CHAPTER XIV. ______________ JASON B. PACKARD
He served the county as its treasurer ten years. During that time there had been no provision made for the safe keeping of money or valuable papers; consequently, Mr. Packard used the commodious pockets of his coat and vest as a safe depository for such public money and papers as he might have occasion to use from day to day. The office and officer were inseparable and public business was transacted wherever and whenever it was most convenient to do so. During the early years while he held the office of County Treasurer, valuable papers and property were often placed in a tin box and buried, and when some important document was needed, it was resurrected from its place of interment. Obstacles he met and overcame always in a cheerful spirit. Measured by present standards and conveniences, his methods were crude and unbusinesslike, yet the county suffered no loss, nor impaired credit, and all of the time its warrants were at par. Page 116 People unacquainted with him, who judged him by his outward demeanor or the cut of his clothes, and who could not see the man beneath his rustic garb, called him eccentric. Count Tolstoi detracted nothing from his real manhood by being clothed like a Russian peasant, and this reformer was regarded by Mr. Packard as the latter day prophet of the race. In fact, these men were not dissimilar. The trend of their thought was along similar lines; the difference between them was only in degree. Both were born with a great dislike of the current customs, habits, laws and conventions of their time, believing that many of these were a hindrance rather than a help to progress. Mr. Packard was a great admirer of Henry D. Thoreau and sympathized with him in his effort to live the simple life. He especially endorsed the utterance, "As I preferred some things to others, and especially valued my freedom, as I could fare hard and yet succeed well, I did not wish to spend my time in earning rich carpets or fine furniture or delicate cookery or houses in the Grecian or Gothic style. If there are any to whom it is no interruption to acquire these things and who know how to use them when acquired, I relinquish to them the pursuit." Mr. Packard had notions of his own in regard to building, and insisted that the ordinary houses were constructed more for show than for comfort. This certainly did not apply to the log cabin in Frankfort, where he dwelt for a short time. He put his theory into practice and built his house on an original plan. He first excavated about twenty feet square on his land, sloping east toward the Tarkio, then placed oak boards one inch in thickness perpendicularly around for the outside wall. These boards were held in place by nailing them to pieces extending around the top on the inside, and a roof of boards was placed thereon, the eaves of the roof being near the ground on the upper side. The building consisted of Page 117 two rooms, one above the other. The only windows were on the east side of the lower room; entrance was by door on the south side. A furnace for heating the building was so made as to conduct heat underneath the floor through a shallow trench covered with sheet iron. In after years, he built on his farm near the old Watson Mill, north of Stennett, a stone house in the form of an octagon, the sides and angles being equal. The floor was of stone. The upper floor was suspended by wires stretched across from side to side, a space of about one foot being left at the outer edge of the floor to permit the heat to ascend to the upper room from a fireplace built into the wall. The house is still standing. (see image) Mr. Packard did not ask advice nor concern himself with the opinions or criticisms of others, and, like Walt Whitman, "heeded neither experience, cautions, majorities, nor ridicule." The greater part of the time that Mr. Packard held public office was spent in the house first described. It was here that this genial, hospitable, kind-hearted man lived—honored and respected by all. It was here, in the loving companionship of his wife, Cornelia, a refined, educated and accomplished woman, that they read and discussed the best literary productions of the world. They practiced economy that they might enjoy the exalted pleasure of the company of such authors as Goethe, Carlyle, Swedenborg and Emerson. Mr. Packard read, thought and wrote. For years he was the only newspaper correspondent living in the county. He contributed articles regularly to the Corning Sentinel. An article from his pen which appeared in the Burlington Hawkeye attracted much attention at the time. It referred to the celebrated debate on slavery between the two intellectual giants, Lincoln and Douglas, in Illinois in 1858. Historical events were thickening. John Brown's martyrdom had occurred a year before and the presidential election was near at hand. The events in progress were of greatest interest. Mr. Packard Page 118 mailed the "Hawkeye" article to Lincoln with the remark "that it might be of some assistance to his friend, Stephen A. Douglas, in getting up his article on "Squatter Sovereignty," which he was then publishing in Harper's Magazine. An acknowledgment was received in Mr. Lincoln's hand-writing, which was highly prized by its recipient, and which is published fac simile in this volume. Following is given in full the article which engaged the attention of the great Emancipator. It was published in the Burlington Hawkeye in 1859 and re-printed in the Omaha World Herald in 1893. "Does our government hold any national territory or domain for settlement of convicts? "This question crops out in many shapes, and has been disfigured so by politicians, as hardly to be recognized among the questions of the day. There is much said about territorial settlement, and perhaps much that is intended to bear upon it that does not touch the point, which observation may also apply to the remarks here introduced. In the settlement of lands the initiatory steps are various. Under some governments there are lands settled by convicts who are transported to those particular lands set apart for them. In other countries, such as ours, a portion of the population leave their state voluntarily, on account of over-population or other causes, and make homes on new land and invite others to join them in their settlement. "A considerable portion of the population of some of the southern states are blacks, who are treated as a convict population, and are in charge of keepers. These keepers assume that they can transport them to new states and territories and settle them there, where another nest of these convicts can be produced without transportations, as their children are all convicts also. Page 119 "We do not wish to settle in a land with black convicts sentenced for life. We object, and have the general reason of mankind in our favor, although these keepers think we are ever so unreasonable because we will prevent them from bringing their crew to settle in the same neighborhood with us. We do not stop to inquire the crime of these convicts. It is enough for us that their keepers know. "Our general government has appropriated no territory for the settlement of convicts, and holds no territory for that purpose; has no Siberia or Botany Bay. The territories of Botany Bay and Siberia were each set apart by their respective governments for the settlement of English and Russian convicts. Our own government would protest against the English or Russian governments sending convicts into our territories, as it will against South Carolina or Alabama, or the emperor of Guinea doing the same thing; and should either of these powers insist upon forcing such settlement, and disregard the protest, it would be pronounced a hostility. Our fertile territories are valuable and can be settled without any such aid as forced emigration into them. There are some things that will be reversed in the course of a year, and one of these things is the charge upon our countrymen of being "negro worshippers." Instead of this, we will be accused of excluding negroes from our new states and territories, and be charged perhaps, with being negro destroyers because we will not let them on the best lands of our country. We would recommend their keepers to let them recultivate the old lands they have worn down, but we could only recommend it; we have nothing to do about it. "But they insist on settling national territory with their convict population. "They charge us with being a disunion party. That charge will be reversed also. J. B. P. "Frankfort, Montgomery County, Iowa, October 20, 1859."
Following is Mr. Lincoln's reply, written in his familiar hand on a sheet of common note paper: "Springfield, Ill., Nov. 20, 1859.—(J. B. Packard, Esq.)—Dear Sir: Yours of the 11th with the article on territory for convicts is received. It presents a new idea, and I shall consider it. I fear you will not get Douglas to avail himself of your assistance. At all events your skirts are clear. Yours truly, A. LINCOLN Mr. Packard was an investigator, and often left the beaten track in search of untried things. He thought it possible that there might be things of value near at hand. Fuel being scarce and an absolute necessity, anything that gave a hint of supply attracted his attention. Having observed places in ravines and in sloughs where smouldering [smoldering] fires would continue for weeks at a time, he reasoned that such places must contain vegetable matter similar to the peat bogs of Ireland and of Hancock County in this state. Acting on this theory, he cut out with a spade a quantity of this material and piled it up to dry, but the wet weather soon disintegrated it. That heap of dirt on the east side of Tarkio was an object of wonder to passersby. The principal difficulty in his experiment in the preparat[i]on of peat for fuel, was to get the brick firm enough to withstand the weather. In pursuing his investigations in another locality, an amusing incident may be mentioned. It came to his knowledge that a certain person whose name he did not remember was burning peat for fuel. He sought an interview with him and, nearing the place, inquired of an Irish woman for the place "where they burned peat." "Great Heavens!" she cried in amazement, "They haven't burned Pete, have they?" On the bank of a small ravine near his residence, he discovered the out crop of a layer of red clay that upon investigation proved to be a good article of paint. He pulverized several tons of this material with a rudely constructed mill—something like the feed grinders now used by the farmers—and placed it on Page 121 sale at Des Moines, Omaha and Kansas City. This enterprise failed for want of capital and a lack of experience in placing such a commodity on the market. In his declining years, Mr. Packard emphasized his preceding peculiarities by providing his last resting place in the Red Oak Cemetery and marking it with a rough native boulder and mounds in rude imitation of natural scenery. His grave lies in the shadow of a native white oak tree. Upon the boulder is chiseled an incomplete epitah [epitaph], partly in Latin. Enough can be deciphered to show that he had a good hope of immortality. The inscription runs that "once upon a time a man lived upon the earth"—here the writing and figures are indistinct, but enough can be seen to show that the number of years was given—"in a world of enchantment," but "enchantment has given place to reality;" adding, "now my fortune is made." This thought had been at one time elaborated upon in an exhaustive address by Mr. Packard before the court and the bar of which he was chairman, upon the death of Judge J. W. Hewitt, his neighbor and friend. So passed Jason B. Packard, an eccentric man but a scholar and gentleman. His memory is deservedly revered by all who knew him. 
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