(Editor’s note: graphic content)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 18, 1903

Mangled By Stallion’s Bite

Hnnry (sic) Vauble, a Webster City Farmer, Terribly Injured

Entire Cheek is Bitten Out

Entered Barn to Look After Sick Horse and Got Into Stallion’s Stall by Mistake

Webster City, May 19 – Henry Vauble, aell to do farmer living seven miles north of this city, had his whole cheek bitten out by a vicious stallion here this morning. He is now at Mercy hospital, suffering great pain from his injury.

Mr. Vauble has had a horse undergoing treatment at one of the Webster City livery barns for some days past, and this morning came in to see how the animal was getting along. By a mistake he got into the stallion’s stall which was next to that of his horse. The animal turned and with one vicious snap tore away the man’s whole left cheek.

Vauble staggered back, the blood flowing from the wound in streams. The employes (sic) of the barn promptly came to his aid and he is being given every attention.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 17, 1904

Webster City Has Sensation

Heads of the County and City Schools Clash With Dire Results to the Latter

Educators Lose Their Tempers

County Superintendent and City Superintendent are Subjects of Talk

Webster City was treated to a sensation Monday that will be a topic of conversation for at least a day or so. A clash between the two leading educators of Hamilton county occurred in the office of City Superintendent of Schools Ford Monday afternoon and today the partiscians (sic) of the men engaged have something to think about. Beginning at the beginning it is a long story, but in a few words, the unpleasantness directly resulted from the suspension from school of a son of County Superintendent Gerber. The city superintendent did the suspending and it is needless to say that the county and city superintendents were the principal figures in the sensation.

The head of  the city schools, who is also principal of the high school, Monday informed the younger Gerber that his presence at school would not be allowed until further notice. The elder Gerber did not take kindly to the treatment accorded his offspring, and paid a visit to City Superintendent Ford at the latter’s office the same afternoon. The results form the sensation.

The story is told in brief as follows:

When Mr. Ford went to Webster City some time ago his advent apparently was not welcome to everybody in town and at no time since has harmony reigned. In the first place it is alleged he was subjected to an unusually severe examination by the county superintendent. He passed the examination successfully, but the fact that it was unnecessarily severe was not forgotten. It rankled in the breast of the city principal and something different than brotherly love existed between the men since that time.

It is customary when a  pupil is a little late at the Webster City high school to excuse him if possible, for the purpose of maintaining a minimum of tardy marks. Monday Superintendent Ford was ringing bell for the afternoon session as young Ford (sic – should be young Gerber) was approaching the school. In such cases it is said to be customary for the teacher ringing the bell to delay the process until the pupils are in their seats, but on this occasion it is alleged Mr. Ford was not at all reluctant with ringing the bell with all possible speed, presumably with the intent of registering a tardy mark against the boy. When the latter passed the principal into the school building Ford remarked:

“You are tardy sir.”

Acording (sic) to the boy’s story all he said was, “Well, wouldn’t that get you?”

According to the boy’s story all he because of young Ford’s insolence he suspended him from school. (Editor’s note: this is exactly what was printed. Young Ford should be young Gerber.)

The same evening Superintendent Gerber visited Superintendent Ford in the principal’s office in the high school and demanded an explanation of Gerber’s (sic – should be Ford’s) action toward his son, claiming that the suspension was unnecessary and that it was only one of the many incidents in which the high school principal had sought to revenge his feelings toward Gerber by taking out is spite on the latter’s son. One word led to another and what followed is told by Gerber alone. Mr. (Ford) was bereft of his senses from the time of the interview until 3 o’clock this morning. Superintendent Gerber claims that in the heat of the argument he turned and in doing so overturned a piece of statuary from its place. In falling the statuary struck the high school superintendent on the head, rendering him unconscious, from which state he did not recover until early this morning.

The affair has caused a stir in Webster City and its outcome may have one or several endings. Providing the county superintendent’s version of the affair is corect (sic) it may be regarded as an unfortunate circumstance. Otherwise serious results may follow. City Superintendent Ford’s account of the interview is now in order.

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: Feb. 29, 1904

Webster City Young Men Sad

One Result of a Recent Trip to the Neighboring Gypsum City.

They Were Given Good Time

And When They Went Back Home They Slept Too Soundly.

Two young men whose homes are in Webster City came to Fort Dodge the other day and had an awful time getting home. The Webster City freeman-Tribune says they were shown a good time in Fort Dodge and from past experience of Webster City’s good times in Fort Dodge it is more than likely that while here they contributed generously to the mulct tax.

Their sad story is told by the Freeman-Tribune in the following:

“A three mile walk and a livery bill of $3.50, all extra was what it cost two certain Webster City young men to make a little afternoon’s trip to Fort Dodge the other day. It wasn’t because the Webster City boys got lost looking at the skyscrapers, or bought the new Crawford hotel of a sharper or anything of that kind. Oh no.

“The boys, whom we will call Jack and George, for the reason that these names will fit as well as any, spent the afternoon in the Gypsum City, were shown a first-class time by the natives, saw the gypsum mills, the ruins of the mill which burned the other night, the site where the Great Western shops were to have been built – if they hadn’t been erected in Clarion – went thru the automobile factory and numerous other sites famed on the pages of history. In the evening, tired of their sight-seeing and weary to the bone, they boarded the midnight train for home. It being so late, they felt sleepy and therefore didn’t see the lights of Webster City until the train was pulling out of Blairsburg. The boys wanted the “con” to run the train back, but he wouldn’t . Then they wanted him to carry them on to Waterloo and promise to send them back on a special car – but he wouldn’t . He just wouldn’t do anything that a good, respectable, polite conductor ought to do. The boys then wanted to fight – and he wouldn’t even do that. He just grasped them by the nape of the neck and ejected them from the train three miles out of Blairsburg.

“The men found their way to the ‘burg and by putting up $3.50 induced the livery man there to bring them back to dear old Webster City.”

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Jan. 4, 1904

“Beecher Bible” Was a Rifle

Sharpe Rifle Was Given That Peaceful Name

Rare Specimen of First Breech Loaders Ever Made Found at Webster City.

Webster City, Jan. 5 – A “Beecher Bible” was found in Webster City a few days ago by a collector of old and interesting arms, who pronounces it as one of the most perfect specimens of its kind in existence. How it happens that this valuable relic should have found its way to this city might, perhaps, be an interesting story if the facts could ever be learned.

A “Beecher Bible” is a rifle, manufactured by Sharpe, the most famous of early gunmakers in the United States. The specimen now in this city was the property of George MacKown, the missing and much wanted embezzler, ex-manager of the Northwestern Felt Shoe company, and was sold in sheriff’s sale at the court house, when all of MacKown’s personal effects were disposed of on an attachment for debt. There was a long list of goods and much fine furniture, w hich caught the eye of the intending purchaser, and smaller articles were overlooked. Among the effects was a queer-looking gun, a sort of a cross between a rifle and a shotgun. It had a short barrel and a monstrous hammer. It caused a few jocular remarks from the auctioneer and the bidders.

“How much am I offered for this?” said the auctioneer. The first bid was a quarter, which caused a laugh. The rifle was finally knocked down to the proprietor of a second hand store for 75 cents. The second hand dealer placed the rifle in his store window and forgot about it. One day last week a man walked into the second hand store and asked to look at the old rifle. He examined it carefully, but let out no hint as to his value. The proprietor offered to sell the gun for $5, but the man said he would give him just $2 which was finally accepted and t he gun carries away. The second hand dealer had made $1.25 and was satisfied. Had he known the true value of the old rifle he would have hesitated before disposing of it to a stranger for even the sum of $200.

The man carried the gun away and then told what he had found. He said it was perhaps the finest specimen of the original Sharpe rifle in existence. They are very scarce and correspondingly valuable. It is the first practical breech-loader invented and created a reformation in the gun making business when it was manufactured. The gun was made by the Sharpe Manufacturing company at their factories in Meriden, Conn., and was invented shortly before the breaking out of the Civil war. They were first used to any extent in the Kansas-Nebraska war and were shipped to those states in cases marked “Bible,” and afterwards named “Beecher’s Bibles” from a speech made by Henry Ward Beecher.

The gun is a carbine with a 22-inch barrel and shoots the old-fashioned 56-caliber government paper cartridge. The cartridge is shoved into the breech of the gun and the paper end is cut off by the closing of the sliding of hte breech-block, thus exposing the powder which is ignited by a cap. This model was a top-notcher in the rifle building business for many years. In the Civil war they were largely used by the Union cavalry. The specimen picked up here is said to be the finest in the United States.

(Editor’s note: The correct name of the manufacturer is Sharps Manufacuring Company. The Beecher Bible is an actual gun. A modified version was used in “Quigley Down Under”, a movie starring Tom Selleck. An article from the Kansas Historical Society includes a three-page ad for the rifle. I was unable to find any online reference connecting a Beecher Bible and Webster City.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Nov. 3, 1903

Fish in the Farm Fields

An Interesting “Fish Story” From Hamilton County

After Past Wet Seasons Fish Have Been Deposited on Drying Farm Meadows

Webster City, Ia., Nov. 3 – Catfish and bullheads are so plentiful in the ponds, marshes and low places in the southern part of Hamilton county that women go out in the fields to the nearest ponds and gather them up on their aprons as they would chips. This extraordinary condition of affairs has just been discovered by the farmers of the section and “fish gathering” within the past few days has become quite the order of the day.

The fearfully wet seasons of 1902 and 1903 has brought about this strange phenomenon. All the streams during these two years have been so high that the fish, in seeking the headwaters have followed up the creeks, drain ditches and even the drain tile, although it is averred in some parts that the natural evaporation and precipitation of water has been carried on so quickly that small fish and spawn have been lifted from the rivers and have fallen with the rain. Those which fell in the lower places have lived and begot their kind. Of  course this story is more or less discredited, yet the fact remains that the farms in the southern part of the county are well supplied with fish. When the waters receded the fish were unable to get out of the ponds and marshes and can now be easily caught. Many of these ponds have receded to such an extent that the fish can be picked out of them with their hands.

There is something very peculiar about the way the bullheads act as the waters begin to dry up. The other day Sam Varland, a prosperous farmer living near Radcliffe, was crossing one of his fields when he came upon a small pond almost dry. Thinking, perhaps, there were fish in it, he removed his shoes and stockings and waded in. He found it literally crowded with bullheads and cat. While engaged in throwing them out with his hand he felt something hard and slimy deep down in the mud. He ran his hand down and what was his surprise to pull out a big bullhead weighing about four pounds. He kept on digging about, and before he left the pond he had succeeded in pulling twenty-five big fish out of the mud.

Fishermen explain this by saying that the bullhead, as soon as the waters begin to recede and freeze, will dig deep down into the mud, where it will live all winter and come forth again in the spring. Fishing in the larger ponds of the country has been common all summer but no one dreamed until recently that they were so full of fish as they now seem to be. All the farmers are now making a specialty of cleaning out their ponds and all the low places upon th efarm.

Much interest is manifest all over the county in the matter of fishing. It is likely that the farmers will get such a fill of fish that they will have no liking for the finny tribe after the present season is over.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Sept. 22, 1903

Webster City Felt Shoe Factory Starts

After an Idleness of Three Months Caused by the Late Fire.

Thirty Hands are at Work

Capacity of the Factory is Six Hundred Pairs Shoes Per Day.

Webster City, Sept. 22. – After having been idle for a period of more than three months, the Northwestern Felt Shoe company’s plant resumed operations Monday in the old wholesale grocery building. The full force is not yet at work, as there is not enough material on hand, but it is expected that within ten days there will be thirty hands working.

The company has a large lot of orders ahead. There are now three traveling men on the road, Messrs. Kelly, Derr and Porter. The capacity of the new plant is 600 pairs per day, but Manager Coppenall says that they do not expect to run over 300 pairs per day this fall. He also says on account of the larger number of orders ahead it is likely that the plant will run until about the first of December. It is customary to close plants of this kind fully a month earlier than this.

The new company is nicely situated. At present it occupies only the second floor of the wholesale grocery building with an office down stairs. With the expansion which will be made in the spring, the company will occupy the whole of the building. F.S. Currie is in charge of the office, while Mr. Coppenall is managing the plant. The felt now being used in the shoes is all new goods. There was no felt saved from the fire which destroyed the former plant of the company. It is the purpose to work the new plant up to the full efficiency of the former factory.

The cutters, lasters and fitters began Monday morning and will get the raw material in shape for the full force within ten days. However, all the machinery is not in operation.

(Editor’s note: The fire occurred on June 16, 1903, and there was a problem with the former manager on Sept. 14, 1903.)

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 14, 1903

Move House Against Live Wires

The Result Being That The House Catches Fire.

When Cause of Trouble is Discovered Superintendent Gives Movers 20 Minutes to Move.

Webster City, August 14 – “Shut Down! shut down! You’ll set my house afire,” frantically yelled a man as he rushed in the door of the power house. He spied Superintendent Cummings and waving his arms above to attract attention.

“Stop the plant, somebody’ll be killed.” The superintendent did not need any further entreating for just then the fuses all went out showing that there was something wrong somewhere.

“What have you been doing?” asked Cummings. “Somebody has short circuited us and caused a lot of trouble.”

“There’s a wire down,” said the man.

“I guess there’s one down anyway,” remarked the superintendent as the telephone signalled angry patrons who wanted to know what the matter was with the day current. “How did the wires get down?”

“Why, we ran into them,” replied the excited man.

Investigation showed that men, in moving a house north on Prospect had carelessly run into and broken a number of electric light wires at Bank street. The broken wires were spitting fire all around that vicinity to the danger of both the house and men. The superintendent took in the situation at a glance and then gave the men just twenty minutes.

“If you’re not out of there by then,” said Cummings,”I’ll burn you up.”

The men lost no time in dragging the house out of danger and the plant was started again with slight delay. There is a  penalty for running into and breaking electric light wires and it will be exacted if there is another shut down of the plant from this cause.