USA > Iowa > Polk County > Pioneers of Polk County, Iowa, and reminiscences of early days, Vol. II > Part 25
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On the morning of October Fourth, there was little hope for the Union army. Its lines on every hand had been forced back, and on the northwest and south sides of the city, the enemy had taken the outer defenses. The contest which would decide the final issue would be of short duration, fierce and vigorous. Soon after daylight, the enemy resumed their advance, and a few moments later the battle was raging in every quarter. On the north side, Battery Robinette was repeatedly charged by the enemy, and repulsed with dreadful slaughter. Failing there, the enemy massed their forces on the south side, and, with an appalling yell, at double-quick, came dashing into the town, many even reaching the Tishmingo House. At that critical moment, when victory was
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almost within their reach, the Second, Seventh and Seventeenth Iowa sprang to the rescue, and, with an answering yell of defiance, charged upon the Rebel legions and drove them back in utter con- fusion, thus repelling the final assault of the enemy at Corinth. In that final charge, Lieutenant-Colonel Mills of the Second was shot, from which he died a week later. General J. B. Weaver was then Major of the Second, and in his official report of the fight said :
"Among those who distinguished themselves was Adjutant George L. Godfrey, who could always be seen and heard charging along the line upon his horse, shouting to the men to be cool and steady. He is one of the most valuable young officers with whom I have ever met."
Godfrey had two horses shot from under him in the battle, and had several narrow escapes, but singularly received no injury. The second had six different Colonels as a testimony of its valor.
Adjutant Godfrey took part in the expedition to intercept For- rest, in December, and Dodge's expedition into North Alabama, in the Spring and Summer of 1863.
In Alabama, there was a strong Union sentiment. The success of the Federal forces at Corinth gave encouragement. A regiment of cavalry was formed, and Adjutant Godfrey, who had shown his valor and competency, was commissioned its Major, October Eight- eenth, 1863. The regiment was attached to the First Brigade of Cavalry, Sixteenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, and was engaged in the operations on Memphis and Charleston, against Lee's attack, in November and December; the operations against Forrest, in Tennessee, from February Sixth to April Fourteenth, 1864; the advance on Dallas; the two days' battle of Resaca, May Thirteenth and Fourteenth; operations about Kenesaw Mountain, in June; the siege of Atlanta, July Twenty-second to August Twenty-fifth; the battle of Jonesboro, August Thirty-first; the March to the Sea, in November and December, and the campaign of Carolinas, until the surrender of Johnston's army, on April Twenty-eighth, 1865.
During the siege of Atlanta, Major Godfrey was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, May First, 1864.
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COLONEL GEORGE L. GODFREY
On the March to the Sea, the Colonel's regiment was at the head of the column, and one company was assigned as body guard to General Sherman. One day, his regiment was moving quietly along a road where the sand was very fine and deep, when sud- denly there was an uproar of shots. The air was filled with dust and sand, the horses went into confusion, and the Colonel thought they had run into a Rebel ambush. Quickly spreading out the regiment, he halted and made investigation. The Rebs. had planted the whole roadway for a long distance with torpedoes. He called General Sherman to the spot, who at once, in not very refined language, ordered them cleaned ont. One fellow, while scraping away the sand with his foot, hit a torpedo, which exploded and tore his leg off. Several horses had also been severely injured.
When Johnson surrendered, Godfrey was assigned to carry a message from General Sherman to him. Arriving at Johnson's line with a flag of truce, he was halted, asked his business, and was tendered an understrapper to carry his message to General John- son, to which Godfrey replied that he would deliver it in person or return with it to General Sherman, whereupon they began to stand up and take notice. He demanded an escort, and they brought him a Lieutenant. Godfrey wanted proper recognition of his mili- tary rank-he was a little inspired with the bigness of his mission -and he refused to accept the Lientenant as escort. The Rebs. scurried away and brought Colonel Rhett, who subsequently came to be a strong Union man and Federal officer. Godfrey was received by General Johnson with the utmost cordiality. When the reply to Sherman's message was prepared, Godfrey was escorted by Col- onel Rhett back to the line.
When the Confederacy collapsed, Godfrey was near Raleigh, North Carolina. Wade Hampton, who occupied the city, moved out, and sent word to Godfrey that he might enter the city and protect the Government and citizens. Selecting a few of his staff officers and several line officers, Godfrey started in advance of the column to prepare the way, and also to hoist the stars and stripes over the State House. As they were riding through the streets, they were fired upon by a band of desperadoes, who had broken loose from Hampton's army. Godfrey gave an order to catch the
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devils. They all escaped except one, but when the regiment entered the State House yard, the assassin was swinging from a tree.
Entering the State House, Godfrey found the janitor, an old negro, who was nearly white with fright.
"Uncle Sam," said Godfrey, "where are the flags ?"
"Dunno, massa; 'spects dey's all toted off," was the reply.
"The Yanks. are here; the Rebs. are all gone, and we want the flags," said Godfrey.
"I reckon you'll find suthin' in dat ar' old box," pointing to a long, narrow box.
"Well, open it, quiek," said Godfrey.
The old darkey hustled, with a broad grin on his face, opened the box, in which were twenty-one Union flags which had been cap- tured, and several tattered and torn Rebel flags. The Union flags were quickly spread along the fence about the State House, to greet the Union column as it marehed in.
The war being ended, the Colonel's regiment preferred to go to their homes and friends rather than to the final review at Wash- ington. The consent of General Sherman was given, and with it they marched to Huntsville, where the men were paid off. He was mustered out and honorably discharged October Twentieth, 1865.
While he was in Huntsville, in October, elosing up the affairs of his regiment, he was elected Representative from Polk County in the Eleventh General Assembly. Although political preferment of high degree was offered him in Alabama, he preferred his old home. He served through the legislative session and took an active part in its deliberations. He prepared and secured the passage of a bill providing for the building of the State Arsenal and head- quarters of the Adjutant-General, which stood for many years at the corner of Walnut and First streets. He also prepared a bill for the erection of a Home for Soldiers' Orphans, at Des Moines, and in support of it he made the first publie speech in his life. There was strong opposition to it, on the ground that a permanent institution for such a purpose was extravagant and unnecessary, as the lapse of a few years would show no use for it, the children would be grown to manhood. But after forty years, the increase of inmates has been ten to one, evideneing his foresight and his wisdom.
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COLONEL GEORGE L. GODFREY
He also prepared a bill for the establishment of a School for the Deaf and Dumb, at Des Moines, but the rivalry of other towns and the scatteration policy, that Des Moines should have no state institutions except the Capitol, prevailed, and Colonel Sapp won the school for Council Bluffs.
At the close of the Legislature, the Colonel entered the first class of the Law Department of the State University, graduated December Seventh, 1866, and was admitted to practice in the State and Federal courts.
In 1880, he was elected City Solicitor, and served two years; was appointed assistant to Joseph Lane, as United States District Attorney, and served three years.
In 1882, he was appointed a member of the Federal Commis- sion, under the Edmunds Law, to wipe out polygamy in Utah, and in 1889 was made Chairman of the Commission. His experience in that contest would fill a book. Under the limited powers of the Commissioners, they failed to wring the neck of polygamy, but they scotched its tail.
Politically, he was originally a radical Democrat, and cast his first vote for President James Buchanan, but he was also a patriot. He abandoned partisanship and gave himself to save the Union, since when he has been a stalwart Republican. He voted for "Old Abe," and in 1876, was one of the state electors who elected Ruth- erford B. Hayes President. He is now United States Collector of Customs, the importation of merchandise direct from foreign coun- tries by merchants of Des Moines making such an office necessary. His political honors have come to him by common consent, rather than from political "pulls."
Socially, he is genial, companionable, of positive temperament, unostentatious, has no taste for fuss and feathers; is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Grand Army of Tennessee, the Loyal Legion of the United States, the Grant Club, the Pioner Lawmakers' Association, and the Pioneer Settlers' Association of Polk County.
Religiously, he is a Congregationalist, dating from the first little church, which stood near the southeast corner of the present Postoffice, on Court Avenue.
May Twenty-sixth, 1907.
LEWIS M. BURKE
A VISITOR traversing Polk County to-day and seeing the splendid farms, with their luxurious environments, would have little conception of the trials and deprivations endured by the pioneers, who took them from the hand of Nature and made them what they are. One of the hard-luck pioneers was Lewis M. Burke.
He was born in 1797, in Maryland, and in 1802, his parents moved to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, where he grew to man- hood, and acquired the best education afforded in the common schools of that period and location. When a youth, he learned the milling trade with Joseph Mentz, and remained with him until he was twenty-one years old. He then went to wagoning on the turnpike, and stage driving, which he followed fifteen years. In 1833, he removed to Wheeling, West Virginia, where he again engaged in stage driving and farming. In 1834, he removed to Adams County, Illinois; in April, 1846, came to Polk County, and made a claim on what is now Section Thirty-three, in Beaver Township, then called Camp Township. The Indians had left the country in October prior, and there were but a few white people in the county. The Government had not surveyed the county ; there were no metes and bounds. Each new-comer selected his desired location, paced it off, and stuck stakes for the corners, or blazed trees, to mark his claim. That was all the title he had, all he could get, but it was respected and held inviolate by all other settlers.
He built a log cabin, 12x16, near Mud Creek, in a timber grove, which still bears his name. In the cabin was housed four- teen persons, the furniture and dogs, the latter a very useful and necessary concomitant of pioneering. Mrs. Burke once said they were a little crowded; there was but one bedstead, on which was piled all the beds during the day, and under it was crowded trunks,
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baskets, bags and bundles. The walls were hung with coats, cloaks, shawls, dresses and household utensils. On a long board shelf stood a mirror, clock and candlesticks. At night, the beds were made on the floor, the one table and chairs set outdoors. A large fireplace occupied most of one side, and furnished heat for cooking in pots, kettles and skillets, meals not such as would tempt an epicure, but which gave the most healthful nourishment for a people driven to hardships and exposure meals that had no dyspepsia in them. Around the big fireplace the sovereign lords of the household stretched their pedal extremities while they indulged in the luxury of a corncob pipe and discussed the prospects of the crops and the doings at The Fort.
The country was wild, unsettled, and Burke had hard sledding. If flour and corn meal got short, Oskaloosa was the nearest milling point to get a supply, requiring an absence from home of several days, while wolves and rattlesnakes were abundant to terrorize the wife and twelve children.
During 1847-1848, money was scarce. He kept a diary in which he made a record of many of his trials and deprivations. In October, it says: "Have no shoes; am going barefoot, so are the children ; no money to buy shoes." In another place: "Meat and meal all out. Swapped a bushel of buckwheat for a pound of salt." He was not so much troubled about the meat, for wild tur- keys, prairie chickens and elk were numerous. His diary says: "This morning saw fifty elk foraging on the buckwheat patch." A man named Ballard was hired to haul corn to the garrison at The Fort, to be paid every alternate load as compensation for the hauling.
In 1848, claim-jumpers and land sharks were harrassing the squatters, as the settlers were called, necessitating some measures for protecting their rights. In each township was selected a Vigil- ance Committee for that purpose, and Burke was selected for his township. A claim-jumper or land speculator was to be treated like a highway robber if found tramping over the county, and sev- eral so found it to be.
In 1849, Burke made an entry of his claim, paid one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre to the United States Land Office for it,
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and in 1852, received a Government patent. He improved it, erected fine buildings, and made it a home of profit and content for himself and children for thirty-four years, but, unfortunately, it lay at the extreme eastern limit of the land grant made by the Government to the River Improvement and Navigation Company, who, deeming it a good thing, claimed it, dispossessed him, and turned him out in his old age to begin over again, with no recourse from the Government for the blunders of its own agents, who had taken his money and given him a pretended title. And therein lies a general misunderstanding respecting a Government certifi- cate for land. It conveys no absolute title. It is simply a certifi- cate that a certain amount of money has been paid for a certain tract of land, named therein. It was not uncommon that two per- sons held a patent for the same tract, thus involving a lot of trou- ble, delay, and often litigation, to get the matter settled. In the Burke case, the State of Iowa was most shamefully derelict in its dealings with the River Improvement Company, by which not only were settlers robbed of their homes, but itself most outrageously swindled.
April Twenty-eighth, 1907.
VOL. II-(22).
WILLIAM H. LEHMAN
WILLIAM H. LEHMAN
S OME of the pioneers of Polk County pulled up stakes, deserted their Eastern homes, kindred and friends, and plodded their way to this wild and desolate country for pecuniary reasons. Some came from the force of circumstances ; they could not prevent it. Such was the case with W. H. Lehman, or Will., as everybody knows him best.
Born in 1842, in Lancaster, Ohio, from whence came the pio- neer Shermans, "Jim," Hoyt and Lamp., also their brothers, John and Tecumseh, James G. Blaine, the pugilist Jeffries, and the air sailor Knabenshue, he came to Fort Des Moines early in 1848, with his father, who was attracted hither by the glorious accounts sent back East by the Shermans of the prospects and possibilities here in the passing of time.
Packing his family and household goods in wagons, the trip, requiring nearly four weeks, was made without mishap. The pop- ulation of the town consisted of abont one hundred persons. Houses were scarce. A log barrack building down on 'Coon Point, left by the departed garrison of The Fort, was the only available place he could get for a domicile -- in fact, the entire town was housed in log cabins.
Soon after his arrival, he started a shoemaking business, but in a few months he had an attack of Nostalgia; wanted to see the old Buckeye State again; nothing doing here, he declared, and he decided to go back while he had the means to do so. But while he was here, he made a little investment in corner lots.
In 1846, when the town of Fort Des Moines was surveyed and platted by A. D. Jones and "Wall" Clapp, the question of re-loca- tion of the State Capital was being extensively agitated. When the town lots were sold, "Tom" McMullin and several others bought everything in sight, and loaded themselves up with them at "one-third down, the balance on time."
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One day, "Tom" was rummaging around some household goods Lehman had stored away, having no place for them in his small cabin, and in a barrel discovered the movements or working parts of an old-fashioned, wooden-wheeled clock. He declared it was just what he wanted. Clocks were mighty scarce at The Fort in 1848. Even four years later, Lamp. Sherman, in his Gazette, petitioned the County Commissioners to have the Court House bell rung on Sunday morning so the people might know when it was time to go to church, "so few families have clocks, and there are no church bells." "Tom" bantered Lehman for a trade on a cor- ner lot in "the future Capital of the state"-he was overloaded with corner lots-and finally persuaded Lehman to take the lot on the northwest corner of Third and Vine, 66x132 feet, where the Rock Island new passenger depot is now, for the old clock.
In 1857, Lehman returned to Des Moines with his family, and started a grocery store at the corner of Second and Walnut. The Capital had been fixed at Des Moines, and prospects were brighter than in 1848. But the financial panic had struck the state, and was desolating the whole country. Business was demoralized; there was no money in circulation except the notes of "wild-cat" banks. There was no gold nor silver money except what percolated occa- sionally through the Government Land Office. Real estate specu- lators could not sell enough to pay their taxes, and scores of lots were sold for delinquent taxes. Skilled mechanies were compelled to take pay for their labor in "store orders," and were glad to get them.
Under such conditions, Lehman decided to go back again to Ohio while he had money enough to pay expenses, and there were several other Lancaster fellows here who would have followed him, but they couldn't raise the money to go with.
During all those years, Will. was growing and getting what education he could in the public schools. Being of musical tem- perament, he took a course of study in music with Professor Sny- der, a prominent teacher in Lancaster, Ohio. When the Civil War came, at the age of nineteen, he enlisted in the band of the Seven- teenth Ohio Infantry, and served thirteen months, when he was mustered ont, with his band, under a change in the army regula-
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tions, whereby, instead of a band with each regiment, only one band with a brigade, or four regiments, was allowed.
On leaving the army, more optimistic than his father, he headed straight for Des Moines, going down the Ohio River, up the Missis- sippi on the steamer Frank Steele, to Keokuk, thence on the steamer Alice to Des Moines, landing at 'Coon Point. He soon after started the marble business, maintained it successfully for some time, and in Woodland Cemetery can be seen several fine pro- ductions from his establishment, notably that in memory of the old- timer, Captain Gustavus Washburne, who for many years kept what is now the Sabin House.
In 1863, I think it was, Ed. Clapp, who was a purchasing agent of the Rock Island Railroad Company, began reconnoitering for a site for a new passenger depot ; their depot, a two-story, wooden residence building, owned by Hy. Hatch, at the corner of Third and Vine, was too small. They wanted more room. He selected the wooden clock lot at the corner of Fourth and Vine. Will. thought it a good opportunity to make a little profit on the old clock, but his father was in Ohio, and Ed. was in a hurry to secure a site; so Will. negotiated a sale whereby eighteen hundred dollars was to be paid for the lot, one hundred dollars spot cash. Will. took the one hundred dollars and made a written contract for the remainder. His father objected to the trade; thought there was something wrong about it-some chicanery-it was too much to be expected for an old wooden clock; but after considerable corre- spondence, in which Will. convinced him the town had grown some and was still growing, he acquiesced. That is how the company got its site for the new passenger depot.
But Will.'s head was full of music. Mills & Company were running a large printing house and book store at Third and Court Avenue, and they added a music department, the first in the town. Will. was selected to manage it. He disposed of his marble busi- ness; devoted his entire time to music, and has been in it since then, over forty years.
In the early days, musical entertainments were the chief sources of amusement, and some of the concerts given could not be dupli- cated to-day, for there were splendid musicians here. The time,
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labor and enthusiasm given to preparation for a musical event was prodigions-not for profit, but pure love of it, as the proceeds usually went to some charitable object. One of the best organiza- tions was the Timbuctoos, consisting of some of the leading bnsi- ness and professional men of the town. Its entertainments took a wide range, from sedate to humorous, and were of the highest excel- lence. There was also considerable dramatic talent here, and exhi- bitions of that character were frequently given ; also operas.
Traveling shows had not reached the town, and the only amuse- ments were such as were improvised by local talent. The only hall in town was in the third story of the Sherman Block, at the corner of Third and Court Avenue. Whatever the exhibit was, the hall was always crowded, for the town was like a large family, everyone knew everybody ; they helped each other.
I recall a tableaux entertainment given in that old hall, in which a devil and an angel were personified among other things. "Char- ley" Spofford, son of Colonel Spofford, represented the devil, and Miss Lucy Love, danghter of the President of the First National Bank, represented the angel. "Charley" Nourse-he hadn't got to be a Judge then-was general manager, and run the show. Spof- ford was promptly togged out with satanic horns, hoofs and forked tail, but there was a long delay with the angel ; they couldn't get the wings on straight. The audience got uneasy, whereupon the general manager began to expostulate, saying: "It seems to take a long time to make an angel out of a woman; the devil has been waiting several minutes." "It don't take very much time to make a devil out of a man," quickly retorted Mrs. Frank Allen.
Will. was for many years a member of the well-known Hartung Orchestra and Collard's Instrumental Brass Band, which kept him busy, for there were parties, receptions, banquets, etc., nearly every night, which so encroached on his sleeping hours he engaged "Char- ley" Rogg, who clerked in "Ham" Bush's drug store, in the Kirk- wood Building, where Wright is now, to hustle him out at half- past six every morning in time to go on duty at Mills & Company's -they didn't have any eight-hours-a-day labor in those days. On Sunday, he played the pipe organ in some church, a service he per- formed for thirty-six consecutive years, in the different churches of the city.
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In 1869, he purchased the music stock of Mills & Company, and opened a store in the one-story frame building which stood next west to the Kirkwood, where Harbach erected his big furniture store, and it became the musical center of the city for many years. He is still in the business. So it is, he is one of the pioneer musi- cians, helped to lay the foundation, promote and foster the musical element which has culminated in the excellent schools and talent which prevail in the city to-day, and given the town a fine, notable reputation abroad. He was ever ready to assist with his talent for all social and charitable objects.
Politically, he is a Republican, of the Roosevelt persuasion, but takes no part in politics.
Socially, he is genial, courteous, affable, and popular. He is a member of Capital Lodge, A. F. A. M .; a charter member of Myrtle Lodge, Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the R. E. C. A., a secret organization formed sev- eral years ago for good fellowship by Hy. Smith, "Ret" Clarkson, and Ed. Whitcomb. What its real name was, where it met, what its object, was never known, except to its members, and they would tell nobody. They had signs, grips and a ritual similar to the Masons. The membership at one time was about two hundred. Its public appearance was only on New Year's Day, when every dollar in the treasury was taken, and they went silently about the city, depositing at the door of the deserving poor a well-filled basket of family supplies.
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