Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-07-28
WHOLLY DUE TO HIS EFFORTS.

The late Hon. Charles Aldrich,
for many years a resident of this
city and county and founder of the
Freeman, who died few years ago
at his home in Boone, was entitled
to the credit of the erection in the
court house of the memorial in hon
or of the brave men who composed
the Spirit Lake expedition of 1857.
The Annals of Iowa for July con-
tains the following write-up from
the pen of Mr.. Aldrich of the way
in which the memorial was secured
and the successful carrying out of
the unwilling program:
The first effort to do honor to the
memories of the hardy pioneers who
volunteered in 1857 at Webster City
| to 90 to the relief of the settlers at
Spirit Lake who had been attacked
! by the ruthless Sioux Indians, was
undertaken by me in the summer of
1887. Having been a typesetter for
many years, l came in one day from
my farm and asked the proprietor of
the Webster City Freeman to make
up a stick the width of a sheet of
old-fashioned letter paper, and give
me case.
He did so at once, and l then and
there set the type for brief petit
ton to the county board of super
visors, praying for the appropriation
of three hundred dollars with which
to procure a tablet to the memory
of the soldiers as above stated. When
l had set the type, Mr.. Hunter kind
| ly had three or four copies of the
petition printed. This was on Sat-
urday.
/ first went to the banks and Sc
cured the signatures of all the bank
ers, with two exceptions. After
those of the bankers l secured the
signatures of the leading merchants.
Many of the leading farmers of the
surrounding country were in town
that day, and every one to whom
presented the petition signed it
cheerfully. In this way I secured
the endorsement of perhaps thirty
or forty of the representative tax
payers of the county.
Charles T. Fenton was chairman
of the board of supervisors and read
the petition. He remarked, 20, yes,
we will grant that petition" His
associates assented to the PROPOSE
ton. They then proceeded to ap-
point me as a committee to carry
out the prayer of the petitioners.
objected to acting alone, but said
would be willing to do the work pro-
vided they would give me four or
five associates.
| This proposition was accepted
and they asked me to name the gen.
tlemen whom l desired to act with
me. The following were named by
me for this work: Ex-Judge Daniel
D. Chase, Kendall Young, w. w.
Boak and Augustus Anderson. l pre-
pared the inscription which the
Judge and | discussed a half hour or
more He finally gave his endorse
ment to the lettering as it stands on
the tablet today. l entered at cnce
into correspondence with Messrs. J.
and R. Lamb, SO Carmine Street,
New York City, who offered to man.
ufacture a tablet for two hundred
and fifty dollars, furnishing also a
marble upon which to mount it. I
accepted their offer and closed the
contract with them.
| l decided on August 18th as the
date upon which to unveil and dedi-
cate the tablet. My first step was
to invite Gov. William Larrabee to
be present and preside over the
meeting in the courthouse. He was
very much occupied but finally prom
ised to come. r..
In order to make the occasion of
the utmost historical importance, I
invited six gentlemen who had par
ticipated in the Spirit Lake Expedi-
ton to be present, and read to the
people chapters of their recollections
of the expedition and all the attend
! ing circumstances. These were Ex-
Governor Carpenter, Hon. John F.
Duncombe, Commander of Company
B in the Expedition, and Charles B.
Richards of Fort Dodge, Commander
of Company A. Then we had the
following privates from our own
county: Michael Sweeney, William