USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Dickinson County, Iowa, together with an account of the Spirit Lake massacre, and the Indian troubles on the northwestern frontier > Part 30
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The same year the Ben Lennox was put up on the lower lakes the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad Company decided to replace the Alpha with a first-class craft on Spirit Lake. Accordingly they contracted with a Dubuque company for the construction of an iron steamer to be first-class in every detail. All her parts were shaped and fitted at the works and then sent to the lakes to be put together. She was a remarkably staunch, smooth-running craft, and was rated at abox: two hun-
QUEEN
Illinois
Okoboji
Hiawatha
Queen
Iowa
Orleans
THE OKOBOJI FLEET OF STEAMERS.
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
dred and fifty passengers, being a little less than the Ben Len- nox. Her cost was about the same. When launched she was christened the "Queen," which name has stuck to her ever since.
Not far from the time these two boats were completed, or perhaps a little later, Captain Kendall built the "Hiawatha" on East Okoboji, opposite the town of Spirit Lake. In size she bore a kind of mean proportion between the smaller and the larger boats, being rated at about eighty passengers. She was strongly built and of good material and has stood the test , of time and hard usage as well as any boat on the lake.
One or two small steam launches were put on abont this time to ply between town and the Orleans. This was the make up of the early fleet of steamers. Soon after this, John Pallister, of Ottumwa shipped up two small steamers, the "Lelia" and the "River Queen," which for a time plied on the lakes between different points. Parties at Spirit Lake organized the Spirit Lake and Okoboji Navigation Company. Their scheme was to build a large barge to be towed by a tug to different points around the lakes for the accommodation of dancing and pleasure parties as occasion might require. They built the barge and then for a tug they took the rigging off the Foam and put in a small steam engine for the propelling power. The Foam had made a splendid record as a sailing craft but she proved far too light and frail for a tng and the scheme proved a failure.
Soon changes began to occur in the ownership and manage- ment of the several boats. The Henderson boys sold the Alpha to a Mr. Fuller, of Spirit Lake, who took her off the lakes and shipped her to (Worthington. They then bought the Hiawatha of Captain Kendall. Mr. Maxon, a conductor on the Burling- ton, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad, built a flat-bottomed side-wheeler after the style of the river boats but there was some defect in her model. She was slow, awkward, hard to manage and eventually proved a failure. Crozier sold the Fa-
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THE STEAMER OKOBOJI AT HER DOCK.
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
vorite to Mr. H. Brown of Spencer and built a new boat, the "Huntress," which he managed successfully several seasons. The name of the boat was afterward changed to "Illinois." The Hendersons sold the Hiawatha to Mills and Allen and built the "Towa." This boat ranked next to the Queen in size and was first-class in all respects. Several smaller crafts, were from time to time added and others taken off which cannot be noticed in detail. After several changes the Ben Lennox was bought by the Manhattan Beach Company, who overhanled it and changed the name to the "Manhattan."
By this time the dry seasons had told seriously on the lakes, the average level being much lower than formerly, and at times the larger boats had difficulty in making all the points. East Okoboji is the shallowest of the lakes and for a time had to be almost entirely abandoned. The Manhattan was for a few sea- sons run in the interest of the Manhattan Beach Company's watering place, but was afterwards condemned, run ashore at Given's Point, the machinery and fixtures taken ont and the hull knocked to pieces and cut up for kindling wood. The Queen was kept on Spirit Lake until after the Orleans Hotel was torn down, when the railway company having no further use for her sold her to the Henderson brothers, who pulled her across into Okoboji and gave her a thorough overhauling. She proved to be in better condition than was anticipated, her hull being prac- tically as sound as ever and her machinery but little worn. After being painted and renovated she was practically good as new. The Hiawatha, after several deals, came into the hands of the Broadgate brothers of Spencer, who continued to run her for passengers.
The Ben Lennox, the Queen and the Hiawatha, with the smaller boats, the Favorite and the Alpha, were the pioneers of steamboat navigation on the lakes. After the Manhattan was condemned she was sold to'Mr. F. C. Roff, who took out her ma-
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THE FLEET OF TO-DAY
chinery and fixtures and such of her upper works as were worth saving, and as before stated, split the hull up for firewood. It had rotted to that extent that it was utterly worthless for any- thing else.
Mr. Roff determined at onee to build an entirely new boat from the same model, using only such parts of the old boat as were just as good as new. His plan was to secure the best ma- terial obtainable and to have the work first-class. This was in the spring of 1900. As soon as possible after completing the deal he set to work on the new enterprise. The ribs and timbers for the hull were of oak while the planking was Douglass fir from Washington. The hull was made much stronger than the old Ben Lennox. Such of the old machinery as was not just as good as new was replaced by new. The old boat had been overhauled and remodeled so many times that there was but little of the upper works that could be utilized, tlni's making it necessary to build new all around. It was intended to have her ready and in the water by the commencement of the resort sea- son, but an unavoidable delay in forwarding the lumber from the Pacific coast prevented this and it was near August before she was fully completed. She was christened the "Okoboji." She was the third to receive that name but the other two were short lived affairs. In appearance she was the Ben Lennox over again as that craft was originally constructed and is the most roomy and one of the best appointed boats on the lake.
The steamers on the Okoboji at the present time are as fol- lows: 1 The Okoboji, F. C. Roff, capacity 300 passengers : built in 1900. 2 The Queen, Henderson Brothers; capacity 250 passengers ; built in 1884 ; iron hull ; good as new. 3 The Iowa, Henderson Brothers; capacity 120 passengers; built in 1896. 4 The Irma, Elmer Clark; capacity 100 passengers ; built in 1898. 5 The Hiawatha, Broadgate Brothers ; capacity 80 passengers ; built in 1884. 6 The Illinois, capacity 60 pas-
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
sengers ; built in 1887. 7 The Orleans; capacity 60 passengers ; built in 1896. 8 The R. J. Hopkins, R. J. Hopkins; capacity 40 passengers ; built in 1896. 9 River Queen, R. J. Hopkins ; capacity 30 passengers ; built in 1890.
In addition to the above list there are several steam and vapor launches owned by private parties who manage and control them for their own use and convenience and not for the accommoda- tion of the public. The only steamer on Spirit Lake is the Templar, a small steamer with a carrying capacity for about forty passengers. She is owned and managed by the Knights Templar in connection with their resort at Templar Point. Her name has been recently changed from the "Chicago" to the "Templar."
CHAPTER XXXIV.
THE TOWN OF SPIRIT LAKE
SELECTION OF THE SITE-ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST FAMILIES-THE FOUR WOMEN WHO WINTERED HIERE THE FIRST WINTER-THE FIRST BUILDINGS -THE OLD FORT USED AS A HOTEL-THE FIRST FRAME HOUSES-THE FIRST SOCIAL EVENT-AN OLD FASHIONED FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION -THE FIRST GENERAL STORE-THE FIRST HOTEL -HOW THE TITLE TO THE TOWN SITE WAS OB- TAINED-THE ENTERPRISE ABANDONED BY THE ORIGINAL PROMOTERS AND THE LAND PROVED UP AS A PRIVATE CLAIM-LIFE IN THE TOWN DURING THE WAR-SORRY APPEARANCE OF THE TOWN AT ITS CLOSE-THE FIRST IMPROVEMENTS AFTER THE CLOSE OF THE WAR-THE CRANDALL HOUSE-THE OLD CONCRETE-THE NEW YORK STORE AND SEV- ERAL OTHER BUILDINGS-THE FIRST BANK.
HE EARLY HISTORY of the town of Spirit Lake is so closely interwoven with that of the county at large that much of it has already been given, and yet there is so much that has not been given that a chapter or two de- voted exclusively to the carly history and subsequent develop- ment of Spirit Lake as a town seems almost necessary. It has already been related that in the summer of 1856 three brothers- in-law by the name of Howe, Parmenter and Wheelock, all liv- ing at that time in Newton, Jasper County, Iowa, but formerly from Erie County, New York, conceived the idea of organizing the county, locating the county seat and entering the land upon which it was located, lay out a town and make a nice stake in
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the sale of lots. This was before the massacre of 1857 and also before the financial collapse of that same year. By the success- ful manipulation of such enterprises men had accumulated comfortable fortunes in Illinois and Wisconsin and why wasn't their chance as good as anybody's ? Their trip to the lakes in the fall of 1856, when they encountered Inkpadutah's band in camp at Loon Lake, and also their winter trip in Febru :- ary and March, 1857, when they discovered the massacre and made the report on the strength of which the volunteer expedi- tion under Major Williams was organized, have already been given. Also the second trip and the incidents connected with it.
As has been previously stated the location for the town site was decided upon in June, 1857. The point at the Okoboji crossing would have been selected had it not been held at that time by the Grangers. Indeed, the Grangers came from Red Wing, Minnesota, about the same time and with the same avowed project in mind-that of laying out a town and secur- ing the location of the county seat, but after the financial col- lapse, Granger gradually allowed his scheme to die out and abandoned the county for good in 1859. The government sur- veys were not made when the site for the town was selected. The plat was made in Newton by a surveyor by the name of S. W. Foreman, who was to have a one-tenth interest for making the survey and plat. The plat was made to cover a half section without making any allowances for either excess or deficiencies.
As has been heretofore stated, the site chosen was about half a mile north of the present business center. In addition to the stockade and the building it enclosed there were erected on the town site in the fall of 1857 three or four Ig cabins, the first one of which was built by O. C. Howe and occupied by him that winter and a part of the next summer. It was afterwards turned over to his father's family who arrived during the following summer. Mr. Howe went down to New-
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MRS. HOWE AND MRS. KINGMAN
ton for his family the latter part of June and arrived here with them the seventh of Angust. It was no part of his orig- inal plan to bring his family up that season and possibly not at all, but events so shaped themselves that he became convinced that it was absolutely necessary that his family should be here.
The fact has heretofore been noticed that. the four women wintering here the winter of 1857 and 1858 were Mrs. O. C. Howe, Mrs. R. Kingman, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Thurston. Mrs. Howe and Mrs. Kingman were remarkable women. While they were as unlike each other as it is possible for two women to be they each represented a type and were leaders of the type so represented. Mrs. Howe was the more scholarly of the two, having been a teacher in Buffalo. In addition to her lit- erary attainments she possessed a rare fund of general informa- tion, and what is still more rare a remarkable versatility of character, which enabled her to adapt herself to her surround- ings without fuss or frietion. She was equally at home with the sturdy pioneers by whom she was surrounded as she would have been in the environments of polite society.
Mrs. Kingman, on the other hand, was modest and retiring even to the verge of bashfulness, and vet she possessed intelli- genee and refinement of a high order. While not as intellec- tual as Mrs. Howe, yet her refined intuitions and native good sense made her a prime favorite with every one coming within the sphere of her influence. Of the other two women perhaps the less said the better. For a period of over eight months, or from the seventh of August until the latter part of April of the following year, these four women comprised the sum total of female society for a large portion of northwestern Towa.
There were three or four families in the neighborhood of Peterson that winter, two or three more near Sionx Rapids, one or two at Estherville and three or four at the Irish Colony. These comprise all of the settlements at that time in the state
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
west of Algona and north of Cherokee. What of toil and pri- vation, fear, hardship and apprehension were endured by those few heroic women during that memorable winter may be imag- ined in part but cannot be described and will ever remain an important chapter in the unwritten history of northwestern Iowa.
The bringing in and getting into operation of a small saw- mill in the fall of 1857 has been noticed. The first humber ent by it was used by Mr. Howe in putting in floors and a roof to his cabin, of which he had already rolled up the body. Several were clamorous for the first lumber made, but inasmich as Mr. ITowe's family were already here and were obliged to go into camp until his house could be completed, the rest yielded to him and he had fairly comfortable quarters for his family when winter set in. An arrangement was made with Mr. Kingman whereby he moved his family into the old fort and kept it as a hotel. The space between the rear of the building proper and the stockade surrounding it was abont ten feet. This space was roofed and floored and divided up into rooms. Floors were also put into the main building which made quite a roomy affair of it for that day.
Mr. Kingman didn't make much in the hotel business at first from the fact that a majority of those traveling through here at that time were never guilty of having money. Paying customers were the exception and not the rule, and vet the pio- neer instinet was so strong in the host that every one applying was bountifully fed, pay or no pay. When the soldiers under Captain Martin came up the first of March, Mr. Kingman turned over the main building to them, reserving the two or three rooms that he had made between the wall of the build- ing and the west side of the stockade for his own use.
Quite a number of sawlogs were hauled in to the mill that winter, and although from eight hundred to a thousand foot
417
FIRST BUILDINGS
a day was good work for them, still they kept pegging away at it and got out what they could. It didn't pay them to run in the winter except to get out what was imperatively demanded.
The first frame house built was by R. U. Wheelock. This was the first frame house built in Iowa north of Sioux City and west of the east fork of the Des Moines River. , There were none at Cherokee and none between here and there. There were four or five on the west fork of the Des Moines near Humboldt built the year before. O. C. Howe, B. F. Permen- ter, Henry Schuneman and Doctor James Ball built that sea- son on sites now occupied by C. Chandler, E. L. Brownell, F. W. Barron and the Presbyterian Church. Parmenter after- ward sold his place to Ethel Ellis for a hundred ratskins and that was more than some of the rest realized for theirs. 1. Kingman built a small house the same season.
A. D. Arthur built a fair sized house just west of town. The place was afterward known as the Barkman place. Henry Barkman first took his claim across the lake on what is now known as the Pollard place. A year or two later he sold it to Thomas Wyckoff and bought the Arthur place, where he resided up to the time of his death. Several other frame houses were built on the town site that summer. George E. Spencer built the largest one, which he afterward sold to L. Congleton, who occupied it until 1863, when he left the state. Years later the house and the land on which it was located became the property of A. S. Mead, who tore the house down. In the meantime it had been occupied for various purposes ; first as a store, then as a school room, and for miscellaneous purposes. Miller and Jones, the mill owners, built a good sized house which they afterwards sold to A. Kingman, who moved it up on his farm (the Stevens place), and lived in it for several years.
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
The arrival of different parties of settlers that spring, and early summer, has been noticed. They had come, some from central Iowa, some from Illinois and many from western New York ; other parts of the country were also represented. The first social event which brought them together, and in which they all participated, was a regular old fashioned orthodox Fourth of July celebration held at Spirit Lake, July 4, 1858. The chief promoters of the scheme were R. U. Wheelock, C. F. Hill, R. A. Smith, R. Kingman and a few others. The place selected for the exercises was in the grove east of the north end of town, and near where the steam mill was put up the fall before.
Lumber was brought from the mill for a platform and seats. It didn't require a great deal as the crowd was not expected to be large. O. C. Howe presided and Doctor Prescott delivered the oration, his eloquence, versatility and tact as a speaker never being more manifest than on that occasion. He was not notified until the evening before that he was expected to speak, and yet his oration would compare favorably with any that have ever been heard here since.
The choir, composed of J. D. Howe, R. U. Wheelock and F. A. Blake and Misses Sarah and Mary Howe and Belle Wheelock would command respect and attention anywhere, and their rendition of the old patriotic songs was applauded to the echo. The Star Spangled Banner, Red, White and Blue, Uncle Sam's Farm and other favorites were given to the enthu- siastic and delighted andience, after which R. A. Smith read the Declaration of Independence. At the close of the exer- cises in the grove, all parties repaired to the old fort, which had been vacated by the soldiers a few days before, and was again being fitted up for the accommodation of the public by Mr. Kingman. This was made to do duty as a dining room and he and his wife soon had ready a repast that, considering the sur-
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THE FIRST SOCIAL EVENT
roundings and the difficulties in the way of procuring neces- sary material, would have been a credit to any locality. It. goes without saying that the repast that followed was keenly ap- preciated and hugely enjoyed by all participants.
When the repast was over some time was spent in toasts and responses, impromptu remarks and sly hits, which were parti- cipated in by the crowd at large and tended mmuch to increase the enjoyment of the occasion. One noticeable feature of all the social events of the early days, was the absence of all con- ventionalities, the hearty good will and good fellowship which characterized the relations of one with another. As evening came on seats and tables were removed and old and young pro- ceeded to enjoy the first dance in Dickinson County, Daniel Caldwell and R. U. Wheelock furnishing the music. Good church members, whose dancing days had been over for years, threw aside their scruples and prejudices for the time being and joined in the general hilarity and "all went merry as a marriage bell."
Not much of importance occurred during the fall and winter of 1858 and 1859 that has not already been related as a part of the history of the county at large. It will be remembered that it was in February, 1859, that the vote was taken on the question of disposing of the swamp lands for county buildings. The history of that transaction and the events growing out of it have already been given in full. The foundation for the court- house was laid that fall and the walls for the building put up the following summer, and a few more honses were built on the town site about this time. Al Kingman also commenced the erection of a house which, after he had it well under way, he sold to A. D. Arthur who moved it up town and finished it off as a store, the mechanical work being done by W. B. Brown and Harvey Frantz. It was not much of a store, but it was the
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
first west of the east fork of the Des Moines and north of Sionx City.
The first stock of goods put on sale in Spirit Lake, and that means the first stock for a vast region in this part of the state, was by M. M. Mattheson, a Norwegian, from Mankato, Minne- sota, in the fall of 1859. He remained in trade there until some time in 1863, when he took his stock of goods and moved to Yankton, South Dakota. Some time during the winter of 1863 and 1864 the store was again occupied by G. Blackert, who put in another and larger stock of goods, and remained il trade until the summer of 1867. About this time the building became the property of George C. Bellows, who moved it to the corner now occupied by the Stevens Block, and rigged it up for a shoeshop.
It was during the summer of 1859 also that Mr. R. Kingman commenced the erection of the first hotel in the county. Pro- vions to that time those interested in the old fort had turned their interests, whatever they might have been, over to him, and he tore the old building down to make room for the pro- jected hotel. There wasn't much in the material that could be used for anything but firewood. Though not wholly completed that season it was so far along that it was opened to the public that fall. At that time there was not another hotel building between Mankato and Sioux City. Of course every farmer on the route kept travelers if they wished to stay, and many of these farmer stopping places became widely known and de- servedly popular. Notably so Thomas', at Jackson, and Kirch- ner's, at Peterson. It is marvelous the number of wayfarers a well-regulated log cabin would make room for in those days.
Mr. Kingman named his hotel the "Lake View House." Owing to the scarcity of money in the country, it was not very profitable at the start, but after the breaking out of the war, in the spring of 1861, he had all the business he could handle
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THE PIONEER HOTEL
until the Minnesota massacre in August, 1862. At that time it became apparent that the danger the early settlers here had subjected themselves to was much greater than was formerly supposed and Mr. Kingman, with many others, decided he could not or would not require his wife to endure the fear and apprehension which a further residence here would create. Consequently he sold out to Mr. Joseph Thomas of Jackson for what he could get.
Mr. Thomas kept the place about two years, during which time he had all of the business he could handle. During the three years that Spirit Lake was a military post, the hotel busi- · ness was rushing. Mr. Thomas sold out in 1864 to Mr. J. II. Johnston, who ran it until 1867, when he sold to Thomas Wyckoff, who moved it to the present site of the Crandall House, and afterwards sold it to Orlando Crandall. It was afterwards moved baek to make room for the present Crandall House, and finally torn down in 18 -.
The fact has already been, referred to that the government surveys had not been made when the town site was selected. Indeed, they were not wholly completed and the plats filed in the local land office until about Jannary, 1860. Of course, nothing could be done towards securing the title to the town site until after the plats were filed. This was nearly three years after the site was first selected. The ardor of the first projectors of the scheme had cooled off materially by that time, and none of them cared to advance the $1.25 per acre necessary to secure the title, and so the matter was allowed to drag along year after year.
The writings that had been given for lots were not worth the paper they were written on. People bought and sold and trafficked in the buildings, but so far as town lots were con- cerned, they were a standing joke, a laughing stock and a by- word.
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DICKINSON COUNTY - IOWA
Matters pertaining to the title of the town site drifted along in this uncertain and slipshod way until some time in 1864, when Mr. Barkman conceived the project of claiming it under the provisions of the preemption law and proving it up as a private claim. Other parties had considered the same scheme previous to that time, but so far no one had cared to under- take it. Mr. Barkman made his claim some time during the summer of 1864, and proved it up June 10, 1865. It may be well to remember right here that none of the land in either Center Grove or Spirit Lake townships was ever offered at pub- lie sale or was ever subject to sale by private entry, and the only way title could be acquired at that time was to prove up either under the preemption law, the homestead law, or the town site law. The preemption law was the least trouble, pro- vided there were no contestants. The other townships of the county had previously been offered at public sale and were for several years subject to sale at private entry, but these two townships were left out. Barkman's claim comprised the east half of the southwest quarter, the northeast quarter of the south- west quarter, and the southwest quarter of the northeast quar- ier of section 4, township 99, range 36, and contained 175 35-100 acres, which was one-half of the original town site. Of the other half, the northwest one-fourth of the northeast one- fourth was claimed by G. Blackert as a part of his homestead, and the balance, consisting of the west one-half of the south- cast one-fourth and the southeast one-fourth of the southwest one-fourth was taken by Joseph Currier and proved up Feb- ruary 1, 1867.
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