The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 23, 1906

Roy Burkholder Accidentally Shot

Discharge of Shot Gun Gives Him a Painful Wound in The Leg

Roy Burkholder, a young lad about fourteen of (sic) fifteen years of age, who resides at 418 1st. Avenue south was the victim of a very painful through not dangerous accident yesterday afternoon.

Young Burkholder in company with another lad started out hunting yesterday afternoon. About four o’clock they stopped at the Central tracks near the Lizzard (sic) creek. A shot gun which they carried was deposited on one of the rails, while the boys sat down on the tracks. The gun became dislodged and fell in such a manner as to discharge the load, which entered the calf of the leg of Burkholder. He was taken to his home where a physician was called. The shot has been extracted and the lad will suffer no serious results from the wound.

Tags: 1906, Burkholder

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 23, 1906

Midget Passes Away at Otho

Iowas Smallest Baby Dies After Only Couple Days of Life.

The little baby boy born to Mrs. and Mrs. John Ford at Otho pased (sic) away Thursday. This little child was born Monday and only weighed one and a half pounds. The child was heralded as the smallest child born in this state. it was never strong and at no time was there any hope entertained that the child could live.

The funeral occurred the same day as tis death and only a short service was held. The mother’s condition is yet bad and for this reason the services were very brief.

The exact measurements of the midge was not taken, so it will never be known. The child, however, was not very much smaller than the ordinary small baby, but had apparently no flesh. Its weight was below the two pound mark, which in itself is a record.

(Editor’s note: I’m not sure why they termed the baby a midget, since he died shortly after birth and I doubt that condition could be recognized that soon, especially with the state of medical knowledge at the time. I could be wrong. But it’s interesting to see how much knowledge has been gained in just over 100 years – babies of this weight are not routine, but they do live, often with no permanent damage from premature birth.)

Tags: 1906, Ford

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 23, 1906

Ice Gorge on The Upper River

Big Mass of Ice Gorges Between County and Illinois Central Bridges.

Some apprehension is felt through the city this afternoon regarding a big ice gorge which has formed on the upper Des Moines, a short distance above the Lizzard (sic) creek. The great mass of ice chokes the passage of the channel entirely between the county and Illinois Central bridges, and water is slowly rising.

The river is breaking at the mouth of the Lizzard and it is thought that the breakup will extend to the gorge and loosen its hold in a short time. For this reason conditions are in no way alarming. The only damage that can result would be to the bridges, and both of these are firmly constructed. The water has risen about a foot during the last twelve hours.

Tags: 1906

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 22, 1906

Peter Madison Used Whip on Professor

School Teacher Grimes Attacked for Chastising 12 Year Old Boy.

Parent Was Peter Madison

He Decided to Take His Son’s Part Against Professor Grimes – Southwest Part of County Excited by Irate Parent’s Acts.

Callender, Feb. 22 (Special to the Messenger) – Down in Roland Township School District No. 3, five miles west of the hustling little town of Callender occurred last Tuesday a scene that the participants and spectators will not soon forget. The school in question was in charge of Professor Grimes, lately of Farnhamville.

While performing his professional duties last Tuesday he had occasion to chastise the 12 year old son of Peter Madison.

The fractious boy was turned across the schoolmaster’s knee and an old-fashioned spanking was administered. When he got released from the toils of authority he made a bee line for the paternal roof and in less time than it takes to tell it interested his sire in his behalf.

A Horse Whipping.

The two returned to the school building accompanied by a friend of Madison’s who chanced to be visiting with him at the time. The three unceremoniously entered the schoolhouse and while the professor’s back was turned the parent began at once to show his ire and indignation by using a horse whip on Professor Grimes. Grimes decided not to take the attack with Christian meekness but proceeded at once to land a left hander on the linguistic organs of his antagonist, which sent him sprawling to the floor. One application of this kind was sufficient. Madison was later forced from the room and out of doors while protesting frantically with vile language and threats of great bodily injury. In the meantime the pupils of the school became so affrighted that they made hasty and spectacular escapes through windows and doors. School was dismissed for the time being and both parties to the combat went post-haste to seek legal revenge. Professor Grimes going to Fort Dodge to hold a consultation with county Superintendent Brown and Madison laying his side of the case before Justice Rasmussen.

To Be Settled in Courts.

The matter will undoubtedly be tried in the courts. County Superintendent Brown getting first chance at it.

In Callender, and especially in the vicinity of Justice Rasmussen’s office, it is the excitement of the hour. Eager throngs from surrounding neighborhoods, and particularly from school district Number 3, Roland township are present and are on tip toe of excitement, watching every whisper pertaining to Madison and his wary antagonist.

Gray headed men are likewise on the scene, exchanging and relating stories referring to the customs of school teachers when they were boys – when the old saying “spare the rod and spoil the child” was the idea of almost every parent and teacher alike.

A Messenger representative interviewed Professor Grimes and was informed that the law would be allowed to take its course and he would be satisfied to abide by the consequences.

(Editor’s note: This article is obviously biased in favor of the teacher. No mention was made of the boy’s alleged offense or of how hard he was spanked. The article is written to make the teacher the victor of the fight; whether or not that was true is difficult to say. It’s hard to say whether the spanking was set off by a real offense, how hard the parent attacked the teacher and how hard the teacher really fought back. It is interesting to note, however, that people in 1906 were saying that “spare the rod and spoil the child” was taken seriously when they were kids, when in 2012 we think the same thing of 1906.)

Tags: 1906, Brown, Grimes, Madison, Rasmussen

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 21, 1907

Editorial: Fort Dodge’s Handicap

The chief handicap to progress in Fort Dodge is declared to be the difficulty of getting laborers to work in the factories. To a large extent, this labor shortage is universal in the United States, but the departure of mechanics and their families during a couple of dull years left Fort Dodge in a depleted condition in its supply of competent labor.

A Fort Dodge factory manager stated to the writer recently: “I do not see how we can continue to increase our business until conditions have adjusted themselves on the labor problem. We need apprentices in our business all the time, who, until they have been taught, cannot be paid big wages. As fast as they become useful to us we pay them according to their value. The people actually are not here to supply this kind of help and young men and women cannot afford to come here and work for a novice’s pay. Although they can soon earn their way if they have ability, not many can afford to support themselves during that period. Until there is employment guaranteed for all members of families that want work this embarrassing condition will continue. It is time that something was done to recognize this handicap.”

It is not forestalling the future too much to say that with nearly all residences in town now occupied there will be need first of all to have new modern cottages erected this summer for working men and their families. Small but convenient houses that can rent for a lower revenue than has been the custom here would do much to relieve the labor shortage.

Tags: 1907

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 20, 1906

Fort Dodge’s Chief Need is Hospital

Present Institution for Caring for Sick is Badly Over-crowded

This City Should Be Active

A Large Territory in This Part of the State Would Contribute Cases if a Proper Hospital Were Conducted Here – Many Reasons Urge It.

It may surprise some people of Fort Dodge to know that for the past month the Fort Dodge General Hospital has been overcrowded and that the management has even been compelled ot refuse admittance to at least a dozen patients.

Fort Dodge is fast becoming the medical and surgical center for a territory of fifty miles in all directions, and the time has arrived when the people of this city must cast about for ways and means to provide a suitable hospital to supply the needs of the unfortunate sick of so vast an area.

The present building is fairly good, so far as it goes, and the services rendered are excellent in so far as the management is not hampered by lack of room and other necessary facilities. It will be remembered that nine months ago the proprietors were forced to abandon the old Grant residence for the larger and better fitted Poyer building Since then their patronage has increased to such an extent it seems imperative, not only from the standpoint of humanity, but from a purely commercial point of view, that larger and better equipped quarters be provided for the sick of Fort Dodge and its contributory territory.

It is urged that hospitals do not pay. It is true that most secular and civic hospitals do not. Investigation has shown, however, that the great majority of Sisters’ hospitals do pay, for the reason that the nurses are not paid and very little outside help is hired.

How much money would a hospital of fifty bed, if four-fifths full, put into circulation in Fort Dodge every day? There are very few, if any, single commercial institutions in the city that would circulate more.

From actual experience it is estimated that of forty patients in a hospital thirty are likely to be from out of town and twenty-five of these likely to be surgical cases. The expense, including doctors’ and hospital fees, hotel bills of relatives and friends, shopping expenditures in town, etc., incurred by each patient is figured at $15 a day (about $359 today). Thirty patients at $15 a day would leave $450 a day ($10,777) in Fort Dodge. Aside from the actual financial gain to Fort Dodge, such an institution would do more if properly advertised, to spread the name and fame of this city than any other single enterprise we have.

During the recent meeting of the Fort Dodge District Medical Society in this city, Dr. Margin of Pomeroy said to a Messenger representative: “It is a source of great wonder to me that Fort Dodge is not better equipped as to a hospital. There is no question but that fort Dodge physicians and surgeons are well able to take care of anything that may come to them and in my mind it is only a question of a short time when practically all the surgery in this part of the state will be done right here in Fort Dodge. But that time will never come until a big modern hospital is built. At present, all of my hospital cases go to Sioux City, but they would come here if you had the hospital I speak of.”

Drs. Taylor of Pomeroy, Mullarky of Manson, Belt and McManus of Gilmore City, Arent and Grigsby of Humboldt, and a score of others expressed the same views.

Tags: 1906, Arent, Belt, Grigsby, Martin, McManus, Mullarky, Taylor

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 19, 1906

Thought Judge Kenyon a Boy

Youthful Appearance of Fort Dodge Attorney Deceived.

Sioux City People Find Out When he Wins Cases that He is of age.

The youthful face and general boyish appearance of Judge W.S. Kenyon of Fort Dodge, attorney in Iowa for the Illinois Central railroad, makes him the victim of some amusing incident almost every time he visits the Woodbury county court house, says the Sioux City Journal. The other day he went into the office of the courts and asked for some papers in a case that had been filed there.

“Are you an attorney,” asked a deputy who happened to be new in the office,

“Yes, my name is Kenyon, of Fort Dodge,” answered the railroad attorney, modestly.

The deputy sized up the judge but would not give out the papers to him until another deputy who had had a similar experience with the judge assured him laughingly that it was all right.

When Judge Kenyon appeared in the court room as attorney for the Central in the Tarashonsky case last week one of the jurymen, who sat waiting to be called in the case, was heard to remark:

“Gosh, that boy ain’t going to represent the railroad in this case is he? I am sorryf or him with all them big lawyers against him.”

Incidentally it may be mentioned Judge Kenyon won the case.

(Editor’s note: The Tarashonsky case is referenced here. A 5-year-old child was struck by a train in the railroad yards in Sioux City. There was a path commonly used to cross the tracks, and the railroad workers knew that people used the path. It was argued that the railroad employees saw the child in time to stop.)

Tags: 1906 Kenyon

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 18, 1907

Moving Picture Theater Planned

What is Known  as Family Theatorium Starts in Colby Building.

Arrangements have been made for the establishing here of a “Family Theatorium,” or, in other and plainer language, a moving picture show. The Colby building on First Avenue South, occupied for a short time by the ill-fated Alexas theater, will be engaged for the new enterprise which will be managed by Bryson Hutchinson.

Mr. Hutchinson went to Des Moines last week and made a contact for two changes of pictures a week here. He said concerning his plan:

“We will be opened for business the last of this week and will run a clean, reputable, low priced house. We will give three entertainments a day and if we can average 100 patrons per performance we can make it a permanent attraction. The pictures we get will be of the best quality and just as good as can be seen in large cities. We will have an electric piano for music and later on may have a regular vaudeville program. The admission fee will be ten cents.”

“I think a clean performance like ours will add considerably to the amusement attractions of Fort Dodge. That ought to help the town.”

Tags: 1907, Hutchinson

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 17, 1903

Plans For Work on New Library

Will be Commenced as Soon as Contract is Let for Setting Marble Now on Hand

Little Remains to be Done

With Setting of Marble Building is Practically Finished. Hoped to Open May 15.

Work on the new library building will recommence just as soon as the contract is let for the setting of the car marble which now stands in the Minnneapolis (sic) & St. Louis yards, consigned to the Northern Building company, and awaiting a claimant. One of the members of the library board stated this morning that there would be no difficulty in securing the contents of the car as soon as needed.

The library board has extended a proposition to the Vermont Granite & Marble company, which furnished the marble, to look after its setting also, and is awaiting a reply, which is expected shortly. It is considered highly probable that the contract will go to these parties.

The marble now in the yards comprises all that is needed for the completion of the building. It is for wainscoting, floor and stairs, and when it is in place the new library will be practically finished.

The steel book racks have arrived and are ready to be put in place; the woodwork is finished,a nd the electric fixtures are ordered. As yet however, no furniture has been ordered.

An effort will be made to hurry the work along so that the date of opening Fort Dodge’s fine new library building may be on May 15, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the starting of the library in this city. Whether this can be accomplished or not, is a matter which depends on many things, but the building will be finished by then if possible, and the occasion of the opening will be marked with appropriate exercises.

Tags: 1903