USA > Iowa > Wright County > History of Wright County, Iowa, its peoples, industries and institutions > Part 34
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I Red @ 50 50
6 Denims @ 16
96
24 Lbs. Nails @ 09 2.16
Coffee 1.00
31/2 Lbs. Tallow
@ 16 56 1
8 Candles @ 25 2.00
12 lights, glass 8x10 @ 06 1
72
2 Lbs Crackers @@ 15
L
30
Tobacco @ 20
40
I Tea @@ 75 75
2 Soda @ 121/2 25
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
5 Box Cinnamon 05 25
I Fine Comb
IO
1 Broom
25
I Wash Bowl
25
The quotations in Wright county in 1864 ( Civil-War days) were as follow: Crushed sugar, 29 cents; Cuba sugar, 21 cents; New Orleans molasses, $1.15 per gallon ; coffee, 48 cents per pound ; cotton, per pound, $1.50; pork, per barrel, $42.00; gold ( Wall street, New York ), $2.50; prints, 35 cents per yard; Delaines, 40 cents; ginghams, 40 cents; checks, 48 cents; bed ticking, 75 cents; brown drilling, 45 cents; canton flannel, 50 cents ; bleached muslin, 40 cents ; brown muslin, 40 cents ; balmoral skirts, $3.00.
Quotations in 1878, at Clarion, were : Sugar, 10 cents; New Orleans molasses, 28 cents per gallon ; coffee, per pound, 15 cents; cotton, per pound, 10 cents; pork, per barrel, $9.00; gold, $1.01; prints, 6 cents per yard ; delaines, 10 cents; ginghams, 6 cents; checks, 18 cents; bed ticking, 25 cents; brown drills, 10 cents; canton flannel, 8 cents; bleached muslin, 5 cents ; brown muslin, 4 cents; balmoral skirts, 50.
Quotations in Clarion in 1894-sundry articles of domestic use : Wheat, 40 cents ; corn, 21 cents; oats, 20 cents; barley, 25 cents; flax seed, $1.00; timothy seed, $1.00; shipping beef, $3.00 to $4.00 per hundred weight ; old cows, $1.75 per hundred weight; prime hogs, $4.40 per hundred weight ; hay ( wild), $4.00 per ton; soft coal, $3.00 to $4.00 per ton; hard coal, $10.00 per ton; flour, per sack, 90 cents to $1.15; salt, per barrel, $1.25; butter, 15 cents; eggs, 15 cents per dozen; onions, 80 cents per bushel ; buckwheat, per sack, 45 cents.
Quotations in 1913-Hogs, $8.10; corn, 53 cents; oats, 34 cents; old potatoes, 35 cents ; new potatoes, per peck, 50 cents; eggs, per dozen, 15 cents; creamery butter, 29 cents; dairy butter, 27 cents; sugar, 6 cents; coffee, 18 to 35 cents ; tea, 30 to 70 cents ; flour, $1.50 to $2.00; nails, $2.60 per keg ; iron, 3 cents per pound.
The quotations for furs, trapped or otherwise captured in Wright county in 1886 were as follows: (E. D. Robbin, Clarion, dealer ) Musk- rats. 3 to 6 cents each : mink, $4.00 to $5.00; skunks, 15 to 50 cents ; wolf, 20 to 75 cents; fox, 15 to 40 cents; badger, 20 to 30 cents; coon, 20 to 30 cents ; beaver, $1.25 to $2.25 each.
The Webster City markets for December, 1873. included the follow- ing: Wheat, 84; corn, 40; oats, 35; barley, 50; cattle, $2.50 to $2.75 per
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOW.1.
hundred weight; hogs, $4.00 to $4.25 per hundred; turkeys, 5 cents per pound; chickens, 4 cents per pound; beef steak, 10 to 12 cents; roasts, 8 cents ; fresh pork, 5 cents; prairie chickens, $2.25 to $2.50 per dozen; flour. $3.00 per hundred; butter, 13 cents; lard, 7 cents; salt, per barrel, $3.25; wood, per cord, $4.00; siding, $28.00 per thousand; joist and timbers, $23.00; sheeting, $23.00; shingles, $5.00 per thousand; nails (cut), 7 cents per pound.
A CIVIL-WAR DAY LETTER.
The subjoined letter was written by Uncle C. H. Martin to Josiah Davidson, of Goldfield postoffice, and bears date of March, 1865. It refers to a new wig he had made for him; also to. many interesting things con- cerning war days and war prices-hence is here given in full : "Josiah Davidson, Esq.
"Dear Sir, it is with pleasure I write to you in answer to yours of the gth of this month, the wig I received on the evening of the 20th, too late to send yon an answer by return mail, but now after wearing the wig all day it feels so good on my head that out of gratitude to you for your trouble I give you my sincere thanks. It is a good article I think and like it very much, it keeps my head warm and looks well, am much pleased with it. I think Mrs. Davidson done well as any one could.
"Mr. S. B. Hewett gave a dinner to his friends about the 13 of this month Mr. Montgomery, Melrose and others were there to participate in the festivities. It is said that Mr. Hewett has found indications of oil on his farm, and on the Okeson? farm it is said that they have found specimens of oil & have sent some to be tested.
"Land is selling fast here now Peter Rily, Caldwell & others have sold out & going west. There seems to be considerable moving west at present.
"I was married on the 2nd of March to Mary Odenheimer and we are now keeping house, same like other folks. We expect to sow wheat this week, cattle & horses are very high for this part of the country. Hogs are scarce & demand great prices. The Government contractors are paying it is said $30.00 per cwt. for drawing Quartermaster's supplies from Neveda to Denver City, and $25.00 from Omaha to Denver City. There are a great many teams both oxen and mule teams so that the plains will be alive this spring.
"There were a great number of U. S. horses brought to Webster City for keeping this winter, it raised the price of corn & hay. Corn 75 cents per bushel & hay from $7 to $to per ton both in Webster City and Fort
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
Dodge. In Fort Desmoines flour is selling at $11.00 per barrel but in Davenport at $7.00 only.
"You speak in your letter of the change you would send next time. You will confer a favor by giving it to your boys and say nothing more about it.
"Most truly yours, "C. H. Martin.
"Mr. Barton has sold out & going to California and there appears to be almost a general move for some place."
THE HERD LAW.
The following legal notice is self-explanatory :
"State of Iowa, Wright County, ss :
"Auditor's office, October 31, 1874. Notice is hereby given to the people of said county that the board of canvassers of said county, on the 19th of October, A. D., 1874, met for the purpose of canvassing the votes cast at the last general election, on October 13, 1874, found that the whole number of votes for the proposition 'Restraining stock from running at large,' was four hundred and seventy-four votes, of which two hundred and seventy-two were for the proposition and two hundred and two votes were given against the proposition.
"Whereupon it was declared by the board that the regulation 'restrain- ing stock from running at large' is adopted, to take effect and be in force as provided by the Code of Iowa.
"JOHN L. MORSE, "County Anditor."
TELEPHONE COMPANIES.
The Wright County Telephone Company was organized and a fran- chise granted in the spring of 1899, holding a twenty-five year charter. Its line was completed in October, 1899, after which people could talk with parties at Belmond, Bruce, Kanawha, Merservy, Swaledale, Mason City, Clear Lake, Alexander, Latimer and Hampton.
The subjoined are the telephone companies doing business in Wright county in 1915: The Belmond Mutual Telephone Company, at Belmond : Blaine Farmers Mutual Telephone Company; Clarion Northwestern Tele- phone Company; Goldfield Telephone Company; Iowa Telephone Com-
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
pany; Jameson Telephone Company, Dows; Norway Rural Telephone Company; People Mutual Telephone Company; Rowan Rural Telephone Company, Rowan; Rural Home Telephone Company, Vernon township; Rural Union Telephone Company, Renwick, Humboldt county; Vincent Telephone Company, Vincent, Webster county; Vernon Farmers Mutual Telephone Company; Western Electric Telephone Company, Mason City; Woolstock Township Telephone Company; Williams and Blairsburg Tele- phone Company, Williams.
EARLY-DAY GAME OF THE COUNTY.
While in a reminiscent mood the pioneer, W. T. R. Humphrey, of Clarion, in 1910, wrote of his first visit to the county seat of Wright county, as follows:
"On my trip from Webster City to Clarion, what pleased me more than anything else was the amount of feathered game we saw. .Although it was late in the season, every pond was filled with ducks and toward evening every one of the few corn fields we saw, there were flying over them large numbers of wild geese, brant and prairie chickens. This was indeed a game paradise in those early days. What made shooting satisfactory, we did not have to hunt for the game, but it was right at our very door. The first prairie chicken I shot was where our city park is now located. I have shot prairie chickens and quails in my own door yard and once shot a large wild goose from a flock flying over, while standing in my door. The pond north of town and west of the Great Western depot of today, would always furnish shooting in duck season. Fishing was just as good as shooting. Four of us caught one hundred pounds of fine pickerel in Little Wall lake one forenoon. The lowa river was also full of the finest fishes and were easily taken. Remember this was during the seventies, and there was much game here until within a few years."
The earlier settlers-those of the fifties and sixties-saw the great numbers of elk, deer and other animals that have long since become almost extinct on the continent. They grazed and roamed at will here and there and were killed along Boone and Iowa rivers and along Buck and White Fox and Eagle creeks in large numbers.
THE PEATBOGS ON. FIRE.
In the vicinity of Big Wall lake in 1897, the large marshes at the north end of the lake in the month of November, were on fire for many weeks,
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WRIGIIT COUNTY, IOWA.
covering many hundreds of acres of land that was underlaid with peat beds. The season had been unusually dry and the substance caught fire from some careless farmer while he was burning off his stubble. It burned till the heavy rains and freezing weather set in. Much damage was done to land adjoining the lake and as a result there was some litigation over the fire thus lawlessly set.
WRIGHT COUNTY'S AVIATOR.
Young Weeks, of Holmes, Lake township, this county, known as the "wizard of the air," has made an enviable record as an inventor, con- structor and operator of "flying machines," originally so called, but which, since the science of aerial navigation has advanced to its present dignity, are known under different names, according to the type of machine used. The operator is known as an aviator. Elling C. Weeks, was born in Story county, lowa ( as was evangelist Billy Sunday ), and lowa may well be proud of the young aeronaut who has made more than a thousand successful flights in the seven machines he has built since the spring of 1910. Ile is the son of Oliver Weeks and wife, of Ilolmes, this county, born on Angust 23. 1890. About 1909 he chanced to be 'a room mate of a nephew of "Steve" Brody, the daring man who successfully leaped from the Brook- lyn suspension bridge. The boys were room mates in Chicago and it was there that young Weeks, in talking with his mate, who was studying aerial navigation, canght the "flying machine fever," as he states it, and within a few months he was making his first biplane in Chicago. When com- pleted he made flights there and having been backed by a Chicago man. shipped his outfit to Florida and, at St. Augustine, opened a school of instruction for aviators. Ile soon left for the East and made flights in New York City, Bath, New York, Scranton, Pennsylvania; in New Jersey. Michigan, Chicago, Terre Haute, also in Huntington and Clarksburg, West Virginia ; Denver and Ft. Collins, Colorado. This was from 1910 to 1913, after which he was little heard of, being busy perfecting his own style of machine, until June 5, 1915, when he returned from an air trip from his present home, Eagle Grove, to Boone, lowa, making fifteen flights with his last made biplane. On his return trip, from Slater to Eagle Grove, a dis- tance of seventy-five miles by wagon road, he made the air trip in sixty- eight minutes. Between Webster City and Eagle Grove, he made his high- est flight-being eight thousand feet above the railroad tracks, which he said looked to him like a narrow furrow. His latest machine weighs twelve hundred pounds and carries a one-hundred-and-ten-horse-power engine. He
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has made fifteen flights with his last machine and in all he has made close to eleven hundred flights, with but a few minor accidents, one of which occurred near Scranton, Pennsylvania, where his machine became disabled and he fell one thousand feet, lighting on top of a large wild cherry tree, which saved his life, as it acted as a buffer when he struck it.
Young Weeks is now advertising as a licensed pilot and will take pas- sengers on aerial flights; also make biplanes to order. His latest machine is of the "tractor biplane" type. It is to be hoped that no accident may ever befall this young Wright county aerial navigator.
MR AND MRS E. S CLEVELAND
BIOGRAPHICAL
E. S. CLEVELAND.
E. S. Cleveland, former township clerk and justice of the peace, is practically a self-made man. While the conditions of his youth and early manhood were such as to call out his physical, mental and moral strength, he overcame the difficulties and now has the right to be called a leading citizen. Mr. Cleveland, a retired farmer of this county, is a native of Maine, having been born in Somerset county, January 18, 1849. His parents were both natives of Maine.
Benjamin Cleveland, father of E. S. Cleveland, was a farmer and lum- berman during all of his residence in that New England state. Moving to Wisconsin in 1854, he purchased a farm in Green county, having made the journey with his little family as far as Freeport, Illinois, by rail. The rest of the journey to Wisconsin was made overland. Farming in Wisconsin until 1870, he then took up his residence in Iowa Falls, Iowa, on eighty acres of land which he purchased at twenty-eight dollars an acre. In 1800 he retired from active duties and subsequently lived with his son, the subject of this sketch, until his death, which occurred on May 7, 1904. His faithful wife, who had shared all his hardships as well as his joys, was before her marriage, Octavia Wentworth. She passed away on March 1, 1899. Of their nine children, five are still living. E. S. being the fourth in order of their birth.
After finishing his education in the common schools of Green county, Wisconsin, E. S. Cleveland taught school for three terms. But the hereditary leaning was toward agricultural activities, and in 1860 he became the owner of eighty acres of land in this county, which he purchased at two dollars and a half an acre. Moving here in 1877, he located in Dayton township, and after living on rented property for three years he moved to his own farm, built a substantial home and cultivated the land, to which he added other tracts until he had accumulated a farm of four hundred and forty acres in
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
Lake township, where he and his family lived until 1910. He then was able to drop the burden of active grinding toil, and moving to Clarion has lived the rest of his time in comparative ease. During his farming career he fed all of his grain to his hogs and cattle. Mr. Cleveland has varied his occu- pational pursuits by terms in public office, having been both township clerk of Lake township and justice of the peace.
On March 14, 1869, Adaline Adams became the wife of E. S. Cleve- land. The daughter of G. W. and Sarah ( Squires) Adams, she was born in Green county, Wisconsin, although her father was a native of Pennsyl- vania, and her mother of New York state. Mr. Adams was a successful farmer during all of his life. In 1867, selling out his holdings in Wiscon- sin, he moved to Kansas, but soon returned to Wisconsin, where he con- tinued farming until 1898, moving then to. this county, where he retired from active work and located in Goldfield. His death took place there in the fall of 1898, his wife having died ten years previous to that time. Of their ten children four are now living, one of whom is the wife of E. S. Cleveland.
Mr. Cleveland is recognized as one of the most progressive farmers of the county and is a prominent member of the Grangers Association. He is also a member of the Good Templars. In political matters he is an independent voter.
A large and interesting family blessed the life of Mr. and Mrs. Cleve- land. One of their ten children passed away in infancy. The others are George, Charles S., Wilmer, Arthur, Walter, Allen, Evelyn, Harry and Ellen. George, who married Frances Fox, became the father of three chil- dren, Garth, Joe and Nina. Charles became the husband of inez Crall, and to them were born four children, Ralph, Sydney, Ruth and Marjorie. Wil- mer married Bertha Walker, and their only son is named Morris. Emma became the wife of Arthur Clapp, and two children, Winifred and Blanche were born. Walter married Mae Fletcher, and their three children are Myrtle, Edna and Russell. Allen became the husband of Laura Martena. and they are the parents of Marie, Ceverne, Benjamin, and Evelyn, who died in infancy. Harry, whose wife is Lucy Mariena, is the father of three children, Viola. Elden and Harold. . To Ellen Cleveland, who married Charles Kronk, one child, Edith Mary, was born.
Mr. Cleveland, in all of life's relationships, has measured up to the standard of excellence which he early set for himself. He can now look back upon a well-spent life, a life guided by the desire to be not only suc- cessful but useful. and such opportunities he has never neglected.
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
CHARLES N. OVERBUGII:
The name Overbaugh is one familiar to nearly all Hollanders. It was probably originally written "Overbach" and is said to mean "over the creek," or "the man across the creek." In eastern New York the name is met with very often. Sixty to seventy years ago Greene county, New York, con- tained as many or more people by the name Overbaugh than any other name. According to the best information obtainable the Overbaughs in this country had their origin from two brothers who settled on the Hudson river, in Greene county, New York, in the seventeenth century, probably 1665 or 1670. When Charles N. Overbaugh was a boy the descendants of these two brothers had diverged so widely that they did not recognize any immedi- ate relationship. The following biography is written by John M. Overbaugh, a son of the subject of this sketch.
"Charles N. Overbaugh was born in Greene county, New York, on the 14th of May, 1820. The place where his parents lived and where he was born was at Kiskatom, at the foot of the Catskill mountains, and six miles from the city of Catskill. His father was John Overbaugh, and his mother Helen Manning. Charles N. was the fourth child in a family of nine chil- dren. The names in order of birth were about as follow: Jane, Sally, William, Charles, Elizabeth, John, Cornelia, Theodore and Charlotte. The father of this family was for several years before he died an invalid, his death occurring at the age of fifty years. The farm, if it was worthy of the name of farm, on which the family were born and reared consisted of thirty acres of land, at the foot of the Catskill mountains, and was as poor a tract of land as can be found in the state of New York, and that is saying a good deal. It was little more than a stone pile. It was fenced all round with stone taken from off the land and I have heard my father say that each time the land was plowed, large quantities of stone were hauled off, with but little appearance of diminution of the amount left. My readers who live in this land of fertility can imagine what is meant to rear a large family on such a farm as I have described.
"The family did not depend entirely upon the proceeds of the farm for their support. If they had they could not have lived. The mother was a tailoress and in addition to doing the work for her family, she urade coats and vests, etc., for others and would frequently sit up till twelve o'clock at night, stitching and sewing on some garment for which she received a mere pittance, compared with what tailors receive at the present. The labor and
(25)
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WRIGHIT COUNTY, IOW.A.
struggle of this noble woman are readily pathetic and I have often heard my father tell with husky voice and with tears in his eyes, of the heroic struggles of his mother to provide for her family, so they might have sufficient food and clothing. On the mountain sides there were many huckleberry bushes and, in the bearing season, I have heard father say his mother and all of the children who were old enough would spend the day gathering huckleberries and the next morning the mother would start off early with half a bushel of berries which she carried to Catskill, a distance of six miles, returning in the evening. As soon as the girls were old enough they went out to work and the boys worked at home until old enough to make a farm hand when they went out to work. I have heard my father say he and his brother, William, cut cord wood in the winter for some of the neighbors when it took both of them to cut a cord of wood in a day and for which they received the sum of thirty-seven and one-half cents. The house in which the family lived was small, poor and open, and the snow would drift in so that the beds in the loft or chamber would frequently be covered with snow in the morning.
"The mother, notwithstanding the fact that she sewed for others, made all the clothes for her numerous family in addition to doing her housework and knit long woolen stockings for her boys, so long as they remained at home. I have heard father say that after he went to work for himself he bought short socks and was chided by his mother for doing so, saying that as long as she provided for him he had good long stockings. When we consider that all this occurred before the invention of the sewing machine and had to be done all by hand, we can form some idea of the Herculean work of this noble woman.
"As I said before, the boys, as soon as they could make a hand, went out to work and I have heard him say he made a full hand in the hay field doing his share of mowing and pitching when he was sixteen years of age. When he was nineteen, he gave his father seventy dollars for his time and started out in the world for himself. His opportunities for receiving an education had been but meager, though I am of the opinion that he made good use of the advantages he had. He was brought up in the Reformed Dutch church, that being the leading church in that part of the country. When he was about twenty-one years of age he made up his mind to secure a better education and with that end in view, went out to Ohio and entered a small but excellent institution of learning called Grand River Institute, at Austinburg, in the Western Reserve. He remained there two years study-
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WRIGHT COUNTY, IOWA.
ing in addition to the common branches, Latin, algebra, philosophy, chem- istry, logic, and to a certain extent theology. Ile was of a religious turn of mind and had when he went west serious thoughts of entering the ministry. He was, however, in addition to being of a religious turn of mind, also of a philosophical and investigating turn of mind, and his rea- soning and investigating so disturbed his former faith-the faith he had been taught in his boyhood days, that he gave up the idea of becoming a minister and directed his mind into other channels. At the end of two years in school at Austinburg, he went down to Guernsey county, Ohio. There he met and fell in love with Eliza J. Dwigans whom he married, after a courtship lasting one or two years, in the month of October, 1845. After his marriage he taught school for a short time when he conceived the design of studying law and commercial work in earnest. He read quite a number of books, such as lawyers used in those times, including Blackstone's "Commentaries," Kent, "Chilty on Pleadings," etc., and I have heard him say not many years before his death that the position of Black- stone on almost any question of common law which arose was fresh in his mind at that time. About this time his favorite brother. William, died which was a great shock to him. They were hound closely together, by the memories of common struggles and hardships endured in boyhood, by intimate association and by all of those ties of endearment which cluster around two brothers of nearly one age.
"The study of law did not continue for a very long time. Children soon began to arrive and with no means at hand for support, Mr. Over- haugh was compelled to go to work to provide for his family. He taught school at first for very low wages, but later he taught in Cadiz, Cambridge and other places where wages were better. During the time he taught in Ohio, and after he came to Iowa, he would each year raise a patch of broom corn and at night after having taught all day; make a half dozen brooms and on Saturday he would make two dozen. This was a great help to him and really furnished a living for himself and family.
"About 1850 he moved to the village of Birmingham, Guernsey county, Ohio, where he taught school and continued to make brooms. Ile remained there until 1853, when he moved to Knox county, Ohio, where his brother- in-law, Joseph Hill, resided. Here he took up the business of farming which he continued for two seasons and in the fall of 1854 moved to Iowa. Of this trip I remember a good deal, although but six years of age at the time. I remember when we were all loaded in our covered wagon, with old "Lydia" and "Dart" hitched proudly to it: of the tearful good-byes, of
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