USA > Iowa > Henry County > The history of Henry county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 48
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UNITED STATES CONGRESS.
Hon. James Harlan was elected to the United States Senate by the Iowa Legislature January 6, 1855. The Senate passed upon a legal point, and declared this election illegal, on the 12th of January, 1857. The Legislature, on the 17th of January, 1857, re-elected him to the disputed seat. Senator Harlan resigned his seat in the Senate to accept the portfolio of the Interior Department, under President Lincoln, taking his place in the Cabinet May 1, 1865. Secretary Harlan was again elected to the Senate, his term expiring March 4, 1873.
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Hon. William Thompson was elected to the Thirtieth Congress, 1847-49, but his seat was contested by Daniel F. Miller (as is fully described elsewhere in this work), and was finally unseated, after serving one session.
EXECUTIVE OFFICE.
Hon. Joshua G. Newbold, of Henry County, was elected Lieutenant Gov- ernor of Iowa on the ticket with Gov. Samuel J. Kirkwood. When Gov. Kirkwood was elected to the United States Senate, in 1877, Lieut. Gov. New- bold became Acting Governor, and filled that office during the remainder of the term.
SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES.
The following list shows the entire representation in the Territorial and State Assemblies from the first session in 1838, which convened at Burlington November 12, and adjourned January 25, 1839 :
Council-1838, Jesse D. Payne, L. B. Hughes ; 1839, same parties ; 1840, William H. Wallace ; 1841 (held at Iowa City), same; 1842, same; 1843, same; 1845, John Stephenson. This session was held in May. At the December session, Mr. Stephenson was still a member. November 30, 1846, the first State Legislature assembled at Iowa City. The Council was changed in title to the
Senate-1846, Evan Jay ; 1848, same; 1850, John T. Morton ; 1852, Archibald Mckinney ; 1854 and at the special session in July, 1856, Alvin Saunders ; 1856, December term, same ; 1858 (at Des Moines), same ; 1860, same; 1862, Theron W. Woolson; 1864, same; 1866, same; 1868, same ; 1869, John P. West ; 1873, term extended to four years, and office still held by Mr. West ; 1875, John S. Woolson (chosen to fill vacancy caused by removal of Mr. West from the county), and re-elected in 1877.
Representatives-1838, William G. Coop, William H. Wallace, Asbury B. Porter ; 1839, Henry and Jefferson Counties, William G. Coop, Jacob L. Myers, John B. Lash ; 1840, Henry alone, John B. Lash, Asbury B. Porter, Paton Wilson ; 1841, Asbury B. Porter, Paton Wilson, Simeon Smead; 1842, Paton Wilson, Evan Jay, Thomas McMillan ; 1843, Paton Wilson, Hamilton Robb, William Thompson ; 1845, Norton Munger, Samuel D. Woodworth, Charles Clifton ; 1845, at the December session same as foregoing at May ses- sion ; 1846, first State Assembly, J. T. Morton, A. Updegraff, Thomas Wright ; 1848, S. D. Woodworth, M. Burroughs, H. R. Thompson ; 1850, Paton Wilson, Abraham Updegraff ; 1852, Robert Caulk, James C. Green, Levi Jessup ; 1854, Willett Dorland, Francis White, Samuel McFarland; 1856, Willett Dorland, Samuel McFarland ; 1858 (at Des Moines), Lauren Dewey, .J. F. Randolph and George W. Mccrary for the counties of Lec, Henry and Van Buren ; 1860, Alvah H. Bereman, A. J. Withrow ; 1862, W. C. Wood- worth, John P. West ; 1864, H. R. Lyons, A. H. Bereman ; 1866, John P. West, Thomas A. Bereman ; 1868, John P. Grantham, Jacob Hart; 1870, J. G. Newbold, J. W. Satterthwait; 1872, J. G. Newbold, J. M. Hanison ; 1874, J. G. Newbold, Hugh Lyons; 1876, Jacob Kauffman, William Allen ; 1878, Jacob Kauffman.
CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS.
The Representatives in first Constitutional Convention, which convened at Iowa City, October 7, 1844, and lasted until November 1, were Joseph C. Hawkins, George Hobson, John H. Randolph, Jonathan C. Hall and Joseph D. Hoag. The Constitution adopted by this Convention was rejected by the people, at an election held on the 4th day of August, 1845, there being 7,235 votes cast for its adoption and 7,656 against its adoption.
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The second Constitutional Convention met at Iowa City May 4, 1846. Henry County was then represented by George Hobson and Alvin Saunders. The Constitution adopted by this body was sanctioned by the people at an elec- tion held on the 3d day of August, 1846, there being 9,492 votes in its favor, to 9,036 votes against it. This Constitution was presented to Congress in December, 1846, and, on the 28th day of the same month, an act was passed by that body for the admission of Iowa into the Union. The first election for State officers was held on the 26th day of October, 1846, in anticipation of the act of Congress, pursuant to a proclamation of Gov. James Clark, when Ansel Briggs, of Jackson County, was elected Governor; Elisha Cutter, Jr., Secretary of State ; Joseph T. Fales, Auditor, and Morgan Reno, Treasurer.
The third Constitutional Convention was held at Iowa City January 19, 1857; Henry County was represented by Rufus L. B. Clarke. The Constitu- tion adopted by this Convention was sanctioned by the people at an election held on the 3d day of August, 1857; there being 40,311 votes cast for, and but 38,681 votes against the change. The Constitution took effect September 3, 1857.
EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS.
This county ranks high in educational matters. Mount Pleasant has been termed the " Athens of Iowa," because of the character of its schools and the natural influence they exert upon the people. In Salem, also, is found a sem- inary of learning that takes a leading place among institutions of its kind. The county average, as is shown elsewhere, is such as to warrant favorable opinions of the work performed by local colleges. As an inevitable consequence of the prevailing atmosphere of education and refinement which prevails in the county, Henry ranks first among all counties of the State in point of freedom from crime. The records show almost a total absence of noted cases of crime, and supply no material from which to draw a tale of questionable interest for these pages. In every county we have yet visited, a chapter on bloody events has been a necessity, however much we may have desired to leave untouched the sad stories of unlawful deeds. But here there are no acts which necessitate the perpetuation of such reports.
Can it be doubted that to the educational influences, the refining, Christian- izing tendencies of the teachings of the many schools, is due, in no slight degree, the immunity from crime which Henry County enjoys ? Is it not a striking evidence of the truth of the theory that where education predominates, there crime and sorrowful misdeeds decrease ?
While the question of how to get a living was the foremost one in the minds of the pioneers, the less direct though none the less important one of how to educate their children was not overlooked. Almost contemporaneous with their own dwellings, they began the building of such schoolhouses as they could, crude and primitive in the extreme, for such only would their appliances admit, and put together without regard to externals.
These same pioneer schoolhouses will, in the future, be a theme for the artist-quite equal in every way to those supplied by the peasantry in the old world-with their quaint. simple fashions and unperverted lives. The eye of the connoisseur delights in those realistic representations of still life-the white- haired old grandfather, whose toil of years has only brought him his cottage and bit of land ; the still hard-working "gude wife," with bent body and withered but cheerful old face; the next generation just in the prime of labor,
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rough, uncouth, and content to have for recreation a pipe and a mug of ale; and the children, with rosy cheeks and stout limbs, dressed in veritable costumes their grandmothers wore before them. And no wonder such a picture pleases and charms the jaded senses of the worn-out worldling. But even that is not more fresh and unaccustomed than his log shanty, with its one small room, a window of but few panes of glass, and possibly a dirt floor; and with rough- hewn benches ranged round the walls for seats, over which the pupil made a fine gymnastic flourish whenever he felt it necessary to reach his teacher, with his forefinger firmly planted on the knotty word or sum that puzzled him.
These are the picturesque features for the artist's pencil. And what " learn- ing " there was, must have been a " dangerous thing," for it was certainly " little ;" the grading was far from exact ; the system was a kind of hit-or-miss affair ; but, nevertheless, it was "school," and from the first there was a deeply- rooted prejudice among the Iowa settlers in favor of schools. School for week- days and a meeting-house for Sunday ! this same little pen of a house served two purposes. And could anything except the groves themselves-"God's first temples "-be nearer to nature as a tabernacle than was this, where some. chance circuit preacher would have for his congregation every man, woman and child in the entire settlement ? None of those hypercritical listeners there, you may be sure, who gauge the preacher by his "intellectuality," his "magnetism " or his "culture." It was the Word preached-welcome, pure and life-giving always-and not the preacher, which these listeners crowded to hear. If he but had the good Methodist zeal, then he was sure of devout hearers. He did not need to have "traveled," except upon his lone circuit over the prairie; nor did he feel it necessary to use his pulpit in the interests of politics-if he knew his Bible he was qualified ; nor did his flock feel called upon to put their hands into their pockets and contribute toward sending their Pastor on a summer vacation to the sea-side or to Europe. All these improvements have come in with better churches and more advanced ways of thinking. That was the old way, and a direct contrast to the new.
Now, nothing which the architect's taste can devise is too good for school- house or for church. Look at the plenitude of tidy, commodious buildings in every county, and not designed for double service, either, but dedicated solely to the use of the schoolma'am, who hereabouts is thoroughly skilled in her pro- fession. She has had, aside from such education as her means have enabled her to obtain, good, practical drill in the normal institutes. She not only knows her text-books, but she knows how to teach. And then, the ingeniously- devised school-book, in which every point of information is adjusted to such a nicety that they are rather works of art and books of entertainment than but the dull means to a desired end.
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 puts 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.
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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.
IOWA WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
" Great institutions of learning," wrote Rev. E. H. Waring, in his " Chron- icles of the Iowa Wesleyan University," a series of historical papers prepared in 1874 and published in the Iowa Classic, a college journal, " do not spring up to afford shelter and protection to the seeker for truth, like Jonah's gourd, in a single night. They take years, even centuries, of patient toil, privation, sacrifice upon the part of their projectors and friends, to put them upon a basis of real strength and permanence.'
While this is true of all educational institutions, it seems to apply with peculiar force to the history of the University now under consideration. It is only through long perseverance and great patience that success is achieved in this branch of human endeavor. The instances of prosperity which are met with here and there, throughout the country, are all the more marked because of the inexorable law which governs the life of educational institutions. The rare but fortunate seminaries and colleges endowed by wealthy friends of prog- ress know little of the real bitterness of privations, and, perforce, seldom are enabled to enjoy the luxury of hard-earned victories over adversity.
The records of denominational institutions of learning are made up of pages deeply interesting to the world, when once the period of doubt is passed in tri- umph and success is won. The time-honored colleges of the East are venerated with a spirit of reverence born of present glory, while the dim history of the days gone by are utterly forgotten or unconsidered. The West, however, lacks the softening sbades which time sheds over the records. The uncomfortable facts concerning the first moments of the life of their colleges are still vivid in the minds of those who dwell in the existence, and suffer or rejoice as occasion demands, of their favorite projects.
The Iowa Wesleyan University is an institution which furnishes a fertile theme for one who seeks to illustrate the topic so briefly alluded to above. From a meager beginning it has risen to a commanding rank among the denom- inational colleges of the West, and has before it a future, under the grace of Him who is the recognized head of the powerful church whose patron it is, which will develop grandly.
As early as 1842, while yet this vast State was in its first formative condi- tion, under territorial government, and contained not more than 50,000 in-
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habitants ; while yet the infant county of Henry could boast not more than 5,000 population, and the social world was crude in the extreme, a few broad- minded men conceived the idea of advancing both the town and county by the institution of a seminary of learning. The period was one of progression. Thousands of immigrants were finding the object of their search in this imme- diate vicinity, and preparing to locate permanently here. The tide of human- ity rolled in with it an element of intelligent improvement, born in the centers of culture in the East, and almost instantly vitalized with the progressive spirit of the West. Throughout the Territory, which was then limited to the original purchase of lands from the Indians, towns were planned and efforts at once put forth to secure educational advantages. The session laws of those early days show that the Legislature was beset by men who had the rapid development of this region deeply at heart.
While the spirit of improvement prevailed, it is not strange that one of the foremost religious organizations in the country should look. to the building up of a seminary peculiar to itself. In all the available localities, the pioneer cir- cnit-rider of the Methodist Episcopal Church was seen, plodding wearily but faithfully along, sowing the seeds preparatory to a glorious harvest.
At this period in the progress of the Territory appears the first evidence of the present University. A little band of men at Mount Pleasant determined upon the establishment of "an institution of learning, in connection with the Meth- odist Episcopal Church," within the town or its immediate vicinity. At the time of which we write, there was no organized annual conference in Iowa, and the existing Methodist societies were connected with the Rock River Conference, which then embraced all there was of Episcopal Methodism in Northern Illi- nois, Wisconsin (including the unknown region of Minnesota) and Iowa.
Burlington was then in embryo, and Mount Pleasant was but a hamlet, with scarcely enough of a showing to warrant the location of a frame house upon the plat. Yet the men who planned the enterprise were far-seeing, and beheld, in their minds' eyes, the beautiful city now so favorably known as an educational center. They possessed that element of success-spiritual and material-which is termed faith-that character which, whatever the religious differences may be in those who hold the subtle essence, tends to the consummation of endeavor in the weakest man or in the greatest.
The prime mover in the enterprise was Rev. Aristides J. Heustis. That gentleman was originally from the East, but his residence is not given. He had, previous to his coming to Iowa, been interested in the establishment of the Buckingham Female Institute, within the limits of the Virginia Conference. Disposing of his interest there, he emigrated in the fall of 1842, with the inten- tion of opening a first-class school in Iowa. He designed placing such an insti- tution under the protection of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was a local minister. Mr. Heustis eventually selected Mount Pleasant as his field of operations. Of the steps taken prior to the settlement of the question of locality, little is shown ; nor has that part of the work a material bearing on this sketch, since it is a fact that he did accept Mount Pleasant.
The next step was to interest the people of the village in the cause. From this point the official records show the development of the project. Nearly two years were consumed, apparently, in preliminary labor; for it was not until 1844 that the movement took definite form. At the session of the Territorial Legislature held in the winter of 1843-44, a bill was passed, and approved by the Governor February 15, 1844, granting a charter for the "Mt. Pleasant Collegiate Institute." In that document, "Palmer C. Tiffany, John P. Grant-
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ham, Nelson Lathrop, Samuel Nelson, Jonathan C. Hall, Ephraim Killpatrick and their associates " were recognized as the corporators. "The objects and purposes were wholly confined to the acquiring of sufficient real estate, erecting of suitable buildings, endowing professorships, establishing a library and sus- taining an Institution of Learning," and ample powers for the carrying-out of the design were conveyed by the provisions of the charter.
The institution thus incorporated was to be "located within five miles of the town of Mount Pleasant, Henry County."
In view of the facts that the Methodist Episcopal Church has ever been noted for its Antislavery principles ; and that this seminary was to be trans- ferred, if possible, to the protection of that body, it is worthy of notice here that the charter provided that the institution should be "kept open for the edu- cation of all denominations of white citizens." The present advanced position of the University stands out in bold relief against such a background.
Having now attained one very important end, the second step was before the projectors of the scheme. The institution had both a local habitation and a name. It was then desirable that it should have a patron. Accordingly, at the first session of the Iowa Conference, held by Bishop Morris, at Iowa City, August 14, 1844, a memorial was presented from the Trustees of the Institute, addressed to the Conference, asking recognition and patronage. This paper recites the "progress of the building" and the "great advantage of Mount Pleasant as a location," and refers to various other considerations. It states that the matter had been left with "Prof. A. J. Heustis, A. M.," the first Prin- cipal of the Institute, and also with the then Pastor of the M. E. society at Mount Pleasant, Rev. I. I. Stewart. The paper bore the names of N. Lathrop, William Thompson, J. P. Grantham, P. C. Tiffany and W. J. Coulter, who signed as Trustees.
The real estate occupied by the University, was originally donated to the Mt. Pleasant Collegiate Institute, the grantors being John and Rachel Jones, Jonathan C. and Achsah Hall, Samuel and Sarah Brazelton and Peter and Juline E. Smith. The contract for the donation was entered into March 11, 1843, and the deed of conveyance executed July 17, 1844. The grantees, rep- resenting the Institute as Trustees, were " Palmer C. Tiffany, John P. Graut- ham, Nelson Lathrop, Samuel Nelson, Jonathan C. Hall and Ephraim Kill- patrick, and their associates," which were Henry M. Snyder, Thomas J. Coul- ter, Robert Trimble, Charles Stoddard, Thomas Nelson, George Moore, Abra- ham Johnson and George W. Teas. In 1846, the first building was erected on the college grounds.
Then followed a succession of efforts having the one purpose of the success of the Institute in view, and those laudable endeavors met with varying degrees of encouragement. The ultimate outgrowth, however, of the industry and devotion of the projectors of the school was the establishment of the desired relations between it and the Conference. The Institute became one of the Methodist Episcopal agencies for the advancement of truth and the diffusion of useful knowledge.
It was not until the year 1849, that a substantial victory was achieved. The Institute and the Conference then became harmoniously connected. A Board of Control was created, consisting of the Presiding Elder of the Bur- lington District, and the preachers in charge of Burlington, New London, Fair- field and Mount Pleasant. The names of the first Board were Revs. I. I. Stew- art, Alcinous Young, Joseph McDowell, D. N. Smith and E. Lathrop. These gentlemen, with due cautions and limitations with reference to contracting debts and " involving the Conference in pecuniary obligations," were finally fully
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empowered to " consummate the agreement with the Trustees as soon as pos- sible." For some reason, when the report was brought up in Conference, it was recommitted and there is no minute on the journal of that body concerning its final adoption. But its acceptance is implied in the subsequent action of the Conference. The body afterward filled certain blanks in the report, and directed that a copy thereof be furnished by the Secretary to the Board of Con- trol. The omission on the records was merely clerical.
The negotiations were finally consummated in the Conference held in Fair- field, by Bishop Hamline, in 1850. Alcinous Young, D. N. Smith, J. L. Kelly, J. G. Dimmitt and W. Hurlburt composed the Committee on Education, and the records show merely the adoption of the report. The report and all of the valuable papers are missing from the Conference files.
Thus, after six years-one might even say eight years-of patient toil, the object was attained. In 1851, the material condition of the Institute was con- sidered, and the Conference decided to make no effort to maintain a school therein until necessary repairs were made on the building and grounds. The report suggested that " a fence and sidewalk " were required to give proper dignity to the property. In those times the campus was a part of the surround- ing commons, and the "substantial brick edifice" was standing alone in its glory. The report was adopted, and Robert Harrison was appointed Agent.
In 1852, the Trustees reported that during the preceding year, the school had not been sustained. An effort to secure a teacher proved abortive. How- ever, in 1852, Rev. James McDonald, A. M., was appointed by Bishop Ames as Principal, and Rev. I. I. Stewart, Agent.
Principal McDonald's work in the Institute was short. After filling the post for six months he resigned to take charge of the Middletown Circuit, and near the close of the Conference year he died.
During this year, Prof. James Harlan (since United States Senator for three terms and Secretary of the Interior, appointed by President Lincoln), who had previously been engaged at Iowa City, became Principal. Under his manage- ment the school began an era of prosperity.
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