Scotty McLeod, a writer for the Cedar Rapids Gazette, has located a wrestler who claims he pinned Farmer Burns to the mat twice in a three hour struggle. That was fifty-five years ago here in Clarence.

I knew Martin Burns well as long ago as forty-eight years. He lived at Big Rock and I did much travelling between Oxford Junction and Davenport. Burns was active in the wrestling ring then and he was very often on either the passenger or the freight train that ran between the two points on the line now to be torn up.

Burns married a Clarence girl who died within the last three years and whose remains were brought from Omaha for burial at Toronto. Her name was Amelia Huffmaster. An effort to locate more details of this lady’s life and death in the files of The Sun were unsuccessful, due to knowledge of dates for a guide being lacking.

Here is the article by Scotty McLeod:

In this cornah—which happens to be a farm north of Mechanicsville—lives the undefeated retired side-hold wrestling champion of Iowa. He’s 75 now, but don’t shake hands with him unless you’re accustomed to stepping into a vise. He’s still got the grip that counted for a lot in his wrestling days. His name is Lewis Kohl.

Kohl wrestled for about four years, gave it up when he was married at the age of 21 and settled on the farm where he still lives and works.

His best remembered match and the one which gained him lasting fame was with the legendary Farmer Burns, the Big Rock athlete, who went on to win the world’s wrestling crown in the days when wrestlers meant business and not Business.

It was in the summer of 1885 at Clarence that Kohl met Burns. The two men wrestling the old side-hold style for three hours before Kohl won two out of three falls. It was shortly after this match that Burns took up the catch-as-catch can wrestling style and won the world crown from the first Strangler Lewis in Chicago. Burns held the diadem until he surrendered it to his pupil Frank Gotch. Burns died in Omaha about three years ago.

Kohl recalled the bout last week as he took time off from a job burning corn stalks. He attended a ball game at Clarence on Saturday. It was announced that the great Burns would be on hand the following week to meet any contender who would step forward. A friend of Kohl’s took up the challenge and a purse of $60 was raised. Kohl pointed out this was top money for a bout at that time. Only twice did he wrestle for that much money.

The following Saturday a good crowd turned out for the event. Both men weighed in at 176 pounds. The men flipped to see who got high or low hold. The details of the three-hour struggle are dimmed in Kohl’s mind by the passing of 55 years, but he recalls he won the first and third falls.