History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/1/19
AT the April election of 1846 thirty-two delegates were chosen to frame a State constitution. The convention met at Iowa City on the 4th of May and was organized by the election of Enos Lowe, President, and William Thompson, Secretary. The work was completed on the 19th day of the same month. The boundaries of the State were fixed as they now exist and many of the provisions of the Constitution were almost an exact copy of the one lately rejected by the people. The most important changes were those prohibiting the establishment of banks and the issue of paper money, and dispensing with a Lieutenant-Governor. At an election held on the 3d of August this Constitution was adopted by the people by a vote of 9,492 for, to 9,036 against it. The absolute prohibition of banks aroused a strong opposition which came near defeating the Constitution.
The boundaries proposed were generally acceptable, though the conflict with Missouri was not settled until several years later. It must be conceded that this first Constitution was, in the main, wisely framed and well adapted to the conditions of the people of the new State. The country had suffered severely from bank failures, depreciated and worthless bank bills, until public confidence in banks and paper currency was nearly destroyed. The only bank chartered by the Territory had failed and the people of Iowa determined to protect themselves from further disaster in that direction by absolute prohibition. The majority could not then foresee that such a policy would result in flooding Iowa with currency of doubtful value from the banks of distant States, over which our State exercised no control.
In September Governor Clarke issued a proclamation for the election of State officers and members of the Legislature. The Democratic State Convention was held at Iowa City on the 24th of September, at which Ansel Briggs was nominated for Governor; Elisha Cutler, Secretary of State; J. T. Fales, Auditor; and Morgan Reno, Treasurer. Shepherd Leffler, of Des Moines County, and S. C. Hastings, of Muscatine, were nominated for Representatives in Congress, for since no apportionment had yet been made of Congressional Districts, the Representatives were to be elected by the State at large. The platform adopted by this first Democratic State Convention embraced the following declarations:
2. Approved the independent Treasury bill and settlement of the Oregon boundary.
3. Endorsed the repeal of the tariff of 1842 and approved tariff for revenue only.
4. Pronounced unalterable opposition to all banking institutions of whatever name, nature or description.
5. Favored unlimited suffrage to free men without property qualification or religious tests; opposed the grant of exclusive privileges to corporations.
The first Whig State Convention met at Iowa City on the 25th of September and placed in nomination the following candidates:
For Governor, Thomas McKnight; Secretary of State, James H. Cowles; Auditor, Easten Morris; Treasurer, Egbert T. Smith; Representatives in Congress, Joseph H. Hedrick, of Wapello, and G. C. R. Mitchell, of Scott County.
The platform adopted declared in favor of,
2. A tariff for revenue and protection to American labor.
3. Restraint of the Executive from exercise of the veto.
4. Distribution of proceeds of the sale of public lands among the States.
5. One term only for the President.
6. Improvement of rivers and harbors by the general Government.
7. Condemned the administration of James K. Polk.
8. Condemned the State constitution recently adopted, with pledge to labor for its speedy amendment.
The Legislature to be chosen was expected to elect two United States Senators and three judges of the State Supreme Court. The election resulted in the success of the Democratic candidates. S. C. Hastings and Shepherd Leffler, Democrats, were elected to Congress.
On the 15th of December, A. C. Dodge, Delegate from Iowa, presented to the House of Representatives the Constitution of the State of Iowa.
It was referred to the Committee on Territories and on the 17th Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois, from that committee, reported a bill for the admission of Iowa into the Union. On the 21st the bill passed the House and was sent to the Senate. On the 24th it was taken up in the Senate, having been approved by the judiciary committee. After an attempt to amend it had failed, the bill passed the Senate. On the 28th of December, 1846, the President signed the bill and Iowa became a State. On the 29th Shepherd Leffler and Serranus C. Hastings, who were in Washington, took the oath of office and their seats as the first Representatives in Congress from the State of Iowa. Congress granted to the new State for the support of public schools the sixteenth section of each township, amounting in the aggregate to 1,013,614 acres.
On the 5th of June, 1846, a treaty had been concluded with the Pottawattamie Indians, who occupied a large tract of country in the western portion of the State, by which they relinquished their lands in Iowa to the United States. By the terms of the treaty the Indians were not required to remove from their lands until two years had elapsed. But a series of events transpired in neighboring States which hastened the occupation of their lands before the time fixed.
The first attempt to found a colony of the followers of the Mormon Prophet, Joseph Smith, was made at Kirkland, Ohio, where Sidney Rigdon lived. Rigdon had been an eloquent minister of the Christian (Campbellite) church in Kirkland and had met Joseph Smith soon after he claimed to have found the plates on which a revelation was inscribed, and from which the Mormon Bible was produced. Rigdon assisted Smith in procuring the printing of the Bible and on the 6th of April, 1830, they organized the “Church of Latter Day Saints.” Converts were made by the eloquent preacher, Rigdon, who acted as a missionary and on the First of January, 1831, they had secured more than one thousand members and believers in the new religion. Smith claimed to have a second revelation commanding him to found a colony of the saints in the far West and build a temple in the New Jerusalem. A location was chosen in the vicinity of Independence, Missouri, where a large tract of land was secured, houses built, farms opened and the foundation laid for the temple. The Mormons from Kirkland and converts from all quarters gathered at the New Jerusalem until several hundred were assembled. But the citizens of western Missouri were intensely hostile to the new sect and finally a large mob gathered, attacked the Mormon colony, destroying their printing office and other buildings and flogging some of their members. Governor Boggs finally called out nearly five thousand of the State militia, under General J. B. Clark, with instructions “to exterminate the Mormons, or drive them beyond the borders of the State.” This militia general at once proceeded to execute the orders. A large number of the leaders were arrested, their families driven from their homes at the point of the bayonet and the entire colony hurriedly sent destitute out upon the bleak prairie late in November, without even tents to protect them from the driving storms. The rivers and creeks were unbridged and filled with floating ice; the snow was deep, impeding their progress, many were killed, others desperately wounded, families separated, women and children sick and dying for want of food, shelter and proper care. The oxen, which were their only teams, died of starvation. Disease and death daily claimed victims.
Mothers carried their starving children, themselves perishing with hunger and fatigue. The dead were thrust into rude bark coffins and sunk in the rivers. At last 1,200 emaciated people in all stages of disease and starvation reached the banks of the Mississippi River, where the strongest crossed. The people of Iowa and Illinois treated them kindly, furnished food and such shelter as was available. Their leaders had been captured, such as were not killed, and paraded from one jail to another, tormented in a manner that stamps their enemies as more cruel and barbarous than Indians. At Howe’s Mills twenty prisoners were confined in a log building, the door fastened and the mob, joining the State militia, fired upon the helpless prisoners through the crevices between the logs until all were killed or desperately wounded. One little boy, nine years of age, who had escaped the massacre at the log shop by hiding under a forge, was dragged out and murdered in cold blood, while the savage white men cheered and danced around the dying boy and the nineteen other victims.
These whites were the ancestors of the “Border Ruffians,” who, a quarter of a century later, invaded the Territory of Kansas and slaughtered her citizens in a war waged to spread human slavery; and in the Civil War, under the lead of Quantrell, murdered more than a hundred defenseless citizens of Lawrence in the presence of their families. The State authorities finally grew sick of the atrocities perpetrated by the militia that they were unable to control and permitted the escape of the survivors of the Mormon leaders, who finally reached the refugees who were finding shelter in Iowa and Illinois.
It was in the fall of 1838 that the Mormons were expelled from Missouri and some of them settled in Lee County, Iowa, but the larger number crossed the Mississippi and erected temporary shelter for the winter. Dr. Isaac Galland, a Mormon elder, was the owner of a large tract of land on both sides of the river and sold it to the refugees on liberal terms. In February, 1839, Dr. Galland wrote to Governor Robert Lucas, of Iowa, inquiring whether their people would be permitted to purchase land and settle in the Territory of Iowa. The Governor replied that he knew of no authority that could deprive them of that right; that as citizens of the United States they were entitled to the same rights and legal protection as other citizens.
Thus encouraged a few Mormon families expelled from Missouri settled in the southeast corner of the Territory in 1839 and 1840. Bishop Knight bought for his church a part of the town sites of Keokuk, Nashville and Montrose, in Lee County, and larger tracts of the vicinity. In 1840 there were over one hundred Mormon families living in that county. Across the river from Montrose was the little town of Commerce, started by New York speculators; this the Mormons purchased, changing its name to Nauvoo. Joseph Smith, their Prophet, came from imprisonment in Missouri and pronounced Nauvoo the seat of the church. It soon grew into a large city, as the Mormons gathered from all of their former settlements and the foundation of a large temple was laid. Great numbers of converts came from England and joined the Nauvoo colony.
A revelation in July, 1843, permitting a plurality of wives, raised a storm of indignation in the surrounding settlements, and it was charged that the Mormons harbored criminals. Joseph Smith was arrested in June, 1844, together with other leaders. The arrests had been made by a company of soldiers on order of Governor Ford, of Illinois. The Mormon leaders were lodged in jail at Carthage and charged with riot. On the 27th a
MORMON HAND-CART TRAIN
Passing Over the Iowa Prairie in 1846-7.
mob numbering about two hundred men, disguised as Indians, attacked the guards at the jail, overpowered them, broke down the door, killing Joseph Smith and his brother Hiram, and severely wounding several others. From time to time conflicts arose between the citizens and the Mormons, some of whom had purchased claims and settled on the half-breed lands in Iowa. Although the Mormons had built a city of nearly 20,000 at Nauvoo and erected a temple for public worship and had become the owners of valuable farms in the vicinity, their lives and property were so continuously in jeopardy, that they finally determined to abandon all and seek safety by emigration. Their religion and peculiar social practices were so obnoxious to their neighbors, that they realized the necessity of colonizing their people in distant, unsettled regions, if they would secure religious freedom.
In the fall of 1845 they began to dispose of their property and prepared to emigrate westward into Iowa. Brigham Young, who had succeeded Joseph Smith, led the main body across the river, beginning the journey in February, 1846. A large number, including many sick, aged and poor, had to be left behind until a new home could be provided. The transfer of 16,000 into Iowa was finally completed. The line of 3,000 wagons, 30,000 head of cattle, horses and mules, large flocks of sheep and the thousands of men, women and children made up such a vast caravan as had never before been seen in America.
Heavy cold rains fell and the rich black soil was converted into deep mud. Some days but two or three miles’ progress could be made before the weaker gave out, and a camp had to be made on the water-soaked ground where death came often to end the suffering of the sick. The burials were pathetic. In place of a coffin the body was inclosed in bark stripped from green logs and buried in a shallow trench and the grave was marked by a post.
On the 27th of April, 1846, the first party stopped in what is now Decatur County and built rude log houses for shelter, while breaking up the prairie to raise crops upon which to subsist when they should resume their march. This settlement they named Garden Grove and here several hundred made a temporary home for such, as were worn down by suffering. When the high bluffs of Grand River were reached, in what is now Union County, on the 17th day of June, seven hundred of the Mormons determined to stop and raise crops to supply provisions for themselves and those who were to follow them. They selected a ridge on the east side of Grand River, covered with a beautiful grove of oak and elm and gently sloping into the broad valley. Here they built log cabins and dug caves on each side of the long street on the summit of the ridge.
A mill was built by their mechanics; native bowlders were dressed into mill stones and the machinery run by horse power. They erected a tabernacle in the grove and provided a cemetery in which their numerous dead were buried. A great spring on the east slope of the ridge furnished an abundance of pure water for the entire population of “Mount Pisgah,” the name they gave to this rude city in the wilderness. During the two and a half years the Mormons occupied this place, thousands of their brethren found it a most welcome stopping place on their journey to Kanesville and westward. The remnant left at Nauvoo was persecuted beyond endurance by the people who had flocked into the city after the main body of the Mormons had left, and on the 17th of September they were driven out. Crossing the river under the lead of Heber C. Kimball, wagons and hand carts were procured and in October they started West.
Poorly equipped for such a journey over the unsettled prairies, the women and children suffered greatly from insufficient clothing and food. Traveling by day over the trackless prairie, fording unbridged and swollen streams, amid floating ice and fierce snow storms, camping nights on the snow-covered ground, protected only by tents, their sufferings were fearful. Sickness from exposure prevailed to an alarming extent, and death by the wayside ended the misery of hundreds.
Their trail could be followed for years by the graves that marked the pathway of their journey through Van Buren, Davis, Appanoose, Decatur and Union counties. No such scenes have ever been witnessed in Iowa as marked the winter march of the Mormon refugees over its unsettled prairies. When Mount Pisgah was reached they found rest and shelter and kind hands to minister to their wants. More than four hundred men, women and children who died from the effects of exposure and hardships of the exodus of 1846-7 were buried in the Mormon cemetery at this place.
In 1888 the Mormon authorities at Salt Lake caused a monument to be erected here to the memory of the dead, who for the most part sleep in unmarked graves in this inclosure. On the monument are inscribed the names of William Huntington, the First Presiding Elder of Mount Pisgah and sixty-seven others. C. A. White, a pioneer settler here, has long had charge of this Mormon cemetery, which is often visited by high officials of the Latter Day Saints and surviving friends of those who perished during the exodus of 1846-7. A number of the Mormon families remained at Garden Grove, Mount Pisgah, Lost Grove, Sargent’s Grove and Indiantown. Others made claims, built cabins and opened farms along the line of march. But the main body pushed on to the Missouri River, where a village was built in the southwest corner of Mills County. The greater number, however, went northward and located on Indian Creek and built a town near where Council Bluffs now stands, which they named Kanesville.
In the persecution which the Mormons endured in the early years of their residence in the western States and Territories, Iowa never joined. Our people and State officials have respected the right of American citizens to hold such religious opinions as they chose and to enjoy the protection of our laws. Bigotry has never obtained among our citizens. Claiming the utmost freedom of religious opinion for themselves, they have always conceded to others the same constitutional right. The kind treatment of the Mormons by Governor Lucas is in marked contrast with that of the officials and citizens of Missouri and Illinois.
In 1847 Brigham Young led an expedition over the plains to Salt Lake, where he selected a location for the future home of the Mormons. In June 1848 the second expedition, consisting of six hundred and twenty-three wagons and nearly two thousand persons, joined the colony at Salt Lake. Those who remained spread over the country now embraced in Mills and Pottawattamie counties, making their headquarters at Kanesville. Elder Orson Hyde was their leader. Under his direction a large tabernacle of logs was erected for their religious meetings and another for school purposes. The farmers among them settled along the creeks and in the groves, and opened farms to supply provisions for the colony. During the year 1849 cholera of a deadly type was brought into their settlements and prevailed for nearly two years. The people, who were almost destitute of experienced physicians and suitable medicines, were living in poor cabins and in every way little prepared to encounter this terrible, pestilence. Hundreds died without medical attendance. The bluffs were thickly dotted with new-made graves. Each year large parties of Mormons left the Iowa settlement to join the Salt Lake colony.
In 1852 an imperative order was issued for all to emigrate to Utah, and, disposing of their houses and farms, and under the lead of Elder Orson Hyde, they crossed the great plains. Some, however, who were opposed to polygamy, remained in Iowa and reorganized the “Church of the Latter Day Saints,” and finally established headquarters at Lamoni, in Decatur County, under the lead of Joseph Smith, Jr., son of the founder of the Mormon Church.
When Iowa became a State, the era of railroad building had not begun. Inland transportation was largely by canals, lakes and rivers. In the absence of these, stage coaches carried passengers and freight was transported by wagons. Navigable rivers were the natural highways and a liberal policy was pursued by the general government in removing obstructions and otherwise improving these arteries of inland navigation. The people of Iowa believed that by a system of dams and locks the Des Moines, Iowa and Cedar rivers could be made navigable for many miles during a large portion of the year. With the two rivers of the continent navigable to the ocean making the east and west boundaries of the State, Iowa products could reach the markets of the world by continuous water navigation. The improvement of the largest inland river flowing into the Mississippi, it was believed, would extend navigation far into the interior of the new State. Congress had been persuaded in August, 1846, to make a grant of lands for the improvement of the navigation of the Des Moines River. The grant conveyed for this purpose every alternate section of public land on each side and within the limits of five miles from the river. This grant was to become the property of the State as soon as it was admitted and to be devoted to the improvement of the river from its mouth to the Raccoon Fork.
The lands thus granted, and accepted by the State upon the conditions imposed by Congress, were to be selected by agents to be appointed by the Governor, and could only be disposed of as work of improvement of the river progressed. Jesse Williams, J. H. Bonney and Robert Cock were the commissioners appointed to select the lands. The population of Iowa at this time was 102,388.
The first Legislature convened at Iowa City on the 30th of November, 1846. The Senate consisted of nineteen members, and elected Thomas Baker (Democrat), of Polk County, President. The House consisted of forty members, and elected Jesse B. Browne (Whig), of Lee County, Speaker. The Democrats had a majority in the Senate and the Whigs a majority in the House. But local issues had, in Lee County, overshadowed party considerations to such an extent that it was doubtful whether the Democrats would be able to command a majority on joint ballot for their candidates for Supreme Judges and United States Senators.
On the 3d day of December, 1846, Ansel Briggs was inaugurated the first Governor of Iowa and delivered a brief address to the General Assembly, making no recommendations. The Democrats held an early caucus and made the following nominations: for United States Senators, Thomas S. Wilson, of Dubuque; and Augustus C. Dodge, of Burlington; for Judges of the Supreme Court, S. C. Hastings, John F. Kinney and George Greene. It required thirty votes on joint ballot to elect. The Democrats had eleven members of the Senate, the Whigs eight. In the House the Whigs had twenty members and the Democrats seventeen, with three Independents. Huner, of the Senate, and Conlee and Clifton of the House, all from Lee County, had been elected on the “Settlers” ticket, and King of Mahaska had been elected as an Independent. These four votes were uncertain. Clifton, Conlee and Huner were Democrats but would not support the Democratic candidates for Senators. Jonathan McCarthy, of Lee County was the only Whig these men would support and as the Whigs had no hope of success without their votes, they reluctantly agreed to support McCarthy as one of their candidates. Huner was personally hostile to A. C. Dodge and refused to vote for him. On the 18th day of September the joint convention was held. The House was packed with people from over the State. Amidst suppressed but intense excitement the roll call began. Every eye turned upon the doubtful
ANSEL BRIGGS
First Governor of the State, 1846-1850.
members as their names were called. Clifton, Conlee and Huner all voted for McCarthy, but to the surprise of all, a stanch Whig, Fullenwider, cast his vote for Mitchell, thus defeating McCarthy’s election. The vote stood, McCarthy twenty-nine, Wilson twenty-eight, and Mitchell one. It required thirty votes to elect. As Huner, Conlee and Clifton would under no circumstances vote for the regular Democratic candidates, their election was impossible. As Fullenwider would not vote for McCarthy, and the three Lee County Independents would support no other Whig, it became evident that the Senators could not be elected. With the aid of Conlee and Clifton the Democrats adjourned the joint convention to January 5, 1847. The next day, December 19, the Legislature also adjourned until the same date. Before the time fixed for reassembling Mr. Conlee died.
Senator Huner now determined to become a candidate. He divulged his plan to Clifton. The votes of these two members added to the entire Democratic strength would elect. As Huner and Clifton were Democrats, they believed the Democrats might accept Huner as one of the Senators, rather than fail to elect Senators and Supreme Judges. But when the scheme was proposed the Democrats declined to accept Huner in place of A. C. Dodge. They proposed, however, to drop Dodge (to whom Huner was hostile) and elect in his place Verplank Van Antwerp. But Huner refused to help them elect any one unless he could be one of the Senators. Rather than submit to such a disreputable bargain the Democrats determined to prevent the reassembling of a joint convention and allow the State to remain unrepresented until the meeting of the next General Assembly. Having a clear majority in the Senate, they were able to defeat all efforts of the Whigs of that body to again meet the House in joint convention and the Legislature adjourned without electing Senators or Judges.
The salaries of State officers were fixed as follows: Governor, $1,000; Auditor, $600; Secretary of State, $500; Treasurer, $400; Judges of the Supreme Court and District Courts, $1,000 each. For the purpose of defraying the expenses of the State government an act was passed authorizing the issue and sale of bonds to the amount of $55,000, bearing interest at ten per cent. and payable in ten years. Acts of general interest were passed as follows: to complete the change from Territorial to State government; to provide for election of United States Senators; to authorize general incorporations; to establish the new counties of Ringgold, Taylor, Page and Fremont; to provide a system of common schools, a general revenue law, for the election of a Superintendent of Public Instruction and the management of the school fund; to accept the grant of lands to improve the navigation of the Des Moines River; to create a Board of Public Works to carry on improvement. John Brown, Joseph D. Hoag and John Taylor were appointed commissioners to locate the permanent seat of government for the State near the geographical center, to lay off one section in lots, reserve a square of five acres for a Capitol building, sell two lots in each block, the proceeds to be held for the erection of a State House. An act was passed to provide for the navigation of the Skunk River and to remove obstructions below the forks in Keokuk County. Joint resolutions were passed asking for a grant of lands to improve the navigation of the Iowa and Cedar rivers and also to aid in the construction of a military road from Keokuk, via the Raccoon Forks of the Des Moines River to the Missouri River opposite the mouth of the Platte, to be a part of a national highway to Oregon Territory.
The State was divided into two Congressional districts. The first consisted of the counties of Lee, Van Buren, Jefferson, Wapello, Davis, Appanoose, Henry, Mahaska, Monroe, Marion, Jasper, Polk, Keokuk and all territory south of a line running from the northwest corner of Polk to the Missouri River. The remainder of the State constituted the Second District. The State was divided into four judicial districts, in each of which a judge was to be elected for a term of five years. An act was passed providing for a State University at Iowa City. The two townships of land granted by Congress were donated to the University. After accomplishing a vast amount of work in the establishment of a complete system of State government, the Legislature closed its session on the 25th of February.