Polk-Johnson-Jones County IA Archives Biographies.....Redhead, Wesley 1825 - 1891
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 12, 2007, 1:29 am

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

HON. WESLEY REDHEAD.—In the death of this gentleman, which occurred January 9,
1891, Des Moines lost one of its best known and most successful business men.
For forty years he was connected with the history of the city and was not only a
prominent factor in commercial circles but was actively and efficiently
interested in all that pertained to the welfare of the community and the
uplifting of the city.

   A native of England, Mr. Redhead was born near Penrith, Cumberland county, on
the 22d of July, 1825, and was a son of Nicholas and Sarah (Clark) Redhead. His
parents removed to Montreal, Canada, in 1829, and the father engaged in
merchandising, which pursuit he had also followed in England, carrying on
business along that line until his death, which occurred from brain fever in the
summer of 1831. The great cholera scourge at that time had just terminated the
life of the mother of our subject, and the father survived her loss but two
weeks. The orphaned family consisted of six sons and a daughter, Wesley being
the sixth in order of birth and only six years of age. In company with a brother
he went to live with an uncle in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he was educated and
began his career as a wage-earner in a printing-office, serving as the youngest
apprentice or "printers devil." He was one of the first newsboys of Cincinnati.
His uncle, believing the influences surrounding the nephew to be bad, sent him,
when fourteen years of age, to Fairfield, Vermont, where his eldest brother was
engaged in the cabinet business. Three weeks were consumed in making the
journey, traveling by steamboat, canal and stage. After spending four months
with his brother, he became so dissatisfied with his surroundings that he
decided to run away and depend upon his own exertions for a livelihood. So he
set out with a cash capital of but five cents and poorly clothed. Walking to St.
Albans, he thence made his way to Whitehall, New York, where he engaged as a
driver on the Erie canal. At the close of the boating season he hired out to a
farmer in Washington county, New York, receiving for his services his board,
clothing and three months' schooling. This connection continued two years, when,
having a desire to see a greater variety in life than the occupation of a farm
hand afforded, he went to Saratoga Springs, where he secured a position as
dipper boy at Congress Springs, and was so employed for two seasons. During that
period he was brought in contact with many noted people of this country and some
distinguished tourists from abroad. Having saved a little money, Mr. Redhead
returned to Cincinnati, where he surprised his friends with a visit after an
absence of five years, during which they had heard nothing from him.

   His next experience was in the capacity of cabin boy on an upward bound
Mississippi steamboat. Having reached Bloomington, now Muscatine, Iowa, in
September, 1844, he decided to visit a brother who was a resident of Iowa City.
On arriving at his destination he secured employment in the office of the Iowa
Capital Reporter, which was conducted by Jesse Williams, who was then
Territorial Printer. The amount of young Redhead's wages was fixed at $3 a week,
and his duties were intended to include the "devil's" work of the office and the
setting of one column of the paper per day. The first constitution of Iowa was
printed that fall by Mr. Williams, and his new employee had the honor of
performing a share of the labor on that historic instrument. The following year,
1845, he went to Anamosa, Iowa, where he operated a carding-machine for a time
until compelled by impaired health to abandon that work, when he returned to
Iowa City. Being unfitted for hard labor he learned the tailor's trade as being
one that he thought likely to require less physical effort than many others. He
served a three-years apprenticeship to that business and continued to work as a
journeyman until the winter of 1851, when he came to Fort Des Moines, and
engaged in business for himself in the line of his trade, but, the business
proving distasteful, he abandoned it after one year's experience and engaged as
a merchant's clerk, at a salary of $25 per month.

   In 1853 Mr. Redhead was appointed Postmaster at Fort Des Moines to succeed
Hoyt Sherman, resigned. He filled the position nine years, during which time the
business of the office assumed important proportions. Shortly after being made
Postmaster he put in a small stock of books, having the fourth book store in the
State. Trade in that line was limited and his weekly sales at first did not
exceed $5, but he afterward built up an excellent business. He admitted to
partnership R. T. Wellslager, who continued with him several years, and later
the firm of Redhead, Norton & Lathrop became proprietors of the largest book
store in Iowa, and wholesale stationers and jobbers in books, stationery, fancy
goods, etc.

   In November, 1864, Mr. Redhead organized the first coal company at Des
Moines, and began the first systematic coal-mining. His efforts in that
direction attracted the attention of others, and in August, 1865, the Des Moines
Coal Company was organized, consisting of Wesley Redhead, James M. Starr,
William Vincent, B. F. Allen, William Phillips, Hoyt Sherman, John Teesdale,
James W. Davis, L. W. Demus, Frank Butler and E. Sanford. The coal-mining
interest of this region was then given its first impetus and has since grown to
magnificent proportions. A set of Fairbanks scales were procured and the first
weighing of coal in the city was done by Mr. Redhead, who is entitled to the
credit of being the pioneer coal man of Des Moines.

   The following bit of coal-mining history clipped from a history of Polk
county, published by the Union Historical Company in 1880, seems specially
appropriate to the sketch of our subject. It is said that the presence of coal
in and around the present site of the city of Des Moines was first noticed by
the soldiers who built and occupied the fort. It is also said that the
blacksmith shops in connection with the garrison were supplied with coal from
certain coal-banks adjacent, and it is stated as a matter of history that A. N.
Hayes and Captain Allen opened a coal shaft and stone quarry on the banks of the
Des Moines as early as the year 1843. Notwithstanding the fact that coal was
known to exist in large quantities and that it had been mined in small
quantities as early as 1843, at the time Professor Hoyt's book on the geology of
Iowa was published, in 1870, nothing but a superficial and miscellaneous system
of mining had been adopted, and the amount mined scarcely equaled the limited
demand of the home market. About this time Wesley Redhead, a gentleman who had
been identified with the interests of Des Moines and Polk county from the very
first, commenced prospecting for coal in a systematic manner, with the view of
engaging in the mining business- on a grand scale. He made persistent efforts to
achieve success, and called to his aid all the resources at his command. In
addition to his time and labor he expended over $8,000 of his private funds, and
still his investigations had not been crowned with success. He finally secured
the services of John Gibson, of Derbyshire, England, whose extended experience
in the coal mines of the Old World had eminently fitted him for the prosecution
to a successful issue of the investigation which his employer had so long
conducted in vain.

   The circumstances attending the final effort and its triumphant conclusion
are related by Mr. Dixon in his Centennial History of Polk County, and also in
an editorial published in the Des Moines Leader of June 4, 1873. A synopsis of
both accounts are here introduced. Mr. Dixon says:

   "A few rods south of Coon Railroad bridge, on land belonging to Mr. Redhead,
west of South Park, a drill was introduced in 1873, under the direction of Mr.
Gibson, foreman. In the descent seventy feet were attained, the drill passing
through three inferior veins of coal and reaching at the depth indicated a flint
rock, so stubborn and invincible as to bring discouragement even to the old
Derbyshire miner, who advised Mr. Redhead at this point to abandon the work.
Even the geologist had stated that if success was not realized within that
distance of the surface, it would be useless to proceed further. Mr. Redhead did
not participate in this gloomy view of the subject. He quietly inquired of the
foreman how many feet of rod were left, and, being answered that there were
twenty, he urged the employment of every inch, declaring that if this did not
bring the anticipated triumph of human enterprise over stubborn nature ^he would
furnish a hundred feet more and work these up before he would abandon his long
cherished plans. They went to work again, consumed all of four weeks at the slow
rate of three inches per day, in penetrating this massive rock, three feet in
thickness. When the drill finally passed through the resisting mass, it quickly
descended through a vein five feet thick of black diamond coal, signalizing in
its passage the superiority of genius over inanimate matter. It was late in the
evening when this great triumph was achieved; but, late as it was, James Clark,
an employee of Mr. Redhead, who had been a witness of the thrilling scene just
enacted, hurried away to report to that gentleman the auspicious result. To Mr.
Redhead this report must have been intensely gratifying. He immediately went to
B. F. Allen and on communicating his grand discovery secured from the banker an
investment of $35,060. A shaft was sunk to the required depth and in a short
time all the appliances belonging to a first-class mine were visible to the
spectator, and scores of operators down deep in the earth were busily engaged in
bringing out from this great store house of nature its exhaustless treasures."

   The following is from the Leader of June 4, 1873:

"WESLEY REDHEAD'S CAT OUT OF THE BAG."

   "The Leader of the 3d stated that Wesley Redhead had at last been successful
in his prospecting for coal, but owing to pressure of other matters a detailed
account of his work and discovery did not appear in that day's issue.

   "It has always been a cherished theory of Mr. Redhead that the supply of coal
about Des Moines is inexhaustible, and that a better quality than any now in the
market would yet be found. In pursuance of this object he has worked early and
late, incurring an expense of about $8,000, until at last his labor has been
crowned with glorious success. Last January he commenced sinking a shaft in
South Park near Seventh street bridge. Two gangs, each consisting of eight men,
were employed alternately night and day. A thin vein of coal was found near the
surface and further down two larger veins were passed through. When the shaft
had reached the depth of 111 feet below the surface, the foremen and other
experienced miners were of the opinion that further search would be fruitless,
but Mr. Redhead was confident, and, to use his own expression, was 'bound to dig
to China or find coal.' The work was continued and fourteen feet further
down—125 feet below the surface, and ninety feet below the bed of Coon river—the
shaft struck a vein of coal four and a half feet in thickness. This discovery
was made on the 2d, and on the 3d a load of coal was mined and conveyed to Mr.
Redhead's office in this city. The best judges pronounced it of a superior
quality and equal to any mine in Iowa. Directly above the coal vein the drills
passed through twelve feet of slate, which was strongly impregnated with
sulphur. It will be known as the Black Diamond coal and will be mined by the Des
Moines Coal Company, of which Mr. Redhead is president. Work will be pressed
forward as rapidly as possible and the practical benefits arising from the
discovery be demonstrated. A track will be laid to the shaft from the Indianola
branch of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, and the necessary
machinery for hoisting put in by the company. Mr. Redhead is deserving of the
thanks of Des Moines and the vicinity for the perseverance he has shown and the
discovery which he has made. He was the first man to introduce anything like
system in the business of coal-mining in Des Moines, and now his last great
achievement places him in the rank of a benefactor, and he will undoubtedly
receive the just encomiums of the people which he so richly deserves."

   Mr. Redhead gradually purchased the interest of the others of the company,
and in 1874 became sole proprietor. In May, 1880, James P. Clark was admitted as
a partner and the name of the company was changed to Pioneer-Coal Company, Mr.
Redhead being president. He afterward again became sole proprietor, remaining as
such until his death. At one time he was secretary and treasurer of the Black
Diamond Coal Company of Marion county, also treasurer of the Des Moines Scale
Company, a director of the State National Bank, and vice-president of the State
Printing Company. He organized the Pioneer Hay Company, of which he was
president, the company having been incorporated in 1885, with a paid-up capital
of $60,000. They did a wholesale business in Iowa upland-prairie hay, and in
breeding and dealing in fine horses and high-grade cattle. Mr. Redhead became
sole owner of the stock and the business proved a very profitable one. He also
had a large farm and an elegant suburban residence, situated about one mile and
a half from his office. He owned extensive tracts of land in Polk county, and in
addition to his other business interests was treasurer of the State Insurance
Company of Iowa, one of the most important insurance companies of Des Moines. He
also located the present State Fair site, which he sold to the State.

   Mr. Redhead was twice married. In October, 1851, he wedded Miss Isabel Clark,
of Iowa City, a sister of Hon. Ezekiel Clark, and of the wives of ex-Governor
Kirkwood, Edward Lucas, I. E. Jewett and William Rutton, of Iowa City, as noble
a family of women as was ever reared in the Buckeye State. She died in 1858, and
in 1860 he was united in marriage, at Des Moines, with Miss Annie Seymour,
daughter of Austin and Martha (Miller) Seymour, and the ward of Judge M. D.
McHenry. The lady was reared in Kentucky and removed to Des Moines in 1855.
Eight children were born of their union, three sons and five daughters, three of
whom are living, viz.: George S.; Lizzie K., deceased; Mildred; Charles W.;
Herbert S.; Annie Belle; Sarah M., deceased; and one who died unnamed.

   Mr. Redhead held a membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church, to which his
widow also belongs. He belonged to the Masonic fraternity and attained to the
Scottish rite degree. In politics he was a Democrat until 1861, when he became a
Republican. He served in the Legislature of Iowa one term; also was Supervisor
of the-county and a member of the City Council and School Board, serving in
those positions for many years. He was identified with nearly all the large
enterprises that have been established in Des Moines. As his record shows, his
life was a very busy one. Possessed of a restless energy, cool determination and
great self-reliance, he fought the battle of life unaided except by his natural
intelligence, energy and integrity. That he succeeded beyond the ordinary
expectations is conceded, and in doing so he materially aided in the development
of the natural resources of Polk county, built up extensive business enterprises
and gave employment to a large number of men. The history of such a man serves
to encourage the young whom adversity has left at the foot of the ladder to
greater effort and fuller hope.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896


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