USA > Iowa > Polk County > Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days, Vol. I > Part 30
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In 1856, when the contest for the location of the Capitol was on, Newcomer joined "Uncle Jerry" in his Dudley scheme, and when that failed, he joined the Brook's and Scott junta on the East Side.
Politically, Newcomer was an old-line Whig, of the Maryland persuasion, and took an active part in political affairs. As a stump- speaker, he was noted for the directness and bluntness of his vocab- ulary. In state and local matters, he was radically independent, and somewhat peculiar. In 1848, the Legislature had passed an exemption law, giving a debtor protection against seizure to the value of five hundred dollars. He was tinctured with the old-time Southern ideas respecting obligations, and vigorously criticized Judge Casady, who was Senator from Polk County, for supporting the law, and when the Judge told him the next Legislature would increase the exemption to a homestead, he became furious, and at once took the stump as an independent candidate for Governor, opposed to any measure to prevent a person from paying his honest debts, and he had a very good support. The next Legislature, in 1851, enacted the Homestead Exemption Law, and it remains on the statute book to-day.
Socially, Neweomer was unostentatious, and active in promot- ing all measures for the betterment of the community.
In the early 'Sixties, he became so debilitated from acute indi- gestion he was unable to perform any manual labor for two years. He became a vegetarian, his diet consisting of unleavened bread, eggs, and milk. I took dinner with him one day. The spread was not very attractive to an ordinary hungry person, but it was neatly served, was wholesome and nutritious. By that system, he regained perfect health and physical strength.
A few years later, he went to Texas, where he died in 1891, at the age of seventy-nine.
October Twenty-second, 1905.
DOCTOR JAMES CAMPBELL
A NOTABLE character among the pioneers was Doctor James Campbell. He was a hustler from the start, and had a hand in everything going on about The Fort-politics, trade, real estate, amusements-everything which made up the wild, bustling life of that early period. He was a man of many eccentricities and idiosyncrasies, good-hearted, blunt of speech, and of peppery tem- perament.
He came to Iowa on horseback, in 1839, stopped for a time in Van Buren County, and came to Fort Des Moines early in Janu- ary, 1846, the second physician in the Settlement, Doctor T. K. Brooks being his predecessor. There was not business enough for two doctors, and Brooks having a little the advantage, Campbell, so soon as the first lot of soldiers left the garrison, opened a grocery in the Guard House, which stood near what is now the corner of Vine and Third streets. A grocery in those days consisted of a room with groceries on one side and a bar on the other for liquors, for whiskey was as staple as corn bread and bacon. The Doctor, with more refined taste than usual, ran a partition through the room, in the south side of which was the bar. In those days, liquor drinking was more popular than it is now, men of very circum- spect habits indulged, even church members. One day, a man who, twenty years ago, was one of the best-known and most popular in the country, a pillar of the Methodist Church, who held some of the highest offices in the gift of the people, went down on Second Street to get groceries. His Methodist tenets slipped a cog, and he loaded himself up with more wet goods than dry, until he took in more than he could carry on a straight line. Steering himself to Campbell's place, he went in, declaring he could whip any man that did not weigh over one hundred and forty pounds, reeling against the Doctor, as he entered the door. "That's just my weight," said the Doctor, as he gave him a side-winder straight from the shoulder,
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which landed him out on the sidewalk, where the Doctor sat down on him and was giving him a vigorous pummeling when bystanders pulled him off, and the incident was closed. Nothing more was said or thought of it. That was the way of those first-comers. It was like the Doctor, thirty minutes after, to have invited his victim in to "take something," for he was generous in treating, but never drank himself. The good Methodist was never known to patronize the liquid side of a grocery after that event.
Later on, the Doctor removed to the northwest corner of Vine and Second streets, where he opened a grocery and amusement hall, the first in the town. He was a good fiddler, and furnished the music for dances in his amusement hall, and some lively hoe-downs were had there. Fiddlers in those days were in good favor with the young people. "Uncle Jerry" Church, who once laid out a town down the river which was to be the Capital of the state, was a good fiddler, and often furnished music at social functions. On one occasion, a reception was given to Joseph Williams, of the Ter- ritorial Court, at the home of Doctor Brooks, on the East Side, where the Judge boarded when he came here to hold court. "Uncle Jerry" was there with his fiddle, and the Judge, who was a good musician, jolly and full of fun, assisted him with a clarinette, as the orchestra for the dances.
During the first ten years, Second Street, from Market to Wal- nut, was the great thoroughfare of the town, and there was consid- erable rivalry among business men in building and improving it to hold the trade there. When the Original Town was platted, Vine and Walnut streets were made seventy-four feet wide, and there were to be boulevards. Court Avenue was made ninety-six feet, and sometime was to be the leading business street. All other streets were made sixty-four feet. Second Street, however, held its own until 1859, when G. M. Hippee built a big store on the southeast corner of Court Avenue and Third, and Hoyt Sherman another on the opposite corner, when trade began to move westward.
In 1855, the Doctor built a large three-story brick building near 'Coon Point, where he established an Eye and Ear Infirmary, the first brick business building in the town, and for many years it was cited as an evidence of the manifest destiny of The Fort, but at last its subsidence came from that very destiny made manifest.
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The Doctor was inclined to sporting, and while the Indians were here, pony and foot racing was a frequent amusement, and at times not a little exciting, for the Indians were fond of racing, especially after they had received a payment from the Government. They were inveterate gamblers, also, but they were not up to the tricks of the settlers, and their money soon vanished. The race course started between Fourth and Fifth streets, where the Kirkwood House is, and extended a little southwest one-fourth of a mile. After the Indians left, the settlers used the track, and the races were lively, scrubby, and open to anybody who had a horse, for it was about all the amusement in Summer there was.
The Doctor had a small sorrel mare, not handsome, but a com- plete bundle of nerves and energy. As a sprinter, she was a mighty deceiving beast to lots of over-zealous natives, who thought they knew a good thing when they saw it, and staked their dollars and watches on the other horse. When the first Methodist Church was built, where the Iowa Loan and Trust Building is, it blocked the race track, and it was abandoned.
In the Fall of 1845, when Keokuk and his bands left Iowa for the last time, Poweshiek, whose lodges were on Skunk River, balked. He was a good friend of the white people, a frequent vis- itor at The Fort, and well known to the first settlers. He was very arrogant and independent, and inclined to resist his removal to Kansas. Instead of going there, he, with his forty lodges, camped on Grand River, just north of the Missouri line. The white people soon became excited over their coming, and threatened extermina- tion, which only incited the Indians to retaliation. Rumors came to The Fort that conditions there were serious. The Doctor, J. B. Scott, and Hamilton Thrift, who knew Poweshiek, one day in Feb- ruary, mounted horses and rode one hundred miles through deep snow, over trackless prairie, to Poweshiek's encampment, where they found trouble brewing. The old chief and his braves were holding dog festivals every day, which meant war. He was surly and inclined to be ugly, but Scott gave him a long talk, which, as the Doctor recalled it, was substantially as follows:
"My friends and myself have come a long distance to help you out of this trouble. We are your friends. If you persist in your
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purpose of making war on the whites, many of your squaws and pappooses, as well as your braves, will be butchered. The remain- der will be driven out in the cold and snow, to perish on the prairie. It would be better for you now to break up your lodges and go in peace to the reservation in Kansas, which the Government has pro- vided for you."
It was some time before he could be induced to accept the good advice, as he feared if he left his encampment he would be stigma- tized as a coward, and that he could not endure, but he finally com- prehended the true situation, promised to move, and soon after, he and his lodges were beyond the border of the state. The timely arrival of those three friends, and their wise counsel, undoubtedly saved the old chief much trouble, and possible extermination.
In August, 1847, the Doctor was elected the second County Recorder and Treasurer, and served two years, when he sought a re-nomination. As the voters in the county were nearly all Demo- crats, a nomination was equivalent to an election, but Ben. Bryant, who ante-dated the Doctor, wanted the place. A consultation was held by the Old Guard, and, though the Doctor received a good indorsement, Ben., as a cripple, having lost part of his feet by freezing, won the sympathy and vote of the county.
Prior to 1857, the county records were so badly kept that it was almost impossible to interpret them, and it was only after a long, diligent search, and much labor by Amos Brandt, when he was County Auditor, that the fact of the Doctor's election was estab- lished. For instance, during the Doctor's legal term, instruments are recorded bearing the names of other persons as Recorder. On one page, appears a chattel mortgage by G. W. Gaston to John Hadden, which reads :
"One cow and sucking calf, marked with slit in the right year [ear], two horses; one sorrel horse seven yers old with a blase in the fase, marked on the right fore pastern joint by a cut from a wagon running over it; one bay horse blind with both eyes-age not nown; and a clame of two hundred acers on the Des Moines river, Boon and Dallas county split by the seposed county line boundry.
"Received and recorded by Peter Myers, deputy for John Myers."
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DOCTOR JAMES CAMPBELL
Sometimes Peter signed himself as Recorder.
I spent many an hour in the basement of the old Court House, seeking among the rubbish and confused mass of papers piled on the floor or packed in boxes, to trace some historic incident when I was reporting for the press. If you will go down to the present Court House, on Third Street, you will find in the basement old and valuable records covered with sand, dust, and filth, and rotting with mildew, a disgrace to the county.
The Doctor was an active member of the Settlers' Claim Club, which, during the first three years, was practically the governing power of the county respecting settlers' rights, Polk County not being atached to any other county for election or judicial purposes. It was, de facto, an independent civic community, and, as the ven- erable Judge, "Old Bill McHenry," used to put it: "We was a law unto ourselves."
In 1858, the Doctor was a busy participant in the State House location fight between the East and West Side. He evidenced his interest by subscribing five thousand dollars to the War Fund, and when the East Siders were haled before the Legislative Investigat- ing Committee to defend the charges of bribery and corruption made against them, and tell who got the swag, if any, the Doctor was called as a witness, and testified as follows:
"Question .- Did you reside in this city at the time of the loca- tion of the Capitol ?
"Answer .- Yes, sir; on the West Side.
"Question .- Had you any conversation with the Commission- ers, or either of them, at the time of the location of the Capitol, or soon after ?
"Answer .- About a week after the location, I had a talk with Crookham in regard to the location-don't know the exact words -not half of it. We were talking more or less about the location made and about lots. I don't recollect his saying how he got them or how he paid for them-don't recollect how many there were. I understood him to say he had some lots over there-the East Side -and was going to have them surveyed before he went away.
"Question .- What was your reply when Crookham said he was going to have his lots surveyed ?
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"Answer .- I said if I were he, I would have them run off and get the deeds before I left, or something like it.
"Question .- What was your understanding, how he got them ?
"Answer .- I thought then for locating the Capitol. He did not say so. I wish I knew more of it. I would tell it. I would like to blow it higher than the sky.
"Question .- Do you know whether any of the Commissioners received anything in lots or money ?
"Answer .- I do not. I did not hear from whom the deeds to Crookham were to come.
"Question .- When you had this conversation, why did you say he had better get the title right before he left ?
"Answer .- It would be my way of doing business.
"Question .- What led to this conversation with Crookham ?
"Answer .- I think I said we would have given more on this side than they gave on that. I recollect asking how much they (the Commissioners) got over there for themselves.
"Question .- What reason had you to think they would accept offers, or were in the market ?
"Answer .- Beause I thought no reasonable, disinterested man would locate it over there."
In the very early days, good, old, rye whiskey was the favorite tipple with the pioneers. They could stand up under a large quan- tity of it, for it was not such rotten, hair-pulling, venomous stuff as we get now. There were also a lot of "light drinkers" about The Fort, who called themselves "temperance men." In 1849, Abe Shoemaker, who kept a "grocery" on Second Street, sent to Keokuk for a ten-gallon keg of ale for the "temperance men." On the forthcoming Fourth of July, the temperature was torrid. When the teamster gave the order for the ale, he was told that if he attempted to haul it to Fort Des Moines in the hot sun, it would explode and blow him skyward. "Just put in five gallons of whis- key, and it will go all right," said the seller. The whiskey was put in. It arrived all right, was on tap early the next morning, and before eleven o'clock every "temperance man" in the town was at home in bed, utterly oblivious to what occurred during the remain- der of the day, and in the list there were some very prominent,
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circumspect individuals, whom it would now be improper to name, neither would it help the temperance cause.
Socially, the Doctor was a hail-fellow generally. There were no social distinctions in those pioneer days. He was a wide-awake business man, a vigorous booster of the town, and, with Tom McMullen, laid out an addition to the Original Town, acquired two or three fine farms, and before his decease retired on Easy Street.
October Twenty-second, 1905.
SAMUEL GREEN
SAMUEL GREEN
O F the early settlers who helped to build the town, few were better known, though very quiet and unostentatious, than Samuel Green, or Sam., as he was familiarly called by old- timers.
Having thoroughly learned the foundry business in New York, he came to Des Moines in March, 1857, the first practical foundry- man in the town. He did, for a short time after his arrival, what all newcomers did-whatever he could find to do. One of his intro- ductory jobs was helping S. A. Robertson with one of his first jobs, to make repairs on the old "Grout House," which stood on Court Avenue, southwest of the State House, in which T. E. Brown and his wife were living. It took its name from its construction of small cobblestones, lime and mortar. It was once the most fash- ionable hostelry in the town, and headquarters of members of the Legislature, and state officers.
Sam. very soon secured employment as foreman, molder, melter, pattern and flask maker, and general utility man, with H. M. Hem- minway, who had a small foundry on East Walnut between First and Second streets. The river bank was fringed with small resi- dences, a few shops, a mill and a woolen factory. The town was small, business was depressed, money was scarce. "Gold pieces looked mighty big in those days, for most of the money was 'wild- cat,' practically worthless, which nobody wanted, though we had to take it," he says. It was the year of the worst panic known in the history of the state. The entire populace, scattered over the vast domain from river to river, shut out of the markets of the sea- board, were utterly prostrate. It touched the sick body of desolate and despairing agriculture; it paralyzed the arm of the artisan and toiler. Values were destroyed, personal credit forfeited, indi- vidual liabilities were overwhelming. The credit of the state was impaired; there was more than one hundred and fifty thousand
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dollars of floating debt in Auditor's warrants, drawing eight per cent interest, with few purchasers, even at a large discount.
The prospect was discouraging to an ambitious young man. On the East Side, from the river to Capitol Hill, the ground was low and wet, no sidewalks, and very few houses. From the river at Court Avenue, a trestle footway about three feet high was built nearly to the hill for the benefit of the members of the Legislature and state officers. I think Will. Porter has not forgotten that bot- tom. He was in politics, with a craving desire to get at the pie counter, and was the Democratic candidate for State Printer, the Winter after Sam. arrived. The day was fixed for the Legislature to vote in joint convention, and Will. started in a buggy for the State House, which stood where the Soldiers' Monument now is, but the mud had such a grip on the horse and buggy, he did not get there until the voting was over, and John Teesdale, a Repub- lican, was elected. Will. always declared that if the mud had not been so deep, and held him back, he would have won out.
On the west side of the river, Second Street, from Market to Court Avenue, was the business thoroughfare. There were but one or two buildings on Third Street. Court House Square, the Sum- mer Sam. arrived, was sown with wheat, and the county paid John Railing eleven dollars and a half for plowing, sowing, and harvest- ing it. Who got the crop, the record does not say. Judge Napier was running county affairs then, and he generally got what he wanted. Amos Brandt, the well-known ex-County Auditor, was running a farm during Napier's reign. One day, during harvest- time, one of the machines broke down, and he came to town to get the necessary repairs, which done, he scurried back. Arriving at Kimball's Bridge, he ran against Napier, who stood in the middle of the road, arms outstretched, and commanded him to stop. Amos, knowing his autocratic authority over bridges and roads, suddenly halted, and asked the reason for his stoppage.
"You can't cross that bridge," replied the Judge.
"What is the trouble with it ? I crossed it a short time ago, and I am in a great hurry; have been to town to get some machinery repaired ; the men and teams are waiting. Isn't the bridge safe ?"
"You can't cross that bridge unless you give me a chew of tobacco !"
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The Judge got the tobacco.
Sam., however, had come to stay, and in 1859, at the Hemmin- way shop, was made the first reaper made in Polk County.
Soon after Sam. joined Hemminway, they wanted some coke for melting iron. They went down the river above Rattlesnake Bend, dug out of the bluff three wagon-loads of coal, dug a hole seven feet in diameter and three feet deep, in the middle of Walnut Street, near the river, dumped the coal into it, set fire to it, banked it over with earth, and let it burn three days. When uncovered, there was a good quality of coke, the first made in Polk County, out of Iowa soft coal, so far as known, thus demonstrating that Iowa coal can be coked. It made good iron, but as hard as flint.
In 1860, the sorghum craze struck the farmers throughout the country, and to meet the demand for some device to express the cane, the Hemminway shop designed and made small, portable crushing mills, and as the demand increased, a small mill was erected on the East Side, to which cane was brought to be crushed, which was of great benefit to the farmers unable to purchase a portable crusher.
In 1860, Sam. formed a partnership which necessitated a dwel- ling-house. Houses were scarce, and he built one, one and one-half stories high, with four rooms, on the river front opposite the new City Library. The shingles and siding were Black Walnut; all other lumber was White Oak, and for both he paid a dollar and a half per hundred feet. In that house, he lived four years, when he built another on the corner of East Second and Locust, where he lived fourteen years, and then built a fine residence on the same street, on Capitol Hill.
In 1867, he decided to embark in business on his own account. He had very limited means, but a large amount of pluck and per- serverance. He leased part of a lot where Given had a plow shop, corner of Third and Vine, and built a small foundry, at an expense of two hundred dollars. When the first blast was turned out, his books showed an indebtedness of over seven hundred dollars, which discouraged him, fearing he could never satisfy his creditors, but his marital partner, ever helpful with her optimism, encouraged him to go on. In this foundry, he made all the castings used in the Given House.
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As the years passed, by industry, economy, good judgment, and fair dealing, his business increased so that greater facilities were needed, and he bought the Dippert harness shop, the old Frank Allen bank, Judge Casady's first law office, and other old land- marks on Second Street, tore them down, and built a two-story brick thereon. In a few years, more space was needed, and he bought more lots northward to Vine. He added heating furnaces to his business, and soon after took his sons, Frank and James, born and raised in the business, into partnership. New equipments were added, a little more steam put on, until now the establishment has become one of the leading manufacturing industries of the city, its trade extending as far west as Colorado.
Politically, Sam. is a Republican of the blackest kind, though his father and six brothers were radical Democrats. He cast his first presidential ballot for John C. Fremont. He is not a politi- cian, nor office-seeker. In local affairs, he exercises the right and duty of every good citizen, to vote for the highest public welfare. When he formed the parnership with his sons, a mutual pledge was made that neither of the firm should seek or take any political office, a pledge which has been rigidly observed, yet, despite that, in 1862, his numerous friends having faith in his integrity and inter- est in public affairs, determined to nominate him for Alderman, but he would not permit it.
Socially, he is genial, popular, interested always in educational, religious, and temperance movements, for the betterment of society. He is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, once holding the office of Treasurer of Capital Lodge Number One Hundred and Six; also of the Order of Good Templars, and was a charter mem- ber of Capital Lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has always been the friend and supporter of the labor class.
Religiously, he is a Methodist, identifying himself with the First Church when its first brick meeting-house was built, where the Iowa Loan and Trust Company building now stands, on Fifth Street, and is a loyal supporter of the faith.
By judicious management, energy, honesty, and an inexorable rule to give every man a fair deal, he has acquired a competency, and in 1904 turned over the foundry to his sons, and retired to the
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southwest corner of Fourteenth and Capitol Avenue, overlooking Franklin Park, where he can enjoy the recompense of a life well spent, and work well done.
November Fifth, 1905.
IRA COOK
IRA COOK
A VERY prominent man in Des Moines in the early days was Ira Cook. He came to Davenport in 1836, with his father, a small boy, worked fourteen and fifteen hours a day helping his father start a farm, and plant by hand what he declared was the first field of corn in Scott County.
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