Burlington Weekly Hawkeye
Burlington, Des Moines , Iowa
March 2, 1882  

WASHINGTON NOTES  

Last Weeks’ Postoffice Changes in Iowa .
            Washington , Feb. 28 – The following are the postoffice changes in Iowa for the week ended February 25: Established – Bromley, Marshall county, John C. Armstrong, postmaster; Galtville, Wright county, Robert B. Hanlin, postmaster. Postmasters appointed – Adel, Dallas county, Walter A. Noel; Castle Grove, Jones county, Charles C. Scott; Corwith, Hancock county, Oliver H. Stilson; Danforth, Johnson county, Berthold Byer; El Dorado, Fayette county, Paul Buechser; Mount Sterling, Van Buren county, Samuel N. Thatcher; Nugent’s Grove, Linn county, O.J. Nugent; Washburn, Black Hawk county, James Brown.  

Iowa Postoffice Changes.

            Washington , Feb. 22 – The following are the postoffice changes in Iowa for the week ending February 18: Established – Bagley, Guthrie county, Charles R. Wright, postmaster; Churdan Greene county, Joseph Churdan, postmaster; Halbur, Carroll county, Ezra N Merchant, postmaster; Lawrence, Pocahontas county, George W. Leverick, postmaster; Thrall, Wright county, Dorastus B. Myers, postmaster; Willits, Van Buren county, Israel B. Chamberlain, postmaster; Willow Glen, Humboldt county, John W. King, postmaster. Discontinued – Lezler, Woodbury county. Name changed. – Advance, Guthrie county, to Herndon. Postmasters appointed – Blairstown, Benton county, Mrs. Cora L. Van Matse; Franklin Mills, Des Moines county, Thomas Burges; High Point , Decatur county, George A. Graham; Lincoln, Polk county, T.L. Conway; Norwalk, Warren county, George ?. Stittler [ ?]; Quasqueton, Buchanan county, Mrs. Ada Butterfield; Scottswood, Pottawattamie county, William M McNew; Tuskeege, Decatur county, Lewis Craig; Woodburn, Clarke county, J.A. Heaton.  

-         The McGillicuddys have just returned from Cork , Europe . They were the life of the steerage during the voyage.  

Funeral of James P. Bean

            The funeral of the lamented young civil engineer, James P. Bean, occurred in Mount Pleasant on Sunday. The services were conducted by Rev. Mr. Pillsbury, and were especially touching. A large number of Burlington people attended and it seemed that nearly every household in Mount Pleasant was represented for the deceased was widely known and universally respected and liked. He leaves a wife and one little child to mourn the loss which, to them, is irrevocable. Mr. Bean died February 9, near Uwalde , Texas , one hundred miles south of San Antonio . He was laid to rest here by strange though tender hands, but the members of his own family and the many loving friends in this country felt that it were better that he should repose beside the form of his little child, that died only one month before he himself was summoned. Dr. J.V. Bean, of our city, started as soon as the telegram came which brought news of his death, and succeeded in bringing the loved remains back with him. Many a heart will sympathize with the friends and mourn for the dead.

Burlington Hawk Eye
Burlington, Iowa
March 30, 1882

Des Moines Register
     How very few of the many acts of great bodies live after them. The only
thing the late legislature of Iowa did-with its one hundred and fifty wise men
at work for three months-that will go into history, or be remembered more than
ten years probably, was the gold medal that it voted to Kate Shelley in
recognition of a girl's heroism. It did a great deal else, a large detail of
things, but all that were temporary in their nature and will be fleeting in
their existence. But the little hoop of gold, an heir-loom in the Shelley
family, will grow greater with the lapse of time. After five years there will
probably be no public library in the world that will not contain a sketch of the
story of the medal, and no collection of historic medals that will not contain a
copy of this one of Kate's. A medal of honor, worthily won and worthily
bestowed, is the most enduring as well as the most grateful of mortal baubles.
The medallic history of the world is of remarkable interest. The mother of this
Iowa heroine, sitting in the poverty of her humble home, and yet with a pride
that came in her blood of some ancestor whose valor had been proved by field and
fire-perhaps centuries ago-perhaps by a Sir Galahad or an Arthur himself-in
saying she would rather have the state giver her daughter a medal than a home,
was right. The circle of gold she knows is more than money, and means more in
the present, and very much more in the future. She could work for money.
Potatoes would bring money, eggs would -even begging But this shining stamp of
gold, expressing the appreciation and admiration of a state, and preserving the
record of heroism to history, mere labor could not earn nor money buy. Such
tokens of immortality are only won by mortals of more than mortal courage or
merit. So a double lesson has been taught here: A great legislature perpetuating
its name in history by the one act of recognizing heroism-and next, a simple
Irish woman, born from lowliest peasantry of poor and mendicant Ireland,
verifying anew the quality of human nature at its best; by saying even in her
poverty that the gold of honor is more than the gold of bread. It teaches
further, that in the humblest breast and in the poorest home, as well as in
prouder breasts in higher life, there is still burning yet the sparks of the
living fire of noblest human purpose. It is this light falling on Kate Shelley's
medal, that will give its purest radiance.

[C.J.L. Jan 2004, March 2007]