USA > Iowa > Wright County > History of Wright County, Iowa, its peoples, industries and institutions > Part 7
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"(ORDER NO. 20.)
"State of Iowa,
"Wright County,
"Ordered by the court that O. W. MeIntosh receive the sum of sixty and 90-100 dollars for field notes and township plats, three ink-stands, three sand boxes, sand, two rulers, one box of wafers, one blank book, 250 envel- opes, one ream of Congress cap, three cakes of India rubber, one quart of ink, three calendars, two packs of envelopes, three paper-cutters, half dozen letter files, three weights for paper, one envelope box, one dozen elastic bands, one bottle of carmine ink for use of county officers.
"DAVID DEAN, county judge."
Order No. 158 was issued in July, 1857, to O. W. McIntosh for sixty- three dollars, "for writing and posting six copies of the delinquent tax list of 1856." This was indeed quite primitive, and no wonder the pioneers soon demanded a newspaper in which such items might be made public.
FIRST TREASURY REPORT.
The subjoined copy of the treasurer's balance sheet in 1857 contains a number of interesting points :
Received of O. W. MeIntosh, county funds
$322.48
Received from tax list of 1856 28.59
Received from tax list of 1857
102.79
Total amount $453.86
Paid out on county warrants 378.36
Balance on hand $ 75.50
Received state tax from list of 1856 $ 6.08
Received state tax from list of 1857 33.92
On hand (6)
$ 40.00
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WRIGHIT COUNTY, IOWA.
Received of school tax on list 1856 $ 7.30
Received of school tax on list 1857
25.50
On hand -$ 32.80
Received of O. W. McIntosh road money for Pleasant town- ship $177.63
Paid clerk of Pleasant township.
75.00
Received from list of 1856
7.30
Received from list of 1857
28.18
On hand
-$138.1I
-Recapitulation-
Balance of county funds $ 75.50
Balance of state funds.
40.00
Balance of school funds
32.80
Balance of road funds
138.1I
$286.41
Interest on delinquent taxes.
$ 7.05
FIRST WAGON ROADS LAID OUT.
Mention in the records of bills paid to Minter Brasfield for "running out a road north and south through the county" in the fall of 1855, at least some- time during the summer or fall of that year, apparently refers to the first highway laid out in Wright county. It is probable that this road was laid out while this section was yet within the confines of Webster county, as there is no record of its establishment in the books of Wright county. The first such record in Wright county is relative to a road asked for in the petition of Anthony Overacker in July, 1856, on which petition Henry Luick was ap- pointed commissioner. This road commenced at the southeast corner of the southwest quarter of section 6, township 93, range 23, or in what is now Pleasant township ; thence south to the southwest corner of the southeast quar- ter of section 31, in the same township; thence on south by the most prac- ticable route to Horse Grove, continuing in the same direction to the county line. This was the chief highway in early times in Wright county, as over it went all the travel from the Belmond country down the lowa valley to Allen, Iowa Falls and Webster City, and was locally known as the Belmond road. For many years this and the road laid out on the west side of the county by Major Brasfield were the only roads worked in the county, to any consid- erable extent, as the chief settlements were along the Boone and Iowa valleys.
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
It was but natural, however, that the citizens presently should demand better roads. The winter of 1857-58 was one of unusual and never-to-be- forgotten weather, intensely cold and marked by much snow, though not so much as in the previous winter. The snow drifted badly and all communica- tion was cut off with the outside world for months. Teams could not travel, so footmen went forth on their frequent expeditions for supplies and the mail. Hand-sleds were employed by the settlers, who sometimes went in company, and at other times alone. The following summer was the noted "wet season" in all western lowa. Settlers had to resort to every conceivable method by which to obtain food for their families. The impassable condition of the roads and the unbridged streams rendered the hauling of supplies so difficult that the people were compelled to subsist on what little corn they were for- tunate enough to raise, and with what they could laboriously draw in from farther south in the state, from the Boonesboro, Fort Des Moines and even the Ottumwa districts. For many months wheat flour was not seen in Wright county, hence the people had to live on cornmeal. There was only one corn-cracker, run by horse power, in the county. Some families were forced to resort to using the household coffee-mill, while others grated new corn on a rough tin grater made by punching nail holes through a tin can. Corn was used for bread, for mush, for every dish, in fact, that meal and water and milk would produce. But he it said, and kept in remembrance by later generations, that what one had, all had; for the people here, at that day, divided up with their neighbors with great generosity, and never turned away a stranger, all being ever welcome to eat such as the house afforded.
EARLY OFFICIM. BUSINESS.
Minute book "AA" of this county-a very small affair-does not give one the idea that officials desired to write long resolutions for the mere sake of showing their pretty penmanship on the pages of a record. They wrote only such things as were necessary, and always wrote to the point. For this rea- son the present-day historian has but little to draw from concerning the con- ditions that then obtained in the county government of Wright county:
Joseph T. Calder was elected county judge in August, 1857, and held office until the first board of county supervisors went into session the first week in January, 1861. Under the supervisor law each township in the county was entitled to one supervisor, making at that time a board of eight members. Order No. 87 was issued to John Melrose for "twenty dollars for
WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
room rent and preparing the same for the use of the district court, May term of 1858."
The only "soft snap" there seemed to be in county governmental affairs was the publication of delinquent tax lists, which must have been quite profit- able, inasmuch as at about that date Charles Aldrich and others in northwest Iowa, who were running newspapers, succeeded in getting a bill passed by which the state authorized the publication of such items, as well as the pub- lication of the session laws, in order, it was claimed, that the people might better understand what laws they were living under.
During the summer of 1858, County Judge Calder issued twenty war- rants, aggregating six hundred dollars, to D. E. Coon for publishing tax lists of 1856 and 1857. Coon was then publishing a newspaper at Mason City, being one of the pioneer printers of that place.
The record shows that on February 4, 1859, order No. 49 was issued to R. K. Eastman for the purchase of a safe in which to keep the public records, Uncle Eastman then being treasurer and recorder. He bought the safe at Alden and it was drawn over on sleds by four horses, under the direction of Edwin Ballon and others, and placed in the house of Mr. Eastman, at Horse Grove. Just before that date the treasurer's balance sheet showed the county had a balance of one thousand six hundred dollars, and order No. 50 reveals the fact that a box of Star candles had been procured for the use of the county officers, which some thought "putting on too many airs."
On August 31, 1859, orders aggregating two hundred and fifty-two dol- lars and sixty-six cents were issued to G. W. Rogers, the same being the first payment on a contract for the building of a bridge across the lowa river at Belmond. This seems to have been the first bridge constructed, either over the Boone or lowa rivers, within Wright county. About the same time war- rants also were issued for a bridge over the Boone in the west part of the county. Judge Calder was not a good accountant, and it is to be regretted that he did not present more details concerning his administration, which really covered a very interesting period in the county's history.
The county judge's record for April, 1860, shows the school apportion- ments for Wright county, by townships, to have been as follows: Pleasant township, $488.40; Eagle Grove township, $138.60; Iowa township, $60.90; Troy township, $382.80; Boone township, $329.43; Liberty township, $371.50, making a total of $1,780.33. In July, 1860, the road-tax apportion- ment was as follows: Vernon township, $200.08; Pleasant township, $437.37; Iowa township, $167.75; Eagle Grove township, $231.13; Troy township, $144.38; Liberty township, $206.43; Boone township, $228.34.
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WRIGIIT COUNTY, IOWA.
In May, 1860, the year before the Civil War broke out, stores were few and far between in this section of Iowa, and it is found that the judge granted a peddler's license to Frank Barton, a pioneer, who ran a two-horse peddling wagon over this country, selling notions and staples of wide variety, but all . useful in the household. His was the first "store on wheels" in Wright county. He found the enterprise profitable, and the settlers not only welcomed him, but, when they had money or produce to exchange for goods, dealt with hin1.
On August 6, 1860, on petition of Henry Luick and thirty-one other citizens, Pleasant township was divided and its western part formed into a new township called Belmond. Nothing special is recorded as having hap- pened during the Civil War period in Wright county, further than the enlist- ment of soldiers, an account of which is given in the military chapter of this volume. However, there were a few incidents and official acts of the county board of supervisors, who were sworn into office on the first Tuesday in Jan- uary, 1861, which will be read with no small degree of interest, though more than a half century has gone since the stirring events of those war days, when Wright county was an outpost of civilization-the real northern border.
THE FIRST BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
On January 7, 1861, the first board of county supervisors for Wright county convened at the old county seat at Liberty (now Goldfield). It was made up of the following township representatives: James Barton, of Troy township; S. B. Hewett, Jr., of Eagle Grove township; C. N. Overbaugh, of Liberty township; W. H. Gillespie, of Boone township; L. S. Hazen, of Bel- . mond township; Henry Luick, of Pleasant township; Robert Rowen, of lowa township; E. P. Purcell, of Vernon township. Henry Luick, of Pleasant township, was chosen chairman of the first board. Under the legislative act that created the office of supervisor, it was stipulated that each township should have one member on the board and that the clerk of the court should act, ex-officio, as clerk of the board of supervisors. Isaac Whited, of Pleas- ant township, had been elected clerk of the court at the regular fall election in the fall of 1860, hence became clerk of the first board of supervisors. The members of the various boards of supervisors are set out in full in the list of county officials presented elsewhere in this volume.
The county judge was now shorn of the most of his power and the board of supervisors had to formulate its own rules and regulations; for this really was the beginning of a new system of county government. These men were
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
all excellent men for the places to which they had been elected by the voters of the various precincts of the county. They felt the responsibility resting upon them and set about in a businesslike manner to lay well the foundation stones of a good and honorable local government. Immediately they adopted a code which of itself was the essence of simplicity : First, that motions may or may not be reduced to writing before being acted upon; second, no ques- tion shall be debated upon unless properly before the house; third, there shall be no interruption while a member is occupying the floor; fourth, a two-thirds vote shall be necessary to an adjournment, and, fifth, evening sessions shall be held when necessary.
Little did the members of this, the first board in the county, realize what a great responsibility was facing them, on account of the war that was to break out before their June session; but such responsibility they met manfully and performed their every known duty, as did their successors in office, until the terrible conflict between the states ended in 1865.
SOME EARLY ALLOWANCES.
The first board authorized its clerk, Isaac Whited, and the chairman, Henry Luick, to contract with the editor of the Hamilton Freeman, Charles Aldrich, of Webster City, for the publication of the minutes of the board of supervisors, and such other printing as might be required, providing the amount did not exceed two hundred dollars a year; also, that D. D. Chase, of Webster City, be employed as counsel for the board, at a salary of seventy- five dollars a year, excepting the June session.
There were only a few persons within Wright county subject to public care, and these were provided for by a resolution of the board, by being "kept" by the lowest bidders.
At the June meeting in 1861 the board passed a resolution to take stock to the amount of five hundred dollars in the Wright County Agricultural Society, one-half to be paid in August, 1861, and one-half in August, 1862. How this all terminated is set out in the chapter on agriculture in this volume.
At the session as above mentioned the board appropriated two hundred · and fifty dollars as part payment for publishing the delinquent tax list in the Wright County Free Press, when said publishers should have entered into contract with the county treasurer, binding theniselves to publish such list according to law, and when such publication was issued such an amount was to be paid to said publishers. Other provisions were made for publishing the
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
county treasurer's balance sheet and minutes of the board of supervisors in the same newspaper, which was published by G. D. Ingersoll.
"UNCLE HARRY" GILLESPIE'S RESOLUTION.
An odd resolution was passed at the above-mentioned session of the board-yet one which might well be passed in some townships in Wright and adjoining counties even at this day. W. II. Gillespie, a member of the board from Boone township, had served for eleven years in succession and all knew of his ability and strict integrity. The resolution here referred to read as follows: "Resolved that --- township be required hereafter to elect some one for assessor who is competent to tulfill the duties of the office."
On one other occasion, when a man presented a bill that had already been refused, "Uncle Harry" moved to "lay it on the table until 1900," forty years ahead.
It should not be overlooked that these were the early months of the great civil conflict, and supervisors were puzzled to know just how to proceed to manage the affairs of the county, then thinly settled, and at the same time aid the general government in carrying on the war. At a session of the board in the summer of 186t numerous resolutions were passed by the Wright county board, among which are one execpting from taxation the lands of persons who had enlisted for the war, until its close, and the treasurer was authorized to exempt such lands from the delinquent list. It was further resolved that the board extend sympathy and supplies necessary to aid the families of sokliers during the absence of their legal supporters.
Each member of the board was constituted a committee for his own township to inquire into the needs of such families and report to the board. and in conformity with this resolution various sums were apportioned from time to time for that purpose. In September, 1862, a fixed sum was stated- two dollars per month for each wife and one dollar per month for each child under fourteen years of age. It also was resolved to submit a proposition to the electors, at the next election, to raise a fund of three thousand dollars by taxation, to be known as a "volunteer aid fund."
A BOUNTY FOR ENLISTMENT.
In August, 1862, the board offered a bounty of one hundred dollars for enlistments and a number of persons enrolled under this act. In November. 1863, the act was renewed at a special session of the board, when it was
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOW.A.
desired to secure thirteen new enlistments to avert a draft, and later as much as three hundred dollars was offered for that purpose.
At the April session of the board in 1863 two very important petitions were presented, one by John C. Cowles, who had been appointed to fill a vacancy in the membership of the board from Belmond township, asking that the north tier of townships of Wright county be set off from Wright county and made a part of Hancock county. This petition, however, did not have a sufficient number of signers to give it much weight with the board of supervisors. The other petition was by Mr. Purcell. of Vernon township, asking that a sufficient amount of money be appropriated from the county treasury to purchase a quarter-section of land, at or near the center of the county, for the benefit of the county, and to be used as a county-seat of said county. The petition was granted, and N. B. Paine, E. P. Purcell and the clerk, George A. Mckay, were appointed a committee to locate said land and make a report at the October meeting. This committee purchased the eighty acres in the southwest quarter of section 31, township 92, range 24, the present site of the city of Clarion. . \ resolution to have this land improved by getting ten acres of it broken up was lost at the June session in 1864, but in September of the same year a petition was granted submitting a proposi- tion to the voters at the next election to change the county seat from its loca- tion at Liberty to the center of the county, and at the October election, 1864, the proposition was carried, the vote standing seventy for and forty-five against the measure.
COUNTY-SEAT CHANGED.
In January, 1865, a surveyor was employed to lay out and plat the south- west quarter of the southwest quarter of section 31, as above noted, and at the same time a resolution was passed donating a half block in the new town to each of five persons who should build a dwelling in the place not less than 18 by 20 feet. The members were divided on some of these measures, four voting in favor of moving the old court house from Liberty to the center of the county and four voting, at first, for the erection of a new court house, but finally compromised by allowing the people to settle the question at a special election on March 25 of that year. The propositions submitted were to move the old building and buildl additions thereto at a cost not exceeding two thou- sand dollars, or to erect a new building at a cost not exceeding six thousand dollars. The latter prevailed by the close vote of sixty-six to sixty-four. and at the April meeting of the board it was resolved to advertise for bids for the erection of a two-story frame building, thirty by forty feet, to contain
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOW.A.
four office rooms on the first floor and a court room on the second floor. These bids were to have been acted upon at the June session, but again the board was evenly divided, and it was not until October that an agreement could be reached as to plans and the appointment of a supervisory committee. At that time the plans of Gilbert Perry were accepted, and Messrs. Gillespie, Rowen and Purcell were selected as a committee on building. On November 4 the committee made a contract with Perry & Nees to furnish material and erect a building according to plans and specifications then on file for five thousand six hundred dollars, one thousand six hundred dollars to be paid when the contract was closed, one thousand dollars on June 1, 1866, and the balance upon the completion of the building, which should be November 1, following. + At the June meeting of the board in 1866 a committee was appointed to sell the old court house, which committee reported at the October session ( the last meeting ever had at Liberty ) that the old building had been sold to John (). Hanna for four hundred and fifty dollars, two hundred dollars in hand paid and the balance when deed of conveyance was made and possession given, and when the board adjourned at that time it was to meet at "Grant" on October 21 to accept the new building: but on that date, a quorum failing to appear, the business was deferred until the regular November meeting, when Perry & Nees' work was accepted and the contractors were allowed one hun- dred dollars for extra work performed on the job.
FIRST RESIDENCE IN CLARION.
At the November session just mentioned the board ordered the building of a stable fourteen by fifty feet, the same to be roofed with hay. A deed also was given to Gilbert Perry for one-half block of land, he having com- plied with the requirements and built a residence in the new town. Thus it will be noted that the court house was the first building erected in Clarion, and the first residence was that erected by Gilbert Perry, who was one of the contractors m the construction of the court house.
But at the April meeting of the board of supervisors in 1897 appeared Gilbert Perry, representing that he had lost on his contract for building the new court house for the county, and as "he had done a very satisfactory job," even better than specifications had called for, it was resolved to pay him two hundred and fifty dollars additional, thus making the entire cost of the build- ing five thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars.
In January, 1867, D. D. Miracle, an attorney of Webster City, presented a petition asking the board to equalize the bounties paid to soldiers who
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WRIGIIT COUNTY, IOWA.
enlisted from Wright county by giving each private two hundred dollars. He subsequently amended his petition by making it read one hundred dollars, but the board by a unanimous vote refused the demand.
In April, 1867, a contract was let for planting a row of cottonwood trees around the court house square, and the clerk was authorized to let a contract for breaking a strip ten rods wide on the west side of the town of Grant (now Clarion) for the purpose of planting a windbreak. Both of these contracts were faithfully fulfilled, as the stately trees standing there for many years attested.
TIMBER BOUNTIES.
·
In the June meeting of the board in 1867. the board passed the following resolution :
"Whereas, The scarcity of natural timber in this county is the greatest impediment to the speedy and permanent settlement of the same,
"Resolved, That the county offer a special inducement to the artificial growth of timber in said county, the sum of three dollars per acre for all land well and permanently planted to timber. Said amount to be shown by the census returns of the several assessors, the persons giving the same to be under oath, as when listing personal property.
"Provided. That no rows of shade trees, stockades, hedge fence, or trees planted for a windbreak around any building, or any timber now growing or planted be considered as coming under this resolution."
The following year the timber bounty was raised to five dollars the acre. and remained at that figure for three years, during which period many of the beautiful groves that now dot the landscape of this county were planted. It was, really, one of the wisest expenditures the county board ever became interested in. Whether one views and enjoys these trees in midsummer, when they afford a cooling shade, or in the dull, cold days of the winter months. when the violent winds sweep over this county, the trees are fully appreciated and add to the actual value of the farms a hundredfold what they originally cost. They are living, growing monuments to the good sense and fore- thought of the pioneers and the worthy board of county supervisors that offered the above-named bounties.
Other carly-day bounties offered in Wright county inchided such as a reward of from twenty to fifty cents each for sandhill cranes killed : twenty to thirty cents on pocket gophers; as high as five dollars on wolves and foxes, and fifty to seventy-five cents on skunks. This had a double result. It not only made such pests scarce in the county, but at the same time gave employ-
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
ment to the idle, who, in this manner, were able to gather in the dollars at a time when they and their families most needed them to provide the necessaries of life. The extra taxes levied in order to meet such bounties were never felt by the average tax-payer, and today the beautiful groves present a picture that the barren, treeless prairies could never have done without such tree planting. The county was fortunate in that its soil would produce stately timber from cuts and small trees, and even seed, whereas in the counties of North and South Dakota, where the government tree claim used so univer- sally to predominate, the soil was too poor and the dry weather there usually thwarted the plans of the tree planter, who only by persistence and hard work succeeded in getting more than mere shrubs or brush thickets; but in Wright county it was as easy to raise a tree as a hill of corn.
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