USA > Iowa > Allamakee County > Past and present of Allamakee county, Iowa. A record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 33
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 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55
337
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
therewith an election was held in Makee township April 26th, at which a five per cent tax was voted by 342 to 101. Union Prairie township voted a three per cent tax May 17th, by 113 to 51; but aid was refused by Ludlow May 19th, where a three per cent tax was asked. by Jefferson, May 22d (the same), and by Hanover, May 25th, where only a two per cent tax was called for.
June 10, 1876, the W. & M. R. R. Security Company was organized for the purpose of devising means for completing the road, but was dissolved September 19th, the securities furnished by the members being returned to them. And on the same date the W. & M. R. R. Guarantee Company was organized, for the purpose of completing, equipping, maintaining and operating said railroad. The incorporators were: Dudley W. Adams, L. W. Hersey, Holahan & Buggy, J. W. Pratt, A. Hersey, Henry Dayton, E. K. Spencer, W. C. Earle, A. J. Hersey, A. E. Robbins, A. Plubiska, C. W. Jenkins, C. D. Beeman, H. G. Grattan, H. H. Stilwell, Low & Stillman, John A. Taggart, J. H. Hale, Lewis Reid, Azel Pratt. And the officers: D. W. Adams, president : C. D. Beeman, vice-president : J. W. Pratt, secretary ; L. W. Hersey, treasurer; H. G. Grattan, auditor. The assets of the W. & M. R. R. Company were leased to the Guarantee Company for a number of years for the purpose indicated. In December the iron was contracted for in Milwaukee, upon favorable terms; and an order was made to enforce the collection of delinquent stock.
At the annual meeting of the original railroad company in April. '77, the following officers were elected: D. W. Adams, president; C. D. Beeman, vice-president ; H. G. Grattan, secretary ; L. W. Hersey, treasurer ; James Hola- han, Conrad Helming, W. C. Earle, H. H. Stilwell and C. W. Jenkins, directors. June 30th J. H. Hale was elected chief engineer. July 27th H. G. Grattan resigned as auditor and Jas. Holahan was elected. September 3rd, at the annual election of the Guarantee Company, D. W. Adams was reelected president, A. E. Robbins, vice-president ; J. W. Pratt, secretary ; L. W. Hersey, treasurer, and Jas. Holahan, auditor.
H. H. Stilwell was attorney for the company, and D. W. Adams general superintendent of the road.
In July. 1877, first mortgage bonds were issued to the amount of about $30,- 000, and taken by Messrs. Fairbank, Bradley and Parks, of Massachusetts, interest eight per cent payable semi-annually. And a short loan of $15,000 was secured from J. H. Fairbank of Winchendon, Massachusetts, ample real estate security being given. The rolling stock was purchased the latter part of that month, and the delivery of iron began early in August. Track-laying began Sep- tember 4th : the locomotive was received September 1Ith; reached Waterville, nine miles, September 25th; and on October 27th, fifty-three days from the time the first rail was laid, the track was completed, twenty-three miles, to Waukon.
Thus, after twenty years of disappointments, hoping, waiting, and working, Waukon became a railroad town, with a road of her own building. Just twenty years to a month from the time of the first railroad survey up Paint creek valley, a road was completed over that route; and this village and vicinity entered upon a new era of prosperity. It was entirely independent of any other road or cor- poration, the people of Waukon having struggled through with the enterprise single handed.
338
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
At the time of its completion the rolling stock of the road comprised one twelve-ton locomotive, sixteen box cars, five flats, and one passenger. The cost of the road and its equipments amounted to about $121,000, or nearly $5,300 per mile, and its total debt was about $50,000, bonded for five years. No great splurge or celebration was indulged in, but on the day of its completion an im- promptu affair was gotten up for the entertainment of the people who happened to be in town, and the railroad employes in particular, from an account of which in the Standard we (mote as follows:
"On Saturday, October 27, 1877, at 3 o'clock P. M., the engine 'Union Prairie' rolled up to the platform of the Waukon depot. Thos. Clyde, engineer : O. H. Bunnell, fireman, and Henry Lear, conductor. For the preceding few days as the end of the track approached town the number of visitors had constantly in- creased. until on this day a large crowd of people, consisting largely of ladies, were assembled at the depot and below to witness the last of the track-laying, and get a sight at the first appearance of our locomotive. When the train reached the depot platform the flat cars were soon crowded to their fullest stand- ing room, chiefly by the ladies and children, and the Waukon band played a joy- ous strain in welcome. At this point in the proceedings everybody stood still until the camera had secured a photograph of the lively scene for all to look at and laugh over in future years ( which is reproduced herewith) ; after which the first 'passenger train,' consisting of five flats, densely packed, ran down the road a couple of miles, with the band playing on the front car, and soon re- turned with whistle sounding, amid considerable enthusiasm and amusement.
At 5 o'clock, headed by the band, the hands repaired to Barnard Hall. which had been decorated with flags. as had also most of the business houses. Here, to the number of about sixty, they were treated to a bountiful hot supper, including all the delicacies of the table which the ladies of Waukon so excel in providing, served by the ladies themselves. After the hands had satiated their appetites the public generally fell to and did full justice to the repast ; and so amply had the ladies provided for sixty or eighty railroad hands that it is esti- mated some five hundred people were served with supper at the hall, free.
* After supper the floor was cleared and those so disposed participated in a social dance. * * * There were in town during the day an unusual number of people, although no public announcement of any demonstration had been made."
The railroad began carrying the mails February 11, 1878.
A month or two before the completion of the road to Waukon, Mr. E. B. Gibbs, then station agent on the river road at Harper's Ferry, was engaged to take charge of the new station at Waukon, and he proved a valuable asset to the new corporation, with its inexperienced officials, in getting this office into proper working order. In December following, the American Express Company began doing business over this line : and November 6, 1879. a telegraph line was com- pleted; and both these branches of railroading were added to Mr. Gibbs' duties. The work incident to the opening of a new office, providing it with the proper books and blanks, and practically operating this independent line with its insuf- ficient shipping facilities, was immense, but Mr. Gibbs was equal to the occasion. When he finally took time to determine whether or not to make this his home. he decided the question by buying a lot and building a comfortable dwelling,
FIRST TRAIN INTO WAUKON, OCTOBER 27, 1877
341
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
and has for over thirty-five years proven a valuable asset to the business and social interests of the town, as he had at first been to its railroad interests. For a third of a century he retained the position of agent at this station, under the various railroad managements, resigning to take up the local management of the Upper Iowa Power Company and electric lighting system, in Waukon.
At the annual election of April 2, 1878, the company elected D. W. Adams, president, H. G. Grattan, vice president, L. W. Hersey, secretary, C. D. Bee- man, treasurer, and Jas. Holahan, Henry Dayton, W. C. Earle, C. Helming and C. W. Jenkins, directors.
In September, 1878, James F. Joy, of railroad fame, came here and pur- chased a controlling interest of the stockholders, the officers of the Guarantee Company being succeeded by : J. F. Joy, president ; F. O. Wyatt, vice president and general manager; C. M. Carter, treasurer : H. H. Stilwell, secretary; and the road passed into the same management as the river road, with a prospect of being pushed through into Minnesota. The officers of the old original com- pany resigned, and were succeeded by: F. O. Wyatt, president; W. J. Knight, vice president ; C. M. Carter, treasurer ; H. H. Stilwell, secretary ; and Frank Adams, S. A. Wolcott, J. F. Joy, L. W. Hersey and A. E. Robbins, directors. That fall and winter a party of surveyors ran a line for a proposed extension northwest into Minnesota, and also preliminary surveys toward Decorah, which city in August, '79, voted a four per cent tax in aid of an extension to that place via Frankville. That route having been abandoned, grading was begun on the line down Coon Creek, and in October Decorah again voted a tax to aid in its extension, and the work was prosecuted vigorously, until stopped by the ap- proach of winter.
In the spring of 1880 grading for the extension was resumed, the piers erected for four iron bridges across the Oneota river, and several miles of track laid from Waukon, when, in May, the lines of the C., C., D. & M. railroad, of which this was a feeder, passed into the hands of the C., M. & St. P. Railroad Company. It was said that the Chicago & Northwestern was negotating for these lines, and had nearly accomplished their purpose when by a little unneces- sary delay in making their final inspection of the properties the game was lost to the Milwaukee managers, who had been closely watching it and by the sudden turn of a card secured the stake. As it turned out, work on the Decorah exten- sion ceased early in July, when the track had been laid almost to the river ; the rails and ties were later taken up, and the right of way abandoned.
In 1885 the road was widened to standard gauge.
THE WAUKON SCHOOLS Early School History Miss Jessie Lewis
The first school of Waukon was out east of town at what is known as the Four Corners-a little log schoolhouse. Mr. D. D. Doe taught there in 1853. Then in the winter of 1854-5 L. O. Hatch taught in town in what is now Nelson Maxwell's house. It stood then about where E. Dillenberg's residence now stands. It was a private house, Mr. Israel owning it and living upstairs, the family's egress and ingress being through the schoolroom.
342
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
In 1855 a schoolhouse was built and Charles Jenkins was one of the carpen- ters. It stood about where the Sisters' school now is. It was made on the usual plan, with a front door opening into a long hall and a door at each side, one for girls and one for boys, and what an ignominious punishment it was for a girl to be sent out into that cold hall to meditate on her sins. Boys were not sent out ; they got a thrashing then and there, provided the teacher could do it. The seats inside were in four rows, the first row large, the next smaller and so on down. Althea Pottle, Ella Hancock and Emma Townsend used to go early, get the back seat and let the older, larger girls take smaller seats in front. But they had a good time on that back seat !
Mr. Augur taught in the winter of 1855-6. There was plenty of snow in those days and no sidewalks to speak of. so Mr. Augur wore heavy boots to school and took them off there and wore slippers. He used to put his boots down at the end of the long bench used as a recitation seat. The day before Christmas the pupils took turns sitting on the end of the seat near the boots so as to surreptitiously drop his or her contribution into the boots. They were full by night, mostly vegetables, and as he had to "board 'round," they were not of much use to him.
Miss Susan Shattuck taught the next summer, and in the winter of 1856-7 Mr. Henry Bigelow was the teacher. | Mr. Bigelow later lived in Decorah and taught in a commercial college there until he was assassinated by an insane col- league a few years ago .- Editor.] He was followed by Mr. Wilbur, Dr. Earle and Mr. Eastman. Mr. Eastman and wife also taught a private school in the house now occupied by Superintendent Mills. These gentlemen taught in the winter, and in the summers Misses Addie Walker, Hannah Geesey, Nellie Shat- tuck. Mate Stillman and Ella Ilancock held gentle sway.
In the fall of 1859 Mr. Loughran came and taught in the Presbyterian church, a private school, until 1862, when a brick schoolhouse was built by him, where the present schoolhouse stands. It was called the Allamakee College. The money was raised to build it by selling scholarships at $125. In 1862 school was held by him in Hersey's hall, adjacent to the present Meyer hotel [now the Allamakee]. Meantime the public school was going on all the time. In 1862 Henrietta Huestis was principal and Emma Townsend assistant. Professor Loughran sold the property to A. A. Griffith of elocutionary fame. who sold it to Martin Stone, and he in turn sold it to the district.
After the college became public property the principals down to the present are given in the following poem by a member of the present senior class of 1903 ( Miss Harriet .A. Hancock ), as taken from her paper at school :
When first our school was graded and in 1864 Was moved to this location, from where it was before. The competent instructor, Mr. Martin Stone by name,
Hlad charge and jurisdiction, and overlooked the same. This honorable position he held for two full years,
When a certain Thomas Cutler undertook to show his peers
That he was made for teaching and instructing gentle youth.
He was followed, be it noticed ( for he stayed not long, in truth ), By a Mr. Charles F. Stevens, then by Miss Marie E. Post.
343
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
Mr. A. M. May succeeded, then Miss Keeler helped them learn, Then Charles Cressy, J. H. Carroll and J. Loughran in his turn. The last named held the scepter for half a dozen years.
Then upon the scene another old-time preceptor appears,
A Mr. David Judson, and so clever was his rule That many years passed by him before he left the school. Next there followed S. A. Harper with sway both strong and kind, Then Mr. Jones had charge one year, and after him we find The name of C. P. Colgrove, who brought the school good fame, Then H. F. Kling, E. L. Coffeen ( also a goodly name).
Mr. Smith and Mr. Macomber, whose dominion being past, There followed Mr. Dwelle. May he long remain the last.
To go back to early history. The old school building was bought by O. S. Hathaway and used for a wagon shop. It was moved down where Heiser's shop now stands. They moved it across the road, west, and used it as a storing shop. It is now back of John Hager's wareroom and is used for the same pur- pose. [It has since been entirely demolished, in 1907 .- Editor.] What stories of good old times are stored away in that worn old frame. I am reminded of one romance there. One fair, bright maid was suspected (and rightly, too) by the teacher, a spruce and courtly gentleman, for having some reading matter in her desk not only not belonging to school work, but not good reading for anyone. He demanded the book. She refused. What could he do? If it were only a boy now, but a girl-a grown-up young lady, one of his brightest pupils. He gave her her choice, to give up the book or leave school. She left only to be promptly sent back by her sensible parents. Either her spirited resistance or her sweet apology captured the teacher, for a few years later he married her.
The first few years the school took in all the farming country around, reach- ing west as far as the Jim Smith farm, where Ezra Reed then lived, and with all that territory there were only about twenty-five pupils. One of the classes in those early days consisted, as near as the writer could obtain the names, of the following: Clara and Belle Britain, Emma Townsend, Althea Pottle, Sarah Hersey, Lucinda, George and Rebecca Smith, Frank and Henry Robbins, Susie Paulk, Ichabod Isted, Watson Hanscom, Granville Rose, John Sterling Mather, Sarah Reed, Ann Williams, Sarah Pierce and James Williams.
It is to be regretted that records were not kept, but there are none obtainable any farther back than Prof. D. Judson's time. Then, in 1876, we find a partial record, and in January, 1877. we find the attendance in the several rooms as follows: Prof. and Mrs. D. Judson, 66; Helen Lisher, 46; Jessie Lewis, 39; Ida Thompson, 77; Mary Duffy, 47. Total, 275.
The records take us down to the present with about 400 pupils, and though we have the unlucky number of thirteen teachers our school has few equals.
When Professor Loughran built the college he made it his dwelling as well. His family lived on the first floor and boarded a good many of the students, who had rooms on the third floor. Professor Loughran was assisted by his son, Cor- nelius, and also by W. W. Likens, a Mr. Brock, Miss Higby, Miss Post and Mrs. Calkins, who taught French, and Miss Ishe, music. Later by J. P. Ray- mond.
344
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
The first literary society of Waukon had its beginning in the college in 1862. There were two, one for the boys and one for the girls. They met once a week. A good many of the members then are members of the Woman's Literary Society now.
The foregoing history by Miss Lewis was written in 1902. The public school superintendents who have followed Mr. Dwelle are: J. H. Bowers. C. S. Cory ( who, with C. P. Colgrove, is now a member of the faculty of the Iowa State Teachers' College ). W. H. Ray and C. F. Pye, present incumbent.
The women who have taught are as worthy to be immortalized in this history as the men already named ; only their number and the difficulty of obtaining their names for the earlier years makes it impossible to present a full list. There are three names, however, that ought to be mentioned with honor. for length of service. Miss Lizzie Spaulding began teaching in 1881, and has taught here continuously ever since. Misses Ida Thompson and Jessie Lewis began several years earlier, but their service has not been continuous. Miss Thompson retired several years ago : the other two are teaching yet. to the delight of many mothers of young children.
This school teaches the normal course for rural teachers, including agricul- ture and domestic science. The number of teachers at present. aside from the superintendent. is fourteen, as follows: Principal. Miss Kleespie ; mathematics. Miss MeDougall; English and history, Miss Stillman; domestic science, Miss Clark; physics, Mr. Salmonson ; music and drawing. Miss Harris; eighth grade, Miss Carter; seventh, Miss Bock; sixth, Miss Westrum; fifth, Miss Dial; fourth, Miss Tench ; third, Miss Lewis; second, Miss Spaulding; and first, Miss Smith. Miss Smith is also a veteran, having taught here twenty years; and Miss Dial not far short of that.
We might add to the early teachers mentioned by Miss Lewis the names of James Bentley. George Butler and C. W. Walker, this writer receiving instruc- tion under each of them in the old schoolhouse, his home being then in the same block, the present residence of A. M. May. Mr. Bentley taught in 1860-1 ; Mr. Walker in the winter of 1862-3. We have a distinct recollection of a correction the latter made in our reading "The Village Blacksmith": "And the muscles of his brawny arms were strong as iron bands," when we insisted in placing the emphasis on the word "bands."
Mr. Walker has resided in McGregor since 1864, where he was for many years ticket agent for the river packets and the Milwaukee railroad, and later mayor of the city several terms. Ile has retained his popularity among Waukon people, and is still actively engaged in business at eighty-two years young-so active and vigorous that the uninformed would not suspect his true years.
Mr. Bentley introduced a moot court. in which he was the presiding judge. for the trial of petty infringements of school rules. This proved rather an interesting diversion for the bright boys, and they soon began to provide so. many cases that the time of the court was insufficient to try them all. and this plan of enforcing discipline was abandoned. The date of Mr. Bentley's teaching is established by a cherished memento which we still possess, in the shape of a
345
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
pasteboard-and-ribbon rosette, bearing an inscription indicating good scholar- ship and good behavior-but the latter statement always caused the stirring of a guilty conscience. The "trophy" was accompanied with a silver quarter, which we do not still possess.
At one time (think it was during Mr. Eastman's administration), a flagrant case of insubordination by a grown up young man was referred to the directors, who barred him from the school. As he persisted in coming, however, it was decided to remove him forcibly if need be. So three directors appeared one day, and upon his refusing to go peaceably they surrounded him in his seat and after a struggle succeeded in ejecting him from the building and locked the door. He lingered around in that vicinity, like Mary's little lamb, and when the direc- tors had disappeared from view he coolly picked up a stick of cordwood and with a gentle tap broke the lock and went in to his accustomed seat. This narrator witnessed the performance from the outside of the building, having escaped during the melee, and cannot say what then occurred inside, but school was dismissed very soon after. The final outcome is not now recalled.
Private schools were kept from time to time, and summer schools for the little tots, in various places. We remember attending school in the frame build- ing on the north side of Main street, at the corner of Armstrong, now owned and occupied as a dwelling by D. W. Douglass. Also in the (later known as) Rankin store building on the north side of Main street, which was destroyed by fire in 1878, later occupied by other frame buildings which were torn down to make room for the present D. J. Murphy brick block. Miss Pennoyer is remem- bered as a popular teacher in some of these early schools.
The first school in Waukon was taught by L. O. Hatch, as stated by Miss Lewis in her sketch, and we give the circumstances as we obtained them from him, thirty years ago:
"In the summer of 1854, Mr. John Israel and myself united in buying from the county, at $15 each, four lots on the hill just east of the premises now owned by Dr. Barnes. On these lots, in the fall of that year, with a little help from Charley Jenkins, we built with our own hands a small, frame dwelling house- the fourth frame building erected in Waukon. As winter approached, we found ourselves with a school district duly organized, embracing several families in and about Waukon, but no schoolhouse and no teacher. Our house aforesaid being nearly finished it was rented as a schoolhouse for the winter of 1854-5, and I was employed as the teacher. I was paid $15 or $18 per month, and 'boarded around' in the families of such men as Samuel Huestis, Robert Isted, John A. Townsend, James Maxwell and others. I had considerable experience as a teacher, but I was never in a school made up of brighter or better pupils than those that gathered around me on long, rude benches that winter, among whom I may mention the names of those who later became Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Judge Granger, Mrs. John Griffin ; and also Fred Clark and Ichabod Isted."
In 1855 the school district purchased the west two-thirds of block 5, in Scott Shattuck's addition, and erected thereon a substantial frame schoolhouse about 28x40 feet in size, Wm. Ramsdall and C. W. Jenkins being the builders. It was all in one room except a hallway of about ten feet off the north end, with outside doors in the middle and separate doors for the boys and girls from the hall to the schoolroom, which was heated by an ordinary box stove. At a later
346
PAST AND PRESENT OF ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
day the hallway was taken out and the entire room divided into two, with entrance to each at the center on the west side. After this division, we find in our boyhood diary, which noted only occasional events of great importance, on April 4, 1864, school began, with Miss Althea Pottle teaching the higher depart- ment and Miss Clarissa Lyons the other.
Before this division the old school building served as a place for public gath- erings of all kinds for several years, until Hersey's hall was finished. It was occupied by traveling panoramas, magic lantern exhibitions, etc., and once or more did the county agricultural society have its fair on the premises. Especially will the lyceums be remembered by the okl residents, with the concerts by the old glee club, and other interesting entertainments by home talent-to say nothing of the singing schools. The earliest meetings of the religious denominations were also held here, before they were able to erect houses of worship.
At one of the magic lantern shows we remember the screen was placed by the traveling exhibitor well out toward the middle of the room, and while the crowd was gathering he explained that they could sit on either side, that "one side of the screen is just as good as the other ;" whereupon one of the big boys took the liberty to stroll around and investigate, and remarked, "it aint either, one side has a hole in it and t'other haint," which tickled us little fellows im- mensely.
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.