USA > Iowa > Story County > History of Story County, Iowa; a record of organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 44
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"At a large and enthusiastic meeting of the citizens of Nevada and vi- cinity, called at the land office of Ross & Irwin, to take into consideration the propriety of removing the capital of the state. the object of the meeting being forcibly stated by T. J. Ross, the chairman, a committee consisting of E. B. Potter, Jas. S. Frazier and L. Irwin was appointed to draft resohui- tions embodying the sense of the meeting and reported as follows:
""Whereas the Legislature is discussing the propriety of appropriating $1.500,000 to build a new Statehouse and
""Whereas many of the leading papers of this state, especially the Mar- shall Times and Montana Standard, are advocating a relocation of the capitol and
" .Whereas, Des Moines is not in the geographical center of the state. but is too far south, and
".Whereas, John I. Blair has offered the sum of $250,000 to have the capitol located on the Northwestern Railway and
""Whereas, Nevada is the nearest available point to the center of the state and is the crossing of the E. N. & D. M. R. R. and Northwestern.
" 'Therefore, be it resolved.
"'ist. That Nevada will donate the sum of $750,000 to be expended in building said Statehouse, at Nevada, and also donate grounds for said buildings.
"'2d. That our Representative Jas. Ilawthorn be instructed to use all honorable means to secure the location of the capitol at Nevada.
" '3d. That the State Register and other papers favorable to the re- moval of the capitol be requested to copy.' "
THE COUNTY FAIR.
It was during this period that the County Fair was started. It will be remembered that the first Fair was held at Nevada in 1859, but the Lincoln- Douglas campaign sufficiently occupied attention in 1800 and after that the war stopped nearly everything that did not pertain to itself. But after the war the subject was revived and the people of Ames and vicinity appear to have taken the initiative. David Child of Nevada appears to have been the first president of the revived organization and Robt. Marshall of Frank- lin township, the second and Win. West of Ames the third. The first Fair was held in Ames in 1868, but later on Nevada raised the money to buy
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the Fair ground, captured the Fair organization and brought the Fair to Nevada, where it continued to give annual exhibitions for about forty years. It was in its period of greatest prosperity, or at least of popular in- terest, probably in the time when the trotting horses had not yet gone out of vogue in the county and the big drafts had begun to come in. Still later, however, the more notable improvements were made in the Fair ground but it seemed to take an increasing amount of effort to keep up the interest.
NEWSPAPERS.
For a considerable part of the decade following the war, the Story County Ægis at Nevada continued to be the only newspaper in the county. As we have abundantly demonstrated, it was conducted with much ability by John M. Brainard. Mr. Brainard sold out in 1869 to V. A. Ballon and the latter in turn sold it in 1870 to W. H. Gallup, who called it the Rep- resentative and was in 1875 elected to the Senate. As Aines was started it came to have aspirations to be a newspaper town also, or printers sought to make it such. The first attempt was in behalf of a paper named the Re- flector and in 1868 it was made an additional county official paper ; but its life was short and its record scant. The Ames Intelligencer was started in April. 1869, by A. McFadden ; and he made it go well enough so that after a while he sold it to John Watts, who built it up materially. About 1871 the Watchman was started by R. H. Rhodearmel and it changed hands quite frequently for several years, Mr. Rhodearmel going back into it for a time and pushing it quite successfully. In 1880 it was bought by Mr. V. A. Ballou, formerly of the Ægis, who conducted it for all but a few months of its remaining existence or for more than a quarter of a century and in this work identified himself with the affairs of the county from the Democratic point of view. These three papers, The Representative, the Intelligencer and the Watchman constituted the press of the county until some time in the 80's, when the Maxwell Tribune, the Story City Herald and some other papers of less permanency began to make their appearance in the outside towns.
SOME PERSONAL MENTION.
During this period there were a few men who came into the county either as visitors or for what proved to be temporary residence and who, while they remained, were persons of especial note in the community. One of these was Chauncey Welton, who came to Nevada in 1867, purchased an interest in the "National" hotel and assumed at that hotel the position of "mine host." This was an event of interest: for Mr. Welton was a per- sonage universally known and equally esteemed in these parts for many years. The "National" was the old "Hutchins" house, then on the Lowrey lots northwest of the city park, and the movement of the town from the south side to the north side was only just fairly started. Mr. Welton, how-
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ever, did not stay in his first location long. He sold his interest in that hotel, and the building itself was moved by the purchaser to its familiar location opposite the court house. But he continued in the hotel business, purchasing and converting to hotel uses the Alderman building that was at the time now under review just being completed north of the court house square. To this building he added a one-story addition that came out to Lynn street and served as the office of his new hotel. And here he was, doing a good business and always serving good meals, when the writer first became acquainted with conditions in Nevada. We think we first met him when we accompanied Clyde Lockwood, who had some garden truck of his own raising to dispose of for pocket money and who struck Mr. Welton, successfully, for a sale. Mr. Welton seemed to us then about the fattest man we had ever seen ; and although this superlative may have been undeserved, he was certainly large. But he was also jolly, and the more we saw of him the better we liked him. He continued in the hotel business here until his hotel went up in smoke on the December night in 1879, when the most of the west side of the business street went out and up.
Shortly after this fire Mr. Welton moved away, going first to Des Moines, and thence to Mapleton, and finally dying a number of years ago at the Soldiers' Home. He retained some property interests here for a time. however; and we remember quite distinctly that he came back here and sold the lots north of the park, where the Representative families still have their homes. Mr. Welton was all right; and all the old-timers will recall him with pleasure.
Another man who came here in the Spring of 1869, was W. E. Waring. He came from New York with a considerable fortune and invested the bulk of it in property in and about Nevada. He was a city man and is supposed to have made his money in some department of the liquor business. He understood that business well enough; but his conception of values in a pioneer country was poor, and he became in consequence the purchaser of a large amount of property at prices that no one else would have paid for it. In this way he succeeded in tying up a good part of his money, and when he closed out and went away it was at a sacrifice. Mr. Waring and his family remained here for about three years, and they did all that was indicated in the prospectus, and more. They were liberal in their ways generally, and they were very prominent in the community while they re- mained. When they left it was with discouragement and with a view of replenishing their fortunes amid environments to which they were better adapted than they were to those obtaining here. Also they left for good. and there does not appear to be any recollection that, once they had gone. any of them ever returned: nor is very much known here of them after their departure. But they were for the time-being a notable part of the community, and the first introduction through the Ægis was not over- drawn. It was as follows:
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"Some time since we noticed the fact that Mr. W. E. Waring of New York City had been making some purchases of real estate here. We have now to state that he has bought two sections of land just north of this village, 160 adjoining the village plot on the east, running up to the rail- road, a parcel of land from Col. Scott, and also from Maj. Hawthorn. He has also bought the Welton House and nearly all the block south, several houses and lots, among which we learn is the Adamson property. The Welton House is to be moved back, and a large hotel with 40 feet front and 60 feet deep and three stories high is to be erected in front of and in connection with the present one. We learn from good authority that he intends to invest $45,000 in and about Nevada, and this would indicate that he has the 'rocks' to do it. Work has already commenced on some of his repairs which will be pushed forward rapidly. He obtains possession of the Welton House on the first of May and will immediately proceed to erect the new hotel. Several men of means will probably come with him, and will make this their abiding place. These improvements are in the right direction and will have a tendency to advance the general prosperity of the place and thereby the entire county. We may look forward to a season of unexampled prosperity. Our citizens will welcome all that come to make this point their home, who do so with a desire to assist in making it a place worthy of its name. That Mr. W. will do this there appears to be little doubt."
Two fatal accidents in October, 1867, left their strong impression on the people of Nevada. One resulted in the death of F. W. Rhoads, who fell from a scaffold on the old Alderman building on or near the present site of the opera hall. His death was deeply felt by the people of town and county and is often referred to when any of the old-timers get to talking of pioneer days. Mr. Rhoads when he first came to the county located at Story City, where he was the first postmaster; but after a time he re- moved to Nevada, and here the members of his family continued to be iden- tified until long after his death. Mr. Rhoads was a carpenter and a man of much strength of character. At least two of his sons were successful newspaper men and his eldest daughter was Mrs. Laura Berry, who was a woman of much distinction.
The other accident caused the death of young Buchanan, who was one of a party of movers that consisted of Mrs. Eunice Buchanan, a widow, her invalid daughter Mary, a son slightly younger, who was her main sup- port, and her son-in-law, Lemuel Blood, and his family. They were on their way to Nebraska to take up homesteads ; and camping near Johnsons Grove, the young man took a shot-gun and went after some prairie chickens. Returning to the camp, he accidentally discharged his gun and he was in- stantly killed. The party came on to Nevada and camped by the ford, where their distress became known. The result of the accident was that the western journey was abandoned; the good people here assisted in the burial of the young man in the Nevada cemetery ; and the family located
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here. Mr. Blood bought what is now the Morse farm northeast of the fair ground; Mrs. Buchanan and Mary, and later her grandson, Will Blood, lived for years in a little house north of the Baptist church in Ne- vada. Mary died there twenty years later, and Mrs. Buchanan died still later at the home of her grandson Will. then a Methodist preacher, at Polk City, and was buried here. Will is still in the Methodist ministry and is In Kansas. All of the family have been always highly esteemed; but the death of the young man who was the mainstay of his mother and helpless sister made their path a hard one through many years.
One very distinguished visitor, who came to Nevada in the Fall of 1866. and from here drove across the country to Des Moines, was P. T. Barnum. the famous show man. Of this visit there is a story which was locally written up at the time and which Capt. George Child, to the day of his death, delighted to retell and confirm. As the story was first told it was as follows :
"The famous showman, Prince of Humbugs. was in our little village for a few hours on Saturday last. Mr. George Child, our popular livery- man, took him to Des Moines, where the showman delivered a lecture on Monday evening last. George thinks the trip down to the capitol with Barnum time well spent and gives us some items. Night overtook the pair at Madden's, down in Polk county, and there they stopped for lodging. Madden is considered, even in lowa, some on stock and farming. Barnum also until now indulged in the idea that he was an extensive farmer, and so he was according to the Connecticut standard, owning eighty acres and feeding twenty steers. In conversation during the evening P. T. frequently alluded to his Bridgeport farm, and indulged in considerable blowing about the extent of his agricultural operations, making frequent allusion to those twenty steers.
"Learning incidentally that his host was in the same business, he in- quired how much land he owned. Madden was, like Moses, a little slow of speech and answered indifferently that he did not know exactly, he had about a thousand acres under cultivation and considerable lying around loose. This was an eye-opener ; but the answer to the next question dried the showman up: 'How many cattle do you feed?' 'Well, we are fatting three hundred steers and have a lot of cows and young stock.' Barnum subsided and rested impatiently until daylight, when he went out to see this lowa farmer 'feed his little flock,' and was doubtless impressed with the practical exhibition of the broad-gauge plan of conducting business among the Hawkeyes, which no mere heresay could ever have effected."
INTRODUCING BASE BAL.L.
The summer of 1867 should be permanently commemorated in the History of Story County as the season in which men, boys and the public were first made acquainted with the great American game of Base Ball.
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The contemporary references to the subject evidenced fairly that at the beginning of the season the game was locally known only by reputation, but that the first club was organized with general interest, a subscription raised for purchase of the necessary outfit and public enthusiasm aroused to its highest pitch by the first match game between Nevada and Ames. That is to say the enthusiasm of Nevada was at the highest pitch that was consistent with a victory for Ames in the initial game. While of the en- thusiasm of Ames, in which town there was as yet no local newspaper, there is no record extant. But how the Amesites really felt over winning from Nevada by a score of 66 to 55 the first match game of ball ever played in Story County people who have been familiar with the later course of events may have some imaginings, but may venture no description. In view of the awful score already indicated it is to be remembered that, ac- cording to the rules of the game in the first years of its popularity, the pitcher was required to deliver the ball with his arm straight, the impetus being such as he could give by means of a downward and forward swing of his arm along his side. The ball thus pitched was a straight ball and not especially swift and the conditions were absolutely favorable to the side that was in to bat the ball all over the field. In addition to what appears upon the record there is a verbal admission by John A. McCall that he was the party who in behalf of the first club sent off the order for the first base ball outfit, bearing in mind that no local dealer yet carried a base ball stock and that goods of this order had to be procured direct from Chicago. With such preliminaries let it here be recorded on the authority of the Ægis in the early summer of 1867:
"A club for the practice of this game (base ball ) has been organized in our village with a membership of some thirty persons. The club has sent for the necessary 'traps,' elected officers and soon will be in trim to lug off honors and carry in health and muscle. It will be refreshing to see something better than pitching old horse-shoes, resorted to for amusement on our streets."
And the first match game between Nevada and Ames was played, as we understand it, on the old south square where now is the City Park and the date was the 2d of August, 1867, which date may be fairly considered as bearing to the subject of base ball in Story County the same relation as does the Fourth day of July, 1776, to the American Commonwealth. The Ægis of the following week published the momentous record, which in full was as follows:
"Base ball is all the rage-in fact everybody plays base ball. Big towns play, little towns ditto. Nevada has a base ball club, so has Ames. It seems that two base ball clubs cannot exist in close proximity without contending for the mastery. Hence the baseballists of Ames and Nevada played a social game on the grounds of the latter on the 2d inst. At two o'clock p. m. the game opened by Nevada going to bat, where they scored but three tallies and were put out. Ames followed, but were sent to the
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field again without a tally-clean white-wash. The contest was animated; some displays of brilliant playing, intermingled with some more common- place, serving to enliven the game. The following is the score:
"Ames-T. F. McCormick, 2 runs. 7 out ; J. F. Barton, 8 and 5; N. A. Rainbolt, 10 and 1; H. May, 7 and 2; G. H. Gale, 6 and 6; T. Day- ton, 9 and 2: A. D. Gould, 9 and o; A. L. Tomblin, 7 and 3; S. B. Fare- well, 8 and 1 ; total 66 and 27.
"Nevada-A. L. Adams, 6 runs and 4 outs; T. Ross, 5 and 5; L. Ir- win, 6 and 3; John McCall, 6 and 3; H. Blanchard, 6 and 4; Christopher, 6 and 4: C. Garrett, 8 and 1; J. Chumbley. 7 and 1; C. H. Cobleigh, 5 and 5: total 55 and 27.
"By innings-
"Ames -0 20 9 9 6 5 14 4 0-66 "Nevada-3 7 1 10 2 3 6 12 11-55
"Fly catches, Ames 5. Nevada 7: foul catches, Ames 9. Nevada 13; Umpire, D. Y. Clark ; scorers, S. L. Lucas for Ames, T. J. Ross for Ne- vada ; time of game, 2 hours and 30 minutes.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
EDITORIAL REMINISCENCES.
What has heretofore been set down in this history has been gathered at various times and from various sources, but the subject matter all re- lates to happenings in the county before the compiler of this history had personal knowledge of the county. But in the fall of 1875, the editor's father having been chosen by the local school board to be the organizer of the city schools in the new brick school building and to supplement the lower departments with a duly constituted high school, the Payne family came to Nevada and with the exception of a couple of years in the begin- ning of the eighties they have lived here continuously ever since. In the relation therefore, of what is to follow, the element of personal associa- tion and familiarity largely enters, and the theme of the present chapter is to portray the situation as the editor found it when as a High school boy he came to the county seat of Story County.
As before noted, the time was the Fall of 1875, the editor's father had been elected principal of the city schools, his mother was to be an assistant and he, himself, was to be a member of the High school; but the new brick school building was not finished until late in the fall, and so there was no occasion for any of the family except the senior to be here until the build- ing was ready. The school was opened on the very first day that it could be opened, which was the first Tuesday in November; and we remember on that day looking at Nevada for the first time with the eyes of a resi- dent. It was to us an attractive place; but it is easy now to look back and see that the village had not yet passed the pioneer stage. Of struc- tures that might by any courtesy be called modern the barely finished school house was the only one. The court house had been voted for ; but it had not yet been begun nor the contract let. The opera hall was not thought of until a year and a half later. The Ringheim building, which was the pioneer of good stores and office buildings, was yet to come along with the opera hall. The only building on the street that was called "brick" was Aderman's hardware,-and that was not a brick building at all, though it did then have a veneer of brick in front and half way back on the north side. The most pretentious residence in the village was that of Otis Briggs, which was west of the business street and is now included, cov- ered up and lost sight of in the Nevada hotel. Next probably was the Col.
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Scott residence, where R. S. Patrick now lives; and third was the W. S. Waldron home facing south on the back end of the lot which has the S. E. Briggs store and office building. Mr. Waldron ran a general store on the corner, and did a good business. The store, we think, went in the fire of 1882; but the house had been moved before that to the site now oc- cupied by the J. W. Ambrose home, where it was enlarged and improved ; and years later it was moved two blocks further north and now stands just south of the water tank.
But Nevada was a busy place in those days. There were no railroads through the county on either the south or the north side; and the "narrow gauge" from Des Moines up to Ames commanded small respect. Baldwin & Maxwell did a great business at lowa Center and other points to the south ; but Nevada, Ames and Colo were the railroad points of the county, and Nevada drew the cream of the trade through a large though thinly settled territory. Perhaps the sidewalks, too, were not so wide as they are now. and there was therefore not so much room on them for the peo- ple to congregate on a Saturday afternoon as there is now. Besides they were shorter. The business district extended for a block and a half on each side of Lynn street, measuring on the east side north from the old "Nevada Hall" south of the present "Representative" office. and on the west side from McCall & Thompson's office on what is now the post office corner. West of the latter corner was a building which was occu- pied by the Watchman newspaper, and over on the south square there were a lot of old and abandoned business shanties ; but the business and the people were concentrated upon Lynn street as indicated. In this place. the sidewalks being high and narrow and the mud in the street being sticky and deep, the people who came for twenty miles or so about to lay in their supplies made a good deal of show. They blocked up the walks and made passage down the street for a woman something to re- quire her strict attention.
Present recollection will support the statement that the condition of the Story county prairie was not unrecognizable changed in ten years. In the middle 'zos the farm which now belongs to C. M. Morse, two miles northeast of Nevada, bordered on the east a prairie which, so far as we know, might have been followed in the open to the Barrens of Can- ada. There were quite a number of enclosed farms in the Johnson Grove neighborhood : but when the traveler had passed the "sheep farm" on his way toward Illinois Grove he came out upon a prairie, where he was liable to lose sight of the Seymour Hix place before he sighted the place of W. Il. Golly north of the Little Minerva. Ten years later, in 1884. the prairie in the vicinity of southeast Warren and southwest Lincoln was just beginning to be fenced and improve1; and at that time also there was a great tract of open country northwest of the Turner MeLain farm in Milford and others in Grant, while southeast, toward lowa Center through the oldest settled portion of the county, the main traveled road
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was not forced wholly off the prairie and on to the section and half sec- tion lines. But the pioneer days were really passing. The county seemed not to be improved, and much of it was unoccupied; while the town was scattered and thin and consisting yet of the original lot of frame build- ings of unpretentious dimensions ; but the spirit of development and of permanency was here, and the time had come for beginning the work of building a county seat worthy of perhaps the richest twenty-four miles square of prairie in all this glorious state.
Somehow, as we look back at the scene it seems as if everybody must have been young in those days, and there may have been more than seem- ing in the impression. The fact is that the war had made men of a whole lot of boys before their time; and it was then only ten years after the war. The fraternity of the veterans was fully established, and they had a cohesion and force which is not characteristic of the average men of their age now; but they were in fact young fellows, and we believe that they did give a younger cast to the community than it will ever have again. It would naturally seem that with the passage of years the men who have come on in the community would seem younger to an observer who has been familiar with them all; but that is hardly the way it strikes us; and we are sure that the men who were best known in Nevada thirty years ago were much younger on the average than are the men who are equally well known here today. Perhaps when one thinks of it, this is a differ- ence in the situation quite as striking as all the differences that have come as the result of increased population, greater wealth and more modern con- veniences.
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