house. In '56 the sect called Mennonites began to appear, and in '68 worshipped in a six hundred-dollar church near Noble, but in 1895 it was replaced by the present church. Joseph Goldsmith was the first pastor, but from near the first Rev. Benj. Eicher was a command- ing personality in the church not only, but in the community, in the affairs and politics of the county. While a man of perfect suavity, he was full of orig- inal force. He died suddenly on December 7. '93, and his memory is a sweet savor there still.
This novel ecclesiastical society merits a sketch, if but brief. Service is held in German and English on alternate Sundays. The ritual and dress persist from long-ago days. Mennonite families came dropping in, from Switzerland, Alsace-Lorraine, Pennsylvania, Ohio. Martin Eicher in '51, Daniel Conrad in. '52; Jos. Sommer in 53, Christian Tchauntz in '56. The church grew, and another congregation was formed in Wayland, Pastor Musselman serving it and other churches. The sect is traced back to the twelfth century, to the Waldenses who protested against the abuses of the established church. Before Luther, they held the right of individuals to read and heed the Bible for themselves. The name is applied to Menno Simon, a Catholic monk in Holland. They were Quakers as to non-resistance, dis- dained office, took no oaths before magistrates, believed in freedom of con- science. adult baptism, consubstantiation, and in the simple life, and take Jesus and his teaching as the guides of life. They are industrious and honest, excellent people.
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