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of Jefferson County |
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Glasgow
(Round Prairie Township)
"GLASGOW. Sec 21, Round Prairie Township. Oldest settlement
in Jefferson County. Glasgow is not a "vanished" village but its
heydays are long gone. Plat filed 10 Jul 1840 by Thomas Miller and
Ephraim Glasgow; see pp. 26 - 27, 1909 Atlas. P. O. Est. 24 Apr 1846;
John Arrowsmith first p. m.; Geo. Chapman was postmaster in 1859; P.O.
disc. 29 Jun 1901. The 1856 census taker found Glasgow a "flourishing
little village containing 30 families, 136 inhabitants; two churches; one
school house, two stores, three blacksmith shops, two waggon shops, one
cabinet maker shop, one harness shop, one tailor, one tanyard, and one
Tavern, a Post Office, & c." The last general store closed in November
1957."
The above information was compiled by Mary Prill and
published in the Hawkeye Heritage, July 1967.
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The following story was originally one of a number of articles in the Fairfield Ledger which was later included in the book Villages and Towns of Yester-year in Jefferson County by William R. Baker. We hereby include it on this page with the permission of the Fairfield Ledger.
Names mentioned in this article are as follows:
John Watson; Claire Litton; Thomas Miller; Ephraim Glasgow; George Shaner;
Lou Unkrich; a partnership of Stump and Heer; Dr. Carl Bishop; Dr. Clements;
John Howell; J.P. Christler; Jacob Knepley; Elliott P. Taylor; Clara Sloan.
They didn't have cars racing up
and down the streets of Glasgow when that town was a thriving community
shortly after the turn of the century, but they had horse races. If you
don't believe it, ask John Watson,
92, former resident of the Glasgow Community.
When Watson
attended school at Glasgow there were no cars. His father allowed him to
ride horseback to school so he could get home earlier to help with the
chores on the family farm.
One day the boys began
bragging about how fast their horses could run, resulting in races up and
down the main street in Glasgow.
"When my father learned about it, I was grounded",
Watson said. "I had to walk after that." Watson,
now a resident of Fairfield, spent most of his life in the Glasgow Community
and can remember when it had a population of nearly 100 people and a number
of business establishments. Today there is little to attest to its early
importance as a trading community.
All that is left reflecting
its past is the United Methodist Church and 14 houses, many of them dating
back to 1900 and beyond.
Watson
was born August 7, 1890, in Van Buren County and the family moved to a
farm a mile west of Glasgow in Round Prairie Township when he was a year
old. He lived on a farm in the Glasgow Community until 1978 when he and
his wife, the former Claire Litton,
moved to their home at 308 East Adams. She is deceased.
Glasgow, located in southeast
Jefferson County, is one of the oldest communities in the county. A history
of Jefferson County states it was laid out July 10, 1840, by Thomas
Miller and Ephraim
Glasgow.
The original plat consisted
of four blocks of 12 lots each in the northeast quarter of section 21,
Round Prairie Township. The settlement was named after one of its founders.
Miller
and Glasgow opened
a general store soon after.
Watson can remember when Glasgow
had three grocery stores operated by George
Shaner, Lou Unkrich and a partnership of Stump
and Heer. There were also two blacksmith shops,
two shoe cobblers, two doctors, Dr. Carl Bishop
and Dr. Clements.
There was a school, two
churches, two lodge organizations, the Odd Fellows and Masons, a post office
with John Howell
as postmaster, and a justice of peace, J.P.
Christler. Watson described the J.P. as a "nice
old man of German descent, always neatly dressed who also gave violin lessons."
There were no telephones.
If someone became ill the patient was taken to the doctor's office at Glasgow.
If the patient was too ill to travel, a member of the family had to go
to the doctor's office to summon medical aid.
"I know there were many times
when Doc. Bishop
got up in the middle of the night, some times in rainy or bitter weather,
and rode miles to treat a patient," Watson recalled.
There was no hospital in
the county prior to 1912 and patients were cared for in their homes, or
taken to hospitals in larger cities.
The first religious services
conducted in the area were held in homes during the winter of 1837 - 1838
by a Methodist missionary. That was before the town of Glasgow was platted.
The original Methodist Church
was constructed in 1847. It was torn down in 1874 and all available material
was moved to the present site where the Glasgow Methodist Church is now
located. The ground was donated by Jacob Knepley.
The Glasgow Church is still a
"going church" with regular worship services every Sunday along with special
services and events.
Elliott
P. Taylor, a Civil War veteran, was one of
Glasgow's better known early citizens. He was born in Aurora, December
23, 1845. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the 4th Iowa Calvary (sic) and
served during the Civil War.
Discharged in 1865, he returned
to Jefferson County and operated a hotel in Glasgow for a number
of years. He was married in 1867 to Clara
Sloan.
Watson described the hotel as
a frame two-story structure with a porch along the front. It was razed
many years ago. He said patrons included livestock buyers who traveled
through the county and traveling salesmen who called on the business establishments,
and those passing through the area.
Entertainment in the community
included programs and gatherings at the Glasgow school and nearby rural
schools, family visiting and "leafing at the stores."