USA > Iowa > Jasper County > Past and present of Jasper County, Iowa, Vol. I > Part 7
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73
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
ACTS OF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
The wheels of county government were set in motion April 14, 1846, with the following as county officers in charge of affairs: Joab Bennett, John R. Sparks and Manly Gifford, commissioners ; John H. Franklin, clerk ; J. W. Swain, treasurer; David Edmundson, sheriff: Seth Hammer, recor- der : Washington Fleenor, probate judge.
The first order given by the commissioners was "That the eagle side of a ten-cent piece or dime, of the coin of the United States, be and the same is hereby adopted as the temporary seal of the board of county commis- sioners of the county of Jasper. aforesaid, until a proper seal may be pro- vided for the use of said board."
Now will follow the more important acts of the board. in about the chronological order they transpired, as seen by the records of the county. But before introducing the record on these matters, it will be best to state that the name of the county seat was changed as follows :
Chapter 22. of the acts of the First General Assembly of lowa. ap- proved February 3. 1847. reads as follows: "Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of lowa. that the name of the town of 'Newton City.' the county seat of Jasper county, be and the same is hereby changed to that of 'Newton.' "
At the July meeting of the county board, the first tax was made a matter of record. it being a levy of four mills for county purposes and a half mill for school purposes. At the same time the treasury was in receipt of twenty-five dollars from Jacob Bennett, who paid his license to keep a grocery in Newton.
The following day the following order was made: "That John R. Sparks be appointed as agent for the county of Jasper, to act as such to borrow money for and to enter at the land office at lowa City the quarter section of land that the town of Newton is located on. for the seat of justice of Jasper county, who shall use all exertions to procure funds for the same by paying. an interest not to exceed twenty per cent."
October 4, 1847 -- That day the court house erected by Evan Adamson was accepted and an order allowing him the sum of one hundred seventy-five dollars in "town money." which amounted to the eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents voted him in full for the construction of the first court house of the county.
January 4. 1848-The clerk was instructed to give notice that there would be a sale of lots in Newton. commencing on the 31st day of January,
74
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
1848, and that it would be continued from day to day until a sufficient sum had been realized to defray the expenses of entering the land selected for county seat purposes.
April 10, 1848-The board assumed control and jurisdiction over Mar- shall county, by establishing a township in that territory of the name of Minerva Creek, with a polling place at the house of George W. Halley.
At the meeting in July, 1848, the board levied a four-mill tax on the dollar for county revenue. two and a half mills for state purposes, and a half mill for school purposes.
Silas Dooley, sheriff and assessor, was allowed thirty dollars for as- sessing the county, summoning jury, etc.
The board also ordered that the portion of the state road running from Granville Hendry's, in Marion county, to Fort Des Moines, which lay in Jasper county, be declared open for travel.
At the October 2, 1848, meeting of the board, Joab Bennett was em- ployed to ceil one of the small rooms in the court house, for which he was to receive sixteen dollars in "town funds."
Nathan Williams and Thomas J. Adamson became the purchasers of out-lots Nos. 18 and 19 in Newton, toward which they applied as part pay- ment a stove valued at twelve dollars.
At this same meeting of the board difficulty was found relative to the county borrowing money and the following orders were made: "That the county be forthcoming to Nathan Williams and John R. Sparks for money to enter the town quarter the seat of justice of Jasper county; whereas, the said Williams and Sparks borrowed money of A. T. Prouty, and gave their own individual notes for the same to enter said land, and the same, or a large part of it, still remains unpaid, the county commissioners now assume the payment of the same. and all interest and accruing interest and costs that may accrue on the same.
"Ordered, that John B. Hammock be appointed commissioner's agent in the stead of Nathan Williams to borrow any moneys or use any reason- able means of getting money on the faith of the county, to pay the expense of entering the seat of justice of Jasper county."
The money had been borrowed on the expectation that an apportion- ment of school money was to be made to the county, and it had been stipu- lated by the makers of the note that they were allowed to borrow this till the county would be able to replace the money in the school fund commis- sioner's hands out of a subsequent tax levy. It was a sort of "accommoda- tion" paper which operated then as it has later, to fool the parties who gave it worse than anybody else.
75
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
At the July meeting in 1849, the county treasurer reported the receipts for the last year to have been $266.42 in county orders and $312.50 in "town orders."
The board then levied taxes as follows: County, four mills: state, two and a half mills ; school. one mill.
The total amount of taxable property in 1849 was $94.366. There were one hundred and seventy-six persons liable to pay a poll tax. There were eight silver watches, and $4,842 in coin and bank notes in possession, but it is likely that all was not given in then, as is the case nowadays. There were also three hundred and one horses over two years old, six hundred and eighty-eight head of cattle over two years of age and two mules. The num- ber of sheep listed was seven hundred and ninety-four and one thousand seven hundred sixty-three swine-"prairie rooters." Four carriages were found by the assessor. but not a single piano within Jasper county!
In March, 1850, the record shows that "The late treasurer paid over the sum of $365.23. the amount of tax for 1849 received by him."
Jesse Rickman, school fund commissioner, made his report to the board. showing that the net sum collected and in his hands was $421.23.
April. 1851-Ordered that the trustees of the parsonage of the mission of the Methodist Episcopal church have a deed for lot No. 8 in block No. 25. This donation to the church was among the last. if not the last, acts of the county commissioners whose office had been legislated out and they gave way to the newly created office of county judge, which obtained until an- other ten years had rolled around and the supervisor system had been estab- lished in all Towa counties by the provisions of the code of 1851. The last board of commissioners adjourned July 28. 1851.
ACTS OF THE COUNTY JUDGE.
Jesse Rickman was elected as Jasper county's first county judge. His first act was to rearrange the townships of the county, and when he had per- formed this task there were seven sub-divisions in Jasper county. His next act was to issue marriage license to William Hammer and Ruth Hinshaw ; the document bears date of August 14, 1851.
August 30, 1856, the old court house was sold at auction to Caleb Lamb for one hundred fifty dollars.
In September of the same year last named. the county treasurer was compelled to furnish a bond for thirty thousand dollars, instead of the sixteen thousand dollar bond given before, for the reason that the county
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JASPER COUNTY, IOW.1.
expected the next levy to bring to his hands about twenty-five thousand dol- lars. This additional bond was signed by P. G. D. Morton, J. W. Macy, Taylor Pierce and M. A. Blanchard.
December 10, 1856, the county treasurer reported that the tax lists for 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851 had been lost. It was therefore ordered that he have credit for the amount of tax delinquents on those lists, which amounted to two hundred eighty-seven dollars.
February 17, 1857, the county judge again made changes in the bound- aries of certain townships in this county and created other new ones.
During the Legislature of 1856-7 a law passed requiring the county judge to affix his warrant to the tax book of 1854. ordering the treasurer to collect the taxes delinquent therein, and that the treasurer proceed to collect said taxes, and he was also ordered to pay over all money he had collected prior to the passage of that act. The county was made accountable to the treasurer for any damages he might sustain in making the collections called for.
In the autumn of 1860 the county judge submitted to vote the question whether a sufficient portion of the swamp land fund should be diverted for the purpose of erecting necessary bridges and for the redemption of bonds issued for the building of the court house.
December 31, 1860. the county judge made a contract with J. W. May to build a bridge at Parker's Ferry, on South Skunk, to be completed by the first of the following April, for which he was to receive four hundred eighty- five dollars. On the same day B. Manning received his warrant for con- structing a bridge at Manning's Ferry, for which he was to be paid seven hundred eighty-six dollars.
The last act of the county judge before handing over the reins of county government was to fix the boundary lines between Fairview and Elk Creek townships.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS.
The first board of county supervisors, as ordered by the new law. held its session the first week in January, 1861. The first board was made up of the following gentlemen: David McCord (chairman), William N. Harrah, C. M. Davis, Morris Cating, Salem Jeffries, Reuben Johnson, John Mc- Cracken, G. W. Chinn, Caleb Jordan, James E. Butler, Andrew G. Groves. William G. Romans, Perry Matteson, Elisha Flaugh and George Ryan.
77
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
AAmong the earliest acts of the board of supervisors may be mentioned the dividing of Mound Prairie township and the formation of a new town- ship to be known as Washington. This was dated June, 1861.
At the same session of the board it was learned that two thousand dol- lars of interest was due and delinquent to the permanent school fund. S. G. Smith, county attorney, was directed to push the collection of the same as speedily as possible.
The board decided to apply one-half of the proceeds of the sale of swamp lands to the drainage of the same. and the other to building bridges.
DRAINAGE OF THE SWAMP LANDS.
At the September meeting of the board came up the important matter of drainage of Jasper county's swamp lands. It was resolved that the drainage commissioner be authorized to expend such sums, not exceeding three hundred dollars, as he might deem necessary in the townships of Poweshiek, Clear Creek, Elk Creek, Fairview and Palo Alto, for the pur- pose of draining the swamp lands therein. Underground drains were to be used and the work was to be paid for in the lands at one dollar and twenty- five cents per acre. unless in case where the lands were worth more, when the lands were to be sold and contractors paid in cash.
In June, 1862, the board agreed with John Henry, N. L. Williams and others, representing a company formed for the purpose, to transfer the swamp lands lying adjacent to the road crossing, either at Parker's or Man- ning's Bridge over South Skunk river, to the company on condition that the proposed corporation should construct approaches to the stream which should be above the high water mark, as well as drain the lands transferred. In exchange for this the company was granted the privilege of taking tolls for crossing the bridge selected by them, the amount to be regulated by the board.
At the same session the committee on poor was instructed to inquire into the expediency of purchasing a poor farm.
In 1863 the board agreed with the Mississippi & Missouri Railroad Company and the Western Stage Company to have a sufficient roadway made across Skunk bottom at Parker's Bridge, the county contributing four thousand dollars, the railway one thousand dollars, and the stage company five hundred dollars.
78
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
THE COUNTY HELD LIABLE.
In 1873. or possibly a year later. one John Hessdorfer and family passed through Jasper county on his way to Nebraska. While crossing the South Skunk bottoms his team became frightened, backed off the bridge and in the fall one of the children was killed and other members of his family injured and the wagon badly broken up. Mr. Hessdorfer employed Winslow & Wilson, attorneys, to bring action against Jasper county in his behalf. The case was tried in Mahaska county, and he was awarded a ver- dict of four thousand five hundred dollars. This county appealed the case to the state supreme court. In the meantime J. W. Wilson has been ap- pointed administrator for the deceased child, and he brought suit to recover the value of the child's services till it should have become of age, claiming five thousand dollars therefor. It was a long-drawn-out case, with com- promise here and there. and finally resulted in the county having to pay the plaintiff. in October, 1876. the sum of four thousand dollars and costs, to be paid in installments.
THE COUNTY'S FINAN CES.
Perhaps there is no better way to show the thrift and growth of the county in the last third of a century than to give the assessed valuation for the year 1878 and that of 1910:
Assessed Valuation,
Valuation,
Townships.
1878.
Townships. 1878.
Newton
$252.425
Monroe $313.410
Clear Creek.
249.825
Sherman
259,266
Washington
412.348
Colfax 116,672
Hickory Grove.
228.850
Vandalia
31.992
Prairie City
194,650
Fairview
423.876
Palo Alto.
318,108
Lynnville, Ind. D.
106,860
Mariposa
218,289
Poweshiek 275,678
Jasper City. Ind. D.
180,350
Independence 241,473
Lynn Grove 257,505
Malaka 370,315
Rock Creek
275,590
Buena Vista
335.941
Richland
244,569
Elk Creek.
356,410
Kellogg
329,564
Mound Prairie 276.776
Des Moines
408.647
Newton, Ind. D.
691,949
Assessed
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JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
ABSTRACT OF TAX BOOKS 1910.
Real and Personal Property.
Total Tax.
Clear Creek
$ 292,320
$ 10.566.36
Independence
342,065
11.349.12
Malaka
369.635
11.711.97
Hickory Grove
344,885
10,570.I I
Rock Creek
286.330
9.724.34
Kellogg
309.790
IT, 136.50
Newton
437.265
15,274.39
Sherman
304.950
10.441.02
Poweshiek
278.360
9.665.67
Washington
317.125
9,867.62
Mound Prairie
378,435
II,790.91
Palo Alto
367.730
12.987.58
Buena Vista
403.465
13,272.24
Richland
327.715
12,260.96
Lynn Grove
372.370
13.078.23
Elk Creek
371.125
12.780.00
Fairview
479,320
15,808.42
Des Moines
414.540
13,195.71
Mariposa
356,045
11,191.86
Town or City corporation-
Monroe
253.235
13.174.53
Jasper City
159.965
9.003.36
Baxter
166,840
9.110.99
Prairie City
230,035
12,160.99
Sully
78.185
4.141.23
Lynnville
54.610
2.909.89
Mingo
47.555
1.788.79
Greencastle
50.730
1.913.89
Vandalia
32.375
1.568.12
Reasoner
50.330
2.211.12
Newton ( City)
2.158.152
I20,997.88
Colfax
287,690
30,330.73
Corporations
926.069
34.677.60
Total
ȘIT,249,241
$470,662.13
80
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
JASPER COUNTY'S VARIOUS COURT HOUSES.
The term "court house" is sometimes wrongly applied. It may mean simply a place for holding various kinds of court, or it may also mean a county building, or buildings, wherein courts are held. as well as office rooms for the various county officials, such as recorder, treasurer, etc. So in speaking of the "first court house" in any given county it is always well to understand which construction is placed on the building being talked about. Here in Jasper county, the organizing act of the Legislature of the territory of Iowa had one section which reads: "That the district court of Jasper county shall be held at the house of Matthew D. Springer, in said county, or at such other place as may be designated by the board of county commissioners of said county, until the seat of justice of said county may be located."
In accordance with the above provision, the first term of court was held at Mr. Springer's residence, in Buena Vista township, or rather in Palo Alto township, near the line between the two townships named. It was held in the cabin of Mr. Springer which he had erected the autumn before (1845) and to which he had added a small room in which the court might be held. While it was the first court house, it was not a public building owned by Jasper county, at all, but the residence of Mr. Springer. ( See Bench and Bar chapter for the first court. )
The reader of today and later generations may be interested in a descrip- tion of this, the pioneer "court house," so called.
It stood where the highway now makes an elbow, on the Samuel Squares farm. It was built of small round hickory logs, about eight inches in diameter and was in size sixteen feet square and about eight feet high. Clapboards were nailed over the cracks inside to keep the snow and wind out as much as possible. It had what they called then a "continental" chim- ney-that is, holes bored into the walls. pins driven therein, and then weath- erboarded with clapboards, thus forming a flue for conducting the smoke above the roof of the building. \ lane was cut through the brush from the "court house" to the prairie. Judge Williams, of Muscatine or Davenport, was the first judge of the Jasper county district court, and it is related that while in session (the term lasted about an hour) several deer were seen roaming about and finally entered the lane, cut through the underbrush be- tween the court house and prairie and the court. judge and all, went out to see the animals.
81
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
FIRST COUNTY BUILDING.
The first real court house of Jasper county was that built in 1847 by Evan Adamson and turned over to the commissioners by him October 4th of that year, for which the board paid him the sum of eighty-seven dollars and fifty cents. It was constructed of green native lumber. The contract was awarded to Mr. Adamson April 5, 1847, and it called for a building eighteen by thirty feet and one story high. This building served well its original purpose until the second court house was built in 1857.
THE SECOND COURT HOUSE.
During the winter of 1855-56 much excitement arose over a proposed removal of the court house site from the public square to Park block, in North Newton. March 3. 1856, a petition was presented to County Judge Rickman, asking him to submit the question of removal in April following. A remonstrance was also presented, when it was learned that the petition contained four hundred nine names and the remonstrance seven hundred sixty-two. The Judge ruled that there be no election called. The case then went to the district court and the judge of that tribunal ordered that the county judge call an election,-at least to let the proposition be voted upon at the spring election,-which was carried out and resulted in a defeat to the removal petitioners, by a majority of four hundred sixty-eight.
When it was decided to build a better, larger court house, in 1857, the old one was sold to Caleb Lamb and removed to his farm near Newton, where it stood for many years.
The second court house being demanded. Judge Edmundson made a contract with John Hyde for the construction of a foundation of a building that should be ample for many years to come, and the record shows that on August 15, 1857. Hyde was allowed $150 as a part of the September pay- ment on the court house contract ; on the 22d he was paid $150 more; on the 29th, $200 more. William Rodgers was paid $225 for superintending the work. October roth, Hyde was allowed $1. 159 and November 3d, $3.814. drawn in thirty-two warrants.
February 22. 1858. the Judge's record, shows that he had sold bonds one and four to A. A. Kellogg at seventy-eight cents on the dollar, the same heing payable at the St. Nicholas Bank, New York City. Other bonds were disposed of at eighty cents on a dollar.
(6)
82
JASPER COUNTY, IOWA.
October 30, 1858, the county judge ordered $1.981.43 to be paid to Contractor Hyde on the contract, and the record says he added, "this com- pletes the sum of $26.600 which has been paid on the court house, and for which J. P. Huskins, agent of John Hyde, the contractor, has receipted for as payment in full for contract and all extras in and about the building. The house is therefore received from the hands of the contractor."
An early description of this building reads, thus: "The building is located in the center of the public square: its form is oblong, being fifty feet wide by sixty-two long, with porticoes projecting from each front twelve feet. It is two stories high. with a basement seven feet high beneath, the latter built of sandstone; the portion above ground is faced with white lime- stone, the bases to the columns and antae being of the same material. The walls are built of brick. The first story is fourteen feet high, and contains four rooms, each seventeen and a half by twenty-three and a half feet, and two halls, each ten feet wide, occupied by the county officers. Two stair- ways lead to the second story, which contains the court and jury rooms. The court room is thirty-seven by forty-seven feet, and nineteen feet high, and both jury rooms are ten and a half by sixteen feet in size. The entire height of the top of the cupola is eighty-three feet. The columns of the portico are Ionic."
The first court house was not removed until October. 1859, and the following appeared in the Free Press, then published here : "Once it was the house of the town. I remember well when all the business of the county was conducted in it. Thither we used to go every Tuesday night to the post- office to hear our old townsman, Jesse Rickman, the postmaster, read over the list of mail matter brought in by Valentine Adamson. It was not until the spring of 1853 that we got mail over once a week, and that was brought every Tuesday by Val Adamson, and we used to gather around the old court house while 'Jess' Rickman opened the mail. In that same old house we used to have both law and gospel dealt out to us."
It was in this old house that many of the early county laws and ap- propriations were made. With its passing, came in a new and better era of county government.
Court house number two, the one erected in 1857. was the one in which stood the treasury safe which in 1868 was broken into and robbed of about three thousand five hundred dollars in cash.
This structure stood and served well its purpose until the present mag- nificent temple of justice was placed on the ground where the old one stood.
83
JASPER COUNTY, IOW.A.
THE PRESENT COURT HOUSE.
This building, second to but few, if any, on Iowa soil today, was dedi- cated April 6, 1911, and cost the county in round figures the sum of two hundred thousand dollars, which included the fixtures, etc.
The first act of the board of supervisors looking to the erection of this splendid court house was in 1908, when the board called an election for the purpose of getting an expression of the people on this subject. Popular consent was easily obtained. In February, 1909, a contract was let : work commenced April 1. 1909, and the building was dedicated Thursday, April 6. 1911, Judge Horace E. Deemer, of the supreme bench of lowa, deliver- ing the speech.
The building is one hundred twenty feet and eight inches long and . eighty feet wide. The tower is one hundred forty feet high from the curb- ing on the street below. There are sixty rooms and four vaults in the struc- ture and an electric clock in each suite of rooms in the building. all regu- lated by the master-clock in the rooms of the auditor's office. The contract price for the court house was $140.825.71 : the heating plant. $15.500: archi- tect and superintendent. $7.900: furniture, etc., $36,000, making a total ex- penditure of $200,225. This magnificent building is constructed of the celebrated Bedford ( Indiana) stone, the best building limestone to be found in the country. AA minute description is needless here, for be it remembered that long after the pages of this county history are worn and turned yellow with age, in all human probability this building will stand in all its massive beauty.
It may be well, however, to add this concerning the new (1911) tem- ple of justice : The four emblematic paintings are by Edgar Cameron. of Chicago, and are each illustrative of some incident in Jasper county's his- tory. On the south side of the rotunda is a scene of a prairie fire and a herd of buffalo: on the east is a group of Unitd States soldiers, camped on the banks of Skunk river, west of Newton, in the early forties; on the north a scene of the departing Indian and the coming of the white man, his cabin and domestic surroundings; on the west side may be seen the soldier boys leaving for the front, in Civil war days, in which are to be seen the teams and the relatives of the newly enlisted men, with waving flags as they bid home and loved ones "good bye." These paintings are all real works of art and add materially to the charm of the building.
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