USA > Iowa > Clinton County > Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 > Part 38
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"Low Moor, May 6, 1859.
"Mr. C. B. Campbell.
"Dear Sir-By tomorrow evening's mail you will receive two volumes of the 'Irrepressible Conflict,' bound in black. After perusal, please forward, and oblige, Yours truly. GEORGE W. WESTON."
By the peculiar wording of the correspondence, the receiver of the same obtained a pretty correct idea not only of the number of fugitive slaves com- ing on the line. but also, very frequently, the age. sex and complexion of the same.
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The slaves were generally carried from one station to another in the night time, cloudy nights being preferred, stations being from ten to fifteen miles apart. Some of the hunted race that passed through this county, how- ever, were so white as to require but little necessity for secrecy or conceal- ment. Such were easily cared for and proceeded on their journey without much trouble. In one instance, two, a man and his wife, were being con- cealed in Mr. Bather's garret. A message was received from De Witt that the slave catchers were in hot pursuit. That garret being rather a suspected place in Clinton, in the eyes of the United States marshal, it was thought ad- visable to have a "flitting" as soon as possible. Andrew Bather accordingly procured a covered family carriage belonging to H. P. Stanlet, and conveyed them to Lyons, preceded by C. B. Campbell, who in the meantime had hired a skiff at a rather stiff price, and took them across the river. This was on Sunday afternoon and the river was full of ice. The woman had such a fair complexion that she could and did represent herself with perfect impun- ity as a free person and the owner of her own husband. Their passage over the river was a slow, tedious and very dangerous one on account of the mov- ing ice, but they finally succeeded in reaching the other side in safety. Did space permit, many similar instances might be described as having actually occurred.
In the city of Clinton, within a stone's throw of the United States marsh- al's residence, time and again were fugitive slaves concealed for days together. In the garret of a small frame building, near the corner of Sixth avenue and Second street, then the residence of C. B. Campbell, frequently were secreted large numbers of passengers by the "underground railroad," waiting eagerly and nervously for the starting of the next train. Sometimes for a change they were kept for a few days in a cave used as a kind of cellar in the garden belonging to J. R. and A. Bather, or in the garret of their house. Occasionally the friends of the underground would meet by appointment at the house of Mr. Campbell, or some other rendezvous where the "chattels" were stored and waiting a favorable opportunity for shipment, to listen to their sad and eventful experiences, the manner of their escape, the sufferings they endured previous to striking the "underground railroad," and to infuse new zeal and courage into their ofttime sinking hearts against the trials and dangers, suffer- ings and fatigue yet in store for them ere the end of their toilsome journey should be reached. Many a sympathetic tear was shed by the friends of the anti-slavery cause on occasions like these-occasions which but added fresh fuel to the fire of liberty burning steadily in their hearts.
Among the last of the fugitives that passed through Clinton county be-
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fore the war broke out, was a party which consisted of nine persons in all, comprising a man and his wife and their four children and three men. Twice already had the first-mentioned member of the little band made the attempt to free the wife he loved, and been unsuccessful. His third attempt had been successful to this point, and, judging from the determined air he wore, and the fact that he was thoroughly armed, the officials of the "underground railroad" thought that it would be rather an unhealthy piece of business for any one to attempt to hinder him on the balance of his journey. After a very brief so- journ in Clinton, the entire party were safely ferried over the Mississippi, and went on their way rejoicing.
This is, of course, but a brief outline of the "underground railroad" in Clinton county. Enough, however, we hope may be gleaned from its perusal to give the reader some idea of its character and operations. Most of its stockholders have already passed over to the other side, the rolling stock and fixtures have long since disappeared. Only one tie remains-the historic tie which binds the past to the present.
Robert Lee Smith, who came to De Witt in 1845 and settled on a farm one mile south of the town, had on his farm an underground station, and cared for all the fugitives who came that way, having at times as many as six or ten at once secreted, usually in his loft. He had inscribed on his tomb the statement that he was always an abolitionist and that he separated from his church on account of its stand on the question of African slavery. He is buried in the old Protestant cemetery out of De Witt.
One of the early school houses in Clinton was used as a station point along this unseen railway. In its basement and attic many a cowering fugi- tive was safely sheltered, waiting for the human blood hounds in pursuit to lose trail and give up searching, before venturing on the road to Canada and freedom.
The old stone house in the western skirts of Clinton, the low humble look- ing cottage built more than sixty years ago, was another underground station along the main line of this great system.
Where now stands the new Lafayette hotel, in Clinton, also was another station and could the soil beneath the hotel but speak what a story it would unfold of anti-slavery days.
A well-known lawyer of Clinton, living here today, tell's of when he was a youth of seventeen in Maryland, how he used to act as "agent" on two roads -one the "underground" line-and how once he assisted a poor negro north- ward and that he succeeded in gaining freedom, became a Methodist preacher and finally a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal church. The lawyer
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lived in Iowa all these years and knew nothing of the black man he helped out of bondage. until a few years ago he met him, accidentally, and after all these years the colored man remembered his name and called him "Massie Frank."
OLD SETTLERS' MEETINGS.
While attending a camp meeting at Camanche, in the summer of 1868. Mrs. Jane Vincent Wilkes, a daughter of "Father Vincent." of whom much mention has been made, and Mrs. John R. Pearce, who was Mrs. Hannah Ferguson, and who came here with the Hess family, met each other and talked over the old times. Before separating, they resolved to make an effort for the reunion of the "old settlers." Mrs. Wilkes wrote a poetical call, which was published in the Clinton Herald of August 22d. and in response to which the formal call was made.
The first formal gathering of the early settlers of Clinton county was held on the beautiful bluff at the head of Second avenue, west of Clinton. Thursday, September 19. 1878, and was attended by a large number of the pioneers, who as they contrasted the scene at their feet with the same view when they first beheld it. must have experienced emotions too deep for ordi- nary words and recollection not easy for the younger portion of the community to realize. Before ten in the morning they began gathering. their carriages contrasting no less than the surrounding with those of the time when they located in the county. By eleven-thirty. when the exercises began, there were on the grounds several hundred people, mostly territorial residents of the county and their descendants. A speaker's stand, and seats, swings. refresh- ments and other adjuncts of a real old-fashioned picnic were provided.
The assembly was called to order by Daniel Hess, president of the day. who introduced Rev. J. N. Seeley, one of the oldest settlers, who made an excellent and fervid prayer, thanking the Father for this happy occasion, and for all the blessings that have come to the community through civilization, and hoping that all present might so live as to arrive at full Christian fruition, and. like the golden sheaf, ripe in the season, be finally gathered to an eternal home of bliss.
Remarks were made by J. D. Bourne, of De Witt, who said he first passed along the Mississippi on a pony in 1832. when there was not a house from Rock Island to Savanna. He related an amusing incident of how he and a party stopped at a log house on an island in Rock river, and tarried all night. and how. after the most of the inmates had gone to bed in the loft, the floor gave way. precipitating the gentlemen to the lower room, and when a light
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was struck none were found in a very presentable array, except a young couple who had been "sparking" in a corner of the room. [Laughter. ]. There were more people now present than could have been gathered together in two weeks in territorial times. He thought the young people a little too fast, and that economy is now needed. The speaker had served eight years as sheriff for three hundred dollars, and done for four hundred dollars at the recorder's office what the county is now paying five thousand dollars for. He said they lived just as well then as now-when they lighted their humble home at night with the candles made from the tallow of wild deer killed nearby on the prairie. The speaker was then living in one of the oldest frame houses in the county. He first came into Iowa in 1833, when Dubuque consisted of a single log cabin.
Elijah Buell made a few remarks, noting the great progress made in the county since he arrived, and the sturdy character of men of early times.
Judge A. R. Cotton, the orator of the day, then spoke. In well chosen words he payed a tribute to the old settlers; then briefly traced in his speech the history of Clinton county, mentioning the first trials in the courts, the early official proceedings, the founding of the cities, and the growth of the county, giving statistics for early dates and the time at which he was speaking.
The threatening weather prevented some of the old settlers present from speaking. as it was deemed advisable to proceed first with the dinner and the organization of the society, before going farther with extempore speeches. Officers of the Pioneers' Society were chosen as follows: President, Dan- iel Hess, of Lyons; vice-presidents, J. D. Bourne, of De Witt; George A. Griswold, of Elk River; H. B. Shaff, of Camanche ; secretary, A. R. Cotton, of Clinton ; treasurer. Elijah Buell, of Lyons; executive committee, E. Buell. Ira Stockwell, S. R. Pearce, G. N. Thomas, C. L. Seymour, and Mesdames Jane C. Wilkes, Hannah P. Pearce, Ellen Hess. Jane T. Baker and Betsey Foster.
It was desired to draw the line of membership in the association on the date of Iowa's admission into the Union, December, 1846, and necessarily this excluded many who would otherwise have joined.
At the second meeting of the Old Settlers' Association it was decided to admit those who had been residents of the state before 1846. At the third meeting, August 12, 1880, the association was divided into two branches, the Territorial Pioneers, who had settled in the county before 1846, and the Old Settlers or state pioneers, who had settled in the county before 1856. The association then became known as the Territorial Pioneers' and Old Settlers' Association. In 1887 the requirement for admission to the latter branch was changed 'so that any person who had come into the county before or during
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1866, was eligible, and this remained unchanged until the 1908 meeting, when the requirements were again changed, allowing persons who had come into the county before or during 1875 to become members.
Daniel Hess, the first president, served a short time and was succeeded by George A. Griswold, who held the office for twenty years, until 1900. He was succeeded by T. M. Gobble, and he by Virtus Lund, the present incum- bent. The officers elected in 1910 are as follows: Virtus Lund, president; William Lake, Daniel Earhart and Isaiah Dunstan, vice-president ; L. F. Sut- ton, secretary ; T. W. Jones, chaplain; directors, Mary E. Eaton, Mary L. Buell, L. O. Taylor, W. F. Rice, V. R. Benham, Elizabeth Harding and James F. Beers.
POPULATION OF CLINTON COUNTY.
The following gives the census returns for this county at various periods, commencing with 1847:
1847
1,570
1870
35,357
1849
2,044
1875
. 34,295
1852
3,822
1880
36,763
1854
7,306
1885
38,661
1856
. 13,441
1890
41,199
1860
18,938
1895
43,398
1863
19,818
1900
43,822
1865
22,405
1905
. 42,793
1867
.27,234
THE NUMBER OF SALOONS IN CLINTON COUNTY.
As shown by the Iowa Official Register for 1910, the saloon business was carried on in Clinton county in the autumn of 1908 as follows :
The number of saloons licensed in the city of Clinton was 66; paying a license of $800 each. In Low Moor, there was one saloon, paying $750. In Delmar there was one saloon, paying $1,100. In Wheatland there were three saloons, paying $600 each. In Lost Nation there were three, paying $600 each. In Calamus, there were two, paying $600 each. In Charlotte, there were four saloons, paying $600 each. In De Witt there were eight saloons, paying $600 each. In Grand Mound, there were four saloons, paying $600 each. Total number of licensed saloons in Clinton county, ninety-two.
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TORNADOES.
The tornado of June 4, 1844, was doubtless severe enough to have wrought fearful damage had it not passed over the thinly-settled sections of Clinton county. It first struck the ground in Springdale township, near Tip- ton, Cedar county. It traveled at the rate of from forty to fifty miles an hour, sweeping a strip of about one-fourth of a mile wide. It was able to pick up cattle and hogs and carry them to some distance, dashing them to death against the ground. Its form was the usual funnel-shaped outline.
In Clinton county, it tore through the northern part of the infant settle- ment where De Witt now stands. It crossed Brophy's creek at the farm then owned by Mrs. Brophy, destroying her house and severely but not fatally injuring some of the inmates. Thence it followed the course of the Wapsi- pinicon to the place owned by William D. Follett, where it destroyed a house and killed many cattle. Passing eastward, it destroyed some buildings on the farms of Messrs. Schoff and Wood, where some persons were consider- ably injured. On the Van Epps place it destroyed the house where Mr. Peoples then lived, severely injuring some of the inmates. Mr. Peoples was so badly hurt that he died within a few days, the only fatality caused by this storm within the county limits. The tornado crossed the river at the south part of Adams' island, stripping Mr. Adams' farm and dwelling on the Illinois shore. The buildings were completely demolished and his daughter killed by being carried to a great height and dropped into a tree, where she was after- wards found. The storm was evidently a true whirlwind, and its course was south of east. It would probably have been considered and handed down in the annals of the state as a tremendous atmospheric disturbance, had it not been so surpassed by the unmeasurable calamity of 1860. There is a tradition that, before white men came to Iowa, a similarly severe wind traversed the same region as that devastated by the storms of 1844 and 1860.
MEMORABLE TORNADO OF 1860.
Sunday, the 3d day of June, 1860, will long be remembered in the annal's not only of Iowa, but of the Northwest, as the day of the most tremendous tornado on record, rivaling the cyclones of the Indian ocean, the hurricanes of the West Indies and the typhoons of the China seas, in the distance that it swept. from central Iowa to the interior of Michigan, and surpassing most tropical storms in the force of the wind. Nothing like it had been supposed possible in northern latitudes. A belt, varying from twenty rods to a mile in
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width, was swept literally with the "besom of destruction." Not a fence. not a tree, not a house, and scarcely an animal or human being in its pathway was able to escape or withstand its fury. Death, devastation, almost annihilation, marked its track. So rapid was its approach, so unexpected its visitation, so indescribably awful its phenomena, and horrible the ruin it left, that. owing, possibly, to physical and physiological causes affecting the nervous system (except a few gifted with remarkably robust constitutions and well-poised intellects), those who had felt death pass in so swift and awful a guise seemed dazed and incapable of practical thought or action. Even those who were without its range, but who witnessed its ravages, were often too appalled to render assistance until recalled to the ghastly actuality by the spectacle of carnage and the groans of the wounded that roused them to the necessity of energetic and prompt action. Fortunately, many saw the terrible storm's ap- proach, and, by hiding in cellars, root-houses, and similar refuges, although buried under the debris or exposed to the open sky, yet managed to escape the fate of many who were borne away on the wings of the blast. some to be hurled mangled corpses to the ground, others to be gently and safely deposited upon the earth.
The first reported appearance of the atmospheric disturbance as a cyclone or whirlwind seems to have been in the western part of the state. It was in . Hamilton county where it first took on the appearance of a tornado, though. undoubtedly the storm centers originated farther west. To the meteorolo- gist who reviews the history of this remarkable phenomenon. it is a matter of great regret that government signal stations and weather reports had not then been established, so that science could have been advanced by observations of the barometric and electric phenomena that must have coincided with the de- velopment of such a terrific storm. From Hamilton county it reached the Mississippi in less than four hours, having traveled at an average rate equal- ling that of a fast express train. Of course, its rotary velocity was much greater than its rate of forward movement, which varied very greatly. as at some points it comparatively stood still. and then, upon the temporary equi- librium of forces being destroyed, it again raced forward, as if by its rest endowed with new power.
In New Providence, Hardin county, only two houses were left. about thirty being scattered in the shape of kindling-wood over miles of prairie. But few people were there hurt, the greater portion of the citizens being absent at a Quaker meeting, at New Bangor, Marshall county, twelve miles distant. During the storm, a Methodist meeting was being held in a brick school house at New Providence. The building was moved five feet, and all the doors and
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windows blown out, but no one injured. The inference is that the storm had at that point not as yet massed itself as it did farther east, nor yet acquired so great a rotary movement. However, the country was fully desolated, and fully one hundred thousand dollars damage done around New Providence. At a farming settlement called Pritchard's Grove, six miles farther east, the tornado was fiercer, and a number of persons were killed. Here the timber and every movable thing was swept away like dust before a broom.
A small village called Quebec, in the northern part of Marshall county, was absolutely obliterated, not a vestige of the town remaining where it stood, houses and contents being swept in fragments off upon the wide prairies. Many were seriously injured, but no lives were lost, though how any escaped alive seemed a mystery.
At Fort Dodge and Webster City, the outer circles of the storm, terrific hailstones fell, six and seven inches in circumference, shattering windows and injuring stock. Through the fair, but then comparatively sparsely settled rural regions of Tama county, the storm left a similarly devastated swath. In Webster and Benton counties great damage was done. But the fury of the storm or storms was there as nothing compared to what it was farther east- ward. The area of high wind was much wider west of the Cedar, where it appears to have converged as steadily toward an apex in the country between the Wapsipinicon and the Mississippi, as if the aerial columns had been ordered by a strategist there to concentrate their forces as the German hosts thickened around the sleeping French at Sedan.
West of the Cedar there may have been several well-defined and distinct storm centers. It is certain that there were at least two different tornadoes that formed about the same time in the sultry Sunday afternoon, and began a parallel eastward race from some undetermined point west of the Cedar river, probably about twelve miles apart. They proceeded eastwardly in separate and well-defined courses, until they reached the Wapsipinicon, where they united and advanced in a single column with increased and accelerated force and rapidity. The first made its appearance about seven miles northeast from Cedar Rapids and about three miles west of the river. When first seen, it looked merely like a threatening cloud, but it soon assumed the appearance of an immense serpent, similar to that, as the Hindoo mythology chronicles, with which the air demons churned the ocean, a myth evidently derived from the appearance of water-spouts as they extended from angry sky to foaming sea. Twisting, writhing, with an undulating motion and accompanied by a dismal roaring, like that of a mighty cataract but infinitely more menacing, it trav- ersed Cedar county, utterly wiping out every natural and artificial object in (26)
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its path. At Lisbon, Linn county, it scattered broadcast the stone piers of Robinau Prouty's warehouse and splintered that and other buildings into kindling-wood; yet, strangely enough, leaving untouched one thousand five hundred bushels of bulk wheat in the warehouse. In a lumber yard belonging to Chancy Lamb, not a board remained. Loaded freight cars were blown from the track and empty ones were completely pulverized. It circled northeasterly, leaving Mechanicsville two miles to the south, devastating the country east of White Oak Grove, killing hundreds of sheep and cattle and a score of persons. Many persons saved their lives by clinging to the under- brush in small thickets, which bent to the storm. A Mr. Cole with his wife and child were escaping to the cellar when the house was blown from over their heads, but leaving the floor. Mr. Cole seized his wife, who held their child in her arms, and flinging himself flat, grasped the edge of a trapdoor. Until the storm was over, he was not aware that the floor had moved, but upon taking his bearings he found they had sailed an eighth of a mile through the air, with no other injury than a fracture of the arm by which he held on.
At Louden, both tornadoes were simultaneously visible, the one that struck Lisbon being about three miles north and the other about four miles south of that village. Both had preserved their original form and appearance. though swollen in size as the aerial giants raced eastward, apparently bounding like ricochetting cannon balls from ridge to ridge of the rolling prairie. At Wheatland, both were distinctly visible. In that section, as this tornado flew high, comparatively little harm was done except blowing down a number of houses. Arriving at the Wapsipinicon, it followed the stream without doing much harm until it united with the south one, which was first observed about seven miles southwest of Cedar Rapids, in the Rogers settlement, on the west side of the Cedar. On starting on its journey, it demolished numerous build- ings and actually tore several victims, who were caught in its whirl, limb from limb, only their trunks remaining. As it passed along a ridge south of Mt. Vernon and Lisbon its appearance was simply terrific. The air was loaded with fragments of wrecked buildings and branches of large trees, and darkened with earth and dust. Cloud flakes and spume were whirled from the sides of the atmospheric maelstrom, and its deafening roar as it swept over the cham- paign, a gloomy column, with a lurid red core glowing angrily through its murky envelope, it could be compared to nothing else than the chariot of the Omnipotent as pictured by Milton in "Paradise Lost."
This tornado seems to have at this point attained its maximum of fury. Among the wrecks it left were the head of an infant and the arms and legs of a grown person brought from many miles westward. Three persons were
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taken up bodily and vanished forever from mortal eyes. Dwellings and barns were ground to pieces as completely as if they had been passed through a quartz-crushing machine. Poultry had their heads completely twisted from their bodies, and their feathers cleanly plucked.
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