USA > Iowa > Poweshiek County > History of Poweshiek County, Iowa: a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume 1 > Part 18
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
Eli P. Clark, now of Los Angeles, California, son of F. B. Clark mentioned elsewhere, was a student in Grinnell, later a country school teacher, a tax col- lector, anditor for Arizona, three times by appointment of John C. Fremont and twice by his successor, president and general manager of the Pasadena and Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway, etc., etc., and is president of the Mt. Hood Railway Company, an officer in several large benevolent enterprises, and his pocket book is frequently emptied into benevolent treasuries. A student and a country school teacher here,-yonder a railway prince!
Freeman Richard Conaway was born in Brooklyn, Iowa, August 24, 1859, a son of Dr. John Conaway, a leading physician, politician, and man of the earlier period. Freeman attended the Normal School at Cedar Falls, taught school, was editor of the Chronicle, an influential editor, a state printer, and is now, as editor of the Ames Intelligencer, making it a power among our ablest news- papers. His most widely known public service was, doubtless, as secretary of the Iowa commission to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, at St. Louis, in 1904. That commission conveyed to him "their entire and complete satisfac- tion" with his work and assured him that he had earned the heartiest praise of the commission and of the people of Iowa. This has been the characteristic of his public service since its earliest period.
Herbert Strong Miller's reputation is already established. With an appren- ticeship of three years in New York under the tutelage of such men as Francis Fischer Powers, Dr. Duft and Charles Clark and a period of five years of study in Paris, he was thoroughly equipped for the successful work he is now doing. From his studio in the Fine Arts building in Chicago, he goes out for the pur- poses of choir work, concerts, recitals and oratorios.
Dr. George E. White, born on missionary ground in Eastern Turkey, was a resident of Chester and of Grinnell, a graduate of the college. He was a good scholar in college, the impulse to be a missionary was abiding. Esther B. Rob- bins, daughter of Dr. A. B. Robbins, was like minded and accepted his name. They flew away to Marsovan and Anatolia College, where he was made dean and was at times called to the head of the institution, but he chose rather to study the revelations of the Hittite region, where he found himself. Some scholars, intending to be fair and thinking they were learned (and they were somewhat ) had doubted the accuracy of the biblical intimations concerning the Hittites' power, yet later research, like Dr. White's show them to have been the peers of Egypt at its best, and not comparable with the American Choctaws, as they imagined.
Miss Jessie Christian, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. G. M. Christian, of Grinnell, the latter of recognized musical ability, has already entered upon what promises to be a brilliant musical career. With two years of study in New York, sup- plemented by five years in Paris under Juliani and Bouvet, she was quite ready for a season's engagement as soprano legere in both opera grand and opera com- ique in the city of Bordeaux, France. She was fully prepared to sing the eight- een roles allotted to her in as many operas. Operas in which she appears in
160
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
especial advantage are Thais, Les Huguenots and Rigoletto. An engagement which she has made for the winter season of 1911-12 at Monte Carlo will doubt- less add to her laurels.
Matthew Simpson Hughes, born in Virginia, took a liberal cash prize in West Virginia University for the best oration after having stumped the state success- fully for the republicans in 1880, when he was eighteen years old. After grad- uating at West Virginia University he preached in this county several years, was called to Portland, Maine, in 1891, then to Minneapolis, three and a half years later to Kansas City, Kansas, and next to Pasadena, California.
Edwin Holt Hughes, born in what is now. West Virginia, studied in West Virginia University, in Ohio Wesleyan University, and in Grinnell College, but took his degree from the Ohio Wesleyan. He took first prize in oratory in Ohio Wesleyan contest, then in the state contest in Ohio, and in the Inter-State Oratorical contest at Grinnell. He preached one year when eighteen, and his audiences want him to keep on preaching till he is a hundred years old.
The Methodists made him their bishop a few years ago but "the boys" had been obliged to decide which of them should be the candidate by casting lots or in some other way, for the voters wanted the one with whom they were best acquainted.
Theodore Burton. Dr. J. Irving Manatt, who remembers everybody and everything, writes from his Brown throne as follows: "Do not forget in your history that the most distinguished native of Poweshiek comes from our end of it. President Burton, of Smith College, was born fourteen miles from Brooklyn. He went to his present post from the pulpit of Richard Salter Stoors, having previously served as a professor in Yale Divinity School.
"You must also put in your Hall of Fame another Brooklyn boy, and a Grin- nell student as well, Professor George L. Hendrickson, one of the foremost men in the Yale faculty and among the first Latinists in America."
There was Theodore Burton, from Malcom township, who came to Iowa College, was leader in scholarship until about his junior year, when Professor Shurtleff, a brother-in-law and a professor at Oberlin, drew him into his fam- ily and college. We must give an anecdote of the college boy. A clerical ex- aminer served for one of his classes. The pupil answered every question, but the examiner gave him ninety on a scale of one hundred. The teacher asked the examiner, "What mistake did he make?" "Oh, none, but I don't believe in perfection," was the answer. Just like him in congress now if any one ques- tions his statement of fact even though some "progressives" do not accept all his opinions.
Newell Dwight Hillis is known by every reader. He was in the county but a single year but that was enough to take a step forward. His sister Hester, a missionary heroine of self sacrifice here and as a missionary in India, had grad- uated from Iowa College, and so the younger brother came with thirteen dollars in his pocket for a college course. A place to work for his board was found and a cheap room, meagerly furnished, was secured. He studied and preached with juvenile vigor and more than youthful power. Away at the end of the year, working for Sunday schools in the mountains, gamblers and saloon men
161
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
gathered about him and aided him-they were charmed by his grace and elo- quence even when he smote their vices.
A man of wealth learned of his success. He said to him: "If you will go to Lake Forest, I will pay your way." The only way to college, to the People's church, in Chicago, to Plymouth church, in Brooklyn, and to his captivating volumes, and to his world wide influence, the admirer of Henry Ward Beecher, and filling his pulpit and renewing his influence.
Albert Shaw graduated at Iowa College in 1879, received Ph. D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1882, and LL. D. from several institutions later. He worked through college physically as well as intellectually, and keeps his college wood-saw among his memorials of earlier days. He was a special student of history and political science under Professor Macy, 1879-82, and in Johns Hop- kins University, 1881-84. He has written Icaria, (a volume republished in Ger- many ) and other political works. He has contributed articles to the ablest mag- azines in England and America, obtained prizes, is a member of several learned societies, and most important of all, he has been the editor of the Review of Re- views twenty years, through which he has been an unequaled power among in- telligent people. He was a frequent caller at the White House when liable to find Roosevelt there.
Henry T. Hamlin, born in Grinnell about thirty-nine years ago, met Signor Foli, a celebrated operatic basso, in Tacoma, who advised him to make singing his profession. He went to Milan, Italy, in 1894, sang in opera several years in different places and studied opera in London, and in 1900 contracted to sing three years in English as principal basso, but his eyes prevented him from com- pleting his contract in such large houses as were required. He has sung all over the Pacific coast with honor.
Other strong men resident in various sections of the county, whose services merit extended notice, but the details of whose lives are not at hand, are Frank R. Gaynor, of Brooklyn, for many years district judge at Le Mars; William Hutchinson, of Montezuma, now occupying the district bench at Acton; Jolin T. Scott, of Brooklyn, now retired at Colorado Springs, after years of eminent service as district judge; David K. Emery, from Montezuma, a prominent at- torney in Ottumwa; Thomas A. Cheshire, of Montezuma, a well known attorney in Des Moines; and John Shortley, of Brooklyn, judge of the superior court at Perry.
Vol. I-11
VIEW IN THE MALCOM PARK
CONCRETE BRIDGE AT MALCOM
MAIN STREET, MALCOM
בקרמוק
CHAPTER XIV.
NATURE'S WAYS.
THERE HAVE BEEN BLIZZARDS AND CYCLONES IN POWESHIEK-DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF TERRIFIC WIND STORM OF 1882-ECLIPSE OF 1869 A MEMORABLE SIGHT.
One in a prairie region, with only now and then a small grove, and no build- ings, has an experience with winds unprecedented in a locality either abounding in forests or in the buildings and cultivated trees of more advanced life.
The prairies constitute practically an unobstructed plain whose daily breezes were very pleasant to the early settler when they softened summer heat, and fanned him gently from morning to evening. )No pest laden gale brought him death bearing breezes from hospitals, or the foul abodes of men. It was a luxury to breathe, a stimulus to action, a constant inhalation of ozone that is rich in tonics and is itself a tonic. - What vigor it brought to invalids, until they could put on their coats and often do the work of men even while regain- ing lustier life!
Change now to winter with houses neither wind-proof nor snow-excluding. The snow falls gently, then in sheets. An arctic wind adds variety to the storm. The prairie resident quickly turns homeward; he lashes his team into a run. The track is filled. His landmarks are becoming invisible. His horses see as little as he and turn their faces from the wind.
Lost! Lost! On the prairie. A moment ago 'he could tell where he was. Now he is utterly uncertain of his location or of the direction he should take and hold. Every blast seems death laden, and the music of the storm is funereal. Agony fills his home. They are thinking of him there. They seem to hear the ghosts of the storm with their thin lips whispering, whistling, shrieking through every crack in the house: "Gone, gone, gone forever."
The storm ceases. Buildings full of snow, cattle that have suffered can now be cared for ; roads impassable, can now be opened. But where is the friend we left hopeless in the blizzard? While becoming unconscious, by merest accident, his worn-out horses found him a shelter. The home of the pioneer was his hos- pital and he was safe. Not so with all. Here and there an unreturning neigh- bor made that blizzard the saddest of memories.
163
164
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
But such blizzards are not frequent, or confined to Iowa. Straight blows of home-destroying power have come to us occasionally in the summer time as they have made "windfalls" in many states, where they have swept through their forests and left wind rows of trees in memory of their passage.
CYCLONES.
The most destructive of all have been the terrible monsters that mark a cen- tury by coming a few times in a hundred years. Iowa has had three such note- worthy visitations: The Camanche cyclone, June 3, 1860; the Grinnell, June 17, 1882; and the Pomeroy cyclone, in Calhoun county, July 6, 1893.
The Camanche cyclone tore off roofs in Poweshiek county as its edge swept across it, fiercely enough to alarm families and demolish frail buildings.
THE ECLIPSE OF AUGUST 7, 1869.
The afternoon was clear and beautiful, and a total eclipse of the sun was an- nounced by the astronomers to occur late in the day. It was too tempting to re- main in town, and to have our thoughts disturbed by other observers. We (my wife and I) drove out east of Grinnell, away from men and from buildings, going northeastward among the cornfields. We observed the shadow of the moon creeping over the sun, we felt a stranger coolness, chilliness and a downright coldness as the shadow covered and suddenly brought night. Our horse was frightened and stood to investigate, and the hundreds of prairie chickens rose out of the corn with a whizzing of wings and voices never heard before or since, and flew recklessly past us for the open prairie. The voices seemed the expres- sions of a subdued terror, a fear of the unknown.
The corona was many colored, shooting out its spangles brightly for a little time, while the heavens were filled with stars.
It was a grand, a memorable sight. The chill in the air, the strange cor- ruscations from the sun, the terror of all animated nature, made the event brighten a lifetime.
THE GRINNELL CYCLONE OF 1882.
Several have written of this cyclone but none have so clearly, discriminatingly and comprehensively as S. H. Herrick, from whose article we make liberal quotations.
THE POWESHIEK CYCLONE. By Hon. S. H. Herrick.
"From an examination of the signal service reports for June 17, 1882, we find that an area of low barometric pressure included the entire upper Mississippi valley and a portion of the Dakotas, and that an immense storm wave moved through Iowa from the northwest toward the southeast corner of the State. This storm wave was the center of various and independent cyclonic formations and
165
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
disturbances. The storm area was extensive, being not less than a hundred miles in width-possibly, at times, much wider-and passed through the State at a speed of from forty-five to sixty miles an hour. This area presented to view a boiling surging mass of clouds, especially near its center, where all the separate cyclones had their origin. The inception of the most damaging of the Grinnell cyclones was at a point not far from the town of Kellogg, Jasper county, at about half past eight o'clock in the evening. Kellogg lies about ten miles from Grinnell in a direct line, a little south of west. Mr. T. R. Phipps, who wit- nessed the beginning of this cyclone, testifies as follows:
"'At the date of the cyclone I was living seven miles west of Grinnell, the ex- act direction being one mile north of west. My father lived a half-mile south. My day's work was done and I was sitting in the house reading, when some one of the family called my attention to the strange clouds in the southwest. I went out of the house, and saw two immense clouds of brilliant and peculiar hue rolling and tumbling and approaching each other at a rapid rate. It could not have been five minutes before they united, when the single mass seemed to be in the most violent agitation, out of which in less than a minute was formed a distinct funnel-shaped cloud, black and angry-looking. I thought at the time that this cloud must have formed just about over the town of Kellogg, some six miles to the southwest. From the fact that a single house was completely destroyed at that place, I have always thought that at the meeting of the clouds there must have been a dropping and a sudden rebounding of this cloud, which would ac- count for the destruction of a single house. In fact, I could see such a dropping at the moment when the cyclonic cloud was forming. The cyclone, for I at once recognized it as such, seemed to be coming directly towards us, and as my po- sition was on an elevation from which I could see the whole surrounding country, I had a full view of its course until it struck a belt of timber about two miles from my location. The roar and crash were plainly heard, and the family, with the exception of myself, sought safety in the cellar. The wind, which had been blowing a gale from the south, suddenly changed to the north, blowing with increasing fury so that small trees were bent nearly to the ground. Soon rain began to fall, hiding everything from view. From the formation of the cyclone cloud to the beginning of the rain not more than two minutes could have passed. It rained and hailed about fifteen minutes, when the storm seemed to have passed away. It was evident that the main force of the storm had been deflected from a direct course when it struck the timber, passing from that point nearly east. Feeling that some great damage had been done, I mounted a horse and started south to my father's house. Before I started I thought I heard the cry of a woman, and doubtless I was not mistaken, for on reaching my father's house I found the family, consisting of father, mother, a brother and a sister, all lying on the ground northwest of the demolished house. They were all injured, my father so seriously that he died two days afterwards. I soon found that the storm had destroyed my brother's house southwest a half mile, and that one of his children had been killed. Several houses were also destroyed northeast of my father's house, and several persons killed.'"
The above testimony concerning the beginning of the storm is doubtless as correct and comprehensive as can be obtained, owing to the advantageous posi-
166
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
tion of the witness. Continuing on its course, the cyclone reached a point nearly or quite two miles north and four miles west of Grinnell, where it struck a deep valley or "draw" running north and south. Here a strong current from the north carried the cyclone fully three miles south, and the next tidings of damage came from a point one and a half miles west of the south boundary of Grin- nell, where it had resumed its original northeast direction. At this point a house was demolished and the occupants seriously injured. Crossing an east and west road, it passed in a direct northeast course for Grinnell, doing no further damage, however, until it struck with terrible force near the western edge of the city. The testimony of W. O. Willard, a most reliable and careful observer, then liv- ing a little more than a mile west of town, near the point where the storm crossed the road, is as follows :
"I heard the roar and rush of the storm, which seemed just north of my house, and which followed a severe thunder storm. The cyclone seemed to be passing on toward Grinnell. At the same time, or a few seconds afterwards, another cyclone of less apparent force passed south of my house toward the southeast. The roar of the latter was not so loud as the other, although plainly heard. It passed on, doing some damage, but evidently spent its force in a few miles."
"That the cyclone which first struck Grinnell and caused so great loss of life was, as I first suggested, a small affair considered by itself, must be evident from a further investigation of the great storm wave. While nearly the entire State was practically in a storm on that Saturday night, the first damage of which we have any knowledge was near Arcadia, in the northwest part of Carroll county. Here a storm of great fury seemed gathering, and a church was moved from its foundation. Following southwest we come to Rippey, in the south- east part of Greene county, where much damage was done, and where at least one life was lost. Then the cyclone, for it at this time had developed into a well-defined funnel-shaped cloud, passed on toward Kelley in the southwest corner of Story county, near which place more lives were lost. At the same time an independent cyclone had formed and was getting in its work near Ogden, Boone county, north of the line of the main storm. Here, also, lives were lost. There now seemed to be an immense cloud, or a number of large and lurid clouds. from which at intervals cyclones would swing down toward the earth, several of these cyclones being seen at the same time, often several miles apart. Some of them passed away without seeming to touch the earth, while others would be alternately rising and falling, sometimes high in air, then with a swing and a swoop striking the earth and leveling everything in their path. In Story county two of these clouds passed eastward twenty minutes apart, and at a distance of three miles from each other, the one south of Kelley touching the earth southeast of that place, destroying considerable timber and a house or two. The other did little damage till south of Ames when it destroyed several farm houses.
"At about 8:30 on that fateful evening, heavy and scattering drops of rain began to fall. The entire western sky was illuminated by continuous flashes of lightning as frequent as the beating of the pulse, while the distant roar of thun- der was so continuous that it was not broken for even a second of time. In
167
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
less than two minutes a severe thunder storm broke over the city. This storm was several miles in width and was accompanied by a gusty, 'jerky' wind, break- ing off the limbs of trees and in many cases splitting or entirely demolishing tender or top-heavy trees like the soft maple. Such evidences of a severe storm were scattered throughout the town, even before the cyclone. This storm lasted some eight or ten minutes, and in its severity and fury was perhaps the equal of any storm of the kind which the writer may have seen during a residence of forty years in Iowa. Timid ones were alarmed, and not a few began to think of a place of safety. The wind and the rain slackened, yet the dead calm which followed, and the unearthly appearance of the sky produced an undefined sense of approaching calamity, or, at least, gave token that the storm might be repeated.
"A pause, a lull, a halt, as it were, for a final charge, a rumbling as of a dis- tant train of cars, only increased ten-fold in volume, and the direful moment arrived.
"Sixteen minutes of nine, said the battered clock amid the ruins of the first houses struck. Sixteen minutes of nine, said the watch taken from the owner's hands and hurled with flying timbers a full half mile and buried in the mud by the roadside, where it was found the next November. In a second of time a force estimated at not less than two hundred pounds to the square inch was lift- ing and twisting and hurling trees, buildings and human beings to destruction. From the windows in the upper story of the opera house, the highest building in the city, gazed a score or more of people, dumb witnesses of the awful horror. Sky and earth were illumined by a weird and ghastly glow, as if from the sul- phurous fires of Tartarus. High in the air, at an angle of not less than 45 degrees, were seen houses and barns being crushed and crumpled by the whirl and swirl of the tempest. Human bodies, dashed hither and thither by the im- perious monster more cruel than the grave, were mingled with all manner of household goods and adornments. On and on sped the death-dealing cloud, for it had further work to do. Past street after street it hastened in its narrow but resistless course, leaving ruined homes, mangled bodies, and broken hearts. The central line of the town was reached. Here, at the same instant, or a second before, it is evident that the cyclone from the northwest struck. The path of destruction is widened from its narrow course of five hundred feet or so to a thousand feet, and swinging at a sharp angle is bent to the southeast, when it resumes its former narrow course. Just at this bend, near the north edge of the town, the two college buildings were located. They offered little resistance to the mighty force of the storm. The first one struck, a brick building costing $30,000, was leveled to the ground. The other, called Central College, was built of stone and cost somewhat more than the other. In this building were the chemical laboratory, several society rooms with their libraries, and the office and library of the president of the college, Dr. George F. Magoun. Everything above the second story floor was blown away, and a portion of the floors, cov- ered with debris, was driven into the chemical laboratory in the basement. From a broken bottle containing phosphorus a fire originated about four hours after the cyclone, which, soon becoming beyond control, completed the work of destruc- tion. Hardly anything of value was saved from this building. There were stu-
168
HISTORY OF POWESHIEK COUNTY
dents in both buildings. The number would have been largely increased had it not been for the fact that many were absent at a ball game in a neighboring town during the afternoon, and were then on their way home. In the east build- ing were nine members of one of the college societies. They saw the cyclone from their hall, and said that as it came over the campus toward them, it looked like a whirlwind on a gigantic scale, whirling timbers, trees, and everything in its path. Three of the number started to get out of the building. They managed to reach the lower floor, when they were separated, one, Burritt E. Chase, of Storm Lake, to be hurled to the east and fearfully and fatally mangled; the others, with those remaining in the building, escaping as by a miracle.
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.