USA > Iowa > Dickinson County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 16
USA > Iowa > Emmet County > History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 16
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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
MAPLE HILL
The plat of Maple Hill was filed in the office of the county recorder on August 23, 1899. It is located in the eastern part of Swan Lake Township, on the Estherville & Albert Lea division of the Chicago, Rock
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Island & Pacific Railway system, thirteen miles east of Estherville. The principal business enterprises are a general store, a grain elevator and an agricultural implement house. In 1915 a fine school building was erected at a cost of $30,000 as the center of a consolidated school dis- trict. A postoffice was established soon after the town was laid out.
RALEIGH
This is the only village in Twelve Mile Lake Township. It is a sta- tion on the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, in the northwest quarter of Section 4, and was surveyed by J. E. Egan for Harry L. and Anna L. Jenkins. On October 28, 1899, the plat was filed in the office of the county recorder, showing eleven blocks, subdivided into 166 lots. The east and west streets are First Avenue, Second Avenue, Broadway and Third Avenue. The north and south streets are First, Main, Third, Fourth and Fifth. Raleigh has never come up to the expectations of its founders, a general store, the postoffice and a public school being the only insti- tutions worthy of mention. Polk's Gazetteer gives the population in 1915 as being 26.
RINGSTED
The incorporated Town of Ringsted is situated on the Jewell & Sanborn division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, near the center of Denmark Township. On April 6, 1899, the plat of the town was filed in the recorder's office at Estherville, showing seven blocks of twelve lots each, one block not subdivided, and east of the railroad twenty-one lots "for railway purposes." West of the tracks and parallel to the railroad runs Railroad Street. Then come First, Second and Third streets. The cross streets are Elm, Maple, Oak and Ash. The plat was filed by Marvin Hughitt and J. B. Redfield, president and secre- tary of the Western Town Lot Company.
In 1885 a postoffice was established at the residence of John Larsen (who was appointed the first postmaster) about two miles east of Ring- sted. Mr. Larsen was given the privilege of naming the postoffice and called it Ringsted, after the town in Denmark from which his wife came. When the railroad was built the postoffice was moved up to the station and the name was conferred upon the new town. E. T. Sorum was the first postmaster after the removal of the office, and was also the pioneer merchant of Ringsted, the postoffice being kept in his store. He had previously been engaged in conducting a store at Forsyth. The postoffice now employs the postmaster, his assistant and two rural car- riers, and the receipts for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 1916, amounted to about $2,600. A. L. Anderson is the present postmaster.
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Mr. Anderson is also the editor and publisher of the Ringsted Dispatch, which was established in 1901.
At the February term of the District Court in 1900 a petition ask- ing for the incorporation of Ringsted was presented. It was signed by O. N. Bossingham, S. J. C. Ormston , J. J. Richmond, Samuel M. Moses, E. T. Sorum, James Hogan, Robert Hanson, A. L. Rasmussen, L. F. Greiner, D. D. Dixon, J. P. Hansen, Christian Ersted, Jens N. Peterson, L. A. Adams, William Nelson, Mads Skow, M. P. Hanson, Hans John- son, J. W. Lambert, A. Yale, A. E. Erikson, James Healy, T. Healy, James Quinn, R. T. Scott, J. A. Mathieson, C. Christensen, Fred Johnson, Nels Kallsted and W. A. Witte.
Judge W. B. Quarton granted the petition and appointed Dr. O. N. Bossingham, Robert Hanson, A. Yale, E. T. Sorum and William Nelson commissioners to submit the question to the voters living within the limits of the proposed incorporation. The election was held on March 2, 1900, and resulted in thirty-four votes being cast in favor of the incorporation and only one opposed. The report of the commissioners was approved by Judge Quarton, who continued the commissioners and directed them to hold an election for town officers on March 26, 1900. At that time A. Yale was elected mayor; Joseph P. Shoup, clerk; E. T. Sorum, treas- urer; William Nelson, Robert Hanson, J. W. Lambert, O. N. Bossing- ham, J. A. Mathieson and C. L. Rasmussen, councilmen. Three days after this election the order of incorporation was issued by the District Court and made a matter of record.
Ringsted has two banks, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches, a public school that employs four teachers, a good air pressure system of waterworks, electric light, a volunteer fire company of twelve mem- bers, with hose cart and hook and ladder outfit, a creamery, a cement block and tile works, a hotel, several mercantile establishments, good streets and sidewalks, grain elevators, a lumber yard, express and tele- graph offices, telephone service, a number of minor business enterprises and claims to be "the liveliest and best town on the Jewell & Sanborn branch of the Northwestern Railway system."
On May 13, 1912, the Ringsted Opera House Company was incorpo- rated "to own, operate, manage and maintain a public hall and opera house in Ringsted, Iowa, and to conduct therein entertainments, etc." The capital stock authorized was $5,000, which was all paid up, and the first board of directors was composed of Andrew Larsen, A. T. Fox, J. M. Jensen, H. J. Fink and Ole Justesen. Before the close of the year an opera house was completed. In 1910 the population of Ringsted was 313, and in 1915 the property was valued for taxation at $315,765.
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EAST LINCOLN STREET, ESTHERVILLE
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SWAN LAKE
The extinct Town of Swan Lake was the outgrowth of an agita- tion for the location of the county seat somewhere near the geographical center of the county. As stated in the chapter on Settlement and Organ- ization, the question was voted on at the election on October 9, 1879, when the majority of the votes cast were in favor of locating the county seat on the northeast quarter of Section 25, Township 99, Range 33. That quarter section was at that time unsettled and the land belonged to Alexander Gordon and his wife, Mary J. Gordan, who lived in Elkhart County, Indiana. Prominent among the county seat promoters were C. C. Cowell and Asa C. Call, who enlisted the cooperation of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon. Prior to the election of October 9, 1879, when the county seat question was decided by the voters, a town had been surveyed, and the day after the election the plat of Swan Lake was filed in the office of the county recorder showing Alexander Gordon, Mary J. Gordon, C. C. Cowell and Asa C. Call as proprietors. The plat shows a total of 510 lots, with a public square in the center. Through the center of this square ran Main Street north and south, and Broadway intersected the square running east and west.
Swan Lake was located on the north short of the body of water bearing that name, just west of the line dividing Center and Swan Lake townships. Estherville newspapers were wont to refer to it as "the piece of wet ground known as Swan Lake City." Soon after the deci- sion of the voters was announced, Adolphus Jenkins went to Swan Lake and opened a hotel. L. R. Bingham was one of the pioneer merchants. In 1880 the first Presbyterian Church in Emmet County was organized at Swan Lake, which by that time had grown into a straggling village with hopes for the future. These hopes were blasted by the litigation over the county seat matter, and when, in November, 1882, the voters of the county expressed themselves in favor of taking the seat of justice back to Estherville, which then had a railroad, Swan Lake began its de- cline. It is now nothing more than a memory.
WALLINGFORD
Six miles south of Estherville on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, in the western part of High Lake Township, is the incor- porated town of Wallingford, one of the active business centers of the county. It was surveyed by E. P. Stubbs for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Falls & Northwestern Land and Town Lot Company, of which C. J. Ives was president and E. S. Ellsworth, secretary, and the plat was filed in the office of the county recorder on July 28, 1882. The original plat of
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122 lots was all on the east side of the railroad, but additions have since been made extending the town west to the township line.
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Soon after the town was founded a postoffice was established with Carl W. Seim, a native of Prussia, as postmaster. Mr. Seim was also the first merchant in the place.
On August 28, 1913, Judge D. F. Coyle of the District Court, in response to a petition signed by a number of Wallingford citizens, ap- pointed J. H. Morrice, Frank Irwin, J. O. Kasa, M. G. Husby and J. A. Nelson commissioners to hold an election and submit to the voters the question of incorporation. The election was held on September 27, 1913, at the school house in Wallingford and resulted in thirty-six votes being cast for incorporation, with none in the negative. The returns were presented to Judge N. J. Lee on October 3, 1913. Judge Lee then re- appointed the commissioners and instructed them to hold an election on the 18th of October for town officers. O. O. Anderson was elected mayor; Frank Irwin, clerk; Frank P. Sheldon, treasurer; J. O. Kasa, J. A. Nelson, Oscar Myhre, M. G. Husby and J. A. Haring councilmen.
Wallingford has a bank, a creamery, two general stores, hardware and implement houses, a public school, a hotel, several smaller business concerns, and is a shipping point of considerable importance. It was in- corporated too late to have the population reported in the census of 1910, but Polk's Gazaeteer for 1915 gives the population as 300. In the same year the property was valued for tax purposes at $55,743.
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CHAPTER IX
FINANCE AND INDUSTRY
1 PUBLIC FINANCES-BONDED DEBT-VALUE OF THE SECURITIES-BANKING- IOWA BANKING LAWS-ESTHERVILLE BANKS-ARMSTRONG BANKS-DOL- LIVER BANKS-RINGSTED BANKS-MISCELLANEOUS BANKS-AGRICUL- TURE CROP STATISTICS-LIVE STOCK-THE DAIRY INDUSTRY-FARM IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION - SHORT COURSES - MANUFACTURING- ESTHERVILLE MINING COMPANY-TELEPHONE COMPANIES.
. PUBLIC FINANCE
The early records showing the financial condition of Emmet County were destroyed by the courthouse fire in the fall of 1876, but the fact is well established that from the organization of the county the public reve- nues have generally been handled by men of known integrity and conserva- tive ideas and disbursed without notable instances of unwarranted extravagance. As a result of this conservative management, the public credit has always been of the highest character, as may be seen by the ease with which county bonds have been sold whenever a bond issue was necessary. From the supervisors' minutes it is learned that the county debt in the spring of 1879 was $18,000. Alexander Peddie, of Palo Alto County, made a proposition to the board that he would refund the out- standing bonds at a lower rate of interest than the county was then pay- ing, and on April 28, 1879, the board unanimously adopted the following resolution :
"Resolved, by the board of supervisors of Emmet County, Iowa, that the said bonds to the amount of $18,000 be called in as soon as can be legally done by advertising as provided by law: Provided that a loan can be negotiated at a lower rate of interest than said bonds are drawing at present."
As Mr. Peddie's proposition had been received in advance of the adoption of the resolution, it was understood by the board that there would be no difficulty in obtaining the lower rate of interest. The holders of the original bonds surrendered them without controversy and on July 26, 1879, the refunding bonds were ready for delivery. This is the first 141
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financial transaction of importance to be found in the records of the supervisors' proceedings.
On January 1, 1916, the amount of county bonds outstanding was $80,000, of which $33,000 was represented by refunding bonds; $25,000, by bonds issued for the purchase of the poor farm; and $22,000, by bonds issued for miscellaneous purposes. During the year 1916 the board authorized the issue of $20,000 road and bridge bonds, and $50,000 in bonds for various other purposes, making the total bonded indebtedness on January 1, 1917, $150,000. At the general election on November 7, 1916, the voters of the county declared in favor of a bond issue of $12,000 for the purchase of a fair ground near Estherville. When these bonds are issued the county debt proper will be increased to $162,000. The consolidation of school districts and the erection of new buildings within the last few years have entailed an expense which has been met by the issue of school bonds. According to the last report of the county superin- tendent, the amount of school bonds outstanding on June 30, 1916, was $270,000. If this be added to the bonds issued by the board of supervisors, the aggregate will be $432,000. These figures may seem large, but consider for a moment the
VALUE OF THE SECURITIES.
Every bond issued by the authorities, for whatever purpose, constitutes a lien upon the entire taxable property of the county. According to the auditor's tax list for the year 1915, the valuation of real and personal property was distributed among the several civil townships and incorpo- rated towns of the county as follows :
TOWNSHIPS
Armstrong Grove
$435,236
Center
431,865
Denmark
448,598
Ellsworth
323,195
Emmet
284,120
Estherville
449,306
High Lake
415,480
Iowa Lake
268,502
Jack Creek
358,593
Lincoln
336,764
Swan Lake
400,652
Twelve Mile Lake
337,034
Total for townships
$4,489,345
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TOWNS
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Armstrong
$311,135
Dolliver
30,177
Estherville
882,468
Gruver
20,132
Ringsted
315,765
Wallingford
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55,743
Total for towns
$1,615,420
In the above table the valuation of the property in the four con- solidated school districts in included in that of the townships or towns in which they are located. Now, to the $6,104,765 worth of real and personal property must be added $837,820 in money and credits, which the laws of Iowa require to be listed separately, making a grand total of $6,942,585, or fifteen dollars of collateral security for every dollar of debt. But the custom of appraising property for tax purposes at about one-fourth of its real value must also be taken into consideration. The real value of the real and personal property of Emmet County is there- fore approximately twenty-five million dollars, or nearly sixty dollars of security for every dollar represented by outstanding bonds. Surely the firm or corporation showing assets sixty times greater than its lia- bilities would be considered solvent-not merely solvent, but in excellent financial condition. What more, then, need be said regarding the finan- cial standing of Emmet County?
BANKING
Modern banking systems date back to the Bank of Venice, which was founded in 1587, though private individuals in Venice had been receiving deposits of money for nearly two centuries before the estab- lishment of the bank by authority of the Venetian government. In 1619 the Bank of Amsterdam, which was modeled to a great extent after the Bank of Venice, was opened for business. After a short time it intro- duced the innovation of accepting bullion for deposit and issuing re- ceipts therefor, the receipts circulating as so much currency. This was the origin of the financial theory that a paper currency must be redeem- able in specie or bullion. When the Bank of England was founded in 1694, it adopted the custom of the Bank of Amsterdam, and a little later the system was extended in the authority granted to the bank to issue notes.
Toward the close of the Revolutionary war the continental paper
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currency issued by the American colonies became so depreciated in value that some financial legislation was necessary. Consequently, on the last day of the year 1781 the Continental Congress passed an act granting a charter to the Bank of North America, which was given the right to issue notes under the plan similar to that of the Bank of England. The states of New York and Massachusetts granted charters to state banks in 1784, but with the adoption of the Federal Constitution both the state banks and the Bank of North America surrendered their charters and, on February 25, 1794, Congress incorporated the Bank of the United States. In July, 1832, President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill renew- ing the bank's charter, and a little later the public funds in the bank were withdrawn by executive order. The bank continued in business, however, until the expiration of the time for which it was chartered, when it wound up its affairs and passed out of existence.
With the closing up of the Bank of the United States, the several states began the policy of issuing charters to state banks, under au- thority conferred by acts of Congress. The next decade witnessed a rapid development of the country's natural resources, with the conse- quent demand for a larger volume of currency, and in the early '40s was inaugurated the era of what is known in American history as "wildcat banks." Under this system individuals could establish a bank and "issue notes against their assets." They were not subject to govern- ment supervision or inspection and unscrupulous persons took advantage of the system by issuing notes far in excess of their assets. It is esti- mated that at one time there were more than six hundred of these irresponsible banks scattered throughout the country. The panic of 1857 drove many of the wildcat banks out of business, but the system continued until after the beginning of the Civil war in 1861. So many people had suffered loss through worthless bank notes that a prejudice was created in their minds against any banking system.
But the requirements of modern civilization demand a currency of some character as a quick and convenient medium of effecting exchanges. Added to this demand were the conditions growing out of the Civil war, which made an extension of the national credit imperative. In Febru- ary, 1863, Congress passed the first act for the establishment of national banks, with authority to issue notes based upon Government bonds as security for their redemption. The act proved to be defective in a number of important particulars and on June 3, 1864, President Lincoln approved another national banking act, which, with subsequent amend- ments, constitutes the authority under which nearly eight thousand national banks were operating in the United States in 1915. The national banks are the only ones in this country that have power to issue notes, all other banks being merely institutions of discount and deposit.
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IOWA BANKING LAWS
The prejudice against wildcat banks already referred to was so great in Iowa at the time the state was admitted into the Union in 1846 that the first state constituion contained a provision that no bank should ever be established by state authority. The present constitution, which became effective in 1857, is more liberal in this respect than its pre- decessor, though it contains stringent provisions regarding the creation and regulation of banking institutions. Section 5, Article 8, provides that :
"No act of the General Assembly, authorizing or creating corporations with banking powers, shall take effect, or in any manner be in force, until the same shall have been submitted, separately, to the people, at a general or special election, as provided by law, to be held not less than three months after the passage of the act, and shall have a majority of all the electors voting for or against it at such elections."
Sections 6, 7 and 8 of the same article prescribe the manner in which state banks may be established and what features may be incorporated in a general banking law. Section 9 reads as follows :
"Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institution shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, over and above the amount of stock by him or her held, to an amount equal to his or her re- spective shares so held, for all its liabilities accruing while he or she remains such stockholder."
Each state has its own laws for the creation, regulation and control of banks established under state authority, but the banks of Iowa and Emmet County are operated under the constitutional provisions above mentioned and the laws enacted in pursuance thereof. In addition to this, every Iowa state bank is subject to examination by the auditor of state, under whom there is a chief bank examiner and five assistants, whose duty it is to inves- tigate the condition and methods of any bank whenever ordered by the auditor to make such examination. The result of this system is that there have been very few disastrous failures of state banks in Iowa.
ESTHERVILLE BANKS
The first banking house in Emmet County was established at Esther- ville in 1876 by Howard Graves. It was conducted as a private bank by Mr. Graves until the completion of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & North- ern Railroad in 1882, when T. W. Burdick, of Decorah, Iowa, became asso- ciated with him and the business was continued under the firm name of Graves, Burdick & Company. On November 27, 1886, articles of incorpo- ration were filed with the county recorder of Emmet County, with F. E. Vol. 1-10
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Allen, Howard Graves, John M. Barker, T. W. Burdick and A. Bradish as the first board of directors, and on January 1, 1887, the bank began busi- ness as the Estherville State Bank. The first officers were: Howard Graves, president; J. H. Bradish, cashier.
When incorporated in 1886 the authorized capital stock of the bank was $25,000. This has since been increased to $50,000, and on January 1, 1917, the institution reported a surplus and undivided profit fund of $16,000 and deposits of $450,000. At that time the officers of the bank were as fol- lows: G. Zeeman, president; A. D. Root, vice president; Andrew Smith, cashier. The bank still occupies the building erected by Graves, Burdick & Company on the southwest corner of Main and Sixth streets and is proud of the record it has maintained during its history of forty years.
The First National Bank of Estherville was incorporated on August 27, 1890, as the Emmet County Bank by F. E. Allen, S. T. Meservey, E. S. Ormsby, Webb Vincent and E. B. Soper, who were named in the articles as the first or provisional board of directors, to serve until the first annual meeting in August, 1891. The original capital stock of the Emmet County Bank was $25,000. About two years after its organization, this bank was converted into the First National, which on January 1, 1917, reported a capital stock of $100,000; surplus and undivided profits of $50,000, and deposits of $500,000. The officers of the bank at that time were: J. P. Kirby, president ; M. K. Whelan, vice president; R. H. Miller, cashier. The bank occupies its own building on the northwest corner of Sixth and Lincoln streets.
The Bank of Estherville was started as a private bank in 1894 by F. H. & W. T. Rhodes. It continued as a private bank until May 1, 1916, when it was incorporated as the First Trust and Savings Bank, with a cap- ital stock of $35,000 ; F. H. Rhodes, president; W. T. Rhodes, vice president; I. C. Stanley, cashier ; C. D. Tedrow and E. A. Albright, assistant cashiers. A statement of the old Bank of Estherville and the First Trust and Savings Bank (combined) on December 1, 1916, shows a capital stock of $50,000; undivided profits of $16,872; and deposits of $670,000.
Articles of incorporation of the Iowa Savings Bank were filed with the county recorder on January 21, 1901, showing a capital stock of $20,000. The first board of directors was composed of E. J. Breen, president; M. J. Groves, vice president; Frank P. Woods, cashier ; and E. E. Hartung, John Montgomery, C. M. Brown and L. W. Woods, who were to serve until the third Tuesday in December, 1901. The articles were signed by the seven provisional directors and sixteen of the stockholders, among whom were some of the most substantial citizens of the county, and immediately after its incorporation the bank opened its doors for business on the southwest corner of Sixth and Lincoln streets, where it is still located.
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Since the opening of the Iowa Savings Bank the capital stock has been increased to $50,000. On January 1. 1917, it reported a surplus and undi- vided profit fund of $54,000 and deposits of $600,000. Mack J. Groves was then president of the bank; M. D. Miller and A. D. Root, vice presidents; L. E. Stockdale, cashier ; F. G. Crumb and F. W. Parsons, assistant cashiers.
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