The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 29, 1904

The Niagara Cafe Will be Remodeled

New Front to Be Built and Many Changes Planned for Interior of Building.

The Niagara cafe is to be remodeled and made thoroughly up-to-date. The present front will be replaced by a single plate glass with a corner entrance. the partition will be taken out and the basement fitted up for a kitchen. Six booths will be built in the room, three on each side, finished in oak, where a private dinner may be served. Each booth will accommodate four persons. A table seating eight persons will occupy the center of the room. The lunch counter will be moved to the rear of the building, now occupied by the kitchen.

Tags: 1904, Niagra cafe

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 29, 1904

Crossings Blocked by Cars

Expressions of Dissatisfaction with Great Western.

Alleged That Streets Are Obstructed Longer Than Legal Limit by Switching of Cars.

Many complaints are being made against the blocking of the crossings in the east part of the city by the Great Western trains. It is alleged that in one instance at least, the crossings on Fourth and Fifth avenues south, were held for an hour and thirty minutes and that often they are held from fifteen to forty-five minutes.

One of the main roads from the east leads into the city over these crossings, and as there is no way around, teams are alleged to have been held up at this point many times, greatly inconveniencing their drivers. It is also stated that the men going to and from their work at the gypsum mills, are often forced to crawl thru, under and over the trains while the crossings are thus being held. The time limit fixed by law to apply to such cases is five minutes. It is understood that the people who claim to have been inconvenienced by th Great Western trains in this way, are about to take action in the matter.

There have been several narrow escapes from accident reported, and on one occasion a man after waiting for the train to move for ten minutes, during which time it remained stationary, attempted to cross, and when nearly thru, he was thrown to the ground by the sudden movement of the train. Fortunately he was thrown outward, and only received a few scratches.

Tags: 1904, Great Western

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 29, 1904

Shot in the Hand by an Unknown Gunner

Ed Johnson Suffers a Peculiar Experience While Standing in His Yard.

Ed Johnson, an employe (sic) of the Fort Dodge Light & Power company, living in the Oleson addition in the southeast part of the city, is suffering from a peculiar and unexplainable accident. While standing in his yard, he felt a sting in his hand. He look and his hand immediately became covered with blood. Dr. Saunders was called, and a piece of metal was found in the wound. It is supposed that the hurt was caused by a stray shot from a twenty-two calibre (sic) rifle, but no report was heard and no person was in sight in any direction. The wound is not a serious one, and Mr. Johnson will be able to be at work in a few days.

Tags: 1904, Fort Dodge Light & Power company, Oleson addition, Saunders

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 28, 1905

Small Blaze Another Sermon

This Morning Brings Out Need of New Wagon

The Loss by Water Was Heavy

Chemicals Would Have Put out All Fires in Months With Exception of Two, and Would Have Prevented a Great Deal of Loss in all of Them.

Fire was discovered in the Peter Reilly house on North Seventh street this morning at seven o’clock, and the fire department made one of the best runs that has been made in a long time. it was not more than five minutes after the alarm was turned in till the team was on the ground and the hose stretched. The damage to the house was comparatively slight, amounting to in the neighborhood of $100. On the furniture, however, on account of the water, it amounted to between $300 and $400. The house was occupied by the George Gilman family. The losses were fully covered by insurance.

The fire started from sparks that fell on the roof next to the kitchen chimney, and nothing was known of it by the family until the alarm had been turned in. The roomers, Frank Boyle and J.H. McDermott, heard the crackling on the roof as the shingles were burning, but thought it was hail and paid no further attention to it.

This fire is another argument that is in favor of the chemical wagon that is so badly needed by the local fire department. Had they been equipped with chemicals this morning, there would have been no need of turning on the water at all, and there would have been none of the loss that resulted to the furnishings.

With regard to the matter, one of the members of the fire department said to a Messenger representative this morning. “It certainly is a shame that the department has no chemical wagon. It is a fact that with the exception of just two fires, every blaze that we have had the past several months could have been controlled in less time and with not more than one tenth the damage to the furnishings by use of chemicals. The chemicals properly used on a small fire do the work quickly and completely and with absolutely no damage to other parts of the house, while it takes but a few seconds for a two and a half inch stream of water to get into all parts of a residence and damage everything.”

Tags: 1905, Boyle, Gilman, McDermott, Reilly

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 27, 1903

Mrs. Bacey Made Sudden Flitting

Left Home on Second Avenue North Between Monday Night and Tuesday Morning

Her Whereabouts Unknown

Took Away Most of Furniture and Carrie Nationized the Rest

Mrs. Bacey has gone. The house on Second avenue north, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, which has been her home for the past few months, turns a vacant and unseeing gaze on the street, and can throw no light on the mystery of the hasty flitting of its former occupant.

Mrs. Bacey has not only gone, but she went between two days. On Monday evening, she was there; on Tuesday morning she had disappeared. With her had gone most of the furniture. The remainder had been so broken up and dismantled as to be without value. Mrs. Bacey and a hatchet had apparently held high revelry before the time came for moving. Her aim appeared to have been to leave nothing behind her which it would be of any value to any one to appropriate.

Rumor has it that Mrs. Bacey was in arrears some three months on her rent, which is believed to account for her sudden action.

The Bacey family, consisting of the mother and two children, has made its home on Second avenue north for some two or three years, but Mrs. Bacey had few friends in the neighborhood, and no one is able to give any particulars about the moving. That she has moved, and moved unexpectedly, is a fact which cannot be denied.

(Editor’s note: Carrie Nation was a member of the temperance movement. She was known for entering an establishment that served alcohol and applying her hatchet to the premises.)

Tags: 1903, Bacey

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 27, 1905

A New Church Built at Clare

Plans For Structure are Completed and Call for a Fine Building.

Will Cost About $12,000

It Will Be Constructed of Omaha Pressed Brick With Stone Trimmings and Foundation – J.H. Albright of This City Architect.

Clare is to have a very fine new Catholic church this spring that will more than take the place of the one burned last winter. The plans, which are already out, call for the expenditure of $12,000, and work will be begun on the structure as soon as the contracts can be let, and the material got out of the ground.

For three months now, the parish has been without a church, and the members are very anxious that the new edifice shall be completed. According to the plans the new building will be considerably larger than the old one. It is to be 52×98 feet and will be built after the usual style of architecture used in Catholic churches, with the tall spire in front.

Inside the finishings will be of the most modern. In addition to the sanctuaries, confessional, etc., there will be a choir loft and all of the usual features that are to be found in the better class of churches of the country.

The building itself will be constructed of Omaha pressed brick with cut stone foundation and trimmings, and will make a most imposing appearance when completed. The general style of the church will be a great deal like that of Corpus Christi and will be an ornament and a credit to the town of Clare.

The church that was burned was worth in the neighborhood of $7,000 and while the loss of the old building was felt by the parish, the new one will go a long way toward atoning, in that it is to be so much finer than the former one.

The plans for it were gotten out by J.H. Albright, of this city, and when the contract is let it will probably be from his office here. The church at Clare when finished will undoubtedly be the finest in the country outside of Fort Dodge.

(Editor’s note: I’m pretty sure in the last paragraph they meant to say county instead of country. St. Matthew’s Church in Clare is one of the Catholic churches in Webster County that will be closed by 2019 in an effort to consolidate operations to Fort Dodge. Messenger article.)

Tags: 1905

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 27, 1905

Lehigh Shows a Constant Growth

936 Persons There According to the Census Just Completed.

Ahead of the 1900 Count

The Corporate Limits Do Not Take In All Persons Entitled to Rank as Citizens – Lehigh Next to Fort Dodge in Size in County.

County Auditor Harry Holm has received the census returns from Lehigh and they evidence the fact that the town has grown to some extent during the past five years. The present census shows a gain of 130 people over the returns of 1900.

According to the present census, there are just 936 persons in the city as against 806 in 1900. It is a fact, however, that the incorporate limits do not cover all of the town, and that there is a considerable settlement down on Crooked Creek that is not counted as a part of the above figure. This settlement would add at least another hundred to the total and bring it up to more than a thousand inhabitants.

Outside of Fort Dodge Lehigh is the largest city in the county, and there is every prospect that there will be considerable advancement there the coming summer, as it is almost assured that at least one of the railroads that enter the place will be put on thru during the next few months.

This will mean the further development of their many natural advantages and a good growth will be the result. It is a well known fact that there is a heavy vein of coal underlying the whole town and surrounding country that has never been worked. This with the big supply of the best of clay for both brick and pottery purposes an immense amount of the finest kind of silica, or glass sand and the other natural features of advantage, should make the little city on the south.

(Editor’s note: According to a Wikipedia article, Lehigh had 497 residents in the 2000 census. The town also has a Facebook page.)

Tags: 1905, Holm

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 27, 1906

Aged Woman Breaks Hip

Mrs. Margaret Wilkinson Sustains Severe Accident This Morning.

Mrs. Margaret Wilkinson, who resides at the home of her daughter, Mrs. W.A. Roper, on Ninth Street and Seventh Avenue North sustained a severe accident this morning through a fall on a slippery sidewalk.

Mrs. Wilkinson started to walk from the house and had proceeded but a short distance when she slipped and fell heavily to the ground. A physician was called and it was then learned that she had sustained a broken hip. Mrs. Wilkinson is eighty two years old and the injury will go hard with her.

Tags: 1906, Roper, Wilkinson

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 27, 1906

Take Out Fish By Barrel

High Water Which Later Recedes – Leaves Finny Creatures Stranded on Land.

Parties living along the banks of the river have had the unique experience during the last couple of days of being able to take all the fish that they will need for family use for days to come with the naked hands.

The high water of yesterday and the day before sent the river above the banks and onto low lands in places. When the ice gorge which dammed the stream gave way last night it receded much more suddenly than it came, leaving dozens of fish stranded in a few inches of muddy water, almost in the back yards of residents living near the stream. One man states that he took out nearly two barrels of catfish, pickerel, buffalo, etc., this morning.

(Editor’s note: For obvious reasons, I will file this one under “Fish Stories.” I have come across some other fantastic stories in old news articles and will use that category for the unusual and spectacular stories like this one.)

Tags: 1906, flooding