USA > Iowa > Lee County > Story of Lee County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 8
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But if the pioneers had their hardships, they also had their amuse- ments and entertainments. Old settlers can recall the shooting matches, when the men met to try their skill with the rifle, the prize being a turkey or a haunch of venison. Or the husking bee, where pleasure and profit were combined. On such occasions the corn to be husked would be divided into two piles, as nearly equal in size as possible; two of the guests would "choose up" and divide the crowd into two sides, the contest being to see which side would first finish its pile of corn. Men and women alike took part and the young man who found a red ear was permitted to kiss the lassie next to him. "Many a merry laugh went round" when some one found a red ear and the lassie objected to being kissed. After the orchards were old enough to bear, the "apple cuttings" became a popular form of amusement, when a number would assemble some evening to pare and slice enough apples to dry for the winter's supply. The husking bee and the apple cutting nearly always wound up with a dance, the orchestra consisting of the one lone fiddler in the neighborhood. He might not have been a classic musician, but he could make his old fiddle respond to such tunes as "The Bowery Gals," "Money Musk," "Turkey in the Straw" and "Devil's Dream," and he never grew tired in furnishing the melody while others tripped the light fan- tastic toe.
On grinding days at the old grist mill a number of men would meet and pass the time in athletic contests, such as foot races, wres- tling matches or pitching horse shoes. After the public school system was introduced the spelling school became a frequent place of meet- ing. At the close of the exercises the young men could "see the girls home," and if these acquaintances ripened into an intimacy that ended in a wedding, it was usually followed by a charivari, or, as it was pronounced on the frontier, a shivaree, which was a serenade in which noise took the place of harmony. The proceedings were generally kept up until the bride and groom came out where they could be seen, and the affair ended all the more pleasantly if the members of the shivareeing party were treated to a slice of wedding cake and a glass of cider.
One feature of pioneer life should not be overlooked, and that is the marks by which the settler could distinguish his domestic animals. In early days all kinds of live stock were allowed to run at
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large. To protect himself, the frontier farmer cropped the ears of his cattle, hogs and sheep in a peculiar manner and these marks were recorded with the same care as titles to real estate. Among the marks were the plain crop, the under and upper bits, the swallow fork, the round hole, the upper and under slopes, the slit, and a few others, by a combination of which each settler could mark his stock so that it could be easily identified. The "upper bit" was a small notch cut in the upper side of the ear; the "under bit" was just the reverse, being cut in the lower side; the "crop" was made by cutting off a small portion of the ear squarely across the end; the "swallow fork" was a fork cut in the end of the ear, similar in shape to that of a swallow's tail, from which it derived its name, and so on. If some one found a stray animal marked with "a crop off the left ear and a swallow fork in the right," he had only to inquire at the recorder's office to learn the name of the owner. These marks were seldom violated and protected the settler against loss as surely as the manu- facturer is protected against infringement by his registered trade- mark.
ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
Immediately after Iowa was attached to the Territory of Michi- gan, by the act of Congress, approved June 28, 1834, the territorial authorities began the preliminary work of establishing civil gov- ernment in the region west of the Mississippi. On September 6, 1834, the Territorial Legislature passed an act creating two new coun- ties in the newly attached country. All north of a line drawn due westward from the lower end of Rock Island was to be known as Dubuque County, and all south of that line as the County of Des Moines. John King was appointed chief justice of the former and Isaac Leffler of the latter. Later in the fall the first election ever held in Southeastern Iowa was for officers of Des Moines County. There were two voting places-Fort Madison and Burlington. William Morgan was elected presiding judge of the County Court; Young L. Hughes and Henry Walker, associate judges; John Whitaker, probate judge; W. W. Chapman, prosecuting attorney; Solomon Perkins, sheriff; W. R. Ross, clerk, recorder and assessor. John Barker and Richard Land were appointed and commissioned justices of the peace by the governor of Michigan Territory.
When the Territory of Wisconsin was established under act of Congress, approved on April 20, 1836, Iowa was made a part of the new territory. On December 7, 1836, Henry Dodge, governor of
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Wisconsin, approved an act of the Territorial Legislature dividing Des Moines County into the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Henry, Louisa, Muscatine and Cook. The name of Cook County was aft- erward changed to Scott.
There is some difference of opinion as to how Lee County re- ceived its name. At the time the county was erected by the Wiscon- sin Legislature, Robert E. Lee, then a lieutenant in the regular army, was engaged in making a survey of the Des Moines Rapids, with a view to the improvement of navigation on the Mississippi River. It seems that he was one of the most popular subordinate officers of the garrison at old Fort Des Moines and some authorities state that the county was named in his honor. Others claim that the county was named for Charles Lee, a land speculator from New York, who was then operating in the half-breed tract. Albert M. Lea surveyed and mapped the shores of the Mississippi River and explored the Des Moines in 1835. He was an officer in Colonel Kearney's com- mand at Fort Des Moines and some writers are inclined to the opinion that the intention was to name the county for him, but that a mis- take was made in spelling the name. It is quite probable that the county was named for Lieut. Robert E. Lee.
In the session of the Wisconsin Legislature that established the county, Joseph B. Teas, Arthur B. Ingram and Jeremiah Smith, Jr., were members of the council from Des Moines County, and Thomas Blair, John Box, George W. Teas, Eli Reynolds, Isaac Leffler and Warren L. Jenkins were representatives.
The first session of the District Court in Lee County began on March 27, 1837. It was presided over by Judge Irvin, who ap- pointed John H. Lines clerk of the court.
By the act of December 7, 1836, it was provided: "That each county within this territory now organized, or that may hereafter be organized, be, and the same is hereby declared one township for all the purposes of carrying into effect the above recited acts, and that there shall be elected at the annual town meeting in each county three supervisors, who shall perform, in addition to the duties here- tofore assigned them as a county board, the duties heretofore per- formed by the township board."
The first election for county officers in Lee County was held on Monday, April 3, 1837, "for three supervisors, three commissioners of highways, three assessors, one county treasurer, one coroner, one collector, one register, one township clerk and thirteen constables."
At the election William Skinner, William Anderson and James D. Shaw were chosen supervisors ; E. D. Ayres, Samuel Hearn and
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Stephen Perkins, commissioners of highways; Calvin J. Price, Stephen H. Graves and William Newcomb, assessors; George W. Howe, treasurer; Lewis Ritman, coroner; C. M. Jennings, collector ; John H. Lines, register and township clerk; Robert Harris, John Barnett, W. N. Shaw, Franklin Kinneda (or Kenneda), Joseph Mamson and C. M. Jennings, constables. The call for the election specified thirteen constables and the records do not show why only six were elected.
The first meeting of the board of supervisors was held on April 17, 1837, at the Madison House, the hotel kept by Joseph S. Douglass in the Town of Fort Madison. Mr. Douglass seems to have had "a pull" with the board, as he was granted a license to keep a public house and sell liquors by small measure "for a period of one year," upon payment of $5, and immediately afterward the board voted to fix the license fee for public houses at $25 per year. This was the only business transacted at the session, the report of the as- sessors not being ready for the action of the board.
At the second session, which was held on the first Monday in May, 1837, three public houses, or "groceries," were licensed in the Town of Fort Madison. The first license was granted to Samuel B. and William H. H. Kyle; the second to John S. Neely and Jesse Dickey, and the third to Lorenzo Bullard and Robert F. Harris. Each paid $25 for the privilege of selling by retail "spir- ituous liquors and wines for a period of one year." Calvin J. Price and James D. Shaw were each granted license "to keep store and retail goods, wares and merchandise in the Town of West Point for one year from the Ist day of May, 1837," and each paid into the public treasury of the county the sum of $8 as license fees.
A special meeting of the board was held at the house of C. L. Cope in the Town of Fort Madison on July 10, 1837, to consider the report of the assessors. It was ordered : "That notices be set up in different places, as the law directs, that if any person or persons shall be aggrieved by the incorrectness of their list of taxes, they shall be given an opportunity of correcting the same."
William Newcomb was allowed $30 and Stephen H. Graves $20 for their services as assessors for the year 1837. The minutes of the session also contain the following entry : "It appearing to this board of supervisors that the assessment list as returned to this board is not fit for the collector to use in collecting the taxes, it is hereby ordered : That the township clerk make out a fair copy, in alphabetical order, of all persons in the original list,
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with the amount of property opposite their names respectively, who are assessed and liable to pay a tax, and the same to be handed over to the assessor."
At the special session Hawkins Taylor and John L. Cotton each received license to "keep store at West Point for one year from the toth of July, 1837," and L. G. Bell was granted a license to keep a store in the Town of Salem, the license fee in each case being $8.
On December 20, 1837, the governor of Wisconsin Territory approved an act doing away with the board of supervisors and estab- lishing in its place a board of county commissioners "in each county in the territory." In the election of these commissioners, the one receiving the highest number of votes was to serve for three years; the next highest for two years, and the next one year, and each commissioner was to receive $3 per day for each day actually employed in the transaction of county business. Under the provisions of this act an election was held in Lee County on Monday, March 5, 1838, when William Anderson, Stephen H. Graves and S. H. Burtis were elected commissioners; Peter Miller, treasurer; Henry D. Davis, coroner; Joshua Owen, assessor; Joseph Morrison, John P. Barnett, A. C. Brown, C. M. Jennings, Samuel Burtis, L. B. Parker, William Pints, M. C. Martin, Thomas Small, P. N. Miller, Abraham Hinkle, H. E. Vrooman and John Patterson, constables.
The first meeting of the new board of county commissioners was held in Fort Madison, beginning on Monday, March 26, 1838. John H. Lines was appointed clerk of the board and was given an appro- priation of $35.121/2 for the purchase of the necessary blank books for keeping the records. Peter Miller filed his bond of $3,000 as county treasurer, with Isaac Johnson and L. B. Parker as his sureties, which was accepted by the board.
At this term the county was divided into six election precincts and judges appointed in each to serve at all general elections. The voting places and judges in the six precincts were as follows : No. 1, Samuel Hearn's house; Samuel Hearn, John Billips and Johnson Meek, judges. No. 2, in the Town of Keokuk; John Gaines, Valencourt Vanosdol and John Wright, judges. No. 3, at Montrose, house of William Haines; T. H. Gregg, Robert Roberts and William Cole- man, judges. No. 4, residence of C. L. Cope, Fort Madison; John A. Drake, William Wilson and Isaac Johnson, judges. No. 5, Wil- liam Patterson's house, West Point; Calvin J. Price, Horatio Mc- Cardell and William Patterson, judges. No. 6, Joseph Howard's house, in the Howard Settlement; William Howard, Joseph Howard and Harrison Foster, judges.
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On July 5, 1838, a license was granted by the board of commis- sioners to Joshua Owen to operate a ferry across the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, and fixed the following rates : "Each footman, 121/2 cents ; man and horse, 371/2 cents ; wagon and two horses, $1.00; each additional horse, 25 cents; loose cattle, 121/2 cents each; hogs and sheep, 614 cents each; wagon and one yoke of oxen, $1.00; each additional yoke, 25 cents."
The Territory of Iowa was created by act of Congress, approved by President Van Buren on June 12, 1838, to take effect on July 3, 1838, and the session at which Owen's ferry license was granted was the first under the new regime. At the same term the following venire was ordered, from which a grand jury was to be selected : Arthur Johnson, Jairus Fordyce, Jason Wilson, James Elwell, Isaac Briggs, Calvin Newton, William Patterson, Isaac Beeler, James McMurray, Harrison Foster, Mathew Kilgore, William Howard, William Holmes, Michael H. Walker, Solomon Fein, Hugh With- rough, Robert Roberts, Thomas W. Taylor, Thomas J. McGuire, Pleasant M. Armstrong, Joseph Webster, Nathan Smith and Isaac Vandyke.
The grand jurors to be selected from the above list were for the August term of the District Court, and the following were designated as petit jurors for the same term of court: John Bonebright, Jere- miah Brown, Archibald Gilliland, William Allen, Valencourt Van- osdol, James Wright, Patrick Brien, Stewart M. Coleman, Johnson Chapman, Joshua Wright, George W. Claypole, Thomas Fitzpat- rick, Edward Kilbourne, David W. Kilbourne, Forest W. Herd, George W. Perkins, James Fyke, Eli Millard, E. D. Ayers, William G. Haywood, William D. Knapp, William Saucer, Thomas J. Ful- ton and John G. Toncray.
Pursuant to the act of Congress establishing the Territory of Iowa, the first election for members of the Territorial Legislature and county officers was to be held on such a day as the governor of the territory might designate. Governor Lucas accordingly ordered an election for Monday, September 10, 1838, when Jesse B. Brown was elected councilman; William Patterson, Calvin J. Price, James Brierly and Hawkins Taylor, representatives; William Pitman, John Gaines and Peter Miller, commissioners; James C. Parrott, treasurer; John H. Lines, register of deeds; John P. Barnett, as- sessor; Robert Stephenson, coroner; John G. Kennedy, Preston N. Miller, William Pints, Samuel W. Weaver, John Patterson, Henry E. Vrooman, Willis C. Stone, Charles Kellogg, William Burton,
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Thomas Small, Ransom B. Scott, Leonard B. Parker and Franklin Kenneda, constables.
With the election of these officials and their induction into office, the county machinery of Lee County was permanently established. Since then the progress of the county has been steadily onward and upward, and as the routine business transacted by the county com- missioners has always been of much the same character, it is con- sidered unnecessary to go into further details, or to make additional quotations from the early records.
LOCATING THE COUNTY SEAT
On January 18, 1838, the governor of Wisconsin Territory ap- proved an act providing that "the seat of justice of Lee County be, and the same is hereby, established at the Town of Fort Madison." Here the early sessions of the courts were held and the principal business of the county was transacted. But it was not long until the settlements farther back from the Mississippi River began to com- plain that the county seat, as thus established, was too far from the center of the county. Influence was brought to bear upon the session of the Legislature which met late in the year 1839, and on January 14, 1840, the governor approved an act appointing Samuel C. Reed, of Van Buren County; James L. Scott, of Jefferson County, and another commissioner whose name has been lost, to visit Lee County, investigate the conditions there, and recommend a location for a permanent seat of justice.
Messrs. Reed and Scott met at Fort Madison on the first Monday in March, 1840, the date designated in the act, and, after examining several proposed sites, recommended the "south half of the south- east quarter of section 23, and the north half of the northeast quarter of section 26, in township 68 north, range 6 west."
As the locating commissioners were operating under a law of the Territorial Legislature, the county authorities had no recourse but to accept their decision. The location was therefore accepted by the board of county commissioners, and the name of "Franklin" was selected for the new seat of justice. John Brown, John C. Chapman and Thomas Douglass, the owners of the land, agreed to donate the site to the county, with the understanding that, when the town was laid off, the board of commissioners should make the first choice of a lot, the owners of the land to have second choice, and so on until the lots were equally divided between the original owners and the county. This proposition was accepted by the board and the county surveyor
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was instructed to survey and make a plat of the town. Mathew Kil- gore and Samuel Brierly, two of the commissioners, were appointed to make the division of lots with the donors of the site.
On May 19, 1840, the board held a special meeting and ordered that a sale of lots in Franklin be advertised for three successive weeks in the Iowa Territorial Gazette, published at Burlington, the sale to take place on Monday, July 13, 1840. No record of that sale has been found and it is not certain that any lots were sold on that date, as the dissatisfaction over the location was so great that buyers were not encouraged to invest their money under the existing conditions. This dissatisfaction increased as time went on, and at the next session of the Legislature the question was again brought up, with the result that an act was passed on January 15, 1841, submitting the whole matter to a vote of the people of Lee County at an election to be held on the second Monday in March, 1841.
The act also provided that if no location received a majority of all the votes cast, the two receiving the highest number should be voted for at a second special election, to be held on the third Monday in April.
Immediately after the passage of the act, the people of Fort Madi- son became active in their efforts to secure the seat of justice. The town authorities, on February 23, 1841, passed the following ordi- nance: "Be it ordained by the president and trustees of the Town of Fort Madison, that the sum of $8,000 be appropriated out of the funds of the corporation for the purpose of erecting a courthouse in the Town of Fort Madison-provided that the county seat of Lee County be located in said town."
John G. Toncray, then county treasurer, certified to the Legisla- ture that the $8,000 thus pledged by the town authorities had been paid into the county treasury, and as a further guaranty that the town would carry out its agreement, Hawkins Taylor, Jacob Cutler, Joel C. Walker, John A. Drake, William Wilson, Henry Eno, George Bell, Stewart Brown, Thomas Hardesty, Jacob Huner, Alfred Rich, Edward Johnstone, Adam B. Sims, Henry E. Vrooman, James Hardin, William D. Knapp, S. A. Walker, Richard Pritchett, Thomas Fitzpatrick, E. A. Dickey, William Leslie, John G. Toncray, Samuel B. Ayres, E. D. Ayres, Hugh T. Reid, John G. Walker, Amos Ladd, Peter Miller and the firm of James Wilson & Company executed and filed a bond for $16,000, twice the amount of the pro- posed donation, that the Town of Fort Madison would carry out its part of the agreement.
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In addition to this, Daniel McConn, an ex-treasurer of Fort Madi- son, certified that $5,000 was received from the sale of town lots belonging to the Government for the use of the town, which sum it was proposed to add to the public building fund. Hawkins Taylor, Amos Ladd and a few other public spirited citizens purchased the lots upon which the courthouse was erected for $560 and converted them to the county for a consideration of one dollar, bringing the total of the public building fund up to $13,559 before the election was held. This "pernicious activity," as some of the opponents of Fort Madison expressed it, had its effect on election day, Fort Madison receiving 465 votes ; Franklin, 435, and West Point, 320. Although Fort Madison failed to receive a majority of the votes, it was in the lead and at the second election, held on April 19, 1841, according to the terms of the act, the vote stood 730 for Fort Madison and 477 for Franklin.
Many people now thought the question was settled, but not so. While the Town of Fort Madison was carrying out its contract to erect a courthouse, the advocates of Franklin and West Point got together and presented a petition to the next Legislature to reopen the whole subject by again presenting the question to the people. A remonstrance was presented on behalf of Fort Madison, but it was ignored and on January 13, 1843, the governor approved an act "to relocate the seat of justice of Lee County." Thomas O. Wamsley, of Henry County; I. N. Selby, of Van Buren, and Stephen Gear- hart, of Des Moines County, were named in the act as commissioners "to visit Lee County, make an examination of the situation and sur- roundings, and locate the county seat at such place as to them may seem best, taking into consideration the future as well as the present population."
The commissioners met at the Town of Franklin on March 20, 1843, after having made their investigations, and submitted the fol- lowing report :
"The undersigned commissioners, appointed by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Iowa Territory, entitled 'An act to relocate the county seat of Lee County,' approved 13th January, A. D. 1843, make the following report: We met, as directed in said act, at the Town of Franklin on the second Monday of March, instant, and, after having been sworn, as provided for in said act, by John Brown, Esq., a notary public in and for said county, we proceeded to examine the several points in said county proposed as eligible sites for the county seat of said county, and also to examine the face of the country gen- erally, as to its population and the capability of the several portions
LEE COUNTY COURTHOUSE
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of the county to sustain a dense population, etc., and we have con- cluded to and do hereby select the east half of the southeast quarter of section 5, town 68 north, of range 5 west, being the tract on which West Point is located, as the county seat of said county; and we further place in the office of the clerk of the board of commissioners of said county the annexed papers, marked 'A,' as a writing executed by the obligors therein named for the use of the county seat at the said point above named.
"Witness our hands and seals this 20th day of March, A. D. 1843.
"THOMAS O. WALMSLEY. [Seal. ]
"I. N. SELBY. [Seal. ] "STEPHEN GEARHART. [Seal. ]"
The "Exhibit A" referred to by the commissioners was a docu- ment signed by A. H. Walker, William Steele, Freeman Knowles, Calvin J. Price, Aaron Conkey, P. H. Babcock, R. P. Creel, John M. Fulton, William Stotts, William Patterson and some others, in which they agreed to build at West Point a courthouse forty-five by fifty feet, with stone foundation and brick superstructure two stories high, and to have the same completed by September 1, 1844, "in con- sideration of the commissioners locating the county seat of Lee at West Point."
On March 28, 1843, the report of the locating commissioners and its accompanying papers were filed with the board of county com- missioners, who issued an order on the same day "that the district courts for Lee County, from and after the first day of April next shall be held at the Town of West Point." It was mutually agreed by the people of West Point and the people of Fort Madison that the county seat should remain at the latter place for one year after a location should be selected by the commissioner appointed by the Legislature, and that the courthouse erected by the people of Fort Madison-or who had borne at least two-thirds the cost of its erection-should be sold at public auction and two-thirds of the proceeds refunded to the town. John A. Drake was appointed to take care of the building until the auction sale, which never "happened."
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