Autobiography of Charles Clinton Nourse / Prepared for use of Members of the Family

by Charles Clinton Nourse

The same fall of 1859 I made a trip through Warren, Madison, Dallas, Guthrie, and Union counties, at the request of the republican state central committee. They furnished me with a covered buggy and pair of horses, without any expense to myself, and loaded me down with a lot of political campaign documents which I undertook to distribute, making political speeches also at the county seats in each of the above named counties.

In crossing from Winterset over to Redfield one afternoon I found the road becoming very obscure, and a smoke arising from some burning prairie northwest of me so darkened the way that I became apprehensive of losing my road. There was no settlement in sight and no one from whom I could inquire the way. While I was seriously pondering upon the difficulty, a half dozen or more fine short horn cows crossed my path ahead of my team and I thought the safest way out of the difficulty would be to follow the cows, as they probably knew better than I where we were going. I had not followed these cows more than a few hundred yards before the owner of them appeared. He was a young Quaker about thirty years of age, named Wilson. I told him who I was and what my business was and he cordially invited me to go home with him. He lived in a small board shanty, one large room and an attic, situated under the hill. After sheltering his cows in a shed-barn covered with hay he took me to his house. I thought the chances for accommodations rather meager, but I noticed that he had a small yard fenced in front of his house, with a path of flagstones from the gate to the door, and on either side was planted quite a show of flowers and rose bushes. As we neared the house a very handsome young Quaker woman, his wife, with a little girl about three years of age, appeared at the door. Inside it was neat and tidy. The little Quaker wife prepared us a supper of snow-white biscuits and a plate of beautiful honey. She told me that they had attended the county fair that day and had taken a premium upon their honey. I spent a pleasant evening discussing politics with Mr. Wilson and supplying him with political speeches and documents, which I urged upon him to distribute among his neighbors. When bed-time came I climbed a ladder to the attic in which there was just room enough under the shingles for a clean sweet bed where I had a delightful night's rest. After a good breakfast in the morning, Wilson accompanied me on my way. We soon came to a well-beaten road and I found I was on what was called "The Quaker Divide." Near a large Quaker meeting house we met one of Mr. Wilson's relatives, a fine looking old fashioned Quaker gentleman, to whom he introduced me, and I stated my business. I had an interesting interview with the old Quaker and also supplied him with a number of congressional speeches, and before I left him he looked at me very earnestly and asked, how much pay I received for the work I was doing. I told him nothing for my own services, but my team and buggy were furnished by the state central committee free of charge to myself. At first he appeared a little incredulous that I should be working for nothing and traveling at my own expense, but after further talk with him he seemed to have every confidence in me and remarked very earnestly, "Thee must be a very good man to do this work without pay." I told him we must all "cast our bread upon the waters," and possibly it might return to us after many days; that this would indeed be a poor world if none of us were willing to make some sacrifices for the good of the country. I bid the two Quakers an affectionate good-bye and went on my way much gratified. The prairie was dotted here and there with comfortable, well kept homes. It was a beautiful October morning, what we then and always called in Iowa "Indian Summer." A slight haze rested upon the horizon, and here and there the ripening corn gave a glow and variety to the landscape. I was deeply impressed with the beauty and glory of my adopted state of Iowa, and I thought then, as I afterwards expressed the thought in my centennial address at Philadelphia. "When in the plentitude of His goodness the Divine Hand formed the great meadow between the Mississippi and Missouri, and the finger of Divine Love traced the streamlets and rivers that drain and fertilize its almost every acre, He designated it not for the place of strife, but for the home of peace and plenty, and intended that the ploughshare and pruning hook should here achieve their greatest triumphs."

In the fall of the year 1859, I bought from Dr. William P. Davis a quarter acre of ground just north of Bird's Addition in the city of Des Moines, having upon it an old square frame house without foundation or cellar, which I afterwards repaired and moved into with my family. My wife's sister Julia had been with us during the summer and became engaged to be married to Mr. John Alexander Woodard, a bachelor who had been engaged in the mercantile business and failed in the hard times of 1856. He was then clerking and selling goods for Mr. Reuben Sypher. I thought it prudent and made condition with Mr. Woodard that he should make it a part of the marriage contract with my sister-in-law that he would purchase from Mr. Sypher in part payment of his wages the lot on the corner of Fourth street and Crocker, and build them a house thereon. He readily agreed with this proposition, and the deed was made to Julia E. McMeekin, and the marriage took place on the first of December following, and a house was built on the lot the ensuing summer, where they had their home for many years free from any annoyance from his creditors. When the bankrupt law took effect after that, I obtained for him a discharge in bankruptcy from his old debts.

In 1860 I was chosen by the republican state convention of Iowa one of the thirty-two delegates that represented our state in the great national convention that met at Chicago and nominated Abraham Lincoln as its candidate for President. I attended that convention and had the honor of being one of the eight original Lincoln men of the delegation, and voted for Mr. Lincoln on every ballot. That convention was perhaps the greatest and most important that was ever convened in the history of our nation. The entire New York delegation was urging the nomination of William H. Seward. I was opposed to Mr. Seward's nomination, first, because I preferred Mr. Lincoln and had the most unbounded confidence in his honesty and patriotism, and secondly, because I disliked many of the men who were urging Mr. Seward's nomination. The reputation of Thurlow Weed and that class of New York politicians created in my mind a distrust, and I felt that we had arrived at a crisis in our national history where we should take no chances.

After the nomination of Mr. Lincoln at Chicago the republican state convention met at Iowa City. I was a candidate before the convention for nomination for the office of Attorney General of the state. Only three of the delegates from my own county voted for me in that contest. My principal opponent was John A. Kasson of Des Moines. He had been chairman of the republican central committee of the state for the current year, and without my knowledge had been secretly corresponding with various republicans of the state, soliciting their support for the nomination, and secretly hiding the fact from me, and professing to be my friend and in favor of my nomination. Mr. H. M. Hoxie, also one of the delegates of that convention from Polk county, had been a secretary of the state committee and was also secretly working for and with Mr. Kasson for my defeat. I had many warm friends and supporters in the convention, particularly from Lee and Van Buren counties and the southern part of the state, and many from other parts of the state with whom I had formed a personal acquaintance whilst filling the offices respectively of clerk of the house and secretary of the senate. There were three other candidates for the nomination besides Mr. Kasson and myself, and I received the nomination on the third ballot.

After my return home I arranged my affairs so as to make an extensive canvass of the state. I exchanged a small tract of land I had in the western part of Van Buren county with Mr. Manning for a covered buggy and harness and a pair of horses, and in the latter part of September arranged a series of appointments, the first of which was at Newton, in Jasper county. As my team was somewhat unaccustomed to the road I started one Sunday afternoon and drove east as far as Mitchellville, and stayed all night with my friend Thomas Mitchell of that place. On Monday morning I started early for Newton. I filled my satchel with political documents and occupied my time during the drive in trying to arrange my speech. I never wrote out my speeches or attempted to commit anything to memory. My plan was to study the subject thoroughly that I proposed discussing, and simply arrange the order of its presentation. While absorbed in this work I reached Skunk river, drove up on the causeway to the bridge, which at the entrance of the bridge was about six feet above the level of the surface of the ground. As my off horse put his foot upon the first plank of the bridge it proved to be loose and the plank flew up, striking the shin of the other horse. At this my team became frightened and commenced backing to the south of the causeway, and for a moment I apprehended that I should be precipitated over the causeway with the horses and buggy falling upon me. I collected the reins hastily in my left hand, seized the whip, yelled to the horses, struck the off horse violently with the whip, using my left hand at the same time to draw them around onto the road so that they would not take me over to the other side of the causeway. I felt the near hind wheel of the buggy falling over the embankment, but the horses sprang forward, unfortunately breaking the axle, and as I brought them around into the road I stepped out of the buggy, threw the lines onto the wheel, and let them run. They did not run more than one or two hundred yards before the lines, which had caught in the wheel, wound them up, and the lines being strong it stopped them. I followed hastily, detaching the horses from the buggy, tied them to the trees, then walked about two miles to a farm house where I engaged a farmer with his farm wagon to take my buggy to Newton and to lend me a saddle upon which I rode one horse and led the other. In this way I reached Newton for late dinner, and taking my broken buggy to a blacksmith engaged for its immediate repair, as it was necessary for me to take the road again early next morning to meet my next appointment, which was at Grinnell, in Poweshiek county. I had a small audience that afternoon at two o'clock in the court house, and made them a short speech, appointing another meeting for 7:30 that night.

The next morning my vehicle was in good order and I took the road, reaching Grinnell in good time for my meeting, which was at night.

In arranging my appointments I reached the Mississippi river at Clinton. Crossing the river I drove over to Mt. Carroll, Illinois, for the purpose of a day's rest and to visit my relatives at that place. I found there my aunt, Ann Austin, and her two boys, also her oldest daughter, married to a man by the name of William Brotherton. Mr. Brotherton and the two boys were ardent republicans, and being advised of my coming, they had advertised me for a speech on Saturday night. I spoke to a crowded house for nearly three hours amid great enthusiasm. The next day, Sunday, the county central committee waited on me and insisted that I should arrange a week with them and speak at various points in their county, which I necessarily declined to do.

On Sunday afternoon I drove north to a little mining village called Elizabeth where my aunt, Sarah Nourse, a maiden sister of my father, was then living and teaching school. I stayed all night at this town of Elizabeth, and my aunt entertained me during the evening until nearly eleven o'clock with an account of the various propositions of marriage she had had from some half dozen bachelors and widowers, all of which she had declined, giving as an all-sufficient reason for it that her suitors were not men of education and sufficient intelligence to make companions for her, and she suspected them of wanting what little money and property she had.

The next day, Monday afternoon, I drove to Galena where I remained all night and heard the cheering news of the result of the state elections of Ohio and Indiana, both states giving handsome republican majorities. This really assured the success of Mr. Lincoln at the approaching November election.