Charlotte Traces Roots Back to 1840

GILMORE, HUNTER, AIKMAN, BRAINERD, HANRAHAN, MONAHAN, MARKHAM, GAULT

Posted By: N. L. (email)
Date: 11/9/2002 at 10:17:20

Clinton Herald Feb. 24, 1993- Once upon a time by Everett A. Streit

A brawling, deep stream-- long a favorite fishing spot for Indians because it was teeming with pike, many ranging in size up to and over 20 pounds--helped William Hunter decide in 1840 to stake a claim in mid-Clinton county.

Along its banks he erected a small structure which served both as his home and an inn to accommodate travelers from the east who were heeding the siren call of rich farm and timberlands in Iowa.

Thus was planted the seed for the founding of Charlotte 12 years later when Albert Gilmore constructed a grist-sawmill along what was then known as Deep Creek.

The stream's depth and swift current provided the power needed to turn the heavy millstones from which ground flour from wheat grown in nearby fields and powered the saws to cut logs. Gilmore also constructed a large dam to ensure an adequate water supply during the dry seasons.

Within a year a postoffice had been opened with Gilmore in charge. He prompty named the new settlement Charlotte, his wife's name.

The first house was built by O.P. "Squire" Aikman who had been a resident of Lyons. The first store was opened by William Brainerd. Soon after, W.F. Hanrahan established a business which continued under the family name until 1951. Another pioneer firm was Monahan & Bro. which sold farm equipment and printed a sales catalog in German.

Operation of a daily stage route from Lyons to Maquoketa in the early 1850's prompted Elijah Markham to erect a new inn at Charlotte where a stop was made for dinner. The coach route was unfenced and wound through the open prairie. This prompted some complaints among farmers about the stagecoach crossing their lands and damaging crops. The more vocal ones were occasionally slipped some cash. For a time it was necessary for the stage to pay a toll for a stretch between Goose Lake and Charlotte. Passengers often had to walk considerate distances so the coach would be lightened and not become bogged down in muddier sectors.

The area's first school had been established in 1849 about two miles north of Charlotte and served parts of three townships. Classes were held during those periods when youngsters were not needed to help in the fields. A graded school was built in Charlotte in 1875.

The pioneer school also was used for many years by itinerant preachers and "circuit-riders" until a Catholic church was erected in nearby Petersville in 1852, a Methodist church (1871)and a Lutheran church (1872) in Charlotte. Parishioners hand-quarried all the stone used in the 1882 construction of Assumption Catholic church.

A land boom in Charlotte was sparked in the early 1850s by the Iowa Air Line railroad's announcement it was planning to extend service through Clinton County. Deep Creek bottom land sold for $75 an acre instead of the usual $10. But a combination of the railroad going belly-up and the financial panic of 1857 ushered in a no-growth period for Charlotte which was not reversed until 1870 when Midland branch line trains began operating between Lyons and Anamosa. In a matter of a few years the town became a busy shipping and supply point for an extensive farming region. It had also prompted the platting of the community in 1871.

After Gilmore mill was abandoned about 1890 the dam also fell in decay. Another dam which had served another early mill was kept in repair, forming a deep pool from which ice was cut every winter and shipped to points along the midland.

The two-day celebration staged in 1952 to celebrate Charlotte's Centennial was a real zinger. The folks there already are talking about making the 150th birthday party in 2002 even bigger and better.

One of the major tragedies in Charlotte history occurred on March 6, 1873 when four persons were drowned while attempting to drive a wagon through Deep Creek when it was at flood stage. One woman was saved only because her heavy woolen skirts caught on a branch about a mile and one-half downstream. Tornadoes struck the town in 1876 and again in 1898. Fire destroyed nearly an entire block of the business district in 1898. During that conflagration a pumper was shipped by rail from Clinton to help bring the fire under control.

Charlotte's earliest newspaper was The Gazette, which became the Record when purchased in 1904 by Andrew Gault. Gault published the Record every week until his retirement in 1951.
His old hand-operated printing press which he used right up to the final edition is now in the Minden, Neb., Pioneer Village Museum.