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 8
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CALEB S. CLEAVES
JESSE ASHBY
R. W. MCELROY Charter Member Masonic Lodge
SAMUEL BIGGER County Judge
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There's no style about a tavern-it is a pure democracy, simplicity gone to seed.
But a public that has hotel in front and house after its name is swell. You will know the clerk by the loud diamond flaming on his shirt front, or by his air of hauteur and his indifference or scorn. I have never got over being scared by the manners of these superior beings.
Then, too, at a tavern everything is fried except the coffee and slough water. The skillet is what knocks at taverns. The landlord might hang it up in the office over the placard, "in hog signo." The meats, eggs, toast, potatoes, are fried, and reek with grease. The hired girl takes pains to put a few of her hairs in the butter.
However, the settler is up early, washes hands and face in a tin dish out- doors, and fortifies himself with ham and eggs for the stress of the day. His claim is cried off to him, and if he has saved up the price he opens the old saddle-bags and counts two hundred dollars or four hundred dollars, takes a certificate from the government, and is set up by the consciousness that a bit of this globe is his very own. At one such sale, which lasted three weeks, the land office took in about half a million dollars. Up to September 30, 1851, the land sales in Iowa-thirty-two million three hundred eighty-five thousand six hundred acres-yielded Uncle Sam four million five hundred and seventy- four thousand six hundred and thirty-six dollars and nineteen cents. Sub- tracting the total expenses of Iowa territory, five hundred and eighty-five thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven dollars and forty cents, and deducting Iowa's pro rata share of the Louisiana Purchase, five hundred and seventy- nine thousand three hundred ninety-eight dollars and ninety-six cents, left a balance of three million four hundred and sixty-nine thousand three hundred eighty-nine dollars and eighty-three cents, contributed by Iowa to the general government.
Congress, on May 20, 1785, provided for surveys of all public lands, dividing the land into townships six miles square, the ranges of the same to be numbered from Pennsylvania boundaries west, and the townships themselves to be numbered north from a point on the Ohio river due north of western termination of the southern boundary of Pennsylvania. The townships were divided into thirty-six sections, each a mile square. This was the origin of our good system of surveying, dividing and describing public lands. The system is now substantially as then. After surveys were made and recorded, the lands in certain limits were offered for sale at not less than one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre. In one year a million acres were acquired by treaty from Indians of various tribes. Within a year after the northwest territory was organized under the ordinance of 1787, twenty thousand people
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had settled in that region forever devoted to freedom, viz., Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Our 'Squire J. L. L. Terry helped survey in 1837 two tiers of townships, 74 and 75. to the boundary of the Black Hawk Purchase. His party were bothered by drunken Indians at Wapello. They visited the Indian village at what was later the W. G. Stewart farm, a mile from this city, whose chief Poweshiek was off with Keokuk and Wapello to Washington, D. C., and White Fish, who was left in charge, was very mean and arbitrary, saying to this one and that, "Puck-a-she, che-mo-ke-mon," get out of my wickiup, white man. All that Terry's party wanted was a few kinds words-and a chance to rasp the scales and fins off from the said White Fish.
The survey of township 74, range 6, was finished September 10. 1837, of township 74, range 7. September 25. '37, of township 75. range 6, October 21, '37, of township 76, range 6, November 14, '37. Probably, all the land in this county was surveyed before the winter of 1837, except township 77, range 9, up Wellman way, which the government did not acquire by treaty until 1842.
By common consent a few parcels were entered in 1839, to-wit, by Mat- thew Moorhead and David Goble, and by Simon Teeple and Richard Moore, commissioners of the county. Meanwhile, what were the settlers doing ? Organizing, getting together, starting the civic machine. They had to organ- ize to get roads, bridges, and manage local affairs. Steps at organizing began in 1838, but they were not ended. We were chaotic till January 25, 1839. The county was not named and its boundaries defined, as recorded in a pre- ceding chapter, till three years after the coming of the first settler. In 1838 the territory of Iowa was divided from the territory of Wisconsin, and the next week this county was named Washington instead of Slaughter, and a commission was appointed to locate a county-seat, as heretofore stated. The land for a county-seat had to be entered, surveyed and platted, and a sale of lots ordered. The old board of commissioners, Joseph Neil and J. B. Davis, met at Richard Moore's, May 5, '39. to do this, and also divide the county into election precincts, as follows :
I. East Fork, townships 74 and 75, range 6, election at J. W. Neil's.
2. Crooked creek, township 74, range 7, at Holcomb's.
3. Skunk river, all country south of that river, election at Orson Kins- man's.
4. Walnut creek, country between Skunk river and center of prairie between said river and west fork Crooked creek, election at Robert Risk's.
5. Washington county between center of prairie between Skunk river and west fork of Crooked creek, and center of prairie between west fork
CITIZENS SAVINGS BANK AND WEST SIDE OF PUBLIC SQUARE
MASONIC TEMPLE AND NORTH SIDE OF PUBLIC SQUARE
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aforesaid and English river, elections at Washington.
6. English river, elections at S. P. Teeple's.
These precincts are tell-tale of the settlements in the bush, on the water courses. Every body was on the water wagon, as it were.
The regular time to hold territorial and county elections was the first Monday in August, and the first officers to serve under the new organization were to be elected in August, 1840. The twenty-five judges of election got one dollar a day, each. Nathan Baker was chosen probate judge, D. Goble treasurer, Reuben Hiatt commissioner, J. B. Davis surveyor ; commissioners, Richard Moore, S. P. Teeples, Morgan Hart.
The board ordered the town site to be entered at the land office, and it was done October 15, '39, and a sale of lots was advertised for August 19 and 24, to raise the financial wind, and twenty-four lots were sold at an average of thirty-eight dollars and fifteen cents, amounting to nine hundred and fifteen dollars and fifty cents. The yellow brick corner, fifty-four dollars ; Hotel Colenso corner, seventy-two dollars ; Temple corner, sixty-nine dollars ; Klein corner, sixty-eight dollars; First U. P. church lot, thirty-one dollars. This meeting, unless it be the ordering of the election of the board, was the first movement of the cranks, pulleys and horse or other power of the civic machine.
City Credit Low .- When the county-seat was located, the board could hold the site only by pre-emption under United States law, and for title give a bond for a deed. They had to borrow money on their own personal liabilities. Capitalists had so bad an opinion of the poor town, they would not loan it money, though only two hundred dollars was needed to get title from the government. The board borrowed at twenty per cent, and had to go outside, at that, and as the law allowed but ten per cent, the other ten had to be made up by private subscription, and the members of the board paid the most of it. It ordered a second sale of lots June 16, 1840, one-fourth cash, the rest in three installments of six, twelve and eighteen months. Twenty-eight lots were sold for eight hundred and sixty-one dollars, the highest, fifty-four dollars, for the present Crail corner, and the average price was thirty dollars and seventy-five cents. Later buyers obligated themselves to build a good frame house not less than sixteen feet square on each lot, by June 16, 1841.
Court House .- On September 7. 1839, the board ordered the erection of a temporary court house, and James Neal contracted to build it for seven hundred and fifty-nine dollars. on Chilcote's corner, now Cook & Sherman. It was to be eighteen by twenty-eight, two stories, the lower one nine feet, the upper seven, joint shingles, weather-boarded with black walnut floors oak or walnut planks, one panel door below, and two batten doors above, one twenty-
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four-light window, four fifteen-light windows, and four twelve-light, the upper story to be partitioned in the middle for offices. All to be plastered. It was finished Jate in July, '41, and he was docked one hundred dollars. First court held there in November of that year. It was a very eclectic building. All church folk met there, turn about, and schools "took up" in it; it was town hall, tailor shop, offices of clerk, recorder and surveyor, and it was used several years by all peripatetic preachers, lecturers, showmen, freaks, fakirs and phrenologists fumbling heads at so much per skull. There was an out- side stairs on the east. It lasted till 1848, when it was moved to the north of town and humiliated into a stable.
Quincy Adams said the first session of court was held in his house, but was he here then? It is also said that court No. 3 was held here June 17, 1839. no bills found, no cases for trial, no jury. In '40, grand and petit juries are reported, and most of the bills found were for liquor irregularities
Road Districts .- On April 7, 1840, the board divided the county into road distriets, each surveyed township to be a district, and there were only seven in the county. At the July meeting, the board re-districted the county into voting districts, viz. :
I. Crawfordsville, the township of Crawford: 2. Long Creek, or Ore- gon ; 3. Washington, the township: 4. Crooked Creek, present township of Marion ; 5. Brighton, a small part of present Brighton and all of Clay ; 6. Richland, what is now Richland in Keokuk county : 7. Walnut Creek ; 8. Dutch Creek, same as township ; 9. English River ; 10. Iowa, the present township, plus Highland and part of Fremont township in Johnson county ; It. All west of English River; 12. Lime Creek, the present township and most of Cedar and Seventy-six. In April, '41, English River precinct was somewhat changed.
Ferries .- As there were no bridges, the board licensed, for two dollars, ferries to ply in high water at these fixed tolls: Footman, six and one-fourth cents : horse or mare, twelve and one-half cents; single horse and wagon, twenty-five cents; double, thirty-seven and one-half cents; each additional horse, twelve and one-half cents; live stock, any kind, six and one-fourth cents per head, drivers included ; yoke oxen and wagon, thirty-seven and one- half cents ; additional yoke, twelve and one-half cents: but this vexatious thing did not last long. Wm. Pickerel, T. J. Gordon and Thompson Dray ran ferries.
Jail .- Sin entered in, and we had to punish. Bids for a jail were opened in June, '41, and contract let to Alex. Lee, J. B. Davis and Thomas Baker. This bastile was to be a hewn log affair, two stories, sixteen by eighteen, lower story of double strength, and as solid as possible, the space between the walls
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six to eight inches, to be filled solid with broken stone the size of macadam ; ceiling of hewn logs lying close together ; the upper story a single wall thick- ness of logs ; to cost one thousand and eighty dollars. Town orders should pay nine hundred and eighty-four dollars, and two town lots to count as thirty-six dollars. The lower room lined on the sides, ends and bottom with two-inch solid white, black or burr oak plank, spiked on with double ten-penny nails, four to the square foot in floor, and intermediate spaces in floor filled with six-penny nails, one to every square inch. The sides and ends to be spiked on with double-pennies, three tiers spiked to sides from bottom to top, viz., ends and middle of sides and ends, thirty-three spikes each. Floor to rest on tiers of hewn logs put together as overhead. Stairs on the north side, on outside reaching to a platform on a level with the upper floor, the only door to the building. In the middle of the upper floor a hatchway was cut, big enough to let a man go down on a ladder to the ground floor, and then the elevator was pulled up, and the poor devil left to his reflections, and to chew remorse if he liad no tobacco or gum. Narrow grates could be opened for a feeble circula- tion of air, but the dungeon was dark, and the inmates could not see the land- scape, and had no company but the ghosts and hobgoblins their imaginations created. "Leave hope behind, all ye who enter here," wrote Dante on the lintel to the door to hell. "Leave air behind, ye who go chuck into this black limbo where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth," seemed to be engraved on the wall of this piece of architecture, only one could hardly read it in the gloom. The board was not malicious or cruel afore- thought, but they were shy on ideas of hygiene. A prisoner would exhaust the vital air in ten minutes, and suffer in that bath of carbonic acid gas like a mouse in an air-pump. The fact of that beastly black hole is a stain on our history. It must have smelled as loud as a menagerie and Noah's ark. Neither was Noah up in ventilation. The report that this was our second jail is no doubt false. C. J. Wilson has the big key to this bastile.
The sale of town lots paid for both jail and court house, without the levy of a cent of tax. This jail stood on lot 3 block 8, east of Sanford's livery stable, north of the square, and faced north. Bad crooks lodged below, trivial offenders above, and there was an occasional jail-delivery. Court once or- dered a lot of rowdies into the upper room ; toward morning they got out, but they waited for the jailer to come, when they impressed him into a bear dance with them, and so they discharged the contempt of court with a dose of impu- dence. After twenty years this bastile was declared a nuisance, and court ordered it removed. Everson tore it down.
Public Square .- The board, in October, 1841, contracted with Albert Sturges, for seventy dollars, to enclose the commons with a board fence, posts
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of white oak, six feet apart, four feet above ground and two feet in the ground, and one entrance gate in the middle of the south side. Not finished by April 1 ; his time was extended till July 1, but the job was never done, but why ? will never be known. It remains one of the secrets lost.
The Trail of the Serpent .- The board, though composed of men who, later, became strong prohibitionists, granted liquor licenses to W. B. Thomp- son and John Cameron here, and others, at twenty-five dollars per quarter.
Mill and Fishery .- In 1840, Matthew D. Ritchey, Sr., built a saw mill on Crooked creek, on the site of the McFarland mill, three and a half miles south-east of this city. Most of the oak and walnut lumber for houses here was got out there. Later, he added machinery for carding wool, the first concern in the county, and it was kept busy. The dam arrested fish coming up to spawn, and it was a favorite resort for men and boys, using spears and clubs, and torches by night, and doubtless the first Ananias club was formed there-lying about the size and weight of the catch, especially of the big fish that got away. Imps would kick fishes into the moonlight, and the violet rays corrupted them. A fish simmering in moonshine is not a moonlight sonata. You know what the bait was. It had to be corked, but not to float, nor did it look a bit like a section of the prohibitory constitutional amend- ment. When there was a run of hoop-mouthed mullet or suckers, boys played shinny with 'em on the riffles, and the dull-thud blows sounded like the falls of Roosevelt's big stick.
Post Offices .- Probably the first one in the county was "Marcellus," at Holcomb's mill, in '38 or '39. At an early date there was an office at Amboy, a mail by stage from Muscatine to Oskaloosa. Albert Allen was the first post-master at Clay, and later the Meachams and Morgans kept the office some sixty years. The first office in Crawford was kept by Mr. Prather, and but one letter came in the first delivery, addressed to Mrs. Caldwell Neal. She seemed to have the price, twenty-five cents postage. An office was opened near Washington in the fall of '38 or spring of '39, Thomas Baker, postmaster. Mail came from Wapello every fortnight, carried on foot by J. H. Higbee, in his pockets, hat and a meal sack. It was providentially arranged that as almost no one had the price, few letters came. Thus, in the first delivery, there were but three letters. One was for Jonathan Wilson, and as it was not from his girl, it was not worth twenty-five cents. Other- wise with John S. Reeves-he got one of the three from his sweetheart way back east, wishing to follow the star of empire, but, alas ! he had no silver, so he worked for a farmer all one day and walked eight miles to redeem the precious missive, and he covered it with kisses, the silly old thing! Still, it was worth all the stress, John said, and he was an expert. Wm. Basey
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COURTHOUSE IN PUBLIC SQUARE, WASHINGTON Erected in 1847. Vacated and torn down in 1868
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claimed to be the first post-master in Washington, and John J. Jackson was his deputy, in '39. The first mail came March 10 of that year. In the early forties, Norman Everson was post-master, and carried the mail around in his capacious hat, and delivered it casually as he met people on the street. No one was in a hurry in those days ; they had all the time there is. That humorist had a deal of fun tantalizing folk about love letters. Franklin did not get an office till about 1858, at Alonzo Waterman's house. Highland had an office in 1848, on section 5. C. G. Maynard, post-master. In '59 an office on section 28, by Robert Prettyman, and her last office was White Ash, section I, by Montgomery Clark, grandson of the first settler in the township. It was discontinued when rural delivery came in. Yatton had an office in '41, N. P. Cooper, master. Before that, people in that region went to Iowa city or to Washington. The records are silent as to any more offices.
Second Court Honse .- The board contracted with Alex. Lee for a brick court house in the public square, in February, '45, and it was finished in July, 47. Agreement and specifications are lost. He was docked fifty dollars on the cupola and one hundred and ten dollars on the rest.
Rare Extravagance .-- The board must have had some trouble, for they em- ployed an attorney at an annual salary of twenty-five dollars a year.
Man on Horseback .- The old board of commissioners was superseded in 1851 by a county judge, Enoch Ross, incumbent. The system was true one- man power, centralization with a vengeance, but it was not a bit abused by that honest, candid man. This officer's say was final in settlement of claims against the county ; he located roads, levied taxes, built bridges, erected court house and jails. The system worked well, and the trust was not betrayed, in more than one case in the whole state. Those old settlers were honest. Judge Ross' administration had been so good, clean and sensible, that when the system gave way to the board of supervisors of fifteen members, one man from each township, on January 1, 1861, the judge was promoted to the chairmanship of the board. The other elected members were B. H. Wilder, Clay ; D. W. Cauffman, Brighton ; Evan Park, Marion ; M. Moorhead, Craw- ford ; James Stewart, Oregon ; D. W. White, Franklin; W. S. Hamilton, Seventy-six; Marshall Goodspeed, Cedar; Alex. Gibson, Jackson; Geo. Means, Highland ; Thos. M. Moore, Iowa ; Robt. M. Calister, English River ; S. A. Waters, Lime Creek ; John Rheinart, Dutch Creek. They met January 7, 1861. The board was too cumbrous-too much talk-two or three men really did all the work, and the rest-visited. It was a Gabfest. It was wise, many years later, to reduce the number to three men.
After they got pretty well organized, what did the old settlers do? Built another saw mill. Went to grist mill-and waited. Went hunting bee trees
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and wild honey that is always tame. Went hunting game worth while. Or, rather, did not have to "go." Game came up to smell the muzzle of their guns. Quincy Adams said it was not uncommon to see forty to fifty deer within a radius of a mile from Washington. He would kill three or four every time he left his shop. When snow was on the ground, he would hitch a slain deer to his horse's tail, and scoot, and keep on adding deer to his string, deer tied to deer, tandem, and he would snake them into town! What a president of an Ananias club, that gifted man!
Michael Wilson, himself a great hunter, said Jesse Ashby was the most skilful Nimrod he ever knew. Jesse had killed more deer hereabout than could be packed into the public square, and bears no end. Whatever he fired at was his mutton. And Morgan Hart said he saw Jesse walk straight up to a wild deer, wrapped in a white coat, his head drawn down to his shoulders, and walk so evenly that the deer took him for a stump, and, I suppose, let Ashby present his visiting card. O, ring off, before I lose my natural faith in my fellow men. David Goble hunted and trapped weeks and months at a time, even going up the Iowa river for beaver.
And, then, the amusements. The old settlers had more fun than we have now. And several men were phenomenal as reapers of fun. I have never been able to decide which one of the old settlers whom I chanced to know, had the most fun every day, whether Jonathan Wilson, or Caleb Cleaves, Captain Moreland, Clark Conger, Lyman Whitcomb, Reeves, or Everson. On the whole, it is safe to give the cap and bells to Jonathan. When he lounged in Chilcote's store, slipped down in a chair and sat on his fifth verte- bra, his heels up high on the stove, a vast cube of plug in his mouth, and dropped into Indian stories and patois, and laughed in convulsions, and, with a face broader than long, exclaimed in his peculiarly soft, caressing voice, "Puckachee, che-mo-ke-mon, fetch back them wap-a-col-ons," (water mel- ons ), and landed a thirteen-inch shell of nicotine far away, I thought no man on the planet could have such another tickle aboard his anatomy.
Yes, I shall give the belt to Jonathan. When the simple hearted good old man was on his death bed, and he knew he was doomed and accepted it kindly, the minister, Dr. Chilcote and a relative called in the sick chamber. Of course, the clergyman had to talk shop a bit, and asked Jonathan if he were prepared and resigned, and all that, and the patient said, "yes, that is all right, I have no fears," etc., then turning to the doctor, with a broad grin he said, "Doc, I have had a lot of fun, haven't I?" It was so natural and character- istic, they were inwardly convulsed, but to save appearances they had to wait till they were out doors before daring let the tickle explode.
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A somewhat similar speech was made to me. many years ago, by John Rheinart. His life had been full of bonhomie. He had been reciting the good and gay times he had had in Europe and in America, the barricade fight- ing he as a conscript had been obliged much against his will to do in terrible tright, in the streets of Paris, the plays he had seen, the music he had heard there, and all that round of art, beauty, and jollity and revelry, and, drawing a sigh out of his cigar, he said, "when I am dead, and folks come up to my coffin to take a last look, I want no man to stand there and muse and say, 'poor devil, he never had any fun.' " I do not think any one who knew them well, would make a denial in the case of either Jonathan or John.
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILPEN FOUNDATION
ANSON MOORE Settled at Brighton in 1841
GEORGE W. FORMAN Settled in Brighton in 1841
L. B. FLEAK Came to Brighton in 1854
ISRAEL I. FRIEND Came to Brighton in 1840
REUBEN ISRAEL Settled at Brighton in 1847
WILLIAM G. ISRAEL Settled at Brighton in 1846
CHAPTER VII.
TOWNSHIPS IN DETAIL.
In a dream, the pioneers appeared in a cloud full of cherubs, to protest against compressing their period between the years 1836 and 1841, and to give good reasons for extending it to 1846 when Iowa became a state. They looked so like angels and "clouds of witnesses," that I accepted their amend- ment, only qualifying it by saying that the years from 1841 to '46 were dis- tinctively the formative period, when constitutions were adopted, churches organized, school houses built, etc. Many men of the greatest importance in the development of the county and city came from 1840 on. .
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