- CHARLES AMOS BABCOCK. (Written by "Bub" himself.)
- In the first place I was born. That great event took place
at Janesville, Wisconsin, May 18, 1855.
- I don't know any good reason why I was born, but for some
inscrutable design of Providence I was, and have been living
ever since. Don't know much about my ancestry, and care less;
but have no doubt that way back at the beginning of the human
race upon the earth, some two hundred thousand years ago, they
started and have evolved down to date, pretty much the same as
all other folks. Never knew or heard of any BABCOCK doing anything
especially mean nor anything worthy of special note.
- My paternal grandfather was of Scotch descent and my paternal
grandmother of Holland descent,
- and my maternal grandparents were regular "Vermont Yankees."
Grandfather and grandmother BABCOCK went from New York to Ohio
when that was "way out west," and helped build, and
for years were members of the Mormon church at Kirtland, Ohio;
but when Joseph Smith, the "Prophet" of the Mormon
faith, had his "revelation" for plurality of wives,
they "got their eyes open" to the fact that said "revelation"
was merely man-made (like all other so-called "revelations"),
and so they renounced the Mormon faith and about 1858 took up
a government homestead in Fayette county, Iowa. Here they lived
until 1869, when they went to live with a son at New Hampton,
Iowa, and there died at ripe ages.
- My father, Comfort Elias, being in business at Janesville,
Wisconsin, there married my mother,
- Katherine EMERSON, in 1852, and no better woman in every
way ever lived. She had twelve children, eight boys and four
girls, and seven of the boys and three of the girls are still
living, all in Iowa, except three boys who are in Arkansas. My
father was a rover and, like myself, a financial failure. Went
from Wisconsin to Kansas, and in the fall of1860 to Fayette county,
Iowa, and the rest of his life lived in many different places
in eastern Iowa, moving so much that no two of us children were
born in the same house, and he and mother fmally died at New
Hampton, Iowa.
- He was a red-hot Abolitionist and to him John Brown was one
of the greatest men and martyrs.
- Consequently, he was always an ardent Republican, and I was
taught to believe that all a Democrat needed to be a veritable
devil was horns. He twice enlisted for the Civil War and was
once drafted, but, owing to physical defects, was rejected, but
was bound to go to the war in some capacity and therefore served
three years with the army as a blacksmith. He was home on furlough
at the time of Lincoln's assassination, and I saw him lick a
Copperhead so badly for attempting to hurrah because of said
assassination that he did not get out of bed for three weeks.
Father had him licked before he got the hurrah out.
- At the age of fourteen I went to shift for myself and up
to that time my time was spent in the
- pursuit of knowledge in the common country schools of eastern
Iowa, and in the pursuit of muskrats along the Turkey and "Wapsie"
rivers. I never attended any but a country school except four
months at a town school. Taught school in Iowa and Nebraska and
Kansas from 1873 to 1882, reading law in the meantime, and pettifogging
some in justices' courts. Went to Humboldt county, Iowa, in the
spring of 1881 and was admitted to the bar on Washington's birthday
in 1882, by the district court of said county. The chief qualification
to be admitted to the bar in those days was a box of good cigars
for the committee the court appointed to examine the applicant,
and I had the cigars ready. Was the first county attorney of
Humboldt county, serving for the years of 1887, 1888, 1889 and
1890.
- In 1883 one Agnes GARFIELD, of Wisconsin, was teaching music
at Humbolt, and,
- unfortunately for her, took me in as one of her scholars,
and we were married at her home at Jefferson, Wisconsin, Thanksgiving,
1884. She is undoubtedly the only woman on earth that would ever
have lived with me any length of time without applying for a
divorce, and I think the fact that I could be my own lawyer is
the only reason she has not applied for one.
- Went from Humboldt to Sanborn, O'Brien county, in the spring
of 1891, and moved to Sheldon,
- in said county, in April, 1913. Was county attorney of O'Brien
county for the years of 1897 and 1898. Never held any office
except as above stated, for I was never hypocrite enough to be
very popular. While living at Sanborn I was the most patriotic
citizen the town had, for when it was desired to elect a certain
man to any town office I, out of pure patriotism, would run against
him, and that would make his election sure. Have never been a
success financially or professionally worthy of any note, but
have somehow managed to make a living for myself and family and
keep out of the penitentiary, being only an ordinary everyday
plug lawyer, doing the best I can for my clients, but often blundering.
Some like me and some don't, but I think it is safe to say that
those who do outnumber those who don't and that is some satisfaction.
I am quite a "literary cuss," and I think I can probably
quote as much prose and poetry as any other lawyer in Iowa, having
a good deal more useless than useful knowledge.
- We have three children, Reed, twenty-six, Frances, twenty-three,
and Philip, fourteen, and so far
- we are satisfied with them. In religion my wife and I are
Unitarians and the only creed of the Unitarian church is "good
character," though the central idea of the Unitarian faith
is "One God." We know that all orthodox or evangelical
churches consider us as "infidels," but that doesn't
worry us any, for the history of the world conclusively shows
that to the persons called "infidels" the human race
owes all its rights and liberties that are worth having. In the
true meaning of the word, an "infidel" is simply one
who does not believe as does the one who calls him such. In the
opinion of those who crucified him, the man Jesus was the greatest
"infidel" who had lived up to that time and that is
why they crucified him. But I must quit along this line or this
sketch will wind up in a long sermon.
- In conclusion, I was a fool to have anything to do with this
history, for it is gotten up with only two
- real objects in view - first the money in it for the publishers,
and second to give those who have made a success of life an opportunity
to tell what great persons they are, and as I am unfortunately
not of that class nothing ought to have been said about me herein.
But I suppose I yielded to help along the matter because of the
truth expressed by Lord Byron in the following lines:
-
- "'Tis certainly fine to see one's name
in print,
- A book's a book, although there's nothing
in't."
-
- [Taken from "Past and Present of O'Brien and Osceola
Counties, Iowa, Vol. II" by J. L. E. Peck, Hon. O. H. Montzheimer
and Hon. William J. Miller; (c)1914 B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis,
IN; pp. 1270-1272]
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