Omaha daily bee., 1898-01-17

ON none Oul tHOSB HdTus HluuttlSt NNANus
both in body and mind, who experienced the
toll Of building new empires out Of the bar
rem and unknown wilderness.
THE CAPITAL REMOVED.
It was only in 1858 that the seat OF govern
mcnt came to Des Moines and at last found
a permanent resting place Ralph Lowe, one
of the celebrated pioneers OF Iowa history,
was the governor to first grace Des Mones
with his presence as a resident. He was in
augurated in the 18th day OF January in the
old Uhen new state house. In an address
before the Pioneers association in 1892 eN-
Governor Carpenter said; The site OF the
capitol then wooded hill, occupied by
the capitol building and perhaps some twen-
ty-hve or thirty family residences. scattered
here and there in the openings of the tim
ber" A strange picture, as compared with
the thickly settled streets which now occupy
the same territory. And this was Just forty
years ago, Des Moines then had about 5000
inhabitants and a scattered collection of
struggling buildings.
The way the governor and members of the
legislature made their trips to and from the
capital city is pretty well Indicated by the
following conversation between one of the
lawmakers on his way to Des Moines and
a stage driver of the time at small VII
lage few miles east of the city, then known
as Apple Grove, but later as Mitchells The
stagecoach, by the way, was an old one
with nine passengers on the inside and four
Moines and how long the Grivc?" Driver;
sixteen miles and l can make 1t in five
hours If my horses hold out and the bottom
of the road doesn't give way" And so they
came and went. For some Of them 1t was a
weeks trip, and for others, at certain times
of the year, it took elrly month. But
occasionally they could take advantage of
high water and go down the river in boat,
as many who came the longest distance
lived in the southeastern part of the state.
ELABORATE AFFAIR.
| Governor Loves inaugural was perhaps
| the most elaborate of any given by an Iowa
| governor up to that time He delivered an
address that would be considered lengthy at
! the present time, it filling three columns OF
a daily paper set in fine type. The residents
of Des Moines were greatly elated at the
| coming of the legislature to the city and i'll
| the evening of inauguration day an lnau-
| gural festival was given, to which the whole
/ population of the town was invited. 1t was
: thus described by a special correspondent OF
| the Muscatine Daily Journal in letter TO MS
! paper at the time: "An inaugural festival
was given by the citizens of this place on
Thursday evening last in the capitol The
| halls were crowded to their utmost capacity
so much so that the pressure was realized
| by many whose finances were unemparrassed.
| A splendid supper was served IN style
that would have done credit TO any capltal
city. The ladies Of Des Moines will compare
T., for intelligence and beauty with those OF
! cities of much greater pretensions. EVl-
IDENTIFY Des Moines from the earliest days
has been given to festivity and her ladies'
then, as now were popular for tnelr enter
tanning qualities.
Among all of Iowa's governors there has
been none so popular as her noted war gov
ernor, Samuel j. Kirkwood. He was the only
one who occupied the "gubernatorial' chair
for three terms. A brief description of Gov
ernor Kirkwood's second inauguration on
January TO- 1862, is given in daily paper OF
the time The description is in the form or
dispatches and runs as follows: AT lo
o'clock the senate and house met in JOINT
session to canvass the vote of the state at the
last October election. The result was as fol-
lows: S. J. Kirkwood, 60. .252; w. H. Mer-
ritt DIST; b. NJ. Samuels, 4,551; II. q. Dean,
462. Messrs. Bowen and DuncomDe were
appointed a committee to inform the gov
ernor and lieutenant governor. Messrs.
Woodward and Kellogg were committee TO
invite the supreme judges and state ofhcers
to seats on the floor during the ceremony OF
inauguration The oath was administered
by Judge Baldwin" Probably no more i'm
portant Inauguration has ever taken place
in Iowa than the one just described put IL
was exceedingly simple and unpretentloE
into his second term of office and the new
dapitol building was dedicated 1t was an
occasion long to be remembered and VIII
go down through history as the event OF
the kind, to be talked and read about IN
years to come. In local paper the new
| building was nGTdlQeu dS lho PiiuS vi
Iowa" and the inauguration as the I'm
posing dedication of the imposing new state
house"
1t was a beautiful day for the occasion.
There was not a cloud in the sky and al
though it was on the 18th day of January,
it was 40 degrees above zero. But strange
to say it was Friday. Surely, there was a
tempting of the unpropitious fates But
everything passed off as smoothly as II 1t
had been Monday. Bands and military
iac from all the state were
present to do honor to the event. The es-
cort of 100 men was said to be the finest
that ever did duty at an inaugural OF
governor of this state or of any other. The
cervice took place in the capitol rotunda ana
Is briefly described as follows: "At 2:3O the
band stationed at the top of the stairway
leading from the rotunda played national
air and in a few moments the governor,
lieutenant governor, Hon. John A. Kasson,
Chief Justice Rothrock, Bishop Hurst and
Others entered and took seats upon the
platform for the occasion. Seated with
them were many of the distinguished men
of the state and among them three eX-gov-
ernors, Carpenter, Kirkwood and NeWbold.
Lieutenant Governor Manning called the
meeting to order and Bishop Hurst offered
prayer. The oath of Office administered
by Chief Justice Rothrock.
At reception in the evening 1T was said
, that 30 900 people attended and 10 900 shook
Z the governors hand.
; Such are some of the features OF former
inaugurations of Iowa governors. Some of
| 1.-THE most unpretentious have been among
| the most important and vice versa. Iowa s
list of governors haa been a roll of honor,
, one to be proud of, and among them have
been some OF the most influential men that
have come into public life in the west.
Grimes, Lowe, Krkwood Briggs. Hemp
stead, Stone and all the rest are a most