USA > Iowa > Polk County > The history of Polk County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c., biographical sketches of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 49
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
were a good many excellent hunters here at an early day, too, who enjoyed the sport as well as any can at the present.
Wild animals of every species known in the wilds of the West, were found in great abundance. The prairies, and woods, and streams, and vari- ous bodies of water were all thickly inhabited before the white man came and for some time afterward. Although the Indian slew many of them, yet the natural law prevailed here as elsewhere: " Wild man and wild beast thrive together."
Serpents were to be found in such large numbers and of such immense size, that some stories told by the early settlers would be incredible were it not for the large array of concurrent testimony which is to be had from the most authentic sources.
Deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, and various other kinds of choice game were plentiful, affording freely, and at the expense of killing, what are now considered the choice and costly dishes in the restaurants. The fur animals also were abundant; such as the otter, beaver, mink, muskrat, raccoon, panther, fox, wolf, wild-cat and bear.
A gentleman, who in early days lived near Skunk River, says that the grass and weeds along the river were so tall and dense and the wolves and rattlesnakes so plenty, that it was necessary to proceed with great care, and it was not prudent to start out to hunt the cattle without being provided with a large club or some other weapon of defense. A gentleman who was traveling through an adjoining county, stopped over night at a cabin were abode two lonesome and disconsolate old bachelors. They prepared sup- per for their guest but themselves ate none. Upon inquiry, the guest learned that during the afternoon the two men had killed two hundred and twenty-five rattlesnakes, and the remembrance of the slimy reptiles so recently slaughtered had taken away their appetite temporarily.
Deer and elk were quite numerous on these prairies for some time after the first settlements were made. These various kinds of game afforded not only pleasure but profit for those among the early settlers who were lovers of hunt and chase; and skillful hunters were not scarce in those days, in proportion to the number of inhabitants. Many interesting incidents and daring adventures occurred in connection with these hunting excursions, which the old settlers who still remain seem never tired of relating.
A gentleman, writing to friends in the East, at an early day, says:
"I am in the region of furs here. Mink. otter and beaver are plenty in their season. Possibly I may be able to bring some home with me. I wish you would give me the prices that I may rely upon getting for mink, otter and beaver. I know too little of furs to venture much in that line. I was talking with an old trapper here, who said he sold a silver gray fox skin last year for $1, but that he had heard they were worth $3 now; hadn't trapped much the last winter, as furs didn't sell well; that otter and beaver didn't sell, etc."
Again, in a letter written some time later, was the following, showing that there was quite a trade in furs and pelts, and that the business of hunting and trapping must have been very remunerative. In speaking so frequently of deer skins, we conclude that the supply of venison was abundant:
" Of furs, I have not been able to do anything worth speaking of. The winter has been so excessively severe in this region, that the trappers could do nothing, and no furs of any importance have, so far as I can learn, been
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taken anywhere here. The stores here have had none brought in. The winter held on until the middle of March, and the spring rains came on, and the roads have been in an almost impassable state ever since, and the streams, from the melting of the snows north, and rains, have been so high that crossing any otherwise than by swimming was out of the question, and we had here only about six inches of snow this winter, and that was blown into piles. The ground froze to the depth of four feet, and when the spring rains came on, the mud was of the tallest kind. Traveling with loads was out of the question. Mails have much of the time been carried on horse- back, the carrier riding one, and leading another with the mail bags on.
" The operations here in deer skins was a grand one had I known when I came here what I do now. I bought of one of the stores here a lot of about one hundred and sixty pounds, to send home as a sample, at fifteen cents a pound, and took them home; it was during the coldest of the weather. I found, on their thawing out, that they would have to be trimmed and dried more before they would do to pack and send home. Soon after, a man who had been accustomed to come from below to buy the skins from the store, wanted them. I was satisfied at twenty-five cents a pound at weights. I purchased them quite as good as I could expect to do, taking into consideration the loss in weight by drying and trim- ming and expense of sending home. I offered them to him at that price, and he finally took them. My profits on them were $15.
" I have a young merchant, who just came to this town and opened a store, now boarding with me. He has been two years in Iowa City in trade there. He told me he made $150 last winter buying deer skins there, as they were brought into the city, at eighteen cents per pound, and selling at thirty-one cents. Most of the deer skins here were bought up by steamers going to Keokuk at twelve and a half cents, and sold in Keo- kuk for eighteen cents. I now know what I can do in the fall."
But it was not only valuable animals which were hunted; there were many noxious animals whose incursions to the barnyard or cultivated fields of the settler played havoc generally.
Wolves were very numerous and troublesome. It was impossible to raise sheep, and hogs as well as larger animals were not safe from the at- tacks of these gaunt and ferocious wild beasts. On account of their many and persistent depredations, as well as the fact that the State offered a pre- mium on their scalps, systematic and continued efforts were made by cer- tain individuals to capture them. In some instances poison was used, in other cases steel traps, and others had resort to their dogs and guns.
There was another kind of sport which is no longer enjoyed in the county. What it was is illustrated by the following paragraph, which ap- peared in the Des Moines Star of November 23, 1849, as follows:
" THAT BUFFALO.
" There will be a shooting match at Dudley on Christmas day next, first match for the buffalo. Ye knights of the rifle be on hand, rare sport may be expected. So clean up those old guns, and pick your flints."
THE CALIFORNIA GOLD EXCITEMENT.
No doubt the desire for gold has been a mainspring of all progress and
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
enterprise in the county from the beginning till the present time, and will so continue till remote ages. Usually, however, this desire has been mani- fested in the usual avenues of thrift, industry and enterprise. On one oc- casion, however, it passed the bounds of reason and assumed the character of a mania.
The gold mania first broke out in the fall of 1849, when stories began to be first spread abroad of the wonderful richness of the placer mines of California. The excitement grew daily, feeding on the marvelous reports that came from the Pacific Slope, and nothing was talked of but the achieve- ments of the Argonauts of '49.
Instead of dying out, the fever mounted higher and higher. It was too late to cross the plains, but thousands of people throughout the State be- gan their preparations for starting the following spring, and among the number were many in Polk county. The one great subject of discussion about the firesides and in the log cabins that winter, was the gold of Cali- fornia. It is said that at one time the majority of the able-bodied men of the county were unsettled in mind and were considering the project of start- ing to California. Even the most thoughtful and sober-minded 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 disorder 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 Polk 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 fare- wells were never spoken. Many of the gold-hunters left their quiet, peace- ful homes only to find in the " Far West " utter disappointment and death. Very, very few of them ever gained anything, and the great majority 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 emi- grants. 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, is thus described by one who was an eye-witness:
"It seemed that Bedlam itself had been let loose. A continuous line of wagons stretched 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
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
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 men, were dashed against wagon wheels, pieces of which were 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 Gaudaloupe 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 who had found their way thither, of which number at least one hun- dred thousand were gold-hunters from the States. There had been taken from the auriferious 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 Mammon to an alarming extent throughout the country, and to this wor- ship, to a great extent, is attributable 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 sense 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 this county ever became " bonanza kings."
The Des Moines Gazette from time to time gave graphic accounts of the gold-hunters as they thronged through the county. The following has been compiled from files of that paper published during the three weeks when the rush was greatest:
List of companies which crossed the river at Des Moines for California for week ending Wednesday evening, April 17, 1850.
Persons
675
Wagons 252
Of the teams about 50 were ox teams, averaging 3 yoke to a team, 205 horse teams averaging 32 to a wagon, making 717 horses.
A gentleman who had just come to Des Moines from the Bluffs says 2,000 were encamped there and he met three or four hundred between there and here.
Week ending April 24-199 teams and 540 men, making total for season of 690 teams and 1,797 persons.
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
Week ending May 1st-156 teams, 459 persons; total for season, 846 teams and 2,256 persons.
Next week 130 teams, 363 persons; total for season 976 teams and 2,629 persons.
Next week 73 teams, 184 persons; total for season 1,049 teams and 2,813 persons.
One whose friends had joined in this exodus to California, and met with nothing but disaster sought the aid of the muses to properly express his idea of the gold mania. The result of his meditations appeared in the form of a short poem, in the Des Moines Journal of February, 1851, as follows:
Oh, California gold mines what a fearful curse they've brought,
With what heart-rending sorrows has that search for dross been fraught,
How many tearful partings and how many lives untold
Have been laid upon the altar of this raging thirst for gold.
WESTERN STAGE COMPANY.
During pioneer times public travel was exclusively by stage. The jour- ney was often long and wearisome. The sloughs were not bridged and in the spring it was no uncommon thing for a passenger on the stage to make his journey on foot and carry a rail with which to help pry the stage out of the mire. This was "high-toned " traveling and from this may be imag- ined what sort of a journey was that of a lone settler and an ox team.
A history of the county would not be complete without mention of the transportation company, which preceded the day of railroads. It was called the Western Stage Company. Among the prominent partners of this com- pany were W. H. Sullivan, of Columbus, Ohio, president; E. S. Alvord, of Indianapolis; Kimball Porter, of Iowa City; Messrs. Shoemaker, D. Talmadge and Campbell of Ohio, and Col. E. F. Hooker of Des Moines.
The headquarters of the company were at the Everett House in Fort Des Moines; the office of the company being located there July 1, 1854, when A. Morris was the proprietor of the hotel. The general manager of the stage lines was Col. E. F. Hooker, whose residence and business office were located near the present site of Harbach's furniture establishment. A gen- tleman of the name of Smith was the first agent of the company, and he was succeeded by W. H. McChesney, who died in 1858. The last agent was A. T. Johnson, who is now favorably known by the people of Des Moines and vicinity as proprietor of an omnibus line. E. B. Alvord, T. R. Fletcher, E. W. Sparhawk and E. G. Sears were secretaries of the company at various times and resided in Des Moines.
The shops and barn of the company were located on the present site of Getchell's lumber yard, corner of Eighth and Vine streets. These shops were divided into five departments; in one of them the wood work was done, in another the iron work, in the third the painting, in the fourth the horse-shoeing, and in the other the harness making, all of which were for some time under the superintendency of A. B. Woodbury.
Col. E. F. Hooker retired from the superintendency of the company in 1866, and was succeeded by R. Lounsberry, who was the last one filling this office. H. B. Alvord settled up the affairs of the company at its close, with great profit to the corporation. To give some idea of the business of the company, it is proper to state in this connection that the receipts for one year on the line between Des Moines and Boone reached the extraor-
Space Cooper.
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
dinary sum of $100,000. After the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail- road was completed to Council Bluffs, the Boone line fell into insignificance and the days of the Western Stage Company, as far as Iowa was concerned, were numbered. The stages of this corporation transported to Davenport, with all their personal equipments, the members of . the Thirty-third and Thirty-ninth Iowa infantry, requiring just two days to take an entire regi- ment. In this way parts of the Second, Sixth, Tenth and Fifteenth regi- ments were taken to their rendezvous. On the day after the adjournment, in olden times, the members of the Legislature, living abroad were either at their homes or far on the way to their destination.
The last coach belonging to the company in Des Moines was sold to James Stephenson, of Omaha, in 1874. Mr. Johnson rode on the driver's seat from the stage barn to the freight depot of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and as he left the old vehicle to take its journey west- ward on the cars, he bade it an affectionate farewell. The Western Stage Company was quite an important factor in all Central Iowa. It had two lines to Council Bluffs, one to Fort Dodge, by the way of Boonesboro, and other lines reaching out in all directions. They changed from semi-weekly to tri-weekly, and then to daily trips as the country settled up and business warranted it. It was the only means of conveyance for travelers and the mails, and many were the anxious ones who waited for news or friends by the old stage company. It was like all other human agencies, in that it was fallible, and complaints were made against it. It was some of these complaints which provoked the following newspaper article in 1858:
"We notice a number of our exchanges are raking down the Western Stage Company for the manner in which they convey passengers over their lines. A little reflection will doubtless show to those who are censuring the stage company that they are wrong in their censures. The company, we think, deserves the praise of the people of Iowa for its indomitable per- severance in ploughing through snow, rain, sleet and mud for the past eight months, imperiling the lives of their drivers and teams in crossing swollen streams to accommodate the traveling public and deliver the mails at the post-offices. But few persons would endure the privations and hardships which the company has passed through in Iowa during the past eight months for double the amount they receive. We believe the company has done more to forward the mails and passengers than the public could rea- sonably expect at their hands, taking into consideration the awful condition of the roads. A little more work on the highways and a little more pa- tience on the part of passengers would be a good thing just at this time."
CLAIM CLUBS.
"Some time before the lands were all surveyed and consequently before any were offered for sale, speculators from the East with plenty of money in their pockets, industriously scoured the country over, noted the most valuable portions, even though they were claims, and were prepared to give high prices for them when they came into market, thus robbing the first settlers who had borne the privations and hardships of the wilderness for several years of their lands, and whatever improvements they had put upon them. The homesteads which they had wrested from the primitive wil- derness of prairie or forest and changed by enterprise and industry into
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
cultivated fields, laden with yellow corn or waving grain were liable to be- come the property of land-sharks, whose avaricious eyes saw the value of the land and cared little for justice or right; provided, themselves might secure a handsome profit. With longer purses they could afford to pay higher prices than the poor settler; while the latter sensible of their rights and aware of what labor, exposure and self-denial they had acquired these rights felt, in the view of these prospects, indignant and exasperated, and felt so justly."
Such is the account as given by Mr. Turrell in his reminiscences of early times, regarding the condition of affairs at the time the claim clubs first organized. He continues:
" So highly incensed did the people become at the idea of speculators overbidding them at the land sales, that they viewed every stranger with distrust, lest his errand among them should be to note the numbers of some choice tracts, and make them his own by giving prices beyond the reach of the claimant. A unity of feeling on this subject filled the entire country. They were determined to save their claims despite any effort or intervention to the contrary, and, if possible, their intention was to pay no more than the lowest government price. Strangers passing through the country had to be careful not to meddle with the lands claimed, otherwise than honestly buying them from the possessors. If the object was thought to be different, if they were suspected of being engaged in any scheme for the unjust deprival of any settler of what were considered his unquestion- able rights, they at once incurred the hostile feeling of every inhabitant, and were not safe until they had entirely left the country.
"It soon became evident that some regular organization was needed among the settlers the better to control any outbreaks of popular rage, and cause non-residents to pay due respect to the claims which had been made, as also to prevent difficulties among the settlers themselves, the dishonest of whom did not scruple to take advantage of a neighbor's temporary ab- sence, sickness or remoteness from aid, and 'jump his claim,' that is, take and hold possession of it vi et armis, depriving him totally of his rights in the premises. The settlers, or citizens as they may now more properly be called, of Polk county, held a meeting to consider the proper course to pursue, and as the document which reports their proceedings is particu- larly interesting, we give it entire. Through the kindness of Benj. Bryant, Esq., in whose possession it has been preserved, a copy of it has been pro- cured for this work:
"' At a public meeting of the citizens of Polk county, Iowa, held on the 8th day of April, 1848, at Fort Des Moines, W. H. Meachem was called to the chair, and L. D. Winchester elected secretary of the meeting.
"' The object of the meeting was then stated by the chairman to be to adopt measures for the security and protection of the citizens of said county in their claims against speculators, and all persons who may be dis- posed wrongfully to deprive settlers of their claims by preemption or other- wise.
"' Dr. Brooks being called upon, made a speech appropriate to the occa- sion, as also did Mr. Myers.
""'On motion of the secretary, the following gentlemen were appointed a committee to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting, to- wit: Winchester, Mitchell, Scott, Sypher and Saylor. .
" The committee reported the following resolutions:
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HISTORY OF POLK COUNTY.
1. Resolved, That we will protect all persons who do or may hold claims, against the in- terference of any person or persons, who shall attempt to deprive such claim-holders of their claims by preemptions or otherwise.
2. Resolved, That we will, in all cases, discountenance the speculator or other person who shall thus attempt any innovation upon the homes of the rightful settlers; that we will not hold any fellowship with such person, and that he be regarded a nuisance in the commu- nity.
3. Resolved, That no person shall be allowed to preempt or purchase in any form from the government, any land which shall be held as a claim, unless he shall first obtain the con- sent of the claimant.
4. Resolved, That the filing of an intention to preempt, contrary to the rights of the settler, be regarded as an attempt to wrongfully deprive the citizen of his home and his claim.
5. Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed, and that it shall be their duty to in- quire into and adjust all difficulties and contentions, in cases where claims are in dispute.
6. Resolved, That it shall be the duty of said committee to notify any person who shall preempt or attempt to do so, by filing his intentions to preempt, the claim of any other per- son, to leave the vicinity and the county; and that they have authority to enforce a compli- ance with said notice.
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