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Shelby County |
CHAPTER XI -- CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES, PAST AND PRESENT (CONT'D)THE COUNTY SEAT AND PRESENT TOWNS AND VILLAGES. (CONT'D)INCORPORATION.The petition seeking incorporation was signed by one hundred and twenty-three voters. The first three signers on the petition to incorporate were J. M. Long, C. J. Wyland and Thomas Ledwich. Of these one hundred and twenty-three signers, there are only the following yet residents of Harlan: W. H. Carl, T. M. Hathaway, Wesley Scutt, B. I. Kinsey, Prior Tinsley, J. W. Newby, O. P. Wyland, David Baker, George D. Ross, D. D. Downs, O. McDowell and Joseph Babcock. The petition for incorporation was duly verified by J. E. Weaver, who was then practicing law in Harlan, on March 25, 1879. The petition for incorporation came before Hon. C. F. Loofborouw, judge of the circuit court, and on March 25, 1879, he appointed J. M. Long, William Wyland, Peter Brazie, J. D. Walker and J. B. Stutsman commissioners, for the purpose of calling an election at which the electors might vote on the question of incorporation. Notice was accordingly given that on April 25, 1879, the question of incorporation would be voted upon. The notice of the holding of this election was published in the Harlan Herald, then edited and published by George D. Ross. On the day of election Peter Brazie, J. M. Long, J. D. Walker were judges, and J. B. Stutsman and William Wyland were clerks. The result of the vote was: For incorporation, one hundred and fifty-one; against incorporation, seven. Notice was accordingly published on May 1, 1879, in the Harlan Herald that Harlan had been incorporated, the notice itself being dated April 26, 1879, signed by H. C. Holcomb, clerk of the circuit court. From the time of the platting of the village by Doctor Ault until the very latter part of the sixties, what few business houses there were in the village of Harlan were in what is now known as "North Harlan." These had been, of course, a few general stores and some taverns. With the platting, however, of the higher ground by James M. Long, the business houses of the city began to be erected on each of the four sides of what is now called the public square. The first minute book of the board of supervisors of Shelby county, at page 406, under date of September 7, 1869, shows that a proposition of E. W. Davis to convey to Harlan block 46, in James M. Long's Addition to the town, in return for conveyance to him of block 41, in said addition, was accepted by the board of supervisors. Block 46 is the square on which the court house stands. In the early days there was a public square in the north part of Harlan which was later used for Chautauqua grounds, and which is now planted to trees and forms a small park. So many county seats in Iowa have their business houses arranged in the form of a square, usually with the court house in the center, similar to the plan of Harlan, that this author was interested in securing what information he could with reference to the origin of the custom. He is therefore indebted to the Research Bureau of Nelson's Encyclopedia for the explanation below given of the custom of building business houses in the form of a square with the court house in the center. There are many such county seats in Iowa besides Harlan, built in this way. This is true of Glenwood; the business houses of Red Oak are also built in the form of a square, although the court house is not in the center of the square. Washington, Iowa, is also laid out in the same way. "When the colonists came to this country and selected the site of their settlements, they first erected a block house, or fort, to serve as a general meeting place but more particularly as a harbor of refuge on the occasion of attacks by predatory bands of Indians. "Around these block houses, or forts, and within range of the guns of the men who were assigned to watch and guard, were grouped the cabins of the colonists. At a prearranged signal the entire settlement sought safety in the block house. These block houses, the forerunners of the court houses, were the places where councils were held, and where those entrusted with the community government enacted such laws as were necessary for these communal gatherings, and where courts were held. "The transition from the crude log buildings to the more dignified court houses was but a question of time and immunity from savage foes, and the question of grouping the buildings under the protection of the fort was, quite naturally, continued. What had its origin in necessity, became, in the course of time, custom. "This method, pursued by the colonists, was in sense a survival of European custom during feudal times, when the orders of society below the rank of nobility were accustomed to group their dwelling within protecting range of the baronial castle of their over-lords." It also occurs to the author that he has read somewhere that this custom of having a public square was at first particularly prevalent in the Southern states, and that at least in this country the custom is, therefore, of Southern origin.
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 HARLAN VIEWS TAKEN ABOUT 1885 BY C. WILL FISHER(Above Left) East Baldwin Street, Showing Congregational Church. Looking South on Seventh Street, Past Christian Church. (Above Right) Baldwin Street, Looking West. Southwest Part of Harlan, Showing Hunt, Gibbs and Murray Residences.  (Above Left) Court House Erected at Harlan in 1875. Now a Livery Barn. Famous W. L. Baughn Hose Team and State Championship Belt. (Above Right) North Side Square, Harlan, 1872. Office of Shelby County Record (upstairs), Furniture Store Below, Dr. R. M. Smith's Drug Store to the East. Recently Completed School House in Distance. Harlan in 1872, from Painting by B. F. Peiffer. Transcribed by John Schulte, March, 2024 from the Past and Present of Shelby County, Iowa, by Edward S. White, P.A., LL. B.,Volume 1, Indianapolis: B. F. Bowen & Co., 1915, pp. 230-233. |
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