Cherokee County Businesses |
Cherokee County Businesses |
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Foreward
All
of the data and other information contained in this condensed version
of the history has been taken from the minutes of the many meetings of
the club directors and members over the many years of the past.
Additional thoughts have been recorded drawing on personal experiences
of the author and some others who have been members for many decades.Author: E. T. Parker
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two years ago, a group of Cherokee, Iowa men met to form a golf club.
The year was 1921. The names of these men will be later listed in order
to have an accurate and historical record of the origin and beginning
of
the Cherokee Golf and Country Club. All of the dates and names have
been carefully researched from the club records, starting with the
first
meeting. The secretaries, at the start and continuing to the present,
have kept excellent records of the group's meetings and activities.
Some
of the early records could have been destroyed during the demolition of
the county courthouse. These records had been boxed and stored in a
small room under the clock tower and could have been easily been mixed
with other debris during the destruction of the building. Credit for
preservation of thee records must go to Loyal Martin, who served as a
secretary for many lean and trying years of the club history. The first club meeting was held in Cherokee City Hall on January 14, 1921. Doctor C. H. Johnson was elected and served as the first president of the club. Claude M. Sullivan, one time postmaster, served as secretary. Only a few names of the hundreds of club members will appear in this short narrative, but that will not detract from the many hours of unselfish hard work done by so many of these people, both past and present. early members of the club and those of recent years have been faced with many of the same problems. First and foremost, FINANCES - same as now! Problems of club managers and caretakers, upkeep of the property, maintaining membership. All of these have shown up in the history pages. The records of the first meetings set the policy that has been followed; eg., as problems arose they were solved. One of the first problems that was presented, was to find a location for the club. At an early meeting , it was mentioned that a cow pasture, north of town, known as "The Draper Place" was for sale. Price: $175.00 per acre. Action taken - a committee was named to investigate. After some negotiations with the real owners of "The Draper Place", an agreement was made to purchase the property. There is on file at the Cherokee courthouse in the Recorder's office a copy of the agreement showing the Cherokee Country Club purchased from E. R. Dealy and others (the real owners) the property that is now the present golf course. The club paid $12,000.00 for this tract of land. The present 1983-4 tax records show this area contains 86.57 acres. There have been a few minor changes in the area since the original purchase. Date of a purchase: March 1, 1923. One half of the purchase price was obtained by making a bank loan at 5%, balance was covered by issuance of bonds sold to the group of club members. The bonds and loan were eventually paid off, but the records indicate that some pressure and arm twisting had to be done on a few members to make them meet their obligation. |
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FIRST
BOARD OF DIRECTORS - YEAR 1921
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As
many past and present club members, who have served on the board of
directors know, the first board's job was not easy. First, the cow
pasture had to be remade so that some resemblance could be obtained to
look like a golf course. The first green was started with the help of
James Nicholson of LeMars, who evidently had some experience in golf
course construction. August 1923 four greens had by completed and plans
were being made to locate the other five green locations and build
them, using "alfalfa dirt" - whatever that was. While the greens and
fairways construction was progressing, another committee was working on
the plans for construction of a club house. The first real action on a
building was discussed in a meeting dated April 5, 1923. This was a
meeting when plans for a new club house were approved. Contracts for
work in connection with the construction of this building were awarded
to the following Cherokee business firms:
From the date that these firms were awarded contracts until completion there was a rapid progress made in construction. There must have been no shortage of material or workers as final completion of this new structure was July 31, 1923. The total cost for the new Club House was $ 11,126.47. This building did not have too many frills. The two story structure was not designed for winter use. The second floor was mainly a large room with hardwood floor designed for dancing, a small area in northwest corner for kitchen, on the south and east a screened porch. The ground floor did have a furnace room and several small rooms to be used for living quarters for the caretaker's accommodations. Balance of the ground floor used for lockers, toilet rooms and golfing equipment. The first meeting in the new club house was held June 23, 1923 a short time before the official completion date. This can be understood as members were anxious to start using the building. Throughout the years several states of remodeling was done. First the upstairs porch was enclosed. Ground floor bar and snack bar installed Lockers rooms improved and finally on the second floor dining room added and kitchen improved for full service eating and other club activities. All was going well until 3:15 AM November 28, 1979 when fire demolished the entire building. Cause of fire unknown. As far as what happened since 1979, the present club house stands out in relief as many of the present well know. The personality of the club was well discovered after the destructive fire of November 28, 1979 discovered at 3:15 a.m. On the following day at 7:30 p.m. the p resident of the club called a meeting of the board of directors to discuss and formulate plans for the construction of a new club house. The fire at that time totally destroying the building and all equipment in it created one of the greatest problems to face members since the purchase of the "Draper Place" back in 1923. Many members, both elective, appointed and volunteers serving on committees contributed a lot of personal time and effort the construction and equipping of the new club house facility. A great deal of appreciation is due to all of these people. There were critics, of course, the same as recorded back in 1921 - 1923. Most of the criticism has now vanished and most of those that had objections have moderated their feelings and accept the congratulations of new members, visitors, out of town sightseers and others who compliment the City of Cherokee on having such a nice quasi-municipal golfing area. There was no official date for the completion of the club house but the first recorded meeting of the Board of Directors was held in the new building June 9, 1981.The Grand Opening for members was held on June 14, 1981. The Cherokee Country Club Greens and Fairways have remained in more or leass the original locations with a few minor changes. The most noticeable is No. 2 green with the old location designated by a sharp depression in front of the present green. All of the present day greens with bent grass cover are a far cry from the 1923 variety. That was the year when the first putting greens of the course were built. The first four greens were constructed in 1923 by volunteer members of the club. The following five soon followed and according to the club records all able bodied men were to show up ready for duty with rakes in their hands! Special mention was made that the last five were to be constructed with "alfalfa dirt". Whatever method and material was used must have been successful as in 1925, the Northwest Iowa Bankers Association were given the right to use the facilities for annual convention. Rate charged was $15.00 for club house and $1.00 per person for golf green fees. In the same year, 1925, the first Sioux Valley Tournament was held according to the minutes of a meeting when Dr. J. A. Hirschman, chairman of the tournament committee, report a profit of $1.97. Golfing gained in popularity as new members names were approved and added to the list. Yearly dues were $38.00, but even at that low rate in the late twenties, a few names were dropped account being delinquent. With the increase in the number of active golfers came the demand for caddies. The extra weight of a bag full of niblicks, mashies and wooden shafted driving irons pulling on the shoulders up No. 6 and No. 8 demanded that someone help. The demand for caddy help grew even with the added expense of 25 cents per round, the going fee. True the boys that did the best job and able to find most balls in the rough did receive extra tip for their service. Some of the caddies worked for tips by teeing up the golfer's ball. Before the modern wooden tees, a small mound or pyramid of sand was used to elevate the ball off the tee area. The tee area was a square or oblong area that was void of grass, compacted bare ground where each golfer hit his first shot. In the photo of the first club house, the tee area and the small box where sand was stored to make the tee mound. The action of the boys working as caddies was very restricted. They were not given the free run of the course but were confined to a restricted area. This area was located west of the club house and in a spot near the west end of the present parking median. The caddy bench was surrounded by tall lilac shrubbery, where the boys were required to stay until their turn came to caddy or when a golfer called for a certain boy. Some of the present top golfers of the 1983 club can recall their start in the sport as beginning on the plant seat behind the lilac bush. |
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A
few years after the club was started, it became a concern of the
members that they would need professional help to bring the grounds and
greens up to the standards that they desired. After several meetings of
the board a man living in Des Moines was contacted and eventually hired
for the year 1925. The Club would provide living quarters in their new
clubhouse and pay him $500.00 for the year. Also, the man's
wife,
who was still in Scotland, would handle concessions and help out as
needed. Mr. Adams, the new pro, had been working for a golf
club
in Des Moines, Iowa, was the first of several professional golf people
who have made the course one of the best in the region.
Following
is a list of these men:
With Railroad Creek facing the golfers and challenging their shots, these people were faced with a real hazard getting off No. 5 Tee. Directly in front of the teeing area to the left was a deep hole, giant pig weeds and sour dock, with a generous supply of poison ivy and other unknown wild jungle growth filled the area. Many a topped ball found its way in this area of no-recovery. You are now on top of this filled in area when you stop your cart on the blacktop cart path and walk up to No. 5 Tee. Filling in this hole has been one of many improvements made in the past years. The flat rock that had worked its way above surface a few feet off No. 6 Tee has also gone. This rock had carried several names in the past such as "Locke's Rock' or "Swedes Rock" as a reminder that some of the golfers of two eras topped their drives, hitting the rock and bouncing skyward. What has been written so far in this brief history of the club is only a small part of the many incidents that have occurred in the past. The Hooks and Slices, the Dubs and frustrations of a missed 12 inch put. It was more painful for these errors in the early days when the fairways were more narrow and the greens were not as smooth and velvety as they are now in the era of the 80s. The roughs were thick and tall. So we can look back to the days of Wilbur and his friends. Wilbur and friends were residents of the institution then known as the Cherokee State Hospital. Due to their status, they had some special privileges. One of these was the right to enter the Cherokee County Club grounds and look for golf balls in the rough and along the Railroad Creek. All balls found were to be returned to Walt, the pro, who paid Wilbur for his find. An amount in the range of 10 - 25 cents was the amount paid, depending on the volume. Wilbur took his job very much to heart even looking in places where there was little or no chance of finding balls. One place where he did find balls, as many golfers know, was in the weeds and plum thicket below No. 4 Tee. To this day it still remains a hazard for many golfers. Wilbur would sometimes use a long handle sickle weed cutter to reach the spot where a ball could be hiding. ON such a day when he was working in the tall pig weeds below No. 4 Tee that several golfers were getting ready to tee off, Wilbur rose suddenly from the tall weed patch swinging his long handled sickle, then dropped back out of sight. One of the golfers, who was a visitor, asked "who was that man?" and when he was told that Wilbur was from the asylum. The visitor picked up his ball and started walking to No. 3 green, muttering under his breath "that's a helluva hole". To this day there are some that remember Wilbur and have the same opinion of the area as that visiting golfer. |
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One
group of people belonging to the club throughout the years have not
received the recognition that they have deserved. At least it has not
been made a written record of their work. Only in recent years have
they received equal recognition in golfing activities. It is
interesting to go back and search the records to see what is on the
record. At a meeting August 27, 1923 the directors authorized a womens
committee and gave them authority "to purchase dishes cooking utensils
and kitchen equipment". Also it was stipulated to to "get the best
deal" so that items would be available for use at the first dance in
the new club rooms November 20, 1923.
1928 Budget listed $50.00 for ladies activities. 1936 Budget listed $20.00 for ladies golfing group. This was the first written record that could be found indicating that women were playing golf at the club. Later a special enrollment fee was authorized for young single ladies of Cherokee to join the club for golfing privileges. It is not necessary to detail the growth in the activities of the women of the Cherokee Club. There is no doubt that the swimming pool, constructed in 1935, was a promotional project for this group. The full participation in ladies and mixed golf leagues have proven that the success of the club will greatly depend on their continued support. Mention should now be made that in 1979, Mrs. John Poggenklaas served as the first woman President of the club. The work done on the present modern clubhouse, both inside and out, has been carried out by the ladies organizations. In these groups there are always outstanding leaders that always are available in each generation, ready to serve and lead and brush off the critics. |
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List
of Secretaries of the Cherokee Country Club
E. T. (BIZ)
Parker
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Presidents
of Cherokee Country Club
Source: History of Cherokee Golf and Country Club 1921 - 1983. This phamplet was prepared in the mid 1980's for the purpose of providing the Cherokee Golf and Country Club Ladies Group the profits from the sale of the booklet to be used as they desired for the good of the club. |
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