USA > Iowa > Carroll County > History of Carroll County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 17
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
powers refused to weaken as his bodily strength gave way and some of his best work was done after he was himself convinced that his days were num- bered and after his mind had acquiesced in the inevitable.
[Note-Edward, the only son of Mr. Hastings, is pastor at the present time of the Presbyterian church at Fort Dodge. Mrs. Hastings is still living and resides at Fort Dodge.]
November 1-At the general election the entire Democratic county ticket was elected as follows: Clerk, J. N. Powers; recorder, J. H. Brun- ning; county attorney, J. C. Engleman ; supervisors, J. B. Graham, J. W. Walsh. The Democratic majority on the state ticket was 635. A propo- sition for a bond issue of $40,000 to build a new courthouse was submitted and acquiesced in by the voters by the following vote: For a new court- house, 1,885; against a new courthouse, 944; or a majority in favor of the proposition of 941.
1887.
February 2-From the official proceedings of the Board of Supervisors :
"After due deliberation and consultation with J. C. Cochrane, architect, the board of supervisors, on motion, awarded the contract for the build- ing of the courthouse to R. S. Finkbine, for the sum of $37,766.
The following proposition from Mr. Finkbine was accepted :
"I hereby propose to furnish and set ashler in the basement of the court- house, and set the four vault doors (the county furnishing the same) for the sum of $120 in addition to the original contract price."
February 6-The last spike in the C. M. & St. P. was driven at a point four miles north of Mapleton.
March 6-City election, Carroll: Mayor, E. M. Parsons; recorder, F. A. Suydam; assessor, Henry Marnette; councilmen, I. M. Gilley, Peter Berger.
March 16-Died at his home at Dedham, aged 50 years, Capt. Wm. S. Winnett. Captain Winnett settled in Carroll county in 1865, opening a farm on Brushy Creek, where he resided until he moved to Dedham, a few years since. He was prominent in politics in the early days, and was the first "reformer" elected to the board of supervisors when the county was still in the hands of the early buccaneers. His activity was a strong in- fluence in ending the regime of plunder. Capt. Winnett served through the war as captain of C company of Kilpatric's famous Ninth Ohio cavalry. After his removal to Dedham he engaged in the mercantile business in which he met with reverses, and to this his early death was partly due. As county surveyor Captain Winnett laid out the cemetery at Carroll.
March 25-The first spade of earth for the excavation of the court house was thrown out.
April 2-Died, at the residence of the parish priest at Hillsdale, Rev. Father Wegmann. Father Wegmann was born in Prussia in 1844 and was educated for the priesthood in Germany. He came to Carroll county in
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1875 and first served as pastor at Mt. Carmel. He was placed in charge of the parish at Hillsdale in 1888. Father Wegmann's death was caused by a revolver wound arising from a premature explosion of the weapon.
April 11-The Carroll Driving Park association organized with the fol- lowing incorporators: J. R. Whitney, A. L. Wright, G. W. Wattles, V. Hinrichs, E. M. Parsons. Officers-President, A. W. Crawford; vice president, Chas. Neu; secretary, O. A. Kentner; treasurer, R. E. Coburn ; directors, C. T. Whitman, P. M. Guthrie, A. L. Wright, V. Hinrichs, M. Miller.
A block of ground of 64 acres just east of the Catholic cemetery has been bought by the association, 34 acres of which will be reserved for the track, and the other thirty sold. The price paid was $25 per acre.
May 18-Coon Rapids is for the first time in her history free from saloons, and is the only town in the county, large or small, of which the same may be said.
June 24-The new jail is completed and ready to be turned over to the county authorities.
August 3-Charles Aldrich is the first inmate. He was working on the farm of A. Zumback, near Glidden, and was discharged, when he went to Carroll and bought a bill of goods at a harness store which he had charged to his late employer. Aldrich was tried before Justice Drees for obtaining goods under false pretenses and bound over to the grand jury.
August 13-A union labor convention nominated a full county ticket, as follows: Representative, A. J. Baird; treasurer, J. S. Dickey ; auditor, F. M. Howard; sheriff, Sam Todd; superintendent of schools, S. L. Tip- ton; coroner, L. R. Stole; surveyor, W. F. Steigerwalt; supervisors, Philip Barnholz, H. T. Watson. The convention was a mass affair and but five townships-Carroll, Grant, Glidden, Kniest and Richland-were rep- resented by regularly chosen delegates. On the Richland delegation were three women, who were admitted to all of the privileges by a special vote.
August 23-The first meeting of the Carroll Driving Park association was a success financially and as a sporting event, Edgewood, in the 2.27 trot, established a track of 2.281/2.
The democratic county convention nominated the following ticket : Representative, O. Horton; treasurer, Peter Berger; sheriff, John W. Kennebeck; superintendent of schools, F. A. Suydam; coroner, J. J. Desh- ler ; surveyor, Anton Roush ; supervisors, V. Bruch, H. B. Hazelton.
September 12-In response to a general petition signed by citizens and property owners the council perfected arrangements with V. Hinrichs by which Carroll is to be lighted by electricity, the city to pay an annual rental of $350 for public lighting.
September 21-Died, Rev. John B. Fendrick, pastor St. Paul's Catholic church, after a term of sickness caused by a sun stroke a year ago. De .. ceased was born in Wastphalia, Prussia, and was 63 years of age. Father Fendrick was ordained after coming to America in 1852. In 1877 he was appointed to the pastorate of Mt. Carmel parish. On his return from a trip to Europe in 1879 he was delegated to serve the Arcadia parish, which
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
office he filled until the division of the parish at Carroll, when he was placed in charge of the German congregation.
September 22-The republican county convention nominated a ticket as follows: Representative, W. L. Culbertson ; auditor, F. M. Howard; treasurer, J. H. Dickey ; sheriff, Sam Todd; county superintendent, Henry Olerich ; supervisors, Peter Thein, Gotleib von Glan.
September 28-J. W. Lindsay, of Manning, was indicted by the grand jury for "having appeared in court as an attorney in violation of law." The court exonerated Lindsay on the ground that, not being admitted to the bar he was not a lawyer and consequently not amenable to the statute forbidding a peace officer to appear as an attorney-Lindsay being the town constable.
October 10-Died, Henry J. Gabel, superintendent of schools, at his home at Arcadia, aged 28. He was born in Le Claire, Scott county. After his graduation at Ames-he completed the four years' course in two years- he came to Carroll county in 1883 as teacher of the Arcadia schools. His death was the result of typhoid fever.
November 8-The entire democratic county ticket elected with ma- jorities ranging from 194 for Horton over Culbertson to 700 for Peter Berger for treasurer. A. J. Baird, union labor candidate for representa- tive, received 148 votes. Kennebeck's majority was 289; Kraus', 408; Suydam's, 585; democratic majority on the state ticket, 560.
November 16-County Superintendent Heires' annual report: Un- graded schools in the county, 128, teachers employed 232, number of school age, males 3,116, females 2,826-total 5,287; enrollment 5,287; value of school property, $109,425. The lowest salaries in the county are in Rich- land township, where women teachers were paid $17.54 per month.
November 28 .- The board of supervisors convened to confer with Arch- itect Cochran and make an inspection of the courthouse prior to its accep- tance from the contractor, R. S. Finkbine. The following action was taken. On the recommendation of the architect, and the board themselves being satisfied that the contractor had completed the courthouse according to con- tract, the same was on motion accepted, and the auditor instruced to draw warrant for balance due R. S. Finkbine, $7,584.65.
The county offices will be transferred to the new building at once.
The Carroll Herald (rep.), commenting on the new public building, all of the members of the board being democratic, says: "No action of theirs (the board's) is open to suspicion-they have kept within the limits of the original appropriation and the result of the supervision is one of the best buildings of the kind in the state and by all odds the cheapest."
The members of the board are : J. B. Graham, S. Bowman, J. D. Walsh. November 26-A dispatch from Atlantic announces the death of Charles L. Aumiller, widely known in Carroll as "Monkey Charley," a tranıp who for many years has returned periodically to the town and on these occasions is taken in by W. T. Minchen and given employment suitable to his condi- tion. Aumiller was a private in the 147th Pa. Infantry and contracted dis- eases from hardships and exposure in the service which gave his face an ex-
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
pression from which he took the name of "Monkey Charley." Aumiller was as honest as he was eccentric and peculiar and would accept nothing in charity. He was probably known to every man, woman and child in the county.
December 23-Judge Conner issued thirty-one injunctions against that number of Carroll county saloons, and four permits, held by wholesale houses, are by the same order revoked. Thus prohibition is extended to all parts of the county. The famous Fourth street of Carroll is under lock and key from end to end.
1888.
January 8-The board of supervisors refused to grant permits for the wholesale liquor business in the county.
January 15-A temperature of 40 below zero, marked by the thermom- eter at 4:30 A. M. Sunday of the date above written, is the lowest mark the mercury has reached so far as any record is known. The storm began on the 13th with heavy snow and wind. Friday the thermometer was 28 below and continued to fall until the low point was reached.
January 23-Died, A. E. Smith, at his home in Carroll, aged 47, of blood poisoning originating from a diseased tooth. He became a citizen of Car- roll county in 1869 and of late years was engaged in grain and lumber business.
March 5-The Carroll city election gives these results : Mayor, Frank M. Powers; recorder, James Thompson ; assessor, Henry Marnette; coun- cilmen, C. H. Heitz, John Nestle, J. C. Delaney.
March 14-The controversy arising in the division of the Catholic par- ish of Carroll, represented in the suit of Arts et al vs. Guthrie et al, is de- cided by the supreme court in favor of the plaintiff and judgment of $3,400 affirmed.
March 16-Died, Mrs. Julia A. Todd, at her home in Carroll, aged sev- enty years. Mrs. Todd with her husband, Jeremiah Todd, became a resi- dent of Carroll county in 1875, settling at Hillsdale, in Roselle township.
April 11-Died, Mrs. John L. Messersmith, of heart disease, aged thir- ty-five, fourteen years of which were spent in Carroll county.
April 14-Died, at his home in Templeton, W. A. Overmire, founder of the town of Templeton and former member of the board of supervisors, by suicide while temporarily insane from brooding over business reverses. Mr. Overmire was forty-three years of age and had resided in this county fifteen years.
May-Since the closing of the saloons in Carroll many holes-in-the-wall have sprung up from which drinks are dispensed to the full measure of the business done on Fourth street in its palmiest days. Engaged in this traf- fic are several shanties built on skids to which a team can be attached and the buildings transported from place to place as the needs of the owners require in dodging injunctions, which are of no value unless the fines in- flicted can be made a lien against property. Booze is also sold from stables and outbuildings and these depots are scattered all over town and are known
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only to the initiated. A profitable business is also done by boot-leggers, who carry their stock on their person and peddle it out in bottles or by the drink. An alley running north from Fifth street, in the business center of town, has been converted into a nesting place for blind-tigers. Drinks are dispensed at these places through a solid petition in which there is a small aperture closed by a wicket. The customer nominates the pizen desired and deposits the price for the same on a shelf in front of the wicket, where the silver is quickly converted into Dutch cocktails or rattle-snake by a sleight- of-hand that does not expose to sight the ministering angel behind the barri- cade. The city treasury is on the point of collapse from the loss of the revenues drawn from saloon licenses, and at the same time the liquor traf- fic, instead of being abolished, seems to have been many times augmented and its evils increased by the vicious hands into which it has fallen. The only thing necessary to get any kind of a drink desired (except pure beer and whiskey) is a thirst.
May 9-The Carroll city ordinance imposing a license on transient ped- dlers and merchants is set aside in a decision by Judge Conner in behalf of one T. C. Creed, an itinerant slop-shop dealer.
May 16-Two car loads of beer have been received at Carroll to be sold in the "original package."
May 23-The Rochester Loan & Trust company with $100,000 of paid up capital, organized at Rochester, N. H., with Sumner Wallace as presi- dent and G. W. Wattles as managing director, the western office of the com- pany to be established at Carroll.
June 21-Died, Warren J. Patterson of Bright's disease, aged 41 ; presi- dent of the Carroll County bank from 1882-1887.
July 18-Died, Elihu Hilles, aged 74, first settler of Washington town- ship.
August II-Died, at his home at Glidden, Benjamin Ferguson, aged 79 years; resident of Glidden township thirteen years.
August 20-Congressional convention of the Tenth district at Web- ster City nominated Johnathan Prentis Dolliver on the sixteenth ballot. J. P. Conner of Denison on the eleventh ballot received within four votes of the number necessary to nominate, and on another ballot, Major Holmes, the incumbent, was but one vote short of a nomination. B. I. Salinger of Carroll county was chairman of the convention.
August 22-Democratic county convention nominated-representative. Oliver Horton; auditor, F. W. Krause ; treasurer, W. Kennebeck ; recorder, J. H. Brunning ; county attorney, J. C. Engelman; supervisors, Samuel Bowman, G. von Glan.
September 19-Republican county convention nominated-clerk, O. G. Prill ; recorder, C. H. Heitz; county attorney, Geo. W. Paine; supervisors, James Mattison, Robt. Dixon.
October 10-Joint debate between J. P. Dolliver and Captain J. O. Yeo- mans, rival candidates for congress at the courthouse, being Dolliver's first appearance in Carroll and the manner in which he acquitted himself was superb. Captain Yeoman was strong, but no match for him.
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1441
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Presbyterian Church Church of God Baptist Church and Public Library St. Joseph's Catholic Church
St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church Episcopal Church Lutheran Church First M. E. Church
GROUP OF CARROLL CHURCHES
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HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY
November 5-General election, presidential vote in Carroll county : Cleveland, 2,052; Harrison, 1,593-Cleveland's majority, 459. Yeoman's majority, 476. Entire democratic county ticket elected, with the exception of C. H. Heitz, (rep.) whose majority for recorder is 156.
December 8-The preliminary trial of James Molseed of Vail for the murder of Wm. Hunter at Arcadia before Justice J. M. Drees results in holding the defendant to the grand jury under bonds of $5,000 for murder in the second degree. Molseed is a Crawford county constable and Hunter was a saloon keeper at Vail until ten days before the shooting, when, under a jail sentence for maintaining a nuisance, he closed his place and moved to Arcadia, where he resumed business as a saloon keeper. Molseed served papers of arrest on Hunter at Arcadia and Hunter agreed to accompany him to Denison to serve his sentence, when he asked and was given the privilege of saying good bye to his family. He failed to return as was agreed. Later Molseed discovered Hunter at the station. When the latter saw the officer he started to run and paid no attention to a command to halt. A shot fol- lowed, striking Hunter in the head and penetrating the brain.
1889.
February 26-The city council of Carroll passed an order exempting from taxation the building proposed to be erected for the Letts-Fletcher Grocery company for a term of five years.
March 4-F. M. Powers elected mayor of Carroll without opposition ; as were James Thompson, recorder ; J. P. Hess, treasurer ; J. C. Delaney, R. E. Coburn, Geo. Selzer, councilmen.
March 6-James Molseed, after trial at Jefferson on a change of venue from Carroll county, is acquitted.
May 1-J. B. Hungerford becomes postmaster at Carroll, succeeding C. C. Colclo.
May 15-The county jail has housed no prisoners since the first of the year.
May 22-Carroll school district bonded indebtedness, $13,500; Carroll municipal bonded debt $13,500-total $27,000. Cash on hand (consoli- dated) $5,764.75. Net indebtedness (consolidated) $21,235.25.
May 29-E. M. Betzer removes from Carroll to Spirit Lake, where he will engage in the practice of law.
July 2-Died, at Coon Rapids, aged 81 years, Wm. Minnich, founder of the original town of Coon Rapids in 1856.
July 10-The Letts-Fletcher Wholesale Grocery company at Carroll consigned its first bill of goods.
September 5-Died, at Glidden, Samuel Campbell, aged 63 years ; settled in Glidden township on a farm in 1869. He was a charter member of N. P. Wright Post, 261, G. A. R.
September 16-Wm. Eike was shot and mortally wounded by M. H. Ish, railroad agent at Halbur. A young fellow by the name of Meisel sought a quarrel with Ish in the afternoon and threatened him with a shot Vol. 1-10
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gun and continued to menace him for several hours. Ish took refuge in the station and locked and barred the door. The assailant went away after dark but Ish became alarmed at a noise near the platform and shot his revolver in the direction from which the sound came. The shot struck Eike in the middle of the forehead, and he died at once. The two were warm friends. Eike was at the station looking after cars in which he was to ship grain the next day.
September 11-The democratic county convention nominated-repre- sentative, O. Horton; auditor, F. W. Krause; treasurer, J. C. Delaney ; sheriff, J. M. Kennebeck; superintendent of schools, C. C. Colclo; sur- veyor, Anton Brush ; coroner, J. J. Deshler ; supervisors, J. D. Walsh, Wm. Morgan.
October 2-A cause celebre known as the Upton-Hoyt case is settled by compromise. M. A. Hoyt was first sued by the Upton Manufacturing Co. in 1876. The amount originally sued for was $3,000, but in the course of the litigation that amount was many times exceeded by the costs. Hoyt was invariably defeated on trial but by the terms of the final compromise the Uptons pay the costs of the pending suit and dismiss all claims.
October 2-The senatorial convention for the nomination of a senator in the counties of Carroll, Sac and Greene convened at Creston, and Z. A. Church of Jefferson was the choice of the delegates to succeed Hon. John K. Deal after a tenure by the latter of one term. The nomination was the result of a combination between Sac and Greene delegations considered by the republicans of Carroll county to be grossly unfair not only because of the undeserved and unjust slight to Senator Deal but for the further rea- son that Greene county was favored by Sac for a stated political consid- eration.
October 10-The democratic senatorial convention met at Carroll and placed in nomination Thomas Rich of Carroll county.
October 25-Died, at his home in Carroll of tuberculosis, Edwin J. Adams, at the time of his death of the Carroll Sentinel. Mr. Adams was at one time city editor of the Des Moines Register. He was a brilliant and popular newspaper man. Some years before his connection with the Sentinel Mr. Adams was connected with the Herald.
October 30-The republicans nominated the following county ticket : Representative, A. H. Brugemann; treasurer, H. M. Gabriel; auditor, W. H. Reed; sheriff, Thomas Davis; superintendent, Howard Shutes; cor- oner, Dr. Henry; supervisors, J. J. Graves, Dwight Noble.
November 5-On the state ticket Boies (democrat) receives a majority over Hutchinson (republican) of 1,083. The entire democratic county ticket is elected by majorities ranging from 882 for Horton to 1,056 for Colclo.
Z. A. Church (republican) for senator was defeated by Thomas Rich (democrat) by 488 votes. Sac gave Church a majority of 323; Greene, 642-total 965. Carroll county gave Rich a majority of 1,453.
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December 4-The work of enlarging and beautifying the Baptist church is completed and that congregation now possesses the best assem- bly room in Carroll.
December 22-Died at his home at Spirit Lake, John Silbaugh, aged 48 years. Mr. Silbaugh was an early settler of Carroll and served as sheriff after the removal of L. Bechler.
CHAPTER XI.
THE BEGINNING OF GERMAN SETTLEMENT IN 1867 AT MT. CARMEL-COLONI- ZATION PROJECT OF LAMBERT KNIEST-BUILDING OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC CHURCH AT MT. CARMEL-DIFFICULTIES OF THE EARLY DAYS-THE NEW CHURCH AND AFFILIATED UTILITIES AT MT. CARMEL-REV. JOSEPH KUEM- PER AND HIS RELATIONS TO THE CARROLL CHURCH AND CONNECTED INSTI- TUTIONS-ST. ANTHONY'S HOSPITAL-ST. ANGELE'S DOMESTIC SCIENCE SCIIOOL FOR GIRLS-ST. JOSEPH'S PARISH, CARROLL-MAPLE RIVER PARISH LATELY ESTABLISHED-CHRONOLOGY OF MT. CARMEL PARISH, ROSELLE PAR- ISH, WILLEY PARISH, BREDA PARISH-REV. B. A. SCHULTE'S WORK OF CHURCH AND PARISH BUILDING IN THE TOWNS ALONG THE MILWAUKEE RAILROAD IN SOUTHERN CARROLL COUNTY-TEMPLETON AND COON RAPIDS PARISHES ESTABLISHED IN 1884-ST. AUGUSTINE'S PARISH AT HALBUR.
The rural community of Carroll county is largely German or of German descent, and this is especially true of the western section, though the pressure is advancing and now but one tier of townships remains, the eastern row, that has not been essentially Germanized. This invasion has been of slow growth, widening out from a nucleus very small and very weak at the out- set. In Kniest township, where in the late sixties (1867), Lambert Kniest, from whom the township takes its name, acquired much of the land and be- came the author of a colonizing project. Mr. Kniest was from Dubuque, in which county the Germans had already acquired a secure foothold and where there was a tendency among the thrifty population toward newer and cheaper lands. Mr. Kniest's enterprise was only partially successful, but the purpose which he had in mind was fruitful, and around the little Catho- lic mission at Mt. Carmel there grew up a community of sturdy and pros- perous farmers, to whose number were added gradually many new families, some from the eastern part of the state, but many more direct from Ger- many. The Catholic church at Mt. Carmel was for several years the only one in the county, and Carroll had grown to be a place of some pretensions before it was established as a parish and a church erected. During this period the Carroll communicants worshipped at Mt. Carmel, and for a time William Trowbridge operated a hack line to carry back and forth the people to the Sunday services. Besides the church there was little at Mt. Carmel to distinguish the place from the surrounding farms. There was a small coun- try store and blacksmith shop, and its distance from the railroad put out of the question growth in the urban sense of the word; but in spite of this here was planted the seed of the Germanization of Carroll county, which has fructified and flourished abundantly. The frugality of a German citi-
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zenship is well known; and it is also well known that where agricultural in- dustry flourishes in its most profitable development the Germans are often found to be responsible for it. They have the patience to strive and wait. As they have prospered and increased the farms of the county have been brought to the highest state of productivity and the farm improvements have grown from buildings that would barely keep out the storms of winter to large and comfortable homes surrounded with barns bursting with fat- ness. Instead of one little wooden church far from the centers there are now eighteen Catholic churches in Carroll county. The Mt. Carmel congre- gation worships in a beautiful edifice, surrounded by schools and the other adjuncts and conveniences which distinguish a religious and God loving community. There are other congregations larger and richer, but none of greater zeal or more persistently devoted to their shrine.
When the congregation outgrew the first small wooden building it was converted into a school, in which service it still continues its usefulness. Not so the more pretentious brick structure which was its successor. This building was struck by lightning and burned when nearing completion. An- other and even more costly building followed and after serving its purpose for a time this, too, was burned to the ground. Between that time and the erection of the beautiful church which now dominates the upper Storm Creek valley, two other churches suffered a like fate either from lightning or accidental causes. These losses have been unfortunate and heavy, and the superstitious might believe that some evil genius was wreaking its malice on the good people of the parish. But a more rational explanation may be vouchsafed. The site towers high above the country which it commands, and so conspicuous an object is an inviting target for the bolts which ac- company the fierce electric storms of summer.
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