USA > Iowa > Warren County > The history of Warren County, Iowa, from its Earliest Settlementto 1908 > Part 37
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY
party in power with their votes. lowa's prohibitory law of 1855, only needed enforcement to free the state from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks; but in order to pacify the foreign voters, the clause known as the "wine and beer clause, " was inserted into the prohibitory chapter. That was the camel thrusting his nose into the tent. The flood gates were opened, and under this clause, which its advocates claimed was so innocent, saloons sprang up all over the state. ostensibly to sell wine and beer; but somehow, stronger forms of alcohol found their way into the saloons, and over the counter to the patrons. A man who was then in the prime of life, a close observer of social conditions, gave it as his opinion, that under the "wine and beer clause," drunkenness in Iowa became more rampant than it ever had been in all the past history of the state.
Today the country is again experiencing a tidal wave of prohibition. The people of the south find that they must put alcohol out of the reach of the negro race. If they only knew it, a good many of the white race need the protection of prohibition as much as the negro race. One eloquent brother, jubilating over the prohibition wave which is sweeping the south, said: "A bird can fly from the Mississippi to the Atlantic ocean, and from the boundary of Tennessee to the Gulf of Mexico, without looking down upon a legalized saloon." Perhaps it is a little too early to jubilate over the success of prohibition in the south, or any- where else on this continent. It is not a permanent fixity. The principles of prohibition are not sufficiently settled in the minds of the people to justify any great self adulation. The deceiver has gone down into the sunny lands of the south with the same deceptive song which he sung to the people of Iowa soon after the adoption of prohibition in 1855.
Just a few days ago the Savannah Chamber of Commerce passed a body of resolutions setting forth that the drinking of wines and malt liquors has no such deleterious consequences as the use of distilled beverages. The idea is to induce the people of the south to open their prohibitory law and insert a "wine and beer clause" something like that which was inserted in the lowa prohibitory law. allowing the people to manufacture and sell ale, beer and wine. The people of the south would do well to inquire into the experience of lowa in this regard.
After the time the "wine and beer clause" was inserted into the Iowa chapter on prohibition, drumkenness multiplied day by day, until publie senti- ment was again aroused, and the Iowa people determined to put prohibition into the constitution where state legislators could not so easily meddle with it. In 1882, by a majority of almost thirty thousand, the people of lowa ordered pro- hibition into the constitution, but alas! the Supreme court was ready with its ever present "technicality" to prevent prohibition from going into the constitu- tion. The temperance people of Iowa were soothed by being told that a good chapter on prohibition should be enacted by the General Assembly. That promise was fulfilled, and under the provisions of that chapter. the saloons were put out of business; but the cities of lowa began a crusade against the law. and again polities was invoked and election surprises took place, and the political leaders Felt that something must be done to pacify the anti-prohibitionists. This time the present mulet law was substituted for prohibition, under which several counties in the state, Warren among them, have maintained their prohibition
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sentiment and practice. Warren county has no saloons, no permits are granted to druggists or anybody else to sell high wines. The difficulty in Warren county is that it lies so close to Des Moines; and the Capital City is so easy of access that people in Warren county can soon supply themselves with all the alcohol they want. The people have experienced another difficulty, which has made certain phrases familiar in all parts of the state, namely : "interstate commerce," and the "original package." Under the decisions of the courts, distillers in other states have been allowed to ship into Towa, into prohibition counties, alcohol, contrary to the will of the people. Repeated efforts have been made to induce Congress to pass a law protecting prohibition states and counties from the introduction of alcoholic beverages. The people of this great free country have been profuse in their condemnation of Great Britain foreing the opium upon poor. helpless China ; yet, it is the same principle as the "interstate com- merce" and "original package" decisions of our courts. Sometime, possibly. relief may be secured, and people who are opposed to the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors may be freed from the technical decisions of the courts. and enabled to say to the rum traffic, "Thus far and no farther shalt thou come."
These waves of prohibition sentiment are beneficial. They help unify thought. and fix the principles of prohibition in the minds of the people. Every lover of good order, who has lived under prohibition rule, will never consent to go back to rum dominance. The present prohibition awakening is superior in many regards to any that have preceded it. The politicians are more willing to recognize it, and to admit the practicability of it. The civilized world is awaken- ing to the fact that something must be done to suppress drunkenness. First of all the manufacture and traffie in ardent spirits must be suppressed. The fol- lowing notice of a great temperance rally shows the present tendency in regard to prohibition.
"The one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the first American tem- perance society, in the town of Moreau, Saratoga county, New York, by Dr. Billy J. Clark, will be celebrated by a ten days' international congress to be held in this place beginning Sunday, June 14th, and ending Tuesday, June 23rd. 1908, and to be known as "The World's Temperance Centennial Congress."
Governor Charles E. Hughes of New York state, and a notable company of distinguished publie men and women and temperance leaders of international reputation will be present.
The governors of twenty-five states have appointed official representatives, and delegations will be present from England, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Belgium and perhaps France and Ireland.
The following indictment of the rum traffic by Governor Hanley, of Indiana, appeared in the Christian Advocate of May 28, 1908.
Personally, I have seen so much of the evils of the liquor traffic in the last four years. so much of its economie waste, so much of its physical rnin. so much of its mental blight, so much of its tears and heartache, that I have come to regard the business as one that must be held and controlled by strong and effect- ive laws. I bear no malice toward those engaged in the business, but I hate the traffic. I hate its every phase. I hate it for its intolerance. I hate it for its
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arrogance. I hate it for its hypocrisy. I hate it for its cant and craft and false pretense. I hate it for its commercialism. I hate it for its greed and avarice. I hate it for its sordid love of gain at any price. I hate it for its domination in polities. I hate it for its corruptng influence in civic affairs. I hate it for its incessant effort to debauch the suffrage of the conntry : for the cowards it makes of public men. I hate it for its utter disregard of law. I hate it for its ruthless trampling of the solemn compacts of state constitutions.
I hate it for the load it straps to labor's back, for the palsied hands it gives to toil, for its wounds to genius, for the tragedies of its might-have-beens. I hate it for the human wrecks it has caused. I hate it for the almshouses it peoples. for the prisons it fills, for the insanity it begets, for its countless graves in pot- ters' fields.
I hate it for the mental ruin it imposes upon its victims, for its spiritual blight. for its moral degradation. I hate it for the crimes it has committed. I hate it for the homes it has destroyed. I hate it for the hearts it has broken. I hate it for the malice it has planted in the hearts of men-for its poison, for its bitterness-for the Dead Sea fruit with which it starves their souls.
I hate it for the grief it has caused womanhood-the scalding tears. the hopes deferred, the strangled aspirations, its burden of want and care.
I hate it for its heartless cruelty to the aged, the infirm and the helpless, for the shadow it throws upon the lives of children, for its monstrous injustice to blameless little ones.
I hate it as virtue hates vice, as truth hates error, as righteousness hates sin, as justice hates wrong, as liberty hates tyranny, as freedom hates oppression.
I hate it as Abraham Lincoln hated slavery. And as he sometimes saw in prophetic vision the end of slavery and the coming of the time when the sun should shine and the rain should fall upon no slave in all the republic, so I sometimes seem to see the end of this unholy traffic, the coming of the time when, if it does not wholly cease to be, it shall find no safe habitation anywhere beneath "Old Glory's" stainless stars.
ـعــ
ImBurton
BIOGRAPHICAL.
WILLIAM BUXTON.
Few men in Warren county are more prominent or more widely known than William Buxton, of Indianola. He has been an important factor in busi- ness cireles and his prosperity is well deserved, as in him are embraced the characteristics of an unbending integrity, unabating energy and industry that never flags. He is not only one of the leading business men of the county but is also one of the honored pioneers, having made his home here since the winter of 1852.
Mr. Buxton was born in Derbyshire, England, on the 16th of May, 1828, a son of John Buxton, and comes of a long line of English ancestry, the family dating back to King William III, when they are first mentioned in the Dooms- day Book. Ile was reared and educated in his native land, being a young man when he emigrated to the new world. After spending one year in Indiana, he came to Iowa in the winter of 1852. as previously stated, making the trip on horseback. His destination was Warren county and he located on Scotch Ridge, buying a slightly improved traet of land near Carlisle, on whiel a log cabin had been erected and a few acres broken. Besides this property of three hundred and fifty acres, he entered two hundred aeres of government land iu Clark county, Illinois, as he passed through that district. As the years passed he added to his home farm until he had five hundred acres of land, replaced the log cabin by a good frame residence and made many other useful and valuable improvements.
For over forty years Mr. Buxton continued to actively engage in agrieul- tural pursuits and in 1893 removed to Indianola. being since identified with the business interests of this city. He was one of the organizers of the Warren County Bank and has served as one of its directors from the very beginning, becoming president in 1883. For several years he has also dealt extensively in farm lands and now owns about fourteen hundred acres in this and Lueas counties. He owned and operated the woolen mills at Palmyra for three years, and was a member of the company that built and conducted the flouring mill at Carlisle. He has erected some of the best business houses of Indianola and also a number of fine residences, thus materially aiding in the upbuilding and development of the city. HIe gave two blocks for a park and money and land to the value of fifty thousand dollars to Simpson College and
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in many other ways has contributed to the prosperity and improvement of his adopted city and county.
Mr. Buxton was married in Scotch Ridge in Allen township, Warren county, to Miss Betsy Branhall. a native of Ohio and a daughter of John Branhall, who brought his family to this state about 1848. Mrs. Buxton died in Indianola in 1901. There were five children born of that union, namely : Elizabeth, the wife of M. J. Kittleman. of Berwyn, Ilinois; Helen, the wife of W. L. Cooper, of Des Moines; William, Jr., who is a snecessful farmer and business man, being president of the Carlisle Bank; Mrs. C. B. Little, of Berwyn; and Clara, the wife of Robert B. Nicholsou, of Des Moines, a son of Robert Nicholson, of Carlisle, whose sketch appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Buxton was agaiu married in February, 1902, his second union being with Mrs. Frauces (Cheesman) Carpenter, widow of Professor Carpenter, who was connected with Simpson College. By her first marriage she has three daughters.
Being a strong opponent of slavery, Mr. Buxton joined the free soil party on becoming an American citizen and has been identified with the republican party since its organization, voting for all of its presidential nominces since supporting Abraham Lincoln in 1860. Both he and his wife take an active interest in church work as members of the Methodist Episcopal denomination and for twenty-three years he served as superintendent of the Sunday school at Carlisle and has since been a teacher in Indianola. For the past six years he and his wife have spent the winters in California, and he has made three trips to Europe, visiting his old home in England and most of the large cities on the continent. Although eighty years of age he is still actively interested in business affairs and his life has ever been a busy and a useful one. He came to this country almost empty-handed and the success that he has achieved is but the merited reward of his own industry and good management. He is public spirited, giving his cooperation to every movement which tends to pro- mote the moral, intellectual and material welfare of the community.
JOHN D. MeCLEARY, M. D.
Dr. John D. MeCleary has attained a gratifying measure of success in a professional carcer, being particularly skilled in surgery. He is today the dean of his profession in Warren county and has long maintained a foremost place in the ranks of the medical fraternity of Indianola, where he still prac- tices, although he has attained the age of seventy-eight years. He was born in Wabash county. Illinois, September 27, 1829. His parents were James and Sophia Payne (Ellis) MeCleary. The father was born in Ohio and was of Scotch-Irish lineage, his ancestors removing from Pennsylvania to the Buckeye state in an early day.
James McCleary was a farmer by occupation and in 1817 left Ohio for Illinois. He was but a boy at the time and accompanied his father, who en-
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tered land from the government in Wabash county. There James MeCleary resided until 1849, when he became a resident of Fulton county, Illinois, where he remained until 1866. In that year he removed to Wayne county in the sanre state, where his last days were passed, his death occurring February 12, 1875, when he was in his seventy-fourth year. His widow was born in Ken- tucky and passed away in 1887, in her eighty-first year. She was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church while JJames MeCleary was connected with the United Brethren church. They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom reached adult age, John D. MeCleary being the second in order of birth. His brother, Ralph B. MeCleary. is now engaged in the practice of medicine at Monmouth, Illinois, and during the civil war was connected with the surgical department of the Union army.
Dr. MeCleary of this review was reared to farm life and attended the country schools. He afterward engaged in teaching in Illinois for several terms and later for two terms in Iowa, the first one being two and one-half miles from Mount Pleasant and the last one at Indianola in 1859. It was in the year 1854 that he arrived in this state, settling in Indianola, where he se- cured a clerkship in the general store of E. G. and H. W. Crosthwait. He there continued for a year, after which he elerked for others until the spring of 1861. when he made out the tax list for the county. In the meantime, however. he became imbued with a desire to practice medicine as a life work and to this end he entered the Rush Medical college at Chicago in the fall of 1861, remain- ing there for one year. In the fall of 1862 he went to Missouri as commissary clerk and in March, 1863, he became assistant surgeon of the Thirty-fourth Iowa Infantry, remaining with the command until the fall of Vicksburg. He had been stationed at that place and after the surrender of the city he resigned on account of disability. His professional service gave him rank as first
lieutenant. It was several months after his return to Indianola before he
fully recuperated. In the spring of 1864 he was commissioned assistant surgeon of the Forty-sixth Towa Infantry under Colonel David B. Hen- derson and remained at the front during the term of his enlistment-one hun- dred days. He then returned to Indianola but had received another commis- sion as assistant surgeon of the Thirteenth Towa Infantry. This he did not accept, however, as the war was drawing to a close.
Dr. MeCleary resumed the private practice of medicine and in 1867. in order to still further perfect himself in his chosen calling. he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Keokuk, receiving a diploma the same year. He then again came to Indianola, where he has since been in continuous practice and is today the oldest physician in active connection with the pro- fession not alone in Warren county but probably throughout the state. He is well known in Iowa and has long ranked with its ablest physicians and sur- geons, being particularly successful in his surgical work. He understands thoroughly the anatomy and the component parts of the human body. the onslaughts made upon it by disease and the difficulties to be encountered by reason of inherited tendency. While many years have passed since he en- tered upon active practice, he has yet continued a student of the profession
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY
and constant reading and study have kept him in touch with its onward march.
In 1852 Dr. MeCleary was married to Miss Sarah A. Crosthwait, a dangh- ter of Joseph P. and Roberta Crosthwait, who came from Tennessee about 1830 and settled in Fulton, Illinois. They afterward removed to Cass conhty. Iowa, in 1856, and the father engaged in farming. Unto Dr. and Mrs. Mc- Cleary were born seven children. Irene, now the widow of Joseph Cook, is a teacher in the public schools at Villisea. Horace is located in Indianola. Josephine is a teacher in Simpson College. The others have now passed away.
The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which Dr. MeCleary is serving as a trustee, while in the church work he is deeply interested. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Odd Fellow and a member of the Aneient Order of United Workmen and a comrade of James Randolph Post, G. A. R. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and in 1856 he was assessor of Washington township. He has also been a member of the city council and has always been a stalwart champion of the cause of edneation. He has served as school director, was the first secretary of of Simpson College and was regent of the State University from 1892 until 1900. His associations in more specifically professional lines are with the Warren County Medical Society, the State and Medical Associations and the American Association of Railway Surgeons. He is entitled to membership in the last named by reason of the fact that he has been loeal surgeon for the Rock Island Railroad for over thirty years. The career of Dr. MeCleary has been one of signal usefulness and his fellowmen honor him for what he has accomplished. His life. viewed from both a professional and financial stand- point, has been successful and, moreover, the sterling qualities of manhood which he has displayed have won for him the unqualified confidence and esteem of all who know him.
J. E. CLAYTON.
J. E. Clayton, filling the position of eashier in the Bank of Milo, is classed with the representative residents of Warren county, possessing a spirit of do- termination and enterprise that enables him to push his way upward in spite of the obstacles and diffienlties that are continually arising in the business world. He was born May 15. 1867, in Rush county, Indiana, his parents being Thomas B. and Rebecca (Berry) Clayton, natives of Kentucky and Indiana respectively. In 1868 they removed to Jasper county, Ilinois, where both died in the fall of 1882, within a few months of each other.
J. E. Clayton there pursued his education in the common schools, while later he attended the Highland Park College at Des Moines, pursuing a course in the business department, which he completed by gradnation with the class of 1892. Coming to Milo, he was employed by Eikenberry & Company, Ium- ber and grain merchants, being associated with that firm until he accepted the
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position of bookkeeper with the Citizens Bank of Milo, where he continued until 1899, when he was made cashier of the Bank of Milo and has since served in that capacity. This bank was organized in 1883 by Sehee Brothers & Com- pany and has had a prosperous existence, the efforts of Mr. Clayton con- tributing to the substantial reputation which it has always borne. He is thoroughly conversant with the banking business in every department, is watchful of the interests of the institution and is always courteous and oblig- ing in his treatment of the patrons of the bank.
Mr. Clayton was married March 4, 1897, to Miss Lily Farlow, a daughter of Rev. Samuel Farlow, who was a pioneer minister of southwestern lowa. Hle devoted his entire life to the work of the gospel and died in October, 1906, leaving the impress of his individuality and his teachings for good upon the lives of many with whom he was brought in contact. His widow still sur- vives and now makes her home with Mr. and Mrs. Clayton, who are the par- ents of two children, Blythe and Margaret.
Mr. Clayton is a member of Milo Camp, No. 617, M. W. A., and for ten years has been clerk of that order. He also belongs to Milo Lodge, No. 413, I. O. O. F., and to Milo Lodge, No. 160, K. of P. He is loyal to the teachings of all these organizations and to the beneficent spirit upon which they are founded. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist church, while his political allegiance is given to the republican party, which numbers him among its stalwart supporters He has served as township com- mitteeman for three years and was secretary of the school board for over ten years. In all matters relating to Milo and its upbuilding he takes an active and helpful interest. He is a most progressive man, forming his plans readily and carrying them forward to successful completion.
PROFESSOR S. M. CART.
Professor S. M. Cart, who is now engaged in agricultural pursuits, owns and operates a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, constituting a neat and well improved property on seetion 21, Lincoln township. He is numbered among the old settlers of Fowa, dating his residence here from 1854, so that for more than a half century he has witnessed the changes which have occurred and the transformation that has been wrought. Professor Cart is a native of Indiana, his birth having occurred in Elkhart county, February 25, 1849. His father, William Cart, was born in Greenbrier county, West Vir- ginia, September 12, 1808, and was of German ancestry. His father, George Cart, was a son of William Cart, a soldier of the Revolutionary war, while George Cart served his country as a soldier in the war of 1812. The Cart family was numbered among the early settlers of Virginia and took an active part in the development of that section of the country.
William Cart, Jr., was reared to manhood in the Old Dominion and was married in 1837 to Nancy Cart, who was born in Greenbrier county, West
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Virginia, and was a distant relative. In 1835 he had removed to Indiana, settling in Elkhart county, where he opened up a tract of land and carried on farming for a number of years. In 1854 he came to lowa, establishing his home in Marion county, where he opened up a farm of three hundred and forty acres. There he reared his family and while living upon that place he lost his wife who passed away in 1890 at the age of nearly seventy-six years. . Mr. Cart still survives her and is now a centenarian, having reached the one hundreth milestone on life's journey.
Professor S. M. Cart was reared upon the home farm in Marion county and early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the erops. Ile acquired his primary education in the country schools and in 1871 entered the Simpson College at Indianola, lowa, his attendance at college being alternated with teaching in the district school. However, he completed his college course and was graduated with the class of 1875. The following year he taught school at Carlisle, Iowa, and for three years was a teacher in the public schools at Goshen, Indiana.
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