USA > Missouri > Macon County > General history of Macon County, Missouri > Part 9
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F. L. Schofield, a distinguished attorney of Hannibal, was agreed upon as referee. The taking of testimony was begun in the United States court room at Hannibal in February, 1894. The plaintiffs were represented by John E. MeKeighan of St. Louis and George A. Mahan of Hannibal. Gardiner Lathrop, of Kansas City, and Ben Eli Guthrie, of Macon, appeared for the railroad company.
The evidence was voluminous. The witnesses went over the road by foot and then down into the earth. At one time there was an adjourn- ment to take the evidence of B. F. Booker, then living at Mexico, in the Republie of Mexico. Booker had been assistant chief engineer for the railway company during the construction period. At the time the court adjourned to Mexico to take his deposition, Booker was dying with consumption. He passed away soon afterwards. The Santa Fe road furnished a special ear for the court, lawyers. stenographers and inter- ested parties to make the entire trip. Another journey was made to New Orleans to take the deposition of E. E. Earl, who was the division engineer on the western end of the construction. One of the witnesses
HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
came all the way from Palestine, the Holy Land, to testify on the part of the plaintiff's. -
The record consisted of about 10,000 typewritten pages. It was prepared by Mrs. E. L. Treat of Hannibal and Edgar White, of Macon, who attended as official stenographers.
The case was argued before the referee in February, 1895. The referee devoted nearly all of his time to his report. It was an immense task to go through such a large amount of evidence, to examine the books, profiles and various paraphernalia connected with railroad con- struction. He found a balance due the contractors of $83,505.77 over the amount allowed them by the final estimates of the engineers. The defendant railroad, as a matter of course, filed exceptions to this report of the referee. There was an argument on the exceptions before Judge Ellison, which lasted two weeks. Judge Ellison handed down a written opinion in April, 1896.
He disallowed every item which the referee had credited to the plaintiffs. He found that the evidence had shown no fraud or miscon- struction of the contraet by the railway engineers.
The main ground for each allowance by the referee was on hardpan. That amount allowance he figured at $50,000. Judge Ellison held that the elaim for hardpan having been called to the attention of the engi- neers during the construction, and they having passed upon the mate- rial, had decided that it was not hardpan, and the decision could not now be set aside "and substitute therefor a shadowy memory and recollection of eight years ago."
"The result seems conclusive to my mind that defendant's engi- neers fairly passed upon all material and determined this was not hard- pan, with just the same emphasis that a verdict for the plaintiff means that it is against the defendant. I therefore set aside the referee's report and finding as to hardpan and disallow the increase of $50,350.41."
The defendant railway's exceptions to the referee's report were all sustained by Judge Ellison, except as to the lien and interest, which were overruled and judgment ordered for plaintiffs for $36,785.92.
The tender of the railroad in the first place had been $30,399.06. The contractors appealed to the Supreme Court, which affirmed the finding of Judge Ellison in 1900. That terminated the case.
The Iowa & St. Louis is the latest railroad to enter Macon county. It starts at Sedan, where it connects with the Keokuk & Western, and extends through the heart of the Chariton valley southward into Macon county, terminating at Elmer. Most of the right-of-way has been
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secured on to Macon, to which place the road has been chartered. All along it has been the strong hope of the people of Macon county that the road would soon be completed to the main line at Macon, thus afford- ing an important outlet for passenger and freight traffic. The road now has an excellent bed, and its rolling stock is first class. It has regular daily passenger and freight service, except on Sunday. The road is operated by the management of the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City line, an important line of the Burlington system.
The early history of the Iowa & St. Louis road is interesting.
In the early part of May, 1901, W. S. McCaull, then claim agent for the Quincy, Omaha & Kansas City railroad, while sitting in a country hotel in Adair county, overheard a conversation between a railroad official, now high in the Hawley syndicate, and a coal operator and pro- moter. They were discussing the practicability of the building of a rail- road from Centerville, Iowa, down the Chariton river for the purpose of developing the rich coal fields of the Chariton valley and its immense agricultural resources.
Mr. McCaull was thoroughly familiar with the region the two men were discussing. Being a railroad man of experience, he was quick to see the importance of the idea, and rapidly formed a plan to build the railroad himself, with the aid of some friends. Next day he consulted with H. F. Reddig, then chief clerk to the general manager of the Q., O. & K. C., and H. H. Kendrick, auditor for the same company.
Articles of incorporation for the Iowa & St. Louis Railway Com- pany were executed on the 11th day of May, 1901, within less than a week after MeCaull overheard the conversation referred to. On the 18th of May, articles were filed in the office of the Secretary of State at Jefferson City. The Iowa & St. Louis Railway Company had a corporate existence.
The authorized capital stock was $50,000. The company was organ- ized to build a railroad five miles in length in "a generally northern direction" along the bottoms of the Chariton river from a point on the Q., O. & K. C. R. R., at or near the town of Novinger, to a place near Shibley's Point. There was a clause in the articles of incorporation expressing an intention of the company, some time in the future, when its capital stock should have been increased sufficiently, to construct and maintain a standard gauge railroad in "a generally northern direction" to a point at or near the town of Centerville, Iowa.
With the incorporation, H. F. Reddig was elected president ; W. S. McCaull, vice-president and general attorney, and H. H. Kendrick, secretary and auditor. At that time the three hopeful railroad men
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could not, by combining all their assets and credit, have secured money enough to build a mile of the right-of-way. But that didn't worry them a bit. They set to work with energy, procuring mining leases upon several thousand acres of good coal land, opened up prospeet holes which showed coal in fair quantities, and in some way, unknown even to themselves, they built between four and five miles of track, forming connections with the Kansas City Midland Coal Company's spur, which connected with the Q., O. & K. C., near Novinger.
The development of coal land gave the young railroad syndicate an asset which they carried to the market. Before the first year of the road's life the Gates-Lambert-Keefe syndicate (barbed wire men), of Chicago, became interested in the coal project and bought the stock of the railroad company. Their first move was to reorganize the latter. They retained Reddig as president and Kendrick as secretary and auditor; McCaull, the originator of the enterprise, was let out.
Plans were immediately formed for building from Des Moines, Iowa, to Macon, Missouri, under the name of the Iowa & St. Louis Rail- way Company. A charter was also obtained for building from Macon to St. Louis, under the name of the Iowa & Missouri Railway Com- pany. Construction on the Iowa & St. Louis Railway Company was begun at Centerville, Iowa, southward and northward from Connells- ville, a coal town just north of Novinger. The Iowa & St. Louis tracks were cheaply laid, the bridges were fragile and the spring floods along the river easily washed them away, together with many miles of the roadbed. The periodical flood of the valley seems to have been a prob- lem which had not entered into the heads of the early promoters. To make the roadbed safe from the waters it required an immense amount of money for embankments and bridges. It is probable that the idea had been to start a railroad and then to sell out at a large figure to some system already operating in the territory. It is reported that the Iowa & St. Louis people finally made a deal which gave them a large profit on their investments. There was another rumor to the effeet that they were glad to make a sale which let them out even. At any rate, on March 23, 1903, the road passed into the control of the Q., O. & K. C., the stoek of which company had been bought by the Burlington.
Although some trains had been run from Novinger to Centerville, the new owners did not deem it wise to operate the road regularly until the roadhed had been put in better condition. All trains were with- drawn and the work of rebuilding and strengthening the roadbed and bridges was pushed rapidly. About June, 1903, regular service was installed from Sedan, Iowa, to Novinger, Missouri. Later, the seven
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miles of the road from Centerville to Sedan were abandoned.
During 1903 the track was extended to Elmer, which is yet the southern terminal of the road. Since the Burlington acquired the con- trol, the improvement work was constant until the road was put in as good condition as any of the trunk lines now operating through the state.
The managing offices are at Kansas City. Division headquarters are at Novinger. The shops, where the rolling stock is repaired, are at Milan, about thirty miles west of Novinger. The completion of the Iowa & St. Louis would make a most important business asset for Macon. The road runs through the heart of the most productive agri- cultural regions in northern Missouri. There are numerous enterpris- ing towns on the line, and it is a fine territory for wholesale trade. With its completion to Macon wholesale houses, factories, and other enter- prises would certainly spring up in that town. It would also be of immense benefit in the north and west, enabling people to reach the county seat and return the same day. The ditching enterprises now being rapidly pushed in the valley will greatly relieve the road from the embarrassment of floods.
Mr. McCaull, although squeezed out as one of the officials of the road he projected, is now its claim agent, with headquarters at Kansas City. He also acts as claim agent for the Q., O. & K. C. road. J. G. Trimble, of Kansas City, is the general attorney for both roads.
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRINTING PRESS-SALUTATORY OF FIRST MACON COUNTY PAPER- REMINISCENCES OF CAPTAIN LACY, MACON'S FIRST EDITOR-THE MUL- LIGAN GUARDS-SOME OF THE PIONEER PAPERS-MAJOR FRANK M. DAULTON-MACON PAPER AWARDED MEDAL FOR SUPERIOR TYPOGRAPHY -THE MAN WHO SUBSCRIBED FOR 500 PAPERS-I. JEFF BUSTER, WHO INTRODUCED COUNTRY CORRESPONDENCE-EUGENE FIELD'S OWL CLUB -IMPROVEMENT IN COUNTRY JOURNALISM-"STORIES OF A COUNTRY DOCTOR," BY WILLIS P. KING, M. D .- "LOVE VS. LAW," BY MARY ANDERSON MATTHEWS-A CIRCUIT RIDER'S QUAINT BOOK-OLDEST BIBLE IN STATE OWNED BY MACON COUNTY MAN.
Until December 26, 1848, the official publications of Macon county had to made either in the old Missouri Republican, founded in 1808, or "The Missouri Intelligencer and Boone's Lick Advertiser," because it had no paper of its own.
The paper with the long name was the first one issued in Missouri west of St. Louis. Its first number came out April 23, 1819. The publi- cation was at Franklin, which at that period was the most thriving town west of St. Louis. There was a land office there and the first land sales west of the Mississippi river were made at that point. The paper was published weekly, the subscription price being $3 a year in advance, or $4 if paid at the expiration of the year.
The Intelligencer was the official newspaper for a large scope of country, and was published at Franklin until 1823, in which year it was moved to Fayette, the county seat of Howard. In 1834 the plant was taken to Columbia by Mr. Nathaniel Patton, who started a publication called "The Patriot." In 1843 this paper was succeeded by "The Missouri Statesman," Colonel William F. Switzler and John B. Williams, editors.
The press on which the paper was printed was a small concern, with a wooden frame, iron bed, joints and platen. It was known to the printers' craft of the period as "the Ramage press." After its days of usefulness were long past, Colonel Switzler presented the old Ramage to the Mercantile Library Association.
J. M. Love and A. L. Gilstrap were the pioneers of Macon county
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journalism. They got together a plant and started the Bloomington Gazette in December, 1848. The first issne bears the date, December 26, and contains the following salutatory :
"With this issue we begin the publication of the Bloomington Gazette, the first newspaper venture ever atempted in Macon county. Today, with many misgivings, we launch our little newspaper boat on the broad, tempestuous sea of journalism, with a courge, neverthe- less, born of an honest purpose and lofty ambition, to so conduct our paper as to be most helpful to our little new town and community, morally, materially, socially and intellectually. While we disclaim any purpose to make our paper a 'party organ,' in any sense of that term- while we shall use our utmost endeavors to give our subscribers a clean, newsy, independent paper, we will advocate at all times such measures and support such men for public positions as, in our judgment, will best subserve the general good of our town and county, regardless of party advocacy or party affiliation. We will always be found advocating every good and worthy enterprise; whether of a moral or material character, calculating to help our struggling town.
"We will be glad to have a reliable correspondent in every neigh- borhood in the county, and will be glad to have our friends call at our office and give us any items of news calculated to make the Gazette interesting to its readers. Our terms are $1.50, invariably in advance. Advertising and job printing rates made known on application.
"Respectfully, "J. M. Love, "A. L. Gilstrap."
The prospectus of the Gazette was printed in Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Love stated that they had great difficulty in getting out the first number of the Gazette. The type was purchased at St. Louis, and through some oversight of the shipping clerk the lower case g's were not included, so the Gazette printers had to use the figure 9 as a substitute for the lower case g. The Gazette started out with a subscription list of about 500. For many years after its birth the Gazette office was a very interesting place to the country people who came to old Blooming- ton to get their mail and do their trading. They would always drop in to see the editor and listen to him explain that wonderful art called typography.
Soon after the town of Macon was established Captain Alexander H. Lacy, a printer of Hannibal, came over and started the "Macon Her- ald," which afterwards became "The Republican." While in Macon,
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within recent years, Captain Lacy related his experience with the Herald as follows:
"I had been working for Orion Clemens, 'Mark Twain's' brother, who published 'The Union.' Hudson and Macon were rival towns here, and we were constantly hearing great stories about how they were booming. So I came over here and started the Herald, first at Hudson and later moved it to Macon. The first publication was got out in the freight depot ; it was a modest affair, but I saw millions ahead and was willing to put up with a little discomfort while waiting for them.
"Coal had but recently been discovered at Bevier and the very atmosphere breathed prosperity and dueats. I got in on the ground floor with my paper. I recall a few business men. Jim Bagwell ran a store here; Dave MeCord, who. afterwards got into trouble with the law, operated a saloon; Sam Kem was in the tobacco business. Tobacco raising was the great industry of the period. Every farmer raised it, and there were any number of large buildings here called factories, where the leaf was handled and sold.
"George Bebee and Al Horton were the lawyers. Bob Bevier, after- wards the colonel of a Confederate regiment, and for whom the town of Bevier was named, was our representative in the Legislature. There were five saloons, but I don't recall any churches. Business was good. I daresay that we obtained in those days as much job printing as the offices here are now getting.
"In looking over Macon now I can hardly realize it is the same village where I started my little 2x4 newspaper. You have improved it until it resembles a regular city."
Captain Lacy sold the Herald to Colonel Abner Gilstrap, and after- wards ran papers in various parts of the state, finally returning to Hannibal about the beginning of the war. He served three years in the Third Missouri Cavalry, and while out recruiting came over to Macon and swore in a detachment of the Mulligan Brigade, which he found here, and which was christened "The Hell-Roaring Guards." They were all Irishmen, and a brave lot when there was any trouble on. After completing his time with the army, Captain Laey entered the railway postal service on the run between Quiney and St. Joseph.
Captain Lacy's latest work was the publication of the "Wet Moun- tain Tribune," at West Cliff, Colorado. He died there a few years ago.
Among the other early papers of Macon county were the following: The Bloomington Register, established in 1852, by Thomas B. Howe and Francis M. Daulton. It was Whig in politics. Mr. Daulton is yet
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HISTORY OF MACON COUNTY
living, running a country paper in Arkansas. He set type on the Hannibal Union with Sam Clemens.
Major Daulton was born in Ralls county, Missouri, May 27, 1832. He describes his Macon county experience as follows :
"After leaving the Hannibal Union in 1852 I went to Macon, and from there to old Bloomington, which was a thriving town then. There was a court house and fonr stage coach lines running to the town. Busi-
ness was very lively ; traffic on the stage lines was heavy. James Love was running the Gazette, the first paper printed in Macon county. Abner Gilstrap started a paper, and I took employment with him as head printer at $12 a week. After working a while I went over to Quincy and was married. When I returned to Bloomington Mr. Gil- strap ent my wages to $10 a week, on the theory, as he explained it, that two could live cheaper than one. I couldn't demonstrate the success of his arithmetic, and so I left Mr. Gilstrap, and Tom Howe and I bought out the Gazette. The cirenlation of the Gazette was only 200, but we got $2 a year for it. taking the pay in anything from tombstones to cradles.
"The editor and the printer in the country newspaper office at that time were about the same. The editor always set up most of his own copy, because, as some looked at it, it was safer to do that than to trust such important matter in the hands of a printer who might make mis- takes. Even today (1909) I follow the old habit of gathering news around town and then going to the type case and setting it up 'ont of my head.' "'
After leaving Macon county Major Danlton went to Illinois and in 1856 reported the Lincoln-Douglas debates for the Quincy Herald. He became well acquainted with the two great statesmen. Major Danlton said a peculiarity of Lincoln and Douglas was that they rarely dis- cussed politics except when they were on the platform. They traveled together, told funny stories and were, apparently, the best of friends.
In 1854 Rufus C. White launched the Messenger, a Democratic paper, at Bloomington. Thomas B. Howe and James E. Sharp com- menced the publication of the Bloomington Journal (Democratie), in 1855.
James M. Love and Harry Howard established the Macon Legion (Democratic), in 1859. The Legion was the last paper published in Bloomington.
D. E. H. Johnson published "The Register" at Macon in 1861. The First Iowa Infantry arrived at Macon in June, and took possession of the printing office. Johnson, whose sympathies were with the South,
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left town. C. L. Fowler, a member of the Iowa troops, was appointed editor, and the soldiers published one issue of "Our Whole Union," dated June 15, 1861. It was the first paper of the Civil war published by soldiers at the front. Following is a descriptive story taken from the paper :
"It is not often that one enters a printing office conducted under precisely the circumstances of the one in which 'Our Whole Union' is now being issued. Men in uniform stand at the cases, a row of gleaming muskets are stacked before the door, with a sentinel on guard. The editor's table is ornamented with a revolver, two bottles of-well- something to sustain a drooping spirit; in short, the only resemblance to a printing office is the click of the type and the music of the press."
The price of "Our Whole Union" was $1.50 a copy, paid in advance. Advertising rates were $1 a square, or $60 per column per year.
This is taken from the leading editorial :
"Johnson, wherever you are-whether lurking in the dim woods, hunting your cow, or a fugitive on the open plain, goodbye! We never saw you, never expect to, never want to, but for all that, old fel- low, we won't be proud. So, Johnson, goodbye. We drank some poor whiskey out of your bottle. You won't forget us, Johnson, will you?"
C. L. Fowler, who edited "Our Whole Union," is now staying at the National Military Home, Kansas. He was so pleased with his news- paper experience at Macon that he went into the business after the war and became quite noted as an editorial writer and publisher.
As far as known, there are now but two copies of "Our Whole Union" in existence. One is in a glass case in the State House at Des Moines. Another is the valned war relic of a soldier in Muscatine, Iowa.
In 1865 Colonel Clark H. Green, a man of considerable newspaper experience, established the Macon Times, and continued the publication up until his death, in the fall of 1871. The paper was then sold to W. C. B. Gillespie, Hez Purdom and John N. Howe, who published the paper until 1872, when Gillespie purchased Purdom's interest.
Gillespie & Howe ran the paper a few months. In the winter of 1872-73, T. A. H. Smith associated himself with Mr. Howe, and they purchased the interest of Mr. Gillespie. After operating a short while. the Times was consolidated with the Macon Democrat and called the Democratic Times, and passed into the hands of James M. Love and Edward C. Shain, who published it until the fall of 1874. In that year it was sold at trustee's sale to B. F. Stone and Walter Brown. Not long afterwards Mr. Stone purchased Brown's interest. In August, 1875, there was a wholesale consolidation of the Macon newspapers.
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The Democratic Times, the Macon Daily Pilot, by Baxton & Greene, and the Macon Journal, by John M. London, were amalgamated into one concern, and the Examiner Printing Company organized, with a capital stock of $10,000. In this combination Mr. Stone held the controlling interest, and a written contract that the paper should be continued as a Democratic journal. For a while a daily and weekly were published, but later the daily was discontinued. The Examiner was an early advocate of the nomination of Samuel J. Tilden for president on the Democratic ticket. When Tilden was nominated the paper was so active in his support that the county gave a Democratic majority of over 1,000 for the ticket. Before the close of the campaign the entire stock of the paper passed into Mr. Stone's hands. In the summer of 1877 Mr. Stone sold the establishment to Purdom & J. A. Hudson. In Febru- ary, 1878, Mr. Hudson sold his interest to I. J. Buster, one of the first country correspondents in Missouri. Purdom & Buster published the Examiner until the office was sold in the spring of 1879. Afterwards, the business, good will, and what was saved of material, were sold to W. C. B. Gillespie & C. H. Steele. The name of the paper was changed to the North Missouri Register. Gillespie & Steele sold to J. A. Hudson on the 1st of February, 1883. Mr. Hudson reorganized the office, put- ting in steam presses, and restored the original name of the paper, the Macon Times.
Mr. Hudson was one of the most energetic newspaper men the county ever had. He was an important figure in all the press associa- tions and in politics. Being a practical printer, and knowing the busi- ness from the ground up, he brought the Macon Times up to a standard which resulted in its being awarded a fine gold medal for being the best printed paper in Missouri. It is a fair assertion that the Macon Times acquired greater circulation and influence under the manage- ment of Mr. Hudson than it ever had before. When the campaign of 1896 came on the Macon Times was non-committal on the gold standard issue until its editor had thoroughly digested the problem. He spent almost all of his time in searching through St. Louis libraries and every- where he could find information on the subject of the two metals, gold and silver. The party in the west was clamoring for free silver. Mr. Hudson, as a result of his long and painstaking investigations, came to the conclusion that his party was wrong on the issne; that the gold standard was right, in order to maintain the prosperity of the country. He sneceeded in bringing quite a number of prominent Democrats around to his views, but the vast majority of his constituents favored William J. Bryan, the Democratic nominee for president, and free
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