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[pow] erless in action for good, by your secession
movement. Secession! Secession!! There is no
such thing as peaceable secession, and the scenes already
being enacted by your State and by the Government at
Washington prove the assertion. If you persist in your
course, you will destroy yourselves and us too. You
will engulf us in the terrible maëlstrom of civil
war; widen the breach now already open; compel those
who are otherwise your friends to take part against
you.
"The wise master-builder counts
the cost of the edifice before building. The sage ruler,
contemplating war with a neighboring nation, sits down
and calculates the number of men and the amount of money
necessary to carry it on. Have you estimated the value
of the advantages you propose to enjoy out of the Union,
over and above those which are in it? I entreat you,
as you love your country and mankind, to consider well
the course you are taking—a course that will plunge
the nation into bloody war and destroy, for this age
at least, the hopes of the friends of Christianity and
Peace, also of Civilization and Progress, of Commerce
and Agriculture.
"O that the Being who controls the
destiny of nations would intervene and spare our people
and prosper us as He has hitherto done!
Yours very respectfully,
"J. T. Young."
The Sentinel suspended
on the 2d of November, 1861.
The Jeffersonian Blade
was a contemporary of the Sentinel, and was
Republican in politics. It was established January 26,
1860, by James Noffsinger. In May, 1861, Noffsinger
retired, and Geo. Hickenlooper and Aaron Melick assumed
the management.
The Blade of August
14, 1860, gives rather a graphic pen-picture of Henry
Clay Dean, who addressed the people of Monroe County
that week:
"The first argument
the speaker presented was his great toe, about the size
and color of an old-fashioned toad. It stuck out of
his sock about a foot, and was very much admired by
the ladies. We should have stated that the speaker commenced
his speech by preparing to go to bed—that is,
hauled off all his duds—but his shirt and breeches.
"The next argument
introduced by Mr. Dean was this: 'If you want a discussion,
bring on your man; I will make
145
him feel as happy as he can be in the
flesh. I will skin him and hang him up to rot.' "
It would appear that pioneer
life was not without its social festivities. The Blade
publishes a card from A. C. Barnes, announcing that
he would serve watermelons at his home two and one-half
miles east of Albia, on Friday afternoon of the 24th
instant, at 4 o'clock. All who could not come on that
date were requested to come on the following Tuesday
afternoon.
The Blade of October
15, 1861, announces to its patrons that in consequence
of one of its publishers (Mr. Melick) having gone to
Iowa City for a few days' visit with friends and relatives,
there would "be no paper next week."
The Blade ceased
to exist October 15, 1861, and up from its ashes, phœnix
like, rose the Albia Weekly Gazette, published
by Melick and Young. In January, 1862, Melick retired
and Mr. Young ran the paper until the following April,
when he laid down his pen and took up his musket in
defense of the Union, and in the years that followed
his political sentiments were changed and his party
faith rechristened by the "baptism of fire."
The Weekly Albia Union,
the well-known Republican organ of Monroe County of
to-day, was established by Matthew A. Robb, May 20,
1862. The sheet then, as now, was Republican in politics.
The columns of the Union
during the war period were filled chiefly with war news
from the front. No other topic was of interest to the
people. The soldier boys wrote letters home for publication,
from the scenes of hostility. The telegraphic wires
were charged day and night with reports of the movements
of the armies. Mothers watched the papers eagerly for
the list of "killed and wounded," or to read
the "latest telegraphic news."
The Union of March
26, 1863, contains an editorial concerning an organization
known as the "Golden Circle," an alleged organization
composed of rebel sympathizers. Following is the article:
"Any society formed
for the overthrow of this Government can have but a
temporary existence. Such associations may do us much
harm and materially embarrass the designs of government,
but they never can permanently resist its power and
effectually supplant it. The Knights of the Golden Circle
exist here, and in most of the townships
146
throughout the county, but nobody fears
them except as they do the midnight assassin or the
torch of the incendiary. Whatever of evil they will
ever accomplish, at most, cannot go far beyond the destination
of a small amount of private property and the secret
assassination of a few individuals. Even this would
be a melancholy state of affairs, but no one would deem
such disasters equal t the great calamity which must
befall us if this Government is destroyed. The leaders
of the Copperhead Democracy pretend to be ignorant of
any such associations, and deny that they have any knowledge
of their existence, but they cannot cover up and conceal
the monster deformity and loathsome organization by
any such mild pretense."
While the name was familiar
to every one, the existence in Monroe County of such
an organization was probably a myth. In the first place,
those identified with the movement would have been apprehended
by the loyal citizens of the county, and, under the
high tension of excitement existing at the time, would
have been roughly dealt with. Public sentiment was so
wrought up that it is quite probable that if any secret
movement had been undertaken, to furnish aid and comfort
to the South, the promoters of the movement would have
been apprehended and lynched. The public brain was heated
to madness, and in the blindness of intense partisan
feeling many of these acrimonious charges made by the
respective political parties against each other had
no real foundation.
The "Golden Circle"
was a real organization in some parts of the North and
it may be true, and indeed quite likely, that it had
its agents at work throughout the country, but in thinly
settled localities like Monroe County, where most people
were loyal to the Government, it would have been impossible
for the emissaries of the "Golden Circle"
to have established a working foothold. It is stated
on reliable authority that an organization of this kind
existed at Blakesburg, just over the county line in
Wapello County. The term was used more as a malediction
against the more active and partisan Democrats of the
county than anything else, as nearly every noted Democrat
was branded as a Knight of the Golden Circle.
The Union of March
3, 1864, contains a letter written by Rev. Jacob Wyrick,
of Monroe County, to Jacob Hittle, a soldier of the
Thirty-sixth Iowa Infantry, stationed with his
147
regiment near Little Rock. As the letter
discusses the subject of human slavery from a scriptural
standpoint, we copy it just as it appeared in the Union.
The reverend gentleman's orthography is decidedly unique,
and we forbear to attempt to reconstruct it.
"Monroe County Iowa, Dec. 13, 1863.
"Dear brother,—I
take my pen in hand to let you now that I am well at
the present and all of my family and yours was also
well last Monday. I was thare and saw all of them, and
we talked of you, and I red the speach that you sent
home, part of that speach is good when he gives it to
all the high officers, I think that he tells the truth
but when he attempts to justify the linkion prolamation
and amansipation then he leaves the truth and the law
of god for him and all the mansipations cant read in
gods word and justify it, if they can I want them to
turn down a lief and gave me the chapter and verse so
that I may read it too for I say it cant Be found only
by them that says that Sprinklinge of Baybies is baptism
will you please read the 13 and 14 chapters of pauls
letter to the romans here You see he commands no man
to be a Judge of another mans servants of his own master
and now we thousands put themselves up as Judges of
another mans servants of his own master O may god help
me to turn from disobedience to serve the only and true
god by obedience to his lawes.
"Thence turn with me
to the 6 chapter of effisians and 5 verse and hear you
finde that thay are commanded to obey thare masters
and if these abolishen can sho me that it is the word
of god that telles us that it is rong to rule over them
we will be Able to show them that the lord conterdicts
himself but I as a man say that no man can do it, thence
turn with me to the 4 chapter of Collassians and first
verse and here you sea that the lord through the apostle
commanded the masters to give thare servants that wich
was just and equal now if it was rong as the abolishens
say then the lord would have sed set him free but remember
wel that no man can sho that and turn down the liefs
whare the spirits sed so. thence turn with me and read
the sixth chapter of the first timothy and hear the
lord speak to many servants to count thare own masters
worthy of all oner so if god sayes thay are worthy of
all oner why do Gault and all other abolishen say that
it is no oner may god spare them for denying his word
is my prayer for them all.
148
makel and debby and all the family is
well I want you Both to receive my love and remember
me until death I pray that you may get back home safe
Brother it does seam strange to me to read your solem
letters and read in them that you desire the struggle
to go on and hear that you voted for stone when he is
aposed to peace on any termes untill the last visage
of slavery is wiped out. o brother why will men vote
for the cuse that will keep them from thare wives and
children and vote for the dagger to be pushed on that
pearces ther one hartes. I want you to show this letter
to all the abolishen and tell them to anser me I pray
for you and I want you to pray for me I am yours truly
"Jacob Wrick."
(NOTE:
The above letter was printed (and transcribed here)
with no spelling, grammar or punctuation corrections.)
On the 7th of August, 1862,
Mr. Robb retired from the Union, he enlisted
in the Twenty-second Iowa Infantry, and was killed at
Vicksburg. M. V. Brown bought the sheet, and Geo. W.
Yocum did the editorial work. In 1863 G. W. and B. F.
Yocum became editors and proprietors. In 1865 Val Mendal
purchased this plant, and five years later he took C.
M. Clapp in with him as editor and partner. When Mr.
Clapp retired, in 1872, C. L. Nelson took editorial
charge and did all of the editorial work, Mr. Mendal
being the sole owner of the paper.
In 1882 Tom Hutchinson succeeded
Mr. Nelson as editor for a short time, and on October
5th of the same year Mr. Mendal sold the paper to Hon.
J. T. Young and son. These gentlemen conducted the paper
until April 17, 1884, when ex-Lieutenant Governor M.
M. Walden bought the concern. Mr. Walden had Congressional
aspirations at the time, and did not assume active management
of the paper. Mr. Young continued as the editorial writer,
and Frank Hickenlooper acted as local editor for a time.
On March 4, 1886, Walden
sold the paper to Alpheus R. Barnes, who has been the
sole editor and proprietor up to the present time. Mr.
Barnes has been at the helm for the greatest length
of time of any of the Union's former proprietors.
He is assisted quite efficiently by his son Horace,
a young man of strict integrity and of considerable
promise, well calculated to take up the cudgel in behalf
of the public welfare and good government whenever age
shall require the senior member to lay it down.
Mr. Barnes has his paper
located in a handsome and well-equipped brick building
on the southeast corner of the
149
Square, and owns the block as well as
the newspaper plant. He is a veteran in journalism,
and will doubtless die in the harness, a natural death.
His bold and aggressive methods of conducting a paper
have won for him some enemies, which would be an inevitable
consequence with anyone conducting a high-mettled sheet
for so long a time. Whatever may be said of Mr. Barne's
qualifications as a journalist, he has a wide circle
of staunch supporters, and is a high-minded gentleman,
was a brave and loyal soldier, and is the head of one
of the best and most highly esteemed families in the
State.
The Albia Republic
was a Democratic paper, started by A. C. Bailey in August,
1868. It existed for about a year, when the plant was
purchased by Messrs. Ragsdale and Hills. The Republic
was a fair and faithful exponent of the Democratic doctrine,
and might have established itself permanently had it
not been that the Democratic support within the county
at that time was very meager.
Ragsdale and Hills converted
the concern into a Republican paper, under the name
of The Spirit of the West. The sheet made its
first appearance December 1, 1869. In 1870 Hills withdrew,
and one E. B. Woodward took his place. In June of the
same year Woodward was succeeded by C. McConnell, and
in October of the same year a man named Brown succeeded
McConnell. In April, 1871, I. S. Carpenter and C. C.
Berger bought the paper, and in the same year B. F.
Yocum succeeded Mr. Berger. In 1872 Yocum retired and
left the concern solely to Carpenter. In 1872 Ben F.
Elbert identified himself with Carpenter, and James
Haynes became editor. January 16, 1874, J. C. Peacock
& Company bought the plant and ran it six weeks,
and then sold it to W. H. McConnell & Company, who
removed it to Kearney, Nebraska. The publication led
a checkered existence from first to last; not so much
from incapacity on the part of its managers as from
the fact that the local field could not support two
Republican papers, and it was impossible for The
Spirit of the West to gain a permanent foothold
where the Albia Union held the patronage.
In 1874 the Reform Weekly
Leader made its appearance under the management
of Porte Welsh. The sheet was very rambling in its political
tenets, and did not espouse any party cause in particular
while under the management of Mr. Welsh. It was one
of that class of so-called independent
150
newspapers which float around in a sea
of ethereal thought, and exalted but impracticable social
theories, yet ready, like the barnacle, to attach itself
to whatever it may come in contact with. It was published
simultaneously at Albia and Oskaloosa. ON April 18,
1874, R. Tell Coffman bought the Albia concern, and
J. M. Humphrey acted as associate editor. It finally,
in 1874, espoused the cause of the Democratic party,
but early in 1875 it collapsed.
The Albia Reporter
was the next newcomer in Monroe County journalism. It
was established by G. N. Udell and G. C. Miller. April
10, 1875, and professed to be independent in politics,
but soon enlisted under the banner of Horace Greeley
and the Liberal Democrat movement of that year. It did
not run longer than a few months.
The next paper to attempt
to attain the "north pole" of journalistic
success in Monroe County was the Industrial Era,
which made its appearance in 1875. F. A. Mann leased
the plant from Geo. C. Fry, of Batavia, Jefferson County,
Iowa, who had conducted it as a Grange organ. Mann converted
it into a Greenback paper, and ran it until August 14,
1879, when he retired and his place was taken by Geo.
Tucker, of Albia, who ran it for four months in the
interest of the Greenback party. D. M. Clark, of Wayne
County, was running for State senator that fall, on
the fusion ticket, and Monroe County was carried by
that gentleman, largely through Mr. Tucker's efforts.
In the latter part of 1879
Geo. Stamm leased the Era and continued it
as a Greenback organ until May, 1882, when he retired.
His paper made a strong fight to secure the enactment
of the Iowa prohibitory amendment, which was voted upon
by the people of the State on June 27, 1882.
The Albia Era,
as it had been named by Stamm, was now leased from its
owner, Mr. Fry, by Henry J. Bell, a brilliant young
student and ardent advocate of Federal fiat money. Mr.
Bell conducted the paper a year, and was succeeded by
H. E. Davis, of Bloomfield. Davis staid with the Era
a short time, and finally Mr. Foster, the well-known
weather prophet, succeeded as publisher. The paper expired
and was never resurrected when Foster let go of it.
The Era was never a success financially.
E. O. Davis, at about this
time, established The Opinion, a sheet in the
interest of the Union Labor party, but it died down
in a few months. Wallace Miner had charge of it for
a short time. The paper was a failure financially.
151
In 1876 O. H. Wood established
The Plaindealer at Melrose. The following year
it was transferred to Albia and conducted as a temperance
paper. It finally became a Democratic organ, but in
1878 it collapsed. A short time afterwards Tom Leonard
revived the sheet as a Democratic organ.
John Doner, in 1879, took
charge of the plant and started the Albia Democrat,
running it about three years. Some time later, after
the paper had become defunct, Hon. T. B. Perry, and
perhaps other leading Democrats in the county, bought
the plant, and placed its management in the hands of
Messrs. Weber and Howard. These gentlemen built the
concern up into a thrifty party organ. Mr. Weber was
the most adroit and active party manager the Democrats
have ever had in Monroe County. He proved to be a Moses
to lead them out of political bondage. By his efforts
the county was carried by his party; and under Mr. Cleveland's
first term of the Presidency he was given the Albia
office. Mr. Howard, his partner, attended to the local
and mechanical departments, and besides being a first-rate
printer, was a talented writer, especially in a light,
humorous vein. Both gentlemen are now located in Utah.
In 1890 they sold out to
W. E. Cherry, a gamey young newspaper man from the western
part of the State. Mr. Cherry conducted the paper as
a Democratic organ until 1894, when it was purchased
by D. R. Michener, who is 1895 sold it to Campbell Brothers.
These gentlemen did not succeed with it, and later in
the year Frank Morris acquired an interest in the Democrat.
Early in the spring of the
present year (1896) H. M. Belvel and H. H. Crenshaw,
both of Des Moines, bought the Democrat, and
are now publishing it. Mr. Belvel is a newspaper man
of more than ordinary literary ability, and spends part
of his time in Des Moines editing a syndicate letter,
which is supplied to about seventy-five Democratic weeklies
throughout Iowa. He is high-strung and aggressive in
the enunciation of his party creed. He is the newspaper
correspondent whom Senator Finn, of Bedford, chastised
some years ago at the Capitol at Des Moines for publishing
some malodorous statement concerning the latter.
In 1889 Messrs. Mendel and
Nelson, both well-known veterans in local journalism,
launched the Albia Herald, a
152
Republican paper. They ran it a few weeks
and then sold it to a Mr. Crider, who continued it for
about a year as a Republican sheet, when it succumbed
through a lack of patronage.
The concern was well managed,
but it was impossible for it to establish itself in
the territory of so formidable a rival as the Union,
whose right of priority seemed to be so well recognized
by the public that it felt indifferent to the welfare
of the newcomer.
When Mr. Crider abandoned
the Herald, Hal Holesclaw and Mark Sylvester
took hold of the plant and started a small independent
daily, called the Albia News. It lived only
about three weeks, and then collapsed.
In 1890 M. M. Hinton established
the Monroe County Progress in the town of Lovilia.
It was conducted as an independent paper, but disclosed
a slight tendency towards the Populist party.
In 1891 Messrs. Gass and
Swayne started a Populist organ at Albia, called The
People's Defender, and in 1892Mr. Hinton brought
his plant to Albia and consolidated it with the Defender,
the organ thus united taking the name of The Progress-Defender.
It is the official organ of the Populists of the county.
Mr. Hinton is its sole publisher and proprietor.
The Albia Republican
was launched at Albia, October 24, 1894, by the Whittaker
Brothers, a pair of journalistic hustlers from Oklahoma
Territory. It started as a Republican paper, but was
an advocate of he free an unlimited coinage of silver,
a position which the Populists and major portion of
the Democratic party espoused in 1895 and 1896. Finding
that these views did not meet the endorsement of the
Republican party, the manager soon ceased the championship
of free silver, apparently without any qualms of conscience.
In July, 1896, the Whittakers
sold the paper to Val Mendel and a gentleman named Sebille,
from Bedford, Iowa. These gentlemen are now managing
the sheet, endeavoring to place it on a paying basis.
It is issued both daily and weekly, and is a nice, clean
sheet.
When the Whittakers sold
the sheet, Charles, one of the firm, located in California,
and is now publishing a small paper, called The
Olive Branch, at the town of Cucamonga. Harry,
the other brother, remained at Albia
153
a few weeks, and, becoming involved in
a social scandal, left for parts unknown, leaving his
wife behind.
While the Whittakers had
control of the Republican, they made a vigorous
effort to secure the county printing. Wagons and bicycles
were awarded to the person securing the greatest number
of subscribers to their paper. The Board of Supervisors,
on the face of the sworn subscription-list of the three
local papers, awarded the county printing to be placed
with the Progress-Defender and Republican.
The Albia Union contested the award, and carried
it into the District Court for trial. The jury failed
to agree, and a new trial is now pending.
The Union alleged
that several hundred of the Republican's certified
yearly subscribers were not bona fide, as they
were 25-cent subscribers. The Republican's
list exceed that of the Union by several hundred,
and this excess, the Union alleged, was made
up of 25-cent subscribers. The Union also alleges
fraud. There was but little doubt that the Republican's
subscription list was made up largely of 25-cent subscriptions,
and whether these should be recognized as bona fide
yearly subscriptions is a problem for the courts to
decide.
In addition to the secular
press of the county, the Messenger Publishing Company
of Albia have lately started a small weekly in quarto
form, going by the name of The Messenger. Its
staff of publishers consists of L. J. Harrington, office
editor; E. G. Powers, associate editor; and F. K. Morris,
business manager. The publication is devoted exclusively
to religious topics, and is an exponent of the modern
doctrine of "holiness," or entire sanctification.
Chapter IX
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