History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 77

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879

USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 77

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The grasshoppers came in 1873 and destroyed a great deal of the crops that year and all of them in 1874. By the close of 1875 nearly all of these home-

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steaders had left the country, but the Peltons, Dormoys and Rahms refused to leave on account of the scourge. Martin and Joseph have become the owners of much valuable land and are rated among the influential and wealthy of that township.

The plat of the village site of St. Benedict was filed on record by Geo. C. Call, July 3, 1899, after it became known where the line of the Iowa Central was to run through the township. Twelve blocks were surveyed for the site, and then improvements began to be made. Most of the business houses have an east front on the main street.

The Peoples Savings Bank was organized in January, 1900, with Geo. C. Call as president ; Martin Rahm, vice president, and Frank Van Erdewyk, cashier. In July, 1902, E. J. Murtagh became the president, and in 1904 Joseph Rahm was made vice president and Leo J. Wegman the cashier.

In January, 1906, Martin Rahm was elected president, and in May, 1907, E. F. Rahm, son of Vice President Joseph Rahm, was elected cashier. These are the present officers of the bank. Mrs. E. F. Rahm is assistant cashier and is a valuable addition to the office force. The bank being located in the center of a wealthy farming community is more of a local deposit bank than of one making local loans.

The village has one store of general merchandise and that is owned by F. W. Mulert, building and all. His wife is a daughter of Joseph Rahm, the previous proprietor. Those in order preceding him have been Kuchartz and John Mat- tice, the latter having started the business on the village site soon after it was platted. Before the birth of the village, John Bural started the store down by the church. He sold to Jacob Fehr, who in turn sold to Theo. Hennes, and he to August Studer. The latter sold to Mattice who moved to the site. Under the management of Mr. Mulert and wife the business has prospered.

The hardware store is owned and run by John M. Witte, who has been the proprietor for seven or eight years. This business has developed out of a store of general merchandise and hardware, started by Mr. Witte and his brother Nich, soon after the town started. The store is in a flourishing condition and having a large trade. Mr. Witte is also the present postmaster.

Martin Rahm & Company are the proprietors of the lumber enterprise which was started in 1899. The local manager is J. L. Roskopf, who came in 1886. The Moore elevator is managed by Nich Roskopf, and the only black- smith shop is run by Herman Erickson. The station agent is Harlan Morgan, who succeeded A. W. Frazer last October. He is the son of Agent J. H. Mor- gan at the Algona depot of the M. & St. L. road. The principal carpenter and contractor is John G. Immerfall, who located in 1884.

The creamery business is a private enterprise owned by two sons of Joseph Rahm-Joseph, Jr., and E. F., the bank cashier. They began in 1909 by resur- recting the business which the farmers had started in 1900, and which had been allowed to collapse. The butter-maker is Frank Halderman of Des Moines.

The Catholic church buildings are by far the most imposing and attractive structures in the whole township. The church edifice, the school building and the parsonage are of magnificent proportions, beautiful in design and kept in best of repair. These have all been erected during the administration of Father Anthony Erdemann, who took charge during the year 1891, and is still

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the local priest. The church was built in 1894, the parsonage in 1896 and the school building in 1899.

The church was organized by Father Eberhard Gahr, who came to the township in 1877. He brought in a colony the next year and built the first parsonage. In 1879 the first church edifice was built by him. The first services were held in the old church August 15, 1879. This first priest was succeeded by Father Eckert in 1889, and two years later he in turn was succeeded by the present priest, Father Erdemann.

The Pelton school house, erected on section 23 during the year 1876, was the first to be built, and the next was on section 18 in 1883, and Justina Zumach was the initial teacher. Granted schools, held in private houses, were held in later years when there were not enough pupils in the districts to justify the board in building regular school houses.

At the present time there are in the township about fifty republicans, and the remainder are democrats. The political strength in 1882, at the first elec- tion, was four republicans and twenty-six democrats. For several years fol- lowing that event John Longbottom, E. B. Pelton, David Arbuckle and a man by the name of Bradly were about all there were to hold a republican caucus.

In the extreme northeast corner of the township M. C. Mattern has made his home about ten years, but in the northwest corner Silas Stevens, who located in the latter sixties, lived when caught in a tumbling rod of a threshing machine and killed.

W. S. Pelton lives on the old home place with his mother, the father having died years ago. John V. Mulert came in the latter eighties and had his home until his death on the east fourth of section 20. The names of Jacob and John Faber suggest days of the early eighties when the family first became residents of the county. W. F. Mattern on section 11 lives in a region where some of the most productive farms were before he became a resident. The Studers, the Ludwigs, the Arndorfers, the Lichteigs, the Gormans and scores of others have done well financially with their Prairie township investments, and even those like O. M. Huber and F. M. Wolfe who came at a more recent date are getting to the front with success. Of the various farms, Joe Rahm's Fair View Stock farm near the village of St. Benedict, seems to be the most favorably located.

IRVINGTON TOWNSHIP, VILLAGE AND SEXTON

The present township of Irvington is very different in size and form from the large one of that name established by the county judge in the spring of 1857. All of the present township was included in the large territory, except the north two and one-half miles which then belonged to Algona township which went northward to the Minnesota line.

In January, 1872, the board of supervisors increased Irvington township by the addition of all that part of 95-28 belonging to Algona township. The resi- dents of both townships raising objections to that order, the board at its June. 1872, session rescinded the action. In February, 1883, the form of the town- ship was very materially changed by the board. It was made to embrace all of 95-28 and all of the present Riverdale east of the river. When the latter town- ship was formed in June, 1885, it left Irvington with only the territoy in 95-28.

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THE ONLY REMAINING BUILDING OF OLD IRVINGTON Built in 1857 by James G. Green for a tailor shop. Dr. Armstrong had his store in it for many years

PIONEER CABIN OF HIRAM WILTFONG (1855) The oldest cabin now intact in the county. It is now used as a barn by Charles Reinecke, one mile north of Irvington

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In June, 1887, a portion of sections 12 and 13, 95-29, was attached to Irvington, making the size of the township as it is at the present time.

At the time the first claims were taken in the fall of 1854, and the first cabins were built in that vicinity during the year 1855, there were no town- ships in the county. In the spring of 1856 the county judge made Algona town- ship constitute all the territory that is now embraced in the county; and in the spring following, as above stated, old Irvington township was established.

An account of how the pioneer village of Irvington flourished for a few years and then went to decay and passed out of existence, has been presented in Chapter IX; and of how Irvington almost succeeded in capturing the county seat has been told in Chapter VIII. In this latter chapter, furthermore, a nar- rative of the early settlements in what is now Irvington township appears. Since much of the early history pertaining to the township has been historically noticed in these preceding chapters, only a slight reference to some of these events is all that is necessary in this chapter.

John Gaffney, on the northeast quarter of 19, is living on what was the first claim taken. Archambyses Benson took that tract for his claim in the fall of 1854. A few weeks later Solomon Hand claimed on the south part of 31, but neither he nor Benson made any improvements.

April 29. 1855. the Malachi Clark family became the first settlers by the purchase of Benson's claim, and by taking possession. The first cabin, however, was built by Reuben Purcell in June at the head of the grove, northeast of Clark's, at a location still known as Purcell's Point. W. G. Clark, August 5, raised his cabin on the southwest quarter of 19, now the home of R. J. Skilling. The Hiram Wiltfong cabin was erected August 12 on the northwest of thirty and is still well preserved and in use for a barn on the F. C. Reinecke farm.

At least three other cabins were built in the township during the year 1855. Jacob Wright, who had bought out Solomon Hand's claim, came and erected his cabin as early as in June. In the following month the Thomas Robison fam- ily came, and after occupying that cabin for a short time moved into their own which they had built on the northeast of 31. The Philip Crose family, who came with the Robisons, built their cabin on a portion of the southwest of 19, a little southwest of the present home of the Manns. In that cabin. August 25, 1855, occurred the first birth in the county when Joe and James Crose were born twins. During the month of October of that year Young, Treat and Smith had a log hotel put up on the future townsite of Irvington. So far as can be remembered these were all the cabins built prior to 1856.

The village having started in 1856 and the saw mills put in operation, no other cabins were ever constructed in that township. Numerous settlers came during that year and a few succeeding ones, whose names are given in the preceding chapters to which reference has been made.

The first building to be used exclusively for a school house was built by John Allison for his home on the northeast quarter of section 32, but bought by the township in 1860 and moved near the road on R. J. Skilling's north line. J. R. Armstrong was the first to teach at that point. The next building was the Mckibben claim shanty which was being used for a part of N. A. Knouff's house on the Mathers' farm. The same teacher also taught there first in the winter

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of 1860-61. The first school taught in the township, however, was by Miss Anda- lusia Cogley in the summer of 1857, in the new town hall.

The first breaking done was by Malachi Clark in 1855, and the first wheat was raised by Jacob Wright during the following year.

The present village of Irvington came into existence after the total collapse of the old village of pioneer days, and is located just south of the original town site. Not only has the first town disappeared with its grim old fort, but every one of its inhabitants from the community. In fact J. B. Robison is the only person in the whole township who was there during the war period. Nor is there any other person in the extensive territory that once constituted old Irv- ington township except Barnet Devine, in the southern part of Riverdale.

A few of those who were in the township during the war, and prior to that time, are living in Algona, among whom are Mrs. Kinsey Carlon, Mrs. D. W. Sample, Mrs. Thos. Robison and son Wesley, B. F. Reed and brothers Albert and Will, Hiram Wright, Mrs. Iva Wright Crook, Mrs. Josephine Green Cram- mond and D. W. King and wife.

When the Northwestern Railway company ran its line through the township diagonally towards the northwest, the Western Town Lot Company platted the site for the present village and filed it on record Sept. 24, 1881. Six blocks and four out lots constituted the size of the site, but in January, 1885, four of these blocks with their streets and alleys were vacated.

When the depot was built Jess Daniels became the first agent. Those in order since his retirement have been Fred .Miller, W. H. Hockett, Lucian Clark, Fred Clark, Bucholz, Jackson, Gillahan, A. C. Brown, Verne Larimer and Ray Watson, the present incumbent.

The postoffice is the continuation of the one established in old Irvington in 1857. Geo. Smith was the first postmaster, but in a short time L. L. Treat be- came his successor and held the position until 1863 when J. R. Armstrong suc- ceeded him. During the early seventies he resigned, and the office for the first time left the village site, and went to Daniel Chapman in the northeast corner of Riverdale. He conducted the office until 1875 and then resigned, as the office was too much bother for the value received.

In May, 1882, B. C. Minkler settled in the new village, and the postoffice be- ing resurrected, he became the next postmaster. Kinsey Carlon, O. J. Olson, Fred Clark, C. J. Dutton, H. A. Lewis and J. M. Watson have in turn held the position. Dutton and Lewis each retained the place for ten years. David Blythe's residence, built in May, 1882, was the first building in town. A man by the name of Willson began blacksmithing first, but Mr. Blythe soon succeeded nim and has been pounding iron ever since at the same old stand.

Frankl Brothers own and run the only general store in town, and it is one that would do credit to the county seat if located there. Early in the history of the vil- lage, J. D. Starks put up the first store building and began selling general merchan- dise with O. J. Olson as partner. After six months Starks sold to B. C. Minkler, who in turn sold to Daniel Heath, who owned the building when it burned to the ground. John Ludwig put up the building now occupied for a hardware store, and put in a general stock. Joseph Dunwoodie, a year later, became the owner, and later sold to C. J. Dutton. The latter then erected for himself the main building now occupied by the Frankl Brothers. After ten years he sold the building and all

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to H. A. Lewis, who after the same length of time sold to the present proprietors.

The hardware store is owned and conducted by Neal Neilsen and Leo Dole, under the firm name Neilsen & Dole. This partnership began in May, 1912, but Neilsen had previously bought the stock of H. A. Lewis. Albert Butterfield, H. A. Lewis, Dunn & Devine and J. Jacobs had formerly been proprietors of the store. The enterprise was started by the latter in June, 1883, and he and most of the others did well financially. The present firm is certainly prospering. The build- ing is owned by Frankl Brothers and is in a good location.

In the building containing the hardware store is Edward Johnson's bank, which is attended to by Neal Neilsen in connection with his store business. This provision for loans and deposits was made a couple of years ago.

The firm of Bedell Brothers runs the elevator and deals in lumber and tile. This business is conducted on the square and the proprietors as the result have made friends of their many customers. Butler. Molstre & Co. began operating in the grain business at that point first, soon after the depot was established. By degrees the lumber enterprise was added to the other line. In turn, Hough Bros., Oniel & Sarchett and Joseph Dunwoodie became the proprietors. About fourteen years ago the latter sold to Jesse Bedell, who ran the business for three years, and then sold a half interest to his brother B. D. Bedell. To the other lines this firm added tile and supplied the wants of the farmers in that line.

The creamery business was first started in that vicinity as early as in June, 1875, when an association was formed by the following interested parties : J. R. Armstrong. D. W. Sample, Kinsey Carlon, Richard Hodges, A. D. Barker, A. M. Johnson, R. P. Wright, Thomas Robison, G. M. Parsons, Joe Raney, H. C. Par- sons, H. H. Patterson, Charles Harvey, Z. C. Andruss, G. M. Johnson, David Dutton and John Davidson. After this country enterprise had collapsed, the Irv- ington Co-operative Creamery Company was organized, and the factory started in the present village. The company incorporated in March, 1894, and made as first directors R. P. Wright, C. R. Lewis, W. W. Raney, Albert Bush and S. R. Roney. The present directors are F. C. Reinecke, president : John Leigh, vice-president ; A. P. Ives. secretary ; M. L. Roney and Ed Hammer.

The Irvington Cement Company was incorporated April 12, 1910, with the fol- lowing directors : H. A. Lewis, president ; J. O. Paxson, secretary ; E. E. Conner, treasurer ; J. H. Dunn, general manager ; W. H. Bingaman, A. Butterfield, A. P. Ives, M. L. Roney, W. Alger, Henry Steussy, M. E. Johnson, L. J. Dickinson, John Leigh, E. S. Johnson and Ed Blackford. Substantial buildings were erected, adequate machinery installed, and the necessary help employed. For a couple of years the plant manufactured a considerable amount of tile which found ready sale, but of late the enterprise does not appear to have prospered, and no one seems to be able to report its present condition.

The Presbyterians have the only church edifice in the village, and hold the only religious services, the pulpit being supplied by Rev. F. A. Smiley, of Algona. The edifice is the only one ever built in either the old or the present village. It was built soon after the village started. The schoolhouse was built about that time. The teacher doing service there during the winter of 1912-13 is Miss Mattie Austin.

Sylvester Rist has lived longer in the county than any other man in the vil- lage, having located near Algona in 1856.

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A few of the sons of the very early settlers are living in the community ; Grant Sample on his father's old farm southeast of the village ; J. B. Robison on a por- tion of the old Carlon farm; Horace and Nathan Mann on their father's place on section 19; Charles Mathers on his father's old farm, and James A. Armstrong on the east half of the southeast quarter of section 21. To an old settler it seems strange to see some of those old landmark-places in the township occupied by others. The Tom Robison farm south of town is owned by Albert Butterfield ; the old Carter farm a mile and a half north of it by Charles Reinecke ; the old Samuel Reed farm, on the Ridge on section 21, by C. R. Lewis; the T. J. Clark premises by A. P. Ives and the Carlon farm by M. L. Roney.

Perry Burlingame's "Kossuth County Heights," on section 22, and the adjoin- ing farms on the south, mark the location of the most eastern settlements on the Ridge during the war. Mr. Burlingame came in 1869, but ten years previous to that time Riley Mason and brothers had taken possession of most of the section. Later when Joe Steil, Albert Reed and G. C. Burtis located on the south line of 23, and the Gormans and Ferstls on 24, their homes seemed a long distance out on the Ridge.

The Hugh Black farm on the southeast quarter of 8 was once the home of A. F. Willoughby. an early-day surveyor, and the eighty just south of where August Johnson has been living for a quarter of a century was the former claim of Levi Parsons, an 1856 settler, and the Robert Buchanan farm was the home of another.

In the fall of 1864 Dr. M. H. Hudson and N. A. Pine took their homesteads on the north half of section 2, and C. M. Dickinson at the same time took his just across the line in the adjoining township on the north. When they came and formed the Dr. Hudson settlement, there were no settlers in the county east of them and none came until the Dormoy boys settled on section 6 in Prairie township, several years later. Every section in the whole west half in the township has its interest- ing history, but want of space prevents further mention.

Numerous parties living in the northeast portion of the township have been there for a long time, James McEnroe, for instance, for over forty years. In the township are many fine farms and some of them are quite large, among them being the Hutchins farm of 480 acres, one-third of which belongs to C. B. Hutchins and the remainder to his father. Perry Burlingame's farm is also of equal size. A. J Keen is perhaps one of the most successful dairymen, and J. E. McWhorter is living on the highest priced farm home ever purchased in the township, the price per acre being $150. T. J. Julian, on the old Lund farm. has the most extensive herd of purebred cows and is the most successful breeder of high priced stock, his herd being the Holsteins. His patronage is the largest of any at the Algona creamery.

The present township officers are M. D. Reilly, clerk ; A. J. Keen, F. L. Powell and Ed Hammer, trustees ; and J. A. Armstrong, assessor. The schoolboard ard officers are H. J. Aman, president ; A. D. Hadley, secretary ; Nels Johnson, treas- urer ; M. J. Wolfe, Ben Gould, C. J. Sill, John Erpelding, John Grafing. M. D. Reilly and M. J. Schichtl.

The village of Sexton, on the Milwaukee road, contains about one hundred in- habitants. The plat of the site was filed on record by the owner, Col. R. H. Spen-

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cer, December 6, 1889. Stitz Way was on the ground early and opened the Citi- zens Bank, which is now run by McCorkle & Johnson, the junior partner, Nels Johnson, being the cashier and manager. This firm also deals in hardware and other like articles. The Farmers Security Bank is one of the presperous institu- tions with Edward Johnson as its president ; A. M. Peterson, cashier ; and Edna Johnson. vice president. This bank was originally started and conducted by Guy Butts of Wesley. He was the president, L. E. Kratz, vice president ; and Edward Johnson, cashier. Johnson & Nelson as a side line deal in farm ma- chinery.

There are two general stores, one conducted by Geo. E. Olson who succeeded Hart & Chitty about six years ago, and the other by C. A. Little, the successor of Bert Saunders. He has been operating there for four or five years in that line and having drugs in connection. Mr. Little is the postmaster and has Clara Goeddertz for his assistant. She is also the "hello" girl at the telephone. W. J. Hager was the first postmaster, and those following have been John Hour, E. A. Laage, Della Hager, C. A. Little, Della Hager, and now again C. A. Little.

The hotel, owned by Colonel Spencer, is being run by Landlord Straballa. The building was erected early in the career of the village by Bert Maston. The A. A. Moore lumber yard is conducted by Geo. Aman. This enterprise was started by Frank Hume and was well patronized by the farmers in that vicinity for several years. The Reliance Elevator, which the Bender Bros., operated for a long time, having ceased to be used, gives the Hunting Elevator Company, a monoply of the grain business, J. J. Bird being the local manager. The Farmers Co-operative Creamery Company, which has been doing a thriving business for a dozen years or more, has for its buttermaker Lawrence Larson.

The first blacksmith was Erastus Fitch, but he has passed away and now C. M. Peterson is left to carry on that line of work.

The Ann Spencer M. E. church was named in honor of the mother of the founder of the village. Among the number of local pastors who have conducted services there have been Revs. Plummer, Case, Montgomery, Harwood, Alexander. Wardle and the present pastor, Rev. H. L. Blair, who lives at Wesley. The little schoolhouse that was mysteriously moved to the edge of the village from the prairie, about one mile and a half southwest, is still doing service, Ellen Carlton being the present teacher. This removal occurred soon after the growth of Sexton began.

One feature of the little village is remarkable-both sides of the main street have cement sidewalks. The best residence is that of Edward Johnson's which Frank Hedrick built and owned in the early years of the town, and the most substantial business building is the one owned by J. R. Savage in which Geo. E. Olsen has his store. At the depot the wants of the traveling public are attended to by the agent, W. Z. Miller. Although the village is small, farmers like A. J. Lehman, Wm. Kutschara, Gentz Peterson and Robt. Pine have retired and are making that place their home.

The M. & St. L. Ry. Co. is preparing to establish a station on the southeast quarter of section 9, in the spring of 1913, to be called Rich Point. A large elevator is among the improvements contemplated.

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"THE ROMAN EMPIRE"

Irvington township, as declared established by County Judge Asa C. Call, at the March, 1857, session of his county court, comprised the south nine and one- half miles of the present county lying east of the center of the Des Moines river channel. This township, known in local historical circles as Old Irvington, re- mained undisturbed in its boundaries for more than twenty years. It comprised all of the present townships of Lu Verne and Sherman, the south three and one-half miles of Prairie and Irvington and that part of Riverdale lying east or south of the river. The range of hills, beginning just north of the village, and extending eastward to Prairie creek, separating the high lands from the lower on the south, has constituted the "Ridge" since the 1854 settlers began to arrive. That term has been used by the citizens of the southeastern part of the county with a specific meaning since they first beheld with admiring eyes that conspicu- ous elevation of fertile soil. Nor is it known by that term only by those who reside in that region. To many in Algona at the present time "down on the Ridge" means that same particular range of hills with the adjacent table land.

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History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 77

Author: Reed, Benjamin F Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 879

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879