USA > Iowa > Shelby County > Past and present of Shelby County, Iowa, Vol. 2 > Part 20
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
church of Panama: Panama Post No. 475, Iowa Department. Grand Army of the Republic, of Panama ; W. L. Baughn Hose Team of Harlan.
City council of Harlan. Photographs of city officials, early history of the town. an account of the electric light and water works system of Harlan, her manufacturing plants and public schools.
A deposit by the committee on deposits, souvenir badges used upon the occasion of laying the corner stone.
The Harlan public schools. Shelby county bar. Parian Lodge No. 321. A sample of silver coins then in circulation.
A STINGING REVIVAL.
Many years ago, in mid-winter. a religious revival was being held at the Philson school house near Bowman's Grove. One night during the revival. a number of the young fellows had been out helping themselves to some honey that probably did not really belong to them. They then decided to attend the revival. In some manner. inadvertently or otherwise, they brought · with them some bees, drowsy with the long sleep of winter. As the evening wore on, however, the bees, warmed up by the heat of the old drum stove fired red-hot, awoke from their natural stupor and "smote their enemies, hip and thigh." They divided time with the exhorter. They earnestly stirred up the feelings of all present. The boys had more fun than they expect ever again to have in this life. So good a Methodist and pioneer as M. H. Poling, of Harlan, tells me he believes this to have been the liveliest and warmest revival ever held in Shelby county, barring none.
PAYING ATTENTION TO ONE'S OWN BUSINESS.
Captain Charles Kidd, who was the pioneer settler of Kidd's Grove, now known as Fountain's Grove, near Kirkman, was a very reticent man. He ap- parently disliked to talk of his past. He and Jabez Tuck, in the sixties, were employed by the American Emigrant Company, to construct drainage ditches in the county. After they had been working, side by side, for three or four days, Mr. Tuck tried to "break the ice" by asking Mr. Kidd, where he had come from to Shelby county. Captain Kidd reflected a minute, then turned on Tuck and, looking him squarely in the eye, replied: "Mr. Tuck, I've known a lot of fellows who got rich just paying attention to their own business !"
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594
. SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
"FATHER" WILLIAM M'GINNIS.
One of the hard-working, self-made pioneer Methodist evangelists of the county was "Father" William McGinnis, whose swinging, rhymthical, im- pressive gestures of head, hands and body were characteristic features of his mode of public speech. His long white hair, waving with every turn of his head, added to the effect of his gestures. He spoke on many celebrations of the Fourth of July. He once remarked that he could tell a Methodist as far as he could see him "by the cut of his haar." In his zeal on one occasion he declared that he wished that he had "a mourner's bench reaching from Hud- son's Bay to the Gulf of Mexico full." and that he could be in the center of it.
On one occasion, after several weeks of hard work in a revival at Mer- rill's Grove, Mr. McGinniss. upon his return home, reported forty converts. When asked whether he thought the converts would "stick." he replied : "About all we can do is to hang 'em up green and allow for shrink."
A RIPE CANDIDATE FOR THE BETTER LAND.
The Shelby County Record of November 20. 1873. voices the prevailing sentiment of that time and of the present with reference to horse trading, as follows :
"One of the dryest thing's we have heard lately was to the effect that 'when a man gets so that he can trade horses without lying. he had better pull out for the better land before he takes a relapse.'"
LOST HIS "GROCERIES."
Peter S -. a rollicksome Scandinavian, borrowed a neighbor's rather unreliable horse and drove him to town hitched to a road-cart. a two- wheeled, one-horse vehicle that was much in vogue in the late eighties and nineties in Shelby county. On the return trip. the horse ran away, the cart fell to pieces like the historic "one-hoss shay." and Peter was spilled out and somewhat dazed. He had, however, sufficient presence of mind to lament over the loss of his "groceries" he had lost. Curious to know why the great regret, a friend asked what groceries he had lost. Pete replied : "Two quarts of whiskey and a pound of Battle Axe."
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
UNAPPRECIATIVE.
In the early eighties a Dane was hunting over the prairie hills in the eastern part of the county. He nearly wore himself out walking over the rugged ridges. The steep hillsides looked like mountains to him, at last he declared sarcastically, with a flourish of his shot gun, "I wouldn't give this old gun for one hundred and sixty acres of this land." He now lives on a finely improved farm in these very hills and would not thank you for re- ferring to his "shot-gun" land.
A LEGAL FISH STORY OF 1881.
"Attorney Joe Weaver and Joe Stiles went fishing Tuesday and in the evening Weaver was seen leaning against Squire Beems' office, with a clay pipe in his mouth, telling fish stories that would put a Nantucket fisherman to shame. He asserted that in throwing his line he caught the hook in that part of his trousers where there is the most slack, and the force was so great that he lifted himself clear across the river. Not wishing to walk around by the bridge, having promised Mrs. Weaver to be home early, he took hold of his boot straps and lifted himself back again."
SHELBY COUNTY GHOST OF 1876.
The Shelby County Record of January 12, 1876, states that Cuppy's Grove was excited over a ghost, that a man named Eli Frantz was troubled with visitations from the specter and that he had reported having seen it several times near the Rubendall school house and that it chased him on one occasion. The ghost was reported as having a large head, long white hair and whiskers, and great green eyes as large as a goose egg, and how many legs Eli could not be sure.
A PATRIOTIC MARRIAGE.
Judge J. W. Chatburn used to tell, with evident enjoyment of a mar- riage ceremony he performed in the pioneer days of Shelby county, in which he inadvertently caused the bride and groom to take solemn oath that they would support the constitution of Iowa and of the United States.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
; A PROPHECY.
One of the men of far-reaching minds who came to Shelby county in the fifties was Jonathan Wyland. the patriarch of the Wyland family, who had been a man of wealth and influence in the state of Indiana, from which he came. Although well advanced in years when he came to Shelby county, he had the vision of youth. One day. when talking with his neighbor, Lysander Sweat, they fell to talking of the future of Shelby county. Wyland, looking out over the vast expanse of virgin prairie, unimproved, treeless, and without roads or bridges, wild as wild could be, suddenly remarked. "Sweat, do you know what I can see?" Sweat replied that he did not. Wyland continued : "Well. I can see all of this wild country settled up, with fine houses and barns, trees planted. and roads and bridges everywhere." Mr. Sweat, who often related this story, said that as he listened to this talk from Mr. Wyland, he thought. "You're a darned old fool!" Sweat. however, lived to see this vision verified, and to appreciate the wisdom of his friend and neighbor who had pioneered in Indiana and who so clearly foresaw the foundation ele- ments for a great development in Shelby county.
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CHAPTER XXXI.
INVENTIONS, INVENTORS AND PATENTS.
But few of the pioneers had enjoyed the advantages of scientific or mechanical training. That "necessity is the mother of invention" was well exemplified in their clever, original and useful devices which the needs of the hour evoked. Their minds were capable of doing a great deal of clear think- ing. They were able to improvise on the spur of the moment in many ways that entitle them to our admiration. Lack of means, distance from mechanics and other forms of stimulus made the pioneer farmer his own mechanic. He was a wizard with smooth wire when accident threw him suddenly upon his own resources, and the repairing that he could do with this material was truly marvelous. Of course when the sickle driver snapped in two in the tall tough slough grass, he had a job of welding for the blacksmith, who, in the early days, found work enough to justify him in maintaining a shop in the rural communities. But at first the pioneer farmer did in a very satisfactory way many of the things that now, under our complicated division of labor. are performed by a half dozen special mechanics.
This genius for invention was, at least in Shelby county, not confined to the fariners, who. of course. had the greatest need for it. but it seems to have been in the air. Even the men in the towns "dreamed dreams and saw vis- ions" of devices for doing things in a better way, and perhaps more than incidentally dreamed some dreams of personal wealth achieved by the happy stroke of a great idea. And one generation did not wholly usurp the field or close the avenue of invention or the need of it. Today the second genera- tion is also at it.
It has been very difficult to secure information with reference to patents and inventions. The United States bureau of patents at Washington does not keep a geographical index of the names of patentees. I have, however. secured the following information from various files of Shelby county newspapers and from other sources of information.
Although he never applied for any patents. Thomas Leytham, a well- known pioneer of Cass township, is inclined to believe that as a boy he was probably the first person to invent a metal husking peg of the type which was in general use for very many years, and which is yet much the same. When
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
a small boy in 1866 he observed that the husking pegs of that time made of buckhorn or hickory wood soon became dull and soon blistered the hand. He took a large mixing spoon handle and concluded that he could make a husking peg that would lie flat in the hand and that, once sharpened. would remain sharp, and that might be fastened to two fingers instead of one. as was the early custom. He found a small punch, belonging to his father, and kept working with this until he made a hole large enough for a good strap. He kept the shaft of the husking peg flat and then bent the point to face his thumb, afterwards sharpening the point as he preferred to have it. Being of an inventive turn of mind, he also made from clam shells, which were then thick in Mosquito creek. a row of buttons for his jacket, his mother at that time having no buttons. He also devised very early in his career, as a boy on his father's farm, an evener to be used with three horses and he believes that he was one of the first men to use three horses on farm implements in Shelby county. This evener was made of ash or hickory dressed down and, of course, was so constructed that the two horses had the shorter length of the double tree and the third horse the longer length. By means of this de- vice he worked three horses on a plow in 1875 in Cass township. After- wards finding that his evener caused the plow to work too much sideways, he made an upright evener to proportion the draft.
In 1877, during the grasshopper days, a patent was granted to T. B. Burr, who had invented a device for destroying grasshoppers. In that year Mr. Burr was at Council Bluffs making arrangements for the manufacture of several thousand of these machines. In the same year R. M. Maxwell. of Douglas township, had sent to the patent office a model of a grasshopper catcher device somewhat similar to the Burr machine. The "hoppers," how- ever, quit coming, and the inventors made no money from the sale of their machines.
In 1886 William Scarborough, a grain dealer of Irwin, patented a wagon box elevator and dump to be used for unloading grain, etc., from farm wagons. It was portable and could also be used for the purpose of putting on and removing a wagon box. In the same year, Messrs. George and Horney, of Harlan, received a patent for their combined end-gate and chute for loading hogs, calves, or sheep into wagons, together with a rack for carrying the animals to market or elsewhere.
L. W. Osborne, in 1877, had invented a corn husker and was ready to secure a patent.
In 1885 T. B. Kail a shoe dealer of Harlan, and John Dierks were al-
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
lowed a patent on a paper cane. In 1884 Mr. Kail had also applied for a patent on an automatic whistle attachment for railway engines, on which he had been working for several years. In 1884 W. M. Jenkins received a patent on a railway joint and nut lock for a railway rail. In 1884 Robert Ford. of Earling, was granted a patent on his weed cutter attachment for cultivators. In 1888 a patent was granted to W. E. George and John Coenen, of Harlan, for a convertible stock wagon, consisting of a device easily con- verted from a stock wagon into a hay rack, or manure wagon.
In 1886 Dr. B. F. Eshelman, a Harlan dentist, patented a pencil holder which was intended to fit inside the vest pocket and to secure pen, pencil or tooth brush without danger of loss. In 1892 Doctor Eshelman again secured a patent on a spring appliance to be fastened on the inside of a rubber shoe which, by engaging the heel of the leather shoe, held the rubber securely in place. In 1888 George F. Colby, of Shelby, received a patent for a tongue and wagon pole attachment. This was a device for fitting on the end of the tongue to keep the neck yoke from coming off in case the tugs came loose. One of the early and most successful inventors of Shelby county was James M. Deen, of Ilarlan, who invented a loom for weaving carpet. This loom is manufactured in Harlan and shipped all over the United States and to some foreign countries and is highly successful.
Another young man with a genius for invention is H. G. Baker, of Har- lan, a son of J. K. P. Baker, a Shelby county pioneer. Mr. Baker has in- vented a number of devices, among them a pipe pusher for pushing water pipes and other like pipes through the ground by means of powerful levers : a husking peg : a carpet loom: a flying machine, etc. He has applications pending for patents on other inventions.
On May 23, 1911, Robert Campbell, son of Editor W. C. Campbell, of the Harlan Tribune, was granted a patent on a substitute for the inner air tube of auto tires and on the same date granted a patent on a machine for winding any number of strands, one over another, upon a circular core.
J. E. Beebe, of Harlan, secured a patent on a garden weeder. Jerry Robertson, of Shelby. received a patent on a device for watering hogs. T. K. Nelson, of Harlan, has patented a very successful gas engine which is manufactured in Harlan and is widely used. R. R. Sandham, of Harlan, has received four patents, covering two different forms of shower-bath attach- ments which he has invented, and an automobile tire and rim, these patents having been issued during the years 1909 and 1910. He also has received. on the shower bath attachment. three Canadian patents during the same years.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
Dr. F. R. Lintleman, formerly a Harlan physician and surgeon, has received United States and foreign patents on an obstetrical pan. N. Nielson, a Har- lan jeweler, was granted a patent on a folding display case for the use of merchants. Otto R. Hammer, of Peter Hammer & Company, of Harlan, received a patent on a holder for paper bags used by merchants.
C. C. Rasmussen, of the Harlan Roller Mills, invented an electrical de- vice to be attached to elevator belts for the purpose of warning an operator when a belt has slipped at some distance.
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CHAPTER XXXH.
STATISTICS.
The United States census of 1910 contains many interesting statistics of great interest to Shelby county people. From these statistics, contained in the special Iowa supplement published in 1913. this author gleans the following facts : The county has an area of 589 square miles. Its increase in population from 1890 to 1900 was 1.8 per cent. : from 1900 to 1910 it had a decrease of 7.7 per cent. By way of comparison, it is interesting to learn from the same source that during the decade from 1900 to 1910 Cass county suffered a loss of population of 10.5 per cent .; Crawford. 7.6 per cent. ; Audubon, 7 per cent .; Carroll. I per cent .; Harri-on. 9.5 per cent. The only county bordering on Shelby county having an increase was Pottawat- tamie, which of course contains the city of Council Bluffs, in which all of the increase occurred.
In 1910 Shelby county had an average population per square mile of 28.1. and a rural population per square mile of 23.7. By way of comparison, it is worth while to note that Iowa as a whole in 1900 had an average population per square mile of 40 and the United States as a whole, a population per square mile of 30.9.
Taking up the matter of rural population from 1900 to 1910, the United States census shows a decrease in Shelby county of 9.9 per cent .: in Craw- ford, 10.8 per cent .; Carroll. 5 per cent .; Audubon, 7 per cent .: Harrison, 7.5 per cent. : Cass. 10.7 per cent. ; and Pottawattamie, 7 per cent.
The United States census figures also show the following comparative figures for the townships and towns of the county: Population of Cass township in 1890 was 1,025. in 1900 was 1,073, in 1910 was 987: that of Portsmouth for the corresponding dates was 250, 316 and 347 : that of Center for 1900 was 740, for 1910 was 620: that of Clay for the three dates above named was 1,080, 1, 147 and 1,202; of Douglas, including Kirkman, was 925. 857 and 802: that of Kirkman for 1900 was 203 and for 1910 was 180; that of Fairview for the three dates above named was 873. 772 and 633: that of Greeley, including part of Irwin, for the three dates above named was 887. 781 and 653: that of Irwin in Greeley and Jefferson for 1900 was 295, and for 1910 was 278: that of Grove for the three dates above named was 721.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOW.1.
708 and 744; that of Harlan for 1910 for the first ward was 629, for the second ward was Sio, for the third ward was 531, and for the fourth ward was 600; that of Jackson for the three dates above named was 1,009. 906 and 830; that of Jefferson (part of town of Irwin) for the three dates above named was 993. 1,042 and 917; that of Lincoln for the three dates above named was 935, 725 and 614: that of Monroe for the three dates above named was 932, 894 and 778; that of Polk for the three dates above named was 809, 835 and 802: that of Shelby township and town. for the three dates above named was 1,457. 1,443 and 1,339; that of Shelby town for the three dates above named was 582, 692 and 586; that of Union and Defiance for the three dates above named was 1,212, 1,209 and 1. 110; that of Defiance town, for the three dates above named, was 323, 387 and 411 ; that of Wash- ington township and Panama was for the three dates above named, 952, 931 and 843; that of Panama. 379. 221 and 232; that of Westphalia for the three dates above named was 1.265. 1.357 and 1,108; that of Earling for the year 1900 was 340 and for the year 1910 was 323.
In 1900 Shelby county had 7,898 persons of native parentage, and in 1910, 7,156. In 1900 Shelby county had 6,627 persons of foreign or mixed parentage, and in 1910, 6,337. In 1900 Shelby county had 3.397 persons of foreign birth, and in 1910, 3.052. In 1900 44 per cent. of the population of the county was of native parentage, and in 1910, 43.2 per cent.
In 1910 the number of persons of foreign birth and the respective countries of their birth were as follows: Austria, 94; Belgium, 1; Canada- French, I ; Canada-other, 64; Denmark, 1,427; England. 72; France, 3; Ger- many, 997 : Greece, 51 ; Holland, 4; Hungary, 1 ; Ireland. 59: Italy, 1 ; Nor- way, 148; Russia, 6: Scotland. 12; Sweden, 39; Switzerland, 11; Wales, 1; other countries, 60.
In 1910 there were in the county 8.717 males and 7.835 females. In 1900 there were males of voting age, 4,654. and in 1910. 4.766. Of these in 1900, 1,778 were of foreign birth, and in 1910, 1,68o. In 1910 there were 239 aliens residing in the county. Of the voters residing in the county in 1910, 43 were unable to read or write, or nine-tenths of one per cent. were illiterate. Of these 43, 15 were of native birth and 28 of foreign birth.
In 1910 there were in the county between the ages of 6 and 20 years. 5,412 persons; of these, there were in attendance at school 3.673. or 67.9 per cent. Of all persons between the ages of 6 and 14 years of age residing in the county, 92.6 per cent. were attending school. In 1910 there were 3,575 dwellings and 3.602 families.
The United States census collected special statistics with reference to
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
all cities or towns having a population of 2,500 or more. We have, there- fore, the following special statistics concerning Harlan : Males. 1,237: females. 1.333 : persons of native or mixed parentage. 572: persons of voting age. 782: of these. 446 were born of native parents. 133 of foreign or mixed parentage, and 203 of foreign birth. There were but eight persons in Harlan of voting age unable to read or write.
The United States statistics for Iowa contain many interesting agricul- tural facts and figures. Shelby county is placed in lowa land areas of which 95 to 100 per cent. are in farms. The county is placed in a list of counties the value of land in which runs from one hundred dollars to one hundred and twenty-five dollars per acre, the highest valuation in the state. This classifi- cation, by the way, includes the counties of Carroll, Audubon, Cass, Mont- gomery, Fremont and Page in southwestern Iowa: the counties of Sioux. Cherokee, Ida and Sac in northwestern Iowa; the counties of Grundy. Story. Marshall. Tama. Benton, Polk and Poweshiek, in what might be termed central Iowa, and the counties of Cedar, Scott, Washington and Henry in the eastern or southeastern part of the state. It will be noticed that the second list of counties named, including Shelby, lie practically in the valleys of the 'Botna river. The above list of counties it will be observed number twenty-two.
The average value of an Iowa farm in 1910 was $17.259. of which $15,008 represented land and buildings, $1, 811 live stock, and $440 imple- ments and machinery. The average value of Shelby county farms is much in excess of the average for the state, and reaches the rather surprising sum of $24.357. This large value is due not simply to the high value of the land itself, but is also due to the fact that most of the farms of the county are well stocked with high-priced thoroughbred animals, and well improved.
Shelby county in 1900 had 2.387 farms and in 1910 had 2.213 farms. These figures indicate what everyone has observed. that the farms of Shelby county have been for many years and are now, becoming larger. In 1910 on these farms there were 1.373 native farmers, 838 farmers of foreign birtlı and two colored farmers. In 1900 60.3 per cent. of the farms of the county were operated by their owners and in 1910 58.5 per cent. were so operated ; in the latter year there were 19 farms in the county operated by managers.
The size of farms in Shelby county in 1910 is of interest. and it will no doubt be found somewhat surprising to see how many farms of more than 160 acres there are in the county. The figures are as follows: Under three acres, I : 3 to 9 aeres, 60: 10 to 19. 32 : 20 to 49. 108: 50 to 99, 333: 100 to
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SHIELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
174, 888: 175 to 259. 479: 260 to 499, 285 : 500 to 999, 26; and over 1.000,
I. The average area of Shelby county farms in 1910 was 167.3 acres.
In 1910 the approximate land area of Shelby county was 376,933 acres, of which there were in farms 370.317 acres. It is interesting to note that in this year there were but 10.060 acres of woodland in the farms of the county. The above figures indicate that 98.2 per cent. of the approximate land area of the county was in farms.
The value of all farm property in Shelby county in 1910 was $53.901,- 139. The per cent. of increase in the value of farm property from 1900 to 1910 was 162.7 per cent. Of the above total value of farm property, land constituted 77.4 per cent., buildings 10.3 per cent., implements and machinery 2.3 per cent. and domestic animals, poultry and bees 10 per cent.
The total value of all domestic animals in Shelby county in 1910 was $5,245.562, of which sum the value of all cattle amounted to $1.768.104; horses, $2, 199,101 : mules, $80.743 ; swine. $1, 164.365 ; sheep. $29.351 ; goats, $763 ; poultry, $123.060. and bees, $4.228.
In the year 1910 there were 59.685 head of cattle. of which 12,909 were dairy animals, or used for dairy purposes : 17.961 horses, 578 mules, 124.350 swine, 5,714 sheep. 241 goats, 244,319 head of poultry and 1,642 colonies of bees.
IOWA CENSUS, 1875.
This time marks the beginning of the great development of the open prairie land in Shelby county. The population of the various townships was as follows: Cass. 116; Clay, 287; Douglas, 315; Fairview, 740; Grove, 648; Greeley, 77; Harlan, 927: Jefferson, 114; Jackson, 271; Lincoln, 343; Monroe, 660; Polk. 18! ; Shelby, 390; Union, 183; Washington, 196; West- phalia, 207; Total, 6,654. Of this population, 2,072 were born in Iowa; 2,737 born in the United States elsewhere, and 855 born in foreign countries.
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