Iowa
Old Press
Iowa Recorder
Greene, Butler, Iowa
March 27, 1929
NEWS AND COMMENTS ABOUT IOWA PEOPLE
By J.W. JARNAGIN
Des Moines, March 25- Among unusual cases decided in the supreme
court recently was one in which it was held that a person could
not be considered to have been riding a vehicle when he was
riding a horse. The opinion was given in the case brought by Mrs.
Earl Riser against the Federal Life Insurance company in Grundy
county. The lower court upheld the claim to $2,000 on an
insurance policy after evidence had been given to show that T.B.
Riser was killed Aug. 3, 1926, by being thrown from a horse. The
insurance policy had insured him against being killed by being
thrown from a vehicle. Mrs. Riser contended that the horse with
bridle and saddle constituted a vehicle. The supreme court
decided that Riser was not in a vehicle while on a horse and
reversed the decision.
Maple Sugar Camp in Fayette County in Operation.
The Brause maple sugar camp a few miles east of West Union,
Fayette county, is in full operation. The passing of frost from
the earth started the sap in voluminous proportions and there is
promise of an unusually large yield of syrup and sugar. This camp
is 60 years old and has been one of the show places of that
locality for many years. Most of the product finds a ready sale
at the camp.
Secretary of the Interior an Iowa Product
Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, President Hoover's selection for Secretary
of the Interior, like his chief, was also born in Iowa. His
parents in an early day settled in Boonesboro, then the county
seat of Boone county. When the Northeastern railway was built
through the county, it missed that town a short distance and what
is now the thriving city of Boone sprang up in the more
attractive location near the railroad. The original town of
Boonesboro has not entirely lost its identity but Boone proper
has submerged it. In the old town Dr. Wilbur was born in 1875. He
is a brother to Curtis D. Wilbur, who was Secretary of the Navy
in the latter years of the Coolidge administration, who was also
born at Boonesboro. The Wilburs moved to California some years
ago and the sons were educated at Leland Stanford University,
both of them being enrolled at the same time Hoover was. Dr.
Wilbur, the new Secretary of the Interior, was president of that
great institution for several years. James. W. Good, Hoover's
secretary of War, is also an Iowa product, so it would seem that
the state figures conspicuously under the new administration.
Iron Works in Allamakee County Still Guarded.
The only iron mines in the state are near Waukon, Allamakee
county. In days agone hundreds of people were employed at the
mines and a train load of iron ore was shipped daily. In recent
years the mines were closed down but a million dollars worth of
buildings and machinery are still there and a guardsman is on
duty during the day and night the year round. It is announced
that the lead mines near Dubuque are to be operated this season
and it may be that some of these days the eastern syndicate that
owns the iron deposits near Waukon may begin operations.
More Dairy Cattle Needed in Southern Iowa.
In a recent interview, J.M. Beck, of Centerville, Appanoose
county, gave it as his deliberate judgment that the southwestern
part of Iowa needs more dairy farms to furnish milk and new cream
for the dairies there. New dairies have been established and are
shipping in cream from as far away as Texas. Dairying by farmers
would help Iowa more than one could imagine.
[submitted by C.J.L., Feb. 2004]