History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 74

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 574

USA > Iowa > Buchanan County > History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 74

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H. E. Palmer, egg packer, reports about two hundred thousand dozen eggs bought during the year. Packery on Walnut street, one square above Mott.

A. J. BARNHART AND SON'S CREAMERY.

This establishment was not started until May, 1880, and was regarded as an experiment, both by the proprie- tors and by the farmers of whom they bought cream.

The theory on which the creamery system is based is, that when the cream is taken directly from the milk, carefully manufactured in our establishment, furnished with all the facilities for maintaining the proper uniform temperature and other necessary conditions, the product will be so much more uniform in quality and color than if made in small lots in the farmer's home; that it will bring so much better price as to enable the creamery to pay more for the cream than the farmer could obtain for the butter he would make from it. It is also claimed that the butter can be made more economically on a

large scale. Some farmers doubted this theory, and re- fused to sell their cream ; but the system proved, on the whole, so satisfactory, that the business increased rapidly toward the close of the season.

The modus operandi is substantially as follows: The creamery lends to farmers tin cans two feet ten inches long and about eight or ten inches in diameter, capable of holding about thirty-three pounds of milk. A slit in the side of the can, near the top, about six inches long, graduated in inches and covered with glass, shows the amount of cream in inches. The cans are to be floated in cold water and are so proportioned that an inch of cream will make, on an average, a pound of butter. Teams are sent daily from the creamery to collect the cream, and Mr. Barnhart employed six wagons last sea- son. The . price paid for cream varies with the price of butter, and last summer averaged sixteen cents to a pound of butter. The churn used held twelve barrels and was run by horse power. During the present season Messrs. Barnhart & Son used two such churns and a power worker, run by a steam engine. They also run eleven teams, and expect to make twelve hundred pounds of butter a day instead of five hundred as last season. Work was suspended November of last year but will be continuous during the coming season.

NEWSPAPERS.

Independence has four weekly newspapers, as follows :

Buchanan County Bulletin, edited by William Toman, proprietor; office in Hageman's building; politics, Re- publican.

The Independence Conservative (Democratic), office in Baum's building, No. 31 Main street ; W. Barnhart, publisher ; L. W. Goen, acting editor.

The National Advocate (Greenbacker), M. S. Hitch- cock, editor and proprietor.

Independence Courier (German), recently established ; H. Hoffmann, editor and proprietor.

LIVE STOCK FEEDING AND BUYING.

William A. Jones, hog buyer, has been engaged in this business over twenty years, and has probably bought more hogs than any other man in the county. During the past year he has bought and shipped twenty-one thousand hogs. Yard near the river, on Church street.

Edwin Cobb, one of the oldest residents of Indepen- dence, is well known as a large cattle feeder. He has a large farm, lying mostly just beyond the western boun- dary of the city and well furnished with barns, sheds and other conveniences. He usually has on hand about two hundred head of cattle, is a shrewd manager and hard worker, and has become wealthy in his business.

INDEPENDENCE GUARDS.

This organization, known officially as company H, Fourth regiment lowa National guard, was organized July, 1877, and has about fifty members. The company is well drilled and is armed with Springfield rifles. The officers are-H. W. Holman, captain; P. A. Sutkamp, first lieutenant; Frederick Hopkins, second lieutenant. The armory is in the second story of the Caffall block, southeast corner Main and Walnut streets.

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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, IOWA.

SECRET SOCIETIES.

ANCIENT FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS.

Independence Lodge No. 87-George B. Warne, wor- thy master; W. S. Boggs, senior warden ; Rufus Brewer, junior warden ; W. R. Kenyon, treasurer; D. S. Deering, secretary.

Aholiab Chapter No. 21-J. H. Plane, high priest; D. S. Deering, king; C. M. Durham, scribe; W. R. Kenyon, treasurer; Rufus Brewer, secretary.

Kenneth Commandery Knights Templar No. 32-W. G. Donnan, eminent commander; James A. Poor, gen- eralissimo; C. M. Durham, captain general : Rufus Brewer, treasurer; D. S. Deering, recorder.

INDEPENDENT ORDER OF ODD FELLOWS.

Lodge No. 142-Z. Stout, noble grand; William Wood; vice grand; A. H. Fonda, secretary; J. Wiley, treasurer; T. B. Kemp, chaplain.

ANCIENT ORDER UNITED WORKMEN.

Evergreen Lodge, No. 24-R. B. Fiester, P. M. W .; W. E. Kellogg, M. W .; Joseph Evers, foreman; John Smith, overseer; W. P. McGuire, guide: D. B. Sanford, recorder; E. S. Wilcox, financier; J. J. Travis, receiver ; J. V. Rice, inside watchman; E. E. Backus, outside watchman.

KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS.

Crescent Lodge No. 46-J. A. Vincent, C. C .; Noyes Appleman, prelate; G. P. Hopkins, M. of E .; S. S. Toman, V. C .; C. A. Gilliam, M. of R. S .; David Don- nan, M. of F .; W. Evers, M. at arms. The lodge was organized May, 1879, and has forty-nine members. There are also endowment and insurance ranks.

PHYSICIANS.

Among the early physicians was Dr. Lovejoy, who was the pioneer, coming in the early part of 1847, and died here in 1848. We could learn nothing of his early his- tory.

Dr. R. W. Wright became a settler here in 1851, re- maining until 1860, when he went to Missouri. He, while here, was in the full practice of his profession, and was an active, energetic business man. He is now in California, having gone there for the health of his wife.

Dr. George B. Parsons came here in 1854, and entered upon the practice of his profession. He gradu- ated from the Medical Department of Yale university about 1852. He practiced his profession in Connecti- cut, his native State, for a short time before coming west. While here he also kept a drug store in connec- tion with his practice. At the breaking out of the late war he was among the first to enlist in the service of his country. He was a captain while in the war. When the war closed he returned to the city of Independence, but remained here but a short time. He is now in Nebraska. He has been twice married, his last wife being the daughter of the late Henry Edgecomb.

Dr. Joseph B. Powell settled here in the spring of 1852. He devoted his whole attention to the practice of his profession, and was an experienced practitioner. He was a graduate of a medical college in Ohio. He came from Reedsburgh, Ohio, to this county. He

bought a farm about one mile northeast of the city of Independence, where, in 1855, he died.

Dr. J. A. Ward settled here in 1854, and remained for some ten years. He is now in Fairbank village practic- ing his profession and keeping a drug store. A further and more complete sketch will be found of him among the biographies of Fairbank township.

The present physicians located at Independence are as follows:

Dr. George Warne settled here on the twenty-ninth day of May, 1856. He commenced the practice of medicine in Wisconsin, and continued in practice there for nine years. He read medicine with Professor George H. Richards at St. Charles, Iowa; attended a course of lectures at LaPorte, Indiana, in 1845-6; and in 1850 at- tended another course at Keokuk, where he graduated and received a diploma. The doctor was the originator of the Cedar Valley Medical society, and was its first president. He materially assisted in forming the Buchanan County Medical society; is a member of the Iowa State Medical society, and one of its pioneers; is connected with the American National Medical associa- tion, and was in 1880 a delegate to their convention at New York city. He has been a member of our city council quite a number of times, as he is now, taking a lively interest in the municipal matters. The doctor is a man of original thought and marked ability; a kind, true friend. He is a native of New York, born there August 25, 1821; has been twice married, and has but one child, George B. Warne, who is the present county auditor.

Dr. H. C. Markham commenced the study of medi- cine with George W. Jenkins, in 1856, at Kilbourn city, Wisconsin; attended the medical department of the University of New York, graduating therefrom, and receiving his diploma in 1859. He then entered upon the practice of his profession in the very place where he had commenced its study; remaining there until after the breaking out of our late war, when, in 1862, he went into the service as a surgeon. He remained in the service for two and a half years, the most of that time in charge of Post hospital,.at Norfolk, Virginia. In 1865 he came to Buchanan county, locating at Winthrop, but in the spring of 1878, moved to Independence, where he is in active practice. He is examining surgeon for pensions, and local surgeon for Illinois Central rail- road and the B. C. R. & N. railroad, at Independence. He was born in Mexico, Oswego county, New York, in 1838. He is married and has two children.

Dr. Samuel G. Wilson settled here in July, 1873, going into partnership with the late John G. House, M. D., which continued up to the time of Dr. House's death, which occurred January 1, 1880. He prepared for and entered Lafayette college in eastern Pennsylva- nia, but left during the junior year and commenced the study of medicine with his brother, a physician and a resident of the State of Pennsylvania. He graduated at Jefferson Medical college, Pennsylvania, March 12, 1873, and at once started west. He pays special atten- tion to surgery. He married here in the spring of 1878,

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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, IOWA.

a daughter of A. H. Fonda, an old settler, and has one child-a girl. Dr. Wilson was born July 7, 1850, in Pennsylvania.

Dr. M. J. Powers studied medicine with Dr. W. H. Leonard, state medical director of Burnside's division. He studied and received his diploma at Berkshire Med- ical college, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, November, 1865. In 1867 he came west and settled at Parkersburgh, Butler county, Iowa, remaining there until October, 1880, when he moved to Independence and formed a partnership with Dr. S. G. Wilson. In 1869 attended lectures at Rush Medical college, Chicago, and in the winter of 1870 at Medical university, New York. He is married and has three children.

The above physicians are of the regular school.

Dr. J. Richards read medicine in Andrew county, Missouri, with E. W. Brown, M. D., a regular physician, in 1865-6. He commenced the practice of his profes- sion in the latter part of 1867, in the same state. In 1869 he migrated to Iowa, settling at Quasqueton. He left there and went to Indiana in 1870, and practiced there up to the fall of 1880, when he came back to Buchanan county, settling in Independence. He at- tended lectures at Ohio Eclectic Medical institute, grad- uating therefrom in the spring of 1871.

Mrs. A. E. Maltison, M. D., came to this city and commenced the practice of medicine in 1874. She graduated at Ohio Eclectic Medical college, and soon after commenced the practice of medicine in Belvidere, Illinois. She is now in active practice in the city of Independence.

Dr. Willis A. Mellen, M. D., a native of New York, graduated at Hahnemann Medical college, Chicago, March 11, 1873. He commenced the practice of his profession at Sibley, lowa, soon after his graduation, remaining there until his removal to Independence, where he is now in active practice.

A little out of the order of time, we give the following sketches of the other Independence physicians:

Dr. Edward Brewer .- No other man has been so long and so prominently connected with the history of Bu- chanan county as the subject of this sketch. His early settlement here, his election to the office of clerk of the courts at the first organization of the county, and his continuance for twenty years in that and other civil offices (during which his medical practice was in a large degree suspended), have been already spoken of at suf- ficient length. In this brief sketch, therefore, we shall give only a few additional facts in regard to his domestic and professional history.

Edward Brewer was born August 17, 1815, in Fram- ingham, Massachusetts. He was the second of five children of Rufus and Mary (Nourse) Brewer. His father was, in Edward's early childhood, deputy sheriff of Middlesex county; but afterward, and for many years, cashier of a bank in Framingham. Edward's early life was spent in his native town, where he was prepared for admission to Harvard university, which institution he entered in 1830, at the age of fifteen years. He was graduated in 1834, and continued his

studies in the Medical department three years longer. Immediately after his graduation in medicine, he came to Milwaukee and commenced the practice of his pro- fession. In 1839, he went to Whitewater, where he spent a year and a half; and then removed to Exeter, Green county, where he remained two years. From the last-named place he came to Quasqueton; and, as else- where mentioned, was among the pioneers of the most primitive era of Buchanan county history. About 1867 he was induced to change his school of practice, from the study of books obtained through Dr. Gilbert, of Dubuque, and also from the effect upon himself of the Homeopathic treatment for chronic rheumatism, after the old-school remedies had failed to effect a cure.

Dr. Brewer was married in Quasqueton, April, 1846, to Mary Ann Hathaway, daughter of an early settler. They have had ten children, seven of whom are still living. Two died in infancy, and one after arriving at maturity. Of the four sons and three daughters now liv- ing, five are living in Independence, and two temporari- ly in Colorado. Notwithstanding his advancing age, and an unfortunate habit (which his many friends deep- ly deplore) of excessive indulgence in stimulants and narcotics, there is probably no physician in Indepen- dence, at the present time, who has a more extensive practice than Dr. Brewer.

Dr. Horatio Bryant was born in the year 1809, June 9th, in Plymouth county, Massachusetts, within seven miles of Plymouth Rock. He lived with his father, Mi- cha Bryant, till he was twelve years of age, when he com- menced to face the world alone, securing work wherever he could find it. When between seventeen and eighteen years of age, he undertook the task of going through college. In this pursuit he spent seven years, two of which he spent in Amherst college. He graduated in Union college in 1836. He at once commenced the study of medicine, and graduated in the same in New Haven, in the year 1838. He commenced practicing in Hampden county, Massachusetts, and about eighteen months afterward he was elected a member of the Mas- sachusetts Medical society, in the year 1841. After eight and a half years' practice in Hampden county, he attended a course of lectures in New York city, and returned to Plymouth county, Massachusetts, where he practiced seven years. In the fall of 1854, he came to lowa, locating in Independence, where he again en- gaged in the practice of medicine. He still continues, in spite of his seventy-two years, a practicing and con- sulting physician of high authority. Dr. Bryant was married at Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1836, to Miss Luthera Clark. Our venerable friend is a man who has such a contempt for anything savoring of flattery, that he will not permit us to say of him a part of the com- mendatory things which we might say without flattery.

Dr. H. H. Hunt was born in Baltimore, Maryland, July 7, 1823, made his home with his father (Rev. John N. Hunt, a minister of the Baptist Church), and attend- ed school till he was twenty-one years of age, when he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. John C. McKall, in Barnsville, Belmont county, Ohio, and con-

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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, IOWA.

tinued with him about four years. In the year 1843 he commenced the practice of medicine in Tuscarawas county, where he continued in practice till the fall of 1853, when he came to Independence. He practiced here till the year 1863, when he enlisted as a private in company H, Twenty-seventh Iowa volunteers. At the organization of the regiment he was appointed hospital stewart, which position he held about six months, when he was commissioned by Governor Kirkwood assistant surgeon of the Twenty-first Iowa volunteers, a position which he held till the close of the war ; when he was mustered out in the summer of 1865. Since his army life was over Dr. Hunt has been one of the leading physicians of Independence. His sound judgment and thorough knowledge of his profession, together with his wide experience as a practicioner, have given him a wide reputation throughout the county. Dr. Hunt wasmarried in Tuscarawas county, Ohio, in 1851, to Miss Almira Salter. They have had six children, four of whom are living. William P., the oldest, is engaged in the livery business in this city, twenty-seven years of age ; Abbie is married to James Raymond, and Mary C. to Sanford E. Frank, both of the city; H. H. jr., fourteen years of age, makes his home with his parents. Mrs. Hunt was a daughter of Aaron and Mary Salter, and was born on the Western Reserve, Summit county, Ohio, in 1831.

John G. House, M. D .- The subject of this brief memoir was of New England ancestry, both parents be- ing natives of Connecticut. He inherited the best traits of the New England character, and early laid the founda- tion of an eminently useful life on these solid virtues : industry, integrity and perseverance.

John Gates House, the son of John House and Sally Fuller House, was born in Cazenovia, Madison county, New York, on the twenty-sixth of April, 1816. His father removed in 1824, to Springville, Erie county, in the vicinity of the city of Buffalo. The remaining por- tion of his childhood and early youth were spent at home upon a farm, attending the common schools a part of each year.

In the autumn of 1833 he entered Springville academy, an excellent institution, which elevated the moral as well as literary character of its students, and of the society of the place. Spending nearly four years in this institution, Dr. House gratified, to a liberal extent, his strong love of study.

At the age of twenty-one years he commenced the study of medicine with Dr. Carlos Emmons, of Spring- ville, and spent one year in his office. He then went to Buffalo, where, for two years, he enjoyed the private in- structions of the eminent medical author, Dr. Austin Flint, then in practice in that city. With a thorough preparation seldom attained at that period, he next at- tended a course of lectures at Jefferson Medical college, Philadelphia, and another at Columbia college, Wash- ington, District of Columbia, where he graduated in 1841. On the sixth of July of the same year, he was married to Miss Julia A. Pratt, of Buffalo, a daughter of Pascal Pratt, one of the early settlers of that city.

Returning to Springville, he commenced practice with

his preceptor, Dr. Emmons, the partnership continuing fifteen years. He left Springville for St. Louis, hoping by a change of climate to benefit his family. At St. Louis he buried a son ; and, after a residence there of a year and a half, he returned to New York, remaining two years in the practice of his profession, first at Clar- ence, Erie county, and then at Buffalo ; from which city he removed to Independence, Iowa, on the first of May, 1861.

Here, the rank to which his ability, learning, and ex- perience entitled him was at once and fully recognized, and Dr. House enjoyed an enviable reputation as a medical practitioner and an honorable citizen. His rides were very extensive, his skill in surgery equalling his ex- cellence in the practice of medicine.

At the time of his death, January 1, 1880, he had been for nineteen years an influential and leading character of the town and county. He had been for eleven years a member of the Iowa Medical society, and presided at its meeting in 1875 -- was offered the presidency of the society for the next year, but declined to accept it. He had been also a trustee of the Hospital for the Insane at Independence, and secretary of the board since 1872, rendering valuable services to the institution as medical adviser. For several years he had served as examining physician for pensions.

Dr. House had been a member of the Baptist church for forty years, and had honored his profession by works. of charity and love. Serious minded to a degree bordering on melancholy, he was nevertheless a man of large heart and tender sympathies, ever ready to respond to the call of the suffering ; and the poor man never went uncom- forted from his door.

Mrs. House died in 1863. She had had four children, a daughter and three sons, two of whom are still living. In November, 1864, Dr. House married Miss Rachel C. Freeman, of Independence, by whom he had one child, a son, who bears his father's name, and who, we may de- voutedly hope, will inherit his father's virtues. He resides with his widowed mother in Independence, and is still in that golden morning time of life, so conscien- tiously and diligently improved by his honored father.

'This brief biography, which has been mainly drawn from memorial addresses of associates in his chosen pro- fession, cannot be more fittingly closed than in the following tribute from the address of Dr. A. Reynolds, of the Insane hospital, delivered before the Iowa State Medical society :

In his intercourse with the members of his profession, he was most courteous and open-hearted, always respecting their opinions, but ever ready to render a reason for the faith that was in him, and never sacrificing his patient, for the sake of agreeing with his counsel. Though conservative in his practice, and tenacious of his old land- marks, few men of his age kept so well up in the literature of his pro- fession ; were more willing to adopt the new, or let the dead past bury its dead.

For several years he had looked death calmly in the face, knowing he had an incurable malady, waiting patiently to go over to the ma- jority and solve the great mystery.

He lived like a true Christian, and in his dying hour gave evidence that his faith was well founded.

" The good die first,

And they whose hearts are dry as summer's dust Burn to the socket."

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HISTORY OF BUCHANAN COUNTY, IOWA.

SECRET SOCIETIES.

MASONIC HISTORY .*

Masonry has accompanied emigration, commerce, and civilization, in the march of progress throughout the world. It has left the record of its presence and opera- tive nature in the ancient architecture of Asia, afterwards in Africa, and more subsequently in more enlightened Europe. It survived all other institutions of many na- tions that are now known only in history. In its progres- sive steps it has flourished most where the people were the nearest free, and when the best culture of the age marked a higher degree of intellectual and moral development. When its operative character was gradually changed to the speculative form, it rose with the progress and refine- ment of western Europe, and, like other elevating insti- tutions, was ready to seek a wider field in the new world for further advancement in cultivating the science and practicing the art it had brought from the clime of the Orient.

It grew with the strength of the American colonies, and still more after their union as a nation. When the boundaries of our country became enlarged and the ex- pansion of political freedom included more millions of progressive men, the ratio of Masons to the whole pop- ulation increased more rapidly than ever before.

At the beginning of the present century, when the great west became prospectively the most important field on earth for settlement and enterprise, pioneer Masons mingled with the other founders of new communities and territories. Every new State added to the thirteen colo- nies gave to the world of Masonry another family of lodges and altars sustaining another parent grand lodge, in augmenting the power and skill of the American craft, in more systematic work, greater usefulness and wider benevolence. The progress of our country and of our order, within the period known by living Masons, already points to truths that will be realized in the new century, viz: that the valley of the Mississippi will be the richest portion of the most powerful nation in the world; and that the genius of Masonry, not forgetting the Orient, will then diffuse its brightest light from the land of the Occident.

The first Masonic lodge organized in the State of Iowa was at Burlington, under a dispensation granted by the grand master of Missouri, dated November 20, 1840, and on the eighth day of January, 1844, the grand lodge of Iowa was organized-there being at that time four subordinate lodges in the State, with a membership of one hundred and one. From that time to the present there has been a steady increase in the number of lodges and in membership, and such has been the progress of the order that, on the first day of May, 1880, there were in this State three hundred and sixty- three lodges, and eighteen thousand two hundred and seven members.

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History of Buchanan County, Iowa, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 74

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902 Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers Number of Pages: 574

Author: Williams bros., Cleveland, pub. [from old catalog]; Riddle, A. G. (Albert Gallatin), 1816-1902
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, Williams brothers
Number of Pages: 574