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 52
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On two occasions, however, it has passed the bounds of reason, and as- sumed the character of a mania or delusion, which produced nothing but evil effects. The desire for riches is a benefit only when it comes like a gentle and steady rain, sinking into the ground and refreshing the earth; but when like a wild storm, it leaves only wreck and disaster in its path. Such is the moral easily drawn from the experience of Keokuk county.
The first gold mania here dates back to the fall of 1849, when stories first began to spread of the wondrous richness of the placer mines of California. The excitement grew daily, feeding on the marvelous reports that came from the Eldorado of the West, until at last nothing was talked of but the ad- ventures and achievements of the Argonauts of '49.
Instead of dying out, the fever mounted higher and higher. It was too late that season to attempt to cross the plains, but many of the Keokuk county people began their preparations for starting early in the coming spring. The one great subject of discussion about the firesides of the log- cabins of Keokuk county that winter was the gold of California. At one time nearly every man in the county was unsettled in mind, and seriously considering the project of starting for California. The more hardy and adventurous impatiently awaited the time when they should abandon the little property and comfortable homes already gained by honest thrift, and join the wild rush for California as soon as the weather and grass would permit. Even the most thoughtful and sober-minded men found it difficult to resist the infection.
Wonderful sights were seen when this great emigration passed through- sights that may never be again seen in the county, perhaps. Some of the wagons were drawn by cows; other gold-hunters went on foot, and hauled their worldly goods in hand-carts. The gold-hunters generally had left the moralities of life behind them, and were infested with a spirit of dis-
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J. J. Wilson P. M.
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order and demoralization. The settlers breathed easier when they had passed.
Early in the spring of 1850 the rush began, one line of the California trail passing directly through this county. It must have been a scene to beggar all description. There was one continuous line of wagons from east to west as far as the eye could reach, moving steadily westward, and, like a cyclone, drawing into its course on the right and left many of those along its pathway. The gold-hunters from Keokuk county crowded eagerly into the gaps in the wagon-trains, bidding farewell to their nearest and dearest friends, and many of them never to be seen again on earth. Sadder farewells were never spoken. Many of the gold-hunters left their quiet, peaceful homes only to find in the " Far West " utter disappointment and death. Very, very few of them ever gained anything, and the great maª jority lost everything, including even " their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor." The persons who really gained by the gold excitement were those who remained on their farms and sold their produce to the gold- crazy emigrants. The rush continued until about the first of June, 1850, when the great tide began to abate, although belated gold-hunters kept passing through for some time. But the excitement began to die away, and those citizens who had judgment enough to resist the contagion now settled down in quiet to pursue the even tenor of their way.
The scene along this line, through this vicinity, in thus described by one who was an eye-witness:
" It seemed that Bedlam itself had been let loose. A continuous line of wagons, stretching away to the west as far as the eye could see. If a wagon was detained by being broken down, or by reason of a sick horse or ox, it was dropped out of line and the gap closed up immediately. If a poor mortal should sicken and die, the corpse was buried hurriedly by the way- side, without coffin or burial service. When night came on, the line of wagons was turned aside, and their proprietors would go into camp. Very soon the sound of revelry would begin around the camp-fires thickly set on every hand, first to bottle and then to cards, to the echo of the most horrid oaths and imprecations that were ever conceived or uttered since the fall of man. These poor deluded votaries of Mammon scattered that dreadful scourge, small-pox, everywhere that they came in contact with the settlers on the way. Game cards were strewn all along the line of travel. Glass bottles, after being emptied of their nefarious contents down the throats of the men, were dashed against wagon wheels, pieces of which were thickly strewn all along the road, as if to mock the madness of the advancing column of these fervent janizaries of the golden calf.
"At the time of the treaty of Gaudalupe Hidalgo, the population of California did not exceed thirty thousand, while at the time of which we are writing (1850) there were more than one hundred and fifty thousand people that had found their way thither, of which number at least one hundred thousand were 'gold-hunters' from the States. There had been taken from the auriferous beds of California, up to January, 1850, over $40,000,000 in gold.
"The evil effects of this gold mania upon the moral status of the people of the United States is still seen and felt everywhere, and among all classes of society, and no man can see the end. It has popularized the worship of
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Mammon to an alarming extent throughout the country, and to this worship may be imputed, to a great extent, the moral declension of to-day."
Years after, this county had another gold excitement. which, happily, was not so serious as the first, and did not produce the same evil effects. But it is an equally good illustration to show how quickly men will lose their senses when they hope to gain wealth more rapidly than by honest work and thrift.
The excitement of the discovery of gold at Pike's Peak, in 1859, drew off a large number of the citizens of the county, many of whom returned poorer than they went, and glad and anxious to get home again from that land of high prices and small profits from mining. We have not been able to discover that any of the gold-seekers from the county ever became "bonanza kings."
When the leading men of the nation were bending all their energies toward the perfecting of arrangements whereby the one-hundredth anni- versary of the nation might be creditably celebrated, and hundreds of people all over the western country were looking forward to the great "Centennial," when they should visit the home of their childhood, and, as they expressed it, "take in the Centennial," there were hundreds of others whose eyes were turned in the other direction.
The Custer expedition which, by order of the government, had made an examination of the rich hunting grounds of the Sioux Indians returned, and the official report of the expedition confirmed the former rumors with regard to the rich gold deposits of that region. The whole West was immediately ablaze with excitement, and although the government had not authorized the opening of that country for immigration, and although the savages were known to be numerous and hostile, yet from every quarter came the cry, "to the Black Hills!"
The leading lines of railway leading across the State were taxed to fur- nish transportation for the thousands who sought to throng the trains, and upon every wagon route leading west and northwest might be seen inule teams, ox teams, and teams of horses with their steps leading toward the Black Hills. From the West, too, came the gold-hunters. Hundreds of men who, in forty-nine and fifty, had crossed the plains to the Pacific in quest of the yellow treasure, now retraced their steps in seach of the god which was supposed to be enshrined in the dominions of "Sitting Bull." This ruler of the dusky race did not invite into his dominions these worshipers of the golden god, but on the contrary most emphatically objected to this violation of sacred treaties; moreover he gave some very decided exhibi- tions of his displeasure, and from the belts of warriors soon dangled many a pale-face scalp; yet the multitude surged on, and the watch-word was, "to the Black Hills! Sitting Bull or no Sitting Bull." The opening of several rich mines, and the founding of the city of Deadwood, was the result. While some made their fortunes, many thousands lost their all, and those who did not lose their lives on the plains returned poor, disheartened and many broken down in health. Keokuk county furnished its full quota to the Black Hills army, and the Black Hills army furnished to Keokuk county its full quota of paupers, and thus was equilibrium again restored.
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
JOHN BROWN'S SOUL AND BLEEDING KANSAS.
Americans are familiar with the contest which preceded the admission of Kansas into the Union. The facts of that contest have become matters of record and as such are familiar to all students of history. Not only so; every school boy in conning over his history lesson becomes familiar with. such terms as "Squatter Sovereignty," "Border Ruffian," and such names as "John Brown " and "Jim Lane."
There are, however, attending facts connected with that unhappy strife which have not passed into history, and some of them of local interest, properly belonging to the history of Keokuk county.
It is not generally known that the line of communication between Kan- sas and the free States of the East lay through Keokuk county; that men living in this county were members of the Free Kansas Emigrant Aid Society; that one of the leading citizens of the county organized branch societies or committees all along the line; and that it was Sigourney where John Brown and Gen. Jim Lane first met.
Prefatory to the narration of these facts it will be proper, for the pur- pose of better understanding the matter, to give a brief synopsis of the Kansas difficulties.
By the " Missouri Compromise Bill," passed in 1820, slavery was pro- hibited in all the territory bought of France north of the southern boun- dery of Missouri-Missouri excepted. By the " Kansas Nebraska Bill," which congress passed in 1854, this prohibition was repealed and the terri- tories of Kansas and Nebraska were organized.
As soon as this bill was passed emigrants from all parts of the Union began to pour into Kansas, those from the North determined to make it a free State and those from the South determined to make it a slave State. Emigrant societies were formed in the North to colonize Kansas with anti- slavery inhabitants. The South sent its representatives also, and from the neighboring State of Missouri armed bands crossed the border, hence the name " border ruffians." Owing to the fact that the States bordering on Kansas from the east and south were slave States and the people intensely hostile to anti-slavery colonization it was necessary for the emigrant soci- eties of the North to send their emigrants north-west through Iowa into Nebraska and from thence south into Kansas. To facilitate the passage of emigrants through Iowa an emigrant society was formed at Iowa City on June 10, 1856, at which time George Woodin, Wm. Sanders and S. N. Hartwell were appointed to make a tour of this tier of counties and also the tier of counties north, in order to enlist certain leading men at each important point in the work of furthering "emigrants 1' on their way. This term "emigrant " must be taken in a qualified sense. It is true that many of the people at this time going to Kansas were genuine emigrants and consisted of families in search of homes; but the larger portion of these " emigrants " consisted of well-armed and well-disciplined companies of men who were on their way for Kansas to fight rather than to farm.
The meeting held at Iowa City on June 10, 1856, was a public meeting at which several spirited speeches were made but after the public meeting of a general character adjourned a private meeting for special purposes met. It was at this private meeting that the following address or commis- sion was drawn up and placed in the hands of Mr. Woodin, who seems to have been chiefly instrumental in opening up a line of communication:
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
" To the friends of the Kansas Free State cause in Iowa:
"The undersigned have been appointed a committee to act in connection with similar committees appointed in Chicago, and in other States, and with committees of like character to be appointed in the various counties of this State, and especially in those counties lying west and south-west of us.
"The plan of operations is the establishment of a direct route and speedy communication for emigrants into Kansas. The committe have appointed Messrs. Geo. D. Woodin, Esq., William Sanders and Capt. S. N. Hartwell to visit your place for the purpose of having a committee appointed there to facilitate the general plan of operation and carry out the details. They will explain to you the minutiæ of this plan at greater length than we are able to do in this communication.
" Capt. Hartwell is a member of the State legislature in Kansas and is recently from the scene of the ruffian atrocities which have been committed in that embryo State.
" We have here pledged 'our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honors' to make Kansas a free State and we shall expect our friends from this place westward will give us their hearty co-operation.
" Yours in the cause of Freedom, " W. P. CLARK, Ch'n. "C. W. HOBART, Sec'y. "H. D. DOWNEY, Treas. "I. N. JEROME. " LYMAN ALLEN. "J. TEESDALE. "M. L. MORRIS."
" IOWA CITY, June 10, 1856."
As before remarked Mr. Woodin in particular was active and diligent in transacting the business delegated to him. He made a complete tour of the counties lying in the proposed route of the "emigrants" and established committees. He succeeded in enlisting in this enterprise the most active and reliable men in the various towns which he visited who were in sympa- thy with the movement. Most of these men are still living and many of them have since achieved a national reputation. The following are the names of the individuals composing the committees at the various points along the route:
Wasonville-Isaac Farley, Myron Frisbee, N. G. Field.
Sigourney-N. H. Keath, A. T. Page, T. S. Byers, A. C. Price.
Oskaloosa-William H. Seevers, A. M. Cassiday, James A. Young, Louis Reinhart, S. A. Rice.
Knoxville-J. M. Bayley, James Matthews, Hiram W. Curtis, William M. Stone, James Sample, Joseph Brobst.
Indianola-B. S. Noble, Geo. W. Jones, Lewis Todhunter, J. T. Lacy, G. W. Clark, H. W. Maxwell.
Osceola-J. D. Howard, G. W. Thompson, A. F. Sprague, John Butcher, J. G. Miller, G. L. Christie.
Quincy-R. B. Lockwood, T. W. Stanley, H. B. Clark, E. G. Bengen, D. Ritchey.
Winterset-H. J. B. Cummings, W. L. McPherson, D. F. Arnold, W. W. McKnight, J. J. Hutchings.
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
Des Moines-A. J. Stevens, T. H. Sypherd, W. W. Williamson, R. S. Chrystal.
Newton-H. Welker, William Skiff, William Springer, E. Hammer, H. J. Skiff.
It was necessary to observe great caution and secresy, as the administra- tion was at that time in sympathy with the pro-slavery party and United States marshals were on the lookout for armed bands on their way to Kansas from the north. The underground railroad having been put into good running order, Superintendent Woodin and his station-agents did quite a business in forwarding "emigrants " during the fall, winter and following spring and summer.
One incident connected with the workings of the underground railroad especially deserves mention, it was the first meeting of Gen. Jim Lane and John Brown.
Late in the summer of 1856 the people of Sigourney were considerably interested in an unusually large number of emigrants who came through the town late in the afternoon and encamped for the night near by. Persons who had no connection with the "Emigration Society" noticed that Dr. Price and other members of the committee soon became very intimate with the leading men among the "emigrants." In fact so intimate were Price and his conferees with the chief emigrants that they held a conference in a back parlor of the Clinton House, then the leading hotel of Sigourney. After the conference had lasted some time the emigrants returned to their camp to look after some business while the committee remained in the room at the hotel awaiting their return. In the meantime there was a knock on the door, which being opened admitted a healthy, robust man dressed in the garb of a frontiersman, who announced himself as Captain Moore from Kansas, and desiring to see one Jim Lane whom he expected to find at that place. He was informed by the committee that Jim Lane, for such one of the " emigrants " proved to be, had just retired but would return shortly. Upon the invitation of the committee, the stranger took a seat. but upon being questioned by the committee with regard to Kansas affairs, mani- fested considerable reticence, not caring, apparently, to discuss those mat- ters. Presently Lane returned, and upon being introduced, the stranger looking him steadfastly in the face, and taking as it were an estimate of the man from head to foot, said: "You are Jim Lane, are you? Well, I am John Brown. I guess we have heard of one another before." . John Brown now satisfied that he was in the company of friends, and that his cause in Kansas would not suffer by a narration of events then transpiring in that Territory, threw off his former reserve and talked freely and passionately. It is said by persons who were in the room that they never heard such elo- quent and impassioned words fall from the tongue of living man as those uttered by Brown when speaking of the Kansas troubles. He first spoke of the country; of its beautiful prairies, its rich soil and its beautiful rivers, and while doing so his countenance lit up with an almost superhuman light and cheerfulness; pausing for a moment he seemed to be deeply moved, his countenance underwent an entire change, and from being an angel, Brown now resembled a fiend. At length he broke forth in the most vehe- ment language; he spoke of the blighting curse of slavery and of the over- bearing conduct of the pro-slavery men in their efforts to extend the accursed system; of the atrocities of the border ruffians from Missouri. When at length he contemplated the possibility of this fair land becoming
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
blasted by the curse of slavery, its beautiful prairies turned into slave plan- tations, its fertile soil pressed by the foot of bondmen, its beautiful streams flowing past slave-pens, he was unable to control himself; he strode through the room, he stamped on the floor and tore his hair with his sunburnt hands. Jim Lane became inspired by the words of his new-made acquaint- ance and it was arranged that he should make a speech that night in Sigourney. The speech was made from a dry goods box in front of Page's stone block which stood where now is McCauley's hardware store.
The "emigrants" had in their train a queer-looking vehicle, which they said was a prairie plow; it was covered with a tarpaulin, and some of the curious citizens, after the "emigrants" had fallen asleep, were anxious to see what kind of an agricultural implement these tillers of the soil had, any- way; a slight investigation convinced these inquisitive ones that it would plow up the ground in spots if it once got to work on the soil of "bleeding Kansas," but that it would be too noisy and dangerous for the fallow ground of Iowa. That prairie plow proved to be an eight-pound cannon, and was heard from inside of thirty days thereafter. The emigrants, num- bering some seventy-five, left the next morning, accompanied by John Brown and Jim Lane. Bleeding Kansas, after bleeding for some four years, boasting for part of the time in two rival territorial governments, was admitted into the Union as a free Statein 1861. Jim Lane's pathetic end, fall- ing a victim to his own vices and his own hands, and Brown's misguided, but noble and heroic campaign at Harper's Ferry, are subjects of fireside con- versation in almost every household in the land, and it is hoped that the narration of the foregoing incidents, trifling in themselves, but momentous as forming circumstances attending great national events, will not arouse any slumbering animosities nor engender any new strifes.
THE GREAT TORNADO.
In early days Iowa had an unenviable notoriety for wind storms: and undeservedly so; for while a number of frightful storms have swept across the State, they have not been greater in number nor more destructive in their results than in other States.
One of the most destructive tornadoes which ever passed through this latitude was the one occurring on the 23d of May, 1873. Certain portions of Keokuk county were particularly unfortunate.
The following account of that tornado, with a minute description of its effects in this county, was written for the "Sigourney News," by John A. Donnell, Esq., which we copy entire :
"The most terrific whirlwind, simoon, tornado, cyclone-or whatever name you may choose to call it-ever known, passed over a portion of this county on Thursday last, leaving death, destruction, and utter ruin in its track.
"At about 6 o'clock in the morning the rain came down in torrents, and in less than thirty minutes the streams were 'on a tear,' and gave us new high-water marks-the highest for may years. After it was over the people gazed up into the heavens and wished for dry weather, with about as much solicitude, I imagine, as Noah did, when the waters of the flood sub- sided, and the dove was sent forth from the window of the ark to look for the top of the mountain. The morning was warm and sultry; noon came, and up to that time, neither wind, hail nor rain.
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"At about half-past 2 o'clock P. M., the clouds gathered in the west. More rain was predictd. An ominous silence prevailed-not a bird sung, and not a leaf fluttered in the air. The clouds passed over from the northwest to the southeast .- just as clouds often do-a few drops of rain came down at first, then the bottom seemed to fall out and in a few minutes the streams were on another "bender." But still there was no wind, and as yet but. little hail. The rain almost ceased, and Old Probabilities being absent, some of his lineal descendants looked again into the heavens and prophesied fair weather, but a yellowish tinge in the west and northwest caused many to shake their heads in doubt.
"In a few minutes the drops of rain began to fall again, withi hail-stones the size of a hazel-nut, and when one came down as large as an acorn, it was picked up and displayed to the eager crowd as a trophy. Stories were remembered, that were told by the grandfathers of the present generation, of hail-stones falling as large as a hen's egg, in some other State. But Young America wouldn't believe it. But they did believe it, for while these old stories were being repeated, hail-stones came down thick and fast, weighing from two to eight ounces, and measuring from three to four and a half inches in diameter. Some were round and looked like white door- knobs; some were ragged and had the appearance of broken geodes; others looked like quartz. and many were egg-shaped; some had the appearance of three or four hail-stones having been frozen or melted together-and when they fell on the house, awnings or sidewalks, some would bound like a "Star" ball, and others would break and fly like glass into a thousand pieces. One hail-stone came down on the head of Dudley Buck, who was standing on his porch, and started the "claret," but without waiting for further ceremonies Mr. B. retired into the house, fully persuaded that he could see just as well by standing a little back.
"During this time, to the southwest of Sigourney about nine miles, two clouds were seen-one above the other-darting hither and thither, back- ward and forward, upward and downward, like one bird darts at another in the air, when suddenly, with a whirl, the two came together, and then sailed forth in an easterly direction at the rate of about twenty-five miles an hour, on an errand of death and destruction.
"It bore the resemblance of a funnel, with the small end down, or, per- haps, shaped like the hopper of a grist or coffe-mill, but with this distin- guishing difference: In this whirlwind hopper the grist came in at the bottom and went out at the top.
"When it had broken in pieces and almost ground to powder everything it gathered in its march, the centrifugal force carried the contents to the outer rim, and it boiled over like soda-water. Sometimes it went up like a rocket fifty or sixty feet high, and moved with the current for a mile, and then like a hawk, with one fell swoop it came to the ground, and swept everything in its onward march from the face of the earth.
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