Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book
Stories of Early Nichols
NICHOLS IN 1966
Nichols, Iowa Centennial Book 1884-1984, page 141In 1966, the Iowa City Press-Citizen ran a weekly series of stories about the towns in its circulation area. Nichols was chosen as the town of the week on Wednesday, 28 September 1966. Following are excerpts from the article by Judith A. Bruhn, a staff writer for the Press-Citizen describes the town at that time.
…In 1960 the population was 317. The town has lost its two grocery stores and one restaurant is also closed.
Nichols is a farm-service community. As you enter from the west, you encounter fertilizer tanks and farm machinery, some shiny red, green or orange, others rusted in the weeds back from the road.
In several feed firms, the odor of corn, oats, molasses and protein pervades. Creosoted posts lie near the railroad tracks by the lumber yard.
Some people get up early in the town. The lone restaurant, Newt’s Café, is doing business at 5 a.m. In the morning, said owner Jess Newton, the place is full of people waiting for rides to take them to their jobs elsewhere.
“You can’t hire them,” Newton said. “This is not Iowa City, so they won’t work here.”
Because he can’t hire help, Newton had to shorten his operating hours and fears he will have to close. “I don’t know where people are going to eat,” he said. “If you can’t get the help, you can’t feed them.”
Customers are starting to “drift away” as a result, he said.
The commuters, many of them women, work mostly in Iowa City and Muscatine, which is about 16 miles away. They may be on the road from 6 a.m. to 4:20 p.m., he said. Probably about 40 residents in the town drive back and forth to work.
Newton has been in business about six years. He served several hundred meals a day in the café, which has an eight-stool counter and a back room with tables. Each year he uses about 20,000 gallons of ice cream, including treats for the school children in summer and fall.
Mentionof the school is a reminder of another problem for Nichols. The town lost its high school in 1960. Since then students have gone to West Liberty or Lone Tree, as they choose, and a case is in the courts to decide which district Nichols should belong to. The issue is a hot one which has split the town into factions.
The students’ interests are wherever they go to school, not in Nichols, said Newton. “You can’t blame the kids,” he added.
Working out of town has a similar effect on some adults.
“Their interests are other places,” said the Rev. John Hebenstreit, pastor of St. Mary’s Catholic Church. “They’re tired when they come home.”
Father Hebenstreit has been in Nichols for two years. (One of his jokes is that the name of the town comes from the contents of the collection plate.) Forty-six families are in his parish, but he estimated that the Methodist Church in town is probably the largest. There is also a Christian Church.
Behind the Catholic church is a church recreation hall, completed in 1956, that is used for some church classes, meetings and gatherings. Square dancing and 4-H meetings also used to be held there.
“Everybody is making a living here,” said Father Hebenstreit. Many have jobs out of town, he said, and in a number of families, both the husband and wife work. He added that the town needs a new business.
The farm land around Nichols is rich, flat and low. Once the area was a swamp, and drainage ditches were dug to ease some of the water problem.
Houses in Nichols are a variety, old and new, wood and brick, neat and needing repair. About ten trailers are either clustered side-by-side or on separate lots. A sprinkling of old barns are used as garages or storage sheds.
The business district straddles Highway 22. There are filling stations, a tavern, a post office, appliance store, barber shop, beauty shop, implement stores, fertilizer company, feed and grain firms and a branch office of the Farmers and Merchants Savings Bank of Lone Tree.
A small black sign with white lettering proclaims the “City hall.” Warren Roth is the mayor of the town. Councilmen are Victor Mills, Robert Hillyer, Frank Holcomb, George Sutton and Lee Rudman. Two men work part-time as marshals. An active volunteer fire department operates three trucks for Muscatine County’s Pike Township.
Nichols Community Park fills about half a block across from some of the businesses. In past years the band shell was used for band concerts and the park for such things as ice cream socials. It is marked now by a flagpole that leans and a stone listing the World War II honor roll.
On the other end of town is the community school, which a faculty of 11 and enrollment of 211 in grades kindergarten through eighth.
Later these children will go out of Nichols for high school and later still probably will go elsewhere to work.
In this respect, as in others, said café owner Newton, “it’s not any different than any other small town.”
Centennial Book Contents Return to Muscatine Co. IAGenWeb, Index Page
Page created January 28, 2011 by Lynn McCleary