The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 12, 1905

City May Get Another Park

Property Owners Along the Upper River May Donate the Land

Would be a Large Tract

No Strings on the Proposition if it is Made – City Would (be) Expected to Give It a Proportionate Share of Attention With Other Parks.

Negotiations are pending which may result in another generous donation to Fort Dodge’s public parks. While it cannot be said that the matter has been definitely settled still it is known that the Morgan estate and Messrs. A.R. Loomis and E.G. Larson are considering the gift to the city of the land up the river from the brow of the hill to the water from the Fort Dodge brick company plant – known as Thiede & Heileman’s yard – to the F.M. Grant land, which lies alongside the hill leading from Round Prairie down to the famous “river road.”

If Mr. Grant should see fit to join with these other property owners in donating the land on the hillside to the people of his home city it is likely that Doctor Kime who owns the next strip of shore land would give a similar portion.

The information negotiations do not contemplate putting strings on the gift otherwise than that it shall be improved as a park out of the regular fund for which a tax was voted for ten years at the last municipal election.

While a dam would greatly enhance the value of this idyllic spot as a pleasure ground that would not be stipulated as a necessity by the donors.

There would be at least sixty acres in the proposed park site, perhaps much more for the land is irregular and would need to be surveyed.

There is no question but the city council would accept such a gift with alacity (sic) and give the land its proper proportion of improvements with the other city parks. It will be hoped the intention may grow into action this year.

There is no more beautiful spot for a park than this land lying in the forest above the site of the old Arnold Mill dam.

Tags: 1905, Grant, Heileman, Kime, Larson, Loomis, Morgan, Thiede

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 11, 1903

Youthful Trio is Bound Over

Three Boys, Youngest 7 and Oldest 12, Must Answer to Grand Jury

Enter Stores Sunday Evening

Earl Tennant, Harry Porsch and Arthur Hutchison, Ages 12, 9 and 7, Arrested for Entering Craft Hardware and Ertl Meat Market.

A record was set in the Webster county criminal court this morning when a 7-year-old boy was bound over to the grand jury. The youthful offender is Arthur Hutchison, who with Harry Porsch, aged 9, and Earl Tennant, aged 12, was arraigned before Justice Martin, charged with entering the Charles Craft hardware store and the Martin Ertl meat market. The defendants were bound over to the grand jury under $300 bonds, which was furnished by their parents.

The identity of the burglars was learned by tracing the possession of a pocket knife which was among the number stolen from the hardware store. A.H. Werner, employed at the Oakdale dairy, showed Marshal Welch a knife bearing the mark of the Craft Hardware company. The knife he said he had bought from a boy named Joe Rossing. Young Rossing when taken into custody by the police, said that he had been given the two knives by the three boys who were later arrested. One of the knives he had sold to Werner.

The arrest of Harry Porsch, Arthur Hutchison and Earl Tennant followed. After a number of questions had been asked they admitted that they had entered the stores and taken the money and the property. The police had some difficulty in locating the plunder as the stories told by the boys differed materially. Finally by the light of a lantern and under the guidance of the  youthful burglars, the police located two revolvers and twelve boxes of cartridges under a pile of lathes in the rear of the high school building, two buggy whips under a crossing on Tenth street and a number of knives  hidden in a barn at young Tennant’s home.

The substance of the story told by Arthur Hutchison, the most youthful of the trio, is as follows:

He met Harry Porsch and Earl Tennant at the base ball park Sunday afternoon. They were driving a horse which they said they had hired in the east part of town. They told him they had entered the meat market from the rear and taken $2.45 ($59 today) from the cash drawer, $1 ($24) of which they had paid for the hire of the horse. He accompanied them up town, and at 6 o’clock they again entered the building, he going with them. This time they went into the hardware store, and together with a third entrance carried away the revolvers, cartridges, knives, whips and about $6 ($144) from the cash drawer. The aggregate value of the goods stolen is about $24 ($575).

They entered by removing the boards from a cellar window on the east side of the building.

Young Porsch was employed by Ertl as delivery boy.

Tags: 1903, Craft, Ertl, Hutchison, Martin, Porsch, Rossing, Tennant, Welch, Werner

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 10, 1905

A Banana Famine Seems Imminent

If Yellow Fever Continues There May Be a Shortage of the Product.

Unless the yellow fever quarantine is raised within three weeks, said a well-known Fort Dodge fruit dealer today there is an excellent chance of this city as well as many others thru the Mississippi valley having the novel experience of a banana famine.

New Orleans is the port at which the entire supply of bananas is landed for the Mississipp (sic) valley. The fruit is shipped in on board ships and unloaded by the thousands of bunches on the big wharves at New Orleans. From there the Illinois Central railway ships the products of the Honduras and Nicaraguan groves to the northern cities and distributes where ordered.

At the present time it is said the market is beginning to be affected and in a few weeks a shortage of the worst kind may result. Bananas have gone up a few cents on the Chicago market within the last week and higher raises may be looked for at any time. For the present Fort Dodge is not affected and unless the quarantine hangs on for at least three weeks the city will still have its supply of bananas.

Tags: 1905

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 9, 1906

The Cigar Band Craze.

Bids Fair to Equal the Post Card Collection.

The craze for collecting cigar bands is at its heighth (sic). Where many people used to collect postage stamps, and later picture postals now they are after new kinds of cigar bands. They use them to paste on glass ash trays and other unique means of decorating as well as to paste them in a book in the effort to make a large collection of strange and unique designs. A Fort Dodge cigar clerk says crowds of boys haunt the cigar stores and every band that is dropped on the floor is eagerly picked up. The craze is equal to that of collecting tobacco rags or other things on which premiums were formerly paid.

■ ■ ■

Street Cars Not ‘Till Jan. 1.

New Cars Will not be Put on Streets Here Until Then.

There has been much comment and speculation in the city regarding the time at which the Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern would put new cars on the city street railway system. H.S. Holm the representative of the interurban road in Fort Dodge stated yesterday that new cars would not be put on the street system until the entire line was similarly equipped and in working order, which will be Jan. 1, 1907. This will be a long wait but there is consolation in the knowledge that the system will be well equipped when the change is finally made.

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Gilmore City Carnival.

Band Carnival and Street Fair There On August 15.

Gilmore City, Ia., Aug. 9 – (Special to the Messenger- Gilmore City will hold a special band carnival and street fair August 15th. The committee in charge of the affair have made extensive preparations and large crowds are expected. The amusements of the day will consist of two ball games, horse races, athletic contests, music, a bowery dance and other entertainments. A low excursion rate will be given on the M. & St. L. from all points between Fort Dodge and Ruthven.

■ ■ ■

Is Seriously Ill.

L.D. Senf Dangerously Sick at His Home in the City.

L.D. Senf the well known harness maker and proprietor of a shop on the north side of the public square is dangerously ill at his home at 1408 4th Avenue South. It is reported that there are but slight hopes for his recovery. The nature of his ailment has not been reported.

Tags: 1906

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 9, 1906

Boy Injured by a Dynamite Cap

Clarence Gilbert of West Fort Dodge Almost Killed by Explosion

Was Rendered Unconscious

Was Taken to Hospital Where an Operation was Performed – is Still in a Precarious Condition – Piece of Cap Blown Into Body.

Clarence Gilbert, the 10-year-old son of Nels P. Gilbert, a miner, residing at 235 South Thirteenth street, West Fort Dodge, received what may prove to be a fatal injury by the explosion of a dynamite cap late yesterday afternoon.

The little lad, together with another boy, was playing with the cap. they had found it and did not know what it was, and with boyish curiosity young Gilbert resolved to split it open. He laid it on a stone and struck it with another, with the natural disastrous result. A piece of the cap was blown into his side directly below the heart and the lad was knocked unconscious by the force of the explosion.

He was hastily taken to the hospital, where an operation was performed and the piece of shall (sic) removed. He is resting as easily as possible under the circumstances today, but it (sic) still in a precarious condition.

Tags: 1906, Gilbert

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 8, 1904

Meat Has Reached Its Highest Mark

Fort Dodge Butchers Say Advance in Prices Will Now Cease

First Beef Received Today

Armour Packing Co. Send in Monday Morning Car as Usual – Chickens and Turkeys Have Gone Up in Sympathy With Other Meats.

Meat, which has been steadily advancing ever since the strike began, is now, according to the local butchers, at the highest point it is expected to reach. For this the public will be truly thankful, as the choice cuts are now higher than they have been in the city for several years. The usual Monday morning’s car arrived in the city this morning on time for the first time since the strike was called and it is thought the packing houses are getting in shape to handle the trade once more.

Have Sold All Home Dressed Beef.

For the past two weeks nearly all of the butchers in the city have been compelled to supply the trade altogether with home dressed beef, doing all their own killing. They have had the greatest difficulty in supplying their customers, as there are so very few cattle in the country that are fit to kill.

“Yes,” said Charles Wolverton of Wolverton Bros. meat market, th is morning to a Messenger representative, “I think meat has gone as high as it will. I believe we will be better able to cope with the situation from now on. This morning the regular Monday morning car arrived in the city from the Armour Packing company, bring practically the first beef from that firm that has arrived in Fort Dodge since the strike began. From this we infer that the packers are getting in shape to handle their regular business again. We have been supplying the trade for the past few weeks almost entirely from local stock, and we have found it very difficult to find cattle that were fit to kill. There is never a day passes that we are not offered cattle, but on driving out to look at them we generally find they are far from what they should be to make good meat. The farmers are anxious to sell and there are plenty of cattle, but there has been no grain to feed them, and the grass, their only food, has not been fattening this year, so really good cattle are very scarce.

Chickens and Turkeys Up.

Chickens and turkeys have gone up rapidly in sympathy with the advance of beef and pork and are now selling at about the price they brought earlier in the season when they were considered more of a luxury. Neither turkeys or chickens are of very good size or quality as a general thing and acceptable birds are rather hard to secure.

Tags: 1904, Wolverton

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 8, 1904

Enters Houses in Broad Day Light

Stranger By The Name of James Wilson Was Caught in the Act.

Puts Up Queer Appearance

After Making Failure of Attempt to Enter Blanden Residence in Daylight he Sneaked into Benj. Jones’ Home – Held to Grand Jury.

Nerve beyond record had James Wilson who was arrested Sunday evening for entering two Fort Dodge homes in broad day light at 6:30 in the evening. after failing in his efforts to enter the Blanden home from the basement, he walked over to Benjamin Jones’ residence on First avenue north, and while Mr. Jones was sitting on the front porch entered the house through the back way. He went up stairs and began rifling the rooms of several small articles. Descending he was heard by Mr. Jones, who rushed into the house and grabbed the thief. With a clever himself of his coat and flew out of the house leaving Mr. Jones with nothing but an old ragged coat.

Caught by Chief Welch.

Running up the alley he began to attract the attention of all passers-by, Chief Welch happened along and immediately gave chase. The pursued, though fleet of foot, soon became rattled in the maze of streets and back yards and was captured near the home of Doctor Ristine.

Actions Decidedly Queer.

After his arrest Wilson was questioned by the police and his conduct and answers seem to point to his being somewhat off, though some think that this is put on. He is about five feet eight inches in height and wears a very dark beard. He occasionally puts a look on his face which reminds one of an insane asylum. When captured he put up a fight and uttered a volley of oaths at the officer who caught him, so that he had to be handled roughly. He will give no explanation as to his conduct, claiming that he remembers nothing.

Seen by Ed Cullen.

Coming out of the cellar window of the Blanden residence, Wilson was seen by Ed Cullen who notified the police at once. After his arrest an investigation of the home was made. It was found that had had entered it through the cellar window in the hopes of reaching the main part of the house through the basement. The doors connecting the two floors being locked, his trouble was in vain.

Waived Examination.

Under ordinary procedure Wilson would have been taken before a justice for a preliminary hearing, but he waived this opportunity and will appear before the grand jury the last of this month.

Tags: 1904, Blanden, Cullen, Jones, Ristine, Welch, Wilson

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 8, 1904

The Police Court Draws Full House

Eight Up For Drunkenness and Disorderly Conduct Today.

Majority Will Leave Town

Mrs. Cora Williams Appears on a More Serious Charge – She is Given $25.45 in Fines and Costs – Other News.

Police court drew a full house this morning, there being eight present to answer the charge of drunkenness and vagrancy, besides two upon a more serious charge. Alleged by William Johns as being a prostitute, Mrs. Cora Williams, an old time offender, plead not guilty and in turn heaped an avalanche of maledictions upon Johns, claiming that he had tried to take her life with a butcher knife. In spite of her warnings and forbodings (sic) as to the price which his honor would have to pay if he did not do justice to her wrongs, Mrs. Williams was given a sum total of $25.45 ($609 today) in fines and costs. Johns was let off with $5.85 ($140) for disorderly conduct. Both stand committed to jail.

Eight Drunks Form in Line.

Mayor Northrup had no sooner disposed of this case than his eyes met a motley procession led in by Peter Ditmer. Eight strong, they took the mercy seat by storm and now began an hour’s excuse making and pleading upon the part of the defendants of the city.

James Lither said his home was in New York and that the only reason he had allowed himself to be publicly disgraced by being even charged with the crime of drunkenness, was that he was not well dressed and needed a little stimulant. He went the way of the $1 and costs.

With his head hanging for shame, Frank McGuire, who was released last Saturday upon agreeing to leave town at once, faced his honor. He was given the sentence he had forfeited when he agreed to leave town – $14.85 ($356) worth of hard labor on the streets.

George Linster of Cincinnati was found guilty of vagrancy, but had his fine remitted upon his promise to leave the city in half an hour.

John Lynch was dealt out a package marked $5.85, but will bide his time in jail.

With his limbs crippled so that he could hardly walk, Harry Williams, who said he was just out of the hospital at St. Paul, appeared to answer the charge of vagrancy. H was allowed to depart in peace. Thomas Gilley was given $9.85 for re-appearing in court after he promises to leave the city Saturday.

James Martin of Ohio was found guilty of vagrancy but his fine was suspended upon his promise to depart and never return.

Albert McBride ended the procession. He plead guilty to a charge of disorderly conduct and was allowed to wend his way out of the city.

Tags: 1904, Ditmer, Gilley, Johns, Linster, Lither, Lynch, Martin, McBride, McGuire, Northrup, Williams

The Fort Dodge Messenger: Aug. 8, 1904

An Escaped Circus Lion Stampedes City Crowd

Norris & Rowe’s Circus Provides a Sensational Act Not On the Program.

Beast Got Out of His Cage

He Was Being Put Thru His Paces By His Trainer in His Cage.

He Came Out of Open Door

King of Beasts Made a Run For The Woods and The Crowd Fled in All Directions – Jumped on Horse But Was Driven Off and Caught.

Escaping from his cage Saturday night while the tent was crowded with terrified spectators, Hannibal, the man eating lion exhibited in the Norris & Rowe side show, caused a panic as big as an earthquake and set the whole town agog with all kinds of rumors all day Sunday.

Just as his trainer, Gustave Koehen, was about to make his exit from the cage after having tantalized the creature into a state of frenzy, his protege bounded ahead of him and leaped thru the open door and flew thru the air over the heads of some of the open-mouthed spectators to the edge of the canvas where he gained his freedom. Instantly the whole troupe and audience was on the qui vive. To have such a fierce denizen of the jungles running about on the Iowa prairies is no conventional incident.

Causes Nearly a Panic.

For a moment there was nearly a panic in the little tent. The crowd almost went wild with fear and excitement. The doors were flung open at once and the throng allowed to escape at once so that the lion might, if possible, be summoned back to his cage. Every available man and boy with the troupe was pressed into the service. guns were loaded with blanks and a light placed in the cage with a large quantity of meat to attract his lordship.

Jumps on a Horse.

But it was not until the beast, who after all was probably as frightened as the crowd, had jumped on a horse which was hitched near the tent that the real excitement occurred. Before the eyes of hundreds of horrified spectators, the savage beast pounced upon a horse and dug his claws into the animal’s flesh. Not before the horse, which was the property of Charles Dayton, who resides in the south part of the city near the Bradshaw brick yards, had been terribly lacerated and torn, would the lion be scared away from the fresh blood he as relishing so much. His cruel claws had penetrated clear to the stifle joint besides horribly tearing the animal’s side. The horse is being cared for at the veterinary hospital, but will probably not live. With the best of luck the equine must be maimed for life. the damage to the horse and buggy is estimated at $150 ($3,592 today). Compared with the $120 ($2,874) received and the loss of the horse, this seems a pittance.

Cajoled Into Cage.

Finally after much effort, when every possible means had been taken to cajole the creature into his civilized habitation, the lion was induced to re-enter his cage. The firing off of the blanks was perhaps the most efficacious method to scare him back, though the bright light and meat in the cage semed (sic) also to entice the creature. For a while it seemed as if the Round Prairie was for sometime to be the scene of the gambols of the fierce denizen of the African forest. The circus hands had almost given up in despair when he had advanced 150 yards from his tent and was rapidly nearing the heavy timber. Just how long it would have taken to secure the beast had he gained the woods is a difficult question to answer. Certain it is that this location of town would have ceased to be the favorite haunt of picnic parties.

Due to Carelessness.

Was the accident due to carelessness upon the part of the show management? Many of the spectators affirm that the trainer was somewhat intoxicated and that had he taken due precautions the lion need not have escaped. The cage in which Hannibal was kept was a poor excuse for a prison for such a fierce creature. Unlike most of the cages used for lions and tigers, it had but one room and the door was in a position that its occupant could with little effort dash by his trainer and gain his freedom.

Did it for Advertisement.

It is said that the same accident occurred with less serious results at Fonda where the show exhibited. If this is the case there is certainly evidence for suspecting the management of deliberately freeing the lion just for the advertisement, which the the troup (sic) will receive in the next town they visit. Chief Welch hearing of this, has sent word to Webster City, where the show spread its canvas today, to report any accident of this kind that might occur there. If it can be proven that the show management have purposely freed the lion just for the advertisement they receive a serious charge may be made against them. The danger of the loss of life to men and animals when such a  creature is at liberty is imminent and appalling. By some it is also said that this theory is pure fabrication as the show company could ill afford to risk the loss of such a valuable part of their menagerie.

Kohler Says it Was an Accident.

“No this is not the first time Hannibal has escaped from us,” said Trainer Gustav Koehler, when interviewed by a Messenger reporter, after the accident. “He is one of the hardest propositions we have ever had to handle. He has killed two men in California, and a horse maimed in Missouri during the last year. Every time he gets away from us we risk the loss of thousands of dollars worth of property besides the possible loss of life.”

“No sir, there was not the slightest word of truth in the assertion that I was under the influence of liquor when I entered the cage. Such an idea could only be conceived by an idiot. Why, it is dangerous enough to monkey with Hannibal when one is sober, let along being drunk.”

Writ of Attachment Served.

After discovering the awful condition of their horse, the Dayton boys who had driven to the circus in their father’s buggy, notified the police and in turn immediately filed a writ of attachment upon the management. After considerable dallying the treasurer came around and reluctantly doled out $120 of the day’s receipts. As the cost of the case were twenty dollars ($479), Mr. Dayton will receive only $100 ($2,395) in remuneration for his loss. the show people said that they would return to the city next Saturday and fight out the case, but local authorities are of the opinion that they will be glad to drop the matter entirely. As $120 is the limit of the amount which can be secured by a writ of attachment, the full value of the loss could not be received. It is generally admitted that the company got off easily.

Tags: 1904, Dayton, Koehler, Welch