USA > Iowa > Polk County > Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days, Vol. II > Part 13
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He was born in Washington County, Maryland, May Third, 1835, of German parents, who wrote their name Schnerer, in accordance with German nomenclature. His father died before his birth, and when he was two years old, his mother married Doc- tor F. C. Grimmel, a German physician.
In 1839, the Doctor moved to Taylorville, Ohio; in 1840, to Lancaster; in 1843, to Chapel Hill, Perry County, and in August, 1846, to Raccoon Forks, traveling with teams, camping out at night, and arriving about ten o'clock at night, October Fifteenth. There was not a place in the little hamlet to get shelter, and the night was passed in camp. The next day, shelter was found in the Guard House of the garrison, and there the Winter was passed, the windows being decorated with iron bars.
The Doctor at once made claims for a large area of land lying north of what is now Grand Avenne and west of Fourth Street to Ninth. George was then eleven years old, eight years of which had been passed in three different Ohio settlements, with little or no opportunity to attend school. On arrival here, he went to work on a farm, and it was not until 1850, when fifteen years old, that he began to acquire an education, by attending the first public school in Des Moines, with Charles L. Anderson as teacher, and later under the excellent tutelage of Judge J. P. Casady, Judge Byron Rice, and Elder J. A. Nash. He cared little for the usual sports of youthful days; was inclined to the more practical side of life. He was a close observer of men and things. One of his first and most impressive astonishers was the big snow in the Winter of
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1848, which is remembered distinctly by every pioneer of Polk County. It began to snow early in November, and continued until December Twenty-fourth. The average depth of snow was three feet until February. In the meantime, there were frequent driving storms, rendering it impossible for settlers to get from one place to another without danger of getting lost or freezing to death. There were but few settlers in the county, so there were no beaten paths or tracks. That was the first and only instance in the county that the snow was so deep and cold so severe as to cause suffering and want generally in the country, the settlers being practically snow- bound in their cabins all Winter.
Referring to the weather and peculiarities of the present Spring -which is being quite notably discussed as unprecedented-I am reminded of the record of the county from 1839 to 1870, a period of thirty-one years. It shows the latest appearance of frost ranged from April Fifth to May Twenty-sixth; its earliest appearance from September Second to October Twenty-third. An exception was the year 1863, when there was a frost each month in the year. During that year, the latest frost occurred August Twenty-fifth, the earliest, August Twenty-ninth. During those thirty-one years, the latest frost occurred twenty times in April, ten times in May, and once in August. The earliest frost occurred nine times in September, twenty-one times in October, and once in August. Except in 1863, no frost was recorded in the months of June, July, and August.
The Winter of 1856-1857 was an unusually severe one. A rec- ord kept by John F. A. H. Roberts, near Rising Sun, says :
January Fourteenth, mercury thirty-five degrees below zero.
January Seventeenth, mercury thirty-six degrees below zero. February Tenth, mercury thirty degrees below zero.
April Eighteenth, mercury four degrees below zero.
Robins made their first appearance June Tenth.
Hundreds of immigrants who had come into the county in the Spring of 1856 were so disgusted with the climate, they pulled up and left the country.
In opposition to the snow is the rainfall. The largest rainfall in any one year since the county was organized was in 1851, when
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it was seventy-four and forty one-hundredths inches. The least in 1854, when it was only twenty-three and thirty-five one-hun- dredths inches. The greatest rainfall in a given length of time was in Angust, 1851, when, between the hours of eleven o'clock P. M., of the Tenth, and three o'clock of the Eleventh, four hours, the fall was ten and seventy-one one-hundredths inches. The greatest snowfall was December Twenty-first, 1847, twenty and fifty one- hundredths inches. December Twenty-eighth, 1863, the snowfall in twelve hours was fifteen and ten one-hundredths inches.
The flood of 1851 washed away the west bank of Des Moines River from near the dam to the confluence with the 'Coon, thus throwing the channel westward, and causing the difficulty which it is now proposed to overcome by cutting a new channel below "the forks."
In 1857, George purchased a farm in Valley Township, where he remained until 1860, when he returned to the city, and at once began doing things in the building and real estate line. Of nerv- ous, sanguine temperament, with a sound mind and body, active, energetic, a good mixer, he at once became a prominent factor in public affairs.
In 1856, when the contest over the location of the State House was on, he was a radical West Sider, and subscribed one thousand dollars to the fund to secure its location on the West Side. When it was announced that the Commissioners had selected the East Side, George did not hesitate to declare, in loud English, that the Commissioners had been bribed, and he knew who got the swag, for he was a man who had the courage of his convictions, and expressed his opinions in plain, vigorous language.
In 1861, he was elected Alderman in the City Council, from the Third Ward; in 1869, City Clerk, and in 1870, Street Commis- sioner. In 1875, he was again elected Alderman, and took an act- ive part in securing the grant of a charter to the Capital City Gas Company, in competition with the Des Moines Gas Company, which strenuously opposed the grant of the charter on the ground that the city had no authority to give it. After considerable liti- gation in the courts, the latter won, and the former being seriously embarrassed by the Allen bank failure, sold out to the latter.
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George was reelected in 1876, and served until 1878, and proved a serious obstacle to the multifarious schemes of Michael Drady and Mike McTighe, who hunted in couples, and run the First and Second wards for nearly a score of years.
In 1878, he was elected Mayor, and served two years. During his service, began important city improvements. There were no pavements and no sewers. He was a strenuous advocate of reform; that the city do something to get out of the mud, its stolid indiffer- ence, and the bad reputation given it abroad. Its streets were nearly impassable, and flooded during wet seasons. It was a battle royal, but a beginning was made. Mr. Chesbrough, a noted expert engineer, was brought here from Chicago to provide plans for pav- ing and sewerage. His plans were elaborate, but his estimate of cost staggered the property owners, especially those who were con- tent to get rich by the rise in value of their holdings without any expense to themselves. To be touched by a special assessment according to the improvement made to their property was a dis- tinction with a difference. But, after a vigorous contest, the City Council accepted the plans, and a sixty-inch brick sewer was built along First Street from Locust to 'Coon Point; then on Mulberry and Court Avenue. During 1879 and 1880, the streets were in a chaotic condition. So soon as the sewers were in place, paving began, and in June, 1882, Walnut Street was paved with cedar blocks, from the river to Ninth Street.
While Sneer was Mayor, another advance step was taken in municipal affairs. The facilities for crossing the rivers were grossly inadequate. More bridges were imperatively needed. What there was, were tolled, and a nuisance, against which there was constant rebellion. Those living in the city did not think it just to be taxed to build and maintain that which was for the benefit of the whole county. Therefore, a proposition was submitted to the people to levy one mill tax for eight years to raise a fund to build four bridges and make them free. It was defeated, but in 1878, was again submitted in a proposition to levy one mill tax for five years, and it was adopted, the vote being four thousand, five hundred and seven yeas, three thousand, one hundred and sixty nays. A com- mittee was selected on behalf of the city and county to appraise the
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value of the bridges at Walnut, Court Avenne, 'Coon Point, and Seventh Street, which fixed it at one hundred thousand, three hun- dred and forty-nine dollars and nineteen cents. It was accepted, the bridges were made free, and have so remained.
With these manifestations of public spirit, the city took on new life, made rapid strides, and the Daily Register claimed improve- ments for the year :
Six hundred and fifty-three residences built .... $ 975,555 Fifteen business blocks 340,000
Improvements and repairs 55,495
City streets, sewers, etc. 67,529
Total $1,184,039
Coal trade increase 1,000,000
In all this forward movement, Sneer was conspicuously active. He had the faculty of boosting in a notable manner, and he gave to it his time and energy. He was also a large property holder.
Politically, he was a Republican on general principles, but in local affairs a little dubious, yet, whatever his position therein, there was no mistaking it. He was plain of speech; sometimes deemed erratic and cranky; but in all things he strove for the growth and prosperity of his adopted home. In 1884, he sup- ported Cleveland for President, and subsequently identified him- self with the Independents.
Socially, he was inclined to good fellowship; cared nothing for clubs or society fads as they go, but he was a prominent and active member of the Masonic fraternity, having been raised to the Thirty-second Degree. He was a member of Capital Lodge, Corin- thian Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Temple Commandery, Knights of Pythias, and a past officer of all of them. He was also a mem- ber of Des Moines Lodge and Ebenezer Encampment of the Order of Odd Fellows, in both of which he passed all the chairs.
He deceased in 1891.
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DR. CHARLES H. RAWSON
DOCTOR CHARLES H. RAWSON
A DUE appreciation of individual worth and all that consti- tutes manhood of the highest type must include Doctor Charles H. Rawson, who held a high place in the affections of all the people of Polk County in the early days.
He was born in Craftsbury, Orleans County, Vermont, July Sixteenth, 1828, of ancestry dating back to Edward Rawson, who emigrated from Dorsetshire, England, in 1636, joined the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, and was elected Secretary of the Colony annually for thirty-five years, until the government was turned over to Sir Edmund Andros. As such Secretary, he signed the warrants issued by Charles II of England, and sent by him to America for arrest of the regicides. A man of superior ability and force of character, he became very prominent in the Colonies, and for services rendered the Commonwealth, the Government gave him five hundred acres of land. The family increased largely, and among his descendants were able lawyers, skillful physicians, prominent legislators, and gallant military men. Old Harvard graduated several of them, and in the War of 1812, they fought for independence.
On the farm of his father, Charles H. spent his boyhood days. He attended the common schools, was studious, ambitious to secure an education, and at the age of twenty-one, he decided to become a physician. He studied medicine with Doctor A. P. Barber, and later graduated from the medical college at Woodstock. Imme- diately after graduation, he went to Canada, where he practiced two years. He then attended a lecture course at the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, graduating with high honors. He then joined the medical staff of Bellevue Hospital, in New York, his first experience being with the Smallpox patients, where he proved very successful.
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In 1849, when the hegira from Eastern states began toward the California gold fields, he was selected surgeon for the steamer S. S. Lewis, on her trip around "The Horn" to San Francisco. He served on the vessel until it was wrecked near Acapulco; then he joined the medical corps in the Marine Hospital, in San Francisco, as sur- geon, where he remained two years. He then returned to his old home in Vermont.
In 1856, he learned from some friends that Des Moines had been selected as the new Capital of the State of Iowa, and was a promising field for a physician. He accordingly came here, in October, with his young bride, arriving in one of Colonel Hooker's stages, at three o'clock in the morning. The town did not present a very attractive appearance to them, so great the contrast with what they had left behind them. The population was sparse. A few small frame houses and log cabins, some small stores on Sec- ond Street, constituted the little hamlet. The people, however, were very soon convinced that the new-comer was a physician of unusual skill and ability. His practice increased so rapidly, for he was of that specific temperament which wins public esteem, it diverted him from all thought of his environments or old Vermont.
When the Civil War came, he enlisted in the Fifth Iowa Infan- try, and was appointed surgeon of the regiment, which subse- quently became the pet regiment of the Third Brigade, Seventh Division, of the Army of the Mississippi, and noted for its gal- lantry, brilliancy, and bravery-qualities which cost it dearly in numerous engagements. At the memorable battle of Inka, a slaughterous event, September Nineteenth, 1862, of the four hun- dred and eighty-two engaged, fifteen commissioned officers were killed and wounded, thirty-four privates killed, and one hundred and sixty-eight wounded-a total of two hundred and sixteen men. Again, at Champion's Hill, May Sixteenth, 1863, of three hundred and fifty officers and men, nineteen were killed and seventy-five wounded. At Lookout Mountain, it distinguished itself by storm- ing the breastworks of the enemy.
The Doctor's ability and professional skill won him promotion to the rank of Brigade Surgeon, but the labor was so severe, for he would, in cases of emergencies and great casualties, leave nothing
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to be done by subordinates that he could do himself, his physical system broke down and he was compelled to resign. He came home, and so soon as he had regained his health, resumed his practice and formed a partnership with W. H. Ward, which continued until 1881.
During the twenty-five years' practice of Doctor Rawson in Des Moines, I am confident he visited every family in the city, either in his practice or in consultation, so universal was public confidence in his skill, and esteem as a citizen. In numerous cases, involving the exercise of profound knowledge, when prominent physicians of the state were called in consultation, his decision was the final one. His practice also extended to several adjoining counties.
In 1865, when the United States Pension Office was established in Des Moines, he was appointed, without his knowledge, President of the Board, which place he held year after year, many times ten- dering his resignation, which would not be accepted, and he held the place to the end of his days.
He was a man of high moral sense, an exemplar of right living.
Politically, he was a Republican, always interested in public affairs, often suggested for some public office, but positively refused to permit his name to be used for such purpose. Socially, he was inclined to reticence, yet of that temperament which won unwav- ering friendship. He was optimistic, firm in his convictions, yet equally respectful of the opinions of others. In those early days, the code of medical ethics was more rigidly observed than it is now. The chasm between the different schools of medicine was never bridged. Though the Doctor adhered strictly to the ethics of his profession, Doctor Ward, many years so intimately associated with him, often said he never heard him speak disparagingly or dis- courteously of the therapeutics of other schools of medicine, or practitioners thereof, a trait which gained their respect and high regard. He was a member of the Masonic order and Crocker Post, Grand Army of the Republic. To the poor and unfortunate, and especially to families of soldiers, he was a friend indeed, ever ready to respond to their needs in sickness, without a thought of fee or reward. In the sickroom, at the bedside of the suffering one, his very presence was a benefaction, and there it was were
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formed friendships tender and true, which time could not efface; especially was it so with children and young people.
No instance of his hold upon the hearts of the people could be more notably cited than that of his last illness. In May, 1884, several physicians of the city went to Washington, to attend a meet- ing of the American Medical Association. Though his own prac- tice was quite large, he kindly assumed the care of patients of his colleagues during their absence, but the burden proved too great, his strength failed, and he was forced to go to his bed. Immedi- ately, Doctors Ward, Hanawalt, and Swift attended him constantly -- applying their profoundest skill, prompted also by their broth- erly affection for the sufferer. Every physician in the city also visited his residence to express their esteem and sorrow in behalf of their associate, but, despite all the power of human skill, love and affection, after many days of anxious watching, on the Twenty- seventh of June, 1884, he quietly passed into that slumber which has no awakening.
Religiously, he was a consistent member of Plymouth Congre- gational Church.
May Tenth, 1907.
HENRY LOTT
O NE of the greatest difficulties the compiler of history has to contend with is to get it straight. Especially is this true of Polk County. The first seven years after its settlement, release from military control, and organization, its public records were so carelessly kept or neglected as to be of little or no value to the histographer. As a rule, the people were more interested in securing homes and bread and butter than in making history. The facts and incidents of the community must therefore be gathered largely from, and depend upon, the memory of the pioneers, who themselves often disagree concerning some important event or inci- dent which they were participants in, or were observant of. Of events occurring in the settlement of the valley of Des Moines River, those respecting the doings of Henry Lott were pregnant with horrors and conflicts with settlers and the Indians, culminat- ing in the Spirit Lake Massacre; yet it is difficult to give, at the present time, the facts respecting them, so conflicting are the state- ments of those presumed to be familiar with them.
Periodically, appear in the public press stories of him so at variance in detail as to render them of little value, especially respecting his trouble with the Indians, the causes leading to it, and the killing of Si-dom-in-a-do-tah, a noted chief of a large band of Sisseton Sioux Indians.
Little was ever known of Lott's early life, but it is probably true that he was born in Pennsylvania, where he grew to manhood and married a widow having a son about sixteen years old, who figured largely in the subsequent tragedies. He first came to notice in this section in 1843, as an Indian trader, at Red Rock, then in Keokuk County. His stock in trade was generally understood to be whis- key and trinkets, which he disposed of to the Sauks and Foxes, but the tales told by the first settlers in the country thereabouts, and in Polk County, disclose that he was a horse thief. Mrs. Jehu P.
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Saylor, who was then about seventeen years old, says she frequently heard the men of her family talk about Lott and his stealings, and what they would do with him if they caught him.
Tom Saylor, who is now living in Saylor Township, on the same farm he has cultivated for more than fifty years, says that in 1844, his father, John B., lived on a farm in Van Buren County, and had a contract to furnish beef and flour to the Sauk and Fox Indians, and beef and hay to the garrison at Fort Des Moines; that Lott roamed over the country south of the Fort, stole the ponies of the Indians and horses of the settlers, and that his father and several settlers once caught him and gave him a severe flogging. Polk County then had no legal existence; there were no courts accessible, and the few settlers scattered over the country became their own court and jury, and enforced the unwritten law of Jus- tice and Right.
Guy Ayers, who was a small boy then, at The Fort, says he knew Lott when he was living down at Red Rock, in 1844. He hunted bee trees, gathered honey, and sold it to settlers all around. He once came up to the east side of the river and sold some honey to his father and others around The Fort.
In 1845, Guy says his father had a mare, a pony and some mules, which one day were missing, and he and his father went in search of them. They kept going until they reached Lott's cabin, on the riverside, opposite Red Rock. They stopped with him over night. The next day, they found the animals, not far from Lott's place, and brought them home, concluding they had simply strayed away, but from subsequent disclosures of Lott's doings, Guy now thinks they were led astray.
Early in the Spring of 1846, Lott came to Fort Des Moines, and pitched a large tent near 'Coon River, on one of the terraces or "benches" as they were called. The weather was cold and very bad. He built a big log fire in it and remained several days. One day, Guy was sent to collect pay for something Lott had purchased, and he refused to pay, whereupon Guy pitched into him and had a regular tilt with him, but he got the money, and said to his father : "Lott is a mean man." Lott had with him two boys, one about sixteen and the other about twelve. He next went north, and the
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first night stopped at MeDivitt's Grove, six miles distant. There he found a big tree well stocked with bees and honey. He came down and asked Guy to go up and get the bees, and he went. The tree was cut down, Lott took the honey, Guy scooped in the bees and brought them home. He saw no more of Lott.
The Sauks and Foxes had been removed to Kansas. Polk County and the county south of it were rapidly filling up with settlers. To keep in advance of civilization and to better work out his depredations, Lott moved up to Pea's Point, so called from John Pea, the settler, near the mouth of Boone River, where he resumed his traffic with the Indians in whiskey and trinkets. His customers were the Sioux, a very different class from the Sanks and Foxes. He evidently did a very good business, for Mr. Smal- ley, a pioneer of Dallas County, says he passed his place when going to Oskaloosa to get a supply of whiskey. On going north at one time, he and his oldest son stopped with him over night. Behind his wagon was a cream-colored horse. The next morning, Lott went on, and the day following, the cream-colored horse returned. A few days later, Lott came, got the horse, mounted it, and rode off, saying he was going to Red Rock. A few days after, he returned with one arm in a sling, looking as though a cyclone had struck him. He was badly bruised, stopped a couple of days for repairs, and then went on. Two days after, a man came from the south, looking for a cream-colored horse. Smalley told him Lott had gone north with one answering the description given. He went north, and three days later returned with the horse.
During the Winter of 1846-1847, Si-dom-in-a-do-tah, a Sioux chief, with six braves, who were hunting along the river, came to Lott's place and ordered him to clear out, as he was on their hunt- ing ground, and gave him five suns (days) to get out. At the expiration of the time, Si-dom-in-a-do-tah returned. At this point in the tragedies that followed, there are so many conflicting stories and traditions, some of them evidently greatly exaggerated by repetition, it is impossible to decide which is correct.
The Union Historical Company, publisher of several histories of counties in the state, in 1880, says :
"Si-dom-in-a-do-tah, finding Lott still there, commenced an indiscriminate destruction of property, robbed his beehives, shot
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his horses, cattle and hogs full of arrows, so that many died, threat- ened and abused his family, drove him and his son from the house. Two small daughters fled to the timber, and a small child, which the mother covered under a bed, was not discovered. After con- tending with the savages until her strength was exhausted, she was compelled to submit to all the indignities they chose to heap upon her."
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