USA > Iowa > Jefferson County > The history of Jefferson County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., a biographical directory of citizens, war records of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 51
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The whole troop then rode slowly around the circle during the decision of the committee. All were again brought to the stand, and the prize awarded to
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Miss Belle Turner, of Lee County. Judge Clagett, with his usual liberality, then presented each lady with a gold ring.
This decision was not received with satisfaction by a large portion of the audience, and we quote from the Fairfield Ledger of November 2, 1854 :
The great attraction of the day was the female equestrianism, which came off at 2 o'clock in the afternoon of the second day and at 10 o'clock A. M. of the third day. The prize was a gold watch, valued at $100, and ten ladies, accompanied by their cavaliers, entered the list to contend for it. The number of persons who were present to witness this attractive feature of the fair was immense. The committee awarded the prize to a Miss Turner, of Keokuk, much to the dis- appointment of the people, who were decidedly in favor of awarding it to Miss Eliza Jane Hodges, "the Iowa City girl," and we were one of the people.
We had intended saying something about how they were dressed, but so soon as we learned how the prize was awarded, we were so "put out " that we had no inclination to note their dress, and forgot every thing else but the " Iowa City girl." In our humble opinion, Mrs. John Eckert, the lady dressed in blue, was decidedly the most graceful rider on the ground. When the award was made known, the people set about it and made up a purse of $165 for Miss Eliza .J. Hodges, and some other presents, and further made provisions for her attendance, free of all charge, for three terms at the Female Seminary at this place and one term at the seminary at Mt. Pleasant, all of which she gratefully accepted, as a sensible girl would-particularly the educational portion. Miss Ilodges is quite young, being but thirteen or fourteen years of age ; but she certainly displayed the best horsemanship we ever saw displayed by any female. The bold manner in which she fearlessly galloped around the inclosure was intensely exciting. The Marshals could not keep the people from showing their approbation in loud shouts. Miss Kate B. Pope was there. We know Kate to be a fine rider, but she rode a miserable hack for a horse ; she did well, however. We suppose the committee, in awarding the prize, acted conscientiously, but there was a large majority of the people against them ; and we want it distinctly understood that we were one of them.
In his report after the close of the fair, Dr. Shaffer, the Treasurer, pro tem .. has to say that "owing to the very irregular manner in which the money was handed him, he is unable to make a perfectly accurate return of the receipts," but they amounted to not less than $1,000, about $50 of which was counterfeit or other worthless money. At any rate, they had enough to pay all expenses and premiums, and what more did they care for at the first fair ? Its success was beyond their most sanguine expectations. They had a gloriously good time and everybody was happy.
The opening address was delivered by George C. Dixon, of Keokuk.
HURRICANES.
According to the memory of the "oldest inhabitant" of the county, John Huff, whose knowledge of the incidents and happenings of this bailiwick dates back to 1835, six notable hurricanes or windstorms, have swept through different portions of the county, five of which are here mentioned.
The first of these storms occurred in 1842. Its force was so terrific that great trees were twisted off as if they had been but pipe-stems. The barn of a Mr. Gray was entirely demolished. Live-stock that chanced to be grazing in its course were lifted up from the pasture, carried high up in the air and then dashed to death on the earth below. After leaving the vicinity of Mr. Gray's farm, the storm passed to the open prairie beyond, where its force was lost in open. unoccupied wastes. Fortunately no human lives were victims to its fury.
Old settlers say the hurricane of 1851. was the most destructive that ever visited the vicinity of Fairfield. It came from the southwest and first struck the earth between 3 and 4 o'clock P. M., on Cedar bottom, near the southwest corner of H. B. Mitchell's farm, where large hickory-trees were twisted off as if they had been weeds. The first building damaged was the University of
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Fairfield, the roof of which was taken off and the walls partially demolished. Mr. Hoffman's house next suffered, the roof of the rear portion, which was log, deposited on the brick portion higher up. Reed Wood's dwelling-house, a quarter of a mile north of town, occupied by John Fulton, was completely destroyed. Mr. Fulton was away from home and Mrs. Fulton, with her boy five and little daughter three years old, was alone. The mother lost con- sciousness through fright when the wind first struck her dwelling, and her last recollection was of hanging to an upright studding of the house and her feet "flapping in the wind like a rag." When she recovered her understanding physically and mentally, she was on the ground near the house, her little boy clinging to what clothing was left about her. The sides of the house and roof were gone, and the ceiling lying on the floor. Her first thought was of her little ยท girl whom she last saw playing on the floor near a large iron pot. She fled, screaming that her child was killed, and assistance soon arrived to discover the little girl between ceiling and floor, saved without a scratch, by the good iron pot. A wagon standing near the house was rudely treated by the angry wind. One wheel was broken short off and carried nearly a mile away, another wheel three-quarters and another a quarter of a mile. The remaining portion of the wagon was picked up bodily and deposited a few rods distant, with such force that the coupling-pole was driven into the ground nearly four feet. The house of Mr. John Clinton, half a mile north of the present city limits, suffered the loss of a summer-kitchen attached to the rear. A corn-pen built of rails was carried away, and the corn with which it was filled, was left in the shape of a hay-stack, the ears trimmed from the sides and corners, amounting to about one hundred bushels, scattered over the prairie. After damaging the brick house of Mr. Tweed and the dwelling of John Noble, short distances further north, the cyclone left the earth and was no more heard of. The damage to fences was very considerable, as well as to timber, orchards and out- houses.
Again in 1853, Jefferson was "taken in" in the course of another hurri- cane, that played many fantastic tricks. Trees two and three feet in diameter were either twisted off like twigs, or dragged out by the roots and carried up in the air and deposited at great distances, as if they had only been a feather's weight. The track of the storm did not reach the more thickly-settled dis- tricts, and hence the damage to farm improvements was but trifling.
On the 22d of March, 1858, Round Prairie was visited by a windstorm that leveled fences, entirely demolished some houses, and unroofed many oth- ers. Among the houses unroofed was the dwelling of Joseph Tilford. The storm was no respecter of persons, and "cavorted" around the home of this old pioneer as recklessly as if he had been the meanest "claim-jumper" that ever sought to infringe upon the rights and possessions of honest "squatters." Fortunately, however, no damage was inflicted on persons, and after whirling around among the farms and farmhouses for awhile, the hurricane hurried away to the open, unoccupied prairie, where it soon lost its force.
On a Sunday afternoon, in the month of -, 1878, a furious hur- ricane crossed the county from west to east passing Fairfield about one mile to the north. A few houses in the course of the storm fiend were almost com- pletely demolished, and others were seriously damaged, but fortunately no per- son was killed. The cyclone struck the German Church building in Lockridge township, while services were in progress, and, in the twinkling of an eye, the congregation were piled up in a promiscuous heap in the center of the floor, and the roof and walls of the building picked up and carried away. Strange to say. only one person, a young lady, was severely injured.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
OLD SETTLERS.
On the 23d of February, 1858, a meeting of those who resided, or were doing a business, in Fairfield, or were citizens of the county on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1846, was held in Fairfield, for the purpose of forming an old settlers' association. The exercises were opened with an address by Charles Negus, Esq., on the first settlement of the town and county. After the address, a resolution was adopted requesting each one present who came to the county prior to January 1, 1846, to register his name and, as near as possible, the exact date of his settlement. Under the resolution, the following-named " pioneers " appended their names :
J. A. Gallaher, February 22, 1849; B. B. Tuttle, November, 1840 ; Charles Negus, March, 1841 ; R. H. Van Dorn, May, 1841 ; D. Mendenhall, May, 1842; George Craine, October 5, 1842; J. A. Cunningham, August, 1842 ; J. M. Slagle, November 10, 1842; Thomas D. Evans, November 13, 1842; Anson Ford, January 11, 1843; C. W. Slagle, April 23, 1843 ; George Acheson, April 23, 1843 ; J. E. Cummings, November 13, 1843 ; T. W. Titus, November 20, 1843; W. W. Junkin, April 20, 1844 ; George Stever, May 6, 1844 : A. H. Brown, July 5, 1844 : Jesse Byrkit, October 28, 1844; S. H. Bradley, November 4, 1844; William Myers, May 1, 1845 ; E. C. Hampson, May 15, 1845.
In response to a toast, " The Historian of Fairfield," Mr. Negus said that when he came here, seventeen years ago, there were only 110 inhabitants in the place (Fairfield), and then proceeded to give the names of all the men who were here, with a short history of each one. He said that of the number who lived in town when he first came here, there was not one present on this occasion.
The meeting, after styling itself the Old Settlers' Club, adjourned to meet February 22, 1859.
At the date of the second meeting of the Old Settlers' Club, February 22, 1859, Wells' Hall was occupied by the meetings of the Baptist Church, and the address which was to have been delivered was indefinitely postponed.
The old settlers, to the number of twenty-three, met at the National Hotel, where supper was served. J. M. McClelland, being the oldest settler present, was made President, and W. W. Junkin, Secretary. New names were regis- tered as follows :
J. M. McClelland, February 12, 1838 ; E. R. Norvell, October 10, 1842 ; William Long, September, 1842; W. L. McLean, - 1843 ; Mungo Ramsey, - -, 1844 ; J. D. Jones, March 30, 1845 ; William Myers, May 1, 1845 ; W. K. Alexander, May 20, 1845; Bernhard Henn, June 30, 1845 ; John Fore, 1845.
The meeting was addressed by Judge Negus, who gave short sketches of nearly all the first inhabitants. He gave as a toast, " The Memory of Willis Cheek-Funnel me again, boys !" Other toasts were responded to, and a good time was had generally.
At this meeting, a committee of seven was appointed, to consist of the seven present who had resided longest in the county, to perfect a plan for the organization of the Old Settlers' Club. These were J. M. Mc Clelland, Charles Negus, R. H. Van Dorn, William Long, J. M. Slagle, James Cunningham. B. B. Tuttle.
A movement was begun to erect a monument over the remains of Thomas Gray, one of the early settlers, beloved by all who knew him.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
After these proceedings, the meeting adjourned for one year ; but, as no records of subsequent meetings can be found, and there being no Old Settlers' Club in existence now, it is fair to presume that was the last meeting of the kind ever held-a fact that is to be regretted.
POLITICAL PARTIES.
Previous to the organization of the Republican party, in 1856, the people of Jefferson County were divided between Whigs and Democrats, with a good working majority in favor of the latter. In local contests, party lines were not always closely defined, and a Whig was sometimes elected to fill some county office. In the election of members of the Legislature, the Democrats generally pulled together and elected their men. The first break in this long-established rule was made in 1852.
In that year there were three members of the House and two members of the Senate to be elected from this county. The Democrats nominated Samuel Whitmore, James Thompson and W. J. Rogers for the House, and Col. W. G. Coop and Dr. Ramage for the Senate. The Whigs nominated Dr. Edward Meacham, H. B. Mitchell and John Andrews (as now remembered) for the House, and John Park and Thomas O. Wamsley for the Senate. The canvas was closely contested. Both parties put in their " best licks." The result was a divided delegation. The Democrats elected two members of the House- Samuel Whitmore and W. J. Rogers, and the Whigs elected H. B. Mitchell, who has the honor of being the first Whig elected from Jefferson County to the Iowa House of Representatives. Coop, Democrat, and John Park, Whig, were elected to the Senate.
In 1856, when the Republican party had fully organized and presented candidates for President and Vice President, thereby asserting its national strength, the Republican spirit, that had been slumbering in Jefferson County. began to assert itself. since when the Republican party has had everything pretty much its own way. Occasionally, however, as in the case of the present County Treasurer, a Democrat has been chosen to fill some of the county offices, just as a Whig used to be in ante-Republican days.
ROLL OF HONOR.
Jefferson County has been represented in the State Senate by William G. Coop, J. R. Teas, Robert Brown, John Howell, John Park, William M. Reed, James F. Wilson, J. M. Shaffer, D. P. Stubbs. A. R. Pierce and M. A. Mc Coid.
In the House of Representatives, by Alexander Wilson, Richard Quinton, Stansberry, J. W. Culbertson, R. R. Harper, J. H. Flint, S. Whit- more, J. R. Bailey, W. H. Lyons, George Weyand, William Baker, Andrew Collins, Thomas McCulloch, Charles Negus, H. D. Gibson, W. J. Rodgers, H. B. Mitchell, J. Wamsley, R. Stephenson, Edmund Meacham, William Bick- ford, C. E. Noble, Louis Roeder, J. F. Wilson, Thomas Moorman, Mathew Clark, Peter Walker, W. W. Cottle, A. R. Pierce, Owen Bromley, George C. Fry, John Hayden, A. R. Fulton, William Hopkirk, Joseph Ball, Edward Campbell, Jr., W. L. S. Simmons and John Herron.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
In 1844, Robert Brown, Samuel Whitmore, J. L. Murray, Hardin Butler and S. S. Ross, were elected Delegates to the State Constitutional Convention. The Constitution submitted was rejected by the people, and, in 1846, a second Convention was called. William G. Coop and S. S. Ross were sent as Dele- gates. James F. Wilson was chosen a Delegate to the Convention of 1856. for the revision of the Constitution.
Two citizens of the county have represented the First Congressional Dis- trict of Iowa in the United States Congress-Bernhart Henn in the Thirty- third and Thirty-fourth Congresses, from 1851 to 1855, and James F. Wilson in the Thirty-seventh, Thirty-eighth, Thirty-ninth and Fortieth Congresses from 1862 to 1869. M. A. McCoid, of Fairfield, was elected as Representative to Congress at the October election, 1878.
WAR HISTORY.
If there is any one thing more than another of which the people of the North- ern States have reason to be proud, it is of the record they made during the dark and bloody days of the war of the rebellion. 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-making farms or cultivating 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 country was just recovering from the depression and losses inci- dent 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-and, 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 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 tranquillity, they paid but little attention to rumored plots and plans of those who lived and grew rich from the sweat and toil, blood and flesh of others-aye, even by trafficking in the offspring of their own loins. Nevertheless, the war came with all its attendant horrors.
April 12, 1861, Fort Sumter, at Charleston, South Carolina, Major Ander- son, U. S. A., Commandant, was fire upon by rebels in arms. Although basest treason. this first act in the bloody reality that followed was looked upon as mere bravado of a few hot-heads-the act of a few fire-eaters whose sectional bias and hatred of freedom was crazed by excessive indulgence in intoxicating potations. When, a day later, the news was borne along the telegraph wires that Major Anderson had been forced to surrender to what had at 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 realize that behind that mob there was a dark, deep and well-organized pur- pose 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 bondage the sons and daughters of men whose skins were black, or who. perchance, through practices of lustful natures, were half or three-quarters removed from the color that God, for His own purposes, had given them. But
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
they "reckoned without their host." Their dreams of the future-their plans for the establishment of an independent confederacy were doomed, from their inception, to sad and bitter disappointment.
Immediately upon the surrender of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln, Ameri- ca's martyr President, who, but a few short weeks before, had taken the oath of office as the nation's chief executive, issued a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers for three months. The last word of that proclamation had scarcely been taken from the electric wires, before the call was filled. Men and money were counted out by hundreds and thousands.
The people who loved their whole government could not give enough. Patriotism thrilled and vibrated and pulsated through every heart. The farm, the workshop, the office, the pulpit, the bar, the bench, the college, the school- honse-every calling offered its best men, their lives and foutunes in defense of the Government's honor and unity. Party lines were, for the time, ignored. Bitter words, spoken in moments of political heat, were forgotten and forgiven, and, joining hands in a common cause, the masses of the people repeated the oath of America's soldier statesman : "By the great Eternal, the Union must and shall be preserved."
The gauntlet thrown down by the traitors of the Sonth in their attack upon Fort Sumter was accepted, not, however, in the spirit with which insolence meets insolence, but with a firm, determined spirit of patriotism and love of country. The duty of the President was plain under the Constitution and laws. and above and beyond all, the masses of the people from whom all political power is derived, demanded the suppression of the rebellion, and stood ready to sustain the authority of their representatives and executive officers.
April 14, A. D. 1861, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, issued the following
PROCLAMATION.
WHEREAS, The laws of the United States have been and now are violently opposed in several States, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed in the ordinary way ; I therefore call for the militia of the several States of the Union, to the aggregate number of 75,000, to suppress said combinations and execute the laws. I appeal to all loyal citizens to facilitate and aid in this effort to maintain the laws, the integrity and the perpetuity of the popular government, and redress wrongs long enough endured. The first service assigned to the forces, probably, will be to repossess the forts, places and property which have been seized from the Union. Let the utmost care be taken, consistent with the object, to avoid devastation, destruction or interference with the property of peaceful citizens in any part of the country ; and I hereby command per- sons composing the aforesaid combination to disperse within twenty days from date.
I hereby convene both Houses of Congress for the 4th day of July next, to determine upon measures for public safety which the interest of the subject demands.
WM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States
Seventy-five thousand men were not enough to subdne the rebellion. Nor were ten times that number. The war went on and call followed call, until it began to look as if there would not be men enough in all the Free States to crush out and subdue the monstrous war traitors had inaugurated. But to every call for either men or money, there was a willing and a ready response. And it is a boast of the people that, had the supply of men fallen short, there were women brave enough, daring enough, patriotic enough, to have offered them- selves as sacrifices on their conutry's altar. Such were the impulses, motives and actions of the patriotic men of the North, among whom the sons of Jeffer- son made a conspicuous and praiseworthy record.
The readiness with which the first call was filled, together with the embar- rassments that surrounded President Lincoln in the absence of sufficient laws to
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
authorize him to meet the unholy, unlooked-for and unexpected emergency-an emergency that had never been anticipated by the wisest and best of America's statesmen-together with an underestimate of the magnitude of the rebellion, and a general belief that the war could not and would not last more than three months, checked rather than encouraged the patriotic ardor of the people. But very few of the men, comparatively speaking, who volunteered in response to President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers for three months, were accepted. But the time soon came when there was a place and musket for every man. Call followed call in quick succession, until the number reached the grand total of 3.339,748, as follows :
April 16, 1861, for three months. 75,000
May 4, 1861, for five years, 64,748
July, 1861, for three years .... 500,000
July 18, 1862, for three years 300,000
August 4, 1862, for nine months. 300,000
June, 1863, for three years.
300,000
October 17, 1863, for three years.
300,000
February 18, 1864, for three years. 500,000
July 10, 1864, for three years. 200,000
July 16, 1864, for one, two and three years. 500,000
December 24, 1864, for three years 300,000
3.339.748
The tocsin of war was sounded, and meetings were held over the North to consider the situation and devise ways and means to meet the President's call.
The first war-meeting in Jefferson County was held in Fairfield on Wednes- day, April 17, 1861. Mayor Stubbs was chosen President, Ward Lamson and Dr. S. W. Taylor, Vice Presidents, and W. W. Junkin, Secretary, of the meeting.
At the reading of the call for volunteers, there was a ready response from those of the required age, and one hundred names were soon enrolled. The paper signed by the volunteers was headed by the following :
We, the undersigned, able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and forty years, hereby tender our services to Gov. Kirkwood, and obligate ourselves to be in readiness to march in de- fense of our country as occasion may require, subject only to such regulations as may hereafter be enacted by the Government for the regulation of volunteers :
NAMES.
George Strong,
Moses A. McCoid,
David B. Wilson,
Henry A. Millen,
Robert Lock,
George Balding,
W. T. Killough,
J. G. Kirkpatrick, William Scott,
Bill Hampsen,
George il. Case,
A. K. Updegraph,
C. A. Miller,
G. H. Myers, W. F. Smith,
J. M. Hughes,
R. M. Rhamey,
Daniel Smith,
David P. Long,
George W. Hill,
John Swanson,
Isaac Olds,
George W. Fetter,
John T. Mccullough,
D. B. Johnson,
John Locke,
Manford Hall,
Thomas lloffman,
John R. McEldary,
Charles J. Reed,
N. Howard Ward,
David Jones,
William H. Cusick,
Jacob Fox,
J. A. Whitley,
W. C. Hendersen,
Owen Bromley,
Samuel B. Woods,
William Hill,
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