During 1877 taxes began to come into the
county treasury from the lands that had been claimed by the
homesteaders in 1871 and 1872. It was possible to get
considerable tax exemptions, however, by forestation. A state law
permitted a deduction of $100 from the valuation of taxable land
for each acre of trees planted for a period of ten years and kept
thriving during that time. In this way it was, possible for the
farmer to remove about half of the taxes from a quarter section
of land by planting four or five acres of trees.
But good tree plants were scarce. Many farmers had been getting
young trees for fences and windbreaks, and there were very few to
be had near at hand. Trips had to be made to the vicinity of
Sioux City, where slips and young plants of cottonwood, soft
maple, and willow could be obtained. Bushels of maple seeds were
obtained from along the Missouri River. And some of the more
fortunate of the farmers were able to get hard or silver maples,
chestnuts, elms, and evergreens. Captain L.G. Ireland planted as
many varieties of trees as he could find. Dick Wassmann, who
later bought the land, added still more varieties until the grove
included over a hundred species of trees.
So many trees were planted along the highways for fencing that
after a time the roads were like lanes through shady parks. Birds
nested in the trees, and the countryside rang with melody. Large
shade trees grew along the streets of Sibley. Each farm had at
least one grove, and many farms took names from the surroundings.
Among them were: Evergreen Stock Farm, Maplewood Stock Farm,
Woodland Farm, Cedar Valley Farm, Elder Grove Farm, Sheltered
Nook, the Jassmine Pine Grove, and Willow Twig. Now that the
plowed fields made extensive grass fires impossible, natural
undergrowth began to come into its own in the wooded areas.
Orchards of small fruits were started - - plums, cherries,
currants, gooseberries, and other berries.
Farmers began diversifying their farming from the standard crops
of wheat, oats, and corn. They made experimental plantings of
rape, the seed of which cost little since two quarts would cover
an acre. Considerable flax was raised, but the lack of cane mills
made the venture unprofitable. However, the farmers who began
raising hogs, sheep, and cattle became relatively prosperous.
The following list of wedding presents given to a pioneer bride
and groom seems to show that they had within their own families
the basic necessities for starting out. The reader can suppose at
a glance that the young man must have already had a team and
harness, the young lady a bedstead, a bureau, a pair of wash
tubs, and a stove. Besides the deed to their land, they were
given a silver card basket, two hanging lamps (one with white and
one with a red shade), hand-painted platter and set of silver
teaspoons, glass water set, quilt, pair of pillows, mustache cup
and saucer, china cup and saucer, rocking chair, washboard,
garden hoe, pair of vases (one silver and one glass), set of
individual salts, set of dishes, knives and forks, complete of
bedding, a gold breastpin, $5 in cash, washbowl and pitcher,
carving set, individual castor, blue cut glass silver-mounted
jelly dish, hand-painted cuspidor, ruby celery glass, cut glass
silver-mounted syrup pitcher, large glass cake stand, frosted
glass fruit dish, a cream glass, fluted-edge sauce dish, set of
beautifully flowered delicate glass tumblers, pair of a German
China vases with raised glass flowers and handles, photograph
frame of oxidized brass, garnet cut glass berry dish (set in
silver with a silver ladel), silver cream pitcher, silver sugar
bowl, and a silver spoon holder.
Imposing as this list sounds, many of the things it includes are
of small value and others simply embrace the necessities given to
every young man “set up” for farming by his parents.
The bright luxuries among the wedding gifts were luxuries indeed,
perhaps the only such things the young couple could hope to
possess for many years.
In 1878 the Sibley school had 70 pupils and there were a few
other country schools throughout the vicinity.
By 1879 some of the farmers, weary of fighting grasshoppers and
discouragement, had left the county. Speculators had left because
of the decreased value of farmlands. Land was to be had almost
for the asking. Gilman showed plainly the result of this
depopulation. In that year it had but one merchant and one
blacksmith left. All the other places of business had been
boarded up. The Sibley Gazette stated: “Last week we spent
an hour or two in Gilman. This village is struggling with all its
hopes in the future, waiting patiently for a depot, an elevator,
and an express and telegraph office. A year or two of good crops
will bring it into notice, give it more buildings, sidewalks, a
mayor and all the paraphernalia of a full-fledged metropolis,
until then it must move quietly and contentedly.”
As if the hopes of the letter above were answered, more and more
cattlemen began to move into the county to replace the farmers
who had left, bringing with them feed stock and milk cows. And in
the fall of 1879, because the crops had turned out better than
they had for several years before, the county fair was resumed by
the struggling Agricultural Society.
By 1880 Osceola County had felt still more impetus in its upward
swing. The Close Brothers, the Englishmen who established the
Iowa Land Company of LeMars, announced that a large number of
English colonists were on their way to Iowa. As the Close
Brothers did not want to see the inexperienced but enthusiastic
sons of English aristocracy forced to put in their time
“cutting down trees and uprooting stumps” in timbered
country, they chose Sibley as a branch office and purchased 60
square miles of prairie land in Osceola County, principally from
the railroad.
Even before the titles to the land had been transferred, the
breaking teams were at work in the vicinity getting ground ready.
The Close Brothers rented out some of the land to tenants who
came into the county looking for farms but had not enough money
to buy. These tenants were paid $2.25 per acre for breaking. The
Close Brothers furnished flax seed and made an agreement to pay
half the threshing bill and to pay for the plowing of the stubble
in preparation for corn planting the following year. In return
they were to receive half of the crops raised.
Orders were placed for lumber for 160 houses to be built by 1882
for the English colonists and some of the tenants. In addition
the Iowa Land Company built a block of brick buildings in Sibley,
128 by 80 feet, and the town soon became the rendezvous for a
large number of young Englishmen who hoped to learn the American
way of farming.
The corn planter, binder, and steam thresher were in use in the
county then and put new life into farming. More fields could be
planted and harvested in a shorter length of time than before.
The Englishmen imported sheep, horses, cattle, swine, poultry,
and dogs. They also continued their British customs in dress, and
in dining and tea time, much to the amusement of the native
pioneers. And they did not neglect their sports. As most of them
were well supplied with money, they set a fast pace which young
men of Iowa found difficult to follow. There was many a merry fox
hunt across the prairies. But when foxes could not be found,
rabbits or wolves served just as well. Polo suits were ordered
from England, and cow ponies were put to the test of training.
Tobogganing and ice hockey were popular winter sports.
Due to the influx of these mew people, small businesses in Sibley
and Gilman began to thrive again. In 1882 Nicholas Boor moved
into the almost deserted town of Ashton and started a lumber yard
and a grain elevator. The hotel was opened again. The following
year the name of Gilman change to Ashton, which became a
prosperous little town where but a short time before Gilman had
been all but a ghost town.
The increased number of livestock in the county soon became a
menace to the crops. The willow fences, it was found, were not
sufficient to keep cattle away from the grain. The willow hedges
took up space that might otherwise have been cultivated. Many of
these hedges were cut down at a tremendous labor cost, and
replaced by fences of lath interwoven with smooth wire. Grant and
Company, of Sibley, began manufacturing fence of this type.
It was during the 1870’s that the patent rights established
for barbwire in order to defeat a monopoly know as the Barbed
Wire Trust, which sought to get prohibitive prices by allowing no
competition. The basic barbed wire patent was not on the barb
alone, but on the twist which prevented the barb from skidding
along the wire, a trick which Iowa farmers proved had been
delivered before the beginnings of the Barbed Wire Trust by the
son of a Scott County, Iowa, farmer.
In the early days the sloughs were not without their value. They
acted as partial barriers to prairie fires, roving cattle drank
from them in the summer, and in winter mink and muskrat could be
trapped in them. But the sloughs were breeding places for swarms
of mosquitoes that caused suffering to men and beast alike, and
the best soil of the county was considered to lie beneath those
broad expanses of grass and water.
In 1883 some of the farmers, determined to reduce the mosquitoes
and reclaim the swamps for farmlands, brought two ditching
machines into the county. Slowly but surely, swamp after swamp
was drained and brought under cultivation. But the draining of
the swamps caused the water level to lower correspondingly. The
shallow wells in the county, which up until this time had given
good service, became more and more unreliable. It was soon
necessary to dig deeper wells, and these often meant investments
in windmills. A small windmill factory was started in Sibley,
though it did not operate long.
In 1884 the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railroad
crossed the county east and west through Sibley. This afforded a
more direct communication with the eastern markets. Up to this
time the only two towns in the county were Sibley, in the
west-central part, and Ashton, in the southwest. The new railroad
brought three more towns into existence: Ocheyedan, Harris, and
later Allendorf. These new towns were a boon to the people of the
county, for before the towns came into existence the closest
trading center was Sibley, a number of miles to the west of them.
A tow, mill, erected in Ashton, began to work during this year
under the management of E. Phillips. It was powered by a
35-horesepower steam engine and employed eight men. Up until this
time, flax had been an unprofitable crop in the county because
there was no outlet for the straw, but with the opening of the
mill the raising of flax became more profitable. The mill
produced two or three tons of baled tow each day, most of which
went to eastern markets to be used by upholsterers.
Then a steam power flouring mill valued at $12,000 was set up in
Sibley. Equipped with the newest type of patent rollers, the mill
had a capacity of 75 barrels of flour a day. This tended to
stabilize the wheat prices throughout the county.
Ocheyedan, soon to become the new trading center of the
northeastern part of Osceola County, grew rapidly. A shanty
belonging to James Wood was the first building on the site. As
soon as the railroad came through, Wood ordered supplies and set
up a store in his small home. Before the year ended many more
business establishments had been erected. Charles Woodworth put
up a hardware store. William Smith established a general store.
Joseph and Dominick Kout and L.B. Boyd put up buildings and
opened stores of general merchandise. Dr. C. Teal opened a drug
store. French and Hayward had a lerge building for storing coal
and grain. Another warehouse for coal and grain was built by D.L.
Riley. Archibald Oliver started a livery stable.
The following year, 1885, saw still more buildings and business.
C.A. Tatum built a feed store and a butcher shop.. Peter Graves
put up another general store. A.V. Randall opened up still
another business house, and John Wilson erected a hotel which he
named the Ocheyedan House.
Ocheyedan’s first birthday celebration was held July 4,
1885. This community affair brought in farmers from the
surroundings countryside. There were orations, music, various
kinds of horse races and foot races, and plenty of dancing.
Other buildings were going up throughout the county. Most notable
and most significant were the creameries that were established at
Ocheyedan, Sibley, and Ashton.
Heretofore, the farm woman did what they could to take care of
current expenses by churning butter at home and selling it to the
stores. The price paid for the butter, however, was extremely
low. There was very little demand for it since most people in the
county either made their own or purchased it from a few of the
butter makers of the community. Most of the store keepers,
finding no outlet for butter, merely tossed it into the grease
barrel along with lard and other things that would later be
turned into soap.
But now that creameries were being set up, the housewives were
saved many hours of toil. Cream could be skimmed from the milk
and sold directly to the creameries, which in turn sold their
product in the east.
In the late 1880’s, ten years after the grasshopper plague,
the county was enjoying the best and most prosperous years it had
yet seen. A large number of the farms were fenced. Large houses
and barns were built, and new farm machinery and varied crops
made tilling of the soil much easier and vastly more profitable.
The Osceola County Tribune, describing the fair of 1886,
reflected prosperity with the following account:
“In spite of the rain, attendance at the fair was
substantial - - in fact better than any previous fair. In the
agricultural exhibition there was a good display and of excellent
quality. This department shows the farmers in the county are
rapidly getting first class stock and are rapidly improving the
same.
“At the head of the thoroughbred department was C.P.
Reynold’s large Durham bull, which took the sweepstakes
purse in the class. O. Burton’s fine cow of the same grade
placed second.
“In the Poland China hogs, O. Burton, H.B. Clemons and Dave
Winter each had a good display. George H. Fawcett, of near
Ashton, probably had the finest display in his class but it
seemed to be generally conceded that his pigs were too finely
bred for this country. They were undoubtedly the finest-bred
stock of the kind on the grounds.
Thoroughbred Class
“In the thoroughbred horse class there were numerous fine
specimens. The most noticeable to the reporter was the span of
two year old Clydes of Patterson and Tom Ashton.
“Because of the bad condition of the track on account of the
rain Tuesday the scrub races that were advertised to come off on
the first day were omitted. The second day however, a purse was
made up and a race arranged. Mr. Patterson’s little brown
mare took the first money and a LeMars horse second. On the third
day a similar purse was gotten up, E. Van Skye’s black pony
putting plenty of daylight in between him and Shoemaker’s
bay.
“Principal feature of the fair, however, were the trotting
and running races for a purse of $100. The trotting race occurred
on the second day. In the first heat, Brother Baldwin was leading
Chief Joseph by a handsome two lengths with Kitten McDonald third
and Hero and Dexter next.
Chief Joseph Wins
“In the running race, Little Joker was far away the class
beating Bay Deacon and a field of other highclass runners.
“The polo match Friday afternoon between the LeMars and
Sibley clubs resulted in a grand victory for the home team, the
score standing 8 to 0 in their favor.
“And thus ended the fourteenth exhibition of the Pioneer
Agricultural Society. All premiums we believe will be paid in
full. This speaks well for the officers in charge.”
In the fairs during the next two years the influence of the
English colony was marked. There were steeplechases and games of
polo and cricket. The young Englishmen, however, got tired of
farming and its hardships, and before the end of the decade
nearly all had left the county.
During this decade many churches were built. The first
Congregational Church to be organized in the county was at Sibley
October 8, 1872. Three years later the congregation raised
sufficient funds for a building. In 1888 a branch of the church
was organized in Ocheyedan and a building erected there.
The Baptists met at first in Mitchell’s Furniture Store at
Sibley. The Reverend J.L. Coppoc, Baptist minister at Spirit
Lake, was engaged to preach once a month. The Baptists finally
built and dedicated their church in the fall of 1882.
The first Roman Catholic Mass of the county was celebrated by
Father Leniham, assistant priest from Sioux City, in May 1873 in
Holman Township on the homestead of Patrick Larkin. The first
Roman Catholic Church of the county was built near Ashton in
1881. Services were held in the new building even before it was
plastered. Four years later the church was moved into Ashton and
in June 1888 Father James McCormack became the first resident
priest. The parish at Sibley used the courthouse for its services
for a time. Later in 1883, the parish bought an old schoolhouse,
moved it to their own lot, and converted it into a church.
An Evangelical Lutheran Church was established in Horton
Township. Services were irregular from 1884 until July 31, 1887.
Then Reverend John Schinerer was installed as resident minister.
The following year a church and a parsonage were built and a
parochial school was organized. Still later another Evangelical
Lutheran Church and parochial school were organized and erected
at Ocheyedan.
The Methodist Episcopal Church had its beginnings in 1872 at the
home of A.M. Culver, one-and-a-half miles south of Sibley.
Nineteen members were organized at that time. A church was built
in 1873 and dedicated December 18, 1874. Later on there was a
division of the church and second building was erected at
Ocheyedan, but in time the two factions reunited.
The following is quoted from a letter written by one who was
present at an early meeting, at the home of C.M. Brooks:
“The greater than usual number of men comers at Mr.
Brook’s made it necessary to bake bread on the Lord’s
Day and while baking was going on, the little pioneer
congregation gathered in the room to listen to the preacher - -
one of the new comers. In the same room were the baking and the
preaching, and as the minister went forward with his discourse,
so did `Mel`, as Melvina Brooks was called by her relatives and
near friends, go on with her baking. She realized that on her
depended the feeding of the hungry men, with appetites such as
only pioneering brings to the table. While others had nothing to
do but listen, she had to work for the listeners. She could both
hear and work, and right down before the minister she baked the
bread of the earth while he spoke the bread of Heaven, and she
did her work as well and honestly as the preacher did his. It was
thus she went foreword doing the things most necessary to be
done, and though not possessed of a very robust constitution did
her full measure of work - - having less in mind her own strength
than the comfort of those around her”
A church referred to as “Hope Church” was built in West
Helman Township, west of Sibley. Little record was left
concerning it save that it was made up of Presbyterian
Hollanders, with the Reverend Messrs. Broncka and Heigenga among
the pastors.
A group of Mennonites settled in the Harrison Township during the
eighties. Distinguished for their simplicity of living and their
indifference to the outside world, they made thrifty and
industrious farmers and prospered well.
As a majority of the people living in Osceola County were Civil
War veterans it was natural that they should build a Memorial
Hall. Following is an account of this taken from the Osceola
County Tribune of Friday, November 18, 1887:
“After a `long and strong pull` the soldier’s memento
at least has reached the shore of success, and stands prominently
out to its admirers, completed. In the construction of this
building, credit is due to all the `boys` for their untiring zeal
and handiwork by which G.A.R. is enabled to put before the public
as a cherished relic this Memorial Hall.
“Regardless of party or business they put their shoulders to
the wheel and pushed together; they subscribed from whom might
give and liberally took from their own pockets the balance
required for the construction of this hall … It is indeed a
handsome building, the brickwork being well done, which adds
beauty to its exterior - - the quearness of its shape taking an
important part in this regard. On the inside the hall is the most
conveniently arranged with its stage, kitchen, auditorium,
gallery, etc. and is finished in the best of style, with a
seating capacity of 300. The members of this Post deserve great
praise on one point particular, viz: they have a first-class
hall, and do not owe a dollar on the same.
“The proceeds of the entertainment, as mapped out for
Thanksgiving day and evening, will be exclusively applied toward
furnishing the Hall, and we bespeak a liberal patronage from the
public. A first-class dinner will be served, wherein roast pig,
roast turkey, chicken, plum pudding, and all the delicacies of
the season will be on the bill of fare.
“A splendid program will be presented to the pubic, among
which will be interesting sketches from Commander-in-Chief Rea
(the man who stands at the head of 350,000 ex-soldiers) and
others.
“The old vets intend giving the best entertainment Sibley
ever had and they are sparing no pains to make it a go, and those
who will lay away the busy cares of one day and lend their
presence to this entertainment will never regret it.
“Dinner will be served at 1:30 p.m., at the low rate of 50¢
for adults and 25¢ for children. Doors open at 7:00 o’clock
for evening entertainment.”
A week later, Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1887, the new hall
was dedicated with an elaborate program, which all agreed more
than fulfilled the promises made for it.
Compiled by the Iowa Writers' Program for WPA in Iowa
Transcribed by Kevin Tadd