Gladwin

After the 1926 fire.

   Abstracted from the July 27, 1933 and March 9, 1972 issues of the Columbus Gazette
   Nestled at the foot of a hill known as "High Five," on the bank of Goose Creek near the Iowa River, Gladwin was built in the early 1900s. It was reportedly named for Win Blanchard because he was so glad when he heard a town was to be built there. Land for Gladwin was donated by two wealthy farmers named Blanchard and Giesler. Never an incorporated town, Gladwin always has been governed by Union Township Trustees.
During its most prosperous days, Gladwin boasted many fine stores and services, including a farm implement store, a garage, a combined pool hall and barber shop, a blacksmith shop, stockyards and several general stores, plus a restaurant that dealt mainly in the pop and ice cream cone trade. Store owners often lived in the rooms above or behind their stores.
   When Roy "Bounce" Taylor moved to Gladwin in 1910, all the roads to Gladwin were mud and a hitching post stood in front of nearly every store.
Jim and Lottie Jones owned and operated one of the first and largest stores there. It had two five-room apartments above the store. From 1911 to 1915, when they sold out to a co-op, the Joneses sold everything from groceries to farm implements. One year they sold three carloads of potatoes and fourteen carloads of coal. They sold Flying Dutchman machinery; after the war the company's name was changed to International. In those days the biggest demand was for manure spreaders and corn plows. Plows sold for $25.
   Bill Luckey, was one of Gladwin's leading businessmen in the mid-20s. In addition to buying and selling livestock, he ran the garage and sold Moline Implements.
A large grocery store/post office was owned by Bill Marston who served Gladwin as postmaster until his death in 1932. Mrs. Marston then served as postmistress for a short time. The store later belonged to Mr. Win Allensworth, who was Gladwin's last postmaster. In 1933 the Post Office at Gladwin was terminated, and mail was delivered from Columbus Junction.
   Formal recreation in Gladwin consisted of a combined dance hall and skating rink. For neighborhood gatherings, oyster suppers were popular, but the most popular form of social life was visiting with neighbors who gathered on Saturday nights in the general stores to replenish their store of neighborhood news along with their store of staples.
   In  the early days there was a concert every Saturday night. The Steel Orchestra from Union Dale was the main attraction. In the 1920s, there was a weeklong Chautauqua.
   Gladwin was at its peak during Prohibition in the 1920s, which probably accounts for its lack of a tavern. One story goes that you could buy anything in Gladwin but liquor - and that depended on who you knew. Another unconfirmed rumor tells of the time one of Gladwin's leading citizens discreetly and quickly disposed of several bottles of homemade "hooch" after hearing the county sheriff was on his way to Gladwin to investigate a hot tip on bootlegging. This may be the closest thing Gladwin ever had to a scandal.
   Elba "Breezy" Taylor  moved to Gladwin in 1928. In spite of a childhood injury that left him with a permanently crippled foot, Breezy hired out for various types of farm work. His services were in great demand, especially during haymaking season when he could mow hay with the best.
Breezy and his brother Bounce Taylor were largely responsible for keeping Gladwin neatly trimmed and mowed.
For 43 years, the town square was filled with thousands of flowers that bloomed from early spring to late fall. This, along with smaller floral displays that dotted the town was Breezy's hobby. While the church was still holding services, each Sunday, spring through fall Breezy supplied a large bouquet for the altar.
In addition to the floral displays, many of the trees in Gladwin are due to the Taylor brothers. Bounce recalled the time he and Breezy dug up several tiny evergreens from "Coal Holler" and reset them in Gladwin.
   There was a large depot with living quarters for the agent, Alva Allen and his wife. There were two passenger trains every day, as well as trains that stopped to load cattle at the nearby stockyards. The depot often served as a Sunday School conducted by Mr. Allen and his wife. A large organ was pulled out into the middle of the waiting room on Sunday mornings.
School
   Children who lived in Gladwin received their first eight years of formal education at Frog Pond School on the banks of Goose Creek. The one-room school was two miles west of Gladwin. School buses were unknown in the early days, and for many years the most reliable means of transportation was by foot or horseback.
In the '50s, after gravel roads came upon the scene, a 1941 maroon and cream Plymouth served as an informal "school bus" for several years. Its route began in Gladwin where smaller children were layered, according to size, in the front and back seats. The older boys stood on the running board and clung to the door posts. As the "bus" lumbered along the two-mile route, it was met by children coming down side roads. They were invited to join the group, as there was always room for one more before the well laden "bus" reached its destination.
   At its peak, the school was attended by 25 to 30 students during a school year. This number had dwindled to eight when the school closed in 1955. The building was then used as a community center.
Floods
   In 1928, the main room of the depot was used for building a boat to rescue a neighbor who was stranded in his home after a fast rising flood. Gladwin was frequently flooded following heavy rains that drove the creek out of its banks. The most disastrous flood was in 1930. The Clement Allen family was stranded in their two-story frame home after the flood waters invaded the town. The Allens watched the water  yank two large trees from their front yard. The rest of the town's residents sought refuge in the community church located on a knoll in the center of Gladwin. There they spent the night sleeping on pews and on the floor while the flood water raged outside. By morning, the waters had receded and the residents returned to their homes and businesses to clean up.
In 1965 flood waters again invaded Gladwin, leaving victims stranded. One hundred hogs belonging to Jim Seiler were marooned on a rapidly disappearing island. Rescue efforts proved difficult. The county rescue unit was called, and friends and neighbors, some from as far away as Muscatine, helped in the rescue. All were saved but one sow.
Fires
   In 1926, the pool hall and barber shop were consumed by a mysterious fire. The next year a fire, believed to have been started by a spark from a passing train, destroyed the large general store once owned by Jim Hendrickson. A passerby discovered the roof ablaze, and rushed inside to inform Mr. Hendrickson, but efforts to save the building were in vain. It was never rebuilt. In addition to the general store, Mr. Hendrickson also operated a grocery wagon known as "Jake's Rolling Grocery." It went from farm to farm and gathered eggs in ex-change for items off the wagon.
   Charley Bolmer built a general store in Gladwin around 1920. He operated it successfully for nearly ten years, but a 1929 fire, blamed on lightning, destroyed the store.
In 1961 a fire completely destroyed the tiny one-story home occupied by Richard Duncan.
Train wrecks
   During the '30s Gladwin saw three train wrecks. In 1931 the railroad bridge over the Iowa River just east of Gladwin collapsed and in 1937 a similar wreck took place. Neither caused serious personal injury. However, the morning of Friday, July 21, 1933, one of the worst train wrecks in the history of the state claimed four lives and inflicted such great fire damage to the little town that it never fully recovered. According to an account in the Columbus Gazette of July 27, 1933: "A box car on Milwaukee train No. 86 left the track near the Gladwin depot. The result was derailment of 23 oil tanks."
Armor Kelly was a rural mail carrier and an eye witness to the accident. He estimated that the train was going about 60 miles an hour. Four tanks of gas exploded and other tanks filled with kerosene and crude oil burned for several days.
   Henry Hoben, who with his brother Max, were working in a field by their home north of Gladwin said they saw smoke and were in the first group to arrive at the scene. Admitting they were more curious than wise, they drove right up to the scene and got out of the car just in time to see a gas car explode in front of them.
When the fire abated enough to allow workmen to get near the wreckage, the bodies of four men, three burned beyond recognition, were discovered.
Three young men who were riding the train escaped.  One of those, John Kaharosta  claimed one of the young men killed had told him shortly before the wreck that he was from Washington, Iowa, where he had a wife and several children. The other three men who died were from Dewey, Oklahoma. There were five men in the group. They had been on their way to Davenport to look for work. The two survivors, Orvil Delozier and Charles Shull, identified the dead men as Daulton Bond, 18, Joe McKibbons, 19, and Kenneth Cheek, 21. Cheek's father came in an ambulance from Oklahoma and and returned the bodies and the survivors to Dewey.  The body of the fourth man, supposedly from Washington, was not claimed. There were reports of other bodies, but none were verified.
The next morning, two workmen, Frank Yurek and John Wailman, both from Savannah, Ill., were seriously burned while using cutting torches and the flames came in contact with a pocket of gas.
   Financial loss was estimated at $300,000, excluding the Allensworth store and the Gladwin Depot, which were destroyed and never rebuilt. The church, several homes and one store were saved by the efforts of the local volunteers and area fire fighters.
After the wreck
   The only general store that remained after the fire was then owned by Art Harbison. Later it was operated by his son, Herb and wife Mildred. In later years it became known as Gladwin General Store and remained open for another 31 years.
   In 1940, Frank and Neva Podaril bought the store. Customers were greeted by the laughter of Mrs. Podaril who always had time for a friendly chat while filling orders from the shelves. In those days a nickel could buy an hour's worth of delightful decision at a glass case full of candies, a chilly delve into the ice cream case where a Dream Bar was just the thing its name implied, or the ice cooler where cream and strawberry soda were favorites.
The Podarils operated the store successfully for 12 years, then sold it to Mr. and Mrs. Richard Duncan from Muscatine in 1952. The Duncans, with their two small children, Kathy and Richard, brought the first television set to Gladwin. It was one of the first in the neighborhood, and some evenings up to 20 people could be found gathered around it in the store. The Duncan operated the store for several more years, but paved roads, better transportation and the lure of the bigger town with its better selections made it impossible to maintain a prosperous business. In 1964 the store was closed for good.
The church
   The nearby community church discontinued services in 1964. Only four weddings took place in the church. The first was in 1953 when Miss Alice Reynolds became the bride of Charles Duncan. The last wedding was in 1963 when Sharen Hoben and Larry Jennings were married.
   The Gladwin Community Church was built by the Devore brothers and dedicated on Feb. 12, 1911. The church had no denominational ties, so the ministers varied coming from other areas. The building was sold in 1975 and was moved about three miles northeast and converted into a private home.
   In 1913, some of the Sunday school students included Earl, Leo and Claire Mullen, Mellie, Willie, Rena and Marie Swailes, Victor and Sylvia  Cook, Velma Strong, Aleda Edwards, Martha Hendrickson, Lonnie, Stella, Stacy and Elva Todd, Paul Edwards, Elizabeth Kelch Hendrickson, Virginia McGuire, Nannie Willey Hendrickson, Howard Mullen, Minnie Hendrickson Todd, Mildred and Fern Cook, Don , Deliah and Lulu Houseal, Doris and Roy Todd, Walter, Jessie, Charles, Lottie, Lyman  and Jake Hendrickson, S.E. Todd,  Lou , Frank, Elsie and Abe McGuire, W.F. Marston, Opal Kindlesperger,  Jennie Dennis, Geneva Jones.
Some of those who attended Sunday school and Bible school classes 1948-1956 included Katherine and Eileen Yoder, Joyce Bausch, Judy White, Elsie Smith, Sharon Hoben, Carol Ann Gentzler, Kathy Seiler, Betty Plecker, Duane  and Fred Lukavsky, Clark Smith, Richard Duncan, Rosalie and Ed Smith, Dennis Howe, Eilene Blosser,  Jimmy Nunnally, Judy,  Maxine and Gerald Dennis, Mary and Jimmy Mullenex, Evelyn , Ruth  and Pauline Swailes, Eileen Cline and Marilee Steele.