The National tribune., 1908-04-30
PIONEER DAYS IN IOWA.

paisn-Gen. Lyon and the Way His
Men Regarded Him-The bloody Hat
tie. Which should Have Been Union
Victory.
THE LYON CAMPAIGN AND THE
i HISTORY OF THE 1ST IOWA. BY
Eugene F. Ware, private in Co. q,
1st Iowa. Published by Crane & Co.,
| Topeka, Kan.
That Ex-Commissioner Ware would
ever started to do it everybody knew.
His history of the 1st Iowa fulfills this
expectation. Col. Ware, who after
ward rose to Captaincy, began his
career in the ranks of the 1st Iowa in
the three months service The term
/ of that organization ended gloriously
by its heroic fighting at the battle of
Wilson's Creek and this naturally made
the profoundest impression on all of
the boys, who were its members and
took part in those exciting experiences.
If anything they are little prouder
of their connection with the 1st Iowa
than all their subsequent service and
this seems the case with Col. Ware.
He says that the regiment brought
glory to the State and set the pace for
all the Iowa regiments which followed
it. Most of the members re-enlisted
in other regiments and a large pro-
portion of them became officers.
The book begins with most inter-
eSting description OF the condition of
society in Iowa prior to the war
| Everybody worked, everybody had
hard times and were on a virtual
equality. but everybody had good
wholesome pleasures and the joy of
life in the free air. The river towns
of Iowa were the centers Of activity,
with steamboats, and fiatboats carry
Il ing the products Of the country to
market and affording means of travel
Everybody went to st. Louis, goods
were bought and sold and it was the
center of substantially everything
Whisky was everywhere, stores kept il
free for their customers and anybody
who wanted a drink went TO the rear
of the store where they found a bar
, rel open with a tin cup fastened to
movement was only beginning, and
, the most energetic moral movement
was against gambling. The money
of the country was in a frightful con-
dition. Some 500 banks were send
ing out notes worth from 10 cents on
the dollar to par, and this situation
was still further complicated by coun-
cuted than the genuine bill. 4 man
would go thru the country buying pro-
duce at good figures, and paying foi
it in notes on some bank that might
not be worth dollar. In fact most
of the bank notes were greatly depre-
ciated and it was hard to say from one
day to another what their money was
worth. 1t might be rated at so cents
in the evening and worth nothing in
the morning. Wisconsin, Illinois and
Michigan money was generally so bad
that many dealers refused it utterly.
At one time when Wares father was
/ going East, he went to his bank to
negotiate for Massachusetts, money and
they proposed to charge him % cefits
exchange, which he refused to pay.
The specie was generally Mexican dol
lars, with some gold, and the banks
that attempted to maintain their credit
arranged with banks in st. Louis and
| Cincinnati, which had good standing,
to redeem their notes in other paper
money, but not in specie.
The aristocrats in those days were
river pilots, stage drivers and profess
sional gamblers. The river pilot was
a mighty being, who got the highest
salary of any man in the country, wore
/ good clothes and always had the best
room in the hotel. The gambler wore
black broad-cloth with a heavy gold
watch chain and highly polished boots.
He usually combined gambling and
passing counterfeit money. Everybody
seemed to gamble on the steamboats,
and on every boat there was enough
4 liquor drunk to support a bar and pay
a good salary to the bar-keeper. Now
adays the bar-keeper would starve to
death.
The stage-coach driver tried hard
to be as big man as the pilot. He
> q rdn or Grcf n1a 1,.ta aJ
wore fine, high-heeled, tight-ftting
calf skin boots, doeskin pantaloons and
large gauntlet gloves. He would never
; turn his finger to anything but driv-
ing. The horses were taken care Of
hitched up and brought out to him IL
make his run and there was a man
: in waiing to take them when he finish
ed. Highway robberies were common.
People who had money We're watched
and were liable to have it taken away
from them at any time. one of Com
rade Wares boyish rccolections Is
seeing the steamboat on which he was
travelling stopped at a desolate place
in the middle of the night and five
j gamblers, dressed in their fine broad
cloth, made to march off on to the
bank They had won all of the pas
sengers' money and refused to give up
any of ii when a passengers wife
demanded it. The captain had cover
ed the men with revolver, compelled
them 10 disgorge and then put them
ashore.
Clothes. boots and shoes were all
made in the neighborhood and Com
rade Ware recalls that he was a large
sized boy when he first got a pair of
lefts and rights boots and was aston
ished TO find how scientific the world
was getting. His father had an idea
that every boy should learn a trade,
so that young Ware alternated six
months of schooling with six months
of work in harness making, in which
he became quite expert. The me-
chanic. of those days were unusually
intelligent and given much to solid
tory, the American Constitution and
the slavery question were constantly
, before them. They discussed these
topics with the greatest intelligence
and depth of knowledge and it was
due to them, probably, the great
: spread of the abolition movement
They were great travellers and many
of them boasted of having worked in
every State OF the Union. Their con-
: tact with slavery in the South imbued
them with a great horror of ii and
} Ia dislike for the slave oiigarchy
Young Ware became one of the Wide
awakes in 1856, who bought their own
uniform and received so much drill
| ing that they gave exhibition drills in
, the city and received many courtesies
> from the city. The principal mer-
chants lawyers and bankers gloried in
being Democrats, however, and in be-