ACKNOWLEDGMENT.
Before unfolding the contents
of this volume, the Author desires to express his
deep sense of obligation to those who have kindly
aided in the preparation of this work, and especially
to Rev. E. L. Waring, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, and A. R.
Barnes, of Albia—two gentlemen pursuing parallel
paths in life: the former a minister of the gospel
and one of the "pathfinders" in pioneer
church mission work; and the latter a veteran in both
journalism and the War of the Rebellion.
To the former the
Author is indebted for valuable assistance in tracing
the history of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Monroe
County. From the latter the Author has received various
forms of encouragement and valuable aid, especially
in having granted him access to the historical data
contained in the preserved files of the newspapers
of the county from 1854 to the present time.
THE AUTHOR
INTRODUCTION
It is with a mingling
of both pride for the locality of one's birth and
a sincere desire to preserve the annals of its community
that the writer has undertaken the authorship of this
volume. It may perhaps be a source of regret that
the work has not been performed by abler hands; and
especially by some one who has seen with his own eyes
the procession of events as they have transpired.
However, in porportion to the disadvantage of being
of a later generation, the writer has endeavored,
by special pains and untiring application, to attain
the same result as that which would have been achieved
with less difficulty by one whose life has been a
part of the history of Monroe County from its earliest
organization down to the present time.
No words of surprise
need be uttered at the mutations which time has wrought
within the comparatively brief period of the county's
life.
That Monroe County should,
in the course of time, become one of the garden-spots
of earth, was a natural sequence. Already it has been
verified in part; and the most sanguine dreamer may
fail to see through the mist of the future the full
grandeur of that which is yet to be.
The annals of a community
should not be classed as something trivial or common
place. The history of a county ought to be preserved,
in order that some day it may offer to the historian,
whose field is of wider scope, details to augment
the sum total of the State's, or even of a nation's
history.
Another reason why it
should be preserved; it sets up to posterity examples
of exalted manhood and womanhood, as revealed in the
lives of the pioneer settlers. They were men and women
with brave hearts and unclouded hopes. Their hands
were willing and their faith was strong. They "blazed"
out the lines of their habitations in the forests,
and broke the violet-studded sod of the prairie, in
good faith of a future home.
They built their "claim-pens"
in the "New Purchase," not that they intended
to acquire the land for purposes of speculation and
trade, but that they might mark the places
7
8
of their homesteads as soon as the Government
placed land upon the market.
And there was still another
"claim-pen" built by the early settler,
which stood as a monument of his faith and as a testimony
of his intention to remain and occupy the land; it
was a small enclosure built about with fence-rails
to keep out the wild animals or the tread of careless
feet; it was the tabernacle of the young father's
and mother's parental love, set up in the wilderness,
with the wild rose and the violets as the vessels
of the sanctuary; it was the little grave of perhaps
their first-born infant. They did not carry the little
rudely constructed coffin with its precious treasure
back to their old home for burial, but they planted
it beneath the wild sod of the prairie, or in the
lonely forest glades, knowing, as they plated a wild
rose for a head-stone, that some day a marble shaft
would take its place, that some day the tangled forest
would disappear, and that through the embellishing
touch of civilized life the little tomb would be ranged
with others in avenues of flowers and rows of marble
and granite in the village cemetery.
For accuracy of statement,
the author, in many instances, has relied solely on
the memory of old settlers, which, in a few cases,
may lead to slight error. He has also assumed the
liberty of incorporating a few personal reminiscences,
anecdotes, and personal allusions, without consulting
the wishes of those whom their narration would involve
in publicity. These reminiscences he has regarded
as already belonging to the public, and they have
been assigned a place in this volume merely to afford
the reader any pleasure he may derive from their perusal.
The roster of the Monroe
County soldiers who served in the War of the Rebellion
has been compiled from the Adjutant-General's Reports,
mainly. The Reports themselves contain frequent inaccuracies,
which have been corrected in this volume, wherever
the errors concerned the Monroe County volunteer.
The roster is complete, yet is possible that a few
names have been omitted, owing to the fact that occasionally
a volunteer enlisting from Monroe County gave his
post-office address as in some adjoining county. This
frequently occurred; and the Adjutant-General's Reports
thus fix his residence in some other county.
This fact will account
for any omissions on the part of the author.
9
At the close of the war
many of the non-commissioned officers were promoted
in rank, and their promotion was never reported or
recorded in the office of the Adjutant-General. Owing
to this fact, the roster herein may not in every case
give the promotions, as they were made at a late period,
by the Governor of the State.
In the preparations of
this volume the author has done the very best his
limited ability would allow, and hence feels that
he need not consume space by inserting apologies.
FRANK HICKENLOOPER.
Albia,
Iowa, September 1, 1896.
