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 33
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THE SPANISH WAR.
Again the country sprang to arms, especially the south-she showed a wonderful passion to fight for the old flag, and atone for delinquencies. Martial fraternity proved the strongest bond of union yet.
What a crop of islands the concussion of our naval guns shook down! Cuba, Porto Rico, the Philippines, no one knew how many, or what to do with them. It was embarrassing. The victory proved to be a great bore. It made us play the role of Providence, and it is yet too early to say if we were cut out for Providences.
Washington county raised the bulk of a fine company of young fellows, many of them the sons of soldiers in the Civil war. They had heard their sires brag so much about war, they were crazy to smell gunpowder, too. Their mothers cried, but their fathers did not-they were glad to give the kids their old chance at manly romance. The bearing of the sires was fine to see.
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The kids did not put on any airs over the "old man" when they came back. Honors were somewhat even. The contrast in transportation showed the growth of the country in wealth, in thirty-eight years. The old Civil war inen went to the front on their feet and hind legs, or at best in box cars and stock cars ; the sons in Pullmans, or at least in first-class passenger coaches. Here and there one heard a sneering remark or grouch about this picnic soldiering, as it was called, but why not? It should be a point of national pride that our boys could go and come in that nice way. This was a great country x hen they went out, thanks to what their fathers did in the '6os.
Our boys did not go further than Jacksonville, Florida. It was not their fault that they were not needed in Cuba. They were eager to cross. They would have been healthier, had they gone, for they would then have been beyond the jurisdiction of fond mothers' delicacies, unwisely sent from home to Florida, and from Floridian pies and other symbols of certain death. Sow- belly and beans are more sanitary. A soldier needs the severe regimen of a pugilist in training. Many fell sick, and three died-Conger, Huff and Craw- ford. Here is the roster :
FIFTIETH IOWA-COMPANY D.
D. W. Harvey, Capt. : L. Hollingsworth, 1 Lt .; S. W. Brookhart, 2 Lt .; W. M. Shafer, Q. M. S .; E. E. Page, S .; O. B. Stichter, S .; L. R. More- house, S .; C. L. Shanefelt, S .; J. L. Neiswanger, S .; O. F. Adams, C .; S. J. Kellogg. C .; J. H. Steck, C .; H. S. Wilson, C .; H. L. Boyer, C .; C. C. Wil- son, C .; G. E. Whitacre, C .; C. A. Dewey. C .; Stanley Miller, C .: F. E. Latta, C .; R. L. Manners, Mus. ; H. F. Mickey, Mus .; J. F. Durham, Art .; G. F. Howard, Wag. ; Peter A. Akey, Marshall Adams, M. D. Aronfelt, J. H. Baird, A. F. Beitle, F. C. Beatty, E. C. Brier, John Bartholomew, Fred Bid- well, C. L. Boone, Howard Burham, Thos. Clancey, R. R. Conger, H. M. Crone, W. J. Crawford, F. N. Crooks, L. R. Diller, W. L. Diehl, F. H. Gray, Win. A. Hooper, J. L. Hampshire, C. W. Hise, Ed. Humm, F. A. Kilgore, M. D. Kos, W. C. Laughead, G. G. Lemon, G. E. Manatt, H. H. McCleery, C. M. McCoy, J. E. Moore, Maynard Marsh, J. T. McCarty, G. E. McCon- ahey, F. C. Myers, H. J. Nichols. C. R. Nelson, C. B. Olds, L. J. Oldaker, H. O. D. Page, J. E. Peck, P. L. Parker, C. C. Reister, E. C. Rosenbarger, R. H. Riley, Hugh Ruff, Wm. Rhodes, Milan Shields, S. S. Smith, C. L. Stewart. S. J. Schmucker, G. W. Thomas, Jr., C. J. Thorn, E. P. Thompson, Fred Underwood, A. E. Walther, C. P. Warner, R. E. Wheaton, W. A. White, A. G. Wilcox, F. M. Wilkins, Jas. S. Wilson, C. L. Woods, Jack Worthen. W. F. Wilson, H. C. Waddell, G. G. Young,.
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COMPANY D. FIFTIETH IOWA Returning at close of Spanish-American war
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Parrott Knouse transferred to hospital corps. Karl Law transferred to signal corps.
DEATHS.
A. W. Huff, typhoid, Jacksonville, Fla., August 22. R. R. Conger, typhoid, Jacksonville, August 31.
F. N. Crawford, typhoid, Washington, October 8.
Washington county may properly be proud of her soldiery, of the gallant records they made, of the manly way they carried themselves since discharge, of the civic places they have creditably filled, of the enviable posts they have occupied, honoring themselves in the high services they have rendered. "When can their glory fade?"
CHAPTER XX.
OMNIBUS-SKETCHES, ETC.
A misceilany of things unrelated may crowd into this 'bus. A 'bus can always hold one more.
Pipe organs were put in the M. E. and Presbyterian churches in 1892, and the Baptists installed one in '99. The Second U. P. church put in a piano in 1902, and Fort Sherman began playing a brass horn in its Sunday school in '08. The First U. P. church installed a piano in May, '05, just before the General Assembly met there. In late years the Second U. P. supplied New York city with a minister, Howard Tate, and the First U. P. gave Cedar- ville, Ohio, a pastor in Mills Taylor.
Our first baseball team was formed in 1866, and played four or five years. Members-C. H. Wilson, Dr. E. F. Clapp. Dr. Emmett Chapman, Dwight J. Norton, J. S. Shearer, Z. T. Lindsey, Mart Whitcomb, Marsh Glenn, G. G. Rodman. The boys held a re-union here in June, '05, and played a spectacle game and sat for another picture, and both groups and a sketch of their history were published in the sporting section of the Sunday Chicago Tribune.
The first bridges. in the county were on the Military road, across Goose creek and Whiskey Run. There were no other bridges till 1860. Fords and ferries answered very well. And that Military road was the first road in the county.
The beech tree does not thrive in this county, or, indeed, anywhere in Iowa. So far as known, there are but two beech trees in the county, one on George Fulton's place and one on the old Letts-Brockway farm, both small and slow growers.
We have never tried to produce rain by explosives. It sufficed to call a picnic, a county fair, a Chautauqua, a Memorial Day exercise, or a nominat- ing congressional convention. All those were sure umbrella days.
The first buggy brought here was by one Reed, the date not discoverable. It was a great curiosity, and excited more interest than an aeroplane would now. Any swell fellow, who proposed matrimony, was as sure to bespeak
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this vehicle for a bridal ride as to engage the county clerk and a minister. On every extra occasion, that buggy was sure to go, like Mary's little lamb.
It is well to record here the successive steps in county population. In 1838 it was 283 ; in '40, 1,571 ; '44, 3,120; '46, when state was admitted, 3,483 ; '47, 3,518 ; '49, 4.434 ; '51. 5.079 ; '53, 7,560 ; '56, 11,113; '59, 13,366; '60, 14,235; '63, 18,975: '75, 19,269: '80, 20,374; '85, 18,504; '90, 18,468; '95, 18,845 ; 1900, 20.718 : 1905, 20,116.
The stock amusements in the olden times were bee hunts, husking bees, turkey shooting matches, camp-meetings lighted by blazing logs, June bugs and lovers' eye-beams, raisings, dances, kissing parties, spelling and singing schools, picnics, funerals, political meetings, wolf hunts in winter, stray preachers and lecturers on phrenology with good yells in them and furious gestures. The ancient relishes were wild fruits, berries and honey, tho' sorghum was largely used for sweetening.
M. D. Story's claim was on the site of Lexington. He laid it out and called the post-office "Cedarville," though it was nicknamed "Spankem"-a cue to some forgotten history ? Lute Martin built the store in '56 ; the present school house was built in '59 and the parsonage and church in '65.
Three of our citizens have served on governors' staffs-Judge A. R. Dewey on Gear's, and C. J. Wilson and S. W. Brookhart on Gov. Cummins' and Carroll's.
The Washington Guards were organized August 1, 78, A. R. Dewey cap- tain, Robert McGaughey first and W. H. Judson second lieutenants. When mustered in, they became Company D, I. N. G. These veterans have served as officers, Col. Palmer as captain, A. A. Rodman and Col. Cowles as lieu- tenants. The Washington Independent Battery was formed by Wm. R. Mccutcheon, captain, and J. J. Kellogg, lieutenant, in '79. It has two brass six pounders.
Mrs. Rev. E. W. Twining came here in '39 from Virginia where she was born in 1817. In Des Moines she saw five hundred Indians dance on the com- mons where the court house stands.
In '41 there was a Palace in Washington, called the "Starry House." Jos. and Wm. Terry built it on the west side of the square, just north of the Citizens' Bank, two stories, twenty by forty-two, long way to the street, a grocery below, occupied, in turn, by Smith & Caruthers, Ralph Dewey, Capt. Daugherty and W. A. Stiles. And in one end a restaurant owned, tandem, by Crosby Bros., Carroll, J. W. Morton ; and above were flats, Rev. Dr. Vin- cent using one, Dr. Lee and R. R. Walker the others. A little further north was the "Central House." W. W. Kendall proprietor or landlord. Guests lodged above a grocery and drug store where Stolte and Ralph Smith hold
Charles Ilebener
D. S. Cole
J. J. Kellogg
Alex Coffman
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Mart Whitcomb
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forth now. The Starry House in the '6os had an infirm, teetery floor and a sky line as sway-backed as Dr. Rice's old black mare. The Central was built in '56. There is some esthetic history connected with it. Mr. Kendall had visited Washington, D. C., and observed the show of things in the dining rooms there, and imported the styles here at his tables. He introduced side dishes and courses, thus putting a gilding on the fine art of feeding. Hitherto. everything had been slung on at once, pell mell, on the table-meats, vege- tables, bread, cake, pastry, sauces, fruit, condiments, butter, cheese, eggs, etc .. and the order was: "Jest set right up and help yerselves," while girls stood behind the chairs with hands full of bushes and shooed the flies, but now the landlord engaged a corps of girls with white aprons and caps to reel off the names of the dishes-roast beef, corned beef, hamaneggs, beefsteak. liver. bacon, veal, pork chops, lamb cutlets, rooster, calf's brains, mutton, jerked buffalo, etc., and the average patron got all balled up trying to grasp the lingo that was unpunctuated, and would generally say, in desperation, "Oh, bring me some sow-belly and beans," adding a postscript, "Don't fetch none of them calf's brains -. a danged fool calf haint got no brains." After awhile the girl came back with a tray full of dishes that she spread out, fan-shape, in front of the patron, with little dabs of prunes, squash, cold slaw, apple sauce, mashed potato, peas, string-beans, turnips in-everything but stewed tomato-the love-apple had not then been discovered as a food. For all this innovation, the old settlers were indebted to Hugh Kendall's father.
The Central lost its identity in 1908, when those three fronts of beauty were put in for Stolte, Ralph Smith and Jas. Work. When the Central was in its prime, Col. Cowles was running the lowa House on the Crail corner and either Sam Joy or Snodgrass the Washington House on the site of the Colenso.
In '44, the Fourth of July was celebrated in "Yankee Diggins," southwest of Wellman. Geo. Pinkerton was president of the day, and the orator was Mr. Willson, a relative of our Hon. Horace Willson. These men and Brad- ford, Jackson et al. occupied a row of cabins on the northwest quarter of section 26, range 9.
Is it fancy, or is it fact, that pioneer life develops individuality? Or is it the original men who emigrate, and attest unusual force of character by leaving old associations and challenging fortune in new fields? Or is there a streak of oddity in emigrants, a touch of wander-lust that marks them as original men? At any rate, it was a racy, peculiar, individual lot of men who came here in the earlier years. Take such men as Everson, Keck. Graham, Wmn. Wells, Michael Hayes, Whitcomb, J. C. Conger, Cleaves. A. H. Patter- son, Henry Parr, Capt. Moreland, the Chilcotes, Iams, Jonathan and Michael
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Wilson, Bacon, S. B. Dawson, I. H. Friend, Fleak, the Griffiths, Gideon Bear, the Brintons, Rader, Rev. John O'Loughlin, Peter Sharpe. Van Doren, Car- michael, Father Drake, McGuigan, Wm. McGaughey, Sam Russell, 'Squire B. Verain, Robert Fisher, Rousseau, Teas, Peter Dray .- not one of these men reminded you of any other soul in the universe. The mould and pattern were broken when they were made, and if you sent to the factory for repairs, you could get no duplicates. Each was a new type, but it ended in them- was not transmitted. You would no more mistake any of them for another than take a carnation for a peony or a rose for a skunk cabbage or a phallic fungus. The bore of so-called society is, that folks are either all alike or try to be : they imitate ; their flavors are mixed, as in melons grown near pump- kins : they have lost interesting identity, the charm of individuality and the value of personality. They weakly affect the same opinions, if such mushy creatures can be said to have opinions and convictions. But the men named above stood on their own feet, had no reserves or concealments or affectations, talked naturally, acted spontaneously, did things and said things that flowed out of their characters, so that contact and conversation with them were a series of gay surprises ; one enjoyed and relished them, and the funny things they said and did, the anecdotes and stories connected with them are still the staple of talk and laughter among groups of survivors, long years after the subjects of these memories had turned to dust. Now and then a squad of men will roar over something recalled of Moreland, or Sam Russell, or Conger, or Dr. Chilcote, Everson et al., and it is as merry as a Celtic wake, a gay post mortem. There is no solemnity about these autopsies. For the subject, this is fame, a sort of immortality ; it may last fifty to seventy-five years, or till all his contemporaries are gone. And then tradition may extend the term of tickle. The length of the term seems to depend upon the force of character the man had, the degree of his wit, the quality of his humor and whims. Probably. Sam Russell will last longer than any other man, his drollery was so varied. For over fifty years folks have laughed over Michael Hayes' naive remark while serving on the board of county commissioners or supervisors. He closely scanned bills to protect the public's interests, accord- ing to his sworn duty and because he was a scrupulously honest man, and his invariable O. K. was, "as I don't see any way to get out of paying this bill, I move it be allowed." Everson contributed much to the gayety of nations, without intending it, but simply because it was Eversonese. One hot day he was laying stone wall as foundation for a plank walk fronting his north side properties, and was as sweaty, dirty and tired as Henry Clay Dean, when a town teaze squatted to watch him and give advice. Everson paid no atten- tion, and when the job was done he quietly said-"If this work does not suit
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you, if I were in your place I wouldn't give the workmen a - cent." His speech to Dr. Parkinson after his fire on the north side was funny, but it would need to be sterilized before it could go into this veracions history.
Morgan's dozen words to Dean have been a classic comedy for forty-nine years, and not less so Iams' slam on a possible president from Dutch Creek.
Dr. Chilcote was walking up town one night with his two brothers, on East Washington street. At Ike Wagner's then a tree stood in the middle of the walk, but he had forgotten it, and being near-sighted, he dashed into the tree. smashed his glasses, barked his nose, cut his brow, lips and chin, but did not kill the tree. Washing his face at his store and improving his beauty with criss-cross strips of court plaster and bandages, he cleverly remarked he was glad it was a soft maple : if it had been a hard maple, it would have spoiled him.
J. B. Fleak, for long the Sage of Brighton, spent a large part of his career in Keokuk, and regarded Heaven as a poor suburb to Keokuk. He was asso- ciated with General, afterward Congressman, Curtis, and later exercised his genius as a hotel landlord by keeping "The Box Trap" in that idolized city. An amusing row occurred in it one night. A Gen. Brown had been sent there from Ft. Madison to prevent a division of Lee county. Brown and some merry cronies had an upper room in Fleak's tavern, hitting the bottle between whiles at euchre. At midnight, the gallant general felt like hellooing, and the party said, "Do it." He raised a window. stuck his head out, and yelled sev- eral Indian war whoops, waking not only the town, but landlord Fleak, who got hostile at once, yet was polite. Appareled in pajamas, or their equivalent. and a night cap, L. B. F. appeared at the revellers' door as a diplomat, and. retired. Brown was equally polite, and regretted the incident-it would not occur again. In a half hour, the General felt the need of getting another college yell or red war whoop out of his system, lifted the window, poked his phrenology out, and made the windows of heaven rattle. Col. Fleak re- appeared, somewhat heated, his night cap on askew, in his agitation, but he restrained his passion and was polite and diplomatic, and the colonel and the general played the role of my dear Alphonse and my dear Gaston to the limit. It should not happen again. But it did, the general out-doing a calliope and our Washington water works fire alarm. Then mine host Fleak arose in fury. yanked the corks out of all the vials of his wrath and went on the warpath. but still as a diplomat and polite Lord Chesterfield, merely remarking. "Gen- eral Brown, your horse will be at the door in five minutes." Brown thanked him politely, and left for Hog Thief Hollow.
Mr. Fleak was a character, full of fun, anecdote and varied information. For many years he was my Press correspondent, and sent in amusing stuff.
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He had knocked round the world so much, living so many years in one place, so many years in each of a score or two more places, that in telling of it, he got into a horse's habit of over-reaching with the hind feet, and the local wags amused themselves by counting up these several years of residence, and they made him out several centuries old. Gus Ross played the same trick on a man here-the reader may profitably ask A. H. Wallace or C. J. Wilson to tell about it, in Gus' tone of voice.
Mr. Fleak went to England to live with an uncle, but home-sickness drove him to return ship after three months. He went to Keokuk in '40, and kept the first store, the first tavern, was first justice of the peace and first post- master there. In the Mormon Nauvoo troubles he and others captured a lot of guns and ammunition, greatly embarrassing the Saints, and they hunted Fleak's party with Joe Smith's orders to kill them. He was a farmer near Fairfield, a landlord and editor of two papers at Brighton, travelled three years as deputy grand master of Masons and lectured, and was private secre- tary to Gen. Curtis, with the rank and pay of major, to the end of the war.
Two deliciously superstitious old fellows lived apparently in the north part of the county, but really in the Middle Ages. We usually confine the supernatural to our religion, but these men imported it "into their business and homes," as Lord Bacon says. Both were afraid of ghosts, witches and the Evil Eye. One kept a silver Dollar of the Daddies to chuck into the churn to scare off witches and fetch the butter betimes. Witches-did you know that ?- "dee-light" to hold butter back. And both hung up horse-shoes every- where to put out said Evil Eye. A horse shoe flung into the swill barrel and feed-trough shooed off the bad things. That coin was, indeed, the "almighty dollar." It policed the hogs, churn, slop bucket, swill barrel, and was a spy worth its weight in gold. It baffled the imps all the time. If lightning struck in the woods, one would hunt a week for the blasted tree to get splinters to stick up on his doors and windows, an infallible scare-crow and a perfect defense against witches, and a splinter stuck in a hollow tooth instantly cured ache. And as early as June in each year he hunted for the skins snakes sloughed, gliding through bushes ; these festooned round the premises were a sovereign guard against the onslaught of the demonic agencies. One of them was an inveterate chewer, but did not want his boys to become slaves to the weed, and when a boy baby was born, this fond sire, who was a sort of protec- tive tariff in the home, treated the kid in a novel way, as Mr. Ol. Brown will explain to those curious in such solemn rites-until he disinfects them, he can't expect me to publish them in this accurate history.
Another queer man was Caleb Cleaves, cobbler, also Congregationalist. His clinical sheep story tried the faith of all who heard it. It has never been
Dr. Joseph McKee
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sterilized. He was born in Maine and had been what he called a "seafaring man." When he died, he wanted to go, not to Paris, but to Yarmouth. There was a solitary spot on the ocean's brink, pine-clad, the sea in the offing, and his prayer was "Bury me there, so that I can see the ships coming and going." And at last his prayer was answered. He is dust, but I can still see him sitting on his leather seat, shaking with laughter, and all his fat redundancies, double chin, neck, bow-window quivering with merriment like a bowl of jelly. When fat folk laugh, they also jell.
There is not accessible anything like a complete record of the doctors of the county. Dr. Mallet, of South Bend, Ind., it is said, was the first prac- titioner in Brighton, but later went to Keokuk. Van Pelt was the first in Clay, an Indianian, long dead. James Waters was the first M. D. in Lime Creek, and moved to Kansas. Dr. Petit, who also practised there, lives in Chicago, aged and rich. John Holland, a Thompsonian doctor, was the first in English River, and he practiced several years, though it is claimed that Simon P. Teeple was the first M. D. on the river called English, but he went to Iowa City in '41. Henry Pringle practiced many years in Clay, a town- ship that turned out nine doctors and veterinaries-Edgar Meacham, Herman Gowry, David Beach, Wm. Brinton, Hattie Whitacre, Ranny Hall, Wm. Nieukirk, Henry Pringle and veterinary R. J. Whitacre. Dr. Geo. H. Stone was the first M. D. in Washington, in '40,-a gruff ex-navy surgeon who moved to Sigourney and named it for the Poetess, and she acknowledged the honor, though knowing he had given her a Stone instead of a loaf of bread or a whole bakery. He was the first doctor to be called into Marion.
In 1839, Dr. Horace Carley was in Brighton, dying that year, and his body was the first seed planted in that cemetery-a sort of poetic justice in that.
Dr. Jos. Hamilton, from Ohio, practiced many years in English River, and was able to resist calls for several years after he ceased practice. He was also an M. E. preacher.
Dr. Wm. H. Rousseau came here from Kentucky in '44. He was a very notable man, eccentric, humorous, full of drive, energy and individuality, and he did an immense business for many years. As late as September 23, '73. he with Drs. W. E. Fraser and J. R. Burroughs organized Washington County Medical Society. A giant in body and powerful in mind, he was a mark for caricature. and Burroughs was exquisitely funny and happy in taking him off. especially in depicting Rousseau's impatience with Dr. Rice, a Homeo. Big Pills had no use for Little Pills, and Burroughs could mimic tones, grimaces and motions to perfection-all kindly done, of course, but with infinite humor- ous appreciation.
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Rousseau and Dr. Win. McClelland were great friends, though of opposite temperaments, tastes, habits, etc. As quinine in the '40s was four dollars per ounce, these two fixed up a preparation of arsenic that was just as good, and cheap. They tried it on Dr. Abe N. Miller and Richard B. McMillan, with their consent, and as it did not kill them, the compound was used habitually, and medical fees came down fifty per cent. They put cholera patients on hot bricks a la Montezuma on live coals, and it worked like a charm.
McClelland saw the rise of several schools of medicine here, and was tolerant and sweet. M. C. Kilgore introduced the eclectic system, Dr. M. C. Parker, homeopathy, Dr. A. N. Miller, cold water cure, packing, magnetic rubbing, but osteopathy, hypnotism or suggestion, and Christian Science are cults later than his time. Stone, Rousseau and McClelland rode horses over this county before roads, bridges and fences. The latter formed the cavalry man's habit of sleeping on his horse, feet in stirrups, coming home. If the horse stopped suddenly, pitching him on to the pommel, he knew a rattlesnake was coiled in the trail, and, as there was nothing on the prairie to kill it with. and he did not dare get off and prescribe for it, and tell it to run out its tongue-it was doing that anyhow,-and feel of its button as a pulse ( for if he had pressed the button, the snake would have done the rest )-and give his snakeship a dose and leave directions to shake the bottle well before using and take every two hours, etc., why, he would either surrender the right of way to the snake, or, if he had matches and it was autumn, he'd fire the grass and thus fight the devil with fire. Rattlesnakes would have taken the country if the dry wild grass fires had not kept them in check.
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