Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1, Part 34

Author: Patrick B. Wolfe
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 829

USA > Iowa > Clinton County > Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1 > Part 34

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The present fire department of the city is composed of twenty-two paid firemen; the number of horses kept for the use of this department is twelve. There are four hose wagons, two modern hook-and-ladder trucks, and ten thousand feet of good hose. The captains of the four companies are : Albert Krenz, for No. 1 ; James Keeley, No. 2; Russell Logsdon, No. 3; Harry Shep- herd, No. 4.

There are four stations : Central (No. 1). South Side (No. 2), North Side (No. 3), Chancy (No. 4).

The officers of the department at present are: Chief, Thomas Price, who has served for sixteen years; assistant chief and electrician, James Keefe; South Side station, William Harrison; North Side station, Patrick Malloy ; Chancy station, Ed. Monahan.

POLICE DEPARTMENT.

The present police department is made up as follows : Thomas Hudson. chief; P. Oster, captain ; James McQuillan, lieutenant; M. O. Herron, Falle Foged, Ed. Burke, William Lorenz, day patrolmen; H. Knutsen, Charles Funnell, John Hagberg, Jose Scribner, H. Price, George Phillips, Charles Primmer and James Sloppy, night patrolmen; John Kromand and Charles Hays, merchants' police; Emanuel Peterson, ambulance driver.

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POSTOFFICE HISTORY.

The Clinton postoffice was established in the early spring of 1856, and for some time was said to be kept in the worthy postmaster's hat, and the mail was distributed at the Central House, then the general headquarters for the entire loafing population of the embryo city. Then an office was maintained in a business house south of the hotel named, being later re- moved to the northeast corner of Fifth avenue and Second street. After a sojourn there it moved to a little wooden building, on the south side of Fifth avenue, between First and Second streets. In 1866 it was removed to a wooden building on Second street, then occupying the site of the Gage Bank building of later years. It next found a home in the Toll block, an adjoin- ing building, where it remained until 1873, when it was removed to the marble-front postoffice building, on Fifth avenue, adjacent to Moses & Thompson's book store. It remained there until 1902, and was then moved to its present permanent quarters on the southwest corner of Fifth avenue and Third street. The building, called the Marble Front, was counted the finest in the upper Mississippi valley at the time it was occupied.

The present structure is a government building, devoted exclusively to the postal business of the city of Clinton (Lyons having a separate post- office), and it was first occupied December 1, 1902. It is a magnificent stone structure, built at an expense of one hundred thousand dollars. Its interior is not equalled in Iowa, outside, possibly, of the new United States building at Des Moines. Its pure white marble walls and mottled granite trimmings, with all up-to-date fixtures, make it the just pride of the city.

Clinton was advanced to a first class postoffice June 1, 1907. There are two rural routes going out from the city, the first, started March 15, 1900, going out and back a distance of twenty-two and one-half miles; the second route was established July 1, 1903, and is within a quarter of a mile as long. The receipts of the office the last year were fifty thousand nine hundred and sixty-five dollars and ninety-one cents.

The free delivery carrier system in Clinton was established in July, 1887, with five carriers; the present number is twenty-seven.

The various postmasters having served here are as follows: Charles Maclay, C. H. Simmons, F. N. Holloway, eight years; J. H. Tiorney, from 1863 to 1875; Major C. H. Toll, until March 31, 1886; April 1, 1886, came Judge E. H. Thayer; May 1, 1890, F. W. Mahin; April 1, 1894, A. L. Schuyler; April 1, 1898, W. S. Gardner; April 1, 1910, Dr. E. L. Martin- dale.

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THE CLINTON WATER WORKS.

Before the consolidation of Lyons with Clinton each had a system of water works, but of recent years all is supplied by the Clinton Water Com- pany, a corporation whose chief stockholders are of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, but whose interests have come to be identical with the regular citizen capi- talist, as their property is not of the movable class, and what is for their in- terests are also for the home moneyed man.

To get at the first water system here, it should be stated that the Clinton Water Works Company was granted a franchise March 26, 1874, to run twenty years. It was purely home capital that started the enterprise, for under the existing law the city was unable to bond a sufficient sum to con- struct the works required to protect the city from the ravages of the flames, as at that time, more than now, this was a great lumbering center, and the experience of Oshkosh and other lumber cities frightened Clinton. Hence the capital was secured for a stock company. The first directors were: I. B. Howe, Chancy Lamb, W. J. Young, W. F. Coan, Oliver Messer, J. T. Pierson and E. S. Bailey. I. W. Howe was elected president; Oliver Mes- ser, vice-president ; E. H. Thayer, secretary ; J. C. Weston, treasurer. A portion of the pipes had to be put through solid rock, five or six feet deep, which added to the expense. The supply of water was from the Mississippi river, one hundred and sixty-seven feet from shore low water mark and lifted by powerful pumps to the filter basins and on up to the reservoir at the top of a tower through a two-inch pipe. The tower is one hundred and twenty feet high and stands at the pumping plant near the foot of Fourth avenue, the present site of the works. The same plant and buildings are still in use, though with much improved machinery, of course. The sys- tem of these works was the combined features of a Holly and pumping station, the most practical for all cities' use. The first water plant cost its owners one hundred and ten thousand dollars. The old house-well system of securing drinking water soon went out of use, as the physicians made it plain to the people that the water from these works was far more healthful than the surface wells throughout the little city.

A year later. 1875. Lyons saw the need of such water works and a company was formed there (not caring to unite at first with the Clinton company and construct a central union plant). The leading citizens of Lyons all took stock in the company and a system of combined direct pres- sure and reservoirs was adopted. the reservoir being placed on the high bluff at the north end of Seventh street. These works cost forty thousand dollars.

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As the years passed by, both cities enjoyed the luxury of a separate system of water works, but in March, 1889, the present company, at Clinton, purchased the old Clinton works and greatly improved them and added largely to their capacity. It was not long before the same corporation of Eastern men purchased the Lyons works, also, and since then the two places (now the one Greater Clinton) have been supplied with the best of water by the one plant at Clinton. Many years since the Mississippi river water was discarded and, instead, four deep artesian wells have been the chief source of water supply. In case of extra demand, low wells, etc., the river water, after having gone through the filtering process, has been used as an emergency. At this date the capacity of the water works is ten mil- lion gallons each twenty-four hours. In addition to the deep wells already in use, one is now being sunk two thousand feet, which, if it proves success- ful, will give the city an excellent supply of pure water. The water pipes beneath the streets of Clinton today measure forty miles in length; there are three hundred and fifty hydrants, and the number of water consumers is about three thousand. W. D. Cockburn, the present manager, came to Clinton in 1903 and is the right man to manage so great a plant. Recent tests have proven that this water is first class for all domestic use, being strictly sanitary.

THE GAS WORKS.

In 1869 Clinton first had the advantage of coal gas for illuminating purposes. It was then that the Gas Light and Coke Company was organized, with a capital of sixty thousand dollars. It at once laid its mains through- out the principal streets. In 1878 there were seven miles of gas main in the city. The men most closely identified with this enterprise were: W. J. Young, president; J. C. Weston, secretary and treasurer; O. Messer, super- intendent ; I. B. Howe, C. H. Toll, C. Lamb, E. S. Bailey, F. P. Wilcox, J. Van Deventer, directors.

With the expansion of the city the improvements in the gas plant have kept fully abreast with the city's growth. At this date it has over fifty- one miles of gas mains within the city. It is constantly making changes for the better service of its patrons. Among these improvements is the artesian well just being made at their works.

The officers of this company are: G. E. Lamb, president; Thomas Crawford, manager; C. B. Mills, treasurer, and F. W. Ellis, secretary.

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STREET RAILWAYS.

Not until 1868 did the people of the two cities-Lyons and Clinton- conclude that the time had come for connecting the two cities by a street car line. The effort to have the court house moved here was one, if not the chief, factor in securing this end. After considerable talk, in August, 1869, David Joyce and the Rand company was organized, with a capital of twen- ty-five thousand dollars, and on December 6th the first car passed over the line, which extended two and three-quarters of a mile from Lyons Ferry to the corner of Eighth avenue and Second street, near the Chicago & North- western depot in Clinton. The first officers were: D. Joyce, president; R. N. Rand, vice-president; L. T. Sloan, secretary, treasurer and superin- tendent.

In the summer of 1865, the line was extended out through Camanche avenue, a distance of four and three-fourths miles in all. The swampy con- dition that prevailed at that date between the two cities caused much dif- ficulty in constructing and keeping in repairs the car line. During the flood of 1870. passengers were for part of a week transferred in boats, near the court house. Since then but little trouble has ever been experienced, save in the blizzard days of 1869-70 and on one Sunday during the great horse epidemic, the epizootic in 1872, when the horses were all ill with that strange, universal malady. This, of course, the reader will observe was long before the Wizard of Menlo Park-Edison-had come onto the electric scene and street cars had to be run by horse or mule power-at a slow-going speed at that. The old street railway was built under the provisions of the general railway act for the construction of steam railways between separate munici- palities as provided in the Revision of 1860, chapter 55, article 3. The city of Clinton, by several different ordinances, undertook in the early seventies to force the street railway to build extensions, which the company did not think was profitable, hence declined, whereupon the city undertook to forfeit its rights upon the streets. As a consequence, litigation ensued in proceed- ings in the district court of Clinton county, which afterwards were appealed to the supreme court of the state of Iowa, and the rights of the Clinton and Lyons Horse Railway and its successors were ruled to be perpetual, as built under the general railway act referred to before. As the towns got through the later years of the seventies and the eighties. David Joyce, a wealthy lum- berman of Lyons, acquired controlling interest in the company and built con- siderable extensions of this horse railway laid upon its narrow gauge road- bed and track. About 1888 or 1889, electric equipment having been de-

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veloped as a method of rapid transit in cities, Clinton citizens became anxious to have their city adopt modern improvements, and numerous efforts were made to put in electric lines. The Joyce people applied for franchises and companies organized as the Baldwin Electric Company, the State Electric Company, and one or two private individuals made application before the city council of both Lyons and Clinton for the right to put in such tracks as would be required to be used with electric equipment, together with over- head privileges. This resulted in a very bitter contest between the old Clin- ton and Lyons Horse Railway Company and the State Electric Company, the best and foremost competing corporation. As the new company was granted franchises by the city of Clinton on Second street, coincident with that held by the old company, there were some lively scenes, much work done at night by artificial light, seeking to get away from the effect of possible injunctions to be sued out, and each company trying to steal a march upon the other. Eventually, the differences were adjusted and the old company was absorbed in the State Electric Company, which hastened and proceeded to build up much of the line as now used in the city of Clinton. This company was con- trolled by a group of Clinton men almost entirely. headed by E. C. Walsh, who, in turn, after operating the road up to 1903, sold out their interest to the present management, who, in the year 1904, applied for new franchises upon certain streets, and, after the election granting them the rights, proceeded to reconstruct the line on modern up-to-date ideas, entirely rebuilding with seventy-two and eighty pound steel, putting in new equipment and making the road one of the best physically in the state of Iowa. In 1908, at the general election, the proposition of granting new franchises to the company, which in the meantime had been incorporated as the Clinton Street Railway Com- pany, came up before the people, and all of the then existing franchises, other than the perpetual one, on Main and Second streets, together with some new territory, was given to the company for the period of twenty-five years by an overwhelming majority on an exceedingly large vote, it being the time of the presidential election. The disposition of the company under the present man- agement has been very liberal in the matter of working men's tickets, uni- versal transfers, and the idea of giving to all patrons a liberal discount for purchases made in advance and the best of transit accommodation. The beautiful natural park at Eagle Point, owned and maintained by the com- pany, is a much-sought breathing space, superbly located two hundred feet above the thread of the Mississippi river. rolling through the Thousand Islands, standing at the base of the majestic hill from the crest of which a view of unparalleled combination of rugged bluff, native timber and undulating

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cultivated fields may be seen over the wide stretch to the horizon for twenty miles north, east and south. In the summer months thousands of city dwell- ers hie to this breathing space for Sunday, holiday and evening recreation. Owing to the peculiar geographic situation of Clinton, bordering along a stretch of five and one-half miles of river front, without great depth back from the river, the main line of the company, running as it does from Eagle Point north to practically the city limits on the south, affords rapid transit accommo- dations to the major part of the people, and this, coupled with the cross line branching north and south from the Sixth avenue loop, covers the territory very efficiently with comparatively small mileage in track. As Clinton is a city of splendid elms and other forest trees, the company has shown most ex- cellent taste in having all its cars and equipments kept freshly painted in a rich forest green, unusual along traffic lines. All in all, the system of the Clinton Street Railway Company seems to meet with the hearty approval of the people who dwell within the city and are so liberal in patronage of it, and it has seemed to be the aim and endeavor of the officers in control of the com- pany, who are C. H. Young, president, Daniel Langan, vice-president, C. C. Coan, treasurer and A. L. Schuyler, secretary, to earn the good will of the traveling public and to make street car riding a pleasure as well as a necessity.

THE TELEPHONE BUSINESS.

When the telephone invention was yet very young and but little developed or understood by the people, in 1878, Joseph C. Root, who lived at Lyons. a lawyer and realty man, and who finally founded both the Modern Woodmen of America and Woodmen of the World, became interested in the telephone business as a commercial proposition, and, with J. K. P. Balch, established one, if not the first, telephone exchange in the United States. It had more than seventy towns connected with the Lyons home station. He had hard work to get the city to grant a franchise, and was really ridiculed by his fellow townsmen, who later saw their mistake. Next came the Iowa Telephone Company, which corporation put in a large exchange in Clinton. It is a branch of the Bell Telephone Company and has always succeeded in pleasing its thousands of patrons.

Then came the improvements in telephony and the Tri-City Telephone Company was organized by a number of Clinton and Lyons capitalists. This was in 1895 and it is what its name indicates, independent of all other cor- porations. Later this company sold to another corporation and the "auto- matic" system was installed and is fast superseding the old system. By this

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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX, AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS R

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CARNEGIE LIBRARY BUILDING, CLINTON, IOWA

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connection, with Independents in Iowa and Illinois, all the principal cities are reached by phone.

PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

One of the first library associations of Clinton was the Railway Library Association of Clinton, organized March 23, 1864, with the following officers : D. Mahoney, president ; Robert Hay, vice-president ; William Lake, secretary ; George Leslie, treasurer; Henry Harrison, librarian. This association ac- cumulated several hundred volumes, mostly solid and useful works, and was well administered, accomplishing a good work. Most of the prominent citi- zens of the city finally became identified with this association, until it was, on February 26, 1866, consolidated with the Young Men's Library Associa- tion. The books of the Railroad Association were first kept in a building below Second street on Fifth avenue, and then in the store of J. H. Churcher, who was much interested in libraries.

But Clinton's rapid growth demanded greater facilities in this line than the Railway Association and similar efforts could furnish, so in 1866 a num- ber of prominent citizens took up the question and organized the Young Men's Library Association of Clinton. A. P. Hosford was elected president, W. F. Coan, treasurer, and Isaac Baldwin, secretary. These were aided by a strong list of vice-presidents and committees, among them Dr. P. J. Farns- worth, afterward president, and the combined efforts placed the association on a permanent basis. A library of over five hundred selected volumes was acquired by purchase and donations, and placed in rooms in the Toll block January 23, 1867. On payment of fifty dollars, life membership was se- cured, and among those, besides the ones above named, who became life mem- bers. were C. H. Toll. D. Whitney, Chancy Lamb, Artemus Lamb, Milo Smith, C. M. Young and Horace Williams, showing that business men even at that time recognized the importance of libraries. Among the larger donors were I. B. Howe, Willard Cutler, Gen. N. B. Baker and Senator Kirkwood. This library was rich in statistical compilations and works of reference. The great demand for books is shown by the fact that during the time when Mr. Churcher was librarian, the total number of books annually loaned was more than three times the entire list, and more than ten entries for each of the one hundred and fifty members.

Much interest was taken in the library for several years. Doctor Farns- worth's reports were interesting, lectures and donations realized funds, and hundreds of volumes were added each year. C. E. Bentley, Clarence Van Kuran and Miss M. A. Robinson succeeded Mr. Churcher as librarians, keep-

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ing the library open on Wednesdays and Saturdays. In 1871 Doctor Farns- worth was called to a chair in the State University, at which time the library numbered about one thousand two hundred books, worth two thousand five hundred dollars. A few months later, when the Doctor returned to Clinton, he, in an open letter in the Bee, indignantly informed the association and citi- zens that the library had been almost ruined, books had been stolen and muti- lated, and those remaining were greatly confused and thrown around in the shelf room without order. This aroused the citizens and members, and the association was again placed on a stable basis, and in 1872 was placed in rooms in the Postoffice block, and was increased by donations, John Bertram, of Salem, Massachusetts, giving seven hundred nineteen new volumes. Though the number of members decreased, the Library Association continued to grow and prosper.

After the library was taken under the wing of the public schools, it was without change and had no history worthy of note until the present library was organized as a true and perpetual public library of the Carnegie series.

The beginning of the present library organization was in May, 1901, when John Jackson, the court reporter, M. A. Walsh and Eugene J. Walsh composed the following letter, which they had the mayor sign and forward to Andrew Carnegie. They also at the same time wrote several other letters and had them signed by prominent business men of the city, urging upon Mr. Carnegie the claims of the city to his bounty.

"Clinton, Iowa, May 15, 1901.

"Andrew Carnegie, Esq., "Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

"My Dear Sir :

"Knowing your most liberal views in regard to free libraries, will you kindly allow the name of our city space in your book for future consideration? Our people are ready to take the matter up and comply with your rule in re- gard to maintaining same. I know it would be impossible for you to comply with every request, but think our city and our people are worthy of your earnest consideration, and will stand the test of your most critical observation.

"Respectfully submitted, "GEORGE D. McDAID, Mayor."

There was considerable delay in receiving a reply to this communication, apparently due to the fact that Mr. Carnegie was not in Pittsburg, to which city Mr. McDaid's letter was addressed, but was abroad. Mr. Carnegie an- swered from Skibo Castle, Scotland. His letter is as follows :

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"Skibo Castle, Ardgay, N. B., "July 16th, 1901.

"Mayor McDaid, "Clinton, Iowa.

"Dear Sir:

"Yours of 15th May received. What is the population of your city ? "Respectfully yours,

"JAS. BERTRAM, P. Sec'y."

At first Mr. Carnegie agreed to give thirty thousand dollars for the build- ing, but shortly afterwards the board concluded that they rieeded a larger place, and so informed the generous giver and he decided to make his gift forty-five thousand dollars, which he did, with the understanding that the city would support it to the extent of four thousand five hundred dollars per year. Under the law a vote must be taken of the people, so an election was held May 31, 1902, at which there were polled the following votes :

There were cast by men voting on such proposition 3,448 votes In favor of such proposition there were cast by men 2,363 votes And against such proposition there were cast 1,085 votes

Majority of men's votes in favor of proposition 1,275 votes

On such proposition there were cast by women 1,528 votes

In favor of such proposition there were cast by women 1,356 votes

Against such proposition 172 votes

Majority of women's votes cast in favor of proposition 1,184 votes Total majority in favor of Free Public Library . 2,459 votes

The first board of trustees appointed under the new management were : Hon. George D. McDaid, Mrs. W. E. Young (who declined to serve and Judge P. B. Wolfe was appointed in her place), Mrs. W. I. Hayes, Virtus Lund, Sr., W. D. Walden, C. H. Young, Petrel Davis, Theodor Carstensen and George B. Phelps.

At the meeting in June, 1902, Hon. George D. McDaid was chosen presi- dent of the board, and he was continued in that position up to the date of his death in July, 1904. At the same meeting, George B. Phelps was chosen as secretary, and he has been retained in that position up to the present date. At the August meeting, the board was formally notified of the gift by Mrs. W. E. Young of the present site of the library building, and the following resolu- tion was duly passed by the unanimous vote of the board of trustees :

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Wolfe's history of Clinton County, Iowa, Volume 1, Part 34

Author: Patrick B. Wolfe Publication date: 1911 Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen & Co. Number of Pages: 829

Author: Patrick B. Wolfe
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: Indianapolis, Ind. : B.F. Bowen & Co.
Number of Pages: 829