History of Webster City, (Hamilton County) Iowa United States of America

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Aldrich, Charles, founder and curator of the Iowa State Historical department, and a pioneer newspaper editor of northwestern Iowa, where he founded, in 1857, the Hamilton Freeman, at Webster City, is enjoying, during his lifetime, the appreciation which a grateful people have shown him for the great work he has done for the state. Mr. Aldrich is a native of New York, born October 2, 1828, in Ellington, Chautauqua county, and was the son of Stephen and Eliza Nichols Aldrich. The family was of English origin and first lived in Rhode Island after coming to America. Stephen Aldrich was an amiable, energetic and impulsive man, a blacksmith in early life and afterward a merchant-lumberman and farmer, who came west soon after his [p.154] son's removal to Iowa, settled on a farm near Webster City, and died there in 1882, his wife having died in 1880. His mother, Charles Aldrich's grandmother, was a woman of great intellectual power and a gifted orator. Such education as could be obtained in the common schools was supplemented by a year in Jamestown academy, at the age of 15.

In June, 1846, he began his long career as a newspaper man and printer, entering the office of Clement & Faxon, publishers of the Western Literary Messcnger, in Buffalo. Jesse Clement, of that firm, was editor of the Dubuque Times during the war, and another companion printer was H. L. Rann, afterward editor of the Manchester Press. Having learned the trade, young Aldrich worked as a compositor in the villages of Attica and Warsaw, N. Y., and Warren, Pa. In June, 1850, he established his first paper, The Cattaraugus Sachem, a weekly, at Randolph, N. Y. He conducted this paper one year and then established the Journal, in Olean, N. Y., and remained in its control for nearly five years, when he removed to the home farm in Little Valley and remained there until he came west in 1857.

When Mr. Aldrich set up his modest little printing outfit in Webster City, Hamilton county, Iowa, and began to proclaim republican principles with that courage and tenacity which have marked his whole life, the village had but 200 inhabitants and the county, with all its patronage, belonged to the democrats. The new editor was not only a vigorous writer, but an organizer as well, and with the fire of enthusiasm burning in him, and the energy and tact to meet pioneer conditions, he soon had a strong following and his office became the political headquarters of the district. The political complexion of the county and district soon changed and The Freeman had no insignificant part in bringing it about. It was considered a valuable ally, demonstrating its good judgment by its support of James W. Grimes for senator in 1857. Mr. Aldrich was subsequently, for a short time in 1864, editor of the Dubuque Times, and for three years, beginning in 1866, published the Marshall Times, now the Times-Republican, of Marshalltown. He has since been editorially connected with the Waterloo Courier, Council Bluffs Nonpareil and the Chicago Inter-Ocean.

In 1862, with characteristic devotion to principle, Mr. Aldrich locked up his printing office in Webster City and went into the union army as adjutant of the Thirty-second Iowa infantry, commanded by Col. John Scott. He was afterward post-adjutant under Col. Wm. T. Shaw, at Columbus, Ky. He returned in 1864. In 1860, 1862, 1866 and 1870 Mr. Aldrich was chief clerk of the Iowa house of representatives. In 1872 he became interested in the river land settlers' troubles, and was a member of a commission created by the legislature to attempt righting the wrongs of the settlers on the Des Moines river lands. Later he was appointed by President Grant as a member of the commission to investigate the matter and recommend some course of action. The relief bill reported by this commission passed the house but failed in the senate. Mr. Aldrich was a member of the United States Geological survey in 1875. His contributions to the literature of this subject attracted wide attention and are of permanent value. In 1881 Mr. Aldrich, who had returned ten years before from Marshall county, was elected to the house from Hamilton county. He originated the custom of printing a house calendar, and previously had been the author of the bill that abolished the county judge system. He has always been a champion of the harmless and usefulbirds, whose destruction he has tried to prevent in every way. Much of the state legislation on this subject is due to his efforts. He has been a member of the American Ornithologists' union from its foundation.

In founding and establishing the historical department of Iowa Mr. Aldrich has rendered the state a most valuable service. The great building now being erected will stand as a monument to his unselfish devotion and energetic persistence, for without him the historical department would not exist. He began to collect autographs when he was a boy, and as he grew in knowledge of the world and into wider opportunities for obtaining interesting and instructive specimens, he acquired a reputation as a collector, and by the time that he and his wife suggested its presentation to the state, it had become both interesting and valuable. In 1884 the legislature accepted the gift of Mr. and Mrs. Aldrich, which was conditioned upon its being kept in suitable cases, by itself, in the state library, and that they might make additions to it. This was continued until 1892, Mr. Aldrich devoting a large amount of time and much money to making additions to, and caring for, the collection, which was an object of universal interest and instruction. [p.155] In 1892 the legislature, upon the showing made by Mr. Aldrich, established the historical department, with an annual appropriation of $6,000, and assigned it to rooms in the basement of the state house. Since then its growth has been rapid. It long ago outgrew its cramped quarters and Mr. Aldrich set out to get a building. The legislature was at first slow to provide for the work, but as the people began to see its importance, and to receive benefits from the small beginning, the legislature, in response to popular demand, made an appropriation in 1897 for a small building, to cost $25,000, including grounds. The ground was purchased, but the executive council considered the amount too small to commence building, so it was decided to wait for the next legislature, in 1898, which provided for the present wing, to cost $50,000, and by the sale of another piece of property a better site was secured, plans for a $300,000 building adopted and work commenced in the fall of 1898. The corner stone of the first, or west, wing was laid with imposing ceremonies May 17, 1899. Governor Shaw, James Harlan, John A. Kasson Theodore S. Parvin, A. B. F. Hildreth, Dr. W. M. Salter, Rev. T. M. Lenehan and Mr. Aldrich participated in these exercises. The man to whose efforts all this achievement was due has the rare satisfaction of seeing his work for the people fully appreciated during his lifetime. The educational value of the department is now recognized by everyone, for it is collecting and preserving from destruction and making accessible the historical materials of the state.

Mr. Aldrich took a deep interest in the monument to the victims of the Spirit Lake Indian massacre of 1857, which was built in 1894, by a legislative appropriation. He placed a tablet in the Webster City court house to the memory of the rescue company that went to the relief of the settlement, and he gathered the data and prepared the inscriptions that went on the monument, including the names of all the members of that heroic band of pioneers. Mr. Aldrich was a member of the commission appointed by Governor Jackson to have charge of the erection of the monument.

In July, 1851, Mr. Aldrich was married to Matilda Olivia Williams, in Knowlesville, N. Y. She was born in Dansville, Livingstone county, N. Y., August 8, 1836, and died in Boone, Iowa, on the 18th of September, 1892. Her grandfather was a revolutionary soldier. She was an ideal companion for her husband. She sympathized with him in all his ambitions, and was his most valued and kindly critic and counsellor. In the love and protection of animal and bird life they were especially united, and their home was always the paradise of numerous pets. Her death was a very hard trial for her husband and he has devoted some of his best efforts to memorials to her. Mr. Aldrich was married a second time, November 12, 1898, to Miss Thirza Louise Briggs, of Webster City, who had been the most intimate friend of his first wife, and their closest companion for many years. They live in Boone, where they have an ideal home.

The historical department publishes a quarterly known as the Annals of Iowa, in which is collected important historical papers, liberally illustrated, and short obituaries of the noted men of the state who have passed away during the three months previous. To the editorship of this publication Mr. Aldrich gives his best thought. As a writer he has been successful, because he wrote from conviction and upon thorough information. He is a manysided and well informed man, versed in science, literature and politics, having had a part in all. He has been a welcome contributor to periodicals, and is the friend and intimate of many distinguished men and women, who have been glad to lend their aid to his work for the state of Iowa. No man has a greater pride in his state than he, and none has done more to demonstrate it.

SOURCE: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa published by Conway and Shaw, Des Moines: 1899.

History of Webster City, (Hamilton County) Iowa

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