| Muscatine County, Iowa | |
Muscatine Journal & News-Tribune
Centennial Edition
31 May 1940
Section 4 - Page 13, Submitted by Charlene Nichols Hixon, April 3, 2012
TOPICS OF THE TIMES FROM OLD JOURNAL FILES LOCAL ITEM – On the 7th inst., the Rev. H. W. Beers delivered the fourth lecture of the course before the Young Men’s Literary association of this city, upon the very fruitful subject, “Brother Jonathan.” This lecture was very beautifully written, and delivered in an agreeable and forcible manner. It is difficult for a lecturer, it matters but little how accomplished e may be to adduce any thing original or strikingly new from a subject so threadbare, and about which so much has been written and said. The speaker was very happy in his comparison of American poetry and the advancement made in the arts and sciences in the United States, that of Europe, American books are now read in Europe, and are sought after with an avidity perfectly astounding to those musty old literary monuments who imagine that we in the United States are but in our “a-b’s.” Jonathan is young and vigorous, and will ere long be the standard bearer in the army of letters. Mr. b. gave pretty general satisfaction yet we regret that he elected such an old subject for his lecture – Jan. 16, 1866
* * * First meeting for the erection of a monument honoring heroes of the Civil War was held on March21, 1866. A Soldiers’ Monument association was formed in September with Thomas Hannah, president; J. E. Robb, vice president; John Mahin, secretary and A. F. Demorest, treasurer. In 1874 the association took the $700 raised by then, started a drive for subscriptions for enough to get a monument. The memorial in the court square was dedicated July 4, 1875 with Iowa’s war governor – Samuel J. Kirkwood – delivering the oration. It cost about $6,000.
* * * A committee of three to contract for crossing of streets “at such places as the committee may think necessary” was appointed by the city council on march 22, 1857. Members were Edward Hocke of the first ward; A. M. Howe, of the second ward and A. Ficken, of the third ward.
* * * Sessions of a district conference of the Y. M. C. A. were held in Muscatine on March 23, 1890.
* * * “Whereas the box or culvert where Second street crosses Mad Creek is inadequate to discharge the water at full stream and is now broken down, therefore the council shall cause to be erected at that place a pike bridge and that the contractor go to work” – this was a resolution passed by the city council on March 25, 1857.
* * * “No more will those picturesque animals that add so much to the general effect of the landscape, swine we mean, be allowed to indulge themselves in sportive pleasures unmolested. No more will their musical grunt be heard. The places which knew them shall know them no more forever. Marshall Jones has issued his manifesto, and it must be obeyed. Hogs found running at large ‘without any visible means of support’ are to be taken up and provided with quarters” – Muscatine Journal, March 26, 1864.
* * * THE HUMBOLDT COLEBRATION – The Turners of this city are making extensive preparations to celebrate the anniversary of Humboldt’s birthday, next Tuesday evening. As will be seen by advertisement elsewhere, they will give a fair, festival and concert at Tremont hal, and the entertainment promises to be a grand thing. There exists a good deal of enthusiasm among the members of the society in regard to this festival, by which they intend to pay homage to the names of their great dead Alexander von Humboldt. The name of Humboldt is as familiar to our people as that of Clay or Webster, and it is never mentioned without awakening pleasant memories of that great and good man who contributed more that is valuable to the scientific world than any one who preceded him. Although born in Germany, he was emphatically a citizen of the world, and there is not a nation on the face of the known world that he has not visited. We hope, therefore, that Americans, as well as Germans, will turn out to the entertainment on Tuesday evening. The proceeds are to be devoted to purchasing a library for the Turnervein, but which will be open to the public. – Muscatine Journal, Sept. 11, 1869.
* * * Appointment of John Mahin, then editor-in-chief of The Journal, as one of nine inspectors of money order service in the post office department, was made on April 13, 1883.
* * * First annual reunion of members of Hook & Ladder company, No. 1, a volunteer fireman organization, was held on April 12, 1878.
* * * Roller skating was a favorite form of pastime in the year 1883. M. C. H. Hawkins, conductor of a roller skating rink, announced he would put a new, hard floor in Union hall and make the rink permanent.
* * * On April 10, 1844, the Bloomington town council appointed “John A. Parvin to have Black Locust trees set out in the grave yard up the Main street and circle, one tree to every 25 feet; the hands to be paid with Grave Yard Lots.”
* * * Supervisors of Muscatine county, on April 9, 1879, began discussing the first free highway bridge across the Cedar river in this county. Arguments as to its location lasted two months with Lord’s Ferry (McKeown Bridge) the site finally decided upon. The first bridge cost $20,000.
* * * W. S. Fultz of Bloomington gave an address when Shelby Norman post, G. A. R., on April 7, 1885, celebrated the anniversary of the battle of Shiloh with a bonfire of fence rails.
* * * A decline in the St. Louis market on March 30, 1860, forced the price of wheat from 99 cents to below 90 cents at Muscatine – 84 head of cattle were brought to Muscatine to Leland & Company’s slaughtering establishment by ferry boat from Rock Island county – Block & Company loaded a barge with 3,000 sacks of grain from St. Louis.
* * * The town plot of Fairport was surveyed on April 6, 1839. It was filed for record March 12, 1841, under the name of Salem, but since about 1870 has been known as Fairport.
* * * The first sub-divisions in what is now Iowa were made on April 8, 1834 by the Michigan territorial Legislature which had jurisdiction then. Iowa was divided into two counties by a line drawn through the eastern tier of Muscatine county townships. Iowa land north of this line was called Dubuque, and south, Des Moines counties.
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