The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 19, 1904
Is Arrested For Bootlegging
Thomas Hughes of Forest City Gets Into Trouble.
Government Officers Arrest Him on That Charge – Must Go Before Federal Grand Jury.
Thomas Hughes was arrested by Deputy United States Marshal G.F. Gustafson at Forest City Friday, and brought to Fort Dodge the same night. He was taken to Clarion today where he was given a hearing before Commissioner Rogers on the charge of selling intoxicating liquors in violation of the revenue law. He was bound over to the federal grand jury under $200 bonds ($4,790 today). As he was unable to furnish bonds Hughes will be taken to Sioux City tomorrow.
The prisoner is charged with selling liquor in Forest City, where he makes his home. He is an unmarried man, his parents being respectable farmers living near Forest City.
While there was no feature of interest in Hughes’ arrest, the federal officers not infrequently meet with unusual situations. Some time ago Deputy Marshal Gustafson arrested a man on the charge of selling intoxicating liquors. His prisoner emphatically denied the charge.
“I will tell you just how it was,” he said. “We often played cards and usually had whiskey in the house. This day I was going down town to meet some friends to play, and put a bottle of whisky (sic) in my pocket. I didn’t sell the whisky, although I met a friend and when I got down to the depot the whisky was gone and I found a dollar in my pocket.”
He was held to the grand jury.
Tags: 1904, Gustafson, Hughes, Rogers
Well, here it is, that rare thing on this blog: a personal note from the editor.
I originally planned to scan a couple of pages I had printed out from old ads in The Messenger. However, I don’t have my printer/scanner hooked up right now and I spent a good chunk of the day looking for free eBooks on Amazon.com.
So I owe you a valid post for today.
I’ll get to it.
In the meantime, here’s an excerpt from Barkham Burroughs’ Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information (1889):
Household Recipes
(Page 71)
Axle Grease.
- Water, 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound; palm oil, 10 pounds. Mix by heat, and stir till nearly cold.
- Water, rape oil, of each 1 gallon; soda, 1/3 pound, palm oil, 1/4 pound.
- Water, 1 gallon, tallow, 3 pounds, palm oil, 6 pounds; soda, 1/2 pound. Heat to 210 deg. Fahrenheit and stir until cool.
- Tallow, 8 pounds; palm oil, 10 pounds; plumbago, 1 pound. Makes a good lubricator for wagon axles.
How to Shell Beans Easy.
Pour upon the pods a quantity of scalding water, and the beans will slip very easily from the pod. By pouring scalding water on apples the skin may be easily slipped off, and much labor saved.
How to Clean Bed-Ticks.
Apply Poland starch, by rubbing it on thick with a cloth. Place it in the sun. When dry, rub it if necessary. The soiled part will be clean as new.
I started this history blog on March 1, 2011. In honor of the first year I’m holding a giveaway.
The prize is a copy of “Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970 (Images of America)” by Roger Natte.
Fort Dodge: 1850 to 1970 (Images of America) by Roger Natte
The book description from Amazon.com says:
Fort Dodge was founded in 1850 as a military post to police the Iowa frontier. A subsequent land boom created fortunes that were reinvested in the local economy. The town soon earned the nickname Mineral City because of the extensive deposits of coal, gypsum, limestone, and clay. By 1900, the city was a rail center and the world’s largest producer of gypsum products. With a highly diversified economy, the city prospered and by World War I was able to claim to have more skyscrapers per capita than any other city in the Midwest and beautiful public buildings designed by some of the nation’s leading architects. Between 1900 and 1925, Fort Dodge enjoyed the role as an important political center and the home of two U.S. senators, the director of the U.S. Mint, the solicitor of the Department of the Treasury, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit, and the first presidential press secretary and speechwriter. Sons and daughters of the community went on to establish national reputations in art, music, literature, science, and journalism. Images used in this volume come primarily from the archives of the Webster County Historical Society and were chosen to represent the changing character of the community from 1850 to 1970.
Roger Natte is a retired history professor and local historian. I haven’t spoken to him about the giveaway, but there’s a good chance that I can get him to autograph the book for the winner.
The prize is being provided by me personally, and I will cover the cost of mailing it to the winner. For this reason, I am restricting it to residents of the United States.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: giveaway
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 17, 1904
Promotion for M & St. L. Man
J.W. Bell Gets Agentship at Winthrop, Minn.
Is an Important Junction of the Railway – Mark of Esteem for Faithful Employe (sic)
J.W. Beck, who has been bell (sic) clerk in the Minneapolis & St. Louis freight office in Fort Dodge for the past eighteen months, has been given a promotion. He has been offered and has accepted the agency of the Winthrop, Minn., office for the same road. This office is an important one, as it is the junction point of the Estherville, Watertown, South Dakota lines. His promotion is significant of the approval of the officials, as very few ever become agents who are not operators. Mr. Beck is not an operator, but as there is both a day and night operator at Winthrop, it is not necessary that the agent be an operator. However, it shows that his ability is depreciated.
Mr. Beck was a Fort Dodge boy, having graduated at the Fort Dodge high school. Later he moved from here and studied to be an operator, but did not continue that work. He enlisted in a South Dakota regiment at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war and served until his regiment was mustered out.
Later he accepted a position in the Minneapolis & St. Louis offices at the Minneapolis Transfer, and was promoted to a position in the general offices. Later he was transferred here as bill clerk. He will leave to take up his new duties as soon as his successor arrives.
Mr. Beck is well known in Fort Dodge, having practically lived here all his life. His many friends here will be glad to hear of his promotion.
Tags: 1904, Beck
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 16, 1906
Housecleaning Time at Hand
Carpet Beating and Similar Scenes Will Soon Appear.
Cafes Will Do Rushing Business While Family Man Stays away From Home.
|
Symptoms
If your wife is growing restless, if she tentatively tugs
At the dingy window curtains; if she studies all the rugs;
If she talks about wall paper, if she views the window panes
With an eye that sees them tarnished by a lot of streaks and stains,
Then you may as well be patient and as quiet as a mouse,
For no feeble man can stop her –
she will
soon
clean
house.
You had better plan for boarding somewhere else a day or two,
For the changes are she’ll start it with a rustling, bustling crew
Of scrub women and of dusters, and the chairs will block the hall
And a lot of dainty china will be put where it will fall –
And an aproned, towsled, draggled sight will say she is your spouse
For the signs of spring are potent –
she will
soon
clean
house.
You will eat upon the ice box, you will sleep upon the stove,
You will slip upon a box of soap and down the stairs will rove;
You will find your valued volumes mixed with kitchen pans and pots;
For the time you’ll be an alien – you and all your little tots –
And there’ll be a time of trouble, time of shake, and dust, and douse,
Till the fever has subsided – she will
soon
clean
house.
-W.D. Nesbitt
|
The above verse seems singularly appropriate to the season which will soon be fairly launched upon the populace. House cleaning time with all its sorrows, labors and exasperations will soon descend upon the public, to the public (sic), to the unutterable disgust and uncomfort (sic) of the long suffering family man, and the hard working housewife. Only the laboring woman and the professional carpet beater will rejoice and “Everybody will work, but Father,” who will take his meals down town while the household is uptorn; to the profit of the cafe and the restaurant keep keeper (sic).
Tags: 1906
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 15, 1905
People Try the “Slide For Life”
Laughable Performances Enacted on Central Avenue This Morning.
Young and Old Participate
Slippery Condition of the Walks Produce Funny Athletic Stunts – Pedestrians Slide Scramble, Skate and Tumble – Take the Street.
It was a topsy-turvy world that mortals stepped out into this morning when they started for town, and as a usual thing the first stop landed the adventurous citizen in an upright position with his head on the walk. The impulse to turn flip flaps (sic) and hand springs was irressistable (sic) as everyone took a try at it with more or less success. It was shocking to see the utter lack of dignity that attended these athletic exhibitions. There was no one too old, too dignified, nor too corpulent to join in the sport. Even the ladies took a hand in the performance and it was nothing to see one of the most charming and modest of the shop girls attempting a succession of cart wheels as she made her way down Central avenue. There were many new ways of lighting, but one most favored seemed to be a graceful drop with the head and heels both in the air and an expression of horror on the face.
It required the entire attention of the femine (sic) portion of the crowd of morning foot passengers to prevent a most immodest display of the latest spring styles in hosiery. The banker on his way to his place of business played leap frog with the common laborer, and the heavy-weight merchant, usually a veritible (sic) ice berg of reserve did team stunts with the ragged man on his way to beat Mrs. Jones’ carpet. The sedate and usually exact Mr. S—– skated spasmodically down the incline, to frantically and enthusiastically embrace the rotund form of the wife of B—-. There was an utter disregard for the proprieties in all the walks of life most terrible to contemplate, and it was all due to the fact that it had rained during the night.
The rain that fell in a fine mist throughout the hours of darkness, melted the snow from the walks in most places, and later the weather turning cold the brick and cement footways were covered with a coating of about the greasiest ice that ever was invented. It was next to impossible to stand up, to say nothing of walking. Rubbers were no protection whatever. The Spanish slide and the Cuban split were in vogue and nothing could prevent the people from attempting them.
It did not take them long to find out that the sidewalks were not intended to walk on, however, and they immediately got out in the street where the temptation to try the flying sommersault (sic) was not so alluring. Here they fell into the line of procession along with the hacks and dray teams that were plying up and down the avenue.
The merchants and property owners along Central avenue got out at about eight o’clock, however, and began the good work of scattering sand and sawdust on the walks, Their example was followed a little later by some of the good Christians out in the residence portion of Fort Dodge, and this did much to encourage progress.
Tags: 1905
The 1940 United Stated federal census will be released to the public in a few weeks (April 2, 2012). As part of the effort to get the word out, I signed up to be a 1940 ambassador.
What does that mean?
In addition to the regular posts about life in Fort Dodge in the early days – meaning articles originally published before 1923, I will post items about the 1940s, following prompts from the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project. These will be original, not transcribed, and will address life in the 1940s.
This week’s post will be about transportation, science and/or technology, and so I will be doing some research today at the Fort Dodge Public Library and post either tonight or tomorrow.
In addition to using my blog to get the word out about the census release, I will be doing indexing on the census once it is released. If you are in the Fort Dodge area and want to learn how to do indexing, contact me. If you know me personally, you already know how to contact me. If you don’t, leave a comment – comments are moderated and I check them regularly.
I’m excited about this opportunity. This is the first census my parents will be listed in. I will have a chance to see their family’s information at the time my parents were just toddlers. My dad was adopted at a young age, so I’ll see if he was with his adopted family during the census. My mom is the oldest child, so she and her parents were all the family at that time.
To join the fun:
- The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project website (sign up for indexing here)
- Like The 1940 U.S. Census Community Project on Facebook
- Follow the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project on Twitter
- Download and install the Family Search indexing software. Try some batches out before the census rollout, so you have some experience.
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 13, 1905
Youth Sportsman Has an Accident
A Short Tragedy With a Happy Ending is Enacted on The Stage of Boydom
Confidence David and Jonathan
Jimmy Pouler and a Friend Start Duck Hunting With a Target Rifle And Experiencing an Absence of Ducks, Jimmy Holds a Bottle.
Two Fort Dodge sportsmen of tender years betook themselves in search of game Saturday afternoon, and managed to round up a big scare and a slight accident.
The hero of the occasion is called “Jimmy,” and is a son of Jacob Pooler of this city. In company with another boy they departed with a target rifle between them, and with their heads crammed with visions of ducks.
After several hours weary tramp, their visions faded and realities grew space and yearning for excitement like true Americans, one of the boys began discussing his ability as a marksman and finally offered to prove his assertions in any way named. Evidently “Jimmy” had fully as much faith in his friend’s ability as he himself claimed, because he stood up with a bottle clasped tightly in his out-stretched hand and awaited the shot which was to decide the question.
It came. It also hit the bottle well in the middle and scattered it in a thousand pieces one of which hit and imbedded itself in the forehead of the hero, who was felled to the ground in an instant, and over whom the trembling marksman bent, thinking he was a murder (sic).
Perhaps it was his tears which brought the lifeless form back to this world for Jimmy opened his eyes to look into the most relieved and thankful face he had ever seen, and he was tenderly supported to his home where a doctor soon appeared and remedied all ills.
Tags: 1905, Pooler
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 12, 1907
Merton Hook Dead
Victim of the Dynamite Explosion Dies at the City Hospital This Morning.
Merton Hook, the son of Albert H. Hook of Cedar Rapids, who was severely injuried (sic) last Friday by the explosion of three sticks of dynamite on the Newton & Northwestern right-of-way southeast of the city, succumbed to death this morning at 3:30 o’clock at the hospital. Since the accident he has remained in a state of semi-unconsciousness, a piece of steel the size of a silver dollar having been removed from the base of his brain, hurled there by the terrific explosion.
No funeral arrangements have been made as yet, but there is little doubt but that the body will be taken to Cedar Rapids for the funeral and interment.
Tags: 1907, Hook
The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 12, 1907
Quiet School Election
Only 48 Votes Cast Yesterday and E.H. Williams Was of Course Elected
It wasn’t much of a task for the judges and clerks of yesterday’s school election to make the count when the polls closed last evening. Only forty-eight votes were cast, twenty-three at the Salvation Army Barracks, polling place for the 2nd and 3rd wards and twenty-five at Strobel’s shoe shop, polling place for the 1st and 4th wards.
E.H. Williams the only director to be elected was consequently chosen almost unanimously to succeed himself. The votes, with the exception of a few jokers, were all straight.
Tags: 1907, Williams
