Civil War Monument

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American Civil War Monument

On a pedestal in the Eddyville City Park stands a lone soldier steadfastly facing the Southland where he so valiantly fought and to that lone soldier attaches a bit of history. According to one local history book, the base of the structure was originally built in 1866. At the close of the Civil War (1861-1865) an enterprising promoter started a movement to erect a monument to Eddyville’s soldier dead. He collected $600 to $700 from friends and relatives of the fallen soldiers. The base and pedestal were erected in the park, bearing the names of 79 veterans inscribed on the pedestal. Said promoter went east to find a fitting statue to place on the pedestal. The “enterprising promoter” never returned to Eddyville with a statue or the collected money. For the next 45 years, the incompleted memorial stood up to the wind and weather, the names thereon almost obliterated by time. Around 1910-11, John A. Lafferty of Eddyville, son of first lieutenant, T. Jefferson Lafferty (Civil War veteran), donated money for the statue and other renovations, reserving the right to inscribe his father’s name on the capstone, as a tribute to his father. Although Mr. Lafferty had good intentions when making his offer, he apparently faced criticism from others in the community.
In a newspaper article dated November 17, 1911…”Many people are not aware that the beautiful soldier’s monument, but lately rebuilt, and which stands in the north center of Eddyville’s well kept park, is not a memorial to the soldiers now living or to those who died after the close of the war, but in reality is built in honor of four score of our brave soldiers who went out from this locality and who met death in the service. Quite a number of those brave boys lie in unmarked graves at different places in the South, while some who died in hospitals lie buried in national cemeteries with a suitable mark at the heads of their graves.

Alexander T. Sackett (1820-1865) is one of the names inscribed at the base of the monument. Sackett, was married Feb. 20, 1845, to Cornelia Clark Gilbert. They had nine children. In August of 1863, Sackett enlisted in Company B, 8th Reg, Iowa Cavalry Volunteers at Eddyville, Wapello Co. Iowa to serve three years in the Civil War. He began writing letters home while he was stationed at Camp Roberts in Davenport, Iowa. The following is a letter Alex sent to his wife while he was on the banks of the Chattahoochie River (It has been transcribed exactly as Alex wrote it)
July 10, 1864                     Dear Wife
I recieved your kind letter dated june 18 and was glad to hear from home once more and to hear that you was all well I am glad that Mary Ellen is pleased with teaching school I new it was new business with her I was afraid she would not succeed very well on that account I new she would doo the best she could Co B K and L is on picket and have been three or four days wee are on the banks of the Chattahoochie River when I rote to you in one of my letters that wee had surounded Kenesaw Mountain but it was a mistake wee have taken the mountain since and a good many prisoners with it and a good many since they are on one side of the Chattahoochie River and wee are on the other although they was crossing yesterday and I understood the fourth corpse went a cross our company and company L went on a scout yesterday and wee went a cross the river wee went up the river and crossed on a Pontoon Bridge our forces was crossing all the time with teams and beef cattle wee was rite in amoungst the rebs and exchanged a few shots with them none of us got hurt our Lieutenant he expected to have considerable of a fight wee herd of some rebs passing by a house a bout twenty minutes beefore wee did the man said he did not take notice which way they went one thing is certain they did not travel the road wee did or wee would have seen them Colonel J.B.Dorr which is the name of our Colonel he was with us he told our Lieutenant that ten of his men could whip forty of them Mr Willson was a long with us but did not return with us his horse was sick beefore wee srarted and was all the time wanting to lay down and finaly he was sent back to our infantry with him and did not come into camp till the next morning his horse got well Mr Willson is a little under the wether at this time but I am all right and have been all the time I think I am fleshier now than I ever have been the boys all say they never have seen me so fat as I am at this time wee are all of the opinion that the war will soon bee over with some thinks this campain will end it but it is hard to tell when it will end it is this way with me I am getting tired of fighting and living the life of a soldier but as long as they continue to rais arms a gainst the union I am willing to fight them allthough it goes hard with me to bee absent from the loved ones at home you know I never have been from home so long beefore you can imagine my anxiety about home as soon as I can get my picture taken I will send it to you as you have requested it so often wee have not been paid yet since wee left Nashville their is six months pay due us wee have been very hard up for rations but have plenty now I think Thomas would doo better not to work from home to much I want our own crops tended well and probobly that will bee as much as the boys can get through with and then if they want to work from home all right give my love to all the children tell them I will come home and see them all and then wee will have a big romp write soon I doo not get half the letters you write I got the one that had Daniels letter inclosed in it but have not received any from him yet tell me how the children gits a long at school


Alexander Sackett was taken prisoner by Confederate forces near Newman, Georgia on July 30, 1864. He served time in Andersonville Prison and possibly in either Florence Stockade or Salisbury Prison before being sent north on the U.S. Transport Steamer General Lyon. He died on the ship on April 1, 1865 when the ship caught fire during a hurricane. 
 

When pavement came to Eddyville

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When Pavement Came to Eddyville

In 1908, when cement paving for smaller town streets was something new, and before the era of the automobile, Eddyville down-town merchants raised a fund and put in street wide cement paving from the river bridge through the main business district (which had been lined with hitchracks and mudholes churned by horses hooves after every rain). The finished street paving showed up so fine and so practical, that the farmers from over the hill said, “That’s just what we need to put over that deep sand on the road past the cemetery.” The farmers had been battling this strip of road for years, finding it difficult to drive their horse teams with heavy wagons full of grain. A fund raising campaign began and soon the interested parties had raised $1500.00 in pledges from local farmers, town people, and the county. This amount was just enough to build a strip 500 feet long and 14 feet wide (at a cost of about $2.55 per square yard). After this first strip of cement was finished in 1908, delegations of engineering students with their tutors came down from Ames at frequent intervals to see how the country paving was holding up. It held up and more sections were added to the road in 1910, 1911, and 1916. Although this claim has been challenged, it has been said that this road was the “First Paved County Road” in Iowa. One article claims: “The Highland Cemetery Road, located near Eddyville, is one of Iowa’s first paved rural farm-to market roadways.” This road has now been renamed, “Memory Lane”.  Mahaska County has recently restored this road, using techniques to maintain the historic integrity of the concrete roadway.
Shortly after this first paved roadway was completed, (about 1911?), the town of Eddyville paved the “schoolhouse hill” road leading up to the cemetery, and continued it around the corner at the top of the hill, to connect with the original two strips of road already built, making this an all-weather road to the various parts of Harrison Township in Mahaska County. This road is now known as, “Berdan Street”.
 

Richard J. Scarrem

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This piece of Eddyville history is dedicated to our U. S. Veterans.  In observance of Veterans Day, November 11, 2009. (Contributed by "Library Lady")

 Richard J. Scarrem, Patriot Soldier of the American Revolution War.  Anyone who has visited the Eddyville Highland Cemetery has probably noticed a huge boulder near its front entrance.  This boulder is a memorial dedicated to the only Revolutionary war veteran that is buried in Mahaska County.  There are 42 Revolutionary War patriots buried in 22 Iowa counties.  The American Revolution War (1775-1783), was the war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the 13 British colonies on the North American continent.  The war was the culmination of the political American Revolution, whereby the colonies overthrew British rule.

According to the Iowa Daughters of the American Revolution website: Richard Scarrem was born in 1759 in New Jersey. He died in 1856 and was buried in the Old Cemetery near Eddyville, Wapello County, Iowa. In 1941, his remains were moved to the Memorial Plot at the Highland Cemetery in Eddyville in Mahaska County, Iowa. Patriotic groups, including the Oskaloosa Chapter DAR, gathered that Memorial Day to dedicate to his honor a bronze tablet imbedded in a seven ton boulder. His marker says: “Fought in the American Revolution with Vermont Volunteers who defeated Burgoyne at Saratoga and in other battles of the War dedicated to memory of this service to his country."  Based on the information provided by the DAR, Richard was around 18 yrs old when the Battle of Saratoga occurred in 1777.  He fought with the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont, who were given a great deal of the credit for the defeat of Burgoyne.  According to O.H. Seifert in an article that was published in 1941: It was at the battle of Bemis Heights, that Burgoyne got his first serious setback, when he was forced to retreat upon Saratoga; and in both these battles, the Green Mountain bands with which Scarrem was an active participant, took heavy toll of the Britishers.  It was the victory at Saratoga and the capture of Burgoyne, and his army of what was thought unbeatable aggregation of veterans, that was the turning point of the war for American Independence, and it is listed by Creasy, as one of the "Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World." Though General Gates claimed the honor of the victory at Saratoga, it had always been Scarrem's assertion that Benedict Arnold was the man to whom was rightfully due the honor of this great victory, for though Gates was chief in command, it was Arnold's military genius that directed the battle and achieved the victory for which Gates claimed all the credit.  And it was because Gates not only refused Arnold that merited recognition, but took it all for himself, that Arnold afterwards turned traitor.  After Saratoga, the tradition has it, that Scarrem followed the fortunes of the patriots southward through New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

 It is unclear how Richard's life travels brought him to Mahaska County. It was thought that he was a wandering sort of fellow.  That was common in those days.  Richard's last years were spent on the Jerry Linderman farm about 3 1/2 miles northeast of Eddyville.   In those days, Mahaska County had no county home, and "indigents" were farmed out by County Supervisors to homes where the county paid a stated monthly sum for their keep.  Jerry Linderman's farm was where Richard Scarrem ended up as an inmate.  Apparently after O.H. Siefert learned Richard's life story, he started a mission to have a memorial erected so Richard would always be remembered as the "Old Revolutioner".