The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 13, 1903

A Little Chicken Corner

Tags: 1903, chickens, Draper

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 10, 1903

Time Honored 7.10 is Superseded

Mayor Northrup Announces Change in Assessment of Fees in Police Court

Marshall’s (sic) Fees Will Be $1.85

Claimed that Former Rate $3.10 was not Authorized by law. Other Fees the Same.

Mayor Northrup has instituted a change in the manner of assessing police court fines, which went into effect at the session of court held on Thursday afternoon. As a result, the time honored sum of $7.10, which for years has been set over against the name of the man fined for the offense of drunkenness, has been consigned to oblivion, and $5.85 will take its place.

Mayor Northrup looked up the matter of police court fines when he entered upon the duties of his office, and states that he found nothing in the law to make the marshal’s fee amount to $3.10, the sum at which it has been placed almost ever since Fort Dodge has had a police court. He says that the marshal’s fee legally amounts to but $1.85. Substituting this amount for the $3.10 formerly paid the marshal the amount $5.85 becomes the fine will hereafter fall to the lot of the plain drunk.

The fees for the ordinary fine of $1 and costs will be assessed as follows:

In addition to these customary fees, the following may be assessed when necessary:

Mayor Northrup announced this morning that his police court will be carried on under this system of fees during this term of office.

Tags: 1903

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 9, 1903

Were Wedded After Lapse of Many Years

Youthful Romance of Manson People Ends Happily After Ten years of Waiting.

Manson, April 9 – Some years ago, about ten if we are not mistaken, J.B. Benton wooed a young lady in Manson, Miss Mary Fluharty. The affection was returned, but for some reason the parents of the young lady objected to the marriage, and Mary being a dutiful girl, listened to the parental objection and told her lover that the wedding could not be consummated.

Years passed. Mr. Benton met another young woman, and married her. In the course of time the wife died. His first love remained single. He was located in Bosatt, Idaho.

He again offered his hand and heart and was accepted. Miss Fluharty went out to Idaho, and the marriage took place on the 2d of April.

After ten long years of waiting, love has been rewarded by its faithfulness. We occasionally read of such things, but it is not often they come home to us as in this case. Manson friends of Miss Fluharty, of whom she has many, congratulate her upon her happy marriage.

(Editor’s note: I have no idea what they meant by Bosatt, Idaho. I found a listing for Basalt, and of course there is Boise. Unless there is a ghost town of that name, I’m guessing one or the other of those two towns was meant.)

Tags: 1903, Benton, Fluharty

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 9, 1903

Was a Boy in Fort Dodge

Willard, Specialty Artist, Known to Many in City

He showed Here This Week.

Act Consisted of Difficult Balancing Feats on Bicycle on Slack Wire.

Several years ago, Thomas Willard, Tom Willard, he was known in those days, was accustomed to do stunts in the back yard with a toy velocipede and a clothes line. At the Midland Monday evening, people wondered and applauded at the skillful act of the lithe young man who made a bicycle do incredible things on a slack wire. It was Tom Willard again, but grown to man’s estate, and recognized by few of the many who made up the audience.

The clothes line and the toy bicycle have given place to the genuine article, and Tom Willard is now prepared to go up against the best show people in his class.

Mr. Willard, with his wife, came to this city with the North Brothers, comedians, but Monday was his last appearance with the troupe. He severed his connection with the company to accept a position with a Palace water show, which is to play along the Mississippi this summer. He and his wife are now visiting in Algona.

The Willard family is still well remembered by many Fort Dodge people. The father was a plasterer by trade.

Tags: 1903, bicycle act

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 8, 1903

School Officers are Re-elected

Superintendent G.H. Mullin and Principal I.H. Warner Will Remain With Schools

Given Increase in Salary

Board Discussed Advisability of Fire Escapes for Lincoln Building. E.G. Larson Sworn In.

G.H. Mullin, superintendent, and Professor I.H. Warren, principal of the high school, will be with the Fort Dodge schools another year. The Fort Dodge school board, at their regular monthly meeting on Tuesday evening re-elected both at an increase of salary, and it is understood that both propose to remain by the schools in which they have made so good a record during the year which is just drawing to a close.

Superintendent Mullin is elected as a salary of $2,000, an increase of $200 over the salary which he has been receiving, and Professor Warren is to receive $1,400, an increase of $100. both gentlemen have made an enviable record during their connection with the Fort Dodge schools, which began with the present school year, and the news that they have been re-elected for another year will be generally approved.

The board also discussed the matter of providing additional fire escapes for the Lincoln building, which is recognized as being the most dangerous building in the city in the event of a fire breaking out, being three stories in height and of old style construction. Some action will undoubtedly be taken with regard to placing fire escapes on the Lincoln building and on such other buildings of the city as the board shall find advisable during the coming summer.

E.G. Larson presented his certificate of qualification to the board, and was sworn in. This was the first meeting which the board has held since Mr. Larson returned from his western trip.

Mr. Larson was sworn in with the understanding that he will serve for one year, and if the law is found to mean that qualification within ten days after the third Monday entitles him to his full term, he will serve that length of time.

(Editor’s note: According to this website, 1903 dollars adjusted to 2010 dollars [the latest year offered on the site]  would mean the superintendent’s $2,000 salary would be worth around $47,899 today. The $1,400 for the principal would be approximately $33,529 today. It’s interesting to see that the current salaries for these positions are not a simple cost-of-living increase – the current superintendent was hired in July 2010 at a salary of $146,655.)

Tags: 1903, Mullin, Warren

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 7, 1903

New Police Begin Duties

Marshal Ed Welch and His Men Sworn in Monday Night

Enter on Their New Duties

Marshal Welch already has some of the Beats Assigned and is Organizing the Force.

Police Marshal Ed Welch, Deputy Marshal Frank Connelly and the new police officers of the city of Fort Dodge took their oath of office and entered upon the performance of their duties on Monday night.

Marshal Welch this morning announced the beats for the new officers, so far as they have as yet been arranged. Marshal Welch and Deputy Marshal Frank Connelly will be on duty in the day time, as is customary, and Patrolman Merton Jordan has also been assigned for day duty. The day men will be on duty from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Officer J.M. Mericle will take the beat at the Illinois Central depot which was held by Myron Tuller on the old force. Peter Ditmer will have his old beat, covering the Great Western depot and yards and the eastern business district. Adolph Rossing will succeed Peter Steiner of the old force. His duty will be to look after the gas lights, and to cover the business district in the neighborhood of the square. All the night men will go on duty at 6 o’clock in the evening and off at 6 in the morning.

This leave two beats to be arranged. August Andrews is as yet not assigned any regular run, and the man whom Mayor Northrup will appoint to succeed William McNally, whose appointment was not approved by the city council on Monday evening, must also be provided for. Marshal Welch expects to have his force organized in a short time.

The vigilance of the new police resulted in the apprehension of two culprits on Monday night. Dan Daly was picked up paralyzed drunk, and was given a secure lodgement in the city jail. He was released this morning on his promise to get out of town. He gave his home as Ackley. John Doe, from Clare, this time, paid $7.10 in expiation of his offense in getting drunk and was discharged.

Tags: 1903, Andrews, Connelly, Daly, Ditmer, Jordan, McNally, Mericle, Rossing

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 7, 1903

In Memoriam

John Walter Bennett was born in Seghill, Northumberlandshire England March 31st, 1829, and died at kalo, Ia., March 29th, 1903.

He was married at Vinegar Hill, Jo Davis county, Ill., January 7th, 1852, to Margaret Ward, who died June 14th, 1856. He was married again to Jane Anderson at Center, Lafayette county, Wisconsin, Feb. 3rd, 1858. To them were born eight children, one of whom, Robert William died in childhood. The other seven are all married, residing, Cordelia Jane Hay, at Sioux City, Walter Bennett at Pittsburg, Kansas, Mary F. Williams at Pleasant Lake, N.D., William F. Bennett, Benton, Washington, J. Wesley Bennett Kalo, Ida May Williams, West Bend, and Elizebeth E. Chilgren, of Fort Dodge. Five of these were present at the funeral.

In young manhood he lived in Pana, Ill., and Wisconsin. For the past 33 years he lived in Iowa. He settled in Kossuth county with the early pioneers and endured with his family much hardship during the grasshopper scourge. Twenty-eight years ago he came to Coalville and has lived in Kalo since 1880. Probably no man has received more of the regard and respect of the community than he. A man of great integrity, he was true to his convictions in all departments of life. No one ever thought of doubting his fidelity to what he conceived to be right.

In early life he became an active Christian. For a while he was a member of the Primitive Methodist church. But most of his life he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, to which he was greatly attached. The Methodist itinerant was always sure of a hearty welcome in his home. He was well read in the doctrines of history and policy of his church. For at least thirty years he was class leader and had special qualifications for this work.

Before his wife died and all the five years he has lived with his son, Wesley, he has been a great sufferer and suffered to the end. A good man has left the community who will be long remembered. But he has gone to his reward, for he died in the Lord.

Rev. John Cook, of Epworth, Iowa, preached the sermon from the text, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.” He preached Mr. Bennett’s father’s funeral sermon 30 years ago. Rev. Cook had with him on the platform Rev. Francis Fawks, pastor of the Congregational church and Rev. Jones of the Otho Methodist church. Mr. Fawks made the opening prayer. The services were very impressive and were attended by a very large part of the community.

Tags: 1903, Bennett, Chilgren, Cook, Fawks, Hay, Ward

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 6, 1903

Was Afraid of Tiring Dentist

Mrs. Lennon, of Clare, Shows Unexpected Solicitude for the Man Behind the Forceps

Had Seventeen Teeth Pulled

After Ordeal Was Able to Go and Spend Afternoon in Shopping Before Returning Home

As a perspiring dentist, after considerable muscular effort, jerked out three or four husky molars, Mrs. Lennon  of Clare, who had climbed into the chair with a prospect of having seventeen teeth extracted at a sitting, looked up in his face with kindly anxiety, and asked, “Don’t it make you tired to work so hard, doctor?” the perspiring dentist suppressed his sense of the ludicrous, and resumed his tooth pulling.

A record of endurance such as is seldom equalled, was made by Mrs. Lennon, when at one sitting, and without any undue strain on her nerves, she submitted to the removal of seventeen teeth, and later went on and did some shopping, as tho she had done no more than have one filled.

Mrs. Lennon did not seem to feel that she was doing anything out of the ordinary. she would not have believed it, if told that many women, and men too, if obliged to submit to such a strain, would be threatened with nervous prostration. When she was in the chair, and the work was begun, her sympathy was more for the dentist who was doing the work, than for herself, who was called upon to undergo the suffering attendant up on so extended a season in the dentist’s chair.

Mrs. Lennon had her seventeen teeth out, and returned to her home in Clare, with the consciousness that an unpleasant experience was well over, and entirely unsuspecting that she had broken a record in Fort Dodge dental annals.

(Editor’s note: A few days after this article was published, more information came to light regarding the number of extractions possible at one sitting. Mrs. Lennon’s experience, though extraordinary, was no record-breaker.”

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 10, 1903

Twenty to Thirty Teeth a Day Not Uncommon

Additional Testimony Furnished The Messenger of the Tooth Pulling Proposition.

The articles which appeared in The Messenger regarding the record of eighteen extractions being something out of the ordinary, I wish to say that eighteen at one sitting is a very low number and I happen to know whereof I speak. On the day the Clare lady had eighteen out and broke the record (supposedly) Mrs. A.E. Day, also of Clare had twenty-one teeth extracted in about six minutes time. Just before that Mrs. A.M. McCluctia had twenty-six at one sitting and at about the same time Mrs. M. Jacobson had 22 taken out in a very few minutes. I happened to witness these operations which by the way were performed without apparent pain and no hard work or bluster made over them. The operations were, I am told, the average, and the time in each case only a few moments. This operator also informs me that twenty to thirty teeth extracted at a single sitting is a very common practice with him and that there is nothing serious or wonderful in such an operation.

-A Reader.

Tags: 1903, Day, McCluctia

The Fort Dodge Messenger: April 4, 1903

Two Women Engage in Single Combat

Desperate Struggle for Supremacy Interrupted by Arrival of Police in Court This Morning.

The sight of two women engaged in a fierce struggle mingled with cursing and hair pulling, was the panorama offered passerby near the Duncombe house at about 10 o’clock Friday night.

The participants in this fracas were Miss Edith Quegg and Mrs. Sadie O’Hara, who, Miss Quegg claimed in Police court this morning had become entangled in this dispute because Mrs. O’Hara had falsely claimed that Miss Quegg was paying attentions to Mrs. O’Hara’s husband.

The two women were arrested and continued to swear and wrangle after being taken to the city jail. Upon paymen (sic) of $20 Mrs. O’Hara was released on promise of appearing in Police Court this morning but she did not appear. Miss Quegg, accompanied by her mother, defended herself in court this morning, saying that neither were intoxicated and that Mrs. O’Hara was the cause of all the trouble.

Mayor Bennett fined her $10 and costs. Mrs. Quegg left a gold watch as security for her daughter’s fine.
This was the only case in police court this morning.

Tags: 1903, O'Hara, Quegg