The Fort Dodge Daily Chronicle: July 5, 1913

Duncombe House Was Bombarded by Rockets

Fire Truck Makes Two Runs – No Damage

The Duncombe hotel received a regular old-fashioned bombardment last evening about 10:30 oclock (sic) when a party of hilarious celebrators began shooting sky rockets from the Third street viaduct. A veritable shower of rockets began to fall about the hotel and W.E. Duncombe complained to the police; but before the celebration could be stopped a rocket lit on the roof of the hotel and burned a large hole in the south roof of the building.

An alarm was turned into the Central fire station but the fire was extinguished before the truck arrived.

Earlier in the evening some celebrator touched off a rocket and sent it hurling thru two panes of window glass into a room in the hotel. The fire gained a good start but was extinguished by a bucket brigade. The damage was slight.

“Such a manner of celebrating should be stopped,” said Mr. Duncombe this morning. “The shooting of rockets onto dry shingle roofs should be made a punishable offense. It endangers life and property and is absolutely inexcusable.”

False Alarm

Some joy-riders, thinking to cause a little excitement, turned in an alarm from Third avenue south and 6th street about 10:30 Thursday night. The fire truck made the run in fast time, which probably satisfied the celebrators, as no more trouble was encountered during the night.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 25, 1903

Are Charged With Horse Stealing

John and Ed Wheaton Are Placed Under Arrest By Constable Flint On Wednesday.

Hearing Was This Afternoon.

Claimed that They Took an Animal Belonging to Mrs. Josephine Scott – Alleged Theft Was Committed last February

John and Ed Wheaton, charged with stealing a horse from Mrs. Josephine Scott, were arrested on Wednesday afternoon by Constable A.J. Flint, and were lodged in the county jail. They were brought up for hearing on Wednesday, but the hearing was deferred until 2 o’clock this afternoon, in order that the witnesses could be secured.

The Wheaton boys have been employed in grading gangs in the city for some time past. The told the officers that they had paid for the horse which they were charged with stealing.

Mrs. Scott claims that her horse was taken last February from the Davis livery barn, where it was being kept. The Wheaton boys were in Sioux City not long after, and it is claimed that they had driven the horse to that place and disposed of it there. The accused claim that they went to Sioux City by rail.

Considerable interest was taken in this afternoon’s hearing.

The case came up before Justice Martin this afternoon but at time of going to press the hearing was not complete.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 22, 1903

Lehigh Home Blown Up By Dynamite

Residence of Henry Lewis is Wrecked By Explosion of a Dynamite Bomb.

Buiding (sic) is Badly Shattered.

Lewis, Wife and Two Children Escaped Injury as Explosion Was at Rear of House – Strike Troubles Supposed Responsible for Outrage.

Lehigh, June 22 – At 1:30 on Saturday morning, the home of Henry Lewis in this place, was partially wrecked by the explosion of a dynamite bomb under the kitchen door step. Lewis, with his wife and two children were asleep in the house at the time, but they escaped injury on account of the fact that the sleeping rooms are in the front part of the house, while the greatest force of the explosion was felt in the rear of the building.

The house, itself, was badly damaged. The back door was crushed in, the steps destroyed, plastering was knocked down all over the building and the roof was raised by the terrific force of the explosion.

Mr. Lewis has been working in the Lehigh Clay Works, being employed in place of the strikers, and it is supposed that this fact accounts for the outage. The general supposition is that the dynamite was exploded by some of the disaffected workmen at the Clay Works.

The occurrence has aroused much feeling here, as it is almost miraculous that none of the family were seriously injured.

It is supposed that a stick of dynamite with a fuse attached, was placed under the porch, the fuse was lighted, and the guilty parties had plenty of time to make their escape.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 20, 1905

Excursionists Are “Buncoed” at Tara

Small Boys Reap Harvest by Selling Them Colored Water For Beer.

Every Trainload Would “Bite”

Young Grafters Managed to Sell a Dozen or So Bottles on Each Train Before the Ruse Would Be Found Out.

Among the amusing incidents that have developed during the past few days, in connection with the events of  Sunday’s excursion to Chicago there is none so ingenius (sic) in its nature or so mirth provoking as a story which has been reported from Tara.

In that place, it seems a number of small boys hearing of the size and nature of the excursion, secured some two or three days before the day set, a number of empty beer bottles and during their spare hours filled them with colored water and by means of a little ingenius work sealed and labeled them, making them look very similar to bottles fresh from the establishments from which the amber fluid is sent forth.

As fast as a train would pull into the station the youngsters would pass along the platform with an arm-full of bottles offering them for sale to the excursionists at twenty-five cents each. A dozen or so bottles would be sold before the trick would be “tumbled” to but by that time the train would be ready to pull out and the “buncoed” excursionists would be without recourse.

The boys would simply wait until the next train pulled in and then the trick would be worked over again on a fresh crowd. Out of the fifteen or sixteen trains that passed through the town, it is said the youthful grafters cleared a total of forty or fifty dollars.

(Editor’s note: The 2010 equivalent is $5.99 each for the “beers” and $956 to $1,197 total.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 19, 1903

Moorland Bad Man in Jail

Jim Roy, Who Threw His Roomer’s Trunk Down Stairs is Lodged in County Jail.

Is Serving 30 Day Sentence

Roy Preferred to Serve Time in Jail Rather Than Let Town of Moorland Get Benefit of Monday From His Fine.

Jim Roy, a citizen of Moorland, is waiting out a thirty day sentence in the county jail. James inclined to be quarrelsome in his cupes, and this is the cause of his present predicament. The immediate cause of his incarceration, si that hte threw the turnk of one of the lodgers in the hostelry which he keeps at Moorland, down stairs, badly demolishing the trunk, and causing some detriment to the banisters.

The citizens of Moorland decided that something must be done with Roy, and haled him before Justice F.L. Horgeson, who fined him $25 and costs, or the equivalent time in jail. When Roy found that his fine, if he paid it, would go to the town of Moorland, he decided to spite the town, and is waiting it out in jail.

There is some talk of making an effort to send him to the inebriates’ home.

Roy has had the reputation of being a bad man when in his cups for some time. Some time ago, he kicked the whole front out of the Moorland saloon and later broke out of jail when he was locked up.

Sheriff Oleson went to Moorland on Thursday and returned with Roy.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 10, 1904

Recovers a Horse Lost a Year Ago

Disappearance and Unusual Recovery of Broncho (sic) Belonging to Mr. Tuller.

Webster City Man Must Explain

Horse Leaves This City and is Later Traded at Webster City and Come Here.

One evening just a year ago a bronco belonging to Marion Tuller, becoming restless in the confines of the barn escaped from its stall and sought the freedom of the fields east of the city. its owner followed it, but night fell before he was successful in capturing hte runaway and he returned to town empty handed. The lost horse was advertised in the newspapers, but nothing came of the efforts to locate it.

This morning a horse trading outfit drove into town, coming from the east. Behind one of the two wagons composing the outfit was a broncho (sic) with a horseshoe brand on his shoulder. The outfit drove down town and tied up in the alley between Central avenue and First avenue south and Seventh and Eighth street.

Mr. Tuller happened to pass the place where the outfit was stationed. There was little in the outfit to attract his attention until his eyes rested on the bronco with the horsehoe brands on his shoulder. Tuller sees more in a horse than the usual run of men and a single glance only was necessary for him to recognize his horse. The bronco, which had taken French leave from his barn a year before, was there in the alley tied behind the dingy wagon that was the horse trader’s home.

Tuller visited the outfit in a short time accompanied by Deputy Sheriff Clark Woolsey who was armed with a writ of replevin. W.A. Jackson the man in charge of the outfit, made no attempt to hold the horse when the circumstances were explained to him. He had secured the horse, he said, a short time ago from one Bill Greenwood, a well known horse trader living in Webster City. Greenwood was communicated with, but could only say that he bought the horse from (a) herd.

Jackson left for Webster City this afternoon and will demand a settlement of Greenwood.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: June 6, 1904

Briney Tears and a 30 Cent Diamond

The Bait Bitten by Worldly Wise Hotel Clerk and Bit Cost Him $10.

Woman’s Tears His Failing

Unable to Withstand Female Anguish He Proves an Easy Victim.

A certain hotel clerk in this city is mourning the loss of a “tenner” as the result of a soft heart and too much “confidence.” Now this young man is not one who will bite readily at any ordinary gold brick scheme. He is considered very capable of taking care of his own interests when dealing with men, but when a woman, a young and lovely lady approaches him in dire distress with great tears stealing from under long lashes slowly down thru a pink and cream complexion over a delicately rounded cheek, it is then his heart breaks in sympathy and he is sadly in need of a guardian. Under such circumstances he is as gullible as “the boy from Podunk.” and the merest novice could beat the poor fellow out of his eyes and convince him his grandfather’s goat was a bird of paradise. This tenderness for the fair sex is a natural failing with the young man, and he is deserving of real sympathy.

But the story:

It happened a month or more ago, and has only recently come to light and becomes public property now for the first time.

The clerk on this particular morning was voiciferating (sic) his “all  out for the north,” when the office door opened and a young lady stepped in. She was exceptionally pretty, she ordered her room and registered with such sweet grace and womanly modesty that the young man was at once very much struck with her appearance, and during the few days of her stay she was showered with all sorts of small favors. A dreamy look entered the eyes of the clerk. He forgot to call trains at the proper time and was missed from the bowling alley by his friends for two nights at a stretch. “Say,” said he to a companion,” Know how she looks to me? Well, you’ve seen a peck of green apples. You put a pretty, big ripe, rosy-cheeked one right in the center of that peck of green ones. She looks like that to me.”

On the morning of the third day of her stay she called him to her room and with a look of terrible anguish and a throb of pain in her voice told him her tale of woe that would melt the heart of a Klondike snow man.

She had stopped in the city with the expectation of receiving a check from home. The check for some unexplainable reason, failed to arrive for another reason, also inexplainable (sic), she could stay in the city no longer. Then with two great tears coursing down her rounded cheeks she told the now thoroughly distressed young man she had spent almost her last cent.

However, she had a diamond broach, an heirloom in the family placed in her hands a few months previously by a dying mother. This priceless piece of jewelry she would leave with him, knowing him to be an honorable young man, as security if he would stand good for her accommodations at the hotel and lend her the price of a ticket to Sioux City. Oh, the embarrassment and shame she felt at being thus forced to call upon an almost total stranger was terrible to bear. But his face looked so good and kind, she felt as though she could put the same trust in him she would in a brother, had she been fortunate to have had one.

With trembling fingers and a fresh shower of tears which dropped with pathetic little spats on the carpet, she unfastened the pin from her fair throat and thrust it in the hands of the clerk. The seance lasted for some minutes and at its close, the young man, himself almost dissolved in a flood of briny eyewater, shelled out the shekels asked for. He also dropped several plunks into the money drawer and put a “Pd.” after her name in the daybook. In an hour the fair Princess Distress had departed, showering blessings on his head. She would be back thru the city in two weeks and would see him again, but would return the borrowed money by mail the next day. The brooch rested in safety on the lef tinside lining of the clerk’s vest.

It was the start for as pretty a romance as ever adorned the pages of a novel, bu cruel fate! The days passed bringing no tidings of the borrowed shekels. The dreamy light gradually faded from the innocent eyes of the clerk and an expression of pained distrust o’erspread his features.

Finally the young man extracted the brooch from its hiding place next his heart and took it to a jeweler to learn its real value. “Well,” said the man, squinting at it thru a guttapercha tube. “The setting is a pretty fair quality of brass, but the stones themselves are a might poor imitation. I should think when new the thing ought to have retailed for at least 30 cents.”

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 29, 1906

Big Police Court Grist

Five Offenders Feel the Law – Will Work on Streets as Soon as Weather Clears.

Five offenders against the law and order of the city were brought up before Mayor Bennett this morning in police court. Four were plain drunks and the fifth was charged with fighting. John Dorcey, Thomas Kennedy, George Wells, and Peter Ewing admitted having been drunk and were fined a dollar and costs each. Mack Christianson the fifth of the party filled up on fire water yesterday afternoon and attacked Mr. J.J. Scanlon in his blacksmith shop. A rousing fight resulted and Christianson had to be taken from the place by the police. He was treated the same as the others and the police were ordered by the mayor to place all on the city streets as soon as the weather cleared.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 27, 1903

B.J. Foster is an Object Lesson

And the Moral is; Do Not Yield, Unlawfully, to the Pangs of Hunger

Foster Stole Roll of Bologna

Was Interrupted by Police Officers in Midst of Epicurean Banquet. Police News

B.J. Foster yielded to the calls of hunger on Tuesday and as a result, entered a plea of guilty to disorderly conduct in police court this morning. He was fined $1 and costs, and went to jail where he will play a waiting game.

Foster entered the purlieus of the Rock Island yards on Tuesday afternoon, and as he wandered about the yards trying to still the pangs of hunger which were rending his interior, he happened upon an open box car, wherein reposed a sack of succulent, appetizing bologna. The sight was too much for human eyes, at least for Foster’s eyes. Out came his trusty jack knife with one fell swoop the sack was cut open, and  Foster wandered up the platform, with his mouth full of sausage and his heart full of peace.

Station employees noticed Foster wrapped in gastronomic bliss, investigated, discovered the robbery, and called the police. This morning when charged with his crime, Foster admitted taking some apricots, but said not a word about the bologna, thus riveting the chains of guilt more clostly about him.

Henry Clark, plain drunk paid over the regular allowance into the exchequer of the city, and John Bergen, up on a similar charge, went to jail.