Iowa
Old Press
The Oelwein Register
Oelwein, Fayette co., Iowa
October 2, 1890
Christian Conrad Celebrated 100th Birthday
Christian Conrad celebrated his 110th birthday Sept.
23d, on his farm six miles from Manchester, and his neighbors
took a holiday in recognition of the event. Christian was born in
Cumberland county, Penn., Sept. 23, 1780. He served in the war of
1812 and took part in the assault of Queenstown Heights, and was
in the battle of Fort Erie, witnessing Perry's conquest of the
lake of this name. Thirty-five years ago he came to Iowa, located
on the farm where he resides. His home is a small log hut,
containing a bedroom and a living room.
His wife to whom he was married in Pennsylvania sixty years ago,
still survives to minister to his wants in his old age. He is the
father of eleven children, all living and ranging from 30 to 59
years of age. He was forty-two grandchildren and thirty-four
great grandchildren. He does not appear to be over 90 years of
age, and bright. His frame is attenuated and the skin hangs
loosely, but he stands erect and moves about like a much younger
man. He seldom goes to bed until 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning,
rising at 8. During the summer months he puts in about ten hours
daily caring for his cattle and hogs, cutting wood and hoeing the
corn and potatoes.
AN AWFUL WRECK
A Freight Train on the Wabash Plunges Through a Bridge -
The Terrible Fate of Three Train Men - Explosion of Oil and Gas
Tanks.
A fearful wreck occurred about 3 o'clock on the morning of Sept.
21st on the Wabash railway six miles southeast of Council Bluffs,
in which Engineer Martin Eskridge, Fireman Joseph Burke and
Brakeman R.G. Williamson were killed. At the point where the
accident occurred there is a huge trestle where the roads jump
across a wide chasm that a little creek has cut through the
hills. The trestle is 300 feet long, and in its center it is
fifty feet above the bed of the little stream. The trestle is
located on a steep grade and at the point of a sharp curve, where
the road abruptly leaves its eastern course and turns
south. This point was the scene of the fearful calamity in
which three men lost their lives and an entire train with the
exception of the caboose and a few cars was destroyed, with every
element of horror that could invest such a catastrophe. The train
was loaded with merchandise mostly from St. Louis. The third car
from the engine was a huge tank containing 6,000 gallons of crude
petroleum designed for fuel. Two cars near it were filled with
beer and others were filled with hardware, dry goods, and one
with buggies and carriages.
The cars one after another tumbled into the chasm, carrying down
100 feet more of the trestle. Every car but the caboose and the
three ahead of it went down. The rear brakes stopped these, and
the last one was pulled off the rails by the plunge of the one
ahead before the coupler gave way. The three passengers were not
aroused until the cars had stopped, and they stepped out with the
conductor and brakeman. A fearful sight met their gaze. Piled in
inextricable confusion on the bottom and sides of the ravine were
the wrecked cars ahead. Bright tongues of flames were shooting up
through the mass in a thousand places and clouds of steam and
avalanches of boiling water were hissing from the wrecked engine.
Above the shriek of the escaping steam they could hear cries for
help. The crash, the excessive explosions which were heard
more than a mile away, awakened the farmers near by and they soon
came to the scene and rendered all the help that could be
rendered. In hall an hour the fire had begun to go down and the
steam in the engine had escaped, and it was possible to get near
the wreck. A search was made for the victims who were known
to be lost. The first one found was head brakeman,
Williamson. He was lying fifty feet ahead of the engineer,
but he could not then be found, and the spot where they had left
the imprisioned fireman was a glowing bed of coals.
IOWA CONDENSED ITEMS
- Thirty-five arrests were made in Davenport in two
days.
- About 10,000 acres of Emmet county real estate changed hands in
one week.
- Lack of business compelled the telephone exchange at Newton to
suspend operations.
- Large numbers of hogs are dying from cholera in the southern
part of Kossuth county
- The mother of Hon. J.J. Dunn, State Oil Inspector, died at
Dubuque, Sept. 24th, aged 81.
- Three states will be represented at the dedication of the new
Turner hall in Dubuque in November.
- While boring for water at Orient the other day a strong flow of
oil was struck at a depth of 180 feet.
- Merchants and workingmen of Boone are subscribing liberally to
a fund to secure a packing house.
- Jones, the Iowa weather prophet, predicts a long, cold,snowy
winter, starting early and continuing late.
- Hon. Edwin H. Conger, congressman from the 7th district of
Iowa, has been appointed minister to Brazil.
- The Tri-State Can company, of Keokuk, employees 140 operatives
and manufactures about 37,000 tin cans every day.
- The population of Des Moines according to the official census
figures is 50,067, being an increase since 1880 of 123 1/2 per
cent.
- M.A. Roberts, one of the oldest citizens of Mauch Chunk, died
of lack jaw, caused by running a rusty nail into his arm.
- A convention of the societies of Christian Endeavor, of
southwest Iowa, has been arranged to meet at Corning, October 17,
18 and 19.
- Miss Ada Inkerman, of Eldora, experimented with a gasoline
stove, and is patiently awaiting the growth of a new crop of
bangs and eye-lashes.
- The autograph of the celebrated actress Charlotte Cushman and a
fine portrait of her have been placed in the Aldrich Collection
in the State Library.
- The state board of health reports that only three per cent of
the deaths in Iowa were cause by malaria, and these in quarters
where sanitary rules were neglected.
- Articles of Incorporation of the Jasper County Coal company
were filed with Secretary of State Jackson.The capital stock is
$60,000 and the home office will be at Colfax.
- A farmer names Ohl near Oasis, had eleven horses killed by
lightning. They stood in a bunch near a wire fence, and not one
escaped. The animals were valued at $2,000.
- G.N. Ross and John Evans met violent deaths at Lancaster. The
former accidentally shot himself, while the latter was hit over
the head with a neck yoke by an unknown man.
The information has gained currency that the population of Iowa
City will not be 5,527 according to the new census. Mayor Rene
has written a letter to Washington, protesting against the count.
There is talk of spanning the Mississippi at Burlington, with a
pontoon bridge. Stewart, the pontoon bridge builder, offers to
build a first-class structure for $12,000 and to have if
completed in thirty days.
Articles of Incorporation of the Fair State bank were filed with
the secretary of state. The capital stock is $25,000. Articles
were also filed by the Sun Printing company, of Sac City; capital
stock $10,000.
The auditor issued a certificate to the Emmet County State bank,
at Estherville, with a capital stock of $25,000. F.E. Webb,
president; Webb Vincent, cashier. This bank was formerly a
private bank.
One of the largest consignments of imported horses ever received
in that section of Iowa has just been received by D.P. Stubbs
& Sons, of Fairfield. The horses consist of thirty-five
Belgian draft and Oldenberg coach horses.
Euphony Burras, a day laborer attempted suicide at Atlantic by
cutting a gash in his throat three inches long with a razor. He
will probably recover. Family troubles and whisky are the causes
of his attempted self extermination.
The governor (Horace Boies) has been asked to send a veterinary
surgeon to Muscatine county to investigate an epidemic among
cattle. They grow stiff in the joints and refuse to eat and
drink, and cows give only about one-third their amount of milk.
While attempting to make a coupling at Herdon, Horace Wilson, a
freight brakeman on the Des Moines & Northwestern,
accidentally put his left foot on the rail, when the car padded
over it, cutting off all of the toes on one foot.
The jury in the Wilcox murder case at Carroll was out only ten
minutes and without discussion voted at 5 p.m. unanimously for
acquittal on the first ballot. Frances J. Wilcox was on
trial for the murder of her husband last March.
Twenty cases of diphtheria are reported to the state board of
health from Charter Oak, Iowa. There are also some cases of
typhoid fever caused by impure well water. Two cases of
diphtheria are reported from Muscatine county; one resulted
fatally.
The following new Iowa postmasters have been appointed:
Alonzo B. Bearsall, McGregor; Valentine S. Nelson, Lyons;
Sidney L. Winter, Woodbine; Albert C. Hotchkiss, Adel.
Wisconsin - Charles A. Kirkham, Augusta; Perry C. Wilder,
Evansville; Jacob M. Harman, Shelton.
While Barnum's circus parade was passing through a thickly
peopled street in Muscatine one of the big elephants became
enraged at something and charged about in terrific style.
The crowd fled terrified in all directions. Before the huge
animal could be controlled he killed two fine horses.
The city council of Red Oak has decided to establish a system of
sewerage. As a beginning, a sewer half a mile in length, from the
business center of the city to the river, will be built at once,
passing the new court house. The county board pays $550 for the
privelege of tapping it for court house purpose .
Major Reed, of Waukee, supervisor of the census for the Dubuque
district, has a force of men at work correcting and verifying the
additional lists of names made by enumerators employed by
Dubuque. It is expected that the population of Dubuque
given out from Washington as 30,147 will be increased by 2,500
names.
While a freight train was bowling along over a section of new
track of the Northwestern railroads, three miles east of Grand
Junction, the heavy mogul engine spread the rails and it and
seventeen cars were piled up in the ditch. One brakeman, whose
name could not be obtained, was injured. The loss is
considerable.
Upon request of the railway commission, Attorney general Stone
has prepared papers and will file them in the district court of
Polk county, for suits against the Iowa Central, Rock Island,
Burlington, Northwestern, Milwaukee, Minneapolis & St. Louis
and other roads to compel them to obey the last order of the
board for the enforcement of joint rates.
Brakeman F.L. Barker, of the Diagonal Road, was run over on the
night of Sept. 24th, while coupling cars at Farley. He was
following the train, stepping backward and fell into a hole from
which a tie had been removed. He was brought to Dubuque and died
shortly after being placed in the hospital. He was a single
man 31 years old and came from Ohio.
The contract for a system of water works at Toledo was let to
George Cadogan Morgan, of Chicago. It is to consist of a
stand piper, engines and pumping apparatus, wells, hydrants, and
about two and a quarter miles of main, to begin with. The entire
system is to be completed and ready for use by June 1, 1891, or
sooner if possible. The entire plant is expected to cost
about $17,000.
Northwestern Iowa is being thoroughly canvassed by agents of
Illinois firms who are buying up all the surplus hay they can
find. In Webster and adjoining counties they have
contracted for thousands of tons from $3.50 to $4.00 per ton. The
hay is to be delivered at the nearest railroad station where it
will be pressed and shipped to the drought-stricken districts of
Illinois where the hay crop has been a total failure this year.
While George Hewitt, a young farmer living a few miles east of
Des Moines, was returning home driving a colt attached to a light
buggy and was approaching the main line of the Rock Island
railway., the outfit was struck by a train, the horse instantly
killed and the buggy reduced to kindling wood. Young Hewitt was
picked up in an unconscious condition, so badly injured that he
died in a few hours after being removed to his home.
The state board of health has in preparation a pamphlet on
"Hog Cholera; its Cause and Prevention." Extensive
outbreaks of hog cholera in Iowa have suggested this pamphlet,
which is compiled from the fourth and fith annual reports of the
National Bureau of Animal Industry of experiments made at the
bureau. It is put in convenient form for the hog raisers of
Iowa who have not access to the bulky reports. The pamphlet has
been popularized.
Marengo, Iowa at last has an organized board of health. For a
long time the city council neglected to organized as such a body.
The state board stirred them up several times without success.
The last excuse offered was that no physician would accept a
position as health officer. Then the law was quoted to the
council showing that they must have a health officer even if it
became necessary to go out of the township to get him. A
few days ago a letter arrived stating that a board of health had
been organized with Mayor A.J. Morrison as president and Dr.
William Eddy for health officer.
James Stearns, a merchant at Blandenberg, Wapello county was
killed by the cars near Ottumwa on the morning of Sept.
24th. A man named Peek, who resides two miles south of the
city, was walking along the Wabash track on his way home and
found Stearns lying between the rails and apparently dead. He
summoned the patrol wagon and the man was taken to the city hall,
where he expired in a few minutes. A small cut back of one ear
and a bruised ankle were the only marks of violence on his body.
The supposition is that he was killed by a Wabash passenger
train; yet there is strong belief that he might have been
murdered.
The river carnival held on the Mississippi river at Davenport, on
the night of September 23d, was a scene of great brilliancy. It
is estimated 20,000 people lined the river banks of the Iowa
side, while 10,000 viewed the pyrotechnics from the shore of Rock
Island. Ar 8 oclock firing a salute of sixty guns began and at
the same time 204 illuminated boats discharging thousands of
Roman candles, started down the river from a point a mile above
the railroad bridge. The programme of fireworks from anchored
barges below the bridge lasted nearly an hour and consisted of
several special pieces. Later the boat decoration moved down the
river for another mile, discharging guns, rockets and
candles. All this was to celebrate the Hennepin canal
appropriation by Congress.
John C. Parish, a prominent citizen of Des Moines, and well known
in Masonic circles throughout the state died in Des Moines, Sept.
26. He was a great soldier in the civil war, and has since filled
many positions with general credit. He served two terms as deputy
auditor of State, and during Gov. B.R. Sherman's
administration was chief clerk in the executive department. Mr.
Parish was born in 1832; came to Eddyville, Iowa, in 1857. He
served in the union army in company C, Thirty-sixth Iowa
infantry, as a private and a lieutenant. His residence
began in Des Moines in 1866. He filled positions with the United
States Express company and Mills & Co. Mr. Parish was very
prominent in Masonary, having been grand recorder of the chapter,
grand commander and grand secretary of the commandery. In 1868 he
was married to Amanda Spangler, who survives him.
One of the main streets of Marshalltown was the scene of a
contest that threatened to end in bloodshed. The city has been up
in arms over the efforts of the Chicago, St. Paul & Kansas
City railroad to lay another track on Nevada, one of the
principle thoroughfares, against the wishes of the property
owners and the whole city. A construction train arrived from Des
Moines that morning at 6 o'clock with 100 tracklayers on board,
and they went to work at once in putting down ties. The
noise aroused one of the adjoining property owners who at once
notified the mayor. As soon as possible a force of thirty
men with revolvers and guns was organized and the tracklayers
ordered to get out or be used as targets. They laid down
their tools and beat a retreat, Roadmaster Burnett and
several conductors and laborers were arrested and tried before
the mayor for violating the state law against working on the
Sabbath and were bound over to appear for trial.
[transcribed by C.D., January 2015]