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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
CHAPTER XIX.LITERARY DEVELOPMENT. (CONT'D)
It will be difficult indeed for anyone to estimate adequately the far-reaching and lasting influence for good of the chautauqua movement in
Shelby county. Long before the establishment of a local chautauqua at Harlan, and at other points in the county, there was an organization of persons in Harlan who followed the very excellent chautauqua course prescribed and offered by the "parent chautauqua" of Chautauqua, New York. When the chautauqua assembly was maintained at the grounds near Council Bluffs a party of Shelby county people, consisting of a dozen or more, attended much of the program. The local establishment of the chautauqua in Shelby county has afforded many citizens and their families opportunities of seeing and hearing many of the distinguished men and women that other persons less fortunate have been obliged to content themselves by merely reading about. The messages brought home to our people by these leaders of the world's thought and action have made an impress that will do much towards carrying forward at a proportionate rate, in the future, the splendid progress, intellectually and morally, made by the county in the past.
At the commercial club rooms in Harlan on June i. 1905, a permanent organization of the Harlan Chautauqua Assembly Association was made with the following officers: President, L. F. Potter; vice-president, G. W. Cullison; superintendent, Rev. C. J. English: secretary, Frank G. Beardsley; treasurer, P. B. Brown. A board of directors was chosen, consisting of the following named persons: W. T. Shepherd, Judge N. W. Macy, H. W. Byers, T. H. Smith, Albert Hansen, George A. Luxford, George H. Miller, Rev. J. G. Freedline, W. C. Campbell, Rev. S R. J. Hoyt, George Walters, Rev. N. H. Byers, M. K. Campbell, C. F. Swift, O. P. Wyland, C. D. Booth, E. S. White, Rev. T. C. McIntyre, C. G. Warren, Rev. Fr. Bromenschenkel, Superintendent O. W. Herr. At a meeting held July 21, 1905, it was moved and seconded that an assessment of fifteen per cent, on the total amount of the guaranty fund be levied, but that those continuing on the guaranty list for 1906 be refunded the fifteen per cent, levied, if the 1906 receipts should warrant such refund. The guarantors meeting the deficit of the first year were eventually reimbursed. On November 28, 1905, the guarantors of the Harlan Chautauqua organized the association for 1906 by choosing L. F. Potter, president; H. W. Byers, first vice-president; C. G. Warren, second vice-president, and G. B. Frazier, treasurer. Rev. Dr. Frank G. Beardsley declined to serve longer as secretary and E. S. White was subsequently chosen. Upon ballot, a program committee was selected as follows: John Sandham, W. T. Shepherd, Frank G. Bearsley, Superintendent O. W. Herr and E. S. White. The program of 1906 was a notable one. That year the people of Shelby county saw and heard Mrs. Maude Ballington Booth, United States Senator Robert M. LaFollette, F. W. Gillilan, the humorist, whose work appeared then and yet appears in many of the leading magazines, Hon. J. Adam Bede and Capt. Richmond P. Hobson. On November 22, 1907, the Harlan Chautauqua Association was organized as a "corporation not for pecuniary profit." The articles of incorporation provided that the board of directors, holding office until the first annual meeting of the stockholders, should be L. F. Potter, John Sandham, C. D. Booth, G. W. Cullison. W. T. Shepherd, P. B. Brown and T. H. Smith. On April 5, 1907, L. F. Potter was chosen president of the board of directors, John Sandham, vice-president, E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland, treasurer. On November 9, 1908, T. H. Smith was chosen president of the board of directors, Charles D. Booth, vice-president; E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland, treasurer. The committee on talent for 1909 was composed of Edmund Lockwood, John Sandham, W. T. Shepherd, W. C. Campbell and E. S. White. April 22, 1911, Charles D. Booth was chosen president of the board of directors; T. N. Franklin, vice-president; E. S. White, secretary, and O. P. Wyland. treasurer. September 1, 1911, it was decided by the board of directors to purchase for the Chautauqua Association lots Nos. 9, 10, 19 and 20 of block 2 of the College Heights Addition to Harlan, Iowa, having been previously directed to purchase said real estate at a meeting of the stockholders of the association. On October 4, 1911, the stockholders of the Chautauqua Association voted unanimously to enter into contract with the Redpath-Vawter System for the holding of a chautauqua in Harlan during the year 1912, under which contract the Harlan Chautauqua Association, as a corporation, was guarantor for the sale of one thousand four hundred dollars' worth of season tickets. The present officers of the local association are C. D. Booth, president, and George B. Gunderson, secretary. The directors to date have been, since the incorporation of the association: L. F. Potter, C. D. Booth, P. B. Brown, G. W. Cullison, John Sandham, T. H. Smith, W. T. Shepherd, T. N. Franklin and O. F. Graves. The association owes much of its success to the perennial optimism of Hon. G. W. Cullison, who was for many years its superintendent. This association gave many notable programs. In 1907 it spent $2,144.70 for lecturers, musicians and entertainers. Among the famous persons appearing on the program that year were United States Senator Tillman, Hon. William J. Bryan, United States Senator Burkett, Jane Addams, Rev. Newell, Dwight Hillis and Rev. Thomas E. Green. In 1908 the association expended $2,040 on its program. Among the persons of national reputation appearing on this program were the distinguished author, Will Carleton, since deceased; Hon. Champ Clark, present speaker of the United States House of Representatives; Jacob A. Riis, the famous Danish slum worker and philanthropist of New York City, since deceased; Rev. Dr. N. McGee Waters, of Xew York City, and the Whitney Brothers Quartet, some of whose beautiful selections then rendered may now be heard on the records of the "Victrola." In 1909 the association expended $2,435 for talent, presenting Opie Read, the distinguished author, known the country over; Governor Folk, of Missouri; Governor Hanly, of Indiana, and the famous Civil War veteran, Gen. O. O. Howard. The programs throughout the history of the association were made to exemplify these standards of an ideal program: Addresses or lectures by persons of national reputation in literature, politics or science; music, both instrumental and vocal of a high order; dramatic numbers; experiments in science; humorous lectures to enliven and lighten the program; illustrated lectures of many different kinds. Chautauquas have, since the Harlan Chautauqua was established, been held at Defiance, Irwin, this year at EIk Horn for the first time, and also at Shelby. The present arrangement by which the Redpath-Vawter Chautauqua System presents the Harlan program, relieving the local association of the trouble and expense of hiring and erecting a tent, of the labor and expense of putting up scats, etc., has in the main proved satisfactory and has afforded excellent programs. This system consists of a large circuit of chautauquas held at many different points in Iowa, Missouri, and possibly Nebraska, based on a definite and connected schedule of dates and numbers. By means of this circuit arrangement, the expense of transportation from one chautauqua to another, as well as other expense, is reduced to a minimum and, besides, such arrangement gives lecturers and other persons appearing on program a better opportunity to rest between dates, and thus appear at their best before audiences. This company is able to present a program at an expense much less than could the local association, which frequently had heavy deficits, in spite of much hard work.
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