USA > Iowa > Boone County > History of Boone County, Iowa, Volume I > Part 37
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Mr. Reynolds in 1892 organized the Boone Electric Street Rail- way & Light Company with a capital of $200,000. Bonds amounting to $75,000 were issued to take over the properties and rebuild them. A new electric plant, a model for its day, was erected, lighting lines extended, street railway electrified, and all went into operation in the summer and fall of 1893. In 1901 Mr. Reynolds built a suburban line from the courthouse to Shepardtown, west of the city, and later extended this to the Boone viaduct. In 1902 he built the central heating system operated in connection with the electric plant, by which the business district and a part of the residence district of the city is heated. He had other plans for the extension of his properties when death overtook him July 31, 1903.
John Reynolds, son of L. W., succeeded him as president and manager of the companies and properties. His management was
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HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY
efficient and successful, but now it was found again that the system his father had built up had been outgrown by the growing city. In 1910 he secured new franchises and had begun to rebuild the prop- erties when the present owners of the properties came upon the scene, and completed the purchase of the same.
Col. William G. Dows, Isaac B. Smith and John A. Reed, of Cedar Rapids, lowa, acquired these properties in 1911, and operated the same under name of Boone Electric Company, until September 1, 1912, when the same was taken over by lowa Railway & Light Company, a company organized by them, which also acquired the electric properties and public utilities of numerous other lowa cities and towns. Their policy has been to build up their properties. At Boone, the powerhouse was entirely abandoned and a new power- house with new machinery was installed, the lighting lines renewed and extended, the street railway improved and new equipment added. This company owns and operates the Cedar Rapids & Iowa City Railway running between Cedar Rapids and lowa City and Cedar Rapids and Mt. Vernon, the street railways at Boone, Marshalltown, Tama and Toledo, heating properties in Cedar Rapids, Boone, Marion and Perry, the gas plant in Marshalltown ; but their growing field is in the manufacture and sale and distribution of electricity for light and power. At Cedar Rapids, Marshalltown, Boone, Perry and Nevada they operate electric power plants and by a system of transmission lines reaching out from these plants light the cities and towns and furnish power for the industries for many cities and towns through the central portion of the state.
From the Boone plant electricity is transmitted for lighting and power purposes to Madrid, Slater, Sheldahl, Woodward, Bouton and connected for the operation of their plant in the City of Perry. In all the cities and towns in which this company is operating prac- tically all of the wheels of industry are turned with the power supplied by them.
So it will be seen that from the small start that Louis Goeppinger (still living) made thirty years ago the Boone Electric System has become not only large enough to meet the future needs of the city for years to come, but is built to supply the surrounding cities and towns. As this article is being written, word comes that Jefferson, county seat of Greene County, and a number of towns of that county will be supplied with electric current from these plants of lowa Railway & Light Company over high voltage lines.
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This all means that we are in a new era so far as electricity is concerned, and Boone has taken the same prompt place in the advancement within this era as our enterprizing townsmen took in 1885.
However, in these days of highly developed efficiency, manage- ment and service, history must record the pioneers in the electric lighting and street railway field in the city. The name of L. W. Reynolds will always be remembered in connection with these days of the early development of these enterprises. For many years S. T. Stanfield was secretary of his companies and actively engaged in their management; around here are also those who helped in their way to make these public enterprises a success. Looking forward it would seem that further advances were impossible, but who knows but that the future holds as much as did the past, covered by this article.
CHAPTER XXXVI
BOONESBORO THE COUNTY SEAT
The reader has been familiarized up to this point with the acts of those in authority leading to the locating of the county seat and the naming of it Boonesboro. A former chapter gives the details of this important event. The province of this chapter is to portray, in a general way, how the town was settled, by whom, the first habita- tions, business places, courtrooms, hotel, church, school, etc.
As will be remembered, the Town of Boonesboro was laid out early in the summer of 1851, and almost immediately thereafter Wesley C. Hull erected a log house, the first building put up in the county seat town. This crude and primitive structure was built on a lot just east of the public square and for some time served the varied purposes of a home for its proprietor, boarding house or tavern, business house, postoffice, courthouse, school and church. And after the old building was removed, the site upon which it stood served for many years as a location for local hostelries, chief among which were the Parker House and its successor, the Occidental Hotel. To Wesley C. Hull is given the distinction of being Boones boro's first inhabitant, but his advent was probably coexistant with the coming of S. B. McCall, John Houser, J. A. McFarland, William Carroll, Dr. J. F. Rice, Dr. D. S. Holton and Wesley Carroll.
Boonesboro's growth the first two or three years was practically a negligible quantity, as no business concern is recorded as coming into existence until 1854. In the month of December of that year, J. A. McFarland established the first mercantile house, opening a general stock of goods in a small building east of the present court- house square. Mr. McFarland, even for those carly days, when the county was sparsely settled and money scarce, carried a large stock of goods, and as the town grew he prospered. He was the pioneer merchant of Boonesboro, became successful in his undertakings and was a powerful and consistent factor in building Boonesboro, and later, its successful rival, Boone. He became a banker, and in 1873
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built the most pretentious business structure for that day in Boone, still standing on the northwest corner of Eighth and Keeler Streets, and used for banking purposes until early in the year 1914, when it was vacated by the Boone Security Trust and Savings Bank to take up quarters in its new $60,000 home on the opposite corner.
By the year 1854 Boonesboro had grown to a hamlet of eleven log houses and two of frame. The first frame building was put up by J. A. McFarland in 1853 ; the second structure of like material was built by C. Beal in the fall of 1854, and the third by John Houser, who, ostensibly having the means and also the desire to outshine his neighbors, built a frame structure in the winter of 1854-55, the size and architectural design of which made him the envy of all beholders. Unfortunately, the Houser effort, soon after completion, was destroyed by fire during the absence of its owner, but being heavily insured, it is surmised the loss was only regretted by those having no interest in the property other than that of local pride in the growth of the embryo city. Mr. Houser retired from Boonesboro after the incident to take up the threads of a future career in the farther western country.
The spring of 1855 found Boonesboro active and growing. By this time there were eighteen families living here, a number of whose names follow : J. A. McFarland, S. B. McCall, John A. Hull, Wesley Carroll, William Carroll, C. J. McFarland, A. L. Speer, Dr. L. J. Royster, Elisha Bowman, C. T. Large, E. L. Hinton, James W. Black and L. Regan. Before the end of the year George W. Crooks and his widowed mother moved into town from the farm and Mr. Crooks remembers there were then about three hundred inhabitants in Boonesboro. John A. McFarland had a general store; John Houser a hotel and store; William Carroll had ready-made clothing and notions; Shallum Thomas, a general store and afterwards prac- ticed law; R. J. Shannon had the largest stock of goods of any man in town, which he installed in a building erected by himself in 1854. Thomas Claflin was also one of the merchants in the latter part of 1855. John McCarty dealt in stoves and tinware in a little frame building, the second story of which soon became the first Odd Fellows' temple in Boone County. William Bell was the village blacksmith, and one Newhouse ran a diminutive sawmill, built in 1854. He continued in the business about five years and then sold the mill to Doctor Rice. James W. Black was long in the trade at Boonesboro and then became a merchant at Boone, later applying his energies to the buying and selling of live stock.
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The first schoolhouse was built of logs and stood on the site of the old Fifth ward school building. C. W. Hamilton presided over this primitive institution of learning. The building was used for many purposes. Church societies, then in their infancy, held religious meetings within its walls. It was here that Reverend Mont- gomery, a Methodist circuit rider, and afterwards county judge, preached the Word to the spiritually famishing, and in the old schoolroom Judge C. J. McFarland, noted for his erudition, legal acumen and eccentricities, held the early courts of the fifth judicial district, of which Boone County was then a part.
The original Town of Boonesboro lay within the confines of the northwest quarter of Section 29, Township 84, Range 26, and con- sisted of a public square, devoted to courthouse purposes; twenty- four blocks of eight lots cach, four streets and five alleys. The streets were sixty feet wide. Several additions were laid out, the most noteworthy of which was the one of 1865, when the railroad was completed and Boone sprang into existence. The object of its proprietor was evidently to extend Boonesboro in the direction of the depot, far away from the old town, and thus bring the two places together, to the advantage of the county seat. But the effort "died a-bornin'." The new town ( Montana) grew apace, while Boones- boro and Capp's Addition, despite every effort, took a retrograde movement and at last, meeting and recognizing the inevitable, acknowledged defeat. Extensive and fatuous building operations ceased and soon Montana, now the City of Boone, was in full sway and the county seat, as a separate entity and controlling municipal factor, lost its identity in that of its rival and successful competitor.
BOONESBORO INCORPORATED
Boonesboro remained a part of the township in which it is situ- ated, for governmental purposes, until June 4, 1865, when it was incorporated. An election was held soon thereafter and the follow- ing officers were elected : Mayor, John A. Hull; recorder, Samuel B. McCall; aldermen, Charles Schleiter, D. C. Ketchum, Walter Carpenter.
In November, 1865, the town council of Boonesboro, met and adopted a seal and described the boundaries of the municipality. At this time the population was about two thousand and the community had prospered and continued so to do, even up to the year 1869, not- withstanding the serious blow sustained in losing the railroad depot
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and having an active and strenuous competitor right at her door. The county seat was in for another black eye, however, when, in 1866, Montana ( Boone) was given a postoffice, named Boone Station. Not satisfied with this, the new town vainly attempted to wrest from the county seat its temple of justice, by defeating at the polls in the fall of 1865 a proposition to build a new courthouse. In the summer of 1914, Boone's ambition in this direction again was thwarted by residents of the locality in which the old town is located, when they successfully retarded the construction of a new courthouse, sought to be located in another place from its present site, by having a tem- porary injunction allowed, enjoining the board of supervisors from issuing $200,000 in bonds, to be expended on a site and new court- house building.
THE CITY OF BOONE
The City of Boone was laid out by John I. Blair, March 4, 1865, and named Montana. Blair was the chief factor in the building of the first railroad into Boone, which is now known as the Chicago & Northwestern, and when he died a quarter of a century ago, he left an estate estimated to be worth $40,000,000. The original site of the town was located in the north part of Section 21, Township 84. An auction sale of lots took place soon thereafter. But all of this occurred before the railroad was finished and operating into the place. As an inducement to purchasers of lots it was advertised by Blair that a depot would be located in the proposed town, that the latter would be made a division point, the erection of a roundhouse was assured and that shops of the company and the general offices would be established here. Relying upon these promises many per- sons assembled at the place chosen for the purpose on the 29th day of March, 1865, and bought fifty lots, at prices ranging from $50 to $500 cach.
At the time Boone was laid out one house stood within its con- fines. This had been built by a Mr. Keeler in 1856, and was a two-story frame affair, put up for a tavern, and stood on Story Street. a short distance south of the railroad. The building was removed to another location soon after the first sale of lots and became the St. James Hotel, "mine host" being Capt. Samuel Crozier. Not long afterward a building was erected opposite the St. James for . hotel purposes by C. E. Phipps and was named the Eagle House. During this season of 1865, over one hundred houses, most of them
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CITY OF MONTANA, NOW BOONE
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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of a temporary character, were built, designed for both business and residence purposes. In 1866, building increased over the former years by at least one hundred per cent and in 1867 the number of houses erected of all kinds exceeded the efforts of the two first years.
Andrew Downing, a native of Illinois, was one of the first pur- chasers of lots in the new town. Desiring to build on his lot, which is situated on Story Street and south of Eighth, he was compelled to haul his lumber and other heavy material from Nevada by teams, as the railroad was not yet in operation at this place. He had the building under way by the last of May and on the first day of Sep- tember, 1865, Mr. Downing opened in this, the first building erected in the town after it had been laid out, a stock of groceries and other necessaries, and thus became the premier merchant of the future City of Boone. The building in which he began business was a two-story frame, with ground dimensions of 20x34 feet. The second story was occupied as a residence. In March, 1866, the new town was successful, after much difficulty and vexation of spirit, in pro- curing a postoffice. Mr. Downing received the appointment as postmaster and kept the office in his store. The further history of the Boone postoffice is treated elsewhere. However, it should be here stated that the department at Washington named the first post- office here Booneville. This was subsequently changed to Montana and finally to Boone.
Henry Hile put up the second house in Boone, a frame structure. which stood on the corner of Eighth and Allen streets. In this building Mr. Hile began a general mercantile business and continued many years. About the year 1893, Otto Hile, a son of this pioneer merchant, removed the little old frame from the lot and erected in its stead a modern three-story brick building, the two upper floors of which are given over to the Boone branch of the Des Moines Knitting Mills.
Before the expiration of the year 1865 Louis Burgess built a two-story frame structure on the corner of Eighth and Story streets, which he stocked with a varied selection of dry goods. After serving its purpose long and well the old frame gave way to the present large brick business and office building known as the Mason Block.
A business building was erected on the corner of Story and Seventh streets in the same year of Boone's birth by A. Robinson. Here was probably the first boot and shoe store, as such, in the town. The house was subsequently moved to the corner of Eighth and Keeler streets and serves as a dwelling and business place. H.
HISTORY OF BOONE COUNTY
Robinson, when the town was started, also built a house on Story Street, and here began the clothing business of the place. About this time A. J. Roberts erected a building on the lot where the old City Bank stood and engaged as a retail grocer; J. B. Crafts was another one to build this first year; Reynolds Brothers opened a stock of boots and shoes on the ground floor of the building and in the second story was a photograph gallery. During all this time many residences had gone up in different parts of the town, which gave to Messrs. Blair, Holcomb, Beal, Keeler and other proprietors of the land much comfort and financial gain. Those taking chances in leaving their Eastern homes and building a new town and making an anchorage for themselves and families were greatly encouraged by the outlook. Boone was coming on apace, and a pretty swift one at that, so that all who were interested were gratified and induced to go on with the venture.
The first building in Boone put to the uses of a school was erected by David Lutz in 1865, on Seventh Street. The first floor was converted into a schoolroom and the second served for living rooms. Another important feature of the year 1865 pertinent to this history is the fact that before the year had waned and passed away, religious services were held in the new town under some cottonwood trees that stood in the front of the St. James Hotel. Reverend Snodgrass, who figures in the history of the Methodist Church of Boonesboro, now known as the Marion Street Methodist Church, preached to a mixed congregation and was the first person to deliver a sermon in Boone. In December of that memorable year the Methodist Church was organized by Presiding Elder D. Larmont. During the month of March, 1867, the Presbyterian Church was organized and about the same time the Baptists effected an organization.
In the years 1866 and 1867 building operations were continuous and the place showed wonderful activity in every line of endeavor. Over three hundred buildings dotted the landscape. Early in the year 1867 the Metropolitan Hall Building was erected on the corner of Eighth and Story, in which the first bank in Boone was opened by A. K. Wells; and the Goeppingers built their large brick business block and harness factory on Story Street, still standing as a monu- ment to the skill and honesty of the contractors of the time. The roundhouse promised by the railroad company was built this year and stood until the summer of 1914, when it was torn down, having been condemned and discarded some years ago. A thirty-eight stall
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roundhouse has been in use by the company ever since the old onc became useless.
Men of the professions were soon attracted to Boone. Among the first were Bittenger & Hudson, lawyers, and Dr. L. J. Alleman, physician. To further particularize in this regard would be but to make repetitions, as both the legal and medical professions are treated in chapters of their own.
INCORPORATED AS MONTANA
The new town up to the time of its incorporation was known as Boone, the "ville," as a tail to the name, not being used. Early in the year 1866, there being some fifteen hundred inhabitants, most if not all of whom were loval and ambitious for their town, began to take steps looking toward incorporation, and on the 7th day of May, 1866, their desires were gratified, as the following excerpts from the records of the city clerk show :
Your petitioners, qualified voters and residents of the territory to be embraced in the proposed incorporation, the plat of which is hereunto annexed, would pray the honorable court to grant them incorporation for the same, as a body politic, to be named Montana, lowa, which embraces all that tract of land known and designated as "The Town of Boone, Iowa," being situated in Boone County, Iowa.
The west part of the northwest quarter of Section 27; the north part of Section 28, and the south part of Section 21, in Township 84, Range 26, west of the fifth principal meridian. And we name Bit- tinger & Hudson as our agents, to act for us before the court and elsewhere, in reference to this petition for incorporation. William H. Gallup, James G. Crozer, Jacob H. Lockwood, William Groner, A. B. Holcomb, Levi Norton, R. D. Coldren, George A. Lowe, E. G. Fracker, Jacob Snell, W. C. Martens, John A. Cotton, L. W. Cook, L. H. Pepper, J. P. Drabeck, A. J. Roberts, E. B. Cook, J. W. Grosh, C. E. Phipps, J. E. Diffenbacker, J. M. Diffenbacker, T. J. McChesney, J. Reece, J. W. Reece, A. M. Gould, H. C. Lewis, Mike Flattery, J. B. Crafts, G. Harris, J. S. Gregory, W. D. Moore, N. Whitehead, N. J. Meyers, John Meakin, C. T. Culver, R. C. Rocke, H. Burlingame, William H. Fuller, E. C. Lawrence, Henry Hile, John McFarland, S. Hills, J. Shelters, L. Young, W. C. Dillon, E. Reuter, I. B. Peck, L. D. Babcock, Daniel Crafts, Michael Sod- wiski, H. P. Burleigh, Ira Price, H. W. Kistner, F. C. Hill, A. H. Ingersoll, C. E. Ripley, J. H. Adams, J. C. McChesney, George
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Holmes, Samuel Crozer, J. S. Walters, Sol Kuh, J. T. Smith, W. H. Munger, E. Newton. V. W. Sawyer, G. W. Heugh, Perry Brocken, Anthony Kopitsky, Edward Carlton, Martin Daylin, C. C. Lambert, Thomas Gerrard, David Lutz, Benton Post, E. C. Whiting, G. W. Soverling, Thomas Conners, W. A. Aker, Thomas Fate, John Ack- ley, James L. Seber, Philip J. Culp, G. A. Williams, H. F. Pratt, George Bates, E. C. Gould, L. Burgess, B. Hardcastle, H. Borigo, L. Ford, John Digby, J. D. Evans, H. Hudson, G. L. Bittenger, W. T. Tripp, G. S. Eddy, H. Weaver.
STATE OF IOWA,
BOONE COUNTY. 1 - SS.
In County Court, Boone County, Jowa, May 7, 1866.
Having heard the within petition for incorporation, I hereby order that the same be granted according to the requirements of said petition.
M. K. RAMSEY, County Judge.
Filed 22d of February, 1866. Time set for hearing, the first Monday in May, 1866.
M. K. RAMSEY, County Judge.
Filing fees, $1.50.
Filed for record May 21, 1866, at 4 o'clock P. M. Recorded in Village Record Book No. "B," pages 501 and 502.
A. C. LOWRY,
Fees $2.25 paid.
Recorder Boone County, Lowca.
STATE OF IOWA,
BOONE COUNTY, F SS.
1. A. C. Lowry, recorder of Boone County, lowa, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of the petition of incorpora- tion for the Town of Montana, Iowa, as the same appears of record in Book No. B, Village Record, pages 501 and 502, of Boone County Records.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of June, 1866. A. C. LOWRY,
Recorder of Deeds, Boone County, Iowa.
An election was then held to fill the various offices prescribed by law, with the following result: For mayor, Henry Hudson; treasurer, W. H. Gallup; recorder, Andrew Downing; marshal, A. Geer; trustees, W. D. Hambel, C. T. Culver, A. J. Roberts, C. T. Isham, S. K. Dey.
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Boone, or Montana as it here should be called, continued to grow and prosper. By the year 1868 the population had increased to 2,000 and the desire for greater privileges and a more honored place in the subdivisions of the state gave rise to a movement for an elec- tion to test the views and desires of the electorate of Montana as to abandoning the charter and seeking the position of a city of the second class. In this relation the records of the city clerk's office display the following :
Montana, January 11, 1868.
Council met at mayor's office. Present-A. Downing, mayor ; L. Burgess, S. Burlingame, T. J. Goodykoontz, D. L. Smith, B. Wilmot, councilmen.
A petition signed by O. Sturtevant, D. F. Goodykoontz, A. A. Budd and fifty others, asking for an election on the question of abandoning the charter, with a view to become an incorporated city of the second class, was read. On motion the prayer of the aforesaid petition was granted and an election ordered. Yeas Burgess, Burlingame, Smith, Wilmot and Goodykoontz. Nays- none.
On motion of D. L. Smith, the following preamble and resolu- tion was adopted :
Whereas, The incorporated Town of Montana has a population of 2,000 inhabitants, and a petition has been presented signed by fifty legal voters asking for an election upon the question of abandoning the charter with a view and for the purpose of becoming an incorporated city of the second class. Therefore be it
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