USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago counties, Iowa; together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 51
USA > Iowa > Winnebago County > History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago counties, Iowa; together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 51
USA > Iowa > Hancock County > History of Kossuth, Hancock, and Winnebago counties, Iowa; together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history; portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 51
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).
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 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113
The first hotel in the county was the hewn log building reared and kept by II.
404
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
A. Henderson, in 1856, as is stated else- where. This was known as the Wiscon- sin House, and was for several years the only place of entertainment for the weary traveler.
In 1864 a Mr. Harrison built a frame structure on east State street, which he called the Kossuth County Hotel. This building is yet standing and is used for the same business, although overshad- owed by later built and more pretentious rivals. This hotel is at present under the management of A. Rutherford, who has a large patronage among the farming com- munity.
The Cliff House, afterwards known as the Commercial House, was for some years the principal stopping place in Al- gona, but it is now closed. McGraw was the last landlord who met the guests at the door and made them welcome.
In 1870 a brick hotel, which went under the name of the Russell House, was erected opposite the court house. It was under the management and direction of several landlords until 1879, when G. N. Hancock became the proprietor. In Feb- ruary, 1883, Alexander Younie became owner and proprietor. The building was 66x90 feet in area, two stories high, and well constructed of brick. The ceilings were twelve feet high, and the house con- tained twenty-five good rooms, well fur- nished, comfortable and good accommoda- tions, and an affable landlord. What more could the tired guest ask? Mr. Younie is considerable of a capitalist and re il estate owner, and is one of the solid men of the community. This hotel burned down late in the winter of 1883.
A. Younie, formerly owner of the Han- cock House, is a native of Quebec, Canada, born Feb. 22, 1841. He was there reared and educated. Ilis parents, Alexander and Isabella (Lang) Younie, were natives of Scotland. llis father was an old sol- dier, and was in the British service during the Napoleon Wars. Ile died in 1857. Alexander is the eighth of a family of nine children. In the spring of 1865 Mr. Younie went to Fort Dodge, Iowa, and after a short residence there, went to Montana territory. In December, 1865, he returned to Fort Dodge, spending the summer of 1866 in Kansas and Missouri. In the fall of that year he engaged in farming in Humboldt Co., Towa, and in the spring of 1870 he went to Palo Alto county, being engaged in farming and stock raising. In February, 1883, he be- came proprietor of the Hancock House at Algona, Iowa. Mr. Younie was married Jan. 26, 1870, to Laura E. Elliott, a native of New York. They have three chil- dren-Nettie, Isabella and William A. Mr. Younie was a justice of the peace, a notary public, and a member of the board of supervisors while a resident of Palo Alto county. He was admitted to the bar in Ilumboldt county, and in 1876 prac- ticed at Roth, Iowa.
The present hotel known since its in- ception as the Bongey House started from a small beginning. In 1872 Alfred Bon- gey, the present proprietor, built a small building, which is part of the present hotel, and commenced the business of taking care of travelers. This is said to have been the first structure built of pine lumber in Algoun. The . material was hauled from Fort Dodge by team. As
-
405
IHISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
the years rolled on, these quarters grow- ing too confined for his ever increasing business, Mr. Bongey built the present commodious edifice. This now contains some forty-five rooms, and the presence of the genial host, draws a large share of the commercial travelers to the house.
Alfred Bongey, proprietor of the Bon- gey House, was born March 17, 1833, in York Co., Penn. In 1839 he removed with his parents to Jefferson Co., Ohio, where he lived until 1861. He then went to St. Joseph Co., Mich., remaining until 1869, then he came to Algona, and en- gaged in contracting and building. He was thus employed about four years, his first contraet being the college building. Ile also during that time worked on the court house. In 1872 Mr. Bongey erected a small building, being now a portion of his present hotel building, and engaged in the restaurant and boarding house business two years, then commenced keep- ing hotel. He has since that time made several additions to his hotel, until now he has one of the best equipped houses in the city. Mr. Bongey was married March 20, 1869, to Mary A. IIntehinson, a native of Michigan. They have four children -- Clifford W., Naomi B., Jacob S. and Fred. Mr. Bongey has been a member of the city council and is an influential citizen.
Among the varions businesses and pro- fessions carried on in Algona, but which are treated of in detail in the general county history, under their proper head, are two newspapers, the Upper Des Moines, under the management of Ing- ham & Warren, and the Republican, owned by Starr & Cowles; the following list of lawyers: George E. Clarke, C. P.
Dorland, J. B. Jones, W. L Joslyn, R. J. Danson, Quarton & Sutton, II. S. Vaughn, E. H. Clarke, B. F. Reed, F. M. Taylor, G. C. Wright, A. F. Call. J. N. Weaver, W. P. Coolbangh; and doctors: L. A. Sheetz, L. K. Garfield, S. G. A. Read, James Barr, L. E. Potter and A. Richmond.
No better history of the early Churches of Algona and Kossuth county could be prepared than is given by ; the Rev. W. II. Burnard, of the Congregational So- ciety, in a sermon delivered Aug. 15, 1883. The care and trouble exercised by this worthy divine in the compilation of these annals has been duly appreciated by the historian and the article is inserted in its entirety:
"Interest is always attached to the be- ginning of institutions; for the manner of their origin, and the reason for it, will usually account for what is peculiar to them afterwards; and then, the beginning itself is likely to have had a cause or at- tending circumstance, and to have sug- gested certain measures and expedients united to the time and place, that could not have occurred in other conditions, while the subsequent growth, with fewer limitations, falls into a conventional method and becomes commonplace. This is particularly true of Churches. The majority of them have about the same experience. The history of one is the history of many, with slight variations. But though their mission and the need of them is always and forever the same, the conditions in which they are born differ with the difference of city and country, age and size of communities, traits of their founders, and life in old settlements
406
IHISTORY OF KOSSUTHI COUNTY.
and on the frontier. For these reasons 1 shall give more time to the early than to the later history of the Church.
"A Church is usually a thought, a wish, a prayer, before it is an institution. And sometimes the thought not only begins to live a long while before the Church does, but it is born a long distance from the place where the Church is established and before the future site is selected. God, who gives the thought, knows where, when and how its prophecy will be ful- filled. This Church, on an Iowa prairie, was a thought floating in a good man's brain among the Green mountains of Ver- mont twenty years before it was organ- ized. For it was in 1838 that the Rev. Chauncey Taylor's attention was first called to Iowa, and he feltthen the missionary in- stinct to come here and organize Churches. Eighteen years later he started with a commission from the A. M. S. in his pocket, to labor in Iowa ; like Abraham, 'not knowing whither he went,' but, doubtless, with God's voice saying to him: 'Get thec out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, into a land that I will show thee.' 'And, al- though his attention had been called to Fort Dodge, which place he visited on his way, God showed him Algona, whieb the surveyors were just laying out, as he walked, about 3 o'clock r. M., April 19, 1856, into the town.
"As Father Taylor's name will be for- ever associated with the organization and carly history of this Church, and as the more recent comers among us never saw him, and yet have often heard him spoken of, I will try to bring him more dis- tinetly before you. He was born on a
farm in Williamsburg, Vt., Feb. 17, 1805, and was one of five brothers who became Congregational ministers. One other brother had the ministry in view but died before he reached that goal. One of his first religious impressions was upon hearing his parents talk about the heathen, at the time of the departure of the first mission- aries from this country, and he formed a resolution, which, through all his years of vanity and sin, as he tells us, he ever kept before him, to go to them with the glad tidings of salvation. Ile was converted at the age of seventeen and at once de- cided to become a minister. To be the better prepared to obtain an education, for which he depended on his own exer- tions, he learned the trade of clothier, and by working at this and teaching school and singing school, and working in the bible and Sabbath school cause, with alternate periods of study, he passed through acad- emy and college, graduating at the Uni- versity of Vermont in August, 1831. He was licensed to preach Dee. 11, 1833, by the Rutland Association, having held meetings some months previously, and studying theology, as he himself said, in the chimney corner. On the 17th of the same month he was married. Before coming west, he labored in Vermont for twenty years : James Island, South Car- olina, one year; and in New Hampshire two years ; in all about twenty-three years. So when he came to this place to do harder work, doubtless, than he had ever done before, with more exposure, and a call for new and original methods, at the age of fifty-one, he was ripe in experience and in the maturity of his powers. The older residents present remember his per-
407
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
sonal appearance as though he were be- fore them. Here is a description of him which the Rev. Dr. Whiting, of Dubuque, wrote to an eastern paper under the head- ing of 'The Patriarch of the Prairies,' · eleven years later : 'His head is white as the almond blossoms. The mild gray eye, gentle voice, alert motion and unbent form are yet his. This man who was not rugged, but who was strong of purpose, industrious, methodical and capable of deriving much happiness from humble sources, was the right person to step on the site of a new town, in a new country, even while the surveyor was still at work, to hunt and mess with the young men who had come west to make their for- tunes, and rear his home near theirs and live among them. The true pioneer must be able to dispense with luxuries and ele- gance, and in lieu of the established ways and ample resources of older communi- tie», he must be fertile of expedients and know how to make rude contrivances do efficient work. Yet he is not the man to mould the habits of new society and lay the foundation of future empire unless his innate taste and sterling moral earnestness are conspienons.' Happily, the pioneers of recent times were not men of the Dan- iel Boone type, hardy and adventurous, but hostile to refinement and wanting elbow room. The frontier is now being occupied by educated and religious men and women who carry the elements of civilization with them and welcome the gospel and the missionary. Father Taylor received as cordial a greeting from the young men who were here at the time as he would have had if he had come with a belt of money on his person to buy land.
Some who do not seem now to care mueh for religion or the Church then dispensed a generous hospitality to the self-invited missionary and encouraged him to stay. They would do just so again. The next day was Sunday, and the missionary preached to an audience of about twenty- five persons, which he said seemed like baptizing the town in its infancy, because it was so new. This was not the first ser- mon that was preached in Algona, for Rev. T. N. Skinner, then of Otho, had preached in Judge Call's house once in the preceding November, and somebody else had preached here before that, but it was the beginning of the first stated ser- vices by the first minister of any denomi- nation who came here to stay.
"The meeting was held in a little log house belonging to J. W. Moore, which was situated under the oaks near the pres- ent residence of Mr. Vaughn, and occu- pied as a bachelor's hall by several young men. And here the meetings continued to be held during the summer, or until Father Taylor's own house was ready and his family had joined him, when the min- ister's house became his study and the place of worship until the town hall was built. Occasionally, however, that sum- mer he preached in other houses, and he preached also statedly in Irvington, then the rival of Algona, and in other parts of the county. The seats then in style in these extemporized meeting houses were made of slabs, without backs, and were favorable to wakefulness and close atten- tion. A bed also was usually in the room. The first meeting in the town hall was held May 21, 1857-forty present.
408
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
"The materials for a Church organiza- tion at this time were very scarce. Few of the early settlers professed religion, and none of those who came first belonged to Congregational Churches. Still many people seemed to have faith for Algona, small as it was, first, that it would become a place of importance, and second, that the Church which could get the first start might become strong and influential. Ministers of other denominations soon followed Father Taylor, looking up lost sheep, and having a truly apostate zeal to organize Churches. Rev. Mr. McComb, a Presbyterian minister, came sometime that summer, and a missionary agent named Wells made a visit here soon after and organized a Presbyterian Church, the first in the county I believe. It is now extinct. The Congregational Church was next in order of time, but it was not or- ganized until more than two years after the missionary came. For the minister to come first and call for a Church, rather than to wait for a Church to call him, is the true way for a new country. This Church might never have come into being if the minister had waited for the few Congregationalists, who came here in an early day, to form a Church and invite some one to preach to them. As it was, only five persons were found who were ready to enter into it when the Church was organized, Aug. 15, 1858, which was the Sabbath. These were: Rev. C. Tay- lor, George D. Wheeler and wife, Mrs. Maria T. Wheeler, Eugenia Rist, now Mrs. L. Il. Smith, and Harriet E. Taylor, daughter of the minister, now Mrs. J. E. Stacy. Mrs. Taylor died Oct. 12, 1837, too soon to join. T. N. Skinner, already
spoken of, was present and assisted in the work. Let us try to see all the scene. The town hall was the nucleus of this, our present house of worship. Meetings of various kinds had been held in it since May 16, 1857; religions meetings of all . the denominations in the town, political meetings, club meetings, dances, shows, and the like. It stood on the lot, corner of State and Moore streets, east of Mr. Ford's warehouse, smaller of course than it is now. Cut off twenty feet of the rear of the house, and the entry, with the cupola and bell, bring the ceiling down to eleven feet, with no arch, let the wains- coting and doors be bare, unoiled black walnut, the walls lathed with thin split boards but not plastered, the seats of slab, and you have the scene inside. Outside of the house, inclosing quite a large space, perhaps the entire lot, was a stockade of perpendicular logs with the flat sides close together, with another log outside to cover each crack, making almost a double row of standing logs, put there at the time of the 'Indian scare' and mas- sacre at Spirit Lake, in March, 1857, and left standing until persons who wanted such logs had helped themselves to them all. It was feared at one time that the people would all have to crowd in there for safety. When the needless scare was over, as the people sat and worshipped in their snug retreat, they could have sung:
"With salvation's walls surrounded Thou may'st smile at all thy foes."
"Such was the place of meeting when the five persons above named, all of whom came from other Churches, stood up be- fore God and entered into covenant with Ilim and each other and became a Church
409
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
of Christ, and a branch of the universal Church. We do not know where Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler are now. The organizer has joined the Church triumphant above. The other two are with us. One of this number soon went back east, taking a letter-though she returned again-redue- ing the number to four. But James L. Paine united on profession March 10, 1859, making the original number good. On Feb. 20, 1860, Mr. and Mrs. Wheeler took letters, and the little band was re- duced to three. A Church of only three members after four years of hard mission- ary labor! Was not that discouraging? Who would have thought it strange if they had disbanded and the minister had sought a more promising field? Certainly few Churches have had a more feeble be- ginning and a more cheerless outlook soon after, even in a new country. The other Churches in the place, starting a little later, must have done better. I cannot find out when the Methodist Church was organized. The records which are at hand only run back to 1862. Perhaps the Church never had a distinct beginning but eame by evolution. According to Father Taylor, a Methodist minister by the name of Lawton, from Fort Dodge, commeneed preaching here early in No- vember, 1857, and he held a protracted meeting in December with good results. The Baptist Church was organized on the 18th of May, 1861, with sixteen members, one year after the discouraging period for this Church referred to.
" Providentially the time of gloom did not last long. The little band held to- gether and slowly their number increased. One person was added to them by profes.
sion in 1861, and another in 1862, and then the next year the pastor held a pro- tracted meeting, assisted by Rev. Mr. Os- borne, of Webster City, the result of which four were added to the Church on profession of their faith and one by letter, thus doubling the original number. From this time on the records show that the Church had a slow but steady growth.
"On the 16th of December, 1865, the Church voted to take steps to organize as a corporate body. This resulted in the organization, Feb. 6, 1866, of the Con- gregational Society, which is distinct from the Church, and holds its property. No deacons were appointed for the Church until Jan. 27, 1866, over seven years after the Church was formed, when Matthew Hudson, M. D. and August Zahlten were chosen, and they have been our deacons ever since, with the addition of David Paterson, who was first elected in March, 1877. The Church and minister engaged in Sabbath school work almost, perhaps quite, from the beginning, but I give no account of our present flourishing Sab- bath school because that will be given in a separate paper. The deaths, too, will receive fitting mention by another, so I will not need to speak on that sad theme. The baptisms in the Church, infant and adult, interesting parts as they are, will have to go unchronicled. I find in the minutes the first mention made of the ladies' sewing eirele, under date of Aug. 31, 1867, when they presented a beautiful communion set to the Church, the same that we now use A separate paper will tell of the ceaseless and beneficent activi- ties of that society from its beginning, and of how much the present prosperity
410
HISTORY OF KOSSUTHI COUNTY.
of the Church is due to its always timely help.
" This Church was one of five which en- tered into the organization of the North- western Association at Webster City, Feb. 10, 1859. Its minister was one of the three who were present and took part on that occasion. This aet brought the Church into formal fellowship with the other Congregational Churches of the State. In the year 1876 the Church with- drew from this connection and united with the Mitchell Association, along with the minister, for the better convenience of attending the annual meetings.
"Up to 1867 Father Taylor had only been the stated supply, or aeting pastor of the Church. That year he was installed by a unanimous vote of the Church, the society concurring. This was the first in- stallation in northwestern Iowa, and one of the very few that have ever taken place here. The Church then had over thirty members, and felt sure of its exis- tence and hopeful for the future. This marriage after a nine years courtship took place on the 8th of September, 1867, which was the Sabbath. The eonneil ealled by the Church, consisting of the Churches of the Northwestern Association and their ministers, and other Churches and minis- ters, had convened on the 6th, had exam- ined the candidate and sustained all the action of the Church and pastor elect. It must have been a very interesting event to the Church, and a rich treat for the com- munity. A crowded house witnessed the services. Dr. Whiting, of Dubuque, preached the sermon. Dr. Guernsey, then superintendent of the American Home Missionary Society for Iowa, moderator
of the couneil, a giant in stature and in- telleet, with a heart correspondingly big, gave the charge to the pastor. Other parts were by Revs. J. C. Strong, W. F. Harvey, HI. T. Thompson and C. F. Boyn- ton. This new and closer relation to the Church made the pastor very happy.
"But up to this time the Church had no house of worship of its own, but contrived to hold its meetings in the town hall. This building, with the lot, belonged to a joint stock company and was held by shares of $10 each. There were twenty of these shares. Why the society chose to buy this property rather to build anew, I have not been informed. Neither do I know how much money, if any, was given by the Church and congregation for this purpose. The American Congregational mission made the society a present of $250, and Deaeon Field, of Arlington, Mass., gave $50 more. And with the money raised the house was purchased, as the record says, extended, remodeled and repaired, and was dedicated on the 20th of September, 1868, to the service of the Trinne God.
"The sermon was by Rev. E. C. Miles, of Belmond. When the lot on which the church stood was sold in 1878, it was found that two shares had never been bought in by the society. They were held by a Mr. Gilbert, then living in Waterloo. Ile relinquished them for $20, their origi- nal value. They were then worth, accord- ing to the price received for the lot, $75, and would be worth double that now.
"Two years after the dedication of the house, the question of building a new meeting house was again agitated and a meeting was appointed for the considera-
411
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
tion of the matter, but nothing came of it. Improvements have been made on the building since then and the bell which calls us together was procured in 1876. The house was found to be too small for the growing congregation, and the Church occupied the Baptist meeting house for over a year and the court house all of one summer (1878), during which time the house was moved to its present site and enlarged by the addition of twenty feet, the ceiling raised and arched, these chairs procured, and other improvements made.
"Father Taylor continued to be the pas- tor of the Church until the year 1873, giv- ing Algona seventeen years of labor. He labored as a missionary at large in the county about three years after that. Ile first offered his resignation in November, 1872. This was not accepted. A council called after this to consider the matter again, advised that he retain his place and that a junior pastor be employed. Very judicious advice for a weak Church! He was finally dismissed by another council on the 25th of June, 1873. He had done a good work. A Church had been founded and instructed in God's immutable truth, and souls had been converted. IIe had identified himself with about every good public movement of his time and place. All parts of the county witness to his faithful and self-denying labor. Ile in- terested himself in education. He taught the first singing school in the county, and he either originated or encouraged all the associations formed in the early day for the instruction and improvement of the people. On his seventieth birthday peo- ple from all parts of the county came to- gether to show their respect and pay the
debt of gratitude to one who had done so much for them. We buried him with the tears and honors due to a fallen Christian soldier, on the 3d of March, 1876. The period of his ministry here was, in the main, that of hardship and privation, when people lived in log cabins and sod houses and traveled in stages, or more frequently with oxen, in canoes and on foot, the most independent and rapid way of all. It was the period of insecurity and ex- citement ; a formation period with change and loss attending it; the period of In- dian scares ; of the war and reconstruc- tion, and at last, I believe, the grasshop- pers.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.