USA > Iowa > Winneshiek County > Past and present of Winneshiek county, Iowa; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 18
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
System, thereby affording to the city all the resources of two of the largest railway organizations operating in the West.
In 1881-2 the necessity of better fire protection than a chemical engine and a bucket brigade caused the citizens to vote the city authorities permission to bond the incorporation for $16,000 and construct a waterworks system. The sur- rounding hills gave the best possible opportunity to make and use the gravity system. A reservoir ample for all present needs was built on the bluffs above the city ( in the natural drainage of the land), that gives a force upon the mains in the business portion of the city exceeding a pressure of a hundred pounds per inch. The fire protection afforded is ample, and, as the popular saying goes, the system paid for itself several times over by the power and force of the direct pressure it affords. A fire department of three hose companies and one hook and ladder company has been all the city has needed. Additions to the original system have been made until, at this time, nearly every point inside the city limits is within reach of the fire department with 3,000 feet of hose.
The unity of purpose, public spirit and enterprise of the citizens is marked by two conspicuous examples. In 1891 it seemed necessary to secure a safe. comfortable and suitable public building in which to hold public gatherings, concerts, theatricals, and conventions. The original opera house had been out- grown : there was danger in filling it as such structures often are, and many of the older citizens could not endeavor to lift themselves up and down two long flight of steps. A canvass of the city was made, and nearly every one approached joined in a proposition to build a suitable opera house-one in fact as well as name. At that time a complete structure for $25,000 was unknown. To build it was an experiment. It was a success. Hundreds have since been erected. This was the pioneer. There were over a hundred owners, and few owned any large portion. It was a new era in city history. It meant a higher class of entertain- ment, and the dropping out of the cheaper ones. We all took comfort in it. In the mid-summer of 1898 its interior was destroyed by fire. The owners and man- agers were not discouraged. They rose to the occasion. They rebuilt it and enlarged its capacity fully one-fourth, thereby making it more popular than ever.
In a somewhat similar manner when it became evident that the traveling public was shunning our city because the hotel equipments were crowded and did not meet their demands, plans were formed in 1904 to supply this deficiency. An organization was perfected and fifty stockholders united in like spirit. The result is a new Winneshick, built during the ensuing fall and winter. It was informally opened April ist. and formally opened on the 27th day of April. What the opera house was to its patrons, the Winneshiek is to the traveling public-new throughout, from foundation stone to cap-stone-a fifty-room hotel of city characteristics in every respect.
In 1902 a system of permanent paving was begun. Eight blocks of it-it being from the west end of Water street to Dry Run bridge, with two blocks on two side streets-were laid with Galesburg brick. In the following year four addi- tional blocks on Washington street were similarly paved. and in 1903-4 another portion of the same street that had been troublesome and vexations, was per- manently improved and made a feature of the city which citizens take pleasure in showing to visiting friends.
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Since the foregoing improvement was completed paving has been done about Courthouse square, on Main street from Winnebago to Washington street and from Water to Main on Court street, a total of six blocks.
The year 1913 has witnessed another noticeable improvement in the lighting of the business portion of the city. Handsome electroliers have taken the place of the old arc lights and the city presents a metropolitan appearance.
The city hospital that is to be is referred to under the head of Public Build- ings. While this is in a measure a local enterprise, the city of Decorah expects that the people of the county generally will avail themselves of its beneficial features.
All public buildings and many of the residences are lighted by electricity or gas furnished by private corporations. The Standard Telephone Company (now owned by the "Bell" interests) maintains a local exchange that is well sustained, and through the toll lines and independent farm lines, every town in the county and hundreds of farm homes are in easy communication.
The city officials, chosen at last spring's election, are: II. J. Green, mayor ; councilmen-Ist ward. John O'Niel ; 2d ward, W. F. Baker ; 3d ward, R. Buck- nell; 4th ward, L. L. Cadwell; 5th ward, W. T. Symonds ; at large, Peter Jenson and C. E. Mckinney. F. M. Hughes is city clerk, J. A. Nelson is city attorney, R. Algyar is city treasurer, and E. J. Gillett is assessor.
Vol. . 1-11
CHAPTER XXI
CALMAR TOWNSHIP AND ITS MUNICIPALITIES
From an article prepared by John B. Kaye for Anderson & Goodwin's Atlas of Winneshiek County, with additions of recent data.
Calmar township, although directly in the path of the Government Military Road between Fort Atkinson and other western and northern points, and Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin (said from Bloody Run northward to be the best natural highway in the world ), was not occupied by actual settlers as early as Frankville and several other townships in the county. In 1851 the county was organized, and the tax assessment list for that year (the first ever made in the county) of all persons whose property tax was over $to, contains only one name for what afterward became Calmar township, and that was Joseph Spielman, who afterward became the founder of Spillville. His assessed tax was $18.96, which showed him then to be the fourth richest man in the county ; only John McKay, Frank Teabout and Benjamin Beard, all of Frankville township, ex- ceeding him in assessable property.
Thor. P. Skotland, the richest Norwegian settler of the township, arrived in 1850, and with J. J. Haug of Spillville and others, organized the township in 1858, the Scandinavian influence contributing the name; that having been first applied to the village.
In the tax list for 1851, Mr. Skotland's name does not appear among those whose tax was more than $10, so he evidently put all of his personal means into land, and had not yet gotten his title from the Government.
It is an unusual fact that Calmar township was settled in the first instance almost exclusively by foreigners. The western half of the township seems to have been settled about the same time as the eastern, and was occupied mostly by Germans, Swiss and Bohemians, while the latter portion attracted the Scandina- vians, mostly Norwegians, but there was a sprinkling of Swedes and Danes. Most of these came directly from their fatherland but some came from other states, notably Wisconsin, and two at least from California, where they had been attracted by the gold fever of 1848-50 and stopped off on their return eastward from the gold fields.
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Among the first of these Norsemen to settle in Calmar township or at least on ground now occupied by it, were Thor. P. Skotland, Torsen Land, Lars Land and Andre P. Sandager, all of whom arrived in 1850, and with the exception of Lars P. Land, who at last accounts was residing in the State of Washington .. have now passed over into the "undiscovered country." In 1851. these were reinforced by Ole Shervin, Sr .. Ole Shervin, Jr., Erick Stovern, Ole P. Haugen, Andrew L. Kittlesby, Thron H. Engen and Thora Bagaarson. Of these there now survive only Andrew L. Kittlesby, who resides in the town of Calmar, enjoying a competency laid up while on the farm which he still owns, a mile south of town. Mr. Kittlesby is hale and hearty at the age of seventy-five.
In the following year, 1852, Mr. Kittlesby was joined by his brother. Peter L. Kittlesby, and his father, Lars P. Kittlesby. The former is still living and also resides in Calmar.
In 1853 Ole A. Flaskerud ( father of the Flaskerud brothers ). Ole P. Bjornstad (father of l'ete Olson and brothers). Erick Flaskerud and Even Fristad ( father of H. E. Fristad) joined the settlement, but of that quartette not one now remains.
In 1854 Alf. Clark, Peter Clawson and John P. Landin arrived. They and Charles G. Halbeck, who arrived a year or two later, became the nucleus of the village of Calmar.
In 1855 George Yarwood and Henry Wheatman, both English, Ole P. Tenold, Ole H. Trickerud, Ole (). Ramberg, Sr., John P. Hove, Ole O. Styve, Jacob Sten- seth and Lars Heried put in an appearance. Ole P'. Tenold invested in land near the village, most of which land is still owned by the family. Mr. Tenold was a shoemaker by trade, and afterwards moved into Calmar and engaged in the boot and shoe business, which he continued for a number of years. Of the settlers of the year above named, all have passed away. Harold Ellingsen, one of the oldest settlers now remaining, did not arrive until 1857. when he engaged in the blacksmithing business in Calmar, and has followed it continuously ever since.
The earliest settlers of the western part of the township made Spillville a busi- ness center. These were Charles Kroek, who settled in 1849. Joseph Spielman in 1850, George Herzog and Conrad Riehle in 1851. Of these Kroek and Richle were Germans, as also was Spielman, being a Bavarian, while Herzog was an Alsatian. All of these were married men, and all save Herzog brought their families with them.
Spielman built a log house directly after his arrival. It was the first building in Spillville. Soon afterwards he erected a sawmill on Spielman's creek near its confluence with the Turkey river. This was washed away by a flood in 1853. but in 1854 was rebuilt, and a grist mill was built also-a collection of buildings which was then called Spielville. afterwards spelled Spillville.
At this date Spielman's creek is said to have carried as much water as the Turkey river affords at the present time.
The first Bohemian settlers arrived in the spring of 1854: they were Martin Bouska, Frank Payer and Wenzil Mikesh, Andrew Kubesh and John Novak and families. Of these Mikesh still survives and is living in Spillville.
In 1854 also J. J. Haug. Jacob Stelzer. J. H. Hinterman, Felix Meyer and J. Il. Meyer and John Leebl and family arrived and settled near the Sumner township line. These were all from Switzerland, and with the exception of Haug
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STREET SCENES. CALMAR
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
and Stelzer had families. Of these J. J. Haug is the only one who survives. He is now living in his elegant home in Spillville, a town which he aided much in building up, and for many years was at the head of that community, and was general business factor for most of its people, whose confidence in him was, and still is, unbounded. Mr. Haug with Thor. P. Skotland and Lars Land, were the first trustees of the township and Charles G. Halbeck was the first township clerk.
On the 12th day of September, 1904, the remnant of the Bohemian first com- ers to the township joined their friends in Washington township and others of the surrounding country, in celebrating at Fort Atkinson the jubilee anniversary of their first settlement. It was a notable occasion, and a gathering of local his- toric significance.
The town was full of people who had come to greet these local patriarchs of a foreign race, as well as other early settlers who were attracted by the occa- sion. Nearly all of these were represented by children and grandchildren, who had come to fill their places, and carry on the work under easier conditions, that their ancestors had begun fifty years before. A banquet in the grove, music by marching bands at the head of civic societies, and many citizens, paraded the streets. The making of speeches, the recitation of carly experiences by the old settlers, and a game of baseball were a part of the program of the day.
CONOVER
As running waters even in arid lands are marked by belts of vegetation, so railways have called into being villages, towns and cities. Conover was born of hope, and engendered. in the fall of 1864, by the approach of the track of what is now the I. & M. division of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway.
The original plat of the village was filed October 6, 1865. Conley's addition followed October 21, 1865, and Peterson's addition October 24, 1865.
It would seem as though at that time the municipal fever was raging hot in the bosoms of the adjoining land-proprietors. For a couple of weeks there seems to have been a rush among them to get their fields laid off into town lots with bisecting streets and significant corner stones. It doubtless all looked very im- posing when traced out on the paper plats with the accompanying field notes and explanations of the surveyor, and the statements of the proprietors dedicating the streets and alleys to the public, duly acknowledged, and certified by notary whose seal perhaps spoke officially over a red or blue wafer, and the whole marked "filed" by the registrar of deeds.
It was a dream for the community up the road-a dream of joint official and municipal splendor. After arriving at Conover, the building of the road ceased for a while, and this added zeal to the faith of the inhabitants in the future great- ness of the town.
It was just after the close of the great Civil war, and ex-soldiers-officers as well as privates-swarmed the streets of the new town and dominated its busi- ness activities. The people were young, there were no grey heads or stooped shoulders in the community. Life was roseate, and fortune was on the way with gifts for all within the new metropolis.
The place was the produce market for forty miles around in every direction,
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except to the east. There was a stage line established to and from Decorah with daily coaches.
Thirty-two saloons helped to keep the community from stagna on. Crops and prices were good, and the inhabitants were jubilant.
Just before the turn of the tide, a petition signed by sixty-three-a majority- of the resident electors of the village, was presented to County Judge G. R. Willett, by the Hon. David Noggle, agent and attorney for the petitioners, ask- ing that the village be incorporated and constituted a town. Due notice was given and a day fixed for hearing and on the 17th day of October, 1866, by the order and finding of Judge Willett. the village became an incorporated town by the name of "CONOVER," as the order and finding has it spelled out in capitals. So was the thriving village born into municipal life, but the seeds of decay were ger- minating in its vitals even while the ink was yet undried on the judge's vitalizing order.
Of course the agent and attorney of the electors, who as we understand, was right-of-way agent for the railway company, and owner of a part of the plat. could not be supposed to have known that the railway company would push the construction of the railroad northward, to the demoralization of the trade of Conover, but this it immediately proceeded to do, and the rapid decline which then set in ended in death of the new town when the "Decorah branch" was built in 1869.
The town elected its first and only officers late in the fall of 1866 or in the spring of 1867. and before their terms were out they served as pallbearers to the defunct municipality.
Capt. C. V. Jacobs was the first mayor, and as he never had a successor, his title and office as sole mayor of a town was an unique distinction, and only falls to the lot of but few men.
Captain Jacobs afterwards removed to Cresco, and died there. Col. G. D. Rogers, Lieut. Charles Sydow, and 1 think Capt. Geo. Q. Gardner were among the councilmen, but as the town records were burned in a fire which occurred soon afterwards, the names of all the officers can not now be definitely ascer- tained. It seems that under the law as it then existed, the township clerk and trustees acted as the first election board for the new town. J. J. Haug, who was township clerk, informs me that after the election was over, there were not sufficient funds in the treasury of the new town to cash the claims of the elec- tion board for their services. Mr. Haug himself thereupon volunteered to cash the claims of his fellow judges, which he did, and took an assignment of their several accounts. But he never found anything in the city treasury afterwards. and he sorrowfully states that these election expenses are still unpaid.
Fire and the moving of buildings and abandonment, followed soon the loss of trade. Some of the farmers re-occupied and cropped their "additions" to the town, and in a couple of years the town had shrunk back into the little village that it now is, a mournful reminder of a municipality that failed.
Of the familiar names that appear on the petition for incorporation, E. Mather heads the list and Col. G. D. Rogers is second. Others are George Q. Gardner. Charles Sydow, Mat Graf. William Summers, J. 11. Baker and F. E. Baker, 11. Giesen and .V. Wheeler.
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VAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
SPILLVILLE
The original plat of the village of Spillville was filed for record April 14, 1860. The place is very pleasantly situated on the right or south bank of the Turkey river, and is one of the prettiest towns in the county. One of its principal charms is the river, which in its entire course through the county has no more pleasing curves or graceful shadowy stretches than it exhibits in its course past and through Spillville.
In 1894 the village became an incorporated town and has given a good account of its municipal privileges, as is evidenced by its tidy streets and well kept walks. The election on the question of incorporation was held on the 9th day of No- vember, 1894, and was carried by the close vote of 39 ballots for and 37 against incorporating. The first mayor, elected at a special election soon after the in- corporation, was J. G. Mashek. His successors have been O. Kapler, J. J. Ko- varik, G. F. Heuser and Stephen Krucheck, the present incumbent. Mr. Kapler was again mayor from 1906 to 1908, being followed for one term by Charles E. Houser, who in turn was succeeded in 1910 by G. F. Heuser and re-elected in 1912. A. A. Novak is town clerk, and J. W. Hrushka, J. C. Cekal, W. C. Kovarik, A. Balik and A. G. Fisher are councilmen.
Spillville has a population of about four hundred, and has many handsome business buildings and fine residences. Most of its people are Catholic in their religious affiliations, and their place of worship is one of the finest and largest church edifices in the county. It stands upon a commanding eminence overlook- ing the town, and there is a fine parsonage and parochial school in connection.
A great majority of the early residents of Spillville were from Bohemia, as a majority of those who still comprise its citizens are the children of Bohemians. Even with this second generation in possession, there is enough of the foreign flavor and piquancy about the place to make it one of the most interesting munic- ipalities in the northeastern corner of the state.
Quite a number of its early settlers had seen service in the Austrian army, and some of them had belonged to the musical bands in that organization, and had quite a thorough knowledge of music and its principles. This fact had its effect in making Spillville the musical center of the county for many years, and that town has given to the country several eminent musicians, one of them, Mr. Joseph Kovarik, having been for a number of years a leading instructor in music is one of the great eastern conservatories.
CALMAR
The town of Calmar, in Calmar township, is the second largest municipality of the county, Decorah only exceeding it in population. In the United States census of 1900, the population is given as 1.003. The town is located on a pic- turesque stretch of upland-one of the highest points in the state. The original village plat which consisted of only sixteen blocks-four each way, had its North street, now Lewis street, on which the Railroad Hotel Annex and the Potter and Peter Meyer residences now face. This plat contained forty acres, and was surveyed and platted by one Victor Youngstadt. a surveyor from Dubuque. It includes land in the adjoining corners of sections 25, 26, 35 and 36.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF WINNESHIEK COUNTY
The plat signed by said surveyor at Dubuque. September 15, 1854, was acknowledged by Alfred Clark on November 15, 1854, before Aaron Newbold, (listrict clerk ; ordered of record November 21, 1854, by David Reed, county judge, and filed for record by Nelson Burdick, recorder of deeds of Winneshiek county, November 21, 1854.
Thirty-two (32) blocks were added by a plat filed on the 22d day of November, 1856, the same surveyor as shown by the record having done the platting, and Alfred Clark and Charles G. Halbeck acknowledged the plat and dedication of this addition on June 20, A. D. 1856.
These two plattings constitute forty-eight (48) blocks which comprise what is now generally called the original plat. This addition of thirty-two blocks pushed North street and its name up to its present location. By some oversight of the surveyor in the first plat-probably not making allowance for the variation of the compass from the true pole-the streets vary slightly in their direction from the cardinal points. This peculiarity was afterwards carried out in the platting of Peterson's addition, filed for record May 9, 1857, and of the Western addi- tion. filed for record July 8, 1857.
Both of these plats were acknowledged by John F. Peterson. Though this variation was originally a mistake, it fits well with the topography of the locality, and North street, for its greater part, traverses the ridge of a water-shed-the water to the north flowing northward and finding its way into the Oneota river, while that to the south of it flows in the opposite direction and finds its way into the Turkey river. Singularly enough, this same ridge marks at this place a well- defined boundary line, or rather a part of it, between the driftless and the drift regions in the northeast corner of the state-between the "Switzerland of lowa" and the balance of Hawkeyedom.
The writer of this history being a lover of the old granite floaters, had a six- ton boulder hauled from south of the street and deposited on his grounds abut- ting on its north side, and so has the only glacial-drift specimen in town on that side.
Alfred Clark, one of the founders of the town, was a Swede, and came to this part of the country from California. Clark at first named the place Marys- ville, after the California town of that name, but afterward the name Calmar was chosen, after Calmar on Calmar Sound, Clark's old home on the southeast coast of Sweden, which was made famous by the so-styled "Union of Calmar" on July 20, 1397, by which, through delegates from the councils of state of each of the three countries, for a long time all of the Scandinavian kingdoms were united under one crown.
Alfred Clark and one Peter Clawson, a Dane, who came with him from Cali- fornia, put up the first building in the village. This was early in 1854. This building was only a temporary affair, but served the double purpose of a store building and residence. Clark and Clawson were the first merchants as well as the first residents of the village.
This was before the village was surveyed or platted. Later in the same year John P. Landin, also a Swede, came to the village. Landin happened along at Fort Atkinson about that time, and on making inquiry of 'Squire Cooney of that place as to the nearest point where he could find some of his countrymen, was directed by Mr. Cooney to Alfred Clark, whom he said kept a store at Whiskey
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Grove. Landin then came up and so got acquainted with Clark and his partner. Whiskey Grove was the name given to a grove of small trees about a half mile east of the store, and so the name got mixed with the village. Various explanations are given as to the origin of this name, the most plausible being that a couple of early bootleggers were secretly selling whiskey to the Indians and to the soldiers quartered at the fort. A posse was accordingly sent out from the fort to search for and capture the liquor, but the bootleggers heard of it, and at night buried their stock, a barrel of whiskey, in this grove.
Landin, shortly after his arrival, as he a long time afterwards informed this writer, helped to survey the village plat by aiding to carry the chain, and when the plat was completed it was found that Clark & Clawson's store was squarely in Main street. Before the winter set in, Clark and Clawson had erected three other buildings each more substantial than the first. The first of these was "The Calmar House," a hotel which burned down in 1873. This stood on the corner now occupied by the Winneshick County Bank. The second was another store building and the third a saloon building.
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