USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Past and present of Calhoun County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress, and achievement, Volume I > Part 21
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The act provides that the county supervisors in each county of the state shall appoint a county engineer. "within thirty days from the taking effect of this act," and to designate roads for improvement, such roads to be hereafter known as the county road system. It is further provided that the roads so selected by the county supervisors shall be plainly marked on a map furnished by the state highway commission.
In Calhoun County W. E. MeChuire was appointed county engi- necr and the road map prepared under the provisions of the act showed, in May, 1915, about one hundred and sixty-five miles of pub- lic highways in the "county road system." The Hawkeye Road starts at the Webster County line two miles from the northeast corner of Lincoln Township and runs west through Manson and Pomeroy to the center line of Butler Township, where it turns north to the Pocahontas County line. The road known as the Hawkeye Cut-off runs east and west through Rockwell City across the county. The Correction Line Road follows the line between the two northern tiers of townships from Jolley east to a point directly north of Knierim.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
The Lake City Road runs east from that city through Calhoun, Un- ion and Reading townships. The Manson Road runs south from that town until it interseets the Hawkeye Cut-off four miles east of Roek- well City. The Lytton-Fonda Road runs due north from Lytton to the north line of the county. In the exaet eenter of Williams Town- ship it is intersected by the Williams Township Road, which runs due east to a, point direetly south of Pomeroy, where it turns north. The Rockwell City Road runs south from that city until it interseets the Lake City Road about half way between Lake City and Lohrville. The Rands Road follows a zigzag course in a southeast- erly direction from Rockwell City via Rands to Lohrville. The Somers Road runs south from the Hawkeye Cut-off through Somers to Farnhanville. The Sherwood Road leaves the Hawkeye Cut-off near Lavinia and runs southward through Sherwood to Lake City. The Twin Lakes Road runs due north from Roekwell City to the Twin Lakes. The Yetter Road runs from Lake City to Yetter and there are a few short roads conneeting some of these main thorough- fares.
Owing to the absence of gravel or other good road building ma- terial, Calhoun County has but very little improved highway. For the repair of public roads the township trustees of the several townships levy a road tax, which is collected by the county treasurer and the proceeds turned over to the township elerk. The fund thus created is used for labor and materials in repairing the highways and is under the control of the township trustees. The following table shows the. amount of road tax levied in each of the townships for the year 1914:
Butler $ 1,478.51
Calhoun
1,710.26
Cedar
1,576.62
Center
1,635.61
Elm Grove
1,722.21
Garfield
1.781.77
Greenfield
960.94
Jackson
1,968.73
Lake Creek
1.925.92
Lincoln
1,690.99
Logan
1,595.88
Reading
1,816.99
Sherman
1,823.48
Vol. 1-14
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Twin Lakes
1,788.20
Union 1,986.35
Williams
1,744.79
Total for the county $27,187.15
There is also a "road dragging fund," which is kept up by a tax levied by the townships and incorporated towns and ean only be used for dragging purposes, just as the regular road fund can be used only for the employment of labor or the purchase of materials for the repair of the highways. The dragging fund for the year 1914 aggregated $8,285.02. There are also a county road fund, which in 1914 was $9,753.10 and a bridge fund of $35,009.95. A county of 17,090 popu- lation that raises by taxation over eighty thousand dollars in one year -nearly five dollars per capita for the entire number of inhabitants- for the improvement of the roads, can hardly be called niggardly in its poliey of caring for the publie highways. In addition to the sums thus raised by taxation, the county received in 1914 the sum of $8.290.56 from the county motor vehicle road fund, a fund collected by the see- retary of state on the automobiles in Iowa and paid to the counties.
The people of Calhoun County realize the advantages of good roads, as well as the necessity for them, and the work of the new high- way commission has already been extended to Calhoun, which will no doubt result in a better system of public roads than ever before.
THE RAILROAD ERA
The first railroad of practical utility in the United States was a short line, about nine miles in length, connecting the City of Maueh Chunk, Pa., with some coal mines. In the construction of this road wooden rails were used, with a strap of iron nailed on top; the loeo- motive was about the size of some of the engines used by threshermen of the present day, and the coal ears would not carry over five tons caeh. The possibilities of a railroad even of this crude nature were seen by capitalists and it was not many years until railroads were pro- jeeted for travel as well as freighting coal.
It seems almost incredible that any intelligent person should ever have opposed the building of railroads, yet such was the case. About 1828 some young men of Lancaster, Ohio, organized a debating society and requested the school board to permit them to use the schoolhouse as a place to discuss the question of whether railroads were feasible as a method of transportation. To this request the school board replied :
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
"We are willing to allow you to use the schoolhouse to debate all proper questions in, but such subjects as railroads we regard as im- proper and rank infidelity. If God had ever intended his creatures to travel over the face of the country at the frightful speed of fifteen miles an hour he would have clearly foretold it through his holy proph- ets. It is a device of Satan to lead immortal souls down to hell."
The railroad of the present that should run its trains at no greater speed than fifteen miles an hour would not receive a great deal of pat- ronage. Yet less than a century ago this rate of speed was considered "frightful" by a board of leading citizens charged with the education of the young people of Lancaster, Ohio.
THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL
The first railroad to enter Calhoun County is now a part of the great Illinois Central System. Under the act of 1864 a large grant of land was given to the Dubuque & Sioux City Railroad Company, to aid in defraying the expenses of constructing a line of railway between the cities named. The line was completed to Pomeroy in the spring of 1870 and a turntable was put in near the present station. The old ruins of the turntable could be seen for many years after. Pomeroy ceased to be the western terminus of the road. Trains ran regularly between Pomeroy and Fort Dodge while the road was under construction farther westward. On July 4, 1870, it was an- noumced by the company that the track was completed to Storm Lake, to which point the train service was soon afterward extended. That fall the road was graded as far as LeMars and the following years it was completed to Sioux City. A few years later the road passed into the hands of the Illinois Central Company. At the June meeting of the supervisors in 1883 this road is mentioned in the minutes as the Illinois Central, when the taxes were levied upon 14.85 miles at $5.500 per mile.
In 1898 the Illinois Central Company began projecting a line from Fort Dodge to Omaha. The surveyors reached Rockwell City on October 8, 1898, and later in the year the railroad company bought several lots in the southern part of that town. Work on the new line was commenced at Tara in April, 1899, and the road was completed to Rockwell City on September 23, 1899. That was on Saturday and the following Monday the officials of the road visited Rockwell City in a private car, the first train on the division to arrive at Calhoun
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
County's capital. In 1900 the road was completed to Omaha, giving Calhoun County a great trunk line to both eastern and western points.
IOWA & PACIFIC
Shortly after the completion of the Dubuque & Sioux through the northern part of the county, a company called the Iowa & Pacific pro- jected a line through the central portion. The minutes of the board of supervisors of Calhoun County for September 5, 1871, contain the following entry :
"Whereas, a 5 per cent tax has been voted in Greenfield Town- ship, Calhoun County, lowa, under Chapter 102 of the acts of the Thirteenth General Assembly, to aid the lowa & Pacific Railroad Company in the construction of their road, and
"Whereas, the same has been certified and returned to the audi- tor of the county to be levied at the regular September meeting or session of this board. therefore it is
"Ordered by this board that a tax of 5 per cent be levied upon the taxable property of said township, to be collected under the provisions of said act for the purpose aforesaid for the year 1871, and the county treasurer is ordered to collect the same and the auditor and clerk of this board are ordered to enter the same upon the tax books for said year."
A similar order relating to Sherman Township was issued by the board the same day. Some grading was done on this road, but it was never finished. The people of Greenfield and Sherman townships tried to secure a release from paying the tax, but it could not be obtained and they had to pay for something from which they never received any value whatever. John F. Duncombe, of Fort Dodge, was one of the prime movers of this project. When the Illinois Cen- tral began prospecting for its line from Fort Dodge to Omaha, some of the citizens of the two townships hoped that the "old Duncombe grade," as it had come to be called, would be selected as the route. But again they were doomed to disappointment. The road passed farther to the southward, through Rockwell City. Traces of the old grade can still be seen here and there in Greenfield and Twin Lakes townships.
CHICAGO & NORTHWESTERN
As early as January 10, 1836. the Illinois Legislature granted a charter to the Galena & Chicago Union Railway Company, which was authorized to build a railroad from Chicago to the lead mines on the
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Mississippi River. The first train that ever left Chicago for the West was on this road, October 24, 1848. It was drawn by a diminutive locomotive called the "Pioneer," which is still in the possession of the Chieago & Northwestern Company and was exhibited at the Colum- bian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. After the panie of 1857 the company was reorganized as the Chicago & Northwestern. That reor- ganization marked the beginning of one of the great railway systems of the country.
On June 15, 1869, the Toledo & Northwestern Railroad Company was organized, under a general law of Iowa, to build a line of railroad from Toledo, the county seat of Tama County, to some point on the Missouri River. Eleven years later only twelve miles of road had been completed. In the spring of 1880 it was completed to Gifford, Hardin County, where a junction was formed with the Iowa Central. During the summer it was continued to Hubbard, in the western part of the same county. The management then sent representatives to the various townships through which the road was to pass, to induee the people to vote a tax in aid of the undertaking.
P. R. Carmichael, J. G. Tompkins and S. H. Richardson, trustees of Calhoun Township, ordered a special election for June 9, 1880, at which the question of levying a 5 per cent tax should be voted on, "one-half of said tax to be due and payable as soon as said road is completed to within a half mile of the public square in Lake City and a depot loeated and built thereat, and the remaining one-half of said tax shall be due and collectible one year thereafter; Provided, also, that the whole of said road shall be completed between said points on or before the 31st day of December, 1881."
The "said points" referred to in the above election order were "near Calhoun, Hamilton County, and a point on the west line of the state. At the election 104 votes were east in favor of the railroad tax and only four against it.
On the same date, June 9, 1880, an election on the same question was held in Union Township. J. A. Lohr, D. M. Brown and J. D. Parker, the township trustees, certified the returns to be forty-five for and fourteen against the tax. Other townships along the proposed line of railroad took similar action. Encouraged by such support the vear 1881 was one of remarkable activity with the Toledo & North- western Railroad Company. The road was pushed rapidly westward, through Jewell, Dayton and Gowrie, and before the elose of the year it was completed to Lake City. In January, 1882, the station there
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was established and a resident agent appointed. A few months later the road was completed to Onawa, Monona County.
On June 6, 1890, the road was sold by the original builders to the Chicago & Northwestern Company, and it now forms a link in the line from Des Moines to Sioux City. Division offices were established at Lake City and a round house and repair shops were erected just south of the road and opposite the station. About 1904 the offices were removed, but the round house still remains and in the winter of 1914- 15 extensive repairs were made on the building.
CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE & ST. PAUL
In the latter '70s a company was organized at Des Moines to build a narrow gauge railroad from that city to some point in the northwestern part of Iowa. One of the leading spirits in the move- ment was F. M. Hubbell, a wealthy citizen of Des Moines. In 1881 the road was completed to Panora, Guthrie County, and about that time John M. Rockwell offered Mr. Hubbell a half interest in his holdings at Rockwell City, Calhoun County, to continue the line to that point.
An effort to get the road had been made before that time by the people of Twin Lakes Township, who had held an election on Novem- ber 17, 1880, at the courthouse in Roekwell City, and voted a 5 per cent tax to aid in building the road, one-half of the tax payable in 1881 and the remainder in 1882. At that election Nelson Bacon, J. A. Hays and H. W. Dudley were the judges, who certified that twenty- four votes were east, all in favor of the tax.
On Wednesday, June 1, 1881 a special election was held in Logan Township to vote on the question of levying a 5 per cent tax "for the purpose of aiding the Des Moines & Northwestern Railway Com- pany in extending its railway from the Town of Panora, Guthrie County, Ia., to the north line of Calhoun County, Ia." On the 6th, Rollin Burch, clerk of the township, and L. J. Owen, one of the clerks of the special election, certified that fifty votes were east, of which twenty-six were in favor of the tax and twenty-four were opposed.
The same question was submitted to the voters of Butler Town- ship on June 22, 1881, and the tax was authorized by a vote of seventy- two to fifty-six. The next day the people of Williams Township, by a vote of thirty-six to eighteen. authorized a 5 per cent tax to aid in the construction of the railroad, provided a station should be estab- lished and a depot built in township 89, range 34.
215
PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Other townships along the route voted aid and the work of extend- ing the road northward from Panora was commenced in the fall of 1881. On September 5, 1881, the board of supervisors of Calhoun County adopted a resolution granting the Des Moines & Northwest- ern Railway a right of way 100 feet wide through certain streets and lots in the town of Rockwell City, "including the courthouse square."
Monday, August 7, 1882, was a red letter day in the calendar of Rockwell City, for on that date the first train arrived at the county seat of Calhoun County. It was drawn by an engine called "Old Jane." Rockwell City was then only a little over five years old and had a population of probably two hundred. When the whistle of the approaching train was heard all business was suspended and every- body went down to the terminus to see the first train pull into the town. Old residents can still recall the enthusiasm that prevailed over the fact that Rockwell City was at last connected with the state capital by rail.
The terminus remained for a time at Rockwell City before the road was extended to Fonda, where a round house was built. About that time the narrow gauge was leased to the Wabash, St. Louis & Pacific Railroad Company and on September 5-6, 1891, it was changed to a standard gauge road. This change was made on Sun- day and Monday and on Tuesday morning the trains resumed their regular runs as though nothing had happened.
In the summer of 1898 negotiations between the stockholders of the Des Moines & Northwestern and the officials of the Chicago, Mil- waukee & St. Paul were commenced, looking to a transfer of the road. In October a special train, bearing Roswell Milner, president, and W. G. Collins, general manager of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, accompanied by the directors of the Des Moines & North- western, made a trip over the road for the inspection of the property. On January 1, 1899, Mr. Hubbell gave Mr. Milner and his associates an option on the road until May 1, 1899. Before the expiration of the time the option was closed and the old narrow gauge became a part of the great Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul System.
Immediately after the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Company took possession of the line, preparations were commenced for the extension of the road from Fonda to Spencer and the construction of a branch from Rockwell City to Storm Lake. Contracts for the latter were let on May 13, 1899, the grading was all done between Rockwell City and Sac City during the summer, track laying was commenced in September and on November 20, 1899, the road was opened for
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
traffie as far as Sae City. It was completed to Storm Lake the fol- lowing year.
CHICAGO, ROCK ISLAND & PACIFIC
The first movement for a railroad southward from Manson was made in the summer of 1881, when the St. Louis, Newton & North- western asked the townships along the proposed route to vote aid for the construction of the road. On July 27, 1881, W. C. Moody, H. J. Griswold and others petitioned J. P. Calmer, Henry Moses and Joseph M. Rothrock, the trustees of Lincoln Township, Calhoun County, to eall a special election and submit the question of a 5 per cent tax to the people on the second Monday in August. The peti- tioners, probably having in mind the unhappy experiences of the peo- ple of Sherman and Greenfield townships ten years before, asked that "in no case shall such tax or any part thereof become due, eol- lectible or payable until said road is fully completed between the points above mentioned (Newton and Manson), and when so com- pleted one-half of the said tax shall be due and collectible and the other half shall be due and collectible the next year."
On August 18, 1881, T. C. Gregg, township clerk, certified that the proposition to levy the tax was carried by a vote of 117 to 34, but the road was never built. The tax therefore was never collected.
Late in the year 1898 the Chicago, Roek Island & Paeifie began prospecting for a route to Sioux Falls, S. D. A preliminary survey was made via Rockwell City, but before anything definite in the way of construction was done the Gowrie & Northwestern Railroad Com- pany began work on a line running northwest from Gowrie through Manson. This road was completed in 1900 and in January, 1901, a deed was filed in the county recorder's office at Rockwell City convey- ing the road to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company. The consideration was given as $1,479,215.58, and the deed bore revenue stamps to the amount of $740.
In July following the purchase the new owner filed suit in the District Court of Calhoun County against certain citizens of Man- son to recover $19,000 and interest from September 1, 1899. The complaint set forth that the defendants entered into an agreement to pay to the Gowrie & Northwestern Railroad Company whatever that corporation might have to pay for a right of way and depot grounds at Manson. The company paid $19,000 for such privileges and the claim against the citizens of Manson was one of the assets transferred in the sale of the road. Each defendant received the following notice:
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
"You are hereby notified that the Gowrie & Northwestern Rail- road Company has fully complied with and fulfilled all the conditions imposed upon it by the terms of a certain contract, signed by yourself and others, dated August 22, 1899, by which you and others agreed to pay the cost of certain right of way and depot grounds in the Town of Manson and vicinity.
"You are further notified that the said eontraet has been assigned to the Chieago, Roek Island & Pacific Railway Company and there is now due on said contraet, from the parties who signed said agree- ment the sum of $19.000 and the said C., R. I. & P. Railway Com- pany hereby asks and demands that you pay to it the said sum of $19,000, with interest at 6 per cent from the 1st day of September, 1899."
As a defense the signers of the agreement set up that the railway company had agreed to establish no station north of Manson nearer than Palmer, but that a station had been estabished at Blanden, only three miles from Manson, and that such aet on the part of the railroad company released them from payment for the right of way and depot grounds at Manson. The railroad company then offered to com- promise for $7,500, but this offer was refused. The figure was then reduced to $6,000, which the defendants aeeepted. About three- fourths of that amount had already been subscribed, the balance was soon raised and the ease was thus settled out of court. At the Decem- ber term of the Distriet Court the railroad company dismissed the suit.
CHICAGO GREAT WESTERN
Early in the spring of 1901 the rumor became current that the Chieago Great Western Railroad Company would shortly build a line from Fort Dodge to Omaha, and that the line would pass through Calhoun County. On April 25, 1901, E. C. Stevenson, as the repre- sentative of the business interests of Rockwell City, went to Fort Dodge to confer with the officials of the Chicago Great Western. Pres. A. B. Stiekney assured Mr. Stevenson that the road would be built. The plan under contemplation was to build westward from Fort Dodge to some point near Somers, where the road would divide, one braneh running through Rockwell City to Sioux City and the other through Lohrvile and Carroll to Omaha. Surveys were made, but the northern branch was abandoned. The company owned some seven thousand acres of eoal land near Lehigh, Webster County,
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
which it was decided to develop, and this may have had some influence against the building of the Sioux City division.
In July, 1902, the company purchased 174 aeres of land at Som- ers from A. F. Daughenbaugh, and it was generally thought that the purchase was made as a site for shops and a division roundhouse. Work on the road was delayed on account of appeals by property holders along the route demanding greater damages for the right of way, but late in the year the track was laid through Somers, Rinard and Lohrville to Carroll, and in June, 1903, the road was completed to Council Bluff's.
FORT DODGE, DES MOINES & SOUTHERN
A company of surveyors came to Rockwell City late in Septem- ber, 1902, looking for a route for the Newton & Northwestern Rail- road, which was to run from Newton, Jasper County, to some point in Northwestern Iowa. The lowa Railroad Commission granted to the company the power to condemn a right of way. There was con- siderable speculation as to whether the road would actually be built, but work was commenced in 1903 and the next year the line was com- pleted to Rockwell City. Subsequently it was changed to the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern, of which George F. Loring, of Bos- ton, Mass., was the financial mainstay, and a little later was con- verted into an electric line. This road runs southeast from Rockwell City, through Gowrie, Boone and Fraser to Des Moines.
RAILROAD PROJECTS THAT FAILED
Articles of incorporation for the Calhoun, Sae & Dakota Railroad Company were filed with the recorder of Calhoun County on Febru- ary 11, 1885. The object of the company was stated to be "to own, construet and operate or lease a line of railroad from Rockwell City to the northern or western line of the State of Iowa, with branches." The capital stoek was fixed at $1,500.000 and the first board of direc- tors was composed of F. M. Hubbell, J. S. Polk, J. N. Miller. D. C. Early, A. Platt, G. R. Robinson, Washington Lewis, A. N. Jack and O. J. Jolley. The road never got beyond the "paper stage," and many people who hoped to be on a line of railroad were disappointed.
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