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ROUSTABOUTS 
 
 History of 
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 COUNTY 
 
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History of Mahaska County 
 
 Chapter I — The Beginning 
 
 "In the beginning God created the 
 heaven and the earth." — Genesis 1:1. 
 
 Along about this same time it is in- 
 ferred that He also made Mahaska 
 county. And the inference is also 
 well grounded that He was fairly 
 well satisfied with the job. At least, 
 through our long experience here, 
 and by diligent and persistent in^- 
 quiry, we have failed to find a singly 
 person who was displeased with thQ 
 local section of the Creator's handi- 
 work. There are those of course 
 who have lived in this second edition 
 of the Garden of Eden, who have 
 left it for parts untried, but history 
 records that every one of them would 
 be glad to come back. And many of 
 them would if the walking were bet- 
 ter. 
 
 After the flood, one of the de- 
 scendants of Noah came to America 
 to make his fortune, and to return 
 to the Faderland to live in ease and 
 luxury ever after. But after pene- 
 trating the continent as far as the 
 3 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Mississippi river he became so im- 
 pressed with the country that he 
 concluded to stay. He wrote home 
 to tell the folks about the eldorado 
 he had discovered here, and sent 
 them round trip tickets to come and 
 visit him. But the Democrats must 
 have been in control of the postoflice 
 department at that time, as the let- 
 ter was never delivered. After wait- 
 ing a long time and receiving no re- 
 ply, he in desperation plunged into 
 the wilds and became a regular 
 Indian. 
 
 But the Lord was good to Iowa's 
 first Weary Willie, and out of the 
 Sun, He sent him a nice wife to cook 
 his buffalo meat and make him 
 clothes out of the hides. She also 
 split the kindling and carried the 
 water from the spring, pressed his 
 trousers after each rain and took 
 care of him when he had appendici- 
 tis. By this method he acquired hab- 
 its of ingratitude and laziness that 
 extended from generation to genera- 
 tion even unto the present day. And 
 the red men are not alone in their 
 fixed habits. Some of the pale faces 
 who came afterwards and sv/iped the 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Indian's lands and carried off his 
 wampum and his superstitions, also 
 adopted his indolence. And in or- 
 der that the prophesies might be ful- 
 filled they let the women do the work 
 while they chew tobacco and talk 
 politics. 
 
 It will not be necessary here to re- 
 peat the story of the discovery of 
 America by the other branch of the 
 human family, or of how two hun- 
 hundred-and-forty-four thousand early 
 settlers came over in the Mayflower, 
 whose carrying capacity, according 
 to Webster's Unabridged, v/as only 
 two hundred, — aand at that the bunks 
 were not all used. But it will be 
 interesting to know that the first 
 white man who established his home 
 in Mahaska county and threw his 
 trot line in Des Moines river was 
 Mr. Macbeth. Unfortunately, even 
 such a good an historian as Manoah 
 Hedge fails to tell us whether this 
 pioneer was a descendant of the old 
 king of Scotland of the same name, 
 the fellow whom William Shakes- 
 peare brought into the limelight. It 
 was lucky for the king, however, that 
 Shakespeare, — or Ben Johnson as 
 
 5 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 the case may be, — came along when 
 he did, else this particular Macbeth 
 might have gone down unhonored, 
 unremembered and unsung. 
 
 But not so the one who broke the 
 ice in Mahaska county. His name 
 will live forever, although some peo- 
 ple are mean enough to suspect that 
 his pioneer cabin was not on this side 
 of the Wapello county line. Mr. 
 Macbeth came to the Indian village 
 at Eddyville and obtained permission 
 to build a summer home outside the 
 humdrum of city life, v%'here no traf- 
 fic cop would disturb ambitions to 
 outstrip his neighbors, and no game 
 warden would come along to tell him 
 how to bend a brass pin to make a 
 fish hook. He built the home and 
 lived there, and if it were not in the 
 confines of Mahaska county v/e will 
 always think it ought to have been, 
 and will let it stand at that. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter II— Indians 
 
 Just where that first Indian, which 
 we mentioned in a previous chapter, 
 built his capital of state, — or more 
 properly speaking, just Vv'here he had 
 the squaws erect the citadel, — is still 
 a disputed question. Some relics 
 found on the old Boyer farm on Des 
 Moines river might indicate that it 
 was in that neighborhood. The key 
 to the inscriptions on these relics was 
 unfortunately carried away in the 
 mad rush to California after gold was 
 discovered in 1849. Dr. Crowder 
 thinks it was buried somewhere in 
 Arizona to keep the Californians 
 from getting this also. They have 
 already gotten nearly everything else 
 of value that was produced in this 
 community. Several expeditions 
 
 have been made in an effort to re- 
 cover the treasure, but as the Oska- 
 loosa police are wont to say, "no clue 
 has as yet been discovered." 
 
 This failure on the part of Scott 
 township to produce the goods has 
 lent color to the contention of White 
 Oak township that the first capital of 
 
 7 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 the new world was located within its 
 "borders. At any rate it was here 
 that one of the first treaties with the 
 Indians was made which resulted in 
 the emigration of all the other red 
 men, who had not already been sent 
 to the happy hunting grounds, to oth- 
 er maize fields and to other buffalo 
 preserves. We go at that buffalo 
 proposition rather gingerly as you 
 will remember that such good author- 
 ity as Bob Garden of Tracy says 
 theer never were any buffalo here. 
 But anyhow we are told that the big 
 gun of the Indian tribe at hat par- 
 ticular time was one Kish-Ke-Kosh 
 and that he lived in great splendor 
 and without working any overtime, 
 in his village along the Skunk river. 
 
 In the Indian language, as inter- 
 preted by experts from Ames, Kish- 
 Ke-Kosh means "the man with one 
 leg off." But William Street told us 
 at one time when he lived in his old 
 home place where the Lacey hotel 
 stands, that his father, General 
 Street, had told him that no Indian 
 ever possessed a better pair of legs 
 than did Kish-Ke-Kosh and that the 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 spokesman of the tribe often used it 
 to good effect in shooing off the 
 agents who came to negotiate for the 
 purchase of his land. But the In- 
 dians have no mortgage on being 
 misnamed. Just think of the boys 
 in this country who have been chris- 
 tened Teddy Roosevelt or William 
 Jennings Bryan. There are some 
 qualifications, the absence of which 
 is more noticeable than the omission 
 of a leg from the anatomy. And on 
 the other hand think of these boys 
 who will have to bear these burdens 
 even unto their graves. 
 
 But as we have said before, Kish- 
 Ke-Kosh was some pumpkins among 
 the red men of those days and it took 
 several pipe fulls of peace purposes 
 to get him to move on to make room 
 for Cracker's Neck, Tioga, and other 
 settlements that were to come later. 
 And even after the papers were all 
 drawn up and a forfeit posted, the 
 white man had to take Kish-Ke-Kosh 
 and several other Indian chiefs 
 aboard a Des .Moines river steamer 
 and pilot them around the water 
 route, (this has no reference what- 
 
 9 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 ever to prohibition) to Washington, 
 to see his honor, — we have forgotten 
 who lived in the White House at that 
 time. Enroute a reporter for the 
 Herald v>'itnessed this incident that 
 has been engraven on the folk lore of 
 the community and at last accepted 
 as true. A party of ladies came 
 aboard the steamer at one of the 
 landings, presumedly, at Keosauqua, 
 and a smart young man took them 
 around to see the chiefs. He exhib- 
 ited them much as fat stock might 
 be pointed out at a county fair. The 
 other chiefs stood for it, thinking it 
 was part of the consideration for the 
 lands they v^^ere to surrender, but 
 Kish-Ke-Kosh swore several cuss 
 words in his pure Sac mother tongue, 
 and gave the young fellow such a 
 licking that he had to stand up and 
 eat his meals until he got to the Port 
 of Louisa, his destination. After 
 that the name of Kish-Ke-Kosh was 
 respected in the land, and he lived 
 in peace and retirement from molly- 
 coddles, until his spirit took its flight 
 and his body was wrapped in his 
 blanket and suspended to the limb 
 of a tree that his bones might be 
 bleached and come back to be worn 
 about the necks of his children and 
 his children's children. 
 10 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter III— Our Chief 
 
 Not many moons ago the Red Oak 
 Reporter sprung the story on the un- 
 suspecting public, that it had just 
 been discovered by Montgomery coun- 
 ty enthusiasts that the bones of Chief 
 Mahaska were resting in tlie town of 
 Sciola, which liad an alleged popula- 
 tion of 118 at the last Federal census, 
 also a bank and an express office. 
 What in creation Chief Mahaska 
 would want to go away out to Mont- 
 gomery county to be murdered for, 
 when he could have the job performed 
 so much easier and quicker in Des 
 Moines, is a problem that no Archae- 
 ologist of any standing whatever 
 would even consider. We will there- 
 fore in these chronicles stick to the 
 accepted theory that the bones are 
 resting in Des Moines, that is if no 
 Des Moines citizen has ever found it 
 out. In case he has, the bones have 
 long since been carried off, as no Des 
 Moines citizen was ever known to 
 allow anything to lie around loose 
 for any length of time. 
 
 At any rate Mahaska has long been 
 11 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 a gooci Indian, All authorities agree 
 that he has been dead since about 
 1844. And wherever his remains 
 may rest, we have got his monument 
 in the public park at Oskaloosa, and 
 we are going to keep it there if we 
 have to reorganize the "Skunk River 
 Army" to do the fighting. It is up 
 to us to do something of a substan- 
 tial nature to honor the fellow after 
 whom our county was named. Sher- 
 ry Frye, the famous 'Iowa sculptor, 
 made the statue and it was set up 
 by J. D. Edmundson of Des Moines, 
 in honor of his father, William Ed- 
 mundson, who was one of the com- 
 missioners who helped lay out the 
 county, and who on several occasions 
 entertained Chief Mahaska at a 
 house party, or in the language of 
 our society editors, "a week's end 
 visit." 
 
 We do not know where Sherry got 
 the model for the statue, but the, gen- 
 eral make up of the chief, and the 
 countenance which stands out in such 
 charming relief, bear silent and sol- 
 emn witness to the veracity of the 
 contentions of all the early settlers 
 that Chief Mahaska was a fighter, but 
 18 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 with all was a gentleman Indian, — 
 that is, he scalped and swore without 
 mercy, but never failed to keep his 
 word. In this respect he was differ- 
 ent from other gentlemen whom we 
 have heard of, — who often use blas- 
 phemous language and good English, 
 but have trouble in establishing a 
 line of credit at the bank. Mahaska 
 also left other men's wives alone as 
 he had seven of his own, and accord- 
 ing to the short and simple annals of 
 the Iowa tribe, they kept him out of 
 mischief at home and abroad. 
 
 History records that Mahaska's fav- 
 orite wife, Rant-che-waime, accom- 
 panied him to Washington, when he 
 went down there to see President 
 Monroe and fix up the title to the 
 land he was about to part with. 
 While conversing with the abstract- 
 ors and real estate men in the capital 
 it is said that the Chief also met 
 some members of the Personal Lib- 
 erty League and liked their fire-water 
 so well that he forgot an appoint- 
 ment he had with Rant-che-waime. 
 Arriving at his hotel about two hours 
 behind time, and with his feathers 
 13 
 
ROUSTAAOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 badly ruffled lie found his wife 
 awaiting him with a brass curtain 
 pole. The proceedings which imme- 
 diately took place aroused the hotel 
 clerk from his evening nap at the 
 desk, and he sent the bell boy up to 
 see if they needed any ice water. 
 There was no telephone connection 
 with the rooms in those days, and by 
 the time the boy reached the room 
 quiet had been restored. Poor old 
 Mahaska, however, was not used to 
 city ways, and imagining it was the 
 town marshal coming for him, raised 
 the window and stepped out. It was 
 some forty feet to the ground, and as 
 he had no parachute he hit pretty 
 hard and broke an arm. It must be 
 recorded to the credit of this good 
 Indian, however, that he never laid 
 the blame on his wife, but instead 
 went along with his social engage- 
 ments at the White House and 
 "punched the face off" the fellow who 
 asked him what had happened. 
 
 In our language Mahaska means 
 "White Cloud," and the mistake is of- 
 ten made by historians in declaring 
 that Oskaloosa was his daughter and 
 
 14 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 furnished the proverbial silver lining 
 for the cloud. Not so. Ouscauloosa 
 of Indian tradition was a Creek prin 
 cess, so you see we all have royal 
 blood in our veins, and have a right 
 to draw family trees and hang on the 
 tinsel. The Seminoles made war on 
 the Creeks and destroyed the entire 
 body of warriors, and carried off all 
 the women and children, including 
 Ouscauloosa. Arising to the occa- 
 sion, as our town has always done, 
 she made herself so attractive that 
 Osceola wanted her for his wife. She 
 consented, and when her trousseau 
 arrived from Paris she married the 
 Seminole chief, and they built their 
 wigwam on the brow of a hill over- 
 looking the classic Che-Chau-Qua, and 
 ever afterwards she made the living 
 for the family. 
 
 15 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Chapter IV— County Seat 
 
 We have on file in our library in- 
 disptuable evidence of the fact that 
 Oliver Goldsmith, an English poet 
 from Ireland, is the author of the fol- 
 lowing lines, crities and muck-rakers 
 to the contrary notwithstanding: 
 
 "Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of 
 
 the plain. 
 Where health and plenty cheered the 
 
 laboring swain. 
 Where smiling spring its earliest 
 
 visits paid. 
 And parting summer's lingering 
 
 bloom delayed." 
 
 But with all the poet's beautiful 
 words, and the untiring energies of 
 the early settlers of the neighbor- 
 hood, "Sweet Auburn" of Mahaska 
 county history could not cut the mus- 
 tard. That is to say, you know, the 
 heartless commissioners who came 
 iLpon the scene for that purpose, by 
 order of the Legislature, would not 
 let them have the county seat located 
 there. 
 
 Our "Sweet Auburn" as recorded 
 in Horace Birdsall's history of Ma- 
 haska county. Page ZQS, Edition of 
 16 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 1S78, line ten, not counting the 
 quotations, was located on "Six Mile 
 Prairie" with its suburbs bathed in 
 the waters of the Des Moines river, 
 which ebbed and flowed once in ev 
 erj^ so often after a big rain up the 
 stream. The whistles of the great 
 fleet of river steamers could be 
 heard in the distance three or four 
 times a year, and the town's dreamed 
 of smoke-stacks, suspension bridges 
 and sky-scrapers, towered to heaven, 
 and playea hide and seek with the 
 drifting clouds. But alas! and 
 alack! Sweet Auburn followed its 
 namesake into innocuous desuetude 
 or some other seaport around the 
 golden horn that points to the land 
 of the sweet by and by. And the 
 deserted village once again reverted 
 into farm land, — although we are told 
 it did not have far to go, — and the 
 Indian maize laughed itself into yel- 
 low dent on the heart of the virgin 
 prairie, and the lowing herd and the 
 lean sided razor back waxed fat and 
 rooted every fence post off the place 
 while trying to lift the mortgages off 
 the farms. 
 
 Mahaska Center, where a fine 
 
 17 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 country church now graces the land- 
 scape, and where the tallest flag- 
 pole in the new world was once 
 raised, was also a candidate for the 
 county court house. But it, too, 
 failed, and afterwards the flag-staff 
 was taken down to prevent it from 
 falling asleep and in some unguarded 
 moment toppling over and making 
 mince meat out of the meeting house. 
 The commissioners, three in num- 
 ber, were paid two dollars per day 
 for their labors, and if the country 
 roads were no better in those days 
 than some of our side streets are 
 now, Messrs. Jesse Williams of John- 
 son county, Ebenezer Perkins of 
 Washington county and Thomas Hen- 
 derson of Keokuk county, earned 
 their money. Mahaska county as 
 then constituted comprised all the 
 land to the northwest as far as any- 
 one wished to venture away from 
 home, even taking in Fort Des 
 Moines and Fort Dodge. Soon tir- 
 ing of this arrangement the people 
 sent Judge M. T. Williams from Os- 
 kaloosa up into the wilds along the 
 Raccoon river and ordered him to 
 take a slice off of the outskirts of 
 Mahaska county and make a new 
 
 18 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 commonwealth in order that some of 
 the fellows in Des Moines might re- 
 lieve their itch for office. In this 
 commission, as well as in the many 
 others in which he served in an ear- 
 ly day, the Judge did a fine job and 
 Polk county owes its existence to his 
 labors. Many settlers have since 
 rushed into the new territory, until 
 they now boast of over one hundred 
 thousand people, all but nine hun- 
 dred of whom are still looking for an 
 office. 
 
 But getting back to that beautiful 
 May day in 1844, it was a lucky strike 
 for Oskaloosa when the commission- 
 ers stuck their spade in the ground 
 and said: "Here shall rise the future 
 capital of Mahaska county." The 
 new site w^as on what was then 
 known as "the narrows," a high ridge 
 running along between the rivers, — 
 and it is a notable fact even unto the 
 present day that the rain that falls 
 on the south side of the public square 
 finds its way into the Des Moines riv- 
 er, (after passing through the septic 
 tank), and that which falls on the 
 north side of the square runs through 
 the Gibbs pasture, (according to rec- 
 
 19 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 ords several times made in the dis- 
 trict court) and empties into Skunk 
 river, via Spring Creek. But we 
 wtio have come after should always 
 feel grateful to those good commis- 
 sioners who afforded us such a pleas- 
 ant place in which to fight out our 
 political fusses, play golf and pay 
 taxes. Then the town, or the place 
 where the town ought to be, was 
 named Oskaloosa. Later this in- 
 spired our first local poet of record, 
 George W. Seevers, Sr., to sing: 
 
 'Oskaloosa! Oskaloosa! 
 
 What a beauteous name! 
 Who'd have thought a wee papoose 
 
 Ever bore the same? 
 
 Once it was an Indian baby. 
 
 Then a Chieftain's mate, 
 Now a court house, next it may be 
 
 Capital of State." 
 
 But as we have said before, Des 
 Moines got all the offices, including 
 the state house, though we once had 
 the State Fair in Oskaloosa. 
 
 20 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter V— Railroads 
 
 After the Indians had been prop- 
 erly dispatched, and the county-seat 
 fight was settled without bloodshed, 
 there followed a season of rest and 
 recreation, — also the civil war period. 
 But the next big event that we re- 
 member was sailing along through 
 space at the end of father's arm down 
 •to the old Iowa Central depot on 
 First Avenue, — or Main Street as the 
 thoroughfare was then called, — to 
 see the first regular pasenger train 
 that ever disturbed the peaceful 
 dreams of Greater Oskaloosa. As 
 we recall the scenes, a section man 
 in a bright red flannel undershirt, 
 kept the crowd back, a "monster lo- 
 comotive" with four drive wheels and 
 a smoke stack as big around as a 
 Ihogshead trembled and roared for 
 other worlds to conquer, a conductor 
 in brass buttons, playing the part of 
 a greater personage than a Roman 
 Emperor or the king of fairyland, 
 filled our youthful gizzard with a de- 
 sire to be a railroad man, and all 
 the while the people cheered and yell- 
 ed "hurrah for the Iowa Central" 
 and the "Cannon Ball." 
 
 21 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Now that word cannon ball had no 
 connection with the war that had but 
 recently been settled, but was the 
 only term that the people of the town 
 could invent to in a measure ade- 
 quately express the marvelous speed 
 of eighteen miles an hour maintained 
 by that pioneer train — while on the 
 track — in its terrific efforts all the 
 way from Albia to Mason City. But 
 nevertheless and notwithstanding, 
 Oskaloosa had a railway, and if it did 
 not have any street paving or cement 
 sidewalks it was bigger in the esti- 
 mation of the people of those days 
 than it ever has been since or is like- 
 ly to be again. Main street then be- 
 gan to spruce up and Jack Shipley 
 was given the contract for delivering 
 the mail from the post ofiice to the 
 depot. When Frank Lofland failed 
 to get the mail made up in time to 
 catch the bus or baggage wagon 
 Jack mounted a trusted steed at the 
 old Bashaw Barn and threw mud or 
 dust as the case might be all over 
 the houses along the way and deliv- 
 ered an average of eighteen letters 
 and seven papers and other parcels to 
 that train every day for seventeen 
 years without missing. Mr. Shipley 
 22 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 is now living in Alhambra, California. 
 
 Then John Waggoner was given 
 the contract to build a two-inch 
 plank walk, eight feet wide, all the 
 way from the public square to the 
 depot, down the south side of Main 
 street. He was to have it done by 
 a certain date, but neglected to reck- 
 on with the weather man, who even 
 in those days was as fickle as the 
 one who now presides over the bu- 
 reau in Des Moines. We can re- 
 member him yet working under an 
 umbrella in the rain tryiiLg to keep 
 the job in progress, and then after it 
 cleared off he worked often until mid- 
 night by moonlight. And the job was 
 completed in contract time and Main 
 street was just that much ahead of 
 its rival, High street. The first man 
 we remember walking over the new 
 walk was Nan Phillips in a white lin- 
 en suit and plug hat. He was hur- 
 rying down to catch the "Cannon 
 Ball" to go to New Sharon to try a 
 law suit. Our recollection is that 
 he won. 
 
 Shortly after this High street 
 spruced up and the original Mahaska 
 county court house building which 
 stood where the Oskaloosa National 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Bank is now located was moved to a 
 new location down the street across 
 the alley west of where the new Mc- 
 Gregor building now stands. It was 
 rigged up for a hotel, and being op- 
 erated by a family named Noe was 
 soon called "Noah's Ark." Carl Noe 
 the son, was quite an athlete in those 
 days, and as a foot racer he beat ev- 
 ery contestant that tackled him. One 
 Hallowe'en we remember helping put 
 a buggy up on the wooden awning 
 that sheltered the guests of the ho- 
 tel ,and it was the common talk 
 among the boys of the time that Mr. 
 Noe was getting his property in 
 shape, anticipating another flood. 
 Then came the Grinnell cyclone, the 
 strange phenomenon of which was 
 
 plainly visible here. And many of 
 our people said afterwards that the 
 disaster was exactly what they ex- 
 pected, even to the number of deaths. 
 This catastrophe not only helped the 
 revival that was in progress in town 
 at the time, but it also had another 
 unusual effect. It changed the 
 method of reckoning the dates of lo- 
 cal events away from "the time that 
 Cam Ruffner sat down on the oil can," 
 in the Qld and original roller skating 
 rink that was located in a frame 
 building where the Glaze & Haynes 
 grocery is now located. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter VI— Inventions 
 
 One of the first Oskaloosa inveu- 
 tions that ever drew fame and fortune 
 was the washing machine manufac- 
 tured hy A. J. Parkhurst. It was sold 
 all over the United States and the 
 factory here for years was a busy 
 place. Competition became sharp 
 and Mr. Parkhurst engaged in other 
 business. For years he owned the 
 building of recent date occupied by 
 the Davis Bros. Cigar Store. There 
 was a barber shop up stairs and the 
 barber went into voluntary bank- 
 ruptcy, leaving his furniture to pay 
 the rent. Lon Drinkle says that one 
 day when he ran a tin shop across 
 the street he went up to help Mr. 
 Parkhurst invoice his new belongings. 
 Some stranger, not knowing of the 
 business depression, came in to get 
 shaved. The men were game and 
 told the fellow to get in the chair. Mr. 
 Drinkle found a bar of White Rus- 
 sian soap and a wash pan, and with 
 a dauber, used to shine shoes, he 
 lathered the customer in good shape. 
 But when Mr. Parkhurst came up 
 with a hatchet to do the shaving, the 
 25 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 fellow balked. Jumping out of the 
 cliair he wiped the lather off with his 
 bandana, grabbed up his suit case 
 and went down the street like a Kan- 
 sas cyclone. So far as known, he is 
 going yet. 
 
 But speaking about inventions, it is 
 an historic fact that the first time 
 power was ever used in roasting pea- 
 nuts, it was applied in Oskaloosa by 
 W. E. Vernon, otherwise known as 
 "Bill." Mr. Vernon was running a 
 restaurant at the time and he and 
 Billy Leighton built a little steam 
 engine in the furnace room of the old 
 Herald office and applied it to a 
 roaster, which Mr. Vernon had at 
 his place of business, and which for- 
 merly was operated with hand power, 
 much like the rocking of a cradle. 
 Patents were secured and the roast- 
 ers were sold everywhere. For a 
 time Mr.Vernon made the machines at 
 his home on the corner oi South A 
 street and Third avenue. Later he 
 built the building at the corner of A 
 street and A avenue, now used as a 
 hour and feed store. For a time 
 he employed as many as 25 to 30 
 men. The old original model was 
 donated to the Roustabout for some 
 26 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 reason, and it was taken to the Trask 
 home, where Harry and your humble 
 servant tried to put it in operation. 
 For a boiler we used a 5 gallon oil 
 can. When the fire got to going 
 good, the safety valve stuck and the 
 boiler exploded. We dont remem- 
 ber what Harry got but we got a 
 "licking" for spoiling a brand new 
 suit of clothes. 
 
 And by the way. Mother bought 
 the cloth out of which that suit was 
 made from James Atchison, when he 
 ran the store for Siebel & Esgen's 
 Woolen Mills. The Woolen Mills, 
 you will remember, were the fore- 
 irunners of the Oskaloosa Flouring 
 Mill, which finally burned down some 
 six or eight years ago. But when the 
 W^oolen Mills were in full operation 
 the foreman was a man by the name 
 of Davis. The name would indicate 
 Welsh extraction, but we have lab- 
 ored under the impression that he 
 was English. At any rate he had 
 three sons, Ed, Frank and Lewis. We 
 knew all of them, but Frank being 
 nearest our age appealed to us the 
 strongest. Down at their home, 
 which was one of the mill houses on 
 First avenue west, was a regular 
 
 27 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 work shop of jig saws, turning lathes, 
 etc. We were often taken in as one 
 of the family and permitted to use 
 the machines in regular turn. 
 
 Our recollection is that the rest of 
 us succeeded in getting things out of 
 kelter pretty often and had to depend 
 on Frank to straighten them out. We 
 also remember that Frank could beat 
 us at every game without and at 
 arithmetic in school. We could hold 
 our own on geography and spelling 
 and beat him running, — especially af- 
 ter helping ourselves to some of 
 "Old Mr. Ferrall's" apples in the 
 orchard on South D street. But to 
 make a long story short, Frank went 
 to work for Warren Johnson in the 
 Novelty Iron Works, He was soon 
 foreman, pattern designer and equal 
 to any task imposed on him. As a 
 consequence he was called to Mil- 
 waukee to work for the AUis Engine 
 Co. But even this big job that paid 
 in the end something like $5,000 a 
 year was not big enough for Frank so 
 he engaged in business for himself. 
 He is now the majority owner of a 
 factory employing about 500 men and 
 running 24 hours a day. They also 
 tell us that Frank rides in an 8-cyl- 
 
 28 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 inder 1917 machine. The first time 
 we walk to Milwaukee we are going 
 to bone him for a ride on the grounds 
 that if we had not been so awkward 
 and had not broken his early ma- 
 chines as often, he would not be as 
 expert as he is now. 
 
 29 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Chapter VII -Good Roads 
 
 History records that Paul Revere 
 made quite a drive one time, through 
 the Middlesex country, back of Bos- 
 ton, and routed a lot of patriots out 
 of their beds to help give the British 
 soldiers the marble heart. Phil Sher- 
 idan also drove his black charger to 
 good effect during the civil war. And, 
 according to the newspaper dispatches 
 from the front during the present un- 
 pleasantness in Europe, both the Ger- 
 mans and the Allies have made nu- 
 merous drives. But of all the drives 
 that were ever made, including San- 
 cho Panza's plunge into the wind- 
 mill, none stand out in the minds of 
 our people like the drive that Don 
 McClure made on the 28th day of 
 December, Anno Domo IXMXII, or 
 words to that effect. The agree- 
 ment with P. C. Peterson was that 
 the race would be pulled off during 
 the week between Christmas and New 
 Year's and between sun up and sun 
 down. Think of driving from Dav- 
 enport to Council Bluffs — across Iowa 
 in the deaa of winter. But Don did 
 it. And beat Peterson to a stand- 
 
 30 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 sVill. Although it is copyrighted 
 and registered, we shall always think 
 that the color of the Great White 
 Way should be changed in honor of 
 the Green Dragon that carried Don 
 to Fame and several times almost to 
 eternity. 
 
 History also records that in the ear- 
 ly days means of locomotion, other 
 than "Shank's Ponies" were limited 
 in Mahaska county. Wm. Edmund- 
 son, one of the commissioners who 
 laid out the county and served as 
 first sheriff, owned the only horse 
 and buggy that could be found in the 
 community for many years. Later, 
 as related by Manoah Hedge, Major 
 Neeley started the first livery stable 
 in Oskaloosa. In 1848 Henry Stafford 
 purchased its belongings, and one day 
 when a party passed through town, — 
 or where the town was to be, — with 
 two large elk, — the John the Baptists 
 of B. P. O. E. No. 340,— Mr. Stafford 
 conceived the idea of having a team 
 of reindeer, and traded for the stags. 
 He tried every way to break them, 
 but as Hardy Miller was not as yet 
 in the land of the living, the job had 
 to be abandoned. Horses then held 
 
 31 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 their own until Frank Nowels import- 
 ed a team of oxen for Hoover's Dis- 
 tillery, and "Little McNeill" brought 
 the first buzz wagon to Oskaloosa, on 
 high wheels and low speed. 
 
 And speaking about handsome turn- 
 outs and good roads, recalls that the 
 first appropriation for a public high- 
 way in Mahaska county was made 
 about 1854 when Judge J. A. L. Crook- 
 ham ordered an expenditure of $5.00 
 to stretch a rope across Des Moines 
 river at Bellefountaine for the use of 
 the ferry boat. The request was 
 made by a delegation of farmers in 
 the presence of John White, and when 
 Judge Crookham hesitated, Mr. White 
 said: "Go ahead, and I will stand by 
 you if the appropriation is ever ques- 
 tioned," Hence, to these two good 
 old pioneers belongs the credit of be- 
 ing the original good roads boosters 
 in the county. Dr. Roberts and Bill 
 Lacey to the contrary notwithstand- 
 ing. 
 
 The history of local avenues of 
 traffic and means of locomotion would 
 not be complete without a word about 
 32 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 "Metz's Path," as related at one time 
 by Charles Glover. Metz was a ma- 
 chinist and worked in the old foun- 
 dry that stood for years, "south of 
 town," but now the corner of First 
 street and Fifth avenue. He lived 
 away over in the other part of the 
 original quarter section, near where 
 the old brewery used to stand. We 
 are not charging that his place of 
 residence had anything to do with the 
 matter, but Metz used to be of a bib- 
 ulous temperament. He was not 
 hampered by narrow streets, and 
 wiggling sidewalks, as there were 
 none. Well, anyhow, it snowed aw- 
 fully hard one night, — not like it does 
 in this day and age, but as it used 
 to do, when the rail fences were bur- 
 ied and a tunnel had to be dug from 
 the kitchen door to the family pump. 
 On this particular morning everybody 
 else stayed in bed, hoping that some 
 one else might come along and break 
 a path. Well, Metz was the goat. 
 He started out away early, as he had 
 a long way to go and a pretty heavy 
 load to carry. He zig-zagged and 
 counter-marched, and went about 
 three times the necessary distance to 
 get to his work. He made it all 
 
 33 C 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 right and blew the whistle at the 
 proper time. Those who came after 
 followed the machinations of the 
 early machinist, and the crooked 
 path became a beaten thoroughfare. 
 The snow stayed on the ground for 
 months, as used to be its habit, and 
 the "highway" which was established 
 without tripod or level, — or the as- 
 sistance of the State Highway Com- 
 mission, — remained an institution of 
 Oskaloosa for a long time, — its fame 
 surviving after its footprints had all 
 been obliterated. For years it was 
 a byword in town, that anything that 
 was out of plumb, was "as crooked as 
 Metz's path." 
 
 34 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter VIII— Industries 
 
 Charley Ralston told us not long 
 ago that he had been behind the 
 counter 38 years. Charley has us 
 skinned about three years. We do 
 not mean that we have been behind 
 a counter that long, but it has been 
 35 years since we accepted regular 
 work at fixed wages. Our first rec- 
 ollections of Charley, — or "Banty," as 
 we used to call him, — was working in 
 Johnson's Foundry, which was then 
 located in the building now occupied 
 by Clarence Vermillion and his dray 
 and storage business. Charley was 
 breaking up old scrap iron to fill the 
 cupola of the foundry preparatory to 
 casting. You will have to imagine 
 what Charley said one day when a 
 piece of iron flew up and hit him on 
 the bread basket. Charley has an 
 outspoken way of expressing himself 
 you know. But Charley's business 
 record, running from foundry boy to 
 mayor of the city of Oskaloosa, is 
 surely one worthy of consideration 
 and praise. Starting with nothing 
 and working 22 hours a day for 38 
 years, he has accumulated enough to 
 35 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 get married and live in comfort ever 
 after. And we are afraid Charley 
 vvon't do it. But he ought to. 
 
 Speaking about business careers, 
 we remember when we bought a 
 steam laundry in a desperate effort 
 to get printer's ink off our fingers. 
 We run it for four years, and washed 
 and washed, but the inK still stuck 
 and we finally had to give it up and 
 go back to the ink barrel and the hell- 
 box. Now lest some one would 
 think we were swearing, we wish to 
 explain ourselves. Printers' pie is 
 a bad mixture of type, and when it 
 becomes worn or broken it is thrown 
 into a receptacle known to the pro- 
 fession as the hell-box. After it is 
 sufticiently saturated with tobacco 
 juice it is boxed up and shipped away 
 and traded for new stuff, — type, we 
 mean, not tobacco juice. But why 
 the receptacle is called the hell-box 
 we do not know, and other authorities 
 differ. We presume it is for the 
 same reason that a printer's appren- 
 tice is called a "Devil." The or- 
 thography of this word also begins 
 and ends in mystery. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 But, as we intended to say, — back 
 there along about the first comma, — 
 when we bought the Laundry, we 
 were rushing down town one morning 
 about 7 o'clock to see that the wash 
 water was of the proper temperature, 
 when L. L. Hull called to us from an 
 upstairs window and wanted to know 
 where the fire was. We had heard 
 of no fire and appeared surprised, 
 whereupon, he ventured the question, 
 that if there was no fire, what were 
 we rushing down town in the middle 
 of the night for? Those who knew 
 Mr. Hull will remember that he pre- 
 ferred to work half the night ana 
 sleep late the next morning, some- 
 times until 10 and 11 o'clock. 
 
 When we set up shop for ourselves 
 Mr. Hull was the first fellow to come 
 in and wish us well. He said: "i 
 am glad you have made the venture, 
 my boy, and I hope you will succeed. 
 Remember this, a man can maKe a 
 success of even a peanut stand, if he 
 will stick to it, and give it his best 
 effort." We have often thought of 
 that little bit of advice and have by 
 its recollection many times been en- 
 couraged to make another resolve and 
 37 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 go on when despair had us by the 
 coat tails. 
 
 «ioing back a little further, we be- 
 lieve L. L. Hull was about the first 
 fellow we ever worked for. The 
 family used to live on Second avenue 
 west ,and Mr. Hull at one time kept 
 an eagle, an ostrich, a monkey, a pea- 
 cock, and several other animals of 
 like character. We split the kind- 
 ling and carried in coal for the house- 
 hold and also acted as animal trainer. 
 We shall never forget how near to 
 the seventh heaven our boyish heart 
 soared when in addition to our regu- 
 lar compensation, one Saturday even- 
 ing, Mrs. Hull threw in an ostrich 
 egg. We treasured it for a long time 
 until an unseemly fall from the man- 
 tle over the fireplace left only a mem- 
 ory and a bad smell. Whether it 
 was because the family grew tired of 
 our services or because we gave sat- 
 isfaction, we have never been able to 
 decide, but from coal heaver and ani- 
 mal trainer we graduated into a place 
 in the back room of Mr. Hull's harness 
 shop where the fly nets for sll the 
 horses in North America were made. 
 Say, do you remember that old shop? 
 38 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Located where Doll's Cafe is now? 
 Well, if you don't, you are not a 
 blown-in-thQ-bottle Oskaloosa boy. 
 The badge of honor and the crown of 
 glory belongs exclusively to those who 
 twisted and plaited while Capt. Mar- 
 tin, Tom Magee and Pete Ladynski 
 cut the leather strings. Glory be, 
 what great days those were! 
 
 39 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Chapter IX -Base Ball 
 
 Have you noticed those dolls, dress- 
 ed like clowns, that have been on dis- 
 play in the shop windows from time 
 to time? Well, if you have not, it is 
 conclusive evidence that there are no 
 children in the family. Otherwise 
 you would have had them pointed out 
 to you, and long since you would have 
 separated yourself from ?2.00 for one 
 of them, — or at least $1.50 after they 
 had been marked down to cost plus 
 fifty per cent. 
 
 But that is not what we started out 
 to say. Somehow every time we see 
 one of those clowns we think of 
 "Boiler" Wray as he first came into 
 our recollections. "Boiler" is none 
 other than Charley Wray, the jovial 
 janitor of the Jefferson school. But, 
 as we first knew him, he wore a suit 
 of ticking and played second base in 
 the Second ward school nine. Sec- 
 ond ward also included the High 
 school, and in those days it was a 
 real high school, being located on the 
 fourth floor of the old building that 
 was recently wrecked to make room 
 for the present structure. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 There have been other ball players 
 on the local horizon, Including Pipes 
 and Hutchinson, and Tally and Pat- 
 terson, and Scott, — not forgetting 
 Coats and Bill Tiley — but none of 
 them ever played a better game or 
 made more fun for the bleachers than 
 did Charley Wray in his ticking suit. 
 And speaking about ''Boiler" makes 
 us think of one time when he and Joe 
 Stumps and Charley Hadley and Tim 
 Barnes and a lot of others of the "old- 
 er crowd" were playing whip-cracker 
 and induced us to be the cracker, 
 when the line got under full way, we 
 could not touch bottom and finally 
 landed in Lundy's cinder pile. We 
 also recall that we were pretty badly 
 scratched and bruised, but in looking 
 back now we are glad that cinder pile 
 was there. Otherwise we might be 
 going yet. 
 
 Along about this same time we also 
 remember there was nothing south of 
 Fifth avenue except the school and 
 corn fields. The common was used 
 for cow pasture except when Yankee 
 Robinson or P. T. Barnum drove 
 across from Beacon and pitched their 
 circus tents there. Then the cows 
 41 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 had to stay at home. We were al- 
 ways glad to have these gentlemen 
 come to town for two reasons. One 
 was to see the circus and flie other 
 was because we would get a vacation 
 'from driving cows to pasture and 
 then home again. But it has often 
 been a debatable question in our mind 
 which was the harder job, driving old 
 bossy, or carrying water for the ele- 
 phant. 
 
 Then came the Rock Island railway 
 and the row of new houses built by 
 the late William Burnside and we had 
 to go avvay out "behind Pike's" to 
 get enough room to play ball. Mr. 
 Pike lived over on Sixth avenue and 
 there was a fine place south of his 
 home. There's where we first re- 
 member seeing Charley Pike, — or C. 
 C. Pike, the family druggist, — and we 
 have never been sorry that we formed 
 his acquaintance. Back of the ball 
 grounds was a cemetery and when the 
 ball went that far we never could get 
 any of the colored boys to go and 
 help hunt it. Tradition had it that 
 there were ghosts there, and that the 
 spirits of the departed came back and 
 held consultations under the old wild 
 
 42 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 crabapple trees. We never saw any 
 of the apparitions but we remember 
 getting an awful shaking up for going 
 over there and filling our pockets with 
 the measly fruit, after Mr. Seerley 
 had forbidden us. And that is not 
 the only thing we got either, for the 
 fruit was green, and oh, what an in- 
 ternal disturbance! 
 
 Industry and enterprise followed 
 the railway, and Wiley Wray, the 
 father of Charley and Wm. Wray, es- 
 tablished a feeding station for hogs 
 along the tracks on South B street. 
 Two big posts were set up to carry 
 the great gate, and we can recall 
 mounting the pillars and basking in 
 the sunshine while w^atching Mr. 
 Wray feed his hogs. One day after 
 a heavy rain the hogs stampeded and 
 upset Mr. Wray, one of them stepping 
 in his mouth. He actually righted 
 things and spat the mud out without 
 swearing a single swear. 
 
 The Rock Island also established s 
 round house and turn table in Oska- 
 loosa, but later on removed them to 
 Evans. We presume the move was 
 
 43 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 made to save the income tax as no 
 other plausible excuse was ever offer- 
 ed. But anyway while the turn table 
 was still here there was a big circus 
 in town one day, and for some reason 
 nearly all the circus cars had to be 
 turned about to get them out of town. 
 Boylike, the late Frank Holtman was 
 helping, and was locking the table 
 at the proper time so the cars could 
 be run off on the main line. Sudden- 
 ly he got his finger in the way, and 
 the lock pinched it off. Grasping the 
 wound in the other hand he started 
 up to Dr. Hoffman's office, followed by 
 about fifty or sixty boys. When we 
 were all lined up in front of the of- 
 fice to see what might happen next, 
 along came Charley Palmer breath- 
 less and excited. When he finally 
 came to enough to speak, he ejaculat- 
 ed, "Here is Frank's finger." He 
 had picked up the amputated member 
 and hurried along with it, thinking it 
 might be grown on again, but his ef- 
 forts were in vain. 
 
 4t 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter X— Banks 
 
 W. T. Smith and M. T. Williams are 
 given credit with being the first 
 bankers in Mahaska county, with 
 John White a close second in the 
 business. But this was in 1855 and 
 while there may have been no bank 
 prior to that time, money was bor- 
 rowed and loaned and interest paid 
 and collected, away back yonder 
 when the Indian got his with the 
 scalping knife, and the gold standard 
 prevailed without any sixteen to one 
 business and without the aid or con- 
 sent of any other nation on earth. 
 Money was not hard to carry in those 
 days as there was not much to carry. 
 But those who had a surplus and did 
 not care for the earnings, carried 
 their money in specially constructed 
 belts. These belts were made of 
 chamois skin and were worn next to 
 the skin. In addition to serving as 
 a safety deposit box, they were also 
 said to be good for certain ailments, 
 and even obviated the necessity of a 
 bath on the part of the owner, as 
 bath tubs then were scarce and it 
 was not safe to lay the belt down on 
 
 45 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 the bank while the owner went in 
 swimming. 
 
 The forerunner of the tin can and 
 the fruit jar or the more modern 
 sitting room stove, as a banking 
 house, was the liaystack. At least 
 that seems to be true of Mahaska 
 county. Manoah Hedge relates in 
 his interesting history that Wesley 
 Mettler was one of the industrious 
 citizens of Oskaloosa in the earlier 
 years. He was somewhat eccentric, 
 but not wanting in persistent econo- 
 my. At one time when his frugality 
 had rewarded him with several hun- 
 dred dollars in silver coin, he depos- 
 ited it for safe keeping in an old 
 iron teakettle in the back shed 
 kitchen. One morning he was cha- 
 grinned to find that some thief with a 
 vein of generosity in his nature had 
 lieved him of just one-half his treas- 
 ure. Some years afterward he found 
 himself custodian of more than two 
 thousand dollars in gold coin. He 
 owned a good-sized farm at that time, 
 ijust northwest of where the First 
 ward school building is now located. 
 With his usual caution he sought a 
 secure hiding place for his hard 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 earnings. This time he secreted the 
 yellow metal under a near-by hay- 
 stack ^Yhe^e he was sure no one but 
 himself would think of looking for 
 money. Occasionally he slipped 
 cautiously over to the place to ex- 
 perience the peculiar satisfaction 
 there is in handling a much prized 
 treasure. All unconscious to him- 
 self, his movements had attracted at- 
 tention and one night his money Vv^as 
 stolen. This seemed more than he 
 could bear, and he mentioned his 
 loss to a few of his friends, among 
 them ex-Sheriff Dan Swearingen. To 
 him he gave every clue of which he 
 had an3^ knowledge, and offered him 
 one-half of the beautiful gold pieces 
 if he would by any means secure the 
 money. He did not care for the 
 thief. Mr. Swearingen was not 
 long unraveling the mystery and the 
 money was restored. Hard as it 
 was to part with the coin, the divis- 
 ion was made. A thousand dollars 
 was a dear lesson, but Mr. Mettler, 
 
 was exceedingly pleased to have re-\ 
 covered so generous a portion of his v 
 earnings with which to begin his old \ 
 business again. 
 
 One evening in 1844 when M. P. 
 47 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Crowder, father of Dr. W. L. Crowd- 
 er, was returning from Oskaloosa fol- 
 lowing an Indian trail, he noticed a 
 horseman coming toward him and 
 could readily see from the careless 
 manner of the rider that it was a 
 white man. So he waited for him. 
 The two men had never met before, 
 but after some conversation each 
 learned that the other belonged to 
 the same common brotherhood of 
 homeseekers in the New Purchase. 
 There was almost no reserve among 
 strangers in those days. There was 
 a kindred fellowship that made each 
 confide in the other. Mr. Crowder 
 told him he was opening a new home 
 over on Middle Creek and asked the 
 stranger of his plans. He said he 
 was building a mill on Skunk river 
 north of Oskaloosa but lacked sixty 
 dollars of having enough money to 
 purchase the necessary machinery to 
 equip the mill. The idea of having 
 a mill so near to himself and his 
 neighbors appealed so strongly to 
 Mr. Crowder that he said, without a 
 moment's hesitation, not even know- 
 ing the stranger's name, that he had 
 that amount of money in the house 
 with which he had intended to enter 
 48 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 his land as soon as it came into mar- 
 ket, and that if the stranger would 
 return the money when needed he 
 would let him have it to use for so 
 laudable a purpose. The stranger 
 went home with his newly made 
 friend and the evening was spent in 
 a pioneer conference. The next 
 morning Mr. Crowder counted out tc 
 his guest, who proved to be Mr. 
 George Duncan, sixty-five dollars in 
 silver. Sixty-five dollars was a 
 snug sum of money in that day, es- 
 pecially when it had been sacredly 
 laid aside for the purpose of purchas- 
 ing a home for the family. No obli- 
 gations or specified rate of interest 
 vvere thought of by Mr. Crowder in 
 making this loan. He simply thought 
 of the unmeasured advantage of a 
 near-by grist mill to the whole com- 
 munity and to his own family. Mr 
 Duncan went to Burlington and com- 
 pleted the purchase of the necessary 
 machinery for his mill. 
 
 In 1848, James Woods, who lived 
 over on Middle Creek, came over to 
 Samuel Coffin's to borrow some 
 money. He found Mr. Cofhn some 
 miles from home breaking prairie. 
 
 49 D 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Mr. CofRn told him he did not have 
 time to go to the house to get him 
 the money, but if he would go over 
 to the house he would find a package 
 of money in a particular corner of 
 the smoke house. Take from the 
 package the sum he wanted and put 
 the rest back where he got it. No 
 note or obligation whatever was giv- 
 en. S. L. Pomeroy was administra- 
 tor of the Coffin estate and says this 
 was a fair sample of the business 
 methods of this large-hearted man. 
 He aimed to deal in that way only 
 with men of veracity and his losses 
 were not overly large. 
 
 And even after the banks were 
 started and in good running order, we 
 have been told that there were citi 
 zens who continued to hide their 
 money under rafters in the barn, un 
 der the rag carpet in the parlor, and 
 behind the kitchen clock, while not 
 a few, contrary to the advice of their 
 bankers, bought gold bricks and blue 
 sky. And even to this day, human 
 iaatvie has not changed its habits 
 much. 
 
 50 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XI- Soft Soap 
 
 A bridal party stopping in.Oskaloosa 
 in 1856 is recorded as writing home 
 the following description of the best 
 room in our best hotel: "The floor 
 was covered with a dirty rag carpet, 
 and a half burned candle furnished 
 our only light. There was no wash 
 stand in the room, but instead a 
 wash-pan placed on a common 
 chair, with a saucer of soft soap be- 
 side it." Rather primitive, we must 
 admit, but if the rag carpet was dir- 
 ty the landlady must have been sick, 
 as dirt had no place in the life of the 
 pioneer women. 
 
 And lest we forget! Do you re- 
 member how soft soap was made? 
 No? Well, then, you need enlighten- 
 ment. Nobody's education should 
 be neglected to a point of ignorance 
 in this once thriving industry. The 
 first step in the process of manu- 
 facture was to saw and split the 
 "nice dry hard wood" that used to be 
 delivered as green as the first straw- 
 berries that come onto the market 
 in March or April. Everj'body bum- 
 51 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 ed VN'Ood. It was indecent not to dc 
 so. The ashes were needed. They 
 were essential to the industry, and 
 were carefully preserved in covered 
 barrels. Surplus tallow, poor lard 
 and "cracklins" were also carefully 
 preserved all winter, usually in a 
 large metal tank. Iln the spring, 
 v/hen every barrel in town was full 
 of ashes, and the smell of the "crack- 
 lins" went beyond endurance, the 
 real business of making soft soap be- 
 
 The thrifty person had bored holes 
 in the bottoms of his barrels and set 
 them up on a slightly inclined plat- 
 form. The other fellow had to 
 dump his ashes out on the ground, 
 bore the holes and then restore the 
 ashes to the barrel. In any event, 
 the next move v/as to prop the bar- 
 rel up a little on the low side of the 
 inclined platform and begin to pour 
 water on the ashes. Only those 
 
 who have lived in the maple syrup 
 country, and have gene into ecstacies 
 over the first shov/ing of sap in the 
 spring, can appreciate the joy that 
 took possession of the good woman 
 when the ashes became thoroughly 
 52 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 saturated and the lye began to 
 trickle through the holes in the bot- 
 tom of the barrel, then down the plat- 
 form and into the big crock made 
 especially for that purpose. 
 
 If this lye would not float an egg, 
 with more than half the egg above 
 sea level, it was not strong enough 
 for the purpose intended. Of course 
 the first lye that came through was 
 always very strong, but the egg was 
 kept in the crock all the while. When 
 the port holes began to touch the 
 danger line, the supply of water was 
 cut off, and the first part of the 
 process was considered finished. 
 Then the "cracklins" were brought 
 out. A windy day was, if possible, 
 selected for this procedure so that 
 the soap makers could get on the 
 tv'indward side of the tank and 
 thereby be able to stand the press- 
 ure better. Into a large iron kettle 
 set up on stakes, with a good dirt 
 fireplace below, the tank was emp- 
 tied, and as soon as possible the lye 
 was poured over the "cracklins" as 
 the lye had a tendency to counteract 
 the odors. Of course there was no 
 health department in Oskaloosa 
 
 53 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 then, but there was a due sense of 
 justice to one's neighbors among the 
 early settlers, and human endurance 
 had a limit, even in those early days. 
 
 Then the fire was started and wat- 
 er added to the mixture and in the 
 course of from 24 to 4S hours a 
 great kettle full of the stuif that en- 
 abled one to get next to Godliness 
 was ready for use. A basin of wat- 
 er out of the rain water barrel, — 
 with the wiggle tails wiggling in it, 
 — and a little dab of soft soap would 
 take the dirt off all right. Also the 
 hide. That's the reason we always 
 objected to washing behind fhe ears, 
 or below the collar linp. 
 
 But the soap kettle and the spin- 
 ning wheel went into the past side 
 by side, and Pears' soap sent Ivory 
 floating down the stream of time, 
 while Fels Naptha caught the Gold 
 Dust Twins napping. But just the 
 same, and notwithstanding, it has 
 not been so very long ago since we 
 saw them making soft soap down in 
 Van Buren county, the cradle of Iowa 
 civilization. Down where some do 
 
 54 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 not know to this day that Lee has 
 surrendered or that John Rowley, the 
 versatile editor of the 10 column 10 
 point Keosauqua Republican was not 
 elected governor of Iowa on an anti- 
 expansion platform. 
 
 55 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Chapter XII— High^vays 
 
 We have witli us today the Great 
 White Way, The Daniel Boone Trai'., 
 The Saints' Highway, and the White 
 Pole Route, with more to come — 
 when we raise the necessary funds 
 to paint the poles. Keeping this ob- 
 ligation in mind, it is interesting to 
 go back to the beginning of things. Of 
 course we do not mean, away bacl-i 
 there, where Moses could take his 
 telescope and locate the original 
 paths through the wilderness, but 
 back to the time when the Herald was 
 started and kept a record of things 
 that have later been so ably and so 
 nicely retold by Manoah Hedge in his 
 histories. The one signal fact stands 
 out in bold relief that Oskaloosa has 
 ever and anon been a good roads 
 center, at least there has always been 
 much talk on the subject around the 
 stove, or the radiator, as the case 
 may be, in winter time. The first 
 essential of every great project is 
 public opinion, and Oskaloosa has 
 been working on this for about 75 
 years. 
 
 Anyhow, during the year of the 
 §6 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 flood, when the roads were quite like 
 they still all are, there was great in- 
 terest in the building of plank roads 
 in this part of Iowa, especially be- 
 tween Burlington and Oskaloosa. 
 The old Herald files are filled with 
 notices of public meetings for that 
 purpose all along the line. Oska- 
 loosa was at that time very promi- 
 nently considered as a most suitable 
 location for the state capital. We 
 even got so far along as to have the 
 State Fair here one season. A cor- 
 respondent of the Burlington Gazette 
 of March 19, 1852, has this to say on 
 that subject: 
 
 "Oskaloosa, the point to which all 
 now centers by common consent, is 
 knov^^n to be one of the healthiest 
 and most beautiful inland towns in 
 the west. It can easily be made the 
 focus of all the stage lines in the 
 state ,and, as if nature were destined 
 to do for her what the state has 
 blindly failed to do, it is a positive 
 fact that no less than one railroad 
 from Muscatine and two plank roads 
 from Burlington, the one through 
 Keokuk county and the other through 
 Fairfield, are now pushing onward 
 tov/ard Oskaloosa, making her their 
 57 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 declared destination. These facts, 
 which are well known, if none others, 
 would prompt us to select Oskaloosa 
 for the future seat of government." 
 
 In the days of the stage coach dur- 
 ing the '50s and early '60s Oskaloosa 
 was a quite important station on the 
 routes north and westward. For sev- 
 eral years there were no stages or 
 regular conveyances of any kind. A 
 hack line ran to Fairfield. When 
 the business grew Fink & Walker ran 
 a stage twice a week to points down 
 nearer to the river. Then came 
 the Western Stage Company. The 
 unbridged streams and sloughs made 
 staging a difficult task, but the pror- 
 its were large and the company be- 
 came wealthy. The time between 
 Oskaloosa and the river was from 
 one to two days. When the roads 
 were good, passengers could leave 
 Oskaloosa in the evening and take 
 breakfast in Des Moines. 
 
 There was a line of stages running 
 up the river from Keokuk through 
 Oskaloosa to Des Moines and from 
 this point also directly north to Mar- 
 shalltown. Another line left Wash- 
 58 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 ington and followed the divide west- 
 ward, crossing the north and south 
 line at Oskaloosa and going on to 
 Knoxville and the west. The stage 
 barns of the Western Stage Com- 
 pany stood where the Young Men's 
 Christian Association building now 
 stands and the residence of the 
 manager and agent of the company, 
 Richard Lonsberry, was just across 
 the street south. The old stage 
 coaches cam^ and went in those days 
 with stately dignity and precision. 
 
 A faithful stage driver felt the re- 
 sponsibility of his charge as much as 
 the modern conductor of a passenger 
 train, and he ranked with that unself- 
 ish class of public servants. Occa- 
 sionally a faithful stage driver went 
 out with his precious load of passen- 
 gers and U. S. mail never to return. 
 Settlements were scarce and the long 
 drives in the bitter cold weather were 
 too much for even the hardiest na- 
 tures. Public anxiety and sympathy 
 was always keenly alive for the wel- 
 fare of these heroic men in times of 
 peril, A belated stage was often 
 cheered as it wheeled up to the old 
 Madison House. The driver always 
 (9 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 alighted with his passengers and 
 passed his lines into the hands of the 
 hostler, taking them again when he 
 stepped up into his airy seat for a 
 fresh start. Horses were changed 
 every ten or fifteen miles when possi- 
 ble and were driven on the gallop be- 
 tween stations when the road per- 
 mitted. 
 
 Then followed the day of the "prai- 
 rie schooners" and the emigration to 
 "bleeding Kansas." Remember the 
 ox-teams and the covered wagons? 
 They often had eight cylinders but 
 the driver aboard the back of the 
 leading cylinder never succeeded in 
 getting much speed out of the ma 
 chine. But what was the hurry? 
 The slower they went the less time 
 they had to put in in Kansas, before 
 returning with the legend painted on 
 their tattered canvas backs, "In God 
 We Trusted, — In Kansas We Busted.' 
 
 60 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XIII— Factories 
 
 We have often wondered in these 
 days of "all wool" clothing who picks 
 all the burs out of the wool. Did 
 you ever tackle that job? Such a 
 question would be wholly unneces- 
 sary if you had been a boy in Oska- 
 loosa during the palmy days of Levi 
 Hambleton or I. Frankel. Few of 
 them escaped. In those days there 
 must have been a high protective tar- 
 iff on wool as there were a lot ol 
 sheep in Mahaska county. And a 
 lot of cockle burs also. And 
 cockle burs and wet weather and 
 sheep's tails made an awful combin- 
 ation. It was also an unwritten law, 
 — made to hold trade — that when the 
 sheep were sheared, it was permiss- 
 able to do it in the mud and let the 
 soil and cockle burs go with the 
 wool. But the burs would not go 
 with the agents of the eastern wool- 
 en mills, so the stickers had to be re- 
 moved. No amputations or surgical 
 operations were permissable, anr- 
 burs had to be extracted by hand, no 
 difference how sore the fingers might 
 be. Talk about husking corn, — that 
 
 61 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 is play beside the old-fashioned gin- 
 ning process for wool. 
 
 We don't remember what the un- 
 ion scale was, but we got so much 
 per thousand by measure for the 
 burs. It was too hard work to 
 count them. And we recall having 
 cleared 35 cents one week, besides all 
 the fun we had, at our own expense. 
 After the stickers were all removed 
 and paid for, the wool had to be 
 packed in immense sac^ks. These 
 were suspended from big holes in 
 the upstairs floor and ran down into 
 the basement. A little wool was 
 dumped in and then it had to be 
 tamped down. This tamping busi- 
 ness was no joke to the fellow whc 
 had to be the tamp — and if our rec- 
 ollection serves us right, we were it 
 about half the time. Hanging on 
 the end of a rope like the monkey on 
 a jumping jack, we were hoisted up 
 and down by the rest of the force 
 until the aforesaid amount of wool 
 was packed to a sufficient degree — 
 or at least until the rest of the force 
 had all the amusement they wanted. 
 And believe us, — with the inside of a 
 fellow's undershirt and his hair full 
 
 62 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 of greasy wool skinning the cat and 
 chinning the elusive center pole down 
 in a deep bag on a July day in the 
 back end of a ware house with a tin 
 roof and no windows was no picnic 
 —at least not that kind that the Sun- 
 day school kids sigh for. 
 
 After that we reached a stage in 
 our career when we thought we 
 were some artist, as well as drug- 
 gist and bottle washer. It was 
 when we worked for Will Mays in 
 the room that is now occupied by 
 i-'rank Nowles and his smoke factory. 
 Will Wells was the prescription 
 clerk, and red-headed. We used to 
 draw fancy pictures with water col- 
 ors and soap on the windows and on 
 the big mirror at the rear of the 
 store,— also take care of 31 coal oil 
 lamps, 91 canary birds, 287 shelf 
 bottles, 13 show cases, 18 different 
 oil barrels, a stove and Joe Huber's 
 cat. But anyhow, some fellows 
 standing out in front of the store one 
 day, commenced to comment on our 
 claims on Fame. One fellow finally 
 said, "Rats! Anybody could do that." 
 Will Wells and his red hair came 
 to our rescue with a 45-centimeter 
 
 63 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 gun and declared tliat "maybe, but 
 he is the only fellow around here who 
 is doing it," We have often though^ 
 of that bit of philosophy and for the 
 good we got out of it, have long since 
 forgiven Will Wells for making us 
 scrub out twice a week whether the 
 floor needed it or not. 
 
 It was during our career as first 
 and only assistant to the prescription 
 clerk that Terry Mays saved our life. 
 Terry probably never knew it, but he 
 was more of a kid than we were, and 
 we agreed to take care of him for 
 his mother one afternoon and forego 
 an engagement to go coasting. The 
 three chums who did go, Jerrel Joyce, 
 Clarence Steddman and John Phillips 
 came back in pieces as you will re- 
 member following the explosion of 
 the powder house. If it had not 
 been for Terry, we, too, would have 
 been there. But what a commotion 
 that explosion caused, especially 
 around a drug store! Bottles tum- 
 bled off the shelves and others 
 danced, about like mechanical toys. 
 Mr. Mays was sure it was Dr. John- 
 son's new air pump apparatus that 
 had blown up, while the rest of us 
 6i 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 was sure it was the boiler in John- 
 son's foundry. Anyway after it was 
 over, there never was such a deman '. 
 for putty and window glass in Oska- 
 loosa. The stock of glass was big- 
 ger than that of putty, and it fell to 
 our lot to turn the crank of the drug 
 mill to make putty out of whiting 
 and linseed oil. The novelty of the 
 thing appealed to us at first, but af 
 ter our back began to ache and our 
 hands were blistered, the novelty 
 wore off. But the putty sold for 6C 
 cents a pound, — and it was worth the 
 effort — to those who did not have tc 
 turn the crank. 
 
 There is just one other job that we 
 want to tell you about and then we 
 will promise forever to hold our 
 peace. This was as understudy tc 
 James McQuiston, who used to op- 
 erate the pop and soda department in 
 Vernon's restaurant. In those days 
 one could not get gas to charge the 
 fountains in tubes that look like pic- 
 tures of shells for big guns, but had 
 to make it in a gas producer. Oper- 
 ating this producer was our loni 
 suit. We used to take a bucket and 
 go over to McCall's marble shop and 
 
 65 E 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 buy a grist of marble aust, which our 
 good old friend Henry Taylor would 
 weigh out to us. This, and the prop- 
 er amount of sulphuric — or maybe it 
 was muriatic — at any rate it was 
 acid, were put together in a tum- 
 bler operated with a crank, and the 
 real excitement began. When the 
 mixture commenced to foment, or 
 whatever the chemical action mignl 
 "be called, the pressure gauge begar 
 to swell. If it stopped at about SC 
 all was well, but if it kept on going 
 up, we hiked out the back door to 
 await the explosion, if everything die 
 not hold tight. After a safe length 
 of time, Jim would sneak back and 
 ease the pain by opening a valve, and 
 then we charged the drums or bot- 
 tled the pop as the case might be . 
 Whew! What exciting moments 
 those were! Ana how good that 
 ginger ale tasted which we got in 
 full settlement for the performance of 
 our part of the contract! 
 
 66 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XIV-Floods 
 
 We, — all of us, — thought that it 
 never rained so muc,h and for so 
 long a time as it did last summer, — 
 anyway not since the time that Broth- 
 er Noah slipped one over on the rest 
 of mankind and came out where 
 many another fellow since his time 
 has tried to land, the lord of all he 
 surveyed. But the year 1851 still 
 seems to hold the record in Mahaska 
 county, notwithstanding the fact thai 
 John Crookham says his bottom land 
 farm was overflowed eight times be 
 tween the first of April and the first 
 of November, and spoiled all the 
 beans every time. But runing back 
 past John's recollections, the rainfall 
 throughout Iowa in 1851 was unpre- 
 cedented and still stands unmatched 
 In this statement we have the back 
 ing of Bob Garden, the sage of Tracy, 
 W'ho came here long before the flood. 
 — of course we mean the Iowa freshet 
 — and his evidence is further corro- 
 borated and substantiated by the 
 files of the Oskaloosa Herald. Unde: 
 date of June 7, 1851, the Herald said: 
 67 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 "One of the heaviest rains we 
 were ever privileged to witness," — 
 notice that word 'privileged'." 
 
 We wonder what some of the fel- 
 lows along the river banks though 
 of Mr. Needham, when he sorted out 
 that word, or maybe the printer could 
 not make it out and guessed at it, — 
 the printers do that sometimes, so wc 
 have been told. Well, any way: 
 
 "One of the heaviest rains we were 
 ever privileged to witness occurred 
 on Wednesday of last week. The 
 rain literally fell in torrents for over 
 an hour, causing the face of the 
 whole country to present the appear 
 ance of one vast lake of rushing 
 waters. Much damage has been 
 done in consequence by the floating 
 away of fences, bridges, etc. It Ifl 
 said that scarcely a bridge or foot- 
 log remains over a stream in the 
 whole county." 
 
 There's something else that is 
 Greek to a good many today. As many 
 as have ever seen a "foot-log" please 
 hold up their hands. That will do, 
 thank you. And now for the benefit 
 of the uninitiated, a foot-iog was r 
 big tree that was felled on the side 
 
 68 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 of a creek so it would reach the oth 
 er bank and form a bridge. We 
 have crossed a number of them, and 
 have tried others and landed in the 
 mud. But that was no fault of th 
 log. And Oskaloosa doesn't need tc 
 be so stuck up at that. We can re 
 member when there was a foot-log 
 on High avenue east across the creel 
 that was afterwards named Sixtl" 
 street, and one on South Market 
 street just south of where the Rock 
 Island tracks now run. Then, also 
 there used to oe one just east of th- 
 Second ward school house on Firtl^ 
 avenue. This was the particular one 
 on which we had most of our experi 
 ence. But going back to the files 
 of the Herald of June 7, 1851: 
 
 "The usually staid and sober Des 
 Moines has been taking a regular 
 'swell," literallj^ tearing down and 
 carrying off everything that happen 
 ed to come in its current. Not 
 satisfied with keeping in its own 
 channel, it has made free to invade 
 every man's premises in the vicinity, 
 in many cases literally driving away 
 families domiciled in the neighbor 
 hood. It has left its 'mark' on the 
 
 69 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 land near the shore so that the set 
 tiers may hereafter know how mucl 
 is claimed by it. It is in many places 
 from two to four miles wide. A 
 number of dwellings were carried en- 
 tirely away. This calamity will be 
 doubly hard on the sufferers, as i 
 has not only destroyed the presen 
 crops, but has taken away the old 
 crop that was in store for the pres- 
 ent season. The Skunk, too, not 
 having the fear of men before its 
 eyes, has been spreading itself in ev- 
 ery direction, taking along with it 
 every obstacle that could not with 
 stand a perfect rush of sweeping wat 
 ers. Judging from appearances on( 
 would suppose it determined to de- 
 clare itself navigable (without any 
 act of legislature) by removing, with 
 out the aid of civil law, everything 
 calculated to hinder small crafts 
 from taking an uninterrupted voyage 
 to the Father of Waters. 
 
 "On Saturday, a man named San 
 dert De Yong, a native of Holland, 
 was drowned near Union Mills.' 
 
 Now, look here, if we had not read 
 that in the Herald we would not be- 
 lieve it. What on earth could tempt 
 
 70 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 a Hollander to go that far from Pella 
 in that early day? Fortunately 
 however, the Herald explains that he 
 was a bridge carpenter, and probably 
 drove over there from Lake Prairie 
 township. To resume: 
 
 ''He and a number of other men 
 were engaged in replacing the floor- 
 ing of the bridge when he slipped 
 through and perished in the waters 
 without the bystanders being able to 
 assist him. 
 
 "A young man was drowned in the 
 Des Moines river near Fort Des 
 Moines on Friday, and tvso small 
 boys near Red Rock a few days 
 since." 
 
 During this season flour or mea] 
 was very difficult to obtain, even in 
 Oskaloosa. A pair of burrs or corn 
 crackers were bought upon the front 
 carriage of a wagon from Agency 
 City, and attached to the gearing of 
 the saw-mill, which stood on the pres- 
 ent site of the Hawkeye Overall fac 
 tory building, and here was meal and 
 hominy made for the settlement lb 
 the midst of this western sea of mud 
 and water. 
 
 And speaking about floods, makes 
 
 71 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 us think of an incident that Dr. Hen- 
 derson once related to us. When 
 the Doctor was actively in the prac- 
 tice at Old Muchakinock, he had 
 faithful Qolored driver named Wil^ 
 liam, but better known as "Doc" 
 Southall. The two had been in Os 
 kaloosa on business one day, and 
 while here it rained some. Return- 
 ing home they reached Little Mucha- 
 kinock Creek, and a regular sea of 
 water spread out before them. Al 
 ways faithful and unafraid, "Doc" 
 hesitated in taking the rig across 
 as no bridge was in sight. Dr. Hen- 
 derson asked him if he had lost his 
 nerve and was afraid to maKe the 
 venture. "No Sah! No Sah!" protest- 
 ed "Doc," "I's not afraid and I am 
 prepared to met my Lawd, but I hate 
 to go. Doctor, I hate to go." "Why 
 what's the matter, William?" askec' 
 the Doctor. "I never knew you tc 
 hesitate on anything before." "Well 
 the fack is," said William, "dere's a 
 lot of water dere, and I's afraid if we 
 done bofe get drownded, and de boss 
 get drownded and de buggy get car- 
 ied down stream, dere won't be nuffin 
 left for Swalm to write up in de Her- 
 ald, and nobody will never know what 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 become of us. But I's no quitter 
 Doctah, and if you's willin' to sacrifice 
 your chances in immortality, here 
 goes. Get ap dere, Bess and Jim 
 go lang! I 'speck it's jest as hon 
 orable to be washed away into eter 
 nity as it is to take de smallpox and 
 die. Go lang, I say!' And they 
 went. 
 
 73 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Chapter XV— Supplies 
 
 When we speak of the early days 
 in Mahaska county we mean prior to 
 the time that Frank Glaze first en- 
 gaged in the grocery business in Os- 
 kaloosa. So in the early days, it 
 was sometimes difficult to telephone 
 your order up town and have the 
 goods come on the Union Delivery 
 in fifteen minutes. What's that? 
 You sometimes fail now! Well, 
 that's a matter of business and has 
 nothing at all to do with history, so 
 please ring off, we want to talk to 
 a friend on one of the rural lines and 
 have only four hours to get the con- 
 nection. Get that? If you did, 
 that's more than Landlord Cantfield 
 did when he ran a hotel here about the 
 year one, or possibly fifty-one. Game 
 was quite abundant then, and the un- 
 disturbed timber yielded a harvest 
 of wild fruits, such as has not since 
 been known. The substantials were 
 pork, corn meal and wheat coffee. 
 Even these gave out sometimes. On 
 one occasion the boarders at the 
 Canfield House had a rather late 
 breakfast. It happened this wise: 
 
 74 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 The landlord had noticed his larder 
 was running low, but he was in hour- 
 ly expectation of supplies from Keo- 
 kuk. One evening the pantry was 
 bankrupt, but the host was in hopes 
 his team would come with provisions 
 before morning. But "hope deferred 
 maketh the heart sick" at every 
 dawn. Wm. D. looked wistfully 
 down the divide in vain. He 
 
 mounted a horse and left for Richard 
 Perkins', secured a small quantity of 
 meal, and half a side of bacon from 
 a settler down there and started for 
 home. The half dozen hungry 
 boarders sat in front of the cabin, 
 pining for the flesh pots of civiliza- 
 tion, but soon their spirits rose, and 
 their mouths began to water, for 
 away to the south came the plucky 
 landlord, riding like a Jehu, and 
 holding aloft the half side of bacon 
 as a sign of relief. And this supply 
 failed not until other provisions 
 came. 
 
 The grandfather of O. C. G. Phil- 
 lips was among the first to come to 
 Oskaloosa. He realized the fact 
 that he was coming to a new coun- 
 try, and he resolved to come well 
 :5 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 provided. Accordingly he brought 
 with him, what he supposed to be a 
 sufficient quantity of flour to supply 
 his family for an entire year. The 
 family came into the village in the 
 evening. The news of Phillips' 
 abundant supply spread like a prai- 
 rie fire, and he had an abundance of 
 callers. Everybody came to see 
 him. Everybody seemed to appre- 
 ciate him. They were all plain- 
 spoken people, and were not asham- 
 ed to ask for what they wanted; Mr. 
 Phillips' levee lasted till bedtime, and 
 w?"" continued in the morning until 
 breakfast, at which hour he found he 
 had loaned out a barrel of flour to 
 entire strangers, and it is likely all 
 Oskaloosa breakfasted on hot biscuit 
 instead of corn-bref^d, which was the 
 more common far«i 
 
 It is related that Dr. E. A. Boyer 
 and his neighbor, Van Delasbmutt, 
 found their supply of meal and flour 
 almost exhausted. It was quite im- 
 possible to get anywhere because of 
 the high water. They heard of a 
 corn cracker some eight or ten miles 
 up the river and sent W. A. Delasb- 
 mutt with four bushels of corn 
 
 7t5 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 packed on two horses. He arrived 
 at Mr. Nossman's, the owner of the 
 mill, only to find that it was out of 
 repair. On learning, however, of 
 the pressing need, the mill was doc- 
 tored up and by daylight next morn- 
 ing Mr. Delashmutt was ready to re- 
 turn with his four bushels of ground 
 corn. During the day Dr. Boyer no- 
 ticed a vessel ascending the river 
 loaded with flour. He put out into 
 the swollen stream with two men and 
 a large canoe. Hailing the steamer, 
 he requested the captain to sell him 
 a supply of flour. The captain told 
 him it had been ordered by the gov- 
 ernment for the soldiers at Fort Des 
 Moines and he could not sell it. Mr. 
 Boyer told him he must have some 
 flour if he had to scuttle the boat to 
 get it. After some conversation the 
 captain agreed to let him have two 
 barrels of flour for the privilege of 
 loading his vessel with rails which 
 were floating about in drifts along the 
 river. His vessel had made the trip 
 from St. Louis and was short of 
 fuel. Mr. Boyer got his flour ashore 
 and rolled it up by the side of his 
 cabin, covering it with some boards. 
 When his friend Van Delashmutt 
 77 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 came over shortly afterwards he took 
 him out to show him his prize. He 
 could not have been more dumbfound- 
 ed if he had been confronted by a 
 bear. How two barrels of flour 
 could have reached that wilderness 
 home unannounced was more than 
 he could understand. The true pio- 
 neer never enjoys a good thing alone, 
 and Mr. Delashmutt got one of the 
 mysterious barrels and its welcome 
 contents. 
 
 Mrs. Emily J. Coryell states that 
 in the very early years when mills 
 were so very far away and flour very 
 scarce Washington Threlkeld dug oui 
 a hard wood stump near his cabin so 
 as to form a kind of basin and fas- 
 tened an iron wedge to the end of a 
 stick, giving it a handle, which he 
 used as a pestle to crush shelled 
 corn. When the corn was thorough- 
 ly beaten it was sifted and the fine 
 portion used as meal, while the 
 coarse particles were worked up into 
 hominy. This contrivance proved to 
 be of much value to the neighborhood 
 and people came in good numbers to 
 use it, taking their turn, just as they 
 did at the mill. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Then "Benny" Roop came to town 
 and started his bottling works which 
 was afterwards converted into a flour- 
 ing mill, and Oskaloosa people from 
 that time on were able to get all the 
 food stuff they needed by patroniz- 
 ing home industries. Mr. Roop own- 
 ed the whole west end of town and 
 used most of it for a hog lot, where 
 he fattened many fine porkers. He 
 fenced off a big section of it, hov\'- 
 ever, and built thereon the finest 
 home in Iowa up to that time. It 
 was a brick mansion, and the ma^ 
 terial was all hauled here by team 
 from Keokuk. Those were the days 
 of prosperity for the "west end," and 
 the elite of the city lived west and 
 north of the line drawn from the 
 Gait House through the "Green Cas- 
 tle," to Mr. Roop's mill. But the 
 railroad came along and sliced the 
 town in two, turned the Roop m.an- 
 sion into a hotel and eating house and 
 built a depot in the front yard. Even 
 before this, Mr. Roop got sore on the 
 town and moved to Beacon where he 
 built another big mill and among oth- 
 er things put a quart of whiskey in 
 the corner stone. Some sixty years 
 afterwards W. A. Seevers bought the 
 79 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 old mill and had it wreclied to make 
 miners' houses out of the material. 
 And it is recorded that he would not 
 speak to anybody for four days af- 
 ter some fellow opened the corner 
 stone one night and swiped the con- 
 tents. 
 
 80 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XVI-The Press 
 
 A. D. Lasker, a Jewish boy, went 
 to Chicago from his home in Louis- 
 ville, Kentucky, years ago. The 
 story goes that he and his father had 
 agreed to disagree over business 
 methods, and giving the son $5,000 in 
 cash, told him to go to Chicago and 
 make his own way. The boy ac- 
 cepted the challenge, and upon land- 
 ing in v^hicago he rented a room in 
 the Congress Hotel and started out 
 to look for a job. He finally ran 
 across one as office boy for the firm 
 of Lord &. Thomas, advertising 
 agents. With a job to his credit, Mr. 
 Lasker secured a sv\^ell suite at the 
 hotel and commenced to live in 
 style. The nature of his employ- 
 ment leaked out and the newspapers 
 got hold of it and he soon became 
 known as the "Millionaire Office 
 Boy." The publicity was what he 
 was after and he got it in big 
 chunks. He had to draw on his 
 father again, however, before his for- 
 tune was made, but it was not long 
 until he haa things coming his way 
 and he became a stockholder in the 
 
 81 E 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 concern. From that time on pros- 
 perity smiled on him, until he is now 
 president of the company and lives 
 on easy street, which is even better 
 than the Congress Hotel. 
 
 Some one will no doubt ask what 
 that has to do with a history of Ma- 
 haska county. Just sit tight and 
 Vm't rock the boat and we will tell 
 you. It was this Mr. Lasker, an ac- 
 knowledged captain of industry, sit- 
 ting in his office one day, whom a 
 young man from the country with 
 some Iowa dust still sticking in the 
 seams of his trousers, approached 
 and asked for a job. An average of 
 ten or fifteen a week did the same 
 thing, and as was his habit, after 
 taking down the young man's street 
 and number, he was just about to 
 say, "I will file your name and if I 
 need some one I will send for you." 
 But the young man got there first 
 and said, "I want a job and I'll get 
 you a $40,000 contract within a 
 week." Mr. Lasker hesitated, and 
 the young man stood pat. "If your 
 firm does not care for the business, 
 
 I will take it elsewhere." Here was 
 
 a young man out of the ordinary, 
 
 82 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 and his remarks might have been tak- 
 en for impertinence in any other line 
 of business, but an advertising man 
 is born, not made, and Mr. Lasker 
 thought he saw symptoms of one un- 
 der the young man's hat. He hire^l 
 him for a montli witli the under- 
 standing that if he made good he 
 would keep him. That was easy as 
 the young man had the contract in 
 his pocket at the time, and before the 
 week was up he sprung it on the firm. 
 The result was that Tom Kester, erst- 
 while reporter on the old Oskaloosa 
 Daily Times, had a steady job, and 
 is now vice president and manager 
 of one of the biggest advertising 
 houses in the world." 
 
 George William Shockley came to 
 town in 1883 and in 1884 he organ- 
 ized the Mahaska County Old Set- 
 tlers' Association, — no, that is not 
 a typographical error, the dates are 
 as written. He was secretary for a 
 long time and is now president of the 
 Oskaloosa Country Club, and when 
 other pressing social engagements 
 will permit he plays golf. He is al- 
 so president of the Oskaloosa Chau- 
 tauqua association, a member of the 
 
 83 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 K. of P. lodge, ex-Worthy Patron of 
 the Order of Eastern Stars, goes to 
 the Methodist church and in his leis- 
 ure hours he edits the Saturday 
 Globe. But he carries his cares 
 well, and when he cannot get away 
 to go back to his old home in New 
 Vienna, Ohio, for a rest, he gets 
 recreation by telling what he thinks 
 of certain members of the legislature 
 who voted against a state appropria- 
 tion for the Iowa building at the Pan- 
 ama Pacific Exposition in San Fran- 
 cisco. He has two good running mates 
 in Tom Shockley and I. W. Cook, and 
 we want to say right here and now 
 without any qualification, that these 
 three fellows have given of their 
 time and talents to public affairs in 
 Oskaloosa, in a measure exceeded by 
 no other three in our recollections. 
 
 And since we have drifted into 
 newspaper row we might as we'! 
 take a shot at H. J. Vail. He is 
 several thousand miles away and we 
 can dodge if he shoots back. There 
 may have been more brilliant and 
 more conspicuous editors in the har- 
 ness in Mahaska county than Mr. 
 Vail, but we do not recall a better 
 84 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 example of the real successful coun- 
 try editor. He started the Star at 
 New Sharon, when New Sharon could 
 not be found on the map witn a field 
 glass. He made a success of it, ac- 
 cumulated some money, caught the 
 California fever, sold out and went 
 west. He established the Pasadena 
 Star and run a metropolitan paper as 
 long as the first boom lasted. When 
 the bottom fell out of California, af- 
 ter the gold had all been picked up 
 out of the gravel, Mr. Vail found him- 
 self stranded with an elephant news- 
 paper plant on his hands. He sold 
 out, — or more properly speaking, 
 gave it away — and came back to 
 Iowa. He got a fresh start and got 
 ambitious again and went to Ottum- 
 wa to edit the Ottumwa Daily Press. 
 The venture proved too big an under- 
 taking for Ottumwa, and Mr. Vail 
 again returned to New Sharon and 
 bought back his old paper, the New 
 Sharon Star. Here he made anoth- 
 er fortune, but this time was wiser 
 than before, curbed his ambitions and 
 retired from business. He is now 
 enjoying the fruits of his labor and 
 living in California again, almost 
 within a stone's throw of the Pasa- 
 
 8S 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 dena Star which he started years 
 ago. And while the Pasadena Star 
 is now rated as a $200,000 property, 
 Mr. Vail is happier and enjoys life 
 more, than he would if he owned the 
 plant. 
 
 86 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XVII- Courts 
 
 The first court ever held in Mahas- 
 ka county was convened in July, 1844, 
 by Judge Joseph Williams of Musca- 
 tine, according to the musty docu- 
 ments in "Billy" Martin's office. 
 This v^'as a few years before George 
 Baugh became mayor of Oskaloosa. 
 They used to call him "Long George" 
 and we supposed he got the nickname 
 because of his size, as he was six fete 
 four and wore a stove-pipe hat that 
 added another foot or two to his 
 stature, but we afterwards came to 
 the conclusion that he was called long 
 because of his extended term in of- 
 fice. He served the city about forty- 
 eight years in all, as near as we can 
 remember. Mr. Baugh was inclined 
 to be deli Derate and easy going, but 
 a terror to evil doers just the same. 
 Our first experience in newspaper 
 work was telling of the human inter- 
 est stories that were unraveled in his 
 court, and some most amusing inci- 
 dents cropped up as Mr. Baugh nev- 
 er overlooked the humorous trend or 
 the ridiculous side of life. 
 87 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Charley Kline, an eccentric Ger- 
 man, was inclined to fracture the or- 
 dinances pretty often, and was up 
 before "his honor" for the third time 
 in one week. Mr. Kline was good 
 at telling stories and he started in 
 on Mr, Baugh when the mayor did not 
 care to listen. He tried several times 
 to check the flow of language but to 
 no avail, when suddenly bringing the 
 book of ordinances down with a 
 thump upon the desk, he exclaimed: 
 "Ah, Charley, you make me tired!" 
 "Well, your honor," came the quick 
 reply, "I was fatigued mineself," and 
 with that the Mayor fined him $2 and 
 costs, but suspended judgment if the 
 prisoner at the bar would leave the 
 premises and not talk to anybody for 
 twenty-four hours. Charley prom- 
 ised but he fell from grace when he 
 started down stairs and began telling 
 himself what he thought of the mayor 
 and the town and the country in gen- 
 eral. 
 
 But speaking about the city admin- 
 istrations, that we have known, makes 
 us think that Woman Suffrage was in 
 evidence in this man's town many 
 83 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 years ago. It was even before our 
 time but we have it on good authority 
 that Nancy Smith was once elected 
 mayor of Oskaloosa. It happened in 
 this wise. The two male candidates 
 for mayor at the spring election had 
 both incurred the ill will of a num- 
 ber of voters. They organized and 
 voted for Nancy and elected her may- 
 or. But, as we said just a moment 
 ago, this was before our recollection, 
 so it was also prior to the thorough 
 organization of Mahaska county for 
 Suffrage, as perfected by Mrs. Dev- 
 itt, Mrs. Reid and Miss Dunlap, with 
 I. N. Taylor as member of the Advisory 
 Committee. Naturally, the senti- 
 ment lacked backbone in those days 
 and Nancy was not ambitious, so the 
 honor was passed to the next highest 
 candidate, and Oskaloosa lost the op- 
 portunity of its lifetime to be the 
 first town in the world to have a wo- 
 man for mayor. But opportunity 
 may knock again, John J. Ingalls to 
 the contrary notwithstanding. John 
 never knew the temper of a real for 
 sure Suffrage organization. 
 
 Going back to "Long George," do 
 
 89 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 you remember the fire engine by 
 that name? It was during one of 
 Mr. Baugh's earliest administrations 
 that the old volunteer fire depart- 
 ments fell into innocuous desuetude, 
 and the city sold the little pump guns 
 that had done valiant service for 
 many years, and which had by the 
 races they promoted engendered more 
 excitement in Oskaloosa than any- 
 thing before cr since has done, un- 
 less it was the circulation and with- 
 drawal and reinstatement of the mulct 
 petitions. But Prohibition has noth- 
 ing to do with what we started out 
 to say. Several big cisterns were 
 dug about town, and a steam fire 
 engine was purchased. It worked 
 admirably until the nearest cistern 
 was emptied and a change of venue* 
 became necessary. Then the fire 
 generally took advantage of the situ- 
 ation and proceeded to satisfy its 
 hunger with renewed vigor. Mr, 
 Baugh persuaded the city to sink an 
 artesian well, from which sufficient 
 water might be secured for the city 
 water works. This was another 
 "long" undertaking. The hole un- 
 der the bandstand is 2600 feet deep, 
 90 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 and cost so much money that some of 
 the present day bonds were given to 
 refund the ones incurred by digging 
 the well. 
 
 But the fire engine and cisterns 
 kept on doing business until the pres- 
 ent water works plant was establish- 
 ed on Skunk river, and the controver- 
 sy over fire pressure started. Some 
 times we wish the city had that old 
 fire engine yet. If it had, its pres- 
 ence might relieve the pressure on 
 the mains and we would not have to 
 have our plumbing repaired after ev- 
 ery fire. And say, did you ever 
 hear the stories of heroic work done 
 at fires in times past? They are as 
 rich as any fish stories ever told 
 along the banks of old Skunk, or on 
 the main highways to town, or to the 
 v/ives who kept the suppers warm 
 long after the piscatorial devotees had 
 promised to be home. Like to hear 
 some of them; Well, you'll have to 
 ask some one else. We have too 
 much regard for our head. The roof 
 is not very well thatched any more, 
 and besides we do not want to lose 
 any of our best friends. This we do 
 
 91 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 know, however, that when C. Huber 
 & Brother's hardware store was on 
 fire, one bitter cold night, some fel- 
 lows carried a dozen kegs of nails 
 down a long stairway, and threw an 
 equal number of boxes of glass out 
 of the second story window. Ever 
 see anything like that at a fire? 
 
 92 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XVIII -Stage 
 
 Once upon a time, — (and no history 
 is complete that does not have at 
 least one chapter beginning this way) 
 — so, once upon a time, a home talent 
 entertainment was being given at the 
 Masonic opera house. It was the 
 Fairy Queen, and Mrs. Virginia 
 Knight Logan was the queen. With 
 all her many musical accomplish- 
 ments, Mrs. Logan does not play a 
 cornet, so when in the program of 
 the play it became necessary for her 
 to call the fairies from their slum- 
 bers with the cornet, it had been ar- 
 ranged that she should place the in- 
 strument to her lips, and that Horace 
 Shadel would make the music behind 
 the scenes. Everything worked fine 
 until Mr. Shadel overlooked his cue 
 and kept on playing after Mrs. Logan 
 had put down the instrument, and 
 had taken up her other lines in the 
 play. 
 
 Upon another occasion a traveling 
 troop was producing "Keep it Dark," 
 when a big plug at the old power 
 93 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 house blew out and they really kept 
 it dark the rest of the evening. Many 
 attribute this phenomenon, or acci- 
 dent, to the fact that a strange black 
 cat wandered across the stage just 
 before the lights went out. Be that 
 as it may, it had nothing to do with 
 another amusing incident at another 
 home talent entertainment, "The 
 Union Spy," put on for the benefit of 
 Company F. Perry Welker took the 
 part of a Confederate officer and in 
 a terrible sham battle he was shot 
 uown and lay stiff in death when the 
 curtain was rung down. His cap had 
 rolled out almost to the foot lights, 
 and Perry noticed that wlien the cur- 
 tain came down it would separate 
 him from his head gear. As the 
 play v/as to be reproduced the next 
 night. Perry wanted to make sure of 
 all his paraphernalia, so he reached 
 out and snatched his cap under cover. 
 The play was good, but some in the 
 audience were mean enough to say 
 that Perry's quick action was the rich- 
 est thing on the evening's program. 
 
 Speaking about the "Union Spy" re- 
 minds us that we had a part in the 
 
 94 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 play, — being perfectly at home as a 
 member of the awkward squad under 
 the leadership of Charley Walling. 
 Now it so happened that Tad Shipley 
 and your humble servant were 
 brought up on adjoining lots. Tad 
 could not help it, and upon arriving 
 at the maturity he moved to another 
 part of town. But the "Union Spy" 
 was pulled off while Tad was still 
 young, just big enough to boast ol 
 his first long pants. We had the ad- 
 vantage of him in size, so in order to 
 look as awkward as possible — or more 
 properly a little more awkward than 
 usual — we borrowed a suit of Tad's 
 clothes. "The first long pants" came 
 up almost to our knees, and the 
 sleeves of the coat almost to the el- 
 bow. The coat v/ould not meet in 
 front and aside from Orison Button, 
 Harry Hale, Ralph Proudfit and Grant 
 Cowgill, we got the plaudits of being 
 the most awkward one in the squad 
 of six. But take a look at Tad now^ 
 and imagine if you can that he was 
 once smaller than we are. What re- 
 markable stunts time will perform! 
 
 After the war was over and the Un- 
 
 95 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 ion Spy had put down the rebellion, 
 and Fred Logan had been safely re- 
 moved from the new water pipe into 
 which he had crawled and stuck, 
 Company F was to have inspection, 
 and Capt. Ira Stoddard, or Captain 
 Frank Stone, — we are not sure which 
 it was, — maybe it was Fiske — but at 
 any rate the orders were issued to 
 shine up all the company property. 
 Grant Truax was a member of the 
 company and as he lived out in the 
 country along the Des Moines river, 
 he was given permission to take his 
 accouterments home with him to be 
 cleaned up. In those days we had 
 the old Springfield rifles with long 
 bright barrels and bayonets, and 
 clean-up day meant some work. But 
 ^jrrant was equal to the occasion and 
 as the farm work was in hand he 
 turned his talents on the gun and he 
 came in for inspection with his gun 
 polished from end to end. He had 
 even scraped and sand-papered the 
 blue burnish off the lock and ham- 
 mer, and admitted that that part was 
 an unusually hard job. We were to 
 have a Regular Army officer for in- 
 spector and there was consternation 
 
 96 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 in the camp over the performance of 
 Mr. Truax. Grant, however, was 
 again equal to the occasion and just 
 before we formed in line to go on dis- 
 play he exchanged guns with George 
 Hale. The officer came along in 
 great dignity and holding up George's 
 gun in dudgeon he expostulated: 
 "What have you been doing to this 
 rifle?" Quick as a flash came the an- 
 swer: "I guess that's the one the 
 Union Spy shot the Rebel Corporal 
 with." The humor of the situation 
 melted the officer's icicles, and if he 
 had intended to send George to the 
 guard house, he relented, and went 
 on to the next man. 
 
 And no history of local military af- 
 fairs would be complete without men- 
 tion of Company F's tramp to Ottum.- 
 wa, under Colonel Swalm's paternal 
 care. Captain Keating and the com- 
 pany later had some rough experi 
 ences in the Philippines, but the vet- 
 erans would never have been equai 
 to the occasion had some of them not 
 been hardened to the work by the 
 tramp to Ottumwa. And it was here 
 limelight, — or more properly speak 
 97 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 ing, the camp light. It was a fixed 
 custom that upon the last night in 
 camp there was to be a "shirt-tail pa- 
 rade." Every fellow who was not 
 in the hospital or guard house was 
 expected to fall in line, with nothing 
 on but a shirt and take part in the 
 "dress parade." On that particular 
 occasion the boys got George to car- 
 ry the bass drum and they strapped 
 it on him securely. When the offi- 
 cers came out to put an end to the 
 fun, George started back to his tent 
 post haste. He stumbled over a 
 guy rope, rolled over the drum and 
 ran his head into the sand. His 
 bare legs stuck up like specters in the 
 night, and there he remained until 
 the relief guard came to his rescue. 
 But the officers never found out who 
 he was. 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Chapter XIX— The Finish 
 
 Some funny things have happened 
 in Oskaloosa when one takes an im- 
 partial and unbiased review of the 
 past. For instance, the first church 
 building ever erected in town was 
 turned into a broom factory and ev- 
 ery vestage of its early mission was 
 swept away. Then the original 
 Quaker church, built by people who 
 are constitutionally opposed to war, 
 was turned into an armory for Com- 
 pany F. Miles Prine was once a 
 chef on a Mississippi steamboat, and 
 Frank Christie, with a pate that 
 would qualify in any front row, de- 
 lights to stand behind his barber's 
 chair and tell his customer how much 
 benefit may be derived from a certain 
 brand of hair restorative, j. B. Doll 
 tells of a stingy man he used to 
 knovv% back in Rushville, Indiana, who 
 went up town and bought a nickle's 
 worth of apples, and then whistled all 
 the way home to keep from eating 
 any of them. But that has nothing 
 occasion demanded quick action and 
 Mr. Loring advised that something 
 be done "simultaneously, altogether, 
 and at once!" 
 
 99 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 Every time we see John Mattison 
 we think of the time we tried to set 
 up a tent on Skunk river in a rain 
 storm, and after we liad turned it 
 over three or four times it lield water 
 like a sieve. Ernie Cunningham and 
 Harry Shipley were along, and the 
 only pleasant recollections of the 
 whole excursion was the custard that 
 Ernie's mother had made and which 
 was saved by turning a bucket up- 
 side down over it. And what a joy 
 camping used to be among the big 
 catfish ponds that bred sand flies and 
 mosquitoes, over the river from the 
 mouth Oi Painter Creek. But in ear- 
 lier days there must have been some 
 thing worse than mosquitoes. Major 
 Lacey in an address at Eveland, 
 which he says was named after the 
 original mother of us all, years ago 
 said: "Some of the old settlers may 
 remember the 'Prairie Digs' of the 
 early day. When I was seventeen I 
 made my debut in life by attempting 
 to teach school. I boarded around, 
 and at the opening of school the 'digs' 
 were confined to a single family. But 
 the close of the school showed how 
 good a mixer the teacher was. The 
 whole neighborhood was digging." 
 
 100 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 Admiral Frank Fletcher, the su- 
 preme head of tho United States 
 Navy, got his feet wet and "took to 
 water" along old Spring Creek, when 
 that stream did not belie its name by 
 going dry every summer. And short- 
 ly after the first typewriter was 
 bought for the court house, a bill 
 came before the board of supervisors 
 for a "ribbon for the typewriter." It 
 is said that R. W. Moore was willing 
 to admit that she was a nice little 
 girl but he thought it was going too 
 far to buy her ribbons. Then anoth- 
 er time J. B. Bolton was telling Judge 
 Dev^^ey what the law was, "Where 
 did you find that statute?" asked the 
 Judge. "In the annointed code of 
 Iowa," came the reply. And back in 
 Judge J. Kelley Johnson's time, a col- 
 ored man by the name of Patterson 
 was brought into court for some of- 
 fence. When asked by the Judge if 
 he wished a lawyer, he replied, "No, 
 sah. If yo' honoh please, I's had 
 troubles enuf already." 
 
 Maetta J. Evans, whom at school 
 we called "May," possibly because of 
 her resemblance to the merry month 
 of that name, was so precise that the 
 rest of us used to feel abashed. But 
 
 101 
 
ROUSTABOUT'S HISTORY 
 
 think of her now writing fiction for 
 the magazines! And they say Jeff 
 Harbour used to crochet as good as 
 any of the girls at Beacon, yet he 
 grew up to be the editor of the Youth's 
 Companion, Woods Hutchinson 
 
 could not play shinny or skate for 
 sour apples when we knew him at 
 Penn college, yet there is not a maga- 
 zine in the country which would not 
 take his stuff now at a price that 
 would m.ake the rest of us whistle. 
 Robert Meredith, who went around 
 the world on sixty dollars, once slept 
 on a wagon tongue, and could qualify 
 for that many thousand in a pinch. 
 Major S. H. M. Byers, who leaped in- 
 to fame by his Sherman's March to 
 the Sea, used to wade knee deep in 
 rnud as a boy in Oskaloosa, and play 
 marbles with Col. Al Swalm, until the 
 latter became a devil — in the Herald 
 office. Professor Warman, who went 
 hatless in winter time and yelled 
 "Yaw! Hoo!" at five o'clock in the 
 morning, is still busy in Los An- 
 geles, and says he is going to help 
 bury the last of the G. A. R, — that is 
 the last one except himself. Then 
 there are Listen McMillen and Rob- 
 ert Kissick who have written books, 
 and Lou Shangle who once wrote a 
 
 102 
 
OF MAHASKA COUNTY 
 
 brief for the United States supreme 
 court. Carrie McAyeal Ogilvie, who 
 is editor of the Midwestern Magazine 
 of Des Moines, got her training in try- 
 ing to teach this young idea how to 
 shoot. Entered then Mai Rose, the 
 sweet singer of today, whose life has 
 been burdened almost beyond meas- 
 ure, and yet whose verses breathe 
 the air of spring eternal and radiate 
 perennial joy. 
 
 But, gracious friends, we must be 
 going. O. A. Martin, our "Farmer 
 Poet" in his book entitled "Sparks 
 From a farmer's Anvil," page 162, 
 and beginning at the first line of the 
 sixth verse of the 726th poem of the 
 5879 written up to that date, sings: 
 
 "How foolish it is to longer wait, 
 Level your gun and keep it straight; 
 Then you a marksman sure will be 
 In that land where all are free." 
 
 And lest somebody might accident- 
 ally pull the trigger, we will quit 
 right here, with a fond farewell. 
 
 (The End.) 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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