USA > Iowa > Fayette County > The history of Fayette County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 48
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It is said that Mr. McCleery's sister, Mrs. Jordan, wife of the proprietor of the Hilton House, at Ossian, dreamed, on that fatal night, that she had seen her brother killed; awoke, much frightened, and told her vision to her hus- band, but he quieted her fears. But when, about daylight, the messenger knocked at the door, and before her husband could go to see who knocked, Mrs. Jordan sprang from her bed, shrieking, "I knew it! I knew it! They have come to tell us ! "
In February, 1871, Charles Davidson, or "Crazy Charley," living a mile or two north of Auburn, was arrested for brutally whipping, burning and abus- ing a boy about 11 years old, a son of Andrew Ostrander, who was living with him. Davidson had been away from home, and, returning at night, found that the lad, instead of remaining up to take care of his team, had gone to bed. For this, he beat him with a fire-brand and threw fire and hot ashes on him while he was in bed. Then, because he rose late in the morning, he seized the helpless boy and threw him upon the hot stove, and, opening the stove door, tried to thrust him in, burning him severely. The poor little fellow was. cov- ered with burns and bruises. Davidson gave as an excuse for his cruelty that he " burned the boy because whipping did no good."
The heartless fiend was brought before Squire Crosby, waived examination, and was held in $1,500 bail, but was shortly after surrendered by his bonds- men, and was committed in " Hencoop Corner," as Fayette's substitute for a jail was called.
One of the Justices of the Peace of Fayette County resigned in the Spring of 1871, evidently disgusted with the office, or, rather, with some of its duties. The resignation is a novelty :
To the Auditor and Honorable Board of Supervisors of Fayette County, Iowa :
The office of Justice I wish to resign- To act a day longer I hereby decline ; Let some one that's able and thinks it will pay Go buy him some books, and spend day after day Hunting up law to make himself fit To manage mean law suits. I wish to submit My session laws, papers and things that pertain To the office of Justice in all my domain.
.. , J. P.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
March 14, 1872, the Jail caught fire around the stove-pipe, but was extin- guished without damage.
ANOTHER RAILROAD AGITATION.
In 1872, the project of building a narrow-guage railroad along the Turkey River Valley was again agitated. A meeting was held at Clermont March 16th, " to encourage the building of such a road by the Eastern Iowa Railway Company," when committees were appointed, as follows : Auburn Township- Hiram Hoagland, Mr. Clauson, J. L. Davis; Clermont Township-B. H. Hinkley, John Hosford, William Blackett; Dover Township-James Young, B. H. Ropes, R. T. Burnham ; Eden Township-T. G. Staples, L. P. Finch, S. Johnson ; Pleasant Valley Township-E. R. Follett, P. Douse, Jr., A. H. Loomis.
Mrs. Sarah Hensley died suddenly May 31, 1872. She came to the county April 14, 1844.
The first iron rail laid in Fayette County was laid on the B., C. R. &. M. R. R. on Wednesday, August 14, 1872, at 10 o'clock A. M.
NEW TOWNS.
Alpha is located on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 32, Town 95, Range 10; Philander Davis and Eunice Davis, proprietors. Plat filed for record May 22, 1871.
Lutra is located on the southwest quarter of Section 14, Town 94, Range 7; Samuel Conner, Marilla Conner, Benjamin Dimond, Joseph Baldwin and Betsey Baldwin proprietors. Plat filed for record November 10, 1871, and recorded January 8, 1872.
Dover was laid out in Town 95, Range 8; Barney Finnegan and Catharine Finnegan, proprietors. Filed for record July 27, 1872. Another paper town.
Friday, January 26, 1872, some railroad hands, several of whom were drunk, created a rumpus in West Union. The Constable, H. A. Stowe, attempted to arrest one of the noisiest ones-Tom Anthony-but was attacked and knocked down with a club by Anthony's friends, but the ringleader was soon arrested by Deputy Sheriff Camp and taken to the lockup.
CHASED BY WOLVES.
Thursday evening, August 15, 1872, Milo Brockway, aged about 11 years, son of Isaac Brockway, of Bethel, started on horseback to hunt up the cows. He crossed the Turkey River into Eden Township, and had gone but a short distance when he rode into a pack of timber wolves. He turned to flee and made the best time possible for home, which was only eighty rods away ; the wolves, to the number of forty, following in full pursuit, howling terribly until the lad rode into the river, where they did not follow.
BURNING OF THE COURT HOUSE.
About half-past two o'clock on Sunday morning, September 15, 1872, the Court House at West Union was discovered to be on fire. Mr. R. D. Williams and C. C. Zeigler were sleeping in the Treasurer's office that night. They were awakened by a noise of something falling, in the direction of the portion of the building that had been converted into a substitute for a jail, and arose at once to see what was the trouble. There was one prisoner in the cell, James Thompson, awaiting trial for larceny, and they thought that possibly he might
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
be making an attempt to escape. Mr. Zeigler opened the door of the Record- er's office which adjoined the jail, and discovered the building was on fire. Zeigler at once commenced throwing the books out of the window, while Will- iams rang the bell to alarm the citizens.
When the citizens arrived, the door of the jail room was unlocked, but the prisoner was gone and the room was on fire. Thompson had enlarged the hole through the wood lining of the room, six inches thick, through which the stove pipe entered the chimney by setting it on fire with matches, until he had enlarged it sufficiently for him to crawl through. He had then knocked a hole through the brick wall and escaped, but left the house afire. The books were taken out, but nearly all the papers in the Clerk's office and many valuable records and papers in the Treasurer's, Recorder's and Auditor's offices were burned. The woodwork in the interior of the building was all consumed in an hour and a half after the fire was discovered. A portion of the west wall fell, but the rest of the wall was left standing.
The following was found written on the walls of the jail: "$5,000 bail wanted. Bail obtained at 11 o'clock."
Thompson was found secreted at Calmar and arrested by Sheriff Dorland and Deputy Camp, on Thursday night, September 19th, and lodged in jail at Elkader.
Thompson alias Benson claims that he did not set the house afire purposely, that after he had burned the hole sufficiently large he tried to put out the fire and thought he had succeeded, but it had crept beyond his sight and reach.
The Clerk of the Courts, Auditor and Recorder at once secured rooms for temporary offices in the brick building, over Messrs. Fox's store; and the Treasurer found an office in the room in the rear of the bank.
The safe purchased in 1860, by Judge Rogers, was found to be unharmed.
The Supervisors settled with the insurance companies, receiving $5,901.56, cash in hand.
REBUILDING THE COURT HOUSE, AND THE COUNTY SEAT CONTEST.
The burning of the Court House opened up the question of the removal of the county seat afresh, and a proposition to build a new Court House on the site of the old one met with determined opposition. On the 11th day of April, 1873, Dr. Fuller and others presented a proposition to the Supervisors, which, on the 12th of April following, was called up and read as follows :
To the Board of Supervisors of Fayette County, Iowa:
The undersigned citizens of said county would respectfully submit the following :
That, in consideration of $5,000, to be paid by Fayette County, one-third in hand, one-third when the building is inclosed, and the balance when completed, agree to erect on the foundation of the late Court House, a new Court House, of the style and dimensions of the one burned. Said new building to be completed by the 1st of November, 1873. It is agreed that the con- tractors shall have the old foundation, brick and debris of the old building free of cost, to be used in the new building.
That they will cause the title to Public Square in West Union to be perfected in Fayette County, Iowa.
Dated April 11, 1873. (Signed.)
L. FULLER, H. B. HOYT, C. B. ROBERTS, E. A. WHITNEY,
A. H. Fox, LEWIS BERKEY, S. B ZEIGLER, W. A. WHITNEY,
H. RICKEL, J. E. BERKEY, H. RUSH, C. R. BENT,
WM. E. FULLER, L. L. AINSWORTH, C. I. NEFZGER., S. E. ROBINSON.
L. W. WATERBURY, P. L. HINKLEY, JOHN OWENS,
The following was also received and filed : -
We, the undersigned citizens of West Union, Iowa, hereby agree with the Board of Super- visors of Fayette County, Iowa, that, in case the Board of Supervisors of said county shall appro-
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
priate the sum of $5,000 for the building of a Court House on the Court House Square, in West Union, Iowa, and in case the Court House shall be built thereon ; that in case the county seat shall be removed from West Union at any time within five years from the date hereof, that we will refund to said Fayette County the $5,000 so appropriated, within three months after such removal; provided the said county of Fayette will deed to us its rights in and to the Court House Square and the building thereon.
(Signed.) A. H. Fox, C. R. BENT,
H. B. Fox, G. H. THOMAS,
W. A. WHITNEY, LEWIS BERKEY,
L. FULLER, H. B. HOYT,
S. B. ZIEGLER.
Also, the following remonstrance, signed by about two thousand five hun- dred names, was received and filed :
To the Board of Supervisors of Fayette County, Iowa :
The undersigned, residents and tax-payers of said county, earnestly protest against any appropriation being made for the erection of a Court House, or other public building, until the question of such appropriation has been submitted to a vote of the people of the county.
After some discussion, the matter was laid over until the June session.
June 2, a petition signed by S. A. Bogardus and 264 others for the removal of the county seat to Fayette was presented and filed.
Nathan Andress and 332 others presented a paper in which they stated that they signed the remonstrance against an election under a misrepresentation of facts, and demanded that their names should not be counted.
Levi Fuller presented his objections to the submission of the county seat matter to a vote, and also to the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors.
L. L. Ainsworth submitted a request to an extension of time to examine the Bogardus petition in behalf of remonstrators, which was granted.
Levi Fuller and 2,540 others presented a remonstrance.
June 5, William Redfield and others presented objections to remonstrance.
The Board passed a resolution granting the request of Nathan Andress and others to have their names stricken from the remonstrance.
June 11, ordered that action on the proposition of L. Fuller and others to build a Court House be indefinitely postponed.
June 12, a writ of injunction was served on the Board restraining them from further action in the matter of the submission of the question of removal of the county seat to a vote, and from making any order for an election upon said question.
July 21, 1873, the Board held a special session and entered into a contract with W. A. Whitney for county offices in his stone block, northeast corner of Vine and Main streets. for $400 per annum.
NEW TOWNS.
East Waucoma, located in the northwest quarter of the southeast quarter, and northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 9, Township 95, Range 10; Phebe A. Page and E. J. Page, proprietors. Filed for record Jan- uary 7, 1873.
Massillon Mill Lot, located in southeast quarter of northwest quarter of Section 26, Township 95, Range 9. Surveyed February 10 and 11, 1873. Almira McCleary, proprietor.
Oelwein, located in west half of southeast quarter of Section 21, Township 91, Range 9. Surveyed by J. E. Lyman December 12, 1872. Milo McGlathery, A. M. McGlathery, S. B. Zeigler, L. W. Zeigler, proprietors. Filed for record April 23, 1873.
South Waucoma, in west half of the west half of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 9, Township 95, Range 10; Thomas J. Seeley,
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
Surveyor ; O. B. Dodd and Mary J. Dodd, proprietors. Recorded April 23, 1873.
Waucoma, located in southwest quarter of Section 9, Township 95, Range 10; J. P. Webster and Phebe A. Webster, proprietors. Recorded September 3, 1873. This town was surveyed and platted in 1851 or 1852, but the plat was not recorded.
Maynard, located on northwest quarter of southwest quarter of Section 23, southeast quarter of southeast quarter of Section 15, and southwest quarter of southwest quarter of Section 14, Township 92, Range 9; J. J. Berkey and Mary A. Berkey, proprietors. Plat recorded October 10, 1873.
North Waucoma, M. A. Bunny and W. H. Bunny, proprietors. Plat filed October 29, 1873.
Brainard, on Section 30, Township 34, Range 7. Burlington, Cedar Rap- ids & Minnesota Railroad Company, by G. Green, President, proprietors. No- vember 10, 1874.
Randalia, located on east half of southeast quarter of Section 15, Township 93, Range 9. Surveyed by P. F. Randall in November, 1874; P. F. Ran- dall, J. D. Randall, Alonzo Randall, Gertrude B. Randall, Andrew J. F. Ran- dall and Addie F. Randall, proprietors. Plat filed for record December 9, 1874.
THE COURT HOUSE REBUILT.
After a determined struggle for nearly two years, during which strenuous efforts were made to secure the submission of the removal of the county seat again to the people, petitions for the submission, remonstrances against it and repetitions were presented to the Board, until the question came before the courts and an injunction was granted to restrain the Supervisors from making any order for such an election, which was served June 12, 1873. From that time until April, 1874, nothing further was done.
On the 9th of April, 1874, Mr. Snedigar presented a resolution that the Board take the matter of building Court House under their earnest considera- tion before adjourning. Carried.
Mr. Brunson presented a remonstrance against any appropriation for Court House until the matter had been submitted to a vote of the people. Received and filed.
April 10, Mr. Brunson offered the following, which was adopted:
Resolved, That the resolution by Mr. Snedigar be referred to this Board as a Committee of the Whole, and that said Committee meet at West Union on Thursday, May 7, 1874, for action thereon.
Mr. Hoagland offered the following, which was also adoped :
Be it resolved, That there be the sum of $5,000 appropriated out of the county funds for the purpose of building a Court House in West Union on the present location, provided the balance necessary to complete said building, according to a plan and specifications made and presented to this Board at its April session, 1873, for the same purpose, by the citizens of West Union, shall be placed at the disposal of said Board, or their representatives, together with all the bonds and conditions connected therewith and pertaining thereto.
No unforeseen obstacle having arisen detrimental thereto in the discretion of said Board.
All to be acted upon and disposed of by the Committee of the Whole as per resolution of Mr. Brunson above, to meet May 7, 1874.
On the first day of June, the Committee made the following report :
Your Committee, to whom was referred the matter of re-building the Court House, would respectfully report that, having met at the time and place designated, viz., West Union, Iowa, May 7, 1874, we received from citizens of West Union a plan and specifications of a Court House which they propose to build for the $5,000 appropriated at the April (1874) sessions of your Board, and have signed a contract with them to that effect, which plan, specifications and con- tract are now on file in the County Auditor's office, and which are made a part of this report.
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
We also received certain remonstrances against re-building said Court House until the ques- tion of re-location of county seat has been submitted to a vote of the people of the county, claiming to be signed by 2,200 legal voters and tax payers of said county, which were ordered to be placed on file. All of which is respectfully submitted.
Dated at West Union, May 8, 1874.
F. SNEDIGAR, H. HOAGLAND, Committee.
On the 3d. Mr. Brunson submitted a minority report, remonstrating against the action and report of the majority, which was ordered on file.
The Committee of citizens, parties to the contract made as above, on the 7th of May, consisted of Curtis R. Bent, J. S. Sampson, H. B. Hoyt, Levi Fuller and John Owens. This committee sublet the contract to Messrs. Winrott & Huyck for $6,750, and work was commenced at once and prosecuted with such vigor that the brick-work was completed on the 10th of September, and the house completed, ready for occupation. The brick-work and plastering was done by George Ogsbury, the wood-work by Winrott & Huyck and the painting by A. Pauch.
January 4, 1875, the Supervisors passed the following order :
Ordered, That a sketch of the Court House be taken by the agent of A. T. Andreas for the purpose of having the same engraved and inserted in said Andreas' Atias of Iowa.
FLOOD.
On the evening of Tuesday, the 11th of April, 1876, occurred one of the most destructive rain and hail storms ever experienced in this region. About 8 o'clock P. M., the rain descended, " first in sheets and then in volumes," says the Gazette, " accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and rattling thunder, the hail playing a continuous tattoo upon the shingles and windows." For two hours the thunder of heaven's artillery and the falling hail and rain continued, and at ten o'clock, the railroad track along the Otter Valley was covered with water, in some place two feet deep. Soon after the arrival of the train from the South, cries of distress were heard from the south side of the creek, at West Union, and Charles Leffler and his family, living in a small house, opposite the elevator, were discovered to be in a perilous situation. They had retired at the usual hour and awoke to find the water eighteen inches deep over the floor of their dwelling. The people of the town hurried to the rescue. W. N. Hodg- kinson was among the first to arrive at the scene. D. N. Hoyt soon followed with a pair of horses. Mr. Hodgkinson at once plunged into the foaming water and, by swimming part of the way, succeeded in reaching the house, and with the aid of the horses, rescued Mrs. Leffler and her three children, one a babe nine weeks old.
The railroad through the county suffered considerably, and trains were delayed, and bridges on the wagon roads were swept away. Crane Creek, in the northwestern part of Bethel, rose twelve feet in half an hour, fences were swept off and some stock drowned. At Fayette, windows were badly broken and hail stones were an inch in diameter.
FAYETTE TOWNSHIP.
June 9, 1877, the Township of Fayette was created by order of the Board of Supervisors as follows :
Ordere, First. That the territory outside of the corporate limits of the town of Fayette to be called Westfield Township, and that within said corporate limits to be called Fayette Township. Second. That the village of Albany be designated as the place for holding the first election for the new township of Westfield, and to be held at the time of holding the next general election.
Third. The following named persons are appointed Judges of said election : J. J. Epps, R. Earle and John Orr.
ยท
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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
THE FLOOD OF 1878.
On Saturday night, June 1, 1878, occurred one of the heaviest rain storms ever experienced in this county since its first settlement. For several days, rain had fallen in large quantities, until the earth was completely saturated, and, when the water began to fall in torrents about 8 o'clock in the evening of June 1, it was all drained into the streams. The Volga rose at least four feet higher than ever known before. Maynard was flooded, the water being five feet above high water mark. Every movable article was afloat ; fences were swept away, and a dwelling house near the town was swept from its foundations and carried several rods into 'Squire Pember's field. The old bridge at Maynard was swept away and hardly a bridge on the Upper Volga remained where the waters subsided.
The iron bridge across the Volga at Lima was demolished, involving great loss to the county. The south abutment was undermined and crumbled, letting the heavy mass of iron down into the seething flood, tumbling it about like a feather, leaving it a few rods down the stream, a sad wreck of twisted, bent and broken rubbish. It was built in 1875, and cost over $4,000. Earle's mill, at Albany, was left on an island, a channel sixty feet wide, having been washed out from the inland side.
Rawson's old saw-mill, an unused building on Brush Creek, three miles from Wadena, was washed away with much valuable property. Rawson's steam mill was out of the reach of the flood. A man in the vicinity awoke to dis- cover his floor under water. He sprang out instantly, and went down into the water ten feet before striking bottom. The trap door to the cellar had floated off. He came up with a snort, and got his family up stairs as soon as possible, but before this was accomplished the water was running in the windows.
At Oelwein, the entire town for a time seemed to be in the midst of a raging sea. Sidewalks floated off without ceremony, and even the Centennial Block, a two-story brick, was near being undermined, and only saved by promptly filling the cavity worn by the water with barrels of salt, stones and brush. The creamery basement, containing milk and butter to the value of $200, was filled with water, and the supposition was that all was ruined. But daylight found the milkpans and butter kegs floating as serenely as if a profusion of water was a necessary process, and the loss to the proprietor was not over $5. A stretch of railroad piling across the little creek was entirely gone, and where the piles stood, where the water was not usually knee deep to a boy, a sixteen- foot pole was not long enough to reach bottom. All the streams in this part of the county were from three to five feet higher than ever known, and bridges left intact were the exception to the rule.
Near West Union, there was but little damage done, but north, near Cler- mont, the bridge was swept away and the piles washed out. No trains were run on the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Minnesota Railroad, from the 1st until the 10th of June, further north than Independence. At least thirty bridges were swept away in Fayette County, and the loss to the railroads and to the people was immense.
The growing crops were not sufficiently advanced to be seriously damaged, though many a field of bottom-planted corn was annihilated, and miles of fencing swept beyond recovery.
WAR HISTORY.
If there is any one thing more than another of which the people of the Northern States have reason to be proud, it is of the record they made during the dark and bloody days when red-handed rebellion raised its hideous head and threatened the life of the nation. When the war was forced upon the country, the people were quietly pursuing the even tenor of their ways, doing whatever their hands found to do-working the mines, making farms or culti- vating those already made, erecting homes, founding cities and towns, building shops and manufactories-in short, the country was alive with industry and hopes for the future. The people were just recovering from the depression and losses incident to the financial panic of 1857. The future looked bright and promising, and the industrious and patriotic sons and daughters of the Free States were buoyant with hope, looking forward to the perfecting of new plans for the ensurement of comfort and competence in their declining years; they little heeded the mutterings and threatenings of treason's children in the Slave States of the South. True sons and descendants of the heroes of the "times that tried men's souls"-the struggle for American Independence-they never dreamed that there was even one so base as to dare attempt the destruction of the Union of their fathers-a government baptized with the best blood the world ever knew. While immediately surrounded with peace and tranquility, they paid but little attention to the rumored plots and plans of those who lived and grew rich from the sweat and toil, blood and flesh of others-aye, even traf- acked in the offspring of their own loins. Nevertheless, the war came with fill its attendant horrors.
April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter, at Charleston, South Carolina, Maj. Anderson, U. S. A., commandant, was fired on by rebels in arms. Although basest trea- son, this first act in the bloody reality that followed was looked upon as the mere bravado of a few hot-heads-the act of a few fire-eaters whose sectional bias and hatred was crazed by the excessive indulgence in intoxicating potations. When, a day later, the news was borne along the telegraph wires that Maj. Anderson had been forced to surrender to what had first been . regarded as a drunken mob, the patriotic people of the North were startled from their dreams of the future, from undertakings half completed, and made to real- ize that behind that mob there was a dark, deep and well-organized purpose to destroy the government, rend the Union in twain, and out of its ruins erect a slave oligarchy, wherein no one would dare question their right to hold in bond- age the sons and daughters of men whose skins were black, or who, perchance, through practices of lustful natures, were half or quarter removed from the color that God, for His own purposes, had given them. But they "reckoned without their host." Their dreams of the future, their plans for the establish- ment of an independent confederacy, were doomed from their inception to sad and bitter disappointment.
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