Iowa News from across the
Counrty
- 1919 -
Caldwell Press
Caldwell, Noble co., Ohio
January 1, 1919
SHARON
Floyd SHEPPARD and wife, of Prescott, Iowa, are visiting his
brother, Gilmore and wife.
[transcribed by J.F., Sept. 2003]
-----
Noble County Leader
Caldwell, Noble co. Ohio
Wednesday, January 1, 1919
Litutenant Guy WILKINSON, a member of the Fifth regiment, Second
division of the marines, who was in the famous battle of
Chateau-Thierry, along with Adison CLEARY, Edward HARTLEY, Forest
RACEY, Dean BOWRON and Erwin DANFORD, Noble county boys, was
recently greeted by a large audience in the Caldwell Presbyterian
church. Seated on the platform with him were First Lieutenant
BLAKE, of Fort Dodge, Iowa; Second Lieutenant Donald HARKINS, of
Camp Hancock, Georgia; Corporal James McADAMS, of the Ohio
Military Training school at Cincinnati, and Seaman BATES, of the
Athens Training School. Lieutenant WILKINSON tell an interesting
story of the Chateau-Thierry battle which lasted eighteen days
and in which he was wounded in the left arm. Noble county is
certainly proud of all her boys who participated in this noted
engagement.
[transcribed by J.F., Sept. 2003]
-----
Decatur Review
Decatur, Illinois
January 13, 1919
Washington, Jan 13 -- Names of three officers and 160 enlisted
men of the army, who have been reported returned to France from
German prison camps and hospitals were made public today by the
war department. the enlisted men include: S.E. Bert Little,
Dunnegan, Mo; James E. O'Hara, Lineville, Ia; Walter H. Henry,
Eldorado, Ill; Bert M. Grimes, Whitehall, Ill; Richard J.
Capstick, Panama, Ill; Joseph B. Skidmore, Westervelt, Ill; Henry
W. Ulrich, Grand Chain, Ill; Burton R. Ryan, Cambria, Ia;
Herschell Scott, Mound City, Ill; Joe Scully, Ottumwa, Ia; Glen
A. Hagen, Waukon, Ia; Fred. E. Hanson, Crys-Waukon, Ia [note:
typed as in article]; Alfred Zygmund, Madison, Ill; David C.
Young, Green Valley, Ill; John L.W. Klinker, Deloit, Ia; Charles
J. Carlson, Charles, Ill; Nelson E. Challe, Chicago.
[transcribed by S.F., August 2006]
-----
Utah Daily
Chronicle
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
March 10, 1919
Funeral Services for Mrs. Leary Tomorrow
Mrs. William H. Leary, wife of William H. Leary, dean of the
University of Utah law school, died Friday as a result of an
operation. Mrs. Leary was born in Sioux City, Ia., the daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Lynch. She was a graduate of the University
of Iowa and a member of the Phi Beta Kappa. She was also a school
teacher in her native town after her graduation from college. Mr.
and Mrs. Leary were married six years ago. She is survived by
five small children, besides her parents and her husband. The
funeral will take place at 10 a.m. Tuesday in the Cathedral of
the Madeline, where requiem high mass will be sung. The Rev. W.J.
Flynn will officiate, while the honorary pallbearers will be
members of the dean's council. They are Dr. J.A. Widtsoe, Dr.
Kingsbury, Dr. James Gibson, Dr. Snow, Dr. M. Bennion and Dr.
Joseph Merrill. The parents of the deceased will be in attendance
from Sioux City, Ia. Interment will be in Calvary cemetery.
[note: full name is Alice Marie Leary; transcribed by S.F., August 2015]
-----
Woodville Republican
Woodville, Mississippi
July 12, 1919
STORIES of AMERICAN CITIES
Red Cross Canteen Wedding Eloquently Pictured
Chicago - Married at 3 p.m. in the Red Cross canteen; Miss Luella
Irene Powell, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.B. Powell of Casey, Ia.,
to Sergt. Don T. Deal of Cedar Rapids. Let Elmer Douglas, the
staff photographer, tell of the wedding which was celebrated at
the lake front hut. Elmer was there. He took the pictures, he ate
some of the wedding cake, and, did he kiss the bride? We pause
for a reply.
"You see the bridegroom passed through Chicago some time
ago on his way back to Iowa when he got out of the war,"
says Elmer. "The Red Cross girls gave him such a good time
in the canteen that he thought he'd like to spend the happiest
day of his life there. So he wrote and asked them if he couldn't
come back and be married there and they said yes. Sergeant Deal
is going to be a high school teacher at Fort Dodge, Ia.
"By cracky! it was the prettiest wedding I ever saw. So
sweet and simple and everybody was so nice. the had all the
fills, too, you can bet. The bride was dressed beautifully with
white dress, a big bunch of flowers, and a veil, and everyting.
First, though, I must tell you how the Red Cross girls all lined
up, a double row, for the couple to pass between. Maj. S.C.
Stanton of the Red Cross gave the bride away and then he lent her
his beautiful gold sword to cut the wedding cake with. One of the
Red Cross ladies had baked it, and it was some cake. It's the
first time they've ever had a wedding in a Red Cross
canteen."
[transcribed by S.F., Sept 2007]
-----
Woodville Republican
Woodville, Mississippi
July 19, 1919
Soldier Sues the Government
Sioux City, Ia. - Leo L. Covey, of Cherokee, Iowa, who was
seriously wounded at Chateau Thierry, has filed suit in the
federal court here against the United States government for
$22,950.40 damages alleged to have been guaranteed him under the
war risk insurance act.
[transcribed by S.F., Sept 2007]
-----
Kingsport Times
Kingsport, Tennessee
July 29, 1919
Dr. Edna W. Brown, of Gilmore, Iowa, is visiting Mr. and Mrs.
M.H. Whitcomb at their home on Park Hill. Dr. Brown has been
engaged for the past year as a surgeon in the war prison
barracks, at Fort Oglethorpe. She expects to spend some time here
before returning home.
[transcribed by S.F., April 2006]
-----
Kingsport Times
Kingsport, Tennessee
September 16, 1919
Mrs. Maggie Frank and daughter, Juanita, little son, Leslie, and
Mrs. Fannie Hale and daughter Beulah, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, are
visiting Mrs. J.H. Murphy, of Bloomingdale, Tenn. They visited
Kingsport Saturday, accompanied by J.H. Murphy. They will leave
Saturday for their home at Fort Dodge.
[transcribed by S.F., April 2006]
-----
St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul, Minnesota
September 23, 1919
SLAYS WIFE WITH AX, SURRENDERS
South St. Paul Man Splits Woman’s Head After Beating Her
With Heavy Iron
Bar.
DIVORCE ACTION THOUGHT CAUSE OF ATTACK
Slayer Goes Immediately After Crime to Police and Confesses Guilt
-- Rushed
to County Jail.
John Schwarz, an employee of a South St. Paul packing plant, slew
his wife
with an ax yesterday afternoon following a series of quarrels
which had
culminated the day before in the serving of divorce papers on the
husband.
Schwarz went directly from his little cottage at Sixth avenue and
Dwane
street, South St. Paul, to the police station and confessed his
crime. The
facts were verified by Patrolman Andrew Robinson and Coroner J.B.
Lewis, and
an hour after the slaying Schwarz had pleaded guilty to first
degree murder
before Municipal Court Judge Schulz and was on his way to the
Dakota County
jail in Hastings.
Joe Kahlstorf, father of Mrs. Schwarz, and who is well known in
St. Paul,
having on many occasions impersonated Uncle Sam in festivals and
pageants,
declared last night that the couple had quarreled almost since
the day of
their marriage five years ago. Kahlstorf gave Schwarz and his
wife the
little cottage for a home as a wedding present on condition that
they permit
him to live with them during his life time, he said. Less than a
week after
the wedding Schwarz began to abuse his bride and to complain
about the
father living with them, Kahlstorf asserted. This was the cause
of nearly
all their quarrels, the father said.
Wields Heavy Iron Bar
Recently the wife decided that she could no longer live with
Schwarz and
started divorce proceedings. Wednesday the papers were served.
At 4:30 P.M. yesterday, Schwarz left the packing plant and went
home. He
found his wife canning fruit in the kitchen. Schwarz did not
speak to her,
but went to all the doors and windows and made them secure. Then
he went to
a tool kit in a kitchen cupboard and selected the iron stand for
a shoemaker’s
last. With this he approached his wife.
Then he upbraided her for seeking a divorce. The wife replied
angrily.
Schwarz swung the iron bar and felled her. The woman staggered to
her feet,
sank to her knees again and then dragged herself, dazed and
bleeding to the
little bedroom at one side of the kitchen.
Schwarz threw the bar into a corner and unlocking the back door,
rushed to
the barn, fifty feet away. He returned on the run with an ax. He
found his
wife half conscious, attempting to crawl from the floor to the
bed. She
turned and gazed in terror at him. He swung the ax full over his
head and
brought it down on her forehead. Her head was cleaved nearly to
the
shoulders when the police found the body.
Tossing the ax on the bed, Schwarz left the cottage and walked
directly to
the police station.
The Dakota county grand jury now is holding a special session and
it may
take up the case at once, Chief Chelburg said last night.
Schwarz Native of Austria
Schwarz who is 32 years old, is a native of Austria. Mrs. Schwarz
was 30
years old. She had been married when she was 15 years old to
Chris Herman
who then lived in St. Paul. They were divorced six years ago and
Herman now
has their 14 year-old son with him in Mason City, Iowa. She had
no children
by Schwarz.
Schwarz, according to Kahlstorf, frequently had threatened to
kill his wife,
and three years ago lined up an array of five knives on a table
with the
avowed intention of using them to end her life, but was dissuaded
from his
plan.
The body of Mrs. Schwarz was taken to Hurley’s undertaking
rooms on order of
Coroner Lewis. It is probable that funeral services will take
place from the
German Lutheran church in South St. Paul and that the body will
be sent to
her former home in Clayton county, Iowa, for burial.
-----
South St. Paul Daily Reporter
St. Paul, Minnesota
September 26, 1919
Life Term in State Prison Before South Park Man Who Killed Pretty
Wife With Ax
John Schwarz Rushed to County Seat After Committing One of Most
Brutal Murders in History of State at Family Home on Dwane Street
and Sixth Avenue North Thursday Evening—His Ill Treatment of
Wife Lead Latter to Seek Divorce —This Week—Woman
Struck Down in Cold Blood as She Prepared Evening
Meal.—Bound Over to Grand Jury
With a signed confession of the killing of his young wife at
their home here last night in the possession of Judge W.A.
Schultz of the municipal court, John Schwarz will await the
regular term of the Dakota county grand jury. This special term
called to consider the case of the three Mendota bandits was
adjourned last night after indictments of robbery in the first
degree were returned against the trio and the court will not be
convened again in special session, it was stated by district
court officials today. Relatives of the deceased woman are
arranging funeral plans today. Services will be held from the
home at South Park at 7 p.m. Saturday, after which the body will
be removed to Garnavillo, Clayton County, Iowa, the old family
home, for burial. Carrying out in most ghastly manner an
oft-repeated threat, John Schwarz, a local packinghouse employee
last night killed his beautiful young wife, Fredena Kahlstorf
Schwarz, 30, at their home at Sixth avenue north and Dwane
street, South Park and then went directly to the South St. Paul
jail and surrendered himself to Dan Luey, Jailer. The deed which
was committed shortly after 5 o’clock last evening, was the
sequel to more than five years of bullying and threats which had
finally forced the wife to serve papers in a divorce suit
charging cruel and inhuman treatment against the man early this
week. Resentment of her action in doing this or her unwillingness
to convey to him the major share of their property in the divorce
settlement are believed to have been the immediate cause of the
murderous frenzy which seized him when he returned from his
day’s work, and led him to commit the terrible crime. Back
of that, however, lies a record of ill treatment and terrorizing
of the wife extending almost from the date of their marriage over
five years ago, according to Joe Kahlstorf, father of the
murdered woman who has lived with the couple for years and who is
familiarly known in South St. Paul as “Uncle Sam” which
character he has impersonated on a number of public and patriotic
occasions.
Father Relates Story
Circumstances and events leading up to the tragedy were related
to a representative of the REPORTER last night by the aged father
at the scene of the murder where the bloody evidences of the
crime remained in all their sickening freshness. In brief it
seems to have been a case where the ungrateful and brutal husband
had wished to have his father-in-law removed from their home,
which the latter had deeded to the couple soon after their
marriage on condition that they should provide him shelter the
remainder of his life. Schwarz began to show ill will towards his
wife’s father very soon after the latter had taken up his
abode with them and since tried in every conceivable way to drive
him out. Mr. Kahlstorf had long since discontinued eating with
them but retained a room there so as not to forfeit his legal
rights to care during his life, and his daughter had undertaken
to keep the agreement with her father as best she could.
Motives Explained
The husband’s motive in wishing his father-in-law our of the
house seems partly to have been to gain full possession of the
property, but more particularly to have no one about who might
have knowledge of the manner in which he abused his wife. This
theory is supported by the fact that he also tried to oust two
roomers from the house on several occasions after he suspected
that they had heard him brow-beating and threatening his wife. On
several occasions the father said that Schwarz had told his wife
that he would kill her and on one occasion about three years ago
Schwarz is said to have laid five knives out on a table to
emphasize these threats. Both the woman and her father had lived
in terror of the man and had found it necessary on previous
occasions to appeal to the authorities, although so successfully
did Schwarz cover up his actions and so thoroughly did he have
the others in his household in fear of him that the immediate
neighbors had no inkling that there was anything wrong. The
latter as a consequence found the tragedy at their doors almost
unbelievable.
Neighbors Praise Woman
Mrs. Schwarz enjoyed the reputation of being a splendid neighbor,
a hard working and dutiful wife and of unimpeachable character,
being industrious and thrifty to an unusual degree. At the time
the first blow was struck last night she was in the act of
putting up preserves and fruit for the coming winter, the kitchen
table and stove being covered with jars and kettles with jell and
jam in various stages of completion.A pan of water in which she
had placed a number of potatoes preparatory to peeling them for
the evening meal was also on the table while in an adjoining room
a large rack of freshly ironed clothes, spotless except for the
bloodstains she left in falling past them, indicated how busy she
had been during the afternoon with her household duties. The
rooms were immaculately clean and showed she had prided herself
on making her home pleasant and comfortable.
Schwarz Confesses
Schwarz’ own story of the crime was to the effect that he
went home from his work in the ham trimming department of Swift
& Company’s plant, went into the house, locked the doors
and windows and demanded of his wife that she give up the house
and three lots and about $900 which she had in the Stock Yards
National bank. This she refused to do and he then said he would
kill her. Proceeding immediately to carry out his threat, he
grabbed the iron standard of a shoemaker’s last which stood
beside the kitchen door and struck her over the head with it. The
blow partially stunned her and as she staggered through the
dinning-room and into a bed-room in the front of the house, he
ran to the barn about three rods distant and obtained an axe.
Strikes Fatal Blow
Returning to the house he found her semi-conscious and cowering
in the bed-room and struck her in the forehead with the axe,
cutting the skull open and causing instant death. He then left
the house and walked to the jail, on Grand Avenue and asked
Jailer Lucy to lock him up, stating that he had killed his wife.
Following Schwarz’ surrender, he made a signed statement
concerning the affair to the above effect before Judge W.A.
Schultz and Thos Kennedy, notary. His story was verified
practically through the investigation made by Coroner J. B. Lewis
and Patrolman Andy Robinson who went to the scene. Coroner Lewis
ordered the body removed to the Hurley Undertaking establishment
on the West Side. He had not decided late today whether to hold
an inquest. Patrolman Robinson and Jailer Lucy took Schwarz to
the county jail. The penalty for murder in the first degree is
life imprisonment in Minnesota. The prisoner took the situation
very calmly as he was being removed to the county jail.
Woman Twice Wed
Mrs. Schwarz had been married twice, the first time to Christ
Herman who married her in St. Paul when she was 15 years old
after having taken her from the family home which was then in
Stevens county, Minnesota. A son was born to them and later the
woman obtained a divorce, the father keeping the child who is now
believed to be in the vicinity of Mason City, Iowa. Mrs. H.J.
Bernstengel (Birnstengel), who resides one block north of the
Schwarz home at South Park, is the only sister of the murdered
woman and Henry Kahlstorf of LaPorte, Minnesota is her only
brother. Mr. Bernstengel (Birnstengel) who is in South Dakota and
Mr. Kahlstorf have been sent for and are expected to arrive
tomorrow.Mrs. Schwarz is thought to have had considerable money
of her own in addition to the several hundred dollars which she
and her husband had in a joint account in a local bank. The
husband wrote a check last night after the crime so as to make it
possible for relatives to get the money for funeral and other
expenses.
[transcribed by E.W., July 2007]
-----
Summit County
Journal
Breckenridge, Summit co. Colorado
October 11, 1919
Hidden Fortune Has Lured Men to Toil for Half Century on Iowa
Farm - Tragedy Woven in Romance - Murder of Man 46 Years Ago
Brongs Strange Characters Into a Court - Mystery Yet to Be Solved
Bedford, Ia. - The mystery of a hidden treasure, a mystery that
has puzzled the people of southwestern Iowa for half a century,
has been brought nearer solution by an investigation which has
shown how a little group of picturesque characters of that
section of the state toiled for years in quest of riches buried,
according to tradition, on the Klondike farm. Lying 15 miles
southwest of Bedford, Ia., is the Huntsman farm, and adjoining it
is the Anderson homestead. Pitted with holes and scarred with
many excavations, the farms prove the arduous toil of men driven
by dreams of gold. First it was Dr. C.R. Huntsman and his
brother, Bates, who searched for the treasure. Now it is Bates
and his two sons and their families.
Searching for the Treasure.
Samuel Anderson moved to Iowa in the early seventies. Soon after
he located on the farm Anderson received a call from the
Huntsmans, who told him that there was a lot of gold buried on
the place and that they wanted to dig for it. Anderson was asked
to aid in the work. For nearly a quarter century the three dug,
plowed and excavated.
One day 17 years ago the searchers uncovered three stakes set in
a direct line pointing to a spring. Anderson, inspired by the
vision of his share of the fortune, dug on feverishly. He first
came onto some white sand that he knew was not common to that
part of the country. Anderson then uncovered a big rock, under
which was a metal box. One of the Huntsmans told Anderson that he
could go, promising him his share of the fortune when the money
was counted. He never saw the box again nor learned of its
contents.
Soon after the discovery of the metal box the elder Huntsman died
suddenly. Samuel Anderson, wearying of long waiting for his share
of the treasure he believed he had uncovered, filed a suit
against Bates Huntsman, asking pay for his years of toil. So
peculiar was his story that state officials became interested. An
investigation followed, and other persons acquainted with some of
the circumstances of the affair were found. On of these was Maria
Collins Porter of Quitman, Mo., who spent her girlhood in the
vicinity.
The woman's story seemed to throw clear light on the source of
the treasure the Huntsmans had sought so long. The story, too,
seemed to link the treasure with the hoard found in the cabin of
old Dr. A.M. Golliday of Bedford, whose body was found in his
cabin 11 years ago. It was a story of a murder gang, of stolen
thousands, of a crime committed so far back in time that even the
identity of the victim was a matter of uncertainty.
Held on Murder Charge.
Following swiftly upon the story of Maria Collins Porter came the
arrest of Bates Huntsman, Sam Scrivner, a rich farmer, and John
and Hank Damewood. They were charged with the murder of a man of
unknown identity, presumably a rich cattle buyer from Missouri,
46 years ago. Even before the trial began speculation as to the
identity of the murdered man became rife. Although there were
found to be many contradictions in the evidence presented by some
of the witnesses the case of the state might have proceeded
further but for one of the primary technicalities of the law of
homicide. The state could not establish the existence of the man
alleged to have been killed. The young attorney for the aged
defendants only had to move that the case be dismissed to have
this action taken.
[transcribed by S.F., May 2006]
-----
Summit County
Journal
Breckenridge, Summit co. Colorado
December 6, 1919
John Rouse, an Early Settler, Dies At Son's Home On Lower Blue
John Rouse, a well-known old-time resident of Summit and Park
counties, died last Saturday at the home of his son, Arthur
Rouse, of the ower Bine, very suddenly from heart failure. Mr.
Rouse came to Summit county 21 years ago, having settled in Park
county three years previously after coming from Iowa. He had
lived in different parts of this county, having been engaged at
teaming in Breckenridge before settling on a ranch on the Lower
Blue about ten years ago. Following the death of his
daughter-in-law, Mrs. Arthur Rouse, he made his home at his son's
ranch where his time was turned to the care of his grandchildren.
Mr. Rouse was born in Perry, Iowa, on January 24, 1852. He
married Miss Jane Allen in 1875 who, with three sons, William,
Arthur and Charles, and two daughters, Florence and Mary, and his
wife, survive him. William is a farmer in Perry, Iowa. Charles is
at present a resident of Breckenridge and Florence and Mary with
whom their mother is living, are in the Lower Blue country. Two
brothers are living in Perry, Iowa, where the father of the
deceased also lives. Funeral services were held from the Owens
funeral chapel last Tuesday, Rev. Bowman officiating. Interment
was made in the Breckenridge cemetery. Mr. Rouse was one of the
most highly respected old settlers of the county. He was a hard
working earnest man, rated by his neighbors as a substantial and
honest citizen and a true friend.
[transcribed by S.F., May 2006]
-----
LaCrosse Tribune
LaCrosse, Wisconsin
December 14, 1919
AGED M'GREGOR WOMAN WITNESS OF RISE AND FALL OF RIVER ROMANCE.
Ninety Year Old Widow of Pioneer Has Vivid Memory. McGregor, Then
the Portal Through Which the Northwest Was Opened up.
M'Gregor, Iowa -- Mrs. Cordelia McHose has just passed her
ninetieth birthday at McGregor. There is probably no other living
person, man or woman, who was so intimately intouch with the
famous old river days of the upper Mississippi. As she tells the
story it is the story of one who did not merely see but actually
lived the picturesque life of those wonderful days when the great
upper valley was just opening to settlement. Mrs. McHose has in
her possession a picture of a tumbly old frame building. The
picture dates back to civil war days. The shack itself departed
this world half a century ago. But not until it had done yeoman
service in making history for Iowa and Minnesota. In those days
the upper story of the shack was home to Mrs. McHose, and her
husband, Joseph McHose, did business on the first floor.
History of Old Building.
The history of the frame building dates a few years farther back,
however. In the forties there came to Prairie du Chien, Wis., a
bright and hustling young New Yorker of Scotch stock. Alexander
McGregor. The government had built Fort Atkinson inland in Iowa
and a military road from the west bank of the Mississippi leading
to it. Fort Crawford at Prairie du Chien was looking after Fort
Atkinson, furnishing it soldiers, supplies and keeping the road
safe from the Indians by policing it with mounted dragoons. This
meant lots of business over the Mississippi and young McGregor
saw a fine opening for an enterprising business man like himself.
He bought up some land on the Iowa bank of the river, trading in
"a poor real estate investment" he had in what is now
the "Loop" in Chicago. Then he procured a god, steady
mule, fixed up a flat boat and installed the mule as a propeller.
With this outfit he went into the ferry business between Prairie
du Chien and the landing on the Iowa side, which naturally came
to be known as McGregor's Landing. Ten cents a head young
Alexander used to get for transporting people. Business was
lively, particularly in the freight line and it wasn't long
before the ferry proprietor realized he must have some kind of a
building at the Landing where supplies could be stored until the
freighters could load up for Fort Atkinson. So he built a frame
building near the water at the Iowa Landing. It was the first of
its kind that far north on the west bank of the Mississippi.
Pretty soon steamers with supplies for Fort Atkinson used to land
at its front door.
McHose a Partner.
Then along in the early fifties, almost overnight came the great
surge of immigration to northern Iowa and Minnesota breaking at
Prairie du Chien and McGregor's Landing. In the first wave were
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph McHose. Ferryman McGregor's business had
grown to be quite immense by that time and he needed a partner
badly. Young McHose joined fortunes with him, moved his family
into the upper story of the "warehouse", rolled up his
sleeves and went to work on the lower floor. First it was nearly
all incoming freight he handled, but a couple of seasons after
settlement started, wheat began coming in over the military road.
Then followed big days for the McHose's. Their warehouse was the
only one on the west of the river for awhile and had the monopoly
of the wheat business for northern Iowa and Minnesota, probably
handling almost as much grain in a season as one of the thousands
of Iowa and Minnesota elevators does now in a couple weeks.
Business increased fast though and in a few years there were
fourteen warehouses along the river bank north of warehouse No. 1
"buildings that took grain in at the chimney and spouted it
out again into boats on the other side." as somebody
described them. But the McHose Forwarding and Commission concern
did not lose prestige. It was a thrilling life that went on about
the old shack, and Mrs. McHose tells many a tale of the things
she saw from her "parlor" window.
Miles of Wheat Wagons.
"Farmers used to come from 150 and 200 miles with their
wheat," she says, "and for a mile back from the levee
the street would be packed solid with teams from daylight until
dark waiting in line for their turn at the city scales. Captain
Hoffman was in charge of the scales and four loads would be
weighted at once. All around the scales were the buyers, agents
of each of the warehouses, and representatives of Milwaukee and
St. Louis firms. They would test the wheat by biting it and
shaking a little in their hands, then call their bids. Mr. McHose
used to put our little boy on top of a wagon and have him call
for him. When a deal had been closed the farmer drove to the
levee and unloaded at the warehouse. He usually had another long
wait there, for the levee would be fairly black with teams.
Steamers arrived almost every hour and used to load up every bit
of space with the wheat, the commissions vying with each other
for shipping space. With high water the steamers could come right
up to the warehouses. There were chutes down from the buildings
and the grain was run down these into the boats. Lots of the
steamers had barges. I remember well watching one day a steamer
back away from the levee, its hold and deck piled with sacks of
grain and five barges in tow loaded so heavily with unsacked
grain that they almost dipped water."
Gateway for Immigrants.
Mrs. McHose tells too of the cargo of human freight that the
steamers brought, throngs of Scandinavians in their queer foreign
dress. Just one English word they knew, "Minn-e-so-ty."
Near the levee was a tavern where many of them spent the first
night. A sign over the door said, "Father's House, Eat,
Drink and be Merry for Tomorrow You Go to Minnesota." She
remembers vividly the exciting races between the boats, the
different steamboat companies competing with each other to make
records for fast time. One particular race is recalled which
thrilled the whole upper river country. That was when the Grey
Eagle and the Itasca raced from Dunleith to St. Paul carrying
Queen Victoria's message to President Buchanan on the completion
of the Atlantic cable. The steamer captains heard the news while
loading at Dunleith and a race historic in river annals followed.
The Grey Eagle touched dock at St. Paul barely a boat's length
ahead of the Itasca, but the message was already ashore. The
captain of the Grey Eagle had tied it around a chunk of coal and
thrown it to land from the upper deck. "But of all the
fascinating life of the river none compared in interest,"
says Mrs. McHose, "with the rafts. The river was full of
them. There was hardly a time during the summer when I could not
see at least one of these drifting down, with their red-shirted
crew pulling at the long oars to keep the rafts in the channel.
One night I was awakened by singing and the sound of a fiddle.
The river was bright as day almost with the light of full moon. I
looked out of the window and found the singing was coming from a
raft which was drifting past in the moonlight. The crew was
dancing and singing around the fiddler. The fiddler stopped. One
of the crew scrambled up on top of the little shanty on the
float, struck the attitude of an old-time Methodist preacher and
launched into an exhortation to righteous ways. His derisive
harangue was greeted with boisterous laughter. As the laughing
stopped the voice of a man at the oars suddenly sang out clear
over the water, above the preaching, "Go, tell Aunt Rhody
her old gray goose is dead." The preacher stopped and he and
the whole crew took up the refrain. The song sounded lovely
coming over the water and I listened as long as I could see them
and hear the singing for the music and the beauty of the moonlit
river fascinated me."
Wild Times Ashore.
Mrs. McHose remembers other things not so romantic when the
floats tied up at the shore in a fog or storm and the crews broke
loose. There were wild doings on shore then and at many other
times, for that matter, when the town was packed with teamsters.
A long line of saloons and dives stretched up the street and
fights and stabbing affairs were common occurrences among the
crowds that frequented them.
There is another picture Mrs. McHose has vivid in memory. That
was when in the beginning of the war of the rebellion the
companies of volunteers came in to McGregor from many inland
settlements and took steamer for the south. From her window she
watched them go aboard and the crowds of weeping women and
children on the levee bidding them goodbye. Wheat Buyer McHose
became very prosperous in the big days, for besides buying
independently he was agent for "Diamond Jo" and his
line of steamers. Warehouse No. 1 served its day of usefullness
and a substantial brick building in later days was erected as the
pioneer grain buyers' headquarters. It was next door to the
office building of the grain firm of Bassett & Hunting, where
Diamond Jo Reynolds used to have his headquarters in the many
years he made his home at McGregor. Mrs. McHose knew intimately
both Diamond Jo Reynolds and his wife and son. Her husband died a
good many years ago, but Mrs. McHose still lives in the old town
to which she came as a bride nearly seventy years ago. She enjoys
the wealth acquired back in the days of Warehouse No. 1 and lives
much in the stirring past of the old river days and its
picturesque life.
[transcribed by S.F., April 2005]