Reminiscences of John H. Charles. 47 



The candidates for mayor at this election had been 

 Ezra Millardi and Captain J. B. S. Todd, both democrats. 

 Millard received the largest number of votes, but be- 

 cause of some irregularity the votes of one ward were 

 thrown out and Todd was declared elected. Not satis- 

 fied with such proceedings Todd refused to serve, leav- 

 ing the town without any municipal organization until 

 the following spring. 



Again [Apr., 1858] two democratic candidates were 

 pitted against each other. They were Dr. Townsend and 

 Col. [Robt.] Means. The later was elected, and served 

 as mayor one year.^ Col. Means was quite a character. 

 Immediately before retiring each night he always 

 blacked his boots and brushed his hat. The first thing 

 he did upon rising in the morning was to brush his hat 

 and black his boots. Questioned why he did this he 

 would reply, "I black my boots twice so that I may 

 always have a shine left after the top one wears off." 



PERSONAL POLITICS. 



In 1857 Sioux City was a land office town. The two 

 United States senators from Iowa were Geo. W. Jones 

 and A. C. Dodge, both democrats. The democratic 

 \)s.Ttj was so strong here that there w^ere not enough 

 republicans to maintain an organization. But the demo- 

 crats were divided into two factions, called the "Hards" 

 and the "Softs," and this gave the republicans a chance. 

 There were many regular fire-eaters here at that time 

 and elections were generally disorderly. 



I remember that when, in 1857, we voted upon the 

 new state constitution I voted to strike out the word 

 "white" and this offended many of my friends. But it 

 was a matter of principle with me. I could not agree 

 in all things with the dominant partj^ If I had been en- 

 titled to a vote in 1856 I should have cast it for Fremont 

 and Dayton. But I had left California too late and had 

 not attained a residence here before election day. I had 

 lost my vote in 1852 in much the same way. In 1848 I 

 cast my first ballot voting for Van Buren and Adams, 

 the third party candidates. 



1. A brother of United States Senator Joseph H. Millard, of 



Nebraska. 



2. It was at this election that Tracey shot and killed Copeland. 



