George Todd (Part 2): Enslaved in Missouri

I started this multi-part story about the life and times of George Todd on Thursday with a post entitled, "George Todd (Part 1): From slavery to Chariton." George interests me because (a) he was among the first Lucas Countyans born into slavery who settled in Chariton after the Civil War and (b) because it's actually possible to find quite a bit of information about him.

But there are all sorts of complications, including the fact we don't know exactly when George was born --- and it's likely that he wasn't sure either. George could neither read nor write and he was born into slavery to parents who were enslaved --- so it's unlikely that any sort of written record existed. George complicated the situation by providing various birth years and, during his final years, by adding as many as 20 years to the total.

He gave his age as 32 when he registered for the draft in Henry County during July of 1863 and as 33 when he enlisted a month later. His age was given as 49 in the 1870 census enumeration of Chariton and as 66 in the 1880 census of Barton County, Kansas. When the 1900 census of Rice County, Kansas, was taken 20 years later, George provided a specific birth month and year of April 1836, making him 64 years old at the time. But his age was given as 95 in the 1910 census of Rice County --- and as death approached in 1914, he claimed to be 104 years old.

I've arbitrarily assigned a birth year range of 1830-31 to him, based upon the thought that the oldest record found stands a good chance of being the most accurate.

+++

When George enlisted, he told the enrolling clerk that he had been born in St. Charles, Missouri, now part of the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. It's possible that, as a child, he was taken to the vicinity of Bolivar, a town in Polk County, southwest Missouri, north of Springfield.

George seems to have been a story-teller and that location is taken from a story about him, headlined "Aged Negro Tells of Man Who Was Skinned Alive" that was published in The Hutchinson (Kansas) Gazette of Jan. 12, 1912, two years before his death.

The story begins, "It was in the year 1846, Uncle George says, that he witnessed a bunch of Indians skin a white man alive. The occurrence was near the present site of Humboldt, in the eastern part of the state."

Then it continues, " 'It was the time when the Mexican war was on,' said Uncle George. 'My Massa, Coy (or Col.) Wilse, went and took his little boy with him and I went along to take care of the young Massa. We crossed the line from Bolivar, Mo.,, and stopped on a small creek. One morning a man who lived there somewhere got drunk and said he was going to kill an Indian before breakfast. He killed the Indian and she was a woman.' "

The rest of the story involves the punishment accorded to the perpetrator by the dead woman's family --- he was captured, scalped and skinned alive, according to George's account.

Then the article continues, "Uncle George says he spent a considerable portion of his life near Bolivar, Mo., and it is from the records in the courthouse there that he is able to determine his exact age. He says that the records likewise show that taxes for many years were paid on his valuation as a slave in the Missouri town."

It certainly would be helpful if that reference to a "Col. Wilse" led to a specific person --- but so far as I could tell, it doesn't. I think it likely that the reporter invented a spelling for a name spoken by George and didn't get it right. Whatever the case, I failed to turn up anyone who might have been Col. Wilse, so my research dead-ended.

+++

Two things become evident when reading about George. He was accustomed to standing up for himself, as will become more evident in a future post; and he was proud of his African roots.

His entry in the 1870 census of Chariton indicates only that both of his parents were of "foreign birth." In the 1880, 1900 and 1910 census records, he gave the places of birth of both his parents as "Africa."

The 1900 census record is shown here at the top and immediately below:

Also included in the 1912 newspaper report is the sentence, "He says his father and mother were brought direct from Africa."

Next time: George's encounters with the Chariton media.

George Todd (Part 1): From slavery to Chariton

I set out earlier this week to track down as much information as possible about George Todd --- among the first Lucas Countyans born into slavery to settle here. That proved to be a complicated task that produced quite a bit of material, so I've decided to just plunge into the story without knowing how many posts it will take to tell it.

I've noted in earlier posts that there were no permanent black residents of Lucas County prior to the Civil War, but that soon thereafter a few families began to arrive in search of opportunity, as was the case with all pioneers.

George appears first in Lucas County records as a write-in candidate for city marshal during December of 1868. And then on April 3, 1869, he married Melvina (aka Elvina) Crowder here. George probably was 37-39 years old at the time and Melvina, age about 34 with a daughter, Mary, age 7.

The federal census-taker who came calling in Lucas County the next year found 17 men, women and children he considered "black" and 13 recorded as "mulatto" --- a total of 30. All lived in Chariton save one, a young man recorded twice, once in Chariton and once in Russell.

Recorded as black were Ann Wilcox, 28, born Mississippi, a servant in the Darius Wilcox household; Sally Thompson, 15, also born Mississippi, a servant in the George Lockwood household; Melissa Nance, 35, born Kentucky, a washerwoman with four daughters, Mary, Elise, Laura and Francis; William Mason, 39, a day laborer born in Ohio, enumerated with his wife, Priscilla, 40, and two others, Laura Price, 19, and William Price, 1, both born in Michigan; Rufus Allen, 51, a day laborer born in Virginia, and his son, Daniel, 18, a laborer born in Missouri; and the Todd family, consisting of George, Melvina, Mary and "Sis," George and Melvina's eldest daughter, Cora. Most of the families owned their own modest homes.

The mulatto families were those of George Scott, 30, born in Kentucky, no occupation given, and his wife, Susan, 34, also born Kentucky, and their four children, Napoleon, 17, born in Kentucky, and Anne, Mary and Walter, younger and born in Iowa; and Anderson Mason, 33, born Ohio and a barber, his wife, Nancy 28, and five children, Joseph, Mary, Charles, Wilkerson and Eddy. 

It was Daniel Allen who was enumerated twice --- once in Chariton with his father, Rufus, and again in Russell, where he was employed by (and living with) the town miller, George C. Boggs and his wife, Martha.

I've written about Anderson Mason before, primarily because he is identified as the first person of color to vote in an election in Lucas County --- during December of 1868, just a month after Iowans had ratified an amendment to the 1857 Constitution that removed the provision limiting suffrage to white males. You'll find "Lucas County's first black voter: Anderson Mason" here and "Anderson Mason and the right to vote" here.

As a footnote to that election, four of the black residents enumerated in the 1870 census had received write-in votes in the December 1868 election --- Anderson Mason and George Scott, eight each for mayor; George Todd, five for marshal; and Rufus Allen, eight for county recorder.

+++

So how did George Todd come to be in Iowa in the first place? It's my opinion, an opinion only, that he arrived via the underground railroad ca. 1862-1863. That's based largely on the fact he appears first in Iowa records in 1863 in Henry County, a hotbed of Quaker abolitionist and Underground Railroad activity centered on the village of Salem. 

Iowa conducted a census during 1863 of all males subject to the draft for Civil War service. Among those enumerated in Henry County was "George Todd, 32, colored, laborer, single, born Missouri." That entry is dated July 30, 1863.

A month later, on Aug. 22, 1863, George enlisted at Mount Pleasant in what became Co. H, 60th Regiment of U.S. Colored Infantry. His age was entered as 33.

When George enlisted, his unit was known as the 1st Iowa Infantry, Colored, and its men were mustered into federal service at Keokuk on Oct. 11, 1863.  On March 11, 1864, the 1st Iowa was redesignated the 60th United States Colored Infantry Regiment. 

"Colored" units always were commanded by white officers and were assigned to support duties rather than combat. The 60th was assigned to various garrison duties in the Department of Arkansas during the remainder of the war.

George's service record, available through the subscription research site Fold3, shows months of exemplary service as a teamster for the regimental quartermaster department with temporary duty assignment now and then as teamster for the brigade quartermaster.

He was mustered out after two years of honorable service on Oct. 15, 1865, at DeValls Bluff, Arkansas, with the remainder of his regiment. A total of 1,153 men had served in the regiment during its existence and 344 died, the great majority of disease.

It seems likely that George returned to Henry County after the war although we can't be sure of that.

Anderson Mason was a U.S Colored Troops veteran, too, and had been operating a barber shop in Mount Pleasant before the war. So it's possible, but certainly can't be proved, that George came west to Chariton with or at about the same time that the Masons did.

The move most likely occurred after July of 1867 when the first passenger cars began to arrive at a temporary depot in Chariton following completion of the new Burlington & Missouri River rail line through the city. After 20 years of relative isolation, Lucas County now was open to the world.

More of this another time ....

Open minds --- not an official position

My social media search this morning for the meaning of life turned up this, attributed to Brene Brown, described in her Wikipedia entry (where else?) as "an American researcher story-teller, professor, lecturer, author, and podcast host." Brown holds the Huffington Foundation's Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston's Graduate College of Social Work and is a visiting professor in management at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin.

It seemed appropriate in light of the fact that HF802 is on the debate calendar for Iowa's Senate today.

HF802 is a legislative effort to control diversity training offered by Iowa's state, county and city entities as well as K-12 public schools and public universities by prohibiting the use (and free discussion) of "divisive concepts," including the following:

That the United States, and Iowa, are fundamentally or systemically racist or sexist; that an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive; that people should be made to feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of their race or sex; that moral character is determined by race or sex. And so on.

Read carefully through the whirlwind of words included in this piece of legislation and a few things will turn up that nearly everyone can agree upon. But the overarching intent is to shield white fragility and to develop and impose an official line that dismisses any challenge to it. That's chilling.

The point of diversity training in Iowa and elsewhere is to better equip its citizens to understand and deal intelligently with the varieties of humanity they'll encounter --- black folks, brown folks, Asian folks, gay folks, transgender folks, women- and men-folk, even the white guy down the street still flying his Donald Trump flag.

It begins with empathy, as Ms. Brown suggests --- the willingness "to believe them as they see it, and not how you imagine (or would prefer) their experience to be." That's where progress begins. That requires unfettered exploration and open minds, not an official position.

A side order of misogyny with your reporting, sir?

I've written a number of times about Dan Baker, editor of The Chariton Leader during the 1870s and author, in 1880-81, of the local portion of Lucas County's first (and most complete) history, published during the latter year.

He was a good story-teller and an amusing writer who went on, in California during later years, to establish a reputation as an enterprising, reform-minded journalist.

On the other hand, Dan was a racist --- an aspect of character evident in his editorializing and in his reporting on Chariton's black residents; apparently something of a misogynist, too. That trait is evident in two reports from The Leader published in the fall of 1874 about the pregnancy of a young, single school teacher in Otter Creek Township. Here's the first report, from The Leader of Aug. 29:

+++

"Suit has been commenced in the Wayne County Circuit Court by a young woman named Welch, aged about 18 years, against Mr. John Canterbury of Otter Creek Township for Bastardy and his property in the county is attached for the future support of a coming heir without an inheritance or  a pledge of affection, without a Papa. Its gay and festive ma was a school marm, up in Otter Creek some months ago, and is a sister-in-law of Mr. Canterbury and she alleges that he is the happy father of it, as near as she can remember, while John with honest indignation denies the charge and says he will be able to establish his innocence successfully. Mr. Canterbury is spoken of as a good man and citizen, and we hope he will be able to acquit himself of the soft impeachment."

+++

The follow-up appears in The Leader of Sept. 12:

"A short time since we published an account of a little bastardy case, commenced by a young lady of easy virtue and doubtful morals named Welch, against her brother-in-law, Mr. John Canterbury, of Otter Creek township. Since that time, John called on us and showed us an affidavit, duly signed and executed by her, in which she positively declares that John is perfectly innocent of the delicate little charge, and that she was influenced and instigated by another party to bring suit against him for the future maintenance of the prospective orphan. We are glad to hear that John is thus cleared from the disagreeable situation, though we fear that the young lady's veracity will suffer a little in the transaction, as she has committed herself rather awkwardly on both sides of the question. Otter Creek township, you are redeemed! Oh that the Jackson township nest-hiding case could have cleared up so well."

I have no idea what the "nest-building case" was all about, but presumably some among Dan's readers did --- or he wouldn't have mentioned it. But clearly Dan felt that his fellow male had been wronged by a teen-age hussy.

+++

I don't know what became of the young woman, the child or of her paternity case. No further reports appeared in The Leader, once Dan had delivered his pronouncements concerning her character. The Patriot did not report upon the case at all and issues of Wayne County newspapers that might have clarified the situation seem no longer to exist.

Mr. Canterbury was a native of Henry County and a Civil War veteran who married Matilda Welch during 1866 at Fairfield, then moved soon thereafter to Lucas County's Otter Creek Township. The couple produced their fifth child of 10 total during 1874 when John was 32 and Matilda, 29.

Prior to 1880, the Canterburys moved to Decatur County, then into Missouri and finally, after 1900, to Lewis County, Washington, where he died on Dec. 19, 1908, at the age of 66. Matilda died during 1923. They are buried in Claquato Cemetery, Lewis County.

The Enkindled Spring (by D.H. Lawrence)

Time for a snipet of spring poetry I think --- before the redbuds (and the red haws) fade at Lucas County's Red Haw State Park. So here's D.H. Lawrence's "Enkindled Spring."

+++

This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,

Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,
Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke between
Where the wood fumes up and the watery, flickering rushes.

I am amazed at this spring, this conflagration
Of green fires lit on the soil of the earth, this blaze
Of growing, and sparks that puff in wild gyration,
Faces of people streaming across my gaze.

And I, what fountain of fire am I among
This leaping combustion of spring? My spirit is tossed
About like a shadow buffeted in the throng
Of flames, a shadow that's gone astray, and is lost.

+++

Most widely known now for its lavish display of redbuds, a non-native plant, Red Haw State Park was named for the white-blooming red haw, or hawthorn --- and there still are a few of those around.

Development of what became the park began during mid-September, 1934, when some 75 young men enrolled at CCC Camp Chariton went to work. The stone shelter came along in 1939. Between those dates, the area was christened Red Haw Hill State Park although the "Hill" has long since been dropped.

I've taken the images here, from redbuds at the top to red haw at the bottom, over the course of several years.

Fully innoculated --- but still concerned ....

My two-week waiting period following the second dose of Moderna vaccine came last week and it's been a relief to feel safer. Not that I've done anything much differently --- still sanitizing, maintaining social distance and wearing a mask in public places where others are gathered. That will include church this morning, where it's mandatory.

But I've been reading a variety of worrying news reports this morning, including The Des Moines Register's lead story, "Iowa asks feds to withhold nearly 21,000 doses of COVID vaccine, as demand for shots ebbs."

Elsewhere, The Washington Post is reporting on the viral surge to record levels in India and other regions of the world without the luxury of excess vaccine or, in some cases, any vaccine at all. And The New York Times is focused on Michigan, where COVID-19 hospital beds are filling with younger people in part because older residents have been vaccinated and in part because the new viral strain circulating there seems to target the under-65's. Also, that an increasing percentage of those who have received the first dose of a vaccine are not returning for a second.

In Iowa, according to The Register, some 40 percent of us have received one dose; approximately 55 percent, two doses.

So why would the demand in Iowa decline so markedly? Some of the usual suspects probably are involved, but not dramatically so --- nut-case anti-vaxers, who always are with us; religionists who confuse what their gods can do with what they're expected to do for themselves; and conspiracy theorists who have convinced themselves that virus isn't real, but instead some sort of political plot.

Apathy and the old "it won't happen to me" approach probably take the biggest shares of the blame. 

With vaccine now freely available to everyone 16 and older there's really no excuse. We're fortunate to live in a state and a nation with a surplus. We all want life to return to normal, or at least to what the new normal will turn out to be. So for goodness sake, take advantage of the opportunity if you've not already.

A Viburnum variety, but which one ....

The question was asked  the other day during a stroll along the south side of the A.J. Stephens House, "Is that a snowball bush?"

And I said, "no," because my mind was full of images of larger shrubs with larger and more tissue-like blossom clusters that bloom a little later.

But the two are closely related, both members of the Viburnum family.

Now if I could just figure out which variety this lovely smallish bush is.

I flourishes in what for many plants would be hostile territory --- right up against a masonry wall in full sun in deplorable soil trapped between a sidewalk and the house. I blooms in early spring. It grows slowly. And it smells great.

Whatever it is, the historical society's retired chief gardener, Kay Brown, showed considerable wisdom when she planted it there.

The Dutch invade Chariton bearing tulips ...

Of course I've always been amazed by the number of tulips on display in Pella during that city's annual festival (approximately 300,000 bulbs are expected to bloom before and during this year's May 6-8 celebration). But the degree of organization needed to plan, launch and carry through this floral extravaganza is impressive, too.

Pella historians tell us that the first Tulip Time was held in 1935, inspired by an operetta entitled "Tulip Time in Pella" performed a couple of weeks earlier by Pella High School students. The event was pulled together in about two weeks and since there were no massive tulip beds then, cabinet-maker George Heeren crafted 125 four-foot wooden tulips that were placed in flagpole holes around the square.

The first full-scale celebration was held during 1936 (85,000 bulbs were planted) and the next year, the community came together to promote the event on an impressive scale, too (keep in mind that print media and the radio were the "mass" media of the time).

The 1937 effort involved recruiting, organizing and costuming 200 volunteers, plus a 54-piece band, to visit nearby communities, including Chariton. The visit to Chariton was scheduled for May 1, 1937, and was promoted by an article on the front page of the Herald-Patriot headlined, "Dutch Parade Planned Here." Here's the story:

+++

Two hundred Pella residents, accompanied by a 54-piece band, will parade in Chariton Saturday afternoon. All members of the delegation will be dressed in Dutch constumes. the Pella group will come here from Osceola and is slated to arrive about 4 p.m.

Permission for the parade has been granted by Mayor Noel Cloud. In a letter requesting permission to visit Chariton it was explained by officials in charge of Pella's Tulip Time festival that the parade is for the purpose of inviting Lucas county residents to the festivities scheduled May 10 to 15.

Approximately six miles of Pella streets are lined with large imported tulips, and in addition Tulip town, featuring more that 12,000 tulips of 100 varieties, will be opened May 10. The event is staged by Pella people to keep alive the traditions and customs of the town which was founded 90 years ago by Dominie H. P. Scholte.

+++

Tulip Time festivities have been cancelled only twice in the event's 86 year run --- during 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and during 1946, when fund-raising events for the people of post-war Holland were held instead.

There will be no parades this year because of the continuing COVID-19 situation and social distancing will be imposed and/or encouraged (and of course masks are encouraged, too), but the tulips are blooming and the celebrating has resumed.

Attempted murder in Pleasant Township's hills

This is another of those Lucas County stories that would have vanished without a trace had it not been reprinted in another newspaper because of its sensational nature. It was originally published in The Chariton Patriot of May 1, 1872, but the earliest files of that newspaper were destroyed in a fire. The following version was reprinted in Indianola's Warren County Leader of May 9.

The setting would have been the Stoneking neighborhood of northeast Lucas County's Pleasant Township in the immediate vicinity of what now is known as Stoneking Cemetery. It appeared under the headline, "Attempted Murder and Suicide in Lucas County."

+++

Last Friday considerable excitement was occasioned in this community by the report of a horrible murder committed in Pleasant township, this county. On inquiry, however, it was ascertained the report originated in the shooting, by one Silas Floyd, of Mr. Thomas Marshal and his (Floyd's) wife, and the subsequent attempt at suicide by the would-be murderer.

The circumstances of the affair, as far as we have been able to ascertain, are about as follows: Floyd and his wife married some two years ago (Dec. 27, 1870, according to Lucas County records), their married life not being a very pleasant one. About the first of last January, Mrs. Floyd left her husband and went to work for the support of herself and child --- the latter about 17 months old. She had been employed up to last Thursday in the family of Mr. Marshal.

A week ago last Sunday, Floyd went to the house of Mr. Marshal and had an interview with his wife, without however effecting a reconciliation. A few days subsequent to the interview with his wife, Floyd went to a neighbor's house and (borrowed?) his revolver. Last Thursday he went to the house of Mr. (James) Stoneking, his wife's father, and desired him to send to Mr. Marshal's and request his wife to come over as he wished to see her and have a settlement. Floyd's request was complied with; but Mrs. Marshal being unwell, Mrs. Floyd did not come to see her husband till after dinner, when Mr. Marshal brought her over in his wagon.

On their way to Mr. Stoneking's house, Mr. Marshal and Mrs. Floyd met the latter's husband and requested him to get into the wagon and ride back with them. This he declined to do, but followed immediately in the rear of the wagon. Arrived at Mr. Stoneking's house, Floyd addressed Marshall, saying: "You have brought my wife over." "Yes," replied Marshal. "Well, I want you to leave her here." Marshal replied that he would (not), upon which Floyd drew a revolver and fired at Marshal, the ball taking effect in the fleshy part of the thigh. Marshal jumped from the wagon and ran for safety, Floyd first shooting his wife, the shot taking effect in her breast, and then pursuing Marshal.

Failing to overtake the latter, Floyd returned and meeting Mrs. Sallie Stoneking, his wife's aunt, he pursued her revolver in hand and threatened to kill her. After having run her several times around the house Floyd encountered his wife's mother when he stopped and spoke to her, saying "Goodbye, Mother," at the same time leveling the pistol at his own breast and firing, inflicting a slight wound.

Floyd fell to the ground and lay there apparently dead when one of Mr. Stoneking's children approached and picked up the revolver --- which Floyd had dropped --- and hid it. In a few moments Floyd arose and walked into the house and lay down, but soon returned to look for his pistol, which he did not find.

About this time Mr. Marshal returned to the scene with a rifle, determined to shoot Floyd, but he did not carry out his design. The people in the neighborhood instituted a watch over Floyd and apprised sheriff Holmes of the occurrence. The sheriff immediately repaired to the scene and arrested Floyd, who he brought to town on Friday. Floyd waived an examination and was committed to jail to await the result of his wife's injures.

Dr. Kneeland, who was called to attend Mrs. Floyd, reports her as doing well, and that her injuries are not probably fatal. Floyd is represented as being about bereft of reason through jealousy, which was the cause of his attempted double murder.

+++

Mrs. Floyd (nee Sarah Stoneking) apparently survived the shooting, but I did not spend the time and energy needed to determine what became of her. Her date of death is consistently given as 1891 in family data available online, but family genealogists provide neither a place nor an account of the circumstances.

Silas Floyd, jailed in Chariton, remained there until March of 1873 when The Patriot in its March 19 edition reported, "On Monday evening about 7 o'clock Silas Floyd, the wife murderer, and the young man Jno. Reader, who was imprisoned on Saturday last for stealing clothes from R. Palmer, broke out of the jail at this place and are trying to make their escape. How they will succeed remains to be seen."

The description "wife murderer" apparently was an exaggeration, reflecting careless reporting, but Floyd's escape was a success.

Two years later, The Patriot of April 14, 1875, reported under the headline "District Court Notes" as follows: "The case of the State of Iowa vs. Silas Floyd, who was indicted a couple of years ago for killing his wife in Pleasant township and who escaped from our county jail, was stricken from the docket, the defendant not having been found."

And that was the last trace I was able to find of Silas Floyd.

Wed before 5,000 of their closest friends ....

I came across the following little story about the very public marriage of two Lucas County young people back in 1881 while searching for references to the county in a year that's kind of a black hole otherwise --- very few editions of local newspapers published that year survive. But the following was published in The Waterloo Courier of Sept. 21, 1881:

"The managers of the State Fair at Des Moines offered a premium of $20 to any couple who would be married under the mammoth floral bell in the art hall on the exhibition grounds. The premium and publicity brought out a youthful pair of spoonies, who were willing to make a show of themselves along side of the big squashes, fancy stock, etc. The groom was a young preacher by the name of Curtis and the bride was a Miss Wilkins, both of Lucas county. They were duly hitched up by a Des Moines presiding elder, in the presence of five thousand curious and gaping spectators."

The story struck a familiar cord --- I remembered that the Norwood neighborhood had produced a United Brethren preacher named Curtis, but had forgotten his given names.

So I turned to Polk County marriage records and found the entry for E.W. (Emory Wilson) Curtis, 29, and Loretta A. Wilkins, 19, both of Norwood. Curtis was identified as a son of Moses H. and Sarah A. (Spence) Curtis and Loretta, as a daughter of Charles and Rebecca Wilkins. His occupation was given as "minister." That's a portion of the marriage record above showing the location, names of the witnesses and the officiant, George Miller.

How well did this marital knot tied in such a public setting endure? Well, it endured for 56 years and two days --- until the Rev. Mr. Curtis died at his retirement home in Des Moines on Sept. 9, 1937, at the age of 84.

In the intervening years, he completed 50 years in the United Brethren ministry --- the last eight years in service to the Chariton congregation. That congregation's former building, a half block north of the library, was torn down recently but the parsonage next door, built during the years Emory and Loretta Curtis were the pastoral couple there, survives.

The couple had four children, three daughters and a son who died at age 13 while his father was serving the Van Meter United Brethren congregation and was buried there. As a result, Emory's remains were taken from Des Moines to Van Meter for burial beside him. Loretta lived for 18 more years, then completed the family circle when her remains were buried in 1955 with those of her husband and son (Find a Grave photo).

Miss Josephine gets her land --- no man required

The sisters Millan, Miss Josephine (Jo) and Miss Maggie, were Chariton's leading milliners during the latter half of the 19th century, operating from various locations on the square. They had arrived in Lucas County as children, during 1862, when their parents --- Henry and Caroline Millan --- moved their family here from Palmyra, Missouri. All now rest near this substantial tombstone in the Chariton Cemetery.

Miss Jo also knew an opportunity when she saw it and during 1881-82, when she was in her early 30s, that came in the form of public land at bargain basement prices in the booming state of Nebraska. She had an eye on a quarter section adjoining the newly purchased farm in Harlan County of her sister and brother-in-law, Pocahontas (Millan) and Major (a given name not a military rank) Hooper.

How she got it was the subject of the following article, published in The Chariton Patriot during February of 1882. Unfortunately, that issue of The Patriot no longer exists. But other newspapers found the story so intriguing that it was republished. So here's the version that appeared in The Waterloo Courier of March 4, 1882:

+++

For some time past, Miss Jo Millan, of Chariton, has been closely watching a quarter section of land in Harlan county, Nebraska, which she was particularly anxious to call her own as it was not only a very desirable tract of land, but was located between the farms of her brother-in-law and nephew. Unfortunately, however, it was already pre-empted by one of the sterner sex, but he forfeited his right by abandoning his claim for a greater length than the law permits.

Another man pre-empted it as a timber claim, but Miss Millan knew that his claim was not a good one as there was about 40 acres on the tract, whereas the land laws hold that land taken as timber claims must be destitute of timber. The occupant, however, tested his rights in the General Land Office, and from there to  the Interior Department at Washington.

Before leaving Nebraska last summer to return to her home, Miss Millan made arrangements to have the result of the investigation telegraphed to her as soon as the decision was made. On Monday of last week she received a dispatch containing the single word, "Come," and took  the midnight train of that night for the disputed territory.

Owing to a tedious railroad delay, she did not arrive there until Wednesday, when she at once went to the land office with her papers all in proper shape for  record, and she was not a minute too soon, for before the ink was dry, half a dozen men came in to secure the same piece of  land,  each trying to beat the other,  and arrived just  in time to find that they had been beaten by a woman.

There is still  an opportunity, however, for one of them securing the coveted piece of land, but in order to do so, it will be necessary to marry the fair owner.

+++

Miss Jo, however, was interested in the land --- not a man --- and never married. She returned to Chariton, most likely sold her quarter section at a profit and continued to work with her sister for many years thereafter. She died during 1907 at the age of 57. Miss Maggie was 90 when she died during 1921.

Flowers that bloom (before the big freeze)

We're headed into a spring freeze-up here in the south of Iowa this week with overnight lows predicted at 31 today, 27 Tuesday and 29 Wednesday --- not the best of weather news.

I added some rosemary and additional sage to the Stephens House herb garden late last week, but both should be hardy enough to make it through without protection.

Nor should much of what's blooming elsewhere around the museum grounds be in much danger, but I took a few shots early last evening --- just in case.

Tulips have pride of place, running well ahead of those scheduled to burst forth in our neighbor to the northeast, Pella, as that city's annual Tulip Time celebration is revived after cancellation last year because of COVID-19.

The dates are Thursday-Saturday, May 6-8, but no parades this year. Social distancing will be imposed where that's possible and masks will be encouraged.

Elsewhere in the museum garden, the bleeding heart is in bloom.

As are grape hyacinths.

And quite frankly I'm not sure what this pretty blue flowering plant is called.

The bright yellow daffodils have for the most part faded, but there still are plenty of their cousins still in bloom.

And a couple of flowering shrubs are showing off, too.

Psalm 104 and William Lovelady's setting

I went looking this morning for a recording of William Lovelady's setting for the 104th Psalm as performed yesterday during funeral services for the Prince Philip at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. 

All of the music performed by a four-voice ensemble during the funeral was remarkable, but this was the piece I liked especially.

Philip had commissioned Lovelady (b. 1945, left), a composer and guitarist, to write the piece --- in its original form a cantata for up to 80 voices --- for his 75th birthday a quarter century ago and had directed that it be performed at his funeral, too. This is a condensed version, arranged with the composer's permission.

The words parallel some of the themes from the first lesson of the day, taken at Philip's direction (as was everything else in the service) from the book of Ecclesiasticus (or Sirach), considered apocryphal by Anglicans but part of the Catholic and Orthodox canon.

Whatever the case, it's been a lovely way to begin a Sunday morning. 

The scattered remains of Isaac & Lethenia Leffler

I wrote yesterday about David I. Leffler, a 23-year-old soldier from Lucas County who died during 1864 while trying to make it home to Chariton after his disability discharge and was buried in Burlington's Aspen Grove Cemetery during early August of that year.

David had arrived in Chariton during the fall of 1852 at the age of 11 with his parents, Isaac and Lethenia Leffler, and five siblings, when Isaac was appointed receiver of public funds at the new Chariton Land Office.

Two years after David's death, on March 8, 1866, Isaac died at Chariton at the age of 77 and his remains were taken to Burlington to be buried in Aspen Grove with David and another son, Isaac Jr., who had died at age 18 during 1855. He rests near a tumbled tombstone there.

Lethenia died 13 years later, age 76, during late January of 1879 in Chariton after a fall and was buried in the Chariton Cemetery, next to an infant grandchild. That's her tombstone above. Soon thereafter, the last of her children moved west of the Missouri so no one was left to visit her grave on a regular basis.

+++

Isaac Leffler was a very distinguished Iowa pioneer, one of few Lucas Countyans to merit his own biography in the repository of all useful information, Wikipedia. It would be reinventing the wheel to paraphrase, so here's the article in full. It dates from 2007 when it was automatically generated from a federal database, "Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress," but has been amended several times since:

Isaac Leffler (November 7, 1788 – March 8, 1866), sometimes spelled Lefler or Loeffler, was an American lawyer and Iowa pioneer who represented Virginia's 18th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives for one term in the 1820s. He served in the legislatures of the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Wisconsin and Iowa Territories.

He was the older brother of Shepherd Leffler, who was one of Iowa's first congressmen after achieving statehood.

Born on his grandfather's plantation, "Sylvia's Plain," in Washington County, Pennsylvania, near Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), Leffler attended the public schools and was graduated from Jefferson College, (now Washington & Jefferson College), in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Wheeling. He served as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1817 to 1819, 1823 to 1827, 1832, and 1833. He served as a member of the Virginia Board of Public Works in 1827.

In 1826, Leffler was elected as an Adams Party candidate to the Twentieth Congress, defeating incumbent Jacksonian Joseph Johnson. When running for re-election in 1828, he was beaten (along with President John Quincy Adams). Although Andrew Jackson defeated Adams, Leffler was defeated by Anti-Jacksonian Party candidate Philip Doddridge. In all, Leffler served in the U.S. House from March 4, 1827, to March 3, 1829.

In 1835, Leffler moved to that portion of Michigan Territory that is now Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa, in Iowa's southeastern corner. At the time, Iowa and the other regions of the Michigan Territory west of the Mississippi River were broadly divided between Des Moines County, in the south, and Dubuque County in the north.

Leffler was admitted to the Des Moines County bar on April 15, 1835, and practiced law. While under Michigan's regional governance, he was named as the chief justice of the first judicial tribunal of Des Moines County on April 11, 1836. After the creation of Wisconsin Territory on April 20, 1836, he served in the first legislature of the new Territory from 1836 through 1838, and served as Speaker of the House during the 2nd session of the Assembly, in the winter of 1837-38. After Iowa Territory was created from areas of Wisconsin Territory west of the Mississippi River—previously referred to as the Iowa District—in 1838, he served as a member of the Iowa Territory house of representatives in 1841.

President John Tyler appointed Leffler as United States marshal for the district of Iowa on December 18, 1843. He served until removed by President James K. Polk on December 29, 1845, when he resumed the practice of law in Burlington. He declined the appointment of the register of the land office at Stillwater (in what was then Minnesota Territory) in 1849. He was appointed by President Millard Fillmore as receiver of public sums of money for the Chariton land district of Iowa on August 30, 1852, and served on that position until removed by President Franklin Pierce on March 29, 1853.

He died in Chariton, Iowa, on March 8, 1866. He was interred in Aspen Grove Cemetery, in Burlington.

+++

The Leffler family in Chariton actually was Isaac's second. He had married Rebecca Foreman during 1818 in Virginia and they had seven children before her death during 1830.

During 1832, Isaac married Lethenia Mitchell, daughter of Hugh and Susanna (Bounds) Mitchell, in Belmont County, Ohio, and they became the parents of six children, including the aforementioned David and Alex Jr.

The survivors included Margaret, who married Oliver L. Palmer on Aug. 23, 1852, in Burlington. They were among Chariton's earliest merchant families, building what now is the oldest structure still standing on the Chariton square. They moved to Nebraska after 1880.

Lethenia married a young Lucas County farmer named Daniel Baum on Aug. 9, 1854, and they moved west to Lincoln, Nebraska, as he prospered as a railroad bridge contractor. He eventually founded the Baum Iron Co. in Omaha and the family rose to prominence there.

Daughter Sallie married a young attorney named Eugene Edwards on May 1, 1863. They eventually settled in Los Angeles.

The fourth survivor was a son named Alexander who never managed to settle down. He found refuge in later years in homes set aside for Civil War veterans, dividing his time in old age between the Iowa Soldiers Home in Marshalltown and a National Soldiers Home in California, where he died during the 1920s.

+++

Here's the notice of Lethenia's death as published in The Chariton Leader of Feb. 2, 1879. The article suggests that the family may have planned to take her remains to Burlington for burial, but obviously those plans were not carried out:

Mrs. Leffler, whom we mentioned last week as having met with a severe accident by falling, died from her injuries at the residence of O.L. Palmer on Friday morning of this week, age 76 years. She, with her husband, came to Iowa when it was a territory and settled in Burlington. Her husband, Mr. Isaac Leffler, died in this city (Chariton) 13 years ago and was buried in Burlington, where we learn that the remains of Mrs. Leffler will be taken for interment. Deceased left three married daughters, they being Mrs. O.L. Palmer and Mrs. E.E. Edwards (of Chariton) and Mrs. Dan Baum of Lincoln, Neb; also an unmarried son, Mr. Alex Leffler, who has for a number of years resided west of the Missouri River.

David Leffler, Chariton and Burlington's Aspen Grove

This is the tombstone in Burlington's Aspen Grove Cemetery of a young man from Chariton named David Leffler, 23, who died Aug. 1, 1864. He is one of more than 150 young men from Lucas County who died while in service to their country during the Civil War and the only one I've come across whose death was reported in a timely manner in a newspaper issue that has survived.

The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye of Aug. 6, 1864, picking up and republishing an item from its Aug. 2 daily edition, reported that "David Leffler, a son of Col. Leffler, of Chariton, a member of Company H, First Cavalry, Iowa, died on the cars yesterday between Monmouth (Illinois) and this city. He was sick and on is way home."

Then, republished from its edition of Aug. 3, "David I. Leffler (of whom we spoke yesterday) was buried yesterday in Aspen Grove Cemetery."

+++

David was 19 and a resident of rural Chariton when he enlisted in Company H at Albia on June 13, 1862.  Mustered at Burlington Aug. 3, 1862, he seems to have excelled in the military and was promoted from private to 6th sergeant Sept. 1, 1862, to 5th sergeant Nov. 5, 1862, to 4th sergeant Jan. 1, 1863 and to 3rd sergeant on March 1, 1863.

He became ill with chronic dysentery/diarrhea during 1864 while stationed in Arkansas and was in a "dying condition" when discharged on July 13 at Little Rock in the hope he could make it home to Chariton. He died, however, aboard a train travelling between Monmouth, Illinois, and Burlington on 1 August 1864. His remains were carried onward to Burlington and buried in Aspen Grove.

David, son of Isaac and Lethenia (Mitchell) Leffler, actually was native to Burlington, born there ca. 1841, but had come west to Chariton in 1852 when he was 11 and his father, an attorney, was appointed receiver of public funds at the new Chariton Land Office.

Isaac Leffler's new job was a political appointment, however, and when administrations changed he was replaced. In his late 60s at the time, he remained in Lucas County with his family, retiring to a farm near Chariton where he became increasingly disabled. David was in charge of the family farm when he enlisted.

So David was no stranger to Burlington when buried there. His grandfather, Jacob Leffler, had been buried in Aspen Grove during 1844 and a married sister as well as various uncles and cousins and their families still lived there.

Isaac Leffler died at Chariton two years later, on March 6, 1866, age 77, and at his request his remains were returned to Burlington for burial beside David in Aspen Grove.

Iowa's second shot at a postive COVID-19 response

So Tuesday was the one-week anniversary of my second Covid-19 shot (Moderna) and in a few days I'll be as close to being as fully protected as possible by the vaccine.

Side effects? Muscles around the incision point were a little sore on the day after and I was tired, too. Still off my feed a little on the day after. But that was it. No chills, fever, headaches or anything else.

Any changes in behavior because of the new "protected" status? No. Still wearing a mask when around people not in my core group and avoiding groups, sanitizing hands, keeping social distance. All of that's likely to continue for some time.

Many places in the United States, Canada and elsewhere around the world are experiencing spikes in new cases of the virus linked in part to new varieties. That's likely to happen in Iowa, too, so this is not the time to relax and drop guards.

Routine trips this week to the grocery store, where masks have never been universal and in fact few and far between at various times of the day, suggest many in Lucas County still don't take the Covid-19 threat seriously. Stopped in over the weekend to pick up a single item or two and some younger staffers, presumably in the absence of supervisors, were wearing their masks as necklaces.

Investigative reporter Laura Belin's excellent "Bleeding Heartland" blog forwarded this morning an interesting article by Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson, "What if Iowa's COVID-19 response had been among the nation's best?" 

Some of what Swenson reports is reassuring --- Iowa now ranks in the top half of states where residents have received one dose of vaccine, in the top third of states where two have been administered. So the immunization process --- facilitated in Lucas County by our excellent Department of Public Health in partnership with Lucas County Health Center --- is working well.

But that good news is paired with an analysis of past performance that is less reassuring --- seventh worst among the states in case numbers per capita; 17th worst death rate.

I'm betting that in the absence of leadership on the state level, and that's unlikely to be forthcoming from the Reynolds administration and the Legislature, efforts to push immunization rates upward will falter. It remains to be seen what the outcome of that will be.

The beginning of the end for two killers ...

Immunizations have been much in the news lately, so I found interesting the following article published on the front page of The Chariton Herald-Patriot of April 29, 1941 --- just 80 years ago. 

Both diphtheria, bacteria-based, and smallpox, virus-based, were major concerns when my parents were children. By the time I came along, immunizations against both were routine. 

Routine vaccination against smallpox ceased in the United States in 1972 after the disease had been eradicated. During 1980, the World Health Organization declared the world smallpox-free. Vaccinations against diphtheria continue.

Here's the article, published under a banner headline that read, "Immunization Program Dates Are Set."

+++

Approximately 200 Chariton school children will receive "shots" in the arm next week from May 5-9.

While no definite schedule has been received as yet, Supt. J. R. Cougill said today that the immunization program, instituted in this city several years ago, will again be carried out during the coming week.

Children will receive immunization "shots" to protect them from diphtheria as well as vaccination to guard against small pox. Local doctors will carry on the work.

The diphtheria immunization program has been carried on for some time in Chariton with outstanding results. "Since it was started we have had no epidemics of diphtheria," Supt. Cougill said today.

"The small pox vaccination program has been adopted more recently and is now part of the entire program. Since the vaccinations were first given in city schools, there has been no epidemic of this disease. We have had a few scattered cases but they have never risen to epidemic like proportions."

So far, as a result of the program carried on in past years, it is estimated that 75 percent of Chariton school children have either been immunized or vaccinated.

Through the cooperation of and by special arrangement with members of the local medical society, parents may either take their children to the doctors' offices to have the "shots" administered or have them taken at the children's respective schools where doctors will call during the next week.

Cost of the immunization is $1 with small pox vaccination series also the same price. The Lucas county Red Cross chapter in cooperation with the Chariton Parent Teachers Association, has made available a limited fund which will be used to pay the costs in cases where children's parents are unable to meet the expense.

Hardin Cloud of Cloud, Iowa, expires in Chariton

Had Hardin Cloud not expired under mildly unusual circumstances in Chariton back during April of 1901, I'd probably not be able to share this bit of south Iowa trivia --- that once upon a time there was a Cloud, Iowa, consisting of little more than a general store and post office founded by and named for the aforementioned Mr. Cloud.

It was located in Dallas Township, Marion County, just a mile north of the Lucas-Marion County line. The village of Dallas was due north (the Melcher half of what now is Melcher Dallas had not yet been dreamed of). Newbern and Bauer were to the west.

Here's one of the stories, from The Chariton Democrat of April 18, 1901, that reported the circumstances of the death. I'd never heard of Mr. Cloud or Cloud, Iowa, until I came across it.

+++

Hardin Cloud of Cloud, one of the most influential and prosperous farmers of Marion county, died suddenly in this city last Thursday night. On Friday morning about nine o'clock he was found dead in a room on the second story of the Exchange building on the west side of the square.

He came to Chariton the previous day and complained of not feeling well. He borrowed the key to the room (from its) renter, Jas. Chavis, and laid down just before dinner time, but was seen on the street between four and five o'clock. Mr. Chavis is a colored man employed by Mr. Storie. He went to his room about nine o'clock in the evening and found Mr. Cloud sleeping. When he visited his room the next morning he discovered that Mr. Cloud was dead.

He notified the coroner, Dr. T.P. Stanton, and an inquest and postmortem examination were held. The jury, composed of Drs. J.A. McKlveen, J.E. Stanton and A.L. Yocom, returned a verdict to  the effect that the death of Mr. Cloud was due to heart disease. The remains were taken to his home in Marion county where funeral services were held on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock after which interment took place at Gosport. Mr. Cloud was at one time a member of the state legislature. He was fifty-one years of age and leaves a wife and three daughters.

+++

Reports in the other Chariton newspapers state that the initial suspicion was that Mr. Cloud had killed himself by taking poison, but an autopsy conducted by the physicians who formed the coronor's jury showed no trace of poison but a seriously diseased heart.

I went looking for an obituary and found one in The Knoxville Journal of April 20, so here's a little more information about Hardin Cloud:

+++

Mr. Cloud was born at Girard, Ill., May 5, 1850; came to Iowa in 1870; was united in marriage to Sarah E. Wilson on January 21, 1875. Three children blessed this union, two of whom still survive the deceased. He also leaves five brothers and two sisters to mourn his loss. W.O. Cloud of the firm of May & Cloud of Columbia is the only brother residing in this part of the state.

In 1884, Hardin Cloud ran for the state legislature on the Greenback-Democratic ticket and was elected, serving one term. In 1880 he made a public profession of religion and joined the M.E. church. By his influence and money he proved a great help to his home church and was always ready to support any worthy cause.

Mr. Cloud was a man whose cleverness and genial disposition won for him friends wherever he went. A kind indulgent father, a good neighbor and generous to a fault, a public-spirited citizen, his death will be deeply felt by all who knew him. For several years he suffered from ill-health but bore it all uncomplainingly. In addition to running a stock farm, Mr. Cloud also conducted a general store and post office which has been a great benefit to a neighborhood so remote from business centers. His grief-stricken wife and daughters who are almost prostrated under the blow may rest assured that they have the deepest sympathy of their neighbors.

+++

The store and post office seem to have survived Mr. Cloud by a few years, but postal records state that the post office was closed and those served by it transferred to the jurisdiction of the Columbia Post Office in 1906. That probably indicates that the store closed at about the same time.

Genealogical adventures with Grandma Mary Clair

This is the tombstone of a maternal great-great-great-grandmother of mine, Mary Saunders Clair, in the Columbia Cemetery --- located not far north of the Lucas-Marion county line in Marion. Yes, I know the inscription reads, "Clear," but that's all part of the genealogical adventures and misadventures that have focused on Mary and her husband, William, over the years.

I've written about this pair before, but having frittered away several hours over the weekend establishing exactly where Mary came from --- with a reasonable degree of certainty --- I'm going to do so again.

Mary and her husband along with their youngest son, James Wayne Clair (my great-great-grandfather), settled just east of what now is Columbia during 1847 after living for several years in Shelby County, Illinois. An older son, Zolomon Jones Clair, joined them a couple of years later. Before that they had lived in Ohio and upstate New York. Both, according to the 1850 federal census of Marion County, were native to Rhode Island. Both were in their 60s when they arrived in Iowa.

William Clair died during January of 1853. At the time, there was no cemetery in the immediate vicinity and so he was buried on a hilltop on family land south of Columbia, just over the line in Lucas County. That spot is known today as the Clear Pioneer Cemetery although its sole occupant is William Clair. Mary lived until 1877 and by that time there was a Columbia Cemetery, so she was buried there rather than beside her husband.

The variance in names can be traced to my grandfather, William Ambrose Miller, who during the 1950s set out to erect tombstones at family graves previously unmarked or marked with badly deteriorated stones. And to William Clair's will, examined by my grandfather when he climbed into the tower of the Marion County Courthouse at Knoxville where probate packets of original documents were stored at the time.

As you can see, the will --- written within a couple of weeks of his death --- is signed in a clear hand "William Clear," the only occurrence of that spelling in any record related to the family located before or since. Did William actually write and sign the document? Or is it a transcript and the spelling "Clear" a clerical error? I don't know.

Whatever the case, Grandpa ordered up new stones for William and Mary and directed that the surname be spelled "Clear" upon them. He also ordered a new stone for two of their grandsons, William Richard and Jasper Sylvester Clair, buried beside Mary, and had the name inscribed "Clair" there. 

+++

Granddad also had some information about Mary, source unknown but perhaps written down by his mother or one of his Kansas aunts or uncles, including her maiden name, Saunders, a birth date, Jan. 6, 1793; and a death date, Nov. 10, 1877. So he used those years of birth and death on her tombstone.

That birth year is at variance with her age as recorded by the 1850 census-taker --- 63, producing a birth year of 1787, give or take. She grew progressively younger by a year or two when the 1856 and 1860 census enumerators called.

Over the weekend, following a trail blazed by a couple of other researchers, I followed Mary via my Ancestry.com subscription to the fifth volume of James Newell Arnold's massive 21-volume "Rhode Island Vital Extracts, 1636-1850," and found her recorded there among the children of James and Elizabeth (Crandall) Saunders, with date of birth given as Jan. 6, 1787.

There's other circumstantial evidence suggesting that this is indeed our Mary, so I'm happy about that. Now if there were similar information about the origins of William Clair/Clear, my day would be complete. Sadly, that is lacking.

And although I've wished at times that my grandfather had stuck with the usual spelling of their surname when he had those tombstones erected, I'm grateful that he had the stones erected at all.