Iowa Old Press

Dunlap Reporter
Dunlap, Harrison County, Iowa
April 17, 1914

EARLY HISTORY OF DUNLAP

Town Built Up Rapidly, Railroad Shops Here. Incidents of Early Days. Always a Busy Place.

The great central event which changed this section of Western Iowa from a sparsely settled prairie country to a thickly settled and prosperous community, was the building of the Chicago and Northwestern Railway across the state from Clinton to Council Bluffs, which reached the Bluffs late in the fall of 1866. At that time deer and other wild game roamed at will over the hills of Harrison County, and the red man had only a few years before been moved by Uncle Sam across the Big Muddy.Many a thriving town sprang into existence along this line of railway which traverses the best part of the best state in the union. Of these it is probably that Dunlap made the fastest growth of all, which made the stunts performed by the fabled Alladin and his lamp appear not so wonderful after all.Dunlap was platted in the early summer of 1867 by the Blair Town Lot and Land Company, and named after the general superintendent of the road, Geo. L. Dunlap. The company at once decided to make Dunlap a division station, which gave the new town a good advertisement.The sale of the town lots in Dunlap began July 15, 1867. Before this event, many people from the four corners of the country had arrived. Some of these lived in tents, some in wagons, and it is hard to tell how they all existed until the big day. Bright and early on the fifteenth the sale began, and so anxious were the men to buy that they stood in line, waiting their turns to approach the agent’s desk. Tom McDonald bought the first lot on the corner where now stands Adolph Rudolph’s Commercial House, and on this lot McDonald built a building for his saloon. J.W. Lawson bought the second lot adjoining McDonald’s on the east. Before nightfall of the first day, more than forty lots had been sold, and from that day to this, there have been not many dull days in Dunlap.A party by the name of Jim Lovine is supposed to be the first settler. He is said to have arrived on one of those rare days in June, and made his camp on the little plateau overlooking the Boyer Valley, and the railroad track where now stands our beautiful city. He liked the place and decided to stay, and soon he had plenty of company.A little after the advent of Lovine, the railway company began to get busy in the way of establishing a station here, and pulled some freight cars out on a side track and called this thing a depot. A dapper little man from out of the east was put in charge of the freight car depot, and ever since he has stuck by the town. This was S.M. Child, who remained with the company as their station agent until 1873, when he resigned. Mr. Child said one of the first things he noticed outside of his railroad work was a party mowing grass in the vicinity of what is now the intersection of Iowa Avenue and Sixth Street. It is safe to say that the grass on this particular spot has not grown much since.Then things began to hum in Dunlap and the humming has been pretty well maintained from that day to this. A party by the name of Rufus Harrington, a railroad carpenter, built the first residence property in town. It was not much of a house, but it kept the rain out. It occupied the lots where Frank Wettengel’s residence now stands, just north of the Congregational Church. It was said to have been built on Sundays and evenings.A few days before the opening day for the sale of lots, Col. J.R. Wheeler arrived with a car of lumber, and opened up a lumber yard where the Rogers yards now located. He continued the business for many years and was very successful. R.B. Hillis was Dunlap’s first merchant. He was among the advance guard of settlers and erected a small holding of the site of the present town office, and started to sell goods. He throve like a green bay tree, afterwards building a two story brick building and becoming one of the prominent merchants of the town. He is now dead, and his widow lives in Tennessee. C.D. Mitchell was only a few days behind Hillis, building a store on the site now occupied by Davis & Moore. He too was successful and conducted the business for several years. Hi is now assistant of a manufacturing company in Chatanooga, Tennessee. Two other stores were started that summer, one by Wesley I. Williams and one by S.A.Willard. Neither of these became very prominent.It is probably that the first religious services for Dunlap were conducted by a few faithful ones in the building known as “The Barrack.” which was erected by Wm. Fox on Seventh and Eagle Streets. This was in the summer of 1867.Dunlap’s first hotel was erected by J.W. Lawson east of the present Commercial Hotel. This was built out of cottonwood lumber, and one night, it was said, the moon warped the boards used in its construction so that no guest was ever known to kick about the ventilation. As crude as it was assorted and kept up to date, it was well patronized.Ere the arrival of autumn there were many frame buildings and shacks, and as the town was on the prairie, with the tall grass growing all ‘round, the inhabitants became apprehensive lest a prairie fire swoop down on them and wipe up the town. So they took time by the for clock and chipped in twenty-five dollars to pay Bill Fox to plow a fire guard around the burg, and Bill did the job in a satisfactory manner. Them, on one clear cool autumn eve, when no breeze was stirring, nearly the whole town turned out and burned the grass within the fire guard, then laid their heads upon their pillows with a feeling of security.The first birth in Dunlap was a child born to Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Harrington, the parties building the first house, making two firsts for the Harringtons, which reminds us that you can’t keep the Irish down, not in Dunlap. The first death was that of a union soldier named Henry Canfield. The remains were buried on the farm of J.W. Lawson, now owned by Mrs. Casey, but were afterwards removed to Pleasant Hill Cemetery, where they now repose.The first marriage in Dunlap was that of a railroad man to a servant girl employed by J. Whiteley. It was not what you may call a fashionable wedding, and no report is made of the bride’s gown or that the groom wore the “conventional black.” It is reported, however that the bride had injured her knee, but nothing daunted, on the eventful day the couple drove in a wagon to the abode of the parson, Rev. T. Williams. As the bride’s knee was very painful, it was decided that they remain in the wagon while the parson tied the know. Let us hope that the knot held, as divorces were not then fashionable.Things were moving swiftly in those days. The big railroad eating house, which stood not far from the present Northwestern depot, was completed in 1867. Mr. and Mrs. S.M. Child were among those who partook of the first meal served in the building. Alex Crow, J.A. Brainard, Mr. Pierce and C.L. Chapman were the successive managers of the hotel. When the division was moved from here in the early ‘80's the building was, of course, abandoned as a railway cattle house. It was leased as an ordinary hotel by the company until it was destroyed by fire several years ago.The big event of the year was the completion of the railway shops, or round houses, which was late in the fall or early winter of 1867. On Christmas Day, the railroad men who had gathered to work in the shops had a jollification or dedication of the building.The first physician of Dunlap was Dr. Dwight Satterlee, a native of Ledyard, Conn., who came here in 1867. He later owned a drug store and interest in the Dunlap Bank. He is now living a retired life at Los Angeles, California.With cheap lumber and need of buildings to be erected on short order, as might be expected, for the first few years the buildings would be of wood. In 1882, Barrett Bros., Michael and Martin, build the first brick building on the northeast corner of Iowa Avenue and Sixth Street. This building stands today, but it has been enlarged. The firm afterwards became M. Barrett & Sons, and today the business is conducted by the Ledden Company with the Barretts as stockholders.Such a thriving town could not expect to get along for a great while without a newspaper, and the Reporter was established in July 1870 by George A. Brainard. Hereby houses a tale, but this will be found elsewhere in these columns. The first bank of the town was the Dunlap Bank, organized in 1871 by Lorenzo Kellogg; Dr. Frank Clark and G.W. Thompson, with the last named gentleman as cashier. It was organized as a private bank, but later became the Dunlap State Bank, which is still doing business at the southwest corner of Iowa Avenue and Sixth Street with Lorenzo Kellogg still at the helm.The first church building to be erected in Dunlap was by the Congregational Society. It stood in the south part of town on Court Street between Sixth and Seventh Streets. It was erected in the fall and early winter of 1867 and dedicated on December of that year. The Methodists, Catholics and Baptists soon followed with churches, but we give church histories in another column, and next May no more of them here. The first school taught in Dunlap was by a Miss Wood, a few weeks in the Congregational Church in the winter of 1867-68. In July 1868, an independent district was formed of twelve sections in the north part of Harrison Township, including the town plat of Dunlap. In 1869, the district bonded itself for $4,000 and built the first school house. The first school board was made up of the following gentlemen; J. Williams, president, J. Whitely, F.Whitely, S. Tarkington and George Swartz; L.F. Coldren was secretary and H.B. Lyman, treasurer.The first lodge of Dunlap was the Masonic Hospitable Lodge No. 244, which was established in July 1868. The first officers were: Dr. Dwight Satterlee, W.M.; D. Smith, S.W.; A.W. Warren, J.W. Nearly all of the prominent lodges have since been organized here which will be given elsewhere.The early settlers of Dunlap very wisely established a park for the new town, setting aside block No. 11 for that purpose, and planted trees at once. These trees have grown large, making a fine park at this time, which is used for out of door gatherings.

Iowa Old Press
Harrison County