Gray, 1859; John M. Greer, 1865; G. A. Gray, 1866; S. W. Durham, 1873; J. E. Lyman, 1875.

Superintendents of Schools.-Ira G. Fairbanks, Homer Bradshaw, P. W. Reeder, T. R. Eastman, William Langham, Eli Johnston.

Member of United States Congress.-Hon. William Smyth.

State Senators.-Isaac M Preston, 1852; William G. Thompson, 1856; H. G. Angle, 1860; J. B. Young, 1864; Robert Smyth, 1868; E. B. Kephart, 1872; S. L. Dows, 1874.

Representatives.-John McArthur, O. B. Stanchfield, E. A. Bates, J. E. Kurtz, J. B. Young, Charles Weare, A. E. Warner, J. S. McClure, W. D. Litzenburg, William Ure, E. H. Steadman, A. S. Belt, D. Lothian, J. Crawford, Isaac Milburn, J. P. Carbee, Adam Perry, A. M. McKeel, M. C. Jordan, William Ure, Irwin P. Bowdish.

THE COUNTY SEAT CONTEST.

The county seat of Linn County was established at Marion by a duly appointed Board of Commissioners, consisting of Richard Knott, Benjamin Nye and Lyman Dillon, who were designated by the Territorial Legislature of Iowa in the Winter of 1838-9. The history of the location of the seat of justice at this point is given in this volume under the caption of "Organization of Linn County."

As the years rolled by, leaving their impress in the form of the material changes worked by man in the several portions of the county, the question of removing the county seat became one of no slight interest to the people of Linn. The development of large industries at Cedar Rapids, by which means that city had grown to be the commercial metropolis of the county, naturally awakened a desire on the part of the citizens of that place to add to their town the name of local capital. The spirit which fosters the marvelous advancement of civilization in the West is of a character to arouse opposition from that which is established, inasmuch as the essence of its power is innovation. By the same principle as that which governed the citizens of Cedar Rapids, the electors of the central and northern sections of the county repelled the efforts to re-locate the seat of justice. It was urged by the Marionites that the geographical eligibility of Marion was of a nature to outweigh all other considerations; but that, in addition to the wise selection of this point by the original commission, the fact that such choice had been made coeval with the establishment of the county itself should settle the dispute forever in favor of retaining the present site.

On the other hand, the restless activity of Cedar Rapids men rendered it impossible for an adjudication less formal than that of the ballot box to determine the strength of the respective factions, and the issue of "buildings or no buildings" for a time swallowed up all other questions, political or civil, in the county canvasses.

While this feeling was running high throughout Linn County, the Legislature of Iowa, in 1850-1, created the office of County Judge, an office which was designed to and did succeed the former legislative bodies of the several counties of the State. To this Judge were delegated powers equal to those possessed by the Board of Supervisors which controls the fiscal affairs of the county at the present writing. Among the rights and privileges peculiar to the office was that most important one of submitting to the people the question of raising moneys for the erection or repair of buildings for the use of the several county officers. The law empowering the County Judge to act in this supervising capacity may be found in the Code of Iowa for 1851, and need not be quoted here.

At the date now referred to, 1855, as being one of the most interesting in the history of this struggle, and which may properly be termed the culminating period in the old issue, the distinguished and responsible post of Judge of Linn County was held by the Hon. James M. Berry. In pursuance with the law and in the observance of what he evidently deemed his official duty, Judge Berry took steps to effect the erection of the present jail and fire-proof building used as county offices, which structures, together with the Court House, are usually collectively spoken of as the "County Buildings.' The jail and offices were contracted for by Messrs. Scott, Hubbell & Cooper, of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, in the Spring of 1855, and work was begun upon them.

This positive action aroused to a still higher degree the already warm feelings of the people of both sides, until, from constant agitation, public sentiment literally was at fever heat. Political questions were lost sight of in the din and smoke of the "Court House fight," as it was called. Speakers devoted time and energy to the work. The press chose sides and vigorously defended the cause, pro and con. Judge Berry's terin of office expired in 1855, and his successor was to be elected in August of that year. Naturally, the opportunity to test the matter in a square manner at the polls was improved. The Judge was named for re-election by the advocates of Marion's claims to the seat, and the Rev. Elias Skinner, of Cedar Rapids, was put in nomination by the Cedar Rapids faction. The canvass which followed these conventions was animated in the extreme, and many interesting and amusing incidents are related concerning it; but impartial judgment decides that it is better to omit from this simple record recitals that might create unpleasant feeling. It is the writer's sole purpose to state facts as they are gleaned from a multitude of oral testimony, but from exceedingly meager written evidence.

The result of the election was, in aggregate, 1,233 ballots for Judge Berry, and 993 ballots for Mr. Skinner. The Judge was, therefore, re-elected by a majority of 240 votes, thereby practically affirming his policy in the case and, for the time being, settling the question of re-location adversely to the interests of Cedar Rapids. The buildings were completed and the agitation subsided.

From that time until the year 1871, no overt demonstration was made toward the removal of the county seat. In 1871, however, the question again assumed definite form and engaged the attention of those who were acknowledged leaders of public sentiment and public policy. The all-absorbing subject of the civil war had silenced those who thought of local issues, during the memorable decade of the '60's, and driven from political councils all pettier interests than the preservation of the Union. Whatever of personal conflict there may have been engendered by the minor problems of sectional polity, there was here no trace of jealousies in the unanimous advocacy of the salvation of the nation's life. So, during the years which intervened between the "fight of 1855 and the final calm which settled over the country after the national election of 1868, the re-location of the seat of representatives was an ignored if not a forgotten topic. Gradually public interest revived the old-time excitation of feeling, and the people of Linn found an agreeable diversion in the renewal of the contest. The lessons of the war had taught men to throw their whole energies into whatever measures were offered relative to public affairs, and hence it is not surprising to discover evidences of a still more marked contention among the rival factions.

Of the secret undercurrent of thought and argument which flowed through the few years just prior to 1871, there is no very satisfactory record, but the

character thereof is manifested by the documents now on file in the Auditor's office. From these papers it is necessary to quote liberally.

At the June session of the Board of Supervisors, a legislative body which had succeeded the County Judge, upon the abolishment of that office (a record of which transformation will be found in the chapter on "Organization" already referred to), it was ordered that all petitions relative to the re-location of the county seat be filed by June 6, 1871, at 9 A. M. of that day, and that all tests against the removal of the county seat be filed by 3 P. M. of that day. This order shows that steps had been taken to secure an expression of public sentiment on the subject.

It

At the time prescribed in the order of the Board, petitions and remonstrances were duly presented and placed on file. So voluminous were these documents that one week was spent by the Board in making an examination of them. On the 12th of June, a report was made to the Board by the examiners. was then stated that many names appeared in duplicate upon the petition, and upon the remonstrance also; whereupon, the legal counsel for the remonstrants moved that the Board count such names as being in favor of retaining the seat at Marion. The Board, however, resolved to omit such signatures from the records entirely.

The day following this action, the Board adopted a code of rules by which to be governed in their proceedings. Both factions were represented before the honorable body by able lawyers, who watched with careful eye the minutest detail of the delicate and laborious task imposed on the Board. Daily sessions were held by the Supervisors until the 15th of June, at which time the counsel for the petitioners confessed that they had no case, and proceedings were stopped.

It appears that the reason for this action of the petitioners was the ruling of the Board, in compliance with law, that all names attached to both petition and remonstrance, no matter which was signed first, should be counted only among the remonstrants.

In the case at issue, there was presented, first, a simple petition for the re-location of the county seat, as follows:

To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Linn Co., Iowa: The undersigned, citizens and legal voters of said county, do hereby petition your Honorable Board to order: That at the next general election to be held in said county of Linn, to wit: on the second Tuesday of October, A. D. 1871, the question of the re-location of the county seat of said county at the city of Cedar Rapids, in said county, may be submitted to the legal and qualified voters thereof, and that a vote may be taken between the said designated place and the existing county seat.

In opposition to the above there was offered the following remonstrance: STATE OF IOWA, LINN COUNTY, SS: Whereas, A petition signed by various voters in this county will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at the June Session, A D. 1871, of said Board, asking and petitioning for the re-location of the county seat of said county, to the end that the said Board of Supervisors submit the question of the re-location of said county seat to be voted upon at the next general election thereafter, and,

Whereas, We, the undersigned, citizens and legal voters of said county of Linn, State of Iowa, being in favor of the county seat remaining at Marion, where it now is. and being opposed to the re-location of the same at Cedar Rapids, do hereby remonstrate against the re-location of the same, and remonstrate against locating said county seat at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and remonstrate against the Board of Supervisors submitting the question of the re-location of said county seat to be voted upon at the next election.

Then appeared the petitioners, armed with a formidable bundle of documents. bearing the heading quoted below, and which was termed the "iron-clad petition" by those most interested in the retention of the seat at Marion :

To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Linn County, Iowa: The undersigned, citizens and legal voters of said county of Linn, do hereby state to your Honorable Board, that we were induced by false statements and a misunderstanding to sign a remonstrance against the

petitions now being circulated, asking that at the next general election to be held in said county of Linn, on the 2d Tuesday in October, A. D. 1871, the question of the re-location of the county seat of said county, at the city of Cedar Rapids, in said county, may be submitted to the legal and qualified voters thereof: we and each of us do therefore hereby request and demand that our respective names be erased from said remonstrance and be retained and counted on the petition only, and we hereby authorize the Chairman of the said Board of Supervisors to so erase the same from the said remonstrance.

Witness our hands in May, 1871.

The exact numerical strength of the three petitions is nowhere recorded, as the official count was never completed. It became apparent to the petitioners that their case was gone, since the names attached to the "iron-clad " paper could only be counted as remonstrants, and they quietly withdrew from the field. Their withdrawal, however, was not an evidence of discouragement, for they are again seen coming to the front, in 1872, armed with petitions bearing the following proposition:

STATE OF IOWA, COUNTY OF LINN, SS.-To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Linn County: The undersigned, citizens and legal voters of said county, do hereby petition your Honorable Board, that at the September meeting thereof, A. D. 1872, you order :

That at the next general election, to be held in said county of Linn, to wit: on the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November, A. D. 1872, the question of the re-location of the county seat of said county, at the city of Cedar Rapids, in said county, may be submitted to the legal and qualified voters thereof, and that a vote may be taken between the said designated place and the existing county seat.

[The electors of Cedar Rapids, in presenting the petition to the electors of the county, make the following proposition: In case a majority of the legal voters of the county shall sign the petition, and the Board of Supervisors shall order a vote to be taken at the November election, 1872, in accordance with the prayer of the same, the people of Cedar Rapids, will, within the next twenty days after such vote is ordered, secure to be paid to the county of Linn, in lawful money of the United States, not less than the sum of $25,000, for the erection of a Court House and county offices at Cedar Rapids, to be paid to the county at such time and times as shall be designated and required by the Board of Supervisors; also, at least one-half block of lots for a site for such Court House and offices, centrally and eligibly located in the city of Cedar Rapids, shall be secured to the county, free of expense, to the satisfaction of the Board of Supervisors; also, the use of the City Hall in Cedar Rapids, together with such offices for the county records and county offices as shall be deemed necessary by the Board of Supervisors, free of expense to the county, until a new Court House and offices shall be built at Cedar Rapids.

This proposition and these promises, although of no legal validity in this form, yet they are made here and now, that the people of the county may know just exactly what Cedar Rapids proposes to do in the event of a removal of the county sent. As soon as a vote is ordered by the Board of Supervisors, then the foregoing proposition and promises will be put into legal contracts with the Board of Supervisors to their satisfaction. If the people of Cedar Rapids fail to do this within twenty days from the day of ordering the vote, the people of the county will have the power in their own hands to vote against the removal of the county seat, and thus administer a just rebuke, if they shall fail to make good the above propositions and promises.]

Dated this

day of August, 1872.

The Marionites met the Cedar Rapids project with this brief remonstrance: WHEREAS, A petition signed by the various voters of this county will be presented to the Board of Supervisors at the September Session, A. D. 1872, of said Board, asking and petitioning for the re-location of the county seat of said county, therefore we, the undersigned, legal voters of said county, remonstrate against granting the prayer of said petitioners.

As the text of these documents shows, the September Session of the Board became an exceedingly exciting one. The work of gathering names on the petitions began in the Spring of '72, and Marion had guaranteed the sum of $5,000 to be employed in making certain needed repairs on the Court House building. The proposition to raise the money in Marion was made to the Board at the August meeting, on the 23d of that month, but was laid over for final action until the September session.

On the 2d of September, the Board ordered that all papers be filed by 10 A. M. of September 4th. On the latter date, an objection was raised to the petition by the Marion people because of the appearance of certain names thereon which did not appear in the last preceding census. The law was

explicit on this point, and provided that no resident who had taken up his abode in the county subsequent to the taking of the census of 1870 was a valid petitioner. The Board sustained the remonstrants, in their ruling given September 5th, on this issue. The petitioners thereupon took formal exception to the decision. Certain technical questions were also raised by the petitioners, because of the manner of verification of the remonstrance, but were overruled.

The precise strength of these petitions and counter-petitions is not given. It became evident that the petitioners were in the minority, and the case was dropped.

The Cedar Rapids advocates took some preliminary steps toward an appeal from the decision of the Board, but the case was stricken from the court docket before it came to trial.

At the present writing, the prolonged "County Seat Conflict" must be regarded as in statu quo ante bellum.

THE ERA OF OUTLAWRY.

PREFATORY.

About the confines of American civilization, there has always hovered, like scouts before the march of an invading army, a swarm of bold, enterprising, adventurous criminals. The broad, untrodden prairies, the trackless forests, the rivers, unbroken by the keels of commerce, furnished admirable refuge for those whose crimes drove them from companionship with the honest and lawabiding. Hovering there, where courts and civil processes could afford but a weak bulwark of protection against their evil and dishonest purposes and practices, the temptation to prey upon the comparatively unprotected sons of toil, rather than to gain a livelihood by the slow process of honest industry, has proved too strong to be resisted. Some of these reckless characters sought the outskirts of advancing settlements for the express purpose of theft and robbery; some because they dare not remain within reach of efficient laws; others, of limited means, but ambitious to secure homes of their own, and with honesty of purpose, exchanged the comforts and protection of law afforded by the old, settled and populous districts for life on the frontiers, and not finding all that their fancy painted, were tempted into crime by apparent immunity from punishment. In all new countries, the proportion of the dishonest and criminal has been greater than in the older and better regulated communities where courts are permanently established and the avenues of escape from punishment for wrong-doing more securely guarded.

When white people first began to enter upon and possess the Cedar River country, there were but two counties organized west of the Mississippi River, even to the Pacific Ocean, if we except the counties of Missouri. These two counties were Dubuque and Des Moines. They extended from the flag staff at Fort Armstrong back into the country forty miles, and from the Missouri State line northward to a line running westward from Prairie du Chien. It was a vast scope of country, and afforded secure hiding places for outlaws and desperadoes. When the rich prairies, beautiful forests and magnificent valleys began to attract honest imn.igration, human vultures followed in the rear or settled down in the midst of the industrious, toiling pioneers, to prey upon their substance, well knowing that, by reason of the unorganized condition of society, there would be comparative freedom and immunity from detection and punishment.

In 1837, the country began to be flooded with counterfeit money-in fact, says our informant, there was more counterfeit money than there was of good.