USA > Iowa > Washington County > History of Washington County, Iowa from the first white settlements to 1908. Also biographical sketches of some prominent citizens of the county, Vol. I > Part 12
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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
1900.
Railroad commissioner. D. J. Palmer ; clerk, John T. Matthews : auditor, J. W. Ingham ; recorder, S. J. Cochlin : attorney, Marsh W. Bailey : super- visor, H. T. Reynolds ; shall there be a convention to revise constitution, Yes, one hundred and forty-six majority ; shall there be an amendment to consti- tution providing for biennial elections? Yes, five hundred majority.
1901.
Senator, John Alex. Young ; representative, C. J. Wilson ; treasurer. James S. Shearer : sheriff. J. W. Teeter ; coroner, Dr. E. T. Wickham ; superintend- ent, M. M. Hughes ; surveyor, Wm. Ott ; supervisor, Jesse Longwell.
1902.
Judges, J. T. Scott, Byron Preston, W. G. Clements; attorney, M. W. Bailey ; clerk, J. T. Matthews ; auditor, F. E. Neal; recorder, S. J. Cochlin ; supervisor, Samuel Anderson.
1903.
Railroad commissioner, D. J. Palmer : representative, H. H. Willson ;
187
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
treasurer, J. S. Shearer ; sheriff, J. W. Teeter ; superintendent, Cora E. Por- ter ; supervisor, S. M. McCleery ; surveyor, W. D. Ott ; coroner, Dr. Wickham.
1904.
Elector first district, W. B. Bell ; clerk, M. E. Logan ; auditor, F. E. Neal ; recorder, Jolin S. Wilson ; attorney, Eardley Bell, Jr. ; supervisor, Jesse Long- well ; amendment to constitution to limit senate to fifty members and house to one hundred and eight, Yes, two thousand three hundred and sixty, No, one thousand five hundred and thirty-one ; amendment to constitution provid- ing biennial elections, Yes, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, No. one thousand four hundred and seventy-three.
1905.
Officers whose terms should have expired held over this year.
1906.
Senator, W. B. Seeley. Mt. Pleasant; representative, Warren Stewart ; auditor, Chauncey E. Myers; treasurer, J. S. Shearer ; clerk, M. E. Logan ; sheriff. Wm. M. Black : recorder, J. S. Wilson ; attorney, E. Bell, Jr. ; superin- tendent, Cora E. Porter : surveyor, W. D. Ott; coroner, Dr. G. W. Hay; supervisor, Wm. H. Cress two year term, and O. H. Dunlap three year term.
1907.
No election on account of biennial rule.
1908.
Primary in June for U. S. senator, W. B. Allison, one thousand two hun- dred and seventy-six ; A. B. Cummins, seven hundred and fifty-six.
Representative, S. M. McCleery : auditor, C. E. Myers : treasurer, J. A. McCoy ; clerk. G. S. Eckerman ; sheriff, W. M. Black : recorder, Hugh L. Kendall ; attorney, Charles A. Dewey ; superintendent, Flora M. Purvis ; sur- veyor. D. C. Kyle ; coroner, Dr. Hay ; supervisor, W. H. Cress, term beginning January, 1909. and W. A. Gibson, term beginning January, 1910 ; purchase of more land for county farm, Yes, two thousand three hundred and fifty-eight, No. one thousand five hundred and fourteen.
Salaries of County Officers and Deputies .- Early salaries are stated else- where : it was the day of small things. By contrast, here is a statement of salaries in this year of grace, 1909. All the county officers now, excepting the attorney and superintendent of schools, have deputies who, each, get six hundred dollars a year, paid by the county. The officers fare better, viz. : Treasurer, one thousand five hundred dollars; clerk and auditor, each one thousand four hundred dollars : superintendent of schools, one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars ; recorder and sheriff, each, one thousand two hun- dred dollars ; attorney, one thousand dollars ; supervisors get four dollars a day for meetings, three dollars for committee work, two dollars and fifty cents
188
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
a day and ten cents mileage one way when on outside work. The treasurer charges cities three-fourths of one per cent for their collections, but turns same into the treasury.
The deputies for the several officers in 1909 are: Clerk, Captain J. B. Teller, who has served there since 1871 ; auditor, Miss Anna Dawson ; treas- urer, Miss Mame Shearer : recorder, Miss Ruth E. Latta ; sheriff. R. H. McCarty.
Holes in Pockets .- This county, as a rule, elected honest, capable men and women. The weak point in our local officialdom was the treasury. Not that the incumbents were dishonest, but, perhaps, not strict, accurate business men. There are so many chances to make mistakes there if one is not clear- headed, alert and prompt in dealing with the many details and many funds. A sleazy, slip-shod man in that office is as dangerous to himself and to the public as a swift locomotive on a surface street crossing in a city. One of the first treasurers was Liston A. Houston, who was one thousand five hun- dred dollars short, according to the report of October 8, 1845, made by J. H. Wilson, who had succeeded Houston. The board told him to collect the shortage from the sureties, and they were given till April, 1846, to make good. One of the most delightful sensations is forking over surety money. It is genuine exhilaration of spirits, and stimulates the use of language as highly as driving oxen.
Samuel Cox was treasurer and recorder from '57 to '59, and his delin- quencies footed eight hundred and twenty-one dollars and forty-eight cents. with interest. Joseph R. Lewis was his attorney. The board also found Cox short eighty-one dollars and ninety-seven cents on the '56 taxes collected and unaccounted for, and seventy-five dollars and fifty-seven cents on the road tax of '57, but he got the first liability cancelled and the second reduced to thirty-four dollars and eighty-four cents by producing receipts, one hundred and twenty-two dollars and seventy-eight cents, for the year '57. Incompetent book-keeping seems to have been the trouble. In later years three as honest men as ever lived were found short, and had to sacrifice or mutilate their estates to make up apparent losses that careless book-keeping was responsible for. In reality, the county had not been depleted a cent, but the officer could not account for the discrepancies. No one believes them dishonest ; everybody believes them victims of imperfect clerical work.
County Expenses for Six Months .- Here is a little window through which we can see the money that made the county mare go from July 2, '60, to December 31 :
Township clerks and trustees
$ 150.80
District court 956.66
IOWA
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--..
-
THE IOWA HOUSE
Washington's famous hostelry in war times
ce.
--
COURTHOUSE AND PUBLIC SQUARE OF WASHINGTON IN THE '60S
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATION
19
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
Elections
290.48
Roads
31.00
Sundries 70.55
Stationery, blanks, books
495.85
Paupers
385.27
Criminal prosecutions to J. P.'s. 64.00
County judge's salary
475.00
Treasurer's salary
475.00
Clerk's salary
475.00
Sheriff's salary 90.00
Deputies' pay
115.58
Keeping prisoners 319.79
Wolf scalps
16.00
District attorney 147.50
Attorneys in railroad suits
172.25
Per cent paid to Greene & Stone. 100.00
Abstract in land entries 150.00
Interest on county orders 7.89
Balance vs. treasury
96.85
Total
$5,085.48
The total county expense in '41 was two thousand nine hundred and fifty- three dollars and thirty-four and one-half cents ; in about twenty years it had not quite doubled, while the population had grown from about one thousand six hundred in '41 to over fourteen thousand in '60 ; besides, the entire taxable personal property of the county in '39 was but twenty-eight thousand and twenty-five dollars, and it amounted in '60 to nine hundred and thirty-five thousand nine hundred and fifteen dollars.
First tax list, 1839. As a curio, this list is given :
Names. Val. Tax. Names.
Val. Tax.
Augustine, Michael. .. $240
$1.20
Black, John
53
.261/2
Ayers, Wm. 298
1.49 Blair, Joel P 16
.08
Bagley, M. 50
.25 Blair, Samuel 120
.60
Ball, Nelson 62
.31
Brier, John
795
3.971/2
Ball, Wm. 20
.101/2
Bristow, Wm. 365
1.821/2
Baker, Nathan 80
.40
Buckhanon, John. 15
.071/2
Baker, Thos.
70
.35
Banes, James 60
.30
Basey, Wm. 175
.671/2
Buel, Elias 280
1.40
Beach. Senaca
145
.721/2
Bunker, David
90
.45
Bedwell, Martin 433
2.161/2
Butter, John
IO
.05
192
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
Names.
Val
Tax.
Names.
V'al.
Tax.
Crill, John, Sr.
107
.531/2
Gilbannates, T. A .. 50
.25
Grill, John, Jr.
IO
.05
Galbraith, Robt. 65
.321/2
Calwell, Thos. 308
.54 Haskell, C. D. IIO
.55
Colens, M.
160
.80
Hulock, John
218
1.09
Camel. James
70
.35
Hulock, Tunis
75
.371/2
Cooke. Cyrus
200
1.45
Hiatt, Elihu H. 88
.44
Cajteel, Caliwa
25
.1216
Hiatt, Jesse 510
2.50
Crill, David
20
.IO
Hudson, -Richard 80
.40
Conner, Wm.
60
.30
Henderson, John 159
.781/2
Clemens. E.
405
2.021/2
Hiatt, Reuben 145
.721/2
Camel, John 439
2.191/2
Hoskins 165
.621/2
Cooper, S. B.
1 30
.65
Hulock, Abraham 255
1.271/2
Crippen, Samuel
606
3.06
Holcomb, Milo 220
I.IO
Duke, John
220
1.20
Hiatt, Stephen 180
.90
Duke, Elizabeth
65
.341/2
Hudson, Wm. \ 80
.40
Davis, Philips
60
.30
Harrison, H1.
1 2
.06
Davis, Philips
80
.40
Henderson. Allen 72
:36
Dayton, Lenox
188
.95
Harvey, Wm. L
348
1.74
Devall, Wm.
30
.15
Janes. David
305
1.571/2
Eadstine, Jos.
00
.00
Junkin, James
260
1.30
Edwards, Mary
350
1.75
Jamison, Robt. 285
1.421/2
Enos, Jas.
185
.921/2
Jourden, Isaac 270
1.35
Earl, Jos.
485
2.421/2
Jackson, John 321
1.601/2
Fancher, Wm. M.
14
.07
Higginbottom, Jas 195
.971/2
Freta, Jerry D.
80
.40
Haskell, A. H. 20
.IO
Farrier, George
128
.64
Hoskins, Wm. 20
.10
Franklin, John
80
.40
Houston, John 220
1.IO
Franklin, John
310
1.55
Kendall, Jery
230
1.15
Gill. Mitchell
200
1.00
Kinsman, O. O.
78
.39
Goble, David. Sr 185
.921/2
Lewis, Charles
15
.071/2
Gearhart, Samuel
360
1.80
Long. Wiley 354
1.77
Grimsley, John
210
1.05
Lion, John
534
2.57
Goble, Harrison IIO
.55
Long. Joel 220
I.IO
Galbraith, Wm.
65
.321/2
Long, Jolın 515
2.571/2
Goble, David, Jr 266
1.33
Lawcy, Win. 300
1.50
Gordon, Thos.
195
.871/2
McVey, John
20
.IO
Gordon, Jerry
130
.65
Maley, Washington. . 306
1.53
Grimsby, Wm.
94
.47
Mason, Wm. 470
2.35
Livermore, Wilson 100
.50
Griswold, Alfred
IO
.05
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
19%
Names. Val. Tax.
Names.
Val.
Tax.
Moore, Jas. 107
.831/2
Powers, Daniel 708
3.54
Myers, David 446
2.23
Risk, Robt. 257
1.331/2
Miller, Aaron 407
2.031/2
Ray, Samuel
20
.IO
Moore, Amos IO
.05
Reed, Jas.
262
1.31
Mount, John G. 370
1.85
Ritchey, Thos. 357
1.78
Moloney, Jas.
5
.021/2
Ruble, Theo. 20
.IO
Miller, John D. 8
.04
Russell, Wm.
575
2.871/2
Moreland, Lefever. . 114
.57
Smith, Hugh
208
1.04
Moorhead, Matthew ..
190
.95
Smith, Jas
90
.45
Maley, John
140
.70
Shelton, John
220
1.IO
Manson, Adolphus 65
.321/2
Stone, H. A. 255
1.271/2
Moreland, Lefever. 215
1.071/2
Stout, John 115
.571/2
Miller, John A. 100
.50
Sims, John P.
50
.25
Moore. Richard
189
.941/2
Sweet, C. E.
20
.10
Maulsby, J. C.
55
.271/2
Temple, Conrad 21I
1.0512
Mowrey, John
103
.511/2
Teal, David
155
.771/2
Miller, Jas.
25
.121/2
Thorne, Francis
40
.20
Mire, David
45
.221/2
Teeple, S. P.
159
.791/2
Neil, John
89
.441/2
Thornton. W. B.
155
-771/2
Neel, John W.
105
.511/2
Wilson, Thos. 172
.86
Neil, Jos.
142
.71
Webster, Asa 319
1.591%
Neil, Robt.
105
.511/2
Waldridge, Isaac 60
.30
Orinsby, Abraham
250
1.25
Wasson, John
70
.35
Osburn, David
76
.38
Wood, John D. 189
.941/2
Osburn, C. W.
17
.581/2
Wasson, Jacob 446
2.23
Osburn, Naomi
255
1.271/2
Washburn, Silas
25
.121/2
Pence, Isaac
239
1.1912
Wells, White
150
.75
Parks, Geo.
238
1.19
Total val.
$28,029
Pennington, John
75
.371/2
Pence, Samuel
394
1.97
Total tax
$140.141/2
There were one hundred and fifty-six tax-payers. But fifty-nine were stuck for so much as one dollar. Fourteen coughed up two dollars, or over : and only three had to pay three dollars or over. John Brier was the Midas; he had seven hundred and ninety-five dollars of property, and was assessed three dollars and ninety-two and one-half cents, the highest paid. How did they make change? There were silver five and ten-cent pieces, but nickels did not come into vogue till our Centennial. Yes, there used to be old-fashioned cent pieces, as big as the dial on your watch, that used to exude verdigris, and it is a wonder people were not poisoned, especially children, by holding those
13
194
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
nasty coins in the mouth. It seems to be conclusive that kids way back there never used their mouths as savings banks. They had no money, children didn't, nor even Indian wampum. AAlas! the penniless kids. Alas, too, for the old kids-their pockets. did not bulge much. Dan Powers was the next Croesus, Sam Crippen the next Vanderbilt. Curious enough, but twenty-five charges on this list were paid-less than ten per cent. The rest was delin- quent. Money was searce. That year, too, a poll tax of six bits was levied, amounting to one hundred and forty-one dollars. The whole revenue of the county the first year after its organization, arising from taxation, was two hundred and eighty-one dollars and fourteen and one-half cents, provided all was paid. To show subsequent increase, in '41 there was a tax collection of three hundred and eighty-eight dollars and sixty-five cents. In '70 the total valuation of all property in the county was four million eight hundred and eighty-five thousand nine hundred and eighty-nine dollars, the total taxx levy was one hundred and eighty-eight thousand eight hundred and twenty-one dollars and ninety-one cents, and of this tax levy ninety-seven thousand five hundred and forty-four dollars and eighteen cents was to pay railroad bonds. In '75. the valuation was five million four hundred and fifty-five thousand eight hundred and nineteen dollars, and the levy one hundred and twenty-five thou- sand three hundred and sixty-five dollars and eighty-one cents, a reduction of sixty-three thousand dollars, because the levy for railroad bonds was but for forty-three thousand seven hundred and thirty-three dollars and seventy cents. In '78, valuation five million five hundred and five thousand nine hundred and twenty-two dollars, levy one hundred and thirty-five thousand one hundred and thirty-one dollars and twenty cents, an increase of some ten thousand dollars, while the levy for R. R. bonds was but thirty-four thousand nine hundred and thirty-one dollars and twenty cents. In '79, the panic depression after "the great crime of 1873." affected both valuation and levy thuis : Val- uation, five million three hundred and five thousand five hundred and three dollars, levy one hundred and twenty thousand three hundred and sixty- seven dollars and thirty-nine cents, of which twenty-nine thousand seven hundred and eighty dollars and sixty-two cents was levied as aid to rail- roads. The rate of levy in '78 was eleven mills, and next year eleven and a half.
First Bills Allowed .- On July 1. '39, John Crill got twenty-four dollars for assessing tax. July 17, '39. Colwell Neit got four dollars and fifty cents for three days' work as chain bearer in laying out Washington. For like service, T. M. Neil got two dollars and twenty-five cents, Wm. Basey and Nathan Baker, two dollars and fifty cents each, and on August 15, J. B. Davis was paid nine dollars for laying off the town. On October 7, '39, one hundred and sixty dollars' worth of claims were paid to commissioners, clerks, surveyors, etc.,
H
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OLD EVERSON OPERA HOUSE
Now the Temple Building
GRAHAM
1
GRAHAM OPERA HOUSE, WASHINGTON
HE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATION
197
IHISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
out of town fund, and seventy-nine dollars and twelve cents from county fund. The town fund was created from sale of lots, and the county fund from taxes, licenses, fees, fines, etc. Both town and county orders were at a discount, but town orders rated worth more than the other.
County order No. 1, October 7, '39, went to A. H. Haskell.
The sale of lots made nine hundred and fifteen dollars and fifty cents, and the '39 tax list made two hundred and eighty-one dollars ; licenses probably added five hundred dollars to the 1839 county fund. Grocers had to pay twenty-five dollars and clock-peddlers one hundred dollars. What ailed the clock men ? That punishment was as bad almost as liquor mulet in 1909.
In the first two years, '39 and '40, one hundred and sixty orders were issued on the county fund, or eight hundred and seventy-one dollars and seventy-nine cents. The clerk, Thomas Baker, got two hundred dollars salary, which was more than all the other salaries combined. The "county rat" didn't have in those lean days near as long a tail as now, and it was not prehensile, either. The commissioners got three dollars a day ; the assessor in '39 got all of twenty-four dollars for traveling the whole county, but he kicked, and the next year his pay was shoved up to the sublime notch of thirty-six dollars. D. Goble, the first treasurer, staggered off under the weight of his first year's salary, viz., twenty dollars, but it is not stated what he did with it-all.
But, then, taxes were low. Oh, the good old days of the Golden Age, that will return-"Nevermore," quoth the raven !
Golden Words .-- When the reader contrasts the tax levy of 1839 with that of 1908, he will have an impulse to exclaim with ancient Methuselah,
"Blessed be Nothing. Poverty is bereaved of its fabled terrors. A crust and a cobwebbed garret look pretty good to many rich 'poor devils' nowadays. And the tax-ferret was unknown in the Golden Age of Auld Lang Syne."
Valuation, Levy and Tax from 1880 to 1909 .- Auditor Chauncey E. Myers kindly furnishes this History the important figures for the period stated :
Year.
Valuation.
Amount of Tax.
Consoli- dated.
1880
$5.475,171.00
$ 85,915.35
1881
5.668,768.00
111,892.48
1882
5,859,507.00
106.319.28
1883
6,172,555.00
145,438.35
1884
6,144,928.00
123,090.96
1885
6,484,124.00
144.400.65
1886
6,429,372.00
135,605.98
1887
6,512,993.00
132,005.56
1888
6,670,058.00
137.778.25
198
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
Year.
Valuation.
Amount of Tax.
Consoli- dated.
1889
6.730,356.00
135,814.87
1890
6,783,451.00
132,743.06
1891
6,976,711.00
131,707.43
1892
6,998,781.00
136,697.52
1893
7.180,020.00
146,174.62
1894
7.078,200.00
160,927.48
12
1895
7,131.733.00
155,413.53
II
1896
7,143,607.00
162,814.50
11.5
1897
7,104,096.00
162.396.84
II
1898
6,460,927.00
158,817.68
12
1899
6.066,856.00
159.920.35
I2
1000
6.305,898.00
159,186.68 11.3
1901
6,392,895.00
183,902.72
13.1
1902
6,575,561.00
199,049.29
14.2
1903
6,827,156.00
246,599.54
14.2
1904
7,039,573.00
243,360.76
16
1905
7,083,001.00
265,677.69
16
1906
7,109.559.00
243,989.75
13.5
1907
7,173,907.00
252,726.71
15.2
1008
7,276.337.00
259.497.94
15.5
The delinquent tax list used to be voluminous and formidable to all but the printer who got over five hundred dollars for publishing it, thirty to forty years ago, and several citizens became rich buying tax titles for a song and letting the angels carry the land to one hundred dollars an acre. But in late years that delinquent list is small, hardly amounting to two thousand five hun- dred dollars or three thousand dollars. The poll tax evaporates, as many move away before the treasurer can get the scalp. The ability to pay taxes promptly, the last dozen years, is an index to the unexampled prosperity that has torn the mortgage roof off from so many farms and city homes.
CHAPTER IX.
ROADS-TERRITORIAL, COUNTY, AND RAILROADS.
It is as hard to think of this county roadless and bridgeless as of a time when the earth was without form and void. But for a respectable number of millions of years there were no roads here, even after the primeval and recur- ring ocean, had rolled away as scrolls. And then for a good many ages, probably, there were aborigines' trails, but roads are nearly as recent as the last dew that did not "fall" in 1908.
For the first three years our settlers were worse off for highways than the Indians. Before 1839-40, there was not even one road in the county. People rode horseback and drove at their sweet will every whither, and forded, waded, ferried streams and sloughs. Indeed, but few roads and temporary bridges were made before 1846. They began to come with statehood in that year and kept on till 1860. Yet one of the first acts of the board of commis- sioners was to divide the county into road districts and appoint road super- visors. And the earliest territorial legislatures authorized the location and survey of roads, and some work was done on them. In '39, our folk were asking legislation, and two letters are extant, written to our John Jackson, surveyor, by Daniel Brewer, representative for Louisa and Washington coun- ties, concerning roads. Bills were framed for roads from Washington to Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield, Iowa City, Wapello, etc.
The first recorded road was one projected from Iowa City to Burlington, entering this county west of south-east corner of section 35, township 78, range 6 west, following the Iowa river, passing through Crawfordsville and leaving the county at the south-east corner. No. 2 recorded and platted road led from Washington to Crawfordsville, intersecting there a road from Iowa City. Commissioners Ritchey and Kurtz located it, and Wm. Wooley surveyed it. It began at south-west corner of square in Washington, went east a quar- ter mile. and south-east nine miles, and when within a quarter of a mile of Crawfordsville ran due east. All trace of it is gone, but it was substan- tially followed by the old narrow gauge, now Burlington, road. No. 3 road five and a half miles long, from Richmond north-east. Though running diag-
199
200
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
onally across section lines, it has not yet been abandoned, as most of such roads were. Other territorial roads located and surveyed were these; From fifteen mile stake to Washington on military road ; from Washington to north line of Missouri; from Richmond to Columbus City; from Brighton to Oskaloosa ; from Richmond to Wasson's mill ; county road from south-east corner of square in Washington to Holcomb's mill, dated December, 1858. The Sigourney road June, 1846 ; old military road from Johnson county through lowa, Highland, Oregon and Crawford townships, January 18, 1859. Road from north line section 4, Iowa township, via Washington and Brighton, to Missouri line dated December, 1858. Wasson's mill to Iowa river, north side of English river, December 23, '58; road from north line Iowa township to cut military road at Crawfordsville, July 15, '59: from Washington to Burlington and Walding's Landing, January 12, '59; Wassonville to Richmond, January 4, '59: Washington to Richmond, November, '58; from south line of county to Indian boundary and from Holcomb's mill to same boundary and from Crip- pen's mill to Deeds' mill, January 28, '59. Many of these roads have been abandoned.
Thorean said of the Old Marlboro' road in Massachusetts, that if one fol- lowed it well, it ran round the world. All main-travelled roads do, or at least they run to the shores of the oceans. A winding country road, especially if framed with trees, wild flowers, ferns and vines, is charming in its suggestive- ness of bewitching possibilities ; one does not know what may happen or appear at any turn of it, but for a more exquisite beauty, drive on almost any east and west road on our eastern or western coast-at last the dry road runs away into an offing of roadless, tossing, ridgey, furrowed intense blue. It becomes a submerged road. a sprinkled road, the dust all laid by the spray of seas.
In the spring, rains make our roads not only long, but deep, quite as deep as long. That is the penalty or tax we pay for having a rich soil. Surface water prefers to defy gravity to get a chance to stay on such a fat soil as ours. It does not so much run off as run down. Roads become well nigh bottomless. Until the area around the public square in this city was brick- paved in 1904, four horses would stall, trying to haul an empty wagon round the park. Wags stuck danger flags in the worst mud-holes, pools and mael- stroms. In wet seasons people abandon vehicles and bestride and even forsake horses, to walk across lots and on railway tracks. In the open February of 1867, when Ralph Waldo Emerson lectured here, he said, "You seem to be the prisoners of your sidewalks," which was characteristically Emersonian for defining mud. But after the rainy season, our roads are metallic. Hoof-beats and iron tires sound on them like hammer-strokes on anvils. The delightful
التعبير
MAIN STREET, WASHINGTON, LOOKING EAST FROM PUBLIC SQUARE
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN FOUNDATION
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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
sounds are heard afar, for miles. The roads are as hard and glass-smooth as the muscles of a trained pugilist. Polished ivory is not smoother, harder. Our roads have no enemy butt water. Crowning them and running ditches along their flanks do not drain them quick enough. The use of the King drag is said to be a remedy, but most Iowans are from Missouri on that proposition. Automobiles are expensive luxuries, as they may be used but half the year.
It always surprises one to see how rapidly the roads mend when the rowdy, roaring winds of March. that "the daffodils take with beauty," descend on the quagmires like enormous broonis, mops, sponges and besoms. A few blus- tering days put a dry color like alkali here and there, and dry ridges appear as did the slopes of Ararat when Noah's ark beached on the terraces of that mountain.
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