B.F. REED'S COMMENTS ON TWO EARLY SETTLERS

The original Kossuth County Historical Society was founded in 1909.  Each year at their annual meetings it became tradition to present papers written by pioneers setting out memories of the “early days”.”  Over the years many topics were covered in an effort to record county history.

Benjamin F. Reed was serving as president of the association in December of 1911.  I was thrilled recently when I discovered the remarks he made at that year’s annual meeting in his own handwriting.  To think they had survived 105 years!  The subjects of his comments, J. E. Blackford and J. R. Armstrong, had both passed away during the previous year and he took the time to remember them.  I think you will enjoy his remarks as much as I did.

B.F. REED’S COMMENTS ON TWO EARLY SETTLERS

J.E. BLACKFORD 1855

J.R. ARMSTRONG 1857

As the narration of events pertaining to the career of the early settlers, who have passed away, has its appropriate place on the program of each annual meeting, I shall confine my remarks to events with which the names of two of those who were residents before the war are associated.  J.E. Blackford became

a pioneer of the county in the fall of 1855.  One event with which his name is associated occurred during the fall of 1864 when the citizens were collecting supplies for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers, in their endeavor to capture the prize flag offered by the Sanitary commission to the county contributing the greatest amount in proportion to its population.  There existed that year an organization in Algona called the Students’ Club that became enthusiastic in the cause.  This club gave an entertainment in the old town hall in Irvington to help raise the necessary funds.  The hall was packed with a sympathizing audience, quite a number of people being from Algona.  I well remember that the club opened the entertainment by singing the Star Spangled Banner.  I remember also that Jane Henderson (Chapin) stood on the last end of the line.  Lizzie McCoy posed as the Goddess of Liberty and Ed Blackford delivered an oration, making gestures to make his effort more forceful.  The idea of a boy without whiskers making gestures was a stunner to the Irvington young people who had never seen the like before.  This is about all that I remember of the program.  The event of the evening, however, that impressed me, so that it is still fresh in my memory, was the patriotic address delivered by J. E. Blackford, preceding the entertainment.  With his commanding presence and deliberate speech he appealed to his audience with intense feeling to continue the work with renewed energy.  He pictured the scenes of the fallen after the battle and the condition of the wounded in the badly equipped army hospitals.  I often heard him speak on other occasions, in after years, but never with such eloquence as on that occasion.

J. R. Armstrong came to Irvington in the fall of 1857.  Those of you who only knew him during the last twenty years of his life knew a very different man from the Dr. Armstrong of thirty years previous.  During those years he too was on orator of great force on great occasions.  One evening in April 1865 while Rev. William Leggett of the Baptist church was orating on the death of Lincoln in the old town hall in Algona with an eloquence that no one else in town at that time could equal.  Dr. Armstrong in the old hall in Irvington was orating on the same subject with such emotion that it caused the sturdy old pioneers to weep like children.  The event was the oratorical triumph of his life.  That peculiar power known as eloquence most certainly was in evidence on that April evening.  According to Daniel Webster’s own definition that it must exist in the subject, in the man and in the occasion, the three elements of eloquence were there confirmed.  The speaker was a fine classical scholar in the very vigor of noble manhood; the subject, Lincoln, at that time was the principal topic of conversation throughout the entire nation; and the occasion was the assembling of old settlers in reverential respect for the great martyr whom they had learned to almost worship as an idol.  Great as was Dr. Armstrong’s success along many lines of enterprise, his career as a teacher was the most wonderful of all.  Let me give you a brief sample of his Ridge school; a six months’ continuous term, six days in the week, six and one half hours per day, half hour at noon, no recess and no leaving of seats for any cause except for recitation; a term where boys fourteen years old who had never seen an arithmetic before not only mastered Ray’s third part but were familiar with the elements of algebra and geometry as well; a term where every pupil became as well acquainted with the Greek alphabet and Latin language in counting as they were with the English; a term where astronomy, geology and even meteorology were taught; and a term when for miles around there were no social functions whatever attended by any of the pupils.  How thorough was all this teaching?  Let me give one illustration:  One stormy night Dr. Armstrong did not go home but staid at the home of my parents.  After supper my brother James, eight years old, lay sleeping on the floor behind the stove.  The Doctor picked him up, stood him on his feet and said “wake up and show your father how far you can recite in your geography before making a mistake.”  The questions in lesson after lesson were flung at the boy with great speed.  On and on they went till over thirty lessons had been recited before the eight year old boy went down on the question, “What can you say of the climate of the West Indies?”  The book answer was “mild and delightful” but the lad answered “warm and delightful.”  The most wonderful feature of that school, in the winter of 1860-61, was the strenuous studiousness of the pupils not only at school, but at home and one the road to school.  For this effective service Dr. Armstrong received the magnificent sum of $30 per month, boarded himself and rode two and one half miles twice each day.  He taught six other terms, all on much the same order, getting I think not over $20 per month for any of them.

If I were posing as the only living witness of these schools I should not expect any of you to believe one fourth of what I have claimed as merit for Dr. Armstrong; but fortunately for my reputation as to truth and veracity there are others who are able to explain to you in detail.  Ask Walter Raney, Geo. Fisher, Brint Robison of Irvington.  Write to Walter C. Shaw, Mayor of Harriman, Tenn., Robert Wright of Portland or Thomas J. Clark of New Carlisle, Indiana and others whom I can easily name. To satisfy your curiosity I shall close by saying that neither Dr. Armstrong nor any other person could have conducted such schools on any spot of God’s green earth but in old Irvington township.  To tell why I should be compelled to delineate the character of every man at that Time in said township, but time forbids.

B.F. Reed

We are lucky that Ben Reed was so dedicated to preserving the history of our early years. 

Until next time,

KC History Buff

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