USA > Iowa > Des Moines County > The history of Des Moines county, Iowa, containing a history of the country, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war record of its volunteers > Part 48
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The little flocks of children who run along the country road in their bare feet and sun-bonnets and chip hats, do not have to squirm and twist their uneasy legs all day over a page in the English reader which they cannot under- stand. They begin their morning's work with a chorus, which puts them all in good humor to start with. Then they come to timed classes, at the tinkle of the bell ; they are entertained and diverted as well as instructed at every step. Before there is any possibility of restlessness, they go through a five-minutes round of calisthenics, which put a wholesome quietus upon their muscles and their mischief. Wise play is so mixed with teaching that they never really dis- cover which is which until they find themselves ready to teach school themselves in turn.
This is the case of the present compared with the labor of the past. And in this way is the generality of education secured. The ways are smoothed, the tediousness beguiled and the deprivation supplanted by an affluence of aids.
In 1854, Gov. Grimes, in his inaugural message said: "The safety and perpetuity of our Republican institutions depend upon the diffusion of intelli- gence among the masses of the people. The statistics of the penitentiaries and alms-houses throughout the country show that education is the best preventive of crime. They show, also, that the prevention of these evils is much less expensive than the punishment of the one and the relief of the other."
So, with all our new-fangled methods, our ornamental, well-ventilated and well- furnished schoolhouses, our accomplished instructors with modern notions, we are not extravagant. We are simply taking from the expenses of crime and pauperism and putting it into enduring and beautiful shape. We are helping to sustain the Government by rearing up in every town and in every country neighborhood a generation of enlightened and intelligent people, cosmopolitan in the sense of schools, if not in that wider cosmopolitanism which comes alone from actual contact with the great world.
The following statement is compiled from last annual report of the County Superintendent of Schools, E. S. Burrus :
Number of subdistricts
26
Number of ungraded schools.
79
Number of graded schools
11
Average number of months taught
8.51
Number of teachers employed, male
79
Number of teachers employed, female.
143
Average compensation per month, male.
$48 04
Average compensation per month, female.
36 43
Number of persons between the ages of 5 and 21 in county, male.
6,023
Number of persons between the ages of 5 and 21 in county, female
6,041
Total number enrolled iu county. 6,829
Average cost of tuition per month for each pupil. $1 76
Number of frame schoolhouses
57
Number of brick schoolhouses
22
Number of stone schoolhouses.
16
Value of schoolhouses
$190,548 00
Value of apparatus ..
4,310 00
.
Number of volumes in libraries.
204
Total amount of money received from all sources for school purposes ... $34,546 36
412
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
THE COUNTY BUILDINGS.
The first publie building erected by the county was a Jail, built in 1840, on the site of the present Jail, by Springer & Barnes. The present Jail was built during the administration of County Judge Newman.
In 1850, E. D. Rand and H. W. Starr erected Marion Hall, which the county leased of the proprietors and used as a Court House for many years. In 1866, the Supervisors purchased and fitted up Mozart Hall, on the corner of Main and Columbia streets, and thither the court was transferred at its first session in January, 1868. This building, together with a portion of the records and other documents, was destroyed in the fire of June 17, 1873, and Marion Hall again became the temporary county building. At the January term of the Board of Supervisors, in 1879, plans were adopted for the erection of a Court House, on the site of the old Mozart Hall. The building will probably cost $70,000.
THE PRESS.
INTRODUCTORY.
John King, from Ohio, who moved to Dubuque in 1834, and had the honor of being the Presiding Judge of one of the two first courts ever estab- lished within the limits of the Territory which afterward composed the State of Iowa, brought a printing press to Dubuque, and started a newspaper, which was the first paper printed on the west side of the Mississippi River, north of the boundary line of Missouri. The first number of this paper was headed Dubuque Visitor, and the motto was : " Truth Our Guide ; the Public Good Our Aim." The paper was dated, "Dubuque Lead Mines, Wisconsin Territory, May 11, 1836.""On the first page there was an article entitled, "The Worth and Devotion of Woman's Love ;" on the second page was an article on " The advantages of Dubuque and the surrounding country, by a citizen ; " on the third page was an article by Hannah More entitled "Good Housewives : " on the fourth page was a speech of Hon. George W. Jones, then a Delegate in Congress, on the propriety of dividing Michigan Territory into three separate governments, the new one to be called Wisconsin. The paper was printed by William C. Jones, on a Smith press, manufactured in Cincinnati by Charles Mallett. Though Jones was regarded as the publisher of the paper, "the first type-setting in Iowa was done by Andrew Keesecker," who for many years afterward was associated with the Iowa press.
There seems to have been a pioneer charm attached to this printing press, for after remaining at Dubuque about six years, it was sold and taken to Lan- caster, in the western part of Wisconsin ; after having been used there awhile, it was taken to St. Paul, Minn., and, in 1858, it was again moved to Sioux City Falls, a town on the Big Sioux River, in Dakota. On this press was printed the first paper published in Iowa. the first in Western Wisconsin, the first in Minnesota and the first in Dakota.
In March, 1862, after the press had been used at Sioux City Falls about four years, a band of Sioux Indians made a raid upon the place, set fire to the town, killed a large portion of the inhabitants, and among other buildings burned was the one in which the old press was used. There being no one to rescue it from the devouring flames, it was rendered unfit for further use as a printing press.
413
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
Soon after the appearance of the Dubuque Visitor, Dr. Isaac Galland com- menced the publication of a paper at Montrose, in Lee County, which was called The Western Adventurer; but. this location for a newspaper did not bring to its aid the requisite patronage for support, and the publication was suspended before it had been in existence two years. This office was sub- sequently purchased by James G. Edwards, who came from Jacksonville, Ill., and moved the material to Fort Madison. On the 24th of March, 1838, Mr. Edwards issued the first number of the Fort Madison, Patriot. About this time, there was much interest felt in the States on political issues, and the two dominant parties were known by the names of Democrat and Whig.
THE BURLINGTON " GAZETTE."
The first newspaper issued in the county of Des Moines was the Territorial Gazette and 'Burlington Advertiser, which was established in 1837. It is a source of increasing regret that no files of this paper, during its early years, and, in fact, up to as recent a date as 1867 are now in existence, so far as the most diligent search and inquiry are able to reveal. If stray copies are dis- covered among the dusty papers of old settlers by future investigations, we earnestly suggest their careful preservation. A century from this time, even one issue of the old Gazette may be the means of establishing a mooted point in the history of the Territorial days. A vagrant item, or the cursory men- tion of some trifling fact in those columns, may flood a dark question with light.
It is not so much the character of the opinions expressed in early papers, as it is the simple fact that dates and cotemporaneous events are fixed by them. that gives the real value to newspaper files as works of reference. The care- lessness of publishers, which resulted in the omission of consecutive copies of their newspapers, is one of the many lapses which now occasion regret in the record of the press of this county.
There is little difficulty in following the line of successive editors of the Gazette ; but that is a mere skeleton of fact, upon which should be placed copious extracts from the columns, to show the character of the paper as an exponent of the then dominant political party, and as the first advocate of this region as regards settlement. We are forced to omit these desirable details.
The founder of the Gazette was James Clarke, a practical printer, who was, prior to his coming West, engaged on the Harrisburg, Penn., Reporter. When the Territory of Wisconsin was carved out of that of Michigan, and the temporary seat of government of the former located at Belmont, a newspaper was established at that place by Clarke & Russell, and called the Belmont Gazette. This was effected sometime in the summer of 1836, but the exact date is not obtainable. The establishment of a newspaper in that embryotic place was, doubtless, a part of the scheme entertained by John Atchison, the founder of Belmont, who naturally appreciated the influence of a public journal in furthering his plan of creating a city there.
On the 6th of December, 1836, the Territorial Legislature of Wisconsin appointed "Messrs. Clarke & Russell, publishers of the Belmont Gazette, printers to said Territory for the first Legislative Assembly, and ordered that all printing necessary for said Territory and Legislative Assembly be done by them, and that they be allowed such compensation for said printing as is allowed the printers to Congress."
414
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
In the "bill to provide for the compensation of the officers of the Legisla- tive Assembly," etc., passed by that Legislature, appears the following item : " To Clarke & Russell, Printers to the House of Representatives, fifteen hun- dred and eighty-nine dollars and fifty cents ; also, Printers for the Council, nine hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety-one cents."
The following item also appears in the same bill : "To Clarke & Russell, publishers of the Belmont Gazette; to John King, publisher of the Dubuque l'isitor ; to Daniel B. Richards, publisher of the Milwaukee Advertiser ; to C. C. Sholes, publisher of the Wisconsin Democrat, the sum of $75 each, for publishing laws enacted at this session of the Legislative Assembly, in their respective journals."
These items prove two facts: (1) that the Territorial Gazette was first established by Mr. Clarke, at Belmont, which was near Galena, on the east side of the Mississippi River, in 1836; and (2) that the first paper established on the west banks of the Mississippi was at Dubuque, by John King, and was called the Dubuque Visitor. That journal was begun in 1836.
The Belmont Legislature blasted the bright hopes of Mr. Atchison, and moved the temporary seat of government of Wisconsin Territory to Burlington. With the transfer of the archives was also effected the transfer of the official paper. In 1837, the Territorial Gazette and Burlington Advertiser succeeded the Belmont Gazette. In 1838, the firm was James Clarke & Co., Cyrus S. Jacobs being the editor of the paper. In November, 1838, Mr. Jacobs was killed in an unfortunate personal encounter. He had, just prior to his death, been appointed United States District Attorney, and had also been elected to the Legislature.
The next change in the proprietorship was made either in the fall of 1839 or the following spring, when John H. MeKenny purchased an interest. Mr. MeKenny subsequently was connected with the Burlington Telegraph, as is shown further on in this sketch, and afterward removed to Minnesota, where he edited the Chatfield Democrat. He died about two years ago.
In 1842, Messrs. Bernhart HIenn and James M. Morgan became owners. Morgan was a very witty writer and a smart politician, and was commonly known as " Little Red." Mr. Henn was twice a Member of Congress and declined a third term. Mr. Morgan was repeatedly elected to the Legislature, served as Speaker, and held other responsible positions.
In 1845, Clarke & Tizzard were the proprietors. Mr. Clarke was soon after appointed Governor of the Territory, and was succeeded on the Gazette by Mr. Thurston, a lawyer from Maine, who afterward went to Oregon, and was sent to Congress from there. Mr. Tizzard was for eight years Postmaster of Burlington. Mr. Thurston sold out to Dr. Gates in 1847, who early in 1848 sold his interest to Gov. Clarke. In the election of 1848, the Democracy swept the State, to which result the Gazette largely contributed. In 1850, the cholera broke out in Burlington and Gov. Clarke became one of its first vic- tims. A young lawyer of the name of Child took his place.
After Iowa became a State, in 1846, the name of the paper was changed to the lowa State Gazette.
In 1851, Dr. Harvey, an eminent citizen of Burlington, took charge, in company with Tizzard & Woodward. Dr. Harvey was the editor for five years,. and being a man of intelligence and convictions, exerted a wide influence. The Gazette was at this period the State organ of the Democratic party, and the champion of the Iowa Senators, Hons. A. C. Dodge and G. W. Jones, and ably defended these Senators in the great struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska
415
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
act. Dr. Harvey was for several years Surveyor of the Port of Burlington, and afterward an eminent surgeon in the United States Army.
In 1853, the tri-weekly issue was commenced.
In July, 1855, the paper was sold to Col. William Thompson, who associated with himself David Sheward, and began a daily issue. Col. Thompson was elected to Congress and held a captain's commission in the regular army.
In 1860, Mr. Taylor took control, but he died a short time afterward. He was an excellent man, greatly beloved and esteemed.
In 1862, Messrs. Todd & Bentley took control. The name of the paper had been changed from the Gazette to the Argus and was known some time after as the Gazette and Argus. It was very properous under this manage- ment. Mr. Todd was a good manager and good writer. He published a paper previous to that in Des Moines, with Stilson Hutchins, now editor of the St. Louis Times. Under these gentlemen, the Gazette attained a large circulation, its weekly edition being among the most widely circulated papers in the West. Mr. Todd was afterward the head of the large furniture house of Todd, Pollock & Granger. He was for two years Chairman of the Democratic State Central Committee, and among the most active and influential politicians in the State. He has recently removed to Kansas City. Mr. Bentley is now in California, engaged in fruit culture.
In 1866, Mr. H. R. Whipple bought Mr. Todd's interest, but only remained for a few months as active partner with Mr. Bentley.
In September, 1867, Richard Barret and Charles I. Barker bought Mr. Bentley's interest. Mr. Barret sold out in 1867 to Mr. Barker, and went to St. Louis, where he became connected with the St. Louis Times. Mr. Barker became sole manager of the paper. He soon purchased Mr. Whipple's interest and became sole proprietor, and on June 1, signalized his possession by coming out in a handsome new dress of type ; dropping the word Argus, the paper being known as the Gazette. Mr. Barker remained in possession until May 1, 1874, when he sold one-half interest to Mr. Charles H. Playter, of the Daven- port Democrat.
September 24, 1874, Mr. W. R. Finch, of the Cedar Rapids Republican, W. W. Blake, then on the staff of the Burlington Hawk-Eye, and Mr. Playter bought out Barker & Playter and established the Gazette Printing Com- pany. It is due Mr. Barker to say that his administration of the Gazette was prosperous and of benefit to the party. Being a practical and experienced newspaper man, he knew how to run a paper and make it pay. He was an active man in the party and contributed much toward the maintenance of the organization through the dark days of continued Democratic defeat. He is now engaged in job printing in Burlington, and takes, as ever, an active part in politics.
In October, 1874, Mr. Playter, who was business manager, retired, and Dr. Miller, a physician of the county, with a taste for journalism, came in. Mr. Finch soon retired, and the Doctor, not finding the path of journalism one of roses, sold out to Col. John Bird, a leading lawyer of Wapello, in this State, who, in connection with Mr. Blake, became sole owners. Dr. Miller afterward moved to Texas, and was killed, last year, in a personal encounter with a citi- zen of Breckenridge.
January 1, 1875, a handsome new dress was purchased, and the paper started on a new career of prosperity. C. Y. Wheeler, formerly of the Hawk- Eye, was business manager in 1875. Col. Bird and W. W. Blake conducted the paper until March 25, 1876, when the whole concern was bought by Hon.
416
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
J. Wesley Barnes, Louis Melius and W. W. Blake. Mr. Barnes is a capitalist at Burlington, and was the candidate of the Democratic party in 1874 for State Treasurer. Mr. Louis Melius, the editor-in-chief, came to the Gazette in Feb- ruary, 1875. He was connected with the Cincinnati press for three years ; managing editor of the Christian World, of that city, the Western organ of the Reformed Church ; was editor of the Ottawa (Kan.) Journal; afterward, organized the independent or opposition party of that State, and became editor of its State paper, the Kansas Daily Tribune, at Lawrence : was connected with the St. Louis Dispatch, and latterly on the staff of the St. Louis Times, and came from there to the Gazette. Mr. G. O. Pearce was admitted into the Gazette Printing Company in April, 1876, taking charge of the advertising and sub- scription department. Mr. Pearce only remained with the Gazette three months. He has been, since then, connected with various papers, and is now in the antiquarian business, studying the works of the Mound-Builders around Muscatine.
Mr. Melius retired in the fall of 1876, and Blake became the editor-in-chief, which position he yet holds. Since his departure from Burlington, Mr. Melius has been connected with the Moberly Enterprise, Sioux City Tribune and other papers. He is now in business at Denison, Texas.
The corporation under the name of Gazette Printing Company was suc- ceeded by the Gazette Company, which is now the corporate name.
In the autumn of 1877, Mr. Seth Eggleston, who had served very accept- ably as superintendent of advertising for about one year, became a one-third owner and business manager. He retired last November, having disposed of his interest to Mr. D. M. Hammack, the well-known attorney, who succeeds to the management of the paper.
In politics the Gazette has, from its birth, been an unwavering advocate of the principles of the Democratic party as enunciated by the great apostles of that organization. It has wielded a wide influence as the leading paper of that party, and is to-day in the very foremost rank of Iowa journals. The several departments are filled by men of experience and ability, and the purpose of its managers is to present to the people a lively, aggressive journal-a pur- pose successfully accomplished.
At present, the local department is in charge of Mr. Frank Phelps, who is known by the profession as a gentleman of newspaper experience. Under his supervision, the columns given up to city news are spicy, readable and of general advantage to the material interests of Burlington.
THE BURLINGTON HAWK-EYE.
Mr. James G. Edwards, the founder of the journal which has become known throughout the land because of its sparkling columns, and which has from its earliest days been a recognized power because of its able editorial management, was originally engaged in the newspaper business in New York City. He had acquired a proficiency in the work of reporting which made him the associate of of the leading journalists of that city. He was also a practical printer and a skillful proof-reader. His first venture into the field of publisher was the establishment of the original Sunday morning journal in New York. In those days, public sentiment was not as it is at the present time, and Mr. Edwards was induced to abandon his fine opportunities for a more approved plan of work. IIad he continued on with his journal there is every reason for believing that his name would -to-day be as widely known as is that of his contemporaries. James Gordon Bennett was an assistant proof-reader under him-although his senior
417
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
in years-and Horace Greeley was unknown, poor and friendless. Mr. Edwards was the equal of those men in many respects, and the opportunity which offered itself to him was such as to fully justify the belief that he would have achieved grand success. He was a devotee to principle ; radical in opinion on the leading questions of the day ; a strict temperance man, and an advocate of that most unpopular of ideas, universal freedom. In temperament he was sensitive, and in tastes refined. It is a curious study of destiny to trace such a man's life. Circumstances changed his field of operations, and led him .to a wilderness, while nature had molded him for more cultured localities. His early death is a source of regret, for in the ordinary mete of human life, he should still be living to witness the triumph of his theory of freedom. In just the degree that he failed of pecuniary success, he showed the man of gen- erous impulses and the mind of ideas. The world at large never learns the value of such a man's presence until death has removed him from his earthly sphere. Then is it that the individuality, the eccentricity, or the superabundant positiveness of his nature is forgotten, and the petty enmities which were engen- dered by those characteristics which marked his daily intercourse with men no longer rankle in the public breast. The good alone remains apparent.
We who write these lines of eulogy knew nothing of Mr. Edwards during his life-time. We judge him solely by the monument he erected to his memory -the paper which he so ably conducted. He was an intense partisan, or he allowed his journal to become so-an evidence of his tendencies. His political opponents were worthy of the sharpest steel, and right manfully did he array himself against them. When one reads critiques upon the methods and acts of such men as Charles Mason, Augustus C. Dodge, Jonathan C. Hall and their contemporaries, one is forced to admit that a journal opposed to them must have been strong to resist the crushing weight encountered.
One feature is noticably conspicuous : there is almost a total absence of personal vituperation in the columns of the Hawk-Eye in those days. A spade was called a spade, but abuse did not form a staple in the vocabulary of the editor. Local journalism was not as common then as now, and politics was the absorbing theme. In the intensity of his feeling, the editor must frequently have wounded the sensibilities of the gentlemen whose political principles he fought ; but it was always Democracy, and not the personal adherents of that faith, which received the verbal darts from his trenchant pen. He dealt with gentlemen of the old school, before it was fashionable to confound men with ideas, and assailed theories rather than individuals. He talked to men of national rank, and discussed with them the creeds they severally entertained.
Such was the man, if we rightly judge " by the fruits," who came into the West in early days, and established a paper at Jacksonville, Ill., in 1830. His first venture was the Western Observer, a journal devoted to temperance and social reforms. This missionary labor was a strange undertaking, and one which proved unremunerative to the originator of the plan. A year later, Mr. Edwards gave up that paper, and substituted therefor the Illinois Patriot, a Whig journal.
In 1838, certain parties in Fort Madison, then a place of unpromising size for a newspaper, induced Mr. Edwards to locate there. He was just beginning to realize some benefit from his work in Jacksonville, but he felt that it was his duty to accept the new call, and accordingly sold out his office and moved into Lee County. He was disappointed in getting printing materials from the East. At that time, Dr. Isaac Galland had a small outfit on hand, as the result of his attempt at publishing the Western Adventurer at Montrose, Lee County. Mr.
418
HISTORY OF DES MOINES COUNTY.
Edwards bought that office, and March 24, 1838, issued the first number of the Fort Madison Patriot. He continued the publication of his paper until Sep- tember 2, 1838, and then, from lack of cordial support, suspended the issue. Meanwhile, he had profited by a portion of the Territorial patronage. He was a practical book-printer, and obtained, at one time, the session laws to print.
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