USA > Iowa > Page County > History of Page County, Iowa : also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Vol. I > Part 33
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The Page county court house cost one hundred thousand dollars. Cla- rinda is the home of a state hospital for the insane, erected at a cost of more than a million dollars and caring for over a thousand patients. It has three brick schoolhouses which cost sixty thousand dollars, twelve churches, a Chautauqua which has been growing steadily for ten years until now it is recognized as one of the great Chautauquas of the west. There is also a winter lecture course, a public library, no saloons. There are three city parks, on one of which is held each year the Chautauqua and the county fair. Clarinda is shortly to have a new postoffice building costing forty thou-
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
sand dollars. Her postoffice is one of the second class, sending out each day three city carriers, eight rural carriers and two star route carriers. Bell and Mutual telephone lines have central offices here and both have toll lines connecting Clarinda with ail the surrounding country.
Clarinda is the home of the largest poultry, butter and egg plant in the west, employing between two and three hundred men and women. Cla- rinda has three good banks, in which the deposits amount to more than a million dollars ; a wholesale seed store, doing a quarter of a million dol- lars' worth of business every year ; four coal mines employing over a hun- dred men ; a well auger and cream separator factory, operating a complete foundry in connection and employing over fifty men; a large brick kiln, where thirty men find employment ; two lumber yards; a big clay and cement tile factory ; a large flouring mill ; five good hotels; two private hospitals ; two good laundries ; a broom factory ; bottling works; an incu- bator factory ; shoe nailing machine factory : cigar factory ; first class rug factory ; and candy kitchen.
The prosperity of the city is the result of the loyalty of its citizens and neighbors. The growth of the city enhances the value of all the land and property within a radius of many miles.
CLARINDA FIRE COMPANY.
The fire company has been coexistent with the organization of the city government and is well equipped to fight the destroying element for which its formation was the object. The company has twenty-two hundred feet of hose, wagons for hose and ladders and a Babcock extinguisher. By the time this work reaches the readers a paid fire department will have been installed, with a regular watchman night and day at the station and a team of horses for the hose wagon. The volunteer members of the company will be paid for their services as rendered, upon all occasions of fire. No con- flagrations have occurred which the fire company, aided by the water works, could not quench. Water can be thrown to the height of one hundred and sixty feet, while forty minutes of constant pumping does not exhaust the water supply given by the drive-well system.
FAIRS IN CLARIND.1.
In the earlier history of Page county and in fact the whole west, the land was almost wholly devoted to the cultivation and production of the cereals common to this latitude. The time was when agriculture was pursued to the almost entire exclusion of all else, but today this is all reversed. A revolu- tion has swept over all Iowa and the west in general, since the Civil war, which has had its effect upon business, settlement and commerce in such a manner as has brought the state forward among the ranks of its sister states with a rapidity unequaled in the history of the past. Iowa today ranks fore- most among the states of the Union. Of course this progress cannot be at- tributed to any one production or branch of industry but more to the natural
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resources and wealth of the soil, which dame nature has been so profuse in bestowing, together with that of stock raising. Page county, lying in the very best portion of the state and best fitted of any of the western counties for the growth of live stock, has improved her golden opportunities and hence grown wealthy by it.
It has all the natural advantages of an abundance of pure, running water and excellent grazing lands, while the soil is unsurpassed for the production of corn, the staple annual product. Thus she has attained her prosperity. The region of the famous Nodaway and Nishnabotna valleys has justly achieved a wide and merited reputation as a stock-producing country. The farmers are almost solely confined to corn, stock and fruit growing.
The Page County Agricultural Society was organized in the spring of 1859, George Ribble being elected president and Samuel H. Kridelbaugh, M. D., secretary. At the first meeting of the society, held at the court house at Clarinda, the third Saturday in June, the date of holding the first annual fair was fixed for the 14th and 15th days of October.
The first exhibition was held one-half mile north of Clarinda on land be- longing to Messrs. James A. Jackson and Henry Farrens. The first day of the fair was unfavorable, being rainy, but the next day came on fine, warm and clear. Men, women and children, with their stock, wares and produce, came pouring in early from all parts of the county until almost everybody wondered at the vast multitude of people who lived in their own county. The exhibit was large and creditable for that carly day. The grain and vegetable display surpassed that of stock. The exhibit furnished by the pioneer women was complete in all its departments. The amount of money received by the society on that first occasion was as follows :
Gate money $13.50
Received as membership 52.00
Received from the state 52.00
Total receipts $117.50
At the regular meeting of the society held at Clarinda, November I, 1859, the following officers were elected for the next year: James G. Laugh- lin, president ; A. Heald, vice president ; C. B. Shoemaker, secretary : George Ribble, treasurer ; I. Van Arsdol, J. P. West, H. Litzenburg, James A. Reed, James Black, Elisha Thomas, William Butler, Sebastian Fruits, James Martin, R. Brattin, directors.
At that meeting Messrs. N. L. Van Sandt, A. Loranz and J. C. McCand- liss were appointed a committee to select and locate grounds, with a view to their purchase by the society.
At a subsequent meeting Mr. Van Sandt on behalf of the committee re- ported as follows, in substance: "Your committee appointed to select perma- nent grounds, after a thorough examination of various points have selected the grounds occupied in part by the last fair, embracing all that parcel of ground lying east of the county road, on the south by the line of said tract until it strikes the south branch, thence down to the intersection with the north, thence up that to its intersection with the road at the northwest corner
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
of the lot, supposed to contain about ten acres of land. Of the above, nine acres belong to Mr. Jackson and one to Mr. Farrens. They propose to give a perpetual lease of the above grounds to the society, reserving the simple right of pasturing the same with sheep and cattle."
The report of the committee was accepted and steps taken to prepare the grounds for the second annual fair, which was held September 20, 21 and 22, of 1860. This exhibition proved a success. The following were the receipts : Received as membership $114.00
Received as gate money 25.00
Total $139.00
The society that year received one hundred and twenty-two dollars from the state fund, which, added to the above receipts left them after paying all expenses, four dollars and twenty-five cents.
The annual exhibition of 1861, owing to bad weather and the exciting times occasioned by the Civil war, was not a complete success. In fact from that date until the war closed in 1865, the Page County Agricultural Society, like most other public enterprises, struggled hard for an existence and very great credit is due to Dr. N. L. Van Sandt for the interest taken in behalf of the organization during those dark years that tried men's souls, and pocket-books as well.
In 1865 it became necessary to find new quarters and consequently the board of directors appointed Dr. Van Sandt a committee to locate and pur- chase grounds for the society. Hence it was that the grounds now occupied by the society, at least twenty acres of it, was bought and the annual ex- hibition of 1865 was held thereon. It was during that year that the society was reorganized under proper and legal articles of incorporation. This corporation was styled the Page County Agricultural (Stock) Society, its object being to set forth as "for the encouragement of scientific and prac -. tical agriculture, horticulture, stock growing, the mechanical arts and do- mestic manufacture by means of public lectures, fairs and the distribution of standard agricultural publications."
It was understood and stipulated that no stock could be sold to or held by persons not living in Page county. The officers of the newly incorporated society, beginning March 7, 1865, were as follows : David Abbott, president ; C. G. Hinman, James G. Laughlin and N. L. Van Sandt, vice presidents ; N. B. Moore, secretary ; Theodore T. Pendergraft, corresponding secretary ; James A. Jackson, treasurer ; S. H. Kridelbaugh, librarian ; William Butler, John R. Knox, T. H. Mckinnon, Samuel Nixon, G. H. Rumbaugh, J. C. McCandliss, H. N. Cramer, A. Loranz and J. P. West, directors ; David Ab- bott. J. R. Morledge and N. L. Van Sandt, financial committee.
Through the efforts of Dr. Van Sandt, N. B. Moore, William Butler and others, about two years later, 1867, the grounds were fenced and suitable buildings erected. These grounds are beautifully situated and now include twenty-six acres, all surrounded with fine shade trees-something unusual for fair grounds, which too frequently have a good "speed ring" more in view than comfort for those who exhibit stock, grain and manufactured
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
articles. The grounds contain a half-mile race course, sixty feet wide, said to be second to none in southern Iowa.
The officers from 1880 to 1890 were: 1880, C. W. Foster, president ; Jacob Butler, secretary ; 1881, same as for 1880; 1882, William Butler, president ; W. M. Alexander, secretary; 1883, same as for 1882; 1884, J. P. Burrows, president ; T. B. Merrill, secretary ; 1885, same as 1884 ; 1886, J. C. Welsh, president ; T. B. Merrill, secretary ; 1887, C. W. Foster, pres- ident ; T. B. Merrill, secretary ; 1888, Lewis Aiken, president; T. B. Mer- rill, secretary; 1889, Lewis Aiken, president; R. Loranz, secretary ; 1890, D. M. Thompson, president ; W. L. Lundy, secretary.
The fair of 1889, the thirty-first annual exhibition of the association, was by far the greatest of all, both in point of exhibit and financially. Over two thousand dollars were paid in premiums. The total receipts were three thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight dollars, and the amount paid out three thousand, four hundred and fifty-eight, leaving a net balance of four hun- dred and ninety-nine dollars. The exhibition lasted five days.
FAIR ASSOCIATION.
In 1896 The Page County Agricultural Society went into liquidation and the fair grounds, twenty-three and three-fourths acres, were sold at sheriff's sale, to Mary J. Park, in February of that year, and in July, 1901, she sold the land to the city of Clarinda for a sum of money that would ap- pear very insignificant when compared to the value of the property today. From this time until April 13, 1903, no fair was held at Clarinda. On the date mentioned H. E. Parslow, Hugh Miller, W. L. Lundy, Ed. Davidson, J. W. Cozad and I. Weil met at the court house to organize a corporation for the purpose of holding fairs, agricultural meetings, racing field meets, base- ball games and tournaments, at Clarinda. The association secured a char- ter and the first officers of the Clarinda Fair Association were : president, H. E. Parslow; vice president, W. L. Lundy ; secretary, J. W. Cozad. At a meeting held August 22, 1904, the capital stock of the association was in- creased from five hundred dollars to two thousand, five hundred dollars. In the fall of 1904 the first fair by this Association was held on the old fair grounds and was quite generously patronized. In 1905 Ed. Davison was elected president ; David Tharp, vice president ; Hugh Miller, treasurer ; and W. A. Henderson, secretary. In 1906 Charles E. McDowell became presi- dent ; George E. Clayton, vice president ; Hugh Miller, treasurer ; and J. C. Beckner, secretary. These officers were reelected in 1907, and in 1908-9 the official list was composed of George E. McDowell, president ; George Clayton, vice president ; E. G. Day, treasurer ; J. C. Beckner, secretary.
The Clarinda Fair is today one of the events of each year and the at- tendance increases from year to year. The exhibits are a revelation even to the native born Page county man or woman, and the attractions outside of the stock show and races are of a fairly refined character and of interest to the masses. The Association now numbers about two hundred members and its affairs are now in good shape.
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE AT CLARINDA.
With the increase of years the erection of a third hospital for the insane was found necessary, and the Twentieth General Assembly passed an act, making provisions for its creation. A commission was selected by Governor Sherman, composed of Hon. - - Bemis, ex-Senator E. J. Hartshorn and Hon. J. D. M. Hamilton, to locate the site for the institution.
A great struggle at once took place between rival towns of southwestern Iowa in the effort to secure the new state institution. After a careful and exhaustive survey of the situation by the commissioners they very wisely set- tled upon Clarinda as affording the most advantages. In securing the insti- tution for Page county credit should be given to a number of local men, citizens of Clarinda, who made special effort and gave of their time and purse to show the commissioners the great advisability of locating the hos- pital at this point, and through the untiring work of the Hon. William Butler and others, who served three terms as a member of the Iowa legislature, and while a member voted for the new state house, it came about and was Clarinda's fortune to secure this institution. Mr. Butler's splendid manage- ment in the contest for this hospital directed general attention to his efforts and brought forth many encomiums upon him. It was he who in the legis- lature of 1885 fought manfully in order that the bill asking for an appropri- ation to complete the building might not be defeated.
The sum of $180,000 was appropriated by the Twentieth General As- sembly and the next legislature appropriated $103,000. The appropriations being so small prevented the work from being done in the time limit. Upon the election of Gov. Larrabee the commissioners turned the work over to his charge and in the legislature he selected a board of trustees, consisting of the following gentlemen : E. J. Hartshorn, of Emmettsburg ; L. B. Raymond, of Hampton ; J. H. Dunlap, of Clarinda ; J. D. M. Hamilton, of Fort Mad- ison : and Edward H. Hunter, of Corning. This legislature also appropri- ated the sum of $102,000 for the completion of the building.
The board above mentioned elected E. J. Hartshorn, president : L. B. Ray- mond, secretary ; Lew E. Darrow, of Corning, treasurer. As resident officers they elected Dr. P. W. Lewellen, superintendent: J. M. Akin, assistant physician ; M. T. Butterfield, steward ; Mrs. Alice W. Lewellen, matron.
The main building was completed and ready to receive inmates, December 15, 1888. By January 1, 1889, the number of inmates was two hundred and forty-one. The additional buildings since erected have made this institution, with its many modern and expensive buildings and appurtenances, together with its thousand acres of land, cost the state considerably over one million dollars.
There is a main building which at one time was thought to be the largest connected building in the state and may be so now, consisting of twelve wards for men and thirteen wards for women, with a central administration building and chapel, a building containing kitchens, bake shop. apartments for domestics and other employes, a separate building for cold storage and artificial ice manufacturing, a building separate for laundry, another sep-
STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. CLARINDA
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
arate building containing an engine room and compressing machinery for the cold storage plant ; the plumbing room, all of these on the first story. The second story is occupied by a large, airy sewing room with power ma- chinery for the manufacturing of all sorts of garments and articles of wear. The third story is occupied by apartments for male employes. There are store rooms for the housing of hospital stores and provisions in the base- ment of all these buildings, being connected by a continuous corridor. With- in the last few years have been erected in addition a large cottage, named South View cottage, of entire fire proof construction for the accommoda- tion of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty men. This cottage is singular in the fact that it is without bars or any other hindrance to the windows. The doors are open and its inmates come and go at their pleas- ure during the hours of the day. In this cottage are domiciled the more trusty patients, many of whom work about the grounds, on the farms and gardens and about the barns and workshops, all these workers being so en- gaged at their own pleasure and without any compulsion whatsoever.
In the neighborhood of this cottage and a little to the north of it is a large commodious workshop with all necessary equipment, the basement containing bins for the storage of vegetables. On the first floor of the work- shop proper is a well selected assortment of machines and tools for the man- ufacture of furniture, brooms and other articles useful in the economy of the institution. The second story is occupied by the broom manufactory proper and the shoemaking shop, also mattress manufacturing equipment. All of these industries afford pleasant and beneficial employment to patients, besides playing an important role in the economy of the institution.
Directly cast of this workshop are the greenhouses. North of that is a paint shop for the storing and mixing of paints, entirely separate from all other buildings, so that in the event of fire there is no danger of communi- cation to other buildings.
North of the workshop is a pumping station, containing a full and com- plete equipment of fire extinguishing apparatus, consisting of two hose carts and a hook and ladder truck. They maintain three separate fire companies for the fighting of fire should it arise. In this same pumping station is a pump, which is one of four, which furnishes water for the supply of the in- stitution and a small boiler equipment to be utilized in the event of some serious happening to the main boiler equipment.
Directly north of this is a large cistern, with a capacity sufficient to sup- ply the household with necessary water for several days in the event of some accident to the regular pumps. In connection with the boiler room, which is north of the engine room, is a large coal house, having a capacity for some six to eight hundred tons of coal. The spur of the Chicago, Burling- ton & Quincy Railroad runs alongside of this coal house, so that the coal can be shoveled directly from the car into the house without handling or haul- ing.
North of the rear center buildings and connected by the same with a walk overlying a tunnel for the charging of pipes, wires and returns of various kinds, is another cottage, North View, so called, recently finished and oc-
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
cupied since about the 20th of January 1909. On the whole it is constructed on similar lines to those of South View cottage for men. This North View cottage is for the accommodation of from one hundred to one hundred and fifty female patients. It is of entire fire proof construction and is dis- tinguished by being exceptionally light and airy in all apartments.
Within the last two years a fine, sightly, well proportioned smoke stack has been erected to give additional chimney capacity for a much enlarged boiler plant, which has become necessary on account of the growth of the institution.
The policy of treatment of the institution has been directed towards mak- ing every inmate as comfortable as it is possible to do. A very large per- centage of men during the summer time, between forty and fifty per cent, are on ground parole, coming and going as they please with comparatively little surveillance, a privilege, which by the way, is seldom abused by the patients themselves. Everything about the institution is as home-like as it is possible to make it. The increased liberties in the surrounding neighbor- hood, a series of extensive entertainments and amusements, the maintenance of a regular orchestra and band and various agreeable occupations and diver- sions, are all maintained with a purpose to not only make the patient feel contented and make his stay pleasant, but directly tends toward a curative end. Similar privileges, entertainments and amusements are furnished for the women patients, though from the very nature of the malady, not as ex- tensive ground privileges can be granted to the women without surveil- lance. However, there are about one third of the wards during the sum- mer time, where the women patients have the privilege of going out on the grounds practically unattended and with only light supervision. Al! patients, men and women alike, are taken out on the grounds whenever the weather will admit of it, winter or summer, and there are many days during the sum- mer when the buildings themselves are practically empty from occupants, with the exception of those who may be sick or feeble, so as to require bed care.
The land in connection with the institution belonging to the state consists altogether of nine hundred and sixty acres, constituting five hundred and fifty-three acres where the main hospital is located, occupied by farm land, orchards, gardens (some forty acres of vegetable gardens), park, drives and pastures. Beside this the state owns three hundred and seven acres located three-fourths of a mile away from the east of the main building, consisting of first class farm land in Nodaway valley, with a large commodious farm building, affording an additional home for twenty-five trusty patients, under the care of a man and wife as attendant nurses. The liberties of this Wil- lowdale cottage, so called, are those of the ordinary farm home, there being no locked doors or barred windows of any sort. This farm colony is a pleas- ant feature in the institution and escapes here as well as among the patients who have the ground parole near the main institution, are of the very rarest occurrence ; and when occasionally a patient does get away, it is very often the case that he comes back of his own accord in a short time. In the spring of 1909 there were one thousand and sixty-five patients, divided so there are
-
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HISTORY OF PAGE COUNTY
about one hundred more men than women. There are probably twenty colored people.
Dr. Max E. Witte, the present superintendent of this great state institu- tion, was for seventeen years prior to coming to Clarinda, superintendent and assistant physician of the Mount Pleasant State Hospital for the Insane at Mount Pleasant, Iowa. He was appointed by the Board of Control of State Institutions, at Des Moines, superintendent of the Hospital for the Insane, at Clarinda, and took charge of affairs there October 1, 1898.
Too much cannot well be said in praise of the present superintendent, Dr. Max Witte. He is a man of vast experience as an alienist, seems to have perfect control of even his worst patients, and treats all with a kindness and sympathy scarcely ever found in public institutions.
THE CLARINDA CHAUTAUQUA.
It was in the winter of 1896 that J. L. McBrian, an organizer of Chau- tauquas, opened a correspondence with William Orr and H. E. Deater, then county superintendent of schools, and apprised them of the fact that in his estimation, Clarinda was an ideal place for a Chautauqua and desired to learn their opinion on the subject. Mr. Orr replied and coincided with the organ- izer in his judgment and gave Mr. McBrian his assurance that the citizens of Clarinda would be interested in a plan to institute an assembly at this place. That same winter Rev. C. H. White was called to the pastorate of the Christian church and prior to taking up his residence here had met Mr. Mc Brian. From this acquaintance and the Orr correspondence, Mr. Mc- Brian was induced to come to Clarinda, and upon his arrival he at once sub- mitted a proposition for the assembling of a Chautauqua in Clarinda the fol- lowing June. There and then the Chautauqua of Clarinda was born and the parents were about thirty of the influential business men of the town, who subscribed liberally to make the innovation a success. In the regular organ- ization Rev. J. F. St. Clair, of the Methodist Episcopal church, was elected president, and Rev. C. H. White, of the Christian church, secretary.
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