USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 15
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 15
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
Dolliver has two banks, two general stores, a hardware store, a lum- ber yard, two grain elevators, a telephone exchange, express and tele- graph offices, a money order postoffice, a hotel and a number of small shops. Lincoln Township was recently made a consolidated school dis- trict and a modern school building has been erected at Dolliver at a cost of $48,000. The town was named for Hon. J. P. Dolliver, who rep- resented the Tenth District in Congress for ten years and was a member of the United States Senate at the time of his death on July 14, 1900. In 1910 the population of Dolliver was 107. Since then its growth has been of a substantial character and the population is now estimated at 150. In 1915 the property was valued for taxation at $30,177.
· EMMET GROVE
The first postoffice in Emmet County was established in what is now Emmet Township, where the first settlement was made in 1856. George C. Granger had opened a small store there and around the store and postoffice grew up a little hamlet that became known as Emmet Grove. No plat of the place was ever filed in the office of the county recorder and after the postoffice was discontinued the village-if such it could be called-gradually became extinct.
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ESTHERVILLE
Estherville, the seat of justice and only city within the limits of Emmet County, dates its beginning from 1858, when Robert E. Ridley acquired 160 acres of ground where the city now stands and built the first house upon the town site. A little later the town was platted by R. E. Ridley, Jesse Coverdale and Adolphus Jenkins as proprietors, and was named for Mrs. Esther A. Ridley, wife of Robert E. Ridley and mother of the first white child born in the town, her daughter Anna hav- ing been born in the spring of 1858, before the town was laid out. For some time the proprietors gave lots to parties who would agree to build, but this custom was discontinued after Emmet County was organized in 1859 and Estherville was made the county seat.
A postoffice was established at Estherville in 1860, with Adolphus Jenkins as postmaster. The first mail was received by way of a mail route that ran from Blue Earth, Minnesota, to Sioux City. Previous to this time Mr. Jenkins had formed a partnership with Robert E. Rid- ley and they built the first mill for grinding corn and wheat in Emmet County. This mill was patronized by the settlers for miles around.
In 1861 a new survey of the town was made and a map prepared, a copy of which appears in this work. The writing on this map is so dim that it cannot be made out in the illustration and is here reproduced :
"State of Iowa + ) ss :
County of Emmet
"Be it known that on the 1st day of May, A. D. 1861, before me, Clerk of the Court in and for said County, personally came Robert E. Ridley, Jesse Coverdale, Gaylord Graves and Adolphus Jenkins, who acknowledge this to be a correct map or plat of the Village of Esther- ville, situated on the southeast quarter (S. E. 14) of Section No. ten (10), and the west half (W. 1/2) of Section No. eleven (11), of town ninety- nine (99), range thirty-four (34) west. And they furthermore grant and hereby deed to the loving public all the streets of said Village, also the Public Square, as designated on this plat.
"In testimony whereof the above named proprietors and their wives have set their hands this day and year above written. 1
"ROBERT E. RIDLEY ESTHER A. RIDLEY
"ADOLPHUS JENKINS GAYLORD GRAVES
"JESSE COVERDALE L. ELLEN JENKINS
"The above named are personally known to me to be the identical persons who have here set their hands and acknowledged it to be their free act and deed.
"C. M. KEIPH, Clerk of Court.
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MR. AND MRS. R. E. RIDLEY Settled in Estherville in 1857. Esther- ville was named for Mrs. Ridley.
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"I hereby certify that this is a correct Map or Plat of the Village of Estherville as surveyed by me April 22d, A. D. 1861.
"SAMUEL WADE, Surveyor.
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"State of Iowa SS : Emmet County
"Filed for record the 1st day of May, A. D. 1861, at 2 o'clock p. m., and recorded in Book
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"ROBERT E. RIDLEY, County Recorder.
"Location of Buildings-Hotel, in Block No. 3; Barracks, in Block No. 59, Lots 1, 2, 3; Mckay's Store, in Block No. 23, Lots 7, 8."
It will be noticed upon this map that the public square occupied four blocks, bounded by Fifth, Seventh, Lincoln and Des Moines streets. Some years later Sixth Street was opened through the square and the south half was divided into lots. Some of the leading business houses of the city now stand on what was originally part of the public square.
Owing to the Civil war and the Indian troubles on the frontier the growth of Estherville was rather slow for the first few years of its exist- ence. A school house was built on the northeast corner of the public .square in 1860. Mckay's general store, Ridley & Jenkins' mill and Amos Ketchum's blacksmith shop were the principal business establishments in early days. In 1866 Simeon E. Bemis opened a store on the corner of Sixth and Des Moines streets, where the postoffice building now stands. The Northern Vindicator, the first newspaper in this section of the state, was started in 1868, and in 1876 Howard Graves opened the first bank in Emmet County.
INCORPORATING THE TOWN
In 1880 the population of the entire county was 1,550, nearly one- half of which was in Estherville Township. Early in the summer of 1881 a movement was started for the incorporation of the town and on September 1, 1881, a petition to that effect was presented to the Circuit Court. The petition was signed by F. E. Allen, Frank Davey, C. J. Wil- son, E. S. Wells, Howard Graves, Lyman S. Williams, A. O. Peterson, W. J. Pullen, W. C. Barber, G. I. Ridley, W. E. Riggs, Henry Coon, J. L. L. Riggs, C. W. Dillman, Knuet Espeset, James Maher, S. E. Bemis, A. H. Stone, R. E. Ridley, W. H. Davis, J. W. Plummer, D. M. L. Bemis, Tolliff Espeset, E. H. Ballard and D. A. Painter.
Judge John N. Weaver granted the petition and appointed Knuet Espeset, F. E. Allen, Frank Davey, R. E. Ridley and L. S. Williams com- missioners to hold an election and submit the question to the voters resid- ing within the territory it was proposed to incorporate. The election was held on October 4, 1881, when forty-four votes were cast-twenty- Vol. 1-9
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eight in favor of incorporating and sixteen opposed. Both sides com- plained of the light vote cast, the advocates of incorporation claiming that if the people had turned out the proposition would have been car -. ried by a large majority, and the opposition claiming that it would have been defeated. At the next term of court Judge Weaver received the returns and issued the order declaring Estherville to be an incorporated town. Then followed an election for town officers. Dr. E. H. Ballard was elected mayor; L. S. Williams, recorder; Knuet Espeset, R. E. Rid- lay, John Ammon, F. E. Allen, J. H. Barnhart and Frank Davey, trus- tees. These officials took the oath of office on December 2, 1881, and the first meeting of the board of trustees was held on the 6th, when A. K. Ridley was elected town marshal.
Following is a list of the mayors of Estherville under the town gov- ernment: E. H. Ballard, 1881; F. E. Allen, 1882; S. E. Bemis, 1884; E. J. Woods, 1885; J. H. Barnhart, 1886; A. O. Peterson, 1888; M. L. Archer, 1892. Elections were held annually in March. Dr. Ballard served from December, 1881, to March, 1882. Mayors Allen and Barn- hart each served two terms, and Mayor Peterson four terms.
CITIES OF THE SECOND CLASS
In October, 1892, W. S. Jones was employed to take a census of Estherville and reported a population of 2,185. The returns were pre- sented to the state officials as required by law and on December 22, 1892, Horace Boies, governor; W. M. McFarland, secretary of state, and James A. Lyons, auditor of state, issued their certificate to the effect that they had "made examination of the returns of the special census taken by the authority of the incorporated Town of Estherville. and have ascertained that the said incorporated Town of Estherville, Iowa, is shown by said returns to have a population in excess of two thousand, to wit: 2,185. Therefore we find that the said incorporated Town of Estherville is entitled to become a city of the second class."
The first election for city officers was held on Monday, March 6, 1893, when the following officials were elected: A. W. Dawson, mayor ; W. A. Ladd, city solicitor; J. P. Kirby, treasurer; C. M. Brown and A. L. Houltshouser, councilmen from the First Ward; M. K. Whelan and Charles Carpenter, councilmen from the Second Ward; F. E. Allen and A. D. Root, councilmen from the Third Ward. N. B. Egbert, who had been elected recorder under the town government, was elected city clerk by the council and has held the office continuously by re-election to 1916.
Following is a list of the mayors since the incorporation of the city, with the year in which each was elected: A. W. Dawson, 1893; E. E. Hartung, 1897; E. J. Breen, 1898; Mack J. Groves, 1903; W. P. Galloway,
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1907; H. C. Coon, 1909; J. E. Stockdale, 1911; B. B. Anderson, 1913; Mack J. Groves, 1915.
WATER AND LIGHT
On February 4, 1891, the city council passed an ordinance granting a franchise to the "Estherville Water Company," but that company did nothing during the next three years toward establishing a system of waterworks. On May 9, 1894, A. L. Houltshouser and E. J. Breen, mem- bers of the council, were appointed a committee to secure options on ground suitable for the erection of a stand pipe and pumping station. They reported on May 21, 1894, that John Ammon had agreed to give a lease for a certain site, and that G. N. Coon had offered a tract of ground 100 feet square on the west side of the river for twenty-five dollars. At the meeting of the 21st the ordinance granting the franchise to the Estherville Water Company was repealed, and A. D. Root offered a reso- lution to submit to the people the question of establishing municipal waterworks and an electric light plant. The resolution was adopted and a special election was held on June 4, 1894. The proposition for a municipal waterworks was carried by a vote of 282 to 12, and for an electric light plant by a vote of 264 to 18.
On July 10, 1894, P. Canfield Barney was employed to make plans and specifications for the installation of a system of waterworks, and to oversee its construction. Subsequently the electric light plant was added to Mr. Barney's commission and bids were advertised for, to be opened on August 23, 1894. On that date the contract for the construction of the waterworks was awarded to C. W. Hubbard, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for $10,594, and the contract for the electrical portion of the lighting plant was awarded to the General Electric Company, of Chi- cago, for $3,562. The Sioux City Engine and Iron Works' bid of $1,574 for engine and boilers was accepted, but that company failed to carry out its contract and the electric light plant was built and equipped by Adams, Green & Company, subject to sixty days' trial before final pay- ment was made. The plant was found to be unsatisfactory in some respects and at the expiration of the sixty days, on February 25, 1895, Adams, Green & Company were given thirty days longer in which to make the necessary changes to bring the plant up to the proper standard.
The waterworks were completed according to contract and were accepted on January 29, 1895. L. R. Woods was the first water commis- sioner. The cost of the waterworks and lighting plant to January 1, 1915, has been about sixty thousand dollars. The income from the two plants has been sufficient to keep up the repairs and pay the debt con- tracted in their construction. Estherville claims to be the first city in the world to use electricity for switch lights in railroad yards.
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SEWER SYSTEM
In the summer of 1899 a petition, signed by numerous citizens, was presented to the city council asking for the establishment of a sewer sys- tem. On September 16, 1899, the engineering firm of Wardle & Yeager submitted a proposition to make plans and specifications for a complete sewer system. The proposition was accepted and on October 5, 1899, the city was divided into three sewerage districts. Eleven days later the first sewer contract was made with William Harrabin. From that modest beginning the system has gradually developed until practically all the thickly settled portions of the city have sewer connection. A large outlet opens into the Des Moines River and with this trunk sewer are con- nected a number of lateral branches. About the close of 1916 an agita- tion was started in favor of the construction of a septic tank, and it is probable that this method of disposing of sewage will be adopted in the near future.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
The first movement toward the establishment of a fire department was made in September, 1884, when the first volunteer fire company of which any record has been preserved was organized with the following members: Chauncey Ammon, M. L. Archer, C. L. Bartlett, W. A. Beecher, T. W. Carter, H. C. Coon, C. W. Crim, C. W. Dillman, N. B. Egbert, James Espeset, C. I. Hinman, J. D. Hoover, H. A. Jehu, C. B. Little, A. O. Peterson, Warren Pullen, G. I. Ridley and William Stivers. A campaign for funds for the purchase of a hook and ladder truck was immediately commenced, but after the fund was raised and truck pur- chased the company had no suitable place to keep it.
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An appeal was therefore made to the board of town trustees to pro- vide quarters for the fire company, which adopted the name of "Rescue Fire Company." At the March election in 1887, the question of purchas- ing a hand engine and erecting a building for the company was submitted to the voters and was defeated. The next year the proposition met with better support and on December 4, 1888, the council recognized the com- pany in an ordinance providing that "The fire department shall consist of a chief, two assistant chiefs, and as many fire wardens, fire enginemen, hosemen and hook and ladder men as now are, or may be from time to time appointed by the town council."
The ordinance further provided that the fire apparatus should be kept in such places as the council might provide. Rented quarters were occupied for some four years. On Monday, April 4, 1892, the Rescue Fire Company elected John Dygert chief; L. E. White and Samuel Fritz, assistant chiefs; A. O. Peterson, foreman of the engine; H. O. Sillge,
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foreman of the hose cart; W. J. Pullen, foreman of the hook and ladder brigade. A. O. Peterson was elected president of the company and H. G. Graaf, secretary. Those officers importuned the council at every oppor- tunity until on November 20, 1893, an appropriation of $800 was made for the erection of an engine house.
On September 5, 1910, the fire company sent a committee, consisting of George A. Case, P. Cain and Ford Connelly, to the council to submit the resignation of every member of the company for the following reasons : 1. The quarters provided for and occupied by the company were unsani- tary. 2. The fire alarm system was entirely inadequate to the needs of the city. 3. The company had no suitable place in which to care for and dry hose after a fire. 4. The water pressure was not sufficient to extinguish fires. The protest seems to have spurred the council to action. Better quarters were secured for the company and steps were taken to install a fire alarm system and improve the waterworks.
CITY HALL AND FIRE STATION
On July 14, 1913, a contract was awarded to Thompson & Sweet, of Estherville, to erect a city hall and fire station on the lot at the north- east corner of Sixth and Howard streets, which had been purchased by the city some time before. The building was completed and occupied in February, 1914 . Its cost was $12,000. The front portion of the main floor is occupied as a fire station, in the rear of which and the basement are kept electric light supplies, repairs, etc. On the second floor the "fire laddies" have a club room in front, and the city clerk's office and council chamber occupy the rear. Few cities the size of Estherville have a better municipal building.
THE POSTOFFICE
In the early part of this chapter mention is made of the establish- ment of the postoffice at Estherville in 1860. The postmasters from that time to the present, in the order named, have been Adolphus Jenkins, Howard Graves, Peter Johnston, Lyman S. Williams, John W. Randolph, M. K. Whelan, George C. Allen and Frank Carpenter. Mr. Carpenter, the present incumbent, was appointed by President Wilson in July, 1913.
Through the efforts of James P. Conner, while serving as a member of Congress from the Tenth Iowa District, an appropriation was obtained for the erection of a postoffice building at Estherville. The building, on the northeast corner of Sixth and Des Moines streets, was completed in 1911 and, including the site, cost $65,000. The office now employs the postmaster, assistant postmaster, four clerks, four city carriers, six rural carriers, a janitor and a charwoman. The receipts for the fiscal year
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ending June 30, 1916, were a little over $18,000. F. A. Robinson, the assistant postmaster, has been connected with the office for seventeen years.
ESTHERVILLE TODAY
Estherville is a division point for both the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and the Minneapolis & St. Louis railroads, and is the western terminus of the Estherville & Albert Lea division of the former system. It has two railway roundhouses, five banks, three weekly newspapers, two good hotels, a fine public library, a flour mill, brick and tile works, a large cement works, grain elevators, a showcase factory, a telephone exchange, churches of the leading denominations, five public school build- ings, good streets, cement sidewalks, a number of well stocked mercantile establishments handling all lines of goods, and many handsome residences. The population in 1910 was 3,404, a, gain of 167 during the preceding decade, and in 1915 the property was valued for tax purposes at $882,468.
FORSYTH.
In Denmark Township, near the southeast corner of the county, was once a postoffice called Forsyth, which was the center of some industrial activity. A butter and cheese factory was established here in 1893. When rural free delivery of mail was introduced the postoffice at Forsyth was discontinued and the people living in that vicinity now receive mail through the office at Ringsted.
GRIDLEY
This is a small station on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, in the eastern part of Swan Lake Township. It was laid out by the Western Town Lot Company and the plat was filed in the office of the county recorder on April 22, 1899. The plat shows six blocks, with a total of seventy-three lots, west of the railroad. The north and south streets, beginning at the railroad, are Railroad, First, Second and Third. These are intersected by Oak, Maple and Ash, which run east and west. A grain elevator and a general store are the only business enterprises. Mail is received by rural delivery from Maple Hill.
GRUVER
The village of Gruver is a station on the Estherville & Albert Lea division of the Rock Island Railroad, seven miles east of Estherville. When first laid out by John and Anna R. Dows, in the summer of 1899, it was named "Luzon," a plat of which was filed with the county recorder
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on September 20, 1899. On April 2, 1900, a petition signed by two-thirds of the voters in the village was presented to the board of supervisors, asking that the name be changed to "Gruver." After hearing the argu- ments of the petitioners in favor of the change the board adopted a reso- lution that the "said village shall be known and designated as the village of Gruver from and after the third day of May, A. D. 1900."
Gruver is the principal shipping point and trading center for a rich agricultural district in the eastern part of Center Township, in which it is suited. It has a bank, several stores, grain elevators, Methodist Epis- copal and Presbyterian churches, a good public school, telegraph and express office, telephone connection with the surrounding towns, a money order postoffice, and in 1910 reported a population of 114. In 1915 the property of the village was assessed for taxation at $20,132.
HALFA
About the close of the last century several towns were projected in Northwestern Iowa by the Western Town Lot Company, of which Marvin Hughitt was president and J. B. Redfield was secretary. One of these towns is Halfa, a station on the Jewell & Sanborn division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, in the southwest corner of Armstrong Grove Township. The original plat, which was filed with the recorder of Emmet County on June 27, 1899 ,shows twenty-six lots west of the tracks "for rail- way use," and six blocks having an aggregate of sixty-four lots east of the railroad. The east and west streets are Pine, Oak and Grant, and the north and south streets are Lincoln, Main and Railroad.
Halfa was founded chiefly for speculative purposes. After the Western Town Lot Company had disposed of the lots, the founders took no further interest in the town's welfare. A creamery was established here in 1900, but it is no longer in operation. According to Polk's Iowa Gazetteer for 1915-16, the population was then estimated at fifty peo- ple. A general store and the postoffice are the only business institutions. Recently Halfa has been made the center of a consolidated school dis- trict and a new school building erected at a cost of $25,000.
HIGH LAKE
There are probably many people in Emmet County who do not know that a town of some pretensions bearing this name was once laid out in the western part of High Lake Township. It was surveyed in Novem- ber, 1881, by E. O. Reeder for John and Catherine Lawler, of Crawford County, Wisconsin, and was located on the northwest quarter of Section 20, Township 98, Range 33. The plat filed with the county recorder shows thirty-eight blocks, five of which are not subdivided. The other
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thirty-three are divided into 293 lots. Beginning at the east the north and south streets were Emmet, Lake, Main, High and Iowa. The north and south streets, beginning at the north side of the town, were numbered from First to Seventh inclusive.
At the time the town was laid out the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company was building its line from Emmetsburg to Estherville and the Town of High Lake was on the line of railroad. When the railroad company removed its tracks a little later High Lake lost its opportunity to become a city, and where it was platted is now a farm. What little busi- ness had been established there was diverted to Wallingford, on the Chi- cago, Rock Island & Pacific.
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HOPRIG
In the southern part of Jack Creek Township is the little hamlet of Hoprig. No official plat of the place was ever filed with the county recorder, though at one time Hoprig was a business center of some import- ance. A postoffice was established there and in December, 1897, a creamery company was organized. After the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad was built through the eastern part of the county, the postoffice at Hoprig was discontinued and the people there now receive mail by rural carrier from Graettinger, in Palo Alto County.
HUNTINGTON
About the time the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad was under construction in Emmet County, Harry L. and Anna L. Jenkins employed J. E. Egan to lay out the town of Huntington in Section 7, Township 100, Range 33, in the northwest corner of Ellsworth Township on the line of the railroad. The plat was filed in the recorder's office on Octo- ber 28, 1899. It shows twelve blocks, subdivided into 190 lots. The east and west streets are First, Main, Third and Fourth, and the north and south streets are Railroad Avenue, First Avenue and Broadway. Huntington has a grain elevator, a bank, general stores, a public school, telephone connections with the surrounding country, telegraph and express offices, and is the trading and shipping point for a considerable territory in the northern part of the county and for the southern part of Martin County, Minnesota.
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