USA > Iowa > Keokuk County > The history of Keokuk County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. : a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 48
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" The wind has just set in to blowing very hard, and I may be blowed off to dear-knows-where, and I am sick, anyhow; but if you should never see or hear of me again, remember that I am your sincere friend and brother, BUNCOMBE.
"P. S .- As the hurricane is now kinder over, and I aint much scared nohow, I will just say that there is not many of our society here, the peo-
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ple being mostly very smart folks; but what few fellows are fools are of the real grit. A more noble set of fellows never lived, and have ever treated me with the most foolish kindness, which shall always be recipro- cated in the same tender spirit by BUNCOMBE."
Probably the most appropriate article which could be selected from this fool's book is the Declaration of Independence. It is rather lengthy, but its adaptability to the phraseology of our National Declaration, and its ex- ceeding fitness for the occasion when written, has induced us to copy it. To its better understanding let it be premised that Sanford Harned was the Whig candidate for delegate to the convention for the formation of a State Constitution; resided at Richland, and had always been favorably disposed toward Sigourney. J. B. Whisler was his Democratic opponent; was the owner of, and merchant at, Lafayette, now Lancaster, and was con- sidered thie embodyment of the opposition to Sigourney.
This Declaration was greatly applauded by several individuals, and, on request, was probably read to more than a hundred persons before election. There is little doubt but that the Fools' Book thus elected our Judge Harned as delegate. The first paragraph we omit, being an exact copy of that of seventy-six. The rest of the Declaration is as follows:
" We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights in some measure political parties are instituted among men, deriving their influence from nominations and leading men; that whenever a party becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to lay it aside for a time, and to take such steps as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.
"Prudence would indeed dictate that the Democratic nomination long ad- hered to should not be bolted for light and transient causes, and accordingly all experience has shown that the rank and file are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abandoning the nom- ination, for once, to which they politically belong.
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to take away our county-seat and reduce the value of our property, it is their right, it is their duty to abandon such nom- inations and provide other guards and candidates for their safety and future security. Such has been the political suffering of the northern side of Skunk river, and such is now the necessity which constrains them to aban- don the Democratic convention.
"The history of the present king of Lafayette, and his coadjutors, is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of the county-seat in the forks of Skunk river, and conse- quently taking it away from its present judicious and charming location.
" To prove this let facts be submitted to a candid mind.
"They have refused to acknowledge the county-seat as the place of doing county business.
" They have called together the county commissioners at places unusual and distant from the depository of the public records for the sole purpose of fatiguing us into compliance with their measures.
" They have forbidden their county commissioners to pass orders of im-
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mediate and pressing importance, such as laying out a town at the county- seat.
"They have endeavored to prevent the population of the north side of this county, for that purpose misrepresenting the face of the country, the abundance of timber, fertility of soil, etc.
"They have made John Borough, assessor, and other officers dependent: on their will, alone, for the tenure of their offices.
"They have selected a multitude of new hobbies and sent hither swarms of electioneerers to harrass our people and take from them the value of county-seat property.
" They have kept among us, in times of peace, spies and item catchers without our knowledge and consent.
" They have affected to render a faction independent of and superior to the laws of the land.
"They have plundered the reputation of our locality, ravaged our court, retarded our town and impeded the settlement of our people.
" They have repeatedly professed friendship. to us for the sole purpose of tightening their grasp upon us while we should be napping in fancied se- curity.
" In every stage of these apprehensions we have petitioned for redress and remonstrated in the most humble terms. Our repeated remonstrances have been answered only by repeated injury.
" A 'set' whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a speculator and a miser is unfit to have their nominee elected.
" Nor have we been wanting in our attention to our southern brethern. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their leading men to set. the county-seat on wheels. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here in good faith. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations which would inevitably interrupt our political harmony and the success of Democratic principles.
" They too, with a few noble exceptions, have been deaf to the voice of justice and equal rights. We must therefore acquiesce in the necessity,. this once, which announces our separation, and hold them as the Whigs, enemies in war; in peace, friends.
" We, therefore, the advocates of Sigourney and equal rights, wherever we may be in Keokuk county on the first Monday of April, 1846, appealing to the good sense of the people of this and adjoining counties for the rec- titude of our intentions, do, in and by the love we have for justice, equal rights and the preservation of our property, solemnly publish and declare. that this county ought not to support, either directly or indirectly, the- nominees and advocates of the removal party of the county, as we would thereby place ourselves entirely within their power.
" And that the Democracy favorable to the removal of the county-seat,. are, and of right ought to be, free and independent of the pretended nom- inee for delegate. That they are absolved from all obligations to vote for- the said nominee, and that all political connection between us and the re- moval party is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.
And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the sup- port of the voters of Keokuk county, we roll up our sleeves and pitch in."
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
EARLY REMINISCENCES OF MEN AND THINGS.
The first sheriff of Keokuk county was George W. Hayes. He was a: very eccentric individual, and some of his peculiarities, as exhibited during the days of his official dignity, are cleverly delineated by one who then knew him :
"In weather hot or cold, wet or dry, he always wore the insigna of his- office in the shape of an old blue blanket overcoat.
"To see him the first time was to know him at any other time or place .. We had occasion one day to place in his hands a subpoena in which several persons were defendants. To avoid the repetition of all their names, we. added, as is usual after the first name, the abreviation, et al., meaning, also others.
"In the course of a week, Hayes returned the writ, declaring that neither he, nor any other of the witnesses he had notified, were acquainted with or knew anything of this man et al."
Some time in the spring of 1847 there was a political meeting at Lan- caster for the purpose of appointing delegates to a congressional convention. The meeting was held in a new building being erected by Whisler and. Mitts, for a store room. and was attended by about twenty-five persons .. About the close of the meeting a shower of rain came up, attended with vivid lightning, and terrific thunder. One bolt came down, striking the front end of the house where the meeting was assembled, killing two men and a horse. Joshua Bennett, one of the persons killed, was standing just beside the door, and between it and the counter; Charles Payton, the other. one, was standing somewhat on the other side of the door, holding a large horse. by a chain halter; some were seated on the counter and others on benches; others were standing up, and one gentleman within a foot of Payton. There was no warning, no getting out of the way, no refuge or flight from, the lightning shaft. One terrible crash, mingled with the sound of break- ing of window glass, and a sulphureous odor was the first thing realized .. Bennett and Payton gently and slowly sank to the floor, and for the first minute or two their eyes indicated perfect mental intelligence, but breath- ing had ceased, and the fire of mortality had gone out. Every effort known to those present was resorted to for the purpose of restoring them, but to no purpose, and in fifteen minutes they were quite livid.
One of the characteristic features of Lancaster in early days was its lib- erty pole. It was erected by a man of the name of Allen, who had been a seafaring man. The pole was one hundred feet high, and was made to. represent the main-mast of a ship. It had four platforms at various eleva- tions from the ground, and these communicated with each other by means. of rope ladders. In 1855 the top blew off, and finally the pole was cut off at the base. Many readers will remember this pole, and the mention of it will call back to their minds many fond recollections of that wonderful little town, which once played such an important part in the history of the county.
In early days the mail facilities were not what they now are; even in the more populous sections of the country, and in the chief metropolis of the- nation, were the facilities much inferior to what they now are at any ordi -- nary railway station in the far West. The first mail received at Sigourney, February 7, 1845, consisted of one paper for Win. B. Thompson, one paper-
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
for S. A. James, and some post-office blanks. The mail-carrier was John H. Bragg, who made semi-monthly trips from Washington to Oskaloosa, via Sigourney. There were no postage stamps used, the amount of post- age being marked on the letter, which amount could be paid either by the person sending the letter or the one receiving it. The postage on an ordi- mary letter was five, ten, twelve and a-half, twenty-five, and thirty-seven and a-half cents, according to the distance sent. Letters would sometimes be months in reaching their destination, and then when they did arrive the person to whom they were directed would have great difficulty sometimes to raise enough money to pay the back postage. Gen. James A. William- son, at present Register of the General Land Office at Washington, and formerly of this county, averred at an old settlers' meeting, held at Sigour- ney a few years since, that in those days he walked twenty miles to borrow twenty-five cents in order to lift a delicate missive from his sweetheart in Indiana.
In the summer of 1845 Dr. B. F. Weeks located in Sigourney. He was a bachelor, nearly forty years of age. In his earlier days the course of true love did not run smooth, and a cloud seemed to hang over him. His inti- mate friends were few but warm. He had first studied law in the East, and then came to Illinois. Whatever his love affair was, it evidently caused a change in the whole course of his life. He changed his life programme, came to Iowa and studied medicine. After coming to Sigourney he had a very successful practice. On the 16th of July, 1846, he was taken suddenly ill at the house of Maxon Randall. A son of Mr. Randall came to Sigourney for Mr. James, who was soon at his bed-side. The latter says that he found him calm and composed, but firm in his opinion that he would not long survive. At the earnest solicitation of Mr. James, a mes- senger was sent for Dr. Stone, who resided in Washington; but at a quarter of one the same afternoon, being fully conscious, and with a prayer upon his lips of " Lord, receive my spirit!" he breathed his last.
In the winter of 1851 and '52, the typhoid fever made its appearance at Lancaster. It baffled the skill of the best physicians, and quite a number ·of deaths ensued; among them were John Baker, at that time county judge, and B. P. Shawhan, county recorder. The next winter it re- appeared with equal fatality, and after selecting its victims as suddenly disappeared. In the summers of 1854 and 1855 the cholera visited Lancas- ter, and proved fatal in many instances. During the summer of 1855 ex- aggerated reports of the sick and dead list were circulated, producing so much alarm that scarcely a farmer ventured into the town for weeks after it had subsided. For all these diseases there was apparently no local cause, the town being on a high, rolling prairie, and no stagnant ponds anywhere in the vicinity.
One of the first merchants of the county, and the first to engage in busi- ness in Sigourney, was B. F. Edwards. He was an old bachelor; had habits of great economy, and gathered up all the nails, buttons, bits of old iron, pins and the like. The under side of his coat lappel was always literally padded with pins. When the feet of his socks would not bear any further darning, he would cut them off and lay by the legs, and to such an extent had he saved these, that he actually obtained the cognomen of "Sock-legs." In the autumn of that year he sold out and migrated to or near St. Louis.
A. W. Blair, the first attorney in Sigourney, came over from Oskaloosa in the fall of 1844, preferring the former place because of the competition,
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two lawyers having already located at the latter place. He was a short, heavy set young man, with a good brain, somewhat cultivated, but came- to our place greatly discouraged by poverty and the " chills," both of which clung to him all winter. He was a native of North Carolina, and how he- ever got out of the limits of the State where the summit of ambition is to say "gimme chaw tobacker," has never been found out. But he had somehow drifted to Bloomington, Ind., attended law school, and was really well qualified to become a lawyer. His location here, however, at that time looked as unpropitious as the building of a steam saw-mill in the middle- of a large prairie. He remained long enough, though, to cut out consid- erable timber.
When the Mexican war broke out Blair went to Mexico, and for a year was a cavalry scout along the frontier, on the Rio Grande. Returning, he purchased, with the assistance of Dr. Lowe, of Burlington, an outfit for- the "Fort Des Moines Star," the first newspaper published in Des Moines; but before the first number of his paper was issued, and in the early part. of the year 1849, he was carried off by an epidemic fever then sweeping over the country, and with a half-dozen other young men went overland to the then newly-discovered gold fields of California. He left his press in charge of Barlow Granger, which eventually fell into the hands of Curtis Bates, formerly of Iowa City, a very good man, who was afterward the first of that successive line of thirteen defeated candidates for Governor,. beaten by James W. Grimes.
Blair finally settled down at Watsonville, a town about fifty miles south of San Francisco, where, if he had permitted it, he might have been elected to Congress. A few years ago he removed to Reno, Nevada, where he now probably resides. He never married, but continued to be the life of social gatherings; almost a lady's man, and delighted to put himself on easy and familiar terms with all the school-children.
A short time prior to the election in August, 1845, late in the evening- " a solitary horseman might have been seen" slowly wending his way toward the capital of Keokuk county. He had been bewildered and missed the direct route from Oskaloosa to Sigourney, and was none other than Gen. Lowe, afterward Governor of the State, who was then canvassing the- State as a candidate for delegate to Congress against A. C. Dodge, of Bur- lington. An audience to justify an extensive speech could not be obtained on such short notice, and the few who did gather together had to content themselves with a general war talk from the candidate, and on leaving the next day he left the people very much pleased with his graceful manners and frank deportment.
While the first court-house was being built in Sigourney, a young man appeared at the clerk's office and obtained that paper which permits to be united in one two willing hearts. He departed with all the joy beaming through his face that a gold digger might expose when approaching a rich placer. On the next day he suddenly returned, with face wan as Adam when walking out of Eden; he had lost his pocket-book containing his. marriage license, and after long search had returned to know what could be done. Thompson was present, and, giving the clerk a wink, as well as a. twinkle of the eye, at once took up the conversation. He informed the young man that he had known of one case, and had heard of two others. of the same kind; that the only course left him was to go to Bloomington
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1
and before Judge Williams make affidavit of the loss, upon which the judge would send an order directing the clerk to issue another.
Upon this announcement the mercury in the young man's face fell at least twenty degrees. Tears came to his relief, and in most doleful accents he shadowed forth the disappointment to be caused by the delay; they were to be wedded on the following day, and, beside, before his return many of the good things of the table might be spoiled or badly damaged. Such, in fact, were his feelings that the clerk was constrained to interpose, and agreed to take the responsibility of a re-issue. Thereupon Joel Lan- dreth, afterward Rev. Joel Landreth, left the clerk's office the second time inspired by high hope of conjugal bliss.
THE FIRST DISTRICT JUDGE.
As Judge Williams was a somewhat noted character, more particularly for eccentricity than for legal attainments, though we believe he had the reputation of being a good judge, we deem it proper to give a brief sketch of him.
With regard to his history we know but little, either previous to the . time of which we are writing, or since. At that time he was about fifty years of age, and had worn the ermine many years. In a territorial act fixing the appointee over what was then called the Second District, com- posed of the counties of Louisa, Muscatine, Cedar, Johnson and Slaughter. He was a person of remarkably good conversational power, and delighted in telling anecdotes. His musical talent was much above the average, both vocal and instrumental. Otten after delivering a temperance lecture, full of eloquence, and interspersed with humorous passages, he would sing a favorite song called "Little Billy Neal," with an effect seldom surpassed, calling up an applause of such hearty, boisterous delight as had seldom greeted a star actor. He was master of most musical instruments, but for drawing tunes out of that sweetest, sweetest toned of all, " the fiddle and the bow," he was particularly distinguished in this attainment. In addi- tion to his vocal talent as a singer, he possessed that wierd, mysterious power of using his voice as a ventriloquist, and could imitate the cry of various kinds of animals so correctly that the uninitiated could not fail being deceived. He would sometimes imitate the squalling of a belligerent cat, to the great alarm and mystification of the ladies, who could neither discover the brawler, nor learn from whence the noise came.
At this point we beg leave to introduce a couple of anecdotes bearing upon his notoriety as a musician: Many years ago, on the occasion of a convention at Iowa City in the interests of a proposed railroad from Mus- catine to that place, Judge Williams and LeGrand Byington were in violent opposition to each other upon some points of which we are not informed, nor does it matter so far as the interest of this sketch is concerned. After the convention, a young amateur in the art of drawing produced a carica- ture representing Joe. Williams seated astride an enormous bull, playing a clarionet. The bull was on the railroad, with tail erect and head down, pawing up the earth, and prepared to combat the further progress of a locomotive which was close upon him, upon which was LeGrand Byington "as engineer, and from the whistle of which ascended the words, " Music hath charms, but cannot soothe a locomotive."
On another occasion, being that of an election of Supreme Judge and
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United States Senator, by the State Senate, Judge Williams was before the Democratic caucus for the judgeship, and Geo. W. Jones (sometimes called Nancy Jones, and known as a dancing master), for the Senate. Their com- petitors of the same party were S. C. Hastings, formerly president of the territorial council, for the judgeship, and Hon. T. Wilson for the Senate. The last named gentlemen were at Iowa City just previous to the time of election, laboring earnestly with the members of the Senate to secure their choice. But at the caucus, whichi came off during the night preceding the day of election, it was decided to elect Williams and Jones.
The following instance of his peculiar powers as a ventriloquist is related of him: It occurred during the first term of the District Court at Knox- ville. Most of those attending court there boarded at Babbit's, and it so happened that one night the little boarding-house was so full that it was barely possible for all to find sleeping room. The Judge, with lawyers Knapp, Wright and Olney, were supplied with beds in the lower story, whilst the jurors and numerous other attendants found room to stretch themselves on the loose upper floor, using blankets, coats and whatever else they had provided for beds. When, after much ado, they had all got set- tled down for a nap, they were suddenly startled by the terriffic squalling of what appeared to be a couple of tom-cats in mortal combat in the room. Instantly all hands were up and in search of the supposed disturbers, but no cats could be found, and the surprised boarders returned to their beds without any very satisfactory conjectures as to the whereabouts of the noc- turnal brawlers. But they had hardly composed themselves again for rest, when the loud and boisterous growling and snapping of a couple of bellig- erent bull-dogs, apparently in their very midst, brought them all up stand- ing. And then followed an uproar such as language could convey but an indistinct idea of, the dogs maintaining the combat with mingled growling, barking and whining, and the men endeavoring. with all the noise they could make, to oust them from the room. How they came to be there was a wonder indeed, but the evidence of their presence was too unmistakable to admit of a doubt, even in total darkness. Presently the fight ceased, and with that the general uproar abated. Then came a solution of the mystery. The Judge and lawyers could no longer restrain their merri- ment at the expense of the frightened and mystified lodgers up stairs, but let it come in a gush of laughter that quickly reminded some of the com- pany that the Judge was a ventriloquist, and had undoubtedly just played them one of his mysterious tricks. But so far from being offended at it, they took a sensible view of its ludicrousness, and all joined heartily into the laugh.
Judge Joseph Williams, above referred to, should not be confounded by young readers with M. T. Williams, the clerk of the first court, and cur- rently known as Judge Williams. This latter gentleman is not eccentric, nor a great fiddler, nor a ventriloquist. The only analogy we think of is in his temperance proclivities, and his ability to tell a good story.
M. T. Williams is justly regarded as one of the oracles of Mahaska county. His duties as first clerk of the county brought him in contact with its pioneers and territory in such a manner as to afford him a more thorough knowledge of the very early history of Mahaska county than any other man now living. Sometimes Mr. Williams is induced by his friends, publicly, or in a small circle, to narrate his early experience and reminis- censes, which he can do in a most irresistible manner. The Judge is not
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fond of making a speechi, not for the reason which kept " Single Speech Hamilton " in the background, but from an unassuming and retiring dis- position, and a probable under-estimation of his own abilities, for the Judge. can make a good address. This peculiarity, the modesty of Mr. Williams, is illustrated by the following anecdote:
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