Omaha daily bee., 1908-07-26
BIG MEN FROM VAN buren,
Homecoming Of Iowa County May
Attract Prominent People.
EARLY STATION TO NEW COUNTRY
Trend of Travel During n Days
Brought Many Bankrupt East
erners, victims OF Panic,
20 It's Borders.
tFrom a staff correspOndent)

CFrom a Staff Correspondent)
DIES MONIES, Ia, July 25.-(Special Tele-
gram Ivan Buren, county is to hold a
home coming on August u and ID. In
very many respects Van Buren, county
stands in its relation to the state Of Iowa
much as the state OF Vermont stood to the
entire United states. This relation may not
consist entirely in a paraphrase OF the
saving Of an eminent statesman that Yer"
mont is a good state to emigrato trom'
provided you emigrate early enough; put
much like Vermont, many of the greatest
men In Iowa and the west at one time lived
in Van Buren, county. And what can be
said Of Van Buren, county can be said OF
Keosauoua, though there were other towns
in the county in those early days that
were striving for the leadership.
When the real history of the west is
written and written right, Van Buren,
county will have a proper place In Its
pages. II was simply a combination OF cir
cumstances that forces Van Buren, county
to consider it's greatness as a "reminiscences
rather than a reality. Part of Van Buren,
county's greatness was due to the panic OF
1887, which bankrupted some Of the bluest
biooded families Of the east. In 1882 the
government made the Blackhawk purchafe,
which was a strip OF land fifty miles wide
Just west of the Mississippi in Iowa.
Early Roads Through Van Buren,.
Travel in those early days was by wagon
road or by river transportation. There
were but two industries of any conse-
ouence. and they were transportation and
agriculture. Down the Ohio river and up
the Mississippi or the Missouri was one
line Of travel by boat. Across the country
by well defined wagon roads was another.
These wagon roads led to frontier points.
They converged at Rock Island and Bur
lington and st. Louis. West from Rock
Island and Burlington they led through
Van Buren, county.
When the panic in 1887 left the eastern
families bankrupt many of them, with
their sons and daughters, pushed west to
get a new start. Coming up the Mis-
sissippi, they pushed into Iowa by going
up the Des Moines river. If the south
line of the state of Iowa is extended east
to the Mississippi river, 1t forms a three
cornered tract, which was known as the
half-breed tract. The land titles in that
tract were very cloudy, and as land owner
ship was the main thing the young men
pushing west did not stop there. van
Buren, county was the next and the first
county in which the land titles were good
there scores of young men Of education
and ability, descendants of the best fami-
, lies Of the east located. They made Van
: Buren, county. They settled there. many
e Of them to await the opening OF the rest
Of the western country, and especially
: the rest of the state of Iowa. For while
Van Buren, county was the first county In
S which the land titles were clear, it was
; also the last on the frontier that was oper
for settlement.
4 Travel Turns to Westward.
: The next step in the history of Var
r Buren, county was when the rest of the
- state of Iowa was opened for settlement
The great middle section of the state OF
Iowa extending as far west as Carroll
$ and Ringgold counties and as far NORTH
as Webster and Black Hawk counties was
coded to the government by the Indians
" in 1912. and the building of the railroads
I soon left Van Buren, county out of the
main line of travel. The opening OF the
= rest of the country and the building OF
J., the railroads gradually drew the best OF
the young men away from Van Burer
county. Keosauqua, once a famous anc
important frontier town which presumed
= to be ambitious to be the capital of the
! state, is now one of the minor and in
conspicuous towns Of the state.
: In those early days there lived in Var
Buren, county George d. Wright, who
became United states senator from this
state and afterwards Judge and was the
y father of Tom Wright, attorney for the
d Rock Island railroad, and of Carol
h Wright, who is now attorney for thC
r Rock Island. Chauncey G. Dibble OF
Pennington, in the same county, was a
y representative to the Third general as
o sembly. He defeated Judge Wright fol
the place and afterwards Judge Wright
o married his daughter.
Prominent Men Who Lived There.
Senator Billy Mason of Illinois and Ed
Mason of this city, who has been clerl
Of the United States court for thirty-sll
y years, and his brothers lived in tina
county. Judge c. c.. Nourse, one of tn,
~ greatest lawyers in the west; Judge F
M. Cassidy; Charles w. Schramm, VIII,
" is councilman of Des Moines under tn
new commission plan and whose fathe
" was in the legislature, came from ther
with his father; Captain Twombley, on
" time state treasurer; DR.. b. F. liberty
who was president of the council, whic
OF was the senate in territorial days, an
the rest of the liberty family; Senate
II William A.. Clarke of Montana and hi
ne father, who is buried there now; Judg
John f. Dillon, one of the greatest Law
I'D yers of the west; Senator John H. Geai
er Sam Clarke. one time editor of the Cat
ls City and whom history will accord
OF place as one of the ablest Of wester
Is editors. and Augustus Hall. who wa
ep elected to congress and afterwards wa
chief justice OF the supreme court Of N,
no braska, all came from Van Buren, count,
ny The list 0eed not end here. There wa
ms d. c. Beaman, who was one OF the firi
us telegraph editors there and is now on
ng of the first and biggest dozen financii
men OF Colorado; A. ]. Davis, whose rec
or ord has some notorious features, but VII
he died in Montana worth fifteen or sixtee
es millions and who left a will that was or
he OF the last big law cases that attTacte
the attention of the great brain OF Rol
ert G. Ingersoll; General Tuttle Of tn
TX city; Henry c. Caldwell, who was afte
wards on the federal bench; Joseph
Is Knapp, a great lawyer and a candida.
for governor Of the state. were among II