USA > Iowa > Buena Vista County > Past and present of Buena Vista County, Iowa > Part 8
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This opened a chapter of county history which may be called the County Seat War, and which in importance deserves a separate chapter.
THE COUNTY SEAT WAR.
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In 1858. shortly after the organization of the county, Judge Asahel W. IInbbard of Sioux City appointed a committee consisting of D. Carr Early of Sar City, John Kindlespeyer of Clay county and a Mr. Sauter (his first name cannot be ascertained) to locate a county seat for Buena Vista county. The only settlement of any consequence at that time was along the river at the Sionx Rapids and after some deliberation ten avres in the northwest quarter of the northeast quarter of section 18, Lee township. was selected. This location was about one mile sontheast of the present site of the town of Sioux Rapids. The county seat was called Prairieville and some of the old maps show it by that name. No courthouse was erected and but few buildings ever graced the site of the county's capital.
In January, 1869, a petition was presented to the board of supervisors to relocate the county seat on section 7. the description of the site being "on the northwest quarter of section 7. township 93, north range 36, forty rods north of the southeast corner of the northwest quarter, thence sixteen rods west, thence ten sonth, thence sixteen east and thence north to place of beginning." Richard Ridgway presented a deed for a bond and the board voted to accept it. It was obviously the only thing to do. The old site of the county seat failed to attract the then growing village to the location designated eleven years before, hence the board wisely moved it to the village.
Block 12 of the village was given to the county for courthouse purposes and in 1869 a contract was let for the first courthouse. Prior to that time the various officers had conducted the business of their office at their homes and the board met at private residences or in a hall or store room in the village. It was inconvenient and unsatisfactory and the needs of the county plainly demanded something better.
The contract called for "a building twenty-six by thirty-six feet, two stories
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high ; three rooms, a hall and two stairways on the first floor and a court room. a smaller room, two stairways and a hall on the second floor." But with the letting of the contract the troubles of the board were not at an end. Aggrieved citizens secured an injunction writ from the district court and proceedings were stopped until a hearing was had. At the May term. 1870. the injunction was dissolved and the contractor. N. W. Condron, proceeded to erect the county capitol, at a cost to the county of about five thousand dollars.
About this time occurred the robbery of the county treasurer which furnished excitement for a time. Inbbard Sanderson was treasurer and he had his office in a small room built to his home. The books and money of the county was kept in a desk, which, we believe was one ordered years before when in the writing of Abner Bell. elerk of the board. it is noted that "the board makes an order for the clerk to get Richard Ridgway to make two desks, as students, only larger. with draws and dores to lock ; one for the clerk and one for the treasure." This ancient desk was broken open by some one who foreed his way into Sanderson's office and all the funds of the county were taken away, something over three thousand seven hundred and eighteen dollars and ninety cents being stolen. A settlement with Sanderson disclosed that his indebted- ness to the county was over three thousand dollars, but a settlement was effected at two thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. The board then purchased a new iron safe at a cost of eleven hundred dollars and the funds of the county, in the hands of a new treasurer. L. A. Clemons, reposed in comparative safety.
But the sonth half of the county, which was settling up rapidly, was not satisfied with the location of the courthouse and county seat at the extreme north end of the county and accordingly. at the September meeting of the board of supervisors, in 1872. a petition was presented by the citizens of Newell V asking that the county seat be relocated in that ambitious town. At the same time Storm Lake presented another petition asking that the county seat be removed there and a three cornered fight ensued. Sioux Rapids pitted the ambitions of Newell and Storm bake against each other and the election held that fall resulted in a defeat of the removal project.
The matter shumbered again for four years but in 1876 it was again brought up and again defeated. The politicians at Sioux Rapids were a wily set. They held out glowing promises to the people of Alta and Newell, pledging themselves that if the county seat were to be removed all of the influence of Sioux Rapids and the north half of the county would be exerted to have it located at either or both of these places. The relocation again failed.
In 1878 it was again taken up. On the 1st day of January, 1877, the courthouse was burned to the ground and with it all of the records. save those of the board of supervisors. A motion to rebuildl was lost, and the board of supervisors rented temporary quarters for the officials. Later in the year a small building was bought for use of the county officials, court being held in the schoolhouse.
In the spring of 1878 a petition was presented, signed by residents from the south part of the county. asking the board to again submit the question of removal. With the petition, came a proposition from some of the citizens of
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Storm Lako, who had formed themselves into a building association, and was as follows :
"To the County of Buena Vista in the State of Iowa: The Storm Lake Building Association of Storm Lake, having procured a lease to the southwest quarter of Block sixteen in the town of Storm Lake aforesaid. for the purpose of erecting a building thereon to be used for Court House and Couneil Room purposes for a period of ten years hereby tenders to said county, free of charge, a lease of said premises and of the building now being erected thereon for a period of ten years, subject to a lease of the court room of said building for conneil room purposes when not required for court or county purposes and subject to forfeiture in case said building is not used for courthouse purposes within one year, or in case said county shall erect a permanent courthouse before the expiration of said lease. Said lease to be delivered on or before October 1. 1878, to a custodian to be designated by the board of supervisors.
"A. R. McCartney, President.
"H. Applington, Secretary."
The proposition was at once accepted and a member of the board of super- visors was selected to accept the custody of the lease. At the fall election the question of relocating the county seat was again submitted, for the third time, and Storm Lake won an overwhelming victory. the vote standing: For Storm Lake, nine hundred and eight ; for Sioux Rapids, two hundred and six.
The board of supervisors met the week after the election and on the first day. October 14, 1878. took up the matter of canvassing the vote. After investigation a resolution was adopted that, "whereas the question of relocation of the courthouse has been submitted to the people as provided by law, and the vote has shown in an unmistakable manner that the people are for the removal. it is the sense of this board that the matter be at once certified in the proper manner and as soon as convenient the transfer of the county effects be made."
The hour for which Storm Lake had so long been waiting had come at last and the people were ready. The very next day men and teams went over to Sioux Rapids, armed with an order of the board, to remove the records, furni- ture and effects. It is duly recorded in The Storm Lake Pilot that William Harris and Henry Hanks took their teams over to haul the forty hundred pound safe, in which the treasurer kept the county funds, and Messrs Cummings, Stanton, Tuller, Okey. Smith and McCartney took other teams to bring over the furniture and records. Many other Storm Lake citizens accompanied the caravan to guard the county property and to see that everything was properly handled and brought over in safety. The committee feared resistance from the Sioux Rapids people who were loth to see the courthouse go. As a peace offering two barrels of apples and other refreshments, not catalogued, were taken along. The removal was effected without incident, but no assistance was offered by the Sioux Rapids and no welcome was extended to the jubilant Storm Lakers. If the peace offering was accepted it is not of record. The effects were loaded and hauled down to the new courthouse, and not until
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everything was safely under roof did the Storm Lake people heave a sigh of relief.
The Sioux Rapids people resented the removal for a while, but they were not the sort to sit down and mourn over something that could not be helped. They at once set about to build a good town and how well they succeeded may be seen in the well kept, prosperous community that graces the Little Sioux Valley today. The railroad came through soon after and that was of far more importance than any county seat fight.
THE GRASSHOPPERS.
Every new country has its time of travail. when the settler doubts the wisdom of his determination to seek a new home. In some it may be dronth and in others floods. But in Buena Vista county it was grasshoppers.
As will be remembered the great tide of immigration came in 1869 and 1870. For three or four years after that, settlers continued to come, and they were as a rule poor but ambitious to make a home in northwest Iowa. The land was fertile and the efforts of the pioneers were being rewarded by bonnti- ful crops. Everything seemed propitious when in the summer of 1876 there descended from the clouds a pest that reduced the county to want and the song of plenty to a wail of penury. It was the locust, the grasshopper. Many regarded it as a Divine visitation, recalling the seven year loensts of Biblical times. But no matter what it might be. it was here in deadly earnest, devour- ing everything that was green.
Old settlers remember the time the sconrge came. It was on a bright sumner day, but the sunlight was obscured by the cloud of flying insects. An eye witness deseribes it as follows:
"I remember the year they came as well as I remember what happened yesterday. They struck my place a little before noon, without any warning. At first a dim haze, like an approaching snow storm, was observed in the west. and a buzzing sound was heard all around. Then, suddenly, the air was filled with flying 'hoppers' and the sun was darkened. You could tell where the sun was, as through a cloud of smoke, but that was all. All you could see was the white wings of the 'hoppers,' and look where you would it was the same in all directions. A man could not stand out of doors and look toward the west so thick was the cloud of insects coming from that direction. The corn was just beginning to tassle ont but all there was left to tell of the corn field at night was the bare stalks. Some was farther advanced, and tough, but the pests even crawled into the husk and ate the end of the surenlent cobs. A few of my neighbors had their grain ent, but those who were not so for- tunate needed no reapers when the 'hoppers' left.
I have seen them start into a fine field of grain in the morning and by night hardly a head was left. They did not attack the stalk at the bottom, but ate off the head. near the top. The stalk was not injured, and we could have
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plenty of straw, but no grain to speak of. The fields that were ent were of course not molested. but as they came early in the summer there were few who were so fortunate."
In the fall of 1876, it was on September 19th, a meeting was held at Storm Lake to devise means to kill off the pests and to prevent, if it was possible, a recurrence of the scourge the following year. Daniel Smith presided and B. F. Langdon acted as secretary. A list of the delegates, selected at public meetings of the farmers in the various townships, reads like a record of an old settler's gathering and is given for that reason. The delegates were:
Poland township, Walter Wells, S. Olney and James E. Carter. Lee, H. Sanderson, G. W. Struble and Gardner Clough.
Barnes, Ole Knudtson, William Sherman and Ole O. Brown.
Brooke, William Brooke, A. Snyder and D. Dailey.
Elk, S. T. Porter, Rev. A. Bradfield and M. V. Davis. Scott. L. C. Hadden, J. Wilcox, M. V. Henry.
Lincoln, E. Meddlicott, S. Ellis, Geo. Sweet.
Fairfield, Alpha Herrick, Nels Benna and J. C. Robinson.
Coon, M. D. Watkins, John Adams and Loraine Ellis. Grant, Hl. Fish. C. Il. Springer, John Crozier. Storm Lake, E. L. Carrington, J. A. Dean and Phil Schaller. Nokomis, George G. Espe, J. D. Adams and Hosea Bennett.
Maple Valley. Lemuel Gustine, C. II. Dailey and Jos. Peach.
Providence, O. Griffith, Pat Toohey and S. Shook. Newell, John Sauter, Chas. Goldsmith and A. F Crockett.
Various schemes were proposed, and the Board of Supervisors was finally asked to punish a strict order forbidding all prairie fires that fall under the pen- alty of one hundred dollars fine, for the reason that it was feared that if the prairie was fired that autumn the hoppers could not be killed out in the coming spring, while if the grass remained on the ground during the winter, and it was fired at a given time. when the grasshoppers eggs had been deposited and were hatching, countless of the young pests could be destroyed. This was done, and in the early spring following, the prairies were burned clean in all parts of the county. It may have had some effect, as the pests were not so destructive in 1877, but were bad enough.
The 'hoppers gradually disappeared. and were not seen again although they were expected back at the end of seventeen years. At intervals it would be reported that great floeks had been observed and the old settlers who had been through the grasshopper period would predict that they were returning, but happily they have not been seen in northwest Iowa since 1878.
The settlers depended upon their crops for a living and there were many scanty tables spread for more than a year. "I remember the grasshopper years well," an old settler said recently. "We had nothing but corn meal and corn meal products to eat for almost a year, and corn meal, corn dodgers, Johnny cake, corn meal mush and fried mush was our daily ration. You may not believe it but that year was the healthiest year I ever saw in our family. There
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were seven children and we throve on this rough, but wholesome diet. Mother was never at a loss to know what to prepare. as her menu was limited to a half dozen dishes."
Many plans were proposed for killing the grasshoppers and some were successful, but they were so numerous that it seemed that the best efforts put forth had little effect. One plan was to dig a trench about a field, filling the treneh with straw or slough hay. The 'hoppers would then be driven into this trench and when it was well filled men would fire the straw or hay with torches and thousands of the little animals would be destroyed. Another plan was to go out on cool mornings and fire every small pile of grass or straw. the 'hoppers were suseeptible to cold, and on chilly nights would creep into little bunches of dry grass, straw or hay, and when numb with the cold they could be burned up in large numbers.
Devices were patented to catch them, that were highly ingenious if not always a success. But they gradually died away and the efforts that were made to exterminate had but little effect. In her own time nature put an end to this, the most serious calamity that had np to that time visited the new country.
The situation was so grave that the General Assembly of Iowa in the win- ter of 1876-7 appointed an investigating committee which made a trip through the northwest part of the state that spring, and an exhaustive report was sub- mitted to the legislature. Ilon. George D. Perkins of Sioux City was a member of the State Senate from Woodbury county at that time and he was active in behalf of the settlers. A liberal appropriation was set aside in 1877 and that spring many farmers were helped to buy seed and to make another start to subdue the prairies and develop the state.
EARLY DAYS IN BUENA VISTA COUNTY.
Although Buena Vista county was settled in the year 1856 its population was small until the year 1869. The state census taken in the first half of that voar showed but two hundred and forty-two inhabitants, but it was the great homestead year of the county, and many decided in that year to make it their future home. A large proportion of these had been Union soldiers in the Civil war. This was due in part to the anticipated building through the county of the Iowa Falls & Sioux City Railway, now the Illinois Central, and to the public land available for entry under the United States Homestead Act. The Fed- oral Census of 1870 showed a population of one thousand five hundred and eighty-five.
A prospector who traveled through the county in September, 1869, from Sioux Rapids to Storm Lake found the former place to be a village of perhaps a dozen houses with a general store conducted by Gus Gilbert, John Halvorson and Henry Jacobson, and a sawmill operated by F. A. Blake. Halverson became county treasurer some years later and Blake became the first member of the
LAST OX-TEAM DRIVEN IN BUENA VISTA COUNTY-OWNED BY OTTO JENSEN, ALTA.
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general assembly from the county. serving as representative from it in 1872.
At the time in question there was no bridge across the Little Sioux river at Sioux Rapids, although a span had been constructed over the stream which rested on abutments to which there were no approaches.
The settlements at this time were chiefly located along the Little Sioux river in the north end of the county and in the south end near the prospective line of the railway. The central part of the county was a tenantless waste. there being no houses between a point three or four miles south of Sioux Rapids and Storm Lake.
Game was abundant and great herds of elk roamed the county so late as the year 1870. The citizens of Storm Lake ate meat of elk killed on the shore of the lake as late as that year.
A village consisting of one unfinished frame house used as a hotel, a tem- porary wooden strneture used as a store building and a few shacks and tents was located three-quarters of a mile southeast of the business center of the present town of Storm Lake. The hotel keeper was T. S. Smith and the proprie- tors of the store were T. S. Smith and his sons, James and Augustus. The frame house was afterwards moved half a mile westward, fitted up for a dwelling and occupied by C. E. Rawson and is now the home of R. Burnham. This is undoubtedly the oldest building in Storm Lake.
The railroad had been constructed westward from lowa Falls and eastward from Sioux City. but when the season of 1869 closed. the west end of the eastern part was but a few miles west of Fort Dodge and the east end of the western part was at Hazard, now Meriden. The failure to complete the road that season caused great hardship to the settlers who were compelled to haul fuel and neces- sary supplies from Fort Dodge or from the Chicago & Northwestern railroad in Carroll county. Many settlers burned slongh grass for fuel and ate muskrats for meat.
No other towns were started in the county until the next year when Newell was commenced. Alta was not started until the year 1872 and the other towns now in the county were not thought of until many years later.
There were a few homesteaders west and northwest of Storm Lake. D. B. Harrison entered land as a homestead a mile west of the lake in 1867 and was the first settler in that part of the county. In that year there was a considera- ble grove of quite large trees near the inlet at the west end of the lake, but they were soon ent down for the use of the settlers. The county was destitute of trees except in sheltered places along the Little Sionx river.
The prospector. G. S. Robinson, was so well pleased with the county that he decided to locate in the county to practice law. Returning to Sonix Rapids in January, 1870. he found two members of his profession in the field before him. One, R. E. Burns, had been a gallant Union soldier and bore the marks of severe wounds received in battle. He soon became discouraged and left the county in the autumn of that year, and his subsequent history is unknown. The other lawyer, D. C. Thomas, with David Evans, had become the owner of the northwest quarter of section 7, township 93, range 36, on which Sioux Rapids has been chiefly built, and platted it into town lots which were then being sold.
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Thomas remained in Sioux Rapids until about the year 1878 when he went to Watertown, now in South Dakota, where he settled and became prominent in county and state affairs. Ile served for several years as member of the state board of charities and correction, a body which has power and duties much like those of the Iowa board of control of state institutions. It is an interesting coincidence that the third lawyer was a member of the last named body at the same time.
In January. 1870, Sioux Rapids was the county seat, although without a courthouse and without any county office. The treasurer. Hubbard Sanderson, had his office in his home several miles from Sionx Rapids on the east side of the river near the Clay county line. Ole Johnson, the auditor, had his office at his home more than two miles southwest of Sionx Rapids. O. H. Dahl, clerk of the courts, had his office at his home one mile south of Johnson's and O. H. Storla, county recorder, had his office in his home half a mile southeast of Dall's. That home was a one roomed cave covered with earth and poorly lighted. The family, which included several children, lived in that room, the recorder's records were kept there, the recording was done there and the records were inspected to trace title or for other purposes in the same place. Ryan Hard was sheriff but had no office. This condition continued with little change until a substantial courthouse was built in Sioux Rapids.
For six years before 1870 Buena Vista county had been attached to Clay for judicial purposes. The General Assembly at the session of that year separated the counties and provided for holding courts in Buena Vista county. The first term of the district court was held May 5. 1870. in the house of George W. Struble near the eastern edge of the town. The house was a log structure of moderate size, but was sufficient for the purpose of the court as no petit jury was impaneled.
The grand jury met in a corn crib which stood near the cattle yard. but found no bills. The presiding judge was Henry Ford of Sioux City and the district attorney Orson Rice of Spirit Lake. The attorneys present were the three members of the local bar, probably Wilson & Dye of Sioux City and possibly two or three others. The business transacted was of a formal charac- ter and was soon disposed of and the court adjourned.
A Fourth of July celebration was held at Storm Lake. The railway had been completed from Fort Dodge and an excursion train brought in a large number of visitors. The exercises were held in a bower made of bushes and branches of trees eut on the lake shore and placed on a supporting frame. L. J. Barton was president and S. W. Hobbs orator. The day was fine and the celebration a success in every respect.
Three days later the two ends of the railway were joined at a point a short distance west of Storm Lake and the regular operation of trains was commenced.
August 11, 1870, lots in the town of Storm Lake were offered for sale and many were sold. Barton & Hobbs, real estate agents, purchased the lot at the corner of Lake avenue and Fifth street, now occupied by the First National Bank building, and moved onto it a small frame office building. W. W.
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Sweetser had commenced building on the corner lot immediately south of the Illinois Central depot on the site now ocenpied by the sanatorium. T. S. Selkirk at about the same time commenced the erection of a hotel on the property at the corner of Third street and Lake avenue now forming a part of the grounds of the Universalist church. The town grew quite rapidly and was soon doing a flourishing business.
In Angust of that year the county treasurer was robbed of about four thousand dollars in currency. An examination of the treasurer's accounts had been made, the money was deposited in a common wood desk fastened with an ordinary lock, easily broken, and stood in a shed roofed addition to the dwelling house. The room was unoccupied at night. The burglar had an easy task to open a window into the room, enter it, open the desk and remove the money. This affair resulted in the resignation of the treasurer and the ap- pointment of L. A. Clemons to succeed him. Sanderson made good the money. by turning over twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars in warrants, but it was afterwards. I believe, refunded to him. Clemons kept his office during most of the remainder of the year in the law and real estate office of Robinson & Dean, in Storm Lake, in the building on lot 6, block 14, now occupied as a marble shop. The office was then moved to Sioux Rapids.
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