Essay on Shedd Family in Denmark, Iowa

This essay was published in the Nebraska State Journal and was written by Charles Frederick Shedd, son of James Adams Shedd. The uncles referred to are brothers of James A. Shedd.

When the "Q" Came

By Carl F. Shedd

I wonder how many persons who read this can remember when the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad touched the Mississippi river. It was many years ago during the fifties; I was a small boy, living in the village of Denmark, Lee county, Ia. My father was a subscriber to the Burlington Hawkeye. We had full notice that the road was building first to Galesburg, one branch to east Burlington, another branch to Quincy.

My father, and in fact the whole community, in and around the vicinity of Denmark, were very much interested. When the road was completed to East Burlington and trains began to run, father decided to drive over the Burlington, sixteen miles distant, and take his three boys, so that they could see an engine and cars moving over the Mississippi. So it was decided to hitch old Bill and Fly to the lumber wagon, lay in a stock of feed for the horses' dinner and take lunch for father and his boys, get an early start, and put in the whole day to make the round trip.

Well! We went and saw, across the river, a moving engine and cars. As we started home on the slow trot, we had much to talk about. We boys called to our neighbor boys, as we entered the village of Denmark, "We have seen the engine and railroad cars and you have not."

I do not remember the date but it was during the fifties. And where is the C. B. & Q. railroad system today and other lines of railroad that touched the Mississippi soon after? The whole railroad system, north, east, south and west--it makes on dizzy to grasp the growing system!

Other things have kept pace with railroad building, and the many, many improvements that have been going on during past years, Lee county, Iowa, was an exceedingly new country. Denmark, only a small village settled by a few New England families, was known as the Yankee church settlement, the anti-slavery, underground railroad station. Many a hundred runaway slaves found helpers in Denmark and vicinity. Sometimes two or three masters, mounted on saddle horses, would come into Denmark just behind their slaves, but the slaves would be in hiding. As soon as the masters gave up the hunt, Deacon Trobridge would hitch up his driving teams, the darker the night the better, and would be off with his load of runaways to the next station where his partner would be up to help push the runaways on their way to freedom. Rev. Asa Turner was at the head of the church for many years.

My uncle, Dr. George Shedd, was known for miles around. His practice extended over a large territory. He would frequently have a call from Danville, ten miles north and when he returned home, he would find a call from near West Point, seven miles to the west. He would saddle a fresh horse and off for West Point. He always kept two saddle horses, and thoroly knew all the road leading into and out of Denmark and could travel them the darkest night. Dr. Shedd was the father of ex-Lieutenant Governor, H. H. Shedd, a former resident of Cleveland.

When my uncle Curtis Shedd and other families settled in Lee county they traveled in covered wagons until they came to a section of country that suited them, before driving their stakes and settling down for life and as we look back over the past, we wonder how their choice could have been otherwise.

My father practiced law in Dayton, Ohio, for fifteen years. His three sons and three daughters were born there. His first daughter died in infancy. As his children grew, he made up his mind that a city was not the best place to bring them up. Having two brothers living in the village of Denmark, he decided to go to Iowa and settle on a small farm. I was four years old at that time, with a brother and sister older and a brother and sister younger.

While father was perfecting his plans to move to Iowa, mother was taken sick and died. Father was well acquainted with a Mrs. Brown, a daughter of Oliver Smith of Cincinnati, one of the ten brothers known as the sixty-foot Smith family. The ten brothers averaged six feet in height. Sol Smith of St. Louis theatrical fame was one of the younger brothers.

In time father married Mrs. Brown. Later we came to Fort Madison, Ia., by boat on the Mississippi river, eight miles from Denmark where father had bought a small farm and planned to settle with his new family. The country was new to father and mother--in fact to all of us--tho we children did not realize as they did the change that was being made.

As the years pass and I grow older, I can realize the extra work assumed by mother in caring for five small children, then general housework on the farm, the hundred and one adds and ends that she had to look after. I realize that she was an exceptional woman, in fact the most remarkable woman I have ever known. The interest she took in educating, in clothing us out of scant supplies (for father was poor), in training us to always speak the truth, to be honest in our dealings! And when we grew up and the civil war came upon us and destruction threatened our beloved country, mother gave her three sons as a sacrifice.

Brother James went to war as a three months' man in the president's first call and when he returned, he and I volunteered as three year men. Brother George enlisted in the Thirtieth Iowa as color corporal. May 22, '64, at the battle of Vicksburg, after the color bearer had been killed, George took the flag. One ball passed thru his heart, another thru his hip and he, with many others, lay dead on the field.

Source: Nebraska State Journal, April 4, 1920