An announcement in the paper in the spring of 1926 relates that the road from the Dayton Park road eastward for five miles to the Fred Barrett corner on the Roland road will be graveled (apparently for the first time) with 1,000 cubic yards of gravel per mile with the gravel to be taken from the Templeton pit in Sec 12 of Franklin Township.
The article raises some questions though as the historic Fred Barrett corner was six miles from the Dayton Park road. It's the corner of E-29 and S-14. However, to complicate the situation, Fred Barrett, in 1926, did own both the SE 1/4 of Sec 14 (The Smith Farm) (5 miles) and the NE 1/4 of Sec 24. So, apparently if the editor wrote "five" or "six"; he would have been correct. The Roland road did, for a while, run north and south a mile west of where it is commonly used today. So select your option for interpretation of the article.
It was in fall of 1928 that the six miles south from Roland was graveled for the first time thus giving the folks of Roland a completely graveled route to Ames.
The county started graveling the road north from the cemetery corner in Nevada in 1920 (S14). See page 311.
This interesting little clip appeared in the April 1927 Nevada Paper:
“Several (Milford Twp Consolidated) horse drawn busses were unable to get through the mud last Thursday and the pupils were compelled to walk to school as it took almost all morning to dig the busses out of the mud.”
Reports are that the busses got stuck in the low ground just a quarter mile or so north of the school and this would explain the use of the word "several" as the routes would start to overlap when getting closer to the school.
Apparently, the fellows, in their attempt to free the vehicles, double teamed the horses and were successful in pulling the front end out from under one of the busses. No mention is made of the cost of replacing the broken parts but there is mention that the matter had to be financially covered.
Andrew Jorgenson, a bachelor farmer in southern Milford Twp, had, over the years around the time of the First World War, developed a reputation for being a recluse. This reputation, plus his known dislike of the banking institutions and living in isolation in the middle of Sec 26, just a half mile north of the Story County Home, fostered a concept that he had large sums of money at his home. Two men, Fred Berry and Ted Clark, decided they would pay Mr Jorgenson a visit to see if this were the case and, if so, relieve him of the burden of caring for so much money and treasure. Mr Jorgenson, 40 years of age, ended up chasing the two from his farm with a shotgun. This did more to reassure them that the rumors were true. Fred Berry then conspired with James Hamilton, a farm hand from Des Moines who was employed in south Story County, and Roy Cline, a truck driver from Nevada, to go to the Jorgenson farm and be more forceful and get some of the riches. Fred Berry did not actually go the farm site on the actual date of the second attempt.
Some two weeks later, on 19 October, 1920, these two men, Cline and Hamilton, apparently under the suggestion of Fred Berry, paid Mr Jorgenson an- other visit, with the intent of filling their pockets with an easy bounty. When they confronted Mr Jorgenson in the farm yard, one man turned and started toward the house. Mr Jorgenson, with his ever-ready shotgun, turned and followed him. The second intruder, Hamilton, followed Mr Jorgenson toward the house and picked up, along the way, a lead pipe about 2' in length, and struck Mr Jorgenson on the back of the head with it, killing him.
A couple of days later, Mr Mont Hanson, who lived a half-mile to the north- in the SW corner of Sec 23- heard Mr Jorgenson's cattle bawling from thirst and hunger, and decided to go investigate. Not being able to find Mr Jorgenson, as well as noticing the house had been partially ransacked, he returned home and called the sheriff. The sheriff came and found Mr Jorgenson's body out by a cow pasture where he had been tied, drug and had the pockets turned inside out. The sheriff, knowing of an incident 2 weeks previous, visited with these people and they led authorities to Mr Cline and Mr Hamilton. Hamilton, who had done some wrestling in Des Moines and appears to be a quite strong man, confessed to the sheriff when asked, that he'd hit Mr Jorgenson with the lead pipe.