VIII MILLER AND FARMER IOWA CITY in the spring of 1855 was a place of about four thousand inhabitants, spread out over a square mile of rolling land clothed with a native growth of oaks, elms, and hard maples. In the Old Stone Capitol, overlooking the Iowa River, the General Assembly of Iowa still convened in biennial sessions, and here were held most of the State conventions of the two political parties. Iowa City was also the seat of the State University, which in March of that year opened for its first session. Business was good and there was some prospect that the place would become a manufacturing center. The citizens were awaiting impatiently the coming of the railroad, which even then was being built westward from Davenport.99 Moreover, it is said that when the Kirkwoods arrived the town was "red-hot and sizzing with political excitement over the first consequences of the adoption by congress of Douglas's 'squatter sovereignty' theory" 100 It was not within the corporate limits of Iowa City, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Kirkwood took up their abode, but at a point on the Iowa River about two miles and a half northwest of town, where stood the mill owned by Ezekiel Clark. To this establishment there belonged an interesting history. In 1843 an association known as the Iowa City Manufacturing Company was formed, and a sufficient amount of stock was subscribed to make possible the purchase of land and the erection of a dam. Early in the following year the mill was put into operation, much to the joy of the people of Iowa City and the surrounding country, for hitherto it had often been difficult to secure flour and ground meal. But for various reasons the company failed to make the expected profits and became insolvent, whereupon the property was sold at sheriff's sale and after passing through several hands came into the possession of Ezekiel Clark.101 Samuel J. Kirkwood purchased a part interest in this flour and grist mill, as well as in a saw-mill just across the river and in a farm of about twelve hundred acres adjoining the mill site. Thus was formed the firm of Clark and Kirkwood, which later added to its already extensive business enterprises a general merchandise store in Iowa City.102 Mr. Kirkwood and his wife moved into the Clark home at Clarksville, or Coralville as the suburb came later to be called, and Mrs. Kirkwood assumed the functions of a mother toward her brother's three children-two boys and a girl.103 The erstwhile Mansfield attorney now "became a full fledged Iowa miller and farmer, wearing the dusty coat of one and the soilstained boots of the other". He kept aloof from public affairs, and most of his neighbors saw in him only a "careless, burly-looking, but good-natured, miller", whom they liked and trusted and soon came to address familiarly as "Sam", 104 Prosperity continued to reward the labors of the millers,105 for they depended not merely on the trade of nearby farmers who came thither with their grists to be ground. Settlers from all northwestern Iowa - from the vicinity of Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, and even from faraway Woodbury County, it is said- could for a time find no nearer point at which they might purchase flour. "It was no unusual sight to see fifty or sixty wagons arranged at this mill at one time". During such periods the machinery was operated day and night, and "the vicinity of the mill often looked like a camping ground, so thronged was it" with the teams of settlers awaiting their turns to have their grists ground.106 The twelve hundred acre farm was likewise a source of profit to its owners. Corn was the principal crop; while the raising of cattle and hogs proved especially successful, since the waste products from the mill could be utilized to good advantage in feeding.107 The management of all these enterprises meant hard work for Kirkwood.108 Nor were the duties which fell to Mrs. Kirkwood any lighter. With three growing children to look after there were ordinary household cares sufficient to keep her busy. But much of the time it was necessary that several farm and mill hands should be lodged and boarded in the home of their employers. The quiet home-life to which they had been accustomed in their Ohio home was impossible under such conditions; and this Jane Kirkwood missed more than anything else during the first years in Iowa.109 That Kirkwood had become a good judge of men is illustrated by an incident which occurred in 1856. One day there came to the mill a young man by the name of John F. Duncombe. He had driven all the way from Fort Dodge, for the purpose of making a shipment on the railroad which had recently been opened to Iowa City. Rather than return with an empty wagon, and as a speculation, he decided to buy some flour, and reap the benefit of the high prices which that commodity would bring in his home town. When he was about to leave the mill Mr. Kirkwood called his attention to the fact that he could easily haul much more flour than he had purchased. Mr. Duncombe replied that he had taken all he could pay for. Thereupon the miller studied his customer's appearance for a moment, and then told him to load up his wagon and send back the money when he had sold the flour. The confidence thus expressed was not betrayed, and at the same time Kirkwood thereby gained a good friend.1 110 In their new home the Kirkwoods were not entirely among strangers. Mrs. Kirkwood's mother, two brothers, and a sister (Mrs. Edward Lucas), as has been seen, were here; and within a short time Mr. Kirkwood's brother John came and took up a farm in Johnson County. Moreover, in Iowa City and the surrounding country were a number of former Mansfield and Richland County people, among whom was Dr. E. W. Lake who had befriended Kirkwood when he appeared in Mansfield to study law in the office of Thomas W. Bartley. Among their neighbors they were received with western hospitality; and strong friendships soon sprang up with the Crum, Folsom, Dennis, and other families in Coralville and Iowa City.111 While Kirkwood gave little outward indication of his interest in politics during the months when his new work was engrossing his attention, it is evident that time had not softened the resentment aroused within him by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. "I was really |