Iowa
Old Press
Daily Iowa State Press
Iowa City, Johnson co. Iowa
February 6, 1904
Narrow Escape Thrilling Race
S.W. Johnson has been brought back to Iowa City from Des Moines
by J.L. Records of the Equitable Manufacturing company, and will
seek to recuperate here, after suffering severe injuries in a bad
runaway. The accident took place in marshalltown, earlier in the
week. mr. Johnson left Iowa City Monday, starting west on his
road trip, while his wife went East to their home in Mansfield,
Ohio. In Marshalltown, while driving out, his horse became
frightened and ran away. The animal upset the sleigh, and dashed
on and on, dragging mr. Johnson -- who was entangled in the reins
-- along with him. For nearly a mile, over the rough and cutting,
ice-clad roads the commercial traveler was bumped and banged, and
finally the frightened horse plunged full tilt into a telegraph
pole. This brought the creature, cut and bruised, to a stand
still and Mr. Johnson was then able to extricate himself from his
perilous position. How he avoided being killed is a mystery even
to himself. However, he is able to limp about now, although his
face is cut and bruised badly. He was taken to Des Moines, and
thence, as noted, brought back here. He will try to become
himself again, before he goes on the road once more.
Boy Disappears from Happy Home.
The police are making a futile search for Milo Novak, a bright
lad of Cedar Rapids, who has disappeared mysteriously from his
happy home. Marshal Joseph Koslovsky of Cedar Rapids has appealed
to the local officers to find the boy. He is 14 years of age,
erect and pleasing in appearance, and is about 5 feet, 4 inches
in height. He weighs 120 lbs. Milo is a blonde, with light hair
and light blue eyes. He wore a brown flannel shirt, when he left
home this week, and a blue coat and vest, with a delicate white
stripe. His trousers are gray and black, mixed, with stripe. He
wears a long tan and brown mixed, overcoat, a tan cordoroy cap,
with eariaps tied over the top, with a black ribbon. His shoes
are plain-toed Doagola Coagresses. The frightened kinsfolk in
Cedar Rapids, who do not know whether the boy went skating and
fell into the river, whether he was stolen, or has otherwise been
a victim of foul play, and many hearts in both Iowa City and
Cedar Rapids will be sore and heavy until the lad is found.
--
Joseph K. Benda of Emmetsburg is visiting relatives in Iowa City.
[transcribed by C.J.L., Nov. 2003; and S.F., February 2007]
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Daily Iowa State Press
Iowa City, Johnson County, Iowa
Thurday, February 8, 1904
LOCAL NEWS ITEMS
In district court today, the case of State of Iowa vs. W.S.
Carpenter is on trial for the second time. Carpenter is the
weaver, whose house burned over his head yesterday. He is charged
with assaulting a little girl, BERTHA BROGAN. The jury embraces
these citizens: Jos. Neuzil, F.J. Novak, Jos. Unick, J.R. Hess,
M.M. Seydel, Lewis Maske, Elmer Etruble, Warren Glaspey, Jos.
Buck, John Chopek, B. Eastland and Cyril Degenhart.
[transcribed by anonymous, January 2005]
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Daily Iowa State Press
Iowa City, Johnson co. Iowa
February 10, 1904
Cupid is Busy Bringing Joys - Many Marriage Licenses Are
Issued During Past Week
St. Valentine's approach may or may not have had anything to do
with the activity in matrimonial circles the past week. At any
rate, that activity has been decidedly pronounced, according to
County Clerk Koser and his cohorts, whose fingers have been
nimbly busy, recording the isuance of Cupid's gladsome permits -
otherwise licenses to wed. Among the applicants, during the week
now ending, were the following couples:
Frank Kopecky - 24, Jane Lowar - 24
Gerald E. James - 34, Nellie O'Day - 31
Charles R. Carson - 26, Testa Hahn - 19
William F. Lehman - 22, Mary E. Oathout - 21
Bert E. Oathout - 26, Pearl Chelf - 17
Thomas Eggenberg - 26, Mary J. Beuter - 29
George Dvorsky & Josephine Cash
Licenses to wed were issued today to Clarence J. Whitlock and
Sarah Green, and Peter Lenz Jr. and Mary Bowers.
-Local Brevities-
Clarence J. Whitlock and Miss Sarah Green were united in marriage
this afternoon, by Judge Byington, in the court house.
The funeral of the late Mrs. Goodrich will take place Friday
afternoon at 1:30 o'clock, from the Brainerd residence, 808
Kirkwood avenue. Mrs. Mary A. Goodrich, widow of Daniel O.
Goodrich of Downey, Iowa, died at the residence of her
son-in-law, O.M. Brainerd, at 8 o'clock, last evening. She was in
her 81st year and peacefully closed her long and useful life,
leaving to her only surviving daughter and to her grandchildren
the memory of a loving and beautiful character.
The double wedding of Bert E. Oathout and Miss Pearl Chelf, and
William E. Lehman and Miss Mary Oathout will be happily
celebrated today.
Mrs. Carl Stempel passed away in Burlington yesterday, aged 25.
Her husband is a brother of Prof. Guido H. Stempel, formerly of
the University of Iowa.
Mrs. Bertha G. Ridgeway has been elected city librarian in
Marion, Ind., with a salary of $1400 per annum. Her many friends
here will feel assured that the Indiana authorities have made a
wise selection.
Mrs. Frank Selbicky, aged 27, died at her home, 412 Church
street, at 1 o'clock this morning. She is survived by her husband
and a daughter, aged but one week, her parents, Mr. and Mrs.
Goettle, three sisters and four brothers. The funeral will take
place Friday morning, at 9:30 o'clock, from the St. Wencesiaus
church. Mrs. Selbicky was a worthy young woman, possessing many
admirable traits that justly endeared her to a large circle of
true friends. To them all, [remainder illegible]
The board of supervisors has returned from a trip to the
Davenport county jail, wherein the "tramp proposition"
was studied. The supervisors will adopt the Scott county system
this year. All tramps in jail must crack stone, in the basement
of the [illegible]. If they refuse to work, they will be isolated
on a bread and water diet, until they come to terms. Under the
law, they must be fed better food than that -- unless they rebel,
when not to work.
Their LIves Joined
George Dvorsky and Miss Josephine Cash were united in marriage
this morning, at 10:30 o'clock at the home of the officiating
priest, Rev. Father Ward. The best man was Charles Hadish, and
the bridesmaid was Miss Nellie Cash, the bride's sister. The
bride was attired in a simple, but pretty traveling costume, and
after a wedding breakfast, to which were bidden but relatives and
a few very intimate friends, the happy couple left for their new
home in Jacksonville, Ill. The feast was served at the home of
the bride's parents. The groom is the former deputy sheriff, and
he is widely -known throughout the county as a brave, efficient
and painstaking official. Personally, he is a splendid young man.
He is now representing the Hawthorne Glove and Novelty works
abroad, and is building up a fine business. The bride has been
the head stenographer of Rate & Sons' factories for sometime,
and she has proven herself a capable, energetic and trustworthy
young business woman - even as she will doubtless demonstrate her
powers as a wife who can make a home beautiful and bright, and
lend valuable aid in fostering her happy husband's fortunes. A
host of warm friends will wish Mr. and Mrs. Dvorsky a long and
joyous wedded life.
[transcribed by S.F., February 2007]
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Daily Iowa State Press
Iowa City, Johnson co., Iowa
February 13, 1904
Pg. 6
NAMES OF IOWA COUNTIES
Why the Indian Titles Were Not More Generally Used...
Interesting Account of the Manner of Selecting Names for
Counties... (Register and Leader)
Some of the students of the early history of Iowa regret that
more of the Indian names have not been presented by the
legislators who have fixed the names of counties and cities. In
many cases the Indian names that have not been retained were the
most distinctive, while those which have been retained were names
that were common to many if not all the states of the union. Some
hints of this sentiment were found in the early days, but as a
rule the pioneers did not have a very high opinion of the noble
red man or anything associated with him, and in the Third general
assembly in 1851, the partisan of primitive names was cured by an
allopathic administration of homeopathic measures.
"O-wer-choo-ney-winder" did the work.
The senate had gone into committee of the whole to consider the
bill introduced by Senator P.M. Casidy, of Des Moines, to
authorize some fifty new counties. Senator Casidy and his
associates of the committee on new counties had a list of names
prepared which was afterward adopted. But they had heard rumors
of a movement to substitute Indian names to retain something of
the local color and traditions of the territory. Senator Cassidy
laid his plans accordingly. In a paper read before the Pioneer
Lawmakers' association some years ago he says: 'The reason said
to be for a committee of the whole senate was to give the members
an opportunity to suggest names. When the committee was ready for
business I remarked to the chairman that I had a list of Indian
names some of which might meet the approval of senators. He
replied, "Read the names." The first name read was
'O-wer-chooney-winker.' The name had to be read a second time
before the members of the committee could understand. The
chairman asked, 'What does the name mean?" He was informed
that it meant a beautiful prairie flower.
A number of other names were read, but not seemed to meet the
views of those who desired Indian names. The committee, after
spending a short time, and after suggesting an immaterial
amendment, rose and asked leave to sit again."
The third general assembly practically completed the organization
of Iowa counties which had begun seventeen years earlier, when
all of the territory was attached to Michigan. The territorial
legislature of 1834 provided to lay off and organize counties
west of the Mississippi river. Two counties were established and
given the names of Dubuque and "Demoine.""
The "state of Dubuque" would have been no idle misnomer
in those days, so far as area was concerned. According to the act
of establishment it included all the territory west of the
Mississippi and north of a line drawn west from lower end of Rock
Island. All the northern half of the present state of Iowa, all
of Minnesota west of the Mississippi, and all of the Dakotas east
of the Missoura were within the borders of this county, the
largest ever organized.
The county Demoines included all of the southern half of the
present state of Iowa now organized into forty four counties.
When Michigan was admitted to statehood Wisconsin territory
succeeded to the western domain, and at the first territorial
legislature Des Moines county was divided and Lee, Van Buren,
Henry, Louisa, Musquitine and Cook counties were established.
Louisa county was named after Louisa Massey a young lady of
Dubuque, who a few months before the passage of the act creating
the county, had shot a ruffian who threatened the life of her
brother and had already been an accomplice in the murder of
another brother. The fame of her bold action spread throughout
the west and led to the naming of one of the new counties in her
honor.
The second session of the Wisconsin territorial legislature was
held at Burlington, and in addition to abolishing the county of
Cook it changed the map by carving out of the original county of
Dubuque, five new ones: Scott, Clinton, Jackson, Clayton and
Delaware.
When the territory of Iowa was established the work of creating
new counties was carried on as rapidly as the growth of
population warranted. The session of 1843 showed itself imbued
with the spirit of the latter-day ethnologist, for all the
counties authorized at this session were given Indian names, most
of the chiefs prominent in the pioneer history of the territory.
The last territorial legislature however, showed its disapproval
of such relapse into the barbarism by refusing to give a single
Indian name to the new counties which it established, and as an
additional token of its convictions along these lines it changed
the name of Kishkekosh given by its predecessors to Monroe. All
the new counties of this year were named after American statesmen
and soldiers, two heroes of the revolution being honored by
naming the counties of Wayne and Jasper, while Presidents
Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Chief Justice Marshall and others
were remembered in the assignment of names. The work was
continued in a desultory way until fifty counties had been
organized before the convening of the Third general assembly of
the state, which made a new record in this line, a record
probably never equaled by the other legislative body. The bill
was introduced by Senator Casidy, who says: "What called my
attention to the necessity of having a number of new counties
named and their boundaries defined was a map seller offering maps
for sale showing the boundary of fifty counties named and all the
balance of the state an entire blank, the territory lying in the
west and northern parts of the state being the part not laid off
in counties. When the bill came up for consideration in the
senate there was a group who favored more Indian names than were
assigned by the committee, but their plans were anticipated by
Senator Casidy's clever coup. He said his associates had prepared
a state of names and these were finally adopted. In those days
there was no "hands across the sea" sentiment toward
the British government, and the pioneers of the west were warm
sympathizers with the patriots who were leaders of Ireland's
revolt against English oppression.
Consequently it was determined to name three counties for the
martyrs of the Irish struggle, and Mitchell, O'Brien and the
younger Emmet were the ones chosen.
It was recommended that three be named after the battles of the
Mexican war, Cerro Gordo, Buena Vista and Palo Alto. Three were
named for colonels who fell in the war; Colonel John J. Hardin,
of Illinois, Colonel Yell of Arkansas, and Lieutenant Colonel
Henry Clay, Jr., of Kentucky, the gallant son of the famous
statesman, all three of whom were killed in the battle of Buena
Vista. Some years later the name of Yell county was changed to
Webster, at the same time that the adjoining county of Fox was
changed to Calhoun. When this change was made there seems to have
arisen a tendency to associate the name of Clay with the other of
the famous triumvirate who were so long the giants of the United
States senate, and the memory of the gallant Kentucky soldier who
fell at Buena Vista has been neglected.
It seems strange that John C. Calhoun, who stood for principles
so unpopular in the north, should have been honored by Iowa, but
the people of the county which had been named Fox to correspond
with its neighbor Sac had conceived a violent dislike to the name
and were ready to adopt anything as a substitute. One of the
settlers who had come from Michigan, and who in earlier days had
in some way been befriended by the South Carolina statesman,
circulated a petition for the name Calhoun and this was granted.
The correct form of the name of the famous tribe associated with
the Foxes is "Sauk" and in this form it is preserved in
the name of a Wisconsin county and of a Minnesota city. But the
earlier settlers of Iowa corrupted the name to its present form,
and as such it has been retained. The legislators anticipated
greater objections to this name than to that given to Fox county,
as the latter was a famous name in English history, and their
expectations in this regard were completely reversed.
The name Pocahontas was the suggestion of Senator John Howell of
Jefferson county. He was the patriarch of the two houses and in
his earlier days had been a member of the Virginia house of
burgesses. He was accorded the privilege of naming one of the
counties and suggested the name. Of all the states carved out of
the northwest territory ceded to the national government by
Virginia not one had named a county for the heroine of teh old
dominion's colonial traditions, and he asked that this tardy
honor be paid to her memory. There were some of the legislators
who demurred when the name was proposed, but upon being informed
that Senator Howell was the sponsor, they withdrew all
objections, saying that the old gentleman could have anything he
asked for.
In the original bill the name Floyd was proposed for the county
having the present boundaries of Woodbury. Sergeant Floyd of the
Lewis and Clark expedition had died in camp and was buried on the
east bank of the Missouri river south of Sioux City and in the
early days of the river flowing into the Missouri at Sioux City
bore his name. Those who favored Indian names, however, got the
name changed in the house to Waukon, or Wahkaw, and this name was
retained until 1853 when the present name of Woodbury was
adopted. Sergeant Floyd is remembered by the town of Sergeant's
Bluffs, which was originally the county seat of Wahkaw.
The name Ida was suggested by Hon. Eliphalet Price who was noted
among the pioneers for his classical lore, and who wished the new
state to be linked with the ancient civilization by adoption of
the name of the famous mountain in Greece.
Bremer county, named for Fredericka Bremer, the famous Swedish
author, was the second in the state to be named for a woman,
Louisa being the other. The name was suggested by Hon. A.K.
Eaton, then a member from Delaware county, and father of Hon.
W.L. Eaton, recently speaker of the house.
In the original list of counties the extreme northwest county was
given the name of Buncombe in honor of a North Carolina colonel
of the revolutionary war. The members of the lower house in the
Third general assembly were opposed to the name, but finally
agreed to its adoption. On account of its slangy associations,
however, the name was never popular. It acquired this
significance from a North Carolina legislator's retort. That
state had a county named after its old hero, and the
representative from the county was at one time making a speech
"to the galleries." One of his colleagues called him to
task for the principles he was advocating, and he retorted,
"I'm not talking for principle, I'm talking for
Buncombe." The new use of the name spread until it was
generally associated with insincerity; and after the battle of
Wilson's Creek, the first civil war in which Iowa troops were
engaged, the name of General Nathaniel Lyon who fell in the
battle was chosen to be given a place in the roster of Iowa
counties, and in looking over the list for one to strike out, the
members were moved by the old prejudice against the name Buncombe
to sacrifice it.
Audubon county was named for the famous naturalist, whose great
"Bird Book" is the choicest treasure of the state
library. He died in January, 1852, probably before the news
reached him of the honor paid him by the frontier state.
The historian Bancroft was remembered and his name given to the
county north of Kossuth, the original division of the state being
into one hundred counties instead of ninety-nine. Four years
later this county was abolished and the territory incorporated
into Kossuth, which was named after the famous Hungarian patriot.
In 1870 there was a proposition to re-establish the one hundredth
county under the name of Crocker, in honor of the
brigadier-general who had commanded the Thirteenth Iowa regiment
when it started to the front in the civil war. The people of
Kossuth were successful, however, in resisting division of their
county.
[transcribed by C.J.L.; Feb. 2004]
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Iowa Daily State Press
Iowa City, Johnson co, Iowa
February 26, 1904
Father Marshal has succeeded Father Walsh as pastor of St. Mary's
Catholic church in Solon. Father Marshall is a Bohemian directly
from Europe and the change is made for the benefit of St. Peter
and Paul's church in Cedar, who desire a Bohemian pastor. Father
Walsh will give his whole attention to the Nolan settlement
parish in the future.
[transcribed by C.J.L., Nov. 2003]