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 53
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"Without a detailed description of the sad havoc done at the starting point west of Haysville, about nine miles southwest of Sigourney, which was very great indeed, let us drive to a point where the tornado crossed North Skunk river, about eight miles southeast of Sigourney, and see what we can see in a two hours' ride along the track to the northeast.
"We stop where the hospitable mansion of Joseph Kohlhaus stood a few days since, only a quarter of a mile north of where the tornado crossed the river. At a glance we can tell that, prior to the coming of the Storm
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King, long, weary years of toil and patient waiting had brought Mr. K. a competence of this world's goods, but in less than fifteen minutes time his riches had taken wings and flown to the uttermost parts of the earth. His dwelling, saw-mill, out-buildings, fences, in the track of the storm, are all gone. Some of the castings of the mill were picked up two miles away. The water in the pond between the mill and the river, was scooped up as with a dipper, and rolled up to the summit of the hill where his house stood, at least forty feet above the level of the pond.
"Ducks were sucked up out of the pond, and their feathers picked off as clean as they are picked for a barbacue, and they were dumped out 'dead ducks' lialf a mile away. Down the river bank, great elms and hackberry trees were snapped asunder like pipe-stems, and their standing stumps, stripped of their bark, are white and ghostly. Hazel-brush, crab-apple trees, and white thorns are bruised and twisted, and lean to every point of the compass. Fence-stakes, boards, and two-by-four pieces of every variety and length, are sticking in the ground almost as thick as the stakes in Waite's vineyard.
"We went to the spot where the house once stood. There, on the hill- side, fronting to the south, we found the cellar only, used by the family of Mr. K. as a residence, and Mrs. K. "at home," ready to receive us and tell us her story. She is as blue in the face as indigo, and rolling up the sleeve of her dress, she showed us an arm, bruised and blackened from the shoulder to the hand. She was otherwise injured, and from her personal appear- ance we wonder that she escaped alive.
"We asked her if she saw the storm coming.
" Mrs. K .- ' Yes, sir; we saw it about half an hour before the storm reached us. The air was black with dirt and missiles, and looked like flocks of geese flying.'
"When your house went down, who was in it ?
"Mrs. K .- 'My husband and myself, John Gross, our son-in-law, my son Cas- per, my daughter Mary, and Lewis Kinsel. Five of us were more or less hurt, but none seriously but John Gross, and he will get well again. Dr. Cook, of Sigourney, comes to see us. We are very thankful that we were not killed; but everything we had is all gone-our house, our mill, our clothing and fences, all gone, and it will take $3,000, or more, to fix up our place again.'
" At this Mrs. K. grew silent. She tried to speak on, but could not; her eyes filled with tears as she looked upon the ruins of her once beautiful home-fitted up only after twenty years of unremitting care and toil.
" We strolled over, say forty acres of the farm, and here is a part of what we saw: The ground was strewn with rails, logs, sills, pieces of roof, stud- ding, pieces of pumps, pieces of work-benches, pieces of walking-plows, pieces of chains, spokes, castings, hubs, pieces of brick-bats, pieces of stoves, bedsteads, wagon tires, the rim of wagon wheels, with tire and fel- lows only, chickens, ducks and turkeys with every feather blown off, rats, rabbits, wool, plowshares, pieces of clothing, and a piece of every kind of farm machinery and bedsteads sold or offered for sale in this county. The ground itself is literally punched full of holes by falling timbers, and in many places the grass and growing wheat seemed torn out by the roots. One field, planted with corn, is well seeded with wheat, oats and rye, and it is now coming up as thick as it can stand. Apple trees eighteen inches through are twisted off or entirely uprooted, and the grape vines lic broken
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and bleeding on the ground. From Mr. Kohlhans' we drove to Peter Marshe's farm, a distance of about three miles to the northeast. On the way we passed the farm of George Starr, who had twelve head of fat cattle, three and four-year old, taken up into the air with the ease that a strong man would toss up his baby, and after being carried an incredible distance, they were dropped to the ground with broken limbs and broken necks. They were burned the next day in one common funeral pile. The little groves by the roadside were stripped of every leaf, and they remind us very much of the bundles of wheat in olden times after they were used to stop the cylinder of a tumbling-shaft threshing machine, We passed by the ruins of a new barn, just completed by Mr. Leutz, at a cost of $1,000, and in a few min- utes were at the residence of Gray, now converted into a hospital. Here we find Peter Marsh, his wife and two children, all seriously injured, the wife fatally. The little babe was killed in its father's arms. One-quarter of a mile northwest of George Gray's stand the ruins of the house and barn of Peter Marsh, where the whirlwind wrought such great ruin. The house and barn seemed to stand in the center of the track, and as we drove towards them the debris was piled up by the neighbors in piles until the entire portion of the farm traversed by the tornado had the appearance of a meadow thickly studded with shocks of hay. The barn was a good one, with a stone basement, and not a stone or piece of lumber can be found above the ground. Three horses were killed outright in this barn, and of two hundred chickens, before the storm, only thirteen remain, and seven of these had the feathers blown from their heads and necks. The house, which stood about thirty yards distant to the southwest, was built of hewed logs, about fifteen feet square, with frame porch to the front on the south. Standing on the ruins, we met Wendell Horace, the father of Mrs. Marsh, and with him we walked over the grounds and heard his story.
" How far do you live from here, Mr. Horace ?
" Mr. H .- ' Over there, about half a mile.'
" Where were you during the storm?
" Mr. H .- ' I was at home; but as soon as it was over I came down here to look for my children. Mrs. Marsh is my daughter. Here, where we stand, is where the house stood. Come with me and I will show you where we found my daughter and her children.'
" We went with Mr. H. about thirty yards to the sonthwest, in the di- rection that the tornado came from, and in a slough we stepped upon some house logs, and Mr. Horace continued:
"' Here are some of the logs of the house, and here they were all found. When the storm was coming, Mr. Marsh walked out on the porch and looked southwest, and saw Mr. Leutz' new barn go down, and fearing his own house might go, he went back into the house and wanted. to leave it with his family. He picked up his little babe, about six months old, and started out, but his children were afraid to follow, and he returned, closed the door and tried to hold it, but something struck it, and all he knows about it is that the house came down, or went up, and, with the child in his arms, he was taken up and let down three different times. The last time he fell here in the slough, and something struck him with great force, and killed the child in his arms. He looked down and saw his wife with her arms around the two other children-all under those house-logs, and how the babe escaped from his arms he cannot tell, but he remembers that he lifted the logs off his wife and children, and turned to pick up the babe,
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but found it was gone. Every particle of clothing was blown from Mr. Marsh and his family, and when rescued by their neighbors they were covered with mud.'
" Did you find the baby afterward ?
"Mr. H .- ' Yes, I found it myself, over there, about seventy-five vards to the southeast, dead, and covered with mud. Its head was all broken. I brought it here and washed it, and the next day it was buried. Mr. Marsh, and the rest of the family, are now over at Mr. Gray's, and they will all get well, may be, except my daughter, I don't know, but I guess she will die. The doctor thinks she is very bad.'
" Mrs. Engledinger was your daughter too, was she not ?
" Mr. H .- ' Yes, sir, she was my daughter too, and she and her little child were killed over there, about three miles from here. My daughter was blown all to pieces. We gathered up what we could find of her a mile around, and buried her and the baby next day. We could not find all.'
" Here the strong heart of Mr. Horace gave way, and he sobbed like a child. He is a kind-hearted, generous German, and with tearful eyes and subdued voice, he uttered these words : ' I tell you, gentlemens, it been mighty hard on me-loose my children so,' and he turned away in his declining years heart- broken and desolate.
"We spoke a few words of sympathy, and passed on. Within a few feet of the spot where Mr. Marsh and his family were picked up, we saw in the muddy debris just as the tornado left it, house-logs, pieces of chains, dishes and crockery, pieces of stoves and stove furniture, plane-bits, sickle-bars, bridle-snaps, hoop-iron, wagon-tires curled like shavings, pieces of corn plows and reapers, a cross-cut saw, and a thousand and one pieces of boards and lumber of all kinds, all sizes, and all lengths. Who could go up in a whirlwind with all these things and come down alive ? And yet we have said nothing of the fat cattle, wagon wheels and plow-shares, that were in that same mill a part of the time. Immediately south of this the growing oats were blown out of the ground, and shelled corn is scattered sufficient for all pigeons in Iowa for a month. The grape-vines were twisted off, and the apple trees, about six inches in diameter, were bruised and broken and twisted and lean in whirls to-day, just as the whirlwind left them. Stand- ing upon the ruins of Marsh's house, and looking at the complete ruin wrought, we thought the whirlwind must have been something like a huge augur two hundred yards across the bit, that went driving through the air, whirling as it went.
" Mr. Marsh's loss of property will exceed $2,500. From Mr. Marsh's we went to Murphy place, about half a mile to the northeast, passing as we went the ruins of Michael Fuh's house, and barn, and out-houses. His loss is heavy. When his house went down, one of his boys started to his uncle's about two miles distant to the east, and the wind helped him along at in- tervals about half the distance. When found, one of his eyes were out and his arm broken. At the Murphy place, owned by Mr. Harris about two weeks only, the storm did the wildest kind of work. The tall cottonwood trees that stand like sentinels around the front yard, are stripped of branches, bark and leaves; the house and household goods were probably blown to Halifax, or some other seaport. Rails, sills, and all the muddy debris like that to be found at Newhouse's and Marsh's, strew the ground as far the eye can reach, and the top of the hedge fence is riddled in pieces, and looks like a row of old-fashioned split scrub-brooms.
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
"It is said that everything that grows is of some use; and at this place we found out what a wild gooseberry bush is fit for. When the house came down with five boys and one girl in it, one of the boys crawled under the wild gooseberry bush, and by clinging to it was saved. Two others of the boys were found in the cellar with logs on them, and the remaining two boys, one fourteen and the other twelve years of age, were found with their heads in a No. 8 Loyal cook-stove, with lumber and trash piled upon them so high they could not get out without assistance. We saw one of the boys to-day kindle a fire in the same cook-stove, and he is as sound as a trout, and happy as a king. At this place three horses, one cow, one yearling calf and five hogs were killed, and other stock seriously hurt. Mr. Harris" loss will exceed $2,000.
" But the story is not yet half told and never can be. Further on in the track lies the farm of Paul Pfeifer, whose remodeled house looks like a new one not yet painted. He sustains a loss of about $1,500.
" Mr. Kortch's loss is perhaps the greatest in property destroyed of any of the sufferers in this county. He can not replace it with $5,000 in cash, and the loss of Engledinger will amount to not less than $2,000.
" To these sums add $500 for the loss sustained by Mr. Beevin, $1,000 for the loss sustained by Geo. Starr, and $10,000.for the loss in Lancaster town- ship, and we have an aggregate of $27,500 for the loss in Keokuk county, and this large sum will not near cover it.
" The following is a list of the killed and wounded, as far as known:
"Killed-Mrs. Engledinger and child; child of Mr. Marsh, Mrs. Marsh -died to-day.
" Wounded-Mr. Marsh severely, and two children slightly; Mrs. Koll- haus, Mr. Kohlhaus, John Gross, Casper Kohlhaus, Mary Kohlhaus, Mr. Lowe, child of Mr. Fuhs, two boys of Mr. Hamis, Mrs. and Mr. Kortch, and some others, were all more or less injured, but none seriously except Jno. Gross.
" We returned from the sad scene thankful that the storm did not visit our city in its fury. Had it done so, the comfortable houses we now enjoy, our brick blocks and public buildings, and everything in the track of the wild destroyer, would have gone down with a crash, and the mangled forms of many that we love would have been borne to their last resting places be- neath the cypress and the willow.
" And now, at the close of this article, pardon one suggestion; 'tis this : Would it not be well for our people-of town and country-to unite in a petition to the board of supervisors of our county, and ask a liberal appro- priation for the relief of those who were so unfortunate as to live in the track of the storm, and who lost not only houses and loved ones, but the savings of a life-time, in a few moments. Besides this, let us give of our substance as it hath been given to us.
*
In accordance with the suggestion made in the closing paragraph of the foregoing article, the board of supervisors, at the June session, passed the following order:
" The board of supervisors having been asked by petitions numerously signed, to make and appropriation from the county funds for the relief of such of our citizens as had their homes destroyed by the tornado which re- cently passed over a portion of our county, May 23, 1873, and who are in a. suffering and destitute condition; therefore,
" Resolved, That William Jackson, T. McCoy and Mathias Blaise be ap-
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
pointed to investigate into the condition and circumstances of said sufferers to ascertain the extent of their necessities and to extend to those whose con- dition require it, relief from the county fund to any amount not to exceed $1,500; and the auditor is authorized to draw warrants for said purpose in favor of said committe, or on their order to said sufferers in such amounts as may be desirable to effect the object, not to exceed in the aggregate of fifteen hundred dollars."
A WESTERN ROMANCE.
During the winter of 1841-2 there appeared at Iowa City a stranger who gave his name as Col. Wm. Johnson, and who was accompanied by a young woman whom he represented as his daughter, and whom he called Catha- rine, or, usually, Kit. Both were of more than ordinary strength of char- acter, and well educated. Johnson claimed to have been the hero of the Canadian revolt, which took place in 1838, and was the occasion of consid- erable diplomatic correspondence, and came so near causing war between Great Britain and the United States. The girl, he stated, was the " queen of a thousand isles," and authentic history so far corroborates his story as to mention the fact that on the St. Lawrence there was a certain young woman who gave aid and assistance to the patriots in this border trouble. Johnson succeeded in cutting quite a figure in Iowa City during the ses- sion of the legislature. He was honored by a seat on the floor of the house, and was toasted and banqueted by some of the law-makers of the then State capital. In 1842 Johnson located at the geographical centre of Buchanan county, where he proposed laying out a town, and where he ex- pected by his fame and prowess to draw around him a band of followers, and secure the county-seat. This excited the jealousy of the first settler of that region, Wm. Bennet, a notorious character, who had laid out a village where Quasqueton now stands, and where he hoped to enrich him- self by securing the county-seat of the new county. Bennet gathered a few congenial spirits about him, went over to Johnson's, loaded up his effects for him, then tied him to a tree and flogged him, though with what severity is unknown, as accounts differ. Johnson went to Marion, where he lodged complaints against his persecutors, and the sheriff of Linn county rode up to Quasqueton to arrest Bennet. The latter awaited him at his cabin door, armed with his rifle and a pair of pistols. The sheriff modestly retired and went back for a posse. Bennet and his companions became convinced that they had better leave Quasqueton for a while. On their way to a place of escape they suffered terribly from intense cold. Some of the parties perished, and others were frozen so as to be mutilated for life. This, of course, aggravated Bennet still more, and he and John- son became deadly foes.
Soon after Johnson, loving his popularity. left Buchanan county, got in with a gang of horse-thieves, and fled to Mahaska county to escape the law, bringing with him the girl Kit, and another man and woman. John- son seemed to have this girl entirely under his control, and in his fits of passion, it is said, threatened to kill her, in consequence of which she was in mortal fear of him. Johnson located on Middle Creek, about eight miles northeast of Oskaloosa, in a, grove now owned by James K. Woods. He there built a shanty. In the spring of '43, a family by the name of Peck came to a point on Skunk river, about four miles from Oskaloosa,
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
where Russel Peck, with his son-in-law, Geo. N. Duncan, built a grist-mill. Johnson and his daughter, so-called, lived for some time with the Duncans and Pecks. Several times, it is related, during the time he staid with them, strangers from the north came there and asked to stay over night. They were kindly treated, lodged, and nothing charged them. This made Johnson very angry, the reason for which being, as was afterward learned, that these were of Johnson's enemies in Buchanan county, who, for some reason, did not get an opportunity to accomplish their purposes, i. e., re- venge on Johnson. During this time an attachment sprang up between Kit and Job Peck, son of Russel Peck, a young man of about twenty-one years. Johnson was greatly enraged on discovering this, and removed to his own cabin above mentioned, taking the girl with him. Wm. D. Neely was engaged to Peck's sister, Sarah. An elopement was planned. While Johnson was away one evening, about dusk, Kit was stolen away, and the two couples started in an easterly direction. The following day they reached the house of a relative of Peck's, about four miles from Fairfield, where they were married and lodged for the night. Upon his return home, Johnson set out in search for them, came to the house where the fugitives were near one o'clock at night, entered the house, and, with drawn revol- ver, dragged Kit from the bed, compelled her to dress herself, and mount behind him and ride thus to his home.
The following evening, about seven o'clock, Johnson was shot dead through a crevice in his cabin, while standing in front of the fire. Job Peck was arrested on charge of the murder, taken to Washington county and lodged in jail. His lawyers were J. C. Hall, of Mt. Pleasant, and Colonel Thompson. These gentlemen, learning that a warrant was out from the northern part of the State for the arrest of Kit, as being an ac- complice of Johnson, it was arranged that the girl should be secreted until she could be provided for. This was done, and a young law-student of Hall's, named Wamsley, was sent with a buggy to Mahaska county, to the girl's hiding-place. This Wamsley, while fording the Skunk river, a short distance from Oskaloosa, met a man on horseback in the midst of the stream. The stranger stated to Wamsley that he was in search of a girl, giving her description, being the same one that Wamsley was after. The latter, to throw the officer off of the track, told him he had seen such a girl in a certain house in the direction in which he had come. The officer started in pursuit, and Wamsley proceeded about three miles and a-half to Kit's hiding-place. She was taken to Burlington, put on a steamboat, and sent by Hall to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Job Peck was acquitted, having proved an alibi. Some time after the murder, and during Peck's impris- onment, a stranger stopped at Duncan's and informed them that his name. was Bennet; that he was one of the inen who had stopped with them, and whom they had so kindly treated; that he and Johnson had been deadly foes. He told the Duncan's that they need not be alarmed in regard to Job's acquittal, as he (Bennet) knew Peck was not guilty, and gave the Duncan's to understand that he knew who was.
If we are correctly informed, and we have good authority, the most ro- mantic part of this story is yet to come. During the time that he was imprisoned Peck knew nothing of his wife's whereabouts, nor was he in- formed by his lawyer until some months after his release. Finally her address was given him and he set out for Pittsburgh. There he found her living with people of the highest respectability, in most elegant style.
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HISTORY OF KEOKUK COUNTY.
Peck himself stated to our informant that the house was furnished with a grandeur that he had not dreamed of; that his wife was a fine musician; that she had played for hiin on a piano in that house, and that he had these evidences of her accomplishments, which he had not before conjectured. She was ready to come away with him, did come, and for several years lived near Oskaloosa with him. Parties now living remember her well; say that she was a woman of fine education, of refinement and unblemished character, wrote a beautiful letter, and gave every evidence of a good " bringing up." No one believes-she herself denies-that Johnson was her father; but who she was, or who Johnson was, possibly her linsband, certainly her husband's family never knew. She lived happily with Peck in California, until the latter's death. She has a noble family, and is again married to a devoted husband. Her portrait of late years has nothing of the romantic in it, but every lineament marks her intelligence and happiness. To-day this " Queen of a Thousand Isles " is queen of a happy household in a far western home.
Since writing the above we have been cited to an article in " Scribner's Monthly" for April, 1878, entitled "Among the Thousand Islands." From this article we make the following extracts:
"Of late years perhaps no event caused such a stir of excitement in this region as the so-called patriot war in 1838, a revolt of certain Canadians dissatisfied with the government of Sir Francis Bond Head then Governor- General of Canada, which was joined by a number of American agitators, ever ripe for any disturbance.
" It was a wild, insane affair altogether, and after some time consumed in petty threats of attack, finally reached a climax in the burning of the Cana- dian steamer, 'Sir Robert Peel,' one of the finest vessels upon the St. Law- rence. The most prominent actor in this affair was Bill Jolinson-a name familiar to every one around this region-whose career forms a series of romantic adventures, deeds and escapes, followed by his final capture, which would fill a novel. Indeed, we understand that a novel has been written by a Canadian Frenchman on this theme, though we have not had the good fortune to find any one who has read it.
" Johnson was originally a British subject, but turned renegade, serving as a spy in the war of 1812, in which capacity he is said to have robbed the mails to gain intelligence. He hated his native country with all the bitter- ness which a renegade alone is capable of feeling. He was one of the earliest agitators upon the American side of the border, and was the one who instigated the destruction of the ' Peel.' A reward was offered by the governments of each country for his apprehension, so he was compelled to take to the islands for safety. Here he continned for several months, though with numbers of hair-breadth escapes, in which he was assisted by his daughter, who seems to have been a noble girl. Many stories are told of remarkable acts performed by him, of his choking up the inlet of the Lake of the Isle with rocks, so as to prevent vessels of any size entering that sheet of water; of his having a skiff in which he could outspeed any ordinary sailing craft, and which he carried bodily across necks of land when his enemies were in pursuit of him, and of his hiding in all manner of ont-of-the-way spots, once especially in the Devil's Oven, previously de- scribed, to which his daughter, who alone was in hi - confidence, disguised as a boy, carried provisions. He was finally captured and sent to Albany, where after suffering a slight penalty for his offense, he was subsequently released, although he was always very careful to keep out of the clutch of the indignant Canadians."
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