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IiiE,arly History o/ Palo Alto jCounty(la .Sunday's HBy COL. T.Keglsie and Leader.W. HARRISONt\I came to Webster City, fa-, in March, 1809, moved to Buchanan county about Sept. t. 1809, arid practiced Isw at Independence until February. 1ST0. About the first of February, 1S70. 1 came to Ft. Dodge, than by stage to Bain bold t, stopping there for a day, then by stage on bobsleighs to Algona, stopping there a few days, seeking a passage of some kind to the 11 West Fork.” as the country along the Das Moines river in Palo Alto county was then known. There was no road and no travel then beween Algona and Emmeteburg, and Emraetabnrg was only known as a poatoffice and the *‘Irish settlement.” Tbo McQiegor Missouri railroad was partly graded at Algona and was buildiug f»om Charles City west to Algona with the expectation that it would be built through to Euimets-burg and perhaps Spencer in 1870 or 187L. I found that J. V. Strongh and J. P. Col'oy wanted to make a trip to ‘‘west forks''—Mr. Strougfa to sell agricultural implements and Mr. Colby as deputy United States revenue collector to look atfer the venders of tobacco and intoxicating liquors, there being no “lid” in this part of Iowa at that early day. I got permission to ride w^fcb them in a wagon box on a pair of bobsleds. We started early in the morning on a cold, stormy mid-winter day. Themetsborg. That was when he hauled tbe brick from Paoli for the house in 1806 or 1867 it made a road tobis boose down by tbe river, and jffud some comfortable room tba tbe then put a sign at tbe forks and court was thereafter held incourt house at Paoli, near the geographical center of the county, on what is now known as the John Dooley or George Coneigney farm, two j wiles south of the present city of Ew-jmefcsburg. Judge Ford was the district judge, and Oraon Rice, a noted lawyer and politician of Spirit Lake was district attorney for the judicial district, which covered twenty counties fiom Keesuth to. Harmon, inclusive. When the weather was to cold to bold court in Paoli without a fire the judge orde-ied the sheriff tonp town, someof bis road, reading, “To Emiuets-.lawyers office or vacant room until burg, ’ and pointing to his house, the present court house was erected.and when they got the first postofficeEarly in tbe summer of 1870, Capt.they located it at bis house and;'E. j. Hartshorn came from Vermont called it I Eminetsburg. That was j to Eniuietsburg, and formed a partner-the whole of Exuiuetaburg as I first ship with Geo. B. McCarty. Captsaw it in Febmary, 1870. “Jim”Hartshorn was a born politician andWhite was county treasurer, and had j Mr. Brunei! was a natural newspaper bis foot and hie hands io all the busi-ji^an, and as politicians cannot exist ness in the county, both political and without notoriety, and notoriety can commercial. He bought tbe county riot flourish without newspapers, the warrants at 27 cents on the dollar andjfirmg 0f McCarty Hartshorn andpaid all tbe taxes for non resident land owners, and ran the first newspaper in the couufcy, called the Falo Alto Democrat, which wa? printed atHarrissn Burnell started a newspaper in June, 1870. tbe Falo Alto Advance, the first republican newspaper in the county. Tbe mattet forEstherville, where O C. Bates hart a jit was prepared in Emmetsburg, but•mail outfit for piloting the Vindi-jit was printed afc Humboldt, Iowa.Innm ninn 1-rnpi Prtnt- f\Y\ Cl nfQT 1*1 Qeator; Win. Cullen was county auditor, “Bob” Shea was clerk of court, “Billy” Powers was register of deeds and kept the records stored in the attic of hi8 one room, one story residence, down in the woods by the river in West Bond township. These county officers all lived on their farms from two to twenty miles from Em-metsbarg, and, excepting the county treasurer, would come to their offices when sent for to transact some official business. Jim White came from hisOn the fourth of July, 1870, a regular old fashioned breakdown fourth of July celebration was held in Kane’s woods half a mile north of the village. Brant Hammond, a Methodist preacher, who had settled on a homestead five miles north of town, and T. W. Harrison, were the speakers, and in the evening a goodly display of fireworks was made in the village.Mosqitoes were the worst, both iD numbers and in size, that summer that I have ever seen. The old settlerson the prosent town site of Emmets-burg.A SUMMER OF BRIDES.That was the summer of brides for the new town. Mra. T. W, HrrriBon, Mrs. Emory KLug, Mrs. A1 Jooee and Mrs. Ben Johnson all came as brides. Some of them were disappointed at not finding a larger town, in fact, as they had road glowing descriptions of it in the numerous letters from their lovers for a year or more before. But they made a happy addition to the new town society, and were each in turn vigorously, if uot delightfully, serenaded by Duncan’s .famous band.It la not ©ftea that a church meeting is held in a lawyer’s office, but the first Protestaut church meeting, with a view to organizing a church, ever held in the old town was held in my office in the spring of 1872, Joha L. Lang was a big hearted, broad minded Congregrafcioaalist. Rev. B. C. Hammond, who lived on a homestead five or six miles northea9t of town, had preached ou ao occasional Sunday in tbe old. log school bouse that stood on the Pendargaat farm near lake during the summers of 1870 and 1871, bus no attempt bad been made toorganize a Protestant church or eocie.-*ty. There were some Cougregation-aliats, dome MefchodistP, aome Baptists and soma Presbyterians among the Protestants, and’Mr. Lang originated the plan of organizing them all into a union Protestant church, and he call-the meeting referred to at which were present Mr. and Mrs. John L. Lang, Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Harrison, E. G. pond, his mother and sister and others whose names I do not recall. The meeting wa9 opened with a fervent prayer by Mr. Lang. He then stated the object of the meeting and a plan was formulated for theorganizafcion ofof land at the foot of Medium lake that Mr. Lawler had purchased some years bofore for the railroad town, and the railroad town and the railroad line had been surveyed through this tract. I received the telegram; “Go Ahead,” and at once proceeded with the platting of the new town. Some time in August the lota were ready and were tendered to the business men who had given the bond. But in the meantime the owuer of the farm where the old town was located had became interested and very active and proposed to lay out a large town site on his farm and give them all the lots they needed. He lold them that a bat’d winter was coming on and that they would freeze and starve out in “Stake Town,1? as he called it; that they better stay right where they were and he would give them all the lots they wanted. These were poteut arguments, and the business men became exceedingly lukeworm on the subject of moving. I had procured a hoU3e moving outfit to come here from Humboldt with their teams and tools, all ready to do the moving. The business men dreaded the trouble and expense of moving. The-bouse movers were clamoring to commence their work, and ooe day while I was out of town they loaded up my office, moved it out and dropped it on the corner where the Waverly hotel now stands, and it stood there a lone speck on the prairie for two or three weeks.In the meantime Austin, Corbin aHew York banker end western speculator, had sent to Ireland and boughtup a claim from some heir9 to one* half tbe new town site, and that was used to discourage the moving- But I settled that controversy by dividing that half of the town site with Austin Corbin rather than to imperii the newthe name of tbe new town to “Merrill” the name of the general manager and most potent factor in the Chicago, Milwaukee St. Paul railroad. I had Mr. Merrill in my office and submitted the matter to him and it pleased him great!}'. . He said: “That meansspending $20,000 to make the town grow.” I replied that “I hoped so.” I discussed the matter with the business men of the town, and Borne of them objected so vigorously because they said they had advertised “Emmets-burg” so extensively that it would hurt their business to make anychange in tbe name, that I finallydropped tbe subject. But if that bad been done the city would now have 10,000 or more population. I learned afterwards that Mr. Merrill built the Estherville branch with the idea that the name would be so changed, and it was his plan to complete it through to Fargo, N. D., and make this city the division point for that line, with its offices, roundhouse and shops at this place. Tbe original railroad namefor this station was “Sage,” in honor of Russell Sage, who was a stockholder and director id the company. But as Mr. Merrill had no town named for him Id Iowa, it would have pleased him greatly to have this town given his name, and he would have made it one of the most important points onthe whole Iowa and Dakota division.*• The county-seat vra9 -soon voted tmahiroouaiy from Paolt to the court house square in Em metaburg, ard in a few years the present court house was built, which was one of the finest public buildings in all north western Iowa.In the winter of 1878 we had to make another fight for the railroad from Algona west. The option oh the land grant had expired and the road had cot been built and the legislature was
Newspaper Details
Palo Alto Reporter
Emmetsburg, Iowa, US
Thu, Jul 12, 1906
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Emmetsburg P.
AL, 15 Nov 2018
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