Friday, January 16, 2015

Here and there on the Chariton square in 1862


I wanted to spend a final morning with The (Chariton) Iowa Patriot of Dec. 26, 1862, before moving along --- taking a look at some of the advertisers. This rare copy of an early Chariton newspaper was donated to the Lucas County Historical Society during December by Tom and Joe Sellers.

If you arrived in Chariton during 1862 by public transportation --- that would have been via Western Stage Co. coach; and your first stop in the county would have been at LaGrange, then a thriving village along what now is U.S. 34 at the Lucas-Monroe county line. Horses were changed, passengers allowed to disembark and refresh themselves. S.A. Miller wanted to make sure that Patriot subscribers knew his "excellent" Miller House Hotel was prepared to serve guests.


Chariton was the second stage stop in Lucas County (Tallahoma, the third). The biggest and newest hotel in Chariton during December of 1862 --- later known as the Hatcher House --- had been built on the southwest corner of the square (current U.S. Bank drive-up location) during 1856 and had been renamed the McClellan House by George W. Dungan, brother of attorney Warren S. Dungan, who had leased it recently.


If you had needs involving watches or guns, C.B. Allen has returned recently to Chariton and opened a shop just off the southeast corner of the square --- and was prepared to serve.


If you needed groceries or dry goods, these could be found --- among other places --- at The Burlington Store, operated by Tiedemann & Lorenz on the southeast corner of the square, just east of the St. John House and north of C.B. Allen's watch and gunsmithing operation.


David W. Waynick offered similar goods at the Cheap Store, which I believe was located on the north side of the square, just east of the alley.


Any county seat town in Iowa --- or anywhere else for that matter --- was guaranteed a good supply of lawyers. Some, like the Stuarts, settled in for the long haul; others, like Coin & Gard, then in business on the north side, moved along fairly quickly.


Masonic lodges were the principal social outlets and networking opportunities for aspirational males in Chariton in 1862 --- and Chariton's lodges published notices of their meetings in The Patriot.


And finally Gaylord Lyman was sheriff --- and would continue to hold that position until July 6, 1870, when he was shot dead just off the southeast corner of the square by horse thief Hiram Wilson. Wilson, you may recall, was lynched.

1 comment:

Brenda said...

To me, there is nothing like reading the actual newspapers from long ago. I have spent hours in the library on the square and the museum library reading the actual clippings from local newspapers in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Microfiche and microfilm can't compare to reading the original!