USA > Iowa > Buena Vista County > Past and present of Buena Vista County, Iowa > Part 9
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A notable event of this year was the establishment of the Storm Lake Pilot, the first number of which was published October 26, 1870. The first copy printed was sold at anetion to L. J. Barton for one hundred and six dollars. The proprietors of the paper were Colonel W. L. Vestal and his brother-in-law, S. W. Young. Colonel Vestal had a fine record as a soldier of the Civil war and was a versatile and strong writer and a broad minded man. His partner was well qualified to do the mechanical work of the press room.
The board of supervisors of the county entered into a contract with N. W. Condron on the 16th day of May. A. D. 1871, to build a courthouse in Sioux Rapids. It was to be twenty-six by thirty-six feet in size and two stories high. for the sum of four thousand nine hundred and forty-five dollars. The build- ing was constructed and occupied in October of the same year, and then for the first time the county had a courthouse adequate for the needs of the county.
Newell was laid out and lots sold in the year 1870. It proved to be an excellent business point, and a strong competitor of Storm Lake. A large share of the business of the two towns was drawn from Clay and Diekinson counties, both of which were without railroads for years after this time. Storm Lake was nearer by several miles to these counties but was without any estab- lished road northward. Newell had the advantage of an established and well traveled road which had existed along the Coon between Sae City and Sioux Rapids for many years. This advantage and certain enterprising business men and the active friendship of Sioux Rapids gave Newell the bulk of the trade from the north for a year or two, but in 1870 and 1871 Storm Lake men caused to be surveyed. established and improved the Storm Lake and Sionx Rapids road, and from that time the town obtained more of the northern trade.
The friendship of Sioux Rapids for Newell was not wholly disinterested. The people of Newell were entitled to friendship on their merits. but Storm
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
Lake had an overwhelming desire to seeure the county seat and in the year 1869 secured a vote on the proposition to move the connty seat from Sioux Rapids to Storm Lake. The movement was premature and failed. Under the law as it then existed the question of relocating the county seat could be submitted to the people only once in three years. In 1872 the people of Storm Lake presented a petition in its favor, but at the instigation of Sionx Rapids the people of Newell also petitioned for a removal to that town. Sionx Rapids and Newell joined in this movement to defeat Storm Lake, signing the Newell petition and a remonstrance against removal to Storm Lake. The board of supervisors was friendly to Sioux Rapids and Newell, and after a lively contest before the board of supervisors Newell won and the question of relocating the county seat at that place was submitted to the people at the general election. Sioux Rapids and its friends and Storm Lake and its friends voted against relocation and the proposition was defeated as Sionx Rapids had planned.
Three years later the same program was carried out. except that Newell demanded and obtained a written pledge signed by a large number of men living in or near Sionx Rapids that if the question of relocating the county seat at Newell were again submitted they would vote for it. Relocation was defeated and the election returns indicated that many of these signers ignored their pledge. This result discouraged the people of Newell from further attempts to secure the county seat. and it became evident that with proper efforts Storm Lake would win.
In the spring or summer of 1877 a mass meeting of the people of Storm Lake was held. a general committee of five citizens was appointed with instruc- tions to manage the campaign for the relocation of the county seat as they should deem best, and the citizens were to furnish the money and do the work asked for by the committee without question. The chief concern of the com- mittee was to secure officers favorable to the desired relocation and to make as many friends as possible for Storm Lake. It was decided that no one from Storm Lake or its vicinity should be a candidate for a county office, and that Storm Lake should support candidates from other localities friendly to it. Friends were se- enred in unsuspected places, and the plans of the committees were carried out loyally by the citizens of the town. A small amount of money for legitimate purposes only was used. The results were the election of the candidates supported by Storm Lake, a friendly majority of the board of supervisors and many new friends in desirable places. The great battle for removal was fought in that year. although the petition for relocation. the submission of the question to the people and the vote relocating the county seat were not to be until the year 1878. The result of the vote was an overwhelming majority for Storm Lake to which Newell as well as Alta contributed.
Preceding the election the people of Storm bake, at the request of Newell, incorporated the Storm Lake Building Association which built a city hall. thirty by thirty-six feet in size and two stories high, suitable for courthouse purposes, in the southeast corner of the courthouse square, and tendered it to the county rent free for a term of ten years. A conveyance of the courthouse
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
square to the county without cost to it was arranged for and these measures no doubt greatly aided to secure the relocation. The courthouse at Sioux Rapids was destroyed by fire January 2. 1877. and that fact and the necessity of re- building at a large expense to the county if the county seat remained at Sioux Rapids no doubt influenced the vote in favor of relocation.
When the vote was canvassed a delegation from Storm Lake was present to move the county records and other property of the county from the rented building which was being used as a temporary court house to the new court- house at Storm Lake. The delegation was provided with numerous refresh- ments of a temperate character for a social gathering to which the citizens of Sioux Rapids were invited and which they attended. Some of them volun- teered to help in the removal. The board of supervisors, on the 14th day of October. A. D. 1878. declared Storm Lake to be the county seat and on the next day the records and other property of the county were moved to Storm Lake without cost to the county. And thus the long contest ended with much better feeling than could have been expected.
Sioux Rapids had made a gallant fight to retain the county seat and its loss was felt to be a serious matter. For eight years the contest was waged and not an officer who would have any influence on the matter of relocation was elected during that time without reference to that question. It was the invariable issue not only in the election of county officers but of various district officers also. Some evidence of bitterness was seen in the election returns for several years, but the ill feelings which a prolonged county seat contest always engenders disappeared after a few years and the county is at peace. The existing courthouse was erected in the year 1888.
Something should be said of the great storm of 1870. The word "blizzard" was new then and many a settler then heard it for the first time, but it is an expressive word which contains a suggestion of the thing it describes. The storm in question commeneed before noon of March 14 and lasted three days. The morning was clear and pleasant and many settlers left their farms to go to the villages or for wood. Abont ten o'clock in the morning clouds appeared in the west and soon the storm broke in great fury. The air was filled with snow, the wind blew a terrible gale, and no one could see so far as across a street. It was dangerous to attempt to go from a house to a barn, and no one could make headway against the storm.
No fatalities in Buena Vista county are remembered, but there were many in northwest Iowa. In Clay county a man left home in the morning with his son about twelve years of age to procure wood near Gillet's Grove. When the storm came on he attempted to return home, but could not drive his ox team. llis son evidently became exhausted first as he was found frozen in a snow bank where the father had evidently placed him and not far away the father also was found dead. A station man on the Des Moines Valley railroad not far from Gowrie left his home to go to some building only a few yards away. but became lost and perished.
There was another similar storm early in January, 1877. and another about January 12, 1888, but no storm during the last forty years has equaled that of the great blizzard of March. 1870.
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
COAL.
In the year 1873 many people became firmly convinced that if a proper effort was exerted coal could be found in the county. The nearest mines were at Fort Dodge. Prior to the arrival of the railroad in 1870 the settlers hanled their coal from the mines, or burned wood, or slough grass, eorn stalks or even corn in the coldest weather. The fuel question was a hard one to solve and the newcomers in the south part of the county were in a difficult position. There was no wood to burn, as the nearest timber was on the river twenty miles away.
On December 13. 1873. a meeting was held in the depot at Alta, called through the Storm Lake Pilot. to discuss the coal proposition. Geo. G. Espe was chairman and H. T. Saberson secretary. The result of the discussion had at that time was the incorporation of a company to prospect for coal. The following month a similar meeting was held at Storm Lake and another company was incorporated there. The county board of supervisors took a hand in the matter and an offer was made to any person or corporation who would haul and deliver to the county at the courthouse in Sioux Rapids twenty tons of coal from a vein of given dimensions, within the county. the sum of five hundred dollars. The sum of two hundred and fifty dollars was offered for the second mine. the two to be at least five miles apart.
Although an effort was made to reap this reward it never was claimed.
It is interesting to know that thirty-five years later another corporation was formed at Lin Grove to prospect for coal, and is at work as this is written sinking shafts and making a systematic search for the precious mineral which is so necessary to the development of this country.
Geologists tell us there is no trace of coal, and no prospect that any is hidden away in our county, but perhaps the scientists are wrong in this conclusion.
A VIGILANCE COMMITTEE.
During the years 1869 and 1870 a number of horses were stolen in and abont Sioux Rapids and the situation becoming unbearable the settlers deter- mined to take matters into their own hands. A meeting was called at the Red schoolhouse, north of Sionx Rapids, in Clay county, which was attended by some of the Sioux Rapids people, at which a Vigilance Committee was organ- ized, with Samuel Mills, president ; David Watts, vice president ; Peter Dubois, treasurer and A. J. Duroe, secretary. Large hand bills were ordered and posted, bearing the inscription
"IIORSETHIEVES BEWARE!"'
and they did beware. The charter members were Samuel Mills, David Watts, Ephraim Sands, Peter Dubois. J. P. Mills, John Jones. Samuel W. Mills, Robert Jones, J. J. Duroe. JJesse E. Mills and W. J. Cinther, nearly all of whom resided in the south part of Clay county, near Sioux Rapids. The constitution
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
provided that all members should implicitly obey the president, and anyone refusing to do so, or to pay all regularly levied assessments was liable to permanent and disgraceful expulsion. It was the duty of each member to keep a minute description of his horses, the term horses also including mules. of which there were a few. Whenever a horse was stolen it was the duty of every member of the committee to at once leave his usual avocation and travel fifty miles at his own expense, in search of the thief. If he went farther he was to be allowed a reasonable sum for his services. If the horse was not recovered in ninety days the owner was paid for his loss by an assessment levied on all members. If it was recovered after payment had been made the animal was the property of the association.
The second meeting was held at the Struble Hotel at Sioux Rapids on October 5, 1870. and additional members were admitted, who were Abner Bell. T. G. Thomas. John Fancher, James Halkney, David Evans, John Watts, Francis Kidman. R. W. Thomas, Stephen Dubois. Thomas Evans. Gust Gilbert, John Halverson, and others.
The society had nothing to do for almost nine years, but in 1879 a horse was stolen from O. G. Tabor and excitement was rekindled again. A meeting was promptly called at Sioux Rapids on October 4, 1879. and the society was named The Sioux Rapids Vigilance Committee with headquarters at Struble's Ilotel. Among the new members admitted at that time were Daniel Tillett. G. W. Struble, Knudt Stennerson. O. G. Tabor, J. M. Hoskins, S. Olney, Sr., and Charles Cuthbert. The truthful historian does not say that Mr. Tabor re covered his horse.
When the country became fully settled the demand for the services of the committee disappeared and it died a natural death. This account was taken from a published report in the Sionx Rapids Press.
OLD SETTLER'S ASSOCIATION.
In 1875 and 1876 a number of the okl settlers at Storm Lako formed al Old Settler's Association, for mutual pleasure and profit. The only require- ment of membership was a residence in the county prior to, and inchiding, the year 1870. Several meetings were had and a pienie was held at Storm Lake in 1876, which was well attended. At this pienie a historical review of the county from the earliest date up to that time was read by Colonel Vestal, and addresses were delivered by Judge Robinson, Lot Thomas, J. D. Adams and others, but nnhappily they were never preserved.
The members of the Association, who signed the constitution, with their birthplace and date of arrival in the county were as follows :
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IHISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
NAME
BORN
CAME TO COUNTY
Gifford S. Robinson
Illinois
January, 1870
Edgar E. Mack
Vermont
May, 1870
M. D. Watkins
New York
May, 1869
Daniel Smith
New York
Angust. 1868
Thomas Whitely
England
September 13, 1868
J. A. Dean
Illinois
September 18, 1870
Adolphus Bradfield Jas. D. Adams
Pennsylvania
November 17, 1868
Leonard D. Sweet
Iowa
October 6. 1868
George F. MeKay
Maine
April, 1869
John C. Brown
England
April, 1869
James A. Hutchison
Pennsylvania
June 17, 1870
W. L. Vestal
Indiana
June 6, 1870
William Guilford
Massachusetts
-July 10, 1870
M. G. Gniflord
Scotland
September 10. 1870
Anna B. Guilford
Pennsylvania
September 10, 1870
William M. Reeder
Ohio
February, 1870
S. W. Yonng
Maine
September, 1870
James S. Smith
New York
May, 1869
George Currier
Maine
December. 1869
Adelia Currier
Maine
May, 1870
Lot Thomas
Ohio
August 28, 1870
J. E. Gustine
Ohio
April, 1869
W. W. Sweetser
New Hampshire
June 2, 1870
F. B. Browne
Canada
July 18, 1870
J. A. P. Harlan
Illinois
August 2, 1868
J. M. Russell
New York
Inne, 1870
S. W. Hobbs
New Hampshire
May, 1870
1. S. Greenleaf
Pennsylvania
February 28, 1870
Lucinda Greenleaf
Ohio
February 28, 1870
J. S. Darrah
New Brunswick
May 21, 1870
11. A. Darrah
New Brunswick
May 21, 1870
II. D. Sage
New York
March 18, 1870
L. J. Harvey
Ohio Illinois
December 7, 1870
Mare G. Perkins
April, 1870
WV. (%. Weddington
Indiana
April, 1870
C. Everett Lee
New York
March, 1870
Virginia
September 1, 1869
The Association did not hold any meetings after the pienie was held, as far as can be gathered from any of the members, and was not again heard of. IF it had been continued the history of the county might be far more complete.
VIEW OF THE LITTLE SIOUX RIVER.
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
TOWNSHIP DIVISION.
Prior to the year 1869 all of the county was included, for governmental and school purposes, in the township of Barnes, having been so created at the organi- zation of the county in 1858 and continued for eleven years. Three supervisors were elected from each township and they represented the county. In the fall of 1869 several of the citizens of the south half of the county, desiring to build school houses and establish roads, went to the county seat at Sioux Rapids to consult the supervisors and petition for the establishment of new townships in the south part of the county. This had already been contemplated and when the delegation arrived they found the board wrestling with the proposed division. A map was in course of preparation dividing the county into seven townships, and this division was adopted that fall and the elections held in October of that year were the first that had been held outside of Sioux Rapids since the organiza- tion of the county.
The townships created were Brooke. Barnes. Nokomis, Storm Lake, Lee, Poland and Coon. The three supervisors who then constituted the board came from the north part of the county and they knew that if they wished to keep control of county affairs the division must be made in such a manner that the southern townships would include more territory than those in the north half, as the law then provided that one supervisor be elected from each township. Another reason, aside from any selfish motive that might have actuated the board, was the fact that the population in the south half was small. while the settlers along the north line were comparatively numerous, good sized settle- ments being found along the Sionx river and at Pickerel Lake.
The boundaries and divisions of the seven townships, as adopted, were as follows :
BROOKE: All of the present township of Brooke, the north one-third of Elk. the west one-sixth of Barnes and sections 6, 7 and 18 in Scott, or fifty- seven sections.
NOKOMIS : All of the present township and the south two-thirds of Elk, or sixty sections.
BARNES: The east five-sixths of Barnes, all of Scott but sections 6. 7 and 18 and the north one-third of Washington, or seventy-five sections.
STORM LAKE: All of Maple Valley. Hayes and two-thirds of Washington, or ninety-six sertions.
LEE: The west two-thirds of Lee, all of Lincoln and the north two-thirds of Grant. or eighty-four sections.
POLAND: All of Poland. the east one-third of Lee and the north one-sixth of Fairfield. or fifty-four sections.
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
Coox: All of Newell and Providence, the south five-sixths of Fairfield and the south two-thirds of Grant, or one hundred and twenty-six sections.
Commissioners were appointed to condnet, and elections were ordered. at the fall elections in the townships as created. In Brooke. William Brooke was commissioner and his residence the polling place. In Nokomis J. D. Adams was commissioner and the election was ordered at his home. In Storm Lake the commissioner was Orson Lee and his home was designated as the polling place. In Barnes, the schoolhouse at Linn Grove was designated and George Sweet was commissioner. In Lee, schoolhouse No. 1 was the voting place with F. A. Blake as commissioner. In Poland. O. G. Brainard was commissioner and T. Magilton's home was the voting place. while in Coon, Addison Lee was commissioner and his home was used for election purposes.
Dr. Stephen Olney drew the map and planned the division of the county into the seven townships.
In 1871 a petition form the people of the north part of Nokomis township was presented the board asking that the congressional township now known as Elk be set off, and that the name it now bears be given the new township. This was granted and the first change in the original alignment was made. Fairfield followed in 1872. being set off from Poland and Coon townships. At that time ten voters were necessary to create a township and it was necessary to take one tier of sections from Poland. as then constituted. to make up the required number. Newell was organized in 1872 so as to inelnde township 90 in ranges 35 and 36, or the present townships of Newell and Providence as well. Coon was at the same time reorganized to inchide township 91 in ranges 35 and 36. Maple Valley was set off from Storm Lake township, and inelnded its present boundaries. in May. 1872; Grant was created from Lee township in Angust of the same year and Lee. as now defined, was set off at the same time. In the same year a new township was set off from Barnes and Brooke and was called "Emma." which name was afterward changed, in September, 1874, to Scott. Lincoln was set off in 1873.
Ilayes was established in 1877 and Washington in 1878, making the present divisions of sixteen townships in the county. In 1877 a petition was presented asking that township 91 in range 37 be set off in a township to be ealled "Whitely," but the prayer was not granted. A township was created called "Banks," but this was later reconsidered and nothing was done until the following year when Washington was set off.
THE COUNTY IN 1875.
In Andreas' Atlas of Iowa. published in 1875, a map of Buena Vista county may be found, which shows it in its primitive condition at that date. All of the county was settled, having been occupied in the south half for five or six years. There was not a quarter section at that time that was not taken by homesteaders or settlers. Small "shacks" or sod honses ocenpied every
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
(marter section. and the ground was being tilled and improved. A traveler over the prairie might believe. if he knew no better, that the conntry was covered with small mounds, from which the smoke of internal fires arose. These were the homes of the inhabitants, at least of a great many of them.
In order to erect one of the frontier homes, the builder would first dig down a few feet. putting in a series of steps leading to the front door. A frame would! then be put up, and on all sides of this, and even on the roof, would be placed fresh cut sod, securely and closely fitted. One or two small windows furnished light to the interior. and these were the homes in which hundreds of people lived for years. The more pretentious would in this day seem ernde and rough. but they were all that could he had. Almost every one was poor and struggling to support his family. as the "broken" prairie did not yield the generous reward that was afterward gathered when improved methods were introduced.
The map above referred to shows fifteen townships. IIayes was not set off until the following year, but was included in Storm Lake township, which also included four tiers of sections in Washington. Brooke included in addition to the congressional township of that name one tier of sections in Barnes. Barnes thirty sections in the present township and one tier of see- tions in Scott. and Scott the five south tiers of sections of the present township and twelve sections on the north side of Washington.
The towns shown were Newell. Storm Lake and Sioux Rapids, which were then ambitions, struggling and exceedingly jealons communities. Alta was platted in 1872 but did not arrive at the dignity of a town until some years later.
On section 34 in Lee the postoffice of "Menoti" was located. and at one time it was thought a town would be platted there. There is some authority for the statement that a plat did exist. and that lots had been sold in the east for the future metropolis of the county, but it cannot be verified. This town was on the Sioux Rapids-Newell road, the principal highway in the county at that time.
Schoolhouses were then beginning to dot the landscape, and there were located in the county the following :
Brooke township. on sections 6, 12 and 30.
Barnes, on sections 2, 5, 25 and 28.
Lee. on sections 8. 14. 30 and 34.
Poland, on sections 2. 6 and 26.
Elk, on sections 18 and 24. Nokomis, on sections 8. 12. 25 and 29. Maple Valley, on sections 2 and 4.
Scott, on sections 18 and 26.
Storm Lake. on sections 6. 17 and 23.
Lincoln, on sections 3. 32 and 35. Grant, none.
Providence, on sections 25 and 28.
Fairfield. on sections 10 and 24.
Coon, on sections 1, 8, 27 and 29.
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HISTORY OF BUENA VISTA COUNTY
Newell, on sections 1. 14. 23. 26, 28 and 32.
Considerable swamp and overflowed land is designated, as well as the streams and Pickerel and Storm lakes.
The highways then established were the Newell and Sar City road from Sioux Rapids. the Storm Lake-Sioux Rapids-Spencer road, and a few section roads. In 1876 the board of supervisors passed a resolution opening all the section roads of the county and this was done the following year where the topography of the country would permit. In a few places hills prevented and in others the low and overflowed lands made road building impossible.
A plat of Storm Lake is also given in the Atlas, showing the main portion of the town, in its present location. and Vincent's addition on the southeast and Early's addition on the northwest. Although the courthouse was then at Sioux Rapids, so great was the faith of the people that the county seat would eventually be located at Storm Lake, that block 16 is designated "Court House Square." A picture of the town is also given, showing a treeless village, built back from the lake. The Congregational. Baptist. Methodist and Catholic
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