NEWSLETTER OF THE WAYNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY P.O. Box 104, Corydon, Iowa 50060 December 2008 641-872-2211 [email protected] www.prairietrailsmuseum.org

Annual Meeting & Banquet Thursday, March 26

It is time once again for the Annual Meeting and Banquet of Wayne County Historical Society. It will be held at Prairie Trails Museum in the 20th Century Gallery on Thursday, March 26 with an alternative snow date of April 2. Both members and non-members are welcome to attend. Doors will open at 6:00 pm with the meal served at 6:30 pm. The only cost to attend is for the meal. Patty Mason, will cater the banquet. We can look forward to a delicious meal with two entrees and a variety of side dishes. Reservations for the meal are needed by March 20, please mail $12 per person along with the enclosed form to the Museum or call 872-2211 to be added to the list. Payment for the meal can be made at the door.

The time: 6:30 pm. The place: Prairie Trails Museum

There will be a short business meeting sharing the highlights of activities at the Prairie Trails Museum and Heritage Barn during the past year and plans for the coming year. Election of board members and officers for 2009 will be held; all Historical Society members have voting privileges. The program will begin after the business meeting at approximately 7:30 PM There will be two guest speakers for the evening program. Kevin Kness is president of Peoples Sate Bank in Albia and current president of Rathbun Lake Resort, Inc. Bill Duey, is Operations Manager for the Army Corps of Engineers at Lake Rathbun and has been very active in the planning and development of the Honey Creek Resort for several years. Mr. Duey serves as an advisory member of Rathbun Lake Resort. Rathbun Lake Resort, Inc. is a tax-exempt organization that serves as a local steering committee for the resort project and has been active in working with state planners in the development of this project. Rathbun Lake Resort, Inc is made up of several volunteers from Appanoose, Lucas, and Monroe Counties. The men will present a program about the new Honey Creek Resort State Park. The Resort located near Moravia, IA on the north shore of Lake Rathbun opened in fall 2008. The lodge, pictured left, features a 105- room hotel, rooms for conferences, meetings or wedding receptions, and an indoor water park. The program will include a history of the destination resort park concept and development at Lake Rathbun including the planning and funding challenges. They will give a localized view including the economical benefits of the park and what may lie ahead. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about the new attraction in southern Iowa and what it could mean for Wayne County tourism. Wouldn’t the early pioneers be amazed to see this beautiful resort where once there were acres of prairie? Meal Cost: $12.00 Reservations needed by March 20

Opening Day Spring is fast approaching and soon Prairie Trails Museum will open for the 2009 season. Beginning on April 15 the museum will be open daily from 1pm - 5pm with volunteers at the door to greet visitors. For those interested in genealogy research the library is open 1pm – 5pm Mon thru Sat. On June 1 the doors will be open 10 am - 5pm Mon thru Sat and 1pm – 5pm on Sunday. “Mad” Do you know how Wayne County got its name? Here is a bizarre tale of Col. “Mad Anthony” Wayne, for whom Wayne County, Iowa is named. Stories vary as to how he came to be called “Mad Anthony” Wayne. The common thread of the tales is his reckless courage and a quick temper. The American Revolutionary War Brigadier General Anthony Wayne was born in Chester County, , near Paoli, Pa., Jan. 1, 1745, and died Dec. 15, 1796. Privately educated in Philadelphia, General Wayne won major recognition in the American Revolution and in Indian warfare. Wayne's interest in the military began at an early age. His grandfather and father had both been soldiers. Wayne read avidly of battles and ancient military heroes, and he organized his friends and cousins into armies to fight mock battles. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress asked Pennsylvania to recruit four battalions for the Continental Army. One of the four men chosen to head up the battalions was 30-year-old Anthony Wayne. Col. Wayne proved to be a dedicated and courageous commander in battle during the Revolutionary War. Wayne's most brilliant exploit of the Revolutionary War was the storming of the British fort July 16, 1779, at Stony Point, N.Y. His forces took the strongest British post on the Hudson River with a surprise night attack. In June 1796, Wayne was back in the frontier overseeing the surrender of British forts to the United States. In November while at a military post in Presque Isle on the shores of Lake Erie he became ill with a severe case of gout. On Dec. 16, 1796, he died. At his request, he was buried in a plain oak coffin at the foot of the flagstaff near a blockhouse on the military post in Presque Isle in northwestern Pennsylvania. In 1809, thirteen years after Wayne's death, his son, Colonel Isaac Wayne, decided to move his father's body to the family's burial plot at St. David's Church in Radnor in southeastern PA. Wayne is one of the few famous people in American history known to have two graves Isaac Wayne drove over the mountains to Erie, Pa., in a one-horse sulky to claim his father's body. Young Wayne enlisted the help of Dr. J.G. Wallace, who had been with Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Wayne's body was remarkably preserved even after 13 years, with little decay except in the lower portion of one leg. The men decided it was impractical to reduce the body to small packages that would fit into the back of the sulky. With Isaac Wayne's permission, Wallace dissected the body and boiled the parts in a large iron kettle to render the flesh from the bones. Isaac Wayne took the cleaned skeleton back home in the sulky. The rendered flesh and the knives used in the operation were replaced in the original coffin and reinterred in the old grave. It is said that Col. Isaac Wayne later regretted that his father’s body was handle in such a manner. Had he known, in retrospect, the state of preservation he would have left the grave in Erie and erected a monument to honor his father. The tale of Anthony Wayne and his two grave sites does not end there. One story says Isaac Wayne carefully packed his father’s bones in a trunk. Another, more fanciful tale, has the sulky bumping along and bones falling out all along the trail back to Radnor. In fact, the lore is that on New Year’s Day (his birthday) Anthony Wayne can be spotted running through the Pennsylvania countryside gathering his bones. On November 10, 1853 the old abandoned blockhouse was apparently set on fire by arsonists and burned to the ground. In later years the old parade ground was leveled off and the site of the grave was lost. In about 1878 a Dr. Germer, of Erie, investigated the location of the General's original burial place. The grave was opened a second time. He discovered the lid of the coffin with brass tacks giving the initials and date of death. Most of the rest had rotted away. The State of Pennsylvania, in 1880, rebuilt the blockhouse as a memorial to Anthony Wayne. The blockhouse has since been rebuilt several times, the last being 1984. The original coffin lid, some remnants of clothing and Dr. Wallace's equipment are on display. The kettle used to boil “Mad Anthony” Wayne’s body is no longer known to exist. In the 1950’s the Erie County Historical Society claimed to have the kettle. It was later revealed the claim was to bring notice to the Society’s exhibits. The Society has no records of having the famous kettle among its collections though the story is told in an exhibit. Even today it is sometimes necessary to move the remains of a deceased person from one grave to another. Sometimes whole cemeteries are moved when the area is required for some building project. In most cases actual remains are carefully, and respectfully, removed for reburial. In other cases decomposition has been complete and there is nothing to move. In such cases a symbolic sampling of the earth at a suitable depth of the grave is removed for reburial. However, no instance of removal of a burial can rival the bizarre nature of that of Major General "Mad Anthony” Wayne. Anthony Wayne has many cities, counties, streets, and forts named after him throughout the United States. Among those is Wayne County, Iowa established in 1846 and coupled with Appanoose County until it was separated and organized in 1851. Excerpts from americanrevolution.org & earlyamerica.com

Wayne County Begins

Since we started with the amazing tale of “Mad Anthony” Wayne on the previous page it seems only right to continue with some history of Wayne County. That is a very broad topic so let’s concentrate on early organization of the county and establishment of county services. On November 8, 1850 Dr. Isaac W. McCarty was appointed organizing sheriff by Judge William McKay, and on the 13th of February 1851, Wayne County was duly organized. Thomas B Clifford acted in the complex position of clerk, treasurer, recorder, and collector. On August 4 county officers for this year were elected as follows: Seth Anderson County Judge; Thomas McPherson, Clerk; Daniel Payton, Treasurer and Recorder; Isaac McCarty, Sheriff, James Hammack, Coroner, Harvey B. Duncan, Supervisor and M.H. Richman, Surveyor. Originally part of the county of Des Moines the boundaries of Wayne County were defined in 1846 to be 525 square miles or 336,000 acres. Three men from Appanoose, Monroe, and Decatur Counties were commissioned to locate the County seat. A site one mile north and a quarter mile east of the center of the county was chosen and called Springfield. This name was rejected as Iowa already had a town called Springfield. After some controversy over the name it was decided to play a game of poker, the winner to receive the privilege of naming the town. Newly elected County Judge Seth Anderson proved to be an adept card player. He won the right to name the new county seat and chose Corydon, after his old home town of Corydon, Indiana. Between 1853 and 1855 nearly all the land in the county was settled as the pioneers flooded in. The population grew from 340 in 1850 to 6,409 county residents by 1860. In 1900, the peak population, there were 17,491 Wayne County residents. As the population grew there was a need for permanent places to conduct county business. A courthouse was built in 1856, of native lumber, on the site of the present day jail at a cost of $600.00. A jail was constructed at the same time, built of three tiers of logs, with the center tier buried six feet into the ground. The log jail was beside the courthouse on the northeast corner of the square. There exist no photos of these buildings but, Adam Ripper an early businessman drew from memory several of the early buildings of Corydon, including the first courthouse, jail, Union House hotel and several early churches. These drawings, done in 1925, were on display for many years in the courthouse but now can be seen in the library at Prairie Trails Museum. The photo, upper left, is Mr. Ripper’s depiction of the log jail. The first courthouse was used until 1871 and the jail some ten years longer. Several attempts were made to vote bonds for a new “modern” court house between 1869 and 1889 but all failed, as did attempts to move the county seat from Corydon to Allerton. In 1889 a subscription list was started to raise money to build a courthouse. The effort raised $19,000 and the following year, a new brick courthouse was completed with local contractors Alex Mardis and E. A. Rea. The building, at right, was completed and offices moved into on January 1, 1891. A new brick jail and sheriff’s house were erected at about the same time by the same contractors. Pictured above is the brick jail and sheriff’s residence. Though undated both photos are early as the trees appear small. Notice the dirt street in front of the jail. Look very closely at the brick jail pictured above. Early in the 1970’s the jail was remodeled to add office space on the front or west side. This construction covered the distinctive front of the jail and gave it a modern look but the front exterior, peaked roof line, and even the steel bar door are all still there in 2009. This shows the frugal nature of Wayne County folks that in 158 years of existence we are now, in 2009, building a new jail. There have been 37 sheriffs and now three jails. Of course, we are still using the third courthouse.

Excellent Hiking Adventure

When Arizona and the Grand Canyon come to mind, the first thought usually isn’t cold and snow but that is just what Team Davis, DeVore & More found on Feb 10, 2009. A family group that included me (Brenda DeVore) and nine other family members on both the Davis and DeVore side met for a “trip of a lifetime” – hiking to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and back. The day before, an unusual snowstorm dropped 16 inches of snow at the rim and over 24” in Flagstaff. This created a challenge for our group as we arrived in various modes of transportation from Iowa, Texas, Massachusetts and Colorado. With a ten mile hike on Bright Angel Trail ahead of us we got an early start on Wednesday Feb 11. Each of us had a backpack, hiking poles and the very necessary yaktraks on our boots. We weren’t breaking trail but the snow was still deep. In the photo above my daughter, Elizabeth leads the team with Cary DeVore, Keith Davis, Kent Davis, Jackie Lindsey, Roland Hasenoehrl, Linda Peine, Mark O’Tool, and Louise Maiers following. Of course hikers are hardy souls and with this large group of family we were in high spirits. Just the sight of the Grand Canyon takes your breath away. We stayed two nights at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of Grand Canyon. The Ranch was designed by Mary Coulter, an architect for the Santa Fe Railroad. Built in 1922 it consisted of a lodge and four cabins built of local stone over wooden frames in a Craftsman bungalow style. Within ten years the remaining cabins were completed and the lodge enlarged. The Ranch looks much the same today, other than the addition of running water and electricity in the 1960’s. In 1933, when President Roosevelt established the Civilian Conservations Corps (CCC) a camp was setup near Phantom Ranch along Bright Angel Creek. The CCC played an enormous role in the development of the inner canyon. They replaced the original transcanyon telephone line and worked to improve the inner canyon trail system. The 1930’s era telephone poles can still be seen along Bright Angel Trail in death defying spots. Only 1% of visitors to the Grand Canyon ever hike below the rim. A hike into the inner canyon reveals breathtaking rock face walls hundreds of feet high, boulders weighing 500 ton that have slid down the canyon walls, and rocks of swirled colors that remind one of ice cream flavors melting together. Walking along narrow trails that only a few moments ago couldn’t be seen, the size and enormity of the canyon makes one feel very small. When not at the museum I am an avid hiker. Three of us on this trip hiked to the bottom of the canyon in 2006 along with another friend. A return trip, this time with all my siblings, daughter, husband, & my husband’s sisters (2006 hikers), made this trip even more special. In the photo at left my brother Keith Davis, Wayne County sheriff, and I stop for a photo at the beginning of the hike. In the photo above right, Elizabeth and I enjoy the view. As we hiked out of the canyon in the snow I was already contemplating another hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. ******************************************************************** Memorials and Gifts to the Wayne County Historical Society have been received since our last Newsletter in memory of Elna Tucker, Laurence & Mildred Fry, Mr. & Mrs. Newt Greenlee, Mr. & Mrs. Charlie Beam, Carl Bracewell, William D. Lammers, H.L. Robinson, Ihno Gerdes, and L.E. & Lulu V. Steiner, and J.C. Hook. We sincerely thank all those who have chosen to help the Historical Society by remembering family and friend in this meaningful way.