The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 7, 1903

Messenger Want Ad Did It

Caused Return of a Ladies’ Watch Lost on Fourth.

Miss Bertha Habicht of Dubuque Recovers Missing Property of Considerable Value.

A ladies gold watch containing a set of five diamonds in the back of the case and having inscribed in it the name of Miss Bertha Habicht of Dubuque, was picked up on the road between the ball park and the bridge, by Alvein Mumper on Sunday morning.

The watch, which is a valuable one, was evidently dropped by its owner while returning from the ball park on Saturday. It was found by Mr. Mumper, who is janitor of the Central freight house, near the side of the road, where it might escape detection for some time. It was a small sized ladies’ timepiece of solid gold case, and having an Elgin movement.

Mr. Mumper was able to return the watch to hits owner thru the agency of a Messenger want ad, Miss Habicht having immediately inserted an ad in the Messenger upon discovering that her property was lost, and Mr. Mumper upon returning the watch to this office received the reward offered.

Tags: 1903, Habicht, Mumper

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 7, 1905

Storage Charges Cause Trouble

Patrons of the Railroads Do Not Like to Pay Storage Charges

Hurts Mail Order Houses

The Rule Adopted by the Illinois Central and Iowa Car Service Association Went Into Effect July 1 – Much Complaining From Patrons.

The rule recetnly [sic] adopted by the Illinois and Iowa Car Service Association, of which association all the western railroads are members, has caused considerable trouble here. The rule was to the effect that all shipments in less than car load lots, not taken from the freight warehouse within twenty-four hours of the time the freight was received should be charged storage rates.

The storage rates, while comparatively small would yet amount to a large sum within a short time, should the freight not be taken from the house. A charge of five cents a day for each hundred pounds is paid, so that should the shipment weigh four or five hundred pounds and remain in the warehouse a few days the owner would soon have a bill to pay that he would not like.

A fraction of one hundred pounds and a fraction of a day are charged at the same rate. Thus all people who are expecting a shipment of freight from any point would do well to look the matter up occasionally and see that it is not laying around the warehouse. The railroads send a postal card to all owners of freight immediately upon its arrival, but this card might not be delivered in time to allow the owner a chance to get it out before the storage rates went into effect, so the method of calling up the freight office daily is a good plan to keep from paying freight storage charges.

Although the business men do not like the idea of paying storage charges very well, in the end it will help their business as it will hurt the business of the mail order houses. As the customers of the mail order houses reside mostly in the country, the freight will in all probability lay around the warehouse for several days before the farmers are able to get in and get the shipment. This will cost the farmers so much that in the end it will be cheaper to buy of home merchants.

The railroads have for some time been charging storage on all car load shipments, but the first day storage was charged on smaller shipments was Wednesday as Sunday and the Fourth both being holidays, the rule did not go into effect until the fifth.

Tags: 1905

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 7, 1906

Mayor ‘Gainst Swimmin’

Posts Sign at the River Which Warns the Small Boys to Keep Away From the Stream.

The above notice posted at the river bank near the city waterworks has struck terror into the hearts of the small boys of the city who have been in the habit of taking an occasional plunge at any point along the river that their desire suggests. Complaints from residents living near the river has been the cause of the posting of the sign, and on this occasion the mayor, though his jurisdiction usually extends only to the city limits has moved his authority line up the stream and barred the bathers entirely. The order will be strictly enforced too. The police have orders to arrest all violators.

Tags: 1906, Bennett

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 7, 1905

Iowa Butter for Use in the Navy

Creameries of the State Will Be Called Upon For Large Amount

The Local Product May Go

Fort Dodge Company Not Yet Called upon But May Contribute Before Contract is Filled – All Must Be of the Best Quality.

Fort Dodge people may be interested in the news that Iowa will furnish nearly all the butter for the consumption of the sailors in the United States navy next year, and that possibly some of the product of this city may go to make more palatable the hard tack of the boys who uphold the nation’s honor on the blue expanse. Four hundred thousand pounds or over is needed and all the big creameries of the state will be called upon to aid in furnishing the supply. Last year much of the butter consumed on naval vessels was bought from this state, the Sioux City creamery putting most of it on the market.

This season a much larger amount will be used and creameries all over the state will aid in putting forth the required amount.

The local manufactury as yet has had no call to put forth their product for the purpose but when the time comes those in the contract may be so rushed in filling the orders that resort will be made to the butter that is made in this city.

At Clarinda the big creamery is busily engaged in making 200,000 pounds of this butter, while the Monticello creamery has a similar contract.

Butter for the navy must all be put in three-pound cans, which are hermetically sealed, placed in sawdust packed boxes and then kept in cold storage at zero temperature, until ordered shipped to some ocean port to stock an American man of war. Swift & Company, the big packers of Chicago, secured the butter contract from the navy department and then sublet the immense contract to Iowa and Kansas creameries. As soon as the butter is packed it is sent to Chicago to be kept in the big cold storage buildings of the company until it is needed by the navy.

The government requires a somewhat different butter for its navy thatn is placed on the table for a landsman. It has been found that butter to stand the long trips of the war vessels to all climates must contain a low per cent of water and a high per cent of salt, and all the navy butter is made according to this requirement. The contracting companies are required to guarantee that this butter will keep for at least three years. In order to have the best possible dairy butter, the government also requires that its navy butter be packed only in the month of June and July. It is placed in three pound hermetically sealed tin cans.

At Clarinda a new process for sealing the cans has been successfully adopted. A cement composition is placed on the edge of the can top and then the can top is crimped firmly by a machine into this cement, thus making it air tight. Other creameries have had to solder each can and at Sioux City last year, when the navy butter was put up there, a force of nearly fifty solderers alone were kept busy. The new sealing process at Clarinda requires the services of only two or three men for the same amount of work.

For this butter in cans the government pays 29 cents a pound, which with the present butter market hovering about 20 cents a pound, is expected to give a good profit to the creameries, though the packing is more expensive than that required for the ordinary marketing of butter in the United States.

Tags: 1905