The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 5, 1904

Child is Seriously Injured

Three Year-Old Girl Kicked by Horse.

Dorothy Deckert Badly Hurt this Afternoon – Head Cut and Eye Injured.

This afternoon about 3 o’clock while playing near her home Dorothy, the three-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Deckert, was seriously injured by a  horse that was staked out grazing near the house. The child attempted to pass the horse when it turned kicking her on the left side of the forehead.

It is thought that the accident to the left eye will result seriously, but as yet the extent of the injury is not known. The child’s forehead was badly cut, especially near the temple. Directly after the accident the little one was carried into the house and medical aid summoned.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 4, 1904

Fortunate End to a Runaway

Team Belonging to Doctor Wilson of Vincent Takes a Lively Spin

Had Broken a Neck Strap

Pole Dropped on Ground – Dr. Wilson, Wife and Baby in Buggy.

About eleven o’clock this morning a light top buggy and pair of horses took a lively spin up South First Avenue as far as Twelfth street where they turned, going north for some distance. The occupants of the buggy were Dr. Wilson, wife and baby who drove in from Vincent this morning and who reside in that town.

While watering the horses at the Eighth street watering trough they became frightened and in lurching about broke a neck strap. This let the pole down and the h0rses became unmanageable and started to run. Turning at First avenue they ran east as far as Twelfth street and then north. When near the Chicago & Great Western depot the horses became separated from the buggy and noting their freedom started with more vigor pulling Dr. Wilson out over the dashboard when he released his hold on the lines and was thrown to the pavement. The horses did not run far, however, before they were stopped.

Little injury was sustained outside of a few bruises, and no damage done to the buggy. One of the horses fell during the runaway and has a deep gash on the breast, which is in no way serious. Mrs. Wilson and the baby escaped with nothing more than a fright and a fast ride.

The Democrat: May 3, 1862

Lamentable Casualty

With regret we announce the death of Mrs. Julia F. Sherman, wife of S.M. Sherman Esq., – our present Postmaster – Mrs. Tirzah V. Sherman, and infant daughter Kate M., wife and daughter of C.A. Sherman, who were unfotunately (sic) drowned in crossing the Boon River on the 24th of April on their return home after an abscence (sic) of some months visiting their relations in the East.

When the sad fate of these ladies was announced, universal sorrow prevailed throghout (sic) our whole community. The deceased ranked among our oldest and most respected citizens. ‘Tis painful to think of the lamentable occurrence. With fond hopes of soon meeting their relatives and friends, who were waiting to receive them when they could say “we are almost home,” the lamentable occurrence took place that caused their death. The bodies were all recovered and brought to this place.

On Saturday the 26th inst. they were accompanied to the grave by a very large number of friends and relations – business was suspended in a great measure throughout the day, every one appeared to sorrow and realize the truth “That in the midst of life we are in death.” We most sincerely sympathize with the relations of the deceased.

The Evening Messenger: May 2, 1899

Short Messages

Born to Mr. and Mrs. Bergess Hurley, a girl.

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George Walters is closing his sale of Wennerstrum bankrupt stock this week.

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C.M. Rudesill is unable to be at his place of business on account of sickness.

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C.W. Newton has taken a position with the Chronicle as book-keeper and canvasser.

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Lost – A pair of steel-bowed spectacles, on Central avenue. Finder please leave at this office.

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R.V. Brown has purchased the John Collins property on Fifth avenue south, just east of the C.W. Gardner residence. The property will be rented.

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A chance has been made in the management of the Salvation Army. Capt. Trusty has been transfererd (sic) to Huron S.D., and his place here has been taken by Capt. Tallman.

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Do you want help? Have you lost anything? Have you property for sale house for rent or any of the numerous “wants” and “losts”? If you have any of these you will find The Messenger want column just the place to get direct returns. It is one of the most interesting columns in the paper and is located on first page where it is read with interest every evening.

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The drawing for the quilt to be raffled by Mrs. J.A. Dodge will take place at the house Friday.

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Five teachers took the examinations with County Superintendent Findlay Friday and Saturday.

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Mrs. and Mrs. Henry Corey have closed up their house for the present and will spend the next month in Lehigh.

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The funeral of Mrs. M.G. Sperry occurred today from her home in Otho, the body being buried in Otho Cemetery.

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The death of Mrs. J.R. Clark occurred Monday at her home in Kalo. Deceased was 49 years of age. She was buried at 11 o’clock this morning in the Otho cemetery.

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Sioux City Tribune: A horseless carriage has been ordered for private use by a Fort Dodge business man. There is an air about that town that is good for other things besides pneumatic tires.

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The tags which will be place on all dogs by the city as a token of respectability have arrived and will be on demand after today. All dogs must wear these tags or they will be shot by the city marshal.

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At the council meeting last evening Charles Peterson was awarded the contract for putting in the storm sewer on First avenue south. Bids were received from John Riley and Frank McCann, but Mr. Peterson’s bid was considerably cheaper than any of the others and he was awarded the contract.

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Joe Cuppett who for the past seven or eight years has been doing the transfer business for the Fort Dodge Grocery house has sold his outfit to Dwight Lemon who will in the future operate this department of business for the grocery house. Mr. Cuppett has not yet decided upon what he will do in the future.

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Des Moines Leader: It now seems that the Fort Dodge Cyrano de Bergerac club is composed entirely of male membership. The girls’ association club is called the “Cinderella.” The Leader having been called down by the Post for saying that the young women poked their noses into other people’s affairs will now recant and make correction that they have simple put their foot in it – the slipper, of course.

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The soda fountains of the city are being charged, cleaned and put in readiness for the spring and summer demand for cooling drinks that will soon be with us. The work of preparing the fountains and charging them is a task of considerable magnitude and the merchants have been engaged in the work for some time. The sizzling soda water and the refreshing ice cream soda will soon be on tap.

George Gillman the obliging clerk of Campbell and Tower’s drug store spent Sunday with Webster City friends.

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The past week has witnessed considerable damage in the vicinity from the high winds. Among those who have been sufferers is Henry Hayler whose windows were blown in and his carpets and other interior furnishings considerably damaged by the rain. Another sufferer is Isaac Bird of Elkhorn who had several of his outbuildings injured. The roofs were torn from the barn, corn crib and buggy shed and some other damage done. Hans P. Greggerson, a farmer living near the poor farm, reports that a barn on his place was lifted from the foundation and completely turned around.

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A good representation of the Y.M.C.A. wheelman met at the association rooms Monday evening and perfected an organization. The members seemed to be enthusiastic and the prospect for an active membership is good. The following officers were elected: president, Dr. A.H. McCreight; captain, Irving Gates; secretary and treasurer, Almond Cochran. A committee of three consisting of R.H. Green, M.D. Hillegas and E.M. VanPatten was appointed to draw up a written constitution. A meeting will be held next Monday evening when this constitution will be presented for acceptance or rejection.

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L.S. Coffin has been invited to be the guest of the Biennial International convention which meets in New Orleans, La., May 8. The delegates of the north and Canada have a special train of Pullmans over the Illinois Central from Chicago and he is to meet them there and to be honored as their guest on the train and at the convention. This is a very large convention. There will be from 500 to 1,000 delegates besides several hundred visiting brothers of the order. He left this morning for Des Moines and from there will go on to Chicago. A large number will visit the home for disabled trainmen at Highland Park while in Chicago. Mr. Coffin goes into Chicago ahead of time to make ready for the visitors.

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Go to Phillips and Lockyer for hose, hose reals (sic), and lawn sprinklers.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 1, 1905

This illustration provided courtesy of Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents website.

For All Trades

Webster City Company Will Build Ingenious Tool.

Webster City, May 1 – Articles of incorporation for a new manufacturing company in this city have been signed. The organization is to be known as the National Hatchet company and will manufacture a patent tool which can be put to many uses. The officers of the organization are:

E.E. Valentine, Webster City, president; W.A. Norton, Marshalltown, vice president; G.A. Smith, Laurel, secretary; H.R. Dodge, Webster City, treasurer; J.R. Morris, Jewell, Kan., manager.

The company is capitalized at $50,000. The tool they will manufacture can be used as a hatchet, hammer, wire cutter, leather punch, nail puller, screw driver and has detachable jaws upon it. With a change of jaws the tool adds the following to its many uses: A hoof trimmer, pruning knife, bailing applier, stock marker, pipe wrench and some others.

(Editor’s note: I found a website with an illustration of the tool. It is posted with permission of the Directory of American Tool and Machinery Patents and Stan Schulz, DATAMP “Wrench steward”  & editor, Missouri Valley Wrench Club newsletter. You can visit this page for more information. )

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 22, 1904

Colonel Blanden Dies Thursday

Pioneer Business Man and former Soldier Succumbs to Long Illness.

His Life Ended Peacefully

His War Record of Note – Prominent in Banking business.

One more pioneer gave up this mortal life when Colonel Leander Blanden passed away Thursday evening. Men, the chapters of whose lives are incidents in the growth and upbuilding of the community, one by one are ending their lives of usefulness and passing to greater reward and the death of Colonel Blanden adds but another to the long list of pioneers who have passed before him.

Colonel Blanden died Thursday evening at 6:30. Death was the immediate result of apoplexy, altho the deceased had been a sufferer from Bright’s disease for several years previous to his death. Death was peaceful, the vital forces which had sustained life during his long illness gradually becoming exhausted until finally the spark went out and a life of seventy-four years was ended. Deceased passed his last moments on earth with his relatives, who were around his bedside when the death angel arrived.

The funeral will take place tomorrow afternoon at 3 o’clock from the residence on the southeast corner of Central avenue and Tenth street. The members of Fort Donaldson post, G.A.R. will attend the funeral in a body. Burial will be in Oakland cemetery.

Leander Blanden was born in Burlington, N.Y., in 1830. There he spent his boyhood days and the first years of his young manhood. When the gold fever spread over the country in 1849 young Blanden like many others in the east started for the gold fields of the west. For two years he remained in California, returning to Burlington in 1851. Soon after his return from California he decided to move to the middle west and soon after settled in Marengo, Ill.

In Marengo he was engaged in the grain business with his brothers and followed that pursuit until the outbreak of war between the north and south, when the young man, inspired by patriotism that led his grandfather to fight for liberty in the revolution forsook the peaceful pursuits of business life for the hardships and dangers of a soldier. Leander Blanden fought for the union as his grandfather had fought against English tyranny and oppression in the war of the colonies against Great Britain. His war record is an important one, and one that was a source of pride to deceased during life, and may well be regarded as such by his surviving relatives. three times he was promoted for meritorious service, first to major, then to colonel, and finally to the position of brigadier-general. It was the title of colonel received in the army that he retained in after years.

At the close of the war, Mr. Blanden returned to Marengo, but remained there only a few years. In 1868 he moved to Fort Dodge, and for thirty-six years made this city his home. During the first years of his residence he was engaged in the grain-buying business, and soon after entered the banking business, for some years being president of the First National bank.

Colonel Blanden besides being among the early and  most successful of Fort Dodge financiers, was also a pioneer in the gypsum industry, a business that especially in the earlier days was one of great importance to the city. He built and operated what is known at the Blanden mill, which was the second gypsum mill operated in the vicinity of Fort Dodge. During the last years of his life, colonel Blanden confined his interests (missing text) and other property, being especially interested in his farms, where he spent many hours of quiet and rest.

Colonel Blanden was united in marriage in 1885 to Mrs. J.M. Berry, who died some years ago. The union was blessed by no children.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 21, 1905

Prisoners Clean City’s Streets

Police Guard Them While They Beautify Fort Dodge

They are Better When Busy

Idleness has a Tendency to Get Them Into Mischief – The New Method of Cleaning This City Will be continued by the Present Administration.

This was the sort of a hand out Major S.J. Bennett gave to three tramps this morning in police court, and there was consternation in their faces when they realized the horrible truth that they were up against a proposition where they would either have to work or they could not eat.

To take care of them a special police officer was sworn in and he has instructions to see that they fulfill the conditions in the way of a decent amount of labor, or they will be held to the slender fare prescribed for them by his honor.

This morning they were taken out by the officer and put at work picking up the papers and trash off the streets. In this role they attracted much attention and there was a great amount of favorable comment as the people passing along the street caught at the idea.

When the papers are all picked up, they will be put at work with a shovel, and it is the intention of his honor to add to the force. The police are instructed to take precautions to capture every tramp that steps inside the city limits and there is a prospect that the special offer will have a considerable gang under his care in a short time.

One of the vags who is on the streets is the same fellow captured Thursday. He was turned loose on account of the fact that it was too rainy for him to work and ordered out of town. He was given a good meal just befoer he startd at ten o’clock, but he had the “habit” and before noon, he wa begging a “hand out” over in West Fort Dodge, ont he grounds that he had been “starving for three days.”

A telephone message to police headquarters brought out the patrol, and he was hustled into the reflectatory, where he was kept till this morning when he went to work with two other vags. The men are Luke O’Brien, Frank Jones and Martin Scott.

Frank Jones is a resident of Fort Dodge and has been a sort of outcast from society for some time. He was arrested a day or two ago and was at that time given a chance to get out of town, which opportunity he failed to avail himself of. Thursday he spent the day begging funds and drinking and was picked up by police. In court this morning when he was told it was either work or bread and water, he was highly incensed that he should be asked to work and stated he would take the bread and water.

He, however, went out on the street with the rest of the gentlemen of leisure, but at the first opportunity, made a run for it and made goo his escape. The police hope that he has made a good job of his getaway, so that he will not be seen back in Fort Dodge again. The last seen of him he was making the most undignified haste in the direction of the Illinois Central depot, where he hoped to catch a freight train out of town.

There were also two drunks up this morning, Frank Kopaski and Fern (?) Willard. Both of these men liquidated and went their ways rejoicing.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 20, 1904

Plan Novel Trip to World’s Fair

Fort Dodge Young men Go to the Exposition by the Water Route.

Make Trip in a Houseboat

Float Down Des Moines to Mississippi, Down Stream to St. Louis.

A trip to the St. Louis exposition is planned by several Fort Dodge young men living on the west side, that for novelty at least, will hardly be surpassed. The plan is to build a flat boat and float down the Des Moines river to the Mississippi, thence down the father of waters to St. Louis. The boys do not care to have their names mentioned, as yet, as their plans are not fully completed. As far as is now known there is nothing that will discourage them in their undertaking and they anticipate a jolly trip.

The “voyagers” will build their boat of sufficient size to contain bedding, tents and supplies and will be fully equipped to camp if they wish to, or anchor their boat to the bank of the stream and seek shelter at night in the towns along the river, or if no town is at hand, in a farm house which will never be far distant from a stopping place.

The party will be a merry one. It is the young men’s intention to be prepared to fish and hunt when they please, while reading and other recreation will while away the hours, and the ever changing scenery, perhaps with an occasional ducking, will tend to overcome the monotony of the trip.

It is expected that the trip will take about three weeks, counting the stops. They will probably wait  until the weather is settled before starting. They expect the saving on car fare to pay their expenses, and on arriving in St. Louis, will probably sell or abandon their boat and come back by rail.

The current of the Des Moines at the present stage of water, travels at an average rate of at least six miles an hour. It would possible to travel at this rate, at least seventy or seventy-five miles from early daylight to late at night and at this rate, althought (sic) there are many bends in the river. It would not take many days to reach the Mississippi, when a sail might be used to good advantage with a north wind. It is the present intention of the prospective voyagers, however, to take plenty of time for the trip, and make it as pleasant an outing as possible.

(Editor’s note: If I should find later mention of this proposed trip, if it really did take place, I will update on this post.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 19, 1905

Mayor Conducts Matrimonial Bureau

Works It in Conjunction With Police Court and May Make It a Success.

Johnson Was a Little Shy

One of the Candidates Having Been Married Did Not Take Kindly to the Mayor’s Proposition – The Other Thought It a Good Thing.

Major S.J. Bennett is conducting a matrimonial bureau as a side issue along with his police court. He opened up business this morning in the new department for the first time with two candidates. One of these was a little shy when the question of matrimony was broached, and a few questions developed the fact that he had been there and had had experience.

The other candidate, when asked if he was enjoying the bliss of a home and wife made the statement that he had never married, but that he really thought it would be a good thing for him if he were joined up with some good woman. He intimated that a wife might act as ballast for his wandering craft, and hold him truer to his course. Both of the men were strongly advised to tie up as soon as possible by his honor.

Both of them were up as plain drunks and were given the usual $1 and costs, but as it was the first time for them under the present administration, they were let off. Albert Johnson, who a few months ago was one of the faithful ones, and made his appearance regularly from once to three times a week, was one of the offenders, and Frank Carter, a farmer, was the other. Carter is the man who looked with favor on the mayor’s matrimonial proposition, and it is probable that he will become a benedict in the very near future.

(Editor’s note: I can’t help but wonder how the women of the town would feel upon reading this. “Oh, joy. A couple of drunks are going to be looking for wives. And one of them has already failed at marriage.” Who wouldn’t jump at that chance?)