USA > Iowa > Polk County > Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days, Vol. I > Part 17
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The Senate at once began measures to fix the responsibility for the defective foundation, and certain suspicious contracts. A Joint Resolution was adopted, providing for an investigation by a joint committee. Its own Committee on Public Buildings was also instructed to make investigation. The result was the condemnation of the whole business in emphatic terms, and the Commissioners' names erased from the corner-stone.
The field was then open for a new contest. Kasson, who had again been pressed into service, at once prepared a bill, amending the former Act, providing for the appointment of J. G. Foote, of Burlington ; Maturin L. Fisher, of Clayton; Robert S. Finkbine and Peter A. Dey, of Johnson-two Republicans and two Demo- crats-as Commissioners to construct the building, the Governor to be ex-officio chairman, and the appropriation of one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars annually. The old fight was resumed.
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Cutts had been left at home, but Ainsworth, of Fayette-who, though unequal to Cutts, was an antagonist Kasson found not easily handled-took the opposition leadership, and tried to cut the appro- priation to a total sum of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars, but after a long contest, with dilatory motions and amendments, Kasson succeeded, with the agreement that the Commission must keep in view one million five hundred thousand dollars as the cost, whereupon Ainsworth revealed the presence of the old Ring by moving that all other appropriations must be paid first. So adroitly did he put it, the House adopted it, Kasson shrewdly not resisting, relying on the Senate to squelch it, as it did the next day, and sent it back to the House, where it was taken up and passed the same day, by a vote of fifty-three to thirty-eight, and the five years' event- ful contest was ended.
The new Commission at once removed the rotten foundation, cut the names of the former Commissioners from the corner-stone, and substituted the word "Iowa"-only that, and nothing more-went forward and completed the building with honesty and fidelity which received universal commendation from beginning to end. Not a dollar was lost or misspent. Every contractor for material learned early-some to their severe cost-that a contract must be executed strictly according to terms, without hope of change, concessions or rebates. An instance of their rigidity of rule is that one day I went to their office, and found General Ed Wright, their Secretary, with a large table spread with bills and vouchers, and very much excited. Asked if they were going to move. "No," he replied. "That man over there (indicating Foote) in the corner, is short two cents in his last quarterly account, and he has kept this office stirred up for two weeks to find where they went. 'Bob' and I offered to give him the pennies, but he won't have it." Finally, among the thousands of bills was found one in dubious writing. It was returned to the maker for a duplicate that could be deciphered. In the duplicate, it was found a figure five in the cents column had been mistaken for a figure three.
When the building was completed and the Commission closed their accounts, there was a discrepancy of about three dollars, but wherein, the Legislature never sought to learn.
VOL. I-(15).
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In 1873, Kasson was again elected Congressman; reelected in 1875 ; declined renomination in 1877 ; was appointed United States Minister to Austria, served four years, and while absent in 1881, was again elected Congressman, reelected in 1883, served one year, and resigned, when he was immediately appointed United States Minister to Berlin, resigning in 1885. In 1889, he was again sent to Berlin to attend the International Conference to settle difficul- ties between the American, German, and English governments, and upon the accomplishment thereof, he came home.
February Fifteenth, 1905.
F
S. A. ROBERTSON
SAMUEL A. ROBERTSON
E ARLY in the Spring of 1856, there strolled into the town a young man not twenty years old, looking for a job. Having learned it was the Capital of the state, that a new Capitol was being built, he thought there must be a chance to join the body politic and grow up with the country. Securing lodging at the Marvin House, on Third Street, where Harbach's Building now is, he went out to reconnoiter the place and interrogate the inhabitants. It did not require much time; there was not much of a town. All its business was done below Third Street, mostly on Second. He concluded there was nothing doing, times hard, money scarce; that there was no place for him, and, like Barlow Granger, he gathered up his carpet-sack, shook the dust of the town from his feet, went on board a steamboat lying in the river, and started for a more promising location. On the boat, he met J. C. Savery, to whom he related his experience. Savery told him he was just the man he was looking for; that he was on his way to St. Louis to get plans for a big hotel, and if he would go back, he would give him the job of building it. The young man thought that was a good thing. He left the boat at Pella, came back, has grown up with the town, and had a conspicuous part in its growth and prosperity.
So soon as plans were completed, he began work on the Hotel Savery, now the Kirkwood, but soon after, money and material being scarce, the work was stopped. The Court House was then being constructed, and he went to Isaac Cooper, the contractor and builder, for work, and was given a place at two dollars and a half per day. Cooper used to say he would lay more brick in a day, and better, than any two men on the job. After working three months, without getting any pay, the Fourth of July came, and a big picnic was planned to be given at Horseshoe Lake, then the popular place for all outdoor social events, and he decided to take it in. He hunted up Isaac, explained the situation, emphasizing it with the statement
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that he had promised his wife to go, and must have some money. Isaac responded with: "I am dead broke;" but, searching his pockets, he fished out a gold dollar-the only money everybody "salted" when they got it-which was given him.
On another occasion, his wife being in Cincinnati, Mr. Robert- son planned to bring her home. He laid sidewalks during the Summer and accumulated about two hundred dollars. The country was flooded with "stump-tail," "red-horse," "wild-cat," "brindle- pup" currency of doubtful character, it being the special prayer of every banker each day to have it checked out before the closing hour. He therefore went to James Callanan, who was running a bank, and asked for money that would be good until he could reach Cincinnati.
"The best I've got is Illinois currency," was the response.
The Illinois currency was listed by bankers then as "Western Mixed," which included all the "wild-cats," but, as it was the best in the bank, he took it, and started for Cincinnati. Arriving at Saint Louis, he stopped at a hotel, and in the evening met a man who was manager of what is now the "Big Four" railway system, to whom he told his destination. His friend gave him a letter which was said "might be of some use to him." The next morning, when he went to pay his hotel bill, his Illinois currency had depre- ciated to nothingness-wasn't worth a cent. He borrowed enough to pay his bill, and ten cents for ferriage across the river, trusting to luck to get further. Having been considerably connected with railroad building in Ohio, he thought he would try it on the Super- intendent of a Cincinnati road for transportation, but he was rebuffed with a complacency which quite upset him. Pulling the friend's letter from his pocket, he gave it to the obdurate function- ary, who, after reading it, said it was good for any favor desired on their line. The letter was signed by a man who once ran for President-George B. McClellan.
Returning, Mr. Robertson began to branch out as a contractor, but money was scarce, people couldn't pay their taxes, work on the Court House was held up, the city had no money, and was issuing script of fractional amounts, which soon became unpopular and went out of circulation, the money in use being the "red-dog"
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variety, and of little value. As an incident, a man was driving into town one day, on Woodland Avenue, with a load of wood, when he was halted by a citizen who asked the price of the wood. "Four dollars a cord, gold ; in banknotes, cord for cord."
To keep business moving, he made a contract with Martin Tuttle to build a house and take his pay in groceries ; another with "Billy" Moore for a house, to be paid for in dry goods; another with Stacy Johns, to be paid for in boots and shoes, and it is still standing, at Fifth Street and Grand Avenue, and known as the "Montague Treatment" place. Another contract was made with W. S. Terry, to be paid for in harness; another with John Hays, for which he took a note, which he sold to Judge Williamson for a house on Woodland Avenue, the first home he owned in town. By this time, he could pay his workmen in orders on his several credit depositories, which they were glad to get. "Talk about hard times," said he one day, when in a reminiscent mood, "the present genera- tion don't know what that means. I worked nine months at one time, and received only thirteen dollars in money. A laboring man had to take his pay in trade. If he got money-banknotes-he had no assurance it would buy him a pound of bacon the next day."
When the Postoffice was remodeled, he was selected to do the work. He went to Washington, secured two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, made large additions to the ground area, added a third story and a clock tower, and returned thirty-nine thousand dollars of unused funds to Uncle Sam, for which unexpected favor and fidelity he was specially commended.
When the new Capitol was ordered built, he made a contract to furnish the stone, the statute requiring the stone must be from quarries within this state. A quarry at Earlham was selected by the Commissioners, and he laid a side-track to it. Another quarry was selected at Rock Creek, in Van Buren County, to which he built a railroad. From these quarries, immense quantities of stone were delivered. It was, in stonelayers' parlance, "green"-that is, filled with moisture, and with it the foundation for the building was laid. The Winter freezing so disintegrated the stone that in the following Spring, the foundation had tumbled into the pit, and hundreds of tons of uncut dimension stone blocks were broken into
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fragments. Some of them can now be seen on Ninth Street, not far south of Court Avenue. He pocketed a loss of forty-eight thou- sand dollars in the transaction.
While at work on the Court House, he made plans for a County Jail and residence for the jailer, for which Judge Napier ordered he be paid ten dollars, but the jail succumbed to the hard times and was not built.
In 1864, he narrowly escaped an end to his life. He was stand- ing in front of Ensign's stable, on Walnut Street, where now is the Dickenson Building, when a drunken soldier passed, threatening to shoot him, but he got away, while the soldier went on, and, meet- ing a negro, shot him. The soldier was spirited back to the army, came home after the war was over, but was never tried for murder.
In 1878, the city came to the conclusion to get out of the mud, and avoid being washed away by freshets. There were no pave- ments, nor sewers. In wet seasons, the clay mud was so deep and sticky as to render travel almost impossible, and in heavy rainfalls the rush of water did serious damage to streets and private prop- erty. Bird's Run, an open ravine, draining the whole northwest and central part of the town, was a perfect terror. A remedy was imperative, but how to get it was the problem. Public attention turned to Robertson as one having had large experience in public improvements, and though a Democrat of the radical persuasion, residing in a ward radically Republican, he was elected to the City Council, and at once so vigorously and persistently pressed the sub- ject there and elsewhere that a general system of sewering and paving was planned, and work begun. Bird's Run was harnessed within a wall twelve feet in diameter, over which was built the Auditorium, and intercepting sewers laid, to which have been added many miles of like construction. Robertson may be justly called the father of the sewer system of the city.
In 1890, he organized the Des Moines Brick Manufacturing Company, installed a large brick-making plant, and demonstrated the value of the clay industry, which has become one of the most valuable in the city, the superiority of its product being admitted all over the country.
He was a director and heavy stockholder of the Iowa National Bank, and for several years was its President. He is one of the
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Board of Directors of the Royal Union Mutual Life Insurance Company. Latterly, however, he has withdrawn from all financial institutions.
During his forty-eight years' residence, he has been prominently identified with public improvements, financial interests, and every undertaking to promote the prosperity of the town, and in many ways may be said to be one of the most prominent builders of Des Moines, and especially as a contractor. On nearly every street in the city are public buildings, business blocks, and residences erected by him. Of the most prominent, which I can recall, are the Con- gregational Church, which stood where the Chamberlain Hotel now is ; the Aborn House, now the Iowa Hotel; three schoolhouses on the West Side; two on the East Side; the block at Fifth and Vine streets, occupied by the Hammond Packing Company; the block occupied by Chase & West, on Walnut Street; the Graefe House, on Walnut Street; "Billy" Moore's Opera House; basement story under the old Capitol; the original building now the Elliott Hotel, on Fourth Street; the present Savery House; the Robertson Block, on East Locust Street, and commenced the first Savery Hotel, now the Kirkwood, which was temporarily abandoned by the panic of 1857. Beside these, are hundreds of costly residences.
His correct business principles and trust of the people have secured to him a competency sufficient for the years which are to come to him.
February Twenty-second, 1905.
W. A. SCOTT
WILLIAM ALEXANDER SCOTT
I N an unhonored grave, in a dreary, neglected spot in Des Moines, without stick or stone of any kind to commemorate his life or his public services and benefactions, lies the man who personally built and paid for the first State House in Des Moines, and who gave to the State of Iowa a part of the ground upon which now stands its present magnificent Capitol building.
In an early day, William Alexander Scott was a man of some influence and honored standing in Des Moines and Polk County. To-day only a few, the men who were pioneers with him, remember his name, even, and still fewer men know the disgraceful neglect that has made his last resting-place, on the bluff overlooking the Des Moines Valley, a shame to the public spirit and generosity of Des Moines.
His grave is located in a spot that would never be guessed as a human burial place. It lies just south of Vine Street, midway between East Eleventh and East Twelfth streets. Buildings have crowded around it on three sides-not sightly dwellings, but barng and outhouses ; one outhouse stands within ten or fifteen feet of the grave. There is nothing now to mark his resting-place. Once there was a fence about the grave, placed there by a brother long since dead, but ruthless hands have torn it down, bit by bit, for one vandalistic reason or other. A year ago, there stood at the side of the grave a tree that was planted there by thoughtful hands, and which, through the years, had grown large enough to cast its pro- tecting shade over the spot, but last Spring or Summer that, too, was ruthlessly cut down, and all that remains now to mark the grave is the shattered stump of that tree.
How did Scott come to be buried there? It is an interesting tale, and characteristic of the love the old pioneer felt for the Des Moines Valley. One day, years ago, when an old man, he was standing with some friends on the point of the bluff south of the
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present Capitol, overlooking the grand view of the river valley and his fine farm on the plateau. He said, in a very impressive way : "When I die, I want to be buried here, where we stand."
In accordance with that desire, his body was brought here by his brother John, followed by a cortege of his loving friends and citizens, and there buried. The burial plat was purchased and deeded to Lee Township. A tree was planted, and for a time friends, now dead, maintained a cheap board fence about the grave. Now it is marked only by gross neglect, to the shame and ingrati- tude of the richest state in the Union, and of a people who profess a love of justice, of patriotism, of public spirit, and the exaltation of the righteous.
A pioneer of pioneers was William Alexander Scott, or "Aleck," as he was usually called. He came here in 1843, with the dragoons, and was given use of a section of land to cultivate for furnishing farm products for the garrison. He remained until the Indians were removed, when he went with them to Kansas as an Indian trader. When the military post was abandoned, and land entries were permitted, in 1846, he returned and purchased five hundred acres lying along the Des Moines River, comprising a large portion of what is now the East Side. He built a large double log house, a few hundred yards southeast of the present Soldiers' Monument, on the bottoms. A double log house consisted of two houses with an open space between equal to the length of each house, and cov- ered with a roof for the shelter of wagons, plows, harness, etc., one house being used for a dwelling, the other for stabling.
The East Side, for some distance from the river, was covered with a dense thicket of underbrush, the principal occupants being rabbits.
One of the early questions to be solved by Scott and other pio- neers was the river crossing. The center of population and busi- ness was at The Fort, and travel was in that direction. During a portion of the year, neither the Des Moines nor the 'Coon could be forded. For a time, skiffs and small boats were provided for ferry- ing of individuals, but teams had to be left on the farther side. In 1846, Scott put on a flatboat ferry and did a lucrative business, as emigrants moving west passed through here, the numbers increas- ing rapidly. During the California emigration, over six hundred
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horses, and as many people, were ferried in a single day, and "Aleck," as everybody called him, charged stiff prices, as the trav- elers were generally well supplied with the lucre. It is related that on the day of the last session of the first Legislature in Des Moines, the Anti-Prohibition members had a jamboree, and about three o'clock in the morning came wobbling to the ferry. The ferry was closed, and they were informed that it would cost fifty cents a head to get across the river, whereat they demurred, raged and swore. Money was scarce, and some of the men had no fifty cents, but "Aleck's" demand was inexorable, and after some parleying, they raised the funds and were landed on the West Side.
Those ferries were a great convenience to the people, and aided very materially to increase the business and prosperity of The Fort. Judge Williams, who held the first District Court in Polk County, and subsequently became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, used to tell a ferry story on himself to his friends. He was a jolly, sociable person, always ready for fun, a good story-teller, and enjoyed joking. He boarded on the East Side, and would get ferried over the river in a skiff rather than take "Aleck's" cumber- some craft. One day he wanted to get across, but there was no boy nor man in sight with a skiff. However, Mary Hayes, a buxom young woman, was washing clothes near the river. Accosting her, he asked : "Mary, how am I to get across the river ?"
"Why, in the skiff, I suppose," she replied.
"But there is no one to bring back the skiff, and I am a very poor rower. Now, Mary, can't you take pity on a man in my pre- dicament and row me over. I'll pay you in any number of kisses."
"Certainly, I'll take you over, but as to the kisses, Mr. Judge, I don't want any from such an old scrub as you."
"Oh, I suppose you have had a surfeit of them. Has Jim-"
"Now, look here, Judge, if you want to go across, get in, sit still, and be still."
The Judge got in, and was silent until they were well out in the river current, and Mary was pulling the oars like a sailor.
"Mary !" "Sir ?"
"Suppose I turn this boat downstream, and carry you off and marry you. Wouldn't that be delightful ?"
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Mary's eyes snapped with ire.
"You carry me off ! You marry me! I wouldn't have such a dried-up old cracklin. I wouldn't marry you if you were the last man on earth, and I couldn't get to heaven without a husband, and if you don't stop your nonsense, I'll pitch you into the river, and you can go as far as you please, but you don't take me with you."
The Judge used to tell the story among his friends with great enjoyment.
In 1847, "Aleck" was given a license by the County Commis- sioners to run a ferry across the Des Moines and 'Coon rivers, the seal of the Commissioners being affixed with a silver half dollar, the county having no official seal.
When the town of Fort Des Moines was organized, the Town Council concluded "Aleck" was making too much money with his ferries, and it was time the town got some benefit from them. A Ferry Committee was appointed, to devise ways and means there- for. The ways were numerous, but the means were few. The Ferry Committee was instructed to provide a license for ferries, but "Aleck" claimed he had a perpetual commission to ferry from the old Indian chief, Keokuk, and the County Commissioners, having lost their jurisdiction, "Aleck" held on. The Council then ordered a foot bridge constructed, which the Ferry Committee sat down on. After a time, a compromise was made with "Aleck" to run a ferry over the Des Moines and 'Coon rivers, the doctors and mails to be carried free. After wrestling with the problem nearly two years, an agreement was made with "Aleck" to put in a float bridge at what is now Grand Avenue, then Sycamore on the West Side, and Keokuk on the East Side. It was serviceable only a portion of the year, for in high water it was too short, and in low water it was too long, making it difficult to get on or off from it. It was also a single track, and if teams met on it there was trouble, for one must back out, but it was a mighty good thing for the fisher- men, and some of the fish caught from that bridge would surprise the fishers of to-day. The bridge was not a success, and "Aleck" kept right on with his ferry until 1856, when he built a trestle or arch bridge at Court Avenue, the first structural bridge over the river. It was weak in the joints and shaky, and in 1859 broke down.
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In April, 1849, occurred what is known as the Fleming War. One Asa Fleming, a school teacher, son of a preacher, had taken a claim not far south of The Fort. A man named Perkins endeav- ored to preempt the claim-in fact, did file in the Land Office his intent to do so. Both were members of the County Claim Club, which was governed by the following rules :
"One .- We will protect all persons who may hold claims against the interference of any person or persons who shall attempt to deprive such claim holders of their rights by preemption or other- wise.
"Two .- We will, in all cases, discountenance the speculator or other person who shall attempt any innovation upon the homes of the rightful settlers ; that we will not hold any fellowship with such person, and that he be regarded as a nuisance in the community.
"Three .- No person shall be allowed to preempt or purchase in any form from the Government any land which shall be held as a claim, unless he shall first obtain the consent of the claimant.
"Four .- The filing of an intention to preempt contrary to the rights of the settler shall be regarded as an attempt to wrongfully deprive the citizen of his home and his claim.
"Five .- It shall be the duty of the Committee [Standing] to notify any person who shall preëempt or attempt to do so, by filing his intention to preempt, the claim of another person, to leave the vicinity and the county ; and they have authority to enforce a com- pliance with said notice, and we will sustain the Committee in the discharge of all their duties."
Adopted April Eighth, 1848.
One day Fleming saw Perkins hovering about his claim. He quickly gathered together some of his friends, and, armed with guns, started for vengeance. In those days, misdoers, claim-jumpers and horse thieves were disposed of by Judge Lynch.
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