The Fort Dodge Messenger: March 10, 1905

Town of Clare is a Moral One

There is no Crime in Clare

He States That Clare Has No Name on List of County Poor, Has a large Temperance Society With One Hundred and Fifty Members.

Clare, a town which has always had the reputation as one of the roughest of the county, is really one of the most moral, and according to the claim of Supervisor P.H. Cain, who hails from the little city on the northwest, it can show a record that cannot be approached by any other city of the county in any particular. With regard to the matter, he said to a Messenger representative:

“They can say what they will about Clare, but nevertheless that town can show a record that cannot be approached in the way of morality and absence of crime. It is a fact that there has never been a Clare man incarcerated in the county jail; it is also a fact that there has never been a serious crime committed within the borders of the town. There is not one name from Clare on the list of the county poor and there is not another town of its size in the county that can show a temperance society with as large a membership as is held in the Clare Temperance League, which has 150 names on its roll book.

“There are three saloons in the town, I will admit, and that it looks bad for a city the size of Clare. But it must be taken into consideration that there are two dry counties that come to Clare for their liquid refreshments, and it is these people who really give the greater part of the support to the liquor business. There is Pocahontas, which is a temperance county, on the west and on the north Humboldt. The people from these counties come to Clare with their tongues hanging out, and when they do get filled up they are a bad lot.

“Of course there are a lot of people in Clare who take their liquidations pretty regularly, but when you come right down to the facts of the case, there is less of rowdyism in Clare than in many cities of the country that bear a better reputation. And it is a fact that there is actually no crime. There is no doubt of the fact, too, that there is a tendency in the city toward a reform and there is less of the ordinary rowdyism now than there was a year or two ago. The town is improving in moral tone all the time which cannot be said of many of the other places of the county.”

Tags: 1905, Cain, Temperance