The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 7, 1903

Little Child Dies in Wagon Home

Child of Henry Palmer, Emigrant, Taken Ill and Dies From Exposure South of City

The Family Came From Clare

Child Was Buried at the Expense of the County. A Very Sad Case of Destitution

Webster City, March 7 – An example of privation and exposure in which was mingled the pity and compassion of all who knew the circumstances, was brought vividly before the city authorities Friday morning. A trapper and his wife, bound from Clare, Webster county to Des Moines, travelling (sic) across the country in a covered wagon, lost their 7 months old babe while camping in the edge of this city,  under the most pitiable conditions.

The trapper, Henry Palmer by name, and his family left Clare a week ago. They traveled in a covered wagon drawn by a mule and a horse. They wagon is scantily furnished and extremely chilly and damp for travel in this sort of weather. Palmer and his family traveled slowly, camping for several days in places where they found trapping good. Mr. Palmer hunted and trapped, while his wife was occupied mostly with the care of their baby. They arrived in the vicinity of this city last Monday and camped between the F.A. Edwards Bluff View farm and the John Essig place. The day they pitched camp here, the baby was taken sick with grip and pneumonia, brought on by exposure. Dr. Conrad was called, and attended the baby until Thursday, when Dr. Richardson was called. Thursday night the child died. The city took charge of the little body, and interment was given it in the city cemetery at 3 o’clock Friday afternoon.

The outfit driven by Mr. Palmer excited much interest from those who saw it today. In the rickety wagon was a stove with its pipe protruding thru the canvas. The team looked much the worse for privation, and about the whole outfit was an air of extreme poverty. The genuine sorrow and heartbroken spirit of the parents added to the pitiableness of the situation. After the last sad rites had been performed over the body of their infant, Mr. and Mrs. Palmer proceeded on their journey to Des Moines, where Mr. Palmer expects to get work and where they will locate.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Jan. 15, 1903

Evidence of Attempted Crime

Kit of Burglar’s Tools Found in Clare Stock Yards

Additional Proof of Plot.

Seems Likely That an Attempt to Rob Clare Bank Was Planned.

The fact has already been recorded in The Messenger that on Tuesday morning several sticks of dynamite were found on the steps outside the Bank of Clare, and the supposition seemed plausible that an attempt to rob the bank had been planned and perhaps would have been successfully executed but for some unknown happening that frightened the would-be burglars and caused them to abandon their conspiracy in a panic of fear.

This morning Mr. Con Griffin found a package in the Clare stockyards w hich on being opened disclosed a kit of tools such as safe blowers would probably carry. There was also a bottle of liquid substance supposed to be nitroglycerine and a piece of soap.

The stockholders of the bank have reason to feel glad over the outcome and no doubt would not object to giving a substantial sum to the person who caused the band of safe blowers to flee so hastily, even though the fact that such an attempt was being planned was not dreamed of. There is absolutely no clue other than the circumstantial evidence easily conjectured from the few facts as stated.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Jan. 14, 1903

Town of Clare is Agitated

Three Sticks of Dynamite and Matches Found on Steps of State Bank.

Bank Robbers  Suspected

Supposed They were Ftightened (sic) Away Before Securing Entrance to Bank Building

Three sticks of dynamite and several matches, found on the steps of the State Bank at Clare, are mute witnesses of what might have been a daring attempt of safe breakers on Tuesday night. Where they came from no one knows. Who placed them there is equally a mystery, but there they reposed this morning, to greet the gaze of the Clare citizens as they started for their place of business.

The whole town is in a ferment over the matter and dynamite and safe blowers formed the sole topics of conversation in Clare today.

There is absolutely no clue to indicate how the dynamite came to be where it was found. The only natural supposition is that safe blowers had started to do their work on the bank, and had fled in haste, leaving their explosives behind them. It is reported that there was considerable money in the bank at the time. The people of Clare are keeping a sharp look out for suspicious strangers.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 1, 1905

A Ton of Honey For New York

E.D. Russell of Clare Ships a Ton of Honey to New York.

There is a new industry that is assuming large proportions. This is the honey bee culture at Clare. The bee farm is owned by E.D. Russell of Clare who has a very large number of hives. All of his bees are fed on white clover and make the finest of honey because of this food. An article in the Clare Tribune states that Dr. Russell will ship this week a ton of honey to New York. This is perhaps the largest shipment of money (sic) that has ever gone out of this part of Iowa and Dr. Russell is to be commended for his management of his bees. The honey is shipped in basswood crates and goes to New York in a refrigerator. Because of the excellence of the honey and the earliness of the season, Dr. Russell receives the sum of $320 ($7,665 in today’s dollars) for his consignment.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: July 2, 1906

An Impromptu Bull Fight

Residents of the River Flats Frightened by Enraged Animal – Fortunately no one Injured.

A call for police to care for a maddened bull was sent into the city hall on Saturday afternoon by people residing along the river flats near the lower bridge over the Des Moines river. The call was responded to at once and for more than (an) hour two policemen and a half dozen men struggled with the enraged animal, in forcing it along the distance of a block to some stock sheds in the Illinois Central yards.

The bull was the property of C.O. Humbert, a stock buyer residing in the city. It, together with a large herd of animals, was being driven into the city from the west, when on reaching the rver (sic) flats it became maddened by the heat and exertion of the long trip and became unmanageable. Fear that it would riot the whole herd was entertained, at first, but it was finally separated from thema nd left in charge of one of the drivers, whom it attacked.

He was given assistance by several men working in the neighborhood, who managed to keep the animal from injuring or killing anyone, by long ropes fastened about its neck and held tight in several directions.

Finally when the poice (sic) arrived an effort was made to take it to the Illinois Central stock yards, where the remainder of the herd had been safely quartered, was made. The bull became more and more vicious, and only after an hour’s hard work was the trip across the tracks to the stockyards accomplished.

The bull was one of a large number which Mr. Humbert purchased several days ago from a farmer residing near Clare by the name of Schultz.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 6, 1903

Was Afraid of Tiring Dentist

Mrs. Lennon, of Clare, Shows Unexpected Solicitude for the Man Behind the Forceps

Had Seventeen Teeth Pulled

After Ordeal Was Able to Go and Spend Afternoon in Shopping Before Returning Home

As a perspiring dentist, after considerable muscular effort, jerked out three or four husky molars, Mrs. Lennon  of Clare, who had climbed into the chair with a prospect of having seventeen teeth extracted at a sitting, looked up in his face with kindly anxiety, and asked, “Don’t it make you tired to work so hard, doctor?” the perspiring dentist suppressed his sense of the ludicrous, and resumed his tooth pulling.

A record of endurance such as is seldom equalled, was made by Mrs. Lennon, when at one sitting, and without any undue strain on her nerves, she submitted to the removal of seventeen teeth, and later went on and did some shopping, as tho she had done no more than have one filled.

Mrs. Lennon did not seem to feel that she was doing anything out of the ordinary. she would not have believed it, if told that many women, and men too, if obliged to submit to such a strain, would be threatened with nervous prostration. When she was in the chair, and the work was begun, her sympathy was more for the dentist who was doing the work, than for herself, who was called upon to undergo the suffering attendant up on so extended a season in the dentist’s chair.

Mrs. Lennon had her seventeen teeth out, and returned to her home in Clare, with the consciousness that an unpleasant experience was well over, and entirely unsuspecting that she had broken a record in Fort Dodge dental annals.

(Editor’s note: A few days after this article was published, more information came to light regarding the number of extractions possible at one sitting. Mrs. Lennon’s experience, though extraordinary, was no record-breaker.”

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 10, 1903

Twenty to Thirty Teeth a Day Not Uncommon

Additional Testimony Furnished The Messenger of the Tooth Pulling Proposition.

The articles which appeared in The Messenger regarding the record of eighteen extractions being something out of the ordinary, I wish to say that eighteen at one sitting is a very low number and I happen to know whereof I speak. On the day the Clare lady had eighteen out and broke the record (supposedly) Mrs. A.E. Day, also of Clare had twenty-one teeth extracted in about six minutes time. Just before that Mrs. A.M. McCluctia had twenty-six at one sitting and at about the same time Mrs. M. Jacobson had 22 taken out in a very few minutes. I happened to witness these operations which by the way were performed without apparent pain and no hard work or bluster made over them. The operations were, I am told, the average, and the time in each case only a few moments. This operator also informs me that twenty to thirty teeth extracted at a single sitting is a very common practice with him and that there is nothing serious or wonderful in such an operation.

-A Reader.

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.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 10, 1905

Town of Clare is a Moral One

There is no Crime in Clare

He States That Clare Has No Name on List of County Poor, Has a large Temperance Society With One Hundred and Fifty Members.

Clare, a town which has always had the reputation as one of the roughest of the county, is really one of the most moral, and according to the claim of Supervisor P.H. Cain, who hails from the little city on the northwest, it can show a record that cannot be approached by any other city of the county in any particular. With regard to the matter, he said to a Messenger representative:

“They can say what they will about Clare, but nevertheless that town can show a record that cannot be approached in the way of morality and absence of crime. It is a fact that there has never been a Clare man incarcerated in the county jail; it is also a fact that there has never been a serious crime committed within the borders of the town. There is not one name from Clare on the list of the county poor and there is not another town of its size in the county that can show a temperance society with as large a membership as is held in the Clare Temperance League, which has 150 names on its roll book.

“There are three saloons in the town, I will admit, and that it looks bad for a city the size of Clare. But it must be taken into consideration that there are two dry counties that come to Clare for their liquid refreshments, and it is these people who really give the greater part of the support to the liquor business. There is Pocahontas, which is a temperance county, on the west and on the north Humboldt. The people from these counties come to Clare with their tongues hanging out, and when they do get filled up they are a bad lot.

“Of course there are a lot of people in Clare who take their liquidations pretty regularly, but when you come right down to the facts of the case, there is less of rowdyism in Clare than in many cities of the country that bear a better reputation. And it is a fact that there is actually no crime. There is no doubt of the fact, too, that there is a tendency in the city toward a reform and there is less of the ordinary rowdyism now than there was a year or two ago. The town is improving in moral tone all the time which cannot be said of many of the other places of the county.”