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Newspaper
Pella Chronicle
Location
Pella, Iowa, United States of America
Date
Sep 09, 1954
Page
5
Northwestern University trustees chairman Kenneth R. Burgess notes President Dwight Eisenhower received an honorary degree amid wartime leadership. The citation praises his calm in uncertainty, Christian values, and steadfast resistance to tyranny amid a partisan campaign.
A Washington meeting of doctors discusses keeping elders well as the 65 plus population grows to 21 million by 1975. Experts urge rejecting ageism, promoting rehabilitation and employment, while noting nearly three million seniors already work and contribute about 12 billion dollars annually. Ill health drives most into retirement.
The excerpt argues that retirement to uselessness damages personal pride and prompts pessimism, a mindset that can shorten life as elders struggle with a perceived lack of purpose in the broader scheme of things.
The Centennial Caravan of 1954 traveling from Fairfield to Des Moines recalled Lake Prairie District Fair memories in Pella. The reporter remembers gas engines, ham burgers, cookie batter on ice cream cones, Gerrit Stegeman on a foot pump organ, the first town motion picture The Great Train Robbery, race track bells, a bamboo framed plane, games, watermelon stands, a grand marshal in ribbon, and livery-hustle as Penny-saving days after the 4th of July.
A mosaic of observations from various papers on freedom, reading, urban growth, and civic action. Notes range from editors advocating dissent and tolerance to merchants choosing stock, plus local reports on profiles of Iowa towns, a Klan meeting, defense day preparations, and a Pershing radio appeal.
Fifty years ago residents west of the Van Stigt corner on West Washington Street urged Washington Street be narrowed to 100 feet for steps and sidewalks. Other streets like South Main and Franklin supported uniform narrowing. The council approved looser alcohol permits with mayoral conditions, a dry spell loomed, and civic notes highlighted band consolidations, local sales, a start of auto traffic, and community events including an Old Settlers picnic and Federated Club activities.
Twenty years ago on September 6 1934 Edward Payne 89 lay ill when he fell from a window then a roof and died. Frank Jaarsma found him in the alley near the Payne home as 2000 spectators watched the first donkey ball games at Central College athletic field led by managers W W Sadler and G W Van Arkel. The crowd called it the most farcical evening yet and about seventy unemployed men at Pella Can Plant helped supervise relief meat distribution during the event.
The article notes Central College's status as a leading institution and introduces Dr. William Vander Lust as a new faculty member. It reports a statewide dairy and cattle relief effort by Marion County officials to aid distressed farmers, citing drought impacts with bluegrass loss in Jasper and Marion counties and planned cattle purchases to stabilize farms.
A gasoline truck overturned at the northeast corner of Squat at 8:30. Stevens of Des Moines was helped from the cab by John W. Vos risking injury. Firemen controlled the blaze. Wormhoudt Furniture Store windows were ruined. Three curbside cars were damaged. one owned by Tra was removed, Hunter Ballenger and H. Wideen owned others gutted. Navy Air Base crews from Ottumwa aided Pella in tulip bulb relocation to the Base grounds after three days of digging on Central College property. The front-page tease notes Allied advances.
A reflective tribute to longtime Iowa settlers and veterans, praising the county’s heritage. It honors old men who labor in farming, endure weather, and pass on faith, land, and family values, saluting those who built the community and preserved tradition.
War items report Nazi forces driven from Holland and Belgium, with Patton’s push toward Germany seen as the start of a final drive. A land summary notes bomb damage varies by town while a Iowa State College article discusses Birdsfoot Trefoil for pasture illustrated by Elmer Nollen farm plots. Second Lt. Ernest Boat is missing in action over Germany, and Sgt. Wiven writes of French jubilation and store shortages. Five Du Pree sons from Pella serve in the U.S. armed forces. John wounded in France and hospitalized in England.
Three of every five students in elementary and secondary schools last year received basic lessons in volunteer service through Junior Red Cross programs.
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