USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Past and present of Calhoun County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress, and achievement, Volume I > Part 20
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Articles of incorporation for the State Savings Bank of Yetter were filed with the county recorder on May 13, 1905, showing a capital stock of $12.000 and a board of directors composed of Frank Corey, Charles Hucka, W. C. Abney, C. E. Richards and H. C. Reaman. The officers of the bank at the beginning of the year 1915 were as follows: Frank Corcy, president; James Keary, vice president; L. W. Lancaster, cashier. At that time the surplus and undivided profits amounted to $6,000 and the deposits to $145,000.
The youngest bank in the county is the Farmers Savings Bank of Lavinia, which was incorporated on March 31, 1906. Revised articles of incorporation were filed on August 6, 1906. fixing the capital stock at $10.000 and naming the following board of directors: Edward Davis, W. A. Cook, F. J. Heebner, J. M. McCarville, J. M. Anderson and Martin Powell. In the spring of 1915 Edward Davis was president; W. A. Cook, vice president; F. B. Beckwith, cashier. The surplus and undivided profits then amounted to $1,500 and the deposits to $60,000.
The eighteen banks of Calhoun County are all conducted along conservative lines and command the confidence of the general public. Most of the men connected with these institutions have been educated
198 PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
in the school of experience and are therefore well qualified for the discharge of their respective duties. So well have these duties been performed there has never been a bank failure in the county. If bank deposits are an index to the prosperity of a community, Cal- houn County certainly has good grounds for congratulating herself upon her material conditions. The eighteen banks of the county carry deposits of over three million dollars, or nearly two hundred dollars for every man, woman and child resident within the county. And this without any large manufacturing or commercial enterprises which in the large cities are generally heavy bank depositors. In Calhoun County the wealth has been "dug from the soil," which makes the transition easy at this point to the subject of
AGRICULTURE
With the farmers of Calhoun County the calling's of Cain and Abel have been happily combined, as they are both "tillers of the soil" and "keepers of sheep." In other words, farming and stock raising have always been the principal occupations of the people of the county. From the small fields of Ebenezer Comstock and Wil- Jiam Impson in 1854, the development of agriculture as an industry has gone steadily forward until in 1913, according to the Iowa Year Book, Calhoun County had 1,792 farms, averaging in size 180 acres.
There is neither poetry nor romance in figures, and as a general thing statistics are uninteresting reading, but the story of a commun- ity's progress can often be better told by figures than in any other way. Adopting that method, then, as a means of showing the county's almost marvelous development during the sixty years of its organ- ized existence, let the reader compare the following satisties. The first table has been compiled from a volume published by the authority of the State of Iowa some years ago and shows the condition of the agricultural interests of Calhoun County in 1860.
Population
147
Bushels of corn raised. 5,980
Wheat
1,786
Oats
955
Potatoes 1.030
Tons of hay. 484
Number of cattle. 139
Horses 47
Sheep 17
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
The second table, compiled from reports on the various erops given in the 1913 Year Book, shows the aereage of each crop as well as the total yield. In the meantime the population had increased from 147 to 17,090 in 1910.
Corn
Acres 138,500
Bushels 5,400,000 3,052,000
Oats
92,5,00
Wheat
1,600
34,200
Barley
1,100
27,500
Rye
40
700
Flaxseed
115
1,000
Timothy seed
93
498
Clover seed
1,261
1,103
Potatoes
1,100
31,900
Tame hay (tons)
18,600
29,700
Wild hay (tons)
11,200
11,200
In addition to the land used in the production of these erops 57,400 acres were used for pasture; 271 acres were planted to sweet corn, of which 816 tons were sold to the eanning factories in the county; there were 475 acres of orchard, upon which were produced 10,399 bushels of apples. In 1860 not an acre of orchard was reported.
The increase in the number of domestic animals has been propor- tionately greater than that of the field crops. The Year Book above referred to gives the number of such animals in 1913 as follows:
Horses
15,333
Mules
1,063
Cattle
26,466
Hogs
59,803
Sheep
3,499
Of the cattle reported, 9,797 were milch cows, and of the sheep, 1,892 were shipped in for feeding. Calhoun ranks high in the pro- duction of poultry, the total number of fowls of all kinds in 1913 being 316,185, and during the year 867,815 dozen eggs were mar- keted. The wool elip for the same year amounted to 11,482 pounds.
But "corn is king" in Calhoun County. Only five counties in the state reported a greater corn crop in 1913. They were Woodbury, Sioux, Pottawatomie, Webster and Kossuth. As each one of these five counties has a larger area than Calhoun, it is quite probable that
200
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
no tract of land in Iowa of the same size as Calhoun County can pro- duce more corn under the same conditions.
According to the statisties of 1860, the county then had 765 acres of native timber and one acre had been planted in trees. In the year 1915 there was scarcely a farm house in the county but what had its artificial grove around it to afford shade and protection from the winds. These artificial groves will average close to one acre. No fig- ures as to the total acreage are obtainable, but on the 1,792 farms there are no doubt at least fifteen hundred acres, or approximately twice the area of the native timber when the county was first settled.
By the enactment of liberal laws, the State of Iowa has done much to encourage and promote the agricultural and stock raising interests. The Legislature of 1907 passed an act relating to farmers' institutes. By this act it is provided that: "When forty or more farmers of a county organize a farmers' institute, with a president, secretary, treas- urer and an executive committee of not less than three outside of such officers and hold an institute, remaining in session not less than two days in each year, which institute may be adjourned from time to time and from place to place in said county, the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, upon the filing with him a report of such insti- tute and an itemized statement under oath showing that the same has been organized and held and for what purposes the money expended has been used, shall certify the same to the auditor of state, which state auditor shall remit to the county treasurer of such county his warrant for the amount so expended, not to exceed seventy-five dol- lars," etc.
The law further provides that no officer of any county institute shall receive pay for his services, and all reports must be made to the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture by the first day of June in each year. The institute failing so to report shall not be entitled to receive any money from the state for that year.
While the bill was pending in the Legislature, Henry Parsons, a farmer of Cedar Township, now a hardware merchant in Rockwell City, went to Des Moines to use his influence to secure the passage of the bill. After it became a law Mr. Parsons was active in bringing about the organization of the Calhoun County Farmers' Institute. which has held annual meetings since that time. At the meetings of the institute the farmers have an opportunity to exchange ideas. Instructors from the Agricultural College have brought scientific instruction to the very doors of the farmers of Calhoun County through the medium of the farmers' institute, and the influence of
201
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
that institution is being felt by many who were not given the privilege of attending the college for a complete course of study. Each year sees the meetings of the institute well attended and the farmers are becoming more and more up-to-date in their methods. In 1915 the president of the Calhoun County Institute was George A. Ridge, of Center Township, and the secretary was A. W. Eshhaugh, of Roek- well City.
Besides the regular work of the county institute the Young Men's Christian Association of the county has held meetings called "insti- tutes" and endeavored to encourage agricultural pursuits by offering prizes for the best eorn raised by boys under a certain age. Through these corn growing contests many boys have become interested in farming. It is hoped by the projeetors of this policy that the interest thus awakened will have a tendency to prevent young men from crowding into the cities and place agriculture upon a higher plane. Other industries may be established and flourish, but the indications are that corn will continue to be king in Calhoun County for many years to come.
Among the farmers of Calhoun County are some who are given to trying experiments. A notable instance of this kind is seen in the case of W. I. Richards, a fruit grower of Union Township. In 1897 he procured some coffee, planted it, and in 1898 gathered about five gallons of coffee berries, which made a fairly good quality of drinking coffee. Mr. Richards also grew some orange trees, keeping them sheltered from the winter, and in 1899 picked from his trees several oranges.
MANUFACTURING
Calhoun has never been a manufacturing county. The largest industries of this class have been the tile factories established at various places. The Manson Clay Works is one of the oldest factories in the county. It was established sometime in the '90s and in 1903 was sold to E. R. Wisewell, who expended over three thousand dollars in im- proving the plant. Tile from four to sixteen inches in diameter were turned out at this factory and aequired a wide reputation.
In 1902 Steinberger & Marriott, of Chenoa, Ill., made a proposi- tion to establish a tile factory at Rockwell City for a bonus of $1,000. The Business Men's Association took up the matter and secured the factory, the first tile being turned out on October 21, 1902. On Jan- uary 29, 1904, the Roekwell City Brick and Tile Works was incor- porated with a capital stock of $27,000. George L. Brower, of Rock-
202 PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
well City, was elected president; Peter Kiene, of Dubuque County, vice president : Edward W. Burch, of Rockwell City, secretary. The first board of directors was composed of the above officers, Joseph A. Steinberger and George W. Marriott. The works are located just east of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, in the northern part of the town.
Although considerable capital has been invested in the establish- ment of tile factories, it has been found impossible to make a drain tile of large diameter and of first class quality from the native elay. To obviate this difficulty shales have been shipped in to mix with the elay, but this makes the process of manufacture so expensive that only the factories well equipped with modern machinery have been able to compete with those more favorably situated, and some of them have been abandoned. In recent years the experiment of making tile of cement has been tried and some cement tile has been made in Cal- houn County, notably at Rockwell City and Jolley. Cement building blocks are also made in some of the towns.
The Rockwell City Canning Company was incorporated on Janu- ary 6, 1902, with a capital stoek of $50,000 and the following board of directors: George L. Brower, George R. Allison, R. J. Loveland, E. E. Oldfield, W. S. DuBois, Andrew Wood, M. W. Frick, J. H. Bradt and F. E. Burnham. In the organization of the board Mr. Brower was elected president: Mr. Allison, vice president; Mr. Love- land, secretary, and Mr. Oldfield, treasurer. Representatives of the company went among the farmers and made contracts for sweet corn and met with such snecess that work on the factory was commeneed in April. The company canned its first goods on August 19, 1902.
The Pomeroy Canning Company was incorporated on April 23. 1902, with M. F. Mullan, G. B. Peterson, John Behrends. W. C. McCulloch, W. H. Drommer. John J. Heide and E. B. Larmon as the first board of directors. The capital stock was fixed at $15.000 and the incorporation was for twenty years.
One of the concerns brought to Rockwell City by the Business Men's Association was a flour mill, which started off under the most favorable anspices. Before its reputation was fairly established it was destroyed by fire and was never rebuilt.
The Lake City Roller Mills met with the same kind of a fatc. The elevator there was converted into a modern flour mill, with a ea- pacity of fifty barrels of flour per day. Under the management of Robins & Elbert the "White Lily" flour became a favorite with many housewives.
203
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Scattered over the county, in the different towns and villages, are a number of small concerns that manufacture various articles for the local trade. Among these are blacksmith and wagon repairs shops, harness shops, etc., but there are no large manufacturing establish- ments in the comty.
TELEPHONE COMPANY
While the telephone company is not an industry in the sense that it is a producer of wealth, it is such an aid to the other industrial enter- prises of a community that indirectly it is one of the greatest influ- ences in modern production and exchange. The Central Telephone Company of Calhoun County was incorporated on November 2, 1897, with J. H. Bradt, president; E. C. Stevenson, vice president: P. C. Holdoegel, secretary; W. S. DuBois, treasurer. These officers and J. F. Lavender constituted the first board of directors. The capital stock at the time of incorporation was $10,000.
This company is the outgrowth of a company organized in 1895, with a capital of $1,000. The name of the company has since been changed to the Central Mutual Telephone Company and the capital stock has been increased to $150,000. In addition to his duties as secretary, Mr. Holdoegel has been made the general manager. The lines have been extended to all parts of the county, buildings for ex- change and office purposes have been erected in Rockwell City, Lake City and Jolley, and exchanges are maintained at Manson, Pomeroy, Lohrville and Sherwood. In the spring of 1915 the company was operating 3,500 telephones and the patronage was constantly increasing.
CHAPTER XIII INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS
CONDITIONS NOW AND SIXTY YEARS AGO-INDIAN TRAILS-TRAVEL IN EARLY DAYS-PUBLIC HIGHWAYS-NORTHWESTERN STAGE COM- PANY-COUNTY ROADS UNDER THE LAW OF 1913-ROAD TAXES- THE RAILROAD ERA-EARLY OPPOSITION-ILLINOIS CENTRAL-IOWA & PACIFIC-CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN-CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL-CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC-CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN-FORT DODGE, DES MOINES & SOUTHERN-RAILROAD PRO- JECTS THAT FAILED-DRAINAGE-HELL AND SHIPMAN SLOUGHS - BONDS-EFFECTS OF THE DRAINAGE SYSTEM ON THE WEALTH OF THE COUNTY.
In this year 1915 of the Christian ear, when a eitizen of Calhoun County finds it necessary to pay a visit to the market town or the county seat. he can step into his automobile-or, if he has not yet acquired a motor car, hitch a horse to a buggy and drive over a public highway to his destination. Should he have oeeasion to make a longer journey, he ean take a seat in a railway coach on one of the great rail- way systems of the country and be transported across the country at the rate of forty or fifty miles an hour. But does he ever pause to consider how all these conveniences of modern travel were brought about for him to enjoy? Let him for a moment draw upon his imagi- nation for the conditions that existed in what is now Calhoun County when Ebenezer Comstoek built the first civilized habitation in the spring of 1854.
Then all Northwestern Iowa was "fresh from the hands of Nature." A few Indians roamed over the country at times, though most of the natives had aeeepted new reservations west of the Missouri River and removed to their new abodes. An occasional trapper wan- dered into Calhoun and the adjoining counties in search of fur-bear- ing animals, but the only constant residents of Calhoun County were the muskrats, swifts, prairie wolves and a few other varieties of wild
204
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY 205
beasts. Here and there an Indian trail wound through the woods or over the prairies, "following the line of least resistance," and these trails were the only thoroughfares. When the first white men began to come into the Coon River Valley and the adjacent territory, even many of the old trails had become almost obliterated by the rank growth of slough grass. Near the western boundary of Calhoun County was an old trail known as the "War Path," which marked the dividing line between the hunting grounds of the Pottawatomi In- dians on the east and those of the Sioux tribes on the west.
No roads had as yet been opened by the white man for the con- venience and accommodation of travel by wagons or other vehicles, the ereeks and rivers were without bridges, and frequently some immi- grant seeking a home in the great West would have to eneamp on the bank of a swollen stream and wait for several days until the waters subsided so that he could continue his journey.
As the march of civilization proceeded westward the first settle- ments in every community were made along the large rivers, where traffic and travel could be carried on by steamboats. In the State of lowa the first settlements were made along the Mississippi River, and next along such streams as the Iowa and Des Moines, where goods could be transported by canoes and keelboats. Calhoun County, being without any river of navigable proportions, had to be reached mainly by overland travel. One of the first necessities, therefore, that con- fronted the pioneers was the establishment of
PUBLIC HIGHWAYS
At a comparatively early date the Town of Sioux City, the county seat of Woodbury County, located on the Missouri River due west from Calhoun County, came into prominence as a trading post. Goods were brought up the Missouri River in boats and transported to the interior settlements by wagon. To establish communication between Sioux City and the older settlements farther east, a stage line was opened between Sioux City and Dubuque. From the City of Dubuque the old stage route passed westward through Manchester, Independence, Waterloo, Iowa Falls, Webster City and Fort Dodge and entered Calhoun County about two miles south of the northeast corner. Three miles east of the present Town of Manson, at the house of Joseph Yates, was a relay station, where the stages changed horses and the passengers found something to eat. From that point the road ran in a southwesterly direction and passed between the Twin
206
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALIIOUN COUNTY
Lakes, where there was another relay station and hotel. It then pursued a more westerly course until it entered Sae County. As a matter of fact the stage line was operated by different companies, that portion from Fort Dodge to Sioux City being known as the North- western Stage Company. The old stage route was not much of a road, the company making only such improvements as were absolutely necessary to enable the stages to get through without miring down in the swamps, but it was probably the first road to extend aeross the county from east to west.
Gue, in his History of Iowa, says: "In early days a good wagon road was graded from Lake City to Fort Dodge and the streams were bridged for a distance of about forty miles over unsettled prairies."
This statement is only partially correct. There was a road from Lake City to Fort Dodge, but it was only slightly improved. It was on this road that the American Emigrant Company agreed to build ten bridges aeross the sloughs, as mentioned in a former chap- ter, in return for the swamp lands belonging to Calhoun County, but the company was afterward released from the fulfillment of this part of the contract and the bridges were not built.
The first mention of a public highway in the public records of Calhoun County is in Road Reeord No. 1, showing that in May, 1857, a petition signed by about twenty-five freeholders was presented to the county judge asking for the establishment of a county road "eom- meneing at the south line of said eounty at or near the southwest cor- ner of section 32, township 86, range 33; thenee northwesterly to the quarter post of section 19; thence west to Richard Bunting's farm; thenee northwest to Lake Creek 'near the old ford;' then via Salis- bury's mill, from which point it shall follow the Coon River to the west line of the county."
Roma Maranville and Richard Bunting gave bond to secure the repayment to the county of the expenses of said road in case it was not finally established, and Peter Smith, eounty judge, appointed David Reed as commissioner to look over the route and report on the necessity of such road and the feasibility of opening it on the route asked for by the petitioners. Reed was appointed on June 6, 1837, and made his favorable report on the 12th of the same month, but for some reason the road was not finally ordered by the county judge until August 17, 1857. That order was made by Jonathan H. Man- love, who had in the meantime succeeded Peter Smith as county judge.
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY 207
Such was the first county road in Calhoun County. It began on the south line of the county one mile east of the southwest corner of Calhoun Township and followed a general northwesterly course to the northwest corner of Jackson Township. No attention was paid to the section lines of the official survey, the object being to shorten the distance as much as possible by taking the most direct route. The road was surveyed by Charles Amy and in due time was opened to travel, but in after years the course of the road was changed to con- form to the section lines.
On March 2, 1858, a petition was presented to the county court asking for the opening of a county road "to begin at the northwest corner of Greene County; thence on the nearest and best route to Lake City; and thence by the nearest and best route to the west line of said County of Calhoun, at or near the quarter stake on the west side of section 19, township 87, range 34."
Peter and Christian Smith gave the required bond to cover the expenses and Judge Manlove appointed Richard Bunting to examine the route. Mr. Bunting made a report in favor of opening the road on March 22, 1858, and the matter was laid over until the June term of the County Court, when it was finally ordered as a county road. This second county road began on the south line of the county at the boundary line between Calhoun and Union townships and angled northwesterly through Lake City to a point on the west line of the county about one mile north of the present Town of Yetter.
The third county road was established in response to a petition that was presented to the County Court on August 2, 1858. It was a short road, running from section 19, township 86, range 33-a point about a mile south of Lake City-to section 11, township 86, range 34, directly west of Lake City. John Oxenford and Larkin Williams furnished the expense bond and Richard Bunting was appointed to view the proposed line of road. On September 6, 1858, Mr. Bunting made a favorable report and on November 1, 1858, the road was for- mally ordered by the court.
It will be noticed that all these early roads were in Calhoun and Jackson townships, where at that time the only settlements in Cal- houn County existed. Other roads followed and were opened by a similar process of law, but the three instances above mentioned show how the first roads in the county were established. The same meth- ods were followed in the other townships of the county as settlement was extended. After the board of supervisors took the place of the county judge, hardly a session of the board was held for several years
208 PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
at which one or more petitions were not presented asking for the opening of publie highways or a change in the course of some of those already in use. As time went on the petitious became fewer in num- ber, the public roads of the county being equal to the demand for all ordinary travel.
Numerous laws have been passed from time to time by the lowa Legislature for the care and improvement of the roads of the state. One of the most recent of such laws is the aet of April 22, 1913, pro- viding for the establishment of a state highway commission, to consist of the dean of engineering of the Iowa State College and two persons appointed by the governor from different political parties for a term of four years. The first highway commission was composed of Anson Marston, of the State College at Ames: James W. Hoklen. of Seran- ton; and 11. C. Beard, of Mount Ayr. The duties of the commission are as follows: 1. To devise and adopt plans of highway construction suited to the needs of the different counties of the state. 2. To dis- seminate information and instructions to road officers of the state. 3. To issue an annual report to the governor relative to the operations of the commission. 4. To appoint such assistants as may be necessary to carry on the work of the commission. 5. To make investigations as to the conditions of road and bridge work in the various counties. 6. To have general supervision over the county and township officers in the state and to enforce the provisions of the road law.
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