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SAMUEL GREEN
 IF the early settlers who helped to build the town, few were better known, though very quiet and unostentatious, than Samuel Green, or Sam., as he was familiarly called by old-timers.
Having thoroughly learned the foundry business in New York, he came to Des Moines in March, 1857, the first practical foundry-man in town. He did, for a short time after his arrival, what all newcomers did——whatever he could find to do. One of his introductory jobs was helping S. A. Robertson, with one of his first jobs, to make repairs on the old "Grout House," which stood on Court Avenue, southwest of the State House, in which T. E. Brown and his wife are living. It took its name from its construction of small cobblestones, lime and mortar. It was once the most fashionable hostelry in the town, and headquarters of members of the Legislature, and other state officers.
Sam. very soon secured employment as foreman, molder, melter, pattern and flask maker, and general utility man, with H. M. Hemminway, who had a small foundry on East Walnut between First and Second streets. The river bank was fringed with small residences, a few shops, a mill and a woolen factory. The town was small, business was depressed, money was scarce. "Gold pieces looked might big in those days, for most money was 'wild-cat,' practically worthless, which nobody wanted, though we had to take it," he says. It was the year of the worst panic known in the history of the state. The entire populace, scattered over the vast domain from river to river, shut out of the markets of the sea-board, were utterly prostrate. It touched the sick body of desolate and despairing agriculture; it paralyzed the arm of the artisan and toiler. Values were destroyed, personal credit forfeited, individual liabilities were overwhelming. The credit of the state was impaired; there was more than one hundred and fifty thousand
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dollars of floating debt in Auditor's warrants, drawing eight per cent interest, with few purchasers, even at large discount.
The prospect was discouraging to an ambitious young man. On the East Side, from the river to Capitol Hill, the ground was low and wet, no sidewalks, and very few homes. From the river at Court Avenue, a trestle footway about three feet high was built nearly to the hill for the benefit of the members of the Legislature and state officers. I think Will. Porter has not forgotten that bottom. He was in politics, with a craving desire to get at the pie counter, and was the Democratic candidate for State Printer, the Winter after Sam. arrived. The day was fixed for the Legislature to vote in join convention, and Will. started in a buggy for the State House, which stood where the Soldiers' Monument now is, but the mud had such a grip on the horse and buggy, he did not get there until the voting was over, and John Teesdale, a Republican, was elected. Will. always declared that if the mud had not been so deep, and held him back, he would have won out.
On the west side of the river, Second Street, from Market to Court Avenue, was the business thoroughfare. There were but one or two buildings on Third Street. Court House Square, the Summer Sam. arrived, was sown with wheat, and the county paid John Railing eleven dollars and a half for plowing, sowing, and harvesting it. Who got the crop, the record does not say. Judge Napier was running county affairs then, and he generally got what he wanted. Amos Brandt, the well-known ex County Auditor, was running a farm during Napier's reign. One day, during harvest-time, one of the machines broke down, and came to town to get the necessary repairs, which done, he scurried back. Arriving at Kimball's bridge, he ran against Napier, who stood in the middle of the road, arms outstretched, and commanded him to stop. Amos, knowing his autocratic authority over bridges and roads, suddenly halted, and asked the reason for his stoppage.
"You can't cross the bridge," replied the Judge.
"What is the trouble with it? I crossed it a short time ago, and I am in a great hurry; have been to town to get some machinery repaired; the men and teams are waiting. Isn't the bridge safe?"
"You can't cross that bridge unless you give me a chew of tobacco!"
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The Judge got the tobacco.
Sam. however, had come to stay, and in 1859, at the Hemminway shop, was made the first reaper in Polk County.
Soon after Sam. joined Hemminway, they wanted some coke for melting iron. They went down the river above Rattlesnake Bend, dug out of the bluff three wagon loads of coal, dug a hole seven feet in diameter and three feet deep, in the middle of Walnut Street, near the river, dumped the coal in it, set fire to it, banked it over with earth, and let it burn three days. When uncovered, there was a good quality of coke, the first made in Polk County, out of Iowa soft coal, so far as known, thus demonstrating that Iowa coal can be coked. It made good iron, but as hard as flint.
In 1860, the sorghum craze struck the farmers throughout the country, and to meet the demand for some device to express the cane, the Hemminway shop designed and made small, portable crushing mills, and as the demand increased, a small mill was erected on the East Side, to which cane was brought to be crushed, which was of great benefit to the farmers unable to purchase a portable crusher.
In 1860, Sam. formed a partnership which necessitated a dwelling-house. Houses were scarce, and he built one, one and one-half stories high, with four rooms, on the river front opposite the new City Library. The shingles and siding were Black Walnut; all other lumber was White Oak, and for both he paid a dollar and a half per hundred feet. In that house, he lived four years, when he built another on the corner of East Second and Locust, where he lived fourteen years, and then built a fine residence on the same street, on Capitol Hill.
In 1867, he decided to embark in business on his own account. He had very limited means, but a large amount of pluck and perserverance. He leased part of a lot where Given had a plow shop, corner of Third and Vine, and built a small foundry, at an expense of two hundred dollars. When the first blast was turned out, his books showed an indebtedness of over seven hundred dollars, which discouraged him, fearing he could never satisfy his creditors, but his marital partner, ever helpful with her optimism, encouraged him to go on. In this foundry, he made all the castings used in the Given House.
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As the years passed, by industry, economy, good judgment, and fair dealing, his business increased so that greater facilities were needed, and he bought the Dippert harness shop, the old Frank Allen bank, Judge Casady's first law office, and other old landmarks on Second Street, tore them down, and built a two-story brick thereon. In a few years, more space was needed, and he bought more lots northward to Vine. He added heating furnaces to his business, and soon after took his sons, Frank and James, born and raised in the business, into partnership. New equipments were added, a little more steam put on, until now the establishment has become one of the leading manufacturing industries of the city, its trade extending as far west as Colorado.
Politically, Sam. is a Republican of the blackest kind, though his father and six brothers were radical Democrats. He cast his first presidential ballot for John C. Fremont. He is not a politician, nor office-seeker. In locl affairs, he exercises the right and duty of every good citizen, to vote for the highest public welfare. When he formed the partnership with his sons, a mutual pledge was made that neither of the firm should seek or take any political office, a pledge which has been rigidly observed, yet, despite that, in 1862, his numerous friends having faith in his integrity and interest in public affairs, determined to nominate him for Alderman, but he would not permit it.
Socially, he is genial, popular, interested always in educational, religious, and temperance movements, for the betterment of society. He is a member of the Order of Odd Fellows, once holding the office of Treasurer of Capital Lodge Number One Hundred and Six; also of the Order of Good Templars, and was a charter member of Capital Lodge of the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He has always been the friend and supporter of the labor class.
Religiously, he is a Methodist, identifying himself with the First Church when its first brick meeting-house was built, where the Iowa Loan and Trust Company building now stands, on Fifth Street, and is a loyal supporter of the faith.
By judicious management, energy, honest, and an inexorable rule to give every man a fair deal, he has acquired a comptetency and in 1904 turned over the foundry to his sons, and retired to the
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southwest corner of Fourteenth and Capitol Avenue, overlooking Franklin Park, where he can enjoy the recompense of a life well spent, and work well done.
November Fifth, 1905
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IRA COOK
 A VERY prominent man in Des Moines in the early days was Ira Cook. He came to Davenport in 1836, with his father, a small boy, worked fourteen and fifteen hours a day helping his father start a farm, and plant by hand what he declared was the first field of corn in Scott County.
He came to Des Moines in September, 1852, on foot, with ten men, his supplies and camp equipage drawn by two horses, en route to sub-divide, as United States Surveyor, a district of ten townships in what are now the counties of Carroll and Sac. Here he purchased his supplies and provisions for several months' stay in that uninhabited territory, the incidents of which he related one day, when in a reminiscent mood, which illustrates some of the trials and privations of the pioneers.
"Down on Second Street, well toward the lower end," he said, "I found B. F. Allen, with a general stock of merchandise, of whom I purchased my supplies.
"Having more than my team could haul, I secured the services of Ed. Clapp to aid me in getting my 'traps' including corn for my horses, up to my district. Ed. was not the millionaire that he now is, but he was the same whole-hearted, good fellow the citizens of Des Moines have known all these years.
"At the crossing of Walnut Creek, Ed. suggested that a farmer at that point was famous for the watermelons he raised, and of course we all wanted some. We could find no one about the premises, but Ed. said we must have the melons, and as he knew the way to the 'patch,' we soon had an increase to our wagon-load. Ed. said something about stopping on his way home and paying for the melons, but I think it is safe to say he returned by another road.
"Two miles beyond the town of Panora was a cabin of rough logs occupied by a squatter named Van Order, his wife and a half-grown son. There we left a barrel of pork and a barrel of flour to
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lighten our load, to be returned for later, as there were no roads and the country was rough. The third day out, we reached our destination, where we camped, unloaded Ed.'s wagon, and the next morning, bright and early, he started homeward.
"For the next four months, we worked early and late, in sunshine and storm. After New Year's, the cold became intense, hardened as we were, our provisions were low, and we decided to break camp. We were about two and a half days' travel from VAn Order's cabin. An inventory showed we had just three days' rations. The first day, Friday, we made full one-third of the distance. The second day, following down the divide between the middle and south forks of 'Coon River, about nine o'clock, it began to snow, and soon the air was so full we could not see our course. We turned into the timber, and Saturday camped on Middle 'Coon. Sunday morning, two feet of snow covered woodland and prairie. I directed the cook to boil the remainder of our beans, and make all the flour into biscuits, which he did. I packed the whole lot in the camp chest, locked it, and put the key in my pocket.
"Monday, we dug our way out of the snow, crossed the river, and resumed our journey. The men were formed in two lines, and broke a path for the horses and wagon. Our progress was slow each day, as much time was consumed in going back and forth to the timber to camp. The morning of the seventh day, we decided to leave our wagon. The horses had nothing to eat but hazel-brush, and the men were getting weak. That night, we camped at he mouth of Willow Creek, Guthrie County, without tent or shelter. We made coffee and ate one biscuit each. During the night, the wind blew a gale, and it grew colder every moment, but we had a good fire to keep from freezing. At four o'clock in the morning, a pot of strong coffee, one small biscuit, five days old, and one small spoonful of boiled beans, the last of our food, was eaten, and very soon after, nine men in a string, to break the frozen snow crust and make a path for our horses (one man sick, and the cook, a cripple, riding), were on the march. About noon, from the ridge we were on, a settler's cabin several miles distant on the prairie was seen, to which went, stopped over night, and the next day reached Van Order's. The barrel of pork and flour was quickly opened,
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turned over to Mrs. Van Order, and for six days and nights she worked incessantly to fill up eleven hungry men. Van Order was a good hunter; deer, turkeys, prairie chickens, and other wild game hung from every ridge pole, to which we did ample justice, while our pork and flour was equally enjoyed by our hosts.
"So soon as our horses were recruited, the journey to civilization was resumed, which closed my Government surveying."
I asked Ed. a few days ago respecting the trip, and he said he made the return in two days, but as to the watermelons, his memory was foggy and treacherous.
In 1855, Ira came to Des Moines as the resident banker of the firm of Cook, Sargent & Cook, a banking firm of Davenport, which, like many others, wanted to get the forty per cent on short loans to be used in the various speculative schemes than going. Business having begun to move over to Walnut Street, a three-story brick was erected on the south side, next to the alley, later occupied for many years by Carter & Hussey, printers and book-sellers.
It was not much of a town; at least, that was the opinion of Judge A. B. Holcomb, of Connecticut, who, that year, was in this section with a little money to invest for himself and Eastern friends. After looking over Des Moines, he went on up the river, invested his money in several thousand acres of land, laid out and boomed the town of Boonesboro.
Writing to his Eastern friends the result of his observations, he said of Des Moines, under date of July Twenty-fifth, 1855:
"The new Capitol, which is to be, is a low, dirty, stinking hole. I think the Capitol buildings will be some two or three miles out. The matter is before the Legislature, again, since an injunction has stopped the Commisioners from locating."
Some allowance must be made for the prejudice of the Judge, as his town, "the geographical center of the state," as he claimed, was one of many at that time making desperate effort to get the Capitol removed from Des Moines.
In 1858, the bank having been practically wrecked by the panic of the previous year, closed its doors; but Ira had come to stay, and after winding up the bank business, in 1860, went into real estate and insurance.
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In 1856, when the State House location fight came on, Ira enlisted with the West Siders, and subscribed ten thousand dollars to the "war fund."
In 1861, his numerous friends elected him Mayor of the city, but he was not built that way——he did not like the office, and resigned.
In 1862, he received an appointment in the Postoffice Department at Washington, which he held two years.
In 1864, he was appointed Deputy United States Revenue Collector, a place he held for some time.
In 1866, he was elected Alderman for the Third Ward, was reëlected in 1867, and by the Council elected President pro tem. During his incumbency, the city made rapid growth, and entered upon a new era, for in 1868, the first railroad train entered the city, and business at once received a new impetus.
In 1868, he was elected one of the Trustees of Des Moines Township, an office then requiring the exercise of good sense, judgment and financiering, for the city was encroaching so rapidly upon the domain of the township that it was difficult to know where it was at, or to devise ways and means to maintain its corporate existence, for every addition to the town cut the revenues of the township. This process went on, until a few years later the township officers were abolished and an Alderman-at-Large in the City Council was provided to represent the interests of the townships.
In 1875, Ira became a stockholder in the Iowa Loan and Trust Company, which, since 1873, has been one of the most important financial institutions in the state. In 1880, he was elected one of the three Trustees of the company for the bond-holders, for two million, three hundred and fifty-four thousand, five hundred and eighty dollars of debentures of the company, a fiduciary trust of great responsibility.
In 1879, he decided to take a hand in the industrial industries of the town, and help the farmer by providing a market for his surplus corn. With G. M. Hippee, and three others, the Des Moines Syrup Refining Company was organized, to make syrup, sugar, and glucose from corn.
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Politically, Ira was a Republican. He was not a politician or place-seeker, yet he was frequently called to serve the people, who had faith in his fitness for places of public trust.
Socially, he was a good mixer, and in the very early days, a popular component of social functions. In those days, the only amusements were such as could be improvised, dancing parties, receptions, picnics, sleighrides, etc. Traveling troupes had not then struck the trail, though I recall an instance in 1857, related by one who was there, of a troupe which hove into town one day with a show called "The Forty Thieves." The only available place to exhibit the larcenous aggregation was in the dining-room of the Collins House, which was Martin (X) Tucker's old tavern remodeled, and stood where the old Burlington Passenger Depot now is, and what is now the "Whitechapel" District, then being the fashionable part of the town. S. A. Robertson, "Laughing" (Hy.) Hatch, and the eccentric Judge McFarland, a jolly trio in those days, decided to take in the show. Arriving at the place, the room was packed like sardines, there was no room for the performers, and not a person would vacate a foot of space. After a long wait, the Judge roared out, with his fog-horn voice: "Bring on your forty thieves. If you haven't got forty thieves, bring what you have got." Being impossible, the show was abandoned, and "The Forty Thieves" neglected to give "rain checks" or return the entrance money.
As the years passed, Ira identified himself prominently with all civic affairs beneficial to the community. He was the originator of the law for the adoption of children, one of the most beneficent measures on the statute books. In 1857, a girl about three years old was given to his wife, by the child's father, under a written agreement that she should be reared as the child of Mrs. Cook. Nearly a year after, having become strongly attached to her, Ira got uneasy, as the claim to the child rested solely on the will of the father, there being no law on the subject but that respecting apprenticeship. He laid his case before John A. Kasson, a member of the Legislature, then in session, and suggested the provision of proper legislation respecting the adoption of children. Mr. Kasson heartily acquiesced, immediately prepared a bill, which was at once
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passed, and went into effect a few days after. So soon as signed by the Governor, Ira sent an instrument of adoption to the father, who returned it duly executed, to which Ira and his wife affixed their signatures. It was then recorded, and stands as the first recorded in the state under that law.
As in this instance, so in many other ways, Ira was a benefactor to social life and the community as a body.
He died in 1902.
November Twelfth, 1905.
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JUDGE CURTIS BATES
 THE pioneers of Polk County who are still living have a vivid remembrance of Judge Curtis Bates, who was a prominent factor in civic affairs in the early days.
It was little known that he was a Yankee, born in Connecticut, as he always preferred being considered a Buckeye, for he went to Trumbull County, Ohio, when three years old. There he passed his youth and early manhood, and began the practice of law. Soon after commencing practice, he was elected State Senator, as a Democrat, but his opponent contested the election, when it was shown that he was ineligible to the office, being less than twenty-five years old. During the contest, however, he became eligible, was re-nominated, and elected by nearly a unanimous vote.
He came to Iowa City in 1841, and opened a law office. In 1846, he represented Johnson County in the second convention to for a state constitution, that adopted by the first convention having been rejected by the people. The second was accepted by the people, and under it Iowa was admitted to the Union.
While at Iowa City, he was admitted to the Polk County Bar in 1849, became interested in Fort Des Moines, and resolved to establish a newspaper here. He entered into an agreement with Barlow Granger to take and carry into effect the project, the Judge to become responsible financially therefor. The press and material were hauled from Iowa City on wagons, and July Twenty-fourth, 1849, the first issue of the Iowa Star, the first newspaper in the town, was made. The office was in one of the log buildings vacated by soldiers, on Second Street, near Vine. The community was small, as were also the circulation and income, and on February Twenty-second, Barlow Granger threw up the sponge, the establishment passed to the Judge, who assumed control and added to the heading a star of large proportions. He put up more money, formed a partnership with Luther Johnson, a young lawyer at
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Iowa City, who came here to take charge of the paper, but in May, he died from Smallpox. The Judge again resumed control of the paper, and early in 1851, removed to The Fort, and opened a law office. He had started a town about seven miles from Council Bluffs, called Trader's Point, which reached the dignity of a hotel, a store, and nearly two hundred population, when the Missouri got on a rampage and floated the town away.
The Judge was a politician——not an office seeker——as well as a lawyer. The air was full of politics. The Whigs were making desperate efforts to revolutionize the state, the Know-Nothing craze, the Kansas Free State contest, the State Capitol location question, were before the people, and the Judge took an active part in affairs, but, finding his law and editorial work were too onerous, he formed a partnership with Doctor A. Y. Hull, who wanted to take a part in the general scrimmage. He took the editorial end of the business, but at the close of the year, in May, 1852, withdrew, declaring he could not live on politics, yet two months later was in the field as a candidate for State Senator, stumped the district of twenty-four counties, and in October was elected.
Upon the Doctor's retirement, the Judge again assumed entire control of the paper until 1853, when he formed a law parnership with "Dan" Finch, then in the hey-dey of life, a politician of the most strenuous type, a jovial fellow, a brilliant speaker, a vigorous, pungent writer, who became associate editor of the paper.
Relieved of editorial work,it gave the Judge more time to solve abstruse questions of law. For instance, the records show the following case which came before the courts during this hiatus:
William Oakes became indebted to Reuben Davis, and was so delinquent in payment that when Oakes was absent at Boone for several days, Davis sued him before Esquire Young for debt. A judgment was rendered in his favor, an execution, issued, a Constable seized a cow and sold her at auction to William D. Corkeram for sixteen dollars. The money was given to Davis, and Corkeram put the cow in his pasture. When Oakes returned, he was mad, and applied to Judge Bates for counsel. Learning that Oakes had but one cow, and exempt from execution, the Judge secured a writ of replevin, and had the cow returned to Oakes. Corkeram did not
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want to lose what he paid for the cow. He brought a suit against Davis and Wyatt Brownlee, the latter happening accidentaly to be present at the sale, before Esquire McClelland, on a bil, to-wit:
"REUBEN DAVIS AND WYATT BROWNLEE TO WILLIAM D. CORKERAM, Dr.
"To cash paid for cow at Constable sale.............$16.00
"To costs of suit before William McClelland, Equire...5.00
"To keeping of cow four weeks.........................5.00
"To expense in prosecuting and defending suits.......15.00
"Total......................................$40.00"
Davis employed J. E. Jewett as his attorney, who made the following answer to the petition of plaintiff.
"For answer to the charge in said plaintiff's account or petition first specified, defendant says: That the defendant never was a Constable or a Deputy, nor did he ever officiate as one, nor did he ever, directly or indirectly, sell, bargain, or contract to sell, bargain or convey to said plaintiff any cow, bull, calf, steer or any other animal of that species, either as Constable, Sheriff, or Deputy Sheriff, or in the character of any other officer, either judicial, ministerial, or executive, or as a private person, for himself or anybody else, either as principal or agent.
"And though said cow might have been sold,
And paid for in American gold;
Yet this defendant never did,
Either sell or take another's bid.
"And as to the second charge in said plaintiff's account or petition, specified, this defendant for answer says: That he never was chosen either as plaintiff or defendant, in any suit at law or equity, which was tried before said Justice of the Peace, and if he ever was a party, it was a bald-faced meanness and transparent folly not to inform him of it.
"And that a suit could e'er be tried,
And the parties never notified,
Is clearly wrong——and this court sees
That we are not liable for the fees.
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"And as to the third charge in plaintiff's account or petition, specified, this defendant for answer says: That he never employed said plaintiff to keep a cow for him; that he paid him for all the keeping of cows he ever did for this defendant' and, lastly, that this defendant never had any cow that plaintiff could have kept.
"And why this defendant should be dunned
For keeping of cows he never owned,
Or which he never agreed to pay,
Is all submitted to the Court to say.
"And as to the fourth and last charge in plaintiff's account, or petition, specified, this defendant for answer says: That he never employed said plaintiff to either defend or prosecute a suit for this defendant; the last time he did employ him, he managed it so badly that he was not entitled to any fees, and that this defendant has paid him all his services were worth.
Judge Bates made answer to the petition for Brownlee, to-wit:
"DES MOINES TOWNSHIP, POLK COUNTY, IOWA
"FEBRUARY TWENTY-SIXTH, 1853.
"Now, as you see,
Comes the defendant, Brownlee,
And on his own hood defends——
Because he seriously contends
That he is not indebted,
As by said Coreram stated.
Persons having adverse interests to plaintiff
May, as defendants, be joined, says the Code;
And to join those having unity of interest is the true mode.
"but Brownlee doth most seriously declare
That he never joined with Davis in any affair;
And why he is joined in the suit now pending
Is far beyond his comprehending.
Plaintiff's bill charges the defendant sixteen dollars,
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As cash paid him for a cow
Which (as we gather from what follows),
He bought at a Constable's Sale, somehow——
When she was offered as the property of the poor man, Oakes,
And, being his only cow, the sale turned out a hoax.
"That Corkeram in good faith to the Constable
His money paid isn't denied;
Nor that the money was to the payment
Of Davis' judgment applied.
But what of that? This defendant was but a witness——
No party to the suit——
Though he fed, for a short time,
The old dumb brute.
But neither this,
Nor the receipt of his fees,
Could make him jointly liable
With Davis——if the Court please.
Nor is he liable to Corkeram
In any event;
He therefore prays for costs
And for judgment."
After hearing the evidence and arguments of the lawyers, the Court decided for the defendant in both cases, by which Oakes kept his cow, Davis kept the money he received for the sale of her by the Constable, Corkeram lost the sixteen dollars he gave the Constable for the cow, his four weeks' cow pasturing, and his twenty dollars expenses for law suits. He was ever after puzzled to know how he could be compelled to pay that Oakes debt, pasture his cow four weeks,a nd have nothing to show for it. It was a "law p'int," as Ben. Bryant, an early, eccentric Justice of the Peace, used to put it, he could not unravel. It is needless to say he lost faith in Jewett and Bates, who frequently shook their sides over the affair.
In 1854, Bates was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for Governor, in opposition to Grimes, of Burlington. The favor was celebrated by a big jollification at the Stutesman Tavern, corner of First and Walnut, afterward the Demoine House, where
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Judge Casady, "Old Bill" McHenry, "Dan" Finch, and a host of others orated and made merry over the marked compliment give the "distinguished citizen of The Fort."
the campaign was a vigorous one. Strong opposition to the Judge arose in several localities where effort was being made to secure the removal of the Capital from Des Moines, on the ground that if elected he would use his influence in favor of Des Moines, and also between the East and West Side respecting the location of the State House. It entered into politics, business, and even social relations. The Judge being a West Side resident, naturally received the support of that faction. The result of the election in the county was a tie, but, unexpectedly to the Democrats, the state gave Grimes a majority of two thousand five hundred in a vote of about forty-five thousand.
The friends of the Judge attributed his defeat largely to the intense excitement among the River Land Settlers, caused by the River Improvement Company charging them five dollars an acre for the odd-numbered sections of land, while the even-numbered sections were sold by the Government for a dollar and a quarter, and no more. It was deemed an outrage, and more especially so as the river improvement did not extend above Des Moines, and was no benefit to them.
In 1855, Bates, who was a Judge before he came to Des Moines, was a candidate before the Democratic Convention for Judge of the District Court, against McFarland, who served out the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Judge Cassady. At the convention, a fellow turned up who claimed to represent King County, up where now is, which existed only in expectation. As the contest was very close, and every vote counted, he was seated, voted for McFarland, giving him one majority, and he was declared the nominee.
In 1855, the Judge, having tired of holding the bag to feed and sustain the impecunious Star, disposed of it, and in 1861, his health failing, retired from law practice and devoted his time to the care of his large property holdings.
In 1860, he purchased a tract of land lying south of Clark Street to Oakland Avenue, between Arlington Avenue and Fourth Street.
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It remained unplatted and unsold during his lifetime, but the public, by common accord, used the northern portion, along the bluff overlooking the river valley, as a park, and it was known as Bates Park, the Judge interposing no objection. In 1883, his widow platted the entire tract, on which she designated a space 275x145 feet as a public park, in accordance with the evident intent of the Judge, and coveyed the title to the Board of Park Commissioners. In commemoration of her husband, she named it Bates Park.
In 1875, the Judge was elected Alderman from the Second Ward, and served on term.
Socially, the Judge was eminent for his virtues, integrity in business affairs, fidelity in friendship, purity of life, and loyalty to the home of his adoption. Whatever was to the betterment of civic life received his hearty support.
Religiously, he was not the member of any denominational church, yet he was a regular attendant at the services of Father Bird so long as that good man was able to preach, and subsequently attended the Presbyterian Church. His creed was the Fatherhood of God, and the Brotherhood of Man.
He died in May, 1879.
November Nineteenth, 1905.
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