of Home Militia were organized with eighty-two members. The officers were: Captain, J. L. Dana; first lieutenant, Isaac Walker; second lieutenant, John M. Brainard. The only occasion they found for active service was in corraling a squad of Irish railway " paddies," who resisted the enrolling officer. They were captured on Indian Creek and. taken to Des Moines. In November, 1864, another draft for twenty-three men was found necessary. It was carried on at Marshalltown.
Scarcely four years had passed since the war meeting in the old Cumberland Presbyterian Church and other places in the county, when the joyful news of " Richmond taken !" on Mon day, April 3, 1865, roused the people of the county to a demonstration. An Aegis local says: " The news of the capture of Richmond was received by our people about noon on Monday last, by favor of Mr. Mills, the telegraph operator here, and was at first hardly credited, but by noon of the next day, we all knew it was a sure thing, and the bunting was flung out. At this writing (Tuesday) the big flag floats from the top of the school-house. The Aegis office has its rag out, the bells are ringing and the boys and men are bawling until all are hoarse. Posters are out calling the people together for a grand jubilee to-night at the court-house, and all feel gay. Business is irksome, and all feel---' Let her swing!'" The town was illuminated and speeches were made by Capt. Hambleton, Col. Scott, Sheriff Hoggatt and others.
It was but ten days later (April 14) when the operator took from the wires another dispatch : " As the stunning intelligence flew from mouth to mouth, each lip became palid in the communication; proud heads bowed as the stricken oak before the storm, and tears unbidden started from eyes long unused to weep. Old men turned away their heads and wept, and young men, strong in conscious youth, ground their teeth and stamped their feet in conscious rage. There was only wanting some tangible object to give vent to their feelings. Mothers and sisters, who had mourned a husband, brother, father, offered up at the shrine of their country's altar, again unsealed the fountains of their tears, and mourned anew the loss of our National Father." Business houses were closed; crape was on every door, and flags were at half mast. The night of the 14th and the early morning of the 15th were spent by crowds in the court-house listening to dispatches. Touching but brief remarks were made by Col. Scott, Rev. Reid, Capt. Hambleton and Mr. Alderman, while a committee was appointed, composed of Col. Scott, J. H. Talbott, John M. Brainard, A. S. Condon, G. A. Kellogg, Rev. I. Reid, Rev. J. Hestwood, Dr. Sinclair and Major Hawthorn, to arrange for funeral services for the martyred President. This is a fair picture of the whole country. On Thursday, the 28th of April, solemn services were held at the south square; remarks were made by Col. Scott, and were listened to by an immense concourse of people.
The war was over. Very soon attention was given to the returning soldiers, and the joy of their friends, or to the widows and orphans of those who would never return. The empty sleeve and the crutches began to be familiar sights, and on every heart the war, the long, bloody war, had left scars that will never be removed. A quarter of a century has passed, and still these scars are common sights on every hand. But, notwithstanding all this, Story County turned with vigor to recuperation-to a growth made possible by the new railway, which opened to her a new career.
But what of Story's men in the field? Out of 820 able-bodied men reported fit for duty in 1861, considerably over half found their way