The Fort Dodge Daily Chronicle: May 3, 1915

Eight Pound Pike Captured by Hand

Brakeman Captures Fish Which Attempts Foolish Stunt in View of Passing Train.

A Fort Dodge traveling man, who returned yesterday from Minnesota, tells a true fish story which would have given Isaac Walton pointers on entirely (word missing here – new?) methods of fishing.

The train had just pulled out of Welch, Minnesota, and was traveling along the banks of the Cannon river, when the conductor, who was watching the stream, signaled the engineer to make a quick stop. Passengers looked out of the window expecting to see a Ford car on the cow catcher. Instead they saw the brakeman make a dash for the river and pick up a big fish which had fallen on the sand in an effort to work its way upstream by jumping the dam. With his prize wiggling and gasping in his hand he rushed back to the train. The fish was a pike, weighing eight pounds.

L. Williams, the brakeman, and the conductor, J. Peterson, took the pike back to the baggage room and the man from Fort Dodge overhearing them express a wish to keep the fish alive until they reached Northfield, secured a Turkish towel which he wrapped around it. Buckets of water were poured over it from time to time and the pike reached Northfield, the home of the brakeman, alive and in fine condition.

Anyone doubting the veracity of this story can write to L. Williams, Northfield, Minnesota, and have it verified.

Tags: 1915, Peterson, Williams

The Evening Messenger: May 2, 1899

Want Department

For Sale or Rent. The building and fixtures formerly occupied by the Root & Howe meat market. Enquire of Mrs. L. Schultz.

For Sale Cheap. Two good lots with nice little cottage. Will sell at bargain if taken right away. Inquire of Coughlin & Trost.

For Sale. The Mitchell Implement Co. has two hundreds loads of good black dirt for sale.

For sale. Fine river sand. Enquire at this office.

For Sale Cheap. Business property on First avenue south, 40×140. Residence property on Fourth avenue north between Eleventh and Twelfth streets. Residence property on Sixth avenue north between Eleventh and Twelfth streets. Inquire at this office.

Girl Wanted. A girl for plain cooking. Apply at Harrington House.

Paper Hanging. C.C. Ames does first-class paper hanging and painting at reasonable prices. Address Lock Box 5, 911 Second avenue north.

Second hand store is the place to go if you want to buy or sell anything in the line of furniture, cook stoves or carpets. What have you to sell? C.L. Jewell, Proprietor, 2d door south of Court House.

Agents Wanted. By the Midland Life Associations. Good contracts offered to suitable parties. Apply at once.

Girl Wanted. Girl to do house work in family of two. Inquire at 402 north 7th street.

Tags: 1899, Schultz

The Fort Dodge Messenger: May 1, 1905

Gowrie

John Swanson, one of the hands who are employed on the bridge gang, was quite badly hurt by a falling plank one day last week. The plank struck him in the face and resulted in breaking his nose and bruising his face in general.

Little Pearl Chase, of Trenton, North Dakota, arrived in Gowrie Monday  morning. Pearl is going to make her home with her aunt, Mrs. F.N. Brunson and attend school here as there is no school convenient where  her parents live.

Miss Ruby Osborn is sick at present with tonsilitis.

Mrs. Clark left here for Minneapolis Monday evening where she expects to visit with friends for a few days.

Little Gladys and Helen Spangler have been on the sick list lately.

Mr. and Mrs. Chase of Fort Dodge visited with their daughter, Mrs. T.N. Brunson, the fore part of the week.

Wedding bells are ringing. Have you heard their chimes?

Miss Lucy Chock who has been attending school in Clare, is visiting with her parents at present.

Walter Evans of Worthington, Minn. who has been visiting for a few days with his mother, Mrs. O.E. Evans, returned home Monday, accompanied by his two children who have been visiting with their grandmother for sometime.

Mr. and Mrs. Guy Johnson of Callender were visiting friends in Gowrie Sunday.

Mr. and Mrs. L. Burgoon of Paton were transacting business in Gowrie last Saturday.

The E.L. social held at the home of Mrs. and Mrs. Wertz was quite well attended in spite of the inclemency of the weather and about $9 was raised (about $216 today).

Mrs. Hibbard of Lorhville is visiting friends and relatives in town this week.

Oscar Lungren who is attending the Ames Agricultural college is home for the Easter vacation.

Tags: 1905, Brunson, Burgoon, Chase, Chock, Clark, Evans, Hibbard, Johnson, Lungren, Osborn, Spangler, Swanson, Wertz

There’s still two weeks left to enter the Month of May giveaway. There will be three winners of cash ($130, $110, $110) and one winner of an Asus netbook PC. The three cash winners are on three different Rafflecopter forms, so enter on this one and follow the links in the Rafflecopter to get to the other two.

Click on the graphic to get to my post with the Rafflecopter. Good luck!

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 7, 1914

Task Begun of Changing Current in Fort Dodge

Electric Power in City Being Changed to 25 Cycle

Big Job is Nearly Done

The big task of changing the electric current of the city from sixty cycle to twenty five cycle alternation will begin this week. Many of the meters already have been changed or replaced with meters that will correctly record the use of the current soon to be installed. While a meter built to record the amount of twenty five cycle current is in use with a sixty cycle current, a computation of figures must be used to arrive at the correct amount of current used.

The Central Iowa Light and Power Company from which the Fort Dodge Gas and Electric Company will buy its current still have a half mile of wire to string to Fraser where the power plant is located. This will be finished this week.

Workmen in Fort Dodge have been busy putting in new transformers to take care of the new current. The work of replacing sixty cycle motors with those adapted to twenty five cycle current will begin this week. Most of the motors in use here must be changed. The Fort Dodge Gas and Electric Company will allow a fair allowance on the exchange of motors, depending on the time in which the motors now installed have been in use.

Tags: 1914

Sadly, I didn’t do any indexing today. Sometimes real life gets in the way of other things you want to do, and in this case work had a lot to do with it. I work a sort of split shift on Thursdays and Fridays, with a couple of hours in between. But I had a bout of insomnia last night, leaving me with about 3 hours of sleep, so I went home in between.

And, as I realized later, forgot about a medical appointment for my younger daughter.

So I still have a batch from Oregon to finish.

Here are the states that are up for indexing at this time:

• Alabama
• California
• Florida
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Minnesota
• New Hampshire
• Oklahoma
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• Texas
• Virginia

The remaining states are supposed to be rolled out soon. There’s a map here that shows the states and the percentage of how done they are. It says that Delaware is 99% done and Colorado is 72% done (at the time of this post).

Delaware has disappeared off the list for indexing, and although Colorado was there in the morning, by early afternoon it was off the list, as well. I did one batch from Colorado in the morning and started a batch from Oregon, with plans to finish it in the evening.

Then I spent a great deal of time trying to pinpoint which enumeration district my paternal grandparents’ farm was in, and started scrolling through a 92-page section. I got as far as page 64 by evening, but that was with interruptions. The site (MyHeritage.com) was sluggish in the evening, but I think that’s to be expected, and some of the problem was the computer I was using.

I didn’t finish the Oregon batch yet, but plan to on Thursday. I’m going to try to only download batches if I think I can finish them right then. I don’t want to hold things up by not finishing in a timely fashion.

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 4, 1914

Local News

Colonel Smith Here – Lieut. Colonel Smith of the Second Minnesota Regiment was in the city Friday, visiting with local officers of the national guard.

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To attend funeral – Paul E. Halfpap and Mrs. C.W. Leamon left Friday for Chicago where they wree called by the death of a relative.

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To Live in Duluth – Mr. and Mrs. C.D. Fitts expect to leave Fort Dodge soon for Duluth where they will live. Mr. Fitts who travels for the American Radiator Company has been transferred to Duluth.

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Uncle is Dead – Mrs. E.C. Bryant and Mrs. Arthur Anderson have received word of the death of their uncle at Rock Rapids. The deceased man is a brother of Attorney Ladd of Clarion, father of the two Fort Dodge women.

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Bethlehem Pastor Here – W.H. Linden of Rock Island, will be in the city during the Easter vacation and conduct the services at the Swedish Bethlehem church. Mr. Linden has accepted the call from this congregation and will be their pastor after his ordination next June.

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Family on Visit – Mrs. E.E. Hastings and son Robert and daughter Catherine, left today for Grundy Center. Mrs. Hastings and her daughter will go on to Cedar Rapids to visit at the home of the former’s mother and Robert will visit in Grundy Center for the week.

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Builds Beautiful Home – W.C. Tyrell, formerly of Fort Dodge and well known here as “Cap.” Tyrell, is building a beautiful country home a mile and a half south of Belmond. It is to be three stories in height, steam heated, electric lighted, with plumbing of the most modern kind and every other convenience now afforded.

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Her Brother Dies – Mrs. J.H. Torp today received word of the death of her brother at Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Mrs. Katharine Myers who has been spending the winter with Mrs. Torp, leaves for Rockland, Michigan, to attend the funeral. The body will be brought east.

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Reside Here for Time – Mr. and Mrs. Wilson Byerhoff have come here from South Dakota and have leased Mrs. Rose Wilbur’s house, 302 north Eighth street for their residence while Mr. Byerhoff is engaged in work for W.J. Zitterell, in construction of the Snell Building. Mr. Byerhoff assumes and office position for Mr. Zitterell.

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Passion Week Services – Subjects for Passion week at the Congregational Church are:

Monday evening – “The Story of Jesus’ Life.”
Tuesday Evening – A series of stereopticon pictures on Jesus’ Life and Ministry.
Wednesday Evening – “The Love Watch.” A story of the Bethany home will be interpreted by Mr. Minty.
Thursday evening a sermon “Gethsemane” and communion service Friday evening. A meeting for fellowship and prayer.

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Injured in Peculiar Accident – M.A. Hartwell, 1026 south Eighteenth street, is at his home incapacitated for some little time by injuries reported to have been received Thursday night about 7:00 when he was at work on a train of interurban cars switching near Gypsum. Mr. Hartwell was conductor on the train. Suddenly a car jumped the track and bounded along the ties. Mr. Hartwell jumped and in so doing struck a fence and is said to have several ribs broken and other injuries which have temporarily deprived him of the use of his legs. It is not though (sic – should be thought) he is fatally hurt. A peculiar circumstance in connection with the accident is that the car which left the track bounded along the ties for about fifty car lengths and then returned to the rails.

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Called to Hastings – H.S. Sanders was summoned to Hastings, Neb., to attend the funeral of a brother.

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Roads Drying Rapidly – A few days of drying weather will put the highways in pretty good shape again. The drags will be started in almost at once, in case it does not rain more.

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Agency Here – The Missouri Valley Oil Company of Omaha will install an agency in the city within a short time. E.M. Ouren, secretary and treasurer of the company, was in the city Friday making plans for the opening of an agency.

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Locate Here – The Gray Welding and cutting Company have located in the city at First avenue north and Twenty First street. The firm has as its officers, Elmer Gray, president and Charles Gray, manager. These young men have come here from welding factories in Chicago.

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Fort Dodge Holds Record – The naval recruiting station had more enlistments during the month of March than that of any other city in the Iowa district. Five men were sent in from here. There were fifteen applications of which six were accepted. One of those accepted has failed so far to enlist.

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Kirkpatrick Buys Residence – W.A. Kirkpatrick has purchased the Adalphine Langbehn property on First avenue north between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets. Mr. Kirkpatrick will occupy the property as a residence. The consideration was $2,700 ($58,044 today).

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Humorous Contest – Sixteen students of the high school competed for first, second, third and fourth places in the humorous contest that was h eld at the school Friday afternoon. Elizabeth Bedell was the winner and the others who managed to stay in for the finals are Behring Belt, Dorothy Monk and Bertha Johnson.

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Special Services at Saint Marks – There will be special services at Saint Mark’s church tomorrow in honor of Palm Sunday. The church has been decorated and the musical program will be exceptionally good. Mrs. F.W. Fuerman and Carl Kullenbeck will sing solos.

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Toll of Labor, Great Film – The Toll of Labor, the big five reel film that will be put on at the Magic Theatre Sunday and Monday, is one of the biggest feature films of the season. It contains the story of Emile Zola’s story, The Germinal. The film has been widely advertised for months in the picture journals, although it was only released March 16.

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Sees Interesting Views – T.W. Reely entertained a goodly sized audience at the Baptist church Friday evening, by an illustrated account of his European trip. Mr. and Mrs. Reely spent many months abroad while Mr. Reely made an especial study of architecture. They collected many attractive views in every place they visited and these with little personal aneodotes (sic) of the customs of the people, the talk was made very interesting. “We were interested,” said Mr. Reely “in studying the types of people, and in the churches we attended, we noticed they were just about  as varied as you would see at any gathering in this country, and quite similar.” Mr. Reely showed first, the views of England, including, besides London, quaint old towns, beautiful English gardens, and cities, Stratford on Avon, Castle of Varnick Oxford where the great university is located. “Every shire in England has some great man of whom it is proud,” said Mr. Reely. After England, Holland was visited, then came a trip down the Rhine, and to Luzerne and Italy. Antwerp he considered a city of  unusually attractive buildings. The beauty and variety of the towers of Cologne were other interesting features.

Tags: 1914, Anderson, Bedell, Belt, Bryant, Byerhoff, Fitts, Fuerman, Gray, Halfpap, Hartwell, Johnson, Kirkpatrick, Kullenbeck, Ladd, Langbehn, Leamon, Linden, Minty, Monk, Myers, Ouren, Reely, Sanders, Smith, Torp, Tyrell, Wilbur, Zitterell, Zola

Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, Oregon and Virginia census returns are available for indexing. When I started this morning, Colorado was marked as  highest priority, so I indexed one batch. When I submitted that batch and went to the download screen to see what was available, Delaware was marked as highest priority.

I did have some issues with the enumerator’s handwriting. It was mostly clear, but a little fancy – I had a little trouble distinguishing between a capital C and a capital E. But I think I got it right.

I did check FamilySearch.org and run a search for people where I was unsure if I got the spelling right, hoping to find them in the 1930 census, and I did. The other issue with the enumerator’s handwriting was that he or she scribbled over a couple of spots, and one birthplace I couldn’t figure out. But when I saw the person’s daughter was born in Nebraska (confirmed by the 1930 census), I could then tell that the mother was, as well.

It’s always a matter of chance whether you will get a record with clear handwriting or not, so I look the document over before I start to see if I think I can read it. If it’s something I don’t think I can read, I return it. I do this with copperplate writing – it’s very pretty and decorative, but I just can’t get it.

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After a break of a couple of hours, I went back to indexing. Delaware didn’t show up, so I did another batch of Colorado names. This time it was all men living in a residential hotel. Most were in their 40s and 50s and single, although some other ages popped up, as well as marital statuses.

What I found here was that on some of the men who listed their marital status as married, the M was crossed out and a 7 was written by it. I asked on a Facebook thread started by Family Search Indexing and someone said just put in the M for married.

Had some trouble with names this time, and it looked like three different people had filled this form out.

Going to do a Florida batch next. Delaware disappeared, reappeared and disappeared again. I wonder if that state is nearly done.

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I also went back and looked at recent arbitration on my indexing. There is a way to have them look at your work again if you disagree with the arbitrator.

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Finished a batch from Florida. The page had four different sets of handwriting, the household numbers skipped around and it seemed that the page was used to finish areas that didn’t have enough names for a whole page. But it’s done. I’ll have to check the arbitration later.