Muscatine County, Iowa COMMUNITY NEWS

Source: Muscatine News-Tribune, Sunday July 1, 1900, page 17
Submitted by Elizabeth Casillas, June 17, 2020
(transcribed as written)

Depot At Bayfield
Our Western Suberb Gets a Railroad Station

Bayfield, the first station out of Muscatine on the Muscatine Western, will no longer be designated as a “flag station.” It is to have a new depot, a post office, a general store, with a stove and empty nail kegs, and all the indispensable luxuries of a country town. Yesterday a sheriff’s jury appraised a two-acre tract of as fine ground as the sun shines upon to be thenceforth by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern for depot, and this week Engineer Warner of the railroad company, will break ground for the new station, which will be erected at once. It is unnecessary to add that the citizens of the rich agricultural region are rejoicing, but that’s precisely what they are doing. For several years the farmers of that locality have tried in vain to get a depot. Difficulty was experienced in obtaining the ground, the only available land being a three-acre tract belonging to Mr. Noll, a cut-off from his farm lying south of the tract. The farmers have offered Mr. Noll $200 for an acre of this tract, but he wanted to either sell it all or be assured that the company would maintain an underground crossing connecting his farm with the balance of the tract, through which a creek runs. So the deal could not be made.

On the 15th of June the railroad commissioners, at the instance of the company, visited Bayfield, and condemned two acres of the tract for depot privileges leaving one and 18-100 acres as a part of the farm. Yesterday Sheriff McGaughey, in company with General Manager Brady, M. H. Truesdell, Engineer Warner and Judge J. Carskaddan, for the B., C. R. & N., and Mr. Noll and his attorney, E. M. Warner, proceeded to Bayfield, where about thirty farmers of that locality were congregated. A sheriff’s jury consisting of six farmers were selected, and after spending an hour or so in looking the land over, the listening to the arguments of the counsel, the jury retired to a point apart from the others, and in due time returned the following appraisement of damages to the land owner:

           State of Iowa, Muscatine County, ss: To the Sheriff of said county:

           The undersigned having been summoned by you to appraise the damages to German Noll, Annie Noll and Titus & Jackson, by reason of the taking for railway purposes by the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Ry. Co., of the following described parcel of ground at Bayfield, Muscatine county, Iowa to-wit:

           Beginning at point on the south line of section 13, township 77, range 3, 431.6 feet west of the southeast corner of said section, thence west along said section line 785.2 feet, thence north at right angles 221.9 feet to the southerly line of the right of way of the B., C. R. & N. Ry. Co., parallel to and 50 feet distant from the center of the main line to the place of beginning, and containing two, more or less; including the strip thirty feet wide along the south side of the above piece, being half the road.

           After having viewed and examined said premises, do assess and appraise the damage for the taking of the same, for the purposes aforesaid, at the sum of one hundred and fifty-five dollars.

           George Shields,
           Frank Healey,
           Thomas Cotter,
           Michael Schaab,
           Albert Sherwood,
           Leonard C. King.

The result was not satisfactory to Mr. Noll, who will appeal to the courts, but the company has a right under the law to go ahead with its work, as the land has been legally condemned and is theirs. The amount of damages is $45 less than the owner was offered for one-half the amount of land, and he will contest the matter in the court. In the meantime Bayfield will put on her war paint and proceed to take the conceit out of the census enumerators of Adams, Nichols, and other haughty towns along the Western. Good people live out in our lively suburb, and they deserve a good little town. The News-Tribune extends congratulations to its Bayfield Friends.

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Submitted by Elizabeth Casillas, June 17, 2020

I found the above newspaper article about the Bayfield Railroad Station in Lake Township being built. The train did stop at that location but there was no building. My grandfather, Charlie S. Harper was already the stationmaster and purchased the rest of the farm land from German Noll. Grandpa then built a house (which my father grew up in and later purchased for our family) and the other outbuildings. I found it interesting because my maternal great-grandfather and great grandfather were listed on the panel to decide the case.

Now for the rest of the story. The stone block building was erected by 1903 and my grandfather opened a grocery and post office as well as being station master. The train was used by many people to get to Muscatine and was also used to ship livestock to market and probably to bring livestock to the farmers. The trains were discontinued sometime in the 1930s and the tracks were taken out in the late 1930s. My brother Charlie has some memories of that. The building was used mainly for storage except at election times. Then the voting machine was brought out and put on the second floor and all the neighbors would come to vote in June for the primary and in November for the general election. This happened every two years. In November my dad had to put up the potbellied stove so the trustees and election judges and of course the voters wouldn't freeze! It was a time for neighbors to get together and talk. Many people would wait until near the closing time to vote. Then they would gather around and wait to hear the results. When the votes were all tallied then one of the trustees would come to our house to call the county courthouse with the results. No cell phones back then! Sometime in the sixties the polling place was changed.

In the fall of 1978 there was a storm during the night with major winds that took the entire roof off the building and it landed on the driveway. There were trees down all around the house but it wasn't damaged. My mother was in the house during the storm. In the morning when she opened the back door she thought she was in a forest with all the green around her! She had slept through the storm!

Eventually the rest of the building had to be taken down and the land leveled.