There is much to record regarding the history of the city of Humboldt. In the interim between research and making the information available to our visitors, we are offering the following file. It is a copy of the complete speech made by the Rev. S. H. Taft, the founder of the city of Humboldt. The speech was delivered at the Semi-Centennial gathering on September 11, 1913. The speech is rich with antidotes of early life in Humboldt.

M. B. Wills of Humboldt developed a horseshoe cork sharpener in 1869 that would enable every man to sharpen the shoes of his own horse. The could "thereby save a large blacksmith bill the course of a year." However, it was never patented and probably never placed on the market, at least very extensively.

Mr. Wills also had a machine that manufactured 16 bricks with each revolution of the wheel. "Its capacity is to manufacture 25,000 perfectly compressed and uniform-sized bricks a day," said the Dubuque Times. It was built by Wills and Johnson of Iowa Falls, but probably not patented.