tled all claims as fast as presented.
The following winter the disease broke out again, but we were by that
time more familiar with the methods of prevention and lost but one case,
a son of Elisha Hodgin. These were strenuous times as many remember in
the history of Buncombe Township.
Talk about prosperity from this time on Sioux County has
continued to forge to the front until 1882, when the C. & N. W. R.
R. was constructed across Sioux County into Hawarden.
HAWARDEN.
The town of
Hawarden was laid out in the winter and early in the spring of 1882.
Houses began to go up, among the first was a saloon and residence
combined, erected by J. S. Waite; second a residence which we built for
a railroad man whose name I cannot recall at this time. Then McIntyre's
Northwestern Hotel and the Brewer Hotel (the first brick building in the
county). New buildings were built and others hauled down from Calliope
with such rapidity that one could hardly keep track of them. And a most
bitter town fight raged between the towns of Calliope, the old town on
the Milwaukee road which had passed through here several years before,
and the town of Hawarden, platted just below Calliope at the crossing of
the two roads, viz. the Milwaukee and C. & N. W. There was a bunch
of hustlers came with the Northwestern road that commenced at once to
boost for the new town and in a short time they had the slow going north
siders coming their way. The first mercantile building erected was a
hardware store by Hunter & Wood, Mr. Hunter securing the first
appointment as postmaster. The first general store was a firm from
LeMars, their names I have forgotten. Then came J. D. Wood from Calliope
with building and all. Then came Nash & Lynn who are still in
business here with an immense stock of goods. Then J. P. Lind moved his
double building down and kept a large stock of general merchandise and
his store is still running under the name of J. O. Lind & Co.
This brings us to the summer of 1884 when the
Commercial, a Republican paper, started at Calliope and run for a short
time and removed to the new town under the management of Frank Kelley.
This paper continued to change hands at intervals until this year, 1907,
when it was sold and removed to South Dakota. The Calliope independent
started in Calliope by Rufus Stone and edited and managed by D. O.
Stone, who is the present owner and proprietor, has been ably managed
and has been prosperous (although some of us old Calliope promoters
refused to take it for a while, until our feelings were healed) having
to acknowledge it one of the best newspapers in Sioux County. Philip
Stein started in the first butcher shop in a small building on the west
side of Kansas Street and C. M. Fleshman put up a building adjoining and
the band played on. Mr. Fleshman continued in the business until this
present year. His competitors would spring up and blossom for a season
but were soon cut down by the steady going Dutchman who said nothing but
sawed wood.
The first bank was started at Calliope by H. F.
Wilkinson and Robert Hale, who removed it to Hawarden as soon as they
could erect a building, which was on the corner where the First National
Bank building now stands. It was purchased by Mr. F. E. Watkins in 1887,
and is still run under his able management. They will soon have
completed and will occupy one of the finest buildings in the northwest.
We also have a fine building on the opposite
corner of the square from the new location of the First National Bank,
the Northwestern State Bank of Hawarden, which was started at Calliope.
It is now run under the safe and sane management of the Ring Bros.,
making us two of as good, substantial banks as are to be found in any
town the size of Hawarden.
We have two of as fine lumber yards as it is
possible to find in any town. One, the oldest, owned and operated by
Jas. H. Queal & Co. The other started by a Calliope firm, Wooster
& Milne, now run by the Schoeneman Bros., who own several large
yards in other places and are always anxious to please their customers.
It will be necessary to note the progress of
our flouring mills. The old Calliope mill, started by one, Larson, in
the early seventies, now owned by A. G. Ensign, who has built up an
enormous trade and is at present engaged in installing a large engine
for use when the old Sioux (which has been so unreliable for these many
years at certain times of the year) puts him out of commission.
The other is the large Hawarden Plansifter
Mill, started in the infancy of the town and now owned and operated by
our esteemed ex-mayor, L. T. Kenney. This has become one of the largest
mills, under his management, in the northwest and is doing an immense
business. Mr. Kenney is also engaged in the manufacture of cement blocks
of which he has almost completed a very large and substantial residence.
The most important of all are our churches. The
first was the Presbyterian, which started at Calliope where a building
30 x 40 was erected in 1882. This was moved to a location in Hawarden in
1898. In 1902 the present large building (which is said by visitors to
be the finest in a town the size of Hawarden in the state) was erected.
The same year in which the Presbyterians built
their first church the Methodists built a church in Calliope. This was
later sold and moved to Hawarden as an I. O. G. T. Hall. This church
society now united with the society of the same denomination which had
built a church in Hawarden. Then found a central location and moved the
church built by the seceders. They now have a large congregation and a
very fine church and parsonage.
The Congregationalists now built a neat little
church on the bank of the creek near the business part of the new town.
In 1906 they erected a nice manse. At the present time they have a
strong following.
The Catholic organization was the next to
secure large grounds and built a neat little church and parsonage. A few
years ago the parsonage was greatly enlarged and they have a very ably
managed Parochial school under the supervision of the Sisters of Mercy.
The next, a Baptist Church, was started. They
purchased the first school house built in the new town and are still
using it. They have not a very large or strong following, but have
purchased a new site upon which they will build a new church, which will
be more centrally located.
The German Lutherans purchased the I. O. G. T.
Hall last year, 1906, and now have a large congregation and seem very
prosperous.
There are quite a number of Christian
Scientists also, which hold regular services in the I. O. O. F. Hall.
At this time Hawarden has one of the finest
school buildings of which all of our citizens are proud, it costing
around twenty-five thousand dollars. It is ably conducted from the
kindergarten to the high school work. We also have a north side building
of four rooms that would be a credit to any small town.
We have also two first-class hardware stores
that are under the management of new and younger men, both a credit to
the town.
There are two harness shops and they are
up-to-date in every respect.
Four barber shops, all doing nicely, are now
located on Kansas Street. J. R. Leary, one of the old Calliope barbers,
who also located early in the new town, is still running a tonsorial
parlor and is at present our worthy city assessor.
There are now in operation three good hotels,
one known as the Depot Hotel owned by the C. & N. W. R. R.
One feed and racket store combined, operated by
H. E. Trump, doing a fine business.
Two millinery stores that are furnishing to
their patrons the latest styles of the seasons. Miss L. L. Brady, being
now in her own apartments, opened the first dress-making and millinery
store in Hawarden.
Hawarden has nearly always had competition in
all kinds of business, but have only one livery barn at the present
time.
Two furniture stores owned and operated under
the management of the hustling proprietors, one of which runs
undertaking parlors and employs one of our citizens whom we most dislike
to visit us (professionally) i. e., the undertaker.
Then there is the old reliable Weidenfeller
bakery that was a Calliope institution and has been doing business
almost from the start of the new town. They have had competitors that
were as the seasons-came and went. The competitor is now known as the
"Best Bakery," owned and operated by a Mr. Best who has been
doing a good and fastly increasing business from the start.
Hawarden has made a phenomenal growth, we
think, from the spring of 1882 to 1907. It has grown to the following
proportions
We now have five general stores, viz: J. O.
Lind & Co., with about $16,000 stock; Nash & Lynn, with about
$14,000 stock; Geo. Struthoff & Son, with about $12,000 stock; C. M.
Smith, with about $9,000 stock; and the Big Sioux Store, W. D. Elliott,
proprietor, with about $10,000 stock.
Groceries, fruit and confectionery stores:
Sutliff & Son, a fine stock; E. F. Bracht, with a good line.
Two first-class bakeries: Tony Weidenfeller,
the city bakery, and Mr. Best, the "Best Bakery."
Hardware: W. H. Wilkinson on the west side of
Kansas St., and O. E. Hoflund on the east side.
Two banks: First National and Northwestern
State. Both first-class banks.
Two heavy stocks of implements: C. W. Keneston,
with his Sioux Valley Implement Co., and Paul Hansen. Both reliable
dealers.
Four barber shops, two pool halls and lunch
rooms combined: Morgan & Luchsinger and Murray Bros.
Six exclusive restaurants: The S. S., Celia
McClain, Selah Van Sickle, Pat Clark.
Two Newspapers: The Independent, D. O. Stone,
Editor and Publisher, and the Chronicle, Quigley & Wolf, Props.
Six churches: Presbyterian, M. E.,
Congregational, Baptist, Catholic, and German Lutheran.
Two fine school buildings, two flouring mills,
two R. R. depots, two lumber yards, one livery barn, Leggett &
Brunskill, one feed and racket store, H. I. Trump, Prop., one cement
block factory, three hotels, two furniture stores, three elevators, four
coal dealers, city electric light plant and pumping station, four
lawyers, five doctors, eight real estate dealers, five insurance firms.
Cemetery and park are managed by a committee of
ladies that have made a wonderful improvement in the appearance of
things beautiful around our town.
We now have a population of twenty-five hundred
(2500) people. We have three saloons and police force consisting of City
Marshall and one Night Watch. We have a Mayor, 8 Councilmen, City Clerk,
City Attorney, and Assessor.
ORANGE CITY ACADEMY.
NORTHWESTERN
CLASSICAL ACADEMY
REV. J. F. HEEMSTRA.
The
Northwestern Classical Academy, located at Orange City, Iowa, is an
institution under the supervision of the Reformed Church in America. It
was founded in 1882 when the Dutch colony in Sioux County was still in
its teens. The movement sprang from a lively interest in and need for
higher education. In those days, the modern high-school was rare in
these parts. In the realization of the need of an education of this
character, the Academy was organized, and yet it was not intended to be
a mere high-school. The chief aim of its promoters was to lay a thorough
foundation of a liberal education and prepare boys and girls for
college. It was intended to serve, not merely the immediate locality of
the school, but the larger and rapidly spreading western section of the
Reformed Church. The need of higher education on a Christian basis and
in harmony with the tenets of Calvinistic faith was an important factor
in its organization and promotion. From the first, therefore, its aim
was to train young men in a course preparatory for the ministry of the
Gospel in the Reformed Church. To this aim it has ever clung and the
large percentage of its graduates who have chosen this profession attest
its success.
The beginnings of the institution were very
modest; a four room frame building with none of the modern facilities
supplied its first needs. As the years went by, it sought larger and
better quarters in an abandoned skating rink, which was exchanged in
1894, for the present building, a beautiful, commodious, three-story
brick and stone structure. The valuation of the property may, at a
moderate estimation, be placed at forty-five thousand dollars.
REV. J. F. HEEMSTRA.
The not
rapid but steady progress of the institution would indicate that the
hopes of its founders were not visionary. It has filled and is filling
nobly and heroically, a place, its place in the educational world. The
percentage of its graduates who have continued their course in various
colleges and entered professional life is large-besides the many who are
creditably filling other positions.
The hope is entertained and efforts are being
made toward its eventual development into a college.
End of Part III
Section 2
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