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Northeast Greenewore' with wichCounty History7 astheTieino\v80.teswoiththehying»ntv v -iu~vasfor00-dr.themdout■leantewby Wiltse Me William Paton, in the northeast part of Greene County, was settled at a later time than the other parts of the county. There was one good reason: it was mostly swamp and prairie grass, inhabited by prairie chickens, muskrats, ducks andother wild game. In fact, it was a“wildlife paradise.'’Many miles of tile had to be laid and the land drained before agriculture could prosper. The digging of ditches and laying of tile was done by hand. It was difficult and tedious work. One has only to try digging a ditch 4 or 5 feet deep by hand to realize the hard labor and some actual suffering that had to be done before the land was tillable. Tiling crews of 15 or 20 would come to one area, build a little shack to live in, a pit to keep food cool, and live there until that area was done In the beginning,next year, in 1932, they beaten by Boone by one point and moa . Boone went on to win the state . dren ptournament. The team was made * ami up of Vernon Grant, Joe Condilb j and in Harold Magner, Lowell Pack and Walter Pack. (Cross Milvin Coil,Jefferson.) The two Pack boys were brothers of Mrs. Ernest (Er-line) Carlson.The school orchestra went to the State in 1930 under the direction of John Miller, The contest was at Iowa City. Thev were then eligible to play at the/national contest at Madison, Wisconsin. Also from the Paton school in 1925, the livestock judging team won first at the National Livestock Judging Contest in Kansas City. This contest made these boys the world champions. The boys on the teamwere three brothers: Harold, Tedand Leonard Lindgreti, and Edward Judd, They were coached by James Hilton, the man who later became president of Iowa State University.Paton had lots of businesses,too. About the time Rutherford B.Hayes was president of the Unitedcoal or cobs. After themen, women and chiI-ipated in the foot races.n pitched horse shoesTHE. GLOBE-FREE PRESSGRAND JUNCTION. IOWAThursday, July 10, 1969ic runs, there was a base-much of the tile was not placed j States, Christian Wahl came toheenttheeatbiders t amena,tomdon-eteusenc-In-ensordnd,listinLargeneededas highstabledeenim-onthehis ii e rlbs.nan»ko-; totoracklichser-OV»'lich:hesuplingjye-tentonek’slouthowd is vds.arehnnigcrusy r a sels arlylaveap-sev-fin-theachitedthetheballforwillthetheder-fer-rea-cott ro m Vis-oss-trie. va-lear nest ome VI rs.eve-nersnicehashav-hasthechesthercanoing‘rityanddeep enough and had to be done over later.By Lakeside School, Dawson No. 7, the tile had to be 14 feet deep in places. Two crews gave up because it was so dangerous from caving sides; finally the third crew boarded up the sides of the ditch and succeeded in completing the draining of Lakeside.Deer Lake, 1 mile east of the Brick Schoolhouse, was drained by an old-fashioned capstan ditcher. Two capstans were placed on each side of the ditch that was to be dug. A capstan was a revolving steel drum with levers and hitches with steel cables. Oxen or horses were used to turn the capstan which pulled the ditch plow. This made a ditch 6 feet wide and 8 feet deep.Percheron horses were to do the heavy work and as 18 of these horses were at one time at the F. O. Bauer homestead. Well, there were many swamps and Lakes in Greene County in the early days. Would you believe that where the Grand Junction schoolhouse now stands, my Dad, Owrell McWilliam used to trap muskrats?Even as late as the 1920’s we had a Lena Lake north of Paton! This was a large area to be drained and the drainage tax was almost inexcess of the land value, but the people decided to drain it. One owner, who was a judge, claimed damages that didn’t exist and got his tax load reduced to almost nothing. This caused a huge drainage tax load on the remaining farmers and some lost their land, even though it had been paid for. By this time, motor driven ditching machines were in use so Lena Lake was drained faster and more easily than the first ones.The town of Paton was named after William Paton, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1819. The first site was located 1 % miles south of Paton where a fertilizer plant is now located. The town was laid out by James Tallman and in 1876 the population was 84, but by 1886, only 10 years later, it had grown to 214 people.Mr. Paton was very interested in books and his whole family did much writing and studying. It was his dream to have a library, butthough he was not to accomplish itin his lifetime, his son carried out his wishes so that in 1899 Paton had a library of 1,320 volumes. The Rev. Alfred Martin, minister of the Presbyterian Church, was the first librarian.W. A. Paton contributed to the building and the bell of the first Presbyterian Church which was erected in 1899. He also contributed to the Methodisl Church which was erected in 1882. The Evengelical United Brethren Church was dedicated in 1895. Christian Wahl was the first class leader. The Catholic Church was erected in 1894, with Father Kenny acting as the first leader.About three miles west of Paton a group of Quakers, who had come from the East, settled down with their families. William Roberts, a minister, came and helped the people of Quakerville build the Friends Church that was finished in 1887. Years later after Mr. Roberts was retired and quite deaf, O. B. Stribling, of Paton, would sit beside Mr. Roberts in church and write the sermon out so he could read it as it was being preached.Long before the church was built Dawson Township had a cemetery. The records and graves of the earliest infants and children were lost during the black diptheria epidemic when burial had to be at night and no one dared come to the funeral!The first term of school was held in a box car in 1876. A frame schoolhouse was erected in 1886. The present schoolhouse was built in 1910, with the north addition being done in 1921. The two buildings were connected in 1954 to make the present structure. The school bell in the south section of the building is still in use and was purchased in 1887. State honors were won by some of the students of this school.In 1931 the basketball team won the consolation game at the state tournament when they beat Oska-loosa and West Waterloo, but were beaten by Newton by just a few points. They won the State Sportsmanship trophy that year. ThePaton to settle. He was a cobbler,but he soon had a general merchandise store and was in business. He and his sons and brother kept the business going for 71 years, in spite of robberies, fires, etc.Paton also had a CosmopolitanHotel in 1882, but it did not remain in operation too long. On April 27, 1882, it was reported in the paper that “Win. Nesbitt, the saloon keeper, keeps the saloon no more. He has skipped the countryand his creditors are trying to seewhat they can get out of what is left. Domestic difficulty is said to be the cause of his leaving and we are not sorry he left.”The first grain elevator in Paton was built on top of fence posts and only held two wagon loads of corn, but by 1908 the first Farmers Cooperative Elevator was built at a cost of $7,500. The two Paton grain elevators in the 1930’s developed into the largest grain shipping point between Minneapolis and Des Moines.At one time Paton had two doctor's, three lawyers, and a dentist. There was Ladd’s Blacksmith Shop; Mr. Latta had a drug store; thereball g*1brat i orSoci but “*There from }sometiblastseen tithid so just h theirI re that vthe plt; time ' Bert J Nora 1youngfarm buggy the *fa rnu'i the e\buggyastradschool of theIt was a day of cele-onditions were different, were boys” then, too.stealing of watermelons hid in cornfields and there were shotguni *night air! At Hallow-pins in doubletrees were the next morning horses ed walked off withoutThree men followed them andothers went to Dana by train tocatch them if they should go there.The group, headed by Jim Busby, father of Aldrich Busby, came to the French schoolhouse, 2 miles south of town, near the Carl Carlson farm. Mr. Busby entered the schoolhouse and went to the coal room where one of the robbers shot him dead.Sheriff Mac Bride Wilson ar-a sheriff’sj rived and called foi me Halloween incident I posse so that farmers from alllated to me. Some of i around the countryside came withand rifles and lined up creek bank nearby. Theliving in this era of Jesse James, uncle ofshotgunsbehind aFred and Will Bauer, cun battle lasted for nearly an hourorand Mary Horn. The and the schoolhousewas riddledpie drove to a neighbor’s j with bullet holes. One robber wasmove away his fancy killed, but the second one, Frankit in doing so they scared I Scanlon* surrendered by draggingalerted the I himself inch by inch across the tin-hadkens andThey waited till later in ing, managed to get the \vn the road and placed it the roof of the country so. He went to the homes ys and girls, (girls, too,) removed the burs from the buggy wheels and threw them in the straw stack! Now, it took only a short time for the young people j to push the buggy up over the cob shed attached to the schoolhouse and onto the roof, hut the owner had to eet lots of help and build a scaffohing to get his buggy down without breaking it. You must remember many other interesting Hallov m incidents of years ago.Then there were “shivaroes , where the friends and neighbors ofa newly wedded couple would come in the night and request treats., They would ring bells, beat on pans, and shoot off shotguns. Ifthe newlyweds refused to come out of the house and treat the crowd, chances are that an obstacle wouldI on the chimney and they v smoked out or something K'fall them. It was best tocooperate.People in the early days were inclined to play tricks and pranks on each other, however, they had much consideration for each other.If one were traveling through the country, and night came beforeJo?HuMaraiapnjsa ibeivie3 u.) u HugrhonmSoan1pUfitnoanboM\be plawouldwouldwas a lumber yard; O. B. Stribling you had lodging, you would be wol-had a hardware store, and before that, Graff is and Son sold harness and harness supplies, and at one time there were five grocery stores.One of the main sources of entertainment in the past was the Paton Theatre. It was started as early as 1909, and there were many lecture courses in it and play com-cotned to stop at a farm house for meals and to spend the night. This was a common practice. How different a few years ago when there was a raging blizzard and a couple traveling on the Lincoln Highway in an auto were caught in the storm and felt they couldn’t go on. They were refused shelter at a nearby farm home because theprotected schoolyard. He had a shattered leg. He was later indicted for first degree murder and the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter.During the shooting at the schoolhouse, Ed Pemble was shot in the leg. Cliff Winters got the gun that Scanlon threw away. The gun of the dead robber, Frank Galaise, is still in the possession of the Wilson family, or was, thelast I knew of it.The surviving robber later said that if he had known that the Morgan Johnson family nearby had a tiny son, Lee, they would have entered the home and held the hoyas hostage.The part I remember was a call coming by phone to tin* families living near Junction. Help wasneeded and my father started toget his gun, over the very strong objections of my mother, but about that time a second call came, saying that the robbers were captured.Well, my father had his chance to help out anyway in this northeast area of the county, for later my folks moved to Dawson Township in 1917 and my father was elected county supervisor. With the help of S. J. Me Ison, county engineer, and other supervisors, he was instrumental in getting all the roads of Greene County graveled. This county was the first, county in Iowa to have all farmsteads on after my my father served ingi\Vnthipu.p*-neboGrsicConotmticGrandoEcpanics came by and put on their | nelplays. If the theatre was busy or farmei was “afraid of strangers.There were also “barn raisings.Pibooked up, the play companies used the churches.When some farmer got ready toall thThere were two telephone com- j PutJ*P »}» bR? aH, tH°‘came and m a few days put up theframe and much of the structure.panies in the beginning, and the Paton Mutual Telephone Company was on the second floor of the Palmer Drug Store, with Mr. II, II, Waldren as the first operator in1902. The other tor was Jennis switchboard was shop. Cap Odelltelephone opera-Palmer and her over the butcher was the butcher. If you had only one of the phones, you could not talk to anyone in theother system, even if you paid toll, there just wasn’t any hook-up. That is, until one day some of the Bauer boys, then in high school, crossed the wires west of town; then they could talk to their good friends the Ridnour girls and others. Well, after the big fire of- 1908, the two telephone companies merged and this situation was alleviated.In the earliest days of Paton, farmers came to the Post Office once a week for their mail. About the first mail carrier was Joe Winters, father of Dolly Condit and Hooney Winters. His route was all around Paton, skirting the swamps and lowlands, and even in winter he wore no gloves but went bare handed. Later, Arthur Jackson and others carried the mail. The mail had to be delivered every day, rain or shine, in blizzards or mud, and there was plenty of mud in those times!There were several nationalities which predominated in the Paton area in the early days. The northeast part of Paton township and Lanyon across the line and a large i* t9fA young: man could make $2 a day by going1 to Jefferson for a wagon load of lumber. He could only make one trip a day! But, everyone working together, there was survival. One cooperated or couldn’t make it in this early time. Thus the country was built up.A good many of the social events centered around the churches. The chum played a very importantpart n the lives of the early settlors. It gave them faith and hope in a fne when they, too, thought the the “pressure was too great. Th y also had “Literary Societies where they had debates, spell downs, box socials, and musicals and singing sessions and talks. The Literaries and the Church Socials also served one other purpose as it was a place where much of the “courting” was done! ! !Men of every community were proud of their fine horses. Who had the fastest horse was one big question. Most any time, day or night, horses were raced to find out! A daring young man raced his horse and buggy, with his girl friend at his side, to show off his wares! Even wives and children were along on some racing outings. Occasionally, horses hitched to spring wagons were raced. Many races took place on Sundays though this was frowned upon by religious societies!The early settlers lived in what we would now consider verv dif-got away, when hearea nearby was settled by people . . .from Sweden. It is a very prosper-i .,( U V,S* There was no electric-lnnLriiicr si ra tic thn furrnctoaria * * CclflulGS lt;111*1 K^rOSCnO lmpSous looking area as the farmsteads are well kept and in most areas in good repair. Some of the customs and habits still prevail, such as large amounts of coffee and boxes of snuff in the stores.provided the light; the water wascarried from the pump to the house; the plumbing was all out of doors; wood, cobs or coal served as fuel for heat! There was no Socialgraveled roads. Then, folks moved to Baton, was elected mayor ami that capacity about 20years.During the early thirties, another robbery took place, only this time it was at the Dana Bank. Miss Lena Anderson, a conscientious and faithful guardian of the bank, was alone when a robber appearedand ordered her to hand over the money. She refused, and ran out the door screaming for help even though the robber was threatening to shoot her. She* ran into the middle of the street, hollering at the men who were in the Produce Station across the street. The men, upon seeing the robber, ran and bid behind a counter, leaving Miss Lena in the middle of the street alone. Well, the robberbut was later caughtrobbed another bank.The history of Dana is also interesting. It was founded in 1880 by Samuel Dana. A large cooperative cheese factory prospered in the northwest part of the town, from 1891 to 1906. It had a capacity of 600 pounds of cheese daily. In a few years Dana had the largest farm implement store in Greene County. There were two grocery stores, a drug store, a variety store, a hotel, two grain elevators, a lumber yard, a garage and a clothing store.The Dana Methodist Church was established in 1894 by W. R. Martin. His brother helped start the Presbyterian Church also. In 1921, the present school building wasopened and the community took great pride in its school as it was considered one of the best at this period of time. One of the students of the school, Earl Elkins, worked his way through high school and medical school and is now' a leading physical therapist Mayo Clinic in Rochester, sota. Another student, Dr. Meredith, became a well minister and has written books. He is now helpingduce a television show and maintains a year round lecture course. He has been the guest of such men as the late Albert Schweitzer, the(lacucetininwieitagno an f rlt;puthwladscprmproflt;*1lt;ththpr1PitomO' 01 cc n i liPi“lt;clmfi(Ihiat the Minne-Ronaldknownseveralto pro-Germans, Irish and, of course, i *ar,m Program or guar-English, also settled in this area of , ante.?d bank deposit account. Every Paton. Names in the telephone di-I 1. was expected to take carelate President Eisenhower and thlt;mnlt;ststtlaslt;eisieibiGcialwb;wIIftUrectory indicate the various origi-; 1 own fnembers. Sometimesnoi nofmnaUUoo I tnree generations lived in one smallnal nationalities. , , . /mL. . , .These people all liked sports and (This probably prevewere good at them. They always » e aeration Gap. ) There 'has * inarch oom the re- be :*hen nted iled. been oom foras her prize in a table setting contest conducted in the homemaking department of Grand Junction High School last term. The contest was sponsored by a well known china company. Mrs. Dorothy Martin, her instructor, received a swan as her award for having a student as a prize winner.Leo Thomsen of Paton cut his arm Tuesday night on a piece of tin while tearing down a chimney. It required five stitches to close the wound.The MSt.L Depot in Grand Junction is being torn down. It is no longer needed because the local MSt.L business is being taken care of by the Chicago and Northwestern personnel.V. R. Morey of Grand Junction has been confined to his home since Friday, when he suffered a light stroke.Robert McKelvey received his discharge from the army June 26, at Fort Benning, Georgia and arrived home July 2. He took his basic training at Fort Cyd, California, spent 15 months in Germany and the remainder of his 1, re-three year enlistment at Fort aucer Benning.Hehashad a baseball team and some of the Paton teams were winners. Some of the pitchers of these teams were John Bradshaw, Aldrich Busby, Harold Lindgren, Lee Johnson and Emrik Carlson.After softball started, Hilles Taylor was the manager of the team, and Paton came off winner the first year that the lights were in the new ball park.In the farming area in the past, work and social activities were quite different from today! In the threshing runs the neighbors necessarily worked together. In the season of the harvesting, all worked very hard, and those who “shirked” were criticized and often ridiculed. It was an experience one never forgot nor regretted. You worked hard and your shirt, wa» seldomdry! When I was about 12 or 13,I was water boy for a steam engine with leaky flues! It took five 400 gallon tanks of water a day. After pumping water from the horse tank at the farm, you went to the creek to get water. Often the engineer was blowing the whistle for me to hurry up so I could pump the water into the tank on the engine. If I was too slow, I stopped theented wereno radios nor colored TV! Much farm work required physical labor. Oxen, first and then horses were used in place of mechanical power. Unless you lived near a town you never got there on a Saturday night or every day! People from this location went down the “Mill Road,” or Highway 17 or now Highway No 4, two or three times a year with their wheat to be ground into flour at the mill at Jefferson and to buy other provisions!Th* women washed clothes on a wash board and never dreamed of an automatic washer and dryer. A cave or a v/ell took the place of a refrigerator; later there was ice | in a box, to store food, but the melting pan under it was always overflowing. Instead of air conditioning, you conditioned yourself to the climate. In fact, youconditioned yourself to the goodtimes and bad, the depressions and the better years without feeling someone owed you the world.Bank RobberiesBut we cannot finish the telling of the history of the Paton Community without looking at the robbery of the early 1900’s.Ilate Adlai Stevenson.F. W. Fitch, who started the Fitch Shampoo Company which be- Cs came world famous, had his start I c] in the Dana community as a “bound” boy working for the Hughes family. As he reached maturity, he went to Boone to work and later manufactured his shampooThe history of the northeast area of Greene County has been just as vivid as any other area. Of course, it has been hard work, tiling, building roads, building homes and schools and churches and farms and towns. It has been the history of people.oSIlrtitihv\naJSt1GwcHtlPI I JL W C+7 Vv\7 OI / VV j 1 O tl I ~p, - . . _ _whole operation since the engine ! nrrle F°boepr of the Paton l ost or, konc nmfnv Or, ™a I*I un 1 lt;;Q in 1911 made the hedlmesh of son ital,s, 1eslieandMr.irne.onehad to have lots of water to make I - ,steam! ! The wages were $1 per/” ‘ erY newspaper in the state, day. Fred Hoover, the engineer, : / f(JrTlember, !t was more excit-cvvoghanhtbea ’om-told me if I should work a hundred days I would have a million dollars.One thing that took place was that you got well acquainted withyour neighbors since you had lots in common working together! And then there were these glorious picnics at the end of the threshing season! There was a grand meal, with homemade ice cream to top it off. It was a great day to anticipate when the work seemed hot and hard. The picnics served were the best that could be provided. The women worked hard over theing than anything you would see wati hnig “Gunsmoke” on television. On May 7, 1911, two men got off a freight train as it passed through Paton and quietly made their way to the post office. They blew open the safe and took stamps and money. J. C. Hoyle discovered the robbers at work, though it was4 a.m. on Sunday morning, and he went for help.The robbers, Seeing they were discovered, started down the road south of town. It is believed they mt-ant to make their getaway on ahot kitchen range, which was fired train h aving town at 5 o’clock.HANDICAPPED, HAVE CRAFT SALE DURING CENTENNIALThe Easter Seal Society for Crippled Children and Adults of Iowa, Inc., will have Homebound Handcraft for sale during the Centennial Celebration July 10, 11 and 12. The sale table will be in the Masonic Temple on Main Street. The Temple will be open daily as a “Hospitality House” for visitors at the Celebration. Eastern Star members present as hostesses will tend the table as a courtesy.Items displayed at this sale are produced by handicapped people, many who have attended the Training Programs that are being held 12 weeks out of the year at Camp Sunnyside.“Trainees” attend only as long as necessary to attain the skills to produce saleable handcrafted articles. The four major areas are: sewing, weaving, ceramics andwoodworking.Through a cooperative agreement between the Easter Seal Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Division of Rehabilitation Educationand Services, the cost of the training program plus room and board is taken care of. After the “trainees” training is completed, financial assistance is available if needed in purchasing the necessary equipment to produce quality prod-ucts.Trainees will then produce the articles in their home, price them and have them delivered to “Sun-^n0 A1stcrfc(i1iI
Newspaper Details
Grand Junction Globe Free Press
Grand Junction, Iowa, US
Thu, Jul 10, 1969
Page 150
Full Page
Clipped by
Carolyn L.
USA 10 Jun 2022
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