LI ( T HI Y FRANKLIN COUNTY HISTORY IOWA

Compiled by workers of tho

'~fri turs 1 Progrf.lm of the Work Proj(;cts Administrt.ltion in tho Stc;.to of Iow:.l

SponsoTud by tho county lJupw rintundcnt of Schools

Il'rrm k lin Co un. ty

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"'" !;I;: ...... ~ .... ., ,~ iii .. <1> .... Covor Design Tho Maysvillo Schoolhous8, built in 1868,is sti 11 standing in 1941, its sturdy construction 'lnd clean lines un omblcm of the pionE)Qr idoill ron int-:;.in0d through thG 1e:,: rs. An account vii 11 be found on pego 27.

1941 Federal Works Agency John M. Carrilody, Ad):;1inistra tor

Work Projects Administration Howard IIunter, Commiss1oner Florence Kerr, Ass1stant Co~issioner George J. Keller, State Adm1nistrator

337204 FOREWORD Today when Democracy and Freedom have bocome doubly precious to the American people, it is important to look back upon the foundations which have made possible our in horitage. The roots of our vmy of lite are sunk deep our soil. Planted by the pioneers who first broke the earth and fought to wrest a living fr~n the prairie, and cultivated by succeeding generations, our American life has flowered to its present perfection. A study of this glorious growth is essential to the making of @Dod citizenship. By learning to understaBd the problems of the builders of a county and a community, the student of today can find the faith and inspiration with which to face the trials of modern lifo. With this thought in mind, pleasuro is taken in pre­ senting a new History of Franklin County, which bas been caret ully prepar cd by the Iowa wri t er s ' Program of the cnrry the read­ Work Proj~cts Administration. Its pages er through the detailed development of the county and its people from the colorful days of Indian occupn tion down to 1941. Events and dates hove been selected wi th dis- crimination and with all possible D.ccuro.cy to achieve 0. an well-balanced whole. This history is presentod as educational contribution to the making of gOod Americans. /,.,...... <.~ .... 0¥~{:,YL~jkk / / /. County superint~rt~nt of Schools, Franklin County CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 1

EARLIEST PRAIRIE SCENES 2 n~DIANS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY 4

EARLY SETTL~"RS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY 9

THE ORGA1'IZATION OF FRANKLIN COUNTY ' 15 nE."VELOPMENT AND THE CIVIL WAR 20

RAILROADS IN FRANKLIN COUNTY 25

BEEn t S LA.ICE 28

HAMPTON - THE COUNTY SEAT 38

SHEFFIELD, CHAPIN AND GENEVA 52

OTHER TOWNS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY 61

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 71

1941 I N T ROD U C T ION

Behind the simple words on four bronze plaques lies hidden the story of the restless-hearted who dared to leave the old paths and travel the buffalo and Indian trails to the unknown prairie lands across the Mississippi. In Franklin County, the earliest comers reached to the end of their trails in Reeve Township and there began another outpost on the fringe of civilization - a cabin, a school, a post office - the nucleus of an organized comnru.ni ty. The cabins and the log schoolhouses, the marks of their effort, are gone, but the granite boulders thnt mark the sites are witnesses that fine results came from their toil. The.; story of their lives begins the unrolling of Franklin County's history.

Much of their work "If1aS near Maysville, sou th of Hampton in Reeve Township, and there the :&~ranklin County D. A. R. have placed monument s cornmemora ting them.. One reads, "Site of' the ]'irst School House in Franklin County. Built in 1855. First Burial Ground in County .. " An­ othor tellD us of our county's first building: "F:irnt cubin in Franklin County, Built by Roevc, Mayne and Phelps in l852:t A third bears record of' rapid fr()ntiBring progre ss: "Franklin County Pioneers 1852, James B. He~,ve, Adaline Roove; County Judge, Captain of Company H.32nd IOVl1fi." And the fourth records the first hard ... w()n industry: "Maysville, 1856-1890. One Rod North Stood E. L. Clock's store In '.IVhich the !t'irst Post Office in Franklin County was Establish(:ld 1856, Discon­ tinued 1890. Maysville Had a School House, Hotel, 2 Black­ smith Shops, 2 Stores and a steam Savvmill. Population about 150. Ma.ysville Post Masters: S. C. Brazelton, J. Dayton, B. B. Morris, J. Dunn, E. H. Sparling, A. H. Birdgeman, A. H. Bro'Wll, G. H. Mitcholl, W. C. Boyles, E. L. Clock, J. H. stev­ enson, E. White, H. Wheeler, G. W. Wilton, S. Chrysler, J. H. Clock." The substance of their dreams lives on in the splendid schoolhouses and canfortable homes of Franklin County. No distance was too far for these people to travel to build the law and prder and justice t~at laid the ground for the future they saw The simple words on tho four obscure bronze plaques tell of the dreams they realized, and set the story of our county in motion.

1 :E..nRLIEST PRh.IRIE SOE1aS

If In the land of the Ojibways) In the pleasant land and peaceful, Sin~ the mysteries of M0ndamin Sing the blessings of the cornfields." When the prairie was ne", and untouched, }!'ran:-clin County was a land of ~roves and these seemed to the settler the greatest possible treasure, for groves of hardwood and soft­ wood trees were what they needed to build the first cabins und to kindle the first fires. Hayne's Grove lims the larpest. It was filled with oak, basswooa, black 'walnut, honey-locust, softma,?le, elm, box elder, cottonwood, and hickory. It was na.ned for John Hayne, the first settler to reach Franklin County, and covered more than six square miles. Since that time many of the trees have been cut down but timber land in 1941 still looked like a forest, on either side of the graveled road along the hills near Hamp­ ton. Other forestations were Otis Grove on the Iowa River, Van Horn's Grove in the oentral part of the county, Tharp's Grove, Shobe t s near whioh Sheffield \ITas founded, and Bailey's in the north portion, all from. 800 to 1,200 acres each. Smaller gr()ves were Towhea.d and Blalce's Grove, Four l:ilo, liighland, Hartgraves' and ~'I.l1en' s Grove. The groves were not destr()yed, and the one at Beed's Like was replanted in 1939 to beoome as beautiful a.s the original gr()ves of native timber. The principal streams of Franklin County are the Iowa River, passing through 13 sections in the south"I/estern por­ tion, Beaver Creek, La.yne's Oreek, Harte-raves' Creek formed of Square, Spring, Otter, and Buffalo creel~s, and the iiest Fork of the Cedar. The West Fork of the Cedar enters Frantlin County six or seven m.iles west of its northeast corner and runs south­ east, leaving the county at the northeast corner. Bailey's Creek and l:ayne's Creek empty into it and the Beaver Creek empties into the Cedar. l;ow that we know the streams and groves of our County let us pretend that we are wandering over this land as it was when the first settlers saw it. There are no towns, roads, bridges, or fences H not even one cdbin or farm house. 2 Herds of elk and buffalo feed along the ~uiet strear,ls, vvi Id roses bloom and nru.skrats work ill the sloue,hs. Let us pre­ tend that it is early Ll.Orning in summer - perhaps 1530. The sky brightens until it is flaming like a majestic bonfire, wi th red and golden light. Down in the slough the whip cups of the Canadian anerlone are tangled with the green and shin­ ing stems of the blue spiderwort and wild iris. EveI"J grass blade flashes wi th dew. There is nothing on the lonely prairie but waving Eiles of grass and dark groves of trees in the distance. Suddenly a band of Indians rides into view over a distant slope. Each Indian carr ies a knife and spear, for they are hunting elk. They ride in a great circle and gradually close in upon game. 'Jhen the elk are exhausted and confused the Indian riders lean d01J\7Jl and cut the ir throats without leaving the backs of their hard ridden ponies. How there is blood on the prairie and the grass is trarn.pled Gown. Here the Ind ian sauaws vlill sk in the game and malee camp. Here they will build fires an d feast for davs unt il the !:lea t is gone. A white man visiting the camp would find the smell of the bloody skins and the decaying bones intolerable. But the Indians do not mind. They are happy a s long as there is plenty to eat. ~fhen the rae a t is €lone they go without eatj.ng until another hunting party is ready to go out. For fuel they find buffalo chips, rosin­ weeds Or wood.. After eating, stuffing and then starving, for three or four days or a week, they move on. But the smell of old buffalo and elk hides is still bad. Even the white men's horse would shy away frorll it. Fall comes and the prairie is clean ae;ain. The Indians h:lve fnoved e l1stward toward the lIississippi River to fish and hunt. The ,rair1e8 are now a ,misty purp Ie 'wi th the ripe blueste:m. Here and there are the high gold heads of yellow rosinweed sunflovl1ers and golden rod. The grass bends in the wind ~howing yellow 8'~ass stalks, scarlet rose berries and brown seed heads of erass. There is no sign of habita­ tion anywhere. Then over a far hill lurches a Conestoga wagon, and the history of Franklin County has begun.

3 OR.'LPTJR 2

THE IlffiIiaNS IN FWil:LIU COUNTY

AmonR the first of the Indian tribes to be found over this region were the Ioways. They were of Siouan stock and spoke the language of the Sioux. They were a roving people and it is thou@:ht that they came davID into Io'wa from the woodlands of the Great Lakes. They were constantly at war with larger tribes--the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux. When the white rJen came, the Iov/ays were often stricken with smallpox and their numbers gradually diminished until there were only a few left. In 1836 these went to Kansas where some of them still dwell on the Great'Nemahu.Reservation there. The Sacs and Foxes, two tribes that were always united for war and mutual defense, came into Iowa about 1733. They became very nowerful and drove almost every other tribe away. The braves shaved their heads except for a tuft on the crown, and to this they fastened a distinctive crest made of a deer's tail and horse hair. Both of these tribes wer,e woodland Indians of ~l@'onquian descent and both had the same customs and relip;ion. ',i.hen Zebulon Pike explored Iowa in 1805, he found about 2,850 Saos and 1,750 Foxes. There was one tribe of Indians whioh the sacs and Foxes OQuld not drive out of Iowa--the warlike Sioux, who called themselves Dakotas, a word meaning "allies. it Armed 'lid th "'llar olubs'and lanoes and daubed with hideous paint, these dangerous Indians defied all ene!.1ies. The first white men who car.:J.e into Iowa wanted furs and skins and began to trade knives, axes, bright-colored cloth, and blankets, beads and guns for the pelts which the Indian hunters brought in. Soon fur trading posts were built along the rivers and as the fur trade inoreased the white uen mude more and MOre ~oney and the Indians learned to depend on the trading posts for the things of the white man.

Indian agents were sent out by the United states Govel"'IU:lent to look after interests of the Indians) to teach them, to interpret their language, and to keep the peace be­ tween the tribes and bet'ilTeen the Indians and the white nen. The greatest troubles were between the Sacs and Foxes and the Sioux, so a treaty was arranged. In the summer of 1825 ~{illiam Clark and Lewis Cass, representing the United states Govar~~ent oa1led a great council and invited all the tribes in the reeion to assemble at Prairie du Chien, a town direot1y across the river from vlhat later became McGregor, Iowa.

4 lnaians came by the hundreds and camped along the shores of the river and on the islands between. The Sacs, Foxes, and loways were the last to arrive. The 1I;!..1)e . of pea.ce was passed around for all to smoke and the white Dlen pave presents of beef, corn, sugar, tobacco, and a little whiskey. The Indians became friendly and agreed to live in peace forever. .A line was run near the present· bo..rder of Franklin County, the Sioux agreed to stay north of it and the Sacs and Foxes promised to keep to the south.

~J{ithin five years, however, the Indians had forgotten this imaginary line and the Sacs ana Foxes had killed some Sioux warriors along the Cedur River. In the meantime an­ other Indian agent, Joseph l\~. Street, "Vvas sent out by Presi­ dent John ('... uincy -C1.dams to take charge of the 'W'linnebagoes in Wisconsin and was stationed at Prairie du Chien. 'dhen, Street heard about the new trouble among the Indians he called another council at the sa~e place. On that day the Sioux Indians saw their chance for re­ venge. Hiding about fifteen Ldles down the river they wait­ ed for their foes to come b.r. ht sunset the canoes of the Sacs and Foxes slipped up the river and aoved to the shore and unloaded to oamp for the night. The Sioux jumped to their feet with a horrible yell and started killing the un­ suspecting Sacs and Foxes, who thought everything would be pea.oeful as it had been before. They oould not escape and were all killed but one buy an~ one warrior. The Indian agents made another effort to establish peaoe, and o:llled a council at VJhich the varit)us tribes were asked to give up land to be set aside as a neutral ground to separate the warring natiun. T~e Sioux agreed to give a strip 20 miles wide and the sacs and Foxes consented to give another strip of the same size. Thus a swath of land 40 miles wide was created, running from the l..~ississippi River on the east to the Des ~:oines River on the Vilest, and Frank­ lin County was within this neutral groundo All went well again for a short vvhile but it was not the nature of the Indians to forget a wrong. The very next year a war party of the sacs and Foxes discovered a caop of Sioux near Prairie du Cl:ien and killed 17 braves and sune women and children during a night raid. So the warfare continued. T: .. e IhdiEln agents tried an­ other plan to establish peace and also make room for the white settlers who were beoaning thicker in Wisconsin. The Uinnebago Indians were ;..loved from Wisconsin to the lIeutral Ground in Iowa and protected fram the 3io~ and the Foxes by Fort ~tkinson, a ;ost built by the Gover~ent on the Turkey River.

5 Because Frm1~{lin County was in the neu'tral strip and under tIle protection of the soldiers, there was not m.uch trouble between the whites and the Indians there. There were fre~uent scares, hmvever, and in 1846 the Government again as:ced the WiYlnebagoes to move,. this tiLle into J:.:inne­ sota.. The Indians VJere slow to resDond and the trouble con­ tinued" A white man ViaS Plurdered the fo11m;1ing spring and a baad of Sioux ::eil1ed several Winnebagoes :lear the Cedar River. Af:ent Street had built two schools for the Indians, ~rJhere Indian children '"lere taught to speak English and to read and write. He had also tried to teach the lncian lilen to farm, but they would not learn. They thought farning 'VV8.S squaw-work. They tore down the fences and turned their ponies in to feed on the \~eat stacks. Soldiers were kept busy chasing Indians and trying to keep them all in order.

At last, in 1848, the soldiers made ready to b.ove the Winne~";a,,,:oes out of Iowa. They rounded them up and helped them to collect wagons, teara.s and food at the fort .·,/hen the march began there were 2,000 Indians, 1,600 ponies, 160 army wagons and a. large band of raounted soldiers.

This was the last of the !:J.8in CU!u.p of the Uirmebugo es but a few Indians strageled back and six years later there was another frightful scare Which drove every settler from Eranklin County. This scare was caused by a tragedy at Clear LaJ:::e in ,,,,hich a boy '"vas raassacred. Cle

In Ie51 a (r'.. ln named Jar!les Hewitt, who hod been a trader among the 'lil1ne~a~oes, settled at Clear Lake. He 'was well liked by these 'liscc:msin IRdians and in the fall of 1853 several Winnebagoes brought their families and located near his cabin. Their chief was called TO-Shun-ega or Toshanaga, the Little Otter. They called ~Iewi tt l;och::-a-Shook which is, ".Ii nne bago for flhew it. It . ..:These Indians hunted by day and, as some of the VJhi te :len have said, "w.J3.de night hideous with 'music' and dancinG'] "Fagainena f '!rilas supplied to theP.l by dealers in a nearby settlement. The name of this drink is made from two Winne­ bago -~lords, \!paeeda", fire, and 1lnena lf , water, the whole just being whiskey .. The Sioux who lived farther north hearC't of' this band of Indians and determined to exterminate them. About 500 Sioux came down to the lake and set up camp. Two of them entered the Winnebago camp, pretending to be very friendly .. The J[nnebago6s entertained them but all the time suspected mischief.. Toshanaga told Captain Hewitt of their suspicions, but the white men thought the Sioux really meant friendship

6 and ~ersuB6ed the chief that all would be ~ell. Th&t even­ ine, when Toshnnaga' s son rode I:ewi tt' s horse ufter the cows as \'7as his C'UstOr'l, those at the canp heara a shot and soon the 1.orse ca.C;l.E~ galloping bac'·: riderless.. Toshanaga vilas sure now thu t the boy hud been murdered.. Uewi tt exa.cdned the horse and found drops of blood and a sm.a.ll )iece of bone on its back. Tr_en he too was frightened, and went with Toshan­ aga to look for the boy. D0wn the road they found the head­ less body of Toshanaga's son.

The '{innc~a~es buried the body und that night Hewitt and two other white men, fearing that eore tremble would follow, helped the '{innebagoes load their wafons and started them to"lard }'ort Snelling in l.:innesota. I~es:3enf,ers were sent out to all vlhi te settlements to warn the ]eople about the Sioux. Soon after the ',linnebagoes started, a detach­ n;.ent of 50 soldiers arrived at the lake and the report snread through northern Iowa that a massacre of whites was expected at any rn,oment.. This ','las the ni,qht of July 4, 1854 .. In the Llidc11e of the ni,("ht the alarm was s'')read. "The Indians! The Indians~H It was carried hurriedly over the miles from. cabin to 0,1 bin. ,Jhen each )iOlleer, .l~wre :::1.sleep than !l.wal~e opened his door he 1J8.8 told "Fuur llUllorea 3ioux i1ldrriors are at Clear La1\:e ana lovinG this wr.:ty. Ii

By da 11icht the ~lhole settle.r"lent VlftD.. S rO<;;:Ldy to go except J()hn lJ.£qne arld Dr •.d.rl€ldge. Arledge's vvife had died only a few days before and the settlers thou€'ht tha t he rer:.~ained beouuse of this. John i.~ayne and his fUI'J.ily VJent to the 10\1.]8. River.. ", .. 9 they had only ,two horse tE.k:.II1S and the rest were oxen their prop:ress was slow. They had to dr ive their cattle along and ~o'rt of their livestock was left behind. When they CDr:\6 thin si£l'ht of the grove in ~Ihioh stood the DL".m's crlb';.n all the !)(I"!:'5 L~":Jl,' ru:;h~H:i ;.. :.ut tv 100::: :..,t the lonp.: train of waRons. The I:ayne!:l 'were by thgt tiLte so nerv­ ous and frifThtened that in the half lieht of early r10rning they thouf"ht at first the'lembers of this w1:i to far:lily 'vJere Ind ians c c!line out to :t:>illage the train. It vas :L;:;l)Ot'lS ible to fet away 1'li tIl the heavy WUP'OllS so they callec. a hiJ.l t and the Ii ttle :nlrty got ready to defend it self frOl:l the wagons •

. 1h8n the Down t S fanily C8ne nearer, however, they saw that they had !'1a.Oe a !'1istake and -w'ere much relieved. The Do'm's had nu te:U:1 but'.:ient 011 ','ith the ::'urt7 on foot ••1.t ni~ht they carl')ed and sentinels 'Iivere nosted. Liss Octavia Smith, the pioneer teaoher of the county, who taught a :few pupils in one of the hones in Reeve T()'V1ffiShip, insisted on taking her turn in standing gu~rd with the rest.

Some of the rr~ovino: furdlies went to the place where new l~artford later wa.s fr,~tlnded and some ",'V'ent to Cedar Falls .. 30me returned to their homes in ab')ut two weeks, while others stayed until after the harvest and returned to find

7 that most of their sod corn and vegetables lklO been destroy­ ed by \~hatever livestl)c:c they had left dt horae.

It is not known whether l.~aY!le ever retuI'j,1ed with his fat:llily to the grove vlhich bad been r.la.:.ned for him. There was something mysterious about him which his r.Lei,g:hbors could ne,,?,er unc.erstand. Ee was cluick-'I;Ji tted and sharp but could ne~ther read nor write. He seemed to prefer living on the verge of civilizt\tion for as soon as a place became settled he would move on. He divided his time between trapping and hunting and I:laking claims. He never referred to his past life so many thought he had escaped to the west to avoid the arm of the law.

It is a strange thing tha t ever~rone remem.bered l:ayne after he had ~L')ne to /ffoll ow the heels of the buffalo farth­ er westff , but "they did not know how to spell his nanle. On the first ma:ps "Jl1ich located the grove and the creek it vvas spelled "11ainll but later ~{. N. Davidson, un attorney at Ha~;:tpton, drew a large rlap of the county and in marking the creek spelled it Il[(ayne. If This bece.me accepted.

SoMe aCC(.. H.mts say that a settler named Van Horn first br(.>urht the news of tl1e Indians to l,Iayne's Grove, that he carried the word to Boon's and that Silas r:oon carried it on. This Van Horn came to the Garner cabin before bedtime and the far.lilies iranlediately started getting rel-ldy to leave. But as Garners had a large f lock of chickens and as the WOMen did not like to leave thera, it was tr..oueht that the best way to talte them along was to jdll, pick and cook them. They had to have food :Cor t'rl.eir j l..1Urney a n:!'wuy, so this plan \~as adopted and they all Vi/ent to work. The job required nearly all ni€!ht but by davlir,ht they had a large SUi')ply of savory chioken to take along, and everything was loaded. They started, taldng the trC:lil vvhich led down Layne's creek. The first night they canped at the il1iorse 1leck1t near what was later to be !mmm as Willoughby in Butler Cl)unty. This was a long drive for ox teams. The next day they went to Oedar Falls. The Garner fa1.-:rl.ly re.mained away about three weeks. This flight delayed the settlenent of Franklin Coun­ ty and oaused loss and trouble to all.

8 The men who were forced to "move from their homes in such haste that terrible nif,nt of July 4, 1854, had come to Franklin County during the two preceding years. Addison Phelps was one of the first. He started with his family frcm Ohio to found a new hone in Iowa in 1852. Iie brought wi th him also one of his neighbors who vI]antea to examine the terri tory. This ,vas Jailles B. Reeve who was employed by Phelps to drive a team and take a load of goods. Phelps had relatives along the Cedar River and v"hen-they reached the home of these relatives the Phelps fdiJily stdyed there while Phelps and Reeve went on farther west. They were joined at Hurdin City, which was then culled Rice's Mill, by a man named M.oore. ,H,tter traveling sume distance they came to a large grove where they camped. This grove of oak, hickory, and cottonwood was a won­ derful sight to the pioneer. It was a vast dark green island of trees in the Ludst of an unendine sea of waving grass. It vas a place where firewood could be gathered, where lo~s coule be found for cabins and rails cut for fenoes. The pioneers !:new that the winter wincls wuuld be shut out by these dark woods alld that game wuuld ahvsys be ple,ntiful there, One of the party went out illllJ1ediately and shot a prairie ohiol<:en for supper.' The noise uf the gun eohoed bao:c frU1'!l the surrounding hills, and then "another white man, who had also arrived that d8.7, suedenly. appeared, walking out from the trees toward them. :II knew that was no Injun' s punY he said, "so I lost no time lool::ing up my nevI neif\hbors. it Thi s nan was John l:ayne for whom the (-"rove was after­ ward named. He had been hunting and tra,ping and in follow­ ing up the river had found the grove. He had drlven all the way from Indiana in an old Hoosier vvagon c1ravm by two yoke of oxen. In the wagon vrere his wife and child, a bundle of beaver and r;!in~~ traps, his rifle, and a scant supply of do­ oestic utensils. 'ifuen he saw the three Llen he sUE:pested that all of them might Ca'llp together. }:rs. l:ayne got supper for the p~rty, r.nde the first biscuits in FrB.nklin Countyl Hot biscuits shortened with coon's Brease, and served with fried prairie ohicken! Ut:. wonder Phelps and Reeve deoided tp~t here was the place to stay. ,lith Layne" s oxen they broke furrows to iil..:lrk the bound­ aries of their claims. Then while Phelps and Reeve went back to eet the family and Llore provisions, :Mayne built his cabin, whioh stood near the ford and was the first building ereoted in the oounty. It was 'o'ade of lOBS with a dirt floor and shingles of basswood bark.

9 Jhen. ReLive with J.'helps ",-no the Phelps fU.li1ily ret,urned they lived with the Layne fQLlil~r in the :newly bull t cabin. Phelps started ~ to build a cabin for his f.:u::.ily but got ~t only three or four loes hieh 'l'Nhen cold weather set in and he had to £five it up. ilinter cc.me on too fast. They had not gathered enuup'h hay for the horses nor hauled enou&!:h pro visions to l::ist 0.11 'lIliinter. Phelps and R:;.,eve vJent to Janes­ ville 'Id th the horses and arranf~ed to have the!:.1. :-ce])t there all \·;i;;,ter. Then they returned and bef.;~lJ.l hunting anCl trap­ :Jing. ld1ey thouJ?;ht tht.'.t vith plenty of fresh ;::.:.eClt they could "'et along until sprin5::' but when they ran out of flour and ~·ile2.1 they decided that SOI.1eOne m.ust 80 for su.p})lies. R,.eve said he would go and he set out on foot for Janesville to f'et his teaLl so that he could haul back plenty of food. Soon after he had started, hO'wever, it began to snow :::tue a north ~'lind £lade it bitterly cole.. He walked on as f:::st as he could but toward niP.'ht he found that his hands and feet '\;iere freezing. He was so vwrn out and cold that he wanted to lie dmm in the snoV'} and give up but he kept on • .h.t l~st he reached Allen's Grove on the 'Jest rork of the Cedar.. He hdd some ;:!latches dnd here he found 'viTood and built a fire. lie then took off his shoes and found his feet frozen and in terrible condition. There was no one to help him, cnc, his feot became !110re ·and more painful unt i1 he illt.lost er c1 aloud in agony. lTirht CBm.e on thl? prairie and the''';<.)lves st~1rted hOiJling. There i,.Jith the 'Nolves, the litt bonfire, <..nd tho extrer19 pain in his h:m.cls and feet, Reeve 'VJai tod until f.lorninc,. By the ttme it '/J",'\S light enough to See his feet had be c()me so sViTolleD that he could not get his shoes back on. !Ie l{e';?t cutti.ng them dOlim and cutting in hopa o:t' ret-ting them on, until the.r·e ·vvo.s not liluch left of the shoes, but he did finally £et them on and started out for Bealer's Grove, a settle~611t now c&ll€d ,\.arble Roc,c" lie arrived there late that nieht, a.lmost dead frO!;l cold and f,ltiguo • .o.fter restin[2: two or three days and tr'Iinc to get his feet ~Nel1 again he left fl.)r Janesville, h2.ving got a team. There he stayed for peeks, il:l.9atiently Ivai t inp to f-~et ~\1ell, at least well er'.Oup-h to walk. He returned to Layne t s Grove in l:arch to find . that the Pi1.elps faI.1ily hCld beCOLle dis­ couratred after so many hardships ,lnd so much htLnger, and "'!ere ieavinp the country. _...fter Phelps left, Mayne and Reeve divided up the winter's cetch of furs. Mayne f8ve Reeve a snall dun mare and prof!ised him:J. certain number of \veei-cs' board for his share of the furs. .;-\. few days la.ter Layne started a c~uarre1 with Reeve, and the younp;er:.1an thought that :;~a:vne wanted him to leave to save 1'£1. "ring the board. He refused to go. Later in the sprinp' a sort of peace was 'I'patched up:t but the .men never bec~me real friends.

10 :J11dt sort; of ""Lan W'2i.S JaPles B. Reeve? Yedrs later his friend) ~... ~. Trurlbull \Jrote of him, ;IThe :)eople of H:u:l)ton ,... Jill never l:now how much the3T O1tve to JudBe Reeve. Ue Vias a !:2agnificent speciaen of western pruQuction: a fJ'~f"eat, big, brave a.nt of a Hun, with a heart tender dS a wUIJ.an' s. He was hos1itablc and generous to a feult, if 81J.011 d thii18 can be. Fie va s an inco:rruptible off icer and a thorouchly honest Plan. lIe 'l;J3.8 a great reader and had rare practi cal sense. a Leander 'Reeve, brother of James, came out froI!.1 Ohio in l:QY, 1853, and took the Phelps t claim. James brolee ten acre s on 11is clair.J. .:md i:ayne, who lW:d by l1.mv •.. Dde an acJ.di­ tion3.1 c18 il'1, brol:e ten acre s on that. Late in June George .3turHs, Henry Go.rner, and a Cr. 1'la irc11ild ca.t!le \.vi th their f:lr:ilies to the prove. l:ayne clained all the best locations. He sold his oripin8.1 claim. with its shanty to Sturl1lS, the second of his claims to Henry Garner and unother place to Ji'airchild. Then like .nany pioneers of that time he moved farther west, this time taicing a claim ill a grove above Laysville.

er B,~:1Uel and Job Garner came. The la tt er applied to tJi.i.t1CS and Le;:mder Reeve for a :Jieee of Bllod land they were holdinr in reserve for a friend back East. The set­ tlers often chose desirable land r:.ear their mvn farms :ind claimed it I'or 30me fri.end or relative vlho hud not yet .3,rrivea.. If' the expected ~1el·son failed to a,Il)ear, the claim. would be fur snle. Thus the Roeve brl'thors hdd taken up a f·:1rrr. fur .. "l1c"1rew C()ffin, a friend in Ohio, but when he did not cume they offered the claio to Job G~rner for $800. was ~ ~reacl~r; siuce they needed une ~t the scttle- r.lent, t..rl J'()red tt13ive hj.s services to j)C1Y for the land" and leander Reeve were not churchgoers but they agreed lleverth6lf'~ss. JO.!!le acc<.F.nts say that GClrner preached only once, 6tt the home of Fairchild. ..H.ll we ;:C110VIi is that several hist~)rians tell us the first religious serVlces were held in the spring of 1853 in Fairchild's c~bin. That sum.Der Jar.les Reeve returned to Ohio to bring his ;;life and eip'ht children to Iowa by team ana 'wagon. They arrived 'septer.lber 15, 1853 and spent their first w~nter in the cabin bep:un b,y Phelps. Some tim.e afterwards, Silas Loon .:md i?eter Rhinehart arrived and as it -';as then too Ie te in the season to build a cabin: Rr.!.inehE"lrt spent the cold \Veat~·'.er with sturms. Two r~len n-)med Crouch 1:111d '.lebb cane next and both tOOt;: cla.ims. ··Crouch 'Nns l,;u:rne's brot~:er-in-law, and ;·lOved in ",lith that fe..mily.

I:urinp' this ~,'Jintor the Crouch baby died. It W9.S the first death in the county_ krs. l;ayne Ylent to the Ja.mes Reeve cabin on horseback: to borrow sue;ar tvvo days before the baby died. The child lND.S then very sick, '3.11d she told the

11 ReAves 'when to expect the funeral.' COrle day after to­ !"'!orrov)t~! she said, "for it will surely be r:,one before that tir;le. a 'i~hen she s1)()ke i t ~vas Sunday; and on Tue sday the funeral we s held. .

In ~ril, ,iebb died while he i'\)'as at \!()r~:;: at race's Lill. His burial pIece and that of the Crouch baby near the VJest end of ~~dyne's Grove, have been .uistaken for'Indian graves. These are the fanilies which wintered at the Grove that first :rear: Judee Reeve, Job, Sa'(lUel dnd henry Garner John L~uyne, .. James l!'aircbild) George 3turns, Peter R~.l.in~hart, 3~lus l,.oon, Crouch, 'J/ebb, and Dr • .nrledge. It 'ddS a year later, in 1854, that these saLle people were frightened from their homes by the Indian scare. Two children were born that first win ter \ilhen the 3turms and the Sarauel Garners each had a SOIl. Abner Sturms was the first wl1i te child born in Fran1{lin County.

Janes Van Horn came in 1854 and took a farm about a mile north of Hampton. This Van Horn vIas the aan who first ~ot word of the Indian trouble and car1e to lIayne's Grove to warn the othflr settlers.

John I. Popejoy left Ohio in 1854 to l()ok for a farm 11i:3 ftlther hJ.d ta}~en in 1853 in ~'3urren Oounty. liot finding anythinp, he '.'lent to the land office located at Des Luines and noted thtit thrn'e \.vera timber lots not ',yet entered in Franklin County. Ire entered a forty acre tract in Highland Grove, aunsight and unseen", then drove out to find his land,. ytllien he reachfi'ld what he oalled ?lhis '\-'100d8:1 and found a sprinR!' th,ere, he was very hap~'~y and immediately decided that ripht there bY' the s,ring he wanted to Iiva. But at that !1iument two ~,.en cane out of the woods at the smile S.1)ot and challe :}Red his right to the claim. Each .i.l:..an had a gun and one of them pointed his threatellin~ly at Popejoy, askinF him to leave at once beoause he who held the gun, had first claim to this land.

:t-opejoy had been resting near the spring Clne he now rose to his feet and said, "let me see your gun. ~I Ta..::ing it without resistance,. he raised it and fired at a tree a few rOQs off. ·ow,:v. he s2l.id, it I wa~lt this gro ve. If you have a claiu on it I will buy you out. If ~rou haven't I will maice one in u few minutes. it The fellow ;,;/ho hud threateneG hirG YJi th the gun tllen led him un a hill and showed where he had beeun a cabin. -;hen Popejoy S8i.'1 the cabin he realized th&t this stranger had a real ri&!ht to the land. lie paid him $50 for the claim and then returned to Des Loines where he boueht enough land ad­ joining the grove to ,make an entire section. After that he drove beel\' to his horlle. Popejoy vias the second r;~.n to set­ tle in Oakland tOlIDship where this farm was located.

12 A.bout this StU1e time Fairohild pot into a ciffioulty which forced him to leave Lilyne' s Grl.)ve. Monrr the settlers the Rre.,tes:b crime knmm in the COlll:iLUni ty Wti,S .1 juml:>ing a claim", or takin~ SOLleone else's farm. eften a new settler ...... 1ould ~lt1!{e SOl'.le trifling mistake in ~·.larldng his claim, such as fa~l~nfl' to neasnre or stake off boundaries correctly, or not P'lvlnr the proper notice to the land office in register­ inp the claim. There were ruen who took advc..ntage of these small:~ists)ces and VJould lay claim to lane. ever.. V:lllen it was beinp. farl"1Go. Such nen were often speculators Ivho wanted only to pet control of a larRe area of land but who did not care to build homes on the-land or to farm it. All such :1claim j'W .. perstt WGre much hated and often punished or driven out of the co.tn.r!unity by bands of angry farners. In June such a s;,)eculator came to r:'J.yne's Grove and while exploring the region he took a fancy to Hayne's claim. .as Fairchild was r.avne t s ns ip.h~)or the !.lan .rr.tade friends with him and found out that Lavne's claim \.Jas defective or not ~ropeTly regis­ tered. He then "entered La:rne out,l, ta~.\:inB over the land. This Mised sllch a feeline a:¢:G..inst Fairchild that he had to leave. One settler renar!ced .:tfter he was e;one, ilT'was the best thing he could do for he would l'lave been shot if he had stayed. It

During the sam.e ~lonth Ch.:trles lee;cett and a !.lan l10.!J.ed Loomis C<:lr.J.e I'rum Ohio enCi walked f'ror:l ~ll.iterloo to Layne's Grove. (;fton they could not find sj)rin~s from which to drink and were forced to drink from the sloughs. To do this they had to find a hole where /:in elk or buf'f<:ilo had stepped into the soft gruund lenving a depression filled with water. Into this hoof-track they lowered a pint bottle until it tilled with water. The water was luke-warril, m.urky, and d 1s­ ae:reeable but to rind aveIl this was considered lucIe. They finally re::tched their destination, honever, and both toolc fams. Loomis ir.:.ll'llediately hired a r~n to bre.:llc sod on his farm clnd after that the two men enp,a!!cd Judf:e Reeve to drive them back to CedfAr Falls; from there they returned to Ohio for their fani11es.

Lsppett later told of ldlling an elk in se9t~mber 1855. This MUst have been one of the lost of the elk ~ Franklin County because L. B. RaYllond, one of the iJioneer editors of the county, has recoreed that the elk d.isappeared about 1656 and the l';lst of the buffalo went two years earlier, in 1854, althoua,h James Reeve and ~,lilliam Braden l{:illed an ir:12enSe buffalo' bull on the "1rairie in lIar.;il ton Tovmship as late as June 1856. The hug.e'· animal vvas just jumping the channel of l:ayne's Creek "i'lhen a shot broup.:ht him. dovm. The ourcass ~',tas fonnd to be so heavy that it took several r:len to get it (.)ut of the creek. All throup;'h the years of settle:crent, whenever a stray beast was located in the neighborhood, ull hands turned out for the hunt until the beast VlElS shot.

13 Le(",r,ett's elk was one of these Unfortunate ani.r.lals 'who had, like certain of the Indians, strayed bacle into old pestu.res and crossed the line into the region of settlement. Legrrett a.nd Staley, a neighb,or, were ma.'k:il1t hay that fine fall day when they saw the elk feeding about half a mile off. Each man. jill~ped.on a horse and car~Jing pitchforks they started 1n 1')ursu1t. Leggett overtook the elk and stabbed him vii th the pitchfork but did not l{ill him. The elk got away with the tines of the pitchfork lodged in his shoulder. But the two r.len still followed and as the elk tried to cross a small creek the pitchfork handle was caught between two trees and held firmly, . until Leggett could get close enough to catch hold of it again. Staley came up next with his fork and held the struggling elk on the other side. They had captured the a nimal but they could not kill it. Just then a lucky thing happened. lillother neighbor, Dr. }1i tchell, COrle into sight over the hill. He had been out after prairie chickens and still carried his shotgun. Leggett called to him and he cane up very much excited and said he would shoot the elk. He took airl and fired but missed cOLlpletely. He tried again with the other barrel of the gun but again he missed. The pione ers called this ';7buck ague", when a hunter became so excited that he couldntt hold his gun steady. Leggett joked with Litchell saying he vres having this trOUble, and asked him to hold the pitchfork while he shot the aniIlal. But l.dtchell would not give up the gun. lIe VJaS more than ever determined to finish the elk even if it took a 11 the powder he had in his horn. So he reloaded the gun and v..alldng up to the animal, held the muzzel about six inches frOD its head and fired. This time the elk fell dead and jlrovided many meals of fresh steak for the families of the settlers. There ar e r.J.any other hunting storie s • La te in the fa 11 of that first year in Franklin County, Jar:les Reeve and John l:a.yne saw a herd of about one hundred buffalo in a ravine in Reeve township. They fired into ther:l but without ef'fect. The baffaloes· Hoved northuard and the men follO'Ded, getting a Shot nOi!V and then when the herd came to a stream. and were huCldled top:ether at the crossing. But they could kill nonif' of them. .oThey follo~i76d on, however, although it't"Jas now Betting dark. Four or five miles west of Shobe t s Grove they ~aught up ivi th the herd again and, tiding. behind a bluff, they crept up close to the animals. FrOB th1s ~lace they got a good shot and killed two before the herd could get away_ But now it had started to snmq and in the darkness they could not get their bearings. They were lost. It was getting colder and they had to have shelter. There were the two buffalo. The men sl-:inned both anir..1als and 1:JraI)2,.")ing them­ selves in the hides, lay down and slept until l'J.orning. By daylight they could see the grove and Icnew where they were. They reached hooe s~fely by noon.

14 THE ORGMHZA.TI01J 0]' FRANKI.IN COUNTY

Franklin County was created in 1851 by an act of the Stnte I.Jeei sla ture, but it Vlas not orga:1ized lli"1.ti 1 1855. Un til that t tme there Vlere not enoup.,h sot tIers in the vicin­ ity to hold 3.n electioll; therefore Fra:.lk1hl County was attached to Hardin and Chickasaw counties. But on h.ugust 5, 1855, by an order of the co' nty .judge in Chickasaw County, an election was held at the hor.1e of Janes B. Reeve. Forty­ eip'ht nen voted and chose the follmJing officers; Janes B. Reeve, county judt~e, Isi:tu.c 1:iller, treasurer and recor der; Dr. M.itchell, clerk of courts; John }'opejoy, assessor; H.F. rlllen, surveyor; ...... ~. Jordan, .t?rosecuting attorney; C. IVH Leggett and Jones, justices of the ,;;Jeace; and 301oLlOn Stale~r, sheriff. The new county W8.S called Fr6.nklin for Benja':':lin Franklin, statesman of Hevolutionary days. Franklin County vvas the fifth county VJest of the 11iss­ issippi in the third tier froLl the northern boundary of the state, lying between the ni;nety-third. and ninety-fourth .r.J.eridi;).ns. It contained 16 Congressional tovmships, each one six miles ea ch way, w 11ich were fina lly n.::ullG d Rc:. eve, 1.:or­ ga.n, West Fo1'1-(, Osceola, InghilIil, Geneva, Oakland, lIar:lilton, Grant, Lee, Wisner, Richland, Scott, Larion, Rons, and Lott.

~;.,fter the e Ie ct ion the returns \l'jere sent to BriJ.df ord, tile Chickasaw County seat, and t he newly e le cted Jude:,e Ja.me s RE~eve u::1d the treasnre:- Isa,3.o ;':iller I.lo.de the lone: journey to Do.ve.1j)Ort to p:et the bool~s and various blanks to be used in the business of the county. The Reeve 11or2e became the first courthouse and sl..',meti1l1es the far.lily hD.d 1i ttle room left for themselves, for the settlers P-'atl.!ered there for meBt ings and fi1led every tnch, it see.Dled, of their lug cabin.

The first census Via s tah:en in the nBI/1T county in 1856; the population at that time was found to be 780. Four years later it was 1,309. For some 'ye::lrs the lJopulation in the COl nties f8.rther Vlest continued. to be small. Even Cherokee County had only 15 peo]!le durin€ the \linter of 1862-63, be­ cause of Indian scares. This shOi,\1S the difference in the progress of set tler:lent bet'\'leen middle counties of Iowa and counties fo.rther west. :even as late as 1880 Sioux City, which 'lIaS set tIed early, was still only a cO::l(,lUui ty of hbout six thousand people. It took marw yea.rs for \;"vestern Iowa to catch up \vi th the e'::lstern li art of the State. The uiddle counties rod the two ao.V:ilitages of near:aess to the [lore settled eastern section and of a location s&fely dista.nt from the frontier counties.

15 ~-..fter 17run ill had been orc:anized , it wus !lece ssary to lo~ate th~. c~':lntY.t,seat. By this steil the )eople were netirly lJO(.B the .v?-ct~.m OJ., ,~. gruup of s)eoulat0rs. l,istrict JudAe C!lVE? J .. lvAc.t:'ur.land <"J.sre€:ardeG the petition ')resented by the " , i .I, se tt..Lers as:c rip 1:1811 '\,;1101:1 they had chosen to be an")ointed as .. _. '" 'll'.... ':'I .l J. CO.::J::'J,1 S.::3J.oners. ,He salCl flatly: III alnoint Dr • .nul t one of t~e c()ru.rlissi~~er~, und I don't care if the J?eople of Frank­ lIn Cuunty lIKe It or not. ,h.. nd I o.lso aTIoint M.:M. TrUL1- bull, of B~tler County, and J. D. r:t:hor'lpson~ of Hardin CountJ; who voted lor me, as the other two cOnlLlissioners. ,t The cO!.".lnissioners List several tines, and in$pi te l')'f Tru;~bull t S ,?rotests, decided to locate the county sed t on lane o'Nned by Thomas Abel anc.~ to call the new town Jeffer­ SOli. Trumbull voted for a 8i te on property o'!med by Job Garner. The Franklin County settlers did not like the CO;;i­ missioners' c!loice, for ThorilClS abel actually [;mde his rEisi­ den.. ce in !-urDhall County to the south. They felt it 'was a :pl,ln to:lI:J,l~e r.ioney ut the ir expense, for any town site al­ ways becm:18s .1 valuable piece of land when it is divided up into lots and sold. The Franklin Count:r c1 tizens, believing that the county seat question had become an excuse for land specu tion, filed a petition asking the cO~lissioners to order a vote on t.he subject at the next April (1[65) elec­ tion. ';'\. condJ.tion of this Detition re(luired the site for the navY' tt'wn to be locnted" on the farr,l of Job Garner, a resit~ent of th~) county. The ,petition was properly posted, 91" 1'.11 ed :i.n JUdP:8 Jam.es B. ReE:')ve's cou.rt. :\.t tl1e }vlril election the settlers gathered to defeat the c(J,n,missioners and the land s':)oculators, and by their votes decided €.lt1l('H?t unanirnously for the Garner 8i te. It is s~id that in this oontest the Jeffersun site received only votes. rl'hus with the he Ip of Judge Heeve, who wanted to see fair ~)lay, al1d the untiring 'ii1L.lrk of ,;:mothor man, litlo Ill. Trur.~bull, the pioneers 1 wishes 'livere respected lind their rights maintained .. rnvo li'ran:rlin County men, Job Garner and George Rlan, gave 40 acres of land, which was platted and sold for town lots reg::irdless of how the COl:llJ.issioners felt about it. The sale of" these lots r;ade the county enough money to buila. the courthouse, to do the necessary work such as laying city streets, building roads, and paying the costs of surveying and platting. On June 2, 1656, II. ,Po Allen, ~he count~ sur­ vevor, finished the il}ork of plattIng the vlllage and the ')let was recorded. Two sons of Job Garner helped in the '~lOrk survevinp.. Allen Garner worked as ch5.J.IlL18.n and re- t' .35 for l1is work and. a1so $/1.50 for carrying"~ or settinp surveyor's sta~;:es. l'"attllias Garner received ~5.87 1'(n~ his wor!,;: as chainman, accord ing to cm:mty recoras, and a hauled stones which were set up at ea.ch corner for r"'t,:l.rkers. His vlag-es for the 1a tter job are not stated.

16 5. B. Jackson, a 70ung lawyer who hEld come west to "Grow up with the country", earned $4.35 uS chainman and ~,:..sa Platt, w~o sought to buy land, hauled surveyor's stakes for $1.75. lilliam Easterbrook, chaimnan, received $3.12.

The name Benjarilin, honoring Fral1.~lin, was cll osen for the new town by both Garner and Ryan, and vms used for some tirne. R. F. T'iatt objected, however, on the erou!ld that ihere v'Tas nlreac:.y another Benjamin in the State, and Ju(:[e Reeve was induced to ohanr.e the n81ae to HaJil.. :.ton, after "Hampton Roads, Virginia. Piatt was a£long the first la'wyers to practi oe in Franklin County and had ta~{en a prominent part in its earl."r developrlent and organization, HaMIlton, two niles east of the center of the oounty, surrounded by as "good farming land as lies out of doors i ?, was later to be oonnected with the rest of the world by good roads and two railroads, but at the time of the organization ot the county there was no road at all and there were very tew horses or oxen. ',/hen a settler desired to hear frLm friends he either trudped on foot or rode a horse all the way to Cedar Falls for his mail, or entrusted the errand to a n~ip:hbor who was ~inf" that wa.y. Two-cent postage sta;.;1,ps were then unknown and even the ,~lOdern envelope ood not come into use. The sheet of writing paper Hould be f()lded in a certain way and riUtde secure with sealing wax. This wus then aCl.dressed to its destination o.!J.d the person receivlng 1 t ~"t)uld otten be oalled upon to ~}J.y as hlgll as tuelltl-f i ve cents for the letter.

~lllon the rnilroads were b~lilt each town soon had a post otfioe ot its own \vith weei<:ly delivery ()f !;mi1. Later deliveries were made se.mi-wee.cly and fina.lly they were made daily.. In 1&57 a L>ost uffice y~as established at :

Ie the winter of 1256-57 Franklin County had a priv.~te. school. 3 .. II. Vall j:~irlc taught in Ilalllj)ton in a Sf.lall building on the corner of Reeve and Second streets. He was a t:Jell educated man and gave the few pupils instruction for about three !.'lonths. T:.is was not a public school; the parents subscribed a oertain sum of money for its. upkeep. In the sprine of' 1857 a real schoolhouse was built in H~f:.1pton. . It cost a lIttle more than $100 and \V8S not equl.pped vVl. th de ska.. Clara ~l in tt, a ~ir 1 s ti 11 in her teens, ta ugh t this sohoo1. The seoond, a. fr~~e structure, was built the f?llow­ ing year by F. A. Dc.ntoo and E. O. :evans, and was pal.d for with public funds raised by taxation as soon as the county was oorapletely organized.

17 The first house within the Cor1)oration of Hampton was a loe; cabin erected b~T Job Garner in 1[;55. The to"lA1l1 was incor­ porated in le7l. T::e first :!1.Qyor liJ8.S Willia.~;l Ra l,·,lond.

rr~le first church edifice built in Hampton :das the Bap­ tist Ghurch erected in 1669. The first c hurch orga~lized in tIle county WClS the CV1gregatj.onal in If':'57 , its pastor the Reverend ~1. ? ~:"'very.

The first graCluate in the E.BlJlpton high school acted as valedictorian and salutatorian and composed the '.111ole rtudent body of the class of 1881. lie vms Charles '.1. ".. ilcox. In after years, hmilever, his favorite neLlories were of extra-scholastic activities. Chief among these 'l\Ias his first CiJ.illping trip. His father gave him 15 cents for his eXi)enseS and the fat:ler of the other boy proviCted a horse and buggy. They stayed away from. home one wllOle nicht and. went fishing. "Jilcox caught a turtle instead of :l fish.

Octavia Sni th, the fir st }I'ran~clin COUllty teac;18r in that earlier t1'"\rj .. ng season of 185,:', h2.d m.a. ried E. J. i ... itchell. Long afterward, loo:dng bc:.ch: un thuse :t?ioneer days, she ,:I,Tr()te: ITI 'vvas yuune, not c::~.ite seventeen, a:nd had earned a little noncy teachi.n~ school at one dolla:r and a ha If per week. I1Y husband .•• said one dc..y before we married, 'I have twenty· Goll.ll""S, do you think vIe could conl·wnce house-'

ill thr)U(1"ht we could, so Vle vvere fC.lS.rried and began 1\:eep­ inp' house 8.nd only used thirteen of the tli'lenty dollars, that included our f 1.1rni ture, conk stove, eli shes and groceries. ,·r The stove cost ~;~l. 50, the chairs 50 cents apiece. ',Jhile her young husband built a table and bedsteads, the bride put a curta:i.n aruund ar,. elJ:otv .Cleo.l barrel and used it for a center table to hole. the fa;:!J.iJ..y Bible and hyrro bool::. But soon the -:Toun::r couple felt vory rich indeed. 1.:rs. Mitchell's fathor gave her ~,,'30 '.vitl1 ~·Jhioh to buy a cow. The cow yielded enough crean to churn ~,;12 -v'lJOrth of but ter . in four months. 1.'{.::en they had been .:':1iirried three yco.rs the cmJ died. This, she says, '.;vas a gre~t t loss as they had no butter to eat or to sell. They had a pie to cdll, hov'iGver, and when the pig had been slaughtered she sold part of the lard to buy herself a new calico dress. But t~lere was only enough lard to PQy for seven yards, so the c.ress turned out to be rather short. One of her neighbors came in shortly after­ ward aud told her it was tuo" short, but Lrs. Litchell was not greatly troubled by this. ';It "Will be long enough be­ r ore I get another, It she said.

18 She tells of hml very cold it wus in the '1Ili nter of 1656-57, that hard 'V/inter wllen the S1.0UX Inc1iuns almost sturveG und the horrible (!!.~ssJ.cre at Spirit Lake took )lace. There was no food an~vhere except in the settlers' cabins. Even the elk died on the prairies. The hungry Indians prowled around begeing for food and finally they killed 32 white people who had settled near Spirit Lake. Toward spring the frightful news reached Franklin County. Two years before people had been frightened out of their homes by an Indian scare, their crops destroyed and Pluch of their livestock lost, but this time they refused to move.

R~ors reached them that Indians '~~ere coming to mas­ sa cre all the pe ople of Iom. Eany came from Fort Dodge and farther west. Each reported the Indians only a few hours journey behind them and rapidly coming east. The eight farl1ilies at Oakland vV'ere asked to join those fleeing to es­ cape deeth, but none of them could be easily persuaded to leave the homes they had worked for so hard and which they had made pleasant end comfortable. In order to protect the women and children, however, they did evacuate their homes and p:athered at Ki tohell t s place which was turned into a temporary fort. Beds were made up on the floors both upstairs and down and the men brought guns and powder and for a week };:ept sen­ tinels at their posts day and night to euard the people within the house" The l>opejoys, wbo bad to remain at bome to feed and oare for their livestook, )!:ept a tea.m of horses harnessed to a Viagon ready to raoe toward "Fort liitchelllf at a rnomen t' s notioe ~ But after days of vigil and many s leep­ less hours of darkness, it ~s decided that the an~icipated Indian attaok was a false u.lar.Lll., alld dll the fal~11.lies re­ turned safely to their own households.

19 CRti.P rER 5

DEVELOPW!!NT MlL THE CIVIL WAr..

_ The first 'vJhite settlers often arrived before the Idnd hac. be~n sur-::eyed, ane.. stal;:ed off their O\Jn property. They ste)pea, off c.ist3.J::tces lnstead of deasuring and thus .tr..any of \~e Cl~l.f'rcS "\i~re not accurately .r:lar.i.';:ed and soue overla,pped. 'Ii.len IJovernuent surveyors C8.l.:le lnto the country the early Ilnes i.~ere. co!r~cted and every eff ort was nade to give the squatter h1S r1gnts. After the land had been measured, each squatter paid the United states Government $1.25 an acre for 11.1s land.

In leGO the hOl!18stead law was .? ..... soed enc tho settler could ta":e up 160 acres if he lived on it and !O..3.de certain im:,rove'-.er:.ts such as buildine a cabin, breaking a certain nunber of acres or fencing a given area. :.fter thq t the sett.ler .... Jas called homestender instead of SCj'L18.t ter. By If 60 J'ranklin Count"lr was well set tIed, and had a nunber of 0urishing t0wns. In IB57 it had even been croseed, t':t)up'h only at the extreme southeast corner, by its fir railroCld, the Lubur.:ue-Si0'Ux City line. That year, unf'ortu.ne.tely, the whole ClJUlltry vvs.s swept by a financ ial 0.. I:011.j:lpr VIIHI scorce, and those Wh0 had it teured to in- vest or to (1110',] their funds to be used for purposes of builC1 f;lxp~lnsi0n ..

ess, by 1000,· ::pton, tbe rran~;:lin County seat, "laf.3 a "bu ling bur€" # of 200;1 with two general stores, a 7)1' o:!'f ice :1110 a flour l'1ill. ~:,.. newspaper, the !'"rarJ'::11n :?f~coro, estab1 ished I :c:rch 28, 1859 by Th0m.as Drum­ Slond, e.dvo!'tised the reopening and refitting of a hotel­ lLl::1~)ton' s :f i1'st hostelry. It ',lIas a story-anC-n-half frame build in£; , i,ut up in the spring of 1857 by John E. B0yles .. The ddvertise,tlent read: .1The subscriber invi tes l)ublic attention t(.) this establishI10ntwhich he hed lately reopened and refitted, and intends to !mep as nearly as ,P0ssible up to the handle. lIe IIl1ill use his best endeavor to m.a;re his house a pleasant spot by the v1JaJside, and solicits the pat­ ronage of all hungry, starved souls, prot,:tising them. that they stillil have the best that can be procured in this region. He professes to be a lcnight of the ri bbons, and acc0rdingly taKes the best ")ossible care of the' riB.gs\ -- having the lar~est and best stable in Fran~clin County and t 0stler who knov'ls hov! to 'do the thing up browu'lt • The 'V'Jording of this notice to the public shows the spirit of optimism and enter­ prise shared bV :'Jany of the early business nen and settlers in Franklin County.

20 DUT the period from 1854 to 1860 the pioneers had sufferer r.a!l~r hard, ips -- the inconvenience of living in pri'-,:itive lor; cnbins on the prairie, the recurring fear of attuc1cs by Incians, and durinp the long vJinter months, the constant fi",ht aga iust bitter c old weather. In January 1857 a Lrs. Ryan \'188 frozen to death near the Haecker olace in Eott ~o"'mship4 She and her husband had been ';isiting fr5. ends one evening; when they started home the wind was blo''1inlZ he:lvily and thare was a thick snowfall. The cuuple lost the path and wandered helplessly throup;h the sturm. Finally l. rs. Ryan sank exhausted on the bank of a little hill -- she could walk no farther. Her husband turned back to hunt for help, but it 'IJaS daylig,ht before he return.ed wi th se~leral would-be rescuers, only to find l.,irs. Ryan stlll seated on the hillock, 1'rozen to death. There were other accidental and natural deaths in the county, too -- of children, olCl people, and persons of vari­ ous ages. But., since even during difficult tioes, life can­ not be all 9(.)rrow, as a counter-balance there were many good tiL18S -- dhouse raisin' Sit -- when the settlers met to help put up new log houses and celebrate their occupancy-­ v.]ed<11ngs 1 and cOIDr;luni ty re ligi<.lus and eauca tional gatherings. The first wedding to take place in the county -- that of s rtin and lIancy Garner -- was solel,mized in the SUl71I:'l.er of 1858 at the home of Abe Bacon in Otisville . The brice bridesiila.id ho.c 'to ascend to the "loft,'? and dress by the 11p:ht ot' a "slut" lamp, made of a hollmved-out turnip fill with hog prease and lit with a cloth wiok. The br1.c:e~,r(.K)f;1 hac to put on his llbest suit il within the shelter of c(Jrncrib ..

~1. typicul v'edi:in~ cel.ebration of a few years later when livin~ oonditions had becoI.le relatively comfortable, was that of R .. Z. Train, teacher of the first school at otis­ ville in leBo, and superintendent of a Sabbath School or- ized in 1860, to Huldeh Jane ~,~organ. This was an event of le6l. The Bible cla ss leader, E .. A. Howland, a wedding f!Uest, '!Jlas warned by the bride's !:1other not to >t)lague·l t~e girl and thus annoy. the bridegroom. Howla.r:-d , d::e ssed up ~n a boY'rowed suitf did not feel at home ~r: h~s . temp

.ii.f'ter the cerer£lony there VJ'..lS a basket lunch and then the guests enjoyed ,laying the garae of :nCopenhagen\7. ~n this gru~e a ring was formed with rope. Each player held h~s hands on the rope and tIlere were one or two inside. If the persons inside the ring could strike the hand of one of the

21 opposite sex outside, it was their privile[l:e to kiss the latter before he or she could also dodBe il1sic.e. This game brou{,;ht forth MUch laup:hter and teasing a:"1d ,vas considered preat fun b:r the crowd. Just imagine the grown-ups of today indulcting in such sport! ,. While this gone was being ]layed at the Train wedding festivities, Howland thought up what he considered a capi­ tal joke. ..:.Jl1.ong the players were John I. Popejoy, rfthe cattle kingif, who on his arrival in Franklin County in le54 had acquired 286 a.cres of land. There 'W8.S also a lirs • Walters, who quickly called Popejoy's attention to his horse tied up in the yard,and then took advantage of his momentary distraction to strike him a sound blow on the band. popejoy was so astonished that she bad kissed him before he could recover enouf?.h to dodge inside the rope. ..t~terward PopejQY declared that this cured him of the habit of smoking for two years ••• Thus the pioneers amused themselves. T~ere was always laughter on the frontier. But soon the nomal life of the settlers was saddened by the Civil ",~ar -- that e,reat war fought betvlleen the Horth and the South of our own U:...ited states. lien l1ad to leave their shops und plowshares to fight and kill their own countrymen. In F:::-anklin County, as Vie 11 as allover Iowa, the building of roads ann railroads was halted or postponed, as was the construction of new mills and bridges, stores and homes.

The nar.1es of 130 soldiers from Frall~clin County are listed in the records of the Civil W.;;.r. Fort:r-five of the nen died in the service of their CDuntry. .h.c:wng these was James B. Reeve, captain of C{)Npany I-I, 32nd Iowa I.Santry who was killed J~nuary 24, 1863, and his son Fernando, who died September 21, 1884. E::"ias Coon was talcen prisoner and died of starvation at ~I.tlanta, Georgiu, while one of the last battles between the l;ortl1 and the South raged outside the city walls. Franklin County was represented first in the 6th Volunteer Infantry, and in conpanies of other regiments. Besides the 130 listed there were 100 men in the 44th

I:!fantrT{, sone in the cavalry forces, and a number in the r.;orthern Border Brigade. A 9-year-old £"ir~' s impressi;ms of, the. i~arf s b~g~rmi~g, printed in the Frank11n Recorder ln 1892 glves.a V1Vld plC­ ture of the times; itI 1111611 remember the r.10rnlng the news came that war had broken out. II.! father was standing at the pate waitin~ for the 1'1ail ca:r'rier to deliver th~paper, when he rode U'O axei tedly and said, 'They have f lred on rort Sumpter'. '1'1.:.6n my father raised his hat soleranly '~~d now so help us in heaven we will free the slav~stn. The ch~ld stood awe-strioken watching her father in h18 blue unlform the

22 morr:.inf" he was to leave. She vwnoered j.f it could be 1)ossi­ ble that bullets i'Joula. hit him. "But vie heard the beat of the drums .'lnd lmew that Co. B. was :r:rarchine; down the street and thu t h1s tine with us was short. T::.ey hal ted at the gate and with hurried eJ':lbraces to !;lother and the little ones, he tool~ :::e by the hand and led me to the gate with him ••• Climbinp' the fence, I CO!.llClenced to 'nave cry little flag and sine at the toy:> of my voice tTLe Union I'orever' and the COf;lpany joined in and when they passed out of sight I could still hear their voices as back frOID the hills came the l.vord s, 7The Union P5rever til. Alas, that father never re­ turned ho~e alive, but losing his life as an after-effect of the strain of he lping a wounded cO!i1rade, ii'JaS brought back the following year in a flag-draped coffin.

li .tr.ore cheerful story vms that of JaDes ~'{heeler l:cl;enzie, ",ho foul7h t rd th the l:l.rmy of the Tennessee. IIc:Cenzie 1'Vas conspicuous for his bravery under fire during an attuck of the ene.r.lY on 11..1 toono., Georgia, October 5, 1864. Gener:ll Sherean's signal corps haC. been trling to send dis­ patches from ~Cenesav\l to General Corse. The L:.es::;ages were read but unanswered bec&use of a t hicle hail uf ellemy bullets. General Corse sought Lieute::..1ant 1.lc ... Cenzie, teLl~')orarily in charge of a si~ned ct).Dlpany, and declared he bad to get word through to General Sherman, \'vho lIDd just wi g-vvagged , 11Hold the fort for I am coning.:! Corse wrote out and handed ~.~c';;:enzie the follQi,ling message (or so it wets reported in the Ii'ran:.(lin Recorder f or January 18, 1882) :"T(~ Gen. Sherr.lan: I am short a cheek bone and one ear, but can whip hell out of them yet.. General Corse." llcKenzie took the r,16ssage a:nd the si?:nal flag and called for a volunteer. rio one responded .... alt se efiled like certain death to anyone to undertat-;:e it. ..b.t this .i.'10ment of hesitation, the General Seeing no man going forward said to me firmly, ,ILieutenant, I thought -rou said this message could be sent?' I replied, 'It can,' Clnd "vllitlloUt further­ dela Y I nount ed the siF.nal station ana. c onr:lenced sending the nessage. expecting every r:WLlent to. be shot. ~he flag vilas about e l~h teen feet long, and the vand was blmang some, and I found it verv hard work, and felt as though I .i:llust give out before I VI6S done. At this moment, when it see[iled I could stand it no longer, a stranger, not a member of the Signal corps, ccme up behind Ge, :;:Jut h~s ar~D.~ arcund me, too~c hold of the flag staff, and standlng behlnd 11e, helped me to wave the answer bac~( to Sherman. n

l.ic:~enzie died at Harn.pton in 1£82. On June 16 of that year,14 conrades of the Grand Army of the Republic organized the J .. '.I. !:cKenzie Post, naIl1ed in his honor. The G. A. R. regulations provided that each Post shculd beRr the name of a dead comrade. Capt. Rufus S. Benson was the first com­ mander.

23 Some years later the taxpayers voted to build l.~em()rial Eall ~()r the use of the former soldiers. The ha~npton city counc~l dL)nated a let, and the building was dedi cated ,d,Ur,ust 27, 1890. ~

A marble tablet bearing the names of all soldiers 'who enlisted from Franklin C')unty and were killed in battle, or died of wounds or disease, was placed on the walls of the M:emorial Hall. As other veterans, citizens of the county, began to die, the 'domen' S Relief Corps sponsored a second tablet to carry the names of former soldiers who had met death since the Civil ~Tar. It was placed on the wall in the spring of 1895. ..it that time the Post had 100 Liembers. Gradually, as the :rears went by and the survivors of the Civil Har became fewer and fewer, the Post activities were carried on 'Jith the assistance of veterans of the Spanish Anerican and 110rld wars. The last local survivor of the Civil "Jar, Levi Lvons Conner, died Septem.ber 27, 1937 at the age of 91. The first G. A. R. Post in Franklin County was organiz­ ed in Decer,lber 1866 when a few veterans living in Reeve Township met at t he schoolhouse a t the ea st end of l.~ayne 1 s Grove. Col. ":l.. T. Reeve assisted at the neeting and at followina ra.therings, but no records re.rGain. The follo'l;ving besides Colonel R~eve are known to have ~')al'ticipated: Cap­ tain Clock, o. G. Reeve, Capt. A. B. Eudson, G. ',I. Soper t L. B. Ra7!'!1ond, R. 3. Benson, J. S. Hurd, L. P. Ilurlin, James II .. Beed, L. 1'. Berry, J • .t... Franl-clin, D. lIe Van Hoen, J. D. Haecker, 'J. 1' • .t'i.shley, J. H. Plant, Clnd J. Y. Umber. These nen constituted the clk1rter menbers of the encatfJ.p":'l.ent of the G. A. R. lCl10VJll as Post no" 115, District 11, of the Depart­ ment of Iowa. L. D. Ra:n:lOnd was authorized to [rlUster in the Post at the courthouse July 5 and July 9, 1867. The m.eetings were not held for very long. Both the men arlO. their families wanted to forget the war. It ha.d ended wi th Victory and justice, but now people wanted to experience progress in ordinary normal life. They wished to farra. their land, build enduring homes and towns J and share in, the future benefits of civilization.

24 CEAPTER 6

RAILRO ADS IN FRAlTKLIN COUNTY

"Fizzel, fizzel, squeak, ding, dong, rumble, rumble, hurry, skurry, puffing and rolling onward and westward throu:?h forests, over prairies" and across creeks and rivers. That 1S how the first railroad trains came into Iowa. But before they could come rolling in, bridges had to be built, road beds graded up, hills cut down and fi lied in, and last the steel track and hi&~ trestles bad to be built. A great deal of timber had to be cut down also and hewed square to make the ties. Fences had to be built to Iceep livestock off' the tracks and towns and stations had to bo laid .out along the "W3..y. A11 this .preliminary work took a long time and a great deal of money. Crews of men were hired to build the lines across the state and every day the noise of these worknen driving the huge steol sp:Uces could bo hoard along the new tracks.

There were two ways for the railroad companies to get money to build the roads. One was to layout new towns and se 11 building lots to merch:ln ts and householdsrs "livho vmuld settle there, the other was to sell the freo land given by thD Uni ted States Government to encourage the building of tho roads. This gift of' land vvas made up of evory other soction for ten miles on each side of the tracks. Some moo have judged that about one-ninth of the lane. in the state was given to the railroads in this way. ~:l..nd as this rail­ road land 18.7 close to the railroad conti::'.rs it could be sold for a higher- price por acre than the $1.25 an acre which was paid to the Govornr.lOnt for it. In spite of thE) great :JrlO1.mt which had to be done thon, there ~s money to do it with and as early as 1857 th(3ro were four ::?arallel railroad lines building toward the WGst. The line which lay farthest north was the ono which cut acro ss tho southoastorn part of the county. This vJ8,S the Dubuq ue and Sioux City Railroad which vms to pass through Fort Dodge and aftorward becamo part of the IlJ.inois Cen­ tral. But dUE) to the panic of 1857 work soon sto,pped on all lines and was not started again until afte,r tho Civil 1:1&r. During the se years while, the sett18r s waited eClg6rly for the comine; of the railroads, stae;eco,.: 011:'-8' c ar:ri 00. rnail and pass(mgers across tho state and from town to tm"lD.. ::';0,;::,,,,­ times men went on. snowshoes with the mail, but somehow it was deli vared. Twice 1:1 weck by way of ~·i.lgona mail was carri cd from Ji'ort Dodge to l.1Clnkato, r,iinllbsota, and there was a weekly service from Cedar Fulls to I-IUtllpton dnd from lrevvton to Fort Dodge.

25 The first railruad to reach lIIarJ.pton was built frum south tu nurth and was called the Iowa Central Railway, later the :Iirmeanolis and St. Louis. This line was built by the El~ora Railroad and Coal Company, first from Eldora tu Ackley 1.n 1867-68 and frum there tu Iiarn.pton in 1870. It was al.;:;lOst the Fuurth of July, June 28, 1870 to be exact, when lIanpton held its railroad jubilee. A great cel­ ebration had been pla:med and all "Was excitement. Flags and b'LUltinr were everywhere and children carried firecrackers and s:J8.11 red ti ssue-'wra 'med tornedoes in their hands as they came down to the tracks to ~;"atch for the new train. The tuwn vilaS filled with a gala cruwd and all the hitching posts were taken up by the long lines of teams and saddle horses tied alonR the streets. .h.lr:lOSt everTone in the coun­ ty had cooe to t01/vn with r>icnic baskets packed and smiles on their faces. Holiday cluthes and holidav sDirits vl]ere in evidence. The band vias waiting ne3.r the road pla'Ting fre­ quent bursts of nusic and the people stood in little groups alon~ the tracl~s juking and lau~hing as they waited • ..1.bout nuon it came, and what a sight it was. There was a long hoarse whistle and then the locomotive came puffing up the track witll fifteen or sixteen f.lat cars, 10aG.ed tu tIle sta~\:es with excursionists en,juyine their first railroad ride. Lach flat car bristled with green bushes stuck along the sides to provide shade fro!'L the hot June sun. The mul­ ti tude on the flat cars cheered and the people of Hampton shouted back greet ings, as the bund played ferociously and the train panted tu a stop.

The two gro~ps, visitors and home fulks, then cru~e to­ getr..er in a roaring crowd which streamed uff slowly toward the grt.:lunds where the oelebration was tu be held. The sun­ li~ht flashed fram bunting and flags and at the heaa of the uarade rode the Marshal of Hampton m.ounted on a splendid ht.:lrse oarefully ~ruomed fur the ucoasiun. When ever"Tune had re€l.ched the grounds they ate their picnic lunches ~ .all ,.,ere ga-,r and everyone talke~ about the railroad. The speaker of the day was Tom Mc.Kenz1.e. Perhaps he was one uf the l1c~enzies who settled in Richland tQvmship in 18oe. There was Rodaric Uc~:enzie who bought out John Shobe near Shobe t s Grove and for whum the IlicKenzie Sohool House and the EcI:enzie church i'vere named. Then there were James and John l:cZenzie who were buth active in the Civil l'lar. At least it was Tom LcKenzie who spoke and who read both the Declaration of Independence and the Erlancipat~on Proclamation, as well as he could with Uthe CLmstant popp1.ng of firecrackerslf around and above the speakers' pla~form. But the noise was gloriuus. It was all a part uf th1.s day whioh celebrated the Fourth as well as the new railroad.

25 But while this gay time was being enjoyed at H8.l"1pton t in another part of the same county sadness and discourage­ ment prevailed. For just six 11ile s to the sou. th lay the town of 1iaysville and this town had been skipped entirely by the railroad - a body blov17 from which it could never re­ cover. 1:aysville had been an ambitious and active town up to this time. Its citizens had r.:tade strenuous efforts from the first to get the county seat located there, and later on to get the railroad. Only a short time before som.eone had predi cted "Maysville '\lIill have a rai lroad before Hampton after all the fuss l ? and"consequently the county seat \;17ill be eventually removed to this place. The si te of the court­ house will be fixed upon soon. 11 But in spite of this optim­ istic statement and in spite of the fact that Dr. Mitchell had a steam smvmill at t~aysville and tried hard to get the judgeship for himself away f'rorn. James B; Reeve and the coun­ ty seat for his town, it was not to be. The railroad was built leaving Uaysville outside. And so the thriving little village on the stage line between Ackley and Hampton became a d7ing town and when the last person had moved away, a ghost town. One building only ,~s left standing in 1940 to mork the place -- the old stone schoolhouse -- a two-story building still solid and still used -- situated near the highway wi thin sight of I·ii:ayne's Grove. This building, erected sOrJ.etirJ.e shortly before 1870, was at that time the best schoolhouse in Franklin County_ In 1876 another railroad passed through Hcu:lpton. I):'his was an east-and-west line lmown as the Chicago Grea t ~le stern and there was no celebration to mark the event, but there was great joy for the }')eople needed this road to reach the Chicago ffi:3.rkets with the ir grain and livestock. In 1881 the third road was b uil t through Hampton--an­ other north-solJ.. th road--the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and 1Jorthern. This line, entering the county at Lee TOi~mship and passing through Dows and Popejoy as well as Hampton,. be­ came part of the Rock Island system.. The stre~r;1-~~~1ed Rocket train was later to thunder over th~s same roan g~v~ng its long cry of '\varning outside of each ci ty; its . mod~rn siren frightening in its intensity, matched the awe-~nspJ.r­ ing speed of the -new steel horse skiNning steel-shod over the prairies.

2"'1 CHAFTr:;R ?

BE:ED t S Li-I.KE

. .A. blue lake where once 'das forty acres of corn -- a mill pond where once was wilderness - thn t in ")art is the peculiar history of the Beed's luke area. Here is a blue lake circled with growing trees, winding foot pa.ths ana pic­ nic places, with a wide and sunny beach on the south shore and fishing boats tied up along the old dike vvhich exte:n.ds out into the water, fon":2ing a dock or pier - the lake of Beed's Lake State Park. T'lrlenty years earlier this land had been a cornfield. Seventy years before that it had been a mill pond, and before that, a spot in the wilderness through which ran the clear, CE.)ol waters of Spring Creek. Let us' begin at the time the first settler cahle into the valle:r of Spring Creek. lie was a Campbelli te preacher who was also a business nan looking for just the right spot to start a new industry. ~lhen he found this natural valley, and th.e creelc flO'.lJinr: between steep hills, he stopped. He explored the strear.l and found. that it -was twelve or fourteen .m.iles in length, that it seldom or never ran Ciry, for it 1,.~as fed by numerous colo. 'water springs which flowed continously during both SUIr.\J.i1sr and Ii'lint er. He exu.t.1ined the limestone rock which faced the slopes of the hills 01'). the north and south and cecided that here a dar!]. could be built across the stream. ...~s this 11\1€1.S a good place for settlem.ent, it was als(.) a good place for a nill. . The name of the preacher was .. T. K. aal1 ..~berry and the time was 1854. After he had r.:tade his plans Hansberry lost no time in retting to work. ]'irst he secured the water rights from David Eatthews and then started the building of the darn .. rrh13 di1(e ,,,'hen finished was about 80 rOGs lOll@.' and 10 feet high. It was nade cr. iefly of r-ravel from nearby. flravel pits and the black earth of the top soil, with field stones and rock to give it added strength. '1'l1e nill race or channel was built next and eJ::tended toward the east for nearly one-half 1"11ile before it cO.Llnected with the ilill Droper where the ma­ chinery was to be . set-up_ The stream of water directed through this mill race was to furnish the "}ower to turn the wheels of the mill.

The first ~ill set-up was a sav~l1ill, for everyone need­ ed lumber for new homes and there were plenty of trees grow­ ing close by on the hills. Besides that, Hansberry ne;eded lumber himself to build the outside structure of the grist­ mill he had planned. So the sawmill was set-up immediately and. in a short time ra.fters and siding and shingles were being tl~ned out for new cabins and the new mill.

28 The foundation was laid carefully of limestone blocks cu,t from the hillside -2.nd on this the franeworJ.( was built and at last the mill itself. It ',ias a two-story structure and looked very tall and very iI'l]Josing to those early set­ tlers who caLle hurrying up the creek to take a loole, or to lend a hand with the work. The sunlight shovtlIl dovm on newly cut oak shin.:rles and shining new walls as the pond gradually filled and 'water began to trickle through the new spillway. '-lorkmen hurrying, bent their backs to the installing of the millstones. EverYVilhere "\iv-as activity, evervvvhe re was ex­ ci tement. It was a wonderful thing to have a nill in . t~le county. Jhen the mill at last opened, farmers came from niles around with their grain to be ground. The ereat ',:rEiter'hedl outside began to turn and the mill-wheels turned and soon the first sack of flour "vas ready to be carried away. It was a great da;. Everyone joked and shouted, you had to shout to be heard above the i:llghty noise of the mill-wheels. Farm$rs VJent home with ligllt hearts that evening in 1859, proud that there was a r;lill in their own county. The millstones were very heavy and it was hard to haul them across country for the early mills. Some were Illude in Georgia but the best ones lmd to be brouBht across the At­ lantic ocean from l!~rance. Each stone was grooved on the inner surfa.ce and the two were placed together on a s~)indle. The 10l."1er stone was stationary and the upper stone was turned by the machinery of the luill. The grain to be ground was poured into a hopper and Jassed down through an opening in the center of the up]er stone and was crushed as the stone revolved. The flour was caue;ht in a wooden troueh as it sifted down from the millstones and ,vas then sifted or bolted to renove the bran. One-half bushel of wheat made about twenty po~nds of flour, eight pounds of middlings, and three pounds of bran. k special kind of cloth called bolt­ ing cloth was used for sifting the flour. In 1843 the amount paid to the r.tiller was set by law at about an eighth part. By 1861 Hansberry found that he had ,more than he could do in oaring for the ~ill and acting as one of the first preachers in the region, so his brother-in-law John 1,IcDonald came from Marj,etta, Ohio, to talce charge. But even after that, running the mill remained a bi!! problem and was n?t always urofi table. Dur ing the winter season the water ln the millrace would freeze solid and the mill could.not be wor::ed. In sprinP.', floods cam.e to vvash avvay the dam and re­ nairs were constantly being L1ade. - Then in the sum.mer dry spell, the water would get so low that i t wo~ld not turn t~e wheels and again the mill had to close. ThlS went on untll in J:Jovember, '-1864, llllcDonald and Hansberry sold the Llill and water rights to ~lilliaIil Beed of Hampton for ~}6,500.

29 tIr. Beed imrlediately began im.proving the mill and dike. He raised the dike another ten feet so that more water could be stored and hence !"lore power gained. Next he went to work on the mill race 'Wh. ich he considered too narrow and too shallow, and without sufficient fall to keep the water flow­ ing fast enou~h to prevent its freezing. He started the new channel at a point ten feet higher than that of the old one to ~ive it the necessary fall and to make it deeper and wider.. The work was cOMpleted in 18'72. From that time on, Beed kept rlaking improvements. He enlarged the original building making it four times as large with a third story for extra storape r'JOID. He also built a lean-to facing west to cover the scales and to make it easier to unload the grain and load the flour in bad weather. He bought millstones Ulade in 17'rance so that he might have the very best in eqUipment in order to turn out the very best flour.

In 1682 he ,Clade another change. This time a roller system was installed, e(uipped with burrs and rollers. This increased the speed of grinding so that by 1883 the mill had ~ oapaoity of 150 barrels of flour a day and eight men were employed to run the .ra.achinery. .an elevator and warehouse were built near at hand and the mill became known as the Franklin Roller Mills. For forty years tIlis mill was an im­ portant factor in the growth of Hampton and the development of settlement in the county. rlilliam Beed was always progressive and sought to build up the po~unity. '~en he noticed that the farmers of the county had stopped raising Wheat and that all the wheat for the mill was being shipped in, he tried to encourage the raisine: of Hors wheat. He sent to South Dakota for a car­ load of their finest seed wheat and offered to sell it to the farmers at cost. But the farmers did not want to raise wheat and only about half of it was sold. Franklin County had becane a corn cOllntry as had most of Iowa. Gradually year by year the flour mills of Iowa closed and finally the Franklin Roller 1:111s closed also. The great flour mills bad been located in other states, where wheat was a stronger crop. Oats continued, however, because oats follows corn in the cro, rotation and because oats was necessary food for horses. Perhaps because of this the ~reatest oatmeal rnlls in the w(~ld came to be located in Iowa at Oedar Rapids. Atter the mill closed the mill pond remained for many years and was used as a picnic place and vacation spot. Here families gathered on Sundays to rest dnd fish and young peo~ ple cMe to enjoy picnics and boating. Oney Fred Svveet, formerly of Hampton, remembers an early day ~~rtet of yo~g men's voices, singing from. a boat under a shJ.nJ.ng m~on which ~hung low over Beed' s pond. If The four men, DeI'\'nn Peck, Dick Webb I !tOBCOS Palmer, alld Charlie Osborne sang aUay out

30 Yonder in the Cornfields tt i'Vhile the frops kept their accom­ panim.ent and their youthful aUdience applauded from the shore.

J". Ill. MLe:n:ming, 111,'hose father built jus t west of the .:rill in 18?0, re?alls the rude shelter the Menning fc:U1lily put up the f1r~t w1nter. It vas a dug-out !lade in the steep banks of Spr1ng Creek. The south side and the roof were made of boards and on the south wall was one vV'indow and a door. Sad was plowed up and cut into lengths to build the other walls of the shelter. The north side especially was made thick­ walled and tight. This dug-out when finished was about16 x 16 feet. The first winter the snow fell until there were snow­ banks ten or twelve feet deep. The door of the dug-out was buried in snow and a hole had to be dug through to the out­ side before the 11ennings could get out. At night, 'vv'Olves trotted over the snow and often they would pass directly over t he roof of the dug-out. Inside, the Kenning family would hear them howling across the snow and the children would gather close around their mother and someone would throw !nore wood in the fire to make a high, cheerful blaze to li~ht up the darkened cabin so they could forget their fear of the wolves. But in the spring all was plea sant aga in. v/ild ducks and geese came chattering in from the south to alight on the pond. You could shoot wild mallard and teal or go fishing almost in the front yard, for the creek ran by just below the house. Red-winged blackbirds ca.me in hosts to build their nests in the tall cattails und rushes near the pond. In the days before Beed's Lake was drained,and when the old mill-whe el ,,,,as still turning, there i'Jere so !:la.ny r:J.uskra ts that Willi~ Beed offered a bounty of 10 cents for the tail of each one killed in or about the lake. The little animals caused so much damage that Beed 'was also glad to furnish a boat to boys for hunting purposes. One October day three boys set forth in the boat and h~td an adventure recalled by D • •i. Parks in the Franklin County Recorder for October 6, 1926. As the boat glided over the sr.J.ooth water, one of the boys happened to look up. Coming out of the north at a very high altitude was a flock of something which in a later day might have been taken for airplanes. After they had come nearer, o!}e of the boys said, ItThey are geeset il As the aerial group moved into plain view the boys thought they must be Canadian geese, because they were so unfamiliarly large, lI:nth a loud smack that sprayed the water for 20 feet in every direction they lit on the surface a few hundred yards away. When they were settled and

31 stretched out their long nec}:.:s it was concluded by all pre's­ ent that they were s'w&l1s, just like -ViTe all:.had seen in the picture books.??

The boys started rowing toward the birds, but ~7t the W\vans', three in number, paid little attention and the row­ ing continued until the party was within fair shooting dis­ tance, 't'Jhen they arose. H The young hunters fired and shot the three birds, one by one.

They eagerly took their IV swans fl home and were sur­ prised to learn that they were really pelicans, the only ones ever seen in Franklin County. The largest measured 9 3/4 feet from tip to tip, and had a pouch that none could easily put a foot into." The l,:enning fanily built their new home the next sum­ mer. At that time J. lIe Henning was about twelve years old. For many :rears he continued to live near the mill, helping Beed to rebuild the dam, improve the mill and keep it run­ ning tbroufh the years. He later stated that flour groll.."1d at the mill was ~rad.ed in this order: first grade, viJhite Lily; secund grade, T,mi te Rose; third grade, 4-,£; fourth grade, Bar-X. Various feeds, such as cracked corn, were also ground at the mill. In 1900 the first telephone was installed at the mill. Four years later the I11ill was closed. ~lilliara. Beed died in Des Moines, Ivwa, January 1, 1912. After the clos ing of the mill floods continued to wash against the dam and ','~hen a 90rtion VJas destro7ed it was not rebuilt so the dike got lower and lovier and the pond Sl!l8.11er and smaller until the picnick:ers and even the fishermen de­ serted the place. The old mill building was torn down and the lumber carried away. Finally, in 1£17, lienry Paullus bought the place and decided to drain the pon6 and slough, which covered nearly forty acres, so he could grow corn on it. When the people of Hampton heard that the pond was to be drained many were sorry to see the old landmark go and, according to a story in the Hampton Chronicle, hundreds went out on the day set for the drainin~ to take a last look at the historic body of water which had been there ever since the COtl...Tlty was first settled and which helD, so .r.18.ny pleasant associations for them. SOrle of them. came to fish also, for there were many fish still left in the pond. The largest of these 1:.]'ere the carp, some of them \!veighing as much as twelve pounds. These large fi sh were allowed to go dOV\l!l strean into Spring Creek and here l'len were already sta. t ~on­ ed, stancing on rafts, and waiting for them. They c-rr~0d pi tchforks to spear the fish and in this manner c01l1d take a

32 larf,1:e number in. a short time. Two .!."'J.en landed 240 l')ounds of car!,) that "!lorninf':. It was Fovember 10 but the wea thar .oust still have been quite '~rm as the story in the Chronicle states that the mud was six feet deep and the fishermen used rafts in order to xeep out of it. hccording to other accounts of the day, m.any f£.lrflilies bruuaht oicnic baskets held fish fries and vvatched the :)rogres~ o{' the work dS th~ water was gradually Ciralned away from. the big ponG.. Thus it was that the 016. m.ill site b6cClI:1e a cornfield lost among the millions of oth6r cornfields of Iowa. But the place and its story were not forgotten. Just nine years later, in the fall of 1926, plans were again astir for a county ~)roject to reflood the old lake bed and bring the fish and game bad:: to Franklin County. All ISa.E'.c 1Jalton League chapter was organized in Hampton and plans Viere drawn up for the new dike which would have to be built. l,iax Hickethier, county engineer, made a survey of the vi cini ty where the new dara would be built and estimated the cost with inj.provements necessary at about $40,000. On October 24,1926, a large booster neetine; was held at the Coonley Hotel and about one hundred sportS:tilen were on hand to arnrove the plan before it was ')resented. The .people were to vote at the reg­ ular €!eneral election lToverlber 4, on the propositi on that provided for a tax levy to raise the ;)45,000 necessary to rebuild the lake. Frank Ridgeway, Judge S. A. Clock, llrs. Francis i,fuitely of itiebster City, senator C. P. Johnson of Sheffield, David Evans of Eason City, and D.V. Parks, chair­ man of the ne1l\1 Isaac 'Jalton Chapter, attended the meeting and heartily approved the plan vJhich would bring not only a recreational center but a wild life refuge to Franklin County. But in November voters in nineteen precincts failed to back the venture. Many pe ople who lived in the county but outsi de of the Beed t s Lc'1ke area, did not favor the levy of the county. .ll.. fter that, the plan was laid aside for six more years. Even the Isaac W'altonians allowed their new organization to lapse. In 1933 a new plan was cevised, and this time it was decided to get State aid before the project could be successful. The Isaac Vial ton League was revived and a neet­ ing called. A cornr'.littee of three, Dr. E. II.Johnston, 'vlayne Ferri s and Dr. J. C. PovJers, was appointed to work out a ulan for the restoration of the lake. It was not an easy ta~sk that confronted these nen. .ht last, after lilany months of debate, telephone calls, trips, and earnest conversation, the members of the State Conservation COillmissi on agre eO. to help the project if the land for the neilv lake were deeded to the CommiSSion free and cle~r of all encumbrances. The comaittee's next step vvas to buy the land but there was no money with which to pay for it. So they went out first to see how much it would cost. Eenry Paullus owned most of it and he agreed to sell at the regular market price, which WE'LS not high at that time. The other land own-

33 ers agreed to sell theirs in the same way. To finance the purchase of this land,anproxinately 254 acres, the committee went next "to the council board of the city of Ha..::npton. This board, toe-ether \'lith city park commissioners, approved of the l)lan for the lake and the city council offered to issue $>8,000 worth of bonds. The money from the sale of these bonds, together with money which would be received by the Isaac 'J/alton League, from the sale of building lots along the shore line of the proposed lake, was thour:;ht sufficient to purchase the land necessary for the project. The city of Hampton 'Nished to retain title to two acres of land on the northwest side of the lake for ~ c~ty park. This park together with the larg­ er park and plcnlc areas maintained by the State would pro­ vide an inviting resort for visitors and residents of Hamp­ ton. The lots platted off by League nembers were 63 in num­ ber and were located along the northern shore, 300 feet back from the shore line. The State of Iowa was to have title to the lake bed and all the land within 300 feet of the shore together with sites on the east, west and south shores to be used for picnic areas and for a wild game refuge and bird sanctuary. The Ha:llpton Post of the American Legion agreed to buy eip.ht lots, these lots to be adjacent to each other and as near to the city park as possible. all lots were sold for $125 each and it was not long before the League had money enough to buy the land for the new lake. The Hampton Rotary Club donated $150 also. The State Conservation Coramission planned to reforest the entire lake shore. The lake was to be about a mile and a quarter in 1,ength from east to west and one-q uarter to one-half mile in wi~ tho The water was to be about forty feet deep nearest to the darJ.. The dam was to be erected just northwest of the old mill site, extending between two limestone hills that border SprinB Creek. Six­ teen more acres were purchased by the State from August Varrelman on the east, to be made into a fish hatchery and nursery pond, creating a total park area of 270.53 acres. In the Iileantime something ".vas ha]pening in the entire Nation which no one could have foreseen but which had a direct and i~~ediate effect on the Beed's Lake project. It was 1934 and drouth had struck the land. Drouth on the prairies was serious. Cornfields withered under the intense heat and creeks, s)rings and sloughs dried up rapidly. Iarillers hauto haul water from dwindling riv6rs for their stock. "hen food and water gave out animals ·v~ere sold or shot in the fields. The great plains of the west became kl10wn as the ULust Bo ....il a and many farm.ers had to leave their land and go elsewhere. In the liiddle ·,lest, dust stoms be­ came as common as thunder storms had been before. Even in

34 tee ee.r1y days of' spring there was no rain und the sunlight looked cold and white as it fell over roof tops and porches. CllmCis of dust were carried by the western winds and am l1~'fh t shrond~d the, lamppos~s of Chicago, Philadelphia , f1nal1y even tew YorK. The s011 which had been so productive in the early years was now blowing away. Something had to be dons, before the grasslands which had been plowed up should bec(~e a barren desert. It was at this critical period thet the Federal Govern­ J.lent began the orp.anizat ion of a va st program for drouth re­ lief, and a ~rt of this program was the formation of the Civilian Conservation Corps made up of unemployed young m.en. The Franklin County Fair Board provided land. for a CCC Camp s1 te for the men who would worl-c on the Beed' s Lake project, and a new companjr, 2717, organized .Tuly 4, 1934, was install­ ed there. l'Tow there was three agencies at "lork on the same prob­ lem: the :Federal Govermlent, represented by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the State Government, represented by the 3ta.te Conservation Corlr;'tiss10n, ,and Franklin County and the city of Hampton, represented by the new chapter of the Isaa.c ·vialton League. It is not surprising that with so Lluch co­ operation the lake and park turned out to be more extensive than it had been pla~lned at first. The new lake covered 110 acres, and the entire park about 170 acres. The dam was built across a natural gorge which almost enclosed the valley. The s,illway of this new dam 'WaS 170 feet long and about 34 feet high. ThiE? mnde the water ab()ut 35 feet deep on the east slde because of the de­ preSSion of the stream bed. The abutments and s]illway were anchored far beneath the surface in bedrock and could not be nashed away by any flood. They were built to take care of a lara.e overflow and could handle a flood created by the drainage'·'fror.l 32 square ~niles of tributary watershed. Railings were built along the high banks of the dam and lake on the north and south sides, and vater constantly flowinF' over the s,?i11wa.y was guided throurh the fish hatch­ ery east of the dam.

The old dike built by Hansberry and Beed vas left just as it had been with the excention of some reinforcing, acconplished by ri,r3.pping along the shores with field stones. About midway from the new dike to the old, along the south shore, a sma 11 bay ms excavated where boats could be brout!ht in to the shore and doc:-ced. All of the lake bottom. was leveled and Clangerous stu.."1PS were re.,:loved. The deepest '~rt of the lake, knovm as the danger area, proved to be along the north shore.

35 The swi.r...ming beach was placed on the south shore, '\h7}::tich sloped very gradually toward the. west and north, 'v'li th no Clangerous drop-off for swiv.m,ers. i Flap;stone steps led up from the beach to the bathhouse or lodge, vIP..ich was built verv large, .measuring a.bout 83 feet lona: and 28 feet wide. Leading up to the lodge an autol:lObile drive V'las built and to one side on a gentle slope the picnic area was laid out. Tables and benches, covking ovens, water and Se1iJuge ir:lprove­ ments were rmde and trees planted all around the lake to give beauty to the scene and ':)rovide pleasant shade for picnickers. -

The Ferris nursery donated many of the hundreds of trees planted. Am.ong the trees and bushes started in this reforested area were arrmvwood, snmJberry, Russian Olive, river birch, w:r~te birch, pin oak, sugar D18.ple, rnannyberry, wahoo, honey locust, black walnut, white ash, wild plum, red oak, maple, red dogwood, wild rose, sumac, elder, havvthorne, wild crab, blac:~ locust, hazel brush, Colorado spruce, white pine, ponderosa pine, Scotch ~ine, ; ;Lite 3:~)r~:ce,' ::(~!~··ay spruce, American elm, catalpa, cattails, round and giant bullrushes, and Carolina poplar. A continuous footpath about three and one-third miles long was laid out, windinp. throurh the trees around the lake shore. 11. wove,n wire fence was built to enclose the park and to keep out livestock. There are three entrance gates 1ead­ inEt into the ::Io.rk. This area as a whole was intended for a pame refuge but the west end of the ola. lake had been set aside especial1}r for this nurpose. Here was built a sanc­ tuary for wild fowl, with feeding stat~ons and protection of all sorts for the birds. The f!'reater Dart of thi s work was accomplished by the Civilian Conservat'1on Corps camp vhich had been established on the Franklin County fair p,rounds at Ha~pton. The matter of €"ettins this C.C.C. camp was not easy. Dr. Johnson und A. C. Wilford wor}:::ed hard to get the project assigned to this, their ovm territory, and a 1:lrge cot\ll)any of C.C.C. boys was organized July 4, 1934. July 12, Captain Carl ~V'. Ta.i,';llllinen arrived in Hampton to ta1.:ee charee. Tents were put up to house the 195 men '1:1ho arrived July 14. On the first night they were there, a severe storm Ct.i.me up which almost dem.olished their tent city. lJhen the wind and rain \\Tere over, only two tents were left standing, but the next day they were put back up and work at the camp started. . ParBa­ nentbuildings were started August 31, to house the officers and men through the coming winter. Nine barracks, a hospi­ tal, mess hall, recreation building, combination bathhouse and latrine, officers' q,uarters, and administration buildings were erected. This C.C.C. company worked for several years on the project of Beed's Lake. The educational advisor, Earle M.

35 Bri?p:s, carried out a conprel1ensive educ.9.tional program throughout the tine that the camp was ste. t ioned at Eaupton. ',men the lake was finished, the multi-colored figures of the bathers in bright caps and. suits, the dark green of the growin~ trees, the white sandy beach and blue ri,!pling water, the solitary forms of a few fishermen, and. the small boats bobbing at anchor contrasted strangely viith the f'lemory of forner scenes at the old mill.

By 1940 the State Conservation Conm.ission had a~")proved a '')rolJosed Durchase of an adc:.i tional 30-acre tract for f ish­ rearing ponds,. l·a th the additional ~onds it Vias expected that there would be am.ple hatchery facilities to supply all the fish needs for Beed's Lake, and also a sufficient nunber to sup::?ly most of the State-m-JTIed lakes, except the big ones at Spirit Lake and Okobo,ji. Later, a contract for the ct.mstruction of additional fish nursery ponds for the Beed's Lake state Park was award­ ed to lJeldon 13rotlle:rs of Iowa ]'alls by the State Conserva­ tion Comm.ission. rrhe project was to cost approxLlately ;p12, 000. The plans, put into execution irnme6.iately, called for a large J';unnow pond and two bullhead ,:ponds north of the ponds already in use, and three 'ponds in the area east of the Rock Island tracks to be used for game fish.

37 l:LWJiPTOlT - THE CC1J1fTY SEAT

The site of Ea':19ton was first settled in September 1254 ',vhen, as rela tee. earlier in this story t Job Garner acouired a clain fron J9.~,leS and Leander Reeve, and built a cabin at a bend of 3c.uaw Cr8~k, nee.r 8. grove and 8. flo',;ing spring. It was Garner wr'.o '.nth George Ryan founded tl"l.e tovm in 18;36 and called it Benjalnin. It ::::ept that nane for sev(-;ral years, until the """)lace becane the county seat. On (lctober 8, 1£'26, tbe I-Iam~ton cha:')ter of the D. 11.. R. set u·o a bronze marker to identif"l the site of Garner's original cabin. Soae records state that A. Freetoe car:e to Har.1pton in 1£:.55 and brouo:ht with hin the mac hinary f or the first saw­ r,lill of t~le cnunty, '!!:lich had a capacity of 3,000 feet of lumber per day, and ';'JnS operated by steam. It V'las probably loce.ted on Sprinr- Crnek north of HamI,)ton, for v!e :mmv that in 185E' T. IL II3Y1Sberry built 0 dan over SI)rine; Creel:::: and set up a p't'istrrd.ll and 8d'\"N.ttlill i.'Thich he s.fter~J2rd sold to Gec..1rge Beed. 'rhe m.ill site became a part of Bee d t sLake ;Jta te I'e rlc. This p:rist '"li11 vn.s lJroba b ly tl1 e first flour mill in the county, for Squaw CrcRk was no duubt too shallow streal)1 to turn the Hheels of a -1'"i11 ..

~'"l.fter the town was )l<1tt.ed, the fir st b1..l.i1c1ing to be crec·ted WdS a sturY-dnc.-a-half structure lllD.de of loes and .out up by T. T. Hawson unO. his brother-in-laid, FrU.l.1K Geiger. It 1'va.s stocl1:ed with grocer ies, dry goods, hard',~are, m:d whis:cey and becar:J.e the first store at HaI:1pton. Other addi­ tions the t ~Tear ii/ere a blacksf[li th shop leapt by Jacob 31:id lex;. and another by· Ja~nes Thompson. In 1857 T. B. and E. H. Carpenter started another store. That was the year vJhen J. D. Thomps on was r'1ade 6.i strict judge. During these early ;,rears HarnIlton ,QTew rapidly. The stean sawHill turned out ~re and more lUBber for new build­ ings. 1"1.11 about Ha~'1pton, and at l:aysville too, oa}c trees and tall cottonwoods, hickory and blacl'C waL'1ut trees vllere being converted into cabins, stores and bus lness buildings. The Frai11-:1in County .n.p:ricultural Society vras organized and the first news,aper was published. The newspaper 'a·as started by Thomas DrUlru:iond of· the Vinton Eaple vvho C8.L'1e to Hampton in the fall of 1858 to secure the aelin~uent tax list for publication. Since there was no neVvspa1)sr in the entire county at that time, the field 1oo1:eed- ~00d to him so he went back to Vinton, secured old naterlal from the Eagle office and started the new ven­ ture in FIam:ntou during February, 1856. Thus began the Franklin Record, a six column 1:"olio, all home print. The I!ampton "")ost office had already been established in IG57

38 'vi th Robert T'i:ltt as )ostmaster, ana was nm'v a noney order station. The neHspaper did not a:)pear regul"trly, hmvever, bC3cause lIamyton's grmvth -was retar&ed during the Civil ',lara Men were leaving every day for the front, and ever:rone was uncertain and anxious abuut the future. Printing su]]lies ·!Jere hard to get and finally in 1863, the Record stoD')ed altogether. ---- •.

J. C. Whitney bought the equipment of the defunct paper for ,,1>350 and started another called the Franklin Reporter. Tlle first issue came out in I.lay 1866. Durin€: the follO'.ving surnr:ler, ~Jhitney hired a war veteran, Levi Beardsley RaYGond, to 'Nork in the newspaper office. Raymond, a strong six­ footer with blue eye s, light brml\TIl haj.r and a sandy beard, 'Nas said to be a 1''I,'Jar1"l friend and a bitter enemy. ii Invalid­ ed from the army in 1363, he had been employed to teach the first term of school in the new buildins erected between the lots on Reeve Street later occupied by Cann8l1l Houso and Gray's Fur store.

After ';vorl<:ing on the Reporter that surum.er of 1866, Ray­ mond went bac}~ to teo..ching in the fall. He had a school ne,J.r the foot of t~aYl1e' s Grove. The next SU;:11:1er he worl{:ed as aF!cnt for a school furniture house and in the fall assum­ ed some distinction ~,'jith his election as superintendent of Franklin County sch",ols. .'Ster retaining this office for two yecrs, he started the successful HamEton Free Press.

In 18?2 Ra'~rr:lOnd vj.siteo. the northl.'J6st part of the State returninf! ,,,,ith a 7~violent attack of ';l7estern fever.!1 Pioneers were always movinp: IN6stwarc. and he wanted to ~o also. He sold his Harapton Free Press to 'fhi tney and !'loved to Cherol~ee in Cherokee County ~,Jhere he started a journal called the Cherokee Leader. He ne~::t purchased the O'Brien Iioneer in O'Brien County and the Sioux County Eeral<.l at OranBe City. !.i.e stdrted I:i fourth paj?er at Duon in Lyon County and a fifth at Hewell in Buena Vista County. Later he raced with a blizzard and alraost froze to death driving back to Cllerol<:ee in tLile to start the 3heldon l,~:lil to beat out a prospective rival. But in 18?4 Raymond had to close the offices of his various newspap ers. The c;rasshopper scourge car.:e to northwest Iowa, crops were wiped out, and many fari"Jers had to ber;in allover again. II~oney was scarce and Raymond lost so Lluch that he was forced to move on and try his luck elsewhere. After wor~-(infZ for a time in Des Loines he went to IIar;'l')ton where in Decenber le?? he started the Hampton Leader. This paper ij,Tas later consolidated with the Fran):lill Recorder. Raymond hac flurried l:ary o. Leverich in 1£'68. One of his dau'1'hters 'was to become 1\1rs. Hae Rule, the wife of Dr. J. S. Rule.

39 In the mea:~while Whitney had combined Ray.clOnd' s earlier paper the Hamnton Free Press with the Re?orter, and changed the name to the Franklin Recorder. On lIay 29, 1872, J". C. Earwo?d ~urchesed a half interest, acquiring com,lete con­ trol ~n .n.u~ust 18'76. An early history of Franklin County '.vas published as a serial in the ~ecorder in 18£',0. ;.Jh.en Whitney sold the Recorder to Harwood, he purchased The Ma.n-net, which had been established in 1871 by "11. C. Eaton. This had been a good paper, filled with interesting news and sllstained by p:ood advertising patronage. :lhitney changed the mune to The Chronicle and 'printed his first issue .h.ugust 2, lE'76, editing it lIdth a view to expressing the opinions of the Republican party. This was to become the leading newspaper of Franklin County. Business had prospered in IIom)ton ufter the close of the Oi vil '{ar. The first drug store was opened then by Dr. O. B. Harrirr.L8.n, who \\Tas to become owner of the first opera house. The first furniture store was started by U. WeEi};;::s and a shoe store was established by G. K. Spencer. Eenry and Jonas Schlesinger's clothing store was already in opera­ tion. .i·lofter that in rapid succession cune a milliner's shop, a barber shop, a ,jewelry store, a restaurant, El. tobacco store, a harness Shop, and a lumber yard. John Lam­ bert and his son ·were the first waeon-:j1a.l~ers in Har:J.pton; Charles Rogers, the first balter; Dr. 1.:. H. Ross, the first dentist, and Stephen Murphy, the first tailor. The first meat marl-cet was opened by a rnan named l;ewtoll, ilnd G. II.Brock kept the first book anu stationerY store. lIn mot on , s first hotel has already been mentioned. It burned in 1876, but by that time the guests were already be­ :t:ng att.racted to Andrew J. C.;l.nnam's I'Cannam House", built in 1875. It was a large frame structure op;")osi te the city park, and contained thirty-one rooms. The Phoenix Hotel, opened by E. s. stiles in 1865 was also very popular, and lasted until the s~rinr of 1912, when it p,nve way for the '.Iliudsor Theater. In 1918 the new Ooonley becaEle one of the leading hotels in northern Iowa. By 1855 Hampton had outgrovm the old schoolhouse and a new one was built. This"V\e.s a stone structure, two stories high and containing four large rooms. So fast did Hampton p.row th~t in a few years extra rooms had to be rented for this school. In 186'7 the courthouse was finished. It was 48 x 72 feet and cost' -ai15, 000. In 1870 Hampton '1Jvas inc0rporated by special election and the first church was built, a Baptist Church building put up at a cost of Jb,OO? F~om that time on Hampton's growth was more and more rap~d ana. on January 20, 1893 Governor Boies of Iowa granted it a charter for a city of the second class. The population of the newly creat-

40 ed city was 2,53£. In 1940 t~is fipure had incre3sed to 4,002. The population of the county, which j_n 1860 had been only 1,309 had become 16,303 in 1940. As Hampton becane a city, nore churches were built until there were the First 1'.Iethodist El')iscopal, CUllprega­ tional, First Baptist, Christian, Catholic, dnd Albrecht Evangelical. Industries developed and Dore conveniences were added. In 1890 the people voted to have a waterworks installed. J!"'ive acres of land were purchased by the city from H. .1.1.. Harrioan in the east section of town and here a dee') well was dug, a reser-.r{\lr .)d j?ower-house erected and mactinery installed. Between the c(jurthouse and the city parl( a steel stand l}ipe vJent up, a hundred feet in l::;iC)it. Pipes were laid, the watervwrl:cs for the ci ty 'vias finished, and a 'Ilentiful sup')ly of pure water flo"7ed into the homes of Hampton and into the public buileinfs. Just thirty-five years before, the first homes of I-Iampton had been built be­ side flowing sprinf,s from vlhich came all the water usod • .H.nd just as part of the ")rairie land was plmved up and turn­ ed into fields in a rerrarkable short time, so eq. ually fast other prairie lands were turned into towns and cities, mark­ ed off into blocks and streets, )ipe6 and paved, measured and named. Thus the Hlittle )rairie towns'if grew into big prairie tovms. In 1892 an ordinance was ,assed for the brick paving of :£i'ourth Street) from Reeve to the Iowa CEm tral depot. FrOIn tir.le to time other pavins WElS done and in 1912 forty­ two blocks were paved with concrete and finished wi th con­ crete curbing at a cost of about ~65,OOO • .i';\.lso as early as 1892 the city had already granted a franchise for the erection and maintenance of an electric light plant. E. Buck of the Hampton Light and Power Company had the franchise, which is a permission to build. and oper­ ate, 2..no that year a plant was erected and rmt to work. In the felll of 1913, 56 electroliers v~ere lmt up along the principal streets Clnd from that time on the city was well lighted.

":1. new,~20, 000 school building had been erected in 1876 on the east side. The sar:le year the town was incorporated, le93, this school burned down and a new one had to be built. l.~ade of brick, it consisted of two stories and a basement, and cost ~32,000. This new building was dedicated JanuarY 1£, 1894.

Oney Fred Sweet, the Chicae:o newspaperman, ViaS a snaIl boy in the fifth p.rade at Harl'9ton when the schoolhouse burned. In his OV>ffi vl'oro.s: "There was a 1.vild night wind blowing and from a siJectator t s standpoint the conflai=rration '.vas the most satisfuctorr in the to'Vm's history.;! He went on to point out the secret hope in the ::linds of the school

41 children, especially the boys who watched, hoping that the firemen would fail to stop the blaze so there would be no school tomorrow. It was a three-story brick buile.ing, sturdy and well built, und at first many thought it could be saved. But by midnight the flames had reac hed the high belfry and tee firenen ste~ped back. They had given up the fight. Soon the high walls fell in with a rllghty crash and smoke ane fla..'11e s roared skyward. Ii ow ever'Tbody knew there could be no school tomorrow. But it ,~s not many days be­ fore temporary arrQn~ellents were nade in other buildings and school 1,ITent on. The fifth grade had a schoolroom clo' ntown on the second floor of the Beed Hotel, and the children thought ita great novelty to go cic.nntown to school. Extensive im'?rover'l.ents in schooling facilities were uneer consideration c.uring 1941. H~pton was given approval of the ~roposed Federal grant of y99,000 if the voters of the Independent School District of Hanpton would match it with a bond issue of lj;120,000 to erect a new school building on the west side, and to .make iDl'!;lrOVements and an addition to the -present high school buildinp: on the east side. According to estiLID.tes, the cost of the new o.ddi tion and the improvements to the high school building would reach about :W170,OOO. The cost of the )roposed nevI school build­ ing on the west side was figured to be close to,ji30, 000, and would run that much, taking the new eC:l.uipment into consid­ eration. On the east side there was to be an addition to the high school, built at the east nnd housing an auditorium seating about 1,000 persons. Too, a .<:lodern gYLlllasium was included in the plan, 'lid th ample sea. ting capac i ty not oUly for Hampton high school games, but also for tournaments. The regulation floor was planned 45 :x: 75 feet, with all seats arranged between the ba sleets to afford equally euod·. ·:t4.ews.

A new heating plant and building vJas also to be in­ stalled under the Jroposed building program.

The prograr.l that t{)('l~ nlace on tIle east side school grounds at the laying of the cornerstt':: ~ on .Tuly 21, lS·3e, at 2:30 o'clock, 'was in charge of Superintendent b.rthur E. Rankin. The cornerstt"n0 l: ... ~lng cerenony 'iivtlS in charge of L. H. Davis, ryresident of the board of education. Senator Guy H. Gillette and Conr.;ressnan .Tohn W. G'\J\J"I]nne were the out­ side speakers. In telling of school p'ar.'les, Oney Fred SV,Jeet has said that football 'Was locally introd uced by Earl Terris, who came home from college for vacations and taught the game to the boys at Hampton. Before this, football had see:aed to belon~ to the ~reat schools of the East, such as Yale or Princeton. Eag'erly the students studied the rule book and

4Z ~earned to ) la7, but the gaiiJ.6 did not easily becolile a favor­ ~ te.. Golf, too, was s.dopted sloHly 's,nc ;Jla;led lit tIe. Base­ ball, hmJever, VJas as native to 11<:.rnpton as the :)rairie sod, alld that \'lKiS the g&r.1e everyone understood ana liked. It 'das the g:llile of the ))ionoers and "''Jas carried on by their child­ ren and their grandchildren. Other p:ar,18S ~'~entionGd by Sweet we~'e '''0l!e old. cutn , Hdt,J-cl'C 011 the rock:l, droly .doly", r::crbles ana a n~ght h~de-and-seek game called 71tally hOe If The Iiaupton Children loved to go to the shows at O. B. Harriman t s Opera House. Thore behind the kerosen(:7 foot­ lights they saw the most wonderful dramas ever st1::lJ'l'ed or so it seemed to therl. The players stayed a t the Beec5.··Iiotel and it was always exci ting to watch them COLle and 50. Cora ',[arner and her Comedy company stayed f or a ';veek and gave a different ShOiN every night, and the Beach and Bm'?ers - l:ir... - strels entertained p-aily at many different times. l:oney was scarce in early days and the boys would tI7 to get .jobs c8rrying hand bills or running errands for the players, for a free ticket. If they fuiled to earn their tickets they sOr:J.etimes tried to rret in free throurh the Sl{ylie;ht vTindow at the front. E. J. 3tonebra~er, the jD:1itor, often caught them at it and bec~lUse he seemed rouP-'h and hard-hearted the boys cf,lled him uSt.ioney.1, lie WflS ref:llly a p-ood citizen, a veteran of the Oi vil 'lar, and one of the ")Tounge st members of litcY.:enzie Post. In 1986 he became State Comnl21ndcr of the G. A. R. or~anlzation.

The oenix Hotel W9.S the old hotel of the town and had been built durin~r the early days when it served as a stop­ pin€" place for str.lgecoeches.'fhen the stares ;,)ulled up to the l:otel !'l. fn:liliar siR'ht for travc:lers Vl'1S :Co s. Stiles (old l'l.f:.n 3tiles), 'ltJho 'l/Jas forever patchine up the plank sidew.:llIc in front of the Phoeniz Hotel vvi th pieces of tin. l:any years later the tall Ooonley Hotel 'was built by John E. Coonley, another of I'ran~::lin County piunc ers, 8.na replaced the r:rund old. Phoenix.

Other early business nen and settler s Sv~eet ncnt ions are: the j.,;:otts f for whom Lott township \Nas llatl1ed 0 These M.otts were lando'wners and there were three -- .n.lbert, C. J. and Lelos ~/. llott. There was also three llarriman brothers, Henry, 'falter F. and 0. B. Harriman. ',ialter later became State Senator. Fred HarriLl.8.n, VJho J:wy have been one of the sons, 'was ar,o early autor.J.obile mmer, anG. ·VJ3S .~dlled in the county's first auto.:::10bile accident, \'1hen his car plunged off the road while traveling at a speed of thirty niles an hour. r. ·f. Deebe was an early luraber denler and his son, Ecwin A. Beebe, stayed on in HDlllpton except c..urine the t:ime of his enlist.Ment in the S:)anish il.merican Aar. Sons of Isaac Robinson c('ntinued the banking business and the Schlesinger boys carried on the clothing trade. E. 3. Patterson, a Llor­ chant, called his drygoods store liThe Temple of Ecollomy. ,/

43 His son, too, went on with the business. Charles Lockwood the hardware business founded by his father, Beed adopted when Charles Beed. These were the "horse and bUfgy1l days topped" phaetons or surreys and the first men drove l'frin!!8 built porcelain bathtubs were being introduced into newly homes. The Gay nineties were prosperous days for Fran},lin County. .

It was in 1890 that the third of Fra!1..2.-clin County's 'Was erected. Franklin County's first three courthouses fram.e courthouse had been constructed in 1857, a one-story 30 feet in size. It had only one room. The building, 18 b~r two second building of stone was erected in 1865 and was and 4E: by 70 feet in size 0 It cost something stories high and com­ more than ;~12,500. The third was started iu 1890 at a cost of ~50,000. It measured 75 by 102 pleted in 1891 During feet on the ground and rose to a height of 133 feet. whose .'11other taught school in the stone this time Si"ll:;et, was buildinff which served as courthouse until the neVJ one a small boy. l'Ie told in 1940 of how he had ready, vias build­ climbed over the scaffolding,and hO'lN at last when the done, he saw the bronze statue of Justice inp was almost there placed at the very tiptop of the high dome to stand blindfold but holdin,o,; her balanced scales over for all time, of the town. One night durine: a severe windstortl the statue WI::i¥ a jok~ Justice lost her 80sle8. The next Ll0rning, by of Hampton. ,I soueone said II!;OW there i 8 no .{I1ore justice left in e.bove the tops of the r.1.8.ples in the square the But quietly part statue held her l)laoe. The f8J.~liliar figure had become of the life of the town. There wore three ]'erris families of Ilampton, all en­ hurticulture, on three sides of the town. They gaged in }I'erris were Ben Ferris, Sol Ferris and John C. Ferris. The of the G. A. R., all raised various Idnds of men, members in the trees at first, which were sold by agents in Iowa and farrrlers needed trees to plant for groves Dakotas or wherever son or windbreaks on their farms. Then in 1905 Earl rerris, a mail order bu.siness and solo. seeds, trees of 301, started Ur. and plants. This business grew rapidly until in 1940 nursery stool: in every state in the Union Ferris was selling to and two hundred employees were hired during rush seasons wrap, nail and ship the stock. County Fair, sclleduled each September "when The Franklin were the grapes were beflinning to :)Urple and the niehts was in 1890 a celebration a.s eJwi ting as startint2' to cool~f of the Fourth of July. From allover the county gay throngs in bUf"gies, wagons or surries until the streets people caLle dusty were full of horses trotting back and forth \'Jith led to the Fair Gro1.ll1ds. Here were r.1any hooves. All roads and attractions: the grandstand where the baseball games be seen, Floral Hall, where jellies, cookery, races ~ould stock ,atchwork quilts and embroidery 1iJere disnlayed, the

44 pen.s where prize-winning animals were ;:\:ept, and tents for side shows, booth and cuncessions. In frunt uf ]'loral Hall was a pllinp where cool water could be had and thirsty fair­ goers drank from. the tin cup that hung by the well. There was also the cane rack, the pounding machine where lusty farmers tried their strength by pounding on a cuntrivance with a sledge ham.mer, and last but nut least 'W8.S the merry­ go-round, r.lUsic and glamour irresistible! Here, where wood­ en horses galloped under a high canopy, resounded the laugh­ ter and rhythm of the carnival, and here the frolicking persistence of hurdy-gurdy tunes won ;~lOre nickels from children than would wllole stands of pirlk lemonade. Other business men and places of the day of the 1£90 fair were Will, Lou, and John H. Rule, Lane's Book sture, Refsneider's restaurant, Bailey's Barber Shop, and lIrs. 'vmitcomb's Eillinery Shop. lTew r.L8.ts were as important in the aninetieslt as in later days and each year a "trimm.ertl came fram Chicago to introduce new styles in felt or straw.

The Bailey's B~rber Shop and the Phelps Livary Barn were both important places at that time. Here reigned a political forum and Cyrus Robert's shoe repairing shup was called lITammany;' because so m.any natj.onal issues were brou~ht tb,ere for heated and prolonged discussion. L. B. Raymond and later Tom purcell, both editors, had sta te-vlJide

influence as leaders j.n )?oli t ica 1 affairs 0 ;}. D. Evans of Eampton became a State SUl)reme Court judge but still ~cept his Hampton residence. Jolm ',J. I .. uke was a Hal:lpton attorney who became State Railroad CortJ.. r1issioner. Luke, called Cap Luke by his friends, was a veteran of the Oi viI Vv."ir and a loyal c i tiz,en of Hampton. His wife is remembered as a lov­ able and jolly Homanvvho 'Was always on hand to serve hot coffee and baked beans at G. ,H,. R. aOarlpf'ires. 1i ...'1.11 these people oontributed toward the Llah:ing of u progressive oor.1- L'l,uni ty. During the pre sident ial campaign of 1896 t'lilli.;u'l EcI:in­ ley spoke at Hampton from. the rear of an Iuwa Central rail­ way ooach. At that time Ed Brandon, '!;Jho had named his son William HcKinley Brandon, lifted the boy over the heads of the crowd so that the child could present the presidential nom.inee with a bouquet of prairie wildflowers. The inoident was played up in Chicago newspapers the follO'1!'ling day. It vilas during l:o::inley' s administration, April lE..98, that America deolared -war on Spain. Volunteers were ir%ledi­ atel'J' called and boys from allover Franklin County enlisted in the army. Flags vvere displayed at all the towns. and a comnany of soldiers was orga.:'lized at Harapton. TIns was Company D and was only partly filled when orders oame for the c c.Illpany to go to Des 1:oines to the first train~ng orunp. Later on this organization was sent to camp at ChJ.cka:Ll1auga, Georgia. It was very hot in Georgia and an epidemio of ty-

45 phoid fever broke out in camp. Five boys from Franklin County died. They were John W. French, Ned L. Clock of Maysville , John Brophy, Hilliam Demo, and William Mowery,. Some of the men fought at Santiago, Cuba with Theo­ dore Roosevelt's Rough Riders, and others sailed across the Pacific Ocean to fight in the Philippine Islands. J. C. Foughty of Hampton was sent to Manila. Here Commodore Dewey destroyed the Spanish Fleet and in a fierce battle the Americans defeated the Spanish on land. Foughty says it was unbearably hot and: the' ,bullets flew as thick as hail stones. Finally the .American troops were victorious on sea and on land, peace wa.s declared, and the Spanish .American War was over. The United states had gained Cuba, the island of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. Soldiers from Hampton and from Franklin County who en­ listed are name~ as follows: Earl Clock Ned L. Clock J. P. Meyers Edgar Dolson Charles Chesterfield Harvey Roemer Raymond Dolson M. F. Clark Frank Scott Cha r le s Homer John C. Ferris Ernest Meyer D. A. Page John C. Fough ty Baer Frank Clay L. Pearse John W. French Durr Leach E. A. Bf3ebe John W. Harriman J. B. Baylis George A. Burns Go T. McGrillis Aldinger Samuel E. Campbell William Mowery Wrn. vvichersheim Alfred Feene The coming of the twentieth century heralded many im­ provements and additions for the city of Hampton. Early in 1902 a sewage system was installed and in 1910 a sewage dis­ posal plant was added to the system to keep 1!'ranklin County streams from pollution. In 1905 a franchise was granted to John Howie, T. J. J. Leckband and others for the manufacture of gas, and by the fall of 1906 this plant was in full ope~tion. The Hampton Public Library was the result of the steady and concerted effort of Hampton citizens led by Col. L. B. Raymond, for many years editor of the Franklin Recorder. He made two trips to Washington, D. C. in behalf of the library and helped to obtain from the Andrew Carnegie foundation the grant by which the library was built. The Carnegie donation was $10,000 for the building and books. The city of Hampton paid j3,660 for the site. Other expenses brought the entire cost to ~16,9l6.35. The library was opened October 6, 1905. This library bas provod of great value to the entire county. The librarian in 1940 was Miss Mary Kingsberry. A new $60,000 high school building and laTgcr grade schools on the east and west side were to become a part of

46 Harnpton's educational equipment. ,.t~ normal training cuurse was [naGe a :03-rt of the high school curriculum in 1912. The Hampton High School was one of the first in the State to offer education courses to prepare students for teaching posi tions.

In 1914 members of a group of German Lutheran Churches in the northern part of 101"18. decided to build a hosni tal at Hampton, and for' this purpose formed the German Lutheran Hospita.l Association. The Reverend Otto von Gerrwlingen of Harnpton was elected president; E. Hempel of Bradford, Iowa, vice president; the Reverend H. l1.. Haas of Hubbard, Secre­ tary; and Edvvard Dohrnann of Hampton, treasurer. The cor­ nerstone of the completely modern hospital to be built on Reeve Streot fronting on the city park, and to be equipped to accommodate 75 patients, was laid with elaborate cere­ monies in December 1914:. The Reverend lilr. Steger of Fair­ banks delivered a sermon on the text, HThou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself'!, and in thanking the citizens of Hamp­ ton for their aid, emphasized that the hos?ital would be open to all regardless of creed, nationality, conditions,or the possession of this world's goods. The Reverend Otto von Gemmingen proclaimed the cornerstone laid according to the laws of the German Lutheran Church. The hospital was opened in September 1915. When the United states entored the World liar in 1917, ]'ranklin County men were as quick to respond to the call for service under the colors as they had been in 1801 and 1898. More than five hundred are estimated to have 'put on their country's uniform and entered the various branches of the army, the 11EJ.vy, and the marine corps. The m.ajori ty belonged to the Eighty-eighth Division, which ivas trained at Ca:11p Dodge and sent to France in the late su~ner of 1918.

The first of Franklin County's 'tIGold starsll v'Jas hung in the home of Eilert Johnson, who died at Camp Pike, I~ittlE)

Rock, .Arkansas 0 George Arthur Aldinger was the first Hampton ril:::in to be killed in action. He died on the battlefields of France on AUgust 10, 1918.

Two Red Cross nurses, }I:3.ud ~'1.drews and Letha Shafer, eied in the service and were buried at Hampton.

J..... Eamnton-born officer who attained unusual distinction. in the ·.{orld "~far was rJilliam Daniel Leahy who attained the ra~k of captain, after being in co~mand of the U.S~S~Dolphi~ in the r·Iexican ")unitiv8 expeditton of 1916. A graduate of the U. S. lTaval" Acadeny at' Annapolis in 1897, he had fi~st seen active service in the Philip~ines during the Span1sh American ~Var. Leahy vas chief of staff during the . lI~car~­ R'uan occupation in 1912 and later held the sarne POS1 t10n 1n

47 in E.;.l.itian ca:npaign. He WdS promoted to the ran~'C of .hcmiral of the battle force in 1936 and 1937 and was cnel' f conIDland 1 . He is o f ,nava operatlons until his retirement in 19390 have b een th~ only offi~er in iuuerican l'l,,:::\.val history sal~, to Ordnance to L!:ve. beer: the chlef of the lmportant bureaus of as ~ell as chief of naval operations. .l,~fter and ~JaV1Eat~on, Governor le8vl.ng act~ ve ~ervl.ce) Admiral Leahy was app ointed of Puerto R1CO ln 1939, and in 1941 United States .n..mbassador Vichy Government in France. .1·l.dr.liral I,ealp ·Nas born to the Leahy. in Eamp~on on May q 1875, the s on of t·,lichael and Rose The ffu"lllly noved to lJisconsin during his boyhood. HamlJton A huge nass-neeting and celebration was held at 17, 1919 in honor of the soldiers and sailors and on October of ser­ others who were returning from their various fields thousand persons attended the exercises, at vi?e. Twelve A Wh1Ch the Hon. rathan Kendall was the principal sneaker. free ox dinner was served to all. .&; was The first American Legion post in Franklin County George A. organized at Hampton Aueust 30, 1919 and named the Post No. 183. Louis ~10gers was the first commander. ;1.1dingor organized Afterwards the men from Sheffield and other towns their own posts. 1936, the fi rst 0 f clock in the morning December 29, At 5 from trans-Atla ntic to lel)hone call in the county was r'lade Lrs. Fred Schmidt made the call to Bor'lin, Ger.Glany, Hampton. birthday. to con()'rutulate her j~lother '" on hor oIi,?'hty-first had not seEm her mother for sevon years and the l;:rs. Schr,lidt fast. three .I'linutes of time she could talk seetled to go very the opera tor j.n New York was sayring, tlTime is up. ~Jill SlKm over. JOU pleuoe say good-bye now," and the call was from. The long distance wires carried the c0.11 first to Hew York and thence the Rocky Point, Long Island, HaI:1.ptoll there it where it was brotidca st to Caper, Sc otland. From CEl. under 'went by wire to London and thence by su h::larine ble channel to the coast of Germany and then by INire the English route to Berlin. The return nessage did not follow the same frail Berlin to Rugby, LnglaEd, by cable, thence but traveled and from by broadcast to Houlton, 11aine, then to new York, thero to Harripton over the sane long distance wire. designation of Hir-hway 65 as a national highway in The but to 1927 opened a new future not only to the county seat, of :E'ra21klin. The ')roposed 1')rograL:i. included all the residents the necessary changes in the countryside, such as SaNe ing fror.l raisinG': of loviT SDots near the Sheff ield corner, grad corl')orate limit to the north cuunty line, rebuild­ Sheffield to ing the grade froD a pOint. one ;1il~ n:?rth of HaJ.~pton north of the Clty, cuttl.ne;down the h111 and three :.:l.iles '. putting in 10Vl places near Four 1:1ile Sohoo 1110 us ,,,:. ) filling lng down new bridpes over Sc::uaw and Hayne Creeks, and cutt

48 the hi~l near Squaw CreA~\:. But when the work was cumpleted, Frankll.n County land was linked integrally tu the wonderful na~ional ~i~hway sy-stem. The days of grazing buffalu, rurn.­ bll.ng ?ral.rl.6 schouner--even of the uld spring wagon -- had long been gone. But the days uf pioneer motoring, of big aW:?i/'~~d autonubiles plovvinf:'; their vvay thruugh ::.l.udcty roads or stl.cl':J..ng fast in the gv.rnbo until pulled uut by horses or tractors, had faded, too. How streanlined cars cou.ld spee d over a streanlined highway and·an ever increasing overland traffic would connect 10\'118. and Franklin County'" with the north, south, east, and west. Improved State and C01mty roads formed a network for transpurtation. On 'the south border of the county, U. S. highway 20 'liIlD.S soon to provide direct contact east and west. Three Imva farm boys, harlan Leonard, Lester Olson and Ra~Tmond llonahan, com.prising the Jfranklin County :Farra bureau's champiun junior cattle judging tear,lof the United States, represented this country at the International Dairy Cattle ahuw, held at Chichester, near London, England, July 7 tu 11, 1925. The buys were miarded the trip, with a ~4,OOO appro:Qriatiun to pay the expenses, because they had won the State hunors at the Dairy Cattle Coneress held at V\Taterloo, and captured first honors with a lead of 136 points at the l'Tational Dairy Show, held in Uilwaukee. Gover­ nor John Harn.mill si@;ned the bill of a.Jpro:')riation without hesitation. nThe victory of the Iowa team is a boost of Iowa dairy­ ing, It declared Charles E. Hearst, presi.dent of the Iowa Farm Bureau rederation, Has these boys got all of their training in jud~ing ImolJ8. dairy cattle. It is a distinct honor for Io'WS. to send its championship team to represent the United States at the International Show. II A. cablegrarrl. rE'l cei ved at Eampton brought the joyful news that the three Franlrlin Cmmty boys, representing lithe U.S. It at the International junior dairy jud~ing contest held in England, had b(:en pronounced 'Iworld char:lpions. ,t The tea!':1 ms coached by V. B. Harlilton, county agent of Fran~lin County, who deserved much credit for the success.of the boys. llr. Ear:1ilton, with Earl \ifeaver, head of the dal.1'1 husbandry department of Iowa state College at Ames, and lIrso Ha:i1ilton accompa2.1ied the trio on their trip to Europe.

A J250 gold trophy was awarded the team as the result of the contest in bngland and it '\I\U s the irs to take home with them. The trio was credited with vfplacing Franklin Oounty on the map.n Hot only the people ~f I~wa, b~t .th~se living allover the United states felt prl.de l.n thel.r JUlll.Or champion team and their excellent coach.

49 One of the largest crov'Jds that ever a.sse~'!1bleo in the Hampton city park, conservatively estimated tit 3,500 people, met together to tender the champion judges a whole-hearted welcome on their return, and. to shower con~ratulations to the trio and their coach, County Agent V. Bo Ha!1ilton.

Fr~nklin County's irlportance in the agricultnral world was aga:!..n demonstrated in April 1928, when Brown Swiss his­ tory was .made by the record sale of the C. F. Osborne estate's herd. Doctor Osborne, who had die d sud denly in February of that year, had been for 12 'Tears chief surgeon at the Lutheran Hospital in Hampton and in aC6.i tion ··was known throughout the I.:idcle Uest as a breeder of fine cattle and the owner of the Iowa Brman Swiss Com.pany. Buyers fron a number of states includ ing Hinnesota, l1ichigan, l-;ew York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, '\lisconsin, Ohio, and lJebraska, as well as IovV8. were among the 1,500 persons who attended the auction. 'rhe 47 cows, bulls and heifers sold orough t a total of ~31,850, said to have been the highest price ever recorded for a Brown Swiss herd -- an average of ~677.65 an animal. Frank J. Lioller of Schenectady, EelV' York, paid the record price of ~5,400 for Silver Bell, a 10-lear-old world champion cow. Zoller also bought Swiss Girl., a 6-'Jeur-old, for ~~3,250, and l;ancy Eay, a 7-year-old cow, for ~)700. A. P. Ternes of Detroit ::mrchased 11 head of cat tle for ~?5, 000 including College Ethel ~Y. at ~~1,100. A brother of Andrew liellon, Secretary of the Treasury, bought I.B.S.C's. Silver Chimes, an i:.up:ust bull calf, for ;(1,075, to be sent vvith an 6-year-old cow, to the l'lellon Rolling Rock farm near Phila­ oelphia. The sale dispersed a preat herd to different parts of the country. Four animals, however, were purcha sed for Franklin County herds, by Dallas Harrison of EaDipton, Fred Frelle of LatiMer, and John Christianson of Coulter.

In 1931 Robert T. lIatlilton and .H.• T. Hamilton, among the most Drominent feeders of cattle in northern Iowa, made the largest single sl:.ipment of fat cattle ever to go to market from Fraaklin Cou.nty. It consisted of 550 yearlings and two-year-old steers and !!lade up a special 20-car train from Bradford, Iowa to the Harmel packing Company of .l1.ustin, Li::-mesota. The shipment totaled apnroximately ~?58,000. .

Fred 1'1i tte, 11\hO lives two niles east of Latimer, sold 173 ho~s averaging 330 pounds to the Decker ~oapalW buying station in Ha;npton, and received a check for ;J5!o38.12. Nels T. ITalr:1, "lanager, GXDressed the belief that th1S check was the largest ever ?,iven to one individual by that station.

On October 15, 1940, pressed by the e~lergel1cy of a new and formidable world crisis, the United States called on all her yout'h between the ages of 21 and 35 to register, f~r training service. :garl LaVonne ]'loden, limJard BenJan11n ~lalsh and lJels ~{al tar Derl1ey Christensen all of Har.ll:pton, were among the first seven men from Franklin County called out

50 for duty in 1940-41 under the Selective Training ,Service Act. Robert Wayne Lwnley held the first nmn.ber drawn - '158. Fra.ncis Burt Gentry and Russell DeForest :_orehouse of Shef­ field, Loran Cliff ton Hoble of Cha "jin and llUvlard Andrew Brovm of Coulter i,vere also in the first group sumrn.oned. T'Wenty­ four volunteers had alread7 offereo. their services to their country.

51 CiL.LF'TER 9

SHEFrIElD, CE1';TIlJ, l:JID GE1":EVA

Sheffield, the second largest town in :Frarlklin County j took the place of an earlier settlement knovlJ1l as Shobe t s Grove. John Shobe, the original settler, was conl-::1issioned postmaster October 8, 1861.

The first school had been held in Clinton Township where the gruve was located, in the winter of l851iJ-18f.:S0, when a Eiss Holt gave instruction to two )upils in an old log smokehouse built on Section 1. Better oUurters for teacher and students were found the fol.~mdng spring. Dur ing the Civil War three of Shobe's sons vJent to the front and fought with Capt. James B. Rueve . in the fierce battle of Lissionary Hidge. Captain Reeve died in the war, and Charles ~hobe was severely wounded, but all three of the brothers lived to return home.

Like J110st cormmnities, Shobe's Grove dId not reo:tlly be(':in to Gl'row until the I"lic;clle ',rears of the ~Jost-vJEj.r recon­ struction. Then the Gilr:iD.ns cat18 along. "·>.lbnl't Gilrlem, F'rt3Sident of the CcmtrJ,1 IovJa Railway, had been a resident of :.arshallto1vn. He ")lattec1 ['l town in I'ebruf,rv, 1f'7 f1;r;, and no.,p.led it in l:~.onor of his friend uho::ffj.cld, 1I'1ho lived in Dubuque, but who was said to have been the original owner of some of the land used. On Earch 2'7, 16'74, the old post office of Shobe's Grovo was closed and d new one opened at Sheffield. ;l.t that time 1'i. S. Bmven r8ceived his appoint­ ment as ·iostmaster. A frame depot was the flrst buildine:?ut up on the new tOI'r£l site. Soon ufterward James ThomI)SOn built a small frame house and displayed a stock of merchandise for sale in this first store. Dr. J. E. Potter was the first physician. The first schoolhouse was built in 18'75 and the first teacher was }l.. C. Henning. This building served as a f:leet­ ing place for cOr:J.Y:lunity ratherine;s, festivals and religious serv~ces. The Ba,tists used it as a church until ~\~8.y lS81, when they occupied their own new house of vvorship, built at a cost of~2,300. The Baptists, organized in 1863, had been ad"llitted to the Oedar Valley Association in 1864. The 3heffield I.iethodi st Church was orgal.J.ized in l:ovem­ ber 1880, ~vi th a membership of 40. In iG82 the church building was crmstructed at a cost of ;yi8,450. It was dedi­ cated in !Jovember of that year. The fi rst pastor was the Reverend F. Ivh Coleman.

52 Two other churches were organized o.urinp: the course of the next fe~ years. D. J. Staebler of Belr:lond supel'vised t~1E) es~a.bllshment of ~he ~ion :evangelical Church in Shef­ f~eld ln 1088. He bu~lt a parsonage there the following year. In 1~9G a group of German people of the Bantist faith began holdlnet: their own meet ings, with the Rev~rend Jacob Jordan as pastor. Services were held in the schoolhouse and occasionally in other churches, until the GGrr~~n Baptist Church vilas buj.lt in 1900. .-

Elias Tmitney built and operated Sheffield's first hotel in 1874·. A rival establishment was soon built by John Bolton, \~o operated it for r~ny years. E. C. Schader was ready for the business renaissance of 1880 wi th his Galena House. Judge Vermilya of !iIason City built what was sai d to be Sheffi eld' s first modern-type hotel a bout 1899.

The town t s pioneer ban]:e was the Sheffield Bank, a pri­ vate financial institution '\\dlich began business January 1, 18S0. Ten years later a new home for the bank was erected on the corner of Gilman and Second stre ets; this was the first bricle buildinf;': in tOlIlJl1.. In time a neat and pleasing array of buildings; many of them. two stories in height, appeared in the center of town. Pressed brick was the pre­ va iling material. The school, c11urche s, elevator, creamery and hotel liilere all t rpical of a prosperous, iNell built rural tovlln.

:f:<'runk Morgan issue d 'bhe first l1l.uaber of the Sheff'i old Fress~ a five culwnn folio, in 1880. The well-edited ana well-printed journal secured ~e;lCrous support from the start. Th.e fuunder had begun his career at the bott(..illl. of the ladder in a printer t s office in '!isconsin. Later he practiced his trade in lk!i!.lpton. h:organ reruained editor of. the Press unt il the fall of 1884, when he returned to Hampton as part mmer of'. the Hum}2ton ChrDnicle. The Sh_e~field l)re~~ was st~ll belng published as a weekly, on 'r.i.lursdays, ~n 1940, W~ th Lester G. Benz its editor. Sheffield had been incorporated as a town in 1876, and municipal officers were elected 1::ay 12 of that year: "i. S. Bowen was the first mayor; 1:. CraWford, the recoraer; R. ~lilde, E. I:. Phelps, S. E. Spaulding, P. J.~. }'ope, ana. G. :l... Culver the first trustees. From 1880 on the town grevl steadily. At that time the best land in the ~icillity vvns selling, when improved, at $25 an acre; unimproved land brought six to t en dollars. Two severe fires occurring wi thin five years of oach other destroyed {'lOst of the ori~inal section of Sheffield. l:uoh da..'7lage was caused by the first conflagration in 1889, but the second, in l894 t razed practically the who~_e busi­ ness part of town and caused a ~60,000 loss of '\Nh~ch half

53 vvas covered by insurance. Heat, h3.rmonizing buildings re- placed those dama{7.ed or razed by the flames .. '.~ A!:10n? the structures burned in 1894 was the headquar­ ters of L:ulligan Post No. 102, G. ii.. R. All the Post t s rec­ ords were lost. Later the Post secured funds to build a frame structure, the Grand Army I~ern.orial Ho.ll, \"hich \i'Jas used for years as a meeting place by the .LiIn.erican Legion and the I',iasonic and Odd Fellows lodges. Charter llGL1bers of the Post had been ~ustered in by Capt. R. S. Benson and others of Hampton t s HcKenzie Post OIl October 20, 1882. Tho Shef~ field Post was nam.ed for Col. James R. l1ul1igan of the Twenty-third Illinois Infantry, who had been shot down at the head of his cOrL"Uand at the battle before ~rinchester, July 24, 1864. l,;lulligan Relief Corps, lTo. 303, was organiz··· eO. in 1895.

Sheffield Lodge, no. 422, I.O.O.F. was established October 20, 1881. Their early records too were lost in the fire of 1894. An auxiliary, Daughters of Rebekah, itvas formed in 1897. The Sheffield l:asonic Lodge was organized in 12eO, the Order of the ];astern stur in If95, and ,;.",rgyle 1.oo.ge, :Cni~h ts of Pythias, in 1695.

During 3heffleld' S riJiddleyears of growth the I,linneap­ olis and St. l,ouis Railroad was extended northward frOI!l Ha.rrJ.pton, as was the Chicago, Roc:: Island, and Pacific. 1.1rs. M. C. Perrin, Sheffield librarian, was the guest of ):;.onor at a silver tea in the library roor;l 1:arch 14, 1941, when nearly 100 patrons called to pay their respects to her who had served as librarian since the organization of the library associa tion there in 1923. LIrs. Perrin celebrated her birthday anniversary two days afterward, Larch 17. The visitors at the tea registered in a special booklet wbich 11\1aS .given to Virs. Perrin in comne.noration of the occa­ sion. She'was also "()resented with a bououet of flmvers and a gift, a token from the four study clubs ir.. the corlli.mnity and the library board of trustees. Silver, contributed at the tea, was turnod over t 0 :,~rs. Ferrin \lITho planned to use it for purchasing a suitable gift for the librarv, to per­ )etuate her memory am.ong library patrons in the future. One of the largest industrial concerns in Ii'ralli..:lin County, the Shefi'ield Brick and Tile Company, VIClS fuunded by a very large deposit of DevoT,lian shale at Sheffield, abtJut 200 acres in extent, remarlcabJ..y free from foreign Elatter and reqUiring little refining or ~leaning. Only three deposits of -this clay have been found in the 3tate, and all are lo­ cated in northern Iowa, In 1908 the company was incorporated with a capital stock of 0150,000 by L. B. Carhart, C. C.

54 Carhart, H. 1. Cgrhnrt, and C. L. Smith.

i~t first, COEIITlOn brick and drain tile were the only products of the ;:)lant but in 1924: the business was enlarged and the outnut- broadened to include drain tile, hollow building tile, floor beam tile, face tile, hearth cubes, face bric}: and connlon building brick. This new plant half a l":1ile south of ~own developed until, with 13 great kilns, it [.tad a capacity of 12 carload.s daily, employing 60 men. The various ~)roducts were scheduled to lTI8et the aemand of a trade terri tory embracing seven States - Iowa, Einnesota, Wisconsin, l'Iichigan, the Dalmtas and lrebraska, "J.bile some s]-,ipments were sent to !.'linnipeg, Canada. The !:1anag81:lent of the company in 194:0 had passed into the hands of five con­ trolling directors with S. J. Galvin the president, G. H. Galvin, vice president, and C. R. Galvin, office manager. 1111ch clay from the company's pit VIas used in the con­ struction of the Bailey Creek Dam, on the creek of that name in 1936. Volunteers working under the sl)onso rship of the Sportsmen's Conservation Club built the dam of wood, stone and earth to reconstruct an old pioneer bridge in Jheffield City l)ark. Some of the original timbers vvere used, and a rustic footbridge now spans the creek 011 piling that had supported the brid.ge over which pioneers once cro ssed with their ox teams. The pool was st ocked with fish co~non to Iov~ streams. .

H. L. a.nd C. C. Carhart organized the Sheffield Elec­ tric Light and Power COr.1pany in 1909, furnishing lights for the streets, business houses and private resjdences~

CHAPIn

Chapin, in Richland TOvVllSllip, was laid out by J. B. Grinnell, the founder of Grinnell College, and I'vas given the maiden name of his iNife, Julia Cha~in Grinnell. .n.. nong the earliest settlers were A. S. Ross and his fill:1ily, and the Bo C. BrectenridgeS, who Ivere inf luenced by Grinnell to r:lOve from their l:omes near Brool:lyn, in Poweshiek County. They arrived LIay 15, 185'7. 1:. H. Ross, a youth at the time, latAr wrote dO'wn some of his memories of those days; i!J. B. and E. H. Grinnell and father bought a steam sawl:lill to­ gether. Henry went to Chicago after it was three weeks with ox teams r::etting it here from the end of the railroad -- at that time, I think, a little east of the Hississippi River. In the neantime, other people were noving in. Obadiah Sr:li th did the surveyine; and I carried the chain when the tovVll vv8.S laid out.·1 "./hen the mill at last was brought in and set up to \'lork Chapin started a boom which lasted for the next three years. Sometimes the mill was run da.y and night to f'ill the demand .for building lumber.

55 n The winter of 1857-58 was the curllllleal vvinter, q Ross recalled. "There wasn't a 50 )ound sac!:\: of flour in the wllo1e neighborhood. TIe s:gent must of the time those long '.'vinter evenings si tt ing straddle of a SIlane over a washtub, shelling corn. The neirhbors w()ulG., t.},',·" t~.

J. B. Grinnell him.self wrote of that S8ason: "The hard tiIYles of 1857 were a reality. Coffee gave 'Nay on our tables to a substitute made of rye and sweetened vvi th sorghum. Sugar Vlas a luxury as 'was fine flour .•• Taxes were Ul).paid for years, drawing heavy y)enalties.1!

Yet in spite of these difficulties people r~naged to maintain a lively social intercourse and to atter:lpt to "keep Upd with the ,'101"10. elJ,st of the fronti~r.YounP.' Hoss COI:1.­ plained," ••• t •. nd if there wero errands to do I vvas lackey for the whole tOVI}:rl; had to climb trees to cut grape vines for the V'i/o r!l en , VIi th which to make hoopskirts that were com­ ing into fel shion then • • • il Chapin's first school was a duuble log house at the north side of Tharp's GrovG, where in 185? Lirs. L.ary '.!right instructed the children of the neighborhood. In 1858 and 1559 Liss l~attie Lovering taught in her father's house. During that winter the pupils noticed lire Loverillg doing an oed bit of carpenter ivork that looked tu them 1i:<;:e a cuffin. Asking who was dead, they were told, t1 I'Jo one ,j ust now, but my wife is very low, can't live but a few vJeeks, and I'm making it so as to have it handy. II

A machine for ;'1'\.aking hardwl)od shine;les \"JaS set up by the Yarl-cer brother s on the ir arrival in the s pring of 1851. Al though they 0. id a big business, they so 10. out in the fall to Thomas I~orris, who lilo.nned to r:lake shingles in warm weather arid to trap otter, beaver, and nink thr()ur,h the winter.

i'l. combined church and SChoolhouse was built at Chapin in 1859 and was then said to be the best in the county. Lrs. J. B. Grinnell, pleased that the town carried her maiden name, Chapin, donated a fine bell weighing 400 pounds for the belfry of the new building. Tha t bell must have been the bip;gest then in Franklin County~

H. H. Grinnell W8.S a :')pointed -)ostmaster ,i'lhen the office was established in 1860.

56 · Durln,cr the stirrinp da VS of the C1 viI ~'Jar, patriotic Chapin pave 21 soldiers to the Union forces, 8. record for a town so small.

The first reliP.'ious services were conducted in the SUL1- mer of 1257 by the' Reverend. Er. "Jilcox of Iowa Falls, who traveled over to Chapin regularly every two wee~-cs to hold a 5 0' clock service at the schoolhouse. The Reverend WilliaI'l Avery C·2'c!:fle from. the Ea st and or­ ganized the first Conp:rep;ational Church a.t Chapin, the Bap­ tists established a church in 1864, and the Lethoo.ists foru­ ed a class in 1870. B. D. Robinson, one of the earliest settlers, intro­ duced sheep-raising into the county ill 1860. J. B. Grinnell also became interested in she ep and brought in several hun­ dred head 1I1711ich he let out on shares to the farmers of the township. By 1803 there were 8,000 head of sheep in Frank­ lin County. The first herd of purebred Holstein c&ttle VJest of the ~,~ississip.pi was assem.bled during the seventi GS by "J. B. Barney. The standard set by this herd was for many .rears to prove a criterion for the dairy industry of northern Iowa. Franklin County was found to be an unusually favorable re­ gion for the raising of corn and stocl::, with an ~tbundance of water and excellent p.:razing land, besides rich soil well­ a.dapted for cultivation and the growin? of gruin. One of the Barney cows at the ap:e of six years and three months m.ade in seiTen days' time a. recore. proGuction of 536.4 pounds of milk, BC1uivalent to 25.1 pounds of butter. l-l.llother Hol~ stein cow, sold by Barney to Charles A. 1,Iark of Cedar FCllls in 1912, and named Florence Jewell DeKol; II, brought a price of ;,1)174 at the age of ten years. She continued to be both a heavy producer and a show cow. In 1908 when the attendance at the annual meeting of the Iowa State Dairy Association was steadily falling, 1;/. B. Barney, then presioent of the orga:llzation said ,,1Farm.ers will come a long way to see a good cow, but they'll stay at home and :?i tch hay rather than 1 isten to anybody eJ::plaining a good cow.:, He won ae;reer,lent from the handful of delegates and the follovling year a oairv cattle exposition was held in connection with the convention in Cedar Rapidsq ~>Jenty-five cows were shown, and raore delegates showed interest in the meeting. That year the convention voted to bold the 1£10 convention and eXDosition in "Jaterloo. Th&t was the birth of the Dairy Cattle Coneress i'or TJater100 sa'w the potential­ ities of the project and deteruined to m.ake it an institu­ tion. The Cattle Congress was incorporated in 1913.

The Barney herd of .?urebred Holstein, vvas cr~)di ted vvi th being the first herd of its }:ind west of the l:.~ississippi

57 HiveI'. His son, C. H. Barney, oontinued to develop the herd on the sa.lIle farm at Chapin.

l'.Leanvvhile, the original tU1Jvn of Chapin had become a ghost tOWll. Officials of the Iowa Central Railway had chosen a station two miles east of it when they built through in 1871. The result was the :platting of Hew Chapin July 26, 1872 by George Beed and Obadiah Smith, surveyor. The first post office was established on coapletion of the railroad, and the first school was built six years later.

January 20, 1922, the Chapin Consolidated School, a modern brick building, was dedicated in open house cere­ monies with an elaborate program. During the afternoon, Dusic was furnished by the Chapin band; an early dinner was served in the gymnasium by the ladies of the COIIll11Uni ty, and in the evening there was a concert by the orchestra.. Sever­ al outstanding Iovl,1a educators made spee ches.

In 1941, inhabitants of the prosperous, har1'1onious town could trace their ancestry back to many countries in E':lrope as well as to original settlers from. Indiana or the East. 11"00al points of commercial and cultural aotivity were two grain elevators, two churches, and the li..r.:l.erican Legion hall.

Geneva, a station on the 'j),iinneapolis and st. Louis Railroad, form.erly the Iowa Cen tral, was laid out and plat­ ted by ViiJ.liam J. 1\:cVey in September 1871. II. post office had been established on the site as early as 1658, with l:Jillium :n. Tbor.apson as postmaster. Several people had been living nearby since 1654, among them Job Garner, Peter Hhinehart, and II.artin Boots, whose home was the gathering place for the religious-minded.

The first schoolhouse was built in 1857, and taught by ~Jilliam Thompson. A more permanent school was constructed in 1862 and used 1jntil 1873, when it V'o'8.S sold at auction. H. C. Clock purchased the building, had it m.oved to Geneva and after it had been enlarged and decorated, opened it as Geneva House, a hotel. Clock had put up the ~irst store in to'V'JIl in October 1871 and ordered a stock of ;;;>8,000 worth of goods to be sold locally. He became postmaster, then he sold the hotel in 1675 to h. P. :McCardle and himself went into the ~rain and lumber business. By 1881 he Vilas operat­ inc the Geneva Creamery, a concern that within two years t time 1..vas handling a heav:r share of the oounty's niU::. Like Chapin, Geneva became a leading dairy center.

Ti.dd and Silence opened a drug store in 1880, but soon this was operEl.tud by Doctor Tidd alone, the only physician in the community~

58 A tract of land of 233 acrGS wa~ ptlrbhaseci from Cidtlk in 1886 and there a tlnlo-story frame house and some ~!i.rns were built as the nucleus of the County Home. Throlieli the years the property vvas irlproved and m.odernized to meet chan~ing st~ndards.

A Ilethodist :8piscopal Church was organized at Geneva in 1873 ~J the Reverend Bargelt and services were held in the ~ocel s ~llC)o~house until a $2! 000 church bui lc1ing was erect ed ln 1882. ..;,t. Paul's Cathollc Church 1<\7aS organized by the Reverend J. C. Wienke in June 1913 and the cornerstone for the church laid Hovember 16, 1913. This group had been meeting formerly in Woodman Eall. Geneva VJaS incorporated as a village in 1903. . Iowa's first a.uto fatality took place betvveen Geneva and Hampton the night of Sept. 29, 1905;vJhen F. A. Harrim9..Il, ltt... W. Beed, H. L. Harrison and H. A. Inglis Ivere driving in Harriman's car. They wer'e returning from a tri2 to check up and take formal possession of the Geneva bEl.vines Bank, or­ ganized in 190~ as a private institution and purchased in July 1905 by a group including the Hotorists and others. _~t 9 p. m., tho party started home, ta:{ing the old r,.i.aysville road, aIid Xll0toring dmvn a stee,;; hill at the hair-raisi ng speed of 30 miles an hour. Harriman lost control of the steering wheel.. The front wheel of the car struck the bridge with such force that the occupants were th.rown from the machine. All escaped serious injury except Harriman, who was picked up unconscious from concussion of the brain. He died soon after'lJmrd. One of Franklin County's most disastrous storms struck Geneva on a late midsUDlr:1er afternoon in 1927, d,:mkiging the consolidated SChool. The roof 'was ripped off, holes torn in the bo~rding, an entire section of vJindmJ frai:1C3S torn out and most of the glass on two sides of the building broken. Rain poured through the wrec:{ed ruof and sO~lked 1'1alls, floors" and furniture, contributing tu the iai3,OOO damuge. The storm had apparently come from a point southeast of m,mpton, sweeping across a stretch tvJO r,~.iles '\Ivide, and reac"ling the height of its fury abr)ut a nile northwest of Geneva, dauag­ ing "the crops and trees in its ,"9 ath. Local resident shave di stinp.:uished ther.::.se Ives in Iov'va's

['lost typical rID. tch of prowess ,'"the corn hus,king contest 0 Arthur Raisch of Geneva won the I:'ranklin County title in 1939 and successfully defended it in 1940 "\'./hi16 croi:vds of interested onlookers fol1mved the bare-headed and shirtless huskers workinr.: their way dovm the rows of corn to the tune of flyin~ ears'~ that struck the bn.ngboards. ILLs .1Qad a!,l\.Hl~ltod to .3,B58 ,pounds of net corn. Herman Richtsmeier, also of Geneva, 1.']On second ~lace in 1940 with 2,657 ':!ounds. Rudolph Leyer of lIanmpton came in third with 2,606.65. The contest was held October 18, at the VI. C. Pralle farm "vi/est of Hampton.

59 ;~t ]'our ~lile Grove t:'.re the ,'?raves of Thoma.s Jones and other members of the Jones fanilY. These people '\J\Tere prom­ inent in the history of the victnity. Levi Jones had come to Franklin County in 18.54 vITi th his son-in-law t Isaac l\:ul­ kins. Both bought land. In the spring they were joined by their fa.milies and also by Jabish Jones, another brother. Later on ,Alpheus Jones sole3. his property in Buchanan County and joined the others. A.nother old cemetery, somevvho.t farther north, and ear­ lier knovvn as God's l'l.cre, VlfiS on the south side of Highland Grove. Luring the winter of 1857 David Church and his wife buried their infant son there on the crown of' the bluff. A few years later several other chiluren were laid to rest by the side of the first. Thereupon Church donuted an acre or more of his~_land to serve as a ceJ.~letery, and this was added to from adjoining land by n. Eo Thompson. li'roIn. this hill was a far-reaching view, extending in the northvl]est towa.rd Ham.pton, to the west over a wide expanse of prairie dotted wi th many groves, and tovvard the south over the site of the village of ~,:aysville and along the 'winding course of Ma~met s Creek.

60 CHAPTE.R 10

OTHER TOllNS OF FRAIDlKLllJ COUNTY

Like so many othor tovffiS, Alexander was :first located as a station on the Iowa Central railway", in 18.81. It vilas not platted, however, until June 8, 1865, when W. F. Kelley laid it out for F. E. Carter. E. B. Hill, appointed post­ master in 1882, opened a general store at that time. Soon thereafter a f,rain elevator was erected, and the tovm grew to be a busy trading center. It was incorporRted in 1902. Alexander was soon recocmized as one of the most im­ portant co:m.m.unities in the C01.lnty, situated as it was in the best of Iowa's OOlilltryside, whe re in spring every' mile was checlcered with vistas of black-plmJed ground and pale green past'ures, and in late summer and early fall the fields were laden with heavy golden grain. S:'J.turday· nieht was ahlays an Hevent;i, anticipated throup:hout the entire week; and after counting the hours, faro folks f j .. nished up their final chores, in a hurry to hitch up the horses and ride into town to hear a stirring concert by the Alexander Bress Band. The musicians, who were local business men as well us - de:ltists, lawyers and merchants .made an impressive si,q;ht in their colorful uni­ fOTms, and the audience, young geople and old alike, felt the urSe to flUrch or dElnce to the tunes of the ~lashington Post l~rch or The Beautiful Blue Danube ~s thc--strains floated amm fr(.)!ll the outdoor bandstand-:-- In later years, when hitching posts Gave waf to parking spaces on the main street, a swelling ehorus of autol;lob ile horns would encour­ age the musicians to give generous encores. Alexander kept up with the times, and there CillUe a day years later when one of the best-known residents of the com­ munity, 61 year-old Jerry DeVries, took his first airplane ride and joined the ranl~s of the cotmty's :lair-mj.no.ed" citi­ z?nry.· I,Ir. DeVries said he experienced no p3.ngs of fear, but on the contrary had an exhilarating thrill from. his first trip in the air. He saia. he "vould anxiously await his next op'')ortunity to fly. The days of early llatural hazards had ')assedo 110 long­ er did the settlGrs need to be on the lookout for prairie fires, and snug homes b..nd ao.ec;uate heating systems thwarted or r::inimized the inte'?1.se cold of winter. HmJever, there was one type of Eature's fury that could descend without warning from the s'cies. Such 'was the twister or tornado that struck ",;.lexander and the fa.rm fa~ilies living northeast of town in June 1925. It left a long line of ~vrecked homes and farm build ings from l~lexander to the I. T. Deam and Henry Gerfin farms north'liJest of Chapin.

61 The storm C3.r:le froB the southwest and hit ~lexander first, destroying houses and u2!rooting trees. W'indows were blown out and two churches demolished. A train loaded with hogs was blown from the tracks and the cars turned upside down. No one i:v8S hurt hov.'ever, and onl~r about twelve of the hogs were killed. In the de,ot nearby were E. S. Packard and his tidO small sons, Harold and Ed p lifuen Pac}card felt the force of the storu against the building, he stood close to the boys and waited. Suddenly the winO. t oak the vlalls of the station and three persons -vvere thrown to the floor. When the storm had passed on they got up and found that everything was gone except a jlile of papers and office rec­ ords which had been scattered over them. lIiiany farn buildings were destroyed but few people were hurt and none seriously. Chris Larsen, D.arshal at Ale:x:and­ er, suffered a broken leg; .A,lfred Anderson and his son, Donald, received head vlTOunds and bruises; Henry pals suffer­ ed a fractured hip. The Harvey Hemm~s place was entirely wiped out but the Hemmes family, seven in number, found shelter in the basement of their home and were saved. Hem­ mes had two teams of horses standing in the barn with their harnesses on. The wind took the "barn first and then the horses. It carried the animals through the air, over the to]) of I:i grove and set them. down three-c;oorters of a mile away on the edge of the Ike De')ping lawn. ',!hen the horses were found by Her.1rnes they had no sign of a harness on them but, as the story g,oes, they were not badly injured, al­ though they were sb. ot fu 11 of splint er s • Seven hundred little chickens at the Hermes place were lost in the wind. At the I. T. Dea...rn farm the buildings were a total wreck. The W. J. Evans fam.ily lived here and when they saw the twister cominf' they started for the cellar but were too late. The house was 'l/7hirled away and Evans was injured, and his mother also. She was taken to the Hampton hospital where she recovered.

The property and livestoc~ losses in this Franklin County storm liilere estimated at .,;250,000. In addition to the machinery d9.L1ared, buildings b lovm down and livestock killen, tl1(;.r0 also was a heavy loss in crops which were ruined by the wind. III s 0111e places furrows VJere plm'Jedtllruugh the fields by the wind, leaving the land bare, and at other places the corn was stripped of leaves and only stubs left standing in the ground. Hundreds of Franklin County people who were untouched by the storm went out to help their neighbors c lean up debris and start the rebuilding of their homes. l\iore than a hundred men went out from. Ham.nton and others from Coulter, Chapin, Latimer and Sheffield: People gave linen, towels, and household supplies to those who had lost their homes. This storm, while not so severe as the Pomeroy Cyclone, was one of the worst in Iowa. One of the 'f.'\Torst storMs that ever swept over Fro. nklin County struck early in February, 1936 during a cold wave that had continued for 28 consecutive days 'vvi th minim'ufl temperatures below zero. Roads were blocked and trains and autos stalled when liiss Phyllis Sni th, daughter of a farmer living three and one-half ~"liles northeast of AlexDnder, was suddenly stric~cen wi th appendicitis. The Smiths called Alexander and Hampton for assistance, but no physician was able to reach them. hfter an anxious night and a recurrence of the attack, they resolved to fet their daughter to a hos­ pi tal where she could have an operation. She was bundled in blankets and pacl.:ed into a large bobsled filled vli th straw, and her father and her brother Leonara. harnessed a team in the 20-below-zero weather and started for town. itll along the W'dY, crews of men living at the farms en route C8.me out and helped to shovel a path through the snow-paciced road, while from the hlexander end anotl~r group started shoveling through the 10 and 12 foot drifts there. The Hampton Chron­ ~cle of February 13, 1936, described the heroIC journey, in part, as follows: ,1When the p;1rty finally reached Alexander the 'Vveather was so ferocious that only the serious condition of the girl da:-cd them to go farther. .d.nother team was hitched to tho sled and the party started south to Highway 10 where State Eighway snow plows were striving desperately to clea.r the roadway. ;'After the first half mile of struggle through the drifts the team was exhausted, and another team took over the job of pulling the sled through six and eieht foot drifts, "ltv-hich, though packed hard, allovveo. the team.s to sink through. 3hovelers ~everal tiDes had to o.ig out the teams after they had f laundered and also breoJ~ a path for the sled. II Two more tem1S in turn had to be hitched to the sled and by late afternoon, when wi thin two and a half lll..i.les of the hip-hwa V, the fourth teCtLl floundered and was unable to go any farther. "Then the crew of nen, many \ivi th frozen faces, some with frozen hands, and at least one with frozen feet, hitched themselves into the traces like so many Eskimo dogs and dragged the heavy sled down across fields, through dri fts and over frozen gro1.md to the highway, ., !hich . 'th. ...;y reached at 4:30 in the afternoon after covering the seven and a half miles in seven and a half hours. \1

An sr'.'J.\:;ulance and state Hip:h'i!\1ay plovvs met the sled and the c-:rew at the highway and the sick girl was conveyed as slle::.dJly as ~ossible to the Lutheran Hospital at Hampton • .il.ft''JT 3.,;, srile~::,g8ncy operation had been perforr!led, young ?hylJ.:ls ,3l:1i t,n oOFmenced a recovery that pro gre ssed unimpair­ ed by the hardships she had earlier suffered.

63 Conrad '}estweber, one of the lUen 'who helped 'the team to get through from Alexander to the highvvuy, had his feet frozen on the walk back and later a Iso had to be talcen to the hos}?ital. His condition was serious, but he also re­ covered.

Although all the names of the men who had helped bat­ tle through the drifts and cut a Dath for the sled could not be learned, the Chroni cle publi'shed the fo llowine; partial list: Chris Larsen, Russel Larsen, Dick Smith, Heiko pals, Lloyd Butterbaugh, Ray Richard, Heiko Frohling, Fred Larsen, Lloyd Green, Ja.cl-c Ei.ll, Cliff ora Hansen, ~,:erle Hansen, Wil­ burt Hansen, Henry Schulte, Glenn Neal, ]\~att Strife, Louis Jacobs, Ueil Stoffer, Oscar Hansen, George Kaduce, Chris Schulte, Conrad V{est'.'Veber, Oscar Hansell, Barlow Deering, Henry Loddermann, Bill Tinkey, Clyde Blau, John Blau, Henry Buwrr..an, Barney Olson, Ernest Harms, Charles ShmvCllter, Jerry Beenen, Henry Beenen, FrarJ;: Bohlen, Ch8.rle s 'Jinwood, ..,.:..rthur vv:Lnwood, Clauss :Uodderman, Carl Barkema, Clurence Smith, Peter Pals, Robert Rodefieyer, dnd John Osterdorf.

Latimer was named for J. F. Latimer, who laid out 6.nd pIa tt ed the to'VVIl in November 1882 , about the time the IO'iva Oentral Railroad began operations. The point Vilas made a station on the line, and a post office vilas established there in Septell1ber leeZ, with H. A. Clock as postmaster. In that year the firm of Clock aLd Clock began 0. general l.1ercantile business. Several vigorous religious denomindti ons beCdr,1e identi­ fied with uitimer. One of these was st., Peter's Danish Lutlleran Church, organized in 1883 with the Reverend E. Peterson as pastor. The first house of worship, built about four miles froI!l town in 1893, was destroyed 'INhen it was st1:'tlck b;T lightning and burned to the ground. A new build­ ing 1f\iaS ere cted in 1903. The La timer Eethocist Episcopal Ch111'oh was org5nized l:"pril?, 1893. The Reverend i,... S. Flanigan dedicated the church building November ll~ 1893. St. Paul's Lutheran Church was organized r,:arch 3, 1895, the Reverend C. A. Dietrich :}residing at the first meeting, held in t1-J.e La ti!:1er schoolhouse. The group's own bui16 ing wa.3 put l.',p the follo,:ving year. July?, 1935, this chUrch celebrated its fortieth anniversary. The small group that had orgc;nized in 1895 had gro'wn to nea:rly 500 persons. A week-lorl.g obs8yvance was arranged by the pastor, the Rever­ end E. H. Gr'.li:J,ler, and included several former pastors, ch ..1.:r-ch I~()tab::"eiJ ana. forner members of the concregation. lil110ng th.-:se vuere the Reverend fI11eodor llanusen of Chicago, The Reverend 0tto Beer of SprJ.ngfie ld, Illinois. The Rever­ end 1:.:r. Beer, who had grovvn up in the LatiMer congregation,

64 was ordained a !.1.li:J.ister and spent 10 years in the nissionary field in Brazil before locating in Illinois. A brief histo­ ry of the organization compiled for the occasion ac~;:nowledgcd the .fc:)rl'1Gr church at Lillpond (Beed' s Lal<::e) as the mother church. The c1j.fficulties of attending early services were described as follows: I1Roads that at certain times of the year were almost impassable had to be negotiated with horses and lumber ·wagon. Forced to cross creeks and marshes, the horses at times mired down, singletrees, broke, and traces snapped in an attempt to get an empty wagon through lOIN places. II

'\Then it was found tr.J8. t enough I ... utheran families resided in and near Latimer to justify the holding of additional services in the cOTIuaunity, the Reverend Dietrich, pastor at Millpond at the time, was asked to preach in a schoolhouse in }j:arion Township, tbree miles north of Latimer, in 1894. The services were so well attended that 1Jlans were r£lade ::Lor Q permanent organization. - lJIany busy years vllere ahead of La timer.

The FarHers' Cooperative Crear,lery was founCied in 18950

During the early 1900' s the allnual h.Qrvest liOLle I!'esti­ val Wc::lS celebrated at Latimer. lIeighborhood gatherings were arranged wi th races) baseball gar:les, glee club and band music in the dayt ime, and in the evening dancing and drc'l.I:l8. t­ ic entertainments.

Latimer was irJ.corporated as a town in 1901.

In 1902 a city waterworks was voted and installed at a cost of :fy6,000. The Latimer Star, a four-coluum quarto newspaper, ran from 1901 to IS18, when publication ceased and all news was transferred to the Latiner colunm in the Eanpton Chronicle.

Constructeo. "vi thout issu[l.Ilc e of a b one. and wi thou t Government aid, the Latimer G:TIm8.sium was built by "the dis­ trict in 1935, at a total cost of ~14,OOO. seats were in­ stelled for 500 court fans. Serving as an 6.udi toriunl for plays, the i-:;ymnasium could acco"11moda te about 800 peo ple.

The basketball court ~'J8.S built 40 by 72 feet and the stage 35 by 18 feet vvith a dressing room at each side. The boys' and girls t shower 2.nd loc ker rooms VIere lac nted in the be sement. rrhe buildina v.1as heated by c:t foroed-draft furnace• .d.n a::!lllleX contained a large home-economics room ,'7hic11 could also be used for dinners and banc::uets. rrhe building was constructed of face tile, zinc f'Jash in color. 1.1it.h a hard P.13p le floor.

65 Burdette, a station on the Rock Island Railroad, for­ merly the Burlington, Codar Rapids and lTorthern,VJas founded, about 18GO to provide a shipping point for the farmers in the surrounding country for their vast supplies of grain, milk, and livestock. It was established through the influ­ ence of a large land-owner with the sQmewhat unusual n81ile of Hazel Boddy. Boddy had 1,760 acres of land, including three of,the four corners joining the cross road nearest his home. An astute dealer and livestock shipger, he persuaded the railroad company to put side tracks and stockyards at a point nearest his feeding pens, less than a quarter of a mile between his home stead and the railroad tracks. At first the communi ty "Nhich grew up around this sta­ ti on was kIlOi'm as Hazel Boddy's Switch, but by september 1890 it had received the equally picturesque name of Eleva­ tor Gap. The follovJing month the place was officially christened as Burdette. The local post office was originally operated from the home of the D. D. Goodenough family. Trains did not stop for the mail, but the mail bag was hung on a frane near the railroad tracks and trainmen grabbed it as the train rushed by the place. The in-coming mail was thrown out in another mail bag. After the store and depot was built the train made regular stops, a service which continued until 19~33. The Lee Center Church was built in 1890. Byron Derby­ shire dunated a corner of his farm for its location and the railroad cllIlpany sent a special engine from Iova Falls with the lumber for the build ing. Everyone was proud of the new church. It stood very tdll against that early skyline. Citizens would point it out to visitors, proudly saying, "Look, our church can be seen five nile s away." The church, was organized largely through the efforts of fur. and l\~rs • .J .. I. Boganrief, Byron Derbyshire and others who contributed in every way that they could~ The bu.ilding was dedicated Feb­ ruary 1, 1891, 'llvi th the Reverend Mr. Kiri(.:presiding and the Reverend Hr. Clinton delivering the serm.on.

During its years of growth -- from 1890 to 1900 -- Bur­ dett e had a schoolhouse and a number of business firms, two grain elevators, a general store, a hardware store (which served as the town hall), a crear:lery, a b lacksmi th shop) livery stable, and scale house. There were rruny corncribs and some dwelling houses. The creamery was a busy place. Customers and patrons met to talk things over at the ,uew, just outside the build­ ing. At one time a skimming station was felt necessary, but after cream separators came L~to general use the skimming station was discontinued and a few years later was almost

65 entirely forgotten. HOVHJVer, the old )ump rel"l18ined, and was still identified as the ilTmm Flli"llp. f1

Two churches that were active organizations in Burdette for several years were orip:inally formed and held in the schoolhouse. One was the Con@:regational Church which, with the Reyerend Mr. 'Hyatt 8,S pastor, built its mm house of worship in 1894, and the 1,lethodi st E:piscopal, \.'J11ich was also able to build. in 1895, under the leadership of the Reverend C2 de Co 1.11 t er •

In 1897, Hazel Boddy, wll0 had been almost entirely tile life of the tovm, left Burdette. he exchul1ged his 1,760 acres of Franklin County land with L. W. Conover and B. H. Henry for 20,000 acres of Texas land, and l.:luved south with his family. Boddy had shipPGd hundreds of fat cattle and hogs to Chicago every year. One year he shi]?ped 50 c<:irloads of cattle alone.

Hb!JJ SELL When the Dubuque Elnd Dakota Railroad, later to become the Chicago Great 'i/estern, ,.>Jus first IT~pped tllrough this region about 1873, the station of Hansell was built. The line to Hampton was finished in 1876. The town was named for George W. Iranse2.1, who became the first postrrl8.ster when the post uffice vvt:..s established there in 1880. The town vvas called Hansell's for a time, in tri bute to the man who handed out the nail, but the posses­ sive l1S" was soon cropped. Hansell was platted in the fall of 1680, and by the summer of 1881 covered e. territory of 15 acres. George Hansell built an elevator in 1880 uith a capaci­ ty of 14,000 bushels. In 1882 he built another with a 20,000 bUShel capacity. Like so many others of the times who found it profitable to engage in several different types of business at once, Hansell a 1so carried on a lumber and stock business, ana in 1283 erected a large store building. The 'Gnion Ridge post office, established in 1860 with Isa3. c Stover as postmaster, I;las flaved to the hone s of the succeeding ;)ostmasters, and !,loved to Durwnt '\iv-hen the rail­ road came through. When the hansell post office was estab­ lished in 1880, the Cream Hill )ost off ic e \Jas 0. iscont inued.

:?OPEJOY

A station on the Rock Island Railroad liVas platted ,by the Cedar Rapids, Iovva Falls &: Northwestern TOVVll Lot COlilpanJ on Seltember 28, leeO, CiS Carleton. The Ui:1Il18 was aftervllard changed to J:?opejoy, honoring the early settler, that 1 cattle

67 king" who had beon. such a colorful charaoter in the early days of Oakland Township.

A new ~~46,000 Popejoy high school and grade building was officially dedicuted on Friday, Juno 9, 1939. Dudica­ tion ceremonies took l)lace in conjunction with the annual Oakland township school picnic. A portion of the funds amounting t01~20, 700 was sccur ed by a PWA grant. Like some of the other tomls in Franklin Oounty, Pope­ joy, or rather the settlement that preceded the; town of that namo,was onoe struck by a tornado. The county history pub­ lished in 1883 relutbs: ttThose living in Oakland Township in 1875 can never forgot tho fearful tornado whioh swopt through their township the summbr of that year. It unroofed many houses, tore down f(;nces, and picked up catt16 and horses, carried thGIll to a great distance and crushed thom to pieces. Barns of large proportions wore .r.J.ovud from their foundations and demolish(;d; stately trees Which had with­ stood the st orms for d century were uproot ,:..,d and tos sed about like.; slender shrubs. .d. schoolhouse, 10c8 ted on Se c­ tion 19, in which I'Uss A. Popejoy was teaching, was blmID to piec(3s, she having left the building but a short time before the storm camo up. tt

A post office WdS 0stablishcd Juno 18, 1888 at Pope.ioy, with J. W. Finch first postmastur. The town was incorporatod in 1908.

COULTER Coulter's post offioo was established and Gcorg0 Propst was commissioned postmastGr April 30, 1902. A station had existod at this point sinc6 the 1880's when the Chicago, Gr'J8 t vlo stern Railway b~,ean operutions through that terri tory. The se tt lomont grew into a trading center with a croamory and a grain el.::::vator in addition to various stor::)s and shops .•. Large crows of voluntGDr vvL,r.lccrs from Coultur assisted stri cken farmers to rvpair thu da~1Ug(;S dono to the.ir proper­ ty July 1, 1933 whun a savert; wind and rain storm ripped across the slJuthorn part of J.t'ranklin County. Tho storm broke at night) about 11:30, wrecking barns, corncribs, hog­ houses, windmills and other f'arra. buildings, uprooting large trees and killing and disporsinB livestock. The damage in Franklin Oounty \iYaS GstiDlr?ltod at '.?150, 000. The storm con­ tinued across northurn IoV\U into 111inois, finally sponding itself over Lake.: 1,:ichigan. L8rg0 tr(~es wore uprootod and wholo groves dating froLl :Dioneo'er days destroyed. Ev(,;rgroens in the 1!organ Township Cemot0ry and at the Uount Hopo Ceme­ tory w(;rc snapped off. Farm uni:mals W0ro ldllGd and many

68 persons oscaped death by narrow margins. Fallen trc;:'l§ and debris blockod the entrances to some homes so completely that the rcsid6nts had to chop thoir way out. Henry F. Lub­ keman, president of the Franklin County Farm Bureau, sent out many volunteers who helped clean up the 'wreckage, stack grain, and help farmers carryon with their harvesting. BRADFORD Bradford, tho newest town in Franklin County, was laid out and platt8d Novomber 10, 1906, by the Brl.ldford Tovm Site Company, of which G. A. Dodge was president and J. "v'l. Souder, secretary, An elevator, coalyards, storos and homes were constructed and soon the community began to draw trade from a large radius of the surrounding country. The Bradford Savings Bank was establish8d in 1908. The lvit:.thodist Episco­ pal Church was built'in 1912 at a cost of $3,000. Although the town of Bradford was not organized until years after other pl~cGS in tho county htid been well estab­ lished, settlors had livod in tho vicinity since 1860. The first persons known to have rra.de their homes in the· .general locality wore James Sayre, AlllOS RobGrts and .'t-;'lO: mDnnamcd Macey and Stoddard who were residing thore just prior to tho Civil Wur. The Roverend Mr. VI/bods of Maysville, a Methodist minister, preachod tho first S0nnon at tho house of J. E. Moats in 1869. Also held at tho Moats home was the first school, taught in 1869-1870 by Jonnie Rob'erts.

FAULKNER The post office at Faulkner was Gstublishod in 1871. Seven YO/lrs later thE; tovvn was laid out and plattod as a station on the IoWD. Contral Railr08.d, later the Minneapolis and st. Louis. The first grain buyers were the fir.m of White nnd Austin, and tho first merchants, McLain nnd Son.

Al though never incorporated, Faulkn(~r remained a trad- ing point with a lumberyard and Q grain elevator. Its growth was ha.lted in November 1908 by EX disastrous fire which razed the post office, the goneral storo, and a num­ ber of other buildings nO::lrby. The firo started in the. gen­ ornl store, located in Q double store building, and soon spread to the surrounding structures. Its origin was u mys- tory.

Ghost Towns

Fourtoe~ of the towns established in the gradual devel­ opment of the county wero later abandonsd as population and interest shifted with ths county's growth. Maysville in

69 Reeve Townsl":dp 1.'78..S the first platted j.n the cOlmty. It was laid out by ~'Jilliam 1~ay in 1856 an(~ was n&Lled f or ~tilliam l:ay, a soldier in Company H 3~nd IO',Ja Infantry during the Civil nar. It l1ud a post office froLl 1867 to 1875.

Coldvlater, in ~vest Fork Township, lIITas a post office from 1867 to 1875 when it was moved into Butler County. Congress, in Ham.ilton Township, was a post office, 1873-75. Cream Hill, in Ingham Township, was a post office in 1878. Elide was listed as a post offioe in the U. S. Offioial Register ;-1(73, but is not given 011 the maps of that period. Ingham, in 1ies-c Fork 'l'mvnship, VIas a ::;0 st offie e, 1867-18750 t~enzie, in IP,.gh8.lll Tovmship, was a post off ice from 1871 to 1276. Oakland Valley was a prosperous village in Oakland TovlD.ship, platted in 1857. It had a po st offi ce from l86~ to 1697. Ot isvi lLt::., :9artly in ;Vright Count y, was a post office from 1857 to 1880; it was rnoved when the railroad came, and its name ch..1nged to DOlllS. Reeve, in Reeve Township, had a }ost offioe fron 1893, to 1900. 3110-08'1 s Grove in Richland TO',,'1/nship, was nanled for John Shobe and his vIife, Eveline '?1\iiTood.t .shobe. It was a post offioe from 1863 to 1873 and 'V'\I8.S ;:G:lO-VYll wid.ely for the thick woodland which dabounded in fine hC\.rdvvood trees 0 There were plenty of 'walnut, butternut, hiolcory-nut, vvild lJ1um. and oherry trees ••• also red haws, crab apples and basswood and wild grape vines. There were refreshing springs of pure water which the people sought out and built their homes be­ side them. II l.1hen the railroad was built this tovl1ll was moved and oal1ed Sheffield. On the exact site of Reeve, the R. E. A. pO'war plant began operation in 1937, and eventually served six different oounties over J,700 miles of lineo Franklin County was the first county in the United States to receive funds appropri­ ated to build such a plant. The plant was at first equipped with one ?50 horsepower, one 1,000 horse]ower and one 1,500 horsepo':rver Diesel' engine, developing 525, 700 and 1,050 ki1- owatts respectively. To ~eet additional needs, the govern­ ment appropriated another $180,000 for the instellation of a 2,,000 horsepower engine. The service reaohed 6,000 C"llsto:ners in 1941, and the fuel oonsumption was about 45,000 gallons, at a kilo'watt )roduction of about 550,000. To satisfy a groviling demand, the kilmJatt JjlrQduotion VIas expeoted to be raised to 1,150,000 by 1944.

Union Rid~e, in Higham To-..rJllship, 1das a post office, 1859 .... '75. 1"tash urn, in Ross Township 'Iv-as a post offioe in 1871.

70 CHAPTER 11

THE DI1:JYIOND JUBILEE

Seventy-five years had passed over the city of Hampton and the domain of Franklin County since John l\lIayne had. brought his oxen to a halt before the woods which were to bear his name. With the recurring seasons the prairie rose had bloomed again and again; ragged fringes of asters, ros­ inweed, goldenrod, and black-eyed Susans had starred the roadsides in autumn, while the hickory leaves burned to gold, and the red sumacs blazed. Seventy-five Novembers had brought the wild geese flying low over Hampton again in smoky flocks. Three-fourths of a century of harVest had filled . the granaries of Fraru{lin County with the fruit of progress. In the month of June 1931, Franklin County celebrated the pass­ ing of these years with the Diamond Jubilee. The celebration started Sunday, June 18 with special services at all the churches of Hampton. Orsen G. Reeve, son of Ja,mes B. Reeve the oldest pioneer settler, was at the head of the invitation co~~ittee and thousands of people flocked into Hampt on for the two-day jubilee. It was esti­ IDa ted tha.t there were from 8,000 to 12,000 visi tors on Sun­ day and from 15,000 to 20,000 on Monday. The most striking feature of the jubilee pr ogram was the pageant parade of the second day. Colorful and impres- 8i VB, it stretched out for 40 blocks and told in graphic outline the long history of Franklin County. There was John Mayne and his family in a covered wagon and on the n8xt float were .lames B. Reeve and Addison Phelps, re-enacting the story of the meeting with Mayne, the setting up of the first tent and the building of the first campfire. So the long album of events was recorded as float after float passed by. Even old Doc. r,11 tchell was portrayed, and with his long vihis.l::Drs· :..mc·: flowin,g beard was the humorous figure of tho parade. The second half of the parade was devoted to agricul­ ture and showed the development of that phase of Franklin County life. The fullness of the county's growth was shown. from the breaking of the first sod and the planting of the first fields of flax to the introduction of tested and high­ ly productive dairy herds. The raising of fine hogs, cattle, she .. ;p, and poultry, the later planting of alfalfa and of corn and other grain crops were all portrayed. The committee in charge of' the paro.de was headed by George D. Patterson who acted as grand marshall, and the

71 event was carried off on time and with no accidents in spite of the fact tha t there 'were at least one hundred teams of horse.s use d and these horses were accustomed to the (iuiet field~ of outlying farms and not to the gay color the shout1ng crowds, and the stirring music of the bands. ' After the parade was over there was a league baseball game between the 11vaterloo 3Ild Rock Island p.1.Q..yers: which left Rock Island victorious with a score of ? to 6. In the evening Cliuigottits trained horses entertained the crowds gathered on the grassy hillsides which surround ~.:ott t s fie ld and the Musquaki e Ind ians from Tama put on a colorful program. The Indians presented first a concert by the Tama Indian Band under the direction of Eddie Davenport. This \"laS follovved by an el'oquent address in the Indian tongue by Young Bea~., which was translated by his son, George Young Bear, a university graduate. Young Bear told how his people had been sent away to Kansas by the Govern­ ment to make way for the white man~ how they could not bear the hardships on the dry. barren plains there after they had kno1lVl1 the plenty of Iowa, how they had saved their Govern­ ment money to buy land and had at last returned to their native state to:·.buy back their former· homes. He said that now they owned 3,300 acres of land in Tama Uounty and that there were about 300 members of the tribe who made their homes there.. He also expressed his .pleasure! at the s)iri t of friendliness shown to his people by the wbi te people of Iowa and hoped that the two races Llight SQm\.itiJ1le come. to an even better understanding of each other. George Young Bear gave a brief sketch of the very early history of his people and then took charge of the Indian oeremonial dances put on by 30 members of the tribe. He explained each dance, show­ ing the meaning it held for his people. Sunday afternoon, hovJever, was the real homeooming for Franklin County people.Cro:wds poured :into Hampton. Oney Fred Sweet was back from Chicago to g:i ve the afternoon ad­ dre sa which he called "Back HOIile. it Judge She rwood ~;.. Clock, himself a member of one of Fran!.:lin Countyt s original fam­ ilies, introduced many of the pioneers and read the llilllles of those who were not there. The Reverend C. J. Barth, pioneer minister of the county and pastor of I\Iarion Center Church for 31 years, gave the benediction. 1,Iusic was furnished by the Hampton :Municipal Band"the Hampton Chanters, the Minne­ ~polis and the St. Louis Quartet and by a county choir of nearly one huna.red voices organized and directed by Burton E. North, superintendent of the school at Chapin. Congre ss­ man T. J. Bo Robinson, of the Third Iowa District, presided at the afternoon program. The Reverend John D. Clinton ,of Fayette, a former Hampton hoy and son of the Reverend DeW1 tt Clinton, gave the invocation.

.' 72 In the evenine the invocation was e-,i ven by t he Reverend J. E. Prichard of Chapin,the scripture reading was by the Reverend H. L. Hichael of Hampton, and the benediction by the Reverend IIenry L. Rust of Sheffield. Mayor Ralph R. Stuart introduced Judge rl. D. Evans, the l' irst speal~er of the evening, and Lrs. Evans as the mother of a family of children making names for ther,lselves, typical of all the mothers who had played an important )Elrt in the building of the county. Judge Evans taJ.ked on liLooking 'Back Through the Years", a speech full of incident and action and heart-stirring stories of early Franklin County days. M. M. Joyce of the l.linneayolis and st .. Louis Rai lroad Compap.y and a native of Iowa gave events of interest in the early railroad history of Iowa, especially as it affected Franklin County. The final address of the evening was given by Edgar R .. Harlan, then curator of the Iowa State Historical j\~erilorial and .L:'i.rt Building at Des 110ines. He paid tribute to Franklin County and gave an outline of the findings of the first sur­ veyors to visit the county. These men had come in 1849 be­ fore there were any settlements and made an official and authentic record of the finding of buffalo, deer and elk on the prairies of the early day. Thousands of hi stori c relics had been collected from all.parts of the county by a committee headed by L. E. Gray and these, displayed in numerous store vi ndows, drew crowds of interested spectators during the two day celebration. no concessions, Side-shows or outside attractions ~ere permit­ ted by the Jubilee committee. This was a c01mty affair and was carri ed through from st art to concl usio11 by the county's own citizens and former citizens. l'Jh::m the celebration was over the people of Franklin County went home. KnowinG the past they could feel secure for the future, a future as significant as the still vivid past, preserved in the four obscure bronze markers; placed south of HElIllpton by the D. A. R. '

73