USA > Iowa > Fayette County > Past and present of Fayette County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 13
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a contract was entered into with the Adams Steel Wire Works, of Joliet, Illi- nois, to install six tool-proof cells, a juvenile cell, a female cell and twenty window screens, for three thousand six hundred and sixteen dollars. This work was completed in April, 1909, the entire building and all appurtenances costing the county the sum of seven thousand nine hundred fifty-three dollars and forty-five cents. This brings the total expenditure for the period men- tioned above, to twenty-six thousand five hundred forty-seven dollars and ninety-nine cents. It is not within the province of this work to decide the question of right or wrong in the methods employed to build a court house and jail in apparent defiance of the expressed will of the people. It appears that every effort made at any time in the history of the county to tax the people for public buildings was defeated at the polls, sometimes with very decided disapproval. This cannot be taken as an indication that the intelligent people of this county did not recognize the needs of the county in this respect, but that the question of a permanent location of the county-seat had not been fully decided. Ignoring a further discussion of this matter, we will close the subject by expressing the opinion that Fayette county is much better provided for in the matter of public buildings, and at much less expense, than most of the agricultural counties of the state. The public money seems to have been expended judiciously and with superior intelligence in recognizing the needs of the people. Fayette county may justly feel proud of her public buildings, and of the economical manner in which her servants have administered public affairs in the people's interests.
FAYETTE COUNTY'S POOR.
Liberal provision has always been made for the poor, first by boarding indigent persons in private homes (a policy which exists to some extent at present ) and next by purchasing a farm and establishing a permanent home for all worthy poor residing in the county.
The first farm was purchased by the board of supervisors (then consist- ing of one member from each of the twenty townships) on the 7th of June, 1864, through their representatives, Hon. D. G. Goodrich and Hon. C. R. Bent. This committee purchased the William Morras farm in Illyria town- ship, embracing one hundred forty-two and one-half acres in sections 9 and 16, for a consideration of two thousand dollars. In September of the same year, two thousand dollars was appropriated by the board to stock the farm and provide necessary grain, provisions, furniture, farming implements, etc. Some- thing over one thousand dollars was expended for this purpose, the balance of the appropriation being returned to the county treasury.
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Lewis M. Allen and wife were installed as the first steward and steward- ess, and the poor of the county were gathered in and assigned quarters in an old log house on the premises convenient to the farm residence occupied by the steward and his family. The salary of the first steward and stewardess was fixed at five hundred dollars a year, which, of course, included house-rent and board. Mr. Allen died while serving the county in this capacity and his wife and hired help conducted the farm and looked after the poor until a successor to her husband was selected and installed. The successor was Rev. William Moore, a pioneer in Illyria township, who, with his wife, entered upon the duties of steward and stewardess in 1867. On June 1I, 1868, the board of supervisors, realizing that much money must be expended in erecting proper buildings, and also realizing that the farm was too small to provide for pres- ent and prospective needs, took favorable action on the recommendation of the committee on poor farm and decided to sell the old farm and purchase a larger one. In accordance with this resolution, the old farm was sold to Major D. B. Herriman, then a member of the board from Illyria township, the county real- izing the purchase price. It was at once transferred to Joseph Holsworth, and subsequently became the property of James and Rachel Wilson and Lewis Hunsberger.
PURCHASE OF THE SECOND FARM.
The committee on poor farm recommended the purchase of land in West- field township, in which the board concurred, and three tracts of land were purchased from as many different owners, the whole aggregating two hundred eighty-three and twenty-seven hundredths acres, at a total cost of two thou- sand two hundred fourteen dollars and ninety-two cents. This land was un- improved, except that some of it had been fitted for cultivation, but there were no buildings which could be utilized for the purposes of a county poor farm. The erection of a barn thirty by forty feet was commenced soon after the pur- chase of the land, and Mr. Moore moved the inmates of the old quarters, to- gether with his own family and the movable property of the county, into the unfinished barn, and all lived there together until the house (which soon fol- lowed) was inclosed and ready for occupancy. On June 11, 1869, the com- mittee reported that they had built a barn of the dimensions above mentioned, and that the total cost was one thousand four hundred twenty-six dollars and thirty-six cents. The completion of the house was reported by the committee at the session in January, 1870; total cost of same, two thousand four hundred dollars.
These accommodations were considered sufficient for a great many years ;
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but as the population increased, the demands for caring for the poor were cor- respondingly increased; and besides this, it was determined that the incurable insane could be cared for within the bounds of our own county at less expense than in the asylums. Accordingly, on the 8th of April, 1898, the board of supervisors decided to submit the matter of building a new county poor house and insane ward to the people of the county at the general election of that year. The board estimated the cost at fifteen thousand dollars, and proposed that a tax of one mill be levied in the years 1899, 1900 and 1901, sufficient revenue being derived therefrom to liquidate the indebtedness. This proposition was voted on at the November election, 1898, and carried with a wholesome ma- jority. A large and commodious brick building was at once commenced, it being two stories in height and suitably partitioned and arranged to meet the requirements with as little labor for the nurses and attendants as possible. It has the external appearance of a public institution of modern times, and is equipped with all necessary appliances for the comfort and protection of the unfortunates whose only home is provided by public charity. The insane ward is a characteristic feature of this institution, being modeled after the larger hospitals in the matter of multiplying conveniences and minimizing dangers. The large farm produces nearly everything consumed at the institution, and the luxury of fresh milk, butter, eggs and vegetables is something to be ap- preciated, even by mildly insane people who have been inmates of the state institutions in the larger cities.
The installation of a complete electric light and power plant is the latest investment in needed appliances around the home. This was completed and started on the 17th of February, 1910. The total cost was one thousand one hundred and eighty-four dollars and twenty-three cents. Five acres of land have been added to the original purchase, the total acreage being now two hundred and eighty-eight. This property, including buildings, is ap- praised, conservatively, at forty-five thousand dollars. The personal prop- erty at the institution was appraised at nine thousand three hundred and eighty-five dollars and nine cents, which includes stock of all kinds, poultry, grain, hay, vegetables, farm machinery, harness and robes, household goods and furniture, kitchen utensils, beds and bedding, clothing and miscellaneous articles.
During the year 1908 (the period covered by the foregoing figures) there was realized from the sale of products of the farm, a total sum of one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one dollars and thirty-two cents; and during the same period there was expended one thousand eight hundred and eighty dollars and thirty-eight cents, which shows a small balance to the
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credit of the farm. The average number of inmates, poor and insane, from January 1, 1908, to January 1, 1909, was forty-eight and one-third. During this period the total mortality was seven, of whom five were in the insane ward. The present steward and matron are Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Smith, who are employed at an annual salary of eight hundred dollars.
In addition to the provisions of this institution, there are many persons in the county who receive partial support at their homes, on order of the town- ship trustees of their respective home townships. The sum thus expended aggregates several thousand dollars annually. The largest expenditure for this purpose within the last twelve years was in 1904, when twelve thousand three hundred and eight dollars was so expended. The smallest within the same period was in 1906, when the cost was four thousand eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and seventy-seven cents, and the average expenditure on this account for the period mentioned above was seven thousand four hundred and seventy-five dollars per annum.
SOLDIERS' RELIEF COMMISSION.
There is another class of indigent persons who are cared for in part, at their homes, or in the families of friends, and who are exempt from the humiliation of going to the poorhouse by reason of having been soldiers in the service of their country. An average of about one thousand six hundred and fifty dollars per year has been paid to the indigent soldiers or their wid- ows during the last ten years. This sum has been distributed among thirty- five families during the year 1908.
CHAPTER VII.
GERMAN-AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP AND OTHER FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS.
By Rev. G. Blessin.
In the forties and fifties of the nineteenth century a fever, which may be called "The Teutonic Wanderlust," possessed the German nation and swept over it like a plague. Thousands of Germans, poor, honest and thrifty, were looking for a new place in which to "live, move and have their being." Nat- urally their hearts and eyes were set toward America, which in those days was eagerly waiting for just such settlers as these to develop its boundless resources, to people its endless plains; in a word, the country was waiting for some one to tickle its prairie flanks with the plough and the hoe so that it might laugh with fruitful harvests.
In these early years many of the Germans came out of political regard. Their dreams of a German nation, an empire feared and respected by the na- tions of the globe, did not materialize. High ideals, energy, toil and labor- all these seemed to them to be useless. The proper moment and method for their fulfilment had not yet arrived. In their disgust, consequently, and in their disappointment, they forsook the land they loved and sought one in which their ideals could, in a measure at least, be realized. Others, again, came to enjoy a greater freedom in religious things; others simply to im- prove their conditions financially and socially. With a population of nearly fifty millions living on an area hardly as large as the state of Texas, it was evident that some would fall short on acreage, and that in consequence their lot would be one of servitude in their home land. In order to secure their share of Mother Earth's indebtedness to them, they came to the New World, where all could be had for the asking and where the waving prairie land was waiting to be embraced by willing hearts and strong arms.
Thus they came to the West, of earthly possessions bringing little, if anything ; of good will and determination to succeed, a great deal. Theirs were characters not easily turned from their course. They took hold of the acres acquired with an earnestness that meant results and by and by they became factors in the development of the country at large. . Not that they
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were especially anxious to be in the limelight. This is not a German charac- teristic. His character and his past, of which he is justly proud, do not make him especially fond of being in the political foreground. As a general thing he avoids publicity, but when time and necessity demand, whether in peace or in war, he never fails to stand unflinchingly on the side of the right, and many a sharp political battle has been decidedly influenced or decisively decided by the honest vote of the German and his direct descendant. There is no question about this, that of all immigration, the German has proven itself the most desirable, and, in conglomerate America, integrity and thrift and all that is good and desirable for right citizenship has been found to ap- proach nearest the ideal in the German.
While the German has been careful to preserve his language, the lan- guage of Luther, of Schiller, Goethe, Kant and Lessing, the language of some of this world's greatest men, he is not prejudiced against the language of the land of his adoption. He takes kindly to its schools, its usages (if they be good), its government and its people.
By far the greater number of Germans enter the country to remain, a fact which, if the German had no other redeeming feature, were strong enough to prove him far more desirable than the Italian, the Japanese, the Chinese, or the Jew, who come for the purpose of making a fortune at all costs and by all means, honest or dishonest, and who then hasten back to their home land where they live like lords on money bled, one might say, out of the benefactor.
It is true that the German has his imperfections. There are some who neglect the great ideals of life and who have fallen victims to a miserable greed. There are Germans who are so immersed in the acquisition of worldly possessions, that justice, honesty and integrity are entirely forgotten. Such are, however, the exception. The German has never been an office seeker, endeavoring by hook or crook to make his point. Shrewdness and dishonest cunning are not in his vocabulary, and luckily so. When a German becomes an American citizen, he is seldom persuaded by flattering tongue, promises, or by bribe. He rarely forsakes a good cause.
As a workman, whether in the office or in the professions, a tiller of the soil or a sailor on the sea, as a skilled artisan or rough mechanic, he is found reliable and trustworthy. He gives a good pound for a good coin. Pass through the country in late spring or in summer, when the meadow lark sings and the pastures are green and alive with happy creatures. Wher- ever there are well-worked fields, wherever you see a fine, well-kept home,
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a big red barn that looks as though it contained something worth while ; where outbuildings have a clean, wholesome appearance, painted and in good re- pair; wherever you find-even if only in a modest way-a little flower garden of pansies and mignonettes before the door, you will usually find that the flower garden belongs to "Grossmutter," and that a husky Deutscher fits into the jeans just washed and which swing to and fro in the wind and sunshine on the wash-line back of the house.
The Germans of this country are a saving people. Writers of our time have emphasized American waste. At present the great American word is "conservation." It has been the word with the German nation and with Germans for centuries. Whether in a German business house or in a Ger- man kitchen, whether in a German purse or palace, "save" seems to be the key-note. Very often we find the German too saving. He sometimes likes to stint, denying himself many innocent pleasures and things which he needs, simply for the sake of hoarding his riches, and that for no other purpose than merely to possess, to have and to hold, and then-to die and leave his all to a job-lot of lazy, good-for-nothing heirs, who come smirking and smiling to the funeral, because of the old man's foolishness. Very often he sees nothing, hears nothing of the artistic and the beautiful. But we must ad- mit that even this so often misunderstood and much-criticised characteristic has its redeeming features. There can be no more powerful antidote to American fast life than this. Its workings are like those of a governor on a powerful Corliss engine. If that should break, what would become of our Americans with their instinctive and unquenchable desire for speed? Even so let it be-the German serves a good purpose even here in conserving what would otherwise be lost. In business matters, however great or small the enterprise, the German is always a man of integrity and of firm financial bottom. There would be no watered stock or high finance if it were a Ger- man Wall street. "Ein Mann, ein Wort" (a man, a word) is a well-known proverb among Germans, and a German's simple word "I promise to pay" is usually considered just as good as a note. Ask the large men of our cities who employ by the hundreds and who know reliability and ability. Unan- imously they say, "Give us a German any time and every time."
In the great national family gathered under the stars and stripes, the German always will be a prominent member. Here in Fayette county and in its interesting history he has in his own modest way played an important part in its development, and, let us hope, will in future also play an important part in the further growth and development of our beautiful county.
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THE FOREIGN POPULATION.
Next to the Germans, the Irish people predominate among the foreign immigrants in Fayette county. Some of them came with the earliest pioneers, and have been thoroughly identified with the county's growth and prosperity from the first. They have always manifested an active interest in our schools and public institutions, and have generally been useful and reliable citizens whom any country is glad to welcome. They have been prosperous, as a race, and some of our most competent and trustworthy public officials have been selected from among the Irish population. They readily "Americanize," yet there is no nationality on the globe more loyal to their mother-country than the Irish. Millions of dollars have gone out of this country in aid of the oppressed in Ireland, and it was given as freely and willingly as the same contributors would provide for their own families.
A very large majority of the Irish in Fayette county are Roman Catholics, and there again is shown their devotion to a principle which they believe to be right, and even the third and fourth generations in America are as loval to the mother church as the first and second. But this is an inborn principle which is shown in devotion to friends almost as strongly as in their religious affiliations.
The Scandinavians are next in numbers and importance. Most of them came at a later period than the Germans and the Irish, though a few were here in very early days. Many of them came here very poor, and en- dured many hardships and privations while establishing homes among us; but their economy and industry have placed many of them in affluent circumstances. Probably they are the most self-sacrificing people, when necessary, among us, as they are, also, the most inclined to centralize, though this feature is 'strongly emphasized in the German population. Some of our Norwegians and Swedes are among the most wealthy and prosperous farmers in the county. They are nearly all Republicans in political affiliations, and adhere to Lutheranism as their religious faith. They are not habitual office-seekers, but when one of their number is nominated for a public office, they are loyal to him to the last man. In the adjoining county of Winneshiek they are very aggressive, politically, and dominate most of the county offices. They have in Decorah a newspaper printed in their own language, and which has a weekly circulation of about forty thousand copies. They also have an institution of higher learning, known as Luther College, whereat the sons and daughters of those who can afford the expense, are educated in their native language and religion.
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There are a few Bohemian families in the county, and many of them just over the line in Winneshiek county. They are an industrious and frugal people, with a tendency to incorporate the customs of their native country in their towns and communities thickly settled by them.
Of course we have the English people, but they are so nearly like our own that it would be an insult to them to classify them as "foreigners." As soon as an Englishman arrives in this country for a permanent residence, he becomes an American and adopts the laws and customs of the country as his own. We have many prosperous and intelligent English people whom we could not spare if we would, and would not spare if we could. This also includes the few Scotch and Welsh people among us.
Fayette county is proud of her foreign population, some of whom have filled many prominent places in the state and nation, and wield a potent in- fluence in the management of public affairs. After all, they are only a few generations nearer to the mother-country than the typical American whose ancestors came here with the birth of the Nation.
THE NEGROES.
A settlement of colored people was made in Westfield township as early as 1852. Rev. George Watrous was most likely the person who in- duced a few colored families to seek their fortunes in a new country. Mr. Watrous was a very zealous pioneer minister of the United Brethren denomi- nation, and having known some of these colored people near his earlier home in Kankakee, Illinois, and knowing them to be good and reliable people, he induced some of them to locate on government land then open to settle- ment in Fayette county. Others soon followed, and within a comparatively short time there was a considerable settlement, composed entirely of colored people, located in a neighborhood since known as the "Colored Settlement." These people were not of the pure African blood, but a mixture of various nationalities, among whom the African and Portuguese predominated. - Their features are much more regular than the African with whom we are familiar, and they were more progressive, more intelligent, and much more industrious and frugal. They were law-abiding, and at once took a great interest in religious and educational development. Under the teachings of "Father Watrous" the early stock who were not already connected with the United Brethren church soon joined it, and when the school house was built in their neighborhood a preaching appointment was established, coincident with the
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opening of the school, and has been continued to this day. A plat of ground on a commanding site was soon dedicated for burial purposes, and is still main- tained, a credit to any district.
As the years passed, and the founders of this unique colony became able, their children were placed in the higher schools, a considerable number of them being graduated from the Upper Iowa University. Some of them have be- come excellent teachers, whose color was no bar to their success, even among white children.
It is not believed that any of these people were ever slaves, though such may have been the case in a few instances. They were not received with favor by the early pioneers, and some ineffectual efforts were made by a few of the more radical pro-slavery people to dissuade them from establishing homes among the white people; but the Civil war, and its effects, proved a panacea for this feeling, and for many years the colored people of that community have been regarded as among our most reliable and trustworthy people. They have been prosperous and generally inclined to not intermingle, but have kept to themselves. Some of them enlisted in the army and served with honor throughout the years of the Civil war when their services were acceptable.
Some of the earliest families among us were the Basses, Thomas and John Graham, J. J. Epps, Seymour Wilson (who was killed in digging a well), Benjamin Anderson, Jack Tann (who claimed to have been descended from the Hindoo, Indian and negro races), Samuel Maxfield, Isam Lewis ( father of the Lewis boys of the present day), the Stepp and Collins families, "Aunt Sally Wilson," and perhaps others. . The Bass family had three early repre- sentatives here, viz: T. R. Bass, Sion Bass and Sandy Bass. The old stock of most of these families are laid to rest in Pleasant Ridge cemetery, near the stone school house-church which they have occupied, uninterruptedly, for both educational and religious purposes for half a century.
No other negroes, except these, have ever located permanently, within the bounds of the county. With the development of Oelwein into a railroad cen- ter, some have been attracted there, in the prosecution of their labors, but they have not become permanent settlers.
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