SESSIONS OF IOWA CONFERENCE HELD AT LISBON

[CHAPTER XXXV]
County and District Politics

It has been stated that the first election in the county was held at Westport in 1838 when thirty-two votes were cast in the county. This is said to have been the most quiet election on record. Gradually the people located claims, as more lands were thrown open to settlement, and politics began to cut a figure at an early date. While many of the settlers came from the south, a majority, however, came from Ohio, from the middle states, and from New England. Thus it would appear that the population of Iowa was a part of the free state movement which had peopled the central states. The foreign population did not come to Iowa until the early '50s, when the Germans, Scandinavians, Scotch, and Irish came in large numbers to take up the cheap lands which were offered to the settlers.

The early settlers were for the most part democrats, with a sprinkling of whigs and abolitionists. Some of these voted for Taylor for president in 1844, nearly all of whom supported Fremont later.

Thus in Brown township Ed Crow, Horace Brown, and the Butlers were democrats, while the Plummers, Yocums, Hamptons, Stanleys, and Dewees families were originally whigs, who joined the republican party in 1856. In Franklin township the members of the United Brethren church in and around Lisbon, and the Methodists around Mount Vernon were stanch abolitionists, joining the republican party when that was formed. Around Bertram a large number affiliated with the democratic party, which was true of the settlers in and around Center Point. In the northern part of the county, James Nugent, A. C. Coquillette, Joe Whitney, Peter Henderson, and many others were republicans, or joined the party later. In Maine township the Jordan families were divided in politics, some belonging to one party, others to another. These men were a sturdy lot of pioneers and did much in a political and financial way to build up the county.

In Rapids township and Cedar Rapids, many of the old settlers were democrats, such as N. B. Brown, D. M. McIntosh, the Bryan boys, E. R. Derby, William Harper, the Weares, J. J. Snouffer, Hart brothers, and many others. Judge Greene was one of the most prominent democrats who joined the republican ranks in the Greeley campaign. The Weares joined the republican party during the Civil war period. Some of the prominent republicans of an early day were E. N. Bates, the Carrolls, Elys, Leaches, Higleys, J. S. and T. Z. Cook, Isaac Cook, Dr. S. D. Carpenter, Dr. E. L. Mansfield, Gabriel Carpenter.

In Marion township, which was then and for many years afterwards the political center of the county, the whigs, who later became republicans, were such men as N. M. Hubbard, R. D. Stephens, Joseph Young, William Cook, William G. Thompson, James E. Bromwell, William Smythe, Robert Smythe, Robert Holmes, the Herveys, and the Daniels family.