Iowa Old Press
Ottumwa Daily Review
May 3, 1910
OTTUMWA’S UNDERWORLD VANISHES LIKE MAGIC
Hand of Progress Purifies Smoky Row with New and Sanitary Structures—Keefe Bros. Investors—Vice and Crime Spots Are Razed.
It may not be a great while until the classic district euphoniously known as Smoky Row shall have all its glory behind it. Smoky Row has a most malodorous history, so had the Seven Dials in London, so had the Five Points in New York. But the Seven Dials and the Five Points are but memories now. Smoky Row is rapidly losing its identity, and as a synonym for degradation the term will soon be valueless.
A great number of old tumble down, ramshackle structures that were dignified with the name of home, have been razed and their sites will , before very long, be either devoted to manufacturing or to railroad business.
KEEFE BROS. ACTIVE.
Keefe Brothers, the well known contractors, have secured eight out of a parcel of nine lots in Fisher’s subdivision enclosed by Samantha, Plum and Union streets. In addition they have bought lots 390 and 391 on Samantha street, between College and Union streets. They have torn down already seventeen rickety old houses that masqueraded under the name of homes, and it is probable that many other structures of the same character will go to the ground.
The C. B. & Q. railroad will, it is said, cover a great portion of this land with tracks, anticipating the location of new factories.
LOCALITY UNSAVORY.
Unsavory for years has been the reputation of Smoky Row, and a few unacquainted with its purlieus had the temerity to enter its precincts after dark. Crooks of all kinds and of all colors took refuge there as in a sanctuary, and women of the wiliest type, and likewise all colors, plied their nefarious trade there with more or less impunity.
It is but six or seven years since Mary Chesser, whose husband was then in the penitentiary, was found with her throat cut from ear to ear. A man named Homer Wright was arrested on suspicion, but he was acquitted for lack of proof. Perhaps the woman committed suicide. Perhaps she was foully done to death. Police, Judge or jury have never determined.
Seven or eight years ago a man named Houdyshell was found shot through the head. Eva Bliss was arrested, charged with the shooting. For lack of evidence, she was acquitted.
MILES MORROW CRIME.
It will be three years on Tuesday since Ben Farrell, a colored boy, was shot and killed by Miles Morrow in an altercation over Mary Judson. Morrow was indicted and tried but acquitted on the plea of self defense. In having proved that Farrell got after him with a knife, and that he had to shoot to save himself. He subsequently had a quarrel with the Judson woman and slashed her with a knife. For this he is serving a five years sentence in Anamosa. Mary Judson is serving an indeterminate sentence on a statutory charge.
Several men have been found mutilated on the railroad tracks that thread the vicinity of Smoky Row. In some instances police had reason to believe that the men were placed deliberately in the path of moving trains, but all efforts to prove their suspicions were futile.
Crimes of minor character flourished in this underworld with the luxuriance of tropical vegetation. It was the Gehenna of Ottumwa. The law-abiding citizens of this community will welcome the day when the stench of Smoky Row will cease to vitiate the atmosphere. Its character has been changing of late years. They who lived there are not all bad. There are many families who through stern necessity are forced to abide in an unpleasant environment and who keep themselves untainted by the rottenness which surrounds them. But a short while and Smoky Row will be a manufacturing center and what homes there may remain will be worthy of a growing Ottumwa.
[transcribed by L.Z., Dec 2019]