USA > Iowa > Shelby County > Past and present of Shelby County, Iowa, Vol. 2 > Part 5
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HARLAN LITERARY CLUB.
The Harlan Literary Club was organized in 1891 and was federated in 1896, there being at that time but four clubs in Iowa so federated. The person first most active in the organization of the club was Mrs. Alice Warner, wife of Superintendent A. B. Warner, of the city schools. She talked with Mrs. Jennie S. Cullison and others, with the result that the club was organized as above stated with the following charter members: Mrs. Alice Warner,
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA1.
Mrs. M. E. McArthur, Mrs. Belle Wyland, Mrs. Eunice C. Macy, Mrs. Jennie S. Cullison, Mrs. Sallie R. Stuart, Mrs. Nettie E. Cobb, Mrs. Josie W. Smith, Mrs. M. Carrie Turner, Mrs. Arthur E. Noble, Mrs. Lillian Pexton, Mrs. Eleanor Cockerell, Mrs. Mary J. Byers, Mrs. Martha Potter, Mrs. Lucy A. Robinson.
The object of the club, as set forth in its constitution, is "the develop- ment in its members of a higher literary taste and culture and to secure to each a more general knowledge of the important topics of the day."
Among the topics presented and discussed in the early years of the organization were: "American Bar and Judges"; "Government Owner- ship of Railroads"; "Military Training in Iowa Schools"; "The Value of Political Equality"; "Church Entertainments"; "Social Institutions of the United States;" "Bi-Metallism and the Gold Standard," etc.
The club also studies many subjects dealing with art, literature and science. At practically all of the meetings there has been and is much parlia- mentary drill and practice.
Among the persons who have been secretary of the club are: Mrs. Belle Wyland, Mrs. Jennie S. Cullison, Mrs. M. C. Turner, Mrs. Althea Noble, Mrs. Eleanor Cockerell, Mrs. Sallie R. Stuart, Mrs. Luey A. Robin- son, Mrs. Nettie E. Cobb, Mrs. Martha Potter, Mrs. Eunice C. Macy, Mrs. Josephine W. Smith and others.
The office of president has been held in turn by all of the members of the club, the fundamental law of the club so providing, the purpose being that as many as possible might have training and experience as a presiding officer.
FRIDAY CLUB OF HARLAN, IOWA.
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The Friday Club of Harlan, Iowa, was organized October 4, 1903, and federated in 1905. The constitution of the club provides that, "The object of this club shall be to stimulate interest in literature, art, science, and the leading topics of the day." The members of the club are deeply interested in the library movement.
The first officers of the club were: Mrs. Catherine Whitney, presi- dent ; Mrs. Margaret MePheeters, vice-president; Miss Matie Errett, secre- tary; MIrs. Grace Ledwich, treasurer.
The presidents of the club to date have been Mrs. Margaret Mc- Pheeters, Miss Jennie Osborn, Mrs. Mabel Nielsen, Mrs. Pearl Franklin, Mrs. Belle Camery, and Mrs. Ethel Mayne, and the secretaries to date have been Mrs. Grace Ledwich, Mrs. Phebe Barton, Mrs. Sadie Newby, Miss
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SHIELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
Cora Osborn, Mrs. Jennie Baughn, Mrs. Jennie Dunlavy, Mrs. Helen Stewart, Mrs. Catherine Whitney.
The meetings of the club occur on alternate Friday afternoons from October I to June I.
The club was organized with eight charter members, two of whom are yet members of the organization. The membership of the club is limited to fifteen. During the eleven years of its existence the club has had over fifty names on its membership roll and, with but two exceptions. all resigna- tions from the club have been on account of removal from Harlan. The programs have been varied. For several years the Bay View courses were followed. For the current year the general topic for study is, "Our Island Possessions."
THE LOYAL HOME WORKERS CLUB OF SHELBY.
The Loyal Home Workers Club of Shelby was organized by the fol- lowing ladies of the town as its charter members: Mesdames Jones, Cobb. Pomeroy, Cooper, Leigh, Cook, Evans, Chestnut, Tucker, Farnsworth, An- derson, Wortman, Clausen, Helm and Morton. The organization was effected in 1896. The club was federated in 1899.
This club has accomplished much for the betterment of life in Shelby and is deserving of great credit for its achievements. It was instrumental in the purchase of a tract of land near the center of the town, which was made into a beautiful little park which has afforded much pleasure to the citizens of the town and in which they now take a proper pride. The club also raised the funds by which a cement walk was laid from the town to the cemetery, which is located a half mile south of the town. A library of five. hundred volumes has been procured through the activity of this club, the books therein being available to all citizens of Shelby who will pay the small sum of five cents per week for the use of a book borrowed from the library.
The membership of the club at present is: Mesdames Atchley, Beebee. Benedict, Buckley, Carden, Chestnut, Clapp. Clausen, Coe, Cook, Curry, Frum, Hale, Heathman, Jones, Laird, Mansfield, Moore, Oathout, Pomeroy, Powers. Pryor, Reams, Savage, Scott, Ward. Honorary members are Mesdames Nancy Larkin, Jennie Newman and Agnes Gochenour.
The presidents of the club in order to date have been: Mesdames Alice Jones, Ada Anderson, Anna' Frum, Genevra Sampey, Carrie Helm, Minnie Buckley, Katharine Pomeroy, Julia Read, Nettie Cook. Lettie Reams,
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
Bertha Cassidy, Alice Jones, Ada Clapp. Anna Scott, Lulu Clausen, Ethel Hale.
The present officers are: President, Mrs. Alice Curry; vice-president. Mrs. Flora Frum; secretary, Mrs. Ethel Hale; treasurer, Mrs. Anna Frum ; librarian, Mrs. Hattie Chestnut ; critic, Mrs. Lettie Reams; historian, Mrs. Katharine Pomeroy.
CHAUTAUQUA.
It will be difficult indeed for anyone to estimate adequately the far- reaching and lasting influence for good of the chautauqua movement in Shelby county. Long before the establishment of a local chautauqua at Har- lan, and at other points in the county, there was an organization of persons in Harlan who followed the very excellent chautauqua course prescribed and offered by the "parent chautauqua" of Chautauqua. New York. When the chautauqua assembly was maintained at the grounds near Council Bluffs a party of Shelby county people, consisting of a dozen or more, attended much of the program. ' The local establishment of the chautauqua in Shelby county has afforded many citizens and their families opportunities of seeing and hearing many of the distinguished men and women that other persons less fortunate have been obliged to content themselves by merely reading about. The messages brought home to our people by these leaders of the world's thought and action have made an impress that will do much towards carrying forward at a proportionate rate. in the future, the splendid progress, intellect- ually and morally, made by the county in the past.
At the commercial club rooms in Harlan on June 1, 1905, a permanent organization of the Harlan Chautauqua Assembly Association was made with the following officers: President, L. F. Potter ; vice-president, G. W. Culli- son ; superintendent, Rev. C. J. English ; secretary, Frank G. Beardsley ; treas- urer, P. B. Brown. A board of directors was chosen, consisting of the fol- lowing named persons: W. T. Shepherd, Judge N. W. Macy, H. W. Byers, T. H. Smith, Albert Hansen, George A. Luxford, George H. Miller, Rev. J. G. Freedline. W. C. Campbell, Rev. S. R. J. Hoyt, George Walters, Rev. N. H. Byers, M. K. Campbell. C. F. Swift, O. P. Wyland, C. D. Booth, E. S. White, Rev. T. C. McIntyre, C. G. Warren, Rev. Fr. Bromenschenkel, Su- perintendent O. W. Herr.
At a meeting held July 21, 1905, it was moved and seconded that an as- sessment of fifteen per cent. on the total amount of the guaranty fund be levied, but that those continuing on the guaranty list for 1906 be refunded the fifteen per cent. levied, if the 1906 receipts should warrant such refund.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
The guarantors meeting the deficit of the first year were eventually reim- bursed.
On November 28. 1905, the guarantors of the Harlan Chautauqua or- ganized the association for 1906 by choosing L. F. Potter, president ; H. W. Byers, first vice-president : C. G. Warren, second vice-president, and G. B. Frazier, treasurer. Rev. Dr. Frank G. Beardsley declined to serve longer as secretary and E. S. White was subsequently chosen. Upon ballot, a program committee was selected as follows: John Sandham. W. T. Shepherd, Frank G. Bearsley, Superintendent O. W. Herr and E. S. White.
The program of 1906 was a notable one. That year the people of Shelby county saw and heard Mrs. Maude Ballington Booth, United States Senator Robert M. LaFollette, F. W. Gillilan, the humorist, whose work appeared then and yet appears in many of the leading magazines, Hon. J. Adam Bede and Capt. Richmond P. Hobson.
On November 22, 1907, the Harlan Chautauqua Association was or- ganized as a "corporation not for pecuniary profit." The articles of incor- poration provided that the board of directors, holding office until the first annual meeting of the stockholders, should be L. F. Potter, John Sandham, C. D. Booth, G. W. Cullison, W. T. Shepherd, P. B. Brown and T. H. Sinith.
On April 5, 1907, L. F. Potter was chosen president of the board of directors, John Sandham, vice-president, E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland, treasurer.
On November 9, 1908. T. H. Smith was chosen president of the board of directors, Charles D. Booth, vice-president; E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland, treasurer. The committee on talent for 1909 was composed of Edmund Lockwood, John Sandham, W. T. Shepherd, W. C. Campbell and E. S. White.
April 22, 1911, Charles D. Booth was chosen president of the board of directors : T. N. Franklin, vice-president ; E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland. treasurer.
September 1, 1911, it was decided by the board of directors to purchase for the Chautauqua Association lots Nos. 9, 10, 19 and 20 of block 2 of the College Heights Addition to Harlan, Iowa, having been previously directed to purchase said real estate at a meeting of the stockholders of the association.
Qn October 4, 191I, the stockholders of the Chautauqua Association voted unanimously to enter into contract with the Redpath-Vawter System for the holding of a chautauqua in Harlan during the year 1912, under which
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contract the Harlan Chautauqua Association, as a corporation, was guarantor for the sale of one thousand four hundred dollars' worth of season tickets.
The present officers of the local association are C. D. Booth, president, and George B. Gunderson, secretary.
The directors to date have been, since the incorporation of the associa- tion : L. F. Potter, C. D. Booth, P. B. Brown, G. W. Cullison. John Sand- ham, T. H. Smith, W. T. Shepherd, T. N. Franklin and O. F. Graves. The association owes much of its success to the perennial optimism of Hon. G. W. Cullison, who was for many years its superintendent.
This association gave many notable programs. In 1907 it spent $2, 144.70 for lecturers, musicians and entertainers. Among the famous persons ap- pearing on the program that year were United States Senator Tillman. Hon. William J. Bryan, United States Senator Burkett, Jane Addams, Rev. Newell Dwight Hillis and Rev. Thomas E. Green.
In 1908 the association expended $2,040 on its program. Among the persons of national reputation appearing on this program were the distin- guished author, Will Carleton, since deceased; Hon. Champ Clark, present speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Jacob A. Riis, the famous Danish shum worker and philanthropist of New York City, since de- ceased; Rev. Dr. N. McGee Waters, of New York City, and the Whitney Brothers Quartet, some of whose beautiful selections then rendered may now be heard on the records of the "Victrola."
In 1909 the association expended $2,435 for talent, presenting Opie Read, the distinguished author, known the country over : Governor Folk, of Missouri; Governor Hanly, of Indiana, and the famous Civil War veteran, Gen. O. O. Howard.
The programs throughout the history of the association were made to exemplify these standards of an ideal program: Addresses or lectures by persons of national reputation in literature, politics or science: music, both instrumental and vocal of a high order: dramatic numbers; experiments in science ; humorous lectures to enliven and lighten the program ; illustrated lec- tures of many different kinds.
Chautauquas have, since the Harlan Chautauqua was established. heen held at Defiance, Irwin, this year at Elk Horn for the first time, and also at Shelby.
The present arrangement by which the Redpath-Vawter Chautauqua System presents the Harlan program, relieving the local association of the trouble and expense of hiring and erecting a tent. of the labor and expense of putting up seats, etc., has in the main proved satisfactory and has afforded
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excellent programs. This system consists of a large circuit of chautauquas held at many different points in Iowa, Missouri, and possibly Nebraska, based on a definite and connected schedule of dates and numbers. By means of this circuit arrangement, the expense of transportation from one chautauqua to another, as well as other expense, is reduced to a minimum and, besides, such arrangement gives lecturers and other persons appearing on program a better opportunity to rest between dates, and thus appear at their best before aud- iences. This company is able to present a program at an expense much less than could the local association, which frequently had heavy deficits, in spite of much hard work.
AUTHORSHIP AND LITERARY COMPOSITION.
So busily have the men and women of Shelby county been engaged in the material development of the county that they have had little time for the development of a literature. They have, however. been interested in literary matters and in literary culture from the very early days to the present.
A former teacher of Shelby county of long years' successful experience, a former resident of Panama. Mrs. Mary Katherine Moore, has done some creditable literary work. She was brought up in Scott county, Iowa, and her first writing, outside of a country literary society, which was held in a country school house, was for the home paper, the LeClaire City Enterprise, of LeClaire. Scott county. Iowa. For one year she was editor of the "Woman's Rights" page. Speaking of this experience. she says, "That was fifty years since and. while I have always stood firm, I have not yet had the great blessing of casting a vote, for suffrage must come to Iowa. I will not go somewhere else to enjoy what rightfully belongs to me in my native be- loved lowa."
About the time that Mrs. Moore was doing editorial work for the LeClaire paper the Youth's Companion was asking for pioneer stories and she contributed to this magazine occasionally until her marriage.
The material was chosen from actual experiences among the people of the "long time ago." and was all true. The every-day life of the acquaint- ances of her childhood. in Scott county, Iowa, she wore sometimes into a sketch and sometimes a story. These stories and sketches Mrs. Moore lost in moving. Among the subjects developed by Mrs. Moore in her writing were : "When I Went to Church in Jack's Barn." "Mrs. McConstrey and her Split-Bottomed Chair" and the "Colporter."
About 1903 the Youth's Companion offered a prize of five steel engrav-
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ings to the three schools in lowa that, under the supervision of their teacher. would make the greatest improvement in the appearance of their school grounds for that year. Mrs. Moore was then teaching in Shelby county. The school yard where she was teaching consisted of a thicket of scrub oak, with the school house in the middle of it, to which a little path led. She and her pupils went to work with a will and after three months' hard work had the satisfaction of knowing that nothing remained of the scrub oaks but ashes and that in their stead was growing a beautiful garden of lettuce. radishes and onions, which the teacher and pupils enjoyed at their luncheons. George A. Luxford was then county superintendent and it was through his recommendation that Mrs. Moore and her school received one of the prizes. which consisted of five historical engravings. No frames were ever pur- chased for them by the district and Mrs. Moore still has them, as she says. in the "original package in which they came," and she is yet waiting for the frames. Mrs. Moore has contributed a great many articles to educational journals, to the Banner of Gold and to various newspapers. For some time she was the Panama correspondent of the Harlan Tribune.
Mrs. Moore hopes to live to finish a book for which undoubtedly she has been long gathering and shaping material. The beautiful literary style she commands is well illustrated by this paragraph from a letter to the author : "To have lived and enjoyed going out for pleasure and duty in an ox wagon. and then clapping our hands for very joy when the first horse team was bought and brought to us, our very own. from Galena. Illinois, followed by the steamboat. the railroad. and now the auto, is certainly a great experience. I am thankful to have lived the life of it. but my greatest love is the dear old Mississippi and the cemeteries where I go to linger for a time with the friends of memory, not with sadness, but with thankfulness that God blessed my life with a friendship and relationship of earth's noblest men and women."
J. K. P. Baker, who for some years was a resident of the north part of the county, but during the last years of his life a resident of Harlan, possessed much more than ordinary literary ability. For a number of years he carried on a correspondence with the famous George William Curtis and with other prominent literary men of the country. Mr. Baker was county surveyor of Shelby county and at one time had a very wide acquaintance in the county. Perhaps the best literary composition from his pen is the following poem, which was composed by him at the grave of his daughter. Louise :
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
AT HER GRAVE.
What mystic force is in this mound
That makes it seem like living ground ? There's a tuft of grass and a bush of flowers That smile and sing to each other for hours. They beckoned and called to a little bird And it came at once. for it saw and heard. The bird is alive, it flutters its wings; It opens its throat and it sings -- it sings!
The grass is green and the flowers are red- And the ground-this mound- is it dead, is it dead?
Out of its life these lives arose Which the living green and the flowers disclose ; Out of its life and the life below, These living forms of beauty grow ; Out of its life and the life that sleeps, Awakening life in its glory leaps ; And when so many sweet lives they give They have life in themselves-I know they live.
For never a mother dead gave birth To children alive like thine, O Earth! And this very clay, like Eden's clod Is alive with the self-same breath of God.
And if this be true, as I feel it is, Our lives are as deathless as His-yes, His! Then sing, little bird. O, sing, sing, sing; "Where is thy victory, Death-thy sting?" Nod and beckon and blush, sweet flower. Saying "Where is thy triumph, O, Grave-thy power?" Carpet her grave with thy green. O. grass, Smiling at Time with his scythe and glass, For our lives-all lives-with Christ are hid Even beneath the coffin's lid .- And this lid is a door that outward swings. Oh, how the bird its rapture sings!
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
W. M. Oungst, the founder of the Harlan Hub, was a man of unusual literary ability, which sometimes involved him in a good deal of trouble, legal and otherwise, including one famous libel suit at Harlan. His best known production, perhaps, is the famous "Houn' Dog" song, which has been set to music and is now obtainable as a phonograph record. The poem runs as follows :
Wunst me an' Lem Briggs an' ol' Bill Brown Tuk a load o' cawn to town, An' ol' Jini-dawg, the onry cuss, He jes' nachelly follered us.
Chorus :
Every time I come to town
The boys keep kickin' my dawg aroun',
Makes no difference if he is a houn'
They gotta quit kickin' my dawg aroun'.
As we driv past Sam Johnson's store Passel o' yaps come out th' door When Jim he stops to smell a box They shied at him a bunch o' rocks.
Chorus.
They tied a can to his tail An' ran him past th' county jail, 'N' that plumb nachelly makes me sore 'N' Lem he cussed 'n' Bill he swore.
Chorus.
Me 'n' Lem Briggs 'n' ol' Bill Brown We lost no time in a-jumping daown An' we wiped them ducks up on th' groun' For kickin' my ol' dawg aroun'.
Chorus.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOWA.
Folks say a dawg kaint hold no grudge, But wunst when I got too much budge, Them town ducks tried t' do me up,
But they didn't count on ol' Jim-pup.
Chorus.
Jim seed his duty thar and then . And he lit into them gentlemen. An' he shore mussed up the cote house square With rags 'n' meat 'n' hide 'n' hair.
Chorus.
W. M. Bomberger, the well-known horticulturalist of Shelby county, has written many special articles, not only in his own particular line, but along many lines of economic and political thought.
Hon. W. F. Cleveland, of Harlan, is the author of an elaborate history of Masonry, in Iowa, of which three volumes have already been issued from the press.
Prof. A. B. Warner, for eleven years city superintendent of the Harlan schools, is master of a very strong and trenchant literary style. He has con- tributed largely to educational publications and occasionally to the local press.
Charles Escher. Jr., of Botna, Iowa, has written more or less for live- stock journals, and has frequently appeared on programs at banquets abroad given to stock breeders.
John J. Louis, a graduate of the State University of Iowa, and for several years city superintendent of the Harlan schools, wrote a very thorough article, entitled. "Shelby County; a Sociological Study," in which he developed with great interest certain features of the political institutions of the county and the life of her people. This was published in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics.
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Miss Mollie Paul, a daughter of Dallas F. Paul, at one time county auditor of Shelby county and prominent resident of Cass township, published for private circulation a book descriptive of scenes and incidents of her European travels.
Bert Mills, a son of John S. Mills, for many years in the drug business in Harlan, is now and for many years has been a reporter on the Des Moines Capital.
Elmer Pennell, for many years a local leader of the Socialist party in Grove township, which at one time polled thirteen or fourteen votes in that · township, is now editing a socialist paper somewhere in the state of Missouri.
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SHELBY COUNTY, IOW.V.
Rev. Clifford L. Snowden, for several years a pastor of the Harlan Congregational church, did much newspaper work and was the author of several magazine articles.
Mrs. Emma Nelson-Johnson has done some literary work for the World- Herald of Omaha.
G. K. Swift, a son of Hon. and Mrs. C. F. Swift, of Harlan, has shown ability of high order as a newspaper correspondent, and has had some im- portant assignments from the Wl'orld-Herald of Omaha, including the report- ing of President Taft's campaign through Nebraska.
Mrs. Grace Jack-Hall, a daughter of Col. and Mrs. John T. Jack, writes well and has had some of her work published in one of the magazines.
. R. A. Kirkpatrick, formerly principal of the schools of Earling and at one time editor of the Earling Observer, has done some literary work for magazines.
J. D. Walker, a former editor of the Harlan Tribune, published a volume of verse many years ago at Harlan.
Mabel Cullison, a daughter of Attorney George W. Cullison, has done some literary work for an eastern magazine.
R. M. Maxwell ( father of J. D. Maxwell, of Cass township, and of Allan Maxwell, of Union township ), for many years a resident of Douglas township, north of Harlan, wrote with more than ordinary ability and power many articles on political and economie subjects, particularly on the single tax theory of Henry George, in which Mr. Maxwell was a firm believer. He at one time carried on more or less correspondence with Henry George, him- self, and with other single taxers all over the United States.
Rev. Dr. Frank G. Beardsley, now pastor of the First Congregational church of Keokuk, Iowa, published two books while serving as pastor of the Congregational church of Harlan. The first one, which received a first prize of a fine gold medal offered by a religions society, was entitled "History of American Revivals." The second work was entitled "Christian Achieve- ment in America."
Rev. Alva W. Taylor, now a professor in the State University of Mis- sonri, is the author of a work entitled "Social Side of Christian Missions." which is regarded by, and has been adopted as, a standard work by the Christian Foreign Missionary Society.
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