The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 5, 1905

Tells the Mayor What to Do

Mayor Bennett Receives Communication With Instructions

Regulate Speed of Autos

No Name is Signed But Writer Says Autos Are Running About City Like Wild – Letter is An Insult – Will Be Disregarded.

The above communication was received by Mayor Bennett this morning, scrawled on the back of a postal card. No name was signed to it and nothing to indicate the person who wrote it was evident about it.

The communication is an insult in every way. The person whoever he is did not dare sign his name or come out in an honest and honorable manner and ask or even demand that the speed of autos in this city be regulated, but instead took for his means of bringing the matter to the attention of the mayor the low, underhanded method of writing an insulting anonymous letter, demanding with unparalleled arrogance that the mayor and policement (sic) act, and at once.

Mayor Bennett stated to a Messenger reporter this morning that he intended to pay no attention whatever to the demand. He said he had no knowledge of autos being run in a careless manner and until a complaint was filed in an honest and honorable manner by some person who takes exception to their operation, would take no action regarding them.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 2, 1905

Fifty Years Since They Saw Ft. Dodge

Tuesday Aug. 1 Marked The Half Ceutury (sic) Post For Family’s Record Here.

Vincent Family Are Pioneers

They Came Here in a Covered Wagon From Dubuque Over a Trail Thru Soughs and Rough Roads – City Was Pretty Young Then.

August 1, 1905, marked a milestone in the history of the Vincent family of this city. Fifty years ago on that day they came o (sic) the town of Fort Dodge. Mrs. George B. Sherman, Mr. Webb Vincent and Mr. (sic) Beth Vincent are the surviving members of the family of six and they tell interesting tales of the state and town as they then appeared.

They left the railroad at Dubuque, making the remainder of the journey in a covered wagon which, with a good span of horses they bought in Dubuque for just five hundred dollars in gold. ($11,554 today)

The road across the prairies and through many sloughs was hardly more than a trail so little was it traveled. They came by way of Webster City, then called Newcastle, and made the journey in about a week.

At Webster City they had the pleasure of spending the night in a hotel and sleeping on real beds. Their rest was broken by their first experience of a genuine thunderstorm. A building across the street from the hotel was struck by lightning and the more timid members of the family doubtless wished that they had not “left their happy homes.”

Factory chimneys and church spires being conspicuous by their absence, the site of the Fort Dodge was proclaimed to the travellers by a flag floating from a flagstaff on the height of the hill now occupied by the S.T. Meservey residence.

A bachelor uncle of the party not knowing what fate might have in store for him, made his toilet before entering the town. He shaved himself, using a pail of water as a mirror. If he did it today he would have to use a safety razor.

The inhabitants of the little town all crowded to doors and windows as the party made its way down the street, the addition of two comely women to society’s ranks being especially a subject of interest.

Among the families then living here whose names are still familiar were Mr. and Mrs. Albee, Dr. and Mrs. Olney, Mr. and Mrs. Plum. Mr. Dawley had brought his bride but a few months earlier. Mr. J.F. Duncombe, Mr. Beecher, Mr. Geo. B. Sherman, Mr. C.C. Carpenter were among the young men of whom the greater part of the population was then made up. Young ladies were at a premium.

The inhabitants of the town were settled in the old fort buildings and the Vincent family took up their abode in the theatre building, a relic of the soldier days. They lived in the dressing rooms and on the stage, stored their grain in the “pit” (the only wheat pit the city has ever boasted) and quartered their horses in the refreshment room. The children recall many pranks in this old theatre but the serious work of building a home (the first residence in Fort Dodge) was soon begun. The lumber was hauled from near Dubuque. The house was on the site of the present library building, but not to be confused with the brick house put up later by the family and only recently torn down. Webb Vincent, in a spirit of boyishness, turned the first shovel of earth in excavating for their dwelling so he can now say he did the first stroke of work on a residence building in Fort Dodge.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 17, 1905

New Wrinkle in Love Letters

Writes Message of Devotion on One Sheet of Paper Sixteen Feet in Length

A certain love lorn swain in Fort Dodge has devised a unique method of communication with the lady of his affections. He recently mailed her a gushing epistle descriptive of his hearts emotions, written on a single strip of paper sixteen feet long and containing over 5,000 words. Needless to say that he was compelled, by lack of a sufficient vocabulary, to repeat often such expression as dearest, sweetheart, etc. It is reported that the girl in question was compelled to employ a Webster’s unabridged dictionary to assist her in the reading of the epistle.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 16, 1904

Give Scientific Demonstrations

Professor Patty Will Make Interesting Experiments at the Chautauqua.

Wonderful Radium Properties

Is an Inexhautible (sic) Source of Heat and Energy – One Stick of It Can Propel a Steamship Across the Ocean – The Experiments.

On July 26 at the Fort Dodge Chautauqua Professor Patty will demonstrate in a lecture some of the properties of the latest scientific discoveries, namely, radium liquid air and wireless telegraphy. Professor Patty is the possessor of a small piece of radium about the size of a pea. The value of radium at present is about $1,000,000 per pound, and yet is it contained in small quantities in almost every other substance like air, water and earth.

The process of reducing it from these substances is yet in the primary experimental state. The most remarkable qualities of radium are its inexhaustible energy of heat and light. The scientists have held a theory called the conservation of energy, namely, that the give and take energy from one body to another is generally believed to balance up. and now radium is discovered to give a continuous expenditure of energy without receiving any equivalent. The source of its power seems to be entirely unlimited. In radium we have a dynamo which throws off high-power electricity whitout any engine or machinery to enforce it. Our steamships could cross the ocean by using the energy of a stick of radium and we understand that that the Light and Power company are negotiating with Professor Patty for the loan of his piece of radium to furnish power to run the street cars with during the Chautauqua if the long delayed shaft don’t come before that time.

These wonderful properties of radium give a new meaning to the relation between spirit and matter so that this new discovery is likely to have an influence on the logical thought. Radium also has some healing qualities and will effect the study of medicin.

All of its wonderful properties are to be demonstrated by Professor Patty in a way to please and instruct the large audience that will no doubt gather on the occasion. He will also show the remarkable properties of liquid air which melts steel pens and freezes strawberries to 312 degrees below zero. A small amount of it will heat a house in winter and cool it in summer.

But the most practical of all recent scientific discoveries is wireless telegraphy. Professor Patty will also demonstrate this. He has a compete set of wireless telegraph instruments and will send and receive messages thru space in t he presence of the audience.

Wireless telegraphy has already become a necessity to this world for it is the only way whereby ships can at a distance communicate with one another and with the shore. Navies of all nations are being rapidly equipped and its possibilities in warfare are being tested in the present conflict between Japan and Russia.

We shall expect soon to have telephoning made possible by the wireless system. The exhibition of these scientific experiments with radium, liquid air and wireless telegraphy will provide a rare opportunity to the people of the community of gaining first hand and accurate ideas of scientific phenomena of world wide renown and the greatest importance.

(Editor’s note: For more about radium, visit this Wikipedia article. For one thing, the article states: “The amounts produced were aways relative small. For example in 1918 13.6 g of radium were produced in the United states.” That amount converts to less than half an ounce – .4797 ounce, to be precise. The $1 million dollar price for a pound of radium would be about$23,949,480 today. Also, it would be easier to search online for Professor Patty if the article had mentioned his first name I did find one specific mention of him in the Chautauqua magazine, mentioning that he would be at the Chautauqua in Fort Dodge in July 1904.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 15, 1903

County Doctors are Organized

First Regular Meeting of the Webster County Medical Association is Held Tuesday.

Society to Meet Quarterly.

Next Session Will Be Held First Tuesday in September – Board of Censors Appointed and Other Business Transacted – Officers of Association.

The fifth regular meeting of the Webster County Medical association was held in the coroner’s office in the court house Tuesday afternoon. the purpose of the session was to compete the organization of the society which was formed a few weeks ago. Among other business transacted it was decided to hold quarterly meetings, the date of the next session being the first Tuesday in September.

The following were appointed a board of censors:

Dr. H.G. Ristine, Fort Dodge.
Dr. C.H. Mulroney, Fort Dodge.
Dr. G.C. Riordan, Barnum.

It will be the duty of this board to determine who is eligible for membership into the society and to investigate any alleged unprofessional conduct on the part of the members. As recently stated in the Messenger, every county organization in the state are units of the Iowa State Medical society, according to the provisions embodied in the constitution of the American Medical association of New Orleans a few months ago, and those attached to the constitution of the Iowa State Medical Society when that body met in Sioux City and a county society membership is necessary to obtain admission into the state organization.

The Webster County Medical association has a membership of twenty-two, the basis on which it was organized, providing for membership from all schools of medicine, including all licensed physicians who admit that they do not practice religion or faith as a healing power for disease.

The following are the officers of the association:

President, Dr. Robert Evans, Fort Dodge.
Vice President, Dr. E.O. Evans, Gowrie.
Secretary, Dr. W.W. Bowen, Fort Dodge.
Treasurer, Dr. F.B. Olney, Fort Dodge.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 15, 1903

Happy Man of Fifty Years Takes a Bride of Sixteen

Unusual Wedding Ceremony to Take Place at Lehigh – Interested Persons are Both Well Known.

Autumn and spring will join hands to tread as one over life’s uncertain pathway, when Paul Jacobs and Elsie May Baldwin, both of Lehigh, take the vows which bind them as man and wife. The groom is a miner by occupation and has lived in the vicinity of Lehigh for a number of years. He is fifty years of age and h is bride is sixteen.

Mrs. (sic) Baldwin is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Baldwin, well known residents of Lehigh. The written consent of the girl’s parents was required before the clerk would issue the certificate which licenses them to wed.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 9, 1904

Otho Township People Celebrate

This is the Day Given Over to Commemoration of Arrival of Pioneers.

Event Takes Up Whole Day

The Old Settlers Will Be Joined by the Younger Generation in Celebration There of the Days of Auld Lang Syne.

Today at the N.H. Hart home southeast of Otho, will occur a birthday party that will also commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of a band of pioneer settlers in Otho township. The read date of the arrival of the party was in June, but owing to another social event which occurred in the neighborhood on that date, the present gathering was postponed and is to occur on July 9, the birthday of N.H. Hart.

This party of early settlers arrived in Webster county in June, 1854, when the present city of Fort Dodge consisted of only four or five little log houses and this place as the county seat had scarcely received consideration. These settlers came to Webster county at a time when it required nearly every man in the county to be present at a “house raising.”

Beside the old settlers whose names appear below there will be many of the younger generation present, the children, grandchildren and other relatives of those named, who have come into the world at far more recent dates. The gathering will be largely in the form of a family reunion, as all present will be related either by blood ties or marriage.

The event will take up the entire day and will be entirely of a social nature. A big dinner will be one of the important events of the day, and the old timers will spend the remainder of the time in chatting of the early times when “forty miles to mill” was a short journey.

The old setters expected to be present are:

O.P. Fuller, Mrs. D.F. Claflin, F.B. Drake, G.D. Hart, L.W. Hart, Williams, Iowa.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 9, 1903

Death Has Called For Two

Leo Halligan Died Wednesday Night After Long Illness.

Funeral Will be Saturday Morning in Corpus Christi Church – Mrs. A.P. Minard is Dead.

Leo Halligan, the eighteen year old son of Mrs. Christopher Halligan, died at his home in the city Wednesday night between eleven and twelve o’clock.

He had been ailing since Christmas. Prior to that time he was a student at the Wahkonsa school and was most popular among his school fellows.

He leaves three sisters, Jennie, Kate and Anna, besides his mother, and brother, Thomas, all of whom reside in the city. His father, the late Christopher Halligan has been dead over ten years.

The funeral will occur from Corpus Christi church Saturday morning at 10 o’clock.

After a five week’s illness Mrs. A.P. Minard passed away at the hospital this morning at two o’clock. Death was caused by typhoid fever.

Deceased was aged 24 years old and was the wife of A.P. Minard, a stone cutter residing on Twelfth avenue south and Sixth street. The body will be taken to Yetter Friday for interment at that place.

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.