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 65
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Sigourney-N. H. Keath, A. T. Page, T. S. Byers, A. C. Price.
Oskaloosa-William H. Seevers, A. M. Cassaday, James A. Young, Louis Reinhart, S. A. Rice.
Knoxville-J. M. Bayley, James Mathews, Hiram W. Curtis, William M. Stone, James Sample, Joseph Brobst.
Indianola-B. S. Noble, George W. Jones, Lewis Todhunter, J. T. Lacy' G. W. Clark, H. W. Maxwell.
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Osceola-J. D. Howard, G. W. Thompson, A. F. Sprague, Jno. 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.
Des Moines-A. J. Stevens, T. H. Sypherd, W. W. Williamson, B. S. Chrystal.
Newton-H. Welker, William Skiff, William Springer, E. Hammer, H. J. Skiff.
It was necessary to observe great caution and secrecy, as the administra- tion at that time was in sympathy with the pro-slavery party, and United States Marshals were on their way to Kansas from the North. The under- ground railroad having been put into good running order, Superintendent Woodin and his station agents did quite a business in forwarding "emi- grants" during the fall, winter and following spring and summer.
One incident connected with the working 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 one night near by. Per -. sons 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 manifested considerable reticence, not caring apparently to discuss those matters. Presently Lane returned, and upon being introduced, the stranger looking him steadfastly in the face, and taking, as it were, an esti- mate 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 trans- piring 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 eloquent and impassioned words fall from the tongue of living men as those uttered by Brown when speaking of the Kansas troubles. He first spoke of the country; of the 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
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an angel Brown now resembled a fiend. At length he broke forth in the most vehement language; he spoke of the blighting curse of slavery, and of the overbearing 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 blasted by the curse of slavery, its beautiful prairies turned into slave plan- tations, its fertile soil pressed by the foot of the bondman, and 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 sun- burnt hands. Jim Lane became inspired by the words of his new made acquaintance, 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, 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 rivial Territorial governments, was admitted into the Union as a free State in 1861. Jim Lane's pathetic end falling 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 conversation in almost every household in the land, and it is hoped that the narration of the fore- going incidents, trifling in themselves, but momentous as passing circum- stances attending great national events, will not arouse any slumbering ani- mosities nor engender any new strifes.
TRAIN ROBBERS.
The regular express train over the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Rail- road, dne from the west at 10:30 o'clock on July 21st, 1873, did not arrive at Des Moines on time, and about 11 o'clock the news spread over the city that the train had been attacked, ditched and sacked by a masked gang of robbers. The place selected by the ruffians for their attack on the train was a lonely and unsettled region of country along the railroad about half way between Adair and Anita, sixty-four miles west of Des Moines. The engineer of the train, Mr. Rafferty, was found dead after the robbers de- parted, and it was first reported that he had been shot by the miscreants; this however proved to be a mistake, as it was afterward discovered that he was injured by the falling train. There were at least seven of the robbers and possibly more. For the space of about twenty minutes these men had complete possession of the train, and the employes and passengers were virtually compelled to do as the robbers demanded. No attempt was made to injure anyone who remained inside of the cars, but when anyone at- tempted to get out he was immediately covered with a revolver and ordered
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back. The object of the attack was to get possession of a large amount of money which was supposed to be in charge of the express messenger. In this they were disappointed, as all they captured was probably less than two thousand dollars. After satisfying themselves that they had all the money in the express car, the robbers mounted their horses and rode south. The whole region of country in the neighborhood of the attack was soon aroused, and before morning several hundred people were on the track of the robbers. The latter however, succeeded in eluding their pursuers and escaped into Missouri.
RAILROAD DISASTER.
One of the most fearful and destructive accidents that ever befel the C., R. I. & P. Railroad, happened on Wednesday morning August 29th, 1877, about nine miles east of Des Moines, in which about twenty persons were killed outright, and about thirty wounded. The heavy rain of the previous night had washed the stone foundation from under a bridge, leaving no support, thus making it the awful trap of death which it proved to be.
The scene as it appeared at daylight beggared description; it was a pic- ture of calamity and woe. The dead and dying were taken out of the de- bris and cared for as best they could. The entire train except the sleeper was a total wreck. Those on that car were not injured. Barnum's poster car was in the train and was completely demolished and several men killed. the following is the list of killed as given by the Des Moines Register:
"John K. Bolt, druggist, of Boone; Allie Bolt, daughter of above, aged 7 years; William Gunning, newsboy of train.
The following were Barnum's men:
Green Berry, F. B. Baker, J. H. Breese, A. Mack, George Blackwell, Charles Thompson and Charles Parcell.
" William Rakestraw, engineer of train; Mrs. Emily Babcock; Mrs. Wm. Crow, wife of the freight and ticket agent of the C., R. I. & P. depot of East Des Moines; M. Cohen, commercial traveler; Jabez E. Prince and A. D. Bronson, of Cincinnati; Thomas Donaway, of Des Moines.
" Redmond McGuire, one of the largest farmers in the vicinity of Des Moines, is known to have been on the train, as Mr. J. L. Graham says he saw him within a very few moments prior to the accident. Nothing has been found of him up to 6 P. M., and it is now certain he was lost."
THE JOHNSON MURDER.
On Sunday morning, June 14, 1874, the body of a dead man was found on Second street, in Des Moines. Upon examination the body proved to be that of John Johnson, and from the character of certain wounds found on the head it was evident that Johnson had been murdered.
At that time there was a notorious house of ill-fame on Second street, on the opposite side from where the body of Johnson had been found. The house was kept by one Annie Groves, but although the finding of the mur- dered man in such close proximity to the brothel was a circumstance which led to the suspicion that the murder had been done at Annie Groves' place and that she, in all probability, knew something about the perpetration of the foul deed, nevertheless, no arrests were made, and it does not appear. that any special investigation was had at that time other than a brief and
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formal coroner's inquest, which developed nothing further than the fact that Johnson had come to his death by violence.
Johnson was buried, and after having been discussed by the street loaf- ers for a few days, the matter ceased to be a matter of public comment and was, for the time being, apparently forgotten. A large reward, however, had been offered for the arrest of the murderers of Johnson, and the appar- ent indifference of the officers was but feigned in order to throw the guilty ones off their guard and enable the detectives to work to a better advantage.
The first intimation the public received that the officers were at work was on the 28th of August, more than two months after the murder, when the fact was made public that the officers had arrested two persons supposed to have been implicated in the homicide. They were Charles Howard and Annie Groves.
Howard was a bar-tender and a banjo-player, and of rather prepossessing personal appearance. He was known to be a frequenter of Annie Groves' house, but farther than that there had been nothing in his conduct to fasten suspicion on him, until, to the very general surprise of the officers and the sporting men of the city, Howard married Annie Groves. Howard being much younger and of a more prepossessing appearance than Annie, the marriage seemed, to the uninitiated, as a great mystery, but to the officers it seemed to be the solution of a mystery. This marriage convinced the officers that Howard was the guilty man, and that Annie Groves, being a witness of the deed, had compelled Howard to marry her to keep the secret. Although satisfied in their own minds as to the criminality of the parties, the officers as yet had no evidence which would justify their arrest.
In a few days Howard and his wife suddenly left the city, and it was not long after their departure that the officers came into the posses- sion of some facts which they deemed sufficient to warrant the arrest of the newly-wedded pair. The officers immediately set to work to ascertain the whereabouts of Howard and his wife. Officer Brennan took the matter in charge, and he tracked them to Grand Junction, in Greene county; from there he traced them to Carroll county, and finally found Howard at Car- rollton and arrested him. Some ten miles from Carrollton he found How- ard's wife, and, having arrested her, brought the two to Des Moines and lodged them in jail on the 28th of August.
At the next session of the District Court Howard was indicted and placed on trial. After an exciting and tedious trial he was found guilty, and one of the last acts of Judge Maxwell was to sentence Howard to imprisonment for life in the penitentiary: The sentence was pronounced on the 14th of December, and Howard was placed in the Polk county jail, preparatory to his being taken to the penitentiary at Fort Madison on the following day. Annie Howard, who was also under arrest as an accomplice, accompanied the condemned man to prison. When the prison doors closed behind the guilty man that evening, they shut out from him daylight for the last time.
Previous to the trial of Howard, a man by the name of Charles Ricord was also arrested. Annie Howard and the said Ricord, in the course of time, secured a change of venue and were tried elsewhere.
THE LYNCHING OF HOWARD.
After Howard had been sentenced the large crowd of people who had been idle spectators of the trial returned home, supposing that the matter
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was all over; that on the next day Howard would be taken to the peniten- tiary and nothing more would be heard of him. But not so, for there was destined to transpire during the following night a more exciting event than any other thing which had heretofore been developed from the Johnson murder. That night Howard was taken from his cell by a mob and hanged to a lamp-post at the northeast corner of the court-house square. Few persons not connected with the lynchers witnessed the deed, and those who did witnessed it at a distance, and according to their testimony the lynchers were about one hundred in number; their faces were masked or painted, and after dispatching their victim they went off down Court Avenue past the Aborn House. Others say that the vigilants returned from the execu- tion by Sixth street, Fifth and Fourth. Some men not far off when they left the court-yard were cautioned not to follow. The last place at which the party crossing 'Coon river, at the lower ford appears to have been seen, was at the Des Moines & Ft. Dodge Railroad depot. One party were seen to mount their horses near the colored school-house, in East Des Moines, and one disappeared from sight at the southwest corner of the court-house yard, apparently traveling south on Sixth street.
Nothing is known in regard to the circumstances of the lynching except what could be gathered from the confused statements of the few who wit- nessed it. The statements of some of the officials who were on duty at the time, as given on the following day is herewith reproduced.
B. Wise, the jailer, said: "I was awakened about half past two o'clock by a knock at the door of my bed-room, in the basement of the jail; sup- posed him to be a policeman with a prisoner; opened the door and a man drew a hatchet on me; I caught him by the throat; a second man drew a revolver on me, and three others clinched me and threw me down and tied me; one man then sat with his knee on my breast, with a revolver pointed at my head. The hall was full of men. I was thrown down and tied in my own room. The men demanded my keys or my life; they bound my hands and took the keys out of my pocket; the first time they did not get all of them, and they came back to get the rest; did not offer to hurt me; all seemed to be large men and handled me lively; they did not speak much; the man that talked to me talked in a very coarse voice. All of them that I saw had blackened faces. They seemed to be stern and were perfectly cool and sober; they did not untie me; my boy untied my wrists and I untied my legs myself; did not see Howard as they passed out with him; saw him afterward hanging to a lamp-post; I always carry the keys in my pocket or keep them under my pillow; was asleep when they first came, which was about 2:30 in the morning."
Clinton Wise said: "I have been guarding the jail for the last two months; was sitting in the Sheriff's office last night, when Walter came in and said 'The mob has come.' I ran to the east door; it was crammed full of men; went to go through them; they pushed me back and drew a re- volver on me; I turned around and ran down stairs to awaken my father; when I got down to the bottom of the stairs and turned to go into my father's room one of the men caught me; I pushed him away and reached the door of my father's room, when I was seized by two or three men, who held me; several of them came out and handed me the keys and dragged me to the cell door, and motioned me to open the door; I stood there and did not say anything, and one of them took the keys out of my hands and opened the door and pushed me inside; they made me unlock the inside
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door; when I unlocked the door I threw the keys down and ran back into the hall. They pulled me back inside; they went to the women and took hold of them; one of the women told them there were none but women in that cell. They then shoved me up to the door of Howard's cell and told me to open it; I told them I would die before I would open it; one of them then opened it himself; one of them caught hold of two others and they crowded right into the cell, calling for rope; a man came with the rope, and they soon came out with Howard; the men seemed to know that Howard was in one of the east cells, but did not know which one; Howard did not make any noise; his wife was screaming; heard him say once or twice, 'give me a minute or two to see my wife.' Saw Howard hanging to the lamp-post afterward; should think it was between two and three o'clock when the men came."
D. M. Bringolf, at that time Sheriff, said:
" I had, by order of court, appointed six guards to serve at night and in day-time. Being fearful for several days past that parties might make a break upon the jail, I made it a special point every night for the last six nights to be up until between 12 and 1:30 A. M., and before going to bed would make a tramp around Lee and Des Moines townships to ascertain whether or not crowds were gathering, for the purpose of taking criminals out of jail. Last night especially, D. O. Finch and I went over into Lee township, also all over this township down toward 'Coon river, as late as half past one this morning; went to see whether parties were gathering for that purpose. We found no parties whatever. I then directed the deputy sheriff, jailer and guards to allow no parties whatever to enter the jail, in case any should come, and to let no parties into the jail, and not to deliver the keys to any party whatever. Went home thinking there would be no danger. I was notified about three o'clock this morning that men with blackened faces, numbering from one hundred and fifty to two hundred, none of whom were known to the deputy, jailer or guards, had overpowered the whole of them and taken Howard out. Came down immediately and found him hanging to the lamp post at the northeast corner of the court- yard."
From the testimony, it seems, that after getting the cell open the lynchers put the rope around Howard's neck and dragged him out of the cell and along the entire length of the hallway and up out of the basement, where the cells are located; from there he was dragged to the lamp post at the northeast corner of the square and hanged. The victim must have been dead, or at least insensible, before reaching the lamp post.
During the following day the court-house square was the scene of the greatest excitement ever known in Des Moines. It was estimated that be- tween nine o'clock in the morning and six in the evening more than seven- teen thousand persons visited the scene of the lynching and took a look at Howard's remains.
The following is a copy of the verdict of the coroner's jury:
" STATE OF IOWA, "POLK COUNTY.
" An inquisition holden at Des Moines, Polk county Iowa, on the fifteenth and eighteenth days of December, 1874, before A. M. Overman, Coroner of
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the said county, on the body of Charles Howard Nelson there lying dead, by the jurors whose names are hereto subscribed.
" The said jurors upon their oaths do say that the said Charles Howard Nelson came to his death on the morning of the fifteenth of December, by being dragged and hung by the neck until he was dead, by the hands of some persons to us unknown, acting as a mob; and that the same was done feloniously.
" In testimony whereof, the said jurors have hereunto set their hands the day and year aforesaid.
WILL PORTER. W. P. HEARTY. J. F. KEMP.
On Tuesday evening the day after the lynching, an impromptu meeting of citizens was held at the court-house in Des Moines. After the organiza- tion of the meeting a committee of five was appointed to draft resolutions, expressive of the sentiment of the city in reference to the hanging of How- ard.
The resolutions reported and adopted were as follows:
Resolved, That the late fair and impartial trial of Charles Howard before Judge Maxwell, followed as it was by his conviction and sentence to imprisonment for life, being the maxi- mum punishment accorded by the laws of the State; furnished the strongest possible evidence that the administration of justice may still be safely instrusted to our courts, and forbids any excuse or apology for the disgrace inflicted this morning on our city by his forcible seizure, while in the custody of the jailer, awaiting transportation to Fort Madison, and his subse- quent execution at the hands of a mob.
Resolved, That in the act thus committed we recognize only in a broader plane, the same spirit that animated the guilty murderer of Johnson, and that in our opinion the active partici- pants in this last heinous crime have made theniselves with him, equally deserving of the strong- est reprobation of this community, and to a punishment of equal magnitude to that but yes- terday pronounced upon Howard by the legal tribunal in this house.
Resolved, That we earnestly request all proper authorities, State, county or municipal to take all necessary steps for the apprehension and punishment of those guilty of this last and most infamous offense.
On the following day, December 16, another citizens' meeting was held at the court-house in Des Moines, and after considerable discussion the fol- lowing additional resolutions were adopted: -
Resolved, That it is the duty of every good citizen to condemn, in the most unqualified terms, the mob spirit that has so suddenly and unexpectedly developed in our community, and that we believe the safety of our lives and property can be secured only by a sacred re- gard for law and order. That those who encourage by word or act, or excuse or palliate such outrages are doing an injury to our best interests, and are contributing to our insecurity by encouraging a contempt for, and disregard of the law, and the administration of justice. That we have no sympathy with the sentiment that such men are among the best citizens.
Resolved, That we believe our good citizens and all worthy the name of such, are, as they ought to be, strictly opposed to mob violence.
Resolved, That we urge upon our public officers, and especially the Mayor and police of the city, the utmost vigilance in ferreting out and suppressing crime, and that upon their faith- ful discharge of duty depends, in a great measure, the confidence of the public, that life and property can and will be fully protected by the law and its administration.
Although the better class of citizens' in Des Moines and throughout Polk county condemned the lynching, and apparently there was an earnest effort made by the authorities to get evidence which would identify the parties, or at least some of them engaged in the deed, and although some arrests
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have been made, yet up to the present time, some five or six years from the lynching, no one has been found guilty, and the probability is that the names of those self-constituted administrators of punishment will always remain unknown, and that the secrets of that night's ghastly work will perish with the lives of the perpetrators. The greatest mystery about the whole affair is the fact none of the lynchers have been apprehended.
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